DIVINE MEDITATI­ONS, AND ELEGIES. By IOHN HAGTHORPE Gentleman.

LONDON Printed by Bernard Alsop. 1622.

TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE, IAMES, BY the Grace of God, King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland, &c.
Iohn Hagthorpe in all humble dutie, and zealous affection, wisheth all Health, and Prosperitie in this World, and eternall Happines in the World to come.

PArdon mighty Prince my boldnesse, thus presuming into you [...] presence vvith [...]o lame an Oblation. Hauing a sute to your Maiestie (which is not for Money, [Page] but a few good words), and hauing no Friend in Court, I thought a Petition might miscarry, and this therefore the safer kind of begging to make [...] speake for her selfe. Whereas therefore I am much im­pouerisht through suites of Law (wherein I haue been tenne yeares holden from mine owne, by the malice of a stronger Aduersary) and many other bad Debtors, who by their ill dealing, compell mee to transport my selfe and Familie into Virginia, or New England; my suit is, that your Gratious Maiestie would bee pleased to speake a good word for me, that I may obtaine the be­nefit of Master Suttons charitie for a little Son of mine, whom I would [Page] gladly leave behind me [...]o increase an ancient (and not igno [...]le) name again in your Maiestys Dominions whe­rein there is not a man living of that name beside myself and mine. For which your gracious clemency, I shall not fail daily to pray for your Maiesty's health and prosperity in this world and eternal happiness in the world to come.

Your Maiesties most humble and obedient Svbiect Iohn Hag' [...]horpe.

TO THE READER.

REader I present to thy view some few [...]hings most [...]buious and most necessarie [...]or euery mans contemplation. Namely,

[...] Time, Folly, Reason, with the mu­ [...]abilitie of all things.

2 Nature and Art, the two Parents of all things.

3 Wealth and Pouertie the [...]wo ballances of all things.

4 Sinne and Vertue, the recompensers of all things.

With the descriptions of most of them ab effectis.

The first shewes, how Folly first enter [...] [...] vs [...] en [...]rance into the house of Time, delu­ [...]ing v [...] with a more certaine assurance of things most [...]n [...]ertaine [...] Reason approching, brings vs [...], shewing the mu [...]abilitie, vn­cetain [...] and change of all things.

In the, Art and Nature seeme to vie [...] Nature.

[Page] The third obiects a contentious litigation be­tweene Wealth and Pouertie, with the most fre­quent obiections vsed on either part, their euents and accidents incident, wherein I must entreate the indicious Reader not to thinke mee Satericall (as perchance some carper will) but rather that I aime at the Ideas of the things, which I protest is truth.

The last seems to demonstrate the misery which Vertue suffers vnder the burthen of Sinne: Wher­in Sinne seems to erect foure Altars to her selfe, where she receiues adoration and sacrifice from the high and mightie. What the scope of this is, the Reader may quickly see, and it is concluded with that which concludes all things; the last Iudge­ment.

Now for this way of expression that I seeme thus to present things past, present, and to come; the be­ginning progresse, continuance and end of all things in a Dreame. Let no man maruaile, for this life is no better, whether you respect the shortnes and vn­certaintie. Prosperitie is a pleasant Dreame, Ad­uersitie a troublesome: onely the good or bad euent is all. To which (gentle Reader) I leaue thee, wishing thee as my selfe, not what thou desirest, but deseruest.

TO THE READER.

HOnest Reader (for such I sup­pose thee) (or else thou wilt be gone like a Swine from a cleane roome at the first word,) perchance thou thinkst it strange to see so sad matter, as Meditations d [...]e [...]'t in Ve [...]se; not [...] Musick that plaies your span [...] is sometime fitted to a [...] That thou [...]ndshere so many kinds [...] one continued matter, manuell [...] preuention for sa [...]etie. It [...] Instrument or many strings, from [...] of sounds arises but one ha [...]mo [...] [...] If I haue like [...] Taylor, [...] suted good [...]: for my pu [...]pose was to do [...], that gui [...]d their Physick, to make it g [...] downe the better. But the Law­yers haue trans [...]formd me to Gall, and my Deb­tors to Copper. Therefore now Gentle Rea­der [Page] take it as thou findest it, and welcome: thou shalt find nothing here to make thee worse, but something to better thee, or tis thine owne fault. And so farewell.

Thine, if thou beest thine owne Friend, [...]ohn Hagthorpe.
[...]

THE CONTENTS.

  • Chap. I. THE exceeding shortnesse of Mans life, in respect of other Creatures; and how pro­digall Man is of Time, esteeming it farre more bastly then any other thing: with the necessitie of bestowing it well, since our eternall miserie or happines seemes to depend thereon. 1
  • II. Shewes, that Mans Heart, the seat of the af­fections, is as a Tenement for tearme of life, de­mised and set ouer to the gouernment of Reason, by whom it ought to be tilled and cultiuate; so that in stead of hurtfull Weeds, it may bring forth profitable Hearbs. 4
  • III. The difference betweene a rude neglected Mind, and one directed by Grace, and gouernd by Reasons discipline: instanc't by example of difference of Grounds. 6
  • IV. The best things, abused, most dangerous: for Vnderstanding, which in Mans first estate made him little lesse then Angels; being now depraued, makes him many times more mi­serable then Beasts. 8
  • [Page] V. The co [...]bat betwixt Reason, and the sensuall appetites. 10
  • VI. An amplification of the same by way of com­parison to a Fort besieged, and betrayed. 15
  • VII. The blindnesse and stupiditie of Man aboue all other creatures which euery one know, and by all meanes oppugne that enemy, which Na­ture hath assignd them: onely hee admits and lodges in his bosome that enemy, which alone hath most power to destroy him, Sinne. 17
  • VIII. The praise of Innocence. 19
  • IX. A deploration of Mans misery subiect to so many tribulations and errors in this life more then other creatures. 21
  • X. A further exemplification of Mans miserie by cōparison to Flowers, to Leaues, to Fishes. 22
  • XI. Mans estate in this present world resembling a Ship, tost vpon the water, described with her Tackling; what it is, and what it ought to be Written at Sea, as a Sea-compasse for Saylors [...] but may serue for any Profession. 2 [...]
  • XII. The benefit of Constancie for those that must saile in these dangerous waues. 26
  • XIII. A further expression of the incessant trou­bles and sorrowes, to which men are subiect i [...] this life, and especially those men that mean [...] best: with the benefit of Patience. 28
  • XIIII. The description of Sorrow. 29
  • [Page] XV. The number of our Sorrowes which seeme in­finite, till they be compared with the number of our sinnes, whose numberlesse number, nothing equalls but the infinite mercies of Almightie God. 32
  • XVI. The great comforts in Gods excellent mer­cies, in which we may find rest after all our mi­series. 34
  • XVII. The greatnes of his Bountie. 35
  • XVIII. His Bountie further enlarged. 37
  • XIX. His Beneficence. 38
  • XX. His Magnificence not onely affording Man things necessarie, but heaping his benefits vpon him with so great varietie, that the vnderstan­ding of Man cannot vtter it. 40
  • XXI. No place emptie and vnfurnisht of Crea­tures for Mans behoofe, but all full without scarcetie, or scant, that man (for this fulnes and bountie of externall things, might returne a proportionate fulnesse in his affections towards God. 42
  • XXII. But Man returnes his Maker nothing but Ingratitude. 44
  • XXIII. Mans Ingratitude that peruerts the verie benefits themselues, to bee instruments of displeasing him that gaue them; still presuming, that because he sees not God, therefore God sees not him. 46
  • [Page] XXIIII. Gods Omniscience, from whose all-pier­cing eye nothing lies hidden. 47
  • XXV. Gods Patience, of which Man hath euer a peruerse consideration, abusing this as hee doth all therest to his owne vndoing. 49
  • XXVI. The great goodnesse and clemency of Al­mightie God, that stayes and expects our repen­tance so long, since the Scripture testifies of him, that he is a consuming fire. 51
  • XXVII. That the Pagans for tempor all benefits of Heate and Light, worshipt the Sunne and Fire. 53
  • XXVIII. Yet the darknesse of meere naturall mens minds is such, that they cannot see the true light indeed. God; which giues all things their light, and is himself the light of Wisdome, and the warmth of Charitie. 54
  • XXIX. Gods Wisdome. 56
  • XXX. His Powre. 60
  • XXXI. Man by his sinfull condition, the Wret­chedst, and the worst of all creatures. 64
  • XXXII. Faire without, foule within. 66
  • XXXIII. We praise substances, but pursue shad­dowes. 69
  • XXXIIII. We follow gaine, not goodnesse. 71
  • XXXV. We dote on earthly pleasures, and seeke happines in them, which notwithstanding are but shadowes of those true ioyes that are aboue. 74
  • [Page] XXXVI. And all earthly torments and mise­ries, no more but shadowes of those that remaine for the damned in Hell. 78
  • XXXVII. A comparison betwixt the great and little world. 82
  • XXXVIII. A [...] Elegie vpon the death of the incomparable Prince Henrie. 88
  • XXXIX. An Elegie vpon Mast. Candish. 90
  • XL. Teares for Sir Tho. O.

[Page] [Page] DIVINE ME­DITATIONS.

CHAP. I.
The shortnesse of mans life in respect of other creatures, yet how prodigall man is of time, esteeming it farre more basely then any other thing, notwithstanding the necessitie of bestow­ing it well since our eternall miserie or happi­nesse depends thereon.

Viue memor quam sis aeui breuis:
Horat. lib. 2. Sat. 6.
Singula de nobis anni predantur euntes.
Idem.
Labimur saeuo rapienti fato.
Ducitur semper noua pompa morti.
Seneca in Oedip.
HOw short's mans life, compar'd with other liues,
The Elephant two hundred yeares suruiues
His time, so doth the long liu'd Hart,
And nature to the Rauen doth impart
Three liues of Harts, and Elephants, altho
The Hamadryad Nymphes thrice hers outgo▪
The longest date that most men here attayne
Is eighty yeares stretcht out with griefe and payne,
[Page 2] And yet, of this, how [...]all a [...] we liue,
Sleepe ch [...]llenges [...] to him to giue:
And youthfull dayes of [...]
A thir [...] of what [...] gayne
No little s [...]are; and do [...]age all the rest.
So of our dayes, our [...]o [...]s poss [...]e the best,
And we our selues [...] en [...]oy a share most small,
Nothing, yet of that nothing prodigall.
There are not many that doe freely lend
Their vtens [...]les, and rayments to their friend.
Because they know [...]ime all things wasts and weares,
Yet doe we [...]end our selu [...]s for many years,
With small [...]eatie. One perswades, to day
To hawke and hu [...]. Tomorrow he toth' play.
This friend to's ma [...]iage, earnestly enuites,
That to solemnize his dead parents [...]tes.
Another crew, they tempt vs to pertake
In quarrels, where our whole times, at the stake.
A thousand pull vs into game, and wine.
Thus doe we lend, and giue our pretious time
Time in whose vse, eternall ioyes doe dwell,
Or woes for things most base we giue and [...]ell.
How much doe we bestow in fruitlesse vice?
In seasts, in fashions, curiosities.
In beastly lusts, nocturnall [...]oule desires.
How much to feed our passions flaming fires?
How much in trim [...]ning vp the head and face,
In singing, dancing, gaming, and things base.
In fruitlesse studies, fraught with toyes and lies,
Fabulous stori [...]s, impertinencies?
Which times so spent, we cannot say that we
Do liue, but that we sleepe, or dreaming be.
How many childlesse men, each where appeares,
Who hauing spent their youth, and best of yeares,
[Page 3]In quest of gayne, and gold so much accurst,
That also loose their latest times; and worst
In griefe of heart, in anguish, and in payne,
In broken sleepes, in sweat and trauels vaine,
Onely to settle their ill gotten pelfes
Where it might no [...] be lost, yet loose themselues?
This body takes vp [...]ll our time, and care.
How many spend whole yeares, heere to prepare,
(Euen for themselues) their marble monuments,
Which in their whole age shewde no prouidence
Nor forecast for the soule? Alas we see,
Nothing but what is obuious to the eye
Our vnderstanding partes, in sence, are drownd,
How many be that for gaine circle rownde
The whole worlds frame, and come home fraught with yeres,
As well as wealth, to whom no time appeares
Fruitfull, themse [...]ues to compa [...]le and to gayne?
Who can account th' innumerable traine
Of those, that giue their time, to others vse?
That goe, or sit, or sleepe, when others chuse,
And ea [...]e still at anothers appetite?
That by commaund doe either lo the, or lyke?
How many that giue vp their times, and lifes,
Still to be conversan: in endlesse strifes,
In following, or directing the affayres,
And suites of other men? Which neuer cares
For that expense of time that brings them coyne?
They sweare, accuse, defend, bribe, and pu [...]loyne,
Like Salamanders, liuing in the fire
Of other mens contentions. Yet desire
Nothing so much as time, which still they leese,
And fondlie sell, to others businesses.
We lauish time, as if it had no end.
No man will share his money with his friend
[Page 4]But time with euery one, we throw away:
We loose each present time, and fay rest day
For good occa [...]io [...]s, and dispose of houres,
Both dayes, and [...]eeres, which often proue not ours.
What darke cloudes ouershade the minds of men?
How crosse affections are assign'd to them?
When olde age comes, and death to claime his due,
How young they be to learne to dy [...], how new?
And time that was still vendible be [...]ore,
They then cry out, us to be bought no more.
We neuer know ti [...]e spends, till ti [...]e be gone,
Then we would giue plate, gold [...] possession,
To the Phi [...]tion but for some few houres.
We wring his [...]. Such is this wit of ours.
The time that Nature giues vs is not small.
We make it little. Spending vainely all.
We liue not to our selues. Those onely liue
That doe themselues to contemplation giue,
To vertuous actions: Practise, and endeuour,
To liue well, so to die wel, and liue euer.

* Nymphae Hamadriades: quorū longissima vitae est. Ausonius

CHAP. II.
That mans hart the seat of the affections is as a tenant for tearme of life, demised and set ouer to the gouernement of Reason, by which it ought to be tilled, and cultiuate; so that in stead of hurt­full weeds, it may bring forth profitable he arbs.

MAn hath a garden thats not very large,
nor very narrow, and it is his charge.
[Page 5]To dresse the same, to prune and looke vnto it,
Least weeds (instead of wholesome hearbs) [...]regrow it.
Tis not his owne, he hath it but for life,
And hence, God knowes, proceeds his care, as strife:
For tide he is, [...]ach day, some fruits to bring,
For this, to him that did demise the thing.
But he (alas) can no way pay his rent,
Tho for the same he knowes he shall be s [...]ent.
For tho he [...]oyle, and labours to his powre,
To kill [...]he weed [...], that soring there eu [...]y howre;
Yet still they multiply, and still grow more,
Out of old rootes, comes new not knowne before
So thicke, that one of seuerall kinds may take
Handfuls at once, but must enquirie make
A long long [...] for [...]ny wholesome plant;
For in this Garden those be wondrous seant:
No Palmes or Vynes grow here for [...]ouers true;
No R [...]semarie (an hearb [...] to Hymen dew;
No h [...]auenly thrift this Garden doth b [...]g [...]t;
Nor honestie (by Nature) neere a whit;
Their growes not int a dram of any Sage;
Some Time, but much neglected till old age:
Roses once grew therein, and Lillies toe,
But in their roomes Hemlocks and Deaths hearbs now:
Hysop, thats giuen by heauen to wash vs cleare,
Oft withers through dispairing Willowes neare.
And bitter Rew that brings our [...]hiefest gaines,
This hardly growes with industrie and paines:
For all this ground's with such fowle weeds growne ouer,
That each iudicious eye may plaine discouer,
The Gardiners most manifest neglect,
Or in the ground some naturall defect.
Both must we grant (defectiue all herein)
That we by shew, not substance measure them▪
[Page 6] Things faire, tho hurtfull, so the sense beguile,
That we them nourish, tho they kill the while.
Vnto our Landlord lets therefore resigne
Our interest: Dispose it Heauen, tis thine;
And He auens bright eie that once wept teares of blood,
Showre grace downe on our hearts, and make thē good.

CHAP. III.
The difference betweene a rude neglected mind, and a mind directed by grace, and gouernd by reasons discipline, instant by example of diffe­rence in grounds.

THe dunghill base neglected ground, that breeds
Nothing but stinking Hemlocks, and vile Weeds;
Butdocks, Briers, Brakes, and contemptible things,
Differs not more from Gardens of great Kings,
Where Art and Nature friendly seeme to vie,
Which should each others worke most beau [...] ifie;
Where cunning Artists hand ingrasts, and stock [...]
The Pistachene, the Peach, or Aprikocks;
Where shadie Groues, rare Fruits, and fragrant Ayre,
Soft downie Carpets, burbbling Fountaines cleare,
Conspire to make a sensuall happiness,
The rude vnpollisht earth differs from these
Not halfe so much (I say), as doth that mind,
Which sen [...]uall lusts and appetites doe bind,
Captiuing reason that should be their King;
Differ from those where artfull pollishing,
All vagrant lusts and [...]oule desire haue tide,
Subdued by Grace, to Reason sanctified.
[Page 7]But as earth doth not of it selfe produce
Those things that are most needfull for mans vse,
Which by much toyle and tillage are acquired.
So those things that by Heauen are most desired,
And sought for in our selues, they doe not grow
From our corrupt affections; but doe flow
From the reflection of that light Diuine,
Without which, darknes doth our soules confine;
Without which, these our hearts most vile fruit brings,
Euen Lusts, Rebellions, Treasons, and worst things:
For earth and man, for sinne together curst,
Nor earth, nor man, seeme what they were at first.
Poore man seemes now like Ierusalems (a) Phane,
The place where God was thought once to remain [...],
And to inhabit, that's become a den
Of theeues, a propugnacle for vile men,
(Gods enemies, that lies for truth belieue)
From whence both God and all his Saints they grieue.
So mans heart that created was to be
A Phane, or Temple for the Deitie;
A Castle, and a Fortresse is become,
To harbor treasons and rebellion
Gainst God and goodnesse. This a Fort is made,
From whence vnclean [...] desires and lusts inuade
The Vnderstanding, and depraue the Will:
So that, that knowes not good, this followes ill.

(a) The Temple of Ierusalem, now a [...] Moschet.

CHAP. IIII.
The best things ab [...]sed most dangerous: for vn­derstanding which in Mans first estate, made him little lesse then Angels; being now deprae­ued, makes him many times more miferable then beasts.

THe fairest and best things thus misapplied,
Seeme fo [...]le, and all their natiue beautie hide.
Gold, that seemes faire for health, or ornament,
Seemes foule when it betrayes the innocent.
Beautie thats good with chastitie and grace,
Seemes vile bestowed vpon th'immodest face:
And vnderstanding which by fa [...]e transcends,
All else wherewith Dame Nature vs befriends,
(The Sunne that should irradiate the soule)
How faire t'was pure? But now depraued, how foule?
The beasts that doe en [...]oy no more then sence,
Doe seeme to this, to offer lesse offence,
Then we to reason: for their appeti [...]e
Doth in it's proper obiects most delight.
The Silk worme that for ornament is g [...]u [...]a,
Her appetite is still the same to spin:
The Bees alone her hony-house to frame;
Both Hawke and Hound haue each their proper Game?
Th'Apodes doe not seeke to goe or swim;
Ayre serues alone to keepe and nourish them.
The Dolphin ner [...] attempts the earth to know.
For if he touch the earth, he dieth so.
Nor seekes the silly Mole to swim or flie,
But in the earth alone to delue and die.
[Page 9]And those same Flies in Cyprian furnac [...] found
(Bred in the fi [...]e) hate water, ayre and ground.
All things, but Man, are streight in their desires;
He onely wrong, where rightnes Heauen requires:
God made him vpright, with erected brow
To looke at H [...]auen, and not with beasts to bow
To earth. God gaue him Angels mind and face,
But he alone seekes things terrean, and base.
The obiect of our intellect is (a) Trewth,
And therefore chiefly God. Put Man pursewth
Nothing so much as falshood, follie, lies,
Instead of substance, shadowes, nullities.
The obiect of our will is also (b) Good,
And goodnesse selfe the chiefest good, thats God:
T [...]o still our minds, and thus depraued will,
Nothing so much affect as what is ill.
God is the obiect of each perfect mind:
But Hell and blacknes in the most we find.
Ou [...] m [...]nd [...]s, like Clocks, composde of many wheeles,
Each day new change, and alteration feeles,
Either they goe too fast, or else too slow;
[...]d [...]e they rust, in action fairely shew.
[...]ach day we must with teares of penitence,
W [...]sh them from foule dust of concupiscence,
And [...] ligen [...]ly wind them vp with care
And meditation, else they fruitles are.

(a) Cum veritas sit obiectum intellectus, idcir­ [...]o id erit maximè obiectum intellectus quod est maximè veritas, essentialiter, & originaliter nem­ [...]e Deus.

Cur [...]rgo intellectus hominis tam difficulter ap­prehend [...]t Deum, ipso Arist. teste. nam 2. Meta­phis. cap. 1. inquit. intellectus hominis habet se [Page 10]adea quae sua natura sunt manifestissima, non se­cus ac occuli vespertilionum ad lumen meridia­num? Respondetur sicut sol sua natura est maxi­me visibilis, quia per solem omnia siunt visibilia, ita quoque Deum sua natura esse maxime intelli­gibi [...]m, quia per Deum omnis humanus intelle­ctus illuminatur. Quod autem sol a vespertilio­nibus non recte videacur, id soli penitus per acdi­dens esse, & totum oriri à defectu in oculis vesper­tilionum, at que ade [...] quod Deus ab homine non it a clare intelligatur id non esse à natura Dei, sed à defectu, qui est in homine. Keckerman. Sest. phiss. l [...]. 4.

(b) Vt Deus quoque tanquam prima veritas est maxime intelligibilis, sic vt prima bonit as est summe volibilis, ibidem: prout enim cognoscimus it a volumus.

CHAP. V.
The combate betwixt Reason and the sensuall ap­petites.

Diis proximus ille est,
Quem Ratio, non Ira mouet.
THe eruell Beares amongst themselues agree,
The Wolfe to Wolues is not an enemy:
[Page 11]But man to man is still the greatest foe;
Nay, man himselfe vnto himselfe is so,
Whose faculties seeme into parties sided,
Irrationall from [...]ationall deuided;
Like campes of enemies that quarter keepe
With watchfull Sentinels that seldome sleepe,
Fearing surprisall and inuasion:
For (a) Reason in the head which hath his throne,
Obedience of the heart as Prince requires:
But (b) th'he art of r [...]bell lusts and foule desires
Of passions and deprau'd affections seate
Shakes off all dutie, and d [...]th ill entreate
Reason her King; inuading so the mind,
That Reason seemes to yeeld, and to resigne
His soueraigntie; op [...]rest with force and might
Of those, that shold obey by law and right.
Reason in vaine perswades this crew to law,
To patience, to obedience and iust awe
Vnto the King of Kings, which hath him sent
His lawfull substitute in gouernment.
For th're bell Passions and Desires accurst,
All bonds of dutie and obedience burst,
Trampling the l [...]yall subiects vnderfoote,
Hu [...]ilitie by Pride is beaten out,
And Loue by Hatred; and Co [...]upiseence
To Temperance commits no lesse offence,
Despaire wounds Hope; Crueltie, Mercie kills;
Pr [...]ph [...]nenes weighes downe P [...]e [...]ie with ills.
[...]uarice locks vp Bountie; [...]npudence
Whips away Modestie; Maleuolence,
Beneu [...]lence; and what is most vniust,
White Chasteti [...] is slaue to filthy Lust.
Reuen [...]e cries out for murder, and for blood;
Reason perswades, and councells, tis not good:
[Page 12]But Anger brusts forth to the palace flies,
And there sets all a fire, the face and eies,
Enuy like venombde Aspes in dust which lies
Vnseene, or spied, stings reason secretly.
Pleasure charmes him with her sleepie spell,
That so Securitie at ease may kill.
Ambition beares him then with wings on high,
Aboue the Mountaines and the lower Skie,
To some high precipisse, where seruile Feare,
The last, and worst, insults vpon him there.
Yet sometime Reason doth her foes conuin [...]c,
Displaying th'ensigne of white Innocence,
And guarded by faire Virtues, doth in fight
Vanquish, and put these hell black bands to flight:
Tho much more oft their strengths so equall seeme,
That whose the victor is, not clearely seene.
But (d) Reasons appetite seldome preuailes,
For that of Sense, this violently hales
Vpon the wings of [...]oule desires to ill,
Most oft without the minds discourse or will;
Because that moues without this, this not so,
Till free from this her instrument she goe.
They chase each other; sometime these decline,
And sometime those, then gaint another time,
Th'enlightned mind would meditate or pray,
But th'appetite that all for ease cries, nay.
So when this moues for pleasure, lust, or sleepe,
Then that relucts. Thus warres they euer keep [...].
Who maruels then that houses often flame,
Where Guests so contrarie inhabit them:
When the affections striue to tumble downe
Reason, whom Nature gaue so faire a Crowne,
With purpose that all things should it obey.
But how's this warre? do contraries beare sway
[Page 13]In the soules simple essence? Can there be
In Reason an irrationalitie?
Or doe three soules deuided vs possesse,
As learned Plato sometime did professe?
Or ist our sensuall appetites that still
Peruert our minds, sinne darkned, and our will,
Which looke but at time present and obiect
Things proper to themselues to th'intellect,
In stead of proper obiects, and true good,
Perswading to false obiects, and false good.
Th'affections these depraued, darken the mind:
Desires that should be bound our soules fast bind
In Gyues of sinne, till Grace illuminate
The mind, and free it from this captiue state.

(a) Cerebrum esse solium animae rationalis, & sedem omnium animalium facultatum. vide Ga­len. de placitis lib. 3.

(b) Cor omnino est fons affectum in quo & ori­untur & de sinunt ideó sacra scriptura frequen­tissimè cor pro aff [...]ctibus sumit, & saluator noster inquit ex corde oriri cogitationes bonas vel malas, non quasi in corde sunt proxima instrumenta cogi­ [...]andi (illa [...]nim sunt in cerebró) sed quia cor est [...]edes & instrumentum appetitus sensualis siue af­fectus, & commouet animum, ad cogitationem vel [...]onum, vel malum. Keckerman sestem. phi. lib. 3. [...]ap. 26. Sicut humorum generatio non est posita [...]n arbitrio & voluntate hominis ex omni parte it a [...]uoque affectum ebullitio non erit omnino posita in [...]ominis potestate, quia homo non tantum homo est, [Page 14] sed & animal est atque adeo instrumenta & cau­sas proritantes affectuum perinde patitur, vt & alia animalia theorema. 6. Ibid.

(c) Inter [...]um vel diuina luce radiata, vel ex­culta disciplinis, vel vsu excercitata at que in s [...] collect a, perindè at que facto globo de pellet hostes, Scaliger. excert. 307.

(d) Duae sunt species appetitus intellectiuus qui vocatur voluntas & sensitiuus qui appellatur cupiditas. Quod autem appetitus moueat sine in­tellectu, patet: quia cupiditas, quae est aliàs spe­cies appetitus, mouet sine intellectu imo plerumque repugnat intellectui. Arist. de an. l. 3. c. 11.

Deliberandi vim appetit us sensitiuus non habet, vi [...]cit autem interdum & mouet voluntatem: quamdogue autem illa hunc, siculi sphaera, appeti­tus scilic [...]t appetitum quando incontin [...]ntia fit, na­turaliter vero facultas superior est potior, et mouetur. adeo vt tribus lationibus iam moueatur. Arist. de anima. l. 3. c. 11. tribus lat [...]onibus, et sicnti sphae­ra. i. qua volunt as & cupiditas pugnant. 2. qua volunt as victoriam acquirit. 3. qua cupidit as vin­cit. Iulius tamen S [...]aligerus in hanc sent entiam, nullo modo duci queat. haec sunt enim eiusdem ver­b. 1. Non tam esse aquae contrarium ignem arbitror quam tò logecòn tô alógo anima & Quocirco vt est eadem vis, qua suscipit verum & faisum: quae falsum delet superuentu veritatis, ita erit eadem [Page 15]facultas animae, quam non bona species moue at pri­mum: mox vero bo na vellicet, ad non bon am expel­lendam, &c. exce [...]t. 307. 5.

Attamen incontinentiae exemplo (vt mihi videtur) opti­ [...]è designauit Aristoteles motuum horum contrarietatem. Adulter enim per vicum, siue iuxta aedes, amasiae suae tran­siens occasionê commodâ annuente, temptatione eadem vocantê, cupiditatê eadem & libidinê stimulantê, aliquan­do intrat, aliquando non, vincente nempe ratione aliquan­do, iterumque Cupidine.

(e) Cū autem appetitus fiant inter se cōtrarij (quod quidem accidit, quum ratio & cupiditas contrarij appetitus sunt, ac fit in ijs quae temporis sensum ha­bent: intellectus enim propter id quod est futurum, reluctari iubet: cupiditas autem est propter id quod iam est. [...]uia quod iam est, iucundū, videtur & sim­pliciter iucūdū, et simpliciter bonū, propter ea quod nō videt quod est futurū. Arist. de anima. l. 3. c. 11

CHAP. VI.
An amplification of the same by way of compari­son to a Cittadell besieged and betrayed.

THus man is like a Towne fortified well
With circling walls and high built Cittadell
[...]n place most eminent, where Warders stand
Still prest to act their Gouernors command,
[...]n fitting seruice readie to expose
Their safeties to repell their open foes,
And to giues blowes for blowes most readily
To each profest and open enemy.
[Page 16]But when deceit puts on a friendly face,
And offers gold, or greatnes, in this case,
They rocke the Conscience, and with seeming gaine,
Doe selfe-consuming treasons entertaine.
Yet because these cannot so freely do,
Except the Gouernour consent thereto:
They runne with no small tumult to aske leaue,
That instantly they may themselues bereaue
Of happines and freedome, for some ends
Obi [...]cted by their foes, but seeming friends:
Which if the ruler, Reason do denie,
Th' affections streight fall into mutinie.
Malice bursts forth (and armd with ancient grudge)
Perswades the rest, that Reason's no fit Iudge
Of this their present grieuance: for while they
Labour with wants and wounds both night and day,
He feeles not these misfortunes. Auarice
The money and rewards she amplifies.
Ambition speakes of dignities and place,
That will be got by yeelding in this case.
Dispaire and Feare then muster all our wants,
And still the forces of our foes aduance,
Vp to a triple number. So that here
The Captaine both affail'd with Hope and Feare
Seemes doubtfull, which they taking for consent,
Force him to accomplish this their worst intent,
Tho not to yeeld the place, yet to take in
(In stead of Innocence and Goodnes) Sinne
Rebel [...]ous Lusts, and Treasons base and ill,
Gainst God, which gaue this mansion to his will,
The Senses and the Members seruants fit,
To operate and doe the precepts writ,
In Reasons tables, tho too often they
Themselues, and this their soueraigne doe betray
[Page 17]Both to their owne and Gods foes, and are sold
For base de [...]ires, and thirst of cursed Gold.

CHAP. VII.
The blindnesse and slupiditie of man aboue all other creatures which [...]uery one know, and by all means oppugne that enemie which Nature hath assigned them; onely he admits and lodges in his bos [...] me that enemie, which alone hath most power to destroy him, namely, Sinne.

HOw much are men then beasts more foolish still?
We know not friends from [...]oes which worke our ill,
The Owle, t'auoyd the Crow, trauels by night.
The Vulture shuns the Kingly [...]les sight.
The (a) Egithus torments the Asse her foe,
Because her scrubbing doth so o [...]t orethrow
Her younglings, and the [...]error of her bray,
Frighes them so, that to the earth down dead fall they,
The' Elephants noce the sod where mans foote treads.
The Crocodile th'lchnewmon knowes and dreads.
Th'Aspe shuns the Spider, and Camelion
The Rauen knowes, and feares the (b) A esalon;
Which (tho a little Bird) her time still spies
To take the liues of her young enemies.
The Hyen feares mans footing, and doth know
(Tho neuer seene before) that hee's her foe.
Nature to beasts imparts this wit and light,
That they discerne their foes at the first sight.
But man, then beasts more blind, and more vnwise,
Cannot distinguish friends from enemies.
[...] poysonous serpent lodges in his brest.
Few will beleeue that such a noysome guest
[Page 18]Harbours so neare. But Iuie not entwines
The Oke so fast, as this our heart strings bindes;
Where pietie and vertue should haue place,
Our greatest [...]oe, this serpent we embrace.
Tho folly is not Youths more constant Page,
Disease and dotage nearer kin to age,
Then is destruction to the Serpents sting.
The Serpent that I mention here, tis Sinne;
An egge first by that worst of Serpents layd,
Which more then all the Serpents hath decayd.
The As [...]e and two-headed Am [...]hisbena;
The Ba [...]iliske and Catablepha.
The horn'd Cerastes, Alexandrian Sckincke,
Dipsas and Drynas, causing thirst and stincke [...]
The [...]yper, Scorpion, and Sallamander,
The (c) Remora, Torpedo, Scolopender,
(d) T [...]rantula that wines effects procures,
Mirth, sadnes, madnes, all which musick cures.
The amorous (e) Pederotes manlike faest,
The (f) Higoana, delicate in taste;
The monstrous Boae, harmelesse vnprouokt,
The fearefull Dragons, in selfe knots fast yokt,
Their teeth and stings this flesh alone annoy:
But these both bodies doe, and soules destroy.

(a) Aegitho prelium cum asino est proptereae quod asinus spin [...]tis sua vlcera scabendi causa atte­rat. tum igitur ob eam rem, tum etiam, quod si vocem rudentis audierit oua abigat per abortum, pulli etiam metu labantur in terran [...]. itaque ob eam iniuriam aduolans vlcera eius ros [...]ro exca­uat. Arist. Hist. de animal, l. 9. c. 1.

(b) Plin. & Arist.

(c) Haec tria refert Arist. inter serpentum ge­nera. Hist. an. l. 2. c. 14.

(d) Ex morsu Tarantulae aliqui sopore occu­pantur, sed non pauciores perpetuis vigillijs distra­huntur. Alij flent: alij risu diffunduntur qui­dam currunt. non nulli inertes sedent. Sunt qui su­dent, qui vomant, qui insaniant, &c. Scal. excert. 185.

(e) Octonum pedum sunt serpentes in mallabar, aspectu horribiles innoxij tamen nisi irritentur. Puerorum amore capiuntur quocirca pederotes eos libuit appellare. pueros enim diut urno content oque aspectu, sine maleficio contuentur. Dum iacent Anguillina eorum facies est. vbi surrexerunt, ita dilat ant illam, vt ad humanam effigiem propius ac­cedat. Scal. excer. 183.

(f) Higoana longus est pedes amplius ternos. pro delicatissimo cibo venalis est in mercatibus. ibidem.

CHAP. VIII.
The prayse of Innocence.

BLest Innocence, how faire a thing art thou?
Thou needst not feare the Maurita [...]an bow:
A brazen wall thou art, that doest defend
From dangers all, thy Owner and thy Fr. en [...].
[Page 20]For when by chance the impious shooter hits;
Thy wounds redounds to thee, as benefits.
In pouertie and want the worldling faints:
But these with hope and patience thee acquaints.
In Stormes at sea, in Earthquakes and in Thunder,
Then quakes the guiltie man, and cleaues in [...]under.
But Innocence no change at all doth feele
At sight of tyrants, tempests, fires, or steele.
Blest Innocense, then Lillies farre more white,
The vernall Roses are not halfe so sweete;
More cleare, and faire, then all those beauties go [...],
On Christall fronts, of Thames, of Scy [...]e, and Po [...].
The Silks of T [...]urus, cloth of Tyrus die,
Are ornaments of no such dignitie,
The Cypresse, Ceader, and the Ebene locks,
The stateliest Towres with Chyan marble tops,
Reach not so neare to heauen. The flowrie greene
So flourishing and fresh, doth neuer seeme.
The Mines of Peru and of Ophir, be
Vnto their owners not so rich as thee,
Which then the bright Carbuncles of Cambai [...],
And stones, do'st far more brighter beames display.
The seats of Kings, and most resplendant throne,
With beames more bright then thine, they neuer shone.
Oh holy Innocence, which good men loue;
The Manna of the Saints, and soules aboue!
How poore are all these things to shew thy praise?
Yet still we tell thee for the worst of these.

CHAP. IX.
A deploration of mans misery, subiect to so many tribulations and errours in this life, more then other creatures.

OH then what tongue can speake, what wit discri [...]
The wretched state of mans sad miserie!
Begot in sinne, and form'd in grones and teares;
Brought forth with pain, bred vp with cares & feares▪
Pollisht in youth, ofttimes with fruitlesse Art,
In riper age to giue each better part,
To feede of pride and lust, the fatall fires,
We pine our soules, to feast our foule desires.
We kill our friends, to fe [...]de and cloth our foes,
And at their lure we stoope to greatest woes.
Blind in our selues, depriu'd of heauenly light,
We praise the day, but yet pursue the night,
We health commend, yet deare dis [...]ses buy.
We honour wealth, yet run for poue [...]tie.
We wish for ease, ye [...] seeke our owne [...],
We couer Kingdomes, yet forgo the best
For trash and toyes: then Indi [...]ns more vnwise,
That sell pure Gold for basest merchandize▪
Oh happie you in libertie created,
That to disease and death were neuer [...]ated!
Man onely may lament, that liues exiled
From Heauen his country, and is forc't to buil [...]
These brittle mansions in this barren clay,
Where mists and dampie vapours euery day,
Cause vs our path directed homeward misse,!
And oft to fall from [...]ome high precipise.
[Page 22] Downe to the center; oft in foule myres fall,
And there like swine st [...]ll wallow; Often call
In vaine for mortall helpe. The wisest err,
Being still misled b [...] this [...]ild wanderer:
And most, when most of all o [...] H [...]uen they tell,
And thinke they touch the Gates, then knock at Hell.
O [...] God how blest were man [...] be were w [...]e?
But as he is, how full of miseries?
You scalie creatures in the [...], deepe,
Which know not what it is to [...]igh or weepe:
You flying armies in the ayre that houer;
Yo [...], you are blest that mens griefes nere discouer.
You Heards are happy, that one hills doe [...]eed,
Free from the woes that humaine hearts doe breed.
You smiling Flowers, in colours freshly seene;
You lowly Vallies, clothed in louely greene;
You fruitfull Oliues, se [...] in comely rankes,
You long liu'd Cedars, on Grot [...]es bankes,
Your state is blest; you flourish, fade and die,
And know not any future miserie.

CHAP. X.
A further exemplification of mans misery by com­parison to flowers, to leaues, to fields, to fishes.

THe race of men is like the leaues of trees,
The greatest part whereof in ditches fall,
Or straw the durtie earth, tost by the brize
Of wanton winds that spor [...] themselues withall:
Few doe they lay aloft on towres of state,
Much fewer thence doe not precipitate.
The race of men are like the Flowers, that be
By Nature giuen their mother Earth t'adorn [...]
As well with beautie, as varietie
Of their indowments. Some haue comely form:
But little vertue. Noble some, not faire;
Some great, but weake; some small, whose force most rare.
Oft-times misplast. The cordiall Violet
And fragrant Rose in ditch or high-way side:
And Henbane, and Cicuta ranke, vnset,
In fairest Gardens, are not seldome spied.
But most in this doe we resemble Flowers,
We spring, we flourish, wither in few howres.
The race of men are like the scalie traine,
Of nimble Fish, in siluer Iourdans streame,
That while they follow prey, or sportfull game,
(Ignorant of the danger nearest them)
Fall with the sliding waues, that swiftly fli [...]
Into the Mare Mortuum, and die.
The world's a streame, most pleasing to our e [...]es,
But from our sights much faster, swifter gliding,
Then Iourdan to the Mar [...] Mortuum flies,
The Fish are men, that in the same are biding,
Who while in Pleasures streames they bathe & dwell,
Are carried downe therewith, and slide to Hell.
Now for the Leaues and Flowres, they may accuse
The Winds, that most their beauties doth deface.
The Fish, of apprehension most obtuse,
May challenge Nature for their wretched case.
But man, that little lesse then Angels knowes,
Can blame none but himselfe for all his woes.

CHAP. XI.
Mans estate in this present world, resembling a ship tost vpon the waters, described with her tackling, what it now is, and what it ought to b [...]; written at Sea, as a Sea-compass [...] f [...]r Saylors, but may serue for any profession.

THis flesh is but the barke [...]nto the soule,
Whose Harbour's Heauen, and the [...]arth her Sea;
Her lading's sinne, which when the weather's foule,
Still shoores and hazards ruine instantly:
Tho it misdoubting neither threatning skies,
Nor wants, nor haplesse Pilot onward [...].
Tho all wrong s [...]ted Sayles and M [...]s [...]s all wrong,
Her Shrouds are Vanitie, her rigging, Pride;
Her M [...]s [...]s, Youth, Strength; [...]he Saile that b [...]a [...]e her on,
Custome and Ignorance. She knowes not tide
But th' [...]bs & Floods of Fortune which [...] proue her,
Loue, Hate, Feare, Hope, these be the winds that moue her.
Her Houlds ill mann'd, there Ease and barren Sleepe,
Se [...]uritie and Vnbeliefe lie sn [...]rting:
Scor [...]e, Stubborn [...]esse, Reuenge the Hatches keepe,
And Au [...]ries her [...]earesman still stands porting.
Desire the Master, Sensuall appetite
Her Compasse, from the right way wander equite.
Her Ordnance are Othes; Pikes Pollicies
Cables and Anchors, Fortunes various measures.
While thus accommodated, swift she flies,
About the world to seeke the Ports of Pleasure
And Game. [...]ho missing these she ofter hit
Destruction and Dispatres sad Rocks, and [...]plit.
Therefore this way to ruine leading iust,
Needs must this tyre and [...]ackle altred be.
R [...]penta [...]ce therefore be her lading must;
Then must Humil [...]e and Modestie
Be Shrouds and Tackle for her. Patience
Must be her Masts; and snow-white Inno [...]ence.
Wisdome and Knowledge ought the Sayles to be:
The Tides t'obserue, are th'ebbs and floods of Grace;
Her W [...]nds are Thank fulnesse and Pietie:
Loue, Char [...]tie, which driue to heauen apace.
Her men are Vigilancie, Warinesse,
Diligence, Constancie, Contentednesse.
Her Stearesman must be Prouidence herein;
Gods Sp [...]rit her Master, Compasse Holy Writ;
Her Ordnance they must be Sighs for [...]in:
Pikes, Prayers; Bullets, Teares: thus must she fight.
The [...]ables whereupon she may depend,
Are Faith a [...]d Hope in Christ h [...]r onely friend.
Obedience is her Port and place of stay;
And Honesty and Vertue, there's her fraight;
Where if she lade, bright Bethlems Starre both day
And night, shall guide [...]er course from dangers straight;
Vnto the Port of [...]oy, to liue with him
In his Caelestiall Ierusalem.

CHAP. XII.
The benefit of Constancie for those that must saile through these dangerous Seas:

NOw you that in this worlds wide sea doe saile,
Still trusting that faire wind, and happie tide,
Calme weather, and smooth sea shall neuer faile,
But friend you still: you reckon mainely wide.
The waues of this our constant seeming Ocean
Are most vnconstant, rowl'd with restlesse motion.
One while a swelling surge beares vs on high,
As if to Heauen-ward it would make our way:
And, that past by, another instantly
Seemes in the lowest center vs to lay.
Still are we tost, and feare: but nothing armes
Vs, sauing constancie, from these their harmes.
For tho the stormes encrease, and weather thick;
Tho seas and winds seeme rebels to their Lord;
Yet Constancie will to her tackling stick,
When desperate men amaz'd leape ouer-board;
And (fearing one) doe into two deaths run:
But Constancy will keepe her cargazon.
Some minds are but with earthly obiects fed:
But perfect soules doe flie a higher pitch:
In deepest waues they beare aloft their head,
(While many a worldling drownes in euery ditch;)
Tho prest by wants, and enuies waues, oft-times
Halfe swallowed: yet are such minds rich as Mines.
For these liue euer, those exhausted be,
Or lost by death: but these all times suruiue,
While carrion wits, which onely at dung flie;
When Fortune frownes, euen (a) Lotos like they di [...]e
In the cold frozen streames of sad dispare,
And till she shine againe they buried are.
But Constancie with no false feares can welt:
No sad Dispaire can lodge within her mind;
Nor is she like those leaden soules that melt,
When to the fires of triall they're assign'd:
For she reflects all sorrowes, and to death
At last giues thanks for taking of her breath.

(a) The Lotos of Euphrates is one of the Solisequij, in the morning when the Sunne rises she puts vp her head aboue the water, as it were to look vpon the face of her Louer, and to congratulate his returne, and still more and more aduancing her head till the Sunne come to the Meridian, and then as he begins to decline, it declines, and at his setting puts her head vnder water, and so discen­ding still lower and lower till midnight, at which time the Watermen can hardly find it with their longest poles and crookes. Pliny.

CHAP. XIII.
A further expression of the incessant troubles and sorrowes to which men are subiect in this life, and especially those men that meane best; with the benefit of Patience.

BVt should we now on fate, or our selues plaine,
Since euery thing hath limit saue mans woe?
Time doth the winter, spring, day, night contein [...]
In bounds. Stormes blow not still. Seas sometime flow
As well as ebb. But vnto some men fall,
Saue Winters Darknes, Ebbs, Stormes nought at all.
Time giues the busie Bee a time to rest:
The Halcyon hauing built her house lies Inn.
The warie Ant in winter keepes her neast.
The silly Silkeworme doth not eue [...] pinn.
The easefull Horse knowes night, and painefull Oxe,
Is then but seldome forc [...] to beare the yoaks.
Th'Obdorians die but once a yeare with frost▪
The Ceremissi haue not euer night.
The sunne-burnt Negroes doe not alwaies roast
In Phaebus Kitchin: nor the Hungars fight.
The Tiuitiuas and th'Egyptians Beare,
Their Vtensyles to trees but once a yeare.
Amongst the scalie creatures is but one
That neuer rests, the Dolphin musicks louer.
Of beasts except the slaues poore Asse, theres none,
Onely of birds Moluccacs plumy rouer:
And of men, those that best themselues maintaine
For God and vertue, these no peace here gaine.
The numbers of their tribulations farre exceed
The numbers of the busie swarmes that dwell
In the Sarmatian Woods, or spawnes that breed
In Neptunes mansions, or the Oceans shells:
The number of their sorrowes doth surmount
Th'Atlantique sands, or thoughts most swift account.
These men resemble Forts beleagured strait,
Without with fresh assaults, and batteries prest;
Within by traytors, whom the foes faire bait,
Tempt still to yeeld, to gaine a seeming rest
From Sorrowes rage, which those men onely harmes
That fight, but haue not Patience for their armes.

CHAP. XIIII.
Description of Sorrow.

FOr Sorrow like a tyrant fierce and keene,
Destroyes all that this heauenly patience misse:
For euery day she sifts them with fresh teene,
And plowes them vp with her new miseries,
And weares them, as the wheele the yeelding clay,
Except they paue with patience euery day.
Me thinks I gladly would to Sorrow frame
A face, and giue it such a shape and forme,
As once it had, that to my fansie came
In darksome night, when sleepe was from me torne
By boyling cares, that banisht from my brest
Repose, and left my minds sick thoughts distrest.
Me thought she was a woman lanke and bare,
But yet composde of bones, and sinewes strong;
Her hands and feet like Harpies, arm'd they were;
Two sable wings vpon her shoulders hung:
Her brest was glasse, halfe cleare, and halfe obscure:
That shewed her heart, this formes false and impure.
A Chaplet boare she on her head forlorne
Of Oke growne (a) Iuie, and of Cypresse bough,
Wouen with the shaper twigs of the Black-thorne,
To stay her dangling tresses, white as snow:
The Mantle that she woare was wrought of Skins
Of (b) Sallamanders, and of (c) Reremy [...]e wings.
Her eyes like toth' (e) Hyena's eyes appeares:
Her voice to (f) Screech owles, and to Mandrakes-like;
And of (g) Torpedoes skinne, a whip she beares
In hand; wherewith what folke so ere she strike,
Turne either Gold or Iron. (h) Th'other hand
A Deadly Mace of Iron doth command.
Some of a hill in Iseland, Hecla tell,
(i) Hels mouth for strang fires, & lost soules plaints famd)
Their in a caue of (k) Scyros stone's her Cell
When shee's at home. Her Porter Losse is nam'd.
Her page Desertion is. Dissease her seede,
Clamour Torpour. Blood her drinke. Harts her feed.
I am dolor in more [...] venit meus: vtque caducis
Percussu crebro, saxa cauantur aquis,
Sie ego continuo fortunae vulneror ictu,
Vix qu [...] habet in nobis iam noua plaga locum.
Ne [...] magis assidu [...] vomer tenuatur ab vsu:
Nec magis est curuis Appia trita rotis,
Pectora quam mea sunt serie calcata
Malorum.—Ouid.
Now Sorrow to a habit's turn'd in me:
For as the stones by often drops are cleft,
So by th'incessant strokes of Fortune I
Am wounded, and no place in me is left
For newer wounds. The Plough-shares not more worne▪
With daily v [...]e, nor th'Appian way more torne
With wheeles, then my brest with this tract of ills.

(a) Sorrow adornes her selfe with those things that signifie destruction, mixt with thorny cares that euer keepe her waking.

(b) And, like the Sallamanders that extin­guish fire, with the coldnesse of her melancholie disposition seemes to put out the fires of loue and [...]erriment.

(c) Shuns the light as the Bat, and as it were clothes her selfe in darknesse.

(d) Making those shee lookes on with her eyes, heauy and lumpish.

(e) Her discourse and conference being iust, as seasonable and pleasing, as the Screech-howles to any, but those that haue with her communitie of oc­casions.

(f) Those that are but afflicted with the losse [...]f temporarie things, as health, friends, fortunes, [...]r all these, with holy Iob, they seeme but to be a lit­ [...]le benumbd only with the chastisment of her whip.

(g) But those which loose Gods grace, fauour and mercie, with Iudas, those shee seemes to kill, and vtterly to destroy with her Mace of Iron.

(h) Plaste at Hel-mouth, because she leads either to despaire (who k [...]pes at [...] entrance of hell) or [...]lse to Repentance by whom we passe, [...] by the Gates of hell to heauen.

(i) F [...]igned to liue in a Tombstone, or Sarch [...] ­phage, because the house where sorrow d [...]th inh [...] ­bit, is to this flesh no better then a perpetuall con­sumption, and a graue. The stones calld Sarcho­phagiare found in a Countrie of Asia, in a place called Sciros. Plinie.

CHAP. XV.
The member of our sorrows which seeme infinite, till they be compared with the number of our sin [...]es, whose numberlesse number nothing exceeds but the infinite mercies of A [...]mightie God.

I Wish I could mans sorrows summe, and [...]enne,
Bandied like balls, twixt faults and punishments,
Whose punishments so close succeed his sinne,
As shadows doe the substance, that fore-went
Beautie, strength, wealth and wit, the gifts of heauen
To be lost at these hazards, oft are giuen.
The miseries and sorrowes, cares and feares,
That here assault him euery day and howre,
In number like the Russian swarmes appeare;
In nature like the [...]ygers that deuoure;
Or Nubian Lions, feeding on his heart,
Disfiguring the face and eu [...]ry part.
The poysons wherewith they infest our minds,
Tormenting more then all the banefull weeds
That doe enrage or stupifie. The kinds
Of Serpents, Dipsas, Drynas lesse paine breds:
Mans owne hart to himselfe so much doth yeeld,
Of sinnes and sorrowes the most fertill field.
The number of which sorrowes doth surmount
(Excepting sinnes) all other terren things.
The grasse, the leaues, the sand, in sinnes account:
The s [...]alie traine, and creatures that haue wings,
Fall short, compared with this. Of numbers none
Exceeds the number of our sinnes, but one.
Gods mercies, which as Heauens bright tapers are,
Or siluer dewes of Hermons fertill hill,
More faire then Ormu [...] Pearle or Diamonds farre;
More sweet then all the Balsams that distill
Out of the Plants the Memphyan Gardens hold;
Richer then Chyna's Mines, or Congian Gold.
Gods mercies are as many as our words
And thoughts: for euery word and thought is sin.
Thence since each sinne, eternall death affords,
And by his mercies these so oft forgiu'n;
Who can Gods mercies infinite expresse,
For boundlesse woes, who giues eternall blesse?

CHAP. XVI.
The great comfort in Gods excellent mercies, in which we may find rest after all our miseries.

GOds mercies are the deluge of his loue:
For as his Iustice once did ouerfloe,
And sad destruction to the world did proue.
So doth the deluge of his mercie now
Flow freely ouer all men, and to all
That for the same with constant faith do call.
Not mightie Volga with her seuentie mouthes,
Not Greekish Danow, on whose sides there stands
Those regall Townes; not Nyger that by droughts
Is twice deuoured of Affricks thirsting sands:
Zayr, Nile, and Magn [...]ce, all vni [...]ed, are
Not with this Riuers vastnes to compare.
Not cleare Maragnon with her siluer waues,
Not R [...]wleane, nor Plate, which from the Mine
Within Peruuian Mountaines intrals laues
Rich Grauel (fearing sore the Ocean Queene,
As emptie handed vassals to appeare:)
These be not halfe so rich, nor halfe so cleare.
The Bramme [...]es, and the Heathen Indians, who
In (a) Ganges seeke their sinnes to wash, and elense,
The vertues of this Riuer doe not know,
Nor they that doe themselues in Indus rense.
But we in this alone perfection find,
Health, Beautie, Wealth, & Bounty all combind.
The Prophets and the holy Patriarchs
Washt in this [...]urdane, and therein found health:
So did the Saints and Churches great Nauerches:
And [...]o doe we, who me [...] with no lesse wealth:
All drinke, or may, for this is neuer drie,
Because the Fountaine is E [...]er [...]i [...]ie.
Some of two Phrygian Fountaines [...]e [...]l strange things,
(b) Cleon and Gelon; th'one exciting teares,
The other gladnesse. But two stranger Springs
More opposite in humain flesh appeares;
Sinne that both teares and death it selfe procures,
And Mer [...]y in Christs blood, which life assures.

(a) The Indians haue a superstitious conceit of Ganges, and thinke themselues much sanctified by washing therein, and giue great gifts to the poore, when they come on pilgrimage thereto. Hier. Xab. and they doe the like to the Riuer Indus.

(b) Plin. lib. 30. cap. 2.

CHAP. XVII.
The greatnesse of his Bountie.

BVt hence appeares another Riuer now
Great as the former, which doth also spring
From the same Fount, and doth as largely flow
Through all this All, bedewing euery thing.
Gods louing bounty which doth all things cherish,
Which all things made, and all things stil doth nourish▪
Which to expresse an hundred tongues need I,
Archimides his engines all are vaine:
(a) Strabo the hundred part could neuer see
Of this great Riuer, which seemes such a Mayne,
That Latitudes and Altitudes preuaile
Nothing; to measur't all dimensions faile▪
The Macedonian Prince I call to mind,
That thought not what he gaue, but what was meet,
And diuers Caesars that vnto their friends,
To part with Kingdomes haue reputed light
But humaine bounties all too short they be;
They giue their friends, Heauen giues his enemy.
For God tho he fore-see, and well fore-know,
That man his vassall will turne enemie,
And a rebellious refractorie foe,
Ingratefull fraught with deepe impietie:
Yet for him frames this fabrick great and high,
Full stored with blessings, crownd with roialtie.
Oh boundlesse praise of true magnificence,
That doth not seeke his foes to ouercome
By force, but to reclaime them, and conuince
By bounties, and by benefits alone:
And to that end doth euery day vs proue,
With streames of gifts, to win vs to his loue.
With many a present doth he hourely woe vs,
From euery danger charie to defend:
Much like a wounded louer seemes he to vs;
Tho wretched we neglect our dearest friend,
Which doth at no peculiar profit aime.
What's lost we loose: if ought be gaind, we gaine.

(a) Plinie and Solinus report, that one Strab [...] from a promontorie of Sicily could see and count the ships setting forth of Carthage, distant eightie miles. So Linus, lib. 7. cap. 5. Plin. lib. 7. cap. 20.

CHAP. XVIII.
The same bountie further enlarged.

OH that my Muse could on her nimblest wings,
Mount you alo [...]t beyond the foggy aire,
Past the reflection of all terrene things,
And sublimate your soules to things more faire;
That touching these terrestriall beauties, we
Might rather, heare, thinke why, then what they be.
First, what a spatious and maiestick Hall,
Full of officious se [...]uan [...]s for your vse,
Hath Heauen ordained to entertaine you all?
Wherein if any want, tis but th'abuse
Of foule excesse, whose surfets wasts the store,
That might supply the needies wants twice or [...].
With what a downie Carpet hath he spread
The flowrie earth, to entertaine your feete;
Where euery plant and flowre that shewes his head,
Brings with it profit, wonder and delight?
How many a pretty flie with spotted wing,
Vpon there slender stalkes their Canzons sing?
How many fruitfull Champains feeding flocks?
How many beautious Forrests clad in greene
Where watry Nimphes with soft embraces locks;
Such shadie Groues, as for true Loue may seeme
Fit Chappels (to the winged singers layes,
And burbling streames) to chaunt true Beauties praise.
Yet more he lodges in earths secret vaines,
Ten thousand things of farre more valued prise▪
And th' Sea for pleasure, and for vse conteines
The choisest beauties, richest sinells▪ and dies.
Thus hath our Maker for touch, tast and smell,
For Eie and Eare, puruey'd compleatly well.
But man himselfe alone must fe [...]d the mind,
And contemplation onely cooks the dish.
What is it then? Hath Heauen all these assigned
For our vse, to that end we should be his?
Then must we giue him one poore little part,
(The onely thing he craue [...]) A thankefull heart.

CHAP. XIX.
His Benificence.

IF from a friend some trifle we receiue
Some bracelet, gloues, or some such common thing▪
We thinke our selues ingratefull, if we leaue
These vnrequi [...]ed; and can we lesse bring
To him, which giues vs all that we possesse,
Then the poore hearts true loue, and thankfulnesse?
How can his r [...]iall bounties be exprest?
The things ordained for ornament and vse;
The various fare prepar'd to feast his guests;
Where each one for his appetite may chuse.
Oh who can count the various kinds of creatures,
Their wondrous shapes their colours & their features!
Ten thousand flocks that ore our heads still houers,
Which daily seeme to bid vs kill and eate:
Ten thousand fruits, which time to vs discouers;
Ten thousand plants, and rootes, and seeds for meate:
The sculles, Oh Lord, of all the Lakes, [...] Fountaines,
The H [...]ards are thine vpon ten thousand mountaines.
Ten thousand creatures for delight assignd,
Ten thousand stones that precious vertues hold,
Ten thousand flowers to recreate the mind,
Ten thousand healthfull Drugs more worth then Gold;
Ten thousand more then I can sum or count:
Thy blessings Lord, all tongues and wits surmount.
And euery blessing is so double blest,
That they not onely food for vs containe,
But bounreous Nature locks within the least
Of these, some helpe for our disease and paine.
One thing sometimes hath such varietie,
That many pretious vertues hidden lie.
For all which, God requires but thankfulnes;
Tho thanklesse we too often not agnize
The author of these benefits of his,
Bu [...] either Chance, or Natures gifts them prize:
For those that with these blessings mo [...]t abou [...] ▪
Ar [...] commonly the most ingratefull found.

CHAP. XX.
His Magnificence not onely affording things ne­cessary, but heaping his benefits vpon vs with so great varietie, that the vnderstanding of man cannot vtter it.

ME thinkes it were enough if God did giue
But bread and water to his enemies,
And some one kind of food▪ to make vs liue
Temperate, and secu [...]ed from Luxuries;
And not to frame so many thousand kinds
Of bread, of vyands, and of tempting wines?
Cuba her Iucca vaunts, Peru her Mayze:
Pegue and rich Cambaya theirs of Rice.
Congo her bread of (a) Luco's graine doth praise,
And Palme-tree fruite. Guynce no lesse doth prize
Her bread of rootes, Inama tearm'd by them:
But Heauen faire Europ crownes with the best graine.
Italy vaunts Falerne, and Setyne wine;
Germany Rhennish, Claret France, Spaine Sack;
Candyse and Cyprus their's of Muskadine,
Greece hath her Chyan, India Palme and Rack.
Drie (b) Ferrall her Heauens-dew-distilling tree:
Turkey her Cossa; Corne made Wines haue we.
Me thinks our Maker had great bountie showne,
If he our nakednes such clothes had giuen
As our first Parents had (from Eden throwne:)
But he hath made the little flies to spin,
And many a beast to yeeld their haire & wooll,
And trees, and plants, from whence more soft we cull.
Me thinks for beggers too it had been faire,
One onely kind to haue of Wood and Stone,
To build defensiues for the Winter ayre:
But who can count the kinds of any one?
Oke, Cedar, Cypresse, (c) Teyxo, Ebony,
A thousand sorts of Marble, Porphery.
Me thinks againe one beast were well for ease:
But drie Arabia (that doth water want)
Hath the moyst Cammell. Danzieks frozen Seas,
The sprightfull [...]lland. The huge Elephant▪
Our Maker vnto fruitfull [...]nde assignes:
The little dock [...]ed Asse to barren Climes.

(a) This Luco is a little small graine, round like musterd-seed, which makes bread not inferior to our Wheate. His [...]. congo.

(b) Ferrall, one of the Canarie Ilands, hath no water in it, but that which drops from the leaues of one onely tree: for ouer the top of this tree there houers continually a moist cloud, by Gods appoint­ment, from whence the tree receiues this aboun­dant moisture for the benefit of men and beasts. Linschott.

(c) This wood called Teyxo, is a stranger in these parts, growing onely in the Iland Ter [...]cara, a tree of marueilous largenesse, and the wood ex­ceeding hard, red within and waued, with an ad­mirable beautie. This is not cut but for the King of Spaine himselfe.

CHAP. XXI.
No Place emptie, and vnfurnisht of Creatures for Mans behoofe, but all full without scarcitie, or scant, to this end, that man for this fulnesse and bountie of externall things, might returne a proportionate fulnesse in his affections towards God, which bestowes all this vpon him.

FOr Gods most compleate bountie not content
With such a single liberalitie,
Therefore this great varietie hath lent;
As much abhorring pore vacuitie
And indigence, in all his workes diuine,
Which all with compleat bounteous fulnes shine,
The Riuers and the Seas be full of fish;
The earth is full of trees, of grasse, of plant [...],
And full of creatures fram'd to feed on this;
The ayre is full of her inhabitants,
All things on earth doe of this fulnes share;
No emptie place: all fild with vi [...]all ayre.
But man may sooner loose himselfe in quest,
And suruey of these blessings manifold,
Much sooner, then discouer in the least,
The s [...]uerall gifts and vertues that they hold▪
For in the least so many worths we find,
As much surmount mans weak sin darkned mind.
How many seuerall gifts hath the Maguayze?
How many hath Maldiuars fruitfull tree▪
Which are as foyles to beautie, and praile
Our plenties infinite varietie?
One tree doth them with all abundance store,
And sweet content, and all ours can no more.
Yet here with vs some one thing seeme to stand
In stead of thousands: As the Sheepe and Cow.
This brings the Oxe, that tills and fats the land,
That warmely clothes vs. This our fee [...]e doth shoo,
And with their flesh and milke the most are fed,
But milk's the poore mans Phisick, meat, drink, bread.
And why's this fulnes? for this end alone,
That Man for fulnes of things naturall,
Should returne fulnesse in affection;
Fulnesse of Loue and Grace spiri [...]uall:
For if in these there be vac [...]itie,
True Motion, Essence, Light, Life none can be.

Vacuum omnino improbatur r [...]bus, naturalibus quia tollit motum, essentiam, visionem, vitam va­cuum & rationibus in parto motus (quarto phissi­ [...]orum) euertitur ab Ari [...]. Respuitur à S [...]al. ex. 5. quia essentiam tollit. Forman enim non habet, nec materiam nec accidens, & quia se daretur vacu­um, non ens, esset pars entis. Lumen, & visionem per vaccuum sublatum esse doc [...]t. Arist. de anima 2. quia lumen per corpora solum diaphana trans­fertur, non per vaccuum, ita vt per inane nihil om­nino videretur.

[Page 44]Denique vitam tollit quia in vacuo non erit pa­bulum animalibus. non restaurat io spirituum vt in aere. Fernel. Sic etiam aliquod simile videtur in spiritualibus si enim vlla sit vacuitas in affectibus, non est vera motus, essentia, visio, vita.

CHAP. XXII.
But Man returnes his Maker nothing but ingratitude.

NOw all tongues being dumbe, and lame, t'expresse
The smallest part of this his bounties streame;
What haue we to returne but thankfulnesse,
That in our selues, so naked are and meane?
We haue no light, but what thou Lord dost giue;
The Ayre is thine by which we breath and liue.
[...]ans thankfulnesse should next in sight appeare,
A full streame to this bountie parralell,
But not the smallest torrent runs there here,
Therefore of his ingratitude I tell.
A streame that with the largest may compare,
That in our Natures troubled Fountaines are.
Who would beleeue a beggar base, and poore,
Aduanst by much indulgence of a King,
Euen from the dung-hill, or the (a) lowest doore,
To be a creature nobel flourishing,
Could for such benefits become ingrate,
And traytor where he owes his life and state?
[...]ut man in his affections is like winde,
And sooner varied to contrary parts;
[...]nkind, and most ingratefull; fickle friend,
Not constant enemie. Their wauering harts
Possest with foule desires, and fond respects,
Still making warre against their intellects.
Oh thou who didst in deepest darknesse know vs,
And didst of nothing this our essence frame!
God, that from nothing gaue a beeing to vs,
A beeing fit the fairest to attaine:
Not fixt like Plants, nor brutish led by sence,
But ruled by Reasons right intelligence.
[...]he perfect image of thy selfe who made vs,
And with free powre, and principalitie,
[...]uer this little world at first arrayd vs,
So long as we by Reason rul'd would be,
Why to rebellion should thy blessings moue vs,
And to be still ingrate to those that loue vs?

(a) Namely, that of Beeing, the most common trance into this work-house of Nature.

CHAP. XXIII.
Mans Ingratitude peruerts the very benefits themselues, to be instruments of displeasing him that gaue them, still presuming, that because hee sees not good, therefore God sees not him.

IN vaine, in vaine on our moralitie
To [...]a [...]ds men we stand; and falsely doe we vaunt
Our constancie, and our integritie,
Thankfulnes, honestie: for the maine want
Of these things towards God doth plainely prou [...]
That men haue not true friendship, nor true loue.
Who friends vs? Is not God our greatest friend?
Who loues vs? Is not Gods loue infinite,
That for our sakes his Sonne to death did send?
We dote on fading Beautie, and praise Light;
Glory rap [...]s vs, Riches all affect:
Yet true Light, Beautie, Glorie, Wealth neglect.
The louer striues to make the loued one
And same thing with it selfe, if it may be:
So perfect Loue, our God that lookes vpon
Our wretched stare with gracious clemency.
F [...]rst clothes our fle [...]h with gifts of various kinds,
Hoping that we with Loue should clothe our minds,
Perfect Light, giues light and beeing to vs:
Perfect Beautie giues vs comlie forme:
Glorie doth with dignitie endow vs;
And wealth with plentie doth our wants adorne.
Perfect Loue giues loue, and all to win
Our loues: yet hence (too o [...]t) our hates begin▪
We hate the light that doth our faults bewray.
For Beautie euery day our soules we sell:
Glorie doth thousands to the graue betray;
But Riches sends her millions downe to Hell:
And we for each crosse that in these we haue,
Hate that Loue, which to win our loue them ga [...]e▪
Yet loues he more: and whereas we are poore
And naked in our soules, or much worse clad;
He daily followes vs, t'impart his store,
Tho still we shun him (of our rags more glad,)
And like our Grandsyre Adam, thinke to be
Hidden from his eye, that doth all things see▪

CHAP. XXIIII.
Gods Omniscience, from whose all-piercing eye no­thing is hidden.

[...]TH'vntainted Sunne doth Guanoes dung behold,
As well as Perues pleasant fertill land▪
And low priz'd Marle, as well as splendant Gold,
Which faire Maragnon with her friendly hand,
Doth borrow from the rich Guianaes shore,
To woe her Brittaaeine louers ouer to her:
The Sunne to euerie secret corner pries.
And sees as well the nastie nookes, and sincks,
And loathsome values, where murther often lies
Conceald, till it pollutes the aire with stincks;
As well as Marble Temples, that are blest
With all the pride of Art and Natures best.
Then shall not Gods soule piercing beames discouer,
Much more the secret turpitude of things,
For which his vengeance ore our heads doth houer?
Yes, yes: He sees what subiects doe, and Kings;
He sees the sceanes of lust, and philtrous spells,
And deeds of darknesse seene by no eyes else.
He sees the tyrant Kings that doe oppresse
His truths defendors, and with lies betray
The liues of his two faithfull Witnesses,
Exposing their dead (b) corpses as a pray
Vnto their enemies, and doth decree
When they by these arraind, and iudg'd shall be.
He sees the treacherous Councellors of States,
That for base gaine their Countries doe betray.
He sees the false bribe-taking Iudge, and hates
The Priests that (whilst their sheepe statue) feast and play,
He sees the partial Iurors, & their leaders;
The lying euidence, and cousing pleaders.
He sees the greedy Diues dig his pits,
Wherein his needy neighbour t'ouerthro▪
He sees the Broker weaue his parchment nets.
He sees the thiefe and murd'rer what they doe.
He sees the Swine and Crockadile, the Whore
Watching for prey in th'euening at her dore,

(a) There are certaine Sea-fowle in Peru that couer the Mountaines many Speares deepenesse with their dung that they make, which dung the Inhabitants call Guanoe, and vse it as the most ex­cellent [Page 49]Mannor to fa [...]ten their Valleys. Ioseph. Acos [...]a. Hist. Ind. lib. 4. cap. 37.

(b) And their corpses shall lie in the streets of the great Citie, which spiritually is called So­dom, and Aegypt. Reuel. cap. 11. 8. Which Na­pier interprets of the old and and new Testaments Gods faithfull Witnesses, which in the time of Antichrist shall bee thus [...]ilepended, not onely in Rome (the spirituall Babylon,) but in the whole bodie of their Empire, or Citie politick.

CHAP. XXV.
Gods Patience, of which Man hath euer a per­verse consideration, abusing this as he doth all the rest, to his owne destruction.

BVt because God with patience sees all this,
And suffers vs run on in our owne way,
Vntill some time that predetermind is,
The w [...]etched and vnwise in heart, they say
There is no God; or else he sees not vs▪
Because our [...]innes scape still vnpunisht thus:
But know fond man Heauen differs much from thee
In the consideration and esteeme
Of the maine things. Of Place, of Quantitie,
Of Time, of Motion, mortalls oft misdeeme,
And oftest erre; because by sence we count,
Which still is [...]ame in obiects that surmount.
Sense tells vs, that the Sunnes diameter
Is but a span: but Reason rectified,
Shewes it transcends earths quantitie so far,
That scarce proportion twixt them doth recide.
Sence thinks an arrow swifter when the Sunne,
Tho this a thousand mile each minute runne.
And the like errors there in Time appeares,
Because Gods iudgements doe not light vpon
The sensuall man perchance for some few yeares:
He laughs at iudgement, and beleeues there's none;
He thinks an age so long: but sound men see
All times are nothing to eternitie.
Audacious men! How dare we then prouoke
Our Iudge, that holds vs in strong a Iayle?
By- Sampsons strength might Sampsons bonds be broke.
False [...]ason with Medeah might preuaile,
But here alas a tripple wall vs curbs,
Of Flesh, of Fire, and th'Adamantine Orbes.
Then whether can we flie? a thousand eyes
Attend vs. If to the world [...] vtmost bound;
There ore our heads, we find Gods watchfull spies;
In Hell his executioners are found,
All flight is vaine, saue to himselfe alone:
For he that breaks Iayle, to the dungeons throwne.

CHAP. XXVI.
The infinite clemencie of Almightie God, who staies and expects our repentance so long, since the Scripture testifies of him, that he is a consu­ming fire.

BVt why (because Gods Patience doth deferre
Our punishment, expecting our amends)
Why should we hence grow bolder still to erre,
But rather much more fearefull of offence?
The wretch repriu'd prouokes not's Iudge, but rath [...].
Striues to be reguler, to win more fauour:
Yet we each day, each day and minute, we
Incessantly prouoke the Iudge Diuine:
Because our blind-fold nature doth not see
The beames of Iustice, that in him doe shine;
And flames that flow from his incensed ire,
Who is indeed a swift consuming (a) Fire.
The Scraphins from fire receiue this name,
Be [...]ause enflamde with (b) loue diuine they are▪
To Moses thus appeard he in the flame:
Mount Si [...]ay smok't when he in fire was there.
Now God being fire, and we being in him,
How good is he that burnes not when we sinne?
There is a (c) fire that doth forbeare to burne
Things that thereto by nature subiect be:
And (d) fire that from the drie thin wood doth turne,
Yet melts the steele containd in't instantly.
The like's in God, who spares the yeelding things,
And vnto ruine all resistants brings.
And as fire wastes the Stubble▪ Hay and Wood,
But purifies Gold, Siluer, pretious Stones;
So doth the fire of Gods loue in the good
Consume lusts, and vnlawfull passions,
Which are as stubble; but doth purifie
Bright shining Zeale, Deuotion, Charitie.
And th'Iron-hearted Sinners that doe seeme
(e) Black, cold, and stiffe before they feele this fire;
The fire of Gods loue makes them turne in time,
Light, hot, and pli [...]ble to his desire:
Or else his fires of Iustice lightning like,
Consumes them in the time ordained to strike.

(a) Our Lord (saith Saint Paul) is a consu­ming fire, Heb. 12.

(b) Elias enflamed also with this diuine loue, assended to heauen in a Chariot of fire. 2. Kine. 2. 9.

(c) Miraculous fires. such as that of Sidrach, Misach and Abdenego, and others of holy Mar­tyrs that haue not burnt for the time.

(d) Cetterum mira fulminis, si intueri velis, opera sunt, nec quicquam dubij relinquentia, quin diuina insit illis & subtilis potentia. Loculis inte­gris, ac illaesis conflatur argentum. Manente va­gina, gladius liquescit, & inuiolato ligno, circa pila ferrum omne distillat. stat, fracto dolio, vinum, &c. Seneca natural. quest. cap. 31.

(e) The properties of Iron.

CHAP. XXVII.
The Pagans for the benefits of Heate and light' worshipt the Sunne and Fire.

THe manner of the Pagans was t'adore
Chiefly those things did hurt or benefit.
The Memphians worship th'author of their store,
Great Nilus, cause their fields were fatned by't,
Sidonians to the gainefull Sheepe did bow,
As th' Indians doe to beasts and deuill, now.
But the wise Persians they did worship fire,
For the great benefits of heate and light:
And all the Nations ioyntly did conspire
To worship Titan, vanquisher of night;
Who, when he doth his splendant beames display,
Soone chases dreadfull darksome night away.
Th'vnweldy Germaines this, the nimble Daeians,
The prudent Chaldeans this, & rude Barbarians;
The noble Grecians this, and barbarous Thrasians [...]
The rich Egyptians, and the poore Tartarians;
All worship light: to this erected Phanes,
And (a) swift Steads brought to swifter Titans flames;
For heauenly light distinguishes each thing:
The sound from sicke, the foolish from the sage:
But night knowes not the seruant from the King,
Not Gold from Lead, nor youth from crooked age;
The Sun, burnt Moore scorcht on the Libian sand,
From those most faire on Thames or [...] strand,
Night is the nurce of fear [...], to fraude the furtherer,
A time for shado [...] es▪ and for beasts of pray;
A baude to lust, a cloke vnto the murtherer:
No friend to Innocence, which loues the day,
And rises vp to labour in the morne,
When beasts of prey backe to their dens returne.
Who maruels now that Pagans Idolize
The Fire and Sunne, for gifts of heate and light?
But who [...]l not wonder, that our dimmer eyes
See not a Light ten thousand fold more bright?
A Light that to the Sunne his light assignes;
And more, illumines our sinne-darkned minds?

(a) Ex dys Solem veneranter cui equos immolant, hic autem est neos sacrificandi, vt deorum pernicissimo e [...] quadrupedibus omnibus pernicissimum mactent. Herodot. Clyo.

CHAP. XXVIII.
Yet the darknesse of meere naturall mens minds is such, that they cannot see the true Light. God which giues the Sunne and Fire their Light. and is himselfe the light of Wisdome, and the warmth of Charitie.

THis bodies darknesse is no little griefe,
But darknesse of the mind doth farre excell:
And that Light that brings this sad nights reliefe,
And shewes the way from Sorrow, Death and Hell;
Why leads not blind-fold Nature vnto him,
That with one beame lets so much comfort in?
Alas we're blind, and cannot this Sunne see:
For though the Sunne doe ne'er so clearely shine,
If th'instruments of [...]ight defectiue be,
In darknesse deepe we languish still, and pine:
So wanting th'eye of Faith to see this Light,
We blame the Sunne, and call the noone-day, night.
And herein is that darknesse more accurst
Of th'vnderstanding, then the senses sarre:
For (this defectiue) we're content to trust
A friend to guide vs, lest our steps should erre:
But that most wretched calls the darknesse day,
And (thewd the light) in darknesse striues to stay.
And why's this? cause we trust the sence alone,
And this light through the sences neuer past,
The Eyes no obiects haue, but bodies knowne:
To speake of light vnseene, to th'sence is waste:
But vnbeleeuing man that doest agnize,
Onely things obuious to thy sence and eyes.
When hast thou seene the Ayre at any time,
The chiefe sustaining meanes by which we liue?
Or thine owne soule, whose beauties clearer shine
(More splendant beames) then fading earth can giue?
For each thing is more noble in degree,
As'ts freer from Materialitie.
Water therefore's aboue th'condensed dust,
Ayre aboue that, then th'element of fire:
Then th'Orbes tralucent (a) incorporeall most
Of bodies, Lastly, th'Angels that aspire
Nearest that incorporeall Sunne aboue,
That giues the light of wisdome warmth of loue,

(a) Most incorporeall of bodies; because of tralucent so many hundred thousand miles, tho of Adamantine haranesse. Coeli enim qualitates sunt 4. 1. Subtilitas, siue puritas: 2. Indissipabili­tas. seu soliditas: 3. Immutabilitas: 4. Rotun­ditas.

CHAP. XXIX.
Gods Wisdome.

YOu Nations then that starres and fire inuoke,
To this (a) light let your hallowed Incense smoke.
All Lights are darknesse else; no other light
Can guide your steps from errors dismall night.
Come then: but when to see this light you come.
You must doe like those that behold the Sunne.
Looke on some third thing that reflects the skies,
Because two vehement obiects spoyle the eyes.
The Bashawes in the Turkish presence bow
Their heads, and bend their eyes to th'earth downe loe,
Fearing to gaze too freely on their Prince.
Then shall we dare more then the Scraphins?
They to behold this Light in highest place,
Doe interpose their wings before his face,
Not able so great glories to behold.
Then shall we wretched mortals (farre more bold)
Gaze full vpon those beames that make vs blind?
No, let vs for this weake eie of the mind,
Find some reflecting mirror (as we doe
For th'sences) that t'our intellect may show
[Page 57](As in a glasse) the shadow of this light;
For this it selfe is in it selfe too bright,
For creatures to behold of so low state,
We haue a glasse, a glasse of things create,
Wherein this wisdome doth so clearely shine,
That euery eye may see this light di [...]ne,
Therefore in this glasse of the creat [...]res, we
The glorie of our Maker best may see;
Who infinite, vnbounded, vnconteynd,
Himselfe in limits, yet hath all things fram'd
By number, weight and measure: for both Heauen,
Earth, Sea, Sun, Moone, the Stars, the Planets seuen:
The Elements, Men, Beasts and Plants we find,
In these termes and dimensions all confind.
The Heauens in reuolution iumpe with time,
No accident doth ere their course decline
From their first order. Such proportion
Of magnitude assignd to euery one,
And distance, that if ought herein were chang'd
From order, the whole frame were quite estrang'd
From goodnesse, and pernitious to men.
But this is not ordaind alone to them:
The little Bees and Ants therewith are blest.
Such true proportion both in man and beast,
Of weight and measure, in each member plac't,
And euery part with such true number grac't,
That if therein the least transgression be,
It brands the creature with deformitie:
God giues to man one head▪ two hands, two feete;
If any where this orders changd, we meet
A Monster. If the Nose, or Mouth, or Eare
Be fram'd too large; they make the whole appeare
Vncomely. What an vniformitie
In Flowers and Fruits, in Seeds and Leaues we see?
[Page 58]Fram'd with such euennes (that oft-times our sight
Cannot distinguish) all with number, weight
And measure. And what can the wisdome show
Of our great Maker, more then this, to know
The number, weight and measure of each part?
Shall not he know the motions of the heart?
He knowes the number of our steps and haires;
Shall not he know our secretest affaires,
And close affections? He the drops of raine,
And of the Sands that on the shores remaine,
The number knowes. And tell me; shall not he
The number of our words and actions see?
Yes: For his Wisdome yet farre more appeares,
In that he at one instant sees, and heares
The actions, thoughts, and words of euery man.
Mans lame imperfect knowledge hardly can
By many acts discoursing too and fro;
Scarcely attaine (not fully come) vnto
The knowledge of some one thing. But this King
By one act, sees himselfe, and euery thing
That Heauen and Earth containes. But now we come
To th'weigh [...] and measure of perfection.
This Earth (for which men striue so much) we deeme
Compar'd with Gold and Iems of small esteeme,
But these, compar'd with things that life can saue,
Farre sleighter, and much lower value haue,
The beasts, that haue the benefit of sence,
Offencelesse creatures haue preheminence:
But men endued with reasons facultie,
Obtaine a splendor farre more cleare and high:
Yet these, compared with those cleare minds aboue,
Whom no soule appeti [...]es of sences moue,
Are poore and low. How great diuer [...]tie
Of weight and measure is in dig [...]itie?
[Page 59]In mens estates, and callings here on earth?
Some wise, some weake, some meane, and low by birth;
Others noble; some indigent and poore,
Others swelling with abundant store.
But in the most, mans weake opinion erres:
For tho the state of pouertie appeares
Irksome, and heauy vnto earthly minds,
The holy soule therein aduantage finds:
For wealth's a snare that doth our soules betray;
But want's a tutor, whips vs to the way,
That leads vnto eternall happines:
So that these present discommodities,
Returne in time an ample recompence:
When the faire guilded sweets of oppulence,
Repay their weight in bitternes and gall.
Oh how inscrutable are his workes all?
Who can declare the secret simpathies?
The hidden causes of antiphathies.
Who can expresse the wondrous properties
Of Plants and Beasts, their hidden qualities?
How many excellencies each were dwells,
Within the fabrick of these earthen cells?
For of the fairer faculties of mind
(The mind's reflected knowledge darke and blind,
With such imperfectnes it selfe doth view)
We justly doubt, if what we know, be true.
Tho most we find our imbecillitie,
In contemplation of that Maiestie;
Which like a Fa [...]lkon through the high clouds towres,
Where we come tardy with these wings of ours.

(a) God is light, and there is no darknesse in him. Iohn 1. 1.

CHAP: XXX.
His Power.

HIs Power againe as hard a taske I find
(For infinite can neuer be confind
To place, or number) worke too hard and high,
To shew his powre that rules both earth and skie;
To whom the Saints and Angels all obey;
To whom the Lampes that rule both night & day:
For he their Maker, and their Mouer is.
Nor doe they runne their proper course, but his.
Who sometime doth subiect their glorious light,
Vnto the prayers of the faithfull wight;
And makes the Sunne stand still ore Gabaon,
And Moone against the Vaile of Ayalon,
At his voyce both the Winds and Seas doe turne
From course and nature. Fire forbeares to burne,
The Tygers and the Lions that deuoure
All things, at th'becke of this transcendent powre
Turne tame and gentle. The great King of Deepes
That euery thing to's hungry Shambles sweepes;
When this Powre list, must their his Prophet saue.
The cruell Tyrant that delights to haue
His bloody will, when God in power commands,
Puts vp his sword, and lends his helping hands.
The wretched Powres infernall, whose curst will
Swifter then lightning moue to doe man ill,
Are yet preuented by the swifter speed
Of this Powre, who is ready still at need,
To helpe the faithfull. But this Powre most cleare,
And infinitely powrefull doth appeare
[Page 61]In the production of his creatures all.
For what's of greater wonder, then the small
And slender seeds that mightie things produce?
No man (whose vnderstanding's most obtuse)
Can chuse but wonder, how the bole and high
Towre topping branches of the Oke, should lie
Within the little Akornes seed contain'd,
Those engins wherewith Neptunes force is tam'd.
Ist not as strange that watry substance, thin
And flewent, should be matter to begin
The timber-buildings of the mightie Whale,
The monstrous ( [...]) Rhoyder, and the poisenous [...]ahal?
Or that the offices of life in Bees
And Ants, is as accomplisht as in these?
These haue their stomack, liuer, heart and gall,
Their instruments of sence and motion, all
The parts of generation as compleat,
As haue those massie buildings huge and great:
Whose mightie beames and transome few behold
Without amazement. If it should be told
To some that knew it not, would they not smile
To thinke, the bullet-scorning (c) Crokodile,
Whose iron sides doe engins force repell,
Should bring those anuils from the tender shell
Of a small egge? This Powre no lesse we see
In contemplating that varietie
Of seuerall formes in earth, in sea, and aire,
Of which the cunningst Artists not declare
The smaller part of what vnknowne they leaue.
How various are the seuerall shapes they haue?
How various is their food and preseruation?
Their waies of breed and generation?
Quantities, qualities, their voyces soundes,
Their benefits that vnto man redounds?
[Page 62] This is a Sea which Reason clogd with sence
Cannot swim ouer: but this power immense
Is fairest written in the Heauens aboue.
With what incessant swiftnes doe they moue?
Yet measured and obseruing still that time,
Which first they did before they ere had seene
Mans guiltines; and (if God pleased) might be
Continued so to all eternitie.
B [...]t in how short a moment is the cleare
Sunnes light transfused throughout the Hemyspheare?
To this the lightning's flow; and the swift wind
And th'ayrie wings to phansies powres assi [...]d.
Nothing's more strange conter [...]d in Na [...]u [...]s store:
No [...] that the Deitie resembles more.
How highly in this Creature are we blest,
The Sunne, that life preserues in man and beast?
Who by attenuation doth forth call
The blew Mists from their Mother Thetis Hall,
To th'ayres cold region, who (comprest by th'skie,
And their lapps fild with young fertilitie)
Returne thence, and bring fruit forth on the ground,
Before they see their Mother, the profound:
But angry boyling Goddesse of the deepes,
Whose rage not long at home her Daughters keepes
Ere Pilgrims new they turne, to clense their staines,
Within the concaues of Earths secret veynes;
And, for this good, washing her dustie face,
Leaue many a stowrie Meadow as they trace
The winding Vallies, to returne againe
Vnto their Mothers lap, from whence they came:
But Heauens tralucent clearenesse, in so wide
Extended bodies, arguing beside
Their Adamantine hardnesse, since no losse
Of substance doth their speedie motions crosse,
[Page 63]Nor dissipation. This doth well declare
His power, by whom they fram'd and gouernd are,
But what speakes more his powre then this? he fram'd
Both Heauen and Earth, and all things there contain'd
Of nothing; all without precedent stuffe
To build on: for his owne word was enough▪
The cunning Painter many yeares will stick
Vpon some one rare piece, and errors pricke,
Expunge and race, before the worke be done,
A thousand times, to giue perfection
Onely to shadowes. But th'Creator made
[...]heir substances of nothing, and arraide
Them all with true perfection with a word;
His onely Word their essence did afford.
God did command the Heauens and Earth to be,
And they were made. With like facillitie
The Angels, [...]unne and Moone that guides the night;
Plants, Beasts and Men, this Word prodeust to light.
And as one Word did all this All crea [...]e;
So must one Word, all this All dissipate.
Tho man, thus dissipated (in despight
Of Death, and Hell, and of corruptions might▪
In spight of Time and Tyrants that disseuer
Our members) must vnited be together:
From thence before the mightie Iudge to goe,
That giues the doomes of endlesse ioyes, or woe.

(a) The Rhoyder is a Fish in the Iland Seas one hunderd and thirtie ells long (much larger then the largest kind of Whales) their flesh good to eate and medicinable. The Nahall is fortie ells long, and deadly poyson: yet he hath a horne in his [Page 64] forehead, which is sold sometime in stead of the sea. Vnicornes.

(b) Crocodilus fluuiatilis oua 60. quam plu­rimum parit, viuit que diu, maximumque animal minima hac origins euadit. ouum enim non maius quam anseris, & foetus inde exclusus proportione est: attamen crescit ad quindecem cubita. Arist, Hist. de a [...]. lib. 5. cap. 33.

CHAP. XXXI.
Man by reason of his sinfull condition, the wret­chedst and the worst of all creatures.

OH God how small a thing
Is man compared to thee?
The Heauens all couering,
To thine immensitie
Doe but a center seeme.
And earth where we remaine,
A center we esteeme,
Compard with heauens wide frame;
But man compard with this,
Doth seeme a thing more scant,
(Where magnitude none is,
There must dimensions want.
Thus man with earth compard,
As nothing doth appeare;
And Earth with Heau'n declard,
As if it nothing were.
[Page 65]But th' Heauens Oh God to thee,
Are least of all in sight:
For lesse then nothing be,
Finites to Infinite,
Nothing of nothing's now:
How b [...]ld are we that dare,
Such minds Gigantiue show,
With Heauen to bandy warre?
The Lions are more stout,
The Elephants more strong;
The arm'd Rhynoceret
Much more secure from wrong.
The Crocodiles for warre,
And Tortoyse fitter be:
The Congian (a) Zibraes are,
And (b) Dantes more swift then we▪
The Whales are larger syzed,
Th' Apodes lesse desire,
The Vn [...]cornes more prized,
Pi [...]austa safe from fire.
The Okes liue longer farre,
The Ca [...]dars be more tall;
The Lillies whiter are,
The Roses sweeter all.
Man is the weakest still,
The wretchedst, and the worst;
Hath least meanes to doe ill,
Yet then the rest more curst:
For they to Natures Law
Are subiect and confind▪
But nothing keepes in awe,
His bad vnstable mind.
The Tyger's not so keene,
So bloodie no [...] the Bore;
[Page 66]The Aspe so full of tee [...],
So fell the Mantichore;
So lu [...]tfull not the Goat,
So slothfull not the Beare.
So proud the Horse doth not,
Nor Iu [...]oes fowle appeare.
The Dragon for reuenge,
For enuy he the Dog;
And Fox for craft transcends,
For beastlines the Hog.
A Tunny to deuoure,
A Hawke to seeke his pray;
A (c) Whirlepoole in to powre,
A (d) Cayman to betray.
How vile a thing is this,
That all things which are ill,
In Plants, in Beasts, or Fish,
We amply doe excell;
But indigent in all,
That we in beasts commend;
We onely, more then all,
Our Maker still offend?

(a) The Zibraes are by some Au­tho [...]s counted ve­ry swife.

(b) Da [...]t eiusmodi fert [...]resse [...]leri­tate vt cu [...]su fears emnes anteuertat Equos suos emp­turi vel venditu­ri Lant farae [...]er­nicitate p [...]obant Arabes. S [...]al. exer. 206. pars. 5.

(c) This Whirle­poole (otherwise called a Phiseter) and by some taken to be the Whale, drawes inso much water, that when he spouts the same forth againe, hee is therewith able to ouerset and drowne ships, pli. l. 9. e. 4.

d) A Cayman is the same that a Crocodile.

CHAP. XXXII.
Faire without, foule within.

OH God how blest were we,
If (as our limbes are white)
There might like candor be,
In mind compleate and right)
But therein are we crosse,
Black, vgly, crooked still,
Turning our gaine to losse,
Through fond depraued will.
[Page 67]The pollisht Iuorie,
[...]rought from thee Tapro [...]ane,
Or Call [...]cut from thee,
Congoe, or Mauritane,
With Pearle of rich Perue,
Faire O [...]muz, Cameron,
May not compare their hew,
Nor whitenesse with Sylon.
The pure white Syndon [...]punne,
By Britta [...]ne Virgins here,
O [...] by the Belg [...]k Nunne,
To Lillies browne appeare.
And [...]ymster thy pure Fleece,
Dreft by thy rustick Swaines,
(Tho rich as that of G [...]e [...]ce)
No luster it retaines,
Compared with Atlas Snowes,
Or Douers Chal [...]i [...] Hill,
Which to repugnant showes,
To Amphyth [...]y [...]es will.
But Man that is as faire
In outside, as the best,
With what shall I compare
His darksome sable brest?
For tho he loue the light,
And beautie doe admire,
And most in things delight,
Which Nature doth attire
In this celestiall hew,
Whereof himselfe doth vaunt,
(Despising both the Crow,
And cole-black Cormorant)
Yet he to whitenes still
Doth offer most offence,
[Page 68]To whitenesse that excels,
To snow-white Innocence.
And tho vpright he goe,
And groueling all the rest;
Yet he in mind doth shoe,
More crooked then the beast,
The Cedar he commends,
So goodly, tall and streight:
And Pine that neuer bends,
But be ares his top vpright;
But ne'er obserueth how
Himselfe by Nature fram'd
Vpright and streight to goe
(As one to Heauenwards aim'd,)
In mind doth still decline,
To Earth still downewards be [...]t,
More then the Dog, o [...] Swine,
Whom Natures lawes content;
Things proper them suffice
For appetite and need.
But man with Heauen this Flesh,
His Soule with earth would feed,
Improperties delight
Him best, in his desires;
For like is fed with like,
But he vnlike requires.

CHAP. XXXIII.
Wee praise substances, but pursue shadowes.

HOw wretched, and how vaine
A [...]e Mortalls, that refuse
True substances to gaine,
And shadowes onely chuse?
Pigmalion like we doe
On pictured beautie dote.
Like Rhodian Youthes we woe
The shadowes, that are not,
And substances despise,
Tho fitter to be lou'd.
The things beneath the skies,
By Mortals most approu'd;
For which our soules we sell,
Are Beautie, Wealth, and Fame▪
For these we visit Hell,
And Plutoes firie raigne.
For these we hourely part
With Ease, with Health and Friends;
For these we make a mart
Of Liues and Innocence.
And what is Beautie now
That thus the mind can fire▪
That makes vs languish so,
And pine with fond desire?
An accidentall thing,
A type and shadow bare,
[Page 70]Of that Almightie King,
Whose beauties [...]ubstance are
On Men not onely plac't:
For many thousand be,
Both Beasts and Plants high grac't
Therewith in their degree.
And what is Wealth for which
We [...]oyle, and hazard still?
It makes vs not more rich
Nor happie. Heauens high will
Hath not these things confind
To Measure, nor to weight▪
But plac't them in the mind.
Content makes all things streigh [...],
Euen In the greatest want.
But base Desire, opprest
With heapes of wealth, feeles scant,
Is poore, and cannot rest.
Much poorer thing is Fame,
Peru [...]ian Ayre lesse ligh [...];
Tis but a heauenly name,
In earthly raggs bedight;
And base P [...]e [...]eyan breath,
Which oft on wings doth raise
The lumps of worth'elle earth,
But spots faire vertues praise
With black and vgly fee [...]e.
Now which of these is best?
Imperfect all in sight
And sh [...]dowes all exprest?
Glorie, Wealth, Beautie, lent
To men, bare shadowes be,
In Earth but accidents,
In Heauen essentially▪
[Page 71]Earths glorie doth appeare
Of Heauen, a type most bate;
And Wealth that we haue here,
With that must not compare.
Beautie terrestriall,
In beasts or men combin'd,
In Earths rich Minerall,
Or what's to earth assign'd.
The beautious Planets seuen,
The glorious Sunne and Moone;
The Azure studded Heauen,
Nights still companion:
All these one picture frame
Of beautie, that's immense:
Beautie which man may name,
But not conceiue by sense;
Though our depraued mind,
Still fading things pursue,
VVhich we but shadowes find,
Yet loose the substance true.

CHAP. XXXIIII.
We follow gaine, not goodnesse.

WHo can enough complaine
On humane dilligence?
This Zeale of ours for gaine,
It breeds my great offence.
Too short's the longest day,
Too long the shortest night▪
Desires brooke not delay,
But croft, no peace admit▪
[Page 72]The Raine, the Frost, and Snow,
And Tempests of the Ayre;
These neuer make vs bow,
If gaine be our affai [...]e.
For profit we doe saile
Amongst the fleeting Ice;
T'encounter with the Whales
And Beare▪ we are not nice▪
And in these places strange,
We seeke the morsses shole;
Both Lands and Seas we range,
Neere to the frozen Pole;
Then to the burning Line,
And Affricks Desarts drie,
Where many thousands pine,
And perish wilfully;
Where by the Sunne and Wind,
They Mummey doe become.
Yet we, with this in mind,
To th'same misfortunes [...]un.
How small a thing doth man
In magnitude appeare,
Compar'd with Seas and Land▪
As if he nothing were?
But all this earthly ball,
Both Earth and Seas vast frame,
To mans desires more small
Doe seeme, then he to them.
If profit may redound,
No dangers doth he doubt.
How oft he circles round,
This massie frame about?
The Currents, Sands and Rocks,
The Typhons and Ternades,
[Page 73]The falling Spouts he mocks,
And Monsters that inuades:
The flying Fires that seeme
By th'Winds attrition bred:
The Waues which some would deeme,
The Graues where hope lies dead:
The Tempests, and the Stormes,
Death and Diseases, all
Triumphantly he scornes,
If profit may befall.
For this he trauels both
By day, and darksome night,
No labour doth he lothe,
Or Office thinke vnmeet,
For this he Marts frequents,
And place where pleadings be,
(Which wise men are content
To haue: but seldome see.)
Amongst the fooles he gapes,
And hunts about for pelse:
But knowes not that he takes
Paines to condemne himselfe.
If to Gods house he goe
But once or twice a weeke,
And spend an houre or two,
How oft he falls asleepe?
How long he thinkes the time?
His soule is at his Farme,
His Ship, his Shop, the Wine,
Or on his neighbours harme▪
How great alacritie,
And chearefulnesse of mind
In worldly things shew we?
In these how dull and blind?
[Page 74]One houre to holy workes.
And meditation lent,
More troubles and more irkes,
Then yeeres in ill mis-spent.
Therefore this trauell great,
For things terrene and base;
This labour, and this sweat
Must one day come in place;
VVhere Iustice in her scale,
These times and workes shall lay,
To see which will preuaile,
The darknes, or the day.
Oh let vs then be wise,
And coue [...] riches true:
These onely fill your eyes,
But nothing profit you.

CHAP. XXXV.
We dote on earthly pleasures, and in them vainely pursue Happines, which indeed are not so much as shadowes of the true Ioyes and Happinesse aboue.

P [...]asure, how great a VVitch
Art thou to humane minds▪
The potent and the rich,
In seruile c [...]aines tho [...] binds▪
Not Epicurus Bowers,
North'charmed cups of C [...]rce [...],
Al [...]y [...]ous Founts and Flowers,
Nor Antiochia [...] Daphnay;
Not Tawris flowrie Groues,
Nor ancient Bayas plenty,
[Page 75] Amara whom Heauen loues,
Nor blest Arcadian Tempe,
VVhich whilom were belieued
Thy Parents (Pleasure) where
Thy strength thou first atchiued,
And where thou fosterdst were.
These doe not now confine
Thy Seruice, nor thy Psalter;
Augmented much with time,
The whole world is thine Altar;
VVhere fond ingratefull men,
Giue vp their hearts and minds
To transitorie things,
VVhich Heauen to vs assignes:
But not intending we
Should these for Gods adore,
VVorking idolatrie
VVith creatures base and poore.
But with intent, that these
Characters of his loue,
Our minds to thankfulnesse
And Loue, should frame and moue▪
For this the Plants and Rootes,
And Seeds to earth assign'd;
The Fish, the Foule, the Fruits,
And Beasts of various kind,
Are sent in place, and time,
That best his needs may fit;
And euery sort of VVine
To warme, and [...]heare the wi [...]:
The Simples for health sent,
The Silke, the VVooll and Skynne,
The Iemms for ornament.
Are all t'allure, and wi [...]ne,
[Page 76]Mans heart to loue and feare
That Lord, which these conferr [...].
But he then saluage Beare,
Or Tyger saluager;
Once of the gift possest,
The Giuer quite forgets.
His soule in these seekes rest,
His heart on them he sets,
Seeking true happines,
And good in earth alone;
Beleeuing not true blisse,
To be in things vnknowne.
Thus our desires impure,
Peruert the blessings kind,
Wherewith Heauen seekes t'allure
Our heart and thankfull mind,
To sorrowes and to grieues,
To curses and to snares.
But why doe men beleeue
This gulfe and Sea of cares,
To be a place of blesse?
And therein so delight,
As if Heauen did possesse
Nothing so faire and sweet?
If trauelling we spie,
Some silly earthen Cell;
We argue instantly,
That beggers therein dwell.
But seeing buildings faire,
Some Castle, or rich thing;
We streight coniecture there,
Remaines some Lord or King.
Why doe we not the same,
When we poore Earth behold;
[Page 77]And Heauens bright Azure frame,
With lights so manifold?
Doe beggers Cells abound
With so great wealth and store?
And shall the Kings be found
More indigent and poore?
No doubt the Heauens containe
More worthy things and high,
Then doth on earth remaine,
Tho hid from mortall eye.
Tho by affirmatiues,
We can but scarcely show,
VVhat we by negatiues,
And opposites best know;
In nature and in sight
Is Earth to Heauen oppos'd;
In Earth dwells endlesse Night,
And Ignorance enclos'd;
Excessiue Heate and cold,
Labour and VVearines,
And Torments manifold:
But Heauen hath none of these▪
In Earth Strife and debate,
Eternall Sorrowes dwell;
Fraude, Rapine, Lust and Hate,
Diseases, Death and Hell.
But Heauen's the place of Ioy,
VVhere God himselfe vnuailes;
VVhere Sinne, where Sad annoy.
VVhere Death no more preuailes,
Therefore you holy Soules,
Seeke happines aboue:
None seeke it here but fooles,
VVhose ioyes do sorrowes proue.

CHAP. XXXVI.
And all this Worlds Torments and Miseries, no more but shadowes of those that remaine for the damned Soules in Hell.

WHere blessings infinite,
And mercies cannot moue,
There paine, an obiect fit,
And torments we doe proue,
To rouze the soules closde eies
From sad and dismall slumber
Of false securities,
That most our soules encumber;
But as this worldly blesse,
And glory to earth giuen,
Is but a type, and lesse
Of that which is in Heauen [...]
So all the torments dire
That Tyrants here deuise,
To feede the flaming fire,
Of their sad cruelties,
No more then shadowes be
Of that tormenting paine,
That for impietie
Th'infernall Lakes containe.
Name all th' inuentions old,
Deuisde by haples wits;
Those torments manifold,
Where death and horror sits
Enthron'd in burning flames,
With Chaines, with Cords and Steele,
[Page 79]With bloodie seruile traines,
With Gibbets, Racke and Wheele.
The cursed [...]cythian hate,
That sow'd vp liuing men
In Beasts exentorate,
And there did nourish them,
Till putrifaction might
Engender creatures new,
And death produce to light,
Her self deuouring crew,
The liuing men to kill,
(Tho killing they bestow'd
A Tombe on him they kild,
More then the Tyrants would.)
The fearefull brazen Bulls
Of Phalleri expose.
The poore vnhappy Sculls,
Made Goblets by their foe [...]:
Obserue the Pirameds,
(Not those by Niles fat side)
But piles of slaughtred heads,
Fram'd so by Turquish pride.
See all the dreadfull things,
Brasilia and her feasts.
The Bowkans fraught with limbs
Of men, to feed men beasts.
Yet all these torments here,
Which tongue cannot reueale,
As shadowes doe appeare,
To that the damned feele.
Below there is a pit,
Within the Center closde,
VVherein to torments fit,
The damned are exposde▪
[Page 80]VVhere Horror like a Queene,
Sits thron'd in burning steele;
And Torture with whips keene,
Close tending at her heele:
Ten thousand vgly Hags,
Ten thousand fierie Drakes,
Are there with burning Drags;
Ten thousand hissing Snakes.
Ten thousand Damps and Smells▪
Eternall darksome Night.
Ten thousand thundring Yells
Of Furies that doe fight:
Ten thousand Blasphemies
Gainst Heauen doe there rebound.
Ten thousand Curses, Cryes,
And Othes make all resound.
Ten thousand pale Fires run
Through black Cocytus waues:
In burning Phlegiton
As many Furies raues:
Ten thousand greedy VVolues,
Ten thousand grisely Beares;
Ten thousand gaping Gulphes
Breed here ten thousand Feares.
Ten thousand Harpies then,
And Vultures there doe stay,
To tyre on wretched men,
That earst on men did pray.
Excesse, here leane and poore,
Vpon her owne flesh feeds;
And VVrath hath wounds great store,
Ten thousand thousand bleeds.
There Pride is neatly put
In new and strange attire,
[Page 81]In Red and Crimson cut,
Lac't through with gards of fire:
But for the greedy Syres,
That meanes nor measure hold
In their vniust desires,
Are cups of moulten Gold.
For itching Lust remaines,
Not least respect and grace;
The Frends with burning flames
Them euery houre embrace,
Ambition hath no doubt
A fitting plague assign'd;
A rack to lengthen out
The bodie to the mind.
For Enuie is a drest
The wreathes of hissing Snakes,
From whence into her brest
New poysons still she takes.
Then in the Soule recides
Furie, Despaire, and Rage
At God, which them diuides
From him, an endlesse age.
Thus both aliue and dead,
Scorcht both with Frosts and Flames;
One while in burning bed,
And streight in Iere streames;
Stench neuer kills them here,
Night neuer shuts their eyes;
Noyce neuer deafes there [...]are,
By wants or wounds none dies [...]
The senses all remaine,
And euery facultie,
To worke their greater paine,
Their selfe tormenters be.
[Page 82] Therefore feare God, and dread
Not men, that can impose
Nothing vpon thee dead.
Shun Hells eternall woes.

CHAP. XXXVII.
The comparison of the great and lit­tle Worlds.

‘Et creauit Deus hominem, ad imaginem, & similitudinem suam, ad imaginem Dei creauit illum. ’ Genes. 1.
HOw much vnlike this great World seemes to be
Vnto this little World in quantitie?
And yet in qualitie how neere they come?
Within the compasse of (a) comparison.
The Heauens and Earth this greater World we name;
Of Heauen and Earth's composde, this lesse Worlds frame▪
The Sunne illuminates the Heauens all,
And giues earth life. So in these bodies small,
The soule performes as much. The Sunne transmits
His influence, his light and benefits,
Through the tralucent bodies interposed,
And triple Ayre, in Regions three disposed.
Euen so the sentient Soule likewise susteines
Both moues and gouerns, as with certaine reines,
On th'ayrie wings of (b) threefold Spirits sent,
Each facultie of this her instrument.
[Page 83]And as the Sunne from two halfe Hemispheares,
Illumines Earth (which otherwise appeares
But a sad mansion:) So the soule affords
The like, through her halfe seene, halfe hidden Orbes.
The Sunne by rarifaction doth euoke
Th'attenuated Waters, vaprous Smoke
To th'ayres cold Region, and, condensed there,
Melts them, to feede the Earth, and coole the ayre.
The like againe doth Natures lesser Sunne;
(The Soule I meane) when through concoction,
Motion, or other cause the vapours flie
Vpwards; if through the head transpired they be,
They haue their vses in Dame Natures Hall:
But if dissolu'd, like showres in Haruest fall,
And many a time the worst disease beget.
Thus squares the sentient facultie with it.
But the supreame irradiance of the mind,
Farre liker to the Worlds high Soule we find,
Both incorporeall essences, and high,
Vnbounded by (c) Time, Place, or Quantitie.
And as the Worlds high Soule, containing all,
Is not contained. (d) The like thing doth befal [...]
To this of ours. As that hath supreame powre
In all: so by Creations right hath ours
Ore this her petty Kingdome. And as that
Doth this great World two waies illuminate,
By (e) corporall and incorporeall meanes:
So seemes the soule to powre forth two-fold beame [...] ▪
Beames that doe this dead earth viuificate,
Beames that doe this darke sence illuminate,
Beames that forth from that (f) light and essence flow.
That in it selfe both light and essence holds.
And as God is by his infinite
Of essence euery thing: (g) So mens soules be
[Page 84]After a sort, by apprehending all
Materiall things, and immateriall.
And as that hath perfect knowledge and will▪
So had this, tho now spoild by Satans ill.
But much they differ in existencie.
God of himselfe subsists. But by him, we,
By whom our soules were first of nothing made:
The perfect patterns of th' [...]de [...]s laid
Vp in the secret closets of his mind.
Now for the (h) Earth, altho therein we find
Betwixt things ouall, and things angular,
But little semblance, Yet some things there are,
Which (in a measure) paralels may seeme.
We haue both frozen Poles, and burning Line.
The head and feete, that furthest off remaine
The frozen Poles, I may imagine them.
The parts precordiall, Line and Center be;
Where natiue heare consumes humiditie.
Within the earth is many a burning fire;
And in our selues Diseases, and Desire
No small flames breed When Water, Fire, or Aire,
Would from Earthes wombe vnto their homes repaire,
But are deteynd, what Feauors they ingender?
And in our selues the same effects they render,
As diuerse know. (*) An oylie humor feeds
Our Natiue heate: Trees haue the like, and Seeds.
Our flesh is but a humour, that's concreat,
Earths superficies is no more: the sweat
And fatnes of the clouds. Nature alone
Imparts not (i) fat and marrow to our bone.
Earth hath her fat, which (k) sulphure we doe call;
Which feeds her Bones, her Mines and Minerall.
Nature to vs alone, haire hath not lent.
The Woods and Groues are Earths like ornament.
[Page 85] Dame Nature not alone our wants supplies
With fruitfull Veines, and panting Arteries.
The christall streames, and Riuers [...]alt tide was [...]t,
In stead of these, ar [...] reasonantly plac't.
The two great Seas, the (l) Terrene▪ and the Ocean,
That mouing still, this seeming void of motion,
Natures Magazines of humiditie,
Be as in vs the heart, and Liner be.
H [...]w like are these? yet how vnlike againe?
All faire, did not mans sinne their beauties staine.

(a) Nonne capitis situs in quo intellectus rati­onis & sapientiaeofficina, supremam illam inuisibi­lis mundi partem, quae summi illius numinis & in­telligentiarum sedes creditur, reffert? nonne mens, Des [...]lla portio, corporis domina, tribus potentijs, s [...]u facultatibus (eandem tamen cum anima ratio­nal [...] essentiam perticipantibus) Dei ousian am [...]ri­ston in personis interim trinam, adumbrat & taci­te quasi ingerit? Nonne interiorum sensuum tri­ga, tres illas hierar [...]hias, in quas religiosa antiqui­tas intelligentiarum numerum innumerum est par­tita: exteriores autem sensus eas intelligentias, quaerationem Angelorum induunt, vt sunt (A­postolo citante) virtutes, principatus, thro [...], Archangeli & Angeli, tanquam stipatores, De [...] omnipotentis thronum circumstantes, iussa illius capessentes, salutemque humani generis quouis modo promouentes, representant, & innuunt? Ga­len. 1. de temp, ad finem, & Galen. 1. de vsu parti­um, [Page 86]cap. 2. 3. Ex Knoblochio. Institu. Anato.

(b) Animall, Vitall, Naturall.

(c) Demonstratum est extra coelum necesse c [...]rpus, nec etiam, esse posse▪ patet ergo neque lo­cum extra coelum esse ne (que) vacuum neque tempus. Arist. de coelo. lib. 1. cap. 9.

(d) Quid igitur continet animam si sua na­tura est partibilis? Profecto non corpus, nam po­tius econtrario videtur animam continere corpus▪ vnde eâ egressâ euanessit & putrescit. Arist. de an. l. 1. cap. 9.

(e) Per solem nempe instrumentum materiale luminis, & per spiritum inuisibiliter irrhadiant em omnes piorum & fidelium mentes.

(f) Quid enim aliud ipse Deus quam lux est sed tamen illa neque visa nec affatu facilis, Scali­ger. Excert. 297. 3. & excer. 365. 6.

(g) Vt ergo Deo quam similimus homo redda­tur necesse est cum quoque omnia fieri. Cumque omnia fieri non possit per infinitudinem essentiae, vt Deus est omnia, ideo opportebat fieri per imaginem rerum omnium in mente hominis impressam & di­iudicatam. Keckerman s [...]st. Phys. l. 4. cap. 4. & hominem intelligendo omnia, omnia fieri. Arist. de an. 3.

(h) Vniuersus mundus ex sua tota materia constat: materia namque ipsius naturale est at que [Page 87]sensibile corpus. Arist. l. 1. c. de Coelo.

* Preter quatuor primaros hum [...]res in sanguine, & venis contentos tres alios humores ostendunt medici in­ter quos oleoginosum hunc ponunt humorem, sedem natiui caloris et vehiculum vitae. Fernelius de spi­ritu & innato calido. cap. 6. namsulphur quicun (que) metallorum naturas perserutantur, terrae adipem vel oleum appellant. Ibid. cap. 3.

(i) This is true of the inner Mediterrane Sea, which neither ebbs nor flowes, but not so of the vp­per Terrane, calld the Gulph of Venice, which doth ebbe and flowe. Acosta. Hist. Indies lib. 3. cap. 14.

(k) Stellarum errantium forsan ducatû in microcosmo desideras? En Lunam Cerebrum, Mercurium Lingua, & facies. Venerem genitalia, Solem cor, Iouem epar, Martem vesica fellis, Sa­turnum Lien tibi perpulchre referunt. Quin imo, si modo fas vela pandere, nauimque altius in sim­plicia, & mixta corpora, in quae mundum Parapa­tetici partiuntur, immittere, & ea quoque in mi­crocosmo adumbrata [...]uadantenus esse, haud facile quis negatum iuerit: cum spiritus humani corpo­ris coelum, quintam illam essentiam quatuor vero humores, bilis ignem: sanguis aerem: pituita a­quam: & terram atrabilis exprimant. Knoblo­che, institut▪ Anatom.

XXXVIII.
An Elegie vpon the Death of the most Illustrious Prince HENRIE.

I Doe not grieue when some vnwholsome aire
Mildewes rich fields▪ nor when the clusters faire
Of Claret, [...]ot through too abundant shovers:
I grieue not when some gay vasauory Flowers
Are nipt and withered by ta'vntimely Frost.
Onely herein my patience suffers most,
When the sweet Haruest and expected gaine
Of Vertues Vintage, ere full ripe is slaine.
When Time the Wheat with cruell sythe cuts downe,
But leaues such vulgar weeds as we vnmowne,
Darnell and Vetches: When these [...]ortall lights
Extinguisht be, should guide our dimmer sights.
Then, then I weepe, and wish the warry clouds
Would furnish me with reares, to weepe whole flouds.
Then wish I BOREAS (whose killing breath
is ne'er perfum'd with sweets of Indian Earth)
To lend me sighs. I wish the Culuers groanes,
The Pellicans shrill shrikes to expresse my moanes.
I wish my sel [...]e those [...] wings,
To search the glorious Courts of th'Fasterne Kings;
And a strong Partent sea [...]'d from powerfull IOVE,
Freely to take all that my thoughts approue.
First, would I then in Indian Forrests [...]lit
The weeping Plant (with Iuorie Knife) to get
Such pretious liquor vncorrupted cleare,
As might enbalme her [...]ck [...]enrie here.
[Page 89] Then would I next to Tauris Gardens pierce
For rarest flowers, to strew vpon his Hearse!
Th' Indies should yeeld vs Diamonds, China Gold;
Pe [...]e the Siluer that her lap doth hold;
Sylon and Ormus, all their Pearle should send,
The Congian Slaues from secret Caues should rend
The Chyan Marble, white Cassidonie,
Greene Lacedemon, and red Porpherie,
The pure white Marble got in Palestine,
And rare Numidian spotted Serpentine.
Tuskane should yeeld me then some Architect,
Whose artfull wit should first these Stones dissect
With Sand and toothlesse Saw▪ and then engraue
What stories there you memoriz'd would haue.
Which worke let mine imagination frame
So large, that the whole Earth might seeme to th'same
A fitting Basis, whence a lofue Spire,
Through the triple ai [...]e Regions, and much higher,
Should penetrate: so should the whole Earth be
His tombe, and the faire [...] [...] his Canopie.
This Piramed, a Pharos, fer [...]ing right
For to direct the storme-lost wandring VVight
To saferie: for since Fate did's life designe,
A patterne vnto this Cimmerian time
To imitate; tho ATROPOS accurst,
His Clew but new begun, in sunder burst;
Yet that small piece in tables SMARAGDINE,
I would preserue for light therein to shine
From these our Labyrinthian waies vneuen,
To guide vs iust that way he went to Heauen.

XXXIX.

MOrtalls lament; for Nature now and Fate
Seeme at great odds, and both with mutuall hate
To crosse each other: Else why is it still,
If ought be faire, or good by Natures will,
Fate cuts it off? Your Peach with much adoe
Escapes the Frost; yet liues the bitter Sloe
In spite of Winter. Wheate and other Graine,
These oft are blasted, Weeds are seldome slaine.
A thousand mischiefes and diseases tend
The towring Falkon, soone to worke her end;
When Puttocks last, and Crowes liue many a yeare.
Th' Arabian Cour [...]er, prized so high and deare,
He's melted in one day, perhaps, and dies;
But th' wretched Asse suruiues all miseries,
Strokes, endlesse toile and fa [...]ine. And we s [...]e
The like in men: If Nat [...] [...]ounteous be
Once in an Age, and striu [...] to make one blest
With her rich fauours, him before the rest
Fate soonest aimes at. Let me instance take,
That Royall hope, whom Nature stroue to make
The very modell of Perfection:
How soone Fate cut him off? And now is gone
(O word scarce to be nam'd with fewer teares)
CANDISHE, the Noble, Vertuous; tho in yeares
Younger then ADON, yet like NESTOR wise;
Though greene in blooming youth, ripe in aduice;
Whom Nature as a Cabinet did frame.
Therein to stow all things that Mortals name
Rich, faire, or good, which Death by Fates decree
[...]th broken vp, and now quite robd we be
[Page 91]Of treasure had enricht this barren time,
And reduc't plenty. Fate these workes of thi [...]
Are much too deepe, for dim eyes to discerne:
For though some ignorant perchance would terme
This Ciuill warre; yet farre be such offence
From vs, to thinke the diuine prouidence
Which leades these second causes, euer may
Be selfe diuided. But this right we say,
That as these mortall Gods on earth doe vse,
All things or rich or faire, themselues to chuse;
Thinking th' inferiour sort vnworthy such;
So seeme the Heauens herein to doe as much:
If Mines of Marle, or Coale, or such like stuffe
Be found, the Soueraignes thinke it good enough
For the meane people: But if Gold, or Plate,
That's for themselues. Wherein they imitate
The Heauens; so that indeed there seemes to be
In their designes a kind of simpathie:
Both choose vnto themselues what good they deeme;
Tho men mistaken, oft-times most esteeme
That which most harmes them. But the Heauens, which know
The natures all of things they frame below
With cunning hand, in this faire Garden gather
Each beautious flower, leauing the weedes to wither
By time, and courses fit for them ordain'd,
Since these likewise for hidden ends were fram'd.
Iohn Hagthorppe.

XL.
Teares for Sir THO. O.

YOu Culuers of the VVood lend me your grones:
You Mandrakes shrike [...], and mournefull Pellicanes▪
You mid-night Birds, lend me your dismall tones;
And all that wrongfull villanie complaines.
Oh lend me, lend me all the dying straines
You Snow-white Swans, which on Meander swim,
Doe at your deaths in funerall Dirgessing.
You Elephants caught in the Peguan Toyle;
You Nubian Lions, that the naked Moore,
Or wilde Arabian (for your ancient spoile)
Compells in vaine his mercie to implore.
Thou raging Tygre, and fierce Mantichore,
Lend me your powres combind, that I with cries
May rend the Marble Mountaines, and the Skies.
Lend, you me sighes, you Typhons of Ter [...]ear;
Let [...]eares like (a) Atlas [...]rozen Haile distill:
Oh lend me words you seuen-fold ecchoes cleare,
Your plaints tormented Ghosts in Heclaes Hill;
That so my sighs, teares, plaints, may blast and kill
All smiling flowres, and trees adorn'd with greene,
And (like my selfe) make Earth a mourner seeme.
Oh let me, let me sprinkle the free Ayre
With these my boundlesse woes! But I am dumbe.
Imprison'd soules herein seeme happier;
My Reason hath to me deni'd a tongue.
For as too vehement obiects ouercome
The senses; so the Vnderstanding's lame,
To vtter things that doe transcend the same.
Hence therefore let me flie with Swallowes wings
To (b) Tessets barren Desarts, where no Wight,
No saluage beast frequents, or creeping things;
Or to Condorian Caues, where sixe moneths night
May make me hate th' unwelcome entring light,
And flie back to my Caue againe, to find
A constant darknesse, suting mine owne mind.
There will I build mine euerlasting Cell,
Obliuion and my selfe will liue together.
If in an Age some aske, who there doth dwell?
My selfe will through the wall or doore deliuer
Some feined Names, and send them thence else-whither▪
That cruell men which for their dearest friends
Thus dig the graues, may not my peace offend.
Here Silence and my selfe will hug each other:
And if we walke, on soft Mosse will we tread.
Here Contemplation shall be my sworne Brother,
And Sorrow, where we friends this theame will reade;
That tho teares doe not profit those are dead;
Yet if for true friends, teares be ere well spent,
Tis when false friends betray friends innocent.

(a) Such was that of Cizicum, and that of the [Page 90] [...] [Page 91] [...] [Page 92] [...] [Page 93] [...] [Page 94]Gallerie at Olympia, which from thence had [...] appellation. Heptaphonon. Plin. lib. 36. cap. 15.

(b) Tesset is a little Towne in Africk in [...] Desart, distant from the neerest habitation thre [...] hundred miles. Leo.

A short elegiack Verse, written vp [...]on the vnfortunate Deaths of the thrice worthie Gentlemen, the Sheffeilds, drownd in Humber.

OH where am I! I thought I earst had died,
I was so frozen vp, and stupified
With Artick darknesse, and Condorian cold,
Which these late moneths, lifes faculties did hold
Imprisond, in the center of my heart.
Sure slaine I was, I felt so little smart,
At the chill newes of Humbers fatall deed,
My tongue to moue, mine eyes forgat to bleed.
(For water cannot expiate what water did)
When Vertues Children lie vnburied▪
Shall I be then lesse sensible, lesse kind,
Then Mecchaes Pilgrims, which themselues doe blind▪
And rather doe for custome sacrifice.
At marble shrines, then pious loue, their eies?
No, I will weepe, and weepe, and weepe againe,
Till in my conduits, humours none remaine,
To giue my Fountaines liquid supplement.
And when those pipes and hollow caues are spent,
[Page 95]Mine Aire in them condenst likewise shall be,
And transmigrate to moysture presently,
From whence I may deriue a fresh supplie,
Euen whilest I liue to weepe, and weeping die
For them, whose worthes and fatall chance excell
The powre of Time, in both to paralell.

A Funerall Canzonet vpon the vn­timely death of an Honourable Ladie vnder the name of Stella.

STreame teares, and in your waterie language lee
My passion speake the sorrowes of my mind,
Since words want weight, and tongues in vaine are see
To vtter woes, that haue not bounds assign'd;
Since Stella's dead, so noble, faire and kind,
That no tongue truly can her losse expresse,
Then mine be mute, speake eyes my heauinesse.
But Stella's dead, and I in vaine doe striue
To limit water, or confine the aire.
My words will perish that I would repriue,
And griefe hath dried the springs, whence teares re­paire.
So hard to forme, I find our passions are,
That what my Reason most incites me to,
I blindfold seeke, but quite contrary goe.
For Winters Frosts, or Summers Heate haue dried
My teares, and put this tempest in my tongue,
When reason rather of the two had tried,
Teares to haue tenderd, then this Dirge to haue sung▪
For Stella's death, so Noble, Faire and Young,
On my soules anuile, such crosse passions breake,
That my tongue weepes, whilest these mine eye [...] should speake.
TIme, I euer must complaine
Of thy craft and cruell cunning▪
Seeming fixt here to remaine,
When thy feete are euer running;
And thy plumes
Still resumes
Courses new, repose most shunning▪
Like calme winds thou passest by vs;
Lin'd with feathers are thy feete:
Thy dowrie wings with silence flie vs,
Like the shadowes of the night:
Or the streame;
That no beame
Of sharpest eye discernes to fleet.
Therefore Mortalls all deluded
By thy graue and wrinckled face,
In their iudgements haue concluded,
That thy slow and snaile-like pace,
Still doth bend
To no end,
But to an eternall race.
Budding Youths vaine blooming wit,
Thinks the Spring shall euer last,
And the gaudie flowres that sit
On Flora's brow, shall neuer tast [...]
Winters scorne,
Nor forlorne.
Bend their heads with chilling blast,
Riper age expects to haue
Haruests of his proper toyle:
Times to giue, and to receiue
Seedes and Fruits from fertile soyle▪
But at length,
Doth his strength
Youth and Beautie all recoyle.
Cold December hope rete [...]nes,
That the Spring each thing reuiuing,
Shall through-out his aged Veynes
Powre fresh Youth, past ioyes repriuing:
But thy Sithe
Ends his strise,
And to Lethe sends him driuing.

To Earth.

EArth, thou art a barren Field
Of delight and true contenting;
All the pleasures thou do'st yeeld,
Giue but cause of sad lamenting:
Where Desires
Are the fires,
Still our soules tormenting.
Riches, Honour, Dignitie,
Are the high way to misfortune:
Greatnesse is a lethargie,
That to death can soone transport one.
To be faire,
Causeth care,
Gifts cha [...]te thoughts importun [...].
To be wittie, quick of tongue,
Sorrow to themselues returneth.
To be Healthfull, Young and Strong,
Feeds the flames, where passion burneth:
Yet doe Men
Couet them,
More then what adorneth.
To haue Friends, and Louers kind,
That vs round enuiron:
Wife and Children, tho we find
These be robes that best attire one,
Yet their losse,
Is a crosse,
Melting hearts of Iron.
To be perfect here, and wise,
Is to know our indiscretions;
And our goodnes chiefely lies,
In obseruing our transgressions:
For we dwell,
As in Hell,
Thrall to bad impressions.
Then alas why long we so,
With lou'd Sorrow still to languish;
I [...] there ought on earth but woe,
Aye renewing cares and anguish;
Where new feares,
Still appeares,
Darts at vs to brandish?

To Death.

THen D [...]ath why shouldst thou dreaded be
And shund, as some great miserie?
That cur'st ou [...] woes and strife;
Onely because we're ill resolued,
And in darke errours clouds enuolued,
Thinke Death the end of life:
Which most vntrue,
Each place we view,
Giues testimonies rife.
The Flowers that we behold each yeare,
In checquered Meades their heads to reare,
New rising from their Tombe.
The Eglantines and Honie-Daisies,
And all those pritty smiling faces,
That still in age grow young:
Euen these doe crie,
That tho men die,
Yet life from death may come.
The towring Cedars, tall and strong,
On Taurus and mount Libanon,
In time they all decay.
Yet from their old and wasted roo [...]es,
At length againe grow vp young Shootes,
That are as fresh and gay.
Then why should we
Thus feare to die,
Whose death brings life for aye?
The seed that in the Earth we throw,
Doth putrifie before it grow,
Corrupting in his Vrne:
But at the Spring it flourisheth,
Whom Ph [...]ebus [...]nly cherisheth
With life at his returne.
Doth Times Sunne this?
Then sure it is,
Times Lord can more perf [...]rme.

To Time.

STay wrinckled Time, and slack thy winged haste,
Which from our Zenith doth so fast decline
In Westerne waues, Lethe thy selfe to [...]aste.
Stay, and at length regard this plaint of mine:
Thy one daies course is many thousand yeares,
And I in vaine pursue thee all my time.
Whilest thy declining haste more swift appeare [...],
And thine owne weight precipitates thee to;
My feeble leggs their burthen hardly beares,
Whilest I pursue to catch thy harrie brow:
But thou like fr [...]ward Age still writhest away,
And to my good endeauours wilt not bow.
Yet know, I come not now to beg delay
For any debt of mine, or borrowed summe;
Nor to repriue my life for some short day:
Old Time, it is for none of these I come,
But euen to vent my griefes, that thou (to me
To pinching) art so prodigall to some.
The Vsurer a hundred yeares can see,
To cram his chests with theft and poore mens spoile.
The Baude stored with all sorts of villanie,
And sinnes, that Hell and blacknesse selfe would soile;
Liues till her bodie be an Hospitall
Of strange Diseases, mischiefes perfect foile.
The P. and the P. that are most,
Fed by the peoples sinnes, and also feede:
Those mischiefes whereby many a man is lost,
Which be, old Time, thy worst disease indeed.
These doe not want: to doe amisse wants none;
But Time to him that would doe well's denide.
Thou giu'st the greedie Worldling time to runne,
In quest of profit, to the frozen Climes;
Then to the burning Line, and thirsting Sunne;
To Ganges, the Mollucaes, Phillippines:
Tho (more then men) he Nature cozen will,
That heate and cold for bounds to him assignes.
Thou lend'st the Drunkard time his Cups to spill:
Th'art to the Sluggard too indulgent kind;
Thou giu'st the Murtherer time to kill;
The Thiefe and Lustfull man their prey to find;
But those that to imploy thee well are bent,
Too little, or iust none haue they assign'd.
Ten yeares the guiltie Lawes haue from me puld;
My Wants and Cares as much; Sicknes the rest;
My best houres, but from Wants and Cares are culd.
Oh Time! must he haue least that spends thee best?
Oh Time! giue me a Time my selfe t'applie
To Vertue and to Knowledge, or to die,
FINIS.

Errata.

Page 30. line 13. reade, ( d) Hyena's. l. 14. r. ( e) Screech Owles: l. 15. r. ( f) Torpedoes. l. 17. r. ( g) Th'other. l. 20 r. ( h) Hels l. 21. ( i) Scyros. p. 40. l. 20. r. Candie: p. 43. l. 20. [...]. Vac [...]um sex rationibus in parte mo [...]us. l. 24. r. [...] daretur. p. 46. l. 4. r. sees no [...] God. p. 87. l. 6. r. ( i) Nam sulphur. l. 9. r. ( k) This is. l. 13. put out ( k).

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.