this did all the Saints and servants of God joy disvaluing all other joy as unworthy the entertainment of the soule Wee are to rejoyce likewise for as much as God hath called us not to uncleannesse but unto holinesse We are to rejoyce in the testimony of a good conscience being that continuall feast which refresheth every faithfull guest Wee are to rejoyce in our brothers aversion from sinne and conversion to God in his prosperity and successe in his affaires of state But above all things wee are so to moderate our joy in the whole progresse of our life that our joy may the more abound in him who is the crowne of our hope after this life The like directions are required in our moderation of sorrow for there is a sorrow unto death which to prevent understand this by the way that not so much the passion as the occasion enforcing the passion is to bee taken heed of Sorrow wee may but not as Ammon did till he had defloured Thamar for that was the sorrow of licentiousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ahab did till he had got Naboths vineyard for that was the sorrow of covetousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Iosephs brethren did greiving that their father should love him more than them for that was the sorrow of maliciousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ionah did grieving that the Ninivites were not destroyed for that was the sorrow of unmercifulnesse Lastly sorrow wee may but not as the Gergesenes did grieving for the losse of their swine for that was the sorrow of worldlinesse These sorrowes are not so much to be moderated as wholly abolished because they are grounded on sin but there is a religious and godly sorrow which though it afflict the body it refresheth the spirit though it fill the heart with heavinesse it crowneth the soule with happinesse And this is not a sorrow unto sinne but a sorrow for sin not a sorrow unto death but a sorrow to cure the wound of death By how much any one saith a good Father is holier by so much in prayer are his teares plentifuller Here sounds the Surdon of religious sorrow the awaker of devotion the begetter of spirituall compunction and the sealer of heavenly consolation being the way to those that beginne truth to those that profit and life to them that are perfect But alas the naturall man saith the Apostle perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned It is true and this should move us to more fervor of devotion beseeching the divine assistance to minister strength to our weaknesse that what is wanting in the flesh may be supplied by the spirit yea daily to set an houre-glasse beside us and observe those precious graines the minute treasures of time how swiftly they run thorow the Cruet whereof not one must fall unnumbred for as a haire of the head shall not perish no more shall the least moment of time Now how healthfull were it though the carnall man distate it to vie teares with graines of sand that our sinnes being as the Sands of the Sea-shore that is numberlesse might bee bound up and throwne into the deepe Sea of eternall forgetfulnesse so as they may neither rise up in this life to shame us nor in the world to come to condemne us Surely if you would know those blessed fruits which true penitent sorrow produceth you shall finde that He who sowes in teares shall reape in joy Neither can any one goe to heaven with drie eyes May your teares be so shed on earth that they may bee bottled in heaven so shall you bring your sheaves with you and like fine flower being boulted from the bran of corruption receive your portion in the land of the living And may this Sacrifice of teares which you offer up unto him whose eyes are upon all the wayes of the children of men minister like comfort to your soules as they have done to many faithfull members of Christs Church And let this suffice to have beene spoken of such Subjects wherein Moderation is to bee used for to speake of Moderation of sorrow for sinne I hold it little necessary seeing most men so insensible are they of their inward wounds come rather short of that sorrow which is required then exceed in any sort the measure that is prescribed AS Moderation in all the precedent subjects is to be used so in all and every of them is it to be limited for to be so Stoically affected as wee have formerly noted as not to entertaine so much as modest mirth or approve of the temperate and moderate use of those things which were at first ordained for the use and service of man digressing as farre from the rule of Moderation in restraint as the profusely minded Libertine doth in excesse How hard a thing is it then to observe with indifferency an equall or direct course herein when either by leaping short or over we are subject to error So saith blessed Cranmer Some lose their game by short shooting some by over-shooting some walk too much on the left hand some too much on the right hand Now to propose what forme of direction is best to be observed herein wee will take a view of those Subjects whereof wee formerly treated and set downe in each of them what Moderation is to be used All waters are derived from three waies or currents springing either by fountaines and spring-heads from the bowells of the earth inwardly drained by rivers and conduits from those fountaines derived or haile and snow from the earth extracted where some ascend some descend so passions are three wayes moved in our bodies by humours arising out of our bodies by externall senses and the secret passage of sensuall objects or by the descent or commandement of reason Now to insist on the motion or effect of each passion we shall not greatly need having sufficiently touched them in our former discourse we will therfore upon a review of those severall subjects Lust Ambition Gorgeous apparel Luscious fare Company-keeping c. reduce them and the occasion of them to those three troubled Springs from whence miserable man by meanes of the immoderate appetite of sense sucks the banefull poyson of sinne The Concupiscence of the Flesh the Concupiscence of the eyes and the Pride of life for whatsoever is in the world as a good Father noteth and as the blessed Apostle himself affirmeth is one of these As first whatsoever suiteth or sorteth with the desire or delicacy of the flesh ministers fuel or matter to feed the Concupiscence therof Now this fleshly Libertine takes no delight in the Spirit but in the Flesh he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to keepe company with those consorts of
Which devout and godly endevour that it might be the better furthered and his glory by whose grace wee are assisted the more advanced needfull it were to reduce to our memory daily and hourely these two maine Considerations First those three profest Enemies that infatigably assaile us which should make us more watchfull Secondly that faithfull friend who so couragiously fights for us which should make us more thankefull for our Enemies as they are some of them domestick so are they more dangerous for no foe more perillous then a bosome foe Besides they are such pleasing Enemies as they cheere us when they kill us sting us when they smile on us And what is the instrument they worke on but the soule And what the time limited them to worke in but our life Which humours doe swell up sorrowes bring downe heats dry aire infect meat puffe up fasting macerate jests dissolve sadnesse consume care straineth security deludeth youth extolleth wealth transporteth poverty dejecteth old-age crooketh infirmity breaketh griefe depresseth the Divell deceiveth the world flattereth the flesh is delighted the soule blinded and the whole man perplexed How should we now oppose our selves to such furious and perfidious Enemies Or what armour are wee to provide for the better resisting of such powerfull and watchfull Assailants Certainely no other provision need we then what already is laid up in store for us to arme and defend us and what those blessed Saints and servants of Christ have formerly used leaving their owne vertuous lives as patternes unto us Their Armour was fasting Prayer and workes of Devotion by the first they made themselves fit to pray in the second they addressed themselves to pray as they ought in the third they performed those holy duties which every Christian of necessity ought to performe And first for Fasting it is a great worke and a Christian worke producing such excellent effects as it subjects the flesh to the obedience of the spirit making her of a commander a subject of one who tooke upon her an usurped authority to humble her selfe to the soules soveraignty Likewise Prayer how powerfull it hath beene in all places might bee instanced in sundry places of holy Scripture In the Desart where temptation is the readiest In the Temple where the Divell is oft-times busiest On the Sea where the flouds of perils are the nearest In Peace where security makes men forgetfullest And in Warre where imminent danger makes men fearfull'st Yea whether it be with Daniel in the Denne or Manasses in the Dungeon whether it be with holy David in the Palace or heavenly Ieremie in the Prison the power and efficacie of Prayer sacrificed by a devout and zealous beleever cannot choose but be as the first and second raigne fructifying the happy soile of every faithfull soule to her present comfort here and hope of future glory else-where Thirdly workes of Devotion being the fruits or effects of a spirituall conversation as ministring to the necessity of the Saints wherein we have such plenty of examples both in divine and humane writ as their godly charity or zealous bounty might worthily move us to imitate such blessed Patternes in actions of like Devotion For such were they as they were both liberall and joyed in their liberality every one contributing so much as hee thought fit or pleased him to bestow And whatsoever was so collected to the charge or trust of the Governour or Disposer of the stocke of the poore was forthwith committed Here was that poore-mans Box or indeed Christs Box wherein the charity of the faithfull was treasured Neither did these holy Saints or Servants of God in their Almes eye so much the quality of the person as his Image whom hee did represent And herein they nourished not a sinner but a righteous beggâ—â— because they loved not his sinne but his nature But now because wee are to treat of Perfection in each of these wee are to observe such cautions as may make the worke perfect without blemish and pure from the mixture of flesh As first in that godly practice of Fasting to observe such mediocrity as neither desire to be knowne by blubbered eyes hanging downe the head nor any such externall passion may tax us to bee of those Pharisees whose devotion had relation rather to the observance of man then the service of God neither so to macerate the body as to disable it for performing any office which may tend to the propagation of the glory of the Highest For the first institution of Fasts as it was purposely to subdue the inordinate motions of the flesh and subject it to the obedience and observance of the spirit so divers times were by the ancient Fathers and Councels thought fitting to be kept in holy abstinence of purpose to remove from them the wrath of God inflicted on them by the sword pestilence famine or some other such like plague Saint Gregory instituted certaine publike Fasts resembling the Rogation Weeke with such like solemne processions against the plague and pestilence as this Rogation-weeke was first ordained by another holy Bishop to that end As for the Ember-dayes they were so called of our ancient fore-fathers in this Countrey because on these fasting dayes men eate bread baked under embers or ashes But to propose a certaine rule or forme of direction there is none surer or safer then that which wee formerly proposed So to nourish our bodies that they bee not too much weakned by which meanes more divine offices might be hindered and againe so to weaken our bodies that they be not too much pampered by which meanes our spirituall fervor might bee coâ—led For too delicate is that master who when his belly is crammed would have his mind with devotion crowned Secondly for Prayer as it is to be numbred among the greatest workes of charity so of all others it should be freest from hypocrisie for it is not the sound of the mouth but the soundnesse of the heart which makes this oblation so effectually powerfull and to him that prayeth so powerfully fruitfull It is not beating of the breast with the fist but inward compunction of the heart flying with the wing of faith that pierceth heaven For neither could Trasylla's devotion whereof Gregory relates have beene so powerfull nor Gorgonius supplication whereof Nazianzen reports so fruitfull nor Iames the brother of our Lord his invocation whereof Eusebius records so faithfull nor Paul the Eremites daily oblation whereof Ierome recounts so effectuall if pronunciation of the mouth without affection of the heart beating of the brest without devotion of mind dejection of face without erection of faith had accompanied their prayer For it is not hanging downe the head like a bulrush which argues contrition but a passionate affection of the heart which mounts up to the throne of grace till it purchase remission Thirdly for Almes-deeds and other workes of Devotion being
scarce any State which hath not felt where civill warres have menaced no lesse danger to the State than forraine powers private factions than open hostilitie In some likewise so deepe impression hath Ambition wrought as the Envie which they conceive at others greatnesse deprives them of all rest This appeared in Themistocles who walked in the Night-time in the open street because he could not sleepe The cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like height of Ambition shewed Alexander weeping bitterly to see his father win so fast before him fearing nothing should remaine for him to conquer Now how naturally Youth is affected to this illimited motion may be observed even in usuall games where Youth rather than hee will endure the foile exposeth himselfe to all encounters It is glory which he aimes at and before he lose it he will hazard himselfe for it His Prize is his praise hee values nothing more than to get him a name which may brute his renowne and gaine him respect with his Dearest His disquiet for what is Ambition but a Distraction of the mind is to affect that best which doth afflict him most Augustus had broken sleepes and used to send for some to passe the Night away in telling tales or holding him with talke See the misery of Ambitious spirits whose ends are without end limiting their desires to no other period than sole soveraigntie Their ayrie thoughts like Icarus wings are ever mounting till the Sunne which they threatned dissolve them Inferiour taskes they as much sleight as Eagles doe Flies they love not to stoope to basenesse when many times lowest fortunes entertaine them with no lesse discontent than despaire can force them to And in their lowest ebbe when Hope forsakes them and their neerest like Tiberius friends shrinke from them and no comfort remaines save expectance and sufferance of all extremities you shall heare them upraid Prince or State relating with much vain-glory what dangers they have undergone for them Instance whereof even in these latter times might be produced as in that Ambitious French-man the brave Byron who seeing no way but one burst out into these violent extremes I have received three thirtie wounds of my body to preserve it for him and for my reward he takes my head from my shoulders He now quencheth the torch in my bloud after hee hath used it This is the condition of high spirits whose aimes were transcendent to close up their tragicall Scene with a vain-glorious boast of what they have done little considering how their Countrie might lawfully exact and expect as much as was in them to performe and they still debrours to her because they had their being from her Yet see though sometimes they stand upon termes of resolution desiring to die standing when the sentence of death is pronounced and all future hope extinguished they will be as that great French-man was Supple as a glove presenting their heads as willingly to the sword as Agis did his unto the halter It is strange to note how these men walke in clouds imagining themselves most secure when imminencie of perill assures them nothing lesse The reason whereof may seeme to be this they flatter themselves in their vanitie as Pygmalion with his Image or Narcissus with his Shadow reposing more confidence in their owne valour and the aide which Themistocles or Pausanias-like they contract abroad linking and uniting themselves with forraine powers than on all the information of friends or the perswasions of a loyall and uncorrupted heart But these as that Heroick Prince noted must bow or breake be their persons never so hopefull or directions behovefull to the State they must be curbed or the State endangered Their properties is ever to swim in troubled waters nor can they endure to be mated Though their aimes bee to perpetuate their greatnesse yet those Beasts which are bred about the River Hypanis and live but one day may oft-times compare with them for continuance whence the Poet saith excellently out of his owne observation Much have I seene yet seldome seene I have Ambition goe gray-headed to his grave There is nothing which the Ambitious man hates so much as a corrivall he hopes to possesse all and without a sharer But so indirect are his plots and so insuccessive their end as hee findes to his great griefe that the promise of securitie had no firme foundation to ground on nor his attempts that issue they expected Now Gentlemen you whose better parts aime at more glorious ends so consine your desires to an equall meane that mounting too high bring you not to an irreparable fall Wee are borne indeed as that divine Father saith to be Eagles and not Iayes to fly aloft and not to seek our food on the ground but our Eagle-eyes are to be fixed on the Sunne of righteousnesse not on temporall preferments We are to soare to the Tower from whence commeth our helpe For it is not lifting up a mans selfe God likes but lifting up of the spirit in prayer Here are wings for flying without feare of falling for other aymes they are but as feathers in the aire they delude us howsoever they seeme to secure us But I heare some young Gentleman object that it is a brave thing to be observed in the eye of the world to have our persons admired our selves in publike resorts noted yea our Names dispersed Indeed I grant He who consists on nothing more than showes Thinkes it is brave to heare Loe there be goes But such whose solid understandings have instructed them in higher studies as much disvalue popular opinion or the Corckie conceits of the vulgar as true Nobilitie scornes to converse with any thing unworthy it selfe Their greatnesse hath correspondence with goodnesse for esteeme of the world as in respect of their owne worth they deserve it so in contempt of all outward glory they disvalue it Come then yee nobly affected Gentlemen would yee be heires of honour and highly reputed by the Highest Resemble the Nature of the Highest who humbled himselfe in the forme of man to restore miserable man vilifying himselfe to make man like himselfe It is not beleeve it to shine in grace or esteeme of the Court which can innoble you this glory is like glasse bright but brittle and Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee past but for a single pennie It is more glory to be in the Courts of the Lord to purchase esteeme with him whose judgement never erres and whose countenance never alters It is reported by Comines in his French Annals that Charles whom he then served was of this disposition that he would make assay of the greatest matters revolving in his mind how he might compasse them yea perchance saith he assayes farre above
them followed their Labour So as there was no difference betwixt the Patricians and Plebeians inter faecem florem civitatis as one well observeth but an expresse taske was imposed and exacted on every Subject Whence it grew that the Roman Empire became absolute Soveraignesse of many other ample Dominious whose flourishing estate as it was described to King Pyrrhus appeared such That the City seemed a Temple the Senate a Parliament of Kings Neither is it to be doubted but even as God is no accepter of persons so his command was generall without exception of persons In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread Albeit I doe not hence conclude that all are to intend the Plough or betake themselves to Manuall Trades for so I might seeme to presse that exposition which a Frier once urged against Latimer touching reading of Scripture in a vulgar tongue If the rude people objected hee should heare the Scripture read in English the Plow-man when hee heareth Hee that holdeth the Plough and looketh backe is not apt for the Kingdome of God would there upon cease to plow any more the Baker when hee heareth it read A little Leaven corrupteth the whole lumpe might be moved not to use Leaven at all and when the Scripture saith If thine eye offend thee plucke it out the ignorant might bee perswaded to pull out their eyes and therefore it was not good to have the Scripture in English To which objection Latimer vouchafed no other answer than this Hee would wish the Scriptures to be no longer in English till thereby either the Plow-man were perswaded not to plow or the Baker not to bake No I am not so stupid as not to apprehend how severall places or offices are deputed to sundry men how some are appointed for guiding and guarding the State others for ranking and ranging Powers in the Field others for teaching and training of Youth in the Schoole others for propounding and expounding of the Lawes of our Realme at the Barre others for caring and curing of maladâ—es in the body others for breaking the bread of life and breathing the spirit of comfort to the afflicted Whence wee gather that of all degrees none are exempted or excepted a Vocation is proposed and imposed which of necessity must be by one or other observed and intended For as in the mutuall offices of our Body every member intends that peculiar function or office to which it is assigned or limited so in the Body of the State being all members depending and subsisting of that State wee are all in our mutuall places or offices to discharge that Taske which is injoyned us Wherein I should thinke it convenient if we observed the selfe-same rule which the members of our Body use in the due performance of their offices For wee see not one of them incroach or intrude into anothers place or imployment The Eye it sees and handles not the Hand it handles and sees not the Palat it tastes and smels not the Nose it smels and tastes not the Eare it heares and walkes not the Foot it walkes and heares not And so of the rest but contrariwise how itching are men after such imployments as least concerne them How officious in businesse which least touch them The Dray-man hee will play the Divine a Dairy-woman the Physician the Collier the Informer the Farmer the Lawyer Wherein surely I have observed in the small Progresse of this my Pilgrimage no small inconvenience redounding to the publike State For say whence sprung all these Schismes in the Church these many rents in Christs Seamelesse-coat but from those who of Mechanickes became Divines professing to teach before they were taught Whence are so many mens dayes abridged their easie maladies without hope of being cured but by meanes of these Horse-leaches who gaine experience by the death of their Patients professing themselves Artists before they know the definition of an Art Whence are so many unjustly vexed so injuriously troubled but by these base Informers who become disturbers rather than Reformers whence arise these differences betwixt party and party but by meanes of some factious and seditious Instruments who like the Serpent Dipsas sucke the moisture and verdure of every hopefull Plant building their foundation on the ruine of others Surely as wee have Statutes enacted of purpose to have such turbulent members duely curbed and censured so were it to bee wished that such Lawes as are to this end provided were likewise executed for by this meanes the flourie borders of our Realme should bee stored with grave Divines and learned Professors leading their flocks to the greene pastures of ghostly instruction not to the by-paths of errour and confusion with judicious and expert Physitians who are not to learne experience by the death of their Patients with sincere and uncorrupted officers whose ayme is not to gaine but to redresse abuses with upright and conâ—cionable Lawyers whose desire is to purchase their Clients peace and not by frivolous delayes to cram their purses O what a golden age were this â— when each performing a mutuall office unto other might so support one another as what one wanted might be supplied by another Then should wee have no Sectists or Separatists divided from the unity of faith to disturbe us No artlesse Quack-salvers or cheating Mountebanks to delude us no factious Brands to set a fire of debate amongst us no currupt or unconscionable Lawyers by practising upon our states to make a prey of us Then should we heare no ignorant Laicks familiarly disputing of the too high points of Predestination rejecting the ordinary meanes of attaining salvation as may be seene in the Synodals or Conventicles of many seduced soules even in these dayes where some Barbar is made a Cathedrall Doctor to improve rebuke and exhort but how is it possible that ought should bee hatched but errour where singularity grounded on ignorance is made a Teacher S. Basil talking with the Emperour Valens of matters of religion and the Cooke comming in saucily and telling the holy man his opinion that it was but a small matter to yeeld to his master the Emperor in a word or two and that hee needed not to stand so precisely in divine matters which seemed indifferent or of no moment Yea Sir Cook quoth S. Basil it is your part to tend to your pottage and not to boyle and chop up divine matters and then with great gravity turning to the Emperour said that those that were conversant in divine matters with conscience would rather suffer death than suffer one jot of holy Scripture much lesse an article of faith to be altered or corrupted So carefull have former times beene of the reverence which ought to be had in dispensing the heavenly Mysteries of Gods word admitting none to so holy and high a vocation but such who had Vrim and Thummim knowledge and holinesse beautifying their knowledge I say with holinesse of conversation being
wholly divided from society yea so immured as they seemed to be buried living Whose conversation as questionlesse it argued a great mortification of all mundane desires so it ministred matter of admiration to such who given to carnall liberty wondred how men made of earth could bee so estranged from conversing with inhabitants of earth But to leave these and imagine their conversation to be in Heaven though their habitation was on earth wee perceive hence how beneficiall Recreation is to the mind in cheering solacing and refreshing her if used with Moderation How it lessens those burdens of cares wherewith shee is oppressed revives the spirits as if from death restored cleares the understanding as if her eyes long time shut were now unsealed and quickens the invention by this sweet respiration as if newly moulded Neither is this Benefit so restrained as if it extended only to the mind for it confers a Benefit likewise to the body by enabling it to performe such Labours Taskes or Offices as it is to bee employed or exercised withall There are two Proverbs which may be properly applyed to this purpose Once in the yeere Apollo laughs this approves the use of moderate Recreation Apollo's bow 's not alwayes bent this shewes that humane imployments are to bee seasoned by Recreation we are sometimes to unbend the bow or it will lose his strength Continuall or incessant employment cannot be endured there must be some intermission or the body becomes enfeebled As for example observe these men who either encombred with worldly affaires so tye and tether themselves to their busines as they intermit no time for effecting that which they goe about or such as wholly nayled to their Deske admit no time for Recreation lest they should thereby hinder the progresse of their studies See how pale and meager they looke how sickly and infirme in the state of their bodies how weake and defective in their constitution So as to compare one of these weaklings with such an one as intermits occasions of busines rather than he will prejudice his health reserving times as well for Recreation and pleasure as for imployment and labour were to present a spectacle of Inius Dwarf not two foot high and weighing but seventeen pound with Iolaus the youthfull son of Iphiclus whose feature was free complexion fresh and youth renewing such difference in proportion such ods in strength of constitution For observe one of these starved worldlings whose aimes are only to gather and number without doing either themselves or others good with that they gather with what a sallow and earthly complexion they looke being turned all earth before they returne to earth And what may be the cause hereof but their incessant care of getting their continuall desire of gaining being ever gaping till their mouthes be filled with gravell So these who are wholly given and solely devoted to a private or retired life how unlike are they to such as use and frequent society For their bodies as they are much weakned and enfeebled so is the heat and vigour of their spirits lestened and resolved yea their dayes for most part shortned and abridged the cause of all which proceedeth from a continuall secluding and dividing themselves from company and use of such Recreations as all creatures in their kind require and observe For if we would have recourse to creatures of all sorts wee shall find every one in his kind observe a Recreation or refreshment in their nature As the Beast in his chace the Bird in her choice the Snaile in her speckled case the Polypus in her change yea the Dolphin is said to sport and play in the water For as All things were created for Gods pleasure so hath he created all things to recreate and refresh themselves in their owne nature Thus farre have we discoursed of moderate Recreation and of the benefits which redound from it being equally commodious to the mind as well as the body the body as well as the mind to the mind in refreshing cherishing and accommodating it to all studies to the understanding in clearing it from the mists of sadnesse to the body in enabling it for the performance of such labours taskes oâ— offices as it is to be imployed or interessed in It now rests that wee speake something of her opposite to wit of immoderate Recreation and the inconveniences which arise from thence whereof wee shall but need to speake a word or two and so descend to more usefull points touching this Observation AS the wind Caecias drawes unto it clouds so doth immoderate recreation draw unto it divers and sundry maine inconveniences for this Immoderation is a loosener of the sinewes and a lessener of the strength as Moderation is a combiner of the sinewes and a refiner of the strength So dangerous is the surfet which wee take of pleasure or Recreation as in this wee resemble Chylo who being taken with the apprehension of too much joy instantly dyed Now who seeth not how the sweetest pleasures doe the soonest procure a surfet being such as most delight and therefore aptest to cloy How soone were the Israelites cloyed with Quailes even while the flesh was yet betweene their teeth and before it was chewed So apt are wee rather to dive than dip our hand in honey Most true shall every one by his owne experience find that saying of Salomon to be It is better to goe to the house of mourning than to goe to the house of feaesting for there may we see the hand of God and learne to examine our lives making use of their mortality by taking consideration of our owne frailty whereas in the house of feasting wee are apt to forget the day of our changing saying with the Epicure Eat drinke and play but never concluding with him To morrow we shall die So apt are we with Messala Corvinus to forget our owne name Man who is said to be corruption and the sonne of man wormes meat For in this Summer-Parlour or floury Arbour of our prosperity wee can find time to solace and recreate our selves Lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch our selves upon our beds and eat of the Lambes of the flocke and the Calves out of the stall Singing to the sound of the Violl and inventing to our selves instruments of musicke like David Drinking wine in bowles and anointing our selves with the chiefe oyntments but no man is sorry for the affliction of Ioseph So universall are we in our Iubile having once shaken off our former captivity To prevent which forgetfulnesse it were not amisse to imitate the Romane Princes who as I have elsewhere noted when they were at any time in their conquests or victorious triumphs with acclamations received and by the generall applause of the people extolled there stood one alwayes behind them in their Throne to pull them by the sleeve with Memento te esse hominem for the consideration of humane
of such Recreations as require small use or exercise of the body wee will first proceed with such as follow being ranked in the same Siedge because Recreations of the same nature descending from them to exercises requiring more alacrity of spirit and more ability of body Of these which may be rather termed exercises of the mind then exercises of the faculties of the body are Cards and Dice a speciall Recreation meerely invented and intended to passe tedious Winter nights away and not to hazard ones fortunes at them as many inconsiderate Gamesters now adayes will not sticke to doe which done what ensueth hence but entertaining of some desperate course which bringeth the undertaker many times to an end as infortunate as his life was desolate which makes me thinke I never see one of these Gamesters who in a bravado will set their patrimonies at a throw but I remember the answer of one Minacius who having on a time lost at Dice not only his money but his apparell too for hee was very poore fate weeping at the Portall doore of a Taverne It chanced that a friend of his seeing him thus to weepe and lament demanded of him How it was with him Nothing quoth Minacius Why weepest thou then said his friend if there be nothing For this cause doe I weepe replyed Minacius because there is nothing His friend still wondring Why then quoth he dost thou weepe thus when there is nothing For the very same cause quoth he because I have nothing The one understood that there was no cause why he should weepe the other wept because hee had Nothing left to play How many be there who may sing Lachrymae with Minacius going by weeping-crosse being either by crosse fortune as they ascribe it or rather by flat cheating as they may properly terme it stript of their substance Amongst the Romans Venus or Coâ—s was the best chance at Dice but indeed the best chance that any one can have is not to throw at all Howsoever I could wish young Gentlemen to beware of frequenting these common gaming houses where they must either have fortune with advantage or else be sure to play like young Gamesters to their owne-disadvantage Truth is I would have none to play much but those which have little to play For these as they have little to lose so they cannot bee much poorer if they lose all Whereas such whose Ancestors have left them faire revenues by investing them as Heires to their providence need little to raise or advance their fortunes by these indirect meanes For tell me Gentlemen doe ye game for gaine or passing time If for gaine it is needlesse ye have sufficient If for passing time your stake should be lesse and your care for winning more indifferent Besides doe ye not observe what foists yee have daily resorting and frequenting these houses whose purses are lined with cheats and whose profession is only to sharke Shun their companies then left they prey upon you whereby you shall make your selves subjects both of want and weaknesse Of Want by filling their purses with your coine of weaknesse by suffering your selves to bee made a prey of by their cheats If you will game make choice of such as you know to be square Gamesters scorning to bring their names in question with the least report of advantage As for tricks frequently used in these dayes learne rather to prevent them then professe them For I never knew Gamester play upon advantage but bring him to the square and his fortune was ever seconded with disadvantage But above all use moderation in Play make not your Recreation a distemper and set up this as your rest never to mount your stake so high as the losse of it may move you to cholâ—r And so I descend to Recreations more virile wherin I will be briefe because I would hasten to the next branch In this ranke may be numbred Hunting and Hawking pleasures very free and generous and such as the noblest dispositions have naturally affected For what more admirable then the pleasure of the Hare if we observe the uses which may be made of it as I have else-where more amply discoursed purposing here rather to touch them then treat of them In her doubles note her cunning in the dogges eagernesse in pursuing Where all the senses remaine for the time pleased but when at default how much are they grieved What an excellent Melody or naturall Consort to delight the Eare What choice Objects to content the Eye What odoriferous smels in the floury Meads to refesh the Nose only the Touch and Taste must have their pleasures suspended till the sport be ended Non sine lepôre tanto labore pro uno Lepore homines torqueri video saith one very wittily and elegantly I can never chuse but laugh to see what labour men will take for a poore Hare What Mountaines they will climbe what Marishes they will passe what brakes and bryers they will runne through and all for a Hare which may be an Embleme of humane vanity where men miserable deluded men will refuse no toyle or labour to gaine a trifling pleasure What indirect courses they will take for a moments delight which is no sooner showne them then vanished from them These pleasures are most commonly affected by Youth because they have agility and ability of body to maintaine the pursuite of them whence the Poet The beardlesse Youth when 's guardians reines doe yeeld Sports him in Horse and Dogges and open field The reason may be this hee cannot endure restraint for the heat of Youth must needs take aire or it choakes it selfe with too much holding It must be carried aloft on the wings of the wind taking an Icarian flight but never fearing his fall Such dogges as were presented by the King of Albanie unto Alexander the Great who would not stirre at small Beasts but at Lions and Elephants are the fittest for his kennell for Youth is no sooner moving then mounting Whence Ascanius in a youthfull bravery Wisheth some Boare or savage Lion should Descend the Mount and cope with him he would So subject is Youth to expose it selfe to all dangers swimming ever with bladders of vaine-glory till they receive water and it sinke There are some also of these youthfull Hunts-men who when they cannot speed in their sport will rather buy it then want it that having their game on their backe they may proclaime to the world how they are Masters of their profession And these are excellently displayed by the Poet in the person of Gargilius At once Gargilius who one Morne betime Sent out his Servants forward to the chace With Hunting poles and twisted nets of line To buy a Boare which through the Market place Laid on a Mule as if his men had slaine him Would as bee thought eternall glory gaine him So apt are many in inventing and eager in pursuing ought which may raise them a name
though in things meerly indifferent For as reputation is a common conceit of extraordinary vertue so every one laboureth to acquire the end albeit they misse the meanes of acquiring it For how should any one imagine unlesse his conceit were wholly darkened that these things could be any meanes to perpetuate his name But so soon transported is Youth with any phantasie suggested albeit upon no sufficient ground builded as whatsoever his conceit whispers to him that may tend to his praise hee entertaines it with a greedy and eager desire laboring to effect what may gaine him popular esteeme So as the Lover is never more blinded with affection towards his beloved than Youth is in affecting that which may cause him to be praised To speake much touching this Recreation I will not addresse my discourse onely this is my opinion that as it is generous so generally is it most harmelesse so it be moderately used for otherwise it may weaken or enfeeble the body impaire the health and be occasion of many inconveniences for in my discourse upon the particular branch of this Observation I am onely to approve of such Recreations as are used with Moderation As Hawking which as I before observed is a pleasure for high and mounting spirits such as will not stoope to inferiour Lures having their minds so farre above as they scorne to partake with them It is rare to consider how a wild Bird should be so brought to hand and so well managed as to make us such pleasure in the ayre but most of all to forgoe her native liberty and feeding and returne to her former servitude and diet But in this as in the rest wee are taught to admire the great goodnesse and bounty of God who hath not onely given us the Birds of the Ayre with their flesh to feed us with their voice to cheere us but with their flight to delight us The Eagle which is indeed the Prince of Birds and the prime Hawke was observed much among the ancient Romans in all their Auguries so as an Eagle hovering in the Aire in the reigne of Augustus and at last settling upon the name Agrippa and just upon the first letter of that name A. a lightning descending downe from Heaven struck the first letter of his owne name out C. whence Sooth-sayers by conjecturall arguments gathered that hee should but live an hundred dayes after and be afterwards canonized for a god because Aesar the residue of that name in the Tuscane language signified God For the Romanes of all Nations under the Cope of Heaven relyed most upon the prophesying of Birds so as wee read that they ever kept their Oscines or birds of Augury by which they collected what their successe should be both in peace and warre Albeit some there was among the Heathen who made small account of them so as Claudius Pulcher when in taking his Auspicia or the predictions of his successe before Sicily the Pullets would not feed He commanded they should be plunged in the sea that they might drinke seeing they would not eat It is the saying of an ancient Father That the piercing eye of the Eagle exceeds the sight of all other birds being of such sharpe sight as reflecting the beames of the Sunne fixed upon her she can looke upon the Sunne without shutting her eyes which are not to be dazled shine the Sunne never so brightly So as it is said shee makes a tryall of her brood when they are but young by mounting up and fixing their eyes against the Sunne of which if any be so tender-eyed as they cannot looke upon it shee disclaimes them but such whose sharpe sight can look stedfastly upon it shee tenders them as her selfe Whence many secret and sacred uses might be gathered for this is but the type of a divine Morall if I should insist upon the exposition of that blessed Father but I must briefly descend to speake of the Moderate use of this Recreation This pleasure as it is a princely delight so it moveth many to be so dearely enamoured of it as they will undergoe any charge rather then forgoe it which makes me recall to mind a merry tale which I have read to this effect Divers men having entred into discourse touching the superfluous care I will not say folly of such as kept Dogs and Hawkes for Hawking one Paulus a Florentine stood up and spake Not without cause quoth hee did that foole of Millan laugh at these and being entreated to tell the tale hee thus proceeded Vpon a time quoth hee there was a Citizen of Millan a Physician for such as were distracted of Lunaticke who tooke upon him within a certaine time to cure such as were brought unto him And hee cured them after this sort He had a plat of ground neere his house and in it a pit of corrupt and stinking water wherein hee bound naked such as were mad to a stake some of them knee-deepe others to the groin and some others deeper according to the degree of their madnesse where he so long pined them with water and hunger till they seemed sound Now amongst others there was one brought whom hee had put thigh-deepe in water who after fifteene dayes began to recover beseeching the Physician that hee might be taken out of the water The Physician taking compassion of him tooke him out but with this condition that hee should not goe out of the roome Having obeyed him certaine dayes he gave him liberty to walke up and downe the house but not to passe the out-gate while the rest of his companions which were many remaining in the water diligently observed their Physicians command Now it chanced as on a time he stood at the gate for out hee durst not goe for feare he should returne to the pit hee beckned to a young Gentleman to come unto him who had a Hawke and two Spaniels being moved with the novelty thereof for to his remembrance before hee fell mad hee had never seene the like The young Gentleman being come unto him Sir quoth he I pray you heare me a word or two and answer me at your pleasure What is this you ride on quoth hee and how doe you imploy him This is a Horse replyed he and I keepe him for Hawking But what call you that you carry on your fist and how doe you use it This is a Hawke said hee and I use to fly with it at Pluver and Partridge But what quoth he are these which follow you what doe they or wherein doe they profit you These are dogges said he and necessary for Hawking to find and retrive my game And what were these Birds worth for which you provide so many things if you should reckon all you take for a whole yeere Who answering hee knew not well but they were worth a very little not above six crownes The man replyed what then may be the charge you are at with your Horse Dogges and Hawke Some fifty crownes
said hee Whereat as one wondring at the folly of the young Gentleman Away away Sir I pray you quickly and fly hence before our Physician returne home for if he find you here as one that is maddest man alive hee will throw you into his Pit there to be cured with others that have lost their wits and more then all others for hee will set you chin-deepe in the water Inferring hence that the use or exercise of Hawking is the greatest folly unlesse sometimes used by such as are of good estate and for Recreation sake Neither is this pleasure or Recreation herein taxed but the excessive and immoderate expence which many are at in maintaining this pleasure Who as they should be wary in the expence of their coine so much more circumspect in their expence of time So as in a word I could wish young Gentlemen never to be so taken with this pleasure as to lay aside the dispatch of more serious occasions for a flight of feathers in the Ayre The Physician saith that it is the best exercise which is ad ruborem non ad sudorem refreshing the spirits and stirring up the blood a little but not putting a man into any great sweat for hee that makes his Recreation a toyle makes himselfe likewise Pleasures thrall Refresh your spirits stirre up your blood and enable your bodies by moderate exercise but avoid mixing of distemper with your pleasure for that were not to refresh but depresse the spirits not to stirre up but stop the course of blood not to enable but enfeeble the body And so I descend to the next branch treating of Recreations best sorting with the quality of a Gentleman TO propose what Recreations may please best I cannot because I know not how to stand affected but I shall as neere as I may recount what especiall Recreations best sort and sute with your quality Of all those which I have formerly touched and treated there is none but may be approved and entertained with an equall indifferencie being as I have said tempered and moderated with discretion But some there are I have not touched which may be so much the more admired forasmuch as they are by our young Gentlemen usually affected yea and as especiall Ornaments to grace and accomplish them generally esteemed as Fencing and Dancing the one to accommodate him for the Court the other for the Campe. Of which two Recreations to give my opinion freely there is required a knowledge but respectively to such I meane as onely intend to Court or Gallant it for these shall have occasion to make use of their knowledge in the one to grace and beautifie them in the other to shield and defend them Yet in neither of these would I have them to imitate their masters for so may they turne Cowards and so shew themselves true Fencers Or in their Dancing use those mimicke tricks which our apish professants use but with a reserved grace to come off bravely and sprightly rather then with an affected curiosity You shall see some of these come forth so punctually as if they were made up in a fute of Wainscot treading the ground as if they were foundred Others you shall see so supple and pliable in their joynts as you would take them to be some Tumblers but what are these but Iacke-an-Apes in gay clothes But others there are and these onely praise-worthy who with a gracefull presence gaine them respect For in exercises of this kind sure I am those onely deserve most commendation which are performed with least affectation Now I have heard of some who could doe all this shew an excellent grace in their carriage expresse themselves rare proficients in all School-tricks being so much admired as who but they yet observe the cloze and they spoile all with an English trick they cannot leave it when it is well It is said of Apelles that hee found fault with Protogenes in that hee could not hold his hands from his Table and right so fares it with these young Cavalieroes when they have shewne all that may be shewne to give content striving to shew one tricke above Ela they halt in the conclusion For Fence-play I have knowne some puffed up with a presumption of skill to have beene too apt in giving offence so as of professors of worth they became practisers of wrong But see their unhappinesse â— this conceit or over-weening opinion of their surpassing skill brings them many times to an unexpected end by exposing themselves to inevitable dangers And this they doe either for vaine glory being ambitious after fame or else out of a quarrelling disposition being no lesse apt to conceive or apprehend the smallest occasion of offence then to prosecute revenge upon occasion offered For the first the bravest and noblest spirits have beene affected to it I meane Ambition but their ends were more glorious As Themistocles Who walked in the night time in the open street because hee could not sleepe the cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like might be observed in Alexander Who sighed that his Father should winne so much and leave him so little to winne So as it is said that hee wept hearing that there was another world saying He had not yet wonne one World But with these it fareth many times as it did with Marius who not contented with the glory hee got in the Cimbrian warres by seeking to augment it did extenuate it Yet are these more noble in their aimes then such whose Ambition it is to commit all impieties onely to gaine them a perpetuall infamy As Pausanias who killed Philip of Macedon onely for fame or vaine glory so did Herostratus burne the Temple of Diana to get him a name by an infamous act For the latter sort being such as are given to quarrels I have ever noted their gaines to be small in all their adventures For what are these but such as value blood at a low rate they pretend how their reputation stands engaged they cannot put up such disgraces but with touch of cowardise and what a blemish were it for ones reputation to be brought in question upon termes so neere concerning them and not seeke revenge where the wide world would take notice of their disgrace pointing at them in the streets and saying There goe such and such who were most grosly baffled preferring their blood before their honour their safety before their reputation O Gentlemen how many of your ranke and quality have perished by standing upon these termes how many and those of the choycest and selected'st ranke have exposed themselves to extremest danger whereby they might gaine themselves the stile of valiant how many even upon trifling occasions have gone into the field and in their heat of blood have fallen Sure I am their deare Countrey hath felt their losse to whom in all due respect they should have
whereto their course was directed they found an Empire to be a monstrous and untamed beast wounding them with many thorny cares which deprived them of all seasonable rest Doe you then love to be at peace to enjoy perfect liberty to be divided from all occasions of disquiet Restraine those Icarian thoughts whose soaring wings are ever laved in the depth of ruine Confine your thoughts within an equal limit and let not your projectments be above hope of effecting Those braving builders of Babel aymed at too high a story to bring their worke to perfection Let the foundation be built on firme ground and the building will prosper better For howsoever faire pretences may for a time appeare in the habit of truth daubing up a rotten inside with a specious out-side hee that sitteth in the Heavens and searcheth the hearts and reines shall have them in derision breaking them in peeces like a potters vessell Restraine then this fury or frenzie of the mind and with timely Moderation so bound in and confine your affections as no aspiring thought may enter that place which is reserved for a higher place so shall you enjoy more absolute content in restraining then enlarging your thoughts to the motives of Ambition Gorgeous attire being the third assailant moving man to glory in his shame and gallant it in his sinne is to be especially restrained because it makes us dote upon a vessell of corruption strutting upon earth as if we had our eternall mansion on earth What great folly is it to preferre the case before the instrument or to bestow more cost upon the Signe then on the Iune Me thinkes the bitter remembrance of the first necessity of clothes should make men more indifferent for them if man had never sinned his shame had never needed to have beene covered For sinne was the cause of Adams shame and his shame the cause hee fled unto the shade which afforded him Fig-leaves to cover his nakednesse What vanity then yea what impudence to glory in these covers of shame Would any one having committed some capitall offence against his Prince for which hee is after pardoned but on condition hee shall weare a halter about his neck become proud of his halter and esteeme it an especiall badge of honour Wee are all in the selfe-same case wee have committed high treason against the King of heaven yet are wee received to mercy bearing about us those Memorials of our shamefull fall or defection from our King which should in all reason rather move us to bee ashamed of our selves then to prize our selves higher for these ornaments of shame Sure I am as hee is a fond man that values the worth of his horse by his sumptuous saddle or studded bridle so hee is most foolish who estimates a man by his garment Yet see the misery of this age the cover of shame is become the onely luster to beautifie him but be not yee so deluded prize the ornaments of the mind for the choicest and chiefest beauty farre be it from you to glory in this attire of sinne these rags of shame these worme-workes which with-draw your eyes from contemplating that supreme bounty and beauty purposely to fix them upon the base objects of earth which detract much from the glory of a reasonable soule The Swan prides not her selfe in her black-feet no more should you in these Covers of your transgression which whensoever yee looke on may put you in mind of your first pollution No reason then to affect these which had man never sinned hee had never needed being before clothed with innocency as with a garment and with primitive purity as with a rayment Whence it appeares that many glory in the rags of shame while they glory in these robes of sinne Now who endued with reason would pride him in that which augments his shame or esteeme that a grace which asperseth reproach on him Nicetas saith plainely No punishment so grievous as shame And Nazianzen yet more expresly Better were a man die right out then still live in reproach and shame Ajax being ready to dispatch himselfe used these as his last words No griefe doth so cut the heart of a generous and magnanimous man as shame and reproach For a man to live or die is naturall but for a man to live in shame and contempt and to be made a laughing-stock of his enemies is such a matter as no well bred and noble minded man that hath any courage or stomacke in him can ever digest it Delight not then in your shame but in a decent and seemely manner affect that habit most which becommeth most restraining that profusenesse which the vanity of this age so much exceeds in and assuming to your selves that attire which gives best grace to modesty and hath neerest correspondence with Gentility Neither is Luscious fare to be lesse avoided or with lesse strictnesse restrained Many reasons whereof might be here produced but wee will cull out the chiefest to weane our Generous Vitellians from their excessive surfets First dainty dishes are foments to wanton affections begetting in the soule and unaptnesse to all spirituall exercises for this is a generall rule that the body being strengthned the soule becomes weakned for fasting is a preparative to Devotion but riot the Grand-master of Distraction Looke how it is in the health of the body and so it is in the state of the soule if a man have a good appetite and a stomacke to his meat it is a signe hee is well in health in like sort if a man be content to follow Christ for the Loaves to fill his belly and care not for the food of his soule questionlesse all is not well betweene GOD and him but if wee have a longing and a hungring desire of the Word then indeed his heart is upright in the sight of God For as Saint Augustine noteth well If the Word of GOD be taken by us it will take us But what meanes may be used to procure this longing and hungring desire in us Not Luscious or curious fare for that will move us rather to all inordinate motions then the exercise of Devotion no it is fasting that makes the soule to be feasting it is macerating of the flesh that fattens the spirit For it is sumptuous fare that is the soules snare Sagina corporis Sagena cordis It is the net which intangles the heart of man drawing her from the love of her best beloved Spouse to dote on the adulterate embraces of sensuall beauty Neither is it fare but delight in fare not simply the meat but the desire or liquorish appetite which produceth those odious effects as for example when the loose affected man maketh choice or election of such meats purposely to beget in him an ability as well as desire to his sensuall pleasures Whence a learned Father most divinely concludeth I feare not saith he the uncleanenesse of meats in respect of their difference
ever living never dying yea that worme which gnaweth and dieth not that fire which burneth and quencheth not that death which rageth and endeth not But if punishments will not deterre us at least let rewards allure us The faithfull cry ever for the approach of Gods judgement the reward of immortality which with assurance in Gods mercy and his Sonnes Passion they undoubtedly hope to obtaine with vehemency of spirit inviting their Mediator Come Lord Iesus come quickly Such is the confidence or spirituall assurance which every faithfull soule hath in him to whose expresse Image as they were formed so in all obedience are they conformed that the promises of the Gospell might be on them conferred and confirmed Such as these care not so much for possessing ought in the world as they take care to lay a good foundation against the day of triall which may stand firme against the fury of all temptation These see nothing in the world worthy their feare This only say they is a fearefull thing to feare any thing more than God These see nought in the world worthy either their desire or feare and their reason is this There is nothing able to move that man to feare in all the world who hath God for his guardian in the world Neither is it possible that he should feare the losse of any thing in the world who cannot see any thing worthy having in the world So equally affected are these towards the world as there is nothing in all the world that may any way divide their affection from him who made the world Therefore may we well conclude touching these that their Light shall never goe out For these walke not in darknesse nor in the shadow of death as those to whom the light hath not as yet appeared for the Light hath appeared in Darkeness giving light all the night long to all these faithfull beleevers during their abode in these Houses of Clay Now to expresse the Nature of that Light though it farre exceed all humane apprehension much more all expression Clemens understandeth by that Light which the Wise-woman to wit Christs spouse kept by meanes of her candle which gave light all the night long the heart and he calleth the Meditations of holy men Candles that never goe out Saint Augustine writeth among the Pagans in the Temple of Venus there was a Candle which was called Inextinguishable whether this be or no of Venus Temple wee leave it to the credit of antiquity onely Augustines report we have for it but without doubt in every faithfull hearer and keeper of the Word who is the Temple of the Holy Ghost there is a Candle or Light that never goes out Whence it appeares that the heart of every faithfull soule is that Light which ever shineth and his faith that virgin Oile which ever feedeth and his Conscience that comfortable Witness which assureth and his devoted Zeale to Gods house that Seale which confirmeth him to be one of Gods chosen because a living faith worketh in him which assures him of life howsoever his outward man the temple of his body become subject to death Excellently saith Saint Augustine Whence comes it that the soule dieth because faith is not in it Whence that the body dieth because a soule is not in it Therefore the soule of thy soule is faith But forasmuch as nothing is so carefully to be sought for nor so earnestly to be wrought for as purity or uprightnesse of the heart for seeing there is no action no studie which hath not his certaine scope end or period yea no Art but laboureth by some certaine meanes or exercises to attaine some certain proposed end which end surely is to the Soule at first proposed but the last which is obtained how much more ought there to bee some end proposed to our studies as well in the exercises of our bodies as in the readings meditations and mortifications of our mindes passing over corporall and externall labours for which end those studies or exercises were at first undertaken For let us thinke with our selves if we knew not or in mind before conceived not whither or to what especiall place wee were to run were it not a vaine taske for us to undertake to runne Even so to every Action are wee to propose his certaine end which being once attained we shall need no further striving towards it being at rest in our selves by attaining it And like end are wee to propose to our selves in the exercise of Moderation making it a subduer of all things which sight against the spirit which may bee properly reduced to the practising of these foure overcomming of anger by the spirit of patience wantonness by the spirit of continence pride by the spirit of humility and in all things unto him whose Image we partake so neerely conformed that like good Proficients wee may truly say with the blessed Apostle Wee have in all things learned to be contented For the first to wit Anger as there is no passion which makes man more forgetfull of himselfe so to subdue it makes man an absolute enjoyer of himselfe Athenodorus a wise Philosopher departing from Augustus Caesar and bidding him farewell left this lesson with him most worthy to be imprinted in an Emperours brest That when hee was angry hee should repeat the foure and twenty Greeke letters Which lesson received Caesar as a most precious jewell making such use thereof as hee shewed himselfe no lesse a Prince in the conquest of this passion than in his magnificence of state and majesty of person No lesse praise-worthy was that excellent soveraignty which Architas had over this violent and commanding passion as we have formerly observed who finding his servants loitering in the field or committing some other fault worthy reproofe like a worthy master thought it fit first to over-master himselfe before he would show the authority of a Master to his servants wherefore perceiving himselfe to be greatly moved at their neglect as a wise Moderator of his passion hee would not beat them in his ire but said Happy are ye that I am angry with you In briefe because my purpose is onely to touch these rather than treat of them having so amply discoursed of some of them formerly as the Sunne is not to goe downe upon our wrath so in remembrance of that sonne of righteousness let us bury all wrath so shall we be freed from the viols of wrath and appeare blamelesse in the day of wrath For in peace shall we descend to our graves without sighing if in peace we be angry without sinning Secondly wantonness being so familiar a Darling with the flesh is ever waging warre with the spirit she comes with powdred haire painted cheeks straying eyes mincing and measuring her pace tinkling with her feet and using all immodesty to lure the unwarie youth to all sensuality These light professors as St. Ierome to Marcella
some Monasticke professors ib. Privacy no lesse perillous than society ibid. The particular benefits derived from Acquaintance extend to Discourse 131 Advice 131 Action 131 Of the benefit wee reape by Acquaintance in matters of Discourse ibid. Of the choice of Acquaintance in matters of advice 132 Friendship resembled to the Iuniper tree whose wood is sweetest shade coolest and coalâ— hottest ib. marg Of the benefit properly derived from one friend to another in every peculiar Action 133 The Expressive Character of a reall friend 134 The benefits which redound from the mutâ—all union or communion of friends in the exercise of pleasure 136 All Iests either festive or civill ibid. Those jests are best seasoned that are least salted 137 A rule of infallible direction touching choice of Acquaintance ibid. Of the choice or judicious approvement of Acquaintance in affaires of highest consequence 138 Neither Timist nor Timonist are within the Lists of Acquaintance to be entertained ib. The Timist or Time-observer displayed and displaced ibid. The Timonist or Time-detracter discovered and discarded 141 Evil society the source of all sensuality 140 What directions are to bee observed in the choice of a wife 142 Which branch hath proper relation to three choice Characters annexed to the end of this Worke which Characters are in some Copies only annexed and for some other Observations hereafter reserved The harsh and heremiticall conceit of the Carthaginian Arminius touching Mariage ibid. The Character of a shamelesse wanton 142 The Character of a shamefast woman 143 Advice in respect both of portion and proportion 144.145 c. Priviledges granted to such as are maried 147 Nobility and Affability hold equalli'st concurrency ibid. l. 34 Sundry inducing motives to Love recountèd 149 Of Constancy in the choice of Acquaintance 150 Who are best consorts to pray with to play with to converse or commerce with 151 l. 28 Three faculties of the Vnderstanding with their Objects 153 Of reservancy towards Acquaintance 155 A two-fold reservancy 1 In reconciling our secrets ibid. c. 2 In reteining our substance An admirable story clozing with an unexpected Catastrophe of a prodigall Gentleman and an unconscionable Creditor 159. c. Of the absolute end of Acquaintance 162 All things by course of nature have their proper end save only suits of Law which admit no end ibid. l. 29 A briefe survey of Acquaintance in city court and countrey 163 Learning the moving'st inducement and exquisitest ornament of Acquaintance ibid. c. Titles formerly conferred on such as were learned ibid. The absolute aime or end of Acquaintance is either to better them or be bettered by them 164 Especiall offices wherein friendship and Acquaintance should be exercised ibid. What gracious effects were produced by the friendly compassion of those faithfull instruments of Gods glory in the first conversion of this kingdome 165.166.167 The flourishing state of the Church amidst many hoary winters of innovation turbulent times of persecution 167.168 An excellent conclusive precept recommended to all young Gentlemen ib. 169 MODERATION Observat. 7. MOderation defined pag. 171 Our life a medley of desires and feares ibid. Moderation of Princes in their contempt of Soveraignty illustrated by an example of one of our owne 173 Otho's resolution who by dying had rather prove himselfe a mortall creature than by living load himselfe with cares of an Emperour 174 No vertue can subsist without Moderation 176 A review of those maine assailants of Temperance Lust Ambition Gorgeousnesse in apparell luscious fare company keeping c. illustrated by divers instances 177.178 c. What excellent fruits are derived from Temperance 176 Conquest of a mans affections the greatest victory 177 Chastity the choicest ornament of Youth ibid. A distinction of degrees Conjugall Viduall Virginall 180 A more particular display of Cheaters with their obsequious natures c. 184 Wherein Moderation is to be used Expence of coine Expence of time 185 Motives to Hospitality with a reclaim of our Gentry from the Court to their Countrey 186 Three sorts of persons encountred and reproved for their abuse or carelesse Expence of Time the Ambitious Voluptuous Miserable-covetous 189 The Ambitious mans designes aptly compared to Domitians catching flies or the misty conclusions of the deluded Alchymist 190 The Voluptuous Libertine misse-imployeth time in two respects 1 In respect of himselfe 2 In respect of those good creatures ordained for the use and service of himselfe ibid. The Covetous wretches Treasury the store-house of his misery 191 Nothing so terrible as the approach of death to a worldling 192 Moderation of the passions of the mind reduced to two subjects Ioy. Sorrow ibid. The Christians Ioy is no carnall but a spirituall Ioy. 193 His sorrow is not a sorrow unto sinne but a sorrow for sinne ibid. Eye is made the sense of sorrow because the sense of sin 194 Wherein Moderation is to be limited 194 The occasion of all immoderation derived from those three troubled Springs Concupiscence of the flesh 195 Concupiscence of the eye 195 Pride of life 195 Excellent rules prescribed for moderating cares of the flesh ibid. The Eye as it is the tendrest and subtillest Organ of all others so should the object wheron it is fixed be the purest and clearest of all others 197 The Eagle an Embleme of Divine Contemplation ibid. The worldlings earthly honour resembled to the bird Ibis her filthy nature ibid. The desperate fate of an inamoured Italian ibid. l. 44 The proud Luciferians of this world similized to the Chamelion who hath nothing in his body but lungs 198. lin 6 Promotion declares what men be instanced in Cardinall Woolsey ibid. The power of prayer expressed by these three distinct Characters It is Gods honour 199 Mans armour 199 The Devils terrour 199 Or thus Gods oblation 199 Mans munition 199 The Devils expulsion 199 Which pious practise as it is Gods sacrifice so should it be mans exercise ibid. And absolute clozing direction tending to true Moderation ibid. Of the accomplished end which attends Moderation ibid. The difference betwixt the Ethnicke and Christian Ethicke in the opinion of felicity 200 The Exercise of Moderation reduced to a three-fold practise 1 Overcomming of Anger by the spirit of patience 2 Wantonnesse by the spirit of continence 3 Pride by the spirit of lowlinesse 202 He who useth his tongue to filthy communication incurs a three-fold offence 1 In dishonouring his Maker 2 In blemishing his soules image or feature 3 In ministring matter of scandall to his brether 203 Wherein true Content properly consisteth 204 Those two passions or affections of desire and feare desire of having more than we have feare of losing what wee already have may be properly said to have a three-fold respect To the goods or Endowments of Mind ibid. Body ibid. Fortune ibid. No Attendant more tenderly constant to a Gentlemans reputation than Moderation 207 Moderation the best Monitor in advising and advancing him to the true title of honour PERFECTION Observat.
Puppets drawn by an enforced motion How phantastically those as if their walke were a theatrall action These unstaid dimensions argue unsetled dispositions All is not well with them For if one of the Spartan Ephori was to lose his place because hee observ'd no Decency in his pace how may wee bee opinion'd of such Women whose yeeres exact of them stayednesse whose places reteine in them more peculiar reverence and whose descents injoyne them to a state-reservance when they to gaine observance admit of any new but undecent posture Deserve these approvement No discretion cannot prize them nor judgement praise them Vulgar opinion whose applause never receives life from desert may admire what is new but discretion that onely which is neat It is one thing to walke honestly as on the day another thing to walke uncivilly as on the night Decency becomes the one Deformity the other Neither onely are modest women to bee cautelous how they walke but where they walke Some places there bee whereto if they repaire walke they never so Civilly they cannot walke honestly Those who value reputation will not bee seene there for Honour is too deare a purchase to bee set at sale Such as frequent these places have exposed themselves to shame and made an irrevocable Contract with sinne They make choyce of the Twy-light lest their paths should be discovered and shrowd their distained actions with the sable Curtaine of night lest they should bee displayed These howsoever their feet walke softly their hearts poste on swiftly to seize on the voluptuous prey of folly Farre bee these wayes from your walkes vertuous Ladies whose modesty makes you honoured of your Sexe Though your feet bee here below let your faith bee above Let no path of pleasure draw you from those joyes which last for ever Though the world bee your walke while you sojourne here heaven should bee your ayme that you may repose eternally there Live devoutly walke demurely professe constantly that devotion may instruct you your wayes direct you your profession conduct you to your heavenly Countrey It is a probable argument that such an one hates her Countrey where onely shee is to become Citizen who thinkes it to bee well with her here where shee is a Pilgrim Walke in this maze of your Pilgrimage that after death you may enjoy a lasting heritage So shall you praise God in the gate and after your Christian race finished receive a Crowne IT is most true that a wanton Eye is the truest evidence of a wandring and distracted minde The Arabians proverbe is elegant Shut the windowes that the house may give light It is death that enters in by the windowes The House may bee secured if these bee closed Whence it was that princely Prophet praid so earnestly Lord turne away mine eyes from vanity And hence appeares mans misery That those Eyes which should bee the Cesternes of sorrow Limbeckes of contrition should become the lodges of lust and portals of our perdition That those which were given us for assistants and associates should become our assassinatâ— Our Eye is made the sense of sorrow because the sense of sinne yet more apt is shee to give way to sinne then to finde one teare to rinse her sinne An uncleane eye is the messenger of an uncleane heart confine the one and it will bee a means to rectifie the other Many dangerous objects will a wandring eye finde whereon to vent the disposition of her corrupt heart No place is exempted no subject freed The ambitious eye makes honour her object wherewith shee afflicts her selfe both in aspiring to what shee cannot enjoy as likewise in seeing another enjoy that whereto her selfe did aspire The Covetous makes wealth her object which shee obtaines with toile enjoyes with feare forgoes with griefe for being got they load her lov'd they soile her lost they gall her The Envious makes her Neighbours flourishing field or fruitfull harvest her object shee cannot but looke on it looking pine and repine at it and repining justly consume her spirit with envying it The Lascivious makes beauty her object and with a leering looke while shee throweth out her lure to catch others shee becomes catcht herselfe This object because it reflects most on your sexe let it bee thus disposed that the inward eye of your soules may bee on a superiour beauty fixed Doe ye admire the comelinesse of any creature remove your eye from that object and bestow it on the contemplation of your Creator Wormes and flyes that have layen dead all winter by reflexe of the Sunne beames are revived so these flesh-flyes who have beene long time buried in these sensuall Objects of earth no sooner reflect on the Sunne of righteousnesse than they become enlivened and enlightened Those filmes which darkened the eye of their mindes are removed those thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are dispersed and dispelled and a new light into a new heart infused I know well Gentlewomen that your resort to places of eminent resort cannot but minister to you variety of Objects Yea even where nothing but chaste thoughts staid lookes and zealous desires should harbour are now and then loose thoughts light lookes and licentious desires in especiall honour The meanes to prevent this malady which like a spreading ulcer disperseth it selfe in every society is neither willingly to take nor bee taken Dinah may bee a proper Embleme for the eye shee seldome strayes abroad but shee is in danger of ravishing Now to preserve purity of heart you must observe a vigilant discipline over every sense Where if the eye which is the light of the body bee not well disposed the rest of the senses cannot choose but bee much darkned Wee say that the want of one peculiar sense supplies that defect with an higher degree of perfection in the rest Sure I am there is no one sense that more distempers the harmony of the mind nor prospect of the Soule then this window of the body It opens ever to the Raven but seldome to the Dove Raving affections it easily conveyes to the heart but Dove-like innocence it rarely reteines in the brest As it is a member of the flesh so becomes it a servant of the flesh apprehending with greedinesse whatsoever may minister fuell to carnall concupiscence This you shall easily correct by fixing her on that pure and absolute object for which shee was made It is observed by profest Oculists an observation right worthy a Christians serious consideration that whereas all creatures have but foure Muscles to turn their eyes round about man hath a fift to pull his eyes up to heaven Doe not then depresse your eyes as if they were fixed on earth nor turne them round by gazing on the fruitlesse vanities of earth but on heaven your haven after earth In the Philosophers scale the soule of a flye is of more excellence then the Sunne in a Christian scale the soule of man is infinitely more precious then all creatures under the Sun
shee should bee engaged to it Her thoughts are not admitted to entertaine vanity They must not conceit it lest they should bee deceived by it Occasions wisely shee foresees timely prevents and consequently enjoyes true freedome of minde You shall not see her consume the precious oyle of her Lampe the light of her life in unseasonable reere-bankets unprofitable visits or wanton treaties Those will shee not admit of for companions who are prodigall of their Honour These shee reproves with a milde spirit labouring to reclaime them with an ingenuous tender of her vertuous compassion towards them None shee more distastes than these Brokers or Breakers of licentious bargaines Shee excludes them the List of all civill society How cautelous shee is lest suspition should tax her Outwardly therefore shee expresseth what shee inwardly professeth That honourable bloud which shee from her Predecessors received till death surprize her will shee leave untainted Neither is there ought shee hates more than pride nor scornes more than disdaine Shee rightly considers how her daies are mensurable being but a span long which implies her brevity and miserable being altogether vanity Shee disclaymes that state which consists in scornefull lookes A sweet and affable Countenance shee ever beares The honour shee enjoyes makes her humbler and the prayses which are given her work in her thoughts no distemper So farre is shee from affecting the pompe of this world as it growes contemptible to her higher-mounting thoughts A faire and well-seeming retinue shee ever keepes about her but none of these must bee Sycophants with their oylie tongues to delude her neither must any who cloaths his Countenance with scorne attend her Shee observes on what steepe and dangerous grounds ambition walketh Her sleepes are sweter her content higher her thoughts heavenlier It is one of her greatest wonders that any one should bee so rest of understanding as to forget what infirme ground hee stands on The purest Creature bee shee never so absolute in her feature is of no richer temper than Earth our Common-mother Shee is wiser than to preferre a poore handfull of red Earth before her choycest treasure Though her deserts merit honour shee dis-esteemes her owne deservings being highly valued by all but her selfe Thus shee prepares her selfe daily for what shee must goe to Her last day is her every dayes memoriall Lower may her body bee when interred but lower cannot her mind bee than at this instant So well hath shee attained the Knowledge of her selfe as shee acknowledgeth all to bee fraile but none frailer than her selfe Here Gentlewomen have yee heard in what especiall Objects you are to bee Honourable Presidents You shine brighter in your Orbe than lesser Starres The beames of your reflecting vertues must admit of no Eclipse A thousand eyes will gaze on you should they observe this in you Choyce and select are the societies you frequent where you see variety of fashions imitate not the newest but neatest Let not an action proceed from you which is not exemplary good These that are followers of your persons will bee followers likewise of your lives You may weane them from vice winne them to vertue and make them your constant followers in the serious practise of piety Let your vertues cloath them within as their veiles doe without They deserve not their wage who desist from imitating you in actions of worth Your private family is a familiar Nursery Plants of all sorts are there bestowed Cheere cherish those that be tender but curbe and correct those that bee of wilder temper Free and fruitfull Scions cannot bee improved till the luxurious branches bee pruned But above all things take especiall care that those vices spread not in you which are censured by you You are Soveraignesses in your families neither extend your hand too much to rigour neither contract it by shewing too much remisnesse or favour Let neither vertue passe unrewarded nor vice if it grow domineering passe unreproved Foule enormities must admit of no Privileges No should you by a due examination of your selves finde any bosome-sinne secretly lurking any subtill familiar privately incroaching any distempred affection dangerously mutining bee your owne Censors Bee not too indulgent in the favouring of your selves Proficients you cannot bee in the Schoole of vertue unlesse you timely prevent the overspreading growth of vice Let not your Sunne the light of your soule bee darkned let not your Spring the fount of your vertues bee troubled Let not your Fame the perfume of your Honour bee impaired As you are generous by descent bee gracious by desert Presidents are more powerfull than Precepts These onely lead those draw Bee examples of goodnesse that you may be heires of happinesse The style you enjoy the state you reteine the statues which after you may remaine are but glorious trophies of fading frailty Vertues are more permanent Monuments than all these these are those sweet flowers that shall adorne you living impall you dying and crowne you with comfort at your departing Lastly as you were honourable Personages on Earth where you were Presidents of goodnesse so shall you bee glorious Citizens in heaven where you are to bee Participants of all happinesse WHere Vertueâ—s â—s sowne in a noble Seed-plot manured and fructisied by good Discipline strengthened by Example and adorned with those more gracefull parts which accomplish the subject wherin vertue is seated what bickrings of fortune will it sustaine What conflicts in the necessities of nature will it cheerefully encounter Her spirit is raised above any inferiour pitch Yea the habit of goodnesse hath wrought such divine impressions in her soule who is thus disposed as society may improve her but cannot corrupt her because a zealous affection to vertue doth possesse her You shall ever observe these whom Nobility of blood hath advanced to reteine some seeds or semblances of their progenitors which are so impressive in them as no occurrent bee it never so violent can estrange these from them Here you shall see a native affability or singular art of winning affection to one naturally derived There in another such a rough and unseasonable austerity as her very count'nance is the resemblance of a Malevola Some from their infancy have reteined such a sweet and pleasing candor as they could cover anger with a cheerefull smile and attemper passion with a gracefull blush Besides they had the gift to expostulate with their discontents and by applying seasonable receits to their wounds free themselves from falling into any desperate extreames Others would rather dye then suffer the expressions of their Passions to dye For affronts as their spirits could not beare them so did their actions discover them and make them objects of derision to such as observ'd them And whence proceeds all this Surely from the very first relish of our humours when that unwrought Table of youth becomes furnished with choice characters and the Subject begins to affect what is engraven in them by continuance of time
wise Dogge for so they were pleased to stile him preferred his suite seeing the Gentleman was neither distracted nor any way so disabled but hee might well enough manage that estate was left him O conscript Fathers said he know you not how this profuse foole ha's forfeited all that estate he had by his Ancestors by discovering his owne Bastardy in degenerating from his Ancestors vertues Ha's hee not made his Family a Brothell and exposed his Wives honour to a lascivious Duell Hee ha's not only stayned his house in becomming so enormiously ill but in depraving others who might have become had not his example made them ill ingenuously good Strip him then of all without him who ha's already stript himselfe of all graces within him Trust me Fathers wee have none here that will bemoane his losse but those whom even goodnesse loaths to looke upon and whose very lives make Athens a Lâ—th-stow of pollution And such Mourners have all Prodigals nor doe these weepe to lose him but by his losse to lose that estate which did supply them Give me him then good Senators I shall become his trusty faithfull Guardian and keepe him short enough to consort with a Wanton Now to decline the just reproofe of such jeering Cinicks nay the distaste of all good men for men of honest quality can never relish any thing better than actions of Piety be it your highest terrestriall pleasure to tender her whom you ought to honour to estrange from your thoughts those injurious embraces of an usurping Lover And remember ever Lisimachus Song the memory whereof will preserve that pure splendor and beauty of your soule from an eternall staine The pleasure of fornication is short but the punishment of the fornicator is long One dayes dalliance exacts many yeares of repentance Imprint in your retentive memories the excellent interrogation of that choice Mirror of Chastity Patterne of presidentall Piety How shall I doe this wickednes and sin against God He chused rather to lose his Coat than his Honour Opportunity could not tempt him nor Importunity taint him Price prayer power became al weak in power to surprize a disposition so resolutely pure Be his Patterne your President his President the Pattern for you to imitate Nor is this Conjugall Office or Duty restrained only to this limitation As your affection is to be constantly continent to their Bed so are you to be affably pleasant at Board I have observed a strange kind of imperious and domineering soveraignty in some Husbands who held it a great posture of State to insult over their wives Nay to be marvellously discontented with what dishes soever were served to catch at offence and to relish nothing better than to discountenance those whose desires were levelled only to please But this argued in them a perversenesse of disposition resembling that ill-condition'd Aglataidas who was never better pleased then with displeasing others nor ever relished any dish better than what was distasted by others Or like that strangely temper'd Demophon who used to sweat in the shade and shake for cold in the sunne Now I could wish to these if their wives affability cannot in time reclaime them that their lots had beene throwne in more rugged grounds For had these beene match'd with our Zantippe's Iulia's Lucilla's or Faustina's no doubt but they would have addressed the best of their endeavours as much to please as their perverse humours are now to displease Then they would have studied Apologies purposely to divert the furious torrent of their displeasure and for the purchase of one poore smile engaged themselves to an Herculean labour It was a singular Philosophicall use which that wise Socrates made of his wives shrewdeness Whether I go abroad said he or I return home I am fenced with the armour of patience against whatsoever shall come Hee had so freely fed upon the herbe of Patience as nothing could distemper him how violent soever the assault were that encounter'd him yea those bickerings he grapled with at home made him better prepared to entertaine all encounters abroad So as with Mithridates hee had so well fortified his virile spirits with soveraigne Receipts against the invasive power of all poyson as he could performe the part of a true Philosopher in smiling upon affliction and receiving all distastes with so composed a brow as hee wondred much how any motives of anger should in an intellectuall soule beget the least distemper For whosoever he be that in resemblance of this Morall Mirrour of admirable patience can in Prosperity be silent and not transported in Adversity patient and not amated in neither of these distempered in either of these Philosophically composed scornes to ingage his more airy thoughts to an un-manly passion having already sphear'd them in an higher mansion In the very same Scene Gentlemen are you interessed wherein should you fall short or in the least measure defective Most part of all our Spectators eyes are fixed on you whose censure will prove as quick sighted as your errour accounting you unworthy those brave parts bestowed on you because mis-acted by you Entertaine these then to whom you are espoused with a free and no servile affection Waine them from passion if at any time they become ingaged to any rather with a pleasing smile then a daring frowne for the former partakes more of an awfull soveraignty then cheerfull fancy The way to preserve in any family a sweet consorting and concording harmony is never to have the Master and Mistris of the house at one time angry Let the sweetnesse of the one allay the sharpenesse of the other It was an excellent resolution which that Laconian Lady ever reteined My Husbands frowne shall be a Beame to disperse my Cloud which cannot chuse but beget in him a cheerfull reflexe seeing I make discontent a stranger to my heart for his sake Now there is one thing Gentlemen which I am to annex to what I have formerly delivered which being carefully remembred and cautiously practised cannot chuse but highly improve this Conjugall Love without which your unconsociable communion were but an hellish life And it is this Are you conceited that shee whom you have married is endowed with a sufficient measure of discretion to governe a Family and without just exception can propose to her selfe with those recommended to her charge rules of good Huswifery Doe not intermixe your care with her charge The disposall of a Daery is more proper for a Mistris than a Master of a Family Strong and manly Offices become the Man soft and delicate the Woman Nor is there any intrusion lesse beseeming then this nor ought that more exasperates the spirit of a woman then to have her care suspected or her charge interposed by her Husband either through a jealousie of her care neglect of her charge or disability to manage any such charge Those two honest Rurall Lovers though their estates were but meane their quality obscure their place of habitation
magnanimous man as reproach and shame Oh then deferre no time but seasonably apply your taske by infusing into his breathing wounds some balmy comfort such as that Cordiall was of a divine Poet Nulla tam tristis sit in orbe nubes Quam nequit constans relevare pectus Nulla cordati Scrinio Clientis Ansa querelis No Cloud so dusky ever yet appeared Which by minds armed was not quickly cleared Ne're Suit to th' bosome of a Spirit cheered Sadly resounded Againe should you find him afflicted with sicknesse which hee increaseth with a fruitlesse impatience wishing a present period to his daies that so death might impose an end to his griefes Suffer him not so to waste his Spirits nor to dishonour him who is the searcher of Spirits but apply some soveraigne receipt or other to allay his distemper which vncured might endanger him for ever Exhort him to possesse his soule in patience and to supply this absence of outward comforts with the sweet relishing ingredients of some mentall or spirituall solace Ingenious Petrarch could say Be not afraid though the out-house meaning the body be shaken so the soule the Guest of the body fare well And he closed his resolution in a serious dimension who sung He that has health of mind what has he not 'T is the mind that moulds the man as man a pot Lastly doe you find him perplexed for losse of some deare friend whose loyall affection reteined in him such a deepe impression as nothing could operate in him more grounded sorrow then such an amicable division Allay his griefe with divine and humane reasons Tell him how that very friend which he so much bemones is gone before him not lost by him This their division will beget a more merry meeting Let him not then offend God by lamenting for that which he cannot recall by sorrowing nor suffer his too earthly wishes for his owne peculiar end to wish so much harme to his endeared friend as to make exchange of his seat and state of immortality with a vale of teares and misery Admit he dyed young and that his very prime hopes confirmd the opinions of all that knew him that a few maturer yeares would have so accomplish'd him as his private friends might not onely have rejoyced in him but the publique state derived much improvement from him His hopefull youth should rather be an occasion of joy then griefe Though Priam was more numerous in yeares yet Troilus was more penurious in teares The more dayes the more griefes No matter whether our dayes be short or many so those houres we live be improved and imployed to Gods glory But leaving these admit you should find him sorrowing for such a Subject as deserves no wise mans teares as for the losse of his goods These teares proceed from despicable Spirits and such whose desires are fixed on earth So that as their love was great in possessing them so their griefe must needs be great in forgoing them Many old and decrepit persons to whom even Nature promiseth an hourely dissolution become most subject to these indiscreet teares For with that sottish Roman they can sooner weepe for the losse of a Lamprey then for the very nearest and dearest in their Family At such as these that Morall glanced pleasantly who said Those teares of all others are most base which proceed from the losse of a beast And these though their grounds of griefe appeare least yet many times their impatience breakes forth most Fearefull oathes and imprecations are the accustomablest ayres or accents which they breath These you are to chastise and in such a manner and measure as they may by recollection of themselves agnise their error and repeat what that divine Poet sometimes writ to impresse in them the more terror That house which is inur'd to sweare Gods judgements will fall heavy there These as they are inordinate in their holding so are they most impatient in their losing And it commonly sareth with these men as it doth with the Sea-Eagle who by seeking to hold what she has taken is drench't downe into the gulfe from which shee can never be taken It was the saying of sage Pittacus that the Gods themselves could not oppose what might necessarily occurre Sure I am it is a vaine and impious reluctancy to gaine-say whatsoever God in his sacred-secret decree has ordained His sanctions are not as mans they admit no repeale What availes it then these to repine or discover such apparent arguments of their impatience when they labour but to reverse what cannot be revoked to anull that which must not be repealed Exhort them then to suffer with patience what their impatience cannot cure and to scorne such servile teares which relish so weakly of discretion as they merit more scorne then compassion Now there is another kinde of more kind-hearted men who though in the whole progresse of their life they expressed a competent providence being neither so frugall as to spare where reputation bad them spend nor so prodigall as to spend where honest providence bad them spare Yet these even in the shore when they are taking their farewell of earth having observed how their children in whom their hopes were treasured become profuse rioters set the hoope an end and turne Spend-thrifts too and so close their virile providence with an aged negligence sprinkling their hoairy haires with youthfull conceipts and singing merrily with the Latian Lyrick Our children spend and wee 'l turne spenders too And though Old-men doe as our young men doe This I must ingeniously confesse is an unseemly sight That old men when yeares have seazed on them and their native faculties begin to faile them should in so debaucht a manner make those discontents which they conceive from their children the grounds of their distemper For as the adage holds it prodigious for youth to represent age so is it ridiculous for age to personate youth But for decrepit age as it is for most part unnaturall to bee prodigall so is it an argument of indiscretion for it to be too penuriously frugall For to see one who cannot have the least hope of living long to bee in his earthly desires so strong to be so few in the hopes of his succeeding yeares and so full of fruitlesse desires and cares what sight more vnseemely what spectacle more uncomely That man deluded man when strength failes him all those certaine fore-runners of an approaching dissolution summon him and the thirsty hope of his dry-ey'd executors makes them weary of him that then I say his eager pursuit of possessing more when as he already possesseth more then he can well enioy should so surprize him discovers an infinite measure of madnesse for as it divides his affections from the object of heaven so it makes him unwilling to return to earth when his gellied blood his enfeebled faculties and that poor mouldred remainder of his declining cottage as
saith are matter of scandall to Christians eyes those eye-sores which wound the inward man with the sting of anguish Now what receit better or more soveraigne to cure this malady than to take away the cause which begets this infirmity And what may wee suppose the cause to be but the complacency of the flesh when wee labour to satisfie our desires and give easie reines to our affections For the flesh while shee is obedient becomes a servant to the soule shee governeth the other is governed this commandeth that is commanded but having once begun to usurpe shee will scarcely ever become a faithfull and loyall subject What necessity then is there injoyned us to stand upon our guard when we have a Tarpeia within our gates ready to betray us to our professed enemy With what continuall and incessant labour ought wee to imploy our selves that this untamed Iebusitâ— might bee so tired and wearied that all inordinate motions might bee extinguished which by sloth and want of imployment are ever cherished Let us then embrace Continence and by power of so good a spirit dispossesse the bad Let us not entertaine those dangerous motives to sinne which like a Snake in the bosome will wound us to death And what bee those motives Wanton thoughts and wanton words which corrupt mens manners with wicked workes It is a sure note and worthy observance Whensoever any thought is suggested to you which tasteth of evill make the doore of your heart fast lest you give actuall possession to the Divell Wanton words likewise are dangerous motives to incontinence the habit whereof being once attained will hardly be relinquished So as Speech which Democritus cals the image of life being exercised in scurrility seemes to deface that Image by laying on it the darke and sable colour of death For as muddy water is an argument that the fountaine is troubled so filthy words are witnesses that the heart is corrupted A good Tree brings forth good fruit a pure Spring cleare water and an uncorrupt heart words tending to the edification of the hearer Now hee who useth his tongue to filthy communication incurres a threefold offence First in dishonouring God Secondly in sinning against his own soule Thirdly in ministring matter of scandall or offence to his brother How necessary is it then to keepe a watch upon our mouth and a gate of circumstance unto our lips that we offend not with our tongue which like the poisonous Adder stings even unto death wounding the soule with an incurable dart Neither doe I speaking of wantonnesse onely restraine my discourse to incontinence but to whatsoever else may properly tend to the complacency or indulgence of the flesh as to tender obedience to her in the desire of luscious and lascivious meats or the like including all such as turne the grace of God to wantonnesse making a profession of faith but denying the power thereof in their life and conversation Thirdly Pride that Luciferian sinne whose airie thoughts are ever mounting must be subdued by the spirit of humility We would hold it to be no faithfull part of a subject to make choice of no livery but his who is a profest foe to his Soveraigne And what I pray you doe we when we attire our selves in the habiliments of Pride not onely outwardly in gorgeous apparell choicest perfumes and powdred lockes but likewise inwardly in putting on the spirit of Pride attended by scornefull respects disdainfull eyes and haughty lookes Can wee bee truly termed Subjects May wee wearing the Divels crest partake of the seamelesse coat of Christ May we expect a Crowne after death that oppose him who wore a thorny Crowne to crowne us after death No as the Souldier is knowne by his Colours the Servant by his Cognizance the Sheepe by his marke and coine by the stampe so shall we bee knowne by our Colours if wee be Christs Souldiers by our Crest or Cognizance if his followers by our marke if his Sheepe and Lambkins by our stampe or superscription if his Coine or Sterling O know how much wee are the humbler by so much to our Beloved are we the liker Let us resemble him then in all humility that afterwards wee may reigne with him in glory Lastly that wee may become conformable unto him whose Image wee have received wee are to learne of the blessed Apostle in all things to bee contented Content saith the Proverbe is worth a Crowne but many Crownes come farre short of this content Now to propose a rule how this Content may be acquired were a Lesson well worthy our learning which I could wish might bee as soone learned as proposed for Content briefly consists in these two To bee free from desiring what wee have not to bee free from fearing to lose what wee already have Now hee who seeth nothing in the world worthy desiring cannot choose but be free from feare of losing being so indifferent touching the world or whatsoever else hee hath in enjoying For he that neither hath nor seeth ought in the world which he esteemes worthy his love enjoyeth nought but hee can willingly bee content to leave for no man feareth the losse of that which he doth not love But to draw neerer a point these two passions or affections of desire and feare desire of having more than wee have feare of losing what wee already have may be properly said to have a threefold respect To the goods or endowments of the Minde of the Body and of Fortune For the first Plato in his Timaeo saith If a man lose his eyes or feet or hands or wealth we may say of such an one hee looseth something but hee who loseth his heart and reason loseth all For in the wombe of our Mother the first thing which is ingendred or participates forme is the heart and the last which dieth is the same heart So as properly it may be called Reasons Treasurie or store-house where those divine graces are seated which conferre the best beauty to man giving him a note of distinction from other creatures the more to dignifie man For howsoever all creatures have hearts yet only to man is given an understanding heart Other creatures have hearts indeed sensible of present paine but they cannot recall to minde what is past or probably collect by what is past the seasons of times or issues of affaires likely to ensue In the heart of man there is the reasonable power with which hee governeth himselfe the irascible power with which he defendeth himselfe and concupiscible by which he provideth for things necessary to releeve himselfe Now admit wee were deprived of that principall blessing the intellectuall part so as like raving and raging Orostes we were forced to take many blinde by-paths wanting the means of direction by reason of our wofull distraction and crying out with Octavia in Seneca O to the spirits below that I were sent For death were easie to this punishment Admit I say all
this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we