this yet is the afflicted soule to bee content abiding Gods good leisure who as hee doth wound so he can cure and as hee opened old Tobiths eyes so can he when he pleaseth where he pleaseth and as hee pleaseth open the bleered eyes of understanding so with a patient expectance of Gods mercy and Christian resolution to endure all assaults with constancie as he recommendeth himselfe to God so shall he finde comfort in him in whom he hath trusted and receive understanding more cleare and perfect than before he enjoyed Or admit one should have his memorative part so much infeebled as with Corvinus Messala he should forget his owne name yet the Lord who numbreth the starres and knoweth them all by their names will not forget him though he hath forgot himselfe having him as a Signâ—t upon his finger ever in his remembrance For what shall it availe if thou have memory beyond Cyrus who could call every souldier in his army by his name when it shall appeare thou hast forgot thy selfe and exercised that facultie rather in remembring injuries than recalling to minde those insupportable injuries which thou hast done unto God Nay more of all faculties in man Memory is the weakest first waxeth old and decayes sooner than strength or beauty And what shall it profit thee once to have excelled in that facultie when the privation thereof addes to thy misery Nothing nothing wherefore as every good and perfect gift commeth from above where there is neither change nor shadow of change so as God taketh away nothing but what he hath given let every one in the losse of this or that facultie referre himselfe with patience to his sacred Majestie who in his change from earth will crowne him with mercy Secondly for the goods or blessings of the Body as strength beauty agilitie c. admit thou wert blinde with Appius lame with Agesilaus tongue-tied with Samius dwarfish with Ivius deformed with Thersites though blinde thou hast eyes to looke with and that upward though lame thou hast legges to walke with and that homeward though tongue-tied thou hast a tongue to speake and that to GOD-ward though dwarfish thou hast a proportion given thee ayming heaven-ward though deformed thou hast a glorious feature and not bruitish to looke-downward For not so much by the motion of the body and her outwardly working faculties as by the devotion of the heart and those inwardly moving graces are wee to come to GOD. Againe admit thou wert so mortally sicke as even now drawing neere shore there were no remedy but thou must of necessity bid a long adieu to thy friends thy honours riches and whatsoever else are deare or neere unto thee yet for all this why shouldest thou remaine discontented Art thou here as a Countryman or a Pilgrim No Countryman sure for then shouldest thou make earth thy Country and inhabit here as an abiding city And if a Pilgrim who would grieve to bee going homeward There is no life but by death no habitation but by dissolution He then that feareth death feareth him that bringeth glad tidings of life Therefore to esteeme life above the price or feare death beyond the rate are alike evill for he that values life to be of more esteeme than a pilgrimage is in danger of making shipwracke of the hope of a better inheritance and he that feareth death as his profest enemy may thanke none for his feare but his securitie Certainly there is no greater argument of folly than to shew immoderate sorrow either for thy own death or death of another for it is no wisedome to grieve for that which thou canst not possibly prevent but to labour in time rather to prevent what may give the occasion to grieve For say is thy friend dead I confesse it were a great losse if hee were lost but lost hee is not though thou bee left gone hee is before thee not gone from thee divided onely not exiled from thee A Princesse wee had of sacred memory who looking one day from her Palace might see one shew immoderate signes or appearances of sorrow so as shee moved with princely compassion sent downe presently one of her Pensioners to inquire who it was that so much sorrowed and withall to minister him all meanes of comfort who finding this sorrowfull mournes to bee a Counsellor of State who sorrowed for the 〈◊〉 of his daughter returned directly to his Soveraigne and acquainted her therewith O quoth she who would thinks thaâ— a wise man and a Counsellor of our State could so forget himselfe as to shew himselfe 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 of his childs And surely whosoever shall but duly conâ—ider mans 〈◊〉 with deathe necessity cannot chuse but wonder why any one should bee so wholly destitute of understanding to lament the death of any one since to die is as necessary and common as to be borne to every one But perchance it may bee by some objected that the departure of their friend is not so much lamented for that is of necessity and therefore exacts no teares of sorrow being if spent as fruitlesse as the doome reverselesse but their sudden and inopinate departure Whereto I answer that no death is sudden to him that dies well for sudden death hath properly a respect rather to the life how it was passed or disposed than to death how short his summons were or how quickly closed Io. Mathes preaching upon the raising up of the womans sonne of Naim by Christ within three houres afterward died himselfe The like is written of Luther and many others As one was choaked with a flie another with a haire a third pushing his foot against the tressal another against the threshold falls downe dead So many kinde of wayes are chalked out for man to draw towards his last home and weane him from the love of the earth Those whom God loves said Menander the young yea those whom hee esteemeth highest hee takes from hence the soonest And that for two causes the one is to free them the sooner from the wretchednesse of earth the other to crowne them the sooner with happinesse in Heaven For what gaine wee by a long life or what profit reape wee by a tedious Pilgrimage but that wee partly see partly suffer partly commit more evils Priamus saw more dayes and shed more teares than Troilus Let us hence then learne so to measure our sorrow for ought that may or shall befall us in respect of the bodie that after her returne to earth it may bee gloriously re-united to the soule to make an absolute Consort in Heaven Thirdly and lastly for the goods or blessings of Fortune they are not to command us but to bee commanded by us not to be served by us but to serve us And because hee onely in the affaires of this life is the wealthiest who in the desires of this life is the neediest and he the richest on earth who sees little worth desiring on earth we
the strength of man See the picture of an Ambitious spirit loving ever to be interessed in affaires of greatest difficultie Caemelion-like on subtill ayre he feeds And vies in colours with the checkerd meeds Let no such conceits transport you lest repentance finde you It is safer chusing the Middle-path than by walking or tracing uncouth wayes to stray in your journey More have fallen by presumption than distrust of their owne strength And reason good for such who dare not relie on themselves give way to others direction whereas too much confidence or selfe-opinionate boldnesse will rather chuse to erre and consequently to fall than submit themselves to others judgement Of this opinion seemed Velleius the Epicurean to bee of whom it is said that in confidence of himselfe he was so farre from feare as hee seemed not to doubt of any thing A modest or shamefast feare becomes Youth better which indeed ever attends the best or affablest natures Such will attempt nothing without advice nor assay ought without direction so as their wayes are secured from many perills which attend on inconsiderate Youth My conclusion of this point shal be in a word that neither the rich man is to glory in his riches the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength for should man consider the weaknesse and many infirmities whereto he is hourely subject hee would finde innumerable things to move him to sorrowing but few or none to glory in Againe if he should reflect to the consideration of his Dissolution which that it shall bee is most certain but when it shall be most uncertaine he would be forced to stand upon his guard with that continuall feare as there would be no emptie place left in him for pride This day one proud as prouder none May lye in earth ere day be gone What confidence is there to be reposed in so weake a foundation where to remaine ever is impossible but quickly to remove most probable Then to use Petrarchs words be not afraid though the house the Bodie be shaken so the Soule the guest of the Body fare well for weakning of the one addeth for most part strength to the other And so I come to the last passion or perturbation incident to Youth REvenge is an intended resolve arising from a conceived distaste either justly or unjustly grounded This Revenge is ever violent'st in hot blouds who stand so much upon termes of reputation as rather than they will pocket up the least indignitie they willingly oppose themselves to extremest hazard Now this unbounded fury may seeme to have a two-fold relation either as it is proper and personall or popular and impersonall Revenge proper or personall ariseth from a peculiar distaste or offence done or offered to our own person which indeed hath ever the deepest impression Which may be instanced in Menelaus and Paris where the honour of a Nuptiall bed the Law of Hospitalitie the prosessed league of Amitie were joyntly infringed Or in Antonie and Octavius whose intestine hate grew to that height as Antonies Angell was afraid of Octavius Angell Which hatred as it was fed and increased by Fulvia so was it allayed and tempered by Octavia though in the end it grew irreconciliable ending in bloud as it begun with lust Revenge popular or impersonall proceedeth extrinsecally as from factions in families or some ancient grudge hereditarily descending betwixt House and House or Nation and Nation When Annibal was a childe and at his fathers commandement he was brought into the place where he made sacrifice and laying his hand upon the Altar swore that so soone as he had any rule in the Common-wealth he would bee a prosessed enemie to the Romans Whence may be observed how the conceit of an injury or offence received worketh such impression in that State or Kingdome where the injury is offered as Hate lives and survives the life of many ages crying out with those incensed Greekes The time will come when mightie Troy must fall Where Priams race must be extinguish'd all But wee are principally to discourse of the former Branch to wit of proper or personall Revenge wherein wee shall observe sundry Occurrents right worthy our serious consideration That terme as I said before usually called Reputation hath brought much generous bloud to effusion especially amongst such Qui magis sunt soliciti vani nominis quà m propriae salutis Prizing vain-glory above safetie esteeme of valour above securitie of person And amongst these may I truly ranke our Martial Duellists who many times upon a Taverne quarrell are brought to shed their dearest bloud which might have beene imployed better in defence of their Countrey or resistance of proud Infidels And what is it which moves them to these extremes but as they seeme to pretend their Reputation is engaged their opinion in the eye of the world called in question if they should sit downe with such apparent disgrace But shall I answer them The opinion of their valour indeed is brought in question but by whom not by men of equall temper or maturer judgement who measure their censures not by the Last of rash opinion but just consideration For these cannot imagine how Reputation should be brought in question by any indiscreet crime uttered over a pot whereof perchance the Speaker is ignorant at least what it meant But of these distempered Roisters whose only judgement consists in taking offence and valour in making a flourish of these I have seene One in the folly of my Youth but could not rightly observe till my riper age whose braving condition having some young Gooselin to worke on would have made you confident of his valour instancing what dangerous exploits hee had attempted and atchieved what single fields hee had pitched and how bravely he came off yet on my conscience the Battell of the Pygâ—â—ies might have equall'd his both for truth and resolution Yet I have noted such as these to be the Bellowes which blow the fire of all uncivill quarrells suggesting to young Gentlemen whose want of experience makes them too credolous matter of Revenge by aggravating each circumstance to enrage their hot bloud the more Some others there are of this band which I have like wise observed and they are taken for grave Censors or Moderators if any difference occurre amongst Young Gentlemen And these have beene Men in their time at least accounted so but now their fortunes falling to an ebbe having drawne out their time in expence above their meanes they are enforced and well it were if Misery forced them not to worse to erect a Scence whereto the Roarers make recourse as to their Rendevous And hereto also resorts the raw and unseasoned Youth whose late-fallen patrimonie makes him purchase acquaintance at what rate soever glorying much to be esteemed one of the fraternity And he must now keep his Quarter maintaine his prodigall rout with what his Parcimonious father long carked for
never utterly failed or beene taken from us This the holy Fathers of the Church which have lived in the ages next ensuing doe declare Tertullian who lived Anno 200. writeth thus All the coasts of Spaine and divers parts of France and many places of Britaine which the Romans could never subdue with their sword Christ hath subdued with his word Origen who lived Anno 260. writeth thus Did the I le of Britaine before the comming of Christ ever acknowledge the faith of one God No but yet now all that Countrey singeth joyfully unto the Lord. Constantine the Great the glory of all the Emperours borne here in England and of English bloud who lived Anno 306. writeth in an Epistle thus Whatsoever custome is of force in all the Churches of Egypt Spaine France and Britaine looke that the same bee likewise ratified among you Saint Chrysostome who lived An. 405. writeth thus In all places wheresoever you goe into any Church whether it bee of the Moores or of the Persians or even of the very Iles of Britaine you may heare Iohn Baptist preaching Saint Ierome who lived Anno 420. writeth thus The French-men the English-men they of Africa they of Persia and all barbarous Nations worship one Christ and observe one rule of religion Theodoret who lived Anno 450. writeth thus The blessed Apostles have induced English-men the Danes the Saxons in one word all people and countries to embrace the doctrine of Christ. Gregory the Great who lived Anno 605. writeth thus Who can sufficiently expresse how glad all the faithfull are for that the English-men have forsaken the darkenesse of their errours and have againe received the light of the Gospel Beda who lived Anno 730. writeth thus England at this present is inhabited by English-men Britaines Scots Picts and Romans all which though they speake severall tongues yet they professe but one faith Thus you see how the Gospel of Christ having beene first planted in this Land by Iosâ—ph of Arimathea and Simon Zelotes in whose time Aristobulus and Claudia and not long after King Lucius also lived hath ever since continued amongst us as testifieth Tertullian Origen Constantine the Great Athanasius Chrysostome Ieâ—ome Theodoret Gregory Beda and many more which might here have beene alleaged Now how singular and exquisite a benefit have our Progenitours received by meanes of these faithfull Professours of the Gospel and first Planters of the Christian faith here in this Iland What a miserable famine of the Word had the people of this Land sustained if these faithfull friends and sincere Witnesses of the truth had not loosed from the shore and embarked themselves in danger to deliver them from the danger of soules shipwracke In which danger wee likewise had beene sharers had not this so rich a fraught so inestimable a prize rescued us from danger and directed our feet in the way of peace The story of Theseus includes an excellent Morall whose love to his deare friend Perithous the Poet labouring to expresse shewes how hee went downe to Hell of purpose to deliver his friend from the thraldome of Pluto under whom hee remained captive which without offence or derogation may properly seeme to allude next to that inimitable mirrour of divine amity to these noble and heavenly Warriours who descended as it were even to the jawes of hell encountring with the insolent affronts of many barbarous Assassinates ready to practice all hostility upon them Yet see their undaunted spirits their godly care enflamed with the zeale of devotion and their love to the members of Christ kindled with the coale of brotherly compassion made them as ready to endure as those hellish fiends and furies the enemies of truth were ready to inflict choosing rather to perish in the body then to suffer the poorest soule bought with so high a price to bee deprived of the hope of glory These were good and kind friends being such as would not sticke to lay downe their lives for their friends suffering all things with patience and puissance of mind to free their distressed brethren from the servile yoke of hellish slavery and bring them by meanes of Gods spirit by which they were directed to the knowledge of the all-seeing verity Such as these professe not friendship under pretences or glozing semblances making their heart a stranger to their tongue or walking invisible as if they had found the stone in the Lapwings nest but as they are so they appeare affecting nothing but what is sincerely good â— and by the best approved Their absolute ayme or end of friendship is to improve reprove correct reforme and conforme the whole Image of that man with whom they converse to his similitude whom all men present If at any time they enter into discourse it ever tends to fruitfull instruction if at any time they enter into serious meditation of the world their meditation is not how to purchase estate or fish after honour or build a foundation on oppression to enrich their posterity with the fruits of their injurious dealing No they have the testimony of a good conscience within them which testifies for them should the world and all her Complices bandie against them Wherefore admit they should bee put to all extremities and suffer all the indignities which envie or malice could dart upon them the weight of every injury is to bee measured by the sense or feeling of the sufferer for the apprehension of the Sufferer makes the injury offered great or little if hee conceit it small or no injury howsoever others esteeme it the burden of the wrong is light and therefore more easily sleights it Now Gentlemen wee have traced over the whole progresse of Acquaintance wherein if happely it be thought that we have sojourned too long my answer is That in passages of greatest danger there is required more circumspection then rashly to goe on without due deliberation And what occurrent in all the passage or pilgrimage of man is beset with more danger then the choice of Acquaintance especially to you Gentlemen whose meanes is the Adamant of Acquaintance Wee have therefore insisted the longer upon this Subject that you may be the lesse subject to such who will winde them in with you of purpose to feed and prey on you To cure which maladie no receit more soveraigne then to imprint in your memory that golden rule or princely precept recommended by that pious and puissant Saint Lewis to his sonne Philip in these words Have especiall care that those men whose Acquaintance and familiarity you shall use be honest and sincere whether they be Religious or Secular with whom you may converse friendly and communicate your counsels freely but by all meanes avoide the company of naughty and wicked men whose society ever tends to inordinate respects Take these Cautions therefore as the last but not least worthy your observation Be not too rash in the choice of
wholly ignorant how her selfe was made A Princesse surely for as a Queene in her Throne so is the soule in the body being the life of the body as God is the life of the soule being of such dignity as no good but the Supreme good may suffice it of such liberty as no inferior thing may restraine it How then is the soule of such worthinesse as no exteriour good may suffice it nor no inferiour thing restraine it How comes it then that it stoops to the Lure of vanity as one forgetfull of her owne glory How comes it then to be so fledged in the bird-lime of inferiour delights as nothing tasteth so well to her palate as the delights of earth Surely either she derogates much from what shee is or there is more worthinesse on earth then wee hold there is Having then taken a short view of the dignity or worthinesse of the soule let us reflect a little upon the unworthinesse of Earth and see if wee can find her worthy the entertainment of so glorious a Princesse Earth as it is an heavy element and inclineth naturally downe-ward so it keepes the earthly minded Moule from looking upward There is nothing in it which may satisfie the desire of the outward senses much lesse of the inward For neither is the eye satisfied with seeing bee the object never so pleasing nor the eare with hearing bee the accent never so moving nor the palate with tasting bee the cates never so relishing nor the nose with smâ—lling bee the confection never so perfuming nor the hand with touching bee the Subject never so affecting And for those sugred pils of pleasure though sweet how short are they in continuance and how bitter being ever attended on by repentance And for honours those snow-bals of greatnesse how intricate the wayes by which they are attained and how sandy the foundation whereon they are grounded How unworthy then is Earth to give entertainment to so princely a guest having nothing to bid her welcome withall but the refuse and rubbish of uncleannesse the garnish or varnish of lightnesse For admit this guest were hungry what provision had Earth to feed her with but the Huskes of vanity If thirsty what to refresh her with but with Worme-wood of folly If naked what to cloath her with but the Cover of mortality If imprisoned how to visit her but with Fetters of captivity Or if sicke how to comfort her but with Additions of misery Since then the worthinesse of the soule is such as Earth is too unworthy to entertaine her expedient it were that shee had recourse to him that made her and with all thankfulnesse tender her selfe unto him who so highly graced her Let man therfore in the uprightness of a pure and sincere soule weaned from Earth and by Contemplation already sainted in heaven say What shall I render unto thee O my God for so great benefits of thy mercy What praises or what thanksgiving For if the knowledge and power of the blessed Angels were present with me to assist me yet were I not able to render ought worthy of so great piety and goodnesse as I have received from thee yea surely if all my members were turned into tongues to render due praise unto thee in no case would my smalnesse suffice to praise thee for thy inestimable charity which thou hast shewn to me unworthy one for thy onely love and goodnesse sâ—ke exceedeth all knowledge Neither is it meet that the remembrance of a â—enefit should be limited by day or date but as the benefits wee receive are daily so should our thankefulnesse be expressed daily lest by being unthankefull God take his benefits from us and bestow them on such as will be thankfull And let this suffice for the Contemplative part of Perfection descending briefly to that part which makes the Contemplative truly perfect by Action WE are now to treat of that which is easier to discourse of than to finde for men naturally have a desire to know all things but to doe nothing so easie is the Contemplative in respect of the Active so hard the Practicke in respect of the Speculative How many shall we observe daily propounding sundry excellent Observations divine instructions and Christian-like Conclusions touching contempt of the World wherein this Active Perfection principally consisteth yet how far short come they in their owne example so easie it is to propound matter of instruction to others so hard to exemplifie that instruction in themselves This may be instanced in that Ruler in the Gospel who avouched his integrity and Perfection concluding that he had kept all those Commandements which Christ recounted to him from his youth up yet when Christ said unto him Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me we reade hee was very sorrowfull for he was very rich So miserable and inextricable is the worldlings thraldome when neither the incertainty of this life nor those certaine promises made unto him in hope of a better life can weane him from the blind affection of earth Necessary therfore it is that he who desires to attaine this Active Perfection unto which all good men labour moderate his desires towards such things as he hath not and addresse himselfe to an indifferency of losing those things which hee already hath for he whose desires are extended to more than he enjoyes or who too exceedingly admires what he now enjoyes can never attaine that high degree of Active Perfection The reason is no man whose content is seated on these externall flourishes of vanity can direct his Contemplation or erect the eye of his affection to that eternall Sunne of verity whom to enjoy is to enjoy all true Perfection and of whom to be deprived is to taste the bitterness of deepest affliction Now how are we to enjoy him Not by knowledge only or Contemplation but by seconding or making good our knowledge by Action for we know that there is a Woe denounced on him who knoweth the will of his Father and doth it not when neither his knowledge can plead ignorance nor want of understanding in the Law of God simplicity or blindnesse We are therefore not onely to know but doe know lest ignorance should mis-guide us doe lest our knowledge should accuse us Behovefull therfore were it for us to observe that excellent precept of holy Ierome So live saith he that none may have just cause to speake ill of you Now there is nothing which may procure this good report sooner than labouring to avoid all meanes of scandall as consorting with vitious men whose noted lives bring such in question as accompany them This was the cause as I formerly noted why Saint Iohn would not stay in the Bath with the Hereticke Câ—rinthus O how many and with much griefe I speake it have we knowne in this little Iland well descended with
8. NO Perfection in this life absolute but graduall pag. 209 Two considerations of maine consequence 1 The foe that assaults us 2 The friend that assists us 210 The Christians compleate armour ibid. The first institution of Fasts with the fruit thereof 211 The power of Prayer with examples of such as were most conversant in that holy Exercise ibid. 212 Circumstances observable in workes of charity and devotion ibid. Objections and resolutions upon the ground of Perfection 213. lin 26. c. Of the Contemplative part of Perfection 214 A Corollary betwixt the Heathen and Christian contemplation 215 Examples of a contemplative and râ—tired life 217 A three-fold Meditation of necessary importance 1 Worthinesse of the Soule 2 Vnworthinesse of Earth 3 Thankefulnesse unto God who made man the worthiest creature upon earth 218. c. Of the Active part of Perfection 219 No contagion so mortally dangerous to the body as corrupt company is to the soule 220 Two especiall memorials recommended to our devoutest meditations 1 The Author of our creation ib. 2 The end of our creation ib. A foure-fold Creation 221. lin 3 The fabulous and frivolous opinions of foure Heathen Philosophers ascribing the creation of all things to the foure Elements 222. l. 3 Their arguments evinced by pregnant testimonies both of Scriptures and Fathers ibid. The End of our creation ibid. Singular precepts of Mortification 223 Idlenesse begetteth security properly termed the Soules Lethargy 224 A Christian Ephemeridâ—s or his Evening account ibid. The Active part of Perfection preferr'd before the Contemplative 225 No ARMORIE can more truly deblazon a Gentleman than acts of charity and compassion 226 The Active preferred before the Contemplative for two respects the first whereof hath relation to our selves the second to others 228.229 Ignorance is to be preferred before knowledge loosely perverted with a comparison by way of objection and resolution betwixt the conveniences of Action and Knowledge ibid. Action is the life of man and Example the direction of his life 229. lin 5 Wherein the Active part of Perfection consisteth 229 Active Perfection consisteth in Mortification of Action and Affection Mortification extends it selfe in a three-fold respect to these three distinct Subjects 1 Life 2 Name 3 Goods Illustrated with eminent Examples of Christian resolution during the ten Persecutions 230.231 Not the act of death but the cause of death makes the Martyr 232 No action how glorious soever can bee crowned unlesse it bee on a pure intention grounded ibid. Mortification in respect of name or report is two-fold 1 In turning our eares from such as prayse us 2 In hearing with patience such as revile us 234 Scandals distinguished and which with more patience than others may bee tolerated 237.238 c. Mortification in our contempt of all worldly substance pitching upon two markeable considerations 1 By whom these blessings are conferr'd on us 2 How they are to bee disposed by us 238 Vaine-glory shuts man from the gate of glory 239 An exquisite connection of the precedent Meditations 240 The absolute or supreme end whereto this Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it solely resteth 242 Singular Patternes of Mortification in their Contempt of life and embrace of death 243.244 The reason of his frequent repetition of sundry notable occurrences throughout this whole Book Wherein sundry passages throughout this last Edition have suffer'd in the obscurity of their expressions by the omissions of their marginall authorities digits or directions 245 The Heart can no more by circumference of the World be confined than a Triangle by a Circle filled 247. lin 16 Though our feet be on earth our faith must be in heaven 249 A pithy Exhortation a powerfull instruction clozing with a perswasive Conclusion 253.254 A Character intituled A Gentleman THE ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN DRAWNE OVT TO the full Body EXPRESSING What Habilliments doe best attire her What Ornaments doe best adorne her What Complements doe best accomplish her The third Edition revised corrected and enlarged By RICHARD BRATHVVAIT Esq. Modestia non Forma LONDON Printed by I. Dawson 1641. TO HER WHOSE TRVE LOVE TO VERTVE HATH HIGHLY ENNOBLED HERSELFE Renowned her sexe Honoured her house The Right Honourable ANNE Countesse of PEMBROKE the only Daughter to a memorable Father GEORGE Lord CLIFFORD Earle of CVMBERLAND The accomplishment of her divinest wishes MADAM SOme moneths are past since I made bold to recommend to my Right Honourable LORD your Husband an ENGLISH GENTLEMAN whom hee was pleased forth of his noble disposition to receive into his Protection Into whose most Honourable service he was no sooner entertained upon due observance of his integrity approved then upon approvement of his more piercive judgement hee became generally received Out of these respects my most Honourable Lady I became so encouraged as I have presumed to preferre unto your service an ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN one of the same Countrey and Family a deserving sister of so generous a brother Or if you will a pleasing Spouse to so gracious a Lover Whom if your Honour shall be but pleased to entertaine and your noble Candor is such as shee can expect nothing lesse especially seeing her exquisite feature takes life from his hand whose family claimes affinity with your fathers house you shall find excellently graced with sundry singular qualities beautified with many choice endowments and so richly adorned with divers exquisite ornaments as her attendance shall be no derogation to your Honour nor no touch to your unblemish'd Selfe to reteine her in your favour The living memory of your thrice noble and heroick Father may justly exact this addressement of mine to his Daughter of whom my Father sometimes held such neare dependance being ever cheered by his countenance and highly obliged to his goodnesse This Memoriall made mee confident of a Patronesse and so much the rather being to preferre a Maid so complete and richly qualified as shee could not chuse but deserve highly from the hand of so noble a Mistresse Sure I am the sweetnesse of her temper sorts and sutes well with the quality or disposition of your Honour For shee loves without any painted pretences to be really vertuous without any popular applause to be affably gracious without any glorious glosse to bee sincerely zealous Her Education hath so enabled her as shee can converse with you of all places deliver her judgement conceivingly of most persons and discourse most delightfully of all fashions Shee hath beene so well Schooled in the Discipline of this Age as shee onely desires to reteine in memory that forme which is least affected but most comely to consort with such as may improve her Knowledge and Practise of goodnesse by their company to entertaine those for reall and individuate friends who make actions of piety expressivest characters of their amity Diligent you shall ever find her in her imployments serious in her advice temperate in her Discourse discreet in her answers Shee bestowes farre more time in eying the glasse of
in age of too much Pride ibid. The humour temper and danger of our Tame-Beasts or State-Parasites ibid. A reservancy of State in Pace face every Posture recommended by an insinuating Faune to a Phantasticke Gallant ibid. Sycophancy the ruine of many a Noble family ibid. An election of honest and discreet followers ibid. Gentlewomens lives as they are lives to themselves so should they bee lights unto others ibid. For Popular honour Vice will but varnish it it is Vertue that will richly enammell it Singular motives to Mortification pag. 390 That Vertue may receive the first impression by meanes of an in-bred noble disposition seconded by helpes of Education ibid. A pleasant Epigram alluding to all humerous Ladies Marg. pag. ibid. A Choice recollection and expression of such vertues as sort and suit with the condition of our noblest Ladies with Cautions to attemper them in all extreames by an usefull reflection upon all the Senses and those Commanding passions which domineere most over the Senses ibid. 391 A Singular Meditation for recollection of our affections pag. 391 392. Vice throwes her aspersions o◠no Subject so much as on Honour ibid A fruitfull application to all young Gentlewomen for regulating their dispositions and bow to make them true inheritrices of Honour ibid. Vertue reduced to habit aspires to perfection pag. 393 There is nothing under heaven that can satisfie a Soule created for heaven ibid. Exquisite directions for Virgins Wives and Widowes ibid. 394 We are to esteeme no life sweeter than when every day improves us and makes us better ibid. A divine Contemplation reflecting upon our mutabilitie on Earth our immortality in Heaven ibid. 395 A Review of our Ladies Court and Citty solace ibid. Recreations run a Maze while they lay their Scene of Mirth on Earth ibid. A Twofold consideration full of sweet and select consolation ibid. How happy many Eminent Personages had beene had they never beene taken with this Shadow of happinesse ibid. No passage to the Temple of * Honour but through the Temple of Vertue * HONOR virtutis praemium VIRTUS honoris pretium ibid. If Gentlewomen desire to be great let it be their height of ambition to aspire to honour in the Court of vertue ibid. What a brave Salique State shall Gentlewomen enjoy when vigilancy becomes Warden of their Cinque Ports pag. 395 Perseverance is the Crowne of goodnesse ibid. A constant resolution the Diadem of a Christian in her dissolution ibid. A Character entituled A Gentlewoman wherein such an One is described whose desert answeres her descent whose actions truely ennoble her selfe with a briefe touch or review of all his Observations Which are showne to bee Objects of her love improvements of her life An Appendix upon a former supposed impression of this Title wherein the Authors feares are suggested discussed and resolved and his compleat ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN to as compleat a GENTLEMAN espoused Where they rejoyce like two tender Turtles in their mutuall triumph of Love and Honour joyntly combined FINIS WHat may be wish'd in Widow Wife or Maid Is in our Frontispice to life portraid Who seekes for more may thus much understand Shee takes that feature from an Higher hand Vpon the Errata TO describe an ENGLISH GENTLEVVOMAN without an Error were a glozing palpable Error And to free her more than an ENGLISH GENTLEMAN of Error were to incurre a prejudicate Censure Of both which without farther apologie the Presse hath sav'd me a labour Yet reflect upon the weakenesse of her Sexe whose purest Selfe dignifies her Sexe and the Subject will injoyne thee to hold it thine highest honour to salve her Error with an ingenuous Candor So maist thou vindicate the Author and by beeing a vertuous Lover gaine a most deserving Mistresses favour PRELUM Crimen Authores patiuntur omnes PRAELIUM TYPUS Crimen Authores patiuntur omnes CIPPUS Errata In the ENGLISH GENTLEWOMAN PAge 273. line 27. for Eber read Ebor. pag. 274. l. 12. f. mortality r. morality pag. 276. l. 19. f. Balcone r. Belcone pag. 347. l. ult f. and r. an pag. 349. l. 8. f. Anacrons r. Anacreons pag. 361. l. 29. f. Phavorius r. Phavorinus pag. 383. l. 41. f. strinks r. shrinks HAd Woman Mans choyce succour ne're beene Sinner Pure as Shee 's faire Shee 'd had no Error in her Now humble Soule her Error to descrye Shee still reteines the Apple in her eye A LADIES LOVE-LECTVRE COMPOSED AND FROM THE CHOICEST FLOWERS OF Divinitie and Humanitie Culled and Compiled As it hath beene by sundry Personages of eminent qualitie upon sight of some Copies dispersed modestly importuned To the memory of that Sexes honour for whose sweet sakes he originally addressed this Labour BY RI. BRATHVVAIT Esquire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by IOHN DAVVSON 1641. TO THAT ABSOLVTE OWNER AND HONOVR OF DISCREET FANCY Mris ELIZABETH WESTBY Mistris REceive here with a Booke the reall abstract of your selfe For in it when you have read it do but converse with your owne thoughts and you shall finde your selfe portrayed Phidias could never with all his art present a Master-peece of such beautie as vertue can doe in drawing her line bestowing on it a modest blush to enliven fancie These Idaea's are Englands Cynthia's You were sometimes pleased to peruse your selfe shadowed in my Elegiack Poem require this for a more lasting and living Embleme Now as to wish you what you already have I neede not so to wish you more then you already have I cannot unlesse some new choice might accomplish his happinesse that should attaine it Goodnesse is such a Dower as no Maid can bring with her a better Portion nor no Widow enfeffe herself in a fairer Iointure May you ever shine in these which make a woman most eminent while you leave me infinitely joying in enjoying the Title of Your affectionate Servant RI. BRATHVVAIT THE STATIONER TO THE READER AT the instancy of sundry persons of qualitie to my knowledge was this our Author induced to publish this Epitome Extracted from the choicest flowers of fancie But in such a compendious method and manner as it may abide the test of the severest Censor seeing all such light passages taking life from the too loose Pens of Ariosto Tasso Baccace Rheginus Alcaeus c. are here omitted lest the modest eares of those Beauties at whose request and to whose bequest this Epitome or Love-enlectured Lady was addressed might be offended by such affected levitie Entertaine it as thou shalt reape profit by it Farewell A LADIES LOVE-LECTVRE STORED With all varietie of ingenious Moralitie Extracted from the choicest flowers of Philosophie Poesie ancient and moderne History And now published At the instancy of sundry persons of qualitie Ovos conspicui lumina Phoebi The excellency of Women in their Creation SECTION I. HOwsoever that divine Plato whose very infancy presaged many faire expressions of his future maturity definitely professed that he had amongst many other blessings which
what indifferencie doe they use these riches It may be you will object that Art hath not as yet showne her cunning amongst them so as their neglect of fashion meerely proceedeth from want of skilfull Artists to introduce the forme or fashion of other Countries by meanes of civill government more curious and exquisite to their people But I shall prove that by impregnable arguments how this contempt of pride is naturally planted in them yea with what scorne and derision they looke upon other Countries usually affected to this delicacie and effeminacie in apparell Such as have travelled and upon exact survey of the Natures of forraine Countries have brought the rich fraught of knowledge stored with choicest observations to their native home have confirmed this for they have found such contempt in other Nations touching these fruitlesse vanities wherein wee idolatrize our owne formes as it strucke admiration in them as their Records to this day extâ—nt doe apparantly witnesse To instance some whereof as the Ruffian Muscovian Ionian yea even the barbarous Indian it may appeare with what reservancie they continue their ancient Habit loth it seemes to introduce any new custome or to lose their antiquity for any vaine-glorious or affected Novelty with a joynt uniformity as it seemes resolved Tam in cultu Numiuis quà m apparatu corporis moribus legibusque uti praesentibus etiamsi deteriores sint But leaving them because we will a while insist upon prophane authorities let us reflect our dim eyes bleared with the thicke scales of vanity to those Divine Sages whose excellent instructions no lesse imitable than admirable merit our approbation and observation It is reported by Laertius that on a time Croesus having adorned and beautified himselfe with the most exquisite ornaments of all kinds that either Art or cost could devise and sitting on a high Throne to give more grace or lustre to his person demanded of Solon if he ever saw a sight more beautifull Yes quoth hee House-cockes Phesants and Peacokes for they are clothed with a naturall splendour or beauty bestowed on them by Nature without any borrowed elegancie The like contempt appeared in Eutrapelus who valued the internall beauty of his minde more than the adulterate varnish of Art Besides hee was of this opinion that hee could not doe his foe a greater injury than bestow on him the preciousest garments he had to make him forgetfull of himselfe and his owne frailtie whose nature the Poet excellently describeth thus The Sage Eutrapelus right wisely bad His foes should have the richest robes he had Thinking he did them harme himselfe much good For given they made him humble them more proud Amongst many profitable Lawes enacted by Numa the Law Sumptuaria conferred no small benefit upon the State publique For by that Law was prohibited not onely all profuse charge in Funerall expences but likewise the excessive use of Apparell whereby the Roman state grew in short time to great wealth labouring to suppresse those vices which usually effeminate men the most to wit delicacie in fare and sumptuousnesse in attire Now there be many I know who invent fashions meerely to cover their deformities as Iulius Caesar wore a garland of Laurell to cover his baldnesse withall and these seeme excusable but they are not for did not hee who made thee bestow this forme on thee Could not he have stamped thee to the most exquisite or absolute feature if it had so pleased thy Creator And wilt thou now controule thy Maker and by art supply the defects of Nature Beware of this evill I can prescribe thee a better and safer course how to rectifie these deformities Hast thou a crooked body repaire it with an upright soule Art thou outwardly deformed with spirituall graces be thou inwardly beautified Art thou blinde or lame or otherwise maimed be not therewith dejected for the Blinde 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 salvation Alcibiades Socrates scholar was the best favoured Boy in Athens yet to use the Philosophers words looke but inwardly into his body you will finde nothing more odious So as one compared them aptly these faire ones I meane to faire and beautifull Sepulchers Exteriùs nitida interiùs faetida outwardly hansome inwardly noisome Notable was that observation of a learned Philosopher who professing himselfe a Schoolmaster 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 scholar 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 answere the beauty and comlinesse of his face with the beauty 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 greatnesse of descent place or quality nor seeme better worthy the company with whom thou consortest or frequentest than by erecting the glorious beames of thy minde above these inferiour things For who are these with whom thou consortest meere triflers away of time bastard slips degenerate impes consumers of their patrimony and in the end for what other end save misery may attend them Heires to shame and infamy These I say who offer their Morning prayers to the Glasse eying themselves so long till Narcissus-like they fall in love with their owne shadowes And many times like that wrethed Lady if any deformity chance to blemish their beauty they no sooner eye their glasse than the discovery of their deformity brings them to a fearefull frency 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 every Country to display thy pie-coloured flag of vanity What painting purfling powdring and pargeting doe you use yee Idols of vanity to lure and allure men to breake their first faith forsake their first love and yeeld to your immodesty 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 minds when you have immodest eyes Death hath entred in at your windowes your eyes are those cranies those hatefull portals those fatall entrances which Tarpeia-like by betraying the glorious fortresse or citadell of your
soules have given easie way to your mortall enemie Vtinam miserrimus ego c. I would I poore wretch saith Tertulian might see in that day of Christian exaltation An cum cerussa purpurisso croco cum illo ambitu capitis resurgatis No you staines to modesty such a Picture shall not rise in glory before her Maker There is no place for you but for such women as aray themselves in comely apparell with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broided haâ—re 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 haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes the Prophet Isaiah and you shall finde your selves described and the judgement of Desolation pronounced upon you Because the Daughters of Sion are haughty and walke with stretched-out neckes and with wandring eyes walking and minsing as they goe and making a tinckling with their feet therefore shall the Lord make the heads of the daughters of Sion bald and the Lord shall discover their secret parts And hee 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 veiles and the wimples and the crisping-pins And the glasses and the fine linnen and the hoods and the lawnes 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 girdling of sack-cloth and burning in stead of beauty 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 sinne 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 shall come upon you and what shall then deliver you not your Beauty for to use that divine Distich of Innocentius Tell me thou earthen vessell made of clay What 's Beauty worth when thou must dye 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 vaine-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 Corps 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 goeth to jest rather than visit or comfort and such miserable comforters are these friends of yours What then may deliver you in such gusts of affliction which assaile you Conscience shee it is that must either comfort you or how miserable is your condition She is that continuall feast which must refresh you those thousand witnesses that must answer for you that light which must direct you that familiar friend that must ever attend you that faithfull Counsellour that must advise you that Balme of Gilead that must renew you that Palme of peace which must crowne you Take heed therefore you wrong not this friend for as you use her you shall finde her She is not to be corrupted her sincerity scornes it Shee is not to bee perswaded for her resolution is grounded Shee is not to bee threatned for her spirit sleights it She is aptly compared in one respect to the Sea she can endure no corruption to remaine in her but foames and frets and chafes till all filth bee removed from her By Ebbing and flowing is shee purged nor is she at rest till shee be rinsed Fugit ab agro ad ciuitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum c. Discontentedly shee flies from the Field to the City from publicke resort to her private house from her house to her chamber Shee can rest in no place Furie dogs her behinde and Despaire goes before For Conscience being the inseparable glory or confusion of every one according to the quality disposition or dispensation of that Talent which is given him for to whom much is given much shall be required We are to make such fruitfull use of our Talent that the Conscience wee professe may remaine undefiled the faith we have plighted may be inviolably preserved the measure or Omer of grace we have received may be increased and God in all glorified Which the better to effect wee are to thinke how God is ever present in all our actions and that to use the words of Augustine Whatsoever we doe yea whatsoever it bee that wee doe he better knowes it than we our selves doe It was Seneca's counsell to his friend Lucilius that whensoever he went about to do any thing he should imagine Cato or Scipio or some other worthy Roman to be in presence In imitation of so divine a Morall let us in every action fix our eye upon our Maker Whose eyes are upon the children of men so shall we in respect of his sacred presence to which we owe all devout reverence Abstaine frome vill doe good seeke peace and ensue it Such as defil'd themselves with sinne by giving themselves over unto pleasure staining the Nobility splendour of their Soules through wallowing in vice or otherwise fraudulently by usurpation or base insinuation creeping into Soveraignty or unjustly governing the common-weale such thought Socrates that they went a by-path separated from the counsell of the gods but such as while they lived in their bodies imitated the life of the gods such hee thought had an easie returne to the place
the wall of the City with banner displayed Another Bohemian espying this ran to the Captaine and clasping him fast about the middle asked one Capistranus standing beneath whether it would bee any danger of damnation to his soule if hee should cast himselfe downe headlong with that dogge so hee termed the Turke to be slaine with him Capistranus answering that it was no danger at all to his soule the Bohemian forthwith tumbled himselfe down with the Turke in his armes and so by his owne death only saved the life of all the City The like worthy exploits might bee instanced in those heires of fame the Rhodians in the siege of their City the Knights of Malta in their sundry defeats and discomsitures of the Turks the inhabitants of Vienna who being but a handful in comparison of their enemies gave them not only the repulse but wholly defeated their designes This Valour or Fortitude which indeed appeareth ever in the freest and noblest minds is excellently defined by the Stoicks to be A vertue ever fighting in defence of equitie These who are professors of so peerelesse a vertue are more ready to spare than to spill their aimes are faire and honest free from the least aspersion either of crueltie or vain-glory for as they scorne to triumph over an afflicted foe so they dislike that conquest unlesse necessitie enforce it which is purchased by too much bloud The Salmacian Spoiles rellish better to their palate for they are so full of noble compassion as the death of their enemy enforceth in them teares of pitty This appeared in those princely teares shed by Caesar at the sight of Pompeys head and in Titus that Darling of Mankind in those teares hee shed at the sight of those innumerable slaughters committed upon the Iewes Now as my purpose is not to insist on the postures of warre so I intend not to dwell upon every circumstance remarkable in martiall affaires but upon the maine scope of militarie discipline whereto every generous and true bred Souldier is to direct his course Let your aime bee therefore Gentlemen to fight for the safetie and peace of your Countrey in the defence of a good conscience which is to bee preferred before all the booties of warre for as you have received your birth and breeding from your Countrey so are you to stand for her even to the sacrifice of your dearest lives provided that the cause which you entertaine in her defence be honest without purpose of intrusion into anothers right or labouring to enlarge her boundiers by an unlawfull force For howsoever the ancient Heathens were in this respect faultie being some of them Truce breakers others violent intruders or usurpers of what was little due unto them wee for our parts have learned better things being commanded not to take any thing from any man but in all things learne to be contended But of all enterprizes worthy the acceptance of a Gentleman in this kinde if I should instance any one in particular none more noble or better deserving as I have else-where formerly touched than to warre against the Turk that profest enemy of Christendome the increase of whose Empire may bee compared to the milt in mans body for the grandure of it threatens ruine and destruction to all Christian States drawing light to his Halfe Moone by darkening of others and shewing even by the multitude of his insolent Titles what his aimes be if the Lord put not a hooke in the nose of that Leviathan Praise-worthy therefore are those glorious and no doubt prosperous expeditions of such English and other Christian Voluntaries as have stood and even at this day doe stand engaged in personall service against the great Turke for these though they perish in the battell shall survive time and raise them a name out of the dust which shall never be extinguished These are they who fight the Lords battell and will rather die than it should quaile These are those glorious Champions whose aime is to plant the blessed tidings of the Gospell once againe in that Holy Land which now remaines deprived of those heavenly Prophets which she once enjoyed of those godly Apostles which she once possessed of that sweet Singer of Israel with which her fruitfull coasts once resounded O Gentlemen if you desire imployment in this kinde what enterprize more glorious 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 Neither did ever Time give fairer opportunity to effect it than now when the very Guard of his person his Ianizaries begin to mutine and innovate by interposing their suffrages in his government Besides in assayes of this nature being taken in hand for the peace and safety of Christendome assureth more securitie to the person engaged for little need hee 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 demean 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 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 bee their chiefest gaine and right and peace their greatest joy for such are both Pacidici 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 bounds usque ad crumenas The old position was was Iustice is to bee 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
darkeneth the understanding Drinke you may and drinke wine you may for wee cannot allow the device of Thracius but wee must disallow Saint Pauls advice to Timothy Vse a little wine for thy stomacks sake and thine often infirmities So as you are not enjoyned such a strict or Laconian abstinence as if you were not to drinke Wine at all for being commanded not to drinke it is to bee implyed not to use drunkennesse wherein is excesse for in many places are wee allegorically and not literally to cleave to the Text. As for Origen strange it is that perverting so many other places by Allegories onely he should pervert one place by not admitting an Allegory For our Lord commanding to cut off the foot or any part of the body which offendeth us doth not meane wee should cut off our members with a knife but our carnall affections with a holy and mortified life whence it is that Origen was justly punished by using too little diligence where there was great need because hee used too great diligence where there was little need No lesse worthy was Democritus errour of reproving who was blinded before hee was blind for a Christian need not put out his eyes for feare of seeing a woman since howsoever his bodily eye see yet still his heart is blind against all unlawfull desires Neither was Crates Thebanus well advised who did cast his money into the Sea saying Nay sure I will drowne you first in the Sea rather than you should drown me in covetousnesse and care Lastly Thracius of whom Aulus Gellius writeth was for any thing that I can see even at that time most of all drunken when hee cut downe all his vines lest hee should be drunken No I admit of no such strict Stoicisme but rather as I formerly noted to use wine or any such strong drinke to strengthen and comfort Nature but not to impaire her strength or enfeeble her For as by a little we are usually refreshed so by too much are wee dulled and oppressed There are some likewise and these for most part of the higher sort I could wish they were likewise of the better sort who repaire to the House of the strange woman sleeping in the bed of sinne thinking so to put from them the evill day And these are such as make Whoredome a Recreation sticking not to commit sinne even with greedinesse so they may cover their shame with the curtaine of darkenesse But that is a wofull Recreation which brings both soule and body to confusion singing Lysimachus song Short is the pleasure of Fornication but eternall is the punishment due to the Fornicator so as though hee enjoy pleasure for a time hee shall be tormented for ever But consider this Gentlemen you I say whose better breeding hath instructed you in the knowledge of better things that if no future respect might move you as God forbid it should not move and remove you from these licentious delights yet respect to the place whence you descended the tender of your credit which should be principally valued the example which you give and by which inferiours are directed should be of force to weane you from all inordinate affections the end whereof is bitternesse though the beginning promise sweetnesse It was Demosthenes answer unto Lais upon setting a price of her body Non emam tauti poenitere sure I am howsoever this Heathen Orator prized his money above the pleasure of her body and that it was too deare to buy repentance at so high a rate that it is an ill bargaine for a moments pleasure to make shipwracke of the soules treasure exposing reputation and all being indeed the preciousest of all to the Object of lightnesse and Subject of basenesse paying the fraught of so short a daliance with a long repentance Wherefore my advice is unto such as have resorted to the House of the strange woman esteeming it only a tricke of youth to keepe their feet more warily from her wayes For her house draweth neere unto death and her paths unto Hell So as none that goe in unto her shall returne neither shall they understand the wayes of life Let such as have herein sinned repent and such as have not herein sinned rejoyce giving thankes to God who hath not given them up for a prey to the lusts of the flesh craving his assistance to prevent them hereafter that the flesh might be ever brought in subjection to the spirit For as the Lionesse having beene false to the Lion by going to a Libard and the Storke consorting with any other besides her owne mate wash themselves before they dare to returne home and the Hart after he hath satisfied his desire retires to some private or desolate Lawne hanging downe his head as one discontent till he hath washed and rinsed himselfe and then hee returnes cheerefully to his herd againe so wee cannot be unto God truly reconciled till wee be in the flood of repentance thorowly washed Thus shall you from the wayes of the strange woman be delivered thus shal your good name which is aptly compared to a precious ointment remaine unstained and a good report shal follow you when you are hence departed There is another Recreation used by Gentlemen but especially in this Citie which used with Moderation is not altogether to be disallowed and it is repairing to Stage-playes where as they shall see much lightnesse so they may heare something worthy more serious attention Whence it is that Thomas Aquinas giveth instance in Stage-playes as fittest for refreshing and recreating the mind which likewise Philo Iudaeus approveth But for as much as divers Objections have beene and worthily may bee made against them wee will here lay them downe being such as are grounded on the Sacred Word of God and with as much perspicuity and brevity as we may cleare and resolve them Playes were set out on a time by the Citizens for the more solemnity of a league concluded betwixt the Cantons of Berna and Tiguris touching which Playes sundry differences arose amongst the Ministers of Geneva which could not easily be determined about a young Boy who represented a woman in apparell habit and person in the end it was agreed of all parts that they should submit the determination of this difference with generall suffrage and consent to the authenticke and approved judgement of their Beza holden for the very Oracle both of Vniversity and Citie and who had sometimes beene vers'd in theatrall composures to his glory This controversie being unto him referred hee constantly affirmed that it was not onely lawfull for them to set forth and act those Playes but for Boyes to put on womens apparell for the time Neither did hee only affirme this but brought such Divines as opposed themselves against it to be of his opinion with the whole assent and consent of all the Ecclesiasticall Synod of Geneva Now in this first Objection we may observe the
and could not wind it made this replie My friend did taxe me seriously one morne That I should weare yet could not wind the horne And I repli'd that he for truth should finde it Many did weare the Horne that nere could wind it Hows'ere of all that man may weare it best Who makes claime to 't as his ancient Crest To intervene conceits or some pleasant jests in our Recreations whether discursive or active is no lesse delightfull then usefull but these jests should bee so seasoned as they may neither taste of lightnesse nor too much saltness Iests festive are oft times offensive they incline too much to levitie jests civill for into these two are all divided are better relishing because mixed with more sobriety and discretion Catullus answer to Philippus the Atturney was no lesse witty then bitter for Catullus and he being one day at high words together Why barkest thou quoth Philippus Because I see a Theefe answered Catullâ—â— He shewed himselfe a quick Anatomist who branched man into three parts saying That man hath nothing but substance soule and body Lawyers dispose of the substance Physicians of the body and Divines of the soule Present and pregnant was Donato's answer to a young Gentleman who beholding a brave company of amorous Ladies and Gentlewomen meeting Donato comming towards Rome as one admiring their number and feature said Quot coelum stellas tot habet tua Roma puellas by and by answered Donato Pascua quot haedos tot habet tua Roma Cinaedos Phaedro being asked why in the Collects where Christian Bishops and Pagans be prayed for the Cardinals were not remembred answered they were included in that prayer Oremus pro haereticis et Schismaticis Well requited was that young Scholler who giving his Master this Evening salute Domine magister Deus det tibi bonum serò was answered by his Master Et tibi malum citò Witty but shrewd was that answer of a disputant in my time to his Moderator in Posterior who demanding of him what the cause should be that he with whom he disputed should have so great a head and so little wit replied Omne mâ—jus continet in se minus A base minde was well displaid in that covetous man who unwilling to sell his corne while it was at an high price expecting ever when the Market would rise higher when he saw it afterward fall in despaire hanged himselfe upon a beame of his chamber which his man hearing and making haste cut the rope and preserved his life afterwards when he came to himselfe hee would needes have his man to pay fâ—r the cord hee had cut But I approve rather of such jests as are mixed with lesse extremes pleasant was that answer of Scipio Nasica who going to Ennius house in Rome and asking for Ennius Ennius bade his maid tell him hee was not within So Ennius on a time comming to Scipio's house and asking whether hee was at homâ— I am not at home answered Scipio Ennius wondering thereat Doe I not know that voice quoth hee to be Scipio's voice Thou hast small civility in thee answered Scipio that when I beleeved thy maid thou wert not at home yet thou wilt not beleeve me Likewise to report a jest is an argument of a quick wit as Leo Emperour of Bizantium answered one who being crook-backt jested at his bleared eies saying Thou reproachest me with the defect of nature and thou carriest Nemesis upon thy shoulders Domitius reproaching Crassus that he wept for a Lamprey Crassus answered but thou hast buried three wives without one teare Alexander asking a Pyrate that was taken and brought before him How he durst be so bold to infest the Seas with his pyracy was answered with no lesse spirit That he plâ—ied the Pyrate but with on ship but his Majesty with a huge Navy which saying so pleased Alexander that hee pardoned him reaping especiall delight in that similitude of action by which was transported the current of the Kings affection Other Conceits there are more closely touched covertly carried and in silence uttered as that of Bias who when an evill man asked him what goodnes was answered nothing and being demanded the cause of his silence I am silent quoth he because thou enquirest of that which nothing concerns thee The same Bias sailing on a time with some naughty men by violence of a tempest the ship wherin they were became so shaken tossed with waves as these naughty men began to call upon the gods Hold your peace said Bias lest these gods you cal upon understand that you be here But lest by dwelling too long upon jests I forget the Series of my discourse I wil succinctly conclude this branch with my judgment touching Acquaintance in this kind As I would have Gentlemen to make choice of their Acquaintance by their sound so I would not have them all sound Musicke doth well with aires but there is no Musicke in that discourse which is all aire My meaning is I would not have these Acquaintance which they make choice of all words or flashes of wit for I seldome see any of these who are so verball much materiall or these who are all wit but through height of a selfe-conceipt they fall to much weakenes For these many times preferre their conceipt before the hearers appetite and will not sticke to lose their friend rather then their jest which in my opinion is meere madnes for he that values his jest above his friend over-values his conceipt and had need of few jests or great store of friends I have knowne some wits turne wittals by making themselves Buffouns and stale jesters for all assemblies Which sort are fitter for Gentlemen to make use of as occasion serves then to entertaine them as Bosome-acquaintance for as the benefit which redounds to one from another in action exercise and recreation is mutually imparted so is the danger no lesse incident one to another where the ends or uses are perverted Thus farre have wee proceeded in the discovery of those particular benefits which redound from discourse advice and action by meanes of Acquintance being the Cement which so firmely joyneth minds together as they may be encountred by extremes but divided never Now for as much as the essential triall of Acquaintance consists in matters of highest consequence wee are now to addresse our selves to such a choice as our choice may admit no change THe precept of that ancient Sage is worth remembring Follow such friends as it may not shame thee to have chosen Certainly there is no one argument to evince man of indiscretion more holding then this That he makes no difference or distinction in the choice of his friends In which respect no man can bee to warie or circumspect because herein for most part consisteth his wel-fare or undoing It were meet therefore that a Gentleman made choice of such for his friends or acquaintance as are neither Timists nor
repell the spels of so inchanting a Syren For as the Vnicornes horne being dipt in water cleares and purifies it so shall this soveraigne receit cure all those maladies which originally proceed from the poyson of vice The mind so long as it is evill affâ—cted is miserably infected For so many evils so many Divels first tempting and tainting the soule with sinne then tearing and tormenting her with the bitter sense of her guilt Saint Basil saith that passions rise up in a drunken man like a swarme of Bees buzzing on every side whatsoever that holy Father saith of one vice may be generally spoken of all so as wee may truely conclude with that Princely Prophet They come about us like Bees though they have honey in their thighs they have stings in their tailes wounding our poore soules even unto death Requisite therefore is it to avoid the society of such whose lives are either touched or tainted with any especiall Crime these are dangerous Patternes to imitate yea dangerous to consort with for as the Storke being taken in the company of the Cranes was to undergoe like punishment with them although she had scarce ever consented to feed with them so be sure if wee accompany them we shall have a share of their shame though not in their sinne Avoid the acquaintance of these Heires of shame whose affected liberty hath brought them to become slaves to all sensuality and sure ere long to inherit misery Give no eare to the Sycophant whose sugred tongue and subtill traine are ever plotting your ruine hate the embraces of all insinuating Sharkes whose smoothnesse will worke on your weaknesse and follow the Poets advice Avoide such friends as feigne and fawne on thee Like Scylla's rocke within Sicilian Sea So dangerous are these Sirenian friends that like the Sicilian shelves they menace shipwracke to the inconsiderate sailer For these as they professe love and labour to purchase friends so their practices are but how to deceive and entrap those to whom they professe love Whence it is that Salomon saith A man that flattereth his Neighbour spreadeth a net for his steps That is hee that giveth eare to the Flatterer is in danger as the bird is before the Fowler Hee whistleth merrily spreadeth his Nets cunningly and hunteth after his prey greedily And let this suffice to be spoken for the Timist who professeth observance to his friend onely for his owne end Now Gentlemen as I would not have you to entertaine time with fawns so neither with frowns The former as they were too light so the latter are too heavy The one too supple the other too surly For these Timonists for we have done with our Timists as Cicero said of Galba's leaden and lumpish body His wit had an ill lodging are of too sullen and earthly a constitution It is never fair weather with them for they are ever louring bearing a Calender of ill weather in their brow These for the most part are Male-contents and affect nothing lesse then what is generally pleasing appearing in the world naturalized Demophons whose humour was to sweat still in the shadow and shake in the sunne So as howsoever they seeme seated in another Clime for disposition they are like the Antipodes unto us opposing themselves directly against us in all our courses They are of Democritus mind who said that the truth of things lay hid in certaine deepe mines or caves and what are these but their owne braines For they imagine there can be no truth but what they professe They proclaime defiance to the world saying Thou miserable deluded world thou embracest pleasure wee restraine it Thou for pleasure doest all things wee nothing Now who should not imagine these Stoicks to be absolute men Such as are rare to see on earth in respect of their austerity of life and singular command over their affections such as are divided as it were from the thought of any earthly busines having their minds spheared in a higher Orbe Such as are so farre from intermedling in the world as they dis-value him that intends himselfe to negotiate in the world Such as when they see a man given to pleasure or some moderate Recreation whereby hee may be the better enabled for other imployments sleight him as a Spender of time and one unfit for the society of men Such as say unto Laughter Thou art mad and unto joy What meanest thou Such as take up the words of that grave Censor in the Poet Tak'st thou delight to race those pathes where worldlings walked have Which seldome doe refresh the Mind but often doe deceive Yet behold how many times these mens severity comes short of sinceritie They will lay heavy burdens on others shoulders which they will be loath to touch with the tip of their finger The Taskes which they impose on others are insupportable the pressures they lay on themselves very easie and tolerable Of this ranke was Aglataidas of whom that noble and faithfull Historian Comines writeth saying While he served in the Campe hee was of a most harsh austere condition doing many things perversly and desiring rather to be feared then loved Such was this Timon from whose name wee entitle these frowning friends who can hardly be true friends to any being so opposite or repugnant to all as they can scarcely hold concurrence with any Neither was this Timon as Plutarch reporteth of him onely harsh and uncivill towards men but towards women also so as going forth one day into his Orchard and finding a woman hanging upon a wild fig-tree O God quoth he that all trees brought forth such fruit Vnfit therefore was this Timon for the Acquaintance of man who profest himselfe so mortall and irreconciliable an enemy to the sociablest and entirest Acquaintance of man So as these Timonists are to be cashiered for two reasons first for their owne harsh and rough condition secondly for the unjust grounds of their opinion which dissents so farre from society as it disallowes of Marriage the ordinary meanes appointed to preserve society So as leaving them and their opinion as already evinced wee will descend to make choice of your neerest Acquaintance I meane the choice of your wife the first day of which solemnity promiseth either a succeeding Iubile or a continued Scene of sorrow where nought is sung but dolefull Lachrymae It was pleasantly spoken of him who said Wives are young mens Mistresses Companions for middle age and old-mens Nurses The first sort take as much content in wearing their Mistresse favour as winning it the second sort in winning rather then wearing it the third neither in wearing nor winning it but like children to be cherished and cockered by it The second sort are wee onely to speake of where wives are to be made companions and such entire ones as they are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh In the choice whereof wee will propose such necessary cautions as
whereto their course was directed they found an Empire to be a monstrous and untamed beast wounding them with many thorny cares which deprived them of all seasonable rest Doe you then love to be at peace to enjoy perfect liberty to be divided from all occasions of disquiet Restraine those Icarian thoughts whose soaring wings are ever laved in the depth of ruine Confine your thoughts within an equal limit and let not your projectments be above hope of effecting Those braving builders of Babel aymed at too high a story to bring their worke to perfection Let the foundation be built on firme ground and the building will prosper better For howsoever faire pretences may for a time appeare in the habit of truth daubing up a rotten inside with a specious out-side hee that sitteth in the Heavens and searcheth the hearts and reines shall have them in derision breaking them in peeces like a potters vessell Restraine then this fury or frenzie of the mind and with timely Moderation so bound in and confine your affections as no aspiring thought may enter that place which is reserved for a higher place so shall you enjoy more absolute content in restraining then enlarging your thoughts to the motives of Ambition Gorgeous attire being the third assailant moving man to glory in his shame and gallant it in his sinne is to be especially restrained because it makes us dote upon a vessell of corruption strutting upon earth as if we had our eternall mansion on earth What great folly is it to preferre the case before the instrument or to bestow more cost upon the Signe then on the Iune Me thinkes the bitter remembrance of the first necessity of clothes should make men more indifferent for them if man had never sinned his shame had never needed to have beene covered For sinne was the cause of Adams shame and his shame the cause hee fled unto the shade which afforded him Fig-leaves to cover his nakednesse What vanity then yea what impudence to glory in these covers of shame Would any one having committed some capitall offence against his Prince for which hee is after pardoned but on condition hee shall weare a halter about his neck become proud of his halter and esteeme it an especiall badge of honour Wee are all in the selfe-same case wee have committed high treason against the King of heaven yet are wee received to mercy bearing about us those Memorials of our shamefull fall or defection from our King which should in all reason rather move us to bee ashamed of our selves then to prize our selves higher for these ornaments of shame Sure I am as hee is a fond man that values the worth of his horse by his sumptuous saddle or studded bridle so hee is most foolish who estimates a man by his garment Yet see the misery of this age the cover of shame is become the onely luster to beautifie him but be not yee so deluded prize the ornaments of the mind for the choicest and chiefest beauty farre be it from you to glory in this attire of sinne these rags of shame these worme-workes which with-draw your eyes from contemplating that supreme bounty and beauty purposely to fix them upon the base objects of earth which detract much from the glory of a reasonable soule The Swan prides not her selfe in her black-feet no more should you in these Covers of your transgression which whensoever yee looke on may put you in mind of your first pollution No reason then to affect these which had man never sinned hee had never needed being before clothed with innocency as with a garment and with primitive purity as with a rayment Whence it appeares that many glory in the rags of shame while they glory in these robes of sinne Now who endued with reason would pride him in that which augments his shame or esteeme that a grace which asperseth reproach on him Nicetas saith plainely No punishment so grievous as shame And Nazianzen yet more expresly Better were a man die right out then still live in reproach and shame Ajax being ready to dispatch himselfe used these as his last words No griefe doth so cut the heart of a generous and magnanimous man as shame and reproach For a man to live or die is naturall but for a man to live in shame and contempt and to be made a laughing-stock of his enemies is such a matter as no well bred and noble minded man that hath any courage or stomacke in him can ever digest it Delight not then in your shame but in a decent and seemely manner affect that habit most which becommeth most restraining that profusenesse which the vanity of this age so much exceeds in and assuming to your selves that attire which gives best grace to modesty and hath neerest correspondence with Gentility Neither is Luscious fare to be lesse avoided or with lesse strictnesse restrained Many reasons whereof might be here produced but wee will cull out the chiefest to weane our Generous Vitellians from their excessive surfets First dainty dishes are foments to wanton affections begetting in the soule and unaptnesse to all spirituall exercises for this is a generall rule that the body being strengthned the soule becomes weakned for fasting is a preparative to Devotion but riot the Grand-master of Distraction Looke how it is in the health of the body and so it is in the state of the soule if a man have a good appetite and a stomacke to his meat it is a signe hee is well in health in like sort if a man be content to follow Christ for the Loaves to fill his belly and care not for the food of his soule questionlesse all is not well betweene GOD and him but if wee have a longing and a hungring desire of the Word then indeed his heart is upright in the sight of God For as Saint Augustine noteth well If the Word of GOD be taken by us it will take us But what meanes may be used to procure this longing and hungring desire in us Not Luscious or curious fare for that will move us rather to all inordinate motions then the exercise of Devotion no it is fasting that makes the soule to be feasting it is macerating of the flesh that fattens the spirit For it is sumptuous fare that is the soules snare Sagina corporis Sagena cordis It is the net which intangles the heart of man drawing her from the love of her best beloved Spouse to dote on the adulterate embraces of sensuall beauty Neither is it fare but delight in fare not simply the meat but the desire or liquorish appetite which produceth those odious effects as for example when the loose affected man maketh choice or election of such meats purposely to beget in him an ability as well as desire to his sensuall pleasures Whence a learned Father most divinely concludeth I feare not saith he the uncleanenesse of meats in respect of their difference
but uncleannesse of desire in respect of concupiscence Neither doth the kind or difference of the meat saith another pollute so much as the act of disobedience eating that which is inhibited Now to propose a rule of direction not any one surer or safer can be set downe then what an ancient Father hath already proposed Wee nourish our bodies saith hee lest by being too much weakned they faile us and wee weaken them by abstinence lest by too much feeding them they presse us So then temper your desires that neither too much restraint may enfeeble them nor excesse surcharge them For as the body being weakned the soule becomes strengthned so where the body becomes too much enfeebled the performance of spirituall exercises is disabled but in all things take heed of pampering a disobedient servant hee sleeps in your bosome that imagines mischiefe against you Who the more hee is fostered the more is your danger furthered the more hee is cockered the more is your heat of devotion cooled chastise then this domesticke enemy in time for hee participates of the nature of a Serpent who spreads most his poyson where hee receives harbouring Now as the Philosophers observe of the Hart that being pursued by dogs in hunting by reason of heat and losse of breath being tired with the chase hee hasteneth to the Rivers or wearied in fight with a Serpent or stung or wounded by him while the Serpent resteth on the the ground hee seeketh to some cold Fountaine whereby the affection of the venome received may be abated and his former vigour restored Even so such as are wounded and strucken of the old Serpent must have recourse to Christ that Fountaine of living waters that all sensuall desires arising from excessive delight in delicious fare may be the better allayed Neither onely is restraint to be used in the choice and change of meats but in the excessive use of drinkes The reasons are two the one is it is an enemy to the knowledge of God the other is this it is held to be an enfeebler or impairer of the memorative parts for you shall ever note that deepe drinkers have but shallow memories Their common saying is Let us drowne care in healths which drowning of care makes them so forgetfull of themselves as carried away with a brutish appetite they onely intend their present delight without reflexion to what is past or due preparation to what may succeed O restraine then this mighty assailant of Temperance Bee ever your selves but principally stand upon your guard when occasion of company shall induce you being the last we are to speake of This Company-keeping how much it hath depraved the hopefullest and towardliest wits daily experience can witnesse For many wee see civilly affected and temperately disposed of themselves not subject to those violent or brain-sicke passions which the fumes of drinke beget till out of a too pliable disposition they enter the lists of Good fellowship as they commonly terme it and so become estranged from their owne nature to partake with Zanies in their distempered humour So as in time by consorting with evill men they become exposed to all immoderate affections such is the strength of custome Whence it is that Saint Basil saith Passions rise up in a drunken man note the violence of this distemper like a swarme of Bees buzzing on every side Now you shall see him compassionately passionate resolving his humour into teares anon like a phrenticke man exercising himselfe in blowes presently as if a calmer or more peaceable humour had seized on him he expresseth his loving nature in congies and kisses So different are the affections which this valiant Mault-worme is subject to yet howsoever out of a desperate Bravado he binde it with oathes that he will stand to his tackling he is scarce to be credited for he can stand on no ground But to annexe some reasons which may effectually disswade every generous-affected spirit from consorting with such Sociats as are a blemish to a Gentleman imagine with your selves how mortally dangerous it is to enter an infected house how fearefull would any one bee of the state of his body if hee should have one in his company who had the carbuncle or plague-sore running upon him how much would hee condemne his owne rashnesse to entertaine any such in his company and with what respect or cautelous advice would he prepare to expell the poyson of that infection at least to prevent the occasion no cost might be spared no care intermitted that some soveraigne receit might be procured whereby the apparent danger into which his inconsiderate rashnesse had brought him might be removed Now if our bodies being but the covers of more curious and exquisite instruments be so especially tendred with what respect ought we to provide for the safety or security of our soules The ground of a disease is to mixe the sound with the sicke now the soules disease is sinne wherewith shee laboureth more painfully than the body can doe being annoyed with any infirmity Those that are sicke are vicious men whose disease though it be insensible and in that lesse curable it breakes out into loathsome ulcers which staine the pristine beauty of the soule Now as wee serve so many vices wee serve so many masters and so many masters so many divels each one having so many divels as evils Which miserable servitude to prevent for no slavery is baser than the service of sinne the best and soveraignest receit that may be applied or ministred to the soule-sicke patient is the receit of adversion to turn aside from the waies of the wicked and to keepe no company with the transgressour for this adversion from the companions of sin is a conversion to the God of Sion Would you then have God turne to you turne you from your sinnes Would you bee at one with your Maker be ever divided from these sensuall mates so shall you bee made happy by the company of your Maker Would you bee sound at heart leave to consort with these of an uncircumcised heart whose paths lead to perdition and they that walke therein shall be the heires of shame For howsoever these instruments of sinne as I have sometimes observed may make a shew of godlinesse or pretend meerely under colour to give a varnish to their vicious lives and a semblance of goodnesse yet it is but meere painting they deale with they deny the power thereof in their life and conversation A ridiculous Actor in the Citie of Smyrna pronouncing O coâ—lum O heaven pointed with his finger toward the ground which when Polemo the chiefest man in the place saw he could abide to stay no longer but went from the company in a chase saying This foole hath made a Solecisme with his hand hee hath spoken false Latine with his hand Such ridiculous Actors are these time-spenders they pronounce heaven with their mouth but point at earth with their lives like wise Polemons therefore
this did all the Saints and servants of God joy disvaluing all other joy as unworthy the entertainment of the soule Wee are to rejoyce likewise for as much as God hath called us not to uncleannesse but unto holinesse We are to rejoyce in the testimony of a good conscience being that continuall feast which refresheth every faithfull guest Wee are to rejoyce in our brothers aversion from sinne and conversion to God in his prosperity and successe in his affaires of state But above all things wee are so to moderate our joy in the whole progresse of our life that our joy may the more abound in him who is the crowne of our hope after this life The like directions are required in our moderation of sorrow for there is a sorrow unto death which to prevent understand this by the way that not so much the passion as the occasion enforcing the passion is to bee taken heed of Sorrow wee may but not as Ammon did till he had defloured Thamar for that was the sorrow of licentiousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ahab did till he had got Naboths vineyard for that was the sorrow of covetousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Iosephs brethren did greiving that their father should love him more than them for that was the sorrow of maliciousnesse Sorrow we may but not as Ionah did grieving that the Ninivites were not destroyed for that was the sorrow of unmercifulnesse Lastly sorrow wee may but not as the Gergesenes did grieving for the losse of their swine for that was the sorrow of worldlinesse These sorrowes are not so much to be moderated as wholly abolished because they are grounded on sin but there is a religious and godly sorrow which though it afflict the body it refresheth the spirit though it fill the heart with heavinesse it crowneth the soule with happinesse And this is not a sorrow unto sinne but a sorrow for sin not a sorrow unto death but a sorrow to cure the wound of death By how much any one saith a good Father is holier by so much in prayer are his teares plentifuller Here sounds the Surdon of religious sorrow the awaker of devotion the begetter of spirituall compunction and the sealer of heavenly consolation being the way to those that beginne truth to those that profit and life to them that are perfect But alas the naturall man saith the Apostle perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnes unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned It is true and this should move us to more fervor of devotion beseeching the divine assistance to minister strength to our weaknesse that what is wanting in the flesh may be supplied by the spirit yea daily to set an houre-glasse beside us and observe those precious graines the minute treasures of time how swiftly they run thorow the Cruet whereof not one must fall unnumbred for as a haire of the head shall not perish no more shall the least moment of time Now how healthfull were it though the carnall man distate it to vie teares with graines of sand that our sinnes being as the Sands of the Sea-shore that is numberlesse might bee bound up and throwne into the deepe Sea of eternall forgetfulnesse so as they may neither rise up in this life to shame us nor in the world to come to condemne us Surely if you would know those blessed fruits which true penitent sorrow produceth you shall finde that He who sowes in teares shall reape in joy Neither can any one goe to heaven with drie eyes May your teares be so shed on earth that they may bee bottled in heaven so shall you bring your sheaves with you and like fine flower being boulted from the bran of corruption receive your portion in the land of the living And may this Sacrifice of teares which you offer up unto him whose eyes are upon all the wayes of the children of men minister like comfort to your soules as they have done to many faithfull members of Christs Church And let this suffice to have beene spoken of such Subjects wherein Moderation is to bee used for to speake of Moderation of sorrow for sinne I hold it little necessary seeing most men so insensible are they of their inward wounds come rather short of that sorrow which is required then exceed in any sort the measure that is prescribed AS Moderation in all the precedent subjects is to be used so in all and every of them is it to be limited for to be so Stoically affected as wee have formerly noted as not to entertaine so much as modest mirth or approve of the temperate and moderate use of those things which were at first ordained for the use and service of man digressing as farre from the rule of Moderation in restraint as the profusely minded Libertine doth in excesse How hard a thing is it then to observe with indifferency an equall or direct course herein when either by leaping short or over we are subject to error So saith blessed Cranmer Some lose their game by short shooting some by over-shooting some walk too much on the left hand some too much on the right hand Now to propose what forme of direction is best to be observed herein wee will take a view of those Subjects whereof wee formerly treated and set downe in each of them what Moderation is to be used All waters are derived from three waies or currents springing either by fountaines and spring-heads from the bowells of the earth inwardly drained by rivers and conduits from those fountaines derived or haile and snow from the earth extracted where some ascend some descend so passions are three wayes moved in our bodies by humours arising out of our bodies by externall senses and the secret passage of sensuall objects or by the descent or commandement of reason Now to insist on the motion or effect of each passion we shall not greatly need having sufficiently touched them in our former discourse we will therfore upon a review of those severall subjects Lust Ambition Gorgeous apparel Luscious fare Company-keeping c. reduce them and the occasion of them to those three troubled Springs from whence miserable man by meanes of the immoderate appetite of sense sucks the banefull poyson of sinne The Concupiscence of the Flesh the Concupiscence of the eyes and the Pride of life for whatsoever is in the world as a good Father noteth and as the blessed Apostle himself affirmeth is one of these As first whatsoever suiteth or sorteth with the desire or delicacy of the flesh ministers fuel or matter to feed the Concupiscence therof Now this fleshly Libertine takes no delight in the Spirit but in the Flesh he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to be cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day he loves to keepe company with those consorts of
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 let rewards allure us The faithfull cry ever for the approach of Gods judgement the reward of immortality which with assurance in Gods mercy and his Sonnes Passion they undoubtedly hope to obtaine with vehemency of spirit inviting their Mediator 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 for 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 fearefull 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 feare in all the world who hath God for his guardian in the world Neither is it possible that he should feare the losse of any thing 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 Darkeness 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 onely 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 Witness 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 body dieth because a soule is not in it Therefore the soule of thy soule is faith But forasmuch as nothing is so carefully to be sought for nor so earnestly to be 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 certain proposed end which end surely is to the Soule at first proposed but the last which is obtained how much more ought there to bee 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 wee were to run were it not a vaine taske for us to undertake to runne Even so to every Action are wee to propose his certaine end which being once attained we 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 sight against the spirit which may bee properly reduced to the practising of these foure overcomming of anger by the spirit of patience wantonness by the spirit of continence pride by the spirit of humility and in all things unto him whose Image we 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 passion which makes man more forgetfull of himselfe so to subdue it makes man an absolute enjoyer of himselfe Athenodorus a wise Philosopher departing from Augustus Caesar and bidding him farewell left this lesson with him most worthy to be imprinted in an Emperours brest That when hee was angry hee should repeat the foure and twenty Greeke letters Which lesson received Caesar as a most precious jewell making such use thereof as hee shewed himselfe no lesse a Prince in the conquest of this passion than in his magnificence of state and majesty of person No lesse praise-worthy was that excellent soveraignty which Architas had over this violent and commanding passion as we have formerly observed who finding his servants loitering in the field or committing some other fault worthy reproofe like a worthy master thought it fit first to over-master himselfe before he would show the authority of a Master to his servants wherefore perceiving himselfe to be greatly moved at their neglect as a wise Moderator of his passion hee would not beat them in his ire but said Happy are ye that I am angry with you In briefe because my purpose is onely to touch these rather than treat of them having so amply discoursed of some of them formerly as the Sunne is not to goe downe upon our wrath so in remembrance of that sonne of righteousness let us bury all wrath so shall we be freed from the viols of wrath and appeare blamelesse in the day of wrath For in peace shall we descend to our graves without sighing if in peace we be angry without sinning Secondly wantonness being so familiar a Darling with the flesh is ever waging warre with the spirit she comes with powdred haire painted cheeks straying eyes mincing and measuring her pace tinkling with her feet and using all immodesty to lure the unwarie youth to all sensuality These light professors as St. Ierome to Marcella
are so to moderate our desires as I have formerly touched in respect of those things we have not that wee may labour to over-master our desires in thirsting after more than wee already have likewise so to temper and qualifie our affections in respect of those things we have as to shew no immoderate sorrow for the losse of those we have but to be equally minded as well in the fruition of those we have as privation of those we have not For of all others there is no sorrow baser nor unworthier than that which is grounded on the losse of Oxe or Cow or such inferiour subjects Neither incurre they any lesse opinion of folly who carried away with the love of their Horse Hound or some such creature use of some prize or conquest got to reare in their memory some Obeliske or Monument graced with a beauteous inscription to preserve their fame because poore beasts they have nothing to preserve themselves for howsoever this act seeme to have some correspondence with gratitude labouring only to grace them who have graced us rearing a stone to perpetuate their fame who memoriz'd our Name by speed of foot yet is it grosse and so palpable to those whose discretion is a moulder of all their actions as they account it an act worthier the observation of an Heathen than a Christian. Cimon buried his Mares bestowing upon them specious Tombs when they had purchased credit in the swift races of the Olympiads Xantippus bewailed his Dogs death which had followed his master from Calamina Alexander erected a Citie in the honour of Bucephaâ—us having beene long defended by him in many dangerous battells And the Asse may well among the Heathen be adorned with Lilies Violets and Garlands when their Goddesse Vesta by an Asses bray avoyded the rape of Priapus But howsoever these actions among Pagans might carry some colour of thankefulnesse rewarding them by whose speed fury agility or some other meanes they have been as well preserved as honoured yet with Christians whose eyes are so clearely opened and by the light divine so purely illumined would these seeme acts of prophanesse ascribing honour to the creature to whom none is due and not to the Creator to whom all honour is solely and properly due In briefe let us so esteeme of all the goods and gifts of Fortune as of Vtensils fit for our use and service but of the Supreme good as our chiefest Solace For he who subjected all things to the feet of man that man might be wholly subject unto him and that man might be wholly his hee gave man dominion over all those workes of his so hee created all outward things for the body the body for the soule but the soule for him that shee might only intend him and only love him possessing him for solace but inferiour things for service Thus farre Gentlemen hath this present discourse inlarged it selfe to expresse the rare and incomparable effects which naturally arise from the due practice of Moderation being indeed a vertue so necessary and well deserving the acquaintance of a Gentleman who is to bee imagined as one new come to his lands and therefore stands in great need of so discreet an Attendant as there is no one vertue better sorting ranke not onely in matters of preferment profit or the like but in matters of reputation or personall ingagement where his very name or credit is brought to the tesh Looke not then with the eye of scorne on such a follower but take these instructions with you for a fare-well Doth Ambition buzze in your care motions of Honour This faithfull Attendant Moderation will disswade you from giving way to these suggestions and tell you Ambition is the high road which leads to ruine but Humility is the gate which opens unto glory Doth Covetousnesse whisper to you matters of profit Here is one will tell you the greatest wealth in the world is to want the desires of the world Doth Wantonnesse suggest to you motives of Delight Here is that Hâ—rbe of Grace which will save you from being wounded and salve you already wounded In briefe both your expence of Time and Coine shall be so equally disposed as you shall never need to redeeme Time because you never prodigally lost it nor repent your fruitlesse expence of Coine because you never profusely spent it Thus if you live you cannot chuse but live for ever for ever in respect of those choice vertues which attend you for ever in respect of your good Example moving others to imitate you and for ever in respect of that succeeding glory which shall crowne you THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN Argument Of Perfection Contemplative and Active The Active preferred Wherein it consisteth Of the absolute or Supreme end whereto it aspireth and wherein it resteth PERFECTION WEE are now to treat of a Subject which while wee are here on earth is farre easier to discourse of then to find for Perfection is not absolute in this life but graduall So as howsoever wee may terme one perfect or compleat in respect of some especiall qualities wherewith hee is endued yet if wee come to the true ground of Perfection wee shall find it farre above the Spheare of Mortality to ascend to for man miserable man what is hee or of himselfe what can hee to make him absolutely perfect Exceed hee can but in nothing but sinne which is such a naturall imperfection as it wholly detracts from his primitive Perfection Time was indeed when man knew no sinne and in that ignorance from sinne consisted his Perfection But no sooner was that banefull Apple tasted then in the knowledge of sinne hee became a professant Wee are therefore to discourse of such Perfection as wee commonly in opinion hold for absolute though in very deed it appeare onely respective and definite for to treat of that Perfection which is transcendent or indefinite were to sound the Sea or weigh the Mountaines so farre it exceedeth the conceit of man yea I say to taske humane apprehension to the discussion of that soveraigne or supreme Perfection were as unequally matched as ever were earth and heaven strength and weaknesse or the great Behâ—moth and the silliest worme that creepeth in the chinks of the earth Let us addresse our selves then to this Taske and make this our ground That as no man is simply good but God so no man is absolutely perfect till hee be individually united to God which on earth is not granted but promised not effected but expected not obtained but with confidence desired when these few but evill dayes of our Pilgrimage shall be expired yet is there a graduall Perfection which in some degree or measure wee may attaine becomming conformable unto him whose Image wee have received and by whom wee have so many singular graces and prerogatives on us conferred And this Perfection is to be procured by assistance of Gods Spirit and a desire in man to second that assistance by an assiduall endeavour
Which devout and godly endevour that it might be the better furthered and his glory by whose grace wee are assisted the more advanced needfull it were to reduce to our memory daily and hourely these two maine Considerations First those three profest Enemies that infatigably assaile us which should make us more watchfull Secondly that faithfull friend who so couragiously fights for us which should make us more thankefull for our Enemies as they are some of them domestick so are they more dangerous for no foe more perillous then a bosome foe Besides they are such pleasing Enemies as they cheere us when they kill us sting us when they smile on us And what is the instrument they worke on but the soule And what the time limited them to worke in but our life Which humours doe swell up sorrowes bring downe heats dry aire infect meat puffe up fasting macerate jests dissolve sadnesse consume care straineth security deludeth youth extolleth wealth transporteth poverty dejecteth old-age crooketh infirmity breaketh griefe depresseth the Divell deceiveth the world flattereth the flesh is delighted the soule blinded and the whole man perplexed How should we now oppose our selves to such furious and perfidious Enemies Or what armour are wee to provide for the better resisting of such powerfull and watchfull Assailants Certainely no other provision need we then what already is laid up in store for us to arme and defend us and what those blessed Saints and servants of Christ have formerly used leaving their owne vertuous lives as patternes unto us Their Armour was fasting Prayer and workes of Devotion by the first they made themselves fit to pray in the second they addressed themselves to pray as they ought in the third they performed those holy duties which every Christian of necessity ought to performe And first for Fasting it is a great worke and a Christian worke producing such excellent effects as it subjects the flesh to the obedience of the spirit making her of a commander a subject of one who tooke upon her an usurped authority to humble her selfe to the soules soveraignty Likewise Prayer how powerfull it hath beene in all places might bee instanced in sundry places of holy Scripture In the Desart where temptation is the readiest In the Temple where the Divell is oft-times busiest On the Sea where the flouds of perils are the nearest In Peace where security makes men forgetfullest And in Warre where imminent danger makes men fearfull'st Yea whether it be with Daniel in the Denne or Manasses in the Dungeon whether it be with holy David in the Palace or heavenly Ieremie in the Prison the power and efficacie of Prayer sacrificed by a devout and zealous beleever cannot choose but be as the first and second raigne fructifying the happy soile of every faithfull soule to her present comfort here and hope of future glory else-where Thirdly workes of Devotion being the fruits or effects of a spirituall conversation as ministring to the necessity of the Saints wherein we have such plenty of examples both in divine and humane writ as their godly charity or zealous bounty might worthily move us to imitate such blessed Patternes in actions of like Devotion For such were they as they were both liberall and joyed in their liberality every one contributing so much as hee thought fit or pleased him to bestow And whatsoever was so collected to the charge or trust of the Governour or Disposer of the stocke of the poore was forthwith committed Here was that poore-mans Box or indeed Christs Box wherein the charity of the faithfull was treasured Neither did these holy Saints or Servants of God in their Almes eye so much the quality of the person as his Image whom hee did represent And herein they nourished not a sinner but a righteous beggâ—â— because they loved not his sinne but his nature But now because wee are to treat of Perfection in each of these wee are to observe such cautions as may make the worke perfect without blemish and pure from the mixture of flesh As first in that godly practice of Fasting to observe such mediocrity as neither desire to be knowne by blubbered eyes hanging downe the head nor any such externall passion may tax us to bee of those Pharisees whose devotion had relation rather to the observance of man then the service of God neither so to macerate the body as to disable it for performing any office which may tend to the propagation of the glory of the Highest For the first institution of Fasts as it was purposely to subdue the inordinate motions of the flesh and subject it to the obedience and observance of the spirit so divers times were by the ancient Fathers and Councels thought fitting to be kept in holy abstinence of purpose to remove from them the wrath of God inflicted on them by the sword pestilence famine or some other such like plague Saint Gregory instituted certaine publike Fasts resembling the Rogation Weeke with such like solemne processions against the plague and pestilence as this Rogation-weeke was first ordained by another holy Bishop to that end As for the Ember-dayes they were so called of our ancient fore-fathers in this Countrey because on these fasting dayes men eate bread baked under embers or ashes But to propose a certaine rule or forme of direction there is none surer or safer then that which wee formerly proposed So to nourish our bodies that they bee not too much weakned by which meanes more divine offices might be hindered and againe so to weaken our bodies that they be not too much pampered by which meanes our spirituall fervor might bee coâ—led For too delicate is that master who when his belly is crammed would have his mind with devotion crowned Secondly for Prayer as it is to be numbred among the greatest workes of charity so of all others it should be freest from hypocrisie for it is not the sound of the mouth but the soundnesse of the heart which makes this oblation so effectually powerfull and to him that prayeth so powerfully fruitfull It is not beating of the breast with the fist but inward compunction of the heart flying with the wing of faith that pierceth heaven For neither could Trasylla's devotion whereof Gregory relates have beene so powerfull nor Gorgonius supplication whereof Nazianzen reports so fruitfull nor Iames the brother of our Lord his invocation whereof Eusebius records so faithfull nor Paul the Eremites daily oblation whereof Ierome recounts so effectuall if pronunciation of the mouth without affection of the heart beating of the brest without devotion of mind dejection of face without erection of faith had accompanied their prayer For it is not hanging downe the head like a bulrush which argues contrition but a passionate affection of the heart which mounts up to the throne of grace till it purchase remission Thirdly for Almes-deeds and other workes of Devotion being
the fruits or effects of faith as they are sweet odours and shall not lose their reward being duly practised so wee must take these three cautions by the way lest such sweet fruits bee corrupted The first is to give her owne and not anothers for that were robbery The second is to give to the poore and not to the rich in hope of commodity The third is to give in mercy or fellow-feeling of others wants and not for vaine-glory For howsoever the poore need not care for any of these respects because hee is rewarded yet the giver is to care because his reward should hereby become frustrated Certainely there is nothing which relisheth better to the palate of our Maker then ministring reliefe to the needy Begger who is Gods begger as a holy Father cals him and therefore should be relieved for his cause that sent him Those Goats set on the left hand doe affright me not because they were robbers but because they were no feeders saith Nazianzen therefore are we willed to feed the hunger-starved soule lest want should famish him for if wee suffer him to die for food wee and none but wee did famish him Thus if wee observe a-right the zealous and religious practice of those blessed Patternes who have gone before us and have left their memorable lives as examples to be imitated by us we shall in some measure attaine to that Perfection whereof wee now discourse labouring so to moderate our affections herein as neither vaine-glory nor any other fleshly respect may interpose it selfe in actions of such maine and serious consequence For albeit as I formerly noted no man may come to that absolute Perfection either in matters of knowledge or practice of life as if nothing could bee further attained but that the very highest pitch of Perfection were acquired yet are there degrees which in some measure may be attained if those vertues which conduce to this Perfection bee duly practised For it is not professing of vertue but practising neither practising of one but all which gives life to this Perfection For hee whom wee sincerely perfect call Excels not in one vertue but in all Which Perfection farre exceeds all others derived from some exquiâ—ite knowledge in Arts or Sciences for these how absolutely soever they be come farre short of that perfection which longer time and experience might bring them to Alcibiades is reported to have beene so skilfull in all Arts and Exercises that he won the prize in what enterprize soever he tooke in hand which was no small glory when in the Olympian or Istmian games he no sooner appeared than those who were to contend with him were forthwith dismaied yet came this perfection short of that whereof we now discourse For it may bee probably gathered that albeit hee was the activest in his time on Istmus yet all the activest youths of Greece were not on Istmus or if they were yet the whole world had youths more active and in all parts more absolute than they were in Greece For to seeke perfection on earth either in respect of minde or body either in ability of the one or excellency of the other were in aethere quarere nidum hee only being most perfect who acknowledgeth himselfe to bee most imperfect Cicero brings in M. Antony saying that there bee many follow and yet come not to the perfection Which hee might have instanced the best in himselfe for who for discipline more exquisite for attempts in his own person more valiant for ripenesse of wit more pregnant or for tongue more powerfully perswasive than M. Antony Yet to observe how much those more excellent parts were disabled that light of understanding darkned that pregnancy of wit rebated that perswasive Orator by a wanton Oratresse seduced yea even that Mirror of men blemished might move us freely and ingenuously to acknowledge as there is nothing more variable than man in respect of his condition so nothing more prone to evill in respect of his naturall corruption So as howsoever he may seeme in some sort perfect either in moderating his affections with patience or subduing his desires with reason yet there is ever some one defect or other that darkens those Perfections Wherefore as Marius bombasted his stockins to give a better proportion to his small legs if any one would have his good parts set out hee had need to weare some counterfeit disguise to cover his wants and so gull the world as Iuno deceived Ixion with a cloud Truth is that the worthiest men have beene stained with some notable crime Caesar though hee were moderate yet was hee incontinent Alexander though continent yet was he immoderate Sylla though valiant yet was hee violent Galba though eminent yet was hee insolent Lucullus generous yet delicious Marcellus glorious yet ambitious Architas patient yet avaritious Archias pregnant yet lascivious So as Homers understanding Platoes wit Diogenes phrase Aeschines Art of Oratorie and Cicero's tongue could not assume to themselves such Perfection as to free them from other blemishes which detracted as much from their worth as these Perfections added to their glory For howsoever that saying of Solon may seeme authenticke All things among men are sound and perfect it is to be understood that he meant of dealings or commerce among good men whose word is their bond and whose profession is to deale uprightly with al men All things among such men are sound and perfect for no commoditie can move them to infringe their faith or falsifie their word for any advantage But it may be objected if none can be perfect whence is it that we reade we ought to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect or how is it that Paul exhorteth us to Perfection or how may we be presented every man perfect in Christ Iesus Surely not of us nor of our selves but through him who became righteousnesse and all Perfection for us that he might perfect that in us which was farre from us without his especiall grace working or operating in us Yet are we to labour and strive hard towards the marke that is set before us not ceasing till wee become conformable unto him and be made perfect in him But become conformable unto him wee cannot unlesse wee take delight in contemplating him to whom our desire is to be conformed We will therefore descend to the second branch proposed to wit the Contemplative part of Perfection wherein we shall easily finde what divine comfort is ministred to the minde in contemplating Him who distinguished Man from the rest of his creatures by a reasonable minde IT was the saying of a Heathen If God tooke delight in any felicitie it was in contemplation To the free use whereof even those which are as Hortensius called L. Torquatus unlearned rude an ignorant may bee admitted For howsoever some have beene pleased to terme the Images of Saints Laymens-Bookes sure I am whosoever he be be he never so
choicest gifts of nature accomplished of their owne disposition well affected who by consorting with inordinate men have given reines to liberty and blasted those faire hopes which their friends and country had planted on them how requisite then is it for every one whose thoughts aime at Perfection to consort with such as may better him and not deprave him informe him and not corrupt him For if there be a kind of resemblance betwixt the diseases of the body and the vices or enormities of the mind what especiall care are we to take lest by keeping company with those who are already depraved we become likewise infected Men would be loth to enter any house that is suspected only to be infected which if at unawares they have at any time entred they presently make recourse to the Apothecary to receive some soveraigne receit to expell it And if men bee so affraid lest this house the body which like a shaken building menaceth ruine daily should perish what great respect ought to bee had to the soule which is the guest of the body Shall corruption bee so attended and tendred and the precious Image of incorruption lessened and neglected God forbid specious or gorgeous Sepulchres are not so to bee trimmed that the cost bestowed on them should cause the divine part to bee wholly contemned To remove which contempt if any such there bee I will recommend to your devoutest meditation these two particulars First who it was that made us Secondly for what end he made us To which two briefly we intend to referre the Series of this present discourse For the first we are to know that no man is his owne maker It is hee that made us who made all things for us that they might minister unto us and to our necessity ordaining these for our Service and himselfe for our Solace He it is who hath subjected all things to the feete of man that man might wholly become subject unto him yea and that man might become wholly his hee gave man absolute dominion over all those workes of his creating all outward things for the body the body for the soule and the soule for himselfe And to what end Even to this end that man might onely intend him onely love him possessing him to his Solace but inferiour things to his Service Now to dilate a little upon this great worke of our Creation wee may collect from sacred scripture a foure-fold Creation or Generation The first in Adam who came neither of man nor woman the second in Eve who came of man without woman the third in Christ who came not of man but woman the fourth in us who came both of man and woman For the first as he had from Earth his Creation so it shewed the weaknesse of his composition the vilenesse of his condition with the certainty of his dissolution For the second as she had from man her forming so it figured their firmenesse of union inseparable communion and inviolable affection For the third as he came onely of woman so he promised by the Seed of the woman to â—ruise the Serpents head who had deceived woman and restore man to the state of grace from which hee had fallen by meanes of a woman For the fourth as wee came both from man and woman so wee bring with us into the world that Originall sinne which wee derive both from man and woman the sting whereof cannot bee rebated but onely through him who became man borne of a woman But in this great worke of our Creation wee are not to observe so much the matter as quality and nature of our Creation For the matter of our Creation or that whereof wee bee composed what is it but vile earth slime and corruption So as howsoever wee appeare beautifull specious and amiable in the sight of man whose eye is fixed on the externall part yet when the oile of our Lampe is consumed and wee to dust and ashes reduced wee shall observe no better inscription than this Behold a specious and a precious shrine covering a stinking corps Wherefore ought we to observe the internall part and the especiall glory wee receive by it for hereby are we distinguished in the quality of our Creation from all other creatures who governe their actions by Sense onely and not by Reason Hence it was that that divine Philosopher gave God thankes for three speciall bounties conferred on him First was For that God had created him a reasonable creature and no brute beast Second For creating him a man and no woman Third For that he was a Grecian and no Barbarian This it was which moved that blessed and learned Father Saint Augustine to break out into this passionate rapsodie of spirit Thy hand could O Lord have created me a stone or a Bird or a Serpent or some brute beast and this it knew but it would not for thy goodnesse sake This it was which forced from that devout and zealous Father this emphaticall discourse or intercouâ—se rather with God who upon a time walking in his garden and beholding a little worme creeping and crawling upon the ground presently used these words Deare Lord thou might'st have made me like this Worme and crawling despicable creature but thou would'st not and it was thy mercy that thou would'st not O as thou hast ennobled me with the Image of thy selfe make mee conformable to thy selfe that of a worm I may become an Angell of a vassall of sin a vessell of Sion of a shell of corruption a Star of glory in thy heavenly mansion And in truth there is nothing which may move us to a more serious consideration of Gods gracious affection towards us than the very Image which wee carry about us preferring us not onely before all the rest of his creatures in soveraignty and dominion but also in an amiable similitude feature and proportion whereby wee become not onely equall but even superiour unto Angels because Man was God and God Man and no Angell To whom are wee then to make recourse to as the Author of our Creation save God whose hand hath made and fashioned us whose grace hath ever since directed and prevented us and whose continued love for whom he loveth he loveth unto the end hath ever extended it selfe in ample manner towards us How frivolous then and ridiculous were their opinions who ascribed the Creation of all things to the Elements as Anaximâ—nes to the piercing Aire Hippeas to the fleeting Water Zeno to the purifying Fire Zenophanes to the lumpish Earth How miserable were these blinded how notably evinced by that learned Father who speaking in the persons of all these Elements and of all other his good creatures proceedeth in this sort I tooke my compasse saith he speaking to God in the survey of all things seeking thee and for all things relinquishing my selfe selfe I asked the Earth if it were my god it said unto me that it was not
concluded in this manner I speake generally no rayment ornament or habit whatsoever shall seeme precious in Christs sight but that which thou makest thy selfe either for thine owne peculiar use or example of other Virgins or to give unto thy grand-mother or thy mother no though thou distriâ—ute all thy goods unto the poore See how expresly this noâ—le woman was injoyned to her taske that by intending her selfe to labour shee might give lesse way unto errour Certainely as mans extremity is Gods opportunity so the Divels opportunity is mans security we are then principally to take heed lest wee give way to the incursion of Satan by our security of life and conversation And what is it that begetteth this security but Idlenesse which may be termed and not improperly the Soules Lethargie For nothing can be more opposite to this Actuall Perfection then reâ— or vacancy wee say vertue consisteth in Action how then may wee be said to be favourers followers or furtherers of vertue when we surcease from Action which is the life light and subsistence of vertue Wherefore as it is little to reade or gather but to understand and to reduce to forme what wee reade gather or understand for this is the ornament of Art the argument of labour so it is little or to no purpose that wee know conceive or apprehend unlesse wee make a fruitfull use of that knowledge by serious practice to the benefit of our selves and others I have knowne divers Physicians some whereof were of great practice but small reading others of great reading but small practice and I have heard sundry men of sufficient judgement confidently averre that in cases of necessity they had rather hazard their lives in the hand of the Practicke then Theoricke and their reason was this though the Practicke had not exercised himselfe in the perusall of bookes hee had gained him experience in the practice of cures and that the body of his patient was the onely booke within his Element To which assertion I will neither assent nor wholly dissent for as he that practiseth before hee know may sooner kill than cure so he who knoweth and seldome or never practiseth must of necessity to get him experience kill before hee cure But sure I am that many ignorant Lay-men whose knowledge was little more then what nature bestowed on them by meanes of regular discipline and powerfull subduing of their owne affections have become absolute men being such as reached to as high a pitch of Actuall Perfection as ever the learned'st or profoundest man in the world attained for it is neither knowledge nor place but the free gift of Gods grace which enableth the spirituall man to this Perfection Now forasmuch as not to goe forward is to goe backward and that there be two Solstices in the Sunnes motion but none in times revolution or in a Christians progression the onely meanes to attaine this Actuall Perfection at least some small measure or degree therein is every night to have our Ephemerides about with us examining our selves what we have done that day how farre wee have profited wherein benefited our spirituall knowledge Againe wherein have we reformed our life or expressed our love to Christ by communicating to the necessity of his Saints By which meanes wee shall in short time observe what remaines unreformed esteeming it the sweetest life every day to better our life But principally are wee to looke to our affections which rise and rage in us and like the Snake in the fable pester and disturbe the inner house of man for these are they which as Saint Basil saith rise up in a drunken man drunke I meane with all spirituall fornication like a swarme of Bees buzzing on every side When the affections of men are troubled they change them like Circes cups from men to beasts Neither is it so ill to bee a beast as for man to live like a beast O then let us have an eye to our affections let them bee planted where they may be duly seasoned Earth makes them destastefull let them be fixed then in heaven the only thought whereof will cause them to be delightfull And to conclude this branch it will not be amisse for us to counterpoize our affections if we find them at any time irregular with weights of contrary nature as if we find our selves naturally affected to Pride that Luciserian sinne to counterpoise it with motives of Humility as the vilenesse of our condition basenesse of our composition and weaknesse of our constitution or naturally inclined to Covetousnesse that Mammons sinne to give though the gift afflict us liberally that our forced bounty may in time weane us from our in-bred misery if of grating oppression or grinding extortion that Ahabs sinne let us make restitution with good Zacheus and though wee cannot doe it so frankly as hee did yet let us doe it as freely as wee may that our restitution may in some sort answer for our former oppression if of excesse in fare and gluttony that Dives sinne let us so moderate our delight in feeding that our delight may be to sustaine Nature and not oppresse her with exceeding if of Lust or sensuality that Ammons sinne where that sinne may abound the Sense is obeyed let us subject all our delights to the government of reason and reason to the soveraignty of grace that the flesh may be resisted in what it most affecteth and in that seconded wherein it least delighteth if of Envie that Serpentine sinne let us entertaine brotherly love for Envie can beare no sway where Love raigneth if of Wrath that Cains sinne embrace Patience so shall Fury bee suppressed where Patience is lodged if of Sloth the Sluggards sinne let us inure our selves to some Exercise that may most delight us so in time wee may become exercised in Taskes of greater difficulty being first from Sloth weaned afterwards to greater labours inured Thus to fight were to vanquish thus to enter lists were to reape spirituall solace for through him should wee triumph who sees us fighting cheers us failing and crownes us conquering And this shall suffice to have beene spoken of the Active part of Perfection purposing according to our former method to compare the Contemplative and Active together the parts or properties of both which being duly examined it shall more plainely appeare how the Active is to be preferred IT is a barren faith wee say that is not attended on by good workes and no lesse fruitlesse is that knowledge which is exercised onely in Contemplation and never in Action Wee are therefore with Elizeus to have a double spirit a spirit that as well doeth as teacheth not onely a profering of words but also an offering of workes So as it is not breathing or moving or talking which argue a spirituall life but abounding plentifully in all holy duties expressing those effectuall and powerfull fruits of a living
wipe their mouthes as if they were innocent but behold this Haman-policy shall make them spectacles of finall misery wishing many times they had been lesse wise in the opinion of the world so they had relished of that divine wisdome which makes man truly happy in another world even that wisdome I say who hath built an everlasting foundation with men and shall continue with their seed neither can this divine wisdome chuse but bee fruitfull standing on so firme a root or the branches dry receiving life and heat from so faire a root Now to describe the beauty of her branches springing from so firme a root with the solidity of her root diffusing pith to her branches The root of wisdome saith the wise Son of Sirach is to feare the Lord and the branches thereof are long life This feare where it takes root suffers no wordly feare to take place Many worldlings become wretched onely through feare lest they should bee wretched and many die onely through feare lest they should dy but with these who are grounded in the feare of the Lord they neither feare death being assured that it imposeth an end to their misery nor the miseries of this present life being ever affied on the trust of GODS mercy How constantly zealously and gloriously many devout men have died and upon the very instant of their dissolution expostulated with their owne soules reproving in themselves their unwillingnesse to die may appeare by the examples of such whose lives as they were to GOD right pleasing so were their soules no lesse precious in their departing upon some whereof though I have formerly insisted yet in respect that such memorable patternes of sanctity cannot be too often represented I thought good purposely as usually I have done in all the Series of this present Discourse where any remarkeable thing was related to have it in divers places repeated to exemplifie this noble resolution or contempt of death in the proofe and practice of some one or two blessed Saints and Servants of God Ierome writeth of Hilarion that being ready to give up the ghost hee said thus to his soule Goe forth my soule why fearest thou Goe forth why tremblest thou Thou hast served Christ almost these threescore ten yeares and doest thou now feare death Saint Ambrose when hee was ready to die speaking to Stillico and others about his bed I have not lived so among you saith hee that I am ashamed to live longer to please God and yet againe I am not afraid to die because wee have a good Lord. The reverend Bede whom wee may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound learning in a most barbarous age when all good literature was in contempt being in the pangs of death said to the standers by I have so lived among you that I am not ashamed of my life neither feare I to die because I have a most gracious Redeemer Hee yeelded up his life with this prayer for the Church O King of glory Lord of Hostes which hast triumphantly ascended into heaven leave us not fatherlesse but send the promised Spirit of thy truth amongst us These last funerall Teares or dying mens Hymnes I have the rather renued to your memory that they might have the longer impression being uttered by dying men at the point of their dissolution And I know right well for experience hath informed me sufficiently therein that the words of dying men are precious even to strangers but when the voice of one wee love and with whom wee did familiarly live cals to us from the Death-bed O what a conflict doe his words raise How strongly do griefe and affection strive to inclose them knowing that in a short space that tongue the organs whereof yet speak and move attention by their friendly accents was to bee eternally tied up in silence nor should the sound of his words salute our cares any more And certainly the resolution of a devout dying man being upon the point of his dissolution cannot but bee an especiall motive to the hearer of Mortification Which was one cause even among the heathens of erecting Statues Obelisks or Monuments upon the Dead that eying the Sepulchers of such noble and heroick men as had their honour laid in the dust they might likewise understand that neither resolution of spirit nor puissance of body could free them from the common verdict of mortality which begot in many of them a wonderfull contempt of the world Albeit it is to bee understood that Christians doe contemne the world much otherwise than Pagans for ambition is a guide to these but the love of God unto them Diogenes trod upon Plato's pride with much greater selfe-pride but the Christian with patience and humility surmounteth and subdueth all wordly pride being of nothing so carefull as lest hee should taste the Lotium of earthly delights and so become forgetfull with Vlysses companions of his native Countrey Meane time he sojournes in the world not as a Citizen but as a Guest yea as an Exile But to returne to our present discourse now in hand in this quest after that soveraigne or supreme end whereto all Actuall Perfection aspireth and wherein it resteth wee are to consider three things 1. What is to bee sought 2. Where it is to be sought 3. When it is to be sought For the first wee are to understand that wee are to seeke onely for that the acquisition whereof is no sooner attained than the minde whose flight is above the pitch of frailty is fully satisfied Now that is a blessed life when what is best is effected and enjoyed for there can bee no true rest to the minde in desiring but partaking what she desireth What is it then that wee seeke To drinke of the water of life where our thirst may bee so satisfied as it never be renued our desires so fulfilled as never higher or further extended Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine named Clitorius fons and choice is the taste of such a fountaine will never drinke any wine no wine mixed with the dregs of vanity no wine drawne from the lees of vaine-glory the reason is hee reserves his taste for that new wine which hee is to drinke in his Fathers kingdome And what kingdome The Kingdome of heaven a kingdome most happy a kingdome wanting death and without end enjoyng a life that admits no end And what life A life vitall a life sempiternall and sempiternally joyfull And what joy A joy without sorrowing rest without labouring dignity without trembling wealth without losing health without languishing abundance without failing life without dying perpetuity without corrupting blessednesse without afflicting where the sight vision of God is seene face to face And what God God the sole sufficient summary supreme good that good which we require alone that God who is good alone And what good The Trinity of the divine persons is
this summary good which is seene with purest mindes The Heart triangle-wise resembleth the image of the blessed Trinity which can no more by the circumference of the World bee confined than a Triangle by a Circle is to bee filled So as the Circular world cannot fill the Triangular heart no more than a Circle can fill a Triangle still there will bee some empty corners it saies so long as it is fixed on the world Sheol it is never enough but fixed on her Maker her onely Mover on her sweet Redeemer her dearest Lover she chants out cheerefully this Hymne of comfort There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus She then may rest in peace And what peace A peace which passeth all understanding Shee then may embrace her Love And what Love A Love constantly loving Shee then may enjoy life And what life A life eternally living Shee then may receive a Crowne And what Crowne A Crowne gloriously shining This crowne saith S. Peter is undefiled which never fadeth away The Greeke words which S. Peter useth are Latine words also and they are not only Appellatives being the Epithetes of this Crowne but also Propers the one proper name of a Stone the other of a Flower for Isidore writeth there is a precious stone called Amiantus which though it bee never so much soiled yet it can never at all bee blemished and being cast into the fire it is taken out still more bright and cleane Also Clemens writeth that there is a flower called Amarantus which being a long time hung up in the house yet still is fresh and greene To both which the stone and the flower the Apostle as may bee probably gathered alludeth in this place Here then you see what you are to seeke For are your desires unsatisfied here is that which may fulfill them Are your soules thirsty here is the Well of life to refresh them Would you bee Kings here is a Kingdome provided for you Would you enjoy a long life a long life shall crowne you and length of daies attend you Would you have all goodnesse to enrich you enjoying GOD all good things shall bee given you Would you have salvation to come unto your house and secure you rest you in Christ Iesus and no condemnation shall draw neere you Would you have your consciences speake peace unto you the God of peace will throughout establish you Would you have your constant'st Love ever attend you He who gave himself for you will never leave you Would you have him live for ever with you Leave loving of the world so shall hee live ever with you and in you Would you have a Crowne conferred on you A Crowne of glory shall empale you Seeke then this one good wherein consisteth all goodnesse and it sufficeth Seeke this soveraigne or summary good from whence commeth every good and it sufficeth For hee is the life by which wee live the hope to which wee cleave and the glory which wee desire to obtaine For if dead hee can revive us if hopelesse and helpelesse he can succour us if in disgrace he can exalt us Him then only are wee to seeke who when wee were lost did seeke us and being found did bring us to his sheepe-fold And so I descend from what wee are to seeke to where wee are to seeke that seeking him where hee may bee found wee may at last finde him whom wee so long have sought For the second wee are to seeke it while wee are on earth but not upon earth for earth cannot containe it It is the Philosophers axiom That which is finite may not comprehend that which is infinite Now that supreme or soveraigne end to which this Actuall Perfection is directed whereto it aspireth and wherein it resteth is by nature infinite End without end beginning and end imposing to every creature a certaine definite or determinate end The sole solace of the soule being onely able to fill or satisfie the soule without which all things in heaven or under heaven joyned and conferred together cannot suffice the soule so boundlesse her extent so infinite the object of her content How should Earth then containe it or to what end should wee on Earth seeke it seeing whatsoever containeth must of necessity bee greater than that which is contained But Earth being a masse of corruption how should it confine or circumscribe incorruption Seeing nothing but immortality can cloath the Soule with glory it is not the rubbish or refuse of Earth that may adde to her beauty Besides the Soule while it so journes here in this earthly mansion shee remaines as a captive inclosed in prison What delights then can bee pleasing what delicates relishing to the palate of this prisoner Shee is an exile here on Earth what society then can bee cheerefull to one so carefull of returning to her Countrey If Captives restrained of their liberty Exiles estranged from their Countrey can take no true content either in their bondage bee it never so attempred nor in that exile bee they never so attended how should the Soule apprehend the least joy during her abode on Earth Where the treasure is there is the heart her treasure is above how can her heart bee here below Mortality cannot suit with immortality no more can Earth with the soule Whereto then bee the motions of our soule directed To Him that gave it no inferiour creature may suffice her no earthly object satisfie her nothing subject to sense fulfill her In Heaven are those heavenly objects wherewith her eye rests satisfied in Heaven are those melodious accents wherewith her eare rests solaced in Heaven those choicest odours wherewith her smell is cherished in Heaven those tastefull'st dainties wherewith her soule is nourished in Heaven those glorious creatures wherewith her selfe is numbred What difference then betwixt the satiety and saturity of Heaven and the penurie and poverty of Earth Here all things are full of labour man cannot utter it The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare filled with hearing whereas in Heaven there is length of daies and fulnesse of joy without ending And wherein consists this fulnesse Even in the sweet and comfortable sight of God But who hath seene GOD at any time To this blessed Augustine answers excellently Albeit saith hee that summary and incommutable essence that true light that indeficient light that light of Angels can bee seene by none in this life being reserved for a reward to the Saints onely in the heavenly glory yet to beleeve and understand and feele and ardently desire it is in some sort to see and possesse it Now if wee will beleeve it though our feet bee on earth our faith must bee in heaven or understand it wee must so live on earth as if our conversation were in heaven or feele it wee must have so little feeling of the delights of this life as our delight may bee wholly in heaven or desire
Miserable is the condition of that Creature who so her skin bee sleake cares not if her soule bee rough so her outward habit bee pure and without blemish values little her inward garnish Such an one hath made a firme Contract with vanity clozing her contemptuous age with a fearefull Catastrophe Thus farre have wee discoursed of the effect or abuse it selfe wee are now to treat of those two sources from whence these abuses properly arise to wit Delicacy in being more curious in our Choyce of Apparell than necessity or decency doth require secondly Superfluity in storing more variety and change of rayments than either nature needs or reason would admit were shee not transported with a sensuall affection by giving way to what unbounded appetite requires IN the search of any Minerall wee are first to digge for the veine and in the curing of any malevolent effect wee are duely and seriously to inquire the producing cause that by stopping the Spring or source wee may stay the violence of the streame Wee are then to insist of those two precedent means by which the use may bee inverted to abuse and that which of it selfe is approveable if observed with decency becomes justly reprehensible by corrupting so necessary and consequent an use either by delicacy which weakens and effeminates the spirit or by Superfluity which ever darkens the beameling of reason with the Cloud of sense Reproofe touching Apparell may bee occasioned from foure respects First when anyone weareth Apparell above their degree exceeding their estate precious attire Whence it is that Gregory saith There bee some who are of opinion that the weare of precious or sumptuous Apparell is no sinne Which if it were no fault the divine Word would never have so punctually expressed nor historically related how the Rich man who was tormented in hell was cloathed with Purple and Silke Whence wee may note that touching the matter or subject of attire humane curiosity availeth highly The first stuffe or substance of our garments was very meane to wit Skinne with Wooll Whence it is wee read that God made Adam and his wife Coats of Skinnes that is of the Skinnes of dead beasts Afterwards see the gradation of this vanity derived from humane singularity they came to Pure Wooll because it was lighter than Skinnes After that to rindes of trees to wit Flax. After that to the dung and ordure of Wormes to wit Silke Lastly to Gold and Silver and precious Stones Which preciousness of attire highly displeaseth God For instance whereof which the very Pagans themselves observed we read that the very first among the Romans who ever wore Purple was strucke with a Thunder-bolt and so dyed suddenly for a terror and mirror to all succeeding times that none should attempt to lift himselfe proudly against God in precious attire The second point reprehensible is Softnesse or Delicacy of Apparell Soft Cloathes introduce soft mindes Delicacy in the habit begets an effeminacy in the heart Iohn Baptist who was sanctified in his mothers wombe wore sharpe and rough garments Whence wee are taught that the true servant of God is not to weare garments for beauty or delight but to cover his nakednesse not for State or Curiosity but necessity and convenience Christ saith in his Gospel They that are clad in soft rayments are in Kings houses Whence appeareth a maine difference betwixt the servants of Christ and of this world The servants of this world seeke delight honour and pleasure in their attire whereas the servants of Christ so highly value the garment of innocence as they loath to staine it with outward vanities It is their honour to put on Christ Iesus other robes you may rob them of and give them occasion to joy in your purchase The third thing reproveable is forraine Fashions When wee desire nothing more than to bring in some Outlandish habit different from our owne in which respect so Apishly-anticke is man it becomes more affected than our owne Against such the Lord threatneth I will visit the Princes and the Kings children and all such as are cloathed with strange Apparell Which strange Apparell is after divers fashions and inventions wholly unknowne to our Ancestors Which may appeare sufficiently to such who within this 30 or 40 or 60. yeares never saw such cutting carving nor indenting as they now see The fourth thing reproveable is Superfluity of Apparell expressed in these three particulars first in those who have divers changes and suits of Cloaths who had rather have their garments eaten by moaths than they should cover the poore members of Christ. The naked cry the needy cry the shreekingly complaine unto us how they miserably labour and languish of hunger and cold What availes it them that wee have such changes of rayments nearly plaited and folded rather than wee will supply them they must bee starved How doe such rich Moath-wormes observe the Doctrine of Christ when hee saith in his Gospel He that hath two Coats let him give one to him that hath none Secondly wee are to consider the Superfluity of such who will have long garments purposely to seeme greater yet which of these can adde one cubit to his stature This puts me in remembrance of a conceited story which I have sometimes heard of a diminutive Gentleman who demanding of his Tayler what yards of Sattin would make him a Suite being answered farre short in number of what hee expected with great indignation replied Such an one of the Guard to my knowledge had thrice as much for a Suite and I will second him Which his Tayler with small importunacy condescended to making a Gargantua's Suite for this Ounce of mans flesh reserving to himselfe a large portion of shreads purposely to forme a fitter proportion for his Ganimede shape The third Superfluity ariseth from their vanity who take delight in wearing great sleeves mishapen Elephantine bodies traines sweeping the earth with huge poakes to shroud their phantasticke heads as if they had committed some egregious fact which deserved that censure for in the Easterne Countries it hath beene usually observed that such light Women as had distained their honour or laid a publike imputation on their name by consenting to any libidinous act were to have their heads sow'd up in a poake to proclaime their shame and publish to the world the quality of their sinne NOw to insist more punctually on that effeminatour both of youth and age Delicacy of Apparell I would have our Daughters of Albion reflect upon themselves those poore shells of corruption what a trimming and tricking they bestow on their brittle houses Petrarch's advice was that wee should not be afraid though our out-houses these structures of our bodies were shaken so our soules the guests of our bodies fared well Whereas contrariwise these whose onely care is to delude the outward appearance with a seeming faire so they may preserve the varnish disvalue the foundation O may this folly be a stranger to our
Nation To allay which fury attemper which frenzie I hold no receipt more soveraigne then to enter into a serious meditation of your frailty As first to consider what you were before your birth secondly what from your birth to your death lastly what after death If you reflect upon the first you shall find that you have beene what before you were not afterwards were what now you are not first made of vile matter see the Embleme of humane nature wrapped in a poore skin nourished in an obscure place your Coate the second skinne till you came to a sight of the Sunne which you entertained with a shreek implying your originall sinne Thus attired thus adorned came you to us what makes you then so unmindfull of that poore case wherein you came among us Hath beauty popular applause youthfull heate or wealth taken from you the knowledge of your selves Derive your pedigree and blush at your matchlesse folly that pride should so highly magnifie it selfe in dust or glory most in that which brings with it the most shame Why doe you walke with such haughty necks why doe you extoll your selves so highly in these Tabernacles of earth Attend and consider you were but vilde corrupted seed at the first and now fuller of pollution then at the first Entring the world with a shreeke to expresse your ensuing shame you became afterwards exposed to the miseries of this life and to sinne in the end wormes and wormes meat shall you be in the grave Why then are you proud yee dusty shrines yee earthen vessels seeing your conception was impurity birth misery life penalty death extremity Why doe yee embellish and adorne your flesh with such port and grace which within some few dayes wormes will devoure in the grave Meane time you neglect the incomparable beauty of your soules For with what ornaments doe ye adorne them With what sweet odours or spirituall graces doe yee perfume them With what choyce Flowers of piety and devotion doe yee trim them What Habits doe yee prepare for them when they must bee presented before him who gave them How is it that yee so dis-esteeme the soule preferring the flesh before her For the Mistresse to play the Handmaid the Handmaid the Mistresse is a great abuse There can be no successe in that family where the houshold is managed so disorderly O restraine your affections limit your desires beare an equall hand to the better part The Building cannot stand unlesse you remove the rubbish from the foundation The Soule in the body is like a Queene in her Palace If you would then have this little Common-wealth within you to flourish you must with timely providence suppresse all factious and turbulent molesters of her peace your passions especially those of vaine glory must bee restrained motives to humility cherished chaste thoughts embraced all devious and wandring cogitations excluded that the soule may peaceably enjoy her selfe and in her Palace live secured Whereto if you object that this is an hard lesson you cannot despise the world nor hate the flesh tell mee where are all those lovers of the world cherishers of the flesh which not long since were among us Nothing now remaineth of them but dust and wormes Consider diligently for this consideration will be a Counterpoize to all vaine-glory what they now are and what they have beene Women they were as you are they have eat drunke laughed spent their dayes in jollity and now in a moment gone downe to hell Here their flesh is apportioned to wormes there their soules appointed to hell fire till such time as being gathered together to that unhappy society they shall be rowled in eternall burnings as they were before partakers with them in their vices For one punishment afflicteth whom one love of sinne affecteth Tell mee what profiteth them their vaine-glory short joy worldly power pleasure of the flesh evill got wealth a great family and concupiscence arising carnally Where now is their laughter Where their jests Where their boasting Where their arrogance From so great joy how great heavinesse After such small pleasure how great unhappinesse From so great joy they are now fallen into great wretchednesse grievous calamity unsufferable torments What hath befallen them may befall you being Earth of Earth slime of slime Of Earth you are of Earth you live and to Earth you shall returne Take this with you for an infallible position in these your Cottages of Corruption If you follow the flesh you shall be punished in the flesh if you bee delighted in the flesh you shall be tormented in the flesh for by how much more your flesh is cockered in this world with all delicacy by so much more shall your soules bee tormented in hell eternally If you seeke curious and delicate rayments for the beauty and bravery of your rayments shall the moath bee laid under you and your Covering shall be Wormes And this shall suffice to have beene spoken touching Delicacy of Apparell wee are now to descend briefly to the second branch Superfluity whereof wee intend to discourse with that brevity as the necessity of the Subject whereof wee treat shall require and the generality of this spreading malady may enforce DIvine is that saying and well worthy your retention The covetous person before hee gaine loseth himselfe and before hee take ought is taken himselfe He is no lesse wanting to himselfe in that which he hath than in that which he hath not He findes that he lost not possesseth that he owes not detaines that he ought not hates to restore what he injuriously enjoyes So unbounded is the affection or rather so depraved is the avaritious mans inclination as he cannot containe his desires within bounds not enter parley with reason having once slaved his better part to the soveraignty of a servile affection This may appeare even in this one particular Food and rayment are a Christians riches wherein hee useth that moderation as hee makes that Apostolicall rule his Christian direction Having food and rayment I have learned in all things to bee contented But how miserably is this golden rule inverted by our sensuall worldling Competency must neither bee their Cater in the one nor Conveniency their Tayler in the other Their Table must labour of variety of dishes and their Wardrobe of exchange of raiments No reason more probable than this of their naked insides which stand in need of these superfluous additaments What myriads of indisposed houres consume these in beautifying rotten tombes How curious they are in suiting their bodies how remisse in preferring their soules suit to their Maker How much they are disquieted in their choyce how much perplexed in their change how irresolute what they shall weare how forgetfull of what they were This edging suits not that purle sorts not this dressing likes not off it must after all bee fitted and with a new Exchange lesse seemely but more gaudy suited The fashion that was in prime request but yesterday
encounter with some of these Complete Amorists who will make a set speech to your Glove and sweeten every period with the perfume of it Others will hold it an extraordinary grace to become Porters of your Misset or holders of your Fanne while you pinne on your Maske Service Observance Devotion be the Generall heads of their Complement Other Doctrine they have none either to instruct morally or informe politically Beleeve it Gentlewomen they are ill-spent houres that are bestowed in conference with these Braine-wormes Their frivolous discourse will exact from you some answer which if you shape justly to their dialect there will bee more vaine wind spent than you can redeeme with many teares Let no conceit transport you above your selves hold it for no Complement worthy your breeding to trifle time in love-toyes They detract both from discretion and modesty and oft-times endanger the ruine of the latter fearefully This kinde of Complement with great ones were but meere Canting among Beggars Hee or shee are the Completest who in arguments of discourse and action are discreetest Full vessels give the least sound Such as hold Complement the sole subject of a glib tongue active cringe or artfull smile are those onely Mimicks or Buffouns of our age whose Behaviours deserve farre more derision than applause Thus you have heard how Complement may bee corrupted wee now purpose with as much propriety and brevity as wee may to shew you how it may bee refined To the end that what is in its owne nature so commendable may bee entertained with freedome of choyce and reteined without purpose to change THe Vnicornes horne being dipt in water cleares and purifies it It is the honour of the Physician to restore nature after it bee decayed It is the sole worke of that supreme Architect to bring light out of darkenesse that what was darke might bee enlightened life out of death that what was dead might bee enlivened way out of error that the erring might bee directed knowledge out of ignorance that the ignorant might bee instructed a salve out of sinne that sinnes sore might bee cured comfort out of affliction that the afflicted might bee comforted hope out of despaire that the desperate might bee succoured a raising from falling that their fall might bee recovered strength out of weaknesse that his great worke might bee glorified Gold thrice tryed becomes the purer and more refined And Complement the most when it is best accommodated True it is that Society is either a Plague or a Perfume It infects where Consorts are ill-affected but workes excellent effects where vertuous Consorts are assembled It is the sweetest note that one can sing When Grace in Vertues key tunes Natures string Where two meeke men meet together their conference saith mellifluous Bernard is sweet and delectable where one man is meeke it is profitable where neither it proves pernicious and uncomfortable It is Society that gives us or takes from us our Security Let me apply this unto you Gentlewomen whose vertuous dispositions so sweetly hath nature grac'd you promise nothing lesse than fervorous desires of being good Would you have that refined in you which others corrupt by inverting the meanes Or expresse that in her native Colours which will beautifie you more than any artificiall or adulterate colours whose painted Varnish is no sooner made than melted Make choyce of such for your Consorts whose choyce may admit no change Let no Company bee affected by you which may hazard infecting of you The World is growne a very Pest-house timely prevention must bee used before the infection have entred You have no such soveraigne receits to repell as you have to prevent The infection of vice leaves a deeper spot or speckle on the mind than any desease doth on the body The Blackmoore may sooner change his skin the Leopard his spots than a soule deepe dyed in the graine of infection can put off her habituate corruption Bee it then your principall care to make choyce of such bashfull Maids modest Matrons or reverend Widdowes as hold it their best Complement to retaine the opinion of being Continent Infamy hath wings as swift as fame Shunne the occasion lest you undergoe the brand Posthuma because given to laughter and something forward to talke with men was suspected of her honesty where being openly accused shee was acquitted by Spurius Minutius with this caveat to use words sutable to her life Civility trust me is the best and most refined Complement that may bee Courting in publike places and upon first sight it affects not for it partakes more of impudent than Complete Bee it of the City that argument of discourse bee ministred it can talke freely of it without mincing or of the Court it can addresse it selfe to that garbe in apt words without minting or of the Countrey in an home-spun phrase it can expresse whatsoever in the Countrey deserves most prayse And all this in such a proper and familiar manner as such who are tied to Complement may aspire to it but never attaine it Hee that hath once tasted of the fountaine Clitorius will never afterward drinke any wine Surely howsoever this civill and familiar forme of dialect may seeme but as pure running water in comparison of Complement which like Nectar streames out in Conduits of delight to the humorous hearer yet our discreet Complementer preferres the pure fountaine before the troubled river It is true that many fashions which even these later times have introduc'd deserve free admittance yea there is some thing yet in our Oare that may be refined Yet in the acceptance of these you are not to entertaine whatsoever these finer times have brought forth Where variety is affected and the age to inconstancy subjected so as nothing but what is rare and new becomes esteemed Either must our inventions bee present and pregnant our surveyes of forraine places serious and sollicitant or wee shall fall into decay of fashion or make old ones new and so by antiquity gull our Nation Truth is though our tongues hands bodies and legges bee the same our Elocution action gesture and posture are not the same Should the soule of Troilus according to that erroneous transmigration of Pythagoras passe into the body of one of our English Courtiers or Hortensius who was an Orator active enough into one of our English Lawyers or Antigone who was Complementall enough into one of our English Curtezans they would finde strange Cottages to dwell in What is now held Complete a few yeares will bury in disgrace Nothing then so refined if on earth seated which time will not raze or more curious conceits dis-esteeme or that universall reduction to nothing dissolve That Complement may seeme pleasing such a fashion generally affecting such a dressing most Complete yet are all these within short space covered with contempt What you observe then to be most civill in others affect it such an habit needs not to bee refined which cannot be bettered Fashion is
a kinde of frenzy it admires that now which it will laugh at hereafter when brought to better temper Civility is never out of fashion it ever reteines such a seemely garbe as it conferres a grace on the wearer and enforceth admiration in the beholder Age cannot deface it contempt disgrace it nor gravity of judgement which is ever held a serious Censor disapprove it Bee thus minded and this Complement in you will bee purely refined You have singular patternes to imitate represent them in your lives imitate them in your loves The Corruption of the age let it seize on ignoble spirits whose education as it never equall'd yours so let them strike short of those nobler indowments of yours labour daily to become improved honour her that will make you honoured let vertue be your crowne who holds vanity a crime So may you shew holinesse in your life enjoy happinesse at your death and leave examples of goodnesse unto others both in life and death COurts and eminent places are held fittest Schooles for Complement There the Cinnamon tree comes to best growth there her barke gives sweetest sent Choice and select fashions are there in onely request which oft-times like those Ephemera expire after one dayes continuance whatsoever is vulgar is thence exploded whatsoever novell generally applauded Here bee weekely Lectures of new Complements which receive such acceptation and leave behinde them that impression as what garbe soever they see used in Court publikely is put in present practise privately lest discontinuance should blemish so deserving a quality The Courts glosse may bee compared to glasse bright but brittle where Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee cast but for a single penny This too eager affection after Complement becomes the consumption of many large hereditaments Whereto it may bee probably objected That even discretion injoynes every one to accommodate himselfe to the fashion or condition of that place wherein hee lives To which Objection I easily condescend for should a rusticke or boorish Behaviour accompany one who betakes himselfe to the Court hee might bee sure to finde a Controuler in every corner to reprove him or some complete Gallant or other pittifully to geere and deride him But to dote so on fashion as to admire nothing more then a phantasticke dressing or some anticke Complement which the corruption of an effeminate State hath brought in derogates more from discretion then the strict observance of any fashion addes to her repute This place should bee the Beacon of the State whose mounting Prospect surveyes these inferiour coasts which pay homage and fealty unto her The least obliquity there is exemplary elsewhere Piercing'st judgements as well as pregnant'st wits should bee there resident Not a wandring or indisposed haire but gives occasion of observance to such as are neere How requisite then is it for you whose Nobler descents promise yea exact more of you then inferiours to expresse your selves best in these best discerning and deserving places You are women modesty makes you completest you are Noblewomen desert accompanying your descent will make you noblest You may and conveniency requires it reteine a Courtly garbe reserve a well seeming State and shew your selves lively Emblemes of that place wherein you live You may entertaine discourse to allay the irkesomenesse of a tedious houre bestow your selves in other pleasing recreations which may no lesse refresh the mind then they conferre vigour and vivacity to the body You may be eminent starres and expresse your glory in the resplendent beames of your vertues so you suffer no blacke cloud of infamy to darken your precious names Shee was a Princely Christian Courtier who never approached the Court but shee meditated of the Court of heaven never consorted with her Courtiers but shee contemplated those Citizens of heaven nor ever entred the Presence-Chamber but shee thought of the presence of her Maker the King of heaven And how shee was never conscious of that thought which redounded not to her Subjects honour which shee preferred next to the love of her Maker before the fruition of an Empire Such Meditations are receits to cure all inordinate motions Your Lives should be the lines to measure others Actions Vertue is gracious in every subject but most in that which the Prince or Princesse hath made gracious Anciently the World was divided into three parts whereof Europe was held the soule properly every Politike State may be divided into three Cantons whereof the Court is the Sunne You are Objects to many Eyes be your actions platformes to many lives I can by no meanes approve that wooing and winning Complement though most Courts too generally affect it which makes her sole Object purchase of Servants or Suitors This garbe tastes more of Curtezan then Courtier it begets Corrivals whose fatall Duello's end usually in blood Our owne State hath sometimes felt the misery of these tragicke events by suffering the losse of many generous and free-bred Sparkes who had not their Torches beene extinguished in their blood might to this day have survived to their Countries joy and their owne same So great is the danger that lyes hid in affable Complements promising aspects affectionate glances as they leave those who presumed of their owne strength holding themselves invulnerable many times labouring of wounds incurable Be you no such Basilisks never promise a calme in your face where you threaten a storme in your heart Appeare what you are lest Censure taxe you of inconstancy by saying you are not what you were An open countenance and restrained bosome sort not well together Sute your discourse to your action both to a modest dispose of your affection Throw abroad no loose Lures wandring eyes strayed lookes these delude the Spectators much but the Actors most A just revengeâ— by striving to take in others they are taken by others How dangerous doe we hold it to be in a time of infection to take up any thing be it never so precious which wee find lost in the street One of your loose lookes be it darted with never so Complementall a state is farre more infectious and mortally dangerous There is nothing that sounds more cheerefully to the eare or leaves a sweeter accent nothing that conveyes it selfe more speedily to the heart or affords fuller content for the time then conceit of love It will immaze a perplexed wretch in a thousand extremes whose amazed thoughts stand so deepely ingaged to the Object of his affection as hee will sustaine any labour in hope of a trifling favour Such soveraignty beauty reteines which if discretion temper not begets such an height of conceit in the party beloved as it were hard to say whether the Agent or Patient suffer more To you let me returne who stand fixed in so high an Orbe as a gracefull Majesty well becomes you so let modesty grace that Majesty that demeaning your selves like Complete
true glory to a woman or better preserves her esteeme then to reteine a constancy in the quality or disposition of her estate Bee shee young or old let her fame live ever fresh and like greene Bayes most flourishing when the winter of adversity is most nipping Vertue cannot exercise her owne strength nor expresse her owne worth without an Opposite Spices send forth the sweetest smell when they are most bruised and Palmes spread the broadest when they are soarest pressed Resolution without an assailant would in time become effeminate Yet I must tell you it is dangerous to tempt either youth or age with motives of fancy or to give least way to a promising opportunity You shall find secret assacinates enough to undermine you you need little to become your owne betrayers I have heard of a noble Lady in my time whose descent and desert equally proclaime her worth so tender of the esteeme of her honour as shee held it scarce safe to receive any Letter from a great Personage whose reputation was touched by rumour This was the way to preserve her honour impregnably and to reare it above the reach of Calumny Neither are you to bee cantelous onely of your Estimation in subjects of love and affection but even in your domesticke affaires which trench upon your providence or expence Your discretions in these are brought to the Stage Let not profusenesse draw you to spend where honest providence bids you spare nor niggardlinesse cause you to spare where reputation bids you spend Shee deserves not to bee governesse of an house who wants discretion to moderate her expence Let her reflect upon her progeny intend her charge and provide for her family A good wife is compared to a wise Merchant who brings his trafficke from a farre Now a wise Merchant will not have his Oare in every mans Boate but will seriously addresse his care to his owne Busie women would make ill Snayles and worse house-wives straglers will never become good house-keepers To cloze this branch so compose your affections at home and abroad as providence may expresse you care and charge in the one a grave and reserved reverence preserve your esteeme in the other As your lives are lines of direction to your selves so should they bee arguments of instruction unto others Bee you planted in what state soever let your good report be your greatest stake for ever so may you reape what your vertues have deserved and keepe your Estimation impregnably preserved NOne can preserve what hee loves by mixing it with the society of that hee loathes The Ivye while it winds and wreathes it selfe about the Plant with an envious consumption decayes the sap If you be companions to Ostridges you shall favour of the wildernesse Socrates called Envie an impostume of the soule so may every corrupt affection bee properly termed Vices love neighbourhood which like infectious maladies doe ever most hurt when they draw nearest the heart There is nothing Gentlewomen that brings your Honour to a more desperate hazard then giving reines to your owne desires These must you subdue to the soveraignty of reason if you expect rest in your inward mansion What better fruits then ignominy may carnall liberty produce When you make the Theatre your chiefest place of repose phantasticke gallants who never yet converst with vertue your choisest consorts delicious viands servants to your liquorish appetites what conclusion may wee expect from such dangerous premisses When modesty puts off her vaile and vanity begins to ruffle it in sinne when chaste desires are chased out a breath and lightnesse pleads prescription when vermillion has laid so deepe a colour on an impudent skinne as it cannot blush with sense of her owne shame when Estimation becomes a word of Complement or carelesly worne like some over-cast raiment valued as painted Pageants doe guilded Puppets onely for shew What prodigy fuller of wonder then to see a woman thus transform'd from nature Her face is not her owne note her complexion her eye is not her own note her straid motion her habit is not her owne eye her strange fashion Whilest loose weares imply light workes and thin cobweb covers promise free admittance to all sensuall lovers Yea which is more shee holds it no shame to glory in sinne nor to court vice in her owne livery all which she maintaines to be complements of gentility Thus vice is ever in fashion and keepes her gradation till shee aspire to the height of her building Shee begins with conceit seconds it with consent strengthens it with delight and incorporates it with custome One of this ranke have I oft-times observed tracing the streets of this flourishing City who as one weary of her sexe forbore not to unwoman her selfe by assuming not onely a virile habit but a virago's heart Quarrels shee would not sticke to bind upon any fresh-water Souldier whose late induction to the siege of Gallants had not sufficiently informed him in that posture Nothing desir'd shee more then to give affronts in publike places which shee did with that contempt as the disgrace shee aspers'd on others was her sole content Places of frequent were her Rendevou where her imperious tongue run descant on every subject ministred her selfe she usually ingaged for a Second upon least occasion offered Now could these courses any way choose but cause that to be irreparably lost which by any modest woman should be incomparably lov'd Tell mee were not his spirit armour of proofe who durst encounter with so couragious an Amazon or enter nuptiall lists with such a feminine Myrmidon Surely these as they labour to purchase them opinion of esteeme by their unwomanly expressions of valour so they eclypse their owne fame and by these irregular affronts detract highly from their essentialst honour Such may gaine them observance but never esteeme Take heed then lest publike rumour brand you Scandall is more apt to disperse what is ill then Opinion is to reteine what is good When the world is once possest of your shame many deserving actions of piety can hardly wipe off that staine Esaus birth-right was temporall yet once lost many teares could not regaine it your soules honour is a birth-right spirituall which once lost many tedious taskes shall not redeeme it Let your estimation bee by you so tenderly lov'd as you will rather choose to loath life then irreparably lose that which is the sweetest Consort of humane life THere is nothing which workes not for some end wherein it may rest and repose Long before that glorious Light wee now enjoy did the very Heathens who had no knowledge of a future being rejoyce highly in the practice of Morall vertues and performing such commendable offices as might purchase them deserved honour living and eternally memorize them dying This might bee illustrated by severall instances in Maids Wives and Widowes For the first those Locrian Virgins deserve our memory whose custome it was yearely to be sent to Troy which use
fancy to her heart There is small doubt but those experimentall Maxims hold constantly currant That the very state and composure of the mind is to be seene in the cariage and posture of the body And that by the gesture and composition of the body is to be discovered the quality and disposition of the mind So as were one as cunning in his carriage as Tiberius was in his who could walke in the Clouds to his friends and with pretended glozes delude his foes Or as subtile as that Apostate Iulian whom Gregory Nazianzen called a Chamelion because hee could change himselfe into all shapes and colours or as crafty as Herod Antipas that cunning Foxe who could ingratiate himselfe with his foes for his owne ends yet in the secretst and subtilest carriage of all these wee shall ever find by the outward gesture some probable appearance of the inward temper Ambition cannot walke so privately nor retyre her selfe from the eyes of men so cunningly nor deceive a weake eye so much with a seeming Humility but some action or other will draw out to life his Anatomy Themistocles may walke in the night and have none but the Moone and Stars to be his Spectators yet for all this there be such observing Spies and Pioners within him as the night cannot bee so darke nor his retired thoughts so close but humane eyes may see him and discover too the necessitie of his walke for they find by his discontented looke and ambitious gate that Miltiades triumph will not suffer him to sleepe So as no sooner doe his inward thoughts betray him then his outward eyes display him Every trifling action becomes his Discoverer every weake passion or broken fancy breaths forth the quality of his distemper Let me Gentlewomen returne againe to you and make such usefull Application of these as may improve you Stand your minds affected to publike assemblies or private visits Doe these Enterludes or pastimes of the time delight you Begin you to dis-affect a Countrey life and with a night perswasive Rhetorick to incline the affections of your easie Husbands to plant in the Citie and to leave their ancient Mannor-houses sometimes memorable for Hospitality Trust me these are no promising Arguments of Modesty Plants transplanted doe seldome prosper and Beauty exposed to all hazards highly endangers the preservation of Honour Cities and places of great confluence have brought to composed minds much prejudice especially where a Recession or Diversion from imployment leaves the mind to talke with it selfe without bestowing it selfe on any usefull designe publike or private Nay by estranging her acquaintance from good company whose advice might assist her whose precepts might informe her and whose pleasing harmelesse discourse might delight her And in exchange of such friendly Consorts entertaine society with light fantastick spirits from whom no other profit can bee derived then what Vanity hath suggested and the conceit of a deluded fancy hatched O how many have preserved their reputes untouched their names unquestioned their fames unblemished during their reside in the Countrey who by entring acquaintance with light fashions and loose Consorts incurred much infamy But as it is not the Place but Grace which workes most effectually with the soule be it your care to intend your inward cure your pretence for the Citie may be physick but if that physick of your bodies beget in your minds an infirmity it had beene much better for you to have retained still those sickly bodies you had in the Countrey then by so dangerous a recovery to labour of a farre worser malady in the Citie That sententious Petrarch could say It made no great matter how the outward house alluding to the body fared so the inward house alluding to the soule flourished how the outward subsisted so the inward were supported Yea we shall observe how the decay or decrease of the one becomes many times the repaire and increase of the other For too much agility of body begets now and then a debility in the soule Restraine then your eyes from those outward Objects which may any way darken the Prospect of your inward house It is one of our especiall cares in our Architecture that our houses bee pleasantly seated and to faire prospects dilated And we hold it an unneighbourly Office that any one whose contignate dwelling boundeth or butteth neere us should upon any new superstructure or late erected story darken the light of our windowes This must not be endured the Questmon must be informed the wrong done us must be aggravated nothing omitted to have the injury of our Lesser-lights reformed and our unsufferable wrongs as wee immeritedly account them redressed Mean time any ill disposed Neighbour any vicious or distempered Intruder may at will and pleasure incroach upon the liberty of our higher Rooms these glorious structures of our soules Pride may damp and darken our Lights by over-topping them Avarice may stop and straiten our Lights by soiling them Riot may close and clot up our Lights by cloying them Lust may raze and deface our Lights by peeping and peering through them Wrath may bruise and break down our Lights by assailing them Envie may obscure nay immure our Lights by interposing them And Sloath like a more fruitlesse then harmelesse weed may blanch and blemish our Lights by over-spreading them Come then Ladies let me become your watchfull Bel-man Hang out your Lights The night you walke in is very darke and dangerous bee those Assailants to the Court of Honour which encounter you Lay aside those Love-sports which your deluded fancies dictate to you and falsely tell you that they infinitely become you Lay aside I say those numerous Love-sport trifles distinguished by these idolatrous titles your favour your Fancy your Complexion your Affection your Dasie Pancy Mirrha Venus and Phoebe O exchange these Love-babies with divine graces This will incomparably become you and make you amiable in his sight who made you Suffer not your eyes to wander but fixe upon that Centre where all Mortality must of necessity take harbour Obstruite quinque fenestras ut luceat domus Saint Hierome gives this excellent testimonie of that devout Woman Asella who being confined to a Cell enjoyed the whole circumference of Heaven Though I doe not limit you to a Cell I would have your thoughts confined to one Orbe seeing they cannot be circumscribed by any limit but Heaven Thus farre have I addressed my discourse to you for composing your affections and contriving your fancy to your Choice whose election admits no Change I am now to caution you and that briefly of a dangerous Guest which like the Snake in the Fable many times disturbs the quiet of a whole house And this is violent and distempered passion The indiscreet fury of some Wives have made Prodigals of frugall men Yea those who never knew what a loose or debauched course meant nor were much addicted to any liberty became uncivill and irregular by their
to learne so it is many times most facile to erre And because diverse and sundry are the dispositions with which our Masters are to encounter so there is required in them a free and plenteous measure of discretion to the end they may accommodate their discipline to every ones disposition Some natures they shall find sweet and affable others rough and intractable Some apt to get and no lesse apt to forget others flow to get but apt to reteine Some to be won by an apple others to bee taught by the rod. And in these discoveries I should with Parents rather to recommend the Scrutinie to their Masters then by too much indulgency to interesse themselves He deserves not to be a Master whose discretion applyes not it selfe to the disposition of his Scholler Neither is our discourse only restrained to Arguments of Learning I am not ignorant how children descending from one root may differ in the quality of their mind Some are not capable at Schoole who may shew themselves sufficient for a trade As you then shall find your children disposed be it your care to have them so bestowed as neither your too much indulgence may decline their improvement nor your too remisse care beget in them a neglect of their advancement For youth as it may become depraved by too much cockring so may it be nipped in the bud and consequently too much discouraged by too rigid a curbing Be it then your prime care to lay a faire foundation and to give them such accomplishment by a generous Education as their very posture may confirme them branches of honour Scorning to appeare in that designe that may in the least manner derogate from their place or lay a blemish on their blood If thou beest Cato's sonne said that brave Roman doe nothing unworthy of Cato's Father This Patterne but in a more divine imitation should all children reteine in their memory to prove unto the world that they are true native Scienes derived from such a Family from whence as they received their birth so they labour to improve it by presenting good examples upon this Theatre of earth O if inconsiderate youth did but know what precious time it bestowes in trifling vanity as in dedicating those first houres of the day in crisping those wanton love-lockes in cerussing and repairing a decayed beauty by idolatrizing themselves in the reflexion of a flattering Glasse by composing an adulterate countenance purposely to induce fancy and like wanton Dalilah to rob deluded man of his strength by their lascivious folly Againe how it bestowes the after-noone in needlesse visits Immodest Objects light presentments but scarcely reserves one minute after so many mis-spended houres for workes of devotion O I say would youth but lay these to his heart and cloze the period of his thoughts with this short expostulation O what have I done Hee would returne no doubt with the poore penitent Prodigal and acknowledge his sinne Hee would feed no longer on the husks of vanity nor goe astray any more in those by-paths of folly He would returne I say with the Turtle truly mourning bestow the remainder of his dayes in repenting and desire no longer to live after he desisted from that pious resolution which had so wholly possessed him as it had left no hope for vanity to seize on him Now to perfect this good worke let it be the especiall care of Parents to educate their children religiously to season their infancy with Principles of Piety For there is nothing that makes elther youth or age more wavering in points of Religion next temporary respects which too often times coole divine effects then ignorance in the grounds of Religion Now as it is the office of Parents to plant them in it so is it their duty to suffer no temporall respect to decline them from it It was that learned Fathers resolution I will hold that faith now when I am old which I was nursed in when I was young There is more beauty in our Christian truth then ever appeared in Helen of Greece This moved that victorious Emperour Constantine the Great to protest what his princely constancy had ever exprest that he preferred his happinesse in being a Member of Christs Church before his being the Head of an Empire Seeing that the priviledges of faith are of larger extent then the Confines of an Empire and of that inestimable price as no treasure is to be compared to her it becomes every sincere Professor to desire rather to suffer then so incomparable a Princesse should suffer in her honour nay rather to perish by speaking then that Truth should perish for want of a Speaker Having thus laid downe the foundation whereon the first hopes of Youth are to be grounded with such eminent graces wherewith it is to be seasoned and such consequent Principles of Religion wherein necessarily it is to be confirmed Wee are now to descend to our secondary Parentall care which as it is not to precede the former so is it not to be neglected in a proportionable measure and order The soule indeed as it is of a more precious substance then the body so ought their cares to be of a distinct quality This the Poet intimated elegantly Lesse is the losse of Fortune then of Fame More of a Soule then of a glorious Name Diverse then and of distinct nature be these different cares wherein Parents are to be so much the more cautious in regard their too anxious and immoderate cares may become highly noxious O how many by doing too much for their Children have undone their Children Be it then your especiall ayme in these temporall cares to improve your meanes by honest wayes A Revenue got with honesty is a thriving portion to Posterity whereas Estates built on rapine or the ruine of others what shallow foundations have such Fabricks being many times no sooner raised then razed These illegitimate Patrimonies as that grave Morall stiled them seldome survive an age for the macerating cares of an exacting Father treasure their hopes most commonly on a prodigall Successor Howsoever then that Apostolicall admonition is ever to be remembred and by a discreet Providence to be seconded If there be any that provideth not for his owne and namely for them of his Houshold bee denieth the faith and is worse then an Iufidell yet let a religious feare ever accompany this care Gods honour must be in the first place or there can bee no peace in any place Now to advance his honour and obtaine favour in the presence of our best Master let not the provision for a Family nor improvement of a Posterity make you remisse in your care of eternity Be owners of your owne seeke not to reape what you have not sowne Scorne to be Intruders in anothers right or in the confidence of your power to crush your inferiour or to grinde the face of the poore by working on his necessity who flies to you for
magnanimous man as reproach and shame Oh then deferre no time but seasonably apply your taske by infusing into his breathing wounds some balmy comfort such as that Cordiall was of a divine Poet Nulla tam tristis sit in orbe nubes Quam nequit constans relevare pectus Nulla cordati Scrinio Clientis Ansa querelis No Cloud so dusky ever yet appeared Which by minds armed was not quickly cleared Ne're Suit to th' bosome of a Spirit cheered Sadly resounded Againe should you find him afflicted with sicknesse which hee increaseth with a fruitlesse impatience wishing a present period to his daies that so death might impose an end to his griefes Suffer him not so to waste his Spirits nor to dishonour him who is the searcher of Spirits but apply some soveraigne receipt or other to allay his distemper which vncured might endanger him for ever Exhort him to possesse his soule in patience and to supply this absence of outward comforts with the sweet relishing ingredients of some mentall or spirituall solace Ingenious Petrarch could say Be not afraid though the out-house meaning the body be shaken so the soule the Guest of the body fare well And he closed his resolution in a serious dimension who sung He that has health of mind what has he not 'T is the mind that moulds the man as man a pot Lastly doe you find him perplexed for losse of some deare friend whose loyall affection reteined in him such a deepe impression as nothing could operate in him more grounded sorrow then such an amicable division Allay his griefe with divine and humane reasons Tell him how that very friend which he so much bemones is gone before him not lost by him This their division will beget a more merry meeting Let him not then offend God by lamenting for that which he cannot recall by sorrowing nor suffer his too earthly wishes for his owne peculiar end to wish so much harme to his endeared friend as to make exchange of his seat and state of immortality with a vale of teares and misery Admit he dyed young and that his very prime hopes confirmd the opinions of all that knew him that a few maturer yeares would have so accomplish'd him as his private friends might not onely have rejoyced in him but the publique state derived much improvement from him His hopefull youth should rather be an occasion of joy then griefe Though Priam was more numerous in yeares yet Troilus was more penurious in teares The more dayes the more griefes No matter whether our dayes be short or many so those houres we live be improved and imployed to Gods glory But leaving these admit you should find him sorrowing for such a Subject as deserves no wise mans teares as for the losse of his goods These teares proceed from despicable Spirits and such whose desires are fixed on earth So that as their love was great in possessing them so their griefe must needs be great in forgoing them Many old and decrepit persons to whom even Nature promiseth an hourely dissolution become most subject to these indiscreet teares For with that sottish Roman they can sooner weepe for the losse of a Lamprey then for the very nearest and dearest in their Family At such as these that Morall glanced pleasantly who said Those teares of all others are most base which proceed from the losse of a beast And these though their grounds of griefe appeare least yet many times their impatience breakes forth most Fearefull oathes and imprecations are the accustomablest ayres or accents which they breath These you are to chastise and in such a manner and measure as they may by recollection of themselves agnise their error and repeat what that divine Poet sometimes writ to impresse in them the more terror That house which is inur'd to sweare Gods judgements will fall heavy there These as they are inordinate in their holding so are they most impatient in their losing And it commonly sareth with these men as it doth with the Sea-Eagle who by seeking to hold what she has taken is drench't downe into the gulfe from which shee can never be taken It was the saying of sage Pittacus that the Gods themselves could not oppose what might necessarily occurre Sure I am it is a vaine and impious reluctancy to gaine-say whatsoever God in his sacred-secret decree has ordained His sanctions are not as mans they admit no repeale What availes it then these to repine or discover such apparent arguments of their impatience when they labour but to reverse what cannot be revoked to anull that which must not be repealed Exhort them then to suffer with patience what their impatience cannot cure and to scorne such servile teares which relish so weakly of discretion as they merit more scorne then compassion Now there is another kinde of more kind-hearted men who though in the whole progresse of their life they expressed a competent providence being neither so frugall as to spare where reputation bad them spend nor so prodigall as to spend where honest providence bad them spare Yet these even in the shore when they are taking their farewell of earth having observed how their children in whom their hopes were treasured become profuse rioters set the hoope an end and turne Spend-thrifts too and so close their virile providence with an aged negligence sprinkling their hoairy haires with youthfull conceipts and singing merrily with the Latian Lyrick Our children spend and wee 'l turne spenders too And though Old-men doe as our young men doe This I must ingeniously confesse is an unseemly sight That old men when yeares have seazed on them and their native faculties begin to faile them should in so debaucht a manner make those discontents which they conceive from their children the grounds of their distemper For as the adage holds it prodigious for youth to represent age so is it ridiculous for age to personate youth But for decrepit age as it is for most part unnaturall to bee prodigall so is it an argument of indiscretion for it to be too penuriously frugall For to see one who cannot have the least hope of living long to bee in his earthly desires so strong to be so few in the hopes of his succeeding yeares and so full of fruitlesse desires and cares what sight more vnseemely what spectacle more uncomely That man deluded man when strength failes him all those certaine fore-runners of an approaching dissolution summon him and the thirsty hope of his dry-ey'd executors makes them weary of him that then I say his eager pursuit of possessing more when as he already possesseth more then he can well enioy should so surprize him discovers an infinite measure of madnesse for as it divides his affections from the object of heaven so it makes him unwilling to return to earth when his gellied blood his enfeebled faculties and that poor mouldred remainder of his declining cottage as
who within some few houres after came according to their expectance provided of a Summe purposely to redeeme his estate the last remainder of his fortunes out of the hands of the Chandler But hee is intercepted and bid stand whose present occasions admit no stay and in briefe stripped of all his money and bound hee and his man and throwne into a gravell-pit where we leave them and returne to this perfidious Chandler who expecting to be a sharer as well in the stake as in the forfeiture of his estate is by his witty Copesmates used after another sort then hee looked for being bound hand and foot and throwne into a ditch adjoyning where hee remayned till a Shepherds boy having occasion to come that way hearing one pitiously mourning drew neere to the place where hee heard the voice but seeing one lye there bound in an ugly vizard and disguised after an uncouth manner as one afraid hee run from him albeit the Chandler humbly intreated him to lend his helping hand to loose him The noise which the Chandler made desiring aid from the Shepherd and the Shepherd denying aid to the Chandler was now come to the eare of the afflicted Gentleman and his man wherefore they sent out their complaint as men pittifully distressed which the Shepherd hearing came forthwith to the place where they lay bound and seeing the Gentleman and his man lent them his helping hand and delivered them from their bands directing them withall to the Pit where the Chandler his treacherous Acquaintance lay whom he knew by his disguise to be one of those who had taken his money from him but having pulled off his vizard and perceived him to be none but the Chandler his professed friend you may imagine what diversity of perplexed thoughts encountred him but suspecting the worst which after proved the truest hee caused him to be brought before a Iustice where he was examined touching the premisses which to his shame he confessed discovering himselfe to be both Actor and Authour of that persidious complot For which being committed and legally tryed hee was adjudged according to his desert to receive the condigne punishment of death Whose goods being confiscate our late Prince of renowned memory out of his royall compassion to the Gentlemans estate allotted him so much in his princely bounty as redeemed his engaged lands repossessing him therof to his great joy an example to succeeding ages not to repose too much confidence in the profession of Acquaintance Many examples of like sort though this may seeme imparallel might be here produced but I cannot insist upon this point What hath beene herein discoursed principally tendeth to this end and purpose to deterre young Gentlemen from discovering themselves too openly to these glozing and temporizing Acquaintance whose onely ayme is to benefit themselves by their weaknesse and make their prodigality the onely foundation of their providence whence it is that many times they become enrichers of their retinue but beggerers of their posterity And which is of all others most miserable those whose Sponges they were and had squeased them of all their fortunes will contemptuously demeanâ— themselves towards them and unthankfully sleight them who by improverishing their owne meanes have enriched them whose natures in the person of one especiall ungratefull man are to life expressed by the Poet Ragg'd rockes him bred brute beasts him sed No thankefulnesse can enter His scared Brest or sealed Chest which is of flinty temper And let this suffice to bee spoken of Reservancie towards Acquaintance both in respect of our secrecie of counsell lest by discovering our selves either upon confidence of anothers trust or transported with passion the end whereof is the beginning of repentance wee give our friend power over us and so by too credulous trust bewray our owne weaknesse or in respect of our Substance by a prodigall bounty to our friends and followers without respect had of our meanes and so make our followers our masters So as it is right wholesome counsell which that wise Son of Sirach gave and which wee formerly alleaged but cannot be too often renewed Give not away thy Substance to another lest it repent thee and thou intreat for the same againe concluding with this excellent Precept Be not excessive toward any and without discretion doe nothing Now excuse mee Gentlemen if I have insisted longer on these two points then the quality of the Subject wee have in hand might seeme to require for I am not ignorant how many of your ranke have unfortunately fallen on these two dangerous shelves either I meane by too open a discovery of themselves or by too prodigall a hand in giving what they may afterwards stand in need of to releeve themselves But of these wee shall have occasion to speake more amply in our discourse of Moderation meane time let this lesson be ever imprinted in the Tablet of your memory Impart your Mind but not your Secrets give where you see desert but with such Reservancie as it may neither repent you to have given having extended your bounty to such as are thankefull nor grieve you to have discovered your selves having imparted your mind to such as are faithfull IT is a maxime in Philosophy Whatsoever is it is for some end so as all our counsels and consultations businesses and negotiations have ever an eye or ayme to some speciall end to which they are properly directed For as wee see in Elementary bodies every one by naturall motion tendeth to their owne proper center as light bodies upward heavy ones downeward being places wherein they are properly said to rest or repose even so in Arts and Sciences or the proper Objects to which they are directed and wherein they are peculiarly said to be conversant there is ever a certaine end proposed to which and in which their aimes are limited or confined Whence it is that excellent Morall saith That every Taske Labour or Imployment must have reference and respect to some end which the Poet confirmeth saying All things which are must have a proper end To which by course of Nature they doe tend So as in my opinion there is nothing which proceeds in a course more contrary to Nature then Suits of Law whose Object is end without end consuming time and substance in frivolous delayes and multiplicity of Orders which like Hidra's heads by lopping off or annulling one gives way to decreeing of another Now to enter into discourse of the absolute end of Acquaintance wee are as well to reprove the indirect ends which some make of it as approve of those good and absolute ends for which it was ordained Wherefore to come unto the point wee are to understand that Acquaintance is nothing else but a familiar friendship or friendly familiarity which wee have one with another Now there is nothing which doth comparably delight the mind like a faithfull friendship being as the Stagyrian Philosopher well defineth it One soule
which ruleth two hearts and one heart which dwelleth in two bodies So as of all possessions friendship is most precious where wee are to make no other estimate of our friends life then of our owne glory a friend being nothing else then a second selfe and therefore as individuate as man from himselfe How much then is this sweet union or communion of minds abused when friendship is onely made a state of professing love and familiarity onely for our owne ends And where shall wee come where this abuse of friendship and sociable Acquaintance is not practised In the Court wee shall find smooth and sweet-sented friends who make friendship a complement and vow themselves ours in Protests Congies and Salutes but whereto tend they but to wind us in and so become engaged for them For it stands with reason thinke they as wee are familiar with them in complements of courtesie so they should be familiar with us in the Mercers booke Too precious are these mens Acquaintance and too heavy their engagements let us therefore turne from them and travell towards the Citie And what shall wee find there but many dangerous and subtill friends who like politike Tradesmen having heard of our estates and how we are come to yeeres to dispose of them will professe themselves to be our Countrey-men in which respect wee cannot chuse but make bold with them and their commodities rather then any stranger Yet it is strange to see how strangely and unconscionably they will use us making ever their commodities vendible with protestations and binding them upon us with termes of courtesie Wee must then needs conclude that these men tender friendship but onely for their owne ends Wee are therefore to seeke further and descend to the Countrey where wee are likest to find them Yet see the generall infection of this Age Wee shall find there even where simplicity and plaine-dealing used ever to keepe home great monied men who to enrich their seldome prospering Heirs will offer us any courtesie and to shew they love us they will lend us to support our state and maintaine our riot but observe their aimes in feeding us they feed on us in succouring us they soake us for having made a prey of us they leave us Likewise wee shall find there many Summer-Swallowes and find that Sentence in them verified Though one Swallow make no Summer yet one mans Summer makes many Swallowes Where then shall we find them Surely in all these places which wee have traced for in the Court wee shall find friends no lesse compleat then complementall in the Citie frinds no lesse trusty then substantiall and in the Countrey friends no lesse faithfull then reall Notwithstanding wee are taught to beware of our friends and the reason is this for that some man is a friend for his owne occasion and will not abide in the day of trouble Having now made choice of such friends and Acquaintance as may seeme to deserve both our knowledge and acceptance wee are to respect the aime or end to which all friendship and Acquaintance may truly and properly be referred Which as wee formerly observed is not only matter of gaine or worldly profit as these Brokers and sellers of amity esteeme it for as much friendship may be found in Cheape amongst the Huxters or in Smith-field with the Horse-coupers as these professe But rather how we may benefit the inward man by a friendly conversation one with another For which cause as wee have else-where noted came Plato forth of Asia into Cilicia to see and converse with his deare friend Phocion Nicaula the rich Saban Queen to visit Salomon Brutus the sincere Roman to converse with Vtican These though Pagans so highly valued knowledge as their aime was to entertaine friendship with knowing-men purposely to increase at least preserve their knowledge For Learning which is the producer of knowledge hath ever had such exquisite and admirable effects as it hath gained due and deserved esteeme not onely in respect of opinion but title and honourable approbation So as Nathan Citraeus writeth that in Prage an Vniversity of Bohemia where Iohn Hus and Hierom of Prage professed that they that have continued professours for the space of twenty yeers together are created Earles and Dukes both together And therefore their stile is to be called Illustres whereas they which are singly and simply but onely either Earles or Dukes are called Spectabiles Neither maketh it any matter that they have no revenews to maintaine Earledomes or Dukedomes for they have the title notwithstanding even as Suffragans have of Bishops This esteeme of Learning was no lesse effectually expressed by one who encountring with a Scholer who through necessity was enforced to turne begger cryed out A Scholer and a Begger too The Age is blind doth plainely show Yet how contemptible Riches that worldlings Idol hath ever beene to these whose conceits were not engaged to pelse nor their affections to desire of having may appeare by the admirable contempt of divers Pagans towards riches preferring a voluntary poverty before all worldly possessions This might bee instanced in Anacharsis who refused the treasure sent him by Croesiis in Anacreontes who refused the treasure sent him by Polycrates and Albionus who refused the treasure sent him by Antigonus The like indifferency towards riches appeared in the admirable and inimitable patience of Zeno who hearing all his substance to bee drowned by shipwracke upon the Sea Fortune quoth hee bids mee to addresse my selfe to Philosophy more speedily The like in Mimus who threw his goods into the Sea saying Packe hence yee evils for yee were hinderances to mee in my pursuit after better goods it is better for mee to drowne you then be drowned by you Whence it was that Demetrius was wont to say That nothing could be more unhappy then that man to whom no adversity ever hapned for that opinion even amongst the Ethnicks hath beene generally held for most authenticke That nothing can be truly said to be good or evill but a good or evill mind Now whereas we have sufficiently proved that no true friendship can be but onely amongst good men I meane morally or civilly good and that ayme in the profession of friendship or Acquaintance is either to better them or be bettered by them wee are in like sort to make this our aime or supreme end that having made choice of such whose eminent parts deserve our respect and acceptance wee are to imploy our time in conversing and conferring with them the better to enable us in imployments publike or private Neither is this onely the absolute aime or end of friendship for so we should inferre that our acceptation or intertainment of friends had reference onely to our owne private ends without relation to him with whom wee have entred the lists of Acquaintance Wee are therefore to have an eye to these especiall offices of friendship being such as deserve our observation