having set an end to all their desires and seen a period of all their labours by the enfranchisement of their departure become from Earths villaines and lifes vassals Gods freemen yea Kings and Priests to God The just consideration whereof if the dictates of pure nature and the assurances of Gods word had any power with men would lenify the thoughts of deaths trouble in the worlds adiew and the body and Souls dissociation because the incontinuity of them does but resolve them into their respective Principle the Body retiring to the dust from whence it came and the Soul to God that gave it Nor is any man happy in life further then he has provided for a good death or in death if he have not the testimony of a good yet of a penitent life my meaning is if before he dye the errors of his life be not expiated for in the palliations of his guilt and Gods ignoscency of them and in the acceptation of his sorrow and person with Gods agnition of him for a dyer in him That is in the beliefe and assurance of his forgivenesse and filiation which once had the soul cannot but trample upon despondency and bid defiance to despair since Christ justifies it is too late for any to condemn if life makes us debtors to nature the whole Creation being but as one lump of power and mercy masshed together in the common fatt and fate of vicissitude and the providence and wisdom of God brewing us together till we work out the Lees of sin and nature and become defecate or as neer it as the pleasure of our maker design'd us to arrive at and by our respective proportions to auxiliat the productions and gradations of succession towards perfection then to dye when we have lived our time and out-lived our innocence by as many degrees as we have at all lived is but the payment of our debt to nature and the surrender of our forfeiture to God and we are to account that a Good death which not so much takes away as betters life because it does rather advance the Soul then depresse the body Bona mors quae vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius bona qua non corpus cadit sed anima sublevatur rerum enim cupiditatibus vi vendo non teneri humanae virtutis est corporum verò similitudinibus speculando non involvi angelicae puritatis est utrumque tamen divini muneris est utrumque excedere teipsum transcendere est Stus Bernardus Serm. 52. in Cant. Cant. for to be in Soul an Angell while in state a man is to be an arriver at what ever God requires and man can attain to in this under-age of Glory And O Nobles and Gentry If death be thus Emolumental if it be the Ladder to heaven if it be the disarray of those uneasy harnassings that sin and life put upon you such as Iob oft calls shaking of the bones Iob. 4. 14. piercing the bones Ch. 30. ver 17. and David calls vexing the bones Psalm 6. 6. If it brings no rest to the bones Psal. 38. 3. breaks the bones Psal. 51. 8. if it streightens the compass and disedges the Divine soul and its faculties in their raptures and sallies and fill the heart with grief the eye with tears and the countenance with wanness and disspiriting then to be by death enlarged and to have a separation of a troublesome match Vivebas antea O beata anima sed in specioso carcere nunc immensus aether palatium est vidâ—bas sed non nisi per fragiles atque angustas corporeae Massae â—enestras nunc liberè sine transenna sine velamine audiebas sed per sinâ—osos aurium meaus mortalium eos ingâ—atos sape sermones nunc dulcissimam caelorum Harmoniam aeternarum intelligentiarum concentus precipis Ludovicus Fabritius in Orat Inaugurali super moâ—â—em Domini de Saletione and an assignation of body and soul to their proper Spheres is to be released from both the labour and the guilt of sin and to be in the road and upon the march to the Hercules pillar beyond which there is nothing but hope of being more belief of becomming more then you unclarifiedly are and is not this a great motive to be ready to dye and to be advanced by dying well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basilius Mag. p. 229. for as the Sea and the wind and the stars and the compasse and the industry of Seamen and the titeness of the ship well rigg'd well steered are all furtherances to the one attainment of the Port Habitatio ista nec deserviret hominibus ut patria cum in ea nullus nasceretur nec deserviret ut exilium cum in ea nullus exulare mereretur Gulielm Parisiens parte 1. de universo part 3. c. 48. nor do men ordinarily come thither safely and seasonably but by the subserviency of these to the purpose and project of the mind where the designs upon the port are united so neither does any man attaine the Vision of God the Clarification of his nature the Comprehension of happinesse but by the passe of death Which lets us out of toyle and combate into pleasure and quietnesse And that not as pleasure and quietnesse is notioned here which is Planetary and moving as well as tired with vexation and confusion but as it is in Gods presence fullnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Thus shall a good death befriend the providers for it who only have Confidence in and comfort from it For though God did translate a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil Mag Orat. p 65. ol 1. Enoch without sight of death as an example by himselfe of a Celestial man who in a sort lived above sin and was taken away without death yet the grave is the usuall Supersedeas to life and death the Port of Mans march off and therefore since nature piety and the interest of both tends to death to set your souls O ye Nobles and Gentry in Order to receive deaths charge is to discharge your selves of being surprised and to receive your charger and enemy with Courage and by victorying his terrours to be victors of the joyes consequent to it which St. Paul intended in that Epinichion which he athletarily chanted out 1 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought the good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse SECT XLV Evidences that to meditate of God and the great concerns of the Soul is the way to come unto and come off from Iudgment Honourably MY last and not least Argument to beseech ye O Nobles and Gentry to think of God and of the great concerns of your soules is that thereby ye may come off honourably in the day of judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil. Mag. Epist. ad virgin laps p. 755. operum 2 Thes. 2. 8.
looks thought fellow only to the dogs of his flock shall be â—iducially quiet and hopefully couragious to encounter death and shall have a seat at Gods right hand when this great and wise disdainer shall be extruded Heaven and intruded into the place of Devils Hearken to this In compendiam mittimus mala si presentia facimus esse judicia Casâ—iod Var. lib 6. c. 2 1 O ye Nobles and Great men that too often think of death never â—ill it comes and are too often unprepared for it when it comes who ought to be the Lights of your Countreys the Tutors of your Neighbours in all morral literature the terrors of your ages Exorbitancies be not blind Guides to your seeing Countreymen be not dead Flies in the oytment of Grandeur cause not the way of Honour and the worth of Blood to be depreciated by your oblivion of and contraition to God but let this eye of Gods condescension in these distinguishing external mercies expressed to you above others provoke your eyes to be lifted up to him in holy gratitude in humble love in fixed faith in exemplary charity That you may expiate for the failings of some Great men by the vertues of you Great men that are Great and Good And that this Ye may do consider the mercy of God ought to melt and the patience of God to shame you into this holy Justice to it and your selves This the Apostle presses upon his Romans Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore saith he by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Where the Apostle enforces his argument on them from not only his Apostolique condescension in beseeching them whom he might command but from Gods goodness to them not barely in the mercy of his Ministery which though he knew salvifique to them De quatuor â—iliabus magnae miseâ—icordiae dictum est quae sunt immistio amaritudinâ—s substractio opportunitatis vâ—rtus resist eâ—di saniâ—as affectationis Serm de Tripl misericord quatuor miserationibus Ostendit uno exemplo ei ritualia perfâ—ci per res solidiores quae unibris istis ex adverso respondeant Iudaei offerunt corpus mortuâ—m vos corpus vinum id ect una cum corpore actiones ejus nâ—m agere est vivere Grat. in locum Hostia vivens est corpus pro domino afflictum Aâ—selmus in locum yet he magnifies not amongst them but by the mercies of God which are exemplified by Godly sorrow wrought for sin by defeat of opportunity in which to commit it by gift of grace to resist it by confirming them in a constancy of good resolution I say the Apostle does not only press them by these which St. Bernard calls the daughters of Gods great mercies but moves them to become Gods in their bodies fully no member no faculty exempted freely for that 's offering our selves without any compulsion or mercenary respect and this by holiness tending to acceptation with him From the consideration that thus to do is to be reasonable ereatures and thus to offer is to offer to God reasonable service For if God made the bodies and has honoured the bodies of men above other creatures with the inhabitation of reason in them is it not reasonable that their bodies should be devoted to God who is the giver of the life lustre of their bodies by the inspiration of their divine souls to quicken their bodies And this Gods Spirit provokes Ye to in the conviction of your reason and the convulsions of your conscience That God has made you among Creatures Men â—mon Men Christians among Christians Free-men among Free-men Noble and Gentle-men are cogent exertions of mercy in retributions to which your lives are too short your parts to low your fortunes too narrow to give mercy a suitable return and when you do the utmost you can and above as it were your selves if yet you are short of that you ought how unlike your selves and your just acknowledgements to your God are of ye among Noble Gentlemen who by Oathes and Blasphemies Adulteries Oppressions of poor Neighbours and Creditors indiligence in your Charges and heedlesness of Gods service endavour to provoke God to determin your pace which is yet as a river and your righteousness as a wave of the Sea Isai. 6. 18. For when sins of Great men are enormous Exemplary Truculent and the sufferers by them have no Earthly remedy God takes them to task and sets them home in the fatal return of them which leaves them wretched pittiless remediless For who shall gather when he scatters who shall bind up when he breaks in pieces who shall powre in Balm when he causes the wound to rage and the playster to be invalid Remember O remember He that has waited that he might be gracious Isai. 30. 18. been discouraged any longer to wait that he might be gracious has a Fan in his hand to purge Ier. 15. 7. a Fining-pot to try Mal. 3. 2. a Hammer to break in pieces Iur. 23. 29. and an Ax to hew down Ier. 51. 20. impenitent sinners and such all will appear that are rather vitiously Great then vertuously Good and then what ever silence your power and mens civility favours here your vanities with the Truth the whole Truth of them then will out and then shall ye appear to be the sinners whom the long-sufferance of God has not led into nor kept in continual repentance nor work'd into amendment of life O therefore forget not Saint Bernards Meditations Consider whence you came Vnde veneris erubesce ubi sis ingemisse quo vadas contremisce Serm. de primordiis mediis noviffimus nostris and be abashed where and what you are and be sorrowful and perplexed whether you are passing post and be amazed and tremble And O Nobles and Gentlemen having thus meditated of God and approved your selves Candidates to his favour you will be the better disposed to die comfortably and appear in judgement couragiously to die in the comfort of God lived unto Primo dominandi spes in arduo ubi sis ingressus adsunt studia ministri Tacit Annal. 4. is to prepossess God lived with 'T is to have a chaire of connexion between the upper and lower Worlds 'T is to be Magnetique as I may say of God into a Mans soul and to breath out Hyperhumane Hallelujahs 'T is to contend and vye with Angels in comfort of condition rapture of Intuition and delight of permanency 'T is to be what God is fixable on a Created stump and improvable into an increated attainment This is the true Nobility and Generosity that God designed our nature little lower then the Angels For in that he hath made us Kings and Priests to himself by effectual vocation testified in an holy life and death what has be done less then superiorated us to Angels
us He and his men had their pleasure of Women sent out to them from the Romans but they were but She-slaves on whom the French men were so enfeebled that being layn to sleep to recover their wasted spirits and enfeebled strength they all a sleep were surprised by the Romans and slain Thus and thus only are the snares of sense and the pleasures of life to be accounted of True joy is terminated to vertue and obtainable only from Supralunaries non capit has pompas humilis domus The low roof'd lodge of mortality entertaines no such Gyant-like joyes and altitudinous assurances which Bernard phrases Iubilus cordis non strepitus oris motus gaudiorum non sonus labiorum voluntatum non vocum consonantia The hearts joy not the mouths motion the sense of the souls joy not the sound of the lips agility a consonancy not of syllables and ayres but of wills and desires I confess to live is the greatest and most acclamated naturall priviledge 't is that which is the great evidence of natures perfect work in us Stus Bernardus Serm. 1. in Cantic Cantic Sunt ista bona consequentia summum bonum non consumm â—n tia Seneca de vita beata c. 15. and Gods vitall word to us but if life be considered by the description of those that have clearest light into the discovery and reallest experience of the result of it it will appear is but a vacillating transient futile thing The wise Eliphaz in Iob terms it a wind Iob 7. 5. and Iob in Ch. 24. v. 22. saies No man is sure of his own life And David tels us his life is spent in grief and his years 〈◊〉 sorrow Psal. 31. 10. And King Solomon Who knoweth what is good for a man in this 〈◊〉 all the daies of his vain life which he â—â—ndeth as a shaddow Eccles. 6. last And â—â—iah professes his Age is departed and is â—moved from me like a Shepheards Tent â— have cut off like a Weaver my life he will 〈◊〉 me off with pining sickness from day to 〈◊〉 even to night will thou make an end of 〈◊〉 Chap. 38. v. 12. And when St. Paul â—â—lls the godly that if their hope were of â—â—is life they were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. What doth he less then diâ—â—inish this life into nothing of reall good â—nd true contribution to good men And therefore if a man will only summon â—s own experience to enquire and verâ—ict this the result of that Justice which â—â—at will do to it self and its entrust â—ill confirm beyond all scruple That 〈◊〉 is nothing but a Sea of misery a Renâ—ezvouz of cares a Mint of diseases a â—â—ine of dangers a Rode of Misery a â—â—ss to Forgetfulness Nor is any man â—appy further to live Eccles. 7. 14. Chop 1. 11. then he lives to â—lorifie God to oblige men and immorâ—allize himself which they do best who â—onour God with their Honours as David Josiah Hezechiah and all godly great men 〈◊〉 to do with their Parts as the Prophets Apostles Martyrs Primitive Bishops and all Christian learned Clerks and Genâ—tlemen have and ought further to do and who oblige men by their examples wriâ—tings and actions of vertuous Charity and diffusive goodness in which none of latâ— ages has deserved beyond the Famouâ— Pereskius who if Gassendus do not Hyperâ—bolize of him was the true Pandora that haâ— the collection and amassation of all vertuâ— in him above the expression of any Encoâ—mium or Panagerick Epist. Philippo Valesio ante opera Gassendi and that not only beâ—cause he was a Mecaenas of Learning but on that never did in his life any thing mean oâ— little which because the most of meâ— fail in they ought to fall short of the gloâ—ry of this Divinity For since they live as beasts not men as Pagans not Chriâ—stians whose god is their belly whosâ— glory is their shame whose lust is theiâ— law whose strength is their confidence whose sensuality is their conscience whosâ— interest is their friendship whose falshooâ— is their wisdome whose shift is their deâ—ceit whose words are snares whose looâ— are ponyards whose actions are poysons whose religion is rebellion whose faith iâ—â—action because they live in this riot aâ—gainst reason and in this breach of the Peace of their Soveraign Lord the King â—f Heaven in their souls Therefore are â—â—ey to be strangers from the comforts of 〈◊〉 Almighty and to be tormented with â—uilt before consumed with fire O Lord what Monsters are we men how â—â—attique is even Europe in its production 〈◊〉 Satyrs Oedipusses Centaurs Apes Peaâ—ocks Lyons Wolves Serpents Adders full â—â—all Venom Mortiferanism which if reâ—â—esentable to sober eyes in that posture â—nd turpitude of action in that evidence of â—â—onstrosity and Peccant villany wherein God sees it nothing but shame amazement â—nd horror would possess the seers or heaâ—â—rs of that sad spectacle and and dismall â—â—rrative Good God when a man conâ—â—ders that God has bestowed upon man 〈◊〉 share of Divinity and endowed his soul with reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hetrussio legati apud Dionis Halycarnass lib. 5. against which he ought to do â—â—thing it being the direction and line of 〈◊〉 termination and enlargment that its â—â—te the body is but the ring in which 〈◊〉 Jewell soul is set and life the foyl by â—hich it is set off to a transparency Now â—â—at men of mortal bodies should have immortal vices and men of divine souls have â—â—vellish projects and designes to dishoâ—â—our the divine excellency of it by is â— strange Nonsense and Manless brutishâ—ess yet such is the sinful eddy and prevalent currant of life that it bears every mortal down the stream of its vanity into the torrent of enmity against and displeasure from God if Adam should be presented to us in his innocence environed with pleasure attended with plenty exempted from sin consorted with a beauteous mateâ— priviledged with converse with God and yet This great model of incarnate Divinity This creature that had the Prerogative to be the Viceroy of God and had the terrour of his Power and wisdom upon all the creatures who durst not come into This persons presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Adamo In lib. de nobilitate p. 906. nor into the view of his Majestique eye nor deserve the rebuke oâ— his terrifying voyce or provoke the power of his armed hand if this Adam that was this all that God could put into the Power of the second to himselfe to manage iâ— Adam thus secured thus accomplished be considered for all this tempted to and prevailed by the hising of a Serpent that crawles on the earth and licks the durt and the redness and sweetness of an appleâ— that God had reserved to himself upon the tree of Knowledge Nec Adam de Baradiso descendisset nisi delectatione deceptus esset Stus Ambrosius c. 1. lib. de Fug siculi seperate from him and
Daring in deed of nature kind For Nobles are by God design'd And that the Trojans had Nobility amongst them is plain from that of the Poet Iuvenalis apud Lucium in Commeâ—tar ad Virgilium p. 903. Cerda in lib. 3. Aeneid v. 3â—9 who mentioning valiant and divine men terms them Trojugenas Iubet à Precone vocare Istas Trojugenas Yea in that * Alexanerd M. cum fuerat 17. jure nâ—â—â—erni sanguiniâ— Achille auctore Paterni Hercule gloriatus est Vel. Paterculus lib. 1. p. 14. edit Lipsiâ— Alexander was wont to glory of his descent from Hercules and Achilles as did the Macedonian Kings after him which Silius alludes to in those Verses Hic gente egregius veterisque ab origine regni Aeacidâ—â—â— sceptris proavoque tumebat Achille This Gallant swollen was with boast to come From Hercules Achilles Seirs to whom They were whose deeds gave them a glorious Tomb So pregnant of renown's his Morning Womb. In as much I say as these things are in Authors of credit we are to be concluded that Nobility was in account with the Greeks nor else would the holy Text have used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it doth Luke 19. v. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 26. Acts 17. 11. If this Nobility which those places allude to had not been in reputation in the world and that in its several Vertigo's and traverses of power and Empire For when the Romans superseded the Greeks Men and States having their hot and cold sits with the Conquests and Colonies of the Romans the Grecian usages Inde prodiit jus Imaginum quas nobiles ab armorum laude pararint Familiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et nomina militum clypeis ascripta Forrerius in leg 195. Vegetius lib. 2. c. 28. de re Micitari laws and opinions eat themselves into the Roman greatness and became by common approbation Roman and then Rome swells with the bulk of Patricians and Senators and groans under the overgrown weight of Triumphers and Coronetted persons and it not only allows Citizens to write their names upon their Bucklers or to charge on them some honourable device by reason of which they put a great value upon them De Clypeorum dedicatione lege Plinium lib. 35 p. 3. and would not cowardly lose them to their enemies but while they could carry them as their Badges of Honour and at last dedicate them to their Gods and to the memory of their Progenitors I say Rome did not only allow her Citizens this mark of clarescency but animated them to every Instance of Heroickness Now no Porch is without its Frontispiece no corner in its Room of State without a Monument of Nobility Nobiles autem primum Patricii dicti sunt quippe quibus primum honores iis quibus nobilitas co uparatur in Republ. pâ—â—ueru ut post autem plebeii etiam ubi primi ad Curules honores pervenerunt Nobiles dici caepâ—i sunt neque enim ex genere nobilitas sed ex imâ—ginibus parabatur Sigonius de nom in Romam p. 368. in some Obelisques and Pyramids in others Triumphal Arches here a Marble Pourtraicture there a goodly Statue or Pillar every where some Trophy or Fescue to Honour manlily acceded to Yea though they most set by their first instituted Orders and reckoned the Descendants from them the Virtuoso's primarum gentium yet had they admissions into and enlargements of Honour to reward brave Actions in obscure Men Which made Seneca no small Courtier nor yet a man of a refuse birth to encourage real Virtue thus No man is more noble then another unless he have a nobler soul and be apter to virtuous Atchievements Eadem â—mnibus principia eademque origo nemo altero nobilior nisi cui rectius ingenium artibus bonis aptius qui Imagines in atrio exponunt c. Et paulo post sive libertini ante vos habentur sive servi sive exterarum gentiuns homines erigite audacter animoâ— quicquid in medio sordidi jaceâ— transilite expectat vos in summo Magna nobilitas ib. 3. de Benesic c. 27. those that are full of the Antiquities of their Progenitors and make an endless Narrative of them adorning their Portals with their Effigiesses are by them more noted then noble there is one common Parent of all Men This World whether Men come first or last are valued or not is not much by a wise Man to be stood upon Despise no Man saith he that which only is valuable is nobility of mind which expects the best praise and makes them that have it worthy of it Thus he And hereupon he proceeds to defend Cleanthes Chrysippus and Zeno though in condition beneath Magistrates and so not enrolled in the publick Charters of Benefactors to the Government proving that they in the institution of men in moral Philosophy Lib de Oâ—io Sap. c. 31. and Rules of Virtue were as useful as men of great Estates and Courage In cujuscunque animo virtus inesset ei plurimum esse ritbuendum Patercul lib. 2. p. 76. to support the power of the Commonwealth were though then the Romans did prize Virtue and Wisdom in men of the first head and thought highly of Coruncanus Carvilius Cato Marius Fulvius Asinius Pollio Omnes boni sempen uobilitaâ—i â—avemus quia utile est Reipubl nobiles homines esse dignos majo ribus suis quia valet apud nos clarorum virorum memoria etiam mortuorum Cic. pro Sexâ—io who all were of no Families but names of Honour and Nobilitation to themselves yet did they not wholly exclude the race of Worthies though degenerated from conspicuity reflecting on them from their Ancestors who begetting Children in nature and body not alwayes in nobility of soul like themselves they caution'd not to be wholly casheired Esteem Not thus is Seneca to be misunderstood but his meaning in what is praealledged is That if meer descent from a virtuous stock and antecedent Patricians and personal virtue in an upstart must be weighed each against the other as two separate and abstracted things not resolvable into one person then he as a Roman and Man of reason had rather chuse virtue without blood then blood without virtue For as Phalaris wrote to Antiochus Virtue is the true and only Nobility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epistola ad Antiochum other things are referrable to fortune To which Philo suffragates Truth and Iudgment quoth he considers not Nobility only from the race of blood but from justice and courage of action For when the rattle and noise of descent and blood is drowned in the casualties and confusions of worldly instability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo lib. de Nobilit p. 904. Virtue susteins it self in every condition and is welcome to another when â—it is banished from or unhappy in it s own Country Whence is discovered the vanity of too much resting on
it is not strength only but art and slight that brings great bodies into motion so is it not so much the bulk of the estate as the way of ordering and placing it that appears operatively great Thus sagacity fights with few against a numerous Army of men and with a little wheel great weights are craned up and with little cost good houswifery furnishes a Noble Table and with few ingredients the Physitian prescribes a Cordial composition it being only the property of prudence and experimental intuition into and intelligence of the world and men in it to frugally manage a little to great acceptation which is shostliest and most comendably done when the order of marshalling the seasoning of time the efficacy of performance both enters it in and brings it off Hereupon whatever advantage and courtesie to the glory of life thrift and parsimony in the creditable regularity of it bring to life that prodigality defeats and evacuates which fatal activity of its wast does not only display its self in immense expence Nondum satis omne robur projecimus adhuc quicquid est boni moris extinguimus levitate politura corporum muliebres munditias anâ—â—scessimus co ores meretâ—icio matroâ—is qâ—idem non 〈◊〉 viri sumimus Tenerâ— molli ingressu suspendimus gradum non ambulamus sed incediâ—us Quotidiâ— comminiscimur per quae virilitati siat iniuria ut traducatur quia non potest exâ—i Senec. 7 Natur. Quest. c. 31. and in triobular baubles to set out and pirk up a body of dust vice with which Seneca gravely increpates the folly of the Romans for We have not yet saith he cast off all antique masculineness such reliques of vertue yet remain which are passing over their solid worth to the levity of fashions which invade vertue and traduce it into a study of sining the body rather then adorning the mind so that now we men exceed women for neatness no soul finger no wrinkle nothing must be otherwise then exact Yea we learn to lick from those Curtezans whose native beauties they think not leur enough and therefore curl and paint to entice more vehemently and we walk so tenderly and with such state as if we crept not walked and daily we busie our selves if not wholy to put off yet in great degree to abate Manliness Thus that Authour Not only I say is prodigality notified by these profusenesses but by negligence of which end goes forward and overliness in managing what men have and ignorance and Invigilance in humouring and helping it to its best accomodation This Solomon reproaches and sends the guilty of it to the Ant Prov. 6. 6. For as men are bodily unamiable as well by not washing their skin not trimming their hair not paring their nayls not wearing decent clothes and keeping them decently as by mayhems scarrs and diseases and as he is as untrue a Steward for his Owners who does not observe and take the first wind and put out all the sayls he safely may the vessel will well bear in a quick wind by which his port will be soonest made and the Owners fraught be turned into effect as he that casts them into the sea or betrays them to Pirats because in both cases there is a failer of trust and so a desert of subsequent censure so may he be accounted as true a waster of his estate who lets it have its own swing and minds it not as he that by vain and costly living contracts debts upon it and then is fain to sell it to pay them For Estates seldom stand at stay if they increase not they diminish Let then the restraints and guards of frugality be taken off and there will nothing in men of vice and latitude of living remain but rashness indiscretion mistake disobligement poverty contempt â—ervility yea men never do sordid things till their greedy vices pinch them for supplies which because they cannot furnish as they would they must as they can Which was the misery Agur deprecated in that passage Giveme not poverty lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain Pro. 30. 8. And which had William Rufus avoyded who was by them put to extremities unbeseeming a King Holingshed p. 27. witness his ruining some to be benevolent to others he had never been needy at such disadvantages to his conscience and honour as he was who being a Christian took money of the Jews to force converted Jews to become Jews again and made so slight of Christianity that he for money would violate any right of it Which unhappiness of his humour verified the character that is given of him In such sort was he liberal that therewith he was prodigal and in such wise stout of courage as proud withall and in such manner severe as he seemed cruel and inexorable And so his vertues were absconded and derogated from by his concomitant errours All which confirms me in the resolution to not only commend the abstayning from supernumerary expences but from all diversions which render business and diligent overlooking estates tedious as those inconveniences which are equally destructive to Men and Families For true is that of Petrarch No vertue is too big for its own sphere that God has set it in Nullum virtus spernit habitaculum nisi vitiis occupatum visne tibi domus omnis amplissima videatur cogiâ—a sepulchrum Petrarcha lib. 2. de remed ut Fortur Dial 63. nor do great minds undervalue low conditions unless vices corrupt them to be curious and unsatisfied Wilt thou think thine own house big enough for thee meditate it as thy sepulchre in which thou layest down thy body not to rise to live here again and that will calm thy pomp Thus Petrarch SECT XVI Impeacheth Idleness as the direct track to Beggary and Devastation both of Vertue in the Mind and Riches in the Purse FOurthly Idleness which brings nought home is a great Corasive to a Family for it makes a plenary wast of all Ancestors acquisitions and brands the guilty of it with ingratitude to those that competently feathered their nests and with unnaturalness to those that are to succeed whom they will leave bare and unsuitable to the president by which they were provided for This Solomon as productive of sad effects pungently brands Pro. 12. 24. The slothful shall be under Tribute His way is a hedge of Thorns Pro. 15. 19. The desire of his heart kills him ch 21. 25. It casts him into a deep pit Pro. 19. 15. His building decays and drops down Eccles. 10. 18. His body is cloathed with rags Pro. 3. 21. All which amounting to want and contempt is so far the spur to ingenuity to avoid that no labour no hazzard of life is refused to escape and secure the spirit against it For as the glory and happiness of a man is to independ on any but God in Heaven his Vicegerents on Earth and those subaltern and remote umbrages of
after it but is if not wholly lost yet overwhelmed in those cares and distractions that are parental of and prefational to unrescuable bonds and merciless contempts Now because I have laid so heavy a charge on unfortunate marriages it will be necessary for me to discover what I understand by unfortunate For though unfortunate is unfortunate in every notation and accept yet every incongruous marriage may not fall under the pungency of the censure in the full of what is thus expressed though in some considerations of time and persons relating to it and in some degrees under the capacity of it Far be it then from me to think every unequall marriage unfortunate because then I shall make more unhappy marriages then I fear are happy the most marriages of young persons or those unknown in dispositions either to other or those unequal in years education complexion or those the regenâ—â— wherein are advantage being the counsels of friends the prevalences of interest not the fruit of choice being in this sence unfortunate Nor doe I under the term of unfortunate reduce those marriages where every good vertue is present though not commended by a suitable fortune which to some persons is useless they having enough before and so happy enough that they have the opportunity to oblige and eminentise a person whose worth wants only their addition to make it Honourable or Worshipful No such thought have I in this term unfortunate nor do I think religion beauty modesty wisdom thrift courage constancy less then counterpoises to any money or land fortune with which they are not alwaies presential God not ever if often lading all his blessings in one vessell but dispersing them that every one might have some largess of his love and some Magnetique to draw the exchange of love to it Nor is merit less then valuable if it suffer under the greatest temporal diminution nor do brave spirits adheare to Crowns less because they are set upon rotten posts but stand most fixedly to them to testifie their homage to and courage for those divine endowments are not so much the hopes of preferment as the obligations of love Not in this sence then is unfortunate to be alwaies or by me understood But by unfortunate I mean unfit Matrimonia inter valde dispares infalicissimos exetus habere solent Sanches de matrimon Sacram. lib. 1. disp 12. 11. p. 37. improper and unsuitable marriage where men and women suit not each with other but are in their marriage like two perfect contraries pugnant with opposite to displeased at inharmonious in their conjugality So true is that of H. 5. to his mother dissuading him from marrying the Lady Grey small pleasure taketh a man off all that ever he hath besides Holinshed p. 726. if he be wived against his appetite which he spake alluding to that lurch of the pleasure and felony of the contrivance of marriage under an incongruity of humour and delectation of temper and person Sanchez lib. 2. disp 55. p. 149. And though I think it not alwaies a sure rule to build infallibility upon examples God not walking alwaies in the same path of providence nor decreeing a like event to all marriages of like nature but allowing various events of good and evil to them Nor are we concern'd in events which is his peculiar and subject only to his jurisdiction our duties and credits being responsible only to the prudence of our actions not the issues of them which are above us Yet is it highly important to use all discretion that the truth and vehemence of love and a due dependence on Gods ability to bless us above all outward advantages will permit in our marriages and that done with as little alloy to the freedom of our choice as possible can be to refer our selves in that estate and the consequences of it to God Thus no doubt did that vertuous Lady Queen Margaret wife to H. 5. and mother to H. 6. who took to her husband Owen Teuder a gallant brave Gentleman whom she loved Holinshed p. 615. and under the blessing and bond of that marriage produced amongst other children the renowned H. 7. the glorious Ancestor of our now gracious Soveraign whom God has made the second Uniter of all the Roses and flowers of peace and plenty in this Nation The state of marriage then being founded in a mutuality of corporal and soulary complyance containing in it the warrant of all intimate knowledge and natural mixture of kindness If the irritation to such familiarity and honest sensuality be not from the complacency of fancy the imperation of kindness often obcaecating judgment wherby the body and soul each of other are inseparably united in an oneness of indivision all the content veracity and matrimonial confidence recedes and becomes lax and disloyal yea without this marriage is so far from a remedy that it proves the meetest repository and safest colour of all imaginable lust Yea and the nest of all brawles and open dissociation Thus was Iane Shore disposed to the enamourings of E. 4. For she was young given to pleasure and pomp which her husbands calling not well allowing not yet suiting with his godly temper whose delight was to be in his calling and intent upon that she I say disliking him for this so opposite to her way and having no fixed affection to him forsook his counsell and advice first Holinshed p. 724. then his company then her own conscience in the checks of it and at last wholy waved him as he unwillingly did her And so her excellent endowments heard ill while she lived and she ended miserably her ill chosen life And where the Honour is preserved the best effect of unequal matches is discord and unpleasancy either by occasion of accidents which presetled love would have obviated or consolated under or by the interfering of eager and unmortified tempers one against another for though men are not often Fitz Lewisd Cambden Briâ—annia p. 442. nor have the fire of their wives displeasures bin destructive to them or their wedding daies nor do wives know the hidden mischief of their husbands hearts before the nine daies wonder be over for we men are often cunning and conceale our hidden deceits which I would to God were written on our foreheads yet too soon the fruits of their preengaged seductions will appear not only in the light skirmishes but in the foughten fields of disaffection and enmity Not only saies Petrarch doe suspicions complaints Nec ad mensam nec in thalamo tutus eris multum Tempus litigio vacabit Media nocte pugnabitur lib. 1. de remed uâ—r Fort. Dial. 65. and little ruffles mingle themselves with these mistaken loves but immortal duels and open hostilities at bed at board at all times not midnight excepted therefore he counsels good men To learn to suffer to forsake all for their own wife who must be or else she will not be quiet the wreck
and rock to rend apieces all friendship This I would not have Englished but to lesson Parents and Guardians to great discretion and conscience not to force or betray their children or charges to persons they disaffect nor to brow-beat or lessen their respect to and care for them Uxorem habeo Formosam R. Venenum dulce compedes aureas splendidam servilutem Idem Dial. 66. if they chuse rather not to marry then to marry at their time or to their person preferred For if they do the best expectable from such a rape and violence upon them is to account their state a sweet poyson Golden Fetters splendid thraldom For every Lover is a Soveraign Est enim amor latens ignis gratum vulvus sapidum venenum dulcis amaritudo delectabilis morbus jucundum sopplicium blanda 〈◊〉 Petrarcha lib. 5 de remed ute Fortun. Dial. 69. and desires to be absolute in its power to give its self and since love is a sudden fire a welcome wound a wel-relished poyson a sweet bitterness a delightfull disease a pleasant punishment and a sweet death is it not reasonable to allow those that are parties to these bitter sweets to be free sure it ought to be so unless Parents and Guardians will have their children and trusts free of what is not their own which they are seldom free from being or dying for grief who are lugged to marriage as Felons are to Goals Note this or frighted to it or beguiled in it as children are by Bug-bears and Rattles And those Parents and Friends that decry the libery of treats and impudicity of freedoms between Men and Women had best consider whether it be not the consectary of their over-ruling pleasure upon their Children and Pupils for nothing is more the fosterer of stollen love then the anticipation of real love to persons beyond just valuable and religious exception Nor is there any thing that will sooner and with more contentful efficacy restrain the exorbitancy of women who bring the Matron natur'd of them under prejudice for their licenciousness Non mutata faeminarum natura est sed vita nam cum virorum licentiam aequaverint corporum quorum virilium vitia aequaverant non minus pervigelant non minus potant oleo mero viros provocant Ep. 95. while as Seneca complains of the Roman Famosa's They take liberty equal to yea above men sitting up whole nights drinking playing and toying as men of deboysture do yea provoking them to do more then they otherwise would then by the resolution that they see sober men have to avoyd them and to oblige Ladies of more self-denial and modesty Nor will men persist in such vanities if they see it is distasteful to women from whom no preferment is hereby like to befall them The permission then of love to runne in its own channel and the non-obstruction of power in its free and natural course is that which I esteem the best expedient to rectifie the disorders of marriages and to render them with other moderate accommodations Fortunate Nor will it be any hard task to perswade a well-bred woman to stay at home look to her houshold-affaires and observe her husband In Menone p. 409. which Plato makes a womans virtue if such husband of hers be beloved by her keep at home with her and be obliging as a wise man should be to her For without this indispensable sine qua non love which is grounded upon likeness of humour and proof of constancy I conclude little fortunateness in the promise of any Match For though to some persons who are not touched with the vertue of love nor have any sense of it in marriage further then negative or in non-abhorrence whose ayms are Wealth Friends settlement though they admit all incongruities and discouragements of a more generous nature so their avarice or popularity be gratified Though I say to these deliberate Lovers whose love is not onely not stronger then death but weaker then water and overcome by the dirt and pelth of money and money-worth All Matches that are rich and accomplishable of design are fortunate and as they think prove well yet to others whatever marriage is not affectionate religious and symmeterious can never be accounted other then unhappy and often destructive to the body soul fame fortune family relations of them Nor do the Bills for Alimony the Suits for divorce the owned and open incontinencies the stolen loves the frequent pawnings of Jewels and Lands the rendings asunder of Families derive themselves and their disorders from any truer parent then from these For though in the Roman Common-wealth In Civitate Domini in monte sancto ejus hoc est in Ecclesia Nuptiarâ—m non solum vinculum verum etiam Sacramentum ita commendatur ut non liceat viro uxorem suam alteri tradere quod in Republ. tunc Romana non solum minime culpabiliter verum etiam laudabiliter Cato fecisse prohibetur Tertul. lib. de Fide O. perib c. 7. men might lend their Wives and probably borrow other mens as to them seemed best which Strabo says in defence of Cato lending his Martia to Hortensius was according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Roman Law yet when as in the Church of God with us Christians Tertullian says such customs are abhorred and forbidden there ought to be greater care to chuse well because change men cannot without sin Which considered I do not I think without cause make unfortunate Marriages one of the true causes of the Decay of men and Families SECT XIX Induceth wicked and expensive children the wastes of honour and riches in a Family SEventhly Another cause of decay of Families are foolish Children for if Families be carried on in their Succession by Children supplying the departures of Parents and the introduction of one Generation upon the cessation of another then children that are wicked and improvident are never like to maintain or augment the glory of their Ancestours who were wise and pious For since glory and Gods blessing of enduring is the reward of his fear and grace in them so recompensed upon them their virtue not being in their children Gods reward to them wil not be hereditary to them this the Prophet Iob for so his Spirit testifies his endowment to be exemplifies to us in Ch. 5. v. 3 4. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation His children are farr from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them So Chap. 20. v. 10. His children speaking of the wicked shall seek to please the poor so Chap. 12. v. 17. How oft is the Candle put out and vers 19. God laieth up his iniquity for his children that is God punishes his unjust dealing with prodigal and loose children who shall riotously waste his injurious leavings and render themselves children of fools children of base men vilder then the earth
Honour and esteem who never see the Prince or transiently only being added to by him as they are attested to him by those that have reason and interest to give them a good character Those then that are favoured by the Prince as they are the better sort of subjects so are they better dealt with in the shares and participations of their Favours And if Princes be to Subjects as bodies to shadows and souls to words and Princes are as absolute by their Generous and Just Government as their own consciences and Noble desires wish themselves to be Regnum vestrum imitatio vestra Forma est boni propositi unici exemplar Imperii qui quantum vos sequimur tantum gentes alias anteimus Theodoric Rex Anastasio Imper Var lib. 1. c. 1. Regulations or directions being as it were needless and supernumerary where true Christian piety and paternal Royalty are guides to Princes then cannot their Favourites that are dear to them but be great by them For theirs are the Offices of Revenue the Titles of Honour the Embassies of Credit the Matches of Fortune the dispose of Trusts to bestow or have undenyable influence upon Excepit â—e noster affectus implevit beneficiis manus fecitque esse votum quod nostrum expetisses imperium Theodoric rex Eâ— 2. Felici Var lib. 2. And if these be the waies to Greatness and they are commanded by Princes then to be favoured by them whose so much is to bestow is to have all accesses to Honour and Wealth unfolded to them The knowledge and practicability of this inclines men of good person ready wit quaint speech generous garb confident spirit to apply themselves to Princes services and by it become either Rich Respected Honourable or some or all of them Yea by this has the Worlds greatness in Persons and Families first been obtained and after augmented with that which is remarkable in them Thus Hadad in holy Writ is history'd to have favour with K. Pharaoh whereby he became his brother in law by which means his sonne begot upon the Queens sister was born and brought up in the Kings house 1 Kings 11. 19 20. And thus David by the favour of Saul 1 Sam. 18. obtained first his daughter then his Generalship and at last his Kingdom This not needfull to be further instanced in because a truth of every daies ratifying is the reason that the Wise man informs us that he that seeketh good procureth favour Prov. 10. 27. Which I take not so much to be meant of Favour as the consequent of goodness as the opportunity to seek good for a mans self and others also for whom he that is favoured interposeth Hence those passages of Solomon Prov. 14. 35. The Kings favour is towards a wise servant And ch 16. v. 15. In the light of the Kings countenance is life and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain Which Text is affirmative of whatever is issuant from the prealledged notation For in that the favour of the King is said to be life which is optimum bonorum the most delectable and desirable of all created goods And in that it is said to be as a cloud of the latter rains which is increasive and has fertility included in it what can the expectations of men in their service amount to which this grandeur of theirs doth not answer and exceed And as I think Princes happy in the opportunities they have to oblige and reward servants wise in heart active in dispatch diligent in attendance sober in counsel sincere in love and duty and who are as faithful to them as the Sunne is to his course as Pyrrhus said of Fabritius So do I not believe them otherwise happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in Fabricio nor do I read or see that any Favourites who are not such long continue happy in such favour For rival envy and popular jealousie hovering about and laying ginns for them by cooperating accidents of diminution ruine them unless their personal and publique vertues are dissipative of those gatherings and supersedall to the efficacy of them Therefore Solomons advice to Take away the wicked from before the King and the Throne shall be established in righteousness Prov. 25. 5. is good counsel for Princes to avoyd trouble to themselves and for Favourites to secure their favour and stability by being good and vertuous and by that to establish the Throne of their Masters and themselves under the protection and favour of it Nor is Princely favour at all dangerous to but desirable by wise men and next to the favour of God to be sought after if it be constant and vertuous in the Prince and transport not the Favourite beyond the true end and use of it Gods glory the Princes service and the peoples ease and thrift together with such advantages as the forementioned great ends thorowly answered allow to his private emolument which Brewier Baron of Odgcomb the Favourite of H. 2. and R. 1. observing was highly advanced and continued in Wealth Honour and Love with all men Cambden in Somersetshire p. 267. and Beauchamp the great Earl of Warwick so favoured by H. 6. that he was Crowned King of Wight yet lived and died beloved So did Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk p. 469. Itâ— enim virtutes magnis viris decori gloriaeque sunt si illis salutaris potentia est Nam pestiferavis est valere ad nocendum illius demum magnitudo stabilis fundataque est quam omnes tam supra se esse quam pro se seiunt cujus curam excubare pro salute sin gulorum atque universorum quotidie experiuntur lib. 1. de Câ—emenâ—â—a c. 3. the Favourite of H. 8. and others Which the Despencers in H. 2. time Delapool and others in R. 2. time E. Rivers temps E. 4. Wolsey temps H. 8. and others not considering made themselves hated infamous and ruined For Vertues saith Seneca are often useful to men of place and power when they qualifie sweeten and wisely manifest themselves in power delegated to them for pestilent Might it is that is nocive and then only beloved and prayed for is authority and power when men finde the power over them is for their good and not directed so much to cow them into stupidity as to cherish them in a loyal freedom And then does it deserve the duty and subjection of all and every particular subject when it intends the prosperity and protection of every particular subject The consideration whereof lessons Favourites to petition God whose the judgment of every ones course and conclusion is Damus quidem tibi equos enses clypeos reliqua instrumenta bellorum sed quae sunt omnimodis fortiora Largimur tibi nostra judicia summus enim inter gentes esse crederis qui Theodorici sententia comprobaris Ep. 2. Regi Herulorum Var. lib. 4. Cassiod to direct and fortunate them in the religious just judicious improvement of their
be able to hide the shining of His face while God gives Him a heart frequently and humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the irradiations of true Glory and Majesty as the Kingly Martyrs words are To be Favourite to a Prince as our most Gracious Lord and Master the King that now happily and with general blessing of God and the people reigns over us is whose conscience is not chargeable to Gods justice for the ruine of Favourites and the blood of Subjects but is Vigilant Mild Just Generous and strict in Religion and Government according to his Lawes both Sacred and Civil Consider this O England and be thankful and lâ—yal To be a Favourite to such a Prince is to be presumed vertuously compleat and to be an Instance of happiness which if not alloyed by a deceitfull heart within yields no temptation but to be a Nehemiah an Aristides a Samuel a what not that is complexive of Greatness and Goodness for if the zeal of God and the rules of Honour and Justice inspire such a one he cannot chuse but be presidentially good And therefore since it is not boldness but love to the prosperity of Good and Great Favourites that invites me to write upon this head the only Rock that Favour hath to fear is from Gods jealousie that any thing should rival with him for the glory of his Munificence Since that promotion as it is from him so ought it wholy to revert to him in fruits suitable to his bounty and intendment For then he leaves men to themselves when they leave him by forgetfulness of him and themselves and when they remember not That it is he that gives them friends to bring them into view parts to carry them thorow Fortunate accidents to co-operate to their continuation Acceptation in and for what they have done and in this thus variated confirms them Yea if Favourites consider how necessary every fibre sparkle punct and occult meatus of Providence is to their being and stability and how important the Soveraign benediction of God is to their consistence Sic me inebriaverat ambitio â—ic â—me blanda principis promissa preverterunt ut sciens prudens viderer in omne discrimen animae corporis dispendium pertinaciter conjurasse Pet. Bles. Ep. 14. they will find abundant matter to solicite God to their ayd Eicon Basil. c. 27. and to the subduing of their hearts Psal. 87. 6. against elevation under such Sunshins The Flatteries of which are as inseparable from prosperity as Flies are from fruit in Summer And if Princes are but Gods that are mutable and mortal as men and the counsels of God must take place against all secular projects and in defiance of all Politique contrivements how prudent and Christian is it for Great men to trust mainly in the Lord Iehovah who is the same yesterday to day for ever And to serve trust in Princes as those who must give account to God and Them every moment and in which reddition their innocence will be their best refuge For since God has entailed passancy on this world and here the best of men have no abiding City but are wafted to and fro by the impetuosity of passions and the blasts of inharmonious variations which admit no anchoring but in sincerity of aym and piety of desire and deed according to the possibilities and allowances of humane infirmity It is good to remember Mortality and Mutability in the greatest transports of advancement and affluence Which had Abraham the great Visier Bassa to Solyman believed He who had his souls residence in his Masters body as was said he had would never have been such a Doter on greatness who after the misfortune of his Masters Army in Persia which Expedition he was Counsellour to was disfavoured Turkish History p. 654. cursed murthered and after all submersed and a great weight tied to his dead body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plutarchus in Solone p. 94. Edit Paris cast into the Sea Nor would Solon have so divinely and with such a prophetique importunity pressed on Craesus moderation of soul in a state of prosperity but that he knew the treacheries of its incantation and the fatality of its obcaecation and seduction Yea God himself would not fore-arm men by reason fore-warn them by counsell and president of frequent miscarriage in this voyage of pleasure but that he would have his learn to deny themselves and take up his Cross and follow his Christ to the contempt of this world as their rest and refuge For he that was in his time a Prince Psalm 146. 3. dehorts from putting trust in Princes Yea Psalm 118. 3. declares it to the world It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes And why Not thorough pufillanimity or inaptitude to Maiesty it as high as any Monarch does he utter this but because of a spirit subacted by grace and reduced by God to see and detract from its self Princes are mortall Princedoms are casual and therefore t is good to trust to God Psalm 82. 7 Psalm 107. 40. Eicon Bâ—sil Sect. 27. in whose Mercy no relyant miscarries For as That King that keeps to true Piety Vertue and Honour shall never want a Kingdom so that Favourite that relies on God for the favour of his Master shall never want such favour as God sees best for him to be favoured with whom he would bestow the Glory of the next after the Grace of this world Notwithstanding all which praeconsidered the Maxim remains firm that Princes favours are the ready and most pregnant way to Enrich and Enhonour Men and Families in England SECT XXIII Considers Ambition and Confidence in wel-parted Men a Means to the Rise and Riches of Men and Families THirdly Next to the two former Rises to Greatness Ambition and Confidence may be allowed a notable stepp to Honour and Riches In maximis animis splendidissimisque ingeniis plerumque existunt honoris imperii potentiae gloriae cupiditates Cic. lib. 1. Offic. For men having a conceit that they are born for great and that small things do not become them that no courses beseem them but Olympique ones and no companions but Kings what is there that they will not undertake and industriously follow which hasâ— a probability of arriving them at and fixing them in the sphere they aym at This busies their thoughts impedes their rest accelerates their motion cherishes their spirits intends their correspondence beautifies their civility Thence they refuse not tedions voyages desperate rencounters dangerous intelligences pawning soul and body to propagate their party and merit of their chief This calls them from their native seats and gaining callings to actions turbulent perillous and as to the present losing making them despise being for a while miserable that they may for ever after purchase â—and live in the Sunshine and Summer of Regal favour This makes
but when the poor wretches were in the Barn he caused it to be fired Non differunt hi à Muribus qui multum comedunt in nihilum utiles unmercifully saying these words They differ not much â—rom Mice who devour much and are good for nothing but God brought this cruelty home with a vengeance upon him for the Mice dayly so tormented him that he was like to be devoured by them at last he put himself into a strong Castle upon the Rheine but God brought the Mice swimming down the Rheine so irresistably upon him that they not onely devoured him but eat his name out of all Hangings and Places a memorable Story in punishment to Prophaneness Murther and Cruelty O if these Roysters would consider the Blasphemies and Prophanations of Senacherib Nebuchadonosor Antiochus Nicanor Scaeva's Sons Iulian Elpidius Olimpius the Arrian Bishop the Boy in Gregory Towers Lib. 4. c. 18. and sundry others in old and late Stories they would fear to provoke the great God of Heaven by them For do we not read of God cursing and blowing upon Families as is threatned against the Swearer and the Stealer Zach. 5. 3. Ier. 23. 10. upon the Lyar Murtherer and Adulterer Hosea 4. 2. upon the violent Ezech. 28. 16. upon the prophane Amos 2. 7. c. 3. 1. Ezech. 22. 3. and when he curses who shall bless and when he scatters who shall gather and when he subverts who shall establish And if none can reverse his Sentence or evade his Power then how ill Ancestors are they to Succession how ill Englishmen in this Age that challenge God by their prodigious Impieties to commence his quarrel against us and to fix his arrows upon us and to make us a hissing and a by-word and not a blessing and a praise amongst the Nations that environ us For though God will not cast away perfect men yet will he not help such evil doers Job 8. 20. But God will break the arm of these wicked ones Ps. 10. 15. Set his face against them Psal. 34. 16. Yea cast upon them the fierceness of his wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels amongst them Psal. 78. 15. and haunt these with evil Ps. 140. 11. He will punish these for their evil and iniquity Jer. 13. 11. which they shall not avoid Jer. 11. 11. And against their Families will devise an evil from which they shall not remove Micah 2. 3. yea and so aggravate their sufferings to them that they shall be uncomfortable under them and inglorious by reason of them and not with Lentulus Be renowned and chearful Pelli potes cedi capi perimi vinci autem nisi manum extuleris non potes neque ornamentis tuis spoliari cum quibus quocunque ieris Civis Patriae Principâ—m unus cris Petrarcha lib. 2. de remed ute Forâ—unae Dialog 67. though naked and restrained being spoyled of nothing in his banishment and losses while he kept his Virtue which alone he accounted his own because it rendred him worthy to be accounted a Chief Citizen and Prince of his Nation as the Prince of Witts in his time sets it out but contemned meanly thought on unpittied yea all men shall see their affliction with incompassion and some with rejoycing For they who vainly profligated that which with care and sobriety would have honourably supported them and theirs are not often thought worthy any support from Generosity or Charity but rather are to be seperated from the Society of men who are so contagious to and so seductive of them All which considered in the punishments of God and man or substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libanius Declam 35. p 787. children body soul There is good cause to conclude that prophaneness is a ready way to run down and irrecoverably ruin Men and Families and therefore I deprecate this guilt in the words of our Church-Letany From all Sedition Treason and privy Conspiracy From all False Doctrine Schism and Heresie rom hardness of heart and contempt of Gods Word and Commandements Good Lord deliver mine and all the Generous Families in England SECT XXX Highth of Port and Pride of living is now a way to Ruin and Decay Men and Families THirdly highth of living now in England is like to decay Men and Families For this Gangrene diffused into all parts orders and persons almost in the Nation makes every man weary of his National or Vocational limits and move into Orbs superiour to it and suffer in the costly and not to be maintained Port of it For whereas there was not by sumptuary Laws or Magistratique sanction but by common agreement â—and general understanding as it were a setled way of Garb Equipage Nulla toto orbe gens est quae Britannos superet in splendore domestico Famulitii multitudine afficiorum ac graduum distinctione ret quidam admirabilis cuicunque contingit aspicere cupediarum quae singulis diequs parantur multitudinem Albergatus in Relat. RegniBritannici The sauro Polit. p. 201. Dyet Housholdstuff Clothes Education of Children and Men of prudence held themselves concerned in Discretion and Thrift not to exceed the bounds of their Degree in any of the forementioned things but lived bred maintained married and provided for their Children according to the permission of that understanding and decency which by mutuality of Intelligence and accord Intercurred between degrees of all sorts Now the mode and rate of them is so altered and exceeded that it is hrrd to find so much as a stump of that ancient pale unstocked up but Nobles and Gentry Gentry and Mechaniques Entercommon as it were in the lawtess of life while not only such foolish and high-flown Prodigals Vuloâ—es aceâ—o liquefactas caenâ—s appoueret as AEsap the Tragedians son who left very rich had Pearls liquefied served in as a Dish at his third course Or Muleasses King of Tunis whose Kitching brought up the charge of dressing a Peacock and two Pheasants to above 100. Ducats so laden and over-charged with Perfumes were the Sauces Turkish Hist. p. 745. and Trickings of them that they were as pleasant to the pallat to taste as to the eye to behold I say while not only such Epicures by themselves are excessive but even all men fashioned into Luxury and State of life And now every one prepares a full Table has good Attendance keeps Horses weares rich Clothes gives great Wages retains many Servants builds Magnificently furnishes Amply adorns Luxuriantly their Bodies Children Houses by which many costly diversions not only the Paunch of an estate is pinched and the Succulency suffurated from its Amassation the Scale of Estates amount but also provision for Daughters and younger Sons dock'd and the evil day not foreseen in wise forecast for it This Excess frequent of old the wisest of men judged ominous and decried it in their practice The great Morralist Seneca notably delivers his mind conconcerning it I love saith he Houshold
nihil est damnabilius ad meritum nihil seditiosius ad consortium nihil inhonestius ad mores nihil sordidius ad conscientiam nihil culâ—abilâ—us ad famam nihil perniciosius ad exemplum Petrus Bles. Ep. 18. or that those who have ample fortunes should pinch Virtue to pamper Vice by them It is the great Cry and Clamour of the People against men of Estates That they let their Lands at a Jewish wrack maintain their Servants at a thriftless highth spend their Fortunes at a merciless rate gratifie their vices beyond measure spend their bodies and souls for that which is a pittiful exchange for either disoblige their Neighbours neglect their Children overlook the Poor discourage their Minister undo their Creditors To please the state of an humour and conceit that to look after their Fortunes does not become them when as indeed there is nothing so praise-worthy â—nd noble as to be aforehand and pay â—ell and nothing so ungenerous as the â—â—ntrary when the effect of pride and care â—â—sness If therefore the Nobles and Genâ—â—y whose Residence is Country and who 〈◊〉 the major part of the considerable men 〈◊〉 in England Officers of State excepted â—ould either please to look over their Faâ—ilies and cause them to be over-looked â—nd not augment the Expences of it if â—â—ey would raise their Cattel Bread and â—â—her Viands from their own proportion servants to their degree amputing unnecessary suckers allow them free and compleat salaries without taking Fees from their Lords Farms or cutting large Thongs out of his hide supply other provisions at reasonable rates by just and seasonable payments necessitate no dreins out of their Estates by vices which suck them dry leave them needy and then borrowing and then mortgaging or selling breed their Children to honest and gainful Callings and furnish them with competent Portions to follow them and marry their Daughters in good time and not let them out-stay their desire or prime till they forestall their fathers intents and engage to their own undoing If they would come to London but to furnish themselves and see fashions and after a whiles stay here and the Feaver of theiâ— purse breath'd out at their purs-strings reâ—turn to their Countrey if this they woulâ— do they need not be behind hand for moâ—ney questioned in credit denied to borâ—row dishonoured by Writs and Summoâ— to answer Suits and give bayl to Actâ—â—ons but would be rich full of crediâ— free to prefer their Children and to keeâ— their Estates from Engagement and 〈◊〉 nothing to full and free living would theâ— be wanting But the misery is there is nothing thought so un-genteel a quality as honourable Thrift and vertuous Frugality the best title to which that most of the high-flown spirits give is narrowness and misery of nature when as the discreet and creditable Thrift for I commend no course or port of life beneath the degree of Nobles and Gentry is the only display of true Oeconomique Magnificence For as he that over-sayls his Bark or over-lades his Boat will sink them and he that over-stocks his Ground will starve his Cattel and he that over-charges his stomack will surfeit his body and ruin those which he intends his health good to so to overcharge an Estate and make it answer more rent-charges then it can defray is to destroy and null it And therefore when as men will study beyond their strength and lift above their power and run beside their breath and wrastle beyond their match there is more desire then discretion expressed So when â—en live and spend beyond their ability and degree their necessities will become their punishment sooner then their exâ—ess therein be accounted their Magniâ—â—cence Indeed it is a brave humour to be free and generous and it well becomes Royal minds to appear in Royal actions But then the actions that men Royally do must have a rectitude of Justice in the end and in the means to it If Alexander give a Talent to a Cynick that desires only a mite Alexander has considered himself right in giving what becomes him whose the Talent was but if Alexander had had of his own but a Mite and gave a Talent which he borrowed and knew not how or when to pay the Magnificence of the gift is no addition to its Donor though a pleasure to the receiver men may be free of what is their own but to do great things by contracting debts which are not possible or probable to be paid is to be Generous and Noble in the sence that Solyman the Great Turk was Magnificent who throws away 80000. men at Vienna and yet went without it and brought 500000. men before Gouza losing a good part of them and got it not though a small Garrison T is to be magnificent by sacrificing mens lives to satiate a humour and to violate sacred faith to please a leud Bassa as his Magnificence did in the case of Iohn the King of Hungary Turkish History p. 712. and his Wife and Children As this was Magnificence in Solyâ—man so is living beyond mens abilities Generosity and Nobleness in them and no otherwise for though extraordinary cases may make wise men evade their limits and exceed their boundaries yet is such profuse erogation in them no greatness of spirit but the unhappiness of their encumbrance and the consectary of unprofitable accidents cogent thereunto that 's true Nobleness of mind which keeps Vice lean and Vertue full which can deny it self to promote a general good and abate superfluities to advantage Vertue in Men and Things Mistake me not I beseech you O Nobles and Gentry as if I were senseless of your avocations or knew not Yee that have great Estates great Honours great Relations have great temptations and great expences attending them I know not England nor the Great Men and Estates in it so little as not to consider these as their apologies and defalcations but have ye not O Nobles and Gentlemen great Fortunes and high Tydes of Revenue to set you a float and bring you off these quick-sands are not your Estates well napp'd with Timber and well laden with Mines and Minerals have you not Casualties Offices Royalties Alliances and other means to bestow and prefer Children then meaner men have whose Estates are less compleat and accommodated with casual profits then yours are and if so how comes it to pass that you are wanting and needy of money when others less Estated and Nobly living also are in Cash and can give ready Money Portions and make decent settlements on their children without selling Land felling Wood signing Rent-charges granting Lives passing Leases or enfranchising Coppy-holds which are Docks and Bars to the Royalty and Freedom of Estates when many of ye are fain to do some of these in every childrens dispose or other sudden change in their lives Whence O whence can this disparity be but from the ones frugality and resolution to look after and live within compass of his Estate
hidden from all men â—at they may alwayes be solicitous about â— preparing for it expecting of it joyâ—ll at it does it come as a thief in the â—ght in the cloud and umbrage of a â—ontemned accident with a potent and not to be refused errand in the moment of thy Jollity in the heigth of thy youth in the glory of thy preferment when all eyes are upon thee all tongues applaud thee and all knees bow to thee and perhaps all backs bear burthens for thee in defiance of thy power in Confront of thy Learning in ruine of thy designs without pitty of thy relations without fear of thy fury without diversion of thy policy Will not thy bags buy off its execution nor thine eloquence soften its stroak nor thy bravery transport it to kindnesse nor thy charms bind its hands but with its rapacious claw it must seise and by its mall burst asunder the fabrique of soul and body Must these things be without baile or Mainprize or saving of the Contenement Then O then what manner of men ought yee O Nobles and Gentlemen to be in all Holy Conversations How ought ye to be tuned Heaven-ward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz in Encomio Athanasii p 22 and as it is said of Athanasius to have your lives words and works unisonous full of harmony and concent not jarring and combatting one with another How ought your vessels to be pure your lights to shine your Lamps to be trim'd your loynes to be Girded How ought ye to anticipate deaths terrour by dying dayly in terrour to your lusts How ought ye to take Heaven by force as it were while you live for whom if penitent the possession is purchased when you dye what is the graves visage to one that is dead unto sin and alive unto God Quid caput strophiolo aut Dracontario damnas diademati destinatum nam Reges deo patri suo fecit Iesus Christus Quid tibi cum flore morituro habes Florem ex virga Iesse super quem tota divini spiritus gratia requievit Tertulliâ—nus lib. de Corona Militis cap. 15. What is the dissolution of Soul and body to him at any time whose resolution is to make Christ his at all times and to live no longer nor other then to please God alwaies and to be pleased with Gods pleasure concerning him How can the expiration of a Mortall life be troublesome to him who lives as one born to exercised in assured of a most glorious and durable life consequent to it And this no man being possible to attain but by Meditating and living in a dayly exercise of Christian severity and fiducial Mortification How important is it to presse upon the Memories and Consciences of Great-men not to be infected with Pride not to be buryed in secular affairs Parvi defectique animâ— est de subditis non profectum quaerere subditoruâ— sed quaestum proprium Stus Bernard de consider lib. 3. not to be glewed to and glutted with varietyes of pleasures Happy that Prince that can say I received my Life and Crown from God and as I managed them for him so I am willing to resign them to him happy that Peer and Gentleman who can appear before God in the Coat armour of humility and dare to appeal to God for his Justification That he has walked before him with an upright heart and desired to do the thing that was right in his sight Isai. 38. 3 Happy that Prelate who has deserved Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vita Athanasii Fortes fuere in bello non molles in sericis c. Si â—tlius es Apostolorum prophetarum tu fac similiter vendicae tibi nobilâ— genus similibus moribus quod non aliunde nobilâ— quam morum ingenuitate fidei Fortitudine fuit Stus Bernard lib. 2. consider his character to be a living and immovable Pillar of Virtue whose life has bin a continual sermon of Moderation self denyal charity diligence who has followed the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors in their prayers and private agonies in their care and tendernesse to teach and keep together the flock of God commited to them and whose Consciences on their death beds can solace them that they have preach'd and lived and ruled not for their own fame and pomp but for their Masters honour and their fellow labourers encouragement and their flocks edification to life eternall this will be the sweetest and takingst cordial to the departing soul to consider that their labour in the Vineyard shall have the penny of eternity and their denying themselves for Christ shall be recompenced with Christs imparting his glory to them and their taking up Christs Crosse in self contempt self abasement shall return them a partaking in Christs crown and glory with him Happy he and he only that can so live and so dye that living and dying he may be Gods Which the Meditation of death is a great furtherance to because it both keeps from folly of action and keeps in eye eternity of joy or misery for in that lifes determination gives entry to death and that to particular Judgement it is a high part of Christian Prudence to ruminate on death in the summer and brightest day of life and by a quotidian view of it to lessen the terrour and usher in the treatment of it by such diseases and other loosenings of life from its basis as God uses to make the access of death understood by us and this whoever does will not only possesse his Soul in patience and prevent the exorbitances of his passions whose evolations are not easily leured home or whose tumours are not presently asswaged but also settle in the mind ready to leave the world the sedatenesse of a prelibating Saint whose earnest of heaven appears in a sensible senselessenesse of what is tumorous troublesome avulsive and incongruous with his departing sublimity God that has called his heart to heaven in the Divinity of its Love having left the faculties of the soul yet resident in the body to expressions of themselves suitable to their origen Office and other circumstances by which they subsist and serve the conjunction of soul and body Peregrinus nimirum potest facile occasione viatici plus quam oporteat detineri quaerendo praegravari portando mortuns si desit ipsa sepultura non sentit sic vituperantes ut laudantes sic adulantes audit ut detrahentes imo vero nec audit quod mortuus est Stuâ— Bern Serm. 7. in Quadrages by reason of which they being dead to sin and alive to God in their option of dissolution as well as in their ligament of faith and in their assurance of acceptance rather are detained by then living in or to the world For the world being nothing to them but their prison Death which brings their Habeas Corpus must needs be their joy and Gods Writ of Ease their gratulation for Men