them resolve to be active in their commands passive to their wills patient under their displeasures free of their fortunes to supply them of their persons to fight for them of their minds to consult for them yea it arms their prayers and tears to encounter their misfortunes with their zeal and to despise hazzard to fear as little to sink for as desire much to swim with them and all this that they may be taken notice of as Clyents and Votaries to Greatness pleased with nothing beneath or besides it Non ego ambitiosus sam sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere non ego sumptuosus sum sed urbs ipsa magnas impensas exigit Ep. 50. This Seneca sayes was the humour of Rome where nothing was requested but Ambition nothing commendable but what was costly and gay And this is so much the darling of the Sparkish youth that they think the still and quiet humour sottishness and mediocrity of station plebeity of humour and flettenness of spirit Necessario itaque magnus apparuit qui nunquam malis ingemuit nunquam de fato suo quaestus est fecit multum intellectum sui non aliter quam in tenebris lumen effulsit adverâ—itque in se omnium animos cum esset placidus lenis humanis divinisque rebuâ— pariter aeques Senec. Ep. 120. which is the reason that these precocious natures put themselves upon affairs in a kind of rape and compulsive violence upon them and are content to be instruments in and agitators about those matters which softer and better poysed tempers and modester judgments decline as uneasie difficult and unhandsome for them to appear in or promote And indeed were it not for such forlorn and desperate services it were impossible for heady and fortuneless men to come to Riches or Greatness because they would be voyd of friends and reason to countenance them in and manage them amidst the Maeanders of those courses but they counting all their own they attempt to get Celsoâ— cursus nisi confidentia magna non appetit dum generosi est animi in optare quod summum est audentes facit homines fidentia sui quia se non patitur occulere quem precipit naâ—ura prodire Theodariâ— Felici Ep. 2. Var. lib. 2. and concluding themselves born for and destinated to those toyls and hazzards which other men are not nor shall be rewarded for put themselves in the heat of the service and venture their lives to rescue Greatness from contempt and to revenge the insolence of its opposition with the ruine of the Oppressors in the return of which well-couraged service they have Guerdons of honour and acceptance from the fountain of Honour which title is the only true and honourable origination of Honour Not that Ambition and Confidence of ones self is the only way of rising for it is seen and known that Rises and Honour sometimes attend modest and meek spirits who are so far from appearing canditates for them that they avoyd and disfigure themselves that they maybe not beleagured by commands to enter upon action or be taken notice of for wel discharging them though more often great friends usher men in accidentally and their own parts continue them profitably in that way which is attended with Greatness and Wealth So was the great E. of Essex called from Sir H. Wotton p. 4. 76 78 79. his retiredness at Lampsey by the great E. of Leicesters means and the great Duke of Buckingham by Sir Iohn Greham who first spake of and commended him to King Iames. But yet the way of some is to buoy up themselves and to become graduates in grandeur from their own Spontenanscency and to hew out their own way to what they wish and would thorow the Alps of seeming impossibilities and unconquerable hardships such Caesars are they in their own minds that they believe their coition with the Moon and thereby entitle themselves to the courtesie of taking the profits of all sublunary casualties which makes Seneca attribute much to mans spirit in the adjustment of weale or woe to himself For he calls the mind now a King anon a Tyrant a King Animus noster mode Rex â—odo Tyrannus Rex cum honesta intuetur salutem sibi corporis commissi â—urat nihil imperat turpe nihil sordidum ubi vero imprudens cupidus delicatus est transtulit in nomen detestabile dirum sit Tyrannus Ep. 114. when it considers vertue Turkish Hist. p. 947. and according to it conducts the body to actions worthy and of good report but when it is imprudent vehement curious then it becomes a Tyrant Which that it may not be nor men miss of their ayms so far as they are approved by God good for them and proper for the publique it becomes them not to apply themselves to sinister means such as are rebellion murder injury as that wretch Amida sonne to Muleasses King of Tunis did who betrayed his trust forced his fathers Throne and Concubines slew his brethren yea villain and divel as he was pickt out his own fathers eyes with a Pen-knife such such black brutish savage truculent actions are execrable and indurable paths to Greatness while the walker in this wicked way loses his own soul to gain a triffing and momentary government in this world but the lasting and vertuous way to greatness is to comprecate God that he would not interpose nor cast cross accidents athwart the way of their endeavour for if he do the eggs of mens ambition will be addle and the edge of their confidence turned and become blunt which truth is hardly to be drilled into the beliefs of those boysterous spirits that are the Virago's in this kind For to tell them of Gods inclination of great mens wills to favour them and of his adaptation of them to their favours without which those bounties would be unsavoury and the soul and spirit of them evaporate and become ineffectuall to their hoped for ends is to bespeak them to prejudice against and censure of such discourse as madness and bigottry They are all for gay cloaths spruce looks high rants facetious drolls pleasant froliques hot spirited mettle all or most of which they ascribe more to in the motives to and merits of their favour then to any thing else when as truly they are mistaken for these things though in some sence notable seconds to the most noble fruits of vertue and ability yet are not to be attributed to as to Gods permission so to have it is be acknowledged though therefore I am no friend to ambition or confidence yet because I know it a way to Rise and Wealth if it will be limited by reason and religion it shall have my Godspeed to it though I must own to all the world that I value more a grain of content then a pound of ambition and a mite of modesty then a treasury of self-confidence because the one works in
the tokens of Gods good will to them and ill tidings and casualties coming not by chance but commission are signes also of God paternally correcting their wanders and unmortifiedness which not being collectable from the like carriages of his greatness to evil men to whom God is contrary Psal. 7. 11. and with whom displeased there may be sufficient warrant for looking upon their temporary flourishing but as a minuts gaity before an eternal setting and expiration And hereupon when ever I see Men or Families turn upon God their backs Ier. 32. 33. and imagine evil against the Lord Nahum 1. 11. when their heart is fully set in them to do evil because sentence is not presently executed upon them Eccles. 8. 11. When I consider They take crafty counsell against the Lord and against his Anoynted Psalm 2. And hatâ— the man and thing that is good Micah 3. 2. And speak evil of what is good When these Iude v. 15. impudencies are exert and the rancour of their prophane irreligious hearts breaks forth at their lips they do not only with Esau contemn that sacred gift of God divine primo-geniture by bartring it for triobolary contents momentany nothings but they dare own Religion no further practicable by a wise man then in the uutside and in that part of it which is popular and exemplary Non cogitamus quid ipsâ— simus sed quid alteris esse videmurâ—â—â—di eo perduâ— a resset ut neglecta veritate meriti de sola opintone curamus Pelahius in quaâ—rela ad Demeâ—riam Proâ—â—nos appellam ubique homines sacris non imitatos Budâ—eus in Pandect p. 180. Fol. when men make no conscience of duties and things sacred but can pass them over and swallow them down deriding the precisianism of those that make scruple of sacriledge and impiety that is gainful No wonder that God is known to these in the judgment he executed and these wicked ones are taken in their own snare Psalm 9. v. 16. No wonder that God denies them the comforts and conducts of his Spirit in their way and the glory of his Sonne in his Kingdom who deny him their obedience and adoration here in their day and who set themselves to dethrone his Holiness Power Goodness Justice from its command over the events of things and upon the hearts of men no wonder that he leaves these trusters in man and these makers of flesh their arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord by making them like â—eath in the Desart and not see good when good commeth as the words are Ier. 17. 5 6. When they set themselves to contradict his Institutions and to live contrary to his punishments and rewards no wonder God gives them the whirlwind of instability for their portion and razes their posterity and glory out of honourable Hab. 2. 16. record who design his dishonour in their heart and establish it by their power and defend it by their wit Horum sententiâ—â— non modo superstitionem tollunt in qua inest timor inanis deorum sed etiam religionem quae deorum culta pio continetur St. Augustin lib. 4. Civit. dei and propagate it by their example Can God be jealous of his glory and power which he will not give to any other and yet pass by the provocations of these insolencies which question his being as a God good as a Spirit holy as a Lord great as a Judge just And when he gives to such as give him the courage of their Faith 1 Iohn 5. 4. the sincerity of their love Matth. 20. 37. the perfect work of their patience Iames 1. 4. the duty of their holiness 1 Pet. 1. 16. the exceedings of their zeal Gal. 1. 14. the indeterminateness of their perseverance when to these he gives a name better then Isa. 56. 5. that of sonnes and daughters and settles upon them the sure mercies of David which shall not depart from his seed sorevermore Isa. 55. 3. Is it not just with him to give to those that despise his counsell and dispute his power and deride his holiness and disgrace his Gospel and grieve his Spirit and crucifie his Son afresh and put him again to open shame by their hard hearts rash speeches vicious lives is it not just with him to rend them and their children and fortunes with the stormy wind of his fury and in the overflowing storm of his anger and by the great hayl-stones of his fury to consume them as the threatning is Ezek. 13. 13. Yes sure and such will be the end of all contemners of God and his Gospel who though they be too big for men to deal with and too sturdy for them to argue off their courses to undeceive in their placing happiness and content in the luxury of life yet are by God severely met with sometimes in terrours of mind and visions of horrour as was that wicked Metropolitan of Saxony Adalbertus Archbishop of Hannaburgh who being highly born but not so noble in grace as blood was wont to boast that all his predecessors were pitiful obscure Priests and had no descent nor was the See ever honoured with a Gentleman Bishop before he came into it God met with the Atheism and pride of his heart for on a certain night he dreamt he was officiating at the Altar and that he saw one resusing his service and heard a voyce Thou proud Prelate Tu homo nobilis clarus non potes habere parâ—em cum humilibus Melchior Adam Hist. Eccles. p. 60. c. 19. that gloriest more in thy stemm then rendrest thy self glorious by the grace of thy heart hast no portion with Gods contrite ones Or if God calls them not home this way he either chastens them by great mis-fortunes in their posterity as he did the Conquerour for his Sacriledge in throwing down 36. Mother Churches besides Monasteries Villages Chappels Houses and Towns where men habited to make new-Forrest his Chase for beasts which place was fatal to his sonnes for William Cambden in Hanâ—shire p. 259. Rufus and Richard his two sonns both perished therein the one by pestilent ayre the other by the arrow of Tyrril and Henry his grand-child was hanged in the boughs of a Tree pursuing his Game in this Forrest according to the fourth Commandement To the fourth generation of them that hate him Or by sweeping their posterity away so were Ieroboams 1 Kings 15. 29. So Baasha's 1 Kings 16. 3 4. So Ahabs 2 Kings 21. 21. Which is the judgement David imprecates on the wicked Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out Psal. 109. 13. Thus is irreligion in the heart and prophaneness in the word and works enervative of the prosperity and duration of Men and Families SECT XIV Presents Injury and Oppression a Demolition to Men and Families SEcondly No less to Men or Families harm and dock is Injury and Oppression which therefore
that which Scioppius made use of to his Master's upbrayd and was turned upon him in his Masters disfavour Or if he had preserved to himself that Present which the Emperour gave him and not given it in a Complement to the Countess of Sabrina Sir H. Wetâ—ods Works p. 253. p. 483. he need not to have professed he had no Riches but his Books and Miseries and complained to be the man of all men laden with unfortunate baseness yea though State-Holdfast be that which brave men can hardliest learn their spirits being so great that they think it too sensual and mean for their condescentions and believe that their selves and parts will bear a better value in the Age To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. Hist. lib. 2. and be a stronger obligation to the men of it then to put them to shift and prog for their subsistance and amplitude whose the command and greatness of their times are not too great to be presents to their eminent merits yet has it been found more Soveraign to their exigencies and the straights of life to which they in common with others are subject and by which made unhappy beyond others then all their other agitable accomplishments Especially when it has been regulated by Honour and Conscience and by a wise and observant discerning of time and use of reason avoyded the censure and curse of wicked policy and injurious teâ—acity which good and grave men abhor as a breach of morral kindness and religious charity seldome or never without the breach of every restraint therefore called an evil covetousness Hab. 2. 9. Iniquity Isa. 57. 17. A companion of theft Mark 7. 22. Vncleanness Eph. 5. 1. Idolatry Col. 3. 5. Exclusive of Heaven Revel 22. Which is the woe against it Hab. 2. 9. Yet for all this the Misers of this world are so deeply wounded with the love of and so wedded to the practice of it that they will sooner let go their hold of Heaven then of this World and the perishing pelf and fading beauty of it for the securing of what they have and to hold fast their possessions They will oppress the afflicted Prov. 22. 22. Amos 4. 1. And ruin a man and his Heritage Micah 2. 2. Wrong the widdow and fatherless Zach. 7. 10. And though God threaten to break in pieces the oppressor Psalm 72. 4. yet they trust in oppression Isai. 30. 16. and make lies their refuge If they get a man at advantage they 'l handle him without Mittins if his Inheritance be their pledge his security their prey his reputation their secret his supply their advantage no Commiseration no Justice no Civility will they express all 's violence and advantage that comes in the Net of these Crafts-men and into the Beak of these Cormorants all 's profit that these finger all 's their own that these Leeches and Harpyes have any colourable title to Gen. 34. 26. 1 Kings 21. To be at their mercy is for Hamor and Sechem to be subject to Simeon and Levi's and for Naboth to part with his Patrimony to be kindly dealt with is to be devoured by them that nature may know an end of her misery and not to be miserable by protracted degrees and to buy their curtesie is to pay what Iudas did for the High Priests company and power to apprehend Jesus Ones soul. Thus malignant is their vicious Hold-fasting that it is the divels livery and seisin of the whol man soul and body For in this sense that it is culpable it has exceeded the bounds of pure frugality and is become every gainful vice in appetition and so far as it is cumularive to it in fact Shâ—w me a Holdfast that resolves to be Rich and cares not what he does to answer his desire and I will shew you an Esau for prophaneness a Cain for murder an Ahab for oppression a Saul for falshood a Simon Magus for Sacriledge a Iudas â—or treachery No vice but this ministers to no vertue but this defies no Attribute of God but this contradicts no Command of God but this transides no menace of Gods but this huffs at and resolves against yea take it as it is eccentrique as I before said and 't is brutish rapacity savage Cannibalism yea monstrous treason against the general good of mankind For he that thus loves himself more then he ought loves not his neighbour so much as he should no not at all for he makes his life a trepan to those he converses with and is pleased with nothing but the subversion of humane society for he would live alone in the Earth Isai. 5. 8. And yet God knows that which this industry arrives at is but to write a name in dust and to fix a family on a quick-sand For though it is but a little time that prosperity thus founded lasteth yet great Rise and Riches are for a time procured by it And therefore do I account it now a way to advance not because the Age accounts it a vertue but because the general transport of pleasure and luxury indisposing men of fortune to know and practise their security leaves them a prey to such courses So true is that of Solomon in this sence Prov. 22. 7. A negligenborrower is servant to a diligent lender who will not only be sure to be paid if it be to be had alledging for his Canon and Creed that self is first to be served and his own child first to be christned but also even where it is not with mercy or conscience to be had even from the bones of his Creditor and the bellies of his Relations Thus rapacious is Holdfast that it never parts with what it can hold nor ever payes what it can by force stave off or by fraud evade so much like Hell and the Grave is it in its Call Give Give so little of the Spirit of Goodness hath it to return what is due to be returned SECT XXVIII Shews That Flattery and False-faced-complyance is a way and means to wards Rise Advance and Riches LAstly Flattery and False-facedness is a great art and means towards Rise and Advantage This seen in the deviations of every foot and heard in the dissimulations of every word and work almost of men arraigns the Age of not onely Vanity but delighted in Wickedness so that if Iohn the Baptist Though he burned with zeal Iohn 5. 35. and shined in holiness or Aristides who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without welt or guard were alive the one would be the scoff of wits in their Lampoones and the other the abuse of those that are in and out at every pass of shift and prevarication This having a Heart and a heart is that God complains of Is. 29. 13. This people draw near unto me with their lipps when their heart is far from me and this the Holy Chost in Scripture severely brands There is no faithfulness in their mouth Psal. 5. 9 10. their inward part
very obvious yea so great are the Incomes of it that it brings to Riches and Honour which sloth doth not for the Preacher terms it brother to wasting Prov. 18. 9. Letting the belly starâ—â— rather then feed the mouth with it Ch. 19. 24. Killing ones self with desire Ch. 21. v. 25. Creating discouragements for well-doing Prov. 16. 13. Casting men into deep pits Ch. 19. v. 15. A decaying of the building and a dropping down of the house Eccles. 10. 18. Thus this sin branching it self into haughtiness is opposed by God who sets his eye against it 2 Sam. 22. 28. and who brings them to their fall by it Prov. 16. 18. Indeed as there are great promises to Industry and Humility so there are answerable threats to Pride and sloth The haughty he humbles Isa. 10. 13. and makes them to moulder away and languish Ch. 24. They are taken away by judgment Ezek. 16. 50. Yea God is not only said to blow down the haughty Isa. 2. 11 17. but to lay low the arrogancy of the proud and terrible ones Isa. 13. 11. By all which men ought to be disswaded from haughty thoughts and spurr'd on to comply with Gods designs in their night-dress and ungaudy Manifestations of themselves For surely that is the best discovery of a great mind which propagates vertue by just and comely means conducing to its attainment which since careful inspection over mens worldly affairs doth and by keeping them in a state of support wealth independency adds to the liberality of their minds which receive abatements dislustres by the incumbency of need on them which tempts them to and nourishes them in a servility of compliance w th those whose benefactions they are relieved by I say since men cannot be accommodated with wherewith to do great Actions and to stand single sighted in their Judgment without convenient frugality and prudent looking to their fortunes however placed it is contrary to reason and gratitude not to intend and honour that course of life by which men subsist and without which if they would not be miserable I am sure they could not be happy and not to think that service Slavery which brings in Penny-savoury For as it is no ungentile thing to blow the Nose or vent the Belly when the excrements in them are burthensome nor to dress wounds when they are foul and tormenting nor does any man how great soever in a Storm or Siege refuse to tugg at the Oar or digg in the Trench or pump or carry scaling Ladders or Buckets when Houses are on â—ire but every ones State is then reduced to common Notions when the danger is common and desperate so is no man how well born bred or fortuned soever when â—n the high-noon of them disparaged in applying himself to and complying with Maxima quaeque bona solicita sunt nec ulli fortunâ— minus bâ—ne quam optimae creditur Senec de Bâ—evit vitae c. 17. the lowest works of that Calling or Imployment which is his Sanctuary and Supply for this life being a Scene of Interâ—â—udes and intermixt Varieties there can be 〈◊〉 better harbour against the Storms and Entertaiment of the uneven Pulses and Motions of it then this Resolution To bear whatever comes and to be whatever we â—â—ust and ought to be ubi enim quaeratur modestus animus si foedent violenta Patricios Theodoric Rex Ep. 27. apud Cassiod Var. lib. 1. with silent and thoâ—ow-paced Fortitude and humble Geneâ—ousness and to venerate that Calling and â—â—ate of life which God affords to officiate â—o their Despairs and to dispell their â—louds of want and Contempt nor does â—e deserve such a mercy who thinks a manly thrift below him when without it â—e must unavoidably become poor if not â—ant and be undone It is rather becomâ—â—g the greatest Spirit and gratefullest Virâ—ue to follow the Patriarch Iacob and To â—mfess to God devoutly as did he I am not â—orthy of the least of all the mercies and of â—ll the truth that thou hast shewed unto thy â—â—rvant for with my Staff I passed over â—is Iordan but now I am become two â—ands Exod. 32. 10. SECT XXXV Shews That immoderate coming to and long staying in London and the Suburbs from Greatmens Country Residence is a ready way to decay Men and Families LAstly Immoderate flocking to and residing in London and Westminster and the Precincts thereof from the several Quarters of the Country and Nation where the Nobility and Gentry reside and their Seats are is in my Opinion but if 〈◊〉 erre I crave pardon a great danger to destroy persons of Worth in their Virtue and Fortune by drawing them from their retirements where they may live thriftilâ— and usefully to the King Country and themselves into the publick where they are taken off their local Service and assaulted by Delicacies and vices of Cosâ— Effeminacy and Inconsistence with all abode of Virtue And this judgment the Glorious Martyr King and his Council had in An. when the great flocking to Town first appeared in Request as I have been informed and I hope truely for there issued out a Proclamation That no Person of Country Residence should live out of his own Country where his Estate was above certain Months in the year which Proclamation when it found not that obedience command with some Gentlemen that it ought but that notwithstanding they stayed in Town his Majesty was pleased I had here inserted the Proceedings of the Star Chamber but I could not meet with the Records soon enough with advice of his Council of which his Grave Learned and Honourable Chancellour the Lord Coventry was Chief to command Informations against some of them to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber where they were sentenced and fined I confess there are great Magnetisms in the Court and City to work upon men womens desires to come near them Quicquid humani generis floris est habere curiam decet sicut arâ— decus est urbium ita illa ornamentum est ordinum caeterorum Theodoric Rex Senatni Romano Ep. 13. Var. lib. 1. Cassiod the influence and cogency of which seems to apologize for the casual offence of them For there is the Kings Court where the Person Order State Officers of the King are pleasurably and with great satisfaction beheld there are the Flower of the Nation Lilia mixta rosis both for beauty bravery â—arriage and attendance and who that â—ath senses to gratifie and fortune to present him a meet Spectator or what 's better Servant thereto has not enough to do to keep his passions from the pleasures of those Objects of Attraction and Fascination If the eye be never satisfied with seeing nor the eares glutted with sounds nor the other Senses stupified with things of Delight but are by a longing after them unweary of them no wonder that men consisting of those impulses and ridden toâ— often by them are easily drawn to and kept with
have the report of great Fortunes and live as if they would be thought better portioned then they are are oftner the Engrossers of Young Gentlemens times and applications then they deserve to be or then they in the event find them worthy to be or are gainers by their so being For what what with the cost of Courtship before they are prevailed with the great Joyntures and expence of life when they are had the many expectations that must be satisfied both in themselves and to their Relations and Children they prove greater banes then helps to their Husbands Estates when as to marry a serious Woman neer ones Estate and with a reasonable portion and of a Genteel and thrifty Family is to obtain a convenience which will deserve every way if a Husband have Wit to chuse Grace to acknowledge and Wisdom to manage it aright Consider this which because too few have the ambition of Women is so little to excell this way For with the most of our now-a-day Husbands who have too few generous qualities in them but must live high and cannot deny themselves exuberancies and impertinent superfluities not what she is but what she has is most esteemed which makes Parents not breed their Daughters and Women not so much addict themselves to steddy and serious vertue as to this levity and gayity of humour which is such a credential to their reception with modish men that nothing seems more but God knows it is neither vertuous wise nor durable nor will it make those that delight in it or chuse for it happy in condition or rich in purse For since that of the Philosopher is most true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist. lib. 7. Repub. That the life of Men and Cities is then best when most vertuous and no further prais-worthy then it is vertuous And this way of the Town jollity profuseness I know so contrary to it and to the humour of good Husbands good Wives and to the prosperity of the descendants from them I will pray for better endowments in the Choyces and Marriages of either Sex and humbly commend to the Nobles and Gentry of England the choice of good Wives after King Solomons precept Prov. 31. and not hope to finde a restoration of pristine sobriety frugality hospitality and true friendship together with an Elimination of all deboyshery and rudeness contrary to them till the Generous spirits and great men of the Nation by the circulation of what is eminent in them thorough the whole body of the people according to the respective abodes and influences of them be restrained to their staies at home and not permitted to be all and almost altogether here for this as it causes an over-growing of these parts by too much succulency so will it atrophize other parts what the issue of such inordinateness and inequality in the body Politique will be is conjecturable from the effects of monstrosity and decay that thereby follows and therefrom threatens Which wise King Iames of blessed memory a Prince in whose daies Peace Riches and Religion as much flourished as in any times before him considering in his notable Speech in the Star-Chamber Anno 1616. P. 567. Of His Works in Folio thus declares himself Another thing to be cared for is the new Buildings here about the City of London concerning which my Proclamations have gone forth and by the chief Iustice here and his Predecessor Popham it hath been resolved to have been a general nusans to the whole Kingdom And this is that which is like the Spleen in the Body which in measure as it overgrows the body wasts For is it possible but the Countrey must diminish if London do so increase and all sorts of people do come to London and where doth this increase appear not in the heart of the City but in the Suburbs not giving wealth or profit to the City but bringing misery and surcharge both to City and Court causing dearth and scarsity through the great provision of victuals and fewel that must be for such a multitude of people And these buildings serve likewise to harbour the worst sort of people as Alehouses and Cottages do I remember that before Christmas was Twelvemoneth I made a Proclamation for this cause That all Gentlemen of quality should depart to their own countries and houses to maintain Hospitality amongst their Neighbours which was equivocally taken by some as that it was meant only for that Christmas But my will and meaning was and here I do declare that my meaning was that it should alwaies continue One of the greatest causes of all Gentlemens desire that have no calling or errand to dwel in London is apparently the pride of the Women For if they be Wives then their Husbands if they be Maids then their Fathers must bring them up to London because the new fashion is to be had no where but in London and heer if they be unmarried they marr their marriages and if they be married they lose their reputations and rob their Husbands purses It is the fashion of Italy especially of Naples which is one of the richest parts of it that all the Gentry dwell in the principal Towns and so the whole countrey is empty Even so now in England all the countrey is gotten into London so as with time England will only be London and the whole countrey be left waste For as we now do imitate the French fashion in fashion of Clothes and Lackeys to follow every man so have we got up the Italian fashion in living miserably in our houses and dwelling all in the City but let us in Gods name leave these idle forein toyes and keep the old fashion of England For it was wont to be the honour and reputation of the English Nobility and Gentry to live in the countrey and keep hospitality for which we were famous above all the countries in the world which we may the better do having a soile abundantly fertile to live in And now out of my own mouth I declare unto you which being in this place is equal to a Proclamation which I intend likewise shortly hereafter to have publiquely proclaimed that the Courtiers Citizens and Lawyers and those that belong unto them and others as have Pleas in Term time are only necessary persons to remain about this City others must get them into the countrey For besides the having of the countrey desolate when the Gentry dwell thus in London divers other mischiefes arise upon it First if insurrections should fall out as was lately seen by the Levellers gathering together what order can be taken with it when the countrey is unfurnished of Gentlemen to take order with it Next the poor want relief for fault of the Gentlemens hospitality at home Thirdly my service is neglected and the good government of the countrey for lack of the principal Gentlemens presence that should perform it And lastly the Gentlemen los◠their own thrift
proper a companion of and obliger to Loyalty and subjection to Government that it is impossible to find it separate from it or to expect truth of fidelity upon Noble grounds any where but in such well tempered and well instructed souls And therefore to rebuke those Hot-spurs who think S'blood S'wounds Rammee Damme words not for a Heathens mouth Those that think to Drink Drab Raunt Prophane the only and best Cryterions of loyalty and trustableness Vbi enim regnat ebrietas ratio exulat intellectus obtunditur consilia devianâ— consilia subvertuntur Petrus â—les Ep. 7. do I profess my prealledged sense That the King is best and most effectually served by Pious Quorum exitio intelligi possit eorum imperiis Rempublicam amplisicatam qui Religionibus paruisâ—ent Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. deorum Moderate Sober Learned Well-directed Gentlemen whose resolution is to observe the Laws themselves and thereby to invite others so to do Note this or to shame and punish them that obstinately oppose themselves to it Quod me corripi putes affectio est ideoque mihi acceptiora sunt vestra verbera quam eorum ubera qui me lactant Idem Ep. 6. For as he is not a good man that desires to live without Law so he is not a good Subject that having a good and just Law dares wilfully and propensedly violate it Nor does he deserve any better Title then singular and proud Adeo non erit Christianus qui eam negabit quam confitentur Christiani his argumeâ—tis negabit quibus utitur non Christianus Tertullianus lib de Resurrect Carnis c. 3. who vehemently reasons against National constitutions though they conclude his private liberty and judgment for there must be in the Nation some Civill ultimate Judge which surely is in England the great Judgment of the Nation the King in his Parliament by them particular Subjects must be bounded in their judgment of Civil duty to the Laws of their Establishment And I pray God I may live no longer then to see the Law in power and credit against all opposition of private and seduced spirits SECT XLIII Commends the Meditation of God Death and Iudgment to Great men in their Conversations Actions and Counsels EIghthly and lastly I do humbly commend to the Nobles and Gentry of England That in all their Lives Counsels and Actions they would think of God Death and Judgment Of God the Soveraign being whom to know is life eternal whom to love is to be holy whom to live with Iohn 17. 3. Ch. 14. v. 15. is to be happy Of Death the common and inevitable state of mankind into which the greatest pride and gallantest pomp must be resolved and with which be veyled and vanquished Of Judgment the Just Assise wherein distribution shall be of rewards unutterable of Torments intolerable These three well and throughly debated and then applied as incitations to Vertuous and Godly demeanours and dehortating terrours to the contrary will be notable both Defensatives and Cordials Concerning God though the thoughts of him are precious yet there are some that have a specifique tendency to the whole latitude of godly life and godly action being not only Therapeutique and Medicinal to heal the flaws and gashes that the violence of depravation has made in the soul but Energical and Incentive to exercise of spiritual faculties to spiritual purposes And these I suppose may be reduced to five heads in which the whole of a Christians meditation of God in order to sins anticipation in its prevalence over man is most effectually visible The purity of Gods nature the power of his Hand the preception of his Eye the obligation of his Mercy the severity of his Sentence These well considered and applied by that serious digestive faculty that sincere piety discharges its thoughts into and from whence it draws forth its Spiritual Artillery upon occasion of Spiritual conflict Satans temptation make the first degree of my commendation of this Head to Great mens meditation 1. The purity of Gods Nature is the â—ourse and Womb of all purity for the created Purity being but a Ray of that Purity increate as to the quantum it is short to the quale it is incomparable to it God is pure Fontally as Purity is his Essence and as Purity is in the verity though inutterability of its being Thus pure he centrally himself only is who is light and no darkness Now in as much as to this Divine purity there is no possibility of attainment 1 Iohn 1â— 5. In Deo est magnitudo virtutis perfectionis non autem magnitudo molis Sâ—us Thomas part 1. q. 42 art 11. because it is incommunicable assumption of Manhood into the Godhead being onely in the Hypostatique union of Christ and without possibility of after condescension or assimilation that which of Purity â—s attainable by man being but a following of his president and an obedience to his precepts is yet as close an access to God and as full a price for glory as Mortality can attain to or offer for it And therfore since God is perfect unalterable purity as his command is to be pure so his acceptation is according to the truth of purity in men things For so far and no farther does the purity of God admit mortality as it is defecated by purity of intention and sincerity God that made the heart loves purity in the Cabinet of his Residence and Treatment and therefore â—eb 11. 6. as he that will come to God must believe his being that he is so he that will converse with God must be pure as he is For God heareth not sinners Iohn 9. 31. nor doth purity correspond with defilement and thereupon thou art 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. O man by Gods purity called upon to be pure as he is if thou wilt be happy as he is Matth. 5. 8. because blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And as thy heart so thy deeds must be pure nay if the heart be upright the Emanations from the heart transports and temptations only excepted will not be halting or down-right lame Christianity is a votal regularity a holy Order of reclucism Note this a temporal exinanition 't is an abstraction of the soul from the body of sin and an oblation of all that is worthy to him who is worthy all because Wise Pure Merciful Powerful above all And thereupon the consideration of Gods Nature has an avulsive operation it makes the Christian sit loose from and be indifferent to this world 1 Iohn 2. 15 16. which is so hostile to and quarrelsome with Purity It considers it self under the vow of God to be as he is as far as imitation of him can have being in it The true Puritan now the serious and practical Puritan commands his thoughts to be holy Psalm 139. 17 23. his words to be edifying his works to