anger and allay your passion when it rageth and riseth into hugest distemper Forthwith so soone as you shall perceive your selves moved restraine your passion but if you cannot appeale nor compose your inward Commotion at least restraine your tongue and injoyne it silence that if it speake no good it may speake no evill lest being loose and set at liberty it utter what wrath and not reason dictates More soveraigne and peacefull it will be for you to retire from society make recourse to your Oratory by recommending to your best Physician the cure of this infirmity Vse likewise this Cordiall salve to your corroding sore the receit is Divine if seasonably applyed and will minister you comfort when you are most distempered So soone as your disquieted minds begin to expostulate with the quality of your wrongs which your Enemy is apt to aggravate and exasperate purposely to hasten your precipitate revenge propose and set before you all the disgraces which possibly you can suffer and conferre them with those that were aspersed on your Saviour this will prepare you to suffer teach you to conquer for Arrowes foreseene menace lesse danger Likewise when you consider the injuries which are done you by others you may reflect upon the wrongs which are done by you unto others for the consideration of your owne infirmity will exact of you towards others an impunity Weigh with your selves how much others suffer of you how much God himselfe suffers of you who if hee should have inflicted revenge for every particular offence you should have perished long since In a word you your selves are frequently grievous and displeasing to your selves Seeing then you are so distastefull unto your selves as you must of necessity suffer many injuries and affronts from your selves repine not at the sufferings which are inflicted by others on your selves You are likewise to consider these discommodities which arise from this Passion which will arme you with patience if of your selves you have any compassion What availes it to be revenged after our injury bee received Is your wound by anothers wound to be cured Or disgrace tendred by rendring disgrace restored Besides all this see what he obtaineth who anger obeyeth 1. Hee is deprived of the Crowne of glory and reward of eternity 2. Hee becomes a Minister and Instrument of the Divell 3. Hee destroyeth his owne soule that hee might hurt anothers body For a dispassionate or angry person is like unto him who that hee may kill his Asse destroyeth himselfe or rather like him who for huge debts which hee is not able to discharge is throwne into prison and disdainefully refuseth any ones offer to pay his debt for him For by him who doth you wrong is the debt which you owe to God forgiven if with patience you suffer the injury which is done Whereas the angry person who will bee his owne revenger telleth God how and in what sort hee is to deale with him that as hee suffered not small disgraces from another so neither should small things bee suffered in him by God As it is written With what measure you mete the same shall bee measured to you againe Six other detriments or discommodities there bee which arise from the exorbitancy of this passion For by Anger is lost first Wisedome while reason becomes blinded Secondly Righteousnesse for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God Thirdly Society for the Acquaintance of one angry man is pleasing unto none Bee not saith the Wiseman a companion with the angry man Fourthly Concord while peace is disturbed Fifthly the Light of Truth because anger casteth the darkenesse of confusion upon the mind or understanding from whom God hideth the cheerefull beame of his Divine knowledge Sixthly the Splendor of the holy spirit upon whom saith the Prophet shall my spirit rest but upon the humble and quiet that is upon the meeke mild and compassionate Thus you see what benefits may bee procured by attempering what discommodities incurred by fostring this Passion Whereon I have the rather insisted because I am not ignorant how the strongest and constantest tempers have beene and may bee distempered and disparaged by it much more you whose mainest strength consists in the expression of that Passion At all times therefore use a moderate restraint in the prime of your yeares when youth sends forth her first promising blossomes behave your selves mildly without bitternesse humbly without haughtinesse modestly without lightnesse soberly without childishnesse The Caske will reteine her first taste the Wooll her first dye the purest Tablet her prime impression the loyall'st Spirit her first affection If you shew too much waywardnesse in your youth small good is to bee expected in your age As you tender your preferment seeme milde while you are maids lest you prove scare-crowes to a young mans bed Conforme your selves likewise to a nuptiall State and preserve your honour without staine Contest not with your head for preeminence you came from him not hee from you honour him then as hee cherisheth the love hee conceives in you A domestick fury makes ill harmony in any family The discord which was hatched and increased towards M. Anthony by Fulvia was ever allayed and attempered by the moderation of Octavia Bee you all Octavia's the rougher your crosse the richer your Crowne The more that injuries presse you the more shall your patience praise you The Conflict is but short and momentanie the Triumph glorious and impall'd with eternity And thus much touching those three particulars whereon your Behaviour principally reflects wee are now to descend to the next branch which shall shew how a Gentlewoman of ranke and quality for to such onely is my discourse directed is to behave her selfe in Company SOciety is the solace of the living for to live without it were a kinde of dying Companions and friendly Associats are the Theeves of time No houre can be so tedious which two loving Consorts cannot passe over with delight and spend without distaste Bee the night never so darke the place never so meane the cheerefull beames of conceiving consorts will enlighten the one and their affections mutually planted enliven the other What a Desart then were the world without friends and how uselesse those friends without conceiving mindes and how weake those mindes unlesse united in equall bonds So then love is the Cement of our life a load without love Now Gentlewomen you are to put on your vailes and goe into Company Which I am perswaded you cannot enter without a maiden-blush a modest tincture Herein you are to be most cautelous seeing no place can bee more mortally dangerous Beware therefore with whom you consort as you tender your repute for report will brute what you are by the Company which you beare Augustus being at a combat discerned the inclinations of his two daughters Iulia and Livia by the Company which frequented them for grave Senators talked with Livia but riotous persons with Iulia. Would you preserve those
continued for the space of a thousand yeares yet was it never heard that any of those Virgins were ever deflowred Who can likewise passe over in silence those seven Milesian Virgins who at such time as the Gauls raved and raged every where subjecting all to fire and faggot deprived themselves of life lest hostile force should deprive them of their honour With what praises also may we worthily advance those daughters of Scedasus of Leuctra a Towne situate in the Region of Boetia who having in their fathers absence hospitably received two young men by whom made drunke with wine they were that night defloured conceiving a mutuall sorrow for their lost Virginity became resolute actors in their owne Tragedy Aristomenes of Messana when in those publike feasts called Hyacinthia hee had surprized fifteene Virgins with the souldiers which attempted their dishonour straightly commanding them to forbeare fronâ— using any such violence whose Command when they refused to obey hee caused them to bee slaine redeeming those Virgins with a huge summe of gold Afterwards these Virgins hearing that this Aristomenet was accused about the death of one of those men whome hee had commanded to be slaine they would not returne into their owne native Countrey till such time as prostrating themselves before the feet of the Iudge with their prayers and teares they had delivered from bonds the defender of their honour Yea to draw neerer home and instance this Maiden-constancy in one of our owne I have heard of a notable spirited Girle within the wals of this City who albeit shee frequented places of publike Concourse boldly discoursed freely expressed her selfe in all assayes forwardly yet so tender was shee of preserving her honour that being on a time suited by a young Cavaliero who was so taken with the height of her spirit wherewith shee was endowed as hee preferred it before the beauty of an amorous face wherewith shee was but meanely enriched Shee presently apprehending the loosenesse of his desires seemingly condescended so shee might be furnished and appointed and the busines with that secrecy carried as no occasion of suspition might bee probably grounded This answer-cheer'd our young Gallant winged with hope to enjoy what his wild desires did so much affect A Coach is provided all things prepared the very place appointed where they shall meet to hasten their light journey which for more privacy must bee the Countrey Time and place they observ'd but before shee would mount her Coach calling him aside shee tels him how she had vow'd never to consent to any man in that kind till shee had first tri'd his metall in the field Draw hee must or shee will disgrace him in which combat instead of a more amorous Conflict she disarm'd him and with a kicke wisht him ever after to be more wary how hee attempted a Maidens honour For the second excellent was the answer of those Lacedemonian wives who being immodestly suited made this reply Surely wee should give way to your request but this you sue for is not in our power to grant for when wee were maids wee were to bee disposed of by our parents and now being wives by our husbands At such time as the Inhabitants of Tyre came to Lacedemon suspecting them to bee Spies they threw them into prison whose wives having got leave to visit and comfort them in their captivity changed garments with them and according to their Countries guise vailed their faces by which meanes the men escaped leaving their wives restrained which deeply perplexed all the Lacedemonians No lesse conjugall love shewed Alcestra to her Admetus Laodimia to her Prothesilaus Panthia to her Susius Artemisia to her Mausolus Zenobia to her Oedonatus These were good wives which Zenophon cals the highest grounds of humane felicity Nothing being more amiable then an honest woman saith Theognis nothing conferring more joy to man saith sententious Xistus For the third what singular mirrors of viduall continency and matron-like modesty were Cornelia Vetruria Livia and that most Christian widow Salnina to whom Saint Hierome directed many sweet and comfortable Epistles These you might have found attired in grave funerall garments as memorials of their deceased husbands of modest behaviour reverend presence publishing to the world a contempt of the world in their outward appearance Now what may you suppose did those Pagan Ladies hold to be the absolute end whereto this tender care of their Estimation chiefly aspired and wherein it cheerfully rested It was not riches nor any such temporall respect for these they contemned so their honour might be preserved No there was implanted in them an innate desire of Morall goodnesse mixed with an honest ambition â—o to advance their esteeme during life that they might become examples unto others of a good Morall life and perpetuate their memories after death Your ambition Ladies must mount higher because your Conversation is heavenlier It is immortality you aspire to a lower Orbe cannot hold you nothing else may confine you Bee it then your highest Estimation to honour him who is the horne of your salvation The Crowne of your hope the staffe of your helpe the tower of your defence the hope of your solace Let not a moment of deluding vanity deprive you of the hope of eternity Your voyage is short your hazard great Many difficulties encounter you in the way addresse your selves therefore in the way to some good worke Let Patience teach you how to suffer Devotion sweeten your encounter Estimation crowne you with succeeding honour THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN Argument Fancyâ—s is to bee with Deliberation grounded with Constancy reteined Wanton Fancy is a wandring phrenzy How it may bee checked if too wilde How cheered if too coole An attemperament of both FANCY FANCY is an affection privily received in by the Eye and speedily conveyed to the Heart The Eye is the harbinger but the Heart is the harbourer Love conceiv'd at first sight seldome lasts long Deliberation must lead it or else it is mis-guided Looke before you like is a good rule but to like at first Looke makes an house of mis-rule Is hee of hansome personage whom you love His proportion is a moving Object to your eye but his portion it may bee will not agree with your state Againe admit hee have both these proportion to purchase your esteeme and portion to maintaine your estate his brest is not transparent his disposition may bee crooked and that will cast downe all that was before affected Themistocles being demanded by a Nobleman of Greece whether hee had rather marry his daughter to one rich and evill or one poore and good made this answer I had rather have a man without money than mony without a man Whence it was that Portia the younger daughter of Portius Cato being asked when shee would betake her selfe to an husband replyed When I finde one that seekes me not mine Witty was that young Gentlewomans answer to an inconsiderate Suiter who with much instancy
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
perfectly as if their Bodies were transparent or windowes were in their bosomes Here you shall see One unmeasurably haughtie scorning to converse with these Groundlins for so it pleases him to tearme his inferiours and bearing such a state as if he were altered no lesse in person than place Another not so proud as he is covetous for no passion as a learned Schooleman affirmeth is better knowne unto us than the coveting or desiring passion which he calls Concupiscible and such an one makes all his inferiours his Sponges and Ostridge-like can digest all metalls Another sort there are whose well-tempered natures have brought them to that perfection as the state which they presently enjoy makes them no more proud than the losse of that they possesse would cast them downe These Camillus-like are neither with the opinion of Honour too highly erected nor with the conceit of Affliction too much dejected As their conceits are not heightned by possessing it so they lose nothing of their owne proper height by forgoing it These are so evenly poized so nobly tempered as their opinion is not grounded on Title nor their glory on popular esteeme they are knowne to themselves and that knowledge hath instructed them so well in the vanitie of Earth as their thoughts have taken flight vowing not to rest till they approach heaven Pompey being cumbred with his Honour exclaimed to see Sylla's crueltie being ignorant after what sort to behave himselfe in the dignitie he had and cried out O perill and danger never like to have end Such is the nature of Noble spirits as they admire not so much the dignitie of the place to which they are advanced as they consider the burden which is on them imposed labouring rather how to behave themselves in their place than arrogate glory to themselves by reason of their place Neither are these sundrie Dispositions naturally ingraffed in men meerely produced from themselves as the affections or Dispositions of our mindes doe follow the temperature of our bodies where the Melancholy produceth such the Cholericke Phlegmaticke and Sanguine such and such according to Humours predominant in that body whence these affections are derived but I say these participate also of the Clime wherein we are For otherwise how should our Observations appeare good which we usually collect in the Survey of other Countries noting certaine vices to be most entertained in some especiall Provinces As Pride among the Babylonians Envie among the Iewes Anger among the Thebans Covetousnesse among the Tyrians Gluttonie among the Sidonians Pyracie among the Cilicians and Sorcerie among the Aegyptians to whom Caesar gave great attention as Alexander was delighted in the Brachmans So as I say our Dispositions how different or consonant soever doe not only partake of us but even of the Aire or temperature of Soile which bred us Thus we see what Diversitie of Dispositions there is and how diversly they are affected Let us now take a view of the Disposition it selfe whether it may be forced or no from what it naturally affecteth THe Philosopher saith that the Disposition may be removed but hardly the Habit. But I say those first Seeds of Disposition as they are Primitives can hardly be made Privatives being so inherent in the Subject as they may be moved but not removed Not removed objectest thou why disposition can be of no stronger reluctance than Nature we see how much she may be altered yea cleare removed from what she formerly appeared For doe we not in the view of humane frailty observe how many excellent wits drained from the very Quintessence of Nature as apt in apprehending as expressing a conceit strangely darkened or dulled as if they had beene steeped in some Lethaean slumber Nay doe we not in this round Circumference of man note divers honest and sincere Dispositions whose gaine seemed to bee godlinesse and whose glory the profession of a good Conscience wonderfully altered becoming so corrupted by the vaine pompe or trifling trash of the world as they preferre the puddle before the pearle forsaking Christ for the world Doe wee not see how uprightly some men have borne themselves all their time without staine or blemish being all their Youth vertuously affected all their Middle-age charitably disposed yet in their Old-age miserably depraved Againe doe we not behold how many women whose virgin-modesty and Nuptiall-continency promised much glory to their age even then when the flower of Beauty seemed bloomelesse so as their very age might make them blamelesse when their skin was seere and their flesh saplesse their breath earthie and their mouth toothlesse then even then fell these unweldie Beldames to embrace folly promising longer continuance to Pleasure than they could by all likelyhood unto Nature Now tell me how happened this Were not these at the first vertuously affected if Disposition then could not be forced how came they altered All these rivers of Objections I can dry up with one beame darting from the reflex of Nature Thou producest divers instances to confirme this assertion That Dispositions are to bee forced from what they were naturally affected unto Whereto I answer That Dispositions in some are resembled and not improperly unto a Beame cloathed or shadowed with a cloud which as we see sheweth his light sometimes sooner sometimes later Or as by a more proper Allusion may seem illustrated may be resembled to the first Flourish in trees which according to the nature or quality of the internall pith from whence life is diffused to the Branches send forth their bloomes and blossomes sooner or later True it is you object that to the outward appearance such men shewed arguments of good Dispositions for they were esteemed men of approved Sanctity making Conscience of what they did and walking blamelesse and unreproveable before all men but what collect you hence That their Dispositions were sincerely good or pure if Society had not depraved them No this induction will not hold it is the Evening crownes the day What could be imagined better or more royally promising than Nero's Quinquennium What excellent tokens of future goodnesse What apparant testimonies of a vertuous government What infallible grounds of princely policy mixed with notable precepts of piety Yet who knowes not how all the vices of his Ancestours put together seemed by a lineall descent to bee transferred on him being the Patterne and Patron of all cruelty the Author and Actor of all villany the plotter and practiser of all impiety so as if all the titles of cruelty were lost they might be found in this Tyrant How then doe you say that his Disposition was naturally good but became afterwards depraved and corrupted No rather joyne with mee and say that howsoever his Disposition seemed good during those five yeares wherein hee dissembled with vertue and concealed those many vices which he professed and possessed afterwards yet indeed he was the same though not in shew yet in
heart Only now the Cloud being dispersed his tyrannous and inhumane nature became more discovered acting that in publike which he had long before plotted in private For howsoever our Dispositions may seeme forced from what they naturally or originally were it is but a Deception they remaine still the same though advice and assistance may sometimes prevaile so much with them as for the time they seeme to surcease and discontinue from their former bent but returning afresh they will Antaeus-like redouble their strength and become more furious For resolve me and shew what may be the effectuallest or powerfullest meanes to remove Disposition or alter Man most from what hee may seeme naturally inclined unto Can Honour No for that man whose inclination is subject to change for any exteriour Title is not to bee ranked amongst these generous spirits with whom I am onely here to converse For these admire Titles and assume a kinde of affected Majesty to make their persons more observed But tell me what are these whom Honour hath thus transported expressing state with winks and nods as if the whole posture of State consisted in gesture but meere Popin-jayes who glory more in the painting or varnish of Honour than the true substance of it And to speake truth as I had never fortune to dote much on an immerited Title nor gloze with counterfeit greatnesse their Dispositions howsoever they seeme to the vulgar eye changed they are nothing so for their inclinations were ever arrogantly affected so as they no sooner became great than they deblazoned their owne thoughts Can Riches neither for such whose imaginations are erected above earth scorne to entertaine discourse with ought that may make them worse all in the world being either fumus or funus a vanity or vexation as the Preacher saith These conclude that no Object lesse than Heaven can satisfie their eye no treasure lesse than eternity can answer their desire no pleasure save what hath concurrence with felicity can gaine them true delight Now for these earthly Moles who are ever digging till their graves be digged their Dispositions are of baser temper for they can taste nothing but earthly things They measure not estate by competence desiring only so much as may suffice Nature but by Abundance which fares with them as liquor with an Hydropticke man who the more he drinks the more he thirsts so the more they have the more they crave making their desires as endlesse as their aimes effectlesse their hopes as boundlesse as their helpes fruitlesse When their mouths shall bee filled with gravell and corruption shall enter those houses of clay for which so much Provision was stored and so small a share in the end contented Can Acquaintance No for if company better me by an internall grace working secretly yet effectually in me my Disposition consented before such good fruit was produced if it makes me worse my Disposition by consenting to suggestion induced me that I should be thereto moved Yea generally whosoever is wel-disposed will keepe no man company but either in hope to better him or to be bettered by him as he whose inclination is vicious and corrupt leaveth the company he frequents ever worse than when he found them For as a troubled fountaine yeelds impure water so an infected soule vicious actions Can Travell No for give me a man that hath seen Iudasses Lanterne at S. Deninis's the Ephesian Diana in the Louvre the great Vessell at Heydleberge the Amphitheatre at Vlysmos the Stables of the great Mogol or the solemnities of Mecha yea all the memorable Monuments which the world can afford or places of delight to content his view or learned Academies to instruct and inrich his knowledge yet are not all these of power to alter the state or quality of his Disposition whence the sententious Flaccus To passe the Sea some are inclinde To change their aire but not their minde No shouldst thou change aire and soile and all it were not in thy power to change thy selfe yet as soon thy selfe as thy Disposition which ever accompanies and attends thee moving in thee a like or dislike just as she is affected HAving thus proved that the Disposition is not to bee forced we are now to descend to discourse of the Noblest and most genorous Disposition which we intend to make knowne by certaine infallible markes which seldom erre in their attendance being vowed Servants to such as are vertuously affected The first is Mildnesse the second Munificence the third Fortitude or Stoutnesse Mildenesse is a quality so inherent or more properly individuate to a Gentleman as his affability will expresse him were there no other meanes to know him Hee is so farre from contemning the meanest as his Countenance is not so cheerefull as his Heart compassionate though the one be no lesse gracious in promising than the other generous in his performing Hee poizeth the wrongs of the weakest as if they were his owne and vowes their redresse as his owne Hee is none of these surly Sirs whose aime is to be capp'd and congied for such Gentility tastes too much of the Mushrom You shall never see one new stept into Honour but he expects more observance than an Ancient for though he be but new come from Mint he knowes how to looke bigge and shew a storme in his Brow This Meeknesse admits of Humility to keepe her company in whose sweet familiarity she so much glories as she cannot enjoy her selfe without her And in very deede there is no Ornament which may adde more beauty or true lustre to a Gentleman than to be humbly minded being as low in conceit as he is high in place with which vertue like two kinde Turtles in one yoke is Compassion as I noted before linked and coupled which Compassion hath many times appeared in the renownedst and most glorious Princes When Pompeyes head was offered to Caesar as a most gratefull and acceptable Present it is reported that hee washed the Head with teares of princely compassion and inflicted due punishment upon his Murderers The like is written of Titus that Love and Darling of Mankinde in his taking and destroying of Ierusalem using these words I take God witnesse I am not the cause of the destruction of this people but their sinnes mixing his words with teares and tempering his victorious successe with royall moderation The like is related of Marcus Marcellus who having wonne the most flourishing City of Syracusa stood upon the walls shedding plenty of teares before he shed any bloud And this Compassion attracts ever unto it a kinde of princely Majesty gaining more love than any other affection For as proud Spirits whose boundlesse ambition keepes them ever a-float till they sinke downe for altogether use to triumph in others miseries till misery in the end finde them out so these in a discreet moderation or noble temper will never assume more glory to themselves for any
is their love to the Court This moved his Highnesse of late to declare his gracious pleasure to our Gentry that all persons of ranke and quality should retire from the Citty and returne to their Countrey where they might bestowe that on Hospitality which the liberty of the time too much besotted with fashion and forraine imitation useth to disgorge on vanity Their ancient Predecessours whose chiefest glory it was to releeve the hungrie refresh the thirstie and give quiet repose to the weary are but accounted by these sweet-sented Humorists for men of rusticke condition meere home-spun fellowes whose rurall life might seeme to derogate from the true worth of a Gentleman whose onely humour is to be phantastically humorous O the misery of errour how farre hath vanity carried you astray ye generous spirits that you should esteeme noble bountie which consists not so much in Bravery as Hospitality boorish Rusticitie How much are you deluded by apish formalitie as if the only qualitie of a Gentleman were novell complement or as if there were no good in man besides some outlandish congie or salute Alas Gentlemen is this all that can be expected at your hands Must your Countrey which bred you your friends who love you the poore whose prayers or curses will attend you be all deprived of their hopes in you No rather returne to your Houses where you may best expresse your Bountie by entertaining into your bosome that which perchance hath beene long time estranged from you Charitie For beleeve it as assuredly yee shall finde it that your sumptuous Banquetting your midnight revelling your unseasonable rioting your phantasticke attiring your formall courting shall witnesse against you in the day of revenge For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with breacheâ— and the little house with clefts Returne therefore before the evill day come distribute to the Necessitie of the Saints become good Dispensers of what you have received that yee may gaine your selves grace in the high Court of Heaven But as for yee that put farre away the evill day and approach to the Seat of iniquitie Ye that sing to the sound of the Viâ—ll and invent your selves instruments of Musicke yee shall goe captive with the first that goe captive O miserie that Man with so beauteous an Image adorned with such exquisite ornaments of Art and Nature accomplished to so high a ranke above others advanced should delude himselfe so with the shade of vanitie as to become forgetfull of his chiefest glory But experience I doubt not will unseale those eyes which lightnesse and folly have blinded till which happie discovery of Youthfull errour I leave them and returne to my former Discourse You may perceive now how requisite Bountie is for a Gentleman being an especiall marke as I observed before whereby we may discerne him Amongst sundrie other Blessings conferred by God on Solomon this was not one of the least in that he gave him a large heart Not onely abundance of substance and treasure to possesse but a large heart to dispose Indeed this is a rare vertue worldlings there are who possesse much but they enjoy little becomming subject to that which they should command The difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one Carendo the other Non fruendo Of which two the greater misery is the latter for he slaves himselfe to the unworthiest Servitude being a Servant to obey where he should be a Master to command To conclude this point in a word if wee ought to shew such contempt to all earthly substance as hardly to entertaine it much lesse affect it let us make it a benefit let us shew humanitie in it by making choice of the poore on whom we may bestow it This which we waste in rioting might save many from famishing let us bestow therefore lesse of our own backs that we may cloth them lesse of our owne bellies that we may feed them lesse of our owne palats that we may refresh them For that 's the best and noblest bountie when our Liberalitie is on such bestowed by whom there is no hope that it should be required THe third and last marke whereby a true generous Disposition is distinguished is Fortitude or sloutnesse being indeed the argument of a prepared or composed minde which is not to be dismayed or disturbed by any sharpe or adverse thing how crosse or contrary soever it come Excellently is this Fortitude defined by the Stoicks terming it a vertue which standeth ever in defence of equitie not doing but repelling an injurie Those Heires of true Honour who are possest of this vertue dare oppose themselves to all occurrents in defence of reputation preferring death before servitude and dishonour If at any time as many times such immerited censures occurre they die for vertues cause they meet death with a cheerefull countenance they put not on a childish feare like that Bandite in Genoa who condemned to die and carried to the place of execution trembled so exceedingly that he had two men to support him all the way and yet he shivered extremely Or as Maldonatuâ—â— relates how he heard of those which saw a strongman at Paris condemned to death to sweat bloud for very feare proving out of Aristotle that this effect may bee naturall But these whose generous spirits scorne such basenesse never saw that enterprise which they durst not attempt nor that death which could amate them where Honour grounded on Vertue without which there is no true Honour moved them either to attempt or suffer But now to wipe off certaine aspersions laid on valour or fortitude wee are not to admit of all daring Spirits to be men of this ranke For such whose Ambition excites them to attempt unlawfull things as to depose those whom they ought to serve or lay violent hand on those whom loyall fidelitie bids them obey opposing themselves to all dangers to obtaine their purpose are not to be termed valiant or resolute but seditious and dissolute For unlesse the enterprise be honest which they take in hand be their Spirits never so resolute or their minds prepared it is rashnesse but not valour having their actions ever suted by dishonour Sometimes likewise the enterprize may be good and honest the cause for which they encounter with danger vertuous the Agents in their enterprize couragious yet the issue taste more of despaire than valour Example hereof wee have in the Macchabees in the death of Razis one of the Elders of Ierusalem a lover of the City and a man of very good report which for his love was called a Father of the Iewes One who did offer to spend his body and life with all constancie for the religion of the Iewes yet being ready to be taken on every side through the fury of Nicanor who so eagerly assaulted and hotly pursued him he fell on his Sword yea when his bloud was utterly
or conversation then where ill ones are affected and frequented MAny and singular were the commendations attributed to Augustus amongst which none more absolute then this As none was more slow in entertaining so none more firme or constant in reteining which agrees well with that of the Sonne of Sirach If thou gettest a friend prove him first and be not hasty to credit him But having found him we are to value him above great treasures the reason is annexed A faithfull friend is a strong defence and hee that findeth such a one findeth a treasure This adviseth every one to be no lesse wary in his choice then constant in the approvement of his choice so as it rests now that wee presie this point by Reasons and Authorities illustrating by the one and confirming by the other how consequent a thing it is to shew our selves constant in the choice of our Acquaintance There is no one thing more dangerous to the state of man or more infallibly proving fatall then lightnesse in entertaining many friends and no lesse lightly cashiering those who are entertained Which error I have observed to have borne principall sway in our new-advanced Heires whose onely ambition it is to be seene numerously attended phantastically attired and in the height of their absurdities humoured These are they who make choice of Acquaintance onely by outward habit or which is worse by roisting or ruffian behaviour with whom that false Armory of yellow Bands nittie Locks and braving Mouchato's have ever had choice acceptance And herein observe the misery of these depraved ones who having made choice of these mis-spenders of time and abusers of good gifts they will more constantly adhere to them then with better affected Consorts Oh that young Gentlemen would but take heed of falling unwarily upon these shelves who make shipwrack of their fortunes the remaines of their fathers providence yea not onely of their outward state which were well to be prevented lest misery or basenesse over-take them but even of their good names those precious odours which sweeten and relish the Pilgrimage of man For what more hatefull then to consort with these companions of death whose honour consists meerely in protests of Reputation and whose onely military garbe is to tosse a Pipe in stead of a Pike and to fly to the Tinderbox to give charge to their smoakie Ordnance to blow up the shallow-laid foundation of that shaken fortresse of their decayed braine these hot liver'd Salamanders are not for your company Gentlemen nor worthy your Acquaintance for of all companions those are the worthiest acceptance who are so humble-minded and well affected as they consort with others purposely to be bettered by them or being knowing men by their instructions to better them That course which the ancient Vestals observed such usefull Companions as these have ever seconded They first learned what to doe secondly they did what they had learned thirdly they instructed others to doe as they had learned Such as these were good Companions to Pray with to Play with to Converse or Commerce with First they are good to Pray with for such as these only were they who assembled together in one place imploying their time religiously in prayers supplications and giving of thankes and honouring him whom all Powers and Principalities doe honour with divine Melodie which was expressed not so much with the noise of the mouth as with the joyfull note of the heart nor with the sound of the lips as with the soule-solacing motion of the spirit nor with the consonance of the voice as with the concordance of the will For as the precious stone Diacletes though it have many rare and excellent soveraignties in it yet it loseth them all if it be put in a dead-mans mouth so Prayer which is the onely pearle and jewell of a Christian though it have many rare and exquisite vertues in it yet it loseth them every one if it be put into a dead-mans mouth or into a mans heart either that is dead in sinne and doth not knocke with a pure hand So many rare presidents have former times afforded all most inimitable in this kind as to make repetition of them would crave an ample volume wee will therefore onely touch some speciall ones whose devotion hath deserved a reverence in us towards them and an imitation in us after them Nazianzin in his Epitaph for his sister Gorgonia writeth that she was so given to Prayer that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth and to grow to the very ground by reason of incessancie or continuance in Prayer so wholly was this Saint of God dedicated to devotion Gregory in his Dialogues writeth that his Aunt Trasilla being dead was found to have her elbowes as hard as horne which hardnesse she got by leaning to a deske at which shee used to pray so continued was the devotion of a zealous professor Eusebius in his History writeth that Iames the brother of our Lord had knees as hard as Camels knees benummed and bereaved of all sense and feeling by reason of continuall kneeling in Prayer so sweet was this Taske undertaken for Gods honour where practice made that an exercise or solace which the sensuall man maketh a toyle or anguish Hierome in the life of Paul the Eremite writeth that hee was found dead kneeling upon his knees holding up his hands lifting up his eyes so that the very dead corps seemed yet to live and by a kind of zealous and religious gesture to pray still unto God So transported or rather intraunced was the spirit of this lovely Dove as even in death hee expressed the practice of his life These followed Augustines rule in their forme of Prayer seeke saith he what you seeke but seeke not where you seeke Seeke Christ that 's a good what Seeke what you seeke but seeke him not in bed that is an ill where But seeke not where you seeke Moses found Christ not in a soft bed but in a bramble bush For as wee cannot goe to heaven on beds of down no more can these devotions pierce heaven which are made on beds of down Albeit every place is good for as no place is freed from occcasion of sinne so no place should be free from Prayer which breaketh downe the Partition wall of our sinne But certainely those downie Prayers taste too much of the flesh to relish well of the spirit for as he is a delicate Master who when his belly is full disputeth of fasting so hee is a sensuall Prayer who in his bed onely addresseth himselfe to devotion Neither are these onely good companions to pray with but also to play with I meane to recreate and refresh our minds with when at any time pressed or surcharged either with cares of this world or in our discontinuance from more worthy and glorious Meditations of the world to come for as in the former wee are usually plunged so by the latter wee are commonly
ruine and misery who drinke till they be inflamed and delight themselves in the pleasures of sinne Secondly whatsoever relisheth of vanity ministers him objects of content to feed the unsatiate concupiscene of his eyes which eyes like Dinah stray from him fixing themselves upon some vaine object which suits ever best with his choice who owes them and so conveyes some present but perfunctorie delight unto him As if he be covetous they shew him Naboths vineyard if wanton a beauteous Bersheba or the sandals of Iudith which ravished the eyes of Holophornes if dainty-tooth'd Iacobs red pottage if proud the silkes of Tyre in briefe they fit every one with an object according to his condition Lastly whatsoever may minister content to the proud and high-minded man who walkes upon his Turrets saying Is not this great Babel which I have builded is suggested to him putting him in minde of Hamans honour but never of Hamans Ladder telling him of Balthazar 's birth-day whereon he feasted royally but never of his last day whereon hee died fearefully shewing him Herods garment which shone as the Sunne and of his applause The voice of God and not of man but never of the eclipse of that sunne when hee became so loathsome as his smell could be endured by no man Now to propose our rules of limitation in the Moderation of these As we are commanded to subdue the flesh with those inordinate affections which arise from the infirmitie thereof so are wee not enjoyned to kill the flesh for so should we digresse from the rule of humanity for no man hateth his owne flesh but loveth and cherisheth it No our righteousnesse in this life which may be rather said to consist in the Remission of sinnes than perfection of vertues as it is to be furthered by all ordinary and direct meanes so are we not to transgresse that law line or limit which is prescribed Wee must not cut off our members with a knife but our carnall affections with a holy and mortified life Whence it is that Origen was justly punished by using too little diligence where there was great need because hee used too great diligence where there was little need For gelding himselfe hee prevented himselfe of a greater conquest for there is no mastery to get the mastery of sinne through disabilitie For as hee that surceaseth but then from sinne when hee can sinne no more forsaketh not his sinnes but his sinnes forsake him so he who disableth himselfe for committing sinne lest his abilitie should draw him to sinne disableth not his sinnes but his sinnes disable him for howsoever he hath disabled the act of sinne he hath not supprest the occasion which resteth not so much in the act as in the desire to sinne No lesse worthy was Democritus errour of reproving who was blinded before he was blind for a Christian need not put out his eyes for feare or seeing a woman since howsoever his bodily eye see yet still his heart is blinde against all unlawfull desires The princely Prophet saith indeed Lord turne away my eyes from vanity but this turning doth not so much imply the looke of the eye as the lust or assent of the heart Neither is it so requisite to make a covenant with our eyes that they shall not looke upon a woman as to make a covenant with our hearts that they may never lust after a woman In like sort if any intemperate or immoderate desire to luscious fare or delicious drinke should surprize us whose subtill fumes unrivet each joynt of the memory and loosen the cement which held it fast for you shall ever note as I said before that deepe drinkers have but shallow memories wee are so to prevent the abuse that we contemn not the moderate and healthfull use of them For as to use them in excesse is to abuse them so not to use them at all is to contemne or neglect Gods providence in them Wee must not say with the Epicure Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall die but rather let us eat and drinke as if to morrow wee should die remembring that strict account which every one must give of the use or abuse of Gods creatures for it is not the use but abuse which produceth sinne So as Thracius whom I formerly touched and of whom Aulus Gellius writeth covertly glancing at his folly was for any thing that I can see even at that time most of all drunken when he cut downe all his vines lest he should be drunken Likewise in the quest or pursuit of honour as it is ambition to hunt after it undeserved so it is the most apparent testimonie of true and approved vertue to obtaine it undesired For this reluctancy to receiving of honour can never bee without some mixture of pride for they would have the world to observe how well they deserve it and againe their humility which is seldome in these without some tincture of vaine-glory in that they so little desire it So as these popular and firie spirits whose only aymes are to dignifie themselves deserve no sharper curbe for over-valuing them selves than these who pride themselves in their humilitie deserve for counterfeiting a kind of debasing or dis-valuing of themselves to the eye of the world Whence I might take occasion to speake of those precise Schismaticks who cannot endure any precedency or priority of place to be in the Church but an equalitie of Presbyterie nay what is now growne amongst them to a more desperate frenzy their maine worke is to advance a Lay-presbytery which till by Farel and Viret from the Chymera's of a vaporous or viperous brain hatched was never dreamed but I wil leave them to a sharper censure til they be throughly cured of their distemper Now for the second motive to sinne which is the Concupiscence of the eye as it is so to be moderated that it stray not so should it bee so directed that it sleepe not sleepe not I say in the survey of that for which it was created The eye strayeth when it coveteth what it should not it sleepeth when it retireth from what it should it strayeth when it lusteth after a strange woman it sleepeth when it readeth not the law of God to reclaime it from lusting after a strange woman it strayeth when it lusts after Naboths vineyard it sleepeth when it lookes not after Gods vineyard Neither is the eye so to be limited as if contemplation were only intended for as it is not sufficient to pray unlesse we practise as well as pray so is it not sufficient to looke upon the Law unlesse wee live after the Law on which we looke Wee read that Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of Macpelah that is in a double Sepulcher He that burieth his mind in knowledge onely without any care of practice he buries Sarah in a single Sepulcher but he that buries his mind as well in the practice
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
wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is
Deity All other Objects are vanity They may play upon your fantasie and so delude you but being weakely grounded on piety they can never suffice you Taske your selves then privately lest privacy become your enemy As mans extremity is Gods opportunity so the Divels opportunity is mans security Let not a minute bee mis-spended lest security become your attendant Bee it in the exercise of your Needle or any other manuall employment attemper that labour with some sweet meditation tending to Gods honour Chuse rather with Penelope to weave and unweave than to give Idlenesse the least leave Wanton Wooers are time-wasters They make you idolize your selves and consequently hazzardize the state of your soules Let not their Lip-salve so annoynt you as it make you forgetfull of him that made you Bee you in your Chambers or private Closets bee you retired from the eyes of men thinke how the eyes of God are on you Doe not say the walls encompasse mee darkenesse o're-shadowes mee the Curtaine of night secures me these be the words of an Adulteresse Therefore doe nothing privately which you would not doe publikely There is no retire from the eyes of God I have heard of some who for want of more amorous or attractive Objects abroad have furnished their private Chambers with wanton pictures Aretine tables Sibariticke stories These were no objects for Christian eyes they convey too inordinate an heat from the eye to the heart The history of Christ is a peece of portraiture that will suite your Chambers best Eye no object which may estrange you from thought of your Maker Make every day your Ephemerides Let your morning initiate your purposes for the day the day second what your morning purposed the Evening examine your mornings purpose your dayes purchase And so I descend to the next branch how you are to behave your selves in publike which should be by so much more punctuall for as much as the world is more Stoicall WOmen in sundry Countryes when they goe into any publike concourse or presse of people use to weare vayles to imply that secret inscreened beauty which best becomes a Woman Bash-full modesty Which habit our owne Nation now in latter yeares hath observed which howsoever the intention of the wearer appeare deserves approvement because it expresseth in it selfe Modest shamefastnesse a Womans chiefest Ornament I second his opinion who held it for divers maine respects a custome very irregular an undecent that Women should frequent places of publike resort as Stage-playes Wakes solemne Feasts and the like It is Occasion that depraves us Company that corrupts us Hence it was that some flourishing States having eyed the inconveniences which arise from the usuall resort of Women to Enterludes and other publike Solemnities published an expresse inhibition against such free and frequent meetings Had Hippodamia never wandred shee had prov'd an Hypemnestra and had never wantoned Had Dinah never roaved shee had prov'd a Diana and had never beene ravished Yet farre bee it from me to bee so regularly strict or Laconically severe as to exclude Women from all publike societies Meetings they may have and improve them by a Civill and Morall use of them to their benefit They may chat and converse with a modest freedome so they doe not gossip it For these Shee-Elpenors and Feminine Epicures who surfet our their time in an unwomanly excesse wee exclude them the pale of our Common-weale Bee they of what state soever they are staines to their Sexe for ever Especially such who carouse it in deepe healths rejoyce at the colour of the wine till it sparkle in their veines inflame their bloods and lay open a breach to the frailty of their Sexe For prevention whereof wee reade that kinsmen kissed their kinswomen to know whether they drunke wine or no and if they had to bee punished by death or banished into some Iland Plutarch saith that if the Matrons had any necessity to drinke wine either because they were sicke or weake the Senate was to give them licence and not then in Rome neither but out of the City Macrobius saith that there were two Senators in Rome chiding and the one called the others wife an Adulteresse and the other his wife a Drunkard and it was judged that to bee a drunkard was more infamy Truth is they might joyne hands as mates of one society for I have seldome seene any one subject to Ebriety preserve long untainted the honour of their chastity Now for publike Employments I know all are not borne to bee Deborahs to beare virile spirits in feminine bodies Yet in chusing the better part you may fit and accommodate your persons to publike affaires well sorting and suting with your ranke and quality Claudia and Priscilla were nobly descended yet they publikely resorted where they might bee religiously instructed and no lesse publikely instructed others in those principles wherein they were informed It is said of the Vestall Virgins that they first learned what to doe secondly they did what they had learned thirdly they instructed others to doe that which they had both done and learned For this the rich Saban Queene left her owne Region to heare the Wisdome of King Salomon Surely howsoever some no lesse properly than pregnantly have emblematiz'd Woman by a Snaile because shee still carries her house about her as is the property of a good House-keeper yet in my judgement wherein I ingenuously submit to others censure a modest and well Behaved Woman may by her frequent or resort to publike places conferre no lesse benefit to such as observe her behaviour than occasion of profit to her private family where shee is Over-seer I have seene some in these places of publike repaire expresse such a well-seeming State without Apish formality as every action deserved imitation of such as were in their Company Their Conceits were sweetly tempered without lightnesse their jests savory yet without saltnesse their discourse free without nicenesse their answers milde without tartnesse their smile pleasing mixt with bashfulnesse their pace gracefull without too much activenesse their whole posture delightfull with a seemely carelesnesse These are such mirrors of modesty patternes of piety as they would not for a world transgresse the bounds of Civility These are Matrons in their houses Models in publike places Words spoken in season are like apples of gold with pictures of silver So opportunately are their words delivered so seasonably uttered with such unaffected eloquence expressed wheresoever this sweet and well-tempered discretion is seated Whereas others there be whose indiscretion makes discovery of an Ocean of words but a drop of reason They speake much but expresse little their conceits are ever ballased with harshnesse their jests foisted in with too much dulnesse their discourse trimmed up with too much neatnesse their answers leavened with too much sowrenesse their lookes promising too much lightnesse or unsociable perversenesse their pace either too quicke or too slow in dispatch of busines their whole posturean indisposed
of them their highest cure They have found such choice flowers as they afford more spirituall delight to the soule than any visible flowers or odours doe to the smell And what are these but divine and morall precepts soveraigne instructions which have taught them how to contemne earth conquer death and aspire unto eternity These by a continued custome or frequent converse with heavenly things cannot now conceive any object to bee worthy their beholding on earth Fashions may bee worne about them but little observed by them The WEDDING GARMENT is their desired raiment This they make ready for the Nuptiall day the meditation whereof so transports them as nothing below heaven can possesse them It is not beauty which they prize for they daily and duely consider the Prophets words All faces shall gather blacknesse Againe they remember the threats which God denounceth upon beautifull but sinfull Niniveh I will discover thy skirts upon thy face This makes them seriously to consider the dangerous quality of sinne and to apply Ninivehs salve to their sore that wine of Angels the teares of repentance Which howsoever it is as one wittily observes Every mans medicine an universall Antidote that makes many a Mithridates venture on poison yet works it not this banefull effect with these for their affections are so sweetly tempered their hearts so truly tendred as they make not Repentance security to delinquents They well remember that Aphorisme of spirituall Physicke As hee that sinnes in hope of remission feeds distemperature to seeke a Physician so hee that repents with a purpose of sinning shall finde an eternall place to repent in These who thus belull themselves in the downe-beds of security labour of an irreparable Lethargy They make bold to sinne as if they were sure to repent But the medicine was made for the wound not the wound for the medicine We must not suffer our selves voluntarily to bee wounded in hope we have to bee cured but prevent the meanes that wee may atteine a more glorious end The choicest receipt the chiefest antidote then is to prevent the meanes or occasion of sinne which if at any time wee commit to infuse the balme of repentance into it which seasonably applyed may minister a soveraigne salve to our sore so wee intend our care to so consequent a cure Come then Gentlewomen beginne now at last to reflect on your owne worth Vnderstand that Gentility is not knowne by what you weare but what you are Consider in what member soever your Creator is most offended in that shall every sinner bee most tormented Remember how the time shall come and then shall your time bee no time when the Moath shall bee your underlining and the Worme your covering Trimmâ— your selves then with an inward beauty that a glorious Bridegroome may receive you Fashion your selves to his image whom you represent That Fashion onely will extend the date of time and crowne you with immortality after time These who have their judgements in their eyes may admire you for your Cloaths but those who have their eyes in their heads will onely prize you by your inward worth Were it not a poore Ensigne of Gentility to hang up a phantasticke fashion to memorize your vanity after death So live that you may ever live in the memory of the good It will not redound much to your honour to have observed the fashions of the time but to have redeemed your time to have dedicated your selves to the practice of vertue all your time to have beene Mirrors of modesty to your succeeding sexe to have dis-valued the fruitlesse flourish of fading vanity for the promising hopes of a blessed eternity O Eternity eternity let this ever emphatically sound in your memory Supply then that in you which bleered judgements expect without you You challenge precedency in place expresse your selves worthy of that place Vertue will make you farre more honoured than any garish habit can make you admired The one is a Spectacle of derision the other of true and generous approbation This you shall doe if you season your desires with discretion if you temper your excursive thoughts and bring them home with a serious meditation of your approaching dissolution It is said of the Palme tree that when it growes dry and fruitlesse they use to apply ashes to the root of it and it forthwith recovers that the peacefull Palmes of your vertuous mindes may flourish ever that their branches may ever blossome and never wither apply unto their roots the ashes of mortification renue them with some sweet and soveraigne meditation That when you shall returne to your mother Earth those that succeed you may collect how you lived while you were on Earth by making these living actions of your Gentility happy Precursors to your state of glory FOuntaines are best distinguished by their waters Trees by their fruits and Generous bloods by their actions There are inbred seeds of goodnesse saith the Philosopher in every good man and these will finde time to expresse themselves It was Davids testimony of himselfe From my youth up have I loved thy Law An excellent prerogative given him and with no lesse diligence improved by him Now these Native seeds as they are different so are the fruits which come of them variously disposed Some have a rellish of true and generous bounty wherein they shew that noble freedome to their owne in their liberality towards others as their very actions declare unto the world their command and soveraignty over the things of this world Others discover their noble disposition by their notable pitty and compassion These will estrange themselves from no mans misery If they cannot succour him they will suffer with him Their bosomes are ever open with pittifull Zenocrates to receive a distressed one Over a vanquish'd foe they scorne to insult or upon a dejected one to triumph They have teares to partake with the afflicted and reall expressions of joy to share with the relieved Others shew apparant arguments of their singular moderation abstemious are these in their dishes temperate in their Companies moderate in their desires These wonder at the rioters of this time how they consume their daies in sensuality and uncleannesse Their account is farre more straight their expence more strait but their liberty of mind of an higher straine Cloathes they weare but with that decency as curiosity cannot taxe them meats they partake but with that temperance as delicacy cannot tempt them Others from their Cradle become brave sparkes of valour their very Childhood promiseth undoubted tokens of succeeding honour These cannot endure braves nor affronts Generous resolution hath stampt such deepe impressions in their heroicke mindes as fame is their ayme which they hunt after with such constancy of spirit as danger can neither amate them nor difficulty avert them from their resolves Others are endued with a naturall pregnancy of wit to whom no occasion is sooner offered than some dainty expression must second
publike places So as I much condemne their opinion who hold no meanes so fitting to bring their daughters to audacity as a frequent consort with Company This in time begets in them rather impudence than boldnesse It was held a touch to a Maid to bee seene talking with any one in a publike place But in private Nurseries which may bee properly termed your houshold Academies it will suit well with your honours to treat and enter into Conference one with another or in such places where your owne sexe is onely conversant For such indiscreet Mothers who usually trim and deck their daughters to send them forth to Showes Meetings or Enterludes they annoint havin with oyle that it may burne the better But much more blame-worthy bee those who take them along to Tavernes and gossippings which Education a little time will bring into custome and make modesty a stranger to her selfe For above all things saith the Philosopher ought young Girles to bee kept from Ebriety which hee confirmes with this reason It is good saith hee for young men and maids to bee kept from wine lest such become afterwards protest drunkards profuse rioters and prodigall exposers of their honour the maine occasion whereof are their parents by meanes of their ill instruction and worse example It is the very first instruction that takes the deepest impression how necessary then is it for you Gentlewomen whose sexe is the Embleme of weakenesse and whose best resolves are oft-times weakned by youthfull promises to furnish your blooming youth with wholesome instructions and so to improve them that they may increase in vigour as you doe in stature This your sexe exacts of you this your present estate requires of you and this shall easily bee effected by you if having as is to bee presupposed discreet and religious Mothers you submit your selves in all humble obedience to their direction For as it is very hard for any one to know how to command unlesse she know first how to obey so will it bee unto you to performe the office of a Mother if you never knew the duty of a daughter Strict and severe may those Commands seeme to your youth which riper age will easily digest Againe you that are Mothers become patternes of modesty unto your daughters Your living actions are the lines of their direction While they are under your command the error is yours not theirs if they goe astray Their honour should bee one of the principall'st things you are to tender neither can it bee blemished without some touch to your Credit I have knowne some inconsiderate mothers and those none of the lowest ranke or quality who either out of a confidence they had of their daughters good carriage or drawn with the hopes of some rich Suitors to advance their marriage have usually given too free way to opportunity which brought upon their daughters names a spreading infamy Your instructions will doe well with them till society deprave them divert then the occasion so shall your daughters bee they never so poore have good portions of reputation Suffer not then those who partake of your image to lose their best beauty Sigh then if they bee soyled for their shame must bee on you aspersed Grace is a pure balme and consequently requires a pure and sound vessell In vaine is it infused if the vessell bee not whole and found to preserve it It must bee pure that what is infused into it bee not polluted it must bee sound that what is poured into it bee not effused and it must bee deep that it may bee more capacious in receiving of what is infused into it Looke then to your own actions these must informe them Looke to your owne examples these must confirme them Without you they cannot perish with you they may What will you doe with the rest that is left when you see a part of your selfe lost The Harpie hath the face of a man but a Bird so cruell by nature as when shee is an hungry shee will assault any man and kill him After which bloudy repast shee becomes thirsty so as going to the River to quench it shee sees her owne face and recalling to mind how it resembles him whom shee flew she conceives such griefe as shee dyes therewith If your Education or instruction deprave those who derive their beginning from you the resemblance of this story may have proper relation unto you But if your pious examples enable them their proficiency in vertue shall ennoble you your comforts shall bee multiplyed in them your hopes seconded by them and to your ever-living fames the memory of your vertues preserved by them Let not that adage prove true in respect of your Charge The most precious things have ever the most pernicious Keepers Nothing more precious than a Virgins honour it were shame for the mother to prove a Tarpeian or treacherous keeper That Conceit was elegantly expressed by the Emperour Charles the fifth in his instructions to the King his sonne That Fortune had somewhat of the nature of a woman that if shee bee too much woo'd shee is the farther off But I hope I shall not finde that aversenesse in you I have wooed you in words expresse your selves wonne by the testimony of your workes I would not follow the indiscretion of Empericks which minister the same medicines to all Patients I know well that such Physicke as agrees with age would not agree with the hot constitution of youth To either sort therefore have I applyed my severall receits and to both doe I addresse my conclusion Let the whole progresse of your Conversation bee a continued Line of instruction Let the mother discharge her office in commanding and that without too much rigour or indulgence Let the daughter performe her duty in obeying with all faithfull and filiall observance So shall honour grace you here and glory crowne you there with an heavenly inheritance THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN Argument Honour is painted when it is not with vertue powdred No cloth takes such deepe tincture as the cloth of honour Honourable personages should bee presidents of goodnesse Vertue or vice wether soever takes hold first reteines a deeper impression in honour than any lower subject That vertue may receive the first impression by means of an in-bred noble disposition seconded by helpes of Education Which reduc'd to habit aspires to perfection HONOUR PRomotion discovers what men bee but true Honour shewes what they should be That is fed with a desire of being great this is inflam'd with a noble emulation of being good It is a miserable thing to observe what brave and heroicke Spirits whose resolutions neither danger could amate nor any disaster perplexe have beene madded with an ambitious quest after Honour what difficulties they incountred what oppositions they suffered what intricate pasâ—ages and provinces they entertained Corrivals they could not want in their rising nor Envyers of their greatnesse in their setling nor Spectators to rejoyce at their setting
may attaine a more glorious end That onely deserves your love which shall make you for ever live Vertue if you love her and live with her by becomming your survivor will crowne your happy memory with succeeding honour IT is usually observ'd that Hawkes of one Ayrie are not of one nature Some are more metall'd others more lazy As in Birds so in all other Creatures Livia and Iulia Angustus his daughters were sisters but of different natures Some there are who even from their infancy have such excellent seeds of native goodnesse sowne in them as their dispositions cannot rellish ought that is irregular In arguments of discourse they are moderate in Company temperate in their resolves constant in their desires continent in their whole course or carriage absolute Others naturally so perverse that like our humorous Ladies they can affect nought that others love nor rellish ought that others like The byas of their fancy runnes still on the fashion their tongue a voluble Engine of feminine passion their resolves full of uncertainty and alteration The whole Enterlude of their life a continued Act of femallfollies It were hard to winne these to the love of vertue or those to delight in vice This might easily bee illustrated by divers memorable instances personated in such who from their very Cradle became seriously devoted to a religious privacy supplying their want of bookes wherein they were meerely ignorant with a devout and constant meditation of Gods works wherein they employed their whole study Industrious were their hands in labouring and bounteous were they in bestowing A native compassion lodged in their hearts which they expressed in their charitable workes Hospitality to the stranger and needy beggar was their highest honour Suffer they would the height of all extremes ere they would suffer the desolate to want reliefe So strongly were their affections fortifi'd against the assaults of an imperious Lover as death was to them a cheerfull object to preserve their high-priz'd honour Such singular effects as these have beene usually produced by an innate noble disposition so as some of these whom wee have here cursorily shadowed were endowed with such virile spirits as they stickt not to spit in the face of tyranny others were not abash'd to disfigure their owne beauty lest it should become an adulterers booty In these had vertue taken such deepe impression as nothing could deepely touch them but what trenched on their reputation Though by nature they were timorous and inconstant resolution had so prepar'd them as they became discreetly valiant looking death in the face without feare and embracing her stroke as a favour Doe you admire this in them Imitate them and you shall bee no lesse by succeeding times honoured than these in ours admired Conceive your life to bee an intricate Labyrinth of affliction the very anvill whereon the heavy hammer of misery incessantly beateth Reflect on your birth and you shall perceive how you give the world a good morrow with griefe Looke at your death how you bid the world good night with a groane Ioy then cannot bee long lasting when you are daily taking leave of the place where you live which now though living you are leaving Besides no continued hope of comfort can bee expected where feare presents her selfe an inseparable attendant Feare has command o're subject and o're King Feare has no Phere seare's an imperious thing To allay which feare addresse your selves to that most which may give you occasion of fearing least And what may that receipt be A minde purely refin'd from the corruption of this infectious time Meditate therefore of that never fading beauty that is within you Labour to preserve it from the injury of all incroaching Assailants If your flesh with any painted flourish of light Rhetoricke wooe her timely prevent her before shee winne her If the world with her Lure of honour command or the like seeke to draw her reclaime her lest vanity surprize her If her profest Enemy labour to undermine her make knowne his long-profest enmity unto her that a vigilant circumspection may arme her Admit your dispositions become sometimes averse from the practice of that which you should most affect divert the Current of them You love liberty confine it to moderate restraint You affect honour curbe it with a serious meditation of your owne frailty You desire to gather sowe your bread upon the water Charity will bring you quickly to a better temper You admire gorgeous attire remember the occasion how you first became cloathed had not sinne beene these poore habiliments had never needed Doth delicate fare delight you Consider how it is the greatest misery to pamper that delicately or cherish it with delicacy that is your mortall and profest enemy Doe wanton consorts worke on your fancy Cure betime this dangerous phrenzy Avert your eye lest it infect your heart Converse with reason and avoid nothing more than occasion Doe you finde your affections troubled or to passion stirred Retire a little from your selves attemper that boyling heat which workes so violently on you and in the end resolve thus It will redound more to our honour to bridle anger than to engage our discretions by giving reynes to our distemper Can you not see your Neighbours field flourish without an Envious Eye Of all others expulse this soonest because of all others it partakes of the Divell the nearest As you are commanded to love him as your selves so with not that evill unto him which you would not have to fall upon your selves Lastly doe you finde a remisnesse in you to any employment that is good Shake off this naturall dulnesse and inflame your affections with a Divine ferventnesse You have hitherto beene slow in doing good shew that in doing ill Meane time with the wings of holy and heavenly desires mount from earth to heaven plant your affections above though your pilgrim dimensions bee here below Which the better to facilitate reteine ever in your memory this devout Memoriall or Meditation Think whence you came and bee ashamed where you are and bee aggrieved where you goe to and bee affrighted Every way wherein you walke as it is full of snares so should it bee full of eyes Those two roots of inordinate feare and inordinate love have brought many to the brinke of misery by plunging their mindes in the puddles of vanity Looke about you snares you shall finde within you snares without you Snares on your right hand and those deceitfull Prosperity in affaires temporall In which such persons are usually taken and surprized by whom the benefits of God are abused As the Rich when hee bestowes his wealth in attiring himselfe sumptuously the Mighty in oppressing the needy the Amorous or Lovely in giving others occasion to bee taken with their beauty Whence the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet Thou hast made thy beauty abhominable Snares likewise on your Left hand and those fearefull Adversity in affaires in temporall
to stoope unto them Shee can love well but lest shee should repent soone and that too late shee will try before shee trust have some reason to like before shee love Shee holds that FANCY a Frenzy which is onely led by Sense Shee makes Reason her Guide that Content may bee her Goale Long time shee debates with Love before ever she give Love her heart which done shee confirmes the bargaine with her hand Her Constancy shee displayes in this Impreze My Choyce admits no change GENTILITY is not her boast but that which dignifies that title most Titles from Ancestors derived and by their Successors actions not revived Shee holds degenerously usurped Vertue is her soveraignesse in whose service to live and die shee holds the absolutest happinesse Gentry shee thinkes best graced by affability To bee surly derogates as much from her worth as basenesse from Nobility of birth Her Linage is best distinguish'd by her Crest her worth by her selfe Her desert gives life to her descent Not an action comes from her but excellently becomes her Shee ever reflects on the House from whence shee came whose antiquity shee ennobles with numerous expressions of piety from the rising height of which increase shee drawes this Christian Impreze Desert Crownes Descent HONOUR shee deserves more than desires This shee may admit but not admire Weake shee holds that foundation of HONOUR where vertue is not a supporter That antick portrature of State must needes decline where piety beares not up the traine The more HONOUR that is conferr'd on her makes her the humbler shee cloathes not her Looke with a disdainfull scorne nor clouds her brow with an imperious frowne Farre more esteemes shee the title of goodnesse than greatnesse Shee holds nothing more worthy of her approving than a daily drawing nearer to Perfection by her vertuous living Her whole Pilgrimage is nothing else than to shew unto the world what is most requisite for a great Personage In a word shall wee take a re-view of her Noble carriage in each of our Observances For the first she is fashionably neat for the second formally discreet for the third civilly complete for the fourth amiably decent for the fifth precious in repute for the sixth affectionately constant for the seventh generously accommodated for the eighth honourably accomplished Whence it is that shee impalls her diuinall race with this imperiall Impreze Honour is Vertues Harbour Goe on then shee may with Honour seeing the King in her beauty takes such pleasure A Divine presage of promising goodnesse was her infancy A continuate practice of piety was her youth and maturity The cloze of her Pilgrimage a calme passage from frailty to felicity Longer would the earth keepe her but so should shee bee kept from that which shee values farre better Her Husband cannot stay long behind seeing his better part is gone before FINIS APPENDIX VPON A FORMER supposed Impression of this TITLE DUring my late and long abode in the Countrey I was advertised by a friend from the Universitie that my ENGLISH GENTLEMAN was matched in the Citie Which report did not a little perplexe me that one so tenderly nursed carefully nurtured and by the testimony of all such as did judiciously know him absolutely accomplished should without his Fathers consent become tide whom a generous Liberty had made free Besides all this I was infinitely troubled with the feare of his Choice For thought I should he now bee married to some Young-roisting-minx who ne're knew what providence meant but intended more the tricking and trimming of her selfe than decking or dressing of her Soule who makes it her sole taske to sacrifice the Morning to her Glasse the Mid-day to the Stage the Evening to a Light Consort or recre-banket and so spin out her time in a sensuall surfeit how would this distemper him and consequently dis-rellish them who treasured up their hopes in him This begot in me diverse resolves which were seconded with a fresh fally of doubts and feares Sometimes I resolved if the Match were not already concluded nor the rites solemnized to forbid the baines lest it should bee his bane so rashly to contract before hee had his parents consent But I feared lest this might have the selfe-same issue which that cashiered Souldier had who having bestowed seven yeares and more in service with the States and now returning home and comming on a Holiday to the Parish church where hee was borne hee might heare the baines of matrimony published betwixt one who bare his owne wives name and another to whom shee was to bee espoused as hee rightly conceived So as impatient of farther delay hee forbad the baines but to no purpose for though shee bare her name shee was not his wife whom hee heard published for his owne wife was long before to the Curate of the Parish solemnly contracted All this while recollecting my senses and adding spirit to my resolves I began a fresh thus to expostulate with my selfe Admit this Young Gentleman were married and by his Choice disparaged were it not in the compasse of our Lawes to redresse it Yes for thought I her carriage will not bee so faire but one may take advantage of it and consequently procure a divorce by it Or should her circumspect levity bee such as none could discover it nor taxe her demeanure for it yet presumptions and Probabilities exemplified with fat fees would bring her to a discovery and in short time produce a Nullity Records upon due search had they not of late either subtilely or tumultuously beene defaced I needed little doubt but they would furnish me with Eminent instances of this kind which being feelingly pressed would become very prevalent before a Conceiving Court. Besides I might justly insert this in the course of my pleading as a sufficient ground or motive to Separation pregnant proofe I have of a precontract betwixt this ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN and HIM which marriage though it were not solemnized with an externall rite yet by mutuall consent was it confirmed and reciprocally plighted with a ceremonious entergage of hand and heart But I held it fittest to addresse my course to the place before I resolved of the materiall points of my pleas And first to conferre with my Gentleman himselfe that I might understand by him how hee stood affected and whether his owne relation would confirme what erring report had so constantly bruited But to my comfort as I left him so I found him of too discreet a temper to bee taken with any such counterfeit Creature Such reports hee ingenuously confess'd there were dispersed But what am I said hee by these disparaged My untainted honour is neither improv'd nor impeach'd by rumour Hee builds weakely who reares his foundation on the opinion of the vulgar Have you ever seene me so lightly enamoured as to preferre either face or habit before a deserving Spirit Did you ever injoyne mee that morall Embassie which I have not faithfully performed Or imposed on mee that taske
to see a declining Chrone who had liv'd long enough to number her dayes and whose aged furrowes had return'd a numerous Arithmeticke of expended yeares play the wanton in a love-sicke expression could not chuse but beget more sensible motives of derision then affection This suites well with that old prediction When age casts her slough and takes on her youth When old chrones breed young bones and are swelling Th' Antipodes here and we to their sphere Must both in a yeare change our dwelling There be other inducements too which are of force to re-tardate affection and these are such holding Remora's as wee cannot possibly saile fairely nor arrive safely nor partake the fâ—uition of our hopes freely nor enjoy our freedome fully so long as these distance us from the object of our fancy I would be said that discreet Lover individually ti'd to thee but that one tie divides me from thee And what was this but that lineall tie of consanguinitie which restrained them from the tie of conjugall fancie This legall tie of honour that Amorist more elegantly expressed in this manner Had you the beautie of Helena the presence of Cleopatra the spirit of Penthisilea those endowments of Zenobia those fortunes of Nicaula the majestie of Sophonisba those melting kisses moving embraces of Myrrha And that my owne fancy should make choice of you for my Bride yet have weâ— a Mother that would forbid the banes That sacred bond of the Church divided him from his choice Love must hold a distance where devotion will not admit of the allyance In this Expression of affection what may seeme boldnesse in the woman may comply well with the qualitie of the man If there were bashfulnesse on both sides love might hold a perpetuall progresse and to her Palace of pleasure never be admitted to have accesse Yet to veile both with more modesty and Phidias-like draw a more artfull curtaine to shroud fancy with more reserved privacy Lovers use to supply this expression with the office of their pen which as it cannot blush so it can usually more amply inlarge it selfe by writing then the perplexed Secretary may in modesty doe by discoursing And to returne a president of this because Subjects of this nature are best graced when grounded on examples I shall here propose the conceit of one who both for state stile and subject may well deserve not onely your approbation but imitation in this kind Lines used to be those lights which gave direction and accesse to the seat of love But where constancy of affection seconds a profession of Zeale that Mistresse was accompted too remorselesse who entertained not his suite with a promising smile and confirmed not that smile with a pleasing consent Honours fortunes all have beene already prostrate Your selfe made the sole object without the least reflex to any by-respect Nothing could be proposed that might render you satisfaction which was not embraced with a firme and loyall affection To close with your desires was the crowne of my content This was my highest ambition For had present fortunes power to have withdrawne me or possibilitie to have over-wrought me or the faire and free tenders of powerfull Allyes to have prevailed with me beleeve it Dearest I might long before this time have fixed and planted my choice on an object of fancy But how selectly and sincerely I have reserved my selfe for you since those ample demonstrances of that gracefull and affectionate favour received from you I will appeale to any candid or equall relatour in the world O spin then no longer time Mutuall be our consents as they expect mutually immutable joyes Tell me Deare one were it not better to be fixt then daily removing Fix on your owne condition Though your affable and humble nature which highly improves your honour may beget in you this incomparable temper if you would please but to recollect your discreeter and more composeâ— thoughts you should finde great distinction betwixt this fixed and that your present unsetled condition This may suite well with some disposition but me thinkes it should not poize evenly in the scale of your discretion Some may happely feed their hopes with A day will come now were it not more happinesse to you to see that day shine upon your owne wherein the world may have cause to blesse you both Church and commonwealth be improved by you and your selfe amply partake in those living comforts which derive their birth and breath from you Let me receive one line for a linke to combine this love As it shall infinitly transport me in the perusall so it shall incomparably solace you in the happy consummation of that nuptiall which shall confirme me Legally and loyally yours Thus you see what expressions deliver themselves with most modesty when the pen becomes their Secretary And how unbeseeming an Oratour Love is when she wooes with too bold a face Hence you may collect what beautie accompanies a bashfull looke what an attractive fancy to a modest eye derives it selfe from a civill dresse And how entire love is best exprest when with crimson blushes most deprest These beget in a discreet temper more favour then a leering looke a wanton habit or light expression shall ever recover SECTION VI. Their violence upon such as were Corrivalls in their choice HIs judicious observation closeth equally with our experience who said The best things becomming ill ever prove worst An evill man is the worst of all creatures an evill Christian the worst of all men an evill professor the worst of all Christians A woman though she be a delicate creature and in her owne proper condition of a sweet nature yet in one respect she may be resembled to the Iuniper which once kindled will hardly be quenched No fury to be compared to the anger of a woman which is aggravated or attempered according to the qualitie of the wrong wherewith she holds herselfe injuried It is said of the River Himetus that it distreames or divides it selfe into two Channells which send forth waters of different natures The one is sweet and pleasing the other brackish and dis-relishing We may properly apply this divided Current to our present subject by imagining a woman to this River as she is compared in an higher Hieroglyphick of a more enlivened nature And in this Allusion let us conceive these two Channells variously streaming to those two distinct affections soveraignizing over her and in her severally working These two similizing or discording passions shall borrow the names of Love and Hate In both which we may properly call most of our women Silla's daughters then whom none ever shewed more love to his friend nor more hate to his enemy And to discourse more amply of these wee shall finde some kinde hearts dispatch their husbands by loving too much others meere Antipodes to the former by loving them too little This might be instanced in Lucia and Lucilla Livia and Iulia. Two of these never held
of reliefe as not the least beameling of comfort afforded thee redresse Where was thy Sabina then to befriend thee No no Demetrius her light affection tooke first grounding from thy fortune as thy fortune received birth from my too hasty loving and too easie believing of so unthankefull a Servant Yet shall it appeare to the World that though my Love first issued from the Source of folly yet even in that there appeared a loyall constancy which as it shall weave up the web of my fate so shall it beare record to posterity of thy unjust breach of faith But spinne forth no more protractive houres unhappy Gratiana in expostulating with his breach or to no purpose in wasting thy tedious breath May my premature end occasioned by my too credulous trust become a caveat to all my sexe to reteine more esteeme of their fame and to be more carefull whom they trust My indiscreet love brought me to ruine before my time may my example bee a Memoriall to after-times to prevent their ruine derived from such meanes and closing their hopes with such fearefull ends Nor was her hand lesse ready to execute then her tongue was to dispute For with these words shee closed her amorous woes Farewell Demetrius and redeeme the injury thou hast done to me in expressing thy constancie to Sabina's beauty My best wishes shall attend thee though thy subtilty did first wind me then by surprizing my honour wound me and wounding unthankefully leave me But to divert from these memorable though miserable instances of constancy with the wrongs they suffered by their too light credulity wee will now descend to such particulars wherein these censorious Timonists whose poore degenerate spirits are ever delighted most in detracting from women or aspersing some unworthy disgrace upon their sexe usurpe this liberty to lay upon their purest reputes a lasting infamy Wee shall in every place heare calumnious tongues too lavish in this error and inveighing against them in this manner What vice is there extant which is not in the practise of women frequent If vanity were lost where were it to be found but in their light bosomes The forbidden fruit is ever in their eye and ever dangling in their desire Whatsoever is prohibited is by them most affected whatsoever by Obedience injoyned scornefully neglected If young they are lascivious if old they are covetous Their whole life a Comedy of errors their formall feature a fardell of fashions Alas poore Girles Have you no Defence against such viperous tongues When you desire to goe neat or according to your ranke to hold your place you are term'd proud or ambitious If frugall you are covetous If you discover your wrongs you are malitious If with admiration you chance to eye the fulnesse of anothers estate you are envious If you be sparing in your dishes you are penurious if choice in your dishes you are delitious If you innocently converse with a youthfull neighbour you are streight lascivious If you keepe home you are lazy or unsociably censorious If you walke abroad you are too liberall of your honour and to light eyes suspitious Nay they will not sticke to presse this Argument yet a little further If Goddesses themselves were wantons what may wee thinke of the Hand-maids of those Goddesses Dircetis that great Goddesse of Ascalon could be inflamed with love to a youth who sacrificed to her and gratifie his Oblation with a sensuall affection yea and close her loose love with as base a conception 'T is true the Fable reports so much yet if wee may give credit to the authority of a Poet wee shall find this Goddesse resolving her eyes to teares And as one highly ashamed of her incontinency exposing that adulterate Brat to the Desart abandoning the society of that light amorous youth and to make the Scene more fully tragicall throwing her selfe downe into a Lake bounding upon Ascalon To confirme unto the world that if her staine were great her sorrow was no lesse The Harbinger of the morne could not so soone usher in these roseat Consorts of the ensuing day as this deluded Goddesse If wee may grace her with such a title offered her penitentiall teares to her polluted Shrine her pleasure could not be so great but her torture was more Yea but these feminine Criticks will say It is not enough for the youth of their sexe to glory in their growth of vanity but even those old Maquarella's whose very earthly breath divines their approaching returne to earth as if they had perused Aesons Herball and freely partak't of his Receipts must assume a gracefull presence of youth and fill up their irreparable decayes with Art-beauty by new plaistring those crazy buildings which had long since falne into the Lord Paramounts hand for want of repaire Alas is this all If the weaker sexe deserve such reproofe in their desire to cover their rivals or smoothing those rugged deformities which their decline in nature has laid on them what may wee thinke of those old Seniors whose eyes have beene long since incased and whose constant aches in their bones have beene above all other Prognostications approved and yet these can vaile their reverend age with an artfull Peri-wigge and court a light Piece with as much vaine Rhetoricke as if their Winter had beene metamorphos'd into a Spring and their silver-haires into downy blossomes That old Blade had no doubt greene thoughts who coming to a Barber to be trimm'd and being asked by his complete Trimmer after what fashion hee would weare his beard whether he would looke amiable to his friend or terrible to his foe or point vice to his apparell This ancient Fashion-favorite answered him that hee would in regard of the rarity of the cut be trimmed point-vice to his apparell Which this nimble Snap did and that to a haire till he had not left him one haire to worke on This rivell'd Scaledrake having seene himselfe in the Glasse durst hardly acknowledge his owne face but terribly distemper'd hee was to see himselfe so strangely disfigured which indeed might have beene prevented if a sleepy distemper had not belulled him while he was trimmed Howsoever seeing himselfe a stranger to himselfe hee fell into a terrible quarter with his roguish Trimmer asking him in a cholericke manner how he durst to abuse his face Excuse me Reverend Sir said the Barber I am but a naked Trimmer but your worship was the Director you told mee that you would be trim'd point-vice to your apparell and I have observed your direction for I have left your face as haire-bare as your coat was thred-bare and that was point-vice to your apparell The next objection you can presse against them is this They are covetous But tell me can you find in all their sexe such a Midas as to with the very meat he eate to bee turn'd into gold or such a passionate incompetible revenger as with Silla never to forgive nor forget the injury done him by an offender or such
and expeditenesse in the way of Commerce with our daily experience of discourse with creatures of that sexe in treaties of Converse It seemes those three gentlemen as if they had beene Trium-viri in their fruition of this happinesse could returne sufficient arguments of their Mistresses abilities in this kind While one making choice of this Posy expressed the absolutenesse of his choice in the neatnesse and elegancy of her discourse which hee recommended to the impressure of his Diamond in a Window My choice is one whose accents beare such weight As all discourses else to mee seeme light These lines when another Gentleman had perused as one who conceiv'd himselfe no lesse enriched by his choice seconds the former in this manner by engraving this Impreze to his Mistresse honour Single's my choice yet with her cheered am I As if that single conference were many The third nothing short in his Conceipt of the like beauty and for subjects of Discourse no lesse moving in the care of Fancy to publish to the world that hee tender'd his deserving Mistresse no lesse affection with a more enlivened or mounting invention closed his opinion he reteined of her in this commendation My Consort 's single yet when shee is by me Mee thinkes the Spheares in Warbling Quires draw nigh me Such as these may wee well hold with that eminent Statist for old mens Nurses and young mens Mistresses Should their youthfull prime entertaine by an enforced injunction a frosty Consort their vertuous temper is such as their enforced choice must admit no change Euryala was never more obsequious to tender Ithacus then these will expresse themselves to their decrepit husbands Their disparity in yeares must not beget in their affections any disloyaltie of thoughts Though they be young Brides they will performe the offices of old Nurses Their care must extend it selfe instead of amorous embraces to preserve health in their declining husbands which they addresse themselves to with no lesse alacrity then if they had beene matched to persons of more vigorous quality These have made a league with their eyes that they shall be no betrayers of their hearts As it was their doome to marry unequally and to bestow their Virgin youth on meere patients engaged to each infirmity so they have vowed solely to observe them constantly to love them peaceably to live with them and amidst all overtures so to beare with their infirmities as no peevish humour of age shall distemper them nor any groundlesse jealousie suggest to their revenge an opportunity to wrong them And this their Observance must not proceed from any by-respect as many cautelous younglings doe who usully accommodate themselves to their perverse husbands humour with hope of a day to come after Their affections are pure without dissembling their care constant without projecting their desires addrest to please without humoring Others wee shall find of their sexe fit to be young-mens Mistresses And these no lesse modestly pleasing then vertuously affecting These can stand upon their points without apish nicenesse and hold their distance without a squeamish precisenesse They can love without fonding ingratiate themselves without fauning Neate they desire to goe without phantasticknesse Sweetly can they converse without affectednesse These hold it a feminine madnesse to pride themselves in that which stript their Predecessors of their purest state These reflect upon Eve with a teare-swolne eye and in a retired contemplation and recollected affection present her Image to their well-composed thoughts And this they make their Diarie to the end it may worke upon their imaginations more effectually O was not Eve created in her will free and innocent in her reason sage and prudent in her command strong and potent And what deprived her of so blest a condition but an indisposed heat of ambition Had her thoughts confin'd themselves to the lists of her present state shee had never throwne upon her posterity such a surviving staine O had shee beene content with what shee was her sexe had never beene so miserable as it is Her ambition became our perdition Her pride our ruine They sigh to see their sexe so vainely magnifi'd to heare them with Titles of Worthies dignifi'd to have their Portratures in such magnificent manner beautifi'd These they sleight with more religious contempt then ever the victorious Vtican did the erection of his statue being no embellishment as hee accounted it to the essence of vertue Well deserving a succeeding memory was that Motto I did never in any thing to my selfe arrogate wherein I did not from my selfe derogate And such is the modesty of these patterns of piety as they cannot endure to have their commendable actions too much observed or publickly applauded lest by hearing themselves praised they might incurre vaine-glory and so become deluded Their constant nuptiall Impreses or Loves loyall Posies were these Chaste faith enstiles me Spouse A Hand for my Wheele a Bed for my Spouse Where thou art Caius I am Caia I love I live and yet I give that to my Love by which I live To live and have no heart were strange yet have I none but by exchange Death may contract my life but not my love Such as these famous Mirrors shall wee occasionally encounter withall in our Readings Who though they were Ethnicks borne reteined in them such impressions of morall goodnesse as their memory left an Annall to posterity being so much more to be admired in regard those times wherein they flourished were with mists of pagan ignorance clouded These desired to doe well and not to be applauded to advance vertues and not to have their names recorded nor their amiable features with glorious Frontispices impaled To improve goodnesse by humility was their highest pitch of glory This their sundry excellent fancies confirmed their elegant labours discovered whereof though many have suffered Oblivion through the injury of time and want of that incomparable helpe of the Presse the benefit whereof wee enjoy yet shall wee find by the testimony of our approvedst Authors that many of these women which for brevity sake wee have onely shadowed have beene assistants to the highest and most enlivened Composures that ever derived birth or breath from Helicon Besides other Historicall Relations whose memory time shall sooner expire in her selfe then obscure Turne over those mysterious volumes of the Sibyls those accurate ayres of Corinnathia that incomparable Corrivall to the Poet Pindarus those Emathian raptures of Argentaria that happy Consort and assistant to the heroick Lucan Neither need wee travell abroad in pursuit of forraigne Instances Wee have not onely formerly enjoyed but even in these times are we seazed of many eminent and deserving women and in addition to their honour noâ—ly descended who rightly merit the style bestowed on them The WITS And these have the happinesse to judge of a well-composed line to breath spirit in invention to correct the indisposure of a Scene to collect probably a worke I must confesse of
poore yet knew they how to distinguish their cares by a fit addressement of themselves to their peculiar charge Palemon was not to meddle with his Galatea's Spindle nor Galatea with her Palemon's Hook Distinct persons distinct offices Besides it is a derogation from Gentry to converse too much with a Daery Other imployments doe farre better become him and persued with a discreet care may more improve him then to intermedle in such inferiour offices which as they suite meanly with him so they decline him from the care of what may more properly become him and more amply profit him There was nothing which aliened the affections of those Assyrians more from their effeminate King then his too familiar conversing and manuall imploying of himselfe in the use and exercise of his needle weaving of Purple and inuring himselfe to such feminine Offices as held no correspondence with the quality of a Prince nor the entertainment of any generous Subject For if Agesilaus deserved to be in some sort condemned for stooping to so low and unprincely a pleasure as riding on Cock-horse with his children which implyed only a tender parentall affection much more deserve such to bee highly censured who debase themselves in such servile and un-virile Offices as detract from the honour of their place and occasion many times Domestick distaste In a word Gentlemen as you have more generous imployments to reteine you more improving cares and studies to entertaine you so have you more imitable Patterns to propose unto you what may infinitely become you Eagle spirits cannot stoop to low lures Reflect upon your family and by your faire examples informe your Posterity Leave to your noble Consorts the care and charge of what best suits with their sex Imploy your selves in what may better correspond with your state Different hands mixed in these will rather redound to your prejudice then profit disparagement then credit As you have made your choyce recommend to that choyce her peculiar charge this will heighten the opinion of your discretion and raise an addition to her care Thus if you shall demeane your selves to your well-disposed Consorts you shall find them ready with chaste and cheerfull bosoms to receive you with affable and affectionate lookes to entertaine you with sweet innocent smiles to enchaine you For so constantly united unto you shall bee their love as they will hold it their highest terrestriall happinesse there to plant where you love your danger shall become their greatest terrour your safety their gracefullest honour For as it shall be the fullest period of their joy to enjoy you so shall it be accounted by them their dis-passionatest Scene of griefe to forgoe you Nor shall you need any other Monument to memorize their love then those sweet joyes they conceive in your life those sincere teares they sacrifice at your death NOw to you Gentlewomen are we to addresse our discourse You have heard what Conjugall Offices are to be tender'd to you and wee must now lay downe such peculiar offices as are to be render'd by you For Husbands wee have furnished you with such choyce as their persons accommodated with faire and generous qualities admit no change Be you the same in affection which they expresse themselves in a votive and loyall profession Let me tell you though you be the weaker sexe yet that weaknesse must not give the least priviledge to any staine The Roman Ladies were so farre from giving occasion as they usually estranged themselves from places of suspicion Now the only meanes to secure you is so to fortifie those parts within you as no dangerous Pioner may betray you nor ingage your safety to the assaults of a glozing enemy Wee have many English Proverbs both pithy and pregnant but for your use none so consequent as that Arabian Adage Shut your windowes without that your house may shine within It is related for ancient Annals would have no memorable action were it either to the fame or infamy of the Agent shrouded that Tarpeia betrayed the gates of the Capitol to the enemy only upon promise that they should throw her the Bracelets which they wore on their left armes which they accordingly performed throwing also their Targets to counterpoize those Ornaments wherewith shee was pressed to death It is true indeed Price Prayer and Power are dangerous Assailants to Forts of fancy But to rebaite the force of these hold Price at such a distance where it holds in Competition with your honour as it deserves not to be admitted into the scale where a generous spirit is Commander And for Prayer though it be a perswasive Oratour yet must it be put to silence when it is abused and made an Agent to corrupt Honour Lastly for Power that resolute Megara may give you a brave Lesson in her tragick constant Expression Whom Power can quell she knowes not how to dye No as Price is too servile a Solicitor to procure love in any loyall Lover so is Prayer too uncivil an Oratour to worke any impression in Arguments of Honour And for Power it is a poore grounded fancy that will yeeld her Fort up when she may keepe it to so intrusive an Vsurper Now there is no way better to remaine safe from such Impairers and Impeachers of Honour then to avoid conversing with them Corrupt society is a dangerous Introduction to any inward Malady Posthumia could not be taxed more for her Immodesty then Semphronia or Iulia were for consorting with light company It is to bee supposed you are now fixed because espoused You must then keepe your eyes at home not like those Lamiae whose custome was to incase them in a box for so they might remaine uselesly shut to the necessitated care of your family but from opening them to any light Objects of Vanity Dinah had not erred had she not strayed nor had she strayed had her eyes beene restrayned Wee may imagine that noble Lady Armenia when she was invited with her Husband to the solemnizing of those princely Nuptials of magnificent Cyrus that she might have seene many goodly and amiable personages pleasing and attractive Objects such as wanton eyes would have taken infinite delight in But how sixt was her outward eye on him solely to whom she stood ingaged by an inward tye may appear by that discreet modest answer which shee returned her Husband who at night when they were come home demanded of her it may be out of a causelesse jealousie which hee conceived of her how shee liked that princely Bride-groom whether she thought him not to be a faire and beautifull Prince or no and what personage in all that brave assembly rendred the most gracefull presence to her eye Truth sayes she I know not for all the while I was forth I cast mine eyes upon no other but thy selfe This was an excellent patterne to imitate When no Object could so take her eye as to convey the least impression of deluding
sexe who can discover their defects for so enlivened are their judgements and so farre distanced from a popular verge where conceipt like a restrained vassall is ty'd to the demension of the Object they looke on and no further as they know well how to distinguish betwixt a Roscius and a Lysias Popularity is an affected kinde of Action which the higher it mounts it ever lesseneth it selfe the more in the eye of judgement Surely would Honour equally Ballance her owne worth and enter into a serious consideration with its owne extraction she would blush at nothing more then in suffering her selfe to be deluded with such a phanatick shadow of fruitlesse glory which though it promise much is ever failing in her reality of performance and not onely failing the expectance but drawing the too credulous Believer into a dangerous precipice from which no thread were it never so curiously spun by the artfull or subtill hand of an Ariadne may ever free him It is prevention that is the life of Policy but if opportunity be not taken by the foretoppe He failes in his pursuit of prevention by neglecting the season Let Honour beware of aspiring or raising herself one Story higher either by indirect wayes or weake hopes both which She shall finde like so many Egyptian Reedes rather piercing than strengthning her in her Progresse or Ascent to Greatnesse in her pursuit of popular fame which seldom or never accompanied the merit of any action but observes the issue upon that successe grounds the basis of their opinion Honour should derogate much from her true native value in entertaining such flitting and fly blown Followers who act nothing with alacrity but innovation faction disloyalty Thus farre you have heard what strong influence this Popular Froath has upon Adulterate Honour which as it retaines a Glo-worme Light so it deceives others with its false splendor and makes the pursuers of it most unfortunate We shall litle need to strengthen this Assertion with Instances our owne Chronicles may afford us variety without ranging further Now to the second Motive wherein we shall lay open unto you how powerfully Self-ends operate upon this painted Greatnesse Their Revenues are such Land-marks as they direct their course by them These make them conclude positively though poorely for Persons of descent and quality Si mihi res constet Satis est quo publica flerem Non aliâ pendet compage nostra domus Publique safety is the lightest feather in their Skale So they may riot and play the sensuall Libertines in the free and undisturbed injoyment of their own they hold the Game well plaid to their advantage No defection of Subjects no alteration of Government no decrease of Commerce no hostile invasion by a surreptitious Nation can work much upon their Affections or resolve their adamantine temper to a compassionate teare The wheel of their Fortune holds a constant course amidst these inconstant and vertiginous wheelings of the State And this is enough for them Now to preserve these and stand at distance like priviledg'd Persons secur'd from exception or opposition they ever have an intentive eye upon the stronger Party And these they follow with a servile reverence How happy had it been for these Moaths of Honour to have been Souldiers of Fortune or younger Brothers or persons of inferiour quality that the lownesse of their condition might have freed them from the pursuit of such dishonourable Self-ends The Maxim is true O quà m multi foeliciores fuissent si minus possedissent whereas a spirit cloathed with true habilliments of honour will rather suffer all extreames then admit an injurious or disgracefull bargaine in the sale or prostitution of his honour The Historian returnes us the relation of a foolish Emperour who when newes came unto him that Rome was taken He imagining it to be his Hen which he called Roma fell into a violent passion and torrent of teares for the loss of his Bird. I cannot more properly resemble them then to this brainsick Prince who preferr'd so contemptible a Creature before the Surprize of his own Person and the ruine of his Empire Teares have easy issues and avenues that break forth upon such inconsiderable trifles And this even in this last Scean Catastrophee of our imbroyled State as some of our traducing Criticks blanch it might we find instanced in sundry Persons of note whose actions in parallel lines directly tended to this Centre For although they beheld Spectacles of grief every where numerously presented the Face of their Country changed those whom they held in time of peace deservingly honoured in relation to themselves most indeared stripped of what they justly injoyed for their honest Principles exposed to the weight of an injurious and Malignant Censure yet some of these whose ripe and mellow yeares besides the distractions of the time might have taught them a more usefull lesson never or very coldly applyed the sundry traverses of others misfortunes to their own condition Their Connivence and Concurrence with those Eminent Votaries who bore the sway and made their Wills their Lawes would as they hoped secure their Persons and States But they found their ill-grounded confidence meere foolishnesse The umbrage of that usurped greatnesse whereon they relyed could not supersede that guiltinesse which their actions though with much privacy carried had casually incurred It was the least of their care and tooke the lowest place in their apprehension of grief to see a late-flourishing State much envyed by forraigne Nations being such a Store-house of all necessary provision and an inclosed Garden of selected delicacies to see I say so choice and well-cultuated a Soyle soyled with perfidious feet and made a wilde Forrest for rationall Brutes This they lightly resented it begot no qualme in them to see the State quite turned off the hinges so they remained secure by hugging the Constitutions of a Corrupted State and by vertue of that protection were not in feare to be turn'd out of their own Houses Thus have you heard how strait-lac'd these selfe-interested Personages are and have been ever to their owne ends being deterred from opposition or speaking in defence of their Country or ancient-regall priviledges in time of danger for feare of losse or through some other servile respects by being over-aw'd with number a great derogation to Persons of Honour We are now to descend to the last but lowest Staire wherein we shall finde how these declining spirits retardate their flight in the pursuit of honourable actions through Pusillanimity So as none would hold them by seriously reflecting on them but for such a Broad as had beene hatched from the Eggs of those Paphlagonian Partridges which our Naturallists report to have no hearts Neither be our Neuters much better who like those Salmacian Sharks have two hearts for these can skrew their posture to the time and become serviceable shadows to any commands presenting hope of advantage or assurance to their present condition These