A learned Man.

A Learned man is the best chara­racter in the world, Gods great book in Folio. He is a God in the shape of man, when one that is rude, shut up in the darke dungeon of ignorance, is but a beast in the shape of man. Lear­ning is so transcendent and superexcellent An­gelicall a gift, that a man is a man and no man which wants it. It is to be esteemed far above gold or any pretious stones [Page] digged out of the bow­els of the earth. A nee­dy scholar, whose wealth lies all in his braine, is better then a sheep with a golden Fleece (as Dio­genes [...]. Diog. La­ert. once said of a rich Idiot) for the one wants money, the other huma­nity. The one is alive, the other dead. The one is in no feare of losing his riches, when they are in him; the other is in feare of losing himselfe when he is in his riches. Let not any one who is of a noble progeny, say, I shall shine like a starre in the worlds firmament, without the rare influ­ence of Mercurius; nei­ther [Page] let any man say, In [...]ure paterno, ‘Est mihi far modicum pu­rumPersius Sat. 5. & sine labe sa­linum:’

I have a faire inheri­tance in my fathers coun­trey: what need I—‘Nocturnis impallescere chartis,’ contract pale­nesse to my selfe by stu­dy; or taste of pale Pi­rene, that Acrocorinthi­an Fountaine, in love un­to the Muses? It is bet­ter to be Doctus in libris, then Dives in libris, lear­ned in bookes then rich in pounds; although the Poet said:

For Aristotle's lecture was in these wordes: [...]: Learning said he, is an ornamen [...] in prosperity, a refuge i [...] adversity. It is wealth to the poor, and treasure to the rich. Alexander the Great made so great ac­count of learning, that he thought himself more bound to Aristotle for his learning, then to his Fa­ther Philip for his life. This great Monarch of the world, in the trium­phant conquest of Thebes sold all free men (Priests onely excepted) & com­manded his Souldiers [Page] neither to damnifie Pin­darus the Poet, nor any of his family. Pirrhus, that great vaunter of his victories, confessed, that Cyneas, his great favou­rite, got more by his learning, then hee by his sword. Learning is ne­ver without glory; Mer­curius is never farre di­stant from Phoebus. It is hard, & almost inaccessi­ble to be as Hippias Eleus Quintili­an. lib. [...] Orat. was, a living Library of learning, and a walking Vatican of wit, igno­rant of nothing that is by humane industry com­prehensible. Ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius. I cannot but praise them [Page] who are adorned with this incomparable Pearl. And I will not altoge­ther dispraise them that want it. For the Asse of all beasts, is [...], dull and stupid; not­withstanding, out of his bones are made the best Pipes. Rich fools, which are but golden Asses, al­though eliminated them­selves from the quire of the Muses, yet by their gold many excellent Scholars are nourished up in learning, who sa­crifice pure inventions to the Muses. Our sottish and idle Enthusiasts are to be reproved therefore, who call humane learn­ing [Page] but Splendidum pec­ [...]atum. They are sure the Coblers disciples, stitching together tales of Tubbes in Tubbes. They must either deny a­ny truth to be in humane learning, or else they [...]ought to honour it Lace­demonian like, crediting the sentence, though re­ [...]ecting the Authour if bad. They cannot deny truth to bee in prophane Authours. It was true which Menander the Poet spake before the A­postle ever wrote it to the Church of Corinth, [...]. Evill words corrupt good manners.. There [Page] is but one truth, and wheresoever it is found, it must not bee rejected▪ If they honour not hu­mane learning then, so far as it is profitable and true, I leave them to bee hissed at, as unworthy e­ver to bee entred into Wise mans Colledge. And as Pierius his daughters were turned into Mag-pies for spea­king against the Muses; so let them be accounted of all men, but as railing phanaticall Momes, and black-mouth'd Curres, void of reason and hu­manity. Cicero said, hee would rather erre with Plato, then conceive the [Page] truth aright with other. But I would have all men [...]onor learning, as joyn'd with truth and infalli­bility, even as Aristotle honoured his Master Pla­to. Some may object and say, It is a part of great presumption in me, who am of so few yeares, and small experience, to at­tempt the painting forth of learning, when there bee so many lively pi­ctures thereof drawne al­ready, of which I may say with Zeuxis, more will envie then imitate. I confesse I am an un­worthy Herald to pro­clame the fame of lear­ning when my Cabinet [Page] enshrineth least of thi [...] invaluable treasure; and know you cannot know me by my lines to bee [...] cunning and accurat [...] A [...]ificer, as Protogine [...] did Apelles. Where therefore my pensill fails me to limb in so curious a portraiture, I will play Timanthes, and shadow with a vaile.

A Lustfull Man.

A Lustfull Man is so married to his un­cleane affections, that hee is marred by them, and becomes a Monster, u­sing ‘Humano capiti CervicemHorat. l. de Arte Poet jungere equinam.’

Hee continually courts the Lady Venus, who dwels at the signe of the Ivie Bush: And as An­tonius was so bewitched with Cleopatra, who dranke an Vnion to him, that Vnam Cleopatram, & Plutarch. in vita Anton. spiraret & loqueretur: so the luxurious man is [Page] so bewitched with this lazie Lady, that Vnicam Venerem & spirat & lo [...] quitur; Venus only is his discourse, and the Book of Physickes that hee too much studies. This kinde man increaseth mankinde, not for love to the end, but to the meanes. Hee is so sensu­all, that hee hath more command over wilde beasts, then his owne un­ruly and beastly affecti­ons, as one said of Her­cules:

Hee is a Salamander, li­ving [Page] continually in the flames of lust; and hee will still love, not leave any Lais, though hee buyes repentance at a deare rate: He is Planet­struck with every rare fe­male, and hee will be­come a Planet too, wan­dring farre from the way of honesty (which hee never could finde) if there bee not concordia formae atque pudicitiae in her. He is the Vulcan which picks the lockes of Virginity; and hee commends wo­men no longer then hee commands them. Hee honours the Pope as Pa­tron of his sinne, which he counts veniall, at least [Page] venall. Hee is the wo­mens Kalender from se­venteene to thirty, if he scapes burning so long. Hee is still in the Opta­tive mood, when not in the Conjunction. Hee dries up his radicall moi­sture with the fire of his lust: so that

Venus was begot of Neptunes scumme, and therefore called Aphro­dite, as Poets fain, propter naturam seminis spumo­sam. Shee is called He­ [...]o [...] [...], à visio­ne, because oculi sunt in [Page] amore duces. The eyes are the windowes to let in lust to the soul: where like a subterraneous fire, it breakes forth with un­speakable vehemencie and fiercenesse, never satisfied so long as a Whore is the Horizon of the sight; the heart is the center of uncleane and polluted affections. Protogines portrayed Ve­nus with a Spunge, sprinkled with sweet wa­ter; but if once shee wrung it, it would drop bloud. Shee is not un­wittily compared to Chi­maera: for as Chimaera is conceived to have the head of a Lion, the belly [Page] of a Goat, and the taile of a Dragon: so venereous lust in the beginning, hath the fiercenesse of a Lion; in the middle, the lechery of a Goat; in the end the venome of a Dra­gon. Aristotles counsell was, to behold pleasures, Non venientes, sed abeun­tes: Not as they come with pleasure, but as they goe with paine. Sweet sents are dedicated to Ve­nus, and sowre sawce also followes her. Whosoe­ver is allured by the plea­sant fragance of this fa­ding flower, Beauty, (which is the eyes Idoll) like a Goat, taken with a fond desire of the Pan­thers [Page] pleasantnesse, hee comes neerer and neerer to her, till he be destroy­ed by her: not unlike the tall trees in Ida, which al­lured many to rest in them, under their sha­dow, & then infect them with their sent. I could wish that all men would imitate Cyrus, a most no­ble and valiant King of Persia, endued with such continencie, that he loa­thed to looke on the hea­venly hiew of Panthaea, notwithstanding Arastus told him, the beauty of all others was eclipsed by her incomparable fea­ture. By so much the more, sayd Cyrus, may I [Page] be wounded with Cupids quiver, and in loving her I should lose the Majesty of a King. When Venus riseth, Phoebus setteth: Love never riseth, but when glorious Majesty setteth. Venus is a God­desse that has no Deity where discretion reignes.

The Poets fained Iupi­ter through love, or ra­ther lust, to have assumed any forme: hee turned himselfe into the shapeNat. Co­mes 2. Myth. c. 1. Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 13 c. 31. of Amphitrio and a gol­den showre to betray Alcmena and Danae: Et Taurus, Cygnus, Satyrus (que) [Page] ob amorem Europae, Ledes Antiopae. More worship the Planet Venus, then Mercurius. Theodota was in more request then So­crates. But hee that de­sires to saile happily on this Sea, the world, must play Parthian warre with bewitching. Syren-like Harlots.

Let him flye idlenesse, which is the first shaft Cupid shoots into the hot liver of a fond Lover: let him shunne opportu­nity as his Bawd, and oc­casion as his Pandor. [Page] Let him follow this counsell:

If he refuses to keep the nest of lust warme, the pernitious brood of actu­all follies will not bee hatched: Fewell also must bee with-drawne from this fire, fasting spettle must kil this Ser­pent, which like the Ser­pent Sardinius, makes men dye laughing. Sine Terentius Cerere & Baccho friget Venus: where there is cleannesse of teeth, there is no filthinesse of body. Crates the Theban pre­scribed [...], Hunger, Time, an Halter, [Page] signifying, thereby, that if present hunger, or length of time, quench not this flame in any man, he is worthy to bee hanged. Wound Venus therefore with Diomedes in Homer, lest Venus wound thee.

A factious Hypocrite.

A Factious Hypocrite is Satans close Fa­ctor, and Gods open professour, an outward Christian, an inward Di­vell; according to the proverb the Grecians had [Page] of Philo Iudaeus [...] Either Plato followeth Philo, or Philo imitateth Plato. Mutato nomine d [...] te. Either the hypocrite followeth the Divell, o [...] the Divel the Hypocrite Intus Nero, foris Cato, to tus ambiguus, monstrum est. Cruell Nero within grave Cato without, al­wayes double, and a monster. Like the Dra­gons of Armenia, that have cold bodies, and yet cast fire out of their mouthes: like pepper, hot in the mouth, cold in the stomack. The mouth of a painted hypocrite tells all men, that his zeale is [Page] in the torrid Zone, when indeed his owne heart conceives that the frigid Zone may well chalengePersius. it. Astutum rapido serrat sub pectore vulpem. His in-side is lined with Fox furre, his out-side is of Sheepes wooll: He is a dunghill covered over with snow, whereon if the Sunne of a cleare judgement doth but re­flect his resplendent beames, it will yeeld so many noysome exhala­tions, that are enough to infect a kingdome. All vertues are as paral­lell lines to him, and therefore two of them cannot bee coincident in [Page] his heart as the Center. Formall precisenes holds the doore as a Porter, whiles legions of Divels dance within. Hee is on Sunday like the Rubrick or Sunday letter, zealously red; and if his other oc­casions will permit him, hee will then dance af­ter the Fiddle of some base Mechanicke of the fraternity; (who with his phantasticke vaine con­ceits, brainsicke dreames, forged revelations, and inspired nothings, adul­terates Truth, the very spouse of the understan­ding) but all the weeke you may write his deeds in blacke, he being a Stu­dent [Page] in the Divels Aca­demy. He is a book with a painted cover, bescri­bled with many blacke Characters of mischiefe, written with the Divels owne hand, and through­ly read of very few. His tongue writes volumes of dissimulation in folio, and himselfe is a Christi­an hardly in decimo sexto. Plutarch writeth, that the Amphictyones in Greece, a famous Coun­cell, assembled of twelve sundry people, wrote up­on the Temple of Apollo Pythius, in stead of the Iliads of Homer, or songs of Pindarus; short sen­tences and memoratives, [Page] as, Know thy selfe, use moderation, beware of Suretiship, and the like. These Hypocrites are de­lighted with large tiring discourses, if the fruit of their owne braines, and they will bee sure to ob­serve the last of those 3. sentences: for their words are precise, their deeds concise; like a loose hung Mill, they keepe great clacking, but grinde no grist. They are all for dead faith; and rather then they wil be thought to hold good works me­ritorious, they will doe none at all. They have more Divinity then Hu­manity & will [...]ather give [Page] distressed neighbour a [...]ater noster then a peny, loying his stomack with [...]exts against sloath and [...]eggery: as if an hungry [...]oule were like Charles [...]f Prage, who supped [...]ften with the dishes in [...]lato's banket, a few Sen­ [...]ences and Arguments in [...]he Schooles. They are [...]o little guilty of the Pa­ [...]ists errour, in holding good works meritorious, [...]hat I may say and not [...]lander them, the fire of zeale dries up the deaw of Charity. There bee some hypocrites who deny all humane inven­tions, except their owne, and raile at ceremonies [Page] for trifles, when indeed their piety is but a cere­mony, outward not in­ward. They mislike all set formes of prayer, and worship only the Calves of their owne lips, extem­porary non-sense. These are factious Schismaticks possessed with the spirit of contradiction, suppo­sing like him in Tully, great learning and elo­quence to be in contradi­ction. Disertus esse pos­s [...]m Tusculan Quaest. l. 1. si contra iste dicerem. They are meere Antipo­des to order, when they should stand they'l kneel, and when they should kneele, to shew all their uprightnesse at once, they [Page] will stand: therefore they deserve to fall. They pray long in the Church, and if they can conveniently, they will prey on the Church. They turne sound preaching into a sound of preaching, pra­ting. Like empty Cym­bals they sound for emp­tinesse, being but vaine symbols of schisme: they are bad consonants in truth; and I could wish, they were Mutes in fals­hood. As Phydias made all pictures with one face, so they paint all ver­tues, which square not with their brainsicke hu­mours, with vices face, thinking themselves to [Page] be the sole elect, though true piety, pitty, honesty and the like, are in grad [...] incompossibili to them, and they to heaven. They seeme so confident of their salvation, that with the Swan they sing An­themes of apparant joy at their departure hence: But I am afraid, they leave this world the wel­head of salt teares, and goe to hell in a gol­den dream of heaven.

A covetous Wretch.

THe covetous misers thoughts are stil gol­den, and his minde is ne­ver elevated above his Mine. He thinkes gaine to be godlinesse, crying it up with Demetrius as his great Diana. He likes our Religion best, be­cause 'tis best cheape; he smells this Maxime well every where, Lucri bonus Iuven. Sat. 14. est odor ex re qualibet. As the Ostrich disgests iron, so can his conscience any gold, howsoever gotten. He subordinates al things both Divine and humane [Page] to gaine; and with Vespa­sian he conceives no way to be indirect to it. Hee would slay an Asse for his skin; and like Hermocra­tes dying would make himselfe his owne execu­tor: for cetain he is made administrator to his good name while hee is alive, for it dies long afore him, without a funeral. When insatiable avarice steeres the will, and sits in the heart as Queene-regent, she is attended on with impiety, want of charity, envy, dishonesty, infamy, and the like, as her maids of dishonour. This wret­ched muck worme sel­dome surfets with ex­cesse [Page] of cheere: For at home he eateth more for present need, then fu­ture health: Corpus ex­tenuat ut lucrum extendat: hee defraudes his Genius, and is in debt to backe and belly for lucres sake. Chius like he will fill the best wine to others, and drinke the lees himselfe, his desire being to fill his Coffers, and to put his belly into his purse: for parcimony and slen­der diet are the chiefest vertues commended in his Ethickes: but another mans table sharpneth his appetite, and if hee ever surfet, 'tis then. Hee doth so accustome himselfe to [Page] basenesse, that it become [...] his nature. Hee esteeme [...] the mockes and hisses o [...] the people a vaine frivo­lous matter, and dashes i [...] by the contemplation of his mony in his chest▪ Quid enim salvis insani [...] Inven. Sat. 14. nummis? If his money be safe, hee counts infa­my an idle thing not to be esteemed. All things besides his rusty coine [...] seeme nothing to him; he with it, seemes nothing to others, and without it he is nothing to himselfe; because his mony is his ultima perfectio, and the very ratio formalis of his soule: for hee hath a lease of his wits onely during [Page] the continuance of his wealth, which makes him an Artist. His Rhe­toricke is how to keepe him out of the Subsidy: his Logicke is to prove heaven in his Chest: his Geometry is to measure the goodnes of any thing by his owne profit: his Arithmetick is in Addi­tion and Multiplication onely: his Physicke is to administer gold to his eye, though he starve his body: his Musick is, Sol re me fa, sola res me fa­cit, that which makes me, makes mee merry. Divi­nity hee hath none, but Sculptura is his Scriptura; and hee hath so many [Page] gods as Images of coine. The earth is his heaven, and the golden Angels are his gods, in whose sight consists his beatifi­call vision. If his purse be l [...]ght, his heart is heavie▪ and if his purse be filled, hee is filled with more cares, Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam majorum (que) Horatius. Quo plus sunt po­tae plus si­tiunt a­quae. fames. Tantalus like hee is never satisfied: for his [...] doth Senectute juvenescere. He thinkes it just to deduct from a ser­vants wages the price of an halter, which hee cut to save the wretch when hee had hung himselfe at the fall of the market. There is no man poorer [Page] then himselfe, Magnas inter opes inops: he is poor being rich. For as Seneca, pauper est non qui parune habet, sed qui plus cupit. Hee is not poore who hath little, but that covets more. Hee is like the tempestuous Sea be­tween Scilla and Charyb­dis, agitated with con­trary windes and waves. Desire, distrust, Spemque metumque inter, hee is cruelly tormented and excrutiated, as if he were in Phalaris his brazen Bull, or Aemilius Censo­rinus his brazen Cow: for the desire of getting infi­nite riches, is a spurre to his sides; and riches got­ten [Page] are as thornes to his eyes. Misera est magni custodia consus. The cu­stodyJuven. of great substance hath still equall misery to accompany it: so that I may well say, Avarus nemini bonus, sibi verò pessimus, a covetous wretch is good to no man, worst to himselfe, [...], drawing to himselfe evils, as the Northeast winde doth clouds. Ful­gentius observes, that kingMy hol. l. 1. [...]idas, who desired A­pollo, that every thing which he touched might be turned into gold, is so called, quasi [...], knowing nothing: but if [Page] hee knew nothing, how could he covet so much? for Ignoti nulla cupido. Certainly hee knew e­nough, though hee was no Graduate in the libe­rall Sciences; but of that which was sibi conveni­ens, hee was utterly igno­rant, his understanding therein being as blinde as his will. Every Midas is a fit instrument for Satan to effect any mischievous designes, because his pie­ty is alwayes overswayed by his profit: And as the children of Israel for­sooke God, and worship­ped the Golden Calfe, so hee will leeve [...] and embrace [...]: This mi­ser [Page] cannot abide to heareArist. l. 2. Ethic. c 7. of restitution; he doth ex­ceed in receiving, but is very deficient in gi­ving; like the Christmas earthen boxes of Ap­prentices, apt to take in money, but hee restores none till hee bee broken like a potters vessell into many shares, and then the Divell will have his wic­ked soule, the worms his leane Karkasse, which will scarce affoord them a breakfast; and some unthrifty heire the gol­den web which hee, like the Spider, hath weaved out of the bowels of his long travell and vexed spirit, all the dayes of his [Page] vanity. The end of his ambition is to die rich to others, and to live poore to himselfe: he toiles like a Dog in a wheel, to roast meat for other mens ea­ting. There is but one way for this covetous Holdfast to goe to hea­ven, which is to be drawn up by that [...], or golden chaine in Homer, Iliad. l. 1. reaching from earth to heaven; but he knowing that to be a fable wil goe where gold is, In viscera terrae, hell being his cen­ter, where I leave him.

An Angry Man.

AN angry man is cou­sin german to a mad man, unlesse his anger bee in the best sense, which anger is al­wayes lawfull, being a­dorned with advised speech in a seasonable time; it is to the soule as a nerve to the body. The Philosopher calls it Cos fortitudinis, the whet­stone of fortitude, infu­sing valour in the vindi­cation of a publike or private good. As the Vestal fire was preserved [Page] by chastity, so this by charity: But I leave this anger to be followed, and follow that anger which is to bee eschewed, that anger which is a tyranni­call, sinfull passion, initi­um insaniae, said Ennius, and initium poenitentiae, said Seneca; the causeSen. de ira lib. 2. c. 22. Ira sorti producit lacertos imbelli linguam. whereof is some concei­ved injury; causa iracun­diae opini [...] injuriae est. This heat becomes hate, and a malicious desire of re­venge, exercising the armes of the strong, and tongues of the weake; and as a noysome pesti­lent fiery Meteor, com­posed altogether of fuli­ginous vapours, risen [Page] from pitchy Acheron, it belcheth forth nothing but flames of sedition, tumults, battels, murders, and destruction, and all through a conflict of two contrary passions assaul­ting the heart at the same instant, griefe and plea­sure; griefe for the inju­ry offered, whereby great heat is gathered about the heart, making the face pale and blackish; which intestine flame like a sub­terraneous fire, makes an eruption into direfull threats of revenge, and enlarges the heart with the pleasure thereof: for according to Aristotle, Rhet. l. 2. cap. 2. some pleasure through [Page] hope of revenge still ac­companies this affection, which differs from mad­nesse only temporis mora. The Grecians call it [...], from the word [...], ap­peto, because desire of re­venge is essentiall to it. Aquinas makes three de­grees of anger, Fel, ma­niam, furorem; the one hee saith hath beginning and motion, but present­ly ceaseth, like a flash of lightning, cito oritur cito moritur. The other taketh deeper hold in the me­mory. The third desist­eth not without revenge, for it is kept so long in the vessell of the heart, that it waxeth eager and [Page] soure, and is turned into malice. Some are sharpe, saith Aristotle, who like gunpowder are no sooner touched, but they flye in your face; others are bit­ter; a third kinde is im­placable, who like the stone in Arcadia named Asbestos, mentioned by Solinus, being once set on fire can hardly bee quen­ched: they never unfold their browes, as if anger had there plowed the furrowes of her wrath, and they graven their in­juries in marble: they commonly harbour this unruly affection so long in their hearts, (as the Lacedemonian boy did [Page] his Fox) till it gnaw out their hearts. Furor ira (que) mentem praecipitant, Fu­ry is a meere Circe which maketh a monstrous and inhumane metamorpho­sis, transforming men in­to cruell Tygres. An an­gry man is altogether ir­rationall quoad actum se­cundum. He respects nei­ther Prince, Priest, nor People; he reviles al, fra­trem (que) patrem (que). Of Da­metas hee is turned into Hercules furens, and while the lightning of his rage lasts, hee throwes out the thunderbolts of his rage upon all, not sticking in his fiery fury, with Hip­pi [...], to butcher his dea­rest [Page] innocent friends, Cum spirat irae sanguinem nesci [...] regi, when anger breathe [...] forth bloody commina­tions, she knows not how to bee ruled, for reason, which should steere the little ship of man, sayling on the raging sea of af­fections, is now put be­sides the helme. Wise­dom cannot be the judge when anger is the sollici­tour. Men sicke of this Bedlam passion, often make irrationall and in­sensible creatures, the ob­jects of their bitternesse: Balaam smote his Asse, Xerxes levelled the fiery darts of his fierce fury a­gainst Athos a Thracian [Page] mountaine, threatning to cut it downe, and cast it [...]nto the sea, if it were not passable. Darius, because a river had drowned a white horse of his, vow­ed to cut it into so many chanels, that a woman with childe might goe over dry-shood. So the Africans being infested with a North winde, that covered a Corne field with sand from a moun­taine, levied an army of men to fight with that winde; but the sand be­came their Sepulchre. How much more irratio­nall and insensible are these men, then the things they maligne? Any one [Page] without spectacles may behold Asses eares under their Lions skins, folly in their fury. That disease, saith Hippocrates▪ is most dangerous, in which the sicke man changeth the habit of his mouth, and becomes most unlike himselfe: And if that be true, there is no disease more desperate then an­ger; for it altereth not onely the countenance, the language, and the ge­stures of the body, but also the faculties of the minde, making a man a monster.

Other passions dally with a man, entice him, dazzle him, and onely in­cline him, but this com­mands him, compels him, blindes him, that he [...]ees no good, and feares no evill: Therefore Fury which drives him, is painted with a Sword in his hand, and for the im­patient desire of revenge wherewith hee is infla­med▪ violently rushing up­on a Iavelin: so that, plus [...]ocitura est ira quam inju­ [...]ia, anger is more hurt­full then the injury that causes it. No Physicke [Page] may bee prescribed s [...] long as this Dog-starr [...] predominates. The bes [...] preservative is to resis [...] the beginning of this evill, and (as the Pigmie [...] deale with the Cranes cracke it in the shell. I [...] confinibus arcendus est h [...] stis, The enemy is be driven back in the frontiers If any man did well consider the great danger o [...] this bloudy passion which like the viper causeth corruption where i [...] hath generation, he would hate himselfe fo [...] affecting that which makes him not himselfe The Emperour Nerv [...] ended his life in a Feaver [Page] contracted by anger. The Emperour Valenti­ [...]ianus died by an irrupti­ [...]n of bloud through an­ger, with many other. Blacke clouds of danger [...]re alwayes imminent, [...]nd a more then beastly [...]eformity, never absent [...]o long as this ugly Toad [...]s present. It is Seneca's [...]ounsell, that the angry [...]an should behold him­ [...]elfe in a mirror, Iratis [...]rofuit aspexisse speculum; Lib. 2. de Ir [...]. c. 36. [...]ui ad speculum venerat [...]t se mutaret jam mutave­ [...]at: Hee who comes [...]o the looking glasse to [...]hange himselfe, is al­ [...]eady changed. Againe,Sen. l. 2. de Ira. c. 28. Maximum remedium est [Page] irae mora; desinet, si expe­ctet. Delay is the grea­test remedy of anger, it ceases if it fall in sus­pence. The counsell of Anthenodorus the Philo­sopher to Augustus Caesar was, Antequam indulge as irae percurre tecum alpha­betum Graecum; before thou feedest thy fury, re­cite with thy selfe the Greeke Alphabet; as if hee should have sayd, sing to thy passion as Nurses to their babes, [...], haste not, cry not, and anon I will content thee.

An envious Man.

AN envious man stands alwayes in Diametricall opposition [...] Aristot. Rhet. l. 2. c. 10. to a good man. Aristotle calles him, Antagonista fortunatorum, according to his definition. Envie [...]s a certaine molestation and griefe for the appa­rent felicity of others; which, like a Feaver Hec­ [...]icke, consumes a man: and because of some­ [...]hing he hath not, hee is [...]rought to nothing; so [...]hat hee wanteth as well what he hath, as what he [Page] hath not. Vicinitas est Franc. Petrarch. prosperitas invidi [...] sunt parentes, neernesse and prosperity are the happy parents of this monster, which is squint-ey'd, that sees not farre off, and neere hand sees too per­versly with the Specta­cles of a wicked imagi­nation. The eye is the seat of this soare, and a blessing espied through this window, killeth the envious man like the Ba­siliske. Intabescitque vi­dendo, the more hee sees, the more he sighes, alto­gether esteeming his neighbours weale his woe, and others glory his griefe. Parum est si ipse [Page] sit foelix, nisi alter fuerit infoelix; hee cannot put on the white robes of fe­licity, except another mournes in the sable weeds of adversity; nei­ther can hee saile happily, except fell Boreas as­sault others. He delights like flies, in the wounds of others, and that which is a Tragedy to others, is to him a Comedy; using like the Bragmans, to laugh when hee should weepe, and to weepe when hee should laugh. The bright Sunne of o­ther mens prosperity, beating upon the Dung­hill of a dejected base spi­rit, engendreth this snake, [Page] which if it bite a man, he instantly swelles with much poyson: but like the Serpent Porphyrius wanting teeth and power to vent his venome, hee hurts himselfe most. Vt Aetna seipsum, sic se non alios, invidus igne coquit.

The envious man is no Physitian to himselfe: for by his pining and repi­ning, hee burnes up his bloud in the fornace of hatred: so that his body hath just cause to sue his soule on an action of Di­lapidation. Envie is the meere Megaera which continually torments his soule. Titiique vultur in­tus qui semper lacerat co­mestque [Page] mentem. As poyson is life to a Ser­pent, but death to a man; and spettle life to a man, but death to a serpent: so the virulent sustenance that the envious man lives on, is death to a good man; and a good mans bene esse, is the en­vious mans non esse. Bion Pallor in ore se­det macies in corpore toto. Metam. beholding such a one, (with a pale face and lean body, whose heart was full of gall, & his tongue tipt with poyson) very sorrowfull, asked him, saying: Whether hath some evill befallen thee, or some good to thy neighbour? As the ve­nemous Beetle Cantha­rides, [Page] delights to con­sume the finest wheat, and nip the fairest flow­ers: so envie invades the best men, and those that excell in any good, whe­ther of minde, body or fortune. Therefore The­mistocles being but of tender age, said, Hee had effected as yet nothing excellent and praise-wor­thy, because the darts of envie flew not about his eares. As those eyes are acccounted bewitching; qui gemin [...]m habent pu­pillam, sicut Illyrici, which have double-sighted eyes: So the double­sighted eyes of the envi­ous, bewitch his under­standing, [Page] whereby hee misconceives and mis­interprets another mans felicity and fortune, be­holding it with an evill eye, as in a multiplying glasse, that makes good things appeare great things, according to the Poet:

Hee prints discontent in his countenance, if a­nother atchieve that ho­nour which is beyond his reach. Hunc atque hunc superare laborat. Hee [Page] strives to excell all, though he is excelled by all: if hee undertakes a great worke, which is a­bove the spheare of his capacity, hee will give leave to none other, like Aesops dogge in the man­ger. Like the snake in the Apologue, that l [...]cked off her owne tongue, when thinking nothing should have teeth but her selfe, shee would have licked the file plaine which shee found with teeth at the Smiths forge; he drinkes the most part of his ve­nome, and hurts himselfe seeking to hurt others; yea, he will hurt himselfe so that hee may hurt o­thers. [Page] Simul peccat & plectitur: expedita j [...]sti­tia. An expedite kinde of justice, when punishment treads upon the heele of sinne.

For my part, I'le ever embrace Pallas, who as the Poets fain, stil knocks at the doore of envie, that dwels in vallibus imis, and so she keeps her from sleeping: whom being now stirred and awakned by Pallas, I leave with him that loves her, till she transforme him to a meere Aglauros, as voyd of sense as of humanity.

A Fortune-teller.

A Fortune-teller is an idle adle-brain'd fel­low, who takes upon him as if hee were a bawd to the celestiall bodies, by the conjunctions of pla­nets, and position of starres, to fore-tell the ruines of publike weales, to calculate nativities, and to fore-tell strange e­vents. He pleads a deepe insight into their secrets, as if he were their Mid­wife; or as if, like the Physitian, he had cast the urine of the clouds, and [Page] knew where the fit held them, that it could nei­ther raine, nor haile, nor snow, till some starre had made him her secretary. This Aeruscator, that strives to get mony by ill meanes, tels the fortunes of others uncertainly, that hee might encrease his owne certainly: if hee tell any thing that comes to passe, it is but as if a blinde Archer should hit the Marke. Diogenes seeing a fellow (that she­wed tables of the starres openly) say, Hae sunt stellae errantes, These are the wandring starres, answe­red, Ne mentiaris, bone vir, doe not slander the [Page] starres, good man, that erre not, but thy selfe on­ly dost erre, by thy vaine speculations of the stars. The Tale-tell star-gazers and Chronologers, are so different among them­selves, that it is truly said of them, Inter horologia magis convenit quam inter exactos temporum calculatores. The clockes agree better then them, but to make amends for that, their opinions as lines of the same cir­cumference, are coinci­dent in falshood as their center. Cicero mentions it for the Chaldean fol­ly, that they would haveDe divi­nat. l. 2. Omnes [...]odem tempore or­tos, [Page] eadem conditione nas­ci: all that were born to­gether, to be borne to the same condition. But if that bee true, how came Romulus and Remus, who (if wee may beleeve it) were both borne of a Vestal (defiled by a soul­dier) at one birth, to such various fortunes? Was all the world, drowned in the deluge, under one starre? Or all Souldiers slaine together in one field, under the same signes? The Astrolo­gers assertion is, that all borne under the signe A­quarius, would bee Fish­ers: but in Getulia there are no fishers; was never [Page] any there born under the signe Aquarius?

Surely all Astrologers are Erra Paters disciples, and the Divels profes­sors, telling their opini­ons in spurious aenigma­ticall doubtfull tearmes, like the Oracle at Del­phos. What a blinde do­tage, and shamelesse im­pudence is in these men, who pretend to know more then Saints and Angels? Can they read other mens fates by those glorious characters the starres, being ignorant of their owne? Qui sibi nescius, cui praescius? Thracias the Soothsayer, in the nine years drought [Page] of Aegypt, came to B [...] ­siris the Tyrant;

And told him, that Iupi­ters wrath might bee ex­piated by sacrificing the blood of a stranger. The Tyrant asked him whe­ther hee was a stranger: he told him he was.

If all were served so, [Page] we should have none that would relye so confi­dently on the falshood of their Ephemerides, and in some manner shake off all divine providence, making themselves e­quall to God: Tolli enim Au. Gel. l. 14. c. 1. quod maximum inter De­os atque homines affert, [...] homines qu [...]res post fu­turus praenoscerent. The greatest difference be­tween God and man is taken away, if man should fore-know future events. These prophesie­usurpers, who ascribe all things to the influence of constellations, shoot at the starres, but aime at themselves, according to [Page] that of Accius: Nihil, in­quit, credo Auguribus qui aure [...] verbis divitant alie­nas, suas ut auro locuple­tent Domos. I doe no­thing credit the Sooth­sayers, who enrich other mens eares with words, that they may enrich their owne houses with gold.

Beleeve not the Impo­stures of these juggling companions: they fore­tell prosperous things, or not prosperous: First, they foretell prosperous, and faile, thou art made miserable by expecting them in vaine. If they foretell unfortunate e­vents, and deceive thee, [Page] thou art made miserable by fearing them in vain. I [...] those things they forete [...] do happen, being not pro­sperous, thou art made miserable because they come to passe. If they promise auspicious fate to thee, and have no [...] paid it, thy hope will weary thee, and the long expectation thereof, will prove misera­ble to thee.

Fortune.

FOrtune is so constant in inconstancy, that the best Amulius cannot portray her in one cōstant shadow, neerest resem­bling the counterfeit that Praxiteles made for Flo­ra, before the which if one stood directly, it see­med to weep; if on the left side, to laugh; if on the other side, to sleepe. Fortuna amica varietati constantiam respuit, saith the heathen Orator: Wherefore I cannot but commend the pithy [Page] answer of Apelles, that cunning painter, who be­ing asked why he painted Fortune sitting, answered readily, Quiae stare loc [...] Stobaeus. nescit, because shee is so unstable, knowing not how to stand constant: otherwise he commonly painted her sitting upon a Globe, blinde, and tur­ned by every puffe of winde. Nihil enim est tam contrarium rationi & constantia quam fortuna. For nothing is so contra­ry to right reason and constancie, as Fortune, that is winged with the feathers of Ficklenesse. Nil equ [...]dem durare d [...]u Ovid Me [...]. sub imagine eadem credi­derim. [Page] Ima permutat bre­vi [...] Sen. Thy­est. hora summis. Nothing continues long under the same forme: in an houre [...]hings are turned topsi­ [...]urvie. The lowest va­ [...]our becomes the high­est cloud, and the highest cloud the lowest vapour▪ [...]esostris, an illustrious and happy King of Aegypt, famous for abundance of wealth and earthly trea­ [...]ure, subdued many Na­ [...]ions under the yoake ofPh. Me­lancthon. l. 3. Chron [...]is slavery. He was wont [...]o bee carried in a Chari­ [...]t adorned with gold & [...]retious stones, by foure Kings whom he had con­quered: and when one of them often regarding [Page] the wheele of the Cha­riot, contemplated with himselfe, was asked by Sesostris, why hee did so much behold the moti­on of the wheele? In beholding (said hee) the volubility of the wheele, wherein the lowest are soone highest, and the highest lowest, I per­ceive the instability of Fortune, who dejecteth those that are highly ad­vanced, and advanceth those that are low pres­sed. Whereupon Seso­stris would never after exercise his inhumane cruelty against any cap­tive King in that kinde. Remembring Perchance [Page] that of Herodotus: [...]. Let no man thinke to e­rect Castles or faire Mo­numents in the aire, or build upon the uncertaine and short prosperous windes of favour-bloo­ming Fortune high and huge hopes, as the Tra­gedian excellently ad­monisheth:

Let no man thinke to give Fortune the defi­ance [Page] in prosperity, neither let any despaire of better things in adversity. Ma­rius Tacitus. begged in the sixth Consulship, governed in the seventh. Scipio Afri­ca of a Consull became a Captive, of a Captive a Consull. To be haugh­ty therefore if our ship saile bonis avibus, on the calme sea of prosperity, is vaine glory void of wisedome: for the grea­ter fortune is, the lesse is she secure. So to bee o­vermuch dejected, be­cause the ship of all our treasure sailing malis a­vibus, on the tempestu­ous seas of adverse fate, bee wracked against the [Page] [...]raggy Clifts of misfor­ [...]une, doth argue our wisedome was our ri­ [...]hes, and in losing one, we lose both. He that is fixed star in wisedome, will not prove a meteor composed of vanity, nei­ther shall any interposed earth eclipse his glory. When Fortuna opes an­ [...]erre, Senece. non animam potest. Fortune may take away his outward riches, not his soule. A prudent pro­vident man still expects [...]he worst; and as it is said of Socrates, his minde is [...]lwayes equall, still pre­pared against any boy­ [...]terous blasts and storms of malignant Fortune. [Page] And being not a servant to this uncertaine Lady, hee thinkes himselfe not unhappy if shee frownes on him, nor more happy if shee smiles. Zen [...] having lost his outward goods by ship-wracke; Immobili vultu euge (in­quit) fortuna quam oppor­tune nos ad pallio [...]um rede­gisti. For as he that struck Iason on the stomacke, thinking to kil kim, brake his impostume and cure [...] him: so this step mothe [...] Fortune strikes at Zen [...] intending to kill him, and to make his heart evapo­rate into sighes, by rea­son of this tempest (drowning that which [Page] would have drowned him) but in stead of a sword she applied a salve, breaking the impostuma­tion of vaine glory, and outward pleasure, grow­ing in his heart, and fram'd his minde a­gaine to the stu­dy of Philo­sophy.

Ambition.

AMbition is a vice op­posite to Magnani­mity, being an immode­rate desire of honou [...] without merit. It is the proud soules dropsie [...] when a draught of Ho­nour causeth a drough [...] of Honour. One ad­vancement gives a fresh provocation to another. Hee is not so soon laid o [...] the bed of honour, bu [...] hee dreames of a high preferment. His desires are as high as the starres, his deserts lower then [Page] the earth; hee'l willingly stay on no staire if there be a higher, & yet ascen­ded to the top, want of highnesse is his malady. Alexander having con­quered all Asia, and be­ing set on the pinacle of imcomparable dignity on earth, hearing Aha­parchus dispute of in­numerable worlds, salt teares immediatly distil­led from the Limbecke of his proud sorrowfull heart, because hee had not yet conquered one world. Alexander mun­do magnus, mundus Alex­andro parvus. Alexander though the greatest Mo­narch in the world

(Imperium Oceano fa­mam Virg. 2. Aene [...]d. qui terminat astris, Who terminates his Em­pire with the remotest seas, & his fame with the Poles) thought the world a Mole-hil, being too nar­row a stage for the large Scene of his ambition,

His heart being a Tri­angle could not be filled with the world being a Circle. An ambitious minde like Tullies strange soil, much rain of promo­tion falling from his hea­ven the Court, makes him still as dry as dust. [Page] The Court is the Sea wherin he desires to fish, and the starry firmament wherein hee desires to shine; yet an old Courtier being asked what hee did at Court, answered, I doe nothing but undoe my selfe: And I can say this of other Suitors, If ten be dispatched, ninety are despighted. Aspiring mindes, whiles they be­hold the starres with Thales, fall into the ditch. Agrippina, Nero's mo­ther, being told by an A­strologer, that her sonne should be Emperour, but his Orient should bee her Occident, answered, Oc­cidat Tacitus l. 14. An. dum imperet: Let [Page] him kill me so hee may get the Empire. Pyrr [...]us Plu [...]arch. ejus vita. King of the Epirotes, said, If hee had conque­red Rome, Italy, Sicily, Africa, Carthage, and all Greece he could be fro­licke with his friends: but surely had he atchie­ved the triumphant vi­ctory of all these nations, blinde ambition would not have suffered him to rest; but hee still would have adored Fortunes bright Sun, desiring to in­crease, like the new Moone, donec t [...]tam cir­cumferentiam The new Moones Mot [...]o. imple [...]t, till he fill the whole circum­ference, not considering that the full Moon suffers [Page] an Eclipse: Camelion­likePlin. Nat. they have nothing within, but large lungs, windy ostentation, think­ing with the bladder of their blowne hopes, and windy vapours of selfe­love, to swim (with An­tiochus) upon the earth, and to walke on the sea. An ambitious man of a Farmer would be a Yeo­man, of a Yeoman a Gentleman, of a Gentle­man a Squire, or else hee is out of square; of a Squire a Knight, and no Gentleman. Once knigh­ted the world must count him a Count; and then hee rides all upon the Spurre (Policie being his [Page] Post horse) till he come to None-such. He would bee a Peerlesse Peere wil­ling to have no Aequator in the terrestriall Globe: his greatest plague is a Rivall. The impulsive cause of the civill warres between Pompey and Cae­sar, was, ambitio & ni­mia foelicitas (as Florus) the one not enduring an equall, the other a supe­riour.

It is an essentiall pro­perty of a swelling and [Page] proud boasting person, not to consider whom he excelleth himselfe, but who excelleth him. Joy doth not so much dilate his heart to see many af­ter him, as grief contracts it to see any before him: he seldome or never loo­keth backe, but alwayes forward; and when hee sees himselfe to bee For­tunes singular and grea­test favourite (with Alex­ander) hee conceits his immortality, and causeth Temples & Altars to be erected to his name, ma­king himself a God with man, but a man with God. Sapor a Persian King, intituled himselfe [Page] Rex Regum, frater Solis & Lunae, particeps Syde­rum &c. Kings of Kings, brother to the Sunne and Moone, partner with the starres. O more then stu­pid Ambition! Art thou King of Kings, when not King of thy selfe? Art thou so lunaticke as to i­magine thy selfe brother to the Sunne and Moon? Art thou such a Planet or wandring Starre of invincible ignorance, as to write thy selfe a part­ner with the Starres? A falling starre and a fiery meteor shalt thou bee. Thou shalt complaine of Fortune with Tiberius, that having set thee in so [Page] high a place, shee did not vouchsafe thee a Ladder to come downe againe. They that are advanced to high degree of ho­nour,Senec. Ep. Non in praerupto il­l [...]c stant, sed in lubric [...], have a slippery and dan­gerous station. Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviora ruant. They are tossed up into the aire by For­tunes sling, to receive the greater fall; and be­in set up as Buttes, they cannot bee without the quiver of feares. Feriunt summos fulgura montes, The high mountaines are smitten with the light­ning, when the valleyes are secure. The tall Ce­dars [Page] and lofty Pines are shaken with the Aeolian slaves, when the low shrubs stand firme. The Sunne that rises in a gray and sullen morne, sets clearest: Ambitious mindes in the dawne of Fortune breake so glo­riously, meet with a storm at noon, or a cloud at night, which will not meerly eclipse, but extinguish their glory.

The Common People.

THe rude multitude is an untamed monster of many heads, locked up in the darksome dun­geon of ignorance and inconstancy, more in­fected with errors then Augeus stable was filled with ordure. Vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa aestimat. The com­mon people judge of all things as they ap­peare to them, not as they are in themselves; being led by the erring eyes of their clouded in­tellects, [Page] seduced by false opinions à vero, and di­verting their wils à bono. They play as did the fond Satyr, who espying the fire that Prometheus stole from heaven, would needs kisse it, because it glistered in his eyes. Like white clouds, or deawy exhalations, they are car­ried hither and thither, by every winde. Now they flow with honied salutations, placing you in the star-spangled Ca­nopy of heaven: Anon their gall overflows with bittter words, and railing accusations, kicking thee with contempt into Vul­cans Forge. The winde [Page] of giddinesse doth so possesse them, that an opi­on now received, is ex­pelled by cleane contrary Ideaea's of their seduced phantasies. Fluctu (que) ma­gis Sen. Trag. mobile vulgus. They ebbe and flow oftner then Euripus. As the childes love, so the peo­ples commendations got­ten and forgotten in an houre. It is better to bee praise-worthy, then to be praised by them, when they honour the worst and condemne the best; being in the estimation of wise men as the sense in respect of reason, bru­tish. Stultus honorem saepè dat indignis. Socrates in [Page] Plato suspected that ever­more to bee bad, which the vulgar extolled for good. And Pliny gave this rule in the Schoole, That he decla­med worst who was ap­plauded most. Their knowledge is opinions, and their wit is never to swim against the stream, nor set up saile against a­ny windy rumors; which makes them like Cy­clops, roaring without his eye, attempt things with great tumult and no judgement. Their inqui­sition doth never sound the depth of matters, but their judgement follows the sound of words. In [Page] their actions there is no harmony: for they are too flat or too sharpe, ad­mitting no mediocritie. Democracie is their am­bition; and as in the Ser­pent Amphisbaena to have the head at the taile, would bee a meere Anar­chy. Laertes-like they have more care of their rurall affaires then them­selves in the better parts of themselves their souls. Much like the fellow, who vowing to Mercury halfe of what hee found; finding Almonds, pre­sented onely the shelles upon the Altar. If they affoord God a shell in Religion, it is to get the [Page] kirnell themselves: As it is said of the Scythians, that they once smothered their Gods with earth, most of them seeme al­most to smother their godlinesse with their worldlinesse. They have drunke the Circean Cup of ignorance: And as Grillus being by the in­chantment of Circe, chan­ged into the forme of an Hog, refused to returne to the shape of a Man: so they being beasts by ig­norance, refuse to bee men by understanding. If they take head against a man, they run violently like a torrent, to over­throw him without law, [Page] reason or judgement: they exclaim against him, making such an uproare and obstreperous noyse, that the Frogs in Homer, (that with their noyse would not let the God­desse Pallas sleepe) croa­ked no lowder. I cannot but remember that o [...] E­picurus Ep. 29. ad Lucillum. in Seneca: Epi­curus dicebat, Se nunquam voluisse placere populo. Nam quae ego scio, inquit, non probat populus; quae probat populus, ego nescio. Epicurus sayd, hee would never please the people: for (saith hee) what I know, that Briar [...]us the multitude approve not: those things which win [Page] the peoples approbation, I know not. And wel [...] hee might so say: for a [...] Philo hath it: [...]. The vulgar so [...] will grow reproachfully mad against them tha [...] are not on their parts, an [...] so please them not i [...] their madnesse. Phocili [...] des joynes the commo [...] people with the wate [...] and fire in these words:

The common people, the water and the fire, are altogether unruly; being good servants, but ba [...] masters. Malè imperatu [...] cùm regit vulgus duces [Page] [...]aith Seneca in the Tra­gedy. It might well bee [...]n the Tragedy: for cer­ [...]aine I am, Democracie is Tragicall wheresoever it [...]s. The natures and dis­ [...]ositions of the common [...]eople are out-ragious [...]nd cruell, like unto them [...]hat inhabit the North, where the clymate is ve­ [...]y cold, as Seneca the Phi­ [...]osopher saith: In frigora Septentrionem (que) vergenti­ [...]us immansueta ingenia sunt, ut ait Poaeta,

A Flatterer.

A Flatterer is Prosperi­ties shadow, and a false glasse to Great­nesse, giving a false glosse to goodnesse. He hath as much respect unto rich fooles, as Heliotropium hath unto the Sunne, delighting to dance as Flies in the warm Sun of prosperity. As Orators sometimes faine another person to speake by the figure Antonomasia, either to avoid suspition of falshood, or the darts of envie: So the Flatterer faines many persons prai­sing his friend though he [Page] heares none, hee tels him he is the eye of the coun­trey, when indeed hee is the eye-sore: hee sleekes the itching Athenian like eares of his too cre­dulous Patrons, with a supple Di [...]lect, soothing them in any wicked inclination, playing as the unskilfull painter, who limbes deformities in rare colours, hee puts a faire title upon a foule act; with Su [...]ton [...] hisIn Dom [...] ­ [...]a [...] ▪ Crow this bird of prey proclaimes an Omne bene, P [...]rsiu [...] P [...]olo [...] ▪ Magister a [...]tis, [...] largitor ven [...]er; the belly, that Master of Art, and giver of wit, makes him [...]une his tongue to ano­thers [Page] eares, his sole song being Placebo, so long as he spins a golden thread on the voluble wheele of his pleasing tongue. Hîc laudes numerat, dum ille munerat: As gifts are multiplied upon him, hee multiplies his praises, which are onely in his Benefactors hearing, be­ing his reflection meerly before his face; Polipus▪ like he will change him­selfe into any colour for his owne advantage. As the Cameleon:

Hee can assume to him­selfe all colours, except red and white: red signi­fying Modesty, white in­nocencie. A fawning flatterer of all tame beasts, is the worst, as Diogenes once sayd, And as Antisthenes, it is better, [...], to bee exposed to Crowes then Parasites: for they devoure karkas­ses, these living men. As the Wolfe by tickling the Asse, devoures him; so this rationall Wolfe by tickling his Patron, who becomes his prey, with light delight, and arrident applauses, de­voures his substance in [Page] praising his quality. He honoreth not se but sua: he uses no more crouches and cringes to him, then were made to the Asse that carried the Aegypti­an Goddesse. Riches, not the man are his Idoll; and if hee devour them, as Acteons Dogges did him: he thinkes himselfe a cunning hunter, and compares the man to the proud Fly sitting on the Chariot wheele, which gave out, that it was shee which raised all that dust. These Wasps doe hover about the Gally­pot no longer then there is honey in it. The flat­terer will be your Mimi­call [Page] attendant, so long as you are his good Master, Hyaena-like hee will imi­tate your voyce in hope of a prey; like the Olym­pian Porch, he will eccho to your words seven times. Plato compares him to a Witch, which (if wee may beleeve Pli­ny) is true: for they which use witchcraft, kill in praising, wounding like thunder, the intrals, with­out any outward appea­rance. And as Antigonus once sayd, hee is worse then an open enemy: they who carry their eyes inPl [...]ta [...] a box, like the Ladies of the Fairy Lamiae, and only looke into themselves [Page] by the eyes of Syco­phants (that like Adje­ctives vary case and gen­der with their Substan­tives,) are overcast with worse then Cimmerian darknesse in their under­standings. The specta­cles of adulation, make the least letter of a great shew, and sometimes a cypher to be mistaken for a figure. Hee is rotten at Core, like a Sodome apple. Hee is of a bad course, & good discourse. Bonus videri, nonesse cu­pit. Hee is an apparent friend, but a reall foe: Of all such friends wee may say as Aristotle frequently sayd [...]. O [Page] friends, no friend. These friends run away as Mice from a decaying house; or like the Nightingall,Aelian. var. hist. l. 1. cap. 11. they are voyce and no­thing else, singing onely in the Summer. It was the Scythians proverb, Vbi amici, ibi opes; but now the proverb may be inverted, Vbi opes, ibi a­m [...]ci, where riches are, there these fained friends will be continually.

A Brain-sick Man.

A Brain-sicke man is one (divisus inse, & divisus ab omnibus aliis) whose speculative beams of knowledge both di­rect towards others, and reflected on himselfe, are very much darkned by the foggy mists of priva­tive and corruptive igno­rance. The optick nerves of his soule are so weak, that hee cannot discerne between white & blacke: hee would make a very bad painter: yet his brain is strangely si [...]ke of crot­chets, [Page] and toyish inventi­ons, Caecus amor sui doth so possesse him, that Pyg­malion like, hee falles in love with an Image of his owne carving; and being besides himselfe, hee be­comes an idle Idoll to himselfe. His onely joyes are in his owne toyes, like the Fisherman in Theocritus, who satisfied his hunger with dreames of gold: hee is full of complacencie, and affe­cted with singularity. He thinkes all Constitutions but Cyphers and visible nothing, if his consent be not the figure which makes the number. Hee beholds himselfe i [...] a [Page] multiplying glasse, and lookes upon others with a simple vision. Hee is the onely wise man in his owne conceit; and it is not the least part of his Rhetoricke to perswade others to deeme him so too. Hee wonders why all men doe not consult with him as an Oracle, it being his greatest ambi­tion to bee thought as well of others as hee is of himselfe. Hee is light­headed, and presumes so much of light, that if himselfe were set, our world would bee left without a Sunne, over­cast with worse then Aegyptian darknes, when [Page] indeed hee is but a Mote, or Glow-worme, shining in some obscure village. As one said of Molon the Dwarfe, [...], qu [...]ntillus quantus? How little is hee in himselfe, how great to himselfe? His braines are turned like the Fannes of a Winde-mill, and his tongue moves like a Clacke: The disquisiti­on of a palpable truth is his Logicke, himselfe be­ing the opponent, the answerer & the Modera­tor. Hee hath so little reason, that hee mootes the reason why snow should bee white, and not Jet. This Naturall, [Page] with all his Art cannot answer Natures Argu­ment herein: and there­fore with Anaxagoras, hee will hold the Snow to bee blacke; where­by hee becomes conti­nually opposed by the clouds which utter Ar­guments in abundance against him. Copernicus his opinion of the earths circular motion, makes his distempered and Moone-changing braine sicke of a Vertigo. Non­sense and errours are so individuated in him, that hee is as naked of rea­son, as an Adamite of cloathes. I beleeve hee hath been with Menip­pus [Page] as farre as the Moon, his talke savours so much of lunacie: [...] Aul. Gell▪ l. 1. c. 15. [...]. Bla­terare optimus, dicere in­eptissimus. Hee is best of all to babble, most un­apt to speake. The con­currence of ignorance and arrogance doth smo­ther the cleare light of his judgement, and cor­rupts his braine the pro­per orbe of the Sunne, Understanding: Where­by his heaven in earth, the Soule, is moved irre­gularly, opinion being the sole intelligence thereof: hee waxes and wanes an hundred times in a minute, as if hee had [Page] got in the change of the Moone. Meere contra­dictions and Chimaera's of a restlesse braine, are his Philosophy. His troubled brain, continu­tinually fooles him; and at last he is lost in a distracted dreame.

A Scandalous Scholar.

A Scandalous Scholar is an able wicked man, like Tullies Offices, politicke but prophane; witty, not wise. Hee is a meere Comaedian in Re­ligion, acting goodnesse in voyce and gesture on­ly, having all Theologi­call and morall vertues but in tearmes alone, as the Philosophers Materia prima. It may be sayd of him as was of Galba, In­genium Galbae, male ha­bitat, [Page] a good instrument is put into an evill case; good wine is put in a bad vessell. He is one where­in are drawne some lines and notes of able en­dowments; but being not actuated by the re­splendent beames of sa­ving grace: like a Sun­diall in a cloudy day, hee is unheeded, unregarded both of God who is an immortall man, and of man who is a mortall God: he is an Ignis fatuus, a Comet which portends delusion to others, con­fusion to himselfe. With Caius Gracchus he seemes to defend the Treasury, himselfe being the spoi­ler. [Page] A Scholar should be Densior pars sui orbis, a starre giving light to them that sit in darknesse, sicke of a fatall Lethar­gie, dispelling multitudes of opinions (which like black clouds arising from the Mare mortuum of lu­naticke braines, mist the intellectuall faculty, and like reverberated blasts, whirle about the spirits) being a Divine Hermes, occupied in the interpre­tation of those things which transcend com­mon capacity. If ever he intends to kill that Py­thon ignorance, like hea­vens great spy, the Sunne, he must shine forth in in­tegrity [Page] of life before all men, he must be nothing inferiour to Phoenix, who was the instructer of A­chilles, whom Pileus (as Hom [...] reporteth) did not chuse meerly to be to his son a teacher of learning, but an ensample of good living: great learning without good living, is but matter without form incompleat, indeterminat, nothing operative in goodnes: the preaching of life is made more forcible by the good life of the preacher, Citharisante Ab­bate tripudiant M [...]nachi. When the Abbot gives the musicke of a good example, the Monkes [Page] dance after him. The goodliest harmony is, when the Graces & Mu­ses meet together, when practice & preaching kisse each other. Else like a Cothon or Laconian cup hee gives water of life to others, and keeps the mud of mischiefe still in the bottome of his heart. And whiles hee strives by his preaching to cut off one head-strong sin, by his living (as Hercu­les by the Hydra's head) hee gives birth to two. Doctrine is the light, and a Religious life the Lant­horne, and the light without the Lanthorne, will be soone blown out [Page] by the winde of malice. Like a crackt Bell, this dissolute Preachers noise is heard farre enough; but the flaw which is noted in his life, marres his do­ctrine, and offends those eares which otherwise would take pleasure in his teaching. It is possi­ble that such a one, even by that discordous noyse may ring in others into the triumphant Church of heaven; but there is [...]. Hall. no remedy for himselfe, but the fire, whether for his reforming or judge­ment.

A Lawyer.

GOod Lawes were e­stablished to sup­ [...]resse all exorbitant and [...]centious enormities, and [...]o extoll and magnifie vertue and truth, building them so high in admira­ [...]on and honour, that (as [...]lomer in his swelling [...]tine of fabulous Poetry [...]ayd of the celestiall [...]nountaine Olympus: [...] [...]) their foun­dation may not bee sha­ [...]en with the winde of [...]alse witnesse, nor under­mined [Page] by the sowre­sweet waters of deceit. But alas! there is another Play acted, wherein Dame Lucre is the Pro­logue and the Epilogue. The Lawyer being agent and his Client Patient, according to that of our moderne Epigramma­tist.

A corrupt Lawyer with his [...] smooth tongue, and his eloquent speech, full of flourishes, like the first letter of a Patent, to better it, and himselfe by it, makes a bad cause seeme to be extra contro­versiae aleam, good with­out all doubt. Hee is a false glasse, which how­soever [Page] ill favored a man be, will shew a faire face▪ Thus with their fals [...] glasses and glosses they intangle the silly client, holding him fast in their nets, till they perceive [...] clean deplumation of al [...] his golden feathers. A poore client among the [...] is as a blind sheepe in [...] thicket of thornes, where hee is sure to lose his fleece, if not some of hi [...] flesh. Fallacy is the Lo­gicke they choppe with their Countrey attend­ants, altogether seducing them with the dark Lan­thorne of delusion. Thei [...] Logicke consists more i [...] Division then Definition [Page] discord is the musicke [...]hey are delighted with: where harmonious con­ [...]ent, love and concord is, [...] Lawyer can live no [...]ore in that place, then [...] spider in Ireland. Other [...]ens unquietnes is their quietnesse, it being their [...]appinesse to fish in trou­ [...]led waters, where if [...]hey catch not poore [...]ohn, they'l make him. Clients are so long waft­ [...]d in the sea of troubles [...]y their quirkes and de­ayes, that if they escape [...]rowning, they are sure [...]t last to land at Beggars Haven. Their word is [...]urrat L [...]x, let the Law [...]ave his course, but their [Page] will is to stop it. A moti­on this Tearme, an order next; instantly all cros­sed: one Tearme proves contradictory to ano­ther: the suit runnes on▪ sine termino, wherby each Tearme becomes woful [...] to the client, an Hilary t [...] Ignoramus the Lawyer. This makes a syllogism [...] so seldome in the mood [...] Festino, that he oftentime [...] makes his moane in Bo­cardo, the one by his Ses­sion taking away the o­thers possession. Demo sthenes was wont to cal [...] the Lawes, animam civi [...] tatis, the soule of a city or politicke body. An [...] Cyrus being demanded [Page] whom in his judgement he conceived to bee un­just, Lege inquit non uten­tes, they (saith he) who use not the Law. But now the case is otherwise; ma­ny that use the Law are most unjust: whom I may tax as Aristotle didLaert. lib. 5. the Athenians, They la­bour more to bee advan­ced to honour, and to a­bound with riches, then [...]o promote the candour and sincerity of the Law. They make the common and Canon Lawes, En­gines to take away our lands and titles, not to se­cure them. And as Solon once complained, they make them [...] [Page] [...], like Spiders webs, which every great Drone will break through at his pleasure, when the small Fly is intangled in them to his utter overthrow. Plato being earnestly be­sought of the Cyrenians to prescribe and compose Lawes to their Common wealth, refused, saying, Perdifficile est condere le­ges tam foelicibus: it is hard to establish Lawes to men so opulent and flourishing in so great prosperity. Money is the white these conscience'es Lawyers ayme at. Their Sunne which is full of motes shines not upon the rich and poore alike. [Page] If then no plummets but those of an unreasonable weight can set their mer­cenary tongues a going; and then a golden addi­tion can make the ham­mer strike to our pleasure; if they keep their mouths and their eares shut till their purses be full, and will not understand a cause till they feele it,

A Physitian.

A Physitian hath some affinity with the Lawyer; and although they act not the same part on this earthly Theater, yet gaine is communis terminus which con­nects them.

When men prevaile in strength of body, they consult with the lying Oracle the Lawyer who makes them wa [...]t so long attendance, and [...]o often [Page] explicate their wearied joints that hee makes them sicke; then they consult with as bad an Oracle, the Oracle of Apollo ( [...] I had al­most said) the Physitian, to recover their former health. Ones exit be­ing the others Intrat. The dignity of a Physi­tian is great, though sometimes base abjects in themselves, are the objects of his speculati­on, and the restauration of a frail habitation is the finis cujus of his pra­ctice. Christ is a Physi­tian both of soule and body: the body cannot be cured except the soul [Page] of the Physician doth prescribe a medicine, the soule of the Physitian cannot prescribe a reme­dy, except God who is the soule of his soule doth enlighten that di­vine part, no more then the lower orbes move without the primum mobile. Sabid King of Arabid, Sabor and Giges Kings of the Medes, Mithridates King of Po [...]tus, Dionysius, Tyr. Si [...]ulus, with many o­ther blazing stars in the worlds firmament, were professed Physitians.

The Poets faine Apollo to be [...]he first inventer of Physicke or Medicine:

And certainly many Physitians may bee cal­led by the name of Apol­lo, derived from [...] which signifies to perish (not onely formaliter but effective) for either they are such unskilf [...]ll Empericks, as Pliny spea­keth of, Qu [...] exper [...]men­ta per mortes gunt, which give men many poyso­nous pilles to gaine ex­perlence; and s [...] Offici­osiss me muitos occidunt, they are very busie to cast many men away with expedition, wan­ting [Page] skill: Or else wan­ting will to recover their patients, they let them lie languishing at Sicke­mans Hospitall under the burthen of a life worse then death.

Gaine is the center of most Physitians practice, bodies are the orbes which receive the influ­ence of these stars, whose nature it is to suffer a continuall eclipse with­out the often interpositi­on of earth. You must supple their hands with some unguentum rubrum or album, which is in your purse, or else they will hardly feele your pulse, but rather will ex­tinguish [Page] the lampe of your life then preserve it, and many times the bo­dy if it bee sicke is con­tent to buy unguentum aereum with unguentum aurcum, leaden trash with golden cash. Hee tells your disease in some hyperbolicall bombaste words, though it be but an ague or tooth ach, and his Rethoricke is to per­swade that you are des­perately sicke, almost ir­recoverable, that his gaine might bee greater, and his skill seem incom­parable.

Without action and passion the Physitian would scarce bee in the [Page] predicament of sub­stance: he drawes good out of evill, and when­soever he is in the voca­tive case, his patient must bee in the ablative. [...]. Who is this, a Physitian? Oh in what an ill case every Physitian would bee, if no man were in an ill case. Corruption is his conservation, and Adams fall was his rise. Phy­sicke includes sicke, They that are whole need not a Physitian. Thrice happy are they who are not necessitated to embrace such a wal­king [Page] consumption of the purse, who though by his art he prolongs your life, he will bee the At­tropos who shall cut off the golden thread of your livelihood, and so spinne a faire thread for himselfe.

I have read the Socrates never needed a Physiti­an, Pomponius a Poet of noble Progeny, was so sound that he never bel­ched: Anthonia the wife of Drusus never spit: If all were so, D [...]t Galenus opes were false. Nico­cles would have wanted an occasion to call Phy­sitians happy (because their good successe the [Page] Sunne beholds, and their errors the earth buries in obscurity) if there were no objects to worke on, for then like empty sto­macks, they will worke upon themselves. Who­soever keepes a good di­ [...]et using Vel modico me­d [...]cè vel medico modicè is a Physitian to himselfe, and needs not worship. Aesculapius who is ado­redOvid de Ponto. in a serpentine form, but if (ad medicam confugit aeger opem) any man bee constrained to fly to the Physitian, let him use none but such as are skilfull (and so able to give a reason for a re­medy, if with Aristotle [Page] thou dost aske them) andAelian l. 9 c. 23. var. hist. conscionable conside­ring presentem que refert qualibet herba Deum, e­very herb which they use is a dumbe lecture of a present deity.

A good woman.

A Good woman is a rare Phoenix, a chast Turtle, and an indulgent Pelican: shee is Vertues morall Looking-glasse, and desires to excell in vertue, not in vesture. The Vestall fire of cha­stity continually burnes on the hallowed Altar of her heart: such a b [...]sh­full heat at severall tides ebbes and flowes; flows and ebbes againe in her modest face, as if it were afraid to meet the wilder flames of some unchaste [Page] Gallants. Her lips are never guilty of a wanton smile; not one lascivious glance doth dart from her eye; her cariage is sober, free from all toy­ish gestures, and her dis­course is a morall lecture of chastity. No man (though hee bee past all expression comely, being adorned with fine haire, amorous browes, pretty lovely eyes, most delici­ous cheeks, an handsome nose, Nectar-sweet lips, teeth like two faire ivory pales, inclosing a tongue made up of harmony) is able to make her lose the Virgin-zone without the nuptiall knot; and there [Page] the conjunction of this milder Starre will tem­per the malignant force of any man, though he be like cruel Mars, carying a storm in his countenance, and a tempest in his tongue. God who reads the secret characters of her heart, findes no other image graven in her soule besides her husband. The Sun shall sooner change his course, and finde new paths to drive his chariot in: the Loadstone shall leave his faith unto the North, sooner then shee will leave hers to her husband. She is beyond all jealousie immaculate. She is no personage that [Page] had other Incumbents. She hath power enough to conquer them who have learned the military discipline of wooing, and are recorded in Cupids Annals for great exploits: though they can ranke and file their kisses, and muster their troupes of complements, shee will not yeeld unto them be­yond the precise rules of honesty; neither is shee affected with such a proud squeamish coy­nesse, as to deny any ho­nest man free leave to sa­crifice a kisse upon her ruby lips. If her husband goe to the Elysian fields before her, she embalmes [Page] him with her teares, and keepes the sparkes of a love alive in his ashes. That man is happy that maries her, he may blesse that minute wherein hee met her, and may de­sire Time to sancti­fie it above all his Calendar.

A proud woman.

A Proud woman is Eves sinfull daugh­ter, beguiled in fooles paradise, with the Adde [...] arrogance. If shee b [...] rich there is nothing more intollerable, as the Poet, Intelerabilius nihi [...] Juven. Sat. 6. est quam faemina dives. Insolent pride doth so possesse her, that she de­lights to be an Ape tric­ked up in gorgeous ap­parrell which must be unmended but not un­commended. As the Stoicks placed felicity in [Page] the inward habit of ver­tue, so shee in the out­ward habit of vesture, [...]ounting it her summum bonum to excell therein, witnesse the Mercers, Silke-men, Tire-women, and all other professions, whose Tutelar goddesse is pride, the monopoll of mischiefe. As it is said of Italy, Novitate qua­dam nihil habet stabile, she is so mutable that she hath nothing stable, shee shifts her attire so often, that her husband cannot shift himselfe out of the Tradesmens bookes. Through her monstrous pride hee is constrai­ned to turne hospitality [Page] into a dumbe shew, whereby the soule of charity is transmigrated into the body of brave­ry. Pride beginnes with habe [...], but ends with de­beo, and sometimes makes good every syllable gra­datim▪ Debeo, I owe more then I am able to pay. Be [...], I blesse my selfe from my creditors. E [...], I betake me to my heels. A woman which is stung with that insinuating ser­pent pride, leanes conti­nually on idlenesse the Divells cushion, spending her dayes in vanity; shee spends many an houre betweene the combe and the looking-glasse that [Page] [...]eers her before her face, crisping and curling that [...]oor excretion her haire, [...]nd sitting as moderator [...]etweene them both, and whether concludes best on her beauty is best [...]raised: All the morning [...]he spends in dilling and [...]ecking her body, and [...]tarving her soule, shee [...]ever goes to Church [...]hrough devotion, but to [...]ee and to be seene, and [...]hough she be lip-holy, [...]he is heart-hollow, shee [...]ikes standing at the Creed, not because the Church commands it, [...]ut because her gay [...]loathes are more spe­ [...]table; shee will laugh [Page] there of purpose with Egnatius, to shew her white teeth. The ayre of her pride is commonly inclosed in the base bub­ble attire, whose genera­tion is produced from her owne corruption. God hath made her a woman out of man, bringing woe to man: yet she thinks her selfe not a perfect woman except the Taylor (scarce a man himselfe) whose o­riginall was sinne, make her a brave gallant wo­man. Shee is never the greater part of her selfe, but the least. Like the bird of Paradise, her fea­thers are more worth then her body. Whoso­ever paints this constant­ly [Page] inconstant Woman, must paint her with a paire of sheeres in one hand, and a piece of cloth in the other, ready for a­ny new fashion: she coun­terfeits the great seale of Nature, and walkes with an artificiall complexion, being no better then a walking Painters shop. Our women are so poin­ted and painted, that whereas heretofore there were two feces under one hood, now there is one face under two hoods; and the colour for their painting is, that they may be daughters of ad­miration, and so they are for their folly. Optickes [Page] is this womans science, the next new-fangled fa­shion, and the reflexion of her face, terminates her sight, and is the scope of her study & discourse. Because sweet smels are dedicated to Venus, she is never without them. N [...]n bene olet quae bene semper olet: shee smels not well, which alwaies smels wel: for shee which breathes perfumes artificially, hat [...] corrupted lungs natural­le. Shee that weares al­wayes gaudy cloths, may nourish the French Cani­ball. Foemina cultanimis foemina casta minus. Too slender chastity still ac­companies too gaudy [Page] bravery. The Poets fai­ned Venus to commit a­dultery in golden chains. Lewis the eleventh was wont to say, when pride was on her saddle, shame and confusion was on the crupper. This pestilent vapour pride must vanish, or else women with their top-gallant head-attires, cannot stoop low enough to enter into the nar­row low gate of heaven.

A prodigall man.

A Prodigall man is most commonly the son of a covetous wretch, who sate brooding upon his bagges, and onely knew the care, but not the use of gold. It is the wealthy beggery of thri­ving and griping fathers, that makes the hands of sonnes so open. The fa­ther becomes a Mole and sonne of earth, that digges his mothers intrals to turne up treasure for his prodigall sonne, and with industrious eyes he [Page] searches to hell, to buy his sonne heaven upon earth. When wealth like a torrent overthrowes the banke, as it would threat a deluge; this swaggering spendthrift (who by mo­rall Alchymie is extra­cted a Gentleman almost out of the dunghill) in­vents sluces enow to draine the copious stream thereof. He will bid his pockets not bee sad, for though they are heavie now, they shall be soone lighter. Hee will sweare never to weare any thing that jingles besides his spurres. As the Earth swallowed Amphiaraus, so he swallows the earth, [Page] and makes his purse sicke of a consumption not to be recovered. The pro­digallArist. l. 4. Ethic. c. 1. man is one that ex­ceeds in giving moneys. He is better then the co­vetous man, who exceeds in receiving; because prodigality comes nea­rest to liberality. For they are liberall which give and receive, nothing ex­ceeding the golden me­diocrity. But liberality leans more towards them that give, then them that receive; for they that receive (saith Aristotle)Ibid. are not praise-worthy at all. The vertue which consists in a Geometrical mediocrity in all things [Page] is best: according to the Poet,

The prodigal man thinks it a disparagement to his nature to observe any golden meane: for hee thinkes it the best morall Philosophy to spend his gold and meanes; and that he may be the better proficient in this Art of spending, hee gets the e­lective habit of chusing such brave companions, that like skilfull Pilots will steere both him and his estate into safe har­bour. Therefore I may say to him as Martial doth unto Cinna,

He being afraid lest he should leave any thing after death, will bee sure with Demetrius the sonne of Antigonus, to spendPlut. his patrimony in riot, lu­xurie, and all extravagant enormities. Hee would dispeople al the elements to please his palate. Mid­night shall behold his nightly cups and weare a blacker maske, as envious of his jollity. He wil cast his love upon such dan­gerous rockes as harlots, [Page] to satisfie his liquorish lusts▪ He will ever be a devout sacrificer to Bac­chus and Venus. He dyes commonly as Anacreon did, with a grape in his throat. If it were true as the Philosopher sayes, [...], Quod nutrit Deus est, that which nou­rishes is a god: how ma­ny gods doth this man devour? and yet becomes more ungodly thereby. When this profuse spen­der dyes, he will be sure to have Tigellius hisAmbuba­jarū Col­legia, &c. Horat. l. 1. Ser. Sac. 2. mourners to sigh out ele­gies at his death, and to sing dirges at his funerall.

Truth.

TRuth is defined in Metaphysicks, a con­formity of the thing and the understanding. In L [...] ­gicke it is a correspon­dence of propositions with things. In a morall acception it is an Homi­liticall vertue, wherein we professe that in word and deed which we con­ceive in our hearts to bee true. Hence it is one thing mentiri and another thing mendacium dicere. He is said to lye and faine, which speaks that against [Page] his conscience which perhaps otherwise is true in it selfe, this is false E­thice but not alwayes Lo­gicè. Hee is said to tell a lye, who speakes that which hee thinkes true when it is false in it selfe. This is false Logicè but not Ethicè. It is in the minde as in subjecto cog­nitivo, in the mouth as in signo repraesentativo. The minde knowes, the mouth manifests. Veri­ly as Mirandula spake, Veritatem Philosophia quaerit, Theologia inve­nit, Religio possidet. Phi­losophy seeks Truth, Di­vinity findes it, Religion possesses it. Truth it [Page] is called [...], in Plato fair, kisse it therefore and ever embrace it, making it thy soules sole intelli­gence.

The Roman Pretor wont alwayes to weare the image of Truth upon his brest, and the true Christian weares it still in scrinio pectoris sui, inEgyptii veritatem ex huma­no corde gutturi appenso [...] in dicabant Pier. Val. the closet of his heart. The Poets ingeniously devise, that when Iupiter had created man (who is virtually [...], or an Index to Gods great booke in folio) finde fault, Momus told him that one thing hee greatly misliked, which was, that hee had forgot [Page] to frame a window in his breast, whereby it might be knowne whether the motions of his tongue were concentricke to his heart.

Truth is alwayes one and the same thing in her selfe, though in the ap­prehension of others she lies sicke ready to dye without a confessor; shee doth not like the Cha­meleonChamae­leon prae metu co­lores mu­tat. Ges­nerus. put on divers co­lours, for no palsey fears assault her, she seekes no corners, but may looke Caesar in the face, when falshood dares looke no man, but like the Owle hates the light, settingEuripi­de [...]. light by Truth. [...] [Page] [...] The night is the theeves, and the day Truthes, though sometimes shee loses it. Truth is a fixed starre not a planet, and all people love it lucen­tem not reaarguentem, light is good, but yet to sore eyes very offen­sive; hony though sweet, is to wounds smarting: Truth is alwayes whole­some, but to most di­stasteful; as they write of some beasts who have fel in aure, the gall in the eare, the hearing of Truth galls them, no­thing being more bitter to them, and better for them. Sweet Syren [Page] sounds is the harmony whereof their souls con­sist, they stomacke truth and the rough phrase of reproofe, but their stomackes can digest smooth fables and con­coct errors.

Sharpe biting Satyrs of reprehension offend delicate eares. It was Agathons Dilemma, if I please thee I shall not tell the truth, and if I tell the truth I shall not please thee, but procure enmi­ty, Veritas odium parit: Ter. [Page] As the beautifull Nymphs are said to have brought forth the ill fa­voured Fawnes and Sa­tyrs; so beautifull and glorious truth brings forth hatred, enmity and many foule deformities. Aliena vitia quisque re­prehendi Quintili­an. l. 2. Orat. c. 5. mavult quam sua▪ Every man had ra­ther other mens vices were reproved then his owne. Truth like that bloudy water sweet and potable to the Hebrwes, saith Iosephus, but sowre and not potable with the Egyptians. Truth in the universall, subratione ve­ri is hated of none, but in the particular, sub ra­tione [Page] contrarii, so it is u­sually hated of all. The bright rayes of this Sun that never setteth, refle­cting on a wise man who hath learned that heaven­ly precept, [...], illuminate his understan­ding with a greater light of wisedome: but in the breast of fooles they kin­dle a fire of ire and enmi­ty. Quint [...]lian gave Ve­spasian this commenda­tion, Patientissimus veri, which few men in these dayes deserve, being so bad; for as the Poet,

[Page] good men are so rare, that they are scarce so many in number as the gates of Thebes, or mouthes of rich Nilus, which were but seven. Ep [...]minondas a Theban was so severe and strict a lover of truth, Vt ne joco quidem menti­tus Alex. ab Alex. sit: that he abhorred a lye even in jest. I would have all men put on this armour of proofe, and then they need not feare wounding. Truth (like Medusa's head) will turne their adversaries into stones: and againe, like Orpheus his pipe, it moves the stones, and gives life unto the dead. Let this glorious light then, which [Page] [...]hines brightest between [...]wo clouds, Malice, Er­ [...]our, be thy Cynosura and [...]oad-starre, to guide thy [...]oul the mother of truth, [...]nd thy tongue the Mid­wife.

An Invective against ignorant Mecha­nickes who presume to prate in Chur­ches and Conven­ticles.

HOW now? goodman cobler, have I carch [...] you stitching together the Ends of tub sermons, to the end your hollow­nesse might sound forth an alarum to the supposed Saints of God who wear Christs colours, but fight under the Devils banner? [Page] Doe you deeme your self and your ignorant adhe­rents to be all in Aule, and to be the Sole Elect at the Last? Be not deecived, God is not mocked. Are you so light-headed as to thinke your selfe a light of the Church, and the onely starre which points the way to Christ? Cer­taine I am, if there were no brighter starres, and more shining lights in this heaven upon earth, our Church now truly mili­ [...]ant, then thou art, wee should all walke in dark­nesse, and in the shadow of death: we should soon suffer shipwracke on the [...]raggy clists of utter per­dition, [Page] in the Euxine sea of ignorance, if we should be as Load-stones turn­ing to you as our Pole­starre: if you will bee a Starre, you shall bee a Dogge-starre, whose in­fluence is so bad, that it hinders the purgation of any malignant humours, and begets more. If I must grant you some light, you are at the best but an Ignis fatuus of blinde zeale, seduced your selfe, and seducing others. You are indeed but a noysome vapour e­levated above your selfe, so that all the world may thinke you to bee as you are, besides your selfe. [Page] You are a worse plague unto our Land, then ever was any thing unto Ae­gypt, and therefore I will say with the Poet,

You are the very Hy­dra of our ills, and you doe endeavour to make this Land Lernam malo­rum, a filthy sinke of all evils; therefore you de­serve to sinke and not swim. The Church of God is an Arke, and you are one of the uncleane beasts in it. O touch not the Church with your unhallowed and foule hands. Atlas is the pil­lar of the Poets Empy­reall [Page] Palace. A childe must not take Atlas his burden upon his owne shoulders, for then hee will be sure to fall under it. Neither should you take the weigh [...]y calling of the Ministery upon you, being not called thereunto. You being un­learned ought to reach none. If you offer to lead the learned, your attempt is as much as if the blind should presume to lead him that can see: if you endeavor to lead the un­learned into the way of truth, it is as much as if the blind should offer to lead the blind, & thē the con­sequent will be, you will [Page] both fall into the ditch together. Therefore I will say unto you, as Saint Paul unto women; You are not to speake in the Church. You by your pernicious aire and fecu­lent doctrines strive to defile the silver streames of learning, and to poy­son the pure fountaine of truth and sound religion.

Your Commentaries upon the sacred Bible, are like to an handfull of filthy ordure fetcht from Augaeus Stable, and cast in the face of beauties fairest table; yet you would faine bee called Seer though you are most blinde, for to bee [Page] ignorant of ones igno­rance is a double blinde­nesse.

Are you so well read in the booke of life, as that you can like a Boa­narges, or sonne of thun­der, denounce damnati­on to those that are not of your blinde Sect: And like a Barnabas, or sonne of consolation, can you promise absolution to your selves? You are not skild I am sure in di­vlne Astrolabe, neither can you take with the Iacobs staffe of your pre­tended purity, the height of any sta [...]e in the fir­mament of Grace, you are not able to knocke [Page] downe one starre and place another. You and all of your mad Sect are seedsters of schisme and debate: You raile a­gainst the Common­prayer Booke, because it was used and abused in the time of Popery; you may as well acknow­ledge Christ not to bee the Sonne of the living God, because the Divell said it; and because the Papists weare cloathes, you may if you will goe naked, and then you will be as naked of cloathes as of reason. As the Chinois whippe their gods if they displease them, so you whip any [Page] godly men, wounding them with your tongues which have poyson of aspes under them. Though a Bishop bee a lamp of our land, a pil­lar of the Church ere­cted by divine hand, and a Trophey built unto al [...] the vertues, yet if any word of his be an apage to you, and the cogitati­ons of his heart bee ex­centricke to yours (yours being excentricke to the holy Scripture) you cry downe with him downe with him even to the ground. This is your blindenesse; like the foo­lish blinde Beldam Har­pastes in Seneca, you im­pute [Page] your blindenesse wherewith you are over­cast, unto the place where you are and not unto your selfe. The light of the Gospel was never clearer in England then now it is: But now [...] constrained to con­fesse, the clearer the light is, the blinder are the Owles. I would to God there were an or­der taken with all Green teachers that steppe into the Pulpit without or­der, being never ripened by the resplendent [...]eames of saving know­ [...]edge to perfection. If I have too much vinegar [...]n my inke, or if rude [Page] phrase hath defiled and defaced my stile with barbarisme,

Pray pardon me, for in this argument

To bee Barbarian is most eloquent.