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<DATE>2013-02-07</DATE>
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<NAME>Alexis Jakobson</NAME>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>THE COUNCILS OF WISDOM: OR, A Collection of the Maxims of SOLOMON.</P>
<P>Mo&s;t nece&s;&s;ary for a Man wi&s;ely to behave him&s;elf.</P>
<P>With Reflections on tho&s;e Maxims.</P>
<P><HI>Rendred into English by</HI> T. D.</P>
<P><HI>AMSTERDAM,</HI> Printed for <HI>Stephen Swart,</HI> at the Bible and Crown near the Exchange, 1683.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="frontispiece">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2" MS="y">
<PB REF="3">
<P><FIGURE>
<P>THE COUNCILS of WISDOM</P>
</FIGURE></P>
<PB REF="3" MS="y">
<GAP DESC="duplicate" EXTENT="1 page">
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<PB REF="4">
<PB REF="4">
<HEAD>To the Right Worshipful the Mayor, the Worshipful the Ju&s;tices. with the capital and inferiour Burge&s;&s;es of the Bur|rough of <HI>Taunton</HI> Saint <HI>Mary Magdalen</HI> and St. <HI>Iames's,</HI> in the County of <HI>Somer&s;et.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Gentlemen,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_WEre I accountable to any how I pa&s;s my time here; 't were certainly to you, who know that I was not one of the idle&s;t at home, wherefore partly to &s;atisfy you, the following Manual I took the pains to tran&s;late out of <HI>French,</HI> the contents of which, as they are univer|&s;ally nece&s;&s;ary, are de&s;ign'd for all, but dedicated to your &s;elves, as per&s;ons &s;o much more in need of it, as you are pub|lique Per&s;ons, and called to &s;hew your abilities or defects more than your Neighbours; And if any member of our Body politic, thinks him&s;elf &s;candalized, and that he's too wi&s;e to take the Coun|cils
<PB REF="5">of <HI>Solomon</HI> in good part, he is one that lea&s;t de&s;erves them, I wi&s;h to all the &s;ame &s;atisfaction in the peru&s;al, as I had which encouraged me to tran&s;late it, and should be glad of any opportunity agreeable to the following Maxims, to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> you that I am,</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Your humble Servant, THO. DARE.</SIGNED>
<DATELINE><HI>Am&s;terdam,</HI> <DATE><HI>Febr.</HI> 14. 1683.</DATE> S. N.</DATELINE></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="preface">
<PB REF="5">
<HEAD>THE PREFACE.</HEAD>
<P>_IT is long &s;ince, <HI>Thotimus,</HI> that you did me the favour to pitty me, and to feel for me the Pains of my Solitude, I have often taken the liberty to an&s;wer you, that it is to me no great misfortune to be un|known: permit me to te&s;tify to you this day, that I should be to blame to tire my &s;elf, and that I have here company, that is well worth all other that I should be able to &s;ee.</P>
<P>I can at lea&s;t a&s;&s;ure you, that during our conver&s;ations, the &s;ad &s;pectacles, and affrightful &s;ilence of the de&s;ert, where for|tune yet keeps me, doth not hinder, that the hours do not pa&s;s there very &s;wiftly, and that time were one of the things which are wanting.</P>
<P>It is ea&s;y for you to judge, that I &s;peak of <HI>Solomon.</HI> You know that formerly I did comfort my &s;elf in Books: you are about to &s;ee in the writing that I &s;end you, that I imploy my &s;elf now to explain them; and to endeavour by my refle|ctions to make the wi&s;e men of the
<PB REF="6">World &s;ee Truths unknown to their Philo|&s;ophy.</P>
<P>I thought of it immediately at the en|try into this Solitude where I am. All melancholic as it is, or as it appears to your eyes; I know nothing more commo|dious, for a man who would bu&s;y his thoughts, or meditate on the writings of this learned Prince. I &s;ay it, becau&s;e I believe that I read lately, that Wi&s;|dom who dictated the&s;e Proverbs when it was &s;olitary, explains them not, but to per&s;ons who are &s;o al&s;o, and who go to ask it, as he did, in places where one hears no news of the Creature, nor any noi&s;e capable of troubling the attention, and the plea&s;ure of tho&s;e that hearken.</P>
<P><HI>Solomon</HI> loved to be alone, as much as the Princes of his Court to be near him, and to hear him &s;peak. The time to which his de&s;ires a&s;pired was, When after the labours of the day, weary of the affairs, of the honours, and the noi&s;es of the World, he could retire him&s;elf from the &s;ight of company, and when
<PB REF="6">he went to entertain him&s;elf with God in a Country-hou&s;e called <HI>Hetta</HI> near enough to the City.</P>
<P>It plea&s;ed him more then any of the Royal Hou&s;es, becau&s;e that be&s;ides the magnificences, and the riches added by the hands of men, there were great Woods, with Rocks and Streams and other workmanship of nature, proper to rai&s;e his &s;pirit to Heaven, and to make him remember eternity.</P>
<P>It was in this &s;tately de&s;ert, at the &s;ight of the beauties of God, that his contemplations di&s;clo&s;ed to him; That he conceived &s;uch great contempts of the beauty of mortal things; and that after the other complaints that he made, again&s;t the treacheries of their promi&s;es and their flatteries, he &s;ung this famous Song, that the Caves and the Waters of his palace fir&s;t heard, but its eccho's have been &s;ince heard through|out, and shall be made to re&s;ound, even to the end of ages, <HI>Vanitas vanitatum, cuncta vanitas.</HI></P>
<P>The moral and politic &s;entences,
<PB REF="7">of which his Book of the Proverbs is filled, and tho&s;e which the Son of Syrach has brought together and kept by his care, were born in the &s;ame &s;olitude where &s;ilence and tranquillity help'd them into the World: And it is without doubt, That to the&s;e devout walks, that the univer&s;e is obliged for the knowledge of the truths which are gone out of the Pen of this learned Prince, which have enlightned all Nations I have cho&s;en among&s;t the&s;e &s;entences, tho&s;e of which I believed I could be able to help my &s;elf, in working at my de&s;ign, which is to draw from their Texts, &s;ub|jects of meditation, proper for per&s;ons who would live among&s;t the Laws of Con|&s;cience and Prudence, and conduct them|&s;elves wi&s;ely in the various occa&s;ions of a civil life.</P>
<P>It is but a little peece as it appears. If I had had a little more lea&s;ure and a little more light, perhaps it should have been bigger: But to &s;ay with an Ancient, if I had more of one and the other, in &s;tead of enlarging, I should endeavour to shorten
<PB REF="7">it, and I should remember what one of the be&s;t Writing-Ma&s;ters of our time told me, <HI>That to excell in the Art of writing well, it is nece&s;&s;ary to be able to blot well out.</HI></P>
<P>This thought is not only his, I ob&s;erve; it is common to the Ma&s;ters of every Art and Science, and that it keeps even the fir&s;t rank among their Maxims.</P>
<P>When they are willing, that what they do should be their Ma&s;ter-piece, all their indu&s;try is imployed to make it pa&s;s well into the Spirit and to leave there but little matter.</P>
<P>Force and delicacy are the perfections of all works: that of a Book is &s;overaign, when it can be read in few hours, and that it can not be read, nor meditated enough in many years.</P>
<P><HI>Much Truth, few Words,</HI> was here|tofore the device of a great Divine; very great in that, but infinitely le&s;s than God, who enclo&s;eth infinite truths in one word alone, and who &s;aith all that can be &s;aid to eternity, when he pronounceth his word.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="table of contents">
<PB REF="8">
<HEAD>The Book is divided into two Parts.</HEAD>
<LIST>
<ITEM>The Fir&s;t, divided into 4 ARticles con|tains Maxims nece&s;&s;ary for a Man to demean him&s;elf well.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Fir&s;t of all, are the Maxims nece&s;&s;ary for the Conduct of the Con&s;cience.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Secondly, Maxims nece&s;&s;ary for the Conduct of the Wit.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Thirdly for the Conduct of the Heart and Pa&s;&s;ions.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Fourthly, for governing the Tongue.</ITEM>
</LIST>
<LIST>
<ITEM>The &s;econd Part, contains nece&s;&s;ary Ma|xims for a Mans wi&s;e Conduct, in re|gard to his family and other per&s;ons.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The Wife, Children, Servants, Friends and Enemies, are the Articles which divide it.</ITEM>
</LIST>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<GROUP>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 N="1" TYPE="article">
<PB N="1" REF="8">
<HEAD>ARTICLE I. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Con&s;cience.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>FIRST MAXIM. <HI>Of making many Books there is no end. Let us hear the conclu&s;ion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his Commandments; this is the whole duty of Man,</HI> Eccle&s;. 12.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHARASE.</HEAD>
<P>_MUch is the Coun&s;el that's given, and many are the Books that are written to help Man to be|come great, and to render him perfect.</P>
<P>Wi&s;dom has but one word thereupon: and this word is the <HI>Compendium</HI> of all that wi&s;e Men have &s;aid, the end of all that, which its &s;elf &s;aid &s;ince the begin|ning of ages. It hath never &s;poken nor ever writ, but to make Men under&s;tand how to love God and obey his Will this is to be the whole duty of Man.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="2" REF="9">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHen the Creator formed the project of our nature, and that he conceiv'd the Idaea of Man, as he pretended that this was the chief and mo&s;t excellent Piece, he conceived not onely a Body and a Soul.</P>
<P>He &s;aw well, that as the Body &s;eparated from the Soul would be but rottenne&s;s, e|ven &s;o the Soul &s;eperated from God would be another deformity, infinitely more frightfull; and in&s;tead of the being chief of the work he contrived he should but make a mon&s;ter.</P>
<P>Not to fail in his de&s;ign, at the &s;ame time that he joyned the Body with the Soul, he judged that it was nece&s;&s;ary to joyn the Soul with God, by the means of Grace, and he would that this Grace entred into his work|manship, and that the&s;e three together were the whole Man.</P>
<P>Stop a moment and con&s;ider well the Wi&s;dom of God, when he propo&s;ed to him|&s;elf the meeting of the&s;e three &s;o different things, and to form thereof the chief of his work? How many marvels in Man when they are united? How many misfortunes when they are &s;eperated.</P>
<P>Grace repelled and withdrawn the Soul, there's reprobation and &s;in. The Body &s;e|parate from the Soul there's death. The
<PB N="3" REF="9" MS="y">Soul &s;eparated from the Body and from Grace there is Hell. Three objects of hor|rour or of fear. Rejoyn the&s;e, and make but one, they are three coele&s;tial beauties, and the three greate&s;t miracles of divine power united together, and that is Man. <HI>Time Deum hoc e&s;t omnis Homo.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Let thy glorying be in the fear of the Lord, and all thy communication in the precepts of the mo&s;t High.</HI> Eccle&s;. 9.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>EStablish your Honour by fearing God, and being faithful to him, If you would that Men should look on you with re&s;pect and e&s;teem, and always &s;ee on your counte|nance that mode&s;ty, and in your conduct that force and tranquility of &s;pirit which rai&s;es a man above other men; have always in your &s;elf &s;ome thought of the goodne&s;s of the Creator and his eternal perfections, and accu&s;tome your heart not to relye but on him in all its de&s;igns and hopes.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>DO not as the proud man,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">In timore Do|mini &s;it tibi glorio&s;io.</NOTE> who is ashamed to fear and to worship God,
<PB N="4" REF="10">becau&s;e people fear and worship him, and who e&s;tablisheth his honour by making light of his duty.</P>
<P>Take you heed (in forming your opinions and Maxims) of taking for a man of nobili|ty and greatne&s;s, your being le&s;s wi&s;e then others: And do not believe a folly that is particular, to be more worth then Wi&s;dom that's common. If becau&s;e you are noble, it's painful to you, to do what mean people do; That which is good, you ought to do better then they.</P>
<P>Do not imitate his devotion, &s;urpa&s;s it. Do not follow him in the ways of &s;alvati|on, and in the exerci&s;e of righteou&s;ne&s;s and holine&s;s, have regard to your condition: March fir&s;t, and &s;erve as an example.</P>
<P>Keep your rank in the Churches, permit not that any should be more devout, nor more mode&s;t then you: Since you are fir&s;t in quality, your place before the Altars and during the &s;acrifices, is to be more near to God, and the more rai&s;ed by Prayer.</P>
<P>Remember that you have no &s;urer means to put your &s;elf above this croud of little people, then to aba&s;e your &s;elf more then they, before this &s;upream Maje&s;ty, and to adore him more perfectly.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="5" REF="10">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of &s;pirit,</HI> Eccle&s;. 1.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>YOu mu&s;t love nothing but God.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Univer&s;a vanitas.</NOTE> The true good and true plea&s;ure, is not to be found, but in him alone. The good which appears before our eyes deceives us, it is no|thing but illu&s;ion and vanity. And this fal&s;e and apparent good, becomes a real evil, as &s;oon as it plea&s;es us and that we begin to love it.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>ALl the felicities of this life are vain and deceitful. When they pre&s;ent them|&s;elves to us, we take them for &s;table and im|moveable things: Our heart being drawn by this appearance, &s;tretcheth out its arms and blindly fa&s;tens its &s;elf unto them, pro|mi&s;ing its &s;elf eternal plea&s;ures in po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing them.</P>
<P>But it is to embrace running water; from the hour that we begin to po&s;&s;e&s;s rhem, they begin to run away from us. During em|bracements and joys, and amid&s;t our mutual promi&s;es and hopes of an in&s;eperable tye, they e&s;cape from between our hands and
<PB N="6" REF="11">continue their cour&s;e: we continue ours and we quit our &s;elves: we go, each where our de&s;tiny calls us, and where time leads us: They to nothing, we to death.</P>
<P>Time goes apace, and the end is near, it is not far between the plea&s;ures of a moment and the tears of eternity. The&s;e long years that we figure between the two, are very of|ten but a night. Perhaps tho&s;e who shall &s;ee us this evening &s;ettled in a high and power|ful fortune; will find us next morning bu|ried in its ruines.</P>
<P>To day, pro&s;perity, health, riches and ho|nours: To morrow, all the&s;e vanities in the air, wind and &s;moak, our Body in a Tomb, our Soul in another World, there to lament, and to &s;ay eternally, but too late, <HI>Univer&s;a vanitas, &amp; afflictio &s;piritus.</HI></P>
<P>The ju&s;te&s;t rea&s;on we ought to contemne the&s;e runagate fe|licities for,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Vanitas va|nitatum.</NOTE> con&s;i&s;ts in this word <HI>Vanitas.</HI> God alone is the true Good, created goods are the productions and shadows of this e&s;&s;en|tial and Infinite Good. Con&s;ider, and open your eyes. You are rich: but if God with|draws him&s;elf from your heart, what re|mains, and of what do you boa&s;t?</P>
<P>To be heir and ma&s;ter of the shadow of an hou&s;e, without having any right to the hou&s;e, and without being able to go into it, what Patrimony and what &s;ort of inheri|tance
<PB N="7" REF="11">is this for a man? To be Ma&s;ter of a Trea&s;ure or a Revenue, Ma&s;ter of a King|dom, an Empire, a part of the World, the whole World, &amp; all the appearances of good; Po&s;&s;e&s;s all the shadows of God, all his works, all his gifts, but without po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing of him&s;elf, What a po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion is this for a Soul who breaths after the true Good, and who cannot be filled or &s;atisfied but by him alone?</P>
<P>The wor&s;t of it is, that the&s;e shadows of the Creator, the&s;e Riches and Magnificen|ces which are about us, are not in us. Gold and Silver enter into the Hou&s;es, Plea&s;ures enter into your eyes and &s;en&s;es, but they pa&s;s no further, they never arrive &s;o far as the Spirit, nor there where your greate&s;t needs and immortal de&s;ires are, they &s;end there only their figure: Of &s;o many felicities heap|ed round about you, and kept together with &s;o much pain, their shadow alone is the share that belongs to your heart.</P>
<P>Meditate a little, and if you can under|&s;tand the cries &amp; complaints, which during pa&s;time and plea&s;ure re&s;ound from the bot|tome of this mi&s;erable heart, bewail your &s;elves, and confe&s;s that it is worthy of com|pa&s;&s;ion. So long as it hath &s;earched ever &s;ince its birth, and that without cea&s;ing, with utmo&s;t de&s;ires, it asks the Truth of truths to be happy, not to find in him&s;elf but this vani|ty
<PB N="8" REF="12">of vanities, this shadow of shadows, this mage of appearances and illu&s;ions. <HI>Vanitas vanitatum, &amp; afflictio &s;piritus.</HI></P>
<P>To comfort it, do not direct it to its &s;elf; And hope not to give it re&s;t, and to render it happy by the Maxims of Pride and the Phi|lo&s;ophy of the Word.</P>
<P>Il know well, that human wi&s;dom and the policy of &s;elf love;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><P><HI>Sapiens ad bea|t&egrave; vivendum &s;e ip&s;o contentus e&s;t. Seneca.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Nullam &s;ui par|tem extra &s;e quae|rit. Tran&s;ivi ad contemplandam &s;apientiam locu|tus quae cum+meute mea anim|adverti Eccl</HI> 2. But <HI>animadverti quod hoc quoque e&s;&s;et va|nitas.</HI></P></NOTE> would that a man to be happy, should renoun|ce both Creator; and Crea|tures and &s;eek no other happine&s;s, then to be to him&s;elf, to enjoy his own entertainments: That this po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion were the true Fe|licity, &amp; to plea&s;e a mans &s;elf a better fortune then to plea&s;e Kings and Angels.</P>
<P>Remember that &s;ince your Spirit is the mo&s;t perfect and noble&s;t Image of the fir&s;t Being, when it is deprived of grace, it is the vile&s;t of vanities. All that is va&s;t enough and capable of containing God, cannot be &s;epe|rated from God, but mu&s;t be &s;o void as God is great.</P>
<P>That is to &s;ay, that when our Soul is redu|ced to love nothing, nor po&s;&s;e&s;s any thing
<PB N="9" REF="12">but its &s;elf: The greatne&s;s of this &s;piritual and immortal Soul, is no other thing but an immen&s;e privation and endle&s;s grief.</P>
<P>Our Soul is &s;o divine a thing and &s;o excel|lent, that a&s;&s;oon as God is no more with it, it becomes, what they call damnation, and is its own hell.</P>
<P>The difference between two &s;inful Souls, the one damned, and the other living upon the Earth and enclo&s;ed in a Body, is this, that one &s;ees its &s;elf clearly and feels the &s;ub|&s;tance which is its evil; and the other nei|ther yet &s;ees or feels it.</P>
<P>When that your Soul &s;eperated from God by &s;in, and from thence infinitly unhappy, shall feel its &s;elf, and &s;ee it &s;elf by the fire; the motions of his de&s;pair and the cries of his grief, shall be tho&s;e that the Prophet heard from far, and that he repeated by the&s;e words: <HI>Redidit me qua&s;i vas inane.</HI> It shall &s;ay, God had made me a Ve&s;&s;el large and precious, capable to enjoy his Glory, and to po&s;&s;e&s;s his Divinity, neverthele&s;s he hath withdrawn him&s;elf and left me empty: I am no more then my &s;elf, and that's the affli|ction of afflictions and the true Hell, to be Spirit and alone to be an immortal Soul and vanity. <HI>Vanitas &amp; afflictio Spir tus.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="10" REF="13">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>God shall bring every work into judgement, whether it be good or evil,</HI> Eccl. 12. <HI>The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wi&s;|dom,</HI> Prov. 1.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe fear of God is the principle of true Wi&s;dom, That which comes from the fear of offending men, or from de&s;ire to plea&s;e them, is fal&s;e and deceitful; and al|though there are in the World abundance of Wi&s;e men and Politicians, the number of Fools is no le&s;s.</P>
<P>There is not a greater folly, than to be wi&s;e towards all, if not towards God and to offend no body, but him alone.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe fir&s;t and chief Ma|xim that you ought to chu&s;e to Conduct you wi&s;ely,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Timor Domi|ni principium &s;apientiae, Prov.</HI> 1.</NOTE> is that you mu&s;t fear your Ma&s;ter and your Judge.</P>
<P>If you would that this &s;aving fear should be born in your Souls,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Memorare no|vi&s;&s;ima tua &amp; in aternum non peccabis.</NOTE> and that it should de&s;troy all that re|mains in you of an inclina|tion
<PB N="11" REF="13">to &s;in, the be&s;t means is to remember the fir&s;t and la&s;t truths, and to under&s;tand well, by continual and devote reflections, from whence you come, and whither you go, what hath been your Original, and what shall be your end, from whom you have re|ceived, and unto whom you are re&s;pon&s;ible, what you owe to your Creator, and what your Judge owes you.</P>
<P>Your debts and obligations to the bounty of the Creator are not the Subject of a long di&s;cour&s;e but a long meditation, and al|though there were but one word to each point, there is matter of admiration and &s;ilence on each word, for too many years and ages.</P>
<P>That which &s;eems more wonderful and which we ought particularly to con&s;ider, is that tho&s;e debts, which have not cea&s;ed to increa&s;e ever &s;ince you have been born, and do yet encrea&s;e every day with your age, have preceeded your birth, and are more ancient than your &s;elf.</P>
<P>You have begun to live, but you have not begun to mind, your &s;elf; Before the begin|nings and before time, God was, and you were loved. Con&s;ider al&s;o, you who were in nothing, of what fashion you are taken thence, and with how much honour are you come out of that eternal reproach when he was fain to produce you in the per&s;on of the
<PB N="12" REF="14">fir&s;t man. The Creator made Heaven and Earth, that is to &s;ay, two Worlds and two Paradi&s;es, and has not made them but for you.</P>
<P>The top of all favours is, that he hath not made you but for him&s;elf; and that he has not given you a Being but to the end that you may be eternally united to him: having even willed, that the mo&s;t Divine employ of his Eternity, which is to know and to love God, should be the employ of your time and your mortal life.</P>
<P>Oh un&s;peakable favour! Oh Soveraign and infinit honour! But it is a very terrible thing, in this &s;o glorious life, that each mo|ment, where you live without any love of God, is a moment of &s;in, and that all the moments of &s;in and ingratitude, shall be reckon'd and examined at the hour of your death.</P>
<P>God hath begun by favours, he will finish by judgement.</P>
<P>He who &s;eeks you &s;o many years to &s;ave you, will &s;uddenly call you to be judged: and the bu&s;ine&s;s of his ju&s;tice shall be, when you shall be before his eyes, to con&s;ider in your per&s;on, what comes on his part and on yours, what he hath done in you and what you have done there, and are yet doing this day.</P>
<P>He will compare your actions with his
<PB N="13" REF="14">own,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Adducet in ju|dicium, &s;ive bo|num, &s;ive ma|lum &s;it.</NOTE> and he will oblige your Con&s;cience it &s;elf to compare them, and to contemplate the works of his Holine&s;s, and the works of your Malice a&s;&s;embled in one and the &s;ame heart.</P>
<P>Compare them from hence forth, and do at the feet of the Cro&s;s, before your Redeem|er and your Father, what you will do that day before your Judge, when that you shall &s;ee the truth written in the Book where all is written.</P>
<P>Con&s;ider that this is a Mercy which has out-run your merits.</P>
<P>Ingratitude which hath follow'd Mercy, and which hath been conceived in the mid&s;t of favours.</P>
<P>Ju&s;tice which examins the good and the evil, which weighs the goodne&s;&s;es of God and the &s;ins of man, and who in the one and the other &s;ees nothing but Infinite.</P>
<P>In fine, it is an eternity where &s;inners shall never cea&s;e to be &s;inners and proud, and where the Judge shall never cea&s;e to be ju&s;t: where his Holine&s;s shall be the mea&s;ure of his anger, his anger infinitely offended the mea&s;ure of their pain, and his infi|nite beauty which they shall never &s;ee the mea&s;ure of their de&s;pair.</P>
<PB N="14" REF="15">
<P>I &s;ay too much in a Subject, where is lea&s;t need of &s;peaking, The whole Hi&s;tory of man needs but the&s;e four words:</P>
<P>His plea&s;ures shall end.</P>
<P>His actions shall be judged.</P>
<P>His &s;ins shall be punished.</P>
<P>His pains shall be eternal.</P>
<P>There is, not only whereof to read but to contemplate and meditate. What opinion &s;o ever the World hath of an able man, if he has not yet begun to meditate thereupon, he has not yet begun to be wi&s;e.</P>
<P>Youth and Folly think only on the pre|&s;ent time. Avarice on time to come, Pru|dence and Policy remembers often what pa&s;|&s;ed ye&s;terday, and fore&s;ees what will happen to morrow: true Wi&s;dom looks on one &s;ide, even to the beginning of time and the crea|tion of man; and on the other &s;ide, to death and eternity, and from the&s;e two di&s;tant ex|treams it makes its time pre&s;ent, and gives them thoughts of this day.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIME. <HI>When the wicked man cometh, then cometh al&s;o contempt,</HI> Prov. 18.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THat which hinders you from making &s;erious on Chri&s;tian truths, and which
<PB N="15" REF="15">makes you &s;light the bu&s;ine&s;s of your con|ver&s;ion, as lea&s;t of all the affairs of a Man of wit and quality, is the cu&s;tome that you have contracted of living di&s;orderly and not refu|&s;ing any thing to your pa&s;&s;ions</P>
<P>This unhappy cu&s;tome is the bottom of that Gulf from whence it is rare to &s;ee any &s;inner go out and to enter again into the ways of repentance and &s;alvation.</P>
<P>It is neverthele&s;s nece&s;&s;ary to go out from thence. The Holy Fathers, and the fathers &s;piritual will tell you means; One of the be&s;t is that which <HI>Solomon</HI> pre&s;ents you in the following Maxime.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>When I perceived that I could not otherwi&s;e ob|tain her, except God gave her me, I prayed unto the Lord and be&s;ought him with my whole heart,</HI> Wi&s;d. 8.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DE&s;iring to obtain grace to overcome my evil habits, and to live holily, I ad|dre&s;s my &s;elf to God, and I have asked it of him with all my affection, and with all the endeavour that an ardent de&s;ire could pro|duce.</P>
<P>Steep'd in tears and pro&s;trate before His Altars, where I heard his voice which called
<PB N="16" REF="16">me to repentance, I &s;aid unto him: O Lord, shed into me that Wi&s;dom and Light which makes Man &s;ee that beauty of vertue which is in thee. Thou commande&s;t me to be cha&s;t and devout: give me devotion and cha&s;tity, and then command what thou plea&s;e&s;t.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>HOpe not to receive the&s;e &s;orts of favors, nor any other, &s;piritual or temporal, if you ask them not. Without prayer, there will be no change of life. You would have Grace, which gives the fir&s;t power to be cha&s;t, but according to the ordinary Laws of Wi&s;dom, you shall not have it but by the means of Prayer; Grace gives the will to be, and to accomplish effectually this good de&s;ire.</P>
<P>In like manner hope not for them, if you ask them not &s;trongly and with an ardent and &s;incere affection.</P>
<P>To pray to God feebly to have pitty on your mi&s;erable life, is to pray him to defer punishing of you; to the end that you might defer turning to him, and this te&s;tifies that you fear that he hears you not, becau&s;e you fear, to break the chains which tye you to the Creature, and to love nothing more then it.</P>
<PB N="17" REF="16">
<P>God would,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Deprecatus &s;um illum ex totis praecor|diis.</NOTE> when we pray to him, that our bowels them|&s;elves should have a voyce, and that there should be in us a Divine fire, which should give to our groans, the force to mount up to him&s;elf, and to follow him as far as his ju|&s;tice would make him fly, that he might not hear us.</P>
<P>God would be pur&s;ued, &s;olicited, impor|tuned; Follow Him, pre&s;s Him, be impor|tunate and be con&s;tant: Fear nothing, but letting your &s;elf be overcome by his refu&s;als, and your not per&s;evering.</P>
<P>Hope in his Word as the Saints have done again&s;t hope it &s;elf,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Etiam&s;i occide|ris me, in ip&s;o &s;perabo.</NOTE> and in de&s;pight of de&s;pair. Tell him when you &s;ee him with a &s;word in his hand to &s;acrifice you to his wrath, and when you &s;ee the &s;word thru&s;t into your Heart, that from the bo&s;om of Death, even to the gates of Hell, you will adore his goodne&s;s, and that you will yet expect favour, and you may be a&s;&s;ured of his &s;uccours.</P>
<P>Say that the way to perish, is to fly when he threatens; That there is no place &s;o &s;ure (during in wrath) in the World as to be near him; that it is the only way where the afflicted, &s;inners, and the dead, can find &s;afe|ty; <HI>Ad quem ibimus? Verba vitae aeternae habes.</HI>
<PB N="18" REF="17">I am a &s;inner, I am mortal, where shall I go too but to thee?</P>
<P>Confe&s;s that he can do all, that he is the Ma&s;ter, but maintain, that as all powerful as he is,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Indignum, &amp;c. In te Domine &s;peravi; non confunda in aeternum.</NOTE> he cannot re&s;i&s;t the Prayers of the humble and afflicted: and &s;ince all is put to tru&s;t before him, de|&s;ire him to regard you with|out pitty and to abandon a heart who &s;incerely con|fides in his protection and love.</P>
<P>Talk boldly and &s;ay with the Canaanitish Woman, that he ought to be no more cruel, nor more pittyle&s;s towards you, then Ma&s;ters towards the little Dogs of their hou&s;es; that you ask not but the Crums of his table, as the re&s;t of the Saints. Speak as this Woman who knew well how it was nece&s;&s;ary to &s;peak to a God. Although he calls you an impor|tunate Body, although he pu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">h you back and bids you to get out, Stay, Fa&s;ten your &s;elf to his feet, and declare to him, there you will be &s;o long as that he hath either punish'd im|portunity with death, or heard you. In fine, do well by your holy violences, as that you may draw from his heart the lovely word which hath comforted &s;o many &s;inners, and which may oblige you to &s;ay: <HI>O Mulier, magna e&s;t fides tua, fiat tibi &s;icut vis.</HI> Matt. 15. Thou a&s;tonisht me, oh infidel! Great is thy
<PB N="19" REF="17">confidence! be gone then in peace, what thou wilt shall be done.</P>
<P>The glory of a mortal Prince is to prevent petitions and to give before they &s;peak to him. The Glory of God is to expect that you pray to him, and he is &s;o much the more liberal, as he lets you pray and weep long before he grants. His kindne&s;s doth in &s;ome &s;ort cea&s;e to be &s;uch, when they come too &s;oon: His favour is not perfectly favour, nor per&s;everant, but when it happens after de&s;ires which have a long time continued.</P>
<P>Take good heed of yielding to his fir&s;t re|fu&s;al, and your retiring as &s;oon, either by de&s;pight, de&s;pair, or cowardi&s;e. This has been the mi&s;ery of tho&s;e who have obtain'd nothing. The true &s;ecret to &s;ucceed well, is to be importunate.</P>
<P>Our importunity plea&s;eth him, a&s;much as it is unplea&s;ant to men. That is the mark, when we ask &s;piritual favours, that we de&s;ire ardently, and when we ask temporal fa|vours, it is a &s;ign, we would obtain them from him alone, and that we renounce all other hopes. Both the one and the other te&s;timony can do all, on his Mercy and on his Ju&s;tice. He &s;ees in our continual and importunate Prayers, the proofs of a filial confidence, which opens his heart and in|finitly plea&s;eth him.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="20" REF="18">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>Tru&s;t in the Lord with all thine heart. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall di|rect thy paths,</HI> Prov. 3.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>EStablish your hope in God; tru&s;t your affairs to his care and goodne&s;s; look on him in all your actions and keep your hearts always leaning on him. It is the be&s;t and mo&s;t excellent Maxim that you can take and the fir&s;t that you ought to have to con|duct you well, and to make you do wi&s;ely and happily what you have to do.</P>
<P>Whil&s;t that your eyes shall contemplate him with confidence and love, he shall hold you by the hand, and you shall march with|out fear.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WE &s;ee many mi&s;erable ones in the World, becau&s;e we &s;ee there very few who are willing to confide in God.</P>
<P>There is nothing that has been oftner pro|mi&s;ed us, then that God will help tho&s;e who&s;e hope is only in him: and there is no|thing that we are le&s;s willing to try.</P>
<P>We &s;tay our &s;elves &s;omtimes on him, but as Saint <HI>Peter</HI> on the Water, doubting,
<PB N="21" REF="18">whether he will have power or will to bear us up.</P>
<P>We love rather to tru&s;t to the favour of the Creatures, and to &s;eek our re&s;t, in relying on them and their word. But, as &s;aid <HI>I&s;aiah,</HI> It is to tru&s;t to feeble reeds and cruel, who by their hidden points pierce the hand of him who leans on them.</P>
<P>The Crearures are deceitful, they have no &s;trength to &s;upport us, but they have where|with to betray and de&s;troy us.</P>
<P>Their acce&s;s, and manner of receiving one is magnific, giving us great hopes. But their fir&s;t pre&s;ent, are Promi&s;es: the &s;econd, Excu&s;es: the third, Slanders: the fourth, Treacheries.</P>
<P>There 'tis, that ordinarily the friendship of the World ends, and nothing makes us plush nor lament more, then having be|lieved, hoped and loved, becau&s;e we are thereby always deceived; and that it is from perfidious hopes, and blind friendship, that affronts repentings, and de&s;pairs come.</P>
<P>The&s;e three things, To Believe, to Hope, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nd to Love, which are three Theological vertues, and three &s;overeign perfections when they regard God, are three frailties, and the three mo&s;t shameful vices of the &s;pirit of a Man, when they regard the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">eatures. When that we put our confi|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nce in the Word of God; and we tremble
<PB N="22" REF="19">not in our &s;elves there is nothing without that can shake us. We walk &s;ecurely amid&s;t the dangers and di&s;orders of the World; and we are on the waves as on the mo&s;t im|movable Rocks. God is under who doth &s;trengthen the whole and bear us up. But a&s;&s;oon as di&s;tru&s;t makes us tremble, the re&s;t shakes as &s;oon; and we &s;ee nothing a round us but bottomle&s;s pits who open them&s;elves, and who shew us Death and Hell.</P>
<P>Saint <HI>Peter</HI> accu&s;ed the Tempe&s;t in the danger where he was: our Lord accu&s;es not, but his Fear. When we begin to perish, we betake our &s;elves to the Tempe&s;t, to fortune, or to the malice of men, and we ask God wherefore he has not appea&s;ed the Winds nor averted the misfortunes.</P>
<P>God who &s;ees the Truth betakes him&s;elf to nothing but to our little Faith. He asks us wherefore we have doubled his word and his love, and wherefore we have trem|bled. <HI>Modica fidei, quare dubita&s;ti?</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIME. <HI>Be thou mercifull, and &s;o thou shalt be as the Son of the mo&s;t High.</HI> Eccl. 4.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IF you aime at Salvation and the happi|ne&s;s of being of the number of the Pre|de&s;tinate
<PB N="23" REF="19">and of the Children of God, bear the mark of the Elect, and chu&s;e for your particular vertue to be charitable toward tho&s;e that &s;uffer.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere is herein, as well true Devotion as true Nobilily, and true Courage The&s;e three eminent qualities have but one mark to make them known. Their com|mon Character,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Non de&s;is Plorantihus in con&s;olatioui. Et cum moerentibus embula. Eccl.</HI> 7.</NOTE> is to have Magnanimous good will, a &s;incere and a di&s;tintere&s;ted inclination to plea&s;e others and to comfort them in their pains. If this be not the Character of your &s;oule and if this ver|tue di&s;plea&s;e you, you are not a man of honour, nor a man of quality, nor a man of devotion and of Con&s;cience, nay, not a Chri&s;tian. People call you what they plea&s;e; God who &s;ees all, will call you an Infidel and a Reprobate.</P>
<P>The law of Chri&s;tianity touching mercy and Charity regards you &s;o much the more by how much the more power you have, and by how much the higher rank you are in.</P>
<P>Do not onely know the Priviledges of your Nobility, or of your charge, know al&s;o your dutyes; and remember that God
<PB N="24" REF="20">has not elevated you above other men, either in a Citty or in a Country, but as he hath elevated the Sun above Mankind to be their univer&s;al Benefactor.</P>
<P>Your grando and your power in that Country, is no other thing but an obliga|tion to protect the innocent and &s;upport the weak: &s;o many mi&s;erable ones as you &s;ee there; they are &s;o many per&s;ons unto whom you owe your &s;uccours and good offices. Your cares and your time are not your own, what you have and what you are belongs to them: Your life its &s;elf is a pre&s;ent which God hath made them, it's not to be em|ploy'd but to &s;erve them. Help tho&s;e that inju&s;tice and jealou&s;ly per&s;ecutes, who&s;e cries and complaints you hear.</P>
<P>Have the courage to de|liver them from the oppre&s;|&s;ion of the proud,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Libera eum qui injuriam pa|titur de manu &s;uperbi,</HI> Eccl. 4.</NOTE> make your Arm &s;trong to take them out of their hands. Prefer no other bu&s;ine&s;s be|fore that and be not at re&s;t, but when good people shall be &s;o, in tho&s;e places where you live and have authority.</P>
<P>Give audience to the poor without vexa|tion, without impatience and without &s;lan|der. Permit them at lea&s;t to &s;peak to you, and add not to their afflictions, the &s;adne&s;s of being refu&s;ed and &s;eeing that one is even
<PB N="25" REF="20">angry at the knowledge of their pains. Hearken to them, and be not &s;o cruel as to refu&s;e them a word of con&s;olation. At lea&s;t let there be &s;ome &s;weetne&s;s in your eyes, and believe not, that this were to aba&s;e your &s;elf, and to forget your Rank; to regard the af|flicted and to permit them to lament before you.</P>
<P>Deal with God as his Slave.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Congregationi pauperum affa|bilem te facito, &amp; magnati hu|milia caput tuum,</HI> Eccl. 4.</NOTE> With the Simple as your Brother. With the Proud as your Ma&s;ter. Keep your Rank by the&s;e Rai&s;e your &s;elves above the in&s;o|lence of men, but aba&s;e your &s;elves under the powerful and Divine Maje&s;ty: Be humble before him who hath made you great; adore the hand that can de|&s;troy you; Have pitty of the mi&s;eries that may be common to you. And do not de&s;pi&s;e the Tears which you &s;ee run from eyes that re&s;emble yours.</P>
<P>Be you not in your Pro|vince or in your Land as a Lyon,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Noli e&s;&s;e &s;icut leo in domo tua evertens dome|&s;ticos, &amp; oppri|mens &s;ubditos.</HI> Eccl. 4.</NOTE> which tears what he meets there. Be ashamed that your Family should pe|rish, becau&s;e you live: That your Hou&s;e should be un|happy becau&s;e you are the Ma&s;ter, and that tho&s;e who dwell with you, should not dwell
<PB N="26" REF="21">there, but as the damned, and were not there but to &s;uffer the furies and follies of a Devil, that po&s;&s;e&s;&s;es you and acts you.</P>
<P>Live after that manner that a man of ho|nour and vertue ought to live in a perpetual evenne&s;s of &s;pirit pre&s;ent to your &s;elf, atten|tive to your bu&s;ine&s;s; at peace during the &s;everal motions of fortune, equitable and courteous towards your Dome&s;ticks, offi|cious towards your Friends, charitable to|wards the Poor, obliging towards all the World.</P>
<P>See you nothing more fine in your riches and dignities, then being able to &s;erve a greater number of per&s;ons; and judge that the &s;ervices and &s;ubmi&s;&s;ions that men pay to you; and the friendships which all compa|nies expre&s;s to you, are no honour to you, and they are unju&s;t, if you endeavour not to do more good then they do you, and if you love not at lea&s;t a&s;much as you are loved.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IX. MAXIM. <HI>A mans pride shall bring him low, but honour shall uphold the humble &s;pirit,</HI> Prov. 29.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>GLory &s;eeks humble &s;pirits, and though they hide them&s;elves, it will find them.
<PB N="27" REF="21">The ambitious who &s;eek it shall be humbled. Who&s;oever would rai&s;e him&s;elf by pride, shall find nought but what he flyes, he shall fall into reproach and there he shall perish.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IN this there hath not been excepted, nei|ther Men or Angels: The mo&s;t lovely are the mo&s;t de&s;pi&s;ed and hated a&s;&s;oon as they become proud. In&s;olence mixed with their perfections and their vertues, form thereof, and I know not what, that is intolera|ble. That which in a dead man, is rottene&s;s and &s;tink, pride is in immortal &s;pirits: they are every where in&s;ufferable; they are not at all regarded in Heaven, and on Earth but with horrour; both the one and the other World con&s;pire to &s;corn and to hate them.</P>
<P>The con&s;piration is not le&s;s common to honour humility.</P>
<P>The admiration of men, the friendship of the Angels, the favours of the Son of God, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and all the ho|nours of time and eternity, are for the humble. There are not now among&s;t us others Prede&s;tinate then the&s;e, we shall &s;ee no other happy in Paradi&s;e, Grace and Glory are their lot. The only and true &s;ecret, to be honoured is to aba&s;e a mans &s;elf. <HI>Spiritum humilem &s;u&s;cipiet gloria.</HI></P>
<PB N="28" REF="22">
<P>To think meanly of your &s;elf, learn and know well what you are. You shall not learn it in reading of Books, nor in hearkning to Ma&s;ters: Your Con&s;cience mu&s;t tell it you, and make you to comprehend it. Ask it: You shall be humble a&s;&s;oon as you hearken to it, and that you give your &s;elf the lea&s;ure to con&s;ider, what it knows thereupon and what it will oblige you to believe and con|fe&s;s.</P>
<P>Humility wholly con&s;i&s;ts in &s;aying from the heart, and with a devout and &s;incere &s;en|timent, that you are of your &s;elf nothing but &s;in, frailty and corruption: and all the re&s;t which is in your per&s;on comes from the Creator; And if you had in your birth any advantage above others and any natural qualities; The&s;e laudable qualities were not the price of your vertue nor the work of your hands, but the gifts of his providence and of his love: but in truth he hath done you many favours which increa&s;e yet every day, and your &s;ins increa&s;e a&s;much as they: And that the&s;e are the two mo&s;t remarkable things in your life; The one, that your mi|&s;eries have not hindred God from loving you tenderly and heaping of good things on you; The other, that &s;o many kindne&s;&s;es and &s;o much love has not hindred you from being unthankfull, but have been &s;o ever &s;ince you knew that he loved you.</P>
<PB N="29" REF="22">
<P>Say that from the Heart, think it &s;incere|ly, and let your humble and re&s;pectful looks, your ge&s;tures and motions, and all that ap|pears outwardly of you carry the mark of this lowline&s;s and of this inward contempt of your &s;elf.</P>
<P>Have in your conver&s;ation a mode&s;ty, which were the image of your innocent and humble Soul: have it in your Conduct at every occa&s;ion and with every body. In any place that you are, live and &s;peak as a man who evidently knows his own un|worthine&s;s.</P>
<P>When that you are near God, at the time of Prayer and the Exerci&s;es of a devour life, if you would plea&s;e him and de&s;erve that he should chu&s;e you to glorify you in his power, let your principal devotion be to repre&s;ent to him how much you de&s;erve that he should contemn you. In contemplation of his truths; confe&s;s yours: See your dark|ne&s;s in his Light; confound your &s;elf, trem|ble and lament. Unto what condition &s;o|ever you may be rai&s;ed by his Grace, never cea&s;e to adore him by all nullitys pro|per to a nullity that hath &s;inned and ren|dred him&s;elf wor&s;e and more mi&s;erable then he was eternally when he was no|thing.</P>
<P>When that you are in bu&s;ine&s;s, during the exerci&s;e of your Authority, among the mul|titude
<PB N="30" REF="23">of tho&s;e who &s;eek after you and ho|nour you, if you would that they should do it &s;incerely, shew them that you well know your &s;elf.</P>
<P>In like manner, let it appear on your coun|tenance and by the Conduct of your words and actions, that you are not ignorant, that in the mid&s;t of felicities and honours of for|tune, as in the midde&s;t of the richne&s;s of a &s;tately Tomb, you are nothing but a sha|dow, or a little ashes hid there under: that you hold before them the Rank of a Judge or a Ma&s;ter, but that before God you have no other but that of Nothing and Sinner.</P>
<P>Do not &s;ay it with your mouth, it is enough to believe it: but perfection is what I have &s;aid, to believe it and think it &s;o well, that the thoughts of your Soul appear vi&s;ibly marked in the mode&s;ty of your eyes.</P>
<P>The&s;e are in effect tho&s;e thoughts, mark'd in that manner, which have rendred great men &s;o lovely, and &s;o powerful over hearts, when they have &s;een the &s;weetne&s;&s;es of hu|mility joyned to the force of their wit, and mingled with the &s;plendor of their triumphs and glorious actions.</P>
<P>When you are in Companies where 'tis rare to find a man who knows him&s;elf, and &s;peaks mode&s;tly and humbly, be ye humble, but take heed, that you are not &s;o by affecta|tion and vanity.</P>
<PB N="31" REF="23">
<P>Do not boa&s;t, nor blame your &s;elf: ob|&s;erve the Laws of Wi&s;dom, &s;ay not of your &s;elf neither good nor evil. Do not you con|&s;ider your &s;elf, as a more imperfect man then others; but as a Nothing of which there is nothing to &s;ay, and of which you mu&s;t never talk.</P>
<P>Do not ask one to &s;lander you; have only a care of being offended when one does, and endeavor to be humble enough to de&s;ire one should do it: Prai&s;e not tho&s;e who ought to be blamed; content your &s;elf to condemn no body.</P>
<P>When you meet &s;candalous per&s;ons, in|&s;tead of contemning them, learn from them, how much you ought to be &s;lighted your &s;elf, and look on them as a mir|rour which di&s;cover to you an important truth.</P>
<P>The shadow which you &s;ee at your feet, whil&s;t the Sun ca&s;ts its eyes on you and en|lightens you, what is it other then a figure which repre&s;ents your body &s;uch as it is at night, black and dark and &s;uch as it should always have been, if this Star had never ap|peared?</P>
<P>The mi&s;erable wretches that you find in this World, whil&s;t that God sheds on you his ble&s;&s;ings, and that he heaps on you happi|ne&s;s and wealth; What are they, but an hideous picture, where you are repre&s;ented
<PB N="32" REF="24">&s;uch as you would be, if it plea&s;ed Divine Providence to abandon you?</P>
<P>Say then, you who are rich and happy and who want nothing, when you &s;ee on the &s;traw a Begger cover'd with &s;ores and di&s;ea|&s;es, dying of hunger and cold; &s;ay, Behold my shadow, there is what I should be, had it not been for the particular goodne&s;s and care which God hath had of me.</P>
<P>You who are wi&s;e and devout, when you hear the &s;candalous life of an infamous &s;in|ner &s;poken off, &s;ay likewi&s;e, There is my shadow, 'tis this that I should have been, and this that I should be from this day, if my Sun withdrew its Light, and if his Grace for|&s;ook me.</P>
<P>It is true that the life of this Per&s;on is &s;can|dalous and horrible: but it is your Image. Humble your &s;elves and adore the mercy of God, who hath done great things in you.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="10" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>X. MAXIM. <HI>There shall no evil happen to the ju&s;t.</HI> Prov. 12</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe ju&s;t and devout man enjoys al|ways inward re&s;t. There shall be no accident which hinders him from keeping him&s;elf in his duty and order, or excites him to di&s;orderly motions.</P>
<PB N="33" REF="24">
<P>Fear and &s;adne&s;s are &s;torms which mount not to the region where he is elevated by grace. The noi&s;es shall Eccho thither, but Peace shall never leave him, and whil&s;t his Soul shall be peaceful, in matters little to him that his fortune were troubled or his affairs di&s;ordered.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>Accu&s;tom your &s;elf to look on all that happens, without a&s;tonishment and without fear. When affliction happens fret not again&s;t God, and quit not your de&s;ign of being eternally faithful to him.</P>
<P>Bear cha&s;ti&s;ement with re&s;pect and humi|lity, and let not your courage and your ver|tue abate under the pain. Remember that God cha&s;ti&s;eth tho&s;e that are dear to him: &amp; as a Father never finds a Son more lovely, then when he receives correction humbly and re&s;pectfully: So likewi&s;e doth man ne|ver plea&s;e his Creator more then when he is humble, obedient and faithful in adver&s;ity.</P>
<P>There is no Man that endures not. No true Chri&s;tian that endures not with pa|tience. No true Saint that endures not with plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>The beginning of holine&s;s is to be calm and mode&s;t under the hand of God when he afflicts us: The perfection of it, is to be happy thereby, and to feel what the
<PB N="34" REF="25">Apo&s;tles tyed,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ibant gauden|tes &agrave; con&s;pectu Concilis quod digni habiti &s;unt pro nomine Je&s;u contumeliam pati.</NOTE> when that going from before their Judges, charged with out|rages and affronts, they glo|ried therein holily, and marched through the &s;treets as in triumph among&s;t the reproaches of Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>There is, without doubt, the highe&s;t E&s;tate of &s;piritual life: and I can &s;ay which the holy Fathers, that it is to &s;ee, that which is the mo&s;t admirable to behold in the new and powerful grace of the incarnate word, To &s;ee a man, who in the mid&s;t of poverty, and the ruines of his hou&s;e, enjoy in his Soul an heavenly re&s;t, and hath no other complaints to make to tho&s;e that vi&s;it him, nor to the Angels who contemplate him, but tho&s;e of St. <HI>Paul,</HI> when he &s;uffered; <HI>&s;uperabundo gau|dio,</HI> joy overwhelms me, it &s;urpa&s;&s;eth my peins and my &s;trength.</P>
<P>Other Saints have had no other thoughts, they have always &s;poken of the times of af|fliction, as of the mo&s;t happy and mo&s;t de|&s;ireable.</P>
<P>It is by afflictions that on Earth we re&s;em|ble our Crucified Saviour, that we equal the Martyrs in Heaven, that we &s;urpa&s;s the An|gels in death.</P>
<P>To die and to &s;uffer are the con&s;umma|tion of Divine charity: and this was the
<PB N="35" REF="25">highe&s;t &s;ublimity of the glory of the Word made man, when he finished love on the Cro&s;s, among&s;t the pains of death, that he cried out, <HI>con&s;ummatum e&s;t.</HI></P>
<P>The Angels cannot arrive at this good fortune, your devout Soul may. A&s;pire thereto, whil&s;t you are mortal and capable of &s;uffering. It is not enough to imitate the Angels, and to love: Do that which to them is unimitable; love in &s;uffering and dying.</P>
<P>At lea&s;t maintain your &s;elves in this Con|dition by patience. That whil&s;t &s;ickne&s;s and poverty, or other mi&s;eries over whelm you: let not your heart &s;ink under its pre&s;|&s;ures, and &s;uffer not that the di&s;turbances and per&s;ecutions in the World should shake you, and bereave you of any of your inward repo&s;e.</P>
<P>Above all have a particu|lar care of not letting your &s;elf be troubled by tho&s;e pains,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Non contri&s;ta|bit ju&s;tum quid ei acciderit.</NOTE> who have their fir&s;t ri&s;e within our &s;elves, and who are born of our corruptions, as are melanchollies and &s;crupulous fears and the other torments of a weak and a fearful imagination. The mo&s;t part of the&s;e hidden mi&s;eries within us, and incurable by humane indu&s;try; are no other thing then an inward night of thick clouds where the Devil forms, Spectres and Vi&s;ions to affright us.</P>
<PB N="36" REF="26">
<P>Be not amu&s;ed nor &s;o much alarm'd as to di&s;pute or fight with the&s;e chimerical mon|&s;ters. Wait only in patience the coming of the morning, which de&s;troy them all with|out noi&s;e, and make known the mi&s;take of your fear and di&s;quiets. I &s;peak of the Wi&s;|dom of God, which after the&s;e &s;orts of ob|&s;curities he implants in holy Souls.</P>
<P>Wi&s;dom is the fir&s;t Ray of the light of Glory, and the true dawning of the day of Eternity.</P>
<P>It is this Aurora that di&s;per&s;eth all the dreams,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Doctrinam qua&s;i ante lucer|nam omnibus il|lumino</HI> Eccl. 24.</NOTE> fancies and ignorances in the Imagination of Man, who shall re-e&s;tablish rea|&s;on in its force and in its Empire, which renders truths apparent which makes duty and vertue loved, which reimplants courage, makes a coherence be|tween the light and our hopes, and which appears on our Horizon; but to tell us, that the Sun comes to us a&s;&s;uredly; and that we are of the number of the Prede&s;tinated who shall &s;ee him.</P>
<P>Far be it from you to abate by &s;ecret per&s;ecu|tions,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Non contri&s;ta|bit ju&s;tum quid|quid ei acciderit.</NOTE> or by the ordinary accidents of fortune, to be troubled or di&s;turbed, trou|ble not your &s;elves, either at your &s;ins or un|fore&s;een relap&s;es.</P>
<PB N="37" REF="26">
<P>When you happen to fall into any fault, do not amu&s;e your &s;elves to cry and complain as a Child fallen into the mire. Withdraw your &s;elf gently and help your &s;elf in &s;tretching your hand to mercy who offers you his. Weep, but hope; hate your malice and infirmity which have rendred you a &s;inner; hut adore the Wi&s;dom of God who can draw his glory, out of that shameful and reproachful e&s;tate that you are in.</P>
<P>Learn that the mo&s;t Divine action of his power and love is to change into good the evil that you have done. Whil&s;t that you blush to &s;ee your &s;elf, contemplate with ad|miration, the de&s;igns of Love and Grace, that his Providence con&s;iders of, occa&s;ioned by your fault.</P>
<P>Fear his ju&s;tice and flee it but never avoid it but by running to his goodne&s;s. Be ye touched with compunction, without being dejected; be you re&s;olved to govern your &s;elf better for time to come, without being impatient, or de&s;pairing from what is pa&s;t.</P>
<P>Although true contrition bur&s;ts the heart, it has yet &s;omwhat of &s;weetne&s;s that bears it up, and which makes it known and di&s;tin|guisheth it from a fal&s;e repentance.</P>
<P>The two marks mo&s;t certain that we are in that condition God would have have us, are Tranquility and Humility. A&s;&s;ure your &s;elf that every affair where there is too much
<PB N="38" REF="27">earne&s;tne&s;s, although it be the mo&s;t Holy, is done without intention to plea&s;e God. All in&s;piration that cau&s;es di&s;order in you, comes not from the Holy Spirit. All grief for &s;in which carries you to de&s;pair, comes infallibly from the Devil; All mortification that renders you di&s;obedient and proud, is the Council of your enemy.</P>
<P>All humility which makes you fear that there is no pardon for you, and that God de|&s;pi&s;eth your tears, is fal&s;e and deceitful, it leads you to impenitence and the death of the proud and reprobates.</P>
<P>Treat your &s;elves the mo&s;t meanly and with the mo&s;t &s;everity you can. Humble your &s;elf, and confe&s;s that Holine&s;s is above your courage, and that you are one of the mo&s;t &s;lack and ungrateful of men; but have not the humility of the damned and &s;ay not that Salvation is above your might.</P>
<P>Pray to God to give what he commands from you, and then offer your &s;elf to Him, and pray Him to command all that he plea&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="2" TYPE="article">
<PB N="39" REF="27">
<HEAD>ARTICLE II. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Wit.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>FIRST MAXIM. <HI>Buy the Truth and &s;ell it not; al&s;o Wi&s;dom and In&s;truction, and Under&s;tanding.</HI> Prov. 23.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>_ENdeavour to purcha&s;e, but take good heed you &s;ell not that which is more worth than all the gold and &s;ilver in the World.</P>
<P>Buy truth, but don't rid your &s;elf of Wi&s;dom: part not the&s;e two vertues, po&s;&s;e&s;s both the one and the other.</P>
<P>Let Truth be in your words, and Wi&s;dom in your thoughts, when that you judge of things, know them, and deceive not your &s;elf. When that you &s;peak, lye not and de|ceive tho&s;e that hear you.</P>
<P>Think wi&s;ely and &s;peak &s;incerely. In one word, a&s;pire to the highe&s;t and happie&s;t e|&s;tate that the Wit of man may be rai&s;ed unto. Have the courage to believe nothing, nor to &s;ay any thing that is untrue. Be wi&s;e and
<PB N="40" REF="28">be &s;incere. <HI>Veritatem eme, &amp; noli vendere &s;apientiam.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is a precious Grace, the grace of being &s;incere and not to yield to the violences of inju&s;tice, nor to its flatteries, when it would engage us to tell a lye and betray our Con&s;ciences.</P>
<P>Many have bought this Grace by their own blood, and have given for it what hath been mo&s;t dear to them in the World: And if you have it not as yet, &s;pare nothing to purcha&s;e it at any rate. That which you shall give is infinitely le&s;s worth then it. Fear not to dye, but fear to live with the reputa|tion of a man without Word, and who loves the Truth le&s;s th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n a mortal life, and a mi|&s;erable fortune, <HI>Eme veritatem.</HI></P>
<P>Grave that Maxime in your heart that a wi&s;e Prince writ with his finger on the lips of his Son: <HI>Rather dye then lye.</HI> Hate a lye more then death: and al|though in Company men call it,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Verbum mendax ju&s;tus dete&s;ta|bitur.</NOTE> the mo&s;t innocen<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;in, and in the Palace, th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> mo&s;t nece&s;&s;ary: yet do you call it, the mo&s;t shameful to nature, the mo&s;t intollerable to a man of honour and Con|&s;cience.</P>
<PB N="41" REF="28">
<P>Since that you bear in your Soul the Image of the Truth of God,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Non decet principem ver|bum mentiens,</HI> Prov. 17.</NOTE> Take that for you, that <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;aid to the Kings, that what&s;o|ever ornament you can give to a lye, it is very indecent in your mouths.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Con&s;cendam, ero &s;imilis Al|ti&s;&s;imo.</NOTE></P>
<P>It becomes none but the proud Angel who cho&s;e it for his character, and who began by it, when he would render him&s;elf the horrour of nature, and transform him|&s;elf into a Devil.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t propo&s;ition he made to the Angels in Pa|radice was a lye.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Nequaquam morte morieris, eritis &s;icut Dii.</HI> Gen. 3.</NOTE> The fir&s;t word he &s;pake on earth, was another lye that he made to the Man.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t thought he had at his entrance into Hell, and the fir&s;t de&s;ign he took there to revenge him&s;elf on God, was to lye eter|nally. And the fir&s;t promi&s;e that he made him&s;elf, to comfort him in his pains, that all Men should lie al&s;o, and that he would find a means to &s;pread his &s;in and his own cor|ruption as far as the &s;in of the fir&s;t Man.</P>
<P>An enterprize, alas, wherein he has been too lucky, and wherein he &s;ucceeds this day &s;ix thou&s;and years! Who is the Man that
<PB N="42" REF="29">lies not? Children do in the Cradle. The Philo&s;ophers and holy Men, in the Schools of Wi&s;dom, and even on the Throne of Truth: Men do it in every condition and every age. Among all tho&s;e who have &s;in|ned in <HI>Adam</HI> and who have been able to &s;peak, there is not one who has not lied, and who hath not born on his tongue this Image of the Devil.</P>
<P>Leave it not upon yours. Tear away all the remains of this unhappy inclination;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Remove &agrave; te os pravum &amp; de|trahentia labra &s;int procul &agrave; te,</HI> Prov. 4. <HI>Viam pravam &amp; os bilingue dete&s;tor.</HI> Pro. 8.</NOTE> dete&s;t this fatal &s;in. Poli|ticians make it their &s;tudy, many make it their pa&s;time and others their trade. Make you of it what all great Men have, the abo|mination of your heart: look upon it as the unworthie&s;t crime, and the mo&s;t infamous accident which can hap|pen to a noble Soul.</P>
<P>But if it be shameful to lye and deceive, it is no le&s;s to be deceived by lyars. Freedom (or openheartedne&s;s) and &s;incerity are ver|tues of great price. Po&s;&s;e&s;s them; but, to have them don't &s;ell prudence.</P>
<P>'Tis a light as nece&s;&s;ary as your eyes, keep it well and con&s;ider that you live in the night.</P>
<P>Treacheries, praecipices and darkne&s;s are
<PB N="43" REF="29">on the Earth. Tread not thereon without being inlightned and &s;eeing where you are, and what is about you.</P>
<P>You &s;ee there abundance of giddy fires and lighted exhalations, take heed you take them not for torches: and mark that, among your Maxims, That the mis|fortune or affront mo&s;t to be feared of humane Wit, is to follow counterfeit lights and to be made the &s;ports of cheats and Hypocrites.</P>
<P>Know tho&s;e men who treat with you or who approach you: have the skill to read in their heart, when they &s;peak to you: and by things they tell you, to under&s;tand tho&s;e which the di&s;&s;emble.</P>
<P>Di&s;tinguish true mode|&s;ty from the fal&s;e,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Quando &s;ubmi|&s;erit vocem, ne credideris ei, quoniam &s;eptem nequi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">iae &s;unt in corde illius.</HI> Prov. 26.</NOTE> and do not &s;uffer your &s;elf to be &s;urpri&s;ed, &s;aith <HI>Solomon,</HI> by a &s;ort of people, who under their mode&s;t looks, and their &s;weet and devout voices; carry in their Souls, &s;even &s;orts of Poi&s;ons to shed into yours.</P>
<P>Know what a prudent man in bu&s;ine&s;s ought to know, and all that he ought to know, to keep at each meeting and in each company, the rank of a Man of honour, in|capable to deceive or be deceived.</P>
<P>At lea&s;t be not ignorant of the four mo&s;t
<PB N="44" REF="30">nece&s;&s;ary things, though ordinarily the mo&s;t unknown and the mo&s;t hidden. Your own defects, the thoughts of Men, the &s;ecrets of Nature and Truths of God.</P>
<P>We have within us, by the benefit of Pro|vidence and Grace, Torches to help us ea&s;i|ly to know and di&s;cover tho&s;e things.</P>
<P>We know our defects and mi&s;eries by the Light of Con&s;cience.</P>
<P>The thoughts and intentions of Men, by Experience and Judgement.</P>
<P>The &s;ecrets and wonders of Nature, by the Light of Philo&s;ophy.</P>
<P>In fine. The greatne&s;s of God and the My&s;teries of Religion, by the Light of Faith.</P>
<P>But the happine&s;s to which you ought to a&s;pire, is that Wi&s;dom should be the fifth and Soveraign.</P>
<P>For as the&s;e Torches may &s;omtimes go out,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Non extingui|tur in nocte lu|cerna ejus.</HI> Prov. 31.</NOTE> the em|ployment of Wi&s;dom is to keep them always lightned; and to have a care, that the day be never wanting to us, during this night and the&s;e dangers.</P>
<P>I &s;ay too much if you will meditate, you shall find all in the&s;e two words: <HI>Veritatem eme, &amp; noli vendere Sapientiam.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="45" REF="30">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Be not Wi&s;e in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.</HI> Proverb. 3.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>BE not wi&s;e, in &s;uch &s;ort as can make none believe that you are wi&s;e but your &s;elf, and do not make to your &s;elf a Wi&s;dom, of which you would be the Author, and that you would draw from your own Wit.</P>
<P>Remember that there is no other but the ancient and true, which is to fear God, and to do nothing contrary to the Laws of Con|&s;cience and Rea&s;on.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>LEt it never enter into your mind,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ne &s;is &s;apiens apud temet ip&s;um.</NOTE> that you are a man of merit. Be you the only per&s;on, who nei|ther knows, nor &s;peaks of your own worth.</P>
<P>Whoever knows that he's wi&s;e, shall not be &s;o long; and a&s;&s;oon as he &s;ays he is, he is &s;o no longer; and perhaps never shall be more.</P>
<P>Man ought to be ignorant of his perfecti|ons, at lea&s;t he ought not to con&s;ider them.
<PB N="46" REF="31">Since that we are of a &s;piritual nature, it is nece&s;&s;ary that our actions of e&s;teem and friendship should regard &s;ome body be&s;ides our &s;elves.</P>
<P>Let us be affraid of plea&s;ing our &s;elves, for fear we plea&s;e none but our &s;elves; and if we would be loved, have a care of being &s;u|&s;pected, to believe that we ought to be &s;o.</P>
<P>In fine, our eye and our tongue, are no more for us, then our heart. To &s;peak of our &s;elves is no le&s;s folly then to &s;peak to our &s;elves. To look on a mans &s;elf is &s;carce more worth, then to love a mans &s;elf, and perhaps, it is as dangerous for one to know, that he hath &s;omwhat good in him, as to be ignorant of what he has that's evil.</P>
<P>It is of the vertues and beauties of our Soul, as the deformities and nakedne&s;s of our Body, we ought to hide them from our eyes. It is not a thing le&s;s criminal to fix the &s;ight on the one then the other. All the&s;e a&s;pects make immode&s;t looks. Bashfulne&s;s and hone&s;ty turn away from it, and nature equally blushes at them.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee, neither &s;earch the things that are above thy &s;trength,</HI> Eccle&s;. 3.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<PB N="47" REF="31">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>ENdeavour not to attain to that which is above you, nor to comprehend mi&s;te|ries which are above your under&s;tanding. Content your &s;elf to know what God com|mands you and is nece&s;&s;ary for your &s;alva|tion. And touching his works natural, look on and contemplate what he expo&s;eth there|of to your eyes. But undertake not to di&s;cover, what he would should be un|known.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe excellency and the skill of a fine Wit, when it contemplates this World, con&s;i&s;ts not in knowing and &s;eeing better then others, which cannot be either &s;een or known. But better to know and better to admire what he doth &s;ee, and what Provi|dence hath di&s;covered.</P>
<P>When an excellent Arti&s;t con&s;iders a piece of Painting publickly expo&s;ed, he does not glory in &s;eeing there, what was to others in|vi&s;ible. The &s;imple&s;t and mo&s;t ignorant &s;ee all the fine &s;trokes in the workmanship a&s;much as he; but they &s;ee them not as he &s;ees them.</P>
<P>His advantage above them is, That in &s;ee|ing he remarks them, and by his reflections he knows and &s;ees that in his mind, which
<PB N="48" REF="32">tho&s;e &s;ee not by the eyes of the body, and that which enters not into their blind under|&s;tanding.</P>
<P>When a wi&s;e Philo&s;opher contemplates the Sun and the Stars, and that in the&s;e in|corruptible Lights he &s;ees &s;ome glimp&s;es or shadows of the beauty of the Creator, he &s;ees nothing but what the Profane and Athei&s;ts &s;ee clearly, and what they behold a&s;well as he.</P>
<P>But to behold and to look, is a &s;mall mat|ter, the Eagles do it. That of importance is to ob&s;erve and remark; it is this, that ungodly Men do no more then bea&s;ts do.</P>
<P>The&s;e shadows of Divinity and other mar|vels which enter into their outward &s;en&s;es, go no further: Their brutish and ignorant Soul knows nothing thereof.</P>
<P>The part of a wi&s;e Man is to di&s;cover to his under&s;tanding all that nature di&s;covers to his eyes. He &s;ees nothing that he minds not. And it is in that, that con&s;i&s;ts his diffe|rence from other people, and all the glory of his knowing and &s;ublime Wit.</P>
<P>It con&s;i&s;ts not, as I have &s;aid, to &s;ee or know things impenetrable. That which providence hath been willing to cover and to keep hidden, is equally &s;o for all men. Philo&s;ophers who &s;eek it, are neither learned Men, nor Arti&s;ts, but when they shall not find it.</P>
<PB N="49" REF="32">
<P>True Philo&s;ophy is not to enquire; and in que&s;tions where one mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity &s;ay (I know nothing on't) tho&s;e who &s;ay it &s;oone&s;t, and who do not &s;tudy twenty years to &s;ay it, are the mo&s;t wife and mo&s;t happy.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>Thou shalt not tru&s;t to thy own Prudence.</HI></HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHen you &s;eek the truth, believe not your own &s;entiments, nor do not rely on your particular thoughts. Fear what comes from you, and which is new, and take heed of making thereof, rules of Philo|&s;ophy and Maxims of Conduct.</P>
<P>Draw from your Prudence what Light you are able: but try it by Lights more shining and &s;ure then yours. When it shall enlighten you; have other Torches to enlighten that fir&s;t and never go in the dark and near to praecipices with it alone.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P><HI>NE innitaris prudentiae tuae.</HI> A Lyar doth not always lye, but it is always imprudence to tru&s;t to his word: Although our rea&s;oning &s;omtimes doth not deceive
<PB N="50" REF="33">us, we never fail to be blame worthy when we hearken to it, and that we take for certain truths, What we know not but from it alone.</P>
<P>This particular rea&s;oning is not in man, but to betray him and to lead him to his ruine. 'Tis it, that produces ignorances, er|rors, impieties, fal&s;e Religions, fal&s;e Philo|&s;ophers, and that forms the&s;e by paths and deceitful ways where we &s;ee many people to wander.</P>
<P>Some enter into the&s;e ways by &s;implicity: but mo&s;t by pride; They believe that Wi&s;|dom &amp; Ju&s;tice would that they went on that &s;ide, becau&s;e their own rea&s;oning leads them there.</P>
<P>But they follow a &s;trange guide. Bea&s;ts are lead by their pa&s;&s;ion. Fools by their ar|guing, and wi&s;e Men by rea&s;on.</P>
<P>None will profit by the misfortunes of others; Although each Philo&s;opher, during the di&s;putes cry with all the endeavours of his voice to warn his friends that their rea|&s;oning deceives them; each will believe that his will not deceive him; and each hears it as his Ma&s;ter: there is no authority that overweighs their own; nay, even of the Go|&s;pel nor experience.</P>
<P>The Proud re&s;pect nothing but this unhap|py prudence, and it happens more then once in an age, that a little Philo&s;opher under|takes
<PB N="51" REF="33">to examine Religion, or to reform the Elements and overturn the World; be|cau&s;e 'tis the dictate of his rea&s;oning &s;o to do.</P>
<P>A wi&s;e Man in rea&s;oning with him&s;elf, according to humane thoughts has never learnt any thing certain, but that his arguing was blind; and that he never drew any other profit thence, then to &s;ay to him&s;elf. <HI>Ne in|nitaris prudentiae tuae.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIME. <HI>Wi&s;edom &s;tandeth in the top of the high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the City. Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the &s;ons of men,</HI> Proverb. 8.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WI&s;dom &s;peaks upon the Mountains, and in the high ways, at the gates of Cities, in the mid&s;t of the &s;treets, and in all places where it finds mo&s;t people. There it infu&s;eth it &s;elf on the tongues of the people; and it makes u&s;e of their voices, to the end it might make it's &s;elf heard afar off and to &s;peak more &s;trongly: <HI>Supra viam in mediis &s;emitis.</HI></P>
<P>It is there, that the curious who would learn it's Doctrine, and who a&s;pire to be the
<PB N="52" REF="34">Oracles of their Nation, and Ma&s;ters of Science in particular Univer&s;ities ought to go. <HI>O viri, ad vos clamito.</HI> O Philo&s;ophers, 'tis to you that I direct my words, if you will be truly wi&s;e, come and hearken to me, when I teach truth in the a&s;&s;embly of men.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHat one calls here the People is not a heap of little folk, but a mixture of all men who &s;peak naturally without &s;tudy, and without artifice, and without a Con|duct of any acquired Science, and of any re|flection</P>
<P>The voice of this People, and the voice of Wi&s;dom in fu&s;ed, or to &s;ay better, the voice of the in&s;tinct, which is impeccable, and which hath always been the true Ma&s;ter of Philo&s;ophers, whereon con&s;ider the 3. fol|lowing words.</P>
<P N="1">1. That our bu&s;ine&s;s during this life, when God has given us the Wit, is to &s;tudy, and to apply our &s;elves to know the mo&s;t hidden marvels of nature.</P>
<P N="2">2. That the bu&s;ine&s;s of the Creator, from the day of our birth, is to teach us him&s;elf and to engrave on the chiefe&s;t part of our Soul, the fir&s;t principles, the chief and funda|mental Truths of this natural Philo&s;ophy.</P>
<P N="3">3. That the bu&s;ine&s;s of the in&s;tinct, is to
<PB N="53" REF="34">make tho&s;e &s;o remote Truths to approach to our &s;en&s;es, that we may be the better able to know them. To put them on the tongue of people, and to tell them to us by the gene|ral voice of all Nations.</P>
<P>What Nations &s;ay, and what they have &s;aid by common con&s;ent in all ages they have &s;aid it, being driven by this in&s;tinct, and who makes it &s;ay nothing, but what he finds written by the Spirit of God in the &s;pi|rit of all Men.</P>
<P>In one word, it is the voice of the Holy Gho&s;t in Chri&s;tian Theology, and the voice of the Con&s;cience in the moral, the voice of the in&s;tinct and of the people in the Phy&s;ick. 'Tis it, which pronounceth the deci&s;ions and decrees inconte&s;tible.</P>
<P>The people are ignorant and blind but well led: It under&s;tands not what it &s;ays, but it &s;peaks Truth: and our glory in &s;tudying or in teaching is not to correct it, or to &s;peak otherwi&s;e then it, but to explain its words, and to under&s;tand them, better than it un|der&s;tands them it &s;elf.</P>
<P>It is on this public and univer&s;al voice, that the wi&s;e Philo&s;ophers ought to &s;upport their Science. Before arguing on any vi&s;i|ble thing in the world, they ought to interro|gate, this great Ignorant called, The people, and to hearken how they talk in the &s;treets, that they might know how they ought to
<PB N="54" REF="35">&s;peak in the Schools, to the end that upon that An&s;wer, as on a Divine principle, they might e&s;tablish their propo&s;itions and the works of their particular Doctrine.</P>
<P>Follow this Council and &s;top at this Ma|xim, what&s;oever the bait may be that invites you to take others, do not quit it.</P>
<P>If to be Author of a new invention, in|&s;tead of building on the Earth, you would build in the Air, you shall build nothing but follies and ruins. If for the better &s;etting of new thoughts in order that come to you, and to form a wondrous Philo&s;ophy, you think it nece&s;&s;ary to give the people the lye, and to &s;ay, The fire has no heat, nor the &s;now white|ne&s;s, nor other quality; That the Earth is not immovable; That a Bea&s;t is no living Creature; That the Soul of man is not im|mortal: if you would that the&s;e should be the principles contained in the great Vo|lumes of your marvellous Philo&s;ophy, all your wonders shall be but dreams of impie|ties and ignorance.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>There is a way that &s;eemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,</HI> Prov. 16.25.</HEAD>
<PB N="55" REF="35">
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>MI&s;tru&s;t your &s;elf and your own judge|ment: but don't tru&s;t all &s;orts of per|&s;ons. Fal&s;e Maxims and evil Councils, en|ter ea&s;ily and &s;weetly into the &s;pirit. Fear them, and leave not your &s;elf to be lead by men who go out of the common way.</P>
<P>There are paths in the &s;piritual life which appear fair, &amp; one &s;ees therein many things, that make men believe, that they are short|e&s;t to arrive to holine&s;s; but it is dangerous to follow them: and they are ordinarily tho&s;e, which lead &s;oone&s;t and mo&s;t certainly unto death.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>ONe ought not to be a&s;tonished, at finding here below &s;uch paths as the&s;e, &s;ince one finds there, proud Men and Hy|pocrites.</P>
<P>The unavoidable blindne&s;s and common to all proud men, is to per&s;wade them&s;elves, that they &s;ee &s;pots in the Sun, errours in the Doctrine of the Church, and abu&s;es in its Conduct.</P>
<P>And that which is yet wor&s;e, is, That dri|ven by the zeal, that the illu&s;ion in&s;pires them with, they undertake to wipe out the&s;e
<PB N="56" REF="36">&s;pots and to correct tho&s;e errours. Nothing which the hand of God has made &s;eem to them finisht, but when they have changed &s;omthing or that they have given the la&s;t &s;troaks thereto.</P>
<P>'Tis thence that all the changes in the exer|ci&s;e of Devotion comes that we &s;o often complain of, and from thence all the&s;e par|ticular ways of repentance and &s;alvation where each one runs, drawn by the &s;plendor of novelty, and where each &s;eeks to wander and to perish.</P>
<P>There doth not appear pre&s;ently in tho&s;e ways. but of foot&s;teps holy and right, &s;eem|ingly marked by the rules of the Go&s;pel and by the actions of the Apo&s;tles; But, <HI>Novi&s;&s;i|ma ducunt ad mortem.</HI></P>
<P>Novelty is a way that leads to the elde&s;t &s;in, that is, Apo&s;ta&s;y, and to the la&s;t of evils which is impenitence and de&s;pair.</P>
<P>The cau&s;e why &s;o many fine people are &s;een in this way &s;o fatal, is that the Devil has always gone there fir&s;t.</P>
<P>All Devil as he is, he hath I know not what, which plea&s;es the Woman when he coun|terfeits the devout one, although Heaven and Earth could tell her, she mu&s;t run after him.</P>
<P>And when the Woman is &s;educed, she has I don't know what, that bewitches the man. Each man does what <HI>Adam</HI> did, The wi&s;e&s;t run after her.</P>
<PB N="57" REF="36">
<P>And when wi&s;e Men begin to wander and to loo&s;e them&s;elves, there is then neither blind nor fool that follows them not, and that believes not that it is Wi&s;dom to imi|tate them and to perish with them.</P>
<P>One &s;ees people run from far to enter into this dangerous way, and to go where exam|ple and hypocri&s;y draws them. Our Souls are tyed to one another by certain invi&s;ible chains and it is thereby, That the poi&s;on of the Serpent, without being able to be &s;een or &s;topt, &s;preads it &s;elf in the hearts, and that it carries throughout corruption and death.</P>
<P>All the new fashions of &s;aving ones &s;elf, are the inventions of him who would that the Saints should be damn'd. <HI>E&s;t via, quae videtur homini recta; novi&s;&s;ima autem ejus du|cunt ad mortem</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIME. <HI>Inqui&s;ition shall be made into the Councils of the ungodly.</HI> Wi&s;d. 1.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>AS the ungodly fear Men, although they fear not God; When they have any doubts to propo&s;e, on the my&s;teries of Reli|gion, they propo&s;e them to them&s;elves, they ask &s;ecretly their &s;pirit, from whence he
<PB N="58" REF="37">knows that the World has been made by a Creator; and that after Death there is a Judgement, a future Life, an Hell, an Eter|nity, &amp;c.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe little que&s;tions of worldly Philo|&s;ophy are not far from great. It is by the&s;e that one &s;uddenly learns to render him|&s;elf a Ma&s;ter in Impiety, and to propo&s;e to his heart, and to his di&s;ciples boldly, doubts &s;candalous and again&s;t eternal truths.</P>
<P>The Maniche who askt his friend, If it is God who made the Flyes, is very near ask|ing, if it is God who hath made Man.</P>
<P>One <HI>Frederick,</HI> who asks of the Societies and Philo&s;ophers of his Court, if the Birds are living, will quickly ask him&s;elf, if the Angels are &s;o, and if there are immortal Souls?</P>
<P>It is fine in an a&s;&s;embly of the curious to do towards the &s;ouls of Bulls and Elephants, what they do about &s;tones when they bur&s;t them, and to shew that under the fal&s;e appea|rance of the Unity, they are but multitudes of grains of &s;and, and of heaps of du&s;t: But at the rebound of the&s;e academic conver|&s;ations, it is that the <HI>Democritus's</HI> and <HI>Metro|dorus's,</HI> have in their &s;olitudes propo&s;ed to their Con&s;cience, other prouder que&s;tions,
<PB N="59" REF="37">and to maintain to it, That all the great things of the Earth, and even tho&s;e of Hea|ven, dreaded &s;o much by people, are not great Bodies, nor great Spirits, nor great Di|vinities: but great a&s;&s;emblies of little No|things; and that there are not in the uni|ver&s;e three things truly united, as tho&s;e of Atoms and Nothings arrived to the la&s;t e&s;tate of an indivi&s;ible &s;mallne&s;s.</P>
<P>Have a care, dangers are plea&s;ant to youth and folly. Be Wi&s;e, and follow not Ma&s;ters who to go e&s;tablish their School on the brink of praecipices.</P>
<P>Withdraw your &s;elf as far from thence as you can, and although this brink &s;eems firm, remember there are none but blind men, who will &s;tay on a place where there needs but one puff of wind, to drive them to the bottom of an aby&s;s.</P>
<P>It is true, that tho&s;e who lead others into the&s;e dangers, when they explain them&s;elves publickly, have expre&s;&s;ions and terms, which are like choice colours and proper to paint innocence and truth on the gate of a Hou&s;e where they are not: But their Philo&s;ophy is no better.</P>
<P>To be wi&s;e and bold Philo&s;ophers, or for us not to be Criminals, is very little le&s;s then to &s;peak correctly, and not to &s;peak any thing that one can accu&s;e: the point is, to do in &s;uch &s;ort, as that our innocent and unre|provable
<PB N="60" REF="38">propo&s;itions may not give cau&s;e to believe, that our thoughts are worth no|thing.</P>
<P>It is of Sciences, as it is of words. The mo&s;t dangerous are the cha&s;te&s;t, and the mo&s;t mode&s;t, when that under the vail of their mode&s;ty, they find them&s;elves the pro|pere&s;t to convey corruption into the heart, and to make them under&s;tand, that they may think well of things, of which the Teacher dur&s;t not &s;peak.</P>
<P>Have not the curio&s;ity, to know the way of your ruine, and go not to School to learn to perish, nor to learn there to forget what you have learnt and known from the Cradle. Have the happine&s;s to bear the evident mark of a Soul well made, and of a Wit well brought up, which is not to be plea&s;ed with any Doctrine, but that which &s;erves you, to know God, and helps you to love him.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>The way of a Fool is right in his own eyes; but he that hearkeneth to Council is wi&s;e,</HI> Prov. 12.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe &s;en&s;ele&s;s Man believes, that his Conduct is good, and he will have no
<PB N="61" REF="38">other Judge than him&s;elf. The wi&s;e Man di&s;tru&s;ts his own judgment. As he learns what he ought to believe, from the &s;enti|ments of the Church, &s;o he learns what he ought to do on each occa&s;ion, by the council of his friends.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere are but the&s;e two Lights that are faithful, and that we may be able to to follow &s;afely, amid&s;t the darkne&s;&s;es which &s;urround us.</P>
<P>The greate&s;t Wits have gone a&s;tray, in fol|lowing them&s;elves. The meane&s;t and mo&s;t ignorant have never done it in following the Go&s;pel. When one hearkens to his own prudence, for enlightned a&s;much as can be, one often fails of being happy in his at|tempts: But in the hearkening to the coun|cil of friends, one is always prai&s;e worthy.</P>
<P>Fortune may trouble the &s;ucce&s;s of our actions wi&s;ely managed, and with coun|cil, but it cannot rob us of the honour of it.</P>
<P>It is &s;ucce&s;s enough in a de&s;ign, to ac|quire the glory of having acted di&s;creetly therein, and the reputation of being wi&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="62" REF="39">
<HEAD>IX. MAXIM. <HI>When he &s;peaketh fair believe him not, for there are &s;even abominations in his heart.</HI> Proverb. 26.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHen there is danger for Con&s;ciences in a City, and that there runs any noi&s;e, of a new contagious Doctrine, don't leave your &s;elf to be deceived by its &s;weet|ne&s;s nor its lu&s;tre. Di&s;tru&s;t words that plea&s;e you, and devotions that a&s;tonish you, much more. A devout voice, a pale and a dejected countenance, a &s;imple and a reformed ha|bit, my&s;terious words: mortifications exem|plary and too apparent, are vails proper to cover the poi&s;on of Hell, when they are brought into company, and di&s;tributed to the curious.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe primitive Chri&s;tians were excu&s;ed, when they &s;uffered them&s;elves to be de|ceived by appearances of holine&s;s, and per|haps we could excu&s;e &s;ome innocent women this day, when we &s;ee them admire the look of an Hypocrite that counterfeits the Re|former.</P>
<P>But &s;ince one has known by &s;ix hundred
<PB N="63" REF="39">years experience, that the arche&s;t Hereticks and Anti-chri&s;ts of each age, have begun their life of Seducers, by a life of Alms and fa&s;ting, and by an extatick Devotion; there can happen nothing more shameful, to Men of Wit and Judgment, then to take a dogma|ti&s;t or a cheat, for a Prophet: and although he preach manife&s;tly again&s;t the Church of God, to believe neverthele&s;s that he comes from Heaven, becau&s;e he does Alms, makes long Prayers, and hath the &s;ecret of painting mode&s;ty on his countenance.</P>
<P><HI>Ne credideris ei,</HI> &s;aith <HI>Solomon,</HI> who ever he be that meddles with Divine my&s;teries, were he one come out of the Caves and the greate&s;t &s;everities; were he, as &s;aith St. <HI>Paul,</HI> an Angel de&s;cended out of Paradi&s;e; were he, as &s;ait Saint <HI>Cyprian,</HI> a Martyr &s;tretched on a wheel, and &s;uffering for the Name of the Sa|viour, all the pains of a cruel and infamous death; If from the top of this wheel, he wit|ne&s;&s;eth, that there re&s;ts in his Soul any thoughts or opinions contrary to the &s;enti|ments of the Church, he is an Apo&s;tate and a Reprobate. You are one your &s;elf, if you render your &s;elf his di&s;ciple; he damns him|&s;elf in dying the death of the Saints, and you damn your &s;elf in hearkening to this Martyr of Je&s;us Chri&s;t.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nec perveniet ad Chri&s;ti praemia, qui relinquit Eccle|&s;iam Chri&s;ti.</NOTE> <HI>Si occi&s;us pro nomine Chri&s;ti, fue|rit ab unitate divi&s;as, coronari
<PB N="64" REF="40">in morte non poterit.</HI> Who|&s;oever believes not the Church, is out of the Church, and who&s;oever dies out of the Church, although he die between the hands of Tyrants, dies out of the number of the Prede&s;tinated ones, he hath no portion among the Elect of the Son of God. <HI>Alienus e&s;t, profanus e&s;t, ho&s;tis e&s;t: habere non pote&s;t Deum Patrem, qui Eccle&s;iam non habet Matrem.</HI></P>
<P>In one word, <HI>Fili mi,</HI> &s;aith the Wi&s;e man. <HI>Si te lactaverint pecoatores, ut acquie&s;cas eis.</HI> What&s;oever &s;weetne&s;s and whitene&s;s there is in the Milk, take heed of taking of it when they are poi&s;oners that give it.</P>
<P>It would be an horrible phrenzie, if becau&s;e you are coun&s;elled to beware of this Milk &s;o dangerous, that you should de&s;ire to ta&s;te it, and if in the &s;ame hour, you should do it, in de&s;pight to tho&s;e charitable per&s;ons, who prayed you not to do it, and who would op|po&s;e this unhappy de&s;ign.</P>
<P>'Tis neverthele&s;s the &s;trange and in con|ceivable fancy: or the &s;trange Devil of many. A&s;&s;oon as the Church declares to them that there is the poi&s;on of Hell mixed in any Doctrine; and by an holy charity, advi&s;eth them to renounce, and to avoid tho&s;e who teach it; from thenceforth they feel them&s;elves drawn thither ward, and
<PB N="65" REF="40">there they run, as to a precious Doctrine, worthy to be known and maintain'd, in de|&s;pight to the Holy Spirit of God, and in de|&s;pight of all tho&s;e who per&s;ecute and con|demn it.</P>
<P>Be you not of their number, but reflect young man as you are, that its time for you to be wi&s;e, &s;ince you judge it is time to &s;peak of holy things, and that you &s;ay your &s;enti|ments thereon in company and in the Schools.</P>
<P>At lea&s;t re&s;pect the dignity of your Soul, formed after the Image of the Wi&s;dom and of the Holine&s;s of God; and profane it not &s;o shamefully, as to be willing to take for his Go&s;pel or his Philo&s;ophy, all the novelties that fools are plea&s;ed daily to invent and pro|po&s;e in their di&s;cour&s;es.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="10" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>X. MAXIM. <HI>He that walketh uprightly walketh &s;ure: but he that perverteth his ways, shall be known,</HI> Prov. 10.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>He that walks plainly and &s;ees where he will go marcheth with a&s;&s;urance, but he who counterfeits or wipes out his &s;teps, shall be known. In hiding his crafts one hides
<PB N="66" REF="41">not him&s;elf Di&s;&s;emblers and deceivers bear in their faces the character of their Genius. It is &s;ufficient, to &s;ee a Traitor, to make you di&s;tru&s;t him and fear him.</P>
<P>Life is found in the public ways of righ|teou&s;ne&s;s and fidelity: but crooked and hid|den paths lead to death.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TAke good heed of entring into any of the&s;e paths, and of following the com|pany who walk in tho&s;e dark and by-roads.</P>
<P>Banish from you craft, di&s;&s;imulation, and lies: have no vail upon your heart, and en|gage it not in the intrigues of dangerous af|fairs, and criminal parties, where there is need of being cover'd.</P>
<P>Be you glad, that nothing hinders it from being &s;een, and remember that the faire&s;t and mo&s;t excellent of things, have no better policy to gain men, and to merit their e&s;teem and friendship then to shew them&s;elves.</P>
<P>If there be beauty in your Soul, it cannot have too much day; and you ought to a&s;&s;ure your &s;elf, that one will have &s;o much the more re&s;pect and love for you, as you shall have of freedom and &s;incerity.</P>
<P>It is true, that &s;ilence is nece&s;&s;ary on many occa&s;ions, but you mu&s;t always be &s;incere and courteous. You ought to retain &s;ome
<PB N="67" REF="41">thoughts but di&s;gui&s;e none. There are ways of holding ones peace without shut|ting up the heart; of being di&s;creet, without being dull and &s;ilent; of hiding &s;ome truths without covering them with lies; of being faithful to his friends, without deceiving others, and without betraying his Con|&s;cience.</P>
<P>In fine, it is a great advantage to thrive in the World, and to have the reputation of telling nothing which ought to be &s;ecret, or was fal&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="11" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XI. MAXIM. <HI>A wi&s;e man feareth and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth and is confident,</HI> Proy. 14.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IN trouble&s;ome occurrences, and in af|fairs where danger appears, that wi&s;e Man is fearful. He shuns the misfortune by turn|ing out of this ill pa&s;&s;age and in taking a fur|ther way about. The indi&s;creet Man he mar|ches without fear, and falls without po&s;&s;ibi|lity of help.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="68" REF="42">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is true, that when difficulties pre&s;ent them&s;elves, if a Man can &s;ucceed by cou|rage, and overcome them boldly, t'is the mo&s;t glorious and mo&s;t short: but the mo&s;t shameful of misfortunes is to perish by rashne&s;s.</P>
<P>A wi&s;e Man in a all occurrences, ought to know more ways then one, or to remember, there is more then one time. One drowns him&s;elf to day, where to morrow he can walk dry foot. And it is a fine art to manage happily and diligently ones affairs, and to be able to &s;top him&s;elf and be quiet &s;ea&s;on|ably.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="12" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XII. MAXIM. <HI>Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly,</HI> Prov. 13.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe principal Law, which natural, a&s;|well as &s;upernatural, and Divine pru|dence impo&s;eth on us, is to confer as often as we can with friends of mo&s;t in&s;ight and to help our &s;elves by their remon&s;trances; to &s;ee what ought to be &s;een in our affairs and de&s;igns. Whil&s;t pa&s;&s;ion keeps our eyes
<PB N="69" REF="42">fixed, on the beholding that at which we aim, we &s;ee not that which follows us, or is about us.</P>
<P>Our faithful friends, better inlightned then our &s;elves, make us to &s;ee that; and it is in that, con&s;i&s;ts the extream nece&s;&s;ity of their pre&s;ence, and the mo&s;t impertant office of their friendship.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHen folly is entred with pride into a great Spirit, the mo&s;t evident mark that it is there; and the mo&s;t certain pre&s;age, of the misfortune of that man, is, That he can no more ask, nor &s;uffer that council be given him,</P>
<P>The wife Man attempts nothing without having fir&s;t known the &s;entiments of his friends, and di&s;cour&s;ed of his affair with di&s;creet and judicious per&s;ons: And even his Maxim is; That on occa&s;ions where deli|beration is nece&s;&s;ary, if he fails of other Coun&s;ellors; It is a wi&s;er action to delibe|rate with an ignorant man or a fool, and to make him &s;peak, then to hearken only to him&s;elf, provided always that there be no danger concerning a &s;ecret.</P>
<P>Who&s;oever he be that &s;peaks, he profits of what they &s;ay to him. It is an errour, not to be willing to ask, but Men of great judge|ment
<PB N="70" REF="43">and reputation. A man of wit hear|kens to what the lea&s;t of the mean people &s;ay, and he judgeth not this to be lo&s;t time, that is &s;pent in hearing them di&s;cour&s;e of the difficulties of a bu&s;ine&s;s.</P>
<P>By one of the mo&s;t marvellous &s;ecrets of nature, he knows how to draw from each of their propo&s;itions, &s;ome &s;park or ray of Light; and from the&s;e little Lights put to|gether, he gets &s;o much day as is nece&s;&s;a|ry to Conduct him well in his under|taking.</P>
<P>One is always wi&s;e in hearkning unto Councils:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Innocens credit omni verbo, a&s;tutus con&s;ide|rat.</HI> Prov. 14.</NOTE> but not always in following them. To follow them without being willing to con&s;ider them, is not to &s;erve a mans &s;elf of them; But 'tis to obey them, and to render him&s;elf indi&s;creetly a &s;lave to him who gives them.</P>
<P>The ordinary fate of weak Wits, when they are rai&s;ed by fortune, to &s;ome rank of authority, is that they perish by their Councils.</P>
<P>The multitude of confidents, doth about the&s;e infirm and blind powers, as a multi|tude of Phy&s;icians about a rich patient.</P>
<P>How faithful &s;oever tho&s;e intimate friends who&s;e &s;entiments you hearken unto may appear, take heed, have an eye at their hearts
<PB N="71" REF="43">and penetrate their intentions, when they &s;peak to you.</P>
<P>For, Alas! how many &s;ellers of evil councils, are there about a man, who has means to buy them? And how many bu&s;i|ne&s;&s;es undertaken by &s;uch kind of councils have ruined the undertaker, and enriched the Coun&s;eller?</P>
<P>The cu&s;tome, or the Maxim of the wi&s;e Man, when one brings him advice, is to hearken to them, and to receive them ci|villy, as a friend; to examine them as a Judge, and to execute them as a Ma&s;ter.</P>
<P>When he does, what one hath coun&s;elled him, he follows not the opinon of another, but his own.</P>
<P>Good Councils appertain not properly to tho&s;e, who invent them by their Wit, and who propo&s;e them, but tho&s;e who con&s;ider them, and chu&s;e them by judgement.</P>
<P>In one word, one of the mo&s;t inviolable rules of prudent and experimental policy; is to examine others, on his own affairs and the re&s;olutions that one has taken; and to be a&s;&s;ured that in &s;uch occa&s;ions, the mo&s;t clear &s;ighted men become blind, a&s;&s;oon as he is alone.</P>
<P>The &s;en&s;ele&s;s Man &s;ees nothing, becau&s;e he thinks that he beholds all things in &s;eeing him&s;elf. <HI>Via &s;tulti recta in oculis ejus: qui au|tom &s;apiens e&s;t audit con&s;ilia.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="72" REF="44">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>He that is of an hard mind rusheth into evil.</HI></HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HE who hath a Soul hard and inflexible, and who keeps him&s;elf &s;tubbornly tyed to his own will, or re&s;i&s;teth the Councils of others, without being able to be per&s;waded by rea&s;on, or admonitions, nor bent by tears, nor forced by threatnings and by fear, shall fall into mi&s;ery and drag thither much people.</P>
<P>The extremity of evil is, when this con|ceited Man thinks to be wi&s;e, and that to let all go to ruin rather then to blot out a word, or let go a capricious re&s;olution, is to edify the publick and to obey his con|&s;cience.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>COn&s;tancy ought without doubt, to be put among the mo&s;t laudable and chief perfections of humane Wit; but its name and its colours, &s;erve often to cover our na|tural hardne&s;s, and to make it to be put in the rank of vertues and heroic qualities.</P>
<PB N="73" REF="44">
<P>The true con&s;tancy, con&s;i&s;ts not in wil|ling firmly what we have ju&s;tly and wi&s;ely re&s;olved: It con&s;i&s;ts in willing always what Ju&s;tice and rea&s;on requires of us.</P>
<P>Many de&s;igns are good in one day, who are not in another, and it can ea&s;ily happen; That what was ye&s;terday deliberated and ap|pointed by Wi&s;dom to be done, would be folly to execute to day.</P>
<P>The wi&s;e Man is con&s;tant and firm; his Soul is immortal and invariable, but his re|&s;olutions are not &s;o. As they are bound to circum&s;tances, dependant on time and for|tune, they ought to be changed, according as the changes and motions of the World take away from them the conformity they had to rea&s;on.</P>
<P>It is the duty and perfection of a Cock on a Dial to be always &s;teady, without ever changing of place; but this should be a great di&s;order, if its shadow &s;tood &s;till al&s;o.</P>
<P>It is true, that our rea&s;on has no honour, nor advantage above mortal things, but as it hath of firmne&s;s and immortality more then they. Yet it should cea&s;e neverthele&s;s to be rea&s;on, and to be the living Image of the Wi&s;dom, and eternity of God, if its de&s;igns were unchangeable.</P>
<P>I have &s;aid it, and I have re&s;olved it, it shal be done then, what&s;oever shall happen; &s;ee, there's the Wi&s;dom of God, the &s;in of the
<PB N="74" REF="45">Angel, and the folly of man among&s;t the mo&s;t ridiculous fools, there are certain little Wits, which &s;pread them&s;elves, that they might be enlarged; and who think that it is to mea&s;ure them&s;elves with the Wits of the fir&s;t rank; and to become Heroes and in|vincible is to render them&s;elves inexor|able.</P>
<P>On each new occa&s;ion we ought to re|view our re&s;olutions, and con&s;ider if pru|dence gives us not new orders, and if there is nothing to change in our wills.</P>
<P>This new order, perhaps may be on the part of this prudence, To &s;ee at our feet a multitude of per&s;ons be&s;eeching, and a multitude of new tears, worthy to touch and to &s;often the heart of Man.</P>
<P>Tenderne&s;s de&s;troys neither con&s;tan|cy nor courage. Gold hath &s;o much the more &s;plendor and force, and is &s;o much more perfect and pure, as the fire has &s;oft|ned it.</P>
<P>Our noble Soul is never more noble nor never more couragious, and more Divine, then when it is made tender by a ju&s;t compa&s;&s;ion, and comforts the An|gels and Saints in pardoning a crimi|nall, or in quitting any re&s;olution, of which the &s;everity would be a public affliction.</P>
<PB N="75" REF="45">
<P>The Glory of being con&s;tant co&s;ts us very dear, and its but little different from an unhappine&s;s, if it procures us the re|putation of being hard and pittile&s;s.</P>
<P><HI>Qui mentis e&s;t durae, corruet in malum.</HI> Proverb. 24.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="3" TYPE="article">
<PB N="76" REF="46">
<HEAD>ARTICLE III. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Heart, and its Pa&s;&s;ions.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>The fir&s;t MAXIM. <HI>Let thy mind be upon the Ordinances of the Lord, and he will e&s;tablish thine heart.</HI> Eccle&s;. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>_THe be&s;t Maxim that you can ob&s;erve in regard of your Heart and its pa&s;&s;ions, is to look upon God, and apply your &s;elf to know his Will, and to yield an inviolable and a faithful obedience there|to,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Dedit Deus Sa|lomoni latitudi|nem cordis &s;icut arenam quae e&s;t in littore maris.</HI> 1 Reg. 4.</NOTE> Then will God give you a Heart, which shall be a pre&s;ent worthy of his ma|gnificence and his Power, and which, as that of <HI>Solo|mon,</HI> being &s;tretcht beyond the borders of the Ocean, shall have immen&s;ity for its character.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="77" REF="46">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>ONe of the mo&s;t shamefull, and uglie&s;t deformities, that can happen by de|fect of nature, is to have a &s;treight heart.</P>
<P>Tho&s;e who have it in that manner, al|though the world adore them, are yet con|temptible. Where the Heart is little, the re&s;t is &s;o likewi&s;e, in de&s;pight of fortune.</P>
<P>It is thereby that we mea&s;ure men, and it is thence, wee judge that in a Citty, the mo&s;t numerous part of the inhabitants ought to be called little people.</P>
<P>Others who are elevated above tho&s;e, are not &s;o by purple, nor ornaments. If there had not been great courages among us, there had never been Princes. Men have not made them Ma&s;ters of the world, but becau&s;e they found hearts as great as it.</P>
<P>The heart of tho&s;e men,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ip&s;e dabit tibi Cor.</NOTE> is the heart which God gives. Behold and a&s;pire.</P>
<P>Endeavour at lea&s;t, to frame your example to his, and to mark upon your actions, &s;ome &s;trokes of his character, which is, as I have &s;aid, a goodne&s;s magnanimous and bold.</P>
<P>Have courage: doe nothing that can be able to wound your reputation, or your Con&s;cience: love honour, and ob&s;erve its
<PB N="78" REF="47">two lawes, of being incorruptible and fear|le&s;s.</P>
<P>Permit not, that avarice, or any loo&s;e hope, render your &s;oul a &s;lave; let the love of your duty alone be the ground of your actions.</P>
<P>Po&s;&s;e&s;s your liberty and enjoy the right proper to God alone, to doe nothing by con&s;traint or intere&s;t. Be you independent as to mortall things, di&s;ingaged from your pa&s;&s;ions, rai&s;ed above the favours, the pro|mi&s;es, and above the threatnings of fortune, invincible by violence or flattery.</P>
<P>But joyn to this firmne&s;s of &s;pirit, all that you can of &s;weetne&s;s, and the graces of a good nature.</P>
<P>Without loo&s;eing any thing of your vigour, endeavour to become by love and good will, that which Gold, the firme&s;t of mettals becomes by the fire, tractable, and capable of receiveing all &s;orts of shapes.</P>
<P>Let each find his humour in you, without finding his faults there. Accomodate your &s;elfe to the inclinations of per&s;ons, to their cu&s;tomes, their affaires, their &s;entiments; and feare not undervaluing your &s;elfe by this complai&s;ance. Remember, that to appear mo&s;t noble, and to keep the fir&s;t rank of honour in Company, is to be the mo&s;t ready to doe, all that Civility requires on every occa&s;ion, and mo&s;t proper to doe it, with a good grace.</P>
<PB N="79" REF="47">
<P>Tis true, that your humour, to be the humour of a wi&s;e man, ought to be alwayes equal, and always the &s;ame, but this laudable evenne&s;s con&s;i&s;ts in being con|&s;tantly of the humour of others / and to con|form your &s;elfe to the condition, wherein you find their &s;oul, in the various accidents of mortal life.</P>
<P>Know you what comforts them, what afflicts them, what toucheth them, and be you your &s;elfe touched thereby &equals; as of things which are common to you.</P>
<P>By a true &s;ympathy; feel you their pains, and make them &s;ee on your countenance, and in your words, the marks of this gene|rous conformity.</P>
<P>Ob&s;erve worthily, and faithfully, the rules of friendship; and judge that the immen&s;e greatne&s;s, of a noble &s;oul, con&s;i&s;ts in its being pe&s;ent by its cares, and the application of its thoughts, to each part of the Dutyes, that ju&s;tice and friendship pre|&s;cribes to it.</P>
<P>It is no great vertue to love per&s;ons, who plea&s;e you by the &s;plendor of their fortune, or the fair qualities of their witt and nature.</P>
<P>But tis &s;o, when you love tho&s;e truly that you love; of any humour or any condition that they can be,</P>
<P>Have here in the &s;entiments of <HI>Solomon.</HI> That which was particularly admirable in his
<PB N="80" REF="48">Conduct, was, that the precious friendship contracted with &s;o many Princes, as he knew in the world, hindered him not from having a tender affection, for the officers of his court, and even for the meane&s;t of the &s;laves that laboured in his hou&s;e, and of whom he knew he was beloved.</P>
<P>He beleeved that the fidelity and love of &s;ervants, can not be ju&s;tly recompen&s;ed,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Si e&s;t tibi &s;er|vus fidelis, &s;it ti bi qua&s;i anima tua.</NOTE> but by the love of their ma&s;ter: and that the heart of the mea|ne&s;t of men, when he loves his King &s;incerely and without intere&s;t, is not le&s;s worth then the heart of a King.</P>
<P>He looked on him&s;elfe as their father, and one of the fine&s;t exploits of his wi&s;dome and faithfulne&s;s, was to have &s;o done, as that no body entred into, or dwelt in his hou&s;e who was not faithfull, and that no body went out thence, who was not rich.</P>
<P>Their fortune entred into the number of his own affaires: hee even felt his owne feli|cities cea&s;e to plea&s;e him, when he &s;aw any of his Dome&s;ticks, who &s;eem'd to have no share therein, and who carried in his eyes any mark of &s;adne&s;s or di&s;quiet.</P>
<P>Let your Principal and fir&s;t bu&s;ine&s;s in the exerci&s;e of your charge be, to a&s;&s;ure your &s;elfe of the good will, &amp; to de&s;erve to be
<PB N="81" REF="48">loved, of tho&s;e who ought to obey you.</P>
<P>What&s;oever name of Prince, Lord, or Magi&s;trate, that you bear in a Province or City, believe this, That you shall not have any power, nor be really the Ma&s;ter of any thing, but when you shall be the Ma&s;ter of Hearts.</P>
<P>But ob&s;erve, that to be beloved of the peo|ple, the fir&s;t le&s;&s;on is, in loving them, love nothing but their per&s;ons, &s;eek nothing el&s;e by your goodne&s;s towards them, but the plea&s;ure of obliging them without intere&s;t, and the honour of loving them &s;incerely, and that without hope.</P>
<P>That of feigning love, is a wicked trade, and by acting the part of a friend on the &s;tage of the World, by promi&s;es and comical civi|lities; A Man learns nothing, but to de|ceive and betray him&s;elf. In the art of gaining hearts the great &s;ecret, is to love naturally, and that without art, without re|flection it &s;elf, and (if I might &s;o &s;ay) without vertue.</P>
<P>Love is &s;o much the more powerful over the will, and &s;o much the more vertuous and more admirable, as it doth without vertue the good it doth, and fol|low nothing but its in&s;tinct the na|ture.</P>
<P>Divine charity it &s;elf is not perfect, but
<PB N="82" REF="49">when it is transformed, into the nature of the charitable per&s;on, and that it is become his inclination and its weight.</P>
<P>Futhermore, let clemency be in&s;eparable from your per&s;on, and let it enter into all your Councils. Be &s;evere in words and actions, when you mu&s;t be &s;o: but then, have you another tongue and other hands be&s;ides your own. Imploy not your hands, but when you mu&s;t di&s;tribute favours, and let not your tongue &s;erve you but to pro|nounce edicts of mercy and love.</P>
<P>Take not tho&s;e for enemies, who are &s;in|cerely afflicted for having di&s;plea&s;ed you; And when its nece&s;&s;ary to punish any guilty per&s;on, do not give him time, if po&s;&s;ible, to repent before your face, and have recour&s;e to your goodne&s;s. If his tears and his grief prevent you; believe that you have lo&s;t the rights of your anger; and endeavour to imi|tate, the Ma&s;ter of Kings and Judges, who cannot punish &s;inners but in the time that they are proud, and who doth not make the mi&s;ery of any one, to continue eternally, but becau&s;e they love eternally their malice.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="83" REF="49">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the i&s;&s;ues of life.</HI> Prov. 4.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>LEt your greate&s;t care, and your chief bu&s;ine&s;s be, to keep your Heart, becau&s;e it is the fir&s;t &s;pring of life.</P>
<P>When that finds it &s;elf in di&s;order, the re&s;t mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily be &s;o al&s;o; and nothing in your per&s;on nor your hou&s;e, can be happy whil&s;t your heart is not. Govern your pa&s;|&s;ions and lu&s;ts, and do not follow them.</P>
<P>Di&s;tru&s;t your own will, becau&s;e it is your own enemy, and that it &s;eeks no other thing, by its impatient de&s;ires, and di&s;orderly in|clinations, then to beget in you inte&s;tin wars, and to &s;ee there, confu&s;ion de&s;pair and death.</P>
<P>Keep all that in chains, and let them be as &s;o many rebellious pri&s;onners, committed to the Conduct of your rea&s;on.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe Pa&s;&s;ions are a very wi&s;e invention of nature, who was willing to give man extraordinary forces, on occa&s;ions where
<PB N="84" REF="50">he ought to act &s;trongly, for the repelling a dangerous evil, or acquireing any good, of which the conque&s;t is painfull.</P>
<P>When the&s;e invi&s;ible fires are lighted in the veines, a man is more then him&s;elfe, and he then does nothing but what &s;eems mira|culous.</P>
<P>There goes out of his heated bloud, &s;parks and I know not what, points of flame, as &s;tings, which enter into the heart, and by unfore&s;een motions, push it on to bold attempts. Hee runs where vehemency car|ries him, finding nothing difficult, being able to believe nothing to be invincible, nor more powerfull and &s;trong then the fire of which he feels him &s;elfe animated.</P>
<P>The mi&s;chief is, that the&s;e forces shut up in man, are contrary to him. The&s;e are &s;editious and cruel dome&s;ticks. At lea&s;t if they are not kept chained alwayes hee is lo&s;t: if they are not his &s;laves, he mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity be their victime.</P>
<P>The Pa&s;&s;ions knit to the heart of man, by the eternall wi&s;dome, are as Lyons, or as hor&s;es of great price, fa&s;tned to the Chariot of a Conquerour.</P>
<P>When that our &s;pirit, exempt from crime, without dependance on intere&s;t, Ma&s;ter of its de&s;ires, Conqueror of the world, Image of the greatne&s;s and of the Maje&s;ty of God, comes to appear there on, drawn
<PB N="85" REF="50">by them into glory and immortality, there is not in nature a &s;tatelier &s;pectacle, nor more worthy to be contemplated, nor admired by Angels.</P>
<P>But when it happens during the triumph, that the hor&s;es break their bits, they carry away their guides by force from their Ma&s;ter, and there can be nothing &s;een more &s;ad and di&s;a&s;trous, they drag along with them, all the triumph into precipices: And this con|queror which the people gatherd together, admired and contemplated, is no more any thing, but the &s;port of a Troop of furies, and a &s;ad example of the weakne&s;s, of the vertues of the man, and the vanity of his greatne&s;s.</P>
<P>The Pa&s;&s;ions are from God, the exce&s;s which happens is of the &s;in of the fir&s;t Man.</P>
<P>The work was holy &amp; pure, when it went out from the hands of the Creator: But the fire of hell is &s;et thereto: and our teares had not been able to quench it, although wee had never cea&s;ed to weep &s;ince it was lighted.</P>
<P>The evil has la&s;ted neer &s;ix hundred yeers already, and continues, to this very day, and it is thence, that all the mi&s;chiefs that betide us form them|&s;elves.</P>
<PB N="86" REF="51">
<P>Our &s;pirit &s;ent from Hea|ven into this lower world,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Corpus mortis Caro peccati.</NOTE> enters into an hou&s;e built of earth, into a body, com|po&s;ed of a corruptible matter, of dirt filled with the &s;tings, of &s;in and of death.</P>
<P>The vapours of this corruption form within us a thick dark and tempe&s;tuous cloud, which covers us with horrour and ob&s;curity.</P>
<P>Our pa&s;&s;ions wrapt up in this Cloud, they heat them&s;elves, and there take fire, and goe out thence, like lightning and whirl|winds. The&s;e turbulent fires drive on the Imagination, the imagination being driven and carried away, carries with it, the thoughts and the will of the &s;oul.</P>
<P>The immortal &s;oul follows motion, and goes where heat and fury leads it, It takes de&s;igns, and conceives blindly, incon&s;ide|rate opinions, foolish and deceitfull hopes, and impetuous de&s;ires. It runs and hazards it &s;elf, and its headlong rashne&s;s &s;tops not its &s;elfe, but when in the end, it is arrived to its unhappyne&s;s &amp; lo&s;t in an abi&s;s of crimes and teares.</P>
<P>The wor&s;t of it is, that when it finds it &s;elfe there, it is ashamed to retire thence. It falls there, by folly, and it abides there by Pride. Man coverd with darkne&s;s, and filled with errours, plunged in filth and
<PB N="87" REF="51">loaden with chains, tyed by &s;tubborne&s;s, to his cu&s;tomes and his ignorance, is a &s;ad &s;pectacle for Heaven, who contemplates with pitty this image of God, in &s;o deplorable a condition.</P>
<P>During the e&s;tate of innocence the pa&s;&s;ions rai&s;ed not them&s;elves, but by the orders of rea&s;on.</P>
<P>In the &s;tate of wi&s;dome, and of Chri&s;tian holyne&s;s, the &s;ame pa&s;&s;ions ray&s;e not them|&s;elves, but under rea&s;on, but in a &s;tate of licentiou&s;ne&s;s they rai&s;e them&s;elves above it.</P>
<P>The&s;e tempe&s;tuous darkne&s;&s;es cover the whole man, and &s;pread trouble and ob&s;cu|rity, even to the highe&s;t region.</P>
<P>The pa&s;&s;ions are &s;trong, &s;o are you, much &s;tronger then they: I can &s;ay, at lea&s;t of the wi&s;e man, of all great men, that they have in their per&s;ons, three powerfull helps again&s;t the&s;e dome&s;tic enemies, three benefits of the Orator Sanctified by Grace. Good nature, Courage, and wi&s;dome.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>I had a good &s;pirit, &amp; came into a body unde|filed.</HI> Wi&s;d: 8.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<PB N="88" REF="52">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>I have found in me, &s;aith <HI>Solomon,</HI> from my youth, all the bounties of an excellent nature. They are not the fruits of my pains, nor the gifts of fortune: God who governs the accidents of our birth and life, hath given them me, tis the work of his hands, and a pre&s;ent of his love, more ancient then my &s;elfe.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>AN excellent and fine nature is no other thing,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Sortitus &s;um animam bonam veni ad corpus coinquinatum.</NOTE> then the excellency and the beauty of a noble &s;oul communicated to the Pa&s;&s;ions.</P>
<P>As &s;ouls of that rank, po&s;&s;e&s;s their no|bility, and greatne&s;s, from the birth: when they enter into the body, they have the power, to help nature, to compo&s;e their temperaments, and the&s;e are they,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Tabernarulum pro habitu &s;uo fingunt.</NOTE> who by the impre&s;&s;ion of their force and &s;weetne&s;s, do form the imagination, give the Character to the organs.</P>
<PB N="89" REF="52">
<P>They shed out of them&s;elves their qua|lities and all they can of their divine fire and heavenly inclinations, to mingle it among the bloud and the corrupted pa&s;|&s;ions; and by this happy medley, they weaken the poy&s;on of the corruption, and the mortal violence of the malady that it finds there.</P>
<P>The&s;e pure &s;tarrs, have influences which in&s;inuate them&s;elves, &s;ecretly among the flames of lu&s;t, and there tempers that, which is mo&s;t burning in their fury, and mo&s;t un|ruly in their motions.</P>
<P>One &s;ees in many per&s;ons, a mode|ration and a purity, which makes one think, that there remaines not any &s;pot, of the &s;in of Adam in them.</P>
<P>There appears nothing, but what is hand&s;om in their pa&s;&s;ions, nor any thing which &s;eems not, to agree with the &s;pirit, and to have &s;piritual inclinations.</P>
<P>That comes here from, that this &s;pirit &s;ublime, by priviledge common to all perfect Beings, hath a &s;ecret power; of which that of the Loadstone is a shad|dow, to draw from the earth all that it toucheth, and to draw it unto its Pole.</P>
<P>The pa&s;&s;ions touched, by the vertue of a noble &s;oul, turn them&s;elves towards Heaven, and a&s;pire not, but to laudable
<PB N="90" REF="53">and hone&s;t ends. <HI>Vir &s;apiens fortis e&s;t.</HI> The &s;pirit of Man is wi&s;e and &s;trong, becau&s;e that there is nothing in his per&s;on, which op|po&s;eth it &s;elf unto its elevation, and which refu&s;eth to follow them.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>He that is &s;low to anger, is better then the mighty, and he that ruleth his &s;pirit, then he that taketh a City.</HI> Prov. 16.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>COurage and the love of true honour, is enough to render a man Ma&s;ter, of his lu&s;ts and de&s;ires.</P>
<P>Courage contains two vertues, force and patience. And the&s;e are as the two parts which compo&s;e it, and di&s;tinguisheth it, from the other perfections of our na|ture.</P>
<P>By force we re&s;i&s;t Men, and our enemies that are &s;trangers; by patience, our pa&s;&s;ions and dome&s;tick enemies.</P>
<P>Conquerors of Men, are admired and crowned upon earth: Conquerors of them|&s;elves,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Violenti capiunt illud.</NOTE> are &s;o in Heaven; and it is for them, that all the triumphs and im|mortal Crowns, are there prepared.</P>
<PB N="91" REF="53">
<P>The vigour of tho&s;e is worth much, and it de&s;erves the reputation that it hath in the World.</P>
<P>The Patience of the&s;e, although the World prize it le&s;s, is much more worth; it is the mo&s;t nece&s;&s;ary and ought to be mo&s;t honoured.</P>
<P>The one and the other have been always put in the fir&s;t rank, of the moral vertues; and they are tho&s;e, that have given the name of Great to the <HI>Con&s;tantines,</HI> and the <HI>Charle|mains,</HI> and which have made the Heroes of old adored. But if you cannot a&s;pire, but to one of the two, chu&s;e that which wi&s;e Men have preferred, and mark that among&s;t your Maxims, the words that one has &s;een written upon &s;ome Princes Standards, and that all great Souls find graven in them&s;elves, as a device of natures chu&s;ing. <HI>Melior e&s;t patiens viro forti, &amp; qui dominatur animo &s;uo, expugnatore urbium.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>ONe demands what this Courage is. Every body an&s;wers? It is ea&s;y to de|ceive ones &s;elf therein and to take appearance for truth.</P>
<P>Many do ill to put it in the number, of fea|vers and the heats of their corrupted nature; and to believe, that it is no other thing then
<PB N="92" REF="54">an inflammation of choler, which unexpe|ctedly kindles it &s;elfe, at the meeting of &s;ome object of Anger, and which heating the imagination and troubling the humours of the body, pusheth the man incon&s;idera|tely into dangers.</P>
<P>Courage is not of the number of the pa&s;&s;ions, it is their Ma&s;ter; nature keeps it in the middle of them, not as a Criminal among&s;t its Accomplices, but a Conque|rour among&s;t his Slaves, to keep them in duty and &s;ubject them to labour. Their fires are different from his, but they are fit to &s;erve him.</P>
<P>Some perfwade them&s;elves, that this which we call true Courage, is a Military Angel, who during combats, enters into the &s;oules of the Heroes, and there produceth the Marvels that we admire.</P>
<P>Others, That tis only the in&s;piration, or the breath of this Angel, which pusheth on the hearts of &s;ouldiers, and gives motion to armies.</P>
<P>The mo&s;t wi&s;e, have very wi&s;ely &s;aid, that it is a &s;piritual flame, kindled by the Creator, in the highe&s;t part of our Soul, as a &s;tarr in the highe&s;t part of the Firma|ment.</P>
<P>A peaceful and regular flame, &s;ub|lime, incorruptible, ardent, pure and fruitfull, alwayes fa&s;tned to Heaven and
<PB N="93" REF="54">bu&s;y on earth, by an inexhau&s;tible ema|nation of influences, nece&s;&s;ary for the con&s;ervation of the repo&s;e, and life of the people.</P>
<P>But what&s;oever Courage may be, do not you believe, that to be couragious you are obliged to take arms, and go &s;eek enemies in far Countreys. Abide where you are, and make warr again&s;t your pa&s;&s;ions; you shal do (&s;aith <HI>Solomon</HI>) more than tho&s;e who wear the &s;word.</P>
<P>When that you pardon injuries, and by a generous patience you &s;uffer &s;landers and calumnies, you are better then the &s;ouldier that revengeth them.</P>
<P>And it is more honourable to you, to &s;top in you, any tran&s;port of anger, or to repell in you, any thoughts which flatter you and draw you to &s;in, then to de&s;troy an Army and to take Cities.</P>
<P>Your greatne&s;s and your glory, is not to aba&s;e others before you; but to be great in your &s;elfe, and to have above tho&s;e, an elevation independent on their fall or mi&s;ery.</P>
<P>When you overcome your irregular impatience, and you re&s;i&s;t the motions, that carry you to loo&s;e actions, that are prohibited by duty; you make your me|rit and your vertue to be believed, when you overcome &s;trange enemies,
<PB N="94" REF="55">it encrea&s;eth nothing that is in you; The defeat of an Army le&s;&s;ens the number of men, but it adds not a jot to your &s;tature, nor one degree of perfection to your &s;pirit.</P>
<P>In one word, prize patience. I do not &s;ay, contemn vigour: Although 'tis not be va|lued, as this victorious patience, I confe&s;s 'tis worth much and de&s;erves the admira|tion that all ages have had for it. But further, that the one and the other to be perfect, ought not to be &s;eperated; becau&s;e they are the two parts of courage, the two halfs, of one and the &s;ame whole that &s;eperation will nece&s;&s;arily weaken and ob&s;cure.</P>
<P>There is no courage, nor noblene&s;s, nor &s;upream grandour in a Soul, where the&s;e two vertues are not together: 'tis only by their union; that they have the power, to carry men to the mo&s;t eminent degree of heroic Glory, and to give to their actions this Di|vine lu&s;tre which dazles the eyes of the World, and which obliges fame, to &s;peak of them to all Nations and in all ages.</P>
<P>It is true, that it is an illu&s;trious thing, and very ju&s;tly to be applauded and admired by the people, to &s;ee what courage doth in a Prince; when that during a battel, push'd on by this coele&s;tial fire, He pa&s;&s;eth unhurt through all the furies of death, and runs (upon an Army overthrown) after victory which calls and leads him.</P>
<PB N="95" REF="55">
<P>In like manner, it is true, That there is another &s;pectacle yet more rare and more worthy of public admiration, to &s;ee a Prince, when in the mid&s;t of triumphs and &s;ucce&s;s, and among&s;t the mo&s;t glorious feli|cities of humane life; he can contemn what he po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth, and that he vi&s;ibly declares by his mode&s;ty, and by the fidelity of his Con|duct, that he had rather lo&s;e all that, and lo&s;e Empires and Worlds too, if he had them, then to commit an action of in|ju&s;tice.</P>
<P>But to &s;ee the&s;e two marvels united, and tyed to each other in one and the &s;ame Conqueror; To overcome the enemies of the State, and to overcome him&s;elf, to en|crea&s;e in Wi&s;dom and moderation by Com|bats; to encrea&s;e in goodne&s;s by victories; to take Towns and gain Hearts; to be the mo&s;t beloved and mo&s;t dreadful of men, without doubt, is the mo&s;t ravishing &s;ight under Heaven. I do not know whether the Ancients have &s;een it with their eyes, or if po&s;terity shall &s;ee it in our An|nals.</P>
<P>All the &s;entiments of this true Courage, are heaped together in the&s;e two words. Ra|ther to dye then to fear Men, and to fly be|fore an Army; and rather to dye, then not to fly at the &s;ight of dangers which threaten the Con&s;cience; and preferring the intere&s;ts
<PB N="96" REF="56">of &s;elf love, or a loo&s;e pa&s;&s;ion, before the du|ties of fidelity.</P>
<P>If you are not of the condition, nor the humour to &s;ay the former; or if your parti|cular profe&s;&s;ion, &s;ubject you to the Laws of the Go&s;pel, oblige you to pardon all in|juries: comfort your &s;elf in remembring, That it is a Prince more valiant then the <HI>Cae&s;ars,</HI> and more enlightned from God then the Prophets, who a&s;&s;ures me. <HI>Melior e&s;t patiens viro forti, qui dominatur animo &s;uo, ex|pugnatore urbium.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>A breath of the Power of God, a pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty, the brightne&s;s of the everla&s;ting Light, the un&s;potted mirrour of the Power of God.</HI> Wi&s;d. 7.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>AMong&s;t the perfections of God, that which renders a Man eternally at peace in him&s;elf, is Wi&s;dom: It is from thence that he draws the third remedy, that he pre|&s;ents us again&s;t the troubles and di&s;orders, which we carry within us, and who are born of our own infirmity.</P>
<P>This &s;upernatural Wi&s;dom is a vapour of its vertue, communicated to the Pa&s;&s;ions
<PB N="97" REF="56">of the Man, and shed even into the mid&s;t of their corruptions and tumults, to cau&s;e there peace and holine&s;s.</P>
<P>The peace of the Saints enters into us with Wi&s;dom; and the de&s;ign of God is, That there remaining in our Soul, no more of any motion or &s;pot, it becomes a mirrour, where he can contemplate his Divine beauty without, and there know him&s;elf, as he knows him&s;elf eternally in his word. <HI>Specu|lum Maje&s;tatis Dei.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>GOod nature weakens the Pa&s;&s;ions;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Inclinavi cor meum ad facien|das ju&s;tificatio|nes tuas.</NOTE> Courage daunts them, Wi&s;dom ele|vates them. And by a mi|raculous transformation, it changeth them into vertues, and &s;anctifies what they have criminal and mo&s;t contrary to grace, in putting them &s;weetly under obe|dience.</P>
<P>I will tell you,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Cor meum &amp; caro mea exul|taverunt in Deum.</NOTE> that when the Law declares to us, the Will of the Creator, and that it obligeth &amp; con&s;trains us to obey them, Wi&s;dom adds the inclination to this obligation; and that it produceth in our hearts certain deli|cious motions which act us, and make
<PB N="98" REF="57">our very pa&s;&s;ions leap for joy, to a&s;pire with us, to the happine&s;s of doeing what God will, and to be employd to &s;erve and honour him.</P>
<P>In one word, the Law obligeth us, Grace helps us, and wi&s;dom inclines us, to ob&s;erve divine commandments.</P>
<P>As &s;oone as Man inlightn|ed,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ju&s;ticiae Do|mini laetificant Corda.</NOTE> by the rayes of this <HI>Au|rora,</HI> he finds his repo&s;e, &amp; its joy, in the excerci&s;es of righteou&s;ne&s;s.</P>
<P>What&s;oever it bee that one propo&s;eth to him,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ju&s;tificatione tua exultatio cordis mei.</NOTE> as &s;oon as its ju&s;t, that he may doe it, he is inclined to doe it: as &s;oone as rea&s;on com|mands he obeys by love: duty is his plea&s;ure, obedience is his liberty, fidelity is his hu|mour.</P>
<P>His &s;oul willeth what is good, without deliberating; it undertakes it without com|bating again&s;t it &s;elfe, and haveing no diffe|rence, or affaires with any of his pa&s;&s;ions. The&s;e dome&s;tic enemies, are no more what they were; wi&s;dom transforms the whole man.</P>
<P>This wi&s;e &s;oul frames great de&s;igns, and it pur&s;ues them; it a&s;pires to honour immortal, and thither it runnes without &s;tirring it &s;elfe: it walks not, its carried; and they are tho&s;e heats of bloud, &amp; flames of
<PB N="99" REF="57">ambitious lu&s;t, heretofore &s;o turbulent and rebellious, who &s;erve him as &s;laves, and carry it in this triumph.</P>
<P>Triumph, where one &s;ees what did ap|peare, mo&s;t divine among the works of the power of God, the day that he created the world. A Man, within whom all the man con&s;pires to love duty and vertue.</P>
<P>God gives wi&s;dome freely to &s;ome, and he would that others should obtain it by prayer. One of the &s;ure&s;t meanes to invite it, is to hearken to the coun&s;els of this &s;ame wi&s;dom; even this, is to be already very wi&s;e, to begin to follow them and to governe a mans &s;elfe according to its in&s;tructions and maxims.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>Envy and wrath shorten the life and carefulne&s;s bringeth age before the time.</HI> Eccle&s;. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IF you will &s;erve God worthily &amp; con&s;erve your devotion and innocence untill death, doe what wi&s;e men have done to keep their health; po&s;&s;e&s;s an inward peace, and doe not leave your &s;elves to be troubled by any bu&s;ine&s;s or Pa&s;&s;ion; Jealou&s;y, anger, and hatred, are not in man, but to de&s;troy his vertue and to
<PB N="100" REF="58">shorten his life. The exce&s;s of affection and application to any undertaking, although laudable, is not le&s;s dangerous, then other di&s;quiets. All that there is violent in us, pusheth us on to &s;in, and drags us to the grave. Nothing is immortal and glorious, but that which is calm.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TAke good heed of plea&s;ing your &s;elf too much, with any thing what&s;oever, nay, even with your very duty; or of think|ing too &s;trongly on things, &amp; applying your &s;elf thereto, with earne&s;t and impatient care.</P>
<P>Have &s;o much moderation and &s;o much power over your &s;elf, as one may be able to &s;ay; That you undertake bu&s;ine&s;s by rea|&s;on, That you labour in it by inclination, and, That you &s;ee the &s;ucce&s;s thereof with in|difference.</P>
<P>I &s;ay not that you should be in&s;en&s;ible. It is nece&s;&s;ary that you have Pa&s;&s;ions, and that the&s;e Pa&s;&s;ions were ardent. It is nece&s;&s;ary your Hor&s;es should love to run, and that they have fire. Coolne&s;s ought not to be, but in Coun&s;els; Indifference, but in Rea|&s;on</P>
<P>And it is in that, con&s;i&s;ts the beauty of hu|mane life, That one &s;ees a magnanimous
<PB N="101" REF="58">heat in our actions and de&s;ires, but never any rashne&s;s or tran&s;port.</P>
<P>God doth, without troubling him&s;elf, all that a God ought to do; and he is as the Sun in Heaven, always bu&s;ied about an infinit number of works and always peaceful.</P>
<P>Be you here below, as the shadow on a Dial; Walk and go, where duty calls you. Do every thing which a per&s;on that governs an Hou&s;e, or a City, or the E&s;tate, ought to do; or one who rules the actions of people. But be you &s;o wi&s;e, and &s;o re&s;erved, that it may &s;eem by your mode&s;ty and &s;edate tem|per, that you are in a perfect repo&s;e and that you have no care.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>A Fools wrath is &s;oon known, but a prudent Man covereth shame.</HI> Prov. 12.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe mo&s;t ordinary indi&s;cretion of Man, is to declare his anger too &s;oon. The Duty of Vertue is to extinguish it; And that of intere&s;t to Conduct it &s;ecretly: A&s;&s;oon as 'tis born, the Politician covers it; but the wi&s;e Man choaks and kills it as &s;oon.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="102" REF="59">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>DO you yet better, hinder it if po&s;&s;ible from being born, The lea&s;t time, that unruly anger abides in your Soul, or ap|pears on your countenance, it cannot be without di&s;order and shame.</P>
<P>Its unfore&s;een motions which are not your crimes, are your infirmities: although they render you not guilty, they do not leave you but un&s;eemly; and &s;ince there is &s;uppre&s;&s;ing them, there is yet more, not to feel them.</P>
<P>I know well, that 'tis glorious to re&s;i&s;t and overcome: but when it is a que&s;tion to re|&s;i&s;t a dangerous pa&s;&s;ion, and to overcome your &s;elf; it is yet more glorious, not to be attacked, and to have nothing in you, that were nece&s;&s;ary to de&s;troy, or that you ought to dread.</P>
<P>Fear the Triumphs where it is nece&s;&s;ary, that you be the Captive. And chu&s;e rather to be in perfect health, then to have preci|ous remedies; to have a patient and mode&s;t &s;pirit then excellent Maxims again&s;t im|patience.</P>
<P>At lea&s;t remark, That Wi&s;dom who gives unto hot and cholerick per&s;ons, abun|dance of fair in&s;tructions to moderate their heat, if it were in their power to melt their
<PB N="103" REF="59">natures, and entirely to new-make them|&s;elves would council them no more then one thing, and would not have more to tell them then this one word only. Renovate your &s;elves.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>A wounded &s;pirit who can bear.</HI> Prov. 18.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHo is he that shall be able to live, with a man that vexeth him&s;elf con|tinually, and without rea&s;on, and who is &s;ubject to frequent fits, of violent anger? But how is it, that he can indure him&s;elf, and be accu&s;tomed to &s;ee him&s;elf in &s;o shameful a condition.</P>
<P>The wor&s;t is, That his evil as the other evils of Hell, have no remedy, and that they cannot be cured without cea&s;ing to live, or without returning to the fountain of Life, there to change the temper and take another body.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>AMong&s;t angers, the mo&s;t indecent to per&s;ons of quality, and the mo&s;t into|lerable, is without doubt this, which needs
<PB N="104" REF="60">none to kindle it but it &s;elf, and which takes fire, as a tempe&s;tuous cloud, from whence one &s;ees unexpectedly lightnings and hor|rible noi&s;es to break out, when no body puts fire to it.</P>
<P>One cannot be near them in &s;afety or quiet, no not even when they are &s;o? The re&s;t of their anger, is as the delicate &s;lumber of a &s;ick Prince. You mu&s;t &s;peak very low, and take great care, and walk with much fear and circum&s;pection lea&s;t you awake him.</P>
<P>The &s;trange de&s;tiny, of people of this evil humour, according to the thoughts of a Philo&s;opher, is that there is nothing for them in the World but is encompa&s;&s;ed with thorns; and that they feel them&s;elves &s;tung, by what&s;oever they touch, or that comes near them.</P>
<P>In the mo&s;t kind civilities and even in benefits and favours, they find certain, I don't know what, that wound them: What you do and what you &s;ay to plea&s;e them, is that by which they account them&s;elves ju&s;tly offended, and of which they complain.</P>
<P>Your mo&s;t re&s;pectful words and actions, are the &s;parks that fall upon their choler. You &s;ee them &s;uddenly out of them|&s;elves, tran&s;ported into dreadful furies; becau&s;e that their caprice has &s;een in your words, or in your eyes, &s;ome
<PB N="105" REF="60">equivocation or look of a double mean|ing, which they do not under&s;tand.</P>
<P>'Tis true, that each one hath his in|firmities and mi&s;eries, variou&s;ly di&s;tributed by corrupted nature. Unhappy is the M<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n who hath the&s;e for his burden! if they are yours, weep and fear.</P>
<P>I well know that you call tho&s;e angers, unavoidable accidents, or nece&s;&s;ary faults, which should cau&s;e pity and merit excu&s;e. Great que&s;tion: come to the point.</P>
<P>One does not complain of your being &s;ubject to a di&s;temper, which is an enemy to mankind; but they complain, that you would live with men. It is a misfortune to bear this plague in the bottom of the heart; but it is a crime to bring it in|to a City, and to appear in company with it.</P>
<P>That which is mo&s;t inexcu&s;able, is that you bring it even upon tribunals, and that you would exerci&s;e a charge, where you are obliged to treat with all &s;orts of per|&s;ons.</P>
<P>Wherefore is it nece&s;&s;ary, That the &s;can|dalized World should come to know every day &s;uch a reproach to the &s;pirit of Man, and to view during your tran&s;ports all the di&s;or|ders and follies of &s;uch a ridiculous and bru|tish infirmity.</P>
<PB N="106" REF="61">
<P>Either cure your &s;elf, or hide your &s;elf. An Ancient has very well &s;aid, that Dens and Caves of Rocks, are habitations prepared by the Creator, for per&s;ons &s;ubject to impe|tuous and blind anger: Retire thither.</P>
<P>It shall be much ea&s;ier to you, to &s;uffer your &s;elf alone in Solitude, then to render your evil common, to a City or an whole Country.</P>
<P>Learn what nature ought to teach you, and what all the people of honour feel. <HI>(viz.)</HI> That the cruele&s;t affliction and mo&s;t diffi|cult to bear, is to be intolerable to others. <HI>Spiritum ad ira&s;cendum facilem, quis poterit &s;u|&s;tinere?</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IX. MAXIM. <HI>Seek not of the Lord preheminence, neither of the King the &s;eat of honour,</HI> Eccle&s;. 7.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>GIve ambition no power over your heart: nor permit that this wind drive you, and make you run after &s;moak and vanity; nay, not after charges truly ho|nourable.</P>
<P>When the Glory of this World pre&s;ents it &s;elf to you, and that it is providence which &s;ends it, receive it: but if one &s;peak to you
<PB N="107" REF="61">to go before it, and prevent it by gifts and &s;olicitations, excu&s;e your &s;elf, and give this humble and generous an&s;wer: That the lea&s;t charge, when they are offer'd with love, are worthy to be received, and that they ought to be; but the greate&s;t are too mean to be &s;ought after.</P>
<P>An&s;wer al&s;o, That in regard of honours; 'Tis to cea&s;e from de&s;erving, when one asks what he de&s;ervs.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>Ambition becomes a wi&s;e Man,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Indecens e&s;t &s;tulto gloria.</HI> Prov. 26.</NOTE> and &s;o doth Ho|nour a Fool.</P>
<P>If you are a Man of evil example, and if there be di&s;order and &s;can|dal in your Conduct, fly from honour, and hide your &s;elf: And if perhaps the Prince obligeth you to ask any favour, do not pray him, as a famous Fool did heretofore, to withdraw his face from before your Sun; Pray him to leave you in your darkne&s;s.</P>
<P>Look on the employs that they offer you, and of which your friends &s;peak or tho&s;e that pride de&s;ires, as your confu&s;ion and unhap|pine&s;s, &s;ince that you cannot bear under them, by under&s;tanding or by vertue.</P>
<P>There is nothing more ugly,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Indecens &s;tulto,</HI> &amp;c.</NOTE> nor shameful to our &s;pirit, then
<PB N="108" REF="62">glory, when it po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth it, without grace or de&s;ert.</P>
<P>When we are truly contemptible, all hu|mane dignities and greatne&s;s, increa&s;eth no|thing in us but our reproach.</P>
<P>Our &s;tature becomes no finer, nor higher on a Theatre, but our lowne&s;s of body would better be &s;een.</P>
<P>Crowns and Mitres do not rai&s;e us, we bear up them; and we shall be always little with them, if we are not great per&s;onages without them.</P>
<P>You vex your &s;elf, when others honour you, to divert them&s;elves and to laugh at you; but you do ill if you vex not more, when they do it &s;incerely and with affection. Honour &s;eriou&s;ly paid, to a per&s;on unwor|thy of it, is no le&s;s a ground of anger, then honour given by mockers.</P>
<P>In fine, &s;uffer not that one rai&s;e you on high, lea&s;t tho&s;e who shall &s;ee you in a chair of honour boa&s;t, To have &s;een a&s;well as <HI>So|lomon,</HI> the mo&s;t horrible thing to &s;ee under the Sun. <HI>Malum quod vidi &s;ub &s;ole, po&s;itum &s;tultum in dignitate &s;ublimi.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="10" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>X. MAXIM <HI>Give not &s;adne&s;s to thy Soul, nor afflict thy &s;elf in thy Council.</HI></HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<PB N="109" REF="62">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DO not load your &s;elfe with cares nor weari&s;omene&s;&s;es; banish &s;adne&s;s from your heart. Sadne&s;s kills many a man, and it &s;erves for nothing, but to give &s;trength to the little pains of this life; and to change the shaddows and apparen|ces of evils, into real and immortal ones.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHen there happens an unhappy oc|currence, con&s;ult your rea&s;on, and deliberate with it, but without earne&s;tne&s;s or trouble. Let your thoughts enlighten you, but not con&s;ume you: Let bu&s;ine&s;s employ you but not afflict you, nor ever di&s;quiet you: bu&s;ine&s;s is given as the employ|ment of the mind, not as the punishment thereof.</P>
<P>In manageing your de&s;igns, regard with patience, the failings which happen on your part, or the part of fortune; and believe, that to learne by ten faults, to do one action well, and happily to frame one under|taking, is to be wi&s;e &amp; able enough: De&s;pair not by &s;uch misfortunes; profit by them.</P>
<P>To rai&s;e your thoughts &s;ome times to God, &amp; to be familiar with him by perpetual entertainments of a re&s;pectful con&s;idence,
<PB N="110" REF="63">is an excellent remedy, &s;o exempt you from di&s;quiet, during the admini&s;tration of your charge, and to keep your pa&s;&s;ions, in their obedience and order.</P>
<P>Although hee knows all that you know of your affaires; or that regard, them, and although he &s;ees better then you doe, the pains and difficulties that trouble you and render you irre&s;olute; he is plea&s;ed to learn them from your &s;elfe. The&s;e are the &s;ecrets of your heart, that you owe to his love, come, tell him confidently, draw near to him without fear, and remember that in your Cabinet, and in the places where you are alone with him, his only care is to think only of you, and that all the applica|tion of his providence and goodne&s;s, re|gards your particular needs. He is not there, but to comfort you, and to learne what condition, the affaires of your hou&s;e, or your office, or your con&s;cience are in, Tell him then freely &amp; with &s;incerity, what you know thereof: di&s;cover your heart to him and make &s;een to him all the bitterne&s;s and di&s;quiet that is therein, with all the motions of your thoughts, agitated by fear or &s;adne&s;s. <HI>Vide, Domine, quoniam tri|bulor.</HI></P>
<P>Behold mee, my God, lo&s;t and &s;wallowed up, in a Sea of grief: Thou &s;ee&s;t my pain, thou love&s;t me, thou heare&s;t my groans;
<PB N="111" REF="63">and I, &s;ee my remedy on thy lips, &s;peake and comfort mee: at lea&s;t refu&s;e not to look on mee, and to let that power goe forth from thine eyes, which draws back the afflicted from the grave, and gives &s;trength and life.</P>
<P>He is not angry, but during your di&s;plea|&s;ures, you addre&s;s your &s;elfe to creatures, to be ea&s;ed by them: but when they have not the power, or the will to help you, it plea&s;eth him, that you come and te&s;tify to him your &s;entiments there on, and to complain between his arms, of their impotence and ingratitude: <HI>Verbo&s;i amici mei..</HI> My friends have nothing but words. It is to thee, Divine Saviour, that I am about to recount my afflictions, and addre&s;s my teares. <HI>Ad Deum &s;tillat oculus meus.</HI></P>
<P>His goodne&s;s inclines him to grant all de&s;ireable con&s;olations, but would (if I might &s;o &s;ay) be forced by prayers and remon&s;trances, that &s;uffer him not to re|fu&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="11" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XI. MAXIM. <HI>Turn away thine eye from the beautifull woman</HI> Eccle&s;. 9.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<PB N="112" REF="64">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DO not let love enter into your Soul, nor into your eyes. Turn away your light from a Woman that would plea&s;e, and look not on a beauty, that comes to blind you, and take away the hopes of ever &s;eeing, the infinite and &s;overaign beauty.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere is nothing more dreadful, then the &s;weetne&s;s and tenderne&s;&s;es of a ma|licious Woman. Fear her approaches and civilities.
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Cu&s;todi te &agrave; mu|liere blanda &amp; &agrave; lingua extra|nea, &amp; ne capia|ris nutibus illius.</NOTE> Fear her voice, her eies, her hands, she hath nothing &s;weet and lovely, which may not be mortal to you. Her in&s;tinct can make darts and arms, of all that is in her.</P>
<P>That which is nothing el&s;ewhere, is in her a dangerous power, there needs but a twinkling of an eye to beat you down, and but a hair to drag you along. Flight it &s;elf &s;tands you not in much &s;tead; if you have &s;een her before flying, you fly not far.</P>
<P>Do not &s;uffer your &s;elf to be taken by her deceitful flatteries: her words are as dew that runs from her lips, and enter deliciou&s;ly into
<PB N="113" REF="64">your heart. But that shall quickly turn into poi&s;on which shall rent your bowels. Her beginnings are &s;weet as honey, but her end is bitter as Wormwood.</P>
<P>The things that she promi&s;eth have on the Tongue very dangerous baits. There is much gayne&s;s in her di&s;cour&s;e and looks, but this brightne&s;s is but as that of a Comet which appears not, but to warn you of mis|fortunes. <HI>Prov.</HI> 5. A&s;&s;oon as you perceive it, begin to fear and a&s;&s;ure your &s;elf, you shall &s;uddenly weep.</P>
<P>That which draws you,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Viae inferi domus ejus penetrantes in inferiora mor|tis.</NOTE> and that you &s;ee upon her countenance are the raies of the true Sun. Their beginning is the beauty of God, look on that &s;ide, and go thither; but the way to which they are directed here be|low, are an aby&s;s of filth, de&s;pair and of tears.</P>
<P>Many before you, have gone thither head|long: and 'tis from the bottom of this aby&s;s, that comes out tho&s;e doleful voices and la|mentable cryes, which have eccho'd the&s;e &s;ix thou&s;and years, repeating the &s;ad words of unhappy <HI>Solomon. Vanitas &amp; vexat<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters"> &s;piritus.</HI></P>
<P>Illu&s;ions and treacheries: fal&s;e beauties, true &s;ins; dreams of plea&s;ures, and truth of eternal repentings. The Wi&s;dom of the
<PB N="114" REF="65">Creator has made one Ma&s;ter piece, in fra|ming their Wit and countenance; but to view the&s;e &s;afely, you mu&s;t call back the time of innocence, or wait the day of glory and immortality.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="12" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XII. MAXIM. <HI>When a man hath done, then he beginneth; and when he leaveth of, then he shall be doubtful.</HI> Eccle&s;. 18.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>ONe of the mo&s;t ordinary remedies to pre&s;erve us, from the di&s;orders of our pa&s;&s;ions, is Work.</P>
<P>The prudent Man is never idle: when he hath not wherewith to imploy him&s;elf, he thinks upon what he hath done, and reviews his actions.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe coverous Man bu&s;ieth him&s;elf to gain wealth, the ambitious Man to gain and merit honour, the wi&s;e Man to gain by labour. He endeavours to acquire, by one employment or another, and to pro|vide him&s;elf of cares and bu&s;ine&s;s the mo&s;t important, and mo&s;t nece&s;&s;ary provi&s;ion of this life.</P>
<PB N="115" REF="65">
<P>It is better to want nourishment then an employ. The man who wants the one, or the other will perish. The difference is, That by hunger, a Man dies without disho|nour, and very &s;oon; and by idlene&s;s, he dies shamefully and &s;lowly.</P>
<P>The beauty of the mind, the goodne&s;s of the nature, the force of Courage, and the purity of the Con&s;cience, retain &s;omwhat of the nature of Fire: they cannot con|tinue nor pre&s;erve them&s;elves, but by mo|tion and action. To render them immova|ble, is to extinguish them; and this is that, which idlene&s;s doth, which by its criminal repo&s;e, de&s;troys more things then time by its agitations, and by its cour&s;es that over|throws every thing. The wor&s;t is, that this idlene&s;s does yet more then death, and cor|rupts that which is mo&s;t incorruptible and Divine within us.</P>
<P>Time has not been able to do any thing again&s;t the Sun, this &s;ix thou&s;and years: there would need but one days idlene&s;s to de&s;troy it</P>
<P>There would need but one hour, nay le&s;s, to de&s;troy the innocence and fidelity of the Soul, that all the cruelties of Tyranny and the flatteries of Plea&s;ure, had not been able to corrupt during &s;o many years.</P>
<P>Re&s;t is every where the original of Evil Deadly Herbs, venemous Bea&s;ts, Rotte|ne&s;&s;es,
<PB N="116" REF="66">Corruptions, Plagues, Famines, are not begot, but by the idlene&s;s and im|mobility of the Elements.</P>
<P>One finds no where &s;ins, ignorances, nor even follies nor de&s;paires, as in &s;ouls who have nothing to do, but torment them|&s;elves. What heretofore a wi&s;e man &s;aid, is true, That infinitely and eternally to pu|nish a &s;pirit, there would no other hell be needful, then an everla&s;ting idlene&s;s.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="4" TYPE="article">
<PB N="117" REF="66">
<HEAD>ARTICLE IV. MAXIMS For the Conduct of the Tongue.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>The fir&s;t MAXIM. <HI>A &s;oft an&s;wer turneth away wrath: but grie|vous words &s;tir up Anger.</HI> Prov. 15.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>_SWeet and humble words, &s;ub|due the anger of others: tis not the point of the &s;word that doth it. When they cry, wee our &s;elves cry, and employ injuryes and threatnings, and violent means, to make them hold their peace; and we forget our &s;elves, that there needs not but a word of &s;oftne&s;s and Civility.</P>
<P>A &s;oft, di&s;creet, and an eloquent tongue is a tree of life in the hou&s;e and in the com|pany where it is. Each plucks from thence fruits of con&s;olation, and remedies for di&s;|quiets, and other inward di&s;ea&s;es. It cures all the wounds of our &s;oules. But a rash tongue, is a wounding &s;word, who by its incon&s;iderate words carries mortal blows, to the bottom of the heart.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="118" REF="67">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere is nothing in which Man exerci|&s;eth him&s;elf a&s;much as in &s;peaking and conver&s;ing with his friends, nor any thing in which he profits le&s;s, and is more im|perfect.</P>
<P>We begin to conver&s;e from the Cradle, and yet we know not at the age of &s;ixty, how 'tis to do it well. We unlearn even by &s;tudy and exerci&s;e; and by how much the more we advance in age, by &s;o much the more in|excu&s;able is our fault.</P>
<P>Some teach the Trade of conver&s;ing well, all learn it, but few know it. Ma&s;ters &s;ay very well and do very ill: they write excel|lently but their Tongues are not led by their writings. The Rules that they give &s;urpa&s;s their power, they can't ob&s;erve them&s;elves, in&s;omuch that there is no art, that hath finer precepts, nor le&s;s fine examples then this, to conver&s;e wi&s;ely.</P>
<P>If you cannot attain to the height of per|fection, nor to be of the number of tho&s;e great Men who charm company; endeavour not to be of the number of the importunate, and unprofitable or trouble&s;om, at lea&s;t do not make your &s;elf to be put into the number of the intolerable.</P>
<P>Men put in this Rank certain people,
<PB N="119" REF="67">who&s;e faculty is to know all that is shameful in the hou&s;e, and the life of every body, and who&s;e conver&s;ation and employment is without cea&s;ing,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Odibilis e&s;t qui procax e&s;t ad lo|quendum.</HI> Eccle&s;. 20.</NOTE> to talk of it and to publish it abroad: people bold in &s;landers, indi&s;creet, and impudent in reparties, inexhau&s;tible in words.</P>
<P>To avoid meeting with the&s;e people, is to be very wi&s;e.</P>
<P>And 'tis to be no more &s;o, if when you meet them, you let them talk on and have no difference with them. But to be perfectly wi&s;e, is to do in &s;uch manner, as they may fear to have any with you, and that they may be con&s;trained to be wi&s;e, every where, where you are.</P>
<P>Men put in this Rank of intolerables the great talkers; that &s;ort of Men and Women, who, during di&s;cour&s;es and entertainments, have their mouths always open, and of whom the conver&s;ation (as heretofore that of the Philo&s;opher <HI>Anaximenes</HI>) is to &s;pill a River of words in company, and one drop of good &s;ence.</P>
<P>Be you better learnt and mode&s;ter: Let them &s;peak when you have &s;poken; Give others leave to an&s;wer you, and have the power to hold your Tongue when they &s;peak. Shew them that you can hearken
<PB N="120" REF="68">when it comes to your turn, and permit them not to think of you what they &s;aid of this Philo&s;opher; that in &s;tead of two eares, nature had given him three tongues.</P>
<P>There are al&s;o put in this rank, per|&s;ons that one hath much to do to bear, Fools, who can neither &s;peak them&s;elves, nor will not &s;uffer others to &s;peak, but of their owne prai&s;es; who &s;eem to know nothing, but the hi&s;tory of their fortune, and their actions; and the wor&s;t on't is, That they would that others should al&s;o know nothing but the &s;ame hi&s;tory, they recount it unto whom&s;oever he be, and although they &s;ay it again without cea&s;e|ing, they forget they have told it, and begin again at every turn.</P>
<P>Per&s;ons who are given to boa&s;ting, are not much better in company then the&s;e that have an ill &s;cent.</P>
<P>Tis a grievous chance for a man of ho|nour to find him&s;elf between the two and not dare fly.</P>
<P>Tis the wor&s;t neverthele&s;s to &s;tay there and to hearken to their &s;ottishne&s;&s;es; this were to learn their evill, and to contract by their example, the &s;peaking and boa&s;ting of your &s;elfe like|wi&s;e. Suffer them; but imitate them not.</P>
<PB N="121" REF="68">
<P>Have this for your Ma|xim.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Laudet te alie|nus &amp; non os tuum. Prov:</HI> 27.</NOTE> That it is incomparably le&s;s shameful to be blamed, and mocked of others, then to prai&s;e ones &s;elf.</P>
<P>Cheats and Libertines have often blamed the wi&s;e, and accu&s;ed them, but a wi&s;e man never prays'd him&s;elf.</P>
<P>Men put yet in the &s;ame rank of in|tolerables, tho&s;e rash and giddy Buffoons, who can not &s;peak without rallying, nor Je&s;t without offending tho&s;e who hear them.</P>
<P>It is true, that mode&s;t and hone&s;t je&s;ts, are the nece&s;&s;ary &s;alt to conver&s;a|tion, which ea&s;ily corrupts and becomes un&s;avory, and loath&s;om when one laughs not; But too much &s;alt is wor&s;e then none at all, and ob&s;erve that this too much, is not far from a very little. There is much wi&s;edom nece<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="2 letters">ary, to keep a man in moderation, and for him not to run into exce&s;s.</P>
<P>Doe not concern your &s;elfe to laugh, or &s;port with others in words, if you are not extreamly wi&s;e, and if you under&s;tand not the method of doeing it well and grace|fully.</P>
<P>Je&s;ters would be di&s;creet enough in this, had they but as much di&s;cretion as the Bea&s;ts. When Bea&s;ts play together, and fight
<PB N="122" REF="69">by diver&s;ion, one would beleeve they would bite one another to the bowells, and tear each other to peices.</P>
<P>They doe nothing but flatter, they go|vern their feet and their clawes with won|derfull addre&s;s, nothing enters with in the skin.</P>
<P>Jeerers can't govern their tongues, they push their &s;tings, and their pricking, in|di&s;creet jeers, into the bottom of the &s;oul.</P>
<P>Dureing their pla<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">, bloud always runs, there's alwayes &s;ome mortal wound in the heart of their friend, one comes not neer them without being hurt.</P>
<P>There is in our conver&s;ations a common Itch, to declare war again&s;t &s;ome one or other, and to attacque him by the shafts of wit, and by the innocent malices of a plea&s;ant humour. But our cruelty, dureing the&s;e counterfeit warres and quarrels, is, that wee would have them alwayes min|gled with &s;ome true contempt. Wee doe not beleeve our &s;elves to have laughed, if our friend is not &s;en&s;ibly pricked at the heart and if we have &s;aid nothing which hath di&s;plea&s;ed or offended him.</P>
<P>Men of great witt and an excellent na|ture, can mingle the&s;e familiarities, and feigned quarrels with re&s;pect, and hinder that among the repartees of a good hu|mour
<PB N="123" REF="69">and &s;troaks of friendship, there &s;lips not any blow of pride and de&s;pight, nor any disobligeing word.</P>
<P>Their faculty pa&s;&s;eth yet further. They know to mingle the &s;ame re&s;pect, in re|primands and threatnings and even in true angers.</P>
<P>A wi&s;e man can &s;peak as a Ma&s;ter to a &s;ervant, without &s;landering him, and without &s;aying a word of which he could be offended.</P>
<P>He can &s;peak as a Judge to a guilty per&s;on, and upbraid him of his faults with &s;evere and terrible words, without failing of that re&s;pect that be owes to the dignity of a man. Hee accu&s;eth not but the will of the man, hee blames what hee hath done by his liberty, with out blameing any thing, that nature or fortune hath done in him.</P>
<P>Wee owe to one another an inviolable re&s;pect. You mu&s;t not refu&s;e, even to in|fants, nor the poor, what ju&s;tice obligeth us to pay them, &s;ince they have on the Image of God as well as others.</P>
<P>Since wee carry in your &s;oules the Image of the Divinity there is &s;acriledge in con|temning one another.</P>
<P>The unhappy inclination that we have to witne&s;s the little account we make of by the Devil with Poi&s;on that he shed
<PB N="124" REF="70">there, the day that he corrupted our na|ture.</P>
<P>If we could re&s;pect one another as we ought, there would be nothing but heaven|ly &s;weetne&s;s in our familiarities and liberties of our dome&s;tic life.</P>
<P>Mutual contempt begets all that there is of War in our Hou&s;es, and this War, all the misfortunes that happen therein.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>A wi&s;e man by his words maketh him&s;elf be|loved.</HI> Eccle&s;. 20.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WOrds are the paint of the Soul. They are tho&s;e that make known what it is.</P>
<P>This &s;piritual &s;ub&s;tance can't be better &s;een, than on the Tongue.</P>
<P>When a Soul &s;peaks of other things, it needs not to &s;peak of it &s;elf, to be known: A&s;&s;oon as one has heard, what the one hath &s;poken, 'tis known what the other was.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="125" REF="70">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe happine&s;s of making ones &s;elf loved,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">In verbis &s;eip&s;um amabilem facit.</NOTE> depends on the manner of guiding the the Tongue.</P>
<P>To &s;peak ea&s;ily, not to &s;peak too much; to have no pain to &s;peak well, or to hold ones peace; To hold grave di&s;cour|&s;es and higher, when there is need, and to &s;peak worthily of important and &s;erious things; to aba&s;e a mans &s;elf al&s;o, when 'tis nece&s;&s;ary; to be able to laugh with tho&s;e that laugh, and keep therein the rules of decency and civility; to be able to mingle prai&s;es, and true civilities among&s;t plays and je&s;ts, and not to &s;trike others in play|ing; but a&s;much as is needful, to care&s;s or honour them: to &s;ay nothing but wi&s;ely and mode&s;tly, with a grace and with &s;incerity, is to take mens hearts, as one ought to take them, and the be&s;t fashion that one can do it; I will &s;ay, by words, which should be the Image of one of excellent parts.</P>
<P>Good offices have not taken men, but very rarely; Pre&s;ents neither take, nor touch but the eyes: it is nece&s;&s;ary to conver&s;e, either to love or be be|loved.</P>
<PB N="126" REF="71">
<P>They are prudent and re&s;pectful words, which have implanted tho&s;e immortal incli|nations and all tho&s;e noble and famous friendships, which we &s;ee, and have hereto|foree &s;een among friends.</P>
<P>The Men of account, Men of Council, Judges, famous and &s;ought after, all the learned and great Per&s;onages, owe their re|putation, and their fortune of their learned and di&s;creet Tongue</P>
<P>Women who make them&s;elves mo&s;t to be con&s;idered in the World, and mo&s;t beloved, are not tho&s;e who have mo&s;t of exteriour graces, and mo&s;t wit, nor tho&s;e that know mo&s;t things, the reputation that they ac|quire, by the&s;e admirable qualities, pa&s;s &s;wiftly away: If any one be con&s;tantly and perfectly beloved, she is &s;o, becau&s;e she is wi&s;e and di&s;creet in her words.</P>
<P>As it &s;eems that there is nothing more ea&s;y, then to govern the Tongue; &s;o it &s;eems that nothing is more ea&s;y, then to make ones &s;elf beloved.</P>
<P>It is neverthele&s;s rare, becau&s;e we refu&s;e to &s;peak, according as it plea&s;eth tho&s;e who hear us; we will &s;ay what plea&s;eth our evil humour; we love rather to render our &s;elves intolerable to others then give our &s;elves the pain, of keeping in &s;ome incon&s;iderate words, or the trouble of &s;peaking humbly and courteou&s;ly.</P>
<PB N="127" REF="71">
<P>We are in company often, to shew that which is mo&s;t infamous and shameful in us to &s;ee, and which ought to be mo&s;t hidden; A ba&s;e &s;pirit, We will have that men &s;ee it, only becau&s;e we will &s;peak.</P>
<P>The Mask is an excellent invention for deformity; But the be&s;t for folly, is that of &s;ilence. If Fools could hold their peace, their folly would be unknown.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>Wi&s;dom that is hid, and Trea&s;ure that is hoard|ed up, what is in them both?</HI> Eccle&s;. 29.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe wi&s;e Man does wrong unto others, when he &s;peaks not a word; Riches hidden, and under&s;tanding mute, are equal|ly unprofitable; But he that hiddeth his fol|ly is much more worth, then he that hideth his Wi&s;dom.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT happens often enough, that tho&s;e who have Wit and who know many things, &s;peak little.</P>
<P>That comes, either f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">om a melancholick complexion, which makes them love &s;oli|tude, and to find plea&s;ure in entertaining
<PB N="128" REF="72">them&s;elves; or el&s;e by a critical con&s;cience, which makes them apprehend inevitable faults during conver&s;ation, and which would carry a way the glory, of having &s;aid nothing impertinent.</P>
<P>But 'tis a que&s;tion, whether it be more criminal and shameful to &s;peak, then in|di&s;creet to hold ones pe<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ce. They ought to remember that the la&s;t and lea&s;t degree of Wi&s;dom touching the Conduct of the Tongue, is to be able to hold ones peace. The &s;econd is to &s;peak but little. The third and mo&s;t perfect is, to be able to &s;peak much, without &s;peaking ill, or too much.</P>
<P>It is true, there is need of great di&s;cretion, to keep in what ought not to be known: but there mu&s;t be much more, on oc|ca&s;ions u&s;ed, to hinder others from &s;u|&s;pecting, or knowing by our &s;ilence, that we would hold our peace on pur|po&s;e.</P>
<P>Perfection, is to cover this &s;ilence by words, and to hide our &s;ecrets by &s;peak|ing freely and ingeniou&s;ly, that which may, and ought to be &s;aid in com|pany.</P>
<P>It is of a &s;ecret, as of a trea&s;ure, It is half di&s;cover'd, when 'tis known to be hid.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="129" REF="72">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>Make a door and bar for thy mouth, beware thou &s;lide not by it.</HI> Eccle&s;. 28.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>MAke a door to your Mouth. Leave rather your Coffers and your Trea|&s;ures without locks, then your lips; and have a care, that there never goes out any word which may offend, or which ought to be blamed.</P>
<P>Imagine you,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Attende ne fort&egrave; laba|ris in lingua.</NOTE> (&s;aith the Pro|phet) that you are in company as on the Ice, and that you mu&s;t walk thereon gently and wi&s;ely. Fear always, lea&s;t your Tongue &s;lip, and your judgement fall with it. As many unbecoming words, indi&s;creet or rash, as you pronounce; they are as &s;o many falls of your wit, that fall upon others and either wound or incommodate them.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TO hinder that none of the&s;e &s;orts of words, should be able to come out of our mouth, by putting locks there, is as good coun&s;el as can be given us.</P>
<PB N="130" REF="73">
<P>But as it is nece&s;&s;ary to open often, and &s;peak when rea&s;on and nece&s;&s;ity would have it, it &s;eems that the&s;e locks would not &s;erve for much.</P>
<P>Wicked words are neare&s;t the door, and the&s;e e&s;cape among&s;t the good; and becau&s;e that 'tis good to &s;peak, 'tis as impo&s;&s;ible to hinder &s;peaking ill.</P>
<P>One can neverthele&s;s when Wi&s;dom keeps the keys. And its principal bu&s;ine&s;s among us, is to be continually at this door, to open and shut it, as often as is ne|ce&s;&s;ary.</P>
<P>A&s;&s;oon as it is ab&s;ent, there happens di&s;orders;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Lingua tertia eivitates mura|tas de&s;truxit: domos magnate|rum effodit.</HI> Eccle&s;. 28.</NOTE> and one may &s;ay, that the mo&s;t part of the di&s;a&s;ters, which happen in Towns and Hou&s;es, that cau&s;e &s;o many tears to be shed, comes from this, That Wi&s;dom is not every where, where Tongues are.</P>
<P>When 'tis found there, there pa&s;&s;eth one of the mo&s;t admirable things of humane life, That a wi&s;e Man &s;peaks as others, readily without &s;eeking, and counting his words, and that in the mean while, he &s;peaks not a word that Wi&s;dom con&s;iders not, and upon which it makes not judicious reflections.</P>
<P>His di&s;cour&s;e is a running and a &s;wift water: but this cour&s;e doth not hinder, its
<PB N="131" REF="73">having time enough to ob&s;erve each drop, and not to let any pa&s;s, that he knows not and does not examine.</P>
<P>So true is it, that the mo&s;t miraculous rea|dine&s;s in the World, is that of an eminent and clear under&s;tanding, to con&s;ider what it &s;aith.</P>
<P>Where the Tongue needs hours to &s;peak, the mind wants le&s;s then a minute, to con|template all the words it pronounceth, and all that it retains; and to di&s;tinguish, what it ought to &s;ay from what it ought to be &s;i|lent in.</P>
<P>In a word, the &s;overaign perfection of Man, in conver&s;ing with his like; is that each word bears the mark, that it is not pickt and cho&s;en, and that neverthele&s;s it is per|fectly examined.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>He that an&s;wereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him,</HI> Prov. 18.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HE that an&s;wers before he hears, an|&s;wers not, but to tell that he is a Fool.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="132" REF="74">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>ONe of our mo&s;t ordinary failings, is &s;peaking incon&s;iderately and too fa&s;t. One of our mo&s;t shameful pains, is to un&s;ay what we have un&s;ea&s;onably or impertinent|ly &s;poken, and one of our mo&s;t punishable &s;ins, is not to avoid this shame, and not to be willing to recant.</P>
<P>The fear of falling into any of the&s;e in|conveniences, renders a wi&s;e Man extream|ly circum&s;pect in his di&s;cour&s;e, and makes him take this for a Maxim, Never to &s;ay any thing, without being fir&s;t a&s;&s;ured, he shall not be obliged to &s;ay it backward.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>Be not ha&s;ty in thy Tongue, and in thy deeds &s;lack and remi&s;s.</HI> Eccle&s;. 4.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>BE not ready in your words, and &s;low in your actions: &s;peak di&s;creetly and act couragiou&s;ly: promi&s;e little, and do much.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="133" REF="74">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IMitate not the mo&s;t part of mankind, who are too good; and it may be, there is not a more dangerous malice, then this ex|ce&s;s of their goodne&s;s, becau&s;e there is no|thing more a cheat.</P>
<P>They promi&s;e according to their de&s;ire, which is great; and they do according to their power, which is &s;mall.</P>
<P>In engaging our word, and in obliging our &s;elves to &s;erve others, to act wi&s;ely and prudently, is to promi&s;e le&s;s then they ask, and to do more then they hope.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>Open not thy heart to every man,</HI> Eccle&s;. 8.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DEclare not your &s;entiments, and di&s;cover not your heart to all the World.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>KNow the heart of others, and &s;ee all, if it be po&s;&s;ible without being &s;een. Be
<PB N="134" REF="75">you &s;ecret without being di&s;&s;embled. Con|tent your &s;elf to keep back your thoughts, not to cover them with crafts. When you mu&s;t act &s;ecretly, exempt your &s;elf from lies and u&s;e &s;ilence only.</P>
<P>Have you the mo&s;t royal of perfections, <HI>(viz.)</HI> to be able to &s;peak, and to be able to hold your peace as it plea&s;eth; to &s;ay as well, what one has a mind to &s;ay, and as little.</P>
<P>Keep this Maxim, and know how to hold your peace, principally touching affairs, and undertakings committed to your pru|dence.</P>
<P>A de&s;ign di&s;cover'd, is &s;carce more worth then a de&s;ign broken.</P>
<P>The lea&s;t damage, that you ought to fear from words too ha&s;ty, is that they delay &s;ucce&s;s.</P>
<P>Time de&s;troys all that is done, and the Tongue all that is to do.</P>
<P>Ob&s;erve that &s;ame Maxim in regard of other things, that one shall have told you confidently, and be faithful to tho&s;e who have believed that you are &s;o.</P>
<P>When you let go out of your lips, the &s;e|crets of your friend; Believe that friendship, fidelity, hone&s;ty, honour; wi&s;dom, and ju|&s;tice, go out of your Soul at the &s;ame time; and that there is no other difference between you, and a bea&s;t, but that his brutali|ty con&s;i&s;ts in not being able to &s;peak;
<PB N="135" REF="75">and yours, in not being able to hold your peace.</P>
<P>Ob&s;erve that touching the faults of other per&s;ons. Many boa&s;t that they do not the evil that they &s;ee done; do you better yet, do you boa&s;t that you never &s;o much as &s;peak of it.</P>
<P>The &s;in of your neighbour, when it is co|vered with the darkne&s;s of &s;ilence and the night, it is a &s;imple &s;in, and many times of|fen&s;iv to him alone, when you di&s;cover it, you make it an infamy to his innocent hou&s;e, an example to loo&s;e per&s;ons, and a &s;candal to the Church.</P>
<P>That which he had done, (if that I might &s;o &s;ay) was not but the beginning of a &s;in, but you have con&s;ummated it by your Tongue.</P>
<P>It is hence forward a crime finished, and accompanied with all the reproaches and misfortunes of a &s;candalous and unpardon|able fault.</P>
<P>Publish not that, which Divine mercy would have you hide. Do not publish al&s;o, which nature endeavours to hide, &s;uch are ordinarily, the imperfections that it hath left in any per&s;ons, or the faults that it hath made it &s;elf in their birth. If you ob&s;erve them your &s;elf, have the goodne&s;s not to make them ob&s;erved by others.</P>
<P>'Tis true, that the&s;e reviling or jeers
<PB N="136" REF="76">plea&s;e many, but be you not &s;o loo&s;e, as to plea&s;e your &s;elf therewith; and do not af|flict your own heart, in willing it to laugh at &s;uch a di&s;cour&s;e, as renders an hone&s;t man ridiculous. Have di&s;plea&s;ure in the know|ledge of his faults, an aver&s;ion to &s;peak of them, and an horrour to divert your &s;elf by them.</P>
<P>A&s;pire to the happine&s;s that an Holy man received, who in dying thanked God, that during the &s;ixty years that he had lived, he re|membred not, that he had &s;aid any word capable of offending, or di&s;obliging his neighbour.</P>
<P>In fine, &s;tudy to hold your peace. That is, as &s;aid Ari&s;totle, the &s;tudy of Princes and Kings, and all the men of quality.</P>
<P>One of the occ<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;ions, where &s;ilence is very comely, is in regard of good offices and fa|vours, with which one is re&s;olved to gratify any one.</P>
<P>A kindne&s;s promi&s;ed, has but one half of its grace when it appears. It is Royal when it &s;urpri&s;eth, and when it comes without ex|pectation or hope.</P>
<P>It is much to prevent reque&s;ts; It is more glorious to prevent de&s;ires: but it's yet more to prevent a mans own words, and to do be|fore he &s;peaks.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="137" REF="76">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>A Fool lifteth up his voice with laughter: but a wi&s;e Man doth &s;carce &s;mile a little.</HI> Eccl. 21.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe indi&s;creet Man laughs with noi&s;e; The laughter of a good Man may &s;omtimes be &s;een, but one can't hear it.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe general object of laughter, hath not yet been known, but it's known that there's nothing makes wi&s;e Men laugh, but vice &s;uddenly deceived by its &s;elf; and that they are never wi&s;er, nor mode&s;ter then when they laugh.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="77">
<PB REF="77">
<P>THE COUNCILS OF WISDOM:</P>
<P>The Second Part. Containing the MAXIMS of SOLOMON, <HI>Mo&s;t nece&s;&s;ary for a Mans well-be|having him&s;elf towards others.</HI></P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 N="1" TYPE="article">
<PB REF="78">
<PB N="141" REF="78">
<HEAD>FIRST ARTICLE. MAXIMS, Nece&s;&s;ary for a wi&s;e Man, to demean him&s;elf well in regard of the Wife.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>FIRST MAXIM. <HI>A good Wife is a good Portion, which shall be given in the Portion of them that fear the Lord.</HI> Eccle&s;. 26.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>A Vertuous Wife is a great good for|tune, and an advantagious portion. 'Tis the chief and mo&s;t precious of all re|compen&s;es, that God gives in this life to tho&s;e that fear him. Do not hope to do it by your violences: but endeavour to ob|tain by your holy actions, that yours should be good.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="142" REF="79">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>VErtuous and wi&s;e Women are not &s;o rare as one thinks; The rarity and the difficulty is to know them well, and to di|&s;tinguish them from others. When you are in condition to &s;eek one, do not tru&s;t to your own prudence. You shall never have light enough, to judge who is proper for you: undertake not to chu&s;e her, but pray God to give her to you.</P>
<P>When you shall have her, render not your &s;elf unworthy to keep her.</P>
<P>If you are moro&s;e to an innocent Wife who loves you, you shall not po&s;&s;e&s;s her long: either death shall &s;oon part you: or that which is mo&s;t to be feared, her goodne&s;s shall die before you, and you shall not love but to be punished.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed is the Man that hath a vertuous Wife, for the number of his days shall be double.</HI> Eccle&s;. 26.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HAppy is the Husband of an obedient and a peaceable Wife. If a man could
<PB N="143" REF="79">be immortal, it were by the &s;weetne&s;s of her company, at lea&s;t he shall live twice longer then he should otherwi&s;e have done.</P>
<P>An officious and an humble Wife, is the only remedy to prolong a mans years.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P><HI>BEatus Vir.</HI> God hath made two Per|&s;ons, becau&s;e he would form in their hearts a vi&s;ible shadow of his adorable feli|cities.</P>
<P>The bond of two is Love, which is not per&s;onal, nor threefold, but in God alone; but which ought to be immortal between the two who are united.</P>
<P>As it cannot continue but by the grace, and vertue of the object loved. To the end that it might continue between the Hus|band and the Wife: God intended the countenances of the one and the other, should be a <HI>compendium</HI> of the created beau|ties; that their Soul should be the Image of the Divine; and that all which is lovely in the re&s;t of the World, should meet in their per&s;ons.</P>
<P>But &s;in happened, which hath troubled his de&s;ign, and corrupted his workmanship. It is no more but mi&s;ery and confu&s;ion; and the Husband of the wi&s;e&s;t, and mo&s;t vertuous Wife in a City, is not &s;o happy, or &s;o wi&s;e, as he that hath none.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="144" REF="80">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>Hou&s;es and Riches are the inheritance of Fa|thers; and a prudent Wife is from the Lord.</HI> Prov. 19.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>YOur Hou&s;e and your Riches, are the favour of your Parents: but if you have a wife and a di&s;creet Wife, look upon her as a pre&s;ent from the hand of God.</P>
<P>The complai&s;ance of a vertuous Wife,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Species mulieris exhilarat fa|ciem viri, &amp; &s;u|per omnem con|cupi&s;centiam &s;uperinducit de|&s;iderium.</NOTE> entertains joy in the heart, and upon the countenance of her Husband. Her good Con|duct, and her vigilance a|bout dome&s;tic affairs, ex|empts di&s;quiet and trouble, and lu&s;t can't make him hope for plea&s;ures, comparable to tho&s;e, that vertue promi&s;eth by a cha&s;t Spou&s;e.</P>
<P>E&s;pecially if the graces of her countenance,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Si e&s;t lingua cu|rationis &amp; mi|tigationis.</NOTE> are ani|mated by a &s;weet &s;peech; and if this Wife hath a Tongue that can cure grief, and appea&s;e anger; for then one can &s;ay, that he who po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth her, is one of the riche&s;t, and the mo&s;t happy Men in the World.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="145" REF="80">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WIves who a&s;pire unto this happine&s;s, ought to remember, that of all the Powers of the univer&s;e, the &s;tronge&s;t is the &s;weetne&s;s and humility of a Wife; That there is no Power that re&s;i&s;ts the&s;e two ver|tues, nor hardne&s;s to them impenetrable.</P>
<P>Submi&s;&s;ion and obedience, are the only means for Wives to reign in their Hou|&s;es, and there to u&s;urp the empire, that the Husband po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth by the right of na|ture.</P>
<P>'Tis the &s;weetne&s;s and mode&s;ty of the Wife, which puts an equality between the Sexes, and which makes the Government belong without difference, to the one and the other.</P>
<P>God has not intended, that authority should be, but for one of the two; But he would, That nature should give it freely to the Man; and that the Woman should de|&s;erve it by humility. A Wife who endea|vours, not to plea&s;e her &s;elf but in the Will and commands of her Husband, puts him quickly in a condition, not to dare, and not to be able to command any thing, but that which plea&s;eth &s;uch a Wife.</P>
<P>Among truths that one often forgets to ob&s;erve, here is one mo&s;t remarkable;
<PB N="146" REF="81">That the per&s;on of the Man, was not pre|ferred before the per&s;on of the Woman, but after their &s;in was committed; that before this mi&s;ery happen'd, there was a perfect equality between the two Sexes, and that during the days of innocence, their Life ac|cording to the intention of the Creator, failed not of being a glorious Image, of that which pa&s;&s;ed in the glorious Trinity.</P>
<P>In effect, one of the mo&s;t incomprehen|&s;ible things of this my&s;tery, is that the Per|&s;ons of the Father and the Son, infinitely equal in their greatne&s;s and perfections, are the &s;ame al&s;o in the Soverainty of their Rank, and in their mutual independance; although the one were the Principle of the other: and that comes, according to the Fa|thers, from this, that they are united by an infinite love, as ancient as their Being. Love, infinitely an enemy of dependance and &s;ub|jection, between per&s;ons who infinitely love each other.</P>
<P>That is to &s;ay, that if in managing things here below, the Husband could not will any thing but by love, and the Wife do nothing but by love; although the Man were the principle of the Spou&s;e, Their ancient and ju&s;t equality, should be as &s;oon e&s;tablisht in its fir&s;t E&s;tate; That there should be no more among&s;t them, neither Chief, nor Ma&s;ter, nor Mi&s;tre&s;s, nor Commandment,
<PB N="147" REF="81">nor Obedience; but all that, miraculou&s;ly transformed, should be nothing but love; And that among the vi&s;ible things of this World, there should be found, better to re|pre&s;ent the joys of the future life, and of happy eternity, then the peace and tranqui|lity of their mortal life.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>Stumble not at the beauty of Woman, and de&s;ire her not for plea&s;ure.</HI> Eccle&s;. 25.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IN the choice that you shall make of a Wife, have more regard to her behaviour, and her vertue, then her beauty: and do not ground the repo&s;e of your life, on the con|templation of a figure, formed upon &s;and; nor depend upon winds, which make &s;uch di&s;appointments of mens eyes their &s;port.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere is nothing more to be feared of a Woman, then that which plea&s;eth at fight. A fair face, and a proud Soul. The beauty of one fades, the fiercene&s;s of the other remains.</P>
<P>The Devil of Pride enters into your Idol
<PB N="148" REF="82">when you adore her, and when you deck her &s;tately; But he will not go out, when you would contemn her, and are tired and weary of &s;o many ceremonies, and &s;o much charge; It will dwell there in de&s;pight of you, and it will make you know but too late, what you have been told timely enough. That a fine Idol co&s;ts much incen&s;e, much care and many tears.</P>
<P>The wor&s;t is, when that this Idol is not without a Tongue, nor without Wit, nor without &s;tudy, and that it &s;ays well what it knows. It is true, that all that in her pa&s;&s;eth for a wonderful thing; but 'tis a miracle that every one is willing to &s;ee.</P>
<P>There enters into your Hou&s;e abundance of Admirers: and she who hearkens to the prai&s;es of &s;o many fine people, is &s;carce the more of an humour to prai&s;e and admire you, nor even to render her&s;elf admirable, when she &s;ees no body but your &s;elf.</P>
<P>Moreover, the wi&s;e Man &s;aid very well, that great wealth is not in Hou&s;es where there are great trains, and a great re&s;ort of company; but in tho&s;e where are abun|dance of people, that work much and &s;ay little.</P>
<P>Heretofore, &s;ay the Fables, at each fine word that went out of the lips; there went a piece of gold: Now a&s;well as in <HI>Solomon's</HI> time. <HI>Ubi verba &s;unt plurima, ibi frequenter
<PB N="149" REF="82">ege&s;tas.</HI> They &s;peak to little purpo&s;e, they &s;pit nothing but wind. Silver increa&s;eth not, where Women &s;ow words, and one may &s;ay of many others, what a Father &s;aid of a Dame in his time, <HI>Hujus in ore omnis &s;up|pellex.</HI> Theodoret.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>Let thy fountain be ble&s;&s;ed: and rejoyce with the Wife of thy youth.</HI> Prov. 5.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>TO the end that your po&s;terity may be ble&s;&s;ed, and that the fountain of happi|ne&s;s, that runs into your Hou&s;e, may not dry up, &s;eek not your &s;atisfaction and re|po&s;e, but with the Wife that is your lot, and that you your &s;elf have cho&s;en in your younger years, let her and your Children be all your delights; let their conver&s;ations be the chains of your heart, and make you di&s;cover from day to day, new graces and loveline&s;&s;es in her mind.</P>
<P>In fine, conform your &s;elf to the inten|tions of the Creator, when he in&s;tituted mar|riage: Have the happine&s;s (if it be po&s;&s;ible) that the years, which weakens and de&s;troys love in other families, may make yours en|crea&s;e, and that they may give it the power
<PB N="150" REF="83" MS="y">to remain, longer then time, and live even after death.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TO the end that conjug<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">l friendship might be &s;o con&s;tant, it is not nece&s;&s;a|ry, that all that which is fair in the Wife should beimmortal, but it is nece&s;&s;ary that all which is immortal in her, should be fair, and that it should be beloved.</P>
<P>If she has care to beautify her Soul, and you have the power to regard this Soul and &s;top your &s;ight there, you shall never tire your &s;elves one of the other. Whil&s;t your vertue remains, your plea&s;ure shall never have an end.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>A Woman if she maintain her Husband, is full of anger, impudency and much reproach.</HI> Eccle&s;. 25.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe Wife who by her imperious mind, is Mi&s;tre&s;s in the Hou&s;e, is rigorous to her Husband: She cannot have dominion over him, but she changeth it into tyranny, nor &s;ee him her &s;ubject, without making him her &s;lave.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="151" REF="83">
<HEAD>REFECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe Wife that one fears, is truly to be feared. A&s;&s;oon as one trembles before her, she is terrible; And the more ready an Husband is to obey her, and to comply with her, the more un&s;ufferable and cruel is she.</P>
<P>Plea&s;e your &s;elf with all that is plea&s;ant to her; but govern her &s;o wi&s;ely, that nothing shall plea&s;e her but her duty. Have you al|ways over her the authority that belongs to you; but joyn thereto &s;o much of love and goodne&s;s, as that she may have more plea|&s;ure in obeying you, then you shall have in commanding her.</P>
<P>If you know by long experience, that it is not in your power to bring her to good, take heed, that at lea&s;t she bring you not to evil: Part from her rather, a&s;much as may be per|mitted: it is better to quit her; then to fol|low her into mi&s;ery; but leave her not in di&s;order. This were to cau&s;e &s;candal, and to make a great noi&s;e in avoiding her, and not to be well e&s;caped from this dome&s;tic tor|ment.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="152" REF="84">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>There is no head above the head of Serpent, and there is no wrath above the wrath of a Woman.</HI> Eccle&s;. 25.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>AMong&s;t the heads of Animals, that of the Adder is the wor&s;t and mo&s;t dan|gerous: and among angers, that of a Wo|man is mo&s;t dreadful, and the &s;ubtile&s;t to invent trea&s;ons and means to de&s;troy you.</P>
<P>You shall have more con|tentment in dwelling with a Dragon,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Commorari leo|ni &amp; draconi placebit, quam habitare cum muliere nequam.</NOTE> or a Lione&s;s, then in having a wicked Wife in the Hou&s;e. One may tame, or daunt wild Bea&s;ts, or el&s;e one may find means to e&s;cape from them and &s;ave ones &s;elf by flight: But the rage of an unruly Wo|man is inevitable, you can neither daunt her, appea&s;e her, nor fly from her.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is true, that among&s;t the di&s;orders cau|&s;ed by &s;in, one of the mo&s;t deplorable and
<PB N="153" REF="84">mo&s;t fatal, is that which ordinarily appears in a Woman.</P>
<P>Gods de&s;ign was, that her countenance, her voice, her nature, and her &s;pirit, should not be hut &s;weetne&s;s; That the &s;pirit of Man should not be but vigour and Wi&s;dom, and that of the&s;e two qualities joyn'd toge|ther, should the felicity of Hou&s;es be com|po&s;ed.</P>
<P>Sin has overthrown this de&s;ign, There is happened in our nature a corruption, which in the greate&s;t part of Women, hath &s;trange effects.</P>
<P>The force of fumes and vapours; the weakne&s;s of the Organs and of the Imagina|tion; and in fine the blindne&s;s of the mind, cau&s;e many tears to tho&s;e that love them, and much misfortune in mo&s;t affairs where|in they meddle.</P>
<P>In them, objects vehement, light, or vaga|bond, govern them&s;elves, and &s;tir of them|&s;elves. The Imagination delicate and fee|ble, follows their tran&s;port; the proud and blind mind, approves their faults, and main|tains them: The Woman believes that all which pa&s;&s;es in her&s;elf, though in de&s;pight of her, is iu&s;t and prai&s;e worthy.</P>
<P>It &s;eems that in all this, there is &s;ome re|mainder of the old Serpent, or &s;ome &s;ort of po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion. That which we call Caprice, Ob&s;tinacy, and very often maden&s;s, &amp;c. is
<PB N="154" REF="85">the Devil that enters their head, and who without taking away the judgement and the liberty, makes them do what we &s;ee.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>Her Husband shall &s;it among his Neighbours: and when he heareth it, shall &s;igh bitterly.</HI> Eccle&s;. 25.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HEr unfortunate Husband, whom she ince&s;&s;antly afflicts, his common exer|ci&s;e is in making of complaints; and all the comfortable an&s;wers he receives from tho&s;e who hear him are but &s;ighs.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is very improper to complain publick|ly of dome&s;tic di&s;orders. 'Tis a shame|full harm that a man is loath to di&s;cover to the Phy&s;ician. Tho&s;e who &s;uffer it, ought to blush at it, a&s;well as tho&s;e who make it.</P>
<P>Let the Wife be loo&s;e, fierce or violent, the Husband doth him&s;elf wrong a&s;&s;oon as he accu&s;es her. It is no le&s;s his intere&s;t to keep her fault &s;ecret, then to cure it.</P>
<P>There is nece&s;&s;ary, Prudence and Power. The point is, effectually to remedy the evil,
<PB N="155" REF="85">and in the mean while to hinder that the Pa|tient does not cry out.</P>
<P>Choo&s;e well a Woman before taking her. When you have her, do not adore nor de|&s;pi&s;e her.</P>
<P>Take heed either of &s;tirring her up, or in|di&s;creetly driving her to anger, by &s;evere and unju&s;t outrages, or making of her proud by a loo&s;e complai&s;ance and importunate kind|ne&s;&s;es. Love her perfectly, but shew her only one part of your love, at lea&s;t hide the infirmities thereof.</P>
<P>Your duty and your happine&s;s is to in&s;pire her with Wi&s;dom; but remember, That you shall never make her wi&s;e, but in rendring your &s;elf otherwi&s;e lovely then by too much friendship.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="2" TYPE="article">
<PB N="156" REF="86">
<HEAD>ARTICLE II. MAXIMS For the government of Children.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>The fir&s;t MAXIM. <HI>For I was my Fathers Son, tender and only be|loved in the &s;ight of my Mother, He taught me al&s;o, and &s;aid unto me: Let thine heart retain my words, get Wi&s;dom,</HI> &amp;c. Prov. 4.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE,</HEAD>
<P><HI>_SOlomon</HI> &s;aith, I have heretofore been young, and a little Child, well-beloved of my Father, and governed by my Mother, unto whom I was very dear, and who kept me always near her, that I might re|ceive as well in&s;tructions, as care&s;&s;es from her. I lo&s;t no time, even whil&s;t I was at play, for whil&s;t I play'd and took the di|ver&s;ions due to my age; she would that I should always have a mind attentive, and an open heart ready to hearken, becau&s;e she
<PB N="157" REF="86">had always &s;ome good word to tell me, Her di&s;cour&s;e ordinarily was.</P>
<P>My Son, love Wi&s;dom and Vertue more then all the wealth of the World, the re&s;t is but vanity.</P>
<P>That which shall render you an hone&s;t man, is the true wealth; and that which God shall prize in you, is the true greatne&s;s. Ob|&s;erve his Law, and obey his Will. Don't forget any thing that you have learn't, touching the happine&s;s of being in his fa|vour; don't quit that, for any violence you shall be brought to &s;uffer. Fear nothing; That shall pre&s;erve you, as long as you keep it.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>HOw great are the inventions of Wi&s;|dom, in the lea&s;t things! What a high and &s;ublime policy h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s it, in the Conduct of a Child, who comes out of the Cradle! How fair and profitable Councils, in an unimita|ble example!</P>
<P>Love a Child tenderly, and care&s;s it on every occa&s;ion, without &s;poiling the flower of his age, or making the candor of his in|nocence and &s;implicity to fade; pre&s;erve it in him, without perplexing him, keep him in fear and duty, without taking away his li|berty, Give him an inclination to good and
<PB N="158" REF="87">make him bend to that &s;ide, without break|ing any thing, and without doing any vio|lence to his honour.</P>
<P>Do in &s;uch &s;ort, as that he may loo&s;e no|thing, neither of re&s;pect during familiarity, nor love during corrections, nor time du|ring play, let him always learn &s;omthing that may help him to become Wi&s;e, and let every accident that happens to him, be made a le&s;&s;on of Wi&s;dom and Piety; let him have all his plea&s;ures in the pre&s;ence of his Father and Mother, and although one &s;uffer him not to commit faults there, yet never|thele&s;s he cannot &s;uffer to be kept el&s;e|where.</P>
<P>Let him know that the reproofs that you give him, come from good will, let his Mo|ther appear as lovely during threatnings as care&s;&s;es; let &s;everities bear &s;o well the marks of a true affection, as that he may hold him|&s;elf thereby obliged, as by gratifications and recompences.</P>
<P>Let him accu&s;tom him&s;elf to take the lit|tle di&s;contents of his Mother, for the greate&s;t misfortune, and let him have no ruder pu|nishment, than the &s;adne&s;s of her coun|renance and her &s;ilence.</P>
<P>Let him with the milk, &s;uck the fir&s;t &s;weetne&s;s of devotion, and let this Maxim be imprinted in his Soul betimes; That on earth there is no other felicity, then to live
<PB N="159" REF="87">according to the Laws of Rea&s;on and Ju|&s;tice; let them often &s;ay again the &s;ame things to him, after different Methods, and with that wearine&s;s and addre&s;s, as that he may not loath to hear it; And that to tell him one good word, let the proper time be made u&s;e of; whil&s;t that he plays and that his heart is open by tenderne&s;s, to the end that words may enter &s;weetly, and that he may feel nothing but plea&s;ure in learning what he ought to learn.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>He that loveth his Son, cau&s;eth him often to feel the rod,</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HE that loves his Son, cea&s;eth not to in|&s;truct him according to the needs of his age; and he regulates all the motions of his body and mind, by perpetual and judicial advices.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>BEgin to apply your &s;elf to the in&s;tru|ction of your Children, a&s;&s;oon as they are able to hearken, and forget not, that education ought to follow &s;oon after the
<PB N="160" REF="88">birth, &s;ince corruption and the inclination to evil comes with it.</P>
<P>For little as a Child can be, &s;ince that he hath a &s;piritual and an immortal Soul, 'tis &s;candalous to let them live brutishly; and to expect that rea&s;on should be throughly awake, before you &s;peak to him of his duty, is to wait very long&punc;</P>
<P>Whil&s;t that nature is &s;oft and flexible, it is nece&s;&s;ary to bend it, and give it the fir&s;t folds of the affections and habits, that it ought to have in the time of its &s;trength. It is ne|ce&s;&s;ary that your Child practi&s;e good before he knows it: it's nece&s;&s;ary that he accu|&s;tom him&s;elf thereto by obedience or ne|ce&s;&s;ity, before he chu&s;e it by judgement; and that without knowing what he doth, he should do nothing, but according to the rules of rea&s;on and hone&s;ty.</P>
<P>Infancy has its perfections and its vertues: order it &s;o, that they appear in the infancy of your Son. A&s;&s;oon as nature teaches him to will and to &s;peak, teach him to will and to &s;peak as is nece&s;&s;ary; and do &s;o well, that any of his humane actions, may not have the air and appearance of the actions of a Bea&s;t.</P>
<P>The Child that is happily and well brought up, is he in whom the pa&s;&s;ions are &s;ubdued, and obedient before rea&s;on is a|wake, in &s;uch manner, as that when 'tis
<PB N="161" REF="88">awake it has nothing el&s;e to do but to reign in peace, and to enjoy the victory that edu|cation has won.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>He that teacheth his Son shull have joy in him, and shall rejoyce of him among his acquain|tance</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THe Father who teacheth his Son, and hath care him&s;elf of his education, shall draw honour from thence, and shall with much joy &s;ee him dearly beloved of his Parents, and e&s;teemed of his fellow ci|tizens.</P>
<P>A Son nur&s;ed by the Mother, and in|&s;tructed by the Father, shall be the joy of their Hou&s;e, and the happine&s;s of their Town.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THe negligence of the one, and the af|fairs of the other, have introduced the cu&s;tom of confiding in Ma&s;ters, for in|&s;tructing of their Children. This is not what Nature intended. When it gave milk and tenderne&s;s to the Mother, and intelli|gence
<PB N="162" REF="89">and prudence to the Father, its de|&s;ign was to accomplish the glory of their fruitfulne&s;s, and to render them Father and Mother of a Son, who was entirely theirs; and who owed his nourishment and his Wi&s;dom, but to their pains and conduct.</P>
<P>A Mother that lets not her Child go out of her arms, but when rea&s;on is come to him: A Father who lets him not go out of his Hou&s;e, but when that rea&s;on shall go|vern him, and that he hath contracted, the habits of acting by judgement, and of loving honour, ta&s;ts the true plea&s;ures of paternal authority; and no man is perfectly happy in having a Son, but he who hath given him life, &s;cience and vertue.</P>
<P>If your Son holds his vertue from another and not from you, he is not yours by one half; and you have no right to attribute to your &s;elf, any of his fine actions. He holds from you the power to eat and &s;leep, and from the Ma&s;ter the power to act wi&s;ely and to live as an hone&s;t Man.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>He that teacheth his Son, grieveth the enemy, and before his friends, he shall rejoyce of him.</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<PB N="163" REF="89">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HE who brings up his Son carefully, la|bours as well for others as him&s;elf. He can boa&s;t among&s;t his kindred and neigh|bours that he is their good friend, &s;ince he is a good Father, and one who prepares them a &s;ucce&s;&s;or, and a faithful heir, who shall re|vive the friendship that he had for them, and the good examples that he hath given them.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>A Man has not much wealth, when he hath none for his Children: But he hath yet le&s;s vertue, if he hath not enough of it to make an Inheritance, and to hinder that this vertue does not die with him.</P>
<P>If you a&s;pire unto immortality, and if you are touched with the laudable de&s;ire of acquiring it, do &s;o, as that all the mo&s;t pre|cious and excellent things that you po&s;&s;e&s;s, may remain after you; and let each remain in the place proper to them, to be immortal and glorious; Your Soul in Heaven, your vertue in the heart of your Children, your reputation and your name in the memory of your friends, in fine, your &s;ilver in Gods Trea&s;ury, in the hands of the poor.</P>
<PB N="164" REF="90">
<P>But ob&s;erve, that vertue is not be&s;towed as wealth in &s;aying, I leave.</P>
<P>Touching this Article, To &s;ay at the hour of death, or by the hand of a Notary, in ones. Will, I give and bequeath unto my Son, my Devotion and my Wi&s;dom, &amp;c is to do nothing at all: your Son shall not have them thereby&punc; If you would that he po&s;&s;e&s;s them, do &s;o in the time of your health, as may put him in po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of them, and put good examples before his eyes, from whence he may learn that this po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion is lovely, and that it ought to be loved, more then riches and other goods which perish.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>Ax Hor&s;e not broken becometh head&s;trong; and a Child left to him&s;elf will be willful.</HI> Ecc. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>AN Hor&s;e neglected and that one tames not betimes, becomes untameable; and a Child that one abandons to his liberty, without reproof or correction becomes in|corrigible.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>EXpect not but that yours should com|mit crimes great enough, for you to cor|rect, or reprove. Malice increa&s;es with age,
<PB N="165" REF="90">and in the end arrives to a pitch, and to an exce&s;s, where cha&s;ti&s;ement is not only very unprofitable, but very dangerous.</P>
<P>Do not expect but that his little indevo|tions will become &s;acriledges, and that his little angers will change them&s;elves into fu|ries, and they may meditate de&s;igns of trea|chery and parricidie. Punish them whil&s;t you can draw honour, and profit out of your &s;everities, and have a great care, that others have not occa&s;ion to punish him, when the punishment shall be the death of your Son, the lo&s;s of your Honour, the ruin of your Hou&s;e, and the reproach of your po&s;terity.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>Cocker thy Child, and he shall make thee affraid, Play with him and he will bring thee to hea|vine&s;s.</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IF you treat your Son always with care&s;&s;es and ki&s;&s;es, and if you continue to give him milk, at the age of fifteen or &s;ixteen, he will return you gall, and he will oblige you to fear him, a&s;much as you should have loved him.</P>
<P>If you play with him, you shall lo&s;e much
<PB N="166" REF="91">at that play, your familiarity shall be recom|pen&s;ed by a contempt, that shall cau&s;e your death.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>CHildren come to an age, when they need no milk, nor care&s;&s;es, nor laugh|ter, nor familiarity.</P>
<P>There mu&s;t always be love; but at that age your Son ought to divine that you love him: it doth not belong to you to tell him &s;o.</P>
<P>Have you a re&s;ervedne&s;s and a &s;ilence which should do all, which corrects when he is faulty, and commends when he doth well. Spare not either Prai&s;es or Corre|ctions, but do in &s;uch &s;ort as that you give neither but by the eyes.</P>
<P>When he hath failed, let your pre&s;ence and your &s;adne&s;s be all his punishment.</P>
<P>When he hath done well, let him be ra|vished to &s;ee you, and let him take that for his recompen&s;e. Approve what he hath done; but let your approbation be, if po&s;&s;i|ble without words; at lea&s;t, let it not be much, and let the declaration that you shall make to him, of your &s;entiments touching his demeanour, be little better then &s;ilence it &s;elf.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<PB N="167" REF="91">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>Laugh not with him, lea&s;t thou have &s;orrow with him, and lea&s;t thou gnash thy teeth in the end.</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DOn't laugh with a Child, if you are not willing to weep with him. If you have not ince&s;&s;antly the hook in hand, to prune the branches of this tree, and to lop off that which is offen&s;ive, you shall pluck but bitter fruit, &s;uch as shall make your teeth gnash, and make you feel mo&s;t grievous pangs in your latter days.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THere are three things, which nece&s;&s;a|rily make you loo&s;e your authority over your Son. To laugh with him and render him too familiar; To &s;uffer and di&s;|&s;emble his faults; and in the end to give him evil examples, and to make your pa&s;|&s;ions, and weakne&s;s appear before him.</P>
<P>The&s;e are the three indi&s;cretions, that take away the re&s;pect that is due to you, and which accu&s;tomes him to contemn you. Avoid them carefully: For a&s;&s;oon as you
<PB N="168" REF="92">&s;ee your authority lo&s;t; be you a&s;&s;ured that your Son him&s;elf is lo&s;t.</P>
<P>In one word, do not adore him: and in regard of Children, take heed of following the fatal example of &s;o many other Fathers, who make Fools of them by their education, and then Judges, Magi&s;trates, and Ma|&s;ters of the people, by their &s;ilver or credit.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>Bow down his neck whil&s;t he is young, lea&s;t he wax &s;tubborn, and be di&s;obedient to thee, and &s;o bring &s;orrow to thine heart.</HI> Eccl. 30.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>BOw down his neck in his youth, and bring down his pride, and make his rebellious &s;pirit bend to obedience and duty, with all the &s;trength you are able. Never fail to correct him on occa&s;ion, lea&s;t he har|den him&s;elf in evil, and his wicked nature become inflexible; otherwi&s;e you shall have the di&s;plea&s;ure, and the shame of &s;ee|ing him arrive at that pa&s;s; and you shall &s;uffer eternal repentings for your negli|gence.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="169" REF="92">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>NEverthele&s;s in taming him free your &s;elf from anger. Correction does wonders, again&s;t the loo&s;ne&s;s of youth when mo&s;t incorrigible and de&s;perate, but choler mixt in this mo&s;t excellentmedicine is poi&s;on. If you give the one with the other, you go to de&s;troy him, believing thereby to remedy his di&s;temper, and you render your &s;elf his murderer in acting the Phy&s;ician.</P>
<P>Learn to be &s;evere and dreadful without being in rage; to be firm and inflexible, without cea&s;ing to be rea&s;onable, to be ju&s;t and entire without being violent; and know the way to have the countenance and the word of a terrible Judge, at the &s;ame time that you con&s;erve a Fathers heart.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IX. MAXIM. <HI>Give not thy Son and thy Wife, thy Brother and Friend, power over thee whil&s;t thou live&s;t, and give not thy goods to another, lea&s;t it repent thee and thou intreat for the &s;ame.</HI> Eccl. 33.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase and reflection">
<PB N="170" REF="93">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE, And REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHil&s;t you live don't put your &s;elf un|der the Conduct of tho&s;e, whom you your &s;elf ought to manage, neither Wife, Children, nor Friends.</P>
<P>Retain always that authority that God hath given you, and the free di&s;po&s;al of your Goods, without confiding in any who&s;oever it be, for fear, lea&s;t in&s;tead of the ea&s;e and re&s;t you hope for, you fall into contempt, and that you do not render tho&s;e cruel and ungrateful, whom you think, your liberality should render wi&s;er and more acknowledging.</P>
<P>A&s;&s;oon as you shall have given all to your Sons and Daughters, they will be|lieve that they now owe you nothing more. And when your hands shall be empty, your countenance shall be odious and intolerable: Suffer not that by any prayer or application what&s;oever, they make you ever to change your re&s;olu|tion: for 'tis better to &s;ee your Chil|dren dependant on your good will, then to rely upon their acknowledgement and ju&s;tice.</P>
<PB N="171" REF="93">
<P>Deal &s;o, as that they have always need of you, or hope for &s;omething from you, but &s;tand not in need of them, if you intend to be loved by them. Shew them your hands during life, but keep them shut and don't let all go but at death.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="3" TYPE="article">
<PB N="172" REF="94">
<HEAD>ARTICLE III. MAXIMS For the government of Servants.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>The fir&s;t MAXIM. <HI>A yoak and a collar bow the neck, &s;o are torments and tortures for an evil Servant.</HI> Eccl. 33.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>_THe mighty yoak brings down the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> and lofty neck: and daily labour<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">enders a Servant hum|ble: an<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> in the end, gives him an inclination to his duty.</P>
<P>Never leave your Ser|vant without employ,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Mitte illum in operationem ne vacet: multam enim malitiam docuit otio&s;itas.</NOTE> for Idlene&s;s is the Mi&s;tre&s;s, of the School of malice. 'Tis she that teacheth it in Hou|&s;es, and render all tho&s;e learned therein who have the lea&s;ure to &s;tudy it, and who want bu&s;ine&s;s.</P>
<PB N="173" REF="94">
<P>If you give your Servant work he will give you re&s;t,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Operatur in di&s;ciplina, &amp; quaerit requie&s;|cere laxa manus illi, &amp; quaeret libertatem.</NOTE> if you &s;pare him he will give you pain. When he does nothing, he thinks of doing evil; and the more at liberty he is, the more incli|nation hath he to loo&s;ne&s;s and debau|chery.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TAke no body to &s;erve you, if you have not wherewith to employ him at all times of the day. One quarter of an hours idlene&s;s joyn'd to another, shall quickly be long enough, to give a Servant the will to do no more, and to teach you, That a Ma|&s;ter who nourisheth a &s;loathful per&s;on, is very near to nourishing a Traitor and an Enemy.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Bread, Correction and Work are for a Servant,</HI> Eccl. 33.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THere are three things, of which your Servant ought not to &s;tand in need, <HI>(viz.)</HI> Bread, Work, and Admonition.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="174" REF="95">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>OF Bread, becau&s;e 'tis his right; of Work, becau&s;e 'tis his condition; of Admonition or cha&s;ti&s;ement becau&s;e 'tis your intere&s;t.</P>
<P>Without Admonition, he corrects not his own faults; without labour he will com|mit new ones and greater; without Bread he will believe that he may commit them, and that all his thefts are allowed him. In one word, when by your indevotion, &s;erious ad|vices are wanting in your Hou&s;e, a&s;well as whole&s;om correction; When that by your negligence they are not well imploy'd, and when that by your covetou&s;ne&s;s, they are neither well paid or well fed. Take them for Ungodly, Uncha&s;t and Theevs, all tho&s;e who are content to dwell with you.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>If he be not obedient, put on more heavy fetters, be not exce&s;&s;ive towards any, and without di&s;cretion do nothing.</HI> Eccl. 33.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHen he refu&s;es to obey, punish him; but do nothing by pa&s;&s;ion and with|out
<PB N="175" REF="95">judgement. The tran&s;ports of your wrath do not correct him, they pervert your &s;elf and render you more blame worthy then him.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>AS&s;oon as you know him to be incorri|gible, &s;end him away, and beleeve that 'tis better to be rid of him a moneth &s;ooner, then to employ him this moneth to vex you, and make you commit without cea&s;ing, faults of impatience and tran&s;ports of an|ger. But if you judge that he may amend him&s;elf, and that you have cau&s;e to hope for an amendment and &s;ervice from him; di|&s;tinguish between his faults of &s;loathfulne&s;s, or evil will, and tho&s;e of his ignorance, and have therein a mo&s;t judicious conduct, and the mo&s;t ju&s;t that you are able.</P>
<P>The mo&s;t excellent means to be feared and well &s;erved in your Hou&s;e, is to render your &s;elf &s;erious towards your dome&s;ticks; and to have few words with them. Know all that they do, but hinder them from know|ing what you think, and what you will do.</P>
<P>They will not have of re&s;pect for you, but as you have of moderation or re&s;erve to|wards them.</P>
<P>Heretofore Idols were adored, becau&s;e
<PB N="176" REF="96">they were Images of men who had their eyes open, but &s;aid not a word.</P>
<P>A Man who &s;ees every thing in his Hou&s;e, and who &s;peaks not, is re&s;pected as a God: They tremble without his threatning, and the only fear that they have, by his not &s;peaking, keeps every one in his order, and in his duty.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IV. MAXIM. <HI>If thou ha&s;t a faithful Servant, let him be to thee as thy &s;elf, and treat him as a Brother.</HI> Eccl. 33.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHen you have a faithful, ingenious and an humble Servant, let him be as dear to you as your Life, Treat him as a Bro|ther or as a Friend. Remember not only, that 'tis one of the rare&s;t things in the World, and that one cannot buy it too dear; but re|member al&s;o, that the eternal Wi&s;dom, which di&s;po&s;eth of the &s;ervitude and liberty of men, hath put him into your hands, and 'tis a pre&s;ent of his providence and love.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>FEar not to be familiar with a wi&s;e Ser|vant, who has affection for his duty.
<PB N="177" REF="96">Only have a care, that he doth not accu&s;tom him&s;elf to gue&s;s, but to ask what your inten|tions are, and what your will is on each oc|ca&s;ion.</P>
<P>Di&s;charge your &s;elf on him, of your di&s;|quiets and houshold bu&s;ine&s;s. But if you would do that happily it is nece&s;&s;ary at lea&s;t, that you take one trouble, <HI>(viz.)</HI> To look to it; and to know all that pa&s;&s;es.</P>
<P>See you all that he doth; not &s;o as to have a watch on his fidelity, but to hinder him from forgetting his condition. If you do not make him remember it, he will without doubt forget it; and things shall arrive to a pitch, that shall nece&s;&s;itate your dependance on him.</P>
<P>It is very ea&s;y to make a good Servant an ill Ma&s;ter.</P>
<P>And although he commands very wi&s;ely and governs your Hou&s;e keeping with much &s;ucce&s;s, it is yet shameful for you to obey in your own Hou&s;e, You can't loo&s;e more then in loo&s;ing your authority there.</P>
<P>'Tis an ill way of under&s;tanding, either right or policy, to recompen&s;e the long &s;er|vices of a waiting Gentleman by &s;erving him your &s;elf, and fearing him in your turn.</P>
<P>Since he is wi&s;e, put your goods and your bu&s;ine&s;s into his hands. But know that you mu&s;t not communicate power, as a Father
<PB N="178" REF="97">communicates life; but as the Sun commu|nicates Light, giving it ince&s;&s;antly, and in keeping the Per&s;on obliged, by a perpetual dependance.</P>
<P>A Servant to whom one tru&s;ts all, with|out taking any notice of what he doth, shall quickly be a Thief or the Ma&s;ter of the Hou&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>Whereas thy Servant worketh truly, intreat him not evil, let thy Soul love a good Ser|vant.</HI> Eccl. 7.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>AFflict not a Servant who doth what he can, and who employs heartily all his &s;trength and health to &s;erve you. You are unworthy to live, if your evil humours make tho&s;e to &s;uffer who love you, and who live not but for you alone.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>DO &s;o well, as that one may be content to &s;erve you, when he enters into your Hou&s;e, that one may be faithful and happy when he is there, and that one may be rich, if it be po&s;&s;ible when one goes out thence.</P>
<PB N="179" REF="97">
<P>That is your honour, for one of the quali|ties of great Men, is to make tho&s;e great who faithfully &s;erve them with love. Do not as &s;ome, who render them&s;elves ea&s;y and good to their Servants, provided that their Ser|vants were content to be poor and mi&s;erable. But on the other, neglect not your intere&s;t, &s;ettle things &s;o, That the advancement of tho&s;e who gain with you, come no otherwi&s;e but your liberality and their Wi&s;dom: And that their trea&s;ure increa&s;e not by your lo&s;&s;es. For it is very shamefull to &s;ee, what is every day &s;een, of rich Servants and poor Ma&s;ters.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>Labour not to be rich, cea&s;e from thine own Wi&s;dom.</HI> Prov. 23.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>OVer whelm not your &s;elf by labour, nor loo&s;e your health to heap up riches.</P>
<P>Fear and Prudence which makes you to fore&s;ee future needs, are a true folly, if they intere&s;t them&s;elves in pre&s;erving the Inno|cence and Tranquility of your &s;oul, a&s;well as the making your revenue increa&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="180" REF="98">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>YOu give your &s;elves di&s;quiet this day, and you labour hard to be rich, to re&s;t your &s;elves &s;ome years hence. Do better then that, Take you re&s;t to day and put off giving your &s;elf grief and di&s;turbance till that day.</P>
<P>Rid your &s;elf of the ambition of acquiring much wealth, and know by the experience of others, that 'tis to acquire much trouble.</P>
<P>To have too much &s;ilver in ones Coffers, and too much nourishment in the &s;tomack, are two commodities equally dangerous. Re&s;t and plea&s;ure increa&s;e not with wealth, when Goods are arrived to a &s;ufficiency or to a middle condition, you have attained to the utmo&s;t limits of plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>You may be more rich, but never more content, nor more at ea&s;e.</P>
<P>When you shall be a great Lord, and that you shall &s;ee your &s;elf in the midde&s;t of a multitude of Officers. All the advantage above Per&s;ons of a middle degree, shall be, That you shall have more trouble and im|portunity about you, more unprofitable|ne&s;&s;es in your moveables, more vanities and follies in your cloaths, more company at your Table, more noi&s;e in your Hou&s;e, and more trouble in your mind.</P>
<PB N="181" REF="98">
<P>With all the millions you can po&s;&s;e&s;s you can't buy a &s;econd Body: and whil&s;t you have but one, you shall have no need of two Hou&s;es, nor three Tables, and yet le&s;s need of forty hands to &s;erve you.</P>
<P>All this multitude of pains and unre&s;t, shall be for other Per&s;ons, that you shall nou|rish; and certainly one may &s;ay, that tho&s;e who labour mo&s;t to enrich them&s;elves; are the very Per&s;ons, who lea&s;t enjoy the plea|&s;ure of their own labours.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="4" TYPE="article">
<PB N="182" REF="99">
<HEAD>IV. ARTICLE. MAXIMS, For the Conduct of a Wi&s;e Man to|wards his Friends.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>FIRST MAXIM. <HI>A faithfull Friend is a &s;trong defence, and he that hath found &s;uch an one, hath &s;ound a Trea&s;ure.</HI> Eccle&s;. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>_A Faithfull Friend is a fortre&s;s that defends, and a Trea&s;ure that en|riches. He that po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth it is happy, and his happine&s;s is &s;e|cure.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>KEep this Trea&s;ure carefully; and if there remains in your Soul, any remembrance of its Heavenly extraction, and any &s;troaks
<PB N="183" REF="99">of its re&s;emblance with God, never live without friendship.</P>
<P>It &s;ufficeth even to live. To know that there is in us a nece&s;&s;ity to love. For as our Souls are created after the Image of the Crea|tor, they mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity, have a goodne&s;s which drives them, as it were to go out of them&s;elves, and that all their &s;ub&s;tance should be no other thing then a Divine and an im|material flame, which rai&s;eth it &s;elf towards Heaven, and who in a&s;piring to God, &s;eeks another heart then its own, as a Companion and an help, to be a&s;&s;i&s;ted in its elevations, and to arrive more ea&s;ily at its &s;overaign hap|pine&s;s.</P>
<P>Each &s;pirit is but the one half of ano|ther. Not that the&s;e are divided in the ma|king, and two made of one: But they are formed with a proportion and a &s;ympathy, which in&s;pires them with de&s;ire, and gives them power to joyn them&s;elves, and to act &s;o by their intimate communications that they become as one. But before all may be accomplished, there are formed in the Soul of Man, much anguish and doleful melan|cholly, and &s;everal &s;orts of di&s;tempers and mi&s;eries, becau&s;e it is the Image of God, the eternal felicity of which con&s;i&s;ts in this, that neither of tho&s;e per&s;ons is ever alone.</P>
<P>One part of a wi&s;e Mans skill, is to know, that the mo&s;t of the mi&s;eries of our mind,
<PB N="184" REF="100">come from inward &s;olitude; and that their remedy is a true friendship. <HI>Amicus fidelis medicamentum vitae.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>II. MAXIM. <HI>Well is him that hath found Prudence (or a Friend) and he that &s;peaketh in the ears of him that will hear. Love thy friend and be faithfull to him.</HI> Eccl. 25.27.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>TO find a good Friend, and ears capa|ble, either to hearken to profitable truths, or to retain &s;ecrets of con&s;equence, is an happy rencounter.</P>
<P>Love your like, and content your Soul in joyning your &s;elf with him by a perfect con|fidence, without having any thing upon the heart, which may not be common to him.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THat which our Souls would tru&s;t, and that which they would draw out of them&s;elves, to tran&s;port it into other Souls, are three things. Their Knowledge, their Secret, and their Per&s;on.</P>
<P>When they communicate their Science, <HI>(viz.)</HI> Their Knowledge that they have ac|quired by &s;tudy, or the News that they have learn'd by &s;ame, or the Light that they come
<PB N="185" REF="100">by from public affairs and other occa&s;ions; In one word. When they communicate their indifferent thoughts with plea&s;ure, 'tis familiarity. When they pa&s;s further, and that they communicate their &s;ecret thoughts, 'tis friendship.</P>
<P>When they go even to the utmo&s;t pitch, and that they a&s;pire to the communicating them&s;elves, and to tran&s;port their heart into another heart, and as far as is po&s;&s;ible to na|ture and grace, of two &s;pirits to make but one, 'Tis properly and preci&s;ely what we call Love.</P>
<P>Good will follows Love, and that follows Friendship. We will the welfare of the ob|ject, a&s;&s;oon as we love it. Our own wellfare is common to him. What belongs to a Man belongs to his Friend.</P>
<P>To gain a faithfull and a &s;incere Friend, is to acquire in a moment, all that which he po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth, and that he hath been many years in getting. <HI>Beatus, qui invenit verum amicum.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>III. MAXIM. <HI>Nothing countervails a faithful Friend and his excellency is invaluable.</HI> Eccl 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THere is nothing more precious in the World, than a good Friend. In the bal|lance of the wi&s;e it weighs heavier than all the gold and &s;ilver in the World.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="186" REF="101">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>MEn &s;peak this day excellently of friendship: but 'tis a &s;ubject whereon men &s;eem, very ill to proportion the good they do, to what they &s;ay.</P>
<P>Our age is the mo&s;t eloquent that has been thereupon, and the happie&s;t in words and thoughts. Never has there been &s;o many Ad|mirers of this fair vertue, nor never &s;o many Panegyricks and pieces compo&s;ed in honour of it. In Books, in all Societies, in the Court, and among&s;t the People; men &s;peak not but of friendship. One &s;ees nothing el&s;e on the countenances and lips: it is every where but in mens hearts. Friendship plea|feth us but intere&s;t is our Ma&s;ter, and there is no lo&s;s with which we are le&s;s touched, or le&s;s afflicted then that of a good Friend.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>A faithfull Friend is the medicine of Life, and they that fear the Lord shall find it.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>OUr Bodies have di&s;tempers which shor|ten our mortal Life: Our Soul has tho&s;e which render its immortality unhappy: The remedy of the one and the other is a good Friend; but you mu&s;t fear God, to find it.</P>
<P>Have many Friends, but have no more
<PB N="187" REF="101">then one confident. Be much with all the World, but be &s;ingle with one alone.</P>
<P>Let your Hou&s;e, your Trea&s;ures, your Hands, your Ears be open to many Per&s;ons; but let your Heart be open, only to the inti|mate Friend, that you have cho&s;en.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>YOur Heart was made to be given: it cannot refu&s;e it, without crime and in|famy: but its greate&s;t reproach and shameful|le&s;t inju&s;tice, is to give it &s;elf to many.</P>
<P>It and its &s;ecret is no more any thing worth, when once they are common. The excellen|cy of the Heart of man, is to procure the ge|neral good, and its &s;elf to be a particular one.</P>
<P>It is nece&s;&s;ary, that it should be of the con|dition of the Sun, who obligeth the whole World, who is admired of Men and Angels, but governed and po&s;&s;e&s;t only by one.</P>
<P>In one word, the Heart is well made, when it is as a &s;tately Garment, and that it can take this for its device. <HI>Agreeable to all, proper to one alone.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>V. MAXIM. <HI>If thou woulde&s;t get a Friend, prove him fir&s;t, and be not ha&s;ty to credit him.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IF you would have a good Friend, try him, and before that you tru&s;t him know his fidelity. But remember that you have
<PB N="188" REF="102">no other ballance for that, then the time of affliction.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is true that perfect friendships are be|gotten at the fir&s;t moment of an enter|view, and that great wits know one another from that in&s;tant.</P>
<P>But a wi&s;e Man, who hinders not his in|clination from begetting, doth hinder it from declaring it &s;elf &s;o readily.</P>
<P>He plea&s;eth him&s;elf to feel the unfore&s;een motions, and the &s;weet and powerfull attra|ctions, that incline him to love the Per&s;on that &s;eems lovely to him; but before that he re&s;olves, he asks his rea&s;on, and he tru&s;ts not, but to its councils: and rea&s;on, before con|&s;ent, asks concerning the time, and tru&s;ts none but experience. Who&s;oever has not &s;een more then a year, can't &s;ay that he knows; and who&s;oever has &s;uffer'd no|thing, can't &s;ay certainly that he is beloved.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VI. MAXIM. <HI>For &s;ome Man is a friend for his own occa&s;ion, and will not abide in the day of trouble.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>FOr there are Friends, who are not &s;o but in fair weather. They fly away when the winter comes near; and when you begin to lament, they know you no more.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="189" REF="102">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THeir opinion is, that friendship con|&s;i&s;ts in plea&s;ing them&s;elves with your conver&s;ation, and laughing with you, when you are in good humour, during pro&s;perity and happy days.</P>
<P>They ought to know, that to declare ones &s;elf a Friend to any one, is to oblige a man, &s;elf not to have money in the time of his need, nor lei&s;ure in the time of his bu&s;ine&s;s, nor bloud and life in the time of his danger, which are not his, and of which he may not be able to di&s;po&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VII. MAXIM. <HI>Again &s;ome Friend is companion of the Table, who will not continue in the day of thy nece&s;|&s;ity.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THere are &s;ome who are good Friends when they are at Table: but from thence they know no body. They promi&s;e every thing, when they divert them&s;elves with you, and at your expence; after that they remember nothing, and ordinarily fea&s;ts &s;erve, but to feed deceivers and in|gratefull Per&s;ons.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>THey believe that to love you, is to help you laughing with a brazen face, during debaucheries, &amp; in the commitment of &s;in with more boldne&s;s and in&s;olence.</P>
<PB N="190" REF="103">
<P>Beleeve them not; for if you take tho&s;e for enemies, who u&s;e their hands and &s;word again&s;t you, don't take tho&s;e other &s;orts of Murtherers for Friends, tho&s;e who employ your own hand to bring death into your Heart, and who per&s;wade you to &s;tiffle in you, by &s;candalous and brutish actions, both Innocence, Grace and Honour, which are the true Life of Man.</P>
<P>Flee tho&s;e Men: what&s;oever may be the tye that fa&s;tens you to their company, bur&s;t it, and look on them as unknown, or as Tray|tors. Remember that death breaks all Mar|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">iages, and crime all Friendships.</P>
<P>There are others who are Phanta&s;tics and odd humour'd;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Et e&s;t ami|cus ad inimi|citiam.</NOTE> who love without intere&s;t, and are offended without grounds, and who make friendships, but to make complaints, and to &s;eek occa&s;ions to accu&s;e and per&s;ecute a Friend.</P>
<P>Engage not your &s;elf &s;o far as to &s;ee them: and be con&s;tant in refu&s;ing and avoiding the acquaintance, and familiarity of two &s;orts of Per&s;ons.</P>
<P>That of Libertins, who are happy in po&s;|&s;e&s;&s;ing you, and diverting them&s;elves with you, but are always ready to betray you, and to &s;ell you for a little &s;ilver.</P>
<P>And that of tho&s;e pa&s;&s;ionate and jealous Friends, who take for treachery, the lea&s;t
<PB N="191" REF="103">look that you ca&s;t on any body el&s;e, and who have made an Ancient &s;ay very wi&s;ely, That there is no hatred more intolerable, and more to be feared than their friendship.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>VIII. MAXIM. <HI>And there is a Friend, who being turned to enmity and &s;trife will di&s;cover thy reproach.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>THere are others, who cannot keep a Secret during anger, and who in the lea&s;t difference that happens, declare all they know of you, and cruelly vilify your confi|dence and your &s;incerity.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IT is true that the&s;e tran&s;ports of their anger are dangerous, and they may cau&s;e fatal di&s;plea&s;ures; But remember that when you have received any one into your friend|ship, that you are not only to feel his affli|ctions, but you are al&s;o obliged to &s;uffer his faults; and that 'tis to &s;uffer very little for him, if you have not the courage to endure what comes from him&s;elf.</P>
<P>There is no Friend but hath his imper|fections and failings, and there are no fail|ings in your Friends, that you ought not to excu&s;e: But there are none al&s;o, but you ought to have known before loving and
<PB N="192" REF="104">chu&s;ing him. Choo&s;e well, and never en|gage your &s;elf to love a Man, who&s;e faults and weakne&s;&s;es are the intervals of hatred, and who during anger is a true enemy.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>IX. MAXIM. <HI>Who&s;o feareth the Lord shall direct his friend|ship aright, for as he is, &s;o shall his neigh|bour be al&s;o.</HI> Eccl. 6.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>WHen you have found a con&s;tant Friend, look on him as another &s;elf. Make him enter into your Hou&s;e, with the &s;ame liberty as into his own; let him di&s;po&s;e of your family, and concern him&s;elf with your affairs as of his own.</P>
<P>'Tis the happine&s;s of friendship, to live in two hearts, and to command in two Hou&s;es.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>WHat Men &s;ay of two Suns, (if they were in the World,) would not be true, if they could love one another.</P>
<P>The&s;e were not two things incompatible, but two equal powers, when that a right un|der&s;tanding were between them; and all Laws that Men make to govern the uni|ver&s;e, in favour of the unity; were not good, but becau&s;e di&s;cord is an in&s;eparable compa|nion of two Soveraigns. When that love is
<PB N="193" REF="104">the third, there's the number nece&s;&s;ary, to command happily both in Heaven and up|on Earth.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="10" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>X. MAXIM. <HI>For&s;ake not an old Friend, for the new is not comparable to him.</HI> Eccl. 9.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>A New Friend is never worth an old. Change not: what you have already, is a&s;&s;uredly better then what you yet have not. If the Per&s;on that you have long loved, be le&s;s perfect and le&s;s precious, it is never|thele&s;s propere&s;t for you, and be&s;t made to your humour.</P>
<P>The &s;weetne&s;&s;es of friendship come not from the Nobility of a Man, nor his know|ledge, nor the beauty of his mind, but from the conformity of his heart to yours.</P>
<P>You cannot be more ill clad, then by a gaudy and rich &s;uit too big for you, and that fits not well; neither can you be more ill be|loved, then by a man that nature has not made for you.</P>
<P>Moreover, there is no new Garment that does not incommode the body; nor new acquaintance, that does not torment and wound the &s;pirit.</P>
<P>The re&s;erves and ceremonies continue a long time, and the&s;e are the grand affairs, at the beginnings of friendship.</P>
<PB N="194" REF="105">
<P>In a word, who&s;oever can cea&s;e to love a fir&s;t Friend, is unworthy to have a &s;econd, and who&s;oever can let a good and a true friendship die, shall never have another which may be immortal.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="11" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XI. MAXIM. <HI>Do good to thy Friend before thou die.</HI> Eccl. 14.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>DO not &s;tay till the hour of death, to do good to your Friend. Love makes companions, not heirs. It does not offer what it loo&s;eth, and what it is con&s;trained to leave, but it renders that common which it po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth, The time of its liberality, is the time of its life.</P>
<P>'Tis avarice, or nece&s;&s;ity that gives at death, and which makes Te&s;taments.</P>
<P>In doing well, do not make reproaches;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>In bonis non des querelam, &amp; in omni dato non des tri&s;titiam verbi mali.</HI> Eccl. 18.</NOTE> and when you oblige a Friend by any favour, let your counte|nance and your words oblige yet more. The &s;ad|ne&s;s of the giver, offends him who receives; and changeth the good done, into di&s;plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>Denial oftentimes ought to be excu&s;ed, becau&s;e it may come from inability. But a &s;ad con&s;ent and trouble, cannot but be very
<PB N="195" REF="105">odious; becau&s;e it can come from nothing, but covetou&s;ne&s;s or want of affection.</P>
<P>When you have occa&s;ion to help your Friends, have always three things open, your Hands, your Countenance, and your Heart.</P>
<P>To do a kindne&s;s with &s;peed, is to do it twice; BUt to do it in a civil and courteous manner, is to do it more then an hundred times.</P>
<P>In like manner,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ne dicas amico tuo: Vade, &amp; reverte: tras dabo tibi.</HI> Prov. 3.</NOTE> let that never happen, as to &s;ay to a Friend, Come again to morrow and I will give it you.</P>
<P>A favour delay'd is &s;carce more worth then denial; and it is not given from the day that one can give it, one gives but at halves.</P>
<P>It &s;eems as if by this delay, you did &s;eek time, to find means to do nothing, at lea&s;t, you demon&s;trate, that you do not oblige with plea&s;ure. Joy is ready, and every thing that plea&s;eth it, is &s;uddenly done.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="12" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XII. MAXIM. <HI>Change not a Friend for any good by no means.</HI> Eccl. 7.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>MOle&s;t not your Friend, who defers the payment of what he owes you. It
<PB N="196" REF="106">is better to have your money a little too late, then loo&s;e &s;o dear a friendship too &s;oon.</P>
<P>To lend by affection, is to employ your money well; but to loo&s;e a Friend to reco|ver it, is to loo&s;e more then that's worth.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>SInce you are in ha&s;te to be paid, con|ceive that he is more &s;traitned to per|form it; and know, that it is not &s;o painful to an hone&s;t man to want money, as 'tis to owe it. Be content that he's afflicted and di&s;turbed: don't render him shamefull by &s;peaking to him of that affair.</P>
<P>Tho&s;e who have a little true friendship, blush at the calling to mind the debt of a Friend. Since you have much courage and much love do you your &s;elf blush at the re|membrance thereof.</P>
<P>To hold ones peace thereupon, is not to be generous enough, perfect kindnes is quite to forget it.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="13" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XIII. MAXIM. <HI>Loo&s;e thy money for thy Brother and thy Friend, and let it not ru&s;t under a &s;tone to be lo&s;t.</HI> Eccl. 29.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HAzard your money, by lending it to your Brother or your Friend: And know, that it is always more honourable and
<PB N="197" REF="106">more &s;afe, then it would be in a hidden Trea&s;ure, and shut up under &s;tones.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION</HEAD>
<P>YOu ought to believe it lo&s;t, a&s;&s;oon as it is u&s;ele&s;s to your Friends: When they come to ask a favour of you, be you ready to offer it: fear no other danger, but that of deliberating too long; and have no other di&s;|plea&s;ure, then for not having prevented them, and for not being happy enough to gue&s;s, that they had need of you.</P>
<P>Have herein the Maxim of that ancient Hero, who being advi&s;ed by his Trea&s;urer, that there was no more left, and that his li|beralities had exhau&s;ted it, made him this heroic an&s;wer? You deceive your &s;elf, &s;aid he, There remains to me all that I have gi|ven: it is mine more then ever, &s;ince 'tis in the hands of my Friends. <HI>Hoc habeo quod|cunque dedi.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="14" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XIV. MAXIM. <HI>Who &s;o di&s;covereth &s;ecrets, loo&s;eth his credit, and shall never find a Friend to his mind.</HI> Eccl. 27.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>TO reveal the &s;ecrets of one Friend, is to loo&s;e many. An unfaithful man, shall never be loved of any body, and tho&s;e
<PB N="198" REF="107">who have made him tell it, shall be fir&s;t that shall fear and hate him.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IN affairs of friendship, a&s;well as in tho&s;e of State, the lea&s;t and lighte&s;t indi&s;cre|tions of the Tongue are irremi&s;&s;ible crimes. Their Secret is a Religious order, who have no pardon for faults, nor pity for penitents. They punish tho&s;e faults, after the mo&s;t ter|rible manner, and mo&s;t to be feared of a man, who hath any thing of &s;entiment or an heart. Which is, That they never give him any more the occa&s;ion to fall again.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="15" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XV. MAXIM. <HI>If thou ha&s;t opened thy mouth again&s;t thy friend, fear not; for there may be a Reconciliation.</HI> Eccl. 22.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>IF (being in an ill humour,) you have happen'd to &s;ay ought to your Friend in cro&s;s terms, or have incon&s;iderately injured him, but that &s;ignifies nothing; fear not, for reconciliation is not difficult.</P>
<P>In like manner, if during a fl<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">sh of anger,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ad amicum, &s;i produxeris gla|dium, non de|&s;peres.</NOTE> you draw a &s;word again&s;t him, de&s;pair not of re-e&s;tablishing your friendship. Man is indul|gent toward the pa&s;&s;ions of his Brother, when they are blind and carry
<PB N="199" REF="107">away the rea&s;on. There needs but one word of regret, or one tear to wash away the memory of a bloudy quarrel.</P>
<P>That which is dangerous,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Excepto convi|tio, &amp; impro|perio, &amp; &s;uper|bia, &amp; My&s;terii revelatione, &amp; plaga delo&s;a, in omnibus effugiet amicus.</NOTE> and renders anger for ever irreconcilable, is to ca&s;t in the teeth of a Friend, any thing that reflects on the honour of his Hou&s;e, or to upbraid him with the &s;ervi|ces you have done him, or of any plea&s;ure that he shall have received, or to te&s;tify any contempt of him, or to appear proud in his pre&s;ence, or in fine, to declare his &s;ecrets, or to betray him in any bu&s;ine&s;s where he puts confi|dence in you.</P>
<P>All that makes him shun you to the end of the World: you may &s;ee his face again, but you shall never more find his heart nor con|fidence.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>IN fine, contemn not your Friend, for contempt is the mortal wound of friend|ship, and the only wound that the heart of man can't bear.</P>
<P>Nature and Fortune which might render us contemptible, are not able to render us in&s;en&s;ible and indifferent under contempt: habitude cannot accu&s;tome us thereto; and vertue which &s;ometimes may be able to
<PB N="200" REF="108">&s;tiffle the grief, cannot blot out its remem|brance.</P>
<P>We have no experience, even that the quality of Per&s;ons who contemn us, do le&s;&s;en the re&s;entment The prai&s;es that we receive from the part of our enemies, do not leave to be agreable to us: But the contempts that come by means of our greate&s;t friends, &s;en&s;i|bly wound the heart.</P>
<P>That which comes even from Princes or Ma&s;ters, is not &s;weeter, nor better received. Whatever power or authority, that one hath over us, we never think they have a right to contemn us, when we are guilty; and tho&s;e who confe&s;s, that their crimes de&s;erve death, cannot believe they de&s;erve contempt.</P>
<P>Grace takes away from many the de&s;ire of revenging them&s;elves, but it gives to very few contentment to &s;uffer it. If &s;ome may love to be contemned for the Glory of God, I do not know, that many love tho&s;e however, that do contemn them.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="16" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XVI. MAXIM. <HI>One man beareth hatred again&s;t the other, and doth he &s;eek pardon from the Lord?</HI> Eccl. 28.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>HOw can that man dare to ask ble&s;&s;ings and favours from God for him &s;elf,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ip&s;e cum caro &s;it, re&s;ervat iram &amp; propi|tiationem quae|rit &agrave; Deo.</NOTE> who prepares evill for another? And he who
<PB N="201" REF="108">would cau&s;e his neighbour to perish, can he hope that God will pre&s;erve him?</P>
<P>Man would him&s;elf be in wrath, and de&s;ire that God should be appea&s;ed. He who is but flesh and corruption, would punish the faults of tho&s;e like him&s;elfe: And he prayes God, who is infinite in his holine&s;s, that he might di&s;&s;emble his, and that God would endure them: what pretentions and what hopes are the&s;e?</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>TO choak the &s;entiment of ill words, that one gives you, or of wrong that one does you in bu&s;ine&s;s, have you often in your mind this undoubted truth.</P>
<P>That of all &s;orts of inju&s;tice, the two greate&s;t are, Fir&s;t, That God should be offender, the &s;econd, That we should take ill other mens offending us, and that we should take the liberty to re&s;ent them, and complain of them.</P>
<P>When you have a difference with any body, you goe and relate the bu&s;ine&s;s, and ask of your friends, if it be not true, that you have wrong, and that you ought to revenge it: you have &s;o much right on your &s;ide: you do and &s;ay &s;o well; that each one confe&s;&s;es it &amp; an&s;wers you that 'tis true.</P>
<P>But to the end that you might better know the truth, tell them the whole; relate
<PB N="202" REF="109">to them ingenuou&s;ly, what your Con&s;cience knowes, touching the mo&s;t enormous &s;ins, and shamefull ingratitudes that you have committed again&s;t God; and there shall no body &s;ay, but that you merit in&s;initely more evil, and more contempt then you have as yet received.</P>
<P>During quarrells and &s;uits at Law, the que&s;tion is, to know if you ought to de&s;troy a Man, whom God makes u&s;e of, to punish in you great &s;ins, and to punish them by &s;o &s;mall an evill as that is, which you pretend that one doth you. Be you the Iudge; exa|mine and decide the que&s;tion your &s;elf.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="17" TYPE="maxim">
<HEAD>XVII. MAXIM. <HI>Ab&s;tain from &s;trife, and thou &s;halt dimini&s;h thy &s;in</HI> Eccl. 28.</HEAD>
<DIV3 TYPE="paraphrase">
<HEAD>PARAPHRASE.</HEAD>
<P>LE&s;&s;en the number of Law &s;uits, and there &s;hall remain fewer &s;ins. To pro|&s;ecute a relation; To enrich Judges, and per&s;ons unknown; To ruine your family; to multiply your faults, &amp; to lo&s;e Paradice, is that which ordinarily you gain by pleading.</P>
<P>There is no quarrell but may be ended, by means of mildne&s;s and civility: and there is no peace but is more worth then all the victories of the Barr, and than all the Triumphs, that pride cau&s;es you to make over your enemies.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 TYPE="reflection">
<PB N="203" REF="109">
<HEAD>REFLECTION.</HEAD>
<P>LIve in peace, and e&s;tablish your hap|pine&s;s, by &s;o doing, as that nothing may trouble you, and that you may not be obliged to defend your &s;elf, nor to com|plain of any body.</P>
<P>It is not &s;o honourable to overcome ene|mies, as not to have any. Mad men, and Bea&s;ts them&s;elves have a part in the fir&s;t honour: The &s;econd belongs only to men of a Divine and heavenly nature.</P>
<P>But if we mu&s;t unfortunately have ene|mies, let us believe, that it is le&s;s glorious to us, to overthrow their hou&s;e and fortune, then to &s;weeten their anger; and all the cares we take, to gain on them in our proce&s;s, let us employ to gain their hearts</P>
<P>Let us not undertake the cau&s;ing them to perish: Let us a&s;pire to a more illustrious Victory, to do &s;o as that in &s;pight of them|&s;elves they may love us, and blame them|&s;elves for having disobliged us.</P>
<P>Let us carry repentance into their Con|&s;ciences, and let us make them &s;ee by good offices, that we are lovely, and that we de|&s;erve to be loved, when they have done us displea&s;ure.</P>
<P>If we would u&s;e &s;weet and re&s;pectfull words, and endeavour to &s;ubdue them, by the allurements of an officious and an obli|ging nature, they mu&s;t them&s;elves confe&s;s
<PB N="204" REF="110">they were in the wrong to treat us ill; and this confe&s;&s;ion is a more de&s;ireable honour, and the mo&s;t famous victory, which an ho|ne&s;t man can a&s;pire unto.</P>
<P>In fine, wee are obliged to extinguish in our Souls, all enmities and all de&s;ires of re|venge.</P>
<P>By the Law of nature, who has not given us other arms, or means to overcome other men, then love.</P>
<P>By the Laws of the Go&s;pel, which hath given us a precept, and made thereof an in|dispen&s;able commandment.</P>
<P>By the Law of him who was God and Man, who gave us the example of it.</P>
<P>By the Law of the Creator, who has been willing, that our &s;pirit and our per&s;on, should be no other thing, then a living Image of his &s;ub&s;tantial and infinite charity.</P>
<P>By the Law of Paradi&s;e, of which the in|&s;cription graven on the Gate, is, That no man shall enter there, who hath hatred or anger in his heart.</P>
<P>Our intere&s;ts oblige thereto as much as the re&s;t; and we ought to a&s;&s;ure our &s;elves, that there is no enemy &s;o cowardly or fearfull, who would not hurt us; nor &s;o feeble as that it cannot; nor &s;o ignorant, as not to know means, or to have addre&s;s and &s;ubtilty enough to find occa&s;ions and do it.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
<PB REF="110">
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</GROUP>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
