worse for this is to murther one whom we have perswaded to lay aside his Arms. And as Dissimulation thrives never but once so to use it cuts off from the Dissembler that trust and confidence vvhich is necessary in great undertakings for who will depend on these whom they cannot trust And after Dissemblers are catcht as seldom they escape the abused people hate and persecute them as violators of that without which the World cannot subsist I appeal to the Reader if he hath not heard enemies lov'd for their ingenuity and if he hath not seen these Cut-throat Lights blown out and end in a stinking snuff And as if every man had escaped a Cut-purse if every man did not bless himself and rejoyce to see these dissemblers fall And I may justly say that Dissimulation is but the Theory of Cut-pursing and Assasination Consider how unpleasant any thing appears that is crooked and ye will find an natural argument against Dissimulation and though it hath great Patrons and can pretend to an old possession and much breeding at some Courts though all who are Gallant there hate it yet it is never able to gain esteem and can defend it self no other wayes then by a cowardly lurking and shunning to be discovered Neither can there be so much Wit in this Art as can justifie its error for Women and the meanest Wits are oft-times most expert in it all can do it in some measure and none ever used it long without being discovered and such only are rendred its prey as make it no great conquest they being either our friends who expected not our invasion or fools who are not worthy to be gloried in as our Trophees There are none of these Vices which rage amongst men more destructive to either their honour or to the honour of that Common-wealth which they compose then Envy and which both follows it and aggravats its guilt Detraction Envy is mean because it confesses that the envyer is not so noble or excellent as the person envied for none are envied but such as possess somewhat that over-reaches or excells what is possest by such as do envy This Vice acknowledges that he who useth it wants much of what is desireable and which is meaner much of what another possesses and as if we despair'd of rising to anothers hight it makes us endeavour to pull him down to the stature of our own accomplishments Most men essay to imitate the actions of these whom they envy so that in detracting from these they leave others to undervalue what they themselves design ardently to perform And thus if these detracters be so much favoured by Fate as to atchieve any such great action as that is which they undervalue in others they get but a barren victory and which is more insupportable they see themselves punished by their own Vice And to convince us how mean Vices Envy and Detraction are we may observe that such as are victorious judge it their honour to magnifie these who were vanquisht and men wound extreamly their own honour when they detract from persons who are more deserving in the eyes of the world then themselves for they force their hearers to conclude that the Detracters themselves must be undeserving seing these who deserve better are by their confession cry'd down as being of no merit which remembers me of this excellent passage in Plinius the Second Tibi ipsi ministras in alio laudando aut enim is quem laudas tibi superior-est aut inferior si inferior laudandus tu multo magis si superior neque jure laudandus tu multo minus Thou serves thy own interest when thou praises others for either he whom thou praisest is thy inferior and then if he deserves to be praised much more thou if he be thy superior and deserves not to be praised much less thou All men are either our friends or our enemies or such who have not concerned themselves in our affairs We are base because ingrate when we detract from our friends and we assert our own folly when by Detraction we endeavour to lessen the worth of those whom we have chosen for such we lessen likewise our honour when we detract from our competitors and enemies because to contest with undeserving persons is ignoble and to be vanquisht by them has little of honour in it Whereas as all events are uncretain if we be overcome by such as our detractions have made to pass for undeserving our overthrow will by so much become the more despicable and to detract from such as expected no wrong from us and who are strangers to us and our affairs is not only imprudent and unjust but is as dishonourable and little gallant as that is to wound one who expects not our aggression and whose innocency as to us leaves him disarm'd and the word backbiting clears to us that detraction is a degree of cowardlienesse for it assaults only such as are unprepared or absent which is held dishonourable amongst the least of such as have gallantry in any esteem He who praises bestows a favour but he who detracts commits a Robbery in taking from another what is justly his and certainly to give is more noble then to take Envy is also most prejudicial to great undertakings seing such as are engaged must resolve either not to act what is necessar for compleating so great projects or if they do to fall under the envy of these for whom they act them and the undertakers do obstruct by envy their own greatnesse because they are by that Vice perswaded to crop such as but begin to perform in their service attempts worthy of the being considered How destructive likewise this Vice is to the glory of Kingdoms and Common Wealths does but too clearly appear from this that all who are in them are either despicable by not being worthy of the being envyed or else will be destroyed by that Vice which levells it's murthering engines at such only who are the noblest Spirits and who deserve most promotion from their Countrey Carthage was destroyed by the envy which Hanno and Bomilcar bore to Hannibal who by denying him Forces to prosecut his Italian Conquests did involve themselves with him in the common ruins of their Countrey which shews the dishonourable folly of envy in conspiring against it self with these who being enemies to both the opposits sides first with the one in gratifieing his envy and then destroyes the other whose passion it first serv'd Pitifull examples whereof our own Age affoords us wherein many great men were by envy driven to oppose principles whereon they knew the publick safety and their own private interest to depend Flaminius the Roman General endangered Rome and Terentus Varro did almost losse it out of envy to Fabius Maximus and such was the force of envy that it did defeat the great Scipio and banished him from that Rome which he had made both secure and great and did by his example cool the zeal
washt by the Sea on all quarters that Isle which should acknowledge his Scepter your time makes the richest part of the publicks treasure and every hour ye mispend of that is a sacrilegious theft committed against your Countrey Throw not then so much time away though some be allowable in hunting and hauking which are not the noblest exercises seing they favour alwayes the strongest and do incline men though surdly to oppression and cruelty for which reason I beleeve Nimrod the first Tyrant is in Scripture observed to have been a mighty Hunter and with Lucullus that glorious Roman think it the noblest hunting to pursue malefactors by Justice in peace and irreclaimable enemies by Armies in War Raise siege from before these coye Ladies I speak noâ— of the nobler sort for to court such will obliege you to learn Witt Liberality Patience and Courage who do highten their obstinacy of design to make you lengthen your pursuites and lay it down before these strong Cities which are by no forc'd metaphor called the Mistresses of the world level their proud walls when they refuse your just commands with the ground whereon they stand and leave it as a doubt to your posterity when they see ruines to judge whither your fury or the thunder has lighted there But if ye will justifie your complements to deserving beauties employ your courage as well as affection in their service for till then ye serve them but by halfs And as Cesar at his parting told Cleopatra think your selves unworthy of them till ye have raised your own value by such exploits as courage has made great and Vertue has made generous Court them as he did her with no other Serenades then the pleasant noise of your Victories and after ye have returned covered not with perfumes or tissue but with deserved and blossoming Lawrels then that same vertous Courage which hath forced a passage through Walls and Ramparts piercing where shot of Cannon languisht or gave back will find an entry into the hardest heart which if it yield not to those gallant importunities of fate and fame it is certainly more unworthy of your pains then ye of its choice But forget not amidst all your Trophees rather to chastise pride then to be proud of any your plumpest successes which become cheats not victories when men are vain of them for by so doing you shall become Vassals to it Whilst ye toil to enslave others to you endeavour rather to deserve then to court Fame for in the one case ye will make it your Trumpet whereas in the other it will become your Imperions Mistriss and ye will thus oblige it to follow you Whereas otherwayes you may weary your selves in following it The noblest kind of vanity is to do good not to please others or to expect a reward from them and Fame is nothing else but do so of design to gratifie your own gallant inclinations judging that the having done what is good and great is the noblest reward of both and scattering like the Sun equal light when men look or look not upon it The noblest kind of detraction is to lessen those who rival your Vertue not by obscuring their light as the dull earth eclipses the Moon but by out-shining it as the Sun renders all these other Stars inconspicuous which shine but appear not at the same time with it Raise your spirits by these Heroick efforts to so generous a pitch that ye need not think Heaven it self too high for you And as if all things here below were too unworthy a reward for that courage to which all those things do at last stoop Attempt Heaven if ye will be truly couragious which the Scripture tells us is taken by violence and the violent take it by force And when Vertue hath made you too great for this lower World the acclamations and plauditees of such as consider the Heroickness and justice of your actions shall be driven upwards with such zâ—â—l and ardor that they shall as it were rent the Heavens to clear an entry for you there Where when ye are mounted though Cesar or Augustus Alexander or Antoninus were adorning the Skyes transformed into Stars as their Adorers vainly imagined yet ye may with pity look down upon them as spangles which at best do but Embroider the out-side of that Canopie whereupon ye are to trample Ye shall there have pleasure to see our blest Saviour interceed for such as were Vertuous and welcome such as come there under that winning Character and shall from these lofty Seats see such Terrestrial souls as by their love to the earth were united and transformed into it burn in those flames which took fire first from the heat of their lusts here Which though it be an insupportable punishment yet ceds in horror to these checks they shall receive from their Conscience for having undervalued or oppressed that Vertue which I here recommend The Authors Design and Apologie THough I can by no other Calculation then that of my sins be found to be old yet in that small parcel of time which I have already transacted I have by my own practice been so Criminal and by my example adopted so many of other mens sins into the number of my own that though I should spend the residue of my allowance without one error which is equally impossible and desireable yet that negative goodness being a duty in it self it could attone my foregoing sins no more then the not contracting new debts can be accounted a payment of the old The consideration of which prevailed with me to endeavour to reclaim others from their vices by discourses of this tenor that in their prosolited practice I might be vertuous as I have been vitious in the practice of such as have followed my example And that I might in the time they should imploy well redeem what I my self had so mispent In order to which I did resolve to address my self to the Nobility and Gentry as to those whose reason was best illuminated and by prevailing with whom the world who imitats them as they depend upon them may be most compendiously gained to the profession of Philosophy and to such as have most leasure to reflect upon what is offered and fewest temptations to abstract them from obeying their own perswasions And as Physitians do judge their Medicaments will be most successfull when they rather second then force Nature So I resolved to use the assistance of their own inclinations in my discourses to them laying aside an enemy and gaining thus a friend by one and the same task Wherefore finding that most of them were either taken by an itch for honour or a love to ease I have fitted their humors with two Discourses in the one whereof I endeavour to prove That nothing is so mean as Vice and in the next I shall prove That there is nothing so easie as to be Vertuous I had I confess some thoughts of this Discourse when I first undertook the
they need not be ashamed to obey and so just to those whom he hath burdened with that command as to fit them for it by resembling indowments And as by the Heroickness of these who represent him he magnifies his own wisdom in that choice So by their publick spiritedness he manifests his love to these who are to be governed Thus as amongst the Spheres the higher still roll with the greatest purity and as in natural Bodies the Head is as well the highest as the noblest part of that pretty Fabrick from being vain whereof nothing could let us but that as the Apostle sayes it is given us and is not our own workmanship so amongst men each whereof is a little World or rather a nobler draught of the greater the highest are ordinarily the more sublime for such as attain by election to that hight must be presumed best to deserve it such as force a passage to it could not do so without abilities far raised above the ordinary allowance and such as by their birth are accounted Noble have ordinarily like water their blood so much the more purified by how much the further it hath run from its first Fountain Antiquity is an abridg'd eternity and that being one of GODS Attributes these do oft resemble him most in his other Attributes who can pretend with greatest justice to this And as in natural bodies duration doth argue a fineness and strength of constitution so we cannot but acknowledge that those Families have been most worthy who have worn out the longest tract of time without committing any such enorme crime or being guilty of either such rashness or infrugality as moth away these their Linages which like Jonahs Gourd rather appear to salute the world then to fix any abode in it Yet there is a Nobility of Extraction much raised above what can owe its rise to flesh or blood and that is Vertue which being the same in souls that the other is in bodies and families must by that Analogy surpasse it as far as the soul is to be preferred to the body and this Moral Honour and Nobility prizes its value so far above all other qualities that the Stoical Satyrist following the Dogma's of that School is bold to say that nothing but vertue deserves the name of Nobility Nobilitas sola est atque unica Virtus And in opposition to this Nobility but most consequentially to that Doctrine Seneca a Partisan of the same Tribe doth with a noble haughtiness of Spirit tell us that licet Deus nesciret nec homo puniret peccatum non tamen peccarem ob peccati vilitatem though GOD could not know nor man would not punish Vice yet I would not sin so mean a thing is sin For proving of which I shall advance and confirm these two great truths that men are in point of Honour obliged to be vertuous and that there is no Vice which is not so mean that it is unworthy of a Gentleman and shall lead you unto that Seraglio of privat Vices of which though the weakest seem in our experience to have strength enough to conquer such who pass for great geniouses in in the World A Philosopher will yet find that these defeats given by them to noble Spirits do not proceed from the irresistableness of their charmes but from the inadvertance of such as are captivat and is rather a surprize then a conquest For these great souls being bussied in the pursuit of some other Project want nothing but time to overcome these follies or else these vices and passions which is a great Argumemnt of their weakness do then assault such Heroes when they are become now mad with their prosperity But if we will strip Vice or Passion of these gaudy ornaments which error and opinion lends them or advert to our own actions we will find that these overcome us not but that we by our own misapprehension of them overcome our selves as will appear First by some general reflections to which in the second place I shall subjoyn some particular instances and shall by a special Induction of the most eminent Vertues and Vices clear that there is nothing so noble as Vertue nor nothing so mean as Vice As to the general reflections I shall begin with this that if Advancment be a noble Prize doubtlesse Vertue most by this be more noble then Vice seing it bestowes oftest that so much desired reward For further proving of which from reason consider that no man will cabal with vitious persons without which no project for advancement can be promoved for who will hazard his life and fortune with one whom he cannot beleeve and who can beleeve one who is not vertuous trust fidelity and sincerity being themselves Vertues or who should expect to gain by favours the friendship of such as by their Vices are ingrate to GOD and Nature who have been to such liberal infinitly far above humane reach and thus likewise vitious persons are contemptibly mean seing they are so infinitly ingrate and in this appears the meannesse of Vice that it can effectuat nothing without counterfitting Vertue or without its real assistance When Robbers associat they entertain something Analogical to friendship and trust else their Vices would be but barren and without humility shewed to inferiors the proudest men and Tyrants would owe but little to the greatnesse of their spirit When Undertakers league together either they trust one another because of their oaths or because of their interests only If the first they owe their Success to Vertue If the second then they never fully cement but assist each others by halfs reserving the other half of their force to attend that change which interest may bring to their Associats and do such as fight for hire interest being nothing else acquit themselves with such valor as those whose courage receives edge from Duty Charity Religion or any such vertous principles Vitious persons have many rivals and so meet in their rising with much opposition The Covetous fear the promotion of him who is such and the Ambitious of him who is of the same temper But because all expect civility from the debonair and money from the Liberal They therefore wish their preferment as what will contribute to their own interest and Princes are induc'd to gratifie such as knowing that in so doing they transmit to their people what they bestow upon such Favourits and that they preclud the challenges of these who repine at their Favours as misplac't when not bestowed upon themselves If there be any thing that is noble or desirable in fame Vertue is the only at least as the straightest so the nearest road to it Posterity taking our actions under their review without the byasse of prejudice passion interest or flattery and of such as Story cannonizes for its Grandees Alexander is not so truly glorious for defeating the Indians as for refusing to force Darius fair Daughters for in the one a great part is
of such who retained their blood in it's Veins as in an arsenal for no other end then the service of their Countrey as a consequence of which envy it was observ'd that in the next Age most of Rome's Citizens declin'd rather to entertain that fame which the former courted then to be exposed to the cruelty of that envy which did usually attend it Detraction brings likewise these great disadvantages to our reputation that it engages both these from whom we detract and their friends partly out of revenge and partly for self defence to enquire into our errors and frailties and to publish such as upon enquiry they have found or to hatch calumnies if truth cannot supply them And in that case rate of Game obliges us to favour the Counterer for we defend what may be our own case in favouring what is at present but the defence of others It legittimats likewise these calumnies which are vented of us by such as our detraction hath not yet reacht who will think it their prudence like these who fear Invasion to carry the War into the Territories of such from whom they do upon well founded suspitions expect Acts of Hostility If then our own Honour be dear to us we should not invade the Honour of others For Revenge the activest of Passions when added to that love of Honour which is equal in us and them will obliege them to do more against our Honour then we can do in it's defence Whoring renders men contemptible whilst it tempts them to embrace such as are not only below themselves in every sense but such as are scarce worthy to serve these handsomer Ladies whom they either do or may lawfully enjoy Doth not this Vice perswade men to ly in Cottages with Sluts or which is worse Strumpets to lurk in corners to fear the encounter of such as know them and to bribe and fear those servants who by serving them at such occasions have by knowing their secrets attained to such a servile mastery over them that I have been ashamed to hear Gentlemen upbraided by these Slaves in terms which were the adequat punishment as well as the effect of their Vice Men in Whoring must design either to satisfie their own necessities or their fancy if their necessities then as Marriage is more convenient so it is as much more noble then Whoring as it is more gentile for a person of honour rather to lodge constantly in a well appointed Pallace then to ramble up and down in blind Ale-houses in the one a man enjoys his own whereas in the other he only lives as Theeves do by purchase If to satisfie fancy certainly it should please more at least it is more honourable to be secure against rivals then to be sure to be equal'd by them who will fancy a divided affection and who can be sure that she who destroys her honour for us will not risign the same to a second or third for besides the experiment we have of her change oaths honour and obligations can be no convincing evidents of or sureties for what she promises seing she is then breaking these when she gives strangers these new assurances And this makes me laugh to hear Women so foolish as to rely upon such promises as are given by men who destroy their Nuptial Oaths when they make them And if Women be such excellent persons as to deserve that respect and these adorations which are passionat enough to be payed before Altars certainly every man should endeavour to secure the esteem of one of these rare creatures which is more noble then to rest satisfied with a tenth or sixteenth part like men sharing in a Caper And therefore seing fancy nor honour allow no rivals I am confident that no man can satisfie his fancy or secure his honour in preferring a Whore to a Wise or in using Whores when he wants one Have not Whores ruined the repute of some great men who entertained them by causing them neglect to pursue their victories as Thais did to Alexander and Cleopatra to Mark Anthony Have they not betrayed these secrets wherein their same was most interessed as Dalila did to Sampson And there is nothing more ordinary then to hear such like Herod swear that they dare not refuse their Mistrisses what ever is within their reach and thus they must either prove base in perjuring themselves if they think not what they say are contemptible slaves both to their passions and to these who occasion them if they resolve to perform what they promise which makes likewise these to be dangerous masters who depend upon the humour of a woman and so concluds them unfit to be great It were then a generous expiation of this Vice in such as are opprest by it to use it not it's objects as Mahomet the Great did his gallant Mistriss Irene whose Life and Head he sacrificed to the repinings of his Court and Jannisars who challeng'd him justly for loving rather to be conquered by one silly woman then to conquer the World wherein she had many but he no equals It is noble to deliver Ladies out of danger but not to draw dangers on them and to punish such as scoff at them rather then to make them ridiculous and what thousands of dangers are drawn upon Ladies by being debauched when married and if they be not married are they not thereby made the Proverb of all such as know them And to these I recommend Tamars words who when Ammon offered to ly with her told him thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel and I whither shall I cause my shame to go And after this let them remember that when he had satisfied his lust then he instantly as is too ordinar despised her person And since Ladies will not stain their Honour with this Vice till they be married I conceive they should much lesse after for there the obligation is doubled From all which it followes that lust is equally base and ignoble whither it discharge it self upon equals or inferiors betwixt which two there is only this difference that it is brutal in the one case and cruel in the other There is no Vice whereby gallantry is more stain'd then by breach of promise which becoms yet more Sacrilegious when Ladies are wrong'd by it And of this whooring makes men likewise guilty when it robbs from Ladies their Husbands robbing likewise such upon which it bestowes them both of their Honour and Quiet And thus though it makes such as use it barren GOD in this resistig the propagation of Sin yet it self brings forth it's faults in full clusters And Nathans Parable to David proves it likewise to be so high an oppression that no man of Honour would commit it if he would but seriously reflect upon his own actions From which Parable this new observation may be likewise made that though David was guilty of murther and whooring yet the Prophet made choice only of this last to astonish
not but be said to wrong our own honour when we in seeking revenge proclaim such wrongs as had else either evanisht or been lessened by the concealment which remembers me of a Story that goes of an old man at whose bald head a rotten Orange being thrown in the street clapt his Hat upon it and said I shall spill that Villans sport who expected to see me come shewing my head all besmeared over and complaining of the injury It is one of the most Picquant revenges to undervalue our enemies so far as not to think them worthy of our noticeing and we shew our selves to be greater then they when we let the world see that they cannot trouble us when children and fools do us the same things that we fret at in others of more advanced years we passe them without a frown which shews that it is not the acts done us by our enemies but our own resentment which in effect injures us So that it is still in our power to vex such as design to affront us by laughing at or undervaluing these and such like little endeavours as what cannot reach our happiness He who pardons proclaims that by so doing he fears not his enemies for the future but revenge implyes a fear of what we desire upon that account to lessen Thus cowards and none but they are cruel seing they then only account themselves secure when their enemies have lost all capacity to resist In revenge we act the Executioner but we personat a Prince when we pardon in the one we bestow a favour and so are Noble but in the other we disclose our infirmity which is ignoble I admire Passive Courage as a Vertue which deserves its Palms best of all others because it toils most for them Honours and Rewards are but gifts to them but they are conquests to it And it merits as much praise as it meets with injuries Avida est periculi virtus quò tendat non quid passura sit cogitat quoniam quod passura est gloriae pars est This Vertue hath rather a greediness for then a desire to find dangers and seing its sufferings make the greatest part of its glory it runs out to meet them thinking that to attend them is a degree of cowardliness And if we remark narrowly we will find that all other Vertues owe their Gallantry to this And have no other title to that glorious quality but in so far as they borrow excellencies from it Friendship is then only gallant when to gratifie our friends we expose to injuries for them either our persons or interest Gratitude is then Noble when we consider not what we are to suffer but what we owe or which is more gallant what is requisite for the service of such as have obliged us Justice is alwayes excellent but is then only most to be admired when we resist temptations and when we resolve to suffer for having been just the envy and rage of these who consider only how much they have been prejudged but not how much the publick good hath been thereby advanced By this it is that a vertuous person shews how great he truly is and that power and command were the instruments only but not parts of his former worth He who yeelds to affliction shews that those who inflicts it are greater then himself but he who braves it shews that it is not in the power of any thing but of guilt to make him tremble It is easie for one who is assisted by power and fate to urge these advantages but to dare these shews a pitch beyond them And this induces me to think that passive courage is more noble then what is active For one who fights gallantly in an open Field and in the view or front of an Army is assisted by the example of others by hope of revenge or victory and needs not much fear that death which he may shun as probably as meet But he who in a noble quarrel adorns that Scaffold whereupon he is to suffer evinces that he can master Fate and make danger less then his courage and to serve him in acquiring Fame and Honour But this Vertue deserves a larger room then my present weariness will allow it in this Paper and therefore I will leave it for praises to its own native excellencies I shall My Lords and Gentlemen leave these reflections to your own improvement for I am confident that the heat of your own zeal for Vertue will kindle in your breasts such noble flames as that by their blaze ye may see further into this subject then I can discover And in this essay I desire to be esteem'd no otherwayes presumptuous then a Servant is who lights his Master up these Stairs which himself intends to mount FINIS Native Honour commended Dan. 2. Vertue contributes more to advancment then Vice can do Vertue is more conducive to Fame then Vice Au Argument from Romances Vertue railed the Grecian and Roman Empires Vertue hath made Philososophers to be admi red above Princes Vice must Lurk and is cowardly Servants equal Masters in Vice Vice but coppies Vertue All Vices imply fear All Vices make us depend upon others Vertue allows us a just value of our selvs Dissimulation Envy detraction VVhooring Obscenity Avarice and Liberality Rebellion and perfidie Inconstancy An Invective against unconstant friendships ` Drunkenness Injustice publick Spiritednesse Ambition is a mean vice Vanity The meanness of being vain of riches and eestates The meaness of vainity in apparel Preserment is not still honourable The ignoblenesse of revenge The gallantry of patience
jealous of Cesars greatness when he begun to put the Army in his debt It was said of that Noble Duke of Guise that he was the greatest Usurer in France for he laid out his Estate in Obligations And Tacitus observes that Vespasian had equal'd the greatest of the Roman Hero's if his Avarice had not lessen'd his other Vertues Which is the observation made by Philip de Comines upon Lewis the 11 th of France Perseus out of love to his Treasures lost both his Kingdom and these being as a punishment to his Avarice led in triumph in the company of his Coffers by a Roman General who gloried and is yet famous for having died almost a Beggar The World love esteem and follow such as are liberal Historians celebrat their Names Souldiers fight their Battels and their Beeds-men importune Heaven for success to their Arms but no man can have a kindness for such as will prefer to them a little stamped earth or value no obligations but these which bind to a paying of Money And it is well concluded by the World that no vast soul can restrict all its thoughts to that imployment which is the Task of Porters and Coblers In this Vice we make our Souls to serve our Riches whereas in its opposite Vertue Riches and every thing else whose price these may be are by such as are truly liberal subjected to the meanest imployment to which the Soul can think them conducive And the Soul is too Noble and well appointed an appartment to be filled with Coffers Baggs and such like trash which even these who value them most hoord up in their darkest and worst furnisht Rooms And such as are liberal are the Masters for it belongs to these only to spend whereas the Avaricious are in effect but their Cash-keepers who have the power to keep but not the allowance to spend what is under their custody I am confident that Zeno is more famous and to be rich serves for nothing else for throwing away his Money when it begun to trouble his nobler thoughts then Cresus whose Mountainous Treasures served only to bribe a more valiant Prince to destroy them and it And Marcus Crassus the richest Roman was so far undervalued by Julius Cesar that he said he would make himself richer in one hour then these riches could their Master which came accordingly to pass when by his liberality he gained the Roman Souldiery and they gained for him the Empire of that World whereof Cresus Estate was but a small one though his Avarice made it a great spot in him This Vice implyes a present sense of want and a fear of future misery to be hoording up what serves for nothing else except to prevent or supply us in these conditions But Noble Spirits who design Fame and Conquests Vertue and Religion raise their thoughts above this low Vice and design not to gain Riches but Men who are Masters of these and with whom when gain'd thy can soon bring all things to their devotion And therefore in point of Honour we are obliged to hate Avarice and cherish Liberality Though treason cheats with fair hopes of glory and advancement and at least this Vice pretends to have whole Woods of Lawrels at its disposal yet the most ordinary preference it gains men is the being first amongst fools and vicious persons for they are then wronging both that honour they possess and that to which they aspire when they by their usurpation learn others how sweet it is to rebel against their Superiors And such as imploy the Commons against their Soveraign must expect to allow them greater liberty then suits with the honour of Governours and must stile themselves the servants of the people How meanly must these flatter that unreasonable crew Swear friendship with such as have wronged their honour lye dissemble cheat beg meet in dark corners with their associats and suffer as much toil and misery as wants nothing but the nobleness of the quarrel to make them Martyrs It is not safe for any man in point of Honour to undertake designs wherein it is probable he will fail and wherein if he fail it is most certain that his honour will suffer And there is no crime wherein men are more like to fail then in this the rable whom they imploy being as uncertain as they are a furious instrument And like the Elephant ready still to turn head against such as imploy them in Battel And who will trust the promise of these Leaders for without large promises Rebellion can never be effectuat who in these promises are betraying their own Alledgeance and such as these imploy will at least may consider that how soon they have effectuat these treacherous designs they will either disdain the Instruments as useless or destroy them as dangerous and as such who by this late experience are abler to ruine them then they were their Predecessors And when such Traitors are disappointed of their designs they are laught at as fools for nothing but success can clear them from that imputation and exposed to all the Ludibrie and thereafter to the tortures of Enemies who cannot but be violent Executioners seing their ruine was sought by the Rebellion Is there any thing more ignoble then ingratitude And these Traitors are ingrate seing none can pretend to these Arts but such as have been by the bounty of these against whom they rebell advanced to that hight which hath made them giddy and to that favour with the people upon which they bottom their hopes And do not Men and Story talk more advantagiously of Footmen and Slaves who have relieved their Masters then of the greatest of such as have rebelled against their Princes all mankind being concerned to magnifie that wherein their own safety is concerned and to decry these Arts whereby their ruine is sought That same people who cut Sejanus in as many pieces as he had once favorites did raise a Statue to Pompey's Slave for staying by the Carcass of his dead Master And as Alexander hang'd Bessus who had betrayed to him his Master Spitamenes and Antigonus caused Massacre these Hygeraspides who had betrayed the gallant Eumenes So Charles the ninth of France did refuse to punish such as had opposed him when he was in Rebellion for said he such as have been faithfull to the King against me when I was but Duke of Orleans will be faithfull to me when I am raised from being Duke of Orleans to be King of France Inconstancy is likewise an ignoble Vice seing it shews that either men were foolish in their first choise or that they were foolish in relinquishing it it shews that men are too much subject to the impressions of others and small or light things are these which are soonest blown off from their first stations Whereas vertuous and constant persons do shew their greatness in the impossibility of their being removed This Vice likewise is unfit for such as design great matters seing
no party will care much to gain such for friends whom they cannot retain and when they tell you that such are not worth their pains they tell you how mean an esteem they put upon inconstancy All affairs in the World are subject to change and it is most certain that some occasion or other will somewhat raise all parties To be constant then to any one will gain him who is fixt the honour of being sure to his friends which will magnifie him amongst such as are indifferent and procure him respect even from his enemies who will admire him for that quality which by ensuring their own friends to them will advantage their interest more then they can be prejudg'd by him as their enemy how considerable soever he be Augustine's greatness cannot perswade the World to pardon him this fault nor can Cato's severity nor self-murther disswade them from admiring that constancy which had as much extraordinary Gallantry in it as may be a remission for his crime Besides that it made Cesar even when his Victories had raised him to his greatest hight and vanity regrate the losing an opportunity to gain so great a person There is amongst many others one effect of inconstancy which I hate as mean and unworthy of a Gentleman and that is to alter friendships upon every elevation of Fortune as if forsooth men were rais'd so high that they cannot from these Pinacles know such whom they have left upon the first levell but really this implyes a weakness of sight in them and no imperfection in their friends upon whom they cast down their looks and who continue still of their first stature though the others eyes continue not to possess the same clearness A generous person should not entertain so low thoughts of himself as to think that what is the gift of another can add so much to his intrinsick value as to make him confess in the undervaluing of his former friends the meanness of his own parts and former condition And he obstructs extreamly his own greatness who obliges his friends to stop and retard it as what may be disadvantagious to their interest by robbing them of so rare an advantage as is a friend Whereas the noblest trial of power is to be able to raise these whom men honoured formerly with that Title For by this others will be invited to depend upon them and they may thereby justifie their former choice and let the World see that they never entred upon any friendship that was mean or low Friendship the greatest of Commanders hath commanded us to stay by our friend and he who quites the Post assigned to him is either cowardly or a fool and a Gentleman should think it below his courage as well as his friendship to be boasted from a station which he thought so advantagious out of fear of either Fate or Interest Which recommends much to me that gallant Rant in Lucan when after he had preferred Cato to other men he in these words extolls him above the gods Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni The gods did the Victorious approve But the great Cato did the Vanquisht love But lest my tediousness should make the constancy I plead for seem a Vice I shall say no more of a Subject whereof I can never say enough Drunkennels is so mean a Vice that I scorn to take notice of it knowing that none will allow it but such as are mad and such as are mad are not to be reclaimed by Moral Discourses Yet I cannot but press its meanness from this that though Noah was a person of the greatest authority his once being drunk is remarked in Scripture to have made him despicable in the eyes even of his own Children whom he had also lately obliged to a more then natural respect by saving them from that deludge which drowned in their sight the remanent of mankind And yet he might have excused himself more then those of this age as not knowing the strength of that new-found Wine And having been drunk but once might have defended himself by curiosity which too few now can alledge It is a mean and mad complement to requite the kindness of such as come to visit us with forcing them after the fatigue of travel to drink to such excess that they commit and speak such follies as make them return home from that strange place without being remarked for any thing else then the ridiculous expressions they vomited up with their stinking Excrements Why are Servants turn'd out of doors and each man which is very mean obliged to serve himself when men enter upon that beastly imployment Is it not that Servants may not hear or see what extravagancies are there to be committed And is it not an ignoble part in persons of honour to do resolutely what they dare not owne before the meanest who attend them Men by this Vice bring themselves to need their Servants Legs to walk upon and their Eyes to see by but which is worse they must be govern'd at that time by the servile discretion of such who will be emboldned by this to undervalue both them and their commands and these Masters are accounted wisest who do most submissively follow their directions Judge if that exercise can be Noble which in disabling us to serve our friends makes us uncapable to discern the favours they do us and measure its disadvantages by this that when men have their Senses benighted with the vapours of Wine they are thereby unfitted to lead Armies to assist at Councils to sit in Judicatories to attend Ladies and differ nothing from the being dead but that they would be much more innocent if they were so Men are then very ready to attaque unjustly the honour of others and most unable to defend their own And such as they wrong then do with a scornful mercy pardon their failings with the famness of disdain which makes them forgive fools or furious persons And that in my judgement should be the most touching of all affronts And if we esteem Roots according to the prettiness of these Flowers they display as if they would give a grateful accompt to the Sun of what its warmness has produc'd certainly we will find drunkenness as the Apostle speaks of Avarice the root of all bitternesse For this is that Vice which keeps men at present from attending such of their own and of their friends interests as concern most their Fame And as to the future begets such diseases and indispositions as makes their bodies unfit instruments for great atchievments And seing to talk idly is the most pardonable of its errors which is so unworthy a Character that no Gentleman would suffer another to give it of him without hazarding his life in the revenge it 's other madnesse must be beyond all remission By this men are brought to disgorge the deepest buried secrets to reveal the intimacies or asperse the names of Ladies to enter upon foolish quarrels