The Preface. and deipifed to day, andfee their honour turnedtofcorn, andyet they imitate theirfolly ! They fee the fordid relies of the moll, renowned Conquerors, and Princes levelled with the dirt ; and yet they have not the wit to take warning, and humble themfelves that they may be exalted ! They know how death will Ihortly ufe them;.` and read of the terrours that pride and ambition bring men to ; but all this doth not bring them to their wits. When Death it Pelf comes, then they are as fneaking Prinking worms as any : and the worm of ambition that fed upon their hearts in their profperity, cloth breed a gnawing worm in their confciences, which will torment them everlaffingly. But ( ut juve7 nal. ) - Mors fola fatemr, quantula flint hominum corpufcula This £rugo mentis , as Ambrofe calls it , and regnandi dira cupid ( ut Virg.) Both keepmenfrom knowing what they know, and denyeth them the ufe of their underflandings. All former profeffions areforgotten ; repentings are repented of ; the bell parts are corruptedandfold to the Devil (as truly, as Witches fell themfelves, thoughnot fogrolly ) and men are any thing that felf would have them be, where the humor of Ambition doth prevail, and thisfecret potion infinuateth it fell' into the mind This fubtile malum ( ut Bernard ) fecreturn virus , peftis oc- culta, doli artifex, mater hypocrifis livoris pa:rens, vitiorutn origo, tineafanetitatis, excxcacrix cordium , ex remediis mor- bos. mans, ex medicina languorem generans. j The God of Vengeance that abhorreth the Proud, and beholdeth them afar of, and that ea" aftirers out-of Paradife, willJhortly take thefe Gal lants down, and lay them low enough ,and make themwith they had Denyed themfelves. 2. Obferve but mens defire of applaufe, and their great im- patience of difpraife , and judge by this of their felf-denyal. Who is it that is angrywith thole that Praife them , yea though they exceed theirbound's, and afcribe more to them then isdue ? S'aith Seneca [ Si invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat, qui pxudentes, qui fanaos, non fumus modica laudatione contenti; e quid.
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