but one wrench higher and they cannot be silent the just avenger of sin will not loose the glory of his executions but will have men know from whom they smart Men had rather die then endure torture therefore extorted confession cannot be good It is both lawfull and fit in things not prohibited to conform our selves to the manners and rights of those with whom we live The same day fotty years after England was conquered by William the father was Normandi conquered by William Rufus the Son it being the 27th of September 1106. A Conquest draweth to it the alteration of these three things viz. Apparell Law and Language Conquest is confirmed by continuing possession The price and honour of a Conquest is rated by the difficulty A Prince that hath conquered and joyned a strange Country to his domions ought to be circumspect what Governors he placeth there Conduction is that which is sooner overcome and altered by that which it nourisheth and Crudity is that which is strong and hard and will not suffer it self to be altered A short conclusion of long premisses best befits the memory Henry the eight in the 38th year of his Raign by his Letter commanded the Lord Gray not to demolish Cattillions Fort but in secret gives him a special command to ruine it Contraries are known by one method and the privative is known only by seperation of the knowledge of the positive Contraries are two opposites of one kind as black and white both colours moist and dry both qualities but substances have no contraries in themselves There be two enemies of peace first conscience of evil done secondly sence of fear of evil suffered the first we call sin the latter crosses A wide conscience will swallow any sin those that have once thralled themselves to a known evil will make no difference of sins but by their own loss or advantage wickedness once entertained can put on any shape trust him in nothing that makes no conscience of every thing Many times the conscience runs a way smoothlywith an unwarrantable action rests it self upon those grounds which afterward it sees cause to condemn it is a sure way therefore to inform our selves throughly ere we settle our choice that we be not driven to reverse our acts with late shame and unprofitable repentance Such as make conscience of sinning are carefull not to be thought to sin A good conscience is no less afraid of a scandall then of a sin whereas those that are resolved not to make any scruple of sin despise others constructions not caring whom they offend so they may please themselves Those which have a cleer conscience from any sin prosecute it with rigour whereas the guilty are ever partiall their conscience holds their hands and tells them that they be at themselves while they punish others The conscience may well rest when it tells us we have neglected no means for redressing our afflictions for then it may resolve to look either for amendment or patience A good conscience will make a man undauntedly confident and dare put him upon any tryall when his own heart strikes him not it bids him challenge all the world and take up all comers Contrarily he that hath a false and soul conscience lyes at every mans mercy lives slavishly and is fain to daub up a rotten peice with the basest conditions Conscience is the conserver of religion it is the light of knowledge that God hath planted in man which is ever watching over all his actions as it beareth him a joyfull testimony when he doth right so it curbeth him with a feeling that he hath done wrong when ever he commiteth any sin Conscience not grounded upon any sure knowledge is either an ignorant fantasie or an arrogant vanity The conscience is a conservation of the knowledg of the Law of God and Nature to know good and evil The conscience is that which approves good or evil justifying or condemning our actions The greatest bliss on earth is a pure conscience Nil conscire sibi nulla palescere culpa There is no sin but vexeth him in whom it is the first revenge is that no man is quit from his own guilty conscience There is least danger and most safety when mens consciences do make conclusions for and against themselves No man can wash his hands of that sin to which his will hath consented bodily violence may be in-offensive in the patient voluntary inclination through fear to evil can never be excusable Sin is the off-spring of the will not of the body where consent is not there is no sin A constitution is a gathering and uniting of the people together both in one Common-Weale and Church into a civill or divine Politie the forme of which politie is Order In Anno 682 Agathus commanded that the constitutions of the chief Bishop should be holden for Apostollicall The church of St. Saviour in the raigne of Crathlint founded in the Isle of Man was the first Bishops-See that was erected in Scotland three-upon is esteemed the mother-church churces are not now constituted but repaired If the church cast not out the knownunworthy the sin is hirs but if a man will come unworthily the sin is his No Element but through its mixture hath departed from its first simplicity so there is no church but hath some error or sin in it The naturall sicknesses that have ever troubled and been the decay of all churches since the beginning of the World changing the Candlestick from one to another have been pride ambition and avarice We must be directed by the Church but then the Church must be directed by the right rule the Scripture But if any Church as Rome shall tell the rest any thing that will notly even to that rule we may lawfully dissent The fittest place for prayer is the church and among the congregation especially if the petition be for publike graces and benefits and not in places of seperation or faction in private conventicles The church keeps a feast on no Saints birth day except the birth day of Saint John the Baptist The church is but one body yet the several members of it rest in divers places and are dispersed into several congregations which of themselves are called churches though they be altogether indeed but one church as Saint John in the Revelation writes to the seaen churches yet they were all but one church in seven parts Lingering is a kind of constancy suddenness argues fear Consultation is concerning things that vary and alter and medleth not with those things that be firm and stable The Bread and Wine by consecration cease to be common Bread and Wine being dedicated to a sacred use and so the Bread and Wine are made holy ceasing to be common such a change as this understood the fathers to be made in the Bread and Wine but not as touching the substance and being but as touching the qualities this change the reformed allow and by such a
VVits Fancies OR CHOICE OBSERVATIONS AND ESSAYES Collected out of Divine Political Philosophical Military and Historical AUTHORS By JOHN UFFLET Gent. Accusator qui consortem defert sese inâ—ueator LONDON Printed by T.L. and are to be sold by the Booksellers MDCLIX THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Courteous Reader WHen you have surveyed each Page of this little Treatise you I hope will be able to render an account of it how you like the Fabrick and if it be well rear'd the thought of falling is not to be feared though he that did erect it did not serve many years to the Profession nor deserved the attribute of an Architect yet he hath used his best endeavours to write truly those things that by his own Experiences he knows and thought it meet without the least offence to Entitle it Wits Fancies or choice Observations c. being the marrow of all that ever he read in any History either Sacred or Prophane In a word Reader not to make the Gates bigger then the City I intreat thee with washed hands and without a prejudicate Opinion to receives it So Farewel TO The Right Honorable and Vertuous Sir T. N.Kt. Health and Happiness Honored Sir THe confidence I have of your goodness hath imboldened me to put this small Treatise into your Honor's Protection which with some would have been held a Crime intollerable But I know your Honor is so far from being a Censurer that you had rather cherrish honest endeavours then destroy them And besides this there is a self-affecting Sect crept now up in this our Age that will not onely disgorge their Envy Malice but arrest the sense unless some honest and judicious Patron be fixt to the fronts-piece to correct their sawcy peering as the beams of the Sun with blindness I knowing your Name to be such as amongst the discerning spirits deserves the highest Attributes of worth and of such singular power that it will extirpate the Malevolent Thoughts that reign now in the vulgar infectious Traducers for now may it be truly said of this Age Saturitas illece brarum Nutrix That sulness is the Nurse of Wantonnesse and because such a glut of Bookes is come forth into the world Vulgi genus perplexus the spirits of the common people are troubled and perplexed I therefore thought good to tender this as my first fruits at the altar of your Mercy and if it may be so happy as to obtain the reflection of the beams of your mercy or acceptance it will so much encourage your poor admirer that I shall be ambitious in the continuance of your Honour's favours These are the Maiden flowers of my young age which in the blossome may be smothered without your Honor's protection which in their infancy may be destroyed by the breath of some Railers but sheltered by your Honour they shall live and dare the Criticks Rancor retorting to their own shame Honored Sir the fostering this Orphan will make you famous for Charity and impose an Obligation beyond expression upon Your Honor 's truly devoted T.Y. WITS ACADEMY OR Choice Observations collected out of Divine Political Philosophical Military and Historical Authors c. Of Evil. THE abetting of Evil is worse then the commission the one may be upon infirmity the other must be upon resolution The reiteration of vicious acts causes them to be believed to proceed from mans de praved nature and not from the necessity of occasion Abstinence Abstinence merits not for religion consists not only in the belly either full or empty What are meats or drinks to the kingdome of God which is like himself spiritual but it prepares best for good duty full bellies are fitter for rest Not the body so much as the soul is more active with emptiness thence solemn prayers takes ever fasting to attend it and so much the rather speeds in heaven when it is so accompanied It is good to dyet the body so as the soul may be fatned Nature pleads for liberty Religion for abstinence not that there is more uncleanness in the Grape then in the fountain but that wine finds more uncleanness in us then water and that high food is not for devotion but abstinence Actions It is not the action but the quality and manner thereof that is vicious In all actions he that regardeth not the beginning foreseeth not the end All actions beyond ordinary limits a subject to sinister interpretation In a good action it is not good to search too deeply into the intention of the agent but in silence to make our best benefit of the work In an evil action it is not safe to regard the quality of the person nor his success but to consider the action abstracted from all circumstances in his own kind so wee shall neither neglect good deeds for their success nor affect prosperous evils Every vertuous action hath a double shadow according to the diverse aspects of the beholders one of glory another of envy There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands either with charitable construction or sinister interpretation of malice and suspition A good work is then only good and acceptable when the action meaning and manner are all good for a thing may be done in one circumstance but cannot be good but in all therefore what ever business a man go about let him enquire what he doth for the substance how for the manner why for the intention To construe an evil act well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to a mans self but to misconstrue a good action is a trebble wrong viz. to a mans self to the action and to the Author The instruments of evil actions ought to be punished whenas having received the reward of their lewdness yet go about to charge others with it All men which are to enter into great and important actions ought to weigh and consider with themselves whether that which is undertaken be profitable for the Common-Wealth honorable for themselves and easie to be acted or at least not greatly difficult withall the party that perswadeth unto it whether besides bare words and advice he adjoyn his own peril thereunto yea or no And if future good favour the action to whom the principal glory accrueth It is well and rare if we can come out of a dangerous action without a foyl In actions let not a man do alwayes his best It is neither wise nor safe for a man to stand upon the top of his strength Great actions require mighty Agents The unworthiness of the Agent many times crosses a good action Evil actions have oft-times good meanings and those good meanings are answered with evil recompences many a one bestowes his labour his cost and his blood and receives disgrace and torment instead of thanks and reward Actions notorious villanous may countenance extraordinary means of prosecution Every action that is reported is not strait-wayes allowed If every act of a holy person should be our rule we
second Dunkirk was taken and spoyled by the English Hugh Spencer Bishop of Norwich being General All Duels are unlawful in that they as it were commit the quarrel to the â—ot for the use of which there is no warrant since the abrogating of the old Law but it is most especially unlawful in the person of a King who being a publike person hath no power therefore to dispose of himself in respect that his preservation or fall the safety or wrack of the whole Common-wealth is necessarily coupled as the body to the head He that enters a Duel loses as much the opinion of Wisdom as he gains the opinion of Daring Great is the force of Duty once conceived even to the most unworthy The Eye and the Ear are the minds Receivers and the Tongue and the Hand the Minds Expenditors Earthly things proffer themselves with importunity Heavenly things must with importunity be sued for The Earth is our Mother that brought us forth our Stage that bears us and our Grave wherein we are intomb'd So she gives us our Original our Harbour and our Sepulchre Gods Elect have three Sutes of Appares viz. Black Mourning Red Persecution White Glorious Natural respects are the most dangerous corrupters of all Elections What hope can there be of worthy Superiors in any free people where nearness of blood carries it from fitness of Disposition In the year 885. Adrian the third being Pope the Emperors of Germany who formerly elected to the Popedom lost their Prerogative In the year 998. in Pope Gregory the fifth's time it was agreed that the Emperors of Germany should be elected by three Bishops viz. Mentz Tryers and Cullein and by three Princes viz. The County Palatine of the Rhine the Duke of Saxony and the Marquess of Brandenburgh and in case the said six cannot agree then the King of Bohemia to have an umpiering Voice The reason why we pray Eastward is because Paradise was there planted from whence we were cast out which is the reason also that we build our Churches East and West yet the Jews had their Priests that in their Sacrifices alwayes turned their faces towards the West Education is another Nature altering the Mind and Wit The beginning midst and end of man's life lyeth onely in vertuous and honest Education which is the very means that is opperative and powerful for the attaining of Vertue and true Happiness There is none in the World so wickedly inclined but a religious Instruction and Education may fashion a-new and reform them nor any so well disposed the Reins being let loose whom the continual fellowship and familiarity and the examples of dissolute men may not corrupt and deform No Element but through mixture hath seperated from its first simplicity When the Ancients contended against each other to perswade people to this or that action Eloquence had then her original Fame with Posterity is the fairest reward of Eloquence Commonly the enmities of nearest Kinsfolks if once they fall out are most despiteful and deadly The difference between Enmity and Emulation is thus Enmity hunteth after destruction and onely rejoiceth in that which bringeth our Adversary to â—uine and utter destruction but Emulation which is a spur to Vertue contendeth only by well-deserving to gain the advantage of another mans Fame that useth the same means to attain the like ends and is alwayes mixed with love in regard of the affinity of their affections and the sympathy of their desires not suffering the overthrow of their Competitor but succouring him in time of danger and calamity that he may still continue to shew the greatness of his worth by the opposition of inferior actions which are as a lesser scantling of desert to measure the estimation of the other humor The causes of the Roman Empire were the Domestick Wars the immoderate greatness of the Princes of the Empire and the Dignity of the Emperor being Elective and not Hereditary It is the dissolution of an Empire if the Revenues be diminished by which it is maintained and if Customs be taken away the abolishing of Tribute wil be demanded In the second year of Henry the 4th the Emperor of Constantinople came into England to request aid against the Turk In the fifth year of Henry the eighth the Emperor of Germany Maximilian served under the Kings Banner and did take pay Boniface the third was the first that was called Pope and he obtained of Phocas the Emperor That the Roman Seat should be called the Head of all Churches At that time three remarkable things happened The decay of the Roman Empire The rising of the Popedom and The springing up of Mahometism Of the ruine of the Empire these two Beasts arose which have much harmed the Church and as the Empire hath decreased these have encreased All Philosophy teacheth us That man desires an end and that there is some end which every man tends to beyond which he cannot think or hope In the 7th year of Henry the fifth by a General Councel holden at Constance it was decreed That England should have the Title of the English Nation and to be taken and reputed one of the five Nations that obeyed the Roman See Common Enemies must first be opposed Domestick more at leisure That which open Enemies dare not attempt they work by false Brethren and are so much the more dangerous as they are more intire A man ought to be jealous of whatsoever an Enemy either by speech or action shall cast upon him however colourable the reasons may be which are alledged to induce him thereunto for it is improbable that an Enemy whose chiefest care is to weaken the Adversary and to bring him to ruine should advise him to any thing that should concern his good unless the profit which he himself shall thereby gather do far exceed that which the contrary part may expect When a man's enemy offereth him that which hath appearance of good let him refuse it God hath created nothing in this World either man or Beast without an Enemy to hold it in fear and humility He that would undertake great Enterprises had of Wisdom and Courage Wisdom to contrive and Courage to execute Wisdom to guide his Courage and Courage to second his Wisdom both which if they meet with a good cause it cannot but succeed Princes that desire to continue friendship ought not to meet and have interviews to avoid suspition but to hold correspondency by wise Councellors Envy hath this good in it that it afflicteth those extreamly that use it Envy proceeds from a base mind Glory follows good deserts Envy follows Glory The envious man feeds upon others evils and hath no other Disease but his Neighbours welfare It is the nature of man and a deeply rooted quality in us streightly to look into the prosperity of others with an envious eye and to require a moderation of Fortune no where so much as in those we have seen in equal degree with our selves It is a thing