lovely and so powerful over hearts when they have seen the sweetnesses of humility joyned to the force of their wit and mingled with the splendor of their triumphs and glorious actions When you are in Companies where 't is rare to find a man who knows himself and speaks modestly and humbly be ye humble but take heed that you are not so by affectation and vanity Do not boast nor blame your self observe the Laws of Wisdom say not of your self neither good nor evil Do not you consider your self as a more imperfect man then others but as a Nothing of which there is nothing to say and of which you must never talk Do not ask one to slander you have only a care of being offended when one does and endeavor to be humble enough to desire one should do it Praise not those who ought to be blamed content your self to condemn no body When you meet scandalous persons instead of contemning them learn from them how much you ought to be slighted your self and look on them as a mirrour which discover to you an important truth The shadow which you see at your feet whilst the Sun casts its eyes on you and enlightens you what is it other then a figure which represents your body such as it is at night black and dark and such as it should always have been if this Star had never appeared The miserable wretches that you find in this World whilst that God sheds on you his blessings and that he heaps on you happiness and wealth What are they but an hideous picture where you are represented such as you would be if it pleased Divine Providence to abandon you Say then you who are rich and happy and who want nothing when you see on the straw a Begger cover'd with sores and diseases dying of hunger and cold say Behold my shadow there is what I should be had it not been for the particular goodness and care which God hath had of me You who are wise and devout when you hear the scandalous life of an infamous sinner spoken off say likewise There is my shadow 't is this that I should have been and this that I should be from this day if my Sun withdrew its Light and if his Grace forsook me It is true that the life of this Person is scandalous and horrible but it is your Image Humble your selves and adore the mercy of God who hath done great things in you X. MAXIM There shall no evil happen to the just Prov. 12 PARAPHRASE THe just and devout man enjoys always inward rest There shall be no accident which hinders him from keeping himself in his duty and order or excites him to disorderly motions Fear and sadness are storms which mount not to the region where he is elevated by grace The noises shall Eccho thither but Peace shall never leave him and whilst his Soul shall be peaceful in matters little to him that his fortune were troubled or his affairs disordered REFLECTION Accustom your self to look on all that happens without astonishment and without fear When affliction happens fret not against God and quit not your design of being eternally faithful to him Bear chastisement with respect and humility and let not your courage and your vertue abate under the pain Remember that God chastiseth those that are dear to him as a Father never finds a Son more lovely then when he receives correction humbly and respectfully So likewise doth man never please his Creator more then when he is humble obedient and faithful in adversity There is no Man that endures not No true Christian that endures not with patience No true Saint that endures not with pleasure The beginning of holiness is to be calm and modest under the hand of God when he afflicts us The perfection of it is to be happy thereby and to feel what the Apostles tyed Ibant gaudentes à conspectu Concilis quod digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati when that going from before their Judges charged with outrages and affronts they gloried therein holily and marched through the streets as in triumph amongst the reproaches of Christ There is without doubt the highest Estate of spiritual life and I can say which the holy Fathers that it is to see that which is the most admirable to behold in the new and powerful grace of the incarnate word To see a man who in the midst of poverty and the ruines of his house enjoy in his Soul an heavenly rest and hath no other complaints to make to those that visit him nor to the Angels who contemplate him but those of St. Paul when he suffered superabundo gaudio joy overwhelms me it surpasseth my peins and my strength Other Saints have had no other thoughts they have always spoken of the times of affliction as of the most happy and most desireable It is by afflictions that on Earth we resemble our Crucified Saviour that we equal the Martyrs in Heaven that we surpass the Angels in death To die and to suffer are the consummation of Divine charity and this was the highest sublimity of the glory of the Word made man when he finished love on the Cross amongst the pains of death that he cried out consummatum est The Angels cannot arrive at this good fortune your devout Soul may Aspire thereto whilst you are mortal and capable of suffering It is not enough to imitate the Angels and to love Do that which to them is unimitable love in suffering and dying At least maintain your selves in this Condition by patience That whilst sickness and poverty or other miseries over whelm you let not your heart sink under its pressures and suffer not that the disturbances and persecutions in the World should shake you and bereave you of any of your inward repose Above all have a particular care of not letting your self be troubled by those pains Non contristabit justum quid ei acciderit who have their first rise within our selves and who are born of our corruptions as are melanchollies and scrupulous fears and the other torments of a weak and a fearful imagination The most part of these hidden miseries within us and incurable by humane industry are no other thing then an inward night of thick clouds where the Devil forms Spectres and Visions to affright us Be not amused nor so much alarm'd as to dispute or fight with these chimerical monsters Wait only in patience the coming of the morning which destroy them all without noise and make known the mistake of your fear and disquiets I speak of the Wisdom of God which after these sorts of obscurities he implants in holy Souls Wisdom is the first Ray of the light of Glory and the true dawning of the day of Eternity It is this Aurora that disperseth all the dreams Doctrinam quasi ante lucernam omnibus illumino Eccl. 24. fancies and ignorances in the Imagination of Man who
of innocence the passions raised not themselves but by the orders of reason In the state of wisdome and of Christian holyness the same passions rayse not themselves but under reason but in a state of licentiousness they raise themselves above it These tempestuous darknesses cover the whole man and spread trouble and obscurity even to the highest region The passions are strong so are you much stronger then they I can say at least of the wise man of all great men that they have in their persons three powerfull helps against these domestic enemies three benefits of the Orator Sanctified by Grace Good nature Courage and wisdome III. MAXIM I had a good spirit came into a body undefiled Wisd 8. PARAPHRASE I have found in me saith Solomon from my youth all the bounties of an excellent nature They are not the fruits of my pains nor the gifts of fortune God who governs the accidents of our birth and life hath given them me t is the work of his hands and a present of his love more ancient then my selfe REFLECTION AN excellent and fine nature is no other thing Sortitus sum animam bonam veni ad corpus coinquinatum then the excellency and the beauty of a noble soul communicated to the Passions As souls of that rank possess their nobility and greatness from the birth when they enter into the body they have the power to help nature to compose their temperaments and these are they Tabernarulum pro habitu suo fingunt who by the impression of their force and sweetness do form the imagination give the Character to the organs They shed out of themselves their qualities and all they can of their divine fire and heavenly inclinations to mingle it among the bloud and the corrupted passions and by this happy medley they weaken the poyson of the corruption and the mortal violence of the malady that it finds there These pure starrs have influences which insinuate themselves secretly among the flames of lust and there tempers that which is most burning in their fury and most unruly in their motions One sees in many persons a moderation and a purity which makes one think that there remaines not any spot of the sin of Adam in them There appears nothing but what is handsom in their passions nor any thing which seems not to agree with the spirit and to have spiritual inclinations That comes here from that this spirit sublime by priviledge common to all perfect Beings hath a secret power of which that of the Loadstone is a shaddow to draw from the earth all that it toucheth and to draw it unto its Pole The passions touched by the vertue of a noble soul turn themselves towards Heaven and aspire not but to laudable and honest ends Vir sapiens fortis est The spirit of Man is wise and strong because that there is nothing in his person which opposeth it self unto its elevation and which refuseth to follow them IV. MAXIM He that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a City Prov. 16. PARAPHRASE COurage and the love of true honour is enough to render a man Master of his lusts and desires Courage contains two vertues force and patience And these are as the two parts which compose it and distinguisheth it from the other perfections of our nature By force we resist Men and our enemies that are strangers by patience our passions and domestick enemies Conquerors of Men are admired and crowned upon earth Conquerors of themselves Violenti capiunt illud are so in Heaven and it is for them that all the triumphs and immortal Crowns are there prepared The vigour of those is worth much and it deserves the reputation that it hath in the World The Patience of these although the World prize it less is much more worth it is the most necessary and ought to be most honoured The one and the other have been always put in the first rank of the moral vertues and they are those that have given the name of Great to the Constantines and the Charlemains and which have made the Heroes of old adored But if you cannot aspire but to one of the two chuse that which wise Men have preferred and mark that amongst your Maxims the words that one has seen written upon some Princes Standards and that all great Souls find graven in themselves as a device of natures chusing Melior est patiens viro forti qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium REFLECTION ONe demands what this Courage is Every body answers It is easy to deceive ones self therein and to take appearance for truth Many do ill to put it in the number of feavers and the heats of their corrupted nature and to believe that it is no other thing then an inflammation of choler which unexpectedly kindles it selfe at the meeting of some object of Anger and which heating the imagination and troubling the humours of the body pusheth the man inconsiderately into dangers Courage is not of the number of the passions it is their Master nature keeps it in the middle of them not as a Criminal amongst its Accomplices but a Conquerour amongst his Slaves to keep them in duty and subject them to labour Their fires are different from his but they are fit to serve him Some perfwade themselves that this which we call true Courage is a Military Angel who during combats enters into the soules of the Heroes and there produceth the Marvels that we admire Others That t is only the inspiration or the breath of this Angel which pusheth on the hearts of souldiers and gives motion to armies The most wise have very wisely said that it is a spiritual flame kindled by the Creator in the highest part of our Soul as a starr in the highest part of the Firmament A peaceful and regular flame sublime incorruptible ardent pure and fruitfull alwayes fastned to Heaven and busy on earth by an inexhaustible emanation of influences necessary for the conservation of the repose and life of the people But whatsoever Courage may be do not you believe that to be couragious you are obliged to take arms and go seek enemies in far Countreys Abide where you are and make warr against your passions you shal do saith Solomon more than those who wear the sword When that you pardon injuries and by a generous patience you suffer slanders and calumnies you are better then the souldier that revengeth them And it is more honourable to you to stop in you any transport of anger or to repell in you any thoughts which flatter you and draw you to sin then to destroy an Army and to take Cities Your greatness and your glory is not to abase others before you but to be great in your selfe and to have above those an elevation independent on their fall or misery When you overcome your irregular impatience and you resist
the motions that carry you to loose actions that are prohibited by duty you make your merit and your vertue to be believed when you overcome strange enemies it encreaseth nothing that is in you The defeat of an Army lessens the number of men but it adds not a jot to your stature nor one degree of perfection to your spirit In one word prize patience I do not say contemn vigour Although 't is not be valued as this victorious patience I confess 't is worth much and deserves the admiration that all ages have had for it But further that the one and the other to be perfect ought not to be seperated because they are the two parts of courage the two halfs of one and the same whole that seperation will necessarily weaken and obscure There is no courage nor nobleness nor supream grandour in a Soul where these two vertues are not together 't is only by their union that they have the power to carry men to the most eminent degree of heroic Glory and to give to their actions this Divine lustre which dazles the eyes of the World and which obliges fame to speak of them to all Nations and in all ages It is true that it is an illustrious thing and very justly to be applauded and admired by the people to see what courage doth in a Prince when that during a battel push'd on by this coelestial fire He passeth unhurt through all the furies of death and runs upon an Army overthrown after victory which calls and leads him In like manner it is true That there is another spectacle yet more rare and more worthy of public admiration to see a Prince when in the midst of triumphs and success and amongst the most glorious felicities of humane life he can contemn what he possesseth and that he visibly declares by his modesty and by the fidelity of his Conduct that he had rather lose all that and lose Empires and Worlds too if he had them then to commit an action of injustice But to see these two marvels united and tyed to each other in one and the same Conqueror To overcome the enemies of the State and to overcome himself to encrease in Wisdom and moderation by Combats to encrease in goodness by victories to take Towns and gain Hearts to be the most beloved and most dreadful of men without doubt is the most ravishing sight under Heaven I do not know whether the Ancients have seen it with their eyes or if posterity shall see it in our Annals All the sentiments of this true Courage are heaped together in these two words Rather to dye then to fear Men and to fly before an Army and rather to dye then not to fly at the sight of dangers which threaten the Conscience and preferring the interests of self love or a loose passion before the duties of fidelity If you are not of the condition nor the humour to say the former or if your particular profession subject you to the Laws of the Gospel oblige you to pardon all injuries comfort your self in remembring That it is a Prince more valiant then the Caesars and more enlightned from God then the Prophets who assures me Melior est patiens viro forti qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium V. MAXIM A breath of the Power of God a pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty the brightness of the everlasting Light the unspotted mirrour of the Power of God Wisd 7. PARAPHRASE AMongst the perfections of God that which renders a Man eternally at peace in himself is Wisdom It is from thence that he draws the third remedy that he presents us against the troubles and disorders which we carry within us and who are born of our own infirmity This supernatural Wisdom is a vapour of its vertue communicated to the Passions of the Man and shed even into the midst of their corruptions and tumults to cause there peace and holiness The peace of the Saints enters into us with Wisdom and the design of God is That there remaining in our Soul no more of any motion or spot it becomes a mirrour where he can contemplate his Divine beauty without and there know himself as he knows himself eternally in his word Speculum Majestatis Dei REFLECTION GOod nature weakens the Passions Inclinavi cor meum ad faciendas justificationes tuas Courage daunts them Wisdom elevates them And by a miraculous transformation it changeth them into vertues and sanctifies what they have criminal and most contrary to grace in putting them sweetly under obedience I will tell you Cor meum caro mea exultaverunt in Deum that when the Law declares to us the Will of the Creator and that it obligeth constrains us to obey them Wisdom adds the inclination to this obligation and that it produceth in our hearts certain delicious motions which act us and make our very passions leap for joy to aspire with us to the happiness of doeing what God will and to be employd to serve and honour him In one word the Law obligeth us Grace helps us and wisdom inclines us to observe divine commandments As soone as Man inlightned Justiciae Domini laetificant Corda by the rayes of this Aurora he finds his repose its joy in the excercises of righteousness Whatsoever it bee that one proposeth to him Justificatione tua exultatio cordis mei as soon as its just that he may doe it he is inclined to doe it as soone as reason commands he obeys by love duty is his pleasure obedience is his liberty fidelity is his humour His soul willeth what is good without deliberating it undertakes it without combating against it selfe and haveing no difference or affaires with any of his passions These domestic enemies are no more what they were wisdom transforms the whole man This wise soul frames great designs and it pursues them it aspires to honour immortal and thither it runnes without stirring it selfe it walks not it s carried and they are those heats of bloud flames of ambitious lust heretofore so turbulent and rebellious who serve him as slaves and carry it in this triumph Triumph where one sees what did appeare most divine among the works of the power of God the day that he created the world A Man within whom all the man conspires to love duty and vertue God gives wisdome freely to some and he would that others should obtain it by prayer One of the surest meanes to invite it is to hearken to the counsels of this same wisdom even this is to be already very wise to begin to follow them and to governe a mans selfe according to its instructions and maxims VI. MAXIM Envy and wrath shorten the life and carefulness bringeth age before the time Eccles 30. PARAPHRASE IF you will serve God worthily conserve your devotion and innocence untill death doe what wise men have done to keep their health possess an
of honour feel viz. That the cruelest affliction and most difficult to bear is to be intolerable to others Spiritum ad irascendum facilem quis poterit sustinere IX MAXIM Seek not of the Lord preheminence neither of the King the seat of honour Eccles 7. PARAPHRASE GIve ambition no power over your heart nor permit that this wind drive you and make you run after smoak and vanity nay not after charges truly honourable When the Glory of this World presents it self to you and that it is providence which sends it receive it but if one speak to you to go before it and prevent it by gifts and solicitations excuse your self and give this humble and generous answer That the least charge when they are offer'd with love are worthy to be received and that they ought to be but the greatest are too mean to be sought after Answer also That in regard of honours 'T is to cease from deserving when one asks what he deservs REFLECTION Ambition becomes a wise Man Indecens est stulto gloria Prov. 26. and so doth Honour a Fool. If you are a Man of evil example and if there be disorder and scandal in your Conduct fly from honour and hide your self And if perhaps the Prince obligeth you to ask any favour do not pray him as a famous Fool did heretofore to withdraw his face from before your Sun Pray him to leave you in your darkness Look on the employs that they offer you and of which your friends speak or those that pride desires as your confusion and unhappiness since that you cannot bear under them by understanding or by vertue There is nothing more ugly Indecens stulto c. nor shameful to our spirit then glory when it possesseth it without grace or desert When we are truly contemptible all humane dignities and greatness increaseth nothing in us but our reproach Our stature becomes no finer nor higher on a Theatre but our lowness of body would better be seen Crowns and Mitres do not raise us we bear up them and we shall be always little with them if we are not great personages without them You vex your self when others honour you to divert themselves and to laugh at you but you do ill if you vex not more when they do it sincerely and with affection Honour seriously paid to a person unworthy of it is no less a ground of anger then honour given by mockers In fine suffer not that one raise you on high least those who shall see you in a chair of honour boast To have seen aswell as Solomon the most horrible thing to see under the Sun Malum quod vidi sub sole positum stultum in dignitate sublimi X. MAXIM Give not sadness to thy Soul nor afflict thy self in thy Council PARAPHRASE DO not load your selfe with cares nor wearisomenesses banish sadness from your heart Sadness kills many a man and it serves for nothing but to give strength to the little pains of this life and to change the shaddows and apparences of evils into real and immortal ones REFLECTION WHen there happens an unhappy occurrence consult your reason and deliberate with it but without earnestness or trouble Let your thoughts enlighten you but not consume you Let business employ you but not afflict you nor ever disquiet you business is given as the employment of the mind not as the punishment thereof In manageing your designs regard with patience the failings which happen on your part or the part of fortune and believe that to learne by ten faults to do one action well and happily to frame one undertaking is to be wise able enough Despair not by such misfortunes profit by them To raise your thoughts some times to God to be familiar with him by perpetual entertainments of a respectful considence is an excellent remedy so exempt you from disquiet during the administration of your charge and to keep your passions in their obedience and order Although hee knows all that you know of your affaires or that regard them and although he sees better then you doe the pains and difficulties that trouble you and render you irresolute he is pleased to learn them from your selfe These are the secrets of your heart that you owe to his love come tell him confidently draw near to him without fear and remember that in your Cabinet and in the places where you are alone with him his only care is to think only of you and that all the application of his providence and goodness regards your particular needs He is not there but to comfort you and to learne what condition the affaires of your house or your office or your conscience are in Tell him then freely with sincerity what you know thereof discover your heart to him and make seen to him all the bitterness and disquiet that is therein with all the motions of your thoughts agitated by fear or sadness Vide Domine quoniam tribulor Behold mee my God lost and swallowed up in a Sea of grief Thou seest my pain thou lovest me thou hearest my groans and I see my remedy on thy lips speake and comfort mee at least refuse not to look on mee and to let that power goe forth from thine eyes which draws back the afflicted from the grave and gives strength and life He is not angry but during your displeasures you address your selfe to creatures to be eased by them but when they have not the power or the will to help you it pleaseth him that you come and testify to him your sentiments there on and to complain between his arms of their impotence and ingratitude Verbosi amici mei .. My friends have nothing but words It is to thee Divine Saviour that I am about to recount my afflictions and address my teares Ad Deum stillat oculus meus His goodness inclines him to grant all desireable consolations but would if I might so say be forced by prayers and remonstrances that suffer him not to refuse XI MAXIM Turn away thine eye from the beautifull woman Eccles 9. PARAPHRASE DO not let love enter into your Soul nor into your eyes Turn away your light from a Woman that would please and look not on a beauty that comes to blind you and take away the hopes of ever seeing the infinite and soveraign beauty REFLECTION THere is nothing more dreadful then the sweetness and tendernesses of a malicious Woman Fear her approaches and civilities Custodi te à muliere blanda à lingua extranea ne capiaris nutibus illius Fear her voice her eies her hands she hath nothing sweet and lovely which may not be mortal to you Her instinct can make darts and arms of all that is in her That which is nothing elsewhere is in her a dangerous power there needs but a twinkling of an eye to beat you down and but a hair to drag you along Flight it self stands you not in much stead