wisdome is much griefe and hee that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow For should man labour to engrosse all learning knowledge and wisdome his labour were but vaine and his search fruitlesse seeing he whose understanding was deepest conceit quickest and wisdome greatest of all them that were before him in Ierusalem hath thus concluded All this I have proved by wisdome I said I would be wise but it was farre from me Adding the reason hereof That which is farre off and exceeding deepe who can find it out For be our search never so curious our desire covetous in the pursuit of knowledge wee shall find by daily experience our own weaknesse where though our wils be strengthned our abilities are weakned being ever more hopefull in our undertakings then powerfull in our performance yea it is a property inherent to us and naturally ingraffed in us to have an itching desire of knowing all things but of doing nothing yet neither in knowledge nor Action may wee satisfie our desire or affection vaine and endlesse therefore is our search in the former as weake and fruitlesse is our pursuit of the latter There is no end of writing many bookes no end of reading many bookes no end of storing our Libraries with many bookes for under the cover of these much covetousnesse oft-times lurketh These are not of that inestimable price though they containe much spirituall comfort as may fully store or enrich the heart fully replenish or satisfie the heart fully settle or establish the heart for where the desires of the heart are not fulfilled how can shee hold her selfe sufficiently enriched Or where her desires are not accomplished how may shee rest satisfied or being not there seated where her desires are settled how can shee bee quieted Hence it is that a devout Father compares his Heart unto a Mil For as a Mil saith he swiftly wheeleth and turneth about and refuseth nothing but whatsoever is put upon it it grindeth but if nothing be put upon it it consumes it selfe so is my unstable heart alwayes in motion and never resteth but whether I sleep or wake it dreameth and thinketh of whatsoever it encountreth Can then neither Honour nor Wealth nor Pleasure satisfie his unconfined Heart can neither Honours surprize her wealth enjoy her nor pleasure intraunce her No these are vanity and lighter then vanity receiving their true colour from the Poet who bestoweth on them this portraiture Wealth is a wave Honour a bait of death Catching at which were catcht and choak't therewith For tell me is not the Ambitious man as fearefull to incurre disgrace after hee is received to his Princes favour as hee was jealous of a Competitor before hee got into favour againe is not the miserable rich man who reposeth all comfort in his substance all his consolation in his riches as fearefull to lose what hee already enjoyes as hee was doubtfull of prevention in what hee now enjoyes Or is not the voluptuous carnall man whose onely delight is daliance with his perfidious Dalilah stinged with as much griefe after his desires are satisfied as hee was stirred with delight before his pleasures were effected Or is not the Contemplative man whose aimes being higher should tender him content in fuller measure afflicted in mind when hee finds himselfe come short in knowledge of what hee expected and reads every day something which hee never before observed What content then in these flourishing May-buds of vanity which in repentance and affliction of spirit doe onely shew their constancy So as one well observeth If man should not be afflicted by God yet should hee be afflicted by himselfe consuming himselfe with his owne envie rancour and other distempered affections which have more fury and torment attending on them then the evill it selfe which procureth them Yet behold the wretched condition of unhappy man Though neither Honour bee permanent nor from perill freed nor Riches prevalent to make him after death the better friended nor pleasures so excellent as to free him from affliction when they are ended yet are they for most part preferred before those heavenly honours which are ever permanent and never altering before those incorruptible riches which inrich the soule after death without decreasing and before those ineffable pleasures where neither desires breeds longing nor satiety loathing So as I cannot more fitly compare the actions of these sensuall affected men then with that childish act of the Emperour Honorius who taking especiall delight in a Hen called Roma upon a time understanding by report of such as told him that Roma was lost he exceedingly lamented whereupon some of his familiar friends and such as were neere-him noting his terrour It is not your Hen that is lost but your Citie Roma that is taken by Alaricus King of the Gothes Wherewith comming a little to himselfe hee seemed to beare with much more patience the surprize of the one then the losse of the other O childish simplicity you say well yet the like is in us Wee cannot endure that any one should steale from us our silver yet either honour riches or pleasure may have free leave to steale away our heart Wee would by no meanes be defrauded of our treasure yet it troubles us little to be depraved with errour Wee avoid the poysons of the body but not of the mind intending more the diet of the body then the discipline of the mind Since then in these externall desires this Actuall Perfection whereof wee have formerly treated may receive no true rest or repose for to those it only aspireth wherein it resteth wee must search higher for this place of peace this repose of rest this heavenly Harbour of divine comfort wee are to seeke it then while we are here upon earth yet not on earth would you know what this soveraigne or absolute end is wherein this Actuall Perfection solely resteth wherein the Heart onely glorieth and to the receiver long life with comfort in abundance amply promiseth Hearken to the words of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach It is a great glory to follow the Lord and to bee received of him is long life Nor skils it much how worldlings esteeme of us for perhaps they will judge it folly to see us become weaned from delights or pleasures of the world to see us embrace a rigorous or austere course of life to dis-esteem the pompe and port of this present world This I say they will account foolishnesse But blessed are they who deserve to be of that number which the world accounts for fooles God for wise men But miserable is the state of those forlorne worldlings whose cheefest aime is to circumvent or intrap their brethren making their highest aimes their owne ends and accounting bread eaten in secret to bee the savourest and stolne waters the sweetest for these never drinke of their own Cisterne or feed of the flesh of their owne fold but partake in the spoile of others yet
his peace doubtlesly killeth sinners that is when he will not tell the house of Iacob his sinnes nor Israel her transgressions but cries peace peace when there can be no true peace for what peace unto the wicked saith the Lord So as the word of the Lord which came unto the Prophet rouzed him up with this fearfull caveat If thou givest not the ungodly warning he shall perish but his bloud will I require at thy hand With whom the Apostle harmoniously joyneth Woe unto mee if I preach not the Gospell For in that cause wherein the faithfull and painfull Pastor is to please God he is to sleight the pleasure or displeasure of men Now Gentlemen yee whose Education hath engaged you farre in the expectance and opinion of others yee whose more generous breeding promiseth more than others yee whose nobler parts should distinguish you from others let not those innate seeds of Gentilitie first sowne in you as in a hopefull Seed-plot be nipped in their rising which that yee may the better prevent exercise your selves in noble discourses not wanton or petulant for these breed a dangerous corruption even in the life and conversation of man Quintilian would not have Nurses to be of an immodest or uncomely Speech adding this cause Lest saith hee such manners precepts and discourses as young children learns in their unriper yeeres remaine so deeply rooted as they shall scarce ever be relinquished Sure I am that the first impressions whether good or evill are most continuate and with least difficultie preserved How necessary then is it that an especiall care or respect be had herein that choice be made of such whose modest and blamelesse conversation may tender you their brests in your infancie and furnish you with grave and serious precepts in your minoritie that your Knowledge may be fruitfull your Discourses usefull and your actions in the eyes of the Almighty gratefull Of which Action we are now to speake being the third Branch which we observed in our definition of Education THat Education is the seasoner of our actions wee shall easily prove if we observe the rare and incredible effects derived from it which that wee may the better doe you are to know that every Action hath two handles the One whereof consists in contriving the other in performing In the former we are to observe deliberation whence the Orator before wee take any thing in hand wee are to use a diligent or serious preparation that we may effect what we intend and more prosperously succeed in that we take in hand In the Latter is diligence required for what is premeditation or preparation worth if it be not by diligence seconded When Annibal was a childe and at his fathers commandement he was brought into the place where he made sacrifice and laying his hand upon the Altar swore that so soone as he had any rule in the Common-wealth he would be a professed enemie to the Romans nor did hee infringe the vow which his infancie had professed but expressed when he came to be a man what he had protested to performe being a childe No Device unassayed no Stratagem uncontrived no Labour neglected no Taske unattempted which might conferre honour on Carthage or expresse his mortall and implacable hate to Rome In this one example we shall see the strength of Education for though Annibal had no cause personally given him to vow all hostilitie rather on Rome than any other place yet in respect he received his breeding from such as were professed foes to the Romans he seconds their hate resolving to live and die Romes enemy The like may be observed in the demeanour conversation of men in which respect also Education discovereth her absolute power For shall wee not see some whose faire outsides promise assured arguments of singular worth for want of breeding meere painted Trunks glorious features yet shallow Creatures and whence commeth this but through want of that which makes man accomplished seconding Nature with such exquisite ornaments as they enabled him for all managements publike or private Licurgus brought two dogges the one savage wild and cruell the other trayned to let the people see the difference betwixt men brought up well and badly and withall to let them understand the great good of keeping lawes Now what are these savage and wild dogges but resemblances of such whose untrained Youth never received the first impressions of a generous Education These as they were bred in the Mountaines so their conversation is mountainous their behaviour harsh and furious their condition distempered and odious Yet see the misery of custome what delight these will take in actions of incivility nothing relisheth with them save what they themselves affect nor can they affect ought worthy of approbation for Education which one cals an early custome hath so farre wrought with them as they approve of nought freely affect nought truly nor intend ought purposely save what the rudenesse of Education hath inured them to These mens aimes are so farre from attaining honour as they partake of nothing which may so much as have the least share in the purchase of Honour Their minds are depressed and as it were earth-turned for they aspire to nothing which may have being above them neither can they stoop any lower for nothing can be under them Nor can their actions be noble when their dispositions by a malevolent custome are grown so despicable Hence it is that the Philosopher saith The divine part in such mâ—n is drowned because not accommodated to what it was first ordained For how is it possible that their affections should mount above the verge of earth whose breeding and being hath beene ever in earth They saith Phavorinus who sucke sowes milke will love wallowing in the mire inferring that as our Education hath formed us so will we addresse our selves in the passage and current of our life For as Nature is too strong to bee forced so Education being a second Nature hath kept too long possession to be removed She it is that in some sort mouldeth our actions and affections framing us to her owne bent as if we received all our discipline from her by whom we were first nourished and since tutored But you may object if Education expresse such power as her first native impressions cannot be suppressed how did those men appeare educated whose first breeding was in mountaines and afterwards advanced to no lesse glory than a Diadem Such were Romulus and Remus that translator of the Median Empire to the Persians victorious Cyrus and hee who from the Plow-stiles was elected Emperour to wit Gordius Surely their Education came farre short of that which is expected in the majesty of a Prince yet what inimitable presidents of renown were these shewing much resolution in conquering and no lesse policie in retaining what they had conquered To begin with the first to wit Romulus truth
Husbands should love their Wives Even as Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it In the next ensuing Chapter hee declareth the duty of Children in these words Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Then hee descendeth to the duty of Parents And yee Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in instruction and information of the Lord. Then touching Servants Servants bee obedient unto them that are your masters according to the flesh with feare and trembling in singlenesse of your hearts as unto Christ. Concluding the last duty with masters And yee Masters doe the same thing unto them putting away threatning and know that even your Master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of person with him Thus have wee briefly and cursorily runne over those particular duties deputed to every one from the highest to the lowest in their peculiar places and offices where wee can finde no exemption from the Servant to the Master but that certaine particular duties are enjoyned either As every mans house is his Castle so is his family a private Common-wealth wherein if due governement bee not observed nothing but confusion is to bee expected For the better prevention whereof I have thought good to set downe sundry cautions as well for direction in affaires Temporall as Spirituall which observed it is not to be doubted but that God will give you all good successe to your endevours FIrst therefore in affaires Temporall I could wish you to observe this course so to provide for the releefe and supportance of your familie as you may not onely have sufficient for your selves but also bee helpfull unto others sufficient for your selves in providing food and apparell being all which Iaakob desired of God and helpfull unto others in giving food and rayment to the fatherlesse in providing releefe for the desolate and comfortlesse in harbouring the poore needy and succourlesse and briefly in ministring to the necessity of the Saints and all such as are of the family of Faith And because providence is the way by which releefe both to your selves and others may bee sufficiently ministred beware of Prodigality and excesse Lest you give your honour unto others and your yeeres to the cruell Lest the strangers should bee filled with your strength and your labours bee in the house of a stranger Goe rather to the Pismire who though shee have no guide governour nor ruler provideth in Summer her granary for Winter Neither is it sufficient to gather but frugally to dispose of that which is gathered This Providence admits of no Vitellius break-fasts nor Cleopatra's bankets The Prodigals dainty tooth brought him to feede on huskes Esau's to sell his birth-right for a messe of pottage Ionathans for a honey-combe to endanger his life The Israelites to murmure against Moses Babylons golden cup to fill her full of abominations I have observed and no lesse admired than observed how some have consumed their estates in satisfying their appetites and that only in the choice of meats drinks and was not this a great vanity that those whom meats though lesse delightfull yet more healthfull might have sustained and fewer diseases occasioned could not content themselves with that which might have better satisfied nature but to shew themselves Epicures rather than Christians will bestow the revennues of a Manour upon the superfluous charge of a supper For these are they who like the Erycthons bowels will disgorge as much upon the boundlesse expence of their own Family as might serve wel for releeving a whole Countrey These are they who like the Endive or Misselto suck up al the natiue verdure and vigor of such plants as they inwreath for by their excesse though their owne luscious palats taste no want the comonalty feeles it when they goe to the Markets and finde the rate of all provision inhaunced by such whose Prodigality scarce extends a provident eye to themselves much lesse to the behoofe of others It is said of Cambletes the gluttonous King of Lydia that hee dreamed hee devoured his wife while they lay sleeping together in the same bed finding her hand betweene his teeth when hee awaked hee slew himselfe fearing dishonour Howsoever the History bee authenticke sure I am the Morall taxeth such whose Epicureall mindes are only set upon prodigall expence without respect either of present fortunes or care to posterity whose want is oft-times procured by their riot To bee short as Parcimony is too late when it comes to the bottome so it may bee with discretion used when it is at the top for I approve of his opinion who would have a Gentleman neither to hoord up niggardly nor lash out all lavishly For as the former argueth a miserable and ignoble minde so the latter sheweth a minde improvident and indiscreet both which are to bee so avoided that a meane betwixt both may bee duely observed For as I would have a Gentleman even in arguments of outward bounty shew whence he was descended so would I have him keepe a hanke lest his too free disposition bee through necessity restrained So as in matters of expence I hold his resolve authenticke who said I will never spare where reputation bids me spend nor spend where honest frugality bids me spare It is a good rule and worthy observation for whosoever spares when with credit and reputation hee should spend is indiscreetly sparing and whosoever spends when with honest frugality he may spare is prodigally spending Now in governement of a Family as I would not have you too remisse so I would not have you too severe towards your Servants I meane and those who have received their severall charge from you this it was which moved the Apostle to exhort masters to put away threatning adding this reason For know that even your Master also is in heaven neither is there respect of person with him Therefore it was Saint Augustines prayer unto God that hee would root out of him all rashnesse frowardnesse roughnesse unquietnesse slownesse slothfulnesse sluggishnesse dulnesse of minde blindnesse of heart obstinacie of sense truculencie of manners disobedience to goodnesse repugnance of counsell want of bridling the tongue making a prey of the poore shewing violence to the impotent calumniating the innocent negligence of subjects severity towards servants harshnesse towards familiars hardnesse towards neighbours Hence note how in this holy Fathers repetition and enumeration of many grievous and odious sins hee toucheth severity towards servants as a hainous and egregious offence and not without great cause for if we bee taught not to muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and that we are to spare the life of our beasts much more ought wee to have mercy over such as partake with us in the same Image which wee have equally from him received by whom wee live move and have our being I approve therefore of them who put on the spirit of
seconded those perfidious Complices Alectus for conspiring against his deare Soveraigne Carausius and that Arch-traytor Edrike for his treacherous practices with Canutus the Dane and breach of allegeance towards King Edmond for seldome hath any State in any age beene so happy as it hath not bred a Catiline with a Catulus a Cetâ—egus with a Curtius a Sertorius with a Soranus a Quadratus and Quintianus with an Aemilius and Coriolanus Besides you shall observe what justice and integrity appeared in the heathen chastising such as would bee bribed or corrupted though they were their enemies So as Mitbridates tooke Manius Acilius one of the chiefest Embassadors of the Romans and set him contemptuously upon an Asse till he was come to Pergamo where he put molten gold in his mouth reproving the Romans for taking gifts The like reward had Tarpâ—ia being corrupted by T. Tatius to deliver the Capitoll for having betrayed the gates of the Capitoll to the enemy onely upon promise that they should throw her the bracelets which they wore on their left armes this they accordingly performed throwing also their targets upon her with which she was pressed to death You shall likewise find there what reverence the Pagans shewed to their Idolatrous Temples and how carefull they were to observe their Countrey rites which they esteemed sacred and what successe ever followed the enterprises of such as committed sacriledge The very heathen observed that after such times as the Grecians once offered violence to the Temple of Pallas that they lost all their hope and never thrived after Lactantius reporteth of divers who were grievously punished for their impiety and profanenesse towards the gods as namely Fulvius the Censor who for taking away certaine marmoreas tegulas out of the Temple of Iuno Lacinia was distraught of his wits Appius Claudius for translating and conveying those sacred reliques which were before consecrated to Hercules within a while after lost the use of his eyes Dionysius who made a jest of Sacriledge taking a golden cloake from Iupiter Olympius his Image a woollen cloake being put in stead thereof saying That a golden cloake was too heavie in Summer and too cold in Winter but a linsie-woolsie cloake was fit for both cutting off also Aesculapius golden-beard saying It was no reason that the son should have a beard and Apollo his father have none and taking away certaine cups of gold which they held in their hands saying It was a great madnesse to refuse them offered was for these driven into banishment Pyrrhus for robbing Proserpina's treasury suffered shipwrack not farre from the shore Zerxes who sent foure hundred of his souldiers to Delphos to spoyle the Temple of Apollo had them all destroyed and burnt with thunder and lightning Marcus Crassus for taking a great masse of money out of the Temple which Pompey would not meddle withall perished there with his whole Army And here in Albion wee reade of Brennus who in his expedition to Delphos was by a sudden hurly-burly or immoderate feare through a noise heard in the bowels of the earth raised indeed by the lamentable shrikings and howlings of the distracted Druids and ministers of Apollo despairing of further successe perished with all his Armie Whence may bee observed how justly such were punished who contemned the religion of their Countrey robbing their Temples and enriching themselves with the spoyle of their gods who albeit they were Idols and no gods or rather Divels and no Idols yet so ill was their successe in all their affaires afterwards as they attributed the cause of their miserable ends to the contempt of their gods But howsoever this may seeme erroneously ascribed sure I am that thus it may be rightly applied that where God is dishonoured his Temple profaned and religion contemned nothing can be succesfully or prosperously concluded It is wonderfull to note in such evill times so good men as wee shall every where meet with in the course of Histories An Aristides for Iustice a Celopidas for Temperance a Numa for Prudence a Trajan for Patience an African for Continence all which in this Cleanthes Table History shew admirable vertues in a corrupt government Againe reflect your eye on those whose love to their Countrey deserves eternall memory and you will no lesse wonder at the greatnesse of their minds then the happinesse of those Realmes that enjoyed them King Darius upon a time by chance opening a great Pomegranat and being demanded of what hee would wish to have as many as there were graines in that Pomegranat answered in one word of Zopyrus's Now this Zopyrus was a right noble and valiant Knight who to reduce Babylon to the subjection of his Lord and Master and defeat the traiterous Assyrians suffered his body to be rent and mangled and being thus disfigured fled straight-wayes to Babylon where the Assyrians were intrenched whom hee made beleeve that Darius had misused him in this sort because hee had spoken in their behalfe counselling him to breake up his siege and to remove his Armie from assaulting their Citie They hearing this tale and the rather induced to thinke it true because they saw him so shamefully disfigured in his body were perswaded to make him their chiefe Captaine by which meanes hee betrayed them all and surrendred both them and their Citie into his Masters hands The like wee reade of Codrus Prince of Athens who according to the counsell of the Oracle sacrificed his life willingly to preserve the Libertie of his Countrey The like did Gobrias who offered his body to slaughter to free his Countrey of a tyrannous Traytor Yet observe withall the ingratitude of former Ages to men of best deservings which caused Aeschines say That though the Citie of Thebes and Athens were full of naughty men yet not so full of any sort as of ungratefull men This felt Hannibal this felt Asdrubal this felt African while Asdrubal within must be accused by Asdrubal without and noble African then whom none ever deserved better of his Countrey may begge a resting place for his bones but must not have it Againe it will not bee amisse to note the sundry occasions of warres proceeding from the sundry dispositions of men Some strove for soveraignty others for preservation of their Liberty where so eager was the one of gaining glory the other of defending their Liberty they were many times brought to such straights as there was more roome for beholders then fighters many bearing armes but could not use them No lesse remarkable is it to note what incredile exploits have beene atchieved by a handfull of men under a valiant Leader whereby a more particular survey had of their actions wee shall find that observation of Plutarch to be most true Better is an armie of Harts with a Lion to their Leader then an armie of Lions with a Hart to their Leader An Army being said to derive her strength from her selfe but her
never utterly failed or beene taken from us This the holy Fathers of the Church which have lived in the ages next ensuing doe declare Tertullian who lived Anno 200. writeth thus All the coasts of Spaine and divers parts of France and many places of Britaine which the Romans could never subdue with their sword Christ hath subdued with his word Origen who lived Anno 260. writeth thus Did the I le of Britaine before the comming of Christ ever acknowledge the faith of one God No but yet now all that Countrey singeth joyfully unto the Lord. Constantine the Great the glory of all the Emperours borne here in England and of English bloud who lived Anno 306. writeth in an Epistle thus Whatsoever custome is of force in all the Churches of Egypt Spaine France and Britaine looke that the same bee likewise ratified among you Saint Chrysostome who lived An. 405. writeth thus In all places wheresoever you goe into any Church whether it bee of the Moores or of the Persians or even of the very Iles of Britaine you may heare Iohn Baptist preaching Saint Ierome who lived Anno 420. writeth thus The French-men the English-men they of Africa they of Persia and all barbarous Nations worship one Christ and observe one rule of religion Theodoret who lived Anno 450. writeth thus The blessed Apostles have induced English-men the Danes the Saxons in one word all people and countries to embrace the doctrine of Christ. Gregory the Great who lived Anno 605. writeth thus Who can sufficiently expresse how glad all the faithfull are for that the English-men have forsaken the darkenesse of their errours and have againe received the light of the Gospel Beda who lived Anno 730. writeth thus England at this present is inhabited by English-men Britaines Scots Picts and Romans all which though they speake severall tongues yet they professe but one faith Thus you see how the Gospel of Christ having beene first planted in this Land by Iosâ—ph of Arimathea and Simon Zelotes in whose time Aristobulus and Claudia and not long after King Lucius also lived hath ever since continued amongst us as testifieth Tertullian Origen Constantine the Great Athanasius Chrysostome Ieâ—ome Theodoret Gregory Beda and many more which might here have beene alleaged Now how singular and exquisite a benefit have our Progenitours received by meanes of these faithfull Professours of the Gospel and first Planters of the Christian faith here in this Iland What a miserable famine of the Word had the people of this Land sustained if these faithfull friends and sincere Witnesses of the truth had not loosed from the shore and embarked themselves in danger to deliver them from the danger of soules shipwracke In which danger wee likewise had beene sharers had not this so rich a fraught so inestimable a prize rescued us from danger and directed our feet in the way of peace The story of Theseus includes an excellent Morall whose love to his deare friend Perithous the Poet labouring to expresse shewes how hee went downe to Hell of purpose to deliver his friend from the thraldome of Pluto under whom hee remained captive which without offence or derogation may properly seeme to allude next to that inimitable mirrour of divine amity to these noble and heavenly Warriours who descended as it were even to the jawes of hell encountring with the insolent affronts of many barbarous Assassinates ready to practice all hostility upon them Yet see their undaunted spirits their godly care enflamed with the zeale of devotion and their love to the members of Christ kindled with the coale of brotherly compassion made them as ready to endure as those hellish fiends and furies the enemies of truth were ready to inflict choosing rather to perish in the body then to suffer the poorest soule bought with so high a price to bee deprived of the hope of glory These were good and kind friends being such as would not sticke to lay downe their lives for their friends suffering all things with patience and puissance of mind to free their distressed brethren from the servile yoke of hellish slavery and bring them by meanes of Gods spirit by which they were directed to the knowledge of the all-seeing verity Such as these professe not friendship under pretences or glozing semblances making their heart a stranger to their tongue or walking invisible as if they had found the stone in the Lapwings nest but as they are so they appeare affecting nothing but what is sincerely good â— and by the best approved Their absolute ayme or end of friendship is to improve reprove correct reforme and conforme the whole Image of that man with whom they converse to his similitude whom all men present If at any time they enter into discourse it ever tends to fruitfull instruction if at any time they enter into serious meditation of the world their meditation is not how to purchase estate or fish after honour or build a foundation on oppression to enrich their posterity with the fruits of their injurious dealing No they have the testimony of a good conscience within them which testifies for them should the world and all her Complices bandie against them Wherefore admit they should bee put to all extremities and suffer all the indignities which envie or malice could dart upon them the weight of every injury is to bee measured by the sense or feeling of the sufferer for the apprehension of the Sufferer makes the injury offered great or little if hee conceit it small or no injury howsoever others esteeme it the burden of the wrong is light and therefore more easily sleights it Now Gentlemen wee have traced over the whole progresse of Acquaintance wherein if happely it be thought that we have sojourned too long my answer is That in passages of greatest danger there is required more circumspection then rashly to goe on without due deliberation And what occurrent in all the passage or pilgrimage of man is beset with more danger then the choice of Acquaintance especially to you Gentlemen whose meanes is the Adamant of Acquaintance Wee have therefore insisted the longer upon this Subject that you may be the lesse subject to such who will winde them in with you of purpose to feed and prey on you To cure which maladie no receit more soveraigne then to imprint in your memory that golden rule or princely precept recommended by that pious and puissant Saint Lewis to his sonne Philip in these words Have especiall care that those men whose Acquaintance and familiarity you shall use be honest and sincere whether they be Religious or Secular with whom you may converse friendly and communicate your counsels freely but by all meanes avoide the company of naughty and wicked men whose society ever tends to inordinate respects Take these Cautions therefore as the last but not least worthy your observation Be not too rash in the choice of
never dranke a sweeter draught Which implyes what torment he indures who feeles the extremity of thirst The last assailant of Temperance as wee formerly observed was Company-keeping which indeed is such a stealer of time or beguiler of tedious houres as it makes passing of time a meere pastime Yet observe what diligent care hath beene had by making choice of such as I have else-where noted whose society might better them Peruse those Athenian nights in Gellius and you shall find how fruitfully those nights were employed how delightfully passed making discourse of Philosophy that well-consorting melodie which gave generall content to all the Company Besides it is worth our observation to take a view of the speciall care divers Ancients have had of the Company they consorted with having such in as great distaste that were evill as they bore all due reverence to such as were good Wee reade how the Prienean Bias having occasion to saile on a time with some ill-disposed men by reason of a violent tempest the ship wherein they sailed was so shaken as these wicked men moved rather by feare then devotion begun to call upon their gods which Bias hearing Hold your peace quoth hee lest the gods you call upon understand that you be here covertly taxing their impiety and shewing that their prayers would be little acceptable to the gods But an example much more divine and so much deserving our imitation may be here commended to us in the person of the blessed Evangelist S. Iohn who would not come within the Bath where the Hereticke Cerinthus was so much did hee hate the Fellowship of him who to use Augustines words Was no fanne for the Lords floore Thus have we run over those mainest and mightiest assailants of Temperance now let us as wee have illustrated each of them with proper instances of Moderation annex some reasons why these assailants of Temperance ought to be restrained and first for the first Lust the sensuall mans sinne is said to bee a friend which brings man in acquaintance with the Divell as Ebriety is an enemy to the knowledge of God Besides it is a vice detestable both to the brute beast and Barbarian it with-drawes the mind of the creature from meditation of his Creator makes man commit sinne even with greedinesse makes the Image of God companion for a Harlot makes him who should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost a Cage of uncleane birds prostitutes the glory of the soule to the pleasure of sinne and prefers a sensuall delight before the obedience of reason Hee sels his Birth-right for lesse then a messe of pottage exposing his soule to the trafficke of shame Hee values a minutes joy above all future delight yea rather then lose his present content he will suffer an eternity of torment This bleere-eyed Lover is so blinded with affection towards his beloved that hee will rather lose his owne soule then lose that which hee affecteth Thus you see the Lustfull man uncased his blindnesse discovered his sundry weaknesses displayed and the heavy effects which from hence are derived good reason then have you to restraine an affection so over-spreading a motion so mortally wounding a contagion so generally killing Take into your consideration the shortnesse of the pleasure being but a moment the vengeance or punishment due to that pleasure being eternall What wise man having neerely served his apprentiship will for a minutes pleasure forfeit his Indenture and lose his freedome for ever Wee should hold him destitute of common sense who having a Princesse offered him will foolishly lose her for embraces of an Harlot If you will keepe your selves unspotted till the day of his comming you shall bee espoused to a princely Bridegroome and receive Palmes in your hands at his comming Goâ— not in by the wayes of the strange woman but keepe your beds undefiled knowing the state which you have undertaken to bee honourable before God and man For I in no case will limit you to a monasticke or regular restraint but approve of both estates I meane both the single and married life being undertaken in the feare of God worthy the acceptance of every faithfull Christian. For the Virgins estate as it drawes neerer to angelicall perfection so the Married to the preservation of humane society or propagation So as Saint Augustine might seeme rather to be traduced then truly alleaged for this place Virgins doe more then lawfull as Adulterers lesse for my conceit shall ever be freed from imagining so divine a Father to approve of such an errour for both estates are commended the one good the other better both which titles as they are by the Apostle on these two estates conferred so are they by us to be reverently esteemed Briefly restraine all immoderate desires of the flesh which fight against the spirit so shall you find that inward tranquillity which obedience to your lusts shall never bring you Ambition the second assailant of Temperance is such an high-mounting bird as shee useth to build her nest ever in the tallest Cedars hatching her aeries in the highest spires to expresse her unbounded aymes This passion or distraction rather of all others brings man soonest to a forgetfulnesse of himselfe ever aspiring but never obtaining ever sailing in a tempestuous sea attented by many hostile and piraticall adherents whose aymes are to intercept all peaceable passengers filling the whole state full of mutinies and combustions Pindarus describes him to be such an one who strives to touch the Clouds and cope with Iove himselfe but is aymes draw him on to speedy ruine What reason then is there to foster or cocker such a profest foe to publike and private peace Who is hee having understanding will receive into his barge where hee is a quarrellous turbulent fellow who in desperate fury will not sticke to over-whelme the vessell both of himselfe and the rest that consort him Who is hee that will engage him in perill when hee may in safety enjoy himselfe and be free from danger Who is hee that will desire to climbe when he knowes there is no meanes to save him from falling being got up Surely the Ambitious man is ever environed with perill yet such is his folly hee will rather chuse to incurre danger then lose the present opportunity of acquiring honour Besides they whom this unbounded passion hath once surprized are so much distempered as of sleepe they are quite deprived which disquiet proceeds either from emulation towards others or an ambitious desire of advancement in themselves For the first Themistocles was wont to say that Miltiades victory in Marathon bereaved him of his sleepe For the latter Sylla could never take rest till by the terrour of his legions hee had obtained the law Valeria to be made whereby hee was created Dictator for eight yeares as Caesar the law Servia by which hee was perpetuall Dictator Albeit having obtained what they desired and arrived at the port
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
choicest gifts of nature accomplished of their owne disposition well affected who by consorting with inordinate men have given reines to liberty and blasted those faire hopes which their friends and country had planted on them how requisite then is it for every one whose thoughts aime at Perfection to consort with such as may better him and not deprave him informe him and not corrupt him For if there be a kind of resemblance betwixt the diseases of the body and the vices or enormities of the mind what especiall care are we to take lest by keeping company with those who are already depraved we become likewise infected Men would be loth to enter any house that is suspected only to be infected which if at unawares they have at any time entred they presently make recourse to the Apothecary to receive some soveraigne receit to expell it And if men bee so affraid lest this house the body which like a shaken building menaceth ruine daily should perish what great respect ought to bee had to the soule which is the guest of the body Shall corruption bee so attended and tendred and the precious Image of incorruption lessened and neglected God forbid specious or gorgeous Sepulchres are not so to bee trimmed that the cost bestowed on them should cause the divine part to bee wholly contemned To remove which contempt if any such there bee I will recommend to your devoutest meditation these two particulars First who it was that made us Secondly for what end he made us To which two briefly we intend to referre the Series of this present discourse For the first we are to know that no man is his owne maker It is hee that made us who made all things for us that they might minister unto us and to our necessity ordaining these for our Service and himselfe for our Solace He it is who hath subjected all things to the feete of man that man might wholly become subject unto him yea and that man might become wholly his hee gave man absolute dominion over all those workes of his creating all outward things for the body the body for the soule and the soule for himselfe And to what end Even to this end that man might onely intend him onely love him possessing him to his Solace but inferiour things to his Service Now to dilate a little upon this great worke of our Creation wee may collect from sacred scripture a foure-fold Creation or Generation The first in Adam who came neither of man nor woman the second in Eve who came of man without woman the third in Christ who came not of man but woman the fourth in us who came both of man and woman For the first as he had from Earth his Creation so it shewed the weaknesse of his composition the vilenesse of his condition with the certainty of his dissolution For the second as she had from man her forming so it figured their firmenesse of union inseparable communion and inviolable affection For the third as he came onely of woman so he promised by the Seed of the woman to â—ruise the Serpents head who had deceived woman and restore man to the state of grace from which hee had fallen by meanes of a woman For the fourth as wee came both from man and woman so wee bring with us into the world that Originall sinne which wee derive both from man and woman the sting whereof cannot bee rebated but onely through him who became man borne of a woman But in this great worke of our Creation wee are not to observe so much the matter as quality and nature of our Creation For the matter of our Creation or that whereof wee bee composed what is it but vile earth slime and corruption So as howsoever wee appeare beautifull specious and amiable in the sight of man whose eye is fixed on the externall part yet when the oile of our Lampe is consumed and wee to dust and ashes reduced wee shall observe no better inscription than this Behold a specious and a precious shrine covering a stinking corps Wherefore ought we to observe the internall part and the especiall glory wee receive by it for hereby are we distinguished in the quality of our Creation from all other creatures who governe their actions by Sense onely and not by Reason Hence it was that that divine Philosopher gave God thankes for three speciall bounties conferred on him First was For that God had created him a reasonable creature and no brute beast Second For creating him a man and no woman Third For that he was a Grecian and no Barbarian This it was which moved that blessed and learned Father Saint Augustine to break out into this passionate rapsodie of spirit Thy hand could O Lord have created me a stone or a Bird or a Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercouâ—se rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme and crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou hast ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make mee conformable to thy selfe that of a worm I may become an Angell of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very Image which wee carry about us preferring us not onely before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby wee become not onely equall but even superiour unto Angels because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximâ—nes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserable were these blinded how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god it said unto me that it was not
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
wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is
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
them followed their Labour So as there was no difference betwixt the Patricians and Plebeians inter faecem florem civitatis as one well observeth but an expresse taske was imposed and exacted on every Subject Whence it grew that the Roman Empire became absolute Soveraignesse of many other ample Dominious whose flourishing estate as it was described to King Pyrrhus appeared such That the City seemed a Temple the Senate a Parliament of Kings Neither is it to be doubted but even as God is no accepter of persons so his command was generall without exception of persons In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread Albeit I doe not hence conclude that all are to intend the Plough or betake themselves to Manuall Trades for so I might seeme to presse that exposition which a Frier once urged against Latimer touching reading of Scripture in a vulgar tongue If the rude people objected hee should heare the Scripture read in English the Plow-man when hee heareth Hee that holdeth the Plough and looketh backe is not apt for the Kingdome of God would there upon cease to plow any more the Baker when hee heareth it read A little Leaven corrupteth the whole lumpe might be moved not to use Leaven at all and when the Scripture saith If thine eye offend thee plucke it out the ignorant might bee perswaded to pull out their eyes and therefore it was not good to have the Scripture in English To which objection Latimer vouchafed no other answer than this Hee would wish the Scriptures to be no longer in English till thereby either the Plow-man were perswaded not to plow or the Baker not to bake No I am not so stupid as not to apprehend how severall places or offices are deputed to sundry men how some are appointed for guiding and guarding the State others for ranking and ranging Powers in the Field others for teaching and training of Youth in the Schoole others for propounding and expounding of the Lawes of our Realme at the Barre others for caring and curing of maladâ—es in the body others for breaking the bread of life and breathing the spirit of comfort to the afflicted Whence wee gather that of all degrees none are exempted or excepted a Vocation is proposed and imposed which of necessity must be by one or other observed and intended For as in the mutuall offices of our Body every member intends that peculiar function or office to which it is assigned or limited so in the Body of the State being all members depending and subsisting of that State wee are all in our mutuall places or offices to discharge that Taske which is injoyned us Wherein I should thinke it convenient if we observed the selfe-same rule which the members of our Body use in the due performance of their offices For wee see not one of them incroach or intrude into anothers place or imployment The Eye it sees and handles not the Hand it handles and sees not the Palat it tastes and smels not the Nose it smels and tastes not the Eare it heares and walkes not the Foot it walkes and heares not And so of the rest but contrariwise how itching are men after such imployments as least concerne them How officious in businesse which least touch them The Dray-man hee will play the Divine a Dairy-woman the Physician the Collier the Informer the Farmer the Lawyer Wherein surely I have observed in the small Progresse of this my Pilgrimage no small inconvenience redounding to the publike State For say whence sprung all these Schismes in the Church these many rents in Christs Seamelesse-coat but from those who of Mechanickes became Divines professing to teach before they were taught Whence are so many mens dayes abridged their easie maladies without hope of being cured but by meanes of these Horse-leaches who gaine experience by the death of their Patients professing themselves Artists before they know the definition of an Art Whence are so many unjustly vexed so injuriously troubled but by these base Informers who become disturbers rather than Reformers whence arise these differences betwixt party and party but by meanes of some factious and seditious Instruments who like the Serpent Dipsas sucke the moisture and verdure of every hopefull Plant building their foundation on the ruine of others Surely as wee have Statutes enacted of purpose to have such turbulent members duely curbed and censured so were it to bee wished that such Lawes as are to this end provided were likewise executed for by this meanes the flourie borders of our Realme should bee stored with grave Divines and learned Professors leading their flocks to the greene pastures of ghostly instruction not to the by-paths of errour and confusion with judicious and expert Physitians who are not to learne experience by the death of their Patients with sincere and uncorrupted officers whose ayme is not to gaine but to redresse abuses with upright and conâ—cionable Lawyers whose desire is to purchase their Clients peace and not by frivolous delayes to cram their purses O what a golden age were this â— when each performing a mutuall office unto other might so support one another as what one wanted might be supplied by another Then should wee have no Sectists or Separatists divided from the unity of faith to disturbe us No artlesse Quack-salvers or cheating Mountebanks to delude us no factious Brands to set a fire of debate amongst us no currupt or unconscionable Lawyers by practising upon our states to make a prey of us Then should we heare no ignorant Laicks familiarly disputing of the too high points of Predestination rejecting the ordinary meanes of attaining salvation as may be seene in the Synodals or Conventicles of many seduced soules even in these dayes where some Barbar is made a Cathedrall Doctor to improve rebuke and exhort but how is it possible that ought should bee hatched but errour where singularity grounded on ignorance is made a Teacher S. Basil talking with the Emperour Valens of matters of religion and the Cooke comming in saucily and telling the holy man his opinion that it was but a small matter to yeeld to his master the Emperor in a word or two and that hee needed not to stand so precisely in divine matters which seemed indifferent or of no moment Yea Sir Cook quoth S. Basil it is your part to tend to your pottage and not to boyle and chop up divine matters and then with great gravity turning to the Emperour said that those that were conversant in divine matters with conscience would rather suffer death than suffer one jot of holy Scripture much lesse an article of faith to be altered or corrupted So carefull have former times beene of the reverence which ought to be had in dispensing the heavenly Mysteries of Gods word admitting none to so holy and high a vocation but such who had Vrim and Thummim knowledge and holinesse beautifying their knowledge I say with holinesse of conversation being
not onely Speakers but Doers for no word-men but work-men are fit for the Lords Vineyard The like complaint might bee made touching these Physitians of our Bodies where artlesse and ignorant Handicrafts-men who perchance upon reading of some old Herball wherein were prescribed certaine doubtfull cures for certaine Maladies will not sticke to professe themselves Galenists the first houre setting out a painted Table of unknowne cures to raise them credit To whom in my opinion that Tale may be properly applied which is related of one Alphonso an Italian who professing Physicke wherein his fortune was to kill oftner than he did cure one day as he and his man Nicolao rode on the way he might see a great multitude of people assembled upon a hill whereof being desirous to know the cause he sent his man Nicolao to inquire further who understanding that there was one to be executed for committing a murder put spurres to his horse and running with all speed to his Master wished him to flie where-with Alphonso not a little astonished demanded the cause Why Master quoth Nicolao yonder is a poore wretch adjudged to die for killing one man and you in your time have killed an hundred Neither are wee lesse to grieve for the pressures which burden our State by such who sow the seed of discord betwixt neighbour neighbour supporting Champertie Embracerie in buying of Titles maintaining suits out of a contentious or turbulent disposition Which enormities as they are by apt and necessary Lawes thereto provided duly censured so were it to bee wished that for example sake some one whom the impunitie and indulgencie of this time hath made too presuming were punished according to the extremitie of the Law thereto provided for then should wee enjoy those happy Halcyon dayes wherein Basil the Emperour of Constantinople lived who whensoever hee came to his Iudgement Seat found neither partie to accuse nor defendant to answer To this end then and purpose tendeth our present discourse that as a peculiar Vocation is deputed to every one in this Pilgrimage of humane frailty so hee should not intermix himselfe in affaires or offices of different nature A man may be excellent in one who cannot be exquisite in many Let us then so addresse our selves as we may be rather fruitfull in one than fruitlesse in many Doe wee feare by being excellent in one to purchase hate of many Let us sleight that hate which is procured by good means for so long as wee live here sometimes adverse fortune will crosse us oft times envie curbe us but where the mind hath given way to the infirmities of nature and beares with a prepared mind whatsoever may be inflicted on her shee makes no account of detraction for that vertuous resolution which is in her doth daily more and more rayse and advance her Neither are we to be strong in tongue and weake in act as those whose only valour is vaunting and honour verball glorying for of all others such men are the slothfullest whose force and power is wholly seated in the tongue No rather let us know that vertue consists in action which by long habit becomes more pleasant than the habit of vice whose vaine delights tender no lesse bitternesse in the end than they did promise sweetnesse in the beginning Agendo audendoque res Romana crevit Let our eare as it is a sense of instruction become a light of direction for then we heare with profit when we reduce what we heare to practice Thus you have heard both of the Necessity of a Vocation and how none is to be exempted from a Vocation wherein Gentlemen I could wish that as birth and breeding have advanced you above others so you would shew such arguments of your birth and education as may make you seeme worthy of a glorious Vocation expressing such exemplary vertues in your life as might gaine you love even in death And so I descend to speake of Vocation in generall wherein I will bee more briefe because I have partly glanced at it in our former discourse VOcation may be taken equivocally or univocally when wee speak of Vocation in generall it is equivocall when of any speciall Vocation in particular it is univocall Without Vocations no civill state can subsist because Idlenesse maketh of men women of women beasts of beasts monsters It was one of the sinnes of Sodome as wee may reade in the Prophet Ezekiel It was that which brought David the anoynted of the Lord nay the man after Gods owne heart to commit adultery It was this which moved Solomon to bid the sluggard goe to the pismire to learn good husbandry To be short it was this which moved the Prophets to denounce judgement upon the flourishing'st Cities for their security How necessary then is it for all estates to be carefull lest they incurre a heavy and fearefull censure to addresse themselves to especiall Vocations beneficiall to the state and pleasing to God whose glory should bee our aime without any by-respect unto our selves Wee shall see in most places both at home and abroad how such trades or Vocations are most used as may best suit with the nature and condition of the place As in our Port-townes traffick and commerce conferring no lesse benefit to the state by importance than profit to other Countries by exportance Againe in our Townes lying further within Land the inhabitants use some especiall Trade to keepe their Youth in labour whereby they become not only beneficiall to themselves but usefull and helpefull unto others Amongst which I cannot be unmindfull of the diligence of the Towne of Kendall and worthy care which they have to see their very young children put to worke being a labour which requires no great strength to wit Woolworke Wherein so approved hath their care and industry beene as they have gained themselves no small esteeme in forraine places who are made partakers of the fruit of their labours For I have knowne a family consisting of seven or eight persons maintained by the worke of two or three stones of wooll which amounted not above thirty shillings and with this they maintained credit living in an honest and decent manner Whose labours as they were laudable so have they beene no lesse furthered favoured and encouraged by our late gracious Soveraigne of renowned memory who of his princely clemency hath damned all such impositions or heavy taxations as might any way impaire or impeach the free use of that Trade Since which time upon renuall of their Charter his Sacred Majesty hath beene lately pleased not onely to enlarge their Liberties but likewise to dignifie their magistracy with a title of more eminence which had it stood with his princely pleasure might have received high improvement by creation of a Burgesse Albeit now of late the Town of Kendall so famous for Wool-work by reason of a late decrease or decay of trade in those parts is grown no less penurious than populous so