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A40047
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Essays suppos'd to be written by Monsieur Fouquet being reflections upon such maxims of Solomon as are most proper to guide us to the felicity of both the present and the future life / translated out of French.
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Fouquet, Nicolas, 1615-1680.; Gage, E.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing F1650; ESTC R36469
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80,413
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228
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because you abound in Wealth or that they therefore may be spared deceive not your selves ye great ones of the World the higher and more powerful you are the more need have you of such Seconds to support your Power and support your Spirit which must droop and sink when it is left alone It is true according to Plato's Opinion that our Soul is immortal independently of other Souls but not impassible nor invulnerable Man's Soul though divine and come from Heaven finds it self entangled in strange occasions during the days of its mortal life a Traveller lost in the Night in a Desart without a Guide a Prisoner in the Dungeon without Comforter Credit or Counsel a Sick-man in the Straw without Physician a Dying one on the Ground without Priest or Sacrament a dead Corps on the Dunghill abandoned unburied and deprived of the Due of being covered with a little Earth and of the Tribute of a few Tears Illamentatus atque insepultus quasi Cadaver putridum All this is the Image of out Spirit when it is left to it self alone so that it may say with Job Strangers persecute me Servants fly from me my Brothers know me not and I can see no Friend that I have left the Best looks on me with horrow Et quem maxime diligebam aversatus est à me In a word it concerns you to make your self be beloved the Helps you may expect from those that love you are little less in number than the days you have to live Of these days says the Wise-man some will be painful and some will be days of rest Some will be days of Fears of Dangers Misfortunes and Despairs others will bring Hope Prosperity and Success but all these days without distinction will be days of Affliction if you be left alone whereas if you enjoy your Friends they will be days of Happiness and Comfort What had happened to our Forefathers and happens yet every day will befal you At times of Adversity we feel not half our Pain when others share in the sense of it and are afflicted with us at times of Prosperity our Joy is never perfect until it be communicated and that we see it conveyed into the Looks and Hearts of those that love us It is even more satisfying to noble Minds to weep in a time of mourning whilst Friends mingle their Tears with ours than to rejoice at a happy Success when we have no body to impart it to that can be touched with the same sense and be unfeignedly pleased with what we tell them Value those Persons infinitely who feel your Sorrows and your Joys who interest themselves as much as you do in all your Affairs and in all your Dangers value them for the World affords not any thing so rare common it is enough to have Friends each man has a quantity of them but for what are they good will they not prove in the day of Battel a company of Deserters and Fugitives and be like a flock of Pigeons At the least noise of Affliction coming upon you where is that faithful and inseparable one that will stick fast by you where is the Eagle that dreads no Thunder In such Conjunctures a Man may be said to forsake even himself you are a great and an able Man you have much insight into the Affairs and Dangers of the State and into those of your Neighbours yet are you blind in Matters that touch your self no sooner are you left alone in what nearly concerns you and that you have no person to consult with except your self but your Understanding is quite at a loss all your Reasonings prove Errors and Mistakes and like a sick Physician what you do for your Cure helps you only to perish the sooner In a word Multi Amici sint tibi consiliarius sit tibi unus de mille Have a thousand Friends says the Wise-man and out of them one Confident MAXIM XVI Facta sum Coram eo quasi pacem reperiens Cant. viii PARAPHRASE I have met with Peace when I was brought to contemplate my Spouse in the condition he was in on Mount Calvary bathed in his Blood and in the condition he now is lodged in the Bosom of God his Father whilst he produces a Love as ancient as himself and no less lasting By the one I know that he loves me infinitely by the other that he will ever love me and that I have reason to begin to enjoy an inviolable Peace in this low World since I expect to enjoy one in Heaven above that shall last as long as God's Eternity REFLECTIONS Although my Conscience gives me no great Reproaches say you I have not yet that Peace you speak of my Fears are in the same measure they were before when I lived in disorder all my Devotions Austerities and Alms change not the Decree of God Almighty's Justice nor the Purposes of his Providence How can I tell but that I am one in the number of the Reprobate It would be requisite to make me enjoy a perfect Quiet you could bring me the News That my Name is written in the Book of Life and an Eternal Place marked out for me amongst the Blessed In a word Shall I go to Heaven God knows this already I would fain know it too I wish some one might tell it me certainly by the appointment of Him whose Mercy and Justice have written all these Truths in his Mind before the Creation of the World The Answer I can give you to this is only the same that the great St. Gregory gave to a Lady very eminent in quality and devotion this Lady disquieted with Care that ordinarily befals Holy Souls writ to that illustrious Prelate who was her Director and desired to know of him Whether her Sins were forgiven her and whether she might be at quiet touching her Salvation What St. Gregory answer'd her with great Respect and Sincerity was this Quod vero Duicedo tua suis in Epistolis subjunxit se mihi importuam fore c. You threaten me Madam said he that you will never leave writing to me till such time as God shall have revealed to me that you Sins are pardoned and that the Divine Mercy has pronounced the Decree of your Predestination the Trouble you should give your self in writing to this end would prove altogether ineffectual to prevent it and give you Comfort I am ready to send you a present Answer There are two Truths relating to your Question of which I can give you my assurance they are these the first That I am too great a Sinner to be one of those to whom God lays open the Books of his Eternal Science or to whom he sends his Angels and Prophets with Orders to declare the Secrets of his Providence The second That the Account which you would have of the Certainty of your Salvation must conduce more to your Harm than to your Comfort Perpende quaeso ducissima filia Consider I pray my dear Daughter
ESSAYS Suppos'd to be written by Monsieur FOVQVET BEING REFLECTIONS UPON SUCH MAXIMS of SOLOMON AS ARE Most proper to Guide us to the Felicity of both the Present and the Future Life Translated out of French LONDON Printed for Thomas Metcalfe over against the Red Lyon in Drury-Lane and sold by William Freeman at the Bible over against the Middle Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1694. A LETTER TO My Lady HANMER Dear Madam THIS comes to give you Notice of a Present I have sent you by your Carrier which will yield an account how I have entertain'd my self since you made This a Solitary Place by your leaving it The Present it shocks my Modesty to term it so is that little Volume put by me into English which you liked when I lent it you in its Native Language at the time of your being in these parts With the Alteration it receives by my Hand I am sensible Madam I make you a very bad Compliment to offer to entertain one of your Judgment with the Defects of Mine and yet I am not able to forbear it The Character you gave this Piece when you told me you had attempted to take Notes out of it but found you could not justly do it without writing out the whole Book makes me bold to believe there is something in it that may shine quite through the Cloud of my Stile and afford you a pleasing Beam The Person Madam supposed to be the Author was Monsieur Fouquet who besides his own vast Wealth had the Management of the greatest Revenue that belongs to the Crown of France Amongst a great many Accusations which happen'd to be brought against him and which at last condemn'd him to a perpetual Imprisonment one was That he lived higher than the King himself though he proved he had done it by the Ruine of his own Fortune Now certainly this Person must needs be taken for a Witness of good credit when he sets before our Eyes as he does after Solomon the little Value which the things of this World deserve to have with us He writ this and a former part of the same Work in the solitude of his Confinement amongst the Mountains of Savoy which the Author says did not a little contribute to the enlightning his Thoughts and so it may be esteemed the fitter to be received by you Madam in your Retirement in Wales whither you have withdrawn your self If you find in places of this Volume when you converse farther with it a Spirit of Devotion I hope you will take notice in what Perswasion it was written and examine whether you ever met with any thing truly of that kind which has been written out of that Perswasion And I wish Madam you may make such an advantagious Observation here as I could desire If my Wishes do not suit with your Inclinations at least Madam they agree to Perfection with the true Friendship and Respect I have for you which would contribute if they could to your highest Felicity I have much Pardon to beg of you but chiefly for my Boldness in printing this Letter before my Translation and in taking the liberty to place your Name before so weak a Work as my part of this comes to But Madam allow me to give my Pen this Reputation in consideration of the Honour I have of a Near Allyance to you but more especially for that I am beyond all the rest of the World Madam Your most Affectionate Faithful and Obedient Servant E. GAGE A Preliminary MAXIM OR REFLECTIONS Upon the Last Words of the ECCLESIASTES of Solomon Faciendi plures libros nullus est Finis finem loquendi pariter omnes audiamus Eccles xii 12. PARAPHRASE MEN set no Bounds to their Pens in Writing and less to their Tongues in Speaking The Misfortune is That the greatest part of them know not what ought to be a Man's End in Writing and in Speaking nor will give themselves the trouble to find it out REFLECTIONS It must be confess'd that the number of Books at this day is very great and yet were they all good there would not be many It would conduce sufficiently to the Honour of Church and State did every Age produce but five or six by the Favour of Providence that merited to be turned into all Languages and had the Priviledge of the Books of Antiquity to be known no less than the Sun and to last no less than the World O Immortal Stars said the Son of Syrach speaking of the Psalms of David Immortal Stars created to illuminate future Ages and to adorn them with your miraculous Lights even to the end of the World Ornavit tempora usque ad consummationem seculi My design is not in this place to take notice of the ill fate of so many Books as no sooner see the light but are strait buried in Oblivion nor of those that may be termed the Burden of their Country and the Crime of their Parents neither of those other that like the Lyon's Whelps of the Prophet Ezekiel come into the World armed with Teeth and Claws and which at the instant begin to bite to tear Mens Reputations and to suck their Blood Leo factus est didicit capere praedam hominemque comedere I mean to speak of such Books as have the Benediction of Heaven such as are penned by knowing and learned Authors helped by the Light of the Holy Ghost and I shall only follow St. Chrysostom my dear Reader in making an Observation to you which doubtless will prove useful at the Entrance into this little Work He says That such Books as these are Man's fittest Companions during this mortal life Companions that are faithful familiar and respectful taht are always near at hand without being uneasie or troublesome that are silenced when we please without taking exceptions and entertain us without tediousness when we would have them speak again that teach us without flattery or dissembling the Truths of God and the Rigor of his Judgments and in fine shew us our Faults and make us observe our Weakness and Imperfections yet give us no offence or distaste So that we cannot but esteem these wonderful Books in the number of the most admirable productions of the Holy Ghost and the most proper to make us see the Defects of our Corrupt Nature True it is that this should be the principal Care and Office of those that love us and whom we love but Where is that Friend to be found that will shew us the Wounds of our Soul when only to see them gives so great offence Where are they to be found that will venture to put their Hand to this tender place and endeavour our Remedy by charitable Admonitions when all the World knows that but to touch it is to make it worse To what end serve any Remonstrances tho' never so discreet and secret and though applied with all the Civility and Sweetness imaginable but to turn small Scratches into bleeding Sores and mortal Wounds How