is a good opinion drawne from some probable grounds An unvaluable gemmâ— which every wise Merchant who tenders his honour prefers before life The losse of this makes him an irreparable Bankrupt All persons ought to rate it high because it is the value of themselves though none more dearely then those in whom modesty and a more impressive feare of disgrace usually lodge These so cautelous are they of suspition as they will not ingage their good names to purchase affection Publike resorts because they may corrupt they avoid Privacy they consort with and in it converse with their owne thoughts whether they have in them ought that may betray them They observe what in others deserves approvement and this they imitate with an uncorrupt eye they note others defects which they make use of as a caveat For as life is a Globe of examples so these make the pious examples of others the Models or Patterns of their lifes Pure is their mold but farre purer the temper of their mind Fame they hold the sweetest flower that ever grew neere the border of Time Which lest either it should wither for want of moisture or wanting warmth should lose its vigour they bedew it with gracious affects and renew it with zealous resolves Descent as they draw it from others so would they improve it in themselves Ancient houses now and then stand in need of props and pillars these would they have supplied with the Cardinall vertues These are Emblemes of your selves Noble Ladies who so highly tender your honour as Estimation gaines you more then what your bloods gave you For this is inherent and primitive whereas the other is descendent and derivative It is a Princely command of your affections which mounts you to this height of goodnesse distinguishing betwixt blind love and discreet affection Pleasure cannot make you so forgetfull of your honour as to deprive you of that in a moment which you shall never recover Vertue hath taken that seazure of you as no light thought can seize on you or dispossesse her of that claime shee hath in you Treacherous Tarpeia's may bee taken with gifts but your honour is of too high an estimate to suffer the least blemish for reward You observe what staines have laid and doe yet lie upon many ancient families by meanes of attainders in their Progenitors Their bloods say wee were corrupted whereby their estates became confiscated their houses from their lineall successors estranged and they to lasting infamy exposed Certainely though not in so high degree for these were Capitall many families have received deepe staines from light actions which neither time though never so aged could weare out nor the living exploits of their noble successors wipe off For the highest family sticks ever upon it the deepest infanâ—y when at any time stained and diffuseth her beames with fullest glory where it is by piety graced Vice hath ever beene of a deeper dye then vertue and the memory of the one commonly survives the fame of the other Wounds when they are healed leave their scarres behind them Paths reteine their prints Your memory shall neither receive life from that noble blood which sprinkles in you nor from any monumentall shrine which may her eafter cover you but from those precious odours of your ever-living vertues which shall eternize you These are of power to make such as long since dyed and whose unequall'd beauty is for many ages since to ashes turned reteine a flourishing fame in the gratefull memory of the living Penelope for spending chaste her dayes As worthy as Vlysses was of prayse A daily siege shee suffered and in her Conquest equall was shee to those victorious Peeres of Greece who made Troy their triumph Estimation was her highest prize Suiters shee got yet amidst these was not her Vlysses forgot Long absence had not estranged her affection youthfull consorts could not move in her thoughts the least distraction neither could opportunity induce her to give way to any light action Well might Greece then esteeme her Penelope of more lasting fame then any Pyramid that ever shee erected Her unblemished esteeme was of farre purer stuffe then any Ivory statue that could bee reared Nor was Rome lesse beholden to her Lucrece who set her honour at so high a price as shee held death too light to redeeme such a prize Though force frights foes and furies gaz'd upon her These were no wounds but wonders to her honour The presence of a Prince no lesse amorous then victorious could not winne her though with him price prayer and power did joyntly wooe her Well deserved such two modest Matrons the choice Embraces of two such heroicke Champions as might equall their constant Loves with the tender of their dearest lives And two our Histories afford whom succeeding fame hath recorded eminent because double Conquerours both of Cities and of themselves puissant and continent This noble testimonie wee receive of Scipio that being a young man of twenty foure yeares of age in the taking of a City in Spaine hee repressed the slaming heat of his youthfull desires when a beautifull maid was brought him restoring her to a young man called Allutius to whom shee was espoused with a great reward Right worthy was hee to conquer another who could with such temper subdue himselfe such good successe hath ever attended on these Morall vertues though professed by Pagans The other Heroe was rightly AVGVSTVS both in name and nature and wheresoe're you looke a victorious CAESAR Cleopatra kneeled at his feet laid baits for his eyes but in vaine her beauties were beneath that Princes chastity Absolute Commanders were these Heroicke Princes of their affections yet a farre more singular argument of his composed disposition and of Morall if not Divine Mortification shewed that young man SPVTIMIA in Valerius Maximus whose beauty did so incomparably become him as it occasioned many women to lust after him which this noble youth no sooner perceived then hee purposely wounded his face that by the scarre hee sustained his beauty might become more blemished and consequently all occasion of lusting after it clearely removed This might bee instanced in one of your owne Sexe a religious votaresse whose chaste bosome was a sacred Recluse dedicated to goodnesse and who upon the encounter of a lascivious Lover returned this answer Sir I honour you so much as I have chosen rather to suffer then by my tyrannous beauty to make you a Prisoner Wherewith discovering her face in complexion much altered by some impostured colours which shee had caused to bee laid upon it hee vowed to relinquish his suit imagining that shee had poysoned her face to waine him from his impure affection This hee had no sooner said then shee ranne to a Spring neere adjoyning to wash it off See said shee I am the same I was but you are much better for now you are brought to see your errour in being so much taken with a skin-deepe beauty which onely consists
this respect to be had onely in the disposing of your selves in Court or Citie but likewise in the Countrey for though it be best spent which is bestowed in Hospitality and in releeving those hungry soules whose expresse images require your charity yet are you to consider how charity begins with it selfe so as howsoever you are bound to releeve and support those whose present wants exact so much at your hands yet ever with reservancie of a competent or convenient providence so to sustaine the want of others as not to procure want to your selves by sustaining others But this needs little pressing for experience shewes that very small instruction will suffice any one to be provident enough in their bounty or exhibition to the poore Let us therefore divert the current of our subject and addresse our exhortation to you purposely moving you to a moderation of your expence in your pleasures or those more easie vanities of this life As profit and pleasure make the sweetest Musicke so there is no pleasure how incomparably delightfull soever for the present but it affords much bitternesse having no respect to Providence Now as all vertues may be comprized under the name of frugality provided that we understand it to be of that absolute power and command that neither excesse nor diminution beare any sway in it it appeareth that without this frugall moderation no state can be well mannaged no estate rightly husbanded so as whether you have an eye to pleasure or profit this frugality or equally tempered providence must bee Soveraignesse in both For first there is no pleasure which hath not respect to vertue how then may that properly be termed a pleasure which hath no relation to frugality under which name all vertues may seeme to be comprized Likewise there is no profit which is not joyned with honesty how then may that properly be termed a profit which hath no respect to honest providence upon which all profits are truly grounded The best course then that you can follow either in your choice of pleasures or pursuit of profit is ever to examine whether that pleasure which you affect have respect to vertue or that profit which you have in pursuit be firmely grounded on honest providence so shall neither pleasure so much inthrall you as to engage your fortunes to her nor profit so entangle you as to neglect conscience for the love you beare her Surely there is nought more dangerous to young Gentlemen whose unriper yeares have not sufficiently instructed them in the follies of vanity then to give reines to their desires and so become Bondslaves to pleasure For those that will deny their eyes nothing that they can desire nor resist their owne wils in ought that they affect bee they endued with never so much wisdome it becomes foolishnesse being blinded with their owne delights They then onely whose native temperance hath prepared them or continuall wrastling with the infirmities of nature hath inured them have attained this degree of perfection not onely I say to use Moderation in their expence but in their restraint of every pleasure labouring to become commanders of themselves in the desires and affections of this life which of all others make men the absolutest conquerours For man whose naturall pravity drawne from the corruption of his first parents is ever working in him new motions of disobedience layeth continuall siege and battery to the fortresse of the soule suggesting to her motives of pleasure and delight which the carnall man will easily condescend to because he savoureth not the things of the spirit Yea how many doe we see who begin in the spirit but end in the flesh making their end farre worse then their beginning How necessary then is this Moderation to curbe or checke such inordinate motions as arise in us by reason of our naturall infirmity and weaknesse Neither doe I so much insist upon the Moderation of your expences as if Coine were of that esteeme as it onely deserved respect For if Riches increase wee are not to set our hearts upon them but rather to shew our indifferencie towards them in our free and liberall use of them But hee who gave gifts before hee gave time creating all things for our use in the world before hee brought us into the world without the use or ministery of these could preserve and support us whom hee hath appointed as governours or rulers over all these for hee who created all things without meanes can likewise preserve those things which hee hath created without meanes Yea though hee hath given us the fruits of the earth to feed us the fels of beasts to cloath us yea workes out of the bowels of wormes to beautifie us yet is hee tyed no more to these exteriour meanes then hee was before creating all things without meanes No King is necessarily tied that onely pure Bullion should bee current among his Subjects for if occasion serve hee may stampe Leather Brasse or any other metall which being authorized by his image or superscription is not to be denied within his Dominions Much more hee who conteines the world in his fist restraines not his power to any outward meanes working sometimes with meanes sometimes without meanes sometimes against meanes sometimes above meanes With meanes as when hee fed those which followed him into the wildernesse with bread above meanes when hee fed so much people with so little bread without meanes when hee himselfe fasted so long without bread against meanes when hee caused the very Ravens to bring his Prophet bread No this exhortation rather tendeth to move you to relye on Gods providence yet withall not to abuse those creatures which hee hath bestowed on you but to use them with Temperance Sobriety and Moderation for what is it to abound in all riches surfet in pleasures enjoy the treasures of the whole earth yea to want nothing that either the eye can desire or the heart affect Surely nothing Alexander the Monarch of the world had all other things save onely a Sepulcher to bury him in when hee was dead hee never thought of that for alas when corruption shall receive what Mortality renders and man after so many dayes passed over in delights shall make his bed in the darke those perfunctory pleasures which hee so much affected those temporary blessings which hee enjoyed shall bee as if they had not beene So moderate therefore your expences in the use or dispensation of your earthly Mammon that it may appeare your hearts are where your Treasure is and your Treasure where your heavenly Master is for what is this world but a List environed with fearefull Combats So as the world is more to be feared when it smileth then when it frowneth and more to bee taken heed of when it allures us to love it then when it moves or induceth us to contemne it Howsoever they who embrace the world are like unto them who are drowned in waters for their
sollicited the father for the affection of his daughter whereto having at last consented and the Covenants of marriage concluded this indiscreet wooer unseasonably imparts his minde to the daughter who made strange with it saying She never heard of any such matter Yea but replied hee I have made your father herewith acquainted and bee hath already consented And you may marry him too answered shee for you must hold me excused There is no time that exacts more modesty of any woman than in her time of sniting a shamefast red then best commends her and the movingst Orator that speakes for her Like Venus silver Dove shee is ever brouzing on the palme of peace while her cheeke betrayes her love more then her tongue So as Virgil the very Prince of our Latine Poets when hee should bring in King Latinus privately conferring with his wife Amata and Turnus to whom in nuptiall bands hee was to espouse his daughter hee brings in the young maid weeping blushing and silent Whence is implyed that it becomes not a Maid to speake of marriage in her parents presence for that were small argument of modesty or shamefastnesse There is a pretty pleasing kinde of wooing drawne from a conceived but concealed Fancy which in my opinion suits well with these amorous younglins they could wish with all their hearts to bee ever in the presence of those they love so they might not bee seene by those they love Might they chuse they would converse with them freely consort with them friendly and impart their truest thoughts fully yet would they not have their bashfull loves finde discovery They would bee seene yet seeme obscured love but not disclose it see whom they love but not bee eyed This the Poet in the person of a Shepherdesse neatly displayeth Phillis to willowes like a cunning flyer Flyes yet she feares her Shepheard should not spy her Now in this Subject of Fancy as there is nothing more dangerous than entertaining it without due and deliberate advice so there is nothing growes more generally fatall to the indiscreet Lover than by grounding affection on outward respects without relation to that inward faire which onely makes the Object of Fancy full of beauty and presents every day as a Marriage-day to the party by performing the office of a princely combiner of beauty and majesty together Neither affluence of estate potency of friends nor highnesse of descent can attemper the griefe of a loathed bed These may play upon the Fantasy but never give satisfaction to the Fancy Wherefore Gentlewomen to the end you may shew your selves discreetest in that which requires your discretion most discusse with your selves the purity of love the quality of your lover ever reflecting on those best deserving endowments of his which either make him worthy or unworthy your love Affection though it enter in by the narrow cranny of the Eye it shoots at the heart which unlesse it bee seasoned by judgement it can not deserve so faire a title A discreet eye will not bee taken with a smooth skinne it is not the rinde but the minde that is her Adamant Iustina a Roman Maid no lesse nobly descended than notably accomplished being married to one more rich than wise exclaimed against her fate that folly should hale her to so loathed a bed And good reason had shee to repine when his groundlesse jealousie made her a tragick spectacle of misery before her time For seeing her white necke that object begot in him presently an argument of suspect which hee seconded with revenge to vent the fury of his nature and publish to the world the weakness of his temper Let deliberation then bee the Scale wherein you may weigh Love in an equall poize There bee many high and consequent Circumstances which a discreet woman will not onely discourse but discusse before shee entertain so mysterious and honorable estate Disparity in descent fortunes friends with other like respects many times beget distraction of mindes Whence it was that Pittacus of Mitylene being intreated by a young man to afford him his best advice in the Choyce of two wives tendred him whether hee should marry the one whereof was equall to himselfe both in birth and wealth the other surpassing him in both Wish'd him to goe along the streets of the City where children use to play and there observe what they did advise him Truth is inequality in these procures distaste but where there is a difference in the seazure of disposure of the heart which should bee the firmest and strongest Cement to unite affection there ariseth the greatest hazard Thence is it Suspition workes upon every light and frivolous subject while the other party hunts after opportunity to surfet on forbidden fruit and give her suspitious Mate just ground of jealousie Feed hee may his indigested humour in a jealous pasture and vow revenge when hee shall finde an apt subject meane time hee becomes invisibly gull'd while hee deludes himselfe with painted shadowes No Iealousie can ever that prevent Whereas two parties once bee full content Severall I know are the effects of love as are the dispositions of those that love Livia made quicke dispatch of her husband because shee lov'd him too little Lucilia of hers because shee loved him too much Phoedra fancied Theseus lesse than shee should but young Hippolytus more than hee would Which effects are usually produced when either disparity of yeares breed dislike or obscurity of descent begets contempt or inequality of fortunes discontent Deliberate then before you marry and thus expostulate with your selves touching his Condition whom you are to marry Is he young I will beare with his youth till better experience bring him to the knowledge of man My usage shall bee more easie than to weane him from what hee affects by extremity Youth will have his swinge his owne discretion will bring him home at least time will reclaime him hee shall not finde mee put on a cloudy brow or entertaine his freer course with a scowle I must conforme my selfe to him confirme my love in him and so demeane mee towards him that Conjugall duty mixt with all affability many winne him Againe Is hee old His age shall beget in mee more reverence his words shall bee as so many aged and time-improved precepts to informe me his actions as so many directions to guide me his rebukes as so many friendly admonitions to reclaime mee his bed I will honour no unchaste thought shall defile it his Counsell I will keepe no forraine brest shall partake it I will bee a staffe to him in his age to support him an eye to direct him an hand to help him his Substance I will not scatter on a youthfull Lover but serve him still whom I have vow'd to honour Againe Is hee rich Much good may it doe him this shall not make me proud my desire shall bee hee may imploy it for his best advantage I will move him to communicate unto the needy that
from whence they first came If the Pagan had such a divine conceit of those whose approved life represented a certaine similitude or resemblance of God as he imagined no glory could be wanting to them in regard of their integrity let us embrace the like opinion and expresse such apparent demonstrations of sanctitie that as wee exceed the Pagan in regard of that precious light we enjoy so wee may exceed him in the conversation of the life we lead But how should these painted Sepulchers whose adulterate shape tastes of the shop glorying in a borrowed beauty ever meditate of these things How should their care extend to heaven whose Basiliske eyes are only fixed on the vanities of earth How should that painted blush that Iewish confection blush for her sinne whose impudent face hath out-faced shame Two Loves saith that learned Bishop of Hippo make two Cities Hierusalem is made by the love of God but Babylon by the love of the world And these are they who engaged to wordly love have forsaken their true love they have divided their hearts and estranged their affections from that Supreme or Soveraigne good O then Young men come not neere the gate of this strange woman whose feet goe downe to death and whose steps take hold on hell This is the woman with an Harlots behaviour and subtill in heart This is shee who hath dâ—ckt her bed with ornaments carpets and laces of Aegypts and perfuming her Bed with myrrhe Aloes and Cynamon Take heed thou sing not Lysimachus song The pleasure of fornication is short but the punishement of the fornicator eternall But of this Subject we are more amply to treat hereafter onely my exhortation is to Youth whose illimited desires tend ever to his ruine that if at any time it bee your fortune to encounter with these infectious ulcers these sin-soothing and soule-soiling Lepers and they like that whorish woman in the Proverbs invite you to their lothed daliance saying Come let us take our fill of love untill the morning Come let us take our pleasure in daliance that you shake off these vipers at the first assault and prevent the occasion when it first offers it selfe For know that which a devout and learned Father saith concerning the dangerous Habit of sinne is most true Prima est quasi titillatio delectationis in corde secunda consensio tertium factum quarta consuetudo Sinne begins with an â—ith but ends with a skar The first degree begins with delight the second with consent the third with act and the fourth with custome Thus sinne by degrees in men of all degrees like a broad-spreading tetter runnes over the whole beauty of a precious soule exposing the fruits of the spirit to be corrupted by the suggestion of the flesh But too farre I feare me have I digressed from this last branch whereof I was to discourse to wit of Habit or Attire albeit I have enlarged my selfe in nothing which may seeme altogether impertinent to our present purpose For discoursing of the vanity of women whose phantasticke Habits are daily Theames in publicke Theatres I imagined it a necessary point to insist upon partly to disswade those Shee-painters of this flourishing Iland from so base and prostitute practice Base for Festus Pompeius saith that common and base whores called Schaenicolae used dawbing of themselves though with the vilest stuffe Partly to bring a loathing of them in the conceit of all yong Gentlemen whose best promising parts use often to be corrupted by their inchantmens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. there is one flower to bee loved of women a good red which is shamefastnesse Saint Hierome to Marcella saith that those women are matter of scandall to Christian eyes Quae purpurisso quibusdam fucis ora oculosque depingunt I might here likewise justly tax such effeminate Youths whose womanish disposition hath begot in them a love to this hatefull profession but I will onely use Diogenes speech which hee made to one that had anointed his haires Cave ne capitis suaveolentia vitae maleolentiam adducat Or that saying hee used to a Youth too curiously and effeminately drest If thou goest to men all this is but in vaine if unto women it is wicked So as being asked a question of a Young man very neatly and finely apparelled he said hee would not answer him till he put off his apparell to see whether he were a man or a woman There is another Objection which I imagine Youth will alledge to prove how expedient it is for him to bee choice or curious in respect of apparell It gaines him more acceptance and esteeme with men of eminent place But hearken how the Apostle opposeth himselfe to this reproving such whose judgement consists in the eye rather than in the braine proceeding thus If there come into your company a man with a gold-ring and in goodly apparell and there come in also a poore man in vile raiment and ye have a respect to him that weareth the gay cloathing and say unto him Sit thou here in a goodly place and say unto the poore Stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stoole Are yee not partiall in your selves and are become judges of evill thoughts So as howsoever these diffident wordlings Annulo maegis credunt quam animo It is not the Habit but the heart which God accepts yet most acceptable is that Habit which is not so sumptuous as seemely not so costly as comely True indeed it is that the popular eye which cannot distinguish of the inward beauty but observeth rather what wee weare than what wee are admires nothing more than the outward Habit as wee may reade how much Herod being arrayed in royall apparell was applauded by the people who gave a shout saying The voice of God and not of man But that All-seeing and All-scearching eare of the Divine Majesty seeth not as man seeth Hee prefers Lazarus rags before Dives robes Though the one bee clothed in purple and â—ine linnen and the other seeme despicable in the eye of the world in respect of his Nakednesse yet mortua necessitate peribunt opera necessitatis the one is translated to glory boundlesse the other to misery endlesse for this sorrow which hee here felt ended when he did end but the joy which he obtained exceeded all end Thus farre have I laboured to answer all such objections as might bee proposed in defence of this generall-approved vanity concluding Quod peccata Sericea teterrima sunt vitia No sinnes like to silken sinnes for they ever crave impunity the foster-mother of all impiety I intend yet to proceed in decyphering the lightnesse of Youth by expressing three grand Maladies incident to Youth whereof I purpose to dilate particularly to move the Young man to be more cautelous of his wayes in the mazie Labyrinth of this life These three for all the rest may be
reduced to them are comprehended under Lust Ambition Revenge of which briefly according to our former Method we purpose here to intreat SO exposed is Youth to sense and so much estranged from the government of reason as it prosecutes with eagernesse whatsoever is once entertained with affection This might appeare in the ruines of Troy occasioned by the unlawfull love of Paris where the violent intrusion and usurpation of anothers Bed brought an irreparable fall to the Trojans Some have given two reasons Why Youth is more subiect to this illimited passion than any other age The first is that naturall heat or vigour which is most predominant in Youth provoking him to attempt the greatest of difficulties rather than suffer the repulse where hee affects The second is want of imployment which begets this distemperature whence the Poet. Take away Idlenesse and without doubt Cupids how breakes and all his Lampes goe out This want of imployment was it which moved Aegistus to shew himselfe more familiar with Clytemnestra than stood well with his honour for had hee ranked himselfe with those valiant Greekes whose resolute adventures gain'd them generall esteeme hee had prevented occasion and purchased himselfe equall renowne by his valour as by vaine expence of time he incurred dishonour Witty and proper was that elegant invention of Lucian who faining Cupid to invite the gods to an amorous feast prevailed with all of them to give way to Love till he came to Pallas but she was found conversing with the Muses and would admit of no time to enter parly with Cupid True it is that exercise draweth the minde from effeminacie and remisnesse feeds the desire and addes fuell to unlawfull heat And no lesse occasion gives wanton discourse or Lascivious Bookes to the enraged affections of distempered Youth so as much more blessed were the State if restraint were made of composing or publishing such Subiects where every leafe instructs Youth in a new lesson of folly Alcaeus a man of good reputation and generall observance in the Common-wealth what toyes wrote he of the love of young men All the writings of Anacreon are onely of love But most of all other Rheginus even burned with love as appeareth by his writings Yea even Philosophers and that by the counsell and authority of Plato whom therefore Dicearchus did worthily reprehend became the commenders and honourers of love Such Discourses should bee throwne to the darkest corner of our studies as that of Ovids was by Augustus which tend to corrupt Youth and divert his minde from the exercise of vertue But alas to what height of licentious liberty are these corrupter times growne When that Sex where Modesty should claime a native prerogative gives way to foments of exposed loosenesse by not only attending to the wanton discourse of immodest Lovers but carrying about them even in their naked Bosomes where chastest desires should onely lodge the amorous toyes of Venus and Adonis which Poem with others of like nature they heare with such attention peruse with such devotion and retaine with such delectation as no Subject can equally relish their unseasoned palate like those lighter discourses Yea which hath strucke me to more admiration I have knowen divers whose unriper yeeres halfe assured mee that their greene Youth had never instructed them in the knowledge nor brought them to conceit of such vanities excellently well read in those immodest Measures yea and prompt enough to shew proofes of their reading in publike places I will not insist upon them but leave them to have their names registred amongst those infamous Ladies Sempronia Scribonia Clytemnestra Cleopatra Faustina Messalina whose memories purchased by odious Lust shall survive the course of time as the memory of those famous Matrons Octavia Porcia Caecilia Cornelia shall transcend the period of time To expresse what especiall motives tend most to increase of this passion I thinke it not amisse because I hold it necessary to propose the cause before we come to cure the effect For I thinke according to the opinion of Socrates that then my instructions have brought forth good fruit when by them any one shall be provoked to apply his disposition to the knowledge and practice of vertue Which the better to effect you shall know that there is no one Motive more generally moving or enforcing to an eager pursuit of our immoderate affections than curious or luscious fare delicious liquors which might appeare if we should have recourse to History in those prodigall feastings of Antonius and Cleopatra where no cost was spared to give more free course to lascivious desires To prevent this as may be probably gathered Greece in her flourishing estate restrained women both publique and private accesse to Banquets and kinsmen kissed their kinswomen to know whether they drunke wine or no and if they had to be punished by death or banished into some Iland Plutarch saith that if the Matrons had any necessity to drinke wine either because they were sicke or weake the Senate was to give them licence and not then in Rome neither but out of the City Macrobius saith that there were two Senators in Rome chiding and the one called the others wife an Adulteresse and the other his wife a Drunkard and it was judged that to bee a Drunkard was more infamy Here we may collect what strictnesse even the Heathen used to observe a morall course and to represse such inordinate motions as most commonly invade the eminent'st States when long peace hath rockt her people asleepe snorting in the downe-bed of security Sure I am as there is nothing which brings eithera publike or private State to a remisnesse of government sooner than peace or plenty so nothing effatuates the understanding of man more than excesse in meat or drinke subjecting the intellective part to the bondage of Sense For what may be the discourse of Epicurists but lascivious begot on excesse of fare curious and luscious These are dilating ever on the rape of Ganimedes Lais in Euripides Beauty is their object and Vanity their subject White teeth rolling eyes a beautifull complexion an exteriour good being that which Euryala praised when shee washed the feet of Vlysses namely Gentle speech and tender flesh Thus are their tongues tipt with vanity their desires ayming at sensuality and their delights engaged to fleshly liberty Amongst the Romans Venus or Cous was the best chance at dice And no chance till some heavy mischance over-take them more happy in their opinion than to receive a loving smile or cheerefull aspect from their terrestriall Venus Some Countries I have read of whose naturall basenesse being given to all avarice induced them to disesteeme all respects in this kinde and to make merchandize of their womens honour Such are the women of Sio reported to be who are reputed for the most beautifull Dames of all the Greekes in the world and greatly given to Venery Their Husbands are their Pandors and when they
this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we
Their pace is a Pavin in the street their looke a Lure to a lascivious attempt They expresse nothing by their gesture worthy the image they beare Besides who is hee whose judgement will not taxe these of lightnesse by these light an uncivill appearances A womans honour is of higher esteeme than to bee thus dis-valued Light occasions are many times grounds of deepe aspersions Actions are to bee seasoned with discretion seconded by direction strengthened with instruction lest too much rashnesse bring the undertaker to destruction In the Maze or Labyrinth of this life many bee our cares mighty bee our feares strong our assailants weake our assistants unlesse wee have that brazen wall within us to fortifie us against all occurrents O then let not the least action betray you to your enemy for you have many within you for they are dangerous because domesticall without you for they are strangers and therefore doubtfull Let your actions bee your applausivest Actors The Scene of your life is short so live that your noble actions may preserve your memory long It was Seneca's counsell to his deare friend Lucilius that whensoever hee went about to doe any thing hee should imagine Cato or Scipio or some other worthy Roman to bee in presence To second his advice which may conferre on your glorious actions eternall praise set alwayes before your eyes as an imitable mirror some good woman or other before whom you may live as if she ey'd you shee view'd you You may finde women though weake in â—exe and condition yet parallels to men for charity chastity piety purity and vertuous conversation Re-visit those ancient families of Rome and you shall finde those famous Matrons Octavia Portia Caecilia Cornelia make a Pagan State seeme morally Christian. Nor were Nicostrata mother to Evander Corvina Sappho women lesse famous for Learning than the other for blamelesse living Neither have our moderne times lesse flourished with feminine worthies as might be illustrated with sundry eminent instances if I would reflect upon this Subject but this hath beene the Theame of sundry Panegyrick Poems which makes me more sparing in it Onely in your behalfe and to your honour let me retort their Criticke Censure who draw from the very Etymon of your name an occasion of error Women are woe to men No they 're the way To bring them homeward when they run astray In a word conforme your selves to such patternes as are imitable imitate them in all such actions as are laudable So live that none may have occasion to speake evilly of you if they speake truly The memory of Dorcas liveth still Shee was full of good workes and almes which shee did Yea even the very Coats and Garments which shee made while she was living were showne the Apostle as arguments of her industry memorials of her piety Hence it was that Saint Ierome that excellent patterne of holy Discipline serious professor of Divine Doctrine counselleth the holy Virgin Demetrias to eschew idlenesse Exhorting her withall that having done her prayers shee should take in hand wooll and weaving after the commendable example of Dorcas that by such change or variety of workes the day might seeme lesse tedious and the assaults of Satan lesse grievous concluding his devout Exhortation with this definite position I speake generally no rayment ornament or habit whatsoever shall seeme precious in Christs sight but that which thou makest thy selfe either for thine owne peculiar use or example of other Virgins or to give unto thy Grand-mother or thy Mother no though thou distribute all thy goods unto the poore See how strictly this holy Father proceeds with his religious Daughter Yet was this Demetrias to whom hee addressed this his exhortation a Noble Lady not one whom poverty did enforce to actions of such necessity but one honourably descended richly endowed powerfully friended Let this Lady bee your Patterne her action your direction her obedience your instruction that you may share with her in a peacefull dissolution Entertaine no time without some devout taske reflect upon the Noblenesse of your descent ennoble it with excellence of desert For you must know true honour is not wonne Vntill some honourable deed bee done Waste not prodigally the precious Lampe of your life without some vertuous action that may purchase love Your time is lesse than a minute in respect of eternity employ that minute so as it may eternize your memory Let this bee your highest taske to promote the honour of your Maker esteeming all things else a slavish and servile labour THere is nothing which requires more discretion than how to behave or carry our selves while wee are enthralled to affection The Lover is ever blinded saith wise Plato with affection towards his beloved Reason is laid a sleepe while Sense becomes the master Wooer Whence came that usuall saying One cannot love and be wise But I wholly oppose my selfe to their assertion who seeme thus farre transported with the sensuall opinion of affection My Tenet is One cannot truely love and not be wise It is a Beldam frenzy and no fancy which gives way to fury and admits not reason to have soveraignty Yet in this Subjects Gentlewomen is your temper best tryed your discretion most required and your Patience oft-times most exercised Looke therefore how you plant it lest you bootlesly repent it when it is mis-placed It is most certaine there is nothing more impatient of delay than love nor no wound more incurable while wee live There is no exemption all have a taste of this Potion though it have severall degrees of operation Looke all about you who so young that loves not Or who so old a comely feature moves not Yet what different passions arise from one and the selfe-same Subject Here Gentlewomen you shall see some of your Sexe so surprized with affection as it bursts out into violent extremes their discourse is semi-brev'd with sighes their talke with teares they walke desperately forlorne making Launds and desolate Groves their disconsolate Consorts Their eyes are estrang'd from sleepe their weakened appetite from repast their wearied limbs from repose Melancholy is their sole melody They have made a Contract with griefe till griefe bring them to their grave And these poore wenches are much to bee pittied because their owne tender hearts brought them to this exigent having either set their affections where they thought verily they might bee requited and were not or else where they received like seeming tender of affection but afterwards rejected what they wished to effect they could not So as in time if continuance of absence reduce them not to a better temper they fall into a poore Maudlins distemper by giving reines to passion till it estrange them from the soveraignty of reason Whereas others you shall see though not such kind soules nor halfe so passionate yet more discreet in their choyce and in the passages of love more temperate These will not deigne to cast a loose looke upon their
succour or by removing buttals to enlarge your boundiers or by any meanes to surprize others to inhance your injurious Coâ—ers The Partridge saith Ambrose makes her a nest of stolne eggs which she hath not laid but as soone as the birds are hatched the true Mother cals them all away from their thievish Step-dame This may be the proper Embleme of the covetous and cruell man Incubat auro Such incroaching Brooders be all unconscionable Misers who sit hatching those golden egges to use the words of the Apologue which they never lay but to their griefe must be stript by the true owners of what they so immoderately love For the Oppressors wealth is like Achans Wedge Turnus Belt Dagons house broke Dagons neck and all usurping Possessors are to expect the like fate Gnipho the Vsurer as Lucian feigneth lieth in Hell lamenting his miserable estate that one Rodochares an incestuous Prodigal did on earth consume his goods wastfully in the suâ—feits of pleasure which hee with care and unjust meanes had scrap'd together The way to decline these laments and prevent those infernall teares is with discretion to moderate your cares and feares Let not an unjust nor injurious thought seize on you nor a desire to improve your selves by anothers ruine surprize you Let not a Widowes teare nor an Orphans shreeke beare record against you These have shrill voyces and will find an Avenger One who has a Bottle to preserve the teares of the one as a precious Elixir and an Eare to compassionate the cryes of the other like an indulgent Father The way then in these temporall cares to make you happy Parents is with that indifferency to value gold as to make Godlinesse your chiefest gaint To preferre the approvement of equity before the improvement of a posterity To rejoyce more in honest poverty than in those swelling titles of iniquity For beleeve it that little Common-weale of man cannot chuse but enjoy much quietnesse where Conscience becomes Soveraignesse and receives Preheminence Now there is one errour that I have observed in Parents which were well to be rectified it is too generally spreading and consequently exacts the more expedite prevention It shall be our care to prescribe a cure which if it admit a cure it shall amply recompence our care Many too many make it their prime ayme their principall care in preferring their Children to fixe upon Inheritance or Portion Their sonnes must marry with Câ—â—cires and so joyne land to land A survey of their estates with whom they intend to match must precede all inducements of love Grounds of fancy must be rank'd in the second siege Proportion is to veile to Portion Reall affection to a rich Possession It was onely hope of Promotion that preferr'd this loves motion Were those inward Ornaments of this great Inheretrix never so meanly accoutred being thus encountred and with such rare fortunes embellished they must be above their estimate valued there is not so much as the least question made of the young Gentlemans love The Parents choyce must admit no change Meane time what miseries have attended such enforced Marriages every age can afford variety of dolefull Instances Where an vnion of hands begot a dis-union of hearts The reason might be this indirect affections seldome receive a blessing They invert the use of marriage who make Portion Directrice of Affection Fancy subordinate to Fortune Love is not to be made such a Page of Bee it then your office to examine the affection of your Child before you engage their persons to an enforced choyce Though a good fortune be not to be rejected yet is a good liking betwixt the parties to be preferred In a word let vertue be the ayme and the Marriage-day cannot chuse but cloze with a glorious Even In bestowing likewise your younger Children upon Trades you are to be very circumspect in the choyce of their Masters with the quality of their professions Ingenuous natures suite not well with rigid Masters Neither are tender or delicate constitutions for toyling â—or sinnewy professions This was especially observed by the ancient Romans which made them exquisite Artists in those manuall mysteries Wee have here in this our flourishing Iland many Staple Trades wherin as it is no derogation for our Gentry to interesse their younger Children so by Gods blessing and their good endeavour they become many times so well improved as they need not obsequiously ingratiate themselves to any inferiour favour nor rely on a pentionary supply or any necessitated succour being able by a civill remonstrance to render curtesie for curtesie to their elder Brother Neither can I approve the Indulgence of such Parents whose too tender affection towards their Children declines them from all hopes or helpes of preferment in this kind Birds wee see after such time as they have brought forth their young ones will not for ever foster them under their wings They must be sent abroad to provide themselves food to releeve them to build them nests to receive them and fitting mates to consort them And must these be wiser in their generation than those nobler Creatures who partake of Reason These observe the meanes by which they are directed to conserving ends Now would you have these meanes defined they are properly styled the way by which wee are directed to that scope or marke at which we aymed As you are then by nature their parents be it your care to raise them meanes of supportance As they had from you their being let them receive from you grounds of subsistence Let not your delicacy estrange their spirits from Industry lest by too much hugging them with the Ape in the Fable you stifle them Send them then forth into the world that as you have educated them so you may reape the fruit of your provisionall care by their improvement For trust me highly are such parents to be condemned who leave their estates so perplexed as they recommend the lively-hood of the Younger to the remisse consideration or doubtfull commiseration of the Elder For these many times entertaine such profuse Followers as their vast and unbounded ryot begets a neglect in them towards such as were recommended to them by making Servants of their Brothers and Brothers of their Parasites Besides the charge of Annuities as they exhaust the estate of the Elder making him live all his time like an ancient descendible Begger so it begets an irregular course in the Younger who either falling short in receipt of his annuall allowance or exceeding his bounds ingageth his perishing hopes to some desperate action which in the end spins to a full length the threed of his ruine So many fearefull examples both ancient and moderne present themselves daily upon the Stage of our State as they need no further illustration in this kinde That Maxime holds ever authentick Brethren are ever kindest one to another when they are least beholding one to another Assigne then to every one their peculiar portion which