A BANQUET OF essays, fetched out of Famous Owen's CONFECTIONARY, Disht out, and served up at the TABLE OF Maecenas.  
By HENRY HARFLETE, sometime of Grays-inn, Gent.  
London, Printed by T. R. & E. M. and are to be sold by Joseph Barber, at the sign of the lamb in the New-buildings in Paul's churchyard. 1653.   

To the Right WORSHIPFUL, And my much honoured Friend & Kinsman, SIR, CHRISTOPHER HARFLETE, Knight.  
Sir,  
YOur former favours oblige me to a votal, if not total requital, at least to an acknowledgement, though't be but in this slight Commemoration, and so near alliance may command this Dedication. I might have elected some titular Protector to cherish this weak Infant of my brain; but I content myself with an inferior choice, desiring yourself my tutelar Patron. Accept of these my poor labours, which were the selected object of my Meditations, on purpose to keep me from idleness, the mother of all mischief. That excellent saying of St Jerome egged me on to these Meditations: A liquid operis facito, ut te Diabolus inveniat occupatum; non enim facilè capitur à Diabolo, qui bonovacat exercitio: Be always doing something, that so the Devil may find thee employed; for he is not easily caught in the devil's snare, who is well busied. Sir, were there not Lectores who be Lictores, or could all my Readers be free from the aspersion of critically censorious, I could well afford to imitate my Author; Commend my book to the Reader, and myself to you: however let it be so, I'l● expose myself to charitable judgements, and venture it.  
Inveniat noster Patronum ut ubique  
libellus,  
Librum Lectori dedico, mèque tibi.  
Your worship's affectionate Friend and Kinsman to commend, HENRY HARFLETE.   

A BANQUET OF essays:  Upon these verses. Ex. lib. 1. Ep. 2. 
Qui legis ista, tuam reprchendo; si mea laudas.  
Omnia, stultitiam: sic nihil, invidiam.  

ESSAY. I.  
Of Reading, Understanding and Practising.  [Qui legis.] 
THE World is now so laden and larded with Learning, 
1. Qui legis▪ Worldly men account learning a b●●den.  as that it's not only fatigated with the burden of it; but also its fascinated (shall I say fatuated) with such a supposed felicity, as that it loathes the life of it too▪ that's action. Reading is like the body, Understanding like the apparel, and Practising like the soul. The body of reading being mortal, cannot but quickly meet with a dissolution, did not the soul of Practice animate it, the apparel of the Understanding keeping it from the frigid, and defending it from the torrid air; that from obscuration, this from oblatration. For Writings might quickly espy a Momus, did not the backbiter eye an understanding Maecenas, ready to defend the author's quarrel, forcing him to praise, if not practise what he reads, though he never read to praise or practise, but to traduce.  [Qui legis.] 
Well may the World be reported Spherical, in that it's vertical, even so cloyed with a number of giddy-headed readers, as that it surfeits with their issue, doctrine; so that they loathe that which they should love, Preaching. Ever since our Bacchanalian tosspots have scorned our Ecclesiastical despots, obliging their devotion to the temple of Bacchus, the Pulpit with them hath been counted a reproach: and no marvel; for they have turned the current of their devotion another way making their belly their god; 
The late book to tolerate plays and pastimes upon the Lord's day liked them well.  the Drawer or Tapster, their Priest; the bar, his Pulpit; the tavern or alehouse, their Temple; their Wine or Ale, their Spirit; their stomach, their Altar; their several sorts of Drinks, their Graces; their belchings or spewings; their prophecies or knowledge; and the best book they delight to lay open before them to read in, is their hostess or her fine Daughter.  [Qui legis.] 
Time was, when the Church had many Practisers, but few Readers; time is, that a contradictory position being laid in the balance of the Sanctuary makes up this proposition, That this now Church hath many Readers, few Practisers.  
The Primitive Catec●umenists heard, and practised; but our modern Mythologists hear and read, but practise not▪  
The Church in her Infant-cradle might glory in the number of her Rockers (if I may so term them,) but in this her Maturity she may well condole the plenty of her lazy rackers▪ and who be they? but her learned Readers The World now doth boast in Knowledge, and scorns to take the pains to make a double journey to the Temple on the Sabbath, unless it be either for customs sake, or as the women came to the theatre, according to the Poet, Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae.  
So these come to be seers, not to hear their Seer, or perchance to be seen, rather than to be taught; and why? either 1. Self-conceit persuades them, that they know already as much as the Preacher can tell them; or 2. Else blind devotion strikes in them this opinion, that they have done God good service to visit his Temple once a day; or 3. Their learned ignorance would conceive that for an undeniable Orthodox, which graver judgements have censured for a palpable Paradox, even that Reading is better than preaching. What though St. Augustine was converted by reading some part of the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul to the Romans? Wilt thou therefore conclude that the word read doth out-poise the word Preached in the balance of profit? Thou readest the proverb, and believest it, that Una hirundo non facit ver: One swallow makes not Summer: In all this conceive me aright, though I commend Preaching, yet I condemn not Reading; for both be excellent. It is a rule in rhetoric given from that great orator Cicero concerning comparisons, that Necesse non est in rebus comparandis, 
Tull. lib. ● ad He●on.  ut alteram vituperes si alteram laudes. The law of reason cannot impose this necessity upon comparisons, that the praising of one part should derogate any thing from the worth of the other. N●y let me ground this position upon the rock of truth fetched out of the quarry of great St. Chrysostom, 
Chrysost. Hom. 3. in 2. Thessaly.  Negligentia legendo eget diligentià praedicando; because the Reader is negligent he wants the Preachers diligence. I cannot but admire at the foolishness of some in the managing of their states, who neglect Preaching, and buy damnation with Reading: For what is it available for a man to be accounted learned and judicious, and then after death go to hell for want of Practice?  
He that reads and understands not, is like the Parrot, who may utter a perfect Orthology, yet is ignorant of the true A●tiology, or true meaning of the words spoken; and surely no wiser is that man, qui legit & non intelligit, who reads and understands not: would you spell a reason for it, than put them two together, and you have it, legere & non intelligere est negligere: To read but not with the intellec●, is to neglect: But he that understands and practiseth not, is like that proud silkworm, who enrobes himself in gorgeous array, rather to attract personal reverence, and worldy esteem, then to protect his naked corpse from the fury of the frigid element, Hic seipsum vestit, ut sciatur: ille legit, ut tantum sciat & sciatur. The one is gorgeously invested, that he may be known; the other reads only to know, and that's curiosity, and that for knowing he may be known, and that's vanity; his aim is to inform his mind, not to reform his manners. Science is a labour, to the accomplishment of which both the theoric and practic must (like Hippocrates' twins) both hand and heart, both head and bed together: This Theoretical labour may be thus bimembered, in laborem' Disciplinae & exercitii. 1. Disciplinae, ut quae nescit, discat. 2. Exercitii, ut quae didicit, a ● usum ducat: There is the labour of, 1. Discipline; and 2. Exercise. 1. Of Discipline, that he may learn what he knows not; and of, 2. Exercise, that he may practise what he hath learned.  
This World is a Sea, 
Rev. 4. 6.  upon which the theoretical reader floats in the pinnace of self-opinionated pride, driven with the wind of vainglory; in which the Practical understander is surely drowned: for he never returned home, since he hoist sail for New-England: Mistake me not! I know there be many true and zealous professors in England. who have not in these corrupted times bowed the knee to Baal; but I speak this as bewailing the loss and misle of those Pastors and zealous professors, who (I know whilst they lived amongst us) were both Luce's and deuces, pure lights, and sure guides; lights for Discipline, guides for Practice,   

ESSAY. II.  
Of books.  Qui legis ista.] 
●. Ista.  
GOod books should be the Object of every good man's eye: idle and lascivious pamphlets are correspondent to the life of idle Christians: For those Books which handle a subject, whose doctrine is far remote from the use and practice of a Christian life, are a true token of an idle Author, and the readers of them are like to common ●idlers, who undertake the use of an Instrument, only to keep them from a trade more laborious and profitable; laborious in the Work, profitable to the Workers.  [Ista.] 
The Printers press is like unto the World, where are bad men as well as good? And  
Invenies paucot hîc, ut in orbe, bonos. Where I find some good Books, many bad; what do I then? I do (like good men in choosing their companions) elect the good, reject the bad: I use that, refuse this. Good consorts are worth my acquaintance, and good Books my perusal; my pains may countervail my profit, if I read them, through-read them, reread them.  
Doth a man delight in reading vicious and lascivious Authors? I wrong him not if I style him an Astronomer, who chiefly fixeth the eye of his meditation upon the wandering Venerean Planet; but now adays a man may easily find out the greatest Students in this science. Young men and maids are grown studious Scholars in love's school: Amorous pamphlets make up their Library, who having their lovesongs ad unguem, long to be graduates in the University of Ven●●; they account themselves already Masters in this Art in actu designato, and think long till they be so in actu exercito; nothing now in their judgements is wanting to complete their degree, but a Pone manum in manum maritae.  
The reading of such Authors is the true embleam of their vicious minds.  
It is a received opinion, that Vultus est index animi: The countenance is the discoverer of the mind; and it is as true, that the reading of Books may anatomize the heart; Lascivious Books may call their Readers lascivious without the least aspersion of a wrong.  
Doth a man fix the heart of his delight upon good and godly books, and make them the delight of his heart, it is an invincible argument of a virtuous mind. An humble and a lowly heart loves Books which teach the lesson of humility; and by Augustine's leave a man may, 
August Ep. ad Paulinum; he saith there, Homines plus proficiunt cogitando, quàm legendo.  (nay if he do not first) profit legendo, by reading, he can scarce gain any thing cogitando, by meditating; and though there be profit to be sucked out of both, yet I must confess, that the greater fruit is gathered from the Tree of contemplation, though not always the fairer. Rachel was more fair than Leah, but yet (to make some amends,) Leah was more fertile than Rachel.  
Contemplation hath a twofold access: unus in intellectu, 
Bernard in Cant. Serm. 49.  alter in affectu: unus in lumine, alter in favore: unus in acquisitione, alter in devotione: The one in the intellect, the other in the affect. The order of Nature●●lls up the Intellect in the first place: for a man can never love that which he know●s not, and how comes he by the knowledge of it? but by one of these three means, either by 1. Hearing, 2. Seeing, or 3. Reading.  
Shall I go yet further, and persuade you that Reading is a kind of Meditation? if not I, than Hugo, 
Hugo in Medit. suit.  who saith that there be three kinds of Meditations, viz. in 1. Creaturis. 2. Scripturis. 3. Moribus. Primum surgit ex admiratione. Secundum lectione. ●ertium circum spectione.  
Admiratio generat quaestionem, quaestio in●estigationem, investigatio inventi●nem. Lectio ad cognoseendam verit atemmateriam ministrat, meditatio coap●at, oratio sublevat, operatio componit, & contemplatio in ista exuliat. Thus Hugo.  
A Meditation in the Creatures. Scriptures. Manners.  
Shall I call these three, three several Books, in which a man may read Heaven?  
The first ariseth from Admiration, 
Meditatio in 1. Creaturis.  whose posterity proclaims her fruitful; for Admiration begets a question; and asking, seeking; and seeking a finding.  
The second ariseth from Reading, 
2. Scripturis.  and that's not sterile too: for it is a trusty guide to bring us to the knowledge of the truth.  
The third ariseth from Circumspection, and that's fruitless neither: for it plays two ways in and out; Discurrit intùs & foràs intùs ad conscientiam, foràs ad famam; that is, in upon the conscience, out upon the good name of a man.  
Of all companions Books be the secretest, there a man may solace himself, and yet hears nothing but the Echo of his own words.  
Of all Glasses Books be the best; for they being inspective, are both 1. Prospective, 2. Reflective, & 3. Illuminative. Three chief uses for Glasses.  
First Prospective, 
BOOKS (like glasses) are, 1.  making things afar off, 
1. Prospect.  seem near at hand; and therefore we say, that a learned man sees farther than an ignorant; sees farther, though not oculo {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, though not with the eye of his body, yet with the eye of his mind: so he sees farther, because he knows more.  
Secondly, Reflective; 
2. Reflect.  were not the Reader blear-eyed he might quickly espy the lineament of his own soul in these Glasses by reflection; let him be but intentive in reading, and he may quickly collect the disposition of his own soul, and the disease being once known puts the patient in hope of a cure. In these Glasses the proud dame may see her painted face, and supersficialized soul; her envious eye, and contumelious tongue; her impudent forehead, and immodest countenance. In these Glasses the Altar-Priest enrobed in his vestry vestments may see is own picture, 2 Kings 10. there he may see the worshippers of Baal attired in Baal's vestments, and at last their idolatrous vestments (by the command of Jehu) hewn off their shoulders with the edge of the sword. In these Glasses the Persecutor may see the Whore of Babylon surfeited with the blood of the Saints, Rev. 17. 6. and at length the righteous GOD avenging the blood of his servants at her hand, Rev. 19 2.  
In a word, in these Glasses every sinful man may see the Anatomy of his own sinful soul, and God's definitive judgement for the same without timely repentance, Rev. 21. 8.  
Thirdly, Illuminative. 
3. Illuminative.  Good Books (like Glasses) do 1. Enlighten the house of the heart, and keep out the 2. Dust of Pride and Hypocrise▪ 3. Wind of vainglory.  Qui legis ista.] 
The Printers press is like unto a Garden, where are stinking weeds, as well as sweet-smelling flowers; what do I then? I do (like fine-handed dames) pick up the flowers, kick at the weeds. I grace my hand with the one; but I can scarce afford, that my eye or foot should grace the other; mine eye by a a speculation, or my foot by an inculcation.   

ESSAY. III.  
Of Application.  Qui legis ista, tuam. 
3. Tuam. ] 
APplication is the life of Doctrine: It is a strong persuasion to conversion. It was a symbol of Aurelius Numerianus, Esto quod audis, Be what you hear. To which I may add, Esto quod legis; Be what thou readest: or lead thy life according to that rule given in thy Book-Doctrine, and thou wilt (shall I say work a miracle?) put a living soul into a dead body, revive the dead letter by the spirit of Application.  
In vain is Reprehension without Application; how fitly have the Greeks fitted it, calling it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} apto, to fit; for harmony is a sweet and pleasant music, consisting of many notes, yet none discord, but sweetly close together. If the Reader or Hearer apply not that which is read or heard by a religious life and conversation, there is a jar or discord between the Confuter and Confuted, who denies the truth of the Doctrine in his irreligious practice; how sweetly then do the Writer and Reader, Preacher and Hearer accord, when the work of the one attends the word or pen of the other, when Obedience makes the Epilogue to the Writers Catalogue, when the one gives a Practical Amen to the others theoretical Doctrine?  [Tuam.] 
Application is a kind of Adaptation, and the Doctrine must be fitted for Application, as tailor's fit apparel for the body, neither too wide nor too straight; if it be too wide, it may draw the Reader or Hearer to a presumption or obduration; if it be too straight, it may persuade him to desperation.  [Tuam.] 
Men write, because men are vicious, and vicious men should read to mend, that's the end of writing and reading too; but we do like tailors, we are mending all the week, all the year, yea all our lives long, and yet not mended. We sit mending upon the Sh●p-board of this World, and forget that Hell is so near us, as under the Board; every time we commit a sin, we throw a shred to Hell.  
Our good actions are forgotten, as soon as gotten. The Worldling makes a journey to Church every Sabbath day, and sometimes hears the Word with the ●ares of attention, but could never ●inde the heart of retention; the Preacher may reply, but he never intends to apply: and sometimes God's House may be a continent for his body, but his countinghouse shall be a repository for his mind; and so leaves his Religion where he found it; so that he ties Religion altogether to time and place, nay to his Holy-day-apparel too; he s●r●ps himself of his Holy-day-cloathes, and 〈◊〉 his Soul of devotion altogether.  
Thus runs he posting to his native rest,  
Forgets the Word, and takes it for a jest▪   

ESSAY. V.  
Of Reprehension.  Qui legis ista, tuam reprehendo. 
4. Reprehendo. ] 
ETymologies may sometimes instruct, and without offence of me essayed to initiate an Essay of Reprehension.  
The Latins call it Reprehensio, 
1. The ●atines.  from re and prehensio, a taking or pulcking back. Experience daily objects to our sight the untoward carriage of the homebred or country-horse; who being altogether in the extremes, is either too dull and slow, or too quick and hasty; either too forward, or too backward; wherefore his Rider provides him both calcar and fraenum, a spur and a bridle; a spur to prick him forward, when he is too backward; and a bridle to keep him back, when he is too forward▪ Me thinks the refractory will of man is like this untoward Horse, who wants the spur of exhortation to prick him forward to the performance of good, when he is dull and defective, and the bridle of dehortation or reprehension to refrain his forwardness, when he runs headlong into exorbitant courses.  [— Reprehendo.—] 
The Greeks likewise challenge an instruction by an Etymon in their verbal significations. 
2. The Greeks.  Reprehension by them is expressed by three significant words.  
Viz. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
1. 
1. Observ●  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman},] or else {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which word signifies, plaga, ictus, or vul●●is, a wound or stroke. 'Tis true in●eed, that the words of the reproover must be cutting to make them curing: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} super, and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} percussio, a wounding or striking upon the conscience.  
The powerful words of some Ministers have stricken such strange effects into the consciences of some weak Christians, 
2. Observ.  as that they have been no small provocation to despair; and desperation must have some pleasing object, though it work to the confusion of the weak subject, unless the power of God's hand in his Majesty prevent the intended mischief of Satan's head in his malice.  
2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman},] which word signifies querimonia, expostulatio, or accusatio, a complaint, expostulation, or accusation, uttered in some querimonious dialect. The Latin may enable the word to bear the burden of this sense; expressing it to be the same with accusare, and incusare making some difference in respect of the personal object of reprehension (Only) according to the old verses of that ancient Grammarian, JOHANNES 〈◊〉 GARLANDIA.  
Dicitur accusans aequales at que minore●  
Dicitur incusans majores & meliores. 
Johanues de Garlandia. in l. de Synonim.   
The Commentary expounds it thus, 
Galfrid: Comment. in lib. Sinon.  accusare est culpare, incusare est reprehendere; we accuse, and thereby blame our equals and inferiors; 
Johan. de Ga●landia.  we incuse, and thereby reprehend the crimes and faults of our superiors, and those who are of a greater estate and higher degree: so that the Commenter himself would acknowledge some difference between the two words, à parte praepositionis, which is pars secundaria, but none at all à parte verbi, which is pars principalis; they be the very words of the Commenter.  
The real object then of a reprehensory complaint or accusation, is crimen, a fault or offence, and the personal object is reus, or the party offending, who is the party transgressing, or the party accused, to whom must be added a third person, and that's the person offended. Now the offence or sin being committed against God, the reprover by his reproof doth tacitly complain of the reprehended to God, the reproved therefore without amendment, is inexcusable.  
In the reprehensions of some vices, some have been facetious, where they might have been more querulous, bewailing the unhappy estate of those, who have been so corrupted, that they need correption; but indeed such is the ridiculous nature of sin, as that derision best fits the seat of conviction. The Devil sports withhat which man acts with pleasure; for when man sins, the Devil sings.  
3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman},] from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which signifies to dispraise, blame, or reproach, as well as to reprehend. 
Object.  〈◊〉 you will say, s Re roof a Re●roach? 
Answ.  I answer, It is so effective, non entitatiuè: eff●ctively, because it reproves sin, whose effect is reproach; not entitat vely in itself; for it reproaches not the reproved, but labours to abrogate the reproveds reproach.  
thou for the Etymology: the Tropology must follow, showing the true nature of this Psogology.  — Reprehendo.— 
The meanest apprehension can never be expert in the right learning of Reprehension. Human discretion blushes not to acknowledge it a great difficulty, to know how to reprehend aright. Ignorance may be a proud controller, but never a good counsellor; yet reproof is opus citiùs notum quàm factum, a work sooner known then done: so defective is the nature of man in this duty, if known.  
Reprehension therefore must have a 1. Guide, and 2. Companion.  
1. A Guide, that's discretion.  
2. A Companion, that's meekness of spirit.  
First, 
1. A Guide.  it must have a guide, lest it run into error; discre●ion must moderate reprehension: and it so orders it, that it be uttered in amor, not rancour, in love, not in malice. malicious enmity must not reveal that which Christian amity obligeth to conceal.  
Malice was ever a good informer, but ever a bad reformer.  
Love is a great mover, she commonly speaks and speeds to effect. Love must rub up the conscience of the Delinquent, touch it to the quick; it may be quickened by being twitted; but care must be had, lest haste makes waste; lest the reprover puts unguem in ulcere, (in Plautus his phrase) his singer into the sore, which he doth when he makes a matter worse, which is bad enough already; which he doth either by a long and circumstantial recapitulation of that which should be silenced, which is against the law of charity, or else by an addition of some new matter, which is against the rule of verity, which commands a man to speak nothing but the truth.  
Discretion likewise brings the reprover to a fit time and place, when and where conveniently to reprove the offender; it must be no street-check, nor a high-way-broil.  
Rash in discretion should not call a whole heap of neighbours to be ear-witnesses to that which should be private. A temperate and timely ●aciturnity is equivalent to an oration, which tacitly implies, that unseasonable silence is consonant to (if not wore then) a mute, and sometimes connivency may match with religious policy; but if this connivance become habitual▪ it is as bad as indulgence, worse than caecity. Not to reprove, is to approve, (yea to partake) of the others enormity; permittere malum, est admittere, a continual permitting of sin is no better than a consenting to it.  
Discretion likewise brings reproof to be acquainted with a brevity. A short speech commends the action, prolix and impertinent is the livery of a babbler. When Philip of Macedon wrote to them of Lyconia, that if he entered their country, he would utterly overthrow them; he had a short answer returned to him in this one word, if; briefly reproving his bold supposition of victory depending upon the incertainty of his entry.  
Secondly, 
2. Companion.  Reprehension must have a companion, 
G●. 6. 1.  and that's meekness of spirit. It must be mitis, non aspera, affable▪ not satirical. Envy and Fury must not transport the reprover beyond the bounds of discretion, lest he turn mel amoris into fell amaroris, the honey of love into the gall of bitterness; his words may be sharp, yet pleasant. Discretion must be involved in a tartness, lest he become corrosor rather than corrector, a batterer not betterer by his words; he must not be like Herodotus, who never spoke well to any nor of any; he must beno clamorous Stentor, reproving with such eager sierceness and impetuous violence, as that there is omnis correptio, nulla consolatio; omnis clamor, nullus amor: all correction, no consolation; all speech, but no love in it, whose behaviour betrays the want of charity, having zeal without knowledge, or knowledge without discretion. Reviling and railing must not be mistook for refuting. Sharp rebukes must be ushered by discretion. Entreaties, (which in their own nature amount to mild checks, 
1 Tim. 5. 1. ) suit best to inferiority: that must be their subject, whose object must challenge authority. My close shall be by application to the married. Gentle entreaties must be the wives best oratory instead of sharp rebukes, 
Good counsel for the wife.  sweetly closing them to a delinquent husband's heart, with so wise an application, as that no glozing flattery may seem to be enveloped in a kind supplication. 
1 Tim. 5. 1.  An exhortative invasion may compel an errors evasion, than she may gain the praise, and he the profit: But if sometimes the heat of passion usher an invective, let an instructive be its attendant, that may somewhat allay the heat, though not altogether abolish the hate. The reprover must not movere, when monere, not move to displeasure, when monish to profit, therefore to prevent this danger, some sweet instruction should tread upon the heels of a sharp Reprehension. In a word, Let every thing be done decently and in order, saith Paul. Now a Chr●stian is said to do a thing decently and in order, when he doth a Christian work in such sort as becomes a Christian, and after such a mnaner as rightly corresponds to such a Christian act or duty; so reproof is done decently, when done 1. Discree●ly. 2. Meekly. And in order, when it is done according to our saviour's order and direction for brotherly correction; so that it must have a guide to usher it, and a companion to uphold it, lest it turn into furious malice, or into envious folly.  
Whatsoever a man doth, being guided by discretion, he doth it not rashly, but with mature deliberation and serious preconsideration. Reprehension then must have a discreet guide, lest it run into folly; and a meek companion, lest it gad to fury.   

ESSAY. V.  
Of Writers and their Works.  Qui legis ista, 
5. Si mea.  tuam reprehendo, sin mea.— 
THe industrious writer is like the Bee, who gets sua, but not sibi.  Sic vos nonvobis mellificatis apes. 
So Bees do work, but for themselves work not.  
Both work for others benefit, and many times both are rewarded with cruelty for their pains; the one per manús violentiam, the other per linguae virulentiam; the one suffers by the violence of the hand, the other by the virulence of the tongue. The object upon which their cruelty works, is the life, corporal of the one, civil of the other: for the one loseth formam, even life itself, which is forma corporis, called anima, the soul, quae dat esse corpori, which gives being to the body, say Philosophers; the other loseth famam, his good name, being most despitefully traduced by the tongue of the critical detractor. Lastly, the mediate instrument by which they exercise their cruelty, is by fire upon both, Physical or natural upon one, Meraphorical upon the other; for St. James calls the tongue a Fire.  — Si mea.— 
The censorious Reader is so prejudicate in his opinion, as that being sick of the spleen, envy shall teach him to call that aelienum, which the industrious Author may justly in his conscience christian meum. I should think my time very ill spent to step over my threshold to desire such envious critics to godfather any child of mine own brinae.  — Si mea.— 
I cannot but brand that envious censurer with the name of an ignominious detractor, who refuseth the work, because he knows the author a man in the world no way famous, and therefore presently spits forth that verse of Virgil, Hos ego versiculos feci, 
In vita Virgil●i.  tulit alter honores.  
Another took the pains, and this man assumes to himself but only the name of the work. Such a one will protect, 'tis alienum, of another man's writing; and why? but because he doth not think 'tis suum, part of his own meditations; but let such a one remember his Grammar instance, Insipientis est dicere, Non putâram: It is the part of a fool to say, I had not thought; and thus sometimes his pains and industry is neglected with a scornful Tush: and why? but because the world doth not so much honour the man, as to whirl him about in the chariot of fame. The world frowns upon the man, and the Readers● (the true born children of the world) do so upon his matter, his works too; the father's rejected, small hopes then that his child should have any better welcome.  — Si mea.— 
Me thinks the same word [mea] doth enforce into my Meditations (as it were) an immortality enveloped in a mortality. For [mea] the issue of my brain may be a visible, audible, when as [meum] my corpse (being curtained by the earth,) may (Until the general Resurrection) be bedded in dust and ashes; Littera scripta manet, the brains issue may survive the father, yea after he be converted into nihilum, into his Materia prima, in the philosopher's term, even into that in which Job repented, into dust and ashes: and this comes somewhat near to the politics, who say, that a man is (as it were) eternised in that golden line of life, the line of his posterity.  — Si mea.— 
Mea, not aliena.  
It shames that an industrious Student should behave himself so ill in his premeditated exercises, as that a former Writer should have just occasion to sue him (as it were) in a trover and conversion, as the Lawyers speak.  
It is a token of great pains and industry in Writers to make those things [sua] their own, which they write.  
That Writer who steals here a piece out of one book, and there a piece out of another, is like unto a botching tailor, who to patch up his broken clothes, opens his hell, (a place well known to unconscionable tailors) and there he finds this piece which he stole from such a customer, and that piece from another, with which parings he makes his torn suit serviceable; but yet herein they differ, the one takes new shreds to mend an old garment, the other collects old meditations to patch up his new.  — Si mea.— 
Omnia.—  
If [Mea] be not [Omnia mea,] Discretion wills me to margin my authors, that so the judgement of the Reader may distinguish mea from omnia mea, and I hope that may free me from the censure of thievery, and may almost persuade myself, that I shall not be arraigned at the bar of rash judgement before Judge Zoilous and Momus his brother-assistant, if I chance to borrow an antic author, either to confirm my assertion, or to confer some grace upon my conclusion, and promise to pay him again with an acknowledgement, though it be in a landscape, even as far off as the margent-room will reach.   

ESSAY. VI.  
Of Praise.  Qui legis ista, tuam reprehendo, 
6. Laudas.  si mea laudas. 
PRAISE not fitted to a right object, is like that wind which deceitful butchers use to blow into their lean, ill-favoured meat, it may puff up, and make it show fairer to the eye, but it cannot better the taste. Praise my work or labour thou mayst; it may prove my humility, but it shall not pride my humanity.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, not me.  
Praise not my person. Personal proportion cannot be the true object of Praise: A small fall may soon dash that. The world could never yet promise an enjoyment by a perpetuity; a new device in law unknown, and therefore unpractised by the old world, because impossible to be obtained: for a broken leg, a broken arm, or a broken back may disjoint thy praise, and then thou mayest be compelled to pause at that which before thou didst praise; now thou mayst have just occasion to condole that which before thou didst applaud.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, not quae mei.  
Natural endowments should neither be the objects of Praise. 
Eccles. 11. 2  'Tis for the fond over to praise such things in his be●oved.  Forma bonum fragile est.— 
Such endowments are given of God, ●ut only to grace the temple of the Holy Ghost, and may be but of a small conti●iance; or else the conceit of men may ●iffer in the judgement of an external ●ilchritude; Quot homines, tot sententiae; As many men, so many minds, faith our English proverb; for she may be fair in oculo placili, who is not so in oculo populi; the Lover can praise his mistress's beauty, when perhaps his friend knows she's black, yet notwithstanding may be comely.  
Amorous Poets mistake themselves, who in some curious Elegies and Sonnets praise their mistress's beauty and perfections, on purpose to pride their natures, to prove their manners, and to procure their loves. This is to woo Venus with Cupid's quiver, carrying the fan of Praise before their Mistresses, to keep the Sun of Humility from their painted faces.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, not quae mihi.  
Riches do not make a man praiseworthy; they be dona Dei data, not homin●innata; they be quae mihi, not mea propria; things given to me, not properly mine own: Man indeed enjoys them but ad volunt atem Domini. God is hi● landlord, and man his Tenant (but) a will.  
An opifical repute is correspondent to ta●ite, but yet worldly applause; and I wonder much, why fine clothes and a full purse (which perhaps may be a shroud to vice) should be more honoured than virtue, Grace and Learning covered under a ragged vestment.  
'Tis folly to praise in homine aliena, and even mad folly to elevate a man upon the pinnacle of Admiration, quia dives est, because he is rich. Riches are but man's servants, yet no covenant, no statute-servants: man is not sure of them a year, no, nor a day; he cannot indent with them for a certain Diary enjoyment; for they (like the Indian Bird) have wings to ●lie away, no feet to stand still.  
I cannot here but commemorate that worthy saying of an ancie●t Father to this purpose in hand: Quid est quod dicis, Ego dives, ille pauper? Sarcinam tuam commemoras, pondus tuum laudas; taceas laudestuas, qui miserationes tuas n●n consideras: What's thou sayest, I am rich, he is poor? thou dost but commemorate thy heavy charge, and commend thy weighty burden. If thou didst but consider, that thou (though moneyed) deservest rather to be pitied then praised, thou wouldst be silent in thine arrogant praises.  — Mea laudas. 
Not mea laudo.  
A man must not praise his own work, that's self-praise in an arrogant opinion of his own worth; how boldly then doth self-conceit shroud in the frontispiece of his own work an implicit commendation in a 
Commend me, or amend me?  
— Si mea laudas.   
Mea, yet not mea mala.  
My evil actions are not praiseworthy.  
My evil acts must not be praised abroad,  
For they (like smoke) do stop the breath of laud.  
So saith the Greek Sententionist.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
If the actions of man may be compared 
Turpitu●o & s●●●us laude●● sussocat.  to Fire, surely the evil in (or the deformity of) his actions may be the smoke which stops the mouth, or furs up the throat of charity, so as it cannot, (nay it may not) chant the praises of a friend or neighbour, because by vicious acts degenerate, and ill-deserving.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, yet not mea amatoria.  
Praise not my amatorious and wanton pamphlets; these indeed may gain a little popular applause, and windy praises amongst Satan's lecherous posterity, because pleasing to their carnal desires; nay with some (it seem) the fish is already caught, one would think then 'tis time to hang aside the nets; 'tis confessed in plain terms, in the very frontispiece of some lascivious stage-pamplets, vaunting that 'twas acted with much applause.  
These bastard-meditations are begotten between Mars and Venus; when Fancy hath helped Venus to deliver them, then doth the Printer wrap them up in their swaddling-clouts, and then are they to some great Lord or Lady to God-fa— honour them (I mean) with an acceptance; I, (and that which the Author implicitly prays for in his Epistle Dedicatory is) to owner them so as to make them their adopted children; for (no doubt) they strive what they can to make them their honourable Patro●s pictures, and therefore may suit best with my Lord or Lady's fancy; for Simile similiga●det, Like joys in like; and therefore they will not loathe them, but love them, highly extol and praise them, and their author's industry and ingenuity for them; whereas books of great power to imprint either the Theological or Moral virtues in the soul, being in like manner presented to some honourable view, may for the titles sake, especially for the subject matter, be both unregarded, and unrewarded. And what's the reason of this? Surely it may quickly be apprehended, the Author forgot his patron's humour, and in it he's afraid he shall not find his own picture, if he should vouchsafe to give it a perusal, no marvel then if it be rejected: For Omne simile nutrit sibi simile, Like loves to nourish its like. Theological and Moral discourses than should be presented to Patrons of more settled and diviner spirits, lest the Author should cast pearls before swine. But such discourses which do (as it were) dissect or anatomize the body of fair Venus, and her blind son Cupid, are of right to be patronised by amorous and lustful gallants: but I am afraid, that such discourses may be ominous to the Writers, if not the Readers, being begot when Mars and Ven●s were in a conjunction. Did they not prove an ominous tempest to Ovid, when for them his punishment was no less than banishment? The Astronomers say too, that this conjunction of Mars and Venus enforceth rain and tempest; and I am sure that these lascivious pamphlets and idle ballads cannot aff●rd either to the Writer or Reader any true comfort; carnal pleasure for the present they may, but at the last they cause (as it were) a tempest in the conscience, and work in the mind, trouble, vexation and grief, and that in two respects.  
In respect of the 1. Time. 2. Matter.  
1. In respect of the time, because 'twas lost in penning or perusing such libidinous toys, for which time an account shall one day be given at the tribunal of Heaven, though it was not spent nihil agend●, yet 'twas male agendo; not idly, yet evilly.  
Object. 
Object.  Yet you commonly say that these meditations (though on Cupid's proportion) keep me from many worse exercises.  
Answ. 
Answ.  By your own confession they are bad in gradu positivo, so that your own mouth doth excuse you ● tanto, but not à toto. I have read it written in the discommendation of that great politician VIVES, that he did spend his whole life, part in scanning, whether he should pronounce Vergilius or Virgilius, Carthaginenses or Carthaginienses, Primus or Preimus, and despising all worthy sciences and orderly course of government or ru●●iments; he spent the rest of his time in making filthy and lascivious Epigrams. It would be more commendable and praiseworthy both in the sight of God and man, to spend thy time upon some more serious exercises, which may tend to God's glory, the good of thy country, and the benefit of thy neighbours, and all this may end with comfort to thine own soul. Non nobis sol●m nati sumus, saith the orator.  
2. In respect of the matter, these lascivious pamphlets and wanton ballads may become a grief and trouble to the soul; for such works in the subject matter are but folly: and would it not grieve and trouble a wise man, especially upon his deathbed, that he hath spent his precious time upon folly? Such amorous meditations are Satan's snares, in which he catches the fleshly dotterels; they be that grand Impostors waters which quench the fire of zeal, which perhaps was scarce discernible before. 
Rob. Green  That great Writer of lascivious folly, styles his own meditations no better; and therefore writing his last work, (as he then intended) wherewith he resolved to solace the minds of young men and maids, calls it Green's Farewell to Folly; sure then unworthy of praise, because Folly: so he terms it, and so I leave it.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, yet not mea meritoria.  
Praise not thy works m●ritorious.  
Merit, 
Suff●it ad 〈◊〉 scire, qu●d non sufficia●t 〈◊〉 ita. Bern. s●per Ca●t. Ser. 6  and my sins are (as it were) contradictories. Did I merit per opus operatum, I must then have wages for my work, and I never read in the Scripture of any wages allowed in spiritual duties for the work done, but death: The wages of sin is death. Could I be sinless, I could merit; had not my Saviour been so, he could never have merited 
* Alstedius distinct. c. 23. d. 31.  ex merito condigni, in which my faith doth challenge an interest per viam applicationis only, no way per viam proprietatis; those merits are not mine own, but my Saviours by faith applied to my in-sick soul.  
My Faith must labour and be fruitful, and my 
* x bo●●●o; ●ra nostra remunerat Deus, no● merita nostra, sed dona sua coronat. August. Quisquis tibi enumerat merita sua, quid tibi enumerat nisi munera tua? August. lib. Confess.  reward shall be Heaven, yet my small endeavours cannot counterpoise that great reward; for what 
* Datua, sed quae non debes, proportio & adsit. Non aliter meritum dixeris esse tuum.  proportion is there betwixt a thing finite and infinite? So far would the one outpoise the other in the scales of Justice, as that there would be betwixt them an unutterable disquiperation. Man hath Heaven ex 
* Merita habere cures, habita data noveris. Pe●n super Cant.  dono, non ex perquisito, as the Lawyers speak, by gift, not by purchase; he hath it at the end of his labours {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies both munus and pramium, and not barely munus, but munus honorarium.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as a voluntary gift to reward his temporal labours, not as wages which then should be due to him from God his Master, having deserved it for the works which he hath done for his benefit in his service.  
With what face then can I pride myself up in a self-conceit of merit? I must confess that all my merit is God's mercy, 
Nec tu elegis●i me, sed ●go elegi te, nec ut te ●liger●m tua merita inveni, sed praeveni: hoc est autem judicium inter me & te, ut tua merita non extollas, non praeferas opera legis. Bern. Ser. 67. super Cant.  and so I cannot be poor in merit, as long as GOD is rich in mercy; for which I must have a tongue of Praise, whose object must be God; but I desire not the praise of man's ●ongue, because I have done ●onum, a good work; 
Non bona tam pensat quàm bene facta Deus.  yet I may have praise of God, if I have done bonum bene, 
Deus autor est meriti, qui & voluntatem applicat operi, & opus applicat voluntati. Aug.  that good work well. It is God's work, not mine; I know no reason why mine own good works should puff me up, having perhaps no other ground to persuade myself that they be so, but the praise of men, (when as sordet in distinctione judicis, quod fulget in opinione operantis,) when as those good works may be fordid in the sentence of him who should be the rewarder, which are splendent in the sight of the worker.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, yet not mea moralia.  
My moral actions or virtues in some sort, ought not to be the object of praise and commendations.  
Object. But ere I proceed, methinks I hear the plain or right Moralist intercepting me in my Meditations with his Contradictory Cavil, objecting authority to refel my position, syllogizing thus: 
That which makes a man blessed, is worthy of praise;  
But virtue makes a man blessed;  
Therefore virtue is worthy of praise.   
The proposition or Major Cicero proves for him. 
C●cero, in Parad●x.  Quicquid est laudabile (saith he) idem & beatum videri debet: Whatsoever is laudable, the same aught to seem blessed; and that which is blessed entitatiuè, may be so effective; that which is blessed, (no doubt) may make blessed, which is apparent in the summum bonum.  
The assumption or Minor hath a theorem of a modern Philosophical Methodist to back it (as it were) with armour of proof, 
Scheib●er. Philos. Compend. l. 8. c. 1. Non absurdè dici● ur, virtutis habitum, (sitamen talis fit, ut non adsit impedimentum, prohibens actum) reddere hominem Politicè beat●●m, adeóque in co summum bonum consistere▪  who thus writes: It is no absurdity to say or hold, that the habit of virtue (which cannot be hindered in the act) makes a man Politically blessed, and concludes, that in it consists the chiefest good, the summum bonum.  
To which I answer; First, That this position or theorem is not absolute, but conditional, which condition stands upon two feet, à nisi and an it ●; the first respects the thing, the second the person; there's an obstante in the first, and a secundùm quid in the second. The first condition is, That the habit of virtue doth not make a man Politically blessed, unless it be such an habit, as that there be no obstacle, which may hinder the reduction of the habit into the act, whereby the habit is exercised; Now how doth Vice stand like a Lion in the way to hinder the actual operation of the habit of virtue? whence it happens that many times the habit of virtue lies like glowing coals raked up in embers.  
The second condition is, That though the habit of virtue be no way hindered in the act, yet it makes a man blessed; but Politicè tantùm, Politically only, and that Political perfection of Felicity the Philosophers bound only upon this life, and specificè upon the civil life only; which Felicity is so placed in contemplatione primi boni, in the contemplation of the first good, as that the extern good things of the world, which may fitly add to the compliment of a civil life, must not be severed from Felicity; because man's nature is not 
Arisl. 1. 10. Eth. c. 8.  ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) sufficient to contemplate without an enjoyment of the outward worldly good things; so that a man may be happy, and yet unhappy; a seeming felicity may be an ●nmate in the house of his soul with a being misery, which may not be public and apparent, till rifler death makes an ent●y. Just-meal-mouthed Absalon, and wife-politic Achitophel were applauded, praised, beloved, and respected for their morals, and in the vulgar judgement were deemed happy and blessed, because the intended justice of the one, and the pretended policies of the other were devoted to the service and good of the weal-public; but really to demonstrate a seeming blessedness, the hair of the head made one miserable, and a rope the other unhappy. Or,  
Secondly, 
Resp. 〈◊〉  I answer, that I deny not ●ut that true virtue, secundum essentiam, is praiseworthy; which being en●o●ed in Morality only, was the object of praises amongst the ancient Heathen. See how Horace commends the just and constant man: 

Justum & tenacem propositi virum, 
Carm. l. 3, Ode. 3.   
Non civium ardor prava●ubentuam,  
Non vultus instantis Tyranni  
Mente quatit solidà: ●equ●  
Aust●r.   

Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae,  
Nec fulminantis magna Iovis manus,  
Si fractus illabatur orbis,  
Impavidum ferient ruinae.   

Nor Citizens zeal commanding wicked things,  
Nor threatning brow of wrathful Tyrant-Kings.  
Nor the south-wind, the chief disquieter,  
Of th' Adriatic waves, nor Jupiter,  
Whose potent hand moves thunder from above,  
The just resolved, and constant man can move.  
Though the world's fabric Heaven quite demolish,  
It's fearful fall would not his heart astonish.    
Thus this best of lyric Poets doth almost unbreath himself with the praises of Pollux, Hercules, Bacchus and Romulus, who were of Mortals made even immortal by two virtues especially, Constancy and justice; Such for their moral virtues, were by Heathen writers praised and raised up ad astra, but we who are Christian readers know what they were. 
Carm. l. 3. Ode. 2.   
And see what an excellent commendation this same Poet gives virtue but a little before in his second Ode.  

Vi●tus repulsae nescia sordidae,  
Int' aminatis full get honoribus,  
Nec sumit aut ponit secures  
Arbitrio popularis aurae:   

Virtus recludens immeritis mori  
Coelum, negatâ tentat iter viâ:  
Coet úsque vulgares, & udam  
Spernit humum fugiente pennâ.   

Virtue, 
Repulses or affronts●  who ne'er did base repulses know,  
Doth shine, beset with taintless honours show,  
She public honours doth nor take, nor will,  
To get applause, or please the vulgar will:  
She opening Heaven to men, who endless days  
Deserve, seeks passage through obsessed ways:  
She, scorning things which taste of earthly leaven▪  
Doth swiftly rear her slight from earth to Heaven.   
I deny not (I say) but that virtue in itself is praiseworthy, but many times the object of praise is blotted, being placed in a most vicious subject, who for one or two virtues may be noted, but with twenty vices may be tainted; so that the viciousness of the person or subject may obscure the lustre of his virtues, and so (though not cut off, y●t) may curtail (if I may so speak) that praise which of right is due to them, and to him for them. And it is now become a gross error in earthly men, to make him a pattern of imitation in all things, who deserves to be followed but in one; he being the subject of one or a few particular virtues shall be made by the mop●ey'd ignorant the object of a general encomium. Absalon was affable, 
An instance in Absalon, who was praised for his affability.  but yet a ●latterer, a traitor, a disobedient wretch, a rebellious caitiff, he was indeed (as Aechines and Polycrates reporced of King Philip of Macedon) facundus & formosus, fairetongued, and fair-faced; was he therefore worthy to lead the people by the eyes, as Hercules did by the ears?  
But to draw nearer to my former assertion; neither the Moral, nor the Intellectual virtues can make a man the true object of praise absolutely, and in all respects, and that for these four reasons.  
First, 
Reas. ●.  because the enjoyment of them alone without the Theological virtues, cannot assure a man of future eternal felicity. Though they be hominis 
*  bona, and Dei dona, man's goods and God's gifts, yet they do not bring a man to the crown of glory; their possessors and open professors may be, yet notwithstanding but natural men, who are enthralled, and do homage to these three Tyrants, The 1. World, 2. Flesh, & 3. Devil. to whom they are no better than bondslaves as long as they live in the state of Nature. 
〈…〉.  The best of the Heathen, yea and the best of the Jews are no better how glorious soever they be; Amongst the Heathen Aeneas was counted the most pious, Plato the most divine, Aristides the most just, Aristotle the most learned, Socrates the most virtuous, Lucretia the most chaste; And amongst the Jews the Essees and the Pharisees were most devout; 
Phil. 3.  and amongst these, Paul was reputed the most servant in zeal, unblameable, the pattern of Perfection, as erroneously he judged of himself before his conversion, being blinded by the God of this World. But afterwards he saw that his fervency was but fury. All these men were admired for their virtues; but being without Christ, they were the children of wrath, Eph. 2. 12.  
The civil and moral worldling will praise some for their good husbandry, some for their good hospitality, some for their temperance, and the like, and for these, honour them for perfect Christians; These only in the sight of the blear-eyed Civilian are virtues sufficient to hurry a man about the World in the chariot of Praise. Paul sums up a catalogue of many Worthies in an explicit commendation of their worth, yet not for any of their Moral virtues, but for one of their Theological, 
Heb. 11.  nominated, their faith.  
The second reason is; 
Reas. 2.  because man may be an Aretist, and yet an Atheist; he may enjoy these virtues, and yet live without God, 
Ut anima est vita corporis, sic Deus est vita animae.  and therefore but dead, (ut corpus sine anima, sic anima sine Deo) his body is but the sepulchre of a dead soul. If the body of man be the temple of the Holy Ghost, his heart must be the sanctum sanctorum. Industry and Action may adorn the Temple with the moral and Intellectual virtues; but if divine grace doth not prepare the sanctum sanctorum, it will never be fit to entertain the King of Kings.  
A man may be in outward judgement completely virtuous, and yet he may walk but in the night of ignorance, (as it were) by the starlight of the moral, and moonlight of the Intellectual virtues, until the sun of righteousness appear upon the Horizon of his heart, and then he will persuade himself, that all his before he was but purblind, and do we honour the sight of a purblind man with an absolute and perfect praise?  
The third reason, because these virtues alone may puff up the enjoyer, 
Reas. 3.  and make him proud and vainglorious. Moral virtues cannot be exercised without the Intellectual, because they are blind without these; And it is not now to be noted for some new thing, that these make some arrogant, though not all. Holy writ doth inform us that knowledge puffeth up; 
● Cor. 8. 1.  and indeed this Iron age hath so wrought with a lofty generation, as that the Learneder are not commonly the Lowlier; nay is not the proverb verified by the learned Sophist, which is, The poorer the prouder? Let him who was once (as it were) a Carter become a Scholar; mark how stately he' l carry his body, like a swollen turkeycock ruffling through a yard, and see how haughtily he will shore up his eyelids, gogling upon his ancient poor acquaintance, as though they never knew his father; glorying so much in his breeding, as that he hath quite forgot his beginning. Such a one is like to Paulus Samosetanus, who went through the market-places, streets and highways, vaunting publicly of his learning; or like unto Rhemnius Palemon the Grammarian or Pedant, who was wont to glory, that Learning was borne, and came into the world with him; and also, that with him it was like to perish.  
Fourthly, 
Reas. 4.  because the virtues of the praised may deceive the judgement of the praiser; for superficial virtues only may be the objects of real praises: Vice sometimes becomes virtue's coat, and 'tis not discernible in the action, until justice doth disrobe him.  
Hypocrisy is a cunning craft●master, he can make visards for the vices to personate the virtues without a sudden discovery. Hypocrisy can easily fit a man with a Linsey-woolsey garment; intus linum subtilitatis, extra lanam simplicitatis demonstrat; whose subtle thread of deceit is within side, but the plain web of simplicity without side; thus a man may be ovis visu, but vulpes actu; his outside may be of lambs-wool, when as his inside may be lined with Foxefurre.  — Si mea laudas. 
Mea, yet not mea titularia.  
A man is not the more praiseworthy for his greatness and high titles, for good and great are not voces convertibiles, and commonly the higher the haughtier.  
Exeat aula,  
Qui volet esse pius, virtus & summa potestas,  
Non coeunt;— saith the Poet: Indeed the favourable aspect of a King may wring out of the inferior an unwonted respect, though the promoted deserves this honour; just as Haman merited his promotion, whose pride strangled desert, before ever justice advanced him to the rope. Desert of praise doth not always wait upon promotion.  — Si mea laudas. 
The Philosophers reckon praise amongst the goods of Fortune, whose object must be either man or man's, either me or mea conditionally that it may vindicate the title of good. The love of praise is malum, an evil, a vice; but the object of praise must be bonum, a good, a virtue. Evil men and their wicked works demerit the evil of disgrace, they can never be so much beholding to human repute, or godly esteem, as to grace them with good words.  
The Apostle directs a man how to attain true praise; 
Rom. 13. 3.  Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; 'tis not the knowing, but the doing of good which reaps the benefit of praise.  
Those goods which are necessary to true felicity, should be the true object of praises.  
There is a twofold good: Bonum 1. Naturale. 2. Spirituale.  
Natural and Spiritual; the first is gotten by man's industrious endeavours, the second cannot be obtained but by the help of divine grace. The first the Philosophers divide into the goods of 1. The mind. 2. The Body. 3. Fortune.  
1. The goods of the mind are virtue and its actions.  
2. The goods of the Body are Health, Strength, Beauty, the integrity of the external and internal senses, and such like endowments which do concur to the ●ucrasy or good temperature of the 
Arist. l. 1.  body. 
Rhet. c. 5.   
3. The goods of Fortune, are nobility, honour, glory, a good name, the fruitfulness of the womb, friends, liberty and riches, &c.  
These goods (they say) are necessary 
Arist. l. 1.  to the enjoyment of felicity in this life, 
Eth. c. 1.  the goods of the mind {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as essentials to happiness; the goods of the Body and of Fortune do secundarily only pertain to Felicity, non ad foelicitatis essentiam, sed integritatem, the one be its instruments, the other its ornaments. But the Spiritual and Theological goods of a man are those three divine Sisters, viz. 1. Faith, 2. Hope, & 3. Charity.  
These three work a man into the true and eternal happiness. The natural goods may and aught to be praised in a man, but any {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as we commend him who doth bonum, a good thing, in respect of him who doth an action indifferent, we approve of it with a So, So: But the supernatural good things may and aught to be commended {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, because the Agent hath done bonum bene, a good thing well. The essence of Felicity doth consist in the habit of virtue {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, but in the operation of it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 
Loco supradicto.  saith Aristotle; and this is as true of the Theological, as of the Moral virtues; for it is not the having, but the doing which crowns; not he that can, but he that doth run, obtaineth the prize and praise too, if he be faithful unto the death, hold out to the end of the race. These divine virtues make a man like 
* Gen. 6.  Noah, to be just and perfect; and like 
* Job 1.  Job, to be perfect and upright; and like 
* Luke 1.  Zacharias and Elizabeth, to be righteous before God, walking in all the Commandments of the Lord, blameless; blameless sine querela, non sine culpa; without eruption, not without corruption; blameless before men, yet not sinless before God. The Saints perfections are not so full, but they may fall; as long as dust and ashes are clothed with mortality, they may be mundi, yet are still mundandi; clean, yet to be cleansed. The Saints are in this world partially, but not gradually perfect; perfect secundùm inventionem, non secundùm perventionem; in regard of intention, contention, or endeavours; but not in regard of pervention, or performance; and therefore the foot of it doth rest upon Earth, but the height of it is reserved for Heaven.  
This is but one degree of their encomium, that they were just and perfect; the very height of it was, that they were so in their generation: Noah was a just man in his generation; not a just man as just men went in those days, (that were a poor praise for so worthy a Patriarch, but he was a just man in that generation, wherein the world was overgrown with wickedness, so he was just, non juxta consummatam justitiam, 
Quaest, in Gen.  sed juxta justitiam generationis suae, saith St. Jerome:  
Hesiod describes five sorts of ages, and that which is the last and worst, is that we now live in, the Iron age.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 
Hesiod. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. 1.   
Iron indeed corsidering the people who live in this age, 
John 9 5.  a wicked, perverse, and crooked generation; 
Phil. 2. 5.  and for a man to shine as a light in thd midst of this naughty and perverse Nation, is worthy of praise indeed. Esse malum inter bonos culmen pravitatis, esse bonum inter malos culmen pietatis; as to be dissolute amongst the good, is the height of pravity; so to be good and upright amongst the wicked, is the height of piety: so that I may say with Seneca that in this age Magna pietas est nihil impie facere: It is great piety to refrain from impiety. Martial highly commends Nerva, that he could (nay that he dared to) be godly and good in a wicked Court: 
Nunc licet & fas est, 
Mart. 1. 12.  sed tu sub principe duro, 
Epig. 6.   
Temporibúsque malis ausus es esse bonus.   
Thus you see what virtues ought to be the absolute objects of human praises; but before I leave the object, I'll give the foundation upon which praises are to be built, and that is justice, according to Cicero's testimony: Fundamentum perpetuae commendationis & fame est justitia, fine qua nihil esse potest laudabile: The foundation of perpetual commendation and fame is justice, without which nothing can be laudable. The object must be that good which is worth commendations, 1. whether it be in 1. Amicis. aut 2. Inimicis. in friend or foe, the end is to give to God, his glory. Man, his due.  — Si mea laudas. 
Omnia.—  
Men must be so praised, as that their vices be not approved; so was 
* 1 Chron. 15. 14.  Asa, 
* 2 Chron. 25. 2.  Amazia, and 
* 2 Chron. 27. 2.  Jotham commended. To praise mea is charity; but to praise mea omnia, may be flattery, and that may puff up, & a puffing up precedes a plucking down. Herod's eloquent Oration forced that, euphemy or faustam acclamationem from the people with a vox Dei non hominis, the voice of God, and not of man, which swelled him with pride, giving not the glory to God by punishing those Sycophants, of whose vanity he complained, when he was even ready to yield up his body to dust and ashes, (as Josephus reports;) but the worms took possession of his body, before time came, that sins attorney, death did deliver it to them in the grave. Ignatius took care, lest he should be taken with flattering praises, 
Flagellantes enim me flagellant. Ign. in Ep.  lest they should inflare, puff him up, and that was but Flagellare, to wound him.  — Laudas. 
Laudas tu, but Qualis tu?  
No great matter, for Quis tu? The quality of the praiser is more to be regarded then the person; for good men will praise good men, and bad men will praise bad men, and therefore Antisthenes the Athenian being told that he was praised of certain wicked men, said, Vereor, ne quid imprudens fecerim mali I fear, lest that I have unwittingly done some evil; thinking that none are praised of evil men, but for evil actions.  — Laudas. 
But Quomodo?  
Euripides saith, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, virtue shines in good men when they be dead; and therefore Pescennius Niger being called from the Army to the Empire, said to one who wrote a panegyric in his praises for his worthy acts, Write the praises of Marius, and of Hannibal, and of some other worthy deceased Captains, whom we imitate; and as for myself, placere vivus, mortuus etiam laudari voso; I will (Whilst I live) please; when I am dead be praised, and good reason too: For, 
Pascitur in vivis livor, post sata quiescit:  
Tune suus ex merito quemque tuetur honos. saith Ovid.   
Wicked sure is that man, who sticks not (yet the world's custom 'tis, though wicked,) to praise his neighbour being dead, whom he sought to spoil being living; so prone to mischievous dissimulation is man's mind, as that he who is now (in humo) shrined in dust, shall be the object of praise; who when he was (homo) clothed with mortality, was the object of malice. It is the complaint of a modern Poet: 

Ledimus insontes vivos, laudamus eosdem  
Defunctos: O mors candidal vita nigra!   

We praise them dead, whom without cause in breath  
We hurt; Thou be black, O Life! thou be white, O Death!    
Thus Death makes him precious in our tongues, whom Life esteemed percicious in our thoughts.  — Laudas. 
But Cui?  
To whom dost thou praise a neighbour? if to his enemy, he'll hate him the more; if to his friend, perhaps self-conceit may make him so jealous of his own reputation, as that he thinks, that doth derogate from his own worth, which is attributed to the worth or merit of his friend. Indeed Envy now adays is the greatest, and frequenrest enemy to Worth's preferme●t: It is deaf to all praises, but now to its own; if praise do not flatter it, it will please itself with self-praises: 
Laus in ore proprio sordescit.  Malice, especially chaired in honour hath no ears to hear the praises of an inferior, nor yet Charity to excuse the unadvised errors of the (otherwise) well-deserving; nor yet patience to bear with the weakness of inferior Worthies. An instance in this we have in the Roman Tribunes; for when Caeso the son of L. Quintius, surnamed Concinnatus, had incurred the hatred and displeasures of the Tribunes, by carrying himself as a professed enemy to popular proceedings, and thereby had endangered his life; They would not hear of his worthiness and knowing deservings, the alleging of which incensed them the more, whereby they became the more cruel, like a bear robbed of her whelps; they hunted the more eagerly after his blood, which his father perceiving, and being directed by a better discerning wisdom, (as it were) than the rest of his Advocates, he chooseth out a path (for his son's safety) contrary to that which they had trod, omits the recital of his merits, as things not fitting to be seen of a distempered sight, and indeed not to be endured of Envy; acknowledgeth a fault, and in that regard with great instancy desires the people (in humble and submissive terms) to bear with the weakness of his years, and not to urge the forfeiture of his unadvised error. Thus better it was to confess an error, then to allege merit. A man therefore ought to beware and consider to whom he praiseth a neighbour. Quid de quoque viro, & cui, dicas, saepè caveto: Is a remembrance to a praiser, as well as to a detractor.  

Observe what man thy hearer is, and see,  
The nature of thy praises what they be.   

— Laudas.   
We must honour our neighbours by the Apostles injunction, 
1 Pet. 2. 11  and that o'er, by our mouth; and so by praising their real worth we honour our deserving neighbours by our lips: 
Rhet. lib. 1 c. 9  Praise is honour, qui oratione fit, or according to Aristotle, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a speech showing the greatness of virtue, or an honour which is given to a man of worth by words Panegyrical, or encomiastic speeches; and we must honour them too by defending their reputation against the malevolous aspersions of the venomous tongues of detractors, who endeavour to derogate somewhat from their worth by calumny. Satan who is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an accuser or slanderer, is an expert seedsman, he takes great pleasure in sowing the seed of Envy in man's heart, which bears the black-rotten fruit of detraction.  
If the fire of passion do but once smother under the wet straw of malice, time will stay but the drying; occasion shall fire it, opportunity shall find a tongue to vent it, a calumnious aspersion shall be a requital of a received affront, or (but) conceived displeasure; so proclive to revenge is the mind of man, and sometimes so insatiable, as that it cannot quench its thirst, no not though it be drunk with blood; a man than who can truly vindicate the title of a friend, will vindicate the cause of his wronged absent friend, by a defence of his reputation against the malicious and viperous brood of backbiters.  — Laudas. 
Nay we must be praisers, or we shall be detractors; if we maliciously conceal the good which is in our neighbour, we do detract from his fame and worth 
* F●na hominis diminuitur vel 1. Directè. 2. Indirectè. 1. Directè, vel per 1 Impositionem falsi. 2. Aggravationem peccati. 3. Revelatio. occulti. 4. Relationem boni, vel veri malâ intentione. 2. Indirectè, vel 1. Bonum alterius negamdo. 2. Malitiosè bonum reticendo, vel minuendo. Aquinas.  indirectly, though not directly, according to Aquina.  — Laudas. 
The Greek word for praise may afford us a point of learning, which may not be baulked or overpassed without notice; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they derive from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, suscipio, to undertake. Indeed praise doth undertake two things very happily, and a third by the by, viz. 1. Animare. 2. Honorare. 3. Onerare.  
1. Animare.] To hearten and encourage the praised, or the auditor to an imitation of the praiseds virtues, or to a cheerful progression in that good which is so commendable; Laudare est acerrimus stimulus movendi, saith Pliny. Praise is a sharp goad, which rouseth up the dull spirit to an agility in action: So the Poet, — Immensum gloria calcar habet.  
Glory (which is consentiens laus bonorum de excellent virtute bene judicantium, 
Cicer. Tusc: Qu. lib. 3. Aug.  as Cicero saith; or frequens de aliquo fama cum laude, (as another hath it,) which is always joined with praise, is like a spur which stirreth up the spirits to operation, when they begin to be defective in the exercises of good.  
2. Honorare.] Praise doth honour the well-doer; and honour is pramium virtutis, a reward of virtue, which is given to a good man, that others by his example may be stirred up to the practice of virtuous duties.  
3. Onerare.] To burden a man with pride and vainglory, and that is the worst office that praise can do. It was part of Ignatius his studies to find out a means how to beware and eschew his praises, (ne temerè inflarent,) lest they rashly swell him with the tympany of pride.  — Laudas. 
What profit is it for a man to be bandied up and down in the Tennis-Court of this World with the Racket of Praise? sure none to the praised; all the the benefit lights upon the praiser. Praise like a stone thrown against a wall rebounds upon the head of the caster; Bonum laudare non tam laudato, quam laudantibus prodest; the good of praise profits the praiser more than the praised.  
As praise and worldly applause should not transport a man out of himself by access of joy, and excess of self-conceit; so neither should dispraise and mundane disgrace deject him so much as cause him either to torment his mind with restless fancies, or careless choler, or melancholy passions, or to period his resolves by desperation; for another's dispraise cannot annihilate the object, neither can praise coronize the praised. Praise follows virtue, but as the shadow doth the body.  

Contemnit laudem virtus, 
Owen. Epig. lib. 3. Epig. 13.  licèt usque sequatur  
Gloria virtutem, corpus ut umbra suum.  
Est etenim virtus aliquid, nil gloria, sicut  
Est aliquid corpus, corporis umbra nihii.   

Virtue doth praise contemn, though't doth embrace.  
Its steps, as shadow doth the body trace.  
Like as man's body, so substance virtue's deemed;  
But like the shadow, praise is nought esteemed.   
The consideration of this may move a man to recollect his saddest thoughts and troubled spirits, even in the midst of melancholy dumps, and worldly troubles, and so meditate on the world's inconstancy.  
To conclude then: I have little sought to wind myself into the world's favour, since I have experienced its fickleness; they only who are its white-boys, temporizers now adays are the most deeply imprinted in its books, and are in the most esteem and repute with worldly men. Let the world frown upon a man, and it shall be a sure attractive for flatterers and praisers; but let it once frown, and that is as sure an instructive for detractors; then away haste friends, whose place is soon possessed with fiends, tormentors, gibers, flowters'. Experience taught Ovid the brittleness of a friends love, which directed his Muse to warmble out this disciplinary distich: 

Donec eris foelix, multos numerabis amicos,  
Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.   

Friends are not scarce, as long as riches hold:  
When wealth is ●led, no friends can then be told.   To the very same purpose too writes a Poet of our days. Owen.  

Te bona dum splendet ●ortuna, sequuntur amici,  
Vt te, dum lucet sol, solet umbra sequi:  
Quàm p●tmùm liquidus nebul is offunditur a●r,  
Ecce repentè tuum deserit umbra latus.   

Whilst fortune's Sun doth shine, thou've friend's good store,  
When Sun is set, thy shadow's seen no more;  
When as dark clouds from sight obscure the Sun,  
Behold, how soon thy shadowe's fled and gone.    

ESSAY. VII.  
Of errors in Readers.  
And therein somewhat of Flattery, Envy, or, Detraction.  
Qui legis ista, 
7. Omnia stultitiam, si nihil, invidiam.  tuam reprehendo, si mea laudas  
Omnia, stultitiam, si nihil, invidiam.  
I am now fallen upon the tongue.  Nobile lingua bonum, mobile lingua malum. 
IT was both the best and worst dish, which Aesop could present to his Master; It is my fortune now to present you with one bad enough, an unfit dish to intrude itself into a banquet; I must dress, yet am no curious Cook; but 'tis my comfort, many a palate-pleasing dish hath been cooked by a sloven.  — Si mea laudas 
Omnia, stultitiam, si nihil, invidiam.  
To praise Omnia ex paucis, that's folly, and that folly is flattery; but to praise nihil ex omnibus, that's envy. To free the Reader then from the suspicion both of flattery and envy, he may praise a few of all, not all of a few; for what man can be so exquisite in his meditations, as that every word should (like the least filings of Gold,) have its weight.  — Si mea laudas. 
Omnia.—  
I may liken our flattering Readers to our flattering churchwardens, for as these put in their bills, so they in their Censures thrust in an Omnia bene.  
There is an herb called lingua pagana, horse-tongue, or double-tongue; the devil that crafty gardener hath got a slip of it, and hath set it in the heart of the Gna●honical Reader; the effects of it are dangerous, for the juice of it being drunk by the honest Reader, may be as hurtful to him, as hemlock is to the chicken. Bilinguis was none of God's making, it waa the devils marring, he loves to make that double which God made single.  
The Readers cloven tongue hath a great relation to hi● polt-footed judgement, and that makes him so unsettled in his opinion, as that he will disallow of that in the Writers absence, which before he did approve of, and commend in his presence; such an one is worse than a Zoilus or a Momus; for like a cowardly cur, he will fawn in a man's face, but bite him by the shins, when his turned back hath given the farewell.  
He is like the Swan; for his words, like her feathers, are as white as the glorious lily; but his heart, like her flesh, is blacker than quenched coals. If for this cause the children of Israel were forbidden to feed on the Swan, 
Jev. 11. 18  shall I be so greedy of praise as to choke myself with the tickling, glorious words of her Embleam.  — Si nihil, invidiam. 
Envy is mother to detraction; no marvel then if the daughter be entertained, where the mother hath her welcome, The envious Reader is now become the Writers rider, he rides like death upon a pale horse, called Envy, who knows no other pace then a false gallop. Envy comes to the Reader (like a lover) with a present in her hand, to woo him to a censure; Detraction is her present, and Malice stirs up the hand to receive it. She doth Metamorphose the Reader from Lector to Lictor, a beast which Gesner never heard of; who like the butcher's dog, so long ●narles at the Writers credit, 
Bon●●●●ture calls the Detractor, ●ariosus canis, the butcher's Dog.  as that at length he bites off his good name; like the Peloponnesian Physician at Rome, he may be called Lanius vulnerarius, a killing butcher, so near is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, in sound, Envy to murder, as that they would equivocate without a Schematical Epenth●sis. The detractor is borne (as one said of Dionysius) to pride and cruelty; pride makes him to insult over the Writers labours, and to condemn them to the fire; and cruelty makes him commend his judgement, and cast them into the ●lames.  
'Tis a quaint conceit of one, yet true: That the word Detractio begins with a D, and ends with O; it begins with the Devil, for he is the first mover or instigator to Detraction; but it ends with O, Orcus, Hell is his end. When Jezebel took away her neighbour Naboth's vineyard, little did she think that her blood should be the price of it, and that her body should ere long give the dogs a breakfast; and when a man doth take away a neighbours good name by vilifying his person, or the labour of the person with ignominious words; he little thinks (it seems) that without repentance and restitution, eternal ●lames in hell shall one day banquet both with his body and soul. Now as Augustus Caesar spoke of Galba's crooked back, so say I to my envious censorious Reader: Ego monere te possum, corrigere non possum; Admonition, not correction belongs to me, but if he amends not, the Lord will plague him, because he hath not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, good will towards his neighbour: for the Lord (like that Roman Emperor) Odit pallidos & macilentos, he abhors such as are lean with envy, and pale with malicious wickedness. The Lord keep me from such malicious and uncharitable Readers; wherefore I pray with our Church: 
From hatred, malice, and all unchartableness, Good Lord deliver me.  
— Si nihil invidiam.   
Can a man be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 
Detractio est de●igratio alienae famae per occulta verba. Aquinas.  can he be mouthless, and yet an uncharitable detractor? Indeed he is not reproved so much, because he doth nihil dic●re, but because he doth nihil laudare. It is not the silent Reader, but the silent Praiser who is the subject of Envy, and therefore the worthy object of Reprehension; 'tis true that the silent Reader, if lie harbour Envy in his bosom, though ●e utter it not▪ is a politic though tacit, and yet secret detractor; Gravis est rapacitas, cum veram alterius gloriam, & si me dacio non corrumpis, silentio tamen prae●eris. He is an envious thief who passeth by the true worth of another in silence, as well as he who falsely corrups it with lies, and therefore this silenth Detractor doth peccare in Dei 1. Bonitatem. 2. Gloriam. Sin against God's 1. Goodness. 2▪ Glory.  
1. Against the goodness of God; quia omnia hominis bonasunt Dei dona; because all the graces, good things and virtues which are in a man, are God's gifts, and sparks of the infinite treasure of his bottomless bounty; now to seek by our silence to suppress the same, what is it else but to offer injury to God, and to raze out his goodness, and so much as is possible to obscure his Godhead, who is altogether and nothing but goodness?  
2. Against God's glory; quia opera bona hominis sunt pars Dei gloriae; because the good works of man are part of God's glory, Matth. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in Heaven.  
Therefore to seek by silence to obscure the virtues of any, what is it else but to labour to put out the light which God would have to shine unto the world, and so to show ourselves enemies to God's glory?  — Si nihil, invidiam. 
I may very well reckon the turbulent schismatic amongst these si nihils, secro● detractors; who do Ecclesiae famam detrahere, give the Church an ill report; they hold fanum to be profanum, because in it assemble n●fandi, as well as fandi, a particoloured Congregation like Joseph's coat, and therefore they serve it as Joseph's brethren did his garment, ●ent it asunder by foul-mouthed detraction; for this purpose serves their private conventicles, they love Aedem better then Aedes, a Chamber better than a Church; and therefore a private conventicle more than a public convocation. Find a Parish in England free from these detractors, and it may well be chronicled.  — Si nihil, invidiam. 
I may very well commemorate an Epilogue written some few years since by an ancient divine, to such scholars amongst us, who by their places in our Church, (and in respect of the treasure they receive out of her dowry) ought to defend our writings against schisms and Heresies, and not underhand, and in corners to suggest evil against us, for strengthening the hands of the factious, their private favourites.  

In signior Ambo.  
Sir Ambo takes a pension of his mother,  
But fees the fugitive that calls her whore,  
To us one hand, to him he gives the other  
A proditor behind, a friend before.  
But mark whilst he thus doth himself delight.  
Both sides do damn him for an Hypocrite.   

In signior Dry-pate.  
Sir Dry-pate reads and carps, and hems and spits,  
No marvel though he have purged out his wits;  
For little 'twas when will was at the full,  
And yet 'tis true, he hath no little skull.   

In quendam Fig-fag.  
See, see how Fig-fag stirs, and moves and struts,  
Hark, hark the silly sire how trim ●e flouts;  
Boys, girls and fools applaud him for some body▪  
But yet his carps do prove him but a noddy.   

In homunculum snuff.  

sniff-snuff must judge, not knowing what it meant,  
For barley broth is Snuffs chief element;  
Put him besides the cushion of his cup,  
And all his liquid sense is dried up.  
But lance no further busybodies tumour,  
For every fool must needs be in his humour.   

— Reprehendo, si mea laudas  
Omnia, stultitiam, si nihil, invidiam.   
To conclude, I may not unfitly compare my Readers brain to a Sea, in which the little pinnace of his judgement will be floating; but he hath two dangerous rocks like Sylla and Charybdis to pass through, between which the passage is but narrow, and against which he may easily suffer shipwreck, if discretion do not guide him to entertain a sober and steady Pilot; on his right hand is descried the Rock of Flattery, on his left hand the Rock of Envy; if he keep the Channel of Charity, he shall be possessed of the Mean, which may challenge a Golden epithet.  
Kind Reader, keep a Mean in thy censures, and I blame thee not; if otherwise, if thou be'st either envious or adulatorious, I must check, though't be by the leave of this my Poet, applying his own words to thy curious Critical judgement.  

Qui legis ista, tuam, reprehendo, si mea laudas  
Omnia, stultitiam, si nihil, invidiam.   

Reader, if thou dost praise what e'er I'ave writ,  
I must (perforce) rebuke thy flattering wit;  
If thou approvest of nought in all my book,  
I must reprove thy heart, 'tis envy's crook.   
FINIS.