advised by such whose long experienced love and fidelity assured them of their unfained amity yet rather than they would lose the opportunity of their aimes all counsell must be rejected and their owne private opinions without ground of reason embraced But to come nearer them in our discourse these Young-blouds use rather Catiline-like to speake much and doe little than Iugurth-like to speake little and doe much Of all Innes they love not that of Harpocrates with the signe of the finger on his mouth They are unmeasurably passionate in any argument and so nailed to their owne opinion as conceit transports them above reason and leaves no place for contradiction It is commonly said that Law Logicke and the Switzers may be hired to fight for any one and wee have found out one that will match them Now you have received the character of his Speech I would labour to reclaime him from his errour which to effect the better he must know that being a Gentleman for to such an one chiefly do I direct my discourse he can asperse no greater imputation on Gentry than in exercising his tongue in fruitlesse and frivolous discourse or spending his breath in uselesse or needlesse contention The tongue as one observes is a small member but very glibbery and prone to ruine apt it is to rebell if not restrained prompt to innovate if not confined But of all the fallies or excursions which are made by the tongue none in my conceit lesse beseeming a Gentleman than in giving reines to passions to slave himselfe to illimited fury much more profit should he finde in expostulating with passion recalling to minde that saying of Archytas so much commended who being angry with one of his hindes said O how would I have beaten thee had I not beene angry with thee Where two meeke men meet together their conference saith Bernard is sweet and profitable where one man is meeke it is profitable where neither it proves pernicious May your Speech Gentlemen bee so seasoned as it may relish of discretion rather learne the art of silence than to incurre the opinion of rashnesse for the one seldome gives argument of offence but the other ever Speake but not with affectation for that gives a better rellish to the eare than to the conceit Speake but not in assentation for that is mercenarie and seemes better in the mouth of a slavish Sycophant than a generous professant Speake freely yet with reservation lest the Comedians phrase have some allusion to your opennesse being so full of chinkes as secrecie can have no hope to finde harbour in your bosome As to Speake all that we know sheweth weaknesse so to impart nothing of that we know inferres too much closenesse to observe a meane in these extreames choice respect is to bee had with whom we converse If we finde him apt to conceale wee may more safely and freely deliver our minde but where suspicion of secrecie ministres argument of distrust wee are to be more cautelous for it is great folly to engage our thoughts to the secrecie of him whom we know not Worthy commendation was Augustus in this respect who was so choice in the election of a friend to whom he might communicate his privatest thoughts as he would imploy much time in searching and sifting him ere he would retaine him And hence I might take occasion to tax divers who are too readie to open their bosomes unto all encounters and yet I must freely confesse that this credulity of theirs meerely proceeds from the goodnesse of their nature for they imagine such is their easie simplicity that others are as secret as they open Such is the affability of unexperienced Youth as they cannot reserve the secret'st of their thoughts but must discover them upon the first view to their first acquaintance whence Plautus Benignitas eius vt adolescentuli est wherein he seemes to instance Youth as a patterne of ingenuous affability no lesse ready to utter his thoughts than his subtill applauder is to heare them Much more fruit should hee reape by observing that divine precept of Ecclesiasticus Thou that art young speake if need be and yet scarcely when thou art twice asked Comprehend much in few words in many be as one that is ignorant be as one that understandeth and yet hold thy tongue Wherein he proposeth an exact rule to be observed by Youth even in circumstance as well as substance of Speech Now it may be expected that I should propose a forme for words as I have proposed a rule for discourse but my reply to him who expects this shall be the same which Demosthenes made to Aeschynes the Orator who having found fault with Demosthenes questioning him of certaine words which he had pronounced something rare and strange was in this sort answered by him That the fortunes of Greece depended not upon them Only thus much I will adde to reclaime him who more curiously than pertinently insisteth rather on Words than Substance that as there is no man but would esteeme him for an indiscreet builder who preferreth the care of his frontispice before the maine foundation or such an one for a foolish Painter who bestoweth more art upon the varnish than the picture so whosoever intendeth his care rather to finde out words than matter may bee holden for a verball Rhetorician but no serious Orator To be short if you will have my opinion touching the use of words I esteeme such to be most elegant which are least affected for there is a native propriety of Speech which best becomes us being adorned with such ornaments as grace our discourse better than adulterate art which many times bestowes so much time upon beautifying her selfe as shee forgers whom shee should serve VVee are now to descend briefly to the last though not least vanitie incident to Youth and it is Habit or Attire Wherein I have not a little wondered falling now and then into more serious meditation with my selfe how any man having reflex by the eye of his Soule to his first fall should glory in these robes or raggs of shame being purposely invented to cover his sinne Sin indeed for had not man sinned his shame had never beene discovered Poore Fig-leaues were then the onely shelter to shroud from shame this miserable sinner Then was Adam his owne Taylour and stood not much on fashion so his nakednesse might finde a cover Come then and heare mee thou perfumed Gallant whose sense chiefly consists in sent and observe how much thou derogat'st from thy owne worth the covering a shell of corruption with such bravery All gorgeous Attire is the attire of sinne it declines from the use for which it was ordained to wit Necessity and dilates it selfe purposely to accomplish the desire of vanity Forraine Nations on whose flowry borders the glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell hath not as yet shined though for their Silkes and Sables none more plenteous or precious yet with
fancy to her heart There is small doubt but those experimentall Maxims hold constantly currant That the very state and composure of the mind is to be seene in the cariage and posture of the body And that by the gesture and composition of the body is to be discovered the quality and disposition of the mind So as were one as cunning in his carriage as Tiberius was in his who could walke in the Clouds to his friends and with pretended glozes delude his foes Or as subtile as that Apostate Iulian whom Gregory Nazianzen called a Chamelion because hee could change himselfe into all shapes and colours or as crafty as Herod Antipas that cunning Foxe who could ingratiate himselfe with his foes for his owne ends yet in the secretst and subtilest carriage of all these wee shall ever find by the outward gesture some probable appearance of the inward temper Ambition cannot walke so privately nor retyre her selfe from the eyes of men so cunningly nor deceive a weake eye so much with a seeming Humility but some action or other will draw out to life his Anatomy Themistocles may walke in the night and have none but the Moone and Stars to be his Spectators yet for all this there be such observing Spies and Pioners within him as the night cannot bee so darke nor his retired thoughts so close but humane eyes may see him and discover too the necessitie of his walke for they find by his discontented looke and ambitious gate that Miltiades triumph will not suffer him to sleepe So as no sooner doe his inward thoughts betray him then his outward eyes display him Every trifling action becomes his Discoverer every weake passion or broken fancy breaths forth the quality of his distemper Let me Gentlewomen returne againe to you and make such usefull Application of these as may improve you Stand your minds affected to publike assemblies or private visits Doe these Enterludes or pastimes of the time delight you Begin you to dis-affect a Countrey life and with a night perswasive Rhetorick to incline the affections of your easie Husbands to plant in the Citie and to leave their ancient Mannor-houses sometimes memorable for Hospitality Trust me these are no promising Arguments of Modesty Plants transplanted doe seldome prosper and Beauty exposed to all hazards highly endangers the preservation of Honour Cities and places of great confluence have brought to composed minds much prejudice especially where a Recession or Diversion from imployment leaves the mind to talke with it selfe without bestowing it selfe on any usefull designe publike or private Nay by estranging her acquaintance from good company whose advice might assist her whose precepts might informe her and whose pleasing harmelesse discourse might delight her And in exchange of such friendly Consorts entertaine society with light fantastick spirits from whom no other profit can bee derived then what Vanity hath suggested and the conceit of a deluded fancy hatched O how many have preserved their reputes untouched their names unquestioned their fames unblemished during their reside in the Countrey who by entring acquaintance with light fashions and loose Consorts incurred much infamy But as it is not the Place but Grace which workes most effectually with the soule be it your care to intend your inward cure your pretence for the Citie may be physick but if that physick of your bodies beget in your minds an infirmity it had beene much better for you to have retained still those sickly bodies you had in the Countrey then by so dangerous a recovery to labour of a farre worser malady in the Citie That sententious Petrarch could say It made no great matter how the outward house alluding to the body fared so the inward house alluding to the soule flourished how the outward subsisted so the inward were supported Yea we shall observe how the decay or decrease of the one becomes many times the repaire and increase of the other For too much agility of body begets now and then a debility in the soule Restraine then your eyes from those outward Objects which may any way darken the Prospect of your inward house It is one of our especiall cares in our Architecture that our houses bee pleasantly seated and to faire prospects dilated And we hold it an unneighbourly Office that any one whose contignate dwelling boundeth or butteth neere us should upon any new superstructure or late erected story darken the light of our windowes This must not be endured the Questmon must be informed the wrong done us must be aggravated nothing omitted to have the injury of our Lesser-lights reformed and our unsufferable wrongs as wee immeritedly account them redressed Mean time any ill disposed Neighbour any vicious or distempered Intruder may at will and pleasure incroach upon the liberty of our higher Rooms these glorious structures of our soules Pride may damp and darken our Lights by over-topping them Avarice may stop and straiten our Lights by soiling them Riot may close and clot up our Lights by cloying them Lust may raze and deface our Lights by peeping and peering through them Wrath may bruise and break down our Lights by assailing them Envie may obscure nay immure our Lights by interposing them And Sloath like a more fruitlesse then harmelesse weed may blanch and blemish our Lights by over-spreading them Come then Ladies let me become your watchfull Bel-man Hang out your Lights The night you walke in is very darke and dangerous bee those Assailants to the Court of Honour which encounter you Lay aside those Love-sports which your deluded fancies dictate to you and falsely tell you that they infinitely become you Lay aside I say those numerous Love-sport trifles distinguished by these idolatrous titles your favour your Fancy your Complexion your Affection your Dasie Pancy Mirrha Venus and Phoebe O exchange these Love-babies with divine graces This will incomparably become you and make you amiable in his sight who made you Suffer not your eyes to wander but fixe upon that Centre where all Mortality must of necessity take harbour Obstruite quinque fenestras ut luceat domus Saint Hierome gives this excellent testimonie of that devout Woman Asella who being confined to a Cell enjoyed the whole circumference of Heaven Though I doe not limit you to a Cell I would have your thoughts confined to one Orbe seeing they cannot be circumscribed by any limit but Heaven Thus farre have I addressed my discourse to you for composing your affections and contriving your fancy to your Choice whose election admits no Change I am now to caution you and that briefly of a dangerous Guest which like the Snake in the Fable many times disturbs the quiet of a whole house And this is violent and distempered passion The indiscreet fury of some Wives have made Prodigals of frugall men Yea those who never knew what a loose or debauched course meant nor were much addicted to any liberty became uncivill and irregular by their
what indifferencie doe they use these riches It may be you will object that Art hath not as yet showne her cunning amongst them so as their neglect of fashion meerely proceedeth from want of skilfull Artists to introduce the forme or fashion of other Countries by meanes of civill government more curious and exquisite to their people But I shall prove that by impregnable arguments how this contempt of pride is naturally planted in them yea with what scorne and derision they looke upon other Countries usually affected to this delicacie and effeminacie in apparell Such as have travelled and upon exact survey of the Natures of forraine Countries have brought the rich fraught of knowledge stored with choicest observations to their native home have confirmed this for they have found such contempt in other Nations touching these fruitlesse vanities wherein wee idolatrize our owne formes as it strucke admiration in them as their Records to this day extâ—nt doe apparantly witnesse To instance some whereof as the Ruffian Muscovian Ionian yea even the barbarous Indian it may appeare with what reservancie they continue their ancient Habit loth it seemes to introduce any new custome or to lose their antiquity for any vaine-glorious or affected Novelty with a joynt uniformity as it seemes resolved Tam in cultu Numiuis quà m apparatu corporis moribus legibusque uti praesentibus etiamsi deteriores sint But leaving them because we will a while insist upon prophane authorities let us reflect our dim eyes bleared with the thicke scales of vanity to those Divine Sages whose excellent instructions no lesse imitable than admirable merit our approbation and observation It is reported by Laertius that on a time Croesus having adorned and beautified himselfe with the most exquisite ornaments of all kinds that either Art or cost could devise and sitting on a high Throne to give more grace or lustre to his person demanded of Solon if he ever saw a sight more beautifull Yes quoth hee House-cockes Phesants and Peacokes for they are clothed with a naturall splendour or beauty bestowed on them by Nature without any borrowed elegancie The like contempt appeared in Eutrapelus who valued the internall beauty of his minde more than the adulterate varnish of Art Besides hee was of this opinion that hee could not doe his foe a greater injury than bestow on him the preciousest garments he had to make him forgetfull of himselfe and his owne frailtie whose nature the Poet excellently describeth thus The Sage Eutrapelus right wisely bad His foes should have the richest robes he had Thinking he did them harme himselfe much good For given they made him humble them more proud Amongst many profitable Lawes enacted by Numa the Law Sumptuaria conferred no small benefit upon the State publique For by that Law was prohibited not onely all profuse charge in Funerall expences but likewise the excessive use of Apparell whereby the Roman state grew in short time to great wealth labouring to suppresse those vices which usually effeminate men the most to wit delicacie in fare and sumptuousnesse in attire Now there be many I know who invent fashions meerely to cover their deformities as Iulius Caesar wore a garland of Laurell to cover his baldnesse withall and these seeme excusable but they are not for did not hee who made thee bestow this forme on thee Could not he have stamped thee to the most exquisite or absolute feature if it had so pleased thy Creator And wilt thou now controule thy Maker and by art supply the defects of Nature Beware of this evill I can prescribe thee a better and safer course how to rectifie these deformities Hast thou a crooked body repaire it with an upright soule Art thou outwardly deformed with spirituall graces be thou inwardly beautified Art thou blinde or lame or otherwise maimed be not therewith dejected for the Blinde and Lame were invited It is not the outward proportion but the inward disposition not the feature of the face but the power of grace which worketh to salvation Alcibiades Socrates scholar was the best favoured Boy in Athens yet to use the Philosophers words looke but inwardly into his body you will finde nothing more odious So as one compared them aptly these faire ones I meane to faire and beautifull Sepulchers Exteriùs nitida interiùs faetida outwardly hansome inwardly noisome Notable was that observation of a learned Philosopher who professing himselfe a Schoolmaster to instruct Youth in the principles and grounds of Philosophie used to hang a looking-glasse in the Schoole where he taught wherein he shewed to every scholar he had his distinct feature or physnomy which he thus applied If any one were of a beautifull or amiable countenance hee exhorted him to answere the beauty and comlinesse of his face with the beauty of a well-disposed or tempered minde if otherwise he were deformed or ill featured he wished him so to adorne and beautifie his minde that the excellencie of the one might supply the defects or deformities of the other But thou objectest How should I expresse my descent my place or how seeme worthy the company of eminent persons with whom I consort if I should sleight or disvalue this general-affected vanity Fashion I will tell thee thou canst not more generously I will not say generally expresse thy greatnesse of descent place or quality nor seeme better worthy the company with whom thou consortest or frequentest than by erecting the glorious beames of thy minde above these inferiour things For who are these with whom thou consortest meere triflers away of time bastard slips degenerate impes consumers of their patrimony and in the end for what other end save misery may attend them Heires to shame and infamy These I say who offer their Morning prayers to the Glasse eying themselves so long till Narcissus-like they fall in love with their owne shadowes And many times like that wrethed Lady if any deformity chance to blemish their beauty they no sooner eye their glasse than the discovery of their deformity brings them to a fearefull frency O England what a height of pride art thou growne to yea how much art thou growne unlike thy selfe when disvaluing thy owne forme thou deformest thy selfe by borrowing a plume of every Country to display thy pie-coloured flag of vanity What painting purfling powdring and pargeting doe you use yee Idols of vanity to lure and allure men to breake their first faith forsake their first love and yeeld to your immodesty How can you weepe for your sinnes saith Saint Hierome when your teares will make furrowes in your face With what confidence do you lift up that countenance to heaven which your Maker acknowledges not Doe not say that you have modest minds when you have immodest eyes Death hath entred in at your windowes your eyes are those cranies those hatefull portals those fatall entrances which Tarpeia-like by betraying the glorious fortresse or citadell of your
is their love to the Court This moved his Highnesse of late to declare his gracious pleasure to our Gentry that all persons of ranke and quality should retire from the Citty and returne to their Countrey where they might bestowe that on Hospitality which the liberty of the time too much besotted with fashion and forraine imitation useth to disgorge on vanity Their ancient Predecessours whose chiefest glory it was to releeve the hungrie refresh the thirstie and give quiet repose to the weary are but accounted by these sweet-sented Humorists for men of rusticke condition meere home-spun fellowes whose rurall life might seeme to derogate from the true worth of a Gentleman whose onely humour is to be phantastically humorous O the misery of errour how farre hath vanity carried you astray ye generous spirits that you should esteeme noble bountie which consists not so much in Bravery as Hospitality boorish Rusticitie How much are you deluded by apish formalitie as if the only qualitie of a Gentleman were novell complement or as if there were no good in man besides some outlandish congie or salute Alas Gentlemen is this all that can be expected at your hands Must your Countrey which bred you your friends who love you the poore whose prayers or curses will attend you be all deprived of their hopes in you No rather returne to your Houses where you may best expresse your Bountie by entertaining into your bosome that which perchance hath beene long time estranged from you Charitie For beleeve it as assuredly yee shall finde it that your sumptuous Banquetting your midnight revelling your unseasonable rioting your phantasticke attiring your formall courting shall witnesse against you in the day of revenge For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with breacheâ— and the little house with clefts Returne therefore before the evill day come distribute to the Necessitie of the Saints become good Dispensers of what you have received that yee may gaine your selves grace in the high Court of Heaven But as for yee that put farre away the evill day and approach to the Seat of iniquitie Ye that sing to the sound of the Viâ—ll and invent your selves instruments of Musicke yee shall goe captive with the first that goe captive O miserie that Man with so beauteous an Image adorned with such exquisite ornaments of Art and Nature accomplished to so high a ranke above others advanced should delude himselfe so with the shade of vanitie as to become forgetfull of his chiefest glory But experience I doubt not will unseale those eyes which lightnesse and folly have blinded till which happie discovery of Youthfull errour I leave them and returne to my former Discourse You may perceive now how requisite Bountie is for a Gentleman being an especiall marke as I observed before whereby we may discerne him Amongst sundrie other Blessings conferred by God on Solomon this was not one of the least in that he gave him a large heart Not onely abundance of substance and treasure to possesse but a large heart to dispose Indeed this is a rare vertue worldlings there are who possesse much but they enjoy little becomming subject to that which they should command The difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one Carendo the other Non fruendo Of which two the greater misery is the latter for he slaves himselfe to the unworthiest Servitude being a Servant to obey where he should be a Master to command To conclude this point in a word if wee ought to shew such contempt to all earthly substance as hardly to entertaine it much lesse affect it let us make it a benefit let us shew humanitie in it by making choice of the poore on whom we may bestow it This which we waste in rioting might save many from famishing let us bestow therefore lesse of our own backs that we may cloth them lesse of our owne bellies that we may feed them lesse of our owne palats that we may refresh them For that 's the best and noblest bountie when our Liberalitie is on such bestowed by whom there is no hope that it should be required THe third and last marke whereby a true generous Disposition is distinguished is Fortitude or sloutnesse being indeed the argument of a prepared or composed minde which is not to be dismayed or disturbed by any sharpe or adverse thing how crosse or contrary soever it come Excellently is this Fortitude defined by the Stoicks terming it a vertue which standeth ever in defence of equitie not doing but repelling an injurie Those Heires of true Honour who are possest of this vertue dare oppose themselves to all occurrents in defence of reputation preferring death before servitude and dishonour If at any time as many times such immerited censures occurre they die for vertues cause they meet death with a cheerefull countenance they put not on a childish feare like that Bandite in Genoa who condemned to die and carried to the place of execution trembled so exceedingly that he had two men to support him all the way and yet he shivered extremely Or as Maldonatuâ—â— relates how he heard of those which saw a strongman at Paris condemned to death to sweat bloud for very feare proving out of Aristotle that this effect may bee naturall But these whose generous spirits scorne such basenesse never saw that enterprise which they durst not attempt nor that death which could amate them where Honour grounded on Vertue without which there is no true Honour moved them either to attempt or suffer But now to wipe off certaine aspersions laid on valour or fortitude wee are not to admit of all daring Spirits to be men of this ranke For such whose Ambition excites them to attempt unlawfull things as to depose those whom they ought to serve or lay violent hand on those whom loyall fidelitie bids them obey opposing themselves to all dangers to obtaine their purpose are not to be termed valiant or resolute but seditious and dissolute For unlesse the enterprise be honest which they take in hand be their Spirits never so resolute or their minds prepared it is rashnesse but not valour having their actions ever suted by dishonour Sometimes likewise the enterprize may be good and honest the cause for which they encounter with danger vertuous the Agents in their enterprize couragious yet the issue taste more of despaire than valour Example hereof wee have in the Macchabees in the death of Razis one of the Elders of Ierusalem a lover of the City and a man of very good report which for his love was called a Father of the Iewes One who did offer to spend his body and life with all constancie for the religion of the Iewes yet being ready to be taken on every side through the fury of Nicanor who so eagerly assaulted and hotly pursued him he fell on his Sword yea when his bloud was utterly
the performance hereof as appeareth in the foresaid place and the nexet ensuing verse where he saith You shall doe all that I have commanded you that your dayes may be multiplyed and the dayes of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth Marke the extent of this Blessing for it promiseth not onely length of dayes to them that performe it but even to the children of them that performe it and that in no unfruitfull or barren land but in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them and that for no short time but so long as the heavens are above the earth So as this blessed promise or promised blessing is as one well observeth not restrained but with an absolute grant extended so that even as the people that were in the gate and the Elders wished in the solemnizing of that mariage betwixt Boaz and Ruth that their house might be like the house of Pharez so doubtlesse whosoever meditates of the Law of the Lord making it in his Family as a familiar friend to direct him a faithfull counsellor to instruct him a sweet companion to delight him a precious treasure to enrich him shall find successe in his labours and prosperitie in the worke of his hands But amongst all as it is the use of Masters of housholds to call their servants to account for the day past so be sure Gentlemen and you who are Masters of houses to enter into your owne hearts by a serious examination had every night what you have done or how you have imployed your selves and those Talents which God hath bestowed on you the day past in imitation of that blessed Father who every night examined himselfe calling his soule to a strict account after this manner O my soule what hast thou done this day What good hast thou omitted what evill hast thou committed what good which thou shouldst have done what evill which thou shouldst not have done Where are the poore thou hast releeved the sicke or captive thou hast visited the Orphan or Widow thou hast comforted Where are the naked whom thou hast cloathed the hungry whom thou hast refreshed the afflicted and desolate whom thou hast harboured O my soule when it shall be demanded of thee Quid comedit pauper how poorely wilt thou looke when there is not one poore man that will witnesse thy almes Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi nudus quem amiti victi how naked wilt thou appeare when there is not one naked soule that will speake for thee Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi sitiens quem potasti esuriens quem pavisti Vbi captivus quem visitasti Vby moestus quem relevasti O my soule how forlorne wretched and uncomfortable will thy condition be when there shall not appeare so much as one witnesse for thee to expresse thy charity not one poore soule whom thou hast releeved one naked whom thou hast cloathed nor one thirstie whom thou hast refreshed nor one hungry whom thou hast harboured nor a captive whom thou hast visited nor one afflicted whom thou hast comforted Thus to call your selves to account by meditating ever with Saint Hierome of the judgement day will be a meanes to rectifie your affections mortifie all inordinate motions purifie you throughout that you may be examples of piety unto others in your life and heires of glory after death concluding most comfortably with the foresaid Father If my mother should hang about me my father lye in my way to stop me my wife and children weepe about me I would throw off my mother neglect my father contemne the lamentation of my wife and children to meet my Saviour Christ Iesus For the furtherance of which holy resolution let no day passe over your heads wherein you addresse not your selves to some good action or imployment Wherefore Apelles posie was this Let no day passe without a line Be sure every day you doe some good then draw one line at the least according to that Line upon line line upon line And Phythagoras posie was this Sit not still upon the measure of corne Doe not looke to eat except you sweat for it according to that Hee which will not worke let him not eat In my Fathers house saith Christ are many mansions So that no man may sing his soule a sweet requiem saying with that Cormorant in the Gospel Soule take thy rest for in heaven onely which is our Fathers house there are many mansions to rest in In this world which is not of our Fathers house there are not many mansions to rest in but onely Vine-yards to worke in Wherein because not to goe forward is to goe backeward we are to labour even to the day of our change Hereupon Charles the fifth gave this Embleme Stand not still but goe on further Vlterius as God saith to his guest Superius Sit not still but sit up higher Doing thus and resolving to be no masters over that Family whose chiefest care is not the advancement of Gods glory you shall demeane your selves being here worthy that Vocation or calling over which you are placed and afterwards by following hard toward the marke obtaine the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Of the difference of Recreations Of the moderate and immoderate use of Recreation Of the Benefits redounding from the One and inconveniences arising from the Other Of Recreations best sorting with the qualitie of a Gentleman And how he is to bestow himselfe in them RECREATION RECREATION being a refresher of the mind and an enabler of the body to any office wherein it shall bee imployed brancheth it selfe into many kinds as Hawking which pleasure one termed the object of a great mind whose aymes were so farre above earth as he resolves to retire a while from earth and make an evening flight in the ayre Hunting where the Hounds at a losse shew themselves subtill Sophisters arguing by their Silence the game came not here againe by being mute it came not there Ergo by spending their mouthes it came here Fishing which may be well called the Embleme of this world where miserable man like the deluded fish is ever nibbling at the bait of vanitie Swimming an exercise more usuall than naturall and may have resemblance to these diving heads who are ever sounding the depths of others secrets or swimming against the streame may glance at such whose only delight is opposition Running a Recreation famously ancient solemnized by the continued succession or revolution of many ages upon the Olympiads in Greece so as the accompt or yearly computation came from Races and other solemne games used on Olympus Wrastling Leaping Dancing and many other Recreations of like sort as they were by the continuance of many yeares upon
frailty is the soveraignest means to weane man from vaine glory Whence it was that Themistoâ—les when Symachus told him that he would teach him the Art of memory answered He had rather learne the Art of forgetfulnesse saying he could remember enough but many things he could not forget which were necessary to be forgotten as the over-weening conceit of himselfe the glory of his exploits and merits of his actions the memory whereof tended more to his prejudice than profit But to descend to the particular inconveniences occasioned by immoderate Recreation we shall find both the Mind and Body as by Moderation cheered and refreshed so by Immoderation annoyed and distempered It was a good rule which those great men of Rome observed in their Feastings and Cup-meetings Wee will drinke not to drowne us but to drowne care in us Not to reave sense but revive sense Not as those who are ever carousing in the Cup of Nepenthe steeping their senses in the Lethe of forgetfulnesse For these like those base Elyots slaved to ebriety have buried that glory of man the reasonable part in the lees of sensuality These are so farre from standing upon their guard as the Divell may safely enter either upon the Fore-ward or Rere-ward without resistance for mans security is the Divels opportunity which he will not slip though man sleep I read of one Leonides a Captaine who perceiving his souldiers left their watch upon the Citie wals and did nothing all the day long but quaffe and tipple in Ale-houses neere adjoyning commanded that the Ale-houses should be removed being the Cittadels wherein they resided from that place where they stood and set up close by the wals that seeing the souldiers would never keepe out of them at the least-wise that they might watch as well as drinke in them These were souldiers fit for such a Captaine and a Captaine worthy the training of such souldiers being one who could sort himselfe to the necessity of the time and frame himselfe to their humour when hee could not bring them off with more honour yet hee brought them to stand upon their guard though they could hardly stand to their tackling so as I conclude their March could not chuse but be lazie when their heads were so heavie Generally but irregularly is this broad-spreading vice of Drunkennesse holden now a-dayes for a Recreation so deepely rooted is the custome of impiety being once strengthned by impunity For what is our Sabbath Recreation in City and Countrey but drinking and carousing imagining belike that the Sabbath cannot be profaned if wee use not such workes or labours wherein our Vocation is usually imployed If the Iewes made the Temple of God a Den of theeves wee come neere them in making that our Temple which gives harbour unto theeves For what are our City or Countrey Ale-houses for most part but the Divels Booths where all enormities are acted all impieties hatched all mischievous practises plotted and contrived These are those sinkes of sinne where all pollution and uncleannesse raigneth where fearfull oathes and profanation rageth whence all sensuall liberty ariseth O Gentlemen let not this professed friend to security attend you It wil make you unlike your selves transforming that glorious image which you have received like Circes guests who became Swine by being too sensually affected It was sage Cleobulus saying That ones servant made merry with wine was not to bee punished for saith hee in seeing him thou shalt see thy folly of drunkennesse all the better Whence it was that some Countries have formerly used though the custome seeme scarcely approved to make their slaves or vassals drunke to shew unto their children the brutish condition of that vice whereby they might be the better weaned and deterred from that which through the liberty of Youth is usually affected For if we should but observe the brain-sicke humours of these professed Drunkards wee would rather admire how reason should bee so strangely drenched and drowned in the lees of senselesse stupidity than ever be drawne to become affecters of so loathsome a vice Yet see the misery of deluded man how many and those of excellentest parts have beene and are besotted with this sinne for who ever lived and shewed more absolute perfection in action and person than that great Conqueror and Commander of the whole world Alexander the Great Yet what uncomely parts playd he in his Drunkennesse How full of noble affability and princely courtesie being sober How passionately violent once fallen to distemper Witnesse the burning of Persepolis to which cruell attempt hee was perswaded by a common and profest Strumpet even Thais whom all Greece had noted for a publike prostitute Likewise his killing of Clitus being one whom he so dearely affected as he was never well but when he enjoyed his Company Of both which facts he so repented as it was long ere hee would be comforted Neither only such as he who was a Souldier and therefore might seeme rather to claime in some sort a liberty in this kind for of all others we observe such as these to be more addicted to these distempers than others whose more civill and peaceable conversation have inur'd them to better temper but even those I say whose sincerity of life and severity of discipline had gained them all esteeme in their Countrey have beene likewise branded with this aspersion As Censorius Cato than whom none more strict or regular Asinius Pollio than whom none more gracious or popular Solon than whom none more legall Archesilaus than whom none more formall Yet if we did but note how much this vice was by the Pagans themselves abhorred and how they laboured to prevent the very meanes whereby this vice might be either cherished or introduced wee would wonder that moderation in a Heathen should be so weakly seconded by a Christian. Amongst them 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 And how much it was hated may appeare by the testimony of Macrobius who saith That there were two Senatours 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 be a Drunkard was more infamy Thus you see even in Pagans who had but onely the light of Nature to direct them how loath they were to drowne the light of reason through drunkennesse being indeed as a good Father well observeth An enemy to the knowledge of God To conclude then this first point may it be farre from you Gentlemen to deprive your selves of that which distinguisheth you from beasts make not that an exercise or Recreation which refresheth not but
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
Timonists Fawners nor Frowners For the first sort they are for all seasons and all weathers so as they may be fitly compared to the Hedge-hogge who hath two holes in his fiedge one towards the South another towards the North now when the Southerne wind blowes hee stops up that hole and turnes him Northward when the North wind blowes hee stops up that hole likewise and turnes him againe Southward Such Vrchins are all Temporizers they turne as the winde blowes and sute themselves for every occasion These friends or Acquaintance who follow not us but ours will be seene in all Liveries Princes have felt the inconveniency of them and inferiour States have not beene free from them but the highest States generally are most subject to these reteiners For Princes by experience we have seene Abused most where most their trust hath beene Now there are two kinds of Princes saith Comines the one are so cautelous and suspicious as they are scarce to bee endured for they are almost come to that passe as they thinke themselves ever deluded and circumvented Such was Dionysius the tyrant of Syracusa who grew so suspicious as he would not trust any Barber to shave him causing his own daughters to learne to shave Others there bee who are so farre from harbouring suspicion as being of a dull and lumpish wit they scarce understand what is commodious for them and what not Such was Domitian who cared more for catching of flies then reteining of friends being so farre from preventing danger as he never fore-saw it till hee felt it In these there is small constancy of mind for as they easily discontinue friendship they as easily decline from hatred and embrace friendship Constantine the great being a profest foe to all these Timists or temporizing Sycophants was wont to call them Gnats and Moths that pester a Princes Palace So aspiring be their aimes so base their meanes Who like base Beetles as they have begun In every Cowsheard nestle neare the Sun Whence as it may bee probably gathered was that sentence derived Amici Curiae Parasiti Curiae fawning rather then friending tendring onely love where they hope to receive gaine Thâ—se as they have Ianus front for they carry two faces under one hood so have they Sâ—mâ—ns heart professing love but practising hate of which sort the ever-living Homer thus concludeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's nought on earth I more detest Then sugred breath in Serpents brest Whence it was that the great spiâ—ited Byron who shewed more passion then resolution at his death howsoever during all his time none was ever held for a more brave or noble Souldier perceiving his trust as he collected betrayed by La Fin with whom he had conspired and by whom his practice was disclosed he confessed that La Fin had bewitched him exhorting his hoast to be warie of him leâ—â— he should delude and circumvent him with his impostures For certainly as more expresly appeared not only at the time of his execution but in all the passages of his practice as hee had reposed great trust in La Fin in the whole management of that busines so having seen his trust weakned and those many protestations of amity infringed though in practises of that nature there can be no true league of friendship it moved him no lesse to impatience then the discovery of his teason But these fawning friends or Timists which wee have now in quest as they are onely for the present time so will they undertake many times the most enormous and indirect course to raise their hopes that can bee devised When the rash aspiring Catiline had promised to divulge those new tables wherein were contained the Proscription of the rich Magistracies Priest-hoods rapines and all other insolencies which either the shocke of warre or will of the Conquerour gives way to hee had followers enow upon the instant to second him in his hatefull courses being such as either his youth had made him acquainted with or his dissolute course had consorted with which unhappy followers made him doubtlesse more violent in his attempts and lesse considerate in his directions How needfull then is it to prevent the occasion of so maine an inconvenience How expedient is it to avoid the frequent or society of such as will not sticke to be assistants in mischiefe How consequent a thing is it to weane ones selfe not onely from their familiarity and inward acquaintance but even from so much as conversing with them or writing to them Themistocles was suspected to be knowne to Pausanias treason although most cleare of himselfe because he wrote unto him For as the nature of man is originally depraved so by consorting with vicious men the arme of sinne becomes strengthned The Fuller as it is in the fable would by no meanes suffer the Collier to dwell with him under one roofe lest he should soile what he had rinsed Which Fable hath a morall relation to the course of our life and the nature of such as we usually confort with for there is a traffique or commerce as well of manners as persons of vertues and viâ—es as other commodities The Babylonian had beene naturally said to bee arrogant the Theban passionate the Iew envious the Tyrian covetous the 〈◊〉 rioter the Egyptian a sorcerer neither did these nations keepe these vices to themselves for they induced others likewise to whom they had recourse and commerce to be affected to the like for the very Egyptians had so bewitched Caesar himselfe with their illusions as hee gave great attention to them as Alexander was delighted with the Brachmanes For vice is such an over-growing or wild spreading weed as there is no soile wherein it likes not no kinde of nature of what temper soever it invades not and invading surprizeth not To the body diseases are infectious to the mind are vices no lesse obnoxious for vices are the diseases of the Minde as infirmities breed distempers and diseases to the Body So as whether we observe the state of Church or Common-weale we shall find vices to be of a nature no lesse spreading then diseases neither the state or Symptome of the mind lesse endangered by the infusion of the one then the body by the infection of the other For as the state Politicke is much weakned by the haunt of these vices so is that mourning Dove the Church many times afflicted to see her selfe torn with Schismes and divisions whereas Waspes make honey-combes so Marcionists make Churches How needfull then is it to divide our selves from the consorts of vice without entertaining the least occasion that might induce us to give consent to her followers Augustus wore ever about him for preservative against thunder a Seales skinne which Plinie writes checketh lightning as Tiberius wore alwayes about his necke a Wreath of Laurell But let us carry about us that Moli or herbe of grace whose precious juyce may
come to trade or commerce with us arrive purposely to note what strength is amongst us No these are Factors of better temper and more honesty hating deceit though that might enrich them scorning the Mountebankes trade though that might draw customers to them discarding all inconsiderate Factors who give money for feathers though in fooling others they might gaine by them casheering all Sea-sharkes who by pyraticall practices use to support them excluding all dangerous Spies who to discover others weaknesse purposely embarke them In briefe would you have their character They can discourse of novelties without affectation impart their minds freely without dissimulation valuing no losse so great as the hazard of their reputation These are those friends which deserve your choice and acceptance These are they who as upon good grounds you have made choice of so should you be constant in your choice For you are not to be so light in the choice of your Acquaintance as in the choice of your fashion where every giddy head sorts himselfe to what is newest not what is neatest for so should you be ever choosing and farre from constancy in choosing Rather having got a friend and proved him first in matters of small weight and afterwards in affaires of greater consequence labour by all meanes to reteine him for you have found a treasure Forsake not this old friend for the new is not comparable unto him You have got a friend proved and tried him to be no ambitious man for ambition is fearefull and for the least crosse of fortune will forsake true friendship You have got a friend proved and tried him to be no covetous man for covetousnesse selleth fellowship faith and honesty to conclude you have got a friend who will not by glozing deceive you by aiming at his owne private ends entrap you by hunting after popular prayse disvalue you or by consorting with Politike heads endanger you Keepe him then and be constant in your choice holding him so firmely knit unto you as if hee were individually united to your selfe for a friend provided that hee be such an one as wee have charactred him is a second-selfe and therefore as impossible to be divided from you as you from your selfe And may this suffice to be spoken touching constancy in the choice of Acquaintance wherein as wee ought to be circumspect in our choice so ought wee to be constant having had proof of the faithfulness of our choice THere is nothing which argues more indiscretion then an aptnesse of discovering our selves so as wee are advised in getting a friend to prove him first and not to be hasty to credit him For albeit the precept may seeme generall The secrets of our friend wee may not discover which is confirmed by the Sonne of Sirach Who discovereth secrets loseth his credit and findeth no friend after his will yet how many are there who either through weaknesse that they cannot conceale or through unfaithfulnesse as they will not have brought their friends to extremest hazard Yea not onely our common friends but even those who sleepe in our own bosome as Dalilah plaid with Samson either simply or subtilly will discover our secret'st counsels to our enemy so as wee may take up the complaint of Samson which hee made in the discovery of his Riddle If hee had not plowed with our Heifer hee had not found out our Riddle Had not that Woman by the River of Soreke that subtill Dalilah betrayed his trust how invincible had Samson remayned no lesse powerfull to his friends then fearefull to his enemies Whence we may gather how dangerous it is to discover the secrets of our heart even to those to whom we have engaged our heart for wee ought not to give our friend power over us This is seconded by a divine precept Give not thy sonne and wife thy brother and friend power over thee while thou livest and give not away thy substance to another lest it repent thee and thou intreat for the same againe Whence wee are advised to a two-fold reservancy first in concealing our secrets secondly in reteining our substance For the first hee explaines himselfe more fully in the ensuing verse As long as thou livest and hast breath give not thy selfe over to any person For the second hee gives a reason in the end of the former verse Give not away thy substance to another lest it repent thee and thou intreat for the same againe Of which two parts and the Reservancy which we are to observe in either my purpose is briefly and plainely to intreat and first of the first to wit Reservancy of secrets wherein I will be as briefe as the quality of the Subject will suffer me It is said of Geese that when at the change of seasons they passe from Cilicia over the mountaine Taurus which abounds with Eagles they carry stones in their bills for feare their cry should discover them to their enemies Reason should teach us that which Nature hath instructed them lest by diverting from the rule of reason we become inferiour to them who never had the use of reason For there is nothing which detracts more from the glory of man than by too prodigall a discovery of himselfe to lay himselfe open to the trust of another so as it may bee positively averred There is nothing that betrayeth a man so much to ruine as his owne credulity Dionysius gave straight commandement the head of Brias one of the Gentlemen of his Chamber should bee cut off for telling Plato who had demanded of him what the Tyrant did That he had stripped himselfe by reason of the heat and was painting in a Table So tender were Princes of the discovery of their actions even in affaires of indifferency Let us imitate therefore that Grecian of former times who being told that his breath did smell answered It was by reason of the many Secrets which had a long while lain rotting and putrefying within him Let our bosome the recluse of Secrets be like the Lions den in the Apologue towards the mouth whereof the prints and prickings of sundry sorts of beasts might easily be discerned Sed nulla retrorsum but from thence none at all Let us alwaies talke with Harpocrates at the signe of the finger on the mouth and learne of Anacharsis that the tongue hath need of more strong restraint than Nature Let us not be too curious with them of Bethshemesh in the search of other mens Secrets nor yet too carelesse with Hezekiah in the discovery of our owne Morality giveth us a prohibition for the one and a precept for the other Seeke not to know that Secrecie Thy friend reserved hath But keepe what 's tender'd to thy trust Though drunke with wine and wrath And indeed it is a profanation of duty to publish any thing we should not and too much insinuation to wind our selves into the privacy of others secrets which make knowne wee ought
which they were falling by giving free entrie to the French King wisely in time and but in time expulsed him receiving their unhappy deposed King to avoid an ensuing mischiefe Now the occasion of this discovery though it bee divers wayes conjectured yet the probablest in my opinion is to referre it to the compassion which Count Melin had of the English Nation whose state had beene to the judgement of all men grievously shaken had Lewis as hee was already arrived beene peaceably possessed of the same Now to conclude this point I hold that English Proverbe worthy our remembrance in affaires of Secrecie One may keepe counsell but two cannot implying that it is the safest and surest course to be a mans owne Secretary so shall hee not give his friend power over him but sleepe quietly without feare of discovery having none but his owne brest to betray him to his enemy The second thing which as wee formerly noted requireth a Reservancie in us towards our Acquaintance is a respect to our Substance which should neither be lashed out lavishly nor hoorded up niggardly And herein I have observed a great vanity in young Gentlemen who are no sooner mounted in their fathers saddle or made heiâ—es of his providence then upon purchase of Acquaintance which a young Master cannot want hee begins to squander his revenues upon gifts to feed his thirsty followers but see the issue of these bountifull Novices they change their Acres into peeces and so peece-meale divide them till they fall all into peeces and have not one peece to cover them So as it is true which the Poet hath observed The Prodigall and foole gives what hee scornes and hates And with his state makes other men to glory in their states Wherefore the lesson is good and well deserveth our observationâ— which is given to us by the Son of Sirach that not onely to our friends Acquaintance or the like but even to our children whose naturall respect to their Parents should bind them to be gratefull wee should not bee too forward in distributing our Substance concluding thus For better it is that thy children should pray unto thee then that thou shouldest looke up to the hands of thy children If we be advised to use this Reservancie to our own even those whose naturall affection will enforce bounty at the Parents hand much more to our acquaintance whose pretended semblances or outward protestations many times tend rather by fawning to feed on us then by true profession of friendship to bestead us Oh Gentlemen how many through too easie a hold have exposed themselves as a prey to the avaritious desires of their followers where many times it falleth out that the servant is able to purchase his Master having enriched himselfe by feeding his humour Yet see the unthankefulnesse of many of these having made them a garment of their masters shreads and raised themselves to a great estate by his prodigality they can learne to put on a scornefull countenance towards their landlesse master entertaine him with contempt forget his bounty and ascribe all to their owne thriving providence which proceed meerly from his profusenesse So well can these thriving Timists who raise their fortunes from their masters ruines shape themselves to all times that they may profit by all meanes There are Acquaintance likewise whose aimes as they extend onely to themselves so they will use any indirect course how irregular soever to bring their purpose about And of these wee had a late example even in our owne Countrey and within the wals of this flourishing Citie which example that it might remaine to the memory of succeeding times for the benefit whereof as well as of these present our labours should be addressed I thought good here to set downe There was a young Gentleman whose profuser course having consumed much of his meanes was enforced upon some present extremities urging him to make a morgage of a peece of land which peece was the very last which hee had left him the money being lent and spent and now the un-foreseene day of payment approaching the young Gentleman driven to an exigent made recourse by chance to an ancient Acquaintance of his by trade a Chandler who was a monied man and could find a friend in a corner who upon a commodious bargaine would at any time bestead him of a good Summe Hee the Chandler I meane noting what benefit the Morgage of the young Gentlemans land might be unto him if he redeemed his estate which now lay a bleeding and tooke the Morgage into his owne hand concluded with the Gentleman and releeved his present wants proposing a certaine day for redemption of the said Morgage which was kindly accepted of by the Gentleman little thinking how he fell from the fire into the flame and by avoyding Charybdis had fallen into Scylla The time now drewneer which was limited the Gentleman to redeeme the premisses whence a double care or feare ensued a feare and provident care in the Gentleman of procuring money to redeeme it a feare in the Chandler lest it should be redeemed and so the hopes hee had of so beneficiall a bargaine frustrated Which to prevent marke the impiety of the age even in this one example the Chandler against the day limited and prefixed repaires to a consort of opportunate Agents for his purpose Assassinates fleshed in all mischiefe and ready to embrace any motion or engage themselves in any action which might minister fuell to their riot And these hee acquaints as it seemes their Acquaintance was ancient how hee knew of a rich Bootie for them if they had hearts to attempt and resolutions to effect what their present wants enforced them to attempt They desirous to heare of that booty promising him reward if their purpose came to effect pressed him as little pressing needed to such a base instrument that he would discover where this booty might be purchased Hee imparted his mind freely and told them that such a Gentleman being the same who had made a Morgage of his land unto him was to come provided of a great Summe of money upon such a day and by such a place as gave opportunity for the attempt which they might easily obtaine having none but himselfe and his man to resist them They at the first seemed jealous of him imagining it was some fetch meerly to intrap and circumvent them but being more confident upon his protestations that his purpose was to benefit them not to betray them they generally consented to this plot provided that they might have his company not onely to direct them but share and partake with them whereto the Chandler condescended choosing rather to be an assistant in the practice then prevented of his purpose To be short vizards and disguises were provided and all things fitted that such an attempt might be furthered where by direction of their Leader they tooke their stand where the unfortunate Gentlemen was to passe
and imitation if so be wee deserve the name or title of friends First is If wee see our friend doubtfull or unresolved to advise him if afflicted to comfort him if sick or restrained to visit him if weake in estate or impoverished to relieve him if injured to labour by all means to right him and in all things to be helpefull to him supplying his necessity by apparent testimonies of our approved amity It is reported that on a time Duke Godwin bringing up a service to Edward the Confessors Table he chanced to slip with one of his feete but to recover himselfe with the other whereupon presently he used these words in the Kings hearing One brother supports another O quoth the King so might I have said too if Godwin had not beene meaning that he was the cause of his brothers death whose life was a staffe to his state but his fall a weakning to his feet Certainly every faithfull friend should be as a Brother or as in a naturall body one member ministers aid and succour to another where the head cannot say to the foot I have no need of thee nor the foot to the hand but every one in their distinct and mutuall offices are ready to execute their severall duties So I say should friends and Acquaintance be one to another not in preying or feeding one upon another as if all were fish that came to net for this were to make no difference or distinction betwixt friend or foe but for some intendment of private benefit to dissolve the strict bond of friendship Wheras a friend being indeed a mans second selfe or rather an individuate companion to himselfe for there is one soule which ruleth two hearts and one heart which dwelleth in two bodies should be valued above the rate of any outward good being such a happines as he giveth a relish to the dayes of our pilgrimage which otherwise would seeme like a wildernes for the world as it is both to bee loved and hated loved as it is the worke of the Creator hated as the instrument of temptation unto sinne ministers some few houres of delight to the weary pilgrime by the company and society of friends recourse and concourse of Acquaintance without which comfort how tedious and grievous would these few yeeres of our desolate pilgrimage appeare How highly then are we to value the possession of a good friend who partakes with us in our comforts and discomforts in the frownes and fawnes of fortune shewing himselfe the same both in our weale and woe It is written of Sylla that never any did more good to his friends or more harme to his enemies Which princely courtesie to his friends could not choose but increase them howsoever his extreame courses towards his enemies might seeme rather to inrage than appease them For as remembrance of benefits argues a noble nature so forgetting of injuries having in the meane time power to revenge implies a bravely resolved temper Whence it was that Themistocles when Symmachus told him he would teach him the art of memory answered hee had rather learne the art of forgetfulnesse saying hee could remember enough but many things hee could not forget which were necessary to bee forgotten As the over-weening conceit of himselfe indignities done him by his foes opposition in the quest of honour and the like all which a great minde could hardly brooke being so illimited as he can admit of no corrivall in his pursuit of honour But to descend to the greatest benefit which proceeds from friendship Commerce and Acquaintance we shall find how miserable the state and condition of this flourishing Iland had beene whose Halcyon dayes have attained that prerogative of peace which most parts of Christendome are at this day deprived of had not the friendly compassion and devout zeale of sundry learned and faithfull instruments of Christ delivered her from that palpable blindnesse and Heathenish Idolatry under which she was long detained captive S. Ierome in the end of his Dialogue against the Pelagians writeth thus Vntill the very comming of Christ saies he the Province of Britaine which hath beene oftentimes governed by Tyrants and the Scottish people and all the Nations round about the Ocean Sea were utterly ignorant of Moses and the Prophets So that then by the testimony of S. Ierome all our Religion was superstition all our Church-service was Idolatry all our Priests were Painims all our gods were Idols And to appropriate to every Nation their peculiar god there was then in Scotland the Temple of Mars in Cornwall the Temple of Mercury in Bangor in Wales the Temple of Minerva in Malden in Essex the Temple of Vistoria in Bath the Temple of Apollo in Leycester the Temple of Ianus in Yorke where Peters is now the Temple of Bellona in London where Pauls is now the Temple of Diana Therefore it is very likely that they esteemed as highly then of the Goddesse Diana in London as they did in Ephesus and that as they cried there Great is Diana of the Ephesians so they cried here being deluded with the same spirit Great is Diana of the Londoners Even no more than 53. yeeres before the incarnation of Christ when Iulius Caesar came out of France into England so absurd senselesse and stupid were the people of this Land that in stead of the true and ever-living Lord they served these Heathenish and abominable Idols Mars Mercury Minerva Victoria Apollo Ianus Bellona Diana and such like And not long after Anno Christi 180. King Lucius being first christened himselfe forthwith established Religion in this whole kingdome But thanks thankes be to God in the time of the New Testament three and fifty yeares after the incarnation of Christ when Ioseph of Arimathea came out of France into England many in this Realme of blind and ignorant Pagans became very zealous and sincere Christians For Saint Philip the Apostle after hee had preached the Gospel throughout all France at length sent Ioseph of Arimathea hither into England Who when he had converted very many to the faith died in this Land and hee that buried the body of Christ was buried in Glastenbury himselfe Also Simon Zelotes another Apostle after he had preached the Gospel throughout all Mauritania at length came over into England who when he had declared likewise to us the doctrine of Christ crucified was in the end crucified himselfe and buried here in Britaine About this time Aristobulus one of the seventy Disciples whom Saint Paul mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans was a reverend and renowned Bishop in this Land Also Claudia a noble English Lady whom St. Paul mentioneth in his second Epistle to Timothy was here amongst us a famous professor of the faith Since which time though the civill state hath beene often turned up-side downe by the Romans by the Saxons by the Danes by the Normans yet the Gospel of Christ hath
your Acquaintance for that shewes weaknesse Nor inconstant to those you have chosen for that argues lightnesse Nor too forward in the discovery of your counsels for so you might bee taxed of too much opennesse ever ayming at that absolute end of Acquaintance to profit more and more in the practice of goodnesse So shall God bee your Guide good men your friends and your Countrey where you had education receive much glory from your life and conversation THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Moderation defined No vertue can subsist without it Wherein it is to be used Wherein to be limited Of the accomplished end which attends it MODERATION IN the whole progresse of mans life which is nothing else but a medley of desires and feares wee shall find that there is no one vertue which doth better adorne or beautifie man than Temperance or Moderation which indeed is given as an especiall attribute to man purposely to distinguish him from brute beasts whose onely delight is enjoying the benefit of Sense without any further ayme THis Moderation therefore being a note of distinction betwixt man and beast let us draw neere to the knowledge of this so exquisite a vertue which that wee may the better attaine let us first see how she is defined because every instruction grounded upon reason touching any subject ought to proceed from a definition that we may the better understand what that is whereof wee dispute Moderation is a subduer of our desires to the obedience of Reason and a temperate conformer of all our affections freeing them from the too much subjection either of desires or feares First it causeth our Desires to be subject to the obedience of reason pulling us alwayes by the sleeve and remembring us how wee are men and partake of reason and therefore ought not to subject our Desires to the captivity of Sense as brute beasts which have no reason Secondly it is a conformer of all our affections freeing them from all unworthy subjection either in respect of our Desires or Feares of our Desires as having learned in all things to bee contented whether that portion wherewith God hath blessed us be little or great of our Feares as suffering no worldly thing to be so neerely endeered to us as to feare the losing of it which wee so dearely tender For the first it is an excellent saying of a sage Morall There is no difference betweene having and not desiring for hee that desires nothing injoyes more then hee that possesseth the whole world for his desires are satisfied which the worldling can never be so long as his thoughts and desires are to the objects of earth engaged so as the difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one carendo the other non fruendo whereas if the poore having little desire no more then that little which they have they become rich in desire and enjoy by desiring little more above estimate then the dung-hill wretch whose eyes cannot enjoy themselves for coveting will ever be master of For as men sicke of an Atrophie eat much but thrive not so these though they devoure widowes houses feed upon the fat of the Land lay land unto land and hoord up treasure to enrich a progeny of rioters yet these seldome thrive with the fat of their oppressions but make oft-times as fearefull ends as their beginnings were calme and prosperous It is a singular blessing which the Poet attributes to one who was not onely rich but could enjoy that hee had freely God gave thee wealth and power to use it too Which these Earth-wormes of ours can never doe Neither onely in matters of Desire are wee to entertaine the choice company of Moderation but in our Feares where we many times feare to forgoe what wee already with much content enjoy So as the former direct their ayme to what they have not but the latter stand surprized with feare lest they should leese what they already have the former argues an avaritious mind who can never confine his Desires to what it hath the latter a worldly besotted affection that can never find heart to forgoe what it already enjoyes A Philosopher perceiving Dionysius to sit merrily in the Theater after hee was expulsed his Realme condemned the people who banished him Certainely this Prince shewed an admirable Moderation both in respect of his Desires and Feares first in his Desires extending not his thoughts above that low verge whereto his Tyrannie had forced him nor fearing any succeeding losse being above the reach of greater misery This Moderation appeared in Furius Camillus whom neither honour could too much transport nor disgrace cast downe bearing the former with no lesse temperance then he did the latter with patience and esteeming it his onely conquest to conquer passion in the height of affliction It is likewise a great argument of Moderation when in extremity wee stand prepared to encounter with the worst of danger passing all inducements to feare with a mind no lesse resolute than cheerefull saluting affliction with a smile and entertaining surmises of danger with a jest This did Crassus who being willed by the Arabian guides to make haste before the Moone was past Scorpio But I said hee feare more Sagittarie meaning the Archers of Persia. There is nothing which expresseth more true worth in any man then his constancie and courage in the encounters of this life imitating in this respect Vespasian who upon the instant of his Dissolution when death had summoned him to make present surrender by paying his debt to Nature of that short Lease of life which with many an unquiet houre he had traced standing up upon his feet used these words It became an Emperour to take his leave of earth standing implying that the extremities which either Nature or Fortune could inflict upon him could not so much deject him or by their assaults enforce him to doe ought unworthy himselfe Whence wee are taught and well may this lesson deserve our observation to entertaine this life with patience expecting death with a desired assurance for there is no better meanes to moderate the passions of Desire and Feare then to enter into meditation of the world and withall to consider how there is nothing of that esteeme in the world that may seeme worthy our Desires coveting to have it or worthy our Feare inwardly doubting to lose it This serious consideration will bee of force to move the greatest worldling to a Moderation of his desires subjecting them to the obedience of reason Whereas if hee should give reines to his owne Avarice Ericthous bowels could not containe more in proportion then his in an illimited desire and affection for the World being like a City without a wall a house without a doore a ship without helme a pot without a cover and a horse without a bridle hath brought out people equally consorting with her in nature and temper of unbridled
Which devout and godly endevour that it might be the better furthered and his glory by whose grace wee are assisted the more advanced needfull it were to reduce to our memory daily and hourely these two maine Considerations First those three profest Enemies that infatigably assaile us which should make us more watchfull Secondly that faithfull friend who so couragiously fights for us which should make us more thankefull for our Enemies as they are some of them domestick so are they more dangerous for no foe more perillous then a bosome foe Besides they are such pleasing Enemies as they cheere us when they kill us sting us when they smile on us And what is the instrument they worke on but the soule And what the time limited them to worke in but our life Which humours doe swell up sorrowes bring downe heats dry aire infect meat puffe up fasting macerate jests dissolve sadnesse consume care straineth security deludeth youth extolleth wealth transporteth poverty dejecteth old-age crooketh infirmity breaketh griefe depresseth the Divell deceiveth the world flattereth the flesh is delighted the soule blinded and the whole man perplexed How should we now oppose our selves to such furious and perfidious Enemies Or what armour are wee to provide for the better resisting of such powerfull and watchfull Assailants Certainely no other provision need we then what already is laid up in store for us to arme and defend us and what those blessed Saints and servants of Christ have formerly used leaving their owne vertuous lives as patternes unto us Their Armour was fasting Prayer and workes of Devotion by the first they made themselves fit to pray in the second they addressed themselves to pray as they ought in the third they performed those holy duties which every Christian of necessity ought to performe And first for Fasting it is a great worke and a Christian worke producing such excellent effects as it subjects the flesh to the obedience of the spirit making her of a commander a subject of one who tooke upon her an usurped authority to humble her selfe to the soules soveraignty Likewise Prayer how powerfull it hath beene in all places might bee instanced in sundry places of holy Scripture In the Desart where temptation is the readiest In the Temple where the Divell is oft-times busiest On the Sea where the flouds of perils are the nearest In Peace where security makes men forgetfullest And in Warre where imminent danger makes men fearfull'st Yea whether it be with Daniel in the Denne or Manasses in the Dungeon whether it be with holy David in the Palace or heavenly Ieremie in the Prison the power and efficacie of Prayer sacrificed by a devout and zealous beleever cannot choose but be as the first and second raigne fructifying the happy soile of every faithfull soule to her present comfort here and hope of future glory else-where Thirdly workes of Devotion being the fruits or effects of a spirituall conversation as ministring to the necessity of the Saints wherein we have such plenty of examples both in divine and humane writ as their godly charity or zealous bounty might worthily move us to imitate such blessed Patternes in actions of like Devotion For such were they as they were both liberall and joyed in their liberality every one contributing so much as hee thought fit or pleased him to bestow And whatsoever was so collected to the charge or trust of the Governour or Disposer of the stocke of the poore was forthwith committed Here was that poore-mans Box or indeed Christs Box wherein the charity of the faithfull was treasured Neither did these holy Saints or Servants of God in their Almes eye so much the quality of the person as his Image whom hee did represent And herein they nourished not a sinner but a righteous beggâ—â— because they loved not his sinne but his nature But now because wee are to treat of Perfection in each of these wee are to observe such cautions as may make the worke perfect without blemish and pure from the mixture of flesh As first in that godly practice of Fasting to observe such mediocrity as neither desire to be knowne by blubbered eyes hanging downe the head nor any such externall passion may tax us to bee of those Pharisees whose devotion had relation rather to the observance of man then the service of God neither so to macerate the body as to disable it for performing any office which may tend to the propagation of the glory of the Highest For the first institution of Fasts as it was purposely to subdue the inordinate motions of the flesh and subject it to the obedience and observance of the spirit so divers times were by the ancient Fathers and Councels thought fitting to be kept in holy abstinence of purpose to remove from them the wrath of God inflicted on them by the sword pestilence famine or some other such like plague Saint Gregory instituted certaine publike Fasts resembling the Rogation Weeke with such like solemne processions against the plague and pestilence as this Rogation-weeke was first ordained by another holy Bishop to that end As for the Ember-dayes they were so called of our ancient fore-fathers in this Countrey because on these fasting dayes men eate bread baked under embers or ashes But to propose a certaine rule or forme of direction there is none surer or safer then that which wee formerly proposed So to nourish our bodies that they bee not too much weakned by which meanes more divine offices might be hindered and againe so to weaken our bodies that they be not too much pampered by which meanes our spirituall fervor might bee coâ—led For too delicate is that master who when his belly is crammed would have his mind with devotion crowned Secondly for Prayer as it is to be numbred among the greatest workes of charity so of all others it should be freest from hypocrisie for it is not the sound of the mouth but the soundnesse of the heart which makes this oblation so effectually powerfull and to him that prayeth so powerfully fruitfull It is not beating of the breast with the fist but inward compunction of the heart flying with the wing of faith that pierceth heaven For neither could Trasylla's devotion whereof Gregory relates have beene so powerfull nor Gorgonius supplication whereof Nazianzen reports so fruitfull nor Iames the brother of our Lord his invocation whereof Eusebius records so faithfull nor Paul the Eremites daily oblation whereof Ierome recounts so effectuall if pronunciation of the mouth without affection of the heart beating of the brest without devotion of mind dejection of face without erection of faith had accompanied their prayer For it is not hanging downe the head like a bulrush which argues contrition but a passionate affection of the heart which mounts up to the throne of grace till it purchase remission Thirdly for Almes-deeds and other workes of Devotion being
of your unrighteous Mammon and shall be fed with Manna in the Courts of Sionr Gainefull is the use of that money which is put out to the workes of charity which be it more or lesse cannot but be exceeding great being given with devotion and the worke attended by singlenesse of heart and sincerity of affection for where a sincere will is not joyned with the worke the worke cannot be effectuall to the doer howsoever it may seem fruitfull to the beholder At which sort of men who erect sumptuous workes rather for popularity and affectation then piety or sincere affection the Poet pleasantly glanceth THESE Statues reare in publike wayes as trophies of their love Which as they heare in passengers will admiration move And gaine a fame unto their name which may survive in them But trust me Sirs these workes of theirs shew them vaine-glorious men Which workes howsoever usefull unto others were better undone then done in respect of themselves for to glory in our workes doth not only derogate from our workes but denounce upon us a greater damnation ascribing to our selves what duly properly and solely ought to be attributed to the glory of God But to draw neerer the point wee have in hand there is nothing that weaneth our minds more from the meditation of God and mortification to the world then our earthly affections which beare such sway over us as they will not suffer those divine motions or meditations to take root in us This is excellently shadowed in that Parable of the great Supper where many guests were invited but all with one consent began to make their excuse the first hee had bought a peece of ground and hee must needs goe see it the second had bought five yoke of oxen and hee must goe prove them and another had married a wife and therefore hee could not come These though the fatlings be provided the choicest dainties prepared wherewith their hunger-starved soules might be refreshed cannot come the world must detaine them their earthly respects inchaine them their sensuall delights restraine them they cannot come though often invited nor resort to this great Supper though all things be provided These seldome or never take into their more serious consideration the state of the blessed in Heaven or the state of the damned in Hell Neither can the joyes of the one allure them or the paines of the other deterre them These will dispense with the word for the profit of the world and enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season deferring repentance till it be past season Saint Chrysostome relateth how Paulus Samosetanus that arch-hereticke for the love of a woman for-sooke his faith Saint Augustine relateth divers who denied the torments of hell to have eternity thereby to flatter their affection with a pretended assurance of impunity Saint Gregory imputeth it to avarice and covetousnesse that many forsake their faith These follow not the example of sundry devout men the memory whereof is recommended unto us in holy writ who being possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them downe at the Apostles feet and distribution was made unto every man according as hee had need The like contempt in respect of earthly substance wee reade to have been in many noble and equally affected Pagans as Crates Bisias Zeno Bias Anacreon Anacharsis who though they had scarce the least glimpse of an eternity yet they dis-valued the substance of earth as the subject of vanity But I must now draw in my sailes and take a view of your dispositions Gentlemen how you stand herein affected that seeking what I expect to find I may no lesse glory in your aversion from earth then if you were ascending Iacobs ladder to have your names enrolled in the kingdome of heaven Have yee honoured the Lord with your substance and tendred him the first fruits of his bounty Have yee acknowledged every good thing to come from him as from the fountaine of mercy Have yee subjected your selves unto him as hee hath subjected all things to your soveraignty Have yee disposed of them soberly and solely to his glory Have yee beene oppressors and with good Zacheus made foure-fold restitution Have yee not exposed your inheritance to riot and pollution Have yee not hoorded up vengeance against the day of affliction Have yee not grinded and grated the face of the poore with extortion Have yee distributed freely and communicated to the Saints necessity Have yee made you friends of your unrighteous Mammon and so made your selves way to the heavenly Sion Have yee done these workes of compassion with singlenesse of heart and without affectation Have yee beene by no earthly respect detained from comming to that great Lords Supper to which you were invited O then in a happy state are you for having honoured the Lord hee will fill your barnes with plenty or having acknowledged all good things to bee derived from his mercy hee will give you a fuller taste of his bounty or subjected your selves to his obedience hee will cause every Creature to doe you service or disposed of them soberly and solely to his glory hee will exhibit his good gifts unto you more fully or beene oppressours and made restitution you shall with Zacheus become vessels of election or not exposed your inheritance to riot and pollution you shall be safe from the doome of confusion or not grinded the face of the poore with extortion the poore shall beare record of your compassion or distributed freely to the Saints necessity hee that seeth in secret shall reward you openly or made you friends of your unrighteous Mammon Manna shall be your food in the heavenly Sion or done these workes singly and without vaine-glory you shall be cloathed with the garment of mercy or not detained by the world from going to that great Lords Supper yee shall be graciously admitted and exalted to honour Thus to dispose of the substance of the world is to despise the world preferring one meditation of the pleasures and treasures of heaven before the possession of the whole earth and esteeming it farre better to be one day in the House of the Lord then to be conversant in the Palaces of Princes O then yee whose generous descents and mighty estates promise comfort to the afflicted releefe to the distressed and an hospitable receit to all such as repaire to you for succour or comfort minister to the necessity of the Saints be liberall and open handed to the poore having opportunity doe good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith bee exercised in the workes of the spirit and not of the flesh so shal ye build upon a sure foundation and in the inheritance of Gods Saints receive a mansion Turne not I say your eare from the cry of any poore man lest his cry be heard and procure vengeance to be poured on your head
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
where wee are to seeke Where in Heaven the house of God the Citie of the great King the inheritance of the just the portion of the faithfull the glory of Sion Where not without us but within us for the Kingdome of God is within us So as I may say to every faithfull soule Intus habes quod quaeris That is within thee which is sought of thee It is God thou seekest and him thou possessest thy heart longeth after him and right sure thou art of him for his delight is to bee with those that love him Lastly when on Earth when in this life when while wee are in health while wee are in these Tabernacles of clay while wee carry about us these earthly vessels while wee are clothed with flesh before the evill day come or the night approach or the shadow of death encompasse us now in the opportunate time the time of grace the time of redemption the appointed time while our peace may bee made not to deferre from youth to age lest wee bee prevented by death before wee come to age but so to live every day as if wee were to dye every day that at last wee may live with him who is the length of daies What remaineth then but that wee conclude the whole Series or progresse of this Discourse with an exhortation to counsell you an instruction to caution you closing both in one Conclusion to perswade you to put in daily practice what already hath beene tendred to you Now Gentlemen that I may take a friendly farewell of you I am to exhort you to a course Vertuous which among good men is ever held most Generous Let not O let not the pleasures of sinne for a season withdraw your mindes from that exceeding great weight of glory kept in store for the faithfull after their passage from this vale of misery Often call to minde the riches of that Kingdome after which you seeke those fresh Pastures fragrant Medows and redolent Fields diapred and embrodered with sweetest and choicest flowers those blessed Citizens heavenly Saints and Servants of God who served him here on Earth faithfully and now raigne with him triumphantly Let your Hearts bee exditers of a good matter and your voices viols to this heavenly measure O how glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God as the habitation of all that rejoyce is in thee Thou art founded on the exaltation of the whole Earth There is in thee neither old-age nor the miserie of old-age There is in thee neither maime nor lame nor crooked nor deformed seeing all attaine to the perfect man to that measure of age or fulnesse of Christ. Who would not become humble Petitioner before the Throne of grace to bee made partaker of such an exceeding weight of glory Secondly to instruct you where this Crowne of righteousnesse is to bee sought it is to bee sought in the house of God in the Temple of the Lord in the Sanctuary of the most High O doe not hold it any derogation to you to bee servants yea servants of the lowest ranke even Doore-keepers in the House of the Lord Constantine the Great gloried more in being a member of the Church than the Head of an Empire O then let it bee your greatest glory to advance his glory who will make you vessels of glory But know that to obey the deligths of the flesh to divide your portion among Harlots to drinke till the wine grow red to make your life a continued revell is not the way to obtaine this crowne Tribulation must goe before Consolation you must clime up to the Crosse before you receive this Crowne The Israelites were to passe thorow a Desart before they came to Canaan This Desart is the world Canaan heaven O who would not bee here afflicted that hee may bee there comforted Who would not be here crossed that hee may bee there crowned Who would not with patience passe thorow this Desart onely in hope to come to Canaan Canaan the inheritance of the just Canaan the lot of the righteous Canaan a fat Land flowing with milke and honey Canaan an habitation of the most holy Canaan a place promised to Abraham Canaan the bosome of Father Abraham even Heaven but not the heaven of heaven to which even the earth it selfe is the very Empyraean heaven for this is heaven of heaven to the Lord because knowne to none but to the Lord. Thirdly and lastly that I may conclude and concluding perswade you neglect not this opportunate time of grace that is now offered you I know well that Gentlemen of your ranke cannot want such witty Consorts as will labour by their pleasant conceits to remove from you the remembrance of the evill day but esteeme not those conceits for good which strive to estrange from your conceit the chiefest good Let it bee your task every day to provide your selves against the evill day so shall not the evill day when it commeth affright you nor the terrours of death prevaile against you nor the last summons perplex you nor the burning Lake consume you O what sharpe extreme and insuperable taskes would those wofull tormented soules take upon them if they might bee freed but one houre from those horrours which they see those tortures which they feele O then while time is graunted you omit no time neglect no opportunity Bee instant in season and out of season holding on in the race which is set before you and persevering in every good work even unto the end Because they that continue unto the end shall bee saved What is this life but a minute and lesse than a minute in respect of eternity Yet if this minute bee well imployed it will bring you to the fruition of eternity Short and momentany are the afflictions of this life yet supported with Patience and subdued with long sufferance they crowne the sufferer with glory endlesse Short likewise are the pleasures of this life which as they are of short continuance so bring they forth no other fruit than the bitter pils of repentance whereas in heaven there are pleasures for evermore comforts for evermore joyes for evermore no carnall but cordiall joy no laughter of the body but of the heart for though the righteous sorrow their sorrow ends when they end but joy shall come upon them without end O meditate of these in your beds and in your fields when you are journeying on the way and when you are so journing in your houses where compare your Court-dalliance with these pleasures and you shall finde all your rioting triumphs and revelling to bee rather occasions of sorrowing than solacing mourning than rejoycing Bathe you in your Stoves or repose you in your Arbours these cannot allay the least pang of an afflicted conscience O then so live every day as you may die to sin every day that as you are ennobled by your descent on earth
incendiaries tending to the increase of those passions 16 The proper postures of a compleate Roarer 23 Physicke prescribed and Receits applyed to cure these maladies in Youth 26 What choice imployments deserve entertainment from a Gentleman ib. DISPOSITION Observat. 2. THe diversity of Dispositions pag. 29 A probable judgement of our Dispositions drawne from the delights we affect or company we frequent 30 Passion the best discoverer of our Disposition ibid. Discovery of Dispositions in distempers ib Promotion held ever mans best Anatomy Lecture 31 The Disposition is not to be forced 32 What Disposition being distinguished by three infallible markes is most generous Mildnesse 34 Munificence 34 Stoutnesse 34 The proper ayme or end whereto the Actions of true resolution are directed with the prudent observation of Cortugall one of the Turkish Princes in his perswasive Oration for the besiege of Rhodes 40 EDVCATION Observat. 3. WHat Education is pag. 43 Education dilates it selfe to three subjects ibid. Our knowledge reflects upon two particulars 44 A profitable Exhortation to all such as are drawne away by strange doctrine 46 Two especiall errours incident to subiects of discourse Affectation Imitation whereof Gentlemen are seriously cautioned 47 Perswasion being the life and efficacy of Speech consisteth on three parts ibid The excellent Morall of a Bird and a Fowler 48.49 Immoderate passion in arguments of Discourse and reasoning to be avoided 50 Education either improveth or depraveth 52 Education the best seasoner of Action as well as of Speech or Knowledge no lesse prevalent in Arts Manuall than actions Martiall ibid. 53 The admirable effects of Education ibid. How a Gentleman may bee best enabled by Education 5â— Education the best seasoner of Youth 57 VOCATION Observat. 4. THe Definition necessity and conveniencie of a Vocation without personall Exception or Exemption pag. 59.60.65 Vertue consists in Action Time in revolution the maze of mans life in perpetuall motion pag. 61. l. 24 Three necessary considerations touching the conveniencie of a Vocation divided and applyed 62 The efficacy of Prayer in every Vocation and the exercise thereof seriously recommended ibid. We are to resist vices by practising and doing acts of the contrary vertues 65 Men of place in respect of three distinct Objects are three wayes servants 66. l. 2. Men of place of all others are least exempted from a Vocation 67. l. 22 The ground of all Novellisme 69 Vocation in generall 70 The first invention of Trades Arts or Sciences 72 The Ancient Borough of Kendall upon serious discourse of Manufacture worthily commended for their industry in Wooll-worke the judicious Dutch-men of Kes-wick for their Copper-worke 71 A serious survey and judicious display of all the Liberall Sciences 72.73 The Vocation of a Gentleman in particular 75 The Vocation of a Gentleman hath imployment publike or private 77 How a Gentleman is to demeane himselfe in publike affaires of State ibid. How in chusing Knights and Burgesses of Parliament those are ever to be preferred who seeke least after it And how a too eager pursuit after offices argues either arrogance avarice or weaknesse ib. The life of man either Active or Contemplative 76. l. 30. Directions of reservancy usefull to all Gentlemen in their keeping of company ibid. l. 49 Credulity in two respects dangerous to persons imployed in affaires of State 77 Credulity In beleeving the relations of others Credulity In imparting his thoughts to the secrecy of others shewed in a conceited story 77.78 Resolution in suffering neither price to draw him nor power to over-awe him the one to taint him nor the other to daunt him 79 Disobedience punished in acts most successive 80 The holy war as a consequent action of honour recommended to the undertaking of all young Gentlemen 81. lin 7 How a Gentleman is to imploy himselfe in publike affaires 82 How a Gentleman is to demeane himselfe in private affaires ibid. Two perillous shelfes which endanger Iustice. 84 How Iustice is to be poized equally ibid. Impunity the foster-mother of all impiety 85 How a Gentleman is to demeane himselfe in his owne family 86 Every family a private Common-wealth 87. marg A Gentleman is so to demeane himselfe in his family as he neither hoord up niggardly nor lash out lavishly 88. l. 13 He is to keepe a hanke of his bounty lest too much profusenesse bring him to misery ib. l. 18 He is neither to be too remisse nor too severe in his family ibid. How a Gentleman is to imploy himselfe in spirituall affaires within his family 90 The exercise of devotion commended a Blessing thereon pronounced if duly performed which Blessing is on a precept and a promise grounded 90.91 RECREATION Observat. 5. THe difference of Recreations pag. 53 Of the moderate and immoderate use of Recreation 96 The benefit redounding from moderate Recreation 97 The inconveniences arising from immoderate Recreation 99 The yeare of Iubile defined and described ib. Objections against Stage-playes proposed and resolved 103.104 What honours ancient and moderne times have conferred on Poets and what bounties for their poems 106.107 What especiall subjects are privileg'd from Iâ—sts 108 Who the first Comedian who the first Tragedian ibid. A wofull example of a Gentlewoman who was a continuall frequenter of Stage-playes 109 His vindication from a traducing opinion conceived of him touching Stage-playes ib. mar Excesse of Gaming reproved 110 Cheaters displayed their humours experimentally decoloured their Habit garbe and formall insinuation discovered ibid. Young Gamesters most subject to passion 125 A dolefull example of one that at game used imprecation ibid. Another Moderne example covertly shadowed of one who desperately surprized with distemper of losse poysoned himselfe ibid An excellent morall discourse of Hunting 111 The story of the foole of Millan and his discourse with a Falconer 113 Of Recreations best sorting with the quality of a Gentleman 114 In exercises of Recreation those onely are most approved by whom they are with least affectation performed and with most freedome of mind embraced 114. l. 22 The misery of Duello's 115 An accurate discourse of valour and how in arguments of contest or challenge a Gentleman may come off with honour 117 A collection and election of Histories 118 The knowledge of our owne Moderne Chronicles most beneficiall to Gentlemen 121.122 History the sweetest Recreation of the mind 220 The judgement of God inflicted upon the actors and authors of Treason Sacriledge c. 119.120 What good morall men have flourished in evill times 120.121 How a Gentleman is to bestow himselfe in Recreation 123 Prodigality condemned moderation in expence as well as in the exercise it selfe commended 124 Distinction of times for Recreations necessarily injoyned 126 No expence more pretious then the expence of time ibid. Election of Games for Recreation which conduce most to memory or retention which to pregnancy of conceit or apprehension ibid. Acquaintance Observat. 6. OF the use of Acquaintance pag. 129 Mans security the Devils opportunity 130. l. 22 A display of
precious odors of your good names Consort with such whose names were never branded converse with such whose tongues for immodesty were never taxed As by good words evill manners are corrected so by evill words are good ones corrupted Make no reside there where the least occasion of lightnesse is ministred avert your Eare when you heare it but your heart especially lest you harbour it To enter into much discourse or familiarity with strangers argues lightnesse or indiscretion what is spoken of Maids may bee properly applyed by an usefull consequence to all women They should be seene and not heard A Traveller sets himselfe best out by discourse whereas their best setting out is silence You shall have many trifling questions asked as much to purpose as if they said nothing but a frivolous question deserves to bee resolv'd by silence For your Carriage it should neither be too precise nor too loose These sempring made faces partake more of Chambermaid then Gentlewoman Modesty and mildnesse hold sweetest correspondence You may possibly be wooed to interchange favours Rings or Ribonds are but trifles yet trust mee they are no trifles that are aym'd at in those exchanges Let nothing passe from you that may any way impeach you or give others advantage over you Your innocent credulity I am resolved is as free from conceit of ill as theirs perhaps from intendment of good but these intercourses of Courtesies are not to be admitted lest by this familiarity an Entry to affection be opened which before was closed It is dangerous to enter parley with a beleagring enemy it implies want or weaknesse in the besieged Chastity is an inclosed Garden it should not be so much as assaulted lest the report of her spotlesse beauty become soyled Such Forts hold out best which hold themselves least secure when they are securest It was the saying of a worthy Generall Presuming on a mans owne strength is the greatest weaknesse and the readie way to betray himselfe to dangers is to contemne them Nasica when the Roman Common-wealth was supposed to be in most secure estate because freed of their enemies and strongly fenced by their friends affirmed that though the Achaians and Carthaginians were both brought under the yoke of bondage yet they were most in danger because none were left whom they might either feare for danger or who should keepe them in awe How subject poore Women be to lapses and recidivations being left their owne Guardians daily experience can sufficiently discover Of which number those alwayes proved weakest who were confidentest of their owne strength Presumption is a daring sinne and ever brings out some untimely birth which viper-like deprives her unhappy parent of life I have knowne divers so resolute in their undertakings so presuming of their womanish strength so constantly devoted to a single life as in publike consorts they held it their choycest merriment to give love the affront to discourse of affection with an imperious contempt geere their amorous suiters out of Count'nance and make a very Whirligig of love But marke the conclusion of these insulting spirits they sport so long with love till they fall to love in earnest A moment makes them of Soveraignes Captives by slaving them to that deservedly which at first they entertained so disdainfully The way then to prevent this malady is to weane you from consorting with folly What an excellent impregnable fortresse were Woman did not her Windowes betray her to her enemy But principally when shee leaves her Chamber to walke on the publike Theatre when shee throwes off her vaile and gives attention to a merry tale when shee consorts with youthfull bloud and either enters parley or admits of an enter-view with love It is most true what the sententious morall sometimes observed Wee may bee in security so long as wee are sequestred from society Then and never till then begins the infection to bee dispersed when the sound and sicke begin to bee promiscuously mixed Tempt not Chastity hazard not your Christian liberty You shall encounter with many forward youths who will most punctually tender their uselesse service to your shadowes at the very first sight doe not admit them lest you prostitute your selves to their prostrate service Apelles found fault with Protogenes in that hee could not hold his hands from his Table Whereas our Damsels may more justly finde fault with their youthfull Amorists for that they cannot hold their hands from under the Table It is impossible to come off faire with these light-fingred fooles Your onely way is rampire your chaste intentions with Divine and Morall instructions to stop the source divert the occasion subject affection to reason so may you become Emperesses of that which hath sometimes tyrannized over Emperours By this meanes shall every place where you publikely resort minister to you some object of inward comfort By this meanes shall Company furnish you with precepts of chastity inable you in the serious practice of piety and sweetly conduct you to the port of glory PRivacy is the seat of Contemplation though sometimes made the recluse of Tentation From which there is granted no more exemption in the Cell than in the Court Here is the Lawne where Melancholy drawes her line Here the minde becomes our Mate Silence our sweetest Conference where the retired becomes either the best or worst friend to himselfe There is none who ever conversed with himselfe or discanted solely with his owne humour who can bee ignorant of those numerous slights or subtilities which by that great Tempter whose long exercise hath made him no lesse subtill in contriving than cruell in practising our ruine are privately shadowed and shrowded purposely to circumvent poore man and leave him deluded Diogenes when hee found a young man talking alone demanded of him What hee was doing who answered Hee was conversing with himselfe Take heed quoth hee thou conversest not with thine enemy Of the like stampe was that love-sick Girle who became so immazed in loves error as shee minded her worke least when shee eyed her Sampler Never lesse alone then when most alone for then and never so freely as then enjoyed fancy full scope of action as when her retired privacy gave her thoughts leave to converse with affection Then and onely then became jealous Love a Projector contriving wayes for enjoying her Lover No Italian device closed it never so inordinately with sense could be unattempted to catch him by whom shee was catched to seaze on him by whom shee was surprized So eagerly cunning became fancy in feates of policy as shee would rather lose herselfe then by meanes of her deluded privacy lose opportunity To you Gentlewomen I direct my discourse whose privacy may enable you if well employed for better things than the toyes tyres trifles of this age How many the more our misery bestow their private houres which might be dedicated to Contemplation or workes of piety devotion upon light-feather'd inventions amorous expostulations or minting
in dye and colour Now Gentlewomen if you make Estimation your highest prize if you preferre honour before pleasure or what else is deare or tender your fame will find wings to â—ly with This will gaine you deserving Suitors Portion may wooe a worlding Proportion a youthfull Wanton but it is Vertue that wins the heart of discretion Surely I have seldome knowne any make this esteeme of honour and dye a contemptible begger Such as have beene prodigall of it have felt the misery of it whereas a chaste mind hath ever had something to succour and support it Thus you see what this inward beauty is which if you enjoy you sit farre above the reach of Calumny age cannot taint it nor youth tempt it It is the Estimation within you that so confines you as you hate that place which gives opportunity that person which makes importunity his agent to lay siege to your Chastity Now wee are to descend to the second branch wherein we are to shew you how this Estimation which is your highest prize may be discerned to bee reall which is not gathered by the first appearance but a serious and constant triall IN Philosophy a man begins with experience and then with beleefe but in Divinity wee must first beginne in faith and then proceed to knowledge True it is that the Sunne Moone and Starres become subject to vanity yet charity bids mee beleeve that there are many beauteous and resplendent Stars in this our Firmament many fresh fragrant Roses in this our inclosed Garden of Albion who have preserved their beauty without touch their honour without taint Where if vanity did touch them yet did it not so seize on them as to disfigure or transforme them You noble Gentlewomen are those Stars whose glory can never bee eclipsed so long as your Estimation lives unstained you are those fragrant Roses whose beauty cannot be tainted so long as your stalke of honour growes untouched Now to the end that your lustre many not bee like to that of the Gloworme nor rotten wood which is meerely imaginary compared with that is reall you are not to make faire and glorious pretences purposely to gull the world and cast a mist before the eyes of bleered judgements You may find maskes to shroud your face but no shroud to enskreane you from the eye of Heaven No you are to be really what you appeare outwardly These that walke in the Clouds though they deceive others much yet they deceive themselves most Observe then this rule of direction it will accomplish you more then any outward ornament that Art can bestow on you Bee indeed what you desire to bee thought Are you Virgins dedicate those inward Temples of yours to chastity abstaine from all corrupt society inure your hands to workes of piety your tongues to words of modesty Let not a straid looke taxe you of lightnesse nor a desire of gadding impeach you of wantonnesse The way to winne an husband is not to wooe him but to bee woo'd by him Let him come to you not you to him Proferred ware is not worth the buying Your states are too pure to bee set at sale too happy to bee weary of them So long as you live as you are so your minds bee pure you cannot possibly bee poore You have that within you will enrich you so you conforme your minds to your meanes In the discourse of vertues and true estimate of them none was ever held more excellent then that which is found in chaste youth You are Conquerours in that wherein the greatest Conquerours have fail'd Your chaste paths are not trac'd with wandring desires your private Chambers arras'd with amorous passions you spinne not out the tedious night in Ah mee 's Your repast findes no hinderance in digestion your harmelesse repose no love-sicke distraction Others you may command by none commanded Others will vow their service unto you while you are from all servitude freed Live then worthy the freedome of so noble a Condition for your Virgin state wants nothing that may enlarge her freedome Againe are you Wives you have attained an honourable state and by it made partakers of that individuate union where one soule ruleth two hearts and one heart dwelleth in two bodies You cannot suffer in that wherein you have not one share Griefe by your Consort is allayed joy by partaking with him is augmented You have now taken upon you to become Secretaries to others as well as your selves but being one and the same with your selves doe not betray their trust to whose trust you have recommended your selves Imagine now to recall to memory an ancient Custome that you have broken the axletree of your Coach at your doore you must bee no more straglers These walking Burses and moveable Exchanges sort not with the constancie of your Condition You must now intend the growth and proficience of those Olive branches about your table Like a curious and continuate builder you must ever addresse your selves to one worke or other From their infancy to their youth from their youth to their maturer growth For the first I know well that distich to bee most true A mother to bee Nurse that 's great and faire Is now held base True Mothers they bee rare But farre was it from those ancient heroicke Ladies to thinke this to bee either a disgrace to their place or a blemish to their beauty Their names are by aged Annals memorized and shall by these of ours bee revived Such were Cornelia the mother of Gracchus and Vetruria of Coriolanus who became examples of goodnesse and chastity Educating their children which they had brought up from their own brests with the milke of morality The like did Portia the wife of Brutus Cleobula the daughter of Cleobulus one of the seven Sages of Greece Sulpitia the wife of Calenus who not onely instructed her children which shee had tenderly nursed with excellent precepts while shee lived but left sundry memorable instructions as Legacies or Mothers blessings to them when shee dyed Hortensia the excellent daughter of a most eloquent Orator deserved no lesse fame for her motherly care in nursing and breeding her ability in copious and serious discoursing her gravity in composing and digesting such golden sentences as shee afterwards recommended to the perusall of her surviving Children Edesia borne at Alexandria farre excelled others in profundity of learning and piety of living shee was admired by such as lived in her time performing the office of a Nurse in her childrens infancy of a Guardian in their minority of a Sage Counsellour in their maturity Paulina the wife of Seneca as shee was excellently seasoned with the precepts of her husband so shee surceas'd not from commending them to the practice of those children shee had by her husband Whence it was that Seneca bemoaned the ignorance of his mother for that shee had not so exactly observed the precepts of his Father by reflecting upon his Paulina who was so serious an
of them their highest cure They have found such choice flowers as they afford more spirituall delight to the soule than any visible flowers or odours doe to the smell And what are these but divine and morall precepts soveraigne instructions which have taught them how to contemne earth conquer death and aspire unto eternity These by a continued custome or frequent converse with heavenly things cannot now conceive any object to bee worthy their beholding on earth Fashions may bee worne about them but little observed by them The WEDDING GARMENT is their desired raiment This they make ready for the Nuptiall day the meditation whereof so transports them as nothing below heaven can possesse them It is not beauty which they prize for they daily and duely consider the Prophets words All faces shall gather blacknesse Againe they remember the threats which God denounceth upon beautifull but sinfull Niniveh I will discover thy skirts upon thy face This makes them seriously to consider the dangerous quality of sinne and to apply Ninivehs salve to their sore that wine of Angels the teares of repentance Which howsoever it is as one wittily observes Every mans medicine an universall Antidote that makes many a Mithridates venture on poison yet works it not this banefull effect with these for their affections are so sweetly tempered their hearts so truly tendred as they make not Repentance security to delinquents They well remember that Aphorisme of spirituall Physicke As hee that sinnes in hope of remission feeds distemperature to seeke a Physician so hee that repents with a purpose of sinning shall finde an eternall place to repent in These who thus belull themselves in the downe-beds of security labour of an irreparable Lethargy They make bold to sinne as if they were sure to repent But the medicine was made for the wound not the wound for the medicine We must not suffer our selves voluntarily to bee wounded in hope we have to bee cured but prevent the meanes that wee may atteine a more glorious end The choicest receipt the chiefest antidote then is to prevent the meanes or occasion of sinne which if at any time wee commit to infuse the balme of repentance into it which seasonably applyed may minister a soveraigne salve to our sore so wee intend our care to so consequent a cure Come then Gentlewomen beginne now at last to reflect on your owne worth Vnderstand that Gentility is not knowne by what you weare but what you are Consider in what member soever your Creator is most offended in that shall every sinner bee most tormented Remember how the time shall come and then shall your time bee no time when the Moath shall bee your underlining and the Worme your covering Trimmâ— your selves then with an inward beauty that a glorious Bridegroome may receive you Fashion your selves to his image whom you represent That Fashion onely will extend the date of time and crowne you with immortality after time These who have their judgements in their eyes may admire you for your Cloaths but those who have their eyes in their heads will onely prize you by your inward worth Were it not a poore Ensigne of Gentility to hang up a phantasticke fashion to memorize your vanity after death So live that you may ever live in the memory of the good It will not redound much to your honour to have observed the fashions of the time but to have redeemed your time to have dedicated your selves to the practice of vertue all your time to have beene Mirrors of modesty to your succeeding sexe to have dis-valued the fruitlesse flourish of fading vanity for the promising hopes of a blessed eternity O Eternity eternity let this ever emphatically sound in your memory Supply then that in you which bleered judgements expect without you You challenge precedency in place expresse your selves worthy of that place Vertue will make you farre more honoured than any garish habit can make you admired The one is a Spectacle of derision the other of true and generous approbation This you shall doe if you season your desires with discretion if you temper your excursive thoughts and bring them home with a serious meditation of your approaching dissolution It is said of the Palme tree that when it growes dry and fruitlesse they use to apply ashes to the root of it and it forthwith recovers that the peacefull Palmes of your vertuous mindes may flourish ever that their branches may ever blossome and never wither apply unto their roots the ashes of mortification renue them with some sweet and soveraigne meditation That when you shall returne to your mother Earth those that succeed you may collect how you lived while you were on Earth by making these living actions of your Gentility happy Precursors to your state of glory FOuntaines are best distinguished by their waters Trees by their fruits and Generous bloods by their actions There are inbred seeds of goodnesse saith the Philosopher in every good man and these will finde time to expresse themselves It was Davids testimony of himselfe From my youth up have I loved thy Law An excellent prerogative given him and with no lesse diligence improved by him Now these Native seeds as they are different so are the fruits which come of them variously disposed Some have a rellish of true and generous bounty wherein they shew that noble freedome to their owne in their liberality towards others as their very actions declare unto the world their command and soveraignty over the things of this world Others discover their noble disposition by their notable pitty and compassion These will estrange themselves from no mans misery If they cannot succour him they will suffer with him Their bosomes are ever open with pittifull Zenocrates to receive a distressed one Over a vanquish'd foe they scorne to insult or upon a dejected one to triumph They have teares to partake with the afflicted and reall expressions of joy to share with the relieved Others shew apparant arguments of their singular moderation abstemious are these in their dishes temperate in their Companies moderate in their desires These wonder at the rioters of this time how they consume their daies in sensuality and uncleannesse Their account is farre more straight their expence more strait but their liberty of mind of an higher straine Cloathes they weare but with that decency as curiosity cannot taxe them meats they partake but with that temperance as delicacy cannot tempt them Others from their Cradle become brave sparkes of valour their very Childhood promiseth undoubted tokens of succeeding honour These cannot endure braves nor affronts Generous resolution hath stampt such deepe impressions in their heroicke mindes as fame is their ayme which they hunt after with such constancy of spirit as danger can neither amate them nor difficulty avert them from their resolves Others are endued with a naturall pregnancy of wit to whom no occasion is sooner offered than some dainty expression must second
in exemplary grounds of chastity Sulpitia hers in precepts of conjugall unity Edesia hers in learning and morality Paulina hers in memorials of shamefaste modesty These though Heathens were excellent informers of youth so as their Children were more bound to them for their breeding than bearing nurturing than nursing Besides there is an inbred filiall feare in Children to their Parents which will beget in them more attention in hearing and retention in holding what they heare Now there is no instruction more moving than the example of your living By that Line of yours are they to conforme their owne Take heed then lest by the dampe of your life you darken both their glory and your owne I might propose unto you bookes of instruction which might minister arguments plenteously in this kinde but so short is the memory in reteining what it reads yea so distracted is the minde in observing what it reads that as it fares with our naturall face in a glasse from which the glasse is no sooner removed than the resemblance of it is abolished even so the booke is no sooner left out of the hand than the Contents are leapt out of the heart Yet to the end you may not bee unprovided of such Tracts as may enable you for instruction and prepare you to encounter with tentation I will recount such unto you as may best accomodate you for the one and fortifie you against the other Learned Vives in his instruction of a Christian woman recommends unto them these glorious Lights of the Church S. Hierom Cyprian Augustine Ambrose Hilary Gregory annexing unto them those morall Philosophers Plato Cicero Seneca c. Of which severally to deliver my opinion it is this Than S. Hierom none more gravely copious as may appeare by those pithy and effectuall Epistles of his directed to those noble Ladies Marcella Demetria Laeta Furia c. wherin he useth singular exhortations invincible arguments perswasive reasons sweet similitudes and forcive examples Modesty is the subject hee commends unto them decency in apparell hee approves in them to a moderate restraint of liberty hee enjoynes them to an exemplary holinesse hee exhorts them and with sweet and comfortable promises of an incorruptible reward he leaves them Than S. Cyprian none more devoutly serverous in his reproofes hee shewes mildnesse in his treaties a passionate sweetnesse hee winnes the sinner by inducing reasons hee strengthens the soule mightily against temptations hee proposeth an excellent way of moderating the affections hee applyes soveraigne receits to soveraignizing passions and concludes with that sober and discreet temper as with a Divine insinuation hee wooes winnes and weanes the sinner and in a spirituall tye unites him to his Redeemer Than S. Augustine none more profoundly judicious more judiciously zealous pithy are his directions powerfull his instructions in his Meditations hee is moving in his Soliloquies inwardly piercing in his Manuall comfortably clozing Amongst all those Conflicts in our Christian warfare hee holds none sharper than our Combat with Chastity Hee applies meanes how wee may resist resisting vanquish and by our Christian victory receive Crownes of eternall glory That Conquest hee holds deserves small honour which is atchiev'd without Encounter In a Divine rapsodie drawne as it were from himselfe hee shewes what should bee done by us Earth is no object fit to entertaine our eye nor her deluding melody our eare Hee exhorts us therefore to leave Earth now while wee live that leaving Earth for altogether wee may enjoy our best Love Than S. Ambrose none more Divinely plenteous sweetly serious are his instructions enforcing are his reasons hee speakes home to the sinner whom hee no sooner findes wounded for sinne than hee applies a Spirituall salve to cure his sinne Many grave sentences are in his Offices methodically couched singular directions to guide every Christian in his Spirituall Path-way are there delivered Like an expert Physician hee first gathers the nature or quality of your distemper and then ministers soule-salving receipts to restore you to your right temper Hee shewes you how in your very motion gesture and pace you are to observe modesty concluding that nothing can afford true comfort to a sojourning soule but practise of piety Than S. Hilary none more fully sententious hee discovers the occasion of our corruption familiarly adviseth us with many passionate and teare-swolne lines to provide for our inward family hee proposeth us a reward if wee contemne Earth he threatens us with the Law if wee contemne life Sundry moving and effectuall Lessons hee recommends to the perusall of women of all rankes ages and conditions Tenderly hee compassionates the case of a sinner passionately treats hee of those torments which shall last for ever with prayers and teares hee sollicits them that have gone astray to returne those that are already return'd to goe no more astray Hee concludes with an usefull Exhortation to sorrow for sinne promising them forth of that Store-house of Comforts contained in the Gospell for this their momentaine sorrow an incessant joy in Sion Than S. Gregory none more highly mysterious nor contemplatively glorious Divinely morall are his Morals full of heavenly comforts are his instructions hee walkes in an higher way than others trace yet with that humility as there is not a cloze from him but it discloseth in him a love of meekenesse lowlinesse and piety With proper and elegant similitudes are his works adorned with choice sentences as with so many select flowers neatly garnished in a word hee is sweetly substantiall and substantially sweet Hee reprehends the times gravely commends the practice of vertue gracefully With an holy zeale hee reproves the remisnesse of the Ministry Directions hee gives unto women to have an especiall care of modesty concluding that the love of this life should not so possesse us as to deprive us of that inheritance which might eternally blesse us In good mindes hee holds poverty the portresse of humility accounting those Evils or Adversities which doe here presse us to bee the Cords which draw us unto God who made us Touching those three Philosophers this is my conceit of them wherin none can otherwise chuse than concurre with me that shall seriously read and sincerely scanne them Than Plato none more divinely Philosophicall Than Cicero more philosophically Rhetoricall Than Seneca more sagely Morall But for as much as it is not given to most of you to bee Linguists albeit many of their workes bee translated in your mother tongue you may converse with sundry English Authors whose excellent instructions will sufficiently store you in all points and if usefully applied conferre no small benefit to your understanding I shall not need particularly to name them to you because I doubt not but you have made choice of such faithfull Reteiners and vertuous Bosome-friends constantly to accompany you Neither indeed are bookes onely necessary conference will singularly improve your knowledge but that is not altogether so convenient nor decent for your sexe in
they become so habituate as no art can make them adulterate Sempronia was too light in her youth to bee staid in her age Fulvia gave too much way to her passion in her youth to attemper it in her age Zantippe was too shrewd a maid to become a quiet wife What Nature hath not effected in us may by industry bee facilitated in us so wee begin to worke while the waxe is soft O Gentlewomen how many whose excellent endowments deserve admiration either by selfe-opinion have become transported or by giving loose reines to passion have miserably wandred or by inveying against others more deserving parts have wittingly transgressed By which meanes they become spectacles of contempt who otherwise by their conceiving discourse might have given occasion of content It is too true that the liberty of greatnesse is such as it is more apt to finde fewell to feede the humour of vice then to minister any usefull ingredience for the recovery of vertue Great mindes are many times sicke of great maladies which by soothing parasites become insensible and consequently incurable Vice in a poore habit never reteines that majesty which it displayes in a richer robe Is it so Reflect then upon your selves if vice seeme so specious what will vertue do though all your vertues bee but indeed specious vices Beleeve it if you cherish vertue in your minority shee will performe the office of a faithfull guardian The widowes teares shall bee very few for shee will finde justice to redresse her the Orphans cryes shall not bee so loud shee will finde compassion to cheere her The State shall not exclaime of surfeits for temperance shall shield her nor the Church of coldnesse for zeale shall inflame her What a sweet consort is an unison of vertues to the eare of a divine soule All other Musicke is dis-rellishing because it workes not on the affection Now would you know whence it comes that vertue or vice whethersoever takes hold first reteines a deeper impression in Honour than in any lower subject The reason is evident As in their state or condition they are more eminent so is their representative example in others more inherent Doe these honourable personages then love vertue they are vertuous molds unto their followers they shall finde in their shadowes what they expresse in themselves Iulia could not bee loose when Lucretia was so chaste shee saw that in her Mistresse which deserv'd love and to that shee conform'd the line of her life To consort at unseasonable houres with loose lovers or to entertaine light discourse to beguile time was no authenticke doctrine in her Mistresse family no day was without her taske no night without her peculiar employment There is no question but the prime yeeres of this noble Lady were seasoned with such exquisite instructions as what her youth had received were not in her riper yeares to bee abolished First motions have deepe impressions especially when they become seconded by examples of authority whose very persons impose on their Pupils a resistlesse necessity The estimate of Honour with those who are truly honourable is at too high a rate to ingage it selfe to the hazard of disgrace for any temporary profit or delight Their onely profit is to become proficients in the practice of Vertue Their highest delight to subdue their delights to the obedience of reason for the love of vertue Such as these are to bee accounted onely Noble for their desires are so which they ever ennoble with deserving actions For tell me can any one whose judgement is not blinded or inward light not wholly blemished esteeme that Person for honourable whose Outside onely magnifies it selfe in a poakt head a poland sleeve and a Protean body No these are but outward badges of their inward vanity These have too much coare at their heart to bee of sound health If they have no other expressions to deblaze their Honour they are rather objects of Contempt than State bee they never so glorious to the eye of our vulgar It hath beene and I could wish it were not to this day continued an usuall forme of breeding with some more eminent Persons to have their Children practise a kinde of state from their infancy which indeed being truly defined was a phantasticke supercilious garbe which discovered more pride than deserved prayse Neither could these so easily relinquish in their age what was commended to them in their youth For such as commonly attended their persons extolled whatsoever they saw by them or in them expressed such is the misery of greatnesse that if it be not an exact Censor and reprover of her owne vanity They shall finde approvers of it by those odious professors of sycophancy whose glozing condition hath beene the ruine of many a noble family For what may bee the usuall dialect of these Tame-Beasts to their bounteous Benefactors those prodigall disbursers of their fathers providence but this parasiticall parley It would well become you to bee rarely seene reservedly affable to reteine state in your pace awe in your face scorne in your eye a storme in your brow with a gracefull contempt in all your carriage An excellent direction to purchase hate These followers are not for your Honour The way to divert their straine is to affect what they distaste You cannot want vitious Libertines to second you in a sensuall course if your owne disposition stand so affected Calphurnia could not bee good when Messalina was so naught Your lives as they are lines to your selves so should they bee lights unto others Are you modest It will beget a love of modesty through all your family Not one who owes their observance to you but will admire this vertue in you and practise it in themselves because they see it so highly valued by you Againe Lightnesse or any irregularity in you whatsoever will not redound onely to your owne but your whole families dishonour Which opinion once possest your honour receives such a mortall wound as no continuation of time so lasting is the record of infamy may perfectly cure it which seemes confirmed by our moderne Poet Search all thy bookes and thou shalt find therein That Honour is more hard to hold than win How cautelous then ought you to bee of that which preserves your well being Many nobly descended are sufficiently instructed how to reteine their state what place to take by remembring whence they came meane time they forget whence they came first O consider how this Speciosior pulvis this more specious or seemingly precious dust of yours is but dust Vice will but varnish it it is vertue that will richly eâ—ammell it Your birth rather restraines than improves your liberty your sexe should detract from it selfe were it estrang'd from modesty your beauty honour and all are servants to time or worse if bestow'd â—n vanity Let vertue reteine such deepe impression in you as no vicious affection may seize on you Occasions are dangerous perswasions prevent therefore the meane that you
lie in ibid. Those Odours deserve highest honours that beautifie us living and preserve our memory dying ibid. To see a light Lady descending from a noble Family is a Spectacle of more spreading infamy than any Subject of inferiour quality ibid. Gentility is not to be measured by antiquity of time but precedency in worth ibid. The reason why generous descents become so much corrupted and vertuous Parents by vitious Children so frequently disparged ibid. 361 Mothers the naturallest Nurses confirmed by precept custome and example pag. ibid. * Supra pag. 331 332 An effectuall perswasion to that duty ibid. Vertue the best Coat pag. 362 Heraldry proves vertues Coat to be the best because deblazoned with least charge Vertue is no admiring lover of ought that is below her pag. 362 The misery of this age in sumptuousnesse of attire ibid. A notable example of hypocriticall piety pag. 363. Sinnes prevention is to prevent the Occasion ibid. A Shamefaste red the best colour to deblazon vertues Coat pag. 365 Gentlewomen are to reflect more on their inward worth than on their outward weare pag. 367 The honour of Humility pag. 368 A glorious approvall of modest Matrons pag. 369 It will not redound much to a Gentlewomans honour to have observed the fashions of the time but with a discreet Contempt or civill neglect of fashion to have redeemed her time pag. 370 Living actions of true Gentility happy Precursors to the State of Glory ibid. There are native seeds of goodnesse sowne in generous bloods by lineall succession variously instanced ibid. 371 Those who are with the choycest vertues endowed become oft times most traduced ibid. There is no one vertue which makes a Gentlewoman more gracious in the eye of her beholder than Modesty the greatest advancer of many ancient family ibid. To be high borne and basely minded is to ingraft bastard suppes in a noble stocke pag. 372 High and Heroicke vertues become great Houses confirmed by the resolution of a noble Lady in rejecting the powerfull solicitancy of a Sensuall Suiter ibid. Emulation of goodnesse in great Persons is honourable ibid. How these native seeds of goodnesse may be ripened by instruction pag. 373 No Tutresses sitter to perfect this excellent worke in Gentlewomen than those who were the secondarie instruments of their beeing strengthened by example and reason ibid. A select Choice and recommendation of sundry bookes of instruction to the perusall of our English Gentlewoman ibid. A briefe enumeration serious discussion and judicious election of sundry ancient Fathers with other morall Authors ibid. 374 c. English translations the lights of Ladies but Dampes of Schollers pag. 375 Private Nurseries houshold Academies ibid. The first instruction takes the deepest Impression with an usefull application to every condition pag. 376. Necessarie directions highly conducing to the good report and repute of Maides and Matrons ibid. The most precious things have ever the most pernicious Keepers Nothing more precious than a Virgins honour it were a shame for the Mother for any base lucre to prove a treacherous Keeper ibid. The whole progresse of a Gentlewomans conversation should be a continued line of direction to which line he confines his observation pag. 377 HONOUR Observat. 8. PRomotion discovers what men be but true Honour shewes what they should be pag. 379 Honour is painted when it is not with vertue poudred pag. 380 Morall Philosophy nor Christian Theory could ever hold that for deserving greatnesse which had not neare relation to goodnesse ibid. Their memory cannot live long who make Authority a Sanctuary to wrong ibid. Vertue defined and by it true Gentility with the honour of an ancient family expressed pag. 381 An accurate connexion with a personall application of the preceding Subjects to all Gentlewomen ibid. 382 Be women never so eminent they are but painted Trunkes if vertue be not resident ibid. Vertue should not onely be resident but president over all their actions ibid. No Cloth takes such deepe tincture as the Cloth of Honour ibid. No Pleasure can be constant unlesse it afford inward content ibid. There is nothing asperseth a deeper staine upon the Cloth of Honour than too much attention unto Sycophants ibid. Soveraigne receipts against the poison of flattery with a serious exhortation to the entertainement of humility patience constancy and every generous vertue ibid. 383 Violets though they grow low and neare the earth smell sweetest and Honour appeares the fullest of beauty when shee is humblest ibid. Honour if truly grounded can looke in the face of terrour and never be amated pag. 384 She that makes vertue her object cannot but make every earthly thing her Subject ibid. Honours imprezza and Pasture ibid. Honours compleat armour dresse and portraiture ibid. HER Description with motives to her imitation ibid. A briefe but usefull application ibid. Honourable Personages should be Presidents of goodnesse ibid. LANDMARKES are usually erected for direction of the Mariner and Magistrates elected for instruction of the inferiour ibid. The world a Maze of Misery a vale of vanity Pag. 385 Man a story of calamity a statue of infelicity Pag. 385 To be a Lady of Honour is more than titular ibid. Three especiall Objects upon which Honourable personages are to reflect Charitie Pag. ibid. Chastitie Pag. ibid. Humilitie Pag. ibid. A most accurate and serious discourse on each particular Object pag. 385 386 The very last day to an honourable Christian is every dayes memoriall ibid. The actions of Noble Personages like sweet odours diffuse themselves by imitation to their followers pag. 387 Those that are followers of their persons will bee followers likewise of their lives ibid. Their private family is a familiar Nursery ibid. Foule enormities must admit of no Priviledges Eminent Persons are to be their owne Censors ibid. An excellent application by way of Exhortation to all such honourable Censors ibid. Vertues are more permanent Monuments than Statues styles trophees or obeliskes ibid. Vertue or Vice whethersoever takes hold first reteines a deeper impression in honour than any lower Subject ibid. In these whom Nobility of bloud hath advanced be ever some seeds or semblances of their Progenitors reteined ibid. This confirmed by Philosophicall reason and example President and Precept pag. 288 Great mindes are many times sicke of great maladies how this by timely prevention may be seasonably cured ibid. The efficient cause why Vertue or Vice whethersoever takes hold first reteines a deeper impression in Honour than in any lower Subject illustrated by instance ibid. First Motions have deepe impressions first Notions firme retentions pag. 389 The greatest profit of Honourable personages is to become Proficients in the practice of vertue Their highest delight to subdue their delights to the obedience of reason for the love of vertue ibid. The Corruption of time hath introduc'd that deformity of fashion as it asperseth on our formall imitators much imputation ibid. Where Youth is initiated in affectation of State it partakes
to learne so it is many times most facile to erre And because diverse and sundry are the dispositions with which our Masters are to encounter so there is required in them a free and plenteous measure of discretion to the end they may accommodate their discipline to every ones disposition Some natures they shall find sweet and affable others rough and intractable Some apt to get and no lesse apt to forget others flow to get but apt to reteine Some to be won by an apple others to bee taught by the rod. And in these discoveries I should with Parents rather to recommend the Scrutinie to their Masters then by too much indulgency to interesse themselves He deserves not to be a Master whose discretion applyes not it selfe to the disposition of his Scholler Neither is our discourse only restrained to Arguments of Learning I am not ignorant how children descending from one root may differ in the quality of their mind Some are not capable at Schoole who may shew themselves sufficient for a trade As you then shall find your children disposed be it your care to have them so bestowed as neither your too much indulgence may decline their improvement nor your too remisse care beget in them a neglect of their advancement For youth as it may become depraved by too much cockring so may it be nipped in the bud and consequently too much discouraged by too rigid a curbing Be it then your prime care to lay a faire foundation and to give them such accomplishment by a generous Education as their very posture may confirme them branches of honour Scorning to appeare in that designe that may in the least manner derogate from their place or lay a blemish on their blood If thou beest Cato's sonne said that brave Roman doe nothing unworthy of Cato's Father This Patterne but in a more divine imitation should all children reteine in their memory to prove unto the world that they are true native Scienes derived from such a Family from whence as they received their birth so they labour to improve it by presenting good examples upon this Theatre of earth O if inconsiderate youth did but know what precious time it bestowes in trifling vanity as in dedicating those first houres of the day in crisping those wanton love-lockes in cerussing and repairing a decayed beauty by idolatrizing themselves in the reflexion of a flattering Glasse by composing an adulterate countenance purposely to induce fancy and like wanton Dalilah to rob deluded man of his strength by their lascivious folly Againe how it bestowes the after-noone in needlesse visits Immodest Objects light presentments but scarcely reserves one minute after so many mis-spended houres for workes of devotion O I say would youth but lay these to his heart and cloze the period of his thoughts with this short expostulation O what have I done Hee would returne no doubt with the poore penitent Prodigal and acknowledge his sinne Hee would feed no longer on the husks of vanity nor goe astray any more in those by-paths of folly He would returne I say with the Turtle truly mourning bestow the remainder of his dayes in repenting and desire no longer to live after he desisted from that pious resolution which had so wholly possessed him as it had left no hope for vanity to seize on him Now to perfect this good worke let it be the especiall care of Parents to educate their children religiously to season their infancy with Principles of Piety For there is nothing that makes elther youth or age more wavering in points of Religion next temporary respects which too often times coole divine effects then ignorance in the grounds of Religion Now as it is the office of Parents to plant them in it so is it their duty to suffer no temporall respect to decline them from it It was that learned Fathers resolution I will hold that faith now when I am old which I was nursed in when I was young There is more beauty in our Christian truth then ever appeared in Helen of Greece This moved that victorious Emperour Constantine the Great to protest what his princely constancy had ever exprest that he preferred his happinesse in being a Member of Christs Church before his being the Head of an Empire Seeing that the priviledges of faith are of larger extent then the Confines of an Empire and of that inestimable price as no treasure is to be compared to her it becomes every sincere Professor to desire rather to suffer then so incomparable a Princesse should suffer in her honour nay rather to perish by speaking then that Truth should perish for want of a Speaker Having thus laid downe the foundation whereon the first hopes of Youth are to be grounded with such eminent graces wherewith it is to be seasoned and such consequent Principles of Religion wherein necessarily it is to be confirmed Wee are now to descend to our secondary Parentall care which as it is not to precede the former so is it not to be neglected in a proportionable measure and order The soule indeed as it is of a more precious substance then the body so ought their cares to be of a distinct quality This the Poet intimated elegantly Lesse is the losse of Fortune then of Fame More of a Soule then of a glorious Name Diverse then and of distinct nature be these different cares wherein Parents are to be so much the more cautious in regard their too anxious and immoderate cares may become highly noxious O how many by doing too much for their Children have undone their Children Be it then your especiall ayme in these temporall cares to improve your meanes by honest wayes A Revenue got with honesty is a thriving portion to Posterity whereas Estates built on rapine or the ruine of others what shallow foundations have such Fabricks being many times no sooner raised then razed These illegitimate Patrimonies as that grave Morall stiled them seldome survive an age for the macerating cares of an exacting Father treasure their hopes most commonly on a prodigall Successor Howsoever then that Apostolicall admonition is ever to be remembred and by a discreet Providence to be seconded If there be any that provideth not for his owne and namely for them of his Houshold bee denieth the faith and is worse then an Iufidell yet let a religious feare ever accompany this care Gods honour must be in the first place or there can bee no peace in any place Now to advance his honour and obtaine favour in the presence of our best Master let not the provision for a Family nor improvement of a Posterity make you remisse in your care of eternity Be owners of your owne seeke not to reape what you have not sowne Scorne to be Intruders in anothers right or in the confidence of your power to crush your inferiour or to grinde the face of the poore by working on his necessity who flies to you for
scarce any State which hath not felt where civill warres have menaced no lesse danger to the State than forraine powers private factions than open hostilitie In some likewise so deepe impression hath Ambition wrought as the Envie which they conceive at others greatnesse deprives them of all rest This appeared in Themistocles who walked in the Night-time in the open street because he could not sleepe The cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like height of Ambition shewed Alexander weeping bitterly to see his father win so fast before him fearing nothing should remaine for him to conquer Now how naturally Youth is affected to this illimited motion may be observed even in usuall games where Youth rather than hee will endure the foile exposeth himselfe to all encounters It is glory which he aimes at and before he lose it he will hazard himselfe for it His Prize is his praise hee values nothing more than to get him a name which may brute his renowne and gaine him respect with his Dearest His disquiet for what is Ambition but a Distraction of the mind is to affect that best which doth afflict him most Augustus had broken sleepes and used to send for some to passe the Night away in telling tales or holding him with talke See the misery of Ambitious spirits whose ends are without end limiting their desires to no other period than sole soveraigntie Their ayrie thoughts like Icarus wings are ever mounting till the Sunne which they threatned dissolve them Inferiour taskes they as much sleight as Eagles doe Flies they love not to stoope to basenesse when many times lowest fortunes entertaine them with no lesse discontent than despaire can force them to And in their lowest ebbe when Hope forsakes them and their neerest like Tiberius friends shrinke from them and no comfort remaines save expectance and sufferance of all extremities you shall heare them upraid Prince or State relating with much vain-glory what dangers they have undergone for them Instance whereof even in these latter times might be produced as in that Ambitious French-man the brave Byron who seeing no way but one burst out into these violent extremes I have received three thirtie wounds of my body to preserve it for him and for my reward he takes my head from my shoulders He now quencheth the torch in my bloud after hee hath used it This is the condition of high spirits whose aimes were transcendent to close up their tragicall Scene with a vain-glorious boast of what they have done little considering how their Countrie might lawfully exact and expect as much as was in them to performe and they still debrours to her because they had their being from her Yet see though sometimes they stand upon termes of resolution desiring to die standing when the sentence of death is pronounced and all future hope extinguished they will be as that great French-man was Supple as a glove presenting their heads as willingly to the sword as Agis did his unto the halter It is strange to note how these men walke in clouds imagining themselves most secure when imminencie of perill assures them nothing lesse The reason whereof may seeme to be this they flatter themselves in their vanitie as Pygmalion with his Image or Narcissus with his Shadow reposing more confidence in their owne valour and the aide which Themistocles or Pausanias-like they contract abroad linking and uniting themselves with forraine powers than on all the information of friends or the perswasions of a loyall and uncorrupted heart But these as that Heroick Prince noted must bow or breake be their persons never so hopefull or directions behovefull to the State they must be curbed or the State endangered Their properties is ever to swim in troubled waters nor can they endure to be mated Though their aimes bee to perpetuate their greatnesse yet those Beasts which are bred about the River Hypanis and live but one day may oft-times compare with them for continuance whence the Poet saith excellently out of his owne observation Much have I seene yet seldome seene I have Ambition goe gray-headed to his grave There is nothing which the Ambitious man hates so much as a corrivall he hopes to possesse all and without a sharer But so indirect are his plots and so insuccessive their end as hee findes to his great griefe that the promise of securitie had no firme foundation to ground on nor his attempts that issue they expected Now Gentlemen you whose better parts aime at more glorious ends so consine your desires to an equall meane that mounting too high bring you not to an irreparable fall Wee are borne indeed as that divine Father saith to be Eagles and not Iayes to fly aloft and not to seek our food on the ground but our Eagle-eyes are to be fixed on the Sunne of righteousnesse not on temporall preferments We are to soare to the Tower from whence commeth our helpe For it is not lifting up a mans selfe God likes but lifting up of the spirit in prayer Here are wings for flying without feare of falling for other aymes they are but as feathers in the aire they delude us howsoever they seeme to secure us But I heare some young Gentleman object that it is a brave thing to be observed in the eye of the world to have our persons admired our selves in publike resorts noted yea our Names dispersed Indeed I grant He who consists on nothing more than showes Thinkes it is brave to heare Loe there be goes But such whose solid understandings have instructed them in higher studies as much disvalue popular opinion or the Corckie conceits of the vulgar as true Nobilitie scornes to converse with any thing unworthy it selfe Their greatnesse hath correspondence with goodnesse for esteeme of the world as in respect of their owne worth they deserve it so in contempt of all outward glory they disvalue it Come then yee nobly affected Gentlemen would yee be heires of honour and highly reputed by the Highest Resemble the Nature of the Highest who humbled himselfe in the forme of man to restore miserable man vilifying himselfe to make man like himselfe It is not beleeve it to shine in grace or esteeme of the Court which can innoble you this glory is like glasse bright but brittle and Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee past but for a single pennie It is more glory to be in the Courts of the Lord to purchase esteeme with him whose judgement never erres and whose countenance never alters It is reported by Comines in his French Annals that Charles whom he then served was of this disposition that he would make assay of the greatest matters revolving in his mind how he might compasse them yea perchance saith he assayes farre above
the strength of man See the picture of an Ambitious spirit loving ever to be interessed in affaires of greatest difficultie Caemelion-like on subtill ayre he feeds And vies in colours with the checkerd meeds Let no such conceits transport you lest repentance finde you It is safer chusing the Middle-path than by walking or tracing uncouth wayes to stray in your journey More have fallen by presumption than distrust of their owne strength And reason good for such who dare not relie on themselves give way to others direction whereas too much confidence or selfe-opinionate boldnesse will rather chuse to erre and consequently to fall than submit themselves to others judgement Of this opinion seemed Velleius the Epicurean to bee of whom it is said that in confidence of himselfe he was so farre from feare as hee seemed not to doubt of any thing A modest or shamefast feare becomes Youth better which indeed ever attends the best or affablest natures Such will attempt nothing without advice nor assay ought without direction so as their wayes are secured from many perills which attend on inconsiderate Youth My conclusion of this point shal be in a word that neither the rich man is to glory in his riches the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength for should man consider the weaknesse and many infirmities whereto he is hourely subject hee would finde innumerable things to move him to sorrowing but few or none to glory in Againe if he should reflect to the consideration of his Dissolution which that it shall bee is most certain but when it shall be most uncertaine he would be forced to stand upon his guard with that continuall feare as there would be no emptie place left in him for pride This day one proud as prouder none May lye in earth ere day be gone What confidence is there to be reposed in so weake a foundation where to remaine ever is impossible but quickly to remove most probable Then to use Petrarchs words be not afraid though the house the Bodie be shaken so the Soule the guest of the Body fare well for weakning of the one addeth for most part strength to the other And so I come to the last passion or perturbation incident to Youth REvenge is an intended resolve arising from a conceived distaste either justly or unjustly grounded This Revenge is ever violent'st in hot blouds who stand so much upon termes of reputation as rather than they will pocket up the least indignitie they willingly oppose themselves to extremest hazard Now this unbounded fury may seeme to have a two-fold relation either as it is proper and personall or popular and impersonall Revenge proper or personall ariseth from a peculiar distaste or offence done or offered to our own person which indeed hath ever the deepest impression Which may be instanced in Menelaus and Paris where the honour of a Nuptiall bed the Law of Hospitalitie the prosessed league of Amitie were joyntly infringed Or in Antonie and Octavius whose intestine hate grew to that height as Antonies Angell was afraid of Octavius Angell Which hatred as it was fed and increased by Fulvia so was it allayed and tempered by Octavia though in the end it grew irreconciliable ending in bloud as it begun with lust Revenge popular or impersonall proceedeth extrinsecally as from factions in families or some ancient grudge hereditarily descending betwixt House and House or Nation and Nation When Annibal was a childe and at his fathers commandement he was brought into the place where he made sacrifice and laying his hand upon the Altar swore that so soone as he had any rule in the Common-wealth he would bee a prosessed enemie to the Romans Whence may be observed how the conceit of an injury or offence received worketh such impression in that State or Kingdome where the injury is offered as Hate lives and survives the life of many ages crying out with those incensed Greekes The time will come when mightie Troy must fall Where Priams race must be extinguish'd all But wee are principally to discourse of the former Branch to wit of proper or personall Revenge wherein wee shall observe sundry Occurrents right worthy our serious consideration That terme as I said before usually called Reputation hath brought much generous bloud to effusion especially amongst such Qui magis sunt soliciti vani nominis quà m propriae salutis Prizing vain-glory above safetie esteeme of valour above securitie of person And amongst these may I truly ranke our Martial Duellists who many times upon a Taverne quarrell are brought to shed their dearest bloud which might have beene imployed better in defence of their Countrey or resistance of proud Infidels And what is it which moves them to these extremes but as they seeme to pretend their Reputation is engaged their opinion in the eye of the world called in question if they should sit downe with such apparent disgrace But shall I answer them The opinion of their valour indeed is brought in question but by whom not by men of equall temper or maturer judgement who measure their censures not by the Last of rash opinion but just consideration For these cannot imagine how Reputation should be brought in question by any indiscreet crime uttered over a pot whereof perchance the Speaker is ignorant at least what it meant But of these distempered Roisters whose only judgement consists in taking offence and valour in making a flourish of these I have seene One in the folly of my Youth but could not rightly observe till my riper age whose braving condition having some young Gooselin to worke on would have made you confident of his valour instancing what dangerous exploits hee had attempted and atchieved what single fields hee had pitched and how bravely he came off yet on my conscience the Battell of the Pygâ—â—ies might have equall'd his both for truth and resolution Yet I have noted such as these to be the Bellowes which blow the fire of all uncivill quarrells suggesting to young Gentlemen whose want of experience makes them too credolous matter of Revenge by aggravating each circumstance to enrage their hot bloud the more Some others there are of this band which I have like wise observed and they are taken for grave Censors or Moderators if any difference occurre amongst Young Gentlemen And these have beene Men in their time at least accounted so but now their fortunes falling to an ebbe having drawne out their time in expence above their meanes they are enforced and well it were if Misery forced them not to worse to erect a Scence whereto the Roarers make recourse as to their Rendevous And hereto also resorts the raw and unseasoned Youth whose late-fallen patrimonie makes him purchase acquaintance at what rate soever glorying much to be esteemed one of the fraternity And he must now keep his Quarter maintaine his prodigall rout with what his Parcimonious father long carked for