from whence they first came If the Pagan had such a divine conceit of those whose approved life represented a certaine similitude or resemblance of God as he imagined no glory could be wanting to them in regard of their integrity let us embrace the like opinion and expresse such apparent demonstrations of sanctitie that as wee exceed the Pagan in regard of that precious light we enjoy so wee may exceed him in the conversation of the life we lead But how should these painted Sepulchers whose adulterate shape tastes of the shop glorying in a borrowed beauty ever meditate of these things How should their care extend to heaven whose Basiliske eyes are only fixed on the vanities of earth How should that painted blush that Iewish confection blush for her sinne whose impudent face hath out-faced shame Two Loves saith that learned Bishop of Hippo make two Cities Hierusalem is made by the love of God but Babylon by the love of the world And these are they who engaged to wordly love have forsaken their true love they have divided their hearts and estranged their affections from that Supreme or Soveraigne good O then Young men come not neere the gate of this strange woman whose feet goe downe to death and whose steps take hold on hell This is the woman with an Harlots behaviour and subtill in heart This is shee who hath dâ—ckt her bed with ornaments carpets and laces of Aegypts and perfuming her Bed with myrrhe Aloes and Cynamon Take heed thou sing not Lysimachus song The pleasure of fornication is short but the punishement of the fornicator eternall But of this Subject we are more amply to treat hereafter onely my exhortation is to Youth whose illimited desires tend ever to his ruine that if at any time it bee your fortune to encounter with these infectious ulcers these sin-soothing and soule-soiling Lepers and they like that whorish woman in the Proverbs invite you to their lothed daliance saying Come let us take our fill of love untill the morning Come let us take our pleasure in daliance that you shake off these vipers at the first assault and prevent the occasion when it first offers it selfe For know that which a devout and learned Father saith concerning the dangerous Habit of sinne is most true Prima est quasi titillatio delectationis in corde secunda consensio tertium factum quarta consuetudo Sinne begins with an â—ith but ends with a skar The first degree begins with delight the second with consent the third with act and the fourth with custome Thus sinne by degrees in men of all degrees like a broad-spreading tetter runnes over the whole beauty of a precious soule exposing the fruits of the spirit to be corrupted by the suggestion of the flesh But too farre I feare me have I digressed from this last branch whereof I was to discourse to wit of Habit or Attire albeit I have enlarged my selfe in nothing which may seeme altogether impertinent to our present purpose For discoursing of the vanity of women whose phantasticke Habits are daily Theames in publicke Theatres I imagined it a necessary point to insist upon partly to disswade those Shee-painters of this flourishing Iland from so base and prostitute practice Base for Festus Pompeius saith that common and base whores called Schaenicolae used dawbing of themselves though with the vilest stuffe Partly to bring a loathing of them in the conceit of all yong Gentlemen whose best promising parts use often to be corrupted by their inchantmens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. there is one flower to bee loved of women a good red which is shamefastnesse Saint Hierome to Marcella saith that those women are matter of scandall to Christian eyes Quae purpurisso quibusdam fucis ora oculosque depingunt I might here likewise justly tax such effeminate Youths whose womanish disposition hath begot in them a love to this hatefull profession but I will onely use Diogenes speech which hee made to one that had anointed his haires Cave ne capitis suaveolentia vitae maleolentiam adducat Or that saying hee used to a Youth too curiously and effeminately drest If thou goest to men all this is but in vaine if unto women it is wicked So as being asked a question of a Young man very neatly and finely apparelled he said hee would not answer him till he put off his apparell to see whether he were a man or a woman There is another Objection which I imagine Youth will alledge to prove how expedient it is for him to bee choice or curious in respect of apparell It gaines him more acceptance and esteeme with men of eminent place But hearken how the Apostle opposeth himselfe to this reproving such whose judgement consists in the eye rather than in the braine proceeding thus If there come into your company a man with a gold-ring and in goodly apparell and there come in also a poore man in vile raiment and ye have a respect to him that weareth the gay cloathing and say unto him Sit thou here in a goodly place and say unto the poore Stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stoole Are yee not partiall in your selves and are become judges of evill thoughts So as howsoever these diffident wordlings Annulo maegis credunt quam animo It is not the Habit but the heart which God accepts yet most acceptable is that Habit which is not so sumptuous as seemely not so costly as comely True indeed it is that the popular eye which cannot distinguish of the inward beauty but observeth rather what wee weare than what wee are admires nothing more than the outward Habit as wee may reade how much Herod being arrayed in royall apparell was applauded by the people who gave a shout saying The voice of God and not of man But that All-seeing and All-scearching eare of the Divine Majesty seeth not as man seeth Hee prefers Lazarus rags before Dives robes Though the one bee clothed in purple and â—ine linnen and the other seeme despicable in the eye of the world in respect of his Nakednesse yet mortua necessitate peribunt opera necessitatis the one is translated to glory boundlesse the other to misery endlesse for this sorrow which hee here felt ended when he did end but the joy which he obtained exceeded all end Thus farre have I laboured to answer all such objections as might bee proposed in defence of this generall-approved vanity concluding Quod peccata Sericea teterrima sunt vitia No sinnes like to silken sinnes for they ever crave impunity the foster-mother of all impiety I intend yet to proceed in decyphering the lightnesse of Youth by expressing three grand Maladies incident to Youth whereof I purpose to dilate particularly to move the Young man to be more cautelous of his wayes in the mazie Labyrinth of this life These three for all the rest may be
observer and improver of the Directions of her husband What shall I speak of Theano the daughter of Metapontus Phemone who was first that ever composed heroicke verse Corinnathia who exceeded the Poet Pindarus in her curious and artfull measures and contending flue severall times with him for the Garland Argentaria Pollia the wife of Lucan whom shee is reported to have assisted in those his high and heroicke composures Zenobia the Queene of Palmira who learned both the Greeke and Latine tongue and compiled an Excellent History approving her selfe no lesse a constant wife to her husband then a nursing Mother to her children Theodosia the yonger daughter of the vertuous and victorious Theodosius no lesse renowned for her learning and other exquisite endowments of minde than by being inaugurated with an imperiall title to which shee was afterwards advanced The Centons of Homer shee composed and into one volume reduced which to her surviving glory were after published Diodorus Logicus his five daughters all which excelled in learning and chastity and left memorials of their motherly care to their posterity These were tender Nurses carefull Mothers reverend Matrons Or to give them that title which antiquity hath bestowed on them they were in so darke and cloudy a time patternes of piety presidents of purity champions of chastity mirrours of modesty jewels of integrity Women to use Plutarchs words so devoted to contemplating as they conceived no delight in dancing yet could not contemplation estrange them from performing such proper offices as did concerne them They knew what it was to obey that it was not fit for an inferiour member to command the head nor for them to soveraignize over their husbands What had sometimes beene taught them by their Mothers they now carefully recommend to the serious review of their Daughters Wives with obedience husbands should subdue For by this meanes they 'le bee subdu'd to you Thus learned they the duty of a wife before they aspired to that title conforme your selves to their examples the cloud which kept them from a full view of their condition is in respect of you dispersed your eyes are cleared not with any Pagan errour filmed Bee then in this your Christian conjugall Pilgrimage so conformed that as with increase of dayes so with approvement of deserts you may bee confirmed Againe are you widowes you deserve much honour if you bee so indeed This name both from the Greeke and Latine hath received one consonant Etymology deprived or destitute Great difference then is there betwixt those widowes who live alone and retire themselves from publike concourse and those which frequent the company of men For a widow to love society albeit her intentions relish nothing but sobriety gives speedy wings to spreading infamy Saint Hierom writing to Eustachia gives her this counsell If thou shalt finde any question in Scripture harder then thou canst well resolved demand satisfaction from such an one who is of a most approved life ripe age that by the integrity of his person thou maist bee secured from the least aspersion for in popular concourse and Court-resorts there is no place for widowes for in such meetings shee exposeth her honour to danger which above all others shee ought incomparably to tender Yea but will you object admit our inheritance family fortunes and all lye a bleeding may wee not make recourse to publike Courts for redresse of our publike wrongs What of all this Doe not complaine that you are desolate or alone Modesty affecteth silence and secrecy a chaste woman solitarinesse and privacy If you have businesse with the Iudge of any Court and you much feare the power of your adversary imploy all your care to this end that your faith may bee grounded in those promises of Christ Your Lord maketh intercession for you rendring right judgement to the Orphane and righteousnesse unto the widow Besides ye have Courts for righting Widows and redressing Orphans where those very Impreze's wrought in their Cushions cannot chuse but be like so many representative Hieroglyphicks or usefull Memorialls of Iustice to render to your just complaints and injurious pressures convenient solace This inestimable inheritance of Chastity is incomparably more to bee esteemed and with greater care preserved by Widowes then Wives albeit by these neither to bee neglected but highly valued Out of that ancient experience which time hath taught them their owne observations inform'd them and the reverence of their condition put upon them they are to instruct others in the practice of piety reclaime others from the pathes of folly and with a vertuous convoy guide them to glory It would lesse become them to tricke and trimme themselves gaudily or gorgeously then young girles whose beauty and outward ornament is the hope and anchor-hold of their preferment for by these doe they their husbands seeke and hope in time to get what they seeke Whereas it were much more commendable for widowes neither to seeke them nor being offred to accept them lest enforced by necessity or wonne by importunacy or giving way to their frailty they make exchange of their happy estate for a continuate scene of misery A widow ought to pray fervently to exercise workes of devotion frequently that the benefit of her prayer may redound to her effectually and fruitfully and not returne backe from the throne of God drily or emptily For I would according to Menanders opinion have a widow not onely to demeane her selfe chastely and honestly but likewise to give examples of her blamelesse life to such as heare her instructions attentively For she ought to be as a Glasse to young Maids wherein they may discerne their crimes Now I hold her a chaste Widow who though shee have opportunity to doe it and bee suited by importunity unto it yet will not suffer her brest to harbour an unchaste thought or consent unto it In that Countrey where I was borne saith Lud. Vives wee usually terme such widowes the greatest associates and assistants of vices whose too much delicacy in bringing up their children makes them oft-times depraved and to all inordinate liberty addicted Wherefore I approve well of their course who recommend the care of their children to some discreet and well-disposed person For such is the too tender affection of mothers towards their children and so much are they blinded with the love of them as they thinke they treat them too roughly albeit they embrace them never so tenderly Saint Hierome writing unto Salvina saith The chastity of a woman is fraile and fading like a flower quickly perishing and vading with the least gust or blast of adverse Fortune failing if not falling especially where her age is apt for vice and the authority of her husband wants to afford her advice from whose assistance her honour derives her best succour and supportance Who if shee have a great family many things are required of her and to bee found in her to minister supply to the necessity of time and use of affaires wherein
his riches may make him truly happy It is a miserable state that starves the owner I will perswade him to enjoy his owne and so avoyd basenesse to reserve a provident care for his owne and shunne profusenesse Againe Is hee poore His poverty shall make me rich there is no want where there wants no content This I shall enjoy in him and with him which the world could not afford mee liv'd I without him It hath beene an old Maxime that as poverty goes in at one doore love goes out at the other and love without harbour falls into a cold and aguish distemper but this rule shall never direct my thoughts should poverty enthrall me it shall never appall me my affection shall counterpoize all affliction No adversity can divide mee from him to whom my vowed faith hath individually ti'd me In a word Is hee wife He shall be my Thales Is hee foolish I will by all meanes cover his weakenesse As I am now made one with him so will I have mine equall share in any aspersion that shall bee throwne on him Thus if you expostulate your Christian constant resolves shall make you truly fortunate Your Fancy is on deliberation grounded which promiseth such successe as your Marriage-dayes shall never feare the bitter encounter of untimely repentance nor the curelesse anguish of an afflicted Conscience THe selfe-same rule which Augustus was said to observe in his choyce and constant retention of friends are you Gentlewomen to apply to your selves in the choice of your second-selves Hee was slow in entertaining but most constant in reteining Favorites are not to bee worne like favours now in your hat or about your wrist and presently out of request Which to prevent entertaine none to lodge neere your heart that may harbor in his brest ought worthy your hate Those two Motto's I would have you incessantly to remember for the useful application of them may highly conduce to your honour The one is that of Caia Tranquilla which shee ever used to her royall Spouse Caius Tarquinius Priscus Where thou art Caius I am Caia The other that of Ruth unto Naomi Whither thou goest I will goe and where thou dwellest I will dwell There is no greater argument of lightnesse then to affect the acquaintance of strangers and to entertaine variety of Suites These as they distract the eye so they infect the heart Constant you cannot bee where you professe so long as you affect change Vowes deliberately advised and religiously grounded are not to be dispenc'd with But say you never vowed have you made outward professions of love and entertained a good opinion of that object in your heart Againe are you resolved that his affection is reall towards you That his protests though delivered by his mouth are engraven in his heart Let not so much good love bee lost insult not over him whom unfained affection hath vow'd your servant Let Wolves and Beasts bee cruell in their kindes But Women meeke and have relenting mindes It were to much incredulity in you to distrust where you never found just cause of distaste Yea but you will againe object Wee are already by your owne Observations sufficiently instructed that Fancy is to bee with deliberation grounded that love lightly laid on lasts not long Should wee then affect before we finde ground of respect Should wee entertaine a Rhetoricall Lover whose protests are formall Complements and whose promises are gilded pills which cover much bitternesse No I would not have you so credulous lest your Nuptiall day become ominous Make true triall and experiment of his Constancy who tenders his service to you Sift him if you can finde any branne in him Taske him before you take him Yet let these be sweetly tempred with lenity Let them not bee Taskes of insuperable difficulty This were tyrannize where you should love This was Omphales fault to make her faithfull servant a servile slave Alas shall hee fare the worse because hee loves you This would induce others who take notice of your cruelty to loath you And make your discarded Lover surprized with an amorous distemper to reply as Absalom to 〈◊〉 Is this thy kindnesse 〈◊〉 â—hy friend My counsell is that as it will bee usefull for you to deliberate before you take so much as the least Notions of an affectionate Servant yea and to second that deliberation with some probable proofe or triall that hee is truly constant so it will bee a gratefull office in you to reteine him in your favour with a gracious respect to countenance the improvement of his constancy with a cheerefull and amiable aspect to banish all clouds of seeming discontent and to give him some modest expressions of the increase of your good Conceit towards him Let this bee done till Hymen make you individually one Then and never till then may Love enjoy her full freedome Shee stands priviledg'd by a sacred rite to taste that fruit which before was forbidden Mutuall respects like so many diametrall lines pointing all to one Centre are then directed to one exquisite object the purity of love which produceth this admirable effect it makes one soule rule two hearts and one heart dwell in two bodies Now I would have you when your desires are drawne to this period to become so taken with the love of your choyce as to interpret whatsoever hee shall doe ever to the best sense It were little enough that you reteined a good opinion of him who stands in so many severall ingagements obliged for you Should your riot bring him into debt his restraint must make you free Durance must bee his suit while better stuffe makes you a Coate Hee must content himselfe with restraint to give you content let nothing discontent you more then to entertaine him with contempt Yea what Conscience is there in it but hee should receive and affable and amiable respect from you seeing if your Conscience be no Conformalist hee must pay for you These respects should perpetually tye you to honour him who becomes so legally ty'd for you Requite these then with constancy and reteine this ensuing Example ever in your memory Theogena wife to Agathocles shew'd admirable constancy in her husbands greatest misery shewing her selfe most his owne when hee was relinquisht and forsaken of his owne clozing her resolution with this noble Conclusion She had not onely betaken her selfe to bee his Companion in prosperity but in all fortunes that should befall him Conforme your selves to this Mirror and it will reforme in you many a dangerous errour Thus if you live thus if you love honour cannot chuse but accompany you living much comfort attend you loving and a vertuous memory embalme you dying WAnton Love seldome or never promiseth good successe the effect cannot bee good when the object is ill Sense must bee the blind Lanthorne to guide her while shee rambles in the street for Reason shee leaves her sleeping with the Constable What devices shee hath to purchase
woo'd nor wonne at any rate These had rather dye for love than bee deem'd to love Their hearts are smeer'd over with Salamanders oyle and wil admit no heat They may entertaine Suiters but it is with that coldnesse of affection as the longer they resort the lesser is their hope They may boast more of the multiplicity of their Suitors than their Suitors can of any probability to bee speeders As it chanced sometime in a Contest betwixt two Maids who comparing one with the other their descents friends and Suitors Make no comparison with me replyed the one to the other for I must tell thee I have more Suitors than thou hast friends More shamelesse you answered the other unlesse you meane to set up an house of good fellowship These unsociable Natures who many times deferre making their choyce till age bring them to contempt and excludes them from all choyce Or Danaë-like live immured in their Chamber till their Fort bee undermined by some golden Pioner detract much from the relenting disposition of their Sexe It is their honour to be woo'd and won To be discreet in their choyce and to entertaine their choyce without Change Of such I speake who have not dedicated their dayes to Virginity which is such a Condition as it aspires to an Angelicall perfection Good saith venerable Bede is conjugall chastity better is viduall continency but best is the perfection of Virginity Yea Virginity exceeds the condition of humane nature being that by which man resembles an Angelicall Creature Wee reade likewise that the Vnicorne when hee can be taken by no force nor subtill Engine will rest and repose in the Lap of a Virgin To those onely I direct my discourse who have a mind to take themselves unto the world and to entertaine their Lover but it is with such coolenesse as it drives their dispassionate Sweet-heart into strange extreames And this proceeds commonly from an over-weening Conceit which these dainty Damsels have of their owne worth with the apprehension whereof they become so infinitely taken as they can find none worthy their choyce Of this disdainefull opinion was the unhappy Gentlewoman who after many faire fortunes tendred Suitors of deserving quality rejected made her incestuous brother her licentious Lover A crime detestable even to Barbarians and bruit beasts Insomuch as it is reported of the Camâ—ll that they usually hood-winke him when at any time they bring his mother unto him which act he no sooner knowes then hee tramples her under his feet and kicks her to death with his heeles so hatefull is Incest even to bruit beasts whose native instinct abhors such obscene commixtures You whose discreet affections have cast anchor by making choyce of some deserving Lover afflict him not with needlesse delayes if hee merit your choyce one day is too long to deferre him if undeserving taxe your owne indiscretion so rashly to entertaine him Is it bashfull modesty that with-holds you I commend it it well becomes you Chastity cannot expresse it selfe in a fairer Character then in blushing lines of loving shamefastnesse Is it consent of friends that detaines you I approve that too These rites are best accomplished when they are with consent and consort of friends solemnized But if the ground of your delay trench either upon some future expectance of better fortunes or indifferency of affection in respect of your Choyce the issue cannot possibly prove well being built upon such weake grounds For to insist cursorily upon either of these two Shall a deceiving hope of preferment dispossesse him of your heart whom personall deserts make worthy of your love Looke to it Such fortunes cannot purchase you content which are got with an aged husbands contempt It shewes a servile nature to cashiere a faithfull Lover because hee is poorer and to preferre another lesse desertfull because hee is richer This inconstancy cannot succeed well because the foundation is grounded ill Againe are you indifferent or Luke-warme in affection in respect of your choyce for shames sake what doe you make of love Do you use it like a toy or tyre to put off or on as you like Must it resemble the fashion This day in request and next day out of date This indeed is such a cool easie-tempered Love as it will never mad you yet trust me it may well delude you Fancy will not so be plaid with You will object I imagine your stomacks are too queasie to digest Love Why then did you ever seeme so greedily to feed on that which your stomacks now cannot well digest Have you surfeited on the substance Lay that aside for a while and bestow your eye on the Picture Such impressions have sharpened the dull affections of many Lovers Alexander being much in love with Apelles as one highly rapt with the exquisitenesse of his art proposed him that Mcdell for a taske which hee of all others affected most commanding him on a time to paint Campaspe a beautifull woman naked which Apelles having done such impression wrought the Picture in his affection as Apelles fell in love with her which Alexander perceiving gave him her It is incredible what rare effects were sometimes drawne from a Morian-Picture being onely hung up in a Ladies Chamber If such impressive motives of affection draw life from a Picture what may bee conceived by the Substance Oris Apollo writeth that the Egyptians when they would describe the Heart and fit her with a proper Embleme paint the bird Ibis because they thinke that no Creature for proportion of the body hath so great an heart as the Ibis hath It is the Bird of love must bee the Embleme of your heart It is neither picture nor posture can content her Much lesse these inferiour pictures which wee call moneyes which are so farre from satisfying the affection as they are onely for the Mold or Worldling whose grosser thoughts never yet aspired to the knowledge of loves definition As then the precious stone Diacletes though it have many rare and excellent soveraignties in it yet it loseth them all if it bee put in a dead mans mouth so Love though it bee a subject so pure as none of a more refined nature so firme as none of a more holding temper so hot as none of a more lasting fervour yet becomes her splendour darkened her vigor weakened her fervor cooled when shee is in a cold brest entertained Resemble rather the Iuniper-tree whose coale is the hottest and whose shadow is the coolest bee hot in your affection but coole in your passion If you finde any thing which cooleth love in you remove it if any thing which urgeth passion quench it contrariwise feed in you loves heat but represse in you all passionate hate Take into your more serious thoughts a view of his deserts whom you affect increase the conceit of them by supposing more than hee expresseth The imagination of Love is strong and works admirable effects in a willing subject Yet in all this let no
ibid. Fame the sweetest flower that ever grew neare the border of Time ibid. A continuation of sundry eminent personages puissant in armes continent in desires and absolute Commanders of their owne affections pag. 328 329. Greece and Rome were no lesse honoured for PENELOPES and LUCRETIA'S Constancie than for VLYSSES wisedome or COLLATINES loyalty ibid. Portion may woe a Wordling Proportion a youthfull wanton but it is vertue that wins the heart of discretion pag. 329. A select improvement of our Albion Ladies pag. 330. How Estimation may be discerned to be reall ibid. Instructions of singular use for Maides Wives and Widowes illustrated with proper instances in each kinde The way to winne an Husband is not to wooe him but to be woo'd by him pag. 330 331. Mother 's the fittingst Nurses of their owne children seconded by examples in all ages pag. 331 332. c. A Mistresse of a family many times taxed for her Handmaides delicacy instanced and illustrated copiously pag. 334 The lives of the dying consist in the memory of the living ibid. How Estimation may be discerned to be superficiall pag. 335. Many desire to appeare most to the eye what they are least in heart ibid. The first occasion of kissing the lip with a free reproofe of our late but too neate introduc'd custome of kissing the cheeke elegantly shadowed in a Sonnet ibid. Discretion cannot approve of that for good which selfe-opinion or singularity onely makes good ibid. Those who dedicate themselves to the service of Vertue preferre the pith before the rinde substance before appearance pag 336 A 〈…〉 wanton Women ibid. Sinnes may 〈…〉 but never without feare ibid. Superficiall Complementors are hypocriticall Courtiers ibid. Directions how to be gracious Courtiers in the highest Court ibid. How Estimation may be impregnably preserved pag. 337. Of all arrowes those which are darted by the spirit of zeale wound the enemy most and procure the Archer best rest confirmed by sundry notable examples ibid. 338 None can walke safely that walkes not religiously ibid. A reflection upon the constancy and resolution of Heathens râ—â—â—mmended to the imitation of Christian womâ—n ibid. Vertue cannot exercise her owne strength nor expresse her owne worth without an Opposite ibid. An instance in a noble Lady pag. 339 A direction in the cloze ibid. How Estimation may be irreparably lost ibid. The * Ivie while it is winding decayes the plant with which it is wreathing * Ilices hederae agiles horae conficiunt ibid. An instance of a Citie-Virago pag. 340 An use of this instance ibid. The absolute end whereunto Estimation aspires and wherein it cheerefully rests ibid. This confirmed by sundry examples and one most remarkeable of our owne ibid. 341 c. An application to these Ladies of our owne pag. 342. FANCY Observat. 6. FAncy is to be with deliberation grounded pag. 343 The Eye is Fancies harbinger but the heart is her harbour ibid. Directions for settling and disposing our affection pag. 344 Loves purity is to be discussed before it be entertained ibid. Not the rinde but the minde it Discretions Adâ—â—â—ant ibid. The misery of jealousie deblaâ—â—nâ—d and exemplified ibid. Singular resolves for a Conjugall 〈◊〉 pag. 345. 346 Fancy is to be with constancy retained pâ—g 346 Two memorable Mottoes recommended ibid. The waywardnesse of some women justly reproved and how that humour may be rectified pag. 347 The admirable puritie and efficacie of Love ibid. Memorable examples of Conjugall Constancy and Continency Which constancy or rather pertinacious Fancy might be instanced in that Hartfordshire widow who though lâ—ft deeply ingaged by her Husband was strongly sollicited by sundry eminent Suitors all which she rejected making choice of a dâ—bâ—uâ—ht Spend-thrift And though much disswaided by her friends she declined not her affection Saying ever He was good enough to lye in a â—ayle which she performe for the very same day they were married Her Bridegroome was arrested and committed to Prison where she accommodates him with all necessaries but never to this houre admits him the enjoyment of her person pag. 34â— An exhortation tending to the imitation of such famous Presidents ibid. Wanton Fancy is a wandring â—renzy ibid. Wanton Love seldome or never promiseth good successe Covertly shadowed in the instance of a wretchlesse Lady who though an hoary dye had discoloured her haire and ripenes of yeares had summoned her to her 〈◊〉 yet so farre was she estrang'd from 〈◊〉 as her brothell-bed chased with 〈◊〉 broaths became an â—arbouresse to three â—â—â—dinous Consorts night by night To this fury of loose Fancy as she prostituted her honour so wheresoever she struck aâ—châ—r ill successe did ever accompany her ibid. The incâ—ndiaries or soments of this inordinate passion to sixe particulars reduced all which are in one distich includâ—d ibid. The odious and inhumane effects in all 〈…〉 the violence of this Wanton fancie or Wandring frenzie pag. 349. Soveraigne receipts to cure this desperate maladie pag. 350 What kind of affection deserves a Gentlewomanâ— election ibid. How Fancy may be checked if too wilde confirmed by a Philosophicall demonstration or Physicall experiments ibid. A pleasant and pitâ—y expostulation with fancy ibid. A disswasion from too much credulity to the light protests of deceiving fancy confirmed by a moderne example pag. 351 A Gentlewoman may with more safety suspect than too rashly affect ibid. A discreet resolution upon tearmes of affection seconded with the promise of an assured blessing ibid. The secret impression and passionate expression of an unfortunate Lady in the relation of her misery ibid. 352 It is not so hard to give comfortable counsell to the sorrowfull as to finde a fit season when to give it ibid. Consideration a necessarie guide to affection Ibid. Repentance comes too late at Marriage night Ibid. How Fancy may bee cheered if too cold ibid. The incomparable honour of a Virgin-condition pag. 353 The hate of Iuâ—est with brute Beasts ibid. The Bird of Love the Embleme of a Lovers heart pag. 354 Moneyes are inferiour pictures to true Lovers ibid. The absolute end of a conjugall State ibid. An attemperament of both those indisposed Fancies before mentioned pag. 355 The difference betwixt a wise and wilde Love consists in this the one ever deliberateâ— before it love the other loves before it deliberate ibid. Necessarie Cautions for all kind-hearted Gentlewomen ibid. 356. The like for all coy or coole-affected Gentlewomen ibid. A sweet attemperament of both these humours with an apt Emblem explained and properly applied to such as are with either of these humours distempered pag. 357 GENTILITY Observat. 7. GEntility is derived from our Ancestors to us but soone blanched if not revived by us pag 359 A perswasion to the imitation of our Ancestors vertues pag. 360 There was nothing mortall about them but their bodies and those were too fraile Cabonets for such rich eminences to lodge in whereas there is nothing but frailties about ours for loose and licentious love to
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
soules have given easie way to your mortall enemie Vtinam miserrimus ego c. I would I poore wretch saith Tertulian might see in that day of Christian exaltation An cum cerussa purpurisso croco cum illo ambitu capitis resurgatis No you staines to modesty such a Picture shall not rise in glory before her Maker There is no place for you but for such women as aray themselves in comely apparell with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broided haâ—re or gold or pearles or costly apparell But as becommeth women that professe the feare of God For even after this manner in time past did the holy women which trusted in God tire themselves Reade I say reade yee proud ones yee which are so haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes the Prophet Isaiah and you shall finde your selves described and the judgement of Desolation pronounced upon you Because the Daughters of Sion are haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes and with wandring eyes walking and minsing as they goe and making a tinckling with their feet therefore shall the Lord make the heads of the daughters of Sion bald and the Lord shall discover their secret parts And hee proceeds In that day shall the Lord take away the ornament of the slippers and the calles and the round tyres The sweet balles and the bracelets and the bonnets The tyres of the head and the sloppes and the head-bands and the tablets and the eare-rings The rings and the mufflers The costly apparell and the veiles and the wimples and the crisping-pins And the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the lawnes Now heare your reward And in stead of sweet savour there shall be stinke and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of dressing of the haire baldnesse and in stead of a stomacher a girdling of sack-cloth and burning in stead of beauty Now attend your finall destruction Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy strength in the battell Then shall her gates mourne and lament and shee being desolate shall sit upon the ground See how you are described and how you shall be rewarded Enjoy then sinne for a season and delight your selves in the vanities of Youth be your eyes the Lures of Lust your eares the open receits of shame your hands the polluted instruments of sinne to be short be your Soules which should be the Temples of the Holy Ghost cages of uncleane birds after all these things what the Prophet hath threatned shall come upon you and what shall then deliver you not your Beauty for to use that divine Distich of Innocentius Tell me thou earthen vessell made of clay What 's Beauty worth when thou must dye to day Nor Honour for that shall lye in the dust and sleepe in the bed of earth Nor Riches for they shall not deliver in the day of wrath Perchance they may bring you when you are dead in a comely funerall sort to your graves or bestow on you a few mourning garments or erect in your memory some gorgeous Monument to shew your vaine-glory in death as well as life but this is all Those Riches which you got with such care kept with such feare lost with such griefe shall not afford you one comfortable hope in the houre of your passage hence afflict they may releeve they cannot Nor Friends for all they can doe is to attend you and shed some friendly teares for you but ere the Rosemary lose her colour which stickt the Coarse or one worme enter the shroud which covered the Corps you are many times forgotten your former glory extinguished your eminent esteeme obscured your repute darkened and with infamous aspersions often impeached If a man saith Seneca finde his friend sad and so leave him sicke without ministring any comfort to him and poore without releeving him we may thinke such an one goeth to jest rather than visit or comfort and such miserable comforters are these friends of yours What then may deliver you in such gusts of affliction which assaile you Conscience shee it is that must either comfort you or how miserable is your condition She is that continuall feast which must refresh you those thousand witnesses that must answer for you that light which must direct you that familiar friend that must ever attend you that faithfull Counsellour that must advise you that Balme of Gilead that must renew you that Palme of peace which must crowne you Take heed therefore you wrong not this friend for as you use her you shall finde her She is not to be corrupted her sincerity scornes it Shee is not to bee perswaded for her resolution is grounded Shee is not to bee threatned for her spirit sleights it She is aptly compared in one respect to the Sea she can endure no corruption to remaine in her but foames and frets and chafes till all filth bee removed from her By Ebbing and flowing is shee purged nor is she at rest till shee be rinsed Fugit ab agro ad ciuitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum c. Discontentedly shee flies from the Field to the City from publicke resort to her private house from her house to her chamber Shee can rest in no place Furie dogs her behinde and Despaire goes before For Conscience being the inseparable glory or confusion of every one according to the quality disposition or dispensation of that Talent which is given him for to whom much is given much shall be required We are to make such fruitfull use of our Talent that the Conscience wee professe may remaine undefiled the faith we have plighted may be inviolably preserved the measure or Omer of grace we have received may be increased and God in all glorified Which the better to effect wee are to thinke how God is ever present in all our actions and that to use the words of Augustine Whatsoever we doe yea whatsoever it bee that wee doe he better knowes it than we our selves doe It was Seneca's counsell to his friend Lucilius that whensoever he went about to do any thing he should imagine Cato or Scipio or some other worthy Roman to be in presence In imitation of so divine a Morall let us in every action fix our eye upon our Maker Whose eyes are upon the children of men so shall we in respect of his sacred presence to which we owe all devout reverence Abstaine frome vill doe good seeke peace and ensue it Such as defil'd themselves with sinne by giving themselves over unto pleasure staining the Nobility splendour of their Soules through wallowing in vice or otherwise fraudulently by usurpation or base insinuation creeping into Soveraignty or unjustly governing the common-weale such thought Socrates that they went a by-path separated from the counsell of the gods but such as while they lived in their bodies imitated the life of the gods such hee thought had an easie returne to the place
choicest gifts of nature accomplished of their owne disposition well affected who by consorting with inordinate men have given reines to liberty and blasted those faire hopes which their friends and country had planted on them how requisite then is it for every one whose thoughts aime at Perfection to consort with such as may better him and not deprave him informe him and not corrupt him For if there be a kind of resemblance betwixt the diseases of the body and the vices or enormities of the mind what especiall care are we to take lest by keeping company with those who are already depraved we become likewise infected Men would be loth to enter any house that is suspected only to be infected which if at unawares they have at any time entred they presently make recourse to the Apothecary to receive some soveraigne receit to expell it And if men bee so affraid lest this house the body which like a shaken building menaceth ruine daily should perish what great respect ought to bee had to the soule which is the guest of the body Shall corruption bee so attended and tendred and the precious Image of incorruption lessened and neglected God forbid specious or gorgeous Sepulchres are not so to bee trimmed that the cost bestowed on them should cause the divine part to bee wholly contemned To remove which contempt if any such there bee I will recommend to your devoutest meditation these two particulars First who it was that made us Secondly for what end he made us To which two briefly we intend to referre the Series of this present discourse For the first we are to know that no man is his owne maker It is hee that made us who made all things for us that they might minister unto us and to our necessity ordaining these for our Service and himselfe for our Solace He it is who hath subjected all things to the feete of man that man might wholly become subject unto him yea and that man might become wholly his hee gave man absolute dominion over all those workes of his creating all outward things for the body the body for the soule and the soule for himselfe And to what end Even to this end that man might onely intend him onely love him possessing him to his Solace but inferiour things to his Service Now to dilate a little upon this great worke of our Creation wee may collect from sacred scripture a foure-fold Creation or Generation The first in Adam who came neither of man nor woman the second in Eve who came of man without woman the third in Christ who came not of man but woman the fourth in us who came both of man and woman For the first as he had from Earth his Creation so it shewed the weaknesse of his composition the vilenesse of his condition with the certainty of his dissolution For the second as she had from man her forming so it figured their firmenesse of union inseparable communion and inviolable affection For the third as he came onely of woman so he promised by the Seed of the woman to â—ruise the Serpents head who had deceived woman and restore man to the state of grace from which hee had fallen by meanes of a woman For the fourth as wee came both from man and woman so wee bring with us into the world that Originall sinne which wee derive both from man and woman the sting whereof cannot bee rebated but onely through him who became man borne of a woman But in this great worke of our Creation wee are not to observe so much the matter as quality and nature of our Creation For the matter of our Creation or that whereof wee bee composed what is it but vile earth slime and corruption So as howsoever wee appeare beautifull specious and amiable in the sight of man whose eye is fixed on the externall part yet when the oile of our Lampe is consumed and wee to dust and ashes reduced wee shall observe no better inscription than this Behold a specious and a precious shrine covering a stinking corps Wherefore ought we to observe the internall part and the especiall glory wee receive by it for hereby are we distinguished in the quality of our Creation from all other creatures who governe their actions by Sense onely and not by Reason Hence it was that that divine Philosopher gave God thankes for three speciall bounties conferred on him First was For that God had created him a reasonable creature and no brute beast Second For creating him a man and no woman Third For that he was a Grecian and no Barbarian This it was which moved that blessed and learned Father Saint Augustine to break out into this passionate rapsodie of spirit Thy hand could O Lord have created me a stone or a Bird or a Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercouâ—se rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme and crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou hast ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make mee conformable to thy selfe that of a worm I may become an Angell of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very Image which wee carry about us preferring us not onely before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby wee become not onely equall but even superiour unto Angels because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximâ—nes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserable were these blinded how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god it said unto me that it was not
that drum they would not abide but take their flight This moved Scipio to appoint his Sepulcher to bee so placed as his image standing upon it might looke directly towards Africa that being dead he might still bee a terrour to the Carthaginians If respect of Pagans to their Country or an eye to popular glory did so inflame them as their Countries love exceeded their love of life surviving in their death and leaving monuments of their affection after death how lightly are wee to value the glory of this life if the losse thereof may advance our Fathers glory or ought tending to the conversation of this life being assured by him whose promises faile not by such a small losse to gaine eternity Now as it is not the death but the cause of the death which makes the Martyr we are to know that to die in the maintenance of any hereticall opinion is Pseudo-martyrdomâ— for howsoever those Arians Manichees and Pelagians those Macedonians Eutichees and Nestorians yea generally all Hereticks were constant and resolute enough in seconding and maintaining their erroneous opinions yet forasmuch as the cause for which they contended was Heresie tend it might to their confusion but never to their glory for as honey-comâ—es saith learned Tertullian are by Waspes composed so are Churches by the Marcionists and consequently by all Heretickes disposed in whose Synodals or conventicles many thousands are perverted none converted or to the Church of Christ faithfully espoused Whereas Truth which may be pressed but not oppressed assailed but never soiled like the greene Bay-tree in the midst of hoarie winter or a fresh Spring in the sandy desart appeares most glorious when her adversaries are most malicious bearing ever a countenance most cheerefull when her assailants are most dreadfull Neither only in this glorious act of Martyrdome but in all inferiour works the affection of the minde as well as the action of the man is to bee considered for God himselfe who hath an eye rather to the intention than action will not approve of a good worke done unlesse it be well done As for example when the Pharisie fasted prayed gave almes and payed tithe of all that he possessed he did good workes but he did not those good works well the reason was hee exalted himselfe in his workes without attributing praise unto him who is the beginner and perfecter of every good worke for his fasts were hypocriticall not of devotion his prayers ineffectuall because they sounded of Ostentation his almes unacceptable because exhibited only for observation and his tithes abominable being given to colour his secret oppression for which cause did our Saviour pronounce a woe upon them saying Woe unto you Pharisies for yee tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of herbes and passe over judgement and the love of God these ought yee to have done and not to leave the other undone Whence it appeares that the worke it selfe was approved but the manner of doing it reproved for that they preferred the tithing of Mint and Rue before the judgement and love of God so they preferred it as the one was performed while the other of more serious and consequent importance was omitted Whence wee are cautioned that in our workes of Mortification we doe nothing for any sinister or by-respect but only for the glory of God to whom as all our Actions are properly directed so are they to have relation onely unto him if wee desire to have them accepted Is it so that this Actuall Perfection is to be acquired by Mortification wherein is required not only the action but affection And that wee are even to lay downe our lives if the cause so require to promote the glory of our Maker Tell me then Gentleman how farre have yee proceeded in this spirituall progresse Have yee unfainedly desired to further the honour of God repaire the ruines of Sion and engage your owne lives for the testimony of a good conscience Have ye fought the Lords battell and opposed your selves against the enemies of the Truth Have yee shut the doore of your chamber the doore of your inner parlour I meane your heart from the entrance of all earthly affections sensuall cogitations and expressed true arguments of Mortification the sooner to attaine this high degree of Christian Perfection Have yee made a covenant with your eyes not to looke after the strange woman a covenant I meane with your hearts never to lust after her Have yee weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting forraine and out-landish fashions Which howsoever they be to fashion conformed they make man of all others most deformed Have yee done with your reere-suppers midnight revels Curtaine pleasures and Courting of Pictures Have yee left frequenting Court-maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes boasting of young Ladies favours glorying more in the purchase of a glove than a Captaine in the surprizall of a Fort Have yee cashiered all those Companions of death those seducing Consorts of misery and betaken your selves to the acquaintance of good men conceiving a settled joy in their society O then thrice happy you for having honoured God he will honour you having repaired the ruines of Sion hee will place you in his heavenly Sion or engaged your lives for the testimony of a good Conscience hee will invite you to that continuall feast of a peaceable Conscience or fought the Lords battell hee will say you have fought a good fight crowning you after your victory on earth with glory in heaven or shut the doore of your Chamber and kept the roome cleane and sweet for your Maker hee will come in and sup with you that you may rejoyce together or made a covenant with your eyes not to look after the strange woman with those eyes yee shall behold him who put enmitie between the Serpent and the Woman or weaned your itching and bewitching humours from affecting Out-landish fashions madding after phantasticke habits for stuffe it skils not whether silken or woollen so the fashion be civill and not wanton you shall be cloathed in long white robes and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth or done with your mid-night revels and Court pleasures you shall bee filled with the pleasures of the Lords House and abide in his Courts for ever or left frequenting Maskes Tilt-triumphs and Enterludes the glorious Spectacles of vanity you shall bee admitted to those angelicall triumphs singing heavenly Hymnes to the God of glory or chashier'd those companions of death whose end is misery you shall have the Saints for your companions and share with them in the Covenant of mercy Doe yee not hence observe what inestimable comforts are reserved for those who are truly mortified mortified I say in respect of your contempt to the world which is expressed by ceasing to love it before you leave it Who would not then disvalue this life and all those bitter sweets which this fraile life affordeth to possesse those incomparable sweets which every faithfull
Pitty the moanes of the afflicted wipe off the teares of the distressed comfort them that mourne in Sion The ordinary forme of begging in Italy is Doe good for your owne sakes Doe good for your owne sakes for your owne selvs for your owne soules No sacrifice to God more gratefull to your selves more usefull or to your own soules more fruitfull then to be zealous in all holy duties and compassionate to the needful for he that in himselfe burnes not in devotion can never inflame another with the zeale of devotion neither can any one shine unlesse before he burne shine in the works of compassion unlesse he burn before with the zeale of a devout affection So as many though they be Lights in respect of their ministry or office yet are they Snuffs in respect of their use effect or service Exhibit therefore freely of those good gifts and bounties which God hath bestowed on you and shew your liberality now in the opportunate time for as there is a time that none can worke so there is a time when none can give give it then in your life time that you may expresse your charity with your own hand and not by way of Legacie for many make good wills which I much feare mee proceed not of good will being rather by the sentence of mortality inforced then of their owne charitable disposition affected to leave to the poore afflicted of the world which they so exceedingly love while they sojourned here in the world And what shall these bountifull Legacies availe them these charitable Wills profit them when they shall make their beds in the darke and enter parlie with their owne Consciences whether this coacted charity of theirs proceeded from compassion or compulsion leaving what they could no longer enjoy and giving that which was not in their power to give Surely no more benefit shall this inforced charity conferre on them then if they had sowne the sand for fruitlesse is that worke which deriveth not her ground from a pure intention or sanctified will In the Easterne countries they put coine in the dead mans hand to provide for him after his departure hence The like provision carry these along with them to their graves who deferre giving till they cannot give making their Executors their Almoners who many times defeate the poore or number themselves in Bead-roll of the poore whereby they gull the deceased enriching their owne Coffers with the poore mans box O Gentlemen you whose corps are followed with many mourners and oft-times inward rejoycers send out those sweet odours of a good and devout life before you dispense and dispose faithfully in whatsoever the Lord above others hath enriched you deferre not your charity to your death lest you be prevented of your charity by death bethinke your selves how you would be provided if that great Master of accounts were this houre to call you before him and make your reckoning with him would you not bee glad your conscience told you how you had beene faitfull disposers or imployers of those Talents which were delivered to you Would not your hearts rejoyce within you to have such a Testimony as the witnesse of an undefiled or spotlesse conscience within you Would it not intraunce you with an exceeding joy to heare that happy and heavenly approbation Well done good and faithfull servants you have beene faithfull over a few things I will make you rulers over many things enter yee into the joy of your Lord If this could not choose but joy you so dispose of your earthly Mammon that you may be partakers of this surpassing joy in the Courts of Sion And so I descend to the last Branch of this last Observation expressing that object of ineffable consolation whereto this Active Perfection aspireth and that spirituall repose of heavenly solace and refection wherein it solely and properly resteth MAn is borne unto trouble as the sparkes fly upward being here a sojourner in the Inn of this world and drawing every day neerer and neerer the end of his Pilgrimage where mans life is the Travellers embleme his forme of living the very mirrour of his sojourning his home returning the type or figure of his dissolving In which progresse or journall of man by how much more the Sun-diall of his life proceedeth by so much neerer the night-shade of death approacheth Yet behold the misery of man His desires are daily to disquiet and disturbe himselfe for shew me that man howsoever affected or in what degree soever placed whose desires are so firmely fixed as his mind is not troubled in the pursuit of that whereto his aymes are directed For to begin with the Highest because his thoughts are ever aspiring'st doth the Ambitious man ayme at honour or preferment Behold he purposeth with himselfe to gaine or attaine such a place under his Prince not so much for his owne ends as he pretendeth but to be usefull to his friends and behovefull to his Countrey but since that houre he entertained the first infant thoughts of Ambition hee hath felt sufficiently the danger of that infection reaping no other fruits but distractions in respect of Competitors or want of enjoying himselfe being pestred by multitude of Sutors Or is he covetous There is nothing which he eyes or beholds upon this Vniverse tending to profit or promising hope of profit which hee presently conveyes not to his heart coveting whatsoever hee sees and seeing nothing that he doth not covet hee tumbles and tosses and will not suffer his eyes to slumber but like miserable Menedemus in Terence or greedy Gripus in Plautus hee afflicts and torments himselfe making his owne desires his owne disquiets Or is hee Voluptuous His fond affection procures in him this phrensie or distraction Hee goes to the house of the strange woman gives eare to her incantation sports with Ismael lusts after her beauty in his heart and is taken with her eye lids yet see how sensuality brings him to misery by meanes of this whorish woman hee is brought to a peece of bread and the adulteresse will hunt after his precious life but to passe over these and take a view of such whose course of life seemes better disposed then to converse with the world either by ambitiously aspiring to Honours the great mans Darling or by too eager a pursuit after Riches the worldlings Mammon or by too hot a quest after pleasure the wantons Minion For to reflect a little upon the aymes of such who affect Contemplation and every day better their knowledge in the serious or exquisite search of the natures vertues or operations of all creatures wee shall find to use the words of Salomon That even in these there is vanity and affliction of spirit for howsoever wisedome raines downe skill and knowledge of understanding exalting them to honour that hold her fast yet Salomons conclusion after the search of wisdome and folly is definitively this In much
eyes with variety of phantasticke Behaviours But these are none of Vertues followers Would you be prayse-worthy Vertue to her selfe is her chiefest prayse her choycest prize There is nothing comparably precious to a continent soule Affectation shee will not admit for her habit both her Habit and Behaviour are proper not enforced native and not apishly introduced Shee cannot wooe a wanton Lover with a dissembled blush nor promise more with an outward presence then shee resolves to admit with a spotlesse Conscience Outward semblances if light shee holds apparant blemishes to her life Her life as it is a line to her selfe so she would have it a light to others Lacides Prince of Argos was accounted lascivious onely for his sleeke lookes and mincing gate So Pompey because hee used to scratch his head with one finger albeit very continent and modest Beleeve it though your Person be the Booke your Behaviour is the Index Which will require a large Comment if it expresse it selfe in ought probably incontinent Now for as much as nothing better seemes you more commendably adornes you or more absolutely accommodates you then what is native and unaffected so it be by Education seasoned bee your owne Women dis-value all apish formality resort not to the Temple to take a patterne of some new fashion modest discretion blusheth at such servile imitation What you see in another may become them which would not become another The Asse in the fable seeing the dogge fawne and leap upon his Master though it would beseeme him but sorting not with his nature it got him a beating for his labour Now to distinguish betwixt an enforced and unaffected Behaviour it is most easie the very first blush will discover the one by the other You shall observe these who are tyed to affectation in this kind set their looke gate and whatsoever else may conferre a phantasticke grace on their usurped Behaviour so punctually as if they had entred a solemne Contract with eye face hand foot and all to hold constantly their dimension to beget in the beholder a more setled admiration Whereas contrariwise these whose free genuine and generous demeanours expresse themselves lesse strictly but farre more comely scorne to tye their affections to these servile restraints They hold it farre more sutable with an Italian Pantomime who professeth hope of profit upon the Stage to confine them to these regularities then discreet Women whose honour is their honest Behaviour and whose praise it is to be exemplary to others in goodnesse and not others Apes in imitating their phantastick fashions To conclude then this Observation as you are generous by birth dote not on that which is most ridiculous on this Stage of earth Approve your selves chaste Virgins continent Wives discreet Matrons honourable Widdowes in your vertuous and modest demeanour Preserve that eternally which gives accomplishment to Gentility Your Educations as may be presupposed have so beautified you as the garbe you reteine is most proper unto you The Hyaena is a dangerous beast yet her subtilty and cruelty take life from affectation and imitation Desire you to bee so Behav'd as others may admire you In your choyce of Behaviour inure your selves to what is neatest not what is newest Invention in subjects of this kinde doth more harme than good So behave your selves that too much curiosity may not taxe you of pride nor too much majesty of State Modesty mixt with humility will temper both these and make that Behaviour which appeares in you so well become you as if it were borne with you and not affectively derived from others to you THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN Argument Complement defined how it may be corrupted how refined wherein it may be admitted as mainely consequent wherein omitted as meerely impertinent what Complement gives best accomplishment COMPLEMENT COMPLEMENT hath beene anciently defined and so successively reteined a no lesse reall than formall accomplishment Such as were more nobly and freely educated and had improved their breeding by forraine Observations so sweetly tempered was the equall union and communion of their affections instructed others in what they had seene and observed either at home or abroad worthy imitation or approvement Nothing was admitted in those times publikely but what was by the graver Censors first discussed privately Iealous were the Pagans of forraine fashions for with such constancy they reteined their owne as they seldome or never itched after others The Tyrian and Sidonian were so suspected of pride through their effeminacy in attire and other light fashions which they used as they were held dangerous to commerce with So purely did those poore beamelings of Nature reflect on her people that formality was held palpable hypocrisie faire semblances and coole performances meer golden shadowes to delude others but gull themselves most Princes Courts were Princely Seminaries Delicacy was there no Tutresse nor effeminacy Governesse If Alcibiades albeit in Athens the beautifull'st for native endowments the pregnant'st and for descent one of the noblest introduce ought irregularly or expresse any Complement which relisheth not of Civility the author must suffer the censure of the City It was very usuall in former times when any Embassie was addressed from one state unto another for the Senate or Councell from whence any such Legate was sent to schoole them in sundry particulars before they tooke their journey or received their Commission but in no caution were they more strict then in expresse command that they should use no other garbe Complement nor salute upon their approach in forraine Courts then what they had seene used and observed at home Thus their owne native fashion became a note of distinction to every Nation Neither am I ignorant how even in one and the selfe-same Province there may be generally introduced a different or distinct garbe which proceedeth either from the Commerce and Confluence of people there resorting and consequently improving their Behaviour and Elocution by their mutuall conference or from the Princes Court where all State and Majesty hath residence or from the temperature of the Ayre to which some have attributed an especiall preeminence Whereas in desart and remote places on which the beames of Civill society seldome reflect wee shall find nothing but barbarisme and unsociable wildnesse Education is the improver of the one and producer of the other Wee shall ever see Complement shine most in places eminent There are Objects fit for such Subjects Such as expect it and bestow their whole dayes practice in exercise of it These aspire to the nature or definition of no art more eagerly then Complement which they hold the absolute ornament of Gentility Howsoever mainely repugnant be their Tenets touching the subsistence of Complement Some have held it consisted in congies cringes and salutes of which errour I would this age wherein wee live did not too much labour others meerely in a painted and superficiall discourse wherein they so miserably tyed themselves to words as they tyred the impatient hearers
is a good opinion drawne from some probable grounds An unvaluable gemmâ— which every wise Merchant who tenders his honour prefers before life The losse of this makes him an irreparable Bankrupt All persons ought to rate it high because it is the value of themselves though none more dearely then those in whom modesty and a more impressive feare of disgrace usually lodge These so cautelous are they of suspition as they will not ingage their good names to purchase affection Publike resorts because they may corrupt they avoid Privacy they consort with and in it converse with their owne thoughts whether they have in them ought that may betray them They observe what in others deserves approvement and this they imitate with an uncorrupt eye they note others defects which they make use of as a caveat For as life is a Globe of examples so these make the pious examples of others the Models or Patterns of their lifes Pure is their mold but farre purer the temper of their mind Fame they hold the sweetest flower that ever grew neere the border of Time Which lest either it should wither for want of moisture or wanting warmth should lose its vigour they bedew it with gracious affects and renew it with zealous resolves Descent as they draw it from others so would they improve it in themselves Ancient houses now and then stand in need of props and pillars these would they have supplied with the Cardinall vertues These are Emblemes of your selves Noble Ladies who so highly tender your honour as Estimation gaines you more then what your bloods gave you For this is inherent and primitive whereas the other is descendent and derivative It is a Princely command of your affections which mounts you to this height of goodnesse distinguishing betwixt blind love and discreet affection Pleasure cannot make you so forgetfull of your honour as to deprive you of that in a moment which you shall never recover Vertue hath taken that seazure of you as no light thought can seize on you or dispossesse her of that claime shee hath in you Treacherous Tarpeia's may bee taken with gifts but your honour is of too high an estimate to suffer the least blemish for reward You observe what staines have laid and doe yet lie upon many ancient families by meanes of attainders in their Progenitors Their bloods say wee were corrupted whereby their estates became confiscated their houses from their lineall successors estranged and they to lasting infamy exposed Certainely though not in so high degree for these were Capitall many families have received deepe staines from light actions which neither time though never so aged could weare out nor the living exploits of their noble successors wipe off For the highest family sticks ever upon it the deepest infanâ—y when at any time stained and diffuseth her beames with fullest glory where it is by piety graced Vice hath ever beene of a deeper dye then vertue and the memory of the one commonly survives the fame of the other Wounds when they are healed leave their scarres behind them Paths reteine their prints Your memory shall neither receive life from that noble blood which sprinkles in you nor from any monumentall shrine which may her eafter cover you but from those precious odours of your ever-living vertues which shall eternize you These are of power to make such as long since dyed and whose unequall'd beauty is for many ages since to ashes turned reteine a flourishing fame in the gratefull memory of the living Penelope for spending chaste her dayes As worthy as Vlysses was of prayse A daily siege shee suffered and in her Conquest equall was shee to those victorious Peeres of Greece who made Troy their triumph Estimation was her highest prize Suiters shee got yet amidst these was not her Vlysses forgot Long absence had not estranged her affection youthfull consorts could not move in her thoughts the least distraction neither could opportunity induce her to give way to any light action Well might Greece then esteeme her Penelope of more lasting fame then any Pyramid that ever shee erected Her unblemished esteeme was of farre purer stuffe then any Ivory statue that could bee reared Nor was Rome lesse beholden to her Lucrece who set her honour at so high a price as shee held death too light to redeeme such a prize Though force frights foes and furies gaz'd upon her These were no wounds but wonders to her honour The presence of a Prince no lesse amorous then victorious could not winne her though with him price prayer and power did joyntly wooe her Well deserved such two modest Matrons the choice Embraces of two such heroicke Champions as might equall their constant Loves with the tender of their dearest lives And two our Histories afford whom succeeding fame hath recorded eminent because double Conquerours both of Cities and of themselves puissant and continent This noble testimonie wee receive of Scipio that being a young man of twenty foure yeares of age in the taking of a City in Spaine hee repressed the slaming heat of his youthfull desires when a beautifull maid was brought him restoring her to a young man called Allutius to whom shee was espoused with a great reward Right worthy was hee to conquer another who could with such temper subdue himselfe such good successe hath ever attended on these Morall vertues though professed by Pagans The other Heroe was rightly AVGVSTVS both in name and nature and wheresoe're you looke a victorious CAESAR Cleopatra kneeled at his feet laid baits for his eyes but in vaine her beauties were beneath that Princes chastity Absolute Commanders were these Heroicke Princes of their affections yet a farre more singular argument of his composed disposition and of Morall if not Divine Mortification shewed that young man SPVTIMIA in Valerius Maximus whose beauty did so incomparably become him as it occasioned many women to lust after him which this noble youth no sooner perceived then hee purposely wounded his face that by the scarre hee sustained his beauty might become more blemished and consequently all occasion of lusting after it clearely removed This might bee instanced in one of your owne Sexe a religious votaresse whose chaste bosome was a sacred Recluse dedicated to goodnesse and who upon the encounter of a lascivious Lover returned this answer Sir I honour you so much as I have chosen rather to suffer then by my tyrannous beauty to make you a Prisoner Wherewith discovering her face in complexion much altered by some impostured colours which shee had caused to bee laid upon it hee vowed to relinquish his suit imagining that shee had poysoned her face to waine him from his impure affection This hee had no sooner said then shee ranne to a Spring neere adjoyning to wash it off See said shee I am the same I was but you are much better for now you are brought to see your errour in being so much taken with a skin-deepe beauty which onely consists