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
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
prepare his Rere-suppers and all this to get him a little knowledge in the Art of roaring And by this time you may suppose him to have attained to some degree so as he can looke bigge erect his Mouchatoes stampe and stare and call the Drawer Rogue drinke to his Venus in a Venice-glasse and to moralize her Sex throwes it over his head and breakes it But for all this he hath not fully learned his postures for upon discourse of valour he hath discovered his Cowardize and this gives occasion to one of his Cumrades to triumph ore his weaknesse Who entring upon termes of Reputation and finding himselfe wrong'd he would gladly wipe off all aspersions and gaine him opinion in the eye of the world but recalling to mind the dangers incident to Quarrels he thinkes it best to repaire to that Grand Moderator whose long experience hath made his opinion authenticke to receive satisfaction whether hee may put up the injury offered him without touch of disgrace Now he must be fee'd for his opinion as if he were some grave legall professour which done his reply must tend to the definition of a wrong and what the law of valour holds for satisfaction in actions of that nature Againe for still he works on this Young-gallants weaknesse how the world esteemes his Opponent to be a brave sparke one whose spirit cannot be daunted nor fury appeaâ—ed with lesse than bloud drawing him in the end by some Rhetoricall perswasion as nothing more smooth than the oily tongue of an insinuating foist to some base composition whereof he and his complices are made equall sharers Now Gentlemen I could likewise produce certaine wofull occurrents which have befallen some of your ranke and qualitie and that within these few yeares by consorting with such Grand Câ—ttâ—rs who presâ—ing them to offence could not endure such affronts but with resolution which ever attends a generous spirit encountring them have been utterly overthrowne either in doing or suffering But you will aske me how should this be prevented Can any Gentleman suffer with patience his Reputation to be brought in question Can he endure to be challenged in a publike place and by that meanes incurre the opinion of Coward Can he put up disgrace without observance or observing it not revenge it when his very Honour the vitall bloud of a Gentleman is impeached Heare me whosoever he be that frameth these Objections I am not ignorant how many unjust and immerited aspersions shall be throwne upon men of eminent'st desert by such whose tongues are ever steeped in calumnie But who are these save such as the glory of Greece the everliving Homer displayeth in the contemptuous person of Thersites whose character was More deformed in minde than bodie Their infamous and serpentine tongues inured to detraction deserve no other Revenge next legall punishment save avoiding their company and bruting their basenesse in all Societies where their names are knowne to caution others of them I am spoken evill of saith Seneca but the evill speake it I should be moved if M. Cato if wise Lelius or the two Scipio's should speake this of me but it is praise for mee to have the evill displeased with mee It is true for as no imputation can truly be said to staine a pure or undefiled soule whose inward sinceritie like a brazen Wall beats backe all darts of envie or calumnie so it is not in the power of the evill to detract from the glory of the good for what then should remaine secure from aspersion of the vicious But I imagine you will reply it is not only the report or scandall of these men of uncurbed tongues for so Pindarus termes them but of such whose eminent esteeme in the world gives approbation to what they speake which awakes my Revenge If they be as you terme them Men of eminent esteeme and that esteeme by merit purchased for all other estimation I exclude it I need little doubt but the distaste which you conceive against them hath proceeded in some part from your selfe and that upon maturer consideration you should find your own bosome guilty to be the cause of these aspersions If otherwise it happen as I grant it may that upon private surmises or suggestions derived from some factious heads these men of more eminent note and esteeme have brought your name in question because as they were informed you formerly aspersed a blemish upon their Honour I would not have you to erre so farre from your owne judgement as without further discussing the cause to fall into desperat extremes for were it not much better for you to sift the cause how you both are abused whereby that base suggestour might be duely censured and your wrongs mutually redressed than to vow Revenge ere an injury be offered Yes Sir beleeve it much better and safer and in the opinion of discreet men wiser howsoever our hare-brain'd Gallant whose property is to act before hee resolve esteeme it a derogation to expostulate on termes of disgrace but to publish war ere the league be broken We account him who can beare the most to bee the strongest yet esteeme we him who can beare injuries most to be the weakest so ill disposed is mans temper as for an opinion of Reputation hee will incurre apparant errour Now there is another Revenge which proceedeth from a nature farre more inglorious than the former And that is when for some little distaste conceived against our inferiour even in worldly respects wee labour his undoing yea many times because hee stands too resolutely for right wee threaten his ruine But true shall we finde it As the high doe use the low God will use the highest so And this might appeare in poore Naboth who because he would not give the Inheritance of his Fathers his Vine-yard he must be stoned But of this Revenge I am not to insist for this is an evill more properly inherent to our rich oppressours who grind the face of the poore and raise them an house to their seldome thriving Heires out of others ruine Only my wish shall be that their dwelling may be with Owles and Ostridges in the wildernesse and not in the flowry borders of this Iland lest shee be forced to vie sighes for their sinnes I might now in this Subject of Revenge inlarge my discourse by speaking of Anger from whence Revenge may seeme to receive her originall being which Anger the Poet termes a short fury Anger is madnesse and as strong In force but not in course so long For what differs an angrie man from a mad-man save onely in this his violence of passion continues not so long for the time it is as vehement and as violent Excellent therefore was that precept of Moderation given and observed by that renowned Emperour Theodosius drawne as may appeare in the like example of Augustus from a former patterne of whom it is written that he would never in his anger proceed to
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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