without least respect had to his Masters benefit Difference therefore you are to make of their care in cherishing the one and chastising the other which can hardly be effected unlesse you who are to make this difference of your servants have an eye to their imployments Neither would I have your care so extended as to afflict and macerate your selves by your excessive care a meane is the best both in the preservation of health and wealth Be diligent saith Salomon to know the state of thy flocke and take heed to thy herds Yet withall note his conclusion Let the milke of thy goats be sufficient for thy food for the food of thy familie and for the sustenance of thy maids Whence you may observe that to gather is admitted so the use or end for which wee gather be not neglected For such whose Hydroptick minds are ever raking and reaping yet know not how to imploy the blessings of God by a communicative exhibition unto others are become vassals unto their owne making their gold-adoring affection an infection their reason treason and the wealth which they have got them a witnesse to condemne them But I have insisted too long on this point especially in framing my speech to you whose more free-borne dispositions will ever scorne to be tainted with such unworthy aspersions wherefore I will descend briefly to such instructions as you are to use touching spirituall affaires being Masters of Housholds in your private families WE reade that Abraham commanded his sons and his houshold that they should keepe the way of the Lord to doe righteousnesse and judgement And wee are taught what wee must doe returning from Gods house to our owne and what wee are to doe sitting in our houses even to lay up Gods word in our heart and in our soule and binde it for a signe upon our hand that it may be as a frontlet betweene our eyes And not only to be thus instructed our selves but to teach them our children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest downe and when thou risest up And not so onely but thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates Whence you see how no place time or occasion is to be exempted from meditating of God but especially in Housholds and Families ought this exercise of devotion to be frequently and fervently practised for a Blessing is pronounced upon the performance hereof as appeareth in the foresaid place and the next ensuing verse where he saith You shall doe all that I have commanded you that your dayes may be multiplied and the dayes of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth Marke the extent of this Blessing for it promiseth not only length of dayes to them that performe it but even to the children of them that performe it and that in no unfruitfull or barren land but in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them and that for no short time but so long as the heavens are above the earth So as this blessed promise or promised blessing is as one well observeth not restrained but with an absolute grant extended so that even as the people that were in the gate and the Elders wished in the solemnizing of that mariage betwixt Boaz and Ruth that their house might be like the house of Pharez so doubtlesse whosoever meditates of the Law of the Lord making it in his Familie as a familiar friend to direct him a faithfull counseller to instruct him a sweet companion to delight him a precious treasure to enrich him shall finde successe in his labours and prosperitie in the worke of his hands But amongst all as it is the use or Masters of housholds to call their servants to account for the day past so be sure Gentlemen and you who are Masters of houses to enter into your owne hearts by a serious examination had every night what you have done or how you have imployed your selves and those Talents which God hath bestowed on you the day past in imitation of that blessed Father who every night examined himselfe calling his soule to a strict account after this manner O my soule what hast thou done this day What good hast thou omitted what evill hast thou committed what good which thou shouldst have done what evill which thou shouldst not have done Where are the poore thou hast releeved the sicke or captive thou hast visited the Orphan or widow thou hast comforted Where are the naked whom thou hast cloathed the hungry whom thou hast refreshed the afflicted and desolate whom thou hast harboured O my soule when it shall be demanded of thee Quid comedit pauper how poorely wilt thou looke when there is not one poore man that will witnesse thy almes Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi nudus quem amicivisti how naked wilt thou appeare when there is not one naked soule that will speake for thee Againe when it shall be demanded of thee Vbi sitiens quem potasti Vbi esuriens quem pavisti Vbi captivus quem visitasti Vbi moestus quem relevasti O my soule how forlorne wretched and uncomfortable will thy condition be when there shall not appeare so much as one witnesse for thee to expresse thy charitie not one poore soule whom thou hast releeved one naked whom thou hast cloathed nor one thirstie whom thou hast refreshed nor one hungry whom thou hast harboured nor a captive whom thou hast visited nor one afflicted whom thou hast comforted Thus to call your selves to account by meditating ever with S. Hierome of the judgement day will be a meanes to rectifie your affections mortifie all inordinate motions purifie you throughout that you may be examples of pietie unto others in your life and heires of glory after death concluding most comfortably with the foresaid Father If my mother should hang about mee my father lie in my way to stop me my wife and children weepe about mee I would throw off my mother neglect my father contemne the lamentation of my wife and children to meet my Saviour Christ Iesus For the furtherance of which holy resolution let no day passe over your heads wherein you addresse not your selves to some good action or imployment Wherefore Apelles posie was this Let no day passe without a line Be sure every day you doe some good then draw one line at the least according to that Line upon line line upon line And Pythagoras posie was this Sit not still upon the measure of corne Doe not looke to eat except you sweat for it according to that He which will not worke let him not eat In my Fathers house saith Christ are many mansions So that no man may sing his soule a
bodie repaire it with an upright soule Art thou outwardly deformed with spirituall graâ—â—â— be thou inwardly beautified Art thou blinde or lame or otherwise maimed be not there with dejected for the Blâ—nd and Lame were invited It is not the outward proportion but the inward disposition not the feature of the face but the power of grace which worketh to salvaâ—â—â—on Alcibiades Socrates scholer was the best favoured Boy in Athens yet to use the Philosophers words looke but inwardly into his bodie you will finde nothing more odious So as one compared them aptly these faire ones I meane to faire and beautifull Sepulchres Exterius nitida interius faetida outwardly hansome inwardly noysome Notable was that observation of a learned Philosopher who professing himselfe a Schoole-master to instruct Youth in the principles and grounds of Philosophie used to hang a Looking-glasse in the Schoole where he taught wherein he shewed to every scholer he had his distinct feature or physnomy which he thus applied If any one were of a beautifull or amiable countenance hee exhorted him to answer the beautie and comlinesse of his face with the beautie of a well-disposed or tempered minde if otherwise he were deformed or ill featured he wished him so to adorne and beautifie his minde that the excellencie of the one might supply the defects or deformities of the other But thou objectest How should I expresse my descent my place or how seeme worthy the company of eminent persons with whom I consort if I should sleight or disvalue this general-affected vanity Fashion I will tell thee thou canst not more generously I will not say generally expresse thy greatnes of descent place or qualitie nor seeme better worthy the company with whom thou consortest or frequentest than by erecting the glorious beames of thy minde aboue these inferiour things For who are these with whom thou consortest meere triflers away of time bastard slips degenerate impes consumers of their patrimonie and in the end for what other end save misery may attend them Haires to shame and infamie These I say who offer their Morning-prayers to the Glasse eying themselves 〈◊〉 till Narcissus-like they fall in love with their owne shadowes O England what a height of pride art thou growne to yea how much art thou growne unlike thy selfe when disvaluing thy owne forme thou deformest thy selfe by borrowing a plume of everie Countrey to display thy pie-coloured flag of vanitie What painting purfling powdring and pargeting doe you use yee Idolls of vanitie to lure and allure men to breake their first faith forsake their first love and yeeld to your immodestie How can you weepe for your sinnes saith Saint Hierome when your teares will make furrowes in your face With what confidence do you lift up that countenance to heaven which your Maker acknowledges not Doe not say that you have modest mindes when you have immodest eyes Death hath entred in at your windowes your eyes are those cranies those hatefull portells those fatall entrances which Tarpeia-like by betraying the glorious fortresse or cittadell of your soules have given easie way to your mortall enemie Vtinam miserrimus ego c. I would I poore wretch saith Tertullian might see in that day of Christian exaltation An cum cerussa purpurisso croco cum illo ambitu capitis resurgatis No you stanes to modestie such a Picture shall not rise in glory before her Maker There is no place for you but for such women as array themselves in comely apparell with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broided haire or gold or pearles or costly apparell But as becommeth women that professe the feare of God For even after this manner in time past did the holy women which trusted in God tire themselves Reade I say reade yee proud ones yee which are so haughtie and walke with stretched-out neckes the Prophet Isaiah and you shall find your selves described and the judgement of Desolation pronounced upon you Becaâ—se the Daughters of Zion are haughtie and walk with streâ—ched-out neckes and with wandring eyes walking 〈◊〉 minsing as they goe and making a tinckling with theâ—â— feet therfore shall the Lord make the heads of the daughters of Zion bald and the Lord shall discover their secret parts And he proceeds In that day shall the Lord take away the ornament of the slippers and the calles and the round tyres The sweet balles and the bracelets and the bonnets The tyres of the head and the sloppes and the head-bands and the tablets and the eare-rings The rings and the mufflers The costly apparell and the gâ—ailes and the wimples and the crisping-pins And the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the launes Now heare your reward And in stead of sweet savour there shall be stinke and in stead of a girdle a rent and in stead of dressing of the haire baldnesse and in stead of a stomacher a girding of sack-cloth and burning in stead of beautie Now attend your finall destruction Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy strength in the battell Then shall her gates mourne and lament and shee being desolate shall sit upon the ground See how you are described and how you shall be rewarded Enjoy then sin for a season and delight your selves in the vanities of Youth be your eyes the Lures of Lust your eares the open receits of shame your hands the polluted instruments of sinne to be short be your Soules which should be the Temples of the Holy Ghost cages of uncleane birds after all these things what the Prophet hath threatned shal come upon you and what shall then deliver you not your Beautie for to use that divine Distich of Innocentius Tell me thou earthen vessell made of clay What 's Beautie worth when thou must die to day Nor Honour for that shall lye in the dust and sleepe in the bed of earth Nor Riches for they shall not deliver in the day of wrath Perchance they may bring you when you are dead in a comely funerall sort to your graves or bestow on you a few mourning garments or erect in your memory some gorgeous Monument to shew your vain-glory in death as well as life but this is all Those Riches which you got with such care kept with such feare lost with such griefe shall not afford you one comfortable hope in the houre of your passage hence afflict they may releeve they cannot Nor Friends for all they can doe is to attend you and shed some friendly teares for you but ere the Rosemary lose her colour which stickt the Coarse or one worme enter the shroud which covered the Corpse you are many times forgotten your former glory extinguished your eminent esteeme obscured your repute darkened and with infamous aspersions often impeached If a man saith Seneca finde his friend sad and so leave him sicke without ministring any comfort to him and poore without releeving him we may thinke such an one
If you aime at profit what assay to your soules more commodious If you seeke after fame the aime of most souldiers what expedition more famous since by this meanes the practices of Christs enemies shall be defeated the borders of Christendome enlarged peace in Sion established and the tidings of peace every where preached Besides in assayes of this nature being taken in hand for the peace and safeti◠of Christendome assureth more securitie to the person engaged for little need he to feare a strong foe that hath a stronger friend Admit therefore that you returne as one that commeth with red garments from Bozra so as the Devill and his angels like wilde Bulls of Basan run at you you shall breake their hornes in his Crosse for whom you fight As wee have discoursed of imployments publike which wee divided into two ranks Civill and Military and of the manner how Gentlemen are to demeane themselves in Court or Campe so are we now to descend to imployments private wherein wee purpose to set downe such necessary cautions or observances as may seeme not altogether unprofitable or unusefull for the consideration of a Gentleman And first I will speake of the imployment of a private Iustice of Peace wherein he is appointed and made choice of not only to redresse such annoyances as may seeme to prejudice the state of that Countie wherein he lives and is deputed Iustice but likewise to mediate attone and determine all such differences as arise betwixt partie and partie for to these also extends the office of Iustice of Peace Yea wee are to wish him to be as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Compounder as a Commissioner of the Peace Godlinesse should be their chiefest gaine and right and peace their greatest joy for such are both Pacidici and Pacifici Pleaders for peace and leaders to peace Peace-lovers and peaceable livers As for the rest they are deservedly blamed that confine all their practice not within those ancient bounds usque ad aras but with those usuall bonds usque ad crumenas The old position was Iustice is to be preferred before profit but now the termes are transposed in the proposition and the avaritious desire of having never disputeth of the equity of the cause but of the utilitie Kinde men such are but where they doe take hardening their hearts against the crie of the poore If a man come to demand justice he shall speed ill having no money to give no coine to present no friends to speake his cause is like to fall Suppose out of two mites hee give one the rich adversaries horse eats up the poore Clients oats there needs no Oedipus to vnfold this riddle in the end the poore sheepe that lost but a locke of his wooll in the Country loseth his whole fleece in the Citie consumeth what he hath spendeth his time loseth his hope and falleth his suit be it never so good and honest Whereas such and of such we only speake as doe right judgement to the fatherlesse and widow beare a resemblance of God who is a loving Father to the Orphane and a gracious Iudge to the widow These will not for conscience sake pervert the right of strangers fatherlesse c. for such as doe so shall be cursed upon mount Ebal but these like pure Lampes diffuse those divine beames of unblemished justice to all places where they reside resembling David who executed judgement and justice to all his people or like that propheticall Dove Ieremiah ever exhorting to execute righteousnesse and judgement Or like that good Patriarke Abraham ever commanding his Houshold to doe righteousnesse and judgement For these know how all the wayes of God are judgements And that just and like a great deepe are Gods judgements And the wicked tremble at Gods judgements And the wicked understand not judgements And therfore strive against perverse judgements Because they know what equitie is to be required in judgements Having ever before their eyes Gods judgements O how pretious are the lips of these who preserve judgement being an honour to their Country a pillar to the State leaving a memorable name to themselves which as that princely Prophet saith shall never rot These are they who have their faces covered lest they should have respect unto the person as godlinesse is their gaine and the preservation of a good conscience their principall ayme so if there were neither reward here nor elsewhere for such as executed justice and judgement yet for conscience sake and a sincere love they bore to truth would they continue in their zealous care to the profession and protection thereof These are not of that Leaven who turne Iudgement to worme-wood and leave off righteousnesse in the earth For such in stead of judgement and equitie execute crueltie and oppression These are not of that sort who preferre the purple before the person the person before the cause never examining the cause how good it is but observing the man how great he is No their counsells and consultations tend to the publike peace and the redresse of such enormities as arise from vicious humours breeding and spreading in the State Now what imployment more fitting or accommodate for a Gentleman of what degree soever than this which inables him in affaires tending as well to himselfe in particular as the Sterne of the State publike in generall Would you see errours and abuses in the State redressed You are seated where by your owne authoritie you may have them reformed Would you have Officers execute their places under you honestly being from corruption freed Your Prince by especiall notice taken of you hath so advanced you that you may see all Offices under you duely executed and where default shall be have them punished Would you further the poore mans cause and see his wrongs releeved It is in your hand to effect that which you have desired Would you purge your Countrey of such superfluous humours as from long peace and too much prosperitie have oft-times issued You are those Physitians who may lance and cure those broad-spreading sores with which the State hath beene so distempered Would you curbe factions and contentious members who like Samsons fire-brands tyed to Foxes tailes kindle the fire of all division and labour to have them extinguished You have authoritie to see such censured that publike peace as becommeth a civill State might bee maintained Now there are two extremes which like two dangerous rocks are carefully to bee avoided lest the precious freight of Iustice might thereby hee enndagered The one is rigour the other indulgence I approve therefore of his opinion who would have intus mel foris oleum as well cordialls as corrasives for as some men and those of the basest and servilest condition are onely to be deterred from doing evill by the censure or penalty of
spirit those incessant labours and watchings which the faithfull so willingly undergo if there were no happinesse save onely in enjoying the delights of this life the fruition whereof as they tender no true sweetnesse so are they ever attended by sharpe repentance For howbeit every one be reputed worthy if he be wealthy and nought if he be needy yet when Sinne having three punishments Feare Shame and Guilt Feare of judgement Shame of men and Guilt of conscience shall convent and convict him he shall finde that riches cannot deliver in the day of wrath So as howsoever the sin seeme sweet the sting of sin shall wound his heart For the bread of deceit is sweet to a man but his mouth shall be filled with gravell Likewise the High-minded man whose heart hath beene only set on Titles of Honour howsoever he seem'd raised or reared above the pitch of common earth disdaining these poore wormelings who had the selfe-same Maker though inferiour to this high Cedar in honour when he shall be forced to call Corruption his mother and wormes his brethren and sisters when hee must leave that high Babel which his pride erected those worldly swelling Tumours his slippery honours which hee once enjoyed those Sycophants the followers of greatnesse which he so much affected yea the world it selfe where all his imaginary glory was stored he shall then finde goodnesse to be farre better than greatnesse and worldly dignitie to adde fuell to those Violls which he hath worthily incured Likewise the Voluptuous man as hee hath enjoyed the pleasures of sinne for a season sported him in his beds of Ivory feasted royally fated deliciously and fed all his miserable senses with a loathed satiety he shall feele that the pleasure of sinne was finall but the punishment due to sinne eternall he shall feele a worme ever gnawing never ending fiery teares ever streaming never stinting griefe ever griping never ceasing death ever living never dying yea that worme which gnaweth and dieth not that fire which burneth and quencheth not that death which rageth and endeth not But if punishments will not deterre us at least leâ— rewards allure us The faithfull cry ever for the approach of Gods judgement the reward of immortality which with assurance in Gods mercies and his Sonnes Passion they undoubtedly hope to obtaine with vehemencie of spirit inviting their Mediatour Come Lord Iesus come quickly Such is the confidence or spirituall assurance which every faithfull soule hath in him to whose expresse Image as they were formed so in all obedience are they conformed that the promises of the Gospell might be on them conferred and confirmed Such as these care not so much â—or possessing ought in the world as they take care to lay a good foundation against the day of triall which may stand firme against the fury of all temptation These see nothing in the world worthy their feare This only say they is a fearfull thing to feare any thing more than God These see nought in the world worthy either their desire or feare and their reason is this There is nothing able to move that man to fear in all the world who hath God for his guardian in the world Neither is it possible that he should feare the losse of anything in the world who cannot see any thing worthy having in the world So equally affected are these towards the world as there is nothing in all the world that may any way divide their affection from him who made the world Therefore may we well conclude touching these that their Light shall never goe out For these walke not in darknesse nor in the shadow of death as those to whom the light hath not as yet appeared for the Light hath appeared in Darknesse giving light all the night long to all these faithfull beleevers during their abode in these Houses of Clay Now to expresse the Nature of that Light though it farre exceed all humane apprehension much more all expression Clemens understandeth by that Light which the Wise-woman to wit Christs Spouse kept by meanes of her candle which gave light all the night long the heart and he calleth the Meditations of holy men Candles that never goe out Saint Augustine writeth among the Pagans in the Temple of Venus there was a Candle which was called Inextinguishable whether this be or no of Venus Temple wee leave it to the credit of antiquity only Augustines report we have for it but without doubt in every faithfull hearer and keeper of the Word who is the Temple of the Holy Ghost there is a Candle or Light that never goes out Whence it appeares that the Heart of every faithfull soule is that Light which ever shineth and his faith that virgin Oile which ever feedeth and his Conscience that comfortable Witnesse which assureth and his devoted Zeale to Gods house that Seale which confirmeth him to be one of Gods chosen because a living faith worketh in him which assures him of life howsoever his outward man the temple of his body become subject to death Excellently saith Saint Augustine Whence comes it that the soule dieth because faith is not in it Whence that the bodie dieth because a soule is not in it Therefore the soule of thy soule is faith But forasmuch as nothing is so carefully to bee sought for nor so earnestly to bee wrought for as purity or uprightnesse of the heart for seeing there is no action no studie which hath not his certaine scope end or period yea no Art but laboureth by some certaine meanes or exercises to attaine some certaine proposed end which end surely is to the Soule at first proposed but the last which is obtained how much more ought there to be some end proposed to our studies as well in the exercises of our bodies as in the readings meditations and mortifications of our mindes passing over corporall and externall labours for which end those studies or exercises were at first undertaken For let us thinke with our selves if we knew not or in mind before conceived not whither or to what especiall place we were to run were it not a vaine taske for us undertake to run Even so to every action are wee to propose his certaine end which being once attained wee shall need no further striving towards it being at rest in our selves by attaining it And like end are wee to propose to our selves in the exercise of Moderation making it a subduer of all things which fight against the spirit which may be properly reduced to the practising of these foure overcomming of anger by the spirit of patience wantonnesse by the spirit of continence pride by the spirit of humilitie and in all things unto him whose image wee partake so neerely conformed that like good Proficients wee may truly say with the blessed Apostle Wee have in all things learned to be contented For the first to wit Anger as there is no