the time of your health as may put him in possession of them and put good examples before his eyes from whence he may learn that this possession is lovely and that it ought to be loved more then riches and other goods which perish V. MAXIM Ax Horse not broken becometh headstrong and a Child left to himself will be willful Ecc. 30. PARAPHRASE AN Horse neglected and that one tames not betimes becomes untameable and a Child that one abandons to his liberty without reproof or correction becomes incorrigible REFLECTION EXpect not but that yours should commit crimes great enough for you to correct or reprove Malice increases with age and in the end arrives to a pitch and to an excess where chastisement is not only very unprofitable but very dangerous Do not expect but that his little indevotions will become sacriledges and that his little angers will change themselves into furies and they may meditate designs of treachery and parricidie Punish them whilst you can draw honour and profit out of your severities and have a great care that others have not occasion to punish him when the punishment shall be the death of your Son the loss of your Honour the ruin of your House and the reproach of your posterity VI. MAXIM Cocker thy Child and he shall make thee affraid Play with him and he will bring thee to heaviness Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE IF you treat your Son always with caresses and kisses and if you continue to give him milk at the age of fifteen or sixteen he will return you gall and he will oblige you to fear him asmuch as you should have loved him If you play with him you shall lose much at that play your familiarity shall be recompensed by a contempt that shall cause your death REFLECTION CHildren come to an age when they need no milk nor caresses nor laughter nor familiarity There must always be love but at that age your Son ought to divine that you love him it doth not belong to you to tell him so Have you a reservedness and a silence which should do all which corrects when he is faulty and commends when he doth well Spare not either Praises or Corrections but do in such sort as that you give neither but by the eyes When he hath failed let your presence and your sadness be all his punishment When he hath done well let him be ravished to see you and let him take that for his recompense Approve what he hath done but let your approbation be if possible without words at least let it not be much and let the declaration that you shall make to him of your sentiments touching his demeanour be little better then silence it self VII MAXIM Laugh not with him least thou have sorrow with him and least thou gnash thy teeth in the end Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE DOn't laugh with a Child if you are not willing to weep with him If you have not incessantly the hook in hand to prune the branches of this tree and to lop off that which is offensive you shall pluck but bitter fruit such as shall make your teeth gnash and make you feel most grievous pangs in your latter days REFLECTION THere are three things which necessarily make you loose your authority over your Son To laugh with him and render him too familiar To suffer and dissemble his faults and in the end to give him evil examples and to make your passions and weakness appear before him These are the three indiscretions that take away the respect that is due to you and which accustomes him to contemn you Avoid them carefully For assoon as you see your authority lost be you assured that your Son himself is lost In one word do not adore him and in regard of Children take heed of following the fatal example of so many other Fathers who make Fools of them by their education and then Judges Magistrates and Masters of the people by their silver or credit VIII MAXIM Bow down his neck whilst he is young least he wax stubborn and be disobedient to thee and so bring sorrow to thine heart Eccl. 30. PARAPHRASE BOw down his neck in his youth and bring down his pride and make his rebellious spirit bend to obedience and duty with all the strength you are able Never fail to correct him on occasion least he harden himself in evil and his wicked nature become inflexible otherwise you shall have the displeasure and the shame of seeing him arrive at that pass and you shall suffer eternal repentings for your negligence REFLECTION NEvertheless in taming him free your self from anger Correction does wonders against the loosness of youth when most incorrigible and desperate but choler mixt in this most excellentmedicine is poison If you give the one with the other you go to destroy him believing thereby to remedy his distemper and you render your self his murderer in acting the Physician Learn to be severe and dreadful without being in rage to be firm and inflexible without ceasing to be reasonable to be just and entire without being violent and know the way to have the countenance and the word of a terrible Judge at the same time that you conserve a Fathers heart IX MAXIM Give not thy Son and thy Wife thy Brother and Friend power over thee whilst thou livest and give not thy goods to another least it repent thee and thou intreat for the same Eccl. 33. PARAPHRASE And REFLECTION WHilst you live don't put your self under the Conduct of those whom you your self ought to manage neither Wife Children nor Friends Retain always that authority that God hath given you and the free disposal of your Goods without confiding in any whosoever it be for fear least instead of the ease and rest you hope for you fall into contempt and that you do not render those cruel and ungrateful whom you think your liberality should render wiser and more acknowledging Assoon as you shall have given all to your Sons and Daughters they will believe that they now owe you nothing more And when your hands shall be empty your countenance shall be odious and intolerable Suffer not that by any prayer or application whatsoever they make you ever to change your resolution for 't is better to see your Children dependant on your good will then to rely upon their acknowledgement and justice Deal so as that they have always need of you or hope for something from you but stand not in need of them if you intend to be loved by them Shew them your hands during life but keep them shut and don't let all go but at death ARTICLE III. MAXIMS For the government of Servants The first MAXIM A yoak and a collar bow the neck so are torments and tortures for an evil Servant Eccl. 33. PARAPHRASE THe mighty yoak brings down the 〈◊〉 and lofty neck and daily labourâ—â—enders a Servant humble anâ— in the end gives him an inclination to his duty Never leave your Servant
their pains Hearken to them and be not so cruel as to refuse them a word of consolation At least let there be some sweetness in your eyes and believe not that this were to abase your self and to forget your Rank to regard the afflicted and to permit them to lament before you Deal with God as his Slave Congregationi pauperum affabilem te facito magnati humilia caput tuum Eccl. 4. With the Simple as your Brother With the Proud as your Master Keep your Rank by these Raise your selves above the insolence of men but abase your selves under the powerful and Divine Majesty Be humble before him who hath made you great adore the hand that can destroy you Have pitty of the miseries that may be common to you And do not despise the Tears which you see run from eyes that resemble yours Be you not in your Province or in your Land as a Lyon Noli esse sicut leo in domo tua evertens domesticos opprimens subditos Eccl. 4. which tears what he meets there Be ashamed that your Family should perish because you live That your House should be unhappy because you are the Master and that those who dwell with you should not dwell there but as the damned and were not there but to suffer the furies and follies of a Devil that possesses you and acts you Live after that manner that a man of honour and vertue ought to live in a perpetual evenness of spirit present to your self attentive to your business at peace during the several motions of fortune equitable and courteous towards your Domesticks officious towards your Friends charitable towards the Poor obliging towards all the World See you nothing more fine in your riches and dignities then being able to serve a greater number of persons and judge that the services and submissions that men pay to you and the friendships which all companies express to you are no honour to you and they are unjust if you endeavour not to do more good then they do you and if you love not at least asmuch as you are loved IX MAXIM A mans pride shall bring him low but honour shall uphold the humble spirit Prov. 29. PARAPHRASE GLory seeks humble spirits and though they hide themselves it will find them The ambitious who seek it shall be humbled Whosoever would raise himself by pride shall find nought but what he flyes he shall fall into reproach and there he shall perish REFLECTION IN this there hath not been excepted neither Men or Angels The most lovely are the most despised and hated assoon as they become proud Insolence mixed with their perfections and their vertues form thereof and I know not what that is intolerable That which in a dead man is rotteness and stink pride is in immortal spirits they are every where insufferable they are not at all regarded in Heaven and on Earth but with horrour both the one and the other World conspire to scorn and to hate them The conspiration is not less common to honour humility The admiration of men the friendship of the Angels the favours of the Son of God all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and all the honours of time and eternity are for the humble There are not now amongst us others Predestinate then these we shall see no other happy in Paradise Grace and Glory are their lot The only and true secret to be honoured is to abase a mans self Spiritum humilem suscipiet gloria To think meanly of your self learn and know well what you are You shall not learn it in reading of Books nor in hearkning to Masters Your Conscience must tell it you and make you to comprehend it Ask it You shall be humble assoon as you hearken to it and that you give your self the leasure to consider what it knows thereupon and what it will oblige you to believe and confess Humility wholly consists in saying from the heart and with a devout and sincere sentiment that you are of your self nothing but sin frailty and corruption and all the rest which is in your person comes from the Creator And if you had in your birth any advantage above others and any natural qualities These laudable qualities were not the price of your vertue nor the work of your hands but the gifts of his providence and of his love but in truth he hath done you many favours which increase yet every day and your sins increase asmuch as they And that these are the two most remarkable things in your life The one that your miseries have not hindred God from loving you tenderly and heaping of good things on you The other that so many kindnesses and so much love has not hindred you from being unthankfull but have been so ever since you knew that he loved you Say that from the Heart think it sincerely and let your humble and respectful looks your gestures and motions and all that appears outwardly of you carry the mark of this lowliness and of this inward contempt of your self Have in your conversation a modesty which were the image of your innocent and humble Soul have it in your Conduct at every occasion and with every body In any place that you are live and speak as a man who evidently knows his own unworthiness When that you are near God at the time of Prayer and the Exercises of a devour life if you would please him and deserve that he should chuse you to glorify you in his power let your principal devotion be to represent to him how much you deserve that he should contemn you In contemplation of his truths confess yours See your darkness in his Light confound your self tremble and lament Unto what condition soever you may be raised by his Grace never cease to adore him by all nullitys proper to a nullity that hath sinned and rendred himself worse and more miserable then he was eternally when he was nothing When that you are in business during the exercise of your Authority among the multitude of those who seek after you and honour you if you would that they should do it sincerely shew them that you well know your self In like manner let it appear on your countenance and by the Conduct of your words and actions that you are not ignorant that in the midst of felicities and honours of fortune as in the middest of the richness of a stately Tomb you are nothing but a shadow or a little ashes hid there under that you hold before them the Rank of a Judge or a Master but that before God you have no other but that of Nothing and Sinner Do not say it with your mouth it is enough to believe it but perfection is what I have said to believe it and think it so well that the thoughts of your Soul appear visibly marked in the modesty of your eyes These are in effect those thoughts mark'd in that manner which have rendred great men so
and your own judgement but don't trust all sorts of persons False Maxims and evil Councils enter easily and sweetly into the spirit Fear them and leave not your self to be lead by men who go out of the common way There are paths in the spiritual life which appear fair one sees therein many things that make men believe that they are shortest to arrive to holiness but it is dangerous to follow them and they are ordinarily those which lead soonest and most certainly unto death REFLECTION ONe ought not to be astonished at finding here below such paths as these since one finds there proud Men and Hypocrites The unavoidable blindness and common to all proud men is to perswade themselves that they see spots in the Sun errours in the Doctrine of the Church and abuses in its Conduct And that which is yet worse is That driven by the zeal that the illusion inspires them with they undertake to wipe out these spots and to correct those errours Nothing which the hand of God has made seem to them finisht but when they have changed somthing or that they have given the last stroaks thereto 'T is thence that all the changes in the exercise of Devotion comes that we so often complain of and from thence all these particular ways of repentance and salvation where each one runs drawn by the splendor of novelty and where each seeks to wander and to perish There doth not appear presently in those ways but of footsteps holy and right seemingly marked by the rules of the Gospel and by the actions of the Apostles But Novissima ducunt ad mortem Novelty is a way that leads to the eldest sin that is Apostasy and to the last of evils which is impenitence and despair The cause why so many fine people are seen in this way so fatal is that the Devil has always gone there first All Devil as he is he hath I know not what which pleases the Woman when he counterfeits the devout one although Heaven and Earth could tell her she must run after him And when the Woman is seduced she has I don 't know what that bewitches the man Each man does what Adam did The wisest run after her And when wise Men begin to wander and to loose themselves there is then neither blind nor fool that follows them not and that believes not that it is Wisdom to imitate them and to perish with them One sees people run from far to enter into this dangerous way and to go where example and hypocrisy draws them Our Souls are tyed to one another by certain invisible chains and it is thereby That the poison of the Serpent without being able to be seen or stopt spreads it self in the hearts and that it carries throughout corruption and death All the new fashions of saving ones self are the inventions of him who would that the Saints should be damn'd Est via quae videtur homini recta novissima autem ejus ducunt ad mortem VII MAXIME Inquisition shall be made into the Councils of the ungodly Wisd 1. PARAPHRASE AS the ungodly fear Men although they fear not God When they have any doubts to propose on the mysteries of Religion they propose them to themselves they ask secretly their spirit from whence he knows that the World has been made by a Creator and that after Death there is a Judgement a future Life an Hell an Eternity c. REFLECTION THe little questions of worldly Philosophy are not far from great It is by these that one suddenly learns to render himself a Master in Impiety and to propose to his heart and to his disciples boldly doubts scandalous and against eternal truths The Maniche who askt his friend If it is God who made the Flyes is very near asking if it is God who hath made Man One Frederick who asks of the Societies and Philosophers of his Court if the Birds are living will quickly ask himself if the Angels are so and if there are immortal Souls It is fine in an assembly of the curious to do towards the souls of Bulls and Elephants what they do about stones when they burst them and to shew that under the false appearance of the Unity they are but multitudes of grains of sand and of heaps of dust But at the rebound of these academic conversations it is that the Democritus's and Metrodorus's have in their solitudes proposed to their Conscience other prouder questions and to maintain to it That all the great things of the Earth and even those of Heaven dreaded so much by people are not great Bodies nor great Spirits nor great Divinities but great assemblies of little Nothings and that there are not in the universe three things truly united as those of Atoms and Nothings arrived to the last estate of an indivisible smallness Have a care dangers are pleasant to youth and folly Be Wise and follow not Masters who to go establish their School on the brink of praecipices Withdraw your self as far from thence as you can and although this brink seems firm remember there are none but blind men who will stay on a place where there needs but one puff of wind to drive them to the bottom of an abyss It is true that those who lead others into these dangers when they explain themselves publickly have expressions and terms which are like choice colours and proper to paint innocence and truth on the gate of a House where they are not But their Philosophy is no better To be wise and bold Philosophers or for us not to be Criminals is very little less then to speak correctly and not to speak any thing that one can accuse the point is to do in such sort as that our innocent and unreprovable propositions may not give cause to believe that our thoughts are worth nothing It is of Sciences as it is of words The most dangerous are the chastest and the most modest when that under the vail of their modesty they find themselves the properest to convey corruption into the heart and to make them understand that they may think well of things of which the Teacher durst not speak Have not the curiosity to know the way of your ruine and go not to School to learn to perish nor to learn there to forget what you have learnt and known from the Cradle Have the happiness to bear the evident mark of a Soul well made and of a Wit well brought up which is not to be pleased with any Doctrine but that which serves you to know God and helps you to love him VIII MAXIM The way of a Fool is right in his own eyes but he that hearkeneth to Council is wise Prov. 12. PARAPHRASE THe senseless Man believes that his Conduct is good and he will have no other Judge than himself The wise Man distrusts his own judgment As he learns what he ought to believe from the sentiments of the Church so he learns what he ought
of innocence the passions raised not themselves but by the orders of reason In the state of wisdome and of Christian holyness the same passions rayse not themselves but under reason but in a state of licentiousness they raise themselves above it These tempestuous darknesses cover the whole man and spread trouble and obscurity even to the highest region The passions are strong so are you much stronger then they I can say at least of the wise man of all great men that they have in their persons three powerfull helps against these domestic enemies three benefits of the Orator Sanctified by Grace Good nature Courage and wisdome III. MAXIM I had a good spirit came into a body undefiled Wisd 8. PARAPHRASE I have found in me saith Solomon from my youth all the bounties of an excellent nature They are not the fruits of my pains nor the gifts of fortune God who governs the accidents of our birth and life hath given them me t is the work of his hands and a present of his love more ancient then my selfe REFLECTION AN excellent and fine nature is no other thing Sortitus sum animam bonam veni ad corpus coinquinatum then the excellency and the beauty of a noble soul communicated to the Passions As souls of that rank possess their nobility and greatness from the birth when they enter into the body they have the power to help nature to compose their temperaments and these are they Tabernarulum pro habitu suo fingunt who by the impression of their force and sweetness do form the imagination give the Character to the organs They shed out of themselves their qualities and all they can of their divine fire and heavenly inclinations to mingle it among the bloud and the corrupted passions and by this happy medley they weaken the poyson of the corruption and the mortal violence of the malady that it finds there These pure starrs have influences which insinuate themselves secretly among the flames of lust and there tempers that which is most burning in their fury and most unruly in their motions One sees in many persons a moderation and a purity which makes one think that there remaines not any spot of the sin of Adam in them There appears nothing but what is handsom in their passions nor any thing which seems not to agree with the spirit and to have spiritual inclinations That comes here from that this spirit sublime by priviledge common to all perfect Beings hath a secret power of which that of the Loadstone is a shaddow to draw from the earth all that it toucheth and to draw it unto its Pole The passions touched by the vertue of a noble soul turn themselves towards Heaven and aspire not but to laudable and honest ends Vir sapiens fortis est The spirit of Man is wise and strong because that there is nothing in his person which opposeth it self unto its elevation and which refuseth to follow them IV. MAXIM He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a City Prov. 16. PARAPHRASE COurage and the love of true honour is enough to render a man Master of his lusts and desires Courage contains two vertues force and patience And these are as the two parts which compose it and distinguisheth it from the other perfections of our nature By force we resist Men and our enemies that are strangers by patience our passions and domestick enemies Conquerors of Men are admired and crowned upon earth Conquerors of themselves Violenti capiunt illud are so in Heaven and it is for them that all the triumphs and immortal Crowns are there prepared The vigour of those is worth much and it deserves the reputation that it hath in the World The Patience of these although the World prize it less is much more worth it is the most necessary and ought to be most honoured The one and the other have been always put in the first rank of the moral vertues and they are those that have given the name of Great to the Constantines and the Charlemains and which have made the Heroes of old adored But if you cannot aspire but to one of the two chuse that which wise Men have preferred and mark that amongst your Maxims the words that one has seen written upon some Princes Standards and that all great Souls find graven in themselves as a device of natures chusing Melior est patiens viro forti qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium REFLECTION ONe demands what this Courage is Every body answers It is easy to deceive ones self therein and to take appearance for truth Many do ill to put it in the number of feavers and the heats of their corrupted nature and to believe that it is no other thing then an inflammation of choler which unexpectedly kindles it selfe at the meeting of some object of Anger and which heating the imagination and troubling the humours of the body pusheth the man inconsiderately into dangers Courage is not of the number of the passions it is their Master nature keeps it in the middle of them not as a Criminal amongst its Accomplices but a Conquerour amongst his Slaves to keep them in duty and subject them to labour Their fires are different from his but they are fit to serve him Some perfwade themselves that this which we call true Courage is a Military Angel who during combats enters into the soules of the Heroes and there produceth the Marvels that we admire Others That t is only the inspiration or the breath of this Angel which pusheth on the hearts of souldiers and gives motion to armies The most wise have very wisely said that it is a spiritual flame kindled by the Creator in the highest part of our Soul as a starr in the highest part of the Firmament A peaceful and regular flame sublime incorruptible ardent pure and fruitfull alwayes fastned to Heaven and busy on earth by an inexhaustible emanation of influences necessary for the conservation of the repose and life of the people But whatsoever Courage may be do not you believe that to be couragious you are obliged to take arms and go seek enemies in far Countreys Abide where you are and make warr against your passions you shal do saith Solomon more than those who wear the sword When that you pardon injuries and by a generous patience you suffer slanders and calumnies you are better then the souldier that revengeth them And it is more honourable to you to stop in you any transport of anger or to repell in you any thoughts which flatter you and draw you to sin then to destroy an Army and to take Cities Your greatness and your glory is not to abase others before you but to be great in your selfe and to have above those an elevation independent on their fall or misery When you overcome your irregular impatience and you resist
inward peace and doe not leave your selves to be troubled by any business or Passion Jealousy anger and hatred are not in man but to destroy his vertue and to shorten his life The excess of affection and application to any undertaking although laudable is not less dangerous then other disquiets All that there is violent in us pusheth us on to sin and drags us to the grave Nothing is immortal and glorious but that which is calm REFLECTION TAke good heed of pleasing your self too much with any thing whatsoever nay even with your very duty or of thinking too strongly on things applying your self thereto with earnest and impatient care Have so much moderation and so much power over your self as one may be able to say That you undertake business by reason That you labour in it by inclination and That you see the success thereof with indifference I say not that you should be insensible It is necessary that you have Passions and that these Passions were ardent It is necessary your Horses should love to run and that they have fire Coolness ought not to be but in Counsels Indifference but in Reason And it is in that consists the beauty of humane life That one sees a magnanimous heat in our actions and desires but never any rashness or transport God doth without troubling himself all that a God ought to do and he is as the Sun in Heaven always busied about an infinit number of works and always peaceful Be you here below as the shadow on a Dial Walk and go where duty calls you Do every thing which a person that governs an House or a City or the Estate ought to do or one who rules the actions of people But be you so wise and so reserved that it may seem by your modesty and sedate temper that you are in a perfect repose and that you have no care VII MAXIM A Fools wrath is soon known but a prudent Man covereth shame Prov. 12. PARAPHRASE THe most ordinary indiscretion of Man is to declare his anger too soon The Duty of Vertue is to extinguish it And that of interest to Conduct it secretly Assoon as 't is born the Politician covers it but the wise Man choaks and kills it as soon REFLECTION DO you yet better hinder it if possible from being born The least time that unruly anger abides in your Soul or appears on your countenance it cannot be without disorder and shame It s unforeseen motions which are not your crimes are your infirmities although they render you not guilty they do not leave you but unseemly and since there is suppressing them there is yet more not to feel them I know well that 't is glorious to resist and overcome but when it is a question to resist a dangerous passion and to overcome your self it is yet more glorious not to be attacked and to have nothing in you that were necessary to destroy or that you ought to dread Fear the Triumphs where it is necessary that you be the Captive And chuse rather to be in perfect health then to have precious remedies to have a patient and modest spirit then excellent Maxims against impatience At least remark That Wisdom who gives unto hot and cholerick persons abundance of fair instructions to moderate their heat if it were in their power to melt their natures and entirely to new-make themselves would council them no more then one thing and would not have more to tell them then this one word only Renovate your selves VIII MAXIM A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18. PARAPHRASE WHo is he that shall be able to live with a man that vexeth himself continually and without reason and who is subject to frequent fits of violent anger But how is it that he can indure himself and be accustomed to see himself in so shameful a condition The worst is That his evil as the other evils of Hell have no remedy and that they cannot be cured without ceasing to live or without returning to the fountain of Life there to change the temper and take another body REFLECTION AMongst angers the most indecent to persons of quality and the most intolerable is without doubt this which needs none to kindle it but it self and which takes fire as a tempestuous cloud from whence one sees unexpectedly lightnings and horrible noises to break out when no body puts fire to it One cannot be near them in safety or quiet no not even when they are so The rest of their anger is as the delicate slumber of a sick Prince You must speak very low and take great care and walk with much fear and circumspection least you awake him The strange destiny of people of this evil humour according to the thoughts of a Philosopher is that there is nothing for them in the World but is encompassed with thorns and that they feel themselves stung by whatsoever they touch or that comes near them In the most kind civilities and even in benefits and favours they find certain I don't know what that wound them What you do and what you say to please them is that by which they account themselves justly offended and of which they complain Your most respectful words and actions are the sparks that fall upon their choler You see them suddenly out of themselves transported into dreadful furies because that their caprice has seen in your words or in your eyes some equivocation or look of a double meaning which they do not understand 'T is true that each one hath his infirmities and miseries variously distributed by corrupted nature Unhappy is the Mâ—n who hath these for his burden if they are yours weep and fear I well know that you call those angers unavoidable accidents or necessary faults which should cause pity and merit excuse Great question come to the point One does not complain of your being subject to a distemper which is an enemy to mankind but they complain that you would live with men It is a misfortune to bear this plague in the bottom of the heart but it is a crime to bring it into a City and to appear in company with it That which is most inexcusable is that you bring it even upon tribunals and that you would exercise a charge where you are obliged to treat with all sorts of persons Wherefore is it necessary That the scandalized World should come to know every day such a reproach to the spirit of Man and to view during your transports all the disorders and follies of such a ridiculous and brutish infirmity Either cure your self or hide your self An Ancient has very well said that Dens and Caves of Rocks are habitations prepared by the Creator for persons subject to impetuous and blind anger Retire thither It shall be much easier to you to suffer your self alone in Solitude then to render your evil common to a City or an whole Country Learn what nature ought to teach you and what all the people