in his Body as if it were lodged in a Tomb all the Life he has is but the Life of a Beast and only a Shadow of Human Life To be Ignorant according to the Opinion of the Wise Man is to be a sort of Creature that spends a great deal of Time in passing on from his Birth to his Death without making a Step into Life Perierint quasi non fuerinty Nati quasi non Nati REFLECTIONS As Knowledge is one part of our Perfection so it is also one part of our Felicity Make your self then a Knowing person so far at least as you are obliged to be such by the Laws of Nature and of Religion and by those of Decence and Honour Of what Age soever you are at this present and let your Rank be what it will in the World it is necessary if you will hold the Rank of a Man of Worth that you be not ignorant either in Philosophy or in Christian Divinity You may know enough of both without putting your self to any great Trouble or Pains and without running after those Professors who make a Trade of teaching these Noble Sciences I do not advise you to go and study under them or to haunt teir Schools but I advise you to learn what you are to think of Eternity and by what Means you may avoid a Misery of that duration The Masters that are fittest to teach you these things have expected you for this long time at least there is no need of your going far to seek them you may find them wheresoever you are your self and near enough to you to speak privately to your Heart it is but entring within your self and you may hear what they will say Here follow some Reflections that will help you to know these Masters and to profit by their Discourses Mind then that you no sooner began to live but that you were obliged by the nature of your Birth to begin to know three Truths 1. That there is a God that gave you Life 2. That there is a Nothing from whence you came and a Death to which you are going 3. That there is a Jesus Christ who redeemed you and must give you a Resurrection At your coming into the World you have met with three Masters or three Voices ordained to teach you these three Lessons The Voice of Nature the Voice of Death and the Voice of the Gospel and Grace These are not three Discourses but three Subjects for your Meditation that I present you with In the first place I say That to make your self perfectly knowing in the Morals it will behove you to become the Disciple and Scholar of Death and to take Lessons from that Master Death does not speak but it has a Silence in which is summed up all the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that contains all those admirable Instructions they have left to aid you in leading a Good Life and to help you to solve well upon every occasion those Difficulties that shall be offer'd to you by your blinded Conscience All the Counsels of the Holy Fathers are in the Mouth of Death what makes the Wonder is that Death without speaking a word causes all those Counsels and Instructions to enter into your Heart and does this in such a way and with that Force and Energy which those Holy Fathers could never arrive at Death does this says Solomon every time she presents her self In ea finis Cunctorum admonetur hominum before your Eyes and as often as she invites you to the House where she is and shews you in the Face of a Dying Person the Sentence that Heaven has decreed against you That you must dye and be to morrow in the same Condition as you now behold this fick expiring Creature Testamentum hujus Mundi morte Morieris Solomon means that when Men dye certain pale Characters appear to be traced upon their Lips which every one can read and where they find these two words Hodie mihi Cras tibi The Prophet calls this their Will or Testament which Death writes for them and makes their Heirs with those others that encompass their Bed to see and be Witnesses to it All read it and all understand it You that are the Great Ones of the World have often read it and you have learned from thence says St. Gregory that the Inheritance which every one of your Ancestors has left you at the Moment of his Death has been the News that you must dye as he has done and that you and all the Riches Honours and Greatness you now enjoy must in a few days time return to what they have been heretofore to Dust to Ashes and to Nothing Pulvis es in pulverem Reverteris Of all the Forefathers you have had since the beginning of the World there has not been one amongst them that has missed the Signing of this Testament and the leaving you this Inheritance Such a Testament cries out Solomon as a Young Man enriched by the Rapine and unjust dealings of his Father needs but read with attention to become the holy and happy Heir of a Dives and damned Person Read then but observe that the great benefit of this Reading and of this contemplation does not consist in beholding what Death has shewn you but in remembring that you have seen it When She has shewn you in the low bottom of a Sepulchre whole Armies of Worms covering the Face you lately adored and that She has made you confess that this Rottenness was once your Idol the few Sillables she would have you imprint in your Mind which contain all her Instructions are Memento homo Remember Young-man what you have seen in this Tomb and what you have learnt there In truth to the learning of your Morals perfectly and how to live Wisely and Christianly it will conduce but little to look on dying and dead People There is not that Person does not go to see his Relations and Friends upon their Death-bed and who at that time does not think of the Affairs of another World and propose to himself Designs of Conversion and Repentance but then by the next Morning we find all these Thoughts blotted out of our Minds like Dreams and we know nothing of what we saw and what we designed Yesterday Indevotion Libertinism and Vanity have the same station in our Hearts as before and we begin again to live like Sinners that had not heard or known that any in the World had ever died O ye Mortals cries out Death it is not only in the Church whilst you are shedding Tears at the Funeral of your Brother who died Yesterday suddenly without one Word of Confession after an Impenitence for several Years that you are to study the Doctrine I teach but it is by remembring this miserable Exit Memento Keep in your Mind the Thought of this Death and cherish the Memory of it whatsoever Change of Fortune may befal you or in what part of the World
Contrition encourage the Divine Mercy to showre on you its Numerous Benedictions MAXIM IV. Vadam ad Collem Thuris Cant. iv PARAPHRASE I will go up to the Hill of Frankincense and there by Prayer and Penitence will I raise my self so high as to get into the Wounds of Jesus Christ and I will grave so deep in my Soul the Characters of his Sufferings that no other Life shall be left me but what I breath out of his Heart REFLECTIONS See here the Method you are to observe whilst your Solitude gives you the leisure to hearken to your Conscience and to mind what it will say to you Tell often to your self the Story of your wretched Days and let not so much as one of those dreadful occasions slip from you which has engaged you in Wicked Company call to mind each Fault and over each weep and lament Perform those Acts of Contrition that may make you worthy the Grace that has drawn you out of Hell which the death of Christ has merited for you Say to him That which afflicts me most O Lord touching my enormous Crimes is that my Heart is weak and has not strength enough to hate them Alas Lord mine alone can be but poor in Sorrow poor tho' I had the Hearts of my Confessors to help me who have known and lamented them together with me by my Goodwill I would have the Hearts of all Men and Angels and out of this Multiplicity of Hearts would I collect and frame a hatred and detestation of my Ingratitude that should be great enough to make them equal to my Grief and Misery Cor mundum Crea in me Deus Employ O Lord your Power and your Mercy create a new Heart and bestow it on me with which I may stisfie you and love you With this desire our Saviour will be pleased as he was with that of David St. Peter and other Converted Sinners who after having employ'd Years in lamenting and weeping when their Tears were quite exhausted and spent did seek to know whether the World could not afford the Means to raise within their Souls a Spring of these bitter Waters such as should never stop but last to the very end of their days Quis dabit Capiti meo Aquam Oculis meis fontem lachrymarum Say you the same thing contemplating on your crucified Lord and say it with Sincerity and from the bottom of your Heart let Sighs of Love express it instead of Words Quis dabit Capiti mei How happy should I be could I shed Torrents of Tears to joyn with the Torrent of my Saviour's Blood such as should flow in every place where I have committed Faults to shew where-ever I have Sinned that I have Sorrowed and given lasting Marks of my Repentance O all ye People who have heard of the Audite Populi Videte dolorem meum Scandals of my past Life come and hear my mournful Cries come and behold my Sorrows behold them you my God and see how my Conscience suffers in you I hope even in the Condition I am fallen into be you so good as to grant me your Love in the same measure at least look on me thus as I am and let that Virtue issue from your Eyes which can give Grace and Life Vide Domine Considera This God who sees and hears yo during these holy moments in which your Griefs renew and that you feel the Convulsions of your afflicted Conscience will not fail to comfort you by his repeating to you interiourly what has been so often told you by his Prophets and Evangelists that your Sins are blotted out and forgiven and that not one spot of them remains in your Soul Thus much I know O my Divine Saviour but still the memory of them is remaining in your Mind Alas Great God how insufficient it is for my Comfort to be told I am forgiven To make this perfect you that can be ignorant of nothing must find out some means to be ignorant of my Misdeeds and to forget whatsoever has befallen me in the time of my wretched and scandalous days For how is it possible to live in the presence of a God who has seen my Treacheries and bears them still in mind how is it possible to be comforted tho' I am daily told the News from him that my Sins have been washed with his Blood when at the same time my Reason informs me that they appear yet before his Eyes that they will ever appear and that the Ages of my Ingratitude must amidst the Glories of his Paradise be one of the Objects of his Eternity Posuisti iniquitates Nostras in Conspectu tuo soeculum Nostrum in illuminatione Vultus tui God who with a Complacence observes these Fears and Disquiets within you will give them a Remedy to make your Consolation entire For whilst you are breathing out your Complaints in this familiar way when he comes once to comfort you He will do it certainly like a God and stretch his Power miraculously so far as even to forget all and bury the whole Memory of your Sins in the Ocean whence it shall never rise again Disponet iniquitates Nostras projiciet in profunda Maris omnia peccata Nostra quoniam Volens est misericordiam MAXIM V. Generositatem illius Glorificat Contubernium habens Dei Sap. viii PARAPHRASE The Greatness and the Eminence of Grace are glorified by the Man that lives familiarly with God REFLECTIONS A principal Duty it should be in devout and holy persons to add a Lustre and Glory to Sanctity but there are many of them that do much otherwise and who we must confess give by their Indiscretions too much Ground to Libertines for their contempt of this Divine Virtue I cannot tell whether this proceeds from an innocent Ambition to imitate the Saints in those Actions wherein they are most inimitable and miraculous but this I can tell that it brings no Honour to Sanctity to be more Saint-like Non plus sapere quam oportet Sapere ad sobrietatem than God approves It fares with Holiness as it does with Wisdom whosoever has too much of either falls very short of having enough This too much is the thing I may boldly say that dishonours Christian Piety and is the cause it meets with so little respect in all Companies in the World The Misfortune comes not by the Devotion of such as are discreet and holy but by the true Folly of such as are scrupulous and the False Sanctity of such as are Hypocrites To be of an Humour not to be satisfied but by taking by-ways to go to Heaven and building upon Rules which are Strangers to the Churches Morals and to all Divinity to be perswaded that to break a day of Lent in the time of a dangerous Sickness is a high and guilty Frailty that it is not to dye like a Christian or a Chosen One unless Death comes by the Violence of Mortifications and unless a
much account of it if it be owing to Fortune and less still if you are beholden to the Contrivance and Partiality of your Friends for it who go about by their interested Praises and officious Lyes to make you pass for an Extraordinary Person but if this befals you through the Blessing of God who disposes Men to observe the Merit of your Actions and set a Value on you in their Hearts cherish it with a particular Care and be sensible that it ought to be rank'd amongst the most precious things that belong to you Preserve it tenderly for it is a Duty in you to do so but make it not on any terms the Aim and End of your Designs and Hopes You must consider that this Reputation is as it were yor Shadow and that it is impossible for you to turn your Eyes and Thoughts that way and fix them there for one moment without turning your self away from the true Sun and losing his Sight Nothing sure renders a Man more glorious whilst he walks in the Paths of Innocence and Justice than to be waited on by the Peoples Praises and the Voice of Fame but it would be a shameful thing for you should you run after these Shadows and make them the Motives of your doing your Duty and the Causes of setting your Heart on any Employment To speak clearly in one word To have a care of your Reputation is not to be bent upon seeking the Esteem and Praises of Men but it is to be bent on doing no other thing but what is pleasing to God and truly deserves the Approbation and Esteem of All. An indifferent thing it should be to you whether Men or Angels value your Actions but you ought to take all the care in the World to order them so that they may be worthy to be valued both in Heaven and Earth And certainly you may observe that amongst all the great Princes and Prelates in the World the most illustrious still have been those that in their Undertakings never sought the Favour of Peoples Tongues or the Applause of Nations but those who have acted so well and gloriously in all they have done as that this World which they had no design to please could not but covet to know all they did and give it their admiration The difference between them and the others is that the Ambitious by their heroick actions seek the pleasure and satisfaction of being applauded and praised by Men whereas these have the same Enjoyment but look not out for it their Aim is at something incomparably more attractive and honourable and more worthy to be rested in Do like them you who are a considerable Person and bear some high Office in your Countrey Curam habe de bono Nomine You would be unworthy to carry the Name of a Gentleman should you fail in having a great Care of your Honour this Care consists not in getting Men to praise you nor in quarreling with those that will not honour you or that do shew a contempt of you it consists in being offended at your self for having done contemptible things The Subject of your Choller and your Trouble should not be to have the Disorders of your Life taken notice of and known but that you have suffered them to fix upon you for so long a time and that you still shew no dislike to them call not those faulty who observe and talk of them their Liberty in this does not depend on your Complaints or Threats Heaven your Conscience and the People are three Witnesses against you which you will never have the power to blind or silence it is you that are the faulty Person it is your own Heart which by its scandalous Crimes blackens you both in the Face and in your Reputation when you appear in this condition before the Eyes of these three dreadful Spectators and that you blush to be thus seen accuse not those that see you blame your own blind Ambition if it has put you upon getting a prime Dignity in the Church only to make you appear spotted as you are with the more Shame and Infamy Since you stand upon the point of Greatness and Honour be effectually honourable and imitate those that are so Imitate them you that bear Offices and sit upon your Tribunals and consider that to appear in those stations without Honour nothing can be more infamous nor nothing more ridiculous in such an one than to go seek for Honour there Never hunt after Reputation in these occasions but do so well as that you may find it in them make these two Duties to agree To effect this looks like a Task for an Angel and yet however it is the most important of your Affairs and not the most difficult all the Difficulties as I have said lies in this point That whilst you exercise your Charge you so well govern your Mind and Intentions as to do nothing purposely to make you honoured and esteem'd of Men nor nothing but what will oblige them to honour you sincerely Whensoever you shall refuse to commit an Injustice when you shall chuse rather to perish than to betray the Innocent and give up their Right either to Favour or Power do not say to your self as Cato did What will Rome think of my Baseness if I do thus say with Judas Macchabeus Should I stoop to Fear what will God say who forbids me to scandalize my Countrey and stain the Glory of our miraculous Victories by such an Infamy Absit ut fugiamus abiis Moriamur in Virtute Nostra Cato dying to get an everlasting Name in Rome became the Martyr of the Commonwealth become you in the like occasion the Martyr of the Living God maintain your Honour with an invincible Force and Courage even to Death but do it not for the sake of your Honour do it because this is inseparably joined to the Glory of God the Good of the Publick the Edification of Man and the Interest of Religion In a word the Point lies here To do all that deserves to be liked by Man but yet in pleasing Man to do nothing but to the end of pleasing GOD. Whosoever you be then that live in the face of the World looked upon by Heaven and Earth you that are addressed to by Crowds of Suitors who come begging to your Feet with Tears to do them Justice be sure you keep your self free from endeavouring by counterfeit Looks and vain or False-appearances to win their Approbation and Esteem so to be noted for a Man of Honour and Integrity Think never further than how to act in your Employment according to the Laws of Conscience and to acquit your self before God in all your Christian and Civil Duties but do this with that winning Grace as that the Benefit you may hope for in undertaking an Affair comes short still of the Reputation and that the Persons you deal with be fully satisfied with all your ways by the handsom Marks you give of your
with them then shew this great Abundance to your Soul and you say to her what our Lord said Behold and be at rest Anima Mea habes multa bona congregata in plurimos annos requiesce See my Soul we have got into our Hands all that can be desired in the World be content and comfort your self This Soul not be comforted instead of opening a Heart to let in Joy and Hope answers you only with Complaints after having tasted and tryed these new Remedies these new Employments and all your other precious Novelties she thrusts them back with Scorn and cries out to you Cumeta Vanitas afflictio spiritus Ye Goods of the Earth ye Riches and Honours what are ye but Vanity of Vanities Affliction and Despair Wonder not at this an immortal Soul that feels the Violence of its Desires and finds that besides the good things you shew her she cannot be without an infinity of others infinitely more desirable When she comes to know that she must rest quiet and content her self with what she sees in your Hands and that there is nothing for her to pursue or hope for in Heaven what must her Sufferings be Can she take any other Resolution than to abandon her self to Vexation and Sorrow and to all the Miseries of a despairing Conscience No certainly this does not arise from a capricious Melancholy bred within you but from a hidden Insight born with you which takes its time at your hours of leisure to put your Soul continually in mind that when she is separated from God all her spiritual and Divine Substance is not other thing than an extream Misery and from that instant an infinite one tho' not to be felt infinitely but in Hell Behold the interiour Peace that great Riches afford but Wisdom tells us by the Pen of Solomon we are to reckon otherwise of a Mediocrity MAXIM XI Mendicitatem Divitias ne dederis mihi Prov. xxx PARAPHRASE Let me have neither Poverty or great Riches says Solomon this I apprehend and that gives me Horror The one leads Man to Atheism and transforms him into a Devil the other turns him into a Beast and makes him the Mockery of Human kind These are two Pits digged upon the Earth to be the two great Descents into Hell Fools run blindly to the one and cast themselves into it by their Profusions the Proud and Covetous haste to the other and damn themselves by labouring Night and Day to get to it Our true Quiet and Repose is found where Wisdom keeps in the middle Of all the Conditions of Human Life the most secure most honourable and most easie is to live between Superfluity and Indigence and the furthest off that it is possible from either Extream REFLECTIONS It has been the Opinion of the World from the beginning and still continues so That the Felicity of Man during this Mortal Life consists in his possessing of a great Abundance Many seem though at the hour of Death to be of another mind and speak of Riches like Persons that were become perfectly undeceived but whatsoever they say we see very few return from thence by the help of Remedies who do not bring back with them their old Mistake The Rule That the Richer a Man is the more he is Happy sticks as fast in our Hearts as our Life does there We must be dead St. Augustine says before we can learn to despise what we worship here below The Contempt of Riches is a Change of Mind which does not befal us but at our going out of the World and entrance into Eternity Do you anticipate that Day and learn to know those Truths at present which ought to be no less known by Christians in the Church of Jesus Christ than they are in Hell by the Damned and Devils It is his Judgment inspired by God who was the Wisest amongst Men That to become Happy in this World we must ever keep our selves in a certain middle way wherein being not Rich or Poor we may neither be in want of any thing or have any thing superfluous and wherein being freed from the Disquiets inseparably accompanying Want and Abundance we may live peaceably here by the Wisdom of our Carriage and bring it so to pass that after many years of a calm and devout life we may go to enjoy an Eternity in another Life infinitely more desirable Order your Affairs to this end Take the Pains to settle your self in this happy way of having neither more nor less than is sufficient for one of your Condition strive to have enough to make you pass your days with Honour and in Peace and to aid you in performing the indispensible Duties of Justice and Christian Prudence towards your self and those that belong to you have enough to satisfie this but at the same time keep your self from having enough to satisfie Ambition and your other Passions The Passions are so many Furies within us which are chained up and laid fast asleep by Virtue but are soon awaked by the sound and ratling of Silver and Gold They begin to cry out excessively and to struggle with their Chains at the first perceiving that we have in our Coffers the Means to humour them the Money we tell over and they see lodged in our Hands sets them into a rage and they are not to be quieted till we put our selves out of the capacity of contenting them Reduce your self then low by your Alms and let that glorious Incapacity be one of the Examples and Inheritances you leave to your Children In a word take this for one of your Maxims Nec Mendicitatem nec Devitias Neither too much nor not enough These are two Evils that equally lead to the last of Miseries and that coming upon us do mark us with as fatal a Character as Man can bear in his Forehead Do not stay to know the Miseries of a Prison by your own Experience inform your self well about it whilst you have your Liberty It is sufficient one would think to have Eyes to look into the Lives of the Poor and Rich to teach us to avoid the ever being like to either of them Consider with your self that should you come to be suddenly enriched and be one of those that wears the Title of a great Lord all the advantage you would get above those of a middle Fortune would be to have night and morning a great Hurry and Trouble round you to have more Flatterers at your Table more Vanity and Foolery in your Train more Unnecessaries in your Furniture more Noise in your House and Disquiet in your Mind more Sins in your Conscience and more to repent of at your Death Have never so many Thousands you are not able to purchase a second Body and whilst you have but one what need have you of two Houses of three Tables and much less of threescore Hands to serve you The greatness of this Trouble and Expence wherein is it useful but to others to
to Heaven or not but will grow from the tediousness and length of years and the delays that put off the happy day in which you are to see your Beloved You will not beg of the Angels to let you know whether you shall bear them company one day in the Heavenly Jerusalem and whether there be a place appointed for you there but to let you know when you shall come thither on what day at which hour O blessed Spirits when will this be Ye possess already him whom I seek and whom you love O Angels I love as well as you and cannot live without my God yet all this while I see him not Adjuro vos filiae Jerusalem I conjure you O Daughters of Jernsalem to take pity on my Love and tell me when I shall enter into the Glorious Palace of my Spouse into the very place of that admirable Tabernacle into the very Arms and Bosom of him who is the Object of my Sighs and Tears You will look upon Heaven as an Inheritance that belongs to you and will say with David Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi I have heard a Divine Voice whisper to my Heart which has left these few words imprinted in it That we shall go into the House of God and that after a moment or two of Labour and Affliction we shall get out of this Valley of Tears and Region of Death to be transported to the Habitation of Life and Immortality where our Bliss and Enjoyment wil be no less eternal than He is whom we love Here you see what has been said and thougâ—â— by such persons as have been in your condition and by what means they have raised themselves above the power of Hell and above all the Fears and Disquiets that torment the Weak and Pusilanimous In a word if you be assured that you have a Good Will shut not that Peace out of your Heart which has been promised you from Heaven by these words Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis MAXIM XVII Mulierem fortem quis inveniet procul de ultimis finibus terrae pretium ejus Prov. xxxi PARAPHRASE It is not meant here that there is not a strong Woman in the World but that there is not the Man who is wise and happy enough to find her out so hard it is to distinguish her from other Women that disguise themselves and deceive the Eyes of such as are the clearest sighted If there be those notwithstanding that will attempt the search of her see here her Figure which I present them with as a help to know her They will judge by it in my opinion that if they were to go as far as the Indies to learn News of this Lady she would deserve the Pains and to have the Voyage undertaken for her alone rather than for that number of things fetched from thence infinitely less rare and precious REFLECTIONS It is not to be doubted but that amongst the Felicities of this Life one of the most desirable to Man is to have Plenty Order and Peace setled in his Family The Duty of effecting this Settlement belongs particularly to the Wife the Honour and the Obligation of the Husband dispose of him wholly to the service of the Common-wealth to whose Benefit he dedicates his Time and Pains and by his excellent Qualities comes to merit one of the principal Places in the government of it These two Employments have been assigned by Providence to the Master and Mistress of that Family of which Solomon speaks in the last of his Proverbs both the one and the other carry themselves after such a manner as make the Angels admire at the Grace which enlightens and enables them and Men are at a loss to reckon which of the Pair deserves the best Preference It is certainly an admirable Sight to behold this august Peer awing Nobilis in pertis vir ejus quando Sederit eam Senatoribus terrae the People into their Duty or to see him preside in an Assembly of Senators at a time when the Frame of the State is shaken and in disorder and yet such as consider the Carriage of the Wife at home in her Palace see those things which make a no less glorious appearance in their Eyes they are not to be distinguish'd one from another The Character which they receive from the general Voice says That their Examples regulate all the Actions of their fellow-Citizens and that they equally share by their Merit in all the Praises and Admiration of their Country See here the first Lines of their Figures which the Wise-man has drawn to present to future times and to confute the Complaints and Tears of such as lay to Heaven the ill Success of their Marriage This Woman who is all Obedience to her Husband reigns in her House at the same time he governs in the Senate she exercises there a Sovereign Rule but does it without noise or violence Her power in this place is mighty because it comes from Heaven she does not seek as other Ladies use to raise up her Authority by the magnificency of her Attire and yet she wears the richest Purple Byssius purpura Indumentum ejus and follows all the Rules of Decency and Custom in dressing her self though she has no need of any Help to make her be respected and honoured by her Domesticks God has bestowed such a Garment on her as we should all have worn had our first Father but proved wise Fortitudo decus indumentum ejus Solomon means that there issues an Ayr of Greatness and Majesty from the Eyes of this Princess which spreads it self over her like a Garment and gives a certain lustre to her Face her Words and Motions such as cannot be expressed further than that it ravishes all Hearts and that it makes them happy who serve her when her Commands give them the honour of obeying her and the occasion to shew by their promptness and transport of Joy the depth of their Respects This is it which keeps the whole House in order and puts every person at each hour of the day in the Place and Employment where he should be the respectful Fears that fix them to their Duty is not as in other Families a Fear of being catch'd in their Faults and punished all the Fear of this place is the Fear of being faulty She is not the Mistress only of her Domesticks but the Mother too amongst the chief Rules of her Government the first is to look that they be not failing in any part of their Duties the second to see that nothing be wanting to them which Reason and Justice can claim for their support and comfort Her constant Care is to avoid giving them any just cause of complaint yielding them still new occasisions of loving her and of believing they are loved her Goodness reaches to make them see that she both approves of their Service and considers their Persons This frank and obliging Goodness extends
is one of the most considerable Rules of Wisdom never to do what may hurt it but still to govern it with discretion The true method that is to be observed in relation to Health is to tend it as we would do a young Child of quality taking the care neither to spoil him by too fond humourings and compliances nor by unreasonable constraints and severities To effect this it is evident that we must both allow and deny our selves many things but What are those things and at what times These are two Difficulties which are the ground of many Disputes such as are not well determined because we do not apply our selves to the right and sole Mistress who can justly do it Some People consult their Physicians many take Advice of their Sensual Appetite and blindly do what it counsels them others which are the clearest sighted apply themselves to Nature and consult with her alone Indeed the Physician often undertakes the matter but it may be he exceeds in this the limits of his Title and Profession Physick was instituted by God for the recovery of Health it may be questioned whether it were intended for the preservation of it At least we may conclude thus far That Physicians are of no use to such as find themselves well and all nothing Add to this That Experience teaches us that those who consult their Physician in time of health to learn how to preserve it and live a long time learn only by his Remedies how to become sick and destroy themselves Such Persons as hearken to their Sensuality soon learn the way to dye and flye to the Tomb before the time though the Truth is the Cordials it prescribes are excellent as Mirth Wine Good Cheer Sleep Play and Ease but it makes us take too much of them and as the excess of good things makes the most mortal Poison so this kills more Men by its Baits than dye in the Field by the Sword or are destroy'd in a Sedition by Violence and Injustice Assuredly those are but ill Advices for our Health which come from our blind Appetite and very dangerous Instincts are its interiour Perswasions and Impulses Nature in this point is the sole and true Mistress to whom we are to hearken she knows what is requisite for a Man the quantity of Nourishment and the quality how much time he is to allow for Labour how much for his Diversion how much for Sleep what is to be the measure of each thing She knows all this and what is to be most admired she has inward motions and certain ways of informing us in evry matter which are marvelously intelligible at least the Man that is wise understands them very well and seldom deceives himself in them it may be said that it is one of his principal and choicest Knowledges to distinguish thee Calls of Reason and Necessity from those of the Passions and that amongst his Principles the most holy and best observed one by him is not to grant any thing to the latter nor refuse any thing to the former An ancient Writer has truly said That one of the most important Affairs of Wisdom lodged in the Mind of Man is to well distinguish between those Voices or Calls which are within Man they have been reckoned to be six or seven Reason Instinct Humour Appetite Temptation Inspiration and Grace each one of these Domesticks lodged within us has his Call or Impulse by which he puts us upon Actions pleasing to him and makes us to will as he does Their Ends are infinitely differing and opposite but the great difficulty and the original from whence arise all our Misfortunes is that their Voices are much alike and that it is easie to be deceived in them Sensual Appetite counterfeits in its Call the Voice of Reason and Necessity Humour that of Instinct and Nature Temptation that of Inspiration and Grace Now to take one for the other to resist this and comply with that is no less than to perish Happy are the Wise It is Wisdom only that is able to distinguish amongst this Confusion of Voices at every Call of our Heart and every Impulse we feel she informs us to whom the Voice belongs From this admirable Intelligence of the Wise it comes that they are able to chuse the ways of preserving their Health by following the Orders of the Physician that is within them and understands their Interiour whereas the Misfortune of the other Physician is that they cannot penetrate so far with their Sight they see but the outside of the Sick Person and must devine for all the rest MAXIM XIX Vtere quasi homo frugi his quae tibi apponuntur Eccles xxxi PARAPHRASE Feed and nourish your self that you may live and eat not but for your Sustenance take no more than Nature requires and what is necessary to support its Strength and Life comply not with your Sensual Appetite and let your Heart never feel so much shame and apprehension of your becoming like to a Beast as in those Actions in which they resemble us and that are common to us with them A good and noble Heart Cor splendidum in epulis epulae enim ejus diligenter fiunt is chiefly shewn by the manner of ordering his Table such a Heart will cause it to relish of its own frankness of its cleanness and purity an indecent Table is the mark of a negligent Mind and a disorderly Life Engage not your self to be at those Feasts where you must strive to win the Prize and contest who shall Diligentes in vino noli provocare carry away the Honour of being the most immodest and the least sober of the Company this is a War in which many have died miserably on the Bed of Dishonour full of all the Shame and all the Crimes of Brutality What Death can be more infamous and fatal Disorderly Repasts are the destruction of Mankind and the Punishment of Intemperance is the same in our days as it was in the time of the first Sinner I mean it is Death What differs is that the Gluttony of the First Man condemned us only to dye at an old Age and in our extream Caducity whereas our Gormandizing sentences us to dye in our Youth There are few that dye of old Age most People fall by their Excess Vinum in juâ—unditatem creatum est non inebrietatem Wine was created to solace and fortifie not to extinguish our Reason nor to weaken our Minds Wine drank with moderation Exultatio animae Corporis Vinum moderate sumptum begets Strength in the Understanding Joy in the Heart and Health in the Body REFLECTIONS Man's Body so long as it is supported by an Immortal Soul is the most upright and the most beautiful of all Bodies but when it comes to be separated from this of all Carcasses it is the most hideous and frightful there is not that Corruption which is so horrid to behold nor a Stench
and Soul in the Filth of a scandalous Drunkenness to see him throw himself on the Ground and sleep in the face of Heaven can there be a more shameful Spectacle Let him be an Holofernes attended and worshipped by an Army of an Hundred thousand Men all this Attendance hinders him not in that condition from being a Horror to the Angels and being a Womans Victim who cuts off his Head and carries it safe away whilst Devils seize the Remains of that drunken Carcass Quasi Cadaver putridum illamentatus atque insepultus descendes in profundum laci This way of sleeping is certainly the most dismal thing that can happen to Man The King Sedecias having known that he was made the Sport of the Court of Babylon whilst he slept after this manner died through the displeasure he took at it Alexander Socrates Cato and other of those old Worthies have blushed at their being in such a condition before they came to be quite awake so much sense remaining with them in the midst of their Folly and they have wept in having hid it from the Eyes of the World to find they could not hide it from themselves I own besides that it is not a proper means to cause quiet and good Sleeps to have our Bed and Chamber too richly and voluptuously adorned what Rest can there be taken in the view of so great Debts or Couzenages or Pride How many dreadful Cries says Salvian are heard all night within the Conscience of that Man whose wretched Sleep costs so much Money and so many Sins Can he spend the hours any other way than in sadly thinking and in saying to himself Menses vacuos Noctes laboriosas Enumeravi mihi For these twenty years I have done nothing towards my Salvation my days have been days of Debauch of Impieties of Wrongs to the Poor my nights have been nights of Disquiet Torment and Despair Menses Vacuos Noctes laboriosas Think when you go to take your rest on this rich Bed of State that such was the Bed from which a Balthasar beheld the Hand of God writing on the Wall the Sentence of his Death and his Damnation signed in Heaven That the rich Glutton whilst he took the pleasure of seeing himself thus magnificently lodged heard a Voice whisper in his Ear telling him he was expected in another World and that he must dye within an hour Et haec quae Parasti Cujus erunt That an Antiochus instead of meeting here with that sweet Rest you seek found burning Flames kindled within his Bowels with Cholicks and Convulsions which have made him roar like one in Hell turning his stately Bed into a Scaffold where his interiour Executioners have torn him for several months till Death has come and pulled him out of their Hands to put him into infernal ones Mortuus est sepultus in inferno But I go beyond my Argument what I maintained is true That Sleep taking possession of you according to the Rules of Providence puts you into a condition that is not only necessary but honourable The Rules of this Providence are fitted to your Conveniency and Needs do you conform your self therefore exactly to them and accustom your self to follow as near as you can all its Commands and Counsels You desire that your Sleep may be sweet and peaceable Providence would have it so too and has chosen for it the night time do not you change this for the day and go not to Bed at Five a Clock in the morning when the Sun does rise It would not have you spend above seven or eight hours in sleeping do not employ ten or eleven in it but mind what the Physicians say That a Man who lies in Bed ten or eleven hours comes out of it ever less healthful and what the Casuists add Ever less innocent and pure than he went into it The Eye of God says St. Gregory abhors the sight of a Man in Bed at Noon And if ever you be found there so late he will send Solomon's Ghost to your Bed-side which pulling you by the Arm will repeat those words inspired long since into him on purpose to be said to the Sluggards of all times Vsque quo Piger dormies quando Consurges a Somno tua Paululum dormies paululum dormitabis paululum Conseres Manus ut dormias veniet tibi quasi Viator Egestas pauperies quasi vir Armatus Till when O Sloathful will you sleep have you not rubbed your Eyes and stretched your Arms sufficiently has not your Head been more than once raised and let fall again upon the Pillow asking a little time and yet a little longer and for a third about still a little longer time until that God's Malediction enters within your Walls follow'd by Disorder Libertinism and Poverty which will spare your Family as little as it has done such as have been richer than yours Pauperies quasi Vir Armatus This is not all what the same Providence recommends particularly to you to make your Sleeps sound and quiet is that you employ your self in the day time taking so much Pains about your Affairs as that you may find at night when the time comes of your going to Bed something of Weariness in your Body but in your Mind no manner of Disquiet no Sin in your Conscience nor any Disturbance from your Passions to hinder the rest prepared for you by the Divine Goodness Act so well as that your Designs your Undertakings Hopes and even your Joys as well as Griefs may be laid to sleep with you and lodge that quiet Silence in your Soul as may make it not be troubled by it self or any thing about it so that you may have cause to say at the time of shutting your Eyes In pace in idipsum dormiam requiescam quoniam tu domine Singulariter in spe Constituisti me The last and most important Rule is That your last Action before you sleep and the first after you wake must be to pray Be sure you fail not to begin and end this way each day you have to live and take often into your Mind this true Saying of the Holy Fathers That Sleep is the Figure of our Death and Waking the Figure of our Resurrection The last words of a dying Man are to recommend his Soul to God In Manus tuas Domine commendo animam meam the first when he rises again will be to pay his Adoration to God when stretching out his Arms towards his Maker he shall raise himself up to him by Acts of a perfect Love and Holiness Dormivi Somnum cepi exurrexi adhuc sum tecum This is the true method of the Devotion of Christians for each day of their Life Remember what I have said in another place That all times are proper for the exercising Acts of Holy Love since the God you love is near you at all times When the Sun goes away he is not gone says Solomon God is at