and in its Empire which renders truths apparent which makes duty and vertue loved which reimplants courage makes a coherence between the light and our hopes and which appears on our Horizon but to tell us that the Sun comes to us assuredly and that we are of the number of the Predestinated who shall see him Far be it from you to abate by secret persecutions Non contristabit justum quidquid ei acciderit or by the ordinary accidents of fortune to be troubled or disturbed trouble not your selves either at your sins or unforeseen relapses When you happen to fall into any fault do not amuse your selves to cry and complain as a Child fallen into the mire Withdraw your self gently and help your self in stretching your hand to mercy who offers you his Weep but hope hate your malice and infirmity which have rendred you a sinner hut adore the Wisdom of God who can draw his glory out of that shameful and reproachful estate that you are in Learn that the most Divine action of his power and love is to change into good the evil that you have done Whilst that you blush to see your self contemplate with admiration the designs of Love and Grace that his Providence considers of occasioned by your fault Fear his justice and flee it but never avoid it but by running to his goodness Be ye touched with compunction without being dejected be you resolved to govern your self better for time to come without being impatient or despairing from what is past Although true contrition bursts the heart it has yet somwhat of sweetness that bears it up and which makes it known and distinguisheth it from a false repentance The two marks most certain that we are in that condition God would have have us are Tranquility and Humility Assure your self that every affair where there is too much earnestness although it be the most Holy is done without intention to please God All inspiration that causes disorder in you comes not from the Holy Spirit All grief for sin which carries you to despair comes infallibly from the Devil All mortification that renders you disobedient and proud is the Council of your enemy All humility which makes you fear that there is no pardon for you and that God despiseth your tears is false and deceitful it leads you to impenitence and the death of the proud and reprobates Treat your selves the most meanly and with the most severity you can Humble your self and confess that Holiness is above your courage and that you are one of the most slack and ungrateful of men but have not the humility of the damned and say not that Salvation is above your might Pray to God to give what he commands from you and then offer your self to Him and pray Him to command all that he please ARTICLE II. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Wit FIRST MAXIM Buy the Truth and sell it not also Wisdom and Instruction and Understanding Prov. 23. PARAPHRASE ENdeavour to purchase but take good heed you sell not that which is more worth than all the gold and silver in the World Buy truth but don't rid your self of Wisdom part not these two vertues possess both the one and the other Let Truth be in your words and Wisdom in your thoughts when that you judge of things know them and deceive not your self When that you speak lye not and deceive those that hear you Think wisely and speak sincerely In one word aspire to the highest and happiest estate that the Wit of man may be raised unto Have the courage to believe nothing nor to say any thing that is untrue Be wise and be sincere Veritatem eme noli vendere sapientiam REFLECTION IT is a precious Grace the grace of being sincere and not to yield to the violences of injustice nor to its flatteries when it would engage us to tell a lye and betray our Consciences Many have bought this Grace by their own blood and have given for it what hath been most dear to them in the World And if you have it not as yet spare nothing to purchase it at any rate That which you shall give is infinitely less worth then it Fear not to dye but fear to live with the reputation of a man without Word and who loves the Truth less thâ—n a mortal life and a miserable fortune Eme veritatem Grave that Maxime in your heart that a wise Prince writ with his finger on the lips os his Son Rather dye then lye Hate a lye more then death and although Verbum mondox detestabitur in Company men call it the most innocent sin and in the Palace the most necessary yet do you call it the most shameful to nature the most intollerable to a man of honour and Conscience Since that you bear in Non decet principem verbum mentiens Prov. 17. your Soul the Image of the Truth of God Take that for you that Solomon said to the Kings that whatsoever ornament you can give to a lye it is very indecent in your mouths Conscendam ero similis Altissimo It becomes none but the proud Angel who chose it for his character and who began by it when he would render himself the horrour of nature and transform himself into a Devil The first proposition he made to the Angels in Paradice Nequaquam morte morieris eritis sicut Dit Gen. 3. was a lye The first word he spake on earth was another lye that he made to the Man The first thought he had at his entrance into Hell and the first design he took there to revenge himself on God was to lye eternally And the first promise that he made himself to comfort him in his pains that all Men should lie also and that he would find a means to spread his sin and his own corruption as far as the sin of the first Man An enterprize alas wherein he has been too lucky and wherein he succeeds this day six thousand years Who is the Man that lies not Children do in the Cradle The Philosophers and holy Men in the Schools of Wisdom and even on the Throne of Truth Men do it in every condition and every age Among all those who have sinned in Adam and who have been able to speak there is not one who has not livd and who hath not born on his tongue this Image of the Devil Leave it not upon yours Tear away all the remains Remove à te os pravum detrahentia labra sint procul à te Prov. 4. Viam pravam os bilinguâ— detestor Pro. 8. of this unhappy inclination detest this fatal sin Politicians make it their study many make it their pastime and others their trade Make you of it what all great Men have the abominations of your heart look upon it as the unworthiest crime and the most infamous accident which can happen to a noble Soul But if it be shameful to lye and
THE COUNCILS OF WISDOM OR A Collection of the Maxims of SOLOMON Most necessary for a Man wisely to behave himself With Reflections on those Maxims Rendred into English by T. D. LONDON Printed for Sam. Smith Bookseller at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Churchyard 1683. To the Right Worshipful the Mayor the Worshipful the Justices with the capital and inferiour Burgesses of the Burrough of Taunton Saint Mary Magdalen and St. Iames's in the County of Somerset Gentlemen WEre I accountable to any how I pass my time here 't were certainly to you who know that I was not one of the idlest at home wherefore partly to satisfy you the following Manual I took the pains to translate out of French the contents of which as they are universally necessary are design'd for all but dedicated to your selves as persons so much more in need of it as you are publique Persons and called to shew your abilities or defects more than your Neighbours And if any member of our Body politic thinks himself scandalized and that he 's too wise to take the Counsels of Solomon in good part he is one that least deserves them I wish to all the same satisfaction in the perusal as I had which encouraged me to translate it and should be glad of any opportunity agreeable to the following Maxims to tell you that I am Your humble Servant Tho. DARE Amsterdam Febr. 14. 1683. S. N. THE PREFACE IT is long since Thotimus that you did me the favour to pitty me and to feel for me the Pains of my Solitude I have often taken the liberty to answer you that it is to me no great misfortune to be unknown permit me to testify to you this day that I should be to blame to tire my self and that I have here company that is well worth all other that I should be able to see I can at least assure you that during our conversations the sad spectacles and affrightful silence of the desert where fortune yet keeps me doth not hinder that the hours do not pass there very swiftly and that time were one of the things which are wanting It is easy for you to judge that I speak of Solomon You know that formerly I did comfort my self in Books you are about to see in the writing that I send you that I imploy myself now to explain them and to endeavour by my reflections to make the wise men of the World see Truths unknown to their Philosophy I thought of it immediately at the entry into this Solitude where I am All melancholic as it is or as it appears to your eyes I know nothing more commodious for a man who would busy his thoughts or meditate on the writings of this learned Prince I say it because I believe that I read lately that Wisdom who dictated these Proverbs when it was solitary explains them not but to persons who are so also and who go to ask it as he did in places where one hears no news of the Creature nor any noise capable of troubling the attention and the pleasure of those that hearken Solomon loved to be alone as much as the Princes of his Court to be near him and to hear him speak The time to which his desires aspired was When after the labours of the day weary of the affairs of the honours and the noises of the World he could retire himself from the sight of company and when he went to entertain himself with God in a Country-house called Hetta near enough to the City It pleased him more then any of the Royal Houses because that besides the magnificences and the riches added by the hands of men there were great Woods with Rocks and Streams and other workmanship of nature proper to raise his spirit to Heaven and to make him remember eternity It was in this stately desert at the sight of the beauties of God that his contemplations disclosed to him That he conceived such great contempts of the beauty of mortal things and that after the other complaints that he made against the treacheries of their promises and their flatteries he sung this famous Song that the Caves and the Waters of his palace first heard but its eccho's have been since heard throughout and shall be made to resound even to the end of ages Vanitas vanitatum cuncta vanitas The moral and politic sentences of which his Book of the Proverbs is filled and those which the Son of Syrach has brought together and kept by his care were born in the same solitude where silence and tranquillity help'd them into the World And it is without doubt That to these devout walks that the universe is obliged for the knowledge of the truths which are gone out of the Pen of this learned Prince which have enlightned all Nations I have chosen amongst these sentences those of which I believed I could be able to help my self in working at my design which is to draw from their Texts subjects of meditation proper for persons who would live amongst the Laws of Conscience and Prudence and conduct themselves wisely in the various occasions of a civil life It is but a little peece as it appears If I had had a little more leasure and a little more light perhaps it should have been bigger But to say with an Ancient if I had more of one and the other in stead of enlarging I should endeavour to shorten it and I should remember what one of the best Writing-Masters of our time told me That to excell in the Art of writing well it is necessary to be able to blot well out This thought is not only his I observe it is common to the Masters of every Art and Science and that it keeps even the first rank among their Maxims When they are willing that what they do should be their Master-piece all their industry is imployed to make it pass well into the Spirit and to leave there but little matter Force and delicacy are the perfections of all works that of a Book is soveraign when it can be read in few hours and that it can not be read nor meditated enough in many years Much Truth few Words was heretofore the device of a great Divine very great in that but infinitely less than God who encloseth infinite truths in one word alone and who saith all that can be said to eternity when he pronounceth his word The Book is divided into two Parts The First divided into 4 Articles contains Maxims necessary for a Man to demean himself well First of all are the Maxims necessary for the Conduct of the Conscience Secondly Maxims necessary for the Conduct of the Wit Thirdly for the Conduct of the Heart and Passions Fourthly for governing the Tongue The second Part contains necessary Maxims for a Mans wise Conduct in regard to his family and other persons The Wife Children Servants Friends and Enemies are the Articles which divide it ARTICLE I. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the
Compare them from hence forth and do at the feet of the Cross before your Redeemer and your Father what you will do that day before your Judge when that you shall see the truth written in the Book where all is written Consider that this is a Mercy which has out-run your merits Ingratitude which hath follow'd Mercy and which hath been conceived in the midst of favours Justice which examins the good and the evil which weighs the goodnesses of God and the sins of man and who in the one and the other sees nothing but Infinite In fine it is an eternity where sinners shall never cease to be sinners and proud and where the Judge shall never cease to be just where his Holiness shall be the measure of his anger his anger infinitely offended the measure of their pain and his infinite beauty which they shall never see the measure of their despair I say too much in a Subject where is least need of speaking The whole History of man needs but these four words His pleasures shall end His actions shall be judged His sins shall be punished His pains shall be eternal There is not only whereof to read but to contemplate and meditate What opinion so ever the World hath of an able man if he has not yet begun to meditate thereupon he has not yet begun to be wise Youth and Folly think only on the present time Avarice on time to come Prudence and Policy remembers often what passed yesterday and foresees what will happen to morrow true Wisdom looks on one side even to the beginning of time and the creation of man and on the other side to death and eternity and from these two distant extreams it makes its time present and gives them thoughts of this day V. MAXIME When the wicked man cometh then cometh also contempt Prov. 18. PARAPHRASE THat which hinders you from making serious on Christian truths and which makes you slight the business of your conversion as least of all the affairs of a Man of wit and quality is the custome that you have contracted of living disorderly and not refusing any thing to your passions This unhappy custome is the bottom of that Gulf from whence it is rare to see any sinner go out and to enter again into the ways of repentance and salvation It is nevertheless necessary to go out from thence The Holy Fathers and the fathers spiritual will tell you means One of the best is that which Solomon presents you in the following Maxime VI. MAXIM When I perceived that I could not otherwise obtain her except God gave her me I prayed unto the Lord and besought him with my whole heart Wisd 8. PARAPHRASE DEsiring to obtain grace to overcome my evil habits and to live holily I address my self to God and I have asked it of him with all my affection and with all thâ— endeavour that an ardent desire could produce Steep'd in tears and prostrate before His Altars where I heard his voice which called me to repentance I said unto him O Lord shed into me that Wisdom and Light which makes Man see that beauty of vertue which is in thee Thou commandest me to be chast and devout give me devotion and chastity and then command what thou pleasest REFLECTION HOpe not to receive these sorts of favors nor any other spiritual or temporal if you ask them not Without prayer there will be no change of life You would have Grace which gives the first power to be chast but according to the ordinary Laws of Wisdom you shall not have it but by the means of Prayer Grace gives the will to be and to accomplish effectually this good desire In like manner hope not for them if you ask them not strongly and with an ardent and sincere affection To pray to God feebly to have pitty on your miserable life is to pray him to defer punishing of you to the end that you might defer turning to him and this testifies that you fear that he hears you not because you fear to break the chains which tye you to the Creature and to love nothing more then it God would when we pray Deprecatus sum illum ex totis pracordiis to him that our bowels themselves should have a voyce and that there should be in us a Divine fire which should give to our groans the force to mount up to himself and to follow him as far as his justice would make him fly that he might not hear us God would be pursued solicited importuned Follow Him press Him be importunate and be constant Fear nothing but letting your self be overcome by his refusals and your not persevering Hope in his Word as the Etiamsi occideris me in ipso sperabo Saints have done against hope it self and in despight of despair Tell him when you see him with a sword in his hand to sacrifice you to his wrath and when you see the sword thrust into your Heart that from the bosom of Death even to the gates of Hell you will adore his goodness and that you will yet expect favour and you may be assured of his succours Say that the way to perish is to fly when he threatens That there is no place so sure during in wrath in the World as to be near him that it is the only way where the afflicted sinners and the dead can find safety Ad quem ibimus Verba vitae aeternae habes I am a sinner I am mortal where shall I go too but to thee Confess that he can do all that he is the Master but maintain that as all powerful as he is he cannot resist the Prayers of the humble and Indignum c. In te Domine speravi non confunda in aeternum afflicted and since all is put to trust before him desire him to regard you without pitty and to abandon a heart who sincerely confides in his protection and love Talk boldly and say with the Canaanitish Woman that he ought to be no more cruel nor more pittyless towards you then Masters towards the little Dogs of their houses that you ask not but the Crums of his table as the rest of the Saints Speak as this Woman who knew well how it was necessary to speak to a God Although he calls you an importunate Body although he push you back and bids you to get out Stay Fasten your self to his feet and declare to him there you will be so long as that he hath either punish'd importunity with death or heard you In fine do well by your holy violences as that you may draw from his heart the lovely word which hath comforted so many sinners and which may oblige you to say O Mulier magna est fides tua fiat tibi sicut vis Matt. 15. Thou astonisht me oh infidel Great is thy confidence be gone then in peace what thou wilt shall be done The glory of a mortal Prince is to prevent petitions and
when they shall not â—nd it True Philosophy is not to enquire and in questions where one must of necessity say I know nothing on 't those who say it soonest and who do not study twenty years to say it are the most wise and most happy IV. MAXIM Thou shalt not trust to thy own Prudence PARAPHRASE WHen you seek the truth believe not your own sentiments nor do not rely on your particular thoughts Fear what comes from you and which is new and take heed of making thereof rules of Philosophy and Maxims of Conduct Draw from your Prudence what Light you are able but try it by Lights more shining and sure then yours When it shall enlighten you have other Torches to enlighten that first and never go in the dark and near to praecipices with it alone REFLECTION NE innitaris prudentiae tuae A Lyar doth not always lye but it is always imprudence to trust to his word Although our reasoning somtimes doth not deceive us we never fail to be blame worthy when we hearken to it and that we take for certain truths What we know not but from it alone This particular reasoning is not in man but to betray him and to lead him to his ruine 'T is it that produces ignorances errors impieties false Religions false Philosophers and that forms these by paths and deceitful ways where we see many people to wander Some enter into these ways by simplicity but most by pride They believe that Wisdom Justice would that they went on that side because their own reasoning leads them there But they follow a strange guide Beasts are lead by their passion Fools by their arguing and wise Men by reason None will profit by the misfortunes of others Although each Philosopher during the disputes cry with all the endeavours of his voice to warn his friends that their reasoning deceives them each will believe that his will not deceive him and each hears it as his Master there is no authority that overweighs their own nay even of the Gospel nor experience The Proud respect nothing but this unhappy prudence and it happens more then once in an age that a little Philosopher undertakes to examine Religion or to reform the Elements and overturn the World because 't is the dictate of his reasoning so to do A wise Man in reasoning with himself according to humane thoughts has never learnt any thing certain but that his arguing was blind and that he never drew any other profit thence then to say to himself Ne innitaris prudentiae tuae V. MAXIME Wisedom standeth in the top of the high places by the way in the places of the paths She crieth at the gates at the entry of the City Unto you O men I call and my voice is to the sons of men Proverb S. PARAPHRASE WIsdom speaks upon the Mountains and in the high ways at the gates of Cities in the midst of the streets and in all places where it finds most people There it infuseth it self on the tongues of the people and it makes use of their voices to the end it might make it's self heard afar off and to speak more strongly Supra viam in mediis semitis It is there that the curious who would learn it's Doctrine and who aspire to be the Oracles of their Nation and Masters of Science in particular Universities ought to go O viri ad vos clamito O Philosophers 't is to you that I direct my words if you will be truly wise come and hearken to me when I teach truth in the assembly of men REFLECTION WHat one calls here the People is not a heap of little folk but a mixture of all men who speak naturally without study and without artifice and without a Conduct of any acquired Science and of any reflection The voice of this People and the voice of Wisdom infused or to say better the voice of the instinct which is impeccable and which hath always been the true Master of Philosophers whereon consider the 3. following words 1. That our business during this life when God has given us the Wit is to study and to apply our selves to know the most hidden marvels of nature 2. That the business of the Creator from the day of our birth is to teach us himself and to engrave on the chiefest part of our Soul the first principles the chief and fundamental Truths os this natural Philosophy 3. That the business of the instinct is to make those so remote Truths to approach to our senses that we may be the better able to know them To put them on the tongue of people and to tell them to us by the general voice of all Nations What Nations say and what they have said by common consent in all ages they have said it being driven by this instinct and who makes it say nothing but what he finds written by the Spirit of God in the spirit of all Men. In one word it is the voice of the Holy Ghost in Christian Theology and the voice of the Conscience in the moral the voice of the instinct and of the people in the Physick 'T is it which pronounceth the decisions and decrees incontestible The people are ignorant and blind but well led It understands not what it says but it speaks Truth and our glory in studying or in teaching is not to correct it or to speak otherwise then it but to explain its words and to understand them better than it understands them it self It is on this public and universal voice that the wise Philosophers ought to support their Science Before arguing on any visible thing in the world they ought to interrogate this great Ignorant called The people and to hearken how they talk in the streets that they might know how they ought to speak in the Schools to the end that upon that Answer as on a Divine principle they might establish their propositions and the works of their particular Doctrine Follow this Council and stop at this Maxim whatsoever the bait may be that invites you to take others do not quit it If to be Author of a new invention instead of building on the Earth you would build in the Air you shall build nothing but follies and ruins If for the better setting of new thoughts in order that come to you and to form a wondrous Philosophy you think it necessary to give the people the lye and to say The fire has no heat nor the snow whiteness nor other quality That the Earth is not immovable That a Beast is no living Creature That the Soul of man is not immortal if you would that these should be the principles contained in the great Volumes of your marvellous Philosophy all your wonders shall be but dreams of impieties and ignorance VI. MAXIM There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death Prov. 16 25. PARAPHRASE MIstrust your self and your own judgement but don't trust
far Do not suffer your self to be taken by her deceitful flatteries her words are as dew that â—â—ns from her lips and â—nter deliciously into your heart But that shall quickly turn into poison which shall rent your bowels Her beginnings are sweet as honey but her end is bitter as Wormwood The things that she promiseth have on the Tongue very dangerous baits There is much gayness in her discourse and looks but this brightness is but as that of a Comeâ— which appears not but to warn you of misfortunes Prov. 5. Assoon as you perceive it begin to fear and assure your self you shall suddenly weep That which draws you Viâ—inferi domus ejus penetrantes in inferiora mortis and that you see upon her countenance are the raies of the true Sun Their beginning is the beauty of God look on that side and go thither but the way to which they are directed here below are an abyss of filth despair and of tears Many before you have gone thither headlong and 't is from the bottom of this abyss that comes out those doleful voices and lamentable crves which have eccho'd these six thousand years repeating the sad words of unhappy Solomon Vanitas vexatiâ— spiritus Illusions and treacheries false beauties true sins dreams of pleasures and truth of eternal repentings The Wisdom of the Creator has made one Master piece in framing their Wit and countenance but to view these safely you must call back the time of innocence or wait the day of glory and immortality XII MAXIM When a man hath done then he beginneth and when he leaveth of then he shall be doubtful Eccles 18. PARAPHRASE ONe of the most ordinary remedies to preserve us from the disorders of our passions is Work The prudent Man is never idle when he hath not wherewith to imploy himself he thinks upon what he hath done and reviews his actions REFLECTION THe covetous Man busieth himself to gain wealth the ambitious Man to gain and merit honour the wise Man to gain by labour He endeavours to acquire by one employment or another and to provide himself of cares and business the most important and most necessary provision of this life It is better to want nourishment then an employ The man who wants the one or the other will perish The difference is That by hunger a Man dies without dishonour and very soon and by idleness he dies shamefully and slowly The beauty of the mind the goodness of the nature the force of Courage and the purity of the Conscience retain somwhat of the nature of Fire they cannot continue nor preserve themselves but by â—otion and action To render them immovable is to extinguish them and this is that which idleness doth which by its criminal repose destroys more things then time by its agitations and by its courses that overthrows every thing The worst is that this idleness does yet more then death and corrupts that which is most incorruptible and Divine within us Time has not been able to do any thing against the Sun this six thousand years there would need but one days idleness to destroy it There would need but one hour nay less to destroy the innocence and fidelity of the Soul that all the cruelties of Tyranny and the flatteries of Pleasure had not been able to corrupt during so many years Rest is every where the original of Evil Deadly Herbs venemous Beasts Rottenesses Corruptions Plagues Famines are not begot but by the idleness and immobility of the Elements One finds no where sins ignorances nor even follies nor despaires as in fouls who have nothing to do but torment themselves What heretofore a wise man said is true That infinitely and eternally to punish a spirit there would no other hell be needful then an everlasting idleness ARTICLE IV. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Tongue The first MAXIM A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up Anger Prov. 15. PARAPHRASE SWeet and humble words subdue the anger of others t is not the point of the sword that doth it When they cry wee our selves cry and employ injuryes and threatnings and violent means to make them hold their peace and we forget our selves that there needs not but a word of softness and Civility A soft discreet and an eloquent tongue is a tree of life in the house and in the company where it is Each plucks from thence fruits of consolation and remedies for disquiets and other inward diseases It cures all the wounds of our soules But a rash tongue is a wounding sword who by its inconsiderate words carries mortal blows to the bottom of the heart REFLECTION THere is nothing in which Man exerciseth himself asmuch as in speaking and conversing with his friends nor any thing in which he profits less and is more imperfect We begin to converse from the Cradle and yet we know not at the age of sixty how 't is to do it well We unlearn even by study and exercise and by how much the more we advance in age by so much the more inexcusable is our fault Some teach the Trade of conversing well all learn it but few know it Masters say very well and do very ill they write excellently but their Tongues are not led by their wriâ—ings The Rules that they give surpass their power they can't observe themselves insomuch that there is no art that hath finer precepts nor less fine examples then this to converse wisely If you cannot attain to the height of perfection nor to be of the number of those great Men who charm company endeavour not to be of the number of the importunate and unprofitable or troublesom at least do not make your self to be put into the number of the intolerable Men put in this Rank certain people whose faculty is to know all that is shameful in the house and the life of every body and whose conversation and employment is without Odibilis est qui procax est ad loquendum Eccles 20. ceasing to talk of it and to publish it abroad people bold in slanders indiscreet and impudent in reparties inexhaustible in words To avoid meeting with these people is to be very wise And 't is to be no more so if when you meet them you let them talk on and have no difference with them But to be perfectly wise is to do in such manner as they may fear to have any with you and that they may be constrained to be wise every where where you are Men put in this Rank of intolerables the great talkers that sort of Men and Women who during discourses and entertainments have their mouths always open and of whom the conversation as heretofore that of the Philosopher Anaximenes is to spill a River of words in company and one drop of good sence Be you better learnt and modester Let them speak when you have spoken Give others leave to answer you and have the power to hold your Tongue when
shun you to the end of the World you may see his face again but you shall never more find his heart nor confidence REFLECTION IN fine contemn not your Friend for contempt is the mortal wound of friendship and the only wound that the heart of man can't bear Nature and Fortune which might render us contemptible are not able to render us insensible and indifferent under contempt habitude cannot accustome us there to and vertue which sometimes may be able to stiffle the grief cannot blot out its remembrance We have no experience even that the quality of Persons who contemn us do lessen the resentment The praises that we receive from the part of our enemies do not leave to be agreable to us But the contempts that come by means of our greatest friends sensibly wound the heart That which comes even from Princes or Masters is not sweeter nor better received Whatever power or authority that one hath over us we never think they have a right to contemn us when we are guilty and those who confess that their crimes deserve death cannot believe they deserve contempt Grace takes away from many the desire of revenging themselvs but it gives to very few contentment to suffer it If some may love to be contemned for the Glory of God I do not know that many love those however that do contemn them XVI MAXIM One man beareth hatred against the other and doth he seek pardon from the Lord Eccl. 28. PARAPHRASE HOw can that man dare Ipse cum carâ— sit reservat iram propitiationem quaerit à Deo to ask blessings and favours from God for him self who prepares evill for another And he who would cause his neighbour to perish can he hope that God will preserve him Man would himself be in wrath and desire that God should be appeased He who is but flesh and corruption would punish the faults of those like himselfe And he prayes God who is infinite in his holiness that he might dissemble his and that God would endure them what pretentions and what hopes are these REFLECTION TO choak the sentiment of ill words that one gives you or of wrong that one does you in business have you often in your mind this undoubted truth That of all sorts of injustice the two greatest are First That God should be offender the second That we should take ill other mens offending us and that we should take the liberty to resent them and complain of them When you have a difference with any body you goe and relate the business and ask of your friends if it be not true that you have wrong and that you ought to revenge it you have so much right on your side you do and say so well that each one confesses it answers you that 't is true But to the end that you might better know the truth tell them the whole relate to them ingenuously what your Conscience knowes touching the most enormous sins and shamefull ingratitudes that you have committed against God and there shall no body say but that you merit infinitely more evil and more contempt then you have as yet received During quarrells and suits at Law the question is to know if you ought to destroy a Man whom God makes use of to punish in you great sins and to punish them by so small an evill as that is which you pretend that one doth you Be you the Iudge examine and decide the question your self XVII MAXIM Abstain from strife and thou shalt diminish thy sin Eccl. 28. PARAPHRASE LEssen the number of Law suits and there shall remain fewer sins To prosecute a relation To enrich Judges and persons unknown To ruine your family to multiply your faults to lose Paradice is that which ordinarily you gain by pleading There is no quarrell but may be ended by means of mildness and civility and there is no peace but is more worth then all the victories of the Barr and than all the Triumphs that pride causes you to make over your enemies REFLECTION LIve in peace and establish your happiness by so doing as that nothing may trouble you and that you may not be obliged to defend your self nor to complain of any body It is not so honourable to overcome enemies as not to have any Mad men and Beasts themselves have a part in the first honour The second belongs only to men of a Divine and heavenly nature But if we must unfortunately have enemies let us believe that it is less glorious to us to overthrow their house and fortune then to sweeten their anger and all the cares we take to gain on them in our process let us employ to gain their hearts Let us not undertake the causing them to perish Let us aspire to a more illustrious Victory to do so as that in spight of themselves they may love us and blame themselves for having disobliged us Let us carry repentance into their Consciences and let us make them see by good offices that we are lovely and that we deserve to be loved when they have done us displeasure If we would use sweet and respectfull words and endeavour to subdue them by the allurements of an officious and an obliging nature they must themselves confess they were in the wrong to treat us ill and this confession is a more desireable honour and the most famous victory which an honest man can aspire unto In fine wee are obliged to extinguish in our Souls all enmities and all desires of revenge By the Law of nature who has not given us other arms or means to overcome other men then love By the Laws of the Gospel which hath given us a precept and made thereof an indispensable commandment By the Law of him who was God and Man who gave us the example of it By the Law of the Creator who has been willing that our spirit and our person should be no other thing then a living Image of his substantial and infinite charity By the Law of Paradise of which the inscription graven on the Gate is That no man shall enter there who hath hatred or anger in his heart Our interests oblige thereto as much as the rest and we ought to assure our selves that there is no enemy so cowardly or fearfull who would not hurt us nor so feeble as thâ—â— it cannot nor so ignorant as not to know means or to have address and subtilty enough to find occasions and do it FINIS