of your unrighteous Mammon and shall be fed with Manna in the Courts of Sionr Gainefull is the use of that money which is put out to the workes of charity which be it more or lesse cannot but be exceeding great being given with devotion and the worke attended by singlenesse of heart and sincerity of affection for where a sincere will is not joyned with the worke the worke cannot be effectuall to the doer howsoever it may seem fruitfull to the beholder At which sort of men who erect sumptuous workes rather for popularity and affectation then piety or sincere affection the Poet pleasantly glanceth THESE Statues reare in publike wayes as trophies of their love Which as they heare in passengers will admiration move And gaine a fame unto their name which may survive in them But trust me Sirs these workes of theirs shew them vaine-glorious men Which workes howsoever usefull unto others were better undone then done in respect of themselves for to glory in our workes doth not only derogate from our workes but denounce upon us a greater damnation ascribing to our selves what duly properly and solely ought to be attributed to the glory of God But to draw neerer the point wee have in hand there is nothing that weaneth our minds more from the meditation of God and mortification to the world then our earthly affections which beare such sway over us as they will not suffer those divine motions or meditations to take root in us This is excellently shadowed in that Parable of the great Supper where many guests were invited but all with one consent began to make their excuse the first hee had bought a peece of ground and hee must needs goe see it the second had bought five yoke of oxen and hee must goe prove them and another had married a wife and therefore hee could not come These though the fatlings be provided the choicest dainties prepared wherewith their hunger-starved soules might be refreshed cannot come the world must detaine them their earthly respects inchaine them their sensuall delights restraine them they cannot come though often invited nor resort to this great Supper though all things be provided These seldome or never take into their more serious consideration the state of the blessed in Heaven or the state of the damned in Hell Neither can the joyes of the one allure them or the paines of the other deterre them These will dispense with the word for the profit of the world and enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season deferring repentance till it be past season Saint Chrysostome relateth how Paulus Samosetanus that arch-hereticke for the love of a woman for-sooke his faith Saint Augustine relateth divers who denied the torments of hell to have eternity thereby to flatter their affection with a pretended assurance of impunity Saint Gregory imputeth it to avarice and covetousnesse that many forsake their faith These follow not the example of sundry devout men the memory whereof is recommended unto us in holy writ who being possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them downe at the Apostles feet and distribution was made unto every man according as hee had need The like contempt in respect of earthly substance wee reade to have been in many noble and equally affected Pagans as Crates Bisias Zeno Bias Anacreon Anacharsis who though they had scarce the least glimpse of an eternity yet they dis-valued the substance of earth as the subject of vanity But I must now draw in my sailes and take a view of your dispositions Gentlemen how you stand herein affected that seeking what I expect to find I may no lesse glory in your aversion from earth then if you were ascending Iacobs ladder to have your names enrolled in the kingdome of heaven Have yee honoured the Lord with your substance and tendred him the first fruits of his bounty Have yee acknowledged every good thing to come from him as from the fountaine of mercy Have yee subjected your selves unto him as hee hath subjected all things to your soveraignty Have yee disposed of them soberly and solely to his glory Have yee beene oppressors and with good Zacheus made foure-fold restitution Have yee not exposed your inheritance to riot and pollution Have yee not hoorded up vengeance against the day of affliction Have yee not grinded and grated the face of the poore with extortion Have yee distributed freely and communicated to the Saints necessity Have yee made you friends of your unrighteous Mammon and so made your selves way to the heavenly Sion Have yee done these workes of compassion with singlenesse of heart and without affectation Have yee beene by no earthly respect detained from comming to that great Lords Supper to which you were invited O then in a happy state are you for having honoured the Lord hee will fill your barnes with plenty or having acknowledged all good things to bee derived from his mercy hee will give you a fuller taste of his bounty or subjected your selves to his obedience hee will cause every Creature to doe you service or disposed of them soberly and solely to his glory hee will exhibit his good gifts unto you more fully or beene oppressours and made restitution you shall with Zacheus become vessels of election or not exposed your inheritance to riot and pollution you shall be safe from the doome of confusion or not grinded the face of the poore with extortion the poore shall beare record of your compassion or distributed freely to the Saints necessity hee that seeth in secret shall reward you openly or made you friends of your unrighteous Mammon Manna shall be your food in the heavenly Sion or done these workes singly and without vaine-glory you shall be cloathed with the garment of mercy or not detained by the world from going to that great Lords Supper yee shall be graciously admitted and exalted to honour Thus to dispose of the substance of the world is to despise the world preferring one meditation of the pleasures and treasures of heaven before the possession of the whole earth and esteeming it farre better to be one day in the House of the Lord then to be conversant in the Palaces of Princes O then yee whose generous descents and mighty estates promise comfort to the afflicted releefe to the distressed and an hospitable receit to all such as repaire to you for succour or comfort minister to the necessity of the Saints be liberall and open handed to the poore having opportunity doe good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith bee exercised in the workes of the spirit and not of the flesh so shal ye build upon a sure foundation and in the inheritance of Gods Saints receive a mansion Turne not I say your eare from the cry of any poore man lest his cry be heard and procure vengeance to be poured on your head
So as that Greeke Sage seeing a Young man privately retired all alone demanded of him what he was doing who answered he was talking to himselfe Take heed quoth he thou talke not with thine enemie For the naturall pronenesse of Youth to irregular liberty is such as it is ever suggesting matter of innovation to the Soveraingtie of reason Now to reduce these enormities incident to Youth to certaine principall heads wee will display the Vanity of Youth in these foure distinct Subjects Gate Looke Speech Habit that by insisting and discoursing on each particular wee may receive the feature of Lady Vanity portrayed to the life IT is strange to observe how the very Body expresseth the secret fantasies of the minde and how well the one sympathizeth with the other I have seene even in this one motion the Gate such especiall arguments of a proud heart as if the body had beene transparent it could not have represented him more fully And I have wondered how Man endued with reason could bee so farre estranged from that wherewith he was endued as to strut so proudly with feet of earth as if hee were never to returne to earth But especially when Youth is imployed in ushering his Mistresse hee walkes in the street as if hee were dancing a measure Hee verily imagines the eyes of the whole Citie are fixed on him as the very patterne which they esteeme worthy imitation how neerely then concerns it him to stand upon his equipage He walkes as if he were an upright man but his sincerity consist onely in dimension He feares nothing so much as some rude encounter for the Wall and so bee discredited in the sight of his Idoll Now I would be glad to weane this Phantasticke from a veine of lightnesse and habituate him to a more generous forme First he is to know how that which is most native and least affective deserves choisest acceptance We were not borne to glory in our feet the Bases of Mortality but to walke as children of light in holinesse and integritie Safer it were for us to observe and make use of that which the Swan is reported to use when at any time shee glories in the whitenesse of her colour to wit shee reflects her eye upon her blacke feet which qualifies her proud spirit making her so much the more dejected as joying before in her owne beautie she was erected Excellently was that Embleme of humane frailty shadowed in the image of Agathocles the Syracusan tyrant who commanded his Statue to be composed after this fort the Head to bee of gold signifying purenesse the armes of ivory intimating smoothnesse the body of brasse implying strongnesse but the feet of earth importing weakenesse Be the Head-peece never so pure bee it a Diadem of gold we weare it cannot promise to us perpetuitie we stand on earthen feet how may wee then stand long relying on such weake supporters Though Nebuchadnezzar strut never so proudly upon the turrets of his princely Palace saying Is not this great Babel which I have builded he knowes not how soone he shall be deprived of his glory and be enforced to feed with the Beasts of the field being as one estranged from his former magnificence Quid ergo ad nos consolatio mundi Let us not glory in mundane vanity nor repose too much confidence in these feet of frailty Si pes in terris mens sit in coelis Though our foot be on earth let our minde bee in heaven knowing that as Saint Augustine saith Three cubites of earth doe expect us and how little or much so ere we possesse this is all that shall be left us THe next Subject wee are to treat of in this Display of youthfull vanity is his Looke wherein hee is ever noted to shew a kinde of contempt expressing by his eye what he conceives in his heart Here is oculatus testis an eye-witnesse to tax him of his pride disdaining to fix his eye upon the lower shrubs as if a reflex on them should derogate from his glory They that looked upon Sylla's ring could not choose but take notice both of Sylla's seale and the treason of Iugurth so hee that should but eye a proud Looke could not choose but collect from what heart so disdainfull a Looke proceeded I have ever observed the most generous to bee least affective in this kinde for it is and hath beene ever an inherent propriety in them to expresse a generous affability as well in Looke as Speech The eyes saith a good Father are members of the flesh but windowes of the minde which Eagle-like should be ever erected to the beames of righteousnesse and not depressed by any unworthy object of externall basenesse The onely Sight of God is the true food and refection of our minds wee looke to be satisfied but satisfaction wee cannot finde in any outward object much lesse in contempt of our poore brother who many times exceeds us more in worth than we him in birth But tell me Young Gallant what it is that moveth thee to this contempt of others Is it thy descent alas that is none of thine thou derivest that glory from thine Ancestors whose honour by thy ignoble life dieth Yea recall to minde how many glorious Houses now lye buried in the grave of oblivion by the vicious course of irregular Successours and againe how many Houses whose Names formerly were not so much as knowne either raised from others ruine or advanced by industrious merit usurpe their glory Is it thy Riches Indeed if the Philosophers Axiom be true Riches is a signe of eternall glory there were some reason to glory in them but wee shall finde this glory meerely imaginary yea a great darkener and blemisher of the internal glory beauty of the mind For as the Moone doth never eclypse but when she is at the Full so the Minde is never so much obscured as it is with the superfluitie of Riches And againe as the Moone is farthest off from the Sunne which giveth it light when it is at the Full so a Man when he is the fullest of Riches is farthest off from that equity and justice which ought to give him light in all his proceedings And therefore he might doe well herein to imitate the Fly which putteth not her feet in the great masse of honey but onely taketh and tasteth with her tongue so much thereof as serveth her turne and no more lest by doing otherwise she might remaine taken and drowned therein Yea if we should but reflect and take a view of certaine Ethnicks whose admirable contempt of Riches eternized them wee should observe what inimitable continencie was in them and what an Hydropticke thirst of avarice remaineth as yet unquenched in us And though wee must live according to Lawes and not to Examples yet Cicero held that nought could be taught without example wherefore to enforce this argument further wee will here produce certaine
perfectly as if their Bodies were transparent 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 enjoy 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 dejected 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 cumbred 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 themselves 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 the 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 we see how much she may be altered yea cleare removed from what she formerly appeared For doe we not in the view of humane frailty observe how many excellent wits drained from the very Quintessence of Nature as apt in apprehending as expressing a conceit strangely darkened or dulled as if they had beene steeped in some Lethaean slumber Nay doe we not in this round Circumference of man note divers honest and sincere Dispositions whose gaine seemed to bee godlinesse and whose glory the profession of a good Conscience wonderfully altered becoming so corrupted by the vaine pompe or trifling trash of the world as they preferre the puddle before the pearle forsaking Christ for the world Doe wee not see how uprightly some men have borne themselves all their time without staine or blemish being all their Youth vertuously affected all their Middle-age charitably disposed yet in their Old-age miserably depraved Againe doe we not behold how many women whose virgin-modesty and Nuptiall-continency promised much glory to their age even then when the flower of Beauty seemed bloomelesse so as their very age might make them blamelesse when their skin was seere and their flesh saplesse their breath earthie and their mouth toothlesse then even then fell these unweldie Beldames to embrace folly promising longer continuance to Pleasure than they could by all likelyhood unto Nature Now tell me how happened this Were not these at the first vertuously affected if Disposition then could not be forced how came they altered All these rivers of Objections I can dry up with one beame darting from the reflex of Nature Thou producest divers instances to confirme this assertion That Dispositions are to bee forced from what they were naturally affected unto Whereto I answer That Dispositions in some are resembled and not improperly unto a Beame cloathed or shadowed with a cloud which as we see sheweth his light sometimes sooner sometimes later Or as by a more proper Allusion may seem illustrated may be resembled to the first Flourish in trees which according to the nature or quality of the internall pith from whence life is diffused to the Branches send forth their bloomes and blossomes sooner or later True it is you object that to the outward appearance such men shewed arguments of good Dispositions for they were esteemed men of approved Sanctity making Conscience of what they did and walking blamelesse and unreproveable before all men but what collect you hence That their Dispositions were sincerely good or pure if Society had not depraved them No this induction will not hold it is the Evening crownes the day What could be imagined better or more royally promising than Nero's Quinquennium What excellent tokens of future goodnesse What apparant testimonies of a vertuous government What infallible grounds of princely policy mixed with notable precepts of piety Yet who knowes not how all the vices of his Ancestours put together seemed by a lineall descent to bee transferred on him being the Patterne and Patron of all cruelty the Author and Actor of all villany the plotter and practiser of all impiety so as if all the titles of cruelty were lost they might be found in this Tyrant How then doe you say that his Disposition was naturally good but became afterwards depraved and corrupted No rather joyne with mee and say that howsoever his Disposition seemed good during those five yeares wherein hee dissembled with vertue and concealed those many vices which he professed and possessed afterwards yet indeed he was the same though not in shew yet in
heart Only now the Cloud being dispersed his tyrannous and inhumane nature became more discovered acting that in publike which he had long before plotted in private For howsoever our Dispositions may seeme forced from what they naturally or originally were it is but a Deception they remaine still the same though advice and assistance may sometimes prevaile so much with them as for the time they seeme to surcease and discontinue from their former bent but returning afresh they will Antaeus-like redouble their strength and become more furious For resolve me and shew what may be the effectuallest or powerfullest meanes to remove Disposition or alter Man most from what hee may seeme naturally inclined unto Can Honour No for that man whose inclination is subject to change for any exteriour Title is not to bee ranked amongst these generous spirits with whom I am onely here to converse For these admire Titles and assume a kinde of affected Majesty to make their persons more observed But tell me what are these whom Honour hath thus transported expressing state with winks and nods as if the whole posture of State consisted in gesture but meere Popin-jayes who glory more in the painting or varnish of Honour than the true substance of it And to speake truth as I had never fortune to dote much on an immerited Title nor gloze with counterfeit greatnesse their Dispositions howsoever they seeme to the vulgar eye changed they are nothing so for their inclinations were ever arrogantly affected so as they no sooner became great than they deblazoned their owne thoughts Can Riches neither for such whose imaginations are erected above earth scorne to entertaine discourse with ought that may make them worse all in the world being either fumus or funus a vanity or vexation as the Preacher saith These conclude that no Object lesse than Heaven can satisfie their eye no treasure lesse than eternity can answer their desire no pleasure save what hath concurrence with felicity can gaine them true delight Now for these earthly Moles who are ever digging till their graves be digged their Dispositions are of baser temper for they can taste nothing but earthly things They measure not estate by competence desiring only so much as may suffice Nature but by Abundance which fares with them as liquor with an Hydropticke man who the more he drinks the more he thirsts so the more they have the more they crave making their desires as endlesse as their aimes effectlesse their hopes as boundlesse as their helpes fruitlesse When their mouths shall bee filled with gravell and corruption shall enter those houses of clay for which so much Provision was stored and so small a share in the end contented Can Acquaintance No for if company better me by an internall grace working secretly yet effectually in me my Disposition consented before such good fruit was produced if it makes me worse my Disposition by consenting to suggestion induced me that I should be thereto moved Yea generally whosoever is wel-disposed will keepe no man company but either in hope to better him or to be bettered by him as he whose inclination is vicious and corrupt leaveth the company he frequents ever worse than when he found them For as a troubled fountaine yeelds impure water so an infected soule vicious actions Can Travell No for give me a man that hath seen Iudasses Lanterne at S. Deninis's the Ephesian Diana in the Louvre the great Vessell at Heydleberge the Amphitheatre at Vlysmos the Stables of the great Mogol or the solemnities of Mecha yea all the memorable Monuments which the world can afford or places of delight to content his view or learned Academies to instruct and inrich his knowledge yet are not all these of power to alter the state or quality 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 soon thy selfe as thy Disposition which ever accompanies and attends thee moving in thee a like or dislike just as she is affected HAving thus proved that the Disposition is not to bee forced we are now to descend to discourse of the Noblest and most genorous Disposition which we intend to make knowne by certaine infallible markes which seldom erre in their attendance being vowed Servants to such as are vertuously affected The first is Mildnesse the second Munificence the third Fortitude or Stoutnesse Mildenesse is a quality so inherent or more properly individuate to a Gentleman as his affability will expresse him were there no other meanes to know him Hee is so farre from contemning the meanest 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 Hee poizeth the wrongs of the weakest as if they were his owne and vowes their redresse as his owne Hee is none of these surly Sirs whose aime is to be capp'd and congied for such Gentility 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 Humility to keepe her company in whose sweet familiarity she so much glories as she cannot enjoy her selfe without her And in very deede 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 yoke is Compassion as I noted before linked and coupled which Compassion hath many times appeared in the renownedst 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 upon 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 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 wonne 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 Majesty gaining more love than any other affection For as proud Spirits whose boundlesse ambition keepes them ever a-float till they sinke downe for altogether use to triumph in others miseries till misery 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 Modesty wherewith they are endued as their victories are never so numerous or glorious as to transport them above themselves Which Modesty 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 soveraingtie over our owne passions the conquest whereof makes Man an absolute Commander so there is no ornament which confers 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 Humility 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 we are brought to know our selves being strangers as it were and aliens unto our selves till Humility tooke off the veile shewed man his Anatomy 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 we have hereof as we receive it from venerable Bede who reports it thus Aidan a religious Bishop weeping for King Osvinus and demanded by the Kings Chaplaine why he wept I know said he that the King shall not live long for never before this time have I seene an humble King Which hapned accordingly for hee was cruelly murdered by Oswin But thanks to him who became humble for us wee have in these declining dayes among so many proud Simeons 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 onely 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 meekenesse and long-suffering will rather endure an injury than inflict too violent revenge though they have ready power to effect or performe it It is reported of Thomas Linacres a learned Englishman much commended for his sanctitie of life that when hee heard it read in the fifth Chapter of S. Matt. 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 sumus 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 rore and when the prey falleth they seaze 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 there is none but may at the first sight apparently discerne For these humble and mildly-affected spirits stand so firme and irremoveable as no adversitie can depresse them no prosperitie raise them above themselves For adversities they account them with that excellent Morall nothing else than exercises to trie them not to tire them And for Prosperities they receive them as they come not so much admiring them as making a profitable use of them and with a thankfull remembrance of divine Bountie blessing God for them These are those impregnable rockes as one aptly compared them subject to no piercing those greenē Bayes in midst of hoarie Winter never fading those fresh Springs in the Sandie Desart never drying Whos 's many eminent vertues as they deserve your imitation Gentlemen so especially their Meeknesse being the first marke I tooke to distinguish true Gentilitie THe second was Munificence that is to be of a bountifull Disposition open-handed yet with some necessary caution as to know what we give and the worth of that person to whom we give For without these considerations Bountie may incline to profusenesse and Liberalitie to indiscretion This moved that Mirror of Roman Princes the Emperour Titus to keep a Booke of the Names of such whose deserts had purchased them esteeme but had not as yet tasted of his Bountie So as it is observed of him that no day came over his head wherein he exprest not his princely Munificence to such whose names he had recorded which if at any time through more urgent occasions he neglected he would use these words to such as were about him O my friends I have lost this day No lesse was the bountie which Cyrus expressed first in words but afterward in deeds to such Souldiers as tooke his part against his grand-father Astyages that such as were Footmen he would make them Horse-men and such as were Horse-men hee would make them ride in their Chariots It is said of the House of the Agrigentine Gillia that it seemed as if it had beene a certaine Storehouse or repository of all Bountie Such indeed was the Hospitalitie esteemed in this Iland formerly one of the apparantest signals of Gentrie which was showne to all such as made recourse to that Mansion And because I have accidentally fallen into this Discourse let me speake a word or two touching this neglect of Hospitalitie which may be observed in most places throughout this Kingdome What the reason may seeme to be I know not unlesse riot and prodigalitie the very Gulfes which swallow up much Gentrie why so many sumptuous and goodly Buildings whose faire Frontispice promise much comfort to the wearied Traveller should want their Masters But surely I thinke as Diogenes jested upon the Mindians for māking their gates larger than their Citie bidding them take heed lest the Citie run out at the gates so their Store-house being made so strait and their Gates so broad I much feare me that Provision the life of Hospitalitie hath run out at their gates leaving vast penurious houses apt enough to receive but unprovided to releeve But indeed the reason why this defect of noble Hospitalitie hath so generally possessed this Realme
Christendome can never be secured But to conclude this Discourse for I feare I have enlarged my selfe too much in my digression as Fortitude is that noble marke which giveth a Gentleman his true character shewing resolution as well in suffering as acting my exhortation to our English Gentrie shall bee that they so demeane themselves that their Countrey may bee honoured by them true worth expressed in them and their Predecessours vertues seconded if not surpassed by them THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument What Education is The effects of it How a Gentleman may be best enabled by it EDVCATION EDucation is the Seasoner or instructesse of Youth in principles of Knowledge Discourse and Action Of all inferiour knowledges none more behoovefull than the knowledge of Mans-selfe of all superior none more usefull nor divinely fruitfull than the knowledge of God who for Man gave himselfe By view had of the One Man shall have a sight of his misery by view had to the Other Man shall finde cause to admire Gods Mercy Hence that hony-tongued Father desired that his Knowledge might extend it selfe onely to these two To know God To know himselfe Now as the beauty and splendor of the Sunne is best discerned by his Beames so is the greatnesse of God best apprehended by his Workes Whereof I may say as Simonides did of God that when hee had required but one day to resolve what God was when the day was expired hee was more unable to answere than at the first So as Hermes termes the Sunne-beames of God to be his Workes and Miracles the Sun-beames of the World to be the variety of formes and features and the Sunne-beames of Man diversity of Arts and Sciences TOuching Knowledge it is in God to know all things in Man to know some things in Beasts to know nothing As we cannot extend to the distinct knowledge of the Creator so let us extend our Knowledge above the reach of the inferiour'st of Gods creatures It is written of Alcibiades that he was skilfull in all things in all exercises so that he seemed in every Nation to obtaine the conquest in what prize or mastery soever hee tooke in hand It is not for us to labour the attaining of such exactnesse Vnum est necessarium One onely Knowledge transcends all others the attaining whereof makes the knower happy as the want of it makes Man how Knowing soever in all other Sciences most unhappy For what skills it to have knowledge in reasoning of high and deepe points concerning the blessed Trinity and want Charity whereby wee offend the Trinity Let us therefore esteeme it the Crowne of our Hope to attaine to the excellent and incomparable knowledge of him who made us whose bloud did save us and whose holy Spirit daily and hourely shields and shadowes us Next is to know himselfe an excellent knowledge grounded on true Humility where Man shall finde how many things he is ignorant of and of these things which he knows how far short he comes of that perfection which is required of him it was a saying of a grave Philosopher By learning alwayes something I grow old Now how fruitfully were our time from Infancie to Youth from Youth to Man-hood from Man-hood to Old-age imployed if our aimes were so to direct our knowledge that we might attaine the understanding and knowledge of our selves Then would not selfe-conceit transport us nor opinion of our own knowledge entraunce us but wee would divinely conclude wee have reaped more spirituall profit by dis-esteeme than selfe-esteeme Alphonsus of Arragon answered an Orator who had recited a long Panegyricall Oration in his praise If that thou hast said consent with truth I thanke God for it If not I pray God grant me grace that I may doe it The like temper I could wish in each Gentleman who in respect of meanes more than merit shall many times heare himselfe approved and applauded by such Tame-beasts or glozing Sycophants who feed on the Prodigalls trencher Let not applause so much transport or praise so farre remove man from himselfe as to become by the vaine blast of others breath forgetfull of himselfe Humbly esteemed hee of his knowledge who concluded This I onely know that I know nothing Nothing in respect of that I should know Nothing in respect of that which is injoyned me to know Nothing in respect of others who know farre more than ere I may know For saith Bernard how canst thou possibly be a proficient if thou thinkest thy selfe already sufficient But alas how farre hath selfe-opinion estranged Man from knowledge of himselfe who rather than he will be found ignorant in any thing will assume upon him a supposed knowledge in every thing Hee will rather lye upon his knowledge than seeme defective in any knowledge Whence one speaking of the knowledge of Mans selfe most divinely concludeth Nosce teipsum first descended from Heaven to Earth is now ascended from Earth to Heaven leaving miserable Man admiring his owne feature as if he were his owne Maker And whence proceedeth this but because he hath ascended unto that Mountaine to which the first Angell ascended and as a Devill descended whereas if he duely considered those many imperfections whereto he is engaged those many debts and bills of errours which as yet are undischarged that naturall or originall sinne wherein he was conceived and that actuall sinne wherewith hee is daily polluted hee would questionlesse conclude What 's man whose first conception's misery Birth baine life paine and death necessity Which divine Meditation is of power to subdue the whole Man of Sinne and bring him under the yoke of obedience by an incessant consideration had of Gods mercy and mans misery which may produce in him a more blessed effect by extenuating and humbling himselfe both in respect of the Substance or matter of his creation and in respect of the irregenerate course of his conversation as also in contemplating the ineffable mercie of the Almighty whose grace it is that directs miserable man and reduceth him from erring whose compassion it is that raiseth him from falling and whose tender mercy it is that supporteth him in his rising But in my conceit there is no one motive more effectuall or divinely powerfull to bring us to a true and perfect knowledge of our selves than to observe with what passions or perturbations we are encountred especially when through immoderate excesse wee are in the cup of forgetfulnesse drowned Which Saint Basil confirmeth saying That passions rise up in a drunken man like a Swarme of Bees buzzing on every side Which passions are not such as are prevented by reason and directed by vertue for these are not altogether to bee extinguished as the Stoicks supposed but to bee provoked as movers of vertue as Plutarch teacheth But rather such distempered or indisposed affections as are suggested to Man by his implacable Enemies labouring to undermine and ruine the glorious
And how he is to imploy himselfe therein VOCATION VOcation is a peculiar calling allotted to every one according to his degree Wherein wee are to consider First a Necessity of Vocation Secondly no Exemption from that Vocation and first of the first In that originall or primitive purity of mans Nature I say before his Fall there was no such command exhibited as was afterwards injoyned For then He was created pure and deputed Soveraigne over a pleasant and flourishing Empire a delightfull Eden receiving no inhibition after so large and ample a commission save this That of the Tree of good and evill hee should not eat of it But when Adam had transgressed this command was forthwith directed to him and his sin-stained posterity in the sweat of his face should he eat bread Then then and not till then began Adam to delve Eve to spin inferring that the Sweat of their browes should earne them a Living There where none that did gallant it in the workes of Wormes There were none that pierced the bowels of the Earth for precious stones to adorne them None that had minde of precious Odours and aromaticall sweets to perfume them In briefe None held it then a grace to have the out-cast Feathers of Birds to plume them The very excrements of Beasts to sent them The bowels and intralls of Wormes to cloath them The white excretions of Shell-fish to decke them Those Leathern coats were provided to cover mans shame and to evince him of Sinne. They were provided likewise to repell the extremity of Heat and Cold to shelter him against the violence of all seasons There were other Vocations then intended and attended other labours proposed and sustained other fashions used and observed than the vanities of this age where the Devill that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that imitating and apish thing as Damascen cals him peccati fomenta succendit kindles those foments of sinne to traine wretched man to the Lake of perdition Hence it is that he sets up that vexillum superbiae to which all the sonnes and daughters of vanitie repaire affecting incivilitie before modestie inquiring after the fashion not how neat it is but how new it is These imagine it a Labour sufficient a Vocation for their state and degree equivalent to spend the whole Morne till the Mid-day in tricking trimming painting and purfling studying rather to Die well than Lâ—ve well These are they who beautifie themselves for the Stage to become deluding Spectacles to the unbounded affections of Youth They make time only a Stale for their vanities and so prostitute their houres those swift Coursers of mans pilgrimage to all enormous Libertie These are Penelopes wooers gilded gallants whose best of discourse is complement or apish formalitie whose best thoughts reach but to where they shall dine or the choice of an Ordinary and whose best actions are but ravishing of favours from the Idolls of their fancie But how farre short come these of that Necessitie of Vocation injoyned them They thinke it sufficient so to attire themselves as they may become gracious in the eye of their Mistresse whereas that wherein they seeme to themselves most gracious to the eye of a grave and considerate man may seeme most odious as in apparell wee say that onely to be commendable which is comely that laudable which is seemely for it is an ornament which adorneth Now how deformed are many of our rayments drawne from forren Nations and as ill seeming our Ilanders as Cockle-chaines Agricola's souldiers Certainly this attire becommeth not a Christian but such as are prostitutes to the whore of Babylon The garment of a true follower of Christ is innocencie which because it cannot be simple or absolute wee should endevour to lessen our imperfections daily becomming conformable to his Image who being free from sinne tooke upon him our sinne to free us from the guilt of sinne and punishement due unto sinne Let us therefore endevour our selves I say to attaine the reward of our high calling in Christ which that wee may the better obtaine and purchase at his hands by whom wee expect reward wee are in the meane time to serve him in our Vocation here on earth that we may reigne with him in heaven NOw that there is a Necessitie of Vocation injoined all of what ranke or degree soever wee may prove by many pregnant places of Scripture inveighing against Idlenesse and commending imployment unto us Amongst which that of the Prophet Ezechiel may be properly applied to our purpose Behold saith he speaking of the sinnes of Ierusalem this was the iniquitie of thy sister Sodome pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her and in her daughters neither did shee strengthen the hand of the poore and needy Againe in that of the Proverbs He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread but he that followeth the idle is destitute of understanding Againe Hee that is sloathfull in his worke is even the brother of him that is a great waster Againe that of the Sonne of Sirach If thou set thy servant to labour thou shalt find rest but if thou let him goe idle hee shall seeke liberty Againe Send him to labour that he goe not idle for idlenesse bringeth much evill This likewise the blessed Apostle admonisheth the Thessalonians of saying For even when we were with you this we warned you of that if there were any which would not worke that he should not eat For we heare that there are some which walke among you inordinately and worke not at all but are busie-bodies Therefore them that are such we warn and exhort by our Lord Iesus Christ that they worke with quietnesse and eat their owne bread Againe that serious exhortation of the Apostle to Timothy describing the natures of such factious and busie-bodies as intend themselves to no setled imployment but being idle they learne to goe about from house to house yea they are not only idle but also pratlers and busie-bodies speaking things which are not comely Againe that expresse charge given by the Apostle touching everyones distinct profession or Vocation Let every man abide in the same vocation wherein he was called See here how much Idlenesse is condemned labour commended the former being the mother of all vices the latter a cheerer cherisher and supporter of all vertues For wherein may man better expresse himselfe than in the display and dispatch of such offices to the management and execution whereof he was first created Vertue as it consists in action time in revolution so the maze of mans life in perpetuall motion wherein non progredi est regredi non procedere recedere est It is given to man to labour for life it selfe is a continuate labour See then the Necessity of a Vocation being a peculiar labour allotted or deputed to any one person in particular Whence sprung up
wholly divided from society yea so immured as they seemed to be buried living Whose conversation as questionlesse it argued a great mortification of all mundane desires so it ministred matter of admiration to such who given to carnall liberty wondred how men made of earth could bee so estranged from conversing with inhabitants of earth But to leave these and imagine their conversation to be in Heaven though their habitation was on earth wee perceive hence how beneficiall Recreation is to the mind in cheering solacing and refreshing her if used with Moderation How it lessens those burdens of cares wherewith shee is oppressed revives the spirits as if from death restored cleares the understanding as if her eyes long time shut were now unsealed and quickens the invention by this sweet respiration as if newly moulded Neither is this Benefit so restrained as if it extended only to the mind for it confers a Benefit likewise to the body by enabling it to performe such Labours Taskes or Offices as it is to bee employed or exercised withall There are two Proverbs which may be properly applyed to this purpose Once in the yeere Apollo laughs this approves the use of moderate Recreation Apollo's bow 's not alwayes bent this shewes that humane imployments are to bee seasoned by Recreation we are sometimes to unbend the bow or it will lose his strength Continuall or incessant employment cannot be endured there must be some intermission or the body becomes enfeebled As for example observe these men who either encombred with worldly affaires so tye and tether themselves to their busines as they intermit no time for effecting that which they goe about or such as wholly nayled to their Deske admit no time for Recreation lest they should thereby hinder the progresse of their studies See how pale and meager they looke how sickly and infirme in the state of their bodies how weake and defective in their constitution So as to compare one of these weaklings with such an one as intermits occasions of busines rather than he will prejudice his health reserving times as well for Recreation and pleasure as for imployment and labour were to present a spectacle of Inius Dwarf not two foot high and weighing but seventeen pound with Iolaus the youthfull son of Iphiclus whose feature was free complexion fresh and youth renewing such difference in proportion such ods in strength of constitution For observe one of these starved worldlings whose aimes are only to gather and number without doing either themselves or others good with that they gather with what a sallow and earthly complexion they looke being turned all earth before they returne to earth And what may be the cause hereof but their incessant care of getting their continuall desire of gaining being ever gaping till their mouthes be filled with gravell So these who are wholly given and solely devoted to a private or retired life how unlike are they to such as use and frequent society For their bodies as they are much weakned and enfeebled so is the heat and vigour of their spirits lestened and resolved yea their dayes for most part shortned and abridged the cause of all which proceedeth from a continuall secluding and dividing themselves from company and use of such Recreations as all creatures in their kind require and observe For if we would have recourse to creatures of all sorts wee shall find every one in his kind observe a Recreation or refreshment in their nature As the Beast in his chace the Bird in her choice the Snaile in her speckled case the Polypus in her change yea the Dolphin is said to sport and play in the water For as All things were created for Gods pleasure so hath he created all things to recreate and refresh themselves in their owne nature Thus farre have we discoursed of moderate Recreation and of the benefits which redound from it being equally commodious to the mind as well as the body the body as well as the mind to the mind in refreshing cherishing and accommodating it to all studies to the understanding in clearing it from the mists of sadnesse to the body in enabling it for the performance of such labours taskes oâ— offices as it is to be imployed or interessed in It now rests that wee speake something of her opposite to wit of immoderate Recreation and the inconveniences which arise from thence whereof wee shall but need to speake a word or two and so descend to more usefull points touching this Observation AS the wind Caecias drawes unto it clouds so doth immoderate recreation draw unto it divers and sundry maine inconveniences for this Immoderation is a loosener of the sinewes and a lessener of the strength as Moderation is a combiner of the sinewes and a refiner of the strength So dangerous is the surfet which wee take of pleasure or Recreation as in this wee resemble Chylo who being taken with the apprehension of too much joy instantly dyed Now who seeth not how the sweetest pleasures doe the soonest procure a surfet being such as most delight and therefore aptest to cloy How soone were the Israelites cloyed with Quailes even while the flesh was yet betweene their teeth and before it was chewed So apt are wee rather to dive than dip our hand in honey Most true shall every one by his owne experience find that saying of Salomon to be It is better to goe to the house of mourning than to goe to the house of feaesting for there may we see the hand of God and learne to examine our lives making use of their mortality by taking consideration of our owne frailty whereas in the house of feasting wee are apt to forget the day of our changing saying with the Epicure Eat drinke and play but never concluding with him To morrow we shall die So apt are we with Messala Corvinus to forget our owne name Man who is said to be corruption and the sonne of man wormes meat For in this Summer-Parlour or floury Arbour of our prosperity wee can find time to solace and recreate our selves Lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch our selves upon our beds and eat of the Lambes of the flocke and the Calves out of the stall Singing to the sound of the Violl and inventing to our selves instruments of musicke like David Drinking wine in bowles and anointing our selves with the chiefe oyntments but no man is sorry for the affliction of Ioseph So universall are we in our Iubile having once shaken off our former captivity To prevent which forgetfulnesse it were not amisse to imitate the Romane Princes who as I have elsewhere noted when they were at any time in their conquests or victorious triumphs with acclamations received and by the generall applause of the people extolled there stood one alwayes behind them in their Throne to pull them by the sleeve with Memento te esse hominem for the consideration of humane
tendered both love and life and not have made prodigall expence of that which might have beene a meanes to strengthen and support her state Yet doe I not speake this as one insensible of wrong or incapable of disgrace for I know that in passages of this nature publike imputations require publike satisfaction so that howsoever the Divine Law to which all humane actions ought to be squared may seeme to conclude That wee are to leave revenge to whom revenge belongeth yet so passionate is the nature of man and through passion so much weakned as hee forgets many times what the divine Law bids him doe and hastens to that which is owne violent and distempered passion pricks him to Now to propose my opinion by way of direction in a word it is this As one may be angry and sinne not so one may revenge and offend not and this is by heaping câ—ales of fire upon our Enemies head for by this meeknesse is anger appeased and wee of our owne fury revenged But the best meanes to prevent occasion of distaste in this kind is to avoid the acquaintance or society of such as are given to offence whence it is that the wisest of Kings exhorteth us in these words To have no familiarity with an angry man neither goe with the furious man And why Lest thou learne his wayes and receive destruction to thy soule For indeed these whose turbulent dispositions are ready to entertaine any occasion of offence albeit the occasion perchance was never intended are unfit for any company or to passe time withall in any Recreation So as of one of these it may be said as was said of Scava who shewed apparent arguments of resolution to slave himselfe to the servile yoke of tyrannous subjection Infelix dominum quantâ virtute parasti How many courses miserable man hast thou tryed how many wayes hast thou traced how many adventures entertayned to get thee a Master Fury Arch-traytor to that glorious fortresse of Patience These are those Blood-bounds who are ever in quest and are never satisfied in pursuit till their eyes become the sâ—d spectators of a fall yea rather then these men will be out of action they will engage themselves in maintaining other quarrels so prompt they are to take offence as a strangers engagements must be made their owne rather then they will discontinue in their former profession Another sort there are who albeit they find ability in themselves to subdue and moderate this passion of furie by the soveraignty of reason yet it fares with them as it did with Hannibal Who knew better how to conquer then how to make use of his conquest or as it is said of Glendor That hee was more able to get a victory then skilfull to use it So these though reason like a discreet Monitor advise them to moderate their passions yet so ambitious are they of popular praise as rather then they will lose the name of being esteemed resolute they will oppose themselves to all perils and entertaine a course in the eye of true valour most dissolute Yet respect to our good name being indeed the choycest and sweetest perfume must not be so sleighted as to incurre apparent termes of disgrace and not labour to wipe off that staine by shewing some arguments that wee have so much conceit as to apprehend what an injury is and so much Spirit as to take revenge on him by whom the injury is offered It is true neither am I so stupid as not to conceive how insupportable the burden of those wrongs is which touch our name So as indeed to speake as a man unto men these wrongs are above the nature of mortality to beare for the naturall man tasting more of Earth then Heaven whilest hee ponders the quality of his disgrace and how farre hee stands engaged in respect of the opinion of men to beare himselfe like himselfe and not to bury such wrongs in silence as if senselesse of the nature of an injury hee never considers what the divine Law injoynes but casteth his eye upon the wrong hee sustaines Wherein if passion will needs over-master reason albeit I doe not hold it consonant to the Divine Law Morall or Nationall but to all generous spirits experimentally usefull I could wish him to come off faire at the first for this either wins him the buckler or loseth it so shall hee ever gaine to himselfe an esteeme of conceit in knowing the nature of a wrong and an opinion of spirit in daring to wipe off the disgrace that shall be laid upon him For this is my Position Faile at the first and faile ever for as the first onset terrifies the enemy so in actions of this nature the onely meanes to gaine opinion is to come off bravely in the beginning Now perchance it may happen that he from whom you have received wrong will take no notice of your distaste but will doe as hee did who receiving a Challenge upon some personall touch whereby hee apprehended the occasion for his best advantage of making choice as the Challenged may of time place weapon and Second returned this answere to the Messenger For the time I know not when for the place when that time comes it shall be the Alpes for the weapon it shall be Guy's sword that slew the Cow on Dunmoth heath and for my Second it shall be your selfe that I may bring you within the compasse of Duelloes If with such your fortune be to deale as many there are more valiant in tongue then hand more apt to offer wrong then tender satisfaction know thus much that these Alpes which hee hath named and whereto he never meanes to come is what place soever you shall meet him the time whensoever you shall have fit opportunity to encounter him the weapon though hee chuse it you may refuse it because it is too closely kept to come to and make choice of your own weapon left by going to Warwicke Castle to procure a sword you forget your wrong before you come there and the Second your only selfe that as you are particularly wronged you may be particularly righted for as the wrong toucheth you and no Second so you are to right your selfe without a Second But the safest and surest course as I said before not to partake with men of this condition is to refraine their company and conversation for these firy spirits who have Thersites tongue and Ant aeus hand are dangerous to consort with for they seldome resort to any meeting but either they doe hurt or receive it So as even in these tolerable Recreations of Horse-races Cockings Bowlings c. you shall ever see these throw one bone or other to make differences amongst men of quality and ranke wherein they will be sure to be interested as Seconds if not as principall Agents My advice therefore is that you avoid their company as disturbers of the publike peace interrupters
When Belshazzer beheld the hand upon the wall hee was put quite out of his humour of jollity his cheerefulnesse was turned into pensivenesse his mirth into mourning his solace into sorrowing Even so shall it fare with the Voluptuous man whose delight was onely on earth when that fearefull and ungratefull summons shall peremptorily injoyne him to bid adieu a long adieu to those sensuall consorts which accompanied him those inordinate meetings which so much delighted him yea all those licentious pleasures which so inchained him hee will exclaime but in vaine shall be those exclamations and curse the occasions of his mis-spent Time O what a hard taske would hee endure to redeeme what his security hath lost What extremities would hee suffer what difficulties undergoe How great and exceeding things would hee promise In what bonds of firme devotion would hee stand engaged Surely there is nothing that either flesh could sustaine or Mortality suffer which hee would not most willingly indure to deliver his endangred soule from eternall torments Lastly for the miserable Covetous wretch who makes great use of his Coine but small use of his Time treasuring up vengeance against the day of wrath how carefull is hee in making his barnes larger in filling his chests fuller in inhauncing his rents higher but how respectlesse of that supreme good wherein all happinesse consisteth See how Menedemus-like hee is ever digging and delving to raise a fortune for his seldome-thriving posterity Thus lives hee to become an eternall affliction to himselfe in whose person the Poet very properly expressed a Misers nature after this manner Thus doe I digge thus doe I delve t' enrich my state thereby Yet th'poorest slave of all I have enjoyes as much as I. This was one of those vanities which the wisest of Princes observed as incident to the children of men that many gathered yet knew not for whom they gathered having likewise no power to use what God had in his mercy bestowed Now to give this miserable Caitiffe his due Character Hee is his owne executioner being good to none but worst to himselfe His eye is so fixed on earth as hee finds no Time to erect it to heaven Hee employes so much time in getting and gathering goods as hee reserves no time for doing good Hee little observes how all earthly things are sweeter in the ambition then in the fruition in the affection then possession Nor how the circular World cannot fill the triangular Heart no more then a Circle can fill a Triangle where still there will bee some empty corners Hee runs on still in desire labouring of a disease incurable till death cure him Hee encreaseth his cares with his substance and the more hee addes to his estate the more hee detracts from his content The poore hee hath alwayes with him for hee makes all poore that deale with him In briefe hee is of all others most miserable because in his riches hee hath all his consolation which like the Aegyptian reed will faile him in his confidence leaving him bare and naked to the testimony of a guilty conscience For how secure was the Rich-man as hee thought when hee invited his wretched soule to take her rest having much goods laid up for many yeeres but this selfe security was the occasion of his succeeding misery for that night was his soule to be taken from him It is a true saying that the Divell requires nothing of man but Security for that gives him opportunity of practising his undoing Now how bitter is the remembrance of Death much more the unwelcome approach of Death to this miserable covetous man who hath all his peace in his substance For if nothing be so terrible as Death as Aristotle writeth which Antiochus feeling sensibly in himselfe crieth out thus Oh into what adversity am I come and into what flouds of misery am I now fallen Hee addeth the reason anon after For I must die with great sorrow in a strange Land Surely then to the miserable worldling who hath made a covenant with sinne and a league with transgression must the approach of Death seeme terrible being to be divided from the staffe of his confidence from thence to descend without least hope of comfort to the land of forgetfulnesse for as it cannot possibly be that hee should dye ill who hath lived well so it cannot be that hee who hath lived ill should dye well for as the Scorpion hath in her the remedy of her owne poyson a receit for her owne infection so the evill man carrieth alwayes with him the punishment of his owne wickednesse the which doth never leave so incessant is the torment of a guilty conscience to wound and afflict his mind both sleeping and waking so as to what place so ever hee betake him hee cannot so privately retire but feare and horrour will awake him nor fly so fast though hee should take the wings of the morning but fury and vengeance will over-take him Having thus farre proceeded in the treating of such subjects wherein Temperance is required and of such assailants by whom shee is usually encountred and impugned it rests now that I impart my advice briefly touching Temperance or Moderation of the Passions of the mind whereof omitting the rest as having else-where discoursed of them I will onely and that briefly insist of these two the passions of Ioy and Sorrow This passion to insist on Ioy first requires direction to order our desires aright in the matter Ioy. Every man loves a glad heart and wisheth Ioy as the fruit of his labours but therein many mistake First one rejoyceth in his Substance hee hath gotten much Secondly another rejoyceth in his Promotion Thirdly another doateth upon that mad mirth which Salomon speakes of Fourthly another rejoyceth in a Table richly deckt an over-flowing cup a faring deliciously every day Fifthly another rejoyceth at the destruction of him whom he hates Sixthly another rejoyceth in sinne and wickednesse It is a pastime to a foole to doe wickedly It is the Drunkards joy to be at the cup early and to sit till the wine hath enflamed them The twi-light glads the heart of the Adulterer The Oppressour danceth upon the threshold of him that is oppressed Ismael geereth at Isaac Holy Iob was as a Tabret to the godlesse ones and the Drunkards made songs on David But this is not that Ioy which is required because the foundation of this Ioy is grounded on sinne wherefore wee are to find a Ioy more pure more permanent for the Ioy of the wicked is short but the Ioy of the righteous shall endure for ever This Ioy which wee are to seeke and whereon wee are to ground our sole content is no carnall but a spirituall Ioy the Ioy of our hearts the divine Melody of our soules conclude with the blessed Apostle GOD forbid that we should rejoyce in any thing but in the Crosse of Christ and him crucified For in
this did all the Saints and servants of God joy disvaluing all other joy as unworthy the entertainment of the soule Wee are to rejoyce likewise for as much as God hath called us not to uncleannesse but unto holinesse We are to rejoyce in the testimony of a good conscience being that continuall feast which refresheth every faithfull guest Wee are to rejoyce in our brothers aversion from sinne and conversion to God in his prosperity and successe in his affaires of state But above all things wee are so to moderate our joy in the whole progresse of our life that our joy may the more abound in him who is the crowne of our hope after this life The like directions are required in our moderation of sorrow for there is a sorrow unto death which to prevent understand this by the way that not so much the passion as the occasion enforcing the passion is to bee taken heed of Sorrow wee may but not as Ammon did till he had defloured Thamar for that was the sorrow of licentiousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ahab did till he had got Naboths vineyard for that was the sorrow of covetousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Iosephs brethren did greiving that their father should love him more than them for that was the sorrow of maliciousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ionah did grieving that the Ninivites were not destroyed for that was the sorrow of unmercifulnesse Lastly sorrow wee may but not as the Gergesenes did grieving for the losse of their swine for that was the sorrow of worldlinesse These sorrowes are not so much to be moderated as wholly abolished because they are grounded on sin but there is a religious and godly sorrow which though it afflict the body it refresheth the spirit though it fill the heart with heavinesse it crowneth the soule with happinesse And this is not a sorrow unto sinne but a sorrow for sin not a sorrow unto death but a sorrow to cure the wound of death By how much any one saith a good Father is holier by so much in prayer are his teares plentifuller Here sounds the Surdon of religious sorrow the awaker of devotion the begetter of spirituall compunction and the sealer of heavenly consolation being the way to those that beginne truth to those that profit and life to them that are perfect But alas the naturall man saith the Apostle perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned It is true and this should move us to more fervor of devotion beseeching the divine assistance to minister strength to our weaknesse that what is wanting in the flesh may be supplied by the spirit yea daily to set an houre-glasse beside us and observe those precious graines the minute treasures of time how swiftly they run thorow the Cruet whereof not one must fall unnumbred for as a haire of the head shall not perish no more shall the least moment of time Now how healthfull were it though the carnall man distate it to vie teares with graines of sand that our sinnes being as the Sands of the Sea-shore that is numberlesse might bee bound up and throwne into the deepe Sea of eternall forgetfulnesse so as they may neither rise up in this life to shame us nor in the world to come to condemne us Surely if you would know those blessed fruits which true penitent sorrow produceth you shall finde that He who sowes in teares shall reape in joy Neither can any one goe to heaven with drie eyes May your teares be so shed on earth that they may bee bottled in heaven so shall you bring your sheaves with you and like fine flower being boulted from the bran of corruption receive your portion in the land of the living And may this Sacrifice of teares which you offer up unto him whose eyes are upon all the wayes of the children of men minister like comfort to your soules as they have done to many faithfull members of Christs Church And let this suffice to have beene spoken of such Subjects wherein Moderation is to bee used for to speake of Moderation of sorrow for sinne I hold it little necessary seeing most men so insensible are they of their inward wounds come rather short of that sorrow which is required then exceed in any sort the measure that is prescribed AS Moderation in all the precedent subjects is to be used so in all and every of them is it to be limited for to be so Stoically affected as wee have formerly noted as not to entertaine so much as modest mirth or approve of the temperate and moderate use of those things which were at first ordained for the use and service of man digressing as farre from the rule of Moderation in restraint as the profusely minded Libertine doth in excesse How hard a thing is it then to observe with indifferency an equall or direct course herein when either by leaping short or over we are subject to error So saith blessed Cranmer Some lose their game by short shooting some by over-shooting some walk too much on the left hand some too much on the right hand Now to propose what forme of direction is best to be observed herein wee will take a view of those Subjects whereof wee formerly treated and set downe in each of them what Moderation is to be used All waters are derived from three waies or currents springing either by fountaines and spring-heads from the bowells of the earth inwardly drained by rivers and conduits from those fountaines derived or haile and snow from the earth extracted where some ascend some descend so passions are three wayes moved in our bodies by humours arising out of our bodies by externall senses and the secret passage of sensuall objects or by the descent or commandement of reason Now to insist on the motion or effect of each passion we shall not greatly need having sufficiently touched them in our former discourse we will therfore upon a review of those severall subjects Lust Ambition Gorgeous apparel Luscious fare Company-keeping c. reduce them and the occasion of them to those three troubled Springs from whence miserable man by meanes of the immoderate appetite of sense sucks the banefull poyson of sinne The Concupiscence of the Flesh the Concupiscence of the eyes and the Pride of life for whatsoever is in the world as a good Father noteth and as the blessed Apostle himself affirmeth is one of these As first whatsoever suiteth or sorteth with the desire or delicacy of the flesh ministers fuel or matter to feed the Concupiscence therof Now this fleshly Libertine takes no delight in the Spirit but in the Flesh he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to keepe company with those consorts of
and feeling of religion which is all in all as in the knowledge and understanding of it hee buries Sarah in a double Sepulcher and so must all wee doe which are the true children of Abraham for then with Abraham burying our spirit in a double Sepulcher wee shall with Elizeus have a double Spirit a spirit that as well doth as teacheth Otherwise wee are but tinkling Cymbals making onely 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 tendrest and subtilest Organ of all others so should the Object on which it is fixed be the purest and cleerest of all others The Eagle accounts those of her young ones bastards which cannot fixe their eyes upon the Sunne and with equall reflection 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 sift 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 mind on them as if altogether unworthy their desire So as I cannot more aptly compare these idolizing worldlings to any thing then to the bird Ibis which is of that filthy nature as shee receives those excrements in at her mouth which shee 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 hee can leave desiring the things of this world or their eyes 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 feared that the sight of your Mistresse might not move your disquiet No enjoy your eyes and make them directâ—rs to guide you not as blind deceitfull guides to entrap you use the object of this sense but weane it from assenting to concupiscence concluding over with that good remembrance May that object bee 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 bee each true Christians scorne For this sinne saith an ancient and learned Father are the children of the kingdome thrown 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 ambitius is to be windy and boisterous whereas if he would measure all his undertakings rather by the dignity of the thing then the Ambition of his mind hee should find as much content as now hee finds disquiet It was the rule of a wise States-man and well deserves it the observance of every private person but especially of such who sit nere the Sterne of State not to suffer any ambitious heat transport him but to measure all things according to their dignity and worth and withall rather to referre 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 then to be approvers of themselves without the suffrage of others for certainely as there is no humour more predominant then Ambition nor apter to make man forgetfull of himselfe so hee who is of a haughty and proud disposition dis-values all others purposely to prize his owne deserts at an higher estimate I remember with what character that proud English Cardinall was decoloured who bare so great a strok in this Kingdome as it was in his power to shake the foundation of Monasteries and from their ruines to raise his owne structures that hee was so puffed up with Ambition as hee preferred the honour of his person before the discharge of his Profession Surely that sentence was verified in him Promotion declares what men bee for never was his Nature throughly discovered nor his inside displayed till his out-side was with the Cardinals Pall graced How necessary is it then for man being more subject to Pride himselfe in his height then with patience to receive a fall to learne how to moderate his acception of honour before he come to honour For I doe not so limit him as if hee should not at all receive it but rather how hee should demeane himselfe having received it Neither in Ambition onely but in that attire of sinne gorgeous apparell is the like limitation to be used for herein are wee to observe such decencie as neither the contempt thereof may taxe us of irregular carelesnesse nor affectation thereof evince us of too singular nicenesse for the former as it implyes a carelesse indifferencie so the latter argues an effeminate delicacie for God hateth no lesse in man this sloth and sluttishnesse then he hateth too much neatnesse and nicenesse Yea I have oft-times observed no lesse pride shrouded under a thred-bare cloake than under a more sumptuous coat So as Antisthenes went not farre a wrong who seeing Socrates shew his torne cloake shewing a hole thereof unto the people Loe quoth he thorow this I see Socrates vanity It is not the Hood which makes the Monke nor the Cloake which makes
this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we
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 wee 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 we 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 of 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 Xantippus bewailed his Dogs death which had followed his master from Calamina Alexander erected a Citie in the honour of Bucephaâ—us having beene long defended by him in many dangerous battells And the Asse may well among the Heathen be adorned with Lilies Violets and Garlands when their Goddesse Vesta by an Asses bray avoyded the rape of Priapus But howsoever these actions among Pagans might carry some colour of thankefulnesse rewarding them by whose speed fury agility or some other meanes they have been 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 prophanesse 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 the goods and gifts of Fortune as of Vtensils fit for our use and service but of the Supreme good as our chiefest Solace 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 hee gave man dominion over all those workes of his so hee created all outward things for the body the body 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 bee 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 ranke not onely 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 care 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 Humility 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 Hâ—rbe of Grace which will save you from being wounded and salve you already wounded In briefe both your expence of Time and Coine shall be 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 WEE are now to treat of a Subject which while wee are here on earth is farre easier to discourse of then to find for Perfection is not absolute in this life but graduall So as howsoever wee may terme one perfect or compleat in respect of some especiall qualities wherewith hee is endued yet if wee come to the true ground of Perfection wee shall find it farre above the Spheare of Mortality to ascend to for man miserable man what is hee or of himselfe what can hee to make him absolutely perfect Exceed hee can but in nothing but sinne which is such a naturall imperfection as it wholly detracts from his primitive Perfection Time was indeed when man knew no sinne and in that ignorance from sinne consisted his Perfection But no sooner was that banefull Apple tasted then in the knowledge of sinne hee became a professant Wee are therefore to discourse of such Perfection as wee commonly in opinion hold for absolute though in very deed it appeare onely respective and definite for to treat of that Perfection which is transcendent or indefinite were to sound the Sea or weigh the Mountaines so farre it exceedeth the conceit of man yea I say to taske humane apprehension to the discussion of that soveraigne or supreme Perfection were as unequally matched as ever were earth and heaven strength and weaknesse or the great Behâ—moth and the silliest worme that creepeth in the chinks of the earth Let us addresse our selves then to this Taske and make this our ground That as no man is simply good but God so no man is absolutely perfect till hee be individually united to God which on earth is not granted but promised not effected but expected not obtained but with confidence desired when these few but evill dayes of our Pilgrimage shall be expired yet is there a graduall Perfection which in some degree or measure wee may attaine becomming conformable unto him whose Image wee have received and by whom wee have so many singular graces and prerogatives on us conferred And this Perfection is to be procured by assistance of Gods Spirit and a desire in man to second that assistance by an assiduall endeavour
simple or ignorant that contemplateth God in his creatures shall finde sufficient matter in that voluminous booke of his Creation to move him to admire the work-manship of his Maker For the heavens are his the earth also is his and hee hath laid the foundation of the world and all that therein is So as even from the Cedar of Lebanon to the grasse upon the wall hath he shewen his power and his might to the ends of the world Now to the end this Contemplation might not bee hindred by any worldly objects wee are to with-draw our eye from the Creature and fix it wholly upon our Creator For how can any one behold the glory of Heaven when his eyes are poring upon earth or how should hee whose affections are planted upon his gold erect his thoughts to the contemplation of God So as wee must not only leave whatsoever we love on earth but even leave our selves till wee become wholly weaned from earth so shall our affections be in heaven though our temporary plantation bee on earth For what are these Ostrich-winged worldings who never flie up stooping to every lure that either honour profit or preferment cast out but base Haggards who lie downe and dare not give wing for feare of weathering Whereas these high fliers whose aimes are above earth are ever meditating of earths frailtie and heavens felicitie These consider how the solace of the captive is one and the joy of the freeman another These consider how that hee who sighs not while he is a Pilgrim shall not rejoyce when he is a Citizen These consider that it is an evident signe that such an one hates his Countrey who holds himselfe to bee in good state while hee lives a Pilgrim These will not preferre the husks of vanitie before those inestimable treasures of glory These and only these value earth as it should bee valued desiring rather to leave earth than set their love on ought upon earth Neither can death take any-thing from him going out of the world who sets his love on nothing in the world Whereas it is much otherwise with them whose eyes are accustomed to darknesse for they cannot behold the beames of that supreme veritie neither can they judge any thing of the light whose habitation is in darknesse they see darknesse they love darknesse they approve of darknesse and going from darknesse to darknesse they know not whither they fall Such was Demas who forsooke his faith and embraced this present world Such was Simon Magus who bewitched the people with sorceries to gaine himselfe esteeme in the world Such was Demetrius the Silver-Smith who brought great gaines unto the Crafts-men and mightily enriched himselfe in the world And in a word such are all those whose eyes are sealed to heavenly Contemplations but opened to the objects of earth prizing nothing else worthy either viewing or loving It is rare and wonderfull to observe what admirable Contemplations the Heathen Philosophers enjoyed though not so much as partakers of the least glimpse of that glorious light which is to us revealed How deeply searching in the influence of Planets how studious after the knowledge of Herbs Plants vertue of Stones which inforced in them no lesse admiration than delight in so sweet a Contemplation Now if the Heathens who had no knowledge of God but only a glimmering light of Nature being not so much I say as the least beamling in comparison of that glorious light which wee enjoy conceived such sweetness in the search of causes and events preferring their Contemplation before the possession of earth or all that fraile earth could promise what surpassing comfort or ineffable sweetnesse are wee to conceive in the Contemplation of GOD the one and only practice whereof maketh man blessed although in outward things hee were the poorest and needfullest in the world The blessed Saints and faithfull servants of GOD have beene so ravished with this sweetnesse as they were drunke with joy in Contemplation of the Highest For either honour or preferment they were so indifferent as they rejected it and for riches so equally contented as they dis-valued it selling their possessions and laying the money at the Apostles feet Yea Peter to instance one for all no sooner tasted this sweetnesse than forgetfull of all inferiour things hee cried out as one spiritually drunke saying Lord it is good for us to bee here let us make us here three Tabernacles let us stay here let us contemplate thee because wee need nothing else but thee it sufficeth us Lord to see thee it sufficeth us I say to bee filled with such swetnesse as commeth from thee One onely drop of sweetnesse hee tasted and hee loathed all other sweetnesse What may wee imagine would hee have said if hee had tasted the multitude of the sweetnesse of his divinitie which he hath laied up in store for those that feare him Surely the contemplative man whose affections are estranged from earth and seated in Heaven makes use of whatsoever hee seeth on earth as directions to guide him in his progresse to heaven His eyes are not like the Ambitious mans whose eye-sore is only to see others great and himselfe unadvanced nor like the Covetous mans whose eyes Tarpeia-like betray his soule seeing nothing precious or prosperous which he wisheth not nor like the Voluptous mans whose sealed eyes are blinde to the objects of vertue but unsealed to the objects of vanitie seeing nothing sensually moving which he affects not nor like the Vain-glorious mans who practiseth seldome what is good or honest for the love of goodnesse but to bee praised and observed Whereas the true Contemplative man loves vertue for vertues sake concluding divinely with the Poet This amongst good men hath beene ever knowne Vertue rewards herselfe herselfe's her crowne And for these light objects of vanity hee as much loaths them as the Voluptuous man loves them and for coveting hee is so farre from desiring more then hee hath as hee is indifferent either for injoying or forgoing what hee already hath and for aspiring hee holds it the best ambition of any creature to promote the glory of his Maker Hee is ever descanting on this divine ditty God! For his thoughts are spheared above earth and lodged in the Contemplation of heaven And if so be that hee chance to fixe his eye upon earth it is as I said before to direct his feet and erect his faith to the Contemplation of heaven For by consideration had to these temporall goods to use the words of a devout Father hee gathereth the greatnesse of the heavenly Councell Comprehending by the little ones those great ones by these visible those invisible ones For if the Lord shew or rather showre so great and innumerable benefits from heaven and from the ayre from the land and sea light and darkenesse heat and shadow dew and raine winds and showres birds and fishes and multiplicity of herbs and plants
of the earth and the ministry of all creatures successively in their seasons ministring to us to allay our loathing and beget in us towards our Maker an incessant longing and all this for an ignoble and corruptible body what how great and innumerable shall those good things be which hee hath prepared for them that love him in that heavenly Countrey where we shall see him face to face If hee doe such things for us in this prison what will hee doe for us in that Palace Great and innumerable are thy workes O Lord King of heaven For seeing all these are very good and delectable which hee hath equally bestowed upon both good and evill how great shall those bee which hee hath laid up onely for the good If so divers and innumerable be the gifts which hee bestoweth both upon friends and foes how sweet and delectable shall those be which hee will onely bestow upon his friends If such comforts in this day of teares and anguish what will hee conferre on us in that day of Nuptiall solace If a prison containe such delights what I pray you shall our Countrey containe No eye O Lord without thee hath seene those things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee for according to the great multitude of thy magnificence there is also a multitude of thy sweetnesse which thou hast hid for them that feare thee for great thou art O Lord our God and unmeasurable neither is there end of thy greatnesse nor number of thy wisedome nor measure of thy mercy neither is there end nor number nor measure of thy bounty but as thou art great so be thy gifts great because thou thy selfe art the reward and gift of thy faithfull warriours Thus is the spiritually Contemplative man ever employed thus are his affections planted thus his desires seated caring so little for earth as hee is dead to earth long before hee returne to earth drawing daily neerer heaven having his desire onely there long before hee come there Now to instance some whose profession was meerely contemplative having retired or sequestred themselves from the society of this world wee might illustrate this subject with many excellent Patternes in this kind as those especially who strictly professed a monasticke life becomming severe Enemies to their owne flesh and estranging themselves from conversing with man Which kind of discipline as it was in respect of humanity too unsociable so in respect of themselves doubtlesse sweet and delightfull being so intranced with divine contemplation as they forgot earth and all earthly affections Of this sort you shall reade sundry examples whereof one more memorable then the rest might bee instanced in him who reading that sentence of holy Scripture Goe and sell all that thou hast presently imagining it to bee meant by him did so The like contempt towards the world might bee instanced in holy Ierome Paulinus that good Bishop of Nola and many others upon which I would bee loath to insist for brevity sake Neither certainely can they whose thoughts are erected above the center of earth having their Hearts planted where their treasure is placed deigne to fix their eye upon ought in the world because they see nothing worthy affecting in the World for they thinke godlinesse is a great gaine if a man bee content with that hee hath They doe good being rich in good workes and ready to distribute and communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may obtaine eternall life Yea they have not only learned in whatsoever state they are therewith to be content but wholly to relinquish both selfe and state to advance the glory of God But it may be now well objected that these men whereof we now treat are fitter for a Cell then a Court and therefore too regular masters to have young Gentlemen for their Schollers for how should these whose education hath beene liberty conversation publike society and who hold good fellowship an appendice to Gentry betake themselves to such strictnesse as to be deprived of common aire live remote from all company passing the remainder of their dayes in a wildernesse as if they had committed some egregious fact that deserved such severe Pennance mistake me not my meaning is much otherwise for as I would not have Gentlemen Libertines so I would not have them Hermits for the first as they are too prodigally secular so the latter are too severely regular Neither am I ignorant how a Cloyster may bee no lesse shelter unto errour then a more publike place of delight or pleasure But my discourse touching this Contemplative Perfection was purposely to draw the Curtaine from before the Picture and to shew to their eye that faire Idaea or feature which hath beene so long shadowed I meane the faire and beautifull structure of the inward man which so long as it is darkened with these bleere-eyed Leahs these objects of vanity cannot enjoy it selfe but peece-meale as it were divided from it selfe seemes wholly deprived of life for a Heart divided cannot live And what are these objects of vanity whereon the eye of your Contemplation is usually fixed but those soule-soiling sores of this Land Pride and Voluptuousnesse With what greedinessâ— will a young Gallants eye gaze upon some new or phantasticke fashion wishing O vaine wish that hee had but the braines to have invented such a fashion whereby hee might have given occasion to others of imitation and admiration With what insatiablenesse will hee fix his eye upon some light affected Curtezan whose raiment is her onely ornament and whose chiefeâ—t glory is to set at sale her adulterate beauty No street no corner but gives him objects which drawes his eye from that choicest object whereon his whole delight should bee seated No place so obscure wherein his contemplative part is not on the view of forbidden objects greedily fixed How requisite then were it for you young Gentlemen whose aymes are more noble then to subject them to these unworthy ends to take a view sometimes of such absolute Patterns of Contemplative Perfection as have excelled in this kind But because a three-fold cord is hardly broken I will recommend unto your consideration a three-fold Meditation the daily use and exercise whereof may bring you to a more serious view of your owne particular estate First is the worthinesse of the soule secondly the unworthinesse of earth thirdly thankefulnesse unto GOD who made man the worthiest creature upon the earth For the first What is shee and in glory how surpassing is she to use the selfe-same words which an holy Father useth being so strong so weake so small so great searching the secrets of God and contemplating those things which are of GOD and with her piercing wit is knowne to have attained the skill of many Arts for humane profit and advantage What is shee I say who knoweth so much in other things and to what end they were made yet is
wholly ignorant how her selfe was made A Princesse surely for as a Queene in her Throne so is the soule in the body being the life of the body as God is the life of the soule being of such dignity as no good but the Supreme good may suffice it of such liberty as no inferior thing may restraine it How then is the soule of such worthinesse as no exteriour good may suffice it nor no inferiour thing restraine it How comes it then that it stoops to the Lure of vanity as one forgetfull of her owne glory How comes it then to be so fledged in the bird-lime of inferiour delights as nothing tasteth so well to her palate as the delights of earth Surely either she derogates much from what shee is or there is more worthinesse on earth then wee hold there is Having then taken a short view of the dignity or worthinesse of the soule let us reflect a little upon the unworthinesse of Earth and see if wee can find her worthy the entertainment of so glorious a Princesse Earth as it is an heavy element and inclineth naturally downe-ward so it keepes the earthly minded Moule from looking upward There is nothing in it which may satisfie the desire of the outward senses much lesse of the inward For neither is the eye satisfied with seeing bee the object never so pleasing nor the eare with hearing bee the accent never so moving nor the palate with tasting bee the cates never so relishing nor the nose with smâ—lling bee the confection never so perfuming nor the hand with touching bee the Subject never so affecting And for those sugred pils of pleasure though sweet how short are they in continuance and how bitter being ever attended on by repentance And for honours those snow-bals of greatnesse how intricate the wayes by which they are attained and how sandy the foundation whereon they are grounded How unworthy then is Earth to give entertainment to so princely a guest having nothing to bid her welcome withall but the refuse and rubbish of uncleannesse the garnish or varnish of lightnesse For admit this guest were hungry what provision had Earth to feed her with but the Huskes of vanity If thirsty what to refresh her with but with Worme-wood of folly If naked what to cloath her with but the Cover of mortality If imprisoned how to visit her but with Fetters of captivity Or if sicke how to comfort her but with Additions of misery Since then the worthinesse of the soule is such as Earth is too unworthy to entertaine her expedient it were that shee had recourse to him that made her and with all thankfulnesse tender her selfe unto him who so highly graced her Let man therfore in the uprightness of a pure and sincere soule weaned from Earth and by Contemplation already sainted in heaven say What shall I render unto thee O my God for so great benefits of thy mercy What praises or what thanksgiving For if the knowledge and power of the blessed Angels were present with me to assist me yet were I not able to render ought worthy of so great piety and goodnesse as I have received from thee yea surely if all my members were turned into tongues to render due praise unto thee in no case would my smalnesse suffice to praise thee for thy inestimable charity which thou hast shewn to me unworthy one for thy onely love and goodnesse sâ—ke exceedeth all knowledge Neither is it meet that the remembrance of a â—enefit should be limited by day or date but as the benefits wee receive are daily so should our thankefulnesse be expressed daily lest by being unthankefull God take his benefits from us and bestow them on such as will be thankfull And let this suffice for the Contemplative part of Perfection descending briefly to that part which makes the Contemplative truly perfect by Action WE are now to treat of that which is easier to discourse of than to finde for men naturally have a desire to know all things but to doe nothing so easie is the Contemplative in respect of the Active so hard the Practicke in respect of the Speculative How many shall we observe daily propounding sundry excellent Observations divine instructions and Christian-like Conclusions touching contempt of the World wherein this Active Perfection principally consisteth yet how far short come they in their owne example so easie it is to propound matter of instruction to others so hard to exemplifie that instruction in themselves This may be instanced in that Ruler in the Gospel who avouched his integrity and Perfection concluding that he had kept all those Commandements which Christ recounted to him from his youth up yet when Christ said unto him Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me we reade hee was very sorrowfull for he was very rich So miserable and inextricable is the worldlings thraldome when neither the incertainty of this life nor those certaine promises made unto him in hope of a better life can weane him from the blind affection of earth Necessary therfore it is that he who desires to attaine this Active Perfection unto which all good men labour moderate his desires towards such things as he hath not and addresse himselfe to an indifferency of losing those things which hee already hath for he whose desires are extended to more than he enjoyes or who too exceedingly admires what he now enjoyes can never attaine that high degree of Active Perfection The reason is no man whose content is seated on these externall flourishes of vanity can direct his Contemplation or erect the eye of his affection to that eternall Sunne of verity whom to enjoy is to enjoy all true Perfection and of whom to be deprived is to taste the bitterness of deepest affliction Now how are we to enjoy him Not by knowledge only or Contemplation but by seconding or making good our knowledge by Action for we know that there is a Woe denounced on him who knoweth the will of his Father and doth it not when neither his knowledge can plead ignorance nor want of understanding in the Law of God simplicity or blindnesse We are therefore not onely to know but doe know lest ignorance should mis-guide us doe lest our knowledge should accuse us Behovefull therfore were it for us to observe that excellent precept of holy Ierome So live saith he that none may have just cause to speake ill of you Now there is nothing which may procure this good report sooner than labouring to avoid all meanes of scandall as consorting with vitious men whose noted lives bring such in question as accompany them This was the cause as I formerly noted why Saint Iohn would not stay in the Bath with the Hereticke Câ—rinthus O how many and with much griefe I speake it have we knowne in this little Iland well descended with
concluded in this manner I speake generally no rayment ornament or habit whatsoever shall seeme precious in Christs sight but that which thou makest thy selfe either for thine owne peculiar use or example of other Virgins or to give unto thy grand-mother or thy mother no though thou distriâ—ute all thy goods unto the poore See how expresly this noâ—le woman was injoyned to her taske that by intending her selfe to labour shee might give lesse way unto errour Certainely as mans extremity is Gods opportunity so the Divels opportunity is mans security we are then principally to take heed lest wee give way to the incursion of Satan by our security of life and conversation And what is it that begetteth this security but Idlenesse which may be termed and not improperly the Soules Lethargie For nothing can be more opposite to this Actuall Perfection then reâ— or vacancy wee say vertue consisteth in Action how then may wee be said to be favourers followers or furtherers of vertue when we surcease from Action which is the life light and subsistence of vertue Wherefore as it is little to reade or gather but to understand and to reduce to forme what wee reade gather or understand for this is the ornament of Art the argument of labour so it is little or to no purpose that wee know conceive or apprehend unlesse wee make a fruitfull use of that knowledge by serious practice to the benefit of our selves and others I have knowne divers Physicians some whereof were of great practice but small reading others of great reading but small practice and I have heard sundry men of sufficient judgement confidently averre that in cases of necessity they had rather hazard their lives in the hand of the Practicke then Theoricke and their reason was this though the Practicke had not exercised himselfe in the perusall of bookes hee had gained him experience in the practice of cures and that the body of his patient was the onely booke within his Element To which assertion I will neither assent nor wholly dissent for as he that practiseth before hee know may sooner kill than cure so he who knoweth and seldome or never practiseth must of necessity to get him experience kill before hee cure But sure I am that many ignorant Lay-men whose knowledge was little more then what nature bestowed on them by meanes of regular discipline and powerfull subduing of their owne affections have become absolute men being such as reached to as high a pitch of Actuall Perfection as ever the learned'st or profoundest man in the world attained for it is neither knowledge nor place but the free gift of Gods grace which enableth the spirituall man to this Perfection Now forasmuch as not to goe forward is to goe backward and that there be two Solstices in the Sunnes motion but none in times revolution or in a Christians progression the onely meanes to attaine this Actuall Perfection at least some small measure or degree therein is every night to have our Ephemerides about with us examining our selves what we have done that day how farre wee have profited wherein benefited our spirituall knowledge Againe wherein have we reformed our life or expressed our love to Christ by communicating to the necessity of his Saints By which meanes wee shall in short time observe what remaines unreformed esteeming it the sweetest life every day to better our life But principally are wee to looke to our affections which rise and rage in us and like the Snake in the fable pester and disturbe the inner house of man for these are they which as Saint Basil saith rise up in a drunken man drunke I meane with all spirituall fornication like a swarme of Bees buzzing on every side When the affections of men are troubled they change them like Circes cups from men to beasts Neither is it so ill to bee a beast as for man to live like a beast O then let us have an eye to our affections let them bee planted where they may be duly seasoned Earth makes them destastefull let them be fixed then in heaven the only thought whereof will cause them to be delightfull And to conclude this branch it will not be amisse for us to counterpoize our affections if we find them at any time irregular with weights of contrary nature as if we find our selves naturally affected to Pride that Luciserian sinne to counterpoise it with motives of Humility as the vilenesse of our condition basenesse of our composition and weaknesse of our constitution or naturally inclined to Covetousnesse that Mammons sinne to give though the gift afflict us liberally that our forced bounty may in time weane us from our in-bred misery if of grating oppression or grinding extortion that Ahabs sinne let us make restitution with good Zacheus and though wee cannot doe it so frankly as hee did yet let us doe it as freely as wee may that our restitution may in some sort answer for our former oppression if of excesse in fare and gluttony that Dives sinne let us so moderate our delight in feeding that our delight may be to sustaine Nature and not oppresse her with exceeding if of Lust or sensuality that Ammons sinne where that sinne may abound the Sense is obeyed let us subject all our delights to the government of reason and reason to the soveraignty of grace that the flesh may be resisted in what it most affecteth and in that seconded wherein it least delighteth if of Envie that Serpentine sinne let us entertaine brotherly love for Envie can beare no sway where Love raigneth if of Wrath that Cains sinne embrace Patience so shall Fury bee suppressed where Patience is lodged if of Sloth the Sluggards sinne let us inure our selves to some Exercise that may most delight us so in time wee may become exercised in Taskes of greater difficulty being first from Sloth weaned afterwards to greater labours inured Thus to fight were to vanquish thus to enter lists were to reape spirituall solace for through him should wee triumph who sees us fighting cheers us failing and crownes us conquering And this shall suffice to have beene spoken of the Active part of Perfection purposing according to our former method to compare the Contemplative and Active together the parts or properties of both which being duly examined it shall more plainely appeare how the Active is to be preferred IT is a barren faith wee say that is not attended on by good workes and no lesse fruitlesse is that knowledge which is exercised onely in Contemplation and never in Action Wee are therefore with Elizeus to have a double spirit a spirit that as well doeth as teacheth not onely a profering of words but also an offering of workes So as it is not breathing or moving or talking which argue a spirituall life but abounding plentifully in all holy duties expressing those effectuall and powerfull fruits of a living
that drum they would not abide but take their flight This moved Scipio to appoint his Sepulcher to bee so placed as his image standing upon it might looke directly towards Africa that being dead he might still bee a terrour to the Carthaginians If respect of Pagans to their Country or an eye to popular glory did so inflame them as their Countries love exceeded their love of life surviving in their death and leaving monuments of their affection after death how lightly are wee to value the glory of this life if the losse thereof may advance our Fathers glory or ought tending to the conversation of this life being assured by him whose promises faile not by such a small losse to gaine eternity Now as it is not the death but the cause of the death which makes the Martyr we are to know that to die in the maintenance of any hereticall opinion is Pseudo-martyrdomâ— for howsoever those Arians Manichees and Pelagians those Macedonians Eutichees and Nestorians yea generally all Hereticks were constant and resolute enough in seconding and maintaining their erroneous opinions yet forasmuch as the cause for which they contended was Heresie tend it might to their confusion but never to their glory for as honey-comâ—es saith learned Tertullian are by Waspes composed so are Churches by the Marcionists and consequently by all Heretickes disposed in whose Synodals or conventicles many thousands are perverted none converted or to the Church of Christ faithfully espoused Whereas Truth which may be pressed but not oppressed assailed but never soiled like the greene Bay-tree in the midst of hoarie winter or a fresh Spring in the sandy desart appeares most glorious when her adversaries are most malicious bearing ever a countenance most cheerefull when her assailants are most dreadfull Neither only in this glorious act of Martyrdome but in all inferiour works the affection of the minde as well as the action of the man is to bee considered for God himselfe who hath an eye rather to the intention than action will not approve of a good worke done unlesse it be well done As for example when the Pharisie fasted prayed gave almes and payed tithe of all that he possessed he did good workes but he did not those good works well the reason was hee exalted himselfe in his workes without attributing praise unto him who is the beginner and perfecter of every good worke for his fasts were hypocriticall not of devotion his prayers ineffectuall because they sounded of Ostentation his almes unacceptable because exhibited only for observation and his tithes abominable being given to colour his secret oppression for which cause did our Saviour pronounce a woe upon them saying Woe unto you Pharisies for yee tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of herbes and passe over judgement and the love of God these ought yee to have done and not to leave the other undone Whence it appeares that the worke it selfe was approved but the manner of doing it reproved for that they preferred the tithing of Mint and Rue before the judgement and love of God so they preferred it as the one was performed while the other of more serious and consequent importance was omitted Whence wee are cautioned that in our workes of Mortification we doe nothing for any sinister or by-respect but only for the glory of God to whom as all our Actions are properly directed so are they to have relation onely unto him if wee desire to have them accepted Is it so that this Actuall Perfection is to be acquired by Mortification wherein is required not only the action but affection And that wee are even to lay downe our lives if the cause so require to promote the glory of our Maker Tell me then Gentleman how farre have yee proceeded in this spirituall progresse Have yee unfainedly desired to further the honour of God repaire the ruines of Sion and engage your owne lives for the testimony of a good conscience Have ye fought the Lords battell and opposed your selves against the enemies of the Truth Have yee shut the doore of your chamber the doore of your inner parlour I meane your heart from the entrance of all earthly affections sensuall cogitations and expressed true arguments of Mortification the sooner to attaine this high degree of Christian Perfection Have yee made a covenant with your eyes not to looke after the strange woman a covenant I meane with your hearts never to lust after her Have yee weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting forraine and out-landish fashions Which howsoever they be to fashion conformed they make man of all others most deformed Have yee done with your reere-suppers midnight revels Curtaine pleasures and Courting of Pictures Have yee left frequenting Court-maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes boasting of young Ladies favours glorying more in the purchase of a glove than a Captaine in the surprizall of a Fort Have yee cashiered all those Companions of death those seducing Consorts of misery and betaken your selves to the acquaintance of good men conceiving a settled joy in their society O then thrice happy you for having honoured God he will honour you having repaired the ruines of Sion hee will place you in his heavenly Sion or engaged your lives for the testimony of a good Conscience hee will invite you to that continuall feast of a peaceable Conscience or fought the Lords battell hee will say you have fought a good fight crowning you after your victory on earth with glory in heaven or shut the doore of your Chamber and kept the roome cleane and sweet for your Maker hee will come in and sup with you that you may rejoyce together or made a covenant with your eyes not to look after the strange woman with those eyes yee shall behold him who put enmitie between the Serpent and the Woman or weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting Out-landish fashions madding after phantasticke habits for stuffe it skils not whether silken or woollen so the fashion be civill and not wanton you shall be cloathed in long white robes and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth or done with your mid-night revels and Court pleasures you shall bee filled with the pleasures of the Lords House and abide in his Courts for ever or left frequenting Maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes the glorious Spectacles of vanity you shall bee admitted to those angelicall triumphs singing heavenly Hymnes to the God of glory or chashier'd those companions of death whose end is misery you shall have the Saints for your companions and share with them in the Covenant of mercy Doe yee not hence observe what inestimable comforts are reserved for those who are truly mortified mortified I say in respect of your contempt to the world which is expressed by ceasing to love it before you leave it Who would not then disvalue this life and all those bitter sweets which this fraile life affordeth to possesse those incomparable sweets which every faithfull
shall in superabundant measure bee recompenced else-where But it may be objected that some aspersions are not to be borne with for those scandals which are laid upon our persons where our faith is not taxed or touched may bee more easily endured but where these are struck at they are not to be suffered To confirme which wee reade how Peter and Iohn having by prayer and imposition of hands given the Holy Ghost and Simon the Sorcerer saw that through laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given hee offered them money saying Give mee also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands bee may receive the Holy Ghost But Peter incensed herewith saith unto him Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of GOD may be purchased with money Whence it appeareth that out of a holy zeale one may shew passion towards such as detract from the honour of God or asperse a blemish upon his servants in the worke of their ministery The like we reade of Paul that glorious vessell of election conceiving much indignation against one who had withstood the word saying Alexander the Copper-smith did mee much evill the Lord reward him according to his workes The reason is inclusively annexed of whom bee thou ware of for hee hath greatly withstood our words The like spirit of zeale might Iames and Iohn bee said to be of who when they saw that the Saritanes would not receive Christ said Lord wilt thou that wee command fire to come downe from heaven and consume them even as Elias did But how this passion of theirs was approved may appeare by the ensuing verse But hee turned and rebuked them and said Yee know not what manner of spirit yee are of Now to cleare this objection there is no Patterne which wee ought sooner to imitate then Christ himselfe who is the master of truth and directeth us in all truth who as hee was most blamelesse of all others for in his mouth was never guile found yet was hee in his owne person more blamed in his doctrine more reproved in his miracles more injured then all others for one while hee is accused to have a Divell anon that hee casteth out Divels through the Prince of the Divels anon that hee is a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners yet what answer vouchsafed hee unto all these save onely this Wisedome is justified of her children Now I know there are differences of Scandals or aspersions where some leave deeper impression then others doe for as the name is more precious then any earthly substance so it receiveth the deepest staine when the estimation of our faith is questioned being the very maine foundation whereon all religion is grounded and the perfection of that building which makes a Christian rightly accomplish'd Saint Basil could shew himselfe calme enough in his conference with the Emperour till a Cooke came in and saucily told him hee did not well to stand so precisely upon such small matters but rather to yeeld to his master the Emperour in a word or two for what were those divine affaires whereon hee so much insisted but such as with indifferency might be dispensed But what answered this reverend Father Yea Sir Cooke quoth hee it is your part to tend your pottage and not to boile and chop up divine matters which as they little trouble you so in weight and consequence are farre above you And then with great gravity turning to the Emperour said that those that were conversant in divine matters which were principally to be intended would with conscience rather suffer death then suffer one jot of holy Scripture much lesse an article of faith already received to be altered or corrupted Another holy man though most innocent could indure to be counted a whore-master an uncleane person and the like but when one called him an Heretike hee could beare no longer so neere be we touched when our faith is questioned But as wee have a noble and glorious Patterne who shewed himselfe a Conquerour in his suffering let us wrastle with flesh and blood that suffering all things for him and with him wee may after our conquest joy in him and with him And let this be sufficient to have beene spoken of Mortification in respect of our name or esteeme in the world labouring daily to dis-value and humiliate our selves while wee are in the world If it be no great thing to leave our substance but our selves let us at least leave our substance that wee may the better enjoy our selves It was the wise exhortation of the wisest of Princes Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thy increase annexing a promise to this precept So shall thy barnes bee filled with plenty and thy presse shall burst out with new wine But forasmuch as many things are required to the mortification of this earthly Mammon wee will reduce them to two speciall heads the better to retaine in memory this meanes of mortification 1. to consider from whom wee have received these worldly blessings 2. how to dispose of them lest they become cursings of blessings For the first wee are positively to set downe that every good gift and every perfect gift commeth from above the beasts that graze on a thousand hils are his the treasures of the earth are his for from whom should wee thinke are they derived to us but from him by whom they were created for us Hee who never had it how can hee give it but hee who hath all guids all governes all and is all in all is sole sufficient for all Hee it is then that maketh rich and maketh poore exalteth and humbleth sending forth his waters out of their treasuries and all things are drowned shutteth them in their treasuries and all things are dried He it is that maketh the fruitfull barren and the barren fruitfull Instead of the thorne shall come up the firre tree and instead of the briter shall come up the mirtle tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting signe that shall not be cut off He it is that made Heaven and Earth and all things replenished Heaven and Earth with all things giving Man dominion over all things that Man might be subject unto him who made all things Mow as hee gave them to man so are they to be disposed of by man to his glory who made man And how is that Not in laying land unto land with the oppressour nor in repairing to the house of the strange woman with the adulterer nor consuming your substance in excesse with the rioter nor hoording up vengeance against the day of wrath with the miser nor grinding the face of the poore with the extortioner but rather distributing freely of that which you have and communicating to the necessity of the Saints so shall you make to your selves friends
this summary good which is seene with purest mindes The Heart triangle-wise resembleth the image of the blessed Trinity which can no more by the circumference of the World bee confined than a Triangle by a Circle is to bee filled So as the Circular world cannot fill the Triangular heart no more than a Circle can fill a Triangle still there will bee some empty corners it saies so long as it is fixed on the world Sheol it is never enough but fixed on her Maker her onely 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 Shee then may enjoy life And what life A life eternally living Shee 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 bee never so much soiled yet it can never at all bee 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 bee 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 thirsty here is the Well of life to refresh them Would you bee Kings here is a Kingdome provided for you Would you enjoy a long life a long life shall crowne you and length of daies attend you Would you have all goodnesse to enrich you enjoying GOD all good things shall bee 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 himself for you will never leave you Would you have him live for ever with you Leave loving of the world so shall hee 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 hee is the life by which wee live the hope to which wee cleave and the glory which wee desire to obtaine For if dead hee can revive us if hopelesse and helpelesse he can succour us if in disgrace he can exalt us Him then only are wee to seeke who when wee 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 hee may bee 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 End 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 necessity bee greater than that which is contained But Earth being a masse of corruption how should it confine or circumscribe incorruption Seeing nothing but immortality can cloath the Soule with glory it is not the rubbish or refuse of Earth that may adde to her beauty Besides the Soule while it so journes here in this earthly mansion shee remaines as a captive inclosed in prison What delights then can bee pleasing what delicates relishing to the palate of this prisoner Shee is an exile here on Earth what society then can bee cheerefull to one so carefull of returning to her Countrey If Captives restrained of their liberty Exiles estranged from their Countrey can take no true content either in their bondage bee it never so attempred nor in that exile bee 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 bee here below Mortality cannot suit with immortality no more can Earth with the soule Whereto then bee 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 tastefull'st dainties wherewith her soule is nourished in Heaven those glorious creatures wherewith her selfe is numbred What difference then betwixt the satiety and saturity of Heaven and the penurie and poverty 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 daies 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 Augustine answers excellently Albeit saith hee that summary and incommutable essence that true light that indeficient light that light of Angels can bee seene by none in this life being reserved for a reward to the Saints onely 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 bee on earth our faith must bee 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 bee 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 wee know it not that whatsoever it sought besides God possesseth the mind but satisfies it not wee would have recourse to him by whom our minds might bee as well satisfied as possessed But great is our misery and miserable our stupidity who when wee may gaine heaven with lesse paines then 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 Divell no lesse when wee sinne then it pleaseth God to heare us sigh for sinne yet will wee rather please the Divell by committing sin then 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 painefull then 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 enrich his carelesse heire will the miserable wretch addresse himselfe to all slavish labour without once remembring either early or late to give thankes to his Maker Without repose or repast will the restlesse ambitious Sparke whose aimes are onely to be worldly great taske himselfe to all difficulties to gaine honour when even that which so eagerly hee seekes for oft-times bring 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 bee 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 misery 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 onely 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 melody cheere you follow him in the smell of his sweet ointments 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 misery become heavenly men so of terrestriall Angels you shall bee made Angels in heaven where by the spirituall union of your soules you shall bee 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 bee 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 beauty 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 teares before wee reape in joy Seeke we must before we find for unlesse wee seeke him while hee 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 Esau's 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 hee had beseeched him to send Lazarus that hee might dip the tip of his finger in water and coole his tongue Sonne remember that thou in thy life-time received'st thy good things and likewise Lazarus evill things but now hee 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 oile with them but the wise tooke oile 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 interest 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 eternity 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 we 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 mercy and before the evill day come lest wee be taken as hee 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 yeeres draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them While the Sunne or the light or the Moone or the Starres that bee 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 hee shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musicke shall bee brought low Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and feares shall bee in the way and the Almond tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall bee 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 bee broken or the pitcher bee 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 wee warned not to deferre time lest wee neglect the opportunate time the time of grace which neglected miserable shall wee 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 ye 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 poyson so the evill man carrieth alwayes with him the punishment of his owne wickednesse the which doth never leave to torment and afflict his mind 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 mee O mine enemy Now there is no better meanes to make peace with our consciences then to set God continually before our eyes that his Spirit may witnesse to our spirits that wee 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 sinne and saith Who seeth him There is none looking thorow the chinke to se mee none that can heare me but simple fooles how much are these deceived Is there any darkenesse so thicke and palpable that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the piercing eye of heaven cannot spie thee through it O if thou hope by firming secretly to sin securely thou shalt be forced to say unto thy God as Ahab said unto Elijah Hast thou found mee O mine enemy Nay O God terrible and dreadfull thou hast found mee And then let mee 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 onely to asperse a blemish on thy name or inflict a temporall punishment on thy person then 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 bee secure Or what availes it guilty men to find 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 desolate 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 hee his And therefore Prudentius in one of his Hymnes gives this memorandum Thinke with thy selfe if thou from sinne 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 wee 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 wee begge life his hand is not so shortned 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 hee 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 then the motion of the hand or prostration of the body will heare us if wee aske faithfully and open unto us if wee knock constantly and having fought a good fight crowne us victoriously Thus you have heard what wee are to seeke where wee are to seeke and when wee are to seeke What a Kingdome not of earth but of heaven Where not on earth nor in earth but in heaven When while wee are here on earth that after earth we may raigne 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 beauty liberty and all through him who is all in all Aristippus was wont to say that hee would goe to Socrates for wit but to Dionysius for money whereas this wee seeke and seeking hope to enjoy confers upon us the rich treasures of wisdome and abundance of riches for evermore For first seeke wee the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all things else shall bee 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 bee with those that love him Lastly when on Earth when in this life when while wee are in health while wee are in these Tabernacles of clay while wee carry about us these earthly vessels while wee are clothed with flesh before the evill day come or the night approach or the shadow of death encompasse us now in the opportunate time the time of grace the time of redemption the appointed time while our peace may bee made not to deferre from youth to age lest wee bee prevented by death before wee come to age but so to live every day as if wee were to dye every day that at last wee may live with him who is the length of daies What remaineth then but that wee conclude the whole Series or progresse of this Discourse with an exhortation to counsell you an instruction to caution you closing both in one Conclusion to perswade you to put in daily practice what already hath beene tendred to you Now Gentlemen that I may take a friendly farewell of you I am to exhort you to a course Vertuous which among good men is ever held most Generous Let not O let not the pleasures of sinne for a season withdraw your mindes from that exceeding great weight of glory kept in store for the faithfull after their passage from this vale of misery Often call to minde the riches of that Kingdome after which you seeke those fresh Pastures fragrant Medows and redolent Fields diapred and embrodered with sweetest and choicest flowers those blessed Citizens heavenly Saints and Servants of God who served him here on Earth faithfully and now raigne with him triumphantly Let your Hearts bee exditers of a good matter and your voices viols to this heavenly measure O how glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God as the habitation of all that rejoyce is in thee Thou art founded on the exaltation of the whole Earth There is in thee neither old-age nor the miserie of old-age There is in thee neither maime nor lame nor crooked nor deformed seeing all attaine to the perfect man to that measure of age or fulnesse of Christ. Who would not become humble Petitioner before the Throne of grace to bee made partaker of such an exceeding weight of glory Secondly to instruct you where this Crowne of righteousnesse is to bee sought it is to bee sought in the house of God in the Temple of the Lord in the Sanctuary of the most High O doe not hold it any derogation to you to bee servants yea servants of the lowest ranke even Doore-keepers in the House of the Lord Constantine the Great gloried more in being a member of the Church than the Head of an Empire O then let it bee your greatest glory to advance his glory who will make you vessels of glory But know that to obey the deligths of the flesh to divide your portion among Harlots to drinke till the wine grow red to make your life a continued revell is not the way to obtaine this crowne Tribulation must goe before Consolation you must clime up to the Crosse before you receive this Crowne The Israelites were to passe thorow a Desart before they came to Canaan This Desart is the world Canaan heaven O who would not bee here afflicted that hee may bee there comforted Who would not be here crossed that hee may bee there crowned Who would not with patience passe thorow this Desart onely in hope to come to Canaan Canaan the inheritance of the just Canaan the lot of the righteous Canaan a fat Land flowing with milke and honey Canaan an habitation of the most holy Canaan a place promised to Abraham Canaan the bosome of Father Abraham even Heaven but not the heaven of heaven to which even the earth it selfe is the very Empyraean heaven for this is heaven of heaven to the Lord because knowne to none but to the Lord. Thirdly and lastly that I may conclude and concluding perswade you neglect not this opportunate time of grace that is now offered you I know well that Gentlemen of your ranke cannot want such witty Consorts as will labour by their pleasant conceits to remove from you the remembrance of the evill day but esteeme not those conceits for good which strive to estrange from your conceit the chiefest good Let it bee your task every day to provide your selves against the evill day so shall not the evill day when it commeth affright you nor the terrours of death prevaile against you nor the last summons perplex you nor the burning Lake consume you O what sharpe extreme and insuperable taskes would those wofull tormented soules take upon them if they might bee freed but one houre from those horrours which they see those tortures which they feele O then while time is graunted you omit no time neglect no opportunity Bee instant in season and out of season holding on in the race which is set before you and persevering in every good work even unto the end Because they that continue unto the end shall bee saved What is this life but a minute and lesse than a minute in respect of eternity Yet if this minute bee well imployed it will bring you to the fruition of eternity Short and momentany are the afflictions of this life yet supported with Patience and subdued with long sufferance they crowne the sufferer with glory endlesse Short likewise are the pleasures of this life which as they are of short continuance so bring they forth no other fruit than the bitter pils of repentance whereas in heaven there are pleasures for evermore comforts for evermore joyes for evermore no carnall but cordiall joy no laughter of the body but of the heart for though the righteous sorrow their sorrow ends when they end but joy shall come upon them without end O meditate of these in your beds and in your fields when you are journeying on the way and when you are so journing in your houses where compare your Court-dalliance with these pleasures and you shall finde all your rioting triumphs and revelling to bee rather occasions of sorrowing than solacing mourning than rejoycing Bathe you in your Stoves or repose you in your Arbours these cannot allay the least pang of an afflicted conscience O then so live every day as you may die to sin every day that as you are ennobled by your descent on earth
you may bee ennobled in heaven after your descent to earth Laus Deo Totum hoc ut à te veniet totur◠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 yonger brother cannot depresse his thoughts below his elder Hee 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 walks with so pure a soule as hee makes uprightnesse the honour of his Family Hee wonders at a profuse foole that hee should spend when honest frugality 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 bee holden as to bee a Gally-slave Hee hath been youthfull but his maturer experience hath so ripened him as hee 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 Hee 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 hee hates no lesse to bee uncivill than in his feare to Godward to bee 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 onely an additament but ornament to Gentry No complement gives more accomplishment Hee intends more the tillage of his minde than his ground yet suffers not that to grow wilde neither Hee walkes not in the clouds to his friend but to a stranger Hee 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 Hee lives in the Countrey without thought of oppression makes every evening his dayes Ephemeris If his neighbours field flourish hee doth not envy it if it lie fit for him hee scornes to covet it There is not that place hee sees nor that pleasure hee 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 Piety his Practice acts of Charity 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 Hee recommends himselfe therefore in the morning to Gods protection and favour that all the day long hee may more prosperously succeed in his labour Hee holds idlenesse to bee the very moth of mans time Day by day therefore hath hee his taske imposed that the poison of idlenesse may bee better avoided Hee holds as Gods opportunity is mans extremity so mans security is the Divels opportunity Hoping therefore hee feares fearing hee takes heed and taking heed hee becomes safe Hospitality hee holds a relique of Gentry Hee harbours no passion but compassion Hee grieves no lesse at anothers losse than his owne nor joyes lesse in anothers successe than his owne peculiar Recreation hee 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 hee 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 hee makes not an usefull and contemplative pleasure Recreation hee 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 Hee would take it but not bee taken by it Hee attempers his attractivest pastimes with a little Alloes to weane him all the sooner from their sweetnesse Hee scornes that a moment of content should deprive him of an eternity of comfort Hee corrects therefore his humour in the desire of pleasure that hee may come off with more honour Acquaintance hee entertaines with feare but retaines with fervor Hee consorts with none but where hee presumes hee may either better them or bee bettered by them Vertue is the sole motive of his choice Hee conceives how no true amity nor constant society can ever bee amongst evill men Hee 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 hee affects and those hee admits onely into the list of his discourse whom hee findes more reall than verball more solid than complementall Hee will try him before hee 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 hee expresseth so nobly as neither love of whatsoever hee enjoyes can so enthrall him nor the losse of what hee 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 Hee 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 he 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 Humility his directresse lest hee should faile or fall in his progresse His wings are holy desires his feet heavenly motions There is no sense which he offers not up as a sweet incense to expedite his course and refresh his conscience He holds it the sweetest life to be every day better till length of dayes reunite 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 An exact TABLE or Directory leading to the Principall points contained in this BOOKE YOVTH Observat. 1. OVR youthfull yeares our Climactericall years with the dangers that attend on youthfull yeares seconded by an authentick story out of Eusebius p. 1.2 The vanity of Youth displayed in foure distinct Subjects 3 Two reasons why Young-men were not admitted to deliver their opinions in publike assemblies 6.7 Three violent passions incident to Youth 15 Two reasons why Youth is naturally subject to those illimited passions of Ambition Lust Revenge ibid. Especiall motives or
8. NO Perfection in this life absolute but graduall pag. 209 Two considerations of maine consequence 1 The foe that assaults us 2 The friend that assists us 210 The Christians compleate armour ibid. The first institution of Fasts with the fruit thereof 211 The power of Prayer with examples of such as were most conversant in that holy Exercise ibid. 212 Circumstances observable in workes of charity and devotion ibid. Objections and resolutions upon the ground of Perfection 213. lin 26. c. Of the Contemplative part of Perfection 214 A Corollary betwixt the Heathen and Christian contemplation 215 Examples of a contemplative and râ—tired life 217 A three-fold Meditation of necessary importance 1 Worthinesse of the Soule 2 Vnworthinesse of Earth 3 Thankefulnesse unto God who made man the worthiest creature upon earth 218. c. Of the Active part of Perfection 219 No contagion so mortally dangerous to the body as corrupt company is to the soule 220 Two especiall memorials recommended to our devoutest meditations 1 The Author of our creation ib. 2 The end of our creation ib. A foure-fold Creation 221. lin 3 The fabulous and frivolous opinions of foure Heathen Philosophers ascribing the creation of all things to the foure Elements 222. l. 3 Their arguments evinced by pregnant testimonies both of Scriptures and Fathers ibid. The End of our creation ibid. Singular precepts of Mortification 223 Idlenesse begetteth security properly termed the Soules Lethargy 224 A Christian Ephemeridâ—s or his Evening account ibid. The Active part of Perfection preferr'd before the Contemplative 225 No ARMORIE can more truly deblazon a Gentleman than acts of charity and compassion 226 The Active preferred before the Contemplative for two respects the first whereof hath relation to our selves the second to others 228.229 Ignorance is to be preferred before knowledge loosely perverted with a comparison by way of objection and resolution betwixt the conveniences of Action and Knowledge ibid. Action is the life of man and Example the direction of his life 229. lin 5 Wherein the Active part of Perfection consisteth 229 Active Perfection consisteth in Mortification of Action and Affection Mortification extends it selfe in a three-fold respect to these three distinct Subjects 1 Life 2 Name 3 Goods Illustrated with eminent Examples of Christian resolution during the ten Persecutions 230.231 Not the act of death but the cause of death makes the Martyr 232 No action how glorious soever can bee crowned unlesse it bee on a pure intention grounded ibid. Mortification in respect of name or report is two-fold 1 In turning our eares from such as prayse us 2 In hearing with patience such as revile us 234 Scandals distinguished and which with more patience than others may bee tolerated 237.238 c. Mortification in our contempt of all worldly substance pitching upon two markeable considerations 1 By whom these blessings are conferr'd on us 2 How they are to bee disposed by us 238 Vaine-glory shuts man from the gate of glory 239 An exquisite connection of the precedent Meditations 240 The absolute or supreme end whereto this Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it solely resteth 242 Singular Patternes of Mortification in their Contempt of life and embrace of death 243.244 The reason of his frequent repetition of sundry notable occurrences throughout this whole Book Wherein sundry passages throughout this last Edition have suffer'd in the obscurity of their expressions by the omissions of their marginall authorities digits or directions 245 The Heart can no more by circumference of the World be confined than a Triangle by a Circle filled 247. lin 16 Though our feet be on earth our faith must be in heaven 249 A pithy Exhortation a powerfull instruction clozing with a perswasive Conclusion 253.254 A Character intituled A Gentleman THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN DRAWNE OVT TO the full Body EXPRESSING What Habilliments doe best attire her What Ornaments doe best adorne her What Complements doe best accomplish her The third Edition revised corrected and enlarged By RICHARD BRATHVVAIT Esq. Modestia non Forma LONDON Printed by I. Dawson 1641. TO HER WHOSE TRVE LOVE TO VERTVE HATH HIGHLY ENNOBLED HERSELFE Renowned her sexe Honoured her house The Right Honourable ANNE Countesse of PEMBROKE the only Daughter to a memorable Father GEORGE Lord CLIFFORD Earle of CVMBERLAND The accomplishment of her divinest wishes MADAM SOme moneths are past since I made bold to recommend to my Right Honourable LORD your Husband an ENGLISH GENTLEMAN whom hee was pleased forth of his noble disposition to receive into his Protection Into whose most Honourable service he was no sooner entertained upon due observance of his integrity approved then upon approvement of his more piercive judgement hee became generally received Out of these respects my most Honourable Lady I became so encouraged as I have presumed to preferre unto your service an ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN one of the same Countrey and Family a deserving sister of so generous a brother Or if you will a pleasing Spouse to so gracious a Lover Whom if your Honour shall be but pleased to entertaine and your noble Candor is such as shee can expect nothing lesse especially seeing her exquisite feature takes life from his hand whose family claimes affinity with your fathers house you shall find excellently graced with sundry singular qualities beautified with many choice endowments and so richly adorned with divers exquisite ornaments as her attendance shall be no derogation to your Honour nor no touch to your unblemish'd Selfe to reteine her in your favour The living memory of your thrice noble and heroick Father may justly exact this addressement of mine to his Daughter of whom my Father sometimes held such neare dependance being ever cheered by his countenance and highly obliged to his goodnesse This Memoriall made mee confident of a Patronesse and so much the rather being to preferre a Maid so complete and richly qualified as shee could not chuse but deserve highly from the hand of so noble a Mistresse Sure I am the sweetnesse of her temper sorts and sutes well with the quality or disposition of your Honour For shee loves without any painted pretences to be really vertuous without any popular applause to be affably gracious without any glorious glosse to bee sincerely zealous Her Education hath so enabled her as shee can converse with you of all places deliver her judgement conceivingly of most persons and discourse most delightfully of all fashions Shee hath beene so well Schooled in the Discipline of this Age as shee onely desires to reteine in memory that forme which is least affected but most comely to consort with such as may improve her Knowledge and Practise of goodnesse by their company to entertaine those for reall and individuate friends who make actions of piety expressivest characters of their amity Diligent you shall ever find her in her imployments serious in her advice temperate in her Discourse discreet in her answers Shee bestowes farre more time in eying the glasse of
asperseth a great blemish on her better part who tyes her selfe to that formality as shee dare not put off the least trifle that shee weares nor put on ought more then shee weares lest she should lose the opinion of Compleat There is a native modesty even in attire as well as gesture which better becomes and would more fully accomplish her if fashion were not such a pearle in her eye as it keepes her from the sight of her owne vanity I confesse light heads will be easily taken with such toyes yea I have sometimes observed a phantasticke dressing strike an amorous inconsiderate Gooseling sooner into a passionate Ah mee with a carelesse love-sicke wreathing of his enfolded armes then some other more attractive object could ever doe But what is the purchase of one of these Greene-wits worth What benefit can a young Gentlewoman reap in enjoying him who scarcely ever enjoy'd himselfe Meanes he may have but so meanely are they seconded by inward abilities as his state seems fitter to mannage him then he to marshall it A long Lock he has got and the art to frizle it a Ring in a string and the tricke to handle it A whole Forrest of Synonimies has he by retaile purchased which like so many dis-jointed Similees impeach his novellisme of palpable Non-sense For his discourse to give him his true Character his silence approves him better for his wit hee may laugh at a conceit and his conceit ne're the wiser for his other parts disclaiming his substance I appeale to his picture Now Gentlewoman tell me doe you trim your selfe up for this Popinjay Would you have the foole to weare you after so many follies have out-worne you Let modesty suit you that a discreeter mate may chuse you Be it your prime honour to make civility your director This will incomparably more grace you then any phantasticke attire which though it beget admiration it clozeth alwayes with derision You cannot possibly detract more from the renowne of your Countrey where you received birth and education than by too hot a quest or pursuit after Outlandish fashions Play not the Dotterell in this too apish and servile Imitation let other Countries admire your Constancy and Civility while they reflect both on what you weare and what you are Bee it your glory to improve your Countries fame Many eyes are fixed on you and many hearts will bee taken with you if they behold those two Ornaments Modesty and Humility ever attending you Discretion will bee more taken and enamoured with these then toyes and feathers There is nothing so rough but may bee polished nor ought so outwardly faire but may be disfigured Whereas the beauty of these two cannot by adulterate Art be more graced by the aged furrowes of time become defaced or by any outward Occurrent impaired There are many beauteous and sumptuous Cases whose Instruments are out of tune These may please the eye but they neither lend nor leave a sweet accent in the Eare. May-buds of fading beauty Fruits which commonly fall before they be ripe and tender small sweetnesse to them that reape These Baths of voluptuous delights chaste feet disdaine to approach Vertue must either be suited with Consorts like her selfe or they must give her leave solely to enjoy her selfe Bee you Maids of honour to this maiden Princesse Consecrate your day to vertuous actions your night to usefull recollections Think how this World is your Stage your Life an Act. The Tiring-house where you bestow'd such care cost and curiosity must be shut up when your Night approacheth Prepare Oyle for your virgin Lamps marriage robes for your chaste soules that advancing the honour of your Countrey here on Earth in your translation from hence you may find a Countrey in heaven THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN Argument Behaviour reflects on three particulars How to behave her selfe in Company How in privacy That Behaviour most approved which is clearest from affectation freed BEHAVIOUR BEhaviour being an apt composure of the body in arguments of Discourse and Action expresseth every person in so faire a Character that if his brest were transparant hee could not bee displayed fuller Albeit some love to become so estranged or retired rather from the eye of the world as they have made it their highest art and absolutest ayme to shrowde themselves from the conceit or discussion of man by entring covenant or contract with Dissimulation to appeare least to the eye what they are most in heart Of this stampe was Tiberius who gloried in nothing so much neither indeede had hee many demeriting parts to glory in as in cunningly cloaking his foule purposes with faire pretences going invisible and deluding his Subjects anxious resolutions with a seeming good Sometimes imminency of danger begetting an apprehension of feare will produce this eflect whence it was that Agrippina in Tacitus knowing her life to bee attempted by Nero knew well that her onely remedy was to take no notice of the treason Neither is it rare to finde a staide looke and a staid thought in one and the same subject But for as much as this is held the seldomest erring Index ever expressing innocent thoughts the best and discovering disloyall thoughts the soonest wee are to proceed to such particulars as the Subject principally reflects on which are three Action Affection Passion whereon wee purpose so to insist as what deserves approvement in each of these particulars may bee by our Nobly disposed Gentlewomen cheerefully entertained carefully reteined and to the improvement of their Fame the choicest Odour chiefest honour of true Nobility employed VErtue is the life of action action the life of man without the former all actions are fruitlesse without the latter all our dayes are uselesse Now in this one Subject it is strange to observe what diversity of active dispositions wee shall finde Some are employed to the purpose but they are so remisse in their employment as they lose the benefit of it Others are imployed to no purpose making a passing of time a meere pastime comming as farre short of one usefull action at their death as they were incapable of it at their birth Others sleepe out their time in carelesse security saluting the morning with a sacrifice to their Glasse the Noone with a luscious repast the Afternoone with a Play or a Pallet repose the Evening with a wanton consort accoutred with a reere-banket to belull the abused soule with the sleepe of an incessant surfeit Others have crept into such an Apish formality as they cannot for a world discourse of ought without some mimmicke gesture or other which seeme it never so complete to them appeares ridiculous to the beholder This was Semphronia's error for which she was generally taxed before ever her honour was publikely tainted What a tinkling you shall observe some to make with their feet as if they were forthwith to dance a Morrice They are ever in motion like Puppets but in actions of goodnesse meere Punies
and gracious Courtiers on earth you may become triumphant and glorious Courtiers in heaven THis garbe as it suites not with all Persons so sorts it not to all Places For a Mechanicke to affect Complement would as ill seeme him as for a rough-hewen Satyre to play the Orator It is an excellent point of discretion to fit ones selfe to the quality or condition of that place where he resides That Vrbanity which becomes a Citizen would rellish of too much curiosity in a Countrey-man That Complement which gives proper grace to a Courtier would beget derision or contempt being personated by a Merchant or his Factor In affaires of State is required a gracefull or Complete posture which many times procures more reverence in the person interessed then if that state were omitted Whereas in ordinary affaires of trafficke it were indiscretion to represent any such state or to use any expression either by way of discourse or action that were not familiar That person who prefers Complement before profit and will rather speake not to be understood then lose one polite-stollen phrase which hee hath purchased by eare onely and understands not may account himselfe one among his bank-rupt brethren before hee breake It is pittifull to heare what a remnant of fustian for want of better Complement a Complete-Countrey-Gossip for so shee holds her selfe will utter in one houre amongst her Pew-fellowes How shee will play the Schoole-Mistresse in precepts of Discipline and morall Behaviour Nothing so gracefull in another which shee will not freely reprove nothing so hatefull in her selfe which shee will not confidently approve Teach shee will before shee be taught and correct Formâ— it selfe to bring Forme out of love with it selfe To which malady none is more naturally subject then some Ladies cashiered Gentlewoman or one who hath plaid Schoole-Mistresse in the City and for want of competent pay removes her Campe into the Countrey where she brings enough of vanity into every family throughout the Parish Shee will not sticke to instruct her young Pupils in strange points of formality enjoyning them not to aske their Parents blessing without a Complement These as they were never Mistresses of families so they are generally ignorant in employments of that kind Those three principall workes or faculties of the Vnderstanding which might enable them to Discourse Distinguish and to Chuse are so estranged from them as their Discourse consists solely in arguments of vanity their Distinction in meere shadowes of formality their Choyce in subjects and Consorts of effeminacy Eight things saith Hippocrates make ones flesh moist and fat the first to be merry and live at hearts ease the second to sleepe much the third to lye in a soft bed the fourth to fare well the fifth to be well apparelled and appointed the sixth to ride alwayes on horse-backe the seventh to have our will and the eighth to bee employed in Playes and pastimes and in such time-beguiling recreations as yeeld contentment and pleasure These are the onely receits in request with those Shee-Censors wee now discourse of and of whom it may be said as was sometimes spoken of one Margites that he never plowed nor digged nor did any thing all his life long that might tend unto goodnesse and by necessary consequence wholly unprofitable to the world Who howsoever they are lesse then women at their worke yet at their meat so unconfined is their appetite they are more then men and in their habits so phantasticke is their conceit neither women nor men So as were Diogenes to encounter one of these hee might well expostulate the cause with her as hee did upon like occasion with a youth too curiously and effeminately drest If thou goest to men all this is but in vaine if unto women it is wicked But these wee hold altogether unworthy of your more generous society whose excellent breeding hath sufficiently accommodated you for City Court and Countrey and so fully inform'd you how to demeane your selves in all affaires as I make little doubt but you know wherein it may bee admitted as mainely consequent and wherein omitted as meerely impertinent I meane therefore to descend briefly to the last branch of this Observation declaring what Ornament gives Complement best beauty or accomplishment IT is true what the sonne of Sirach sometimes said When a man hath done his best hee must beginne againe and when hee thinketh to come to an end hee must goe againe to his labour There is nothing so exact which may not admit of something to make it more perfect Wee are to goe by stayres and steps to the height of any story Vertues are the Staires Perfection the Spire But I must tell you Gentlewomen the way for you to ascend is first to descend Complete you cannot be unlesse you know how replete you are of misery Humility is the staire that conducts you to this spire of glory Your beauty may proclaime you faire your discourse expresse a pregnancy of conceit your behaviour confirme you outwardly complete Yet there is something more then all this required to make you absolutely accomplished All these outward becommings be they never so gracefull are but reflections in a glasse quite vanished so soone as the glasse is removed Critolaus balance was of precious temper and well deserving estimation with Heires of Honour who poised the goods of body and fortune in one skale and goods of the mind in the other where the goods of the mind so farre weighed downe the other as the Heaven doth the Earth and Seas To lead a dance gracefully to marry your voice to your instrument musically to expresse your selves in prose and verse morally are commendable qualities and enforcing motives of affection Yet I must tell you for the first though it appeare by your feet to be but a meere dimension in the opinion of the Learned it is the Divels procession Where the Dance is the Circle whose centre is the Divell Which may be restrained by a more easie or moderate glosse to such wanton and immodest Revels as have anciently beene used in the Celebration of their prophane feasts by Pagans and are to this day by Pagan-christians who to gaine applause from the Spectator care not what shamelesse parts they play in the presence of their Maker But what are these worth being compared with these inward Ornaments or beauties of your mind which onely distinguish you from other creatures and make you soveraignesses over the rest of Gods creatures You have that within you which will best accomplish you Let not that bee corrupted by which your crooked wayes may be best corrected Hold it no such necessary point of Complement to shew a kind of majesty in a Dance and to preferre it before the Complement of a Religious taske Those sensuall Curtezans who are so delighted in songs pipes and earthly melody shall in hell rore terribly and howle miserably crying as it is in the Apocalips Woe Woe Woe Woe shall
every one cry severally for the reward they have received in hell eternally saying and sighing Woe is mee that ever I was borne for farre better had it beene for her that shee had never beene borne And againe Cursed bee the wombe that bare mee a sinner After this shall shee cry out in her second Woe against her selfe and all the members of her owne body Woe bee unto you my accursed feet what evill have you brought upon mee miserable wretch who by your perverse paths and wicked wayes have shut heavens gate of mee Woe unto you my hands why have you deprived mee by your sinfull touch and sensuall embrace of the Crowne of glory by your meanes am I brought to hell fire where I shall bee tormented eternally Woe unto thee thou cursed tongue what mischiefe hast thou brought upon mee by uttering words so scurrilous and filthy and singing uncivill songs so frequently O ye cursed Eyes who by your unlawfull objects of concupiscence have deprived mee of Gods presence and never shed one teare for your sinnes in token of repentance Now begins your intolerable weeping yee teare-swolne eyes never dryed before all the Divels and the damned Woe unto thee my heart what hast thou put upon mee who by thy lustfull thoughts and unlawfull joyes hast deprived me of eternall joyes The third Woe that shee shall cry out is this saying Woe unto the bitternesse of my torments for they are comfortlesse woe unto the multitude of them for they are numberlesse woe unto the eternity of them for they are endlesse Would our wanton Curtezans who sport it in their beds of Ivory surfeit it in their delicacy wanton it in the bosome of security and dedicate their whole time to sensuality reflect upon such a soveraigne salve or spirituall balme as this they would draw backe their feet from the wayes of wantonnesse and exercise them wholly in the paths of righteousnesse They would remove their hands from unchaste embraces and inure them to the search of Scriptures They would stop their mouthes from uttering ought uncivilly and teach their tongues to bee Orators of modesty They would turne their eyes from vanity and fixe them on the purest objects of eternity That so instead of bitternesse of torments they might taste the sweetnesse of divine comforts instead of multitude of torments they might partake the numberlesse number of Gods mercies and instead of the eternity of those torments immortality with Gods Saints and Servants Prevention is the life of policy the way to avoid those and enjoy these is to live in your Court here on earth where you are spheared as in the presence of God and his heavenly Angels where your hope is seated Though your feet bee here your faith should bee there here your Campe there your Court Meane time while you sojourne here you are to hold a good Christian the completest Courtier and that vertue is the ornament which gives Complement the best accomplishment Silken honour is like painted meate it may feed the eye but affords no nourishment That Courtiers Coate gives a vading glosse whose heart is not inwardly lin'd with grace Let goodnesse guide you in the way and happinesse will crowne you in the end Let your Complete armour be righteousnesse your Complement lowlinesse complete in nothing so much as holinesse that in your convoy from Earth you may bee endenized in heaven naturall Citizens angelicall Courtiers THE ENGLISH GENTLE-VVOMAN Argument Decency recommended as requisite in foure distinct Subjects Decency the attractivest motive of affection the smoothest path that leads to perfection DECENCY DEcency takes Discretion ever along with her to choose her fashion Shee accommodates her selfe to the place wherein shee lives the persons with whom shee consorts the ranke or quality shee partakes Shee is too discreet to affect ought that may not seeme her too constant to change her habit for the invention of any phantasticke wearer What propriety shee expresseth in her whole posture or carriage you shall easily perceive if you will but with a piercing eye a serious survey reflect upon her demeanour in her Gate Looke Speech Habit. Of which distinctly wee purpose to intreat in our Entry to this Observation that by these you may probably collect the excellency of her condition THat wherein wee should expresse our selves the humblest many times transports us most and proclaimes us proudest It is no hard thing to gather the Disposition of our heart by the dimension of our gate What a circular gesture wee shall observe some use in their pace as if they were troubled with the vertigo Others make a tinkling with their feet and make discovery of their light thoughts by their wanton gate Others with a jetting and strutting pace publish their hauty and selfe-conceited minde Thus doe our Wantons as if they had transparent bodies display their folly and subject themselves to the censure of levity This cannot Decency endure When shee sees Women whose modesty should bee the Ornament of their beauty demeane themselves more like Actors than civill Professants shee compassionately suffers with them and with choyce precepts of morall instruction wherein shee hath ever shewne her selfe a singular proficient shee labours to reclaime them With amorous but vertuous Rhetoricke shee wooes them hoping by that meanes to winne them Shee bids them looke backe to preceding times yea those on which that glorious light which shines in those Christian dayes never reflected and there they shall finde Women highly censured for that their outward carriage onely made them suspected A vaile covered their face modesty measured out their pace their Spectators were as so many Censors Circumspect therefore were they of their carriage lest they should become a scandall or blemish to their sexe Their repaire to their Temples was decent without any loose or light gesture Entring their Temples constant and setled was their behaviour Quicke was their pace in dispatch of houshold affaires but slow in their Epicureall visits or sensuall gossipings They had not the art of imitating such huffing mounting gates as our light-spirited Dames now use They were not as then learn'd to pace so far estrang'd were they from the very least conceit of vanity in this kinde How much more should these purer times where verity is taught and embraced vanity so much tax'd and reproved affect that most which adornes and beautifies most Is it not palpable folly to walke so hautily in these streets of our captivity Eye your feet those bases of frailty how they who so proudly strut on earth are but earth and approach daily nearer their earth The Swan when she prides her selfe in her whitenesse reflects on her blacke feet which brings downe her plumes and allayes her selfe-conceit with more humblenesse What anticke Pageants shall wee behold in this survey of Earth With what Apish gestures they walke which taxeth them of lightnesse How like Colosso's others walke which discovers their haughtinesse How punctually these as if they were
Puppets drawn by an enforced motion How phantastically those as if their walke were a theatrall action These unstaid dimensions argue unsetled dispositions All is not well with them For if one of the Spartan Ephori was to lose his place because hee observ'd no Decency in his pace how may wee bee opinion'd of such Women whose yeeres exact of them stayednesse whose places reteine in them more peculiar reverence and whose descents injoyne them to a state-reservance when they to gaine observance admit of any new but undecent posture Deserve these approvement No discretion cannot prize them nor judgement praise them Vulgar opinion whose applause never receives life from desert may admire what is new but discretion that onely which is neat It is one thing to walke honestly as on the day another thing to walke uncivilly as on the night Decency becomes the one Deformity the other Neither onely are modest women to bee cautelous how they walke but where they walke Some places there bee whereto if they repaire walke they never so Civilly they cannot walke honestly Those who value reputation will not bee seene there for Honour is too deare a purchase to bee set at sale Such as frequent these places have exposed themselves to shame and made an irrevocable Contract with sinne They make choyce of the Twy-light lest their paths should be discovered and shrowd their distained actions with the sable Curtaine of night lest they should bee displayed These howsoever their feet walke softly their hearts poste on swiftly to seize on the voluptuous prey of folly Farre bee these wayes from your walkes vertuous Ladies whose modesty makes you honoured of your Sexe Though your feet bee here below let your faith bee above Let no path of pleasure draw you from those joyes which last for ever Though the world bee your walke while you sojourne here heaven should bee your ayme that you may repose eternally there Live devoutly walke demurely professe constantly that devotion may instruct you your wayes direct you your profession conduct you to your heavenly Countrey It is a probable argument that such an one hates her Countrey where onely shee is to become Citizen who thinkes it to bee well with her here where shee is a Pilgrim Walke in this maze of your Pilgrimage that after death you may enjoy a lasting heritage So shall you praise God in the gate and after your Christian race finished receive a Crowne IT is most true that a wanton Eye is the truest evidence of a wandring and distracted minde The Arabians proverbe is elegant Shut the windowes that the house may give light It is death that enters in by the windowes The House may bee secured if these bee closed Whence it was that princely Prophet praid so earnestly Lord turne away mine eyes from vanity And hence appeares mans misery That those Eyes which should bee the Cesternes of sorrow Limbeckes of contrition should become the lodges of lust and portals of our perdition That those which were given us for assistants and associates should become our assassinatâ— Our Eye is made the sense of sorrow because the sense of sinne yet more apt is shee to give way to sinne then to finde one teare to rinse her sinne An uncleane eye is the messenger of an uncleane heart confine the one and it will bee a means to rectifie the other Many dangerous objects will a wandring eye finde whereon to vent the disposition of her corrupt heart No place is exempted no subject freed The ambitious eye makes honour her object wherewith shee afflicts her selfe both in aspiring to what shee cannot enjoy as likewise in seeing another enjoy that whereto her selfe did aspire The Covetous makes wealth her object which shee obtaines with toile enjoyes with feare forgoes with griefe for being got they load her lov'd they soile her lost they gall her The Envious makes her Neighbours flourishing field or fruitfull harvest her object shee cannot but looke on it looking pine and repine at it and repining justly consume her spirit with envying it The Lascivious makes beauty her object and with a leering looke while shee throweth out her lure to catch others shee becomes catcht herselfe This object because it reflects most on your sexe let it bee thus disposed that the inward eye of your soules may bee on a superiour beauty fixed Doe ye admire the comelinesse of any creature remove your eye from that object and bestow it on the contemplation of your Creator Wormes and flyes that have layen dead all winter by reflexe of the Sunne beames are revived so these flesh-flyes who have beene long time buried in these sensuall Objects of earth no sooner reflect on the Sunne of righteousnesse than they become enlivened and enlightened Those filmes which darkened the eye of their mindes are removed those thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are dispersed and dispelled and a new light into a new heart infused I know well Gentlewomen that your resort to places of eminent resort cannot but minister to you variety of Objects Yea even where nothing but chaste thoughts staid lookes and zealous desires should harbour are now and then loose thoughts light lookes and licentious desires in especiall honour The meanes to prevent this malady which like a spreading ulcer disperseth it selfe in every society is neither willingly to take nor bee taken Dinah may bee a proper Embleme for the eye shee seldome strayes abroad but shee is in danger of ravishing Now to preserve purity of heart you must observe a vigilant discipline over every sense Where if the eye which is the light of the body bee not well disposed the rest of the senses cannot choose but bee much darkned Wee say that the want of one peculiar sense supplies that defect with an higher degree of perfection in the rest Sure I am there is no one sense that more distempers the harmony of the mind nor prospect of the Soule then this window of the body It opens ever to the Raven but seldome to the Dove Raving affections it easily conveyes to the heart but Dove-like innocence it rarely reteines in the brest As it is a member of the flesh so becomes it a servant of the flesh apprehending with greedinesse whatsoever may minister fuell to carnall concupiscence This you shall easily correct by fixing her on that pure and absolute object for which shee was made It is observed by profest Oculists an observation right worthy a Christians serious consideration that whereas all creatures have but foure Muscles to turn their eyes round about man hath a fift to pull his eyes up to heaven Doe not then depresse your eyes as if they were fixed on earth nor turne them round by gazing on the fruitlesse vanities of earth but on heaven your haven after earth In the Philosophers scale the soule of a flye is of more excellence then the Sunne in a Christian scale the soule of man is infinitely more precious then all creatures under the Sun
hee does but justice and in sparing you hee shews his patience Would you then bee Courtiers grac'd in the highest Court Throw away whatsoever is Superficiall and entertaine what will make you Divinely reall It is not seeming goodnesse that will bring you to the fountaine of all goodnesse The Figge-tree brought forth leaves yet because it yeelded no fruit it was cursed Doe yee blossome So doth every Hypocrite Doe yee bring forth fruits So doth a Christian What is it to purchase Estimation on earth and lose it in heaven This will sleepe in dust but that never Your highest taske should bee how to promote Gods honour and to esteeme all things else a slavish and servile labour Thus by seeming what you are and really expressing what you seeme you shall purchase that esteeme with God and good men which is reall by shunning ostentation which would set such a vading glosse on all your actions as they will seeme meerely Superficiall A Discreet Commander will take no lesse care in manning and mannaging the Fort hee hath wonne than in winning it It is a constant maxime There is no lesse difficulty in keeping than getting Some are more able to get a victory than skilfull to use it Others have more art to use it than courage to atchieve it few or none so accomplish'd as propitiously to winne it and prudently to weare it Wee are now to suppose that you vertuous Ladies to whom wee addresse this Labour are victoriously seated in the Fort of honour where beauty cannot bee planted but it must bee attempted But so constantly gracious are your resolves that though it bee assaulted it can never bee soiled attempted but never attainted This you desire and to this you hope to aspire In the Port or entrance of every Castle City or Cittadell there useth some Percullas to bee in readinesse to frustrate the Enemies assault and keepe him from entry The like must you prepare if you desire to have your honour secured your daring enemie repelled and a glorious conquest purchased And what must this Spirituall Engine bee but a religious Constancy to resist temptation and all the better to subdue it to shunne the occasion I doe not admit of any Parlies over your wals they give new breath to the beleaguer and oft-times makes a prey of the beleagured If the assault bee hot devotion best fortifies the hold One Christian aspiration breathes comfort to the besieged and promiseth reliefe when shee is most straightned Of all arrowes these which are darted by the spirit of zeale wound the enemy most and procure the Archer best rest And that in all assaults whatsoever plotted or practised by so malicious a Tempter Lactantius sheweth that in his dayes among many other examples of the weaknesse of Idolatry in the presence of Christianity a silly Servingman that was a Christian following his Master into a certaine Temple of Idols the gods cried out That nothing could be well done as long as that Christian was in presence The like recordeth Eusebius of Dioclesian the Emperour who going to Apollo for an Oracle received answer That the just men wâ—re the cause that hee could say nothing Which Apollo's Priest interpreted to bee meant ironically of Christians and thereupon Dioclesian began his most cruell and fierce persecution in Eusebius dayes Sozomines also writeth that Iulian th'Apostata endevouring with many sacrifices and conjurations to draw an answer from Apollo Daphnaus in a famous place called Daphne in the Suburbs of Antioch understood at last by the Oracle that the bones of S. Babylas the Martyr that lay neere to the place were the impediment why that god could not speake And thereupon Iulian presently caused the same body to bee removed And finally hereof it proceeded that in all sacrifices conjurations and other mysteries of the Gentiles there was brought in that phrase recorded by scoffing Lucian Exeant Christiani Let Christians depart for that while they were present nothing could be well accomplished Hence collect the force of a Christians presence it extinguisheth the flame of a Pagan sacrifice Zealous thoughts servent desires devout affections will suffer no diabolicall assault to surprize you Christian constancy will so arme you pious motions so inflame you thoughts of heaven so transport you contempt of the world so weane you as no object of delight can draw you from contemplating him that made you It will not be amisse if now and then you reflect on the constancy and resolution of ancient Heathens who so highly prized their honour as it was their highest scorne to give way to an injurious Vsurper Camnia wife to Synattus survives to this day as a Mirror of feminine constancy whom one Synoris a man of greater authority then he loved and making no small meanes to obtaine her love yet all in vaine hee supposed the readiest way for the effecting his desires to be the murdering of her husband which hee performed This act of horror was no sooner executed and by the robe of his authority shrouded then hee renewed his suit to which shee seemingly assented but being solemnly come into the Temple of Diana for celebrating those Nuptiall rites shee had a Potion ready which shee dranke to Synoris wherewith they were both poysoned to revenge her husbands death Chiomara wife of Orgiagon a petty king of that Province upon discomfiture of the Gallo-Graecians being ravished by a Roman Captaine gave a memorable example of Conjugall vertue for shee cut off the fellowes head from his shoulders and escaping from her guard brought it to her Lord and husband More then feminine was the resolution of Epicharia a Libertine of Rome who made privie to a conspiracy against Nero to free her native mother of such a Monster would not disclose the plotters thereof though tormented with exquisitest tortures Neere resemblance had Leëna's name with her Leonine nature who being Conspirator against the Tyrant Hyppeas and nothing agast at the death of her friends though torne with extremest torments would not reveale her partners but bit in sunder her owne tongue and spit it in the Tyrants face Or to instance you in subjects lesse Tragicall but for constancy every way equall Armeniae a noble Lady being bidden to King Cyrus wedding went thither with her husband At night when they were returned home her husband asked her how she liked the Bridegroome whether shee thought him to be a faire and beautifull Prince or no Truth sayes shee I know not for all the while I was forth I cast mine eyes upon no other but they selfe An excellent Commandresse was this Lady of her affections and no lesse imitable was shee whom wee are to instance next for her modest and bashfull covering of her husbands infirmities One of Hero's enemies reproaching him with a stinking breath went home and questioned his wife why shee told him not thereof who answered Shee thought all men had the same savour Without question there is nothing that addes more
Family is a Spectacle of more spreading infamy than any subject of inferiour quality I cannot approve of this Apish kinde of formality which many of our better sort use it detracts from their descent to make affectation their Tutresse They were free-borne nothing then that is servile can become them It is nothing to reteine the favour or feature of your Ancestors and to estrange you from that which truly dignifi'd your Ancestors Vertues have more living colours and are seconded with more lasting honours than any outward beauties You deceive your selves if you thinke that honour received her first life from descent no It was demerit that made descent capable of honour A Pedigree argues your Gentility but had not some deserving action beene you had never attained to any noble Pedigree For Gentility is not to bee measured by antiquity of time but precedency in worth If brackish or troubled water seldome come from a pure Spring wilde and unsavory fruit from a good tree whence is it that noble Predecessors whose pure blood was never corrupted with any odious staine should bring forth such degenerating scions Surely this generally proceeds from the too much liberty that is granted to our youth whose inclinations though otherwise good and equally disposed are usually by Custome which becomes a Second nature miserably depraved Society they affect and this infects them repaire to publike places they admit and this corrupts them Those eminent examples which their Noble Progenitors left them become buried with them They comply with the time Vertue they say can hardly subsist where Vice is in highest request What though Plato advise them to make choyce of the best way of living which may bee easily effected by assiduate use and daily custome they have learned to invert his rule by affecting that custome most which tends to the practice of vertue least Besides there is another reason which may bee probably alleaged why generous descents become so much corrupted and vertuous Parents by vitious Children so frequently seconded Our Nobler women though in other respects truly imitable and for their vertuous Conversation admirable come short in one peculiar duty which even Nature exacts of them and which being duely perfom'd would doubtlesly no lesse enable and ennoble them who are descended from them than any particular were it never so powerfull that could informe them These which are mothers by generation are seldome their Nursing-mothers by education No marvell then if they degenerate when they partake of the natures of other women Though their owne mothers blood streame through their veines a strangers milke must feed them which makes them participate of their nature as they are fed with their substance Wheresoever the Nurses milke is received the Nurses manners are likewise reteined Whence it was that Chrysippus expresly commanded that the very best and wisest Nurses should bee made choyce of that what good blood had infused might not by ill milke be infected It was the joynt advice both of Plutarch and Phavorine that a mother should bee her childrens Nurse because commonly with the milke of the Nurse they sucke the quality or condition of her life Yea according to an ancient Decree women were bound to nurse their owne children and not to have any other women unlesse necessity enforc'd them to nurse them Let this then bee rectifi'd yee whose Noble descents have made you eminent in the eye of the world and whom Gods blessing hath made fruitfull Mothers to bring forth a faire and hopefull increase unto the world nurse them with your owne milke this will expresse in you a motherly care to them and beget in them a greater measure of child-like love to you Your care the more it is parentall will exact of them a love more faithfull and filiall Nurse them I say with the milke of your owne brests to feed them with the milke of your owne lives to informe them So shall their actions prove them to bee your Successours when they shall not onely derive their blood from you but on this Theatre of humane frailty shall publish themselves to bee true representers of you For in vaine is your blood to them derived if your memory by their vertues be not revived Give them then that which may make them yours Goodnesse may bee blamed but her succeeding memory can never bee blanched Thus shall you not onely shew your selves worthy of that house from whence you came but after your period on earth bee receiv'd into a more glorious house in time to come IT is not the Nobility of descent but of vertues that makes any one a gracefull and acceptable Servitour in the Court of heaven Houses are distinguished by Coats and Crests but these are dignifi'd by something else In Heraldry those are ever held to be the best Coats that are deblazoned with least charge Consequently then must vertue needs bee the best Coat Shee requires the least charge in her attire shee is not sumptuous in her fare delicious nor in her retinue the more is the pitty numerous Shee confines her desires upon earth within a strait Circumference a very small portion of that metall will content her Her desires are onely there seated where they may bee satisfied Shee sees none so great in the Court as may deserve her envy none so rich in the City as may beget in her an earthly desire none so repos'd in the Countrey as to induce her to change her state Shee is infinitely happy in that shee aymes at no other happinesse than where it is to bee found Ambition may display her Pie-colour'd flagge but shee will never get vertue to bee her follower Her desires are pitcht upon a farre more transcendent honour than these State-corrivals on earth can ere afford her or by their competition take from her Pleasure may cast out her Lure but vertue is so high a flyer as shee scornes to stoupe to ought unworthy of her it pleaseth her to contemplate that on earth which shee is to enjoy in heaven These feathers in the ayre are Objects undeserving her care Profit may seeke to undermine her but all her policy cannot worke on vertues constancy Content is her Crowne Contempt of the world her care what wordlings seeke shee shuns whence it is that her beauty in the darkest Night of adversity shines In a word shee is an absolute Commandresse of her selfe and easie is it to have that Command where no turbulent passions labour to contend Farre otherwise is it with those who be they never so generously descended popularly graced nor powerfully guarded yet being not adorned with this Crest distinguished by this Coat they can neither enjoy freedome within nor safety without Lewis the eleventh had a conceit which no doubt proceeded from his melancholicke and indisposed humour that every thing did stinke about him all the odoriferous perfumes or fragrant savours they could get would not ease him but still hee smelled a silthy stinke So fares it with them whose corrupt
of them their highest cure They have found such choice flowers as they afford more spirituall delight to the soule than any visible flowers or odours doe to the smell And what are these but divine and morall precepts soveraigne instructions which have taught them how to contemne earth conquer death and aspire unto eternity These by a continued custome or frequent converse with heavenly things cannot now conceive any object to bee worthy their beholding on earth Fashions may bee worne about them but little observed by them The WEDDING GARMENT is their desired raiment This they make ready for the Nuptiall day the meditation whereof so transports them as nothing below heaven can possesse them It is not beauty which they prize for they daily and duely consider the Prophets words All faces shall gather blacknesse Againe they remember the threats which God denounceth upon beautifull but sinfull Niniveh I will discover thy skirts upon thy face This makes them seriously to consider the dangerous quality of sinne and to apply Ninivehs salve to their sore that wine of Angels the teares of repentance Which howsoever it is as one wittily observes Every mans medicine an universall Antidote that makes many a Mithridates venture on poison yet works it not this banefull effect with these for their affections are so sweetly tempered their hearts so truly tendred as they make not Repentance security to delinquents They well remember that Aphorisme of spirituall Physicke As hee that sinnes in hope of remission feeds distemperature to seeke a Physician so hee that repents with a purpose of sinning shall finde an eternall place to repent in These who thus belull themselves in the downe-beds of security labour of an irreparable Lethargy They make bold to sinne as if they were sure to repent But the medicine was made for the wound not the wound for the medicine We must not suffer our selves voluntarily to bee wounded in hope we have to bee cured but prevent the meanes that wee may atteine a more glorious end The choicest receipt the chiefest antidote then is to prevent the meanes or occasion of sinne which if at any time wee commit to infuse the balme of repentance into it which seasonably applyed may minister a soveraigne salve to our sore so wee intend our care to so consequent a cure Come then Gentlewomen beginne now at last to reflect on your owne worth Vnderstand that Gentility is not knowne by what you weare but what you are Consider in what member soever your Creator is most offended in that shall every sinner bee most tormented Remember how the time shall come and then shall your time bee no time when the Moath shall bee your underlining and the Worme your covering Trimmâ— your selves then with an inward beauty that a glorious Bridegroome may receive you Fashion your selves to his image whom you represent That Fashion onely will extend the date of time and crowne you with immortality after time These who have their judgements in their eyes may admire you for your Cloaths but those who have their eyes in their heads will onely prize you by your inward worth Were it not a poore Ensigne of Gentility to hang up a phantasticke fashion to memorize your vanity after death So live that you may ever live in the memory of the good It will not redound much to your honour to have observed the fashions of the time but to have redeemed your time to have dedicated your selves to the practice of vertue all your time to have beene Mirrors of modesty to your succeeding sexe to have dis-valued the fruitlesse flourish of fading vanity for the promising hopes of a blessed eternity O Eternity eternity let this ever emphatically sound in your memory Supply then that in you which bleered judgements expect without you You challenge precedency in place expresse your selves worthy of that place Vertue will make you farre more honoured than any garish habit can make you admired The one is a Spectacle of derision the other of true and generous approbation This you shall doe if you season your desires with discretion if you temper your excursive thoughts and bring them home with a serious meditation of your approaching dissolution It is said of the Palme tree that when it growes dry and fruitlesse they use to apply ashes to the root of it and it forthwith recovers that the peacefull Palmes of your vertuous mindes may flourish ever that their branches may ever blossome and never wither apply unto their roots the ashes of mortification renue them with some sweet and soveraigne meditation That when you shall returne to your mother Earth those that succeed you may collect how you lived while you were on Earth by making these living actions of your Gentility happy Precursors to your state of glory FOuntaines are best distinguished by their waters Trees by their fruits and Generous bloods by their actions There are inbred seeds of goodnesse saith the Philosopher in every good man and these will finde time to expresse themselves It was Davids testimony of himselfe From my youth up have I loved thy Law An excellent prerogative given him and with no lesse diligence improved by him Now these Native seeds as they are different so are the fruits which come of them variously disposed Some have a rellish of true and generous bounty wherein they shew that noble freedome to their owne in their liberality towards others as their very actions declare unto the world their command and soveraignty over the things of this world Others discover their noble disposition by their notable pitty and compassion These will estrange themselves from no mans misery If they cannot succour him they will suffer with him Their bosomes are ever open with pittifull Zenocrates to receive a distressed one Over a vanquish'd foe they scorne to insult or upon a dejected one to triumph They have teares to partake with the afflicted and reall expressions of joy to share with the relieved Others shew apparant arguments of their singular moderation abstemious are these in their dishes temperate in their Companies moderate in their desires These wonder at the rioters of this time how they consume their daies in sensuality and uncleannesse Their account is farre more straight their expence more strait but their liberty of mind of an higher straine Cloathes they weare but with that decency as curiosity cannot taxe them meats they partake but with that temperance as delicacy cannot tempt them Others from their Cradle become brave sparkes of valour their very Childhood promiseth undoubted tokens of succeeding honour These cannot endure braves nor affronts Generous resolution hath stampt such deepe impressions in their heroicke mindes as fame is their ayme which they hunt after with such constancy of spirit as danger can neither amate them nor difficulty avert them from their resolves Others are endued with a naturall pregnancy of wit to whom no occasion is sooner offered than some dainty expression must second
shee should bee engaged to it Her thoughts are not admitted to entertaine vanity They must not conceit it lest they should bee deceived by it Occasions wisely shee foresees timely prevents and consequently enjoyes true freedome of minde You shall not see her consume the precious oyle of her Lampe the light of her life in unseasonable reere-bankets unprofitable visits or wanton treaties Those will shee not admit of for companions who are prodigall of their Honour These shee reproves with a milde spirit labouring to reclaime them with an ingenuous tender of her vertuous compassion towards them None shee more distastes than these Brokers or Breakers of licentious bargaines Shee excludes them the List of all civill society How cautelous shee is lest suspition should tax her Outwardly therefore shee expresseth what shee inwardly professeth That honourable bloud which shee from her Predecessors received till death surprize her will shee leave untainted Neither is there ought shee hates more than pride nor scornes more than disdaine Shee rightly considers how her daies are mensurable being but a span long which implies her brevity and miserable being altogether vanity Shee disclaymes that state which consists in scornefull lookes A sweet and affable Countenance shee ever beares The honour shee enjoyes makes her humbler and the prayses which are given her work in her thoughts no distemper So farre is shee from affecting the pompe of this world as it growes contemptible to her higher-mounting thoughts A faire and well-seeming retinue shee ever keepes about her but none of these must bee Sycophants with their oylie tongues to delude her neither must any who cloaths his Countenance with scorne attend her Shee observes on what steepe and dangerous grounds ambition walketh Her sleepes are sweter her content higher her thoughts heavenlier It is one of her greatest wonders that any one should bee so rest of understanding as to forget what infirme ground hee stands on The purest Creature bee shee never so absolute in her feature is of no richer temper than Earth our Common-mother Shee is wiser than to preferre a poore handfull of red Earth before her choycest treasure Though her deserts merit honour shee dis-esteemes her owne deservings being highly valued by all but her selfe Thus shee prepares her selfe daily for what shee must goe to Her last day is her every dayes memoriall Lower may her body bee when interred but lower cannot her mind bee than at this instant So well hath shee attained the Knowledge of her selfe as shee acknowledgeth all to bee fraile but none frailer than her selfe Here Gentlewomen have yee heard in what especiall Objects you are to bee Honourable Presidents You shine brighter in your Orbe than lesser Starres The beames of your reflecting vertues must admit of no Eclipse A thousand eyes will gaze on you should they observe this in you Choyce and select are the societies you frequent where you see variety of fashions imitate not the newest but neatest Let not an action proceed from you which is not exemplary good These that are followers of your persons will bee followers likewise of your lives You may weane them from vice winne them to vertue and make them your constant followers in the serious practise of piety Let your vertues cloath them within as their veiles doe without They deserve not their wage who desist from imitating you in actions of worth Your private family is a familiar Nursery Plants of all sorts are there bestowed Cheere cherish those that be tender but curbe and correct those that bee of wilder temper Free and fruitfull Scions cannot bee improved till the luxurious branches bee pruned But above all things take especiall care that those vices spread not in you which are censured by you You are Soveraignesses in your families neither extend your hand too much to rigour neither contract it by shewing too much remisnesse or favour Let neither vertue passe unrewarded nor vice if it grow domineering passe unreproved Foule enormities must admit of no Privileges No should you by a due examination of your selves finde any bosome-sinne secretly lurking any subtill familiar privately incroaching any distempred affection dangerously mutining bee your owne Censors Bee not too indulgent in the favouring of your selves Proficients you cannot bee in the Schoole of vertue unlesse you timely prevent the overspreading growth of vice Let not your Sunne the light of your soule bee darkned let not your Spring the fount of your vertues bee troubled Let not your Fame the perfume of your Honour bee impaired As you are generous by descent bee gracious by desert Presidents are more powerfull than Precepts These onely lead those draw Bee examples of goodnesse that you may be heires of happinesse The style you enjoy the state you reteine the statues which after you may remaine are but glorious trophies of fading frailty Vertues are more permanent Monuments than all these these are those sweet flowers that shall adorne you living impall you dying and crowne you with comfort at your departing Lastly as you were honourable Personages on Earth where you were Presidents of goodnesse so shall you bee glorious Citizens in heaven where you are to bee Participants of all happinesse WHere Vertueâ—s â—s sowne in a noble Seed-plot manured and fructisied by good Discipline strengthened by Example and adorned with those more gracefull parts which accomplish the subject wherin vertue is seated what bickrings of fortune will it sustaine What conflicts in the necessities of nature will it cheerefully encounter Her spirit is raised above any inferiour pitch Yea the habit of goodnesse hath wrought such divine impressions in her soule who is thus disposed as society may improve her but cannot corrupt her because a zealous affection to vertue doth possesse her You shall ever observe these whom Nobility of blood hath advanced to reteine some seeds or semblances of their progenitors which are so impressive in them as no occurrent bee it never so violent can estrange these from them Here you shall see a native affability or singular art of winning affection to one naturally derived There in another such a rough and unseasonable austerity as her very count'nance is the resemblance of a Malevola Some from their infancy have reteined such a sweet and pleasing candor as they could cover anger with a cheerefull smile and attemper passion with a gracefull blush Besides they had the gift to expostulate with their discontents and by applying seasonable receits to their wounds free themselves from falling into any desperate extreames Others would rather dye then suffer the expressions of their Passions to dye For affronts as their spirits could not beare them so did their actions discover them and make them objects of derision to such as observ'd them And whence proceeds all this Surely from the very first relish of our humours when that unwrought Table of youth becomes furnished with choice characters and the Subject begins to affect what is engraven in them by continuance of time
may attaine a more glorious end That onely deserves your love which shall make you for ever live Vertue if you love her and live with her by becomming your survivor will crowne your happy memory with succeeding honour IT is usually observ'd that Hawkes of one Ayrie are not of one nature Some are more metall'd others more lazy As in Birds so in all other Creatures Livia and Iulia Angustus his daughters were sisters but of different natures Some there are who even from their infancy have such excellent seeds of native goodnesse sowne in them as their dispositions cannot rellish ought that is irregular In arguments of discourse they are moderate in Company temperate in their resolves constant in their desires continent in their whole course or carriage absolute Others naturally so perverse that like our humorous Ladies they can affect nought that others love nor rellish ought that others like The byas of their fancy runnes still on the fashion their tongue a voluble Engine of feminine passion their resolves full of uncertainty and alteration The whole Enterlude of their life a continued Act of femallfollies It were hard to winne these to the love of vertue or those to delight in vice This might easily bee illustrated by divers memorable instances personated in such who from their very Cradle became seriously devoted to a religious privacy supplying their want of bookes wherein they were meerely ignorant with a devout and constant meditation of Gods works wherein they employed their whole study Industrious were their hands in labouring and bounteous were they in bestowing A native compassion lodged in their hearts which they expressed in their charitable workes Hospitality to the stranger and needy beggar was their highest honour Suffer they would the height of all extremes ere they would suffer the desolate to want reliefe So strongly were their affections fortifi'd against the assaults of an imperious Lover as death was to them a cheerfull object to preserve their high-priz'd honour Such singular effects as these have beene usually produced by an innate noble disposition so as some of these whom wee have here cursorily shadowed were endowed with such virile spirits as they stickt not to spit in the face of tyranny others were not abash'd to disfigure their owne beauty lest it should become an adulterers booty In these had vertue taken such deepe impression as nothing could deepely touch them but what trenched on their reputation Though by nature they were timorous and inconstant resolution had so prepar'd them as they became discreetly valiant looking death in the face without feare and embracing her stroke as a favour Doe you admire this in them Imitate them and you shall bee no lesse by succeeding times honoured than these in ours admired Conceive your life to bee an intricate Labyrinth of affliction the very anvill whereon the heavy hammer of misery incessantly beateth Reflect on your birth and you shall perceive how you give the world a good morrow with griefe Looke at your death how you bid the world good night with a groane Ioy then cannot bee long lasting when you are daily taking leave of the place where you live which now though living you are leaving Besides no continued hope of comfort can bee expected where feare presents her selfe an inseparable attendant Feare has command o're subject and o're King Feare has no Phere seare's an imperious thing To allay which feare addresse your selves to that most which may give you occasion of fearing least And what may that receipt be A minde purely refin'd from the corruption of this infectious time Meditate therefore of that never fading beauty that is within you Labour to preserve it from the injury of all incroaching Assailants If your flesh with any painted flourish of light Rhetoricke wooe her timely prevent her before shee winne her If the world with her Lure of honour command or the like seeke to draw her reclaime her lest vanity surprize her If her profest Enemy labour to undermine her make knowne his long-profest enmity unto her that a vigilant circumspection may arme her Admit your dispositions become sometimes averse from the practice of that which you should most affect divert the Current of them You love liberty confine it to moderate restraint You affect honour curbe it with a serious meditation of your owne frailty You desire to gather sowe your bread upon the water Charity will bring you quickly to a better temper You admire gorgeous attire remember the occasion how you first became cloathed had not sinne beene these poore habiliments had never needed Doth delicate fare delight you Consider how it is the greatest misery to pamper that delicately or cherish it with delicacy that is your mortall and profest enemy Doe wanton consorts worke on your fancy Cure betime this dangerous phrenzy Avert your eye lest it infect your heart Converse with reason and avoid nothing more than occasion Doe you finde your affections troubled or to passion stirred Retire a little from your selves attemper that boyling heat which workes so violently on you and in the end resolve thus It will redound more to our honour to bridle anger than to engage our discretions by giving reynes to our distemper Can you not see your Neighbours field flourish without an Envious Eye Of all others expulse this soonest because of all others it partakes of the Divell the nearest As you are commanded to love him as your selves so with not that evill unto him which you would not have to fall upon your selves Lastly doe you finde a remisnesse in you to any employment that is good Shake off this naturall dulnesse and inflame your affections with a Divine ferventnesse You have hitherto beene slow in doing good shew that in doing ill Meane time with the wings of holy and heavenly desires mount from earth to heaven plant your affections above though your pilgrim dimensions bee here below Which the better to facilitate reteine ever in your memory this devout Memoriall or Meditation Think whence you came and bee ashamed where you are and bee aggrieved where you goe to and bee affrighted Every way wherein you walke as it is full of snares so should it bee full of eyes Those two roots of inordinate feare and inordinate love have brought many to the brinke of misery by plunging their mindes in the puddles of vanity Looke about you snares you shall finde within you snares without you Snares on your right hand and those deceitfull Prosperity in affaires temporall In which such persons are usually taken and surprized by whom the benefits of God are abused As the Rich when hee bestowes his wealth in attiring himselfe sumptuously the Mighty in oppressing the needy the Amorous or Lovely in giving others occasion to bee taken with their beauty Whence the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet Thou hast made thy beauty abhominable Snares likewise on your Left hand and those fearefull Adversity in affaires in temporall
judicious Censor of Antiquities S. Augustine saith That anciently the Romans worshipped Vertue and Honour for gods Whence it was that they built two Temples which were so seated as none could enter the Temple of Honour unlesse hee had first passed through the Temple of Vertue to signifie that none was to bee honoured unlesse by some Vertue he had first deserved it The Morall admits no other exposition than its owne expression For Honour none should bee so daring bold as to wooe her till by passing thorow Vertues Temple hee get admittance unto her If you desire to bee great let it bee your height of ambition to aspire to honour in the Court of Vertue Where the lowest cannot bee lesse than a Lady of Honour because the lowest of her actions correspond with Honour Such a service were no servitude but a solace Admit that sometimes you affected forraine fashions now let forraine Nations admire your vertues Perchance the delicacy of your nature or misery of a long prescribed custome will not so easily at the first bee wholly weaned from what it hath for so many yeares affected Vse than an easie restraint at the first withdraw your affections from vanity by degrees reserve some select houres for private Devotion check your fancies when they dote on ought that may distract you The first Encounter will bee hardest Time will bring you to that absolute soveraignty over your passions as you shall finde a singular calmenesse in your affections For the Windes of your passions shall no sooner cease then that vast boundlesse Sea of your distemper'd affections shall become calme What a brave Salique State shall you then enjoy within your owne Common-wealth Vigilancy becomes Warden of your Cinque Ports not an invasive forrainer dare approach while shee with watchfull eyes waits at the Port. All your followers are vertues favorites Piety guides you in your wayes Charity in your workes Your Progenitors deserved due praise but you surpasse them all Thus shall you revive the ashes of your families and conferre on them surviving memories But it is the evening crownes the day sufficient it is not to diffuse some few reflecting beamelings of your vertues at your first rising and darken them with a cloud of vices at your setting As your daies are more in number so must they bee every day better What availes it the Mariner to have taken his Compasse wisely to have shunned rockes and places of danger warily and at last to runne on some shelfe when hee should now arrive at the Bay where hee would bee Rockes are ever nearest the shore and most tentations nearest your end If you resolve then to come off fairely prepare your selves for some encounter daily observe your exercise of devotion duely resist assaults constantly that you may gain a glorious victory This is all the Combat that is of you desired wherein many of your Sexe have nobly deserved Stoutly have they combated and sweetly have they conquered Emulate their vertues imitate their lives and enjoy their loves So may you with that Patterne of patience dye in your owne Nests and multiply your dayes as the Sand So may your vertues which shone so brightly in these Courts of Earth appeare most glorious in those Courts of Heaven So may these scattered flowers of your fading beauty bee supplied with fresh flowers of an incorruptible beauty yea the King himselfe shall take pleasure in your beauty who will come like a glorious Prince out of his Palace of royall honour to grace you like a Specious Spouse out of his Nuptiall Chamber to embrace you Meane time feare not death but smile on him in his entry for hee is a guide to the good to conduct them to glory Conclude your resolves with that blessed Saint in hope no lesse confident than in heart penitent Wee have not lived so in the world that wee are ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe wee are not afraid to dye because wee have a good Lord. Short is your race neare is your rest Onely let the lesse of earth bee your gaine the love of God your goale and Angelicall perfection to which your constant practice of piety and all Christian duties have so long aspired your Crowne The feare of the Lord is a pleasant Garden of blessing there is nothing so beautifull as it is Eccles. 40.27 Trin-uni Deo omnis gloria A Gentlewoman IS her owne Tyrewsman one that weares her owne face and whose complexion is her owne Her Iournals lie not for th' Exchange needlesse visits nor Reere-bankets Showes and presentments shee viewes with a civill admiration wherein her harmlesse desire is rather to see than bee seene Shee hates nothing so much as entring parly with an immodest Suitor Retire from occasions drawes her to her Arbour where the sole object of her thoughts is her Maker Her eyes shee holds her profest foes if they send forth one loose looke teares must sue out their pardon or no hope of reconciliation Her resort to the Court is for occasion not fashion where her demeanour ever gives augmentation to her honour Her winning modesty becomes so powerfull a Petitioner as shee ever returnes a prevailing Suiter During her abode in the City shee neither weares the Street nor wearies her selfe with her Coach Her Chamber is her Tyring-roome where shee bethinks her how shee may play her part on the worlds Theatre that shee may gaine applause of her heavenly Spectators Her constant reside is in the Country where hospitality proclaimes her in-bred affection to workes of piety All which shee exerciseth with that privacy as they will witnesse for her shee feares nothing more than vaine-glory In her house shee performes the office of a Mistris no imperious Governesse Shee knowes when to put on a smooth brow and to cherish industry with moderate bounty Her discreet providence makes her family look with a cheerefull countenance Her posterity cannot chuse but prosper being nurs'd by so naturall a mother The open field she makes her Gallery her Labourers her living Pictures which though shee finds meere Pictures hanging on rather than labouring Passion transports her not above her selfe nor forceth her to the least expression unworthy of her selfe shee passeth by them with a modest reproofe which workes in them a deeper impression than any fiery or furious passion Her Neighbors shee daily wooes and winnes which shee effects with such innocent affability as none can justly tax her of flattery An Over-seer for the poore shee appoints her selfe wherein shee exceeds all those that are chosen by the Parish Shee takes a Survey daily and duly of them and without any charge to the Hamlet relieves them She desires not to have the esteeme of any She-clarke shee had rather bee approv'd by her living than learning And hath ever preferr'd a sound professant before a profound disputant A president of piety shee expresseth her selfe in her family which shee so instructs by her owne life as vertue becomes the object
in age of too much Pride ibid. The humour temper and danger of our Tame-Beasts or State-Parasites ibid. A reservancy of State in Pace face every Posture recommended by an insinuating Faune to a Phantasticke Gallant ibid. Sycophancy the ruine of many a Noble family ibid. An election of honest and discreet followers ibid. Gentlewomens lives as they are lives to themselves so should they bee lights unto others ibid. For Popular honour Vice will but varnish it it is Vertue that will richly enammell it Singular motives to Mortification pag. 390 That Vertue may receive the first impression by meanes of an in-bred noble disposition seconded by helpes of Education ibid. A pleasant Epigram alluding to all humerous Ladies Marg. pag. ibid. A Choice recollection and expression of such vertues as sort and suit with the condition of our noblest Ladies with Cautions to attemper them in all extreames by an usefull reflection upon all the Senses and those Commanding passions which domineere most over the Senses ibid. 391 A Singular Meditation for recollection of our affections pag. 391 392. Vice throwes her aspersions o◠no Subject so much as on Honour ibid A fruitfull application to all young Gentlewomen for regulating their dispositions and bow to make them true inheritrices of Honour ibid. Vertue reduced to habit aspires to perfection pag. 393 There is nothing under heaven that can satisfie a Soule created for heaven ibid. Exquisite directions for Virgins Wives and Widowes ibid. 394 We are to esteeme no life sweeter than when every day improves us and makes us better ibid. A divine Contemplation reflecting upon our mutabilitie on Earth our immortality in Heaven ibid. 395 A Review of our Ladies Court and Citty solace ibid. Recreations run a Maze while they lay their Scene of Mirth on Earth ibid. A Twofold consideration full of sweet and select consolation ibid. How happy many Eminent Personages had beene had they never beene taken with this Shadow of happinesse ibid. No passage to the Temple of * Honour but through the Temple of Vertue * HONOR virtutis praemium VIRTUS honoris pretium ibid. If Gentlewomen desire to be great let it be their height of ambition to aspire to honour in the Court of vertue ibid. What a brave Salique State shall Gentlewomen enjoy when vigilancy becomes Warden of their Cinque Ports pag. 395 Perseverance is the Crowne of goodnesse ibid. A constant resolution the Diadem of a Christian in her dissolution ibid. A Character entituled A Gentlewoman wherein such an One is described whose desert answeres her descent whose actions truely ennoble her selfe with a briefe touch or review of all his Observations Which are showne to bee Objects of her love improvements of her life An Appendix upon a former supposed impression of this Title wherein the Authors feares are suggested discussed and resolved and his compleat ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN to as compleat a GENTLEMAN espoused Where they rejoyce like two tender Turtles in their mutuall triumph of Love and Honour joyntly combined FINIS WHat may be wish'd in Widow Wife or Maid Is in our Frontispice to life portraid Who seekes for more may thus much understand Shee takes that feature from an Higher hand Vpon the Errata TO describe an ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN without an Error were a glozing palpable Error And to free her more than an ENGLISH GENTLEMAN of Error were to incurre a prejudicate Censure Of both which without farther apologie the Presse hath sav'd me a labour Yet reflect upon the weakenesse of her Sexe whose purest Selfe dignifies her Sexe and the Subject will injoyne thee to hold it thine highest honour to salve her Error with an ingenuous Candor So maist thou vindicate the Author and by beeing a vertuous Lover gaine a most deserving Mistresses favour PRELUM Crimen Authores patiuntur omnes PRAELIUM TYPUS Crimen Authores patiuntur omnes CIPPUS Errata In the ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN PAge 273. line 27. for Eber read Ebor. pag. 274. l. 12. f. mortality r. morality pag. 276. l. 19. f. Balcone r. Belcone pag. 347. l. ult f. and r. an pag. 349. l. 8. f. Anacrons r. Anacreons pag. 361. l. 29. f. Phavorius r. Phavorinus pag. 383. l. 41. f. strinks r. shrinks HAd Woman Mans choyce succour ne're beene Sinner Pure as Shee 's faire Shee 'd had no Error in her Now humble Soule her Error to descrye Shee still reteines the Apple in her eye A LADIES LOVE-LECTVRE COMPOSED AND FROM THE CHOICEST FLOWERS OF Divinitie and Humanitie Culled and Compiled As it hath beene by sundry Personages of eminent qualitie upon sight of some Copies dispersed modestly importuned To the memory of that Sexes honour for whose sweet sakes he originally addressed this Labour BY RI. BRATHVVAIT Esquire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by IOHN DAVVSON 1641. TO THAT ABSOLVTE OWNER AND HONOVR OF DISCREET FANCY Mris ELIZABETH WESTBY Mistris REceive here with a Booke the reall abstract of your selfe For in it when you have read it do but converse with your owne thoughts and you shall finde your selfe portrayed Phidias could never with all his art present a Master-peece of such beautie as vertue can doe in drawing her line bestowing on it a modest blush to enliven fancie These Idaea's are Englands Cynthia's You were sometimes pleased to peruse your selfe shadowed in my Elegiack Poem require this for a more lasting and living Embleme Now as to wish you what you already have I neede not so to wish you more then you already have I cannot unlesse some new choice might accomplish his happinesse that should attaine it Goodnesse is such a Dower as no Maid can bring with her a better Portion nor no Widow enfeffe herself in a fairer Iointure May you ever shine in these which make a woman most eminent while you leave me infinitely joying in enjoying the Title of Your affectionate Servant RI. BRATHVVAIT THE STATIONER TO THE READER AT the instancy of sundry persons of qualitie to my knowledge was this our Author induced to publish this Epitome Extracted from the choicest flowers of fancie But in such a compendious method and manner as it may abide the test of the severest Censor seeing all such light passages taking life from the too loose Pens of Ariosto Tasso Baccace Rheginus Alcaeus c. are here omitted lest the modest eares of those Beauties at whose request and to whose bequest this Epitome or Love-enlectured Lady was addressed might be offended by such affected levitie Entertaine it as thou shalt reape profit by it Farewell A LADIES LOVE-LECTVRE STORED With all varietie of ingenious Moralitie Extracted from the choicest flowers of Philosophie Poesie ancient and moderne History And now published At the instancy of sundry persons of qualitie Ovos conspicui lumina Phoebi The excellency of Women in their Creation SECTION I. HOwsoever that divine Plato whose very infancy presaged many faire expressions of his future maturity definitely professed that he had amongst many other blessings which
the Gods had bestowed on him greatest cause of all others to give them thankes for three things First was for that they had made him a reasonable Creature and no Beast Second was for civilizing him a Grecian and no Barbarian Thirdly in making him a Man and no Woman yet did hee sometimes ingenuously confesse the necessitie of them in winding up all his humane felicitie in these foure particulars So I may have said he eyes to reade my mind to conceive what I reade my memory to conserve what I have conceived and read and a woman to serve me at my neede should adversitie assaile me it should not foile me should an immerited disgrace lye heavy on me it should not amate me should my endeared friends forsake me by enjoying my selfe thus in mine owne family I should laugh at the braves of fortune account reproach my repute and partake in the free societie of so sweet and select a friend within me as no cloud without mee could perplex me Here was a brave Philosophicall resolution He could see nought on earth that could divert his thoughts from the contemplation of Heaven provided that he enjoyed that on earth which made his earth seeme a second Heaven Some are of opinion indeede that hee had perused the Mosaicall Law and that he bestowed much time in it during his reside with his deare friend Phocion in Cilicia No marvaile then if he found there the excellency of their Creation with their primary office or designation Being made helpes for man and so intimate to man as she tooke her mould from man as man his modell from mold Yea but she was made of a rib will some say and that implide a crooked condition No but rather thus A rib is bending which presupposed her pliable disposition And if that ancient Philosophicall Maxim hold good That the temperature of the soule followes the temperature of the body we must necessarily conclude that as their outward temperature and composure is more delicate so their inward affections must be more purely refined No violent passion so predominant which their mild temper cannot moderate provided that they be seasoned with grace which makes them proficients in all spirituall growth For a quicke unsanctified wit is a meere pery for the Divell whereas witts accompanied with humilitie make their privatest Soliloquies to converse with actions of glory These and onely these reteine in memory the object and end of their creation And as those affectionate Sabines call'd their wives their Penates their Houshold Gods through that incomparable comfort they conceived in them and benefits they derived from them So are these Domi-portae Damae-portae delitiae horti as that witty Epigrammatist was sometimes pleased to enstile them the choicest Sociates of humane Solace So as if the world were to be held a Wildernesse without societie it might justly despaire of that comfort without their company Whence it is that the wise man concludeth Without a woman would the house mourne When that Delphick Oracle had told that flourishing and victorious state that her many triumphes and trophies should not secure her nor her numerous ports so enrich her nor that confidence she reposed in her powerfull Allyes priviledge her For the very beautifull'st City she had her sole magnificent Metropolis whose present glory aspired to the Clouds should labour of her owne providence and interre her honour in the dust if they did not by sprinkling the purest dust that earth could afford upon their prophaned Altars expiate her guilt and appease their wrath A strong and serious consultation being forthwith taken they advised amongst themselves which might be the purest and most precious dust but so many men so many mindes For the Earth-worme who made Gold his God and that Dust his Deitie held none to be purer then the soile or dust of gold Others held that none was purer then the dust of that Copper whereof the Athenians had made the pictures of the two Tyrants Armodius and Aristogyton because their death gave life to the state their dust recovered their countries fame Others held Ebonie because the most continuate Monument of humane memory and monumentall Embleme of his mortalitie Others held Ivorie because an Emblematicall Mettall of puritie While one whose opinion was delivered last though his judgement appeared best freely imparted himselfe to them taxing them all of errour For saith he it is not the pouder dust or ashes of any materiall shrine that can be possibly any way propitious to the gods as the enormitie of our losses hath incensed them so must the ashes of some living sacrifice appease them My opinion then is positively this The ashes of some undefiled virgin must be sprinkled on their Altar if we meane to preserve our state and honour This experience hath confirmed long since so highly usefull as wee may reade what eminent states had perished how their glory had been to dust reduced nay their very names in oblivion closed and with dishonour cloathed had not the fury of the incensed gods beene pacified and by offertories of this nature attoned This might be instanced in those sacrifices of Iphigenia Hesyone Mariana with many others whose living memory raysed it selfe from dust in so free and voluntary offering themselves to the stake to deliver their endanger'd state confirming their country-love with the losse of their dearest life Search then no further yee Conscript Fathers how to appease their wrath Virgin ashes cannot but be the purest dust of Earth Whose sacred vowes as they are dedicated to Vesta who cannot admit her Temple to be prophaned by any impure touch So ha's shee conferred such an excellent priviledge on a virgin state as the fierce untamed Vnicorne when nothing can bring him to subjection nor attemper the madding fury of his disposition as if he had quite put off his nature and assumed another temper he will be content mildly to sleepe in the lap of a Virgin and in eying her allay his passion With joynt voyce and vote all the Ephori inclined to his opinion which so well appeased those divine furies as their state before by the Oracle so highly menaced became secured their Altars which were before prophaned purged and those pollutions whereof their City laboured clearely expiated These poeticall Fictions though they easily passe by the eare yet they convey by a morall application an Emphaticall impression to the heart For hence might be divinely concluded There is nothing comparably precious to a continent soule Nothing of so pure nor pretious esteeme as a virgin state And that a woman being the weaker vessell when shee either in her virgin-condition remaines constant or in her conjugall state loyall she so much more inlargeth her glory as her Sex or condition partakes more of frailtie But to divert from these eye her in the Excellency of her Creation you shall finde her in her qualitie an helper in her societie a comforter in the perplexities of her consort a counsellour and in all these