where he puts confidence in you All that makes him shun you to the end of the World you may see his face again but you shall never more find his heart nor confidence REFLECTION IN fine contemn not your Friend for contempt is the mortal wound of friendship and the only wound that the heart of man can't bear Nature and Fortune which might render us contemptible are not able to render us insensible and indifferent under contempt habitude cannot accustome us thereto and vertue which sometimes may be able to stiffle the grief cannot blot out its remembrance We have no experience even that the quality of Persons who contemn us do lessen the resentment The praises that we receive from the part of our enemies do not leave to be agreable to us But the contempts that come by means of our greatest friends sensibly wound the heart That which comes even from Princes or Masters is not sweeter nor better received Whatever power or authority that one hath over us we never think they have a right to contemn us when we are guilty and those who confess that their crimes deserve death cannot believe they deserve contempt Grace takes away from many the desire of revenging themselves but it gives to very few contentment to suffer it If some may love to be contemned for the Glory of God I do not know that many love those however that do contemn them XVI MAXIM One man beareth hatred against the other and doth he seek pardon from the Lord Eccl. 28. PARAPHRASE HOw can that man dare to ask blessings and favours from God for him self Ipse cum caro sit reservat iram propitiationem quaerit à Deo who prepares evill for another And he who would cause his neighbour to perish can he hope that God will preserve him Man would himself be in wrath and desire that God should be appeased He who is but flesh and corruption would punish the faults of those like himselfe And he prayes God who is infinite in his holiness that he might dissemble his and that God would endure them what pretentions and what hopes are these REFLECTION TO choak the sentiment of ill words that one gives you or of wrong that one does you in business have you often in your mind this undoubted truth That of all sorts of injustice the two greatest are First That God should be offender the second That we should take ill other mens offending us and that we should take the liberty to resent them and complain of them When you have a difference with any body you goe and relate the business and ask of your friends if it be not true that you have wrong and that you ought to revenge it you have so much right on your side you do and say so well that each one confesses it answers you that 't is true But to the end that you might better know the truth tell them the whole relate to them ingenuously what your Conscience knowes touching the most enormous sins and shamefull ingratitudes that you have committed against God and there shall no body say but that you merit insinitely more evil and more contempt then you have as yet received During quarrells and suits at Law the question is to know if you ought to destroy a Man whom God makes use of to punish in you great sins and to punish them by so small an evill as that is which you pretend that one doth you Be you the Iudge examine and decide the question your self XVII MAXIM Abstain from strife and thou shalt diminish thy sin Eccl. 28. PARAPHRASE LEssen the number of Law suits and there shall remain fewer sins To prosecute a relation To enrich Judges and persons unknown To ruine your family to multiply your faults to lose Paradice is that which ordinarily you gain by pleading There is no quarrell but may be ended by means of mildness and civility and there is no peace but is more worth then all the victories of the Barr and than all the Triumphs that pride causes you to make over your enemies REFLECTION LIve in peace and establish your happiness by so doing as that nothing may trouble you and that you may not be obliged to defend your self nor to complain of any body It is not so honourable to overcome enemies as not to have any Mad men and Beasts themselves have a part in the first honour The second belongs only to men of a Divine and heavenly nature But if we must unfortunately have enemies let us believe that it is less glorious to us to overthrow their house and fortune then to sweeten their anger and all the cares we take to gain on them in our process let us employ to gain their hearts Let us not undertake the causing them to perish Let us aspire to a more illustrious Victory to do so as that in spight of themselves they may love us and blame themselves for having disobliged us Let us carry repentance into their Consciences and let us make them see by good offices that we are lovely and that we deserve to be loved when they have done us displeasure If we would use sweet and respectfull words and endeavour to subdue them by the allurements of an officious and an obliging nature they must themselves confess they were in the wrong to treat us ill and this confession is a more desireable honour and the most famous victory which an honest man can aspire unto In fine wee are obliged to extinguish in our Souls all enmities and all desires of revenge By the Law of nature who has not given us other arms or means to overcome other men then love By the Laws of the Gospel which hath given us a precept and made thereof an indispensable commandment By the Law of him who was God and Man who gave us the example of it By the Law of the Creator who has been willing that our spirit and our person should be no other thing then a living Image of his substantial and infinite charity By the Law of Paradise of which the inscription graven on the Gate is That no man shall enter there who hath hatred or anger in his heart Our interests oblige thereto as much as the rest and we ought to assure our selves that there is no enemy so cowardly or fearfull who would not hurt us nor so feeble as that it cannot nor so ignorant as not to know means or to have address and subtilty enough to find occasions and do it FINIS
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