A LINE OF LIFE. Pointing at the Immortality of a Virtuous NAME.  
Printed by W. S. for N. Butter, and are to be sold at his shop near Saint A●stens gate. 1620.   

WISE, and therein NOBLE.  
AMbition being sooner discovered by acting then plotting, can rarely personate practice in study, unless the Arts themselves, which in themselves are liberal, should 〈◊〉 too curiously censured, too inquisitively confined. It is an easy vanity, in these days of liberty, to be a conceited Interpreter, but a difficult commendation to be a serious Author: for whatsoever is at all times honestly intended, oftentimes is too largely construed. General collections meet (not seldom) with particular applications, and those so dangerous, that it is more safe more wis● to profess a free silence, than a necessary industry. Here in this (scarce an) handful of discourse, is deciphered, not what any personally is, but what any personally may be: to the intent, that by the view of others wounds, we might provide plasters and cures for our own, if occasion impose them. It is true, that all men are not borne in one, the same, or the like purity of quality or condition; for in some, Custom is so become another Nature, that Reason, is not the mistress, but the servant, not the directress but the foil to their passions. Folly is a sale-able merchandise, whose factor, youth is not so allowedly professed in young men, as pleasure in men of any age: yet are the ruins, the calamities, the woeful experiences of sundry precedents and samplars of indiscretion and weakness (even in noted, and sometimes in great ones) so apparent, so daily, that no Antidote against the infection, disease, leprosy of so increasing an evil can be reputed superfluous. For my part, I ingeniously acknowledge, that hitherto (how ever the course hath proved a bar to my thrift, yet) I never fawned upon any man's Fortunes, whose person and merit I preferred not. Neither hath any courtship of applause, set me in a higher strain, a higher pinnacle of opinion, than severest Approbation might make warrantable. Howbeit even in these few lines that follow, my aim hath not been so grossly leveled, that I meant to choose every Reader for my Patron: considering that none can challenge any interest herein from me (unless he challenge it by way of an usurped impropriation) whom I myself do not out of some certain knowledge and allowance of Desert, as it were point out and at, with my finger, and confess that Hic est, it is this one and only. By which mark, I can deny no man (not guilty to himself of a selfe-unworthinesse) to call it his own: at least, none of those, who freely return the defects to their proper owner, and the benefit (if any may be) of this little work to their own use and themselves. So much it is to be presumed, the very taliarie Law may require and obtain. In all things, no one thing can more requisitely be observed to be practised, than The Golden Mean: The exemplification whereof, however heretofore attributed, I dare not so poorly undervalue myself and labours, as not to call mine. But if I should farther exceed, I might exceed that mean, which I have endeavoured to commend. Let him that is wise, and therein noble, assume properly to himself this interest, that I cannot distrust the successful acceptation, where the sacrifice is a thrifty love; the Patron a great man good (for to be truly good is to be great) And the Presenter, a feodary to such as are masters not more of their own Fortunes then their own affections.   
Aestatis occasum hau●d aegre tulit unquám Temperata Hiems. IO. FORD.  

LINEA VITAE: A Line of Life.  
TO live, and to live well, are distinct in themselues, so peculiarly as is the ACTOR and the ACTION. All men covet the former, as if it were the total and sovereign felicity of a humane condition: And some few pursue the latter, because it gives an eternity to their blessedness. The difference between those: two is, Life desired for the only benefit of living, fears to dye, for such men that so live, when they die, both die finally & dye all: But a good Life aims at another mark; for such men as endeavour to live well, live with an expectation of death, and they when they die, die to live, and live for ever. In this respect hath death (being the parting of a precious Guest from a ruinous Inn, the soul ●rom the body) been ●y the Ancients, styled a Haven of safety, a finishing of Pilgrimages, ● resting from travail, ● passage to glory. Every man that most shuns ●t (and he most shuns ●t that most fears it) ●unnes notwithstanding wilfully to meet it, even ●hen posting to it, when ●ee abhors it: for (the comparison is lively & remarkable) as he who in a Ship, directs his course to some Port; whether he stand, walk, revel, sleep, lie down, or any way else dispose himself, is notwithstanding always driven on to the period of his voyage: So in this Ship of our mortality, howsoever we limit our courses, or are suited in any fortune of prosperity or lowness, in this great Sea of the World; yet by the violence and perpetual motion of time, are we compelled to pace onward to the last and long home of our graves, and then the victory of Life is concluded in the victory of our ends.  
It is granted in Philosophy, 
Arist. in 1. Ethic. l. Cicer. in off.  that Action is the Crown of Virtue. It cannot in reason (the light of Philosophy) be denied, that perseverance is the Crown of Action: and then Divinity the Queen of Nature will confirm, that sufferance is the Crown of perseverance. For to be virtuous without the testimony of employment, is as a rich Mineral in the heart of the Earth, un-useful because unknown; yet to be virtuously employed, and not to continue, is like a swift runner for a Prize, who can with ease gain it from others, but slothfully sitteth down in the middle way; but to persevere in well-doing without a sense of a duty, only with hope of reward, is like an Indian Dromedary, that gallops to his common Inn, pricked onwards with the desire of Provender. It is beastlike not to differ from beasts, aswell in the abuse of reason, as it would be in the defect.  
ACTION, PERSEVERANCE IN ACTION, SUFFERANCE IN PERSEVERANCE, are the three golden links that furnish up the richest Chain wherewith a good man can be adorned; They are a tripartite counterpane, whereby we hold the possession of life, whose Charter or Poll Deed (as they term it) are youth till twenty, manhood till forty, old age till our end. And he who begins not in the spring of his minority to bud forth fruits of virtuous hopes, or hopeful deserts, which may ripen in the Summer of confirmed manhood; rarely or never yields the crop of a plentiful memory in his age, but prevents the winter of his last hour, in the barren Autumn of his worst hour, by making an even reckoning with time misspent, dying without any Issue to inherit his remembrance or commendation.  
here is then a preparation made to the groundwork & foundation whereon the structure and fair building of a mind nobly furnished must stand: which for the perpetuity and glory of so lasting a monument, cannot altogether unfitly be applied to a LINE OF LIFE. For whosoever shall level & square his whole course by this just proportion, shall (as by a ●ine) be led not only to unwind himself from out the Labyrinth and Maze of this natural & troublesome Race of frailty, but to fly up in the middle path, the via lactea of immortality in his name on Earth, to the Throne of life, and perfection in his whole man, and to an immortality that cannot be changed.  
Deceiving and deceivable Palmisters, who will undertake by the view of the hand, to be as expert in foretelling the course of life to come to others, as they are ignorant of their own in themselves, have framed and found out three chief lines in the hand, whereby to divine future events; The line of life, The middle natural line, and the table ●ine. According to the fresh colour or paleness, length or shortness, breadth or narrowness, straightness or obliquity, continuance or intermission of either of these, ●hey presume to censure ●he manners, the infirmities, the qualities, the very power of Life or Death of the person. But the line of life is the eminent mark they must be directed by, to the perfection of their Masterpiece. All which, are as far from truth as wonder; only it is true and wonderful, that any ignorance can be so deluded. Another line of life is the most certain and infallible rule, which we as we are men, and more than men; Christians, & more than Christians, the image of our maker; must take our level by. Neither is judgement to be given by the ordinary lineaments of the furniture of Nature, but by the noble endowments of the mind, whose ornaments or ruins are then most apparently goodly or miserable, when as the actions we do, are the evidences of a primitive purity; or a derivative depravation. Here is a great labour to endure, a great strength in that labour to conquer, a great Resolution in that strength to triumph, requisite, before we can climb the almost impregnable and inaccessible top of glory; which they that have attempted have found, & they that have found have enjoyed to their own happiness and wonder of imitation.  
RESOLUTION is the plotter and the Actor, nay, it is both the plot and the Act itself that must prompt us how to do, aswell as it must point us out what to do before we can as much as take into the hands of our purposed constancy, this line which must direct us to life, & make us to live.  
Whatsoever therefore in those brief ensuing collections is inserted, to pattern and personate an excellent man, must be concluded and understood for methods sake in this one only attribute, RESOLUTION. For by it are exemplified the perfections of the mind, consisting in the whole furniture of an enriched soul; and to it are referred the noblest actions, which are the external arguments and proofs of the treasure within: For as it is a State Maxim in Policy, that Force abroad in War is of no force, but rather Rashness then soldiery, unless there be counsel peaceably at home to direct for expedition: so are all actions of Resolution in the Oeconomie and household government of a man's own particular private wealth, but shining follies, unless there be a consultation first held within him for determining the commodity, the conveniency and commendation of such actions, aswell in doing, as when they are done.  
Order in every task is for conceit easiest, for demonstration plainest, for Imitation surest. Let us then take ●nto our consideration ●his Line of Life, and trace the way wherein we are to travail, keeping our eye on the Compass whereby we may run to the Paradise of memorable happiness. And first it is to be observed, That Resolution hath three branches; The one concerns a man's own particular person for the carriage of himself in his proper duty, and such an one is known by none other ●ote, then in being A MAN: Another concerns a man's employment in affairs for his Country, Prince, and Commonwealth, and such a one as is known by the general name of A PUBLIC MAN. The last concerns a man's voluntary traffic in civil causes without the imposition of authority, only urged on to perform the offices of a friend, as a private Statist to several ends, all tending to goodness and virtue; and such a one is ever to be called a GOOD MAN. In every one of those there is a plentiful employment presenting itself to the liberal choice for ennobling themselves with public honours, or gaining them the truest honour A deserved fame, which is one (if worthy) of the best and highest rewards of virtue.  
Superfluous it were and unnecessary, 
Of the first, a man.  to enter into the contentious lists of divided Philosophers, or unreconciled Schoolmen, for the absolute and punctual definition of man; Since, it sufficeth us to be assured that he is mainly and yet pithily distinguished from all other created substances in the only possession of a reasonable soul. This royal prerogative alone points him to be noblest of creatures; and to speak truth, in an assertion not to be gainsaid, he contains the summary of all the great world, in the little world of himself. As then the Fabric of the globe of the earth would of necessity run to the confusion out of which it was first refined, if there were not a great and watchful providence, to measure it in the just balance of preserving and sustaining; so consequently, without question, the frame of our humane composition, must preposterously sink under its own burden, if wary and prudent direction, as well in manners as in deeds, restrain it not from the dissolution and wrack, the proclivity of corrupted Nature doth hourly slide into.  
A man's mind is the 
Cicero Arist.  man himself (said the Roman Orator) and the chiefest of the Grecian Naturalists, was confident to aver, that the temperature of the mind followed the temperature of the body. It were a Lesson worthy to be con, if either of those rules may be positively received: For out of the first, as any man feels his inclinations and affections, thereafter let him judge himself to be such a man. Out of the latter it may be gathered, how easy it were, for every man to be his own Schoolmaster, in the conformation or reformation of his life, without other tutor then himself.  
Socrates' his speech of the use of mirrors or looking glasses, concludes whatsoever can be ranged in many words of this subject, and is therefore notoriously useful, and usefully notable; When thou viewest thyself in a mirror, (said that wise man) surueyest thy complexion, thy proportion, if thy face be more fair, lovely, and sweeter than others, thy body straighter, thy lineaments perfecter; consider how much more thou art bound by that, to match those blessings of Nature, with the accomplishment of more noble qualities, than others of a courser mould. If on the other side, thou perceive thy face deformed, thy body crooked, thy outward constitution unsightly or mishapen; by so much the more hast thou reason to live a good life, that thereby concord of virtuous conditions may supply the defects of Nature, and make thee more beautiful inwardly to the eye of judgement, then outwardly thou couldst have been to the eyes of popular delight.  
In short, to be a man, the first branch of resolution is to know, feel, and moderate affections, which like traitors, and disturbers of peace, rise up to alter & quite change the Laws of reason, by working in the feeble, and oftentimes the sounder parts, an innovation of folly. He can seldom be a flourishing member of a body politic, and so a public deserving man; but more rarely, scantly ever, a reconciler of divisions, and so a civil good man for others, that begins not betimes to discharge his own duty to himself. The old Proverb was, (and it is lamentable, to speak with truth, and say it is) that A man is a beast to a man; 
Homo homini lupus.  but it must be of necessity granted, when a man to himself is a Monster, or more proverbially, a Devil.  
It is said of CAIUS CURIO, 
Villeius Pat●r●. lib. 2.  that he was a man most wittily wicked, and most singularly eloquent in mischief against the Commonwealth. What rarities were here loft? (like a Diamond set in a rushed ring:) How much better had it been for him, to have had a duller brain, if better employed, and a slower tongue, if available for the public good? Every man should in his own person, endeavour and strive to be like Cato's Orator, a goodman, and expert in pleading, 
Fabius, orat. lib. 12. cap. 1.  First good, then expert; For of so much richer price is virtue then Art. Art without virtue being like the Cantharideses, 
Plin. lib. 11. cap. 35.  whose wings pulled off, they have pretty colours to please the eye, but poisonous substances to be received into the stomach. How easy it is to gild a rotten post, to paint a Sepulchre, to varnish an ill meaning, is soon resolved: Many men can speak well, few men will do well; The reason, for that we covet to be thought what we are not, and yet continue to be what we are ashamed to be thought. The excellency of goodness is apparent mainly in this one point, that even those who least practise it in outward appearance, cunningly labour to make it the mark whereto all their actions (how foul soever in the issue) level at. It was truly observed by a grave Author, That there was never any public mischief attempted in a State by even Atheists, or very incarnate Devils, but Religion was their colour to effect it; at least a show of some false zeal in as false a worship. For there must be an intention of virtue in the worst actions, otherwise they could never have passage by any public approbation; Insomuch, that hypocrisy is reputed the surest & the safest ground of policy.  
By this appeareth the richness of virtue, that even such as most oppose it, must and are compelled to acknowledge it for best. In like manner, every man in his particular to distinguish his actions, is in his knowledge guilty and conscious of what he doth or should do. We were not borne to feed, sleep, and spin out our web of life in the delicate softness of vanity, or sloth; we were not borne to traffic in follies, and to make merchandise of our sensualities; we were not borne to revel in the apishness of ridiculous expense of time; we were not borne to be Panders to to that great Whore of a declining Reason, bewitching pleasure: we were not borne to laugh at our own security, but to bewail it; we were not borne to live for ourselves, but to ourselves; as we were not on the other side borne to dye to ourselves, but for ourselves. We must learn to rejoice in true goodness, not vain delights: For as we cannot judge him to have a light heart always, that sometimes laughs (for even in laughter there is a sadness,) so we must not imitate by any outward demeanour, to bewray the minority of our Resolution, except we would be as childish in understanding as in action.  
What infinite inticers hath a man as he is a mere man, to withdraw him from an erected heart? As the temptation of a reputed beauty, the invitement of a presented honour, the bewitching of an enforced wealth, the Lethargy and disease of an infectious Court-grace; yet all and every one of these (with what other appendances soever belonging unto them) are (if not wisely made use of) but glorious snares, dangerous baits, golden poisons, dreaming destructions, snares to entrap the mightiness of constancy; Baits to deceive the constancy of manhood, poisons to corrupt the manhood of Resolution; destruction to quite cast away the Resolution of a just desert.  
Now for a man's carriage in his particular duty, what can he determine of, since he hath not more himself, and his own affections to assault and batter his Resolution in the path of Virtue, than a world of precedents, of partners, of helpers, to persuade and draw him on to the full measure of an unworthy life. It is a labour well worthy a Chronicle (and chronicled will be in a perpetual memory) to withstand the severe assault of Folly, pressing on with so infinite an Army of followers and admirers as she is accompanied with: what can one private man do against such a multitude of temptations? Either he must consent to do as they do; or descent and hate them: if consent, he is mischievous with many; if dissent, virtuous by himself; and the last is without controversy the best. Since never to have seen evil is no praise to well doing; but where the Actors of Mischief are a Nation, there and amongst them to live well is a Crown of immortal commendation.  
A Golden Axiom there was registered amongst the Civilians in the days of justinian: That it was not convenient for any man to pry and look after what was done at Rome, but to examine justly what ought there to be done. Rome was then the Mart of the World, all sorts of every people came thither, from thence to receive the Oracles of life (as they might be termed:) yet doth it not follow that any one man with the multitude, should run to Rome, to suck the infection of dissolute intemperature. Vanity most commonly rides coached in the high way, the beaten way, the common way; But Virtue and Moderation walks alone. It may be said, what profit can redound, what commendation, what reward, for one man to be singular against many? O the profit is infinite, the commendation memorable, the reward immortal. It is true the old Greek Proverb concluded, that one man was no man; yet with their most approved Authors, by the very word MANY, were the worst sort of people understood, and by FEW the best. For certainly there is not any allurement could lull men in the mist of their misdeeds, so much as those two pestilent yoke-fellowes and twins of confusion, The multitude of offenders, and the liberty of offending. They are both Examples and Schoolmasters, to teach even the very ignorant (whose simplicity else might be their excuse) to do what (if others did not) they might accidentally slide into, but not so eagerly pursue.  
To conclude this point, it may somewhat too truly be said, though not by way of discouragement, yet of caveat, what by the proclivity and proneness of our frailty is warrantable; Let no man be too confident of his own merit, The best do err: Let no man rely too much on his own judgement, the wisest are deceived: yet let every man so conceive of himself, that he may endeavour to be such a one, as distrust shall not make him careless, or confidence secure.  
It follows that the very consideration of being men, should somewhat rectify our crooked inclinations, and ennoble our actions to keep us worthy of the privilege we have above beasts: otherwise only to be a man in substance and name, is no more glory then to be known and distinguished from a very beast in nature.  
Precedents from Antiquity may plentifully be borrowed, to set before us what some men have been, not as they were Commanders, or employed for the Commonwealth; but as they were Commanders of their own infirmities, and employed for the Commonwealth of their own particular persons. Epaminondas amongst the Thebans, is worthy of note and memory even to our Ages, and those that shall succeed us: 
Plutarch. in Apotheg.  He (as the Philosopher recordeth) choose rather to be moderate alone, then mad with the multitude; choosing at all times to consult with himself in excellent things, not with his Countrymen to give Lust, Dalliance, Effeminate softness a Regiment in the Kingdom of his thoughts; no not of his thoughts, 
Cicero de leg. lib. 3.  much less of his Actions. Photion among the Athenians, 
Iwenal. Sat. 14.  Brutus among the Romans, are for their particular carriage of themselves as they were only men, well worthy of all remembrance: And the sententious Seneca is bold to say, 
Epist. 98.  that all Ages will ever hatch and bring forth many such as Clodius, (a man bend to mischief) but rarely any Age another Cato, a man so sincere, so free from corruption, and so severe a Censurer of himself.  
But what need we to search histories of other times, or the deserts of another Nation, when in our own Land, in our own days, we might easily pattern what a man should be or not be, by what others have been? Among many, two of late times are justly examined; not as they were different in fortune, in years, in degree, but as they differed in the use of the gifts of their mind. The first was JOHN, the last and youngest Lord HARRINGTON, whose rare and admirable course of life (not as he was a Noble man, for then indeed it were miraculous, but as a man,) deserves all praise and imitation from all. Of whom it may without flattery (for what benefit can accrue to flatter the dead?) or affection be said, That He amongst a World of men attained even in his youth, not only to gravity in his behaviour, to wisdom in his understanding, to ripeness in his carriage, to discretion in his discourse, but to perfection in his action: A man well-deserving even the testimony of a religious learned Divine.  
But for that his own merit is his best commendation, and questionless his surest reward for moral gifts: let him rest in his peace whilst the next is to be observed.  
SIR WALTIR RAULEIGH may be a second Precedent, a man known, and well-deserving to be known; A man endued not with common endowments, being stored with the best of Nature's furniture, taught much by much experience, experienced in both fortunes so feelingly and apparently, that it may truly be controverted whether he were more happy or miserable; yet behold in him the strange Character of a mere man, a man subject to as many changes of resolution, as resolute to be the instrument of change: Politic, and yet in Policy so unsteddie, that his too much apprehension was the foil of his judgement. For what man soever heard all what the former Discourse hath amplified; 
Sene● Epist. 128.  Namely that the only felicity of a good life, depends in doing all things freely, by being content with what we have (for we speak of a moral man.) This is to remember that we are mortal, that our days pass on, and our life slides away without recovery.  
Great is the task, 
Of the second branch, A Public man.  the labour painful, the discharge full of danger, & the dangers full of Envy, that he must of necessity undergo, that like a blaze upon a Mountain, stands nearest in grace to his Prince: or like a vigilant Sentinel in a Watchtower, busies and weakens his own natural and vital spirits, to administer Equality and justice to all, according to the requisition of his office.  
It is lamentable and much to be pitied, when places of Authority in a Commonwealth, are disposed of to some, whose unworthiness or disability brings a scandal, a scorn, and a reproach to both the place and the Minister.  
The best Lawmakers amongst the Ancients, 
Plato 3.6. & 12. de leg. & 7. de Repub. Arist. 5. & 6. Po●it. Isocrat. in Pan.  were so curious in their choice of men in Office in the Commonwealth, that precisely and peremptorily, they reputed that STATE plagued, whipped, tormented, wounded, yea wounded to death, where the subordinate Governors were not aswell unblemished in their lives and actions, as in their names and reputation.  
A PUBLIC MAN hath not more need to be Bonus Civis, a good Statist, then Bonus Vir, good in himself; a very fair and large Line is limmed out to square by it, a direct path that leads to a virtuous Name, if a man acquit himself nobly, justly, and wisely, in well steering the Helm of State that he sits at; otherwise his Honours are a burden, his Height a Curse; his Favours a Destruction, his Life a Death, and his Death a Misery: A Misery in respect of his after Defamation, aswell as of his after account.  
Far from the present purpose it is to dive into the depth of Policy, or to set down any positive rules, what a right Statesman should be; for that were with Phormio the Philosopher to read a Lecture of soldiery to Hannibal the most cunningest Warrior of his time; & consequently as Phormio was by Hannibal to be justly laughed at, so aswell might Seneca have written to Nero the Art of Cruelty; or Cicero to his brother Quintus the Commendation of Anger. The sum of these brief Collections, is intended to recreate the mind, not to inform Knowledge in practice; but to conform Practice to Knowledge: Whereto no endeavour can be found more requisite, more available, than an undeceiving lesson of an impartial observation; wherein if our studies err not with many and those most approved, thus we have observed.  

Two sorts of public men.  First, of public men there are two general sorts; The one, such as by the special favour of their Prince (which savour cannot ordinarily be conferred without some main and evident note of desert) have been raised, to a supereminent rank of honour, and so by degrees (as it for the most part always happens) to special places of weighty employment in the common wealth. The other sort are such as the Prince according to his judgement, hath out of their own sufficiency, advanced to particular offices, whether for administration of justice, for execution of Law, for necessity of service, and the like, being according to their education and study, enabled for the discharge of those places of authority; and these two are the only chief and principal members of employment, under that head of whose politic body they are the most useful & stirring members.  
Against both those public persons, there are two capital and deadly opposites (if it were possible) to becharme their resolutions, and blot out their name from the LINE OF LIFE, by which they should be led to the endless immortality of an immortality, in an ever-flourishing commendation. The first are poisoners of virtue, the betrayers of goodness, the bloodsuckers of innocence: The latter, the close deathsmen of merit, the plotters against honesty, and the executioners of honours; They are in two words discovered, Blandientes & Saevientes, Flatterers, and privy Murderers. It is a disputable question, and well worthy a canvas and discussion in the schools, to decide which of the two do the greatest injury to noble personages. How be it most apparent it is, that envy, the inseparable companion tha● accompanies the virtuous, doth not work more mischief for the final overthrow of a noble and deserving man, then Flattery doth, for driving that noble and deserving man into the snares of envy. No man can be, or should be reputed a God; and then how easy it is for any man of the choicest temper, of the soundest apprehension, of the gracefullest education, of the sincerest austerity of life; how easy it is for him to fall into many errors, into many unbecoming follies, into many passions, and affections: his only being a man is both sufficient proof, and yet sufficient excuse. The eloquentest and gravest Divine of all the Ancients, 
Augustine.  confessed out of his own experience, Non est mihi vicinior hostis memet ipso: that he had not a more near enemy to him then himself. For he that hath about him his frailty to corrupt him, a World to besot him, an adversary to terrify him; and lastly, a death to devour him: how should he but be inveigled with the enticements of the two first, and so consequently consent to the unsteadinesse of his temptation before he be drawn to a serious consideration of the danger of the two last? Especially as we are men, being not only subject to the lapses and vanities of men, but as we are eminent men, in grace and favour, in priority of titles, of place, & of command; having men to soothe us up in the maintenance and countenancing of those evils, which else doubtless, could not at one time or other, but appear before us in their own ugliness and deformity.  
A Flatterer is the only pestilent bawd to great men's shames; the nurse to their wantonness; the fuel to their lusts; and with his poison of artificial villainy, most times doth set an edge unto their riot, which otherwise would be blunted and rebated in the detestation of their own violent posting to a violent confusion. Not unwisely did a wise man compare a flattering Language to a silken halter, 
Diog. Laert. in vita Diog.  which is soft because silken, but strangling because a halter. The words wherewith those Panders of Vice do persuade, are not so lovely, as the matters they daub over with their adulations, are abominable. That is a bitter sweetness which is only delicious to the palate, and to the stomach deadly. It is reported, 
Plin. hist. lib. 8. cap. 17.  that all beasts are wonderfully delighted with the sent of the breath of the Panther, a beast fierce and cruel by nature; but that they are else affrighted with the sternness of his looks: For which cause, the Panther when he hunts his prey, hiding his grim visage, with the sweetness of his breath, allures the other beasts unto him, who being come within his reach, he rends and cruelly doth dilaniate them. Even so, those Patrons and minions of false pleasures, the Flatterers that they may pray upon the credulity of the abused GREAT ONES, imitate the Panthers, extenuating, and as much as in them lies, hiding the grossness, the ugliness, the deformity of those follies they persuade unto; and with a false gloss, varnishing and setting out the Paradise of uncontrolled pleasures, to the ruin oft times of the informed, and glory of their own impiety.  
In such a MIGHTY MAN enticed to overrule his Reason, nay overbear it, by giving scope to his licentious eye, first to see, then to delight in, lastly, to covet a chaste beauty? Alas, how many swarms of dependants, being creatures to his greatness, will not only tell him, mock him, and harden him in a ready and pregnant deceit, that love is courtly, and women were in their creation ordained to be wooed, and to be won; but also what numbers of them, will thrust themselves into employment and servile action, to effect the lewdness of desire, to corrupt with promises, with gifts, with persuasions, with threatenings, with entreaties, to force a Rape on Virtue, and adulterate the chaste bosom of spotless simplicity? A folly is committed, how sleight are they ready to prove it, how sedulous to sleighten, how damnably disposed to make it nothing? Insomuch as those vipers of humanity, are fitly to be termed, the man's whore, and the woman's knave. Is such a mighty one affected to such a suit, as the grant and possession of it will draw a curse upon his head by a general voice, of a general smart and detriment to the Commonwealth? How suddenly will those wild beasts, labour to assure him, that the multitudes love is won by keeping them in awe; not by giving way to their giddiness by any affability? Will another advance an unworthy Court-Ape, and oppress a desertful hope? It were too tedious to recite, what incessant approbations will be repeated by these Anthropophagis, Those men-eaters, to make a golden calf an Idol, and a neglected merit a laughter? That such a kind of monsters, may appear in their likeness, as monstrous as in effect they are; It is worthy observation, to see how when any man, who whiles he stood chief in the Prince's favour, they honoured as an earthly God, yet being declined from his Prince's estimation, it is worthy to be noted how speedily, how swiftly, how maliciously those cankers of a State will not only fall off, will not only despise, will not only deride, but also oppose themselves against the party distasted.  
As many subtle practizers of infamy, have other subordinate ministers of public office and employment in a Commonwealth, to betray them to their ruin; yet ever and anon, they like enchanted glasses, set them on fire with the false light of concealment and extenuation. Let it be spoken with some authority, borrowed from experience of the elder times, that men in high places, are like some hopeless mariners, set to sea in a leaking vessel: there is no safety, no security, no comfort, no content in greatness, unless it be most constantly armed in the defensive armour of a selfe-worthie resolution; especially when their places they hold, are hourly subject to innovation, as their names (if they prevent not their dangers by leaving them, and their lives at once) are to reproach, and the liberty of malice.  
Flattery to either public persons, is not more inductious on the one side, then envy on the other is vigilant. Great men are by great men (not good men by good men) narrowly sifted; their lives, their actions, their demeanours examined; for that their places and honours are hunted after, as the Beazar for his preservatives; And then the least blemish, the least slide, the least error, the least offence, is exasperated, made capital; the dangers ensuing ever prove (like the wound of an enemy's sword) mortal, and many times deadly. Now in this case, when the eye of judgement is awakened, Flattery is discovered to be but an Inmate to Envy; an Inmate, at least, consulting together though not dwelling together, the one, being Catarer to the others bloody banquet; And some wise men have been persuaded, that the pestilence, the rigour of Law, Famine, Sickness, or War, have not devoured more great ones then Flattery and Envy.  
Much amiss, & from the purpose it cannot be, to give instance in three public Precedents, of three famous Nations; all chancing within the compass of twenty years. In England not long ago, a man supereminent in Honours, desertful in many Services, endeared to a virtuous and a wise Queen, ELIZABETH of glorious memory, and eternal happiness: A man too publicly beloved, and too confident of the love he held, ROBERT EARL OF ESSEX, and Earl Martial of the Kingdom; He, even he that was thought too high to fall, and too fixed to be removed; in a very handful of time, felt the misery of Greatness, by relying on such as flattered and envied his Greatness. His end was their end, and the execution of Law, is a witness in him to Posterity, how a public person is not at any time longer happy, than he preserves his happiness with a Resolution that depends upon the guard of innocence & goodness.  
CHARLES' DUKE OF BYRON in France, not long after him, ran the same Fate; A Prince that was reputed the invincible Fortress to his King & Country: great in desert, and too great in his Greatness; not managing the fiery chariot of his guiding the Sun of that Climate with moderation; gave testimony by an imposed and inexpected end, how a public man in Authority, sits but in Commission on his own Delinquency, longer than Resolution in noble actions levels at the immortality of A Line of life.  
Lastly, SIR JOHN VANOLDEN BARNEVELT in the Netherlands, (whose ashes are scarce yet cold) is and will be a lively precedent of the mutability of Greatness. He was the only one that trafficked in the Counsels of foreign Princes, had factors in all Courts, Intelligencers amongst all Christian nations; stood as the ORACLE of the Provinces, and was even the Moderator of Policies of all sorts: was reputed to be second to none on Earth for soundness of Designs; was indeed his Countries both Minion, Mirror, and Wonder; yet enforcing his public Authority, too much to be servant to his private Ambition; he left the Tongue of justice to proclaim that long life, and a peaceful death are not granted or held by the Charter of Honours, except virtuous RESOLUTION renew the Patent, at a daily expense of proficiency in goodness.  
Others fresh in memory might be inserted, but these are yet bleeding in the wounds which they have given themselves, and some now living to this day; who both have had, and do enjoy as great Honours, and are therefore as incident to as many woeful changes, but that they wisely provide to prop their greatness with many greater deserts.  
Here is in Text Letters laid before us, the hazard, peril and casualty of A PUBLIC MAN: the possibility what Misery, Calamity, Ruin, Greatness and Popularity may wind him into. here is deciphered the unavoidable and incessant Persecutors of their Honours and joys: Flattery and Envy two ancient Courtiers. It comes now to conclusion, that it cannot be denied, but those public men have (notwithstanding these) chief and immediate means in their own powers, if they well and nobly order their courses to make their Country their Debtors, and to enrol their names in the glorious Register of an ever-memorable Glory: especially if they be not too partially doting on every commendable Virtue, which in private men is reputed as it is, a Virtue; but in them a Miracle. Certainly (without disparagement to desert in great men) there are many particular persons, fit for public employments, whose ableness and sufficiency, is no way inferior to the praises of the mightiest, but that they are clouded in their lowness, & obscured in their privateness, but else would & could give testimony to the World, that all fullness and perfection is not confined to Eminence and Authority.  
A PUBLIC MAN, therefore, shunning the Adulation of a Parasite (which he may easily discover, if he wisely examine his merit with their Hyperbolical insinuations,) then keeping an even course in the process of lawful and just actions, avoiding the toils, snares and traps of the envious, cannot choose in his own life-time, but build a monument, to which the Triumph and Trophies of his memory, shall give a longer life than the perpetuity of stone, Marble or Brass can preserve. Otherwise if they stand not on the guard of their own Piety and Wisdom, they will upon trifles sometime or other be quarrelled against and evicted. Neither may they imagine that any one taint (howsoever they would be contented to wink at it in themselves, supposing it to be (as perhaps it is) little, and not worthy reprehension) can escape unespied. For the Moral of the Poet's Fiction is a goodly Lesson for their instruction. It is said that Thetis the Mother of Achilles, drenched him being an Infant in the Stygian Waters, that thereby, his whole body might be made invulnerable: but see the severity of Fate, for even in that part of the heel that his Mother held him by, was he shot by the Arrow of Paris, of which wound he died. In like case, may every Statesman be like Achilles in the general body of his Actions, impassable and secure from any assault of wilful and gross ennormitie: yet if he give way to but one handful (as it may be termed) of Folly, not becoming the gravity and greatness of his Calling; he shall soon meet with some watchful Paris, some industrious Flatterer, or overbusy envious Competitour, that will take advantage of his weakness, and wound his infirmity to the ruin of his Honours, if not to the jeopardy of his life.  
The period of all shall be knit up, with the advice of a famous learned & Philosopher: 
Sen. Epi. 23  & as he wrote to his familiar friend, let us transcribe to men in Authority; Let a public man rejoice in the true pleasures of a constant Resolution, not in the deceivable pleasures of vanity and fondness. By a good conscience, honest counsels, and just actions, the true good is acquired. Other moment any delights only supple the forehead, not unburden and solace the heart. They are nothing, alas they are nothing, it is the mind must be well disposed, it is the mind must be confident: it is the mind above all things must be rectified; and the true comfort is not easily attained, and yet with more difficulty retained. But he, he who directs all his whole private life in hononurable projections, cannot any way miss our LINE OF LIFE, which points at the immortality of a virtuous name by profitably discharging the burden of such employments as are usually imposed upon those, whom their callings have entitled Public men.  

Of the 3 branch, A good Man.  A GOOD MAN is the last branch of Resolution, and by him is meant (as is said before) such a man, as doth (beside the care he hath of himself in particular) attend all his drifts and actions, to be a servant for others, for the good of others, as if it were his own. Schoolboys newly trained up in the Principles of Grammar can resolve what a good man is, or who? Who? Qui consulta patrum, qui leges iuraque seruat. Such an one, as not indeed singly observes what he should do, but doth even that which he observes he should do. This man not only lives, but lives well, remembering always the old adage; that God is the rewarder of adverbs not of Nouns. His intents are without the hypocrisy of applause, his deeds without the mercenary expectation of reward, the issue of both is, all his works are crowned in themselves, and yet crown not him, for that he loves Virtue for itself. This man never flatters Folly in greatness, but rather pities, and in pity strives to redress the greatness of Folly. This man never envies the eminence of Authority, nor fears the Envious: His reprehensions are balms, his Praises Glories, and he is as thankful to be rebuked, as to be cherished. From such a Man all things are to be gratfully accepted: His desire to do good to all, hath not a like success to all (notwithstanding in him to will is commendable, and not to be able to do, pardonable.) For it is not only the property of true Virtue, but also of true Friendship, as well to admonish, as to be admonished: For amongst good men those things are ever well taken that are well meant; yet even this man (that uncompelled, un-required, not exacted, interposes himself to set at unity the disorders of others not so inclinable to goodness, is not free from enmity, with those whom in a general care, he labours to deserve as friends. The Reason, Flattery procures friends, Truth hatred. How? Truth Hatred? Yes, for from Truth is Hatred borne, which is the poison of Friendship, as Laelius well observed: 
Cic●r● de Amicit.  But what ensues? He whose ears are so fortified, and barrocaded against the admitment of Truth, that from his Friend he will not hear the Truth, this man's safety is desperate: wherefore if any one will only relish words of Down and Honey, as if we loved to speak nothing but pure Roses (as the Proverb is:) let such a one learn from the skilful Artists of Nature, 
Plin. hist. lib. 11. cap. 6  that the Bees do anoint their Hives with the juice of the bitterest Weeds, against the greediness of other Beasts. Let him learn from the skilfullest Physicians, that the healthfullest Medicines smart most in the Wound. Let him learn from the Prince of Philosophy, 
Arist. Eth. lib. 3.  that Anger was given to men by Nature, (as he writes) as a Whetstone of Valour; and then he cannot but consider, that any pains which a good Man undergoes for reconciliation, be they either by way of admonition or reprehension, tend both to one end, that he may make all like unto himself, that is, Good Men.  
This very word (GOOD) implies a description in itself, more pithy, more pathetical, then by any familiar exemplification can be made manifest: Such a man, as makes the general commodity, his particular benefit, may not unfitly be styled a PRIVATE STATESMAN: His endeavours are public, the use public, the profit public, the commendation public: But the person private; the Resolution private, the end private, and the reward peculiar.  
It is impossible, that the wretched and avaricious banking up of wealth, can draw him into a conceit, that he can ever make friends of money after his death; considering that the World was created for the use of men, and men created into the World to use it, not to enjoy it. This man's bounty is giving, not lending; and his giving, is free, not reserved: He cherisheth Learning in the Learned, and encourageth the Learned to the love of Learning by cherishing them; He heartneth the upright in justice, & ratifies justice in the upright; He helps the distressed with counsel, and approves the proceedings of wise Counsellors. He is a pattern to all what they should be, as to himself what he is.  
Finally, try all his desires, his actions are the seasoners of his speeches, as his profession is of his actions. He is a Physician to other men's affections as to his own, by comprimitting such passions as run into an insurrection, by strengthening such as decline, by suppling such as are inflamed, by restraining such as would run out, by purging such as over-abound. His Ambition climbs to none other cure then to heal the wounded, not to wound the whole; being neither so unwise to do any thing that he ought not to do, nor so unhappy to do any thing what he does not. His singular misfortune is, 
Velleius hist. Rom. lib. 2.  that (with Drusus an excellent man) he attempts many times with a more honest and good mind, then good fortune and success; insomuch, as it often comes to pass, that other men's mischiefs are preferred before his Virtues: yet still as he is a good Man, injuries can no more discourage him, than applause can overween him.  
Even this man hath his particular adversaries to threaten him, and (if it could be possible) to terrify him, and deter him from the solidity of his temper: Scandal to defame him, and imposture to traduce him: Flattery and envy are not a more pestilent brood, set in arms against a public man, than those two miscreant monsters are against a good man. But is his resolution any way infracted, for that some refractories are (like Knights of the post) hired to witness against him? Doubtless no, but much the rather confirmed to run by a LINE OF LIFE, to the Goal of Life. His own solace is to him, as an inexpugnable castle of strength, against all the forcible assaults of devilish complots, built only upon this foundation, that he is conscious to himself of an unforced sincerity: With the Poet he can resolve: 
●orat. lib. 1. Epist. 1.  Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi, his integrity to him is a Brazen wall; And with the Orator, 
Cicer. quaest. Tusc. lib. 2.  he assures himself, that nullum theatrum virtuti maius conscientiâ, Virtue hath not a more illustrious and eminent Theatre to act on, than her own conscience. Socrates (a good man, if a mere moral man may be termed so) being scurrilously by Aristophanes the Poet, 
In Comaed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  derided before the people; 
Plat. apol. Socrat.  and by Anytus and Melytus unjustly accused before the judges, as a trifler, a master of follies, a corrupter of youth, a sour of impieties, answered; If their alleged imputations be true, we will amend them; if false, they pertain not to us. It was a noble constancy and resolution of a wise man, 
Diog Laert. in vita Socrat.  that he (enlightened with the only beams of nature) was so moderate and discreet. The good man here personated (inspired with a far richer & diviner knowledge than humanity) cannot but as much exceed Soerates in those virtues of resolution, as Socrates did his adversaries in modesty and moderation.  
Kings and mighty monarchs, as they are first movers to all subordinate ministers, of what rank or employments soever, within their proper dominions, are indeed public persons; But as one king traffics with another, another, and another, either for repressing of hostility, enlarging a confederacy, confirming an Amity, settling a peace, supplanting an heresy, and such like, not immediately concerning his own particular, or his peoples; but for moderating the differences between other Princes: In this respect even Kings and private men, and so their actions belong wholly and only to themselves; printing the royalty of their goodness, in an immortality of a virtuous and everlasting name, by which they justly lay a claim to the Style of good men: which attribute doth more glorify their desert, than the mightiness of their thrones can their glories.  
In which respect, our SOVEREIGN LORD AND KING that now is, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. lib. 2.  hath worthily chronicled his Grandfather's remembrance, which was (as he best witnesseth) called The poor man's King. A title of so inestimable a wealth, that the riches of many Kingdoms are of too low & mean a value, to purchase the dignity and honour of this only Style, The poor man's King.  
The famous and most excellent commendation of A GOOD MAN, cannot be more expressly exemplified in any precedent or mirror, by all the instances of former times, nor shall be ever (far, far be● servility or insinuation) over-paralleled by any age succeeding, then in the person of JAMES the King of great Britain presently here reigning over us A good man, so well deserving (from all grateful memory) service and honour, that not to do him service is an ingratitude to the greatness of his goodness; and not to do him all honour, an ingratitude to the goodness of his greatness. A good man, that even with his entrance to the Crown, did not more bring peace to all Christian nations, yea almost to all Nations of the Western World, then since the whole course of his glorious reign, hath preserved peace amongst them. A Good man, who hath thus long sought as an equal and upright moderator to decide, discuss, conclude, and determine all differences between his neighbouring Princes and fellows in Empire. A good man, of whom it may be verified, that he is BONORUM MAXIMUS, and MAGNORUM OPTIMUS. A good man, that loves not virtue for the name of virtue only, but for the substance and reality. A good man, whom neither scandal can any way impeach of Injustice, tyranny, ignorance; nor imposture traduce, to a neglect of merit in the desertful, to levity in affections, to surquedry in passions, to intention of inclining to folly, or declining from real worth; which as an heditarie inheritance, and a fee simple by nature and education, he retains in himself, to the wonder and admiration of all, that may emulously imitate him, never perfectly equal him. Questionless, the Chronicles, that shall hereafter report the Annals of his life and Actions, shall do infinite injury to the incomparable monuments of his name, if they Style him, as some would wish, JAMES THE GREAT, or as others endeavour, JAMES THE PEACEABLE, or as not a few hope, JAMES THE LEARNED. For to those titles have the greeks in Alexander, the Romans in Augustus, the Germans in Charles the fifth, the French men in Charlemagne, and Henry the Fourth, Father to their present King, attained: But if he shall be reported in his Style to be, as in his own worthiness he may justly challenge; he must then be styled, as by the approbation of all that truly know him, he is known to be JAMES THE GOOD. Let the sum of this branch of Resolution, which is indeed Corona operis, the sum of the whole sum, be concluded: That this only pattern, as he is only inferior on earth to God, who is BONUM SUMMUM, the chief and sovereign good; so the distinction between his great Master and him (whose Vicegerent he is) consists in this (with reverence to the divine Majesty be it spoken) That as God (whom to call good is but an impropriety of description) is not singly bonus good, but Bonitas goodness, in abstracto, (as the Schoolmen speak:) So under the great KING OF KINGS, this King of men is substitute to his King, with this up-shut; The one is forever the King of goodness; and our King on earth, not only a good King, but a good man; Such a good man as doth himself run, and teacheth by his example, others securely and readily to run, by his Line of Life, to the immortality of a virtuous name. A private man, A public man, A good man, have been here particularly deciphered & discoursed. It comes to conclusion, that he, who desires either in his own person to be renowned; for the general prosperity of the Commonwealth, to be eternised; or for the community of his friends, or any whom he will make his friends, remembered; in the Diaries of posterity, must first lay the foundation of a willingness, from thence proceed to a desire, from thence to a delight, from a delight to practise, from practice to a constant perseverance in noble actions. And then such a man, howsoever, he live, shall never miss to end his days, before his honours and the honours of his name can end, for they shall know no end; and yet even in death, and after death, over-live all his enemies, in the immortal spring of a most glorious memory; which is the most precious Crown and reward of A most precious Line of Life.  

The Corollary.  
IN the view of the precedent Argument, somewhat (perhaps) too lamely hath the Progress of a Man's Life (in any Fate) been traced; wherein still the course, like a Pilot sailing for his safety and welfare, hath always had an eye, to the North-star of Virtue: without which, men cannot but suffer shipwreck on the Land, aswell as Mariners on the Sea. Such as have proofs in their own persons and experiences of both fortunes, have passed through their dangers of their being MEN, as they were first private; before they entered: and from their entrance waded, into the Labyrinth of Greatness and Employment, from whence they became Public men. Now then somewhat boldly (yet the boldness is a presumption of love, not love of presumption) may be intimated; that howsoever, any great or popular person, (for to such doth this application properly appertain, howbeit free from any particularity except particularly challenged) in a peculiar examination of himself cannot choose, but find, that he hath encountered many Oppositions of Youth, (even in grave years) and frailty (in grave actions:) yet having at any time, by any casualty, a happiness (danger itself is a happiness if rightly made use of, otherwise a misery) to account with his expense of time: he cannot upon indifferent and even reckoning, instead of impairing his Honours but advance them: he cannot, if he account faithfully, instead of making the World his Confessor, but confess his own Nobleness; and thereupon He will find, that the toil in common affairs, is but trash and bondage, compared to the sweet repose of the mind, and the goodly Contemplation of a man's peace with Himself. All glory whether it consist of profits or preferments, is WITHOUT, and therefore makes nothing to the essence of true happiness: But the feeling of a resolved constancy is WITHIN, and ever keeps a Feast in a man's soundest content. One pregnant and notable Sampler deserves an eye of judgement to be fixed on it. Demosthenes after a long government at his pleasure in the Commonwealth (upon what consideration, He Himself knew best, and Statesmen may easily guess at,) is reported to confess to his friends, who came to visit him: That if at the Beginning, 
Plutarch. in vit. Demost.  Two Ways had been proposed before him; the one leading to the Tribunal of Authority, the other to his Grave; If He could by inspiration, have foreknown the Evils, the Terrors, the Calumnies, the Envy's, the Contentions, the Dangers, that men in such places, must customarily meet with; that He would much rather with alacrity, have posted on to his Sepulchre then to his Greatness. Brutus when He determined his own end, 
Dion. hist. Rom. lib. 47.  cried out with Hercules: O wretched and miserable power of man, thou wert nothing but a name, yet I embraced thee as a glorious work, but thou wert a Bondslave to Fortune.  
It is superfluous to enlarge (or comment upon) the Sufferings of those famous Men: Every man's own talon of Wisdom, and share of trial, may with not much difficulty, construe the sense of their meanings. A good Man is the man, that even the greatest or lowest should both be, and resolve to be. And this much may be confidently averred; That men of eminent commands, are not in general more feared in the tide of their greatness, then beloved, in the ebb of that greatness, if they bear it with moderation. Statists honoured or favoured, (for favour and honour are for the most part inseparable) have the eyes of the World upon their carriage, in the carriage either of their glories or deiections: It is not to be doubted (which is a singular comfort) but any sequestration from a wonted height, is only but a trial; for being managed with humbleness and gratitude, it may ennoble the Patients (for their own particulars) to demean themselves excellently, in the places they had before (may be) somewhat too neglectfully discharged. Always there is a Rule in observation, positive and memorable; that an interposition or eclipse of eminence, must not so make a man undervalue his own Desert, but that a Noble Resolution, should still uphold its own worth, in deserving well; if we aim and intend to repute & use Honours, but as instrumental causes of virtuous effects in Actions. To all such as so do, (and all should so do that are worthy to be such,) a service not to be neglected is a proper debt: especially from inferior Ministers to those, whose Creation, hath not more given them the prerogatives of being men, than the virtuous Resolution, leading them by A LINE OF LIFE, hath adorned them, with the just, known and glorious Titles of being Good Men.  
VADUM non transeat excors.   
FINIS.