VVise men and Head to Tail is Disproportionable but it may be that this Disproportion may make them Unactive by which they become less Dangerous VVherefore I am not of the former Orators opinion as to have all such Books as treat of State-affairs Burnt for the Burning of such Books may advance their Authors Fame but not advance the Publick Good neither do such Books Publick Hurt by reason none but some few Private Persons read them for the Generality delights not in such Studies so as they will partly Dye in Oblivion especially if you take no notice of them An Oration against those that lay an Aspersion upon the Retirement of Noble men Noble Citizens VVE have some Ill-natured people amongst us that indeavour to turn all other mens Actions but their own to the worst Sense or Construction as for Example some of our Nobles retire to their Country Habitations for which those Ill-natured or Foolish persons Exclame against them both in Books and Speeches as that they Retire through Pride Ambition and Revenge being Discontented they are not the Chief Ministers of State Rulers in Government or Counsellers for Advices also they would make their harmless Country Recreations as Hunting Hawking Racing and the like Sports as also Hospitality Dangerous Designs which is unjustly Censured and wickedly Wrested to pull out the Right and Truth to place Falshood when as it may be easily known that most of our Nobles which Retire out of this Metropolitan City to their Country Houses Retire either for Pleasure Profit Quiet or Health or all for it is manifest that in a very Great and Populous City there is nothing but Trouble Expenses Noise and oftentimes Malignant Diseases all which some Ill-natured men and Pretending Politicians would have theem suffer rather than to avoid But those men that are so Wise to choose the Best are not Afraid of a Bawling Pen or Tongue and seldom Consider or Regard what they Write or Speak and if they do they only give such Find-faults Pity or a Scorn But put the Case Noble Citizens that some Noble men did Retire out of some just Discontent as for Example imagine this Kingdome or Monarchy had been in a long Civil Warr and some Noble men had not only been so Loyal as never to Adhere to the Rebels but had Serv'd their Prince to the last of their Power Ventured their Lives Lost their Estates and had Indured great misery in a long Banishment and after an Agreement of Peace and the Proof of their Honesty and Loyalty should be Neglected or Affronted instead of Reward and Favour if these Forsaken and Ruined although Honest Persons should Retire from Court and City into the Country to bewail their Misfortunes in solitary Groans or to pick up their scattered Goods broken Inheritance and tattered States or to restore their Half-dying Posterity to some time of Life should they be Rail'd and Exclamed against can Heaven Bless a State or Kingdom that will suffer such Uncharitableness and Inhumanity or can Nature suffer her most Noble-minded Creatures to stay in the presence of Publick Affronts Disgraces and Neglects and not humbly turn their Faces from them or Honestly indeavour not to Trouble those that have a desire to Please and if by their Wise Prudence those Retired Persons can afford themselves some Harmless Recreations to mix and temper their Over-carefull and Industrious Labours they ought not to be Condemned for it for God and Nature mixes Good and Evil and the greatest Grief hath some Refreshment of Ease and the hardest Labours some Rest but only these Find-faults are Restless through Envy and Ambition hoping by their Busie Heads Restless Pens and Abusive Exclamations to rise to Promotion and Preferment and though they pretend to Discover Seditions they are the only Authors of Factions and Seditions Wherefore it would be very fit Noble Citizens that our Ministers of State and Magistrates should Silence such bold Persons that dare Censure our Nobles private and particular Actions for if they should have that Liberty they would in time Censure this Government and our Governours of State and Common-wealth and who can fore-see but that the Common Rout or People might take their Factions or Ill-natured or Medling Dispositions for Wisdome An Oration for Liberty of Conscience Fellow Citizens IT is very probable we shall fall into a Civil Warr through the Divers Opinions in One and the same Religion for what hath been the cause of this Hash in Religion but the Suffering of Theological Disputations in Schools Colleges Churches and Chambers as also Books of Controversies all which ought not to have been Suffered but Prohibited by making Laws of Restraint but since that Freedome hath been given the Inconveniency cannot be Avoided unless the Magistrates will give or at least not oppose a Free Liberty to all for if the People of this Nation is so Foolish or Wilfull or Factious or Irreligious as not to Agree in One Opinion and to Unite in One Religion but will be of Divers Opinions if not of Divers Religions the Governours must Yield or they will Consume the Civil Government with the Fire of their Zeal indeed they will Consume themselves at last in their own Confusion Wherefore the best remedy to prevent their Own ruine with the ruine of the Common-wealth is to let them have Liberty of Conscience Conditionally that they do not meddle with Civil Government or Governours and for Security that they Shall not there must be a Law made and Inacted that whosoever doth Preach Dispute or Talk against the Government or Governours not only in This but of any Other Nation shall be Punished either with Death Banishment or Fine also for the quiet and Peace of this Kingdome there ought to be a strict Law that no Governour or Magistrate shall in any kind Infringe our Just Rights our Civil or Common Laws nor our Ancient Customs for if the One Law should be made and not the Other the People would be Slaves and the Governours their Tyrants An Oration against Liberty of Conscience Fellow Citizens I Am not of the former Orators opinion for if you give Liberty in the Church you must give Liberty in the State and so let every one do what they will which will be a Strange Government or rather I may say no Government for if there be no Rules their can be no Laws and if there be no Laws there can be no Justice and if no Justice no Safety and if no Safety no Propriety neither of Goods Wives Children nor Lives and if there be no Propriety there will be no Husbandry and the Lands will lye Unmanured also there will be neither Trade nor Traffick all which will cause Famine Warr and Ruine and such a Confusion as the Kingdome will be like a Chaos which the Gods keep us from An Oration proposing a Mean betwixt the two former Opinions Fellow Citizens I Am not of the two former Orators opinions neither for an Absolute Liberty nor a Forced
before Judges a Cause betwixt a Father and his Son Most Reverend Judges Plaintiff against the Father HEre is the Son which ought to be his Fathers Heir whom for Marryig against his Fathers Consent his Father hath Dis-inherited which is against all Law or Right both of God Nature and Man Defendant Most Reverend Judges Disobedient Children ought to have no Part nor Parcel of their Parents Estate as Lands Goods or whatsoever for it the Parents have no Duty nor Obedience from their Child their Child can challenge no Part of their Parents Estate and since he hath Married Disobediently he ought to Live Poorly or to get his Living by his Own Labour or Industry Plaintiff Most Reverend Judges There is no Reason nor Law that if one man Commit a Fault to an other that man should Commit an other to be quit with him and put the Case the Son were unnaturally Disobedient must the Father be unnaturally Cruel to be Revenged of him Defendant Most Reverend Judges Parents are the Fittest Judges of their Childrens Faults and Crimes committed against them But howsoever Parents cannot be thought Cruel or Unnatural to Punish the Crimes of their Children no more than God can be said to be Cruel or Unjust to Punish Sinners for God who Made Creatures may do what he Pleases with them for being his own Work he may Dispose or Order them as he Thinks best or as he Pleaseth So Parents that Begot their Children may do the like in things concerning themselves Plaintiff But God is Mercifull wherefore Parents ought to be Natural Defendant God is Just and therefore Children ought to be Dutifull Plaintiff But if God Should Punish his Creatures according to their Desert no man would be Saved Defendant And if Children should do what they List there would be no Government for Parents would be made Slaves and their Children Masters so if God should not Punish Some of his Creatures All would be Damned and to make up the Fulness of their Sins they would Despise his Love and not Fear his Power and so they would neither Love nor Fear God so Children would have neither Duty nor Obedience to their Parents But to prove it a Clear cause his Estate is free from all Intails and wholly in his own Power to Dispose of it as he Pleases and to Give it to whom he will and therefore his Son can Challenge nothing by Law or Right SPEECHES TO The KING in Council PART V. A Privy-Counsellours Speech to His Soveraign Dread Soveraign HEre are many of your Noble Subjects chosen out to be I can not say Privy-Counsellours by reason there be too many to keep Secrets of State which shews we are rather Counsellours for Form than for Business Counsellours in Name rather than Counsellours in Nature Wherefore we shall not need to trouble your Majesty or our Selves the one to Hear the other to Speak long Orations or tedious Speeches for should we Speak we should rather speak like Fools than Wise men by reason we are not acquainted with your Majesties Cabinet Designs or Intrigues and so being your Majesties General and not Particular Counsellours must needs speak at Randome Wherefore we beseech your Majesty not to Censure our Judgements but our Ignorances in not knowing your Majesties most Private as Cabinet Desires Designs and Intrigues A Petition and Plea at the Council-Table before the King and his Council concerning two Brothers Condemned by the Laws to Dye May it Please your Most Sacred Majesty I Am come here to your Majesties Council-Table to Plead the Cause of two Brothers whose Cause hath been Heard Judged Cast and Condemned by the Judges of the Laws of this Land and must suffer Death unless your Majesty acquit or Pardon them Indeed their cause is Hard for they were Forced either to Offend the Laws of Government or the Laws of Honour the Laws of Government threatned Bodily Death the Laws of Honour threatned Infamy and being Worthy Persons they chose rather to Venture Life than to Live Dishonourably But their Crime or it may rather be called their Justice which the Laws of the Land have Condemned them for is for Killing or rather Punishing their Sister for the Impurity Immodesty Dishonesty and Dishonour of Inchastity which was an Offence to the Gods a Reproach to her Life a Disgrace to her Race a Dishonour to her Kindred and an Infamy to her Family As for the Sin they past that by to be Judged of by the Gods her own Reproach they regarded not the Disgrace of her Race they indeavoured to obscure But as for the Dishonour to her Kindred and Infamy to her Family her Brothers were resolv'd to Wash off the Dishonour with her Blood and to Rub out the Black spot of Infamy with her Death which Resolution they put in Execution forcing a Surgeon to open an Artery Vein through which she Bled to Death Besides had they let her have Liv'd the Laws of the Land would have Punished her which would have been a Double Dishonour and a Recorded Infamy receiving as much Dishonour by her Public Punishment as her Private Crime Wherefore to prevent as well as to take off all Disgrace they were her Executioners by forcing the Surgeon to strike an Artery a very Easie Death for so Great an Offender but the Natural Affections from Brothers to a Sister did desire she might Dye with as Little Pain as might be Now Dead she is and they Condemned to Dye for her Death unless your Majesty will Pardon them and it will be a Gracious Act to pardon VVorthy Men such men as preferr'd Honour before Life A Speech of one of the Privy-Counsellours which is an Answer to the former Plea and Petition May it Please your Majesty TO give me leave as One of your Council to Answer this man As for Parents to Kill their Children for Children to Kill their Parents for Brethren to Kill each other and Sisters their Brothers or Brothers their Sisters or Neeces or Nephews their Uncles or Aunts or Uncles and Aunts to Kill their Nephews or Neeces or Cousin Germans is Unnatural or to be the Cause of their Death is Unnatural I may say a Great Sin in Nature VVherefore these two Brothers that were the Cause indeed the Actors in effect of their Sisters Death have Sinned against the Gods Nature and the Laws of good Government for which they Deserve Punishment both in this VVorld and in the VVorld after this Life And as for that which is called Honour it is but the Opinion of some men a meer Fancy not any Real Good only a Name to perswade men to do Evil Actions as to Fight Duells to make VVarrs to Murder Friends nay to Murder Themselves all which is against Gods Mens and Natures Laws which is Inhuman Uncharitable Unnatural and Impious The Petitioners Reply Most Dread Soveraign SInce your Majesty is pleased to hear the Sutes of Humble Petitioners and the Causes of Pleaders and the Defences of Condemned Persons as
your Condemned Subjects at your Council-bord their last Refuge in Extremity appealing to your Majesties Self where your Majesty sits in Person to Hear not only Counsels but Complaints I shall answer this Privy-Counsellour whose Judgement is more Severe than I hope your Majesty will be in your Sentence He says it is Inhuman Uncharitable Unnatural and Impious for neer Allies to Kill each other but neither your Majesty nor your most Loyal Subjects should nor would think nor believe so if your Majesty had a Civil Rebellious Warr which I Pray the Gods to keep you from yet in all Civil Warrs neer Allies Fight against one an other and Kill one another believing they do not only their King but God Good Service in so doing for what Pious Men or Loyal Subjects would not Kill their Fathers or their Sons that Fight against their King or do but Oppose his Will and Pleasure nay those that Speak against it ought to be accounted Traitors and as for Honour which is said only to be an Opinion and Fancy of some men yet it is such an Opinion and Fancy that without it men would neither be Generous nor Valiant Just nor Gratefull Faithfull nor Trusty but all men would be Sordid Covetous Cowards False Cheats Unthankfull and Treacherous besides Wit and Learning would be quite Abolished or Buried in Oblivion and if men care not for Esteem Respect and Praise men would not care to do that which is Good but on the contrary would do all the Hurt and Evil they could for Praise keeps men from Evil more than Laws or Punishment and Praise is more Powerfull to Perswade and to Allure men to good than Strength or Authority hath Power to Inforce men to good and Honour Lives in Praise and Praise Lives in Worthy Acts which Worthy Acts Fame Records that After-ages may know what Just Valiant Generous Wise Learned Witty Ingenious Industrious Pious Faithfull and Vertuous men Liv'd in Former times which Knowledge will make Posterity Desirous and Industrious to do as their Fore-fathers have done Thus do Good and Honourable Acts beget their like in After-ages which is a Race of Worthy Deeds Wherefore your Majesty for the Good of the Present and Future times will Favour these men that Love Honour more than Life and Fear Disgrace more than Death which is the Cause of the two Brothers for whom I Plead and Beg your Majesties Pardon The KINGS Answer I Neither ought to Approve the Act of those two Brothers concerning the Death of their Sister nor to Obstruct or Oppose my Laws in their Condemnment Yet since their Act was to Take away Disgrace and not out of Malice and through a Hate to the Crime not to the Person I am not willing to leave them to the Punishment and the Laws being Satisfied by their Arraignment Judgement and Condemnment I will give them their Lives Lands Goods and Liberties which the Laws took from them and so leave them to Gods Mercy for Grace to Repent their Sin A Privy-Counsellours Speech at the Council-bord to His Soveraign Most Gracious Soveraign THis your City wherein your Majesty doth chiefly Reside grows Too big for the rest of your Kingdome indeed So big as it will be too Unruly and Unwieldy to be Govern'd and being fully Populated it will not only be apt to Corrupt the Air and so cause Often and Great Plagues which may Infect the whole Kingdome for where Many People are there is much Dung and Filth both within the Streets and Houses as also Foul Bodies and Corrupt Humours which of Necessity must be very Unwholesome but it will Devour the rest of the Kingdome for it is the Mouth and Belly that Devours the Fruitfull Increase of the Land yet Labours not to Husband the Ground Besides the Richest and Noblest of your Subjects Residing for the most part in the City as being the Chief City Rob the Country and Inrich the City for what they Receive in the Country they Spend in the City so that they Feed on the Labours of the Poor Country-men and are Inriched by the Vanities of the Nobles Thus they Thrive by Vanity and Live by Spoils Wasting the Plenty Beggering the Gentry and Ruining the Country and so the Kingdome Also too Great and Populous a City is not only a Head too Great for the Body of the Common-wealth but like a Head that is full of Gross Humours indeed a Great City is a Head fill'd with Evil Designs and not only a Head with Evil Designs but it is the Tongue of Detraction the Heart of Civil Warr the Magazin of Warring Arms and the Treasury to maintain Rebellious Armies for though they are more apt to Mutin than to Fight and more apt to Rise in Tumults than in Arms yet more apt to Take up Arms than to Keep Peace and though they have neither Conduct nor Courage yet they will Destroy with Force and Fury whosoever will offer to Oppose them and their great Plenty will make them more apt to Rebell than if they were Pinched with Necessity for their Wealth makes them Proud their Pride makes them Ambitious their Ambition makes them Envious their Envy makes them Factious their Faction makes them Mutinous and in a Tumultuous Mutiny they will indeavour to pull your Majesty from your Throne break your Laws and make Havock and Spoil of all the Goods and Lives of your Loyalst Ministers of State and Noblest Persons about you and for the most part the most Honest and Worthiest Persons they can come to they will Destroy Thus a great City is too Rich to be Obedient too Proud to be Govern'd too Populous to be Quiet and too Factious to Live Peaceably A Privy-Counsellours Speech to his Soveraign concerning Trade Dread Soveraign I Think it my Duty to inform your Majesty that Trade is so Decayed as it will in a short time Ruine your Kingdome if not Timely Repaired for this Kingdome being an Island Trade is the Foundation to Uphold it without which Foundation it will fall to Ruine and the Chief Persons of and for Trading in an Island are Merchants Adventurers which are both Forein and Home Traffickers These Merchants your Majesty should Assist and Defend to the Utmost of your Power As for the Advancing of Trade there be Three things the First is Easie Taxes for Customs the Second is to Secure them from Enemies at Sea the Third is Not to Suffer your Neighbour-Nations to Incroach upon their Privileges or to Take the Trading from them As for the first to Lessen your Customs will Lessen your Revenue and that ought not to be by Reason your Revenue is not so Great as to admit of any Diminution your Charge being Extraordinary Great but your Majesty may Secure them at Sea by your Shipping and Maintain their Privileges abroad and at home by your Power which Actions will not only cause your Neighbours to Fear you but your Subjects to Love you the One for your Force the Other for your Favour And
and millions of other Sins besides but Death will stay no longer for Blessed Angels bear away my Soul Farewell A Fathers Speech to his Son on his Death-Bed Son I Have Lived a Long time so Long that were not you a Good Son you would have Wished my Death before Nature had Ordained me to Die but as Heaven hath blest me with Long Life so with a Good Loving and Dutifull Son which hath been a Help and Comfort to my Old Age and as Heaven hath given you Grace and Nature a Good Disposition to Love and Obey your Father so Heaven and Nature hath given you Health and Ability to beget Posterity in which I shall Live in Name and Fame though I Die in Body But Son as you have been a Helpfull and Dutifull Son so I have been a Loving and Carefull Father for I have been more Prudent for my Sons Good than Vain for my Own Pleasure I have been more Industrions to Advance and Inrich my Son than to Please or Delight my Self and I have thought my Self Happier in my Sons Life than I have done in my Own Thus Son I have and do Love You better than my Self and all the Desire and Request I have to you is that as I have been a Father to You so you to be a Father to Yours and so I Pray the Gods to Bless you Fortune to Favour you Wisdome to Help you Nature to Strengthen you Time to Prolong you and when your Time comes to Die that we may meet in the other World with Joy and Happiness The Gods have Mercy of Me and Bless You. Farewell FUNERAL ORATIONS PART VIII An Oration to the People concerning the Death of their Soveraign Dear Country-men and Loyal Mourners WE may see our Loss by our Love and our Love by our Grief and our Grief by our Tears but we have reason for our General Mourning and Sorrow in every Heart that our Dread Soveraign is Taken from us He was our Earthly God as our Protector Defender Assister Subsister Ruler and Governour he Protected us with his Justice Defended us with his Arms Assisted us with his Prudence Subsisted us with his Love Ruled us with his Power and Govern'd us by his Laws and such a Prince he was as he was Dreadfull to his Enemies Helpfull to his Friends and Carefull of his Subjects he hath Inlarged his Dominions with the Sword and Inriched his People with the Spoils and hath Increas'd his Power both by Sea and Land and so Strengthned and Fortified his Kingdomes as his Subjects have no cause to Fear any Forein Invasion but may safely sit with Pleasure under their own Vines And so Wise and Good a Prince he was that though he be Gone yet he hath left Peace and Plenty amongst his People and Power Dominion and Strength to his Successors with which Heaven grant they may Inherit his Wisdome Moral Vertues Divine Graces Heroick Spirit Good Fortunes and Great Fame that though our Old Soveraign is gone to the Gods above yet our New Soveraign may be as a God to us here for which let us pray to our Soveraign Saint to intercede for us to the Gods on High to indue their Deputy on Earth with Divine Influences and Humane Wisdome to Govern and Rule us as he did A young Noble man's Funeral Oration Beloved Brethren VVE are met together as Funeral Guests to a Dead man who died in the Flower of his Age and whilst he Lived was Favoured of Nature Birth Breeding and Fortune for he was Handsome of Body Understanding in Mind Noble of Birth Knowing in Learning and Rich in Wealth He was Generous Valiant and Courtly he had a Pleasant Speech and a Gracefull Behaviour He was Beloved of the Muses Admired by the Sciences and Attended by the Arts he was Entertained with the Pleasures of the World and Feasted with the Varieties of Pleasures yet all could not Save him from Death Indeed Death appears more Cruel to Youth than to Age because it takes Youth from the most Flourishing time of their Life although Youth Fears Death less than Age not that Youth hath more Courage but Youth doth not Think of Death so often as Age doth for if Youth had Death in their Mind they would Fear Death more than Age doth by so much more as they are Younger and know the World less but Youth thinks Death a Long time off from them although to many he is so Near as ready to Seize on them Wherefore if those that are Young did think they should Die Soon they would not be so Eager and Fond of the World as they are nor be so Vain and Intemperate as many Young Persons be the brave Gallants would take little Pleasure in New Modes Gay Cloaths and Fair Mistresses a Young Gallant would be but a Dull Courtier a Melancholy Lover not Melancholy for his Mistress disfavour but at Death's approach not for Love but for Life neither would he take Pleasure in Musick or Dancing for the thoughts of Death would make him Dance false and put his Hearing out of Tune and the Musick would Sound to his Ears as his Passing Bell neither would he Eye Beauty but if he did the Freshest Beauty would appear Faded In truth all his Senses would be as Rough and troubled VVaters disturbed by the Storms of Fear raised in his Mind for the most Valiant minds are somewhat Disturbed with the thoughts of Death by reason the Terrors of Death are Natural to all mankind not so much to Feel as to Think of not only for the Parting of Soul and Body and the dark Oblivion in Death but for the Uncertain condition after Death for though Death is not Sensible of Life yet Life is Sensible of Death so that it is the Thoughts of Death that are Fearfull and not Death it self that is so Terrible as being neither Painfull to Feel nor Dreadfull to Behold because Invisible and Insensible having neither Shape Sound Sent Tast nor Touch But this Noble Person is past Thinking and therefore past Fearing also past Wishing for he doth not Desire to live in this VVorld again he Thinks not of the World or of any thing in the World he is free from all Trouble of Mind or Body in which Happiness let us lay him in the Tomb with his Forefathers there to rest in Peace and Ease A Generals Funeral Oration Beloved Friends THis Noble Person that lies here Dead was once our General a Valiant man he was a Skilfull Souldier a Wise Commander and a Generous Giver he Loved his Souldiers more than Spoil and Fame more than Life he was full of Clemency and Mercy he would give his Enemies their Lives Freely when he had Overcome them Valiantly and he was so Carefull of his Own Souldiers Lives as he would never Adventure or put them to the Hazard but when he saw great Probability of Victory Yet this Gallant man this Excellent Souldier whom his Enemies could never Overcome Death hath Taken Prisoner with whom
Live without them which shews we are as Ungratefull as Inconstant But we have more Reason to Murmur against Nature than against Men who hath made Men more Ingenious VVitty and Wife than VVomen more Strong Industrious and Laborious than Women for Women are Witless and Strengthless and Unprofitable Creatures did they not Bear Children Wherefore let us Love men Praise men and Pray for men for without Men we should be the most Miserable Creatures that Nature Hath or Could make IV. NOble Ladies Gentlewomen and other Inferiour Women The former Oratoress sayes we are Witless and Strengthless if so it is that we Neglect the One and make no Use of the Other for Strength is Increased by Exercise and Wit is Lost for want of Conversation but to shew Men we are not so Weak and Foolish as the former Oratoress doth Express us to be let us Hawk Hunt Race and do the like Exercises as Men have and let us Converse in Camps Courts and Cities in Schools Colleges and Courts of Judicature in Taverns Brothels and Gaming Houses all which will make our Strength and Wit known both to Men and to our own Selves for we are as Ignorant of our Selves as Men are of us And how should we Know our Selves when as we never made a Trial of our Selves or how should Men know us when as they never Put us to the Proof Wherefore my Advice is we should Imitate Men so will our Bodies and Minds appear more Masculine and our Power will Increase by our Actions V. NOble Honourable and Vertuous Women The former Oration was to Perswade us to Change the Custom of our Sex which is a Strange and Unwise Perswasion since we cannot Change the Nature of our Sex for we cannot make our selves Men and to have Femal Bodies and yet to Act Masculine Parts will be very Preposterous and Unnatural In truth we shall make our Selves like as the Defects of Nature as to be Hermaphroditical as neither to be Perfect Women nor Perfect Men but Corrupt and Imperfect Creatures Wherefore let me Perswade you since we cannot Alter the Nature of our Persons not to Alter the Course of our Lives but to Rule our Lives and Behaviours as to be Acceptable and Pleasing to God and Men which is to be Modest Chast Temperate Humble Patient and Pious also to be Huswifely Cleanly and of few Words all which will Gain us Praise from Men and Blessing from Heaven and Love in this World and Glory in the Next VI. VVOrthy Women The former Oratoress's Oration indeavours to Perswade us that it would not only be a Reproach and Disgrace but Unnatural for Women in their Actions and Behaviour to Imitate Men we may as well say it will be a Reproach Disgrace and Unnatural to Imitate the Gods which Imitation we are Commanded both by the Gods and their Ministers and shall we Neglect the Imitation of Men which is more Easie and Natural than the Imitation of the Gods for how can Terrestrial Creatures Imitate Celestial Deities yet one Terrestrial may Imitate an other although in different sorts of Creatures Wherefore since all Terrestrial Imitations ought to Ascend to the Better and not to Descend to the Worse Women ought to Imitate Men as being a Degree in Nature more Perfect than they Themselves and all Masculine Women ought to be as much Praised as Effeminate Men to be Dispraifed for the one Advances to Perfection the other Sinks to Imperfection that so by our Industry we may come at last to Equal Men both in Perfection and Power VII NOble Ladies Honourable Gentlewomen and Worthy Femal Commoners The former Oratoress's Oration or Speech was to Perswade us Out of our Selves as to be That which Nature never Intended us to be to wit Masculine but why should we Desire to be Masculine since our Own Sex and Condition is far the Better for if Men have more Courage they have more Danger and if Men have more Strength they have more Labour than VVomen have if Men are more Eloquent in Speech VVomen are more Harmonious in Voice if Men be more Active Women are more Gracefull if Men have more Liberty Women have more Safety for wenever Fight Duels nor Battels nor do we go Long Travels or Dangerous Voyages we Labour not in Building nor Digging in Mines Quarries or Pits for Metall Stone or Coals neither do we Waste or Shorten our Lives with University or Scholastical Studies Questions and Disputes we Burn not our Faces with Smiths Forges or Chymist Furnaces and Hundreds of other Actions which Men are Imployed in for they would not only Fade the Fresh Beauty Spoil the Lovely Features and Decay the Youth of Women causing them to appear Old whilst they are Young but would Break their Small Limbs and Destroy their Tender Lives Wherefore Women have no Reason to Complain against Nature or the God of Nature for though the Gifts are not the Same they have given to Men yet those Gifts they have given to Women are much Better for we Women are much more Favour'd by Nature than Men in Giving us such Beauties Features Shapes Gracefull Derncanour and such Infinuating and Inticing Attractives as Men are Forc'd to Admire us Love us and be Desirous of us in so much as rather than not Have and Injoy us they will Deliver to our Disposals their Power Persons and Lives Inslaving Themselves to our Will and Pleasures also we are their Saints whom they Adore and Worship and what can we Desire more than to be Men's Tyrants Destinies and Goddesses ORATIONS IN Country Market-Towns where Country Gentlemen meet PART XII I. Noble Gentlemen WHo are Innobled by Time and not by Favour give me Leave since we are Sociably met here in this Town that I Remember you of our Happy Condition of Life we Live in as on our Own Lands amongst our Own Tenants like as Petty Kings in our Little Monarchies in Peace with moderate Plenty and Pleasure our Recreations are both Healthfull and Delightfull which are Hunting Hawking and Racing as being far Nobler Pastimes than Carding Dicing and Tennis-Playing for whereas Gamesters meet for Covetousness we meet for Love they leave most of their Gettings to the Box we bring most of our Gettings to our Tables and whereas we make our selves Merry with Our Games they make Quarrels with Theirs Thus we Live more Friendly than Gamesters and more Happily than Great Monarchs we neither Quarrel nor fear Usurpers II. Noble Gentlemen THe Gentleman that formerly Spoke said we were Petty Kings making our Tenants our Subjects but if they be as Subjects they are Rebellious Subjects not Paying us our Rents Duely nor Truly besides they are apt to Murmur at the Least Increase of our Farms although they Sell their Commodities they get out of our Lands at a Double Rate and as for our Pleasures as Hawking Hunting and Racing they may be Sociable but they are very Chargeable for Hawks Hounds and Horses with their Attendance will Devour a Great Estate