an anatomy of the vvorld wherein, by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drury the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented. donne, john, 1572-1631. 1611 approx. 34 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20619 stc 7022 estc s105367 99841096 99841096 5655 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20619) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 5655) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 881:20) an anatomy of the vvorld wherein, by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drury the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented. donne, john, 1572-1631. [32] p. printed [by william stansby] for samuel macham. and are to be solde at his shop in paules church-yard, at the signe of the bul-head, london : an. dom. 1611. by john donne. elizabeth drury was buried 17 december 1610. in verse. signatures: a-b. the first leaf is blank except for signature-mark "a". reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng drury, elizabeth, d. 1610 -poetry. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-06 sara gothard sampled and proofread 2002-06 sara gothard text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an anatomy of the world. wherein , by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drvry the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented . london , printed for samuel macham . and are to be solde at his shop in paules church-yard , at the signe of the bul-head . an. dom. 1611. to the praise of the dead , and the anatomy . wel dy'de the world , that we might liue to see this world of wit , in his anatomee : no euill wants his good : so wilder heyres bedew their fathers toombs with forced teares , who●e state requites their los : whils thus we gain well may we walk in blacks , but not complaine . yet , how can i consent the world is dead while this muse liues ? which in his spirits stead seemes to informe a world : and bids it bee , in spight of losse , or fraile mortalitee ? and thou the subiect of this wel-borne thought , thrise noble maid ; couldst not haue found nor sought a fitter time to yeeld to thy sad fate , then whiles this spirit liues ; that can relate thy worth so well to our last nephews eyne , that they shall wonder both at his , and thine : admired match ! where striues in mutuall grace the cunning pencill , and the comely face : a taske , which thy faire goodnes made too much for the bold pride of vulgar pens to tuch ; enough is vs to praise them that praise thee , and say that but enough those praises bee , which had'st thou liu'd , had hid their fearefull head from th' angry checkings of thy modest red : death bars reward & shame : when enuy's gone , and gaine ; 't is safe to giue the dead their owne . as then the wise egyptians wont to lay more on their tombs , then houses : these of clay , but those of brasse , or marble were ; so wee giue more vnto thy ghost , then vnto thee . yet what we giue to thee , thou gau'st to vs , and maist but thanke thy selfe , for being thus : yet what thou gau'st , and wert , o happy maid , thy grace profest all due , where 't is repayd . so these high songs that to thee suited bine , serue but to sound thy makers praise , in thine , which thy deare soule as sweetly sings to him amid the quire of saints and seraphim , as any angels tongue can sing of thee ; the subiects differ , tho the skill agree : for as by infant-yeares men iudge of age , thy early loue , thy vertues , did presage what an hi● part thou bear'st in those best songs vvhereto no burden , nor no end belongs . sing on , thou virgin soule , whose lossefull gaine thy loue-sicke parents haue bewayl'd in vaine ; neuer may thy name be in our songs forgot till we shall sing thy ditty , and thy note . an anatomy of the world . whē that rich soule w ch to her heauen is gone , whom all they celebrate , who know they haue one , ( for who is sure he hath a soule , vnlesse it see , and iudge , and follow worthinesse , and by deedes praise it ? he who doth not this , may lodge an in-mate soule , but t is not his . ) when that queene ended here her progresse time , and , as t' her standing house , to heauen did clymbe , where , loth to make the saints attend her long , shee 's now a part both of the quire , and song , this world , in that great earth-quake languished ; for in a common bath of teares it bled , which drew the strongest vitall spirits out : but succour'd then with a perplexed doubt , whether the world did loose or gaine in this , ( because since now no other way there is but goodnes , to see her , whom all would see , all must endeuour to be good as shee , ) this great consumption to a feuer turn'd , and so the world had fits ; it ioy'd , it mournd . and , as men thinke , that agues physicke are , and th' ague being spent , giue ouer care , so thou , sicke world , mistak'st thy selfe to bee well , when alas , thou' rt in a letargee . her death did wound , and tame thee than , and than thou mightst haue better spar'd the sunne , or man ; that wound was deepe , but 't is more misery , that thou hast lost thy sense and memory . t' was heauy then to heare thy voyce of mone , but this is worse , that thou art speechlesse growne . thou hast forgot thy name , thou hadst ; thou wast nothing but she , and her thou hast o'repast . for as a child kept from the font , vntill a prince , expected long , come to fulfill the ceremonies , thou vnnam'd hadst laid , had not her comming , thee her palace made : her name defin'd thee , gaue thee forme and frame , and thou forgetst to celebrate thy name . some moneths she hath beene dead ( but being dead , measures of times are all determined ) but long shee'ath beene away , long , long , yet none offers to tell vs who it is that 's gone . but as in states doubtfull of future heyres , when sickenes without remedy , empayres the present prince , they 're loth it should be said , the prince doth languish , or the prince is dead : so mankind feeling now a generall thaw , a strong example gone equall to law , the cyment which did faithfully compact and glue all vertues , now resolu'd , and slack'd , thought it some blasphemy to say sh'was dead ; or that our weakenes was discouered in that confession ; therefore spoke no more then tongues , the soule being gone , the losse deplore . but though it be too late to succour thee , sicke world , yea dead , yea putrified , since shee thy'ntrinsique balme , and thy preseruatiue , can neuer be renew'd , thou neuer liue , i ( since no man can make thee liue ) will trie , what we may gaine by thy anatomy . her death hath taught vs dearely , that thou art corrupt and mortall in thy purest part . let no man say , the world it selfe being dead , 't is labour lost to haue discouered the worlds infirmities , since there is none aliue to study this dissectione ; for there 's a kind of world remaining still , though shee which did inanimate and fill the world , be gone , yet in this last long night , her ghost doth walke ; that is , a glimmering light , a faint weake loue of vertue and of good refl●cts from her , on them which vnderstood her worth ; and though she haue shut in all day , the twi-light of her memory doth stay ; which , from the carcasse of the old world , free , creates a new world ; and new creatures be produc'd : the matter and the stuffe of this , her vertue , and the forme our practise is . and though to be thus elemented , arme these creatures , from hom-borne intrinsique harme , ( for all assum'd vnto this dignitee , so many weedlesse paradises bee , which of themselues produce no venemous sinne , except some forraine serpent bring it in ) yet , because outward stormes the strongest breake , and strength it selfe by confidence growes weake , this new world may be safer , being told the dangers and diseases of the old : for with due temper men do then forgoe , or couet things , when they their true worth know . there is no health ; physitians say that we at best , enioy , but a neutralitee . and can there be worse sickenesse , then to know that we are neuer well , nor can be so ? we are borne ruinous : poore mothers crie , that children come not right , nor orderly , except they headlong come , and fall vpon an ominous precipitation . how witty's ruine ? how importunate vpon mankinde ? it labour'd to frustrate euen gods purpose ; and made woman , sent for mans reliefe , cause of his languishment . they were to good ends , and they are so still , but accessory , and principall in ill . for that first mariage w●s our funerall : one woman at one blow , then kill'd vs all , and singly , one by one , they kill vs now . we doe delightfully our selues allow to that consumption ; and profusely blinde , we kill our selues , to propagate our kinde . and yet we doe not that ; we are not men : there is not now that mankinde , which was then when as the sunne , and man , did seeme to striue , ( ●●y●t tenants of the world ) who should suruiue . when stag , and rauen , and the long-liu'd tree , compar'd with man d●de in minoritee . when , if a s●o● pac●● starre had stolne away from the obseruers marking , he might stay two or three hundred yeares to see 't againe , and then make vp his obseruation plaine ; when , as the age was long , the sise was great : mans grouth confess'd , and recompenc'd the meat : so spacious and large , that euery soule did a faire kingdome , and large realme controule : and when the very stature thus erect , did that soule a good way towards heauen direct . where is this mankind now ? who liues to age , fit to be made methusalem his page ? alas , we scarse liue long enough to trie ; whether a new made clocke runne right , or lie . old grandsires talke of yesterday with sorrow , and for our children we reserue to morrow . so short is life , that euery peasant striues , in a torne house , or field , to haue three liues . and as in lasting , so in length is man contracted to an inch , who w●s a span . for had a man at first , in forrests stray'd , or shipwrack'd in the sea , one would haue laid a wager that an elephant , or whale that met him , would not hastily assaile a thing so equall to him : now alas , the fayries , and the pigmies well may passe as credible ; mankind decayes so soone , we 're scarse our fathers shadowes cast at noone . onely death addes t' our length : nor are we growne in stature to be men , till we are none . but this were light , did our lesse volume hold all the old text ; or had we chang'd to gold their siluer ; or dispos'd into lesse glas , spirits of vertue , which then scattred was . but 't is not so : w' are not retir'd , but dampt ; and as our bodies , so our mindes are cramp't : 't is shrinking , not close-weaning , that hath thus , in minde and body both bedwarfed vs. we seeme ambitious , gods whole worke t' vndoe ; of nothing he made vs , and we striue too , to bring our selues to nothing backe ; and we do what we can , to do 't so soone as hee . with new diseases on our selues we warre , and with new phisicke , a worse engin farre . thus man , this worlds vice-emperor , in whom all faculties , all graces are at home ; and if in other creatures they appeare , they 're but mans ministers , and legats there , to worke on their rebellions , and reduce them to ciuility , and to mans vse . this man , whom god did wooe , and loth t' attend till man came vp , did downe to man descend , this man , so great , that all that is , is his , oh what a trifle , and poore thing he is ! if man were any thing , he 's nothing now : helpe , or at least some time to wast , allow t' his other wants , yet when he did depart with her whom we lament he lost his hart . she , of whom th' auncients seem'd to proph●sie , when they call'd vertues by the 〈◊〉 of shee , she in whom vertue 〈◊〉 so much ●efi●●d , that for allay vnto so pure a minde shee tooke the weaker sex , ●h that co●ld d●●ue the poysonous tincture , and the stayne of eue , out of her thoughts , and deeds ; and purifie all , by a true religious alchimy ; shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this , thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is . and learn'st thus much by our anatomee , the heart being perish'd , no part can be free . and that except thou seed ( not banquet ) on the supernaturall food , religion , thy better grouth growes withered , and scant ; be more then man , or thou' rt lesse then an ant. then , as mankind● , so is the worlds whole frame quite out of ioynt , almost created lame : for , before god had made vp all the rest , corruption entred , and deprau'd the best : it seis'd angels , and then first of all the world did in her cradle take a fall , and turn'd her braines , and tooke a generall maime wronging each ioynt of th'vniversall frame . the noblest part , man , felt it first ; and than both beasts and plants , curst in the curse of man. so did the world from the first houre decay , that euening was beginning of the day , and now the springs and sommers which we see , like sonnes of women after fifty bee . and new philosophy cals all in doubt , the element of fire is quite put out ; the sunne is lost , and th' earth , and no mans wit can well direct him , where to looke for it . and freely men confesse , that this world 's spent , when in the planets , and the firmament they seeke so many new ; they see that this is crumbled out againe to his atomis . 't is all in pieces , all cohaerence gone ; all iust supply , and all relation : prince , subiect , father , sonne , are things forgot , for euery man alone thinkes he hath got to be a phoenix , and that then can bee none of that kinde , of which he is , but hee . this is the worlds condition now , and now she that should all parts to reunion bow , she that had all magnetique force alone , to draw , and fasten sundred parts in one ; she whom wise nature had inuented then when she obseru'd that euery sort of men did in their voyage in this worlds sea stray , and needed a new compasse for their way ; shee that was best , and first originall of all faire copies ; and the generall steward to fate ; shee whose rich eyes , and brest , guilt the west indies , and perfum'd the east ; whose hauing breath'd in this world , did bestow spice on those isles , and bad them still smell so , and that rich indie which doth gold interre , is but 〈◊〉 single money , coyn'd from her : she to whom this world must it selfe refer , as suburbs , or the microcosme of her , shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowst this , thou knowst how lame a cripple this world is . and learnst thus much by our anatomy , that this worlds generall sickenesse doth not lie in any humour , or one certaine part ; but , as thou sawest it rotten at the hart , thou seest a hectique feuer hath got hold of the whole substance , not to be contrould . and that thou hast but one way , not t' admit the worlds infection , to be none of it . for the worlds subtilst immateriall parts feele this consuming wound , and ages darts . for the worlds beauty is decayd , or gone , beauty , that 's colour , and proportion . we thinke the heauens enioy their sphericall their round proportion embracing all . but yet their various and perplexed course , obseru'd in diuers ages doth enforce men to finde out so many eccentrique parts , such diuers downe-right lines , such ouerthwarts , as disproportion that pure forme . it teares the firmament in eight and fortie sheeres , and in those constellations then arise new starres , and old do vanish from our eyes : as though heau'n suffred earth-quakes , peace or war , when new towres rise , and olde demolish'd are . they haue empayld within a zodiake the free-borne sunne , and keepe twelue signes awake to watch his steps ; the goat and crabbe controule , and fright him backe , who els to eyther pole , ( did not these tropiques fetter him ) might runne : for his course is not round ; nor can the sunne perfit a circle , or maintaine his way one inche direct ; but where he rose to day he comes no more , but with a cousening line , steales by that point , and so is serpentine : and seeming weary with his recling thus , he meanes to sleepe , being now falne nearer vs. so , of the stares which boast that they do runne in circle still , none ends where he begunne . all their proportion's lame , it sinks , it swels . for of meridians , and parallels , man hath weau'd out a net , and this net throwne vpon the heauens , and now they are his owne . loth to goe vp the hill , or labor thus to goe to heauen , we make heauen come to vs. we spur , we raine the stars , and in their race they 're diuersly content t' obey our pace . but keepes the earth her round proportion still ? doth not a tenarif , or higher hill rise so high like a rocke , that one might thinke the floating moone would shipwracke there , and sink ? seas are so deepe , that whales being strooke to day , perchance to morrow , scarse at middle way of their wish'd iourneys end , the bottom , dye . and men , to sound depths , so much line vntie , as one might iustly thinke , that there would rise at end thereof , one of th'antipodies : if vnder all , a vault infernall be , ( which sure is spacious , except that we inuent another torment , that there must millions into a strait hote roome be thrust ) then solidnes , and roundnes haue no place . are these but warts , and pock-holes in the face of th' earth ? thinke so . but yet confesse , in this the worlds proportion disfigured is , that those two legges whereon it doth relie , reward and punishment are bent awrie . and , oh , it can no more be questioned , that beauties best , proportion , is dead , since euen griefe it selfe , which now alone is left vs , is without proportion . shee by whose lines proportion should bee examin'd , measure of all symmetree , whom had that ancient seen , who thought soules made of harmony , he would at next haue said that harmony was shee , and thence infer , that soules were but resultances from her , and did from her into our bodies go , as to our eyes , the formes from obiects flow : shee , who if those great doctors truely said that th'arke to mans proportions was made , had beene a type for that , as that might be a type of her in this , that contrary both elements , and passions liu'd at peace in her , who caus'd all ciuill warre to cease . shee , after whom , what forme soe're we see , is discord , and rude incongruitee , shee , shee is dead , shee 's dead ; when thou knowst this , thou knowst how vgly a monster this world is : and learnst thus much by our anatomie , that here is nothing to enamor thee : and that , not onely faults in inward parts , corruptions in our braines , or in our harts , poysoning the fountaines , whence our actions spring , endanger vs : but that if euery thing be not done fitly'nd in proportion , to satisfie wise , and good lookers on , ( since most men be such as most thinke they bee ) they 're lothsome too , by this deformitee . for good , and well , must in our actions meete : wicked is not much worse then indiscreet . but beauties other second element , colour , and lustre now , is as neere spent . and had the world his iust proportion , were it a ring still , yet the stone is gone . as a compassionate turcoyse which doth tell by looking pale , the wearer is not well , as gold fals sicke being ●lung with mercury , all the worlds parts of such complexion bee . when nature was most busie , the first weeke , swadling the new-borne earth , god seemd to like , that she should sport herselfe sometimes , and play , to mingle , and vary colours euery day . and then , as though she could not make i now , himselfe his various rainbow did allow . sight is the noblest sense of any one , yet sight hath onely color to feed on , and color is decayd : summers robe growes duskie , and like an oft dyed garment showes . our blushing redde , which vs'd in cheekes to spred , is inward sunke , and onely our soules are redde . perchance the world might haue recouered , if she whom we lament had not beene dead : but shee , in whom all white , and redde , and blue ( beauties ingredients ) voluntary grew , as in an vnuext paradise ; from whom did all things verdure , and their lustre come , whose composition was miraculous , being all color , all diaphanous , ( for ayre , and fire but thicke grosse bodies were , and liueliest stones but drowsie , and pale to her , ) shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowst this , thou knowst how wan a ghost this our world is : and learnst thus much by our anatomee , that it should more affright , then pleasure thee . and that , since all faire color then did sinke , t is now but wicked vanity to thinke , to color vitious deeds with good pretence , or with bought colors to illude mens sense . nor in ought more this worlds decay appeares , then that her influence the heau'n forbeares , or that the elements doe not feele this , the father , or the mother barren is . the clouds conceiue not raine , or doe not powre in the due birth-time , downe the balmy showre . th' ayre doth not motherly sit on the earth , to hatch her seasons , and giue all things birth . spring-times were common cradles , but are toombes and false-conceptions fill the generall wombs . th' ayre showes such meteors , as none can see , not onely what they meane , but what they bee . earth such new wormes , as would haue troubled me th'egyptian mages to haue made more such . what artist now dares boast that he can bring heauen hither , or constellate any thing , so as the influence of those starres may bee imprisond in an herbe , or charme , or tree , and doe by touch , all which those starres could do ? the art is lost , and correspondence too . for heauen giues little , and the earth takes lesse , and man least knowes their trade , and purposes . if this commerce twixt heauen and earth were not embarr'd , and all this trafique quite forgot , shee , for whose losse we haue lamented thus , would worke more fully ' and pow'rfully on vs. since herbes , and roots by dying , lose not all , but they , yea ashes too , are medicinall , death could not quench her vertue so , but that it would be ( if not follow'd ) wondred at : and all the world would be one dying swan , to sing her funerall prayse , and vanish than . but as some serpents poison hurteth not , except it be from the liue serpent shot , so doth her vertue need her here , to fit that vnto vs ; she working more then it . but she , in whom , to such maturity , vertue was growne , past growth , that it must die , she from whose influence all impressions came , but , by receiuers impotencies , lame , who , though she could not transubstantiate all states to gold , yet guilded euery state , so that some princes haue some temperance ; some counsaylors some purpose to aduance the common profite ; and some people haue some stay , no more then kings should giue , to craue ; some women haue some taciturnity ; some nunneries , some graines of chastity . she that did thus much , and much more could doe , but that our age was iron , and rusty too , shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowst this , thou knowest how drie a cinder this world is . and learnst thus much by our anatomy , that 't is in vaine to dew , or mollifie it with thy teares , or sweat , or bloud : no thing is worth our trauaile , griefe , or perishing , but those rich ioyes , which did possesse her hart , of which shee 's now partaker , and a part . but as in cutting vp a man that 's dead , the body will not last out to haue read on euery part , and therefore men direct their speech to parts , that are of most effect ; so the worlds carcasse would not last , if i were punctuall in this anatomy . nor smels it well to hearers , if one tell them their disease , who faine would think they 're wel . here therefore be the end : and , blessed maid , of whom is meant what euer hath beene said , or shall be spoken well by any tongue , whose name refines course lines , & makes prose song , accept this tribute , and his first yeares rent , who till his darke short tapers end be spent , as oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth , will yearely celebrate thy second birth , that is , thy death . for though the soule of man be got when man is made , 't is borne but than when man doth die . our body 's as the wombe , and as a mid-wife death directs it home . and you her creatures , whom she workes vpon and haue your last , and best concoction from her example , and her vertue , if you in reuerence to her , doe thinke it due , that no one should her prayses thus reherse , as matter fit for chronicle , not verse , vouchsafe to call to minde , that god did make a last , and lastingst peece , a song . he spake to moses , to deliuer vnto all , that song : because he knew they would let fall , the law , the prophets , and the history , but keepe the song still in their memory . such an opinion ( in due measure ) made me this great office boldly to in●ade . nor could incomprehensiblenesse deterre me , from thus trying to emprison her . which when i saw that a strict graue could do , i saw not why verse might not doe so too . verse hath a middle nature : heauen keepes soules , the graue keeps bodies , verse the same enroules . a fvnerall elegie . t is lost , to trust a tombe with such a ghest , or to confine her in a marble chest . alas , what 's marble , ieat , or porphiry , priz'd with the chrysolite of eyther eye , or with those pearles , and rubies which shee was ? ioyne the two indies in one tombe , 't is glas ; and so is all to her materials , though euery inche were ten escurials . yet shee 's demolish'd : can we keepe her then in workes of hands , or of the wits of men ? can these memorials , ragges of paper , giue life to that name , by which name they must liue ? sickly , alas , short-liu'd , aborted bee those carkas verses , whose soule is not shee . and can shee , who no longer would be shee , being such a tabernacle , stoope to bee in paper wrap't ; or , when she would not lie in such a house , dwell in an elegie ? but 't is no matter ; we may well allow verse to liue so long as the world will now . for her death wounded it . the world containes princes for armes , and counsailors for braines , lawyers for tongues , diuines for hearts , and more , the rich for stomachs , and for backes the pore ; the officers for hands , merchants for feet by which remote and distant countries meet . but those fine spirits , which doe tune and set this organ , are those peeces which beget wonder and loue ; and these were shee● ; and shee being spent , the world must needes decrepit bee . for since death will proceed to triumph still , he can finde nothing , after her , to kill , except the world it selfe , so great as shee . thus braue and confident may nature bee , death cannot giue her such another blow , because shee cannot such another show . but must we say shee 's dead ? may 't not be said that as a sundred clocke is peece-meale laid , not to be lost , but by the makers hand repolish'd , without error then to stand , or as the affrique niger streame enwombs it selfe into the earth , and after comes , ( hauing first made a naturall bridge , to passe for many leagues , ) farre greater then it was , may 't not be said , that her graue shall restore her , greater , purer , firmer , then b●fore ? heauen may say this , and ioy in 't ; but can wee who liue , and lacke her , here this vantage see ? what is 't to vs , alas , if there haue beene an angell made a throne , or cherubin ? we lose by 't : and as aged men are glad being tastlesse growne , to ioy in ioyes they had , so now the sicke staru'd world must feed vpone this joy , that we had her , who now is gone . reioyce then nature , and this world , that you fearing the last fires hastning to subdue your force and vigor , ere it were neere gone , wisely bestow'd , and layd it all on one . one , whose cleare body was so pure , and thin , because it neede disguise no thought within . t' was but a through-light scarfe , her minde t'enroule , or exhalation breath'd out from her soule . one , whom all men who durst no more , admir'd ; and whom , who ere had worth enough , desir'd ; as when a temple 's built , saints emulate to which of them , it shall be consecrate . but as when heau'n lookes on vs with new eyes , those new starres eu'ry artist exercise , what place they should assigne to them they doubt , argue , and agree not , till those starres go out : so the world studied whose this peece should be . till she can be no bodies else , nor shee : but like a lampe of balsamum , desir'd rather t' adorne , then last , shee soone expir'd ; cloath'd in her virgin white integrity ; for mariage , though it doe not staine , doth dye . to scape th'infirmities which waite vpone woman , shee went away , before sh'was one . and the worlds busie noyse to ouercome , tooke so much death , as seru'd for opium . for though she could not , nor could chuse to die , shee'ath yeelded to too long an extasie . he which not knowing her sad history , should come to reade the booke of destiny , how faire and chast , humble and high shee'ad beene , much promis'd , much perform'd , at not fifteene , and measuring future things , by things before , should turne the leafe to reade , and read no more , would thinke that eyther destiny mistooke , or that some leafes were torne out of the booke . but 't is not so : fate did but vsher her to yeares of reasons vse , and then infer her destiny to her selfe ; which liberty she tooke but for thus much , thus much to die . her modesty not suffering her to bee fellow-commissioner with destinee , shee did no more but die ; if after her any shall liue , which dare true good prefer , euery such person is her delegate , t' accomplish that which should haue beene her fate . they shall make vp that booke , and shall haue thankes of fate and her , for filling vp their blanks . for future vertuous deeds are legacies , which from the gift of her example rise . and 't is in heau'n part of spirituall mirth , to see how well , the good play her , on earth . finis . iuuenilia or certaine paradoxes and problemes, written by i. donne donne, john, 1572-1631. 1633 approx. 61 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20644 stc 7044 estc s109982 99845608 99845608 10517 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20644) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 10517) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1377:05) iuuenilia or certaine paradoxes and problemes, written by i. donne donne, john, 1572-1631. the second edition, [4], 44 p. printed by e[lizabeth] p[urslowe] for henry seyle, and are to be sold at the signe of the tygers head, in st. pauls church-yard, london : anno dom. 1633. printer's name from stc. the first leaf is blank. reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng questions and answers -early works to 1800. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-06 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2002-06 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ivvenilia or certaine paradoxes and problemes , written by i. donne . the second edition , corrected . noli altvm sap●●● london , printed by e.p. for henry seyle , and are to be sold at the signe of the tygers head , in st. pauls church-yard , anno dom. 1633. paradoxes . i. a defence of womens inconstancy . ii. that women ought to paint . iii. that by discord things increase . iv. that good is more common than evill . v. that all things kill themselves . vi. that it is possible to find some vertue in some women . vii . that old men are more fantastike than young. viii . that nature is our worst guide . ix . that onely cowards dare dye . x. that a wise man is known by much laughing . xi . that the gifts of the body are better than those of the minde . paradoxes . i. a defence of womens inconstancy . that women are inconstant , i with any man confesse , but that inconstancy is a bad quality , i against any man will maintaine : for every thing as it is one better than another , so is it fuller of change ; the heavens themselves continually turne , the starres move , the moone changeth ; fire whirleth , ayre flyeth , water ebbs and flowes , the face of the earth altereth her lookes , time stayes not ; the colour that is most light , will take most dyes : so in men , they that have the most reason are the most inalterable in their designes , and the darkest or most ignorant , do seldomest change ; therefore women changing more than men , have also mor● reason . they cannot be immutable like stockes , like stones , like the earths dull center , gold that lyeth still , rusteth ; water , corrupteth ; aire that moveth not , poysoneth ; then why should that which is the perfection of other ●hings , be imputed to women as greatest imperfection ? because thereby they deceive men . are not your wits pleased with those jests , which coozen your expectation ? you can call it pleasure to be beguil'd in troubles , and in the most excellent toy in the world , you call it treachery : i would you had your mistresses so constant , that they would never change , no not so much as their smocks , then should you see what sluttish vertue , constancy were . inconstancy is a most commendable and cleanely quality , and women in this quality are farre more absolute than the heavens , than the starres , moone , or any thing beneath it ; for long observation hath pickt certainety out of their mutability . the learned are so well acquainted with the starres , signes and pla●ets , that they make them but characters , to reade the meaning of the heaven in his owne forehead . every simple fellow can bespeake the change of the moone a great while before-hand : but i would faine have the learnedst man so skilfull , as to tell when the simplest woman meaneth to varie . learning affords no rules to know , much lesse knowledge to rule the minde of a woman : for as philosophy teacheth us , that light things doe alwayes tend upwards , and heavy things decline downeward ; experience teacheth us otherwise , that the disposition of a light woman , is to fall downe , the nature of women being contrary to all art and nature . women are like flies , which feed among us at our table , or fleas sucking our very blood , who leave not our most retired places free from their familiarity , yet for all their fellowship will they never bee tamed nor commanded by us . women are like the sunne , which is violently carryed one way , yet hath a proper course contrary : so though they , by ●he mastery of some over-ruling chu●lish husbands , are forced to his byas , yet have they a motion of their owne , which their husbands never know of . it is the nature of nice and fastidious mindes to know things onely to bee weary of them : women by their flye changeablenesse , and pleasing doublenesse , prevent even the mislike of those , for they can never be so well knowne , but that there is still more unknowne . every woman is a science ; for hee that plods upon a woman all his life long , shall at length find himselfe short of the knowledge of her : they are borne to take downe the pride of wit , and ambition of wisedome , making fooles wise in the adventuring to winne them , wisemen fooles in conceit of losing their labours ; witty men starke mad , being confounded with their uncertaineties . philosophers write against them for spight , not desert , that having attained to some knowledge in all other things , in them onely they know nothing , but are meerely ignorant : active and experienced men raile agai●st them , because they love in their livelesse and decrepit age , when all goodnesse leaves them . these envious libellers ballad against them , because having nothing in themselves able to deserve their love , they maliciously discommend all they cannnot obtaine , thinking to make men beleeve they know much , because they are able to dispraise much , and rage against inconstancy , when they were never admitted into so much favour as to be forsaken . in mine opinion such men are happy that women are inconstant , for so may they chance to bee beloved of some excellent women ( when it comes to their turne ) out of their inconstancy and mutability , though not out of their owne desert . and what reason is there to clog any woman with one man , bee hee never so singular ? women had rather , and it is farre better and more iudiciall to enjoy all the vertues in severall men , than but some of them in one , for otherwise they lose their taste , like divers sorts of meat minced together in one dish : and to have all excellencies in one man ( if it were possible ) is confusion and diversity . now who can deny , but such as are obstinately bent to undervalue their worth , are those that have not soule enough to comprehend their excellency , women being the most excellentest creatures , in that man is able to subject all things else , and to grow wise in every thing , but still persists a foole in woman ? the greatest scholler , if hee once take a wife , is found so unlearned , that he must begin his horne-booke , and all is by inconstancy . to conclude therefore ; this name of inconstancy , which hath so much beene poysoned with slaunders , ought to bee changed into variety , for the which the world is so delightfull , and a woman for that the most delightfull thing in this world. ii. that women ought to paint . foulenesse is lothsome : can that be so which helpes it ? who forbids his beloved to gird in her waste ? to mend by shooing her uneven lamenesse ? to burnish her teeh ? or to perfume her breath ? yet that the face bee more precisely regarded , it concernes more : for as open confessing sinners are alwaies punished , but the wary and concealing offenders without witnesse doe it also without punishment ; so the secret parts needs the lesse respect ; but of the face , discovered to all examinations and survayes , there is not too nice a iealousie . nor doth it onely draw the busie eyes , but it is subject to the divinest touch of all , to kissing , the strange and mysticall union of soules . if shee should prostitute her selfe to a more unworthy man than thy selfe , how earnestly and justly wouldst thou exclaime ? that for want of this easier and ready way of repairing , to betray her body to ruine and deformity ( the tyrannous ravishers , and sodaine d●flourers of all women ) what a heynous adultery is it ? what thou lovest in her face is colour , and painting gives that , but thou hatest it , not because it is , but because thou knowest it . foole , whom ignorance makes happy , the starres , the sunne , the skye whom thou admirest , alas , have no colour , but are faire , because they seeme to bee coloured : if this seeming will not satisfie thee in her , thou hast good assurance of her colour , when thou seest her lay it on . if her face bee painted on a boord or wall , thou wilt love it , and the boord , and the wall : canst thou loath it then when it speakes , smiles , and kisses , because it is painted ? are wee not more delighted with seeing birds , fruites , and beasts painted then wee are with naturalls ? and doe wee not with pleasure behold the painted shape of monsters and divels , whom true , wee durst not regard ? wee repaire the ruines of our houses , but first cold tempests warnes us of it , and bytes us through it ; wee mend the wracke and staines of our apparell , but first our eyes , and other bodies are offended ; but by this providence of women , this is prevented . if in kissing or breathing upon her , the painting fall off , thou art angry , wilt thou be so , if it sticke on ? thou didst love her , if thou beginnest to hate her , then 't is because shee is not painted . if thou wilt say now , thou didst hate her before , thou didst hate her and love her together , bee constant in something , and love her who shewes her great love to thee , in taking this paines to seeme lovely to thee . iii. that by discord things increase . nullos esse deos , inane coelum affirmat coelius , probatque quod se factum vidit , dum negat haec , beatum . so i assevere this the more boldly , because while i maintaine it , and feele the contrary repugnancies and adverse fightings of the elements in my body , my body increaseth ; and whilst i differ from common opinions by this discord , the number of my paradoxes increaseth . all the rich benefits we can frame to our selves in concord , is but an even conservation of things ; in which evennesse wee can expect no change , no motion ; therefore no increase or augmentation , which is a member of motion . and if this unity and peace can give increase to things , how mightily is discord and war to that purpose , which are indeed the onely ordinary parents of peace . discord is never so barren that it affords no fruit ; for the fall of one estate is at the worst the increaser of another , because it is as impossible to finde a discommodity without advantage , as to finde corruption without generation : but it is the nature and office of concord to preserve onely , which property when it leaves , it differs from it selfe , which is the greatest discord of all . all victories and emperies gained by warre , and all iudiciall decidings of doubts in peace , i doe claime children of discord . and who can deny but controversies in religion are growne greater by discord , and not the controversie , but religion it selfe : for in a troubled misery men are alwaies more religious then in a secure peace . the number of good men , the onely charitable nourishers of concord , wee see is thinne , and daily melts and waines ; but of bad discording it is infinite , and growes hourely . wee are ascertained of all disputable doubts , onely by arguing and differing in opinion , and if formall disputation ( which is but a painted , counterfeit , and dissembled discord ) can worke us this benefit , what shall not a full and maine discord accomplish ? truely me thinkes i owe a devotion , yea a sacrifice to discord , for casting that ball upon ida , and for all that businesse of troy , whom ruin'd i admire more then babylon , rome , or quinzay , removed corners , not onely fulfilled with her fame , but with cities and thrones planted by her fugitives . lastly , between cowardice and despaire , valour is gendred ; and so the discord of extreames begets all vertues , but of the like things there is no issue without a miracle : vxor pessima , pessimus maritus miror tam mal● convenire . hee wonders that betweene two so like , there could be any discord , yet perchance for all this discord there was nere the lesse increase . iv. that good is more common then evill . i have not been so pittifully tired with any vanity , as with silly old mens exclaiming against these times , and extolling their owne : alas ! they betray themselves , for if the times be changed , their manners have changed them . but their senses are to pleasures , as sick mens tastes are to liquors ; for indeed no new thing is done in the world , all things are what , and as they were , and good is as ever it was , more plenteous , a●d must of necessity be more common then evill , because it hath this for nature and perfection to bee common . it makes love to all natures , all , all affect it . so that in the worlds early infancy , there was a time when nothing was evill , but if this world shall suffer dotage in the extreamest crookednesse thereof , there shall be no time when nothing shal be good . it dares appeare and spread , and glister in the world , but evill buries it selfe in night and darknesse , and is chastised and suppressed when good is cherished and rewarded . and as imbroderers , lapidaries , and other artisans , can by all things adorne their workes ; for by adding better things , the better they shew in lush and in eminency ; so good doth not onely prostrate her amiablenesse to all , but refuses no end , no not of her utter contrary evill , that shee may bee the more common to us . for euill manners are parents of good lawes ; and in every evill there is an excellency , which ( in common speech ) we call good . for the fashions of habits , for our moving in gestures , for phrases in our speech , we say they were good as long as they were used , that is , as long as they were common ; and wee eate , wee walke , onely when it is , or seemes good to doe so . all faire , all profitable , all vertuous , is good , and these three things i thinke embrace all things , but their utter contraries ; of which also faire may be rich and vertuous ; poore may bee vertuous and faire ; vitious may be faire and rich ; so that good hath this good meanes to be common , that some subjects she can possesse intirely ; and in subjects poysoned with evill , she can humbly stoop to accompany the evill . and of indifferent things many things are become perfectly good by being common , as customes by use are made binding lawes . but i remember nothing that is therefore ill , because it is common , but women , of whom also ; they that are most common , are the best of that occupation they professe . v. that all things kill themselves . to affect , yea to effect their owne death all living things are importuned , not by nature only which perfects them , but by art and education , which perfects her . plants quickened and inhabited by the most unworthy soule , which therefore neither will nor worke , affect an end , a perfection , a death ; this they spend their spirits to attaine , this attained , they languish and wither . and by how much more they are by mans industry warmed , cherished , and pampered ; so much the more early they climbe to this perfection , this death . and if amongst men not to defend be to kill , what a hainous selfe-murther is it , not to defend it selfe . this defence because beasts neglect , they kill themselves , because they exceed us in number , strength , and a lawlesse liberty : yea , of horses and other beasts , they that inherit most courage by being bred of gallantest parents , and by artificial nursing are bettered , will runne to their owne deaths , neither sollicited by spurres which they need not , nor by honour which they apprehend not . if then the valiant kill himselfe , who can excuse the coward ? or how shall man bee free from this , since the first man taught us this , except we cannot kill our selves , because he kill'd us all . yet lest something should repaire this common ruine , we daily kill our bodies with surfeits , and our mindes with anguishes . of our powers , remembring kils our memory ; of affections , lusting our lust ; of vertues , giving kils liberality . and if these kill themselves , they do it in their best & supreme perfection : for after perfection immediately follows excesse , which changeth the natures and the names , and makes them not the same things . if then the best things kill themselves soonest , ( for no affection endures , and all things labour to this perfection ) all travell to their owne death , yea the frame of the whole world , if it were possible for god to be idle , yet because it began , must dye . then in this idlenesse imagined in god , what could kill the world but it selfe , since out of it , nothing is ? vi. that it is possible to find some vertue in some women . i am not of that seard impudence that i dare defend women , or pronounce them good ; yet we see physitians allow some vertue in every poyson . alas ! why should we except women ? since certainely , they are good for physicke at least , so as some mine is good for a feaver . and though they be the occasioners of many sinnes , they are also the punishers and revengers of the same sinnes : for i have seldome seene one which consumes his substance and body upon them , escape diseases , or beggery ; and this is their iustice . and if suum cuique dare , bee the fulfilling of all civill iustice , they are most just ; for they deny that which is theirs to no man. tanquam non liceat nulla puella negat . and who may doubt of great wisdome in them , that doth but observe with how much labour and cunning our iusticers and other dispensers of the lawes study to imbrace them : and how zealously our preachers dehort men from them , onely by urging their subtilties , and policies , and wisedome , which are in them ? or who can deny them a good measure of fortitude , if hee consider how valiant men they have overthrowne , and being themselves overthrowne , how much and how patiently they beare ? and though they bee most intemperate , i care not , for i undertooke to furnish them with some vertue , not with all . necessity , which makes even bad things good , prevailes also for them , for wee must say of them , as of some sharpe pinching lawes ; if men were free from infirmities , they were needlesse . these or none must serve for reasons , and it is my great happinesse that examples prove not rules , for to confirme this opinion , the world yeelds not one example . vii . that old men are more fantastike then young. who reads this paradox but thinks mee more fantastike now , than i was yesterday , when i did not think thus : and if one day make this sensible change in men , what will the burthen of many yeeres ? to bee fantastike in young men is conceiptfull distemperature , and a witty madnesse ; but in old men , whose senses are withered , it becomes naturall , therefore more full and perfect . for as when wee sleepe our fancy is most strong ; so it is in age , which is a slumber of the deepe sleepe of death . they taxe us of inconstancy , which in themselves young they allowed ; so that reprooving that which they did approove , their inconstancy exceedeth ours , because they have changed once more then wee . yea , they are more idlely busied in conceited apparell then wee ; for we , when we are melancholy , weare blacke ; when lusty , greene ; when forsaken , tawney ; pleasing our owne inward affections , leaving them to others indifferent ; but they prescribe lawes , and constraine the noble , the scholler , the merchant , and all estates to a certaine habit . the old men of our time have changed with patience their owne bodies , much of their lawes , much of their languages ; yea their religion , yet they accuse us . to be amorous is proper and naturall in a young man , but in an old man most fantastike . and that ridling humour of iealousie , which seekes and would not finde , which requires and repents his knowledge , is in them most common , yet most fantastike . yea , that which falls never in young men , is in them most fantastike and naturall , that is , covetousness● ; even at their journeyes end to make great provision . is any habit of young men so fantastike , as in the hottest seasons to be double-gowned or hooded like our elders ? or seemes it so ridiculous to weare long haire , as to weare none . truely , as among the philosophers , the skeptike , which doubts all , was more contentious , then either the dogmatike which affirmes , or academike which denyes all ; so are these uncertaine elders , which both cals them fantastike which follow others inventions , and them also which are led by their owne humorous suggestion , more fantastike then other . viii . that nature is our worst guide . shal she be guide to all creatures , which is her selfe one ? or if she also have a guide , shall any creature have a better guide then wee ? the affections of lust and anger , yea even to erre is naturall ; shall we follow these ? can shee be a good guide to us , which hath corrupted not us onely but her selfe ? was not the first man , by the desire of knowledge , corrupted even in the whitest integrity of nature ? and did not nature ( if nature did any thing ) infuse into him this desire of knowledge , and so this corruption in him , into us ? if by nature wee shall understand our essence , our definition , or reason , noblenesse , then this being alike common to all ( the idiot and the wizard being equally reasonable ) why should not all men having equally all one nature , follow one course ? or if we shall understand our inclinations ; alas ! how unable a guide is that which followes the temperature of our slimie bodies ? for we cannot say that we derive our incli●ations , our mindes , or soules from our parents by any way : to say that it is all from all , is error in reason , for then with the first nothing remaines ; or is a part from all , is errour in experience , for then this part equally imparted to many children , would like gavel-kind lands , in few generations become nothing ; or to say it by communication , is errour in divinity , for to communicate the ability of communicating whole essence with any but god , is utter blasphemy . and if thou hit thy fathers nature and inclination , he also had his fathers , and so climbing up , all comes of one man , and have one nature , all shall imbrace one course ; but that cannot bee , therefore our complexions and whole bodies , wee inherit from parents ; our inclinations and minds follow that : for our minde is heavy in our bodies afflictions , and rejoyceth in our bodies pleasure : how then shall this nature governe us , that is governed by the worst part of us ? nature though oft chased away , it will retu●ne ; 't is true , but those good motions and inspirations which be our guides must bee ●ooed , courted , and welcomed , or else they abandon us . and that old axiome , nihil invita , &c. must not be said thou shalt , but thou wilt doe nothing against nature ; so unwilling he notes us to curbe our naturall appetites . wee call our bastards alwayes our naturall issue , and we define a foole by nothing so ordinary , as by the name of naturall . and that poore knowledge whereby we conceive what raine is , what wind , what thunder , wee call metaphysicke , supernaturall ; such small things , such no things doe we allow to our pliant natures apprehension . lastly , by following her , we lose the pleasant , and lawfull commodities of this life , for wee shall drinke water and eate rootes , and those not sweet and delicate , as now by mans art and industry they are made : we shall lose all the necessities of societies , lawes , arts , and sciences , which are all the workemanship of man : yea we shall lack the last best refuge of misery , death ● because no death is naturall : for if yee will not dare to call all death violent ( though i see not why sicknesses be not violences ) yet causes of all deaths proceed of the defect of that which nature made perfect , and would preserve , and therefore all against nature . ix . that only cowards dare dye . extreames are equally removed from the meane ; so that headlong desperatenesse asmuch offends true valour , as backward cowardice : of which sort i reckon justly all un-inforced deaths . when will your valiant man dye of necessity ? so cowards suffer what cannot be avoided : and to runne into death unimportun'd , is to runne into the first condemned desperatenesse . will he dye when he is rich and happy ? then by living he may doe more good : and in afflictions and miseries , death is the chosen refuge of cowards . fortiter ille facit , qui miser esse potest . but it is taught and practised among our gallants , that rather than our reputations suffer any m●ime , or we any misery , wee shall offer our brests to the cannons mouth , yea to our swords points : and this seemes a very brave and a very climbing ( which is a cowardly , earthly , and indeed a very groveling ) spirit . why doe they chaine these slaves to the gallyes , but that they thrust their deaths , and would at every loose leape into the sea ? why doe they take weapons from condemned men , but to barre them of that ease which cowards affect , a speedy death . truely this life is a tempest , and a warfare , and he which dares dye , to escape the anguish of it , seems to mee , but so valiant , as hee which dares hang himselfe , lest hee be prest to the warres . i have seene one in that extremity of melancholy , which was then become madnesse , to make his owne breath an instrument to stay his breath , and labour to choake himselfe● but alas ! he was mad . and we knew another that languished under the oppression of a poore disgrace so much , that hee tooke more paines to dye , then would have served to have nourished life and spirit enough to have out-lived his disgrace . what foole will call this cowardlinesse , valour ? or this basenesse , humility ? and lastly , of these men which dye the allegoricall death of entring into religion , how few are found fit for any shew of valiancy ? but onely a soft and supple metall , made onely fo● cowardly solitarinesse . x. that a wise man is knowne by much laughing . ride , si sapis , ô puella ride ; if thou beest wise , laugh : for since the powers of discourse , reason , and laughter , bee equally proper unto man onely , why shall not hee be onely most wise , which hath most use of laughing , aswell as he which hath most of reasoning and discoursing ? i alwaies did , and shall understand that adage ; per risum multum possis cognoscere stultum , that by much laughing thou maist know there is a foole , not , that the laughers are fooles , but that among them there is some foole , at whom wisem●n laugh : which moved erasmus to put this as his first argument in the mouth of his folly , that shee made beholders laugh : for fooles are the most laughed at , and laugh the least themselves of any . and nature saw this faculty to bee so necessary in man , that shee hath beene content that by more causes we should be importuned to laugh , then to the exercise of any other power ; for things in themselves utterly contra●y , beget this effect ; for wee laugh both at witty and absurd things : at both which sorts i have seen men laugh so long , and so earnestly , that at last they have wept that they could laugh no more . and therfore the poet having described the quietnesse of a wise retired man , saith in one , what w●●ave said before in many lines ; quid facit canius tuus ? ridet . we have received that even the extremity of laughing , yea of weeping also , hath beene accounted wisedome : and that democritus and heraclitus , the lovers of these extremes , have been called lovers of wisedome . now among our wisemen i doubt not , but many would be found who would laugh at heraclitus weeping , none which weepe at democritus laughing . at the hearing of comedies or other witty reports , i have noted some , which not understanding ●ests &c. have yet chosen this as the best meanes to seeme wise and understandiug , to laugh when their companions laugh ; and i have presumed them ignorant , whom i have seene unmoved . a foole if he come into a princes court , and see a gay man leaning at the wall , so glistering , and so painted in many colours that he is hardly discerned from one of the pictures in the arras , hanging his body like an iron-bound-chest , girt in and thicke ribb'd with broad gold laces , may ( and commonly doth ) envy him . but alas ! shall a wiseman , which may not onely not envy , but not pitty this monster , do nothing ? yes , let him laugh . and if one of these hot cholerike firebrands , which nourish themselves by quarrelling , and kindling others , spit upon a foole one sparke of disgrace , he , like a that ●h● house quickly burning , may bee angry ; but the wiseman , as cold as the salamander , may not onely not be angry with him , but not be sorry for him ; therefore let him laugh : so he shall be knowne a man , because he can laugh , a wise man that hee knowes at what to laugh● and a valiant man that he dares laugh : for he that laughs is justly reputed more wise , then at whom it is laughed . and hence i thinke proceeds that which in these later formall times i have much noted ; that now when our superstitious civility of manners is become a mutuall tickling flattery of one another , almost every man affecteth an humour of jesting , and is content to be de●ect , and to deforme himselfe , yea become foole to no other end that i can spie , but to give his wise companion occasion to laugh ; and to shew themselves in promptnesse of laughing is so great in wisemen , that i thinke all wisemen , if any wiseman do reade this paradox , will laugh both at it and me . xi . that the gifts of the body are better then those of the minde . i say againe , that the body makes the minde , not that it created it a minde , but formes it a good or a bad mind ; and this minde may be confounded with soule without any violence or injustice to reason or philosophy : then the soule it seemes is enabled by our body , not this by it . my body licenseth my soule to see the worlds beauties through mine eyes ; to heare pleasant things through mine eares ; and affords it apt organs for the conveiance of all perceivable del●ght . but alas ! my soule cannot make any part , that is not of it selfe disposed , to see or heare , though without doubt she be as able and as willing to see behind as before . now if my soule would say , that shee enables any part to taste these pleasures , but is her selfe onely delighted with those rich sweetnesses which her in●ard eyes and senses apprehend , shee should dissemble ; for i see her often solaced with beauties , which shee sees through mine eyes , and with musicke which through mine eares she heares . this perfection then my body hath , that it can impart to my minde all his pleasures ; and my minde hath still many , that she can neither ●each my indisposed part her faculties , nor to the best espoused parts shew ●t beauty of angels , of musicke , of spheres , whereof she boasts the contemplation . are chastity , temperance , and fortitude gifts of the mind ? i appeale to physitians whether the cause of these be not in the body ; health is the gift of the body , and patience in sickenesse the gift of the minde : then who will say that patience is as good a happinesse , as health , when wee must be extremely miserable to purchase this happinesse . and for nourishing of civill societies and mutuall love amongst men , which is our chiefe end while wee are men ; i say , this beauty , presence , and proportion of the body , hath a more masculine force in begetting this love , then the vertues of the minde : for it strikes us suddenly , and possesseth us immoderately ; when to know those vertues requires some iudgement in him which shall discerne , a long time and conversation betweene them . and even at last how much of our faith and beleefe shall we be driven to bestow , to assure our selves that these vertues are not counterfeited : for it is the same to be , and seeme vertuous , because that he that hath no vertue , can dissemble none , but he which hath a little , may gild and enamell , yea and transforme much vice into vertue : for allow a man to be discreet and flexible to complaints , which are great vertuous gifts of the minde , this discretion will be to him the soule & elixir of all vertues , so that touched with this , even pride shal be made humility ; and cowardice , honourable and wise valour . but in things seene there is not this danger , for the body which thou lovest and esteemest faire , is faire ; certainely if it bee not faire in perfection , yet it is faire in the same degree that thy iudgement is good . and in a faire body , i doe seldome suspect a disproportioned minde , and as seldome hope for a good in a deformed . when i see a goodly house , i assure my selfe of a worthy possessour , from a ruinous weather-beaten building i turn away , because it seems either stuffed with varlets as a prison , or handled by an unworthy and negligent tenant , that so suffers the waste thereof . and truely the gifts of fortune , which are riches , are onely handmaids , yea pandars of the bodies pleasure ; with their service we nourish health , and preserve dainty , and wee buy delights ; so that vertue which must be loved for it selfe , and respects no further end , is indeed nothing : and riches , whose end is the good of the body , cannot be so perfectly good , as the end whereto it levels . certaine problemes written by i. donne . the problemes . i. why have bastards b●st fortune ? ii why puritans make long s●rmons ? iii. why did the devill reserve iesuites till these la●ter dayes . iv. why is there more variety of green , then of any other colour ? v. why doe young lay-men so much study divinity ? vi why hath the common opinion afforded women soules ? vii why are the fairest , falsest viii● why venus star only doth cast a shadow ? ix . why is venus starre multinominous , called both hesperus and vesper . x. why are new officers least oppressing ? problemes , i. why have bastards best fortune ? because fortune herselfe is a whore , but such are not most indulgent to their issue ; the old naturall reason ( but those meetings in stolne love are most vehement , and so contribute more spirit then the easie and lawfull ) might governe me , but that now i see mistresses are become dome●tike and in ordinary , and they and wives waite but by turnes , and agree aswell as they had lived in the arke . the old morall reason ( that bastards inherit wickednesse from their parents , and so are i● a better way to preferment by having a stocke before-hand , then those that build all their fortune upon the poore and weake stocke of originall sinne ) might prevaile with me , but that since wee are fallen into such times , as now the world might spare the divell , because she could be bad enough without him . i see men scorne to be wicked by example , or to bee beholding to others for their damnation . it seems reasonable , that since lawes rob them of succession in civill benefits , they should have something else equivalent . as nature ( which is lawes patterne ) having denyed women constancy to one , hath provided them with cunning to allure many ; and so basta●ds de jure should have better wits and experience . but besides that by experience we see many fooles amongst them , wee should take from them one of their chiefest helpes to preferment , and we should deny them to be fools ; and ( that which is onely left ) that w●men chuse worthier men then their husbands , is false de facto ● either then it must bee that the church having removed them from all place in the publike service of god , they have better meanes then others to be wicked , and so fortunate : or else because the two greatest powers in this world , the divell and princes concurre to their greatnesse ● the one giving bastardy , the other legitimation : as nature frames and conserves great bodies of contraries . or the cause is , because they abound most at court , which is the forge where fortunes are made , or at least the shop where th●y be sold. ii. why puritanes make long sermons ? it needs not for perspicuousnesse , for god knowes they are plain enough : nor doe all of them use sem-briefe-accents for some of them have crotchets enough . it may bee they intend not to rise like glorious tapers and torches , but like thinne-wretched-sicke-watching-candles , which languish and are in a divine consumption from the first minute , yea in their snuffe , and stink when others are in their more profitable glory . i have thought sometimes , that out of conscience , they allow long measure to course ware . and sometimes , that usurping in that place a liberty to speak freely of kings , they would raigne as long as they could . but now i thinke they doe it out of a zealous imagination , that , it is their duty to preach ●n till their auditory wake . iii. why did the divel reserve iesuites till these latter dayes . did he know that our age would deny the devils possessing , and therfore provided by these to possesse men and kingdomes ? or to end the disputation of schoolemen , why the divell could not make lice in egypt ; and whether those things hee presented there , might be true , hath he sent us a true and reall plague , worse than those ten ? or in ostentation of the greatnesse of his kingdome , which even division cannot shake , doth he send us these which disagree with all the rest ? or knowing that our times should discover the indies , and abolish their idolatry , doth he send these to give them another for it ? or peradventure they have beene in the roman church these thousand yeeres , though we have called them by other names . iv. why is there more variety of green then of other colours ? it is because it is the figure of youth wher●n nature wuld provide as many green , as youth hath affections ; and so present a sea-green for profuse masters in voyages ; a grasse-green for sudden new men enobled f●om gra●●ers ; and a goose-greene for such polititians as pretend to preserve the capitol . or ●lse prophetically foreseeing an age , wherein they shall all hunt . and for such as misdemeane themselves a willow-greene ; for magistrates must aswell have fasces born before them to chastize the small offences , as secures to cut off the great . v. why doe young lay-men so much study divinity . is it because others tending busily churches preferment neglect study ? or had the church of rome s●ut up all our wayes , till the lutherans broke downe their uttermost stubborne doores , and the calvinists picked their inwardest and subtlest lockes ? surely the devill cannot be such a foole to hope that he shall make this study contemptible , by making it common . nor that as the dwellers by the river origus are said ( by drawing infinite ditches to sprinkle their barren country ) to have exhausted and intercepted their maine channell , and so lost their more profitable course to the sea ; so we , by providing every ones selfe , divinity enough for his own use , should neglect our teachers and fathers . hee cannot hope for better heresies then hee hath had , nor was his kingdome ever so much advanced by debating religion ( though with some aspersions of error ) as by a dull and stupid security , in which many grose things are swallowed . possible out of such an ambition as we have now , to speake plainely and fellow-like with lords and kings , wee thinke also to acquaint our selves with gods secrets : or perchance when we study it by mingling humane respects , it is not divinity . vi. why hath the common opinion afforded women soules ? it is agreed that wee have not so much from them as any part of either our mortall soules of sense , or growth ; and we deny soules to others equal to them in all but in speech for which they are beholding to their bodily instruments : for perchance an oxes heart , or a goates , or a foxes , or a serpents would speake just so , if it were in the breast , and could move that tongue and jawes . have they so many advantages and meanes to hurt us ( for , ever their loving destroyed us ) that we dare not displease them , but give them what they will ? and so when some call them angels , some goddesses , and the p●lpulian heretikes made them bishops , wee descend so much with the streame , to allow them soules ? or doe we somewhat ( in this dignifying of them ) flatter princes and great personages that are so much governed by them ? or do we in that easinesse and prodigality , wherein we daily lose our owne soules to we care not whom , so labour to perswade our selves , that sith a woman hath a soule , a soule is no great matter ? or doe wee lend them soules but for use , since they for our sakes , give their soules againe , and their bodies to boote ? or perchance because the deuill ( who is all soule ) doth most mischiefe , and for convenience and proportion , because they would come neerer him , wee allow them some soules ; and so as the romanes naturalized some provinces in revenge , and made them romans , onely for the burthen of the common-wealth ; so we have given women soules onely to make them capable of damnation ? vii . why are the fairest , falsest ? i meane not of false alchimy beauty , for then the question should be inverted , why are the falsest , fairest ? it is not onely because they are much solicited and sought for , so is gold , yet it is not so common ; and this suite to them , should teach them their value , and make them more reserved . nor is it because the delicatest blood hath the best spirits , for what is that to the flesh ? perchance such constitutions have the best wits , and there is no proportionable subject , for womens wit , but deceipt ? doth the minde so follow the temperature of the body , that because those complexions are aptest to change , the mind is therefore so ? or as bells of the purest metall retaine their tinkling and sound largest ; so the memory of the last pleas●re lasts longer in these , and disposeth them to the next . but sure it is not in the complexion , for those that doe but thinke themselves faire , are presently inclined to this multiplicity of loves , which being but faire in conceipt are false in deed : and so perchance when they are borne to this beauty , or have made it , or have dream'd it , they easily beleeve all addresses and applications of every man , out of a sense of their owne worthinesse to bee directed to them , which others lesse worthy in their owne thoughts apprehend not , or discredit . but i thinke the true reason is , that being like gold in many properties ( as that all snatch at them , but the worst possesse them , that they care not how deepe we dig for them , and that by the law o● 〈◊〉 , occupandi conceditur ) they would be like also in this , that as gold to make it selfe of use admits allay , so they , that they may bee tractable , mutable , and currant , have to their allay falshood . viii . why venus-starre onely doth cast a shadow ? is it because it is neerer the earth ? but they whose profession it is to see that nothing be done in heaven without their consent ( as re — saies in himselfe of astrologers ) have bid mercury to be neerer . is it because the workes of venus want shadowing , covering , and disguising ? but those of mercury need it more ; for eloquence , his occupation , is all shadow and colours ; let our life bee a sea , and then our reason and even passions are winde enough to carry us whether we should goe , but eloquence is a storme and tempest that miscarries : and who doubts that eloquence which must perswade people to take a yoke of soveraignty ( and then beg and make lawes to tye them faster , and then give money to the invention , repaire and strengthen it ) needs more shadowes and colouring , then to perswade any man or woman to that which is naturall . and venus markets are so naturall , that when we solicite the best way ( which is by marriage ) our perswasions worke not so much to draw a woman to us , as against her nature to draw her from all other besides . and so when we go against nature , and from venus-work ( for marriage is chastity ) we need shadowes and colours , but not else . in seneca's time it was a course , an un-romane and a contemptible thing even in a matrone , not to have had a love beside her husband , which though the law required not at their hands , yet they did it zealously out of the counsell of custome and fashion , which was venery of supererogation : et te spectator plusquam delectat adulter , saith martial : and horace , because many lights would not shew him enough , created many images of the same object by ●ainscoting his chamber with looking-glasses : so that veuus flies no● light , so much as mercury , who creeping into our understanding , our darkenesse would be defeated , if he were perceived . then either this shadow confesseth that same darke melancholy repentance which accompanies ; or that so violent fires , needs some shadowy refreshing , and intermission : or else light signifying both day and youth , and shadow both night and age , she pronounceth by this that she professeth both all persons and times . ix . why is venus-star multinominous , called both hesperus and vesper ? the moone hath as many names , but not as she is a starre , but as shee hath divers governments ; but venus is multinominous to give example to her prostitute disciples , who so often , either to renew or refresh themselves towards lovers , or to disguise themselves from magistrates , are to take new names . it may bee she takes new names after her many functions , for as she is supreme monarch of all sunnes at large ( which is lust ) so is she joyned in commission with all mythologicks , with iuno , diana , and all others for marriage . it may be because of the divers names to her selfe , for her affections have more names than any vice : scilicet ; pollution , fornication , adultery , lay-incest , church-incest , rape , sodomy , mastupration , masturbation , and a thousand others . perchance her divers names shewed her appliablenesse to divers men , for neptune distilled and wet her in love , the sunne warmes and melts her● mercury perswaded and swore her , iupiters authority secured , and vulcan hammer'd her . as hesperus she presents you with her bonum utile , because it is wholesomest in the morning : as vesper with her bonum delectabile , because it is pleasantest in the evening . and because industrious men rise and indure with the sunne in their civill businesses , this starre calls them up a little before , and remembers them againe a little after for her businesse ; for certainely , venit hesperus , ite capellae : was spoken to lovers in the persons of goates . x. why are new officers least oppressing ? mvst the old proverbe , that old dogs bite sorest , be true in all kinde of dogs ? me thinkes the fresh memory they have of the mony they parted with for the place , should hasten them for the re-imbursing : and perchance they doe but seeme easier to their suiters ; who ( as all other patients ) doe account all change of paine , easie . but if it bee so , it is either because the sodain sense & contentment of the honor of the place , retards and remits the rage of their profits , and so having stayed their stomackes , they can forbeare the second course a while : or having overcome the steepest part of the hill , and clambered above competitions and oppositions they dare loyter , and take breath : perchance being come from places , where they tasted no gaine , a little seemes much to them at first , for it is long before a christian conscience overtakes , or straies into an officers heart . it may be that out of the generall disease of all men not to love the memory of a predecessor , they seeke to disgrace them by such ea●inesse , and make good first impressions , that so having drawen much wa●er ●o their mill , they may a●terwa●●s grind at ease : for if from the rules of good ho●se-manship , they thought it wholesome to jet out in a moderate pace , th●y should also take up towards their journeys end , not mend ●heir pace con●inually , and g●llop ●o their innes-doore , the grave ; except perchance their conscience at that time so touch them , that they thinke it an injury and damage both to him that must sell , and to him that must buy the office after their death , and a kind of dilapidation if they by continuing honest should discredit the place , and bring it to a l●●er-rent , or vnder-vaine . finis . deaths duell, or, a consolation to the soule, against the dying life, and liuing death of the body deliuered in a sermon at white hall, before the kings maiesty, in the beginning of lent, 1630. by that late learned and reuerend diuine, iohn donne, dr. in diuinity, & deane of s. pauls, london. being his last sermon, and called by his maiesties houshold the doctors owne funerall sermon. donne, john, 1572-1631. 1632 approx. 65 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20628 stc 7031 estc s102388 99838173 99838173 2537 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20628) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 2537) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1022:12) deaths duell, or, a consolation to the soule, against the dying life, and liuing death of the body deliuered in a sermon at white hall, before the kings maiesty, in the beginning of lent, 1630. by that late learned and reuerend diuine, iohn donne, dr. in diuinity, & deane of s. pauls, london. being his last sermon, and called by his maiesties houshold the doctors owne funerall sermon. donne, john, 1572-1631. droeshout, martin, b. 1601, engraver. [8], 47, [1] p. : port. (metal cut) printed by thomas harper, for richard redmer and beniamin fisher, and are to be sold at the signe of the talbot in alders-gate street, london : m.dc.xxxii. [1632] the first leaf is blank except for signature-mark "a" in a border of ornaments; the second leaf bears an engraved portrait signed "martin dr [monogram]". the portrait is sometimes not printed. variant: with an additional leaf of dedication from richard redmer to his sister, mrs. elizabeth francis. reproduction of the original in the folger shakespeare library. port. omitted. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -17th century. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2002-07 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion deaths dvell , or , a consolation to the soule , against the dying life , and liuing death of the body . deliuered in a sermon at white hall , before the kings maiesty , in the beginning of lent , 1630. by that late learned and reuerend diuine , iohn donne , dr. in diuinity , & deane of s. pauls , london . being his last sermon , and called by his maiesties houshold the doctors owne fvnerall sermon . london , printed by thomas harper , for richard redmer and beniamin fisher , and are to be sold at the signe of the talbot in alders-gate street . m.dc.xxxii . to his dearest sister mrs . elizabeth francis of brumsted in norff. dearest sister , for any so meane as my selfe to prefixe a dedication to so worthie a mans worke as this is , is a bouldnesse little inferior to presumption it selfe . but the copie being bestowed vpon me by a worthie friend of mine ( farre more able ) who would not himselfe take that office vpon him ; principally to let you know , how faine i would shew my gratitude to you , whose debtor i haue euer bin ; & well knowing your well knowne zeale to deuotions of this straine , to you i dedicate ( before all others ) this sacred tractate ; of your acceptation of it , i doubt not ; but my desire is that you would accept also the loue of him that can no wayes else ( as yet ) giue your deseruings better satisfaction , then by remaining . your euer truly louing and deuoted brother , rich. redmer . to the reader . this sermon was , by sacred authoritie , stiled the authors owne funeral sermon . most fitly : whether wee respect the time , or the matter . it was preached not many dayes before his death ; as if , hauing done this , there remained nothing for him to doe , but to die : and the matter is , of death ; the occasion and subiect of all funerall sermons . it hath beene obserued of this reuerend man , that his faculty in preaching continually encreased : and , that as hee exceeded others at first ; so , at last hee exceeded himselfe . this is his last sermon ; i will not say , it is therefore his best ; because , all his were excellent . yet thus much : a dying mans words , if they concerne our selues ; doe vsually make the deepest impression , as being spoken most feelingly , and with least affectation . now , whom doth it not concerne to learn , both the danger , and benefit of death ? death is euery mans enemy , and intends hurt to all ; though to many , hee be occasion of greatest goods . this enemy we must all combate dying ; whom hee liuing did almost conquer ; hauing discouered the vtmost of his power , the vtmost of his crueltie . may wee make such vse of this and other the like preparatiues , that neither death , whensoeuer it shall come , may seeme terrible ; nor life tedious ; how long soeuer it shall last . r. psalme 68. vers . 20. in fine . and vnto god the ( lord ) belong the issues of death . i. e. from death . bvildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that susteine and support them , & of their butteresses that comprehend and embrace them , and of their contignations that knit and vnite them : the foundations suffer them not to sinke , the butteresses suffer them not to swerue , and the contignation & knitting suffers them not to cleaue ; the body of our building is in the former part of this verse : it is this , hee that is our god is the god of saluation and salutes ; of saluation in the plurall , so it is in the originall ; the god that giues vs spirituall and temporall saluation too . but of this building , the foundation , the butteresses , the contignations are in this part of the verse , which constitutes our text , and in the three diuers acceptations of the words amongst our expositors . vnto god the lord belong the issues from death , for first the foundation of this building , that our god is the god of all saluations ) is laid in this ; that vnto this god the lord belong the issues of death , that is , it is in his power to giue vs an issue and deliuerance , euen then when wee are brought to the iawes and teeth of death , and to the lippes of that whirlepoole , the graue . and so in this acceptation , this exitus mortis ▪ this issue of death is liberatio à morte , a deliueran●e from death , and this is the most obuious and most ordinary acceptation of these words , and that vpon which our translation laies hold , the issues from death . and then secondly the butteresses that comprehend and settle this building , that hee that is our god , is the god of all saluation , are thus raised ; vnto god the lord belong the issues of death , that is , the disposition and manner of our death : what kinde of issue and transmigration wee shall haue out of this world , whether prepared or sudden , whether violent or naturall , whether in our perfect senses or shaken and disordered by sicknes , there is no condemnation to bee argued out of that , no iudgement to bee made vpon that , for how soeuer they dye , precious in his sight is the death of his saints , and with him are the issues of death , the wayes of our departing out of this life are in his hands . and so in this sense of the words , this exitus mortis , the issues of death , is liberatio in morte , a deliuerance in death ; not that god will deliuer vs from dying , but that hee will haue a care of vs in the houre of death , of what kinde soeuer our passage be . and in this sense and acceptation of the words , the naturall frame and contexture doth well and pregnantly administer vnto vs ; and then lastly the contignation and knitting of this building , that hee that is our god is the god of all saluations , consists in this , vnto this god the lord belong the issues of death , that is , that this god the lord hauing vnited and knit both natures in one , and being god , hauing also come into this world , in our flesh , he could haue no other meanes to saue vs , he could haue no other issue out of this world , nor returne to his former glory , but by death ; and so in this sense , this exitus mortis , this issue of death , is liberatio per mortem , a deliuerance by death , by the death of this god our lord christ iesus . and this is saint augustines acceptation of the words , and those many and great persons that haue adhered to him . in all these three lines then , we shall looke vpon these words ; first , as the god of power , the almighty father rescues his seruants from the iawes of death : and then as the god of mercy , the glorious sonne rescued vs , by taking vpon him selfe this issue of death : and then betweene these two , as the god of comfort , the holy ghost rescues vs from all discomfort by his blessed impressions before hand , that what manner of death soeuer be ordeined for vs , yet this exitus mortis shall bee introitus in vitam , our issue in death ( shall be an entrance into euerlasting life . ) and these three considerations ? our deliuerance à morte , in morte , per mortem , from death , in death , & by death , will abundantly doe all the offices of the foundations , of the butteresses , of the contignation of this our building ; that he that is our god , is the god of all saluation , because vnto this god the lord belong the issues of death . first , then , we consider this exitus mortis , to bee liberatio à morte , that with god the lord are the issues of death , and therefore in all our death , and deadly calamities of this life , wee may iustly hope of a good issue from him . in all our periods and transitions in this life , are so many passages from death to death ; our very birth and entrance into this life , is exitus à morte , an issue from death , for in our mothers wombe wee are dead so , as that wee doe not know wee liue , not so much as wee doe in our sleepe , neither is there any graue so close , or so putrid a prison , as the wombe would be vnto vs , if we stayed in it beyond our time , or dyed there before our time . in the graue the wormes doe not kill vs , wee breed and feed , and then kill those wormes which wee our selues produc'd . in the wombe the dead child kills the mother that conceiued it , & is a murtherer , nay a parricide , euen after it is dead . and if wee bee not dead so in the wombe , so as that being dead wee kill her that gaue vs our first life , our life of vegetation , yet wee are dead so , as dauids idols are dead . in the wombe wee haue eyes and see not , eares and heare not ; there in the wombe wee are fitted for workes of darkenes , all the while depriued of light : and there in the wombe wee are taught cruelty , by being fed with blood , and may be damned , though we be neuer borne . of our very making in the wombe , dauid sayes , i am wonderfully and fearefully made , and such knowledge is too excellent for me , for euen that is the lords doing , and it is wonderfull in our eyes ; ipse fecit nos , it is hee that hath made vs , and not wee our selues , nor our parents neither ; thy hands haue made me and fashioned me round about , saith iob , and ( as the originall word is ) thou hast taken paines about me , and yet , sayes he , thou doest destroy me . though i bee the master peece of the greatest master ( man is so , ) yet if thou doe no more for me , if thou leaue me where thou madest mee , destruction will follow . the wombe which should be the house of life , becomes death it selfe , if god leaue vs there . that which god threatens so often , the shutting of the womb , is not so heauy , nor so discomfortable a curse in the first , as in the latter shutting , nor in the shutting of barrennes , as in the shutting of weakenes , when children are come to the birth , and no strength to bring forth . it is the exaltation of misery , to fall from a neare hope of happines . and in that vehement imprecation , the prophet expresses the highest of gods anger giue them ô lord , what wilt thougiue them ? giue them a miscarying wombe . therefore as soone as wee are men , ( that is , inanimated ) quickned in the womb ) thogh we cannot our selues , our parents haue to say in our behalf , wretched man that he is , who shall deliuer him from this body of death ? for euen the wombe is a body of death , if there bee no deliuerer . it must be he that said to ieremy , before i formed thee i knew thee , and befored thou camest out of the wombe i sanctified thee . wee are not sure that there was no kinde of shippe nor boate to fish in , nor to passe by , till god prescribed noah that absolute form of the arke . that word which the holy ghost by moses vseth for the arke , is common to all kinde of boates , theball , and is the same word that moses vseth for the boate that he was exposed in , that his mother layed him in an arke of bulrushes . but we are sure that eue had no midwife when she was deliuered of cain , therefore shee might well say , possedi virum à domino , i haue gotten a man from the lord , wholly , entirely from the lord ; it is the lord that enabled me to conceiue , the lord that infus'd a quickning soule into that conception , the lord that brought into the world that which himselfe had quickened , without all this might eue say , my body had bene but the house of death , and domini domini sunt exitus mortis , to god the lord belong the issues of death . but then this exitus a morte , is but introitus in mortem , this issue , this deliuerance from that death , the death of the wombe , is an entrance , a deliuering ouer to another death , the manifold deathes of this world , wee haue a winding sheete in our mothers wombe , which growes with vs from our conception , and wee come into the world , wound vp in that winding sheet , for wee come to seeke a graue ; and as prisoners discharg'd of actions may lye for fees ; so when the wombe hath discharg'd vs , yet we are bound to it by cordes of hestae by such a string , as that wee cannot goe thence , nor stay there ; wee celebrate our owne funeralls with cryes , euen at our birth ; as though our threescore and ten years life were spent in our mothers labour , and our circle made vp in the first point thereof ; we begge our baptisme , with another sacrament , with teares ; and we come into a world that lasts many ages , but wee last not ; in domo patris , says our sauiour , speaking of heauen , multae mansiones , there are many mansions , diuers and durable , so that if a man cannot possesse a martyrs house , ( he hath shed no blood for christ , yet hee may haue a confessors , he hath bene ready to glorifie god in the shedding of his blood . and if a woman cannot possesse a virgins house ( she hath embrac'd the holy state of mariage ) yet she may haue a matrons house , she hath brought forth and brought vp children in the feare of god. in domo patris , in my fathers house , in heauen there are many mansions ; but here vpon earth the sonne of man hath not where to lay his head , sayes he himselfe . nonne terram dedit filijs hominum ? how then hath god giuen this earth to the sonnes of men ? hee hath giuen them earth for their materialls to bee made of earth , and hee hath giuen them earth for their graue and sepulture , to returne and resolue to earth , but not for their possession : here wee haue no continuing citty , nay no cottage that continues , nay no persons no bodies that continue . whatsoeuer moued saint ierome to call the iournies of the israelites , in the wildernes , mansions ; the word ( the word is nasang ) signifies but a iourney , but a peregrination . euen the israel of god hath no mansions ; but iournies , pilgrimages in this life . by what measure did iacob measure his life to pharaoh ; the dayes of the years of my pilgrimage . and though the apostle would not say morimur , that , whilest wee are in the body wee are dead , yet hee sayes , peregrinamur , whilest wee are in the body , wee are but in a pilgrimage , and wee are absent from the lord ; hee might haue sayd dead , for this whole world is but an vniuersall churchyard , but our common graue , and the life & motion that the greatest persons haue in it , is but as the shaking of buried bodies in their graue , by an earth-quake . that which we call life , is but hebdomada mortium , a weeke of death , seauen dayes , seauen periods of our life spent in dying , a dying seauen times ouer ; and there is an end . our birth dyes in infancy , and our infancy dyes in youth , and youth and the rest dye in age , and age also dyes , and determines all . nor doe all these , youth out of infancy , or age out of youth arise so , as a phoenix out of the ashes of another phoenix formerly dead , but as a waspe or a serpent out of a caryon , or as a snake out of dung . our youth is worse then our infancy , and our age worse then our youth . our youth is hungry and thirsty , after those sinnes , which our infancy knew not ; and our age is sory and angry , that it cannot pursue those sinnes which our youth did ; & besides , al the way , so many deaths , that is , so many deadly calamities accompany euery condition , and euery period of this life , as that death it selfe would bee an ease to them that suffer them : vpon this sense doth iob wish that god had not giuen him an issue from the first death , from the wombe , wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the wombe ? o that i had giuen vp the ghost , and no eye seene me ? i should haue beene as though i had not beene . and not only the impatient israelites in their murmuring ( would to god wee had dyed by the hand of the lord in the land of egypt ) but eliah himselfe , when he fled from iesabell , and went for his life , as that text sayes , vnder the iunipertree , requested that hee might dye , & sayd , it is enough now , o lord , take away my life . so ionah iustifies his impatience , nay his anger towards god himselfe . now ô lord take , i beseech thee , my life from mee , for it is better to dye then to liue . and when god asked him , doest thou well to be angry for this , he replyes , i doe well to be angry , euen vnto death , how much worse a death then death , is this life , which so good men would so often change for death ? but if my case bee as saint paules case , quotidiè morior , that i dye dayly , that something heauier then death fall vpon me euery day ; if my case be dauids case , tota die mortificamur ; all the day long wee are killed , that not onely euery day , but euery houre of the day some thing heauier then death fall vpon me , though that bee true of me , conceptus in peccatis , i was shapen in iniquity , and in sinne did my mother conceiue me , ( there i dyed one death , ) though that be true of me ( natus filius irae ) i was borne not onely the child of sinne , but the child of wrath , of the wrath of god for sinne , which is a heauier death ; yet domini domini sunt exitus mortis , with god the lord are the issues of death , and after a iob , and a ioseph , and a ieremie , and a daniel , i cannot doubt of a deliuerance . and if no other deliuerance conduce more to his glory and my good , yet he hath the keys of death , and hee can let me out at that dore , that is , deliuer me from the manifold deaths of this world , theomni die and the tota die , the euery dayes death & euery houres death , by that one death , the finall dissolution of body and soule , the end of all . but then is that the end of all ? is that dissolution of body and soule , the last death that the body shall suffer ? ( for of spirituall death wee speake not now ) it is not , though this be exitus à morte ; it is introitus in mortem : though it bee an issue from manifold deaths of this world , yet it is an entrance into the death of corruption and putrefaction & vermiculation and incineration , and dispersion in and from the graue , in which euery dead man dyes ouer againe . it was a prerogatiue peculiar to christ , not to dy this death , not to see corruption : what gaue him this priuiledge ? not iosephs great proportion of gummes and spices , that might haue preserued his body from corruption and incineration longer then he needed it , longer then three dayes , but it would not haue done it for euer : what preserued him then ? did his exemption and freedome from originall sinne preserue him from this corruption and incineration ? 't is true that original sinne hath induced this corruption and incineration vpon vs ; if wee had not sinned in adam , mortality had not put on immortality , ( as the apostle speakes ) no , corruption had not put on incorruption , but we had had our transmigration from this to the other world , without any mortality , any corruption at all . but yet since christ tooke sinne vpon him , so farre as made him mortall , he had it so farre too , as might haue made him see this corruption and incineration , though he had no originall sinne in himself ; what preseru'd him then ? did the hypostaticall vnion of both natures ? god and man , preserue him from this corruption and incineration ? 't is true that this was a most powerfull embalming , to be embalmd with the diuine nature it selfe , to bee embalmd with eternity , was able to preserue him from corruption and incineration for euer . and he was embalmd , so embalmd with the diuine nature it selfe , euen in his body as well as in his soule ; for the godhead , the divine nature did not depart , but remained still vnited to his dead body in the graue ; but yet for al this powerful embalming , his hypostaticall vnion of both natures , we see christ did dye ; and for all his vnion which made him god and man , hee became no man ( for the vnion of the body and soule makes the man , and hee whose soule and body are separated by death as long as that state lasts is properly no man. ) and therefore as in him the dissolution of body and soule was no dissolution of the hypostaticall vnion ; so is there nothing that constraines vs to say , that though the flesh of christ had seene corruption and incineration in the graue , this had bene any dissolution of the hypostaticall vnion , for the diuine nature , the godhead might haue remained with all the elements and principles of christs body , aswell as it did with the two constitutiue parts of his person , his body and his soul. this incorruption then was not in iosephs gummes and spices , nor was it in christs innocency , and exemption from originall sin , nor was it ( that is , it is not necessary to say it was ) in the hypostaticall vnion . but this incorruptiblenes of his flesh is most conueniently plac'd in that ; non dabis , thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption , wee looke no further for causes or reasons in the mysteries of religion , but to the will and pleasure of god : christ himselfe limited his inquisition in that ita est , euen so father , for so it seemeth good in thy sight . christs body did not see corruption , therefore , because god had decreed it shold not . the humble soule ( and onely the humble soule is the religious soule ) rests himselfe vpon gods purposes and the decrees of god , which he hath declared and manifested not such as are conceiued and imagined in our selues , though vpon some probability , some veresimilitude , so in our present case peter proceeds in his sermon at ierusalem , & so paul in his at antioch . they preached christ to haue bene risen without seeing corruption , not onely because god had decreed it , but because he had manifested that decree in his prophet , therefore doth saint paul cite by speciall number the second psalme for that decree ; and therefore both saint peter & s. paul cite for it that place in the 16. psalme , for when god declares his decree and purpose in the expresse words of his prophet , or when he declares it in the reall execution of the decree , then he makes it ours , then he manifests it to vs. and therfore as the mysteries of our religion , are not the obiects of our reason , but by faith we rest on gods decree and purpose . ( it is so ô god , because it is thy will , it should be so ) so gods decrees are euer to be considered in the manifestation thereof . all manifestation is either in the word of god , or in the execution of the decree ; and when these two concur and meete , it is the strongest demonstration that can be : when therefore i finde those markes of adoption and spirituall filiation , which are deliuered in the word of god to be vpon me , when i finde that reall execution of his good purpose vpon me , as that actually i doe liue vnder the obedience , and vnder the conditions which are euidences of adoption and spirituall filiation ; then so long as i see these markes and liue so ; i may safely comfort my selfe in a holy certitude and a modest infallibility of my adoption . christ determines himself in that , the purpose of god was manifest to him : s. peter and s. paul determine themselues in those two wayes of knowing the purpose of god , the word of god before the execution of the decree in the fulnes of time . it was prophecyed before , say they , and it is performed now , christ is risen without seeing corruption . now this which is so singularly peculiar to him , that his flesh should not see corruption , at his second coming , his coming to iudgement , shall extend to all that are then a liue , their hestae shall not see corruption , because as th' apostle sayes , and sayes as a secret , as a mystery ; behold i shew you a mistery , wee shall not all sleepe , ( that is , not continue in the state of the dead in the graue , ) but wee shall all be changed in an instant , we shall haue a dissolution , and in the same instant a redintgeration , a recompacting of body and soule , and that shall be truely a death & truely a resurrection , but no sleeping in corruption ; but for vs that dye now and sleepe in the state of the dead , we must al passe this posthume death , this death after death , nay this death after buriall , this dissolution after dissolution , this death of corruption and putrifaction , of vermiculation and incineration , of dissolution and dispersion in and from the graue , when these bodies that haue beene the children of royall parents , & the parents of royall children , must say with iob , corruption thou art my father , and to the worme thou art my mother & my sister . miserable riddle , when the same worme must bee my mother , and my sister , and myselfe . miserable incest , when i must bee maried to my mother and my sister , and bee both father and mother to my owne mother and sister , beget & beare that worme which is all that miserable penury ; when my mouth shall be filled with dust , and the worme shall feed , and feed sweetely vpon me , when the ambitious man shall haue no satisfaction , if the poorest aliue tread vpon him , nor the poorest receiue any contentment in being made equall to princes , for they shall bee equall but in dust . one dyeth at his full strength , being wholly at ease & in quiet , and another dyes in the bitternes of his soul , and neuer eates with pleasure , but they lye downe alike in the dust , and the worme covers them ; in iob and in esay , it couers them and is spred vnder them , the worme is spred vnder thee , and the worme couers thee , there 's the mats and the carpets that lye vnder , and there 's the state and the canapye , that hangs ouer the greatest of the sons of men ; euen those bodies that were the temples of the holy ghost , come to this dilapidation , to ruine , to rubbidge , to dust , euen the israel of the lord , and iacob himselfe hath no other specification , no other denomination , but that vermis iacob , thou worme of iacob . truely the consideration of this posthume death , this death after buriall , that after god , ( with whom are the issues of death ) hath deliuered me from the death of the wombe , by bringing mee into the world , and from the manifold deaths of the world , by laying me in the graue , i must dye againe in an incineration of this flesh , and in a dispersion of that dust . that that monarch , who spred ouer many nations aliue , must in his dust lye in a corner of that sheete of lead , and there , but so long as that lead will laste , and that priuat and retir'd man , that thought himselfe his owne for euer , and neuer came forth , must in his dust of the graue bee published , and ( such are the reuolutions of the graues ) bee mingled with the dust of euery high way , and of euery dunghill , and swallowed in euery puddle and pond : this is the most inglorious and contemptible vilification , the most deadly and peremptory nullification of man , that wee can consider ; god seemes to haue caried the declaration of his power to a great height , when hee sets the prophet ezechiel in the valley of drye bones , & sayes , sonne of man can these bones liue ? as though it had bene impossible , and yet they did ; the lord layed sinewes vpon them , and flesh , and breath into them , and they did liue : but in that case there were bones to bee seene , something visible , of which it might be sayd , can this thing liue ? but in this death of incineration , and dispersion of dust , wee see nothing that wee call that mans ; if we say , can this dust liue ? perchance it cannot , it may bee the meere dust of the earth , which neuer did liue , never shall . it may be the dust of that mans worme , which did liue , but shall no more . it may bee the dust of another man , that concernes not him of whom it is askt . this death of incineration and dispersion , is , to naturall reason , the most irrecouerable death of all , & yet domini domini sunt exitus mortis , vnto god the lord belong the issues of death , and by recompacting this dust into the same body , & reanimating the same body with the same soule , hee shall in a blessed and glorious resurrection giue mee such an issue from this death , as shal neuer passe into any other death , but establish me into a life that shall last as long as the lord of life himselfe . and so haue you that that belongs to the first acceptation of these words , ( vnto god the lord belong the issues of death ) that though from the wombe to the graue and in the graue it selfe wee passe from death to death , yet , as daniel speakes , the lord our god is able to deliuer vs , and hee will deliuer vs. and so wee passe vnto our second accommodation of these words ( vnto god the lord belong the issues of death ) that it belongs to god , and not to man to passe a iudgement vpon vs at our death , or to conclude a dereliction on gods part vpon the manner thereof . those indications which the physitians receiue , and those presagitions which they giue for death or recouery in the patient , they receiue and they giue out of the grounds and the rules of their art . but we haue no such rule or art to giue a presagition of spirituall death & damnation vpon any such iudication as wee see in any dying man ; wee see often enough to be sory , but not to despaire ; wee may bee deceiued both wayes , wee vse to comfort our selfe in the death of a friend , if it be testified that he went away like a lambe , that is , without any reluctation . but , god knowes , that may bee accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction , & insensibility of his present state . our blessed sauiour suffered coluctations with death , and a sadnes euen in his soule to death , and an agony euen to a bloody sweate in his body , and expostulations with god , & exclamations vpon the crosse . he was a deuout man , who said vpon his death bed , or dead turfe ( for hee was an heremit ) septuaginta annos domino seruiuisti , & mori times ? hast thou serued a good master threescore and ten yeaes , and now art thou loath to goe into his presence ? yet hilarion was loath , bartaam was a deuout man ( an heremit too ) that sayd that day hee dyed . cogita te hodie coepisse seruire domino , & hodie finiturum . consider this to be the first days seruice that euer thou didst thy master , to glorifie him in a christianly and a constant death , and if thy first day be thy last day too , how soone dost thou come to receiue thy wages ? yet bartaam could haue beene content to haue stayd longer forth : make no ill conclusions vpon any mans loathnes to dye , for the mercies of god worke momentarily in minutes , and many times insensibly to bystanders or any other then the party departing . and then vpon violent deaths inflicted , as vpon malefactors . christ himselfe hath forbidden vs by his owne death to make any ill conclusion ; for his owne death had those impressions in it ; he was reputed , he was executed as a malefactor , & no doubt many of them who concurred to his death , did beleeue him to bee so ; of sudden death there are scarce examples to be found in the scriptures vpon good men , for death in battaile cannot be called suden death ; but god gouernes not by examples , but by rules , and therefore make no ill conclusion vpon sudden death nor vpon distempers , neither though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of god : the treelyes as it falles its true , but it is not the last stroake that fells the tree , nor the last word nor gaspe that qualifies the soule . stil pray wee for a peaceable life against violent death , & for time of repentance against sudden death , and for sober and modest assurance against distemperd and diffident death , but neuer make ill conclusions vpon persons ouertaken with such deaths ; domini domini sunt exitus mortis , to god the lord belong the issues of death . and he receiued sampson , who went out of this world in such a manner ( consider it actiuely , consider it passiuely in his owne death , and in those whom he slew with himselfe ) as was subiect to interpretation hard enough . yet the holy ghost hath moued s. paul to celebrate sampson in his great catalogue , and so doth all the church : our criticall day is not the very day of our death : but the whole course of our life . i thanke him that prayes for me when quid apertius diceretur ? sayes hee there , what can bee more obuious , more manifest then this sense of these words . in the former part of this verse , it is sayd ; he that is our god , is the god of saluation , deus salvos fariendi , so hee reads it , the god that must saue vs. who can that be , sayes he , but lesus ? for therefore that name was giuen him , because he was to saue vs. and to this lesus , sayes he , this sauiour , belongs the issues of death ; nec oportuit eum de hac vita alios exitus habere quam mortis . being come into this life in our mortal nature ; he could not goe out of it any other way but by death ? ideo dictum , sayes he , therefore it is sayd . to god the lord belong the issues of death ; vt ostenderetur moriendo nos saluos facturum , to shew that his way to saue vs was to dye . and from this text doth saint isodore proue ; that christ was truely man , ( which as many sects of heretiques denyed , as that he was truely god ) because to him , though he were dominus dominus ( as the text doubles it ) god the lord , yet to him , to god the lord belong'd the issues of death , oportuit eum pati more can not be sayd , then christ himselfe sayes of himselfe ; these things christ ought to suffer , hee had no other way but by death : so then this part of our sermon must needes be a passion sermon ; since all his life was a continuall passion , all our lent may well bee a continuall good fryday . christs painefull life tooke off none of the paines of his death , hee felt not the lesse then for hauing felt so much before . nor will any thing that shall be sayd before , lessen , but rather in large the deuotion , to that which shall be sayd of his passion at the time of due solemnization thereof . christ bled nor a droppe the lesse at the last , for hauing bled at his circumcision before , nor wil you a teare the lesse then , if you shed some now . and therefore bee now content to consider with mee how to this god the lord belong'd the issues of death . that god , this lord , the lord of life could dye , is a strange contemplation ; that the red sea could bee drie , that the sun could stand still , that an ouen could be seauen times heat and not burne , that lions could be hungry and n●t bite , is strange , miraculously strange , but supermiraculous that god could dye ▪ but that god would dye is an exaltation of that . but euen of that also it is a superexaltation , that god shold dye , must dye , & nō exitus ( said s. augustin god , the lord had no issue but by death , & oportuit pati ( says christ himself all this christ ought to suffer , was bound to suffer ; deus vltionum deus says dauid , god is the god of reuenges , he wold not passe ouer the sonne of man vnreuenged , vnpunished . but then deus vltionum libere egit ( sayes that place ) the god of reuenges workes freely , he punishes , he spares whome he will. and wold he not spare himselfe ? he would not : dilectio fortis vt mors , loue is strong as death , stronger , it drew in death that naturally is not welcom , si possibile , says christ , if it be possible , let this cup passe , when his loue expressed in a former decree with his father , had made it impossible . many waters quench not loue , christ tryed many ; he was baptized our of his loue , and his loue determined not there . he mingled blood with water in his agony and that determined not his loue ; hee wept pure blood , all his blood at all his eyes , at all his pores , in his flagellation and thornes ( to the lord our god belong'd the issues of blood ) and these expressed , but these did not quench his loue . hee would not spare , nay he could not spare himselfe . there was nothing more free , more voluntary , more spontaneous then the death of christ. 't is true , libere egit , he dyed voluntarily , but yet when we consider the contract act that had passed betweene his father and him , there was an oportuit , a kind of necessity vpon him . all this christ ought to suffer . and when shall we date this obligation , this oportuit , this necessity ? when shall wee say that begun . certainly this decree by which christ was to suffer all this , was an eternall decree , and was there any thing before that , that was eternall ? infinite loue , eternall loue , be pleased to follow this home , and to consider it seriously , that what liberty soeuer wee can conceiue in christ , to dye or not to dye ; this necessity of dying , this decree is as eternall as that liberty ; and yet how small a matter made hee of this necessity and this dying ? his father cals it but a bruise , and but a bruising of his heele ( the serpent shall bruise his heele ) and yet that was that , the serpent should practise and compasse his death . himselfe calls it but a baptisme , as though he were to bee the better for it . i haue a baptisme to be baptized with , and he was in paine till it was accomplished , and yet this baptisme was his death . the holy ghost calls it ioy ( for the ioy which was set before him hee indured the crosse ) which was not a ioy of his reward after his passion , but a ioy that filled him euen in the middest of those torments , and arose from him ; when christ calls his calicem , a cuppe , and wee worse ( can ye drink of my cuppe ) he speakes not odiously , not with detestation of it : indeed it was a cup , salus mundo , a health to all the world . and quid retribuam , says dauid , what shall i render to the lord ? answere you with dauid , accipiam calicem , i will take the cup of saluation , take it , that cup is saluation , his passion , if not into your present imitation , yet into your present contemplation . and behold how that lord that was god , yet could dye , would dye , must dye , for your saluation . that moses and elias talkt with christ in the transfiguration , both saint mathew and saint marke tells vs , but what they talkt of onely s. luke , dicebant excessum eius , says he , they talkt of his decease , of his death which was to be accomplished at ierusalem , the word is of his exodus , the very word of our text exitus , his issue by death . moses who in his exodus had prefigured this issue of our lord , and in passing israel out of egypt through the red sea , had foretold in that actuall prophesie , christ passing of mankind through the sea of his blood . and elias , whose exodus and issue out of this world was a figure of christs ascension , had no doubt a great satisfaction in talking with our blessed lord de excessueius , of the full consummation of all this in his death , which was to bee accomplished at ierusalem . our meditation of his death should be more viscerall and affect vs more because it is of a thing already done . the ancient romanes had a certain terdernesse and detestation of the name of death , they cold not name death , no , not in their wills . there they could not say si mori contigerit , but si quid humanitus contingat , nor if , or when i dye , but when the course of nature is accomplished vpon me . to vs that speake dayly of the death of christ , ( he was crucified , dead and buried ) can the memory or the mention of our owne death bee yrkesome or bitter ? there are in these latter times amongst vs , that name death frely enogh , and the death of god , but in blasphemous oathes & execrations . miserable men , who shall therefore bee sayd neuer to haue named iesus , because they haue named him too often . and therfore heare iesus say , ne sciui vos , i neuer knew you , because they made themselues too familiar with him . moses and elias talkt with christ of his death , only , in a holy and ioyfull sense of the benefit which they and all the world were to receiue by that . discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity , but to edification . and thē they talkt with christ of his death at that time , when he was in the greatest height of glory that euer he admitted in this world , that is , his transfiguration . and wee are afraid to speake to the great men of this world of their death , but nourish in them a vaine imagination of immortality , & immutability . but bonum est nobis esse hic ( as saint peter said there ) it is good to dwell here , in this consider ation of his death , and therefore transferre wee our tabernacle ( our deuotions ) through some of those steps which god the lord made to his issue of death that day . take in the whole day from the houre that christ receiued the passeouer vpon thursday , vnto the houre in which hee dyed the next day . make this present day that day in thy deuotion , and consider what hee did , and remember what you haue done . before hee instituted and celebrated the sacrament , ( which was after the eating of the passeouer ) hee proceeded to that act of humility , to wash his disciples feete , euen peters , who for a while resisted him ; in thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament , hast thou with a sincere humility sought a reconciliation with all the world , euen with those that haue beene auerse from it , and refused that reconciliation from thee ? if so and not els thou hast spent that first part of his last day , in a conformity with him . after the sacrament hee spent the time till night in prayer , in preaching , in psalmes ; hast thou considered that a worthy receaving of the sacrament confists in a continuation of holinesse after , aswell as in a preparation before . if so , thou hast therein also conformed thy selfe to him , so christ spent his time till night ; at night hee went into the garden to pray , and he prayed prolixious he spent much time in prayer , how much ? because it is literally expressed , that he prayed there three seuerall times , & that returning to his disciples after his first prayer , and finding them a sleepe sayd , could ye not watch with me one houre , it is collected that he spent three houres in prayer . i dare scarce aske thee whither thou wentest , or how thou disposedst of thy self , when it grew darke & after last night : if that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thy selfe to god , and a submission of thy will to his , it was spent in a conformity to him . in that time and in those prayers was his agony & bloody sweat . i will hope that thou didst pray ; but not euery ordinary and customary prayer , but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of teares , and dispositiuely in a readines to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases , puts thee into a conformity with him ; about midnight he was taken and bound with a kisse , art thou not too conformable to him in that ? is not that too literally , too exactly thy case ? at midnight to have bene taken & bound with a kisse ? from thence he was caried back to ierusalem , first to annas , then to caiphas , and ( as late as it was ) then hee was examined and buffeted , and deliuered over to the custody of those officers , from whome he receiued all those irrisions , and violences , the couering of his face , the spitting vpon his face , the blasphemies of words , & the smartnes of blowes which that gospell mentions . in which copasse fell that gallicinium , that crowing of the cock which called vp peter to his repentance , how thou passedst all that time thou knowest . if thou didst any thing that needed peters teares , and hast not shed them , let me be thy cock , doe it now , now thy master ( in the vnworthiest of his seruants ) lookes back vpon thee , doe it now ; betimes , in the morning , so soone as it was day , the iewes held a counsell in the high priests hall , and agreed vpon their euidence against him , and then caried him to pilate , who was to be his iudge ; diddest thou accuse thy selfe when thou wakedst this morning , and wast thou content euen with false accusations ( that is ) rather to suspect actions to haue beene sin , which were not , then to smother & iustify such as were truly sins ? then thou spentst that houre in conformity to him : pilate found no euidence against him , & therefore to ease himselfe , and to passe a complement vpon herod , tetrarch of galilee , who was at that time at ierusalem ( because christ being a galilean was of herods iurisdiction ) pilat sent him to herod , & rather as a mad-man then a malefactor , herod remaunded him ( with scornes ) to pilat to proceed against him ; and this was about eight of the clock . hast thou been content to come to this inquisition , this examination , this agitation , this cribration , this pursuit ofthy conscience , to sift it to follow it from the sinnes of thy youth to thy present sinnes , from the sinnes of thy bed , to the sinnes of thy boorde , & from the substance to the circumstance of thy sinnes ? that 's time spent like thy sauiours . pilat wold have saued christ , by vsing the priuiledge of the day in his behalfe , because that day one prisoner was to be deliuered , but they choose barrabas , hee would have saued him from death ; by satisfying their fury , with inflicting other torments vpon him , scourging and crowning with thornes , and loading him with many scornefull and ignominous contumlies ; but they regarded him not , they pressed a crucifying . hast thou gone about to redeeme thy sinne , by fasting , by almes , by disciplines and mortifications ? in way of satisfaction to the iustice of god ? that will not serue , that 's not the right way , wee presse an vtter crucifying of that sinne that gouernes thee ; & that conformes thee to christ. towards noone pilat gaue iudgement , and they made such hast to execution , as that by noone hee was vpon the crosse. there now hangs that ●acred body vpon the crosse , rebaptized in his owne teares and sweat , and embalmed in his owne blood aliue . there are those bowells of compassion , which are so conspi●●ous , so manifested , as that you may see them through his wounds . there those glorious eyes grew faint in their sight : so as the ●un ashamed to suruiue them , departed with his light too . and then that sonne of god , who was neuer from vs , and yet had now come a new way vnto vs in assuming our nature deliuers that soule ( which was neu●r out of his fathers hands ) by a new way , a voluntary emission of it into his fathers hands ; for though to this god our lord , belong'd these issues of death , so that considered in his owne contract ' he must necessarily dye , yet at no breach or batt●ry , which they had made vpon his sacred body , issued his soule , but emisit , hee gaue vp the ghost , and as god breathed a soule into the first adam , so this second adam breathed his soule into god , into the hands of god. there wee leaue you in that blessed dependancy , to hang vpon him that hangs vpon the crosse , there bath in his teares , there suck at his woundes and lye downe in peace in his graue , till hee vouchsafe you a resurrection , and an ascension into that kingdome , which hee hath prepared for you , with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood . amen . an elegie , on dr. donne , deane of pauls . to have liu'd eminent in a degree beyond our loftiest flights , that is , like thee ; ort'haue had too much merit is not safe ; for such excesses find no epitaph , at common graues wee haue poetick eyes can melt them selues in easy elegies ; each quill can drop his tributary verse , and pin it , like the hatchments , to the hearse . but at thine , poeme or inscription ( rich soule of wit and language ) wee haue none . indeed a silence doth that tombe befit , where is no herald left to blazon it . widdow'd inuention iustly doth forbeare to come abroade knowing thou art not there , late her great patron , whose prerogatiue maintain'd and cloth'd her so , as none aliue must now presume to keepe her at thy rate , though hee the indies for her dower estate . or els that awfull fire , which once did burne in thy cleare braine , now fal'ne into thy vrne , liues there to fright rude empericks from thence , which might profane thee by their ignorance . whoeuer writes of thee and in a style vnworthy such a theame , does but reuile thy pretious dust , and wake a learned spirit , which might reuenge his rapes vpon thy merit . for all a low pitch'd fancy can deuise , will proue at best but hallowed iniuries . thou ( like the dying swan ) did'st lately sing thy mournefull dirge in audience of the king : when pale lookes , and weake accents of thy breath presented so to life that peece of death , that it was fear'd and prophecied by all , thou thither camist to preach thy funerall . o' had'st thou in an elegiak knell pung out vnto the world thine owne farwell ; and in thy high victorious numbers beat the solemne measure of thy griewd retreat : thou might'st the poets seruice now haue mist aswell , as then thou did'st preuent the priest , and neuer to the world beholding bee so much as for an epitaph for thee . i doe not like the office , nor is it fit , thou who did'st lend our age such summes of wit , should'st now reborrow from her bankrupt mine that ore to bury thee , which once was thine : rather still leaue vs in thy debt , and know ( exalted soule ) more glory'tis to owe vntothy hearse , what wee can neuer pay , then with embased coyne those rights defray . commit wee then thee to thy selfe ; nor blame our drooping loues , which thus to thy owne fame leaue thee executor . since but thy owne no pen could doe'thee iustice , nor bayes crowne thy vast d●sert , saue that wee nothing can depute to bee thy ashes guardian . so iewellers no art nor mettall trust , to forme the diamond , but the diamonds dust . an epitaph on dr. donne . i cannot blame those men , that knew thee well , yet dare not helpe the world to ring thy knell in tunefull elegies . ther 's not language knowne fit for thy mention , but was first thine owne . the epitaphs thou writt'st , haue so ber●ft our pens of wit , ther 's not one fancy left enough to weepe thee , what hence forth wee seo of art and nature , must result from thee . there may perchance some busy gathering friend ste●le from thine owne works , and that varied lend ( which thou bestowd'st on others ) to thy hearse ; and so thou shalt liue still in thine owne verse . hee that will venture further , may commit a pitied errour , shew his zeale , not wit. fate hath done mank●nd wrong ; vertue may aime reward of consciense , neuer can of fame , since her great trumpet's broke , could only giue faith to the world , command it to beleeue . hee then must write , that would define thy parts heere lyes the best diuinity , all the arts. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20628-e270 of a morte , in morte , per mortem . foūdation , butteresses and contignation . i. part. exitus a morte vteri . psal. 115. vers . 6. psal. 139. 6. ps ▪ 118. 23. 100. 3. esay 37. rom. 7. 24. exo. 23. gen. 4. 1. exitus a mortibus mundi . ioh. 14. 2. mat. 8. 20. heb. 13. 14 exo. 17. 1. gen. 47. 9. 2 cor. 5. 6. io. 18. exo ▪ 16● 3. rev. 19. 4. 4. 3. apoc. 1. 18. exitus a morte incinerationis . 1 cor. 15. vers . 33. psal. 16. 10. mat. 11. 26. acts 2. 31. 13. 35. vers. 10. vers. 24 20 iob. 23. 24. vers. 14. 11. 2. part. liberatio in morte . heb. 11. mat. i. 21 : luk. 24. 26 psal : 91 cant. 36. vers. ● gen. 3. 15. luk. 12 40. heb. 12. 2. mat. 22. 22. ps. 116. 12. mat. 17. 3. mar. 9. 4. luke 9. 31. conformitas , luk. 22. 24. mat. 26 40. a sermon, preached to the kings mtie. at whitehall, 24 febr. 1625. by iohn donne deane of saint pauls, london. and now by his maiestes [sic] commandment published donne, john, 1572-1631. 1626 approx. 68 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 32 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20650) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 10509) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1234:18) a sermon, preached to the kings mtie. at whitehall, 24 febr. 1625. by iohn donne deane of saint pauls, london. and now by his maiestes [sic] commandment published donne, john, 1572-1631. [8], 50, [2] p. printed [by augustine mathewes] for thomas iones, dwelling at the blacke rauen in the strand, london : 1626. the year in the title is according to lady day dating, i.e. 1626. printer's name from stc. the first leaf and the last leaf are blank. also issued as part of: five sermons upon speciall occasions. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -17th century. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-06 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2002-06 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon , preached to the kings m tie . at whitehall , 24. febr. 1625. by iohn donne deane of saint pauls , london . and now by his maiestes commandment published . london , printed for thomas iones , dwelling at the blacke rauen in the strand . 1626. to his sacred maiestie . most gratiovs soveraigne amongst the many comforts of my ministery , to the embracing wherof , almightie god was pleased , to mooue the heart of your maiesties blessed father , of holy memory , to mooue mine , this is a great one , that your maiesty is pleasd some times , not only to receiue into your selfe , but to returne , vnto others , my poore meditations , and so by your gracious commandement of publishing them , to make your selfe as a glasse , ( when the sun it selfe is the gospell of christ iesus ) to reflect , & cast them vpon your subiects . it was a metaphor in which , your maiesties blessed father seemd to delight ; for in the name of a mirroir , a looking glasse , he sometimes presented himselfe , in his publique declarations & speeches to his people ; and a continued metaphor is an allegory , and holds in more . so your maiestie doth more of the offices of such a glasse ; you doe that office which moses his glasses did , at the brazen sea in the temple , ( for you show others their spots , and in a pious and vnspotted life of your owne , you show your subiects their deficiences ) and you doe the other office of such glasses , by this communicating to all , the beames which your maiestie receiud in your selfe . wee are in times when the way to peace is warre , but my profession leades not me to those warres ; and wee are in times when the peace of the church , may seeme to implore a kinde of warre , of debatements and conferences in some points ; but my disposition leades mee not to that warre neither . for in this sermon , my onely purpose was , that no by-stander , should bee hurt , whilest the fray lasted , with either opinion . and that your maiestie accepts it so your selfe , & so reflects it vpon others , i humbly beseech your maiestie to accept also this sacrifice of thanksgiuing , for that , from your sacred maiesties humblest subiect , and deuotedst seruant and chapleine . iohn donne . esai . 50.1 . thus sayth the lord : where is the bill of your mothers diuorcement whom i haue put away ? or which of my creditors is it , to whom i haue sold you ? behold , for your iniquities haue you sold your selues , and for your transgressions , is your mother put away . all lent is easter eue ; and though the eue be a fasting day , yet the eue is halfe-holiday too . god , by our ministery , would so exercise you in a spirituall fast , in a sober consideration of sinne , and the sad consequences thereof , as that in the eue you might see the holy day ; in the lent , your easter ; in the sight of your sinnes , the cheerefulnesse of his good will towards you . nay , in this text , hee giues you your easter before lent , your holyday before the eue ; for first he rayses you to the sense of his goodnesse , thus sayth the lord , where is the bill of your mothers diuorcement , whom i haue put away , or which of my creditors is it to whom i haue sold you ? and then , and not till then , he sinkes you , to the sence of your sinnes , and the dangers of them , behold , for your iniquities you are sold , and for your transgressions , your mother is put away . and this raising , and this sinking , are his corks , and his leads , by which god enables vs , whom hee hath made fishers of men , to cast out his nets , and draw in your soules . haec dicit dominus , thus saith the lord , sayes our prophet here ; and , semel locutus deus , duo haec audini , sayes the prophet dauid , once spake the lord , and twice haue i heard him ; in one speach of the lords , two instructions , in one peece of his word , two directions . thus saith the lord , where is the bill , &c. and in these words , some heare him once , some heare him say , that how desperate soeuer our case be , how irremediable soeuer our state , we our selfes , and not god , are the cause of that desperate irremediablenesse ; some heare him twice , some heare him say , there is no such matter , there is no such peremptory diuorce , there is no such absolute sale , there is no such desperate irremediablenes declard to any particular conscience , as is imagind , but you , any , may returne to me , when you will , and i will receiue you . some expositors thinke they haue gone farre inough , when they haue raysed that sense , god is no cause of our perishing , though wee must perish , others , ( and fairely ) carry it thus much farther , there is no necessitie that any man , any this or that man should perish . some determine it in this , it is true , your damnation is vnauoydable , but you must blame your selfes , some extend it to this , there is no such avoidablenes in your damnation , and therefore you may comfort your selues , once hath the lord spoken , and twice doe we heare him ; we heare him once speaking for his owne honour , hee does not damne vs , if wee bee damned , and wee heare him againe speaking for our comfort , we need not be damnd at all . and therefore , as god hath opened himselfe to vs , both wayes , let vs open both eares to him , and from one text receiue both doctrines . you may apprehend the parts easily , and as easily comprehend them ; they are few , and plaine , & of things agreed by all ; but two ; those , these ; gods dischardge , and mans dischardge ; gods dischardge from all imputation of tyranny , behold , for your sinnes you are sold , and for your transgressions your mother is put away . and then mans dischardge from the necessitie of perishing , vbi iste libellus , where is the bill of your mothers diuorcement , whom i haue put away , or which of my creditors is it , to whom i haue sold you ? i might iustly haue done both , and left you without iust cause of complaint , but yet i haue not done it ; looke to your bill of diuorce , and looke to your bill of sale , and you will find the case to be otherwise . in each of these two parts , there will be some particular branches ; in the first , which is gods discharge , first the ecce , behold , behold this and this will fall vpon you ; first there is a light showd , there is a warning afforded , of those calamities , that will follow , god begins not at iudgement , but at mercie . that mercy being despisd , it will come to a selling away , venditi estis , you are sold , and it will come to a putting away , dimissa est , your mother is put away ; for god may sell vs to punishments for sinne , that when the measure of our sinne is full , he shall emptie the measure of this iudgements vpon vs , and god may sell vs to sinnes for punishments , god may make future sinnes , the punishments of former . and here may be a diuorce , a putting away , out of gods sight and seruice , in any particular soule , and there may be a putting away of your mother , a withdrawing of gods spirit from that church , to whose breasts hee hath applied you . but if all this be done , it is not done out of any tyrannicall wantonnesse in god , for , for your iniquities you are sold , and for your transgressions is your mother put away : so god is fully dischargd in the first part ; but , least in the second it should lye heauy vpon man , ( for , howsoeuer god be dischargd , he does not kill me , though i dy , it is but poore comfort to me , if i must dye , to be told that i haue killd my selfe ) god tells me here , there is no such necessitie , i need not dye ; show the bill of diuorce , sayes he , which makes your case so desperate , and see if i haue not left you wayes of returning to me , show the bill of sale , which makes your state so irrecouerable , and see if i haue not left my selfe wayes of redeeming you . and in these few branches , of these two parts , i shall exercise your deuotion , and holy patience , at this time . first then , for the first branch of the first part , the ecce , behold this will fall vpon you , vpon those words of dauid , ecce intenderunt , ecce parauerunt , behold the wicked haue bent ther bow , and behold they haue made ready their arrow , origen saies , ecce antequam vulneremur , monemur , before our enemies hit vs , god giues vs warning , that they meane to doe so . when god himselfe is so far incensd against vs , that he is turned to be our enemy , and to fight against vs , ( it was come to that , in this prophet ) when he hath bent his how against vs , as an enemy , ( it was come to that in the prophet ieremy ) yet still he giues vs warning before hand , and still there comes a lightning before his thunder : god comes seldome to that dispatch , a word and a blow , but to a blow without a word , to an execution without a warning , neuer . cain tooke offence at his brother abel ; the quarrell was gods , because he had accepted abels sacrifice ; therefore god ioynes himselfe to abels partie ; and so the party being too strong for cain to subsist , god would not surprise cain , but he tells him his danger , why is thy countenance cast downe ; if thou doest not well , sinne lyes at thy dore : you may proceed if you will , but if you will needs , you will loose by it at last . saul persecutes christ in the christians ; christ meets him vpon the way , speakes to him , strikes him to the ground , telles him vocally , and tels him actually , that he hath vndertaken too hard a worke , in opposing him : this which god did to saul reduces him ; that which god did to cain , wrought not vpon him ; but still god went his owne way in both , to speake before hee strikes , to lighten before he thunders , to warne before he wounds . in dathan and abirams case , god may seeme to proceede apace towards execution , but yet it had all these pauses in arrest of iudgement , & these reprieues before execution . first , when moses had information & evidence of their factious proceeding , hee falls not vpon them , but he falls vpon his face before god , and laments , and deprecates in their behalfe . hee calls them to a faire tryall , and examination , the next day , to morrow the lord will show , who are his , and are holy ; and they sayd , we will not come ; and againe , ( which implies that moses cited them againe ) we will not come . then god , vpon their contumacy , when they would stand mute , and not plead , takes a resolution , to consume them , in a moment ; and then , moses & aaron returne to petition for thē , o god , the god of the spirits of all flesh , shall one man sinne , and wilt thou bee wroth with the whole congregation ; and moses went vp to them againe , and the elders of israel followed , and all preuaild not : and then moses comes to pronounce iudgement , these men shall not dye a common death , and after , and yet not presently after that he gaue iudgement , execution followd , the earth opened and swallowd them : but god begun not there ; god opened his mouth , and moses his , and aaron his , and the elders theirs , before the earth opened hers . it is our case in the text ; for , whether this iudgement wrapt vp in the text , this selling away , and this putting away , haue relation to the captiuitie of the iewes in babylon , before christ , or to the dispertion of the iewes since christ , ( some expositors take it one , some the other way ) still it is of a future thing : the prophecie came before the calamitie , whersoeuer you pitch it ; wheresoeuer you pitch it , stil there was a lightning before the thunder , a word before the blow , a warning before the wound . in which , as we see , that god alwaies leaues a latitude , between his sentence , and the execution , ( for that interim , is sphaera actiuitatis , the spheare , in which our repentance and his mercy moue , and direct themselues in a benigne aspect , towards one another , so where this repentance is deferd , and this mercie neglected , the execution is so certaine , so infallible , as that , though this in the text , be intended for a future iudgement , a future captiuitie , a future dispersion , yet in the text it is presented as present , nay , more then so , as past , and executed alreadie ; it is venditi estis , you are sold , sold alreadie , and dimissa mater , your mother is put away , put away already . all gathers and con-centers it selfe in this , gods iudgements and executions are not sodaine , there is alwayes roome for repentance , and mercie , but his iudgements and executions are certaine , there is no roome for presumption nor collusion . to pursue then the holy ghosts two metaphors , of selling away , and putting away , first , venditi estis , sayes our prophet to the iewes , and to all , behold , you are sold ; and so they were ; sold thrice ouer ; sold by adam first ; sold by themselues euery day ; and at last , sold by god. for the first generall sale by adam , wee complaine now , that land will not sell ; that 20. is come to 15. yeares purchase ; but doe wee not take too late a medium , too low a time to reckon by ? how cheape was land at first , how cheape were we ? what was paradise sold for ? what was heauen , what was mankinde sold for ? immortalitie was sold and what yeares purchase was that worth ? immortalitie is our eternitie ; god hath another manner of eternitie in him ; he hath a whole eternall day ; an eternall afternoone , and an eternall forenoone too ; for as he shall haue no end , so hee neuer had beginning ; we haue an eternall afternoone in our immortalitie ; we shall no more see an end , then god hath seene a beginning ; and millions of yeares , multiplied by millions , make not vp a minute to this eternitie , this immortalitie . when diues values a droppe of water at so high a price , what would he giue for a riuer ? how poore a clod of of earth is a mannor ? how poore an inch , a shire ? how poore a spanne , a kingdome ? how poore a pace , the whole world ? and yet how prodigally we sell paradise , heauen , soules , consciences , immortalitie , eternitie , for a few graines of this dust ? what had eue for heauen ; so little , as that the holy ghost wil not let vs know , what she had , not what kinde of fruite ; yet something eue had . what had adam for heauen ? but a satisfaction that hee had pleasd an ill wife , as st. hierome states his fault , that he eate that fruite , ne contristaretur delicias suas , least he should cast her , whom he lou'd so much , into an inordinate deiection ; but if he satisfied her , and his owne vxoriousnesse , any satisfaction is not nothing . but what had i for heauen ? adam sinnd , and i suffer ; i forfeited before i had any possession , or could claime any interest ; i had a punishment , before i had a being , and god was displeased with me before i was i ; i was built vp scarse 50. years ago , in my mothers womb , & i was cast down , almost 6000. years agoe , in adams loynes ; i was borne in the last age of the world , and dyed in the first . how & how iustly do we cry out against a man , that hath sold a towne , or sold an army . and adam sold the world. he sold abraham , and isaac and iacob , and all the patriarchs , and all the prophets . he sold peter , and paul , and both their regiments , both the glorious hemispheres of the world , the iewes , and the gentiles . he sold euangelists , and apostles , and disciples , and the disciple whom the lord loued , & the beloued mother of the lord , her selfe , say what they will to the contrary . and if christ had not prouided for himfelfe , by a miraculous generation , adam had sold him : if christ had bene conceiud in originall sinne , hee must haue dyed for himselfe , nay , he could not haue dyed for himselfe , but must haue needed another sauiour . it is in that contemplation , as hee was descended from adam , that st. paul sayes of himselfe , venundatus , i am caruall , sold vnder sinne . for though st. augustine , and some others of the fathers , doe sometimes take the apostle , in that place , to speake of himselfe , as in the person of a naturall man , ( that euery man considerd in nature , is sold vnder sinne , but the supernaturall , the sanctified man is not so ) yet st. augustine himselfe , in his latest , and grauest bookes , and particularly in his retractions , returnes to this sense of these words , that no man , in what measure soeuer sanctified , can so emancipate himselfe from that captiuitie , to which adam hath enthralld him , but that , as hee is enwrapped in originall sinne , hee is solde vnder sinne . and both s. hierome , and s. ambrose , ( both which , seeme in other places , to goe an other way , that onely they are sold vnder sinne , which haue abandond , and prostituted themselues to particular sinnes , ) doe yet returne to this sense , that because the embers , the spaune , the leauen of origiginall sinne , remaines , by adams sale , in the best , the best are sold vnder sinne . so the iewes were , and so were we sold by adam , to originall sinne , very cheape ; but in the second sale , as wee are sold to actuall , and habituall sinnes , by our selues , cheaper ; for so , sayes this prophet , you haue sold your selues for nothing : our selues , that is all our selues ; or bodies to intemperance , and ryot , and licenciousnes , and our soules to a greedines of sinne ; and all this for nothing , for sinne it selfe , for which wee sell our selues , is but a priuation , and priuations are nothing . what fruit had you of those things , whereof you are now ashamed , sayes the apostle ; here is barrennesse and shame ; barrennesse is a priuation of fruit , shame is a priuation of that confidence , which a good conscience administers , and when the apostle tells them , they sold themselues for barrennesse and shame , it was for priuations , for nothing . the adulterer waits for the twy-light , sayes iob. the twy-light comes , & serues his turne ; and sin , to night looks like a purchase , like a treasure ; but aske this sinner to morrow , and he hath sold himselfe for nothing ; for debility in his limnes , for darkenesse in his vnderstanding , for emptinesse in his purse , for absence of grace in his soule ; and debilitie , and darkenes , and emptinesse , and absence , are priuations , and priuations are nothing . all the name of substance or treasure that sinne takes , is that in the apostle , the saurizastis iram dei , you haue treasurd vp the wrath of god , against the day of wrath : and this is a fearefull priuation , of the grace of god here , and of the face of god hereafter ; a priuation so much worse then nothing , as that they vpon whom it falls , would faine be nothing , and cannot . so then we were sold , so cheape by adam , to originall , and cheaper by our selues , to actuall sinne , but cheapest of all , when we come to be sold by god ; for he giues vs away , casts vs away , deliuers vs ouer , to punishments for sinne , and to sin for punishment ; god makes sinne it selfe his executioner in vs , and future sinnes , are the punishments of former . as some schoolemasters haue vsd that discipline , to correct the children of great persons , whose personall correction they finde reason to forbeare , by correcting other children in their names , and in their sight , and haue wrought vpon good natures , that way , so did almightie god correct the iewes in the aegyptians ; for the ten plagues of aegypt , were as moses decem verba , as the ten commandements to israel , that they should not prouoke god. euery iudgement that falls vpon another , should be a catechisme to me . but when this discipline preuaild not vpon them , god sold them away , gaue them away , cast them away , in the tempest , in the whirlewinde , in the inundation of his indignation , and scatterd them as so much dust in a windy day , as so many broken strawes vpon a wrought sea. with one word , one fiat , ( let there bee a world , ) nay with one thought of god cast toward it , ( for gods speaking in the creation , was but a thinking , ) god made all of nothing . and is any one rationall ant , ( the wisest phylosopher is no more ) is any roaring lyon , ( the most ambitious and deuouring prince is no more ) is any hiue of bees , ( the wisest councels , and parliaments are no more ) is any of these so estabishd , as that , that god who by a word , by a thought , made them of nothing , cannot by recalling that word , and withdrawing that thought , in sequestring his prouidence , reduce them to nothing againe ? that man , that prince , that state thinks past-board canon-proofe , that thinkes power , or policy a rampart , when the ordinance of god is planted against it . nauyes will not keepe off nauies , if god be not the pilot , nor walles keepe out men , if god be not the sentinell . if they could , if wee were walld with a sea of fire and brimstone without , and walld with brasse within , yet we cannot ciel the heauens with a roofe of brasse , but that god can come downe in thunder that way , nor paue the earth with a floare of brasse , but that god can come vp in earthquakes that way . god can call vp damps , & vapors from below , and powre down putride defluxions from aboue , and bid them meet and condense into a plague , a plague that shall not be onely vncureable , vncontrollable , vnexorable , but vndisputable , vnexaminable , vnquestionable ; a plague that shall not onely not admit a remedy , when it is come , but not giue a reason how it did come . if god had not set a marke vpon cain , euery man , any man , any thing might haue killd him . hee apprehended that of himselfe , and was afraid , when we know of none , by name , in the world , but his father , and mother : but , as saint heirome exalts this consideration , cains owne consciēnce tells him , catharma sum , anathema sum , i am the plague of the world , and i must dye , to deliuer it catharma sum . i am a separated vagabond , not an anachorit shut vp betweene two walls , but shut out from all , anathema sum . as long as the cherubim , and the fiery sword is at the gate , adam cannot returne to paradise ; as long as the testimonies of gods anger lye at the dore of the conscience , no man can returne to peace there . if god sell away a man , giue him away , giue way to him , by withdrawing his prouidence , he shall but neede ( as the prophet sayes ) sibilare muscam , to hisse , to whisper for the fly , for the bee , for the hornet , for forraigne incumbrances ; nay , hee shall not neede to hisse , to whisper for them ; for at home , locusts shall swarme in his gardens , and frogs in his bed-chamber , & hailstones , as big as talents , ( as they are measured in the reuelation ) shall breake , as well the couerd , and the armd , as the bare , & naked head ; as well the mytred , and the turband , & the crownd head , that lifts it selfe vp against god , lyes open to him , as his that must not put on his hat , as his that hath no hat to put on ; when as that head , which being exalted here , submits itselfe to that god , that exalted it , god shall crowne , with multiplied crownes here , and hauing so crownd that head with crownes here , hee shall crowne those crownes , with the head of all , christ iesus , and all that is his , hereafter . if god sell vs away to punishments for sinne , it is thus , but if god sell vs to sinne for punishment , it is worse . for , when god , by the prophet , offered dauid , his choise of three executioners , warre , famine , and pestilence , if all these three had taken hold of him , it had not beene so heauy , as when god , had sold him ouer , giuen him away , into the hands of an executioner in his owne bosome , the studying and the plotting of the prosecution of his sinne . when god made murther , in the death of vriah , his bayliffe , to attach dauid for his adultery , and made blasphemy , in the triumphant armie of the gentils , his bayliffe , to attache dauid for his murther , and then made impenitence , and a long sencelesnes in his sinne , his bayliffe to attach dauid , for that blasphemy , then was dauid sold , vnder a dangerous sub-hastation , then lay dauid vnder a heauie execution . let me fall into the hands of god , and not of man , sayes dauid ; betweene god and man , in this case , there may be some kinde of comparison , but would any sinner say , let me fall into the hands of the deuill , and not of man , rather into more sins , then some punishments . dauid himselfe could not conceiue a more vehement prayer and imprecation , vpon his , and his gods enemies , then that , add iniquity to their iniquity ; nor hath the holy ghost any where exprest a more vehement commination , then that vpon ierusalem , ( as the vulgat reades that place ) iniquitatem , iniquitatem , iniquitatem ponam eam ; which is not gods multiplying of punishments for sin , but his multiplying of sin it selfe vpon them , till he had made them all iniquity , all sin . for this is , ( in a great part ) that which the apostle calls , gods giuing ouer to a reprobate sence ; to mistake false , and miserable comforts for true comforts ; to mollifie and asswage the anguish of one sinne , by doing another ; to maintaine prodigality , by vsury , or extortion ; to ouercome the inordinate deiections of spirit , with a false cheerefulnesse and encantation from strong drinke : in one word , ( as the wise man expresses it ) to call great plagues peace ; to smother sinne from the eye of the world , or to slumber the eye of our owne conscience from the sight of sinne , by interposing more sinnes . and farther , we carrie not this first metaphor of the holy ghost , venditi estis , you are sold , for , for the deeper impression , he presses it with another , dimissa est , for your transgressions , your mother is put away . and here in the way , we consider first dimissam animam , gods putting away of the daughter , of any particular soule . and his putting away of such a soule , is his leauing of that soule to it selfe ; when god will not come so neere louing it , as to hate it , nor giue it so much peace , as to trouble it . for , as long as god punishes me , hee giues me phisick ; if he draw his knife , it is but to prune his vine , and if hee draw blood , it is but to rectifie a distemper : if god breake my bones , it is but to set them strayter , and if hee bruse me in a morter , it is but that i might exhale , and breath vp a sweet sauor , in his nosethrils : i am his handy-worke , and if one hand be vnder me , let the other lye as heauie , as he shall be pleased to lay it , vpon me ; let god handle me how he will , so hee cast mee not out of his hands : i had rather god frownd vpon mee , then not looke vpon me ; and i had rather god pursued mee , then left mee to my selfe . it is the heighth of his indignation , o people laden with iniquity , why should ye be smitten any more ? why should i study your recouery any longer ? vox est animi non habentis in promptu , quid statuat , et desperantis salutem ; when god sayes so , sayes s. basil , he is as a father who had tried all wayes to reduce his sonne , and fayld in all , and then leaues him to his owne desperate wayes ; this is the worst that god doth say , ( we may say , that god can say ) which he sayes in ezech. auferam zelum , my iealousie shall depart from thee , and i will he quiet , and be no more angry : god is most angry , when hee lets not vs know , that hee is so . and then , refuse siluer shall men call thee , because the lord hath reiected thee , sayes the prophet ; though thou mayest haue some tincture of a precious mettall , fortune , power , valour , wisedome , yet refuse siluer shalt thou be , and more , refuse mettall shall men call thee , ( for men are often worse , then men dare call them ) because the lord hath reiected thee . cain cryes our , that his punishment is greater then hee can beare ; and what 's the waight ? this ; from thy face shall i be hid ; it is not that god would not looke graciously vpon him , but that god would not looke at all vpon him . infinite , and infinitely desperate are the effects of gods putting away a soule ; but we wait vpon the holy ghosts farther enlargement of this consideration , dimissa mater , for the childrens transgressions , the mother is put away . this mother , is the church ; that church , to whose breasts god hath applyed that soule ; and gods putting away of this mother , is ( as it was in the daughter ) his leauing her to her selfe . so these imaginary churches , that will receiue no light from antiquitie , nor primitiue formes , god leaues to themselues , and they crumble into conuenticles : and that church , which will needes be the forme to all churches , god leaues to her selfe , to her owne traditions , and shee swells into tumors , and vlcers , and blisters . and when any church is thus left to her selfe , deuested of the spirit of god , then follow heauie symptomes , and accidents ; that which is forbidden in the law , that men that haue blemishes , offer the bread of our god ; men blemished in their opinions , in their doctrine , blemishd in their lifes , in their conuersation , are admitted to sacrifice at gods altar . then followes that which is complaind of in ieroboams time , the lowest of the people , and whosoeuer will , shall bee made priests ; contemptible men shall bee made priests ; and so the priesthood shall bee made contemptible . then followes that which the prophet ose sayes , the prophet shall be a foole , and the spirituall man madde ; madde , as saint hierome translates that word , arreptitius , possest ; possest with an aery spirit of ambition , and an earthly spirit of seruilitie , and a watrie spirit of irresolution , and dispossest of the true spirit of holy fire , the zeale of the exaltation of gods glory . there is a curse in remoouing but the can●lesticke ; that the light shall not bee in that eminency , and euidence , that becomes it , but that some faint shadowes , some corner disguises , some temporizings , some modifications must be admitted . there is a heauier curse , in weakning the eye of the beholder , when ( as this prophet sayes ) god shall make hearts fatt , and eares deafe , and eyes blinde ; there shall bee light , but you shall not see by it , there shall be good preaching , but you shall not profit by it . but the greatest curse of all , is in putting out the light , when god blinds the teachers themselues : for , if the light that is in thee bee darkenesse , how great is that darkenesse ? this is that potestas tenebrarum , when power is put into their hands , who are possest with this darkenesse . and this is that procella tenebrarum , the storme of darkenesse , the blackenesse of darkenesse , ( as we translate it ) when darkenes , & power , and passion meete in one man. and to these fearefull heights may the sinnes of the children bring the mother , that that church , which now enioyes so aboundantly truth and vnitie , may bee poysoned with heresie , and wounded with schisme , and yet god bee free from all imputation of tyranny . and so wee haue done with all those peeces which constitute our first part , gods dischardge ; his mercy in his ecce , that hee warnes vs of his iudgements before they fall ; and his iustice , in his proceeding , though after wee bee solde cheape by adam , to originall sinne , ( so saint paul sayes , he was sold vnder sinne , ) and cheaper by our selues , to actuall sinnes , for nothing , for priuations , ( so the prophet told ahab that hee was sold to sinne , ) god also sell vs away , cast vs away , to punishments for sinnes , ( so hee did the israelites , ) and then to sinnes for punishments , ( so hee did dauid , and so hee did ierusalem , ) and though hee come to a diuorce , of daughter and mother , of our soules in particular , and the church it selfe in generall . wee are descended to our second part , mans discharge ; that , not disputing what god , of his absolute power might doe , nor what by his vnreueald decree hee hath done , god hath not allowd me , nor thee , nor any to conclude against our selues , a necessity of perishing . may this seeme an impertinent part in a court ? to suspect that any here , are too much afraid of god ; or too much deiected with the sense of their sinnes , or his iudgements ? are sinnes of presumption rather to be feared here , then sinnes of desperation ? it hath a faire probability . but , all the lent , wee prepare men for the sacrament . and , as casuists , we say , sacramentum , & articulus mortis aequiparantur , we consider a man , at the sacrament , as at his death-bed : and , vpon our death-beds , wee are likelyer to be attempted with sinnes of deiection , then of presumption . and so , ( though in a court , ) if you will be content to thinke of a death-bed in a court , ( and god hath taken wayes , to awaken those thoughts in you ) it may be pertinent , and seasonable , to establish you now , against those deiections , and diffidences , which may offer at you then . t is true then , there may be a selling , there may be a putting away , but hath not god reserued to himselfe a power of reuocation in both , in all cases ? audisti repudium , crede coniugium , is sweetly , and safely said by st. ambrose : as often as thy thoughts fall vpon a fearefulnesse of a diuorce from thy god , establish thy selfe with that comfort , of a mariage to thy god ; for the words of his contracts , are , sponsabo te mihi in aeternum . there can be no diuorce imagined , if there were not a mariage ; and if there be a mariage with god , there can be no diuorce , for sponsat in aeternum , hee marries for euer . can god doe so , forsake for euer ? the crowe went out of the arke , and came no more ; the doue went , and came againe , and came with an oliue branch . god may absent himselfe , that he may be sought ; but hee comes againe , and with the oliue of peace . zion said , the lord hath forsaken mee , and my lord hath forgotten me . why will zion say so ? sayes god. can zion say , my lord , my lord , hath forgotten mee ? can shee remember that god is hers , and not thinke that shee is his ? can shee remember him , and thinke that hee hath forgotten her ? can zion retaine her bowels of piety , and thinke that god is disembowelled of his ? god calls her not to nationall examples ; to how low conditions hee came , in the behalfe of sodome ; what he did for nineue ; what he did for zion her selfe in aegipt , but hee carries her home to her owne breast , and her owne cradle , and onely askes her that question , can a mother forget her sucking childe ? and hee stayes not her answere , nor assures himselfe of a good answere from her , but adds himselfe , yes , a mother may forget her sucking childe , yet i will not forget thee . can god doe it ? did god euer doe it ? did he euer put away without possibility of reassuming ? when ? where ? whom ? israel ? the ten tribes ? yet euen to them , sayes ieremy , after they had done all this , god said , turne vnto me , and they would not turne : and then , god put her away , and sent her a bill of diuorce , and neuer re-assumd her , neuer brought backe the ten tribes from their dispersion . t is true , in a whole and entire body , god neuer brought them backe , but in many faire and noble peeces , they came when iudah came ; for , from that place of ezra , where there is an entire number in grosse exhibited of all that returnd from babylon , and then the particular numbers also exhibited , of the tribes and families that returnd , because those particular numbers doe not make vp the generall number , by many thousands , the hebrew rabbins argue fairely ; and conclude probably , that those supernumerary thousands , which are inuolued in the generall number , and are not compris'd in the particulars , were such , as from the other ten tribes , in the returne of iudah , adher'd to iudah ; who are so often said neuer to haue return'd , because in a body , & magistracy of their own , otherwise then as they incorporated them selues in iudah , they neuer returnd : but god neuer put them away so , but that he offred them returne , and in a great part effected it . i knowe how friuolous a tale that is , that saint gregorie drew tratans soule out of hell , after it was there ; and i know , how groundlesse an opinion it is , that is ascrib'd to origen , that at last , the deuill shall be sau'd ; but if they could perswade mee one halfe , that traian , or that the deuill came to repentance in hell , i should not be hard , in beleeuing the other halfe , that they might be deliuered out of hell . what meane you , sayes god almighty , that yee , vse this prouerbe , the fathers haue eate soure herbes , and the childrens teeth are set on edge ? doe ye meane , that because your fathers haue sinn'd , you must perish ? why neither his parents haue sinn'd , nor hee , sayes christ , of the man borne blinde , but all is , that the worke of god might he made manifest ; neither haue thy parents sinn'd , nor thou thy selfe sinn'd so , as that there should be a necessity in thy perishing , but that thereby there might be the greater manifestation of gods mercie , that where sinne hath abounded , grace might abound much more . if therefore thy tender conscience , and thy startling soule , mis-imagine the hearing of that voice , depart thou sinner , a voyce of diuorce , a voyce that bidds thee , goe , say thou with peter , to his and thy sauiour , domine quo ibimus ? lord whither shall i goe ? thou hast the word of eternall life , and wee beleeue and are sure , that thou art that christ , the sonne of the liuing god ; and that christ , the sonne of the liuing god , will call thee backe , and call backe his owne vvord , and finde error , holy error , occasion of repenting his owne proceeding , in his bill of diuorce ; to which purpose hee calls vpon thee here to produce that bill , vbi iste libellus , where is the bill , &c. first then , vbi libellus , where is this bill , vpon what doe yee ground this ielousie and suspition in god , that hee should diuorce you ? first , it is in the originall , sepher ; that which is called a bill , is a booke ; it must bee gods whole booke , and not a fewe mis-vnderstood sentences out of that booke , that must try thee . thou must not presse heauily to thine owne damnation euery such sentence , stipendium peccati mors est that the reward of sinne is death ; nor the impossibile est , that it is impossible for him that falls after grace to bee renewd ; that which must try thee is the whole booke , the tenor and purpose , the scope and intention of god in his scriptures . his booke is a testament ; and in the testament , the testator is dead , and dead for thee ; and would that god that would dye for thee , diuorce thee ? his booke is euangelium , gospell ; and gospell is good tydings , a gracious messadge ; and would god pretend to send thee a gracious messadge , and send thee a diuorce ? god is loue , and the holy ghost is amorous in his metaphors ; euerie where his scriptures abound with the notions of loue , of spouse , and husband , and marriadge songs , and marriadge supper , and marriadge-bedde . but for words of separation , and diuorce , of spirituall diuorce for euer , of any soule formerly taken in marriadge , this very word diuorce , is but twice read in the scriptures ; once in this text ; and heere god dis-auowes it ; for when hee sayes , where is the bill , hee meanes there is no such bill ; and the other place is that which wee mentioned before , when after they had done all , god calld israel all together backe , and effectually , in a faire part , and his principall purpose in that diuorce of israel , was to intimidate , and warne her sister iudah from the like prouocations . surely a good spirit mooued our last translators of the bible , to depart from all translations which were before them , in reading that place of malachi thus , the lord the god of israel saith , that hee hates putting away . whereas all other translations , both vulgat , and vulgar , and in vulgar , and in holy tongues , the septuagint , the chalde , all , read that place thus , if a man hate her , let him put her away , ( which induced a facility of diuorces ) our translators thought it more conformable to the originall , and to the wayes of god , to read it thus , the lord the god of israel saith , that hee hates putting away . euery where in the scriptures , we meet with gods venites , in euery prophets mouth , inuitations to come vnto god ; there is a venite de circuitu , come , though you come from compassing the earth , which is satans perambulation ; though you haue walkd in his wayes , yet come vnto god. there is a venite non habentes , come and buy , though you haue no money ; though you haue no merits of your own , come , and dilate your measures , and fill them according to that dilatation , with the merits of christ iesus . there is a venite et reuertimini , come , though your comming be but a returning ; be not ashamed of comming , though your returning be a confessing of a former running away ; come in a repentance , though you cannot come in an innocencie ; there is a venite & consolamini , how heauie so euer the fetters of your owne sinnes , or the chaines of gods iudgements lye vpon you , come and receiue ease here , change your yoke , for an easier , if you cannot deuest it . there is a venite & consulite , if you finde it hard to come , or if you finde an easinesse to fall backe , though you doe come , come to consult with god , how you may come , so , as you may stay , when you are come . nay , there is a venite & arguite , come and reason with god , argne , plead , dispute , expostulate with god , come vpon any conditions : the venite is multiplied , infinite inuitations to come ; but the ite maledicti , depart ye accursed , is but once heard from gods mouth , and that not in this world neither ; as long as wee are in this world , god hates putting away . and therefore god calls for the bill , and god calls the bill a booke , that thou mightst not vexe thy soule , with mistaken sentences , but relie vpon the establishment of gods purpose in the whole booke , which is that he hates putting away . if the euidence pressed by thine owne pressures , heighthned by thine owne deiections , exalted by thine owne sinking , grow strong against thee , that thou canst not quench the iealousie , nor deuest the scruple of such a diuorce , doe but consider , who should occasion , who should enduce it ; it must be god , or thy selfe : though the iewes put away their wiues , not onely for the wiues fault , but for the husbands frowardnesse , thou hast had too good experience of gods patience , to charge him with that : if it be done , it is thy fault ; and if thou acknowledge that , it is not done ; for it is neuer done so irreuocably , but the confessing of the fault , cancels and auoydes it . releeue thy selfe by reflecting vpon some of those circumstances , essentiall circumstances , which were required in their bills of diuorce , and without which , those bills were voyde , and see if those be in thine ; for though wee haue not these circumstances , in that place of scripture , where diuorce is permitted , yet in the ordinarie practise of the iewes abroad , and in the bookes of formes and precedents , which their rabbins haue collected , wee haue them expressed . they are many , and many impertinent ; wee will but name , and but a few , such as best admit application , and most conduce to the triall of thy case . first , a man might not produce a bill written in priuate , in the husbands bed-chamber , but he must goe to a scribe , to a publique notary , to an authorizd officer . vbi iste libellus ? where is this bill of thy diuorce ? thou must not looke for it , in gods bed-chamber , in his vnreueal'd decrees in heauen , but in his publique records , his scriptures : if from thence thou pretend to produce any thing that conuinces thy sad soule , goe to them , to whom god hath committed the dispensation thereof , and there thou mayest receiue consolation , when thine owne priuate misinterpretation might misleade thee . againe , the wife , how guilty so euer in her owne conscience , might not take her selfe to be put away , except the husband had expresly giuen her a bill of diuorce ; hath thy husband ; thy god done so ; vbi est libellus ? consider the bill , that is , the booke of god , and see if it be not full of such protestations , viuo ego , as i liue , saith the lord , i would not the death of any sinner , nor the departing of any soule . so also these bills must be well testified , with vnreproachable witnesses ; vbi iste libellus ? hath thy bill such witnesses ? who be they ? inordinate deiection of spirit , irreligious sadnesse ; iealousie of the anger , distrustfulnesse of the mercy , diffidence in the promises of the gospell ; are these witnesses to be heard against god ? god calls heauen and earth to witnesse , that hee hath offered thee thy choise of life or death ; but that he hath thrust death vpon thee , there is no witnesse . thy conscience is a thousand witnesses ? it is , that thou hast committed a thousand sinnes ; and it is , that thou hast receiued a thousand blessings ; but of an eternall decree of thy diuorce , thy conscience , ( thus misinformd can be no witnesse , for thou wast not call'd to the making of those decrees . those bills were also to be authentically seald : vbi iste libellus ? hath thy imaginary bill of diuorce , and euerlasting seperation from god , any seale from him ? god hath giuen thee seales of his mercie , in both his sacraments ; seales in white , and seales in redde waxe ; seales in the participation of the candor and innocencie of his sonne , in thy baptisme , and seales in the participation of his body and bloud , in the other ; but seales of reprobation at first , or of irreuocable separation now , there are none from god : no calamitie , not temporall , no not spirituall ; no darkenesse in the vnderstanding , no scruple in the conscience , no perplexitie in the resolution ; not a sodaine death , not a shamefull death , not a stupide , not a raging death , must bee to thy selfe by the way , or may bee to vs , who may see thine ende , an euidence , a seale , of eternall reprobation , or of finall seperation . almightie god blesse vs all , from all these in our selues ; but his blessed spirit blesse vs to , from making any of these , when hee , in his vnsearchable wayes , to his vnsearchable endes , shall suffer them to fall vpon any other , seales of such seperation in them . though wee may not enlardge our selues to far , in these circumstances , another was , that the names of the parties must bee set downe , and of both the parties parents , and those to the third generation ; the sonne and daughter of such , and such , and such . vbi iste libellus ? findst thou in thy bill , the three descents , the three generations , ( if we may so say ) of thy god ? a holy ghost proceeding from a sonne , and a sonne begott●en by a father ? findest thou the god of thy consolation , the god of thy redemption , the god of thy creation , and canst thou produce a god of diuorce , of separation , out of these ? findest thou thine own three descents , as thou wast the son of dust , of nothing , and the sonne of adam , reduced to nothing , and then the sonne of god in christ , in whom thou art all things ; and canst thou thinke that that god who married thee in the honse of dust , and marryed thee in the house of infirmitie , and diuorcd thee not then , ( hee made thee not no creature , nor hee made thee not no man , ) hauing now marryed thee in the house of power , and of peace , in the body of his sonne , the church , will now diuorce thee ? lastly , to ende this consideration of diuorces , if the bill were interlinde , or blotted , or dropt , the bill was voyd . vbi libellus ? what place of scripture soeuer thou pretend , that place is enterlinde ; enterlinde by the spirit of god himselfe , with conditions , and limitations , and prouisions , if thou repent , if thou returne ; and that enterlining destroies the bill . looke also if this bill be not dropt vpon , and blotted ; the venim of the serpent is dropt vpon it , the wormwood of thy desperation , is dropt vpon it , the gall of thy melancholly is dropt vpon it , and that voydes the bill . if thou canst not discerne these drops before , drop vpon it nowe ; drop the teares of true compunction , drop the bloud of thy sauiour , and that voyds the bill : and through that spectacle , the bloud of thy sauiour , looke vpon that bill , and thou shalt see , that that bill was nayld to the crosse when he was naylde , and torne when his body was torne , and that hath cancelld the bill . oppresse not thy selfe with what god may doe , of his absolute power , god hath no where told thee , that hee hath done any such thing as an ouertender conscience may mis-imagine , from this metaphore of diuorcing , nor from the other , ( which beggs leaue for one word , by way of conclusion ) selling away ; which of my creditors is it , to whom i haue sold you ? as christ in his parable comprehends all excuses , and all backwardnesses in the following of him , in those two , marriage and purchasing , ( for one had bought land and stocke , and another had married a wife ) so god expresses his loue to man , in these two too , hee hath married vs , he hath bought vs ; that so he might take in all dispositions , and worke vpon vxorious men , men soupled and entendred with matrimoniall loue , and vpon worldly men , men kneaded and plaistred with earthly loue : hee hath married vs , hee will not diuorse , he hath bought vs , he will not sell ; for who can giue so much as he payd ? doe yee thus requite the lord , o yee foolish people ? is not he your father that hath bought you ? and will you suspect your father ? yes , sayes this disconsolate soule , fathers might sell their children ; and my father , my god hath sold me . t is true , fathers might sell their children ; amongst the gentiles they might ; for matter of law , for matter of fact , their bookes are full of euidence . amongst the iewes they might , till a iubile redeemd them . amongst the christians they might , and for euer . saint ambrose found the world in possession of that vnnaturall custome , and lamented it : vidi miserabile spectaculum , sayes he , liberos haeredes calamitatis , qui nec participes successionis : the children , sayes hee , inherit the calamity , but not the lands of their fathers , when they were solde to maintaine them , who had wastefully sold , that which was to maintaine them all : and saint ambrose induces the creditor making his claime , mea nutriti pecunia , this childe was nourced , and brought vp with my money , and belongs to mee . constantine found this , and amended it ; enacted and constituted that it should be no more done ; and canst thou imagine such a hard-heartednes in god , as saint ambrose should neede to lament , or constantin neede to correct ? quis creditor , sayes god , which of my creditors is it , to whom i haue sold you ? as in the bill of diuorce , so in this bill of sale , we aske who should occasion it ? a father might sell , for his sonnes fault , or for his owne necessitie ; but in no other case . if thou say it is done for thy fault , it is not done ; that implies a confession , and a repentance , and that auoydes all ; but if thou imagine a sale for thy fathers necessitie , quis creditor , sayes hee , which of my creditors , &c. adam brought god in debt , to death , to satan , to hell ; in iustice , god ought all mankinde to them ; but then at one payment hee payd more , in the death of his sonne christ iesus : and now , quis creditor ? the word indeed , is originally nashah , and nashah is an vsurer ; and so saint ambrose reades this place , quis faenerator , to what vsurer am i so indebted , as that i neede sell thee ? let it be so , that the principall debt was all mankinde ; pursue your vsurious computations , that euery seuen yeares doubles , and then redoubles your debt , ( and what a debt might this bee in allmost 4000. yeare from adam to christ , and 1000 from christ to vs ? ) yet when all this is multiplied infinitely , it was infinitly ouerpayd , if but one drop of the bloud of the sonne of god had bene payd ; and the sonne of god bled out his soule , and then , quis creditor , may god well say , which of those vsurers is it , to whom i need sell thee ? god may lend thee out , euen to satan ; suffer thee to bee his bayliffe , and his instrument to the vexation of others : so hee lent out saint paul to the scribes and pharises , to serue them in their persecutions ; so god may lend thee out . god may let thee out for a time , to them that shall plough and harrow thee , fell and cleaue thee , and reserue to himselfe but a little rent , a little glory , in thy patience ; so hee let out iob euen to satan himselfe ; so god may let thee out . god may mortgage thee to a sixe months feuer , or to a longer debility ; so he mortgaged hezekias . god may lay thee waste , and pull vp thy fences , extinguish their power , or withdrawe their loue , vpon whom thou hast establishd thy dependance ; so he layd dauid wast , when hee withdrewe his childrens obedience from him ; so god may lay thee waste . god may let out all his time in thee in this world , and reserue to himselfe only a last yeare , a last day , a last minute ; suffer thee in vnrepented sinnes , to the last gaspe , so god let out the good thiefe . god is lord of all that thou hast and art ; and then , dominium potestas est tum vtendi tum abutendi , he that is lord , owner , proprietary , may doe with that which is his , what he will. but god will not , cannot deuest his dominion , nor fell thee so , as not to reserue , a power , and a will to redeeme thee , if thou wouldst be redeem'd . for , howsoeuer hee seeme to thee , to haue sold thee to sinne , to sadnesse , to sickenesse , to superstition , ( for these be the ismaelits , these be the midianite merchants that buy vp our iosephs , our soules ) though he seeme to sell his present estate , hee will not sell reuersions ; his future title to thee , by a future repentance , hee will not fell ; but whensoeuer thou shalt grow due to him , by a new , and a true repentance , hee shall re-assume thee , into his bed , and his bosome , no bill of diuorce , and re-enter thee into his reuenue , and his audit , no bill of sale , shall stand vp to thy preiudice , but thy deiected spirit shall be raised from thy consternation , to a holy cheerefulnesse , and a peacefull alacritie , and no tentation shall offer a reply , to this question , which god makes to establish thy conscience , vbi libellus , where is the bill of thy mothers diuorcement , &c. finis . errat . pag. 13. l. 24. for retractions , read retractations . pa. 32. l. 14 , for herbs , read grupes . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20650-e660 psalm . 62.12 diuisio . part. 1. ecce . psal. 11.2 . origen . esay 63 , 10 lam. 2.4 . gen 4.10 . numb . 16. vers . 4. verse 5. verse 12. verse 14. verse 21 verse 25 verse 29. verse 31 venditi ab adam . rom. 7.14 . a nobis . 42.19 . rom. 6 21. iob. 24.15 . a deo. vendit paenis . vendit peccato . psa. 69.27 . ezech 21.26 . sap. 14 . 2● . dimissa anima . esa. 1.5 . basil. 16.42 . ier. 6. ●0 . dimissa mater . leuit. 21. 16. 1 king. 22. ●3 . 9.7 . apoc. 2.5 . math. 6.23 . luke 22 ●3 . iude 13. part. 2. esay 49.14 . ezeck . 18.2 . iohn 9.2 . libellus . ier. 3.8 . 2.16 . iob 3. 11. esay ose. 6.1 . esay . esay , esay 1.18 . deut. 24. quis creditor ? luke 14.18 . deut 32.30 . gen. 37.27 . the first anniuersarie an anatomie of the vvorld. wherein, by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drury, the frailtie and the decay of this whole world is represented. anatomy of the world donne, john, 1572-1631. 1612 approx. 67 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 62 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20620) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 10344) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1200:16) the first anniuersarie an anatomie of the vvorld. wherein, by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drury, the frailtie and the decay of this whole world is represented. anatomy of the world donne, john, 1572-1631. [8], 54, [10], 49, [7] p. printed by m. bradwood for s. macham, and are to be sold at his shop in pauls church-yard at the signe of the bull-head, london : 1612. by john donne. elizabeth drury was buried 17 december 1610. in verse. originally published in 1611 as: the anatomy of the world. "the second anniuersarie. of the progres of the soule" has separate dated title page and pagination; register is continuous. the last three leaves are blank except for marginal rules. the geoffrey keynes copy (now at cambridge) has an errata slip pasted to h5v. reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng drury, elizabeth, d. 1610 -poetry -early works to 1800. 2002-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-06 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2002-07 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion this was for youth , strength , mirth , and wit that time most count their golden age ; but t' was not thine . thine was thy later yeares , so much refind from youths drosse , mirth , & wit ; as thy pure mind thought ( like the angels ) nothing but the praise of thy creator , in those last , best dayes . witnes this booke , ( thy embleme ) which begins with love ; but endes , with sighes , & teares for sin̄s . will : marshall . sculpsit . iz : wa : the first anniuersarie . an anatomie of the world. wherein , by occasion of the vntimely death of mistris elizabeth drvry , the frailtie and the decay of this whole world is represented . london , printed by m. bradwood for s. macham , and are to be sold at his shop in pauls church-yard at the signe of the bull-head . 1612. to the praise of the dead , and the anatomy . well dy'de the world , that we might liue to see this world of wit , in his anatomee : no euill wants his good : so wilder heyres ; bedew their fathers toombes , with forced teares , whose state requites their losse : whiles thus we gaine well may we walke in blacks , but not complaine . yet how can i consent the world is dead while this muse liues ? which in his spirits stead seemes to informe a world : and bids it bee , in spight of losse , or fraile mortalitee ? and thou the subiect of this wel-borne thought , thrise noble maid ; couldst not haue found nor sought a fitter time to yeeld to thy sad fate , then whiles this spirit liues ; that can relate thy worth so well to our last nephews eyne , that they shall wonder both at his , and thine : admired match ! where striues in mutuall grace the cunning pencill , and the ceomly face : a taske , which thy faire goodnesse made too much for the bold pride of vulgar pens to tuch ; enough is vs to praise them that praise thee , and say that but enough those praises bee , which had'st thou liu'd , had hid their fearefull head from th' angry checkings of thy modestred : death bars reward and shame : when enuy's gone , and gaine ; 't is safe to giue the dead their owne . as then the wise egyptians wont to lay more on their tombes , then houses : these of clay , but those of brasse , or marble were ; so wee giue more vnto thy ghost , then vnto thee . yet what we giue to thee , thou gauest to vs , and maiest but thanke thy selfe , for being thus : yet what thou gau'st , and wert , o happy maid , thy grace profest all due , were'tis repayd . so these high songs that to thee suited bine , serue but to sound thy makers praise , in thine , which thy deare soule as sweetly sings to him amid the quire of saints and seraphim , as any angels tongue can sing of thee ; the subiects differ , thothe skill agree : for as by infant-yeeres men iudge of age , thy early loue , thy vertues , did presage what an hie part thou bear'st in those best songs whereto no burden , nor no end belongs . sing on thou virgin soule , whose lossefull gaine thy loue-sicke parents haue bewayl'd in vaine ; neuer may thy name be in our songs forgot till we shall sing thy ditty , and thy note . the first anniuersary . an anatomie of the world. when that rich soule which to her heauen is gone , whom all they celebrate , who know they haue one , ( for who is sure he hath a soule , vnlesse it see , and iudge , and follow worthinesse , and by deedes praise it ? he who doth not this , may lodge an in-mate soule , but t is not his . ) when that queene ended here her progresse time . and , as t' her standing house , to heauen did clymbe , where , loth to make the saints attend her long , shee 's now a part both of the quire , and song . this , world , in that great earthquake languished ; for in a common bath of teares it bled , which drew the strongest vitall spirits out : but succour'd then with a perplexed doubt , whether the world did loose or gaine in this , ( because since now no other way there is but goodnesse , to see her , whom all would see , all must endeuour to be good as shee . ) this great consumption to a feuer turn'd , and so the world had fits ; it ioy'd , it mournd , and , as men thinke , that agues physicke are , and th' ague being spent , giue ouer care , so thou , sicke world , mistak'st thy selfe to bee well , when alas , thou' rt in a letargee . her death did wound , and tame thee than , and than thou mightst haue better spar'd the sunne , or man ; that wound was deepe , but'tis more misery , that thou hast lost thy sense and memory . t' was heauy then to heare thy voyce of mone , but this is worse , that thou art speechlesse growne . thou hast forgot thy name , thou hadst ; thou wast nothing but she , and her thou hast o'repast . for as a child kept from the fount , vntill a prince , expected long , come to fulfill the ceremonies , thou vnnam'd hadst laid , had not her comming , thee her palace made : her name defin'd thee , gaue thee forme and frame , and thou forgetst to celebrate thy name . some moneths she hath beene dead ( but being dead , measures of times are all determined ) but long shee'ath beene away , long , long , yet none offers to tell vs who it is that 's gone . but as in states doubtfull of future heyres , when sickenesse without remedy , empayres the present prince , they 're loth it should be said , the prince doth languish , or the prince is dead : so mankind feeling now a generall thaw , a strong example gone equall to law , the cyment which did faithfully compact and glue all vertues , now resolu'd , and slack'd , thought it some blasphemy to say sh'was dead ; or that our weaknesse was discouered in that confession ; therefore spoke no more then tongues , the soule being gone , the losse deplore . but though it be too late to succour thee , sicke world , yea dead , yea putrified , since shee thy'ntrinsique balme , and thy preseruatiue , can neuer be renew'd , thou neuer liue , i ( since no man can make thee liue ) will trie , what we may gaine by thy anatomy . her death hath taught vs dearely , that thou art corrupt and mortall in thy purest part . let no man say , the world it selfe being dead , 't is labour lost to haue discouered . the worlds infirmities , since there is none aliue to study this dissectione ; for there 's a kind of world remaining still , though shee which did in animate and fill the world , be gone , yet in this last long night , her ghost doth walke ; that is , a glimmerig light , a faint weake loue of vertue and of good reflects from her , on them which vnderstood her worth ; and though she haue shut in all day , the twi-light of her memory doth stay ; which , from the carcasse of the old world , free , creates a new world ; and new creatures bee produc'd : the matter and the stuffe of this , her vertue , and the forme our practise is . and though to be thus elemented , arme these creatures , from hom-borne intrinsique harme , ( for all assum'd vnto this dignitee , so many weedlesse paradises bee , which of themselues produce no venemous sinne , except some forraine serpent bring it in ) yet , because outward stormes the strongest breake , and strength it selfe by confidence growes weake , this new world may be safer , being told the dangers and diseases of the old : for with due temper men do then forgoe , or couet things , when they their true worth know . there is no health ; phisitians say that wee at best , enioy , but a neutralitee . and can there be worse sicknesse , then to know that we are neuer well , nor can be so ? we are borne ruinous : poore mothers crie , that children come not right , nor orderly , except they headlong come and fall vpon an ominous precipitation . how witty's ruine ? how importunate vpon mankinde ? it labour'd to frustrate euen gods purpose ; and made woman , sent for mans reliefe , cause of his languishment . they were to good ends , and they are so still , but accessory , and principall in ill . for that first mariage was our funerall : one woman at one blow , then kill'd vs all , and singly , one by one , they kill vs now . we doe delightfully our selues allow to that consumption ; and profusely blinde , we kill our selues , to propagate , our kinde . and yet we doe not that ; we are not men : there is not now that mankinde , which was then when as the sunne , and man , did seeme to striue , ( ioynt tenants of the world ) who should suruie . when stag , and rauen , and the long-liu'd tree . compar'd withman , dy'de in minoritee . when , if a slow-pac'd starre had stolne away from the obseruers marking , he might stay two or three hundred yeeres to see 't againe , and then make vp his obseruation plaine ; when , as the age was long , the the sise was great : mans grouth confess'd , and recompenc'd the meat : so spacious and large , that euery soule did a faire kingdome , and large realme controule : and when the very stature thus erect , did that soule a good way towards heauen direct . where is this mankind now ? who liues to age , fit to be made methusalem his page ? alas , we scarse liue long enough to trie ; whether a true made clocke run right , or lie . old grandsires talke of yesterday with sorrow , and for our children we reserue to morrow . so short is life , that euery peasant striues , in a torne house , or field , to haue three liues , and as in lasting , so in length is man. contracted to an inch , who was a span , for had a man at first , in forrests stray'd , or shipwrack'd in the sea , one would haue laid a wager that an elephant , or whale that met him , would not hastily assaile a thing so equal to him : now alas . the fayries , and the pigmies well may passe as credible ; mankind decayes so soone , we 're searse our fathers shadowes cast at noone . onely death addes t' our length : nor are we growne in stature to be men , till we are none . but this were light , did our lesse volume hold all the old text ; or had we chang'd to gold their siluer ; or dispos'd into lesse glas , spirits of vertue , which then scattred was . but 't is not so : w' are not retir'd , but dampt ? and as our bodies , so our mindes are cramp't : 't is shrinking , not close-weaning , that hath thus , in minde and body both bedwarfed vs. we seeme ambitious , gods whole worke t' vndoe ; of nothing he made vs , and we striue too , to bring our selues to nothing backe ; and we do what we can , to do 't so soone as hee . with new diseases on our selues we warre , and with new phisicke , a worse engin farre . thus man , this worlds vice-emperor , in whom all faculties , all graces are at home ; and if in other creatures they appeare , they 're but mans ministers , and legats there , to worke on their rebellions , and reduce them to ciuility , and to mans vse . this man , whom god did wooe , and loth t' attend till man came vp , did downe to man descend , this man , so great , that all that is , is his , oh what a trifle , and poore thing he is ? if man were any thing , he 's nothing now : helpe , or at least some time to wast , allow t' his other wants , yet when he did depart with her whom we lament , he lost his heart . she , of whom th'ancients seem'd to prophesie , when they call'd vertues by the name of shee , she in whom vertue was so much refin'd , that for allay vnto so pure a minde shee tooke the weaker sex , she that could driue the poysonous tincture , and the stayne of eue , out of her thoughts , and deeds ; and purifie all , by a true religious alchimy ; shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this , thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is . and learn'st thus much by our anatomee , the heart being perish'd , no part can be free . and that except thou feed ( not banquet ) on the supernaturall food , religion thy better grouth growes withered , and scant ; be more than man , or thou' rt lesse then an ant. then , as mankinde , so is the worlds whole frame quite out of ioynt , almost created lame : for , before god had made vp all the rest , corruption entred , and deprau'd the best : it seis'd the angels , and then first of all the world did in her cradle take a fall , and turn'd her brains , and tooke a generall maime wronging each ioynt of th' vniuersall frame . the noblest part , man , felt it first ; and than both beasts and plants , curst in the curse of man. so did the world from the first houre decay , that euening was beginning of the day , and now the springs and sommers which we see , like sonnes of women after fifty bee . and new philosophy cals all in doubt , the element of fire is quite put out ; the sunne is lost , and th' earth , and no mans wit can wel direct him where to looke for it . and freely men confesse that this world 's spent , when in the planets , and the firmament they seeke so many new ; they see that this is crumbled out againe to his atomis . 't is all in pieces , all cohaerence gone ; all iust supply , and all relation : prince , subiect , father , sonne , are things forgot , for euery man alone thinkes he hath got to be a phoenix , and that then can bee none of that kinde , of which he is , but hee . this is the worlds condition now , and now she that should all parts to reunion bow , she that had all magnetique force alone , to draw , and fasten sundred parts in one ; she whom wise nature had inuented then when she obseru'd that every sort of men did in their voyage in this worlds sea stray , and needed a new compasse fo their way ; shee that was best , and first originall of all faire copies ; and the generall steward to fate ; shee whose rich eyes , and brest : guilt the west indies , and perfum'd the east ; whose hauing breath'd in this world , did bestow spice on those isles , and bad them still smell so , and that rich indie which doth gold interre , is but as single money , coyn'd from her : she to whom this world must it selfe refer , as suburbs , or the microcosme of her , shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this , thou knowst how lame a cripple this world is . and learnst thus much by our anatomy , that this worlds generall sickenes doth not lie in any humour , or one certaine part ; but as thou sawest it rotten at the heart , thou seest a hectique feuer hath got hold of the whole substance , not to be contrould . and that thou hast but one way , not t' admit the worlds infection , to be none of it . for the worlds subtilst immaterial parts feele this consuming wound , and ages darts . for the worlds beauty is decayd , or gone , beauty , that 's colour , and proportion . we thinke the heauens enioy their sphericall their round proportion embracing all . but yet their various and perplexed course , obseru'd in diuers ages doth enforce men to finde out so many eccentrique parts , such diuers downe-right lines , such ouerthwarts , as disproportion that pure forme . it teares the firmament in eight and forty sheeres , and in these constillations then arise new starres , and old doe vanish from our eyes : as though heau'n suffred earthquakes , peace or war , when new towers rise , and old demolish'd are . they haue empayld within a zodiake the free-borne sunne , and keepe twelue signes awake to watch his steps ; the goat and crabbe controule , and fright him backe , who els to eyther pole , ( did not these tropiques fetter him ) might runne : for his course is not round ; nor can the sunne perfit a circle , or maintaine his way one inche direct ; but where he rose to day he comes no more , but with a cousening line , steales by that point , and so is serpentine : and seeming weary with his reeleing thus , he meanes to sleepe , being now falne nearer vs. so , of the starres which boast that they doe runne in circle still , none ends where he begunne . all their proportion's lame , it sinks , it swels . for of meridians , and parallels , man hath weau'd out a net , and this net throwne vpon the heauens , and now they are his owne . loth to goe vp the hill , or labour thus to go to heauen , we make heauen come to vs. we spur , we raigne the stars , and in their race they 're diuersly content t' obey our peace , but keepes the earth her round proportion still ? doth not a tenarif , or higher hill rise so high like a rocke , that one might thinke the floating moone would shipwracke there , and sinke ? seas are so deepe , that whales being strooke to day , perchance to morrow , scarse at middle way of their wish'd iourneys end , the bottom , dye . and men , to sound depths , so much line vntie , as one might iustly thinke , that there would rise at end thereof , one of th' antipodies : if vnder all , a vault infernall be , ( which sure is spacious , except that we inuent another torment , that there must millions into a strait hot roome be thrust ) then solidnesse , and roundnesse haue no place . are these but warts , and pock-holes in the face of th' earth ? thinke so : but yet confesse , in this the worlds proportion disfigured is , that those two legges whereon it doth rely , reward and punishment are bent awry . and , oh , it can no more be questioned , that beauties best , proportion , is dead , since euen griefe itselfe , which now alone is left vs , is without proportion . shee by whose lines proportion should bee examin'd , measure of all symmetree , whom had that ancient seene , who thought soules made of harmony , he would at next haue said that harmony was shee , and thence infer , that soules were but resultances from her , and did from her into our bodies go , as to our eyes , the formes from obiects flow : shee , who if those great douctors truely said that th'arke to mans proportions was made , had beene a type for that , as that might be a type of her in this , that contrary both elements , and passions liu'd at peace in her , who caus'd all ciuill war to cease . shee , after whom , what forme soe're we see , is discord , and rude incongruitee , shee , shee is dead , shee 's dead ; when thou knowest this , thou knowst how vgly a monster this world is : and learnst thus much by our anatomee , that here is nothing to enamor thee : and that , not onely faults in inward parts , corruptions in our braines , or in our harts . poysoning the fountaines , whence our actions spring , endanger vs : but that if euery thing be not done fitly'nd in proportion , to satisfie wise , and good lookers on , ( since most men be such as most thinke they bee ) they 're lothsome too , by this deformitee . for good , and well , must in our actions meete ; wicked is not much worse then indiscreet . but beauties other second element , colour , and lustre now , is as neere spent . and had the world his iust proportion , were it a ring still , yet the stone is gone . as a compassionate turcoyse which doth tell by looking pale , the wearer is not well , as gold fals sicke being stung with mercury , all the worlds parts of such complexion bee . when nature was most busie , the first weeke , swadling the new-borne earth , god seemd to like , that she should sport herselfe sometimes , and play , to mingle , and vary colours euery day . and then , as though she could not make inow , himselfe his various rainbow did allow , sight is the noblest sense of any one , yet sight hath onely colour to feed on , and colour is decayd : summers robe growes duskie , and like an oft dyed garment showes . our blushing redde , which vs'd in cheekes to spred , is inward sunke , and onely our soules are redde . perchance the world might haue recouered , if she whom we lament had not beene dead : but shee , in whom all white , and red , and blew ( beauties ingredients ) voluntary grew , as in an vnuext paradise ; from whom did all things verdure , and their lustre come , whose composition was miraculous , being all colour , all diaphanous , ( for ayre , and fire but thicke grosse bodies were , and liueliest stones but drowsie , and pale to her , ) shee , shee , is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowst this , thou knowest how wan a ghost this our world is : and learnst thus much by our anatomee , that it should more affright , then pleasure thee . and that , since all faire color then did sinke , t is now but wicked vanity to thinke , to colour vitious deeds with good pretence , or with bought colors to illude mens sense . nor in ought more this worlds decay appeares , then that her influence the heau'n forbeares , or that the elements doe not feele this , the father , or the mother barren is . the clouds conceiue not raine , or doe not powre in the due birth-time , downe the balmy showre . th' ayre doth not motherly sit on the earth , to hatch her seasons , and giue all things birth . spring-times were common cradles , but are toombes ; and false-conceptions fill the generall wombs . th' ayre showes such meteors , as none can see , not onely what they meane , but what they bee . earth such new wormes , as would haue troubled much , th' egyptian mages to haue made more such . what artist now dares boast that he can bring heauen hither , or constellate any thing , so as the influence of those starres may bee imprisoned in an hearbe , or charme , or tree , and doe by touch , all which those starres could doe ? the art is lost , and correspondence too . for heauen giues little , and the earth takes lesse , and man least knowes their trade , and purposes . if this commerce twixt heauen and earth were not embarr'd , and all this trafique quite forgot , shee , for whose losse we haue lamented thus , would worke more fully ' and pow'rfully on vs. since herbes , and roots by dying , lose not all , but they , yea ashes too , are medicinall , death could not quench her vertue so , but that it would be ( if not follow'd ) wondred at : and all the world would be one dying swan , to sing her funerall praise , and vanish than . but as some serpents poison hurteth not , except it be from the liue serpent shot , so doth her vertue need her here , to fit that vnto vs ; she working more then it . but she , in whom , to such maturity , vertue was growne , past growth , that it must die , she from whose influence all impression came , but , by receiuers impotencies , lame , who , though she could not transubstantiate all states to gold , yet guilded euery state , so that some princes haue some temperance ; some counsaylors some purpose to aduance the common profite ; and some people haue some stay , no more then kings should giue , to craue ; some women haue some taciturnity , some nunneries , some graines of chastity . she that did thus much , and much more could doe , but that our age was iron , and rusty too , shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this , thou knowest how drie a cinder this world is . and learnst thus much by our anatomy , that'tis in vaine to dew , or mollifie it with thy teares , or sweat , or bloud : no thing is worth our trauaile , griefe , or perishing , but those rich ioyes , which did possesse her heart , of which shee 's now partaker , and a part . but as in cutting vp a man that 's dead , the body will not last out to haue read on euery part , and therefore men direct their speech to parts , that are of most effect ; so the worlds carcasse would not last , if i were punctuall in this anatomy . nor smels it well to hearers , if one tell them their disease , who faine would thinke they 're wel . here therefore be the end : and , blessed maid , of whom is meant what euer hath beene said , or shall be spoken well by any tongue , whose name refines course lines , and makes prose song , accept this tribute , and his first yeeres rent , who till his darke short tapers end be spent , as oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth , will yearely celebrate thy second birth , that is , thy death . for though the soule of man be got when man is made , 't is borne but than when man doth die . our body 's as the wombe , and as a mid-wife death directs it home . and you her creatures , whom she workes vpon and haue your last , and best concoction from her example , and her vertue , if you in reuerence to her , doe thinke it due , that no one should her prayses thus reherse , as matter fit for chronicle , not verse , vouchsafe to call to minde , that god did make a last , and lastingst peece , a song . he spake to moses , to deliuer vnto all , that song : because he knew they would let fall , the law , the prophets , and the history , but keepe the song still in their memory . such an opinion ( in due measure ) made me this great office boldly to inuade . nor could incomprehensiblenesse deterre me , from thus trying to emprison her . which when i saw that a strict graue could doe , i saw not why verse might not doe so too . verse hath a middle nature : heauen keepes soules , the graue keepes bodies , verse the same enroules . a fvnerall elegie . t is lost , to trust a tombe with such a ghest , or to confine her in a marble chest . alas , what 's marble , ieat , or porphiry , priz'd with the chrysolite of either eye , or with those pearles , and rubies which shee was ? ioyne the two indies in one tombe , 't is glas ; and so is all to her materials , though euery inche were ten escurials . yet shee 's demolished : can we keepe herthen in workes of hands , or of the wits of m●n ? can th●se memorials , ragges of paper , giue life to that name , by which name they must liue ? sickly , alas , short-liu'd , aborted bee those carkas verses , whose soule is not sh●e . and can shee , who no longer would be sh●e , being such a tabernacle , stoope to bee in paper wrap't ; or , when she would not lie in such a house , dwell in an elegie ? but 't is no matter ; we may well allow verse to liue so long as the world will now for her death wounded it . the world containes princes for armes , and counsailors for braines , lawyers for tongues , diuines for hearts , and more , the rich for stomachs and for backes the pore ; the officers for hands , merchants for feet by which remote and distant countries meet . but those fine spirits which doe tune and set this organ , are those peeces which beget wonder and loue ; and these were shee ; and shee being spent , the world must needs decrepit bee . for since death will proceed to triumph still , he can finde nothing , after her , to kill , except the world it selfe , so great as shee . thus braue and confident may nature bee , death cannot giue her such another blow , because shee cannot such another show . but must we say shee 's dead ? may 't not be said that as a sundred clocke is peece-meale laid , not to be lost , but by the makers hand repolish'd , without error then to stand , or as the affrique niger streame enwombs it selfe into the earth , and after comes , ( hauing first made a naturall bridge , to passe for many leagues , ) farre greater then it was , may 't not be said , that her graue shall restore her , greater , purer , firmer , then before ? heauen may say this , and ioy in 't ; but can wee who liue , and lacke her , here this vantage see ? what is 't to vs , alas , if there haue beene an angell made a throne , or cherubin ? we lose by 't : and as aged men are glad being tastlesse growne , to ioy in ioyes they had , so now the sicke staru'd world must feed vpone this ioy , that we had her , who now is gone . reioyce then nature , and this world , that you fearing the last fires hastning to subdue your force and vigor , ere it were neere gone , wisely bestow'd , and laid it all on one . one , whose cleare body was so pure , and thin , because it need disguise no thought within . t' was but a through-light scarfe , her minde t'enroule , or exhalation breath'd out from her soule . on● , whom all men who durst no more , admir'd , and w●om , who ere had worth enough , desir'd ; as when a temple 's built , saints emulate to which of them , it shall be consecrate . but as when heauen lookes on vs with new eyes , those new starres euery artist exercise , what place they should assigne to them they doubt . argue , and agree not , till those starres goe out : so the world studied whose this peece sh●uld be , till she can be no bodies else , nor sh●e : but like a lampe of balsamum , desir'd rather t' adorne , then last , shee soone expir'd ; cloath'd in her virgin white integrity ; for mariage , though it doe not staine , doth dye . to scape th'infirmities which waite vpone woman , shee went away , before sh'was one . and the worlds busie noyse to ouercome , tooke so much death , as seru'd for opium . for though she could not , nor could chuse to die , shee'ath yeelded to too long an extasie . he which not knowing her said historie , should come to read the booke of destinie , how faire and chast , humble and high shee'ad beene , much promis'd , much perform'd , at not fifteene , and measuring future things , by things before , should turne the leafe to read , and read no more , would thinke that either destinie mistooke , or that some leaues were torne out of the booke . but 't is not so : fate did but vsher her to yeares of reasons vse , and then infer her destinie to her selfe ; which libertie shee tooke but for thus much , thus much to die . her modesty not suffering her to bee fellow-commissioner with destinee , shee did no more but die ; if after her any shall liue , which dare true good prefer , euery such person is her delegate , t' accomplish that which should haue beene her fate . they shall make vp that booke , and shall haue thankes offate and her , for filling vp th●ir blanks . for future vertuous deeds are legacies . which from the gift of her example rise . and 't is in heau'n part of spirituall mirth , to see how well , the good play her , on earth . finis . the second anniuersarie . of the progres of the soule . wherein : by occasion of the religious death of mistris elizabeth drvry , the incommodities of the soule in this life and her exaltation in the next , are contemplated . london , printed by m. bradwood for s. macham , and are to be sould at his shop in pauls church-yard at the signe of the bull-head . 1612. the harbinger to the progres . two soules moue here , and mine ( a third ) must moue paces of admiration , and of loue ; thy soule ( deare virgin ) whose this tribute is , mou'd from this mortall sphere to liuely blisse ; and yet moues still , and still aspires to see the worlds last day , thy glories full degree : like as those starres which thou ore-lookest farre , are in their place , and yet still moued are no soule ( whiles with the lugage of this clay it clogged is ) can follow thee halfe way ; or see thy flight ; which doth our thoughts outgoe so fast , that now the lightning moues but slow : but now thou art as high in heauen flowne as heau'ns from vs ; what soule besides thine owne can tell thy ioyes , or say he can rerelate thy glorious iournals in that blessed state ? i enuie thee ( rich soule ) i enuy thee , although i cannot yet thy glory see : and thou ( great spirit ) which her 's follow'd hast so fast , as none can follow thine so fast ; so farre as none can follow thine so farre , ( and if this flesh did not the passage barre had'st raught her ) let me wonder at thy flight which long agone had'st lost the vnlgar sight and now mak'st proud the better eyes , that thay can see thee less'ned in thine aery way ; so while thou mak'st her soules by progresse knowne thou mak'st a noble progresse of thine owne . from this worlds carcasse hauing mounted hie to that pure life of immortalitie ; since thine aspiring thoughts themselues so raise that more may not beseeme a creatures praise , yet still thou vow'st her more ; and euery yeare mak'st a new progresse , while thou wandrest here ; still vpwards mount ; and let thy makers praise honor thy laura , and adorne thy laies . and since thy muse her head in heauen shrouds oh let her neuer stoope below the clouds : and if those glorious sainted soules may know or what we doe , or what we sing below , those acts , those songs shall still content them best which praise those awfull powers that make them blest . the second anniuersarie . of the progres of the soule . nothing could make mee sooner to confesse . that this world had an euerlastingnesse , then to consider , that a yeare is runne , since both this lower worlds , and the sunnes sunne , the lustre , and the vigor of this all , did set ; t' were blasphemy , to say , did fall . but as a ship which hath strooke saile , doth runne , by force of that force which before , it wonne , or as sometimes in a beheaded man , through at those two red seas , which freely ran , one from the trunke , another from the head , his soule be saild , to her eternall bed , his eies will twinckle , and his tongue will roll , as though he beckned , and cal'd backe his soul , he graspes his hands , and he puls vp his feet , and seemes to reach , and to step forth to meet . his soule , when all these motions which we saw , are but as ice , which crackles at a thaw : or as a lute , which in moist weather , rings her knell alone , by cracking of her strings . so strugles this dead world , now shee is gone ; for there is motion in corruption . as some daies are , at the creation nam'd , before the sunne , the which fram'd daies , was fram'd , so after this sunnes set , some show appeares , and orderly vicisitude of yeares . yet a new deluge , and of lethe flood , hath drown ' vs all , all haue forgot all good , forgetting her , the maine reserue of all , yet in this deluge , grosse and generall , thou seest mee striue for life ; my life shal be , to bee hereafter prais'd , for praysing thee , immortal mayd , who though thou wouldst refuse the name of mother , be vnto my muse , a father since her chast ambition is , yearely to bring forth such a child as this . these hymes may worke on future wits , and so may great grand-children of thy praises grow . and so , though not reuiue , embalme , and spice the world , which else would putrify with vice . for thus , man may extend thy progeny , vntill man doe but vanish , and not die . these hymns thy issue , may encrease so long , as till gods great venite change the song . thirst for that time , o my insatiate soule , and serue thy thirst , with gods safe-fealing bowle . bee thirsty still , and drinke still till , thou goe ; t'o th' onely health , to be hydroptique so . forget this rotten world ; and vnto thee , let thine owne times as an old story be be not concern'd : study not why , nor whan ; do not so much , as not beleeue a man. for though to erre , be worst , to try truths forth , is far more busines , then this world is worth . the world is but a carkas ; thou art fed by it , but as a worme , that carcas bred ; and why shouldst thou , poore worme , consider more , when this world will grow better then before , then those thy fellow-wormes doe thinke vpone that carkasses last resurrectione . forget this world , and scarse thinke of it so , as of old cloaths , cast of a yeare agoe . to be thus stupid is alacrity ; men thus lethargique haue best memory . looke vpward ; that 's towards her , whose happy state we now lament not , but congratulate . shee , to whom all this world t was but a stage , where all sat harkning how her youthfull age should be emploid , because in all , shee did , some figure of the golden times , was hid . who could not lacke , what ere this world could giue , because shee was the forme , that made it liue ; nor could complaine , that this world was vnfit , to be staid in , then when shee was in it ; shee that first tried indifferent desires by vertue , and vertue by religious fires , shee to whose person paradise adhear'd , as courts to princes ; shee whose eies enspheard star-light inough , t' haue made the south controll , ( had shee beene there ) the star-full northern pole , shee , shee is gone ; shee is gone ; when thou knowest this , what fragmentary rubbidge this world is . thou knowest , and that it is not worth a thought ; he honors it too much that thinks it nought . thinke then , my soule , that death is but a groome , which brings a taper to the outward romme , whence thou spiest first a little glimmering light , and after brings it nearer to thy sight : for such approches doth heauen make in death . thinke thy selfe laboring now with broken breath , and thinke those broken and soft notes to bee diuision , and thy happiest harmonee . thinke thee laid on thy death bed , loose and slacke ; and thinke that but vnbinding of a packe , to take one precious thing , thy soule , from thence . thinke thy selfe parch'd with feuers violence , anger thine ague more , by calling it thy physicke ; chide the slacknesse of the fit . thinke that thou hearst thy knell , and thinke no more , but that , as bels cal'd thee to church before , so this , to the triumphant church , cals thee . thinke satans sergeants round about thee bee , and thinke that but for legacies they thrust ; giue one thy pride , to'another giue thy lust : giue them those sinnes which they gaue thee before , and trust th' immaculate blood to wash thy score . thinke thy frinds weeping round , and thinke that thay weepe but because they goe not yet thy way . thinke that they close thine eyes , and thinke in this , that they confesse much in the world , amisse , who dare not trust a dead mans eye with that , which they from god , and angels couer not . thinke that they shroud thee vp , and thinke from thence they reinuest thee in white innocence . thinke that thy body rots , and ( if so lowe , thy soule exalted so , thy thoughts can goe . ) thinke the a prince , who of themselues create wormes which insensibly deuoure their state . thinke that they bury thee , and thinke that right laies thee to sleepe but a saint lucies night . thinke these things cheerefully : and if thou bee drowsie or slacke , remember then that shee , shee whose complexion was so euen made , that which of her ingredients should inuade the other three , no feare , no art could guesse : so far were all remou'd from more or lesse . but as in mithridate , or iust perfumes , where all good things being met , no one presumes to gouerne , or to triumph no the rest , onely because all were , no part was best . and as , though all doe know , that quantities are made of lines , and lines from points arise , none can these lines or quantities vnioynt , and say this is a line , or this a point , so though the elements and humors were in her , one could not say , this gouernes there . whose euen constitution might haue worne any disease to venter on the sunne , rather then her : and make a spirit feare that he to disuniting subiect were . to whose proportious if we would compare cubes , th' are vnstable ; circles , angulare ; shee who was such a chaine , as fate emploies to bring mankind , all fortunes it enioies , so fast , so euen wrought , as one would thinke , no accident , could threaten any linke , shee , shee embrac'd a sicknesse , gaue it meat , the purest blood , and breath , that ere it eat . and hath taught vs that though a good man hath title to heauen , and plead it by his faith , and though he may pretend a conquest , since heauen was content to suffer violence , yea though he plead along possession too , ( for they' are in heauen on earth , who heauens workes do , ) though he had right , and power , and place before , yet death must vsher , and vnlocke the doore . thinke further on thy selfe , my soule , and thinke ; how thou at first wast made but in a sinke ; thinke that it argued some infermitee , that those two soules , which then thou foundst in mee , thou fedst vpon , and drewst into thee , both my second soule of sence , and first of growth . thinke but how poore thou wast , how obnoxious , whom a small lump of flesh could poison thus . this curded milke , this poore vnlittered whelpe my body , could , beyond escape , or helpe , infect thee with originall sinne , and thou couldst neither then refuse , nor leaue it now . thinke that no stubborne sullen anchorit , which fixt to'a pillar , or a graue doth sit beddded and bath'd in all his ordures , dwels so fowly as our soules , in their first-built cels. thinke in how poore a prison thou didst lie after , enabled but to sucke , and crie . thinke , when t' was growne to most , t' was a poore inne , a prouince pack'd vp in two yards of skinne . and that vsurped , or threatned with the rage of sicknesses , or their true mother , age. but thinke that death hath now enfranchis'd thee , thou hast thy'expausion now and libertee ; thinke that a rusty peece , discharg'd , is flowen in peeces , and the bullet is his owne , and freely flies : this to thy soule allow , thinke thy shee l broke , thinke thy soule hatch'd but now . and thinke this slow-pac'd soule , which late did cleaue , to'a body , and went but by the bodies leaue , twenty , perchance , or thirty mile a day , dispatches in a minute all the way , twixt heauen , and earth : shee staies not in the ayre , to looke what meteors there themselues prepare ; shee carries no desire to know , nor sense , whether th'ayrs middle region be intense , for th' element of fire , shee doth not know , whether shee past by such a place or no ; shee baits not at the moone , nor cares to trie , whether in that new world , men liue , and die . venus recards her not , to'enquire , how shee can , ( being one star ) hesper , and vesper bee , hee that charm'd argus eies , sweet mercury , workes not on her , who now is growen all ey ; who , if shee meete the body of the sunne , goes through , not staying till his course be runne ; who finds in mars his campe , no corps of guard ; nor is by ioue , nor by his father bard ; but ere shee can consider how shee went , at once is at , and through the firmament . and as these stars were but so many beades strunge on one string , speed vndistinguish'd leades her through those spheares , as through the beades , a string , whose quicke succession makes it still one thing : as doth the pith , which , least our bodies slacke , strings fast the little bones of necke , and backe ; so by the soule doth death string heauen and earth , for when our soule enioyes this her third birth , ( creation gaue her one , a second , grace , ) heauen is as neare , and present to her face , as colours are , and obiects , in a roome where darknesse was before , when tapers come . this must , my soule , thy long-short progresse bee ; to'aduance these thoughts , remember then , that shee shee , whose faire body no such prison was , but that a soule might well be pleas'd to passe an age in her ; shee whose rich beauty lent mintage to others beauties , for they went but for so much , as they were like to her ; shee , in whose body ( if wee dare prefer this low world , to so high a mark , as shee , ) the westerne treasure , esterne spiceree , europe , and afrique , and the vnknowen rest were easily found , or what in them was best ; and when w'haue made this large discoueree , of all in her some one part then will bee twenty such parts , whose plenty and riches is inough to make twenty such worlds as this ; shee , whom had they knowne , who did first betroth the tutelar angels , and assigned one , both to nations , cities , and to companies , to functions , offices , and dignities , and to each seuerall man , to him , and him , they would haue giuen her one for euery limme ; shee , of whose soule , if we may say , t' was gold , her body was th'electrum , and did hold many degrees of that ; ( we vnderstood her by her sight , her pure and eloquent blood spoke in her cheekes , and so distinckly wrought , that one might almost say , her bodie thought , shee , shee , thus richly , and largely hous'd , is gone : and chides vs slow-pac'd snailes , who crawle vpon our prisons prison , earth , nor thinke vs well longer , then whil'st we beare our brittle shell . but t' were but little to haue chang'd our roome , if , as we were in this our liuing tombe oppress'd with ignorance , we still were so , poore soule in this thy flesh what do'st thou know . thou know'st thy selfe so little , as thou know'st not , how thou did'st die , nor how thou wast begot . thou neither knowst , how thou at first camest in , nor how thou took'st the poyson of mans sin . nor dost thou , ( though thou knowst , that thou art so ) by what way thou art made immortall , know . thou art to narrow , wretch , to comprehend euen thy selfe : yea though thou wouldst but bend to know thy body . haue not all soules thought for many ages , that our body'is wrought of ayre , and fire , and other elements ? and now they thinke of new ingredients . and one soule thinkes one , and another way another thinkes , and ty's an euen lay knowst thou but how the stone doth enter in the bladders caue , and neuer breake the skin ? knowst thou how blood , which to the hart doth flow , doth from one ventricle to th' other go ? and for the putrid stuffe , which thou dost spit , knowst thou how thy lungs haue attracted it ? there are no passages so that there is ( for ought thou knowst ) piercing of substances . and of those many opinions which men raise of nailes and haires , dost thou know which to praise ? what hope haue we to know our selues , when wee know not the least things , which for our vse bee ? we see in authors , too stiffe to recant . a hundred controuersies of an ant. and yet one watches , starues , freeses , and sweats , to know but catechismes and alphabets of vnconcerning things , matters of fact ; how others on our stage their parts did act ; what caesar did , yea , and what cicero said . why grasse is greene , or why our blood is red , are mysteries which none haue reach'd vnto . in this low forme , poore soule what wilt thou doe ? when wilt thou shake of this pedantery , of being thought by sense , and fantasy ? thou look'st through spectacles ; small things seeme great , below ; but vp vnto the watch-towre get , and see all things despoyld of fallacies : thou shalt not peepe through lattices of eies , nor heare through laberinths of eares , nor learne by circuit , or collections to discerne . in heauen thou straight know'st all , concerning it , and what concerns it not , shall straight forget . there thou ( but in no other schoole ) maist bee perchance , as learned , and as full , as shee , shee who all libraries had throughly red at home , in her owne thoughts , and practised so much good as would make as many more : shee whose example they must all implore , who would or doe , or thinke well , and confesse that aie the vertuous actions they expresse , are but a new , and worse edition , of her some one thought , or one action : shee , who in th' art of knowing heauen , was growen here vpon earth , to such perfection , that shee hath , euer since to heauen shee came , ( in a far fairer point , ) but read the same : shee , shee , not satisfied withall this waite , ( for so much knowledge , as would ouer-fraite another , did but ballast her ) is gone , as well t' enioy , as get perfectione . and cals vs after her , in that shee tooke , ( taking herselfe ) our best , and worthiest booke . returne not , my soule , from this extasee , and meditation of what thou shalt bee , to earthly thoughts , till it to thee appeare , with whom thy conuersation must be there . with whom wilt thou conuerse ? what station canst thou choose out , free from infection , that wil nor giue thee theirs , nor drinke in thine ? shalt thou not finde a spungy slack diuine drinke and sucke in th' instructions of great men , and for the word of god , vent them agen ? are there not some courts , ( and then , no things bee so like as courts ) which , in this let vs see , that wits and tongues of libellars are weake , because they doe more ill , then these can speake ? the poyson'is gone through all , poysons affect chiefly the cheefest parts , but some effect in nailes , and haires , yea excrements , will show ; so wise the poyson of sinne , in the most low . vp vp , my drowsie soule , where thy new eare shall in the angels songs no discord heare ; where thou shalt see the blessed mother-maid ioy in not being that , which men haue said . where shee'is exalted more for being good , then for her interest , of motherhood . vp to those patriarckes , which did longer sit expecting christ , then they'haue enioy'd him yet . vp to those prophets , which now gladly see their prophecies growen to be historee . vp to th'apostles , who did brauely runne , all the sunnes course , with more light then the sunne . vp to those martyrs , who did calmely bleed oyle to th'apostles lamps , dew to their seed . vp to those virgins , who thoughts that almost they made ioyntenants with the holy ghost , if they to any should his temple giue . vp , vp , for in that squadron there doth liue shee , who hath carried thether , new degrees ( as to their number ) to their dignitees . shee , who beeing to herselfe , a state enioyd all royalties which any state emploid , for shee made wars , and triumph'd , reson still did not ouerthrow , but rectifie her will : and shee made peace , for no peace is like this , that beauty and chastity together kisse : shee did high iustice ; for shee crucified euery first motion of rebellious pride : and shee gaue pardons , and was liberall , for , onely her selfe except , shee pardond all : shee coynd , in this , that her impressions gaue to all our actions all the worth they haue : shee gaue protections ; the thoughts of her brest satans rude officers could nere arrest . as these prerogatiues being met in one , made her a soueraigne state , religion made her a church ; and these two made her all . shee who was all this all , and could not fall to worse , by company ; ( for shee was still more antidote , then all the world was ill , shee , shee doth leaue it , and by death , suruiue all this , in heauen ; whether who doth not striue the more , because shee'is there , he doth not know that accidentall ioyes in heauen doe grow . but pause , my soule , and study ere thou fall on accidentall ioyes , th'essentiall . still before accessories doe abide a triall , must the principall be tride . and what essentiall ioy canst thou expect here vpon earth ? what permanent effect of transitory causes ? dost thou loue beauty ? ( and beauty worthyest is to moue ) poore couse'ned cose'nor , that she , and that thou , which did begin to loue , are neither now . you are both fluid , chang'd since yesterday ; next day repaires , ( but ill ) last daies decay . nor are , ( although the riuer keep the name ) yesterdaies waters , and to daies the same . so flowes her face , and thine eies , neither now that saint , nor pilgrime , which your louing row concernd , remaines , but whil'st you thinke you bee constant , you' are howrely in inconstancee . honour may haue pretence vnto our loue , because that god did liue so long aboue without this honour , and then lou'd it so , that he at last made creatures to to bestow honor on him ; not that he needed it , but that , to his hands , man might grow more fit . but since all honors from inferiors flow , ( for they doe giue it ; princes doe but show whom they would haue so honord ) and that this on such opinions , and capacities is built , as rise , and fall , to more and lesse , alas , t is but a casuall happinesse . hath euer any man to'himselfe assigned this or that happinesse , to'arrest his minde , but that another man , which takes a worse , thinke him a foole for hauing tane that course ? they who did labour babels tower to'rect , might haue considerd , that for that effect , all this whole solid earth could not allow nor furnish forth materials enow ; and that this center , to raise such a place was far to little , to haue beene the base ; no more affoords this worlds , foundatione to erect true ioye , were all the meanes in one . but as the heathen made them seuerall gods , of all gods benefits , and all his rods , ( for as the wine , and corne , and onions are gods vnto them , so agues bee , and war ) and as by changing that whole precious gold to such small copper coynes , they lost the old , and lost their onely god , who euer must be sought alone , and not in such a thrust , so much mankind true happinesse mistakes ; no ioye enioyes that man , that many makes . then , soule , to thy first'pitch worke vpon againe ; know that all lines which circles doe containe , for once that they the center touch , do touch twice the circumference ; and be thou such . double on heauen , thy thoughts on earth emploid ; all will not serue ; onely who haue enioyd the sight of god , in fulnesse , can thinke it ; for it is both the obiect , and the wit. this is essentiall ioye , where neither hee can suffer diminution , nor wee ; t is such a full , and such a filling good ; had th'angels once look'd on him , they had stood . to fill the place of one of them , or more , shee whom we celebrate , is gone before . shee , who had here so much essentiall ioye . as no chance could distract , much lesse destroy ; who with gods presence was acquainted so , ( hearing , and speaking to him ) as to know his face , in any naturall stone , or tree , better then when in images they bee : who kept , by diligent deuotion , gods image , in such reparation , within her heart , that what decay was growen , was her first parents fault , and not her own : who being solicited to any act , still heard god pleading his safe precontract ; who by a faithfull confidence , was here betrothed to god , and now is married there , whose twilights were more cleare , then our mid day , who dreamt deuoutlier , then most vse to pray ; who being heare fild with grace , yet stroue to bee , both where more grace , and more capacitee at once is giuen : shee to heauen is gone , who made this world in some proportion a heauen , and here , became vnto vs all , ioye , ( as our ioyes admit ) essentiall . but could this low world ioyes essentiall touch , heauens accidentall ioyes would passe them much . how poore and lame , must then our casuall bee ? if thy prince will his subiects to call thee my lord , and this doe swell thee , thou art than , by being a greater , growen to be lesse man , when no physician of reders can speake , a ioyfull casuall violence may breake a dangerous apostem in thy brest ; and whilst thou ioyest in this , the dangerous rest , the bag may rise vp , and so strangle thee . what eie was casuall , may euer bee . what should the nature change ? or make the same certaine , which was but casuall , when it came ? all casuall ioye doth loud and plainly say , onely by comming , that it can away . onely in heauen ioies strength is neuer spent ; and accidentall things are permanent . ioy of a soules arriuall neere decaies ; for that soule euer ioyes , and euer staies . ioy that their last great consummation approches in the resurrection ; when earthly bodies more celestiall shalbe , then angels were , for they could fall ; this kind of ioy doth euery day admit degrees of grouth , but none of loosing it . in this fresh ioy , t is no small part , that shee , shee , in whose goodnesse , he that names degree , doth iniure her ; ( t is losse to be cald best , there where the stuffe is not such as the rest ) shee , who left such a body , as euen shee onely in heauen could learne , how it can bee made better ; for shee rather was two soules , or like to full , on both sides written rols , where eies might read vpon the outward skin , as strong records for god , as mindes within , shee , who by making full perfection grow , peeces a circle , and still keepes it so , long'd for , and longing for'it , to heauen is gone , where shee receiues , and giues addition . here in a place , where mis-deuotion frames a thousand praiers to saints , whose very names the ancient church knew not , heauen knowes not yet , and where , what lawes of poetry admit , lawes of religion , haue at least the same , immortall maid , i might inroque thy name . could any saint prouoke that appetite , thou here shouldst make mee a french conuertite . but thou wouldst not ; nor wouldst thou be content , to take this , for my second yeeres true rent , did this coine beare any other stampe , then his , that gaue thee power to doe me , to say this . since his will is , that to posteritee , thou shouldest for life , and death , a patterne bee , and that the world should notice haue of this , the purpose , and th'autority is his ; thou art the proclamation ; and i ame the trumpet , at whose voice the people came . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20620-e730 the entrie into the worke . what life the world hath 〈◊〉 . the sicknesses of the world . impossibility of health . shortnesse of life . smalnesse of stature . decay of nature in other parts . disformity of parts . disorder in the world . weaknesse in the want of correspondence of heauen and earth conclusion . notes for div a20620-e7360 the entrance . a iust dis-estimation of this world . contemplation of our state in our death-bed . incommodities of the soule in the body . her liberty by death . her ignorance in this life and knowledge in the next . of our company in this life and in the next . of essentiall ioy in this life and in the next . of accidentall ioyes in both places . conclusion . a sermon of commemoration of the lady da[n]uers late wife of sr. iohn da[n]uers. preach'd at chilsey, where she was lately buried. by iohn donne d. of st. pauls, lond. 1. iuly 1627. together with other commemorations of her; by her sonne g. herbert. donne, john, 1572-1631. 1627 approx. 119 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 101 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20648 stc 7049 estc s118478 99853685 99853685 19079 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20648) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 19079) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1170:20) a sermon of commemoration of the lady da[n]uers late wife of sr. iohn da[n]uers. preach'd at chilsey, where she was lately buried. by iohn donne d. of st. pauls, lond. 1. iuly 1627. together with other commemorations of her; by her sonne g. herbert. donne, john, 1572-1631. herbert, george, 1593-1633. aut [12], 170; [2], 17, [1] p. printed by i. h[aviland] for philemon stephens, and christopher meredith, and are to be sold at their shop at the golden lion in pauls church-yard, london : 1627. printer's name from stc. herbert's commemorations are in latin and greek verse, with caption title: memoriæ matris sacrum. reproduction of the original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng danvers, magdalen, -lady, 1567 or 8-1627 -early works to 1800. sermons, english -17th century. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2002-07 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon of commemoration of the lady dāuers , late wife of sr. iohn dāuers . preach'd at chilsey , where she was lately buried . by iohn donne d. of st. pauls , lond. 1. iuly 1627. together with other commemorations of her ; by her sonne g. herbert . london , printed by i. h. for philemon stephens , and christopher meredith , and are to be sold at their shop at the golden lion in pauls church yard . 1627. errata . page 17. line 19. for her , reade the. p. 27. l. 20. for royall , r reall p. 34 l. 5. for germ , r. iohannes baptista vergerius . p 35. l. 15. for in , r. into . p. 36. l. 6. for the power , r. the abused power p. 44 l. 12. for hic , r. hûc . p. 47. l. 16. for foundation ( adde ) or openly disturbed the church . p. 66. l. 9. for succession , best succession , from here . ●iques or at best from an impr●bable example of the nazarites . p. 67. l 13. in sacerdotibus , &c. as an vncleane . act. ( adde ) in marg. august . ep . 74. p. 75. l. 20. for apostolicall , r. apochryphall p. 93. l. 11. for comming , r. cunning . p. 99. l 13. dele our . p. 123. l. 5. for prosued , r. pursued . p. 160 l. 10. woman ( adde ) sate on a beast which had . p. 192. for edward , r. edwin . p. c 137. l. 16. for diuels , r. damned with diuels . p. 248. l. 2. for apostle , r. euangelist . p. 275. l. 17. cita ferum in cap. 1 io. 〈◊〉 . 1550. p. 34. the prayer before the sermon . o eternall , and most glorious god , who sometimes in thy iustice , dost giue the dead bodies of the saints , to be meat vnto the fowles of the heauen , and the flesh of thy saints vnto the beasts of the earth , so that their bloud is shed like water , and there is none to burie them , who sometimes , sel'st thy people for nought , and dost not increase thy wealth , by their price , and yet neuer leau'st vs without that knowledge , that precious in thy sight is the death of thy saints , inable vs , in life and death , seriously to consider the value , the price of a soule . it is precious , ô lord , because thine image is stampt , and imprinted vpon it ; precious , because the bloud of thy soone was paid for it ; precious , because thy blessed spirit , the holy ghost workes vpon it , and tries it , by his diuers fires ; and precious , because it is enter'd into thy reuenue , and made a part of thy treasure . suffer vs not therefore , ô lord , so to vnder value our selues , nay , so to impouerish thee , as to giue away those soules , thy soules , thy deare and precious soules , for nothing , and all the world is nothing , if the soule must be giuen for it . we know , ô lord , that our rent , due to thee , is our soule ; and the day of our death , is the day , and our death-bed the place , where this rent is to bee paid . and wee know too , that hee that hath sold his soule before , for vniust gaine , or giuen away his soule before , in the society and fellowship of sinne , or lent away his soule , for a time , by a lukewarmnesse , and temporizing , to the dishonor of thy name , to the weakning of thy cause● , to the discouraging of thy seruants , he comes to that day , & to that place , his death , and death-bed , without any rent in his hand , without any soule , to this purpose , to surrender it vnto thee . let therefore ô lord , the same hand , which is to receiue them then , preserue these soules till then ; let that mouth , that breath'd them into vs , at first , breath alwaies vpon them , whilst they are in vs , and su●cke them into it selfe , when they depart from vs. preserue our soules ô lord , because they● belong to thee ; and preserue our bodies , because they belong to those soules . thou alone , dost steere our boat , through all our voyage , but hast a more especiall care of it , a more watchfull eye vpon it , when it comes to a narrow currant , or to a dangerous full of waters . thou hast a care of the preseruation of these bodies , in all the waies of our life ; but in the straights of death , open thine eyes wider , and enlarge thy prouidence towards vs , so farre , that no feuer in the body , may shake the soule , no apoplexie in the body , dampe or benumbe the soule , nor any paine , or agonie of the body , presage future torments to the soule . but so make thou our bed in all our sicknesse , that being vs'd to thy hand , wee may be content with any bed of thy making ; whether thou bee pleas'd to change our feathers into flockes , by withdrawing the conueniences of this life , or to change our flockes into dust , euen the dust of the graue , by withdrawing vs out of this life . and though thou diuide man and wife , mother and child , friend and friend , by the hand of death , yet stay them that stay , and send them away that goe , with this consolation , that though we part at diuers daies , and by diuers waies , here , yet wee shall all meet at one place , and at one day , a day that no night shall determine , the day of the glorious resurrection . hasten that day , ô lord , for their sakes , that beg it at thy hands , from vnder the altar in heauen ; hasten it for our sakes , that groane vnder the manifold incombrances of these mortall bodies ; hasten it for her shake , whō wee haue lately laid downe , in this thy holy ground ; and hasten it for thy son christ●iesus sake , to whom then , and not till then , all things shall bee absolutely subdu'd . seale to our soules now an assurance of thy gracious purpose towards vs in that day , by accepting this daies seruice , at our hands . accept our humble thankes , for all thy benefits , spirituall , and temporall , already bestowed vpon vs , and accept our humble prayers for the continuance and enlargement of them . continue , and enlarge them , ô god. vpon thine vniuersall church , dispersed , &c. a sermon of commemoration of the lady dāuers , late wife of sr. iohn dāuers . neuerthelesse , we , according to his promises , looke for new heauens , and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse . 2 pet. 3. 13. i propose to my selfe , and to this congregation , two workes for this day ; that wee may walke together two miles , in this sabbath daies iourney ; first , to instruct the liuing , and then to commemorate the dead . which office , as i ought , so i should haue performed sooner , but that this sad occasion surprized me vnder other pre-obligations and pre-contracts , in the seruices of mine own profession , which could not be excused , nor auoided . and being come now to this double worke , whether i looke vp to the throne of heauen , and that firmament , for my first worke , the instruction of the liuing , or downe to the stones of the graue , and that pauement , for my second worke , the commemoration of the dead , i need no other words than these which i haue read to you , for both purposes ; for , to assist the resurrection of your soules , i say , and to assure the resurrection of your bodies , she saies , neuerthelesse , we according to his promise looke for new heauens , and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse . but first let vs doe our first worke , and pursue the literall purpose of the apostle , in these words . which words , out of their connection , and coherence , be pleas'd to receiue , thus spread and dilated into this paraphrase , neuerthelesse , that is , though there be scoffers and iesters that deride and laugh at the second comming of christ , ( as the apostle had said v. 3. ) and , neuerthelesse againe , though this day of the lord will certainly come , and come as a theefe , and as a theefe in the night , and when it comes , the heauens shall passe away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with seruent heat , the earth also , and all the workes that are therein , shall be burnt vp ( as hee had also said , v. 10. ) though there be such a scorne put vpon it , by scoffers and iesters , and though there be such a horrour in the truth of the thing it selfe , yet , neuerthelesse , for all that , for all that scorne , and for all that horrour , we , we , saies the text , we that are fixt in god , we that are not ignorant of this one thing , ( as he saies v. 8. ) that one day is with the lord as 1000. yeares , and 1000. yeares as one day , we that know , that the lord is not stacke in his promise , though he be long-suffering to vs-ward ( as he also saies v. 9. ) we , according to his promises , that is , building vpon that foundatiō , his scriptures , presuming vpon nothing that is not in that euidence , and doubting of nothing that is there , we expect , we looke for something , saies our text , which we haue not yet ; wee determine not our selues , nor our contentment , in those things which god giues vs here ; not in his temporall , not in his spirituall blessings , in this life ; but we expect future things , greater than wee are capable of here ; for , we looke for new heauens , and new earth ; in which , that which is not at all to be had here , or is but an obscure in-mate , a short soiourner , a transitory passenger in this world , that is , righteousnesse , shall not onely bee , but dwell for euer ; neuerthelesse , wee , according to his promise , looke for new heauens , and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse . so then , in this our voyage through this sea , which is truly a mediterranean sea , a sea betwixt two lands , the land of possession , which wee haue , and the land of promise which wee expect , this old , and that new earth , that our dayes may be the better in this land which the lord our god hath giuen vs , and the surer in that land which the lord our god will giue vs , in this sea-voyage bee these our land-markes , by which we shall steere our whole course : first , the day of iudgement is subiect to scorne , some laugh at it ; and then ( in a second consideration , ) it induces horror ; the best man , that is but man , trembles at it ; but wee , ( which is a third branch ) those that haue laid hold vpon god , and ( in a fourth place ) haue laid hold vpon god , by the right handle , according to his promises , wee , ( which will constitute a fift point , ) wee expect ; we blesse god for our possession , but we looke for a greater reuersion ; which reuersion ( in the next roome ) is , new heauens , and new earth ; and ( lastly ) such heauens , and such earth , as may be an euerlasting dwelling for righteousnesse . and through all these particulars , we shall passe , with as much cleerenesse , and shortnesse , as the weight , and number thereof will admit . first then , to shake the constancy of a christian , there will alwaies be scorners , iesters , scoffers , and mockers at religion . the period and consummation of the christian religion , the iudgement day , the second comming of christ , will alwaies be subiect to scornes . and many times a scorne cuts deeper then a sword . lucian wounded religion more by making iests at it , than arius , or pelagius , or nestorius , with making arguments against it . for , against those profest heretikes , and against their studied arguments , which might seeme to haue some weight , it well beseem'd those graue & reuerend● fathers of the church , to call their councels , and to take into their serious consideration those arguments , and solemnly to conclude , and determine , and decree in the point . but it would ill haue become those reuerend persons , to haue cal'd their councels , or taken into their so serious considerations , epigrams , and satyres , and libells , and scurrill and scornfull iests , against any point of religion ; scornes and iests are easilier apprehended , and vnderstood by vulgar & ordinary capacities , then arguments are ; and then , learned men are not so earnest , nor so diligent to ouerthrow , and confute a iest , or scorne , as they are , an argument ; and so they passe more vncontrol'd , and preuaile further , and liue longer , then arguments doe . it is the height of iobs complaint , that contemptible persons made iests vpon him . and it is the depth of samsons calamity , that when the philistins hearts were merry , then they cald for samson , to make them sport . so to the israelites in babylon , when they were in that heauinesse , that euery breath they breath'd was a sigh , their enemies cal'd , to sing them a song . and so they proceeded with him , who fulfil'd in himselfe alone , all types , and images , and prophesies of sorrowes , who was , ( as the prophet calls him ) vir dolorum , a man compos'd , and elemented of sorrowes , our lord and sauiour christ iesus ; for , they platted a crowne of thornes vpon his head , and they put a reed into his hand , and they bowed the knee before him , and mockt him . truly , the conniuing at seuerall religions , ( as dangerous as it is ) is not so dishonourable to god , as the suffering of iesters at religion : that may induce heresie ; but this do●'s establish atheisme . and as that is the publike mischiefe , so , for the priuate , there lies much danger in this , that hee that giues himselfe the liberty , of iesting at religion , shall finde it hard , to take vp at last ; as , when iulian the apostata had receiued his deathes-wound , and could not chuse but confesse , that that wound came from the hand , and power of christ , yet he confest it , in a phrase of scorne , vicisti galilaee , the day is thine , o galilean , and no more ; it is not , thou hast accomplish't thy purpose , o my god , nor o my maker , nor o my redeemer , but , in a stile of contempt , vicisti galilaee , and no more . and therefore , as dauid begins his psalmes with blessednesse , so he begins blessednesse , with that , blessed is hee , which sitteth not in the seat of the scornfull ; dauid speakes there , of walking with the vngodly , but walking is a laborious motion ; and hee speakes there , of standing with the sinner , but standing is a painfull posture ; in these two , walking and standing , there 's some intimation of a possibility of wearinesse , and so , of desisting at last . but in sitting in the seat of the scornfull , there is denoted a sinning at ease ; and , in the vulgate edition , at more that ease ; with authority , and glory ; for , it is in cathedra , in the chaire of the scornfull ; which implies a magisteriall , a doctorall kinde of sinning , that is , to sinne , and to prouoke others , by example , to sinne too , and promises no returne from that position . for as wee haue had diuers examples , that men who haue vs'd , and accustom'd their mouthes to oaths , and blasphemies all their liues , haue made it their last syllable , and their last gaspe , to sweare , they shall die , so they that inlarge , and vngirt their wits , in this iesting at religion , shall passe away at last , in a negligence of all spirituall assistances , and not finde halfe a minute , betweene their last iest , and their euerlasting earnest . vae vobis qui ridetis ; woe be vnto you that laugh so , for you shall weepe , and weepe eternally . saint paul preacht of the resurrection of the dead , and they mockt him . and here , st. peter saies , there will be , ( that is , there will be alwaies ) scoffers that will say , where is the promise of christs comming ? for since the fathers fell asleepe , all things continue as they were , from the beginning of the creation but doe they so , saies this apostle ? was not the world that then was , ouerslow'd with water , and perish't ? if that were done in earnest , why doe yee make a iest of this , saies he , that the heauens and the earth which are now , are reserued vnto fire , against the day of iudgement . 2. tim. 3. 1 , the apostle saies , that in the last dayes , perillous times shall come ; and hee reckons there , diuers kindes of perillous men ; but yet , these iesters are not among them . and then 1 tim 4. 1. the apostle names more perillous men ; seducing spirits , and seducing by the doctrine of deuils , forbidding meats and mariage ; and we know , who these men are . our sauiour tels vs , they shall proceed a great way ; they shall shew great signes , and wonders ; they shall pretend miracles ; & they shall exhibite false christs , christs kneaded into peeces of bread ; and wee know , who these are , and can beware of these proceedings . but saint iude remembers vs of the greatest danger of all , remember the words , which were spoken before , of the apostles of our lord iesus christ , that there should bee mockers , in the last time . for , against all the rest , the church of god is better arm'd ; but perniciosissimum humano generi , sayes saint augustine , this is the ruine , and ouerthrow of mankinde , ( that is , of religion , which is the life and soule of mankinde ) cum vera & salubris sententia imperitorum populorum irrisione sordescit ; when true , and sincere religion , shall be cri'd down , and laugh't out of countenance , by the scornes , and iests , of ignorant people . when to all our sober preaching , and serious writing , a scornfull ignorant , shall thinke it enough to oppose that one question of contempt , where was your church before luther ? whereas , if wee had had any thing from luther , which wee had not had before , yet euen that , were elder than those articles , which they had from the councell of trent , and had not ( as articles ) before ; for luthers declarations were before the constitutions of that councell . so that wee could play with them at their owne game , and retort their owne scornes vpon themselues , but that matters of religion should moue in a higher spheare , and not bee deprest , and submitted to iests . but though our apostles prophesie must be fulfilled , there will bee , and will alwaies be , some scoffers , some iesters ; neuerthelesse , saies the text , there is a religious constancy vpheld , and maintained by others ; and farther wee extend not this first consideration of our danger . but , though i can stand out these scornes and iests , there is a tentation , that is reall ; there are true terrours , sad apprehensions , substantiall circumstances , that accompany the consideration of christs second comming and the day of iudgement . it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing god , if i doe but fall into his hands , in a feuer in my bed , or in a tempest at sea , or in a discontent at home ; but , to fall into the hands of the liuing god , so , as that , that liuing god , enters into iudgement , with mee , and passes a finall , and irreuocable iudgement vpon mee , this is a consternation of all my spirits , an extermination of all my succours . i consider , what god did with one word , with one fiat he made all ; and , i know , he can doe as much with another word ; with one pereat , he can destroy all ; as hee spake , and it was done , he commanded and all stood fast ; so he can speak , and all shall bee vndone ; command , and all shall fall in peeces . i consider , that i may bee surpriz'd by that day , the day of iudgement . here saint peter saies , the day of the lord wil come as a thiefe . and saint paul saies , we cannot be ignorant of it , your selues know perfectly , that the day of the lord so commeth as a thiefe . and , as the iudgement it selfe , so the iudge himselfe saies of himselfe , i will come vpon thee as a thiefe . he saies , he will , and he doe's it . for it is not , ecce veniam , but ecce venio , behold i doe come vpon thee as a thiefe ; there , the future , which might imply a dilatorinesse , is reduc't to an infallible present ; it is so sure , that he will doe it , that he is said , to haue done it already . i consider , hee will come as a thiefe , and then , as a thiefe in the night ; and i doe not only not know when that night shall be , ( for , himselfe , as he is the son of man , knowes not that ) but i doe not only not know what night , that is , which night , but not what night , that is , what kinde of night he meanes . it is said so often , so often rep●d●ed , that he will come as a thiefe in the night , as that hee may meane all kinde of nights . in my night of ignorance hee may come ; and hee may come in my night of wantonnesse ; in my night of inordinate and sinfull melancholy , and suspicion of his mercy , hee may come ; and he may come in the night of so stupid , or so raging a sicknesse , as that he shall not come by comming ; not come so , as that i shall receiue him in the absolution of his minister , or receiu●●●im in the participation of his body and his bloud in the sacrament . so hee may come vpon mee , as such a thiefe , in such a night ; nay , when all these nights of ignorance , of wantonnesse , of desperation , of sicknesse , of stupiditie , of rage , may bee vpon mee all at once . i consider , that the holy ghost meant to make a deepe impression of a great terror in me , when he came to that expression , that the heauens should passe away , cum stridore , with a great noise , and the elements melt with feruent heat , and the earth , and the workes that are therein , shall be burnt vp ; and when he adds in esay , the lord will come with fire , and with his chariots , like a whirlewind , to render his anger , with fury ; for by fire , and by his sword will the lord plead with all flesh . so when hee proceeds in ioel , a day of darknesse , and gloominesse ; and yet a fire deuoureth before them , and a flame burneth behind them . and so in daniel also , his throne a fiery flame , and his wheeles a burning fire , and a fiery streame issuing from him . i consider too , that with this streame of fire , from him , there shall bee a streame , a deluge , a floud of teares , from vs ; and all that floud , and deluge of teares , shall not put out one coale , nor quench one sparke of that fire . behold , hee commeth with clouds , and euery eye shall see him ; and , plangent omnes , all the kindreds of the earth shall waile and lament , and weepe and howle because of him . i consider , that i shall looke vpon him then , and see all my sinnes , substance , and circumstance of sin , waight , and measure of sinne , hainousnesse , and continuance of sinne , all my sinnes imprinted in his wounds ; and how shall i bee affected then , confounded then to see him so mangled with my sinnes ? but then i consider againe , that i shall looke vpon him againe , and not see all my sinnes in his wounds ; my forgotten sinnes , mine vn-considered , vnconfest , vnrepented sinnes , i shall not see there ; and how shall i bee affected then , when i shall stand in iudgement , vnder the guiltinesse of some sins , not buried in the wounds , not drown'd in the bloud of my sauiour ? many , and many , and very many , infinite , and infinitely infinite , are the terrours of that day ; neuerthelesse , my soule , why art thou so sad , why art thou disquieted within mee ? thou hast a goshen to restin , for all this aegypt ; a zoar to flie to , for all this sodome ; a sanctuary , and hornes of the altar , to hold by , for all this storme . neuerthelesse , saies our text ; though there bee these scornfull iests , though there bee these reall terrours , neuerthelesse , there are a wee , certaine priuileged persons ; and the consideration of those persons , is our third and next circumstance . to those who pretended an interest in christ , and had none , to those who would exorcise possest persons , and cast out deuils , in the name of iesus , without any commission from iesus , to those sonnes of sceua the deuill himselfe could say , qui vos ? iesus i know , and paul i know , but who are you ? to those who liue in an outward conformity to christ , but yet seeke their saluation in the light of nature , and their power of resisting temptations , in their morall constancy , the deuill may boldly say , qui vos , iesus i know , & the church i know ; but who are you ? i would i had no worse enemies than you . neuerthelesse we , for all his scornes , for all these terrours , shall haue an answer to his qui vos ? and bee able to tell him , that we are that gens sancta , and that regale sacerdotium , that this apostle speakes of ; that holy people ; made holy by his couenant , and ordinances ; and that royall priesthood , which , as priests , haue an interest in his sacrifice , his sonne ; and as kings , haue an interest in that crowne , which , for his sonnes sake , hee hath ordain'd for vs. wee are they , who haue seene the markes of his election , in their first edition , in the scriptures ; and seene them againe , in their second edition , as they are imprinted in our consciences , in our faith , in our manners ; and so wee cannot mistake , nor bee deceiued in them . wee are that semen dei , that malachie speakes of ; the seed of god , which hee hath sow'd in his church ; and by that extraction , we are consortes diuinae naturae , partakers of the diuine nature it selfe ; and so grow to bee filij dei , the sonnes of god ; and by that title , cohaeredes christi , ioint-heires with christ ; and so to bee christi ipsi , christs our selues ; as god calls all his faithfull , his anointed , his christs ; and from thence , we grow to that height , to be of the quorum , in that commission , dij estis , i haue said you are gods ; and not onely gods by representation , but idem spiritus cum domino ; so become the same spirit with the lord , that as a spirit cannot be diuided in it selfe , so wee are perswaded , that neither death nor life , nor any creature ; shall be able to separate vs from god. if any man be ignorant , let him be ignorant still . if he will not study his owne case , let him be subject to these scornes , and these terrours still ; but , christianus idiota persuasissimum habet , the vnlearned'st christian that is ( be he a true christian ) hath learning enough to establish himselfe so , that neither scornes , nor terrours can shake his foundations . so then you see , what fellowship of the faithfull , what houshold of the righteous , what communion of saints it is , that fals vnder this denomination , wee ; wee that haue laid our foundations in faith , and made our superedifications in sanctimony and holinesse of life ; we that haue learn't , and learn't by the right rule the rule of christianity , how to put a right value vpon this world , and those things , which can but concerne our body in this world . for multis seruiet qui corpori seruit , saies the oracle of morall men . that man is common slaue to euery body , that is a slaue to his owne body ; that man dares displease no man , that dares not displease himselfe ; that man will grouell , and prostrate , and prostitute himselfe , at euery great mans threshold , that is afraid to loose a dish from his table , or a pillow from his bed , at home ; multis seruiet , qui corpori seruit , & qui , pro illo , nimium timet ; hee is the true coward , that is afraid of euery inconuenience , which another may cast vpon his person , or fortune . honestum ei vile est , cui corpus nimis charum est ; hee that hath set too high a price vpon his body , will sell his soule cheape . but if we can say of the fires of tribulation , as origen saies , ( whether hee speake of the fires of conflagration at the last day , or these fires of purification in our way to it ) indigemus sacramento ignis , baptismo ignis , that all our fiery tribulations fall vnder the nature , and definition of sacraments , that they are so many visible signes of inuisible grace , that euery correction from gods hand , is a rebaptization to m●e , and that i can see , that i should not haue beene so sure of saluation , without this sacrament , without this baptisme , without this fire of tribulation ; if i can bring this fire to that temper , which lactantius speaks of , that it be ignis qui obtemperabit iustis , a fire that shall conforme it selfe to mee , and doe as i would haue it ; that is , concoct , and purge , and purifie , and prepare mee for god ; if my christianity make that impression in mee , which socrates his philosophy did in him , who ( as gregorie nazianzene testifies of him ) in carcere damnatus , egit cum discipulis , de corpore , sicut de alio ergastulo , who , when he lay a condemn'd man in prison , then in that prison , taught his disciples , that the body of man , was a worse prison , then that , hee lay condemn'd in ; if i can bring these fires to this compasse , and to this temper , i shall finde , that as the arke was in the midst of the waters , and yet safe from the waters , and the bush in the midst of the fire , and yet safe from the fire , so , though saint ierome say , ( and vpon good grounds ) grandis audaciae est , puraeque conscientque , it is an act of greater boldnesse , than any man , as man , can auow , and a testimony of a clearer conscience , than any man , as man , can pretend to haue , regnum dei postulare , & iudicium non timere , to presse god for the day of iudgement , and not to feare that day , ( for , vpon all men , consider'd but as men , falls that seuere expostulation of the prophet amos , woe vnto you that desire the day of the lord ; to what end is it for you ? the day of the lord is darknesse , and not light ; ) yet i shall finde , that such a family , such a society , such a communion there is , and that i am of that quorum , that can say , come what scornes can come , come what terrours can come , in christo omnia possumus , though we can doe nothing of our selues , yet as we are in christ , wee can doe all things , because we are fixt in him , secundum promissa ; which is our fourth and next branch , according to his promises . i haue nothing to plead with god , but onely his owne promises . i cannot plead birthright ; the iewes were elder brothers , and yet were disinherited . i cannot plead descent ; my mother was an hittite , ( as the prophet ezechiel speakes . ) i am but of the halfe bloud , at best ; more of the first , then of the second adam ; more corporall , then spirituall . i cannot plead purchase ; if i haue giuen any thing for gods sake , if i haue done any thing , suffered any thing , for gods sake , all that , is so farre from merit , as that it is not the interest of my principall debt . nay , i cannot plead mercy ; for , i am by nature the childe of wrath too . all my plea is , that , to which he carries me so often , in his word , quia fidelis dominus , because the lord is a faithfull god. so this apostle calls him , fidelem creatorem , a faithfull creator ; god had gracious purposes vpon me , when he created me , and wil be faithful to those purposes ; so st. paul calls christ fidelem pontificem , a faithfull high priest ; graciously he meant to sacrifice himselfe for the world , and faithfully hee did it . so saint iohn call him fidelem testem , a faitfull witnesse ; of his mercy he did die for me , and his spirit beares witnesse with my spirit that hee did so . and in the same booke , 19. 11. his very denomination , his very name is faithfull . for this faithfullnesse in god , which is so often recommended to mee , must necessarily imply a former promise ; if god be faithfull , he is faithfull to some contract , to some promise , that hee hath made ; and that promise , is my euidence . but then , to any promise , that is pretended , and not deduc'd from his scriptures , he may iustly plead non est factum ; he made no such promise . for , as in cases of diffidence , and distrust in his mercy , god puts vs vpon that issue , vbilibellus , produce your euidence ; why are you icalous of me ? where is the bill of your mothers diuorce whome i haue put away ; or which of my creditors is it to whom i haue sold you ? so in cases of presumption in our selues , or pressing god with his promises , ( and so also , in cases of innouation of matter of doctrine in his church ) god puts vs to the same issue , vbi libellus , produce your euidence ; where in my scriptures , haue i made any such contract , any such couenant , any such promise to you ? my witnesse is in heauen , saies iob ; but yet , my euidence is vpon earth ; god is that witnesse ; but that witnesse hath beene pleased , to be examined ad perpetuam rei memoriam ; and his testimony remaines of record , in the church ; and there , from his scriptures , exemplified to me , by his publike notary , the church , i may lawfully charge him , with his promise , his contract , his couenant ; & else not . there is a generall , and a vsefull obseruation , made by saint augustine , omnium haereticorū quasi regularis est ista temeritas , this is a regular irregularity , this is a fixt and constant leuity , amongst all heretikes , authoritatem stabilissimam fundatissimae ecclesiae quasi rationis nomine & pollicitatione suparare ; to ouerthrow the foundations of the church vpon the appearance , and pretence , and colour of reason ; god cannot haue proceeded thus or thus , because ther is this and this reason against it . now the foundations of the church are the scriptures ; and when men present reasons of probability , of verisimilitude , of pious credulity , not deduc't out of the scriptures , they fall into that regular irregularity , and into that constant leuity , which saint augustine iustly makes the character , and specification of an heretike , to seeme to proceede vpon reasons , and not deduce those reasons from the scriptures . when therefore they reason thus ( as bellarmine does ) non discretus dominus , that god had not dealt discreetly , if he had not establish'd a church , a certaine , a visible , and infallible church , a church endow'd with these and these , with those and those , and such and such , and more and more immunities and priuileges , by which , that particular church must bee super-catholike , and super-vniuersall , a boue all the churches in the world , we ioyne not with them in that boldnesse , to call gods discretion in question , but wee ioyne with them in that issue , vbi libellus , where is your euidence ; which is your scripture , which you will rely vpon for that , for such a church ? for we content not our selues , with such places of scripture , as may serue to illustrate that doctrine , to them , that beleeue it aforehand , without scripture , but wee aske such places of scripture , as may proue it to them , who , till they see such scriptures , beleeue , and beleeue truly , that they are not bound to beleeue it ; if i may plead it , it is a promise ; and if it be an issuable promise , it is in the scriptures . if any distresses in my fortune and estate , in my body , and in my health , oppresse mee , i may finde some receits , some medicines , some words of consolation , in a seneca , in a plutarch , in a petrarch ; but i proceed in a safer way , and deale vpon better cordials , if i make dauid , and the other prophets of god , my physitians , and see what they prescribe me , in the scriptures ; and looke how my fellow-patient iob applied that physicke , by his patience . and if any thing heauier then that which fell vpon iob , fall vpon mee , yet i may propose one , to my selfe , vpon whom there fell more , then can fall vpon any man ; for all mankinde fell vpon him , and all the sinnes of all mankind , and gods iustice , gods anger , for all the sinnes of all mankinde fell vpon him , and yet he had a glorious eluctation , a victory , a triumph ouerall that . and he is not onely my rule , and my example , but my surety , and my promise , that where he is , i shall be also ; not only , where hee is , in glory now , but in euery step , that he made in this world ; if i bee with him , in his afflictions , i shall be with him , in his eluctation , in his victory , in his triumph . st. chrysostome , falling vpon such a meditation , as this , is loth to depart from it ; hee insists vpon it thus ; illine , qui à dextris dei sedet , conforme fiet hoc corpus ? will god make this body of mine , like that , that sits now at his right hand : yes ; he will illi , quem adorant angeli ? like him , whom all the angels worship ? yes ; like him . illi , cui adstant incorporales virtutes ? like him , to whom , the thrones , and powers , and dominations , and cherubins , and seraphins minister ? yes ; he will doe all that , saies that father . but allow mee the boldnesse , to adde thus much , cumillo , i shall bee with him , before ; with him , wheresoeuer hee was in this world . i shall bee with him , in his agonies , and sadnesse of soule ; but in those agonies and sadnesses , i shall be with him still , in his veruntamen , in his surrender of himselfe ; not my will , but thine , o father , be done . i shall bee with him vpon his crosse ; but in all my crosses , and in all my iealousies and suspitions of that dereliquisti , that god , my god hath for saken me , i shall be with him still , in his in manus , in a confidence , and assurance , that i may commit my spirit into his hands . for all this i doe according to his promise , that where hee is , i shall be also . si totus mundus lachrymis sumptis deflesset , ( saies the same father ) if men were made of teares , as they are made of the elements of teares , of the occasions of teares , of miseries , & if all men were resolu'd to teares , as they must resolue to dust , all were not enough to lament their miserable condition , who lay hold , vpon the miserable comforters of this world , vpon their owne merits , or vpon the super-erogations of other men , of which there are no promises , and cannot finde that true promise , which is impli'd in those examples of iob and christ , appliable to themselues . neuerthelesse we , we that can doe so , wee , that can reade that promise , that where they are , we shall be , that what he hath done for them , he will also do for vs , we according to his promise , declar'd in his scriptures , in the midst of scoffers , and in the midst of terrours , expect , and looke for more , than we haue yea ; which is another , ther , and our fift consideration . as god hath prouided vs an endlesnesse , in the world to come , so , to giue vs an inchoation , a representation of the next world , in this , god hath instituted and endlesnesse● in this world too ; god hath imprinted in euery naturall man , and doth exalt in the super-naturall , and regenerate man , an endlesse , and vndeterminable desire of more , then this life can minister vnto him . still god leaues man in expectation . and truly , that man can scarce proue the immortality of the soule to himselfe , that feel's not a desire in his soule , of something beyond this life . creatures of an inferiour nature , are possest with the present ; man is a future creature . in a holy and vsefull sense , wee may say , th●t god is a future god ; to man especially hee is so ; mans consideration of god is specially for the future . it is plaine , it is euident , that that name which god hath taken in exodus , signifies , essence , being . verum nomen dei , semper esse , gods proper name is alwayes being . that can bee said of no creature , that it alwayes was ; that which the arrians said blasphemously , of christ , erat , quando non erat , is true of all creatures , there was a time , when that thing , was nothing . but of god , more than this may bee said ; so much more , as that when we haue said all that wee can , more then so much more remaines vnsaid . for , totum deum , nemo vno nomine , exprimit , sicut nec totum aerem haurit ; a man may as well draw in , all the aire , at one breath , as expresse all god , god entirely , in one name . but the name that reaches farthest towards him , is that name , which he hath taken in exodus . deo si coniungimur sumus ; in being deriu'd from god , we haue a being , we are something ; in him we liue and moue and haue our being ; but deo si comparemur , nec sumus ; if we bee compar'd with god , our being with his being , we haue no being at all , wee are nothing . for being is the peculiar and proper name of god. but though it be so cleere , that that name of god in exodus is being , yet it is not so cleere , whether it be a present , or a future being . for , though most of the fathers expressed , and our translators rendered in the present , sum qui sum , i am that i am , and , goe , and tell pharaoh that he whose name is i am , hath sent thee ; yet in the originall , it is plaine , and plaine in the chalde paraphrase , that that name is deliuered in the future , ero qui ero , i shall bee that i shall be , and , goe , and tell pharaoh that he whose name is i shall bee , hath sent thee . god cals vpon man , euen in the consideration of the name of god , to consider his future state . for , if we consider god in the present , to day , now , god hath had as long a forenoone , as he shall haue an afternoone ; god hath beene god , as many millions of millions of generations , already , as hee shall be hereafter ; but if we consider man in the present , to day , now , how short a forenoone hath any man had ; if 60. if 80. yeeres , yet few and euill haue his daies beene . nay , if we take man collectiuely , entirely , altogether , all mankind , how short a forenoone hath man had ? it is not yet 6000● yeeres , since man had his first being . but if we consider him in his afternoone , in his future state , in his life after death , if euery minute of his 6000. yeeres , were multipli'd by so many millions of ages , all would amount to nothing , meerely nothing , in respect of that eternity , which hee is to dwell in . we can expresse mans afternoone , his future perpetuity , his euerlastingnesse , but one way ; but it is a faire way , a noble way ; this ; that how late a beginning soeuer god gaue man , man shall no more see an end , no more die , then god himselfe , that gaue him life . therefore saies th' apostle here , wee , we that consider god according to his promise , expect future things , looke for more at gods hand hereafter , then we haue receiu'd heretofore ; for his mercies are new euery morning ; and his later mercies are his largest mercies . how many , how great nations perish , without euer hearing the name of christ ; but god wrapt mee vp in his couenant , and deriu'd mee from christian parents ; i suck'd christian bloud , in my mothers wombe , and christian milke at my nurses breast . the first sound that i heard , in the world , was the voice of christians ; and the first character , that i was taught to know , was the crosse of christ iesvs . how many children that are borne so , borne within the couenant , borne of christian parents , doe yet die before they bee baptiz'd , though they were borne heires to baptisme ? but god hath afforded me the seale of that sacrament . and then , how many that are baptiz'd , and so eas'd in originall sinne , doe yet proceed to act●all sins , and are surpriz'd by death , before they receiue the seale of their reconciliation to christ , in the sacrament of his body and his bloud ; but god hath afforded mee the seale of that sacrament too . what sinnes soeuer god forgaue mee this morning , yet since the best ( and i am none of them ) fall seuen times a day , god forgiues mee seuen more sinnes , to morrow , then he did to day ; and seuen , in this arithmetike , is infinite . gods temporall , gods spirituall blessings are inexhaustible . what haue wee that we haue not receiued ? but what haue wee receiued , in respect of that which is laid vp for vs ? and therefore , expectamus , we determine our selues in god so , as that wee looke for nothing , but from him ; but not so , as that wee hope for no more from him , then we haue had : for , that were to determine god , to circumscribe god , to make god finite . therefore we blesse god for our possession , but yet we expect a larger reuersion . and the day intended in this text , shall make that reuersion our possession ; which is , the day of iudgment . therefore , in the verse , immediatly before the text , the apostle accompanies this expectantes , with another word ; it is expectantes , & properantes , looking for , and hasting to , the comming of the day of god. wee must haue such an expectation of that day as may imply , & testifie a loue to it , a desire of it , a longing for it . when these things beginne to come to passe ( saies christ , speaking of the signes , preceding the last day ) then looke vp , and lift your heads , for your redemption draweth neere . all our deiections of spirit , should receiue an exaltation , in that one consolation , that that day draweth neere . seu velimus , seu nolimus , whether we will , or no , that day will come ; but , saies that father , in that short prayer of his , the lord hath giuen thee an entire petition , for accelerating , and hasting that day of the lord ; when hee bids thee say , thy kingdome come , hee meanes , that thou shouldest meane , the kingdome of glory at the iudgement , as well as the kingdome of grace , in the church christ sayes , if i goe , and prepare a place for you , i will come againe and receiue you vnto my selfe , that where i am , you may be also . now , beloued , hath christ done one halfe of this , for vs , and would not we haue him doe the other halfe too ? is he gone , to prepare the place , and would we not haue him come to fetch vs to it ? certainly christ speakes that in fauour , he intends● it for a fauour , when he sayes , behold i come quickly . it is one fauour that hee will come ; and seconded with another , that he will make speed to saue vs , that hee will make haste to helpe vs. and to establish vs in that assurance , hee addes in that place , behold i come quickly , and my reward is with mee ; if the comming doe not , if the speed doe not , yet let the reward worke in you a desire of that day . the last words that christ speakes in the bible ( and amongst vs , last words make deepest impressions ) are , surely i come quickly ; and the last answer that is made in our behalfes , there , is , amen , euen so , come lord iesus . there is scarce any amongst vs , but does expect this commings they that feare it , expect it , but , that crowne , that the apostle speakes of , is laid vp for them , that loue the appearing of the lord ; not only expect it , but loue it ; and no man can doe so , that hath not a confidence in his cause ; aduentū iudi●is non diligit , no prisoner longs for the sessions , no client longs for the day of hearing , nisuqui in causa suase sciat habere iustitiae meritum , except hee know his cause to bee good , and assure himselfe , that hee shall stand vpright in iudgement . but can wee haue that assurance ? assuredly ● wee may . he that hath seene the marks of election , in both editions , in the scripture first , and then in his conscience , hee that does not flatter , and abuse his owne soule , nor tempt , and presume vpon god , he that in a sobe● and rectified conscience , findes himselfe truly incorporated in christ , truly interessed in his merits , may be sure , that if the day of iudgement came now , now he should be able to stand vpright in iudgement . and therefore , let schoole-boyes looke after holy-dayes , and worldly men after rent-dayes , and trauellers after fairedayes , and chap-men after market-dayes , neuerthelesse , we , we that haue laid hold vpon god , and laid hold vpon him by the right handle , according to his promises , expectamus , we looke for this day of the lord , and properamus , we are glad it is so neere , and wee desire the further hasting of it . but then , beloued , the day of our death is the eue of this day of the lord ; the day of our death is the saturday of this sunday ; the next day after my death , is the day of iudgement , for , betweene these , these eyes shall see no more dayes . and then , are wee bound , nay , may wee lawfully wish , and desire the day of our death , as wee haue said , wee are bound to doe the day of iudgement ; the soules of the martyrs vnder the altar in heauen , cry vnto god there , vsque quo domine , how long ô lord holy and true , doest thou not iudge , and auenge our bloud ? that which those martyrs solicite there , is the day of iudgement ; and thogh that which they aske , was not presently granted , but the day of iudgement put off , for a time , yet god was not displeased with their solicitation ; for , for all that , hee gaue them then , their white robes ; testimony enough , of their innocencie . if we could wish our owne death , as innocently , as harmlesly , as they did the day of iudgement , if no ill circumstances in vs , did vitiate our desire of death , if there were no dead flies in this oyntment , ( as salomon speakes ) if we had not , at least , a collaterall respect , ( if not a direct , and principall ) to our owne ease , from the incum brances , and grieuances , and annoyances of this world , certainly wee might safely desire , piously wish , religiously pray for our owne death . but it is hard , verie hard to de●est those circumstances , that infect it . for if i pretend to desire death , meerly for the fruition of the glorie , of the sight of god ; i must remember , that my sauiour desi●d that glorie , and yet staid his time for it . if i pretend to desire death , that i might see no more sinne , heare no more blasphemies from others , it may be i may do more good to others , than i shall take harme by others , if i liue . if i would die , that i might be at an end of temptations , in my selfe , yet , i might lose some of that glory , which i shall haue in heauen , by resisting another yeeres tentation , if i died now . to end this consideration , as this looking for the day of the lord , ( which is the word of our text ) implyes a ioy , and a gladnesse of it , when it shall come , ( whether we consider that , as the day it selfe , the day of iudgement , or the eue of the day , the day of our death ) so doth this looking for it , imply a patient attending of gods leasure . for our example , the apostle saies , the earnest expectation of the creature , waiteth for the manifestation of the sonne of god ; it is an earnest expectation , and yet it waits ; and , for our neerer example , wee our selues , which haue the first fruits of the spirit , groane within our selues ; but yet , he addes , wee wait for the adoption , the redemption of the bodie . though wee haue some eares , we wait for the whole sheaues . and we may be content to doe so , for we shall not wait long . this is the last time , sayes st. iohn ; speaking of the present time of the gospell ; in the time of nature , they were a great way off , from the resurrection ; for then , the time of the law was to come in . and in the time of the law , they were a great way off ; for then the time of the gospell was to come in . but this is the last time ; there shall bee no more changes , after the gospell ; the present state of the gospell shall land vs vpon the iudgement . and ( as the vulgate reads that place , nouissima horaest , if god will haue vs stay a little longer , it is but for a few minutes ; for , this is our last houre . wee feele scornes , wee apprehend terrours , neuerthelesse we , we rooted in his promises , doe expect , we are not at an end of our desires , and with an holy impatience that he would giue vs , and yet with a holy patience till he be pleas'd to giue vs new heauens and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse ; which are the two branches , which remaine yet to be consider'd . as in the first discoueries of the vnknowne parts of the world , the maps and cards which were made thereof , were verie vncertaine , verie vnperfect , so in the discouerie of these new heauens , th● expositions of those who haue vndertaken that worke , are verie diuers . first , origen , citing for his opinion , clement , whom hee cals the disciple of the apostles , takes those heauens , and that earth , which our antipodes , ( and generally those that inhabit● the other hemispheare ) inhabit , to be the new heauens and the new earth of this text. hee sayes , oceanus intransibilis ad reliquos mundos , there are worlds beyond these worlds , beyond that ocean , which wee cannot passe , nor discouer , sayes origen ; but , those worlds , and those heauens , and that earth shall bee discouer'd before the last day , and the gospell of christ bee preach't in all those places ; and this is our expectation , that which wee looke for , according to his promises , in the intention , and exposition of origen . those that were infected with the heresie of the chiliasts , or millenarians ( with which heresie diuers great and learned men , whom we refuse not to call fathers in the primitiue church , were infected ) vpon the mistaking of those words in the apocalyps , of reigning with christ a thousand yeeres after the first resurrection , argu'd and concluded a happie temporall state , of gods saints here , vpon this earth , for so many yeeres after that day . so that , though there should not be truly a new earth , and new heauens , but the same heauens , and the same earth as was before , for those future thousand yeeres , yet , because those saints of god , which in their whole former life , had beene in miserie , vpon this earth , should now enioy all earthly happinesse , vpon the same earth for a thousand yeeres , before they ascended into heauen , these heauens , and this earth ( because they are so to them ) are called a new earth , and a new heauens , by those millenarians . st. ierome , and st. augustine , and after them , the whole streame run in another channell . they say , that these heauens , and this earth shall be so purified , so refin'd , by the last fires of conflagration , as that all corruptible qualities shall bee burnt out of them , but they , in their substance , remaine still . to that , those words of st. paul helpe to incl●ne them , perit figura , the fashion of this world passeth away ; the fashion , not the substance . for , it is melioratio , non interitus , the world shall bee made better , but it shall not bee made nothing . but , to what end shall it be thus improu'd ? in that , st. augustine declares himselfe ; mundus in melius immutatus apte accommodabitur hominibus in melius immutatis . when men are made better by the resurrection , this world being made betterby those fires , shall bee a fit habitation for those saints of god ; and so euen this world , and whatsoeuer is not hell , shall bee heauen . and , truly , some verie good diuines , of the reformation , accompany those ancients in that exposition , that these heauens purified with those fires , and super-inuested with new endowments , shall be the euerlasting habitation of the blessed saints of god. but still , in these discoueries of these new heauens , and this new earth , our maps will bee vnperfect . but as it is said of old cosmographers , that whē they had said all that they knew of a countrey , and yet much more was to be said , they said that the rest of those countries were possest with giants , or witches , or spirits , or wilde beasts , so that they could pierce no farther into that countrey , so when wee haue trauell'd as farre as wee can , with safetie , that is , as farre as ancient , or moderne expositors lead vs , in the discouerie of these new heauens , and new earth , yet wee must say at last , that it is a countrey inhabited with angells , and arch-angells , with cherubins , and seraphins , and that wee can looke no farther into it , with these eyes . where it is locally , wee enquire not ; we rest in this , that it is the habitation prepar'd for the blessed saints of god ; heauens , where the moone is more glorious than our sunne , and the sunne as glorious as hee that made it ; for it is he himselfe , the sonne of god , the sunne of glorie . a new earth , where all their waters are milke , and all their milke , honey , where all their grasse is corne , and all their corne , manna ; where all their glebe , all their clods of earth are gold , and all their gold of innumerable carats ; where all their minutes are ages , and all their ages , eternity ; where euery thing , is euery minute , in the highest exaltation , as good as it can be , and yet super-exalted , & infinitely multiplied , by euery minutes addition ; euery minute , infinitely better , then euer it was before . of these new heauens , & this new earth we must say at last , that wee can say nothing ; for , the eye of man hath not seene , nor eare heard , nor heart conceiu'd , the state of this place . we limit , and determine our consideration with that horizon , with which the holy ghost hath limited vs , that it is that new heauens , and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse . here then the holy ghost intends the same new heauens , and new earth , which he doe's in the apocalyps , and describes there , by another name , the new ierusalem . but here , the holy ghost doe's not proceed , as there , to enamour vs of the place , by a promise of improuement of those things , which wee haue , and loue here ; but by a promise of that , which here wee haue not at all . there , and elsewhere , the holy ghost applies himselfe , to the naturall affections of men . to those that are affected with riches , he saies , that that new city shall be all of gold , and in the foundations , all manner of precious stones ; to those that are affected with beauty , hee promises an euerlasting association , with that beautifull couple , that faire paire , which spend their time , in that contemplation , and that protestation , ecce tu pulchra dilecta mea ; ecce tu pulcher ; behold thou art faire , my beloued , saies he ; and then , she replies , behold thou art faire too ; noting the mutuall complacencie betweene christ and his church there . to those which delight in musicke , hee promises continuall singing , and euery minute , a new song ; to those , whose thoughts are exerciz'd vpon honour , and titles , ciuill , or ecclesiasticall , hee promises priesthood , and if that be not honour enough , a royall priesthood ; and to those , who looke after military honor , triumph after their victory , in the militant church ; and to those , that are carried with sumptuous , and magnifique feasts , a mariage supper of the lambe , where , not onely all the rarities of the whole world , but the whole world it selfe shall be seru'd in ; the whole world shall bee brought to that fire , and seru'd at that table . but here , the holy ghost proceeds not that way ; by improuement of things , which wee haue , and loue here ; riches , or beauty , or musicke , or honour , or feasts ; but by an euerlasting possession of that , which wee hunger , and thirst , and pantafter , here , and cannot compasse , that is , iustice , or righteousnesse ; for , both those , our present word denotes , and both those wee want here , and shall haue both , for euer , in these new heauens , and new earth . what would a worne and macerated suter , opprest by the bribery of the rich , or by the might of a potent aduersary , giue , or doe , or suffer , that he might haue iustice ? what would a deiected spirit , a disconsolate soule , opprest with the weight of heauy , and habituall sinne , that stands naked in a frosty winter of desperation , and cannot compasse one fig leafe , one colour , one excuse for any circumstance of any sinne , giue for the garment of righteousnesse ? here there is none that doe's right , none that executes iustice ; or , not for iustice sake . hee that doe's iustice , doe's it not at first ; and christ doe's not thanke that iudge , that did iustice , vpon the womans importunity . iustice is no iustice , that is done for feare of an appeale , or a commission . there may bee found , that may doe iustice at first ; at their first entrance into a place , to make good impressions , to establish good opinions , they may doe some acts of iustice ; but after , either an vxoriousnesse to wards to the wife , or a solicitude for children , or a facility towards seruants , or a vastnesse of expence , quenches , and ouercom's the loue of iustice in them ; non habitat , in most it is not ; but it dwels not in any . in our new heauens , and new earth , dwelleth iustice . and that 's my comfort ; that when i come thither , i shall haue iustice at god's hands . it was an act of mercy , meerly , that god decreed a meanes of saluation ; but to giue saluation to them , for whom christ gaue that full satisfaction , is but an act of iustice. it is a righteous thing with god , to recompence tribulation to them , that trouble you , and to you who are troubled , rest with vs , saies the apostle . it is an act of the same iustice , to saue the true beleeuer , as to damne him , who by vnbeleefe , hath made himselfe a reprobate . iustice dwels there , and there dwels righteousnes ; of which there is none in this world ; none that growes in this world ; none that is mine owne ; for ; howsoeuer we doe dispute , or will conclude of inherent righteousnes , it is , indeed , rather adheherent , then inherent ; rather extrinsecall than intrinsecal . not that it is not in my self ; in my will ; but it is not of my selfe , nor of my will ; my will was neuer able to rectifie , to iustifie it selfe ; but the power of god's grace cals in a forraine righteousnes , to my succour , the righteousnesse of my sauiour , and cals his , and makes his , my righteousnesse . but yet , non habitat , this righteous● dwels not vnremoueable , in mee , here . though i haue put on that garment , in baptisme , and girt it to me closer in the other sacrament , and in some acts of holinesse , yet , my sinnes of infirmity slacken this garment , and it fals from mee , before i am aware , and in my sinnes of contempt , and rebellion , i teare it off , and throw it away my selfe . but in this new state , these new heauens , & new earth , iusticia habitat , this righteousnesse shall dwell ; i shall haue an innocence , and a constant innocence ; a present impeccancy , and an impeccability for the future . but , in this especially , is righteousnes said to dwell there , because this righteousnesse , is the very son of god , the sonne of righteousnesse himselfe . and , this day , the day of his second comming , is the last day of his progresse ; for , euer after that day , these new heauens , and new earth shall bee his standing house , where hee shall dwell , and wee with him ; as himselfe hath said , the righteous shall shine forth , as the sunne it selfe ; as the sonne of god himselfe , as the sonne of glory , as the son of righteousnesse himselfe . for , god shall impart to vs all , a mysterious gauelkinde , a mysterious equality of fulnesse of glory , to vs all : god shall not whisper to his owne sonne , a sede à dextris , sit thou at my right hand ; nor a hodie genuite , this day haue i begotten thee , nor a ponam inimicos tuos , i will make thine enemies thy footstoole , and no more ; but , as it is said of the armies of israel , that they went forth as one man , so the whole host of god's saints , incorporated in christ iesus , shall bee as one man , and as that one man , who was so the sonne of man , as that he was the sonne of god too . and god shall say to vs all , sedete à dextris , si● ye all on my right hand ; for from the left hand , there is no prospect , to the face of god ; and to vs all , hodie genui vos , this day i haue begotten you all ; begotten you in the confirmation of my first baptisme , in the ratification of my first election ; and to vs all , ponam inimicos vestros , i will make all your enemies your footstoole ; for god shall establish vs there , vbi non intrat inimicus , nec amicus exit , where no man shall come in , that troubles the company , nor any , whom any of the company loues , goe out ; but wee shall all , not onely haue , but be a part of that righteousnes which dwels in these new heauens , and new earth , which we , according to his promise look for . and be this the end of our first text , as it is a text for instruction . passe we now to our second , our text for commemoration . close we here this booke of life , from which we haue had our first text , and , surge quae dormis in puluere , arise thou booke of death ; thou , that sleepest in this consecrated dust ; and hast beene going into dust , now , almost a moneth of dayes , almost a lunarie yeere , and dost deserue such anniuersaries , such quick returnes of periods , and a commemoration , in euery such yeere , in euery moneth ; arise thou , and bee another commentary to vs ; and tell vs , what this new heauen , and new earth is , in which , now , thou dwel'st , with that righteousnesse . but wee doe not inuoke thee , as thou art a saint in heauen ; appeare to vs , as thou didst appeare to vs a moneth agoe ; at least , appeare in thy history ; appeare in our memory ; that when euery one of vs haue lookt vpon thee , by his owne glasse , and seene thee in his owne interest , such , as thou wast to him , that when one shall haue seene thee , the best wife , and a larger number , the best mother , and more then they , a whole towne , the best neighbour , and more then a towne , a large body of noble friends , the best friend , and more then all they , all the world , the best example , when thou hast receiu'd this testimony from the militant church , as thou hast the recompence of all this , in thy blessed soule , in the triumphant , yet , because thy body is still within these walls , bee still content , to bee one of this congregation , and to heare some parts of this text re-applie'd vnto thee . our first word , neuerthelesse , puts vs first vpon this consideration , that shee liu'd in a time , wherein this prophecie of saint peter , in this chapter , was ouer-abundantly perform'd , that there should bee scoffers , iesters in diuine things , and matters appertaining to god , and his religion . for , now , in these our dayes , excellency of wit , lies in prophanenesse ; he is the good spirit , that dares abuse god ; and hee good company , that makes his company the worse , or keepes them from goodnesse . this being the aire , and the complexion of the wit of her times , and her inclination , and conuersation , naturally , cheerfull , and merry , and louing facetiousnesse , and sharpnesse of wit , neuerthelesse , who euer saw her , who euer heard her countenance a prophane speech , how sharpe soeuer , or take part with wit , to the preiudice of godlinesse ? from this i testifie her holy cheerfulnesse , and religious alacrity , ( one of the best euidences of a good conscience ) that as shee came to this place , god's house of prayer , duly , not onely euery sabbath , when it is the house of other exercises , as well as of prayer , but euen in those weeke-dayes , when it was onely a house of prayer , as often as these doores were opened for a holy conuocation , and , as she euer hastned her family , and her company hither , with that cheerfull prouocation , for god's sake let 's go , for god's sake let 's bee there at the confession . so , her selfe , with her whole family , ( as a church in that elect ladie 's house , to whom iohn writ his second epistle ) did , euery sabbath , shut vp the day , at night , with a generall , with a cheerfull singing of psalmes , this act of cheerfulnesse , was still the last act of that family , vnited in it selfe , and with god. god loues a cheerfull giuer ; mu●h more a cheerfull giuer of himselfe . truly , he that can close his eyes , in a holy cheerfulnesse , euery night , shall meet no distemper'd , no inordinate , no irregular sadnesse , then , when god ; by the hand of death , shall close his eyes , at last . but , returne we againe to our neuerthelesse ; you may remember , that this word in our former part , put vs first vpon the consideration of scoffers at the day of iudgement , and then , vpon the consideration of terrours , and sad apprehensions at that day . and for her , some sicknesses , in the declination of her yeeres , had opened her to an ouer-flowing of melancholie ; not that she euer lay vnder that water , but yet , had sometimes , some high tides of it ; and , though this distemper would sometimes cast a cloud , and some halfe damps vpon her naturall cheerfulnesse , and sociablenesse , and sometimes induce darke , and sad apprehensions , neuerthelesse , who euer heard , or saw in her , any such effect of melancholy as to murmure , or repine , or dispute vpon any of gods proceedings , or to lodge a ielousie , or suspition of his mercy , and goodnesse towards her , and all hers ? the wit of our time is prophanenesse ; neuerthelesse , shee , that lou'd that , hated this ; occasionall melancholy had taken some hold in her , neuerthelesse , that neuer ecclipst , neuer interrupted her cheerfull confidence , & assurance in god. our second word denotes the person ; we , neuerthelesse we ; and , here in this consideration , neuerthelesse shee . this may seeme to promise some picture , some character of her person . but shee was no stranger to them that heare me now ; nor scarce to any that may heare of this here● after , which you heare now , and therefore , much needes not , to that purpose . yet , to that purpose , of her person , and personall circumstances , thus much i may remember some , and informe others , that from that worthy family , whence shee had her originall extraction , and birth , she suckt that loue of hospitality , ( hospitality , which hath celebrated that family , in many generations , successiuely ) which dwelt in her , to her end . but in that ground , her fathers family , shee grew not many yeeres . transplanted young from thence , by mariage , into another family of honour , as a flower that doubles and multiplies by transplantation , she multiplied into ten children ; iob's number ; and iob's distribution , ( as shee , her selfe would very often remember ) seuen sonnes , and three daughters . and , in this ground , shee grew not many yeeres more , then were necessary , for the producing of so many plants . and being then left to chuse her owne ground in her widow-hood , hauing at home establisht , and increast the estate , with a faire , & noble addition , proposing to her selfe , as her principall care , theeducation of her children , to aduance that , shee came with them , and dwelt with them , in the vniuersitie ; and recompenc't to them , the losse of a father , in giuing them two mothers ; her owne personall care , and the aduantage of that place ; where shee contracted a friendship , with diuers reuerend persons , of eminency , and estimation there ; which continued to their ends . and as this was her greatest businesse , so she made this state , a large period ; for in this state of widowhood , shee continued twelue yeeres . and then , returning to a second mariage , that second mariage turnes vs to the consideration of another personall circumstance ; that is , the naturall endowments of her person ; which were such , as that , ( though her vertues were his principall obiect ) yet , euen these her personall , and naturall endowments , had their part , in drawing , and fixing the affections of such a person , as by his birth , and youth , and interest in great fauours in court , and legall proximity to great possessions in the world , might iustly haue promist him acceptance , in what family soeuer , or vpon what person soeuer , hee had directed , and plac't his affections . he plac't them here ; neither diuerted then , nor repented since . for , as the well tuning of an instrument , makes higher and lower strings , of one sound , so the inequality of their yeeres , was thus reduc't to an euennesse , that shee had a cheerfulnesse , agreeable to his youth , and he a sober staidnesse , conform●ble to her more yeeres . so that , i would not consider her , at so much more then forty , nor him , at so much lesse then thirty , at that time , but , as their persons were made one , and their fortunes made one , by mariage , so i would put their yeeres into one number , and finding a sixty betweene them , thinke them thirty a peece ; for , as twins of one houre , they liu'd . god , who ioyn'd them , then , hauing also separated them now , may make their yeres euen , this other way too ; by giuing him , as many yeeres after her going out of this world , as he had giuen her , before his comming into it ; and then , as many more , as god may receiue glory , and the world , benefit by that addition ; that so , as at their first meeting , she was , at their last meeting , he may bee the elder person . to this consideration of her person then , belongs this , that god gaue her such a comelinesse , as , though shee were not proud of it , yet she was so content with it , as not to goe about to mend it , by any art. and for her attire , ( which is another personall circumstance ) it was neuer sumptuous , neuer sordid● but alwayes agreeable to her quality , and agreeable to her company ; such as shee might , and such , as others , such as shee was , did weare for , in such things of indifferency in themselues , many times , a singularity may be a little worse , then a fellowship in that , which is not altogether so good . it may be worse , nay , it may be a worse pride , to weare worse things , then others doe . her rule was mediocrity . and , as to the consideration of the house , belongs the consideration of the furniture too , so , in these personall circumstances , we consider her fortune , her estate . which was in a faire , and noble proportion , deriu'd from her first husband , and fairely , and nobly dispenc'd , by herselfe , with the allowance of her second . in which shee was one of gods true stewards , and almoners too . there are dispositions , which had rather giue presents , then pay debts ; and rather doe good to strangers , than to those , that are neerer to them . but shee alwayes thought the care of her family , a debt , and vpon that , for the prouision , for the order , for the proportions , in a good largenesse , shee plac't her first thoughts , of that kinde . for , for our families , we are gods stewards ; for those without , we are his almoners . in which office , shee gaue not at some great dayes , or some solemne goings abroad , but , as gods true almoners , the sunne , and moone , that passe on , in a continuall doing of good , as shee receiu'd her daily bread from god , so , daily , she distributed , and imparted it , to others . in which office , though she neuer turn'd her face from those , who in a strict in quisition , might be call'd idle , and vagrant beggers , yet shee euer look't first , vpon them , who labour'd , and whose labours could not ouercome the difficulties , nor bring in the necessities of this life ; and to the sweat of their browes , shee contributed , euen her wine , and her oyle , and any thing that was , and any thing , that might be , if it were not , prepar●d for her owne table . and as her house was a court , in the conuersation of the best , and an almeshouse , in feeding the poore , so was it also an hospitall , in ministring releefe to the sicke . and truly , the loue of doing good in this kind , of ministring to the sicke , was the hony , that was spread ouer all her bread ; the aire , the perfume , that breath'd ouer all her house ; the disposition that dwelt in those her children , and those her kindred , which dwelt with her , so bending this way , that the studies and knowledge of one , the hand of another , and purse of all , and a ioynt-facility , and opennesse , and accessiblenesse to persons of the meanest quality , concur'd in this blessed act of charity , to minister releefe to the sicke . of which , my selfe , who , at that time , had the fauour to bee admitted into that family , can , and must testifie this , that when the late heauy visitation fell hotly vpon this towne , when euery doore was shut vp , and , lest death should enter into the house , euery house was made a sepulchre of them that were in it , then , then , in that time of infection , diuers persons visited with that infection , had their releefe , and releefe appliable to that very infection , from this house . now when i haue said thus much ( rather thus little ) of her person , as of a house , that the ground upon which it was built , was the family where she was borne , and then , where she was married , and then , the time of her widowhood , and lastly , her last mariage , and that the house it selfe , was those faire bodily endowments , which god had bestow'd vpon her , and the furniture of that house , the fortune , and the vse of that fortune , of which god had made her steward and almoner , when i shall also haue said , that the inhabitants of this house , ( rather the seruants , for they did but wait vpon religion in her ) were those married couples , of morall vertues , conuersation married with a retirednesse , facility married with a reseruednesse , alacrity married with a thoughtfulnesse , and largenesse married with a prouidence , i may haue leaue to depart from this consideration of her person , and personall circumstances , le●t by insisting longer vpon them , i should seeme to pretend , to say all the good , that might bee said of her ; but that 's not in my purpose ; yet , onely therefore , because it is not in my power ; for i would doe her all right , and all you that good , if i could , to say all . but , i haste to an end , in consideration of some things , that appertaine more expresly to me , then these personall , or ciuill , or morall things doe . in those , the next is , the secundum promissa , that shee gouern'd her selfe , according to his promises ; his promises , laid downe in his scriptures . for , as the rule of all her ciuill actions , was religion , so , the rule of her religion , was the scripture ; and , her rule , for her particular vnderstanding of the scripture , was the church . shee neuer diuerted towards the papist , in vndervaluing the scripture ; nor towards the separatist , in vnderualuing the church . but in the doctrine , and discipline of that church , in which , god seal'd her , to himselfe , in baptisme , shee brought vp her children , shee assisted her family , she dedicated her soule to god in her life , and surrendered it to him in her death ; and , in that forme of common prayer , which is ordain'd 〈◊〉 by ●hat church , and to which she had accustom●td her selfe , with her family wide 〈◊〉 day , she ioyn'd with than company , which was about her death-bed , in answering to euery par● thereof , which the congrgationl is directed to answer to with a cleere vnderstanding , with a constant memory , with a distinct ●voyed , not 〈◊〉 houres before she died 〈◊〉 according to this promise that is , the will of god manifested in the 〈◊〉 , she expected ; shee expected this , that she hath rece●ued ; gods physioke , and gods m●sicke a christianly death . for , death , in the old testamen was a com●●nation ; but in the now testament , death is a promise ; when there was a super-dying , a death vpon the death , a morte vpon the mor●eris● a spirituall death after the bodily , then wee died a●cording to gods threatning ; now , when by the gospell , that second death is taken off , though wee die still , yet we die according to his promise ; that 's a part of his mercy , and his promise , which his apostle giues vs from him , that wee shall all bee changed ; for , after that promise , that change , follow 's that triumphant acclamation , o death where is thy sting , o graue where is thy victory ? consider vs fallen in adam , and wee are miserable , that wee must die , but consider vs restor'd , and redintegrated in christ , wee were more miserable if wee might not die ; wee lost the earthly paradise by death then ; but wee get not heauen , but by death , now . this shee expected till it came , and embrac't it when it came . how may we thinke , shee was ioy'd to see that face , that angels delight to looke vpon , the face of her sauiour , that did not abhor the face of his fearfullest messenger , death● shee shew'd no feare of his face , in any change of her owne ; but died without any change of countenan●e , or posture● , without any strugling , any disorder ; but her death-bed was as quiet● , as●her graus . to another magdalen , christ said vp on earth , ascended● being ascended now , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and she b●●ing gone 〈◊〉 to him , as●●r she'e had awaited his 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 ●yo●res , as that more , would● 〈…〉 growne to bee vexd●●on , and s●rrow , was her last 〈◊〉 horb , were , 〈◊〉 my will to the will of god ; so wee doubt not but the first word which she heard there , was that euge , from her sauiour , well done good and faithfull seruant , enter into thy mastersioy . shee expected that , dissolution of body , and soule ; and rest in both , from the incumbrances , and tentations of this world . but yet , shee is in expectation still ; still a reuersionarie ; and a reuersionary vpō along life ; the whole world must die , before she come to a possession of this reuersion ; which is a glorified body in the resurrection . in which expectation , she return's to her former charity ; shee will not haue that , till all wee , shall haue it , as well as shee ; she eat not her morsels alone , in her life , ( as iob speakes ) shee lookes not for the glory of the resurrection alone , after her death . but when all we , shall haue beene mellow'd in the earth , many yeeres , or chang'd in the aire , in the twinkling of an eye , ( god knowes which ) that body vpon which you tread now , that body which now , whilst i speake , is mouldring , and crumbling into lesse , and lesse dust , and so hath some motion , though no life , that body , which was the tabernacle of a holy soule , and a temple of the holy ghost , that body that was eyes to the blinde , and hands , and feet to the lame , whilst it liu'd , and being dead , is so still , by hauing beene so liuely an example , to teach others , to be so , that body at last , shall haue her last expectation satisfied , and d'well bodily , with that righteousnesse , in these new heauens , and new earth , for euer , and euer , and euer , and infinite , and super-infinite euers . wee●nd all , with the valediction of the spouse to christ● his left hand is vnder my head , and his right embraces mee , was the spouses valediction , and goodnight to christ then , when she laid her selfe downe to sleepe in the strength of his mandrakes , and in the power of his spices , as it is exprest ●here ; that is , in the influence of his mercies . beloued , euery good soule is the spouse of christ● and this good soule , being thus laid downe to sleepe in his peace , his left hand vnder her head , gathering , and composing , and preferuing hen dust , for future glory , his right hand embracing her , assuming , and establishing her soule in present glory , in his name , and in her behalfe , i say that , to all you , which christ sayes there , in the behalfe of that spouse , adiuro vos , i adiure you , i charge you , o daughters of ierusalem , that yee wake her not , till she please . the words are directed to the daughters , rather then to the sons of ierusalem , because for the most part , the aspersions that women receiue , either in morall or religious actions , proceed from womē themselues . therfore , adiuro vos , i charge you , oye daughters of ierusalem , wake her not . wake her not , with any halfe calumnies , with any whisperings ; but if you wil wake her , wake her , and keepe her awake with an actiue imitation , of her morall , and her holy vertues . that so her example working vpon you , and the number of gods saints , being , the sooner , by this blessed example , fulfil'd , wee may all meet , and meet quickly in that kingdome , which hers , and our sauiour , hath purchac't for vs all , with the inestimable price of his incorrup●tible blou● . to which ●●glorious sonne of god , &c. finis . memoriae matris sacrum . ah mater , quo te deplorem f●nte ? dolores quae guttae poterunt enumerare meos ? sicca meis lacrymis thamesis vicina videtur virtutumque choro siscior ipse tuo . in flumen maerore nigrum si funderer ardens , laudibus hand ●ierem sepia iusta t●is . tantùm istaec scrib● gratus , n● tu mih● tant ùm mater : & ista dolor ●●nc tibi m●tra parit . 〈…〉 〈…〉 confer●● lacrymas : illa quae vos iniscuit . vestrasaue laudes , posoit & mixi as genas . 〈…〉 pudorque constet vel solut is crinibus ; 〈…〉 decus mul●erum perijt : & metùunt v●r● vtrumqu● sexum dote ne mulctauerit . non illa soles terere comptu lubricos . struices superbas at que turritum c●pute molita , reliquum deinde garr●ens diem . ( nam post babelem linguae adest confusio ) quin post mode stam , qualis integras decet , substructionem capit is & nimbum breuem , animam recentemrite curauit sacris adorta numen acr● & igue â prece . dein familiam lustrat , & res prandij horti , colique distributim pensitat . suum cuique tempus & locus datur . inde exiguntnr pensa crudo vespere . ratione cer●● vita constat & domus , prudenter inito quot-diebus calculo . tot â renident aede decus & suauitas solùm dolores , & dolores , stellulae . at tu qui ineptè haec dicta censes fil●o , nato p●rentis auferens enc●mium abito trunce cum t●is pudoribus . ergo ipse solùm mutus at que excors ●ro strepent● mundo tinnulis praeconijs ? mihine m●tris vrnaclausa est vnico , herbae exo●etae , ros-marinus aridus ? matrine linguam refero , solùm vt mordeam ? abito barde . quàm pi● is●●c su● impudens ? tu verò mater perpetìm laudabere nato dolenti : liter● hoc debent tibi quêis me educasti ; sponte char● as ●illinun● fructum laboru● conse●●tae maximum laudando matrem , cum repugnant inscij . cvr sp●●ndes o phoebe ? ecquid demittere matrem ad nos cum radio tam rutilante potes ? at super at caput illa 〈◊〉 , quantu● ipse cad●●er , mens superat ; corpus solùm element a tenēt . scilic●t id splendes : haec est tibi causa micand● et lucro apponis gandia sancta tuo . verùm he●● si nequeas coelo demittere matre , sitque omnis motus nescia , tanta quies , fa● radios saltèm ingemines , vt dextera t●rt●s implicet , & matre● , matre manente , petam . qvid nugor calamo fa●●ns ? mater perpet●is v●ida gandi●s , horte pro t●nui colis edenem bor●ae statibus inuinm . quin coeli mihi sunt mei , materni decu●● & debita n●minis , ●umque his in●igilo frequens stellarum soci●s , pellibus ex●●●r . quare sphaeram egomet ●eam connixus , digitis impiger vrgeo : te , mater , celebrans di● noctu● te celebrans ●uminis aemulo . per to nascor in hunc globum exemploque tuo nascor in alterum : bis tu mater eras mihi , vt currat paribus gloria tibi●s . horti , deliciae dominae , marcescite tand● ; ornâstis capulum , noc superesse licet . 〈…〉 galene frustra 〈…〉 〈…〉 pallida 〈…〉 tam langue●s genitrix ●in●ri supp●sta fug●●● : verū augusta parens , sanctum os c●los● lo● 〈◊〉 , quale paludos●s iamia● lictura ●●cessus praetulit astraea , aut solio themis alma v●t●sto pensilis , at que acri dirimens examine lites . hunc vul●um ostendas & tecum nobile spect ● quod superest vitae , insumam : solisque ingales ipse tuae solùm adnecta , sine murmure , t●●ensa . nec querar ingratos , studijs dum tabidus inst● , effi●xisse dies , suff●catamue mineruam aut sp●s productas , barbataque somnia vertam● in vicium mundo sterili , cui cedo cometas ipse suos tanquam digno pallantiaque astra . est ●ihi his quinis laqueata domūcula tignis rure , br●nisque hortus , cuius cum ve●●ere slorū luctatur spacium , qualem tamen eligit aequi iudi●ij dominus stores vt iunctius halent stipati , rudibusque volis imperuius hortus sit quasi fasciculus crescens , & nidus odorum . hìc ego tuque erimus , variae suffitibus herbae quotidiè pasti : tantùm ver●●m ind●● vultum affectusque mei similem ; n●c languida misce ora meae memori menti ● ne dispare cult●● pugnac●s , te●●ros ●●or●●● tur b●mus odores , a●qu● inter reliqu●s bor●i cr●scentiafatus nostra etia● paribus ●arcescant gaudia fatis . paruam piamque dum lubentèr semitam grandireaeque praefero . carpsit malignum sydus hanc modestiam vinumque felle miscuit . hinc fremere totus & minari gestio ipsis seuerus orbibus tandem prehensâ comiter lacernulâ susurrat aure qnispiam , haec fuerat olim potio domini tui . gust● proboque dolium . hoc genitrix scriptum proles tibi sedula mittit . siste parum cantus , dum legis ista , tuos . nôsse sui quid agant , quaedant est quo 〈◊〉 music●● quaeque , olim fuerat cura , manere potest . nos miserè flemus , solesque obducimus almos sāctis occiduis , tanquam displice nube , genis . interea classem magnis rex instruit ausis : nos autem flemus : res ea sola tuis . ecce solut●ra est , ventos causata morantes : sin pluuiam : fletus suppedit âsset aquas . tillius incumbit dano : gallusque marinis : nos flendo : haec nostrûm tessera sola ducum . sic aeuum exigitur tardum , dum praepetis anni mille rotae nimijs impediuntur aquis . plura tibi missurus era● ( nam quae mibi laur●s , quod nectar , nisi cum te celebrare diem ? ) sed parte● in scriptis etiam dum lacryma poscit , diluit oppositas candidus humor aquas . nempe huc vsque notos tenebricosos et maestum nimio madore coelum tellurisque britannicae saliuam iniuste satis arguit viator . at te commoriente , magna mater , rectè , quem trahit , aerem repellit cum probro madidum , reumque difflat . nam te nunc ager , vrbs , & aula plorant : te nunc anglia , scotiaeque binae , quin te cambria peruetusta deflet , deducens lacrymas prioris aui ne serae meritis tuis venirent . non est angulus vspiam serenus , nec cingit mare , nunc inundat o●●nes . dvm librata suis haeret radicibus ilex nescia vulturnis cedere , firma manet . post vbi crudelem sentit diuisa securom quò placet oblato , mortua fertur , hero : arbor & ipse inu●r sa vocor : dūque insitus almae assideo matri , robore vinco cedros . nunc sortipateo , expositus sine matre procellis , lubricus , & superans mobilitate salum . tu radix , tu petra mihi firmissima mater ceu polypus , chelis saxa prehendo tenax : non tibi nunc solifilum abrupere sorores dissutus videor funere & ipse tuo . vnde vagans passimrectè vocer alter vlysses , alteraque hac tua mors , ilias esto mihi . facesse stoica plebs , obambulans cautes . exutastrato carnis , ossibus constans , iisque siccis adeo vt os molossorum haud glubat inde tres teruncios escae . dolere prohibes ? an t dolere me gentis ad●ò inficetae , plumbeae , meduseae , ad saxa speciem retrahentis humanam , tantoque nequioris optimâ pirrhâ . at forte matrem perdere haud soles demens : quin nec potes ; cuipraebuit tigris partum . proinde parco belluis , nec irascor . epitaphium . hic sit a foeminei lans & victoria sexus : virgo pudens , vxor fid● , seueraparens . magnatuque● inopumque● aequū certamē & ardor : nobilitate illos , hos pie tate rapit . sic excelsa humilisque simull●●a dissita iunxit , quic quid habe4 tellus quicquid & astra , fruēs . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excussos manibus calamos , falcemque resumptam rure , sibi dixit musa fuisse probro . aggreditur matrem ( conductis carmine parcis ) funereque hoc cultum vindicat aegra suum . non po●ui non ire acri stimulante stagello : quim matris superans carmina posci● honos . eia , agedum scribo : vicisti musa ; sed audi stulta semel scribo , perpetud vt sileam . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20648-e260 psal. 79. 2. psal. 44. 12. ps. 116. 15. notes for div a20648-e1090 scornes . iudg. 16. 24 psal. 137. 3. esa. 53. 3. mat. 27. 29 act. 17. 32. vers. 4. vers. 6. vers. 7. mat. 24. 24 vers. 17. 2 terrors . psal. 33. 9. vers● 10. 1 thes. 5. 2. apoc. 3. 3. 16. 15. vers. 10. 66. 15. 2. 2 , 3. 7. 9. apoc. 1. 7. 3 persons . act. 19. 15. 1. 2 , 9. 2. 15. 2 pet. 1. 4. rom. 8. 17. psa , 105. ●5 rom. 8. 38. 1 cor. 14. 38. origen . seneca . 5. 18. 4 promissa . 16. 3. eph. 2. 3. 1. 4 , 19. heb. 2. 17. apoc. 1. 5. esa. 50. 1. 16. 19. ioh. 14. 3. the future . 3. 14. ambros. nazian . greg. expect . luk. 21. 28. august . 10. 14. 3. apoc. 22. 1● . vers. 20. 2 tim. 4. 8. gregor . wait. apoc. 6. 9. eccles. 10. 1. rom. 8.19 . vers. ●3 . 1. 2. 11. new heauens . 20.4 . 1 cor. 7. 31. polanus . righteousnesse . 21. 1. ver. 18. cant. 1. 15 , 16. ● iustice. luk. 18. 2. 2. thess. 1. 6. righteousnesse . mat. 14. 43 aug. commemoration . neuerthelesse . daughter of sir rich sister of sir fran. aun● of sir rich. neupo●● , of arcol . rich. herbert of blachehall in montgomery esqu . lineally descended from that great sir rich. herbert in ed. 4. time , and father of ed. lord herbert baron of castle-island , late embassador in france , and now of his maiesties councel of warre . sir iohn dāuers onely brother to the earle of danby . 1 cor. 15. 51 vers. 5● . 31. 17. cant. 8. 3. vers. 4. ignatius his conclaue or his inthronisation in a late election in hell: wherein many things are mingled by way of satyr; concerning the disposition of iesuits, the creation of a new hell, the establishing of a church in the moone. there is also added an apology for iesuites. all dedicated to the two aduersary angels, which are protectors of the papall consistory, and of the colledge of sorbon. translated out of latine. conclave ignati. english donne, john, 1572-1631. 1611 approx. 125 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 94 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20624 stc 7027 estc s100082 99835934 99835934 169 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20624) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 169) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1170:19) ignatius his conclaue or his inthronisation in a late election in hell: wherein many things are mingled by way of satyr; concerning the disposition of iesuits, the creation of a new hell, the establishing of a church in the moone. there is also added an apology for iesuites. all dedicated to the two aduersary angels, which are protectors of the papall consistory, and of the colledge of sorbon. translated out of latine. conclave ignati. english donne, john, 1572-1631. [10], 143, [13] p. printed by n[icholas] o[kes] for richard moore, and are to be sold at his shop in s. dunstones church-yard, london : 1611. by john donne. a translation of: conclave ignati. the title page has a rule border. printer's name from stc. signatures: a-g¹² (-g12, blank?). the first leaf and g9-11 are blank; g12 is an additional title page ina different setting, with an ornamental border; it is normally cancelled, as reflected in the pagination above. reproduction of original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create 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aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng ignatius, -of loyola, saint, 1491-1556. jesuits -controversial literature. 2002-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-06 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 allison liefer sampled and proofread 2002-07 allison liefer text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ignatius his conclaue : or the enthronization of loyola in hell : imprinted at london in . 1611 . jgnatius his conclaue : or his inthronisation in a late election in hell : wherein many things are mingled by way of satyr ; concerning the disposition of lesuits , the creation of a new hell , the establishing of a church in the moone . there is also added an apology for iesuites . all dedicated to the two aduersary angels , which are protectors of the papall consistory , and of the colledge of sorbon . translated out of latine , london , printed by n.o. for richard more , and are to be sold at his shop in s. dunstones church-yard . 1611. the printer to the reader . doest-thou seeke after the author ? it is in vaine ; for hee is harder to be found then the parents of popes were in the old times : yet if thou haue an itch of gessing , receiue from me so much , as a friend of his , to whom he sent his booke to bee read , writ to me . the author was vnwilling to haue this booke published , thinking it vnfit both for the matter , which in it selfe is weighty and serious , and for that grauity which himselfe had proposed and obser ued in an other booke formerly published , to descend to this kinde of writing . but i on the other side , mustred my forces against him , and produced reasons and examples . i proposed to him the great erasmus ( whom though seribanius the iesuit cal him one of our preachers . ) yet their great coccius is well content to number him amongst his authors . and to his bitter iestings and skirmishings in this kinde , our enemies confesse , that our church is as much beholden , as to luther himselfe , who fought so valiantly in the maine battell . i remembred him also how familiar a fashion this was amongst the papists themselues ; and how much rebullus that run-away , had done in this kinde , as well in those bookes , which he cals salmonees , as in his other , which he entitles , the cabal of the reformed churches , of which booke , if he were not the author , hee was certainly the apologist , and defender . neither was that man , whosoeuer hee bee , which cals himselfe macer , inferiour to reboul in this kinde , when hee dedicated to laughter , & to pleasure , his disputation of that horrible excommunication of paulus 5. against the venetians , and of other matters concerning the saluation of soules . both which , not contenting themselues , as this author doth , to sport and obey their naturall disposition in a businesse ( if you consider the persons ) light inough ( for what can bee vainer then a iesuit ? ) haue saucily risen vp against princes , & the lords anointed i added moreouer , that the things deliuered in this booke , were by many degrees more modest , then those which themselues , in their owne ciuill warres , do daily vomit forth , when they butcher and mangle the fame and reputation of their popes & cardinals by their reuiued lucian , pasquil. at last he yeelded , & made mee owner of his booke , which i send to you to be deliuered ouer to forraine nations , a farre from the father : and ( as his desire is ) b his last in this kinde . hee chooses and desires , that his other book should testifie his ingenuity , and candor , and his disposition to labour for the reconciling of all parts . this booke must teach what humane infirmity is , and how hard a matter it is for a man much conuersant in the bookes and acts of iesuites , so throughly to cast off the iesuits , as that he contract nothing of their naturall drosles , which are petulaucy , and lightnesse . vale. to the two tutelar angels , protectors of the popes consistory , and of the colledge of sorbon . most noble couple of angels , least it hould be sayd that you did neuer agree , and neuer meet , but that you did euer abhorre one another , and euer resemble ianus with a diuerseface , i attempted to bring and ioyne you together once in these papers ; not that i might compose your differences , for you haue not chosen me for arbitrator ; but , that you might beware of an enemy c̄omon to you both , i will relate what i saw . i was in an extrasie , and my little wandring sportful soule , ghest , and companion of my body had liberty to wander through all places , and to suruey and reckon all the roomes , and all the volumes of the heauens , and to comprehend the situation , the dimensions , the nature , the people , and the policy , both of the swimming ilands , the planets , and of all those which are fixed in the firmament . of which , i thinke it an honester part as yet to be silent , then to do galilaeo wrong by speaking of it , who of late hath summoned the other worlds , the stars to come neerer to him , and giue him an account of themselues . or to keppler , who ( as himselfe testifies of himselfe ) euer since tycho brachcs death , hath receiued it into his care , that no new thing should be done in heauen without his knowledge . for by the law , preuention must take place ; and therefore what they haue found and discoured first , i am content they speake and vtter first . yet this they may vouchsafe to take from me , that they shall hardly find enoch , or elias any where in their circuit . when i had surueid al the heauens , then as the larke by busie and laborious wayes , hauing climb'd vp th' eternall hill , doth raise his hymnes to phoebus harpe , and striking then his sailes , his wings , doth fall downe backeagen so suddenly , that one may saesely say a stone came lazily , that came that way , in the twinckling of an eye , i saw all the roomes in hell open to my sight . and by the benefit of certaine spectacles , i know not of what making , but , i thinke , of the same , by which gregory the great , and bed● did discerne so distinctly the soules of their friends , when they were discharged from their bodies , and sometimes the soules of such men as they knew not by sight , and of some that were neuer in the world , and yet they could distinguish them flying into heauen , or conu●sing with liuing men , i saw all the channels in the bowels of the harth ; and all the inhabitants of all nations , and of all ages were suddenly made familiar to me . i thinke truely , robert aquinas when he tooke christs long oration , as he hung vpon the crosse , did vse some such instrument as this , but applied to the care : and so i thinke did he , which dedicated to adrian 6 , that sermon which christ made in prayse of his father ioseph : for else how did they heare that , which none but they euer heard ? as for the suburbs of hel ( i meane both limbo and purgatory ) i must confesse i passed them ouer so negligently , that i saw them not : and i was hungerly caried , to find new places , neuer discouered before . for purgatory did not seeme worthy to me of much diligence , because it may seeme already to haue beene belecued by some persons , in some corners of the romane church , for about 50 yeares ; that is , euer since the councell of trent had a minde to fulfill the prophecies of homer , virgil , and the other patriarkes of the papists ; and beeing not satisfied with making one transubstantiation , purposed to bring in another : which is , to change fables into articles of faith . proceeding therefore to more inward places , i saw a secret place , where there were not many , beside lucifer himselfe ; to which , onely they had title , which had so attempted any innouation in this life , that they gaue an affront to all antiquitie , and induced doubts , and anxieties , and scruples , and after , a libertie of beleeuing what they would ; at length established opinions , directly contrary to all established before . of which place in hell , lucifer affoarded vs heretofore some little knowledge , when more then 200 yeares since , in an epistle written to the cardinall s. sexti , hee promised him a roome in his palace , in the remotest part of his eternall chaos , which i take to bee this place . and here pope boniface 3 , and mahomet , seemed to contend about the highest roome . hee gloried of hauing expelled an old religion , and mahomet of hauing brought in a new : each of them a great deluge to the world . but it is to be feared , that mahomet will faile therein , both because hee attributed something to the old testament , and because he vsed sergius as his fellow-bishop , in making the alcoran ; whereas it was cuident to the supreme ●udge lu●fer , ( for how could he be ignorant of that , which himselfe had put into the popes mind ? ) that boniface had not onely neglected , but destroyed the policy of the state of israel , established in the old testament , when he prepared popes a way , to tread vpon the neckes of princes , but that he also abstained from all example and coadiutor , when he took vpon him that newe name , which gregorie himselfe ( a pope neither very foolish , nor ouer-modest ) euer abhord . besides that , euery day affords new aduocates to boniface his side . for since the francis● were almost worne out ( of whome their general , francis , had seene 6000 souldiers in one army , that is , in one chapter ) which , because they were then but fresh souldiers , he saw assisted with 18000 diuels , the iesuits haue much recompenced those decayes and damages , who sometimes haue maintained in their tents 200000 schollers . for though the order of benedict haue euer bene so fruitfull , that they say of it , that all the new orders , which in later times haue broken out , are but little springs , or drops , and that order the ocean , which hath sent out 52 popes , 200 cardinals , 1600 archbishops , 4000 bishops , and 50000 saints approued by the church , and therefore it cannot be denied , but that beniface his part is much releeued by that order ; yet if they be compared to the iesuits , or to the weake and vnperfect types of them , the franciscans , it is no great matter that they haue done . though therefore they esteeme mahomet worthy of the name of an innouator , & therein , perchance not much inferiour to boniface , yet since his time , to ours , almost all which haue followed his sect , haue liued barren in an vnanimity , and idle concord , and cannot boast that they haue produced any new matter : whereas boniface his successors , awakened by him , haue euer beene fruitfull in bringing forth new sinnes , and new pardons , and idolatries , and king-killings . though therefore it may religiously , and piously be beleeued , that turkes , as well as papists , come daily in troupes to the ordinary and common places of hell ; yet certainly to this more honourable roome , reserued for especiall innouators , the papists haue more frequent accesse ; and therefore mahomet is out of hope to preuaile , and must imitate the christian emperours , and be content to sit ( as yet hee doth ) at the popes feet . now to this place , not onely such endeauour to come , as haue innouated in matters , directly concerning the soule , but they also which haue done so , either in the arts , or in conuersation , or in any thing which exerciseth the faculties of the soule , and may so prouoke to quarrrelsome and brawling controuersies : for so the truth be lost , it is no matter how . but the gates are seldome opened , nor scarce oftner then once in an age. but my destiny fauored mce so much , that i was present then , and saw all the pretenders , and all that affected an entrance , and lucifer himselfe , who then came out into the outward chamber , to heare them pleade their owne causes . as soone as the doore creekt , i spied a certaine mathematician , which till then had bene busied to finde , to deride , to detrude ptolomey ; and now with an erect countenance , and setled pace , came to the gates , and with hands and feet ( scarce respecting lucifer himselfe ) beat the dores , and cried ; are these shut against me , to whom all the heauens were euer open , who was a soule to the earth , and gaue it motion ? by this i knew it was copernicus : for though i had neuer heard ill of his life , and therefore might wonder to find him there ; yet when i remembred , that the papists haue extended the name , & the punishment of heresie , almost to euery thing , and that as yet i vsed gregortes and bedes spectacles , by which one saw origen , who deserued so well of the christian church , burning in hell , i doubted no longer , but assured my selfe that it was copernicus which i saw . to whome lucifer sayd ; who are you ? for though euen by this boldnesse you seeme worthy to enter , and haue attempted a new faction euen in hell , yet you must first satisfie those which stand about you , and which expect the same fortune as you do . except , o lucifer , answered copernicus , i thought thee of the race of the starre lucifer , with which i am so well acquainted , i should not vouchsafe thee this discourse . i am he , which pitying thee who wert thrust into the center of the world , raysed both thee , and thy prison , the earth , vp into the heauens ; so as by my meanes god doth not enioy his reuenge vpon thee . the sunne , which was an officious spy , and a betrayer of faults , and so thine enemy , i haue appointed to go into the lowest part of the world . shall these gates be open to such as haue innouated in small matters ? and shall they be shut against me , who haue turned the whole frame of the world , and am thereby almost a new creator ? more then this he spoke not . lucifer stuck 〈◊〉 meditation . for what should he do ? it seemed vniust to deny entry to him which had deserued so well , and dangerous to graunt it , to one of so great ambitions , and vndertakings : nor did he thinke that himselfe had attempted greater matters before his fall . something he had which he might haue conueniently opposed , but he was loath to vtter it , least he should confesse his feare . but ignatius layola which was got neere his chaire , a subtile fellow , and so indued with the diuell , that he was able to tempt , and not onely that , but ( as they say ) euen to possesse the diuell , apprehended this perplexity in lucifer . and making himselfe sure of his owne entrance , and knowing well , that many thous●nds of his family aspired to that place , he opposed himselfe against all others . he was content they should bee damned , but not that they should gouerne . and though when hee died he was vtterly ignorant in all great learning , and knew not so much as ptolomeys , or copernicus name , but might haue beene perswaded , that the words almagest , zenith , and nadir , were saints names , and fit to bee put into the litanie , and orapro nobis ioyned to them ; yet after hee had spent some time in hell , he had learnt somewhat of his iesuites , which daily came thither . and whilst he staied at the threshold of hell ; that is , from the time when he deliuered himselfe ouer to the popes will , hee tooke a little taste of learning . thus furnished , thus hee vndertakes copernious . do , you thinke to winne our lucifer to your part , by allowing him the honour of being of the race of that starre ? who was not onely made before all the starres , but being glutted with the glory of shining there , transferred his dwelling and colonies 〈◊〉 this monarchy , and thereby 〈◊〉 our order a noble example , to spy , to inuade , and to 〈◊〉 forraine kingdom● can our lucifer , or his 〈◊〉 haue any honour 〈◊〉 that starr● lucifer , which is but venus ? whose face how much wee scorne , appeares by this , that , for the m●st part we vse her auersly and preposterously . rather letour lucifer glory in lucifer the calaritan bishop ; not therefore because he is placed amongst heretiques , onely for affirming the propagation of the soule ; but especially for this , that he was the first that opposed the dignity of princes , and imprinted the names of antichrist , ludas , and other stigmatique markes vpon the emperour ; but for you , what new thing hane you inuented , by which our lucifer gets any thing ? what cares hee whether the earth traueil , or stand still ? hath your raising vp of the earth into heauen , brought men to that confidence , that they build new towers or threaten god againe ? or do they out of thismotion of the earth cōclude , that there is no hell , or deny the punishment of sin ? do not men beleeue ? do they not liue iust , as they did before ? besides , this detracts frō the dignity of your learning , and derogates frō your right and title of comming to this place , that those opinions of yours may very well be true . if therfore any man haue honour or title to this place in this matter , it belongs wholly to our clauius , who opposed himselfe opportunely against you , and the truth , which at that time was creeping into euery mans minde . hee onely can be called the author of all contentions , and schoole-combats in this cause ; and no greater profit can bee hoped for heerein , but that for such brabbles , more necessarie matters bee neglected . and yet not onely for this is our clauius to bee honoured , but for the great paines also which hee tooke in the gregorian calender , by which both the peace of the church , & ciuill businesses haue beene egregiously troubled : nor hath heauen it selfe escaped his violēce , but hath euer since obeied his apointments : so that s. stephen , iohn baptist , & all the rest , which haue bin cōmanded to worke miracles at certain appointed daies , where their reliques are preserued , do not now attend till the day come , as they were accustomed , but are awaked ten daies sooner , and constrained by him to come downe frō heauen to do that businesse ; but your inuentiōs can scarce bee called yours , since long before you , heraclides , ecphantus , & aristarchus thrust them into the world : who notwithstanding content themselues with lower roomes amongst the other philosophers , & aspire not to this place , reserued onely for antichristian heroes : neither do you agree so wel amongst yourselues , as that you can be said to haue made a sect , since , as you haue peruerted and changed the order and scheme of others : so tycho brachy hath done by yours , and others by his . let therefore this little mathematitian ( dread emperour ) withdraw himselfe to his owne company . and if heereafter the fathers of our order can draw a cathedrall decree from the pope , by which it may be defined as a matter of faith : that the earth doth not moue ; & an antahema inflicted vpon all which hold the contrary : thē perchance both the pope which shall decree that , and copernicus his followers , ( if they be papists ) may haue the dignity of this place . lucifer signified his assent ; and copernicus , without muttering a word , was as quiet , as he thinks the sunne , when he which stood next him , entred into his place . to whom lucifer said : and who are you ? hee answered , philippus aureolus theophrastus paracelsus bombast of hohenheim . at this lucifer trēbled , as if it were a new exorcisme , & he thought it might well be the first verse of saint iohn , which is alwaics imployed in exorcismes , and might now bee taken out of the welsh , or irish bibles . but when hee vnderstood that it was but the webbe of his name , hee recollected himselfe , and raising himselfe vprig 〈◊〉 , asked what he had to say to the great emperour sathan , lucifer , belzebub , leuiathan , abaddon . paracelsus replyed , it were an iniurie to thee , ô glorious emperour , if i should deliuer before thee , what i haue done , as though al those things had not proceeded from thee , which seemed to haue bin done by me , thy organe and conduit : yet since i shal rather be thy trumpet herein , ' then mine own , some things may be vttered by me . besides therfore that i broght all methodicall phisitians , and the art it selfe into so much contēpt , that that kind of phisick is almost lost ; this also was euer my prīcipal purpose , that no certaine new art , nor fixed rules might be established , but that al remedies might be dangerously drawne from my vncertaine , ragged , and vnperfect experiments , in triall whereof , how many men haue beene made carkases ? and falling vpon those times which did abound with paradoxicall , & vnusuall diseases , of all which , the pox , which then began to rage , was almost the center and sinke ; i euer professed an assured and an easy cure thereof , least i should deterre any from their licentiousnesse . and whereas almost all poysons are so disposed and conditioned by nature , that they offend some of the senses , and so are easily discerned and auoided , i brought it to passe , that that trecherous quality of theirs might bee remoued , and so they might safely bee giuen without suspicion , and yet performe their office as strongly . all this i must confesse , i wrought by thy minerals and by thy fires , but yet i cannot dispaire of my reward , because i was thy first minister and instrument , in these innouatiōs . by this time ignatius had obserued a tempest risen in lucifers countenance : for he was iust of the same temper as lucifer , and therefore suffered with him in euery thing , and felt al his alterations . that therefore he might deliuer him from ` paracelsus , hee said ; you must not thinke sir , that you may heere draw out an oration to the proportion of your name ; it must be confessed , that you attempted great matters , and well becomming a great officer of lucifer , when you vndertook not onely to make a man , in your alimbicks , but also to preserue him immortall . and it cannot be doubted , but that out of your commentaries vpon the scriptures , in which you were vtterly ignorant , many men haue taken occasion of erring , and thereby this kingdome much indebted to you . but must you therefore haue accesse to this secret place ? what haue you compassed , euen in phisicke it selfe , of which wee lesuits are ignorant ? for though our ribadenegra haue reckoned none of our order , which hath written in physicke , yet 〈◊〉 able and sufficient wee are in that faculty , i will bee tryed by that pope , who hath giuen a priueledge to iesuites to practise phisicke , and to be present at death-beds , a which is denyed to other orders : for why should hee deny vs their bodies , whose soules he deliuers to vs ? and since he hath transferd vpon vs the power to practise physick , he may instly be thought to haue transferd vpon vs the art it selfe , by the same omnipotent bul ; since hee which graunts the end , is by our rules of law presumed to haue graunted all meanes necessary to that end . let me ( dread emperour , ) haue leaue to speake truth before thee ; these men abuse & prophane too much thy mettals , which are the bowels , and treasure of thy kingdome : for what doth physicke profit thee ? physicke is a sost , & womanish thing . for since no medicine doth naturally draw bloud , that science is not fit nor worthy of our study , besides why should those things , which belong to you , bee employed to preserue frō deiseases , or to procure long life ? were it not fitter , that your brother , and colleague , the bishop of rome , which gouernes vpon the face of your earth , and giues dayly increase to your kingdome , should receiue from these helps and subsidies ? to him belonges all the gold , to him all the pretious stones , conceal'd in your entrailes , wherby hee might baite and ensnare the prince ; of the earth through their lord , and counsellours meanes to his obedience , and to receiue his cōmandements , especially in these times , whē almost euery where his auncient rights & tributes are denied vnto him . to him belongs your iron , and the ignobler mettals , to make engines ; to him belong your minerals apt for poyson ; to him , the salt-peter , and all the elements of gun-powder , by which he may demolish and ouerthrow kings and kingdomes , and courts , and seates of iustice. neither doth paracelsus truly deserue the name of an innouator , whose doctrine , seuerïnus and his other followers do referre to the most ancient times . thinke therefore your selfe well satisfied , if you be admitted to gouerne in chiefe that legion of homicide-phisitians , and of princes which shall be made away by poyson in the midst of their sins , and of woemen tempting by paintings and face-phisicke . of all which sorts great numbers will daily come hither out of your academy . content with this sentence , paracelsus departed ; and machiauel succeeded , who hauing obserued ignatius his forwardnesse , and saucinesse , and how , vncal'd , he had thrust himselfe into the office of kings atturney , thought this stupid patience of copernicus , and paracelsus ( men which tasted too much of their germany ) vnfit for a florentine : and therefore had prouided some venemous darts , out of his italian arsenal , to cast against this worne souldier of pampel● , this french-spanish mungrell , ignatius . but when he thought better vpon it , and obserued that lucifer euer approued whatsoeuer ignatius sayd , he suddenly changed his purpose ; and putting on another resolution , he determined to direct his speech to ignatius , as to the principall person next to lucifer , as well by this meanes to sweeten and mollifie him , as to make lucifer suspect , that by these honors , & specious titles offered to ignatius , and entertained by him , his owne dignity might bee eclipsed , or clouded ; and that ignatius by winning to his side , politique men , exercised in ciuill businesses , might attempt some innouation in that kingdome . thus therefore he began to speake . dtead emperour , and you , his watchfull and diligent genius , father ignatius , arch-chancellor of this court , and highest priest of this highest synagogue ( except the primacy of the romane church reach also vnto this place ) let me before i descend to my selfe , a little consider , speake , and admire your stupendious wisedome , and the gouernment of this state . you may vouchsafe to remember ( great emperour ) how long after the nazarens death , you were forced to liue a solitarie , a barren , and an eremiticall life : till at last ( as it was euer your fashion to imitate heauen ) out of your aboundant loue , you begot this deerely beloued sonne of yours , ignatius , which stands at your right hand . and from both of you proceedes a spirit , whom you haue sent into the world , who triumphing both with mitre and crowne , gouernes your militant church there . as for those sonnes of ignatius , whō either he left aliue , or were borne after his death , and your spirit , the bishop of rome ; how iustly & properly may they be called equi●ocal men ? and not only equiuocall in that sence , in which the popes legates , at your nicene coūcel were called equiuocal , because they did agree in all their opinions , and in all their words : but especially because they haue brought into the world a new art of equiuocation . o wonderfull , and incredible hypercritiques , who , not out of marble fragments , but out of the secretest records of hell it selfe : that is , out of the minds of lucifer , the ` pope , and ignatius , ( persons truly equiuocall ) haue raised to life againe the language of the tower of babel , 〈◊〉 long concealed , and brought vs againe frō vnderstanding one an other . for my part ( 〈◊〉 noble paire of emperours ) that i may freely cōfesse the truth all which i haue done , where soeuer there shall be mention made of the iesuites , can be reputed but childish ; 〈◊〉 this honor i hope will not 〈◊〉 denied me , that i brought 〈◊〉 an alphabet , & prouided certaine elements , & was som● kind of school maister in preparing them a way to highe● 〈◊〉 ; yet it grieu● me , and makes me ashamed that i should be ranked wit● this idle and chymaeri● copernicus , or this cadauero vulture , paracelsus . i scor● that those gates , into which such men could conceiue any hope of entrance , should not voluntarily flie open to mee : yet i can better endure the rashnesse and fellowship of paracelsus , then the other : because hee hauing beene conueniently practised in the butcheries , and mangling of men , hee had the reason to hope for fauour of the iesuites : for i my selfe went alwaies that way of bloud , and therefore i did euer preferre the sacrifices of the gentiles , and of the iewes , which were performed with effusion of bloud ( whereby not only the people , but the priests also were animated to bold enterprises ) befote the soft and wanto sacrifices of christians . if i might haue had my choyce , i should rather haue wished , that the romane church had taken the bread , then the wine , from the people , since in the wine there is some colour , to imagine and represent blood . neither did you , ( most reuerend bishop of this dioces , ignatius ) abhorre from this way of blood . for hauing consecrated your first age to the wars , and growne somewhat vnable to follow that course , by reason of a wound ; you did presently begin to thinke seriously of a spirituall warre , against the church , and found meanes to open waies , euer into kings chambers , for your executioners . which dignitie , you did not reserue onely to your own order , but ( though i must confesse , that the foundation , and the nourishment of this doctrine remaines with you , and is peculiar to you , out of your infinite liberalitie , ) you haue vouchsafed sometime , to vse the hands of other men in these imploiments . and therefore as well they , who haue so often in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it in england , as they which haue brought their great purposes to effect in fraunce , are indebted only to you for their courage and resolution . but yet although the entrance into this place may be decreed to none , but to innouators , and to onely such of them as haue dealt in christian businesse ; and of thē also , to those only which haue had the fortune to doe much harme , i cannot see but that next to the iesuites , i must bee inuited to enter , since i did not onely teach those wayes , by which , thorough perfidiousnesse and dissembling of religion , a 〈◊〉 might possesse , and vsurp● vpon the liberty of free commonwealths ; but also 〈◊〉 arme and furnish the people with my when they were ●nder 〈◊〉 oppression , they might 〈◊〉 est conspire , and 〈◊〉 tyrant , or reuenge them 〈◊〉 of their prince , and redeem their former losses ; so tha● from both sides , both from prince and people , i brough● an aboundant har●est , and noble encrease to this kingdome . by this time i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lucifer to bee muc● moued with this oration , and to incline much towards machiauel . for he did acknowledge him to bee a kind of patriarke , of those whom they call lay-men . and he had long obserued , that the clergie of rome 〈◊〉 downe to hell daily , easily , voluntarily , and by troupes , because they were accustomed to sinne against their consci●ence , and knowledge ; but that the layitte sinning out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and negligence of 〈◊〉 the truth , did rather offend by ignorance , and 〈◊〉 . and therefore he thought himselfe bound to reward machiauel , which had awakened 〈◊〉 drowsie and implicite lay● to greater , and more bloody ●ndertakings . besides this , 〈◊〉 ignatius could not bee ●enied the place , whose ambitions and turbulencies lucifer vnderstood very wel , he thought machiauel a fit and necessarie instrument to oppose against him ; that so the skales beeing kept euen by their factions , hee might gouerne in peace , and two poysons mingled might doe no harme . but hee could not hide this intention from ignatius , more subtil then the de●ill , and the verier lucifer of the two : therefore ignatius rushed out , threw himselfe downe at lucifers feet , and groueling on the ground adored him . yet certainly , vasques would not 〈◊〉 this idolatry , because in the shape of the 〈◊〉 hee worshipped him , whom hee accounted the true god. here ignatius cried and thundred out , with so great noise an horror , that had that powder taken fire , by which all the 〈◊〉 of britaine had flowne to the moone , it had not equalled this noise and horror . and when he was able to speak distinctly , thus hee spoke . it cannot be said ( vnspeakable emperour ) how much this obscure florentine hath transgressed against thee , and against the popo thy image-bearer , ( whether the word bee accepted , as gratian takes it , when he calles the scriptures , imaginarie bookes ; or as they take it , which giue that style to them who carrie the emperours image in the field ; ) and last of all against our order . durst any man before him , thinke vpon this kinde of iniurie , and calumnie , as to hope that he should be able to flatter , to catch , to entrap 〈◊〉 himselfe ? certainely , whosoeuer flatters any man , and presents him those praises , which in his owne opinion are not due to him , thinkes him inferiour to himselfe and makes account , that he hath taken him prisoner , and triumphs ouer him . who euer flatters , either he derides , or ( at the best ) instructs . for there may bee , euen in flattery , an honest kind of teaching , if princes , by being told that they are already induced with all vertues necessary for their functions , 〈◊〉 thereby taught what thos● vertues are , and by a facile exhortatiō , excited to endeauo to gaine them . but was it 〈◊〉 that this fellow , should dar● eitherto deride you , or ( which is the greater iniury ) to teach you ? can it be beleeued , that he delivers your praises from his heart , and doth not rather herein follow gratians leuity ; who saies , that you are called prince of the world , as a king at chests , or as the cardinall of rauenna , onely by derision ? this man , whilst he liued , attributed so much to his own wit , that hee neuer thought himselfe beholden to your helps , and insinuations ; and was so farre from inuoking you , or sacrificing to you , that he did not so much as acknowledge your kingdome , nor beleeue that there was any such thing in nature , as you . i must confesse , that hee had the same opinion of god also , and therefore deserues a place here , and a better then any of the pagan or gen●le idolaters : for , in euery idolatrie , and false worship , there is some religion , and some peruerse simplicitie , which tastes of humilitie ; from all which , this man was very free , when in his heart he vtterly denyed that there was any god. yet since he thought so in earnest , and beleeued that those things which hee affirmed were true , hee must not be rancked with them , which hauing beene sufficiently instructed of the true god , and beloueing him to be so , doe yet fight against him in his enemies armie . neither ought it to be imputed to vs as a fault , that sometimes in our exorcismes wee speake ill of you , and call you hereticke , and drunkard , and whisperer , and scabbed beast , and coniure the elements that they should not receiue you , and threaten you with indissoluble damnation , and torments a thousand thousand times worse then you suffer yet . for these things you know , are done out of a secret couenant and contract betweene vs , & out of mysteries , which must not bee opened to this neophite , who in our synagogue is yet but amongst the cathecumeni . which also we acknowledge of holy water , and our agnas dei , of which you doe so wisely dissemble a feare , when they are presented to you : for certainly , if there were any true force in them , to deliuer bodies from diseases , soules from sinnes , and the elements from spirits , and malignant impressions , ( as in the verses which vrban the fist sent with his agnus dei to the emperour it is pretended . ) it had beene reason , that they should first haue exercised their force vpon those verses , and so haue purged and deliuered them , if not from heresie , yet from barbarousnesse , and solecismes ; that heretiques might not iustly say , there was no truth in any of them , but onely the last ; which is , that the least peece which thēce doth fall , will doe one as much good as all . and though our order haue aduentured further in 〈◊〉 then the rest , yet that must be attributed to a speciall priuiledge , by which wee haue leaue to question any possessed person , of what matters we will ; wheras all other orders are miserably bound to the present matter , and the businesse then in hand . for , though i do not beleeue , that either from your selfe , or 〈◊〉 your 〈◊〉 the pope , any such priuiledge is issued ; yet our cotton deserues to be praised , who being questioned , how he durst propose certaine seditious interrogatories to a possessed person , to deliuer himselfe , 〈◊〉 such a priuiledge ; and with an vn-heard-of boldnesse , and a new kind of falsifying , did ( in a manner ) counterfeit lucifers hand and seale , since none but he onely could giue this priuiledge : but , if you consider vs out of this liberty in exorcismes , how humble and seruile we are towards you , the relations of peru testisie inough , where it is recorded , that when one of your angels at midnight appeared to our bareena alone in his chamber , hee presently rose out of his chaire , and gaue him the place , whom he professed to bee farre worthier thereof , then he was . but to proceed now to the iniuries , which this fellow hath done to the bishop of rome , although very much might be spoken , yet by this alone , his disposition may bee sufficiently discerned , that hee imputes to the pope , vulgar and popular sinnes , farre vnworthy of his greatnesse . weake praising , is a kind of accusing , and wee detract from a mans honour , if when wee praise him for small things , and would 〈◊〉 to haue said all , we conceale greater . perchāce this man had seen some of the catalogues of refer● cases , which euery yeare the popes encrease , and he might thinke , that the popes did therefore reserue these sinnes to themselves , that they only might commit them . but either hee is ignorant , or iniurious to them . for , can they bee thought to haue taken away the libertie of sinning from the people , who do not onely suffer men to keepe concubines , but sometimes doe commaund them ? who make s. peter beholden to the stewes , for part of his reuenue : and who excuse women from the infamous name of whore , till they haue deliuered thēselues ouer to 23000 men . the professors of which religion teach , that vniuersitie men , which keep whores in their chambers , may not be expeld for that , because it ought to be presumed before hand , that schollers will not li●e without them . shal he be thought to haue a purpose of deterring others frō sinne , which prouides so well for their security , that he teaches , that he may dispense in all the commaundements of the second table , & in all moral law , and that those commandements of the second table can neither be called principles , nor conclusions , necessarily deduced frō principles ? and therefore , ( as they euer loue that manner of teaching ) hee did illustrate his rule with an example , & dispensed in a mariage between brother and sister , and hath hoorded vp so many indulgēcies in one barne , the citie of rome , that it is easie for any man in an houre , or two , to draw out pardons inough for 100000 yeares . how cleare a witnesse of this liberality is leo 10 ? who only for rehearsing once the lords praier , and thrise repeating the name of icsu ( bee it spoken heere without horrour ) hath giuen 3000 yeares indulg● . how profuse a steward or auditor was boniface , who acknowledges so many indulgences to be in that one church of lateran , that none but god can nūber them ? besides these , plenary indulgences are giuen , not only to the franciscans themselues , but to their parents also : and to any which dies in their habit ; and to any which desire that they may do so ; and to those who are wrapped in it after death , though they did not desire it ; and fiue yeares indulgence to those who doe but kisse it . and at last , clement 7. by a priuiledge first giuen to one order , ( which since is communicated to our order , as the priuiledge of all other orders are ) gaue to any who should but visite a place belonging to them , or any other place , if hee could not come thither : or if he could come to no such place , yet if he had but a desire to it , all indulgences which had beene graunted , or heereafter should be graunted in the universal world . and though it be true , that if in any of these indulgences a certaine sum of money were limited to bee giuen ( as for the most part it is ; ) a poore man , which could not giue that money , though he were neuer so contrite for his sins , could haue no benefit thereby : and though gerson durst call those indulgences foolish , and superstitious , which gaue 20000. yeares pardon for rehearsing one praier , yet they do aboundantly testifie the popes liberall disposition , and that he is not so couetous in reseruing sinnes to himselfe ; but if perchance once in an hundred yeares , some one of the 〈◊〉 of the people be put to death for sodomy ; and that , not so much for the offence , as for vsurping the right of the ecclesiastique princes , wee must not much lament nor grudge at that , since it is onely done to discontinue , and interrupt a praescription , to gaine which title , the layety hath euer beene very forward against the clergie : for euen in this kinde of his delicacies , the pope is not so reserued and couetous , but that he allowes a taste thereof to his cardinals , whom you once called carpidineros , ( by an elegancy proper onely to your secritaries , the monkes ) in an epistle which you writ to one of that colledge : for since , the cardinals are so compacted into the pope and so made his owne body : that it is not lawfull for them , without licence first obtained from him , to be let bloud in a feuer , what may be denied vnto them ? or what kind of sin is likely to be left out of their glorious priuiledges , which are at least 200 ? which order the pope can no more remove out of the ecclesiastique hierarchy , then hee can bishops ; both because cardinals were instituted by god , and because the apostles themselves were cardinals before they were bishops . whom also in their creation he stiles his brothers , and princes of the world , & co-iudges of the whole earth : and to 〈◊〉 all : that there are so many kings as there are cardinals . o fearefull body ; and as in many other things , so in this especialy mōstrous , that they are not able to propagate their species : for all the cardinals in a vacacy are not able to make one cardinal more . to these men certainly the pope doth no more grudge the plurality of sins , then he doth of bonafices . and he hath beene content , that euen borgia shoud enioy this dignity , if hee hath heaped vp , by his ingenious wickednesse , more sorts of sins in one act , then ( as far as i know ) as any the popes thē selues haue attempted : for he did not only giue the full reine to his licentiousnesse , but raging with a second ambition , hee would also change the sex. therein also his stomacke was not towardes young beardlesse boyes , nor such greene fruit : for hee did not thinke , that hee went farre inough from the right sex , except hee had a manly , a reuerend , and a bearded venus . neither staied he there ; but his witty lust proceeded further : yet he sollicited not the minions of the popes ; but striuing to equall the licentiousnesse of sodomits , which would haue had the angels ; to come as neare them as hee could , hee tooke a cleargy-man , one of the portion and lot of the lord : and so made the maker of god , a priest subiect to his lust ; nor did hee seeke him out in a cloyster , or quire ; but that his venus might bee the more monstrous , hee would haue her in a mitre . and yet his prodigious lust was not at the height ; as much as hee could he added : and hauing found a 〈◊〉 , a cleargy-man , a bishop , he did not sollicite him with entreaties , & rewards , but rauished him by force . since then the popes doe , out of the fulnesse of their power , come to those kindes of sinne , which haue neither example nor name , in somuch that pope paulus venetus , which vsed to paint himselfe , & desired to seeme a woman , was called the goddesse cibele ( which was not without mysterie , since , prostitute boyes are sacred to that goddesse , ) and since they do not graunt ordinarily that liberty of practising sinnes , till they haue vsed their owne right and priuiledge of preuention and anticipation , this pratling fellow machiauel doth but treacherously , and dishonestly preuaricate , and betraie the cause , if hee thinke hee hath done inough for the dignity of the popes , when he hath affoorded to them sins common to all the world . the transferring of empires , rhe ruine of kingdomes , the excommunications , and depositions of kings , & deuastations by fire and sword , should haue bene produced as their marks & characters : for though the examples of the popes trāsferring the empire , which our men so much stand vpon , bee not indeede true , nor that the anciēt popes practised any such thing ; yet since the states-men of our order , wiser thē the rest , haue found how much this temporal iurisdictio ouer princes , cōduces to the growth of the church , they haue perswaded the popes , that this is not only lawfull for them , but often practised heeretofore : and therefore they prouide , that the canons and histories bec detorted to that opinion for though one of our order doe weaken that famous canon , nos sanctorum , which was vsed still to bee produced for this doctrine , yet hee did it then , when the king of great 〈◊〉 was to bee mollisied and sweetned towardes vs , and the lawes to bee mitigated , and when himselfe had put on the name eudamon . but let him returne to his true state , and professe himselfe a cacod●mon , & he will bee of our opinion . in which respect also wee may pardon our cudsemi● his rashnesse , whē he denies the english natiō to be heratiques , because they remain● in a perpetuall succession of bishops : for herein these men haue thought it fit , to follow , in their practise , that translation , which reades the words of paul : serue the time , and not that which saies : serue the lord. as for the iniury which this petty companion hath offered to our order , since in our wrongs , both yours , and the popes maiesty is wounded ; since to vs , as to your dictators , both you haue giuen that large and auncient commission : that wee should take care that the state take no harme , we cannot doubt of our reuenge : yet this aboue all the rest , doth especially vexe me , that when he calls me p●elate , and bishop , ( names which wee so much abhorre and detest ) i know well , that out of his inward malignity , hee hath a relation to bellarmines , and tolets sacrilegious vow-breaking ambitiōs , by which they imbraced the cardinalship , and other church-dignities : but heerein this poore fellow , vnacquainted with our affaires , is deceiued , being ignorant , that these men , by this act of beeing thus incorporated into the pope are so much the neerer to their center and finall happinesse , this chamber of lucifer , and that by the breach of a vow , which thē selues thought iust , they haue got a new title therunto : for the cardinalship is our martyrdome : & though not many of our order , haue had that strength , that they haue beene such martyrs , and that the popes themselues haue beene pleased to transferre this persecutiō into the other orders , who haue had more cardinals then wee ; yet without doubt , for such of ours which haue had so much courage , new crownes , and new garlands , appropriate to our martyrs , are prepared for them in this their heauen ; because , being inabled by greater meanes , they are fitter for greater mischiefes . wee therefore lament the weaknesse of our laynez , & our b●rgia , who refused the cardinalship offered by paulus 4. & iulius 3 ; ( for in this place and this meeting it is vnfit to say they did so ) euen amongst the auncient romans , when they sacrificed to you those sacrifices , which offered any resistance , were euer reputed vnaccepted : and therefore our bellarmine deserues much praise , who finding a new genius and courage in his new cardinalship , set out his retractations , & corrected all those places in his workes , which might any way bee interpreted in the fauour of princes . but let vs passe ouer all these things : for wee vnderstand one 〈◊〉 well inough ; and let vs more particularly consider those things , which this man , who pretends to exceed all auncient and moderne states-men , boasts to haue beene done by him . though truly no man will easily beleeue , that hee hath gone sarr in any thing , which did so tire at the beginning , or mid-way , that hauing seene the pope , and knowne him , yet could neuer come to the knowledge of the diuell . i know what his excuse and escape wil be : that things must not be extended insinitly ; that wee must consist and arrest somewhere , and that more meanes & instruments ought not to be admitted , where the matter may be dispatched by fewer . when therfore he was sure that the bishop of rome was the cause of all mischiefe , and the first mouer therof , he chose rather to settle & determine in him , then by acknowledging a di●el to induce a new tyrany , and to be driuen to confesse , that the pope had vsurped vpon the diuels right , which opinion , if any man bee pleased to maintaine , we do not forbid him● but yet it must be an argumēt to vs of no very nimble wit , if a man do so admire the pope , that he leaue out the diuell , and so worship the image , without relation to the prototipe and first patterne . but besides this , how idle , and how very nothings they are , which he hath shoueld together in his bookes , this makes it manifest , that some of euery religion , and of euery profession , haue risen vp against him , and no man attempted to defend him : neither doe i say this , because i thinke his doctrine the worse for that , but it is therefore the lesse artificially c●rried , and the lesse able to worke those endes to which it is directed . for our parts wee haue not proceeded so : for wee haue dished & dressed our precepts in these affaired , with such cunning , that when our owne men produce them to ensnare and establish our puples , then we put vpon them the maiesty and reuerence of the doctrine of the church , and of the common opinion : but when our aduersaries alleadge thē , either to cast enuy vpon vs , or to deterre the weaker sort , then they are content with a lower roome , and vouchsafe to step aside into the ranck of priuate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and the canons themselues are with vs sometimes glorious , in their mitres & pontificall habits , & sound nothing but meere diuine resolutions out of the chaire it selfe , and so haue the sorce of oracles ; somtimes we say they are ragged & lame , & do but whisper with a doubtfull and vncertaine murmure , a hollow cloistral , or an eremitical voice , & so haue no more authority , then those poore men which writ them : sometimes we say they were but rashly thrown into the peoples ears out of pulpits , in the homilies of fathers ; sometimes that they were deriued out of such councels as suffered abortion , and were del●uered of their children , which are their canons , before inanimation , which is the popes assent , or out of such councels , as are now discontinued and dead , ( howsoeuer they remained long time in vse and liuely & in good state of health ) and therefore cannot be thought sit to be vsed now , or applyed in ciuil businesses ; sometimes wee say the popes voyce is in them all by his approbation ; sometimes that onely the voyce of those authors , from whom they are taken , speakes in them . and acordingly we deliuer diners and various ` phylosophy vpon our gratian , who compiled them ; sometimes we allow him the honour and dignity of diamonds and the nobler sort of stones , which haue both their cleerenesse , and their firmenesse fromthis , that that they are compacted of lesse parts , and atomes , then others are : and so is grat●ian ; whom for the same cause , sometimes we account but a hil of many sands cast together , and very 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 any foundation . i must confesse , that the fathers of our order , out of a youthfull siercenesse , which made them dare and vndertake any thing ( for our order was scarce at yeares at that time ) did amisse in inducing the councell of trent to establish certaine . rules & definitions , 〈◊〉 which it might not be lawfull to depart : for indeed there is no remedy , but that sometimes we must depart frō them : nor can it be dissembled , that both the writers of our order , and the dominicans haue departed from them in that great war and tragedy lately raised at rome , about grace & free-wil . for it is not our purpose , that the writings of our men should be so ratified , that they may not be changed , so that they bee of our order which change them : so by the same liberty , which 〈◊〉 ioannes hath taken in deliuering the king of britaine frō the danger of deposition ; ( because as yet no sentence is giuen against him ) and also frō many other canons , which others thinke may iustly bee discharged against him , it will be as lawfull for vs , when that kingdome shal be inough stupified with this our opin̄ , to restore those canons to their former vigor , and to awake that state out of her lethergy , either with her owne heat , intestine warre , or by some medicine , drawne frō other places : for princes haue all their securities frō our indulgence , and from the slacke & gentle interpretatiō of the canōs : they are but priuileges , which since they are deriued , & receiue life from vs , they may be by vs diminished , reuoked , & anulled : for as it was lawfull for mariana to depart from the doctrine of the 〈◊〉 of constance , so it was lawfull for cotton to depart from 〈◊〉 which , notwithstāding , wee would haue onely lawfull for our order , to whō it is giuen to know times , and secrets of state : for we see the sorbonist● themselues , ( which may seeme to haue an aristocratical papacie amongst thēselues ) though they laboured to destroy the doctrine of 〈◊〉 , did yet wisely forbeare to name him , or any other iesuit , which was a modesty that i did not hope for at their hands ; since , before i i dyed , they made one decree against 〈◊〉 but yet therein , i thinke some what may bee attributed to my patience , & 〈◊〉 ; who knowing their strength , and our owne infancy forbad all of my order to make any answere to that ` decree of theirs : neither were we so herculean as to offer to strangle serpents in our cradle . but yet since after that time , they haue beene often prouoked by our men : ( for i gaue not so iron a rule & precepts to my disciples , as francis did to his who would not haue his rule applyed to times & to new occasions ) certainly they might haue bin excused , if they had beene at this time sharper against vs. and if the parliament of paris thought it not fit to carry the matter so modestly in their arrest against mariana , but made both the booke , and the doctrine , and the man , infamous : what should wee say more of it , but that it is a gyant , and a wilde beast , which our men could neuer tame : for still it cryes and howles , the pope is bound to proceede lawfully , and canonically : and this they malitiously interprete of their owne lawes , and of auncient canons , which they hope to bring into vse againe , by an insensible way of arrest , and sentences in that court. this then is the point of which wee accuse machiuell , that he carried not his mine so safely , but that the enemy perceiued it still . but wee , who haue receiued the church to be as a ship , do freely saile in the deep sea ; we haue an anchor , but wee ha●e not cast it yet , but keepe it euer in our power , to cast it , and weigh it at our pleasure . and we know well enough , that as to sailing shippes , so to our sailing church , all rocks , all promontories , all firme and fast places are dangerous , and threaten shipwracke , and therefore to bee auoyded , and liberty and sea-roome to bee affected ; yet i doe not obstinatly say , that there is nothing in machiuels commentary , which may bee of vse to this church . certainely there is very much ; but wee are not men of that pouerty , that wee neede begge from others , nor dignify those things with our prayers , which proceede not from our selues . the senate of rome gaue vs heeretofore a noble example of this temperance and abstinence , which therefore refused to place christ amongst their gods , because the matter was proposed by the emperour , and begunne not in themselues . as for that particular , wherein machiauel vseth especially to glory ; which is , that he brought in the liberty of dissembling , and lying , it hath neither foundation nor colour : for not onely plato , and other fashioners of common 〈◊〉 , allowed the libertie of lying , to magistrates , & to physicians ; but we also cōsidring the fathers of the church , origen , chrysostome , hierom , haue not onely found that doctrine in them , but wee haue also deliuered them from all imputation , & reprehension by this euasion : that it was lawfull for them to maintaine that opinion , till some definition of the church had established the contrarie . which certainely , ( though this should not be so openly spoken of ) as yet was neuer done . but yet wee haue departed from this doctrine of free lying , though it were receiued in practise , excused by the fathers , strengthened by examples of 〈◊〉 & angels , in the scriptures , and so almost established by the law of 〈◊〉 , and nature ; onely for this reason , because we were not the first authors of it . but we haue supplied this losse with another doctrine , lesse suspitious ; and yet of as much vse for our church ; which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and mixt 〈◊〉 . the libertie therefore of lying , is neither new , not safe as almost all machiauells precepts are so stale and obsol●te , that our serarius vsing i must confesse his lesuiticall liberty of w●lde anticipation , did not doubt to call herod , who liued so long before machiuell , a machiauellian . but that at one blow wee may cut off all his reasons , & all his hopes , this i affirme , this i pronounce ; that all his bookes , and all his deedes , tend onely to this , that thereby a way may be prepared to the ruine & destructiō of that part of this kingdome , which is established at rome : for what else doth hee endeauor or go about , but to change the forme of comon-wealth , and so to depriue the people ( who are a soft , a liquid and ductile mettall , and apter for our impressions ) of all their liberty ; & hauing so destroyed all ciuility & re-publique , to reduce all states to monarchies ; a name which in secular states , wee doe so much abhor , ( i cannot say it without teares , ) but i must say it , that not any one monarch is to be found , which either hath not withdrawne himselfe wholy frō our kingdome , or wounded & endamadged in some weighty point ; hereupon our cotton confesses , that the authority of the pope is incomparably lesse then it was , and that now the christiā church , ( which can agree to none but the 〈◊〉 , ) is but a diminutiue . and herevpon also it is , that the cardinal , who were wont to meete oftner , meete now but once in a weeke , because the businesses of the court of rome growe fewer . to forbeare therefore mentioning of the kings of britaine , and denmarke , and the other monarkes of the first sort , which haue vtterly cast off rome ; euen in france , our enemies are so much encreased , that they equal vs almost in number : and for their strength , they haue this aduantage aboue vs , that they agree within themselues , and are at vnity with their neighbour resourmed churches ; whereas our men , which call themselues catholick there , doe so much differ from the romane catholick , that they do not onely preferre councels , but euen the king , before the pope , and euermore oppose those their two great gyants , gog and magog , their parliament of paris , and their colledge of sorbon , against all our endeauours . besides all this , we languish also miserably in spaine , where cleargy men , if they breake their fealty to their lord , are accused of treason ; where ecclesiasticall persons are subject to secular 〈◊〉 ment , and , if they be sacrilegious , are burnt by the ordinarie magistrate ; which are doctrines and practises , contrary , and dangerous to vs. and though they will seeme to haue giuen almost halfe the kingdome to the church , and so to haue diuided equally ; yet those graunts are so infected , with pensions , and other burdens , by which the kings seruants , and the younger sons of great persons are maintained , that this greatnesse of the church there is rather a dropsie , then a sound state of health , established by welconcocted nourishment , and is rather done , to cast an eouy vpon the church , then to giue any true maiestie to it . and euen in vsurping ec●siasticall ●sdiction , the kings of spaine haue not onely exceeded the kings of fraunce , but also of britany . for ( says baronius of that king ) there is nowrisen vp a new head , a 〈◊〉 , and a wonder . he excommunicates , and he absolues : and he practiseth this power euen against bishops , and cardinals : he stops appeales , and he acknowledges no superiority 〈◊〉 the sea of rome , but 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of preuention : and therefore , the name monarch , is a hateful and execrable name to vs. against which , baronius hath thundred with such violence , such fiercenesse , and such bitternesse , that i could hardly adde any thing thereunto , if i should speake ( vnspeakable emperour ) with thine owne tongue : for he cals it an adulterine name , and a tower of babel , and threatens destruction to that king ( though himselfe were his subiect ) except he forbeare the name . in the meane time , he resolues him to be a tyran● , and pronounces him to stand yearely excommunicate by the bulla 〈◊〉 . neither doth he offer to desend himselfe with any other excuse , when a cardinall reprehended his fiercenes towards the king , then this ; 〈◊〉 imperions zeale , hath no power to spare god himselfe . and yet he confesseth , that this zeale was kindled by the popes speciall commaund , and by his oath taken , as cardinall . neither hath our bellarmine almost any other cause of aduauncing monarchicall gouernmēt so much as he doth , then thereby to remoue all secular men from so great a dignitie , and to reserue it only to the church . it was therfore well done of that rebullus ( who now begins to bee knowne in this state ) when hauing surfeited with calumnies against the french church , and her ministers , he hath dared of late to draw his pen , and to ioyne battell against a most puissant forraine prince : hee did well ( i say ) and fitly , when hee called bellarmine and baronius , the sword and buckler of the romane church . and i cannot choose but thanke him for affoording the title of sword to our order ; as well , because after so many expositions of those words , ( behold , heere are two 〈◊〉 ) which our side hath gathered , to establish a temporall iurisdiction in the pope , and which our aduersaries haue remoued , worne out , or scorned , this man hath relieued vs with a new , and may seeme to intend by the two swords , the popes excommunications , and the iesuites 〈◊〉 , and king-killings ; as also because he hath reserued to our order that soueraigne dignity , that as god himselfe was pleased to defend his paradice with fire and sword , so we stand watchfull vpon the borders of our church , not onely prouided , as that cherubin was with sire and sword , but with the later inuention of gunpowder ; about the first inuentour whereof i wonder , why antiquaries should contend , whether it were the diuell or a frier , since that may be all one . but as ( o vnspeakable emperour ) you haue almost in all things endeuoured to imitate god : so haue you most throughly performed it in vs ; for when god attempted the reformation of his church , it became you also to reforme yours . and accordingly by your capuchins , you did reforme your franciscans ; which , before we arose , were your chiefest labourers , and workemen : and after , you reformed your capuchins , by your recolets . and when you perceiued that in the church of god , some men proceeded so farre in that reformation , that they endeuoured to draw out , not onely all the peccant and dangerous humours , but all her beautie , and exteriour grace and ornament , and cuen her vitall spirits , with her corrupt bloud , & so induce a leannesse , and il-fauourednes vpon her , and thought to 〈◊〉 a rigid coldnesse with a 〈◊〉 , you also were pleased to follow that example , and so , in vs , did reforme , and awaken to higher enterprise , the dispositions as well of the circumcellions , as of the assassins : for we do not limit our selues in that lowe degree of the circumcellions , when we vrge and prouoke ohers to put vs to death ; nor of the assassins which were hired to kill some kings , which passed through their quarter : for we exceed them both , because wee doe these things voluntarily , for nothing , & euery where . and as wee will bee exceeded by none , in the thing it selfe : so to such things as may seeme mysticall and significant , wee oppose mysticall things . and so , least that canon ; that no clergy-man should weare a knife with a point , might seeme to concerne vs , by some prophetical relation , we in our rules haue opposed this precept : that our knife be often whetted , & so kept in an apt readines for all vses : for our diuination lies in the cōtemplation of entrails ; in which art we are thus much more subtile then those amongst the old romans , that wee consider not the entrails of beasts , but the entrails of souls , in confessions , and the entrails of princes , in treasons ; whose hearts wee do not beleeue to be with vs , till we see them : let therefore this pratling secretary hold his tōgue , and be content that his booke be had in such reputation , as the world affoords to an ephemerides , or yearely almanack , which being accōmodated to certaine places , & certaine times , may be of some short vse in some certaine place : and let the rules and precepts of his disciples , like the canons of prouincial councels bee of force there , where they were made , but onely ours which pierce , and passe through all the world , retaine the strength and vigour of vniuersall councels . let him enioy som honourable place amongst the gentiles ; but abstaine frō all of our sides : neither when i say , our side , doe i only meane moderne men : for in all times in the romane church there haue bene friers which haue farr exceeded machiauel . truely i thought this oration of ignatius very long : and i began to thinke of my body which i had so long abandoned , least it should putrifie , or grow mouldy , or bee buried ; yet i was loath to leaue the stage , till i saw the play ended : and i was in hope , that if any such thing should befall my body , the iesuits , who work miracles so familiarly , & whose reputation i was so careful of in this matter , would take compassion vpon me , and restore me againe . but as i had sometimes obserued feathers or strawes swimme on the watersface , brought to the bridge , where through a narrow place the water passes , throwne backe , and dela●d ; and hauing daunc'd a while , and nimbly plai'd vpon the watry circles , then haue bin by the streames liquid snares , and iawes , suck'd in and suncke into the wombe of that s●olne bourne , leaue the beholder desperate of returne : so i saw machiauel often put forward , and often thrust back , and at last vanish . and looking earnestly vpon lucifers 〈◊〉 , i perceiued him to bee affected towardes ignatius , as princes , who though they enuy and grudge , that their great officers should haue such immoderate meanes to get wealth ; yet they dare not complaine of it , least thereby they should make them odious and contemptible to the people : so that lucifer now suffered a new hell : that is , the danger of a popular diuell , vaine-glorious , and inclined to innouations there . therefore he determined to withdraw himselfe into his inward chamber , and to admit none but ignatius : for he could not exclude him , who had deserued so well ; neither did hee thinke it safe to stay without , & giue him more occasiōs to amplifie his owne worth , & vnder-value all thē there in publique , and before so many vulgar diuels . but as hee rose , a whole army of soules besieged him . and all which had inuented any new thing , euen in the smallest matters , thronged about him , and importuned an admission . euen those which had but inuented new attire for woemen , & those whom pancirollo hath recorded in his commentaries for inuention of porcellandishes , of spectacles , of quintans , of stirrups , and of cauiari , thrust themselues into the troupe . and of those , which pretended that they had squared the circle , the nūber was infinite . but ignatius scattered all this cloud quickly , by commaunding , by chiding , by deriding , and by force & violence . amongst the rest , i was sory to see him vse peter aretine so ill as he did : for though ignatius told him true when he boasted of his licentious pictures , that because he was not much learned , hee had left out many things of that kind , with which the ancient histories & poëmes abound ; and that therefore aretine had not onely not added any new inuention , but had also taken away all courage and spurres frō youth , which would rashly trust , and relie vpon his diligence , and seeke no further , & 〈◊〉 loose that infinite & precious treasure of antiquitie . he added moreouer , that though raderus , and others of his order , did vse to gelde poets , and other authors : ( and heere i could not choose but wonder , why they haue not gelded their vulgar edition , which in some places hath such obscene words as the hebrew tongue , which is therefore also called holy , doth so much abhorre , that no obscene things can be vttered in it ) insomuch , that ( as one of them very subtilly notes ) the starre of venus is very seldome called by that name in the scripture : for how could it be , the word being not hebrew ? yet ( said hee ) our men doe not geld them to that purpose , that the memory thereof should bee abolished ; but that when themselues had first tried , whether tiberius his spintria , & martialis symple●ma , and others of that kinde , were not rather chimeraes , & speculations of luxuriant wits , then things certaine & constant , and such as might bee reduced to an art and methode in licentiousnes : for iesuits neuer con● thēselues with the theory in thing , but straight proceed to practise ) they might after communicate them to their owne disciples and nouitiates : for this church is fruitfull in producing sacraments ; and being now loaded with diuine sacraments , it produces morall sacraments . in which , as in the diuine , it bindes the layety to one species ; but they reserue to themselues the diuers formes , and the secrets and mysteries in this matter , which they finde in the authors whom they geld . of which kind i thinke they giue a little glimmering and intimation , when in the life of their last made goddesse , francisca romana , they say : that the bed where shee lay with her husband , was a perpetuall martyrdome to her , and a shop of miracles . but for all this , since aretine was one , who by a long● custome of libellous & contumelious speaking against princes , had got such a habit , that at last he came to diminish and dis-esteeme god himselfe . i wonder truly , that this arch-iesuite , though hee would not admit him to any eminent place in his triumphant church , should deny him an office of lower estimation : for truly to my thinking , he might haue beene fit , either to serue ignatius , as maister of his pleasures , or lucifer as his crier : for whatsoeuer lucifer durst think , this man durst speake . but ignatius , who thought himselfe sufficient for all vses , thrust him away , and when he offered vpward , offered his staffe at him : nor did he vse christopher columbus with any better respect ; who hauing found all waies in the earth , & sea open to him , did not feare any difficulty in hell , but when hee offered to enter , ignatius staid him , & said : you must remember , sir , that if this kingdome haue got any thing by the discouery of the west indies , al that must be attributed to our order : for if the opinion of the dominicans had preuailed , that the inhabitants should be reduced , onely by preaching and without violence , certainely their 200000 of men would scarce in so many ages haue beene brought to a 150 which by our meanes was so soone performed . and if the law , made by ferdinando , onely against canibals ; that all which would not bee christians should bee bondslaues , had not beene extended into other prouinces , wee should haue lacked men , to digg vs out that benefite , which their countries affoord . except we when wee tooke away their old idolatrie , had recompenced them with a new one of ours ; except we had obtruded to those ignorant and barbarous people , sometimes naturall things , sometimes artificiall , and counterfeit , in steed of miracles ; & except we had ben alwaies ready to conuey , & to apply this medicine made of this pretious americā drug , vnto the princes of europe , & their lords , & counsellours , the prof●te by the onely discouery of these places ( which must of necessity bee referred to fortune ) would haue beene very little ; yet i praise your perseuerance , and your patience ; which since that seemes to be your principall vertue ) you shall haue good occasion to exercise heere , when you remaine in a lower and remoter place , then you thinke belongs to your merits . but although lucifer being put into a heate , and almost smothered with this troupe and deluge of pretenders , seemed to haue admitted ignatius , as his lieutenant , or legat a latere , and trusted him with an absolute power of doing what hee would , yet he quickly spied his owne errour , and danger thereby . he began to remember how forcibly they 〈◊〉 to vrge the canon alius ; by which the king of fraunce is sayd to haue beene deposed , not for his wickednesse , but for his infirmity , and vnfitnesse to gouerne : and that kings do forfeit their dignity , if they giue them selues to other matters , and leaue the gouernment of the state to their officers . therefore lucifer thought it time for him to enter into the businesse , least at last ignatius should prescribe therein ; by which title of prescription he well knew , how much the church of rome doth aduaunce and defend it selfe against other princes . and though he seemed very thankfull to ignatius , for his deliuery from this importunate company , yet when he perceiued , that his scope and purpose was , to keepe all others out , he thought the case needed greater consideration ; for though he had a confidence in his owne patriarkes , which had long before possest that place , and in whose company ( as an abbot said to the diuell , who after long intermission , now tempted him ) hee was growne old , and do●bted not but that they would defend their right , and oppose themselues against any innouation , which ignatius should practise , yet if none but hee in a whole age should bee brought in , hee was afraid , that this singularity would both increase his courage and spirit , and their reuerence , and respect towards him . casting therefore his eyes into euery corner , at last a great way off , hee spied ` phillip nerius : who acknowledging in his owne particular no especiall merit towardes this kingdome , forbore to presse neere the gate ; but lucifer called to his remembrance , that nerius and all that order , of which hee was the author , which is called congregatio oratorij , were erected , aduaunced , and dignisyed by the pope , principally to this end , that , by their incessant sermons to the people , of the liues of saints and other ecclesiastique antiquities , they might get a new reputation , and so the torrent , and generall superstition towards the iesuits , might grow a little remisser , and luke-warme : for at that time the pope himselfe beganne to bee afraid of the iesuites , for they begunne to publish their paradox of confession and absolution to bee giuen by letters , and messengers , and by that meanes to draw the secrets of all princes onely to themselues ; and they had tried and sollicited a great monarch , who hath manie designes vpon italy , against the pope , & deliuered to that prince diuerse articles , for the reforming of him . now the pope and lucifer loue euer to follow one anothers example : and therefore that which the one had done in the middle world , the other attempted in the lower . hereupō he called for philip nerius , and gaue him many euidences of a good inclination towards him . but nerius was too stupid , to interprete them aright . yet ignatius spied them , and before lucifer should declare himselfe any further , or proceed too farre herein , least after he were farre engaged , there should be no way , to auert or withdraw him from his owne propositions ( for he saw there must be respect had of his honour and constancy ) hee thought it fittest to oppose now at the beginning . he sayd therfore , that he now perceiued , that lucifer had not bene altogether so much conuersant with philip as with the iesuits , since he knew not , how much philip had euer professed himselfe an enemy to him . a for he did not onely deny all visions , and apparitions , b and commaunded one to spit in maries face , when she appeared againe , because he thought it was the diuell ; c and droue away an other that came to tempt a sicke man , in the shape of a phisition ; d and was hardly drawne to beleeue any possessings ; but e when three diuels did meete him in the way , to afright him , he neither thought them worthy of any exorcisme , nor so much as the signe of the crosse , but meerely went by them , as though he scorned to look at thē , & so despighted thē with that negligēce . it may be that hee hath drawne others into religion , but himselfe remained then in the layety ; in so much as i remember , that f i vsed to call him , the saints bell , that hangs without , and cals others into the church . g neither doe they which follow this order , bind themselues with any vow or oath ; neither do i know any thing for which this h kingdome is beholding to him , but that he moued baronius to write his annals . to all this nerius sayde nothing , as though it had beene spoken of some body else . without doubt , either he neuer knew , or had forgot that he had done those things which rhey write of him . but lucifer himselfe tooke the boldnesse ( hauing with some difficultio got ignatius leaue ) to take nerius his part : and proceeded so farre , that he aduentured to say , that baronius , bozius , and others , which proceeded out of the hyue of nerius , had vsed a more free , open , and hard fashion against princes , and better prouided for the popes direct iurisdiction vpon all kingdomes , and more stoutly defēded it , then they ; which vndertaking the cause more tremblingly , then becomes the maiestie of so great a businesse , adhered to ` bellarmines sect , and deuised such crooked wayes , and such perplexed intanglings , as by reason of the various , and vncertaine circumstances , were of no vse : and that whatsoeuer nerius his schollers had performed , must be attributed to him , as the fruit to the roote . ignatius perceiuing that lucifer vndertooke all offices for nerius , and became iudge , aduocate , and witnesse , pursuing his former resolution , determined to interrupt him , least when hee had enlarged himselfe in nerius commendation , hee should thereby bee bound to a reward . he therefore cried out , what hath nerius done ? what hath he , or his followers put in execution ? haue they not euer bene onely exercised in speculations , and in preparatory doctrines ? are these bookes which are written of the iurisdiction of the pope , to any better vse then phisitians lectures of diseases , and of medicines ? whilest these receits lie hid in phisitians bookes , and no body goes to the patient ; no body applies the medicine to the disease , what good , what profit comes by all this ? what part ; what member of this languishing body haue they vndertaken ? in what kingdome haue they corrected these humours , which offend the pope , either by their incision or cauterising ? what state haue they cut vp into an ●natomy ? what sceletō haue they prouided for the instruction of posterity ? do do they hope to cure their diseases , by talking and preaching , as it were with charmes and enchantments ? if nerius shall bee thought worthy of this honour , and this place , because out of his schollers writings something may be gleaned , which may be applied to this purpose , why should we not haue beza and caluin , and the rest of that sort here in hell , since in their bookes there may be some things found , which may be wrefted to this purpose ? but , since their scope was not to extirpate monarchies , since they publis●ed no such canons and aphorismes as might be applied to all cases , and so brought into certaine vse & consequence , but limited theirs to circumstances which seldome fall out , since they deliuered nothing dangerous to princes , but where , in their opinion , the souereignty resided in the people , or in certaine ephori , since they neuer said , that this power to violate the perso of a prince , might either be takē by any priuate man , or committed to him , & that therefore none of their disciples hath euer boasted of hauing done any thing vpon the person of his soueraigne : we see that this place hath euer bene shut against them : there haue bene some few of thē ( though i can scarce affoord those mē the honour to number them with knox , and goodman , and buchanan ) which following our examples haue troubled the peace of some states , and beene iniurious to some princes , and haue beene admitted to some place in this kingdome ; but since they haue performed nothing with their hands , nor can excuse themselues by saying , they were not able : ( for wherein was clement , or rauillac more able then they ; or what is not he able to doe in the middest of an army , who despiseth his owne life ? ) they scarce euer aspire , or offer at this secret and sacred chamber . lucifer had a purpose to haue replied to this : that perchaunce all their hands which had bin imbrued in the bowels of princes , were not so immediatly armed by the iesuits , as that they were euer present at all consultations and resolutions : ( and yet he meant to say this , not as sworne witnesse , but as lucifer himselfe , & the father of lies , in which capacitie he might say any thing ) but that it was inough that confessours do so possesse them with that doctrine , that it is not now proposed to them as phisicke , but as naturall food , and ordinarie diet ; and that therfore for the performance of these things , a iesuits person is no more requisite , then that the heart of a man , because it sends forth spirits into euery limbe , should therefore bee present in euery limbe : that when it was in vse for the consuls of rome for the safety of their country and army , to deuote themselues ouer to the infernall god , it was lawfull for themselues to absteine and forbeare the act , and they might appoint any souldier for that sacrifice : and that so the iesuites for the performance of their resolutions , might stirre vp any amongst the people : ( for now they enioy all the priuiledges , of the franciscans , who say ; that the name of people comprehends all which are not of their order : ) and that if this be granted , nerius his schollers are inferiour to none ; with whose bookes ( if all the iesuites should perish ) the church might content herselfe , and neuer feare dearth nor leanenesse . this lucifer would haue spoken ; but hee thought it better and easier to forbeare : for hee obserued , that ignatius had giuē a signe , & that all his troupes which were many , subtile , & busie , set vp their bristles , grumbled , and compacted themselues into one body , gathered , produced , and vrged all their euidence , whatsoeuer they had done , or suffered . there the english legion , which was called capistrata , which campian led , and ( as i thinke ) garnet concluded , was fiercer then all the rest . and as though there had beene such a second martyrdome to haue beene suffered , or as though they might haue put off their immortalitie , they offered themselues to any imploiment . therefore lucifer gaue n●rius a secret warning to withdraw himselfe , & spoke no more of him ; and despairing of bringing in an other , began earnestly to thinke , how hee might leaue ignatius out . this therefore he said to him : i am sorry my ignatius , that i can neither find in others , deserts worthy of this place , nor any roome in this place worthy of your deserts . if i might die , i see there would be no longe strife for a successour : for if you haue not yet done that act which i did at first in heauen , and thereby got this empire , this may excuse you , that no man hath beene able to tell you what it was : for if any of the auncients say true , when they call it pride , or licentiousnesse , or lying : or if it be in any of the casuistis , which professe the art of sinning , you cānot be accused of hauing omitted it . but since i may neithor forsake this kingdome , nor diuide it , this onely remedy is left : i will write to the bishop of rome : he shall call galilaeo the florentine to him ; who by this time hath throughly instructed himselfe of all the hills , woods , and cities in the new world , the moone . and since he effected so much with his first glasses , that he faw the moone , in so neere a distance , that hee gaue himselfe satisfaction of all , and the least parts in her , when now being growne to more perfection in his art , he shall haue made new glasses , and they receiued a hallowing from the pope , he may draw the moone , like a boate floating vpon the water , as neere the earth as he will. and thither ( because they euer claime that those imployments of discouery belong to them ) shall all the iesuites bee transferred , and easily vnite and reconcile the lunatique church to the romane church , without doubt , after the iesuites haue been there a litle while , there will soone grow naturally a hell in that world also : ouer which , you ignatius shall haue dominion , and establish your kingdome & dwelling there . and with the same ease as you passe from the earth to the moone , you may passe frō the moone to the other starrs , which are also thought to be worlds , & so you may beget and propagate many hells , & enlarge your empire , & come neerer vnto that high seate , which i left at 〈◊〉 . ignatius had not the patience to stay till lucefer had made an end ; but as soone as hee saw him pause , and take breath , and looke , first vpon his face , to obserue what changes were there , and after to cast his eye to an other place in hell where a great noyse was suddenly raysed : hee apprehended this intermission , and as though lucifer had ended , he said : that of lucifers affection to the romane church , and to their order euery day produced new testimonies : and that this last was to bee accounted as one of the greatest . that he knew well with how great deuotion the bishop of rome did euer embrace and execute all counsels proceeding from him : and that therefore he hoped , that hee would reserue that imployment for the 〈◊〉 , and that empire for him their founder : and that he beleeued the pope had thought of this before ; and at that time when he put parsons the english iesuite in hope of a cardinalship , hee had certainly a reference to this place , and to this church : that it would fall out shortly , that all the damages , which the romane church hathlately suffered vpon the earth , shall bee recompenced onely there . and that , now this refuge was opened , if she should be reduced into greater streights , or if she should be vtterly exterminated , the world would not much lament and mourne for it . and for the entertainment of the iesuites there , there can be no doubt made at this time , when , ( although their profession bee to enter whether princes will or no ) all the princes of the world will not onely graciously affoord them leaue to goe , but willingly and cheerfully accompany them with certificates , and dimissory letters . nor would they much resist it , if the pope himselfe would vouchsafe to go with them , and so fulfill in some small measure , that prophecy of his gerson , de auferibilitate papae . besides this a woman gouernes there ; of which sex they haue euer made their profite , which haue attempted any innouation in religion ; with how much diligence were the two empresses pulcheria & eudoxia sollicited by the pope for the establishing of easter ? how earnestly did both pelagius and the pope striue by their letters to draw the empresse to their side ? for since ●ulia had that honour giuen to her in publique coines , that she was called the mother of the armie , the mother of the gods , and of the senate , and the mother of her countrie ; why may not woemen instructed by vs , be called mothers of the church ? why may not wee relie vpon the wit of woemen , when , once , the church deliuered ouer her selfe to a woman-bishop ? and since wee are reputed so fortunate in obtaining the fauour of woemen , that woemen are forbid to come into our houses ; and we are forbid , to take the charge of any nunnes ; since we haue had so good experience of their fauour in all the ●dies , or at lest haue thought it fit , that they which haue the charge to write our anniuersary letters from thence should make that boast , and adde something to the truth , both because the auncient heretiques helde that course in insinuating their opinions , and because they which are acquainted with our practises will think any thing credible , which is written of vs in that behalfe , why should wee doubt of our fortune in this queene , which is so much subiect to alterations , and passions ? she languishes often in the absence of the sunne , and often in ecclipses falles into swounes , and is at the point of death . in these aduantages we must play our parts , & put our deuises in practise : for at these times any thing may be drawne from her . nor must we forbeare to try , what verses , and incantations may worke vpon her : for in those things which the poets writ , though they themselues did not beleeue them , we haue since found many truths , and many deep mysteries : nor can i call to minde any woman , which either deceiued our hope , or scaped our cunning , but elizabeth of england ; who might the rather be pardoned that , because she had put off all affections of woemen . the principall dignity of which sex , ( which is , to be a mother ) what reason had she to wish , or affect , since without those womanish titles , vnworthy of her , of wife , & mother , such an heire was otherwise prouided for her , as was not fit to be kept any longer from the inheritance . but when i , who hate them , speake thus much in the honour of these two princes , i finde my selfe caried with the same fury , as those beasts were , which our men say , did sometime adore the host in the masse . for it is against my will , that i pay thus much to the manes of elizabeth ; from scorning of which word manes , when the king of great brittaine writ it , i would our parsons had forborne , fi●e one of our owne iesuits vseth the same word , when reprehending our aduersaries , he says , that they do insult vpon garnets manes . and yet this elizabeth was not free from all innovation ; for the ancient relioion was so much worne out , that to reduce that to the former dignity , and so to renew it , was a kinde of lanouation : and by this way of innouating shee satisfied the infirmity of her sex , if shee suffered any : for a little innouation might serue her , who was but a little a woman . neither dare i say , that this was properly an innovation , lest there by i should confesse that luther and many others which liue in banishment in heaven farre from vs , might haue a title to this place , as such innouators . but we cannot doubt , but that this lunatique . queene will be more inclinable to our innouations : for our clauius hath beene long familiarly conu●sant with her , what she hath done from the beginning , what she wil do hereafter , how she behaues herselfe towardes her neighbour kingdoms , the rest of the starrs , & all the planetary , & firmamentary worlds ; with whom she is in league , & amity , and with whom at difference , he is perfectly instructed , so he haue his ephemerides about him . but claui● is too great a personage to be best owed vpon this lunatique queene , either as her counsellour , or ( which were more to our profit ) as her cōfessor . so great a man must not bee cast away vpon so small a matter . nor haue we any other besides , whom vpon any occasion we may send to the sunne , or to the other worlds , beyond the world . therefore wee must reserue clauius for greater vses . our herbestus , or busaeus , or voellus ( and these bee all which haue giuen any proofe of their knowledge in mathematiques ) although they bee but tastlesse , and childish , may serue to obserue her asspects , and motions , and to make catechisones fit for this lunatique church : for though garnet had clauius for his maister , yet he profited little in the arts , but being filled with bellarmines dictates , ( who was also his maister ) his minde was all vpon politiques . when wee are established there , this will adde much to our dignity , that in our letters which wee send downe to the earth , ( except perchaunce the whole romane church come vp to vs into the moone ) we may write of what miracles wee list : which we offered to doo out of the indies , and with good successe , till one of our order , in a simplicity , and ingenuity fitter for a christian , then a iesuite , acknowledged and lamented that there were no miracles done there . truly it had bin better for vs to haue spit all those fiue brothers , acostas , out of our order , then that any one of them should haue vomited this reproach against vs. it is of such men as these in our order , that our gretzer saies : there is no body without his excrements , because though they speake truth , yet they speake it too rawly . but as for this contemplation , and the establishing of that gouernement , ( though it be a pleasant consideration ) we may neither pamper our selues lōger with it now , nor detaine you lōger therein . let your greatnesse write ; let the pope execute your counsell ; let the moone approach whē you two think fit . in the meane time let me vse this chamber , as a resting place : for though pope gregory were strucken by the angell with a perpetuall paine in his stomach and feet , because hee compelled god by his praiers , to deliuer traian out of heil , and transferre him to heauen ; and therefore god , by the mouth of 〈◊〉 , tooke an assurance for all his s●cessours , that they should neuer dare to request the like againe : yet when the pope shall call mee backe from hence , hee can be in no danger , both because in this contract , god cannot bee presumed to haue thought of me , since i neuer thought of him , and so the contract therein void ; and because the condition is not broken , if i bee not remoued into heauen , but transferred from an earthly hell , to a lunatique hell. more then this he could not be heard to speake : for that noise , of which i spoke before , increased exceedingly , and whē lucifer asked the cause , it was told him , that there was a soule newly arriued in hell , which said that the pope was at last entreated to make ignatius a saint , and that hee hastened his canonization , as thinking it an vniust'thing , that when all artificers , and prophane butchers had particular saints to inuocate , only these spirituall butchers , and king-killers , should haue none : for when the iesuite cotton in those questions which by vertue of his inuisible priuiledge he had prouided for a possest person , amongst others , dangerous both to england and france , had inserted this question : what shall i do for ignatius his canonizing ? and found out at last , that philip , king of spaine , and henry , king of fraunce , contended by their ambassadors at rome , which of them should haue the honour of obtaining his canonizing ( for both pretending to be king of nauarre , both pretended that this right and honour belonged to him : and so both deluded the iesuits : ) for d'alcala a franciscan , and p●nafort a iacobite , were by philips meanes canonized , and the iesuite left out . at last hee despaired of hauing any assistance from these princes ; nor did he thinke it conuenient , that a iesuite should be so much beholden to a king , since baronius was already come to that heighth and constancy , that being accused of some wronges done to his king , hee did not vouchsafe to write in his owne excuse to the king , till the conclaue which was then held , was fully ended , least ( as himselfe giues the reason ) if hee had then beene chosen pope , it should bee thought hee had beene beholden to the king therein . for these reasons therefore they labour the pope themselues . they confesse , that if they might choose , they had rather hee should restore them into all which they had lost in fraunce , and venice , then that ignatius should be sent vp into heauen ; and that the pope was rather bound to do so , by the order which god himselfe seemes to haue obserued in the creation , where he first furnished the earth , and then the heauens , and confi●med himse●fe to be the israelites god by this argument , that he had giuen them the land of canaan , and other temporall blessings . but since this exceeded the popes omnipotence in earth , it was fit he should try , what he could do in heauen . now the pope would faine haue satisfied them with the title of 〈◊〉 , which formerly vpon . the intreaty of the princés of that family , he had affoorded to aloisius gonzaga of that order . he would also haue giuen this title of saint rather to xauerius , who had the reputation of hauing done miracles . indeed he would haue done any thing , so hee might haue slipped ouer ignatius . but at last hee is ouercome ; and so against the will of heauen , and of the pope , lucifer himselfe being not very forward in it , ignatius must bee thrust in amongst the saints . all this discourse , i , beeing growne cunninger then that doctor , gabriell nele ( of whom bartolus speaketh ) that by the onely motion of his lippes , without any vtterance , vnderstood all men , perceiued and read in euery mans countenance there . these thinges , as soone as lucifer apprehended them , gaue an end to the contention ; for now hee thought he might no longer doubt nor dispute of ignatius his admission , who , besides his former pretences , had now gotten a new right and title to the place , by his canonization ; and he feared that the pope would take all delay ill at his handes , because canonization is now growne a kinde of declaration , by which all men may take knowledge , that such a one , to whom the church of rome is much beholden , is now made partaker of the principall dignities , and places in hell : for these men euer make as though they would follow augustine in all things , and therefore they prouide that that also shall bee true which he said in this point : that the reliques of many are honoured vpon earth whose soules are tormented in hell. therefore he tooke ignatius by the hand , and led him to the gate . in the meane time , i , which doubted of the truth of this report of his canonizing , went a little out for further instruction : for i thought it scarce credible , that paulus 5. who had but lately burdened both the citie of rome , and the church , with so great expences , when he canonized francisca romana , would so easily proceed to canonize ignatius now , when neither any prince offered to beare the charge , nor so much as sollicited it : for so he must bee forced to waste both the treasures of the church at once . and from leo 3. who 800 yeares after christ , is the first pope which canonized any , i had not obserued that this had euer beene done : neither do i think that paulus 5. was drawne to the can onizing of this woman by any other respect , then because that rule which shee appointed to her order , was dictated and written by saint paul : for though peter , and magdalene , and others , were present at the writing thereof , as witnesses , yet paul was the author thereof . and since saint pauls old epistles trouble and dis-aduantage this church , they were glad to apprehend any thing of his new writing , which might be for them , that so this new worke of his might beare witnesse of his second conuersion to papistry , since by his first conuersion to christianity , they got nothing : for to say , that in this businesse paulus 5. could not choose but be god , god himselfe , to say , that hee must needes haue liued familiarly with the god-head : and must haue heard predestination it selfe whispering to him : and must haue had a place to sit in councell with the most diuine trinitie , ( all which valladerius sayes of him ) is not necessary in this matter , wherein the popes , for the most part , proceed , as humane affections leade them . but at last , after some enquiry , i found that a certaine idle gazettier , which vsed to scrape vp newes , and rumours at rome , and so to make vp sale letters , vainer , and falser , then the iesuites letters of iapan , and the indies , had brought this newes to hell , and a little iesuiticall nouice , a credulous soule , receiued it by his implicit faith , and published it . i laughed at lucifers easinesse to beleeue , and i saw no reason euer after , to accuse him of infidelity . vpon this i came backe againe , to spie ( if the gates were stil open ) with what affection ignatius , and they who were in auncient possession of that place , behaued themselues towardes one an other . and i found him yet in the porch , and there beginning a new contention : for hauing presently cast his eyes to the principall place , next to lucifers owne throne , and finding it possest , he stopt lucifer , and asked him , who it was that sate there . it was answered , that it was pope boniface ; to whom , as to a principall innouator , for hauing first chalenged the name of vniuersall bishop , that honour was affoorded . is he an innouator thundred ignatius ? shall i suffer this , when all my disciples haue laboured all this while to proue to the world , that all the popes before his time did vse that name ? and that gregory did not reprehend the patriarch iohn for taking to himselfe an antichristian name , but for vsurping a name which was due to none but the pope . and could it be fit for you , lucifer , ( who in this were either vnmindfull of the romane church , or else too weake and incapable of her secrets and mysteries ) to giue way to any sentence in hell , which ( though it were according to truth , ) yet differed from the iesuites oracles ? with this ignatius flyes vpwardes , and rushes vpon boniface , and throwes him out of his seate : and lucifer went vp with him as fast , and gaue him assistance , least , if hee should forsake him , his owne seate might bee endangered . and i returned to my body ; which as a flower wet with last nights dew , and then warm'd with the new sunne , doth shake of agen all drowsinesse , and raise his trembling crowne , which crookedly did languish , and stoope downe to kisse the earth , and panted now to sinde those beames return'd , which had not long time shin'd , was with this returne of my soule sufficiently resreshed . and when i had seene all this , and considered how fitly and pronortionally rome & hell an wered one another , after i had seene a iesuit turne the pope out of his chaire in hell , i suspected that that order would attempt as much at rome . an apology for iesuites . now is it time to come to the apology for iesuites : that is , it is time to leaue speaking of them , for hee fauours them most , which saies least of them ; nor can any man , though hee had declaimed against them till all the sand of the sea were run through his houre-glasse , lacke matter to adde of their practises . if any man haue a minde to adde any thing to this apology , hee hath my leaue ; and i haue therefore left roome for three or foure lines . which is enough for such a paradox : and more then iungius , scribanius , gretzerus , richeomus , cydonius , and all the rest which are vsed to apologies , and almost tyred with a defensiue warre , are able to employ , if they will write onely good things , and true , of the iesuites . neither can they comfort themselues with this , that cato was called to his answere soure and forty times : for hee was so many times acquitted , which both the parliaments of england , and france deny of the iesuites . but if any man thinke this apology too short , he may thinke the whole booke an apology , by this rule of their owne that it is their greatest argument of innocency to be accused by vs. at this time , whilst they are yet somewhat able to do some harme , in some places , let them make much of this apology . it will come to passe shortly , when as they haue bene disspoyled and expelled at venice , and shaked and fanned in france , so they will bee forsaken of other princes , and then their owne weakenesse will bee their apology , and they will grow harmelesse out of necessity , and that which vegetius sayd of chariots armed with sithes and hookes , will be applied to the iesuites , at first they were a terror , and after a scorne . finis . errata . pag. 〈◊〉 . line 19. for eternall read etheriall y. 16. l. 21. for o , read do. p. 18. l. 17. for notion read motion . p. 22. l. 12. for bohenheim read hohenheim . p. 25. l. 20. for hammer read name , p. 28. l. 13. after from adde you . p. 30. l. 22. for pampelnus tead pampelune . p. 34. l. 3. for too . read so , and lin . 19. for vnderstandings read vndertakings . p. 35. l. 23. for before read before . p. 41. marg . for imag. ●uum , read imaginarium . p. 53. l. 20. for sonnes read seum . p. 55. l. 16. for profit read perfect . p. 50. l. 4. for boniface read benefices , p. 63. l. 19. for it is , read it is not . p. 64. l. 12. for our author , read one another , p. 66. l. 5. for protolipe read prototype , and line 19. for curried read carried , p. 75. l. 18. for praiers reade praises . p. 78. l. 2. for obsolute read obsolete . p. 94. l. 15. for to read so . p. 97. l. 1. for longer read long . p. 99. l. 15. for drug . read dung . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20624-e190 in con● fol. 160. a proculum & b posthum● notes for div a20624-e550 nuncius syd●eus . de stella in cygno . 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. iosethina di gi●ron . gratian. theod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tra. 6. 〈◊〉 sedulius apolog. pro libro consorm . lib 2. cap. 2. harlay 〈◊〉 des iesuites . volladerius de canoniza . francis. ro. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . bellar. de purgat . 〈◊〉 . cap. 8. harlay defence des lesuites mesdi . 6. bulla 18. in greeze . cont . ha. 〈◊〉 . a 〈◊〉 de maiest . eccle. 〈◊〉 . cap. 7. 〈◊〉 . theor. 1. cap. 〈◊〉 . 21. q. omni● 〈◊〉 . modest in verb. 〈◊〉 . 32 , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , pudor . flagel . damon . 〈◊〉 . summa bullarij , verbo agnus dei. litera di diego torres . dist. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. 〈◊〉 . scappus de ture non script . l. 1. cap. 54. 〈◊〉 angel. verb . papa . n 1. money-takers . theol. niem . nemus vnio tract . 6. c. 29. rodol . cupers de eccles . vniuer . fol. 4. azor. par . 2. l. 4. c. 1. mos●onius de maiest . eccles. milit . c. 5. ibidem idem . c. 6. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . l. 1. c. 25. azar vbi 〈◊〉 . plat. in vit . adri. 1. apologia pro 〈◊〉 . de despera● 〈◊〉 . causa . c. 11. rom. 12. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 catalog . sol . 60 & 100. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . vide 〈◊〉 . apolog. 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 3. gretzer . examen speculi . fol. 139. 〈◊〉 fol. 25. idem . so . 32. obseruationes in cassianum , fol. 736. ex collat . 〈◊〉 . triha● li. 2. cap. 4. d●lamesse fol. 358. 〈◊〉 thol . sa . l. 15. c. 4. v. 7 scapp . de iure 〈◊〉 script . l. 1. c. 6. ibid. c. 16. ibid. c. 25 de regno sicilia . 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . salmonees . 〈◊〉 . l. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 57. carrauca stat . synod , n. 41. 〈◊〉 . iesuit . cab . 〈◊〉 . refe●tor . de rebus nuper 〈◊〉 . harlay defe● des iesuit . fol. 12. valladerius fol. 24. matalius metellus , praefat. in ●sorinm . paris de puteo , de syndicat , de e●…cess . regum . sophronius ca. 45. consenuerat . a vita n 〈◊〉 fol. 107. b fol. 108. c fol. 212. d fol. 229. e fol. 19. f fol. 26. g fol. 313. h fol. 163. 〈◊〉 , de formul . l. 10 〈◊〉 . manual . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 9. hal●ered nuncius 〈◊〉 . reg. iesuit . fol. 73. ibid. fol. 〈◊〉 . heissi● 〈◊〉 aphor. 〈◊〉 . fol. 135. eudem . 〈◊〉 an . apol. pro 〈◊〉 . c. 9. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 do . 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . 9. de 〈◊〉 iesni● . ab●trus . cap. 5. bellar● , de purgato . l. 2. 6. 8. pi●rre mathuri , l. 1. nar. 4. litera eius ad philip 3. gen. 2.4 . gen. 17.8 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 paul. 5. l. 1. de veroblig . valladerius fol. 57. fol. 5. notes for div a20624-e13720 bo●ar in amphithe . spongia pro iesuit . cont equip. polon . fol. 20 li. 1. ca. 14. the harmony of the muses, or, the gentlemans and ladies choisest recreation full of various, pure and transcendent wit : containing severall excellent poems, some fancies of love, some of disdain, and all the subjects incident to the passionate affections either of men or women / heretofore written by those unimitable masters of learning and invention, dr. joh. donn, dr. hen. king, dr. w. stroad [et al]. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a31143 of text r9732 in the english short title catalog (wing c105). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. 133 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 56 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo 2017 a31143 wing c105 estc r9732 12532791 ocm 12532791 62800 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a31143) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 62800) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 175:11) the harmony of the muses, or, the gentlemans and ladies choisest recreation full of various, pure and transcendent wit : containing severall excellent poems, some fancies of love, some of disdain, and all the subjects incident to the passionate affections either of men or women / heretofore written by those unimitable masters of learning and invention, dr. joh. donn, dr. hen. king, dr. w. stroad [et al]. r. c. donne, john, 1572-1631. king, henry, 1592-1669. strode, william, 1600 or 1601-1645. [5], 26, 33-111 p. printed by t.w. for william gilbertson ..., london : 1654. "to the readers" signed: r.c., esq. "never before published" reproduction of original in huntington library. eng english poetry -17th century. a31143 r9732 (wing c105). civilwar no the harmony of the muses: or, the gentlemans and ladies choisest recreation; full of various, pure, and transcendent wit. containing several [no entry] 1654 24268 130 0 0 0 0 0 54 d the rate of 54 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the d category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2003-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-05 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 ben griffin sampled and proofread 2004-11 ben griffin text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the frontispiece . sculptures are useless here , or lines in prayse , the soul of poetry slights all weaker bayes ; as sol invested in his best array , takes not , but gives more glory to the day , with 's livening beams gladding the teeming earth , to budds , to blossoms , and to flow'rs gives birth : so do these three times three in harmony give birth to arts , new life to poetry . love offers here his quiver , and his bow , vowing henceforth he will a pigrim go vnto the muses temple , there to joyne in diapasons with these sacred nine . apollo here new-strings his golden lyre , and wise minerva sings unto this quire : venus slights mars , not deigning once to look on any other object , but this book . the harmony of the muses : or , the gentlemans and ladies choisest recreation ; full of various , pure , and transcendent wit . containing severall excellent poems ; some , fancies of love , some of disdain , and all the subjects incident to the passionate affections either of men or women . heretofore written by those unimitable masters of learning and invention , dr. joh. donn dr. hen. king dr. w. stroad sr. kenelm digby mr. ben. johnson , mr. fra. beamont j. cleveland t. randolph t. carew . and others of the most refined wits of those times . never before published . london , printed by t. w. for william gilbertson at the sign of the bible in giltspur-street without newgate . 1654. to the readers . there needs no commendatory epistle to perswade you to the entertaining of this book ; the onely names of the authours are eloquent enough : it were unnecessary art and labour to indeavor to present unto you the transcendent height of their meritorious pens , and with what delight beauty they have crowned poetry , which is the beauty and delight of learning . poetry in their dayes flourished , and they flourished with it , and gave a crown unto that which hath crowned them with honor , and perpetuall fame . the genius of those times produced many incomparable witts , who being excellent in themselves , in a noble emulation , contended who should 〈◊〉 each other . from hence it is we have so many admirable pi●ces of perfection derived to us , every subject , in every particular , being so choicely handled , that what room is left unto posterity , is rather to admire and imitate , then to equall them . there were never in one age so many contemporary patterns of invention , or ever witt that wrought higher or cleerer . for though our homely progenitors , with too vain admiration were accustomed to prosecute the issues of out-landish witts , and believed nothing to be exquisite , but what came from france or italy ; yet this age by experience hath found , that without the least imitation , we have given them examples of our own , and excelled them as much in soundness as in beauty . if any shall object , that here and there the fancy seems some time too loose for such reverend names , let him impute it to the lightness of the subject , and to the heat and vigour of their early witts , when first those ayres were breathed forth . the fancyes of so many letter'd and unequalled men are here united into one piece , and do challenge as much your applause , as entertainment ; and being never before made publick , you may be the more oblieged to take notice of them , and to gratulate the friendly hand that travelled in this collection , which was onely but to please you . farewell , yours devoted , r. c. esq the harmony of the muses . on the choice of a mistris . when i do love , my mistris must be fair , yet not extreamly , so shall i dispaire : when i do love , my mistris must be wise , yet not all wit , i 'le not be so precize : when i do love , my mistris chaste must be , not obstinate , for then shee 's not for me ; for when i love , my mistris must be kind , yet not before i her with merit bind ; shee whom i love , needs not for to be rich , for vertue , and not wealth , doth me bewitch ; she whom i love , must once have lov'd before , for meeting equall , we may love the more : and to conclude , my mistris must be young , and last , what 's hardest , not have too much toung . an elegie made by i. d. come maddam come , all stay my powers deny , untill i labour , i in labour ly the foe oft-times having the foe in sight , is tir'd with standing , though he never fight : off with your girdle , like heaven's zone glistering but a far fairer world incompasing . un●in that spangled breast-plate which you wear , that eyes of busy fools may be stopt there . unlace your self , for that harmonious chime tell 's me from you , that now it is bed-time . off with that happy busk , which i envie , that still can be , and still can stand so nie . your gown going off , such beauteous state reveals , as when from flowery meads hills shadows steales . off with that wiery corronet , and show the happier diadem , which on you doth grow . off with those shoo● , that thou may'st safely tread in this ( loves hallowed temple ) this soft bed . in such white roabs , heavens angels use to be receiv'd by men ; thou angels bringst with thee . a heavenly mahomet● paradice ▪ and though ill spirits walke in white , wee easily know by this , these angels from an evill sprite , they set our hairs , b●● these our flesh upright . licence my roving hands , and let them goe behind , before , above , between , belowe . o my americka ! my new-found-land ! the kingdom's safest , when by one man man'd : my mine of precious stones ! my emperie ! how bl●st am i in this discovering thee . to enter into these bonds , is to be free , then where my hand is set , my seal shall bee ; as souls in bodies , bodyes uncloath's must bee to taste these joyes ; those jems you women use are as atlanta's balls cast in mens views , that when a fools eye lighteth on a jem , his earthly soul may covet theirs , not them : like pictures , or like books gay covering made for lay-men , are all women thus array'd : themselves are mistick bodies , which hourly we ( whom their imputed grace will dignifie ) must see reveal'd : then since that i may know ( as liberally ) as to a mid-wife show thy self ; cast you all this white linnen hence , there is no pennance due to innocence ; to teach thee , i am naked first ; why than needst thou to have more covering then a man . the rapture , by j. d. is she not wondrous fair ? but yet i see she is so much too fair , too sweet for me : that i forget my self , and a new fire hath taught me not to love , but to admire ! just as the sun , methinks i see her face , which i may gaze upon , but not imbrace : for 't is heavens pleasure sure she should be sent as pure to heaven again , as she was lent to us ; and bids us , as we hope for bliss , not to profane her with one mortall kisse ; then how cold growes my love , and oh how lot ! o how i love her , how i love her not : thus doth my ague-love torment by turns , now well-nigh friezeth , now again it burns . the extreames , by t. c. i le gaze no more on her bewitching face , sure ruin harbours there in every place : i le view no more those cruel eyes of hers , which pleas'd or angry , still are murtherers : for my enchanted soul , alas she drowns , with calms and tempests of her smiles & frowns . if she but dart ( as lightning ) through the ayre her beams of warmth , they 'le kill me with despair if she behold me with a pleasant eye , i surfeit with excess of joy , and die . a sonnet . the world is nothing but inconstancie , how can it be ought else ; when 'bove the sky adultery is committed : mark these twins , earth , ayre , and water are heavens concubines : the lustfull sun ingendereth with the earth , and she , as fruitfull , yeelds a happy birth of plants , of hearbs , of flowers : the labouring skies hurl hail-stones in the sea , the surges rise , swell , toss and wallow , like the throwes of paine , and monthly are delivered in the maine . the false moon hath her changes ; why should men weak-temper'd women then so much contemn : if that the essentiall powers congeminate , how can this earthly but incorporate ? man's miserie , by dr. k. ill busied man ! why dost thou take such care to lengthen out thy lifes short callender ? when every spectacle thou lookst upon presents and acts thine execution : each dropping season , and each flowre doth crie fool , as i fade and wither , thou must die . the beating of the pulse , when thou art well , is just the towling of thy passing-bell . night is the hearse , whose sable canopie covers alike diseased day and thee . and all those weeping dews that nightly fall , are but as tears shed at thy funerall . the surfeit . disdain me still , that i may ever love , for who his love injoyes , can love no more ; war but now past , with ease men cowards prove , and ships return'd do rot upon the shore . then though thou frown , i 'le say thou art most fair , and still i le love , though still i must dispair . as heat to life , so is desire to love ; and those once gone , both love ▪ and life are done , let not my sighs and tears thy vertue move ; like baser mettalls , do not melt so soone . laugh at my woes , although i ever mourne , love sufeits if enjoy'd , and turns to scorne . to his mistris . here let me war , in these armes let me lie , ●ere let me parly , better , bleed and die ; thy arms imprison me , and my arms thee , thy heart my ransom is , take mine for thee : other men war , that they their rest may gaine , and we will rest , that we may fight againe ; those warres the ignorant , these the experienc'd prove , there we are alwayes under , here above . there engins a farr off move a just feare , but thrusts , pricks , stabs ; nay , bullets hurt not here : there lies are wrong ; here wee 'l uprightly lie ; there men kill men ; wee 'l make one by and by : there nothing ; i not halfe so much can do in these warres , as they which from us two shall spring ; thousands we see which travell not to warres , but stay at home , swords , guns and shot d● make for others ; shall not i do then more glorious service , staying to make men . an incouragement for young lovers . love 's like a game at tables , where the dy of womens mindes doth by affection flie : if once you catch their fancie at a blot , 't is ten to one if that you enter not : however , like a gamester boldly venter , and where you see the point lie open , enter : but mark it well , for by false play then , do what you can , they will be bearing men . the choice of a mistris . her for a mistris , faine would i enjoy , that hangs the lip , and pouts at every toy , speaks like a wag , is fair , dare boldly stand , and rear loves standard with a wanton hand , who in loves fight , for one blow gives me three , and being stab'd , falls streight to kissing me ; for if she wants the tricks of venerie , were 't venus self , i would not love her , i , if she be modest , wise , and chast of life , hang her ; shee 's good for nothing , but a wife . to mr. j. w. a parson in devon . inviting him to come up to london . by joh. myns . how now iohn , what is 't the care of thy small flock that keeps thee there ? or hath the bishop in a rage forbid thy comming on our stage ? or wantst thou coyne , or wantst thou steed ; these are impediments indeed : now for thy flock , the sexton may in due time ring , and let them pray : the bishop with an offering , will be brought to any thing . for two sermons by the way , will host and hostis , tapster pay : a willing mind pawns wedding ring , books , wife , children , gown , any thing , nought unattempted , nought too deare to see such friends as thou hast here : for want of coyne , i oft see vick trudge up the town with hazzel stick . i met a priest upon th' way , rid in a waggon the other day , who told me that the venter'd forth with one tythe-pigg of little worth , with which , and saying grace at food , and praying for lord carriers good , he had arrived at 's journeys end , without a penny , or a friend ; and what great business dost thou think , onely to see a friend and drink : one friend , why thou hast hundreds here , that can make thee far greater cheere . ships lately from the iland came , vvith wine thou never knewst the name . montefiasco , frantiniack , leaticum , and that old sack young herrick took to entertaine the muses to his sprightly veine . come , come , and leave thy muddy ale , that serves but for an old wives tale , and now and then to break a jeast at some poor silly neighbors feast . come quickly then , and learne to see thy friends expect thy witt and thee : and though thou canst not come in state on cammels back , like coriate , imagine that the pack-horse bee the cammell in his book you see ; i know thou hast a fancy can conceive thy guide a caravan : rather then stay , speak treason there , and come at charges of the shire ; a london goale , with friends and chink is worth your viccaridge iohn i think . but if besotted with that one thou hast of ten , stay there alone , and too too late repent and cry thou hast lost thy friends , and 'mongst them i. a farewell to the world by sir k. d. farewell you gilded follies , pleasing troubles , farewel ye honourd rags , ve chrystal bubbles ; fame is but hollow eccho , gold but clay , honour the darling but of one short day , beauties chief idol but a damask skin , state but a golden prison to keep in , and torture free-born minds ; embroidered trains meerly but pageants ; proudly swelling veines , and bloud ally'd to greatness , is but loan , inherited , and purchast , not her own ; fame , riches , honor , beauty , state , trains , birth , are but the fading blessings of the earth : i would be great , but see the sun doth still , level his beams against the rising hill : i would be rich , but see man too unkind , digs in the bowels of the richest mine : i would be fair , but see the champion proud , the worlds fair eye , oft setting in a cloud : i would be wise , but that the fox i see suspected guilty , when the asse goes free : i would be poor , but see the humble grasse , trampled upon by each unworthy asse : rich hated , wise suspected , scorn'd if poor , great feared , fair tempted , high envied more . would the world now adopt me for her heir , would beauties queen entitle me the fair , fame speak me honours minion , could i vie angels with india , with a speaking eye , command bare heads , bowed knees , strike justice dumb as well as blind and lame , to give a tongue to stones by epitaphs , to be call'd great master in the loose lines of every po●taster ; could i be more then any man that lives , great , wise , rich , fair , in all suparlatives , i count one minute of my holy treasure beyond so much of all this empty pleasure ; welcome pure thoughts , welcom ye careless grove these are my guests , this is my cour●age love ; the winged people of the sky shall sing my anthemes , by my servants , gentle springs ; a prayer-book shall be my looking-glasse , wherein i will adore sweet vertues face ; here dwels no heatfull loves , no palsie fears , no short joyes purchast with eternal tears : here will i sigh , and sing my hot youths folly , an learn to affect an holy melancholy ; and if contentment be a stranger , then i le never look for 't but in heaven agen . an elgie by dr. k. occasioned by his owne sicknesse . well did the prophet a●k , lord what is man ? implying by the question , that none can but god resolve the doubt , much less define , what elements this child of dust combine . man is a stranger to himself , and knowes nothing so natural , as his own woes ; he loves to travel countries , and confer the signes of vast heavens diameter ; delights to sit in niles or betis lap , before he sayleth over his own map ; by which meanes he returns , his travels spent , less knowing of himself then when he went , who knowledge hunts , kept under forreign locks may bring home wit to hold a paradox , yet be●ools still : therefore might i advise , i would inform the soul before the eyes . make man into his proper opticks look , and so become the student , and the book : with his conception his first leaf begin , what is he there , but complicated sin ? when viper time , and the approaching birth ranks him among the creatures of the earth ; his wayling mother sends him forth to greet the world , wrapt in a bloudy winding-sheet , as if he came into the world to crave no place to dwell in , but bespeak a grave ; thus like a red or tempest boading morn , his dawning is , for being newly born , he hailes the evening tempest with shriek cryes , and fines for his admission with wet eyes . how should that plant whose leaf is bath'd in tears , bare but a bitter fruit in elder years ? just such is his ; and his maturer age , teems with the event more sad then the presage ; for view him higher then his childhoods span , is raised up to youths miridian , when he goes proudly laden with the fruit , which health , or strength , or beauty contribute ; that as the mounted canon batters down the towers and goodly structures of a town ; so one short sickness will his force defeat , and his frail cittadel to rubbish beat . how doth a dropsie melt him to a flood , making each vein run water more then blood ? a collick racks him like a northern gust , and raging feavers crumble him to dust . in which unhappy he is made worse by his diseases , then his makers curse . god said , with toils & sweat he should earn bread , and without labour not be nourished : here ( though like ropes of falling dew ) his sweat hangs on his labouring brow , he cannot eat : thus are his sins scourg'd in opposing theames , and luxuries revenged in the extreams : he who in health could never be content with varieties fetcht from each element , is now much more afflicted to delight his tastless pallet , and lost appetite : besides , though god ordain'd , that with the light man should begin his work , yet he made night for his repose , in which the weary sense , repairs it self by rests soft recompence ; but now his watchfull nights and troubled dayes , confused heaps of fear and fancies raise : his chamber seems a loose and trembling mine , his pillow quilted with a porcupine ; pain makes his downy couch , sharp thorns appear and every feather pricks him like a spear ; thus when all stormes of death about him keep , he copies death in any form but sleep ; poor walking clay , hast thou a mind to know , to what unblest beginnings thou dost owe thy wretched self ; fall sick a while , and then thou wilt conceive the pedigree of men ; learn shalt thou then from thine anatomy , that earth thy mother , worms thy sisters be ; that he is a short-liv'd vapour upward wrought , and by corruption into nothing brought ; a staggering meteor by cross planets beat , which often reels , and falls before his seat ; a tree that withers faster then it growes , a torch put out by every wind that blowes , a web of forty weeks , spun out in pain , and in a moment ravel'd out again ; this is the model of frail man , then say , that his duration 's only for a day , and in that day more fits of changes pass , then attomes run in the turn'd hower-glass , so that the incessant cares which life invade , might for strange truth their heresies perswade , who did maintain that humane souls were sent , into the body for their punishment ; at least with that greek sage still make us cry , not to be born , or being born , to dy . of love and death . as love and death once travel'd on the way , they met together , and together lay both in a bed ; when love for all his heat , found in the night death's coldness was so great , that all his flames could hardly keep him warm , betimes he rose , and speedily did arm his naked body , but through too much haste , som of deaths shafts he took , neer his being plac'd leaving behind him many of his own , which change to him , being blind , is stil unknown through which mistaking , and his want of eyes , a double wrong to nature did arise ; for when love thinks to inflame a youthful heart with his own shafts , he kils with deaths cold dart ; so death intending to strike old age dead , shoots one of love's darts with a golden head ; and this appears to me the reason why , old men do fall in love , and young men die . waltham pool . in praise of black women ; by t. r. if shadows be a pictures excellence , and makes the shew more glorious to the sense ; if stars in the bright day be hid from sight , and shine more glorious in masque of night , why should you think rare creaturs that you lack perfections , cause your hair and eyes be black ; or that your beauty , which so far exceeds , the new sprung lillies in their maidenheads , the cherry colour of your cheeks and lips , should by that darknes suffer an eclips ; nay , 't is not fit that nature should have made so bright a sun to shine without some shade ; it seems that nature when she first did fancy your rare composure , studied negromancy , and when to you those things she did impart , she used altogether the black art ; she drew the magick circle in your eyes , and made your hair the chains wherein she ties rebellious hearts : those blew veins which appear turn'd in meanders like to either sphear , misterious figures are ; and when you list , your voyce commandeth like an exorcist ; o! if in magick you have power so far , vouchsafe me to be your familiar . nor hath kind nature her black art reveal'd on outward parts above , some lie conceal'd , as by the spring head men oft times may know the nature of the streames that run below , so your black hair and eyes do give direction , to make me think the rest of like complection , the rest where all rest lies that blesseth man , that indian mine , that streight of magollan , that world-dividing gulf , which who so venters with swelling sayles and ravisht senses , enters into a world of bliss , pardon i pray , if my rude muse presumes for to display secrets unknown , or hath her bounds ore-past , in praysing sweetness which she ne'r shall tast ; starv'd men know there is food , & blind men may though hid from them , yet know there is a day . a rover in the mark his arrow sticks sometimes as well as he that shoots at pricks ; but if i might direct my shaft aright , the black mark would i hit , and not the white . loves elizium . i will enjoy thee now , my caelia , come , and flye with me to loves elizium , the giant honor that keeps cowards out , is but a masker , and the servile rout of baser subjects , onely bend in vain , to the vast i doll , whilst the nobler strain of valiant lovers daily sayle between thy huge colossus legs , and pass unseen unto the blissful shore , be bold and wise , and we shall enter ; the grim switz denies only tame fools a passage , who not know he is but form , and only frights in show ; the duller eyes which look from far draw neer , and thou shalt scorn what we were wont to fear ; we shall see how the stalking pageant goes with borrowed legs , a heavy load to those that made and bear him , not ere we our thought , the seed of gods , but a weak model wrought by greedy men , that seek to inclose the common , and within private arms impale free woman ; come then , and mounted on the wings of love , wee 'l cut the fleeting ayre , and soar above the monsters head , and in the noblest seat of those blest shades , quench and renew our heat : there shall the ce●een of love and innocense , beauty and nature banish all offence from our close twines , there i 'le behold thy bared snow , and thy unbreaded gold , there my unfranchis'd hand on every side , shall o're thy naked polisht body slide , no curtaln there ( though ) of transparent lawn , before thy virgin treasure shall be drawn , but the rich mine to the inquiring eye expos'd , shall ready still for mintage lye , and we will coyn young cupids , there a-bed of roses and fresh mirtils shall be spread , under the cooling shady cypres groves , our pillow of the down of venus doves , whereon our panting limbs we 'l gently lay , in the faint respit of our active play , that so our slumbers may in dreams have leisure , to tell the nimble fancy of past pleasure , and so our souls that cannot be imbraste , shall the embraces of our bodies taste ; mean time the bubling stream shal court the shore , the enamour'd cherping wood-quire shall adore , in varied tunes the deity of love , gentle blasts of western winds shal move the trembling leavs , & through their close bowes breath still musick , whilst we restore our selves beneath , their dancing shades , till a soft murmur sent from soules entranc't in amorous languishment , rouse us , and shoot into our souls new fire , till we in their sweet extasie expire ; then as the empty bee , that late●● bore , into the common treasure all her ●tore , flyes'bout the painted fields with nimble wings , deflowring the fresh virgins of the springs ; so will i rifle all the sweets that dwell in thy delicious paradice , and swell in ruggs of honey , drawn forth by the power of servent kisses , from each spicie bower ; i le seize the rose-buds in the perfum'd bed , the violet knots like curious mazes spread , through al the gardens tast the ripened cherries the warm firm apples tipt with crimson berries , then will i visit with a wandring kiss , the vail of lillies , and the bower of bliss , and where the beautious region doth divide , into two milkey wayes my lips shall slide down those smooth allies , wearing as i go , a track for lovers in the printed snow ; then climbing o're the swelling appenine , retire into the grove of egliantine , where i will all those ravish'd sweets distill , ( skil , through loves moyst limbeck , & with chymick from the mixt mass of our soveraign balm derive and bring the great elixar to the hive ; now in more subtler wreathes i will intwine my sinewy thighes , my legs and arms with thine , thou like a sea of milk shall lye display'd , whilst i the smooth calm ocean do invade with such a tempest , as when iove of old , set down with danae in a shower of gold ; yet my tall pine shall in thy cyprian strait , ride safe at anchor , and unlade his fraight , my rudder with thy bold hand , like a tri'd and skilful pylot , thou shalt steer , and guide my bark into loves channel , where it shall dance , as the bounding waves do rise and fall , then shall thy twining arms embrace and clip my naked body , and thy balmed lip bathe me in juice of kisses , whose perfume , like a religious incense shall consume , and send up holy vapours to those powers , that bless our loves , & crown our happy howrs , that with such halcian joyes do fix our souls , in sted fast peace , that no annoy controuls ; there no rude sounds frights us with suddē starts , no jealous ecchoes there shall gripe our hearts , suck our discourse in , nor are we betray'd to rivals , by the bribed chamber maid ; no wedlocks bond untwist our unreacht loves , we seek no midnight arbours , no dark groves , to hide our kisses ; there the hated name of husband , wife , lust , modest , chaste , or shame , are vain and empty words , whose very sound , was never heard in the elizian ground ; all things are lawful there that may delight nature , or unrestrained appetite , like , and enjoy , to will , and not his own , we onely sin when loves rights are undone ; the romane lucrece there heard the divine lectures of love , great master aratine , and knows as well as lais how to move , her pliant body in the act of love , to quench the burning ravisher , she hurls her limbs into a thousand winding curls , and studies artful policies , such as be carv'd on the bark of every neighbouring tree , by learned hands , that so adorn the rine of those fair plants , which as they lye in twine , have flam'd their glowing fires , the grecian dame , that in her endless well sought for a name , as fruitless as her work , doth now display , her self before the youth of ithaca , and the amorous games of sportful nights prefer before dull dreams of the lost traveller ; daphne hath broke her bark , and that swift foot , which the angry god had fastned to the root , to the fixt earth , doth now unfetter'd run , to meet the imbraces of the youthful sun , she hangs upon him like the delphick lyre , her kisses blow the old , and breath new fire ; full of her god , she sings inspired layes , soft odes of love , such as deserve the bayes , which she her self was next her lawrellies , in petrarchs learned arms , drying those eyes , which did in such smooth sweet numbers flow , which made the world enamour'd of his wo ; these , and ten thousand beauties more that died slaves to the tyrant ; now enlarg'd deride his cansell'd lawes , and for their time mispent , paying to love's exchequer double rent : come then my caelia , wee 'l no more forbeare to taste our joyes struck with a pannick feare , but will depose from his terrestriall sway , this proud usurper , and walke free as they with necks unyoak'd ; nor is it just that he should fetter your soft sex with chastitie , whom nature made unapt for abstinence , when yet the false imposture can dispence with humane justice , and with sacred right , and maugre both their laws command me fight with rivalls , or with emmulous loves , that dare equall with thine , his mistris eyes or haire : if thou complaine of wrong , and call my sword to carve but thy revenge ; upon that word , he bids me fight , and kill , or else he brands with mark of infamy my coward hands : and yet religion bids from blood-shed fly , and damns me for the act ; then tell me why this goblin honor , the world so adores , should make men athiests , & not women whores . t●a wench desiring money . as fair as she that made two husbands jar , raising 'twixt troy & greece a ten years war as white as feather'd laeda , great ioves rape , she that was chang'd into a swan-like shape : as red as is the emony , even so bright wer 't thou my love , that which the poets write of metamo●●hos'd iove , how oft love changd him , and from his own celestial shape estrang'd him into an eagle , or bull , i fear lest he , should fr● high heaven likewise descend on thee . i am not jealous now , my thoughts are vanisht , and the hot ardor of affection banisht ; my fire is cool'd , reason assumes the place , and now methinks thou hast not thine own face ; dost thou demand why i am chang'd , behold , the cause , i le tell thee , thou dost ask me gold , thou look'st that for my pleasure i should pay , and that alone still frighteth me away ; whilst thou wert simple , and in all things kind , i with thy sweet content did like thy mind , now thou art cuning grown , what has that gaind ? thy bodies beauty by thy mind is stain'd : look on the beasts that in the medows play , shall women bear more savage minds then they ? what gifts do kine from the rude bull enforce ? what rate demands the mare fro the proud horse ? or from the ram the ewe ? they couple twice , ere once they do debate upon a price ; women have learn'd alone to bargain well , their pleasures born with them alone they sell , alone they prize the night , and at a rate chaffer themselvs with strangers ; o vild state ! alone for mutuall pastime , coyn they crave , and e'r they sport , ask first , what shall i have ? that which delighteth both , to which both run , and ( but by joint assistance ) is not done , the pleasures which on even terms we try , why should one party sell , the other buy ? why should the sweets which we alike sustain , to me be double loss , thee double gain ? that which comes freely , much by that we set , thou giv'st it me , and i am still in debt ; love that is hir'd , is plainly sold and bought , thou hast thy price , and then i owe thee nought : then o ye fair ones , all such thoughts expell , what nature freely gives you , spare to sell ; let not your bodies to base lust be lent , goods lewdly got , are ever loosly spent . a sonnet . why do we love these things which we call women , which are like feathers , blown in every wind ? regarding least those men do most esteem them ; and most deceitfull when they seem most kind , and all their vertue , that their beautie graces , it is but painted , like unto their faces . their greatest glory is in rich attire , which is extracted from some hopefull heires , whose witts and wealth are lent to their desire , when they regard the gifts , more then the givers : and to increase their hopes of future bliss , they 'l sometimes rack their conscience for a kisse . some love the windes , that bring in golden showers , and some are meerly won with commendations , some love and hat● , and all within two houres , and that 's a fault amongst them most in fashion , but put them all within a scale together , their worth in weight will scarce pull down a feather . and yet i would not discommend them all , if i did know some worth to be in any , 't is strange , that since the time of adams fall , that god did make none good , yet made so many : and if he did , for these i truly mourne , because they dy'de before that i was borne . a health . to her whose beautie doth excell story , we toss these cups , and sell sobrietie a sacrifice to the bright lustre of her eyes ; each soul that sips here is devine , her beauty deifies the wine . vpon his mistris cut finger . sweet-heart , to see thy blood fall down , what mortall can forbear ? but as thou dropst thy blood oath groun , so he must drop a tear : good counsel to such wounded maids , god cupid thus alledges , hereafter use such harmless tools , that have no cutting edges . you force the ground you stand on blush , but blushing we permit , our cheeks could wear a scarlet plush , saw we as much as it : hereafter love those better parts , nay best of all indeed , which though they take a thousand wounds , yet scorn they e're to bleed . the rubies soft in diamond , are glorious for to see , but if congeal'd what rarest jems , those ruby drops would be : this wish i to my mistris bring . and that is all i bring her , would i had fingred her fine cut , when she cut her fine finger . love's hue and cry . in love's name you are charg'd hereby , to make a speedy hue and cry after a face which th' other day , came and stole my heart away ; for your proceeding , these in brief , are some few marks to know the thief ; her hair was gold , a field of snow , smooth and unfurrowed was her brow , a sparkling eye , so pure and gray , as when it smiles , there needs noday ; ivory dwelleth on her nose , lilly married to the rose , have made her cheek their nuptial bed , lips dyed a vermilian red make crimson blush , beside the rest , you shall know this fellon best by the tongue , for if your ear , do once a heavenly musick hear , such as neither gods nor men , but from that mouth shall hear agen , that , that is she , o take her to ye , none can rock heaven asleep but she ; i hear have apprehended one , confederate in the action , and that 's my eye , which did let in , the cunning thief to do the sin , at his window , but for her , my eye shall be a prisoner , till it the first offender see , that lur'd it to the felonie ; your diligence herein i crave , that i again my heart may have ; o take loves wings , flye , search , or i shall have no heart to live , but die . loves progress by dr. don. who ever lov'd , if he do not propose the right end , love , he is as one that goes to sea for nothing but to make him sick , and loves a bear-whelp born , if we o're-lick our love , and force it strange new shapes to take , we erre , and of a lump a monster make . were not a calf a monster if 't were grown , fac'd like a man , though better then his own ; perfection is in unity , prefer one woman first , and then one thing in her : or when i value gold , i think upon the ductilness , the application , the whole summes , the ingenuity , from rust , from soyl , from fire ever free ; but if i love , it is because 't is made by our new natures use , the soul of trade ; all this in women we might think upon , if women have them , and yet love but one : can men more injure women then to say , ( they they love them for that by which they are not make vertue woman , must i cool my blood , till i both be and find one wise and good ? may barren angels love so , but if we make love to woman , vertue is not she , as beauty is not , he then that strayes thus , from her to hers , is more adulterous then he that takes her maid , search every sphear , and fi●mam●nt , our cupid is not there , he 's an infernal god , and under ground with pluto dwels , where gold and fire abound , men to such gods their sacrificing coales did not on altars lay , but pits and holes ; although we see celestial bodies move above the earth , the earth we till and love ; so we his heirs contemplate , wounds and heart , and vertues , but we love the rendring part ; nor is the soul more swarthy , nor more fit for love then this , as infinite as it , but in attaining this desired place , how much they stray that set out at the face , the hair a forest is of ambushes , of springs , snares , fetters , and of manicles : the brov becalmes us when 't is smooth & plain and when it wrinckles , shipwracks us again , smooth , 't is a paradise , where we would have immortall stay , and wrinckled 't is our grave . the nose like to the first meridian runs , not'twixt the east & west , but'twixt two suns : her swelling lips , to which when we are come , we anchor there , and think we are at home , for they seem all the syrens songs , and there the delphian oracles do fill the eare : then in a creek where chosen pearls do swell , the remora her charming tongue doth dwell ; these and the glorious promontory her chi● o're-past , and the straight hellespont between the cestos and abidos of her breasts , not of two lovers , but two loves the nests , succeeds a boundless sea , but that thine eye some iland moles may scatter'd there discry , and sayling towards her india , in the way , shall at her fair atlantick navel stay ; though thence the current be thy pilot made , yet er● thou come where thou wouldst be in-laid thou shalt upon another forrest set , where some do shipwrack and no further get , when thou art there , consider in this chase , what time they lose that set out at the face ; rather set out below , practise my art , some symitry the foot hath with that part , which thou dost seek , and is a map for that , lovely enough to stop , but not stay at ; least subject to disguise and change it is , men say the devil never can change his ; it is the embleme that hath figured firmness , 't is the first part that comes to bed ; civility we see refin'd the kiss , which at the foot began , transplanted is since to the hand , then to the imperial knee , now at the papal foot delights to be ; if kings think it the nearest way , and do rise from the foot , lovers may do so too , and as free sphears move faster far then can birds whom the ayre resists , so may that man which goes this empty and aetherial way , then if at beauties elements h● stay : rich nature hath in women wisely made two purses , and their mouthes aversly laid , they then that to the lower tribute owe , that way which that exchequer looks must goe , he which doth not , his errour is as great , as who by clysters gives the stomack meat . on black eyes by j. d : no marvel if the suns bright eye , showr down hot flames , that quality still waits on light , but when i see the sparkling balls of ebonie , distill such heat , the gazer straight stands so amazed at the sight , as when the lightning makes a breach through pitchy clouds ; can lightning reach the marrow , and not hurt the skin ? your eyes the same to me have been : can jet invite the loving straw with secret fire ? so can they draw , and can when ere they glance a dart , make stubble of the strongest heart : oft when i look , i may descry a little face peep through thine eye ; sure that 's the boy , that wisely chose , ●is rayes amongst such rayes as those , which ( if his quiver chance to fail ) may serve for darts to kill withall ; if at so strong a charge i yield , if ●ounded so , i quit the field ; think me not coward , when i lye , thus prostrate with your charming eye ; did i but say your eye , i swear death's in your beauty every where , your eye night spare it self , my own , ( wh● n all your parts are truly known ) from ●ny one may filch a dart , to wound my self , and then my heart , one with a thousand arrowes fill'd , cannot say this or that this kill'd , no more can i , yet sure i am , that you are she that wrought the same , wound me again , yea more and more , so you again will me restore . the spring . now that the winters gone , the earth hath lost her snow-white robes , and now no more the frost , candies the grass , or casts an icie cream , upon the silver lake or chrystal stream , but the warm sun thawes the benummed earth , and makes it tender , gives a second birth to the dead swallow , wakes in hollow tree the drowzie cuckow , and the humble bee ; now do a quire of chirping minstrels sing in triumph to the world , the youthful spring , the valleys , hills , and woods in rich array , welcome the coming of the long'd for may ; now all things smile , only my love doth lower , nor hath the scalding noon-day-sun the power , to melt the marble yet , which still doth hold her heart congealed , and makes her pity cold ; the oxe which lately did for shelter flye into the stall , doth now securely lye in open field , and love no more is made by the fire side , but in the cooler shade ; a●intas now doth by his cl●r●● sleep , under a sycamore , and all things keep time with the season , onely she doth carry iune in her eyes , in her heart ianuary . his mistris commanding the return of letters . so grieves the adventerous merchant when he throwes , all the long-toil'd-for treasure , his ship stowes into the angry mayn , to save from wrack himself and men , as i grieve to give back these letters , yet so pow'rful is your sway , as if you bid me die , i must obey ; go then blest papers , you shall kiss those hands , that gave you freedom , but held me in bands , which with a touch did give you life , but i because i may not touch those hands , must die ; methinks as if they knew they should be sent home , to their native soyl , from banishment ; i see them smile , like dying saints that know , they are to leave the earth & towards he'ven go , when you return , pray tell your soveraign , and mine , i gave you courteous entertain , each line receiv'd a tear , and then a kiss , first bath'd in that , it scap'd unscorcht in this , i kist it 'cause your fair hand had been there , because it was not , then i shed a tear ; tell her , no length of time , nor change of aire , no cruelty , disdain , absence , dispaire , no , nor her stedfast constancy can deterre , my vassal heart from ever honouring her ; though these be pow'rful arguments to prove i love in vain , yet i must ever love ; say if she frown when you that word rehearse , ( service ) in prose is oft call'd love in verse ; then pray her since i send back on my part her papers , she would send me back my heart , if she refuse , warn her to come before the god of love , whom thus i will implore , travling in thy countries rode , great god , i spi'd by chance this lady , and walkt by her side , from place to place , f●aring no violence , for i was well arm'd , and had made defence in former fights , 'gainst fiercer foes then she , did at our first encounter seem to be , but going further , every step reveal'd some hidden weapon , till that time conceal'd , seeing those outward armes , i did begin , to fear some greater strength was lodg'd within , looking into her mind , i might survey an host of beauties that in ambush lay , and won the day before they fought the field , for i unable to refist , did yield ; but the insulting tyrant foe destroyes , my conquer●d mind , my ease , my peace , my joyes , breaks my sweet sleeps , invades my harmless rest , robs me of all the treasure of my breast , spares not my heart , nor yet ( a greater wrong ) for having stoln my heart , she binds my tongue ; but at the last her melting eyes unseal'd my lips , enlarg'd my tongue , then i reveal'd to her own ears the story of my harmes , wrought by her vertues and her beauties charms ; now hear just judge an act of savageness , when i complain in hope to have redress , she bends her angry brow , and from her eye , shoots thousand darts , i then well hope 't to dye , but in such soveraign balm love dips his shot , that though they wound a heart , they kill it not ; she saw the blood guish forth frō many a wound , yet fled and left me bleeding on the ground , nor sought my cure , nor saw me since , 't is true , absence and time two cunning leaches drew the flesh together , yet sure though the skin ●e clos'd without , the wound festers within ; thus hath this cruel lady us'd a true servant and subject to her self and you ; nor know i , great love , if my life be lent , to shew thy mercy or my punishment , since by the onely magick of thine art , a lover still may live that wants an heart ; if this enditement fright her so as she , seem willing to return my heart to me , but cannot find it , for perhaps it may , 'mongst other trifling hearts be out o th' way ; if she repent , and will make me amends , bid her but send me hers , and we are friends . to his coy mistris . think not , 'cause men flattering say , you●r fair as hellen , fresh as may , bright as is the morning star , that you are so , though you are , be not therefore proud , or deem all men unworthy your esteem , for being so you lose the pleasure of being fair , for that rich treasure , of more beauty and sweet feature , was bestow'd on you by nature to be enjoy'd , and t were a sin , there to be scarce where she hath bin , so prodigal of her best graces ; thus common beauties and mean faces , shall have more pastime and enjoy the sport you lose by being coy ; did the thing for which i sue , only concern my self , not you ? were men so framed as they alone reap'd all the pleasure , women none , then had you reason to be scant , but 't were a madness not to grant , that which affords , if you consent , to you the giver more content then me the begger , o then be kind to your self , if not to me ; starve not your self , because you may thereby make me to pine away , nor let fading beauty make , you your wiser thoughts forsake , for that lovely face will fail , beauty's sweet , but beauty's frail , 't is sooner past , 't is sooner done , then summers rain , or winters sun , mo●● fleeting , when it is most dear , t is gone while we say ( but ) 't is here ; those curious locks so aptly twin'd , whose every hair a soul doth bind , will change their aburn hue , and grow , white and cold as winters snow ; that eye which now is cupids nest , will prove his grave , and all the rest will follow , in the cheek , chin , nose , nor lilly shall be found , nor rose , and what will then become of all , those whom you now your servants call , like swallows when the summer 's done , they 'l flye and seek some warmer sun , then wisely chuse one for your friend , whose love may ( when your beauties end ) remain still firm , be provident , and think before the summer 's spent , of following winter , like the ant , in plenty horod for time of scant , cull out amongst the multitude of lovers that seek to intrude into your favour , one that may , love for an age , not for a day , one that will quench your youthful fires , and feed in age your hot desires , for when the storms of time have moved waves on that cheek which was beloved ; when a fair ladies face is pin'de , and yellow spread where red once shin'de when beauty , youth , and all sweets leave her , love may return , but lover never ; and old folks say there is no paines , like itch of love in aged veins ; o love me then , and now begin it , let 's not lose this present minute , for time and age will work that wrack , which time or age shall ne'r call back ; the snake each year fresh skin resumes , and eagles change their aged plumes ; the faded rose each spring receives , a fresh red tincture on her leaves ; but if your beauty once decay , you 'l never know a second may ; o then be wise , and whilst your season , affords you dayes for sport , do reason , spend not in vain your lives short hour , but crop in time your beauties flowre , which will away , and doth together , both bud , and fade , and blow , and wither . on age , or an old face . no spring or summer beauty hath such grace as i have seen in an autumnall face ; young beauties force your love , and to a rape , this doth but councel , yet you cannot scape ; if 't were a shame to love , here 't were no shame , affection here takes reverences name ; were her first years the golden age , that true , but now she 's gold oft tri'd and ever new ; that was her fore-ides and inflaming time , this is her habitable tropick clime ; fair eyes , who asks more heat then comes from thence , he in a feaver wishes pestilence ; then call not wrinckles graves , if graves they are , they are loves graves , or else he lies no where , yet lies not love dead here , but here doth sit , vow'd to this trench like as an anchorite , and here till hers which must be his death come , he doth not dig a grave , but build a tombe ; here dwels he , though he sojourn every where in brief , yet still his standing house is here ; here where still evening is , not noon , or ●ight , where no voluptuousness , yet all delight in all her words ; unto all hearers fit , you may at revels , you at councel sit ; this is loves timber , youth her under-wood , wine fires in may , in august comforts blood , which then comes seasonablest , whe● your taste and appetite to other things are past ; xerxes strange lydian love , the platane tree was lov'd for age , none being so old as she , or else because being young , nature did bless her youth with ages glory barrenness ; if we love things long sought , age is a thing , which we are fifty years in compassing ; if transitory things ( which soon decay ) age must be loveliest at the latest day , but name not winter faces , whose skin slack , lanck , like an unthrifts purse , or a souls sack , whose eyes seek light within , for all here 's shade , whose mouths are holes , rather worn out then made who 's ev'ry tooth t' his several place is gon , to vex their souls at the resurrection ; name not those living deaths-heads unto me , such i abhor ; i hate extreams , yet i had rather stay with tombs then cradles , to wear out a day ; since such loves natural action is , may still my love descend , not journey up the hill , not panting after growing beauties , so i shall be one of those that homewards go . a maids denyall . nay pish , nay pew , nay faith , and will you , fie , a gentleman and use me thus , yfaith i le cry , gods body what means this ? nay fie for shame , nay faith away , nay fy away , introth you are to blame , hark , sombody comes , leave off i pray , i le pinch , i le scratch , i le spurn , i le go away ; infaith you strive in vain , you shall not speed , you mar my ruff , you hurt my back , my nose will bleed look , look , the door is open , sombody sees what will they say , nay fie you hurt my knees ; your buttons scratch ( o god ) what a coil is here you make me sweat , infaith here 's goodly geere , nay faith let me intreat you if you list ; you mar my head , you tear my smock , but had i wist so much before , i would have kept you out , is 't not a pretty thing you went about ; i did not think you would have serv'd me thus , but now i see i took my mark amiss ; a little thing would make me not be friends , you have us'd me well i hope you 'l make amends hold still , i 'le wipe your face , you swet amain , you have got a goodly thing with all your pain ; o god how hot am , what will you drink ? if you go swetting down what will they think ; remember this how you have us'd me now , doubt not ere long but i will meet with you ; if any man but you had us'd me so , would i have put it up , in faith sir no ; nay go not yet , stay here and sup with me , after at cards we better will agree . a blush . stay lusty blood , where canst thou se●k , so blest a place as in her cheek ; how canst thou from that place retire , where beauty doth command desire ; but if thou canst not stay , then flow down to her panting pap● below ▪ flow like a deluge from her breast , where venus swans hath built her n●st , and so take glory to disdaine , with azure blew each swelling vaine , then run boyling through each part , till thou hast warm'd her frozen heart ; if from love it would retire , martyr it with gentle fire ; and having searcht each secret place , fly thou back into her face , where live blest in changing those white lillies to a ruddy rose . to one that was like his mistris . fair copy of my celia's face , twin of my soul , thy perfect grace , claims in my soul an equal place . disdain not a divided heart , though all be hers you shall have part , love is not ty'd to rules of art : for as my soule first to her flew , yet staid with me , so now 't is true , it 〈…〉 her , though fled to you . then entertain this wandring guest , and if not love , allow it rest ; it left not , but mistook the nest . nor think my love , or your fair eyes cheaper , 'cause from th' sympathise you hold with her the flames that rise . to lead , or brass , or some such bad mettle , a princes stamp may add the value that it never had . but to the pure refined ore , the stamp of kings imparts no more worth , then it had before . onely the image gives the rate , to subjects of a forreign state , 't is priz'd as much for its own waight . so though all other hearts resign to your pure worth , yet you have mine , onely because you are her coyne . on a fly that flew into celia's eye . when this fly liv'd , she us'd to play , in the sun-shine all the day ; till comming my in coelia's sight , she found a new and unknown light , so full of glory , as it made the noon-day sun a gloomy shade : then this amorous fly became my rivall , and did court this flame ; she did from hand to bosom● skip , and from her breath , her cheek and lip , suckt all the incense and the spice , and grew a bird of paradice . at last into her eye she flew , there scorcht in flames , and drown'd in dew ; like phaeton from the suns bright sphere she fell , and from her dropt a teare ; of which a pearl was straight compos'd , wherein her ashes lye inclos'd : thus she receives from caelia's eye , funeral , flame , tomb , obsequye . on the snow falling on his mistris breast . i saw fair cloris walk alone , when feather'd rain came softly down ; and iove descended from his tower , to court her in a silver shower : the wanton snow flew to her breast , like little birds unto their nest ; but overcome with whiteness there , for grief it thaw'd into a teare : thence fal●●ng to her vestures hemme , to deck her froze into a iemme . on the drawing his mistris picture . sitting , and ready to be drawn , what mean these velvets , silk , & lawn , embroideries , feathers , fringes , lace ? when every limb takes like a face ; send these suspected helps to ayde , some form defective , or decay'd ; thy beauty without falshood faire , need● nought to cloath it but the aire ; yet som●thing for the painters qew , were fitly enterpos'd for new ; he shall if he can understand , work mine own fancy with his hand , draw first a cloud all save her neck , and out of that make day to break , till like her face it doth appear , that men might think all light rose there then let the beams thereof disperse the cloud and show the universe ; but at such distance that the eye , may rather ( yet ) ad●re then spy ; the heav'n d●fin●d , draw then a spring , with all that youth and it can b●ing , four rivers branching ( out ) like seas , and paradise confining these : last draw the circle of this globe , and let there be a starry robe of constellations ●bout it harl'd , and thou hast painted beautise world ; but painter see thou dost not sell a copy of this piece , nor tell whose 't is , but if it favour finde , next fitting we will draw her minde . a pastorall , by t. r. behold these woods , and mark my sweet how all the boughes together meet ! the cedar his fair armes displayes , and mixes branches with the bayes . the lofty pine deigns to descend , and sturdy oaks do gently bend ; one with another subt'ly weaves into one loom their various leaves , as all ambitious were to be mine and my phi●●is canopie ! let 's enter , and discourse our loves ; these are my dear , no tell-tale groves ! there dwels no pyes , nor parots there , to prate again the words they hear : nor babbling eccho , that will tell the neighbouring hills one syllable . being enter'd , let 's together lye , twin'd like the zodiacks gemini ! how soon the flowers sweeter smell ? and all with emulation swell to be thy pillow ? these for thee were meant a bed , and thou for me ; and i may with as just esteem press thee , as thou mayst lye on them . and why so coy ? what dost thou feare ? there lurks no speckled serpent here : no venemous snake makes this his road , no canker , nor the loathsome toad : and yon poor spider on the tree , thy spinster will , no poisoner be : there is no frog to leap , and fright thee from my arms , and break delight : nor snail that o're thy coat shall trace , and leave behind a slimy lace : this is the hallowed shrine of love , no wasp nor hornet haunts this grove ; nor pismire to make pimples rise , upon thy smooth and ivory thighes : no danger in these shades doth lye , nothing that wears a sting , but i ; and in it doth no venome dwell , although perchance it make thee swell . being set , let 's sport a while my fair , i will tye love-knots in thy hair : see zephirus through the leaves doth stray , and has free liberty to play ; and braid thy locks : and shall i finde less favour then a sawcie winde ? now let me sit , and fix my eyes , on thee that art my paradise : thou art my all , the spring remains , in the fair violets in thy veyns : and that it is a summers day , ripe cherries in thy lips display : and when for autumn i would seek , 't is in the apples of thy cheek : but that which onely moves my smart , is to see winter in thy heart : strange , when at once in one appear , all the four seasons of the year ! i le clasp that neck where should be set a rich and orient carkanet : but swains are poor , admit of then more naturall chains , the arms of men . come let me touch those brests that swel like two fair mountains , and may well be stil'd the alpes , but that i fear the snow has less of whiteness there . but stay ( my love ) a fault i spie , why are these two fair fountains drie ? which if they run , no muse would please to taste of any spring but these ; and ganimede imploy'd should be , to fetch his iove nectar from thee : thou shalt be nurse fair venus swears , to the next cupid that she bears . were it not then discreetly done to ope one spring to lett wo run ? fy , fy , this belly , beauty's mint , blushes to see no coyn stampt in 't , employ it then , for though it be our wealth , it is your royalty ; and beauty well have cnrrant grace , lhat bears the image of yovr face , how to the touch the ivory thiges , veil gently , and againe do rise , as pliable to impression , as virgins wax , or parian stone , dissoly'd to softnesse ; plump , and full , more whire and soft then cotsall wooll , or cotten fron from the indian tree , or prdty silk worms huspifery , these on two marbledellars rais'd , make me in donpt which should be prais'd ; they , or their columnes must ; but when i view those feet w●ic● i have seen so nimbly trip it o're the lawns thrt all the srtyrs and the fawns have stood amaz'd , when they would passe over the layes , and not a grasse would feel the weight , nor rush , nor bent drooping betray which way you went , o then i felt my hot desires , burn more , and flame with double fires , come let those thighes , those legs , those feet with mine in thousand windings meet ; and woven in more subtle twiens then woodbine , ivy , or the vines , for when love sees us csrcling thus he 'le like no arbour more then us . now let us kiss , would you be gone ? manners at least allows me one . blush you at this ? pretty one stay , and i will take that kiss away . thus with a second , and that too a third wipes off ; so will we go to numbers that the stars out-run , and all the atomes in the sun : for though we kiss till phoebus ray sink in the seas , and kissing stay , till his bright beames return again , there can of all but one remain : and if for one good manners call , in one , good manners , grant me all . are kisses all ? they but fore-run another duty to be done . what would ●ou of that minstrell say that tunes his pipes and will not play ? say what are blossoms in their prime , that ripen not in harvest time ? or what are buds that ne're disclose the long'd for sweetnesse of the rose ? so kisses to a lover ; s guest are invitatiohs ; ●ot the feast , see every thing that we espie is fruitfull saving you and i : view all the fields , survey the bowers , the buds , the blossomes , and the flowers , and say if they so rich could be in barren base virginity : earth's not so coy as you are now , but willingly admits the plow ; for how had man or beast been fed , if she had kept her maiden-head ? coelia once coy , as are the rest , hangs now a babe on either breast : and cloris since a man she took , has less of greenness in her look : our ewes have ean'd , and every dam , gives suck unto her tender lamb : as by these groves we walkt along , some birds were feeding of their young ; some on their eggs did brooding sit , sad that they had not hatch'd them yet ; those that were slower then the rest , were busie building of their nest : you will not onely pay the fine , you vow'd and ow'd to valentine . as you were angling in the brook , with silken line and silver hook , through chrystal streams you might desery how vast and numberless a fry the fish had spawnd , that all along the bancks were crowded with the throng ; and shall fair venus more command by water , then she doth by land ? the phoenix chaste , yet when she dies , her self with her own ashes lies : but let thy love more wisely thrive , to do the act while th' art alive : 't is time we left our childish love , that trades for toyes , and now approve our abler skill ; they are not wise , look babies onely in the eyes . that smother'd smile shews what you meant and modest silence gives consent . that which we now prepare , will be best done in silent secresie : come do not weep , what is 't you fear ? lest some should know what we did here . see not a flower you prest is dead , but re-erects his bended head ; that whosoere shall pass this way , knows not by these where phillis lay ; and in your fore-head there is none , can read the act that we have done . phillis . poor rediculous and simple maid ! by what strange wiles art thou betray'd ! a treasure thou hast lost to day , for which thou canst no ransome pay : how black art thou transform'd with sin ? how strange a guilt gnawes me within ? grief will convert this red to pale , when every wake and whitsun-a●e , shall talk my shame ; break , break sad heart there is no medicine for my smart , no hearb nor balm can cure my sorrow , unlsse you meet again to morrow . two gentlemen inviting each other to sing . come with our voyces let us warre , and challenge all the spheares , till each of us be made a starre , and all the world turn deares . mix then our notes that we may prove , to stay the walking floods , to make the mountain quaries move , and call walking the woods . what need of me , do you but sing , sleep and the graves shall wake ; no voyce hath sound , no voyce hath string , but what your lips do make . they say the angels view each deed , who exercise below , and out of inward passion feed , in what they see or know . sing we no more then , lest the best of angels should be driven , to fall again at such a feast , mistakes earth for heaven . nay , rather let our notes be strain'd , to meet their high desire ; so they in state of grace retain'd , shall wish us of their quire . a sonnet in praise of musick . hail , sacred musick ! queen of souls ! strike hie inspire me with poetick rhapsodie , else words can't praise thee . thy vertue tunes the discord of the spheares , charming to it divine and humane eares , nor can breath raise thee ! whose aires breath a more harmonious winde , mounting above it self , the heaviest minde , in spight of nature . thy ravishing accents , with holy force , can 'twixt our soules and bodies cause divorce , chear sullenest creature ! strike but thy lute with thy more gentle hand , the nightingale will mute , with listning stand , charm'd to thy pleasure . and when thy note but runs division , the very tree shall dance she sits upon , keep mean and measure ▪ the palm will dance , the bay her root forgo the cedar , mirtle , vine will foot it too : when in the midst of all their frolick train , thou strik'st sad note , they 'r fixt trees again . on iealousie . when you sit musing lady al alone , casting up all your cares with private moan whē your hart bleeds with grief , you are no more neerer comfort , then you were before ; you cannot mend your state with sighs or cares , sorrow's no balsome for distrustful fears : have you a foe you hate ? wish him no worse a plague or torment then the yellow curse ; observe your lord with nere so strict an eye , you cannot go to piss without a spye ; if but a mouse do stir about your bed , he startles , and fears he is dishonoured , and when a jealous dream doth cross his pate , straight he resolves he will be seperate ; tell me right worthy cuckolds if you can , what good this folly doth reflect on man ? are women made more loyal ? have ye power to guard the tree , that none can pluck the flower is it within the brain of jealous heads , to banish lust from court or courtly beds : i never knew that base and foul distrust , made any chast that had a mind to lust ; nor will it make her honest , who by kind , to loose and vild affections is inclin'd ; debar her lord , she to supply his room , will take a hors-boy , or a stable-groom ; keep her from men of lower rank and place ▪ she 'l kiss the scullion , & with knaves imbrace , suspect her faith withall , and all distrust , she 'l buy a monkey to supply her lust ; lock her from man and beast , from all content , she 'l make thee cuckold with an instrument ; for women are like angry mastiffs chain'd , they bite at all , when they are all restrain'd ; we may set locks & guards to watch their fire , but have no means to quench their hot desire , man may as well with cunning go about to quench the gun his motion , as by doubt to keep a metled woman , if that she strongly dispose her selfe to venery . how many thousand women that were saints , are now made sinfull by unjust restraints ? how many do commit for very spight , that take small pleasure in that sweet delight ? some are for malice , some are for mirth unjust , some kiss for love , and some do love for lust , but if that fates intend to make me blest , and hymen bind me to a female brest , ( as yet i thank my starrs i am not tide ; in servile bonds to any wanton bride ) let cynthia be my crest , yea let me wear the cuckolds badge , if i distrust or fear : it 's told me oft , a smooth and gentle hand , keeps women more in awe of due command , then if we put a quinsel on their dock , ride them with bitts , set on their geer a lock , for then like furious colts they strike & fling , but if we slack our reins , to pleas their will , kindness will keep them from committing ill : you blessed creatures hold your female right , conquer by day , as you orecome by night , and tell the jealous world this from me , bondage may make you bad , whose minds are free : had colatine been jealous , say this more , without a rape , lucrece had been a whore . a caveat to his mistris . beware fair maid of musky courtiers oaths ; take heed what gifts & favors you receive , let not the fading gloss of silken cloathes , dazzel your vertues , or your fame bereave ; for lose but once the hold you have of grace who will respect your fortune or your face . each greedy hand doth strive to catch the flour when none regards the stock it grew upon , each nature loves the fruit still to devour , and leavs the tree to grow , or fade alone ; then this advice fair creature take from me , let none taste fruit , unless he take the tree . take heed lest caesar doth corrupt thy heart , or fond amibition scale thy modesty , say to a king , thou only courteth art ; he cannot pardon thy impurity ; for do with one , with a thousand thou'lt turn whore , break ice in one place , and it cracks in more . do but with king , to subject thou wilt fall , from lord to lackey , and at last to all . an embleme of youth , age , and death , expressed in a cherry-stone , on the one side is cut a young damsel , on the other an old beldam , the stone hyeroglifically expresseth death . fair mistris be not over-coy , in entertaining of this toy , the morall of its pretty art , d●serves a lodging next your heart , ●or 't is an emblem ( fairest trust me ) of what you are now , and what you must be , except that envious death prevent , rich natures first benigne intent , then doth the gospel of the stone , prove life and death to dwell in one ; for this poor moddel which you view , did sometimes wear as rich a hew , as nature gives to any fair , whilst it grew blushing in the air , whose tempting colour , and whose taste , brought it to what you see at last ; nay had it hung still on the tree , it would have prov'd the same you see , save that the artists hand alone , for your sake hath his cunning shown ; then rarest object of my sight , unfold this three-fold riddle right , and learn from it , your april years , bloomes not more fruit of joy then fears , and that your beauty is a treasure by nature lent you , at whose pleasure you must restore it when she 'l call , and give account for use and all , and that your winter fro●ty dayes , brings almond-buds instead of bayes to crown your temples , and with glory to close the period of your story . if those rich jems which should have lasted , have not in your youth been wasted , but ( prodigal-like ) if thou have spent natures bo●●ies being but lent , a●d t●en your last of dayes is come , to give you summons to your home , you must with grief return to dust , she will no longer lend on trust , your beauties reliques as this stone , will be a dry contemned bone ; perhaps like it some friend vouchsafe , to grave thereon your epitaph , which may be read if not neglected , this is the most can be expected . sir s. steward . to his lady . so may my verses pleasing be , so may you laugh at them ; and not at me , 't is something to you i would gladly say , but how to do it , cannot find the way ; i would avoid the common trodden wayes , to ladies us'd , which be of love or praise , as for the first , that little wit i have , is not yet grown so neer unto the ●rave , but that i can by that dim fading light , perceive of what , and unto whom i write , let such as in a hopeless , witless rage , can sigh a quire , and read it to a page ; such as can make ten sonnets ere they rest , when each is but a great blot at the best , such as can backs of books and windows fill , with their too furious diamond or quill , such as are well resolved to end their dayes , with a lowd laughter blown beyond the seas ; such as are mortified , that they can live , laught at by all the world , and yet forgive : wright love to you i would not willingly , be pointed at in every company , as was the little taylor , who till death , was great in love with queen elizabeth ; and for the last in all my idle dayes , ● never yet did living woman praise , ●n verse or prose , and when i do begin , ●le pick some woman out as full of sin , ●s you are full of vertue , with a soul , ●s black as yours is white , a face as foul ●s yours is beautifull ; for it shall be ●ut of the rules of phisiognomie ; ●o far , that i do fear i must displace the art a little , to let in the face ; ● shall at least four faces be below the devils ; and her parched corps shall show , ●n her loose skin , as if some spirit she were , k●pt in a bag by some great conjurer ; her breath shall be so horrible and vild , as every word you speak is meet and mild , it shall be such a one as will not be , covered with any art or policie , but let her take all waters , fumes , and drink , she shall make nothing but a dearer stink , she shall have such a foot , and such a nose , as will not stand in any thing but prose ; if i bestow my praises upon such , 't is charity , and i shall merit much ; my praise will come to her like a full bowl , bestowed at most need on a thirsty soul ; where if i sing your praises in my rime , i loose my ink , my paper , and my ti●● , adde nothing to your overflowing store , and tel you nought but what you knew before nor do the vertuous minded ( which i swear madam i think you are ) endure to hear their own perfections into question brought , but stop their ears at them , for if i thought , you took a pride to have your vertues known , pardon me madam , i should think them none ▪ but if you brave thoghts ( which i must respect above your glorious titles ) shall accept these harsh disordered lines , i shall ere long , dress up your vertues new in a new song , yet farre from all base praise or flattery , although i know what ere my verses be , they will like the most servile flattery shew , if i write truth , and make my subject you . a description of a wisht mistris . not that i wish my mistris , or more or less then what she is write i ●●ese lines , for 't is too late , ●ules to prescribe unto my fate : ●ut as those tender stomacks call , ●or some choice meats that like not all ; ●o queafie lovers do impart , what mistris 't is must take their heart : first i would have her richly sped , with natures blossomes white and red , for flaming hearts will quickly dye , that have no fewell from the eye ; yet this alone will never win , unless some treasure lye within ; for where the spoil 's not worthy stay , men raise the siege and march away : she should be wise enough to know , when , and to whom a grace to show , for she that doth at randome chuse , will sure her choyse as well refuse ; and yet methinks i 'd have her mind , to loving courtesie inclin'd , and tender-hearted as a maid , and pitty only when i pray'd : and i would wish her true to be , mistake me not , i mean to me , she that loves one , and loves one more , will love the kingdome , ore and ore ▪ i could wish her full of wit , so she knew how to huswife it ; but she whose insolence makes her dare to try her wit , will sell her ware . some other things delight will bring , as if she dance , or play , or sing ; if hers be safe , what though her parts , catch then a thousand forreign hearts ? but let me see , should she be proud , a little pride must be allow'd ? each amourous boy will sport & prate too freely , if she find no state ? i care not much though i set down , sometime a chiding , or a frown : eut if she wholly quench desire , 't is hard to kindle a new fire : to smile , to toy , is not amiss , sometimes to enterpose a kiss , but not cloy , sweet things are good , and pleasant , but are nought for food ▪ but stay , nature hath overcaught my art in her , to whom i offer up my heart , and evening-passengers shall sooner trace , the wantō beams that dance on thames smooth face or find the track where once the fowl did stray or the moist sands which tides have washt away then ere my heart be sound with taint or spot , so a revolt of hers procure it not . ad amicum . thou art the spring , & i the leaveless tree , thou art the flower , and i the toyling bee ; thou art the flax , and i the kindling fire , i your disdain , but you my hearts desire : you are the bride which doth ingage my brest , my thoughts in yours , though yours elsewhere do rest : say that i rest my lips upon thy cheek , a wearied love some place of rest must seek , no pillow softer then those cheeks of thine , no wearied love more wearied is then mine : then be not coy to answer what i require , you need not blush at what i do defire , say that your love doth some way else incline , yet i am yours , though you will not be mine . the question of a lady that was newly wedded . a lady that of late did wed , not knowing sports of marriage bed , askt of her husband which he thought most right for marriage sports , the morning or the night , he answer'd as he did think most meet , the day more holsom but the night most sweet if it be so , quoth she , and we have leasure , we 'l to 't i th' day for health , all night for pleasure dr. dun's answer to a lady . lady . say not you love unless you do , for lying will not honour you . answer of the doctors . lady i love , and love to do , and will not love unless be you . you say i lye , i say you lye , choose whether , but if we both lye , let us lye together . of his estate with love . the more i seek to find the depth of love , the more i find my self to seck therein ; for when i thought the fruit thereof to prove , i was methought , as when i did begin ; in love and vertue wise men wisely say , the more a man doth go , the more he may . for as it comes at first , i know not how , so doth it bring at lenghth i know not what ; and when we stand as tho we would not bow , then doth it break our force , and ●ast us flat ; and making us to run an endless course , oft seems to mend , but waxeth wors & wors . some lay the fault in love , and som again in them that love , i mean the women kind , i have just cause with others to complain , but to complain i never had the mind ; for what doth it avail me to complain , if my complaint may not release my pain . when i complain aright , she takes it ill , and for amends she answers me no force , when i complain amiss , she rageth still , and for amends , she makes it ever worse , i find no fault in her i may excuse , 't is my ill luck that she doth ●e refuse . which maketh me uncertain what , or how , to say or think of me , or of my love , i saw before , with grief i see it now , 't is labour lo●t , her setled mind to move ; though she make more of me , then of the most i count but ill , that count without my ●lost . then i deserve , she doth a great deal more , and yet a great deal less then i desire , would god she kept her courteous deeds in store so that her self with love were set on fire : her deeds are such , as i may not complain , it is her heart that puts my heart to pain . she doth to me that which to all she must , and yet as though it were to me alone , her best she layes up for her best betrust , who is her all in all , and yet but one : in love and vertue wise men wisely say , the more we spend , stil spend the more we may thus do i feed on leaves instead of fruit , instead of bodies , shadows me content , in my account , cyphers for numbers go , my feasting christmas is a fasting lent : and yet no wrong , for my desert is small , and all the world is subject to her call . when he had written this , she read it , and said , that he writ it more to shew his wit , then for any good will , whereupon he thus replyed . but what do i in vain my paper spend , without al hope against the stream to move needs must i end , although i know no end , if not to love , yet for to speak of love , she says that this , she says that all i writ , was nothing else but for to shew my wit . and would to god my wit did shew no more , then i delight to shew my wit therein , it were more wit to keep my love in store , then utter all , when none of hers is seen ; mine is so much , she keeps her own in store , if mine were less , her own would be the more to his love upon complaint of the uncertainty of his estate : she answered him , that he should never have cause to repent . my heart the ship , that was tost to & fro , by winds of fear , by waves of deep despair in certian course , uncertain what to do , or how to find the weather ever fair , at length is got into the port of rest , to wit , his only best beloved brest . and knit with faith , as with a cable rope , which wil not shrink , though all the world do fail , unto the anchor of undoubted hope , in hope at length with wind and tide to sail ; he careth not though winds do blow abroad so he may find his harbour in the road . a small assurance more contents the mind , the greater hope of greater hope to come , that which is loose , you may with ease unwind the way to all , is to be sure of some , which sith you grant , i hold my self content , with that you say , i never shall repent . he that hopes you said of him ●s you meant , that he never should have cause to repent . to his love when she said that her love was a burthen unto him . my love , why dost thou think thy love a burthen unto me , i never felt a thing so light , as it doth seem to be , or if thy love a bu●then be , as thou dost say my dear , why thinkst thou me unable , or unwilling it to bear , it is no burthen for to have , but for to want thy love , from which i do not , cannot , ought not , will not me remove : the love is light , and doth delight , that hath the greatest part : the love is heavy that is least , and makes a heavy heart ; then if thy love a burthen be , as thou dost seem to say , think that it never troubles me , but when it goes away . to his mistris on new-years-day . to give a gift , where all the gifts of god so much abound , what is it else but even to adde , a penny to a pound ? to wish you years , though they be new , which yet may make you old , what is it , but to wish you years of silver for your gold ? yet do i send a simple gift , to shew my great good will , and wish withall that all your years be new and happy still . to a friend , on the word wife . the w. is double wo , the i. nought else bu● jealousie , the f. is fawning flattery , the e. what else bu● enmity : if in the name there be such strife , then god defend me from a wife . vpon a merchant . there was a man , and he was semper idem , and to be brief he was mercator quidem , he had a wife was neither tall nor brevis , yet in her carriage was accounted levis , he to content her gave her all things satis , she to requite him made him cuckold gratis . ti his love upon new-years even , when they were upon parting . if you will leave me , leave me , dear , or now or never with the year , for now the year is at an end , and now each friend renews his friend , and now the date of love expires , and now the time truth requires , and now your friends envy at me , and now it must or never be . if you do mean to love me , dear , begin to morrow with the year , for then doth love it self renew , and every friend perform his due , then to and fro the gifts are sent , and paid as if it were for rent , and then of friends the most we make , another lease of love to take . if you will neither leave , nor love , as by conjecture i can prove ; you do me wrong to hold me on , you wrong your self to care for none ; you wrong the face that god you gave , you wrong the other gifts you have , and in revenge of this your wrong , shall love i hope , and lack as long : wherefore or love , or leave me , dear , or now , or never , with the year , to his heart . my heart why dost thou bodily fear , that thou dost love in vain ? why dost thou fear that gentle meanes , will make thee live in pain ? what though thy love did never care , for wearing of a man ? what though more craft lurk in her breast , then she dissemble can ? thy choice is good , thy love is great , thy faith is true as steel : she 's wise , what wilt thou more ? why dost thou fear before thou feel ? the hearts answer . alas , what should i do but fear , how i may be secure ? of that which none could yet come neer ▪ how may poor i be sure ? what though i have the name to be , the greatest in her books ? what though she feed me once a day , even with her kindest looks ? her choyce is past , her love bestowed , hear faith no faith can move , ● most unworthy ; shall i hope to gain so good a love ? a reply to his heart . my heart why dost thou reason thus , according to thy sense ? why dost thou make an evill cause , the worse be thy defence ? what though her choice be past ? her love bestowed , her faith too true , what though thou most unworthy be , to such a one to sue ? in choyce is change , in love mislike , faith used ill may faile . full many speed unworthily , why should'st thou strike the sayle . the hearts answer . alas , to reason for my self , is but to breed my bane , and to be proud of mine estate , when i am in the wane . what though in choice , in love , in faith , we many changes see ? what though in my unworthiness , she may esteem of me ? such choice is chance , such love is light , such faith is also frail , and they that speed unworthily , unworthily may fail . of love . what thing is love ? the worst & yet the be●● , a world of cares , and yet a mart of toyes , a sea of dangers , yet the haven of rest , a hell of torments , yet a heaven of joyes , a world , a sea , a hell to tender hearts , a mart , a haven , a heaven to ease their smarts how doth it come ? that way it seemeth least , it fisheth here , and hangeth there a bait , it hoisteth say i when it doth anchor cast , and strikes alarm when it sounds retreat , and when we think we have it at the bay , we may be sure it steals another way . what are the works of love ? more neat then fit for any use , and more in skill then proof , the fine conceits of every finest wit , of greater ca●● and ●●bour then behoof , much lik● 〈◊〉 sh●t spiders weave on hie which have no use but even to catch a flie . w●at is the end of love ? still to begin , and not to have or sight , or hope of end , about a little to be long , and in an endless suit , a thankless time to spend ; much like the wheel that turning ever round doth run apace , and yet can get no ground . when he was to go into the countrey . and must i go , from whom ? what shall i say ? from hope , from health , from love , from life , from all , tha● was , or is , or may be any way , my greatest comfort in each kind of thrall , and that beyond the seas into an i le , where from my joyes i must my self exile . what though my native country be the place ? what though it be to see my father dear ? what though it be my mother to imbrace ? and take her blessing for this whole two year ? what though it were 10000. friends to see , ●0000 . times this one more pleaseth me . to his only one when he was in the country . let fools beleeve that absence cureth love ▪ or cools the heart , that eye hath set on fire , i see , i see , the farther i remove , the farther off i am from my desire ; and find too well the wound i took by sigh● is nothing less , but rather more by flight ▪ for thogh mine eye did daily wound my hear● yet did i see withall thy lovely face , no● every thought gives caus of greater smar● because i want the hope of wonted grace , the only thing wherein i now delight , is that thou dost to me so kindly write . if thou didst know what pleasure i do take ▪ in every line that thou dost write to me , how i do scan each letter for thy sake , to pick what kindness i may out of thee : i know that thou wouldst write once a week to me ▪ in reading thine , methinks i talk with thee . to her again . how far ? how long am i , and shall i be from that sweet soul , whose looks doe feed mine eye ? how far ? how long shal she be kept from me , in whom , with whom , to whom i live and dy ? for place , i take each step a mile to be , for time each hour doth seem a year to me . methinks the sun doth greater leisure take , then he was wont , to linger out the day , methinks he goes , as if his legs did ake , and time it self doth make no haste away , if i might rule the chariot of the sun , i would be bound to make it night at noon . but be i far ; or be i long from thee , i am thine own , and thine alone my dear , no ●ime , no place shall change or alter me , though steps were miles , & every hour a year ; perswade thy self that i am with thee still , though i be here , in part , against my will ▪ when she told him she loved as well as he . as well as i ? too good for to be true , as well as i ? too sweet for to be sure , as well as i ? a speech too kind for you , as well as i ? too sudden to endure : as well as i ? as well as i , i say ; i ask no more , i wish no fairer play . as well as i ? then must you change your vain , and watch your times to make your love be seen , as well as i ? then must you leave disdain , and shew your self more kind then you have been : as well as i ? as well as i , i say , i ask no more ▪ i wish no fairer play . as well as i ? then will i strive to do more then i can , to make you do as much , as well as i ? then will i be to you , more then i am , to make you to be such : as well as i ? as well as i , i say , i ask no more , i wish no fairer play . to his love . if any be content with words , 't is i , if any not content with deeds , 't is you ; if any fear your tongues like swords , 't is i , if any vex the heart that bleeds , 't is you : 't is you and i that make these sayings true , disdained i , and most disdainfull you . if any man do live by looks , 't is i , if any woman loves by fits , 't is you ; if any leave for love his books , 't is i , if any bats the edge of wits , 't is you : 't is you and i that make these sayings true , unhappy i , and more then happy you . if any strive against the stream , 't is i , with wind and tide , if any go , 't is you if any be more then they seem , 't is i , if any think less then they know , 't is you : 't is you and i that make these sayings true , unfeigning i , and deep dissembling you . if any pluck for prime , and miss , 't is i , if any pluck for flush , and hit , 't is you , when colour holds , if any loose , 't is i , by contraries , if any get , 't is you . 't is you , to whom all gains prove for the best 't is i that on all gains do loose my rest . a fancie of love . the sun had run his race , and now began his steeds to water in the western seas , when suddenly the sky waxt pale and wan , and night drew on the time of rest and ease : i lay me down to take my sleep in bed , and lo what fancies came into my head . fast by my side there seemed one to stand , i know not how possest on every part , possest on either foot , on either hand , possest on head , but most possest on heart ; ladies they seem'd , that did divide him so , and still at odds both draw him to and fro . i sigh to think , how i did sigh in sleep , and full of pitty , pittied his estate , i scarce can hold to think how he did weep , and make complaint of his unhappy fate ; yet went i on to see what dames they were , that did the silly soul in pieces tear . upon his heart , his tender heart i saw , love like a prince sit in a chair of state , under her feet lay all his thoughts in awe , not daring once their case for to debate ; the reason was , reason it self was fled , and scarce did hold a corner of the head . upon this head did foolish fancy sit , devising toyes his mistris mind to move , i never saw the like conceits of wit , as thence were sent to get his mistris love : and though he sent unto her more and more he never sent the same he sent before . on either hand did sit a modest dame , one on the left , another on the right , one called hope , the other faith by name , too constant both for love that was but light ; yet winged both , as if they would aspire , faith with desert , and hope with hot desire . upon his feet two spitefull ones did sit , to weigh him down , & nail him to the ground to clog his hope , his faith , his love his wit , from getting her to whom he would be bound to wit , distrust , that hindred faith to flye , despair , that hindred hope to mount on hye . while i stood musing at his wofull case , she passed by that puts him to this pain , it grieved me to see so sweet a face , to bear a hand so armed with disdain , and as his faith began to plead desart , with her disdain , she thrust him through the heart . do i say him ? i feel my self her hand , this very wound doth drive my dream away , well may i dream that others by me stand , but when i wake , i must the person play : well may i dream this deed by others true , but when i wake , it can be none but you . when he knew not how to please her . if any man an endless maze do tread , where neither in nor out he finds the way , if any's fancy be by reason lead , to one that doth both dally and delay , if any anchor cast in careless cost , 't is only i that study to be lost . my wit is snar'd within a serpents head , where there are many turnings to and fro , my foolish heart is yet with reason led , to think it reason that it should be so : and i my self , i grant , do study most conceits of wit , by which i may be lost . what will you have me do ? what will you not ? shal i be yours ? not so , mine own ? nor so ? go i away , i have a new love got , stay i , what get i , but but in faith sir no ? wish i your love , you say i wish no reason , touch i you brest , you say i offer treason . how will you have me to behave me then ? not yours , and yet but yours i may not be , as touching , so not touching doth offend , go i , or stay i , there is fault in me , yet must i still in this or that offend , untill you tell how i may both amend . in truth . inn truth sometime it was a sweet conceit , to think how truth & love did live together but now in truth there is so much deceit , that truth indeed is gone i know not whither ; yet liveth truth , and hath its secret love , and love in truth deserves to be regarded ; and love regard in conscience doth approve , approved truth can never be discarded : then try me first , and if that true you prove me ▪ in truth you wrong me , if you do not love me . vpon a discourtesie . close up thy lids mine eye , thy leaves mine eare , put up thy pipes my tongu , thy stripes my heart head hide thy self , wit leave thy fancies dear , hand , let thy pen no more it self impart ; for when eye sees , ear hears , heart feels disdain how may i speak , or write , or think but pain . head akes with casting fancies in his mold , hand shakes with setting of these fancies down hart quaks to think that love shud wax so cold and each part takes my wrong to be his own ; but yet since you in them do me forsake , 't is i , not they that ake , that shake , that quake . my aking head can dream of nothing now , but agonies of a perplexed mind , my shaking hand can write down nothing now but fitts of agues , shaking in their kind . my quaking heart doth pant within my breast that so great love should find so little rest . vpon may-day . this morning did i dream of merry may , how i did rise , and forth a maying go , to take the pleasure of the pleasant day , in which we may without all fear of no ; methought into a park of dear i came , a pleasant place , and full of pleasing game . a goodly pale it had about it round , as even as art could make , or nature bear , which did set forth the goodness of the ground and compass in the hasty flying dear , the gate was made with clasp of silver fast , where few or none without great favor past . the froward keeper did deny me way , and askt me , how i durst to come so neer ? since it is may said i , i trust i may come in and out , so that i steal no dear : no , no , said he , go may it other where , though it be may , you may not may it here ▪ with that i stood aloof the park to view , and over pale the pleasures to behold , where i perceiv'd a lawn of perfect hew , which did abound in pleasures manifold , above the which a goodly hill there stood , upon the which , there grew a goodly wood . within the gate i did a cave espye , whence of sweet breath there blew a pleasant wind , happy were he that at the mouth might lye , to cool his heart , when hot he doth it find : yet farther in methought there did appear ; two lively springs , as any chrystal clear . what kind of dear it held , i need not tell , it nothing held , that is not holden dear , each thing it held , became the park so well , it grieved me that i could not come neer : but wo is me that in this pleasant ground , beauty should be the dear , & love the hound . of his love , upon his purpose to travell . as vertuous men passe mild away , and wisper to their souls to go , while some of their sad friends do say , now his breath goes , and some say no : so let us melt , and make no noise , nor tear flouds , nor sigh tempests move , 't were profanation of our joyes , to tell the laity of our love ; movings of th'earth cause harms and fear , men reck on what they did , and meant , but trepidations of the sphere , though greater far , are innocent : dull sublunary lovers love , whose soul is sense , cannot admit absence , because it doth remove those things , which elemented it . but we , by love so much refin'd , that our souls know not what it is , enter assured of the mind , careless , eyes , lips , and hands do miss : our two souls therefore which are one , though i must go● endure not yet a breach , but an expansion , as gold to airy thinness beat . if they be two , they are two so , as stiff-●wind compasses are two . thy soul , the fixt foot makes no shoo● to move , yet doth , if th'other doe : and though it in the centre sit , yet while the other far doth rome , it leanes and hearkens after it , and growes erect , as that comes home . such then be thou to me , who must , like th'other foot obliquelie run : thy firmness draws my circle just , and makes me end where i begun . j. dun. to his mistris of love and hate . take heed of loving mee , at least remember i forbade it thee ; not that i shall repair m●unthrifty waste of breath and blood , upon thy sighs and tears , and so recover my lost soul at last : for so great joy my life at once out-weares , then least thy love by my death frustate be , if thou love me , take heed of loving me . take heed of hating me . or too much triumph in thy victorie ; not that i shall be mine own officer , and hate with hate again retaliate : but thou wilt looose the name of conquerar , if i thy conquest perish by thy hate . then least my being nothing , lessen thee , if thou hate me , take heed of hating me . yet love and hate me ●oo ; so these extreams shall neithers office doe love me that i may dye the gentle way : hate me , because thy love 's too great for me , or let these two themselves , not me decay : so shall i live thy stage , not triumph be : then least thy love , hate , and me thou undo , o let me live , o love , and hate me too . his dyet . to what a cumbersom unwealdiness , and burd●nous corpulence my love had grown but that i did to make it less , and keep it in proportion , give it a dyet , made it feed upon , that , which love worst endures , discretion . above one sigh a day i allow'd him not , of which my fortune , and my faults had part , and if sometimes by stealth hegot , a she-sigh from my mistris heart ; and though to feast on that , i let him see ▪ 't was neither very sound , nor want to me , if he wrung from me a tear , i burnt it so with scorn or shame , that him it nourisht not , if he suckt hers , i let him know , 't was not a tear which he had got , his drink was counterfeit , as was his meat , for eyes that roul towards all , weep not , but sweat . what ever he would distaste , i wrote that , but burnt my letters , if she writ to me , and that favour that made him fat , i said , if any little be convey'd by this , ah , what doth it avail , to be the fortieth name in an entail . thus i reclaim'd my buzzard love to flye , at what , and when , and how , & where i chuse , now negligent of sport i lye , and now as other faulkners use , i spring a mistris , swear , write , sigh , and weep , and the game kil'd , or lost , go talk , or sleep . against marriage . there never lived that married woman yet , 〈◊〉 truly could commend the wives estate though some perhaps in modsty and wit , wil rather prais't , then shew their grief too late this marriage is a field of discontents , all over-grown with a confused h●ap of wrongs , cares , and many ill events , which husbands sowe , but wives are forc'd to reap . or like a prison with a painted door , which passengers suppose a princely place ; but entred in , they do repent full sore , their former errour , and their present case : o maids beware of this tolossa gold , 't is fair in shew , but ruine doth infold . against melancholy . go damned melancholy , get thee hence , thou hell-bred fury , torment of the mind , weakner of wit , abuser of the sence , within whose bounds al mischiefs are confin'd thou sullen sin , souls torture day and night , health-killing humour , harbinger of death , grave to content , darkner of beauties light , unto all good thou art the floud of leath ; a waking dream , a spur to jealousie ; a fond conveyer of a thousand toyes ; the ready path which leads to lunacie , is this bereaver of our earthly joyes : the gods , i think , when we deserv their curse , inflict this plague , because there is no worse . dr. iohn dun's will . before i sigh my last gasp , let me breathe ( greet love ) some legacies . here i bequeath mine eyes to argus , if mine eyes can see ; if they be blinde , then love i give them thee ; my tongue to fame ; t' ambassadores mine ears ; to women , or the sea , my tears ; thou love hast taught me heretofore , by making me serve her wh'ad twenty more , that i should give to none but such , as had too much before . my constancy i to the plannets give , my truth to them , who at the court do live , mine ingenuitie and openness to iesuites , to buffocns my pensiveness ; my silence t' any , who abroad have bin ; my money to a capuchin . thou , love , taughts me , b' appointing me , to love there , where no love receiv'd could be , onely to give to such as have an incapa●●● i give my r●putation to those that were my friends ; my 〈…〉 to school-men i be queath my 〈…〉 my sickness to physitions , 〈◊〉 excti●● to nature all that i in rime have writ , and to my company , my wit . thou , love , by making me adore her , who begot this love in me before , taughts me to make , as though i gave , when i did but restore . to him , for whom the passing bell next towles , i give my physick books ; my written rowles , of morall counsails , i to bedlam give : my brazen meddalls unto them , which live in want of bread ; to them which passe among all forreiners , mine english tongue . thou love , by making me love one , who thinks her friendship a fit portion for younger loves , dost all my gifts thus disproportion . therefore i le give no more , but i 'le undoe the world by dying , because love dyes too : then all your beauties will be no more worth then gold in mynes , where none doth draw it forth . and all your graces no more use shall have , than a sundyall in a grave , thou love taughtst me , by making me love her , who doth neglect both me and thee . t'intent and practise this one way t' annihilate all three . j. d. elegies by mr. w. m. an elegie on a sexton . i many grave have made , but enjoy'd none , this which i made not , i possest alone ; each corps without embalming it did serve , my life like precious mummy to preserve ; death , which then kind , now cruel found i have rob'd me of life , which me my living gave ; no , death is still more kind , for in the grave where once i labour had , now rest i have ; i made good use of time , and night and day , had eare and heed how the hour did rass away ; i still was ready for a grave , nor shall grive at what most i joy'd , a funerall : as i was wont , though not so soon as then , out of the grave i shall come forth agen . on a scrivener . here to a period is the scrivener come , this is his last sheet , his ful point , his tomb of all aspersions i excuse him not , 't is plain he liv'd not without many a blot , yet he no ill example shew'd to any , but rather gave good copies unto many ; he in good letters had been alwayes bred , and hath writ more then many men have read ; he rulers had at his command by law , although he could not hang , yet he could draw his force more bondmen had & made then any , a dash alone of his pen ruin'd many , that not without great reason we may call , his letter great , or little capitall , yet 't is the scriveners fault , as sure as just , when he hath all done , then he turns to dust . an elegie on a barber . here 's a mad ' shaver laid , a cutting lad , that many trim feats , and som bald ones had ; his actions were but barbarous , and he more poling was then pettifoggers be , and if his fingers lookt unto were not , twenty to one , but he would cut your throat , but he that is not hair-brain'd needs not fear , maugre bald luck by him to lose an hair : i wonder then he dy'd that liv'd alone , by excrements , hair , which can nourish none . such an hard workman we might hardly spar ▪ this accident fell out against the hair , since in deaths empire , of a barbar's trade , ( for dead mens hair doth grow ) might use be made death takes and soundly payes him , how soere , here yet is left his equalls to an hair . an elegie on a mason . so long the mason wrought on others walls , that his own house of clay to ruine falls , which shall be new built and repair'd alone , when heaven and earth have dissolution ; he alwayes kept his actions within square , none of his doings but were regular ; he had a trull , and that was vitious , and climing high , he seem'd ambitious ; though much of him , yet truly said might be , no lay-man did more edifie then he ; by laying lime , he caught much foul , and none took with a hook more pain then he had done no marvel spightful death wrought his annoy , he sought to build , and death seeks to destroy . on a trumpeter . if that fames trumpet shall not speak thy worth , yet thou a trumpet hadst to set it forth , i thoght at last thou wuldst fal dead to ground having been long accustomed to sound ; thou wer 't too much puft up long time to last , needs must he dye whose life is but a blast ; thee a sound fellow we did alwayes find , or thou like him that 's with the collick pin'd preservd'st thy life by letting forth of wind ; camelian-like of ayre thou hadst thy food , and 't was a bad wind did blow thee no good ; rob'd of thy windpipes once by cruel death , for want of breath thou dyd'st that liv'st by breath . pack up thy pipes , here silent rest , till when , a trumpets sound make thee to live agen . an elegie on a sailour . now on dry land the sailor he doth rest aborad , here seeming cabin'd in a chest , the frail bark of 's life , which strange did sound for want of wind , not water , here 's aground . 't is known some time a landed man he was , but had of late gone down the winde apace : his life was fleeting and unstaid ; but death made him a grave-man , and him setled hath . he could not but remember he must die , that had his shrowd each day before his eye , needs must his corps long incorrupt abide , which seem'd inbalm'd with pitch before he dide . an elegie on a hunter . here lies a dogged fellow , who hath run out all his time , & now his course is don ; a running head he had , and did not scorne , though it did sound abroad , to wear the horn . his course so open was , that whosoere observ'd it , soon might have him at a hare . he could not hunt thrift , yet his trace shal stand he kept his leases , though he sold his land . he cannot leave his lying , though he die , for he being dead , yet in his grave doth lye . lament his losse , that like a hunter , he brought to his grave , with a great cry might be . an elegie on a tinker . six foot at last , the wandring tinker bound , he silent rests , whose acts once loud did sound at handy-stroakes he did no valour lack , stout fellow that was metled at the back . it seems a perfect alchymist he was , for into silver he did turn his brass . 't is like he spake to purpose what he said , for he still strook the nail upon the head . he made two holes , while he did mend one hole , and did his work by piece , and not the whole ; often in latine he would men beguile , and yet speak nought but english all the while . his nose and forehead , each a brazen one , carried the badge of his occupation : yet had he not so soon come to an end , t'had better been , for he each day did mend . an elegie on a smith . farewell stowt iron-side , not all thy art could make a shield against deaths envious dart . without a fault , no man his life doth pass , and to his vice the smith addicted was . he oft ( as choller is en creast by fire ) was in his fumes , and much inclin'd to ire , he had been long so us'd to forge , that he was with a black cole markt for forgery ; but he for whiteness needed not to care , h'ad but a black-smith bin , though ne'r so fair . pragmaticall he seem'd by his desire , still to have many irons in the fire ; and opportunities he lacked not , that knew to strike then when the irons hot ; as the door nails ho made he 's now as dead , he them , & him hath death knockt in the head an elegie on squire bug a shooemaker . he that hath made so many souls of late , now wants a soul himself to animate , that he so wrung them , many did compalin , but at the last he gave them ease again : he sometimes did work booty for his frieads , and whom soe'r he serv'd , wrought his own ends ; but if to take the length of others foot shew cunning , none knew better how to do 't : he kept the old worlds custome , by his trade reviv'd , for he of leather money made ; the leather lessen'd him to drink , which nere approved was , till it well liquor'd were ; he well observ'd how he his life did spend , who saw each day that he was neer his end ; his death might welcome be to those that use , ( being bare themselvs ) to gape for dead mens shooes . an elegie on a tapster . here lyes a man of reckning , often seen t' have born much drink , & not distemperd been . he seem'd a lusty sword-man , for he would draw upon small occasion , and none should scot-free esape , that through his fingers past , but they were sure to pay for it at last . of his hard measure many have complain'd , he car'd not while he out of measure gain'd ; such was his pot-luck , that to high place when , he had been call'd , soone he came down agen ; now this draw-drink being dead by fatall hap , soon you shall have a fresh one at the tap . finis . the ancient history of the septuagint written in greek by aristeus near two thousand years ago ; being his voyage to jerusalem, as ambassadour from ptolomæus philadelphus, unto eleazar, then high priest of the jews, concerning the first translation of the holy bible by the seventy two interpreters with many other remarkable circumstances, no where else to be found ; first english'd from greek, by the learned and reverend dr. john done ... now revised, and very much corrected from the original. letter of aristeas. 1685 approx. 189 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 111 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a25805 wing a3682 estc r12295 12715773 ocm 12715773 66194 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a25805) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 66194) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 972:14) the ancient history of the septuagint written in greek by aristeus near two thousand years ago ; being his voyage to jerusalem, as ambassadour from ptolomæus philadelphus, unto eleazar, then high priest of the jews, concerning the first translation of the holy bible by the seventy two interpreters with many other remarkable circumstances, no where else to be found ; first english'd from greek, by the learned and reverend dr. john done ... now revised, and very much corrected from the original. letter of aristeas. donne, john, 1572-1631. [12], 10, 192 p. printed for w. hensman, and tho. fox ..., london : 1685. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. table of contents: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -o.t. -greek -history. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-06 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2002-06 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the ancient history of the septuagint . written in greek by aristevs near two thousand years ago . being his voyage to ierusalem , as ambassadour from ptolomaeus philadelphus , unto eleazar , then high priest of the iews : concerning the first translation of the holy bible by the seventy two interpreters . with many other remarkable circumstances , no where else to be found . first english'd from the greek , by the learned and reverend dr. iohn done , late dean of st. pauls . now revised , and very much corrected from the original . london , printed for w. hensman , and tho. fox , booksellers in westminster-hall . 1685. to the reader . although time and death , from our cradles to our graves , pursue us swiftly , and , according to the almighties ordinance , overtake and seize upon our frail and earthly parts , upon some sooner , upon others later : yet excellent acts , like strong eagles , break from their seizure , and soar above them in so sublime a pitch , as neither time , with all his power and rusty powder , with which he blots and rubs out brass and marble , can quite obscure or extinguish them , neither death close in his dark-gaping mouth ( the grave ) their nobleness . witness this small , yet ancient history , which this last summer i made part of my exercise , to put into an english habit. that the story is ancient , i may well say ; for it is 1900 years since aristeus writ it to his brother philocrates ; which aristeus , st. hierom , in his epistle to the pentateuk of the bible , says , was * hyperaspistes to ptolomeus philadelphus , king of egypt , syria , phenicia , and cilicia , and son of ptolomeus lagus , one of the great captains of alexander magnus , that divided his conquests ( the world ) amongst them . this ptolomeus philadelphus was a most accomplish'd young gentleman , vertuously disposed and so great a lover of learning , as he had accumulated into his library according to some authors , 1800000 volumes , printing being not then risen in our hemisphere , was by the said aristeus , a most noble person , and a great friend of ( the then captive iews ) ( as an instrument of god ) for the liberty and freedom of them , ( then his people ) practised with demetrius phalerius , to tell the king , that his so abundant library was but poor , because it wanted the book of books , the sacred volume of god , which we call the holy bible : the king , vertuously covetous thereof , demanded how he should best acquire it ? aristeus , waiting this desired occasion , proportioned his advice , that he should first set all the captived iews , not only in egypt , but also in syria , &c. at free liberty : and send ambassadors and presents to eleazar their high priest and pontiff . the king willingly consents thereto , as to the musick of his desires , and prepares most rich presents , as a table of massie gold , embellish'd with precious stones , cups of gold and silver likewise adorned , sets at freedom the captived by publick edict , and sends as ambassadours aristeus , and andrea , prince and great captain of the guard of his person , with these gifts , and divers talents of gold and silver . they go , deliver his letters of request and commends , have gracious entertainment , return with the 72 interpreters iews letters , and also eleazars presents to the king , and in especial , with the sacred volume and word of god. the good king adores the books , feasts the bringers , who after fall to the business , and translated it out of the hebrew into the greek , the common learned language of those times , made famous by the sword of alexander . and this in brief is the effect of this venerable history , which is by me thus made yours . and though i seem to anticipate thus to you , yet it is as nothing ; for in it self , as you may further see , it is elaborately and eloquently written by the said aristeus ; and let no man wonder too much thereat , as thinking our times excell theirs in eloquence : no ; for who ever exceeded demostenes the greek , or cicero the latin , therein ? lastly , to speak the praise of history , libri sunt vasa memoriae , and worthy historical books have in them a kind of divine permanency ; and as eminent persons should affect noble actions , so ought they to cherish the registers , as their honourers . for , hath not plutarch made those gyant heroes , as theseus , romulus , alexander , iulius caesar , and the rest , yet live ? and himself , more praisfully , longer then them all ? so as an ignorant swaggering fellow threatned his adversary to kill him if he had as many lives as plutarch ● did not alexander sigh for another homer ? lastly , ( if i have in honour of the history ) like one holding a lighted taper to the clear no●●●shining sun , made an appendix , shewing the antiquity and dignity of the books , by the said s●●tuagint translated , and the excelle●●y of their inspired writer , moses ; and have therein been too prolixious , pardon me , because of the profundity and worthiness of the matter : so i referr you to that , and the rest ; and so rest yours , iohn done. the elenchus , or contents of the following book . characters of the persons that were herein aiders , imploying and imployed . p. ( 1 ) aristeus to his brother philocrates . p. 1. the discourse that aristeus held with king ptolomy , for the deliverance of the jews . p. 10. the request of demetrius phalerius to king ptolomy . p. 20● tenour of the letter of king ptolomy , to eleazar high-priest of jerusalem . p. 23. eleazar , high-priest , to king ptolomy , our most illustrious friend . p. 27. the names of those which were chosen of all the lines and tribes of the jews to go into aegypt for the translation of the law of moses . p. 30. of the presents sent to eleazar , high-priest of the jews , by king ptolomeus philadelphus . p. 33. of the vessels , cups , and viols of gold. p. 43. of the city of hierusalem and region thereabouts , as it was 260. years before the birth of our saviour . p. 49. of the priests . p. 53. of the high-priest eleazar . p. 54. of the fortress or castle of hierusalem . p. 56. yet more of the town . p. 58. of the region about hierusalem , and of the policy of the countrey-people , or pesants . p. 60. what manner of men the translators of the law were . p. 66. of the answers made by eleazar upon certain points of the law of moses . p. 70. return of the ambassadors into alexandria with the jewish doctors : and how the king adored the holy law seven times with tears in his eyes . p. 88. answers of the jewish doctors to questions propounded by king ptolomeus philadelphus . from p. 96. to 154. the means used by the 72 doctors in their interpreting the law. p. 159. a discourse in way of apology concerning the truth of this story : also divers opinions of both ancient and modern authorities and fathers , concerning the manner of the translation . p. 170. lasty , an appendix in honour of this ancient and famous history , discoursing the antiquity and dignity of the books , and the excellency of their inspired writer moses . p. 175. certain praecognita , or characters of the chief persons mentioned in the ensuing history . 1. of ptolomeus philadelphus . ptolomeus , second of that name , surnamed philadelphus , king of aegypt , of phaenicia , and of cypres , son of the first ptolomeus , son of * lagus , began his reign in the 271 year before the incarnation of our lord jesus christ. this ptolomeus philadelphus was endoctrined in the science of good letters , by strabo the peripatetick : in which he became so excellent , that he was esteemed one of the most accomplish'd princes of his time : but that which was in him the most admirable , was , the bounty , debonarity , sweetness , and gentleness of his spirit , accommodated with the manners and complexions of all worthy and deserving persons . by this means he entred so far , and before , in the grace of all the world , that every one in his thought wish'd he were king : and his father , knowing his right of succession was to be so , and rejoycing in his hopes of him , made him to be crowned king , and devested himself of all authority , without reserving any power , right , or preheminence to himself , only a superintendency over the guard of the king his son , glorifying to be father of such a king : for the admiration he had of his high vertues , kindled and gave occasion between them both , of a most kind contention in mutual offices , the son yielding to the father , and the father to the son , in all , and by all , through instinct of devotion and piety , so they gave lively touches one to the other in all reduceable fitting offices , which was cause that the people conceived a great fidelity and amity towards them , so as it seemed , even the divine providence prepared this noble spirit to introduce that great good amongst humanes , as to make them participants of the laws , and divine illuminations wherewith god had favoured the people of the iews above all the nations of the world. and it seemeth , that even then his almightiness made a preparative for the vocation of the ethnicks and gentiles by communication so of his holy law ; whereof ptolomy was the ordained minister , to call the seventy interpreters into aegypt , to translate into the greek language , which then was the most used and vulgar through the whole universe . so as i am amazed at some fanatical spirits , that hinder us from the knowledge of god , in not giving his word in the language of the people wheresoever , as is appertaining to every one in regard of salvation . i would ask those men , what language spake those dames of rome , paula , eustochina , melania , susanna , fabiola , demetria , furia , flavia , blesilla , and others ? for the institution of whom , saint hierom translated many books of holy scriptures out of strange tongues into latin , which was the natural language of the said ladies . i would also know , who was more wise , or better inspired then st. hierom ? further , it seems they either are , or would seem to be ignorant of the institution of the emperour iustinian , who ordained , that those who sung in the temples , that they should sing high , and so intelligible , that all the people might understand them . but to return to ptolomy ; he undertook to erect a library in the capital city of his realm , alexandria , the charge whereof he gave to demetrius phalerius , a prince , and an athenian philosopher , who erected it so sumptuously , that there was not the like in all the world : and it lasted until the first war of the romans against the alexandrians ? this king had to wife arsinoe , to whom he caused a statue to be raised , in height four cubits , of one entire stone , call'd a topaz , the which had been given to bernice the mother of ptolomy , by a prince named philemon . 2. of aristeus , the author of this history . aristevs , the near kinsman and friend of king ptolomeus philadelphus , is named by 1 st. hierom ptolomei hyperaspistes , the shield of the king , or he that defends the king with his shield , or bearer of the shield royal , which seems to me , that he held some such place about the king his master , as we call at this day the great esquire of the kings body , he was the principal sollicitor for the liberty of the iews , that then were held slaves throughout all the dominions of ptolomy ; for he made the first request for them , and obtained it . and for this cause he was sent ambassadour with andrea , prince of the guards belonging to the king , unto hierusalem , to deal with the high-priest eleazar ; who sent to the king ptolomeus six doctors of every tribe to go on with the translation and version of the holy books of moses . he writ diligently his voyage , where he shews openly , how and by what course those seventy two interpreters behaved themselves in the said books . 1 some have been of opinion , that they translated all the bible : but it is more likely to many that 2 they translated but the five books , that is genesis , exodus , leviticus , numbers , and deuteronomy , which they call the pentateuck , which is the law of moses : for aristeus speaks but of the law of moses , and it is not likely that they touched the books historical , nor the prophets ; for if it had been so , aristeus would not have been silent thereof . moreover , that which they translated , was finished in the space of seventy two dayes , which is about two months and a half , and that 's a time too small , and therefore impossible to translate all the old testament . nevertheless , i am not ignorant , that there was a turning of other books of the bible , that go by the name of the seventy two interpreters . but i am perswaded that they were not then done in egypt , unless that after they were returned to hierusalem , they translated the rest of the holy books : although both in that and other opinions , i submit me to the deliberation of the church , from which i will not stray . but however , this translation was manifestly miraculous : which is sufficiently shewed , by that our lord jesus christ and his apostles , in allegations of the law , use the version of these seventy two interpreters . i have spoken these few words of aristeus , to the end the reader shall not think that this is that aristeus proconensis , that could be invisible when he listed , making folks believe that he could dye and rise again when he would , of whom speaks suidas , herodotus , pliny , and plutarch in the life of romulus . 3. of eleazer the high-priest of the jews . eleazar , of whom aristeus makes mention , was brother of simon surnamed the just : he , after the decease of his brother simon , in the year of the reign of ptolomy first of that name 35. was made chief of the synagogue of the iews , by reason that onias , son of simon his brother , was uncapable of succeeding in his father's place , as being under age : this eleazar therefore received the honour , that in his time the holy translation of the law was made by the seventy two doctors , that he se●t to ptolomeus , second of that name , king of egypt , as aristeus hath left by writing . 4. of demetrius phalerius . demetrius phalerius was an athenian orator and philosopher , as cicero notes in the first book of his offices , calling him a subtil and sharp disputant , and in the rest , an orator little vehement . he had been disciple of theophrastus , he was a man of such knowledge , and excellent carriage , that foreign kings had him in admiration , and drew him to their service , even cassander king of macedon . and for this reputation the athenians gave him the principality of the city and common-weal , in which he was ten years in great prosperity : but some of the citizens , having conceived malice against him , chased and threw him out of his estate , and then he was honourably received of king ptolomy , of whom we speak , where he was master of the library royal ; the athenians having formerly raised to him 360 statues of marble , in despight cast them to the earth , and judged him to death as a traytor ; of which demetrius being advertised , said , 1 the athenians have thrown down my statues , but they cannot over-turn my vertue , for which they first erected those statues . he was wont to say , that 2 eloquence was as necessary in a common-weal , as a sword in the wars . he dyed by the biting of an aspick , and was buried in the region of busina , near to diospolis . the history of aristeus , ambassadour of king ptolomaeus philadelphus , treating of his voyage unto jerusalem : and the first translation of the holy bible , by the seventy two elders . written in greek 1900 years since . aristeus to his brother philocrates . well knowing your natural and good inclination ( philocrates ) to have always had in great esteem the knowledge of all things , and that you have been desirous , and even greedy to understand the occurrences and passages of good exploits : i have deliberated to frame to you in writing , a matter not only excellent in it self , but well deserving to be known ; which unto us is hapned , being sent of late to eleazar , h. priest of the iews . but because these things shall be more easie to you , i shall first declare the causes for which we were sent ; and then i shall come to the progress of the matter , so as i shall shape my discourse to your understanding , and that the most truly i possibly can , as well ●or the dignity of the subject , as to delight your mind , desirous of all good knowledges , assuring my self that man hath in him nothing more excellent and laudable , than incessantly to desire learning , either by means of histories , or by the objects of things themselves , or by the course and experience of affairs . for the spir●t of man , though rude and un●urnished , is greatly adorned and embellished , when from the beginning it delighteth to taste and relish those most nourishing , fair , worthy , and excellent things that may conduct him by an infallible course , to follow piety and right reason . we therefore searching with great curiosity into the knowledge of divine things , could not arrive at them ; as not understanding the divine law without being interpreted and rendred into our familiar tongue , for which cause we undertook to go ambassadour to one only person , who amongst his fellow citizens and others , for frankness and great worth was in the most esteem ; and who only did great honour and profit to the citizens , he conversed with , but also to all other iews , of what other place , or whence soever . being then well in●ormed , that they had the divine law written in hebrew characters , in skins of parchment , we were joyful to accept this charge given us by the king ; as also for that the colonies of the captive iews here desired the same above all things of the world , who had been hither led by the kings father , that had reduced into his obedience the city of ierusalem , and all the countrey adjacent . but since we are faln to make mention of that matter , it will not be impertinent to give you light into the whole discourse , that thereby you may take your measures better , knowing well that it will be more advisable carefully to inform you how to address your self to the service of god reverently , than to travel in the search of humane laws or actions , be they never so just . which inclination you have sufficiently manifested , since from an isle so far remote , you are come to this country to see those things that may serve to the cultivating of your mind , without regard to any place whatsoever . i have therefore here reduced to writing : first , what hath seemed to me worthy of memory , touching the nation of the iews , as i have in some measure understood from the learned and wise priests of egypt : to the end that by this means i might aid and encrease by some means your knowledge : for we ought to have in remembrance what good we have received from othes ; and particularly to shew all gratitude to those who relate to us : and principally you , who have knowledge of vertue , deriving from your brother , not only resemblance , proximity of blood , and lineage , but those those principles that excite you with the same impetuosity of courage , to attain the honour , glory , and beauty of vertue ; assuring my self that neither the admiration of gold , or riches , nor the appearance of any things more precious , conduce to any thing but vain-glory ; neither will they yield you any such fruit as we may gather from knowledge , education , and consideration of good discipline . for the rest , to the end it may not seem that we make shew of ostentation in being prolix in this preface , we will return to our purpose , from whence we have wandered . demetrius phalerius , master of the kings library , after the best care he could , giving order to purchase books from all parts of the world : and employing for that purpose , great numbers of persons , as factors , dispersed in many places , who had in charge to buy and transcribe them ; they so doing , and that with diligence , the design of the king was accomplished and executed , at least in the best manner that was possible . for the king asking him , in our presence , how many thousand volumes he had collected for his library ; he answered , for the present he had no more than two hundred thousand , and he hoped e're long to have to the number of 500000. but sir ( said he ) i have understood that the laws of the iews deserve to be copied and translated , and to have place in your library : and what hinders it , answered the king , that they be not ? have you not all things to serve you convenient for that purpose ? demetrius answered , that it was necessary that those laws should be translated and interpreted : because the iews had in use a character peculiar to their language , far different from the aegyptians , adjusting and accommodating their letters to the tone of the voice , and that they were much deceived , who held they spake the syrian tongue : for their manner of speech was far distant . to which the king replied , that he would write to the high priest of the iews , to the end that all might be obtained which was requisite , to bring this matter to an issue , as demetrius required . then it came to my mind , that a fair opportunity presented for the freedom of all the iews which his father ptolomaeus lagus had led captive from iudea into egypt . for whose enlargement he had often entreated sosibius the tarentine , and andrea captain of the guard to the kings body . for these two commanding in the army , had reduced to obedience all that were in syria and phenicia , filling all those regions with fear and terrour : and then were the iews some of them led prioners , others disposed in manner of colonies , in such numbers , as there were brought into aegypt to the number of 100000 men , of whom were chosen well near 30000 effective , who were established as the guard of the province . true it is , before that time , many had been sent with the persians and other companies that were commanded against the k. of aethiopia under the leading of psammiticke : but those that were there , were not of so great number as those which were led away only by ptolomeus lagus . for ( as we have said ) he train'd to arms all those whom age or ability shew'd to be proper , and all the rest of the people , as well children , as old men and women , he made use of for colonies , determining with himself , that if at any time his men of war grew insolent , because none could surpass them in course or necessity of war , he had means to check their presumption , by such as might be drawn from these colonies . now then seeking an occasion to bring about the liberty of these poor men ( as i have formerly said ) and having found my opportunity , i opened my desire to the king , proposing after this manner . the proposition of aristeus to king ptolomeus philadelphus , for the delivery of the jews . it is nothing strange , my gracious lord and soveraign , if many times it happen , that those very affairs which we manage , thwart and run counter to our proceedings : for all the nations of the iews have one and the same law , which we desire to be ours , not only copied , but also translated into the greek tongue . how then expect you to succeed in this affair , when the greatest part of them are here in your kingdom kept prisoners ? unless it may please your august and generous spirit to request their holy books , after you have restored to free liberty those who live here in great calamity and pressure , having before all things regard to that god who makes your kingdom flourish , and hath crowned you with great prosperity : which is the same god that hath given them that sacred law which we desire to have . for they worship that god who hath made and created all things , and is the very same , whose wonderful works all mankind see and admire , though some not so clearly as others ; for ( sir ) we and others call him iupiter , and not without reason , for it hath so seemed good to our ancestors , because by him are procreated and live all creatures : the same also they esteem the directer and and governour of the universe . and although he holds all mortals in subjection , nevertheless he neither frustrates nor disappoints the prayers and vows of those , who illuminated with spiritual light , implore his aid . we then ought humbly to desi●e that he would incline our hearts to such good resolutions , as to do good , and that freely to every one , and especially to deliver and free those that indure slavery and bondage : for that since mankind is the work and creation of god , who hath power to turn the heart and bend it which way it pleaseth him . we many times after different methods desire it would please him to lead us to a perfection of goodness , as the principal ruler of all hearts and spirits . by this acknowledgment , i conceive great hopes to consummate this affair , principally , because i know god to be favourable to those that pray for things reasonable and equitable . for when men set themselves wholly to seek and accomplish what hath a tendency to justice and perfection of goodness , god the lord of all things conducts and addresseth their actions and affections to blessed & happy effects and ends. the king , then as something gained , with a contented countenance said to andrea , how many are there of the iews detained captive ? he answered in few words , more than 100000 ; it is a small request then said the king , aristeus requires of us , sosibius and some others then there present answered , it is a thing ( sir ) worthy your grandeur and generosity , to make an agreeable present to god by their deliverance , in testification of your thanks and acknowledgement , and since the governour of heaven and earth hath raised you to a greater height than all your predecessors , it is but just that you make thus a greater & more solemn expression of your thanks . the king then disposed to banquetting and pastimes in a full feast , and assembly of his nobles , commanded that the iews should be all search'd out , and that every man of them should be redeemed for the summ of 20 drachms by pole , and to confirm the same , that his edicts should be issued , and that herein all the dispatch and readiness should be expressed that was possible . and so it seemed that god accomplished and brought to pass our desires , for he pleased to put it into the heart of the king to set at liberty , not only those that by the army of the king his father were led captive into aegypt , but also all others that before or since , had been carried prisoners into aegypt , by what means soever : the summ then of those that were freed , amounted to 400 talents . moreover , i hold it not beside my purpose to send you the copy and tenour of the edict , whereby you may understand the greatness of the attempt , and the frankness and gracious inclinations of the king , who hath been moved by the goodness of god for the salvation of many . the edict of king ptolomeus philadelphus , for the delivery of the jews . we will and command all those that took up arms under our deceased father , through the countrey of syria , and phaenicia , entring the land of iudea , and there taking the iews and leading them prisoners , having imposed them their tasks and employments in town and country , that they shall deliver and restore them to full liberty : moreover , we will that all the iews that either before or since have been taken and led away , in what fashion or manner soever , shall be delivered frank and free , for the ransome we have set , that is to say , twenty drachms for every head ; which summ , the men of war shall receive from the fond of the staple and stores of victuals● and the rest shall be received from the allowance of the kings table , or be reserved : for we are duely informed that those iews were appointed and led away prisoners against the will of our deceased father , and against right reason : and that by the boldness and insolence of the men of war , they were carried into aegypt , and their countrey wasted and laid desolate ; when it was sufficient to have the men of war of the said countrey under their power , and all the province reduced to obedience . intending then to do and render right to every one universally , and especially to those who receive injury from the unjust power of others . moreover , to search diligently and particularly into all things that concern right and equity , and to prefer piety and religion before all things . our will and pleasure is , that all iews whatsoever , being bond and slaves within this realm , in what part soever they be found , be it in the colonies or elsewhere , or be it in whatsoever manner they were brought into our kingdom , shall be delivered , enfranchised , and set at liberty ; for we are pleased it shall be so done. and to the end that no person shall be interessed , or rec●ive dammage , we command that three days after the publication of this present edict , every one whom it doth concern , shall bring before us their requests , containing the number of heads that every one hath set at liberty . for so it pleaseth us to have it , for the profit of us , and our kingdom . declaring further , that the goods of those who are not obedient to this our edict , shall be forfeited and confiscate : and we give liberty to whosoever will , to accuse and inform against their contumacy or contempt of our will and pleasure . this edict being written , compleated , and brought to the king , to know if his pleasure were it should be published in this manner , or that he would correct , and so approve it . when he perceived that these words , viz. and those that before and since had been led prisoners , were wanting , he inserted them out of his goodness and bounty . he then made the of money presently to be doubled to his treasurer and officers of his finances . which distribution was dispatched in the space of seven days . and there was defrayed well near six hundred and sixty thousand talents ; for there were found a great number of children with their mothers , who were all set at liberty , and for every head of theirs , was payed by the kings command , twenty drachms : which was discharged by the king , to his great content and satisfaction . after all was done , he commanded demetrius , by course of estate , to deliver him the number of the hebrew volumes . for with these kings it is in use to comprise all things in edicts , and to signifie nothing , be it never so small a business , without writing ; as well for greater state and ceremony , as also that belief may more certainly be given thereto . therefore to the end you may , as it were , have all before your eyes , ● will here insert the tenour and copy of the request made to the king , by demetrius , and the epistles which were sent for those that were franchis'd ; so as you may see the number , and of what quality they were ; and according to the trades and professions by which they were distinguisht , and how they were registred and inrolled . the copy of demetrius his request to the king , was this . the request of demetrius phalerius to the king ptolomeus philadelphus . great sir , since it hath pleased you to give me command to search in all places for all manner of books , to replenish and adorn your library : i have thought it fit and necessary that we procure and get the books of the iewish laws , and some others , that we are yet wanting and unfurnish'd of , and because the said books of the iews are written in hebrew characters , peculiar and best known to the iews alone , and therefore not yet fallen into your royal hands , nevertheless , that they may be gained and ranked amongst your other volumes , partly for the wisdom contained therein ; partly for their sublimity and divine height of matter , of which poets and historians make often mention , as very profitable to instruct to good manners , to form and address the republick into the fairest shape of government , by reason of the dignity of men therein mentioned , the dignity of matters therein treated ; as * hecateus abderita plainly testifieth . these things seriously considered , ( great king ) it would do well , may it please you to write to ierusalem , and to the high priest there , that he would send you six men of every tribe or line , and that they be such as are of good parts and quality , of venerable age , best acquainted and vers'd in their own law , that being all able translators , they may with judgment choicely select and cull that course of expression which may be of a piece and harmoniously agreeing amongst themselves . and this done ( great sir ) shall hope you may accomplish a course worthy of so excellent a design , and at last suiting well with with your desire . the king having read this request ordered letters should be drawn and sent to eleazar the high preist , about this matter : in which were signified to him the deliverance o● the iews from their captivity● with the letter , he ordained also to be made ready cups , vessels , an● a table of pure gold , with fifty ta●lents of gold , and seventy of sil●ver , for oblations there to be offered with many precious jewels and stone● of very great value : command●ing the gold-smiths to finish thes● things with all speed , and the mone● in talents for the oblations to b● raised forthwith . and because yo● shall at large understand the king alacrity in this affair , i send yo● here the copy of the letter th● king writ , whereof the tenour i● as followeth . king ptolomeus philadelphus to eleazer , high priest of the jews . considering the great multitude of iews inhabiting within our territories , ( of whom some have been led from ierusalem in the times when the persians had the power , and others followed our deceased most honourable lord and father , being joyned with him , whereof many were received into his pay and ranked as his souldiers , and military men : the most faithful and trusty of which were established in the strongest forts for garrisons , by that means to curb the insolences of the aegyptians . ) we since being come to the crown , and having singular inclinations to exercise liberality and munificence towards all persons , and particularly to the citizens , have infranchised and set at liberty more than a hundred thousand , ordaining that out of our money a just ransome should be payed to all those that held them prisoners , valuing every head at a certain rate , as desiring to govern with reason , and to restore them to peace and tranquillity , whom the impetuosity , cruelty , and disorder of war hath disturb'd and diverted from right and equity . in which we think to have done a good and pious act and a work grateful to the great god for all the great favours received of his hands , making him this offering , for having signalized above all the world this our kingdom with a most flourishing peace , tranquillity , and eminent renown . and such others as have been slaves and bondmen in our army , we have appointed souldiers in our militia , and those that have been found more worthy for their faith and fidelity , we have made commanders , and preferred them to our court. further , because it is our desire they and all others of their nation , spread and scattered throughout the universe , may be thankful for our favours : we have resolved to cause your law written in hebrew letters , to be translated into the greek language ; and that our royal library be adorned therewith , as it is with other books : you will do well then as a thing very agreeable to us , and answering our design and intention , if you elect out of every tribe or line of your nation , six of the most aged persons , and such as shall be found of the best breeding and sufficience , and of greatest authority in the service of the law , and that have the best style in writing to make this translation : for so will the truth thereof be better and more easily gathered , if the set of interpreters be men of mature judgement , and well exercised in the law : well weighing that to effect well and worthily such an interpretation and translation : it is needful there should be pains , curious study and reflection , which may be found in the endeavours of many who are more sharp , more subtile , and more discerning than one alone . moreover , we judge that by the accomplishing so great a work , there will redound to us great honour and glory . for this cause therefore we have sent unto you , andrea , captain of the guard , and aristeus , men of honourable place in our court , who have commission on our part to present you with jewels for your sacrifices , and an hundred talents of silver for other uses . herein you will give us great content and pleasure , and express a courtesie resenting amity , if you have need of any thing , to require it for we will not fail to furnish and accommodate you therewith immediately . to which epistle eleazar answered as follows . eleazar , the high priest , to king ptolomeus philadelphus , our most illustrious friend . if you are well ( sir ) and the queen arsinoe , and my lady your sister , and my lords , your children , god be praised ; for health is a thing to be desired , and acknowledged as due unto him , who is giver thereof : as for us , we are in good prosperity , praised be the giver . we have received your letters , which brought us great content , by reason of your counsel , enterprise , and design ; as also for the love and good will you bear us . having received them , we made a great assembly of the people , to whom in a long discourse , we have made known your liberality towards our nation , and exposed to view your presents and oblations , to the end they should understand your holy affection and piety towards our god. shewing publickly the twenty vessels and viols of gold , the thirty of silver , which you have sent , the five cups of gold , with the table of proportion , and the hundred talents of silver , to be employed for the victims and other uses requisite to the priests : which jewels were to us presented by andrea one of your princes , and aristeus : persons truly worthy of note , both for external beauty , and excellency of behaviour and condition , as also rare knowledge ; briefly , lords worthy in all things of your conversation and justice , by whom we have been fully informed of your will and intention , agreeing with the tenour of your letters . wherefore we will wholly set our selves to endeavour to accomplish your desire : for although it be a difficult thing to bring well to perfect effect , yet for the times to come it will be an argument of our great confederation and amity : for you have obliged our citizens with a great , and as it were , an in inestimable beneficence . whereupon we have offered to god the sacrifice of thanksgiving for you , your sister children , and friends ; and the whole multitude of people hath prayed to god for your prosperity , and that it will please him to address your affection in all your acts ; and that god the ruler of all things , will make your realm to flourish , and increase in peace and glory : and that the translation of the sacred law , may redound unto your profit and advantage . after these sacrifices were accomplished , all the people being together ; we chose persons of better rank , and men of honour and of good life and report , being six of every tribe or line , which we have sent to you , with the holy law , which was left us , by the inspired writer moses . be it your pleasure ( sir ) to return them us , after the translation of the books shall be compleated . these are the names of those that were chosen from all the lines and tribes of the jews to go to aegypt , to make the first translation of the holy bible , or law of moses . of the first tribe . josephus , ezechias , zacharias , ioannes , ezechias , heliseus . of the second . iudas , simon , somoelus . adeus , mathias , eschemias . of the third . nehemias , iosephus , theodosius , baseas , ornias , dacis , of the fourth . ionathas , auxeus , heliseus , annanias , chebrias , sacheus , of the fifth . iasacus , iacobus , iesus , cabateus , simon , leuis . of the sixth . iudas , iosephus , simon , zacharias , somelus , selemias . of the seventh . sabbatens , iason , iesus , theodotus , ioannes , ionathas . the eighth . theodosius , iason , iesus , theodotus , ioannes , ionathas . the ninth . theophilus , abrahamus , arsamus , iason , endemias , danielus . the tenth . hieremias , eleazarus , zacharias , baneas , helisius , datheus . the eleventh . samuel , iosephus , iudas , ioathes , chabel , desitheus . the twelfth . isaelus , ioannes , theodosius , arsamenus , abiethas , ezecelus . number of all 72. such was the answer to the letters of the king. now i will declare to you the most succinctly i can possible , the beauty and workmanship of the things we found in ierusalem , being with eleazar ; and those also which were sent to him : for all was wrought with singular art , and of most exquisite beauty ; the king being therein so careful and intent to per●orm abundantly all that was necessary for finishing so extraordinary work , that of his own proper motion he went and came , visiting every one of the master-workmen and goldsmiths , whom he kept so close to their business , that he permitted them no idle time for sport or debauches . of the presents sent unto eleazer , chief priest of the jews , by king ptolomeus philadelphus . and first of the table of gold. it behoveth then , that first we describe the table , for it was a work of admirable lustre . the king desiring to shew therein a master-piece of work : wherefore he demanded the measure and dimension of the table which was in the temple of ierusalem , and the ornaments of the same . when he knew the measure , he asked if they would receive a greater . and being answered by some of the priests and others ; if there where no let , a greater might have place there . the king then replyed , that h● intended to give one five times bigger than that was there , provided that might not be inconvenient for the priests , by its disproportionable quantity . further , consideration ought not only to be had of the receit and capacity of the place , but also of its accommodation to the sacrifices thereon to be prepared , and that he was not without consideration , that the iews had not made that which they then had in their temple of so small size for penury and want of gold : for when it was made , they abounded in all wealth and riches : but that it seemed to him they had so proportioned it from some reason of a perfect dimension . therefore his opinion was , that the present would not be well and duly formed , if the table he intended to make , were longer or higher than the other . therefore forecasting in his thoughts , which were clear and ready to weigh every thing with good judgement : he gave it in charge to the goldsmiths that were most ingenious , and of best capacity , to finish and accomplish the business , engraven and adorned with all possible variety : commanding that those who wrought in the borders , raisings , floweries , wrappings , entortilations , and such like ; should amuse themselves only for beautifying and decoration : and what was to be plain , should answer to the measure and dimension , and that in all these things they should be exquisitely careful . this table was two cubits large , and a cubit and a half in height , nor are you to think it was covered with plates of gold superficially , ●or it was made all of solid , massie , pure , and fine gold ; round about it was a crown of twelve fingers large , wrapped with barrs of gold and other pretty works in fair passages , in manner of little threds , and enterlaced with little cords retiring to the canetils , a work very shining , and polished of the three sides , for the table was made in a triangular form , and on every side wrought of the same fashion : so that on what side soever one stood it appeared to be but one frontispiece and one face . for if you came to behold it on one side , the plain of the table by the crown with which it was bordered , discovered to your eyes a most resplendant beauty very admirable , and the outward work with the rays and splendour of the two squares so dazled the eyes , that one could scarce behold it ; for the table as we have said , was triangular , and shewed with one and the same front and superficies on which side soever you turned . it was also inchased with precious stones fastned by golden buttons tyed with loops , and these stones were wrought so naturally within one another , that they shewed a string and wreathing of such subtilty , that to any ones thinking it was not possible to be imitated . and those stones were supported and stayed by buckles and clasps of gold for more firmness , and the joints and connextures of squares made with so great art , knit and interwoven one within another , to keep sure and joyn all the work , that in beholding them the art was scarce discernable . moreover , in the great compass of the crown that environed the table by the aspect above , there was a row of stones in fashion of little ovals that were riveted , and lockt together , and filed with little wreaths of gold which raised the lustre : and these oval stones were thick set the one with the other ; and the whole table was as it were encircled with this thread of ovals . a little above this chain of wreathed stones the master goldsmiths had laboured a girdle of flowers , and clusters of all fruits , interlaced and following together so well , that by their eminent risings amongst the bosses of the encircling crown , you might see grapes clustered together ; ears of corn , dates , apples , olives , roses , and many such like ; amongst which many precious stones set and wrought in gold in their colour and form , in their true and natural resemblance ; representing those fruits with admirable art. and with this adornment the cornishes and frontispiece of the table were enriched all round ; and so was this work of fruits corresponding with the oval stones abovesaid . to all these decorations are joined other burnished works , cut in sculpture ; and in part with wreaths and verges of gold , beautifying all the circuit of the table : so that from the two parts which presented themselves to the sight , with the beauty of the crown to the place where stood the feet of the table , one might see a like beauty , and curiosity of folding ; still full of lustre which part soever of the table were turned . they made the plate of all the table solid and massie , of the thickness of four fingers : to the end that they might more firmly and fixtly bind in the feet and tressles to support it strongly . these feet were fastned to the crown without being perceived how , and were firmly joined with buckles and clasps : in such manner that the table might be supported and well fixt which way soever the table were turned , and yet still shining to the eye . in the superficies hereof was represented in a fair work the floud of meander , running with its circuits , returns , and windings ; in the channel of which , one might see a splendour of precious stones , representing its rowling waves , which wreath was of carbuncles , emeralds , agats , and all other sorts of precious stones , sparkling with their native lustre . near to this floud there was an interlaced work as a wreath of hair , ( a thing admirable to behold ) sh●wing in its aspect a geometrick figure , made of cristal and amber , and this figure was a solid square , whereof all the squares were equal , and the angles of the four sides oblique . in this polished figure was shewed the forms of the beholders , as in a fair mirrour . for the rest , the ingenious hand of the master workmen had made the feet of the table like flower-de-luces , of which the flowers turning shell-like backwards , sustained the table ; the said flower-de-luces thick with leaves , sprouting up as from within : the foot was sustained and stayed in this manner . there was a stone of a carbuncle , of which the length was twelve fingers ; having the form of a rock made in a precipice , and had about eight fingers in breadth : and upon this stone was born up all the burthen and weight of the tressle . upon this rises up a lyre or herbstring , which twining about the enclosure of a vine , embraced it even to the top , the grapes hanging about on every side : in this table were four feet alike in disposition and proportion of workmanship , and of all four was one self-same perspective : and so well were these things accomplished and perfected , with admirable skill and contrivance , of men inventive and ingenious ; that not only the aspect of things true was made as it were false and delusory to the eyes , but also one might hear the leaves rattle by stirring of a little wind moving them one against another : so were all things laboured even as it were to the life and nature , every thing shaping a lively image of what it was designed to represent . moreover , the tressles of the table were contrived moveable , and to be removed on all sides ; wherein there was a secret of workmanship which could not be seen or perceived for the greatness of the work : and by the means of certain clasps , all was to be removed together although no one could perceive either crevis , joint , or rivet : for the table was no more than a cubit and a half big in all , yet thereupon , was great expence bestowed , and many talents employed . for after the king had resolved not to exceed the measure and size of that which was in ierusalem , all that he determined to lay out upon one much greater , was employed , and much more , in the decoration of this : thus all was done with great skill and design , and was very admirable and extraordinary , according to the kings wish . of the vessels , cups , and viols of gold. the two cups from the foot to the middle , were cut all in a scaly work ; and betwixt every two scales , riveted with precious stones , the radiant shine whereof , cast such a reflection to the eyes , that it wounded the sight with a glory . the tower of these cups was girt with a sculpture of the flood of meander , of the height of a cubit ; all incompassed and interlaced with variety of stones , of inestimable beauty and value . near the flood , there was a tress of hairs of gold , with tufts joined together from the bowl above to the bottom , being spread in clear ways like a net of thred : in the middle parts whereof were to be seen many precious stones , disposed in the form and figure of a scutchion , amongst which there was only a space or interval of four fingers ; whose splendour made the grace of the work more agreeable to the eye : upon the lips and border of the cups there was a crown interlaced with flower-de-luces , bunches of grapes , intermixt one with another , and wreathed like cordage , and so running round : these cups thus wrought with most rich workmanship , held more than two mettrets . but the tankards of silver were yet adorned and decorated with much more beauty , in full work and polish : for within they were so resplendant , that one might see all things more to the life than in a mirrour . and it is not possible to tell how the figures of all things were represented to the life , by the polish and sparkling brightness of them , which were so radiant and shining , that if you set one of the silver cups by one of the gold , then one of the silver , and so one of gold ; and so followed this method , they made an admirable shew , and impossible to be long lookt on ; for they cast such a lightning from one side to another , with rays penetrating one anothers lustre , that it even dazled and reverberated the point of the sight , so that no soul was long able to behold them : for if you turned your eyes to a cup of gold , they were so encountred with the order and splendour of the works variety , and with the force of the light and flaming , which would so strike the point of the sight , that you could hardly hold them from twinkling , so as you would be forced to turn them elsewhere , or not too steadily to behold their lightning : and if you lookt upon one of silver , a greater effusion of light was shed abroad : so that your eyes seized with dimness , you were not able to discern throughly the the structure and art . for the vessels and viols of gold , they were wrought with such design , that the middles were adorned with clusters of grapes , the verges and lips with bunches and encirclings of leaves of myrrh and olives , wreath'd together in fashion of a crown , about all the mouth parts , and all set with precious stones , agreeing with the spaces and convenience of the distances : so as , i assure you , the master-workmen , had expressed their art in imbellishing and adorning every thing , with an ambitious desire to grace the design , and to exalt the magnificence of the king : so that in all the treasures , nor in all the cabinets , nor what other thing soever , was not to be found any thing so rich , so fair , or so precious , as were these royal works . for the king , who had a tender regard of his honour , there had employed all care and diligence , and prodigally lavished his magnificence . for of his own accord he came often to visit the works , conversing and mingling his advice with the master-goldsmiths , making them change , now this , now that , according to his liking . likewise he forbad them expresly , to stir from their business , till all were finished and compleated according to his mind , so that all was perfected with great art in a most extraordinary manner , as well for a testimony of his illustrious excellence and degree , as also for the dignity of the high priest , who was of so honourable a character , for whom these things were intended . of great value was the multitude of stones , of which some were so rare , as that they are scarce known , yet being of marvellous greatness , they amounted to the number of five thousand : and yet for all that , the art was of greater value than the stones : and all being valued together , it plainly appeared that both precious stones and curious workmanship exceeded five times the gold therein employed , both in beauty and value . in fine , i hope what i have already written , may yield you some delight in knowing these rare and curious things , and the true love and ingenious goodness of the king therein . now that which follows , will set forth the discourse of our journey to eleazar : and because you may at large understand all circumstances , i will describe to you first the province , or city of ierusalem , and then the country round it . of the city of hierusalem , and the country round it . when we arrived near to hierusalem , we discovered the town , scituate on the mountain , in the midst of the province of iudea , opening thereby a farr extended prospect to the view . on the top of the hill is scituate the temple , of a most graceful figure , and aspect , and very fair to the eye : about the same is a girdle of three tire of walls raised to the height of seventy cubits , and of convenient thickness in proportion to the height , which encompass all the temple with an excellent beauty and magnificent work : the sight of the gates , the knitting and evenness of the stones , the frontispieces and buttresses , the faces of the portals represent a beauty with great lustre and excellency of workman ship , and one might ●lainly see , that in all this structure there was a rich abundance of all things , and that no expence had been wanting . without the the temple , there was a veil by which the temple was closed ; round this veil was hanged travers from the magnificence of the portals , yielding a very pleasing spectacle ; and principally then , when a little wind rose from the pa●ement , and entring within the veil , ran from low to high , making undulations and billows like waves , and moving delightfully with gales following one another , reciprocally and successive blowing . within the temple there was an altar accompanied with a chimney very properly and conveniently built , accomodate to the place for the victimes there to be offered . the stairs to ascend thither were fair and evenl● disposed , agreeable to the mag●●cence of the pla●e , both for comel●●ss , as ●●for the ease of the priests , who were invested with garments of linnen very delicate and soft . the fore-part of the temple looking to the east , turns the back of it to the west , and the spaces thereof are adjusted with exact proportion , in all dimension and shew a beauty very excellent , and work of good grace● the floor is paved with stones , the receptacles of the waters which issue in great quantity for the use of washing the victimes after they have slain them , are hid in convenient places ; for in their festival daies , many thousands of victims are offered , by means whereof is furnished out so great a quantity of water , that one would judge there issued commonly a considerable spring . but this is a thing yet more admirable , and almost incredible : the greatness of the conveyances of these waters which are under ground in the temple , and stretch five furlongs in circuit . and to conduct these waters into their receptacles , there are pipes of lead closed within the walls , drawing in all parts under the pavement of the temple , by which the waters void themselves after the beasts are washt : likewise many spouts and openings near to the foot of the altar , which are unkown to all , but only those who serve the sacrifices : and by these too the blood of the offerings in like manner is cleansed and carried off . we guessed the great quantity of waters there shed by this means . the iews having led us to walk out of the town more than a league long , they shewed us a place , where we might hear the report of the waters that ran under the earth , which seemed to me to be such , as when one voids water by whole tuns . of the priests . but all that is past was as nothing in respect of the worth , honesty , and silence of the priests and their services . for without any difficulty they compose themselves to their business , every one according to his degree and charge , without staying for orders : some kindling the wood , others the oyl , some ●ring the wheat●flour ; others the aromatick odours , others the flesh ; every one shewing his obedience with ●n admirable dexterity . for taking ●he calves by the thighs , though ●hey weighed more than two talents , ●hey lifted them on high , with an admirable speed , and not more hand●omely then easily : in such a sort , as they never fayl'd to fix ●hem at first in as good order as they were to continue . they did the same with the far●els of sheep and goats , for all offerings , and victims were to be without spot and fat . moreover , there was a place prepared for their repose , where they all lay , and rose most willingly and diligently , without being called or waked ; and so applied themselves to their business in their order , one after another : but all with so great silence , that although they were ordinarily about 700 levites , without re●kning a great troop of those that offered the victims , yet it seemed as if they all had been but one man● all things were composed with so great gravity and reverence to god. of the high-priest eleazar . what we had of greatest admiration , amongst other things , was , when we saw eleaza● present himself to the sacrifices in his glory and majesty , cloathed in his habit and robes , in pontificalibus ; shining all with the luster of precious stones for to his accoutrements hung round little bells of gold , yielding a sweet harmony , amongst which he had also pomegranats of marvellous colours , and all distinguished with variety of flowers . upon this vestment he wore a girdle , which girt him very comely : and the work was of very fair colours . beneath his breast hung what they call the rational , wherein there was twelve precious stones of divers colours set in gold , in which were inscrib'd the names of the princes of each tribe which had been the beginning : and all was most resplendent and natural , ( almost beyond belief : ) his head was adorned with a royal bonnet , upon which was set a mitre of incomparable beauty , exalting the coyf to a majestick state. beneath the mitre hung a plate of gold upon the fore-head of eleazar , covering his eye-brows ; wherein was inscrib'd the name of god in the sacred letters , a spectacle in truth full of great glory , and worthy of such mystery : for with this dress the shine and reflexion was of such shew and worthy dignity , that it might beget an awful sense and apprehension in those that beheld him : so as this high priest represented to the beholder as it were the figure of a god. in short , every thing being by us contemplated , held our spirits in a suspence and amazement through their beauty , for the manner and decoration now of one thing and then another drew our understandings even by force maturely to consider them . of the fortress or castle of hierusalem . thence we ascended to visit the fortress : it is scituated near to the temple in a most fair seat , fortified with many towers framed of stones of extream greatness . and by what we could understand and know it is the bulwark and strength of the temple , to the end that if there hapned any sedition , or impetuous hostile invasion , no body should enter by force within the cloyster of the temple which is near : and is defended by the high walls of this fortress , scituated in a place of precipitate steepness , having its sentinels and ramparts , with engins of war. this place is kept and guarded by a ●arrison of lusty young souldiers vigorous and strong , which are maintained by all the towers within , and are such as for their merits to their country , are esteemed of great reputation : they have no liberty to go out of the fortress , except upon holy-dayes ; and then with great solemnity onely part of them , and to relieve the guards , and they dare let no person in ; for the captain of the plac● there useth such watchful diligence when he goes forth , and amongst them makes such watch and diligent search , that he cannot be circumvented by any spy , as it hapned to us ; for but two of us could get admitatnce , and that without arms and by great intreaties , and only to see the sacrifices : for he told us , and that with an oath , that all those who are of this garison , which are in number five hundred , have sworn to admit , but at most five persons at a time : because the conservation and safety of the temple consists in the keeping of this fort , which if it should be taken and kept , the temple had no other security . of the town . the greatness of the town , by what we could judge , extends in compass some forty furlongs ; a city certainly worthy to be regarded , both for the beauty of the walls , and distribution of the towers . it is distinguished into fair and straight streets , and those well paved , where there are many little lanes and chanels in fit and convenient places : so that though the city be seated on a hill , all come up to it , and go down from it with great ease . at the entries of the streets , there are cut out steps in form of scaffolds , which one mounts by stairs like open galleries , where the most eminent persons walk higher than others , that have means to walk by places , which are lower ; and these banked wayes ( as it were ) are in the most principal streets , to the end that those who bear the holy things , should not be polluted with filth and dirt : by which one may judge their ancestors have wisely and with good reason , chosen such a place for the seat of the town ; making so fit a choice in all things whatsoever . of the country round hierusalem , and of the policy of the p●sants or country people . this country is spacious and fair , stretching from one side towards samaria , and the neighbouring idumea , which is a plain country : on the other side , the coasts are fair and fertile . and it is no marveil if this region be so abounding and fertile of it self , and plentiful in all good fruits ; being also that it is manured by the industry and great care of the countrey people : and it is not here , as it is commonly seen about good and fertile lands , where the pesants are idle , careless , and for the abounding pleasures and voluptuousness of cities , despise their labours : and according as we see youth is taken with delights and ideleness , become effeminate and tender . which truly hapned to alexandria , a city rich , wealthy , and abounding in all good things : where the youth of the countrey that used to follow country works , diverting and amusing their rough condition with the pleasures and ease of a delicious life , forgat their countrey business and labour , and became idle and sloathful . and for such reasons doubtless , their iewish kings ordained that these peasants should make no stay in the city ; and that no one of them should dwell any where but in his country-farm longer than 20 days ; and that unless for urgent , and important reasons , because they should not lose their time . for which reasons it was ordained that all processes and controversies of law suits should be determined in five days , and never depend longer : and for this was published a law , and the reason thereof delegated to the judges and ministers of every country , that the pesants should not sojourn or make abode in the towns ( as is said ) because of the demurs of their suits , neglecting their country business , which might cause damage and loss to the revenues of their prince , diminishing his tributes and dues , arising from these labourers . i am the larger upon this , because we had advice hereof in discoursing with eleazar . the peasants there●ore are very careful and diligent in their labours and menagery , by reason whereof in such a multitude of people , the region is planted all with fruit trees , abounding every where in corn and all sorts of grain : the vineyards cloathed with vines , nor is it possible to tell the number o● palm trees , olive-trees , fig-trees , besides pastu●es ●or the raising of cattle , which they breed up in great numbers . so as they have not only all place , as it were , of choice for this purpose , but also a provident ca●e still to dispose it for the reception and entertainment of so great a number of people ; nor have they appointed this course for the villages , but that thereby they might fully furnish and beautifie their towns. besides , there comes abundance of aromatick drugs , of gold , and precious stones to them from arabia . for this province opens , as it were , a fair or general market , to all round about for traffick and commerce . the city is ●ull of tradesmen , having no want of any thing that may be brought by sea , for it is accommodated by the neighbourhood of the ports of ascalon , of iaffet , of gaza , and of acra . cities founded by their kings , for this purpose of accommodation ; and those cities we have named are a great convenience to this town , as not be●ng too near nor too remote , so as it is very ●asie to have all things nec●ssary in a short time , with assurance of the ways to the comers and goers . the country is washed throughout by the river iordan , whose water never fails : this river having its source from the east , runs no less than sixty thousand paces : in the best and most fertile countries on the banks of this river heretofore inhabited and conquered those valiant troops of iews , who in their times conquered the countrey , and passed this river , being in number more than six hundred thousand . this iordan swells and increaseth in the summer , and overflows the neighbouring fields like the nyle ; covering a great part of the ground , and then falls into another river by acra , both which empty at once into the sea. there are many other streams that bend their course towards gaza and azota ; that have their turnings and windings through all the whole province . the force , strength , and assurance of this region consists in places inaccessible , and difficult to come at , and so are naturally strong , for all the country is invironed with mountains , rocks , and precipices cut straight down as it were with a plummet . in other parts , it is inclosed with rivers , and currents , so as the valleys and the plains are fortified with great ditches and trenches . on the other side , the ways are so narrow and troublesome with turnings and windings , to and fro , that with great difficulty those that travel by land , come to the great city . they say also they were wont in former times to draw up metals from the mountains of the bordering arabia : but since the time that the persians had rule , this search of metals was left off , the expence being more than the advantage , and the labour fruitless ; yet they say this excuse was invented by the inhabitants of those places , to the end that their lands should not be swallowed up in the hollowness of the mines , so that the earth being open , no passage could be afforded to strangers in those narrow ways . and so much for these things , brother philocrates , i have discovered unto thee . now i will declare what concerns the law , and its interpretation and first translation . what the translators of the holy law were . those that were chosen were very honest and vertuous men , excelling in all knowledge , descenced of noble race , and not only well vers'd in their own iudaick learning , but also well acquainted and exercised in the greek letters ; for they were reserved men , and always ready to be employed as embassadours upon occasion : for which they were , as it were , purposely bred , and as proper , and able to judge of those things and courses as the case required : and were those that expounded the publick rules , and resolved with great sufficience all difficulties in their own law : and had marvellous readiness , both for haranguing and giving sentence : they were men clearly void of all barbarous incivility , of good and sweet condition , and born as it were to follow their proper manner of living and estate in a mediocrity and most commendable modesty : still striving above all things to exceed all others in wisdome and good knowledges , and in these endeavours consisted all their study , esteeming no search more than how to excel one the other in accessible graciousness , and sweetness of hearing and answering : so that every one of them were esteemed of in their tribe , as men worthy to have preheminence and principality for the vertue that was in them . and it is worth the noting in what honour they held eleazar , and in what respect he held them : for besides that he writ to the king to take care for their convenient return , he recommended with a passionate desire , and tender affection these reverent persons to andrea ; desiring with many intreaties and requests that we should with our credits and grace with the king , open them a fair access . to which we made answer , that as these things were matters of our special charge , so we should be careful to discharge our selves answerably with all due care , wherefore we desired he would be at ease in that point , for they should therein be absolutely free . i assure you ( said he ) i am upon this occasion in no little pain , and not without just cause ; for i know the king , a prince so diligent , a lover of vertuous and worthy persons , and how industriously he seeks them ; that there is no place free from his desires , when he hears where such are , that excel , or are remarkable for wit or learning . and i have been informed , that he useth to say what is most true , that in such manner of men dwells and consists the strength and defence of his kingdom : and especially when he hath near about his person good store of wise and just men who have provident counsel to give him , lest all should miscarry . which i perceive well by those he hath pleased to send hither . and we earnestly profess that we send not these persons to be assisting to him in the affairs of his government , but for the publick profit and an universal good of all his people , in which regard nothing ought to be refused , nothing that we will not indure . for though the form of well living consists in the observation and accomplishment of moral precepts and constitutions : nevertheless it is better learn'd and taught by the knowledge and experience of the things themselves , than in the abstracted nakedness of words . by this speech and such like , we came to know what great affection eleazar did bear to these persons . of the answers made by eleazar , upon certain points of the law of moses . it behoveth also we touch briefly the answers eleazar made us to our questions : for knowing the iews with great nicety esteem the observances and differences of meats and drinks , according to their law ; and that of certain beasts , they esteem some unclean and infected : we therefore en●uired , saying , since all things are of one and the same creation , and receive one and the same substance ; whence is it that some are rejected as infectious , as well to eat as to touch ; so that , as it should seem , the law treateth more magisterially than rationally . eleazar then answered , you know not ( said he ) what force and vertue custome hath as to well-living , and what alterations and changes she brings in humane affairs : see we not that those who converse with the evil , let themselves loo●e to a course of corruption in manners , whereby they become wretched all their lives after : on the contrary , those that accustome and habituate themselves with the wise and intelligent , although they are yet ignorant , change from good to better , and become happy and fortunate . which our law-maker considering , resolving all his laws into piety and justice , he hath not only taught us all we ought to do by words ; but express●d all by instanc●s , and forbidding us to do evil , hath set before our eyes the causes why god hath created every thing . first , he hath taught that god is one and all , by the power of whom all things are governed and subsist ; and that he is present in all places ; and without whom , nothing can remain in its being , be it never so little ; and that nothing can be hidden from him , whatsoever men do upon earth never so secretly even what men do and think within themselves , or what they plod and contract one with another , all is to him notorious and naked before his eyes . for he sees the things to come , as if they were present : moreover , he out of his gracious goodness teacheth us that when any one sets himself to work evil , he may assure himself it cannot be hidden , and proposes thus by all the law , no other thing than to shew the power and strength of our good god. being then heedful of the begining of these things , he sheweth , that other people who have opinion that there are many gods , are themselves more powerful than the gods they by folly adore . for they affirm foolishly , that the images and resemblances they frame of stone , or of wood , are the representations and shapes of those who have brought to light by their inventions some advantages to the civil affairs of life ; and these they worship , prostrating themselves on their knees before them . but they are out of their right wits , and indeed out of themselves ; and if one demand of them what are their inventions ? they alledge something produced from nature , as if it were indeed a thing produced , created , and composed by the fore-said inventors , although they never contributed thereto , in which they sufficiently manifest their perverseness and stupidity . for it is well known , that if there be question of any good invention , that there may be found at this day persons more learned , more subtil , and more quick to invent any art , then they have done , who have been in times past : yet they are not therefore adored as gods , although the sage greeks esteemed such inventors worthy of honour . what should i speak of the egyptians and their neighbours , who are herein madder than the others , for these have some of them brought in divine worship to brute beasts , others unto reptiles : out of common reason , and all understanding , making sacrifices to the living and dead , immolating to them victims ? wherefore the wise and understanding law-maker , being instituted of god in the knowledge of all things , hath hedged us in , and fortified us round as it were with a trench and palisado , and distinguished us with a wall of iron , to the end , that being innocent in soul , and pure in body , we might not mingle our selves in any sort with other nations , and that rejecting all fond and vain opinions , we might adore one only god , who hath power above all creatures . for this , the priests of the egyptians , princes of the people ( although they fail in other things ) name us men of god , and agree with us in many things : because other people have not this religion to adore one only god , according to the truth as we do : for others give themselves over to gormandisings and drunkenness , building upon shadows , amusing themselves with no other things but pleasures and belly-chear . of which there is no one of us hath so much as thought , but all the course of our lives is imployed only to the knowledge of vertue and divine power , to the end we fall not into sin , nor be polluted by the conversation of such people in any manner whatever . he hath also defended and armed us on all sides with purity and honesty , not only in our meat and drink , but also in what we handle , touch , see , and hear ; for he hath reduced and brought all things before our natural reason , for as all things have their being from one power , so with a most profound judgment hath he appointed which we are to use , and from which we are to abstain . i will alledge you one or two for example , to the end , that if you take heed to the words and plain speech , you cannot think that moses hath taken such pains to ordain his laws , because of rats , weasels , and such like things . for it is necessary you understand , that he hath very well and wisely ordered all things to the honesty of living , having regard to purity and cleanliness , and to the correction and amendment of manners . and as for birds , and flying fowls , he hath permitted us to eat ordinarily of such as are tame , and are different from others in neatness and cleanliness , and that live upon grain and seeds , such as are pidgeons , turtles , peacocks , partridge , geese , and the like . and such as he hath forbidden us to eat , they are wild , ravenous ; living upon flesh and carrion , of proud natures , inclined to rapine and prey , and such as by force set upon others , and seek not their living , but to the damage , hurt , and injury of the other poultry who are gentle and tame ; but those fierce ones not only seize upon those of their own kind , but also upon lambs , kidds , and even upon men yet living , or half dead . our law-maker therefore , noting this by way of similitude , and by a borrowed way of translation , taken from the nature of such fowls , hath pronounc'd them unclean and infectious , as being willing to reduce and bring all things to the consideration of purity and cleanliness of the soul ; to the end that every one being admonished by ordinary and domestick examples , may understand how it behoveth to use equity and justice● and that it is not granted to man , b● he never so strong , powerful , proud● bold , and audacious soever , to ravis● by force that of another , nor to d● injury to any person , but that it i● convenient , he should order the cours● of his life in imitation of the fow● i have spoken of , who live by grain● leading a tame and tractable life● and that it is not lawful to vex an● trouble any person of our own kind● nor ravage his goods by force , as d● those beasts he hath prohibited us t● eat ; and not to use violence in an● case which is figured by the natur● of beasts , not wholly void of sense● you understand then the reason wh● he hath forbidden us the use of th● said things , that is to say , because o● the inclination and nature of ever● beast . you may therefore now well con●ceive how our law-giver moses hat● been careful in all things to corre●● our manners , and establish them b● the things to which we are accustomed , and therefore to regard the nature of brute beasts : for where he hath licensed us eating the flesh of four-footed beasts , who have two , and the hoofs cloven ; the import is , that we ought to direct our operations to justice and bounty . by this cloven hoof figuring to us , the distribution of rewards and punishments . for which cause we are cleft and divided from other nations : to the end we be not polluted with sin by their conversation and company . for many people of the gentiles are sullied with impiety by mixture of one with another , and not only suffer the provinces and cities to be spotted , infected , and dishonoured with sins against nature , but are fouly stain'd with the unclean blood of child-bearing women , having no shame or regret to commit incest with their own daughters , from which things we are wholly alienated . moreover , where he hath noted to us the sign of this forking , he hath also advised us to be recollected by the same figure , in the same animals ; for he hath added further , that they should be such as chew the cud : by which he manifestly admonisheth us to have this rumination in memory , and in the course of our life : for what signifieth the chewing of the cud , but that we ought still to have in our minds a continual revolving of our lives and actions , and so by a frequent meditation , the duties , to which we are obliged , and what we owe to all . even as the life of the body is ever in our thoughts ; so as our spirit is nourished in bringing to mind her employments . and for this cause , he saith in the scripture , have god still in thy memory and thought , who hath done for thee such great and wonderful things if this thou truly considerest , thou shalt find it great and admirable indeed . for first , thou shalt behold the architecture of the body , the distribution , and transfusion of the elements , the connexion and ligatures of the members ; a thing truly worthy of admiration : but it will be more admirable , if thou hast regard to the sense , which is given to every member : if thou weighest the actions of the understanding ; if thou considerest the invisible movements , and how in each of them there shines a vigour , and vivacity of spirit , from whence have proceeded the inventions of arts almost innumerable . wherefore , not without cause , moses commanded us to have in constant consideration , that all things have been established and made examples by the divine power and providence ; for so hath he finished and counterpoised every thing , agreeing with its time and place : recalling always to mind the consideration of god the lord , ruler and creator of the whole universe . and if we will begin with what concerns eating and drinking ; hath he not well and prudently commanded , that we should give praises and thanks to god when we sit at table ? in which he hath not permitted us to devise or discourse of any thing in the world that should make us forget , or efface in our memories , the power and providence of god. wherefore he hath appointed that we engrave upon the doors and portals of our houses such inscriptions as should excite us to thanksgiving , still to refresh our memories with the thoughts of god , and his goodness to us , by a most evident sign , that all our endeavours ought always to be , to mind us of sincerity and equity , and that each thought ought always to represent god before our eyes . also he hath appointed , that not only when we sit at table , but when we rise , we should praise the works of god , not only in word , but also with a grave and composed countenance : reducing to mind the perpetual motion of the heavens , and that this alternative and successive nature is divine , and incomprehensible to man. thus to you is expounded the reason of the forking of the cloven-foot , its import , as also of the chewing of the cud , which you inquir'd after : assuring you , that there is nothing ordained which is superfluous or improper for the forming of the mind , but by this figurative manner and use , he hath accommodated all things according to truth . also the said law-giver , by a like figure , hath admonished us from falling into injustice and sin , by the hearing or too much relying upon our eloquence , prattle and jesting , which we may learn in the consideration of vile beasts : for the weasels are of a filthy complexion : as also rats , and such like creatures , which he hath forbidden us to handle or touch . for rats , they make all things foul , infectious , and hurtful : and are not only pernicious to eat , but wholly unprofitable to man in all things . and weasels are a sort of vermine which are yet fouler , more infectious , and the most filthy and impure of all those we speak of . for they conceive by the ear , and bring forth their young by the throat , which is a thing detestable in men , in what they hear and report , receiving by the ear any cursed folly , to utter and be delivered of the same by the tongue and report , and to exasperate the same by words odious and bitter . of which oft times there arises cause of great inconvenience , and that which of it self is nauseous and loathsom , they improve and amplify with an elaborate wicked invention by all means possible . wherefore your king , as we have heard , justly causes such men to be punished capitally . i think ( said i then ) that by such you mean the emphanists : for the king punisheth those without hope or mercy , by process , with tortures and sufferings , and even with an ignominious death . they are the same , ( said eleazar ) for their idleness and negligence brings nothing to men but mischief , and most dangerous ruine and destruction . and likewise our law commands to do no wrong or injury to any person either by word or deed. see then how i advertise you in short , and shew you that all our demeanours by the law , are directed to justice and equity : and that our holy scriptures allow not any thing that in appearance is evil , nor ought to be done impertinently and with choler : but we are commanded that in all our lives we demean our selves towards all men , in all our conversations and deportments , justly and graciously , as having always in mind god for the great judge of secrets . now to whom could it seem otherwise , but that eleazar had well and pertinently spoken of those filthy vermin , reptiles , and of other creatures also ; manifesting thereby very properly , that all the letter of the law tended to no other end then justice , and to shape and fashion well the manners and dispositions of men. further , he delivered himself concerning the oblations of calves , of sheep , and of goats , raising thereupon a fair discourse : shewing , that it was their custom to select such beasts from the folds and herds , as were tractable and tame , to make them their offerings to god : never offering sacrifice with wild or hurtful beasts : because those that made these oblations , and offered them should not entertain savage thoughts , or be elated with intractable p●ide , but instructed by the gentle and innocent nature of the victims , and that they should learn from such instances , to become humble and patient , and in their sacrificing to have their minds erect , as raised to god the creator of all things . hitherto , philocrates , i have framed to you , by writing these memorable things , considering the itch you have to learn and to know , which i have done , to the end , that by this little you may understand the majesty of the law , the causes and natural considerations that are therein contained , and now i will return from whence we have digressed . the return of the ambassadors to alexandria , with the doctors of the jews ; and how the king adored the holy law seven times , with tears in his eyes . eleazar then , after the sacrifices were performed , as was customary , having chosen the persons as is before specified , to send unto the king , he sent him also many rich presents , which indeed were very splendid . when therefore we had tken leave , and parted from him very friendly , with his salutation of peace , and were returned to alexandria , our arrival was forthwith made known to the king. and soon after andrea and my self entred into the kings hall , and making most humble reverence , we presented to his majesty the letters of eleazar . then the king , overjoyed that the event of this voyage had succeeded so well , having obtained the persons much to be wisht for , made the croud of those that attended on their petitions and suits , to quit the place ; and commanded , that the iewish doctors should immediately have notice to attend , which was sooner than they expected . for the custom of the country is , when any ambassadors arrive upon any business they are sent about , it is not permited them to be presented to the king , unless they are ambassadors from kings , or from very honourable states and republicks , nor without great difficulty to have audience , till thirty dayes after their arrival , and sometimes longer , as the king is pleased to make a difference , with regard to the degree of those that sent them . but the king , having cleared the place of those he judged not necessary to this entertainment ; continued in the hall , expecting till the doctors were presented to make their obeysance . who being introduced , did their duties in delivering the presents sent the king from eleazar . likewise they presented him with divers skins of parchment , exceeding fine , smooth , and delicate , bound up with a binding very rare and uncommon . in which skins was the divine law of moses in letters of gold , and in the hebrew language , a thing very curious to behold . upon their presenting them to the king , sitting in his chair of state , the king presently turned towards them , taking notice of them all one after another ; and then required of them the volumes of the law : then they unfolded the rouls wrapt up in these skins of parchment or vellam aforesaid . which the king seriously beholding , remained as one transported a pretty space . after which , he adored the holy law seven times , saying these words : we give you thanks , my masters , and much more him that sent you hither , and the high god above all , of whom these are the sacred words . then the said doctors , and all those who were attending the king , let fall great expressions of joy with acclamation , and there fell tears of joy from the kings eyes ; as we see many times , that exceeding transports will draw tears from the eyes , especially in excesses of a more sublime and intellectual nature . then the king required the skins and volumes of the law should be folded up again ; which done , he saluted the doctors , saying ; reason requires , grave sirs , that first we pay you honour and regard , in as much as we were the occasion of your coming hither , for which cause we give you our hand with this assurance , that this very day shall be to us the day , that all the days of our life we will hold great and memorable , and shall be solemnized every year with feasting ; in perpetual memory of your visit , as also of our victory which we obtained this day against antigonus at sea , wherefore it is our will , that this very day you solace your selves in feasting with us . forthwith he required the princes should be invited : amongst whom he did me the honour to make me to be seated . moreover , he caused to be exposed to view , all the rich furniture , wherewith the pallace royal was , upon great festivals , used to be decked ; likewise he commanded they should fit up lodgings near to the castle , in the most splendid manner they could ; and in like manner the king ordered , that the feasts should be set out in the most sumptuous and magnificent fashion that was possible . and then the king enjoyned nicanor , his chief physitian , to bid dorothea controuler of the house , ( as from the will and pleasure of his majesty , ) that he should , and that with all diligence , deliver out all things necessary for every one of the doctors , as well for their accommodation , as for the furniture of their lodgings , and that without fail , as from the ordinance and command of the king , which was forthwith accomplished with great dispatch by many hands , conformable to the usage of great cities , when they prepare to make great feasts and publick banquetting , whenas there are selected officers that are appointed to furnish every one according to his post and station : such were the appointments of the king , who was not wanting to assist in person , and his people , to speak truth , were such as spared for no labour or pains to execute his orders ; for with all alacrity and cheerfulness they provided whatever was necessary and requisite , putting in execution what the king required , with glad and chearful hearts . thus was the kings will exactly and freely comply'd with , in this and all other regards whatever . for dorothea was very franck and bountiful , and very industrious in his charge and employment , which was principally to have a due regard to the accommodating these great and venerable men , not employing what had been formerly allotted to such uses , but fresh and valuable stuffs , sparing nothing that was in his power . he assigned every one of them his couch of ease , besides his bed , with fair carpets , as the king had commanded . moreover , the king required the half of them should be placed and seated at the table , so as that they might front his person , and the other half distributed on each side his chair of state● omitting nothing which any way might do them honour , or contribute to their utmost content and satisfaction . after the seats of the table were duly fixed and proportioned for each ; the kings command to dorothea was , that all those who came from iudea , should have victuals distributed , and such as they affect , after the usage of their country , and appointment of their law ; nevertheless , that they should want for no plenty or variety ; as also for performing their oblations , vows , and sacrifices , according to the custom of their nation . after all these ceremonies , the king besought one of them , named eleazar , the most aged of all those that came with us , to make his orisons . who , as he was very venerable , being then risen from his seat● began in this manner . the prayer of eleazar . god almighty fill thee , o king , with all goodness , and give grace to thy wife , and to thy children , and that thy plenty may be permanent , without alteration or change , all the course of thy life , and theirs . hardly had he ended this prayer ; but there followed a noise and acclamation of joy , with a pleasant murmur and applause , that lasted a pretty while . all things being thus disposed and prepared for jollity , all the company betook themselves to make good chear , and those who waited on the table , repaired readily to their several posts , which the controuler had given them in charge . amongst those who served at the table , were the children of the king , and all the most considerable peers and lords . the answers of the jewish elders , to the questions propounded by king ptolomeus philadelphus . when the time came , and a fit opportunity offered for discourse , the king , by certain pauses , began to ask them one by one in order , several questions , as they were marshall'd at his table according to seniority : to him therefore that was set uppermost , he made this question . first question . how he should conserve his kingdom entire and safe to the end ? the resolution . after the doctor had a little studied , he answered , you shall ( great king ) dispose the estate of your kingdom well and wisely , if in all , and by all , you propose to your self the example of the benignity and indulgence of god for your imitation ; using patience and gentleness ; raising to honour those that are worthy , and bringing down the haughty and ambitious proud spirits to repentance , and a true sense of themselves , by giving them due example of humanity , affability , and fairness of access . to the other . second question . how he might bring all things justly to a fair issue ? the resolution . if in all things ( answered he , great king ) you have your eyes open , and thoughts fixt upon your actions , watching over your self in all things , you will do nothing that will not be well done ; and if you consider , that a true sense of our selves and right reason , is no other than the gift of god , of whom we always ought to have the fear before our eyes , and present to all our operations , for that is the means never to go astray . to the other . third question . how he should have friends agreeable to him ? the resolution . if they know ( great king ) that you have no thoughts but what are employed upon that which is just and profitable , and conducing to the publick good ; and that you are excited to it by considering how god supplies the wants of mankind , providing sustenance for the necessities of the body , and for the necessities of life , bodily health , and other gifts and abilities . fourth question . how he should acquire and conserve a solid reputation in expediting of affairs , in doing publick iustice , and punishing offenders ? the resolution . if you carry your self as reason and equity requires , indifferent to every ones right ; and if you proceed not against malefactors according to your uncontroulable power , or with partiality ; you may get knowledge in this point if you bear in mind the providence and wise disposal of god , who granteth the requests and petitions of those are worthy ; and to the malefactors and vicious , he shews them , that he denies nothing but what is hurtful , and which appears such by their own experience , or by the admonitions and terrors of dreams : also he punisheth not the sins of men neither in proportion to their great demerits , nor to his almighty power , but rather courts their amendment , sweetly winning them by mild and gentle methods . to the other . fifth question . what he should do to be invincible in war ? the resolution . if you put not your trust in your warlike preparations , nor in your own strength ; but if you call upon god inces●antly to assist you in nothing but what is just , then will he direct and conduct your counsels and forces . to the other . sixth question . by what means he may make himself formidable to his enemies ? the resolution . if you be provided of good artillery , and well disciplin'd , and have due regard to your stores and provisions ; nevertheless that you keep not your eye wholly on your preparations , but raise it above them to god , who pulls back his arm before he stretches it out , and then exerts it to our greater dread and amazement . to the other . seventh question . what thing may be to him most advantageous and best in this life ? the resolution . that is , great king , to have a constant apprehension that god is the sovereign ruler of all men ; for we have not the power of our selves to address our counsels to worthy ends ; but it is god who ruleth over all things , that conducts and crowns with perfection the events of humane affairs . to the other . eight question . by what means he might keep his treasure without diminution , and leave it un-impaired to his children ? the resolution . if incessantly you pray to god ( great king ) that he will give you good advice and good understanding in what you are continually negotiating ; and that you command your children not to boast themselves , or grow proud either of riches or honour ; but that they acknowledge and perswade themselves that god hath bestowed all that they have , and what they enjoy is from his free gift and bounty ; and that for their part , they possess nothing which proceedeth from themselves . to the other . ninth question . by what means he may bear patiently good and evil fortune . the resolution . if you consider with your self ( great king ) that all mankind are created of god , subject to this lot , to be afflicted with great misfortunes in the beginning , and after to arrive at prosperity , and so to share good and ill fortune alternatively . for there is no man in this world that is not subject to such variety , or is priviledg'd from it . but it is requisite you pray to god that he will be pleased of his free goodness to reduce your kingdom to tranquillity . the king then approving this reason , said , that they had answered all well and pertinently . but after ( said he ) i have made one demand yet more , i will leave questioning , because we may return to our rejoycing , passing the rest of this day in jollity ; and six days hence we will bethink our selves of such questions as we intermit at present . and so he put forth this question to an other . tenth question . what is the end of magnanimity ? the resolution . it is to be content when there happens cross accidents af●●r you have provided good counsel to ar●rive at the end of your affairs● for god giveth good success to negotiations that are conducted by good and proper councel . this answer was receiv'd with acclamations and applauses by ●ll the assistants . and the king tu●ning himself towards the philosoph●r● which were there in some number● i am ( said he ) of opinion , th●● these men are excellently skill'd in vertue , and that they have great experience in all things , being they have so readily and pertinently , upon the sudden , answered to such high questions , still founding their speeches always in god. then a philosopher named menedemus eretriensis , answered the king in this manner : truly sir , considering that man is a divine work , which one may know by the fabrick of the whole world ; it is a thing well-beseeming and reasonably fitting , that we begin with god , and resolve into him all the force of our discourse . the king approving his speech , all the company betook them to make chear and to jollity : and so the feast lasted till night with great mirth and recreation . upon the morrow the tables were disposed in the same order , and the banquet continued . and when occasion to make interrogatories was presented , the king began to address his countenance to those , who in the rank of answering , were next to those that the former day had been questioned , beginning at the eleventh , succeeding ten precedent . eleventh question . what is the means to rule well , and govern a kingdom happily ? the resolution . that is , first to rule your self well , and not suffer your self to be transported through self-opinion by means of the affluence of worldly riches and honour ; and not to aim at any thing by oppression , or against right , through an imperious annoyance : which if you consider duely ( great king ) and weigh well in your mind , esteeming all things as they justly are ; you will reckon all that you possess as if it were nothing . think also that god is full of all goodness , and stands not in need of any thing : which thought you ought to fix deep in your mind as firmly as your humane spirit can contain it ; and not too passionately to covet over-flowing abundance of worldly greatness and riches , as thinking thereby to reign better . to the other . twelfth question . how he ought to make choice of the best things ? the resolution . if you have regard always to what is just and equitable ; and if you esteem things unjust and wicked to be other than privation of life : for god hath ordained great and abundant goodness for just men. to the other . thirteenth question . how i may avoid the vneasiness that many times proceeds from dreams ? the resolution . you ask me , great king , a most nice question ; for such things as discompose the mind are out of rule , since we are sometimes led by our senses , arising either from what hath past , or from the objects presenting themselves to our view . whence many times we fancy in our dreams , we are sailing upon the sea , or are passing over rivers ; many times that we fly aloft with wings , soaring from place to place , and such like things as are ridiculous even to waking thoughts . moreover , things to which we have great appetite and desire , disturb our fantasie in dreams . wherefore , great king , i am of opinion , that with all your might , in all you say and do , your intention should be purely addressed to piety and holiness , to the end , that persevering in that manner , you may be guided and fortified on all sides with vertue , and so shew your self impenetrable to all sensuality . and on the other side , that you never take by force from another what to him belongs of right ; because the things wherein we most engage and employ our selves waking , commonly appear in phantomes to us again in our dreams , ins1nuated into our fansies by the appetites and inclinations we had to them : but when you level all your affections , operations , and affairs at the mark of virtue and honesty , then sleeping and waking you will be at ease . to the other . fourteenth question . by what means he should do nothing indecently ? the resolution . if in all things you consider what appertains to your degree , and what is in your power ; to the end there fall not from you any thing unbecoming your royal dignity , either in word or deed : you must also bear in mind , that all your subjects are discoursing still of you , judging all your steps , and censuring your courses . further , consider how you are exposed to flatterers , who dive into your very thoughts upon every change of your countenance and carriage , from which they will make use for their own ends : but in this , great king , you may well understand how to demean your self , not submitting your ear to any person that may charm you with his syren flattery , or disguise the truth by dissimulation ; since god hath endowed you with great affability of behaviour , accompanied with gravity and dispatch . the king then received this answer with great joy and applause , and gave all the company leave to seek their repose , to prepare themselves for meeting at the feast the day following , which was ordered as the former . they being met , and the time presenting it self for discourse , as before , the king made this question to the first of those that had not yet spoken . fifteenth question . what thing is most difficult for a king ? the resolution . that is , to command himself , and not to permit himself to be prevailed upon by any exorbitant appetites or passions : for all men have a certain bent of inclination by which they many times permit themselves to be led according as their genius leads them , some to banquets and riot , others to pastimes and pleasures , wherein the greatest part of the multitude are immerc'd : but kings should have their thoughts more elevated , as being excited by great honour and glory to frame their actions to conquests , and design the taking of cities and reducing of nations . nevertheless , it is very commendable to keep a mea● , and to conserve carefully what god hath and shall give you , and not so much to affect what is out of reason or unworthy the high glory of your place . to the other . sixteenth question . what means he hath to avoid the envy of any ? the resolution . if before all things you bear in mind , that riches , honour , and greatness , are the gifts of god to kings , of which no person hath true right to dispose . wherefore , if any aim to partake of this glorious prerogative to be un-envied , he will never obtain his end , for it is the gift of god alone . to the other . seventeenth question . what he ought to do to oblige his enemies ? the resolution . if you become gracious and favourable towards all bountiful persons , without particular respect of any : likewise in what you receive from others , not to shew your self ingrateful to the services and good offices you have received from them , for that is a sign of the grace of god. to the other . eighteenth question . how he may continue in glory and honour ? the resolution . if towards others , and above all others , you excell in bounty and magnificence , accompanying the same with a good grace , never will glory and honour abandon you : and it behoveth you still to pray to god that such vertues may perpetually assist you . to the other . nineteenth question . to what persons he should dispence honour ? the resolution . they commonly judge ( great king ) that we ought to dispense honour where we especially love : but for my part i am of opinion , that we ought to dispence all we can to the envious , and to be gracious and bountiful to them , according to the utmost of our power : to the end , that by such means they may be induced and won to do what is good and profitable ; in which choice of our favours , we must implore the aid of god , who inspireth the understanding , to the end he may accomplish in us this perfection . to the other . twentieth question . what persons he ought to gratifie ? the resolution . father and mother ( great king ) before all persons : for god hath annexed a great commandment to the duty we owe to our father and mother ; allowing after but a second place to friends , whom he hath stiled proportionable in nature . further , i esteem it ( great king ) no small happiness , that you engage all the world to love you . to the other . one and twentieth question . what is more worthy than beauty ? the resolution . that is piety , for that is a beauty excelling all other , and its force consisteth in charity , which is a gift of god , which you have , and with it you will inherit all vertue and all that is good . to the other . two and twentieth question . by what means o●e may recover greatdess and glory once lost . the resolution . that is ( great king ) if you are full of benignity , affability , and gracious to all the world ( which are things charming and attracting the love of the people , ) it is hard if you lose your greatness . on the other side , great preparations for war give great assurance : but those who fall into such accidents , it is necessary that they abstain from what occasioned them to fall into such inconveniences : and thenceforward they acquire friends by giving themselves to the exercise of justice and equity ; for good works are the gifts of god. to the other . three and twentieth question . how he may live without anxiety ? the resolution . if you wrong no man , and relieve every one , doing justice to all the world : for from so doing we reap such pleasant fruits as we shall always live pleasantly . nevertheless , we ought to crave of god , that what accidents happen contrary to expectation , bring us no damage , as death , sicknesses , and such like inconveniences , which can do you no harm if you are full of piety . to the other . four and twentieth question . what thing in this world is worthy the greatest honour ? the resolution . that is , to serve god ; not so much with sacrifices or oblations , as with a pure heart and a sincere conscience , and to conform your self to the obedience of a simple and active faith. which if you do ( great king ) it will firmly imprint this truth in your heart , that all you have done , and shall do hereafter , will be evident and appear to all the world. after this past , the king , with a loud voice , saluted them all , ascribing to them great praise , as did also the assistants ; especially the philosophers , who were there present , and not without cause : for these persons were of great authority in all their speeches , laying the foundations of their answers and opinions alwayes in god. this done , the king returned to feasting and meriment . the day following , the tables were covered in the same manner as before , and all the lords as before being set at table , the king taking his opportunity of devising , began to interrogate those who followed the others in the foregoing day of answering ; and made this question . the twenty fifth question . i would know if prudence may be taught ? the resolution . prudence is a certain dress and ornament of the soul , flowing ●rom the divine power , having this ●roperty to embrace what is good , ●nd to refuse its contrary . six and twentieth question . what thing is most advantageous for the health of the soul ? the resolution . that is prudence , which non● can procure or obtain unle● god disposes his understanding t● receive it . to the other . seven and twentieth question . how may one sufficiently yield d● thanks to their father and m●●ther ? the resolution . if you give them no cause of gri●● in the world , though there scarce any to be found who can 〈◊〉 govern themselves , excepting go● father of all light , do illumina●●● 〈◊〉 understanding to every actio● 〈…〉 . to the other● eight and twentieth question . how he might be made covetous to hear many things ? the resolution . if you consider ( great king ) how advantageous and profitable ●t is to know every thing created : ●or by that means proportioning and ●djusting what you have understood ●o the quality of the times present , ●ou will have the choice of what ●ill be most agreeable and conveni●nt for you , in which you ought ●●wayes to pray unto ●od , that he ●ill be your succourer ; for from ●im proceeds all accomplishment of ●ood works . to the other . nine and twentieth question . ●hat he should do not to violate the laws . the resolution . ●f you were perswaded that god hath inspired those who have established the laws , for the directi●on and government of the lives o● us mortals : you will well follow th● the other . thirtieth question . what advantage may accrue to on● from parentage . the resolution . great king , if we weigh th● accidents which happen to 〈◊〉 we shall find , when our parents 〈◊〉 into adversity , we share with the● therein , and are mutually oppress● and grieved with the greatness ● their sorrow . and if there arrive 〈◊〉 so any prosperity and happy fortu●● to them , we are glad , and find th● content and satisfaction , in wh●●● we solace our selves . and in truth our parents are so well advised t●● they can intermingle their af●a● ami●ably together , and that all thi● between them be so well knit to●ther by the ties of an inviola●● friendship : there is no place left any desire of a life more happy , nor is the same capable of any addition save only of continuance , which you are to beg of god. to the other . one and thirtieth q●estion . how he might be free from all fear . the resolution . if your conscience be clear of all sense of past guilt , setting god alwayes present before your eyes , for ●he guide and conduct of all your counsels to a good and happy issue . to the other . two and thirtieth question . how he should be readily assisted with recollection and a due presence of mind at all times ? the resolution . if you seriously reflect how to the vicissitudes of humane life all the world is exposed , setting often before your eyes the admirable revolutions that god hath sent . ho● some are raised to riches and honou● others pressed with calamities , an● fallen into extream disgrace . t● the other . three and thirtieth question . what course he ought to take and pu●●sue to avoid being immersed in sen●suality and idleness . the resolution . this to you ( great king ) wh● have the rule of a great king●dom , and a multiplicity of affairs t● manage is feasible . for in the di●●charge of so weighty an employme●● it is impossible you should have an● leisure to fix your imagination u●●on any thing but your affairs , sin●● they will take up all your tim● it is convenient therefore , that yo● be alwayes intent upon your charg● and that you pray to god , to give ●ou grace to omit nothing of what concerns your employment . to the other . four and thirtieth question . by what signes he may know those who would impose upon him ? the resolution . if you consider with your self , what freedom every one useth in your ●ehalf , whether he hath ever used the ●ame and so continueth the same fa●●ion still , to court you out of choice : ●r whether he gives you counsel ●nly out of course , and that his con●ersation and manner of life be the ●●me as before : and whether he hath ●orgot nothing of what the duty and ●ffection which he owes you doth ●equire ; briefly , if his affections and ●ther fashions of proceeding are va●●ed ; god instruct your understand●ng to fore-see the effect . then the king commended them all , calling every one by his name , whereat all the assistants rejoyced● the next day , when the king espied his fit opportunity in the feast , he began to question the rest , as follows . five and thirtieth question . what is the greatest neglect in the world. the resolution . it is to take no account of ou● children ; and not to take due care for their education , to train them up in vertue , and to form in them good manners and behaviour for in our common devotions we intreat god not only for our selves but also that it would please him to address our children to all goodness , and to impart wisdom and science to them ; which proceeds also from the grace of god. to the other . six and thirtieth question . how he should come to be a lover of his countrey ? the resolution . if you perswade your self , that it is a happy thing to live and dye at home , and that travels bring nothing but folly to the poor , and dishonour to the rich ; since most men are of opinion that travellers have been banish'd their countrey for some miscarriage , debt , or trespass . but you ( great king ) will easily obtain what you demand in doing well , ( as you do ) to all the world , for god will give you a happy issue in all your just affairs and actions . to the other . seven and thirtieth question . what course one ought to take , to live agreeably with his wife ? the resolution . although some kind of women are nice and troublesom , and through their being opiniators grow perverse : being also frail , by reason of the weakness of the sex , and subject to commit some faults ; yet nevertheless it behoveth us to comply with them , and to use them for our advantage , not striving with them , nor contradicting them with a froward spirit ; for it is necessary to address our life to a certain butt or end , as the governours and pilots of ships do in observing land-marks , which steps are all conducted by the order and providence of our great god. to the other . eight and thirtieth question . what course he should take not to be deceived ? the resolution . if you act in every occasion according to reason , you will not suffer your self to be lead away by the insinuations of detractors ; but ( as you are indowed with a discerning spirit ) you will put a difference betwixt the deeds and sayings of every one . by which means you will be out of danger of being circumvented , accomplishing your desires in every design which you shall lay with assured judgment ; nevertheless you must imagin , that the skill of ordering every affair , the carrying it on , and the event of it , is the work of the divine power . to the other . nine and thirtieth question . what he should do to avoid being cholerick . the resolution . if you consider ( great king ) that he on whom the lives of many depend , is the occasion of a multitude of deaths ; when he executeth his will with fury and passion , and it is a detestable thing to extinguish the lives of many out of an affectation of power : for when subjects conform themselves to the will of the prince , humbly yielding and complying : what ground hath he to disquiet himself , and to enter into passion ? moreover , he must remember , that god , who guideth and governeth the universal world , is no way subject to wrath , nor heated with passion ; whose example the prince ought to copy in his benign and gentle disposition . to the other . fortieth question . what thing is that which may well be foreseen by due precaution . the resolution . that is to measure all things duly by the line and balance of right reason ; and to conduct them to their intended end an issue , and to reject whatever is unprofitable and impertinent , as contrary to right reason ; in such sort , as sounding the intention in every proceeding , we come to the head of our affairs , by good counsel : but the divine vertue renders all counsel assured and firm ; and yours principally , because you are given to the exercise of piety . to the other . one and fortieth question . what is it to play the philosopher ? the resolution . that is , well and wisely to deliberate and consult all things that present themselves and happen to us ; and not to suffer our selves to be swayed by our irregular and fond appetite , but to despise all vanities and follies arising from filthy lust and sordid lucre ; and to be alwayes ready to the accomplishment of all good works , by as good and just measures ; which to attain , we ought to implore the aid of god incessantly . to the other . two and thirtieth question . what is the royal vertue of hospitality . the resolution . it is to shew ones self not ingrateful , but bountiful to all the world , repaying with increase the good turns you have received from another ; in such sort as you may bear away the prize of courtesie . for god greatly exalteth the humble , bearing great favour and love to those that lessen and impoverish themselves liberally to raise the vertue of others . to the other . three and fortieth question . what works are of most duration ? the resolution . he is esteemed to do a lasting work , who hath brought to pass a weighty business and worthy of regard ; and when it is such as the beholders durst not put their hands to it , by reason of the difficulty and excellency of the affair ; and that he nevertheless suffers none that have laboured in it to be unrewarded . not omitting likewise , to feed with such as he hath obliged to engage therein , with all necessaries . god having regard of all things in this world enriches men with variety of gifts , allotting to some health of body , and of understanding , and many such goods . wherefore ( great king ) you , in the imitation of god , ought to comfort the afflicted ; and to convert their calamities into solace and repose , as being assured that whatever is done by justice and equity , is most permanent and lasting . to the other . four and fortieth question . what is the fruit of wisdom ? the resolution . the fruit of wisdom is , when we have committed nothing whereof our conscience doth knowingly reproach us , and when we have passed the course of our lives sincerely . for by such means ( excellent king ) there is bred in our minds a very great satisfaction , and an infinite joy , with a pleasant complacence . for you ( great king ) can never want hope in god , conducting your reign in true piety and religion . these answers heard , all the assistants expressed signs of great approbation , crowned with a chearful applause . then the king graciously invited them to drink . the morning after , when all the company returned to the table , the king asked the rest in the following manner . five and fortieth question . what course he should take never to be elated with pride ? the resolution . you will never be swelled nor elated with pride , if you keep your self in an equality and moderation of spirit , that is to say , if upon all occasions you have this maxim engraven in your mind , that you who bear rule over men , are no more then a man yourself , reflecting also with your self , that god infatuateth the proud and arrogant , and raiseth those who are lowly and humble . to the other . six and fortieth question . what counsellors he ought to have about him . the resolution . they should be your counsellors ( great king ) who have been long exercised and versed in your affairs , and such as you know bear you great fidelity and love ; and who know how to conform and suit themselves to your condition : the light of god will discover those who are worthy such an employment . to the other . seven and fortieth question . what is most necessary to a king ? the resolution . the love of his subjects ; for by that means he will make a bond of indissoluble good will : for the rest , god accomplisheth that which one chuseth for the best . to the other . eight and fortieth question . what is the end of a speech or oration in pleading ? the resolution . it consists , after you have proposed your intention , in persuading that your cause is good , confuting the objections of your adversary , and shewing them to be inconsequent , worthless and impertinent : but the main end is to pursue duly the point on every occasion , and not to stray with locutions ; for the true persuasion is a thing addressed from god. to the other . nine and fortieth question . how he should accommodate himself to divers people in one kingdom . the resolution . doing and administring justice to every one equally ; and by so doing you shall govern and rule them as you list : for the rest , god inspireth men with power to discern the right of kings . to the other . fiftieth question . in what things are we constrained to be sorrowful ? the resolution . in the calamities and adversities of our friends , and most , when we see that such calamities are of a long durance , and inevitable ; and when they are therewith so attacked , as to cause them to dye : for in such griefs there is no means how we can take off our sorrow , ( and if there were ) there is no possible hope of remedy , nor any profit to be found against such accidents , with which all humane kind are so grieved . for to avoid wholly all mischances , is a business rather for a divine power , then a mortal . to the other . one and fiftieth question . in what thing a man deprives himself of glory and honour . the resolution . when a man becomes untractable , and inaccessible , by fierceness and pride : for then vituperation comes upon him , and privation of honour follows him : for god , who is the governour of glory , gives and takes it away , as seemeth good to him . to the other . two and fiftieth question . what kind of men he ought most to trust . the resolution . to those who bear you such love , that neither fear , nor avarice , nor ambition , nor covetousness , nor hope of lucre , cannot at all have any power to divert . nevertheless , the shew of this love is not easily to be discerned ; and in the same , it is needful to have observation a long time , for those who are near to a king , aspire to make themselves rich , and spare no means to get , by his favour , great profit , and are naturally traytors . but god conduct ( great king ) your councel , that they may sufficiently shew you who are those that perfectly love you . to the other . three and fiftieth question . what is that which conserveth a kingdom ? the resolution . that is , that the king take diligent care , and give order , that those who are in office , and have charge , commit no undue things to the prejudice of the people : the which you know very well how to perform , for ( as it seemeth ) god hath given you a spirit very excellent . to the other . four and fiftieth question . by what means he might keep grace and honour ? the resolution . by vertue : for she is the accomplishment of all great works , and trips up the feet of vice , as you have long experimented by your excellent bounty towards all persons : which in you is a sign of the gift of god. to the other . five and fiftieth question . how in time of war he might keep himself still in tranquillity of spirit ? the resolution . if you propose in your mind , to give order that your lieutenants and captains commit nothing that is evil ; but that they contend by vertue one with another for the proof of their vertue , and further , that they have in you a perfect confidence , that you will have their domestick affairs in a singular respect , if it happen that they lose their lives for , and in your service ; by this means you shall have no occasion to be troubled , disposing all prudently by divine clemency , which will inspire you to understand all that is good . king ptolomy receiving this answer with great expressions of joy , with a chearful countenance entreated them all to drink , shewing extream content and satisfaction . the seventh day , the feast was prepared more great and more sumptuous than it had hitherto been ; because that many ambassadours from cities were arrived there . then all being set in their order , the king finding occasion to devise , asked the first of those that had not yet spoken their advise in this same manner . six and fiftieth question . how he might be resolved throughly by reason , and by arguments ? the resolution . if you weigh well the propositions which you shall hold , and the persons which speak , and the subject whereof they treat : and ●hat you often inform your self , and that in divers manners , and by long intervals of time , of the estate of the above said affairs : for the bounty of the spirit is an extraordinary gift of god , by which one may easily know and discern all things● to the other . seven and fiftieth question . wherefore is it that many cannot approach unto vertue ? the resolution . because nature hath created al● humane creatures subject to incontinence , and prompt to voluptuousness ; from whence injustic● and iniquity is ingendred , and ava●riciousness does greatly abound . bu● the estate of vertue whose nature is fixed on things sublime , casts away all those whom voluptuousness doth cause to be alienated from her . fo● she commends before all things , tha● justice and magnanimity shall be observed , the which god gives , and is therefore the principal author . to the other . eight and fiftieth question . what is that which kings ought to follow above all things . the resolution . that is the laws : to the end that they ruling the lives of ●ubjects by just and equitable acts ( as we have heard you do ) great ●ing , you shall gain by this means ●●mortal memory , if you follow the ●recepts and commands of the most ●igh . to the other . nine and fiftieth question . who are those that one ought to elect for offices and magistracies ? the resolution . they are those that are averse to all things unjust , and ●●at are imitators of your actions : and that being drawn with the sweetness of vertue , pursue incessantly after good works , that they may attain to glory and honour , to which certainly , o worthy king still following vertue , you will a●●tain : for god is he that crowne● with honour and glory glorio●● justice . to the other . the sixtieth question . what persons ought one to choose for captains ? the resolution . those that do most exceed justice and magnanimity , a●● yet have more respect to the lives● men than to a bloody victory : f●● god is he from whom all mort●● receive infinite goodness , the whi●● you shall excellently imitate , if y●● persist in doing good to your su●●jects . to the other . the one and sixtieth question . who is the man worthy of admiration ? the resolution . that is he who doth highly abound in glory and greatness , is opulent in riches , and sublime in puissance : yet nevertheless yields himself affable and kind , just and equitable to every one , as we have heard , great king , you do ; and the same shall make you admired by every one : for it is god that hath engraven this sollicitude in your heart . to the other . the two and sixtieth question . what behoveth him to exercise himself in , when he is at leisure , that he may not thereby be drowned in sloth ? the resolution . it is necessary , with all imaginable care and diligence to consider the discourse which offer concerning the form and manner of living : which every one ought constantly to have before his eyes . likewise , to bear always in mind , to wha● end , property , and vertue , were al● things ordained : because in the sai● discourse there is much good an● honest pastime conjoined to the in●crease of knowledge . for amongst little and vile things , one finds ma●ny times something that may pleas● him to choose and take ; for the re●● ( great king ) it seems well to u●● god hath in a great measure so fa●voured you , that you will still b● electing all vertuous behaviour an● kindness , by the great honour yo● bear to the study of wisdom . t● the other . the three and sixtieth question . in what things ought kings most to employ their time ? the resolution . in the knowledge of histories , and in reading books , which treat of affairs , that most often present themselves to him : in which it is needful that● he imploy much time . it beho●eth moreover , that he enquire for those writings that teach to conserve kingdoms , and to correct the manners of men : which to accomplish with such diligence as you do , god will give prosperity to your designs , in which he will grant you ●n excellent glory far above other kings . to the other . the four and sixtieth question . what persons ought one to invite to banquets ? the resolution . one ought to call those which are desirous to learn , and those who often think how the affairs of a kingdom ought to pass , and that know how to recount the lives of princes : for there is nothing more pleasant , nor more delectable then such company . for they are those that are well instituted and instructed in the beauty of knowledge , and have god in high reverence . the which thing it seems you do accomplish well ( great king ) as one may perceive , in that god hath been pleased to send you prosperity and happiness in all your affairs . to the other . the five and sixtieth question . which is most profitable for the people , either to choose over them a king from a private person , or to obey a king that was son to a king ? the resolution . the most profitable to the people is that which is most agreeable with nature : for although that some kings sons be sometimes oppressors of the people , yet those which from private persons come to be exalted to such sublimity and greatness , because they have experienced poverty , and endured calamities and laborious travels of private persons , they are more cruel then bloody tyrants , and rule their subjects by force and intolerable violence . wherefore the ordinance received and accustomed , and the common fashion of doing , is much more sure , and far better for government , that it come from the king by succession , from father to son , as it is with you ( worthy and great king : ) for your greatness and excellency consisteth not so much in honours , glory , and great domination , as in clemency and benignity . the which ( by a gift from god ) draweth and attracteth the hearts of all persons to love you . the king accepted this answer with praise , and turn'd himself towards the last , saying , the six and sixtieth question . what is most profitable to a kingdom ? the resolution . that is , to hold and maintain th● people in peace ; and to giv● order that suits and process of la● should be immediately and withou● delay adjudged definitively ; for such things are executed when the prince hateth the wicked , and sheweth fa●vour and kindness to good and ho●nest men , and such as be vertuous and that he esteems it a great thin● to have saved the life of one of hi● subjects : as we have been informed you do ( great king ) that abhor● all murderers , disposing and tem●pering all by justice : in which yo● adorn to eternity the greatness o● your deeds ; god having inspire● you with a soul free from all foul●ness of vice , and illustrated the same with most excellent vertue . after these answers , there arose a great noise of congratulations and applauses with an excessive joyful acclamation , and the whole hall was full of joyful shouts . the king then commanding silence , and taking his cup , invited them all to drink : then addressing his sp●ech to the said doctors , pronounced these words in the presence of all the assembly . i repute this day ( my masters ) to be to me most happy by your presences , for your answers have ●rought to me most great profit and instruction for the government of my self and my kingdom . thus all being ended , he ordained ●hat to every one of the doctors ●hould be delivered three talents of silver , and by and by gave to every one of them a page to wait upon ●hem at their table . so with great contentment to every one , the feast was ended with great praise of the kings liberality ; who above all , shew'd a countenance of receiving the greatest satisfaction and most joyful content . i have been hitherto philocrates , thus prolix in the recital of the business , which i have done , for the great esteem i have had of such men , and of their wisdom : marvelling at the readiness of their answers , being so pertinent to that which was proposed to them upon the sudden : shewing such elegance in their speech , as if these questions had been long time in premeditation : and that he who proposed them , had thought of them long before he demanded them : and yet their answers to him were found so agreeable , as if they had long before consulted together about them . wherefore it is no wonder that they seem admirable , not to me only , but to the phylosophers also , and to all them that were present , assuring you that such things are more hard to believe than one would imagine , in which i will not wonder , if the faith of the readers be vanquished : for my part , what occasion have i to add dreams or falsities , seeing that all which i have written , is to be found in the registers of the king , where it is held the greatest of crimes , to find any untruth in the least thing of the world. i assure you then , that this recitation is most true , containing the discourse of all the things as they have passed in verity , without mixture of any errour ; for to this end , that i might best know the truth , i have used this diligence to search publick registers , where we may see recited the banquets and feasts , together with the interrogations also of the king ; and the answers which were given him , and all even word for word ; from whence i have borrowed what i have here written . for you know it hath been the custom to register and inroul all that hath been done and said , every day from the time that the king began to give audience , unto the time he went to bed , without omitting any thing that he did , or was said to his majesty : a course truly , very profitable and well instituted : for by that means the registred acts of the precedent day being read , if any thing were omitted in what the king had said or done , there might be opportunity of amendment . therefore , after i had diligently searched the day book of the king , i have collected the same for you , here by writing , as afore-said ; well knowing the extraordinary great desire you have to understand all remarkable occurrences . the means used by the 72 doctors , in their interpreting , or translating the law. three dayes after these feasts and disputes were ended , demetrius conducted all these doctors towards the sea , into an isle ; and entring upon a bank , passed a bridg which led towards the north , where the place designed for this assembly was , and where they should hold their conference for their interpretation of the law. it was a house of pleasant scituation , and most magnificent , upon the banks of the sea , very stately and curiously decked and trimmed : where , above all conveniencies , there was great silence for the tranquility of the spirit , and repose of the understanding . moreover , there was all things necessary for life , carefully provided and prepared with great convenience and ease . in this place demetrius entreated them they would dispose themselves to the i●terpretation of the law , in which they began to proceed , disputing , and conferring together of every thing , untill they came all to one general accord and consent , to resolve in a true sence advisedly . the which done , they set down in writing , that which was by them so composed and reduced into good order , the most learnedly , and the most eloquently that they could , by the advice and counsell of all , they put it apart , that the same might afterwards be put into the hands of demetrius . their colloquies and conferences lasted from the morning untill nine of the clock , and so rising from these disputes , they went to take recreation and air for their health , after all things were sumptuously administred unto them . for dorothea , who had the same in charge , was therein so careful , that there was nothing made ready for the kings person , but every day they had as much of the same to every single person , and he would once the day come to visit them with courtship in his own proper person , and they sometimes went to salute the king with great reverence , and so return'd to privacy . every morning it was their custom to make their prayers to god , after they had wash'd their hands in the sea , as the iews customarily use lavations , and then retir'd to their readings and interpretations . i was so bold to ask them why they so washed their hands before they made their prayers ? to which demand they made this answer : that this washing of the hands did admonish them to do nothing wickedly , but to devote all their actions to piety , and sanctity : because that all the works they did with their hands might be effected according to justice , truth , and cleanness , as we have before said . to conclude , these personages being in such serenity of air , beauty of dwelling , tranquility of silence , pleasantness of repose , and royal entertainment , finished the work undertaken : and , which is a note of admiration , ( they had so expresly ordered it among themselves ) and followed it with such care and diligence , that the interpretation of the law was fully finished in the space of 72 dayes . demetrius then seeing the translation and interpretation of the law was so well and happily brought to an end , used means that the multitude of the iews , then being in egypt , might be convocated to the place where the work was then perfected : to whom he shewed how all things had been done , beginning with all circumstances of the enterprize , and all in the presence of the interpreters . to the king all the multitude attributed great praise , and gave infinite thanks , for being the mediate cause of so important a good , and a benefit of such excellency : likewise they shared a part of the honour to demetrius , intreating him to shew them that favour as to have a copy for their princes , for to haue their advice , and to deliberate upon the profit or damage that might arise upon the same . in this sort was the law reviewed , re-known , and received in the assembly of the princes of the iews , and of the multitude , and of the ambassadors of towns. and upon proclamation made ( the seventy two doctors being present ) that all was well and holily translated , and done after a most exquisite manner : it was provided that nothing thereof should be changed , and that all things should remain in the same estate without alteration of the least thing or tittle . as the translation was thus approved of all , and the decree made for the ratification of the same ; demetrius commanded that according to their custom , they should make imprecations and maledictions against those which should undertake or should presume to add any thing thereto , or to transferr it otherwayes by changing , effacing , or ordering any thing whatsoever it were , unto that which was so perfectly now written . and when all was perfected and accomplished in this manner , he ad●ured the iews to hold , keep , and preserve it inviolably for ever : the which they promised to do with great joy and acclamation . so demetrius , finding himself greatly satisfied , especially because he had been a great conductor of the work : and that he had given to the king such content in the happy execution and accomplishment of his charge , and of this his felicity , made great complements to the king. who having after with great diligence perus'd this interpretation , and considered the profundity of the sence of the law-maker , which he admired with an astonished regard : he said to demetrius , how comes it to pass that none of the poets or historians have put their hands to this law , being it is a thing of so high and perfect excellency ? to which demetrius answered , that no body never durst touch it , as well for the reverence of the same , as also that god had forbidden it ; so as some having presumed to attempt it , have been chastised with divine punishment : whereupon they have been constrained to desist from their enterprize : for , as testifieth theopompus , which , by a recital of himself , saith , that presuming to transferr into his history some secrets of the holy law , he was afflicted more then 30 dayes following with a perturbation of his understanding : but calling upon god in the intervals and cessations of the most vehement fits of this his malady , it was told him in his sleep , this punishment was sent him from god , for having presumed to prophane and falsifie things sacred . so by this vision he was corrected , repented , and perfectly received his sences again . and , said demetrius , upon mine own knowledge , i affirm , that theodorus a tragick poet , willing to usurp something from this law , therewith to enrich his poesie , lost his sight : nevertheless , advising with himself , and concluding that this his audaciousness was the cause of his blindness , prayed to god for many dayes , whereby he came again to health . the king , saying that this was wisely spoken , adored the law : commanding that the books of the same should be preserved the most curiously and carefully that might be possible : and advising with the interpreters , benignely and graciously prayed them , that when they were in iudea , they would often come and see him . finally , he gave order , that they should be honourably returned back and conducted into their country , promising them , that how oft soever , and when they pleased to return , he would entertain them as his principal friends : so honouring them with fair presents according to their merits , and commanding that all things should be made ready for the dispatch of their return , using towards them all royal magnificence ; he gave to every one of them three rich habilliments , and two talents of gold , and an excellent cup of the weight of a talent . moreover , furniture to furnish a chamber ; over and above he sent to eleazer ten table-beds or couches of ease , which had the feet of silver , and adorned with all that was necessary to the beautifying of them . further , he sent him a present of thirty talents of cilicia , that is to say , ten robes , whereof the one was of purple ; and a fair crown of an hundred tunicks of crespe , of viols , of basins , and two cups of gold for the sacrifices . after , he intreated eleazar , that when any of the said doctors should desire rather to return to him , then to remain in hierusalem , that he would not hinder them by any means , for he protested he made great esteem of wise mens company ; and that he would spare for nothing to draw them to him . in which he should best employ his riches , to all imaginable content and profit , and not , as some prodigal princes do , in vain trifles that profit nothing . behold here , my philocrates , the present which i promised you ; in which i hope , you will take more pleasure , than in reading vain , fabulous narrations , being that you use to whet and sharpen your understanding in the contemplation of the most great and noble actions : in which you have imployed much time , which hath given me occasion now to write you things worthy and excellent , and the best that i could chuse , because that betwixt us i would kindle a kind contention and emulation of amiable vertue , for the desire to have an intelligence of things more worthy to be observed , and which are the most excellent . the end of aristeus his history . proofs concerning this history . now follow sundry opinions of divers authors , ancient and modern , concerning this business and translation of the law of moses . and first , an extract from the fourth chapter of the fifth part o● the several collections of pietr● messie , in which there fell ( saith he ) an admirable and miraculous hap● viz. how the 72 interpreters being put severally into several cells , b● the commission of the king , without possible means to conferr th● one with the other , and that afte● they had made , so separated , ever● one his traduction , and being brough● all together before the king with all their traductions , neverthele●● were all found so conformable , tha● there was not one syllable more in the one than in the other : which could not be without the especial grace and operation of the holy ghost ; as saith saint augustine , ireneus , and tertullian , who saith , he had seen in his time , and in alex●ndria , the very books written by ●he hands of the seventy two tran●lators , which were in hebrew and in greek . as much also saith iustin the philosopher , in the book of his ad●ertisements , that he made to the pagans and gentiles : where he saith , that king ptolomeus made to be built , without the city of alexandria , se●enty two halls , to lodg severally the seventy two traductors , and there ●rovided very honourably for them ●ll , of all that to them was necessa●● : in the which place , the said ●ranslators remained , without one ●eing the other , untill that such ●●eir translations were perfectly ●●nished . and he affirmeth also , ●o have seen then the ruins and old walls of these buildings , which were kept as reliques and things sacred . and although saint hierom and ruffinus agree not in the number o● the said chambers , the matter is no● great . seeing that according to sain● augustin , and many other author● every translator made his transla●tion apart , without conference wit● the other , yet all the traduction● were found conform . and truly , however , when it i● duely considered , it appears a grea● mystery , and may be held for a grea● miracle of this conformity of styl● and of order , to translate a thing so long and so diverse , although al● the translators had been togethe● and that they had begun this wor●● at this time . for we see that it is enough for tw● men to accord in one only poin● when they are to mix something to●gether . after the translation was finis●●ed , the iews that remained in egyp● and which had been versed in their law , recommended to the king this holy writing ; wherewith the king was right well content . and for certain , according to iosephus , and eusebius , king ptolomy was astonished at the holy scriptures , and ravishingly taken with their mysteries : that he demanded of demetrius phalerius ( who had the charge of his library ) saying , how comes it ●hat lycurgus , solon , and other law-●ivers , are so silent of the law of ●he iews ? to whom demetrius answered , ●aying , ( sir ) this law , as you may ●ufficiently see , comes from god , so ●hat no law-giver durst be so har●y to touch it , or take from it any ●ract : for even theopompus was ●rucken by the divine hand with ●erturbation of his sense , and with ● cardiack passion , for having a will ●o mix the holy history of the he●rews , by his inriching it with elo●uent words , and rhetorical colours . but after returning to god , an● commending himself to his mercy , 〈◊〉 was revealed to him in a dream , th● his disaster came upon him for so a●tempting to embellish , and ( as 〈◊〉 thought ) to enrich the sincerity 〈◊〉 the holy scriptures with drest wor● and trim'd phrases , and to comm●●nicate it so to the pagans and i●●dels . it comes also into my thought how theodorus , a tragick poet , su●denly lost his sight , for having tak● one only passage of holy writ● argument of his tragedy : but ●●●penting him of the same , and doi●● penance for his forfeit , he re●●●vered his sight as before . hitherto are the words of p●●tro messie , by the which 〈◊〉 may see the diversity of opinio● that is amongst authors , concerni●● this translation of the law of ●●●ses . for my self , it seemeth to 〈◊〉 that aristeus , which was always p●●●sent , and that had conduced to the affair in part , meriteth that one do him the honour to give belief to his history , although some doctors ●herein vary . a short discourse of the antiquity and dignity of the sacred books , and excellency of their inspired writer , the prophet moses . by the english translator . as the true god is the ancient of dayes and times ; so it pleased him that his perpetual history , contained 〈◊〉 holy scriptures , should excell in anti●uity of time , all other histories and ●ritings of the world that can be ●●und ; the writings of the pagans , and ●ations , being all under these , and long ●●ter , and that only of moses , the sub●●ct of this former history , contains the ●ccount of years justly from the creation and beginning of the world , even unto the coming of the promised redeemer . a reckoning ( i say ) so just and certain , that there is no such to be found . for to come to the time wherein the prophet of god , moses , the first writer of holy writ , began to write manifestly under the lord of heaven and earth ; we may gather , and without prejudice , of all that then could be done ; as by a passage , amongst many other places , we read of in the seventeenth chapter of the book of exodus , where it is said , god commanded him to write ; and that in the same year the people of israel issued ou● of egypt , which was from the creation of the world 2513. upon which w● may advertise our selves , that the year● are calculated according to verity of the said scriptures , by the faithful servant● of god , which have happily travelled therein . and therefore we need not rest upo● the calculation of histories , annals , and humane chronicles , or other writer● that have not intirely followed holy scriptures , who are discordant amongs● themselves , and many times directly opposite to one anothers times . therefore , if we diligently search all antiquities and writings of men of all nations , that have any appearance of certain time , wherein those writings were made , and after confer those times with the things recited and inregistred by the holy prophet moses , and the time wherein he writ them ; we shall see manifestly ●he excellency and antiquity that he is herein above all men : for the fables and disguisements of prophane poets , greeks and latines , which all came a long time after moses : amongst them ( i say ) we shall see no other but mani●est dreams , lyes ; and amongst other things notable , some corruptions of the sacred scriptures , long before writ●en , of which , they having heard some ●●ckling , and received it as from hand to hand , or drawn it from his writings , ●or heard it recounted by the father to the son , and they from thei● a●cestors , which were the children a●d successors of the three sons of noah , who was the second father of huma●● kind , and restorer of the nations of all the world , all issuing from his posterity , after the universal flood . his three sons , ( as holy scripture hath acquainted us with , ) where shem , ham , and iaphet , of whom are descended all the earth : and this before spoken , is easily and sufficiently discovered in the writings of the said pagans , by the proper names of the said children of noah , and of their successors , which of long time before these writings and prophane histories , had been named by moses . for the pagans testifie , that the people had made of these ancient fathers● idols , and gods : as of iaphet , iapetus , they drew iavan , ianus , and ion ; and because they were names held in the hebrew letters , or value of them ; they accommodated them to their tongues and letters , and to make them more easie and glib in their accustomed pronunciation , came near , but with al●eration . and if we will go more high , and weigh the old times of the first age which preceeded the flood , as we have it from that only history of moses in the holy bible : we shall easily perceive that the pagan poets and writers have received , even the ancient names , and mingled them amongst their fables and dreams , and drawn them from the holy scriptures . and so it shall appear plainly , that their false god , vulcan , is not very hard to unmask , that he was a mortal man , and one of the sons of the other lamech , the prime bigamist and corrupter of marriage ; who descended of that accursed race of cain : and this appears by the faculty of this vulcan , which was a smith or forger of armour : and moses declares him so , and by his name too , for he is by him called thu-vulcain ; and every one any thing skill'd in the hebrew , knows , that if they leave the first letter , which is servile , and put to form the name , according to the manner of the hebrews , it will appear mere vulcain ; for their letter beth , b. having not a prick in him , is pronounced as our v consonant . and for the name of vulcain's wife , by moses call'd nehama , which signifieth fair in their language , or , as speak the latines , venusta : it is a plain course to discover vain beauty , or their so much celebrated , unchast , and wanton venus . a goodly race and fair family , of that accursed murtherer , cain . and here may we see some of the proper gods and idols of the poor pagans , amongst that anthill of such and other ill stoln names , unhandsomely fetch'd from the holy scriptures , with and by the subtilty of the devil ; to the end that a wicked troop of execrable gyants , violent oppressors of men , thieves , and adulterous desperates , shaken off , and damned by the word of god , of whom the first apostate and lyer , sathan , made his counterfeit gods and idols ; the old serpent , expert and knowing in all malice , that there was no better way for him to muffle and blind humane judgement from the knowledge of the true god , at first ingraven in the souls of men , but by this counterfeit device with posterity . but to pass farther in our begun purpose , touching the fabulous writings of the pagan poets , we shall find , that their discourse , in the best we can of it , is but corruptions of the truth , in the holy scriptures of god , or things therein revealed ; turn'd by them into dreams , and prophane narrations : as we may see , in that they writ of the creation of the world , and government of the same , of the divine vertue that sustains and interiourly nourisheth all things ; of the consumption of heaven and earth with fire at the last day , and also of the restoration of the world , and of all things in such good order , for all so many confusions proceeding from sin. all which things they might obtain , and by some dark means draw from the books of holy scripture and sacred prophets , translated out of hebrew into other languages , or understand something by means of the dispersion of the people of israel , spread through all the provinces of the roman empire , and through all the quarters of the world. for the iews had for the most part leave in all places to hold their synagogues , and to have publick lectures of their law and prophets : when these poets , flatterers of men , turn'd all that , spoken of the person of christ , the promised redeemer , and that then was expected ; falsely to apply them by flattery to their princes , false gods and idols . but let us leave all those juglers and lyers , that durst be so prophanely bold to corrupt the pure verity of god's word , and speak we of the gentiles writings , how long they came after moses , and writ since he : and that even they have given testimony to him and his divine writings , which may at least suffice to convince all contradictors , that moses was in nature , and before them all . we understand , that his reckoning is a perpetual following all the years since the creation of the world , even unto his time , as it is easie to gather by his books , and his account of the years , and lives of the first fathers , from adam , unto the patriarch abraham , and after , from his successors , as from father to son , to wit , isaac , iacob , levi , caath , amram , and then aaron , and moses himself , children of the said amram : and that he had express charge to write to the very last , the year since the creation of the world , 2513. and of his life the 80. year , and hath continued his holy stories , even to the year of his death , and of the world , 2553. now since that time● god hath always so provided for the advancement of his glory , and the edification of his church , that the perpetual history of her , and the certain account of the years of the world , hath been continued and still put in writing by his prophets . as it is to be seen in the holy books that treat of and contain the government of ioshua , and the iudges : then to samuel , and the kings of the people , unto the transmigration into babylon , and of other governours , which have succeeded them , after their return from thence . and finally , the prophet daniel hath declared the rest of the time , that is , the 490 years since the said deliverance of the jews , and return from babylon , by the means of cyrus , king of persia , even to the death and resurrection of christ the redeemer , promised to the holy fathers , which is our lord iesus , the eternal son of god , true god , and true man ; who appeared living after his death and resurrection to more than five hundred faithful witnesses at one time , besides his other manifestations , and mounted visibly into heaven in the year of the world , 3961. now if we will lear●h all the histories of all the nations of the world , of whom the writings are arrived to our age , the most ancient time of which they make mention shall be of their antient destruction of troy by the greeks . the history whereof hath been written by dictis of the isle of creet , which is the best testimony they have for the present , and since , by homer and many others . and from this destruction , diodorus siculus , renowned amongst the historians , began his books ; now the same , according with the common judgment and calculation of knowing men , comes only to be about 358 years before the building of rome ; the same time then falls to be in the sixteenth year of the government of elon , judge of the people of israel , mentioned in the book of iudges . and the same was 316 years before the first olympiade , the reckoning of the annals of the greeks : so then the said destruction of troy falls to be only under the year of the world 2838. vvhen therefore we shall give consent , that their writings , the most certain , whose narrations we may best give credit unto : yet the prophet moses shall be found much more ancient then all the writers of the world , what nation soever , though they are in great number , and of whom we see yet the old books in these last times in their proper tongues . and that he hath put his hand to the pen , and began to write his divine revelations of the creation and conduct of the world even to his time , and his sacred history and prophesies touching the church of god shall at least be 325 years before all other writers , of whom there is any mention or news in the world ; that is to say , in the year of the world 2513. whereupon we note , even to this present , against all those prophane mockers that have disgorged that enormous blasphemy amongst others , that the world is eternal and of it self : which if it were , so as they dream , and that it had no such beginning as is written by moses , they might find then by all , and in all languages , many histories of infinite times , and many chronicles of many ages , and of old times that have preceded moses in the account of years . but we see that there is no such , and that the holy bible is found even in the middle amongst all sorts of enemies that strive to destroy , lose , abolish , burn , and extermine from the world the books of it , and for all thereto they had so long time , yet nevertheless they never could , nor ever shall . for we see the said bible yet , in his proper writing and language , and of all others of what nation soever , the most celebrated and renowned : and if they could find any history , which had been written before moses was born into the world , yet shall it contain their time and composition , with more years and ages , as we can gather from the holy scriptures , even to this present year 1633 , since the nativity of christ. the which account of times past from the creation unto this present year , shall come to amount to 5563 years , but such histories neither can be found , nor ever were . but for moses , and his faithful writings , even prophane authors and histories of the gentiles themselves , have been , even as it were , divinely constrained to bear testimony , maugre their calumnies , lyes , dreams , and disguisings , through and by the invincible force of truth . and so they have served for certificates to all nations of the venerable and well known antiquity of him and his holy writs . for some of them have noted , and writ thus , ( as a thing notorious of their times ) to wit , that in the east parts , and of syria it self , there had been an abraham , an israel , and even a ioseph , who , say they , was a son of the said israel , sold by his brethren , and led into egypt . then how he was received into the court , and held very dearly with the king , to whom he foretold the grievous and great famin ; so as without the divine counsel by him given , ( whereupon the admonished king gathered up and made reservation of corn before the time of the said famin , ) egypt had perished . and finally , how his successor moses , and all his people issued out of egypt , came to mount sinai , how they consecrated the seventh day for their sabboth , or resting day : but i will leave this discourse , though diversified from a spark of truth , that these historians have mixed with their own devices , as prophane ; and in which they were poorly advertised and deceived , by the subtilty of satan , as we may well know by conferring their writings with the holy bible . and be it that these scoffers of god and his holy word , dare be so bold to say and affirm , that moses , and his , have suppressed and abolished all precedent histories , making their writings to be before all others , thereby to authorize them the better ; yet we will leave those their calumnies to the judgment of any of sound sense and understanding : if that could be , or can have any place or shadow of belief amongst men of sound judgment or reasonable discourse : for if they will put into mature consideration , the small means and contemptible quality in the world of these poor israelites , but shepherds and breeders of cattel ; and , which is worse , people exposed to the oppressions and hard servitude under their puissant enemies , and evil disposed neighbours . then who shall make comparison of them with great kings and people of the earth , babylonians , aegyptians , syrians , romans , and other potentates , who with all their authority , their edicts , forces , and armies , had never power to abolish the holy books , written simply by our poor shepheards ; when they could not conserve their royal libraries , favoured of all the world ! truly , this may well put to the blush these wiselings , that shew themselves fools in so speaking , and discoursing without discourse , and will judge of things without inquiry . now for the integrity of moses , for us christians , we are sufficiently cleared and satisfied by the authority of the holy spirit of god , who hath given excellent testimony by all the scriptures , both in the old and new testament , of his original and lineage , being descended from the latter levi , nephew of the holy patriarch abraham : also of his miraculous conservation and deliverance from death and waters ; from whence he was drawn forth , and then had that name of moses in their language . then his royal education and breeding , his love to his afflicted people , and his magnanimity to despise humane greatness , in preferring the just cause and sufferance of christ , the redeemer then look'd for , before all the regal estate and great treasure of aegypt . moreover , his sufferance long and bitter , for the defence of right and equity , and for the deliverance of the poor afflicted : his divine calling to the charge and government of his people , his patience , gentleness , and perseverance with such faithfulness , in the difficult execution of this weighty charge , and the singular gift of prophecy , and of his divine miracles so strange and supernatural , that they have been admired and celebrated of all the whole world. but there is one point above all , very remarkable , and which is more than sufficient to overcome humane reason , and to shew the integrity of moses ; which is , that if he had would , he might easily , and according to the manner of men , have had the monarchy and domination for his children , and their posterity , upon all the people of israel : and with the same , the two fertile kingdoms , reduced under his hand , and conquered beyond iordan . nevertheless , he left his sons , gersom and eliezer , and their posterity , private men , and of most simple estate , amongst the other levites . and the same children remaining subject to the sacrificers , successors of aaron , and to the magistrates and governours of israel . more , that he hath himself written and inregistred his own proper faults ; and yet more notable , those of his house ; as of his brother , sister , and nephews , and the most remarkable judgments of god's chastisements and punishments of them all . of which things , all his people were witnesses , in number more than six hundred thousand persons : and if they could have contraried him for any falsity , either for the present , or times to come : if he had been , i say , such as they could have found any brack in his actions , or in his writings , or falseness in either his person , or any of his , in his life , and his miracles , in his writings or end. but on the contrary , all the hebrews and iews , which have been since that time , and are now near 3000 years since ; and that are dispersed through all the vvorld , who are in so great a number , that if they were re-united into a body of people , and into a state , their multitude should be innumerable , and might astonish the greatest nation of the whole universe . all those , i say , have received from their ancient fathers , from their kings and princes , and their sacrificators and ancestors , from father to son , and from hand to hand , and with an admirable consent , even in the middle of so many confusions and dissipations , have kept , and yet keep always in their bibles , the holy vvritings of moses , in their proper letters , and hebrew tongue , as books most true and veritable , sacred and divine : and such so known and acknowledged in all nations , with the excellent testimony , authority and holiness of them : that christ himself hath spoken of them , and the prophets and apostles also in their vvritings and alleagtions ; i , and the most ancient pagans and strangers , cannot ( with sound sense ) but acknowledge them . and so , reader , although i have been ( as i formerly said ) something prolix , yet the excellency of the subject , forc'd and bound me to be so tedious herein , to shew , as an illustrious addition , the worthiness of the books and divine writings , as their antiquity , dignity , as also the excellency of their humane vvriter , from the dictate of the most high : and being the matter whereof we have formerly treated , i held it not impertinent , though i have dealt too weakly in so worthy a business , but refer the rest and it , to your charitable censure . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a25805-e250 * great esquire . argument of the history . notes for div a25805-e2190 * one of the captains of great alexander , the third monarch . as the latins now in christendom . 1 praefat. in pentateuchum mosi . 1 iustin. dialog . cum tryphone . irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 25. clemen . alexander . lib. 1. stro . epiphanius de mens . & ponditibus . euseb. preparat . lib. 8. chap. 1. 2 hieron . in questionibus hebraicis in chap. 5. ezechielis , & in cap. 2. michiae . iosephi praefat . in antiquit. & lib. 12. antiquit. chap. 13. philo. de vita mosis . lib. 2. ptolomeus lagus . 1 at virtutem non everterunt . diog. laert. in vit . demet. 2 diog. laert. ibid. notes for div a25805-e3510 excellence of this history . a drachma is 3 shillings● sixpence , that is , 3 pound 1 d. 10. shillings the head . the talent is 600 french crovvns . * scripsit librum de judaeis , teste suida . reasons for the iews choice and diversity in meats . order of meats . calumniators , false reporters , or spies . some copies call them emplanists . the delivery of the holy law , or sacred books of moses , in hebrew characters to king ptolomy . nature of good officers and subjects . the custom of egypt was so . it was a custom to register what was propounded and answered in the kings of egypts presence . ovid. 1. de meta. virgil , 6. aeneid . virgil eglog . 4.5 . iosephus antiq . act. 18.20 . virgil. aeneid . daniel 9. luk. 24. ● 1 cor. 15. iudges 12. trogus . justinus . praise of moses . three sermons vpon speciall occasions preached by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. 1623 approx. 193 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 90 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20655 stc 7057 estc s350 22298132 ocm 22298132 25353 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20655) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 25353) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1751:5) three sermons vpon speciall occasions preached by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. [8], 68, [6], 49, [7], 41 p. printed for thomas iones, and are to be sold at his shop in the strand at the blacke rauen neere st. clements church, london : 1623. each sermon has special t.p. and separate pagination. signatures: a-i⁴ k², ²a-g⁴, ³a⁴(-a4) ³bf⁴ ³g¹. reproduction of original in the trinity college (university of cambridge). library. a sermon vpon the xv. verse of the xx. chapter of the book of iudges -a sermon vpon the viii. verse of the i. chapter of the acts of the apostles -encœnia, the feast of dedication. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -17th century. 2002-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-07 olivia bottum sampled and proofread 2002-07 olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion three sermons vpon speciall occasions . preached by iohn donne deane of st. pauls london . london , printed for thomas iones , and are to sold at his shop in the strand at the blacke rauen neere st. clements church . 1623. a sermon vpon the xv. verse of the xx. chapter of the booke of ivdges wherein occasion was iustly taken for the publication of some reasons , which his sacred maiestie had beene pleased to giue , of those directions for preachers , which he had formerly sent forth . preached at the crosse the 15 th . of september . 1622. by iohn donne , doctor of diuinitie and deane of saint pavls , london . and now by commandement of his majestie published , as it was then preached . london printed by william stansby for thomas iones , and are to be sold at his shop in the strand at the blacke rauen , neere vnto saint clements church . 1622. to the right honorable , george , marquesse of buckingham , high admirall of england , &c. when i would speake to the king , by your lordships meanes , i doe : now , when i would speake to the kingdom , i would do that by your lordshippes meanes to : and therefore i am bold to transfer this sermon to the world , through your lordships hands , and vnder your name . for the first part of the sermon , the explication of the text , my profession , and my conscience is warant enough that i haue spoken as the holy ghost intended , for the second part , the application of the text , it wil be warrant enough , that i haue spoken as his maiestie intended , that your lordship admits it to issue in your name . it is because kings fauour the church , that the prophet sayes they are her foster-fathers ; and then , those persons , who haue also interest in the fauor of kings , are her foster-brothers : and such vse to loue well . by that title , ( as by many other also ) your lordship loues the church ; as you are her foster-brother : loued of him who loues her . and by that title you loue all them in the church , who endeuour to aduance both the vnity of our church in it self , and the vnity of the church , with the godly designes of our religious king. to which seruice , i shall euer sacrifice all the labors of your lordships humblest and thankefullest seruant in christ iesus : iohn donne . ivdges . 5. 20. de coelo dimicatum est contra eos : stellae manentes in ordine , & cursu suo aduersus siseram pugnauerunt . they fought from heauen ; the stars in their courses fought against sisera . all the words of god are alwayes sweete in themselues , sayes dauid ; but sweeter in the mouth , and in the pen of some of the prophets , and some of the apostles , then of others , as they differed in their naturall gifts , or in their education : but sweetest of all , where the holy ghost hath beene pleased to set the word of god to musique , and to conuay it into a song ; and this text is of that kind : part of the song which deborah & barak sung after their great victory vpon sisera ; sisera who was iabin the king of canaans generall against israel . god himselfe made moses a song , and expressed his reason why ; the children of israel , sayes god , will forget my law ; but this song they will not forget ; and whensoeuer they sing this song , this song shall testifie against them , what i haue done for them , how they haue forsaken me . and to such a purpose hath god left this song of deborah and barak in the scriptures , that all murmurers , and all that stray into a diffidence of gods power , or of his purpose to sustaine his owne cause , and destroy his owne enemies , might run and read , might read and sing , the wonderfull deliuerances that god hath giuen to his people , by weake and vnexpected meanes . this world begun with a song , if the chalde paraphrasts , vpon salomons song of songs haue taken a true tradition ; that assoone as adams sinne was forgiuen him , he expressed ( as he cals it in that song ) sabbatum suum , his sabboth , his peace of conscience , in a song ; of which , we haue the entrance in that paraphrase . this world begun so ; and so did the next world too , if wee count the beginning of that ( as it is a good computation to doe so ) from the comming of christ iesus : for that was expressed on earth , in diuers songs ; in the blessed virgins magnificat ; my soule doth magnifie the lord : in zacharies benedictus ; blessed be the lord god of israel ; and in simeons , nunc dimittis , lord , now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace . this world began so , and the other ; and when both shall ioyne , and make vp one world without end , it shall continue so in heauen , in that song of the lamb , great and marueilous are thy workes , lord god almighty , iust and true are thy wayes , thou king of saints . and , to tune vs , to compose and giue vs a harmonie and concord of affections , in all perturbations and passions , and discords in the passages of this life , if we had no more of the same musique in the scriptures ( as we haue the song of moses at the red sea , and many psalmes of dauid to the same purpose ) this song of deborah were enough , abundantly enough , to slumber any storme , to becalme any tempest , to rectifie any scruple of gods slacknesse in the defence of his cause , when in the history and occasion of this , song , expressed in the chapter before this , we see , that israel had done euill in the fight of the lord againe , and yet againe , god came to them : that god himselfe had sold israel into the hands of iabin king of canaan , and yet he repented the bargaine , and came to them ; that in twenty yeeres oppression he came not , and yet he came . that when sisera came against them , with nine hundred chariots of iron , and all preparations , proportionable to that , and god cald vp a woman , a prophetesse , a deborah against him , because deborah had a zeale to the cause , and consequently an enmity to the enemie , god would effect his purpose by so weake an instrument , by a woman , but by a woman , which had no such interest , nor zeale to the cause ; by iael : and in iaels hand , by such an instrument , as with that , scarce any man could doe it , if it were to be done againe with a hammer she driues a nayle through his temples , and nayles him to the ground , as he lay sleeping in her tent : and then the end of all , was the end of all , not one man of his army left aliue . o my soule , why , art thou so sad , why art thou so disquieted within me ? sing vnto the lord an old song , the song of deborah and barak , that god by weake meanes doth might workes , that all gods creatures fight in his behalfe , they fought from beanen , the starres in their order , fought against sisera . you shal haue but two parts out of these words ; and to make these two parts , i consider the text , as the two hemispheres of the world , laid open in a flat , in a plaine map. all those parts of the world , which the ancients haue vsed to consider , are in one of those hemispheres ; all europe is in that , and in that is all asia , and afrike too : so that when we haue seene that hemisphere , done with that , we might seeme to haue seene all , done with all the world ; but yet the other hemisphere , that of america is as big as it ; though , but by occasion of new , and late discoueries , we had had nothing to say of america . so the first part of our text , will bee as that first hemisphere ; all which the ancient expositors found occasion to note out of these words , will be in that : but by the new discoueries of some humors of men , and rumors of men , we shall haue occasion to say somewhat of a second part to . the parts are , first , the literall , the historicall sense of the words ; and then an emergent , a collaterall , an occasionall sense of them . the explication of the wordes , and the application , quid tunc , quid nunc , how the words were spoken then , how they may be applied now , will be our two parts . and , in passing through our first , wee shall make these steps . first , god can , and sometimes doth effect his purposes by himselfe ; intirely , immediatly , extraordinarily , miraculously by himselfe : but yet , in a second place , we shall see , by this story , that he lookes for assistance , for concurrence of second causes , and subordinate meanes : and that therefore , god in this song of deborah , hath prouided an honourable commemoration of them , who did assist his cause ; for , the princes haue their place , the princes of issachar were with her : and then , the gouernours , the great persons , the great officers of the state , haue their place in this honour , that they offered themselues willingly to that seruice ; and after them , the merchants , for those who are said there , to ride vpon white asses , to be well mounted , according to the manner of those nations , are , by peter martyr , amongst our expositors , and by serarius the iesuite , amongst the others , fitly vnderstood , to be intended of merchants ; and in the same verse , the iudges are honorably remembred , those that fit in iudgement ; and a farre vnlikelier sort of people , then any of these , in the same verse too , those that walked by the way ; idle , and discoursing men , that were not much affected , how businesse went , so they might talke of them : and lastly , the whole people in generall , how poore soeuer , they haue euidence from this record , that they offered themselues ( and what will they denie , that offer themselues ) and willingly , to this imploiment . and then , god hauing here afforded this honourable mention of them , who did assist him , he layes also a heauy note vpon such , who for collaterall respects preuaricated , or withdraw themselues from his seruice : perticularly vpon ruben , who was diuided by greatnesse of heart , and vpon dan , who remained in his ships . and therefore to the encouragement of those who did assist him , in any proportion , though their assistance were no wayes competent against so potent an enemy , god fought for himselfe too , they sought from heauen , the starres in their order fought against sisera . and these will be the branches , or circumstances of our first part : for the particulars of the second , we shall open them more commodiously for your memory and vse , then , when we come to handle them , then now . now we proceed to those of the first part . and into those i passe with this protestation , that in all which i shall say this day , beeing to speake often of god , in that notion , as he is lord of hostes , and fights his owne battailes , i am farre from giuing fire to them that desire warre . peace in this world , is a pretious earnest , and a faire and louely type of the euerlasting peace of the world to come : and warre in this world , is a shrewd and fearefull embleme of the euerlasting discord and tumult , and torment of the world to come : and therefore , our blessed god , blesse vs with this externall , and this internall , and make that lead vs to an eternall peace . but i speake of this subiect , especially to establish and settle them , that suspect gods power , or gods purpose , to succour those , who in forraine parts , grone vnder heauie pressures in matter of religion , or to restore those , who in forraine parts , are deuested of their lawfull possessions , and inheritance ; and because god hath not done these great workes yet , nor yet raised vp meanes , in apparance , and in their apprehension , likely to effect it , that therefore god likes not the cause ; and therefore they begin to bee shaked in their owne religion at home , since they thinke that god neglects it abroad . but , beloued , since god made all this world of nothing , cannot hee recouer any one peece thereof , or restore any one peece , with a little ? in the creation , his production of specifique formes , and seuerall creatures in the seuerall dayes , was much , very much ; but not very much , compared with that , which he had done immediatly before , when he made heauen and earth of nothing . for , for the particular creatures , god had then praeiacentem materiam , he had stuffe before him ; enough to cut out creatures of the largest sise , his elephants of the earth , his whales and leuiathans in the sea. in that matter there was semen creaturarum , the seed of all creatures in that stuffe . but for the stuffe it selfe , the heauen and earth , god had not semen coeli , any such seed of heauen as that he could say to it , doe thou hatch a heauen ; he had not any such semen terrae , as that hee could bid that grow vp into an earth : there was nothing at all , and all , that is , was produced from that ; and then who shall doubt of his proceeding , if by a little he will doe much ? he suffered his greater works to be paraleld , or to be counterfeit by pharaohs magicians , but in his least , in the making of lice , hee brought them to confesse digitum dei , the finger of god ; and that was enough ; the arme of god , the hand of god needs not ; where he will worke , his finger is enough , it was not that imagination , that dreame of the rabbins , that hindered the magicians , who say , that the deuill cannot make any creature , lesse then a barley corne ; as it is with men , they misconceiue it to be with the deuill too ; harder to make a little clocke , a little picture , any thing in a little , then in a larger forme . that was no part of the reason in that case : but since man ordinarily esteemes it so , and ordinarily admires great workes in little forme , why will he not be content to glorifie god that way , in a faithfull confidence , that hee can and will doe great workes by weake meanes . should god haue stayd to leuie , and arme , and traine , and muster , and present men enow to discomfit sennacherib ? hee tooke a neerer way ; he slew almost two hundreth thousand of them , in one night by an angell . should god haue troubled an angell to satisfie elisha his seruant ? onely by apparition in the cloudes , he brought him to acknowledge , that there were more with them , then with the enemy , when there was none . he troubled not so much as a cloud , he imployed no creature at all , against the philistines , when they came vp with thirty thousand chariots ; but hee breathed a dampe , an astonishment into them , he imprinted a diuine terror in their hearts , and they fought against one another . god foresaw a diminution of his honour , in the augmentation of israels forces , and therfore he reduced gideons thirty two thousand to three hundred persons . it was so in persons , god does much with few , and it was so in time , god does much , though late ; though god seeme a long time to haue forgot his people , yet in due time , that is , in his time , he returnes to them againe . s. augustine makes a vsefull historicall note , that that land to which god brought the children of israel , was their owne land before ; they were the right heires to it , lineally descended from him , who was the first possessor of it , after the floud : but they were so long out of possession of it , as that they were neuer able to set their title on foot ; nay , they did scarce know their own title , and yet god repossessed them of it , reinuested them in it . it is so for persons , and times in his wayes in this world , much with few , much though late , and it is so in his wayes to the next world too : for persons , elias knew of no more but himselfe , that serued the right god aright : god makes him know that there were seuen thousand more ; seuen thousand was much to one , but it was little to all the world : and yet these seuen thousand haue peopled heauen , and sent vp all those colonies thither ; all those armies of martyrs , those flockes of lambes , innocent children , those fathers , the fathers of the church , and mothers , holy matrons , and daughters , blessed virgines , and learned and laborious doctors ; these seuen thousand haue filled vp the places of the fallen angels , and repeopled that kingdome : and wheresoeuer we thinke them most worne out , god at this time hath his remnant ( as the apostle sayes ) and god is able to make vp the whole garment of that remnant . so he does much with few , in the wayes to heauen ; and that he does much though late , in that way too , thou mayest discerne in his working vpon thy selfe . how often hast thou suffered thy soule , to grow cleane out of all reparations into ruine , by thine inconsiderate and habituall course of sinne , and neuer repaired it by any good vse of hearing the word , or receiuing the sacrament in a long time , and when thou hast at any time , come to a suruey of thy conscience , how hast thou beene affected with an inordinate apprehension of gods anger , and his inaccessiblenesse , his inexorablenesse towards thee , and sunke euen into the iawes of desperation ; and yet , quia manet semen dei , because the seed of god hath remained in thee , incubat spiritus , the holy ghost hath sat vpon that seed , and hatched a new creature in thee , a modest , but yet infallible assurance of the mercy of thy god. recollect all ; in raysing of sieges , and discomfiting of armies , in restoring possessions , and reinuesting right heires , in repairing the ruines of the kingdome of heauen , depopulated in the fall of angels , in reestablishing peace of conscience ; in a presumptuous confidence , or ouer-timorous diffidence in god , god glorifies himselfe that way , to doe much with little . he does so ; but yet hee will haue something . god is a good husband , a good steward of mans contributions , but contributions he will haue : hee will haue a concurrence , a cooperation of persons . euen in that great worke , which wee spake of at first , the first creation , which was so absolutely of nothing , yet there was a faciamus , let vs , vs , make man ; though but one god , yet more persons in that worke . christ had been able to haue done as the deuill would haue had him doe , to haue made bread of stones , when hee had so great a number to feed in the wildernesse ; but hee does not so : hee askes his disciples , quot panes habetis ; how many loafes haue you ? and though they were but fiue , yet since they were some , he multiplies them , and feeds aboue fiue thousand with those fiue . hee would haue a remnant of gedeons armie to fight his battailes : a remnant of israels beleeuers to make vp his kingdome ; a remnant of thy soule , his seed wrapd vp somewhere , to saue thy soule ; and a remnant of thy selfe , of thy mind , of thy purse , of thy person , for thy temporall deliuerance . god goes lowe , and accepts small sacrifices ; a pigeon , a handfull of flower , a few eares of corne ; but a sacrifice he will haue . the christian church implies a shrewd distresse , when shee prouides that reason , that clause in her prayer , quia non est alius , giue peace in our time , o lord , because there is no other that fighteth for vs : if the bowels of compassion bee eaten out , if the band of the communion of saints be dissolued , we fight for none , none fights for vs , at last ney ther we nor they shall fight for christ , nor christ for them nor vs , but all become a prey to the generall enemie of the name of christ ; for god requires something , some assistance , some concurrence , some cooperation , though he can fight from heauen , and the starres , in their order , can fight against sisera . and therefore , though god giue his glorie to none , his glorie , that is to doe all with nothing , yet he giues them their glorie , that doe any thing for him , or for themselues . and as hee hath laid vp a record , for their glorie and memoriall , who were remarkeable for faith ( for the eleuenth chapter to the hebrewes , is a catalogue of them . ) so in this song of deborah and barake , hee hath laide vp a record for their glorie , who expressed their faith in workes , and assisted his seruice . that which is said in generall , the memorie of the iust is blessed , but the name of the wicked shall rot , that is applied and promised in particular , by him , who can performe it , by christ , to that woman , who anointed him , that whersoeuer his gospell should be preached in the whole world , ther should also this that this woman had done , be told for a memoriall of her . shee assisted at his funerall ( as christ himselfe interprets her action , that shee did it to burie him ) and hath her glorie : how shall he glorifie them , that aduance his glorie ? shee hath her reward in his death ; what shall they haue , that keepe him , and his gospell aliue ? not a verse in deborah and baraks song , and yet that is honourable euidence : not a commemoration at the preaching of the gospell ; and yet that is the honourable testimonie in this place , and at these exercises , of such as haue contributed to the conueniencies of these exercises , but they shall haue a place in the booke of life ; indelibly in the booke of life , if they proceede in that deuotion of assisting gods cause , and doe not thinke , that they haue done all , or done enough , if they haue done something some one time . the morall man hath said well , and well applied it ; a ship is a ship for euer , if you repaire it . so , sayes hee , honour is honour , and so say wee , a good conscience is a good conscience for euer , if you repaire it : but , sayes he well , aliquid famae addendum , ne putrescat . honour will putrifie , and so will a good conscience too , if it be not repaired . he that hath done nothing must begin , and hee that hath done something for gods cause , must doe more , if hee will continue his name in the booke of life ; though god leaue no one particular action , done for his glorie , without glorie ; as those who assisted his glorie heere , haue a glorious commemoration in this song . in the fifteenth verse , princes haue their place ; the princes of issachar , were with deborah . when the king goes to the field , many , who are in other cases priuiledged , are by their tenures bound to goe . it is a high tenure to hold by a crowne ; and when god , of whome , and whome onely they hold , that hold so , goes into the field , it becomes them to goe with him . but as god sits in heauen , and yet goes into the field , so they of whome god hath said , yee are gods , the kings of the earth , may stay at home , and yet goe too . they goe in their assistance to the warre ; they goe in their mediation for peace ; they goe in their example , when from their sweetnesse , and moderation in their gouernement at home , their flowes out an instruction , a perswasion to princes abroad . kings goe many times , and are not thanked , because their wayes are not seene : and christ himselfe would not alwayes bee seene ; in the eight of iohn , he would not be seene . when they tooke vp stones to stone him , he withdrew himselfe inuisibly , hee would not be seene : when princes find that open actions exasperate , they doe best , if they be not seene . in the sixth of iohn , christ would not bee seene . when they would haue put vpon him , that which was not fit for him to take , when they would haue made him king , he withdrew himselfe , and was not seene . when princes are tempted to take territories , or possessions in to their hands , to which other princes haue iust pretences , they doe best , if they withdrawe themselues from engagements in vnnecessarie warres , for that , that onely was iosiahs ruine . kings cannot alwayes goe in the sight of men , and so they lose their thankes ; but they cannot goe out of the sight of god , and there they neuer lose their reward : for the lord that sees them in secret , shall reward them openly , with peace in their owne states , and honour in their owne chronicles , as here , for assisting his cause , hee gaue the princes of issachar a roome , a straine in deborah and barakes song . and in the ninth verse , the gouernors , the great officers , haue their place , in this praise , my heart is towards the gouernors of israel that offered themselues willingly . it is not themselues in person ; great officers cannot doe so ; they are intelligences that moue great spheares , but they must not bee mou'd out of them . but their glorie here is their willingnesse . that before they were inquired into , how they carried themselues in their offices , before they were intimidated , or soupled with fines and ransomes , voluntarily they assisted the cause of god. some in the romane church write , that the cardinalls of that church , are so incorporated into the pope , so much of his body , and so bloud of his bloud , that in a feuer they may not let bloud without his leaue . truly , the great persons and gouernors in any state , are so noble and neere parts of the king , as that they may not bleed out in any subuentions and assistances of such causes vnder-hand , as are not auowd by the king ; for , it is not euident that that cause is gods caufe ; at least not euident that that way is an assistance of gods cause , but a good , and tractable , and ductile disposition , in all courses which shall lawfully bee declared to bee for gods glorie , then , not contra , but praeter , not against , but besides , not in opposing , but in preuenting the kings will , before hee vrge , before he presse , to be willing and forward in such assistances , this giues great persons , gouernors , and officers , a verse in baraks and deborahs song , and deborah and baraks song is the word of god. the merchants haue their place in that verse too . for , ( as wee said before ) those who ride vpon white asses , ( which was as honorable a transportation , as coaches are now ) are by peter martyr amongst ours , and by serarius the iesuit amongst others , well vnderstood to be the merchants . the greatnesse and the dignitie of the merchants of the east is sufficiently expressed in those of babylon , thy merchants were the great men of the earth . and for the merchants of the west , we know that in diuers forraine parts , their nobilitie is in their merchants , their merchants are their gentlemen . and certainly , no place of the world , for commodities and situation , better disposed then this kingdome , to make merchants great . you cannot shew your greatnesse more , then in seruing god , with part of it ; you did serue before you were free ; but here you do both at once , for his seruice is perfect freedome . i am not here to day , to beg a beneuolence for any particular cause on foot now : there is none ; but my errand in this first part is , first to remoue iealousies and suspitions of gods neglecting his businesse , because he does it not at our appointment , and then to promoue and aduance a disposition , to assist his cause and his glory , in all wayes , which shall bee declar'd to conduce thereunto , whether in his body , by relieuing the poore , or in his house by repairing these walls , or in his honour in employments more publique : and to assure you that you cannot haue a better debter , a better pay-master then christ iesus : for all your entayles , and all your perpetuities doe notso nayle , so hoope in , so riuet an estate in your posteritie , as to make the sonne of god your sonne too , and to giue christ iesus a childes part , with the rest of your children . it is noted ( perchaunce but out of leuity ) that your children doe not keepe that which you get : it is but a calumny , or but a fascination of ill wishers . we haue many happy instances to the contrarie , many noble families deriued from you ; one , enough to enoble a world ; queene elizabeth was the great granchild of a lord maior of london . our blessed god blesse all your estates , and blesse your posteritie in a blessed enioying therof ; but truly it is a good way to that , amongst all your purchases , to purchase a place in barak and deborahs song , a testimonie of the holy ghost , that you were forward in all due times in the assistance of gods cause . that testimonie , in this seruice in our text , haue the iudges of the land , in the verse too , ye that sit in iudgement . certainly , men exercised in iudgement , are likeliest to thinke of the last iudgement . men accustomed to giue iudgement , likeliest to thinke of the iudgement they are to receiue . and at that last iudgement the malediction of the left hand falls vpon them that haue not harbored christ , not fed him , not clothed him , and when christ comes to want those things in that degree , that his kingdome , his gospell , himselfe cannot subsist , where it did , without such a sustentation , an omission in such an assistance , is much more heauie . all iudgements end in this , suum cuique , to giue euery one his owne . giue god his owne , and hee hath enough ; giue him his owne , in his owne place , and his cause will be preferred before any ciuill or naturall obligation . but god requires not that : pay euery other man first , owe nothing to any man ; pay your children , apportion them conuenient portions . pay your estimation , your reputation , liue in that good fashion which your ranke and calling calls for : when all this is done , of your superfluities beginne to pay god , and euen for that you shall haue your roome in deborah , and baraks song , for assistants , and coadiutors to him . for a farre vnlikelier sort of people , then any of these , haue that in the same verse also , ambulantes super viam , they that walke vp and downe idle , discourcing men , men of no calling , of no profession , of no sense of other mens miseries , and yet they assist this cause . men that sucke the sweet of the earth , and the sweat of other men : men that pay the state nothing in doing the offices of mutuall societie , and embracing particular vocations ; men that make themselues but pipes to receiue and conuay , and vent rumors , but spunges to sucke in , and powre out foule water ; men that doe not spend time , but weare time , they trade not , they plough not , they preach not , they plead not , but walke , and walke vpon the way , till they haue walked out their sixe moneths for the renuing of bands , euen these had some remorse in gods cause , euen these got into deborah and baraks song for assisting there . and lesse ; that is , poorer then these : for in the second verse , the people are as forward as the gouernors , in the ninth , they offered themselues willingly . they might offer themselues , their persons . it is likely they did ; and likely that many of them had nothing to offer but themselues . and when men of that pouertie offer , part easily with that which was hardly got , how acceptable to god , that sacrifice is , we see in christs testimonie of that widdow , who amongst many great giuers gaue her mite , that shee gaue more then all they , because shee gaue all : which testified not onely her liberalitie to god , but her confidence in god , that though shee left nothing , shee should not lacke : for that right vse doth saint augustine make of that example , diuites largiuntur securi de diuitijs , pauper securus de domino : a rich man giues , and feeles it not , feares no want , because hee is sure of a full chest at home ; a poore man giues , and feeles it as little , because hee is sure of a bountifull god in heaven . god then can worke alone ; there wee set out : yet he does require assistance ; that way wee went : and to those that doe assist , hee giues glory here ; so farre we are gone : but yet this remaynes , that hee layes notes of blame , and reproach vpon them , whom collaterall respects withdrew from this assistance . for there is a kind of reproach and increpation laide vpon reuben in that question , why abodest thou amongst the sheepfolds ? the diuisions of revben were great thoughts of heart . ambition of precedencie in places of employment , greatnes of heart , and a lothnesse to be vnder the commaund of any other , and so an incoherence , not concurring in counsailes and executions , retard oftentimes euen the cause of god. so is there also a reproach and increpation vpon dan , in that question , why did dan remaine in his ships ; a confidence in their owne strength , a sacrificing to their owne nets , an attributing of their securitie to their owne wisedome or power , may also retard the cause of god ; that stayed dan behinde . thus then they haue their thankes that doe , thus their markes that doe not assist in gods cause : though god to encourage them that doe , accomplish his worke himselfe , they fought from heauen , the starres in their order fought against sisera . they fought , sayes the text , but does not tell vs who ; least men should direct their thankes for that which is past , or their prayers for future benefits , to any other , euen in heauen , then to god himselfe . the stars are nam'd ; it could not be feared that men would pray to them , sacrifice to them , angels & saints are not named ; men might come to ascribe to them , that which appertained to god onely now these stars , sayes the text , fought in their courses , manentes in ordine , they fought not disorderly . it was no enchantment , no sorcery , no disordring of the frame , or the powers , or the influence of these heauenly bodies , in fauor of the israelites ; god would not be beholden to the deuill , or to witches , for his best friends . it was no disorderly enchantment , nor it was no miracle , that disordered these starres ; as in iosuahs time , the sunne and moone were disordred in their motions ; but as iosephus , who relates this battaile more particularly , sayes , with whom all agree , the natur all influence of these heauenly bodies , at this time , had created and gathered such stormes and hayles , as blowing vehemently in the enemies face , was the cause of this defeate : for so wee might haue said , in that deliuerance , which god gaue vs at sea , they fought from heauen , the starres in their order fought against the enemie . without coniuring , without miracle , from heauen , but yet by naturall meanes , god preserued vs. for that is the force of that phrase , and of that maner of expressing it , manentes in ordine , the starres , containing themselues in their order , fought . and that phrase induces our second part , the accommodation , the occasionall application of these words : god will not fight , nor be fought for disorderly ; and therefore in illustration , and confirmation of those words of the apostle , let all things be done decently , and in order , aquinas , in his commentaries vpon that place , cites , and applies this text , as words to the same purpose , and of the same signification . you , sayes saint paul , you who are stars in the church , must proceede in your warfare , decently , and in order , for the stars of heauen , when they fight for the lord , they doe their seruice , manentes in ordine , containing themselues in their order . and so inour order , we are come to our second part . in which , we owe you by promise made at first , an analysis , a distribution of the steps and branches of this part , now when wee are come to the handling thereof : and thus wee shall proceede ; first , the warre , which wee are to speake of here , is not as before , a worldly warre , it is a spirituall war : and then the munition , the prouision for this warre , is not as before , temporall assistance of princes , officers , iudges , merchants , all sorts of people , but it is the gospell of christ iesus , and the preaching thereof . preaching is gods ordinance , with that ordinance hee fights from heauen , and batters downe all errors . and thirdly , to maintain this war , he hath made preachers stars ; and vae si non , woe be vnto them , if they doe not fight , if they doe not preach : but yet in the last place , they must fight , as the stars in heauen doe , in their order , in that order , and according to those directions , which , they , to whom it appertaines , shall giue them : for that is to fight in order . and in these foure branches , wee shall determine this second part . first then we are in contemplation of a spirituall warre ; now , though there be a beatie pacifici , a blessing reserued to peace-makers , to the peace-maker , our peace-maker , who hath sometimes effected it in some places , and alwayes seriously and chargeably , and honourably endeuoured it in all places , yet there is a spirituall warre , in which , maledicti pacifici ; cursed bee they that goe about to make peace , and to make all one , the warres betweene christ and beliall . let no man seuer those whom god hath ioyned , but let no man ioyne those whom god hath seuered neyther ; and god hath seuered christ and belial : and that was gods action , ponam inimicitias ; the seed of the woman , and the seed of the serpent , wee and the deuill , should neuer haue fallen out ; wee agree but too well ; but god hath put an enmity betweene vs. god hath put truth and falshood , idolatrie and sinceritie so farre asunder , and infused such an incompatibilitie , and imprinted such an implacabilitie betweene them , as that they cannot flow into one another : and therefore , there , maledicti pacifici , it is an opposition against god , by any colourable modifications , to reconcile opinions diametrally contrary to one another , in fundamentall things . day and night may ioyne and meet . in diluculis and in crepusculis , the dawning of the day , in the morning , and the shutting in of the day in the euening , make day and night so much one , as sometimes you cannot tell which to call them : but lux & tenebrae , light and darknes , midnight and noone neuer met , neuer ioynd . there are points , which passions of men , and vehemence of disputation , haue carried farther a sunder then needed : and these indeed haue made the greatest noyse ; because vpon these , for the most part , depends the matter of profit : and beati pacifics , blessed were that labour , and that labourer , that could reconcile those things ; and of that there might bee hope , because it is often but the persons that fight , it is not the thing , the matters are not so different . but then there are matters so different , as that a man may sit at home , and weepe , and wish , prayse god that hee is in the right , and pray to god for them that are in the wrong , but to thinke that they are indifferent , and all one , maledicti pacifici , hee that hath brought such a peace , hath brought a curse vpon his owne conscience , and layd , not a satisfaction , but a stupefaction vpon it . a turke might perchance say , in scorne of vs both , they call you heretiques , you call them idolaters , why might not idolaters , and heretiques agree well enough together ? but a true christian will neuer make contrarieties in fundamentall things indifferent , neuer make foundations , and superedifications , the word of god , and the traditions of men , all one . euery man is a little world , sayes the philosopher ; euery man is a little church too ; and in euery man , there are two sides , two armies : the flesh fights against the spirit . this is but a ciuill warre , nay it is but a rebellion indeed ; and yet it can neuer be absolutely quenched . so euery man is also a souldier in that great and generall warre , betweene christ , and beliall , the word of god , and the will of man. euery man is bound to hearken to a peace , in such things as may admit peace , in differences , where men differ from men ; but bound also to shut himselfe vp against all ouertures of peace , in such things , as are in their nature irreconcileable , in differences where men differ from god. that warre god hath kindled , and that warre must bee maintained , and maintained by his way ; and his way , and his ordinance in this warre , is preaching . if god had not said to noah , fac tibi arcam ; and when he had said so , if he had not giuen him a deseigne , a modell , a platforme of that arke , we may doubt credibly , whether euer man would haue thought of a ship , or of any such way of trade & commerce . shipping was gods owne inuention , and therein laetentur insulae , as dauid sayes , let the ilands reioyce . so also , if christ had not said to his apostles , ite praedicate , goe and preach : and when hee had said so , said thus much more , qui non crediderit damnabitur , hee that beleeues not your preaching shall bee damned : certainly man would neuer haue thought of such a way of establishing a kingdome , as by preaching . no other nation had any such institution , as preaching . in the romane state , there was a publique officer , conditor precum , who vpon great emergent occasions , deprecations of imminent dangers , or gratulations for euident benefites , did make particular collects answerable to those occasions : and some such occasionall panegyriques , and gratulatory orations for temporall benefites , they had in that state . but a fixt and constant course of conteyning subiects in their religious and ciuill duties , by preaching , onely god ordain'd , onely his children enioy'd . christ when he sent his apostles , did not giue them a particular command , ite orate , goe and pray in the publique congregation ; all nations were accustomed to that ; christ made no doubt of any mans opposing , or questioning publique prayer ; and therefore for that , he onely said , sic orabitis , not go , and pray , but , when you pray , pray thus , he instructed them in the forme ; the duty was well knowne to all before . but , for preaching , he himselfe was anointed for that , the spirit of the lord is vpon me , because the lord hath anointed mee to preach : his vnction was his function . hee was anointed with that power , and hee hath anointed vs with part of his owne vnction : all power is giuen vnto me , sayes he , in heauen and in earth ; and therefore ( as he adds there ) go ye , and preach : because i haue all power , for preaching , take yee part of my power , and preach too . for , preaching is the power of god vnto saluation , and the sauor of life vnto life . when therefore the apostle faies , quench not the spirit , nec in te , nec in alio , sayes aquinas ; quench it not in your selfe , by forbearing to heare the word preached , quench it not in others , by discouraging them that doe preach . for so saint chrysostome , ( and not he alone ) vnderstood that place , that they quench the spirit , who discountenance preaching , and dishearten preachers . st. chrysostome tooke his example from the lampe that burnt by him , when hee was preaching ; ( it seemes therefore hee did preach in the afternoone ) and he sayes , you may quench this lampe , by putting in water , and you may quench it by taking out the oyle . so a man may quench the spirit in himselfe , if hee smother it , suffocate it , with worldly pleasures , or profits , and he may quench it in others , if he withdraw that fauour , or that helpe , which keepes that man , who hath the spirit of prophesie , the vnction of preaching , in a cheerefull discharge of his duty . preaching then being gods ordinance , to beget faith , to take away preaching , were to disarme god , and to quench the spirit ; for by that ordinance , he fights from heauen . and to maintaine that fight , hee hath made his ministers starrs ; as they are called , in the first of the reuelation . and they fight against sisera , that is , they preach against error . they preach out of necessitie ; necessitie is laid vpon me to preach , saies the apostle ; and vpon a heauy penalty , if they doe not ; vaemihi si non , vvoe be vnto me if i doe not preach the gospell . neither is that spoak there with the case of a future , as the roman translation hath it , si non euangelizauero , if i do not hereafter preach ; if i preach not at one time or other ; if i preach not when i see how things wil go , what kind of preaching will be most acceptable : but it is si non euangelizem , if i preach not now ; now , though i had preached yesterday ; for so saint ambrose preached his sermon de sancto latrone , of the good thiefe , hesterno die , yesterday i told you &c. so saint augustin preached his sermon vpon all saints day : and so did saint bernard his twelfth sermon vpon the psalm : qui habitat . now , though i preachd but lately before ; and now , though i had but late warning to preach now ; so s. basil preached his 2. sermon vpon the hexameron , the fixe daies worke , when he had but that morning for meditation : and more then so , in his 2. sermon de baptissimo ; for , it seemes he preached that without any premeditation prout suggerit spiritus sanctus . now , though i had not time to labour a sermon , and now , though i preach in another mans place ; for so saint augustine preached his sermon vpon the 95. psalm : where he saies , frater noster seuerus , our brother seuerus should by promise haue preached here , but since he comes not , i will. now , that is whensoeuer gods good people may be edified by my preaching : vaesi non , wo be vnto me , if i doe not preach . the dragon drew a third part of the starrs from heauen . antichrist by his persecutions , and excommunications silenc'd many ; all that would not magnifie him . and many amongst vs , haue silenc'd themselues : abundance silences some , and lazines and ignorance some , and some their owne indiscretion , and then they lay that vpon the magistrate . but god hath plac'd vs in a church , and vnder a head of the church , where none are silenc'd , nor discountenanc'd , if being starrs , called to the ministery of the gospell , and appointed to fight , to preach there , they fight within the discipline and limits of this text , manentes in ordine , conteining themselues in order . in this phrase , as we told you before , out of aquinas , the same thing is intended , as in that place of saint paul , let all things bee done decently , and in order . that the vulgat edition reads , fiant honeste ; and then saies saint ambrose , honeste fit , quod cum pace fit , that is done honestly , and decently , which is done quietly , and peaceably . not with a peace , and indifferencie to contrary opinions in fundamentall doctrines , not to shuffle religions together , and make it all one which you chufe , but a peace with persons , an abstinence from contumelies , and reuilings . it is true that wee must hate gods enemies with a perfect hatred , and it is true that saint chrysostome sayes , odium perfectum est , odium consummatissimum , that is not a perfect hatred , that leaues out any of their errors vnhated . but yet a perfect hatred is that too , which may consist with perfection , and charitie is perfection : a perfect hatred is that which a perfect , that is , a charitable man may beare , which is still to hate errors , not persons . when their insolencies prouoke vs to speake of them , we shall doe no good therein , if therein we proceed not decently , and in order . christ sayes of his church : terribilis vt castrorum acies , it is powerfull as an armie ; but it is vt acies ordinata , as an armie disciplin'd , and in order : for without order , an armie is but a great ryot ; and without this decencie , this peaceablenesse , this discretion , this order , zeale is but fury , and such preaching is but to the obduration of ill , not to the edification of good christians . saint paul in his absence from the colossians , reioyces as much in beholding their order , as in their stedfastnesse in the faith of christ iesus : nay , if wee consider the wordes well , as saint chrysostome hath done , we shall see that it is onely their order that he reioyces in : for non dixit fidem , sed firmamentum fidei , sayes that father , it was not their faith , but that which established their faith , that was their order , that occasioned his ioy . for when there is not an vniforme , a comely , an orderly presenting of matters of faith , faith it selfe growes loose , and loses her estimation ; and preaching in the church comes to bee as pleading at the barre , and not so well : there the counsell speakes not himselfe , but him that sent him , here wee shall preach not him who sent vs , christ iesus , but our selues . study to bee quiet , and to doe your owne busines , is the apostles commandement to euery particular man amongst the thessalonians . it seemes some amongst them disobeyd that : and therefore hee writes no more to particular persons , but to the whol church , in his other epistle , and with more vehemence , then a smal matter would haue required : wee command you in the name of our lord iesus christ , that you withdraw your selfe from all that walke inordinate , as the vulgat reads that in one place , and inquietè , as they translate the same word , in another , disorderly , vnquietly : from all such as preach suspiciously , and iealously ; and be the garden neuer so faire , wil make the world beleetie , there is a snake vnder euery leafe , be the intention neuer so sincere , will presage , and prognosticate , and prediuine sinister and mischieuous effects from it . a troubled spirit is a sacrifice to god , but a troublesome spirit is farre from it . i am glad that our ministery is called orders , that when we take his calling , we are said to take orders . yours are called trades , and occupations , and mysteries : law and phisicke are called sciences , and professions : many others haue many other names , ours is orders . when by his maiesties leaue we meet in our conuocations , and being met haue his further leaue , to treat of remedies for any disorders in the church , our constitutions are canons , canons are rules , rules are orders : parliaments determine in lawes , iudges in decrees , wee in orders . and by our seruice in this mother church , we are canenici , canons , regular , orderly men ; not canonistae , men that know orders , but canonici , men that keepe them where wee are also called prebendaries , rather a praebendo , then a praebenda , rather for giuing example of obedience to orders , then for any other respect . in the remane church the most disorderly men , are their men in orders . i speake not of the viciousnesse of their life , i am no iudge of that , i know not that : but they are so out of all order , that they are within rule of no temporall law , within jurisdiction of no cuill magistrate , no secular iudge . they may kill kings , and yet can be no traytors ; they assigne their reason , because they are no subiects . he that kils one of them , shall be really hang'd ; and if one of them kill , hee shall be metaphorically hang'd , he shall bee suspended . wee enjoy gratefully , and we vse modestly the priuiledges which godly princes , out of their pietie haue affoorded vs , and which their godly successors haue giuen vs againe by their gracious continuing of them to vs ; but our profession of it selfe , naturally ( though the very nature of it dispose princes to a gracious disposition to vs ) exempts vs not from the tye of their laws . all men are in deed , we are in deed and in name too , men of orders ; and therefore ought to be most ready of all others to obey . now , beloued , ordo semper dicitur ratione principij : order alwayes presumes a head , it alwayes implyes some by whom wee are to be ordered , and it implyes our conformitie to him . who is that ? god certainly , without all question , god. but between god , and man , we consider a two-fold order . one , as all creatures depend vpon god , as vpon their beginning , for their very being ; and so euery creature is wrought vpon immediately by god , and whether hee discerne it or no , does obey gods order , that is , that which god hath ordained , his purpose , his prouidence is executed vpon him , & accomplishd in him . but then the other order is , not as man depends vpon god , as vpon his beginning , but as he is to be reduced and brought back to god , as to his end : & that is done by meanes in this world . what is that meanes ? for those things which wee haue now in consideration , the church . but the body speaks not , the head does . it is the head of the church that declares to vs those things wherby we are to be ordered . this the royall and religious head of these churches within his dominions hath lately had occasion to do . and in doing this , doth he innouate any thing , ofter to doe any new thing ? do we repent that canon , & constitution , in which at his maiesties first comming we declar'd with so much alacrity , as that it was the second canon we made , that the king had the same authoritie in causes ecclesiasticall , that the godly kings of iudah , and the christian emperors in the primitiue church had ? or are we ignorant what those kings of iuda , and those emperors did ? we are not , wee know them well . take it where the power of the empire may seem somwhat declin'd in charls the great ; we see by those capitularies of his , that remain yet , what orders he gaue in such causes ; there he saies in his entrance to them , nemo praesumptuosum dicat ; let no man call this that i doe an vsurpation , to prescribe orders in these cases , nam legimus quid iosias fecerit , we haue read what iosiah did , and we know that wee haue the same authoritie that iosiab had . but , that emperor consulted with his cleargie , before he published those orders . it is true , he sayes he did . but he , from whom we haue receiued these orders , did more then so ; his maiesty forbore , till a representation of some incōueniences by disorderly preaching , was made to him , by those in the highest place in our clergie , and other graue and reuerend prelates of this church ; they presented it to him , and thereupon he entred into the remedy . but that emperour did but declare things constituted by other counsells before : but yet the giuing the life of execution to those constitutions in his dominions , was introductory , and many of the things themselues were so . amongst them , his 70. capitularie is appliable to our present case ; there hee sayes , episcopi videant , that the bishops take care , that all preachers preach to the people the exposition of the lords prayer : and he enioynes them too , ne quid nouum , ne quid non canonicum , that no man preach any new opinion of his owne ; nay , though it bee the opinion of other learned men in other places , yet if it be non canonicum , not declared in the vniuersall church , not declared in that church , in which he hath his station , he may not preach it to the people : and so he proceeds there to catechistical doctrine . that is not new then , which the kings of iudah did , and which the christian emperours did . but it is new to vs , if the kings of this kingdome haue not done it . haue they not done it ? how little the kings of this kingdome did in ecclesiasticall causes then , when by their conniuence that power was deuold into a forraine prelates hand , it is pitie to consider , pitie to remember , pitie to bring into contemplation ; and yet truly euen then our kings did exercise more of that power , then our aduersaries who oppose it , will confesse . but , since the true iurisdiction was vindicated , and reapplyed to the crowne , in what iust heighth henry the eight , and those who gouerned his sonnes minoritie , edward the sixt , exercised that iurisdiction in ecclesiasticall causes , none , that knowes their story , knowes not . and , because ordinarily , we settle our selues best in the actions , and precedents of the late queene of blessed and euerlasting memory , i may haue leaue to remember them that know , and to tell them that know not , one act of her power and her wisedome , to this purpose . when some articles concerning the falling away from iustifying grace , and other poynts that beat vpon that haunt , had been ventilated , in conuenticles , and in pulpits too , and preaching on both sides past , and that some persons of great place and estimation in our church , together with him who was the greatest of all , amongst our clergy , had vpon mature deliberation established a resolution what should bee thought , and taught , held and preached in those poynts , and had thereupon sent down that resolution to be published in the vniuersitie , not vulgarly neither , to the people , but in a sermon , ad clerum onely , yet her maiestie being informed thereof , declared her displeasure so , as that , scarse any houres before the sermon was to haue been , there was a countermaund , an inhibition to the preacher for medling with any of those poynts . not that her maiestie made her selfe iudge of the doctrines , but that nothing , not formerly declared to be so , ought to be declared to be the tenet , and doctrine of this church , her maiestie not being acquainted , nor supplicated to giue her gracious allowance for the publication thereof . his sacred maiestie then , is herein vpon the steps of the kings of iudah , of the christian emperours , of the kings of england , of all the kings of england , that embraced the reformation of queene elizabeth her selfe ; and he is vpon his owne steps too . for , it is a seditious calumny to apply this which is done now , to any occasion that rises but now : as though the king had done this now , for satisfaction of any persons at this time , for some yeares since , when hee was pleased to call the heads of houses from the vniuersity , and intimate to them the inconueniences that arose from the preaching of such men , as were not at all conuersant in the fathers , in the schoole , nor in the ecclesiasticall storie , but had shut vp themselues in a few later writers ; and gaue order to those gouernours for remedy herein . then he began , then he laid the foundation for that , in which hee hath proceeded thus much further now , to reduce preaching neerer to the manner of those primitiue times , when god gaue so euident , and so remarkable blessings to mens preaching . consider more particularly that which hee hath done now ; his maiestie hath accompanied his most gracious letter to the most reueuerend father in god , my lords grace of canterbury , with certaine directions how preachers ought to behaue themselues in the exercise of that part of their ministerie . these being deriued from his grace , in due course to his reuerend brethren , the other bishops , our worthy diocesan , euer vigilant for the peace and vnitie of the church , gaue a speedy , very speedy intimation thereof , to the clergie of his iurisdiction ; so did others , to whom it appertain'd so to doe in theirs . since that , his maiestie , who alwaies taking good workes in hand , loues to perfect his owne works , hath vouchsafed to giue some reasons of this his proceeding ; which being signified by him to whome the state and church owes much , the right reuerend father in god , the bishop of lincolne , lord keeper of the great seale , and after by him also , who began at first , his maiesties pleasure appearing thereby , ( as he is too great , and too good a king to seeke corners , or disguises , for his actions ) that these proceedings should be made publique , i was not willing only , but glad to haue my part therein , that as , in the feare of god , i haue alwayes preached to you the gospell of christ iesus , who is the god of your saluation ; so in the testimony of a good conscience , i might now preach to you , the gospell of the holy ghost , who is the god of peace , of vnitie , and concord . these directions then , and the reasons of them , by his maiesties particular care , euery man in the ministery may see & write out , in the seuerall registers offices , with his owne hand for nothing , and for very little , if hee vse the hand of another . perchance you haue , at your conuenience , you may see them . when you do , you shall see , that his maiesties generall intention therein is , to put a difference , between graue , and solid , from light and humerous preaching . origen does so , when vpon the epistle to the romanes , he sayes , there is a great difference , inter praedicare , & docere : a man may teach an auditory , that is , make them know something that they knew not before , and yet not preach ; for preaching is to make them knowthings appertaining to their saluation . but when men doe neither , neither teach , nor preach , but ( as his maiestie obserues the manner to bee ) to soare in poynts too deepe , to muster vp their owne reading , to display their owne wit , or ignorance in medling with ciuill matters , or ( as his maiestie addes ) in rude and vndecent reuiling of persons : this is that which hath drawen downe his maiesties piercing eye to see it , and his royall care to correct it . hee corrects it by christs owne way , quid ab initio , by considering how it was at first : for , ( as himselfe to right purpose cites tertullian ) id verum quod primum ; that is best , which was first . hee would therefore haue vs conuersant in antiquitie : for , nazianzen askes that question with some scorne , quis est qui veritatis prepugnatorem , vnius diei spatio , velut eluto statuam , fingit . can any man hope to make a good preacher , as soone as a good picture ? in three or foure dayes , or with three or foure books ? his maiesty therfore cals vs to look , quid primum , what was first in the whole church ? and againe , quid primum , when we receiued the reformation in this kingdom , by what meanes , ( as his maiestie expresseth it ) papistry was driuen out , and puritanisme kept out , and wee deliuered from the superstition of the papist , and the madnesse of the anabaptists , as before hee expresseth it : and his religious and iudicious eye sees clearly , that all that doctrine , which wrought this great cure vpon vs , in the reformation , is contained in the two catechismes , in the 39. articles , and in the 2. bookes of homilies . and to these , as to heads , and abunda●ies , from whence all knowledge necessary to saluation , may abundantly be deriu'd , hee directs the meditations of preachers . are these new wayes ? no way new : for they were our first way in receiuing christianitie , and our first way in receiuing the reformation . take a short view of them all : as it is in the catechismes , as it is in the articles , as it is in the homilies . first you are called backe to the practise of catechising : remember what catechising is ; it is institutio viua voce . and in the primitiue church , when those persons , who comming from the gentiles to the christian religion , might haue beene scandalized with the outward ceremoniall , and rituall worship of god in the church , ( for ceremonies are stumbling blockes to them who looke vpon them without their signification , and without the reason of their institution ) to auoyd that daunger , though they were not admitted to fee the sacraments administred , nor the other seruice of god performed in the church , yet in the church , they receiued instruction , institution , by word of mouth , in the fundamentall articles of the christian religion , and that was catechising . the christians had it from the beginning , and the iewes had it too : for their word chanach , is of that signification , initiare , to enter . traine vp a child in the way he should goe , and when he is olde , hee will not depart from it . traine vp , say our translation in the text ; catechise , say our translators in the margin , according to the naturall force of the hebrew word . and sepher chinnuch , which is liber institutionum , that is , of catechisme , is a book well knowne amongst the iewes , euery where , where they are now : their institution is their catechisme . and if wee should tell some men , that caluins institutions were a catechisme , would they not loue catechising the better for that name ? and would they not loue it the better , if they gaue mee leaue to tell them that of which i had the experience . an artificer of this citie brought his childe to mee , to admire ( as truly there was much reason ) the capacitie , the memory , especially of the child . it was but a girle , and not aboue nine yeares of age , her parents said lesse , some yeares lesse ; wee could scarse propose any verse of any booke , or chapter of the bible , but that that childe would goe forward without booke . i began to catechise this childe ; and truly , shee vnderstood nothing of the trinitie , nothing of any of those fundamentall poynts which must saue vs : and the wonder was doubled , how she knew so much , how so little . the primitiue church discerned this necessitie of catechising : and therefore they instituted a particular office , a calling in the church of catechisers . which office , as we see in saint cyprians 42. epistle , that great man optatus exercised at carthage , and origen at alexandria . when st. augustine tooke the epistle , and the gospell , and the psalme of the day , for his text to one sermon , did he , think you , much more then paraphrase , then catechise ? when athanasius makes one sermon , and , god knowes , a very short one too , contra omnes haereses , to ouerthrow all heresies in one sermon ; did he , think you , any more then propose fundamentall doctrines , which is truly the way to ouerthrow all heresies ? when saint chrysostom enters into his sermon vpon the 3. chapter to the galatians , with that preparation , attendite diligenter , non enim rem vulgarem pollicemur , now hearken diligently , sayes he , for it is no ordinary matter that i propose . there he proposes catechisticall doctrine of faith and works . come to lower times , when chrysologus makes sixe or seuen sermons vpon the creed , and not a seuerall sermon vpon euery seuerall article , but takes the whole creed for his text , in euery sermon , and scarse any of those sermons a quarter of an houre long , will you not allowe this manner of preaching to bee catechising ? goe as lowe as can bee gone , to the iesuites ; and that great catechizer amongst them , canisius sayes , nos hoc munus suscipimus : wee , wee iesuites make catechising our profession . i doubt not but they doe recreate themselues sometimes in other matters too , but that they glory in , that they are catechisers . and in that profession , sayes hee , wee haue saint basil , saint augustine , saint ambrose , saint cyrill , in our societie ; and truly as catechizers , they haue ; as state-friers , as iesuits , they haue not . and in the first capacitie they haue him , who is more then all ; for as hee sayes rightly , ipse christus catechista , christs owne preaching was a catechising . i pray god that iesuites conclusion of that epistle of his , be true still ; there he sayes , sinihil aliud , if nothing else , yet this alone should prouoke vs to a greater diligence in catechising ; improbus labor , & indefessa cura , that our aduersaries , the protestants doe spend so much time , as he sayes , day and night in catechizing . now , if it were so then , when he writ , and bee not so still amongst vs , wee haue intermitted one of our best aduantages : and therefore god hath graciously raised a blessed and a royall instrument , to call vs back to that , which aduantaged vs , and so much offended the enemy . that man may sleepe with a good conscience , of hauing discharged his dutie in his ministery , that hath preached in the forenoone , and catechised after . quaere , sayes tertullian , ( and he sayes that with indignation ) an idolatriam committat , qui de idolis catechizat : will any man doubt , sayes he , whether that man be an idolatrer , that catechises children , and seruants in idolatry ? will any man doubt , whether hee bee painfull in his ministerie , that catechises children , and seruants in the sincere religion of christ iesus . the roman church hath still made her vse of vs ; of our fortunes , when she gouernd here , and of our example , since she did not : they did , as they saw vs doe ; and thereupon they came to that order , in the councell of trent , that vpon sundayes and holydayes , they should preach in the forenoone , and catechise in the afternoone ; till we did both , they did neither . except yee become as little children , yee shall not enter into the kingdome of heauen , sayes christ. except yee , yee the people bee content at first to feed on the milke of the gospell , and not presently to fall to gnawing of bones , of controuersies , and vnreuealed misteries , and except yee , the ministers and preachers of the gospell , descend and apply your selues to the capacitie of little children , and become as they , and build not your estimation onely vpon the satisfaction of the expectation of great and curious auditories , you stopp theirs , you loose your owne way to the kingdome of heauen . not that wee are to shut vp , and determine our selues , in the knowledge of catechisticall rudiments , but to bee sure to know them first . the apostle puts vs vpon that progresse , let vs learne the principles of the doctrine of christ , and goe on to perfection . not leaue at them ; but yet not leaue them out : endeauour to encrease in knowledge , but first make sure of the foundation . and that increase of knowledge , is royally , and fatherly presented to vs , in that , which is another limne of his maiesties directions , the 39. articles . the foundation of nceessary knowledge , is in our catechismes ; the superedification , the extention in these articles . for they carry the vnderstanding , and the zeale of the ablest man ; high inough , & deepe inough . in the third article there is an orthodoxe assertion of christs descent into hell ; who can go deeper ? in the 17. article there is a modest declaration of the doctrine of predestination ; who can go higher ? neither doe these articles onely build vp positiue doctrine ; if the church had no aduersaries , that were ynough ; but they imbrace controuersies too , in poynts that are necessarie . as in the two and twentieth article of purgatorie , of pardons , of images , of inuocations : and these not in generall onely , but against the romish doctrine of pardons , of images , of inuocation . and in the eight and twentieth article against transubstantiation , and in such tearmes , as admit no meeting , no reconciliation ; but that it is repugnant to the plaine wordes of scripture , and hath giuen occasion to many superstitions . and in one word , we may see the purpose and scope of these articles , as they were intended against the romane church , in that title which they had in one edition ( in which though there were some other things , that iustly gaue offence , yet none was giuen nor taken in this ) that these articles were conceiued and published , to condemne the heresies of the manichees , of the arrians , of the nestorians , of the papistes , and others . and therefore in these reasons , which his maiestie hath descended to giue of his directions , himselfe is pleased to assigne this , that the people might bee seasoned in all the heads of the protestant religion . not onely of the christian against iewes , turkes , and infidels , but of the protestant against the romane church . the foundation is in the catechisme ; the growth and extention in the articles , and then the application of all to particular auditories in the homilies : which , if his maiestie had not named , yet had beene implyed in his recommendation of the articles . for the fiue and thirtieth article appoynts the reading of them : both those , which were published in the time of edward the sixth , and those which after . in the first booke , the very first homilies are , of the sufficiencie of scriptures , and of the absolute necessitie of reading them ; sufficiently opposed against that which hath been sayd in that church , both of the impertinencie , of scriptures , as not absolutely necessarie , and of the insufficiencie of these scriptures , if scriptures were necessarie . and in the second booke , the second homily is against idolatrie ; and so farre against all approaches towards it , by hauing any images in churches , as that perchance moderat men , would rather thinke that homilie to seuere in that kind , then suspect the homilies of declination towards papistrie . is it the name of homelies that scandalizes them ? would they haue none ? saint cyrills 30. paschall sermons , which he preached in so many seuerall easter daies , at his arch-bishoprike of alexandria , and his christmas dayes sermons too , were ordinarily exscrib'd , and rehearsed ouer againe , by the most part of the clergie of those parts : and in their mouthes they were but homilies . and caluins homilies vpon iob ( as beza in his preface before them , calls them ) were ordinarily repeated ouer againe in many places of fraunce : and in their mouthes they were but homilies . it is but the name , that scandalizes ; and yet the name of homilia and concio , a homily and a sermon , is all one . and if some of these were spoken , and not reade , and so exhibited in the name of a sermon , they would like them well inough . certainely his maiestie mistooke it not , that in our catechismes , in our articles , in our homilies , there is inough for posttiue , inough for controuerted diuinitie ; for that iesuit , that intended to bring in the whole body of controuerted diuinitie into his booke , ( whom we named before ) desired no other subiect , no other occasion to doe that , but the catechisme of that church ; neither need any sober man , that intends to handle controuersies aske more , or go further . his maiestie therefore , who as he vnderstands his duty to god , so doth he his subiects duties to him , might iustly thinke , that these so well grounded directions , might , ( as himselfe sayes ) bee receiu'd vpon implicite obedience . yet hee vouchsafes to communicate to all , who desire satisfaction , the reasons that mou'd him . some of which i haue related , and all which , all may , when they will see , and haue . of all which the summ is , his royall and his pastorall care , that by that primitiue way of preaching , his subiects might be arm'd against all kind of aduersaries , in fundamentall truthes . and when he takes knowledge , that some few church-men , but many of the people , haue made sinister constructions of his sincere intentions , as hee is grieued at the heart , ( to giue you his owne wordes ) to see euery day so many d fections from our religion to popery and anabaptisme ; so without doubt he is grieued with much bitternes , that any should so peruert his meaning , as to thinke , that these directions either restraind the exercise of preaching , or abated the number of sermons , or made a breach to ignorance and superstition , of which three scandals he hath been pleased to take knowledge . what could any calumniator , any libeller on the other side , haue imagin'd more opposit , more contrary to him , then approaches towards ignorance , or superstition ? let vs say for him , can so learned , so abundantly learned a prince be suspected to plot for ignorance ? and let vs blesse god , that we heare him say now , that he doth constantly professe himselfe an open aduersary to the superstition of the papist ( without any milder modification ) and to the madnesse of the anabaptist : and that the preaching against either of their doctrines is not only approued , but much commended by his royall maiestie , if it bee done without rude and vndecent reuiling . if he had affected ignorance in himselfe , he would neuer haue read so much ; and if he had affected ignorance in vs , hee would neuer haue writ so much , and made vs so much the more learned by his books . and if hee had had any declination towards superstition , he would not haue gone so much farther , then his rank and qualitie pressed him to doe , in declaring his opinion concerning antichrist , as out of zeale , and zeale with knowledge hee hath done . we haue him now , ( and long , long , o eternall god , continue him to vs , ) we haue him now for a father of the church , a foster-father ; such a father as constantine , as theodosius was ; our posterity shall haue him for a father , a classique father ; such a father as ambrose , as austin was . and when his works shall stand in the libraries of our posteritie , amongst the fathers , euen these papers , these directions , & these reasons shal be pregnant euidences for his cōstant zeale to gods truth , and in the meane time , as arrowes shot in their eyes , that imagine so vaine a thing , as a defection in him , to their superstition . thus far he is from admitting ignorance , and from superstition thus far , which seemes to be one of their feares . and for the other two , ( which concurre in one ) that these directions should restraine the exercise of preaching , or abate the number of sermons , his maiestie hath declar'd himselfe to those reuerend fathers , to be so far from giuing the least discouragement to solid preaching , or to discreet and religious preachers , or from abating the number of sermons , that hee expects at their hands , that this should increase their number , by renuing vpon euery sunday in the afternoon , in all parish churches throughout the kingdome , that primitiue , and most profitable exposition of the catechisme . so that heere is no abating of sermons , but a direction of the preacher to preach vsefully , and to edification . and therfore , to end all , you , you whom god hath made starres in this firmament , preachers in this church , deliuer your selues from that imputation , the starres were not pure in his sight ; the preachers were not obedient to him in the voice of his lieutenant . and you , you who are gods holy people , and zealous of his glory , as you know from st. paul , that stars differ from stars in glory , but all conduce to the benefit of man : so , when you see these stars , preachers to differ in gifts ; yet , since all their ends are to aduance your saluation , encourage the catechizer , as well as the curious preacher . looke so farre towards your way to heauen , as to the firmament , and consider there , that that starre by which wee saile , and make great voyages , is none of the starres of the greatest magnitude ; but yet it is none of the least neither ; but a middle starre . those preachers which must saue your soules , are not ignorant , vnlearned , extemporall men ; but they are not ouer curious men neither . your children are you , and your seruants are you ; and you doe not prouide for your saluation , if you prouide not for them , who are so much yours , as that they are you . no man is sau'd as a good man , if he be not sau'd as a good father , and as a good master too , if god haue giuen him a family . that so , priest and people , the whole congregation , may by their religious obedience , and fighting in this spirituall warfare in their order , minister occasion of ioy to that heart , which hath beene grieued ; in that fulnesse of ioy , which dauid expresseth . the king shall reioyce in thy strength , o lord , and in thy saluation how greatly shall hee reioyce ? thou hast giuen him his hearts desire , and thou hast not withholden the request of his lipps : for the king trusteth in the lord , and by the mercy of the most high , he shall not bee mooued . and with that psalme , a psalme of confidence in a good king , and a psalme of thanksgiuing for that blessing , i desire that this congregation may be dissolued ; for this is all that i intended for the explication , which was our first , and for the application , which was the other part proposed in these wordes . finis . a sermon vpon the viii . verse of the i. chapter of the acts of the apostles . preach'd to the honourable company of the virginian plantation . 13o. nouemb. 1622. by iohn donne deane of st. pauls , london . london . printed by a. mat : for thomas iones and are to sold at his shop in the strand , at the blacke rauen , neere vnto saint clements church . 1622. to the honorable company of the virginian plantation . by your fauours , i had some place amongst you , before : but now i am an aduenturer ; if not to virginia , yet for virginia ; for , euery man , that prints , aduentures . for the preaching of this sermon , i was but vnder your inuitation ; my time was mine owne , and my medtations mine owne : and i had beene excusable towards you , if i had turnd that time , and those meditations , to god's seruice , in any other place . but for the printing of this sermon , i am not onely vnder your inuitation , but vnder your commandement ; for , after it was preach'd , it was not mine , but yours , : and therefore , if i gaue it at first , i doe but restore it now . the first was an act of loue ; this , of iustice ; both which vertues , almighty god euermore promoue , and exalt in all your proceedings . amen . your humble seruant in christ iesus iohn donne acts 1. 8. but yee shall receiue power , after that the holy ghost is come vpon you , and yee shall be witnesses vnto me both in ierusalem , and in all iudea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost part of the earth . there are reckoned in this booke , 22. sermons of the apostles ; and yet the booke is not called the preaching , but the practise , not the vvords , but the acts of the apostles : and the acts of the apostles were to conuay that name of christ iesus , and to propagate his gospell , ouer all the world : beloued you are actors vpon the same stage too : the vttermonst part of the earth are your scene : act ouer the acts of the apostles ; bee you a light to the gentiles , that sit in darkenesse ; be you content to carry him ouer these seas , who dryed vp one red sea , for his first people , and hath powred out another red sea , his owne bloud , for them and vs. when man was fallen , god clothed him ; made him a leather garment ; there god descended to one occupation ; when the time of mans redemption was come , then god , as it were , to house him , became a carpenters sonne ; there god descended to another occupation . naturally , without doubt , man would haue beene his own taylor , and his owne carpenter ; something in these two kinds man would haue done of himselfe , though hee had had no patterne from god : but in preseruing man who was fallen , to this redemption , by which he was to be raisd , in preseruing man from perishing , in the flood , god descended to a third occupation , to be his shipwright to giue him the modell of a ship , an arke , and so to be the author of that , which man himselfe in likelihood , would neuer haue thought of , a means to passe from nation to nation . now , as god taught vs to make cloathes , not onely to cloath our selues , but to cloath him in his poore and naked members heere ; as god taught vs to build houses , not to house ourselues , but to house him , in erecting churches , to his glory : so god taught vs to make ships , not to transport ourselues , but to transport him , that when wee haue receiued power , after that the holy ghost is come vpon vs , we might be witnesses vnto him , both in ierusalem , and in all iudaea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . as i speake now principally to them who are concernd in this plantation of virginia , yet there may be diuers in this congregation , who , though they haue no interest in this plantation , yet they may haue benefit and edification , by that which they heare me say , so christ spoke the words of this text , principally to the apostles , who were present and questioned him at his ascention , but they are in their iust extention , and due accomodation , appliable to our present occation of meeting heere : as christ himselfe is alpha , and omega , so first , as that hee is last too , so these words which he spoke in the east , belong to vs , who are to glorifie him in the vvest ; that we hauing receiued power , after that the holy ghost is come vpon vs , might be witnesses vnto him , both in ierusalem , and in all iudea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . the first word of the text is the cardinall word , the word the hinge vpon which the whole text turnes ; the first word , but , is the but , that all the rest shoots at . first it is an exclusiue word ; something the apostles had required , which might not bee had ; not that ; and it is an inclusiue word ; something christ was pleasd to affoord to the apostles , which they thought not of ; not that , not that which you beat vpon , but , but yet , something else , something better then that , you shall haue . that which this but , excludes , is that which the apostles expresse in the verse immediatly before the text , a temporall kingdome ; vvilt thou restore againe the kingdome of israel ? no ; not a temporall kingdome ; let not the riches and commodities of this world , be in your contemplation in your aduentures . or , because they aske more , vvilt thou now restore that ? not yet : if i will giue you riches , and commodities of this world , yet if i doe it not at first , if i doe it not yet , be not you discouraged ; you shall not haue that , that is not gods first intention ; and though that be in gods intention , to giue it you hereafter , you shall not haue it yet ; that 's the exclusiue part ; but ; there enters the inclusiue , you shall receiue power , after that the holy ghost is come vpon you , and you shall bee witnesses vnto mee , both in ierusalem , and in all iudaea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . in which second part , we shall passe by these steps ; superueniet spiritus , the holy ghost shall come vpon you , the spirit shall witnesse to your spirit , and rectifie your conscience ; and then , by that , you shall receiue power ; a new power besides the power you haue from the state , and that power shall enable you , to be witnesses of christ , that is ; to make his doctrine the more credible , by your testimony , when you conforme you selnes to him , and doe as hee did ; and this witnesse you shall beare , this conformity you shall declare , first in ierusalem , in this citie ; and in iudaea , in all the parts of the kingdome ; and in samaria , euen amongst them who are departed from the true worship of god , the papists ; and to the vttermost part of the earth , to those poore soules , to whom you are continually sending . summarily , if from the holy ghost you haue a good testimony in your owne conscience , you shall be witnesses for christ , that is ; as he did , you shall giue satisfaction to all , to the citie , to the countrey , to the calumniating aduersary , and the naturals of the place , to whom you shall present both spirituall and temporall benefit to . and so you haue the modell of the whole frame , and of the partitions ; we proceede now to the furnishing of the particular roomes . 1. part. first then , this first word , but , excludes a temporall kingdome ; the apostles had filld themselues with an expectation , with an ambition of it ; but that was not intended them . it was no wonder , that a woman could conceiue such an expectation , and such an ambition , as to haue her two sonnes sit at christs right hand , and at his left , in his kingdome , when the apostles expected such a kingdome , as might affoord them honours and preferment vpon earth . more then once they were in that disputation , in which christ deprehended them , which of them should bee the greatest in his kingdome . neither hath the bishop of rome , any thing , wherein he may so properly call himselfe apostolicall , as this error of the apostles , this their infirmitie , that he is euermore to conuersant vpon the contemplation of temporall kingdomes . they did it all the way , when christ was with them , and now at his last step , cum actu ascendisset , when christ was not ascending , but in part ascended , when one foot was vpon the earth , and the other in the cloud that tooke him vp , they aske him now , wilt thou at this time , restore the kingdome ? so women put their husbands , and men their fathers , and friends , vpon their torture , at their last gaspe , and make their death-bed a racke to make them stretch and encrease ioyntures , and portions , and legacies , and signe scedules and codicils , with their hand , when his hand that presents them , is ready to close his eyes , that should signe them : and when they are vpon the wing for heauen , men tye lead to their feet , and when they are laying hand-fast vpon abrahams bosome , they must pull their hand out of his bosome againe , to obey importunities of men , and signe their papers : so vnderminable is the loue of this world , which determines euery minute . god , as hee is three persons , hath three kingdomes ; there is regnum potentiae , the kingdome of power ; and this wee attribute to the father ; it is power and prouidence : there is regnum gloriae , the kingdome of glorie ; this we attribute to the sonn and to his purchase ; for he is the king that shall say , come ye blessed of my father , inherit the kingdome prepared for you , from the foundation of the vvorld . and then betweene these three is regnum gratiae , the kingdome of grace , and this we attribute to the holy ghost ; he takes them , whom the king of power , almighty god hath rescued from the gentiles , and as the king of grace , hee giues them the knowledge of the misterie of the kingdome of god , that is , of future glory , by sactifying them with his grace , in his church . the two first kingdomes are in this world , but yet neither of them , are of this world ; because both they referre co the kingdome of glory . the kingdome of the father , which is the prouidence of god , does but preserue vs ; the kingdome of the holy ghost which is the grace of god , does but prepare vs to the kingdome of the sonne , which is the glory of god ; and that 's in heauen . and therefore , though to good men , this world be the way to that kingdome , yet this kingdome is not of this world , sayes christ himselfe : though the apostles themselues , as good a schoole as they were bred in , could neuer take out that lesson , yet that lesson christ giues , and repeates to all , you seeke a temporall kingdome , but , sayes the text , stop there , a kingdome you must not haue . beloued in him , whose kingdome , and ghospell you seeke to aduance , in this plantation , our lord and sauiour christ iesus , if you seeke to establish a temporall kingdome there , you are not rectified , if you seeke to bee kings in either acceptation of the word ; to be a king signifies libertie and indepency , and supremacie , to bee vnder no man , and to be a king signifies abundance , and omnisufficiencie , to neede no man. if those that gouerne there , would establish such a gouernment , as should not depend vpon this , or if those that goe thither , propose to themselues an exemption from lawes , to liue at their libertie , this is to be kings , to deuest allegeance , to bee vnder no man : and if those that aduenture thither , propose to themselues present benefit , and profit , a sodaine way to bee rich , and an aboundance of all desirable commodities from thence , this is to be sufficient of themselues , and to need no man : and to bee vnder no man and to need no man , are the two acceptations of being kings . whom liberty drawes to goe , or present profit drawes to aduenture , are not yet in the right way . o , if you could once bring a catechisme to bee as good ware amongst them as a bugle , as a knife , as a hatchet : o , if you would be as ready to hearken at the returne of a ship , how many indians were conuerted to christ iesus , as what trees , or druggs , or dyes that ship had brought , then you were in your right way , and not till then ; libertie and abundance , are characters of kingdomes , and a kingdome is excluded in the text ; the apostles were not to looke for it , in their employment , nor you in this your plantation . at least christ expresses himselfe thus farre , in this answer , that if he would giue them a kingdome , hee would not giue it them yet . they aske him , vvilt thou at this time , restore the kingdome ? and hee answers , it is not for you to know the times : whatsoeuer god will doe , man must not appoint him his time . the apostles thought of a kingdome presently after christs departure ; the comming of the holy ghost , who ledd them into all truthes , soone deliuer'd them of that error . other men in fauour of the iewes , interpreting all the prophesies , which are of a spirituall kingdome , the kingdome of the gospell , ( into which , the iewes shall be admitted ) in a literall sense , haue thought that the iewes shall haue , not onely a temporall kingdome in the same place , in ierusalem againe , but because they find that kingdome which is promised , ( that is the kingdome of the gospell ) to bee expressed in large phrases , and in an abundant manner , applying all that largenesse to a temporall kingdome , they thinke , that the iewes shall haue such a kingdome , as shall swallowe and annihilate all other kingdomes , and bee the sole empire and monarchy of the world . after this , very great men in the church vpon these words , of one thousand yeares after the resurrection , haue immagin'd a temporall kingdome of the saints of god heere vpon earth , before they entred the ioyes of heauen : and saint augustine himselfe , had at first some declinations towards that opinion , though he dispute powerfully against it , after : that there should bee sabatismus in terris ; that as the world was to last sixe thousand yeares in troubles , there should be a seuenth thousand , in such ioyes as this world could giue . and some others , who haue auoided both the temporall kingdome imagin'd by the apostles , presently after the ascention , and the emperiall kingdome of the iewes , before the refurrection , and the carnall kingdome of the chiliasts , the millenarians , after the refurrection , though they speake of no kingdome , but the true kingdome , the kingdome of glory , yet they erre as much in assigning a certaine time when that kingdome shall beginne , when the ende of this world , when the refurrection , when the iudgement shall be . non est vestrum nosse tempora , sayes christ to his apostles then ; and lest it might be thought , that they might know these things , when the holy ghost came vpon them , christ denies that he himselfe knew that , as man ; and as man , christ knew more , then euer the apostles knew . whatsoeuer therefore christ intended to his apostles heere , hee would not giue it presently , non adhuc , hee would not binde himselfe to a certaine time , non est vestrum nosse tempora , it belongs not to vs to know gods times . beloued , vse goly meanes , and giue god his leisure . you cannot beget a sonne , and tell the mother , i will haue this sonne born within fiue moneths ; nor , when he is borne , say , you will haue him past daunger of vvardship within fiue yeares . you cannot sow your corne to day , and say it shall bee aboue ground to morrow , and in my barne next weeke . howe soone the best husbandman , sow'd the best seede , in the best ground ? god cast the promise of a messias , as the seede of all , in paradise ; in semine mulieris ; the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head ; and yet this plant was foure thousand yeares after before it appeared ; this messias foure thousand yeares before he came . god shew'd the ground where that should growe , two thousand yeares after the promise ; in abrahams family ; in semine tuo , in thy seed all nations shall be blessed . god hedgd in this ground almost one thousand yeares after that ; in micheas time , et tu bethlem , thou bethlem shalt bee the place ; and god watered that , and weeded that , refreshed that dry expectation , with a succession of prophets ; and yet it was so long before this expectation of nations , this messias came . so god promised the iewes a kingdome , in iacobs prophecie to iuda , that the scepter should not depart from his tribe . in two hundred yeares more , he saies no more of it ; then he ordaines some institutions for their king , when they should haue one . and then it was foure hundred yeares after that , before they had a king. god ment from the first howre , to people the whole earth ; and god could haue made men of clay , as fast as they made brickes of clay in egypt ; but he began vpon two , and when they had beene mulplying and replenishing the earth one thousand sixe hundred yeares , the flood washed all that away , and god was almost to begin againe vpon eight persons ; and they haue seru'd to people earth and heauen too ; bee not you discouraged , if the promises which you haue made to your selues , or to others , be not so soone discharg'd ; though you see not your money , though you see not your men , though a flood , a flood of bloud haue broken in vpon them , be not discouraged . great creatures ly long in the wombe ; lyons are litterd perfit , but bearewhelps lick'd vnto their shape ; actions which kings vndertake , are cast in a mould ; they haue their perfection quickly ; actions of priuate men , and priuate purses , require more hammering , and more filing to their perfection . onely let your principall ende , bee the propagation of the glorious gospell , and though there bee an exclusiue in the text , god does not promise you a kingdome , ease , and abundance in all things , and that which he does intend to you , he does not promise presently , yet there is an inclusiue too ; not that , but , but something equiuolent at least , but yee shall receiue power , after that the holy ghost is come vpon you , and yee shall be witnesses vnto me , both in ierusalem , and in all iudaea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . 2. part. now our sauiour christ does not say to these men , since you are so importunate you shall haue no kingdome ; now nor neuer ; t is , not yet ? but , he does not say , you shall haue no kingdome , nor any thing else ; t is not that ; but ; the importunitie of beggers , sometimes drawes vs to such a froward answer , for this importunitie , i will neuer giue you any thing . our patterne was not so froward ; hee gaue them not that , but as good as that . samuel was sent to superinduct a king vpon saul , to annoint a new king. hee thought his commission had bene determined in eliab , surely this is the lords annointed . but the lord said , not he ; nor the next , aminadab ; nor the next , shamah ; nor none of the next seuen ; but ; but yet there is one in the field , keeping sheepe , annoint him ; dauid is he . saint paul prayed earnestly , and frequently , to be discharged of that stimulus carnis : god saies no ; not that ; but gratia measufficit , thou shalt haue grace to ouercome the tentation , though the tentation remaine . god sayes to you , no kingdome , not ease , not abundance ; nay nothing at all yet ; the plantation shall not discharge the charges , not defray it selfe yet ; but yet already , now at first , it shall conduce to great vses ; it shall redeeme many a wretch from the iawes of death , from the hands of the executioner , vpon whom , perchauuce a small fault , or perchance a first fault , or perchance a fault heartily and sincerely repented , perchance no fault , but malice , had otherwise cast a present , and ignominious death . it shall sweep your streets , and wash your dores , from idle persons , and the children of idle persons , and imploy them : and truely , if the whole countrey were but such a bridewell , to force idle persons to work , it had a good vse . but it is already , not onely a spleene , to draine the ill humors of the body , but a liuer , to breed good bloud ; already the imployment breeds marriners ; already the place giues essayes , nay fraytes of marchantable commodities ; already it is a marke for the enuy , and for the ambition of our enemies ; i speake but of our doctrinall , not nationall enemies ; as they are papists , they are sory we haue this countrey ; and surely , twenty lectures in matter of controuersie , doe not so much vexe them , as one ship that goes , & strengthens that plantation . neither can i recommend it to you , by any better retorique then their malice . they would gladly haue it , and therefore let vs bee glad to hold it . thus then this text proceedes , and gathers vpon you . all that you would haue by this plantation , you shall not haue ; god bindes not himselfe to measures ; all that you shall haue , you haue not yet ; god bindes not himselfe to times , but something you shall haue ; nay , you haue already , some great things ; and of those that in the text is , the holy ghost shall come vpon you . we find the holy ghost to haue come vpon men , foure times in this booke . first , vpon the apostles at pentecost . then , when the whole congregation was in prayer for the imprisonment of peter and iohn . againe , when peter preached in cornelius his house , the holy ghost fell vpon all them that heard him . and fourthly , when saint paul laid his hands vpon them , who had beene formerly baptized at ephesus . at the three latter times , it is euident that the holy ghost fell vpon whole and promiscuous congregations , and not vpon the apostles onely : and in the first , at pentecost , the contrary is not euident ; nay , the fathers , for the most part , that handle that , concurre in that , that the holy ghost fell then vpon the whole congregation , men and women . the holy ghost fell vpon peter before hee preach'd , and it fell vpon the hearers when he preach'd , and it hath fallen vpon euery one of them , who haue found motions in themselnes , to propagate the gospell of christ iesus by this meanes . the sonne of god did not abhorre the virgins wombe , when hee would be made man ; when he was man , he did not disdaine to ride vpon an asse into ierusalem : the third person of the trinity , the holy ghost is as humble as the second , hee refuses nullum vehiculum , no conueyance , no doore of entrance into you ; whether the example and precedent of other good men , or a probable imagination of future profit , or a willingnes to concurre to the vexation of the enemie , what collaterall respect soeuer drew thee in , if now thou art in , thy principall respect be the glory of god , that occasion , whatsoeur it was , was vehiculum spiritus sancti , that was the petard , that broke open thy iron gate , that was the chariot , by which he entred into thee , and now hee is fallen vpon thee , if thou do not depose , ( lay aside all consideration of profit for euer , neuer to looke for returne ) no not sepose , ( leaue out the consideration of profit for a time ) ( for that , and religion may well consist together , ) but if thou doe but post-pose the consideration of temporall gaine , and study first the aduancement of the gospell of christ iesus , the holy ghost is fallen vpon you , for by that , you receiue power , sayes the text. there is a power rooted in nature , and a power rooted in grace ; a power yssuing from the law of nacions , and a power growing out of the gospell . in the law of nature and nations , a land neuer inhabited , by any , or vtterly derelicted and immemorially abandoned by the former inhabitants , becomes theirs that wil possesse it . so also is it , if the inhabitants doe not in some measure fill the land , so as the land may bring foorth her increase for the vse of men : for as a man does not become proprietary of the sea , because hee hath two or three boats , fishing in it , so neither does a a man become lord of a maine continent , because hee hath two or three cottages in the skirts thereof . that rule which passes through all municipal lawes in particular states , interest reipublic & vt quis re sua bene vtatur , the state must take order , that euery man improoue that which he hath , for the best aduantage of that state , passes also through the law of nations , which is to all the world , as the municipall law is to a particular state , interest mundo , the whole world , all mankinde must take care , that all places be emprou'd , as farre as may be , to the best aduantage of mankinde in generall . againe if the land be peopled , and cultiuated by the people , and that land produce in abundance such things , for want whereof their neghbours , or others ( being not enemies ) perish , the law of nations may iustifie some force ; in seeking , by permutation of other commodities which they neede , to come to some of theirs . many cases may be put , when not onely comerce , and trade , but plantations in lands , not formerly , our owne , may be lawfull . and for that , accepistis potestatem , you haue your commission , your patents , your charters , your seales from him , vpon whose acts , any priuate subiect , in ciuill matters , may safely rely . but then , accipietis potestatem , you shall receiue power , sayes the text ; you shall , when the holy ghost is come vpon you ; that is , when the instinct , the influence , the motions of the holy ghost enables your conscience to say , that your principall ende is not gaine , nor glory , but to gaine soules to the glory of god , this seales the great seale , this iustifies iustice it selfe , this authorises authoritie , and giues power to strength it selfe . let the conscience bee vpright , and then seales , and patents , and commissions are wings ; they assist him to flye the faster ; let the conscience be lame , and distorted , and he that goes vpon seales , and patents , and commissions , goes vpon weake and feeble crouches . when the holy ghost is come vpon you , your conscience rectified , you shall haue power , a new power out of that ; what to doe ? that followes , to bee witnesses vnto christ. infamy is one of the highest punishments that the law inflicts vpon man ; for it lyes vpon him euen after death : infamy is the worst punishment , and intestabilitie , ( to be made intestable ) is one of the deepest wounds of infamy ; and then the worst degree of intestabilitie , is not to bee beleeued , not to bee admitted to be a witnesse of any other : he is intestable that cannot make a testament , not giue his owne goods ; and hee intestable that can receiue nothing by the testament of another ; hee is intestable , in whose behalfe no testimony may be accepted ; but he is the most miserably intestable of all , the most detestably intestable , that discredits another man by speaking well of him , and makes him the more suspitious , by his commendations . a christian in profession , that is not a christian in life , is so intestable so , hee discredits christ , and hardens others against him . iohn baptist was more then a prophet , because he was a witnesse of christ ; and he was a witnesse , becaue hee was like him , he did as hee did , he lead a holy and a religious life ; so he was a witnesse . that great and glorious name of martyr , is but a witnesse . saint stephen was proto-martyr , christs first vvitnesse , because hee was the first that did as he did , that put on his colours , that drunke of his cup , that was baptised with his baptisme , with his owne bloud : so hee was a vvitnesse . to be witnesses for christ , is to be like christ ; to conforme your selues to christ ; and they in the text , & you , are to be witnesses of christ in ierusalem , and in all iudaea , and in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . saint hierome notes that iohn baptist was not bid to beare witnesse in ierusalem , in the citie , but in the wildernesse ; he , and none but he : there were but few men to witnes to there ; & those few that were , came thither with a good disposition to be wrought vpon there ; and there there were fewe witnesses to oppose iohns testimony , few tentations , few worldly alluremēts , few worldly businesses . one was enough for the wildernesse ; but for ierusalem , for the citie , where all the excuses in the gospell doe alwaies meete , they haue bought commodities , and they must vtter them , they haue purchased lands , & they must state them , they haue maried wiues , and they must study them , to the citie , to ierusalem , christ sends all his apostles , and all little inough . hee hath sent a great many apostles , preachers , to this citie ; more then to any other , that i know . religious persons as they call them , cloistered friars are not sent to the citie ; by their first canons , they should not preach abroad : but for those who are to doe that seruice , there are more in this citie , then in others , for there are more parish churches heere then in others . now , beloued , if in this citie , you haue taken away a great part of the reuenue of the preacher , to your selues , take thus much of his labour vpon your selues to , as to preach to one another by a holy and exemplar life , and a religious conuersation . let those of the citie , who haue interest in the gouernment of this plantation , be witnesses of christ who is truth it selfe , to all other gouernours of companies , in all true and iust proceedings : that as christ said to them who thought themselues greatest , except you become as this little childe , so we may say to the gouenours of the grearest companies , except you proceed with the integrity , with the iustice , with the clearenesse , of your little sister , this plantation , you doe not take , you doe not follow a good example . this is to beare witnesse of christ in ierusalem , in the citie , to bee examples of truth , and iustice , and clearenesse , to others , in , and of this citie . the apostles were to do this in iudaea too , their seruice lay in the countrey as well as in the citie . birds that are kept in cages may learne some notes , which they should neuer haue sung in the woods or fields ; but yet they may forget their naturall notes too . preachers that binde themselues alwaies to cities and courts , and great auditories , may learne new notes ; they may become occasionall preachers , and make the emergent affaires of the time , their text , and the humors of the hearers their bible ; but they may loose their naturall notes , both the simplicitie , and the boldnesse that belongs to the preaching of the gospell : both their power vpon lowe vnderstandings to raise them , and vpon high affection to humble them . they may thinke that their errand is but to knocke at the doore , to delight the eare , and not to search the house , to ransacke the conscience . christ left the ninteie and nine for one sheepe ; populous cities are for the most part best prouided ; remoter parts need our labour more , and we should not make such differences . yeoman , and labourer , and spinster , are distinctions vpon earth ; in the earth , in the graue there is no distinction . the angell that shall call vs out of that dust , will not stand to suruay , who lyes naked , who in a coffin , who in wood , who in lead , who in a fine , who in a courser sheet ; in that one day of the resurrection , there is not a forenoone for lords to rise first , and an afternoone for meaner persons to rise after . christ was not whip'd to saue beggars , and crown'd with thornes to saue kings : he dyed , he suffered all , for all ; and we whose bearing witnesse of him , is to doe , as hee did , must conferre our labours vpon all , vpon ierusalem , and vpon iudaea too , vpon the citie , and vpon the country too . you , who are his witnesses too , must doe so too ; preach in your iust actions , as to the citie , to the countrey too . not to seale vp the secrets , and the misteries of your businesse within the bosome of merchants , and exclude all others who nourish an incompatibility betweene merchants & gentlemen ; that merchants shall say to them in reproach , you haue plaid the gentlemen , and they in equall reproach , you haue playd the merchant ; but as merchants growe vp into worshipfull families , and worshipfull families let fall branches amongst merchants againe , so for this particular plantation , you may consider citie and countrey to bee one body , and as you giue example of a iust gouernment to other companies in the citie , ( that 's your bearing witnesse in ierusalem , ) so you may be content to giue reasons of your proceedings , and account of moneyes leuied , ouer the countrey , for that 's your bearing witnes in iudaea . but the apostles dioces is enlarged , farther then ierusalem , farther the iudaea , they are carried into samaria ; you must beare witnesse of me in samaria . beloued , when i haue remembred you , who the samaritans were , men that had not renounced god , but mingled other gods with him , men that had not burnt the law of god , but made traditions of men equall to it , you will easily guesse to whom i apply the name of samaritans now . a iesuit hath told vs ( an ill intelligencer i confesse , but euen his intelligencer , the deuill himselfe , sayes true sometimes ) maldonate sayes , the samaritans were odious to the iewes , vpon the same grounds as heretiques and scismatiques to vs ; and they , we know were odious to them for mingling false gods , and false worships with the true . and if that be the caracter of a samaritan , wee knowe who are the samaritans , who the heretiques , who the scismatiques of our times . in the highest approach to christ , the iewes said , samaritanus es & daemonium habes , thou art a samaritan & hast a deuill . in our iust detestation of these men , we iustly fasten both those vpon them . for as they delight in lyes and fill the world with weekely rumors , daemonium habit , they haue a deuill , quia mendax est & pater eius . as they multiply assassinats vpon princes , and massacres vpon people , daemonium habent , they haue a deuill , quia 〈◊〉 ab initio : as they tosse , and tumble , and dispose kingdomes , daemonium habent , they haue a deuill , omina haec dabo was the deuils complement : but as they mingle truthes and falshoods together in religion , as they carry the word of god , and the traditions of men , in an euen balance , samaritani sunt , they are samaritanes . at first christ forbad his apostles , to goe into any citie of the samaritans : after , they did preach in many of them . beare witnesse first in ierusalē ; & in iudaea ; giue good satisfaction especially to those of the houshold of the faithfull , in the citie & countrey , but yet satisfie euē those samaritans too . they would be satisfied , what miracles you work in virginia ; & what people you haue conuerted to the christian faith , there . if we could as easily cal naturall effects miracles , or casuall accidents miracles , or magical illusions , miracles , as they do , to make a miraculous drawing of a tooth , a miraculous cutting of a corn , or , as iustus baronius saies , when he was conuerted to them ; that he was miraculously cur'd of the cholique , by stooping to kisse the popes foot , if we would pile vp miracles so fast , as pope iohn 22. did in the canonization of aquinas , tot miracula confecit , quot determinauit questiones , he wrought as many miracles , as he resolu'd questions , we might find miracles too . in truth , their greatest miracle to me , is , that they find men to beleeue their miracles . if they rely vpon miracles , they imply a confession that they induce new doctrines ; that that is old & receiu'd , needs no miracles ; if they require miracles , because , though that be ancient doctrine , it is newlybroght into those parts , we haue the confession of their iesuit , acosta , that they doe no miracle in those indies , and he assignes very good reasons , why they are not necessary , nor to bee expected there . but yet , yet beare witnesse to these samaritans , in the other point ; labour to giue them satisfaction in the other point of their chardge , what heathens you haue conuerted to the faith , which is that which is intended in the next , which is the last branch , you are to be witnesses vnto me both in ierusalem , & in all iudaea , & in samaria , and vnto the vttermost parts of the earth . litterally , the apostles were to bee such witnesses for christ : were they so ? did the apostles in person , preach the gospell , ouer all the world ? i know that it is not hard to multiply places of the fathers , in confirmation of that opinion , that the apostles did actually , and personally preach the gospell in all nations , in their life . christ saies , the gospell of the kingdome shall be preach'd in all the world ; and there hee tels the apostles , that they shall see something done , after that ; therefore they shall liue to it . so he saies to them , you shal be brought before rulers and kings for my sake ; but the gospell must first be published among all nations : in one euangelist there is the commission ; preach in my name to all nations . and in another , the execution of this commission , and they went and preach'd euery where . and after the apostle certifies , and returnes the execution of this commission , the gospell is come and bringeth forth fruit to all the world : and vpon those , and such places , haue some of the fathers beene pleasd , to ground their literall exposition , of an actuall and personall preaching of the apostles ouer all the world . but had they dream'd of this world which hath been discouer'd since , into which , wee dispute with perplexitie , and intricacy enough , how any men came at first , or how any beastes , especially such beastes as men were not likely to carry , they would neuer haue doubted to haue admitted a figure , in that , the gospell was preached to all the world ; for when augustus his decree went out , that all the world should bee taxed , the decree and the taxe went not certainly into the west indies ; when saint paul sayes , that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world , and that their obedience was come abroad vnto all men , surely the west indies had not heard of the faith and the obedience of the romanes . but as in moses time , they call'd the mediterranean sea , the great sea , because it was the greatest that those men had then seene , so in the apostles time , they call'd that all the world , which was knowne and traded in then ; and in all that , they preach'd the gospell . so that as christ when he said to the apostles ; i am with you , vnto the end of the world , could not intend that of them in person , because they did not last to the ende of the world , but in a succession of apostolike men , so when he sayes , the apostles should preach him to all the world , it is of the succession too . those of our profession that goe , you , that send them who goe , doe all an apostolicall function . what action soeuer , hath in the first intention thereof , a purpose to propagate the gospell of christ iesus , that is an apostolicall action , before the ende of the world come , before this mortality shall put on immortalitie , before the creature shal be deliuered of the bondage of corruption vnder which it groanes , before the martyrs vnder the altar shal be silenc'd , before al thing 's shal be subdued to christ , his kingdome perfited , & the last enemy death destroied , the gospell must be preached to those men to whom ye send ; to all men ; furder aud hasten you this blessed , this ioyfull , this glorious consummation of all , and happie revnion of all bodies to their soules , by preaching the gospell to those men . preach to them doctrinally , preach to thē practically ; enamore them with your iustice , and , ( as farre as may consist with your security ) your ciuilitie ; but inflame them with your godlinesse , and your religion . bring them to loue and reuerence the name of that king , that sends men to teach them the wayes of ciuilitie in this world , but to feare and adore the name of that king of kings , that sends men to teach them the waies of religion , for the next world . those amongst you , that are old now , shall passe out of this world with this great comfort , that you contributed to the beginning of that common wealth , and of that church , though they liue not to see the groath thereof to perfection : apollos watred , but paul planted ; hee that begun the worke , was the greater man. and you that are young now , may liue to see the enemy as much empeach'd by that place , and your friends , yea children , aswell accō modated in that place , as any other . you shall haue made this iland , which is but as the suburbs of the old world , a bridge , a gallery to the new ; to ioyne all to that world that shall neuer grow old , the kingdome of heauen , you shall add persons to this kingdome , and to the kingdome of heauen , and adde names to the bookes of our chonicles , and to the booke of life . to end all , as the orators which declaimd in the presence of the roman emperors , in their panegyriques , tooke that way to make those emperours see , what they were bound to doe , to say in those publique orations , that those emporors had done so , ( for that increased the loue of the subiect to the prince , to bee so tolde , that hee had done those great things , and then it conuayd a counsell into the prince to doe them after . ) as their way was to procure things to bee done , by saying they were done , so beloued i haue taken a contrary way : for when i , by way of exhortation , all this while haue seem'd to tell you what should be done by you , i haue , indeed , but told the congregation , what hath beene done already : neither do i speake to moue a wheele that stood still , but to keepe the wheele in due motion ; nor perswade you to begin , but to continue a good worke , nor propose forreigne , but your own examples , to do still , as you haue done hitherto . for , for that , that which is especially in my contemplation , the conuersion of the people , as i haue receiu'd , so i can giue this testimony , that of those persons , who haue sent in moneys , and conceal'd their names , the greatest part , almost all , haue limited their deuotion , and contribution vpon that point , the propagation of religion , and the conuersion of the people ; for the building and beautifying of the house of god , and for the instruction and education of their young children . christ iesus himselfe is yesterday , and to day , and the same for euer . in the aduancing of his glory , be you so to , yesterday , and to day , and the same for euer ; here ; and hereafter , when time shall be no more , no more yesterday , no more to day , yet for euer and euer , you shall enioy that ioy , and that glorie , which no ill accident can attaine to diminish , or eclipse it . prayer . vve returne to thee againe , o god , with praise and prayer ; as for all thy mercies from before minutes began , to this minute , from our election to this present beame of sanctification which thou hast shed vpon vs now . and more particularly , that thou hast afforded vs that great dignity , to be , this way , witnesses of thy sonne christ iesus , and instruments of his glory . looke gratiously , and looke powerfully vpon this body , which thou hast bene now some yeares in building and compacting together , this plantation . looke gratiously vpon the head of this body , our soueraigne and blesse him with a good disposion to this work , and blesse him for that disposition : looke gratiously vpon them , who are as the braine of this body , those who by his power . counsell , and aduise , and assist in the gouernment thereof : blesse them with disposition to vnity and concord , and blesse them for that disposition : looke gratiously vpon them who are as eyes of this body , those of the clergy , who haue any interest therein : blesse them with a disposition to preach there , to pray heere , to exhort euery where for the aduancement thereof , & bless them for that disposition . blesse them who are the feete of this body , who goe thither , and the hands of this body , who labour there , and them who are the heart of this bodie , all that are heartily affected , and declare actually that heartinesse to this action , blesse them all with a cheerefull disposition to that , and bless them for that disposition . bless it so in this calme , that when the tempest comes , it may ride it out safely ; blesse it so with friends now , that it may stand against enemies hereafter ; prepare thy selfe a glorious haruest there , and giue vs leaue to be thy labourers , that so the number of thy saints being fulfilled , wee may with better assurance ioyne in that prayer , come lord iesus come quickly , & so meet all in that kingdome which the sonne of god hath purchased for vs , with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud . to which glorious sonne of god , &c. amen . finis . errata . page 10. line 14 for three , read there , 2 l. 2 for co read to. 20 l. 7 dele interrogat . ? 29 l. 20 dele so. 39 l. 13 dele yet . other errors there are , in mis-printing , or in transposing letters , or in misplacing citations in the margin , which will not ( i thinke ) hinder any willling reader . encaenia . the feast of dedication . celebrated at lincolnes inne , in a sermon there vpon ascension day , 1623. at the dedication of a new chappell there , consecrated by the right reuerend father in god , the bishop of london . preached by iohn donne , deane of st. pavls . london , printed by avg. mat. for thomas iones , and are to bee sold at his shop in the strand , at the blacke rauen , neere vnto saint clements church . 1623. to the masters of the bench , and the rest of the honourable societie of lincolnes inne . it pleased you to exercise your interest in me , and to expresse your fauour to mee , in inuiting mee to preach this sermon : and it hath pleased you to doe both ouer againe , in inuiting me to publish it . to this latter seruice i was the more inclinable , because , though in it i had no occasion to handle any matter of controuersie betweene vs , and those of the romane perswasion , yet the whole body and frame of the sermon , is opposed against one pestilent calumny of theirs , that wee haue cast off all distinction of places , and of dayes , and all outward meanes of assisting the deuotion of the congregation . for this vse , i am not sorry that it is made publique , for i shall neuer bee sorry to appeare plainly , and openly , and directly , without disguise or modification , in the vindicating of our church from the imputations and calumnies of that aduersary . if it had no publique vse , yet i should satisfie my selfe in this , that it is done in obedience to that , which you may call your request , but i shall call your commandement vpon your very humble seruant in christ iesus . iohn donne . the prayer before the sermon . oeternall , and most gracious god , father of our lord iesus christ ; and in him , of all those that are his , as thou diddest make him so much ours , as that he became like vs , in all things , sinne onely excepted , make vs so much his , as that we may be like him , euen without the exception of sinne , that all our sinnes may bee buryed in his wounds , and drowned in his blood. and as this day wee celebrate his ascension to thee , bee pleased to accept our endeauour of conforming our selues to his patterne , in raysing this place for our ascension to him . leane vpon these pinnacles , o lord , as thou diddist vpon iacobs ladder , and hearken after vs. bee this thine arke , and let thy doue , thy blessed spirit , come in and out , at these windowes : and let a full pot of thy manna , a good measure of thy word , and an effectuall preaching thereof , bee euermore preserued , and euermore bee distributed in this place . let the leprosie of superstition neuer enter within these walles , nor the hand of sacriledge euer fall vpon them . and in these walles , to them that loue profit and gaine , manifest thou thy selfe as a treasure , and fill them so ; to them that loue pleasure , manifest thy selfe , as marrow and fatnesse , and fill them so ; and to them that loue preferment , manifest thy selfe , as a kingdome , and fill them so ; that so thou mayest bee all vnto all ; giue thy selfe wholly to vs all , and make vs all wholly thine . accept our humble thanks for all , &c. iohn 10. 22. and it was at ierusalem , the feast of the dedication ; and it was winter ; and iesus walked in the temple in salomons porch . saint basill in a sermon vpon the 114. psalme ; vpon the like occasion as drawes vs together now , the consecration of a church , makes this the reason and the excuse of his late comming thither to doe that seruice , that he stayd by the way , to consecrate another church : i hope euery person heere hath done so ; consecrated himselfe , who is a temple of the holy ghost ; before hee came to assist , or to testifie the consecration of this place of the seruice of god. nostra festiuitas hec est , quia de ecclesia nostra ; sayes saint bernard . this festiuall belongs to vs , because it is the consecration of that place , which is ours , magis autem nostra , quia de nobis ipsis : but it is more properly our festiuall , because it is the consecration of our selues to gods seruice . for , sanctae animae propter inhabitantem spiritum ; your soules are holy , by the inhabitation of gods holy spirit , who dwells in them . sancta corpor a propter inhabitantem animam ; your bodies are holy , by the inhabitation of those sanctified soules . sancti parietes , propter corpora sanctorum . these walles are holy , because the saints of god meet here within these walls to glorifie him . but yet these places are not onely consecrated & sanctified by your comming ; but to bee sanctified also for your comming ; that so , as the congregation sanctifies the place , the place may sanctifie the congregation too . they must accompany one another ; holy persons and holy places ; if men would wash sheep in the baptisterie , in the font , those sheep were not christned . if prophane men , or idolatrous men , pray here after their way , their prayers are not sanctified by the place . neither if it be after polluted , doth the place retain that sanctitie , which is this day to be deriued vpon it , and to bee imprinted in it . our text settles vs vpon both these considerations , the holy place , and the holy person . it was the feast of the dedication : there 's the holinesse of the place ; and the holy person , was holinesse it selfe in the person of christ iesus , who walked in the temple in salomons porch . these two will bee our two parts : and the first of these wee shall make vp of these pieces . first , we shall see a lawfull vse of feasts , of festiuall dayes . and then of other feasts , then were instituted by god himselfe ; diuers were so ; this was not . and thirdly , not only a festiuall solemnizing of some one thing , at some one time , for the present , but an anniuersary returning to that folemnitie euery yeare ; and lastly , in that first part , this festiuall in particular , the feast of the dedication of the temple : that fanctified the place , that shall determine that part . in the second part , the holinesse of the person , we shall carry your thoughts no farther , but vpon this , that euen this holy person iesus himselfe , would haue recourse to this place , thus dedicated , thus sanctified : and vpon this , that hee would doe that especially at such times , as hee might countenance and authorise the ordinances and institutions of the church , which had appointed this festiuall . and this , sayes the text , he did in the winter : first , etsi hiems , though it were winter , hee came , and walked in the porch , a little inconuenience kept him not off : and , quia hiems , because it was winter , he walked in the porch which was couered , not in the temple which was open . so that heere with modestie , and without scandall he condemned not the fauouring of a mans health , euen in the temple , and it was at ierusalem , the feast of the dedication ; and it was winter ; and iesus walked in the temple in salomons porch . in our first part , holy places , wee looke first vpon the times of our meeting there , holy dayes . the root of all those is the sabboth , that god planted himselfe , euen in himselfe , in his owne rest , from the creation . but the root , and those branches which grow from that root , are of the same nature , and the same name : and therefore as well of the flower , as of the root of a rose , or of a violet , we would say , this is a violet , this is a rose , so as well to other feasts of gods institution , as to the first sabboth , god giues that name ; hee cals those seuerall feasts which he instituted , sabboths ; enioynes the same things to be done vpon them , inflicts the same punishments vpon them that breake them . so that there is one moralitie , that is the soule of all sabboths , of all festiualls ; howsoeuer all sabboths haue a ceremoniall part in them , yet there is a morall part that inanimates them all ; they are elemented of ceremonie , but they animated with moralitie . and that moralitie is in them all , rest : for if adam could name creatures according to their nature , god could name his sabboth according to the nature of it , and sabboth is rest. it is a rest of two kindes ; our rest , and gods rest . our rest is the cessation from labour on those dayes ; gods rest , is our sanctifying of the day : for so in the religious sacrifice of noah , when hee was come out of the arke , god is said to haue smelt , odorem quietis , the sauour of rest : vpon those dayes we rest from seruing the world , and god rests in our seruing of him . and as god takes a tenth part of our goods , in tythes , but yet he takes more too , he takes sacrifices , so though he take a seuenth part of our time in the sabboth , yet he takes more too , he appoints other sabboths , other festiualls , that he may haue more glory , and we more rest : for all wherin those two concurre , are sabboths vacate & videte quoniam ego sum dominus sayes god. first vacate , rest from your bodily labours , distinguish the day , and then videte , come hither into the lords presence , and worship the lord your god , sanctifie the day : and in all the sabboths there is still a cessate , and a humiliate animas , bodily rest , and spirituall sanctifying of the day . holy dayes then , that is , dayes seposed for holy vses , and for the outward & publike seruice of god , are in nature , and in that morall law which is written in the heart of man. that such dayes there must be is morall ; and this is morall too , that all things in the seruice of god bee done in order ; and this also , that obedience be giuen to superiours , in those things wherein they are superiors . and therfore it was to the iewes , as well morall , to obserue the certaine dayes which god had determined , as to obserue any at all . not that gods commandement limitting the dayes , infused a moralitie into those particular dayes : for moralitie is perpetuall ; and if that had been morall , it must haue been so before , and it must bee so still ; gods determining the dayes did not infuse , not induce a moralitie there , but it awakened a former moralitie , that is , an obedience to the commandement , for that time , which god had appoynted that for them ; for this obedience , and order is perpetuall , and so , morall . we depart therfore from that error , which those ancient heretiques , the ebionites begun , and some laboured to refresh in saint gregories time , and which continues in practise in some places of the world still ; to obserue both the iewes sabbath , and the christians , satterday , and sunday too ; because the sabboth is called pactum sempiternum : for to that any of saint augustines answeres will serue ; either that it is called euerlasting , because it signified an euerlasting rest ; ( where be pleased to note by the way , that holy dayes , sabbaths , are not onely instituted for order , but they haue their mystery , and their signification ; for holy dayes , ( as the text calls them there ) and new moones , and the sabboth , were but shadowes of things to come : ) or else the sabboth was called euerlasting to them , because it bound them euerlastingly , and they might neuer intermit it , as some other ceremonies they might . but their sabboths bind not vs ; we depart from them who thinke so ; and so we doe from them , who think we are bound to no festiualls at all , or at least to none but the sabboth . for god requires as much seruice from vs , as from the iewes , and to them hee enlarged his sabboths , and made them diuers . but those were of gods immediat institution : but all that the iewes obserued were not so ; and that 's our next consideration , festiualls instituted by the church . at first , when god was alone , it is but faciamus , let vs , vs the trinity make man. this was , when god was , as we may say , in coelibatu . but after god hath taken his spouse , maried the church , then it is capite nobis vulpes , doe you take the little foxes , you the church ; for our vines haue grapes ; the vines are ours ; yours and mine sayes christ to the church : and therfore do you looke to them , as well as i. the tables of the law god himselfe writ , and gaue them written to moses : he left none of that to him ; not a power to make other lawes like those lawes : but for the tabernacle , which concern'd the outward worship of god , that was to be made by moses , iuxta similitudinem , according to the paterne which god had shewed him . god hath giuen the church a paterne of holy dayes , in those sabboths which hee himselfe instituted , and according to the paterne , the church hath instituted more : and recte festa ecclesiae colunt quise ecclesiae filios recognoscunt : they who disdaine not the name of sonnes of the church , refuse not to celebrate the daies which are of the churches institution . there was no immediate commandement of god for that holy day , which mor dechai , by his letters establish'd ; but yet the iewes vndertooke to do as mordechai had written to them . there was no such commandement for this holy day , in the text ; and yet that was obferued , as long as they had any beeing . and where the reason remaines , the practise may ; the iewes did , we may institute new holy dayes . and not onely transitory daies , for a present thanks giuing for a present benefit , but anniuersaries , perpetuall memorials of gods deliuerances . and that 's our next step . both the holy dayes , which we named before , which were instituted with out speciall commaundement from god , were so . that of mordechai , he commanded to be kept euery yeare for two dayes , and this in the text , iudas maccabeus commanded to be kept yearely for eight dayes , which was more then was appoynted to any of the holy dayes , instituted by god himselfe , for the festiuall alone . according to which paterne , one bishop of rome , ordained that the festiuals of the dedication of churches should bee yearely celebrated in those places ; and another extended the festiuall to eight dayes ; at least at the first dedication thereof , if not euery yeare : that god might not onely be put into the possession of the place , but setled in it . god by moses made the children of israel a song , because , as hee sayes , howsoeuer they did by the law , they would neuer forget that song , & that song should be his witnesse against them . therefore would god haue vs institute solemne memorialls of his great deliuerances , that if when those dayes come about , we doe not glorifie him , that might aggrauate our condemnation . euery fift of august , the lord rises vp , to hearken whether we meet to glorifie him , for his great deliuerance of his maiesty , before the blest vs with his presence in this kingdome : and when he finds vs zealous in our thankes for that , he giues vs farther blessings . certainly he is vp as early euery fift of nouember , to hearken if we meet to glorifie him for that deliuerance still ; and if hee should finde our zeale lesse then heretofore , hee would wonder why . gods principall , his radicall holy day , the sabbath , had a weekly returne ; his other sabbaths , instituted by himselfe , and those which were instituted by those paternes , that of mordechai , that of the maccabees , & those of the christian church , they all return once a yeare . god would keepe his courts once a yeare , and see whether wee make our apparances as heeretofore ; that if not , hee may know it . feastes in generall , feastes instituted by the church alone , feasts in their yearely returne and obseruation , haue their vse , and particularly those feasts of the dedication of churches , which was properly and literally the feast of this text. it was the feast of dedication . as it diminishes not , preiudices not gods eternitie , that wee giue him his quando , certaine times of inuocation , god is not the lesse yesterday , and to day , and the same for euer , because wee meet here to day , and not yesterday , so it diminishes not , preiudices not gods vbiquitie and omnipresence , that wee giue him his vbi , certaine places for inuocation . that 's not the lesse true , that the most high dwells not in temples made with handes , though god accept at our hands our dedication of certaine places to his seruice , & manifest his working more effectually , more energetically in those places , then in any other . for when we pray , our father which art in heauen , it is not ( sayes saint chrysostome ) that wee deny him to bee heere , where wee kneele when we say that prayer , but it is that we acknowledge him to be there , where he can graunt , and accomplish our prayer . it is as origen hath very well expressed it , vt in melioribus mundi requiramus deum : that still wee looke for god in the best places ; looke for him , as he heares our petitions , here , in the best places of this world , in his house , in the church ; looke for him as he graunts our petition , on , in the best place of the next world , at the right hand , and in the bosome of the father . when moses sayes that the word of god is not beyond sea , he addes , it is not so beyond sea , as that thou must not haue it without sending thither . when he sayes there , it is not in heauen , he adds , not so in heauen , as that one must goe vp , before hee can haue it . the word of god , is beyond sea , the true word , truly preached in many true churches there , but yet we haue it here , within these seas too ; god is in heauen , but yet hee is here , within these walles too . and therefore the impietie of the manicheans exceeded all the gentiles , who concluded the god of the old testament to be an impotent , an vnperfect god , because hee commaunded moses first to make him a tabernacle , and then salomon to make him a temple , as though he needed a house . god does not need a house , but man does need , that god should haue a house . and therefore the first question , that christs first disciples asked of him , was magister , vbi habitas , they would know his standing house , where he hath promised to bee alwaies within , and where at the ringing of the bell , some body comes to answere you , to take your errand , to offer your prayers to god , to returne his pleasure in the preaching of his word to you . the many and heauy lawes , with which sacred and secular stories abound , against the prophanation of places , appropriated to gods seruice , and that religious custome , that passed almost through all ciuill nations , that an oath , which was the bond between man , and man , had the stronger obligation , if that were taken in the church , in the presence of god , ( for such was the practise of rome towards her enemies , tango ar as inediosqueignes , to make their vowes of hostility in the church , and at time of diuine seruice , ( and such is their practise still , they seale their treasons in the sacrament ) such was romes practise towards others , and such was the practise of others towards rome , ( for so anniball sayes , that his father amilcar swore him at the altar , that he should neuer bee reconciled to rome , ( and such is your practise still , as often as you meet here , you renew your band to god , that you will neuer bee reconciled to the superstitions of rome ) all these , and all such as these , and such as these are infinite , heap vp testimonies , that euen in nature there is a disposition to apply , and appropriate certaine places to gods seruice . and this impression in nature is illustrated in the law , as the time , so the place is distinguished , yee shall keepe my sabboths , there is the time , and you shall reuerence my sanctuary , there is the place . but that they may be reuerenced , that they may bee sanctuaries , they are to be sanctified ; and that 's the encaenia , the dedication . euen in those things which accrue vnto god , and become his , by another title , then as he is lord of all , by creation , that is , by appropriation , by dedication to his vse and seruice , there is a lay dedication , and an ecclesiasticall dedication . i hope the distinction of laytie , and clergie , the words , scandalize no man. luther , and caluin too might haue iust cause to decline the words , as they did ; when so much was ouer-attributed to that clergie which they intend , as that they were so sors domini , the lords portion , as that the world had no portion in them , and yet they had the greatest portion of the world ; and howe little soeuer they had to doe with god , yet no state , no king might haue any thing to doe with them . but , as long as we declare , that by the layetie we intend the people glorifying god in their secular callings , and by the clergie , persons seposed by his ordinance , for spirituall functions , the layetie no farther remoou'd then the clergie , the clergie no farther entitled then the layetie , in the blood of christ iesus , neither in the effusion of that blood vpon the crosse , nor in the participation of that blood in the sacrament , and that an equall care in clergie , and layetie , of doing the duties of their seuerall callings , giues them an equall interest in the ioyes , and glory of heauen , i hope no man is scandaliz'd with the names . the lay dedication then is , the voluntary surrendring of this piece of ground thus built , to god. for we must say , as saint peter said to ananias , whiles it remain'd , was that not your owne ? and now , when that is raised ( sauing that there was dedicatio intentionalis , a purpose from the beginning to appropriate it , to this holy vse ) might you not , till this houre , haue made this roome your hall , if you would ? but this is your dedication , that you haue cheerfully pursued your first holy purposes , and deliuer now into the hands of this seruant of god , the right reuerend father the bishop of this see , a place to be presented to god for you , by him , not misbecomming the maiestie of the great god , who is pleased to dwell thus amongst vs. what was spent in salomons temple is not told vs. what was prepared , before it was begun , is such a summe , as certainly , if all the christian kings that are , would send in all that they haue , at once , to any one seruice , all would not equall that summe . they gaue there , till they who had the ouerseeing therof , complain'd of the abundance , and proclaim'd an abstinence . yet there was one , who gaue more then all they ; for christ sayes the poore widdow gaue more then all the rest , because she gaue all she had . there is a way of giuing more then she gaue ; & i , who by your fauours was no strāger to the beginning of this work , and an often refresher of it to your memories , and a poore assistant in laying the first stone , the materiall stone , as i am now , a poore assistant again in this laying of this first formall stone , the word & sacrament , and shall euer desire to be so in the seruice of this place , i , i say , can truly testifie , that you ( speaking of the whole societie together of the publike stock , the publike treasury , the publike reuenue ) you gaue more then the widow , who gaue all , for you gaue more then all . a stranger shall not entermeddle with our ioy , as salomon saies : strangers shall not know , how ill we were prouided for such a work , when we begun it , nor with what difficulties we haue wrastled in the way ; but strangers shall know to gods glory , that you haue perfected a work of full three times as much charge , as you proposed for it at beginning : so bountifully doth god blesse , and prosper intentions to his glory , with enlarging your hearts within , and opening the hearts of others , abroad . and this is your dedication , and that which without preiudice , and for distinction , wee call a lay dedication , though from religious hearts , and hands . there is another dedication ; that we haue call'd ecclesiasticall , appointed by god , so as god speaks in the ordinances , and in the practise of his church . haereditary kings are begotten & conceiu'd the naturall way ; but that body which is so begotten of the blood of kings , is not a king , no nor a man , till there bee a soule infused by god. here is a house , a child conceiu'd ( wee may say borne ) of christian parents , of persons religiously disposed to gods glory ; but yet , that was to receiue another influence , an inanimation , a quickening , by another consecration . oportet denuo nasci , holds euen in the children of christian parents ; when they are borne , they must be borne again by baptisme : when this place is thus giuen by you , for god , oportet denuo dari , it must be giuen againe to god , by him , who receiues it of you . it must ; there seems a necessitie to be implied , because euen in nature , there was a consecration of holy places ; iacob in his iourney , before the law , consecrated euen that stone , which he set vp , in intention to build god a house there . in the time of the law , this feast of dedication , was in practise ; first in the tabernacle ; that and all that appertain'd to it , was annointed , and sanctified : so was salomons temple after ; so was that which was reedified after their return from babylon , and so was this in the text , after the heathen had defiled and profan'd the altar thereof , and a new one was erected by iudas maccabeus . thus in nature , thus in law , and thus far thus in the gospell too : that as sure as wee are that the people of god had materiall churches in the apostles first times , so sure we are , that those places had a sanctitie in them . if that place of saint paul , despise yee the church of god ? be to be vnderstood of the locall , of the materiall church , and not of the congregation , you see there is a rebuke for the prophanation of the place , and consequently a sanctity in the place . but assoone as the church came euidently by the fauour of princes , to haue liberty to make lawes , and power to see them practised , it was neuer pretermitted to consecrate the places . before that , we find an ordinance by pope hyginus ( he was within 150. after christ , and the eighth bishop of that see after saint peter ) euen of particulars in the consecrations . but after , athanasius in his apologie to constantius , makes that protestation for all christians , that they neuer meet in any church , till it bee consecrated : and constantine the emperour least hee should be at any time vnprouided of such a place , ( as we read in the ecclesiasticall story ) in all his warres , carried about bout with him a tabernacle which was consecrated : in nature , in the law , in the gospell , in precept , in practise , these consecrations are established . this they did . but to what vse did they consecrate them ? not to one vse only ; and therefore it is a friuolous contention , whether churches be for preaching , or for praying . but if consecration be a king of christning of the church , & that at the christning it haue a name , wee know what name god hath appoynted for his house , domus mea , domus orationis vocabitur . my house shall bee called the house of prayer . and how impudent and inexcusable a falshood is that in bellarmine , that the lutherans and caluinistes doe admit churches for sermons and sacraments , sed reprehendunt quod fiant ad orandum , they dislike that they should be for prayer : when as caluin himselfe , ( who may seeme to bee more subiect to this reprehension then luther ) ( for there is no such liturgie in the caluinists churches , as in the lutheran ) yet in that very place which bellarmine cites , sayes conceptae preces in ecclesia deo gratae ; and for singing in churches , ( which in that place of caluin cannot be only meant of psalmes , for it was of that manner of singing , which being formerly in vse in the easterne churches , s. ambrose , in his time , brought into the church of millan , and so it was deriud ouer the western churches , which was the modulation and singing of versicles and antiphons and the like ) this singing , sayes caluin , was in vse amongst the apostles themselues , et sanctissimum & saluberimum est institutum . it was a most holy and most profitable institution . still consider consecration to be a christning of the place ; and though we find them often called templa propter sacrificia , for our sacrifices of praier , and of praise , & of the merits of christ , and often called ecclesiae ad conciones , churches , in respect of congregations , for preaching , and often call'd martyria , for preseruing with respect , and honor the bodies of martyrs , and other saints of god , there buried , & often , often , by other names , dominica , basilica , and the like , yet the name that god gaue to his house , is not concionatorium , nor sacramentarium , but oratorium , the house of prayer . and therefore without preiudice to the other functions too , ( for as there is a vae vpon me , si non euangelizauero , if i preach not my selfe , so may that vae be multiplied vpon any , who would draw that holy ordinance of god into a dis-estimatiō , or into a slacknesse , ) let vs neuer intermit that dutie , to present our selues to god in these places , though in these places there bee then , no other seruice , but common prayer . for then doth the house answere to that name , which god hath giuen it , if it be a house of prayer . thus then were these places to receiue a double dedication ; a dedication , which was a donation from the patron , a dedication which was a consecration from the bishop , for to his person , and to that ranke in the hierarchy of the church , the most ancient canons limited it ; and to those purposes , which wee haue spoken of ; of which , prayer is so farre from being none , as that there is none aboue it . a little should be said , ( before wee shut vp this part ) of the manner , the forme of consecrations . in which , in the primitiue church , assoone as consecrations came into free vse , they were full of ceremonies . and many of those ceremonies deriu'd from the iewes : and not vnlawfull , for that . the ceremonies of the iewes , which had their foundation in the prefiguration of christ , and were types of him , were vnlawfull after christ was come ; because the vse of them , then , implyed a deniall or a doubt of his being come . but those ceremonies , which , though the iewes vsed them , had their foundation in nature , as bowing of the knee , lifting vp the eyes , and hands , and many , very many others , which either testified their deuotion that did them , or exalted their deuotion that sawe them done , are not therefore excluded the church , because they were in vse amongst the iewes . that pope whom we named before , hyginus , the eighth after saint peter , he instituted , ne basilica sine missa consecretur . that no church bee consecrated without a masse . if this must binde vs , to a masse of the present romane church , it were hard ; and yet not very hard truely ; for they are easily had . but that word , masse , is in saint ambrose , in saint augustine in some very ancient councels ; and surely intends nothing , to this purpose , but the seruice , the common prayer of the church , then in vse , there . and when the bishop panigarola sayes in his sermon vpon whitsunday , that the holy ghost found the blessed virgin and the apostles at masse , i presume hee meanes no more , then that they were mett at such publique prayer , as at those times they might make . sure pope clemens , and pope hyginus meane the same thing , when one sayes missa consecretur , and the other diuinis precibus : one sayes , let the consecration bee with a masse , the other , with diuine seruice ; the liturgie , the diuine seruice was then the masse . in a word , a constant forme of consecrations , wee finde none that goes through our ritualls : the ceremonies were still more or lesse , as they were more or lesse obnoxious , or might bee subiect to scandalize , or to be mis-interpreted . and therefore i am not heere either to direct , or so much as to remember , that which appertaines to the manner of these consecrations ; onely in concurring in that , which is the soule of all , humble and heartie prayer , that god will heare his seruants in this place , i shall not offend to say , that i am sure my zeale is inferiour to none . and more i say not of the first part , the holy place ; and but a little more , of the other ; though at first it were proposed for an equall part , the holy person , that at the feast of the dedication , iesus walked in the temple in salomons porch . in this second part , wee did not spread the words , not shed our considerations vpon many particulars : the first was , that euen iesus himselfe had recourse to this holy place . in the new ierusalem , in heauen , there is no temple . i saw no temple there sayes saint iohn : for the lord god almightie , and the lambe are the temple of it . in heauen , where there is no danger of falling , there is no need of assistance . heere the temple is called gnazar , that is auxilium : a helper : the strongest that is , needs the helpe of the church : and it is called sanctificium , by saint hierom , a place that is not onely made holy by consecration , but that makes others holy by god in it . and therefore christ himselfe , whose person and presence might consecrate the sanctum sanctorum , would yet make his often repayre to this holy place ; not that hee needed this subsidie of locall holinesse in himselfe , but that his example might bring others who did neede it ; and those who did not ; and , that euen his owne preaching might haue the benefite and the blessing of gods ordinance in that place , hee sayes of himselfe , quotidie apud vos sedebam docens in templo , and semper docui in synagoga , & in templo ; as in the actes , the angell that had deliuered the apostles out of prison , sends them to church , stantes in templo loquimini plebi . the apostles were sent to preach , but to preach in the temple , in the place appropriated and consecrated for that holy vse and employment . he came to this place , and he came at those times , which no immediate command of god , but the church had instituted . facta sunt encaenia , sayes the text ; it was the feast of the dedication . wee know what dedication this was ; that of salomon was much greater ; a temple built where none was before ; that of esdras at the returne was much greater then this , an intire reedification of that demolished temple , where it was before . this was but a zealous restoring of an altar in the temple : which hauing beene prophaned by the gentiles , the iewes themselues threw downe , and erected a new , and dedicated that . salomons dedication is called a feast , a holy day : by the very same name that the feast of vnleauened bread , and the feast of the tabernacle is called so often in scripture , which is kag . the dedication of ezra is sufficiently declared to bee a solemne feast too . but neither of these feastes , though of farre greater dedications , were anniuersarie ; neither commanded to be kept euery yeare ; and yet this , which was so much lesser then the others , the church had put vnder that obligation , to bee kept euery yeare ; and christ himselfe contemnes not , condemnes not , disputes not the institution of the church . but as for matter of doctrine hee sends euen his owne disciples , to them who sate in moses chayre , so for matter of ceremony , he brings euen his owne person , to the celebrating , to the authorizing , to the countenancing of the institutions of the church , and rests in that . now it was winter , sayes the text : christ came etsi hyems , though it were winter ; so small an inconuenience kept him not off . beloued , it is not alway colder vpon sunday , then vpon satterday ; nor at any time colder in the chappell ; then in westminster hall. a thrust keepes some off in summer ; and colde in winter : and there are more of both these in other places , where for all that , they are more content to be . remember that peter was warming himselfe , and hee denyed christ. they who loue a warme bed , let it bee a warme studie , let it bee a warme profit , better then this place , they deny christ in his institution . that therefore which christ sayes , pray that your flight bee not in the winter , nor vpon the sabboth ; we may apply thus , pray that vpon the sabboth ( i tolde you at first , what were sabboths , ) the winter make you not flie , not abstaine from this place . put off thy shooes , sayes god to moses , for the place is holy ground . when gods ordinance by his church call you to this holy place , put off those shoes , all those earthly respects , of ease or profit , christ came , etsi hyems . but then , quia hyems , because it was winter , hee did walke in salomons porch , which was couered , not in atrio , in that part of the temple , which was open , and expos'd to the weather . we doe not say , that infirme and weak men , may not fauour themselues , in a due care of their health , in these places . that he who is not able to raise himselfe , must alwayes stand at the gospell , or bow the knee at the name of iesus , or stay some whole houres , altogether vncouered heere , if that increase infirmities of that kinde . and yet courts of princes , are strange bethesdaes ; how quickly they recouer any man that is brought into that poole ? how much a little change of ayre does ? and how well they can stand , and stand bare many houres , in the priuy chamber , that would melt and flowe out into rhumes , and catarrs , in a long gospell heere ? but , citra scandalum , a man may fauour himselfe in these places : but yet this excuses not the irreuerent manner which hath ouertaken vs in all these places ; that any master may thinke himselfe to haue the same libertie heere , as in his owne house , or that that seruant , that neuer puts on his hat in his masters presence all the weeke , on sunday , when hee and his master are in gods presence , should haue his hat on perchance before his masters . christ shall make master and seruant equall ; but not yet ; not heere ; nor euer , equall to himselfe , how euer they become equall to one another . gods seruice is not a continuall martyrdome , that a man must bee heere , and here in such a posture , and such a manner , though hee dye for it ; but gods house is no ordinary neither ; where any man may pretend to doe what he will , and euery man may doe , what any man does . christ slept in a storme ; i dare not make that generall ; let all doe so . christ fauoured himselfe in the church ; i dare not make that generall neither : to make all places equall , or all persons equall in any place . t is time to end . saint basill himselfe , as acceptable as hee was to his auditory , in his second sermon vpon the 14. psalme , takes knowledge that hee had preached an houre , and therefore broke off : i see it is a compasse , that all ages haue thought sufficient . but as we haue contracted the consideration of great temples , to this lesser chappell , so let vs contract the chappell to our selues : et facta sint encaenia nostra , let this be the feast of the dedication of our selues to god. christ calls himselfe a temple , soluite templum hoc : destroy this temple . and saint paul calls vs so twice ; know ye not that ye are the temples of the holy ghost ? facta sint encaenia nostra : encaenia signifies renouationem , a renewing : and saint augustine sayes that in his time , si quis noua tunica indueretur , encaeniare diceretur . if any man put on a new garment , hee called it by that name , encaenia sua . much more is it so , if wee renew in our selues the image of god , and put off the olde man , and put on the lord iesus christ. this is truly encaeniare , to dedicate , to renew our selues : and so nazian . in a sermon , or oration , vpon the like occasion as this , calls , conuersionem nostram , encaenia , our turning to god , in a true repentance , or renewing , our dedication . let mee charge your memories , but with this note more , that when god forbad dauid the building of an house , because hee was a man of blood , at that time dauid had not embrued his hands in vriahs blood ; nor shed any blood , but lawfully in iust warres ; yet euen that made him vncapable of this fauour to prouide god a house . some callings are in their nature more obnoxious , and more exposed to sinne , then others are : accompanied with more tentations ; & so retard vs more in holy duties . and therefore as there are particular sinnes that attend certaine places , certaine ages , certaine complexions , and certaine vocations , let vs watch our selues in all those , and remember that not only the highest degrees of those sinns , but any thing that conduces therunto , prophanes the consecration , and dedication of this temple , our selues , to the seruice of god ; it annihilates our repentance , and frustrates our former reconciliations to him . almighty god worke in you a perfit dedication of your selues at this time ; that so , receiuing it from hands dedicated to god , hee whose holy office this is , may present acceptably this house to god in your behalfes , and establish an assurance to you , that god will be alwayes present with you and your succession in this place . amen . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20655-e620 deut. 31. 19. apoc. 15. 3. diuision . verse 15 , verse 9. verse 10 , verse 2. verse 16. verse 17. part 1. esa. 37. 3 2. reg. 5. 1. 1. sam. 23 lud . 6. rom. 11. 5. 1. 10. 3. 4. matt. 43. prou. 13. 7. mat. 26. 13 plutar. verse 16. verse 17. verse 16. verse 17. esa. 61. 1 math. 28. 19. i. thes. 5. 19. 1 cor. 9. 16. apoc. 12. 3. cant. 6. 3. col. 2. 5. i thes. 4. 11. 2 thes. 3. 6. psal. 51 aquin. pro. 22. 6 mat. 18. 3 heb. 6. 1. iob 25. 5 1 cor. 15 14. psal 21. notes for div a20655-e11530 mat. 20. 20 mat. 1. 81. athanaz . mat. 25. 34 mar. 4. 11. ioh 18. 36. non adbuc . apo. 20 , de ciuitat . dei 20. 7. gen. 49. deu. 17. 14. sed. 1 sam. 16 spiritus sanctus . acts 2 , 1. 4. 31. 10. 44. 19. 6. potestatem . testes . ierusalem . iudaea . samaria . iohn 8. 44. mat. 4. 10. 10. 5. acts 8. 25. fines terrae . mat. 24 14 mark. 13. 9. luk 24. 47 mar. 16. 20 col. 1. 5. luc. 1. 1. rom. 1. 8. 16. 19. mar. vlt. vlt rom. 8. 1 cor. 3. 6. notes for div a20655-e18850 basil. bern. ser. 1. diuisie . 1. part. festa . leuit. 23. genes . 8. psal. 46. 10 leuit. 23. exod. 31. col. 2. 16. sine mandato . cant. 2. 15 exod. 25. 9. aug. ester 9. 23 anniuersaria . felix . greg. deut. 31. 19 〈◊〉 temple . acts 7. 48. chrysostome . origen . deut. 30. 13 levi. 19. 30 encaenia . acts 5. 4. ecclesiastica gen. 28. 20. num. 7. 1. 1 cor. 11. 22 athanas. vsus . l. 3. 20. § 32. modus . 2. part. iesus in templo . apo. 21. 22 2. paral. 4. 9 psal. 78. 69. math. 26. actes 5. tempus . 2 chr. 5. 3. ezra 6. 16. etsi hyems mat. 24. 20. exod. 35. quia hyems basil. iohn 2. 19. 1 cor. 3. 16. & 6. 19. aug. nazian . paradoxes, problemes, essayes, characters written by dr. donne, dean of pauls ; to which is added a book of epigrams ; written in latin by the same author ; translated into english by j. maine d.d. ; as also, ignatius his conclave, a satyr, translated out of the originall copy written in latin by the same author, found lately amongst his own papers. donne, john, 1572-1631. 1652 approx. 223 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 113 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-05 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a36301 wing d1867 estc r1266 12770477 ocm 12770477 93653 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a36301) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 93653) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1033:20) paradoxes, problemes, essayes, characters written by dr. donne, dean of pauls ; to which is added a book of epigrams ; written in latin by the same author ; translated into english by j. maine d.d. ; as also, ignatius his conclave, a satyr, translated out of the originall copy written in latin by the same author, found lately amongst his own papers. donne, john, 1572-1631. mayne, jasper, 1604-1672. [6], 219 p. printed by t.n. for humphrey mosely ... london : 1652. imperfect: pages stained with loss of print. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng epigrams, english. satire. 2003-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-02 amanda watson sampled and proofread 2004-02 amanda watson text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion paradoxes , problemes , essayes , characters , written by d r donne dean of pauls : to which is added a book of epigrams : written in latin by the same author ; translated into english by i : maine , d. d. as also ignatius his conclave , a satyr , translated out of the originall copy written in latin by the same author ; found lately amongst his own papers . de iesuitorum dissidiis . quos pugnare , scholis , clamāt , hi , ( discite regna ) non sunt unanimes , conveniuntque nimis . london , printed by t : n : for humphrey moseley at the prince's armes in st pauls churchyard , 1652. the table . paradoxes . i. a defence of womens inconstancy . 1 ii. that women ought to paint 7 iii. that by discord things increase . 10 iv. that good is more common then evill 13 v. that all things kill themselves 16 vi. that it is possible to finde some vertue in some women . 18 vii . that old men are more fantasticke then young. 20 viii . that nature is our worst guide . 23 ix . that only cowards dare lye , 26 x. that a wise man is known by much laughing . 29 xi . that the gifts of the body are better then those of the minde . 33 xii . that virginity is a vertue . 81 problems . i. why have bastards the best fortune . 38 ii. why puritans make long sermons . 41 iii. why did the devil reserve iesuites till these latter dayes . 42 iv. why is there more variety of green then of other colours . 43 v. why doe young lay-men so much study divinity . 44 vi. why hath the common opinion afforded women souls . 45 vii . why are the fairest falsest . 47 viii . why venus-star only doth cast a shadow ? 49 ix . why is venus-star multinominous , called both hesperus & vesper ? 52 x. why are new officers least oppressing ? 54 xi . vvhy doth the pox so much affect to undermine the nose ? 66 xii . vvhy die none for love now ? 58 xiii . vvhy doe women delight much in feathers ? 59 xiv . vvhy doth not gold soyle the fingers ? ib. xv. vvhy doe great men of all dependants , choose to preserve their little pimps ? 60 xvi . vvhy are courtiers sooner atheists , then men of other conditions ? 61 xvii . vvhy are statesmen most incredulous ? 62 characters . the character of a scot at the first sight . 65 the true character of a dunce . 67 an essay of valour , 72 a sheaf of miscellany epigrams , 88 ignatius nis conclave , 107 ben. johnson to the author . who can doubt , donne , where i a poet bee ? when i dare send my epigrams to thee that so alone canst judge , so alone dost make : and in thy censures , evenly , dost take as free simplicitie , to disavow , as thou hast best authority t' allow : read all i send : and , if i finde but one mark'd by thy hand , and with the better stone my title 's seal'd . those that for claps do write , let punies , porters , players praise delight , and till they burst , their backs , like asses load : a man should seek great glory , and not broad . paradoxes . i. a defence of womens inconstancy . that women are inconstant , i with any man confess , but that inconstancy is a bad quality , i against any man will maintain : for every thing as it is one better than another , so is it fuller of change ; the heavens themselves continually turn , the stars move , the moon changeth ; fire whirleth , aire flyeth , water ebbs and flowes , the face of the earth altereth her looks , time staies not ; the colour that is most light , will take most dyes : so in men , they that have the most reason are the most inalterable in their designes , and the darkest or most ignorant , do seldomest change ; therfore women changing more than men , have also more reason . they cannot be immutable like stocks , like stones , like the earths dull center ; gold that lyeth still , rusteth ; water , corrupteth ; aire that moveth not , poysoneth ; then why should that which is the perfection of other things , be imputed to women as greatest imperfection ? because thereby they deceive men. are not your wits pleased with those jests , which cozen your expectation ? you can cal it pleasure to be beguil'd in troubles , and in the most excellent toy in the world , you call it treachery : i would you had your mistresses so constant , that they would never change , no not so much as their smocks , then should you see what sluttish vertue , constancy were . inconstancy is a most commendable and cleanly quality , and women in this quality are far more absolute than the heavens , than the stars , moon , or any thing beneath it ; for long observation hath pickt certainty out of their mutability . the learned are so well acquainted with the stars , signes and planets , that they make them but characters , to read the meaning of the heaven in his own forehead . every simple fellow can bespeak the change of the moon a great while beforehand : but i would fain have the learnedst man so skilfull , as to tell when the simplest woman meaneth to vary . learning affords no rules to know , much less knowledge to rule the minde of a woman . for as philosophy teacheth us , that light things do always tend upwards , and heavy things decline downward ; experience teacheth us otherwise , that the disposition of a light woman , is to fall down , the nature of women being contrary to all art and nature . women are like flies , which feed among us at our table , or fleas sucking our very blood , who leave not our most retired places free from their familiarity , yet for all their fellowship will they never be tamed nor commanded by us . women are like the sun , which is violently carried one way , yet hath a proper course contrary : so though they , by the mastery of some over-ruling churlish husbands , are forced to his byas , yet have they a motion of their own , which their husbands never know of : it is the nature of nice and fastidious mindes to know things only to be wary of them : women by their slye changeableness , and pleasing doubleness , prevent even the mislike of those , for they can never be so well known , but that there is still more unknown . every woman is a science ; for he that plods upon a woman all his life long , shall at length finde himself short of the knowledge of her : they are born to take down the pride of wit , and ambition of wisdom , making fools wise in the adventuring to win them , wisemen fools in conceit of losing their labours ; witty men stark mad , being confounded with their uncertainties . philosophers write against them for spight , not desert , that having attained to some knowledge in all other things , in them only they know nothing , but are meerly ignorant : active and experienced men rail against them , because they love in their liveless and decrepit age , when all goodness leaves them . these envious libellers ballad against them , because having nothing in themselvs able to deserve their love , they maliciously discommend all they cannot obtain , thinking to make men believe they know much , because they are able to dispraise much , and rage against inconstancy , when they were never admitted into so much favour as to be forsaken . in mine opinion such men are happie that women are inconstant , for so may they chance to be beloved of some excellent woman when it comes to their turn out of their inconstancy and mutability , though not out of their own desert . and what reason is there to clog any woman with one man , be he never so singular ? women had rather , and it is far better and more judicial to enjoy all the vertues in several men , than but some of them in one , for otherwise they lose their taste , like divers sorts of meat minced together in one dish : and to have all excellencies in one man ( if it were possible ) is confusion and diversity . now who can deny , but such as are obstinately bent to undervalue their worth , are those that have not soul enough to comprehend their excellency , women being the most excellent creatures , in that man is able to subject all things else , and to grow wise in every thing , but still persists a fool in woman ? the greatest scholler , if he once take a wife , is found so unlearned , that he must begin his horn-book , and all is by inconstancy . to conclude therefore ; this name of inconstancy , which hath so much been poysoned with slanders , ought to be changed into variety , for the which the world is so delightfull , and a woman for that the most delightfull thing in this world . ii. that women ought to paint . foulness is lothsome : can that be so which helps it ? who forbids his beloved to gird in her waste ? to mend by shooing her uneven lameness ? to burnish her teeth ? or to perfume her breath ? yet that the face be more precisely regarded , it concerns more : for as open confessing sinners are always punished , but the wary and concealing offenders without witness , do it also without punishment ; so the secret parts needs the less respect ; but of the face , discovered to all examinations and surveys , there is not too nice a jealousie . nor doth it only draw the busie eyes , but it is subject to the divinest touch of all , to kissing , the strange and mystical union of souls . if she should prostitute her self to a more unworthy man than thy self , how earnestly and justly wouldst thou exclaim ? that for want of this easier and ready way of repairing , tobetray her body to ruine and deformity ( the tyrannous ravishers , and sodain deflourers of all women ) what a hainous adultery is it ? what thou lovest in her face is colour , and painting gives that , but thou hatest it , not because it is , but because thou knowest it . fool , whom ignorance makes happy , the stars , the sun , the skye whom thou admirest , alas , have no colour , but are fair , because they seem to be coloured : if this seeming will not satisfie thee in her , thou hast good assurance of her colour , when thou seest her lay it on . if her face be painted on a board or wall , thou wilt love it , and the board , and the wall : canst thou loath it then when it speaks , smiles , and kisses , because it is painted ? are we not more delighted with seeing birds , fruits , and beasts painted then we are with naturals ? and do we not with pleasure behold the painted shape of monsters and devils , whom true , we durst not regard ? we repair the ruines of our houses , but first cold tempests warns us of it , and bites us through it ; we mend the wrack and stains of our apparel , but first our eyes , and other bodies are offended ; but by this providence of women , this is prevented . if in kissing or breathing upon her , the painting fall off , thou art angry , wilt thou be so , if it stick on ? thou didst love her , if thou beginnest to hate her , then 't is because she is not painted . if thou wilt say now , thou didst hate her before , thou didst hate her and love her together , be constant in something , and love her who shews her great love to thee , in taking this pains to seem lovely to thee . iii. that by discord things increase . nullos esse deos , inane coelum affirmat coelius , probatque quod se factum vidit , dum negat haec , beatum . so i assevere this the more boldly , because while i maintain it , and feel the contrary repugnancies and adverse fightings of the elements in my body , my body increaseth ; and whilst i differ from common opinions by this discord , the number of my paradoxes increaseth . all the rich benefits we can frame to our selves in concord , is but an even conservation of things ; in which evenness vve can expect no change , no motion ; therefore no increase or augmentation , which is a member of motion . and if this unity and peace can give increase to things , how mightily is discord and war to that purpose , which are indeed the only ordinary parents of peace . discord is never so barren that it affords no fruit ; for the fall of one estate is at the worst the increaser of another , because it is as impossible to finde a discommodity without advantage , as to finde corruption without generation : but it is the nature and office of concord to preserve onely , which property when it leaves , it differs from it self , which is the greatest discord of all . all victories and emperies gained by war , and all iudiciall decidings of doubts in peace , i do claim children of discord . and who can deny but controversies in religion are grown greater by discord , and not the controversie , but religion it self : for in a troubled misery men are always more religious then in a secure peace . the number of good men , the only charitable nourishers of concord , we see is thin , and daily melts and wains ; but of bad discording it is infinite , and growes hourly . we are ascertained of all disputable doubts , only by arguing and differing in opinion , and if formal disputation ( which is but a painted , counterfeit , and dissembled discord ) can work us this benefit , what shall not a full and main discord accomplish ? truely me thinks i owe a devotion , yea a sacrifice to discord , for casting that ball upon ida , and for all that business of troy , whom ruin'd i admire more then babylon , rome , or quinzay , removed corners , not only fulfilled with her fame , but with cities and thrones planted by her fugitives . lastly , between cowardice and despair , valour is gendred ; and so the discord of extreams begets all vertues , but of the like things there is no issue without a miracle : vxor pessima , pessimus maritus miror tam malè convenire . he wonders that between two so like , there could be any discord , yet perchance for all this discord there was ne're the less increase . iv. that good is more common then evil. i have not been so pittifully tired with any vanity , as with silly old mens exclaiming against these times , and extolling their own : alas ! they betray themselves , for if the times be changed , their manners have changed them . but their senses are to pleasures , as sick mens tastes are to liquors ; for indeed no new thing is done in the world , all things are what , and as they were , and good is as ever it was , more plenteous , and must of necessity be more common then evil , because it hath this for nature and perfection to be common . it makes love to all natures , all , all affect it . so that in the worlds early infancy , there was a time when nothing was evil , but if this world shall suffer dotage in the extreamest crookedness thereof , there shall be no time when nothing shall be good . it dares appear and spread , and glister in the world , but evil buries it self in night and darkness , and is chastised and suppressed when good is cherished and rewarded and as imbroderers , lapidaries , and other artisans , can by all things adorn their works ; for by adding better things , the better they shew in lush and in eminency ; so good doth not only prostrate her amiableness to all , but refuses no end , no not of her utter contrary evil , that she may be the more common to us . for evil manners are parents of good laws ; and in every evil there is an excellency , which ( in common speech ) we call good . for the fashions of habits , for our moving in gestures , for phrases in our speech , we say they were good as long as they were used , that is as long as they were common ; and we eat , we walk , only when it is , or seems good to do so . all fair , all profitable , all vertuous , is , good , and these three things i think imbrace all things , but their utter contraries ; of which also fair may be rich and vertuous ; poor may be vertuous and fair ; vitious may be fair and rich ; so that good hath this good means to be common , that some subjects she can possess intirely ; and in subjects poysoned with evil , she can humbly stoop to accompany the evil . and of indifferent things many things are become perfectly good by being common , as customs by use are made binding laws . but i remember nothing that is therefore ill , because it is common , but women , of whom also ; they that are most common , are the best of that occupation they profess . v. that all things kill themselves . to affect , yea to effect their own death all living things are importuned , not by nature only which perfects them , but by art and education , which perfects her . plants quickened and inhabited by the most unworthy soul , which therefore neither will nor work , affect an end , a perfection , a death ; this they spend their spirits to attain , this attained , they languish and wither . and by how much more they are by mans industry warmed , cherished and pampered ; so much the more early they climb to this perfection , this death . and if amongst men not to defend be to kill , what a hainous self , murther is it , not to defend it self . this defence because beasts neglect , they kill themselves , because they exceed us in number , strength , and a lawless liberty : yea , of horses and other beasts , they that inherit most courage by being bred of gallantest parents , and by artificial nursing are bettered , will run to their own deaths , neither sollicited by spurs which they need not , nor by honour which they apprehend not . if then the valiant kill himself , who can excuse the coward ? or how shall man be free from this , since the first man taught us this , except we cannot kill our selves , because he kill'd us all . yet least something should repair this common ruine , we daily kill our bodies with surfeits , and our minds with anguishes . of our powers , remembring kils our memory : of affections , lusting our lust ; of vertues , giving kils liberality . and if these kil themselves , they do it in their best and supream perfection : for after perfection immediately follows excess , which changeth the natures and the names , and makes them not the same things . if then the best things kill themselves soonest , ( for no affection endures , and all things labour to this perfection ) all travel to their own death , yea the frame of the whole world , if it were possible for god to be idle , yet because it began , must die . then in this idleness imagined in god , what could kill the world but it self , since out of it , nothing is ? vi. that it is possible to finde some vertue in some women . i am not of that seard impudence that i dare defend women , or pronounce them good , yet we see physitians allow some vertue in every poyson . alas ! why should we except women ? since cerrtainly they are good for physick at least , so as some wine is good for a feaver . and though they be the occasioners of many sins , they are also the punishers and revengers of the same sins : for i have seldom seen one which consumes his substance and body upon them , escape diseases , or beggery ; and this is their justice . and if suum cuique dare , be the fulfilling of all civil iustice , they are most just ; for they deny that which is theirs to no man , tanquam non liceat nulla puella negat . and who may doubt of great wisdome in them , that doth but observe with how much labour and cunning our iusticers and other dispensers of the laws studie to imbrace them : and how zealously our preachers dehort men from them , only by urging their subtilties and policies , and wisdom , which are in them ? or who can deny them a good measure of fortitude , if he consider how valiant men they have overthrown , and being themselvs overthrown , how much and how patiently they bear ? and though they be most intemperate , i care not , for i undertook to furnish them with some vertue , not with all . necessity , which makes even bad things good , prevails also for them , for we must say of them , as of some sharp pinching laws ; if men were free from infirmities , they were needless . these or none must serve for reasons , and it is my great happiness that examples prove not rules , for to confirm this opinion , the world yeilds not one example . vii . that old men are more fantastick then young. who reads this paradox but thinks me more fantastick now , than i was yesterday , when i did not think thus : and if one day make this sensible change in men , what will the burthen of many years ? to be fantastick in young men is conceitfull distemperature , and a witty madness ; but in old men , whose senses are withered , it becomes natural , therfore more full and perfect . for as when we sleep our fancy is most strong ; so it is in age , which is a slumber of the deep sleep of death . they tax us of inconstancy , which in themselves young they allowed ; so that reproving that which they did approve , their inconstancy exceedeth ours , because they have changed once more then we . yea , they are more idlely busied in conceited apparel than we ; for we , when we are melancholy , wear black ; when lusty , green ; when forsaken , tawny ; pleasing our own inward affections , leaving them to others indifferent ; but they prescribe laws , and constrain the noble , the scholler , the merchant , and all estates to a certain habit . the old men of our time have changed with patience their own bodies , much of their laws , much of their languages ; yea their religion , yet they accuse us . to be amorous is proper and natural in a young man , but in an old man most fantastick . and that ridling humour of iealousie , which seeks and would not finde , which requires and repents his knowledg , is in them most common , yet most fantastike . yea , that which falls never in young men , is in them most fantastike and naturall , that is , covetousnesse ; even at their journeys end to make great provision . is any habit of young men so fantastike , as in the hottest seasons to be double-gowned or hooded like our elders ? or seemes it so ridiculous to weare long haire , as to weare none . truely , as among the philosophers , the skeptike , which doubts all , was more contentious , then either the dogmatick which affirmes , or academike which denies all ; so are these uncertain elders , which both cals them fantastick which follow others inventions , and them also which are led by their own humorous suggestion , more fantastick then other . viii . that nature is our worst guid. shall she be guide to all creatures , which is her self one ? or if she also have a guide , shall any creature have a better guide then we ? the affections of lust and anger , yea even to err is natural , shall we follow these ? can she be a good guide to us , which hath corrupted not us only but her self ? was not the first man , by the desire of knowledge , corrupted even in the whitest integrity of nature ? and did not nature , ( if nature did any thing ) infuse into him this desire of knowledge , and so this corruption in him , into us ? if by nature we shall understand our essence , our definition or reason , nobleness , then this being alike common to all ( the idiot and the wizard being equally reasonable ) why should not all men having equally all one nature , follow one course ? or if we shall understand our incli nations : alas ! how unable a guide is that which follows the temperature of our slimie bodies ? for we cannot say that we derive our inclinations , our minds , or souls from our parents by any way : to say that it is all from all , is error in reason , for then with the first nothing remains , or is a part from all , is error in experience , for then this part equally imparted to many children , would like gavel-kind lands , in few generations become nothing : or to say it by communication , is error in divinity , for to communicate the ability of communicating whole essence with any but god , is utter blasphemy . and if thou hit thy fathers nature and inclination , he also had his fathers , and so climbing up , all comes of one man , and have one nature , all shall imbrace one course ; but that cannot be , therefore our complexions and whole bodies , we inherit from parents ; our inclinations and minds follow that : for our minde is heavy in our bodies afflictions , and rejoyceth in our bodies pleasure : how then shall this nature governe us that is governed by the worst part of us ? nature though oft chased away , it will return ; 't is true , but those good motions and inspirations which be our guides must be wooed , courted , and welcomed , or else they abandon us . and that old axiome , nihil invita , &c. must not be said thou shalt , but thou wilt doe nothing against nature ; so unwilling he notes us to curbe our naturall appetites . wee call our bastards alwayes our naturall issue and we define a foole by nothing so ordinary , as by the name of naturall . and that poore knowledg whereby we conceive what rain is , what wind , what thunder , we call metaphysicke , supernaturall ; such small things , such no things do we allow to our pliant natures apprehension . lastly , by following her we lose the pleasant , and lawfull commodities of this life , for we shall drinke water and eate rootes , and those not sweet and delicate , as now by mans art and industry they are made : we shall lose all the necessities of societies , lawes , arts , and sciences , which are all the workemanship of man : yea we shall lack the last best refuge of misery , death , because no death is naturall : for if yee will not dare to call all death violent ( though i see not why sicknesses be not violences ) yet causes of all deaths proceed of the defect of that which nature made perfect , and would preserve ; and therefore all against nature . ix . that only cowards dare die . extreames are equally removed from the meane ; so that headlong desperatenesse asmuch offends true valour , as backward cowardice : of which sort i reckon justly all un-inforced deaths . when will your valiant man die of necessity ? so cowards suffer what cannot be avoided : and to run into death unimportun'd is to run into the first condemned de sperateness . will he die when he is rich and happie ? then by living he may do more good : and in afflictions and miseries , death is the chosen refuge of cowards . fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest . but it is taught and practised among our gallants , that rather than our reputations suffer any maim , or we any misery , we shall offer our breasts to the cannons mouth , yea to our swords points : and this seems a very brave and a very climbing ( which is a cowardly , earthly , and indeed a very groveling ) spirit . vvhy do they chain these slaves to the gallies , but that they thrust their deaths , and would at every loose leap into the sea ? vvhy do they take weapons from condemned men , but to barr them of that ease which cowards affect , a speedy death . truely this life is a tempest , and a warfare , and he which dares die , to escape the anguish of it , seems to me , but so valiant , as he which dares hang himself , least he be prest to the wars . i have seen one in that extremity of melancholy , which was then become madness , to make his own breath an instrument to stay his breath , and labour to choak himself ; but alas ! he was mad . and we knew another that languished under the oppression of a poor disgrace , so much , that he took more pains to die , then would have served to have nourished life and spirit enough to have out-liv'd his disgrace . vvhat fool will call this cowardlyness , valour ? or this baseness , humility ? and lastly , of these men which die the allegoricall death of entring into religion , how few are found fit for any shew of valiancy ? but onely a soft and supple metal , made only for cowardly solitariness . x. that a wise man is known by much laughing . ridi , si sapis , ô puella ride ; if thou beest wise , laugh : for since the powers of discourse , reason , and laughter , be equally proper unto man only , why shall not he be only most wise , which hath most use of laughing , as well as he which hath most of reasoning and discoursing ? i always did , and shall understand that adage ; per risum multum possis cognoscere stultum , that by much laughing thou maist know there is a fool , not , that the laughers are fools , but that among them there is some fool , at whom wise men laugh : which moved erasmus to put this as his first argument in the mouth of his folly , that she made beholders laugh : for fools are the most laughed at , and laugh the least themselves of any . and nature saw this faculty to be so necessary in man , that she hath been content that by more causes we should be importuned to laugh , than to the exercise of any other power ; for things in themselves utterly contrary , beget this effect ; for we laugh both at witty and absurd things : at both which sorts i have seen men laugh so long , and so earnestly , that at last they have wept that they could laugh no more . and therefore the poet having described the quietness of a wise retired man , saith in one , what we have said before in many lines ; quid facit canius tuus ? ridet . we have received that even the extremity of laughing , yea of weeping also , hath been accounted wisdom : and that democritus and heraclitus , the lovers of these extreams , have been called lovers of wisdom . now among our wise men i doubt not but many would be found , who would laugh at heraclitus weeping , none which weep at democritus laughing . at the hearing of comedies or other witty reports , i have noted some , which not understanding jests ; &c. have yet chosen this as the best means to seem wise and understanding , to laugh when their companions laugh ; and i have presumed them ignorant , whom i have seen unmoved . a fool if he come into a princes court , and see a gay man leaning at the wall , so glistring , and so painted in many colours that he is hardly discerned from one of the pictures in the arras , hanging his body like an iron-bound chest , girt in and thick rib'd with broad gold laces , may ( and commonly doth ) envy him . but alas ! shall a wise man , which may not only not envy , but not pitty this monster , do nothing ? yes , let him laugh . and if one of these hot cholerick firebrands , which nourish themselves by quarrelling , and kindling others , spit upon a fool one sparke of disgrace , he , like a thatcht house quickly burning , may be angry ; but the wise man , as cold as the salamander , may not only not be angry with him , but not be sorry for him ; therefore let him laugh : so he shall be known a man , because he can laugh , a wise man that he knows at what to laugh , and a valiant man that he dares laugh : for he that laughs is justly reputed more wise , then at whom it is laughed . and hence i think proceeds that which in these later formal times i have much noted ; that now when our superstitious civilitie of manners is become a mutuall tickling flattery of one another , almost every man affecteth an humour of jesting , and is content to be deject , and to deform himself , yea become fool to no other end that i can spie , but to give his wise companion occasion to laugh ; and to shew themselves in promptness of laughing is so great in wise men , that i think all wise men , if any wise man do read this paradox , will laugh both at it and me . xi . that the gifts of the body are better then those of the minde . i say again , that the body makes the minde , not that it created it a minde , but forms it a good or a bad minde ; and this minde may be confounded with soul without any violence or injustice to reason or philosophy : then the soul it seems is enabled by our body , not this by it . my body licenseth my soul to see the worlds beauties through mine eyes : to hear pleasant things through mine ears ; and affords it apt organs for the convenience of all perceivable delight . but alas ! my soul cannot make any part , that is not of it self disposed to see or hear , though without doubt she be as able and as willing to see behinde as before . now if my soul would say , that she enables any part to taste these pleasures , but is her selfe only delighted with those rich sweetnesses which her inward eyes and senses apprehend , shee should dissemble ; for i see her often solaced with beauties , which shee sees through mine eyes , and with musicke which through mine eares she heares . this perfection then my body hath , that it can impart to my minde all his pleasures ; and my mind hath still many , that she can neither teach my indisposed part her faculties , nor to the best espoused parts shew it beauty of angels , of musicke , of spheres , whereof she boasts the contemplation . are chastity , temperance , and fortitude gifts of the minde ? i appeale to physitians whether the cause of these be not in the body ; health is the gift of the body , and patience in sicknesse the gift of the minde : then who will say that patience is as good a happinesse , as health , when wee must be extremely miserable to purchase this happinesse . and for nourishing of civill societies and mutuall love amongst men , which is our chief end while we are men ; i say , this beauty , presence , and proportion of the body , hath a more masculine force in begetting this love , then the vertues of the minde : for it strikes us suddenly , and possesseth us immoderately ; when to know those vertues require some iudgement in him which shall discerne , a long time and conversation between them . and even at last how much of our faith and beleefe shal we be driven to bestow , to assure our selves that these vertues are not counterfeited : for it is the same to be , and seem vertuous , because that he that hath no vertue can dissemble none , but he which hath a little , may gild and enamell , yea and transforme much vice into vertue : for allow a man to be discreet and flexible to complaints , which are great vertuous gifts of the minde , this discretion will be to him the soule and elixir of all vertues , so that touched with this even pride shall be made humility ; and cowardice , honourable and wise valour . but in things seen there is not this danger , for the body which thou lovest and esteemest faire , is faire : certainly if it be not faire in perfection , yet it is faire in the same degree that thy iudgment is good . and in a faire body , i do seldom suspect a disproportioned minde , and as seldome hope for a good in a deformed . when i see a goodly house , i assure my selfe of a worthy possessour , from a ruinous weather-beaten building i turn away , because it seems either stuffed with varlots as a prison , or handled by an unworthy and negligent tenant , that so suffers the wast therof . and truly the gifts of fortune , which are riches , are only handmaids , yea pandars of the bodies pleasure ; with their service we nourish health , and preserve dainty , and wee buy delights so that vertue which must be loved for it selfe , and respects no further end , is indeed nothing : and riches , whose end is the good of the body , cannot be so perfectly good , as the end whereto it levels . problems . i. why have bastards best fortune ? because fortune her self is a whore , but such are not most indulgent to their issue ; the old natural reason ( but those meeting in stoln love are most vehement , and so contribute more spirit then the easie and lawfull ) might govern me , but that now i see mistresses are become domestick and in ordinary , and they and wives wait but by turns , and agree as well as they had lived in the ark. the old moral reason ( that bastards inherit wickedness from their parents , and so are in a better way to preferment by having a stock before-hand , then those that build all their fortune upon the poor and weak stock of original sin ) might prevail with me , but that since we are fallen into such times , as now the world might spare the devil , because she could be bad enough without him . i see men scorn to be wicked by example , or to be beholding to others for their damnation . it seems reasonable , that since laws rob them of succession in civil benefits , they should have something else equivalent . as nature ( which is laws pattern ) having denyed women constancy to one , hath provided them with cunning to allure many ; and so bastards de jure should have better wits and experience . but besides that by experience we see many fools amongst them , we should take from them one of their chiefest helps to preferment , and we should deny them to be fools : and ( that which is only left ) that women chuse worthier men then their husbands , is false de facto : either then it must be that the church having removed them from all place in the publick service of god , they have better means than others to be wicked , and so fortunate : or else because the two greatest powers in this world , the devil and princes concur to their greatness : the one giving bastardy , the other legitimation : as nature frames and conserves great bodies of contraries . or the cause is , because they abound most at court , which is the forge where fortunes are made , or at least the shop where they be sold. ii. why puritans make long sermons it needs not for perspicuousness , for god knows they are plain enough : nor do all of them use sem-brief-accents , for some of them have crotchets enough . it may be they intend not to rise like glorious tapers and torches , but like thin-wretched-sick-watching-c●…s , which languish and are in a divine consumption from the first minute , yea in their snuff , and stink , when others are in their more profitable glory . i have thought sometimes , that out of conscience , they allow long measure to course ware . and sometimes , that usurping in that place a liberty to speak freely of kings , they would reigne as long as they could . but now i think they do it out of a zealous imagination , that , it is their duty to preach on till their auditory wake . iii. why did the divel reserve iesuites till these latter dayes . did he know that our age would deny the devils possessing , and therefore provided by these to possesse men and kingdomes ? or to end the disputation of schoolmen , why the divel could not make lice in egypt ; and whether those things bee presented there , might be true ; hath he sent us a true and reall plague , worse than those ten ? or in o●…ntation of the greatness of his kingdome , which even division cannot shake , doth he send us these which disagree with all the rest ? or knowing that our times should discover the indies , and abolish their idolatry , doth he send these to give them another for it ? or peradventure they have been in the roman church these thousand yeeres , though we have called them by other names . iv. why is there more variety of green then of other colours ? it is because it is the figure of youth wherin nature would provide as many green , as youth hath affections ; and so present a sea-green for profuse wasters in voyages ; a grasse-green for sudden new men enobled from grasiers ; and a goose-green for such polititians as pretend to preserve the capitol . or else prophetically foreseeing an age , wherein they shall all hunt . and for such as misdemeane themselves a willo-green ; for magistrates must aswell have fasces born before them to chastize the small offences , as secures to cut off the great . v. why do young lay-men so much study divinity . is it because others tending busily churches preferment , neglect study ? or had the church of rome shut up all our wayes , till the lutherans broke down their uttermost stubborn doores , and the calvinists picked their inwardest and subtlest lockes ? surely the devill cannot be such a foole to hope that he shall make this study contemptible , by making it common . nor that as the dwellers by the river origus are said ( by drawing infinite ditches to sprinkle their barren country ) to have exhausted and intercepted their main channell , and so lost their more profitable course to the sea ; so we , by providing every ones selfe , divinity enough for his own use , should neglect our teachers and fathers . he cannot hope for better heresies then hee hath had , nor was his kingdome ever so much advanced by debating religion ( though with some aspersions of error ) as by a dull and stupid security , in which many gross things are swallowed . possible out of such an ambition as we have now , to speake plainly and fellow-like with lords and kings , we thinke also to acquaint our selves with gods secrets : or perchance when we study it by mingling humane respects , it is not divinity . vi. why hath the common opinion afforded women soules ? it is agreed that we have not so much from them as any part of either our mortal soules of sense or growth ; and we deny soules to others equall to them in all but in speech for which they are beholding to their bodily instruments for perchance an oxes heart , or a goates , or a foxes , or a serpents would speake just so , if it were in the breast , and could move that tongue and jawes . have they so many advantages and means to hurt us ( for , ever their loving destroyed us ) that we dare not displease them , but give them what they will ? and so when some call them angels , some goddesses , and the palpulian hereticks made them bishops , we descend so much with the stream , to allow them soules ? or do we somewhat ( in this dignifying of them ) flatter princes and great personages that are so much governed by them ? or do we in that easiness and prodigality , wherein we daily lose our own souls to we care not whom , so labour to perswade our selves , that sith a woman hath a soul , a soul is no great matter ? or do we lend them souls but for use , since they for our sakes , give their souls again , and their bodies to boot ? or perchance because the devil ( who is all soul ) doth most mischief , and for convenience and proportion , because they would come nearer him , we allow them some souls ; and so as the romans naturalized some provinces in revenge , and made them romans , only for the burthen of the common-wealth ; so we have given women souls only to make them capable of damnation ? vii . why are the fairest falsest . i mean not of fals alchimy beauty , for then the question should be inverted , why are the falsest fairest ? it is not only because they are much solicited and sought for , so is gold , yet it is not so common ; and this suit to them , should teach them their value , and make them more reserved . nor is it because the delicatest blood hath the best spirits , for what is that to the flesh ? perchance such constitutions have the best wits , and there is no proportionable subject , for womens wit , but deceit ? doth the minde so follow the temperature of the body , that because those complexions are aptest to change , the mind is therefore so ? or as bels of the purest metal retain their tinkling and sound largest ; so the memory of the last pleasure lasts longer in these , and disposeth them to the next : but sure it is not in the complexion , for those that do but think themselvs fair , are presently inclined to this multiplicity of loves , which being but fair in conceit are false in deed : and so perchance when they are born to this beauty , or have made it , or have dream'd it , they easily believe all addresses and applications of every man , out of a sense of their own worthiness to be directed to them , which others less worthy in their own thoughts apprehend not , or discredit . but i think the true reason is , that being like gold in many properties ( as that all snatch at them , but the worst possess them , that they care not how deep we dig for them , and that by the law of nature , occupandi conceditur ) they would be like also in this , that as gold to make it self of use admits allay , so they , that they may be tractable , mutable , and currant , have to their allay falshood . viii . why venus-star only doth cast a shadow ? is it because it is nearer the earth ? but they whose profession it is to see that nothing be done in heaven without their consent ( as re — says in himself of astrologers ) have bid mercury to be nearer . is it because the works of venus want shadowing , covering , and disguising ? but those of mercury need it more ; for eloquence , his occupation , is all shadow and colours ; let our life be a sea , and then our reason and even on s are winde enough to carry us whether we should go , but eloquence is a storm and tempest that miscarries : and who doubts that eloquence which must perswade people to take a yoke of soveraignty ( and then beg and make laws to tye them faster , and then give money to the invention , repair and strengthen it ) needs more shadows and colouring , then to perswade any man or woman to that which is natural . and venus markets are so natural , that when we solicite the best way ( which is by marriage ) our perswasions work not so much to draw a woman to us , as against her nature to draw her from all other besides . and so when we go against nature , and from venus-work ( for marriage is chastitie ) we need shadowes and colours , but not else . in seneca's time it was a course , an un roman and a contemptible thing even in a matron , not to have had a love beside her husband , which though the law required not at their hands , yet they did it zealously out of the councel of custom and fashion , which was venery of supererrogation : et te spectator plusquam delectat adulter , saith martial : and horace , because many lights would not shew him enough , created many images of the same object by wainscoting his chamber with looking-glasses : so that venus flies not light , so much as mercury , who creeping into our understanding , our darkness would be defeated , if he were perceived . then either this shadow confesseth that same dark melancholy repentance which accompanies ; or that so violent fires , needs some shadowy refreshing and intermission : or else light signifying both day and youth , and shadow both night and age , she pronounceth by this that she professeth both all persons and times . ix . why is venus-star multinominous , called both hesperus and vesper . the moon hath as many names , but not as she is a star , but as she hath divers governments ; but venus is multinominous to give example to her prostitute disciples , who so often , either to renew or refresh themselves towards lovers , or to disguise themselves from magistrates , are to take new names . it may be she takes new names after her many functions , for as she is supream monarch of all suns at large ( which is lust ) so is she joyned in commission with all mythologicks , with iuno , diana , and all others for marriage . it may be because of the divers names to her self , for her affections have more names than any vice : scilicet , pollution , fornication , adultery , lay. incest , church-incest , rape , sodomy , mastupration , masturbation , and a thousand others . perchance her divers names shewed her appliableness to divers men , for neptune distilled and wet her in love , the sun warms and melts her , mercury perswaded and swore her , iupiters authority secured , and vulcan hammer'd her . as hesperus she presents you with her bonum utile , because it is wholsomest in the morning : as vesper with her bonum delectabile , because it is pleasantest in the evening . and because industrious men rise and endure with the sun in their civil businesses , this star cals them up a little before , and remembers them again a little after for her business ; for certainly , venit hesperus , ite capell●…e : was spoken to lovers in the persons of goats . x. why are new officers least oppressing ? must the old proverb , that old dogs bite sorest , be true in all kinde of dogs ? me thinks the fresh memory they have of the money they parted with for the place , should hasten them for the re-imbursing : and perchance they do but seem easier to their suiters ; who ( as all other patients ) do account all change of pain , easie . but if it be so , it is either because the sodain sense and contentment of the honor of the place , retards and remits the rage of their profits , and so having stayed their stomacks , they can forbear the second course a while : or having overcome the steepest part of the hill , and clambered above competitions and oppositions they dare loiter , and take breath : perchance being come from places , where they tasted no gain , a little seems much to them at first , for it is long before a christian conscience overtakes , or straies into an officers heart . it may be that out of the general disease of all men not to love the memory of a predecessor , they seek to disgrace them by such easiness , and make good first impressions , that so having drawn much water to their mill , they may afterwards grind at ease : for if from the rules of good horfemanship , they thought it wholsome to jet out in a moderate pace , they should also take up towards their journeys end , not mend their pace continually , and gallop to their inns-dore , the grave ; except perchance their conscience at that time so touch them that they think it an injury & damage both to him that must sell , and to him that must buy the office after their death , and a kind of dilapidation if they by continuing honest should discredit the place , and bring it to a lower rent , or under-value . xi . why doth the poxe soe much affect to undermine the nose ? paracelsus perchance saith true , that every disease hath his exaltation in some part certaine . but why this in the nose ? is there so much mercy in this disease , that it provides that one should not smell his own stinck ? or hath it but the common fortune , that being begot and bred in obscurest and secretest places , because therefore his serpentine crawling and insinuation should not be suspected , nor seen , he comes soonest into great place , and is more able to destroy the worthiest member , then a disease better born ? perchance as mice defeat elephants by knawing their proboscis , which is their nose , this wretched indian vermine practiseth to doe the same upon us . or as the ancient furious custome and connivency of some lawes , that one might cut off their nose whome he deprehended in adulterie , was but a tipe of this ; and that now more charitable lawes having taken away all revenge from particular hands , this common magistrate and executioner is come to doe the same office invisibly ? or by withdrawing this conspicuous part , the nose , it warnes us from all adventuring upon that coast ; for it is as good a marke to take in a flag as to hang one out . possibly heate , which is more potent and active then cold , thought her selfe injured , and the harmony of the world out of tune , when cold was able to shew the high-way to noses in muscovia , except she found the meanes to doe the same in other countries . or because by the consent of all , there is an analogy , proportion and affection between the nose and that part where this disease is first contracted , and therefore heliogabalus chose not his minions in the bath but by the nose ; and albertus had a knavish meaning when he preferd great noses ; and the licentious poet was naso poeta . i think this reason is nearest truth , that the nose is most compassionate with this part : except this be nearer , that it is reasonable that this disease in particular should affect the most eminent and perspicuous part , which in general doth affect to take hold of the most eminent and conspicuous men . xii . why die none for love now ? because women are become easyer . or because these later times have provided mankind of more new means for the destroying of themselves and one another , pox , gunpowder , young marriages , and controversies in religion . or is there in true history no precedent or example of it ? or perchance some die so , but are not therefore worthy the remembring or speaking of ? xiii . why do women delight much in feathers ? they think that feathers imitate wings , and so shew their restlessness and instability . as they are in matter , so they would be in name , like embroiderers , painters , and such artificers of curious vanities , which the vulgar call pluminaries . or else they have feathers upon the same reason , which moves them to love the unworthiest men , which is , that they may be thereby excusable in their inconstancy and often changing . xiv . why doth not gold soyl the fingers ? doth it direct all the venom to the heart ? or is it because bribing should not be discovered ? or because that should pay purely , for which pure things are given , as love , honor , iustice and heaven ? or doth it seldom come into innocent hands , but into such as for former foulness you cannot discern this ? xv. why do great men of all dependants , chuse to preserve their little pimps ? it is not hecause they are got nearest their secrets , for they whom they bring come nearer . nor because commonly they and their bawds have lain in one belly , for then they should love their brothers aswel . nor because they are witnesses of their weakness , for they are weak ones . either it is because they have a double hold and obligation upon their masters for providing them surgery and remedy after , aswel as pleasure before , and bringing them always such stuff , as they shal always need their service ? or because they may be received and entertained every where , and lords fling off none but such as they may destroy by it . or perchance we deceive our selves , and every lord having many , and , of necessity , some rising , we mark only these . xvi . why are courtiers sooner atheists then men of other conditions ? is it because as physitians contemplating nature , and finding many abstruse things subject to the search of reason , thinks therfore that all is so ; so they ( seeing mens destinies , mad at court , neck out and in joynt there , war , peace , life and death derived from thence ) climb no higher ? or doth a familiarity with greatness , and daily conversation and acquaintance with it breed a contempt of all greatness ? or because that they see that opinion or need of one another , and fear makes the degrees of servants , lords and kings , do they think that god likewise for such reason hath been mans creator ? perchance it is because they see vice prosper best there , and , burthened with sinne , doe they not , for their ease , endeavour to put off the feare and knowledge of god , as facinorous men deny magistracy ? or are the most atheists in that place , because it is the foole that said in his heart , there is no god. xvii . why are statesmen most incredulous ? are they all wise enough to follow their excellent pattern tiberius , who brought the senate to be diligent and industrions to believe him , were it never so opposite or diametricall , that it destroyed their very ends to be believed , as asinius gallus had almost deceived this man by believing him , and the major and aldermen of london in richard the third ? or are businesses ( about which these men are conversant ) so conjecturall , so subject to unsuspected interventions that they are therefore forc'd to speake oraculously , whisperingly , generally , and therefore escapingly , in the language of almanack-makers for weather ? or are those ( as they call them ) arcana imperii , as by whom the prince provokes his lust , and by whom he vents it , of what cloath his socks are , and such , so deep , and so irreveald , as any error in them is inexcusable ? if these were the reasons , they would not only serve for state-business . but why will they not tell true , what a clock it is , and what weather , but abstain from truth of it , if it conduce not to their ends , as witches which will not name jesus , though it be in a curse ? eithere they know little out of their own elements , or a custom in one matter begetts an habite in all . or the lower sort imitate lords , they their princes , these their prince . or else they believe one another , and so never hear truth . or they abstain from the little channel of truth , least , at last , they should finde the fountain it self , god. the character of a scot at the first sight . at his first appearing in the charterhouse , an olive coloured velvet suit owned him , which since became mous-colour , a pair of unskour'd stockingsgules , one indifferent shooe , his band of edenburgh , and cuffs of london , both strangers to his shirt , a white feather in a hat that had bin sod , one onely cloak for the rain , which yet he made serve him for all weathers : a barrenhalf-acre of face , amidst whereof an eminent nose advanced himself , like the new mount at wansted , over-looking his beard , and all the wilde countrey thereabouts ; he was tended enough , but not well ; for they were certain dumb creeping followers , yet they made way for their master , the laird . — at the first presentment his breeches were his sumpter , and his packets , trunks , cloak-bags , portmanteau's and all ; he then grew a knightwright , and there is extant of his ware at 100l . 150l . and 200l . price . immediately after this , he shifteth his suit , so did his whore , and to a bear-baiting they went , whither i followed them not , but tom. thorney did . the true character of a dunce . he hath a soule drownd in a lump of flesh , or is a piece of earth that prometheus put not half his proportion of fire into , a thing that hath neither edge of desire , nor feeling of affection in it , the most dangerous creature for confirming an atheist , who would straight swear , his soul were nothing but the bare temperature of his body : he sleeps as he goes , and his thoughts seldom reach an inch further then his eyes ; the most part of the faculties of his soul lye fallow , or are like the restive jades that no spur can drive forwards towards the pursuite of any worthy design ; one of the most unprofitable of all gods creatures , being as he is , a thing put clean besides his right use , made fitt for the cart & the flail , and by mischance entangled amongst books and papers , a man cannot tel possible what he is now good for , save to move up and down and fill room , or to serv as animatum instrumentum for others to work withal in base imployments , or to be a foyl for better witts , or to serve ( as they say monsters do ) to set out the variety of nature , and ornament of the universe , he is meer nothing of himself , neither eates , nor drinkes , nor goes , nor spits but by imitation , for al which , he hath set forms & fashions , which he never varies , but sticks to , with the like plodding constancy that a milhors follows his trace , both the muses and the graces are his hard mistrisses , though he daily invocate them , though he sacrifize hecatombs , they stil look a squint , you shall note him oft ( besides his dull eye and louting head , and a certain clammie benum'd pace ) by a fair displai'd beard , a nightcap and a gown , whose very wrincles proclaim him the true genius of formality , but of al others , his discours and compositions best speak him , both of them are much of one stuf & fashion , he speaks just what his books or last company said unto him without varying one whit & very seldom understands himself , you may know by his discourse where he was last , for what he read or heard yesterday he now dischargeth his memory or notebook of , not his understanding , for it never came there ; what he hath he flings abroad at al adventurs without accomodating it to time , place persons or occasions , he commonly loseth himself in his tale , and flutters up and down windles without recovery , and whatsoever next presents it self , his heavie conceit seizeth upon and goeth along with , however heterogeneal to his matter in hand , his jests are either old flead proverbs , or lean-starv'd apophthegm's , or poor verball quips outworn by servingmen , tapsters and milkmaids , even laid aside by bassaders , he assents to all men that bring any shadow of reason , and you may make him when he speaks most dogmatically , even with one breath , to averr pure contradictions , his compositions differ only terminorum positione from dreams , nothing but rude heaps of immaterial-inchoherent drossie-rubbish-stuffe , promiscuously thrust up together , enough to infuse dullness and barrenness of conceit into him that is so prodigall of his eares as to give the hearing , enough to make a mans memory ake with suffering such dirtie stuffe cast into it , as unwellcome to any true conceit , as sluttish morsells or wallowish potions to a nice-stomack which whiles he empties himselfe of , it sticks in his teeth nor can he be delivered without sweate and sighes , and humms , and coughs enough to shake his grandams teeth out of her head ; hee l spitt , and scratch , and yawn , and stamp , and turn like sick men from one elbow to another , and deserve as much pitty during this torture as men in fits of tertian feavors or selfe lashing penitentiaries ; in a word , rip him quite asunder , and examin every shred of him , you shall finde him to be just nothing , but the subject of nothing , the object of contempt , yet such as he is you must take him , for there is no hope he should ever become better . an essay of valour . i am of opinion that nothing is so potent either to procure or merit love , as valour , and i am glad i am so , for thereby i shall do my self much ease , because valour never needs much wit to maintain it : to speak of it in it self , it is a quality which he that hath , shall have least need of , so the best league between princes is a mutual fear of each other , it teacheth a man to value his reputation as his life , and chiefly to hold the lye unsufferable , though being alone , he finds no hurt it doth him , it leaves it self to others censures , for he that brags of his own valour , disswades others from believing it , it feareth a word no more then an ague , it always makes good the owner , for though he be generally held a fool , he shall seldom hear so much by word of mouth , and that enlargeth him more than any spectacles , for it maketh a little fellow be called a tall man , it yeilds the wall to none but a woman , whose weakness is her prerogative , or a man seconded with a woman as an usher , which always goes before his betters , it makes a man become the witness of his own words , and stand to whatever he hath said , and thinketh it a reproach to commit his reviling unto the law , it furnisheth youth with action , and age with discourse , and both by futures , for a man must ever boast himself in the present tense , and to come nearer home , nothing drawes a woman like to it ; for valour towards men , is an emblem of an ability towards women , a good quality signifies a better . nothing is more behooffull for that sex ; for from it they receive protection , and we free from the danger of it : nothing makes a shorter cut for obtaining , for a man of arms is always void of ceremony , which is the wall that stands between pyramus and thisbe , that is , man and woman , for there is no pride in women but that which rebounds from our own basenesse ( as cowards grow valiant upon those that are more cowards ) so that only by our pale asking , we teach them to deny , and by our shamefac'dness , we put them in minde to be modest , whereas indeed it is cunning rhetorick to perswade the hearers that they are that already which he would have them to be ; this kinde of bashfulness is far from men of valour , and especially from souldiers , for such are ever men ( without doubt ) forward and confident , losing no time least they should lose oportunity , which is the best factor for a lover , and because they know women are given to dissemble , they will never believe them when they deny , whilome before this age of wit , and wearing black , were broke in upon us , there was no way known to win a lady but by tylting , turnying , and riding through forrests , in which time these slender striplings with little legs were held but of strength enough to marry their widows , and even in our days there can be given no reason of the inundation of servingmen upon their mistresses , but ( only ) that usually they carry their masters weapons , and his valour ; to be accounted handsome , just , learned , or well favoured , all this carries no danger with it , but it is to be admitted to the title of valiant acts , at least the adventuring of his mortality , and al women take delight to hold him safe in their arms who hath 'scapt thither through many dangers : to speak at once , man hath a priviledge in valour ; in clothes and good faces we but imitate women , and many of that sex will not think much ( as far as an answer goes ) to dissemble wit too . so then these neat youths , these women in mens apparel are too near a woman to be beloved of her , they be both of a trade , but be grim of aspect , and such a one a glass dares take , and she will desire him for neatness and varietie ; a skar in a mans face is the same that a mole in a womans ; a jewel set in white to make it seem more white , for a skar in a man is a mark of honour and no blemish , for 't is a skar and a blemish too in a souldier to be with out one : now as for al things else which are to procure love , as a good face , wit , good clothes , or a good body , each of them i confess may work somewhat for want of a better , that is , if valour be not their rivall ; a good face avails nothing if it be in a coward that is bashfull , the utmost of it is to be kiss'd , which rather encreaseth then quencheth appetite ; he that sends her gifts sends her world also , that he is a man of small gifts otherwise , for wooing by signes and tokens implies the author dumb ; and if ovid who writ the law of love , were alive ( as he is extant ) would allow it as good a diversity , that gifts should be sent as gratuities , not as bribes ; wit getteth rather promise then love , wit is not to be seen , and no woman takes advice of any in her loving , but of her own eyes , and her waiting womans ; nay which is worse , wit is not to be felt , and so no good fellow ; wit apply'd to a woman makes her dissolve ( or disclose ) her simpering , and discover her teeth with laughter , and this is surely a purge for love ; for the beginning of love is a kind of foolish melancholy , as for the man that makes his taylor his bawd , and hopes to inveagle his love with such a coloured suit , surely the same deeply hazards the loss of her favour upon every change of his clothes ; so likewise for the other , that courts her silently with a good body , let me certifie him that his clothes depend upon the comelynesse of the body , and so both upon opinion ; she that hath been seduced by apparel , let me give her to wit , that men always put off their clothes before they go to bed : and let her that hath been enamour'd of her servants body , understand , that if she saw him in a skin of cloth , that is , in a suit made to the pattern of his body , she would see slender cause to love him ever after ; there are no clothes sit so well in a womans eye , as a suit of steel , though not of the fashion , and no man so soon surpriseth a womans affections , as he that is the subject of all whisperings , and hath always twenty stories of his own deeds depending upon him ; mistake me not , i understand not by valour one that never fights but when he is back'd with drink or anger , or hiss'd on with beholders , nor one that is desperate , nor one that takes away a servingmans weapons when perchance it cost him his quarters wages , nor yet one that wears a privy coat of defence and therein is confident , for then such as made bucklers , would be accounted the catalines of this commonwealth — i intend one of an even resolution grounded upon reason , which is always even , having his power restrained by the law of not doing wrong . but now i remember i am for valour and therefore i must be a man of few words . paradox . xii . that virginity is a vertue . i call not that virginity a vertue , which resideth onely in the bodies integrity ; much lesse if it be with a purpose of perpetuall keeping it : for then it is a most inhumane vice — but i call that virginity a vertue which is willing and desirous to yeeld it selfe upon honest and lawfull terms , when just reason requireth ; and untill then , is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind . some perchance will say that virginity is in us by nature , and therefore no vertue . true , as it is in us by nature , it is neither a vertue nor vice , and is onely in the body : ( as in infants , children , and such as are incapable of parting from it ) but that virginity which is in man or or woman of perfect age , is not in them by nature : nature is the greatest enemy to it , and with most subtile allurements seeks the over-throw of it , continually beating against it with her engines , and giving such forcible assaults to it , that it is a strong and more then ordinary vertue to hold out till marriage . ethick philosophy saith , that no vertue is corrupted , or is taken away by that which is good : hereupon some may say , that virginity is therfore no vertue , being taken away by marriage . virginity is no otherwise taken away by marriage , then is the light of the starres by a greater light ( the light of the sun : ) or as a lesse title is taken away by a greater : ( an esquire by being created an earle ) yet virginity is a vertue , and hath her throne in the middle : the extreams are , in excesse : to violate it before marriage ; in defect , not to marry . in ripe years as soon as reason perswades and opportunity admits , these extreams are equally removed from the mean : the excesse-proceeds from lust , the defect from peevishnesse , pride and stupidity . there is an old proverb , that , they that dy maids , must lead apes in hell. an ape is a ridiculous and an unprofitable beast , whose flesh is not good for meat , nor its back for burden , nor is it commodious to keep an house : and perchance for the unprofitablenesse of this beast did this proverb come up : for surely nothing is more unprofitable in the commonwealth of nature , then they that dy old maids , because they refuse to be used to that end for which they were only made . the ape bringeth forth her young , for the most part by twins ; that which she loves best , she killeth by pressing it too hard : so foolish maids soothing themselves with a false conceit of vertue , in fond obstinacie , live and die maids ; and so not onely kill in themselves the vertue of virginity , and of a vertue make it a vice , but they also accuse their parents in condemning marriage . if this application hold not touch , yet there may be an excellent one gathered from an apes tender love to conies in keeping them from the weasel and ferret . from this similitude of an ape & an old maid did the foresaid proverb first arise . but alas , there are some old maids that are virgins much against their wills , and fain would change their virgin-life for a married : such if they never have had any offer of fit husbands , are in some sort excusable , and their willingnesse , their desire to marry , and their forbearance from all dishonest , and unlawfull copulation , may be a kind of inclination to vertue , although not vertue it selfe . this vertue of virginity ( though it be small and fruitlesse ) it is an extraordinary , and no common vertue . all other vertues lodge in the will ( it is the will that makes them vertues . ) but it is the unwillingnesse to keep it , the desire to forsake it , that makes this a vertue . as in the naturall generation and formation made of the seed in the womb of a woman , the body is joynted and organized about the 28 day , and so it begins to be no more an embrion , but capable as a matter prepared to its form to receive the soule , which faileth not to insinuate and innest it selfe into the body about the fortieth day ; about the third month it hath motion and sense : even so virginity is an embrion , an unfashioned lump , till it attain to a certain time , which is about twelve years of age in women , fourteen in men , and then it beginneth to have the soule of love infused into it , and to become a vertue : there is also a certain limited time when it ceaseth to be a vertue , which in men is about fourty , in women about thirty years of age : yea , the losse of so much time makes their virginity a vice , were not their endeavour wholly bent , and their desires altogether fixt upon marriage : in harvest time do we not account it a great vice of sloath and negligence in a husband-man , to overslip a week or ten dayes after his fruits are fully ripe ; may we not much more account it a more heynous vice , for a virgin to let her fruit ( in potentia ) consume and rot to nothing , and to let the vertue of her virginity degenerate into vice , ( for virginity ever kept is ever lost . ) avarice is the greatest deadly sin next pride : it takes more pleasure in hoording treasure then in making use of it , and will neither let the possessor nor others take benefit by it during the misers life ; yet it remains intire , and when the miser dies most come to som body . virginity ever kept , is a vice far wors then avarice , it will neither let the possessor nor others take benefit by it , nor can it be bequeathed to any : with long keeping it decayes and withers , and becomes corrupt and nothing worth . thus seeing that virginity becomes a vice in defect , by exceeding a limited time ; i counsell all female virgins to make choyce of some paracelsian for their physitian , to prevent the death of that vertue : the paracelsians ( curing like by like ) say , that if the lives of living creatures could be taken down , they would make us immortall . by this rule , female virgins by a discreet marriage should swallow down into their virginity another virginity , and devour such a life & spirit into their womb , that it might make them , as it were , immortall here on earth , besides their perfect immortality in heaven : and that vertue which otherwise would putrifie and corrupt , shall then be compleat ; and shall be recorded in heaven , and enrolled here on earth ; and the name of virgin shal be exchanged for a farre more honorable name , a wife . a sheaf of miscellany epigrams . written in latin by i. d. translated by j. main d. d. 1. upon one who for his wives fault took it ill to be called cuckold . rude scoffer ! why dost cal me cuckold ? no loose fires of love did in my bosome grow . no wedlock knot by me unti'd hath bin ; nor am i guilty of anothers sin . thy wife being not her own with thy limbs she , fool'd cuckold , doth commit adulterie . being , then , one flesh , and thou her head , t is fit the horus , in justice , on thy brow should fit . 2. upon one roger a rich niggard , familiarly unacquainted with the author . bottomless pit of gold ! slave to thy chest ! poor in the midst of riches not possest ! self tantalus ! to thine own wealth a thief ! affording scarce thy half-starv●…d womb relief . cheating thy limbs with cloths transparent worn ; plague to thy self ! to all men else a scorn ! who madly dost mens silver shapes adore ; and thence getst cheeks pale as the silver ore. feare not i 'le beg ; my mind 's above thy pelf ; good thrifty hodge , give something to thy self . 3. upon a whore barren and not barren . thy oft repeated is no childless sin ; when thou art lain with stil thy purs lies in . 4. on the same . thy dowbak'd lusts , and tail which vainly wags , are recompenc'd by thy still teeming bags . 5. on an old bawd. loe , i an old whore have to young resign'd ; yet in my old flesh dwels a young whores mind . 6. on the same . though ramage grown , th' art still for carting fit ; thy will with others bodies doth commit . 7. on the same . she , whose scarce yet quencht lust to freeze begins , liv'd by her own once , now by others sins . 8. on a bawdy-house . here mal , providing for threescore , sets up the trade she learn'd before , vvith watchings many , sweatings more . 9. upon an old rich scolding woman who being married to a poor young man upbraided him daily with the smallness of his fortune . the husbands complaint . vvhat wife like mine hath any husband known ? by day she is all noyse , by night all stone . 10. another . shut thy purse-mouth , old trot , and let 's appeal ; vvho'd without sauce taste so deform'd a meal ? 11. on her unpleasing kisses . they can't be kisses call'd but toothless nips , vvhich , beldam , come from thy faint trembling lips . 12. another . when thy dry grissels with my soft lips close , i give thee kisses , thou return'st me blows . 13. another . thy senses faile thee , and pray god they may , to me thy cofers will their loss defray . 14. on the same old wife . thou art no woman , nor no womans part , infant , or girl ; say , who the devil art . 15. to the same . be not seen , thou , whom i distracted love , least my prodigious dotage scandal prove . for being a meer image , 't wil be spread , that i no wife did , but an idol wed . 16. upon one who saw the picture of his scolding wife in a painters shop . dialog . painter , whose face is that i see ? thy wives . alas ! i fear t is she . just so her scolding eyes do burn ; and brow doth into wrincles turn . i tremble at her sharp nose ; so her frighting chin doth pointed grow . all parts are so drawn to the life , methinks the picture , like my wise , begins to brawl , and kindle strife . 17. another . say painter , who 's this whom thy hand hath made , thy wife who dost enquire , at least her shade . 't is so ; yet painter , i had cause to doubt , seeing her tongue , her most known part left out . 18. another . who 's this , painter ? thy wife , o that she were in earnest so . 19. another . venus , when pygmalion praid , chang'd a statue to a maid ; whose cold marble drunk warm bloud . if at my request she would my wife into marble turn , i would white doves to her burn . 20. upon a pipe of tobacco mis-taken by the author for the tooth-ach . outlandish weed ! whilst i thy vertues tell , assist me bedlam , muses come from hell. 21. another . an hearb thou art , but useless ; for made fire , from hot mouths puft , thou dost in fumes expire . 22. another . a cloud ixion for a goddess kist ; so thou thy lovers cosen'st with a mist. 23. to the tobacco-seller . merchant of smoke , when next thou mak'st a feast invite some starv'd chamelion to be guest . 24. another . lothings , stincks , thirst , rhumes , aches , and catarrh , base weed , thy vertues , that 's , thy poysons are . 25. another . i love thee not , nor thou me having tri'd how thy scorcht takers are but takers fry'd . 26. another . niggards till dead are niggards ; so vile weed , thy bounty from thy ashes doth proceed . 27. upon a town built in the place where a wood grew ; from whence 't is called dukes-wood , or the burse a wood into fair buildings chang'd we see ; and th' oke stands city where 't was fel'd a tree . 28. another . falne okes the axe doth into timber hew ; and a town stands where trees demolisht grew . 29. another . from a woods ruines did these buildings rise , and it stood grove where now it rafters lies . 30. another . this naked beam which beares up roofes from ground , was once with branches & fair green top , crown'd . 31. another . wood yeelds to stone , boughs are made joyces here , and where a cops stood now fair streets appeare . 32. upon a navigable river cut through a town built out of a wood. horsmen turn sailers , waves roll where grew woods and against nature art make ways through floods . 33. another . the drownd land here a crystall garment wears , and her own trees , made barges , once more bears . 34. another . the tree her womb-bred on the back now floats of this o're-flown field , now in wandring boats. 35. another . the ground whose head was once enricht with okes , her temples now steept in sea-water sokes . 36. another . the place where once grew ash for warlike spears the maze makes drunk now with his brinish tears 37. upon the medows over-flown there . the medows which their perfum'd locks did boast ore-flown with waters have their perfumes lost . 38. another . the hungry cow here lately did mistake ; and seeking grasse was cosen'd with a lake . 39. another . here fishes dwell , till now not us'd to fields ; and pasture ground here sportful gudgeons yeelds . 40. another . mere pleasant fields drownd by the wandring maze , see scaly flocks swim where once sheep did graze . 41. another . dukes-wood where once thick bushes did appear , like a new iland now stands in a meer . 42. upon a piece of ground ore-flown , where once a leaguer quartered . here where tents stood , mars now to neptune yeelds , and sea-nymphs tread moist dances ore the fields . 43. another . fishes now quarter where pavilions stood ; and the smooth tench dies the sharp hook with blood . 44. another . finn'd soldiers here in belgick quarters jar ; and the fierce pike in troubled streams makes war. 45. another . dutchman ! this grove once hatcht the warlick speer , which angry perches on their backs now wear . 46. another . gudgeons , where soldiers lay , ly trencht in sand , fearing the bloudie colours of the land. 47. a dutch captain of foot , having with his soldiers entred a breach , and there a while fought valiantly with a two-handed sword ; in the very point of victory , being mortally wounded , spake thus : i fighting die ; how much more blest then they , whom a blind shot doth , standing idle , slay . 48. another . we 've conquer'd boys ; my wounds i highly rate , when with such honor they requite my fate . 49. another . thus conquering kild , my ashes triumphs gain , and make me wish thus to be often slain . 50. another . i die well paid , whilst my expiring breath , smiles ore the tombs of foes made kin by death . 51. another . me the queld spaniard to the next world sent not unreveng'd ; his troops before me went. 52. his will. let heaven my soul , the foe my life , the grave my corps , my fame let my sav'd countrey have . 53. to the prince of aurange , on his famous victory over the spaniards in dukes-wood . now golden fruit , prince , hang on dukes-wood boughes ; since it with lawrell crown'd thy conquering browes . 54. another . holland and aurange may their conquest boast of the quell'd spaniard , but brave aurange most . 55. another . spaniard , no more call golden fleeces thine , since the bright name of aurange doth more shine . 56. a panegyrick on the hollanders being lords of the sea. occasioned by the authors being in their army at dukes-wood . heathen ! no more thy neptune boast ; here see a neptune more lord of the sea then hee ; whom fruitfull holland feeds , holland sea-bred ; and neighbouring zealand folds in watry bed . neptune's a dutch god ; here his wandrings stay ; and his calm'd ragings con●…ring chains obey . his standing flood here to the bridle yeilds , and his fierce torrent plaies through unknown fields . here the swoln sea views the inferiour ground , and yet no green bush , even to wonder , drownd ; whilst billows , like huge mountains , do hang o're the pleasing vales which creep along the shore . banks hold waves captive , and through sluces free , and glebes from watry prisons snatcht we see . glebes , which were long of sun , and skie bereav'd , now the dutch plowman sees wel cornd & sheav'd . curbing the ocean with stout mounds and bars , and with the salt gods of it waging vvars . making art fetch from the deep 's rav'nous womb pastures , lost towns , and houses ; in which swomm shell'd citizens , ' mongst pillars drencht in brine . should achelous here joyn strengths with thine , and wrestle for the conquest , holland , here each drayner would a hercules appear ; and cosening art with art , in these dry'd plains , would bind the oft shape-changing god in chains . the oft tam'd maze here the dutch yoke endures , and his fear'd master to the vvalls secures of the sam'd burse now , dutchman , fear no harms , vvhen against neighbouring cities seas take arms . the oceans thine , with thee his waves have sworn the league which philip broke . by him th' art born to the parcht indians , and those lands of gold which the proud tyrant doth in bondage hold : whose wealth transported from the plunder'd mine his plate-fleet calls his , but the sea makes thine . each duch-man is columbus ; worlds unknown to the discovering spaniard , are his grown : nor can i here conceal , nor yet say well , where heynskirch's praise , or oliver's excell , or heyn's more bold adventure ; whose bright ore prest the sea's back with wealth snatch from the shore for whilst i do dutch voyages rehearse , and sail with thy victorious ships in verse , i , holland in thy swimming camp am roll'd into all seas , and there both poles behold . the africk sands to thee large tribute send , and asia glories to be stil'd thy friend ; america's rich mines grow in thy lands , and at thy conquests europe wondring stands . 57. to sleep , stealling upon him as he stood upon the guard in the corner of a running trench , at the siege of duke's-wood . why dost besiege mine eyes , untimely sleep ? and o'er my limbs with thy dull setters creep ? hence , hence , depart ; to roofs well tyll'd repaire ; to beds of down , and mindes unvext with care . shut virgins eyes , whilst love tir'd with delay , unstrings his bow , and lets his arrows play . rock weary ploughmen , and new strength beget in those whose spirits were breath'd forth in sweat ; to men opprest with grief , who court thy charms . and men unbusied lend thy opium arms . be kinde to men in bedlam , close the eyes of him who in a raging feaver lyes . but let me watch ; not as a spy , to mark , with whom my wench steals meetings in the dark . here guards are kept , & from yond watchful towres , the crasty foe vyes broken : sleeps with ours ; seeking by slye plots , what pitcht-fields deny ; hence , hence , then morpheus , from our quarters fly . our very standing still here business finde ; duty imploys our bodies , cares our minde . duty which may the next hour double strike ; whilst each man here stands grasping of a pike ; waitings stoln onsets with our weary spears , examining even whispers with our ears . doubts of the coming foe , with hopes are mixt , and all eyes are one his approaches fi●…t . all passengers we summon with our eyes , ask who they are , and question them or spies . if well-known friends , they pass ; if not , they stay till we their doubtful answers strictly weigh . wil not this serve , sleep ? wil not al this fright thee ? see , then , a night turn'd into day to light thee . see a bright shine from coal black powder spring , and light from darkness once more issuing . see flames like those belcht forth from aetna's maw , such flames as no fleece-stealing iason saw . hecuba's child of fire in dreams begot , was not like that from murdring canons shot . if yet thou 'lt stay , hear thunders mixt with flame , such as neer yet from cyclops anvil came . hark how the loud gun shakes the trembling sky , whilst threatning bals in showres of murther fly . sicilian bull did not so loudly roar ; nor was the sword more dreadful which hung o're damocles neck from guilt roof . then , away , and to such dangers , sleep , don't me betray . 58. to his fellow sentinels . and you , comrades , with me this night endure ; let our cause make us bold , courage secure . le ts with stout mindes our present dangers meet ; and let our stations from their toyls grow sweet . stations where souldiers are made brothers . night●… in wine , and revels spent make winged flights ; a coy whore is with patience watcht for , yet no honor's gain'd ; glory with dangers met here doth attend us ; toyls are paid with praise . let 's weave us crowns , then , of immortal bayes . to heaven our souls , to earth let 's flesh assign , but in our mindes let loyal honor shine . 59. in comaedam celeberrimam cinthiam dictam ad in stantiam alterius f●…cit . sic vaga formosas superabat cinthia nymphas ut tu nunc socias cinthia dicta tuas . quae tibi majestas vultus , que gratia frontis ! spiritus ut major quam muliebris inest ? tam bene compositum suavis decet actio corpus ut posset credi singula membra loqui . cùm velis esse venus , vel cùm velis esse diana tam sunilis non est ipsa vel ipsa sibi , si velis esse diana hos ô non desere saltus , haec nemus haec fontem florida scena dabit . o si te nudam semel hoc in fonte viderem cornua tunc essent paenaque grata canes . si luna esse velis fiat tibi sphaera theatrum , pascantur radiis lumina nostra tuis . sed raro hinc abeas , & cùm discedere velles o si te possent lumina nostra sequi ; aut tua cum desit foelix praesentia nobis impressis liceat viribus usque srui . idem anglicè versum . as wandring cinthia all her nymphs excells , so dost thou all thy fellows ; in thee dwells majesty mixt with loveliness , a spirit that 's more then womanish ; thy graces merit , and force a liking , as the lights above ; the earths light vapours upwards force and move : thy action doth each passion so well fit , as if each limb did help to utter it : if thou wilt venus or diana be , neither will be so like her self as thee . 〈◊〉 thou be diana , haunt these fields , 〈◊〉 both woods and fountains yeelds . that i could see thee here but wash thy snow , acteon's fate ide joy to undergo . wilt thou be th' moon , then make thy sphere this stage ; but it were pitty thou shouldst change thy age ; and if from our horizon thou shouldst go , still to view thee wee 'd change horizon too ; but that we may when thou art gone from hence , still be made happy by thy influence . on one particular passage of her action , when she was to be stript of her cloaths by fulvio , but not without much resistance . videns excogitavit . as fulvio cinthia's glory would eclips , and graced by her limbs , her robe off strips ; to see her how she strove , and pray'd , and cry'd , but for the plays sake none could have deny'd . and as she strove with him , so modesty did strive with anger for the mastery . how was she pale with anger , red with shame ! her colour chang'd , with choller went and came , as when the winking moon strives with a cloude , whose glory darkness doth by fits enshroude : was it nor envy , that we might not see that which from th' smock could scarce discerned be ; or wast for shamefastness : yes , yes , 't was so , that too much hiding of her face did show . so look'd the nymph which iupiter beguil'd i' th water with diana got with child ; so salmacis half ravish'd in the brook , as she almost stript to her smock did look . the poet was too sparing , had she been like intrapt venus nak'd to have been seen ; and with a net unhid been covered ; how on her limbs our hungry eyes had fed , and dwelt on her seen members , whilst the rest had by proportion easily been guest : but pitty 't were that she enjoyn'd had been so hard a penance , guilty of no sin . finis . ignatius his conclave : or , his inthronisation in a late election in hell . wherein many things are mingled by way of satyr . concerning the disposition of jesuites . the creation of a new hell. the establishing of a church in the moon . there is also added an apologie for iesuites . all dedicated to the two adversary angels , which are protectors of the papall consistory , and of the colledge of sorbon . by john donne , doctor of divinity , and late dean of saint pauls . printed at london , 1653. to the two tutelar angels , protectors of the popes consistory , and of the colledg of sorbon . most noble couple of angels , lest it should be said that you did never agree , and never meet , but that you did ever abhorre one another , and ever resemble janus with a diverse face ; i attempted to bring and joyne you together once in these papers not that i might compose your differences , for you have not choson me for arbi●…or ; but , that you might beware of an enemy common to you both , i will relate what i saw . i was in an extasie , and my little wandring sportful soul , guest , and companion of my body , had liberty to wander through all places , and to survey and reckon all the roomes , and all the volumes of the heavens , and to comprehend the situation , the dimensions , the nature , the people & the policie , both of the swimming ilands , the planets , and of all those which are fixed in the firmament . of which , i think it an honester part as yet to be silent , then to doe galilaeo wrong by speaking of it , who of late hath summoned the other worlds , the stars to come neerer to him , and give him an account of themselves , or to keppler , who ( as himselfe testifies of himselfe ) ever since tycho braches death , hath received it into his care , that no new thing should be done in heaven without his knowledge . for by the law , prevention must take place ; and therefore what they have found and discovered first , i am content they speake and utter first . yet this they may vouchsafe to take from me , that they shall hardly find enoch , or elias any where in their circuit . when i had surveied all the heavens , then as the larke by busie and laborious wayes , having climb'd up th'ethereall hil , doth raise his hymnes to phoebus harpe : and striking then his sailes , his wings , doth fal down back agen , so suddenly , that one may safely say , a stone came lazily that came that way , in the twinckling of an eye , i saw all the roomes in hell open to my sight . and by the benefit of certain spectacles , i know not of what making , but i thinke , of the same , by which gregory the great and beda did discerne so distinctly the soules of their friends , when they were discharged from their bodies and sometimes the soules of such men as they knew not by sight , and of some that were never in the world , and yet they could distinguish them flying into heaven , or conversing with living men . i saw all the channels in the bowels of the earth ; and all the inhabitants of all nations , and of all ages were suddenly made familiar to mee . i thinke truly , robert aquinas when he took christ's long oration , as he hung upon the crosse , did use some such instrument as this , but applyed to the eare : and so i thinke did he , which dedicated to adrian 6. that sermon which christ made in praise of his father ioseph : for else how did they heare that , which none but they ever heard ? as for the suburbs of hel ( i mean both limbo and purgatory ) i must confess i passed them over so negligently , that i saw them not : and i was hungerly carried , to finde new places , never discovered before . for purgatory did not seem worthy to me of much diligence , because it may seem already to have been beleeved by some persons , in some corners of the roman church for about 50 yeares ; that is ever since the councell of trent had a minde to fulfill the prophecies of homer , virgil , and the other patriarks of the papists , and being not satisfied with making one transubstantiation , purposed to bring in another : which is , to change fables into articles of faith. proceeding therefore to more inward places , i saw a secret place , where there were not many , beside lucifer himselfe ; to which , onely they had title , which had so attempted any innovation in this life , that they gave an affront to all antiquity , and induced doubts , and anxieties , and scruples , and after a libertie of beleeving what they would , at length established opinions , directly contrary to all established before . of which place in hell , lucifer afforded us hertofore some little knowledge , when more then 200. yeares since , in an epistle written to the cardinall s. sexti , he promised him a roome in his palace , in the remotest part of his eternall chaos , which i take to be this place . and here pope boniface 3. and mahomet , seemed to contend about the highest room . he gloried of having expelled an old religion , and mahomet of having brought in a new ; each of them a great deluge to the world . but it is to be feared , that mahomet will fail therein , both because he attributed something to the old testament , and because he used sergius as his fellow-bishop , in making the alcoran ; whereas it was evident to the supreme judge lucifer , ( for how could he be ignorant of that which himselfe had put into the popes minde ? ) that boniface had not only neglected , but destroyed the policy of the state of israel , established in the old testament , when he prepared popes a way , to tread upon the necks of princes , but that he also abstained from al example and coadjutor , when he took upon him that new name , which gregory himselfe ( a pope neither very foolish , nor overmodest ) ever abhord . besides that every day affords new advocates to boniface his side . for since the franciscans were almost worne out ( of whom their general francis , had seen 6000 , souldiers in one army , that is , in one chapter ) which , because they were then but fresh souldiers , he saw assisted with 18000 devils ; the iesuits have much recompenced those decaies and damages , who sometimes have maintained in their tents , 200000 schollers . for though the order of benedict have ever been so fruitful , that they say of it , that all the new orders , which in latter times have broken out , are but little springs , or drops , and that order the ocean , which hath sent out 52 popes , 200 cardinals , 1600 archbishops , 4000 bishops , and 5000 saints , approved by the church , and therefore it cannot be denied , but that boniface his part is much relieved by that order ; yet if they be compared to the iesuits , or to the weak and unperfect types of them , the franciscans , it is no great matter that they have done . though therefore they esteem mahomet worthy of the name of an innovator , and therein perchance not much inferior to boniface , yet since his time , to ours , almost all which have followed his s●…t , have lived barren in an 〈◊〉 and idle concord , and cannot boast that they have produced any new matter : whereas boniface his successors awakened by him , have ever been fruitfull in bringing forth new sinnes , and new pardons , and idolatries , and king-killings . though therefore it may religiously , and piously be beleeved , that turks as well as papists , come daily in troops to the ordinary and common places of hell ; yet certainly to this more honorable room reserved for especiall innovators , the papists have more frequent accesse ; and therefore mahomet is out of hope to prevail , and must imitate the christian emperours , and bee content to sit ( as yet he doth ) at the popes feet . now to this place not onely such endeavour to come , as have innovated in matters directly concerning the soul , but they also which have done so , either in the arts , or in conversation , or in any thing which exerciseth the faculties of the soule , and may so provoke to quarrelsome and brawling controversies , for so the truth be lost , it is no no matter how . but the gates are seldome opened , nor scarce oft●… then once in an age . but my destiny favored me so much , that i was present then , and saw all the pretenders , and all that affected an entrance , and lucifer himself , who then came out into the outward chamber , to heare them plead their own causes . as soon as the door creekt , i spied a certain mathematician , which till then had been busted to finde , to deride , to detrude ptolomey ; and now with an erect countenance , and setled pace , came to the gates , and with hands and feet , ( scarce respecting lucifer himselfe ) beat the doors and cried ; are these shut against me , to whom all the heavens were ever open , who was a soul to the earth , and gave it motion ? by this i knew it was copernicus : for though i had never heard ill of his life , and therefore might wonder to find him there ; yet when i remembred that the papists have extended the name and punishment of heresie , almost to every thing , and that as yet i used gregories and bedes spectacles , by which one saw origen , who deserved so well of the christian church , burning in hell , i doubted no longer , but assured my selfe that it was copernicus which i saw , to whom lucifer said , who are you ? for though even by this boldness you seem worthy to enter , and have attempted a new faction even in hell , yet you must first satisfie those which stand about you , and which expect the same fortune as you doe . except , o lucifer , answered copernicus , i thought thee of the race of the starre lucifer , with which i am so well acquainted , i should not vouchsafe thee this discourse . i am he , which pitying thee who wert thrust into the center of the world , raised both thee and thy prison , the earth , up into the heavens ; so as by my means , god doth not enjoy his revenge upon thee . the sunne , which was an officious spy , and a betrayer of faults and so thy enemy , i have appointed to goe into the lowest part of the world . shall these gates open to such as have innovated in small matters , and shall they be shut against me , who have turned the whole frame of the world , and am thereby almost a new creator . more then this he spoke not . lucifer stuck in a meditation . for what should he doe ? it seemed unjust to deny entry to him which had deserved so well , and dangerous to grant it to one of so great ambitions , and undertakings : nor did he think that himself had attempted greater matters before his fall . somthing he had which he might have conveniently opposed , but he was loath to utter it , lest he should confesse his fear . but ignatius loyola which was got neer his chaire , a subtile fellow , and so indued with the devill , that he was able to tempt , and not onely that , but ( as they say ) even to possesse the devill , apprehended this perplexity in lucifer . and making himselfe sure of his own entrance , and knowing well , that many thousands of his family aspired to that place , he opposeth himself against all others . he was content they should be damned , but not that they should govern . and though when he died he was utterly ignorant in all great learning , and knew not so much as ptolomeys or copernicus name , but might have been perswaded that the words almagest , zenith , and nadir , were saints names , and fit to be put into the letanie , and ora pro nobis joyned to them ; yet after he had spent some time in hell , he had learnt somewhat of his iesuits , which daily came thither . and whilst he staied at the threshold of hell , that is , from the time when he delivered himselfe over to the popes will , he took a little tast of learning . thus furnisht , thus he undertakes copernicus . doe you think to win our lucifer to your part , by allowing him the honour of being of the race of that starre ? who was not onely made before all the stars , but being glutted with the glory of shining there , transferred his dwelling and colonies unto this monarchy , and thereby gave our order a noble example , to spy , to invade , and to possesse foraign kingdoms . can our lucifer or his followers have any honour from that star lucifer , which is but ve●…us ? whose face how much we scorn , appears by this , that for the most part we use her aversly and preposterously . rather let our lucifer glory in lucifer the calaritan bishop ; not therefore because he is placed amongst heretiques , onely for affirming the propagation of the soule ; but especially for this , that he was the first that opposed the dignity of princes , and imprinted the names of antichrist , iudas , and other stigmatique marks upon the emperour ; but for you , what new thing have you invented , by which our lucifer gets any thing ? what cares he whether the earth travel , or stand still ? hath your raising up of the earth into heaven , brought men to that confidence , that they build new towres or threaten god again ? or do they out of this motion of the earth conclude , that there is no hell , or deny the punishment of sin ? do not men believe ? do they not live just as they did before ? besides , this detracts from the dignity of your learning , and derogates from your right and title of coming to this place , that those opinions of yours , may very well be true . if therefore any man have honour or title to this place in this matter , it belongs wholly to our clavins , who opposed himself opportunely against you , and the truth , which at that time was creeping into every mans minde . he only can be called the author of all contentions , and school-combates in this cause ; and no greater profit can be hoped for here in , but that for such brables , more necessary matters be neglected . and yet not only for this is our clavius to be honored , but for the great pains also which he took in the gregorian calender , by which both the peace of the church , and civil businesses have been egregiously troubled : nor hath heaven it self escaped his violence , but hath ever since obeyed his appointments : so that s. steven , iohn baptist , and all the rest , which have been commanded to work miracles at certain appointed days , where their reliques are preserved , do not now attend till the day come , as they were accustomed , but are awaked ten days sooner , and constrained by him to come down from heaven to do that business . but your inventions can scarce be called yours , since before you , heraclides , ecphantus , and aristarchus thrust them into the world : who notwithstanding content themselves with lower roomes amongst the other philosophers , and aspire not to this place , reserved only for antichristian heroes : neither do you agree so well amongst your selves , as that you can be said to have made a sect , since , as you have perverted and changed the order and scheme of others : so tycho brachy hath done by yours , and others by his . let therefore this little mathematician ( dread emperour ) withdraw himself to his own com pany . and if hereafter the fathers of our order can draw a cathedrall decree from the pope , by which it may be defined as a matter of faith , that the earth doth not move ; and an anathema inflicted upon all which hold the contrary : then perchance both the pope which shall decree that , and copernicus his followers ( if they be papists ) may have the dignity of this place . lucifer signified his assent : and copernicus without muttering a word , was as quiet as he thinks the sunne : when he which stood next him , entred into his place . to whom lucifer said : and who are you ? he answered , philippus aureolus theophrastus paracelsus bombast of hohenheim . at this lucifer trembled , as if it were a new exorcîsme , and he thought it might well be the first verse of s. iohn , which is always imployed in exorcismes , and might now be taken out of the welch or irish bibles . but when he understood that it was but the web of his name , he recollected himself , and raising himself upright , asked was he had to say to the great emperour sathan , lucifer , belzebub , leviathan , abaddon . paracelsus replyed , it were an injury to thee , o glorious emperor , if i should deliver before thee what i have done , as though all those things had not proceeded from thee , which seemed to have bin done by me , thy organ and conduit ; yet since i shal rather be thy trumpet herein then mine own , some things may be uttered by me . besides therefore that i brought all methodicall physicians and the art it self into so much contempt , that that kinde of physick is almost lost ; this also was ever my principal purpose , that no certain new art , nor fixed rules might be established , but that all remedies might be dangerously drawn from my uncertain , ragged , and unperfect experiments , in tryal whereof how many men have been made carkases ? and falling upon those times which did abound with paradoxicall and unusual diseases , of all which , the pox , which then began to rage , was almost the center and sink : i ever professed an assured and an easie cure thereof , lest i should deterr any from their licentiousness . and whereas almost all poysons are so disposed and conditioned by nature , that they offend some of the senses , and so are easily discerned and avoided , i brought it to pass , that that treacherous quality of theirs might be removed and so they might safely be given without suspicion , and yet perform their office as strongly . all this i must confess i wrought by thy minerals and by thy fires , but yet i cannot despair of my reward , because i was thy first minister and instrument in these innovations . by this time ignatius had observed a tempest risen in lucifers countenance : for he was just of the same temper as lucifer , and therefore suffered with him in every thing , and felt all his alterations . that therefore he might deliver him from paracelsus , he said ; you must not think sir , that you may here draw out an oration to the proportion of your name . it must be confessed that you attempted great matters , and well becoming a great officer of lucifer , when you undertook not only to make a man in your alimbecks , but also to preserve him immortal . and it cannot be doubted , but that out of your commentaries upon the scriptures , in which you were utterly ignorant , many men have taken occasion of erring , and thereby this kingdom much indebted to you . but must you therefore have access to this secret place ? what have you compassed even in physick it self , of which we iesuits are ignorant ? for though our ribadenegra have reckoned none of our order , which hath written in ●…ysick , yet how able and sufficient wee are in that faculty , i will be tryed by that pope who hath given a priviledge to iesuits to practise physick and to be present at deaths-bed , ( a ) which is denyed to other orders : for why should he deny us their bodies , whose souls he delivered to us ? and since he hath transferd upon us the power to practise physick , he may justly be thought to have transferd upon us the art it self by the same omnipotent bull ; since he which grants the end , is by our rules of law presumed to have granted all means necessary to that end . let me ( dread emperour ) have leave to speak truth before thee ; these men abuse and profane too much thy mettals , which are the bowels and treasure of thy kingdom : for what doth physick profit thee ? physick is a soft and womanish thing . for since no medicine doth naturally draw blood , that science is not fit nor worthy of our study . besides , why should those things which belong to you , be imployed to preserve from diseases , or to procure long life ? were it not fitter that your brother and colleague , the bishop of rome , which governs upon the face of your earth , and gives daily increase to your kingdom , should receive from you these helps and subsidies ? to him belongs all the gold , to him all the precious stones , conceald in your intrals , wherby he might bait & ensnare the princes of the earth , through their lords and councellours means , to his obedience , and to receive his commandments , especially in these times , when almost every where his antient rights and tributes are denyed unto him . to him belongs your iron , and the ignobler mettals , to make engines ; to him belongs your minerals apt for poyson ; to him the salt-peter , and all the elements of gun-powder , by which he may demolish and overthrow kings and kingdoms , and courts , and seats of justice . neither doth paracelsus truly deserve the name of an innovator , whose doctrin severi●…us and his other followers do referr to the most ancient times . think therefore your self well satisfied , if you be admitted to govern in chief that legion of homicid physicians , and of princes which shall be made away by poyson in the midst of their sins , and of women tempting by paintings and face-physick . of all which sorts great numbers will daily come hither out of your academy . content with this sentence , paracelsus departed ; and machiavel succeeded , who having observed ignatius his forwardness , and sauciness , and how , uncald , he had thrust himself into the office of kings-attorney , thought this stupid patience of copernicus and paracelsus , ( men which tasted too much of their germany ) unfit for a florentine : and therefore had provided some venemous darts , out of his italian arsenal , to cast against this worn souldier of pampelune , this french-spanish mungrell , ignatius . but when he thought better upon it , and observed that lucifer ever approved whatsoever ignatius said , he suddenly changed his purpose ; and putting on another resolution , he determined to direct his speech to ignatius , as to the principall person next to lucifer , as well by this means to sweeten and mollifie him , as to make lucifer suspect , that by these honours and specious titles offered to ignatius and entertained by him , his own dignity might be eclipsed or clouded ; and that ignatius by winning to his side politique men , exercised in civil businesses , might attempt some innovation in that kingdom . thus therefore he began to speak . dread emperor , and you , his watchfull and diligent genius , father ignatius , arch-chancellor of this court , and highest priest of this highest synagogue ( except the primacy of the roman church reach also unto this place ) let me before i descend to myself , a little consider , speak , and admire your stupendious wisdom , and the government of this state . you may vouchsafe to remember great emperor ) how long after the nazarens death , you were forced to live a solitary , a barren , and an eremiticall life , till at last , as it was ever your fashion to imitate heaven ) out of your aboundant love , you begot this dearly beloved son of yours , ignatius , which stands at your right hand . and from both of you proceeds a spirit , whom you have sent into the world , who triumphing both with mitre and crown , governs your militant church there . as for those sons of ignatius , whom either he left alive , or were born after his death , and your spirit , the bishop of rome , how justly and properly may they be called equivocall men ? and not only equivocall in that sense , in which the popes legates , at your nicene councel were called equivocal , because they did agree in all their opinions , and in all their words : but especially because they have brought into the world a new art of equivocation . o wonderfull and incredible hypercritiques , who not out of marble fragments , but out of the secretest records of hell it self , that is , out of the minds of lucifer , the pope and ignatius , ( persons truely equivocall ) have raised to life again the language of the tower of babel so long concealed , and brought us again from understanding one another . for my part ( o noble pair of emperors ) that i may freely confess the truth , all which i have done , wheresoever there shall be mention made of the jesuits , can be reputed but childish , for this honour i hope will not be denied me , that i brought in an alphabet , and provided certain elements , and was some kind of schoolmaster in preparing them a way to higher undertakings ; yet it grieves me and makes me ashamed that i should be ranked with this idle and chymaericall copernicus , or this cadaverous vulture , paracelsus . i scorn that those gates into which such men could conceive any hope of entrance , should not voluntarily flye open to me : yet i can better endure the rashness and fellowship of paracelsus then the other : because he having been conveniently practised in the butcheries and mangling of men , he had the reason to hope for favour of the jesuits : for i my self went always that way of blood , and therefore i did ever prefer the sacrifices of the gentiles and of the iews , which were perfor med with effusion of bloud ( whereby not only the people but the priests also were animated to bold enterprises ) before the soft and wanton sacrifices of christians . if i might have had my choice , i should rather have wished that the roman church had taken the bread than the wine from the people , since in the wine there is some colour to imagin and represent blood . neither did you ( most reverend bishop of this diocess ignatius ) abhor from this way of blood . for having consecrated your first age to the wars , and grown , somewhat unable to follow that course by reason of a wound ; you did presently begin to think seriously of a spiritual war against the church and found means to open waies even into kings chambers , for your executioners . which dignity you did not reserve only to your own order , but ( though i must confes , that the foundation , and the nourishment of this doctrine remains with you , and is peculiar to you , out of your infinite liberalitie , ) you have vouchsafed sometime , to use the hands of other men in these imployments . and therefore as well they , who have so often in vain attempted it in england , as they which have brought their great purposes to effect in france , are indebted only to you for their courage and resolution . but yet although the entrance into this place may be decreed to none , but to innovators , and to only such of them as have dealt in christian businesse , and of them also , to those only which have had the fortune to doe much harme ; i cannot see but that next to the iesuits , i must be invited to enter , since i did not only teach those wayes by which , thorough perfidiousnesse and dissembling of religion , a man might possesse and usurpe upon the liberty of free common-wealths ; but also did arme and furnish the people with my instructions , how when they were under this oppression , they might safeliest conspire , and remove a tyrant , or revenge themselves of their prince and redeem their former losses ; so that from both sides , both from prince and people , i brought an abundant harvest , and a noble encrease to this kingdome . by this time i perceived lucifer to be much moved with this oration , and to incline much towards machiavel ; for he did acknowledge him to be a kind of patriarke , of those whom they call laymen . and he had long observed , that the clergie of rome tumbled down to hell daily , easily , voluntarily , and by troupes , because they were accustomed to sinn against their conscience , and knowledge ; but that the laitie sinning out of a sloathfulnesse , and negligence of finding the truth , did rather offend by ignorance and omission . and therefore he thought himself bound to reward machiavel , which had awakened this drowsie and implicite laitie to greater , and more bloudie vndertakings . besides this , since ignatius could not be denied the place , whose ambitions and turbulencies lucifer understood very well , he thought machiavel a fit and necessarie instrument to oppose against him ; that so the skales being kept even by their factions , he might govern in peace , and two poysons mingled might doe no harme . but he could not hide this intention from ignatius , more subtil than the devil and the verier lucifer of the two : therefore ignatius rushed out , threw himselfe down at lucifers feet , and groveling on the ground adored him . yet certainly , vasques would not call this idolatry , because in the shape of the devill he worshipped him , whom he accounted the true god. here ignatius cryed , and thundred out , with so great noise and horror , that had that powder taken fire , by which all the isle of britain had flowne to the moon , it had not equalled this noyse and horror . and when he was able to speake distinctly , thus he spoke ; it cannot be said ( unspeakable emperour ) how much this obscure florentine hath transgressed against thee , and against the pope thy image-bearer , ( whether the word be accepted , as gratian takes it when he calles the scriptures ; imaginary books or as they take it , which give that stile to them who carry the emperours image in the field ; ) and last of all against our order . durst any man before him ; thinke upon this kind of injury , and calumny , as to hope that he should be able to flatter , to catch , to entrap lucifer himselfe ? certainly , whosoever flatters any man , and presents him those prayses , which in his own opinion are not due to him , thinkes him inferiour to himself , and makes account that he hath taken him prisoner , and triumphs over him . who ever flatters , either he derides , or ( at the best ) instructs . for there may be , even in flattery , an honest kind of teaching , if princes by being told that they are already indued with all vertues necessary for their functions , be thereby taught what those vertues are , and by a facile exhortation , excited to endeavor to gaine them . but was it fit that this fellow , should dare either to deride you , or ( which is the greater injury ) to teach you ? can it be beleeved , that he delivers your prayses from his heart , and and doth not rather herein follow gratians levity ; who sayes : that you are called prince of the world , as a king at chests , or as the cardinall of ravenna , only by derision ? this man , whilst he lived , attributed so much to his own wit , that he never thought himselfe beholden to your helps , and insinuations ; and was so farr from invoking you , or sacrificing to you , that he did not so much as acknowledge your kingdome nor beleeve that there was any such thing in nature as you . i must confess that he had the same opinion of god also ; therefore deserves a place here , and a better then any of the pagan or gentile idolaters : for in every idolatry and false worship there is some religion , and some perverse simplicity , which tasts of humility ; from all which this man was very free when in his heart he utterly denied that there was any god. yet since he thought so in earnest , and beleeved that those things which he affirmed were true , he must not be ranked with them ; which having been sufficiently instructed of the true god , and beleeving him to be so , doe yet fight against him in his enemies army . neither ought it to be imputed to us as a fault , that sometimes in our exorcismes we we speak ill of you , and call you heretick and drunkard , and whisperer , and scabbed beast , and conjure the elements that they should not receive you , and threaten you with indissoluble damnation , and torments a thousand thousand times worse then you suffer yet . for these things you know are done out of a secret covenant and contract between us , and out of mysteries which must not be opned to this neophite , who in our synagogue is yet but amongst the catechumeni . which also we acknowledge of holy water , and our agnus dei , of which you do so wisely dissemble a feare , when they are presented to you : for certainly if there were any true force in them , to deliver bodies from diseases , souls from sinnes , and the elements from spirits , and malignant impressions , ( as in the verses which urban the fifth sent with his agnus dei to the emperor it is pretended ) it had bin reason that they should first have exercised their force upon those verses , and so have purged and delivered them , if not from heresie , yet from barbarousnesse and soloecismes ; that hereticks might not justly say , there was no truth in any of them but onely the last ; which is , that the least piece which thence doth fall , will doe one as much good as all . and though our order have adventured further in exorcismes then the rest , yet that must be attributed to a speciall priviledge , by which we have leave to question any possessed persons of what matters we wil ; whereas all other orders are miserably bound to the present matter , and the businesse then in hand . for though i do not believe , that either from your selfe , or from your vicar the pope , any such priviledge is issued ; yet our cotton deserves to be praised , who being questioned , how he durst propose certain seditious interrogatories to a possessed person , to deliver himselfe , feigned such a priviledge ; and with an un-heard-of boldness , and a new kind of falsifying , did ( in a manner ) counterfeit lucifers hand and seal , since none but he onely could give this priviledg : but if you consider us out of this liberty in exorcismes , how humble and servile we are towards you , the relations of peru testifie enough , where it is recorded , that when one of your angels at midnight appeared to our barcena alone in his chamber , he presently rose out of his chaire , and gave him the place , whom he professed to be farre worthier thereof then he was . but to proceed now to the injuries which this fellow hath done to the bishop of rome , although very much might be spoken , yet by this alone , his disposition may be sufficiently discerned , that he imputes to the pope , vulgar and popular sins , far unworthy of his greatnesse . weak praising is a kind of accusing , and we detract from a mans honour , if when we praise him for small things , and would seem to have said all , we conceal greater . perchance this man had seen some of the catalogues of reserv'd cases , which every year the popes encrease , and he might think , that the popes did therefore reserve these sinnes to themselves , that they only might commit them . but either he is ignorant or injurious to them . for can they be thought to have taken away the liberty of sinning from the people , who doe not onely suffer men to keep concubines , but sometimes doe command them ? who make st. peter beholden to the stews for part of his revenue : and who excuse women from the infamous name of whore , till they have delivered themselves over to 23000 men . the professors of which religion teach , that university men which keep whores in their chambers , may not be expeld for that , because it ought to be presumed before hand , that scholars will not live without them . shall he be thought to have a purpose of deterring others from sinne , which provides so well for their security , that he teaches , that he may dispense in all the commandements of the second table , and in all morall law ; and that those commandements of the second table can neither be called principles nor conclusions , necessarily deduced from principles ? and therefore ( as they ever love that manner of teaching ) he did illustrate his rule with an example , and dispensed in a marriage between brother and sister , and hath hoorded up so many in dulgencies in one barn , the citie of rome , that it is easy for any man in an hour or two , to draw out pardons enough for 100000 years . how clear a witnesse of this liberality is leo the tenth ? who onely for rehearsing once the lords prayer , and thrice repeating the name of iesu ( be it spoken here without horror ) hath given three thousand years indulgence . how profuse a steward or auditor was boniface , who acknowledges so many indulgences to be in that one church of lateran , that none but god can number them ? besides these plenary indulgences are given not onely to the franciscans themselves , but to their parents also , and to any which dies in their habit ; and to any which desire that they may doe so : and to those who are wrapped in it after death , though they did not desire it ; and five years indulgence to those who doe but kisse it . and at last , clement the seventh by a priviledge first given to one order ( which since is communicated to our order , as the priviledge of all other orders are ) gave to any who should but visit a place belonging to them , or any other place if he could not come thither , or if he could come to no such place , yet if he had but a desire to it , all indulgences which had been granted , or hereafter should be granted in the universal world . and though it be true , that if in any of these indulgences a certain sum of money were limited to be given ( as for the most part it is ) a poor man who could not give that money though he were never so contrite for his sinnes , could have no benefit thereby : and though gerson durst call those indulgences foolish and superstitious , which gave twenty thousand yeares pardon for rehearsing one prayer , yet they doe abundantly testifie the popes liberall disposition , and that he is not so covetous in reserving sinnes to himselfe ; but if perchance once in an hundred years , some one of the scum of the people be put to death for sodomy ; and that not so much for the offence , as for usurping the right of the ecclesia stick princes , we must not much lament nor grudge at that , since it is onely done to discontinue and interrupt a prescription , to gain which title the laity hath ever been very forward against the clergie : for even in this kind of his delicacies , the pope is not so reserved and covetous , but that he allowes a tast thereof to his cardinals , whom whom you once called carpidineros ( by an elegancie proper onely to your secretaries the monkes ) in an epistle which you writ to one of that colledge : for since the cardinals are so compacted into the pope , and so made his own body , that it is not lawfull for them without licence first obtained from him , to be let blood in a fever , what may be denied unto them ? or what kind of sin is likely to bee left out of their glorious priviledges . which are at least two hundred ? which order the pope can no more remove out of the ecclesiasticke hirarchy , then he can bishops ; both because cardinals were instituted by god , and because the apostles themselves were cardinalls before they were bishops . whom also in their creation he stiles his brothers , & princes of the world , and co-judges of the whole earth , and to perfect all , that there are so many kings as there are cardinals . o fearefull body ; and as in many other things , so in this especially monstrous , that they are not able to propagate their species : for all the cardinals in a vacancy are not able to make one cardinal more . to these men certainely the pope doth no more grudge the plurality of sins , then hee doth of benefices . and he hath been content , that even borgia should enjoy , this dignity , if he hath heaped up by his ingenius wickednesse , more sorts of sins in one act , then ( as far as i know ) as any the popes themselvs have attempted : for he did not only give the full rein to his licentiousnesse , but raging with a second ambition , he would also change the sek . therein also his stomack was not towardes young , beardlesse boyes , nor such green fruit : for he did not thinke , that he went farr enough from the right sex , except he had a manly , a reverend , and a bearded venus . neither staied he there ; but his witty lust proceeded further : yet he solicited not the minions of the popes , but striving to equall the licenciousnesse of sodomites which would have had the angels ; to come as neer them as he could , he tooke a cleargy-man , one of the portion and lot of the lord ; and so made the maker of god , a priest subject to his lust ; nor did he seek him out in a cloyster , or quire ; but that his venus might be the more monstrous , he would have her in a mitre . and yet his prodigious lust was not at the height ; as much as he could he added : and having found a man a clergy man , a bishop , he did not sollicite him with entreaties , and rewards , but ravished him by force . since then the popes doe out of the fulnesse of their power , come to those kindes of sinn , which have neither example nor name , insomuch that pope paulus venetus which used to paint himselfe , and desired to seem a woman , was called the goddesse cibele , which was not without misterie , since , prostitute boyes are sacred to that goddesse ) and since they doe not grant ordinarily that liberty of practising sinnes , till they have used their own right and priviledge of prevention and anticipation ; this pratling fellow machiavel , doth but treacherously , and dishonestly prevaricate , and betray the cause , if he thinke he hath done enough for the dignity of the popes , when he hath affoorded to them , sins common to all the world . the transferring of empires , the ruine of kingdomes , the excommunications , and depositions of kings , and devastations by fire and sword , should have been produced as their marks & characters : for though the examples of the popes transferring the empire , which our men so much stand upon , be not indeed true , nor that the ancient popes practised any such thing ; yet since the states-men of our order , wiser then the rest have found how much this temporall jurisdiction over princes , conduces to the growth of the church , they have perswaded the popes , that this is not onely lawfull for them , but often practised heretofore : and therefore they provide that the canons , and histories be detorted to that opinion : for though one of our order doe weaken that famous canon , nos sanctorum , which was used still to be produced for this doctrin , yet he did it then when the king of great britain was to be mollified and sweetned towards us , and the laws to be mitigated , and when himself had put on the name eudaemon . but let him return to his true state , and profess himself a cacodaemon , and he will be of our opinion . in which respect also we may pardon our cudsemius his rashness , when he denies the english nation to be heretiques , because they remain in a perpetual succession of bishops : for herein these men have thought it fit to follow in their practise , that translation which reads the words of paul ; serve the time , and not that which says ; serve the lord. as for the injury which this petty companion hath offered to our order , since in our wrongs both yours and the popes majesty is wounded , since to us as to your dictators , both you have given that large and anti●…ent commission , that we should take care that the state take no harm , we cannot doubt of our revenge : yet this above all the rest , doth especially ve●… me , that that when he cals me prelate and bishop ( names which we so much abhor and detest ) i know well that out of his inward malignity he hath a relation to bellarmines , and tolets sacrilegious vow-breaking ambitions , by which they imbraced the cardinalship , and other church dignities : but herein this poor fellow unacquainted with our affairs , is deceived , being ignorant that these men by this act of being thus incorporated into the pope , are so much the nearer to their center and final happiness , this chamber of lucifer , and that by the breach of a vow which themselves thought just , they have got a new title thereunto : for the cardinalship is our martyrdom : and though not many of our order have had that strength that they have been such martyrs , and that the popes themselves have been pleased to transfer this persecution into the other orders , who have had more cardinals than we ; yet without doubt for such of ours which have had so much courage , new crowns , and new garlands , appropriate to our martyrs , are prepared for them in this their heaven ; because being inabled by greater means they are fitter for greater mischiefs . we therefore lament the weakness of our laynez and our borgia , who refused the cardinalship offered by paulus 4. and iulius 3. for in this place and this meeting it is not unfit to say they did so , even amongst the antient romans when they sacrificed to you those sacrifices which offerd any resistance , were ever reputed unaccepted : and therefore our bellarmine deserves much praise , who finding a new genius and courage in his new cardinalship , set out his retractions and corrected all those places in his works , which might any way be interpreted in the favour of princes . but let us pass over all these things ; for we understand one another well enough : and let us more particularly consider those things which this man who pretends to exceed all ancient and modern statesmen boasts to have been done by him . though truely no man will easily believe , that he hath gone far in any thing which did so tire at the beginning or mid-way , that having seen the pope and known him , yet could never come to the knowledge of the devil . i know what his excuse and escape will be ; that things must not be extended infinitely ; that we must consist and arrest somewhere , and that more means and instruments ought not to be admitted where the matter may be dispatched by fewer . when therefore he was sure that the bishop of rome was the cause of all mischief , and the first mover thereof , he chose rather to settle and determine in him , than by acknowledging a devil to induce a new tyranny , and to be driven to confess that the pope had usurped upon the devils right , which opinion if any man be pleased to maintain , we do not forbid him : but yet it must be an argument to us of no very nimble wit , if a man do so admire the pope that he leave out the devil , and so worship the image , without relation to the prototype and first pattern . but besides this , how idle and how very nothings they are which he hath shoveld together in his books , this makes it manifest that some of every religion and of every profession have risen up against him , and no man attempted to defend him : neither do i say this because i think his doctrin the worse for that , but it is therefore the less artificially carried , and the less able to work those ends to which it is directed . for our part we have not proceeded so . for we have dished and dressed our precepts in these affairs with such cunning , that when our own men produce them to ens●…re and establish our pupils , then we put upon them the majesty and reverence of the doctrin of the church and of the common opinions : but when our adversaries alledge them either to cast envy upon us , or to deterr the weaker sort ; then they are content with a lower room , and vouchsafe to step aside into the rank of privat opinions . and the canons themselves are with us sometime glorious in their mitres and pontifical habits and sound nothing but meer divine resolutions out of the chair it self , and so have the force of oracles , sometimes we say they are ragged and lame , and do but whisper with a doubtfull and uncertain murmure , a hollow cloystral , or an eremiticall voice , and so have no more authority than those poor men which writ them : sometimes we say they were but rashly throwne into the peoples ears out of pulpits in the homilies of fathers ; sometimes that they were derived out of such councels as suffered abortion , and were delivered of their children , which are their canons before inanimation , which is the popes assent ; or out of such councels as are now discontinued and dead ( howsoever they remained long time in use , and lively and in good state of health ) and therfore cannot be thought fit to be used now , or applyed in civil businesses ; sometimes we say the popes voice is in them all by his approbation ; sometimes that only the voice of those authors from whom they are taken speaks in them . and accordingly we deliver divers and various philosyphy upon our gratian who compiled them ; sometimes we allow him the honour and dignity of diamonds and the nobler sort of stones , which have both their clearness and their firmness from this , for that they are compacted of less parts and atomes then others are : and so is gratian ; whom for the same cause , sometimes we account but a hill of many sands cast together , and very unfit to receive any foundation . i must confess that the fathers of our order , out of a youthful fiercenes which made them dare and undertake any thing ( for our order was scarce at years at that time ) did amiss in inducing the councel of trent to establish certain rules and definitions from which it might not be lawfull to depart : for indeed there is no remedy but that sometimes we must depart from them : nor can it be dissembled that both the writers of our order , and the dominicans have departed from them in that great war and tragedy lately raised at rome about grace and freewill : for it is not our purpose that the writings of our men should be so ratified that they may not be changed so that they be of our order which change them : so by the same liberty which daemon ioannes hath taken in delivering the king of britain from the danger of deposition ; ( because as yet no sentence is given against him ) and also from many other canons which others think may justly be discharged against him , it will be as lawfull for us , when that kingdom shall be enough stupified with this our opium to restore those canons to their former vigour , and to awake that state out of her lethargy , either with her own heat , intestine war , or by some medicine drawn from other places : for princes have all their securities from our indulgence , and from the slack and gentle interpretation of the canons : they are but priviledges which since they are derived , and receive life from us , they may be by us diminished , revoked and annulled : for as it was lawfull for mariana to depart from the doctrin of the councel of constance , so it was lawfull for cotton to depart from mariana , which notwithstanding , we would have only lawfull for our order to whom it is given to know times and secrets of state : for we see the sorbonists themselves ( which may seem to have an aristocratical papacy amongst themselves ) though they laboured to destroy the doctrin of mariana , did yet wisely forbear to name him or any other iesuit , which was a modesty that i did not hope for at their hands ; since before i died they made one decree against me : but yet therein i think somewhat may be attributed to my patience and providence ; who knowing their strength and our own infancy , forbad all of my order to make any answer to that decree of theirs : neither were we so herculean as to offer to strangle serpents in our cradle . but yet since after that time they have been often provoked by our men : ( for i gave not so iron a rule and precepts to my disciple as francis did to his , who would not have his rule applyed to times & to new occasions ) certainly they might have bin excused if they had bin at this time sharper against us . and if the parliament of paris thought it not fit to carry the matter so modestly in their arrest against mariana , but made both the book and the doctrin , and the man infamous : what should we say more of it , but that it is a gyant and a wilde beast which our men could never tame , for still it cries and howles , the pope is bound to proceed lawfully and canonically : and this they maliciously interpret of their own laws , and of ancient canons , which they hope to bring in to use again , by an insensible way of arrest and sentences in that court. this then is the point of which we accuse machiavell , that he carried not his myne so safely but that the enemie perceived it still . but we who have received the church to be as a ship , do freely sail in the deep sea ; we have an ancor , but we have not cast it yet , but keep it ever in our power to cast it and weigh it at our pleasure . and we know well enough that as to sailing ships , so to our sailing church , all rocks , all promontories , all firm and fast places are dangerous , and threaten shipwrack , and therefore to be avoided ; and liberty and sea-room to be affected ; yet i do not obstinately say that there is nothing in machiavels commentary which may be of use to this church . certainly there is very much ; but we are not men of that poverty that we need beg from others , nor dignifie those things with our praises which proceed not from our selves . the senate of rome gave us heretofore a noble example of this temperance and abstinence , which therefore refused to place christ amongst their gods , because the matter was proposed by the emperor , and begun not in themselves . as for that particular wherein machiavel useth especially to glory ; which is that he brought in the liberty of dissembling and lying , it hath neither foundation nor colour : for not only plato and other fashioners of commonwealths , allowed the liberty of lying to magistrates and to physitians ; but we also considering the fathers of the church , origen , chrysostome , hierome , have not only found that doctrin in them , but we have also delivered them from al imputation and reprehension by this evasion , that it was lawfull for them to maintain that opinion till some definition of the church had established the contrary : which certainly ( though this should not be so openly spoken of ) as yet was never done . but yet we have departed from this doctrin of free lying , though it were received in practice , excused by the fathers , strengthened by examples of prophets and angels in the scriptures , and so almost established by the law of nations and nature ; only for this reason , because we were not the first authors of it . but we have supplied this loss with another doctrin less suspicious ; and yet of as much use for our church ; which is mentall reservation , and mixt propositions . the liberty therefore of lying is neither new nor safe , as almost all machiavels precepts are so stale and obsolete , that our serarius using i must confess , his jesuiticall liberty of wilde anticipation , did not doubt to call herod who lived so long before machiavel , a machiavelian . but that at one blow we may cut off all his reasons and all his hopes , this i affirm , this i pronounce , that all his books and all his deeds tend only to this , that thereby a way may be prepared to the ruine and destruction of that part of this kingdom which is established at rome : for what else doth he endeavor or go about , but to change the forme of common-wealth , and so to deprive the people ( who are a soft , a liquid , and ductile mettall , and apter for our impressions ) of all their liberty , and having so destroyed all civility and re-publick , to reduce all states to monarchies ; a name which in secular states , we doe so much abhor , ( i cannot say it without teares ) but i must say it , that not any one monarch is to be found , which either hath not withdrawn himselfe wholly from our kingdome , or wounded and endamaged in som weighty point ; hereupon our cotton confesseth , that the authority of the pope is incomparably lesse then it was , and that now the christian church , ( which can agree to none but the romans ) is but a diminutive . and hereupon also it is , that the cardinalls , who were wont to meet oftener , meet now but once in a week , because the businesses of the court of rome grow fewer . to forbeare therefore mentioning of the kings of britain & denmarke , and the other monarchs of the first sort , which have utterly cast off rome ; even in france , our enemies are so much encreased that they equall us almost in number : and for their strength , they have this advantage above us , that they agree within themselves and are at unity with their neighbour reformed churches ; whereas our men which call themselves chatholick there , do so much differ from the roman catholick that they do not only prefer councels , but even the king before the pope , and ever more oppose those their two great giants gog , and magog , their parliament of paris , and their colledge of sorbon , against all our endeavours . besides all this , we languish also miserably in spain , where clergy-men , if they break their fealty to their lord , are accused of treason ; where ecclesiasticall persons are subject to secular judgment and , if they ●…e sa●…rilegious , are burnt by the ordinary magistrate ; which are doctrines and practices , contrary and dangerous to us . and though they will seem to have given almost half the kingdom to the church , and so to have divided equally : yet those grants are so infected , with pensions and other burdens by which the kings servants , 〈◊〉 the younger sorts of great persons are maintained , that this greatness of the church there , is rather a dropsie then a sound state of health established by well-concocted nourishment , and is rather don to cast an envy upon the church , then to give any true majesty to it . and even in usurping ecclesiasticall iurisdiction ; the kings of spain have not only exceeded the kings of france , but also of britany ; for ( sayes baronius of that king ) there is now risen up a new head , a monster and a wonder : he excommunicates , and he absolves , and he practiseth this power even against bishops , and cordinals . he stops appeals , and he acknowledges no superiority in the sea of rome , but only in case of prevention : and therefore , the name monarch , is a hatefull and execrable name to us . against which , baronius hath thundred with such viol●…e , such ●…ercheffe , and such ●…nesse , that i could hardly , add any thing thereunto , if i should speak ( unspeakable emperor ) with thine own tongue for he calls it an a●…lterine name , and a tower of babel , and threatens destruction to that king ( though himself were his subject ) except he for , beare the name . in the mean time , he resolves him to be a tyrant , and pronounces him to stand yearly excommunicate by the bulla coenae . neither doth he offer to defend himselfe with any other excuse , when a cardinall reprehended his fiercenes toward the king then this ; an imperious zeale hath no power to spare god himselfe . and yet he confesseth , that this zeale was kindled by the popes speciall command , and by his oath taken , as cardinall . neither hath our bellarmine almost any other cause of advancing monarchical government so much as he doth , then thereby to remoove all secular men from so great a dignity , and to reserve it only to the church . it was therefore well done of that rebullus ( who now begins to be known in this state ) when having surfeted with calumnies against the french church and her ministers , he hath dared of late to draw his pen , and to joyne battell against a most puissant forrain prince : he did well ( i say ) and fitly , when he called bellarmine and baronius , the sword and buckler of the roman church . and i cannot choose but thanke him for affoording the title of sword to our order ; as well , because after so many expositions of those words , ( behold , heer are two swords ) which our side hath gathered , to establish a temporall jurisdiction in the pope , and which our adversaries have remooved , worn out , or scorned , this man hath relieved us with a new , and may seem to intend by the two swords , the popes excommunications , and the iesuites assassinates , and king-killings ; as also because he hath reserved to our order that soveraigne dignity , that as god himselfe was pleased , to defend his paradice with fire and sword , so we stand watchfull upon the borders of our church not only provided , as that cherubin was with fire and sword , but with the later invention of gunpouder ; about the first inventour whereof i wonder , why antiquaries should contend , whether it were the devil or a fryer , since that may be all one . but as ( o unspeakable emperour ) you have almost in all things indeavoured to imitate god : so have you most throughly performed it in us ; for when god attempted the reformation of his church , it became you also to reforme yours . and accordingly by your capuchins , you did reform your franciscans , which before we arose , were your chiefest labourers and workmen : and after , you reformed your capuchins , by your recolets . and when you perceived that in the church god , some men proceeded so farre in that reformation , that they endeavoured to draw out , not onely all the peccant and dangerous humours , but all her beauty , and extorior grace and ornament , and even her vitall spirits with her corrupt blood , and so induce a leannesse and ill-favourednesse upon her , and thought to cure a rigid coldness with a fever ; you also were pleased to follow that example , and so in us did reform and awaken to higher enterprises the dispositions as well of the circumcellions as of the assassins : for we do not limit our selves in that low degree of the circumcellions , when we urge and provoke others to put us to death ; not of the assassins , which were hired to kill some kings which passed through their quarter : so we exceed them both , because we do these things voluntarily for nothing , and every where . and as we will be exceeded by none in the thing itselfe : so to such things as may seem mysticall and significant , we oppose mysticall things . and so lest that canon ; that no clergy-man should wear a knife with a point , might seem to concern us , by some propheticall relation , we in our rules have opposed this precept , that our knife be often whetted , and so kept in an apt readiness for all uses : for our divination lies in the contemplation of entrails ; in which , art we are thus much more subtile then those amongst the old romans , that we consider not the entrails of beasts , but the entrails of souls , in confessions , and the e●…trails of princes in treasons whose hearts we doe not beleeve to be with us till we see them : let therfore this pratling secretary hold his tongue , and be content that his book be had in such reputation as the world affords to an ephemerider or yearly almanack , which being accommodated to certain places and certain times , may be of some short use in some certain place and let the ru●…s and 〈◊〉 of his disciples like the canons of provinciall councels , be of force there where they were made ; but only ours which pierce and passe through all : the world , retai●… the strength and vigo●… of universall councels . let him enjoy some honorable place amongst the gentiles ; but abstain from all of our sides : neither when i say , ou●…side , doe i onely mean modern men : for in all times in the roman church there have been friers which have farre ex ceeded machiavel . truly i thought this oration of ignatius very long : and i began to think of my body which i had so long abandoned , lest it should putrifie , or grow mouldy , or be buried ; yet i was loath to leave the stage till i saw the play ended . and i was in hope that if any such thing should befall my body , the jesuits , who work miracles so familiarly , and whose reputation i was so carefull of in this matter , would take compassion upon me , and restore me again . but as i had sometimes observed , feathers or strawes swim on the watersface , brought to the bridge , where through a narrow place the water passes , thrown back , and delay'd ; and having danc'd awhile , and nimbly plaid upon the watry circles , then have bin by the streams liquid snares , and jaws suck'd in , and sunk into the womb of that swoln bourn , leave the beholder desperate of return : so i saw machiavel often put forward , and often thrust back , and at last vanish . and looking earnestly upon lucifers countenance , i perceived him to be affected towards ignatius , as princes , who though they envy and grudge that their great officers should have such immoderate means to get wealth ; yet they dare not complain of it , lest thereby they should make them odious and contemptible to the people : so that lucifer now suffered a new hell : that is , the danger of a popular devill , vain-glorious , and inclined to innovations there . therefore he determined to withdraw himselfe into his inward chamber and to admit none but ignatius : for he could not exclude him who had deserved so well ; neither did he think it safe to stay without , and give him more occasions to amplifie his own worth , and undervalue all : them there in publick , and before so many vulgar devils . but as he rose , a whole army of souls besieged him . and all which had invented any new thing , even in the smallest matters , thronged about him ; and importuned an admission . even those which had but invented new attire for women and those whom pancirollo hath recorded in his commentaries for invention of porcellan dishes , of spectacles , of quintans , of stirrups , and of cavi●…ri , thrust themselves into the troop . and of those which pretended that they had squared the circle , the number was infinite . but ignatius scattered all this cloud quickly by commanding , by chiding , by deriding , by force and violence . amongst the rest , i was sorry to see him use peter aretine so ill as he did : for though ignatius told him true when he boasted of his licentious pictures , that because he was not much learned , he had left out many things of that kind , with which the ancient histories and poems abound : and that therefore areti●… had not onely not added any new invention , but had also , taken away all courage and spu●… from youth , which would rashly trust and nely upon his dillgence , and seek no further , and so lose that 〈◊〉 on●… preti●… 〈◊〉 suoe of ●…quity . he ●…ed moreove●… , that though 〈◊〉 , and others of his order , did use to gold p●…ts and other 〈◊〉 and here i could not ●…huse but wonder , why they have not gel●…ed their 〈◊〉 ed●…on , which in some places hath such obse●…e words as the hebrew ●…gne , which is therfore also called 〈◊〉 , doth so much ahhor , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things can be ●…ed in it , info●…uch 〈◊〉 ( as one of them very sub●…y notes ) the 〈◊〉 of venus is very seldome called ●…hy that name in 〈◊〉 for how could 〈◊〉 wood being not in 〈◊〉 yet ( said h●… ) 〈◊〉 men doe not g●…ld them to that p●…rpose that the memory thereof should he abolished : but that when themselves had first tried whether tyberius his spintria , and martialis symphlegma , and others of that kinde , were not rather chymera's , and speculations of luxuriant wits , then things certain and constant , and such as might b●…educed to an art and method in licentiousnesse , ( for jesuits never content themselves with the theory in any thing , but straight proceed to practice ) they might after communicate them to their own disciples and novitiates : for this church is fruitful in producing sacraments and being now loaded with divine sacraments , it produces morall sacraments . in which , as in the divine , it binds the laity to one species ; but they reserve to themselves the divers forms , and the secrets and mysteries in this matter , which they finde in the authors whom they geld . of which kinde i think they give a little glimmering and intimation , when in the life of their last made coddesse , francisc●… romane , they say , that the bed where she lay with her hisband , was a perpetual martyrdome to her , and a shop of miracles . but for all this , since aretine was one , who by a long custome of libellous and contumelious speaking against princes , had got such a habit , that at last he came to diminish and disesteem god himselfe . i wonder truly , that this arch-iesuite , though he would not admit him to any eminent place in his triumphant church , should deny him an office of lower estimation : for truly to my thinking he might have been fit , either to serve ignatius , as master of his pleasures , or lucifer as his cryer : for whatsoever lucifer durst think , this man durst speak . but ignatius , who thought himselfe sufficient for all uses , thrust him away , and when he offered upward , offered his staffe at him : nor did he use christopher columbus with any better respect ; who having found all ways in the earth and sea open to him , did not fear any difficulty in hell , but when he offered to enter ignatius staid him , and said , you must remember sir , that if this kingdom have got any thing by the discovery of the west indies , all that must be attributed to our order : for if the opinion of the dom●…eans had prevailed , that the inhabitants should be reduced only by preaching and without violence , certainly their 200000 of men would scarce in so many ages have been brought to 150 which by our means was so soon performed . and if the law made by ferdinando only against canibals ; that all which would not be christians should be bond slaves , had not been extended into other provinees , we should have lacked men to dig us out that benefit which their countreys afford . except we when we took away their old idolatry , had recompenced them with a new one of o●… , except we had obtruded to those ignorant and barbarous people , sometimes natural things , sometimes artificial , and counterfeit in stead of miracles , and except we had been alwaies ready to convey and to apply this medicine made of this precious american dung unto the princes of europe , and their lord , and councellours , the profit by the only discovery of these places ( which must of necessity be referred to fortune ) would have been very ●…le ; yet i praise your perseverance and your patience which ( since that seems to be your principal vertue ) you shall have good occasion to exercise here , when you remain in a lower and remote●… place , then you think belongs to your merits . but although lucifer being put into a heat and almost smothered with this troop and deluge of pretenders , seemed to have admitted ignatius as his lieatenant , or legat ●…ere , and trusted him with an absolute power of doing what he would , yet he quickly spied his own error and danger thereby . he began to remember how forcibly they use to urge the canon alius ; by which the king of france is said to have been deposed , not for his wickedness , but for his infirmity and unfitness to govern : and that kings do forfeit their dignity if they give themselves to other matters , and leave the government of the state to their officers . therefore lucifer thought it time for him to enter into the business , lest at last ignatius should prescribe therein ; by which title of prescription he well knew , how much the church of rome doth advance and defend itself against other princes . and though he seemed very thankfull to ignatius for his delivery from this importunate company , yet when he perceived that his purpose was to keep al others out , he thought the case needed greater confideration ; for though he had a considence in his own patriarks which had long before possest that place , and in whose company ( as an abbot said to the devil , who after long intermission , now tempted him ) he was grown old , and doubted not but that they would defend their right , and oppose themselvs against any innovation which ignatius should practise , yet if none but he in a whole age should be brought in , he was afraid that this singularity would both increase his courage and spirit , and their reverence and respect towards him . casting therefore his eyes into every corner , at last a great way off he spied philip nerius : who acknowledging in his own particular no especial merit towards this kingdom , forbore to press nearer the gate , but lucifer called to his remembrance , that nerius and all that order , of which he was the author , which is called congregatio oratorii , were erected , advanced , and dignified by the pope , principally to this end , that by their incessant sermons to the people , of the lives of saints , and other ecclesiastick antiquities , they might get a new reputation , and so the torrent , and general superstition towards the iesuits might grow a little remisser , and iuke-warm , for at that time the pope himself began to be afraid of the jesuits , for they begun to publish their paradox of confession and absolution to be given by letters , and messengers , and by that means to draw the secrets of all princes only to themselves ; and they had tryed and sollicited a great monarch who hath many designes upon italy against the pope and delivered to that prince divers articles , for the reforming of him . now the pope and lucifer love ever to follow one anothers example : and therefore that which the one had done in the middle world , the other attempted in the lower . hereupon he called for philip , nerius , and gave him many evidenoes of a good inclination towards him . but nerius was too stupid to interpret them aright . yet ignatius spied them , and before lucifer should declare himself any further , or proceed too farr herein , lest after he were farengaged , there should be no way to avert or withdraw him from his own propositions ( for he saw there must be respect had of his honor and constancy ) he thought it fittest to oppose now at the beginning . he said therefore , that he now perceived that lucifer had not been altogether so much conversant with philip , as with the ●…esuirs , since he knew not how much philip had ever professed himself an enemy to him 1 for he did not only deny all visions and apparitions , 2 and commanded one to spit in maries face when she appeared again , because he thought it was the devil ; 3 and drove away another that came to tempt a sick man , in the shape of a physitian ; 4 and was hardly drawn to believe any possessings ; but 5 when three devils did meet him in the way , to afright him , he neither thought them worthy of any exorcismes , nor so much as the signe of the cross , but meerly went by them , as though he scorn'd to look at them , and so despighted them with that negligence . it may be that he hath drawn others into religion , but himself remained then in the laity ; in so much as i remember , that 6 i used to call him the saints bell , that hangs without , and calls others into the church . 7 neither do they which follow this order , bind themselves with any vow or oath ; neither do i know any thing for which this 8 kingdom is beholding to him , but that 〈◊〉 moved baronius to write his annals . to all this nerius said nothing , as though it had been spoken of some body else . without doubt , either he never knew , or had forgot that he had done those things which they write of him . but lucifer himself took the boldness ( having with some difficulty got ignatius leave ) to take nerius his part : and proceeded so far , that he adventured to say , that baronius , bozius and others , which proceeded out of the hive of nerius , had used a more free , open , and hard fashion against princes , and better provided for the popes direct jurisdiction upon all kingdoms , and more stoutly defended it than they , which undertaking the cause more tremblingly then becomes the majestie of so great a business , adhered to bellarmines sect , and devised such crooked ways , and such perplexed intanglings , as by reason of the various and uncertain circumstances , were of no use : and that whatsoever nerius his schollers had performed , must be attributed to him , as the fruit to the root . ignatius perceiving that lucifer undertook all offices for nerius , and became judge , advocate , and witness , pursuing his former resolution , determined to interrupt him lest when he had inlarged himself in nerius commendation , he should thereby be bound to a reward . he therefore cryed out , what hath nerius done ? what hath he or his followers put in execution ? have they not ever been only exercised in speculations , and in preparatory doctrins ? are these books which are written of the jurisdiction of the pope , to any better use than physicians lectures of diseases , and of medicines ? whilst these receits lie hid in physicians books and no body goes to the patient ; no body applyes the medicines to the disease . what good , what profit comes by all this ? what part , what member of this languishing body have they undertaken ? in what kingdome have they corrected these humours which offend the pope , either by their incision or cauterising ? what state have they cut up into an anatomy ? what sceliton on have they provided for the instruction of posterity ? do they hope to cure their diseases by talking and preaching as it were with charms and enchantments ? if nerius shall be thought worthy of this honour , and this place , because out of his schollers writings something may be gleaned , which may be applyed to this purpose , why should we not have bez●… and caloin , and the rest of that sort here in hell , since in their books there may be some things found which may be rested to this purpose ? but since their scope was not to extirpate monarchies , since they published no such canons and aphorismes as might be applyed to all ca●…es , and so brought into certain use and consequence , but limited theirs to circumstances which seldome fall out , since they delivered nothing dangerous to princes , but where in their opinion , the soveraigntie resides in the people , or in certain ephory , since they never said , that this power to violate the person of a prince , might either be taken by any private man , or committed to him , and that therefore none of their disciples hath ever boasted of having done any thing upon the person of his soveraigne : we see that this place hath ever been shut against them : there have bin some few of them ( though i can scarce afford those men the honour to number them with knox and goodman , and buchanan ) which following our examples , have troubled the peace of some states , and been injurious to some princes , and have been admitted to some place in this kingdome ; but since they have performed nothing with their hands nor can excuse themselves by saying , they were not able : ( for wherein was clement , or ravillac more able than they , or what is not he able to do in the middesof an army , who despiseth his own life ? they scarce ever aspire , or offer at this secret and sacred chamber . lucifer had a purpose to have replied to this : that perchance all their hands which had bin imbrued in the bowells of princes were not so immediatly armed by the iesuites , as that they were ever present at all consultations and resolutions : ( and yet he meant to say this , not as sworn witnesse , but as lucifer himselfe , and the father of lies , in which capacitie he might say any thing . ) but that it was enough that confessors doe so possesse them with that doctrine that it is not now proposed to them as physick , but as naturall food , and ordinary diet ; and that therfore for the performance of these things , a iesuites person is no more requisite , then that the heart of a man , because it sends forth spirits into every limbe , should therefore be present in every limbe : that when it was in use for the consuls of rome for the the safety of their country and army , to devote themselves over to the infernall god , it was lawfull for themselves to abstain and forbear the act , and they might appoint any souldier for that sacrifice : and that so the iesuits for the performance of their resolutions , might stir up any amongst the people : ( for now they enjoy all the priviledges of the franciscans , who say ; that the name of people , comprehends all which are not of their order ; ) and that if this be granted , nerius his schollers are inferiour to none ; with whose bookes ( if all the iesuits should perish ) the church might content her selfe , and never fear dearth nor leanenesse . this lucifer would have spoken ; but he thought it better and easier to forbeare : for he observed , that ignatius had given a sign , and that all his troupes which were many , subtile , and busie , set up their bristles , g●…mbled , and compacted themselves into one body , gathered , produced , and urged all their evidence , whatsoever they had done , or suffered . there the english legion , which was called capestrata , which campian led , and ( as i thinke ) garnet concluded , was fiercer than all the the rest . and as though there had been such a second martirdome to have been suffered , or as though they might have put off their immortallity , they offered themselves to any imployment . therefore lucifer gave nerius a secret warning to withdraw himself , and spoke no more of him ; and despairing of bringing in an other , began earnestly to thinke , how he might leave ignatius out . this therefore he said to him : i am sorry my ignatius , that i can neither find in others , deserts worthy of this place , nor any room in this place worthy of your deserts . if i might die , i see there would be no long strife for a successor : for if you have not yet done that act which i did at first in heaven , and thereby got this empire , this may excuse you , that no man hath been able to tell you what it was : for if any of the ancients say true when they call it pride , or licentiousnesse , or lying ; or if it be in any of the casuists , which professe the art of sinning , you cannot be accused of having omitted it . but since i may neither forsake this kingdome , nor divide it , this only remedy is left : i will write to the bishop of rome , he shall call galilaeo the florentine to him , who by this time bath throughly instructed himselfe of all the hills , woods , and cities in the new world , the moone . and since he effected so much with his first glasses , that he saw the moon in so neer a distance , that he gave himselfe satisfaction of all , and the least parts in her , when now being grown to more perfection in his art , he shall have made new glasses and they received a hallowing from the pope , he may draw the moon , like a boat floating upon the water , as neer the earth as he will. and thither ( because they ever claim that those imployments of discovery belong to them ) shall all the iesuits be transferred , and easily unite and reconcile the lunatick church to the roman church : without doubt , after the iesuites have been there a little while , there will soon grow naturally a hell in that world also : over which , you ignatius shall have dominion , and establish your kingdom and dwelling there . and with the same ease as you passe from the earth to the moon , you may passe from the moon to the other stars , which are also thought to be worlds , and so you may beget and propagate many hels , and enlarge your empire , and come neerer unto that high seate , which i left at first . ignatius had not the patience to stay till lucifer had made an end ; but as soon as he saw him pause , and take breath , and look , first upon his face , to observe what changes were there , and after to cast his eye to another place in hell , where a great noyse was suddenly raysed : he apprehended this intermission , and as though lucifer had ended , he said : that of lucifers affection to the roman church , and to their order , every day produced new testimonies : and that this last was to be accounted as one of the greatest . that he knew well with how great devotion the bishop of rome did ever embrace and execute all councels proceding from him : and that therefore he hoped , that he would reserve that imployment for the iesuits and that empire for him their founder : and that he beleeved the pope had thought of this before ; and at that time when he put parsons the english iesuite in hope of a cardinalship , he had certainely a reference to this place , and to this church : that it would fall out shortly , that all the dammages , which the roman church hath lately suffered upon the earth , shall be recompenced only there . and that now this refuge was opened if she should be reduced into greater streights , or if she should be utterly exterminated , the world would not much lament and mourne for it . and for the entertainment of the iesuites there , there can be no doubt made at this time , when , ( although their profession be to enter whether princes will or no ) all the princes of the world will not only graciously afford them leave to go , but willingly and cheerfully accompany them with certificates , and demissory letters . nor would they much resist it , if the pope himself would vouchsafe to go with them , and so fulfill in some small measure , that prophecie of his gerson , de auferibilitate papae . besides this , a woman governs there ; of which sex they have ever made their profit , which have attempted any innovation in religion ; with how much diligence were the two empresses , pulcheria and eudoxia , solicited by the pope for the establishing of easter ? how earnestly did both pelagius and the pope strive by their letters to draw the empress to their side ? for since iulia had that honour given to her in publique coyns , that she was called the mother of the armie , the mother of the gods , and of the senate , and the mother of her countrey : why may not women instructed by us , be called mothers of the church ? why may not we relye upon the wit of women , when once , the church delivered over her self to a woman-bishop ? and since we are reputed so fortunate in obtaining the favour of women , that women are forbid to come into our houses ; and we are forbid , to take the charge of any nunns ; since we have had so good experience of their favour●… in all the indies , or at least have thought it fit , that they which have the charge to write our anniversarie letters from thence should make that boast , and add something to the truth , both because the ancient heretiques held that course in insinuating their opinions , and because they which are acquainted with our practices , will think any thing credible , which is written of us in that behalf , why should we doubt of our fortune in this queen , which is so much subject to alterations and passions ? she languishes often in the absence of the sun , and often in eclipses falls into swounds , and is at the point of death . in these advantages we must play our parts , and put our devices in practise : for at these times any thing may be drawn from her . nor must we forbear to try what verses and incantations may work upon her : for in those things which the poets writ though they themselves did not believe them , we have since found many truths , and many deep mysteries : nor can i call to minde any woman which either deceived our hope , or escaped our cunning , but elizabeth of england ; who might the rather be pardoned that , because she had put off all affections of women . the principal dignity of which sex ( which is to be a mother ) what reason had she to wish or affect , since without those womanish titles , unworthy of her , of wife and mother , such an heir was otherwise provided for her , as was not fit to be kept any longer from the inheritance . but when i , who hate them , speak thus much in the honour of these two princes , i finde my self carried with the same fury as those beasts were , which our men say , did sometime adore the host in the mass. for it is against my will , that i pay thus much to the manes of elizabeth ; from scorning of which word manes , when the king of great britain writ it , i would our parsons had forborn , since one of our own jesuits useth the same word , when reprehending our adversaries , he saies , that they do insult upon garnets manes . and yet this elizabeth was not free from all innovation ; for the ancient religion was so much worn out , that to reduce that to the former dignity , and so to renew it , was a kinde of innovation : and by this way of innovating she satisfied the infirmity of her sex , if she suffered any : for a little innovation might serve her , who was but a little , a woman . neither dare i say that this was properly an innovation , lest thereby i should confess , that luther and many others which live in banishment in heaven far from us , might have a title to this place , as such innovators . but we cannot doubt , but that this lunatick queen will be more inclinable to our innovations : for our clavius hath been long familiarly conversant with her : what she hath done from the beginning , what she will do hereafter , how she behaves her self toward her neighbour kingdoms , the rest of the stars , and all the planetary , and firmamentary worlds , with whom she is in league and amity , and with whom at difference , he is perfectly instructed , so he have his ephemerides about him . but clavius is too great a personage to be bestowed upon this lunatick queen , either as her counceller , or ( which were more to our profit ) as her confessor . so great a man must not be cast away upon so small a matter . nor have we any other besides , whom upon any occasion we may send to the sun , or to the other worlds , beyond the world . therefore we must reserve clavius for greater uses . our herbestus , or busaus , or voellus ( and these be all which have given any proof of their knowledg in mathematicks although they be but tastless , and childish , may serve to observe her aspects and motions , and to make catechismes fit for this lunatick church : for though garnet had clavius for his master , yet he profited little in the arts , but being filled with bellarmines dictates , ( who was also his master ) his minde was all upon politicks . when we are established there , this will add much to our dignity , that in our letters which we send down to the earth ( except perchance the whole roman church come up to us into the moon ) we may write of what miracles we list : which we offered to do out of the indies , and with good success , till one of our order , in simplicitie , and ingenuity , fitter for a christian , then a jesuite , acknowledged and lamented that there were no wiracles done there . truly it had been better for us to have spit all those five brothers , acostas , out of our order , then that any one of them should have vomited this reproach against us . it is of such men as these in our order , that our gretzer sayes , there is no body without his excrements , because though they speak truth , yet they speak it too rawly . but as for this contemplation , and the establishing of that government , ( though it be a pleasant consideration ) we may neither pamper our selves longer with it now , nor detain you longer therein . let your greatness write , let the pope execute your counsell , let the moon approach when you 2 think fit . in the mean time let me use this chamber as a resting place . for though pope gregorie were strucken by the angell with a perpetuall pain in his stomack and feet , because he compelled god by his prayers to deliver trajan out of hell , and transferre him to heaven , and therefore god , by the mouth of gregorie took an assurance for all his successors , that they should never dare to request the like again : yet when the pope shall call me back from hence , he can be in no danger , both because in this contract god cannot bee presumed to have thought of me , since i never thought of him , and so the contract therein voyd ; and because the condition is not broken , if i be not removed into heaven , but transferred from an earthly hell to a lunatique hell. more then this he could not be heard to speak : for that noyse , of which i spoke before , increased exceedingly , and when lucifer asked the cause , it was told him , that there was a soule newly arrived in hell , which said , that the pope was at last intreated to make ignatius a saint , and that he hastened his canonization , as thinking it an unjust thing , that when all artificers and prophane butchers had particular saints to invocate , onely these spirituall butchers , and king-killers , should have none . for when the jesuit cotton in those questions which by vertue of his invisible priviledge he had provided for a possest person , amongst others , dangerous both to england and france , had inserted this question : what shall i doe for ignatius his canonizing ? and found at last , that philip king of spain , and henry king of france , contended by their ambassadors at rome , which of them should have the honour of obtaining his canonizing ( for both pretending to be king of navarre , both pretended that this right and honour belonged to him ; and so both deluded the jesuits : ) for d alcala a franciscan , and penafort a iacobite , were by philips means canonized , and the jesuite left out . at last he despaired of having any assistance from these princes ; nor did he think it convenient that a jesuit should be so much beholding to a king ▪ since baronius was already come to that height and constancy , that being accused of som wrongs done to his king , he did not vouchsafe to write in his own excuse to the king , till the conclave which was then held , was fully ended , lest ( as himselfe gives the reason ) if he had then been chosen pope , it should be thought he had been beholden to the king therein . for these reasons therfore they labour the pope themselves . they confess , that if they might chuse , they had rather he should restore them into all which they had lost in france and venice , then that ignatius should be sent up into heaven ; and that the pope was rather bound to doe so , by the order which god himselfe seems to have observed in the creation where he first furnished the earth , and then the heavens , and confirmed himselfe to be the israeiltes god by this argument , that he had given them the land of canaan and other temporall blessings . but since this exceeded the popes omnipotence in earth ; it was fit he should try what he could doe in heaven . now the pope would fain have satisfied them with the title of beatus , which formerly upon the intreaty of the princes of that family he had afforded to aloisius gonzaga of that order . he would also have given this title of saint rather to xaverius , who had the reputation of having done miracles . indeed he would have done any thing , so he might have slipped over ignatius . but at last he is overcome ; and so against the will of heaven , and of the pope , lucifer himselfe being not very forward in it , ignatius must be thrust in amongst the saints . all this discourse , i , being grown cunninger then that doctor , gabriel nele ( of whom bartolus speaketh ) that by the onely motion of his lips , without any utterance , understood all men , perceived and read in every mans countenance there . these things as soon as lucifer apprehended them , gave an end to the contention : for now he thought he might no longer doubt nor dispute of ignatius his admission , who , besides his former pretences , had now gotten a new right and title to the place by his canonization ; and he feared that the pope would take all delay ill at his hands , because canonization is now grown a kind of declaration , by which all men may take knowledge , that such a one to whom the church of rome is much beholden , is now made partaker of the principall dignities and places in hell : for these men ever make as though they would follow augustine in all things , and therfore they provide that that also shall be true which he said in this point , that the reliques of many are honoured upon earth , whose souls are tormented in hell. therefore he took ignatius by the hand , and led him to the gate . in the mean time , i , which doubted of the truth of this report of his canonizing , went a little out for further instruction : for i thought it scarce credible , that paulus quintus , who had but lately burdened both the citie of rome , and the church , with so great expences , when he canonized francisca romana , would so easily proceed to canonize ignatius now , when neither any prince offered to bear the charge , nor so much as sollicited it : for so he must be focred to wast both the treasures of the church at once . and from leo 3. who 800 years after christ , is the first pope which canonized any , i had not observed that this had ever been done : neither doe i think that paulus quintus was drawn to the canonizing of this woman by any other respect , then because that rule which she appointed to her order , was dictated and written by s. paul : for though peter and magdalen , and others , were present at the writing thereof , as witnesses , yet paul was the author thereof . and since st pauls old epistles trouble and disadvantage this church , they were glad to apprehend any thing of his new writing which might be for them , that so this new work of his might bear witness of his second conversion to papistry , since by his first conversion to christianity , they got nothing : for to say that in this business paulus quintus could not chuse but be god , god himselfe to say that he must needs have lived familiarly with the godhead : and must have heard predestination it self whispering to him : and must have had a place to sit in councell with the most divine trinity , ( all which valaderius sayes of him , is not necessary in this matter , wherein the popes for the most part proceed , as humane affections lead them . but at last , after some enquiry , i found that a certain idle gazettior , which used to scrape up newes and rumors at rome , and so to make up sale letters , vainer & falser then the iesuits letter of iapan and the indies , had brought this newes to hell , and a little iesuiticall novice , a credulous soul , received it by his implicit faith , and published it . i laughed at lucifers easinesse to beleeve , and i saw no reason ever after , to accuse him of infidelity . upon this i came back again , to spy ( if the gates were still open ) with what affection ignatius , and they who were in ancient possession of that place , behaved themselves towards one another . and i found him yet in the porch , and there beginning a new contention : for having presently cast his eyes to the principal place , next to lucifers owne throne ; and finding it possest he stopt lucifer , and asked him who it was that sate there . it was answered that it was pope boniface : to whom ▪ as to a principal innovator , for having first challenged the name of universal bishop , that honour was afforded . is he an innovator thundred ignatius ? shall i suffer this , when all my disciples have laboured all this while to prove to the world , that all the popes before his time did use that name ? and that gregory did not reprehend the patriarch iohn for taking to himself an antichristian name , but for usurping a name which was due to none but the pope . and could it be fit for you , lucifer ( who in this were either unmindfull of the roman church , or else too weak and incapable of her secrets and mysteries ) to give way to any fentence in hell , which ( though it were according to truth ) yet differed from the iesuits oracles ? with this ignatius flyes upwards , and rushes upon boniface , and throwes him out of his seat : and lucifer went up with him as fast , and gave him assistance , lest , if he should forsake him , his own seat might be indangered . and i returned to my body ; which as a flower wet with last nights dew , and then warm'd with the new sun , doth shake off agen all drowsiness , and raise his trembling crown , which crookedly did languish , and stoop down to kiss the earth , and panted now to finde those beams return'd , which had not long time shin'd . was with this return of my soul sufficiently refreshed . and when i had seen all this , and consider'd how fitly and proportionally rome and hell answered one another , after i had seen a iesuit turn the pope out of his chair in hell , i suspected that that order would attempt as much at rome . an apology for iesuits . now it is time to come to the apologie for iesuits : that is , it is time to leave speaking of them , for he favours them most , which says least of them ; nor can any man , though he had declaimed against them till all the sand of the sea were run through his hour-glass , lack matter to add of their practises . if any man have a minde to add any thing to this apologie , he hath my leave ; and i have therefore left room for three or four lines , which is enough for such a paradox ; and more than iungius , scribanius , gretzerus , richeomus , cydonius , and all the rest which are used to apologies , and almost tired with a defensive war , are able to employ , if they will write only good things , and true , of the iesuits . neither can they comfort themselves with this , that cato was called to his answer four and forty times : for he was so many times acquitted , which both the parliaments of england and france deny of the iesuits . but if any man think this apology too short , he may think the whole book an apologie , by this rule of their own , that it is their greatest argument of innocency to be accused by us . at this time , whilst they are yet somewhat able to do some harm in some places , let them make much of this apologie . it will come to pass shortly , when as they have bin dispoyled and expelled at venice , and shaked and fanned in france , so they will be forsaken of other princes , and then their own weakness will be their apologie , and they will grow harmless out of necessity , and that which vegetius said of chariots armed with sithes ond hooks , will be applyed to the jesuits , at first they were a terror , and after a scorn . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a36301-e12570 place this after paradox xi . fol. 37. notes for div a36301-e19120 nuncius ●…ydereus . de stella 〈◊〉 cygno . paleotus de sindone cap. 6. iosephina di gieron gratian. theod : ni em : nemus unio , tra. 6. cap. 29. sedulius apolog. pro libro con form . l. 2. cap. 2. harlay defence des iesuites . vollader : decanoniza fran cis ro. in epist. bellar. de purgat . lib. 2. c. 8. august de haer. c. 81 harlay . defence dis iesuites mesdi . 6. bulla 18 in gre●… cont . 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 ovius de majest . e●…s . milic . c. 7 mosnes . theor. 1 cap. 2. imaginarium . 21 q. omnis jactura . modest. in verb. milite 32. q. 2. pudor . flagel . daemon . menghi . summa bullarii , verbo agnus dei. litera di diego torres . dist. 32. qui. ibid. vidua . scappus de jure non script l. 1. c. 54. sum. angel . verb. papa , n : 1 money-takers . theol. niem . nemus unio tract 6. c. 29. rod : cupers de eccles : univers : fol. 4. azor : par : 2. l. 4. c : 1. moscontus de maj. eccl. mil : c : 5. ibid : idem c : 6. scappus de iure non scrip : l : 1. c : 25. azor : ubi supra . plat : in vit : adr. i. apologia pro garnete . de desperata calv : causa , c. 11 rom : 12. 11 ribadineyra catal : fol : 60 & 100. brisson de formul : l : 〈◊〉 gretzer : examen : speculi fol : 139. l'eschuffier , f : 25. id : fol : 32. observat : in cassianum , fol : 736. ex collat : 19. triha●…es lib : 2. c : 4. de la messe , fol : 358. synta . tholos : lib 15. c : 4. v : 7. scap : de iure non script : l. 1. c : 6. ibid : c : 16 ibid. c. 25 de regno sicil●… ▪ resp. ad card. colum . salmonees . hypocr : l. 4. aphor. 57. garrauca stat . synod . n. 41 regul . iesuit . cap. praefect . refector . de rebus ●…uper inventis . harlay defence des iesuit . fol. 12. valla-der fol. 24. matalius metellus , praefat . in osorium . paris de puteo , de syndicat . de excess . regn . sophronius cap. 45. conse●…uerat . 1 vita nerii-fol . 107. 2 fol. 108. 3 fol. 212. 4 fol. 229. 5 fol. 19. 6 fol. 26. 7 fol. 313. 8 fol. 163. brisson d●… formul . l. 1. reinsulk manual . franciscan cap. 9. nuncius sydereus . e rog. iesuit . f●…l . 73. lbid . fol. 47. heissius ad aphor iesuit . fol. 135. eudaem . ioan. apol . pro garn●… . c. 5. acosta d●… procur . ind. salu l. 2 , c. 9. de studiis iesuit . abstrus . c. 5. bellar. de purg. l. 2. c. 8. pierre mathier i. l. 1. nar. 4 litera ejus ad philip. 3. gen. 2. 4. gen. 17. 8. vita ejus epist. ad paul. 5. l. 1. de ve●…blig . valade . eius fol. 57. fol. 5. notes for div a36301-e30810 bonar . in ampbitb . lib. 1. c. 14. letters to severall persons of honour written by john donne ... ; published by john donne, dr. of the civill law. correspondence. selections donne, john, 1572-1631. 1651 approx. 315 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 164 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a36298 wing d1864 estc r1211 12265009 ocm 12265009 57999 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a36298) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 57999) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 181:9) letters to severall persons of honour written by john donne ... ; published by john donne, dr. of the civill law. correspondence. selections donne, john, 1572-1631. donne, john, 1604-1662. [6], 318 p. : port. printed by j. flesher for richard marriot, and are to be sold at his shop ..., london : 1651. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng donne, john, 1572-1631 -correspondence. authors, english -early modern, 1500-1700 -correspondence. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-04 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-05 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2002-05 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-06 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion portrait of john donne viri seraphici joannis donne quadragenarij effigies vera , qui post eam aetatem sacris initiatus ecclesiae s ti pauli decanus obijt . anō dām 1631 o an̄o aetatis suae 59 o lombart sculp . londre letters to severall persons of honour : written by john donne sometime deane of s t pauls london . published by john donne d r. of the civill law. london , printed by j. flesher , for richard marriot , and are to be sold at his shop in s t dunstans church-yard under the dyall . 1651. to the most virtuous and excellent lady m ris . bridget dunch . madam , it is an argument of the immortality of the soul , that it can apprehend , and imbrace such a conception ; and , it may be some kinde of prophecy , of the continuance , and lasting of these letters , that having been scattered , more then sibyls leaves , i cannot say into parts , but corners of the world , they have recollected and united themselves , meeting at once , as it were , at the same spring , from whence they flowed , but by succession . but , the piety of aeneas to anchises , with the heat , and fervour of his zeale , had been dazelled , and extinguished by the fire of troy , and his father become his tombe , had not a brighter flame appeared in his protection , and venus herself descended with her embraces , to protect her martiall champion ; so that there is no safer way , to give a perpetuity to this remnant of the dead authour ; but , by dedicating it to the altar of beauty and perfection ; and if you , madam , be but pleased to shed on it , one beame of your grace and favour , that very adumbration will quicken it with a new spirit , and defend it from all fire , ( the fate of most letters ) but the last ; which , turning these into ashes , shall revive the authour from his vrne , and put him into a capacity of celebrating you , his guardian angell , who has protected that part of his soul , that he left behinde him , his fame and reputation . the courtesies that you conferre upon the living , may admit of some allay , by a possibility of a retaliation ; but what you bestow upon the dead , is a sacrifice to pure virtue ; an ungifted deity , t is true , without oblation , altar , or temple , if she were not enshrined in your noble brest , but , i must , forever , become her votary , if it be , but for giving me this inclination , and desire of being madam your most humble servant jo. donne . a collection of letters written to severall persons of honour . to the worthiest lady m rs . bridget white . madame , i could make some guesse whether souls that go to heaven , retain any memory of us that stay behinde , if i knew whether you ever thought of us , since you enjoyed your heaven , which is your self , at home . your going away hath made london a dead carkasse . a tearm , and a court do a little spice and embalme it , and keep it from putrefaction , but the soul went away in you : and i think the onely reason why the plague is somewhat slackned , is , because the place is dead already , and no body left worth the killing . wheresoever you are , there is london enough : and it is a diminishing of you to say so , since you are more then the rest of the world . when you have a desire to work a miracle , you will return hither , and raise the place from the dead , and the dead that are in it ; of which i am one , but that a hope that i have a room in your favour keeps me alive ; which you shall abundantly confirme to me , if by one letter you tell me , that you have received my six ; for now my letters are grown to that bulk , that i may divide them like amadis the gaules book , and tell you , that this is the first letter of the second part of the first book . your humblest , and affectionate servant j. d. strand s. peters day at nine . to the worthiest lady m rs . b. w. madame , i think the letters which i send to you single lose themselves by the way for want of a guide , or faint for want of company . now , that on your part there be no excuse , after three single letters , i send three together , that every one of them may have two witnesses of their delivery . they come also to waite upon another letter from s r e. herbert , of whose recovery from a fever , you may apprehend a perfecter contentment then we , because you had none of the former sorrow . i am an heretique if it be sound doctrine , that pleasure tasts best after sorrow . for my part , i can love health well enough , though i be never sick ; and i never needed my mistris frowns and disfavours , to make her favours acceptable to me . in states , it is a weakness to stand upon a defensive war , and safer not to be invaded , then to have overcome : so in our souls health , an innocence is better then the heartiest repentance . and in the pleasures of this life , it is better that the variety of the pleasures give us the taste and appetite to it , then a sowre and sad interruption quicken our stomack ; for then we live by physick . i wish therefore all your happinesses such as this intire , and without flaw , or spot of discontentment ; and such is the love and service of your humblest and affectionatest servant j. d. strand s. peters day at 4. to the same . madame , this letter which i send enclosed hath been yours many moneths , and hath languished upon my table for a passage so long , that as others send news in their letters , i send an antiquity in mine . i durst not tear it , after it was yours : there is some facriledge in defacing any thing consecrated to you , and some impiety to despaire that any thing devoted to you should not be reserved to a good issue . i remember i should have sent it by a servant , of whose diligence i see i was too confident . i know not what it says : but i dare make this letter no longer , because being very sure that i always think the same thoughts of you , i am afraid i should fall upon the same words , and so send one letter twice together . your very affectionate servant j. d. novemb. 8. to the honourable lady m rs . b. w. madame , i have but small comfort in this letter ; the messenger comes too easily to me , and i am too sure that the letter shall be delivered . all adventures towards you should be of more difficulty and hazard . but perchance i need not lament this ; it may be so many of my letters are lost already that it is time that one should come , like jobs servant , to bring word , that the rest were lost . if you have had more before , this comes to aske how they were received ; and if you have had none , it comes to try how they should have been received . it comes to you like a bashfull servant , who though he have an extreme desire to put himself in your presence , yet hath not much to say when he is come : yet hath it as much to say as you can think ; because what degrees soever of honour , respect , and devotion , you can imagine or beleeve to be in any , this letter tells you , that all those are in me towards you . so that for this letter you are my secretary ; for your worthiness , and your opinion that i have a just estimation of them , write it : so that it is as long , and as good , as you think it ; and nothing is left to me , but as a witness , to subscribe the name of your most humble servant j. d. though this letter be yours , it will not misbecome or disproportion it that i mention your noble brother , who is gone to cleave , not to return till towards christmas , except the business deserve him not so long . to the honourable l. the lady kingsmel upon the death of her husband . madame , those things which god dissolves at once , as he shall do the sun , and moon , and those bodies at the last conflagration , he never intends to reunite again ; but in those things , which he takes in pieces , as he doth man , and wife , in these divorces , by death , and in single persons , by the divorce of body and soul , god hath another purpose to make them up again . that piece which he takes to himself , is presently cast in a mould , and in an instant made fit for his use ; for heaven is not a place of a proficiency , but of present perfection . that piece which he leaves behinde in this world , by the death of a part thereof , growes fitter and fitter for him , by the good use of his corrections , and the intire conformity to his will. nothing disproportions us , nor makes us so uncapable of being reunited to those whom we loved here , as murmuring , or not advancing the goodness of him , who hath removed them from hence . we would wonder , to see a man , who in a wood were left to his liberty , to fell what trees he would , take onely the crooked , and leave the streightest trees ; but that man hath perchance a ship to build , and not a house , and so hath use of that kinde of timber : let not us , who know that in gods house there are many mansions , but yet have no modell , no designe of the forme of that building , wonder at his taking in of his materialls , why he takes the young , and leaves the old , or why the sickly overlive those , that had better health . we are not bound to think that souls departed , have devested all affections towards them , whom they left here ; but we are bound to think , that for all their loves they would not be here again : then is the will of god done in earth , as it is in heaven , when we neither pretermit his actions , nor resist them ; neither pass them over in an inconsideration , as though god had no hand in them , nor go about to take them out of his hands , as though we could direct him to do them better . as gods scriptures are his will , so his actions are his will ; both are testaments , because they testifie his minde to us . it is not lawfull to adde a scedule to either of his wills : as they do ill , who adde to his written will , the scriptures , a scedule of apcryphall books : so do they also , who to his other will , his manifested actions , adde apocryphall conditions , and a scedule of such limitations as these , if god would have stayed thus long , or , if god would have proceeded thus long , or , if god would have proceeded in this or this manner , i could have born it . to say that our afflictions are greater then we can bear , is so near to despairing , as that the same words express both ; for when we consider caines words in that originall tongue in which god spake , we cannot tell whether the words be , my punishment is greater then can be born ; or , my sin is greater then can be forgiven . but madame , you who willingly sacrificed your self to god , in your obedience to him , in your own sickness , cannot be doubted to dispute with him , about any part of you , which he shall be pleased to require at your hands . the difference is great in the loss , of an arme , or a head ; of a child , or a husband : but to them , who are incorporated into christ , their head , there can be no beheading ; upon you , who are a member of the spouse of christ the church , there can fall no widowhead , nor orphanage upon those children , to whom god is father . i have not another office by your husbands death ; for i was your chaplaine before , in my daily prayers ; but i shall inlarge that office with other collects , then before , that god will continue to you , that peace which you have ever had in him , and send you quiet , and peaceable dispositions in all them with whom you shall have any thing to do , in your temporall estate and matters of this world . amen . your ladiships very humble and thankfull servant in christ jesus j. donne . at my poor house at s. pauls . 26. octob. 1624. to my honoured friend s t. lucey . sir , i make account that this writing of letters , when it is with any seriousness , is a kind of extasie , and a departure and secession and suspension of the soul , w ch doth then cōmunicate it self to two bodies : and as i would every day provide for my souls last convoy , though i know not when i shall die , and perchance i shall never die ; so for these extasies in letters , i oftentimes deliver my self over in writing when i know not when those letters shall be sent to you , and many times they never are , for i have a little satisfaction in seeing a letter written to you upon my table , though i meet no opportunity of sending it . especially this summer , when either by my early retiring home , or your irresolutions of your own purposes , or some other possessions of yours you did lesse reveale to me your progresses , and stations , and where i might crosse you by letters , then heretofore : i make shift to lay little fault upon you , because my pardon might be easier , if i transgress into a longer and busier letter then your countrey sports admit ; but you may read it in winter : and by that time i may more clearly express my self for those things which have entred into me , concerning your soul : for as the greatest advantage which mans soul is thought to have beyond others , is that which they call actum reflexum , and iteratum , ( for beasts do the same things as we do , but they do not consider nor remember the circumstances and inducements ; and by what power , and faculty , it is that they do them ) so of those which they call actum reflexum the noblest is that which reflects upon the soul it self , and considers and meditates it , into which consideration when i walke after my slow and unperfect pace , i begin to think that as litigious men tyred with suits , admit any arbitrement ; and princes travailed with long and wastfull war , descend to such conditions of peace , as they are soon after ashamed to have embraced : so philosophers , and so all sects of christians , after long disputations and controversies , have allowed many things for positive and dogmaticall truths which are not worthy of that dignity ; and so many doctrines have grown to be the ordinary diet and food of our spirits , and have place in the pap of catechismes , which were admitted but as physick in that present distemper , or accepted in a lazie weariness , when men , so they might have something to relie upon , and to excuse themselves from more painfull inquisition , never examined what that was . to which indisposition of ours , the casuists are so indulgent , as that they allow a conscience to adhere to any probable opinion against a more probable , and do never binde him to seek out which is the more probable , but give him leave to dissemble it and to depart from it , if by mischance he come to know it . this , as it appears in all sciences , so most manifestly in physick , which for a long time considering nothing , but plain curing and that but by example and precedent , the world at last longed for some certain canons and rules , how these cures might be accomplished ; and when men are inflamed with this desire , and that such a fire breaks out that rages and consumes infinitly by heat of argument , except some of authority interpose . this produced hippocrates his aphorismes ; and the world slumbred or took breath , in his resolution divers hundreds of years : and then in galens time , which was not satisfied with the effect of curing , nor with the knowledge how to cure , broke out another desire of finding out the causes why those simples wrought those effects . then galeu rather to stay their stomachs then that he gave them enough , taught them the qualities of the four elements , and arrested them upon this , that all differences of qualities proceeded from them . and after , ( not much before our time ) men perceiving that all effects in physick could not be derived form these beggerly and impotent properties of the elements , and that therefore they were driven often to that miserable refuge of specifique form , and of antipathy and sympathy , we see the world hath turned upon new principles which are attributed to paracelsus , but ( indeed ) too much to his honour . certainly it is also so in the physick of our soul divinity , for in the primitive church , when amongst the fathers there were so divers opinions of the state of the soul , presently after this life , they easily inclined to be content to do as much for them dead as when they were alive , and so concurred in a charitable disposition to pray for them ; which manner of prayer then in use , no christian church at this day having received better light , will allow of . so also when in the beginning of s. augustines time , grace had been so much advanced that mans nature was scarce admitted to be so much as any means or instrument ( not onely no kinde of cause ) of his own good works : and soon after in s. augustines time also mans free will ( by fierce opposition and arguing against the former error ) was too much overvalued , and admitted into too near degrees of fellowship with grace ; those times admitted a doctrine and form of reconciliation , which though for reverence to the time , both the dominicans and jesuits at this day in their great quarrell about grace and free will would yet seem to maintaine , yet indifferent and dispasioned men of that church see there is no possibility in it , and therefore accuse it of absurdity and almost of heresie . i think it falls out thus also in the matter of the soul : for christian religion presuming a soul , and intending principally her happiness in the life to come , hath been content to accept any way which hath been obtruded ; how this soul is begun in us . hence it is that whole christian churches aresthemselves upon propagation from parents ; and other whole christian churches allow onely infusion from god. in both which opinions there appear such infirmities as it is time to look for a better : for whosoever will adhere to the way of propagation , can never evict necessarily and certainly a naturall immortality in the soul , if the soul result out of matter , nor shall he ever prove that all mankind hath any more then one soul : as certainly of all beasts , if they receive such souls as they have from their parents , every species can have but one soul. and they which follow the opinion of infusion from god , and of a new creation ( which is now the more common opinion ) as they can very hardly defend the doctrin of original sin ( the soul is forced to take this infection , and comes not into the body of her own disposition ) so shall they never be able to prove that all those whom we see in the shape of men have an immortall and reasonable soul , because our parents are as able as any other species is to give us a soul of growth and of sense , and to perform all vitall and animall functions . and so without infusion of such a soul may produce a creature as wise and well disposed as any horse or elephant , of which degree many whom we see come far short ; nor hath god bound or declared himself that he will always create a soul for every embryon , there is yet therefore no opinion in philosophy , nor divinity , so well established as constrains us to beleeve , both that the soul is immortall , and that every particular man hath such a soul : which since out of the great mercy of our god we do constantly beleeve , i am ashamed that we do not also know it by searching farther : but as sometimes we had rather beleeve a travellers lie then go to disprove him ; so men rather cleave to these ways then seek new : yet because i have meditated therein , i will shortly aquaint you with what i think ; for i would not be in danger of that law of moses , that if a man dig a pit , and cover it not , he must recompense those which are damnified by it : which is often interpreted of such as shake old opinions , and do not establish new as certain , but leave consciences in a worse danger then they found them in . i beleeve that law of moses hath in it some mysterie and appliablenesse ; for by that law men are onely then bound to that indemnity and compensation , if an oxe or an asse ( that is , such as are of a strong constitution and accustomed to labour ) fall therein ; but it is not said so , if a sheep or a goat fall : no more are we , if men in a sillinesse or wantonnesse will stumble or take a scandall , bound to rectifie them at all times . and therefore because i justly presume you strong and watchfull enough , i make account that i am not obnoxious to that law , since my meditations are neither too wide nor too deep for you , except onely that my way of expressing them may be extended beyond your patience and pardon , which i will therefore tempt no longer at this time . your very affectionate friend and servant and lover i. donne . from micham , my close prison ever since i saw you , 9 octob. to the noblest knight s r. edward herbert l. of cherbury ; sent to him with his book biathanatos . sir , i make accompt that this book hath enough performed that which it undertook , both by argument and example . it shall therefore the lesse need to be it self another example of the doctrine . it shall not therefore kill it self ; that is , not bury it self ; for if it should do so , those reasons , by which that act should be defended or excused , were also lost with it . since it is content to live , it cannot chuse a wholsomeraire then your library , where authors of all complexions are presented . if any of them grudge this book a room , and suspect it of new or dangerous doctrine , you who know us all , can best moderate . to those reasons which i know your love to me will make in my favour and discharge , you may adde this , that though this doctrine hath not been taught nor defended by writers , yet they , most of any sort of men in the world , have practised it . your very true and earnest friend and servant and lover j. donne . to s r robert carre now earle of ankerum , with my book biathanatos at my going into germany . sir , i had need do somewhat towards you above my promises ; how weak are my performances , when even my promises are defective ? i cannot promise , no not in mine own hopes , equally to your merit towards me . but besides the poems , of which you took a promise , i send you another book to which there belongs this history . it was written by me many years since ; and because it is upon a misinterpretable subject , i have always gone so near suppressing it , as that it is onely not burnt : no hand hath passed upon it to copy it , nor many eyes to read it : onely to some particular friends in both universities , then when i writ it , i did communicate it : and i remember , i had this answer , that certainly , there was a false thread in it , but not easily found : keep it , i pray , with the same jealousie ; let any that your discretion admits to the sight of it , know the date of it ; and that it is a book written by jack donne , and not by d. donne : reserve it for me , if i live , and if i die , i only forbid it the presse , and the fire : publish it not , but yet burn it not ; and between those , do what you will with it . love me still , thus farre , for your own sake , that when you withdraw your love from me , you will finde so many unworthinesses in me , as you grow ashamed of having had so long , and so much , such a thing as your poor servant in chr. jes. j. donne . to the countesse of bedford . madam , amongst many other dignities which this letter hath by being received and seen by you , it is not the least , that it was prophesied of before it was born : for your brother told you in his letter , that i had written : he did me much honour both in advancing my truth so farre as to call a promise an act already done ; and to provide me a means of doing him a service in this act , which is but doing right to my self : for by this performance of mine own word , i have also justified that part of his letter which concerned me ; and it had been a double guiltinesse in me , to have made him guilty towards you . it makes no difference that this came not the same day , nor bears the same date as his ; for though in inheritances and worldly possessions we consider the dates of evidences , yet in letters , by which we deliver over our affections , and assurances of friendship , and the best faculties of our souls , times and daies cannot have interest , nor be considerable , because that which passes by them , is eternall , and out of the measure of time . because therefore it is the office of this letter , to convey my best wishes , and all the effects of a noble love unto you , ( which are the best fruits that so poor a soil , as my poor soul is , can produce ) you may be pleased to allow the letter thus much of the souls privilege , as to exempt it from straitnesse of hours , or any measure of times , and so beleeve it came then . and for my part , i shall make it so like my soul , that as that affection , of which it is the messenger , begun in me without my knowing when , any more then i know when my soul began ; so it shall continue as long as that . your most affectionate friend and servant j. d. to the right honourable the countess of montgomery . madam , of my ability to doe your ladiship service , any thing may be an embleme good enough ; for as a word vanisheth , so doth any power in me to serve you ; things that are written are fitter testimonies , because they remain and are permanent : in writing this sermon which your ladiship was pleased to hear before , i confesse i satisfie an ambition of mine own , but it is the ambition of obeying your commandment , not onely an ambition of leaving my name in the memory , or in the cabinet : and yet , since i am going out of the kingdom , and perchance out of the world , ( when god shall have given my soul a place in heaven ) it shall the lesse diminish your ladiship , if my poor name be found about you . i know what dead carkasses things written are , in respect of things spoken . but in things of this kinde , that soul that inanimates them , receives debts from them : the spirit of god that dictates them in the speaker or writer , and is present in his tongue or hand , meets himself again ( as we meet our selves in a glass ) in the eies and hearts of the hearers and readers : and that spirit , which is ever the same to an equall devotion , makes a writing and a speaking equall means to edification . in one circumstance , my preaching and my writing this sermon is too equall : that that your ladiship heard in a hoarse voyce then , you read in a course hand now : but in thankfulnesse i shall lift up my hands as clean as my infirmities can keep them , and a voyce as clear as his spirit shall be pleased to tune in my prayers in all places of the world , which shall either sustain or bury your ladiships humble servant in christ iesus j. d. to sir h. r. if a whole year be but annus ab annulo , because it returnes into it self , what annululus shall be diminutive enough , to express our weekly revolutions ? in chaines the least linkes have most curiosity , but that can be no emblem of us : but they have also the most strength , and that may . the first sphere onely which is resisted by nothing , absolves his course every day ; and so doth true friendship well placed , often iterate in act or purpose , the same offices . but as the lower spheres , subject to the violence of that , and yet naturally encouraged to a reluctation against it , have therefore many distractions , and eccentricities , and some trepidations , and so return but lamely , and lately to the same place , and office : so that friendship which is not moved primarily by the proper intelligence , discretion , and about the naturall center , vertue , doth perchance sometimes , some things , somewhat like true friendship ; but hath many deviations , which are strayings into new loves , ( not of other men ; for that is proper to true wise friendship , which is not a marring ; but of other things ) and hath such trepidations as keep it from shewing it self , where great persons do not love ; and it returns to the true first station and place of friendship planetarily , which is uncertainly and seldome . i have ever seen in london and our court , as some colours , and habits , and continuances , and motions , and phrases , and accents , and songs , so friends in fashion and in season : and i have seen them as sodainly abandoned altogether , though i see no change in them , nor know more why they were left , then why they were chosen . to do things by example , and upon confidence of anothers judgment may be some kinde of a second wisdome ; but it is but writing by a copy : or indeed it is the hardest of all , and the issue of the first wisdome , for i cannot know that this example should be followed , except i knew that it is good , and so i judge my judge . our assent therefore , and arrest , must be upon things , not persons . and when we are sure we are in the right way , for great persons , we may be glad of their company , if they go our way ; we may for them change our place , but not our end , nor our way , if there be but one , us in religion . in persevering in it , it concerns as much what our companions be , but very much what our friends . in which i know i speak not dangerously nor mis-appliably to you , as though i averted you from any of those friends , who are of other impressions then you or i in some great circumstances of religion . you know i never fettered nor imprisoned the word religion ; not straightning it frierly , ad religiones factitias , ( as the romans call well their orders of religion ) nor immuring it in a rome , or a wittemberg , or a geneva ; they are all virtuall beams of one sun , and wheresoever they finde clay hearts , they harden them , and moulder them into dust ; and they entender and mollifie waxen . they are not so contrary as the north and south poles ; and that they are connaturall pieces of one circle . religion is christianity , which being too spirituall to be seen by us , doth therefore take an apparent body of good life and works , so salvation requires an honest christian. these are the two elements , and he which elemented from these , hath the complexion of a good man , and a fit friend . the diseases are , too much intention into indiscreet zeal , and too much remisnesse and negligence by giving scandall : for our condition and state in this , is as infirm as in our bodies ; where physitians consider only two degrees ; sicknesse , and neutrality ; for there is no health in us . this , sir , i use to say to you , rather to have so good a witnesse and corrector of my meditations , then to advise ; and yet to do that too , since it is pardonable in a friend : not to slack you towards those friends which are religious in other clothes then we ; ( for amici vitia si feras facis tua , is true of such faults ) but to keep you awake against such as the place where you must live will often obtrude , which are not onely naked , without any fashion of such garments , but have neither the body of religion , which is morall honesty , and sociable faithfulness , nor the soul , christianity . i know not how this paper scaped last week which i send now ; i was so sure that i enwrapped it then , that i should be so still , but that i had but one copy ; forgive it as you use to do . from micham in as much haste , and with as ill pen and inke , as the letter can accuse me of ; but with the last and the next weeks heart and affection . yours very truely and affectionately j. donne . to sir h. g. sir , this letter hath more merit , then one of more diligence , for i wrote it in my bed , and with much pain . i have occasion to sit late some nights in my study , ( which your books make a prety library ) and now i finde that that room hath a wholesome emblematique use : for having under it a vault , i make that promise me , that i shall die reading , since my book and a grave are so near . but it hath another unwholesomenesse , that by raw vapors rising from thence , ( for i can impute it to nothing else ) i have contracted a sicknesse which i cannot name nor describe . for it hath so much of a continuall cramp , that it wrests the sinews , so much of a tetane , that it withdraws and puls the mouth , and so much of the gout , ( which they whose counsell i use , say it is ) that it is not like to be cured , though i am too hasty in three days to pronounce it . if it be the gout , i am miserable ; for that affects dangerous parts , as my neck and brest , and ( i think fearfully ) my stomach , but it will not kill me yet ; i shall be in this world , like a porter in a great house , ever nearest the door , but seldomest abroad : i shall have many things to make me weary , and yet not get leave to be gone . if i go , i will provide by my best means that you suffer not for me , in your bonds . the estate which i should leave behinde me of any estimation , is my poor fame , in the memory of my friends , and therefore i would be curious of it , and provide that they repent not to have loved me . since my imprisonment in my bed , i have made a meditation in verse , which i call a litany ; the word you know imports no other then supplication , but all churches have one forme of supplication , by that name . amongst ancient annals i mean some 800 years , i have met two letanies in latin verse , which gave me not the reason of my meditations , for in good faith i thought not upon them then , but they give me a defence , if any man ; to a lay man , and a private , impute it as a fault , to take such divine and publique names , to his own little thoughts . the first of these was made by ratpertus a monk of suevia ; and the other by s. notker , of whom i will give you this note by the way , that he is a private saint , for a few parishes ; they were both but monks , and the letanies poor and barbarous enough ; yet pope nicolas the 5 , valued their devotion so much , that he canonized both their poems , and commanded them for publike service in their churches : mine is for lesser chappels , which are my friends , and though a copy of it were due to you , now , yet i am so unable to serve my self with writing it for you at this time , ( being some 30 staves of 9 lines ) that i must intreat you to take a promise that you shall have the first , for a testimony of that duty which i owe to your love , and to my self , who am bound to cherish it by my best offices . that by which it will deserve best acceptation , is , that neither the roman church need call it defective , because it abhors not the particular mention of the blessed triumphers in heaven ; nor the reformed can discreetly accuse it , of attributing more then a rectified devotion ought to doe . the day before i lay down , i was at london , where i delivered your letter for s r ed. conway , and received another for you , with the copy of my book , of which it is impossible for me to give you a copy so soon , for it is not of much lesse then 300 pages . if i die , it shall come to you in that fashion that your letter desires it . if i warm again , ( as i have often seen such beg-gers as my indisposition is , end themselves soon , and the patient as soon ) you and i shal speak together of that , before it be too late to serve you in that commandment . at this time i onely assure you , that i have not appointed it upon any person , nor ever purposed to print it : which later perchance you thought , and grounded your request thereupon . a gent. that visited me yesterday told me that our church hath lost m r hugh broughton , who is gone to the roman side . i have known before , that serarius the jesuit was an instrument from cardinall baronius to draw him to rome , to accept a stipend , onely to serve the christian churches in controversies with the jews , without indangering himself to change of his perswasion in particular deductions between these christian churches , or being enquired of , or tempted thereunto . and i hope he is no otherwise departed from us . if he be , we shall not escape scandall in it ; because , though he be a man of many distempers , yet when he shall come to eat assured bread , and to be removed from partialities , to which want drove him , to make himself a reputation , and raise up favourers ; you shall see in that course of opposing the jews , he will produce worthy things : and our church will perchance blush to have lost a souldier fit for that great battell ; and to cherish onely those single duellisms , between rome and england , or that more single , and almost self-homicide , between the unconformed ministers , and bishops . i writ to you last week that the plague increased ; by which you may see that my letters — — opinion of the song , not that i make such trifles for praise ; but because as long as you speak comparatively of it with mine own , and not absolutely , so long i am of your opinion even at this time ; when i humbly thank god , i ask & have , his comfort of sadder meditations ; i doe not condemn in my self , that i have given my wit such evaporations , as those , if they be free from prophaneness , or obscene provocations . s r you would pity me if you saw me write , and therefore will pardon me if i write no more : my pain hath drawn my head so much awry , and holds it so , that mine eie cannot follow mine hand : i receive you therefore into my prayers , with mine own weary soul , and commend my self to yours . i doubt not but next week i shall be good news to you , for i have mending or dying on my side , which is two to one . if i continue thus , i shall have comfort in this , that my b. saviour exercising his justice upon my two worldly parts , my fortune , and body , reserves all his mercy for that which best tasts it , and most needs it , my soul. i professe to you truly , that my lothnesse to give over now , seems to my self an ill sign , that i shall write no more . your poor friend , and god's poor patient , jo. donne . to my worthy and honoured friend m r george garet . sir , i am sorry , if your care of me have made you importune to any body else ; yet i cannot be very sorry because it gives new testimonies of your favour to me , of which i shall ever be very glad , and ( that which is my onely vertue ) thankfull : so desperate fortunes as mine , may well make friends loth to doe curtesies , because an inability in deserving or requiting , takes from them the honour of having done a curtesie , and leaves it but the poor name of an alms ; and alms may be given in easier proportions , and more meritoriously . but s r , by what name or weight soever you esteem this kindnesse which you have done me , i value it so , as might alone perswade me of your care of me ; in recompense of which , you must be pleased to accept new assurances that i am i pray let my service be presented by you to m r roope . your very affectionate servant , j. donne . to m r george garet . sir , i have not received that letter , which by this , i perceive you sent to london ; if there were any thing in that , by which i might have taken occasion to have done you service before this time , i have a double reason of grief for the want of it . i came from thence upon thursday , where i left sir tho. roe so indulgent to his sorrow , as it had been an injury to have interrupted it with my unusefull company . i have done nothing of that kinde as your letter intimates , in the memory of that good gentlewoman ; if i had , i should not finde any better use of it , then to put it into your hands . you teach me what i owe her memory ; and if i pay that debt so , you have a part and interest in it , by doing me the honour of remembring it : and therefore it must come quickly to you . i hope not for your return from court , till i come thither ; which if i can be master of my self , or servant to my self , which i think is all one , i hope to do some ten daies hence , making it my way to the bathe . if you find any there that have not forgot my name , continue me in their favour , and hold in your self a firm assurance that i am your affectionate servant j. donne . j. donne . to m rs martha garet . madame , though there be much merit , in the favour your brother hath done me in a visit , yet that which doth enrich and perfect it , is , that he brought you with him ; which he doth , as well by letting me see how you do , as by giving me occasions , and leave to talk with you by this letter : if you have any servant , which wishes you better then i , it must be because he is able to put his wishes into a better frame , and expresse them better , and understand proportion , and greatnesse better then i. i am willing to confesse my impotencie ; which is , that i know no wish good enough for you ; if any doe , my advantage is , that i can exceed his , by adding mine to it . you must not think that i begin to think thus , when you begin to hear it , by a letter ; as sometimes by the changing of the winde , you begin to hear a trumpet , which sounded long before you heard it ; so are these thoughts of you familiar and ordinary in me , though they have seldome the help of this conveyance to your knowledge : i am loth to leave ; for as long as in any fashion , i can have your brother and you here , you make my house a kinde of dorvey ; but since i cannot stay you here , i will come thither to you ; which i do , by wrapping up in this paper , the heart of your most affectionate servant j. donne . to sir thomas roe . sir , it is an ease to your friends abroad , that you are more a man of businesse then heretofore ; for now it were an injury to trouble you with a busie letter . but by the same reason i were inexcusable if i should not write at all , since the lesse , the more acceptable ; therefore , sir , though i have no more to say , but to renew the obligations i have towards you , and to continue my place in your love , i would not forbear to tell you so . if i shall also tell you , that when this place affords any thing worth your hearing , i will be your relator , i think i take so long a day , as you would forget the debt , it appears yet to be so barren . how soever with every commodity , i shall say something , though it be but a descant upon this plain song , that i am your affectionate servant j. donne . to all my friends : sir h. goodere . sir , i am not weary of writing ; it is the course but durable garment of my love ; but i am weary of wanting you . i have a minde like those bodies , which have hot livers , and cold stomachs ; or such a distemper as travelled me at paris ; a fever , and dysentery : in which , that which is physick to one infirmity , nourishes the other . so i abhor nothing more then sadnesse , except the ordinary remedy , change of company . i can allow my self to be animal sociale , appliable to my company , but not gregale , to herd my self in every troup . it is not perfectly true which a very subtil , yet very deep wit averroes says , that all mankinde hath but one soul , which informes and rules us all , as one intelligence doth the firmament and all the starres in it ; as though a particular body were too little an organ for a soul to play upon . and it is as imperfect which is taught by that religion w ch is most accommodate to sense ( i dare not say to reason ( though it have appearance of that too ) because none may doubt but that that religion is certainly best , which is reasonablest ) that all mankinde hath one protecting angel ; all christians one other , all english one other , all of one corporation and every civill coagulation or society one other ; and every man one other . though both these opinions expresse a truth ; which is , that mankinde hath very strong bounds to cohabit and concurre in other then mountains and hills during his life . first , common , and mutuall necessity of one another ; and therefore naturally in our defence , and subventions we first flie to our felves ; next , to that which is likest , other men . then , naturall and inborn charity , beginning at home , which perswades us to give , that we may receive : and legall charity , which makes us also forgive . then an ingraffing in one another , and growing together by a custome of society : and last of all , strict friendship , in which band men were so presumed to be coupled , that our confessor king had a law , that if a man be killed , the murderer shall pay a sum felago suo , which the interpreters call , fide ligato , et comite vitae . all these bands i willingly receive , for no man is lesse of himself then i : nor any man enough of himself . to be so , is all one with omnipotence . and it is well marked , that in the holy book , wheresoever they have rendered almighty , the word is self-sufficient . i think sometimes that the having a family should remove me farre from the curse of vae soli . but in so strict obligation of parent , or husband , or master , ( and perchance it is so in the last degree of friendship ) where all are made one , i am not the lesse alone , for being in the midst of them . therefore this oleum laetitiae , this balme of our lives , this alacrity which dignifies even our service to god , this gallant enemy of dejection and sadnesse , ( for which and wickednesse the italian allows but one word , triste : and in full condemnation whereof it was prophesied of our blessed saviour , non erit tristis , in his conversation ) must be sought and preserved diligently . and since it grows without us , wemust be sure to gather it from the right tree . they which place this alacrity only in a good conscience , deal somewhat too roundly with us , for when we aske the way , they shew us the town afar off : will a physitian consulted for health and strength , bid you have good sinews and equall temper ? it is true , that this conscience is the resultance of all other particular actions ; it is our triumph and banquet in the haven ; but i would come towards that also , ( as mariners say ) with a merry winde . our nature is meteorique , we respect ( because we partake so ) both earth and heaven ; for as our bodies glorified shall be capable of spirituall joy , so our souls demerged into those bodies , are allowed to partake earthly pleasure . our soul is not sent hither , only to go back again : we have some errand to do here : nor is it sent into prison , because it comes innocent : and he which sent it , is just . as we may not kill our selves , so we may not bury our selves : which is done or endangered in a dull monastique sadnesse , which is so much worse then jolity ( for upon that word i durst — — and certainly despair is infinitly worse , then presumption : both because this is an excesse of love , that of fear ; and because this is up , that down the hill ; easier , and more stumbling . heaven is expressed by singing , hell by weeping . and though our blessed saviour be never noted to have laughed , yet his continuance is said ever to be smiling . and that even moderate mirth of heart , and face , and all i wish to my self ; and perswade you to keep . this alacrity is not had by a general charity and equanimity to all mankinde , for that is to seek fruit in a wildernesse : nor from a singular friend , for that is to fetch it out of your own pocket : but the various and abundant grace of it , is good company . in which no rank , no number , no quality , but ill , and such a degree of that as may corrupt and poyson the good , is exempt . for in nearer then them , your friend , and somewhat nearer then he , in your self you must allow some inordinatenesse of affections and passions . for it is not true that they are not natural , but stormes and tempests of our bloud and humours : for they are naturall , but siokly . and as the indian priests expressed an excellent charity , by building hospitalls and providing chirurgery for birds and beasts samed by mischance , or age , or labour : so must we , not cut off , but cure these affections , which are the bestiall part . to sir h. goodere . sir , every tuesday i make account that i turn a great hour-glass , and consider that a weeks life is run out since i writ . but if i aske my self what i have done in the last watch , or would do in the next , i can say nothing ; if i say that i have passed it without hurting any , so may the spider in my window . the primitive monkes were excusable in their retirings and enclosures of themselves : for even of them every one cultivated his own garden and orchard , that is , his soul and body , by meditation , and manufactures ; and they ought the world no more since they consumed none of her sweetnesse , nor begot others to burden her . but for me , if i were able to husband all my time so thriftily , as not onely not to wound my soul in any minute by actuall sinne , but not to rob and cousen her by giving any part to pleasure or businesse , but bestow it all upon her in meditation , yet even in that i should wound her more , and contract another guiltinesse : as the eagle were very unnaturall if because she is able to do it , she should pearch a whole day upon a tree , staring in contemplation of the majestie and glory of the sun , and let her young eglets starve in the nest . two of the most precious things which god hath afforded us here , for the agony and exercise of our sense and spirit , which are a thirst and inhiation after the next life , and a frequency of prayer and meditation in this , are often envenomed , and putrefied , and stray into a corrupt disease : for as god doth thus occasion , and positively concurre to evill , that when a man is purposed to do a great sin , god infuses some good thoughts which make him choose a lesse sin , or leave out some circumstance which aggravated that ; so the devill doth not only suffer but provoke us to somethings naturally good , upon condition that we shall omit some other more necessary and more obligatory . and this is his greatest subtilty ; because herein we have the deceitfull comfort of having done well , and can very hardly spie our errour because it is but an insensible omission , and no accusing act . with the first of these i have often suspected my self to be overtaken ; which is , with a desire of the next life : which though i know it is not meerly out of a wearinesse of this , because i had the same desires when i went with the tyde , and enjoyed fairer hopes then now : yet i doubt worldly encombrances have encreased it . i would not that death should take me asleep . i would not have him meerly seise me , and onely declare me to be dead , but win me , and overcome me . when i must shipwrack , i would do it in a sea , where mine impotencie might have some excuse ; not in a sullen weedy lake , where i could not have so much as exercise for my swimming . therefore i would fain do something ; but that i cannot tell what , is no wonder . for to chuse , is to do : but to be no part of any body , is to be nothing . at most , the greatest persons , are but great wens , and excrescences ; men of wit and delightfull conversation , but as moales for ornament , except they be so incorporated into the body of the world , that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole . this i made account that i begun early , when i understood the study of our laws : but was diverted by the worst voluptuousnes , which is an hydroptique immoderate desire of humane learning and languages : beautifull ornaments to great fortunes ; but mine needed an occupation , and a course which i thought i entred well into , when i submitted my self to such a service , as i thought might imployed those poor advantages , which i had . and there i stumbled too , yet i would try again : for to this hour i am nothing , or so little , that i am scarce subject and argument good enough for one of mine own letters : yet i fear , that doth not ever proceed from a good root , that i am so well content to be lesse , that is dead . you , sir , are farre enough from these descents , your vertue keeps you secure , and your naturall disposition to mirth will preserve you ; but lose none of these holds , a slip is often as dangerous as a bruise , and though you cannot fall to my lownesse , yet in a much lesse distraction you may meet my sadnesse ; for he is no safer which falls from an high tower into the leads , then he which falls from thence to the ground : make therefore to your self some mark , and go towards it alegrement . though i be in such a planetary and erratique fortune , that i can do nothing constantly , yet you may finde some constancy in my constant advising you to it . your hearty true friend j. donne . i came this evening from m. jones his house in essex , where m. martin hath been , and left a relation of captain whitcocks death , perchance it is no news to you , but it was to me ; without doubt want broke him ; for when m. hollands company by reason of the plague broke , the captain sought to be at m ris . jones house , who in her husbands absence declining it , he went in the night , his boy carrying his cloakbag , on foot to the lord of sussex , who going next day to hunt , the captain not then sick , told him he would see him no more . a chaplain came up to him , to whom he delivered an account of his understanding , and i hope , of his beliefe , and soon after dyed ; and my lord hath buryed him with his own ancestors . perchance his life needed a longer sicknesse , but a man may go faster and safer , when he enjoyes that day light of a clear and sound understanding , then in the night or twilight of an ague or other disease . and the grace of almighty god doth every thing suddenly and hastily , but depart from us , it inlightens us , warms us , heats us , ravishes us , at once . such a medicin , i fear , his inconsideration needed ; and i hope as confidently that he had it . as our soul is infused when it is created , and created when it is infused , so at her going out , gods mercy is had by asking , and that is asked by having . lest your polesworth carrier should cousen me , i send my man with this letter early to london , whither this tuesday all the court come to a christening at arondell house , and stay in town so that i will sup with the good lady , and write again to morrow to you , if any thing be occasioned there , which concerns you , and i will tell her so ; next day they are to return to hampton , and upon friday the king to royston . to sir h. goodere . sir , if this which i send you inclosed give me right intelligence , i present you a way by which you may redeem all your former wastes , and recompense your ill fortunes , in having sometimes apprehended unsuccesfull suits , and ( that which i presume you affect most ) ease your self from all future inquisition of widowes or such businesses as aske so over industrious a pursuit , as devest a man from his best happinesse of enjoying himself . i give you ( i think ) the first knowledge , of two millions confiscated to the crown of england : of which i dare assure my self the coffers have yet touched none , nor have the commissioners for suits any thing to oppose against a suit founded upon this confiscation , though they hold never so strictly to their instructions . after you have served your self with aproportion , i pray make a petition in my name for as much as you think may begiven me for my book out of this ; for , but out of this , i have no imagination . and for a token of my desire to serve him , present m. fowler with 3 or 4000 li. of this since he was so resolved never to leave his place , without a suit of that value . i wish your cousen in the town , better provided , but if he be not , here is enough for him . and since i am ever an affectionate servant to that journey , acquaint m. martin from me , how easie it will be to get a good part of this for virginia . upon the least petition that m. brook can present he may make himself whole again , of all which the kings servants m. lepton and master water●use , have endammaged him . give him leave to offer to m. hakevill enough to please himself , for his aurum reginae . and if m. gherard have no present hopefull designe upon a worthy widow , let him have so much of this as will provide him that house and coach which he promised to lend me at my return . if m. inago jones be not satisfied for his last maske ( because i hear say it cannot come to much ) here is enough to be had : this is but a copy , but if sir ro. cotton have the originall he will not deny it you ; if he hath it not , no body else hath it , nor can prevent you ; husband it well , which you may easily doe , because i assure my self none of the children nor friends of the party condemned will crosse you or importune the king for any part . if i get no more by it , yet it hath made me a letter . and sir ( to depart from this mine ) in what part of my letters soever you find the remembrance of my humble service to my lord of bedford , i beseech you ever think them intended for the first , and in that ranke present them . i have yet received but one letter from you which was of the 10 of december by m. pory , but you see that as long as there is one egge left in the nest , i never leave laying , nor should although you had sent none since ; all at last will not amount to so good a testimony as i would fain give how much i am your affectionate servant and lover , j. donne . sir , i write this letter in no very great degree of a convalescence from such storms of a stomach colick as kept me in a continuall vomiting , so that i know not what i should have been able to doe to dispatch this winde , but that an honest fever came and was my physick : i tell you of it onely lest some report should make it worse , for me thinks that they who love to adde to news should think it a master-piece to be able to say no worse of any ill fortune of mine then it deserves , since commonly it deserves worse then they can say , but they did not , and i am reprieved . i finde dying to be like those facts which denying makes felony : when a sicknesse examines us , and we confess that we are willing to die , we cannot , but those who are — incurre the penalty : and i may die yet , if talking idly be an ill sign . god be with you . to the same . sir , it is in our state ever held for a good sign to change prison , and nella signoria de mi , i will think it so , that my sicknesse hath given me leave to come to my london-prison . i made no doubt but my entrance-pain ( for it was so rather then a sicknesse , but that my sadnesse putrefied and corrupted it to that name ) affected you also ; for nearer contracts then generall christianity , had made us so much towards one , that one part cannot escape the distemper of the other . i was therefore very carefull , as well to slack any sorrow which my danger might occasion in you ; as to give you the comfort of having been heard in your prayers for me , to tell you as soon as my pain remitted what steps i made towards health , which i did last week . this tuesday morning your man brought me a letter , which ( if he had not found me at london ) i see he had a hasty commandment to have brought to micham . s r , though my fortune hath made me such as i am , rather a sicknesse and disease of the world then any part of it , yet i esteemed my self so far from being so to you , as i esteemed you to be far from being so of the world , as to measure men by fortune or events . i am now gone so far towards health , as there is not infirmity enough left in me for an assurance of so much noblenesse and truth , as your last letter is to work upon , that might cure a greater indisposition then i am now in : and though if i had died , i had not gone without testimonies of such a disposition in you towards the reparation of my fortune , or preservation of my poor reputation ; yet i would live , and be some such thing as you might not be ashamed to love . your man must send away this hour in which he visits me ; and i have not yet ( for i came last night ) offered to visit my la. bedford , and therefore have nothing to say which should make me grudge this straitnesse of time . he tels me he sends again upon thursday , and therefore i will make an end of this letter , and perfect it then . i doubt my letters have not come duly to your hand , and that i writing in my dungeon of michim without dating , have made the chronologie and sequence of my letters perplexed to you ; howsoever you shall not be rid of this ague of my letters , though perchance the fit change daies . i have received in a narrow compasse three of yours , one with the catalogue of your books , another i found here left last saterday by your man , and this which he brought me this morning sir , i dare sit no longer in my wastcoat , nor have any thing worth the danger of a relapse to write . i owe you so much of my health , as i would not mingle you in any occasion of repairing it , and therefore here ask leave to kisse your hands , and bid you good morrow and farewell . your very true friend and servant j donne . to s r h. g. sir , it should be no interruption to your pleasures , to hear me often say that i love you , and that you are as much my meditations as my self : i often compare not you and me , but the sphear in which your resolutions are , and my wheel ; both i hope concentrique to god : for me thinks the new astronomie is thus appliable well , that we which are a little earth , should rather move towards god , then that he which is fulfilling , and can come no whither , should move to wards us . to your life full of variety , nothing is old , nor new to mine ; and as to that life , all stickings and hesitations seem stupid and stony , so to this , all fluid slipperinesses , and transitory migrations seem giddie and featherie . in that life one is ever in the porch or postern , going in or out , never within his house himself : it is a garment made of remnants , a life raveld out into ends , a line discontinued , and a number of small wretched points , uselesse , because they concurre not : a life built of past and future , not proposing any constant present ; they have more pleasures then we , but not more pleasure ; they joy oftner , we longer ; and no man but of so much understanding as may deliver him from being a fool , would change with a mad-man , which had a better proportion of wit in his often lucidis . you know , they which dwell farthest from the sun , if in any convenient distance , have longer daies , better appetites , better digestion , better growth , and longer life : and all these advantages have their mindes who are well removed from the scorchings , and dazlings , and exhalings of the worlds glory : but neither of our lives are in such extremes ; for you living at court without ambition , which would burn you , or envy , which would devest others , live in the sun , not in the fire : and i which live in the country without stupefying , am not in darknesse , but in shadow , which is not no light , but a pallid , waterish , and diluted one . as all shadows are of one colour , if you respect the body from which they are cast ( for our shadows upon clay will be dirty , and in a garden green , and flowery ) so all retirings into a shadowy life are alike from all causes , and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and insipid dulnesse of the country : onely the emploiments , and that upon which you cast and bestow your pleasure , businesse , or books , gives it the tincture , and beauty . but truly wheresoever we are , if we can but tell our selves truly what and where we would be , we may make any state and place such ; for we are so composed , that if abundance , or glory scorch and melt us , we have an earthly cave , our bodies , to go into by consideration , and cool our selves : and if we be frozen , and contracted with lower and dark fortunes , we have within us a torch , a soul , lighter and warmer then any without : we are therefore our own umbrella's , and our own suns . these , sir , are the sallads and onions of micham , sent to you with as wholesome affection as your other friends send melons and quelque-choses from court and london . if i present you not as good diet as they , i would yet say grace to theirs , and bid much good do it you . i send you , with this , a letter which i sent to the countesse . it is not my use nor duty to doe so , but for your having of it , there were but two consents , and i am sure you have mine , and you are sure you have hers . i also writ to her la p for the verses she shewed in the garden , which i did not onely to extort them , nor onely to keep my promise of writing , for that i had done in the other letter , and perchance she hath forgotten the promise ; nor onely because i think my letters just good enough for a progresse , but because i would write apace to her , whilest it is possible to expresse that which i yet know of her , for by this growth i see how soon she will be ineffable . sir , though my friendship be good for nothing else , it may give you the profit of a tentation , or of an affliction : it may excuse your patience ; and though it cannot allure , it shall importune you . though i know you have many worthy friends of all rankes , yet i adde something , since i which am of none , would fain be your friend too . there is some of the honour and some of the degrees of a creation , to make a friendship of nothing . yet , not to annihilate my self utterly ( for though it seem humblenesse , yet it is a work of as much almightinesse , to bring a thing to nothing , as from nothing ) though i be not of the best stuffe for friendship , which men of warm and durable fortunes only are , i cannot say , that i am not of the best fashion , if truth and honesty be that ; which i must ever exercise , towards you , because i learned it of you : for the conversation with worthy men , and of good example , ( though it sow not vertue in us , yet produceth and ripeneth it . your mans haste , and mine to micham cuts off this letter heve , yet , as in littell paterns torn from a whole piece , this may tell you what all i am . though by taking me before my day ( which i accounted tuesday ) i make short payment of this duty of letters , yet i have a little comfort in this , that you see me hereby , willing to pay those debts which i can , before my time . your affectionate friend j. donne . first saturday in march. 1607. you forget to send me the apology ; and many times , i think it an injury to remember one of a promise , lest it confesse a distrust . but of the book , by occasion of reading the deans answer to it , i have sometimes some want . to the countesse of bedford . happiest and worthiest lady , i do not remember that ever i have seen a petition in verse , i would not therefore be singular , nor adde these to your other papers . i have yet adventured so near as to make a petition for verse , it is for those your ladiship did me the honour to see in twicknam garden , except you repent your making ; and having mended your judgement by thinking worse , that is , better , because juster , of their subject . they must needs be an excellent exercise of your wit , which speake so well of so ill : i humbly beg them of your ladiship , with two such promises , as to any other of your compositions were threatnings : that i will not shew them , and that i will not beleeve them ; and nothing should be so used that comes from your brain or breast . if i should confesse a fault in the boldnesse of asking them , or make a fault by doing it in a longer letter , your ladiship might use your style and old fashion of the court towards me , and pay me with a pardon . here therefore i humbly kisse your ladiships fair learned hands , and wish you good wishes and speedy grants . your ladiships servant j. donne . to the honourable knight sir h. goodere . because things be conserved by the same means , which established them , i nurse that friendship by letters , which you begot so : though you have since strengthened it by more solid aliment and real offices . in these letters from the country there is this merit , that i do otherwise unwillingly turn mine eye or thoughts from my books , companions in whom there is no falshood nor frowardnesse : which words , i am glad to observe that the holy authours often joyne as expressers and relatives to one another , because else out of a naturall descent to that unworthy fault of frowardnesse , furthered with that incommodity of a little thinne house ; i should have mistaken it to be a small thing , which now i see equalled with the worst . if you have laid my papers and books by , i pray let this messenger have them , i have determined upon them . if you have not , be content to do it , in the next three or four days . so , sir , i kisse your hands ; and deliver to you an intire and clear heart ; which shall ever when i am with you be in my face and tongue , and when i am from you , in my letters , for i will never draw curtain between you and it . yours very affectionately j. donne . from your house at micham friday morning . when you are sometimes at m. sackvills , i pray aske if he have this book , baldvinus de officio pii hominis in controversiis ; it was written at the conference at poissy , where beza was , and he answered it ; i long for it . to sir h. g. sir , i hope you are now welcome to london , and well , and well comforted in your fathers health and love , and well contented that we ask you how you doe , and tell you how we are , which yet i cannot of my self ; if i knew that i were ill , i were well ; for we consist of three parts , a soul , and body , and minde : which i call those thoughts and affections and passions , which neither soul nor body hath alone , but have been begotten by their communication , as musique results out of our breath and a cornet . and of all these the diseases are cures , if they be known . of our souls sicknesses , which are sinnes , the knowledge is , to acknowledge , and that is her physique , in which we are not dieted by drams and scruples , for we cannot take too much . of our bodies infirmities , though our knowledge be partly ab extrinseco , from the opinion of the physitian , and that the subject and matter be flexible , and various ; yet their rules are certain , and if the matter be rightly applyed to the rule , our knowledge thereof is also certain . but of the diseases of the minde , there is no criterium , no canon , no rule ; for , our own taste and apprehension and interpretation should be the judge , and that is the disease it self . therefore sometimes when i finde my self transported with jollity , and love of company , i hang leads at my heels ; and reduce to my thoughts my fortunes , my years , the duties of a man , of a friend , of a husband , of a father , and all the incumbencies of a family : when sadnesse dejects me , either i countermine it with another sadnesse , or i kindle squibs about me again , and flie into sportfulnesse and company : and i finde ever after all , that i am like an exorcist , which had long laboured about one , which at last appears to have the mother , that i still mistake my disease . and i still vex my self with this , because if i know it not , no body can know it . and i comfort my self , because i see dispassioned men are subject to the like ignorances . for divers mindes out of the same thing often draw contrary conclusions , as augustine thought devout anthony to be therefore full of the holy ghost , because not being able to read , he could say the whole bible , and interpret it ; and thyreus the jesuit for the same reason doth thinke all the anabaptists to be possessed . and as often out of contrary things men draw one conclusion . as to the roman church , magnificence and splendor hath ever been an argument of gods favour , and poverty & affliction , to the greek . out of this variety of mindes it proceeds , that though our souls would goe to one end , heaven , and all our bodies must go to one end , the earth : yet our third part , the minde , which is our naturall guide here , chooses to every man a severall way : scarce any man likes what another doth , nor advisedly , that which himself . but sir , i am beyond my purpose ; i mean to write a letter , and i am fallen into a discourse , and i do not only take you from some businesse , but i make you a new businesse by drawing you into these meditations . in which let my opennesse be an argument of such love as i would fain expresse in some worthier fashion . to sir g. f. sir , i writ to you once this week before ; yet i write again , both because it seems a kinde of resisting of grace , to omit any commodity of sending into england , and because any pacquet from me into england should go , not only without just fraight , but without ballast , if it had not a letter to you . in letters that i received from sir h. wotton yesterday from amyens , i had one of the 8 of march from you , and with it one from m rs . danterey , of the 28 of january : which is a strange disproportion . but sir , if our letters come not in due order , and so make not a certain and concurrent chain , yet if they come as atomes , and so meet at last , by any crooked , and casuall application , they make up , and they nourish bodies of friendship ; and in that fashion , i mean one way or other , first or last , i hope all the letters which have been addressed to us by one another , are safely arrived , except perchance that pacquet by the cook be not , of which before this time you are cleare ; for i received ( as i told you ) a letter by m. nat. rich , and if you sent none by him , then it was that letter , which the cook tells you he delivered to m. rich ; which , with all my criticismes , i cannot reconcile ; because in your last letter , i find mention of things formerly written , which i have not found . however , i am yet in the same perplexity , which i mentioned before ; which is , that i have received no syllable , neither from her self , nor by any other , how my wife hath passed her danger , nor do i know whether i be increased by a childe , or diminished by the losse of a wife . i hear from england of many censures of my book , of m ris . drury ; if any of those censures do but pardon me my descent in printing any thing in verse , ( which if they do , they are more charitable then my self ; for i do not pardon my self , but confesse that i did it against my conscience , that is , against my own opinion , that i should not have done so ) i doubt not but they will soon give over that other part of that indictment , which is that i have said so much ; for no body can imagine , that i who never saw her , could have any other purpose in that , then that when i had received so very good testimony of her worthinesse , and was gone down to print verses , it became me to say , not what i was sure was just truth , but the best that i could conceive ; for that had been a new weaknesse in me , to have praised any body in printed verses , that had not been capable of the best praise that i could give . presently after easter we shall ( i think ) go to frankford to be there at the election , where we shall meet sir h. wotton and sir ro. rich , and after that we are determined to passe some time , in the palatinate . i go thither with a great deale of devotion ; for me thinkes it is a new kinde of piety , that as pilgrims went heretofore to places which had been holy and happy , so i go to a place now , which shall be so , and more , by the presence of the worthiest princess of the world , if that marriage proceed . i have no greater errand to the place then that at my return into england ; i may be the fitter to stand in her presence , and that after i have seen a rich and abundant countrey , in his best seasons , i may see that sun which shall always keep it in that height . howsoever we stray , if you have leasure to write at any time , adventure by no other way , then m. bruer , at the queens armes , a mercer , in cheapside . i shall omit no opportunity , of which i doubt not to finde more then one before we go from paris . therefore give me leave to end this , in which if you did not finde the remembrance of my humblest services to my lady bedford , your love and faith ought to try all the experiments of pouders , and dryings , and waterings to discover some lines which appeared not ; because it is impossible that a letter should come from me , with such an ungratefull silence . your very true poor friend and servant and lover j. donne . this day begins a history , of which i doubt not but i shall write more to you before i leave this town . monsieur de rohan , a person for birth , next heire to the kingdome of navar , after the kings children , ( if the king of spaine were weary of it ) and for allyance , sonne in law to d. sally , and for breeding in the wars and estate , the most remarkable man of the religion , being governour of s. jean d' angeli , one of the most important towns which they of the religion bold for their security , finding that some distasts between the lieutenant and the maior of the town , and him , were dangerously fomented by great persons , stole from court , rode post to the town and removed these two persons . he sent his secretary , and another dependent of his to give the queen sasisfaction , who is so far from receiving it , that his messengers are committed to the bastile , likely to be presently tortured ; all his friends here commanded to their houses , and the queens companies of light horse sent already thitherward , and foot companies preparing ; which troops being sent against a place , so much concerning those of the religion to keep , and where they abound in number and strength , cannot chuse but produce effects worthy your hearing in the next letter . to sir h. g. sir , because i am in a place and season where i see every thing bud forth , i must do so too , and vent some of my meditations to you ; the rather because all other buds being yet without taste or virtue , my letters may be like them . the pleasantnesse of the season displeases me . every thing refreshes , and i wither , and i grow older and not better , my strength diminishes , and my load growes , and being to passe more and more stormes , i finde that i have not only cast out all my ballast which nature and time gives , reason and discretion , and so am as empty and light as vanity can make me ; but i have over fraught my self with vice , and so am riddingly subject to two contrary wrackes , sinking and over-setting , and under the iniquity of such a disease as inforces the patient when he is almost starved , not only to fast , but to purge . for i have much to take in , and much to cast out ; sometimes i thinke it easier to discharge my self of vice then of vanity , as one may sooner carry the fire out of a room then the smoake : and then i see it was a new vanity to think so . and when i think sometimes that vanity , because it is thinne and airie , may be expelled with vertue or businesse , or substantiall vice ; i finde that i give entrance thereby to new vices . certainly as the earth and water , one sad , the other fluid , make but one bodie : so to aire and vanity , there is but one centrum morbi . and that which later physicians say of our bodies , is fitter for our mindes : for that which they call destruction , which is a corruption and want of those fundamentall parts whereof we consist , is vice : and that collectio stercorum , which is but the excrement of that corruption , is our vanity and indiscretion : both these have but one root in me , and must be pulled out at once , or never but i am so farre from digging to it , that i know not where it is , for it is not in mine eyes only , but in every sense , nor in my concupiscence only , but in every power and affection . sir , i was willing to let you see how impotent a man you love , not to dishearten you from doing so still ( for my vices are not infectious , nor wandring , they came not yesterday , nor mean to go away to day : they inne not , but dwell in me , and see themselves so welcome , and find in me so good bad company of one another , that they will not change , especially to one not apprehensive , nor easily accessible ) but i do it , that your counsell might cure me , and if you deny that , your example shal , for i will as much strive to be like you as i will wish you to continue good . to the honourable k t s r h. goodere one of the gent. of his majesties privy chamber . sir , you may remember that long since you delivered m r fowler possession of me , but the wide distance in which i have lived from court , makes me reasonably fear , that now he knows not his right and power in me , though he must of necessity have all , to whom you and i joyn in a gift of me , as we did to him , so that perchance he hath a servant of me , which might be passed in a book of concealment . if your leisure suffer it , i pray finde whether i be in him still , and conserve me in his love ; and so perfect your own work , or doe it over again , and restore me to the place , which by your favour i had in him . for m r powell who serves her ma ty as clerk of her counsell , hath told me that m r fowler hath some purpose to retire himself ; and therefore i would fain for all my love , have so much of his , as to finde him willing when i shall seek him at court , to let me understand his purpose therein ; for if my means may make me acceptable to the queen and him , i should be very sorry , he should make so farre steps therein with any other , that i should fail in it , onely for not having spoke to him soon enough . it were an injury to the forwardnesse of your love to adde more ; here therefore i kisse your hands , and commend to you the truth of my love . your very affectionate servant and lover jo. donne . from my lodging in the strand , whither i shall return on munday , 13 june 1607. to s r h. g. sir , you husband my time thriftily , when you command me to write by such a messenger , as can tell you more then i can write , for so he doth not onely carry the letter , but is the letter . but that the naming of some things , may give you occasion to ask him farther , and him to open himself unto you , give me leave to tell you , that the now spa. embassadour proceeds in the old pace , the king hath departed from his ordinary way so farre , as to appoint 9 of the councell to treat with him ; but when they came to any approaches , he answered , that he brought onely commission to propose certain things , which he was ready to doe , but he had no instructions to treat , but expected them upon an other return from his master . so that there is no treaty for the marriage begun yet : for i know you have heard olivarez his free acknowledgement , that til the prince came , there was no thoght of it . the king in his gests of this progress , hath determined it , not as heretofore , at windsor , but at farnham during pleasure : so he is within a journey of southampton ; and even that circumstance addes to some other reasons , that he expects the prince this summer , and that sir w. crofts , in his last dispatches , enlarged the prince in his liberty , from his father , to come away , if he would . amongst all the irregularities of this age , to me this is as strange as any , that this year there is no peace , and yet no sword drawn in the world ; & it is a lost conjecture to think which way any of the armies will bend . here it is imagined , that yukendorfe and gabor ( for , for any concurrence of love , it is but a dream ) may so farre distresse bohemia , as that tilly must be recalled thither ; and that if he be , brunswikes way is open into baviere , where he may recompense great losses , whilest mansfield and gonzales , and his excellency and spinola , keepthe ballance even in their parts , by looking upon another . this noble friend of yours is in his last minute , in this town ; and i am going into the coach with my lo to hanworth . if i might have forborn the sealing the rest till my return from thence , you might have heard something more from . your very true poor friend and humble servant in chr. jes. j. donne . no straitnesse makes me forget my service to your daughters : if my bell were tolling , i should pray for them , and though my letter be sealing , i leave not out my wishes , that their fortunes may second their goodnesse . amen . to sir h. g. sir , this tuesday morning , which hath brought me to london , presents me with all your letters . me thought it was a rent day , i mean such as yours , and not as mine ; and yet such too , when i considered how much i ought you for them , how good a mother , how fertill and abundant the understanding is , if she have a good father ; and how well friendship performs that office . for that which is denied in other generations is done in this of yours : for here is superfetation , childe upon childe , and that which is more strange , twins at a latter conception . if in my second religion , friendship , i had a conscience , either errantem to mistake good and bad and indifferent , or opinantem to be ravished by others opinions or examples , or dubiam to adhere to neither part , or scrupulosam to encline to one , but upon reasons light in themselves , or indiscussed in me , ( which are almost all the diseases of conscience ) i might mistake your often , long , and busie letters , and fear you did but intreat me to have mercy upon you and spare you ; for you know our court took the resolution , that it was the best way to dispatch the french prince back again quickly , to receive him solemnly , ceremoniously , and expensively , when he hoped a domestique and durable entertainment . i never meant to excell you in weight nor price , but in number and bulk i thought i might , because he may cast up a greater summe who hath but forty small monies , then he with twenty portuguesses . the memory of friends , ( i mean onely for letters ) neither enters ordinarily into busied men , because they are ever emploied within , nor into men of pleasure , because they are never at home . for these wishes therefore which you won out of your pleasure and recreation , you were as excusable to me if you writ seldome , as sir h. wotton is , under the oppression of businesse , or the necessity of seeming so ; or more then he , because i hope you have both pleasure and businesse : onely to me , who have neither , this omission were sinne ; for though writing be not of the precepts of friendship , but of the counsels , yet , as in some cases to some men counsels become precepts , and though not immediately from god , yet very roundly and quickly from his church , ( as selling and dividing goods in the first time , continence in the romane church , and order and decencie in ours ) so to me who can do nothing else , it seems to binde my conscience to write ; and it is sinne to doe against the conscience , though that erre . yet no mans letters might be better wanted then mine , since my whole letter is nothing else but a confession that i should and would write . i owed you a letter in verse before by mine own promise , and now that you think that you have hedged in that debt by a greater by your letter in verse , i think it now most seasonable and fashionable for me to break . at least , to write presently , were to accuse my self of not having read yours so often as such a letter deserves from you to me . to make my debt greater ( for such is the desire of all , who cannot or mean not to pay ) i pray read these two problemes : for such light flashes as these have been my hawkings in my sorry journies . i accompany them with another ragge of verses , worthy of that name for the smalnesse , and age , for it hath long lien among my other papers , and laughs at them that have adventured to you : for i think till now you saw it not , and neither you , nor it should repent it . sir , if i were any thing , my love to you might multiply it , and dignifie it : but infinite nothings are but one such ; yet since even chymera's have some name and titles , i am also yours . to your selfe . sir , if this letter finde you in a progresse , or at bath , or at any place of equall leasure to our spá , you will perchance descend to reade so low meditations as these . nothing in my l. of salisburies death exercised my poor considerations so much , as the multitude of libells . it was easily discerned , some years before his death , that he was at a defensive war , both for his honour and health , and ( as we then thought ) for his estate : and i thought , that had removed much of the envy . besides , i have just reasons to think , that in the chiefest businesses between the nations , he was a very good patriot . but i meant to speake of nothing but the libells , of which , all which are brought into these parts , are so tastelesse and flat , that i protest to you , i think they were made by his friends . it is not the first time that our age hath seen that art practised , that when there are witty and sharp libels made which not onely for the liberty of speaking , but for the elegancie , and composition , would take deep root , and make durable impressions in the memory , no other way hath been thought so fit to suppresse them , as to divulge some course , and railing one : for when the noise is risen , that libels are abroad , mens curiositie must be served with something : and it is better for the honour of the person traduced , that some blunt downright railings be vented , of which every body is soon weary , then other pieces , which entertain us long with a delight , and love to the things themselves . i doubt not but he smoothered some libels against him in his life time . but i would all these ( or better ) had been made then , for they might then have wrought upon him ; and they might have testified that the author had meant to mend him , but now they can have no honest pretence . i dare say to you , where i am not easily misinterpreted , that there may be cases , where one may do his countrey good service , by libelling against a live man. for , where a man is either too great , or his vices too generall , to be brought under a judiciary accusation , there is no way , but this extraordinary accusing , which we call libelling and i have heard that nothing hath soupled and allayed the d. of lerma in his violent greatnesse , so much as the often libels made upon him . but after death , it is , in all cases , unexcusable . i know that lucifer , and one or two more of the fathers who writ libellous books against the emperours of their times , are excused by our writers , because they writ not in the lives of those emperours . i am glad for them that they writ not in their lives , for that must have occasioned tumult , and contempt , against so high and soveraign persons . but that doth not enough excuse them to me , for writing so after their death ; for that was ignoble , and uselesse , though they did a little escape the nature of libels , by being subscribed and avowed : which excuse would not have served in the star-chamber , where sealed letters have been judged libels ; but these of which we speake at this present , are capable of no excuse , no amolishment , and therefore i cry you mercy , and my self too , for disliking them , with so much diligence , for they deserve not that . but sir , you see by this , and by my letter of last week , from hence the peremptory barrennesse of this place , from whence we can write nothing into england , but of that which comes from thence . till the lady worster came hither , i had never heard any thing to make me imagine that sir rob. rich was in england ; the first hour that i had knowledge of it , i kisse his hands by this letter . i make account to be in london , transitorily , about the end of august . you shall do me much favour , if i may finde a letter from you ( if you shall not then be there ) at the lady bartlets : i shall come home in much ignorance , nor would i discern home by a better light , or any other then you . i can glory of nothing in this voyage , but that i have afflicted my lady bedford with few letters . i protest earnestly to you , it troubles me much more to dispatch a pacquet into england , without a letter to her , then it would to put in three . but i have been heretofore too immodest towards her , and i suffer this purgatory for it . we make account to leave this place within 8 or 10 days , and hence to make our best haste to the count maurice , where we think to finde again the young palatine : all this i tell you only because when you know , that we shall run too fast to write any more letters , you may easily pardon the importunities and impertinencies of this , and cast into no lower place of your love your very true friend and servant j. donne . spâ , 26 july here 1612. to my lord g. h. sir , i am near the execution of that purpose for france ; though i may have other ends , yet if it do but keep me awake , it recompenses me well . i am now in the afternoon of my life , and then it is unwholesome to sleep . it is ill to look back , or give over in a course ; but worse never to set out . i speake to you at this time of departing , as i should do at my last upon my death-bed ; and i desire to deliver into your hands a heart and affections , as innocent towards you , as i shall to deliver my soul into gods hands then . i say not this out of diffidence , as though you doubted it , or that this should look like such an excuse , as implyed an accusation ; but because my fortune hath burdened you so , as i could not rectifie it before my going , my conscience and interpretation ( severer i hope then yours towards my self ) calls that a kinde of demerit , but god who hath not only afforded us a way to be delivered from our great many debts , contracted by our executorship to adam , but also another for our particular debts after , hath not left poor men unprovided , for discharge of morall and civill debts ; in which , acknowledgement , and thankfulnesse is the same , as repentance and contrition is in spiritual debts : and though the value and dignity of all these be not perchance in the things , but in the acceptation , yet i cannot doubt of it , either in god , or you . but sir , because there is some degree of thankfulnesse in asking more ( for that confesses all former obligations , and a desire to be still in the same dependency ) i must intreat you to continue that wherein you have most expressed your love to me , which is , to maintain me in the same room in my lady bedfords opinion , in the which you placed me . i prosesse to you that i am too much bound to her , for expressing every way her care of my fortune , that i am weary before she is ; and out of a loathnesse , that so good works should be bestowed upon so illstuffe , or that somuchill fortune should be mingled with hers , as that she should misse any thing that she desired , though it were but for me ; i am willing to depart from farther exercising her indevours in that kinde . i shall be bold to deliver my poor letters to her ladiships hands , through yours , whilest i am abroad ' though i shall ever account my self at home , whilest i am in your memory . your affectionate servant and lover j. donne . to sir h. g. sir , nature hath made all bodies alike , by mingling and kneading up the same elements in every one . and amongst men , the other nature , custome , hath made every minde like some other ; we are patterns , or copies , we informe , or imitate . but as he hath not presently attained to write a good hand , which hath equalled one excellent master in his a , another in his b , much lesse he which hath sought all the excellent masters , and imployed all his time to exceed in one letter , because not so much an excellency of any , nor every one , as an evennesse and proportion , and respect to one another gives the perfection : so is no man vertuous by particular example . not he that doth all actions to the pattern of the most valiant , or liberall , which histories afford : nor he which chuses from every one their best actions , and thereupon doth something like those . perchance such may be in via perficiendorum , which divines allow to monasticall life , but not perfectorum , which by them is only due to prelacy . for vertue is even , and continuall , and the same , and can therefore break no where , nor admit ends , nor beginnings : it is not only not broken , but not tyed together . he is not vertuous , out of whose actions you can pick an excellent one . vice and her fruits may be feen , because they are thick bodies , but not vertue , which is all light ; and vices have swellings and fits , and noise , because being extreams , they dwell far asunder , and they maintain both a forein war against vertue , and a civill against one another , and affect soveraignty , as vertue doth society . the later physitians say , that when our naturall inborn preservative is corrupted or wasted , and must be restored by a like extracted from other bodies ; the chief care is that the mummy have in it no excelling quality , but an equally digested temper : and such is true vertue . but men who have preferred money before all , think they deal honourably with vertue , if they compare her with money : and think that as money is not called base , till the allay exceed the pure ; so they are vertuous enough , if they have enough to make their actionscurrant , which is , if either they get praise , or ( in a lower abasing ) if they incurre not infamy or penalty . but you know who said , augusta innocentia est ad legem bonum esse : which rule being given for positive laws , severe mistakers apply even to gods law , and ( perchance against his commandment ) binde themselves to his counsails , beyond his laws . but they are worse , that thinke that because some men formerly wastfull , live better with half their rents then they did with all , being now advantaged with discretion and experience , therefore our times need lesse moral vertue then the first , because we have christianity , which is the use and application of all vertue : as though our religion were but an art of thrift , to make a little vertue go far . for as plentifull springs are fittest , and best become large aqueducts , so doth much vertue such asteward and officer as a christian. but i must not give you a homily for a letter . i said a great while since , that custome made men like ; we who have been accustomed to one another are like in this , that we love not businesse : this therefore shall not be to you nor me a busie letter . i end with a probleme , whose errand is , to aske for his fellowes . i pray before you ingulfe your self in the progresse , leave them for me , and such other of my papers as you will lend me till you return . and besides this allegoricall lending , lend me truely your counsails , and love god and me , whilest i love him and you . to my very true and very good friend sir henry goodere . sir , at some later reading , i was more affected with that part of your letter , which is of the book , and the namelesse letters , then at first . i am not sorry , for that affection were for a jealousie or suspicion of a flexibilty in you . but i am angry , that any should think , you had in your religion peccant humours , defective , or abundant , or that such a booke , ( if i mistake it not ) should be able to work upon you ; my comfort is , that their judgment is too weak to endanger you , since by this it confesses , that it mistakes you , in thinking you irresolved or various : yet let me be bold to fear , that that sound true opinion , that in all christian professions there is way to salvation ( which i think you think ) may have been so incommodiously or intempestively sometimes uttered by you ; or else your having friends equally near you of all the impressions of religion , may have testified such an indifferency , as hath occasioned some to further such inclinations , as they have mistaken to be in you . this i have feared , because hertofore the inobedient puritans , and now the over-obedient papists attempt you . it hath hurt very many , not in their conscience , nor ends , but in their reputation , and ways , that others have thought them fit to be wrought upon . as some bodies are as wholesomly nourished as ours , with akornes , and endure nakednesse , both which would be dangerous to us , if we for them should leave our former habits , though theirs were the primitive diet and custome : so are many souls well fed with such formes , and dressings of religion , as would distemper and misbecome us , and make us corrupt towards god , if any humane circumstance moved it , and in the opinion of men , though none . you shall seldome see a coyne , upon which the stamp were removed , though to imprint it better , but it looks awry and squint . and so , for the most part , do mindes which have received divers impressions . i will not , nor need to you , compare the religions . the channels of gods mercies run through both fields ; and they are sister teats of his graces , yet both diseased and infected , but not both alike . and i think , that as copernicisme in the mathematiques hath carried earth farther up , from the stupid center ; and yet not honoured it , nor advantaged it , because for the necessity of appearances , it hath carried heaven so much higher from it : so the roman profession seems to exhale , and refine our wills from earthly drugs , and lees , more then the reformed , and so seems to bring us nearer heaven ; but then that carries heaven farther from us , by making us pass so many courts , and offices of saints in this life , in all our petitions , and lying in a painfull prison in the next , during the pleasure , not of him to whom we go , and who must be our judge , but of them from whom we come , who know not our case . sir , as i said last time , labour to keep your alacrity and dignity , in an even temper : for in a dark sadnesse , indifferent things seem abominable , or necessary , being neither ; as trees , and sheep to melancholique night-walkers have unproper shapes . and when you descend to satisfie all men in your own religion , or to excuse others to al ; you prostitute your self and your understanding , though not a prey , yet a mark , and a hope , and a subject , for every sophister in religion to work on . for the other part of your letter , spent in the praise of the countesse , i am always very apt to beleeve it of her , and can never beleeve it so well , and so reasonably , as now , when it is averred by you ; but for the expressing it to her , in that sort as you seem to counsaile , i have these two reasons to decline it . that that knowledge which she hath of me , was in the beginning of a graver course , then of a poet , into which ( that i may also keep my dignity ) i would not seem to relapse . the spanish proverb informes me , that he is a fool which cannot make one sonnet , and he is mad which makes two . the other stronger reason , is my integrity to the other countesse , of whose worthinesse though i swallowed your opinion at first upon your words , yet i have had since an explicit faith , and now a knowledge : and for her delight ( since she descends to them ) i had reserved not only all the verses , which i should make , but all the thoughts of womens worthinesse . but because i hope she will not disdain , that i should write well of her picture , i have obeyed you thus far , as to write : but intreat you by your friendship , that by this occasion of versifying , i be not traduced , nor esteemed light in that tribe , and that house where i have lived . if those reasons which moved you to bid me write be not constant in you still , or if you meant not that i should write verses ; or if these verses be too bad , or too good , over or under her understanding , and not fit ; i pray receive them , as a companion and supplement of this letter to you ; and as such a token as i use to send , which use , because i wish rather they should serve ( except you wish otherwise ) i send no other ; but after i have told you , that here at a christning at peckam , you are remembred by divers of ours , and i commanded to tell you so , i kisse your hands , and so seal to you my pure love , which i would not refuse to do by any labour or danger . your very true friend and servant j. donne . to s r g.m. if you were here , you would not think me importune , if i did you good morrow every day ; and such a patience will excuse my often ' letters . no other kinde of conveyance is better for knowledge , or love : what treasures of morall knowledge are in senecaes letters to onely one lucilius ? and what of naturall in plinies ? how much of the storie of the time , is in ciceroes letters ? and how all of these times , in the jesuites eastern and western epistles ? where can we finde so perfect a character of phalaris , as in his own letters , which are almost so many writs of execution ? or of brutus , as in his privie seals for monie ? the evangiles and acts , teach us what to beleeve , but the epistles of the apostles what to do . and those who have endevoured to dignifie seneca above his worth , have no way fitter , then to imagine letters between him and s. paul. as they think also that they have expressed an excellent person , in that letter which they obtrude , from our b. saviour to king agabarus . the italians , which are most discursive , and think the world owes them all wisdome , abound so much in this kinde of expressing , that michel montaige saies , he hath seen , ( as i remember ) 400 volumes of italian letters . but it is the other capacity which must make mine acceptable , that they are also the best conveyers of love . but , though all knowledge be in those authors already , yet , as some poisons , and some medicines , hurt not , nor profit , except the creature in which they reside , contribute their lively activitie , and vigor ; so , much of the knowledge buried in books perisheth , and becomes ineffectuall , if it be not applied , and refreshed by a companion , or friend . much of their goodnesse , hath the same period , which some physicians of italy have observed to be in the biting of their tarentola , that it affects no longer , then the flie lives . for with how much desire we read the papers of any living now , ( especially friends ) which we would scarce allow a boxe in our cabinet , or shelf in our library , if they were dead ? and we do justly in it , for the writings and words of men present , we may examine , controll , and expostulate , and receive satisfaction from the authors ; but the other we must beleeve , or discredit ; they present no mean. since then at this time , i am upon the stage , you may be content to hear me . and now that perchance i have brought you to it , ( as thom. badger did the king ) now i have nothing to say . and it is well , for the letter is already long enough , else let this probleme supply , which was occasioned by you , of women wearing stones ; which , it seems , you were afraid women should read , because you avert them at the beginning , with a protestation of cleanlinesse . martiall found no way fitter to draw the romane matrons to read one of his books , which he thinks most morall and cleanly , then to counsell them by the first epigram to skip the book , because it was obscene . but either you write not at all for women , or for those of sincerer palates . though their unworthinesse , and your own ease be advocates for me with you , yet i must adde my entreaty , that you let goe no copy of my problems , till i review them . if it be too late , at least be able to tell me who hath them . yours , j. donne . to s r h. g. i send not my letters as tribute , nor interest , not recompense , nor for commerce , nor as testimonials of my love , nor provokers of yours , nor to justifie my custome of writing , nor for a vent and utterance of my meditations ; for my letters are either above or under all such offices ; yet i write very affectionately , and i chide and accuse my self of diminishing that affection which sends them , when i ask my self why : onely i am sure that i desire that you might have in your hands letters of mine of all kindes , as conveyances and deliverers of me to you , whether you accept me as a friend , or as a patient , or as a penitent , or as a beadsman , for i decline no jurisdiction , or refuse any tenure . i would not open any doore upon you , but look in when you open it . angels have not , nor affect not other knowledge of one another , then they list to reveal to one another . it is then in this onely , that friends are angels , that they are capable and fit for such revelations when they are offered . if at any time i seem to studie you more inquisitively , it is for no other end but to know how to present you to god in my prayers , and what to ask of him for you ; for even that holy exercise may not be done inopportunely , no nor importunely . i finde little errour in that grecians counsell , who saies , if thou ask any thing of god , offer no sacrifice , nor ask elegantly , nor vehemently , but remember that thou wouldest not give to such an asker : nor in his other countriman , who affirms sacrifice of blood to be so unproportionable to god , that perfumes , though much more spirituall , are too grosse . yea words which are our subtillest and delicatest outward creatures , being composed of thoughts and breath , are so muddie , so thick , that our thoughts themselves are so , because ( except at the first rising ) they are ever leavened with passions and affections : and that advantage of nearer familiarity with god , which the act of incarnation gave us , is grounded upon gods assuming us , not our going to him . and , our accesses to his presence are but his descents into us ; and when we get any thing by prayer , he gave us before hand the thing and the petition . for , i scarce think any ineffectuall prayer free from both sin , and the punishment of sin : yet as god seposed a seventh of our time for his exterior worship , and as his christian church early presented him a type of the whole year in a lent , and after imposed the obligation of canonique hours , constituting thereby morall sabbaths every day ; i am farre from dehorting those fixed devotions : but i had rather it were bestowed upon thanksgiving then petition , upon praise then prayer ; not that god is indeared by that , or wearied by this ; all is one in the receiver , but not in the sender : and thanks doth both offices ; for , nothing doth so innocently provoke new graces , as gratitude . i would also rather make short prayers then extend them , though god can neither be surprised , nor besieged : for , long prayers have more of the man , as ambition of eloquence , and a complacencie in the work , and more of the devil by often distractions : for , after in the beginning we have well intreated god to hearken , we speak no more to him . even this letter is some example of such infirmitie , which being intended for a letter , is extended and strayed into a homilie . and whatsoever is not what it was purposed , is worse , therefore it shall at last end like a letter by assuring you i am to your selfe . sir , sir germander pool , your noble friend and fellow in armes , hath been at this house . i finde by their diligent inquiring from me , that he hath assured them that he hath much advanced your proceeding , by his resignation ; but cooled them again with this , that the l. spencer pretends in his room . i never feared his , nor any mans diligence in that ; i feared onely your remisnesse , because you have a fortune that can endure , and a nature that can almost be content to misse . but i had rather you exercised your philosophy and evennesse in some things else . he doth not nothing which falls cleanly and harmelesly ; but he wrastles better which stands . i know you can easily forgive your self any negligences and slacknesses , but i am glad that you are ingaged to so many friends , who either by your self , or fame have knowledge of it . in all the rest of them there is a worthinesse , and in me a love which deserves to be satisfied . in this therefore , as you are forward in all things else , be content to do more for your friends then you would for your self ; endevour it , that is effect it . your very true friend and lover j. donne . tuesday . to sir h. g. sir , in the history or style of friendship , which is best written both in deeds and words , a letter which is of a mixed nature , and hath something of both , is a mixed parenthesis : it may be left out , yet it contributes , though not to the being , yet to the verdure , and freshnesse thereof . letters have truly the same office , as oaths . as these amongst light and empty men , are but fillings , and pauses , and interjections ; but with weightier , they are sad attestations : so are letters to some complement , and obligation to others . for mine , as i never authorized my servant to lie in my behalfe , ( for if it were officious in him , it might be worse in me ) so i allow my letters much lesse that civill dishonesty , both because they go from me more considerately , and because they are permanent ; for in them i may speak to you in your chamber a year hence before i know not whom , and not hear my self . they shall therefore ever keep the sincerity and intemeratenesse of the fountain , whence they are derived . and as wheresoever these leaves fall , the root is in my heart , so shall they , as that sucks good affections towards you there , have ever true impressions thereof . thus much information is in very leaves , that they can tell what the tree is , and these can tell you i am a friend , and an honest man. of what generall use , the fruit should speake , and i have none : and of what particular profit to you , your application and experimenting should tell you , and you can make none of such a nothing ; yet even of barren sycamores , such as i , there were use , if either any light flashings , or scorching vehemencies , or sudden showres made you need so shadowy an example or remembrancer . but ( sir ) your fortune and minde do you this happy injury , that they make all kinde of fruits uselesse unto you ; therefore i have placed my love wisely where i need communicate nothing . all this , though perchance you read it not till michaelmas , was told you at micham , 15. august . 1607. to my most worthy friend sir henry goodere . sir , because evennesse conduces as much to strength and firmnesse as greatnesse doth , i would not discontinue my course of writing . it is a sacrifice , which though friends need not , friendship doth ; which hath in it so much divinity , that as we must be ever equally disposed inwardly so to doe or suffer for it , so we must sepose some certain times for the outward service thereof , though it be but formall and testimoniall : that time to met towards you is tuesday , and my temple , the rose in smith-field . if i were by your appointment your referendarie for news , i should write but short letters , because the times are barren . the low countries , which used to be the mart of news for this season , suffering also , or rather enjoying a vacation . since therefore i am but mine own secretary ( and what 's that ? ) i were excusable if i writ nothing , since i am so : besides that , your much knowledge brings you this disadvantage , that as stomachs accustomed to delicacies , finde nothing new or pleasing to them when they are sick ; so you can hear nothing from me ( though the countrey perchance make you hungry ) which you know not . therefore in stead of a letter to you , i send you one to another , to the best lady , who did me the honour to acknowledge the receit of one of mine , by one of hers ; and who only hath power to cast the fetters of verse upon my free meditations : it should give you some delight , and some comfort , because you are the first which see it , and it is the last which you shall see of this kinde from me . your very affectionate lover and servant j. donne . micham the 14 august , to sir i. h. sir , i would not omit this , not commodity , but advantage of writing to you . this emptinesse in london , dignifies any letter from hence , as in the seasons , earlinesse and latenesse , makes the sowrenesse , and after the sweetnesse of fruits acceptable and gracious . we often excuse and advance mean authors , by the age in which they lived , so will your love do this letter ; and you will tell your self , that if he which writ it knew wherein he might expresse his affection , or any thing which might have made his letter welcommer , he would have done it . as it is , you may accept it so , as we do many china manufactures , of which when we know no use , yet we satisfie our curiosity in considering them , because we knew not how , nor of what matter they were made . near great woods and quarries it is no wonder to see faire houses , but in holland which wants both , it is . so were it for me who am as farre removed from court , and knowledge of forein passages , as this city is now from the face and furniture of a city , to build up a long letter and to write of my self , were but to inclose a poor handfull of straw for a token in a letter : yet i will tell you , that i am at london onely to provide for monday , when i shall use that favour which my lady bedford hath afforded me , of giving her name to my daughter ; which i mention to you , as well to shew that i covet any occasion of a gratefull speaking of her favours , as that , because i have thought the day is likely to bring you to london , i might tell you , that my poor house is in your way and you shall there finde such company , as ( i think ) you will not be loth to accompany to london . your very true friend j. donne . 6 aug. 1608. to sir h. wootton . sir , that which is at first but a visitation , and a civill office , comes quickly to be a haunting , and an uncivill importunity : my often writing might be subject to such a misinterpretation , if it were not to you , who as you know that the affection which suggests and dictates them , is ever one , and continuall , and uninterrupted ; may be pleased to think my letters so too , and that all the pieces make but one long letter , and so i know you would not grudge to read any intire book of mine , at that pace , as you do my letters , which is a leafe a week : especially such letters as mine , which ( perchance out of the dulnesse of the place ) are so empty of any relations , as that they oppresse not your meditations , nor discourse , nor memory . you know that for aire we are sure we apprehend and enjoy it , but when this aire is rarified into fire , we begin to dispute whether it be an element , or no : so when letters have a convenient handsome body of news , they are letters ; but when they are spun out of nothing , they are nothing , or but apparitions , and ghosts , with such hollow sounds , as he that hears them , knows not what they said . you ( i think ) and i am much of one sect in the philosophy of love ; which though it be directed upon the minde , doth inhere in the body , and find piety entertainment there : so have letters for their principall office , to be seals and testimonies of mutuall affection , but the materialls and fuell of them should be a confident and mutuall communicating of those things which we know . how shall i then who know nothing write letters ? sir , i learn knowledge enough out of yours to me . i learn that there is truth and sirmnesse and an earnestness of doing good alive in the world ; and therefore , since there is so good company in it , i have not so much desire to go out of it , as i had , if my fortune would afford me any room in it . you know i have been no coward , nor unindustrious in attempting that ; nor will i give it over yet . if at last , i must confesse , that i dyed ten years ago , yet as the primitive church admitted some of the jews ceremonies , not for perpetuall use , but because they would bury the synagogue honourably , though i dyed at a blow then when my courses were diverted , yet it wilplease me a little to have had a long funerall , and to have kept my self so long above ground without putrefaction . but this is melancholique discourse ; to change therefore from this metaphoricall death to the true , and that with a little more relish of mirth , let me tell you the good nature of the executioner of paris : who when vatan was beheaded , ( who dying in the profession of the religion , had made his peace with god in the prison , and so said nothing at the place of execution ) swore he had rather execute forty huguenots , then one catholique , because the huguenot used so few words , and troubled him so little , in respect of the dilatory ceremonies of the others , in dying . cotton the great court jesuite hath so importuned the q. to give some modifications to the late interlocutory arrest against the jesuits , that in his presence , the c. soisons , who had been present in the court at the time of the arrest , and servin the kings advocate , who urged it , and the premier president , were sent for : they came so well provided with their books , out of which they assigned to the q. so many , so evident places of seditious doctrine , that the q. was well satisfied , that it was fit by all means to provide against the teaching of the like doctrine in france . the d. of espernon is come to paris , with ( they say ) 600 horse in his train ; all which company , came with him into the court : which is an insolency remarkable here . they say that scarce any of the princes appear in the streets , but with very great trains . no one enemy could wast the treasures of france so much , as so many friends do : for the q. dares scarce deny any , that so she may have the better leave to make haste to advance her marquis of ancre , of whose greatnesse , for matter of command , or danger , they have no great fear , he being no very capable nor stirring man : and then for his drawing of great benefits from the q. they make that use of it , that their suits passe with lesse opposition . i beleeve the treasure is scattered , because i see the future receipt charged with so very many and great pensions . the q. hath adventured a little to stop this rage of the princes importunity , by denying a late suit of soissons : which though the other princes grudge not that soisson should faile , for he hath drawn infinite sums already , yet they resent it somewhat tenderly , that any of them should be denyed , when the marquis obtains . that which was much observed in the kings more childish age , when i was last here , by those whom his father appointed to judge , by an assiduous observation , his naturall inclination , is more and more confirmed , that his inclinations are cruell , and tyrannous ; and when he is any way affected , his stammering is so extreme , as he can utter nothing . they cannot draw him to look upon a son of the marquis , whom they have put into his service . and he was so extremely affectionate towards the younger son of beaufort , that they have removed him to a charge which he hath , as he is made prieur of malta ; but yet there passe such letters between them , by stealth and practise , as ( though it be between children ) it is become a matter of state , and much diligence used to prevent the letters . for the young marquis of vervueil , the k. speaks often of transplanting him into the church , and once this christmas delighted himself to see his young brother in a cardinalls habit . sir , it is time to take up , for i know , that any thing , from this place , as soon as it is certain , is stale . i have been a great while more mannerly towards my lady bedford , then to trouble her with any of mine own verses , but having found these french verses accompanied with a great deal of reputation here , i could not forbear to aske her leave to send them . i writ to you by m r. pory the 17 of jan. here , and he carried that letter to paris , to gather news , like a snow-ball . he told me that pindar is gone to constantinople with commission to remove and succeed glover : i am afraid you have neglected that businesse . continue me in m. martins good opinion : i know i shall never fall from it , by any demerit of mine , and i know i need not fear it , out of any slacknesse or slipperinesse in him , but much businesse may strangle me in him . when it shall not trouble you to write to me , i pray do me the favour to tell me , how many you have received from me , for i have now much just reason to imagine , that some of my pacquets have had more honour then i wished them : which is to be delivered into the hands of greater personages , then i addressed them unto . hold me still in your own love , and proceed in that noble testimony of it , of which your letter by m. pory spoke , ( which is the only letter that i have received , since i came away ) and beleeve me that i shall ever with much affection , and much devotion joine both your fortune and your last best happinesse , with the desire of mine own in all my civill , and divine wishes , as the only retribution in the power of your affectionate servant jo. donne . to the honorable knight sir h. goodere . sir , if i would go out of my way for excuses , or if i did not go out of my way from them ; i might avoid writing now because i cannot chuse but know , that you have in this town abler servants , and better understanding the persons and passages of this court. but my hope is not in the application of other mens merits , to me however abundant . besides , this town hath since our comming hither , afforded enough for all to say . that which was done here the 25 of march , and which was so long called a publication of the marriages , was no otherwise publique then that the spa. ambassador , having that day an audience delivered to the queen that his master was well pleased with all those particulars which had been formerly treated . and the french ambassador in spain is said to have had instruction , to do the same office in that court , the same day . since that , that is to say , these 4 last days , it hath been solemnized with more outward bravery then this court is remembred to have appeared in . the main bravery was the number of horses which were above 800 caparazond . before the daies , the town was full of the 5 challengers cartells , full of rodomontades : but in the execution , there were no personall reencounters , nor other triall of any ability , then running at the quintain , and the ring . other particulars of this , you cannot chuse but hear too much , since at this time there cometoyouso many french men . but lest you should beleeve too much , i presentyou these 2 precautions , that for their gendarmery , there was no other trial then i told you ; & for their bravery , no true stuffe . you must of necessity have heard often of a book written against the popes jurisdiction , about three moneths since , by one richer , a d r and syndique of the sorbonists , which book hath now been censured by an assembly of the clergie of this archbishoprick , promoved with so much diligence by the cardinall peroun , that for this businesse he hath intermitted his replie to the kings answer , which now he retires to intend seriously : i have not yet had the honour to kisse his graces hand , though i have received some half-invitations to do it . richer was first accused to the parliament , but when it was there required of his delators to insist upon some propositions in his book , which were either against scripture , or the gallican church , they desisted in that pursuit . but in the censure which the clergie hath made , though it be full of modifications and reservations of the rights of the king , and the gallican churches , there is this iniquitie , that being to be published by commandement of the assembly , in all the churches of paris , which is within that diocese , and almost all the curates of the parishes of paris being sorbonists , there is by this means a strong party of the sorbonists themselves raised against richer ; yet against this censure , and against three or four which have opposed richer in print , he meditates an answer . before it should come forth i desired to speak with him , for i had said to some of the sorbonist of his party , that there was no proposition in his book , which i could not shew in catholique authors of 300 years : i had from him an assignation to meet , and at the hour he sent me his excuse , which was , that he had been traduced to have had conference with the ambassadors of england , and the states , and with the d. of bovillon , and that he had accepted a pension of the king of england ; and with all , that it had been very well testified to him that day , that the jesuits had offered to corrupt men with rewards to kill him . which i doubt not but he apprehended for true , because a messenger whom i sent to fixe another time of meeting with him , found him in an extreme trembling , and irresolutions : so that i had no more , but an intreaty to forbear comming to his house , or drawing him out of it , till it might be without danger or observation . they of the religion held a synod at this time in this town , in which the principall businesse is to rectifie , or at least to mature , against their provinciall synod , which shall be held in may , certain opinions of tilenus a divine of sedan , with which the churches of france are scandalized . the chief point is , whether our salvation be to be attributed to the passive merit of christ , which is his death , or to his active also , which is his fulfilling of the law. but i doubt not but that will be well composed , if tilenus who is here in person with two other assistants , bring any disposition to submit himself to the synod , and not onely to dispute . i doe ( i thank god ) naturally and heartily abhorre all schism in religion so much , as , i protest , i am sorry to finde this appearance of schism amongst our adversaries the sorbonists ; for i had rather they had held together , to have made a head against the usurpations of the ro. church , then that their disuniting should so enfeeble them , as that the parliament should be left alone to stand against those tyrannies . sir , you will pardon my extravagancies in these relations . i look upon nothing so intentively as these things , nor fals there any thing within my knowledge , which i would conceal from you . though it concern not you to know it , yet me thinks it concerns me to tell it . that cook of which you writ to me , is come hither , and hath brought me other letters , but not those of which you writ to me , which pacquet , he saies , you received again of him ; whether by his falshood , or by your diligence in seeking a worthier messenger , i know not ; but i am sure i never lost any thing with more sorrow , because i am thereby left still in uncertainties , and irresolutions , of that which i desire much to know in womens businesses . if you write this way any more , chuse no other means , then by m r bruer at the queens arms a mercer in cheapside : he shall alwaies know where we are , and we are yet in a purpose to go from hence within a fortnight , and dispose our selves to be at frankford the 25 of may , when the election of the emperor shall be there . though i be meerly passive in all this pilgrimage , yet i shall be willing to advance that design ; because upon my promise that i would doe so , sir rob. rich gave me his , that he would divert from his way to italy so much , as to be there then . when i came to this town i found m r matthew , diligent to finde a means to write to you ; so that at this time , when there go so many , i cannot doubt but he provides himself , therefore i did not ask his commandement , nor offer him the service of this pacquet . sir , you are not evener to your self , in your most generall wishes of your own good , then i am in my particular , of which none rises in me , that is not bent upon your enjoying of peace and reposednesse in your fortunes , in your affections , and in your conscience ; more then which i know not how to wish to your very affectionate servant and lover j. donne . paris the 9 apr. 1612. here . to sir h. wotton . octob. the 4 th 1622. almost ad midnight . sir , all our moralities are but our out-works , our christianity is our citadel ; a man who considers duty but the dignity of his being a man , is not easily beat from his outworks , but from his christianity never ; and therefore i dare trust you , who contemplates them both . every distemper of the body now , is complicated with the spleen , and when we were young men we scarce ever heard of the spleen . in our declinations now , every accident is accompanied with heavy clouds of melancholy ; and in our youth we never admitted any . it is the spleen of the minde , and we are affected with vapors from thence ; yet truly , even this sadnesse that overtakes us , and this yeelding to the sadnesse , is not so vehement a poison ( though it be no physick neither ) as those false waies , in which we sought our comforts in our looser daies . you are able to make rules to your self , and our b. saviour continue to you an ability to keep within those rules . and this particular occasion of your present sadnesse must be helped by the rule , for , for examples you will scarce finde any , scarce any that is not encombred and distressed in his fortunes . i had locked my self , sealed and secured my self against all possibilities of falling into new debts , and in good faith , this year hath thrown me 400 l lower then when i entred this house . i am a father as well as you , and of children ( i humbly thank god ) of as good dispositions ; and in saying so , i make account that i have taken my comparison as high as i could goe ; for in good faith , i beleeve yours to be so : but as those my daughters ( who are capable of such considerations ) cannot but see my desire to accommodate them in this world , so i think they will not murmure if heaven must be their nunnery , and they associated to the b. virgins there : i know they would be content to passe their lives in a prison , rather then i should macerate my self for them , much more to suffer the mediocrity of my house , and my means , though that cannot preferre them : yours are such too , and it need not that patience , for your fortune doth not so farre exercise their patience . but to leave all in gods hands , from whose hands nothing can be wrung by whining but by praying , nor by praying without the fiat voluntas tua . sir , you are used to my hand , and , i think have leisure to spend some time in picking out sense , in ragges ; else i had written lesse , and in longer time . here is room for an amen ; the prayer — so i am going to my bedside to make for all you and all yours , with your true friend and servant in chr. jesus j. donne . a. v. merced . sir , i write not to you out of my poor library , where to cast mine eye upon good authors kindles or refreshes sometimes meditations not unfit to communicate to near friends ; nor from the high way , where i am contracted , and inverted into my self ; which are my two ordinary forges of letters to you . but i write from the fire side in my parler , and in the noise of three gamesome children ; and by the side of her , whom because i have transplanted into a wretched fortune , i must labour to disguise that from her by all such honest devices , as giving her my company , and discourse , therefore i steal from her , all the time which i give this letter , and it is therefore that i take so short a list , and gallop so fast over it , i have not been out of my house since i received your pacquet . as i have much quenched my senses , and disused my body from pleasure , and so tried how i can indure to be mine own grave , so i try now how i can suffer a prison . and since it is but to build one wall more about our soul , she is still in her own center , how many circumferences soever fortune or our own perversnesse cast about her . i would i could as well intreat her to go out , as she knows whither to go . but if i melt into a melancholy whilest i write , i shall be taken in the manner : and i sit by one too tender towards these impressions , and it is so much our duty , to avoid all occasions of giving them sad apprehensions , as s. hierome accuses adam of no other fault in eating the apple , but that he did it ne contristaretu● delicias suas . i am not carefull what i write , because the inclosed letters may dignifie this ill favoured bark , and they need not grudge so course a countenance , because they are now to accompany themselves , my man fetched them , and therefore i can say no more of them then themselves say , m ris meauly intreated me by her letter to hasten hers ; as i think , for by my troth i cannot read it . my lady was dispatching in so much haste for twicknam , as she gave no word to a letter which i sent with yours ; of sir tho. bartlet , i can say nothing , nor of the plague , though your letter bid me : but that he diminishes , the other increases , but in what proportion i am not clear . to them at hammersmith , and m ris herbert i will do your command . if i have been good in hope , or can promise any little offices in the future probably , it is comfortable , for i am the worst present man in the world ; yet the instant , though it be nothing , joynes times together , and therefore this unprofitableness , since i have been , and will still indevour to be so , shall not interrupt me now from being your servant and lover j. donne . to the best knight sir h. wootton . sir , vvhen i saw your good countesse last , she let me think that her message by her foot-man would hasten you up . and it furthered that opinion in me , when i knew how near m. mathews day of departing this kingdome was . to counterpoyse both these , i have a little letter from you brought to me to micham yesterday , but left at my lodging two days sooner : and because that speaks nothing of your return , i am content to be perplexed in it : and as in all other , so in this perplexity to do that which is safest . to me it is safest to write , because it performes a duty , and leaves my conscience well : and though it seem not safest for the letter , which may perish , yet i remember , that in the crociate for the warres in the holy land , and so in all pilgrimages enterprised in devotion , he which dies in the way , enjoyes all the benefit and indulgences which the end did afford . howsoever , all that can encrease the danger of your letter , encrease my merit ; for , as where they immolate men , it is a a scanter devotion , to sacrifice one of many slaves or of many children , or an onely child , then to beget and bring up one purposely to sacrifice it , so if i ordain this letter purposely for destruction , it is the largest expressing of that kinde of piety , and i am easie to beleeve ( because i wish it ) your hast hither : not that i can fear any slacknesse in that business which drew you down , because your fortune and honour are a paire of good spurs to it ; but here also you have both true businesse and many quasi negotia , which go two and two to a businesse ; which are visitations , and such , as though they be not full businesses , yet are so near them that they serve as for excuses , in omissions of the other . as when abjurations was in use in this land , the state and law was satisfied if the abjuror came to the sea side , and waded into the sea , when windes and tydes resisted , so we think our selves justly excusable to our friends and our selves , if when we should do businesse , we come to the place of businesse , as courts and the houses of great princes and officers . i do not so much intimate your infirmity in this , as frankly confesse mine own . the master of latine language says , oculi & aures aliorum te speculantur & custodiunt . so those two words are synonimous , & only the observation of others upon me , is my preservation from extream idlenesse , else i professe , that i hate businesse so much , as i am sometimes glad to remember , that the roman church reads that verse a negotio perambulante in tenebris , which we reade from the pestilence walking by night , so equall to me do the plague and businesse deserve avoiding , but you will neither beleeve that i abhor businesse , if i inlarge this letter , nor that i would afford you that ease which i affect , therefore returne to your pleasures . your unprofitablest friend jo. donne . march 14. 1607. it is my third letter : which i tell you , because i found not m r. rogers , but left the letter which i sent last , with a stranger at cliffords inne . to sir h. g. sir , this 14 of november last i received yours of the 9 , as i was in the street going to sup with my lady bedford , i found all that company forepossessed with a wonder why you came not last saturday . i perceive , that as your intermitting your letters to me , gave me reason to hope for you , so some more direct addresse or conscience of your businesse here , had imprinted in them an assurance of your comming , this letter shall but talke , not discourse ; it shall but gossip , not consider , nor consult , so it is made halfe with a prejudice of being lost by the way . the king is gone this day for royston : and hath left with the queen a commandment to meditate upon a masque for christmas , so that they grow serious about that already ; that will hasten my lady bedfords journey , who goes within ten days from hence to her lord , but by reason of this , can make no long stay there . justinian the venetian is gone hence , and one carraw come in his place : that state hath taken a fresh offence at a friar , who refused to absolve a gentleman , because he would not expresse in confession what books of father paul , and such , he knew to be in the hands of any others ; the state commanded him out of that territory in three hours warning , and he hath now submitted himself , and is returned as prisoner for mantua , and so remains as yet . sir h. wootton who writ hither , addes also that upon his knowledge there are 14000 as good protestants as he in that state. the duke joyeuse is dead , in primont , returning from rome , where m. mole who went with the l. rosse , is taken into the inquisition , and i see small hope of his recovery ( for he had in some translations of plessis books talked of babylon and antichrist . except it fall out that one strange a jesuit in the tower , may be accepted for him . to come a little nearer my self , sir geffery fenton one of his majesties secretaries in ireland is dead ; and i have made some offer for the place , in preservation whereof , as i have had occasion to imploy all my friends , so i have not found in them all ( except bedford ) more hast and words ( for when those two are together , there is much comfort even in the least ) then in the l. hay . in good faith he promised so roundly , so abundantly , so profusely , as i suspected him , but performed what ever he undertook , ( and my requests were the measures of his undertakings ) so readily and truly , that his complements became obligations , and having spoke like a courtier , did like a friend . this i tell you , because being farre under any ability of expressing my thankfulnesse to him by any proportionall service , i do , as much as i can , thank him by thanking of you , who begot , or nursed these good impressions of me in him . sir , as my discretion would do , my fortune doth bring all my debts into one hand , for i owe you what ever court friends do for me , yea , whatsoever i do for my self , because you almost importune me , to awake and stare the court in the face . i know not yet what conjecture to make of the event . but i am content to go forward a little more in the madnesse of missing rather then not pretend ; and rather wear out , then rust . it is extreme late ; and as this letter is nothing , so if ever it come to you , you will know it without a name , and therefore i may end it here . to the honourable knight sir h. goodere . sir , though you escape my lifting up of your latch by removing , you cannot my letters ; yet of this letter i do not much accuse my self , for i serve your commandment in it , for it is only to convey to you this paper opposed to those , with which you trusted me . it is ( i cannot say the waightyest , but truly ) the saddest lucubration and nights passage that ever i had . for it exercised those hours , which , with extreme danger of her , whom i should hardly have abstained from recompensing for her company in this world , with accompanying her out of it , encreased my poor family with a son . though her anguish , and my fears , and hopes , seem divers and wild distractions from this small businesse of your papers , yet because they all narrowed themselves , and met in via regia , which is the consideration of our selves , and god , i thought it time not unfit for this dispatch . thus much more then needed i have told you , whilest my fire was lighting at tricombs 10 a clock . yours ever intirely j. donne . to the honourable knight h. g. sir , your son left here a letter for me , from you . but i neither discern by it that you have received any of mine lately ; which have been many , and large , and too confident to be lost , especially since , ( as i remember ) they always conveyed others to that good lady ; neither do i know where to finde , by any diligence , your sons lodging . but i hope he will apprehend that impossibility in me , and finde me here , where he shall also finde as much readinesse to serve him , as at polesworth . this letter of yours makes me perceive , that that lady hath expressed her purpose to you in particular , for the next term . accordingly , i make my promises : for since one that meant but to flatter , told an emperour , that his benefits were to be reckoned from the day of the promise , because he never failed , it were an injury from me to the constancy of that noble lady , if i should not , assoon as she promises , do some act of assurance of the performance ; which i have done , as i say , in fixing times to my creditors ; for by the end of next terme , i will make an end with the world , by gods grace . i lack you here , for my l. of dorset , he might make a cheap bargain with me now , and disingage his honour , which in good faith , is a little bound , because he admitted so many witnesses of his large disposition towards me . they are preparing for a masque of gentlemen : in which m. villars is , and m. karre , whom i told you before my l. chamberlain had brought into the bed-chamber . i pray , if you make not so thick goings as you used , send this letter to that good woman , for it is not only mine . if i could stay this letter an hour , i should send you something of savoy , for sir rob. rich , who is now come from court , hath laid a commandment upon me by message to waite upon him ; and i know his busines , because he never sought me , but in one kinde . but the importuny of the houre excuses me , and delivers you from further trouble from your very true friend and servant j. donne . 13 decemb. to sir h. g. sir , i love to give you advantages upon me , therefore i put my self in need of another pardon from you , by not comming to you ; yet i am scarce guilty enough to spend much of your vertue from you , because i knew not of your being come till this your letter told me so , in the midst of dinner at peckham , this monday . sir , i am very truly yours ; if you have overvalued me in any capacity , i will do what i can to overtake your hopes of me . i wish my self whatsoever you wish me ; and so i do , what ever you wish your self . i am prisoner and close ; else i had not needed this pardon , for i long much , and much more by occasion of your letter , to see you : when you finde that good lady emptiest of businesse and pleasure , present my humble thanks ; you can do me no favour , which i need not , nor any , which i cannot have some hope to deserve , but this ; for i have made her opinion of me , the ballance by which i weigh my self . i will come soon enough to deliver my thanks to sir j. harr. for your ease , whom i know i have pained with an ilfavoured letter , but my heart hath one style , and character ; and is yours in wishing , and in thankfulnesse . j. donne . peckham monday afternoon . to the honourable sir r. d. sir , i gave no answer to the letter i received from you upon tuesday , both because i had in it no other commandment by it but to deliver your letter therein , which i did , and because that letter found me under very much sadnesse , which ( according to the proportion of ills that fall upon me ) is since also increased , so that i had not written now , if i had been sure to have been better able to write next week , which i have not much appearance of : yet there was committed to my disposition ( that is , left at my house in my absence ) a letter from sir w. lover , but it was some hours after all possibility of sending it by the carrier , so that m r. w. stanhope giving me the honour of a visite at that time , and being instantly to depart , for your parts , did me the favour to undertake the delivery of it to you . with me , sir , it is thus , there is not one person ( besides my self ) in my house well . i have already lost half a child , and with that mischance of hers , my wife fallen into an indisposition , which would afflict her much , but that the sicknesse of her children stupefies her : of one of which , in good faith , i have not much hope . this meets a fortune so ill provided for physique and such relief , that if god should ease us with burialls , i know not well how to performe even that . i flatter my self in this , that i am dying too : nor can i truly dye faster , by any waste , then by losse of children . but sir , i will mingle no more of my sadness to you , but wil a little recompense it , by telling you that my l. harrington , of whom a few days since they were doubtfull , is so well recovered that now they know all his disease to be the pox , and measels mingled . this i heard yesterday : for i have not been there yet . i came as near importunity as i could , for an answer from essex house , but this was all , that he should see you shortly himselfe . your servant j. donne . i cannot tell you so much , as you tell me , of anything from my lord of som. since the epithalamion , for i heard nothing . to the honour able knight sir h. goodere . sir , i have but one excuse for not sending you the sermon that you do me the honour to command , and i foresee , that before i take my hand from this paper , i shall lose the benefit of that excuse ; it is , that for more then twenty days , i have been travelled with a pain , in my right wrist , so like the gout , as makes me unable to write . the writing of this letter will implore a commentary for that , that i cannot write legibly ; for that i cannot write much , this letter will testifie against me . sir , i befeech you , at first , tell your company , that i decline not the service out of sullennesse nor lazinesse , nor that any fortune damps me so much , as that i am not sensible of the honour of their commanding it , but a meer inexperience whether i be able to write eight hours or no ; but i will try next week , and either do it , for their service , or sink in their service . this is thursday : and upon tuesday my lady bedford came to this town : this afernoon i presented my service to her , by m ris withrington : and so asked leave to have waited upon them at supper : but my messenger found them ready to go into their coach : so that a third letter which i received from m ris dadley , referring me to m ris withringtons relation of all that state , i lose it till their return to this town . to clear you in that wherein i see by your letter that i had not well expressed my self in mine , sir ed. herbert writ to sir ed. sackvil , not to presse the king to fix any certain time of sending him , till he was come over , and had spoken with the king : sir ed. sackvil collects upon that , that sir ed. h. meanes to go again ; i think it is only , that he would have his honour so saved , as not to seem to be recalled , by having a successor , before he had emptied the place . we hear nothing from my lord of doncaster ; nor have we any way to send to him . i have not seen my lady doncaster , for she crost to penhurst , and from thence to petworth , my lady isabella came to this town ; where , before her comming , a letter attended her from my lady of tichfield : and thither she went , with their servants , who staid her comming . hither came lately letters with goodspeed from vienna , in which there is no mention of any such defeat , as in rumour c. mansfeld hath been said to have given to the d. of bavyer : but their forces were then within such distance , as may have procured something before this time . those which watched advantages in the court of the emperour , have made that use of c. mansfelds proceedings , as that my lord digby complains , that there by , the forwardnesse in which his negotiation was , is somewhat retarded . he proceeds from thence into spain . the d. of bavyer hath presented the emperour an account of 1200 ml . sterling in that warre , to be reimbursed : and finding the palatinate to be in treaty , hath required a great part of austria for his security , and they say , it is so transacted ; which is a good signe of a possibility in the restitution of the palatinate . for any thing i discern , their fears are much greater from hungary , then from bohemia ; and the losse of canon , in a great proportion , and other things , at the death of bucquoy , was much greater , then they suffered to be published . we here spinola is passed over at rhenebery ; if it be so , they are no longer distracted , whether he would bend upon juliers , or the palatinate . i know not what you hear from your noble son in law , who sees those things clearly in himself , and in a near distance ; but i hear here , that the king hath much lost the affection of the english in those parts . whether it proceed from any sowrenesse in him , or that they be otherwise taken off , from applying themselves to him , i know not . my lord of s. albons hath found so much favour as that a pension of 2000 l. will be given him ; he desires that he might have it for years , that so he might transferre it upon his creditors ; or that in place of it he might have 8000 l. for he hath found a disposition in his creditors ( to whom i hear he hath paid 3000 l. since by retyring ) to accept 8000 l. for all his debts , which are three times as much . i have been some times with my l. of canterbury , since by accident , to give you his own words . i see him retain his former cheerfulnesse here and at croydon , but i do not hear from court , that he hath any ground for such a confidence , but that his case may need favour , and not have it . that place , and bedington , and chelsey , and highgate , where that very good man my lord hobard is , and hackney , with the m. of the rolls , and my familiar peckham , are my circumferrence . no place so eccentrique to me , as that i lye just at london ; and with those fragmentary recreations i must make shift to recompense the missing of that contentment which your favour opens to me , and my desire provokes me to , the kissing of your hands at polesworth . my daughter constance is at this time with me ; for the emptinesse of the town , hath made me , who otherwise live upon the almes of others , a houskeeper , for a moneth ; and so she is my servant below stairs , and my companion above : she was at the table with me , when your letter was brought , and i pay her a piece of her petition in doing her this office , to present her service to my lady nethersoles , and her very good sister . but that she is gone to bed two hours before i writ this , she should have signed , with such a hand as your daughter mary did to me , that which i testifie for her , that she is as affectionate a servant to them all , as their goodnesse hath created any where . sir , i shall recompense my tediousnesse , in closing mine eyes with a prayer for yours , as for mine own happinesse , for i am almost in bed ; if it were my last bed , and i upon my last businesse there , i should not omit to joyn you with your very humble and very thankfull servant in christ jesus j. donne . aug. 30. 1611. to his honourable friend s r h. g. sir , to you that are not easily scandalized , and in whom , i hope , neither my religion nor morality can suffer , i dare write my opinion of that book in whose bowels you left me . it hath refreshed , and given new justice to my ordinary complaint , that the divines of these times , are become meer advocates , as though religion were a temporall inheritance ; they plead for it with all sophistications , and illusions , and forgeries : and herein are they likest advocates , that though they be feed by the way , with dignities , and other recompenses , yet that for which they plead is none of theirs . they write for religion , without it . in the main point in question , i think truly there is a perplexity ( as farre as i see yet ) and both sides may be in justice , and innocence ; and the wounds which they inflict upon the adverse part , are all se defendendo : for , clearly , our state cannot be safe without the oath ; since they professe , that clergie-men , though traitors , are no subjects , and that all the rest may be none to morrow . and , as clearly , the supremacy which the ro. church pretend , were diminished , if it were limited ; and will as ill a bide that , or disputation , as the prerogative of temporall kings , who being the onely judges of their prerogative , why may not roman bishops , ( so enlightned as they are presumed by them ) be good witnesses of their own supremacie , which is now so much impugned ? but for this particular author , i looked for more prudence , and humane wisdome in him , in avoiding all miscitings , or mis-interpretings , because at this time , the watch is set , and every bodies hammer is upon that anvill ; and to dare offend in that kinde now , is , for a theef to leave the covert , and meet a strong hue and cry in the teeth : and yet truly this man is extremely obnoxious in that kinde ; for , though he have answered many things fully , ( as no book ever gave more advantage then that which he undertook ) and abound in delicate applications , and ornaments , from the divine and prophane authors , yet being chiefly conversant about two points , he prevaricates in both . for , for the matter , which is the first , he referres it intirely , and namely , to that which d. morton hath said therein before , and so leaves it roundly : and for the person ( which is the second ) upon whom he amasses as many opprobries , as any other could deserve , he pronounceth , that he will account any answer from his adversary , slaunder , except he do ( as he hath done ) draw whatsoever he saith of him , from authors of the same religion , and in print : and so , he having made use of all the quodlibetaries , imputations against the other , cannot be obnoxious himself in that kinde , and so hath provided safely . it were no service to you , to send you my notes upon the book , because they are sandy , and incoherent ragges , for my memory , not for your judgement ; and to extend them to an easinesse , and perspicuity , would make them a pamphlet , not a letter . i will therefore deferre them till i see you ; and in the mean time , i will adventure to say to you , without inserting one unnecessary word , that the book is full of falsifications in words , and in sense , and of falshoods in matter of fact , and of inconsequent and unscholarlike arguings , and of relinquishing the king , in many points of defence , and of contradiction of himself , and of dangerous and suspected doctrine in divinitie , and of silly ridiculous triflings , and of extreme flatteries , and of neglecting better and more obvious answers , and of letting slip some enormous advantages which the other gave , and he spies not . i know ( as i begun ) i speak to you who cannot be scandalized , and that neither measure religion ( as it is now called ) by unitie , nor suspect unity , for these interruptions . sir , not onely a mathematique point , which is the most indivisible and unique thing which art can present , flowes into every line which is derived from the center , but our soul which is but one , hath swallowed up a negative , and feeling soul ; which was in the body before it came , and exercises those faculties yet ; and god himselfe , who only is one , seems to have been eternally delighted , with a disunion of persons . they whose active function it is , must endevour this unity in religion : and and we at our lay altars ( which are our tables , or bedside , or stools , wheresoever we dare prostrate our selves to god in prayer ) must beg it of him : but we must take heed of making misconclusions upon the want of it : for , whether the maior and aldermen fall out , ( as with us and the puritans ; bishops against priests ) or the commoners voyces differ who is maior , and who aldermen , or what their jurifdiction , ( as with the bishop of rome , or whosoever ) yet it is still one corporation . your very affectionate servant and lover j. donne . micham , thursday late . never leave the remembrance of my poor service unmentioned when you see the good lady . tos t. h. sir , this evening , which is 5 o october , i finde your letter of michaelmas day , and though i see by it , that it is a return of a letter , not of the last weeks , and thereupon make account , that my last weeks letter hath satisfied you in some things which this letter commands , concerning pauls , yet for other things i would give you a drowsie relation , for it is that time of night , though i called it evening . at the kings going from hence , upon munday last , we made account to have seen sir john sutclin secretary , and sir rob. weston chancellor of the exchequer , but they are not done , but both are fixed : my l. cranfield received his staffe , with these two suits obtained from the king , that all assignations might be transferred into the exchequer , and so no paiments charged upon the customes , nor receivers , nor the court of wards , &c. and that for a time there might be a damp cast upon pensions , till they might be considered . in the low countries the armies stirre not . in the palatinate sir h. vere attempting the regaining of stenie castle , was surprised with the enemy in so much strength , that they write it over for a master-piece , that he was able to make a retreat to manheme : so that now the enemy is got on that side the river which heydelberg is on , and i know nothing that can stand in his way . my l. digby comes from vienna , before he goes into spain , by count mansfield , by the palatinate , by paris ; and therefore upon his comming , i shall be able to say something to you . in sir john sutclin i presume you see an end of sir ro. naunton , and we see an end of m r tho. murray too ; i beleeve he comes no more to the prince . for the triall of my l. of canterburies irregularity , there is a commission to sixe bishops , london , winchester , rochester , and three onely elect , lincoln , s. davids , and exeter : two judges , l. hobard , and dodridge ; two civilians , sir h. martin , and d. steward . the consecration of these elect bishops , and consequently , my being dean , must attend the issue of this commission . sir tho. roe is gone . the proclamations of putting off the parliament , till february , are like to out-run this letter . it is very late ; and it is one act , to say grace after supper , and to commend my self into the hands of my blessed saviour , in my bed , and so close this letter , and mine eies , with the same blessing upon all your family . amen . your poor servant in chr. fes . j. donne . to sir h. g. sir , i receive this 14 your letter of the 10. yet i am not come to an understanding how these carriers keep daies : for i would fain think that the letters which i sent upon thursday last might have given you such an account of the state of my family , that you needed not have asked by this . but sir , it hath pleased god to adde thus much to my affliction , that my wife hath now confessed her self to be extremely sick ; she hath held out thus long to assist me , but is now overturn'd , & here we be in two beds , or graves ; so that god hath marked out a great many of us , but taken none yet . i have passed ten daies without taking any thing ; so that i think no man can live more thriftily . i have purged and vexed my body much since i writ to you , and this day i have missed my fit : and this is the first time , that i could discern any intermission . this is enough , the rest i will spend upon the parts of your letter : your letter at pauls is delivered . in the history of that remove , this onely perchance may be news to you , that m r alabaster hath got of the king the deans best living worth above 300 l , which the dean had good hope to have held a while . of that which you writ concerning a book of the nullity , i have heard no syllable any other way . if you have received it by good hands , i beleeve it with you : otherwise the report is naturally very incredible . though the answering of it be a work for some , both of better abilities really , and in common reputation also , yet i was like enough to have had some knowledge thereof . you mention again some thing which it seems you are not willing i should understand of my lady huntington : some of your former letters , have spoken of some other former letters , ( which i never saw ) which speak of the matter as of a history and thing done ; and these later letters speak of it prophetically , as of a future contingent . i am glad the often remembrance of it , gives me often occasion of thankfulnesse to her , for retaining me in her memory , and of professing my self in my end , and ways , her most humble servant . for your parliament businesse , i should be very sorry , if you came not up , because i presume you had seposed many businesses , to have been done at that time ; but in the ways wherein you have gone , i protest i am diffident . for first , for that l. whom you solicited by letters through me , i tell you with the whispering of a secret , but the confidence of a friend , that you will be deceived whensoever you think that he should take any delight in doing you a courtesie . and i am afraid , the true heartinesse of the other noble gentleman m. howard , will be of small use in this perticular , if he have but solicited my l. his father to reserve a blanke for his friend , for my l. hath suffered more denialls , even in places where he sent names , then could have been feared . besides m. how. hath not written to his father therein , but to m. woodward , who perceiving those letters to be written , before his purpose of being knight for the shire , thinkes these letters extinguished . you made me offer so long since of a place ( it was when you writ into the west ) yet i could think it no merit to have offered you one since , otherwise it hath been since in my power , for since the m r. of the rolls provided me one , sir ed. herbert , who makes haste away , made me a present of his ; and i have had a third offer . the businesse of your last weeks letter concerning the widow , is not a subject for a feverous mans consideration . therefore i only send you back those letters which you sent ; and aske you leave to make this which i am fain to call my good day , so much truly good , as to spend the rest of it with d. layfield , who is , upon my summons , at this hour come to me my physicians have made me afraid , that this disease will work into my head , and so put me into lightnesses , therefore i am desirous that i be understood before any such danger overtake me . your true poor servant j. donne . 14. march. to the honourable knight sir h. g. sir , after i have told you , that the lady hay dyed last tuesday , and that to her end she was anguished with the memory of the execution of that fellow which attempted her in the coach . i have told you all which hath fallen out here . except between you and me that may be worth the telling , that my l. chancellor gave me so noble and so ready a dispatch ; accompanied with so fatherly advise , and remorse for my fortunes , that i am now , like an alchymist , delighted with discoveries by the way , though i attain not mine end . it spent me so little time after your going , that , although you speak in your letter of good dispatchin your going , yet i might have overtaken you . and though perchāce if i had gone , it might have been inconvenient for me , to have put my self into my l. chamberlains presence , if that sicknesse be earnest at ashby , and so i should nothing have advanced my businesse , yet i should have come to that noble lady with better confidence , and more assurance of a pardon , when i had brought a conscience , that i came despoiled of all other respects , only to kisse her hands , in whose protection i am , since i have , nor desire other station , then a place in her good opinion . i took so good contentment in the fashion which my l. chancellor used towards me , that out of a voluptuous loathnesse to let that taste go out of my mouth , i forbear to make any further tryall in that businesse till the king come into these quarters . so that , sir , i am here in place to serve you , if either i be capable of your commandements , or this town give any thing worth the writing . as often as you see your noble friend , and her good sister , allow my name a room in your discourse , it is a short one , and you will soon have done . but tell them not my desire to do them service , for then you engage your self in a longer discourse , then i am worthy . only in pursuit of your commandment i sent the paquet to the post , for in mine own understanding , there should appear small hope of arriving by that way , except you know otherwise that the ll. mean to make some stay in their return , in those parts : but the letter is brought back again , for the post went away yesterday , and they knew of no occasion of sending till next week . therefore except i can inform my self of some good means , i will retain it , till i have a fresh commandment from you . i see m. taverner still in this town , the lady carey went from hence but yesterday . i am in some perplexity what to doe with this pacquet , till some good fortune , or your letters clear me . your humble servant j. donne . aug. 19. to sir h. goodere at polesworth . sir , it is true that m. gherard told you , i had that commandment from the king signified to me by my l. and am still under it , and we are within fourteen days of our time for going . i leave a scattered flock of wretched children , and i carry an infirme and valetudinary body , and i goe into the mouth of such adversaries , as i cannot blame for hating me , the jesuits , and yet i go . though this be no service to my lord : yet i shall never come nearer doing him a service , nor do any thing liker a service then this . yesterday we had news by sir nowell carou , from paris , that the d. of savoy was elected king of bohemia ; which would cut off a great part of the occasion of our going : but it is not much credible in it self , nor at all beleeved here , because it is not signified from savoy , nor heidelberg . since m. gher . continues your gazittier , i need tell you nothing of the q. of frances estate . for your commandment in memory of m. martin , i should not have sate so many processes , if i could incline my thoughts that way . it is not lazinesse , it is not gravity , nor coldnesse towards his memory , or your service ; for i have thought of it oftner , and longer , then i was wont to do in such things , and nothing is done . your last pacquet , in which your daughter and i were joynt-commissioners , was brought to me , because she was at hampton , with the queens body : but i sent her part to her , and my la. uvedalls to her , who presents her service to you by me now , and says she will write next week , and so will i too , by gods grace . you forget me absolutely and intirely , whensoever you forget me to that noble countesse . god blesse you in all , amen . your true servant in jes. chr. j. donne . 9 martii . to the best knight sir h. g. sir , at your conveniency , i pray send my lady bedford this inclosed , but be pleased to put your self to some inconvenience , ( if it be so ) to kisse my lady ruthins hands in my name , and to present my very humble service to her , and tell her , that no ill conscience of having deserved her , but only an obedience to her commandments , keeps me from saying to her self thus much ; that this day i received a letter from my l. of kent , written yesterday at wrest : in that his lordships sends me word , that that favour which he hath formerly done me , in giving me blouham , is now likely to fall upon me , because the incumbent is dangerously ill : and because this is the season in which he removes from wrest thither , he desires ( for i give you his own word ) that he may be accommodate there , ( if it fall now ) as heretofore . out of my absolute and intire readiness to serve that family , i sent back his messenger with this answer , that i esteemed it a great part of my good fortune , that i should become worthy to be commanded by him . if my lady will be pleased to direct me in what particular manner i may best serve her purposes , i shall gladly waite upon her at any time , to receive her command with as much devotion and thankfulnesse as i received the benefit . i beseech you make her beleeve it , as in any place you beleeve your poor servant in chr. jes. j. donne . 26 febr. 1621. to my best of friends sir h. g. sir , i heard not from you this week ; therefore i write more willingly , because it hath in it so much more merit . and i might do it very cheaply , since to convey to you this letter , which mine hath the honour to bring , any little letter would serve , and be acceptable for that . because it came not last week , i went now to solicite it , and she sent it me next day with some thankes , and some excuse that she knew not me , when i was with her . you know , i do not easily put my self into those hazards , nor do much brag of my valor now , otherwise then i purposed it for a service to you . the newest thing that i know in the world , is my new son : whose mothers being well takes off from me any new waightupon my fortune . i hear in newgate , that m. mathew is dead . the catholiques beleeve it there : perchance out of a custome of credulity . but the report , is close prisoner ; for i never met it abroad . this is my third letter , all which i sent by spelty whom my boy found at abington house . i have now two of the best happinesses which could befall me , upon me ; which are , to be a widower and my wife alive , which may make you know , that it is but for your ease , that this letter is no longer , in this leasure in which ( having nothing else to write ) i might vary a thousand ways that i am your very affectionate servant j. donne . monday at night . to my worthy friend g. k. sir , i receive this heare that i begin this return , your letter by a servant of sir g. greseley , by whom also i hasten this dispatch . this needs no enlargement since it hath the honour to convey one from m. gherard . but though by telling me , it was a bold letter , i had leave to open it , and that i have a little itch to make some animadversions & criticismes upon it ( as that there is a ciphar too much in the sum of the kings debts , and such like ) yet since my eyes do easily fall back to their distemper , and that i am this night to sup at sir a● . ingrams , i had rather forfeit their little strength at his supper , then with writing such impertinencies : the best spending them , is upon the rest of your letter , to which , sir , i can only say in generall , that some appearances have been here , of some treatise concerning this nullity , which are said to proceed from geneva ; but are beleeved to have been done within doors , by encouragements of some whose names i will not commit to this letter . my poor study having lyen that way , it may prove possible , that my weak assistance may be of use in this matter , in a more serious fashion , then an epithalamion . this made me therefore abstinent in that kinde ; yet by my troth , i think i shall not scape . i deprehend in my self more then an alacrity , a vehemency to do service to that company ; and so , i may finde reason to make rime . if it be done , i see not how i can admit that circuit of sending them to you , to be sent hither ; that seems a kinde of praying to saints , to whom god must tell first , that such a man prays to them to pray to him . so that i shall lose the honour of that conveyance ; but , for recompense , you shall scape the danger of approving it . my next letter shall say more of this . this shall end with delivering you the remembrance of my lady bartlet , who is present at the sealing hereof , your very true and affectionate servant j. donne . jan. 19. which name when there is any empty corner in your discourse with that noble lady at ashby , i humbly beseech you to present to her as one more devoted to her service then perchance you will say . to sir g. b. sir , between the time of making up my other letters , and the hour that your man limited me to call for them , came to my house an other pacquet directed to him : for by this time , the carrier is as wise , as his horse , to go to the house that he hath used to go . i found liberty in the superscription to open , and so i did ; but for that part which concerns him , i must attend his comming hither , for i know not where to seek him ; and besides , i have enough to say for that part which concerns my self . sir , even in the letter it self to me , i deprehend much inclination , to chide me : and it is but out of your habit of good language that you spare me . so little occasion as that postscript of mine , could not bring you so near to it , if nothing else were mistaken , which ( so god help me ) was so little , that i remember not what it was , and i would no more hear again what i write in an officious letter , then what i said at a drunken supper . i had no purpose to exercise your diligence in presenting my name to that lady , but either i did , or should have said , that i writ onely to fill up any empty corner in your discourse . so , sir , the reading of the letter , was a kinde of travell to me , but when i came to the paper inclosed , i was brought to bed of a monster . to expresse my self vehemently quickly , i must say , that i can scarce think , that you have read m. gherards letter rightly , therefore i send you back your own again . i will not protest against my beingsuch a knave , for no man shall have that from me , if he expect it : but i will protest against my being such a fool , as to depose any thing in him with hope of locking it up , and against that lownesse , of seeking reputation by so poor a way . i am not so sorry , that i am a narrow man , as that for all the narrownesse , you have not seen through me yet , nor known me perfectly ; for i might think by this , ( if i had not other testimony ) that i have been little in your contemplation . sixteen letters from m. gherard , could not ( i think ) perswade a middlesex jury of so much dishonesty in your true servant j. donne . to the honourable knight sir g. p. sir , i would have intermitted this week without writing , if i had not found the name of my lady huntington in your letter . the devotion which i owe , and ( in good faith ) pay in my best prayers for her good , in all kinde awakens me to present my humble thanks for this , that her ladiship retains my name in her memory : she never laid obligation upon any man , readier to expresse his acknowledgement of them , to any servant of her servants ; i am bound to say much of this , for your indemnity ; because though i had a little preparation to her knowledge in the house where i served at first , yet , i think , she took her characters of me , from you : and , at what time soever she thought best of me in her life , i am better then that , for my goodnesse is my thankfulnesse , and i am every day fuller of that then before , to her la p. i say nothing to you of forein names in this letter , because your son sir francis is here . for that which you write concerning your son , i onely gave my man martin in charge , to use his interest in the keeper , that your son should fall under no wants there , which it seems your son discharged , for i hear not of them . for other trifles , i bad my man let him have whatsoever he asked , so , as it might seem to come from him , and not me ; and laying that look upon it , it came to almost nothing . tell both your daughters a peece of a storie of my con. which may accustome them to endure disappointments in this world : an honourable person ( whose name i give you in a schedule to burn , lest this letter should be mis-laid ) had an intention to give her one of his sons , and had told it me , and would have been content to accept what i , by my friends , could have begged for her ; but he intended that son to my profession , and had provided him already 300 l a year , of his own gift in church livings , and hath estated 300 l more of inheritance for their children : and now the youth , ( who yet knows nothing of his fathers intention nor mine ) flies from his resolutions for that calling , and importunes his father to let him travell . the girle knows not her losse , for i never told her of it : but truly , it is a great disappointment to me . more then these , sir , we must all suffer , in our way to heaven , where , i hope you and all yours shall meet your poor friend , and affectionate servant j. donne . 18 octob. 1622. to my much honoured friend s r t. lucy . sir , i have scarce had at any time any thing so like news to write to you , as that i am at this town ; we came from spâ with so much resolution of passing by holland . but at mastricht we found that the lownesse , and slacknesse of the river , would incommodate us so much , as we charged our whole gests , and came hither by land. in the way at lovaine we met the e. of arondel , to recompense the losse wee had of missing my l. chandis and his company , who came to spâ within a few hours after we came away . sir ed. conaway , by occasion of his bodies indisposition , was gone home before : he told me he had some hope of you about bartholomewtide : but because i half understood by a letter from you , that you were determined upon the countrie till michaelmas , i am not so earnest in endevouring to prolong our stay in these parts , as otherwise i should . if i could joine with him in that hope of seeing you on this side the water ; and if you should hold that purpose of comming at that time , i should repent extremely my laying of our journies ; for ( if we should by miracle hold any resolution ) we should be in england about that time , so that i might misse you both here , and there . sir , our greatest businesse is more in our power then the least , and we may be surer to meet in heaven then in any place upon earth ; and whilst we are distant here , we may meet as often as we list in gods presence , by soliciting in our prayers for one another . i received 4 letters from you at spâ by long circuits . in the last , one from my l. dorset : i , who had a conscience of mine own unworthinesse of any favour from him , could not chuse but present my thanks for the least . i do not therefore repent my forwardnesse in that office ; and i beseech you not to repent your part therein . since we came to this town , there arrived an extraordinary from spain , with a reconfirmation of the d. d'aumals pension , which is thereby 2400 l a year , & he brings the title of count , to rodrigo de calderon , who from a very low place , having grown to be secretary to lerma , is now ambassador here , and in great opinion of wisdome : they say yet he goes to prague with the marquis spinola , and the g. buquoy , to congratulate the emperour : but we all conclude here , that persons of such quality , being great in matter of warre , are not sent for so small an emploiment : we beleeve certainly , that they deliberate a warre , and that the reduction of aix being not worthy this diligence , their intentions must be upon cleve , for the new town which the two princes make by collen , despites them much . the elector of ments hath lately been here , upon pretence of comming in devotion to sichem , and shortly the electors of colein and saxony are to be here severally : all concurs to a disposition of such a warre , and the landsgrave of hasse ( who is as yet in the union ) is much solicited and caressed by this party , and i doubt , will prove a frail and corruptible man. i durst think confidently , that they will at least proceed so far towards a warre , as to try how france will dispose it self in the businesse : for it is conceived that the d. of bovillon brought to our k. good assurances from the qu. regent , that she would pursue all her husbands purposes in advancing the designes of those princes who are in possession of cleve , and in the union . if she declare her self to do so , when they stirre , they are like to divert their purposes ; but if she stand but neutrall ( as it is likely , considering how spanish the court is at this time ) i see not that the princes of the union are much likely to retard them . sir , you see what unconcerning things i am fain to write of , lest i should write of my self , who am so little a history or tale , that i should not hold out to make a letter long enough to send over a sea to you ; for i should dispatch my self in this one word that i am your affectionate servant and lover j. donne . aug. 16. here . 1612. to the honour able knight sir h. g. sir , since i received a letter by your sonne , whom i have not yet had the honour to see , i had a letter pacquet from you by m r roe : to the former , i writ before : in this i have no other commandement from you , but to tell you , whether m r villers have received from the k , any additions of honour , or profit . without doubt he hath yet none . he is here , practising for the mask ; of which , if i mis-remember not , i writ as much as you desire to know , in a letter which seems not , to have been come to you , when you writ . in the savoy business , the king hath declared himself by an engagement , to assist him with 100000 l a year , if the warre continue . but i beleeve , he must farm out your warwickshire benevolence for the paiment thereof . upon the strength of this engagement , sir rob. rich becomes confident in his hopes . if you stood in an equall disposition for the west , and onely forbore , by reason of m r martins silence , i wonder ; for i think , i told you , that he was gone ; and i saw in sir tho. lucies hand , a letter from him to you which was likely to tell you as much . since i came from court , i have stirred very little : now that the court comes again to us , i may have something which you may be content to receive from your very affectionate servant j. donne . 18 decemb. to my good friend s r h.g. sir , the messenger who brought me your letter presented me a just excuse , for i received them so late upon thursday night , that i should have dispatched before i could begin ; yet i have obeyed you drowsily , and coldly , as the night and my indisposition commanded : yet perchance those hinderances have done good , for so your letters are the lesse curious , in which , men of much leasure may soon exceed , when they write of businesse , they having but a little . you mention two more letters then i send . the time was not too short for me to have written them , ( for i had an whole night ) but it was too short to work a beleefe in me , that you could think it fit to go two so divers ways to one end . i see not , ( for i see not the reason ) how those letters could well have concurred with these , nor how those would well have been drawn from them , in a businesse wholly relating to this house . i was not lazie in disobeying you , but ( i thought ) only thrifty , and your request of those was not absolute , but conditioned , if i had leasure . so though that condition hinder them not , since another doth ( and you forethought , that one might ) i am not stubborn . the good countesse spake somewhat of your desire of letters ; but i am afraid , she is not a proper mediatrix to those persons , but i counsail in the dark . and therefore return to that , of which i have clear light , that i am always glad , when i have any way to expresse my love ; for in these commandments you feed my desires , and you give me means to pay some of my debts to you : the interest of which i pay in all my prayers for you , which , if it please not god to shew here , i hope we shall finde again together in heaven , whither they were sent . i came this morning to say thus much , and because the porter which came to micham summoned me for this hour to london : from whence i am this minute returning to end a little course of physick . yours very truly j. donne . friday 8 in the morning . to sir h. g. sir , i writ to you yesterday taking the boldnesse to put a letter into the good ladies pacquet for you . this morning i had this new occasion of writing , that sir tho. roe , who brought this inclosed letter to me , and left it unsealed , intreated me to take the first opportunity of sending it . besides that which is in that letter ( for he read it to me ) i came to the knowledg in yorkhouse that my l. chancellor hath been moved , and incensed against you ; and asking sir tho. roe , if he were directly or occasionally any cause of that , he tells me thus much , that sir w. lover , and sir h. carey , have obtained of my l. to have a pursevant , and consequently a serjeant sent into the countrey for you . my l. grounds this earnestnesse against you , upon some refusing to appear upon processe which hath been taken out against you . and i perceive sir ed. eston , and both the other , admit consultations , of ways by petition to the king , or counsail , or l. chamberlain , or any other . the great danger , obliquely likely to fall , is that when it comes to light , how you stand towards m. mathew , you may lose the ease which you have by colour of that extent , and he may lose the benefit , of having had so much of his estate concealed . you will therefore at least pardon my advising you , to place those sums , which by your retiring i presume you do imploy upon payment of debts , in such places as that these particular friends be not forced to leave being so . i confesse , the going about to pay debts , hastens importunity . i finde in my self , that where i was not asked money before , yet when i offered to pay next terme , they seem loth to afford me that time , which might justly have been desperate before : but that which you told me out of the countrey , with the assistance which i hope to finde here , ( especially if your indevour may advance it at dorset house ) i hope will inable me to escape clamor , and an ill conscience , in that behalf . one thing more i must tell you ; but so softly , that i am loath to hear my self : and so softly , that if that good lady were in the room , with you and this letter , she might not hear . it is , that i am brought to a necessity of printing my poems , and addressing them to my l. chamberlain . this i mean to do forth with ; not for much publique view , but at mine own cost , a few copies . i apprehend some incongruities in the resolution ; and i know what i shall suffer from many interpretations : but i am at an end , of much considering that ; and , if i were as startling in that kinde , as ever i was , yet in this particular , i am under an unescapable necessity , as i shall let you perceive , when i see you . by this occasion i am made a rhapsoder of mine own rags , and that cost me more diligence , to seek them , then it did to make them . this made me aske to borrow that old book of you , which it will be too late to see , for that use , when i see you : for i must do this , as a valediction to the world , before i take orders . but this is it , i am to aske you ; whether you ever made any such use of the letter in verse , a nostre countesse chez vous , as that i may not put it in , amongst the rest to persons of that rank ; for i desire very very much , that something should bear her name in the book , and i would be just to my written words to my l. harrington , to write nothing after that . i pray tell me as soon as you can , if i be at liberty to insert that : for if you have by any occasion applied any pieces of it , i see not , that it will be discerned , when it appears in the wholepiece . though this be a little matter , i would be sorry not to have an account of it , within as little after newyears tide , as you could . i have something else to say , of m. villars , but because i hope to see you here shortly , and because new additions , to the truths or rumours , which concern him , are likely to be made by occasion of this masque , i forbear to send you the edition of this mart , since i know it will be augmented by the next : of which , if you prevent it not by comming , you shall have , by letter an account from your very affectionate friend and servant j. donne . vigilia s t. tho. 1614. to the worthy knight sir tho. lucy . sir , your letter comes to me , at grace after supper ; it is part of the prayer of that grace , that god will blesse you , and all yours with his best blessings of both kinde . i would write you news ; but your love to me , may make you apt to over-beleeve news for my sake . and truly all things that are upon the stage of the world now , are full of such uncertanities , as may justly make any man loth to passe a conjecture upon them ; not only because it is hard to see how they wil end , but because it is misintertable and dangerous to conjecture otherwise , then some men would have the event to be . that which is especially in my contemplation , which is the issue of my l. of canterburies businesse , ( for thereupon depends the consecration of my predecessor , upon which the deanery devolves to the king ) is no farther proceeded in yet , then that some of the 10 commissioners have met once ; and upon saterday next there will be a fuller meeting , and an entrance into the businesse , upon which , much , very much in consequence , depends . of my l. of donc . we are only assured , that he is in a good way of convalescence ; but of any audience nothing yet . slacken not your hold of my l. treasurer , for i have been told that you are in his care . i send you a copy of that sermon , but it is not my copy , which i thought my l. of south-hampton would have sent me backe . this you must be pleased to let me have again , for i borrow it : for the other , i will pretermit no time to write it ; though in good faith , i have half forgot it . if in any letter i leave out the name of the la. hunt. or la. burdell , or your daughters , tell them , that i named them . i take the falshood upon me ; for i intend it very really , and very humbly , where i am good for any thing in any of their services . our blessed saviour continue and enlarge his blessings to you all , amen . your humble servant in chr. jes. j. donne . 11 octob. 1621. why do you say nothing of , my little book of cases . to sir g.b. sir , it is one of my blinde meditations to think what a miserable defeat it would be to all these preparations of braverie , if my infirmity should overtake others : for , i am at least half blinde , my windows are all as full of glasses of waters , as any mountebanks stall . this messenger makes haste , i thank him for it ; therefore i onely send you this letter , which was sent to me about three daies past , and my promise to distribute your other letters , according to your addresses , as fast as my monsieur can doe it ; for , for any personall service , you must be content , at this time , to pardon your affectionate servant j. donne . decemb. 23. to sir h. goodere . sir , agreeably to my fortune , and thoughts , i was crawld this back way from keyston ; through my broken casement at bedford , i saw , for my best dish at dinner , your coach : i studied your gests , but when i knew where you were , i went out of this town , in a doubt whether i should turn in to wrest ; and you know the wisdome of the parliament is , to resolve ever in the negative : therefore it is likeliest i shall not come in there ; yet , let me give you in passing , thus much account of my self : i thought to kisse my l. spencers hands , at one house , and have passed three . if you know nothing to the contrary , risen since i came from london , i am likely to have a room in my l. of dov . train , into the countrie ; if i have , i do not ask , but use the leave of waiting upon you at home : there and ever elswhere , our blessed saviour blesse you , and all yours , in which number , i pray , account ever your very thankfull servant in chr. jes. j. donne . to sir h. g. sir , i cannot obey you , if you go to morrow to parsons-green , your company , that place , and my promise are strong inducements , but an ague flouts them all , of which i have had two such threatnings , that i provide against it by a little physick . this is one fetter ; but i have a pair : for i attend sir geo. mores answer in a little businesse , of which i can have no account till his return , so i am fastned here , till after sunday . as you are sure that i love you thorowly , so think this a good expressing of that , that i promise now , that i will certainly goe with you on munday , in despite of these interruptions , and serve you with my company to the bathe ; which journie , it is time to hasten . but i pray think this promise so much worth , that it may deserve your comming this way on munday , for i make it with that reservation . god send you hawks and fortunes of a high pitch . your honest affectionate j. donne . to sir t.r. sir , i have bespoke you a new-years-gift , that is , a good new year , for i have offered your name with my soul heartily to god in my mornings best sacrifice : if for custome you will doe a particular office in recompense , deliver this letter to your lady , now , or when the rage of the mask is past . if you make any haste into the country , i pray let me know it . i would kisse your hands before you goe , which i doe now , and continue your affectionate servant and lover j. donne . micham , the last of 1607. as i remember . to sir henry goodere . sir , i speak to you before god , i am so much affected with yesterdaies accident , that i think i prophane it in that name . as men which judge nativities , consider not single starres , but the aspects , the concurrence and posture of them ; so in this , though no particular past arrest me , or divert me , yet all seems remarkable and enormous . god , which hath done this immediately , without so much as a sickness , will also immediately without supplement of friends , infuse his spirit of comfort , where it is needed and deserved . i write this to you from the spring garden , whither i withdrew my self to think of this ; and the intensenesse of my thinking ends in this , that by my help gods work should be imperfected , if by any means i resisted the amasement . your very true friend j. donne . to my good friend g. h. sir , the little businesse which you left in my hands is now dispatched ; if it have hung longer then you thought , it might serve for just excuse , that these small things make as many steps to their end , and need as many motions for the warrant , as much writing of the clerks , as long expectation of a seal , as greater . it comes now to you sealed , and with it as strong and assured seals of my service and love to you , if it be good enough for you . i owe you a continuall tribute of letters . but sir , even in princes and parents , and all states that have in them a naturall soveraignty , there is a sort of reciprocation , and as descent to doe some offices due to them that serve them : which makes me look for letters from you , because i have another as valuable a pawn therefore , as your friendship , which is your promise ; lest by the jailors fault this letter stick long , i must tell you , that i writ and sent it 12 o decemb. 1600. your friend and servant and lover j. donne . 12. decemb. 1600. to your self . sir , i send you here a translation ; but it is not onely to beleeve me , it is a great invention to have understood any piece of this book , whether the gravity of the matter , or the poeticall form , give it his inclination , and principium motus ; you are his center , or his spheare , and to you as to his proper place he addresses himself . besides that all my things , not onely by obligation , but by custome , know that that is the way they should goe . i spake of this to my l. of bedford , thinking then i had had a copy which i made long since , at sea , but because i finde it not , i have done that again : when you finde it not unseasonable , let her see it ; and if you can think it fit , that a thing that hath either wearied , or distasted you , should receive so much favour , put it amongst her papers : when you have a new stomach to it , i will provide you quickly a new copy . your very true friend and servant and lover j. donne . at my micham hospitall , aug. 10. to the gallant knight sir tho , lucy . sir , because in your last letter , i have an invitation to come to you , though i never thought my self so fallen from my interest , which , by your favour , i prescribe in , in you , and therefore when in the spring i hoped to have strength enough , to come into those parts , upon another occasion , i always resolved to put my self into your presence too , yet now i aske you more particularly how you dispose of your self ; for though i have heard , that you purpose a journey to the bath , and from thence hither , yet i can hope , that my service at lincolns inne being ended for next terme , i may have intermission enough to waite upon you at poleseworth , before the season call you to bath . i was no easie apprehender of the fear of your departing from us ; neither am i easie in the hope of seeing you intirely over suddenly . god loves your soul , if he be loth to let it go inch-meale , and not by swallowings ; and he loves it too , if he build it up again stone after stone ; his will is not done except his way , and his leasure be observed . in my particular , i am sorry , if my ingenuity and candor in delivering my self in those points , of which you speak to me , have defaced those impressions which were in you before : if my freedome have occasioned your captivity , i am miserably sorry . i went unprofitably and improvidently , to the utmost end of truth , because i would go as farre as i could to meet peace ; if my going so far in declaring my self , brought you where you could not stop . but i was as confident in your strength , as in mine own , so am i still , in him , who strengthens al our infirmities and will , i doubt not , bring you and me together , in all those particulars , so as we shall not part in this world , nor the next . sir , your own soul cannot be more zealous of your peace , then i am : and god , who loves that zeale in me , will not suffer you to suspect it . i am surprised with a necessity of writing now , in a minute ; for i sent to bedford house to informe my self of means to write , and your daughter sent me word , of a present messenger , and therefore the rest of this , i shall make up in my prayers to our blessed saviour , for all happinesses to you . your poor servant in chr. jesus j. donne . drury house the 22 of decemb. 1607. to sir h.g. sir , this is a second letter : the enclosed was written before . now we are sure that heidelberge is taken , and entred with extreme cruelties . almost all the defendors forsook their stations ; only sir ger. herbert maintained his nobly , to the repulsing of the enemy three times , but having ease in the other parts , 800 new fresh men were put upon his quarter , and after he had broke 4 pikes , and done very well , he was shot dead in the place . manheim was soon after besieged , and is still . heydelth was lost the 6 of this moneth . the k. upon news of this , sent to the spanish ambassaour , that the people were like to resent it , and therefore , if he doubted ought , he should have a guard : but i do not see , that he seems to need it , in his own opinion , neither , intruth does he ; the people are flat : or trust in god , and the kings ways : sir hor. vere hath written to his wife , ( as i am told ) a letter in the nature of a will , for the disposing of his estate and children , as though he did not account to see her any more , but yet manheim cannot be lost , but by storming . your man stays , and our bell rings me into the church ; there sir , i shall recommend you to gods goodnesse , with your friend j. donne . 24 septemb. to sir h. g. sir , i live so farre removed , that even the ill news of your great losse ( which is ever swiftest and loudest ) found me not till now , your letter speaks it not plain enough but i am so accustomed to the worst , that i am sure it is so in this . i am almost glad that i knew her so little : for i would have no more additions to sorrow . if i should comfort you , it were an almes acceptable in no other title , then when poor give to poor ; for i am more needy of it then you . and i know you well provided of christian , and learned , and brave defences against all humane accidents . i will make my best haste after your messenger : and if my self and the place had not been ill provided of horses , i had been the messenger , for you have taught me by granting more to deny no request . your honest unprofitable friend j. donne . pyesford 3 a clock just as yours came . to sir h. g. sir , i cannot yet serve you with those books of which your letter spake . in recompense i will tell you a story , which if i had had leasure to have told it you when it was fresh , which was upon thursday last , might have had some grace for the rareness , and would have tried your love to me , how farre you would adventure to beleeve an improbable thing for my sake who relates it . that day in the morning , there was some end made , by the e. of salisbury and others , who were arbitrators in some differences between herford and mountegle , herford was ill satisfied in it , and declared himself so farre as to say , he expected better usage in respect not only of his cause but of his expence and service in his ambastage : to which salisbury replied , that considered how things stood between his majesty and herford house at the kings enterance , the king had done him especiall favour in that employment of honour and confidence , by declaring in so publique and great an act and testimony , that he had no ill affections toward him . herford answered , that he was then and ever an honest man to the king : and salisbury said , he denied not that , but yet solemnly repeated his first words again . so that herford seemed not to make answer , but pursuing his own word , said , that whosoever denied him to have been an honest man to the king , lyed . salisbury asked him if he directed that upon him , herford said , upon any who denied this . the earnestnes of both was such , as salisbury accepted it to himself , and made protestation before the ll. present , that he would do nothing else , till he had honorably put off that lye . within an hour after , salisbury sent him a direct challenge , by his servant m r knightley ; herford required only an hours leisure of consideration ( it is said , it was onely to inform himself of the especiall danger , in dealing so with a counsellor ) but he returned his acceptation : and all circumstances were so clearly handled between them , that s t james was agreed for the place , and they were both come from their severall lodgings , and upon the way to have met , when they were interrupted by such as from the king were sent to have care of it . so these two have escaped this great danger ; but ( by my troth ) i fear earnestly that mistresse bolstrod will not escape escape that sicknesse in which she labours at this time . i sent this morning to aske of her passage of this night ; and the return is , that she is as i left her yesternight , and then by the strength of her understanding , and voyce , ( proportionally to her fashion , which was ever remisse ) by the eavennesse and life of her pulse , and by her temper , i could allow her long life , and impute all her sicknesse to her minde . but the history of her sicknesse , makes me justly fear , that she will scarce last so long , as that you when you receive this letter , may do her any good office , in praying for her ; for she hath not for many days received so much as a preserved barbery , but it returnes , and all accompanied with a fever , the mother , and an extream ill spleen . whilest i write this tuesday morning , from bartlet house one brings me a pacquet to your master : he is gone ; and that lady and all the company is from town . i thought i might be pardoned , if i thought my self your man for that service to open it , which i did , and for the letters i will deliver them . what else you bid foster do in his letter , bid him do it there , for ( so god help me ) i know not what it is . i must end now , else the carrier will be gone . god be with you . yours intirely . you know me without a name , and i know not how this letter goes . to sir h. g. sir , i had destined all this tuesday , for the court , because it is both a sermon day , and the first day of the kings being here . before i was to go forth , i had made up this inclosed pacquet for you , and then came this messenger with your pacquet , of which if you can remember the number , you cannot expect any account thereof from me , who have not half an hour left me before i go forth , and your messenger speakes of a necessity of returning homward before my returning home . if upon the delivery of them , or any other occasion , there intervene new subject of writing , i shall relieve my selfe upon tuesday , if tamworth carrier be in town . to the particulars of the letter to my self , i will give this paper , and line . of my lady bedford , i must say so much as must importune you to burn the letter ; for i would say nothing of her upon record , that should not testifie my thankfulnesse for all her graces . but upon this motion , which i made to her by letter , and by s r tho. roes assistance , if any scruple should arise in her , she was somewhat more startling , then i looked for from her : she had more suspicion of my calling , a better memory of my past life , then i had thought her nobility could have admitted : of all which , though i humbly thank god , i can make good use , as one that needs as many remembrances in that kinde , as not only friends but enemies can present , yet i am afraid , they proceed in her rather from some ill impression taken from d. burges , then that they grow in her self . but whosoever be the conduit , the water is the holy ghosts , and in that acceptation i take it . for her other way of expressing her favour to me , i must say , it is not with that cheerfulnesse , as heretofore she hath delivered her self towards me . i am almost sorry , that an elegy should have been able to move her to so much compassion heretofore , as to offer to pay my debts ; and my greater wants now , and for so good a purpose , as to come disingaged into that profession , being plainly laid open to her , should work no farther but that she sent me 30 l. which in good faith she excused with that , which is in both parts true , that her present debts were burdensome , and that i could not doubt of her inclination , upon all future emergent occasions , to assist me . i confesse to you , her former fashion towards me , had given a better confidence ; and this diminution in her makes me see , that i must use more friends , then i thought i should have needed . i would you could burn this letter , before you read it , at least do when you have read it . for , i am afraid out of a contemplation of mine own unworthinesse , and fortune , that the example of this lady , should work upon the lady where you are : for though goodnesse be originally in her , and she do good , for the deeds sake , yet , perchance , she may think it a little wisdome , to make such measure of me , as they who know no better , do . of any new treaty of a match with spain , i hear nothing . the warres in the lowcountries , to judge by their present state , are very likely to go forward . no word of a parliament , and i my self have heard words of the k. as directly against any such purpose , as any can sound . i never heard word , till in your letter , of any stirres in scotland , for that of the french k. which you aske , it hath this good ground , that in the assembly there a proposition hath been made , and well entertained , that the k. should be declared , to have full jurisdiction in france ; and no other person to have any . it hath much of the modell and frame of our oath of allegeance , but with some modification . it is true , it goes farther , then that state hath drove in any publique declarations , but not farther then their schools have drove often and constantly : the easinesse that it hath found in passing thus farre without opposition , puts ( perchance unnecessarily ) in me a doubt , that they are sure to choak it , at the royall assent , and therefore oppose it not , by the way , to sweeten the conveyance of their other purposes . sir , if i stay longer i shall lose the text , at court , therefore i kisse your hand , and rest your very true servant j. donne . we hear ( but without second as yet ) that sir rich. philips brother in france , hath taken the habit of a capuchin . to sir thomas lucy . sir , this first of aprill i received yours of 21 of martii , which being two days after the ordinary smithfield day , i could do no more , but seal this letter to be sent to you next tuesday , because i foresee that i shall not then be in town . whatsoever i should write now , of any passages of these days , would lose the verdure before the letter came to you , only give me leave to tell you that i need none of those excuses , which you have made to your self in my behalfe , for my not writing . for your son in law came to me , so near the time of his going away , as it had been impossible to have recovered him with a letter at so farre a distance , as he was lodged . and my l. hunt. messenger received that answer , which , i hope , before this time , you know to be true , that i had sent the day before , by the infallible carrier of smithfield . the emperours death may somewhat shorten our way ; for i disoern now no reason of going to vienna ; but i beleeve it wil extēd our busines ; so that i promise my self no speedier return by that . if i write no letters into england out of these parts ; i cannot be without your pardon , if i write not to you , but if i write to any and leave you out , lay all the faults which you have ever pardonedin me , to my charge again . i foresee some reasons , which may make me forbeare ; but no flacknesse of mine own , shall . sir , if i have no more the commodity of writing to you here in england , ( as , we may be gon before next tuesday ) i tell you , in this departing from you , with the same truth and earnestnesse as i would be beleeved to speake in my last departing , and transmigration from the whole world , that i leave not behinde me a heart , better affected to you , nor more devoted to your service , then i carry with me . almighty god blesse you , with such a reparation in your health , such an establishment in your estate , such a comfort in your children , such a peace in your conscience , and such a true cheerfulnesse in your heart , as may be strong seales to you , of his eternall gracious purpose upon you . this morning i spend in surveying and emptying my cabinet of letters ; and at the top of all i light upon this letter lately received , which i was loth to bury . i chose to send it you , to mine own condemnation ; because a man so busie as he is , descending to this expressing of himself in verse , i am inexcusable towards you , for disobeying a commandement of yours , of that kinde ; but i relie upon the generall , that i am sure you are sure , that i never refuse any thing for lazinesse , nor morosity , and therefore make some other excuse for me . you have beenso long used to my hand that i stand not to excuse the hasty raggednesse of this letter . the very ilnesse of the writing , is a good argument that i forced a time , in the fulnesse of businesse , to kisse your hand , and to present my thanks as for all your favours , and benefits , so principally for keeping me alive in the memory of the noblest countesse , whose commandement , if it had been her la ps pleasure to have any thing said or done in her service , at heydelberg , i should have been glad to have received . sir , god blesse you , & spiritu principali confirmet te ; and your very true and affectionate servant in chr. fes . j. donne . 4. apr. 1619. to the honourable knight s r henry goodere . sir , as you are a great part of my businesse , when i come to london , so are you when i send . more then the office of a visitation brings this letter to you now ; for i remember that about this time you purposed a journey to fetch , or meet the lad. huntington . if you justly doubt any long absence , i pray send to my lodging my written books : and if you may stay very long , i pray send that letter in which i sent you certain heads which i purposed to enlarge , for i have them not in any other paper : and i may finde time in your absence to do it , because i know no stronger argument to move you to love me , but because you have done so , doe so still , to make my reason better , and i shall at last prescribe in you yours , j. donne . micham wednesday . to sir h. g. at polesworth . sir , this 25 i have your letter of 21 , which i tell you so punctually , because by it , nor by any other , i doe not discern that you received my pacquet of books ; not that i looked for so quick a return of the sermon , nor of my cases of conscience , but that i forget so absolutely what i write , and am so sure that i write confidently to you , that it is some pain to remain in any jealousie that any letter is miscarried . that which i writ to you of my l. treasur . disposition to you , i had from m r har ; and i understood it to be his desire to convey it through me . the last account which we have of my l. douc . is , by letters of the 2 o of this ; by which also we saw , that the first letters of his convalescence , were but propheticall ; for he was let blood a second time , and is not strong enough yet to receive audience . though i be not dean of pauls yet , my l. of warwick hath gone so low , as to command of me the office of being master of my game , in our wood about him in essex . i pray be you content to be my officer too , the steward of my services to all to whom you know them to be due in your walk , and continue your own assurance that i am your affectionate servant in chr. fes . j. donne . to my worthy friend f. h. sir , i can scarce doe any more this week then send you word why i writ not last . i had then seposed a few daies for my preparation to the communion of our b. saviours body ; and in that solitarinesse and arraignment of my self , digested some meditations of mine , and apparelled them ( as i use ) in the form of a sermon : for since i have not yet utterly delivered my self from this intemperance of scribling ( though i thank god my accesses are lesse and lesse vehement ) i make account that to spend all my little stock of knowledge upon matter of delight , were the same error , as to spend a fortune upon masks and banque●ing houses : i chose rather to build in this poor fashion , some spittles , and hospitals , where the poor and impotent sinner may finde some relief , or at least understanding of his infirmity . and if they be too weak to serve posterity , yet for the present by contemplation of them , &c. to sir h. g. sir , i have the honour of your letter , which , i am almost sorry to have received : some few daies before the receit thereof d. turner , who accompanied my l , carow to sion to dinner , shewed me a letter from you , from which i conceived good hopes that your businesses being devolved into the hands of the treasurer , had been in much more forwardnesse , then by your letter to me they appear to be . i beseech god establish them , and hasten them , and with them , or without them , as he sees most conducible to his purpose upon you , continue in you a relying upon him , and a satisfaction in his waies . i know not whether any letter from your son , or any other report , may have given you any mention of me ; he writ to me from the compter , that he was under a trifling arrest , and that 3 l and some little more would discharge him . i sent my man with that money , but bid him see it emploied for his discharge : he found more actions , and returned . next day he writ to me that 8 l would discharge him , and that m r selden would lay down half . but m r selden and i speaking together , thought it the fittest way , to respite all , till , in a few daies , by his writing to you , we might be directed therein ; and in the mean time , took order with the keeper to accommodate him , and i bade my man martin , as from himself , to serve his present want with somethings . since we told him , that we would attend a return of his letter to you , i heard no more of him , but i hear he is out . whosoever serves you with relations from this town , i am sure prevents me of all i can say . the palatinate is absolutely lost ; for before this letter come to you , we make account that heydelberg and frankindale is lost , and manheme distressed . mansfield came to breda , and gonzales , to brussels , with great losses on both sides , but equall . the p. of orange is but now come to breda , and with him , all that he is able to make , even out of the garrisons of their towns. the ways of victuall to spinolaes army , are almost all precluded by him , and he likely to put upon the raising of spinola , between whom and the town , there are hotter disputes , then ever our times saw . the secretary of the states here shewed me a letter yesternight , that the town spends 6000 pound of powder a day , and hath spent since the siege 250 m pounds . argits regiment and my l. vaux , are so diminished by commings a way , as that both ( i think ) make not now in muster above 600. m r gage is returning to rome , but of his negotiation i dare say nothing by a letter of adventure . the direction which his ma ty gave for preachers , had scandalized many ; therefore he descended to pursue them with certain reasons of his proceedings therein ; and i had commandment to publish them in a sermon at the crosse , to as great a congregation as ever i saw together , where they received comfortable assurance of his ma ties constancy in religion , and of his desire that all men should be bred in the knowledge of such things , as might preserve them from the superstition of rome . i presume it is but a little while before we shall see you here , but that little time is likely to produce many things greatly considerable . present , i pray , my thankfull services to your good daughters . i can give them no better a room in my prayers , and wishes , then my poore constance hath , and they have that ; so have you sir , with your very true friend and servant in chr. jes. j. donne . to the worthiest knight sir henry goodere . sir , our blessed saviour , who abounds in power and goodnesse towards us all , blesse you , and your family , with blessings proportioned to his ends in you all , and blesse you with the testimony of a rectified conscience , of having discharged all the offices of a father , towards your discreet and worthy daughters , and blesse them with a satisfaction , and quiescence , and more , with a complacency and a joy , in good ends , and ways towards them , amen . your man brought me your letter of the 8 of december this 21 of the same , to chelsey , and gives me the largenesse , till friday to send a letter to pauls house . there can scarce be any peece of that , or of those things whereof you require light from me , that is not come to your knowledge , by some clearer way , between the time of your letter , and this . besides the report of my death , hath thus much of truth in it , that though i be not dead , yet i am buried within a few weeks after i immured my self in this house , the infection strook into the town , into so many houses , as that it became ill manners , to make any visits . therefore i never went to knoll , nor hanworth , nor kenton , nor to the court , since the court came into these quarters , nor am yet come to london ; therefore i am little able to give you account of high stages . perchance you look not so low , as our ordinary gazetta , and that tells us , ( with a second assurance ) that the d. of brunswick , christian , is dead of an ague . my l. of dorset even upon the day , when he should have been installed with his six fellowes , fell sick at london ; and at court ( which does not exalt all men ) his fever was exalted to the plague ; but he is in good convalescence . of the navy i hear of no great lim come back yet , but my l. of essex ; something of the disappointing of the designe they had , is imputed to some difference , in point of command , between him and the m r. of the ordinance , my l. of valencia , but as yet , there is little manifested . already is issued a proclamation , that there be no disbanding of the souldiers , upon their landing , in what part soever , and that his majesty hath present imployment for them . what the main busines at haghe hath been , i know nothing ; but i hear , that their offer of pawning of jewells to a very very great value , to the states or private men , hath found no acceptance , at least found no money . occasionally i heard from the haghe , that the queen having taken into her care , the promoving and advancing of some particular mens businesses , by way of recommendations to the duke , expressed her self very royally , in your behalf . this i tell you not , as though you knew it not , but because i had the fortune to see it in a letter of the simple gentlewoman , from thence ; by which name , if you know her not , i have omitted heretofore to tell you a good tale . they continue at court , in the resolution of the queen pastorall ; when q. anne loved gamboils , you loved the court ; perchance you may doubt whether you be a thorough courtier , if you come not up to see this , the queen a shepperdesse : but i speak not this , by way of counsail , to draw you up , it is not only non dominus , sed ego , but nec deus nec ego , to call you hither , but upon fair appearances of usefull commings . mr george herbert is here at the receipt of your letter , and with his service to you , tells you that all of uvedall house are well . i reserve not the mention of my lady huntington to the end of my letter , as grains to make the gold weight , but as tincture to make the better gold , when you finde room to intrude so poor and impertinent a name , as mine is , in her presence . i beseech you , let her lad : know , that she hath sowed her favours towards me , in such a ground , that if i be grown better ( as i hope i am ) her favours are grown with me , and though they were great when she conferred them , yet , ( if i mend every day ) they increase in me every day , and therefore every day multiply my thankfulnesse towards her ladiship : say what you will ( if you like not this expression ) that may make her ladiship know , that i shall never let fall the memory , nor the just valuation of her noble favours to me , nor leave them unrequited in my exchequer , which is , the blessings of god upon my prayers . if i should write another sheet , i should be able to serve your curiosity no more of dukes nor ll. nor courts , and this half line serves to tell you , that i am truly your poor friend and humble servant in chr. fes . j. donne . to my honoured friend g. g. esquire . sir , neither your letters , nor silence , needs excuse ; your friendship is to me an abundant possession , though you remember me but twice in a year : he that could have two harvests in that time , might justly value his land at a high rate ; but , sir , as we doe not onely then thank our land , when we gather the fruit , but acknowledge that all the year she doth many motherly offices in preparing it : so is not friendship then onely to be esteemed , when she is delivered of a letter , or any other reall office , but in her continuall propensnesse and inclination to do it . this hath made me casie in pardoning my long silences , and in promising my self your forgivenesse for not answering your letter sooner . for my purpose of proceeding in the profession of the law , so farre as to a title you may be pleased to correct that imagination , wheresoever you finde it . i ever thought the study of it my best entertainment , and pastime , but i have no ambition , nor designe upon the style . of my anniversaries , the fault that i acknowledge in my self , is to have descended to print any thing in verse , which though it have excuse even in our times , by men who professe , and practise much gravitie ; yet i confesse i wonder how i declined to it , and do not pardon my self : but for the other part of the imputation of having said too much , my defēce is , that my purpose was to say as well as i could : for since i never saw the gentlewoman , i cannot be understood to have bound my self to have spoken just truths , but i would not be thought to have gone about to praise her , or any other in rime ; except i took such a person , as might be capable of all that i could say . if any of those ladies think that mistris drewry was not so , let that lady make her self fit for all those praises in the book , and they shall be hers . sir , this messenger makes so much haste that i cry you mercy for spending any time of this letter in other imployment then thanking you for yours . i hope before christmas to see england , and kisse your hand , which shall ever , ( if it disdain not that office ) hold all the keyes of the libertie and affection , and all the faculties of your most affectionate servant , j. d. paris the 14 of aprill , here , 1612. to my honoured friend g. g. esquire . sir , i should not only send you an account by my servant , but bring you an account often my self , ( for our letters are our selves ) and in them absent friends meet ) how i do , but that two things make me forbear that writing : first , because it is not for my gravity , to write of feathers , and strawes , and in good faith , i am no more , considered in my body , or fortune . and then because whensoever i tell you how i doe , by a letter , before that letter comes to you , i shall be otherwise , then when it left me . at this time , i humbly thank god , i am only not worse ; for , i should as soon look for roses at this time of the year , as look for increase of strength . and if i be no worse all spring , then now , i am much better , for , i make account that those church services , which i would be very loth to decline , will spend somewhat ; and , if i can gather so much as will bear my charges , recover so much strength at london , as i shall spend at london , i shall not be loth to be left in that state wherein i am now , after that 's done ; but i do but discourse , i do not wish ; life , or health , or strength , ( i thank god ) enter not into my prayers for my self : for others they do ; and amongst others , for your sick servant , for such a servant taken so young , and healed so long , is half a child to a master , and so truly i have observed that you have bred him , with the care of a father . our blessed saviour look graciously upon him , and glorifie himself in him , by his way of restitution to health ; and by his way of peace of conscience in your very true friend and servant in chr. jos. j. donne . sir , this advantage you , and my other friends have , by my frequent fevers , that i am so much the oftener at the gates of heaven , and this advantage by the solitude and close imprisonment that they reduce me to after , that i am thereby the oftener at my prayers ; in which , i shall never leave out your happinesse ; and , i doubt not , but amongst his many other blessings , god will adde to you some one for my prayers . a man would almost be content to dye , ( if there were no other benefit in death ) to hear of so much sorrow , and so much good testimony from good men , as i , ( god be blessed for it ) did upon the report of my death . yet , i perceive it went not through all ; for , one writ unto me , that some ( and he said of my friends ) conceived , that i was not so ill , as i pretended , but withdrew my self , to save charges , and to live at ease , discharged of preaching . it is an unfriendly , and god knows , an ill grounded interpretation : for in these times of necessity , and multitudes of poor there is no possibility of saving to him that hath any tendernesse in him ; and for affecting my ease , i have been always more sorry , when i could not preach , then any could be , that they could not hear me . it hath been my desire , ( and god may be pleased to grant it me ) that i might die in the pulpit ; if not that , yet that i might take my death in the pulpit , that is , die the sooner by occasion of my former labours . i thanke you , for keeping our george in in your memory , i hope god reserves it for so good a friend as you are , to send me the first good newes of him . for the diamond lady , you may safely deliver roper , whatsoever belongs to me , and he will give you a discharge for the money . for my l. percy , we shall speake of it , when we meet at london ; which , as i do not much hope before christmas , so i do not much fear at beginning of tearm ; for i have intreated one of my fellowes to preach to my lord maior , at pauls upon christmas day , and reserved candlemas day to my self for that service , about which time also , will fall my lent sermon , except my lord chamberlaine beleeve me to be dead , and leave me out ; for as long as i live , and am not speechlesse , i would not decline that service . i have better leasure to write , then you to read , yet i will not oppresse you with too much letter , god blesse you , and your sonne , as your poor friend and humble servant in christ jesus j. donne . to the lady g. madam , i am not come out of england , if i remain in the noblest part of it , your minde ; yet i confesse , it is too much diminution to call your minde , any part of england , or of this world , since every part even of your body , deserves titles of higher dignity . no prince would be loth to die , that were assured of so faire a tombe to preserve his memory : but i have a greater vantage then so ; for since there is a religion in friendship , and a death in absence , to make up an intire frame there must be a heaven too : and there can be no heaven so proportionall to that religion , and that death , as your favour . and i am gladder that it is a heaven , then that it were a court , or any other high place of this world , because i am likelier to have a room there then here ; and better cheap . madam my best treasure , is time ; and my best imployment of that , is to study good wishes for you , in which i am by continuall meditation so learned , that your own good angell , when it would do you most good , might be content to come and take instructions from your humble and affectionate servant j. donne . to your selfe . sir , the first of this moneth i received a letter from you , no letter comes so late , but that it brings fresh newes hither . though i presume , m r pore , and since , sir rob. rich came after the writing of that letter , yet it was good newes to me , that you thought me worthy of so good a testimony . and you were subtile in the disguise : for you shut up your letter , thus , lond. 22. in our stile , but i am not so good a cabalist , as to finde in what moneth it was written . but , sir , in the offices of so spirituall a thing as friendship , so momentary a thing as time , must have no consideration . i keep it therefore to read every day , as newly written : to which vexation it must be subject , till you relieve it with an other . if i ought you not a great many thankes for every particular part of it , i should yet thanke you for the length ; and love it , as my mistresses face , every line and feature , but best all together . all that i can do towards retribution , is , ( as other bankrupts do in prison ) to make means by commissioners , that a great debt may be accepted by small summes weekly . and in that proportion i have paid my tribute to you , almost ever since i came , and shall still do so . you know that they say , those are the strongest , and the firmest , and most precious things , which are composed of the most , and smallest parts . i will flatter my self therefore , that the number of my letters may at last make a strong argument of my desire to serve you , but because i remember , out of this philosophy , that they should be little , as well as many , lest this letter should not get into the building , it shall be no bigger ; thus much addition will not much disfigure it , that it sweare to you that i am your affectionate servant j. donne . sir , i cry you mercy for sealing your sisters letter , but i deliver you up my authority , and i remember you , that you have hers to open it again . you will the easilier forgive me , that i write no newes , when you observe by this transgression , that i live in a place which hath quenched in me even the remembrance of good manners , by naming her , i have made my postscript the worthyest place of my letter : and therefore i chuse that place to present my service to all the company at our lodging ; in which house , if i cannot get room for a pallat , at my return , my comfort is , that i can ever hope to be so near them as the spittle in the savoy , where they receive travellers . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , though i have left my bed , i have not left my bed-side ; i sit there still , and as a prisoner discharged , sits at the prison doore , to beg fees , so sit i here , to gather crummes . i have used this leisure , to put the meditations had in my sicknesse , into some such order , as may minister some holy delight . they arise to so many sheetes ( perchance 20. ) as that without staying for that furniture of an epistle , that my friends importun'd me to print them , i importune my friends to receive them printed . that , being in hand , through this long trunke , that reaches from saint pauls , to saint james , i whisper into your eare this question , whether there be any uncomlinesse , or unseasonablenesse , in presenting matter of devotion , or mortification , to that prince , whom i pray god nothing may ever mortifie , but holinesse . if you allow my purposes in generall , i pray cast your eye upon the title and the epistle , and rectifie me in them : i submit substance , and circumstance to you , and the poore author of both , your very humble and very thankfull servant in christ jesus j. donne . to your selfe . sir , age becomes nothing better then friendship ; therefore your letters , which are ever good effects of friendship , delight to be old before i receive them : for it is but a fortnight since those letters which you sent by captain peter found me at spâ ; presently upon the receit , i adventured by your leave to bestow the first minutes upon this letter to your faire noble sister ; and because i found no voice at spâ of any messenger , i respited my writing to you , till i came thus much nearer . upon the way hither , another letter from you overtooke me , which by my l. chandos love to me for your sake , was sent after me to mastricht : he came to spâ within two houres after i went away ; which i tell you to let you see , that my fortune hath still that spitefull constancy , to bring me near my desires , and intercept me . if i should write to you any newes from this place , i should forestall mine owne market , by telling you beforehand that which must make me acceptable to you at my comming . i shall sneake into london , about the end of august . in my remotest distances i did not more need your letters then i shall then . therefore if you shall not be then in london , i beseech you to think mee at constantinople , and write one large letter to be left at my ladie bartlets my lodging ; for i shall come in extreame darknesse and ignorance , except you give me light . if sir john brooke be within your reach , present my humble service and thankfulnesse to him ; if he be not , i am glad , that to my conscience , which is a thousand witnesses , i have added you for one more , that i came as near as i could to doe it . i shall run so fast from this place , through antwerpe , and some parts of holland , that all that love which you could perchance be content to expresse by letters if i lay still , may be more thriftily bestowed upon that one letter , which is by your favour , to meet me , and to welcome to london your unworthy , but very true friend , j. donne . sir , it is one ill affection of a desperate debtor , that he dares not come to an account , nor take knowledge how much he owes ; this makes me that i dare not tell you how manie letters i have received from you since i came to this towne ; i had three the first by the cooke , who brought none but yours , nor ever came to me , to let me know what became of the rest : the two other of the 7. and 8. of march , came in a letter which sir h. wotton writ to me from amyens ; there is not a size of paper in the palace , large enough to tell you how much i esteeme my selfe honoured in your remembrances ; nor strong enough to wrap up a heart so ful of good affections towards you , as mine is . when any thing passes between sir thomas roe and you , tell him i am not the lesse his servant , for not saying so by often letters : for by my troth , i am that so much as he could desire i should be , when he began to love me . sir thomas lucies businesse , and perchance sadnesse forbid me writing now . i have written to him ( whilest i lived in darknesse , whether my letters came to you or no ) by another way ; and if my poore letters were any degree of service , i should doe it often , and rather be mine own post , then leave any thing undone , to which he would give such an interpretation , as that it were an argument of my devotion to him . for my purpose of proceeding in the profession of the law , so far as to a title , you may be pleased to correct that imagination where you finde it . i ever thought the study of it my best entertainment and pastime , but i have no ambition , nor design upon the stile . of my anniversaries the fault which i acknowledge in my selfe , is to have descended to print any thing in verse , which though it have excuse , even in our times , by example of men , which one would thinke should as little have done it , as i ; yet i confesse i wonder how i declined to it , and doe not pardon my self . but for the other part of the imputation , of having said so much , my defence is , that my purpose was to say as well as i could : for since i never saw the gentlewoman , i cannot be understood to have bound my selfe to have spoken just truth : but i would not be thought to have gone about to praise any bodie in rime , except i tooke such a person , as might be capable of all that i could say . if any of those ladies think that mistris drury was not so , let that ladie make her selfe fit for all those praises in the booke , and it shall be hers . nothing is farther from colour or ground of truth , then that which you write of sir robert druries going to masse . no man of our nation hath been more forward to apply himselfe to the church of the religion where he hath come , nor to relieve their wants , where that demonstration hath beene needfull . i know not yet whether sir john brookes purpose of being very shortly here , be not a just reason to make me forbear writing to him . i am sure that i would fainest do that in writing or abstaining which should be most acceptable to him . it were in vain to put into this letter any relation of the magnificence which have been here at publication of these marriages ; for at this time there come into england so many frenchmen , as i am sure you shall heare all at least . if they speak not of above eight hundred horse well caparosond , you may believe it : and you may believe , that no court in christendome had beene able to have appeared so brave in that kinde . but if they tell you of any other stuffe , then copper , or any other exercise of armes then running at the quintain , and the ring , you may be bold to say pardone moy . sir , this messenger makes so much haste that i cry you mercy for spending any time of this letter , in other imployment , then thanking you for yours , and promising you more before my remove from hence . i pray venture no letter to me by any other way then m. john bruer at the queens armes a mercer in cheapside , who is always like to know where we are ; and make me by loving me still , worthy to be your friend and servant j. donne . to my honoured friend m r george gerrard . sir , i cannot chuse but make it a presage that i shall have no good fortune in england , that i mist the honour of enjoying that company , which you brought to town . but i beseech you let my ill luck determine in that ominousnesse : for if my not comming should be by her or you interpreted for a negligence or coldnesse in me , i were already in actuall and present affliction . for that ecclesiasticall lady of whom you write , since i presume it is a work of darknesse that you go about , we will deferre it for winter . perchance the cold weather , may be as good physique to you , as she , for quenching you . i have changed my purpose of going to windsor , and will go directly into the wight : which i tell you not as a concerning thing , but in obedience to your commandement , as one poor testimony that i am your affectionate servant j. donne . to my very worthy friend m r george gerrard . sir , this is the fourth of this moneth , and i receive your pacquet so late , that i have scarce waking time enough to tell you so , or to write any thing but dreams . i have both your letters , mother and daughter , and am gladder of them , then if i had the mother and daughter here in our neighbourhood ; you know i mean sir h. gooderes parties . sir , you do me double honour when my name passes through you to that noble lady in whose presence you are . it is a better end and a better way to that then i am worth . i can give you nothing in recompense of that favor , but good counsell : which is to speake sparingly of any ability in me , lest you in danger your own reputation , by overvaluing me . if i shall at any time take courage by your letter , to expresse my meditations of that lady in writing , i shall scarce think lesse time to be due to that employment , then to be all my life in making those verses , and so take them with me and sing them amongst her fellow angels in heaven . i should be loath that in any thing of mine , composed of her , she should not appear much better then some of those of whom i have written . and yet i cannot hope for better expressings then i have given of them . so you see how much i should wrong her , by making her but equall to others . i would i could be beleeved , when i say that all that is written of them , is but prophecy of her . i must use your favour in getting her pardon , for having brought her into so narrow , and low-rooft a room as my consideration , or for adventuring to give any estimation of her , and when i see how much she can pardon , i shall the better discern how far farther i may dare to offend in that kinde . my noble neighbour is well , and makes me the steward of his service to you . before this letter reaches you , i presume you will bee gathering towards these parts , and then all newes will meet you so fast , as that out of your abundance you will impart some to your affectionate friend to serve you j. donne . to your selfe . sir , all your other letters , which came to me by more hazardous waies , had therefore much merit in them ; but for your letter by m. pory , it was but a little degree of favour , because the messenger was so obvious , and so certain , that you could not chuse but write by him . but since he brought me as much letter as all the rest , i must accept that , as well as the rest . by this time , m. garret , when you know in your conscience that you have sent no letter , you beginne to look upon the superscription , and doubt that you have broken up some other bodies letter : but whos 's so ever it were it must speak the same language , for i have heard from no body . sir , if there be a proclamation in england against writing to me , yet since it is thereby become a matter of state , you might have told m. pory so . and you might have told him , what became of sir tho. lucies letter , in my first pacquet , ( for any letter to him makes any paper a pacquet , and any peece of single money a medall ) and what became of my lady kingsmels in my second , and of hers in my third , whom i will not name to you in hope that it is perished , and you lost the honour of giving it . sir , mine own desire of being your servant , hath sealed me a patent of that place during my life , and therefore it shall not be in the power of your for bidding , ( to which your stiffe silence amounts ) to make me leave being your very affectionate servant j. donne . to my honoured friend m. george garrat . sir , i would i were so good an alchimist to perswade you that all the vertue of the best affections , that one could expresse in a sheet , were in this ragge of paper . it becomes my fortune to deale thus in single money ; and i may hit better with this hail-shot of little letters ( because they may come thick ) then with great bullets ; and trouble my friends lesse . i confesse it were not long enough if it came to present my thankes for all the favours you have done me ; but since it comes to begge more , perchance it may be long enough , because i know not how short you will be with an absent friend . if you will but write that you give me leave to keep that name still , it shall be the gold of your letter : and for allay , put in as much newes as you will. we are in a place where scarce any money appeares , but base : as , i confesse , all matters of letters is in respect of the testimonies of friendship ; but obey the corruption of this place , and fill your letters with worse stuffe then your own . present my service to all those gentlemen whom i had the honour to serve at our lodging , i cannot flie an higher pitch , then to say , that i am so much their servant as you can say i am . at the queens armes in cheapside , which is a mercers , you may hear of one m. john brewer , who will convay any letter directed to me at sir rob. druries at amiens , though he know not me : and i should be glad to hear that this first that i sent into england had the fortune to finde you . yours j. donne . to your fair sister . madam , the dignity , and the good fortune due to your letter , hath preserved a pacquet so well , that through france and germany it is at last come to me at spâ . this good experience makes me in despite of contrary appearances , hope that i shall finde some messenger for this , before i remove , though it be but two dayes . for , even miracles are but little and slight things , when any thing which either concernes your worthinesse is in consideration or my valuation of it . if i faile in this hope of a messenger , i shall not grudge to do my self this service of bringing it into england , that you may hear me say there , that i have thus much profited by the honour of your conversation , and contemplation , that i am , as your vertues are , every where equall ; and that , that which i shall say then at london , i thought and subscribed at spâ , which is , that i will never be any thing else , then your very humble and affectionate servant j. donne . to the honourable knight sir henry goodere . sir , because to remain in this sort guilty in your lordships opinion doth not onely defeat all my future indevours , but lay a heavyer burden upon me , of which i am more sensible , which is ingratitude towards your lordship , by whose favours i have been formerly so much bound ; i hope your lordship will pardon me this care and diligence which i use to rectifie my self towards you . to which purpose i humbly beseech your lordship , to admit thus much into your consideration , that i neither hunted after this businesse at first , but apprehended it as it was presented to me , and might perchance have fallen into worse hands , nor proceeded otherwise therin , then to my poor discretion at that time seemed lawfull and requisite and necessary for my reputation , who held my selfe bound to be able to give satisfaction to any who should doubt of the case . of all which , if your lordship were returned to your former favourable opinions of me , you might be pleased to make this some argument , that after his majesty had shewed his inclination to the first motion made in my behalf , i was not earnest to urge and solicit that advantage of priority , but as became me , contented my self to joyne with him who had made a later petition therein : and as soon as i understood how it was opposed or distasted , i threw it down at your lordships feet , and abandoned it to your pleasure . which it is necessary for me to say at this time , left , if he who was interessed with me in that businesse shall have proceeded any farther therein since that time , your lordship might conceive new suspicions of me . that your lordships name was at all used therein , or that any words of mine occasioned such an errour in my servant , i am so sorry as nothing but a conscience of a true guiltinesse of having performed an injury to your lordship ( which can never fall upon me ) could affect me more . but i , who to the measure of my comprehension , have ever understood your lordships nobility and evenness , cannot fear that your lordship will punish an oversight , like a crime : which should be effected upon me , if your lordship should continue your disfavour towards me , since no penalty could come so burdenous to my minde and to my fortune as that . and since the repose of both consists in your lordships favour , i humbly intreat to be restored to your favour , giving your lordship my faith in pawn that i wil be as wary of forfeting it by any second occasion , as i am sorry for this . yours j. d. to the honourable knight sir robert karre . sir , i had rather like the first best ; not onely because it is cleanlier , but because it reflects least upon the other party , which , in all jest and earnest , in this affair , i wish avoided . if my muse were onely out of fashion , and but wounded and maimed like free-will in the roman church , i should adventure to put her to an epithalamion . but since she is dead , like free-will in our church , i have not so much muse left as to lament her losse . perchance this businesse may produce occasions , wherein i may expresse my opinion of it , in a more serious manner . which i speake neither upon any apparent conjecture , nor upon any overvaluing of my abilities , but out of a generall readinefse and alacrity to be serviceable and gratefull in any kinde . in both which poor vertues of mine , none can pretend a more primary interest , then you may , in your humble and affectionate servant j. donne . to the honourable knight sir robert karre gentleman of his highnesses bedchamber . sir , i have often sinned towards you , with a presumption of being pardoned , but now i do it , without hope , and without daring to intreat you to pardon the fault . in which there are thus many degrees of importunity . that i must begge of you to christen a child , which is but a daughter , and in which you must be content to be associated with ladies of our own alliance , but good women , and all this upon thursday next in the afternoon . sir , i have so many and so indeleble impressions of your favour to me , as they might serve to spread over all my poor race . but since i see that i stand like a tree , which once a year beares , though no fruit , yet this mast of children , and so am sure , that one year or other i should afflict you with this request , i had rather be presently under the obligations and the thankfulnesse towards you , then meditate such a trouble to you against another year . i was desirous this paper might kisse your hands as soon as you came , that if any other diversions made this inconvenient to you , i might have an other exercise of your favor , by knowing so much from you , who in every act of yours make me more and more your humble and thankfull servant j. donne . 17 aprill . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , perchance others may have told you , that i am relapsed into my fever ; but that which i must intreat you to condole with me , is , that i am relapsed into good degrees of health ; your cause of sorrow for that , is , that you are likely to be the more troubled with such an impertinencie , as i am ; and mine is , that i am fallen from fair hopes , of ending all ; yet i have scaped no better cheap , then that i have paid death one of my children for my ransome . because i loved it well , i make account that i dignifie the memorie of it , by mentioning of it to you , else i should not be so homely . impute this brevitie of writing to you upon no subject , to my sicknesse , in which men use to talke idly : but my profession of desiring to bee retained in your memorie , impute to your owne vertues , which have wrought so much upon your humble servant john donne . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , i make account that it is a day of great distribution of honours at court : i would not therefore lose my part , and increase therein ; since every letter admitted by you from me , is a new stone in my best building , which is , my roome in your service : so much you adde to me , everie time you give me leave thus to kisse your hands . but , sir , everie addition preimagins a beeing , and the time of my beeing and creation is not yet come : which i am sure you will advance ; because else i am no competent subject of your favours , and additions . i know , by your forbearing to tell mee so , that my l. hath had no commoditie to move the k. and if this paper speake one word of difference , or impatience in my name , by my troth it lies . onely give it leave to tell you , that that l. whom perchance the k. may bee pleased to heare in it , is an old and momentanie man , and it may be late labouring for his assistance , next winter . besides , since it may bee possible that the master of the rolles may a little resent this suite , there could be no fitter time , then now , to make him easie , as things stand with him at this time . if you stay in towne this night , and no longer , i beseech you afford me a few of your late minutes at your own lodging , where i will wait upon you according to any directions , which by this gent. or otherwise i shall receive from you . your humble servant john donne . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , if i would calumniate , i could say no ill of that gentleman : i know not whether my l. or my selfe tooke the first apprehension of it ; but i remember that very soone wee concurred in a good opinion of him ; thereupon for justifying our owne forwardnesse , wee observed him more throughly , and found all the way good reason to ratifie our first estimation of him . this gave my l. occasion to send him abroade in his service after : how hee satisfied him in that imployment , indeed i know not . but , that i disguise nothing , i remember my l. told mee sometimes in his absence , that hee had not account from him of some things , which hee had deposed in him . and at his entering into his coach , at his last going , i asked my l. goes not the gentleman with you ? and hee told mee with some coldnesse no. so that if you bee not pressed to a resolution , you may bee pleased to forbeare a few dayes , till i may occasionally discerne , whether hee have demerited or sunke in my l. opinion : and then you shall have another character of him from your very humble and thankfull servant j. donne . 25. julii . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , the same houre that i received the honour of your commandments , by your letter left at my poore house , i put my selfe upon the way hither . so that i am here in the habite of a traveller , and ( suitable to the rest of my unworthinesses ) unfit for great presences . therefore , i abstain from waiting upon you presently ; besides that in this abstinence , ( except i misinterpret the last words of your letter to my advantage ) i obey your directions , in sending before i come to you . howsoever , sir , i am intirely at your disposing , if you will be pleased to adde this favor to the rest , that i may understand , wherein you will use your authoritie and power , which you have over your poore and humble servant john donne . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , this is but a postscript to the last letter , and it is onely to tell you , that it was an impertinent jealousie that i conceived of that gentlemans absence from my l. for he gives that full testimonie of him , that he never discerned any kinde of unfitnesse in him for any imployment , except too much goodnesse ; and conscientiousnesse may sometimes make him somewhat lesse fit for some kindes of businesse , then a man of a looser raine . and this is all , that i conceive to have been in the commandment wherewith you honoured your very humble and thankfull servant in christ jesus john donne : 2. aug 1622. to my honoured friend , master george gherard . sir , your letter was the more welcome to mee , because it brought your commandment with it , of sending you perfumes : for it is a service somewhat like a sacrifice . but yet your commandment surprised me , when neither i had enough to send , nor had means to recover more ; that ladie being out of towne which gavethem me . but sir , if i had 10000000. i could send you no more then i doe ; for i send all . if any good occasion present it selfe to you , to send to my l. clifford , spare my name a roome , there where you offer him most of your service . i dare contend with you , that you cannot exceed mee , in desiring to serve him . it is a better office from me to you , that i goe to bed , then that i write a longer letter . for if i doe mine eyes a little more injurie , i shall lose the honour of seeing you at michaelmas ; for by my troth i am almost blinde : you may be content , to beleeve that i am always disposed to your service , without exception of any time , since now just at midnight , when it is both day , and night , and neither , i tell you that i am your affectionate friend and servant j. donne . to my very much honoured friend george garrard esquire at sion . sir , i know not which of us wonne it by the hand , in the last charge of letters . if you wonne , you wonne nothing , because i am nothing , or whatsoever i am , you wonne nothing , because i was all yours before . i doubt not but i were better delivered of dangers of relapses , if i were at london ; but the very going would indanger me . upon which true debility , i was forced to excuse my selfe to my lord chamberlaine , from whom i had a letter of command to have preached the fifth of november sermon to the king. a service which i would not have declined , if i could have conceived any hope of standing it . i beseech you intreat my lord percy in my behalfe , that he will be pleased to name george to my l. carlile , and to wonder , if not to inquire , where he is . the world is disposed to charge my lords honour , and to charge my naturall affection with neglecting him , and , god knowes , i know not which way to turn towards him ; nor upon any message of mine , when i send to kisse my lords hands , doth my lord make any kinde of mention of him . for the diamond lady , when time serves , i pray look to it ; for i would fain be discharged of it . and for the rest , let them be but remembred how long it hath been in my hands , and then leave it to their discretion . if they incline to any thing , i should chuse shirt hollond , rather under then above 4 s. our blessed saviour multiply his blessings upon that noble family where you are , and your self , and your sonne ; as upon all them that are derived from your poor friend and servant j. donne . to my very much respected friend m r george garrard . sir , i thank you for expressing your love to me , by this diligence , i know you can distinguish between the voyces of my love , and of my necessity , if any thing in my letters sound like an importunity . besides , i will adde thus much out of counsell to you , that you can do nothing so thriftily as to keep in your purpose the payment of the rest of this years rent , ( though at your conveniency ) for sir e h. curiosity being so served at first , i shall be no farther cause , but that the rest be related , and you in as good possession of his love , and to as good use , as your love deserves of him . you mocke us when you aske news from hence . all is created there , or relates thither where you are . for that book which you command me to send , i held it but half an hour : which served me to read those few leafes , which were directed upon some few lines of my book . if you come to town quickly , you may get a fair widow : for m ris brown is fallen to that state by death of her husband . no man desires your comming more , nor shall be readier to serve you , then your affectionate friend and servant j. donne . to my honoured friend m. george gherard , over against salisbury house . sir , i do not make account that i am come to london , when i get within the wall : that which makes it london is the meeting of friends . i cannot therefore otherwise bid my self welcome to london , then by seeking of you , which both sir h. goodere and i do , with so much diligence , as that this messenger comes two dayes before to intreat you from us both , to reserve your self upon saterday : so that i may , at our coming to london that night , understand at my house where i may send you word of our supping place that night , and have the honour of your company . so you lay more obligations upon your poor unprofitable servant j. donne . to my very much honoured friend george garret esquire . sir , vvhen we thinke of a friend , we do not count that a lost thought , though that friend never knew of it . if we write to a friend , we must not call it a lost letter , though it never finde him to whom it was addressed : for we owe our selves that office , to be mindefull of our friends . in payment of that debt , i send out this letter , as a sentinell perdue ; if it finde you , it comes to tell you , that i was possessed with a fever , so late in the year , that i am afraid i shall not recover confidence to come to london till the spring be a little advanced . because you did our poor family the favour , to mention our george in your letters to spain , with some earnestnesse , i should wonder if you never had any thing from thence concerning him ; he having been now , divers moneths , in spaine . if you be in london and the lady of the jewell there too , at your conveniency informe me , what is looked for at my hands , in that businesse ; for , i would be loath to leave any thing in my house , when i die , that were not absolutely mine own . i have a servant , roper , at pauls house , who will receive your commandments , at all times . god blesse you and your sonne , with the same blessings which i begge for the children , and for the person of your poor friend and humble servant in chr. jes. j. donne . to the honourable knight sir robert karre , gentleman of his highnesses bed-chamber . sir , i am come to that tendernesse of conscience , that i need a pardon for meaning to come to newmarket in this weather . if i had come , i must have asked you many reall pardons , for the many importunities that i should have used towards you . but since i have divers errands thither , ( except i belie my self in that phrase , since it is all one errand to promove mine own business , and to receive your commands ) i shall give you but a short respit , since i shall follow this paper within two dayes . and ( that i accuse my self , no farther then i am guilty ) the principall reason of my breaking the appointment of waiting upon m. rawlins , was , that i understood the king was from newmarket ; and for comming thither in the kings absence , i never heard of excuse ; except when butler sends a desperate patient in a consumption thither for good aire , which is an ill errand now . besides that i could not well come till now , ( for there are very few dayes past , since i took orders ) there can be no losse in my absence except when i come , my lord should have thereby the lesse latitude , to procure the kings letters to cambridge . i beseech you therefore , take some occasion to refresh that businesse to his lordship , by presenting my name , and purpose of comming very shortly : and be content to receive me , who have been ever your servant , to the addition of your poor chaplaine j. donne . 27 january . to the right honourable the lord viscount of rochester . my most honourable good lord , after i was grown to be your lordships , by all the titles that i could thinke upon , it hath pleased your lordship to make another title to me , by buying me . you may have many better bargaines in your purchases , but never a better title then to me , nor any thing which you may call yours more absolutely and intirely . if therefore i appeare before your lordship sometimes in these letters of thankfulnesse , it may be an excusable boldnesse , because they are part of your evidences by which you hold me . i know there may be degrees of importunity even in thankfulnesse : but your lordship is got above the danger of suffering that from me , or my letters , both because my thankfulnesse cannot reach to the benefits already received , and because the favour of receiving my letters is a new benefit . and since good divines have made this argument against deniers of the resurrection , that it is easier for god to recollect the principles , and elements of our bodies , howsoever they be scattered , then it was at first to create them of nothing , i cannot doubt , but that any distractions or diversions in the ways of my hopes , will be easier to your lordship to reunite , then it was to create them . especially since you are already so near perfecting them , that if it agreed with your lordships purposes , i should never wish other station , then such as might make me still , and onely your lordships most humble and devoted servant j. donne . to the hononrable knight sir robert karre . sir , lest you should think your selfe too much beholding to your fortune , and so relie too much upon her hereafter , i am bold to tell you , that it is not onely your good fortune that hath preserved you from the importunity of my visits all this time . for my ill fortune , which is stronger , then any mans good fortune , hath concurred in the plot to keep us asunder , by infecting one in my house with the measels . but all that , is so safely overworne , that i dare , not onely desire to put my selfe into your presence , but by your mediation , a little farther . for , esteeming my selfe , by so good a title , as my lords own words , to be under his providence , and care of my fortune , i make it the best part of my studies how i might ease his lordship by finding out something for my selfe . which , because i thinke i have done , as though i had done him a service therein , i adventure to desire to speake with him , which i beseech you to advance , in addition to your many favours and benefits to , me . and if you have occasion to send any of your servants to this town , to give me notice , what times are fittest for me to waite , to injoy your favour herein . my businesse is of that nature , that losse of time may make it much more difficult , and may give courage to the ill fortune of your humble servant j. donne . to your selfe . sir , i make shift to think that i promised you this book of french satyrs . if i did not , yet it may have the grace of acceptation , both as it is a very forward and early fruit , since it comes before it was looked for , and as it comes from a good root , which is an importune desire to serve you . which since i saw from the beginning , that i should never do in any great thing , it is time to begin to try now , whether by often doing little services , i can come towards any equivalence . for , except i can make a rule of naturall philosophy , serve also in morall offices , that as the strongest bodies are made of the smallest particles , so the strongest friendships may be made of often interating small officiousnesses , i see i can be good for nothing . except you know reason to the contrary , i pray deliver this letter according to the addresse . it hath no businesse , nor importunity ; but as by our law , a man may be felo de se , if he kill himself , so i think a man may be fur de se , if he steale himselfe out of the memory of them , which are content to harbour him . and now i begin to be loath to be lost , since i have afforded my selfe some valuation and price , ever since i received the stampe and impression of being your very humble and affectionate servant j. donne . to the honourable knight sir robert karre , gentleman of his highnesses bed chamber . sir , i have always your leave to use my liberty , but now i must use my bondage . which is my necessity of obeying a precontract laid upon me . i go to morrow to camberwell a mile beyond southwark . but from this town goes with me my brother sir tho. grimes and his lady , and i with them . there we dine well enough i warrant you , with his father-in-law , sir tho. hunt. if i keep my whole promise , i shall preach both forenoon and afternoon . but i will obey your commandments for my return . if you cannot be there by 10 , do not put your selfe upon the way : for , sir , you have done me more honour , then i can be worthy of , in missing me so diligently . i can hope to hear m. moulin again : or ruminate what i have heretofore heard . the onely misse that i shall have is of the honour of waiting upon you ; which is somewhat recompensed , if thereby you take occasion of not putting not your self to that pain , to be more assured of the inabilities of your unworthy servant j. donne . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , i sought you yesterday with a purpose of accomplishing my health , by the honour of kissing your hands . but i finde by my going abroad , that as the first christians were forced to admit some jewish ceremonies , onely to burie the synagogue with honour , so my feaver will have so much reverence and respect , as that i must keep sometimes at home . i must therefore be bold to put you to the pain of considering me . if therefore my lord upon your deliverie of my last letter , said nothing to you of the purpose thereof ; let me tell you now , that it was , that in obedience of his commandment , to acquaint him with any thing which might advantage me , i was bold to present that which i heard , which was that sir d. carlton was likely to bee removed from venice , to the states ; of which if my lord said nothing to you , i beseech you adde thus much to your many other favours , to intreate my lord at his best commodity , to afford mee the favour of speaking with him . but if hee have already opened himselfe so farre to you , as that you may take knowledge thereof to him , then you may ease him of that trouble of giving mee an audience , by troubling your selfe thus much more , as to tell him in my behalfe , and from mee , that though sir d. carlton bee not removed , yet that place with the states lying open , there is a faire field of exercising his favour towards mee , and of constituting a fortune to mee , and ( that which is more ) of a meanes for mee to doe him particular services . and sir , as i doe throughly submit the end and effect of all projects to his lordships will , so doe i this beginning thereof , to your advice and counsell , if you thinke mee capable of it : as , for your owne sake , i beseech you to doe , since you have admitted mee for your humble servant j. donne . to the honoured knight , sir robert karre . sir , i amend to no purpose , nor have any use of this inchoation of health , which i finde , except i preserve my roome , and station in you . i beginne to bee past hope of dying : and i feele that a little ragge of monte magor , which i read last time i was in your chamber , hath wrought prophetically upon mee , which is , that death came so fast towards mee , that the over-joy of that recovered mee . sir , i measure not my health by my appetite , but onely by my abilitie to come to kisse your hands : which since i cannot hope in the compasse of a few dayes , i beseech you pardon mee both these intrusions of this letter , and of that within it . and though schoole-men dispute , whether a married man dying , and being by miracle raised again , must bee remarried ; yet let your friendship , ( which is a nobler learning ) bee content to admit mee , after this resurrection , to bee still that which i was before , and shall ever continue , your most humble and thankfull servant j. donne . 20. mar. to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , when i was almost at court , i met the princes coach : i thinke i obeyed your purposes best therefore , in comming hither . i am sure i provided best for my selfe thereby ; since my best degree of understanding is to bee governed by you . i beseech you give mee an assignation where i may wait upon you at your commoditie this evening . till the performance of which commandment from you , i rest here in the red lion. your very thankefull and affectionate servant j. donne . to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , i was loth to bee the onely man who should have no part in this great festivall ; i thought therefore to celebrate that well , by spending some part of it in your company . this made mee seek you againe this after-noone , though i were guilty to my selfe of having done so every day since your comming . i confesse such an importunity is worthy to be punished with such a missing ; yet , because it is the likeliest reparation of my fortunes to hope upon reversions , i would be glad of that title in you : that , after solemnities , and businesses , and pleasures be passed over , my time may come , and you may afford some of your last leisures to your affectionate and humble servant j. donne . 4 novemb. to the honourable knight , sir robert karre . sir , your mans haste gives me the advantage , that i am excusable in a short letter , else i should not pardon it to my selfe . i shall obey your commandment of comming so neare you upon michaelmas day , as by a message to aske you whether that or the next morning bee the fittest to sollicite your further favour . you understand all vertue so well , as you may be pleased to call to minde what thankefulnesse and services are due to you from me , and beleeve them all to bee expressed in this ragge of paper , which gives you new assurance , that i am ever your most humble servant j. donne . to your selfe . sir , if i shall never be able to do you any reall service , yet you may make this profit of me , that you be hereafter more cautelous in receiving into your knowledge , persons so uselesse , and importune . but before you come to so perfect a knowledge of me , as to abandon me , go forward in your favours to me , so farre , as to deliver this letter according to the addresse . i think i should not come nearer his presence then by a letter : and i am sure , i would come no other way , but by you . be you therefore pleased , by these noble favours to me , to continue in me the comfort which i have in being your very humble and thankfull servant j. donne . drury house , 23 sept. to the right honourable sir robert karre . sir , a few hours after i had the honour of your letter , i had another from my lord of bath and wells , commanding from the king a copy of my sermon . i am in preparations of that , with diligence , yet this morning i waited upon his lordship , and laid up in him this truth , that of the b. of canterburies sermon , to this hour , i never heard syllable , nor what way , nor upon what points he went : and for mine , it was put into that very order , in which i delivered it , more then two moneths since . freely to you i say , i would i were a little more guilty : onely mine innocency makes me afraid . i hoped for the kings approbation heretofore in many of my sermons ; and i have had it . but yesterday i came very near looking for thanks ; for , in my life , i was never in any one peece , so studious of his service . therefore , exceptions being taken , and displeasure kindled at this , i am afraid , it was rather brought thither , then met there . if you know any more , fit for me , ( because i hold that unfit for me , to appear in my masters sight , as long as this cloud hangs , and therefore , this day forbear my ordinary waitings ) i beseech you to intimate it to your very humble and very thankfull servant j. donne . to the right honourable sir robert karre , at court. sir , i humbly thanke you , for this continuing me in your memory , and enlarging me so far , as to the memory of my soveraign , and ( i hope ) my master . my tenets are always , for the preservation of the religion i was born in , and the peace of the state , and the rectifying of the conscience ; in these i shall walke , and as i have from you a new seal thereof , in this letter , so i had ever evidence in mine own observation , that these ways were truly , as they are justly , acceptable in his majesties eare . our blessed saviour multiply unto him all blessings ; amen . your very true and intire servant in chr. fes . j. donne . to the right honourable sir robert karre , at court. sir , i was this morning at your door , somewhat early ; and i am put into such a distaste of my last sermon , as that i dare not practise any part of it , and therefore though i said then , that we are bound to speake aloud , though we awaken men , and make them froward , yet after two or three modest knocks at the door , i went away . yet i understood after , the king was gone abroad , and thought you might be gone with him . i came to give you an account of that , which this does as well . i have now put into my lord of bath and wells hands the sermon faithfully exscrcibed . i beseech you be pleased to hearken farther after it ; i am still upon my jealousie , that the king brought thither some disasfection towards me , grounded upon some other demerit of mine , and took it not from the sermon . for , as card. cusanus writ a book cribratio alchorani , i have cribrated , and re-cribated , and post-cribated the sermon , and must necessarily say , the king who hath let fall his eye upon some of my poems , never saw , of mine , a hand , or an eye , or an affection , set down with so much study , and diligence , and labour of syllables , as in this sermon i expressed those two points , which i take so much to conduce to his service , the imprinting of persuasibility and obedience in the subject , and the breaking of the bed of whisperers , by casting in a bone , of making them suspect and distrust one another . i remember i heard the old king say of a good sermon , that he thought the preacher never had thought of his sermon , till he spoke it ; it seemed to him negligently and extemporally spoken . and i knew that he had weighed every syllable , for halfe a year before , which made me conclude , that the king had before , some prejudice upon him . so , the best of my hope is , that some over bold allusions , or expressions in the way , might divert his majesty , from vouchsafing to observe the frame , and purpose of the sermon . when he sees the generall scope , i hope his goodnesse will pardon collaterall escapes . i intreated the b. to aske his majesty , whether his displeasure extended so farre , as that i should forbear waiting , and appearing in his presence ; and i had a return , that i might come . till i had that , i would not offer to put my self under your roof . to day i come , for that purpose , to say prayers . and if , in any degree , my health suffer it , i shall do so , to morrow . if any thing fall into your observation before that , ( because the b. is likely to speake to the king of it , perchance , this night ) if it amount to such an increase of displeasure , as that it might be unfit for me to appear , i beseech you afford me the knowledge . otherwise , i am likely to inquire of you personally , to morrow before nine in the morning , and to put into your presence then your very humble and very true , and very honest servant to god and the king and you j. donne . i writ yesterday to my l. duke , by my l. carlile , who assured me of a gracious acceptation of my putting my self in his protection . to the right honourable sir robert karre , at court. sir , if i should refuse the liberty which you enlarge to me , of eating in your chamber , you might suspect that i reserved it for greater boldnesses , and would not spend it in this . but , in good faith , i do not eat before , nor can after , till i have been at home ; so much hath my this years debility disabled me , even for receiving favours . after the sermon , i will steal into my coach home , and pray that my good purpose may be well accepted , and my defects graciously pardoned . amen . yours intirely j. donne . i will be at your chamber at one after noon . to the right honourable sir robert karre , at court , sir , i pursued my ambition of having the honour to kisse your hands some where , so farre , as to inform my selfe occasionally of my great neighbour . and i perceive he is under an inundation of uncertain commers , which he cannot devest , except i had your leave , to speake plain to him . a second inconvenience is , that he is so deafe , that we must speak to the whole house , if we will speake to him . and a third is , that i am in a riddling , rather a juggling indisposition , fast and loose , and therefore dare not stirre farre . yet sir , i am not thereby unfit to receive the honor of seeing you here , if greater businesse have not overcome , or worn out , your former inclinablenesse to come into these quarters . if you shall be pleased to say to my man , that you will make as though you dined with me to day , and come , if your businesse require your going to his lordship , you may dine with him , after you have fasted with me . to day , or any day , which may be more yours , i aske it of you with all earnestnesse , on this side importunity , which is the detestation of your humblest and thankfullest servant j. donne . to the right honourable sir robert karre , at court. sir , this morning i have received a signification from my lord chamberlaine , that his majesty hath commanded to morrows sermon at s. james ; and that it is in the after-noon ; ( for , into my mouth there must not enter the word , after-dinner , because that day there enters no dinner into my mouth . ) towards the time of the service , i aske your leave , that i may hide my selfe in your out-chamber . or if businesse , or privatenesse , or company make that inconvenient , that you will be pleased to assigne some servant of yours to shew me the closet , when i come to your chamber . i have no other way there , but you ; which i say not , as though i had not assurance enough therein , but because you have too much trouble thereby ; nor i have no other end there , then the pulpit : you are my station , and that my exaltation ; and in both , i shall ever endevour , to keep you from being sorry for having thought well of , or being ashamed of having testified well for your poor and very true servant in chr. jes. j. donne . to the honourable knight sir robert karre , at court. sir , i have obeyed the formes of our church of pauls so much , as to have been a solemn christmas man , and tryed conclusions upon my selfe , how i could sit out the siege of new faces , every dinner . so that i have not seen the b. in some weeks . and i know not whether he be in case , to afford that privacy , which you justly desire . this day , i am in my bondage of entertaining . suppers i presume , are inconvenient to you . but this evening i will spie upon the b. and give you an account to morrow morning of his disposition ; when , if he cannot be intire to you , since you are gone so farre downwards in your favours to me , be pleased to pursue your humiliation so farre as to chuse your day , and either to suffer the solitude of this place , or to change it , by such company , as shall waite upon you , and come as a visitor and overseer of this hospitall of mine , and dine or sup at this miserable chezmey . your humblest and thankfullest servant j. donne . 4 jan. 1626. to my noble friend m ris cokain at ashburne . my noblest sister , but that it is sweetned by your command , nothing could trouble me more , then to write of my self . yet , if i would have it known , i must write it my self ; for , i neither tell children , nor servants , my state . i have never good temper , nor good pulse , nor good appetite , nor good sleep . yet , i have so much leasure to recollect my self , as that i can thinke i have been long thus , or often thus . i am not alive , because i have not had enough upon me to kill me , but because it pleases god to passe me through many infirmities before he take me either by those particular remembrances , to bring me to particular repentances , or by them to give me hope of his particular mercies in heaven . therefore have i been more affected with coughs in vehemence , more with deafenesse , more with toothach , more with the vurbah , then heretofore . all this mellows me for heaven , and so ferments me in this world , as i shall need no long concoction in the grave , but hasten to the resurrection . not onely to be nearer that grave , but to be nearer to the service of the church , as long as i shall be able to do any , i purpose , god willing , to be at london , within a fortnight after your receit of this , as well because i am under the obligation of preaching at pauls upon candlemas day , as because i know nothing to the contrary , but that i may be called to court , for lent service ; and my witnesse is in heaven , that i never left out s. dunstans , when i was able to do them that service ; nor will now ; though they that know the state of that church well , know that i am not so bound , as the world thinks , to preach there ; for , i make not a shilling profit of s. dunstans as a church man , but as my l. of dorset gave me the lease of the impropriation , for a certain rent , and a higher rent , thē my predecessor had it at . this i am fain to say often , because they that know it not , have defamed me , of a defectiveness towards that church ; and even that mistaking of theirs i ever have , and ever shall endevour to rectifie , by as often preaching there , as my condition of body will admit . all our company here is well , but not at home now , when i write ; for , lest i should not have another return to london , before the day of your carrier , i write this , and rest your very affectionate servant , and friend , and brother j. donne . 15 jan. 1630. abrey-hatch . devotions vpon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes digested into i. meditations vpon our humane condition, 2. expostulations, and debatements with god, 3. prayers, vpon the seuerall occasions, to him / by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. 1624 approx. 357 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 321 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a20631 stc 7033a estc s1699 21498206 ocm 21498206 24644 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a20631) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 24644) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1708:21) devotions vpon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes digested into i. meditations vpon our humane condition, 2. expostulations, and debatements with god, 3. prayers, vpon the seuerall occasions, to him / by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. [12], 630 p. printed for thomas iones, london : 1624. errata: p. [12] at beginning. signatures: a⁶ b-2d¹² 2e⁴. numerous errors in paging. reproduction of original in the harvard university. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng meditations. 2002-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-06 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2002-06 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion devotions vpon emergent occasions , and seuerall steps in my sicknes : digested into 1. meditations vpon our humane condition . 2. expostvlations , and debatements with god. 3. prayers , vpon the seuerall occasions , to him . by iohn donne , deane of s. pauls , london . london , printed for thomas iones . 1624. to the most excellent prince , prince charles . most excellent prince , i haue had three births ; one , naturall , when i came into the world ; one supernatural , when i entred into the ministery ; and now , a preter-naturall birth , in returning to life , from this sicknes . in my second birth , your highnesse royall father vouchsafed mee his hand , no● onely to sustaine me● in it , but to lead mee to it . in this last birth , i my selfe am borne a father : this child of mine , this booke , comes into the world , from mee , and with mee . and therefore , i presume ( as i did the father to the father ) to present the sonne to the sonne ; this image of my humiliation , to the liuely image of his maiesty , your highnesse . it might bee enough , that god hath seene my deuotions : but examples of good kings are commandements ; and ezechiah writt the meditations of his sicknesse , after his sicknesse . besides , as i haue liu'd to see , ( not as a witnesse onely , but as a partaker ) the happinesses of a part of your royal fathers time , so shall i liue , ( in my way ) to see the happpinesses of the times of you● highnesse too , if this child of mine , inanimated by your gracious acceptation , may so long preserue aliue the memory of your highnesse humblest and deuo●edst iohn donne . stationes , siue periodi in morbo , ad quas referuntur meditationes sequentes . 1 insultus morbi primus ; 2 post , actio loesa ; 3 decubitus sequitur tandē ; 4 medicusque vocatur ; 5 solus adest ; 6 metuit ; 7 socios sibi iungier instat ; 8 et rex ipse suum mittit ; 9 medicamina scribunt ; 10 lentè & serpenti sata●unt occurrere morbo . 11 nobilibusque trahunt , a cincto corde , venenum , succis , & gemmis ; & quae generosa , ministrant ars , & natura , instillant ; 12 spirante columbâ , suppositâ pedibus , reuocantur ad ima vapores ; 13 atque malum genium , numeroso stigmate , fassus● pellitur ad pectus , morbique suburbia , morbus : 14 idque notant criticis , medici , euenisse diebus . 15 inter●a insomnes nocte● ego duco , diesque : 16 et properare meum , clamant , e turre propinqua obstreperae campanae , aliorum in funere , funus . 17 nunc lento sonitu dicunt● morieris ; 18 at inde● mortuus es , sonitu celeri , pulsuque agitato . 19 oceano tandem emenso , aspicienda resurgit terra ; vident , iustis , medici , iam cocta mederi se posse , indicijs ; 20 id agunt ; 21 atque an●uit ille , qui per eos clamat , linquas iam lazare lectum ; 22 sit morbi fomes tibi cura ; 23 metusque relabi . erra●a . pag. 40. pro 2.3 . meditat. pag. 43. vlt. pasture , posture . pag. 96. lin . penult . flesh . god , pag. 158. in marg. buxdor . pag. 173. li. 13. add , hast . pag. 184. in marg . augustin . pag. 185. lin . 17. blow . flow . devotions . 1. insultus morbi primus ; the first alteration , the first grudging of the sicknesse . 1. meditation . variable , and therfore miserable condition of man ; this minute i was well , and am ill , this minute . i am surpriz'd with a sodaine change , & alteration to worse , and can impute it to no cause , nor call it by any name . we study health , and we deliberate vpon our meats , and drink , and ayre , and exercises , and we hew , and wee polish euery stone , that goes to that building ; and so our health is a long & a regular work ; but in a minute a canon batters all , ouerthrowes all , demolishes all ; a sicknes vnpreuented for all our diligence , vnsuspected for all our curiosi●ie ; nay , vndeserued , if we consider only disorder , summons vs , seizes vs , possesses vs , destroyes vs in an instant . o miserable condition of man , which was not imprinted by god ; who as hee is immortall himselfe , had put a coale , a beame of immortalitie into vs , which we might haue blowen into a flame , but blew it ou● , by our first sinne ; wee beggard our selues by hearkning after false riches , and infatuated our selues by hearkning after false knowledge . so that now , we doe not onely die , but die vpon the rack , die by the torment of sicknesse ; nor that onely , but are pre-afflicted , super-afflicted with these ielousies and suspitions , and apprehensions of sicknes , before we can cal it a sicknes ; we are not sure we are ill ; one hand askes the other by the pulse , and our eye askes our own vrine , how we do . o multiplied misery we die , and cannot enioy death , because wee die in this torment of sicknes ; we are tormented with sicknes , & cannot stay till the torment come , but pre-apprehēsions and presages , prophecy those torments , which induce that death before either come● and our dissolution is conceiued in these first changes , quickned in the sicknes it selfe , and borne in death , which be●res date from these first changes . is this the honour which man hath by being a litle world , that he hath these earthquakes in him selfe , sodaine shakings ; these lightnings , sodaine flashes ; these thunders , sodaine noises ; these e●clypses , sodain offuscations , & darknings of his senses ; these blazing stars sodaine fiery exhalations ; these riuers of blood , sodaine red waters ? is he a world to himselfe onely therefore , that he ha●h inough in himself , not only to destroy , and execute himselfe , but to presage that execution vpon himselfe ; to as●ist the sicknes , to antidate the sicknes , to make the sicknes the more irremediable , by sad apprehensions , and as if hee would make a fire the more vehement , by sprinkling water vpon the coales , so to wrap a hote feuer in cold melancholy , least the feuer alone shold not destroy fast enough , without this contribution , nor perfit the work ( which is destruction ) except we ioynd an artificiall sicknes , of our owne melancholy , to our natural , our vnnaturall feuer . o perplex'd discomposition , o ridling distemper , o miserable condition of man. 1. expostvlation . if i were but meere dust & ashes , i might speak vnto the lord , for the lordes hand made me of this dust , and the lords hand shall recollect these ashes ; the lords hand was the wheele , vpon which this vessell of ●lay was framed , and the lordes hand is the vrne , in which these ashes shall be preseru'd . i am the dust , & the ashes of the temple of the h. ghost ; and what marble is so precious ? but i am more then dust & ashes ; i am my best part , i am my soule . and being so , the breath of god , i may breath back these pious expostulations to my god. my god , my god , why is not my soule , as fensible as my body ? why hath not my soule these apprehensions , these presages , these changes , those antidates , those iealousies , those suspitions of a sinne ● as well as my body of a sicknes ? why is there not alwayes a pulse in my soule , to beat at the approch of a tentation to sinne ? why are there not alwayes waters in mine eyes , to testifie my spiritual sicknes ? i stand in the way of tentations , ( naturally , necessarily , all men doe so : for there is a snake in euery path , tentations in euery vocation ) but i go , i run , i flie into the wayes of tētation , which i might shun ; nay , i breake into houses , wher the plague is ; i presse into places of tentation , and tempt the deuill himselfe , and solicite & importune them , who had rather be left vnsolicited by me . i fall sick of sin , and am bedded and bedrid , buried and putrified in the practise of sin , and all this while ha●e no presage , no pulse , no sense of my sicknesse ; o heighth , o depth of misery , where the first symptome of the sicknes is hell , & where i neuer fee the feuer of lust , of enuy , of ambition , by any other light , then the darknesse and horror of hell it selfe ● & where the first messenger that speaks to me doth not say● thou mayst die , no , nor thou must die , but thou art dead : and where the first notice , that my soule hath of her sicknes , is irrecouerablenes , irremediablenes : but , o my god , iob did not charge thee foolishly , in his temporall afflictions , nor may i in my spirituall . thou hast imprinted a pulse in our soule , but we do not examine it ; a voice in our conscience , but wee doe not hearken vnto it . we talk it out , we iest it out , we drinke it out , we sleepe it out ; and when wee wake , we doe not say with iacob , surely the lord is in this place , and i knew it not : but though we might know it , we do not , we wil not . but will god pretend to make a watch , and leaue out the springe ? to make so many various wheels in the faculties of the soule , and in the organs of the body , and leaue out grace , that should moue them ? or wil god make a springe , and not wind it vp ? infuse his first grace , & not second it with more , without which , we can no more vse his first grace , when we haue it , then wee could dispose our selues by nature , to haue it ? but alas , that is not our case ; we are all prodigall sonnes , and not disinherited ; wee haue receiued our portion , and mis-spent it , not bin denied it . we are gods tenants heere , and yet here , he , our land-lord payes vs rents ; not yearely , nor quarterly , but hourely , and quarterly ; euery minute he renewes his mercy , but wee will not vnderstand , least that we should be conuerted , and he should heale vs. 1. prayer . o eternall , and most gracious god , who considered in thy selfe , art a circle , first and last , and altogether ; but considered in thy working vpon vs , art a direct line , and leadest vs from our beginning , through all our wayes , to our end , enable me by thy grace , to looke forward to mine end , and to looke backward to , to the cōsiderations of thy mercies afforded mee from the beginning ; that so by that practise of considering thy mercy , in my beginning in this world , when thou plātedst me in the christian church , and thy mercy in the beginning in the other world , whē thou writest me in the booke of life , in my election , i may come to a holy consideration of thy mercy , in the beginning of all my actions here● that in all the begin●nings , in all the accesses and approches of spiri●tuall sicknesses of sinn , may heare and hearke● to that voice , o thou ma● of god , there is death in th● pot , and so refraine from that , which i was so hungerly , so greedily flying to . a faithfull am●bassador is health , says thy wise seruant solomon ● thy voice receiued , in the beginning of a sicknesse , of a sinne , is true health . if i can see that light betimes , and heare that voyce early , then shall my light breake forth as the morning , and my health shall spriug foorth speedily . deliuer mee therefore , o my god , from these vaine imaginations ; that it is an ouercurious thing , a dangerous thing , to come to that tendernesse , that rawnesse , that scrupulousnesse , to feare euery concupiscence , euery offer of sin , that this suspicious , & iealous diligence will turne to an inordinate deiection of spirit , and a diffidence in thy care & prouidence ; bu● keep me still establish'd , both in a constant assurance , that thou wil● speake to me at the beginning of euery such sicknes , at the approach of euery such sinne ; and that , if i take knowledg of that voice then , an● flye to thee , thou wil● preserue mee from falling , or raise me againe when by naturall infirmitie● i am fallen : do● this , o lord , for his sake who knowes our naturall infirmities , for he had them ; and knowes the weight of our sinns , for he paid a deare price for them , thy sonne , our sauiour , chr : iesus , amen . 2. actio laesa . the strength , and the functiō of the senses , & other faculties change and faile . 2. meditation . the heauens are not the lesse constant , because they moue continually , because they moue continually one and the same way . the earth is not the more constant , because it lyes stil continually , because continually it changes , and melts in al the parts thereof . man , who is the noblest part of the earth , melts so away , as if he were a statue , not of earth , but of snowe . we see his owne enuie melts him , hee growes leane with that ; he will say , anothers beautie melts him ; but he feeles that a feuer doth not melt him like snow , but powr him out like lead , like yron , like brasse melted in a furnace : it doth not only melt him , but calcine him , reduce him to atomes , and to ashes ; not to water , but to lime . and how quickly ? sooner then thou canst receiue an answer , sooner then thou canst conceiue the question ; earth is the center of my body , heauen is the center of my soule ; these two are the naturall place of these two ; but tho● goe not to these two , i● an equall place : my b●●dy falls downe withou● pushing , my soule do●● not go vp without pu●ling : ascension is m● soules pace & measur● but precipitation my b●dies : and , euen angell● whose home is heaue● and who are winge● too , yet had a ladder 〈◊〉 goe to heauen , by step● the sunne who goes 〈◊〉 many miles in a minu●● the starres of the fi●●mament , which go so very many more , goe not so fast , as my body to the earth . in the same instant that i feele the first attempt of the disease , i feele the victory ; in the twinckling of an eye , i can scarse see ; instantly the tast is insipid , and fatuous ; instantly the appetite is dull and desirelesse● instantly the knees are sinking and strengthlesse ; and in an instant , sleepe , which is the picture , the copy of death , is taken away , that the originall , death it selfe may succeed , and that so i might haue death to the life . it was part of adams punishment , in the sweat of thy browes thou shalt eate thy bread ● it is multiplied to me , i haue earned bread in the sweat of my browes , in the labor of my calling , and i haue it● and i sweat againe , & againe , from the brow● to the sole of the foot● but i eat no bread , i tast no sustenance : miserable distribution of mankind , where one halfe lackes meat , and the other stomacke . 2. expostvlation . dauid professes himself a dead dog , to his king saul , & so doth mephibosheth to his king dauid : & yet dauid speaks to saul , and mephibosheth to dauid . no man is so little , in respect of the greatest man , as the greatest in respect of god ; for here , in that , wee haue not so much as a measure to try it by ; proportiō is no measure for infinitie . he that hath no more of this world but a graue , hee that hath his graue but lent him , til a better man , or another man , must bee buried in the same graue , he that hath no graue , but a dung-hill , hee that hath no more earth , but that which he carries , but that which hee is , hee that hath not that earth , which hee is , but euen in that , is anothers slaue , hath as much proportion to god , as if all dauids worthies , and all the worlds monarchs , and all imaginations gyants were kneaded and incorporated into one , and as though that one were the suruiuor of all the sonnes of men , to whom god had giuen the world . and therefore how little soeuer i bee , as god calls things that are not , as though they were , i , who am as though i were not , may call vpon god , and say , my god , my god , why comes thine anger so fast vpon me ? why dost thou melt me , scatter me , powre me like water vpon the ground so instantly ? thou staidst for the first world , in noahs time , 120 yeres ; thou staidst for a rebellious generation in the wildernesse 40 yeares , wilt thou stay no minute for me ? wilt thou make thy processe , and thy decree , thy citation , and thy iudgement but one act ? thy summons , thy battell , thy victorie , thy triumph , all but one act ; & lead me captiue , nay deliuer me captiue to death , assoon as thou declarest mee to be enemy , and so cut me off euen with the drawing of thy sword out of the scabberd , and for that question , how long was he sicke ? leaue no other answere , but that the hand of death pressed vpon him from the first minute ? my god , my god , thou wast not wont to come in whirlwinds , but in soft and gentle ayre . thy first breath breathed a soule into mee , and shall thy breath blow it out ? thy breath in the congregation , thy word in the church , breathes communion , and consolation here , and consummation heereaf●er ; shall thy breath in this chamber breathe dissolution , and destruction , diuorce , and separation ? surely it is not thou ; it is not thy hand . the deuouring sword , the consuming fire , the winds from the wildernes , the diseases of the body , all that afflicted iob , were from the hand of satan ; it is not thou . it is thou ; thou my god , who hast led mee so continually with thy hand , from the hand of my nurce , as that i know , thou wilt not correct mee , but with thine own hand . my parents would not giue mee ouer to a seruants correction , nor my god , to satans . i am fallen into the handes of god with dauid , and with dauid i see that his mercies are great . for by that mercy , i consider in my present state , not the haste , & the dispatch of the disease , in dissoluing this body● so much , as the much more hast , & dispatch , which my god shal vse , in recollecting● and reuniting this dust againe at the resurrection . then i shall heare his angels proclaime the surgite m●rtui● rise yee dead . though i be dead i shall heare the voice the spunding of the voice , and the working of the voice shall be all one ; and all shall rise there in a lesse minute , then any one dies here . 2. prayer . o most gracious god , who pursuest and perfitest thine own purposes , and dost not only remember mee by the first accesses of this sicknes , that i must die , but informe me by this further proceeding therin , that i may die now , who hast not only waked mee with the first , but cald me vp , by casting me further downe , and clothd me with thy selfe , by stripping me of my selfe , and by dulling my bodily senses , to the meats , and eases of this world , hast whet , and sharpned my spirituall senses , to the apprehension of thee , by what steps & degrees soeuer it shal please thee to go , in the dissolution of this body , hasten o lord that pace , and multiply o my god those degrees , in the exaltation of my soule , toward thee now , & to thee then . my tast is not gone away , but gone vp to sit at dauids table , to tast , & see , that the lord is good : my stomach is not gone , but gone vp , so far vpwards toward the supper of the lamb , with thy saints in heauen , as to the table , to the cōmunion of thy saints heere in earth : my knees are weak but weak therfore that i should easily fall to , and fix my selfe long vpon my deuotions to thee . a sound heart is the life of the flesh ; & a heart visited by thee , and directed to thee , by that visitation is a sound hart . there is no soundnesse in my flesh , because of thin● anger . interpret thin● owne worke , and call this sicknes , correction and not anger , & there is soundnes in my flesh● there is no rest in my bones , because of my sinne ; transfer●e my sinnes , with which thou ar● so displeased , vpon him , with whome thou art so well pleased , christ iesus , and there will be rest in my bones : and , o my god , who madest thy selfe a light in a bush , in the middest of these brambles , & thornes of a sharpe sicknesse , appeare vnto me so , that i may see thee , and know thee to be my god , applying thy selfe to me , euen in these sharp , and thorny passages . doe this , o lord , for his sake , who was not the lesse , the king o● heauen , for thy suffering him to be crowned with thornes , in this world . 3. decubitus sequitur tandem . the patient takes his bed . 2. meditation . wee attribute bu● one priuiledge , and aduantage to mans body , aboue other mouing creatures , that he is not as others , groueling● but of an erect , of an vpright form , naturally built , & disposed to the contemplation of heauen . indeed it is a thankfull forme , and recompences that soule , which giues it , with carrying that soule so many foot higher , towards heauen . other creatures look to the earth ; and euen that is no vnfit obiect , no vnfit contemplation for man ; for thither hee must come ; but because , man is not to stay there , as other creatures are , man in his naturall forme , is carried to th● contemplation of tha● place , which is his hom● heauen . this is man prerogatiue ; but wha● state hath he in this di●●nitie ? a feuer ca● filli● him downe , a feuer ca● depose him ; a feuer ca● bring that head , whic● yesterday caried a crou● of gold , fiue foot to●wards a crown of glory as low as his own foo● to day . when god cam● to breath into man th● breath of life , he foun● him flat vpō the groū● when hee comes to withdraw that breath from him againe , hee prepares him to it , by laying him flat vpon his bed . scarse any prison so close , that affords not the prisoner two , or ●hree steps . the anchorites that barqu'd themselues vp in hollowe trees , & immur'd themselues in hollow walls ; that peruerse man , that barrell'd himselfe in a tubb , all could stand , or sit , and enioy some change of pasture . a sicke bed , is a graue , an● all that the patient saie● there , is but a varying o● his owne epitaph . eue●ry nights bed is a typ● of the graue : at nigh● wee tell our seruants a● what houre wee wil● rise ; here we cannot tel● our selues , at what day what week , what mo●neth . here the head lie● as low as the foot ; th● head of the people , a●lowe as they , whom those feete trod vpon and that hande tha● signed pardons , is to● weake to begge his owne , if hee might haue it for lifting vp that hand : strange fetters to the feete , strange manacles to the hands , vvhen the feete , and handes are bound so much the faster , by how much the coards are slacker ; so much the lesse able to doe their offices , by how much more the sinnewes and ligaments are the looser . in the graue i may speak thorough the stones , in the voice of my friends , an● in the accents of thos● wordes , which thei● loue may afford my me●mory ; here i am min● owne ghost , and rathe● affright my beholders then instruct them ; the● conceiue the worst o● me now , and yet fea●● worse ; they giue me fo● dead now , & yet won●der how i doe , whe● they wake a● midnight and aske how i doe , ●●●morrow . miserable and , ( though common to all ) in human postu● where i must practise ●y lying in the graue , by ●ying still , and not practise my resurrection , by ●ising any more . 3. expostvlation . my god , and my iesus , my lord , and my christ , my strength , and my saluatiō , i heare thee , and i hearken to thee , whē thou rebukest thy disciples , for rebuking ●hem , who brought ●hildren to thee ; suffer little children to come t● mee , saiest thou . is ther● a verier child then i a● now ? i cannot say wit● thy seruant ieremy , lor● i am a child , and cann● speake ; but , o lord , i a● a sucking childe , an● cannot eat , a creepin● childe , and cannot go●● how shall i come t● thee ? whither shall 〈◊〉 come to thee ? to thi● bed ? i haue this weake and childish froward●nes too , i cannot sit vp● and yet am loth to go t● bed ; shall i find thee 〈◊〉 bed ? oh , haue i alwaies done so ? the bed is not ordinarily thy scene , thy climate : lord , dost tho● not accuse me , dost thou not reproach to mee , my former sinns , when thou layest mee vpon this bed ? is not this to hang a man at his owne dore , to lay him sicke in his owne bed of wantonnesse ? when thou chidest vs by thy prophet for lying in beds of iuory , is not thine anger vented ; not till thou changest our bedds of iuory , into bebs of ebony dauid sweares vnto thee , that hee will not go● vp into his bed , till he ha● built thee a house . to go● vp into the bed , denote● strength , and promi●e● ease ; but when tho● saiest , that thou wilt ca● iesubel into a bed , tho● mak'st thine own com●ment vpon that , tho● callest the bed tribul●●tion , great tribulation ● how shal they come t● thee , whom thou ha●● nayled to their bed● thou art in the congr●●gation , & i in a solitude : when the centurions seruant lay sicke at home , his master was faine to come to christ ; ●he sicke man could not . their friend lay sicke of the palsey , and the four charitable men were faine to bring him to christ ; he could not come . peters wiues mother lay sicke of a feuer , & christ came to her ; shee could not come to him . my friends may carrie mee home to thee , in their prayers in the congregation ; thou must com● home to me in the visi●tation of thy spirit , an● in the seale of thy sacra●ment : but when i a● cast into this bedd , m● slacke sinewes are yro● fetters , and those thi● sheets , yron dores vpo● me ; and , lord , i haue lo●ued the habitation of th● house , and the place whe● thine honour dwelleth : lye here , and say , blesse are they ; that dwell in th● house ; but i cannot say i will come into thy hous● i may say , in thy fea● will i worship towards thy ●oly temple , but i cannot ●ay in thy holy temple● : and , lord , the zeale of thy house , eats me vp , as fast as my feuer ; it is not a recusancie , for i would come , but it is an excōmunication , i must not . but lord , thou art lord of hosts , & louest action ; why callest thou me from my calling ? in the● graue no man shall praise thee ; in the doore of the graue , this sicke bed , no man shal heare mee praise thee : thou hast not opned my lips that my mouth migh● shew thee thy praise , bu● that my mouth migh● shew foorth thy praise but thine apostles fear● takes hold of mee , th●● when i haue preached to ●●thers , i my selfe should be cast-way ; and therefo●● am i cast downe , that might not be cast awa● ● thou couldst take m● by the head , as tho● didst abacuc , and carr●● mee so ; by a chariot , 〈◊〉 thou didst eliah , & ca●●rie me so ; but thou ca●●riest me thine own priuate way , the way by which thou carryedst thy sonne , who first lay vpon the earth , & praid , and then had his exaltation , as himselfe calls his crucifying , and first descended into hell , and then had his ascension . there is another station ( indeed neither are stations but prostrations ) lower then this bed ; to morrow i may be laid one story lower , vpon the floore , the face of the earth , and next day another story , in the graue , the wombe of the earth : as yet god suspends mee betweene heauen and earth , as a meteor ; and i am not in heauen , because an earthly bodie clogges me , and i am not in the earth , because a heauenly soule sustaines mee● and it is thine owne law , o god , that if a man bee smitten so by ano●ther , as that hee keepe hi● bed , though he dye not , hee that hurt him , must take care of his healing , and recompence him . th● hand strikes mee into this bed ; and therefore if i rise againe , thou wilt bee my recompence , all the dayes of my life , in making the memory of this sicknes beneficiall to me , and if my body fall yet lower , thou wilt take my soule out of this bath , & present it to thy father , washed againe , and againe , and again , in thine own teares , in thine owne sweat , in thine owne blood . 3. prayer . o most mightie an● most merciful god who though thou hau● taken me off of my feet hast not taken me off o● my foundation , whic● is thy selfe , who thoug● thou haue remoued m● frō that vpright forme , in which i could stand and see thy throne , th● heauens , yet hast not remoued from mee tha● light , by which i can li●● and see thy selfe , who though thou haue weakened my bodily knees , that they cannot bow to thee , hast yet left mee the knees of my heart , which are bowed vnto thee euermore ; as thou hast made this bed , thine altar , make me thy sacrifice ; and as thou makest thy sonne christ iesus the priest , so make me his deacon , to minister to him in a chereful surrender of my body , & soule to thy pleasure , by his hands . i come vnto thee , o god , my god , i come vnto thee , so as i can come , i come to thee , by imbracing thy comming to me ) i come in the confidence , & in the application of thy seruant dauids promise , that thou wilt make all my bed in my sicknesse ; all my bedd ; that which way soeuer i turne , i may turne to thee ; and as i feele thy hand vpon all my body , so i may find it vpon all my bedde , and see all my corrections , and all my refreshings to flow from one , and ●he same , and all from thy hand . as 〈◊〉 hast made these feather●●●hornes , in the sharpnes of this sicknes , so , lord , make these thornes , feathers , againe , feathers of thy do●e , in the peace of conscience , and in a holy recourse to thine arke , to the instruments of true comfort , in thy institutions , and in the ordinances of thy church . forget my bed , o lord , as it hath beene a bedde of sloth , and worse then sloth , take mee not , o lord , at this aduantage , to te●●rifie my soule , with say●ing , now i haue me thee there , where tho● hast so often departe from me ; but hauin● burnt vp that bed , b● these vehement heate and washed that bed i● these abundant sweat● make my bed againe , lord , and enable me a●●cording to thy co●●mand , to commune wi●● mine owne heart vpon 〈◊〉 bed , and be still . to pr●●uide a bed for all m● former sinnes , whilest i lie vpon this bed , and a graue for my sins , before i come to my graue ; and when i haue deposed them in the wounds of thy sonn , to rest in that assurance , that my conscience is discharged frō further anxietie , and my soule from farther danger , and my memory from further calumny . doe this , o lord , for his sake , who did , and suffered so much , that thou mightest , as well in thy iustice , as in thy mercy , doe it for me , thy sonne our sauiour , christ iesus ● 4. medicusque vocatur . the phisician is sent fo●● 4. meditation . it is too little to cal● man a little world ● except god , man is diminutiue to nothing man consistes of mor● pieces , more parts , the●●he world ; then the world doeth , nay then the world is . and if those pieces were extended , and stretched out in man , as they are in the world , man would bee the gyant , and the world the dwarfe , the world but the map , and the man the world. if all the veines in our bodies , were extented to riuers , and all the sinewes , to vaines of mines , and all the muscles , that lye vpon one another , to hilles , and all the bones to quarries of stones , and all the ●●ther pieces , to the pr●●portion of those whic● correspond to them i● the world , the aire wou●● be too litle for this or●● of man to moue in , t●● firmament would b● but enough for this sta●● for , as the whole wor●● hath nothing , to whic● something in man do●● not answere , so ha●● man many pieces , 〈◊〉 which the whol wor●● ha●h no representatio● inlarge this meditatio● vpon this great worl● man , so farr , as to consider the immensitie of ●he creatures this world produces ; our creatures are our thoughts ; creatures that are borne gyants : that reach from east to west , from earth to heauen , that doe not onely bestride all the sea , and land , but span the sunn and firmament at once ; my thoughts reach all , comprehend all . inexplicable mistery ; i their creator am in a close prison , in a sicke bed , any where , and any one of my creatures , m● thoughts , is with t●● sunne , and beyond t●● sunne , ouertakes t●● sunne , and ouergoes t●● sunne in one pace , o● steppe , euery wher●● and then as the oth●● world produces serpen● and vipers , malignan● & venimous creature● and wormes , and cate●●pillars , that endeauo●● to deuoure that worl● which produces the● and monsters compile● and complicated of d●●uers parents , & kinds , 〈◊〉 this world , our selues , produces all these in vs , 〈◊〉 producing diseases , & ●●cknesses , of all those ●orts ; venimous , and infectious diseases , feeding & consuming diseases , and manifold , and entāgled diseases , made vp of many seueral ones . and can the other world name so many venimous , so many consuming , so many monstro●s crea●ures , as we can diseases , of all these kindes ? o miserable abūdance , o ●eggarly riches● how much doe wee lacke 〈◊〉 hauing remedies for eu●●rie disease , when as y●● we haue not names f●● them ? but wee hau● hercules against the● gyants , these monster● that is , the phisician ; 〈◊〉 musters vp al the for●● of the other world , ● succour this ; all natu●● to relieue man. we ha●● the phisician , but we 〈◊〉 not the phisician . hee we shrinke in our p●●●portion , sink in our d●●●●nitie , in respect of ve●● meane creatures , w●●● ●re phisicians to them●elues . the hart that is ●ursued and wounded , they say , knowes an herbe , which being ea●en , throwes off the arrow : a strange kind of vomit . the dog that pursues it , though hee bee subiect to sicknes , euen prouerbially , knowes his grasse that recouers him . and it may be true , that the drugger is as neere to man , as to other creatures , it may be that obuious and present simples , easie to bee had , would cure him ; b●● the apothecary is not 〈◊〉 neere him , nor the p●●●sician so neere him , 〈◊〉 they two are to oth●● creatures ; man hath n●● that innate instinct , to a●●ply those naturall me●●●cines to his present da●●ger , as those inferio●● creatures haue ; he is n●● his owne apothecary , h●● owne phisician , as th●● are . call back therefo●● thy meditations agai●●● and bring it down●● what 's become of ma●● gre●t extent & propo●●●tion , when himselfe shrinkes himselfe , and consumes himselfe to ● handfull of dust ; what 's become of his soaring thoughts , his compassing thoughts , when himselfe brings himselfe to the ignoranc● , ●o the thoughtlesness● of the graue ? his diseases are his owne , but the phisician is not ; hee hath them at home , but ●ee must send for the phisician . 4. expostvlation● i haue not the right●ousnesse of iob , but haue the desire of 〈◊〉 i would speake to the ● mighty● and i would reas●● with god. my god , 〈◊〉 god , how soone wou●●dest thou haue me go●● to the phisician , & ho●● far wouldest thou ha●● me go with the phisi●●●an ? i know thou h●● made the matter , a●● the man , and the 〈◊〉 and i goe not from th●● when i go to the phisician . thou didst not make clothes before ther was a shame of the nakednes of the body ; but thou didst make phisick before there was any grudging of any sicknes ; for thou didst imprint a medicinall vertue in many simples , euen frō the beginning ; didst thou meane that wee should be sicke , whē thou didst so ? when thou madest them ? no more then thou didst meane , that we should sinne , when thou madest vs : tho● fore-sawest both , bu● causedst neither . tho● lord , promisest hee● trees , whose fruit shall b●● for meat , and their lea●● for medicine . it is th● voyce of thy sonn , w●● thou bee made whole that drawes from th●● patient a cōfession tha● hee was ill , and coul● not make hims●lfe w●● and it is thine own● voyce , is there no phisi●cian ? that inclines vs disposes vs to accep● thine ordinance . an● ●t is the voyce of the wise man , both for the matter , phisicke it selfe , the lorde hath created medicines out of the earth , and hee that is wise , shall not abhorre them , and for the arte , and the person , the phisician cutteth off a long disease . in all these voyces , thou sendest vs to those helpes , which thou hast afforded vs in that . but wilt not thou auowe that voyce too , hee that hath sinned against his maker , let him fall into th● hands of the phisician ; an● wilt not thou affoor● me an vnderstanding o● those wordes ? tho● who sendest vs for ● blessing to the phisic●●an , doest not make it ● curse to vs , to go , whe● thou sendest . is not th● curse rather in this , th●● onely hee falls into th● hands of the phisician that casts himself who●ly , intirely vpon the phi●sician , confides in him relies vpon him , attend all from him , and neg●lects that spirituall phi●icke ; which thou also hast instituted in thy church ● so to fall into the ●ands of the phisician ; is a sinne , and a punishment of ●ormer sinnes ; so , as asa●fell , who in his disease , sought not to the lord , but●●o the phisician . reueale therefore to me thy me●hod , o lord , & see , whether i haue followed it ; ●hat thou mayest haue glory , if i haue , and i pardon , if i haue not , & helpe that i may . thy method is , in time of thy sicknesse , be not negligent ● vvherein wilt thou haue my diligence expressed ? pray vnto th● lord , and hee will mak● thee whole . o lord , ● doe ; i pray , and pray thy seruaunt dauid● prayer , haue mercy vp●on mee , o lord , for i a● weake ; heale mee , o lord , for my bones ar● vexed : i knowe , that euen my weakenesse is a reason , a mot●ue , to induce thy mercie , and my sicknes an occasion of thy sending health when art thou so readie , when is it so seasonable to thee , to commiserate , as in miserie ? but is prayer for health in season , as soone as i am sicke ? thy method goes further ; leaue off from sinne , and order thy handes aright , and cleanse thy heart from all wickednesse ; haue i , o lord , done so ? o lord , i haue ; by thy grace , i am come to a holy detestation of my former sin ; is there any more ? in thy methode there is more ; giue a sweet sauor● and a memoriall of fin● flower , and make a fat of●fering , as not being . and lord , by thy grace , i haue done that , sacrificed ● little , of that litle whic● thou lentst me , to them for whō thou lentst it and now in thy metho● and by thy steps , i am come to that , then gi●● place to the phisician , fo● the lord hath created him let him not goe from the● for thou hast need of him i send for the phisicia● but i will heare him en●ter with those wordes of peter , iesus christ maketh thee whole ; i long for his presence , but i look● that the power of the lord , should bee present to heale mee . 4. prayer . o most mightie , and most merciful god , who art so the god of health , & strength , as that without thee , all health is but the fuell , and all strēgth , but the bellows of sinne ; behold me● vnder the vehemenc● of two diseases , and vn●der the nece●sity of tw● phisiciās , authorized b● thee , the bodily , and th● spiritual phisician . i com● to both , as to thine ordi●nance , & blesse , and glo●rifie thy name , that i● both cases , thou hast af●forded help to man by the ministery of man● euen in the new ierusa●lem , in heauen it selfe , i● hath pleased thee to discouer a tree , which i● a tree of life there , bu● the leaues thereof are for the healing of the nations ; life it selfe is with thee there , for thou art life ; and all kinds of health , wrought vpon vs here , by thine instruments , descend from thence . thou wouldest haue healed babylon , but she is not healed ; take from mee , o lord , her peruersenesse , her wilfulnesse , her refractarinesse , and heare thy spirit saying in my soule , heale mee , o lord , for i would bee healed . ephraim saw his sickenesse , and iudah his wound ; then went ephraim to the assyrian , and sent to king iareb , yet could no● hee heale you , nor cure you of your wound . keepe me back o lord , from them who mis-professe artes of healing the soule , or of the body , by meanes not imprinted by thee in the church , for the soule , or not in nature for the body ; there is no spirituall health to be had by superstition , nor bodily by witchcraft ● thou lord , and onely thou art lord of both . thou in thy selfe art lord of both , and thou in thy son art the phisician , the applyer of both . with his stripes wee are healed , sayes the prophet there ; there , before hee was scourged , wee were healed with his stripes ; how much more shall i bee healed now , now , when that which he hath already suffred actually , is actually , and effectually applied to me ? is there any thing incurable , vpon which that balme dropps ? any vaine 〈◊〉 emptie , as that that blo●● cannot fil it ? thou pro●misest to heale the ear●● but it is when the i●●habitants of the eart● pray that thou woulde●● heale it . thou promi●sest to heale their w●●ters , but their miery pl●●ces , and standing waters ● thou sayest there , tho● wilt not heale : my retu●●n●ng to any sinne , if should returne to the a●bilitie of sinning ouer all my sins againe , thou wouldest not pardon● ●eale this earth , o my ●od , by repentant tears , ●nd heale these waters , ●hese teares from all bit●●rnes , frō all diffidence , ●rom all deiection , by e●●ablishing my irremo●able assurance in thee . ●hy sonn went about hea●●ng all manner of sicke●esses . ( no disease incu●able , none difficult ; he ●ealed them in passing ) ●ertue went out of him , ●nd he healed all , all the ●ultitude ( no person in●urable ) he healed them ●uery whit , ( as himselfe speaks ) he left no relike of the disease ; and wi●● this vniuersall phisici●● passe by this hospital and not visit mee ? no● heale me ? not heale m● wholy ? lord , i look● not that thou shoulde● say by thy messenger t● mee , as to ezechias , b●●hold , i will heale thee , an● on the third day thou sha●● goe vp to the house of th● lord. i looke not th●● thou shouldst say to m●● as to moses in miriam● behalfe , when mos●● would haue had he●● heald presently , if her ●ather had but spit in her ●ace , should she not been ashamed seuen dayes ? let her be shut vp seuen daies , ●nd then returne ; but if ●hou be pleased to multiply seuen dayes , ( and seuen is in●inite ) by the number of my sinnes , ( and that is more infinite ) if this day must remoue me , till dayes shall ●ee no more , seale to me , my spirituall health in affording me the seales of thy church , & for my ●emporall health , prosper thine ordinance , i● their hands who sha●● assist in this sicknes , i● that manner , and in th● measure , as may mo●● glorifie thee , aud mo●● edifie those , who ob●serue the issues of th● seruants , to their own● spirituall benefit . 5. solus adest . the phisician comes . 5. meditation . as sicknesse is th● greatest misery . s● the greatest misery o● ●icknes is solitude ; when ●he infectiousnes of the disease deterrs thē who ●hould assist , from cō●ing ; euen the phisici●n dares scarse come . so●itude is a tormēt , which is not threatned in hell it selfe . meere vacuitie , the first agent , god , the first instrument of god , nature , will not admit ; nothing can be vtterly ●nptie , but so neere a ●egree towards vacutie , as solitude , to bee ●ut one , they loue not . when i am dead , & my body might infect , the● haue a remedy , th●● may bury me ; but w●● i am but sick , and mig●● infect , they haue no ●●●medy , but their absen●● and my solitude . it is ●● excuse to them that a ●● great , and pre●end , & y●● are loth to come ; it is ●● inhibition to those w●● would truly come , b●cause they may be ma●● instruments , and pe●●ducts , to the infectiō●● others , by their cōmin●● and it is an outlawry , 〈◊〉 excommunication vpo● ●he patient , and seperats ●im from all offices not onely of ciuilitie , but of ●orking charitie . a long ●icknesse will w●ary ●●i●nds a● last , but a pe●tilentiall sicknes auerts them from the begin●ing . god himself wold ●dmit a fig●●e of society , ●s there is a plurality of ●ersons in god , though ●here bee but one god ; & all his exte●nall actions testifie a loue of so●i●tie and communion . in heauen ther● are ordens of angels , and armies of martyrs , & in that hou●● many mansions ; in ear●● families , cities , church● colleges , all plurall thing● and lest either of th● should not be compa●● enough alone , there 〈◊〉 an association of bo●● a communion of sain●● which makes the m●●●tant , and triumpha●● church , one parish ; 〈◊〉 that christ , was not o● of his dioces , when h● was vpon the earth , n●● out of his temple , wh●● he was in our flesh g●● who sawe that all th●● ●ee made , was good , ●ame not so neer seeing 〈◊〉 defect in any of his works , as when he saw ●hat it was not good , ●or man to bee alone , ●herefore h●e made him 〈◊〉 helper ; and one that ●hould helpe him so , as ●o increase the number , ●nd giue him her owne , ●●d more societie . angels , ●ho do not propagate , ●or multiply , were ●ade at first in an abū●ant number ; and so ●ere starres : but for ●he things of this world , their blessing was , encrease ; for i think , i nee● not aske leaue to think that there is no phenix nothing singular , no●thing alone : men tha● in here vpon nature on●ly , are so far from think●ing , that there is an●●thing singular in th●● world , as that they wi●● scarce thinke , that th●● world it selfe is singula● but that euery plane● and euery starre , is an●other world like this they finde reason t● conceiue , not onely● pluralitie in euery species in the world , but a pluralitie of worlds ; so that the abho●rers of solitude , are not solitary ; for god , and nature , and reason concurre against it . now , a man may counterfeyt the plague in a vowe , and mistake a disease for religion ; by such a re●iring , and recluding of ●imselfe from all men , 〈◊〉 to doe good to no ●an , to conuerse with ●o man. god hath two ●estamēts , two wils ; but this is a scedule , and no● of his , a codicill , and no● of his , not in the body o● his testaments , but interlind , and postscrib'd by o●thers , that the way t● the communion of saint● should be by such a sol●●tude , as excludes all do●ing of good here . th●● is a disease of the mind ● the height of an inf●●ctious disease of the bo●dy , is solitude , to be left ●●lone : for this makes 〈◊〉 infectious bed , equa●● nay worse then a gra●● that thogh in both 〈◊〉 equally alone , in my bed i know it , and feele it , and shall not in my graue : and this too , that in my bedd , my soule is still in an infectious body , and shall not in my graue bee so . 5. expostvlation . o god , my god , thy son tooke it not ill at marthaes handes , that when he said vnto her , thy brother lazarus shall rise againe , she expostulated it so far with him , as to reply , i know that h● shal rise againe in the resurrection , at the last day ● for shee was miserable by wanting him then● take it not ill , o my god , frō me , that thogh thou haue o●dained i● for a blessing , and for ● dignitie to thy people , that they should dwell alone , and not bee reckoned among the nations , ( because they should be aboue them ) & that they should dwell in safetie alone , ( free from the infestation of enemies ) yet i ●ake thy leaue to remēber thee , that thou hast sa●d to , two are better then one ; and woe be vnto him that is alone when he falleth ● and so , when he is fallen , and laid in the bedde of sicknesse too . righteousnesse is immortall ; i know thy wisdome hath said so ; but no man , though couered with the righteousnes of thy sonne , is immor●all so , as not to die ; for he who was righteousnes it selfe , did die . i know that the son of righteous●nes , thy son , refused no● nay affected solitariness● lonenesse , many , man● times ; but at all time● he was able to cōman● more then twelue legions 〈◊〉 angels to his seruice ; an● when he did not so , 〈◊〉 was farre from being ●●lone ; for , i am not alon● saies he , but i , and the f●●ther that sent me . i canno● feare , but that i shall a●●waies be with thee , an● him ; but whether thi● disease may not alien , 〈◊〉 remooue my friends , 〈◊〉 ●hat they stand aloofe frō●ny sore , and my kinsmen stād afar off , i cannot tel . ● cannot feare , but that thou wilt reckon with me from this minute , in which , by thy grace , i see thee● whe●her this vnderstanding , & this will , and this memory , may not decay , to the discouragement , and the ill interpretation of thē , that see that heauy change in me , i cānot tell . it was for thy blessed , thy powerfull sonne alone , to tread the wine-presse alone , and none of the people with him ; am not able to passe thi● agony alone ; not alon● without thee ; thou a●● thy spirit ; not alone wi●●●out thine ; spirituall an● temporall phisicians , a●● thine ; not alone witho●● mine ; those whom th● bands of blood , or frien●●ship ● hath made mine ● a●● mine ; and if thou , o● thine , or mine , abando●● me , i am alone , and w● vnto me if i bee alone● elias himselfe fainte● vnder that apprehēsion● loe , i am left alone ; an● martha murmured at that , and said to christ , lord , doest not thou care , that my sister hath left me to serue alone ? neither could ieremiah enter into his lamētations , from a higher groūd , then to say , how doth the citie sit solitary , that was full of people . o my god , it is the leper , that thou hast cōdemned to liue alone ; haue ● such a leprosie in my soule , that i must die alone ; alone without thee ? shall this come to such a le●rosie in my body , that i must die ●●lone ? alone witho●● them that should assi●● that shold comfort m●● but comes not this e●●postulation too neere murmuring ? must i b●● cōcluded with that , th●● moses was commaunded 〈◊〉 come neere the lord alon●● that solitarines , & d●●reliction , and abando●ning of others , dispose● vs best for god , who ac●cōpanies vs most alon●● may i not remember & apply to ; that thogh● god come not to iacob till he found him alone , ●et when he found him alone , hee wrestled with him , and lamed him ? that when in the dereliction and forsaking of friends and phisicians , a man is left alone to god , god may so wrestle with this iacob , with this conscience , as to put it out of ioynt , & so appeare to him , as that he dares not looke vpon him face to face , when as by way of reflection , in the consolation of his temporall or spirituall seruants , and ordinances hee durst , 〈◊〉 they were there ? but ● faithfull friend is the phisicke of life , and they th● feare the lord , shall find him . therefore hath th● lord afforded me bo●● in one person , that ph●●sician , who is my faith●full friend . 5. prayer . o eternall , and mo●● gracious god , wh●● calledst down fire from heauen vpon the sinfu●● cities , but once , and op●●nedst the earth to swallow the murmurers , but once ● and threwst down the tower of siloe vpon sinners , but once , but for thy workes of mercie repeatest them often , & still workest by thine owne paternes , as thou broghtest man into this world , by giuing him a helper fit for him here , ●o whether it bee thy will to continue mee ●ong thus , or to dismisse me by death , be pleased to afford me the helpes fit for both conditions , either for my weak sta● here , or my finall tran●●migration from hence● and if thou mayest r●●ceiue glory by that wa●● ( and , by all wayes tho●● maist receiue glory ) gl●●rifie thy selfe in preser●uing this body from suc● infections , as migh● withhold those , wh● would come , or in da●●ger thē who doe come● and preserue this soule 〈◊〉 the faculties thereof , fr●● all such distempers , 〈◊〉 might shake the assu●rance which my selfe & others haue had , that because thou hast loued me , thou wouldst loue me to my end , and at my end . open none of my dores , not of my hart , not of mine eares , not of my house , to any supplanter that would enter to vndermine me in my religion to thee , in the time of my weaknesse , or to defame me , & magnifie himselfe , with false rumors of such a victory , & surprisall of me , after i am dead ; be my saluation , and plead my saluation ; work it , and decla●● it ; and as thy triumpha●● shall be , so let the m●●tant church bee assure● that thou wast my 〈◊〉 and i thy seruant , to , an● in my consummatio● blesse thou the learning and the labours of th●● man , whō thou sende●● to assist me ; and sinc● thou takest mee by th● hand , & puttest me int● his hands ( for i come t● him in thy name , who in thy name comes t● me ) since i clog not m● hopes in him , no nor my ●●ayers to thee , with any ●●mited conditions , but ●wrap all in those two ●etitions , thy kingdome ●●me , thy will be done , pro●er him , and relieue ●●e , in thy way , in thy ●●me , and in thy mea●●re . amen . 6. metuit . the phisician is afraid . 6. meditation . ● obserue the phisician , with the same ●iligence , as hee the dis●ase ; i see hee feares , ●nd i feare with him : i ouertake him , i ouem him in his feare , an● go the faster , because● makes his pace slow● feare the more , beca●●● he disguises his fear , 〈◊〉 i see it with the mo●● sharpnesse , because 〈◊〉 would not haue me 〈◊〉 it . he knowes that 〈◊〉 feare shall not disord●●● the practise , and exerci●●● of his art , but he kno●● that my fear may diso●●der the e●fect , and wo●●king of his practise . 〈◊〉 the ill affections of 〈◊〉 spleene , complicate , an● ●ingle themselus with ●●ery infirmitie of the ●●dy , so doth feare insi●●at it ●elf in euery acti●● or passion of the mind ; ●nd as wind in the body ●ill counterfet any dis●ase , and seem the stone , & ●eem the gout , so feare will counterfet any dis●ase of the mind ; it shall ●eeme loue , a loue of hauing , and it is but a fear , a iealous , and suspitious ●eare of loosing ; it shall ●eem valor in despising , and vnderualuing danger , and it is but feare , in an ouer-valuing of ●●●●nion , and estimation , and feare of loosing that man that is not afraid● a lion , is afraid of a 〈◊〉 not afraid of starui●● & yet is afraid of so●● ioynt of meat at the tab●● presented to feed hi● not afraid of the so●●● of drummes , and tru●●pets , and shot , and tho●● which they seeke 〈◊〉 drowne , the last cries o● men , and is afraid 〈◊〉 some particular harm●●nious instrument ● so muc● afraid , as that with an● of these the enemy might ●riue this mā , otherwise ●aliant enough , out of ●●e field . i know not , what fear is , nor i know ●ot what it is that i fear ●ow ; i feare not the hastening of my death , and yet i do fear the increase ●f the disease ; i should ●elie nature , if i should deny that i feard this , & ●f i should say that i fea●ed death , i should belye god ; my weaknesse is ●rom nature , who hath ●ut her measure , my ●trength is from god , who possesses , & distri●butes infinitely . as the euery cold ayre , is no● dampe , euery shiuering not a stupefaction , so eue●ry feare , is not a feare●●●nes , euery declination● not a running away , ●●uery debating is not resoluing , euery wis● that it were not thus , ● not a murmuring , no● deiection though it b●● thus ; but as my phisici●● fear puts not him fro● his practise , neither do●● mine put me , from r●●ceiuing from god , an● man , and my selfe , spiritu●ll , and ciuill , and morall ●ssistances , and conso●ations . 6. expostvlation . my god , my god , i find in thy booke , that ●eare is a stifling spirit , a spirit of suffocation ; that ●●shbosheth could not speak , not reply in his own defence ●o abner , because hee was ●fraid . it was thy seruāt ●obs case too , who before hee could say any ●hing to thee , saies of thee , let him take his rod awa● frō me , and let not his fear● terrifie mee , then would speake with him , and 〈◊〉 feare him ; but it is not ●● with mee . shall a feare 〈◊〉 thee , take away my d●●uotiō to thee ? dost tho● command me to spea●● to thee , and commaun● me to feare thee , and d●● these destroy one ano●ther ? there is no per●●plexity in thee , my god ; 〈◊〉 inextricablenes in the● my light , & my clearn●● my sun , and my moon● that directest me as 〈◊〉 in the night of aduersity and fear , as in my day of prosperity & confidēce . i must thē speak to thee , at all times , but when must i feare thee ? at all times to . whē didst thou rebuke any petitioner , with the name of importunate ? thou hast propo●d to vs a parable of a iudge that did iustice at last , because the client was importunate , and troubled him ; but thou hast told vs plainely , that thy vse in that parable , was not , that thou wast troubled with our importunities , but ( as thou saye●● there ) that wee should a●●wayes pray . and to th●● same purpose thou pro●posest another , that is●● presse my friend , when he●● is in bed , at midnight , 〈◊〉 lend mee bread , though h●● will not rise because i a● his friend , yet because● mine importunitie , he wil●● god will do this , when●soeuer thon askest , an● neuer call it importunit●e pray in thy bed at mid●night , and god wil n●● say , i will heare thee t● mo●row vpon thy knees , at thy bed side ; pray vpon thy knees there , then , & god will not say , i will heare thee on sunday , at church ; god is no dilatory god , no froward god ; praier is neuer vnseasonable , god is neuer asleep nor absent . but , o my god , can i doe this , and feare thee ; come to thee , and speak to thee , in all places , at all houres , and feare thee ? dare i aske this question ? there is more boldnesse in the question , then in the comming : i may doe it● though i feare thee ; ● cannot doe it , except feare thee . so well has● thou prouided , that w● should alwayes fea●● thee , as that thou ha●● prouided , that we shol● fear no person but the● nothing but thee ; n● men ? no. whom ? th● lord is my helpe , and m● saluation , whome shall feare ? great enemies : no● great enemies ; for no ●●nemies are great to them that feare thee● feare not the people of th● l●●d , for they are bread to you ; they shall not on●y not eat vs , not eat our bread , but they shall bee our bread ; why should , we feare them ? but for all this metaphoricall bread , victory ouer enemies , that thought to deuoure vs , may we not feare , that we may lack bread literally ? and feare famine , though we feare not enemies ? young lyons do lacke , and suffer hunger , but they that seeke the lord , shall not want any good thing . neuer ? though it be● well with them at on● time , may they not fea● that it may be worse● wherfore should i feare 〈◊〉 the dayes of euill , saies th● seruant dauid ? thoug● his own sins had mad● them euill , he feared th●● not● no ? not if this euil● determin in death ? no● though in a death● no● though in a death infli●ct●d by violence by ma●lice , by our own des●●● feare not the sentence 〈◊〉 death , if thou feare god thou art , o my god , so far from admitting vs , that feare thee , to feare others , as that thou makest others to feare vs ; as herod feared iohn , because hee was a holy , and a iust man , & obserued him how fully then o my abundant god , how gently , o my sweet , my easie god doest thou vnentangle m●e , in any scruple arising out of the consideration of this thy feare ? is not this that which thou intendest , when thou sayst , the secret of the lord is with them , that feare him ; the secret , th● mistery of the right v●● of feare . dost thou no● meane this , when tho● sayest , wee shall vnde●●stand the feare of the lord● haue it , and haue benef●● by it ; haue it , and stan● vnder it ; be directed b● it , and not bee deiecte● with it . and dost tho● not propose that chur●● for our example , whe● thou sayest , the churc● of iudea , walked in t●● feare of god ; they ha● it , but did not sit dow● lazily , nor fall down● weakly , nor sinke vnder it . there is a feare which weakens men in the seruice of god : adam was afrayde , because hee was naked . they who haue put off thee , are a prey to all . they may feare , for thou wilt laugh , when their feare comes vpon them , as thou hast tolde them , more then once ; and thou wilt make them feare , where no cause of feare is , as thou hast told them more then once too . there is a feare that is a punishment o● former wickednesses , & induces more : thoug● some said of thy sonne , christ iesus , that hee wa● a good man , yet no m●● spake openly , for feare 〈◊〉 the iewes : ioseph was h●● disciple ; but secretly , fo● for feare of the iewes : th● disciples kept som● meetings , but with dores shut , for feare of the iewes . o my god , thou giuest vs feare for ballast to cary vs stedily in all weathers . but thou wouldst ballast vs , wit● such sand , as should haue gold in it , with that feare which is thy feare ; for tke feare of the lord is his treasure . hee that hath that , lacks nothing that man can haue , nothing that god does giue . timorous men thou rebukest ; why are yee fearfull , o yee of little faith ? such thou dismissest from thy seruice , with scorne , though of them there went from gideons army , 22000. and remained but 10. such thou sendest farther then so ; thithe● from whence they n●●uer returne , the fearefu●● and the vnbeleeuing , i●●● that burning lake , which 〈◊〉 the second death . there 〈◊〉 a feare , & there is a hope which are equall abo●minations to thee ; fo● they were confounded , b●●cause they hoped , saies th● seruant iob : because they had mis-placed , mis-ce●tred their hopes ; they hoped , and not in thee , an● such shall feare , and no● feare thee . bu● in th● feare , my god , and my feare , my god , and my hope , is hope , and loue , & confidence , and peace , and euery limbe , and ingredient of happinesse enwrapped ; for ioy includes all ; and feare , and ioy consist together ; nay , constitute one another ; the women d●parted from the sepulchre , the women who were made supernumerary apostles , apostles to the apostles ; mothers of the church , and of the fathers , grandfathers of the church , the apostles themselues , t●e women , angels of the resurrec●●●on , went from the sep●●●chre , with feare and i● they ran , sayes the 〈◊〉 and they ran vpon tho●● two legs , feare , & ioy ; 〈◊〉 both was the right leg● they ioy in thee o lor● that feare thee , and fear● thee only , who feele th●● ioy in thee . nay , thy fear●● and thy loue , are in●eperable ; still we are called vpon , in infinite places , to feare god ; yet th● commandement , which 〈◊〉 the roote of all , is , tho● shalt loue the lord thy god ● hee doeth neither , that doth not both ; hee omits neither , that does one . therfore when thy seruant dauid had said , that the feare of the lord is the beginning of wisedome , and his sonne had repeated it againe , hee that collects both , calls this feare , the root of wisdome ; and that it may embrace all , hee ca●ls it wisedome it selfe . a wise man therefore is neuer without it , neuer without the exercise of it : therefore thou sent●st moses to thy people that they might learne● feare thee all the dayes ● their liues : not in he●●uy , and calamitous , bu● in good , and cheerf●● dayes too : for , no●● who had assurance 〈◊〉 his deliuerance , yet m●●ued with feare , prepar● an arke , for the sauing● his house . a wise man 〈◊〉 feare in euery thing . an● th●refore though i pr●●tend , to no other degre● of wisedome , i am a●bundantly rich in thi● that i lye heere posse●● with that feare , which ●s thy feare , both that ●his sicknesse is thy immediate correction , and ●ot meerely a naturall ●ccident , and therefore ●earefull , because it is a ●earefull thing to fall into ●hy hands , and th●t this ●eare preserues me from all inordinate feare , arising out of the infirmi●ie of nature , because ●hy hand being vpon me , thou wilt neuer let me fall out of thy hand . 6. prayer . o most mightie god 〈◊〉 mercifull god , 〈◊〉 god of all true sorrow , 〈◊〉 true ioy to , of all feare , ● of al hope to , as thou ha●● giuen me a repentan●● not to be repented of , 〈◊〉 giue me , o lord , a fea●● of which i may not b● afraid . giue me tende● and supple , and confo●●mable affections , that 〈◊〉 i ioy with them that i●● and mourne with them that mourne , so i ma● feare with them that feare . and since thou hast vouchsafed to discouer to me , in his feare whom thou hast admit●ed to be my assistance , ●n this sickenesse , that ●here is danger therein , ●et me not , o lord , go a●out to ouercome the sense of that fear , so far , as to pretermit the fitting , and preparing of my selfe , for the worst ●hat may bee feard , the passage out of this life . many of thy blessed martyrs , haue passed out of this life , without a●● showe of feare ; but th● most blessed sonne him●selfe did not so . t●● martys were known● be but men , and therfo●● it pleased thee , to fill t●● with thy spirit , and th● power , in that they d●● more then men ; thy s●● was declard by thee , 〈◊〉 by himselfe to be g●● and it was requisite , th●● he should declare him●selfe to be man also , i● the weaknesses of ma●● let mee not therefo●● o my god , bee ashame● of these feares , but let me feele them to determine , where his feare ●id , in a present submit●ing of all to thy will. and when thou shalt ●aue inflamd , & thawd my former coldnesses , ●nd indeuotions , with ●hese heats , and quench●d my former heates , with these sweats , and ●nundations , and rectified my former pre●umptions , and negligences with these fears , ●ee pleased , o lord , as one , made so by thee , to thinke me fit for th●● and whether it be th● pleasure , to dispose 〈◊〉 this body , this garme●● so , a● to put it to a fa●●ther wearing in th● world , or to lay it vp i● the common wardrope , th● graue , for the next , glo●rifie thy selfe in th● choyce now , & glorif●● it then , with that glory which thy son , our s●●uiour christ iesus hat● purchased for them whome thou make● partakers of his resu●●rection . amen . 7. socios sibi iungier instat . the phisician desires to haue others ioyned with him . 7. meditation . there is more feare , therefore more cause . if the phisician desire help , the burden grows great : there is a grouth of the disease then ; but ●here must bee an au●umne to ; but whether an autumne of the disease or mee , it is not my pa●● to choose : but if it bee of me , it is of both ; my disease cannot suruiu● mee , i may ouer liue i● howsoeuer , his desiring of others , argues his ca●●dor , and his ingenuitie ; 〈◊〉 the danger be great , he● iustifies his proceeding● & he disguises nothing that calls in witnesses ● and if the danger be not great , hee is not a●●bitious , that is so read● to diuide the thankes and the honour of th● work , which he beg●● alone , with others . it diminishes not the dignitie of a monarch , that hee deriue part of his care vpon others ; god hath not made many suns , but he hath made many bodies , that receiue , and giue light . the romanes began with one king ; they came to two consuls ; they returned in extremities , to one dictator ● whether in one , or many , the soueraigntie is the same , in all states , and the danger is not the more , and the prouidence is the more , whe● there are more phisicians ; as the state is the happier , where businesses are carried by more counsels , then can be in one breast , how large soeuer , dise●ses themselues hold consultations , and conspire how they may multiply , and ioyn with one another , & exalt one anothers force so ; and shal we not cal● phisicians , to consultations ? death is in an old mans dore , he appeare● and tels him so , & dea●● is at a yong mans backe , and saies nothing● age is a sicknesse , and youth is an ambush , and we need so many phisicians , as may make vp a watch , and spie euery inconuenience . there is scarce any thing , that hath not killed some body ; a haire , a feather hath done it● nay , that which is our best antidote against it , hath donn it ; the best cordiall hath bene deadly poyson ; men haue dyed of ioy , and allmost forbidden their friends to weep for thē , whē they haue seen thē dye laughing . euen that tiran dy●●nisius ( i thinke the same● that suffered so much a●●ter ) who could not d●● of that sorrow , of tha● high fal , from a king t● a wretched priuate ma● ● dyed of so poore a ioy , as to be declard by the peo●ple at a theater , that he● was a good poet. we sa● oftē th●t a man may li●● of a litle ; but , alas , o● how much lesse may a man dye ? and therfore the more assistants , th● better ; who comes to a day of hearing , in a caus of any importāce , with one aduocate ? in our funerals , we our selfs haue no interest ; there wee cannot aduise , we cannot direct : and though some nations , ( the egiptians in particular ) built thēselues better tombs , then houses , because they were to dwell longer in them ; yet , amongst our selues , the greatest man of stile , whom we hane had , the conqueror , was lest , as soone as his soule left him , not only without persons to assist at his graue , but without a graue . who will keepe vs then , we know not● as long as we can , l●t vs admit as much helpe as wee can ; another , and another phisician , is not another , and another indication , and symptom of death , but an other● and another assistant , and proctor of life : no● doe they so much feed the imagination with apprehension of danger , as the vnderstanding with comfort ; let not one bring learning , another diligence , another religion , but euery one bring all , and , as many ingredients enter into a receit , so may many men make the receit . but why doe i exercise my meditation so long vpon this , of hauing plentifull helpe in time of need ? is not my meditation rather to be enclined another way , to condole , and commiserate their distresse , who haue none ? how many are sicker ( perchance ) then i , and laid in their wofull straw at home ( if that co●ner be a home ) and haue no more hope of helpe , though they die , then of preferment , though they liue ? nor doe no more expect to see a phisician then , then to bee an officer after ; of whome , the first that takes knowledge , is th● sexten that buries them● who buries them in obliuio● too ? for the● doe but fill vp the number of the dead in the bill , but we shall neuer heare their names , till wee reade them in the booke of life , with our owne . how many are sicker ( perchance ) then i , and thrown into hospitals , where , ( as a fish left vpon the sand , must stay the tide ) they must stay the phisicians houre of visiting , and then can bee but visited ? how many are sicker ( perchaunce ) then all we , and haue not this hospitall to couer them , not this straw , to lie in , to die in , but haue thei● graue-stone vnder them and breathe out thei● soules in the eares , and in the eies of passengers , harder then their bed , the flint of the stre●t● that taste of no part of our phisick , but a sparing dyet ; to whom ordinary porridge would bee iulip enough , the refuse of our seruants , bezar enough , and the off scou●ing of our kitchin tables , cordiall enough . o my soule , when thou art not enough awake , to blesse thy god enough for his plentifull mercy , in affoording thee many helpers , rememb●r how many lacke them , and helpe them to them , or to those other things , which they lacke as much as them . 7. expostvlation . my god , my god , thy blessed seruant augustine begg'd of thee , that moses might come and tell him what he● meant by some place of genesis : may i ha●● leaue to aske of th● spirit , that writ th● booke , why when d●●uid expected newes fi●● ioabs armie , and that th● watchman tolde him that hee sawe a man ru●●ning alone , dauid conclu●ded out of that circumstance , that if hee ca●● alone , hee brought 〈◊〉 newes ? i see the gra●●mar , the word signifie so , and is so euer accep●ted , good newes ; but i see not the logique , nor the rhetorique , how dauid would prooue , or perswade that his newes was good , because hee was alone , except a greater cōpany might haue made great impressions of danger , by imploring , and importuning present supplies . howsoeuer that bee , i am sure , that that which thy apostle sayes to timothy , onely luke is with me , luke , and no body but luke ● hath a taste of cōplaint , & sorrow in it● though luke want no testimony of abilitie , o● forwardnes , of constancie , & perseuerance , in assisting that great building which s. paul laboured in , yet s. paul is affected with that , that ther was none but luke , to assist● we take s. luke to haue bin a phisician , & it admits the application the better , that in the presence of one good phisician , we may bee glad of more . it was not only a ciuill spirit of policy , or order that moued moses father in law , to perswade him to diuide ●he burden of gouernmēt , & iudicature , with others , & take others to his assistance , but it was ●lso thy immediat spirit o my god , that mou'd moses to present vnto ●hee 70 of the elders of israel , to receiue of that spirit , which was vpon moses onely before , such ● portion as might ease ●im in the gouernmēt of that people ; though moses alone had indowments aboue all thou gauest him othe● assistants . i consider th● plentifull goodnesse , 〈◊〉 my god , in employing angels , more then on● in so many of thy remarkable workes . o● thy sonne , thou saist , i● all the angels of god w●●●ship him ; if that bee i● heauen , vpon earth , h●● sayes that hee could co●●maund twelue legions 〈◊〉 angels ; and when h●●uen , and earth shall b● all one , at the last day● thy sonne , o god , the s●● of man , shall come in his glory , and all the holy angels with him . the angels that celebrated his birth to the shepheards , the angels that celebrated his second birth , his resurrection to the maries , were in the plurall , angells associated with angels . in iacobs ladder , they which ascended and descended , & maintain'd the trade between heauen and earth , between thee and vs , they who haue the commission , and charge to guide vs in all our wayes , they wh●● hastned lot , and in him● vs , from places of danger , and tentation , the● who are appoynted to instruct & gouerne vs in th● church heere , they who are sent to punish the disobedient and refractar●● , they that are to be the mowers , and haruest me● , after we are growne ●p in one field , the church , 〈◊〉 the day of iudgmēt , they that are to carrie o●● soules whither they ca●●●ed lazarus , they who attend at the seueral gate● of the new ierusalem , to admit vs there ; all these , who administer to thy seruants , from the first , to their last , are angels , angels in the plurall , in euery seruice , angels associated with angells . the power of a single angell wee see in that one , who in one night destroyed almost 200. thousand in sennacheribs army , yet thou often imployest many ; as we know the power of saluation is abundantly in any one euangelist , and yet thou hast afforded vs foure . thy sonne pro●claimes of himselfe , th● thy spirit , hath annoynte● him to preach the gospel● ● yet he hath giuen othe●s for the perfiting of the s. in the worke of the mi●●●stery . thou hast made him bishop of our soules , but there are others bi●shops too . hee gaue the holy ghost , & others gaue it also . thy way , o m● god , ( and , o my god , tho● louest to walk in thine own waies , for they are large ) thy way from th● beginning , is multiplication of thy helps ; and therfore it were a degree of ingratitude , not to accept this mercy of affording me many helpes for my bodily health , as a type and earnest of thy gracious purpose now , and euer , to affoord mee the same assistances . that for thy great helpe , thy word , i may seeke that , not frō corners , nor conuenticles , nor schismatical singularities , but frō the assotiation , & communion of thy catholique church , and those persons , whom thou has● alwayes furnished th● church withall : and that i may associate th● word , with thy sacr●●ment , thy seale with thy patent ; and in that s●●cramēt associate the sig●● with the thing signified , the bread with the bod● of thy sonne , so , as i ma● be sure to haue receiu●● both , and to bee ma●● thereby , ( as thy blesse● seruant augustine sayes ) the arke , and the mon●●ment , & the tombe of th● most blessed sonne , that hee , and all the merits of his death , may , by that receiuing , bee buried in me , to my quickning in thi● world , and my immortall establishing in the next . 7. prayer . o eternall , and most gracious god , who gauest to thy seruants in the wildernes , thy man●a , bread so conditiond , qualified so , as that , to euery man , manna tasted like that , which that man liked best , i humbly beseech thee , to make this correction , which i acknowledg to be part of my daily bread , to tast so to me , not as i would , but as thou wouldest haue it taste , and to conform my tast , and make it agreeable to thy will● thou wouldst haue th● corrections tast of hum●●liation , but thou wouldest haue them tast ● consolation too ; taste o● danger , but tast of ass●●rance too . as therefore thou hast imprinted in all thine elements , of which our bodies consist , two manifest qualities , so that , as thy fire dries , so it heats too ; and as thy water moysts , so it cooles too , so , o lord , in these corrections , which are the elements of our regeneration , by which our soules are made thine , imprint thy two qualities , those two operations , that as they scourge vs , they may scourge vs into the way to thee : that when they haue shewed vs , that we are nothing in our selues , they may also shew vs , that thou art all things vnto vs. when therfore in this particular circūstance , o lord ( but none of thy iudgements are circumstances ; they are all of the substance of thy good purpose vpon vs● whē in this particular , that he , whō thou has● sent to assist me , desires assistants to him , thou hast let mee see , in how few houres thou cans● throw me beyond the helpe of man , let me by the same light see , that no vehimence of sicknes , no tentation of satan , no guiltines of sin , no prison of death , not this first , this sicke bed , not the other prison , the close and dark graue , can remooue me from the determined , and good purpose , which tho● sealed concerning mee . let me think no degree of this thy correction , casuall , or without signification ; but yet when i haue read it in that language , as it is a correction , let me translate it into another , and read it as a mercy ; and which of these is the originall , and which is the translation , whether thy mercy , or thy correction , wer● thy primary , and original intētion in this sicknes , i cannot conclude , though death conclud● me ; for as it must necessarily appeare to bee ● correction , so i can hau● no greater argument o● thy mercy , then to die i● thee , and by that death , to bee vnited to him , who died for me . 8. et rex ipse suum mittit . the king sends his owne phisician . 8. meditation . stil when we return to that meditation , that man , is a world , we find new discoueries . let him be a world , and him self will be the land , and misery the sea . his misery , ( for misery is his , his own ; of the happinesses euen of this world , h●e is but tenant , but of misery the free-holder ; of happines hee is but the farmer , but the vsufructuary but of misery , the lord , the proprietary ) his misery , as the sea , swells aboue all the hilles , and reaches to the remotest parts of this earth , man ; who of himselfe is bu● dust , and coagula●ed and kneaded into earth ; by teares , his ma●te● is ●arth , his forme , misery . in this world , that is mankinde , the highest ground , the eminētest hils , are kings ; and haue they line , and lead enough to fadome this sea , and say , my misery is but this deepe ? scarce any misery equal to sicknesse ; and they are subiect to that equally , with their lowest subiect . a glasse is not the lesse brittle , because a kings face is represented in it , nor a king the lesse brittle , because god is represented in him . they haue phisicians continually about them , & therfore sicknesses , or the worst of sicknesses , continuall feare of it . are they gods ? he that calld them so , cannot flatter . they are gods , but sick● gods ; and god is presented to vs vnder many human affections , as fa● as infirmities ; god is called angry , and sorry , and weary , and heauy ; bu● neuer a sicke god : for then hee might die like men , as our gods do . the worst that they could say in reproch , & scorn● of the gods of the heathē , was , that perchance they were asleepe ; but gods that are so sicke , as that they cannot sleepe ; are in an infirmer condition . a god , and need a phisician ? a iupiter & need an aesulapius ? that must haue rh●ubarbe to purge his choller , lest he be too angry , and agarick to purge his s●●gme , lest he be too drowsie ; that as tertullian saies of the aegyptian gods , plants and herbes , that god was beholden to man , for growing in his garden , so wee must say of these gods● their eternity , ( an eternity of threescore & ten yeares ) is in the apothecaryes shop , and not in the metaphoricall deity . but their deitye is betten expressed in their humility , then in their ●eighth ; when abounding and ouerflowing , as god , in means of doing good , they descend , as god , to a communication of their abundāces with men , according to their necessities , then they are gods. no man is well , that vnderstands not , that values not his being well ; that hath not a cheerefulnesse , and a ioy in it ; and whosoeuer hath this ioy , hath a desire to communicate , to propagate that , which occasions his happinesse , and his ioy , to others ; for euery man loues witnesses of his happinesse ; and the best witnesses , are experimentall witnesses ; they who haue tasted of that in themselues , which makes vs happie : it consummate● therefore , it perfits the happinesse of kings , to confer , to transfer , honor , and riches , and ( as they can ) health , vpon those that need them . .8 expostvlation . my god , may god , i haue a warning from the wise man , tha● when a rich man speaketh , euery man holdeth his tong● and looke what hee saith , they extoll it to the clouds ; but if a poore man speake , they say , what fellowe is this ? and if hee stumble , they will help to ouerthrow him . therefore may my words be vnderualued , and my errors aggrauated , if i offer to speak of kings ; but not by thee , o my god , because i speak of them as they are in thee , & of thee , as thou art in them . certainly those men prepare a way of speaking negligently , or irreuerently of thee , that giue themselues that liberty , in speaking of thy vice-gerents , kings : for thou who gauest augustus the empire , gauest it to nero to , and as vespasian had it from thee , so had iulian ; though kings deface in themselues thy first image , in their owne soule , thou giuest no man leaue to deface thy second image , imprinted indelibly in their power . but thou knowest , o god , that if i should be slacke in celebrating thy mercies to mee exhibited by that royall instrument● my sou●raigne , to many other faults , that touch vpon allegiance , i should add the worst of all , ingratitude ; which consti●utes an il man , & faults which are defects in any particular sunction , are not so great , as those that destroy our humanitie ● it is not so ill , to bee an ill subiect , as to be an ill man ● for he hath an vniuersall illnesse , ready to blow● and powre out it selfe into any mold , any form , and to spend it selfe in any function . as therfore thy son did vpon the coyne , i look vpon the king , and i ask● whose image , & whose inscription hee hath ; and he hath thine ; and i giue vnto thee , that which i● thine , i recommend his happines to thee , in al● my sacrifices of thanks , for that which hee enioyes , and in al my praiers , for the continuance and inlargement of thē but let me stop , my g●d , and consider ; will no● this look like a piece of art , & cunning , to conuey into the world an opinion , that i were more particularly in his care , then other men ? and that heerein , in a a shew of humilitie , and thankefulnesse , i magnifie my selfe more then there is cause ? but let not that iealousie stopp mee , o god , but let me go forward in celebrating thy mercy exhibited by him . this which hee doth now , in assisting so my bodily health , i know is common to me with many ? many , many● haue tasted of that expression of his gracio●snes . where hee ●an giue health by his owne hands , hee doth● and to more then any of his predecessors haue done : therefore hath god reserued one diseas● for him , that hee onely might cure it , though perchance not onely by one title , and interest , nor only as one king . to those that need it not , in that kind , and so cannot haue it by his owne hand , he sends a donatiue of health , in sending his phisician : the holy king s. lewis in france , & our maud is celebrated for that , that persōally they visited hospitals , & assisted in the cure , euen of loathsome diseases . and when that religious empress placilla , the wife of theodosius was told , that she diminished her ●elfe to much in those personal assistances , & might doe enough in sending ●eliefe , shee said , shee would send in that capacitie , as empresse , but shee would go to , in that capacitie , as a christian , as a fellow member of the body o● thy son , with them . so thy seruāt dauid applies him selfe to his people , so he incorporates himselfe in his people , by calling them his brethren , his bones , his flesh ; and when they fel vnder thy hand , euen to the pretermitting of himselfe , he presses vpon thee , by praye● for them ; i haue si●●ned , but these sheepe what haue they donne ? let thine hand i pray thee be against me and against my fathers house . it is kingly to giue ; whē araumah gaue that great , & free present to dauid , that place , those instrumēts for sacrifice , and the sacrifices themselues , it is said there , by thy spirit , al these things did araumah giue , as a king , to the king. to giue is an approaching to the condition of kings , but to giue health , an approching to the king , of kings , to thee . but this his assisting to my bodily health , thou knowest o god , and so doe some others of thine honorable seruants know , is bu● the twy-light , of that day , wherein thou● thorow him , hast shind vpon mee before ; but the eccho of that voyce , whereby thou , through him , hast spoke to mee before ; then , when he , first of any man conceiu'd a hope , that i might be of some vse in thy church , and descended to an intimation , to a perswasiō , almost to a solicitatiō , that i would embrace that calling . and thou who hadst put that desire into his heart , didst also put into mine , an obedience to it ; and i who was sicke before , of a vertiginous giddines , and irresolution , and almost spent all my time in consulting how i should spend it , was by this man of god , and god of men , put into the poole , and recouerd : when i asked , perchāce , a stone , he gaue me bread , when i asked , perchāce , a scorpion , he gaue me a fish ; whē i asked a temporall office , hee denied not , refused not that , but let mee see , that hee had rather i took this . these things , thou o god , who forgettest nothing , hast not forgot , though perchance , he , because they were benefits , hath ; but i am not only a witnesse , but an instance , that ou● iehosophat hath a care to ordaine priests , as well as iudges : and not only to send phisicians fo● temporall , but to bee the phisician for spirituall health . 8. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who though thou haue reserued thy tresure of perfit ioy , and perfit glory , to be giuen by thine own hands then , whē by seeing thee , as thou art in thy selfe , and knowing thee , as we are known , wee shall possesse in an instant , and possesse for euer , all that can any way cōduce to our happinesses , yet here also in this world , giuest vs such earnests of that full payment , as by the value of the earnest , we may giue some estimat of the tresure , humbly , and thākfully i acknowledge , that thy blessed spirit instructs mee , to make a differēce of thy blessings in this world , by that difference of the instruments , by which it hath pleased thee to deriue them vnto me . as we see thee heere in a glasse , so we receiue frō thee here by reflexion , & by instruments . euen casual things come from thee ; and that which we call fortune here , hath another name aboue . nature reaches out her hand , and giues vs corne , and wine , and oyle , and milk , but thou fillest her hand before , and thou openest her hand , that she may rain down her showres vpon vs. industry reaches out her hand to vs , and giues vs fruits of our labor , for our selues , & our posteritie ; but thy hand guides that hand , when it sowes , and when it waters , and the increase is from thee . friends reach out their hands , & prefer vs , but thy hand supports that hād , that supports vs. of all these thy instruments haue i receiued thy blessing , o god , but bless thy name most for the greatest ; that as a member of the publike , and as a partaker of priuate fauours too , by thy right hand , thy powerfull hand set , ouer vs , i haue had my portion , not only in the hearing , but in the preaching of thy gospel . humbly beseeching thee , that as thou continuest thy wonted goodnes vpon the whol world , by the wonted meanes , & instruments , the same sun , and moon , the same nature , and industry , so to continue the same blessings vpon this state , and this church by the same hand , so long , as that thy son when he comes in the clouds , may find him , or his son , or his sonnes sonnes ready to giue an account , & able to stand in that iudgmēt , for their faithfull stewardship , and dispensation of thy talēts so abūdantly cōmitted to them ; & be to him , o god , in all distēpers of his body , in all anxieties of spirit , in all holy sadnesses of soule , such a phisician in thy proportion , who art the greatest in heauen , as hee hath bin in soule , & body to me , in his proportiō , who is the greatst vpon earth . 9. medicamina scribūt . vpon their consultation , they prescribe . 9. meditation . they haue seene me , and heard mee , arraign'd mee in these fetters , and receiu'd the euidence ; i haue cut vp mine own anatomy , diffected my selfe , and they are gon to read vpon me . o how manifold , and perplexed a thing , nay , how wanton and various a thing is ruine and destruction ? god presented to dauid three kinds , war , famine , and pestilence ; satan left out these , and brought in , fires frō heauen , and windes from the wildernes . if there were no ruine but sicknes , wee see , the masters of that art , can scarce nūber , not name all sicknesses ; euery thing that disorders a faculty , & the function of that is a sicknesse : the names wil not serue thē which are giuen frō the place affected , the pluris●● is so ; nor from the effect which it works , the falling sicknes is so ; they cānot haue names ynow , from what it does , nor where it is , but they must extort names frō what it is like , what it resembles , & b●t in some one thing , or els they would lack names ; for the wolf , and the canker , and the polypus are so ; and that question , whether there be more names or things , is as perplexd in sicknesses , as in any thing else ; except it be easily resolud vpon that side , that there are more sicknesses thē names . if ruine were reduc'd to that one way , that man could perish noway but by sicknes , yet his danger were infinit ; and if sicknes were reduc'd to that one way , that there were no sicknes but a feuer , yet the way were infinite still ; for it would ouerlode , & oppress any naturall , disorder and discompose any artificiall mem●ry , to deliuer the names of seuerall feuers ; how intricate a worke then haue they , who ar● gone to consult , which of these sicknesses mine is , and then which of these feuers , and then what it would do , and thē how it may be countermind . but euen in ill , it is a degree of good , whē the euil wil admit consultation . in many diseases , that which is but an accident , but a symptom of the main disease , is so violēt , that the phisician must attend the cure of that , though hee pretermi● ( so far as to intermi● ) the cure of the disease it self . is it not so in states too ? somtimes the insolēcy of those that are great , put the people into commotions ; the great disease , & the greatest danger to the head , is the insolency of the great ones ; & yet , they execute martial law , they come to present executions vpō the people , whose commotion was indeed but a simptom , but an accident of the maine disease ; but this symptom , grown so violent , wold allow no time for a consultatiō . is it not so in the accidents of the diseases of our mind too ? is it not euidently so in our affections , in our passions ? if a cholerick man be ready to strike , must i goe about to purge his choler , or to breake the blow ? but where there is room for consultatiō , things are not desperate . they consult ; so there is nothing rashly , incōsideratly done ; and then they prescribe , the● write , so there is nothing couertly , disguisedly , vnavowedly done . in bodily diseases it is not alwaies so ; sometimes , assoon as the phisicians foote is in the chamber , his knife is in the patients arme ; the disease would not allow a minutes forbearing of blood , nor prescribing of other remedies . in states & matter of gouernmēt it is so too ; they are somtimes surprizd with such accidēts , as that the magistrat asks not what may be done by law , but does that , which must necessarily be don in that case but it is a degree of good , in euill , a degree that ca●ies hope & cōfort in it , when we may haue r●●course to that which is written , and that the proceedings may bee apert , and ingenuous , and candid , and auowable , for that giues satisfaction , and acquiescence . they who haue receiued my anatomy of my selfe , consult , and end their consultatiō in prescribing , and in prescribing phisick ; proper and conuenient remedy : for if they shold come in again , and chide mee , for some disorder , that had occasion'd , and inducd , or that had hastned and exalted this sicknes , or if they should begin to write now rules for my dyet , and exercise when i were well , this were to antidate , or to postdate their consultation , not to giue phisick . it were rather a vexation , then a reliefe , to tell a condemnd prisoner , you might haue liu'd if you had done this ; & if you can get your pardon , you shal do wel , to take this , or this course hereafter . i am glad they know ( i haue hid nothing from them ) glad they consult , ( they hide nothing frō one another ) glad they write ( they hide nothing frō the world ) glad that they write and prescribe phisick , that there are remedies for the present case . 9. expostvlation . my god , my god , allow me a iust indignation , a holy detestation of the insolēcy of that man , who because he was of that high rāke , of whō thou hast said , they are gods , thought himselfe more then equall to thee ; that king of aragon alfonsus , so perfit in the motions of the heauenly bodies , as that hee aduentured to say , that if he had bin of councell with thee , in the making of the heauens , the the heauens should haue bin disposed in a better order , then they are . the king amasiah would not indure thy prophet to reprehend him , but asked him in anger , art thou made of the kings councell● when thy prophet esaias askes that questiō who hath directed the spirit of the lord , or being his councellor hath tought him . it is after hee had setled and determined that office , vpon thy sonne , and him onely , whē he ioyns with those great titles , the mighty god , and the prince of peace , this also , the councellor ; and after he had setled vpon him , the spirit of might , and of councell . so that thē , thou o god , thogh thou haue no councell from man , yet doest nothing vpon man , without councell ; in the making of man there was a consultation ; let vs make man. in the preseruing of man , o thou great preseruer 〈◊〉 men , thou proceededst by councell ; for all thy externall workes , are the workes of the whole trinity , and their hand is to euery action . how much more must i apprehend , that al you bles●sed , & glorious persons of the trinitie are in consultation now , what you wil do with this in firm body , with this leprous soule , that attends , guiltily , but yet comfortably , your determination vpō it . i offer not to counsell them , who meet in consultatiō for my body now , but i open my in●●rmities , i anatomise my body to them . so i do my soule to thee , o my god , in an hūble confession , that there is no veine in mee , that is not full of the bloud of thy son , whō i haue crucified , & crucified againe , by multiplying many , and often repeating the same sinnes that there is no artery in me , that hath not the spirit of error , the spirit of lust , the spirit of giddines in it● no bone in me that is not hardned with the custo●e of sin , and nourished , and soupled with the marrow of sinn ; no sinews , no ligamēts , that do not tie , & chain sin and sin together . yet , o blessed and glorious trinity , o holy , & whole colledge , and yet but one phisician , if you take this confession into a consult●●●on , my case is not desp●rate my destructiō is not decreed ; if your consultation determin in writing , if you refer mee to that which is written , you intend my recouery : for al the way , o my god , ( euer constant to thine owne wayes ) thou hast proceeded opēly , intellig●bly , manifestly , by the book . from thy first book , the book of life , neue● shut to thee , but neuer throughly open to vs ; frō thy second book , the booke of nature , wher though subobscurely , and in shadows , thou hast expressed thine own image ; frō thy third booke ; the scriptures , where thou hadst writtē all in the old , and then lightedst vs a cādle to read it by , in the new testament ; to these thou hadst added the booke of iust , and vsefull lawes , established by them , to whom thou hast committed thy people ; to those , the manualls , the pocket , the bosome books of our own consciences , to ●hose thy partcular books of all our particular sins ; and to those , the booke with seuen seales , which only the lamb which was slaine , was found worthy to opē ; which , i hope , it shall not disagree with the meaning of thy blessed spirit , to interpre●e , the promulgation of their pardon , and righteousnes , who are washed in the blood of that lambe ; and if thou refer me to these bookes , to a new reading , a new triall by these bookes ● this feuer may be but a burning in the hand , and i may be saued , thogh not by my book , mine own conscience , nor by thy other books , yet by thy first , the book of life , thy decree for my election , and by thy last , the book of the lamb , and the shedding of his blood vpon me ; if i be stil vnder cōsultation , i am not cōdemned yet ; if i be sent to these books i shall not be condem'd at all : for , though there be somthing written in some of those books ( particularly in the scriptur● ) which some men turne to poyson , yet vpon these consultations ( these confessions , these takings of our particular cases , into thy consideration ) thou intendest all for phisick , & euen from those sentences , from which a too●late repenter will sucke desperation , he that seeks thee early , shall receiue thy morning dew , thy seasonable mercy , thy forward consolation . 9. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who art of so pure eyes , as that thou canst not look vpon sinn , and we of so vnpure constitutions , as that wee can present no obiect but sin , and therfore might iustly ●eare , that thou wouldst turn thine eyes for euer from vs , as , though we cannot indure afflictions in our selues , yet in thee we can● so thogh thou canst not indure sinne in vs , yet in ●hy sonn thou canst , and he hath taken vpon him se●fe , and presented to thee , al those sins , which might displease thee in vs. there is an eye in nature , that kills , assoon as it sees , the eye of a serpent ; no eye in nature , that nourishes vs by looking vpon vs ; but thine eye , o lord , does so . looke therefore vpon me , o lord , in this distresse , and that will recall mee from the borders of this bodily death ; look vpon me , and that wil raise me again from that spirituall death , in which my parents buried me , when they begot mee in sinne , and in which i haue pierced euen to the lawes of hell , by multiplying such heaps of actuall sins , vpon that foundation , that root of originall sinn . yet take me again , into your consultation , o blessed and glorious trinitie ; & thogh the father know , that i haue defaced his image receiued in my creation ; though the son know , i haue neglected mine interest in the redemption , yet , o blessed spirit , as thou art to my consciēce , so be to them a witnes , that at this minute , i accept that which i haue so often , so often , so rebelliously refused , thy blessed inspirations ; be thou my witnes to them , that at more poores then this slacke body sweates teares , this sad soule weeps blood ; and more for the displeasure of my god , then for the stripes of his displeasure . take me then , o blessed , & glorious trinitie , into a recōsultation , and prescribe me any phisick ; if it bee a long , & painful holding of this soule in sicknes , it is phisick , if i may discern thy hand to giue it , & it is phisick , if it be a speedy departing of this soule , if i may discerne thy hand to receiue it . 10. lentè & serpenti satagunt occurrere morbo . they find the disease to steale on insensibly , and endeauour to meet with it so . 10. meditation . this is natures nest of boxes ; the heauens containe the earth , the earth , cities , cities , men. and all these are concentrique ; the common center to them all , is decay , ruine ; only that is ecoentrique , which was neuer made , only that place , or garment rather , which we can imagine , but not demonstrate , that light , which is the very emanation of the light of god , in which the saints shall dwell , with which the saints shall be appareld , only that bends not to this center , to ruine ; that which was not made of nothing , is not threatned with this annihilation . all other things are ; euen a●gels , euē our soules ; they moue vpon the same poles , they bend to the same center ; and if they were not made immortall by preseruation , their nature could not keepe them from sinking to this center , annihilation . in all these ( the frame of the heuens , the states vpō earth , & men in them , comprehend all ) those are the greatest mischifs , which are least discerned ; the most insensible in their wayes come to bee the most sensible in their ends . the heauens haue had their dropsie , they drownd the world , and they shall haue their feuer , and burn the world . of the dropsie , the flood , the world had a foreknowledge 120 yeares before it came ; and so some made prouision against it , and were sau●d● the feuer shall break out in an instant , & consume all ; the dropsie did no harm to the heauens , frō whence it fell , it did not put out those lights , it did not quench those heates ; but the feuer , the fire shall burne the furnace it selfe , annihilate those heauens , that b●eath it out ; though the dog-starre haue a pestilent breath , an infectious exhalation , yet because we know when it wil rise , we clo●he our selues , & wee die● our selues , and wee shadow our selues to a sufficient preuētion ; but comets and blazing starres , whose effects , or significations no man can interrupt or frustrat , no man foresaw : no almanack tells vs , when a blazing starre will bre●k out , the matter is carried vp in secret ; no astrologer tels vs when the effects wil be accomplishd , for that 's a secret of a higher spheare , then the other ; and that which is most secret , is most dangerous . it is so also here in the societies of men , in states , & commōwealths . twentie rebellious drums make not so dāgerous a noise , as a few whisperers , and secret plotters in corners . the canon doth not so much hurt against a wal , as a myne vnder the wall ; nor a thousand enemies that threaten , so much as a few that take an oath to say nothing . god knew many heauy sins of the people , in the wildernes and after , but still he charges thē with that one , with murmuring , murmuring in their hearts , secret disobediences , secre● repugn●nces against his declar'd wil ; and th●se are the most deadly , the most pernicious . and it is so to , with the diseases of the body ; and that is my case . the pulse , the vrine , the sweat , all haue sworn to say nothing , to giue no indication of any dangerous sicknesse . my forces are not enfeebled , i find no decay in my strength ; my prouisions are not cut off , i find no abhorring in mine appetite ; my counsels are not corrupted nor infatuated , i find no false apprehēsions , to work vpon mine vnderstāding● and yet they see , that inuisibly , & i feele , that insensibly the disease preuailes . the disease hath established a kingdome , an empire in mee , and will haue certaine arcana imperij , secrets of state , by which it will proceed , & not be boūd to declare ●hem . but yet against those secret conspiracies in the state , the magistrate hath the ra●k ● and against these insensible diseases , phisicians haue their examiners ; and those these imploy now . 10. expostvlation . my god , my god , i haue bin told , and told by relation , by her own brother , that did it , by thy seruant nazianzen , that his sister in the vehemēcy of her prayer , did vse to threaten thee , with a holy importunitie , with a pious impudencie . i dare not doe so , o● god ; but as thy seruant augustin , wisht that adam had not sinned , therefore that christ might not haue died , may i not to this one purpose wish , that if the serpent before the tentation of eue , did goe vpright , and speake , that he did so still , because i should the sooner heare him , if he spoke , the sooner see him , if he went vpright ? in his curse , i am cursed too ; his creeping vndoes mee : for howsoeuer hee begin at the heele , and doe but bruise that ; yet he , and death in him is come into our windowes ; into our eyes , and eares , the entrāces , & inlets of our soule . he works vpon vs in secret , & we doe not discerne him ; and one great work of his vpon vs , is to make vs so like himselfe , as to sin in secret , that others may not see vs ; but his master-piece is , to make vs sin in secret so , as that we may not see our selus sin . for the first , the hiding of our sins from other men , hee hath induo'd that , which was his off-spring from the beginning , a lye : for man , is in nature , yet , in posses●ion of some such sparkes of ingenuitie , & noblenesse , as that , but to disguise euill , hee would not lye . the bodie , the sinne , is the serpents , and the garment that couers it , the lye , is his too . these are his ; but the hiding of sinne from our selues , is hee himselfe : when we haue the sting of the serpent in vs , and doe not sting our selues , the venim of sin , and no remorse for sinn , then , as thy blessed sonne said of iudas , hee is a deuill , not that he had one , but was one , so we are become deuils to our selues , and we haue not only a serpent in our bosome , but we our selues , are to our selues that serpent . how farre did thy seruant dauid presse vpon thy pardon , in that petition , clense thou me from secret sinns ? can any sin bee secret ? for , a great part of our sinnes , though , sayes thy prophet , we conceiue them in the darke , vpon ou● bed , yet sayes he , we doe them in the light ; there are many sins , which we glorie in doing , and would not doe , if no body should know thē . thy blessed seruant august confesses , that hee was ashamed of his shamefastnes , and tendernesse of conscience , and that he often be lied himself with sinnes , which he neuer did , lest he should be vnacceptable to his sinfull companions . but if we would conceale them , ( thy pr●phet found such a desire , and such a practise in some , whē he said , thou hast trusted in thy wickedkednes , and thou hast sayd , none shall see me ) yet can we conceale thē ? thou o god , canst heare of them by others ; the voice of abels blood , will tell thee of cains murder ; the heauens themselues will tell thee heauē shal reueale his iniquity ; a smal creature alone , shall doe it , a bird of the ayre shall carry the voice , and tell the matter : thou wilt trouble no informer , thou thy selfe reuealedst adams sin , to thy selfe ; and the manifestation of sin is so ful to thee , as that thou shalt reueale all to all , thou shalt bring euery worke to iudgement , with euery secret thing , and there is nothing couered , that shall not bee reuealed : but , o my god , there is another way of knowing my sins , which thou louest better then any of these ; to know them by my confession . as phisicke works so , it drawes the peccant humour to it selfe , that when it is gathered together , the weight of it selfe may carry that humour away , so thy spirit returns to my memory my former sinnes , that being so recollected , they may powre out them●elues by confession . when i kept silence , sayes thy seruant dauid , day , and night , thy hand was heauy vpon mee , but when i said , i wil confesse my transgressions vnto the lord , thou forgauest the iniquitie of my sinne . thou interpretest the very pu●pose of confession so well , as that thou scarce leauest any new mercy for the action it selfe . this mercy thou leauest , that thou armest vs thereupon , against relapses into the sinnes which wee haue confessed . and that mercy , which thy seruant augustine apprehends , when he sayes to thee , thou hast forgiuē me those sinnes which i haue done , and those sinnes which only by thy grace i haue not done : they were done in our inclination to them , and euen that inclination needs thy mercy , and that mercy he calls a pardon . and these are most truly secret sinnes , because they were neuer done , and because no other man , nor i my selfe , but onely thou knowest , how many and how great sinnes i haue scaped by thy grace , which without that , i should haue multiplied against thee . 10. prayer . o eternall , and most gracious god , who as thy sonne christ iesus , though hee knew all things , yet said hee knew not the day of iudgement , because he knew it not so , as that he might tell it vs ; so though thou knowest all my sins , yet thou knowest them not to my comfort , except thou know them by my telling them to th●e , how shall i bring to thy knowledg by that way , those sinns , which i my selfe know not ? if i accuse my selfe of originall sin , wilt thou ask me if i know what originall sin is ? i know not enough of it to satisfie others , but i know enough to condemne my self , & to solicit thee . if i confesse to thee the sinnes of my youth , wilt thou aske me , if i know what those sins were ? i know them not so well , as to name them all , nor am sure to liue houres enough to name them al , ( for i did thē then , faster then i can speak them now , when euery thing that i did , conduc'd to some sinne ) but i know thē so well , as to know , that nothing but thy mercy is so infinite as they . if the naming of sinnes , of thought , word , and deed , of sinns of omission , and of action , of sins against thee , against my neighbour , and against my self , of sinns vnrepented , and sinnes relapsed into after repentance , of sinnes of ignorance , and sinnes against the testimonie of my conscience , of sinnes against thy commaundements , sinnes against thy sonnes prayer , and sinns against our owne creed , of sins against the laws of that church , & sinnes against the lawes of that state , in which thou hast giuen mee my station , if the naming o● these sinnes reach not home to all mine , i know what will ; o lord pardon me , me , all those sinnes , which thy sonne christ iesus suffered for , who suffered for all the sinnes of all the world ; for there is no sinne amongst all those which had not been my sinne , if thou hadst not beene my god , and antidated me a pardon in thy preuenting grace . and since sinne in the nature of it , retaines still so much of the author of it , that it is a serpent , insensibly insinuating it selfe , into my soule , let thy brazen serpent , ( the contemplation of thy sonne crucified for me ) be euermore present to me , for my recouery against the sting of the first serpent ; that so , as i haue a lyon against a lyon , the lyon of the tribe of iudah , against that lyon , that seekes whom hee may deuoure , so i may haue a serpent against a serpent , the wisedome of the serpent , against the malice of the serpent , and , both against that lyon , and serpent , forcible , and subtill tentations , thy doue with thy oliue , in thy arke , humilitie , and peace , and reconciliation to thee , by the ordinances of thy church● amen . 11. nobilibusque trahunt , a cincto corde , venenum , succis & gemmis , & quae generosa , ministrant ars , et natura , instillant . they vse cordials , to keep the venim and malignitie of the disease from the heart . 11. meditation . whence can wee take a better argument , a clearer d●monstration , that all the greatnes of this world , is built vpon opinion of others , and hath in it self no reall being , nor power of subsistence , then from the heart of man ? it is alwayes in action , and motion , still busie , still pretending to doe all , to furnish all the powers , and faculties with all that they haue ; but if an ●nemy dare rise vp against it , it is the soonest endangered , the soonest defeated of any part . the braine will hold out longer then it , and the liuer longer then that ; they will endure a siege ; but an vnnatural heat , a rebellious heat , will blow vp the heart , like a myne , in a minute . but howsoeuer , since the heart hath the birth-right , and primogeniture , and that it is natures eldest sonne in vs , the part which is first borne to life in man , and that the other parts , as younger brethren , and seruants in this family , haue a dependance vpon it , it is reason that the principall care bee had of it , though it bee not the strongest part ; as the eldest is oftentimes not the strongest of the family . and since the braine , and liuer , and heart , hold not a triumuirate in man , a soueraigntie equally shed vpon them all , for his well-being , as the foure elements doe , for his very being , but the heart alone is in the principalitie , and in the throne , as king , the rest as subiects , though in eminent place , and office , must contribute to that , as children to their parents , as all persons to all kindes of superiours , though oftētimes , those parents , or those superiours , bee not of stronger parts , then themselues , that serue and obey them that are weaker ; neither doth this obligation fall vpon vs , by second dictates of nature , by consequences , and conclusions arising out of nature , or deriu'd from nature , by discourse , ( as many things binde vs , euen by the law of nature , and yet not by the primarie law of nature ; as all lawes of proprietie in that which we possesse , are of the law of nature , which law is , to giue euery one his owne , and yet in the primarie law of nature , there was no proprietie , no meum & tuum , but an vniuersall communitie ouer all ; so the obedience of superiours , is of the law of nature , and yet in the primarie law of nature , there was no superioritie , no magistracie ; ) but this contribution of assistance of all to the soueraigne , of all parts to the heart , is from the very first dictates of nature ; which is in the first place , to haue care of our owne preseruation , to looke first to our selues ; for therefore doth the phisician intermit the present care of braine , or liuer , because there is a possibilitie , that they may subsist , though there bee not a present and a particular care had of them , but there is no possibilitie that they can subsist , if the heart perish : and so , when we seeme to begin with others , in such assistances , indeed wee doe beginne with our selues , and wee our selues are principally in our contemplation ; and so all these officious , and mutuall assistances , are but complements towards others , and our true end is our selues . and this is the reward of the paines of kings ; sometimes they neede the power of law , to be obeyd ; and when they seeme to be obey'd voluntarily , they who doe it , doe it for their owne sakes . o how little a thing is all the greatnes of man , and through how false glasses doth he make shift to multiply it , and magnifie it to himselfe ? and yet this is also another misery of this king of man , the heart , which is also applyable to the kings of this world , great men , that the venime & poy●on of euery pestilentiall disease directs it selfe to the heart , affects that , ( pernicious affection , ) and the malignity of ill men , is also directed vpon the greatest , and the best ; and not only greatnesse , but goodnesse looses the vigour of beeing an antidote , or cordiall against it . and as the noblest , and most generous cordialls that nature or art afford , or can prepare , if they be often taken , and made familiar , become no cordialls , nor haue any extraordinary operation , so the greatest cordiall of the heart , patience , if it bee much exercis'd , exalts the venim and the malignity of the enemy , and the more we suffer , the more wee are insulted vpon . when god had made this earth of nothing , it was but a little helpe , that he had , to make other things of this earth : nothing can be neerer nothing , then this earth ; and yet how little of this earth , is the greatest man ? hee thinkes he treads vpon the earth , that all is vnder his fe●te , and the braine that thinkes so , is but earth ; his highest region , the flesh that couers that , is but earth ; and euen the toppe of that , that , wherein so many absolons take so much pride , is but a bush growing vpon that turfe of earth . how litle of the world is the earth ? and yet that is all , that man hath , or is . how little of a man is the heart ; and yet it is all , by which he is : and this continually subiect , not onely to forraine poysons , conueyed b● others , but to intestine poysons bred in our selues by pestilentiall sicknesses . o who , if before hee had a beeing , he could haue sense of this miserie , would buy a being here vpon these conditions ? 11. expostvlation . my god , my god , all that thou askest of mee , is my heart , my sonne , giue mee thy heart ; am i thy sonne , as long as i haue but my heart ? vvilt thou giue mee an inheritance , a filiation , any thing for my heart ? o thou , who saydst to satan , hast thou considered my seruant iob , that there is none like him vpon the earth , shall my feare , shall my zeale , shall my iealousie haue leaue to say to thee , hast thou considered my heart , that there is not so peruerse a heart vpon ea●th ; and wouldest thou haue that ; and shall i be thy sonne , thy eternall sonnes coheire , for giuing that ? the heart is deceitfull , aboue all things , and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? hee that askes that question , makes the answere , i the lord search the heart . when didst thou search mine ? dost thou thinke to finde it , as thou madest it in adam ? thou hast searched since , and found all these gradations in the ill of our hearts , that euery imagination , of the thoughts of our hearts , is onely euill continually . doest thou remember this , and wouldest thou haue my heart ? o god of all light , i know thou knowest all ; and it is thou , that declarest vnto man , what is his heart . vvithout thee , o soueraigne goodnesse , i could not know , how ill my heart were . thou hast declared vnto mee , in thy word , that for all this deluge of euill , that hath surrunded all hearts , yet thou soughtest and foundest a man after thine owne heart , that thou couldest and wouldest giue thy people pastours according to thine owne heart ; and i can gather out of thy word , so good testimony of the hearts of men , as to finde single hearts , docile , and apprehensiue hearts ; hearts that can , hearts that haue learnt ; wise hearts , in one place , and in another , in a great degree , wise , perfit hearts ; straight hearts , no peruersnesse without , and cleane hearts , no foulenesse within ; such hearts i can find in thy word ; and if my heart were such a heart , i would giue thee my heart . but i find stonie hearts too , and i haue made mine such : i haue found hearts , that are snares ; and i haue conuersed with such ; hearts that burne like ouens ; and the fuell of lust , and enuie , and ambition , hath inflamed mine ; hearts in which their masters trust , and hee that trusteth in his owne heart , is a foole ; his confidence in his owne morall constancie , and ciuill fortitude , will betray him , when thou shalt cast a spirituall dampe , a heauinesse , and dei●ction of spirit vpon him . i haue found these hearts , and a worse then these , a heart into the which the deuill himselfe is entred , iudas heart . the first kind of heart , alas , my god , i haue not ; the last are not hearts to bee giuen to thee ; what shall i do ? without that present i cannot bee thy sonne , and i haue it not . to those of the first kinde , thou giuest ioyfulnes of heart , and i haue not that ; to those of the other kinde , thou giuest faintnesse of heart : and blessed bee thou , o god , for that forbearance , i haue not that yet . there is then a middle kinde of hearts , not so pe●fit , as to bee giuen , but that the very giuing , mends them : not so desperate , as not to bee accepted , but that the very accepting dignifies them . this is a melting heart , and a troubled heart ; and a wounded heart , and a broken heart , and a contrite heart ; and by the powerfull working of thy piercing spirit , such a heart i haue ; thy samuel spake vnto all the house of thy israel , and sayd , if you returne to the lord with all your hearts , prepare your hearts vnto the lord. if my heart bee prepared , it is a returning heart ; and if thou see it vpon the way , thou wilt carrie it ●ome ; nay , the preparation is thine too ; this melting , this wounding , this breaking , this contrition , which i haue now , is thy way , to thy ende ; and those discomforts , are for all that , the earnest of thy spirit in my heart ; and where thou giuest earnest , thou wilt performe the bargaine . naball was confident vpon his wine , but in the morning his heart dyed within him ; thou , o lord , hast giuen mee wormewood , and i haue had some diffidence vpon that ; and thon hast cleared a morning to mee againe , and my heart is aliue . danids heart smote him , when hee cut off the skirt from saul ; and his heart smote him , when hee had numbred his people : my heart hath strucke mee , when i come to number my sinnes ; but that blowe is not to death , because those sinnes are not to death , but my heart liues in thee . but yet as long as i remaine in this great hospitall , this sicke , this diseasefull world , as long as i remaine in this leprous house , this flesh of mine , this heart , though thus prepared for thee , prepared by thee , will still be subiect to the inuasion of maligne and pestilent vapours . but i haue my cordialls in thy promise ; when i shall know the plague of my heart , and pray vnto thee , in thy house , thou wilt preserue that heart , from all mortall force , of that infection : and the peace of god , which passeth all vnderstanding , shall keepe my heart and minde through christ iesus . 11. prayer . o eternall , and most gracious god , who in thy vpper house , the heauens , though there bee many mansions , yet art alike , and equally in euery mansion , but heere in thy lower house , though thou fillest all , yet art otherwise in some roomes thereof , then in others , otherwise in thy church , then in my chamber , and otherwise in thy sacraments , then in my prayers , so though thou bee alwayes present , and alwayes working in euery roome of this thy house , my body , yet i humbly beseech thee to manifest alwayes a more effectuall presence in my heart , then in the other offices . into the house of thine annoynted , disloyall persons , traitors will come ; into thy house , the church , hypocrites , and idolatrers will come ; into some roomes of this thy house , my body , tentations will come , infections will come , but bee my heart , thy bed-chamber , o my god , and thither let them not enter . iob made a couenant with his eyes , but not his making of that couenant , but thy dwelling in his heart , enabled him to keepe that couenaunt . thy sonne himselfe had a sadnesse in his soule to death , and hee had a reluctation , a deprecation of death , in the approaches thereof ; but hee had his cordiall too , yet not my will , but thine bee done . and as thou hast not deliuered vs , thine adopted sonnes , from these infectious tentations , so neither hast thou deliuered vs ouer to them , nor withheld thy cordialls from vs. i was baptized in thy cordiall water , against originall sinne , and i haue drunke of thy cordiall blood , for my recouerie , from actuall , and habituall sinne in the other sacrament . thou , o lord , who hast imprinted all medicinall vertues , which are in all creatures , and hast made euen the flesh of vipers , to assist in cordialls , art able to make this present sicknesse , euerlasting health , this weaknes , euerlasting strēgth , and this very deiection , and faintnesse of heart , a powerfull cordiall . when thy blessed sonne cryed out to thee , my god , my god , why hast thou forsaken mee , thou diddest reach out thy hand to him ; but not to deliuer his sad soule , but to receiue his holy soule ; neither did hee longer desire to hold it of thee , but to recommend it to thee . i see thine hand vpon mee now , o lord , and i aske not why it comes , what it intends : whether thou wilt bidde it stay still in this body , for some time , or bidd it meet thee this day in paradise , i aske not , not in a wish , not in a thought : infirmitie of nature , curiositie of minde , are tentations that offer ; but a silent , and absolute obedience , to thy will , euen before i know it , is my cordiall . preserue that to mee , o my god , and that will preserue mee to thee ; that when thou hast catechised mee with affliction here , i may take a greater degree , and serue thee in a higher place , in thy kingdome of ioy , and glory . amen . 12. — spirante columbâ suppositâ pedibus , reuocantur ad ima vapores . they apply pidgeons , to draw the vapors from the head. 12. meditation . vvhat will not kill a man , if a vapor will ? how great an elephant , how small a mouse destroyes ? to dye by a bullet is the souldiers dayly bread ; but few men dye by haile-shot : a man is more worth , then to bee sold for single money ; a life to be valued aboue a trifle . if this were a violent shaking of the ayre by thunder , or by canon , in that case the ayre is condensed aboue the thicknesse of water , of water baked into ice , almost petrified , almost made stone , and no wonder that that kills ; but that that which is but a vapor , and a vapor not forced , but breathed , should kill , that our nourse should ouerlay vs , and ayre , that nourishes vs , should destroy vs , but that it is a halfe atheisme to murmure against nature , who is gods immediate commissioner , who would not think himselfe miserable to bee put into the hands of nature , who does not only set him vp for a marke for others to shoote at , but delights her selfe to blow him vp like a glasse , till shee see him breake , euen with her owne breath ? nay if this infectious vapor were sought for , or trauail'd to , as plinie hunted after the vapor of aetna and dard , and challenged death in the forme of a vapor to doe his worst , and felt the worst , he dyed ; or if this vapor were met withall in an ambush , and we surprized with it , out of a long shut● well , or out of a new opened myne , who wold lament , who would accuse , when we had nothing to accuse , none to lament against , but fortune , who is lesse then a vapour : but when our selues are the well , that breaths out this exhalation , the ouen that spits out this fiery smoke , the myne that spues out this suffocating , and strangling dampe , who can euer after this , aggrauate his sorrow , by this circumstance , that it was his neighbor , his familiar friend , his brother that destroyed him , and destroyed him with a whispering , & a calumniating breath , when wee our selues doe it to our selues by the same meanes , kill our selues with our owne vapors ? or if these occasions of this selfe-destruction , had any contribution from our owne wils , any assistance from our owne intentions , nay frō our owne errors , wee might diuide the rebuke , & chide our selues as much as them . feuers vpon wilful distempers of drinke , and surfets , consumptions vpon intēperances , & licentiousnes , madnes vpon misplacing , or ouer-bending our naturall faculties , proceed from our selues , and so , as that our selues are in the plot , and wee are not onely passiue , but actiue too , to our owne destruction ; but what haue i done , either to breed , or to breath these vapors ? they tell me it is my melancholy ; did i infuse , did i drinke in melancholly into my selfe ? it is my thoughtfulnesse ; was i not made to thinke ? it is my study ; doth not my calling call for that● i haue don nothing , wilfully , peruersly toward it , yet must suffer in it , die by it ; there are too many examples of men , that haue bin their own executioners , and that haue made hard shift to bee so ; some haue alwayes had poyson about them , in a hollow ring vpō their finger , and some in their pen that they vsed to write with : some haue beat out their braines at the wal of their prison , and some haue eate the fire out of their chimneys : and one is said to haue come neerer our case then so , to haue strāgled himself , though his hands were bound , by crushing his throat between his knees ; but i doe nothing vpon my selfe , and yet am mine owne executioner . and we haue heard of death , vpon small occasions , and by scornefull instruments ; a pinne , a combe , a haire , pulled , hath gangred , & killd ; but when i haue said , a vapour , if i were asked again , what is a vapour , i could not tell , it is so insensible a thing ; so neere nothing is that that red●ces vs to nothing . but extend this vapour , rarifie it ; from so narow a roome , as our naturall bodies , to any politike body , to a state. that which is fume in vs , is in a state , rumor , and these vapours in vs , which wee consider here pestilent , and infectious fumes , are in a state infectious rumors , detracting and dishonourable calumnies , libels . the heart in that body is the king ; and the braine , his councell ; and the whole magistracie , that ties all toge●her , is the sinewes , which proceed from thence ; and the life of all is honour , and iust respect , and due reuerence ; and therfore , when these vapors , these venimous rumors , are directed against these noble parts , the whole body suf●ers . but yet for all their priuiledges , they are not priuiledged from our misery ; that as the vapours most pernitious to vs , arise in our owne bodies , so doe the most dishonorable rumours , and those that wound a state most , arise at home . what ill ayre , that i could haue met in the street , what channell , what shambles , what dunghill , what vault , could haue hurt mee so much , as these home-bredd vapours ? what fugitiue , what almes-man of any forraine state , can doe so much harme , as a detracter , a libeller , a scornefull iester at home ? for , as they that write of poysons , and of creatures naturally disposed to the ruine of man , do as well mention the flea , as the viper , because the flea , though hee kill none , hee does all the harme hee can , so euen these libellous and licentious iesters , vtter the venim they haue , though sometimes vertue , and alwaies power , be a good pigeon to draw this vapor from the head , and from doing any deadly harme there . 12. expostvlation . my god , my god , as thy seruant iames , when he asks that questiō , what is your life , prouides me my answere , it is euen a vapor , that appeareth for a little time , & then vanisheth away , so if he did aske me what is your death , i am prouided of my answere , it is a vapor too ; and why should it not be all one to mee , whether i liue , or die , if life , and death be all one , both a vapor . thou ha●t made vapor so indifferent a thing , as that thy blessings , and thy iudgements are equally expressed by it , and is made by thee the hierogliphique of both . why should not that bee alwaies good , by which thou hast declared thy plentifull goodnes to vs ? a vapor went vp from the earth , and watred the whole face of the ground , and that by which thou hast imputed a goodnes to vs , and wherein thou hast accepted our seruice to thee , sacrifices ; for sacrifices , were vapors , and in th●m it is said , that a thicke cloude of inc●nce went vp to thee . so it is of that , wherein thou comst to vs , the dew of heauen , and of that wherein we come to thee● both are vapors ; and hee , in whom we haue , and are all that we are or haue , tēporally , or spiritually , thy blessed son , in the persō of wisedome , is called so to ; she is ( that is he is ) the vapor of the power of god , and the pure influence frō the glory of the almighty . hast thou , thou , o my god , perfumed vapor , with thine own breath , with so many sweet acceptations , in thine own word , and shall this vapor receiue an ill , and infectious sense ? it must ; for , since we haue displeased thee , with that which is but vapor , ( for what is sinne , but a vapor , but a smoke , though such a smoke , as takes away our sight , and disables vs from seeing our danger ) it is iust , that thou punish vs with vapo●s to for so thou dost , as the wiseman tels vs , thou canst punish vs by those things , wherein wee offend thee ; as he hath expressed it there , b● beasts newly created , breathing vapors . therefore that commination of ●hine , by thy prophet , i will shew wonders in the heauen , and in the earth , bloud and fire , and pillars of smoke ● thine apostle , who knewe thy meaning best , calls vapors of smoke . one prophe● presents thee in thy terriblenesse , so , there went out a smoke at his nostrils , and another , the effect of thine anger so , the house was filled with smoake ; and hee that continues his prophesie , as long as the world can continue , describes the miseries of the latter times so , out of the bottomlesse pit arose a smoke , that darkened the sunne , and out of that smoke came locusts , who had the power of scorpions . now all smokes begin in fire , & all these will end so too : the smoke of sin , and of thy wrath , will end in the fire of hell . but hast thou afforded vs no means to euaporate these smokes , to withdraw these vapors ? when thine angels fell from heauen , thou tookst into thy care , the reparatiō of that place , & didst it , by assuming , by drawing vs thither● when we fel from thee here , in this world , thou tookst into thy care the reparation of this place too , and didst it by assuming vs another way , by descending down to assume our nature , in thy son. so that though our last act be an ascending to glory , ( we shall ascend to the place of angels ) yet our first act is to goe the way of thy sonn , descending , and the way of thy blessed spirit too , who descended in the doue . therefore hast thou bin pleased to afford vs this remedy in nature , by this application of a doue , to our lower parts , to make these vapors in our bodies , to descend , and to make that a type to vs , that by the visitation of thy spirit , the vapors o● sin shall descend , & we tread them vnder our feet . at the baptisme of thy son , the doue descended , & at the exalting of thine apostles to preach , the same spirit descēded . let vs draw down the vapors of our own pride , our own wits , our own wils , our own inuētions , to the simplicitie of thy sacraments , & the obedience of thy word , and these doues , thus applied , shall make vs liue . 12. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who though thou haue suffred vs to destroy our selues , & hast not giuen vs the power of reparation in our s●lues , hast yet afforded vs such meanes of reparation , as may easily , and familiarly be compassed by vs , prosper i humbly beseech thee this means of bodily assistance in this thy ordinary creature , and prosper thy meanes of spirituall assistance in thy holy ordinances . and as thou hast caried this thy creature the doue , through all thy wayes , through nature , and made it naturally proper to conduce medicinally to our bodily health , through the law , and made it a sacrifice for sinne there , and through the gospel , and made it , & thy spirit in it , a witnes of thy sonnes baptisme there , so carry it , and the qualities of it home to my soule , and imprint there that simplici●y , that mildnesse , that harmelesnesse , which thou hast imprinted by nature in this creature . that so all vapours of all disobedience to thee , being subdued vnder my feete , i may in the power , and triumphe of thy sonne , treade victoriously vpon my graue , and trample vpon the lyon , and dragon , that lye vnder it , to deuoure me . thou o lord by the prophet callest the doue , the doue of the valleys , but promisest that the doue of the valleyes shall bee vpon the mountaine : as thou hast layed mee low , in this valley of sickenesse , so low , as that i am made fit for that question , asked in the field of bones , sonne of man , can these bones liue , so , in thy good time , carry me vp to these mountaynes , of which , euen in this valley , thou affordest mee a prospect , the mountain where thou dwellest , the holy hill , vnto which none can ascend but hee that hath cleane hands , which none can haue , but by that one and that strong way , of making them cleane , in the blood of thy sonne christ iesus . amen . 13. ingeniumque malum , numeroso stigmate , fassus pellitur ad pectus , morbique suburbia , morbus . the sicknes declares the infection●●nd malignity thereof 〈…〉 . 13. meditation . wee say , that the world is made of sea , & land , as though they were equal ; but we know that ther is more sea in the western , thē in the eastern hemisphere ● we say that the firmament is full of starres ; as though it were equally full ; but we know , that there are more stars vnder the northerne , then vnder the southern pole. wee say , the elements of man are misery , and happinesse , as though he had an equal proportion of both , and the dayes of man vicissitudinary , as though he had as many good daies , as ill , and that he liud vnder a perpetuall equinoctial , night , and day equall , good and ill fortune in the same measure . but it is far frō that ; hee drinkes misery , & he tastes happinesse ; he mowes misery , and hee gleanes happinesse ; hee iournies in misery , he does but walke in happinesse ; and which is worst , his misery is positiue , and dogmaticall , his happinesse is but disputable , and problematicall ; all men call misery , misery , but happinesse changes the name , by the taste of man. in this accident that befalls m●e now , that this sicknesse declares it selfe by spots , to be a malignant , and pestilentiall disease , if there be a comfort in the declaration , that therby the phisicians see more cleerely what to doe , there m●y bee as much discomfort in this , that the malignitie may bee so great , as that all that they can doe , shall doe nothing ; that an enemy declares himselfe , then , when he is able to subsist , and to pursue , and to atchiue his ends , is no great comfort . in intestine conspiracies , voluntary confessions doe more good , then confessions vpon the rack ; in these infections , when nature her selfe confesses , and cries out by these outward declarations , which she is able to put forth of her selfe , they minister comfort ; but when all is by the strength of cordials , it is but a confession vpon the racke , by which though wee come to knowe the malice of that man , yet wee doe not knowe , whether there bee not as much malice in his heart then , as before his confession ; we are sure of his treason , but not of of his repentance ; sure of him , but not of his complices . it is a faint comfort to know the worst , when the worst is remedilesse ; and a weaker then that , to know much ill , & not to know , that that is the worst . a woman is comforted with the birth of her son , her body is eased of a burthen ; but if shee could prophetically read his history , how ill a man , perchance how ill a sonne , he would proue , shee should receiue a greater burthē into her mind . scarce any purchase that is not cloggd with secret encumbrāces ; scarce any happines , that hath not in it so much of the nature of false and base money , as that the allay is more then the mettall . nay is it not so , ( at least much towards it ) euen in the exercise of vertues ? i must bee poore , and want , before i can exercise the vertue of gratitude ; miserable , and in torment , before i can exercise the vertue of patience ; how deepe do we dig , and for how course gold ? and what other touch-stone haue we of our gold , but comparison ? whether we be as happy , as others , or as our selus at other times ; o poore stepp toward being well , when these spots do only tell vs , that we are worse , then we were sure of before . 13. expostvlation . my god , my god , thou hast made this sick bed thine altar , and i haue no other sacrifice to offer , but my ●elf ; and wilt thou accept no ●potted sacrifice ? doeth ●hy son dwel bodily in this flesh , that thou shouldst looke for an vnspottednes here ? or is the holy ghost , the soule of this body , as he is of thy spouse , who is therfore all faire , and no spot in her ? or hath thy son himself no spots , who hath al our stains , & deformities in him ? or hath thy spouse , thy church , no spots , when euery particular limbe of that faire , & spotles body , euery p●rticular soule in that church is full of staines , and spots ? thou bidst vs hate the garment , that is spotted with the flesh . the flesh it selfe is the garment , and it spotteth it selfe , with it self . and if i wash my selfe with snow water ; mine own clothes shall make me abominable ; and yet no man yet euer hated his owne flesh : lord , if thou looke for a spotlesnesse , whom wilt thou looke vpon ? thy mercy may goe a great way in my soule , & yet not leaue me without spots ; thy corrections may go far , & burn deepe , and yet not leaue me spotles : thy children apprehended that , whē they said , from our former iniquitie wee are not cleansed , vntill this day , though there was a plague in the congregation of the lord ; thou r●in●st vpon vs , and yet doest not alwaies mollifie all our hardnesse ; thou kindlest thy fires in vs , and yet doest not alwayes burne vp all our drosse ; thou healst our woūds , and yet leauest scarres ; thou purgest the blood , and yet leauest spots . but the spots that thou hatest , are the spotts that we hide . the caruers of images couer spotts , sayes the wise man ; when we hide our spotts , wee become idolatrers of our owne staines , of our own foulenesses . but if my spots come forth , by what meanes soeuer , whether by the strēgth of nature , by voluntary confessiō , ( for grace is the nature of a regenerate man , and the power of grace is the strength of nature ) or by the vertue of cordialls , ( for euē thy corrections are cordials ) if they come forth either way , thou receiuest that confession with a gracious interpretation . when thy seruant iacob practised an inuention to procure spotts in his sheepe , thou diddest prosper his rodds ; and thou dost prosper thine owne rodds , when corrections procure the discouery of our spotts , the humble manifestation of our sinns to thee ; till then thou maist iustly say , the whole need not the phisician ; till wee tell thee in our sicknes , wee think our selues whole , till we shew our spotts , thou appliest no medicine . but since i do that , shall i not , lord , lift vp my face without spot , and be stedfast , and not feare . euen my spotts belong to thy sonnes body , and are part of that , which he came downe to this earth , to fetch , and challenge , and assume to himselfe . when i open my spotts , i doe but present him with that which is his , and till i do so , i detaine , & withhold his right . vvhen therfore thou seest them vpon me , as his , and seest them by this way of confession , they shall not appear to me , as the pinches of death , to decline my feare to hell ; ( for thou hast not left th● holy one in hell , thy sonne is not there ) but these spotts vpon my breast , and vpon my soule , shal appeare to mee as the constellations of the firmament , to direct my contemplation to that place , where thy son is , thy right hand . 13. prayer . o eternall , and most g●atious god , who as thou giuest all for nothing , if we consider any precedent merit in vs , so giu'st nothing , for nothing , if we consider the acknowledgement , & thankefullnesse , which thou lookest for , after , accept my humble thankes , both for thy mercy , and for this particular mercie , that in thy iudgement i can discerne thy mercie , and find comfort in thy corrections . i know , o lord , the ordinary discomfort that accompanies that phrase , that the house is visited , and that , that thy markes , and thy tokens are vpon the patient ; but what a wretched , and disconsolate hermitage is that house , which is not visited by thee , and what a wayue , and stray is that man , that hath not thy markes vpon him ? these hea●es , o lord , which thou hast broght vpon this body , are but thy chafing of the wax , that thou mightest seale me to thee ; these spots are but the letters ; in which thou hast written thine owne name , and conueyed thy selfe to mee ; whether for a present possession , by taking me now , or for a future renersion , by glorifying thy selfe in my stay here , i limit not , ● condi●ion not , i choose not , i wish not , no more then the house , or land that passeth by any ciuill conueyance . onely be thou euer present to me , o my god , and this bed-chamber , & thy bed-chamber shal be all one roome , and the closing of these bodily eyes here , and the opening of the eyes of my soule , there , all one act. 14. idque notant criticis , medici euenisse diebus . the phisicians obserue these accidents to haue fallen vpon the criticall dayes . 14. meditation . i would not make man worse then hee is , nor his condition more miserable then it is . but could i though i would ? as a man cannot flatter god , nor oue● prayse him , so a man cannot iniure man , no● vnderualue him . thus much must necessarily be presented to his remembrance , that those false happinesses , which he hath in this world , haue their times , & their seasons , and their critical d●yes , & they are iudged , and denominated according to the times , when they befall vs. what poore elements are our happinesses made off , if tyme , tyme which wee can scarce consider to be any thing , be an ess●ntial part of our h●pines ? all things are done in some place ; but if we consider place to be no more , but the next hollow superficies of the ayre , alas , how thinne , & fluid a thing is ayre , and how thinne a filme is a superficies , and a superficies of ayre ? all things are done in time too ; but if we consider tyme to be but the measure of motion , and howsoeuer it may seeme to haue three stations , past , present , and future , yet the first and last of these are not ( one is not , now , & the other is not yet ) and that which you call present , is not now the same that it wa● , when you began to call it so in this line , ( before you sound that word , present , or that monosyllable , now , the present , & the now is past , ) if this imaginary halfe-nothing , tyme be of the essence of our happinesses , how can they be thought durable ? tyme is not so ; how can they bee thought to be ? tyme is not so ; not so , considered in any of the parts thereof . if we consider eternity , into that , tyme neuer entred ; eternity is not an euerlasting flux of tyme ; but tyme is as a short parenthesis in a longe period ; and eternity had bin the same , as it is , though time had neuer beene ; if we consider , not eternity , bu● perpetuity , not that which had no tyme to beginne in , but whic● shall out-liue tyme an● be , when tyme shall be● no more , wh●t a minu●● is the life of the durablest creature , compare● to that ? and what ● minute is mans life i● respect of the sunnes , o● of a tree ? and yet how little of our life is occasion● opportunity to receyu● good in ; and how litle of that occasion , doe wee apprehend , and lay hold of ? how busie , and perplexed a cobweb , is the happinesse of man here , that must bee made vp with a watchfulnesse , to lay hold vpon occasion , which is but a little peece of that , which is nothing , tyme ? and yet the best things are nothing without that . honors , pleasures , possessions , presented to vs , out of time , in our decrepit , and distasted , & vnapprehensiue age , loose their office , & loose their name ; they are not honors to vs , that shall neuer appeare , nor come abroad into the eyes of the people , to receiue honor , from them who giue it : nor pleasures to vs , who haue lost our sense to taste them● nor possessions to vs , who are departing from the possession of them . youth is their criticall day ; that iudges them , that denominates them , that inanimates , and informes them , and makes them honors , and pleasures , and possessions , & when they come in an vnapprehensiue age , they come as a cordiall when the bell rings out , as a pardon , when the head is off . we reioyce in the comfort of fire , but does any man cleaue to it at midsomer ; wee are glad of the freshnesse , & coolenes of a vault , but does any man keepe his christmas there ; or are the pleasures of the spring acceptable in autumne ? if happinesse be in the season , or in the clymate , how much happier then are birdes then men , who can change the climate , and accompanie , and enioy the same season euer . 14. expostvlation . my god , my god wouldest thou cal thy selfe the ancient of dayes , if we were not to call our selues to an account for our dayes ? wouldest thou chide vs for standing idle heere all the day , if we were sure to haue more dayes , to make vp our haru●st ? when thou biddest vs take no thought for tomorrow ; for sufficient vnto the day ( to euery day ) is the euill thereof , is this truely , absolutely , to put of all that concernes the present life ? when thou reprehendest the galatians by thy message to them , that they obserued dayes , and moneths , and tymes , and yeares , when thou sendest by the same messenger , to forbid the colossians all criticall dayes , indicatory dayes , let no man iudge you , in respect of a holy-day , or of a new moone , or of a saboth , doest thou take away all consideration , all destinction of dayes ? though thou remoue them from being of the essence of our saluation , thou leauest them for assistances , and for the exaltation of our deuotion , to fix our selues , at certaine periodicall , & stationary times , vpon the consideration of those things , which thou hast done for vs , and the crisis , the triall , the iudgment , how those things haue wrought vpon vs , and disposed vs to a spirituall recouery , and conualescence . for there is to euery man a day of saluation , now is the accepted time , now is the day of saluation , and there is a great day of thy wrath , which no man shal be able to stand in ; and there are euill dayes before , and therfore thou warnest vs , and armest vs , take vnto you the whole armor of god , that you may be able to stand in the euill day . so far thē our daies must be criticall to vs , as that by consideration of them , we may make a iudgment of our spiritual health ; for that is the crisis of our bodily health ; thy beloued seruant s. ioh. wishes to gaius , that he may prosper in his health so as his soule prospers ; ●or if the soule be leane , the marrow of the body is but water ; if the soule wither , the verdure and the good estate of the body , is but an i●lusion , & the goodliest man , a fearefull ghost . shall wee , o my god , determine our thoughts , & shal we neuer determin our disputations vpon our climaclericall yeares , for particular men , and periodical yeres , for the life of states and kingdoms , and neuer cōsider these in our long life , & our interest in the euerlasting kingdome ? we haue exercisd our curiosity in obseruing that adam ● the eldest of the eldest world , died in his climactericall yere , & sem the eldest son of the next world , in his ; abrahā the father of the faithfull , in his , & the blessed virgin mary , the garden , where the root of faith grew , in hers . but they whose climacteriques wee obserue , imployd their obseruation vpon their critical dayes , the working of thy promise of a messias vpō them . and shall we , o my god , make lesse vse of those dayes , who haue more of thē ? we● who haue not only the day of the prophets , the first dayes , but the last daies , in which thou hast spoken vnto vs , by thy son ? we are the children of the day , for thou hast shind in as ful a noone , vpon vs , as vpon the thessaloniās ; they who were of the night , ( a night , which they had superinduc'd vpon thēselues ) the pharises ; pretended , that if they had bin in their fathers daies , ( those indicatory , and iudicatory , those criticall dayes ) they would not haue been partakers of the bloud of the prophets ; and shal we who are in the day , these daies , not of the prophets , but of the son , stone those prophets againe , and crucifie that son againe , for all those euident indications , and critical iudicatures which are afforded vs ? those opposd aduersaries of thy son , the pharises with the herodiās , watch'd a critical day ; then whē the state was incensd against him , they came to tempt him in the dāgerous question of tribute . they left him , & that day was the critical day to the saduces , the same day , saies thy spirit , in thy word , the saduces came to him to question him about the resurrection ; and them hee silenc'd ; they left him ; & this was the criticall day for the scribe , expert in the law , who thoght himselfe learneder then the herodian , the pharise or saduce ; and he tēpted him about the great commādement ; & him● christ left without power of replying . when all was done , & that they wēt about to begin their circle of vexation , and tentation again , christ silēces them so , that , as they had taken their criticall dayes , to come , in that , and in that day , so christ imposes a criticall day vpon them , from that day forth , saies thy spirit , no man durst aske him any more questions . this , o my god , my most blessed god , is a fearefull crisis , a fearefull indication , when we will study , and seeke , and finde , what dayes are fittest to forsake thee in ; to say , now , religion is in a neutralitie in the world , and this is my day , the day of libertie ; now i may make new friends by changing my old religiō , and this is my day , the day of aduancement . but o my god , with thy seruāt iacobs holy boldnes , who though thou lamedst him , would not let thee goe , till thou hadst giuen him a blessing , though thou haue laid me vpon my hearse , yet thou shalt not depart from mee , from this bed , till thou haue giuen me a crisis , a iudgment vpon my selfe this day . since a day is as a thousand yeres with thee , let , o lord , a day , be as a weeke to me ; and in this one , let me cōsider seuen daies , seuen critical daies , and iudge my selfe , that i be not iudged by thee . first , this is the day of thy visitatiō , thy comming to me ; and would i looke to be welcome to thee , and not entertaine thee ●n thy comming to me ? we measure not the visitations of great persons , by their apparel , by their equipage , by the solemnity of their cōming , but by their very cōming ; and therefore , howsoeuer thou come , it is a crisis to me , that thou wouldest not loose me , who seekst me by any means . this leads me from my first day , thy visitation by sicknes , to a secōd , to th● light , and testimony of my conscience . there i haue an euening , & a morning ; a sad guiltinesse in my soule , but yet a cheerfull rising of thy son to● thy euenings and mornings made dayes in the creation , and there is no mention of nights ; my sadnesses for sins are euenings , but they determin not in night , but deliuer me ouer to the day , the day of a conscience deiected , but then rectified , accused , but then ●cquitted , by thee , by him , who speaks thy word , & who is thy word , thy son. from this day , the crisis and examinatiō of my cōscience , breaks out my third day , my day of preparing , & fitting my selfe for a more especial receiuing of thy sonne , in his institutiō of the sacrament : in which day though th●re be many dark passages , & slippry steps , to them who wil entangle , and endanger themselues , in vnnecessary disputations , yet there are light houres inough , for any man , ●o goe his whole iourney intended by thee ; to know , that that bread and wine , is not more really assimilated to my body , & to my blood , then the body and blood of thy sonne , is communicated to me in that action , and participation of that bread , and that wine . and hauing , o my god , walkd with thee these three dayes , the day of thy visitation , the day of my conscience , the day of preparing for this seale of reconciliation , i am the lesse afraid of the clouds or storms of my fourth day , the day of my dissolution & trāsmigratiō frō hence . nothing deserues the name of happines , that makes the remēbrāce of death bitter ; and o death 〈◊〉 bitter is the remēbrance of thee , to a man that liues at rest , in his possessions , the man that hath nothing to vexe him , yea vnto him , that is able to receiue meat ? therefore hast thou , o my god , made this sicknes , in which i am not able to receiue meate , my fasting day , my eue , to this great festiual , my dissolution . and this day of death shall deliuer me ouer to my fift day , the day of my resurrection ; for how long a day soeuer thou make that day in the graue , yet there is no day between that , and the resurrection . then wee shall all bee inuested , reapparelled in our owne bodies ; but they who haue made iust vse of their former dayes , be super-inuested with glorie , wheras the others , condemned to their olde clothes , their sinfull bodies , shall haue nothing added , but immortalitie to torment . and this day of awaking me , and reinuesting my soule , in my body , and my body in the body of christ , shall present mee , bodie , and soule , to my sixt day , the day of iudgement ; which is truely , and most literally , the critical , the decretory day ; both because all iudgement shall bee manifested to me then , and i shall assist in iudging the world then● and because then , that iudgement shall declare to me , and possesse mee of my seuenth day , my euerlasting saboth in thy rest , th● glory , thy ioy , thy sight , thy s●lfe ; and where i shall liue as long , without reckning any more dayes after , as thy sonne , and thy holy spirit liued with thee , before you three made any dayes in the creation . 14. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who though thou didst permit darknesse to be before light in the creation , yet in the making of light , didst so multiplie that light , as that it enlightned not the day only , but the night too , though thou haue suffered some dimnesse , some clouds of sadnesse & disconsolatenesse to shed themselues vpon my soule , i humbly blesse and thankfully glorifie thy holy name , that thou hast afforded mee the light of thy spirit , against which the prince of darkenesse cannot preuaile , nor hinder his illumination of our darkest nights , of our saddest thoughts . euen the visitation of thy most blessed spirit , vpon the blessed virgin , is called an ouershadowing : there wa● the presence of the holy ghost , the fountaine of all light , and yet an ouershadowing ; nay except there were some light , there could bee no shadow . let thy mercifull prouidence so gouerne all in this sicknesse , that i neuer fall into vtter darknesse , ignorance of thee , or inconsideration of my selfe ; and let those shadowes which doe fall vpon mee , faintnesses of spirit , and condemnations of my selfe , bee ouercome by the power of thine irresistible light , the god of consolation ; that when those shadowes haue done their office vpon mee , to let me see , that of my selfe i should fall into irrecouerable darknesse , thy spirit may doe his office vpon those shadowes , and disperse them , and establish mee in so bright a day here , as may bee a criticall day to me , a day wherein , and whereby i may giue thy iudgement vpon my selfe , and that the words of thy sonne , spoken to his apostles , may reflect vpon me , b●hold , i am with you alwaies , euen to the end of the world . intereà insomnes noctes ego duco , diesque . i sleepe not day nor night . 15. meditation . naturall men haue cōceiued a two fold vse of sleepe ; that it is a refreshing of the body in this life ; that it is a preparing of the soule for the next ; that it is a feast , and it is the grace at that feast ; that it is our recreation , and cheeres vs , and it is our catechisme , and instructs vs ; wee lie downe in a hope , that wee shall rise the stronger ; and we lie downe in a knowledge , that wee may rise no more . sleepe is an opiate which giues vs rest , but such an opiate , as perchance , being vnder it , we shall wake no more . but though naturall men , who haue induced secondary and figuratiue considerations , haue found out this second , this emblematicall vse of sleepe , that it should be a representation of death , god , who wrought and perfected his worke , before nature began , ( for nature was but his apprentice , to learne in the first seuen daies , and now is his foreman , and works next vnder him ) god , i say , intended sleepe onely for the refreshing of man by bodily rest , and not for a figure of death , for he intended not death it selfe then . but man hauing induced death vpon himselfe , god hath taken mans creature , death , into his hand , and mended it ; and whereas it hath in it selfe a fearefull forme and aspect , so that man is afraid of his own creature , god presents it to him , in a familiar , in an assiduous , in an agreeable , and acceptable forme , in sleepe , that so when hee awakes from sleepe , and saies to himselfe , shall i bee no otherwise when i am dead , than i was euen now , when i was asleep , hee may bee ashamed of his waking dreames , and of his melancholique fancying out a hor●id and an affrightfull figure of that death which is so like sleepe . as then wee need sleepe to liue out our threescore and ten yeeres , so we need death , to liue that life which we cannot out-liue . and as death being our enemie , god allowes vs to defend our selues against it ( for wee victuall ou● selues against death , twice euery day , as often as we eat ) so god hauing so sweetned death vnto vs , as hee hath in sleepe , wee put our selues into our enemies hands once euery day ; so farre , as sleepe is death ; and sleepe is as much death , as meat is life . this then is the misery of my sicknesse , that death as it is produced from mee , and is mine owne creature , is now before mine eies , but in that forme , in which god hath mollified it to vs , and made it acceptable , in sleepe , i cannot see it : how many prisoners , who haue euen hollowed themselues their graues vpon that earth , on which they haue lion long vnder heauie fetters , yet at this houre are ●sleepe , though they bee yet working vpon their owne graues , by their owne waight ? hee that hath seene his friend die to day , or knowes hee shall see it to morrow , yet will sinke into a sleepe betweene . i cannot ; and oh , if i be entring now into eternitie , where there shall bee no more distinction of houres , why is it al my businesse now to tell clocks ? why is none of the heauinesse of my heart , dispensed into mine eie-lids , ●hat they might fall as my heart doth ? and why , since i haue lo●t my delight in all obiects , cannot i discontinue t●e facultie of seeing them , by closing mine ei●s in sleepe ? but why rather being entring into that presence , where i shall wake continually and neuer sleepe more , doe i not interpret my continuall waking here , to bee a p●rasceue , and a preparation to that ? 15. expostvlation . my god , my god , i know , ( for thou hast said it ) that he that keepeth israel , shall neither slumber , nor sleepe : but shall not that israel , ouer whom thou watchest , sleepe ? i know , ( for thou hast said it ) that there are men , whose damnation sleepeth not ; but shall not they to whom thou art saluation , sleepe ? or wilt thou take from them that euidence , and that testimony , that they are thy israel , or thou their saluation ? thou giuest thy beloued sleepe . shall i lacke that seale of thy loue ? you shall lie downe , and none shall make you afraid ; shal i bee outlawd from that protection ? ionas slept in one dangerous storme , and thy blessed sonne in another . shall i haue no vse , no benefit , no application of those great examples ? lord , if hee sleepe , he shall doe well , say thy sonnes disciples to him , of lazarus ; and shall there bee no roome , for that argument in me ? or shall i bee open to the contrary ? if i sleepe not , shall i not bee well , in their sense ? let me not , o my god , take this too precisely , too literally : there is that neither day nor night seeth sleepe with his eies , saies thy wise seruant solomon ; and whether hee speake that of worldly men , or of men that seeke wisdome , whether in iustification or condemnation of their watchfulnesse , we can not tell : wee can t●ll , that there are men , that cannot sleepe , till they haue done mischiefe , and ●hen they can ; and wee can tell that the rich man cannot sleepe , because his abundance will not let him . the tares were sowen when the husbandmen were asleepe ; and the elders thought it a probable excuse , a credible lie , that the wa●chmen which kept the sepulchre , should say , that the bodie of thy son was stolne away , when they were asleepe : since thy blessed sonne rebuked his disciples for sleeping , shall i murmure because i doe not sleepe ? if samson had slept any longer in gaza , he had beene taken ; and when he did sleepe longer with delilah , he was taken . sleepe is as often taken for naturall death in thy scriptures , as for naturall rest . nay sometimes sleepe ha●h so heauy a sense , as to bee taken for sinne it selfe , as well as for the punishment of sinne , death . much comfort is not in much sleepe , when the most fearefull and most irreuocable malediction is presen●ed by thee , in a perpetuall sleepe . i will make their feasts , and i will make them drunke , and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe , and not wake . i must therefore , o my god , looke farther , than into the very act of sleeping , before i mis-interpret my waking : for since i finde thy whole hand light , shall any finger of that hand seeme heauy ? since the whole sicknesse is thy physicke , shall any accident in it , bee my poison , by my murmuring ? the name of watchmen belongs to our profession ; thy prophets are not onely seers , indued with a power of seeing , able to see , but watchmen , euermore in the act of seeing . and therefore giue me leaue , o my blessed god , to inuert the words of thy sonnes spouse ; she said , i sleepe , but my heart waketh ; i say , i wake , but my heart sleepeth ; my body is in a sicke wearinesse , but my soule in a peacefull rest with thee ; and as our eies , in our health , see not the aire , that is next them , nor the fire , nor the spheares , nor stop vpon any thing , till they come to starres , so my eies , that are open , see nothing of this world , but passe through all that , and fix themselues vpon thy peace , and ioy , and glory aboue . almost as soone as thy apostle had said , let vs not sleepe , lest we should be too much discomforted , if we did , he saies againe , whether we wake or sleepe , let vs liue together with christ. though then this absence of sleepe , may argue the presence of death ( the originall may exclude the copie , the life , the picture ) yet this gentle sleepe , and rest of my soule betroths mee to thee , to whom i shall bee married indissolubly , though by this way of dissolution . 15. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who art able to make , and dost make the sicke bed of thy seruants , chappels of ease to them , and the dreames of thy seruants , prayers , and meditations vpon thee , let not this continuall watch●ulnes of mine , this inabilitie to sleepe , which thou hast laid vpon mee , bee any disquiet , or discomfort to me , but rather an argument , that thou wouldest not haue me sleepe in thy presence . what it may indicate or signifie , concerning the state of my body , let them consider to whom that consideration belongs ; doe thou , who onely art the physitian of my soule , tell her , that thou wilt afford her such defensatiues as that shee shall wake euer towards thee , and yet euer sleepe in thee ; & that through all this sicknesse , thou wilt either preserue mine vnderstanding , from all decaies and distractions , which these watchings might occasion , or that thou wilt reckon , and account with me , from before those violencies , and not call any peece of my sicknesse , a sinne . it ●s a heauy , and indelible sinne , that i brought into the world wi●h me● it is a heauy and innu●merable multitude of sins , which i haue heaped vp since ; i haue sinned behind thy backe ( if that can be done ) by wilfull absteining from thy congregations , and omitting thy seruice , and i haue sinned before thy face , in my hypocrisies in prayer , in my ostentation , and the mingling a respect of my selfe , in preaching thy word ; i haue sinned in my fasting by repining , when a penurious fortune hath kept mee low ; and i haue sinned euen in that fulnesse , when i haue been at thy table , by a negligent examination , by a wilfull preuarication , in receiuing that heauenly food and physicke . but , as i know , o my gracious god , that for all those sinnes committed since , yet thou wilt consider me , as i was in thy purpose , when thou wrotest my name in the booke of life , in mine election : so into what deuiations so●uer i stray , and wander , by occasion of this sicknes , o god , returne thou to that minute , wherein thou wast pleased with me , and consider me in that condition . 16. et properare meum clamant , è turre propinqua , obstreperae campanae aliorum in funere , funus . from the bels of the church adioyning , i am daily remembred of my buriall in the funeralls of others . 16. meditation . we haue a conuenient author , who writ a discourse of bells when hee was prisoner in turky . how would hee haue enlarged himselfe , if he had beene my fellow prisoner in this sicke bed , so neere to that steeple , which neuer ceases , no more than the harmony of the spheres , but is more heard . when the turkes tooke constantinople , they melted the bells into ordnance ; i haue heard both bells and ordnance , but neuer been so much affected with those , as with these bells . i haue lien neere a steeple , in which there are said to be more than thirty bels ; and neere another , where there is one so bigge , as that the clapper is said to weigh more than six hundred pound ● yet neuer so affected as here . here the bells can scarse solemnise the funerall of any person , but that i knew him , or knew that hee was my neighbour : we dwelt in houses neere to one another before , but now hee is gone into that house , into which i must follow him . there is a way of correcting the children of great persons , that other children are corrected in their behalfe , and in their names , and this workes vpon them , who indeed had more des●rued it . and when these bells tell me , that now one , and now another is buried , must not i acknowledge , that they haue the correction due to me , and paid the debt that i owe ? there is a story of a bell in a monastery , which , when any of the house was sicke to death , rung alwaies voluntarily , and they knew the ineuitablenesse of the danger by that . it rung once , when no man was sick ; but the next day one of the house , fell from the steeple , and died , and the bell held the reputation of a prophet still . if these bells that warne to a funerall now , were appropriated to none , may not i , by the houre of the funerall , supply ? how many men that stand at an execution , if they would aske , for what dies that man , should heare their owne faults condemned , and see themselues executed , by atturney ? we scarce heare of any man preferred , but wee thinke of our selues , that wee might very well haue beene that man ; why might not i haue beene that man , that is carried to his graue now ? could i ●it my selfe , to stand , or sit in any mans place , & not to lie in any mans graue ? i may lacke much of the good parts of the meanest , but i l●cke nothing of the mortality of the weakest ; th●y may haue acquired better abilities than i , but i was borne to as many infirmities as they . to be an incumbent by lying down in a graue , to be a doctor by teaching morti●ication by example , by dying , though i may haue seniors , others may be elder than i , yet i haue proceeded apace in a good vniuersity , and gone a great way in a little time by the furtherance of a vehement feuer ; and whomsoeuer these bells bring to the ground to day , if hee and i had beene compared yesterday , perchance i should haue been thought likelier to come to this preferment , then , than he . god hath kept the power of death in his owne hands , lest any man should bribe death . if man knew the gaine of death , the ease of death , he would solicite , he would prouoke death to assist him , by any ●and , which he might vse . but as when men see many of their owne professions preferd , it ministers a hope that that may light vpon them ; so when these hourely bells tell me of so many funerals of men like me , it presents , if not a desire that it may , yet a comfort whensoeuer mine shall come . 16. expostvlation . my god , my god , i doe not expostulate with thee , but with them , who dare doe that : who dare expostulate with thee , when in the voice of thy church , thou giuest allowance , to this ceremony of bells at funeralls . is it enough to refuse it , because it was in vse amongst the gentiles ? so were funeralls too . is it because some abuses may haue crept in , amongst christians ? is that enough , that their ringing hath been said to driue away euill spirits ? truly , that is so farre true , as that the euill spirit is vehemently vexed in their ringing , therefore , because that action brings the congregation together , and vnites god and his people , to the destruction of that kingdome , which the euill spirit vsurps . in the first institution of thy church , in this world , in the foundation of thy militant church , amongst the iewes , thou didst appoint the calling of the assembly in , to bee by trumpet , and when they were in , then thou gauest them the sound of bells , in the garment of thy priest ● in the triumphant church , thou imploiest both too , but in an inuerted order , we enter into the triumphant church by the sound of bells , ( for we enter when we die ; ) and then we receiue our further edification , or consummation , by the sound of trumpets , at the resurrection . the sound of thy trumpets thou didst impart to secular a●d ciuill vses too , but the sound of bells onely to sacred ; lord let not vs breake the communion of saints , in that which was intended for the aduancement of it ; let not that pull vs asunder frō one another , which was intended for the assembling of vs , in the militant , and associating of vs to the triumphant church . but he for whose funerall these bells ring now , was at home , at his iournies end , yesterday ; why ring they now ? a man , that is a world , is all the things in the world ; hee is an army , and when an army marches , the vaunt may lodge to night , where the reare comes not till to morrow . a man extends to his act and to his example ; to that which he does , and that which he teaches ; so doe those things that concerne him , so doe these bells ; that which rung yesterday , was to conuay him out of the world , in his vaunt , in his soule● that which rung to day , was to bring him in his reare , in his body , to the church ; and this continuing of ringing after his entring , is to bring him to mee in the application . where i lie , i could heare the psalme , and did ioine with the congregation in it ; but i could not heare the sermon , and these latter bells are a repetition sermon to mee . but , o my god , my god , doe i , that haue this feauer , need other remembrances of my mortalitie ? is not mine owne hollow voice , voice enough to pronounce that to me ? need i looke vpon a deaths-head in a ring , that haue one in my face ? or goe for death to my neighbours house , that haue him in my bosome ? we cannot , wee cannot , o my god , take in too many helps for religious duties ; i know i cannot haue any better image of thee , than thy sonne , nor any better image of him , than his gospell : yet must not i , with thanks confesse to thee , that some historicall pictures of his , haue sometimes put mee vpon better meditations than otherwise i should haue fallen vpon ? i know thy church needed not to haue taken in from iew or gentile , any supplies for the exaltation of thy glory , or our deuotion ; of absolute necessitie i know ●hee needed not ; but yet wee owe thee our thanks , that thou hast giuen her leaue to doe so , and that as in making vs christians , thou diddest not destroy that which wee were before , naturall men , so in the exalting of our religious deuotions no● we are christians , thou hast beene pleased to continue to vs those assistances which did worke vpon the affections of naturall men before : for thou louest a good man , as thou louest a good christian : and though grace bee meerely from thee , yet thou doest not plant grace but in good natures . 16. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who hauing consecrated our liuing bodies , to thine owne spirit , and made vs temples of the holy ghost , doest also requir● a respect to bee giuen to these temples , euen when the priest is gone out of them , to these bodies , when the soule is departed from them ; i blesse , and glorifie thy name , that as thou takest care in our life , of euery haire of our head , so doest thou also of euery graine of ashes after our death . neither doest thou only doe good to vs all , in life and death , but also wouldest haue vs doe good to one another , as in a holy life , so in those things which accompanie our death : in that contemplation i make account that i heare this dead brother of ours , who is now carried out to his buriall , to speake to mee , and to preach my funerall sermon , in the voice of these bells . in him , o god , thou hast accomplished to mee , euen the request of diues to abraham ; thou hast sent one from the dead to speake vnto mee . he speakes to mee aloud from that steeple ; hee whispers to mee at these curtaines , and hee speaks thy words ; blessed are the dead which die in the lord , from henceforth . let this praier therfore , o my god , be as my last gaspe , my expiring , my dying in thee ; that if this bee the houre of my transmigration , i may die the death of a sinner , drowned in my sinnes , in the bloud of thy sonne ; and if i liue longer , yet i may now die the death of the righteous , die to sinne ; which death is a resurrection to a new life . thou killest and thou giuest life : which soeuer comes , it comes from thee ; which way soeuer it comes , let mee come to thee . 17. nunc lento sonitu dicunt , morieris . now , this bell tolling softly for another , saies to me , thou must die . 17. meditation . perchance hee for whom this bell tolls , may bee so ill , as that he knowes not it tolls for him ; and perchance i may thinke my selfe so much better than i am , as that they who are about mee , and see my state , may haue caused it to toll for mee , and i know not that . the church is catholike , vniuersall , so are all her actions , all that she does , belongs to all . when she baptizes a child , that action concernes mee ; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too , and engraffe● into that body , whereof i am a member . and when she buries a man , that action concernes me ; all mankinde is of one author ; and is one volume ; when one man dies , one chapter is not torne out of the booke , but translated into a better language ; and euery chapter must be so translated ; god emploies seuerall translators ; some peeces are translated by age , some by sicknesse , some by warre , some by iustice ; but gods hand is in euery translation ; and his hand shall binde vp all our scattered leaues againe , for that librarie where euery booke shall lie open to one another : as therefore the bell that rings to a sermon , calls not vpon the preacher onely , but vpon the congregation to come ; so this bell calls vs all : but how much more mee , who am brought so neere the doore by this sicknesse . there was a contention as farre as a suite , ( in which both pietie and dignitie , religion , and estimation , were mingl●d ) which of the religious orders should ring to praiers first in the morning ; and it was determined , that they should ring first that rose earliest . if we vnderstand aright the dignitie of this bell , that rolls for our euening prayer , wee would bee glad to make it ours , by rising early , in that application , that it might bee ours , as wel as his , whose indeed it is . the bell doth toll for him that thinkes it doth ; and though it intermit againe , yet from that minute , that that occasion wrought vpon him , hee is vnited to god. who casts not vp his eie to the sunne when it rises ? but who takes off his eie from a com●t , when that breakes out ? who bends not his eare to any bell , which vpon any occasion rings ? but who can remoue it from that bell , which is passing a peece of himselfe out of this world ? no man is an iland , intire of it selfe ; euery man is a peece of the continent , a part of the maine ; if a clod bee washed away by the sea , europe is the l●sse , as well as if a promontorie were , as well as if a mannor of thy friends , or of thine owne were ; any mans death diminishes me , because i am inuolued in mankinde ; and therefore neuer send to know for whom the bell tolls ; it tolls for thee . neither can we call this a begging of miserie or a borrowing of miserie , as though we were not miserable enough of our selues , but must fe●ch in more from the next house , in taking vpon vs the miserie of our neighbours . truly it were an excusable couetousnesse if wee did ; for affliction is a treasure , and ●carce any man hath enough of it . no man hath affliction enough , that is not matured , and ripened by it , and mad●●it for god by that affliction . if a man carry treasure in bullion , or in a wedge of gold , and haue none coined into currant monies , his treasure will not defray him as he trauells . tribulation is treasure in the nature of it , but it is not currant money in the vse of it , except wee get nearer and nearer our home , heauen , by it . another man may be sicke too , and sicke to death , and this af●liction may lie in his bowels , as gold in a mine , and be of no vse to him● but this bell that tels mee of his af●liction , digs out , and applies that gold to mee ● if by this consideration of anothers danger , i take min● owne into contemplation , and so secure my selfe , by making my recourse to my god , who is our onely securitie . 17. expostvlation . my god , my god , is this one of thy waies , of drawing light out of darknesse , to make him for whom this bell tolls , now in this dimnesse of his sight , to become a superintendent , an ouerseer , a bishop , to as many as heare his voice , in this bell , and to giue vs a confirmation in this action ? is this one of thy waies to raise strength out of weaknesse , to make him who cannot rise from his bed , nor stirre in his bed , come home to me , and in this sound , giue mee the strength of healthy and vigorous instructions ? o my god , my god , what thunder is not a well-tuned cymball , what hoarsenesse , what harshnesse is not a cleare organ , if thou bee pleased to set thy voice to it ? and what organ is not well plaied on , if thy hand bee vpon it ? thy voice , thy hand is in this sound , and in this one sound , i heare this whole consort . i heare thy iaacob call vnto his sonnes , and ●ay ; gather your selues together , that i may tell you what shall befall you in the last daies : he saies , that which i am now , you must bee then . i heare thy moses telling mee , and all within the compasse of this sound , this is the blessing wherewith i blesse you before my death ; this , that before your death , you would consider your owne in mine . i heare thy prophet saying to ezechias , set thy house in order , for thou shalt die , and not liue ; hee makes vs of his familie , and calls this a setting of his house in order , to compose vs to the meditation of death . i heare thy apostle saying , i thinke it meet to put ●ou in remembrance , knowing that shortly i must goe out of this tabernacle . this is the publishing of his will , & this bell is our legacie , the applying of his present condition to our vse . i heare that which makes al sounds musique , and all musique perfit ; i heare thy sonne himselfe ●aying , let not your hearts be troubled ● only i heare this change , that whereas thy sonne saies there , i goe to prepare a place for you , this man in thi● sound saies , i send to prepare you for a place , for a graue . but , o my god , my god , since heauen is glory and ioy , why doe not glorious and ioyfull things leade vs , induce vs to heauen ? thy legacies in thy first will , in thy old testament were plentie and victorie ; wine and oile , milke and honie , alliances of friends , ruine of enemies , peacefull hearts , & cheerefull countenances , and by these galleries thou broughtest them into thy bed-chamber , by these glories and ioies , to the ioies and glories of heauen . why hast thou changed thine old way , and carried vs , by the waies of discipline and mortification , by the waies of mourning and lamentation , by the waies of miserable ends , and miserable anticipations of those miseries , in appropriating the exemplar miseries of others to our selues , and vsurping vpon their miseries , as our owne , to our owne preiudice ? is the glory of heauen no perfecter in it selfe , but that it needs a foile of depression and ingloriousnesse in this world , to set it off ? is the ioy of heauen no perfecter in it selfe , but that it needs the sourenesse of this life to giue it a taste ? is that ioy and that glory but a comparatiue glory and a comparatiue ioy ? not such in it selfe , but such in comparison of the ioilesnesse and the ingloriousnesse of this world ? i know , my god , it is farre , farre otherwise . as thou thy selfe , who art all , art made of no substances , so the ioyes & glory which are with thee , are made of none of these circumstances ; essentiall ioy , and glory essentiall . but why then , my god , wilt thou not beginne them here ? pardon o god , this vnthankfull rashnesse ; i that aske why thou doest not , finde euen now in my selfe , that thou doest ; such ioy , such glory , as that i conclude vpon my selfe , vpon all , they that finde not ioy in their sorrowes , glory in their deiections in this world , are in a fearefull danger of missing both in the next . 17. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who hast beene pleased to speake to vs , not onely in the voice of nature , who speakes in our hearts , and of thy word , which speakes to our eares , but in the speech of speechlesse creatures , in balaams asse , in the speech of vnbeleeuing men , in the confession of pilate , in the speech of the deuill himselfe , in the recognition and attestation of thy sonne , i humbly accept thy voice , in the sound of this sad and funerall bell . and first , i blessethy glorious name , that in this sound and voice , i can heare thy instructions , in another mans to consider mine owne condition ; and to know , that this bell which tolls for another , before it come to ring out , may take in me too . as death is the wages of sinne , it is due to me● ; as death is the end of sicknesse , it belongs to mee ; and though so disobedient a seruant as i , may be afraid to die , yet to so mercifull a master as thou , i cannot be afraid to come ; and therefore , into thy hands , o my god , i commend my spirit ; a surrender , which i know thou wilt accept , whether i liue or die ; for thy seruant dauid made it , when he put himselfe into thy protection for his life ; and thy blessed sonne made it , when hee deliuered vp his soule at his death ; declare thou thy will vpon mee , o lord , for life or death , in thy time ; receiue my surrender of my selfe now , into thy hands , o lord , i commend my spirit . and being thus , o my god , prepared by thy correction , mellowed by thy chastisement , and conformed to thy will , by thy spirit , hauing receiued thy pardon for my soule , and asking no reprieue for my body , i am bold , o lord , to bend my prayers to thee , for his assistance , the voice of whose bell hath called mee to this deuotion . lay hold vpon his soule , o god , till that soule haue throughly considered his account , and how few minutes soeuer it haue to remaine in that body , let the power of thy spirit recompence the shortnesse of time , and perfect his account , before he passe away : present his sinnes so to him , as that he may know what thou forgiuest , & not doubt of thy forgiuenesse ; let him stop vpon the infinitenesse of those sinnes , but dwell vpon the infinitenesse of thy mercy : let him discerne his owne demerits , but wrap himselfe vp in the merits of thy sonne , christ iesus : breath inward comforts to his heart , and affoord him the power of giuing such outward testimonies thereof , as all that are about him may deriue comforts from thence , and haue this edification , euen in this dissolution , that though the body be going the way o● all flesh , yet that soule is going the way of all saints . when thy sonne cried out vpon the crosse , my god , my god , why hast thou forsaken me ? he spake not so much in his owne person , as in the person of the church , and of his afflicted members , who in deep distresses might feare thy forsaking . this patient , o most blessed god , is one of them ; in his behalfe , and in his name , heare thy sonne crying to thee , my god , my god , why hast thou forsaken me ? and forsake him not ; but with thy left hand lay his body in the graue , ( if that bee ●hy determination vpon him ) and with thy right hand receiue his soule into thy kingdome , and vnite him & vs in one cōmunion of saints . amen . 18. — at inde mortuus es , sonitu celeri , pulsuque agitato . the bell rings out , and tells me in him , that i am dead . 18. meditation . the bell rings out ; the pulse thereof is changed ; the tolling was a faint , and intermitting pulse , vpon one side ; this stronger , and argues more and better life . hi● soule is gone out ; and as a man who had a lease of 1000. yeeres after the expiration of a short one , or an inheritance after the life of a man in a consumption , he is now entred into the possession of his better estate . his soule is gone ; whither ? who saw it come in , or who saw it goe out ? no body ; yet euery body is sure , he had one , and hath none . if i will aske meere philosophers , what the soule is , i shall finde amongst them , that will tell me , it is nothing , but the temperament and harmony , and iust and equall composition of the elements in the body , which produces all those faculties which we ascribe to the soule ; and so , in it selfe is nothing , no seperable substance , that ouer-liues the body . they see the soule is nothing else in other creatures , and they affect an impious humilitie , to think as low of man. but if my soule were no more than the soule of a beast , i could not thinke so ; that soule that can reflect vpon it selfe , consider it selfe , is more than so . if i will aske , not meere philosophers , but mixt men , philosophicall diuines , how the soule , being a separate substance , enters into man , i shall finde some that will tell me , that it is by generation , & procreation from parents , because they thinke it hard , to charge th● soule with the guiltinesse of originall sinne , if the soule were infused into a body , in which it must necessarily grow foule , and contract originall sinne , whether it will or no ; and i shall finde some that will tell mee , that it is by immediate infusion from god , because they think it hard , to maintaine an immortality in such a soule , as should be begotten , and deriued with the body frō mortall parents . if i will aske , not a few men , but almost whole bodies , whole churches , what becomes of the soules of the righteous , at the departing thereof from the body , i shall bee told by some , that they attend an expiation , a purification in a place of torment ; by some , that they attend the fruition of the sight of god , in a place of rest ; but yet , but of expectation ; by some , that they passe to an immediate possession of the presence of god. s. augustine studied the nature of the soule , as much as any thing , but the saluation of the soule ; and he sent an expresse messenger to saint hierome , to consult of some things concerning the soule : but he satisfies himselfe with this : let the departure of my soule to saluation be euident to my faith , and i care the lesse , how darke the entrance of my soule , into my body , bee to my reason . it is the going out , more than the comming in , that concernes vs. this soule , this bell tells me is gone out ; whither ? who shall tell mee that ? i know not who it is ; much lesse what he was ; the condition of the man , and the course of his life , which should tell mee whither hee is gone , i know not . i was not there , in his sicknesse , nor at his death ; i saw not his way , nor his end , nor can a●ke them● who did , thereby to conclude , or argue , whither he is gone . but yet i haue one neerer mee than all these ; mine owne charity ; i aske that ; & that tels me , he is gone to euerlasting rest , and ioy , and glory : i owe him a good opinion ; it is but thankfull charity in mee , because i receiued benefit and instruction from him when his bell told : and i , being made the fitter to pray , by that disposition , wherein i was assisted by his occasion , did pray for him ; and i pray not without faith ; so i doe charitably , so i do faithfully beleeue , that that soule is gone to euerlasting rest , and ioy , and glory . but for the body , how poore a wretched thing is that ? wee cannot expresse it so fast , as it growes worse and worse . that body which scarce three minutes since was such a house , as that that soule , which made but one step from thence to heauen , was scarse thorowly content , to leaue that for heauen : that body hath lost the name of a dwelling house , because none dwels in it , and is making haste to lose the name of a body , and dissolue to putrefaction . who would not bee affected to see a cleere & sweet riuer in the morning , grow a kennell of muddy land water by noone , and condemned to the saltnesse of the sea by night ? and how lame a picture , how faint a representation , is that , of the precipitatiō of mans body to dissolution ? now all the parts built vp , and knit by a louely soule , now but a statue of clay , and now , these limbs melted off , as if that clay were but snow ● and now , the whole house is but a handfull of sand , so much dust , and but a pecke of rubbidge , so much bone . if he , who , as this bell tells mee , is gone now , were some excellent arti●icer , who comes to him for a clocke , or for a garment now ? or for counsaile , if hee were a lawyer ? if a magistrate , for iustice ? man before hee hath his immortall soule , hath a soule of sense , and a soule of vegitation before that : this immortall soule did not forbid other soules , to be in vs before , but when this soule departs , it carries all with it ; no more vegetation , no more sense : such a mother in law is the earth ● in respect of our naturall mother ; in her wombe we grew ; and when she was deliuered of vs , wee were planted in some place , in some calling in the world ; in the wombe of the earth , wee diminish , and when shee is deliuered of vs , our graue opened for another , wee are not transplanted , but transported , our dust blowne away with prophane dust , with euery wind . 18. expostvlation . my god , my god , if expostulation bee too bold a word , doe thou mollifie it with another ; le● it be wonder in my selfe ; let it bee but probleme to others ; but let me aske , why wouldest thou not suffer those , that serue thee in holy seruices , to doe any office about the dead , nor assist at their funerall ? thou hadst no counsellor , thou needest none ; thou hast no controller , thou admittest none why doe i aske ? in ceremoniall things ( as that was ) any conuenient reason is enough ; who can bee sure to propose that reason , that moued thee in the institution thereof ? i satisfie my selfe with this ; that in those times , the gentiles were ouerfull , of an ouer-reuerent respect to the memory of the dead : a great part of the idolatry of the nations , flowed from that ; an ouer-amorous deuotion , an ouer-zealous celebrating , and ouer-studious preseruing of the memories , and the pictures of some dead persons : and by the vaine glory of men , they entred into the world ; and their statues , and pictures contracted an opinion of diuinity , by age : that which was at first , but a picture of a friend , grew a god in time , as the wise man notes , they called them gods , which were the worke of an ancient hand . and some haue assigned a certaine time , when a picture should come out of minority , and bee at age , to bee a god , in 60. yeeres after it is made . those images of men , that had life , and some idols of other things , which neuer had any being , are by one common name , called promiscuously , dead , and for that the wise man reprehends the idolatrer ; for health he praies to that which is weake , and for life he praies to that which is dead . should we doe so , saies thy prophet ; should we goe from the liuing to the dead ? so much ill then , being occasioned , by so much religious cōplement exhibited to the dead ; thou ô god , ( i think ) wouldest therefore inhibit thy principall holy seruants , from contributing any thing at all to this dangerous intimation of idolatry ; and that the people might say , surely those dead men , are not so much to bee magnified , as men mistake , since god will not suffer his holy officers , so much as to touch them , not to see them . but those dangers being remoued , thou , o my god , dost certainly allow , that we should doe offices of piety to the dead , and that we should draw instructions to piety , from the dead . is not this , o my god , a holy kinde of raising vp ●eed to my dead brother , if i , by the meditation of his death , produce a better life in my selfe ? it is the blessing vpon reuben , let reuben liue , & not die , and let not his men be few ; let him propagate many . and it is a malediction , that that dieth , let it die ; let it doe no good in dying : for trees without fruit , thou by thy apostle callst , twice dead . it is a second death , if none liue the better , by me , after my death , by the manner of my death . therefore may i iustly thinke , that thou madest that a way to conuay to the aegyptians , a feare of thee , and a feare of death , that there was not a house , where there was not one dead ; for therupon the aegyptians said , we are all dea● men ; the death of others , should catechise vs● to death . thy sonne christ iesus is the first begotten of the dead ; he rises first , the eldest brother , and he is my master in this science of death : but yet , for mee , i am a younger brother too , to this man , who died now , and to euery man whom i see , or heare to die before mee , and all they are vshers to mee in this schoole of death . i take therefore that which thy seruant dauids wife said to him , to bee said to me ; if thou saue not thy life to night , to morrow thou shalt bee slaine . if the death of this man worke not vpon mee now , i shall die worse , than if thou hadst not afforded me this helpe : for thou hast sent him in this bell to mee , as tho● didst send to the angel● of sardis , with commission to strengthen the things that remaine , and that are ready to die ; that in this weaknes of body , i migh● receiue spiritual streng●h , by these occasions . this is my strength , that whether thou say to mee , as thine angell said to gedeon ; peace bee vnto thee , feare not , thou shalt not die , or whether thou say , as vnto aaron , thou shalt die there ; yet thou wil● preserue that which is ready to die , my soule , from the worst death , that of sinne . zimrie died for his sinnes , saies thy spirit , which he sinned in doing euill ; and in his sinne , which he did to make israel sinne . for his sinnes , his many sinnes ; and then in his sinne , his particular sinne : for my sinnes i shall die , whensoeuer i die , for death is the wages of sinne ; but i shall die in my sinne , in that particular sinne of resisting thy spirit , if i apply not thy assistances . doth it not call vs to a particular consideration , that thy blessed sonne varies his forme of commination , and aggrauates it in the variation , when hee saies to the iewes , ( because they refused the light offered ) you shall die in your sinne ; and then when they proceeded to farther disputations , and vexations , and tentations , hee addes , you shall die in your sinnes ; he multiplies the former expressing , ●o a plurall . in this sinne ● and in all your sinnes ; doth not the resisting of thy particular helps at last , draw vpon vs the guiltinesse of all our former sinnes ? may not the neglecting of this sound ministred to mee in this mans death , bring mee to that miserie , as that i , whom the lord of life loued so , as to die for me , shall die , and a creature of mine owne shall be immortall ● that i shall die , and the worme of mine owne conscience shall neuer die ? 18. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , i haue a new occasion of thanks , and a new occasion of prayer to thee , from the ringing of this bell . thou toldst me in the other voice , that i was mortall , and approaching to death ; in this i may heare thee say , that i am dead , in an irremediable , in an irrecouerable state for bodily health . if that bee thy language in this voice , how infinitely am i bound to thy heauenly maiestie , for speaking so plainly vnto mee ? for euen that voice , that i must die now , is not the voice of a iudge , that speaks by way of condemnation , but of a physitian , that presents health in that : thou presentest mee death as the cure of my disease , not as the exaltation of it ; if i mistake thy voice herein , if i ouer-runne thy pace , and preuent thy hand , and imagine death more instant vpon mee than thou hast bid him bee , yet the voice belongs to me ; i am dead , i was borne dead , and from the first laying of these mud-walls in my conception , they haue moldred away , and the whole course of life is but an actiue death . whether this voice instruct mee , that i am a dead man now , or remember me , that i haue been a dead man all this while , i humbly thanke thee for speaking in this voice to my soule , and i hum●ly beseech thee also , to ●ccept my prayers in his behalfe , by whose occasion this voice , this sound is come to mee . ●or though hee bee by death transplanted to thee , and so in possession of inexpressible happinesse there , yet here vpon earth thou hast giuen vs such a portion of heauen , as that though men dispute , whether thy saints in heauen doe know what we in earth in particular doe stand in need of , yet without all disputation , wee vpon earth doe know what thy saints in heauen lacke yet , for the consummation of their happinesse ; and therefore thou hast affoorded vs the dignitie , that wee may pray for them . that therefore this soule now newly departed to thy kingdome , may quickly returne to a io●full reunion to that body which it hath left , and that wee with it , may soone enioy the full consummation of all , in body and soule , i humbly beg at thy hand , o our most mercifull god , for thy sonne christ iesus sake . that that blessed sonne of thine , may haue the comsummation of his dignitie , by entring into his last office , the office of a iudge , and may haue societie of humane bodies in heauen , as well as hee hath had euer of soules● and that as thou hatest sinne it selfe , thy hate to sinne may bee expressed in the abolishing of all instruments of sinne , the allurements of this world , and the world it selfe ; and all the temporarie r●uenges of sinne , the stings of sicknesse and of death ; and all the castles , and prisons , and monuments of sinne , in the graue . that time may bee swallowed vp in eternitie , and hope swallowed in possession , and ends swallowed in infinitenesse , and all men ordained to saluation , in body and soule , b● one intire and euerlasting sacrifice to thee , where thou mayest receiue delight from them , and they glorie from thee , for euermore . amen . 19. oceano tandem emenso , aspicienda resurgit terra ; vident , iustis , medici , iam cocta mederi se posse , indicijs . at last , the physitians , after a long and stormie voyage , see land ; they haue so good signes of the con●oction of the disease , as that they may safely proceed to purge . 19. meditation . all this while the physitians themselues haue beene patients , patiently attending when they should see any land in this sea , any earth , any cloud , any indication of concoction in these waters . any disorder of mine , any pretermission of theirs , exalts the d●sease , accelerates the rages of it ; no diligence accelerates the concoction , the maturitie of the disease ; they must stay till the season of the sicknesse come , and till it be ripened of it selfe , and then they may put to their hand , to gather it , before it fall off , but they cannot hasten the ripening . why should wee looke for it in a disease , which is the disorder , the discord , the irregularitie , the commotion , and rebellion of the body ? it were scarce a disease , if it could bee ordered , and made obedient to our times . why should wee looke for that in disorder , in a disease , when we cannot haue it in nature , who is so regular , and so pregnant , so forward to bring her worke to perfection , and to light ? yet we cannot awake the iuly-flowers in ianuarie , nor retard the flowers of the spring to autumne . we cannot bid the fruits come in may , nor the leaues to sticke on in december . a woman that is weake , cannot put off her ninth moneth to a tenth , for her deliuerie , and say shee will stay till shee bee stronger ; nor a queene cannot hasten it to a seuenth , that shee may bee ready for some other pleasure . nature ( if w● looke for durable and vigorous effects ) will not admit preuentions , nor anticipations , nor obligations vpon her ; for they are precontracts , and she will bee left to her libertie . nature would not be spurred , nor forced to mend her pace ; nor power , the power of man ; greatnesse lou●s not that kinde of violence neither● there are of them that will giue ● that will doe iustice , that will pardon , but they haue their owne seasons for al these , and h● that knowes not them , shall starue before that gift come , and ruine , before the iustice , and dye before the pardon saue him : some tree beares no fruit , except much dung be laid about it , and iustice comes not from some , till they bee richly manured : some trees require much visiting , much watring , much labour ; and some men giue not their fruits but vpon importunitie ; some trees require incision , and pruning , and lopping ; some men must bee intimidated and syndicated with commissions , before they will deliuer the fruits of iustice ; some trees require the early and the often accesse of the sunne ; some men open not , but vpon the fauours and letters of court mediation ; some trees must bee ●ousd and kept within doores ; some men locke vp , not onley their liber●litie , but their iustice , and their compassion , till the sollicitation of a wife , or a sonne , or a friend , or a seruant turne the key . reward is the season of one man , and importunitie of another ; feare the season of one man , and fauour of another ; friendship the season of one man , ●nd naturall affection of ●nother ; and hee that knowes not their seasons , nor cannot stay ●hem , must lose the ●ruits ; as nature will not , so power and greatnesse will not bee put to change their seasons ; and shall wee looke for this indulgence in a disease , or thinke to shake it off before it bee ripe ? all this while therefore , we are but vpon a defen●iue warre , and that is but a doubtfull state : especially where they who are besieged doe know the best of their defences , and doe not know the worst of their enemies power ; when they cannot mend their works within , and the enemie can increase his numbers without ● o how many farre more miserable , and farre more wor●hy to be lesse miserable than i , are besieged with this sicknesse , and lacke their sentinels , their physitians to watch , and lacke their munition , their cordials to d●f●nd , and perish before ●●e ●nemies weaknesse might inuite them to sally , before the disease shew any declination , or admit any way of working vpon it selfe ? in me the siege is ●o farre slackned , as that we may come to fight , and so die in the field , if i die , and not in a prison . 19. expostvlation . my god , my god , thou a●t a direct god , may i not say , a literall god , a god that wouldest bee vnderstood literally , and according to the plaine sense of all that thou saiest ? but thou art also ( lord i intend it to thy glory , and let no prophane mis-interpreter abuse it to thy diminution ) thou art a figuratiue , a metaphoricall god too : a god in whose words there is such a height of figures , such voyages , such peregrinations to ●e●ch remo●e and precious metaphors , such extentions , such spreadings , such curtaines of allegories , such third heauens of hyperboles , so harmonious eloquutions , so retired and so reserued expressions , so commanding perswasions , so perswading commandements , such sinewes euen in thy milke , and such things in thy words , as all prophane authors , seeme of the seed of the serpent , that creepes , thou art the doue , that flies . o , what words but thine , can expresse the inexpressible texture , and composition of thy word ; in which , to one man , that argument that binds his faith to beleeue that to bee the word of god , is the reuerent simplicity of the word , and to another , the maiesty of the word ; and in which two men , equally pious , may meet , and one wonder , that all should not vnderstand it , and the other , as much , that any man should . so , lord , thou giuest vs the same earth , to labour on , and to lie in ; a house , and a graue , of the same earth ; so lord , thou giuest vs the same word for our satisfaction , and for our inquisition , for our instruction , and for our admiration too ; for there are places , that thy seruants hierom and augustine would scarce beleeue ( when they grew warm by mutual letters ) of one another , that they vnderstood them , and yet both hierome and augustine call vpon persons , whom they knew to bee farre weaker , than they thought one another ( old women & young maids ) to read thy scriptures , without con●ining them , to these or those places . neither art thou thus a figuratiue , a metaphoricall god , in thy word only , but in thy workes too . the stile of thy works , the phrase of thine actions , is metaphoricall ● the institution of thy whole worship in the old law , was a cōtinuall allegory ; types & figures ouerspread all ; and figure● flowed into figures , and powred themselues ou● into farther ●igures ; circumcision carried a fig●●● of baptisme , & baptis●● carries a figure of that purity , which we shall haue in perfection in the new ierusalem . neither didst thou speake , and worke in this language , onely in the time of thy prophets ; but since thou spokest in thy son , it is so too . how often , how much more often doth thy sonne call himsel●e a way , and a light , and a gate , and a vine , and bread , than the sonne of god , or of man ? how much oftner doth he exhibit a metaphoricall christ , than a reall , a literall ? this hath occasioned thine ancient seruants , whose delight it was to write after thy copie , to proceede the same way in their expositions of the scriptures , and in their composing both of publike liturgies , and of priuate prayers to thee , to make their accesses to thee in such a kind of language , as thou wast pleased to speake to them , in a figuratiue , in a metaphoricall language ; in which manner i am bold to call the comfort which i receiue now in this sicknesse , in ●he indication of the concoction and maturity therof , in certaine clouds , and residēces , which the physitians obserue , a discouering of land frō sea , after a long , and tempestuous voyage . but wherefore , o my god , hast thou presented to vs , the afflictiōs and calamities of this life , in the name of waters ? so often in the name of waters , and deepe waters , and seas of waters ? must we looke to bee drowned ? are they bottomlesse , are they boundles ? that 's not the dialect of thy langauge ; thou hast giuen a remedy against the deepest water , by water ; against the inundation of sinne , by baptisme ; and the first life , that thou gauest to any creatures , was in waters , therefore ●hou do●●t not ●hr●●ten v● , wi●h an irrem●diablenesse , when our affliction is a sea. it is so , if we consider our selues ; so thou callest gennezareth , which was but a lake , and not salt , a sea ; so thou callest the mediterranean sea , still the great sea ; because the inhabitants saw no other sea ; they that dwelt there , thought a lake , a sea , and the others thought a little sea , the greatest , and wee that know not the afflictions of others , call our owne the heauiest . but , o my god , that is truly great , that ouerflowes the chan●ell ; that is really a great affliction , which is aboue my strength , but , thou , o god , art my strength , and then what can bee aboue it ? mountaines shake with the swelling of thy sea , secular , mountaines , men strong in power , spirituall mountaines , men strong in grace , are shaked with afflictions ; but thou laiest vp thy sea in store-houses ; euen thy corrections are of thy treasure , and thou wilt not waste thy corrections ; when they haue done their seruice , to humble thy patient , thou wilt call them in againe ; for , thou giuest the sea thy decree , that the waters should not passe thy commandement . all our waters shal run into iordan , & thy seruants passed iordan dry foot ; they shall run into the red sea ( the sea of thy sons bloud ) & the red sea , that red sea , drownes none of thine . but , they that saile in the sea , tell of the danger thereof ; i that am yet in this affliction , owe thee the glory of speaking of it ; but , as the wise man bids me , i say , i may speak much , and come short ; wherefore in summe , thou art all . since thou art so , o my god , and affliction is a sea , too deepe for vs , what is our refuge ? thine arke , thy ship . in all other seas , in all other afflictions , those meanes which thou hast ordained ; in this sea , in sicknesse , thy ship is thy physitian . thou hast made a way in the sea , and a safe path in the waters , shewing that thou canst saue from all dangers ; yea , though a man went to sea without art ; yet where i finde all that , i finde this added , neuerthelesse thou woul●est not , that the worke of thy wisdome should be idle . thou canst saue without meanes ; but thou hast told no man that thou wilt : thou hast told euery man , that thou wilt not . when the centurion beleeued the master of the ship more than saint paul , they were all opened to a great danger ; this was a preferring of thy meanes , before thee , the author of the meanes ; but , my god , though thou beest euery where , i haue no promise of appearing to me , but in thy ship : thy blessed sonne preached out of a ship : the meanes is preaching , he did that ; and the ship was a type of the church ; hee did it there● thou gauest s. paul the liues of all them , that saild with him ; if they had not beene in the ship with him , the gift had not extended to them . as soone as thy son was come out of the ship , immediatly there met him out of the tombes , a man with an vncleane spirit , and no man could hold him , no not with chaines . thy sonne needed no vse of meanes ; yet there wee apprehend the danger to vs ; if we leaue the ship , the meanes ; in this case , the physitian . but as they are ships to vs in those seas , so is there a ship to them too , in which they are to stay . giue mee leaue , o my god , to assist my selfe with such a construction of these words of thy seruant paul , to the centurion , when the mariners would haue left the ship , except these abide in the ship , you cannot bee safe ; except they who are our ships , the physitians , abide in that which is theirs , and our ship , the truth , and the sincere and religious worship of thee , and thy gospell , we cannot promise our selues , so good safety ; for though we haue our ship , the physitian , he hath not his ship , religion ; and meanes are not meanes , but in their concatenation , as they depend , and are chained together . the ships are great , saies thy apostle , but a helme turnes them ; the men are learned , but their religion turnes their labours to good : and therefore it was a heauy ●●●se , when the third part o● the ships perished : it is a heauy case , where either all religion , or true religion should forsake many of these ships , whom thou hast sent to conuey vs ouer these seas . but , o my god , my god , since i haue my ship , and they theirs , i haue them , and they haue thee , why are we yet no neerer land ? as soone as thy sonnes disciple had taken him into the ship , immediatly the ship was at the land , whither they went. why haue nor they and i this dispatch ? euery thing is immediatly done , which is done when thou wouldst haue it done . thy purpose terminates euery action , and what was done before that , is vndone yet . shall that slacken my hope ? thy prophet from thee , hath forbid it . it is good that a man should both hope , and quietly wait for the saluation of the lord. thou puttest off many iudgements , till the last day , many passe this life without any ; and shall not i endure the putting off thy mercy for a day ? and yet , o my god , thou puttest me not to that ; for , the assurance of future mercy , ●s present mercy . but what is my assurance now ? what is my seale ? it is but a cloud ; that which my physitians call a cloud , in that , which giues them their indication . but a cloud ? thy great seale to all the world , the raine-bow , that ●ecured the world for euer , from drowning , was but a reflexion vpon a cloud . a cloud it selfe was a pillar which guided the church , and the glory of god , not only was , but appeared in a cloud . let me returne , o my god , to the consideration of thy seruant eliahs proceeding , in a time of desperate drought ; he bids them look towards the sea ; they looke , and ●ee nothing . he bids thē againe and againe , seuen times : and at the seuenth time , they saw a little cloud rising out of the sea ; and presently they had their desire of raine . seuen dayes , o my god , haue we looked for this cloud , and now we haue it ; none of thy indications are friuolous ; thou makest thy signes , seales ; and thy seales , effects ; and thy effects , consolation , and restitution , whersoeuer thou maiest receiue glory by that way . 19. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who though thou passedst ouer infinite millions of generations , before thou camest to a creation of this world , yet when thou beganst , didst neuer intermit that worke , but continuedst day to day , till thou hadst perfited all the worke , and deposed it in the hands and rest of a sabbath , though thou haue beene pleased to glorifie thy selfe in a long exercise of my patience , with an expectation of thy declaration of thy selfe in this my sicknesse , yet since thou hast now of thy goodnesse afforded that , which affords vs some hope , if that bee still the way of thy glory , proceed in that way , and perfit that worke , and establish me in a sabbath , and rest in thee , by this thy seale of bodily restitution . thy priests came vp to thee , by steps in the temple ; thy angels came downe to iaacob , by steps vpon the ladder ; we finde no staire , by which thou thy selfe camest to adam in paradise , nor to sodome in thine anger ; for thou , and thou o●ely art able to doe all at once . but , o lord , i am not wearie of thy pace , nor wearie of mine owne patience . i prouoke ●he● not with a praier , not with a wish , not with a ●ope , to more haste than consists with thy purpose , nor looke that any other thing should haue entred into thy purpose , but thy glory . to heare thy ●steps comming towards mee , is the same comfort , as to see thy face present with mee ; whether thou doe the worke of a thousand yeere in a day , or extend the worke of a day , to a thousand yeere , as long as thou workest , it is light , and comfort . heauen it selfe is but an extention of the same ioy ; and an extention of this mercie , to proceed at thy leisure , in the way of restitution , is a manifestation of heauen to me here vpon earth . from that people , to whom thou appearedst in signes , and in types , the iewes , thou art departed , because they trusted in them ; but from thy church , to whom thou hast appeared in thy selfe , in thy sonne , thou wilt neuer depart ; because we cannot trust too much in him . though thou haue afforded me these signes of restitution , yet if i confide in them , and beginne to say , all was but a na●urall accident , and nature begins to discharge her selfe , and sh●e will perfit the whole worke , my hope shall vanish because it is not in thee . if thou shouldest take thy hand vtterly from me , and haue nothing to doe with me , nature alone were able to destroy mee ; but if thou withdraw thy helping hand , alas how friuolous are the helps of nature , how impotent the assistances of art ? as therefore the morning dew , is a pawne of the euening fatnesse , so , o lord , let this daies comfort be the earnest of to morrowes , so f●rre as may conforme me entirely to thee , to what end , and by what way so●uer thy mercie haue appointed mee . 20. id●agunt . vpon these indications of digested matter , they proceed to purge . 10. meditation . thoug● counsel seeme rather to consist of spirituall parts , than action , yet action is the spirit and the soule of counsell . counsels are not alwaies determined in resolutions ; wee cannot alwaies say , this was concluded ; actions are alwaies determined in effects ; wee can say this was done . then haue lawes their reuerence , and their maiestie , when wee see the iudge vpon the bench executing them . then haue counsels of warre their impressions , and their operations , when we see the seale of an armie set to them . it was an ancient way of celebrating the memorie of such as deserued well of the state , to afford them that kinde of statuarie representation , which was then called hermes ; which was , the head and shoulders of a man , standing vpon a cube , but those shoulders without armes and hands . all together it figured a constant supporter of the state , by his counsell : but in this hierogliphique , which they made without hands , they passe their consideration no farther , but that the counsellor should bee without hands , so farre , as not to reach out his hand to forraigne tentations of bribes , in matters of counsell , and , that it was not necessary , that the head should employ his owne hand ; that the same men should serue in the execution , which assisted in the counsell ; but that there should not belong hands to euery head , action to euery counsell , was neuer intended , so much as in figure , and representation . for , as matrimonie is scarce to bee called matrimonie , where there is a resolution against the fruits of matrimonie , against the hauing of children , so counsels are not counsels , but illusions , where there is from the beginning no purpose to execute ●he determina●ions of ●hose counsels . the arts and sciences are most properly referred to the head ; that is their proper element and spheare ; but yet the art of prouing , logique ; and the art of perswading , rhetorique , are deduced to the hand , and that expressed by a hand contracted into a sist , and this by a hand enlarged , and expanded ; and euermore the power of man , and the power of god himselfe is expressed so● all things are in hi● hand ● neither is god so often presented ●o vs , by names that carry our consideratiō vpon counsell , as vpon execution of counsell , he is oftner called the lord of hosts , ●han by all other names , that may be referred to the other signification● hereby● therefore wee take into our meditation , the slipperie condition of man , whose happinesse , in any kinde , the defect of any one thing , conducing to that happinesse , may ruine ; but i● must haue all the peeces to make it vp . without counsell , i had not got thus farre● withou● action and practise , i should goe no farther towards health ? but what is ●he present nec●ssary action ? purging : a withdrawing , a violating of nature , a farther weakening : o deare price , & o strange way of addition , to doe it by substraction ; of restoring nature , to violate nature ; of prouiding strength , by increasing weaknesse . was i not sicke before ? and is it a question of comfort to be asked now , did your physicke make you sicke ? was that it that my physicke promised , to make me sicke ? this is another step , vpon which we may stand , and see farther into the miserie of man , the time , the season of his miserie ; it must bee done now : o ouer-●●nning , ouer-watchfull , ouer-diligent , and ouer-sociable misery of man , that seldome comes alone , but then when it may accompanie other miseries , and so put one another into the higher exaltation , and better ●eart . i am ground euen to an attenuation , and must proceed to euacuation , all waies to exinani●ion and annihilation . 20. expostvlation . my god , my god , the god of order , but yet not of ambition , who assignest place to euery one , but not contention for place , when shall it be thy pleasure to put an end to all these quarrels , for spirituall precedences ? when shall men leaue their vncharitable disputations , which is to take place , faith or repentance , and which , when we consider faith , and works ? the head and the hand too , are required to a perfit naturall man ; counsell and action too , to a perfit ciuill man ; saith and works too , to him that is perfi●ly spirituall . but because it is easily said , i beleeue , and because it doth not easily lie in proofe , nor is easily demonstrable by any euidence taken from my heart , ( for who sees th●● , who f●●rches those rolls● ) whether i doe beleeue , or no , is it not therefore , o my god , that thou dost so frequently , so earnestly , referre vs to the hand , to the obseruation of actions ? there is a little suspition , a little imputation laid vpon ouer-tedious and dilatorie counsels . many good occasions slip away in long consultations ; and it may be a degree of sloth , to be too long in mending nets , though that must bee done . he that obserueth the wind , shall not saw , and he that regardeth the ●●ouds , shall not reape ; that is , he that is too dilatorie , too superstitious ●n these obseruations , and ●tudies but the excuse of his owne idlenesse in ●hem ; but , that which ●he same wise and royall seruant of thine , saies in ●n other place , all accept , ●nd aske no comment vpon it , he becommeth poore , that dealeth with a slacke hand● but the hand of the diligent maketh rich ; all euill imputed to the absence , all good attributed to the presence of the ●and . i know , my god , ( and i blesse thy name for knowing it● for all good knowledge is from thee ) that thou considerest the heart ; but thou takest not off thine eie , till thou come to the hand . nay , my god , doth not thy spirit intimate , that thou beginnest where wee beginne , ( at least , that thou allowest vs to beginne there ) when thou orderest thine owne answer to thine owne question , who shall ascend into the hill of the lord ? thus , he that hath cleane hands , and a pure heart ? doest ●●ou not ( at least ) send 〈◊〉 , first to the hand ? ●nd is not the worke of ●heir hands , that decla●●tion of their holy zeale , 〈◊〉 the present execution ●f manifest idolatrers , ●●lled a consecration of ●●emselues , by thy holy ●pirit ? their hands are ●alled all themselues : for , ●uen counsell it selfe goes ●nder that name , in thy word , who knowest best ●ow to giue right names : ●ecause the counsell of the ●riests assisted dauid , saul saies , the hand of the priest is with dauid● and that which is often said by moses , is very often repeated by thy other prophets , these and these things , the lord spake , and the lord said , and the lord commanmanded , not by the counsels , not by the voice , but by the hand of moses , and by the hand of the prophets : euermore we are referred for our euidence , of others , and of our selues , to the hand , to action , to works . there is something before it , beleeuing ; and there is some thing after it , suffering ; but in the most eminent , and obuious , and conspicuous place , stands doing . why then , o my god , my bl●ss●d god , in the waies of my ●pirituall strength , come ●l so slow to action ? i was whipped by thy rod , before i came to consultation , to consider my state , and shall i go● no farther ? as hee that would describe a circle in paper , if hee haue brought that circle within one inch of finishing yet if he remoue his compasse , he cannot make i● vp a perfit circle , excep● he fall to worke againe to finde out the sam● center ● so , though setting that foot of my compass● vpon thee , i haue gon● so farre , as to the consideration of my selfe , yet i● i depart from thee , my center , all is vnperfit● this proceeding to action therefore , is a returning to thee , and a working vpon my selfe by thy physicke , by thy purgatiue physicke , a free and entire euacuation of my soule by confession . the working of purgatiue physicke , is violent and contrary to nature . o lord , i decline not this potion of confession , how euer it may bee contrary to a naturall man. to take phys●cke , and not according to the right method , is dangerous . o lord , i decline not that method in this physicke , in things that burthen my conscience , to make my confession to him , into whose hands thou hast put th● power of absolution . ● know that physicke may be made so pleasant , as tha● it may easily be taken ; bu● not so pleasant as the ver●tue and nature of the me●dicine bee extinguished i know , i am not sub●mitted to such a confession as is a racke and tor●ture of the conscience but i know i am not exempt from all . if it were meerely problematicall left meerely indifferent whether we should tak● this physicke , vse thi● confession , or no , a great physitian acknowledges this to haue beene his practise , to minister many things , which hee was not sure would doe good but neuer any other thing , but such as hee was sure would doe no harme . the vse of this spirituall physicke can certainly doe no harme ; and the church hath alwaies thought that it might , and doubtlesse , many humble soules haue found , that it hath done them good . i will therefore take the cup of saluation , and call vpon thy name ; i will fill this cup of compunction , as full as i haue formerly filled the cups of wo●ldly confections , that so i may scape the cup of malediction , and irrecouerable destruction that depends vpon that . and since thy blessed and glorious sonne , being offered in the way to his execution , a cup of su●pefaction , to take away the sense of his paine , ( a charity afforded to condemned persons ordinarily in those places , and times ) refused that ease , and embraced the whole torment , i take not this cup , but this vessell of mine owne sinnes , into my contemplation , and i powre them out here according to the motions of thy holy spirit , and any where , according to the ordinances of thy holy church . 20. prayer . o eternall , and most gracious god , who hauing married man , and woman together , and made them one flesh , wouldest haue them also , to become one soule so , as that they might maintaine a simpathy in their affections , and haue a conformity to one another , in the accidents of this world , good or bad , so hauing married this soule and this body in me , i humbly beseech thee , that my soule may looke , and make her vse of thy mercifull proceedings towards my bodily restitution , & goe the same way to a spirituall . i am come by thy goodnesse , to the vse of thine ordinary meanes for my body , to wash away those peccant humors , that endangered it . i haue , o lord , a riuer in my body , but a sea in my soule , and a sea swoln into the depth of a deluge , aboue the sea. thou hast raised vp certaine hils in me heretofore , by which i might haue stood safe , from these inundations of sin . euen our naturall faculties are a hill , and might preserue vs from some sinne . education , study , obseruation , example , are hills too , and might preserue vs from some . thy church , and thy word , and thy sacraments , and thine ordinances , are hills , aboue these ; thy spirit of remorse , and compunction , & repentance for former sin , are hills too ; and to the ●op of all these hils , thou hast brought mee heretofore ; but this deluge , this inundation , is got aboue all my hills ; and i haue sinned and sinned , and multiplied sinne to sinne , after all these thy assistances against sinne , and where is there water enough to wash away this deluge ? there is a red sea , greater than this ocean ; and there is a little spring , through which this ocean , may powre it selfe into that red sea. let thy spirit of true contrition , and sorrow passe all my sinnes through these eies , into the wounds of thy sonne , and i shall be cleane , and my soule so much better purged than my body , as it is ordained for a better , and a longer life . 21 — atque annuit ille , qui , per eos , clamat , linquas iam , lazare , lectum . god prospers their practise , and he , by them , calls lazarus out of his tombe , mee out of my bed . 21. meditation . if man had beene left alone in this world , at first , shall i thinke , that he would not haue fallen ? if there had beene no woman , would not man haue serued , to haue beene his owne tempter ? when i see him now , subiect to infinite weakenesses , fall into infinite sinne , without any forraine tentations , shall i thinke , hee would haue had none , if hee had beene alone ? god saw that man needed a helper , if hee should bee well ; but to make woman ill , the deuill saw , that there needed no third . when god , and wee were alone , in adam , that was not enough ; when the deuill and wee were alone , in eue , it was enough● o what a giant is man , when hee fights against himselfe , and what a dwarfe , when hee needs , or exercises his owne assistance for himselfe ? i cannot rise out of my bed , till the physitian enable mee , nay i cannot tel , that i am able to rise , till hee tell me so . i doe nothing , i know nothing of my selfe : how little , and how impotent a pe●ce of the world , is any man alone ? and how much lesse a peece of himselfe is that man ? so little , as that when it falls out , ( as it falls out in some cases ) that more misery , and more oppression , would bee an ease to a man , he cannot giue himselfe that miserable addition , of more misery ● a man that is pressed to death , and might be eased by more weights , cannot lay those more weights vpon himselfe : hee can sinne alone , and suffer alone , but not repent , not bee absolued , without another . another tels mee , i may rise ; and i doe so . but is euery raising a preferment ? or is euery present preferment a station ? i am readier to fall to the earth now i am vp , than i was wh●n i lay in the bed : o peruerse way , irregular motion of man ; euen rising it selfe is the way to ruine . how many men are raised , and then doe not fill the place they are raised to ? no corner of any place can bee empty ; there can be no vacuity ; if that man doe not fill the place , other men will ; complaints of his insufficiency will fill it ; nay , such an abhorring is there in nature , of vacuity , that if there be but an imagination of not filling , in any man , that which is but imagination neither , will ●ill it , that is , rumor and voice , and it will be giuen ●ut , ( vpon no ground , but imagination , and no man knowes , whose imagination ) that hee is corrupt in his place , or insufficient in his place , and another prepared to succeed him in his place . a man rises , sometimes , and stands not , because hee doth not , or is not beleeued to fill his place ; and sometimes he stands not , because hee ouer-fills his place : hee may bring so much vertue , so much iustice , so much integrity to the place , as shall spoile the place , burthen the place ; his integrity may bee a libell vpon his predecessor , and cast an infamy vpon him , and a burden vpon his successor , to proceede by example , and to bring the place it selfe , to an vnder-value , and the market to an vncertainty . i am vp , and i seeme to stand , and i goe round ; and i am a new argument of the new philosophie , that the earth ●oues round ; why may ● not beleeue , that the ●hole earth moues in a round motion , though that seeme to mee to stand , when as i seeme ●o stand to my compa●y , and yet am carried , in a giddy , and circular motion , as i stand ? man hath no center , but misery ; there and onely there , hee is fixt , and sure to finde himselfe . how little soeuer he bee raised , he moues , and moues in a circle , giddily ; and as in the heauens , there are bu● a few circles , th●t goe about the whole world , but many epicicles , and other lesser circles , but yet circles , so of those men , which are raised , and put into circles , few of them moue from place to place , and passe through many and beneficiall places , but fall into lit●le circles , and within a step or two , are at their end , and not so well , as they were in ●he center , from which ●hey were raised . eue●y thing serues to exem●lifie , to illustrate mans ●isery ; but i need goe ●o farther , than my selfe ; ●or a long time , i was not ●ble to rise ; at last , i ●ust bee raised by o●hers ; and now i am vp , i am ready to sinke lower than before . ●1 . expostvlation . my god , my god , how large a glasse of the next world is this ? as wee haue an art , to cast from on● glasse to another , and so to carry the species a great way off , so hast thou , that way , much more ; wee shall haue a resurrection in heauen ; the knowledge of that thou castest by another glasse vpon vs here ; we feele that wee haue a resurrection from sinne ; and that by another glasse too ; wee see wee haue a resurrection of the body , from the mise●ies and calamities of ●his life . this resurre●tion of my body , shewes me the resurrection of ●ny soule ; and both ●ere seuerally , of both ●ogether hereafter . since ●hy martyrs vnder the altar , presse thee with ●heir solicitation for the resurrection of the body to glory , thou wouldest pardon mee , if i should presse thee by prayer , for the accomplishing of this resurrection , which thou hast begunne in me to blessed and glorious tr●●nity , was none to heare but you three , and yo● easily heare one ano●ther , because you sa● the same things . bu● when thy sonne cam● to the worke of re●demption , thou spokest and they that heard it tooke it for thunder and thy sonne himself● cried with a loud voice ● vpon the crosse , twice● as hee , who was to prepare his comming● iohn baptist , was th● voice of a cryer , and ●ot of a whisperer . still , ●f it be thy voice , it is a loud voice ; these words , ●aies thy moses , thou ●okest with a great voice , ●nd thou addest no more , ●aies hee there ; that which thou hast said , is ●uident , and it is euident , ●hat none can speake so ●oud ; none can binde vs ●o heare him , as wee ●ust thee . the most high vttered his voice : what was his voice ? the lord ●●undred from heauen , it might bee heard ; but ●his voice , thy voice , is also a mightie voice ; not onely mightie in power , it may be heard , nor mightie in obligation , it shoul● be heard , but mightie in operation , it will be● heard ; and therefore has● thou bestowed a whol● psalme vpon vs , to lead● vs to the consideration of thy voice . it is such a voice , as that thy sonne saies , the dead shall hear● it ; and that 's my state ● and why , o god , doest thou not speake to me● in that effectuall loudnesse ? saint iohn heard a voice , ●●d hee turned about to see ●he voice : sometimes we ●●e too curious of the ●●strument , by what man ●od speakes ; but thou ●peakest loudest , when ●hou speakest to the ●eart . there was silence , ●nd i heard a voice , saies ●ne , to thy seruant iob. i ●earken after thy voice , 〈◊〉 thine ordinances , and ● seeke not a whispering ●n conuenticles ; but yet , o my god , speake louder , ●hat so , though i doe ●eare thee now , then i may heare nothing but thee . my sinnes crie aloud ; cains murther di● so ; my afflictions cri● aloud ; the flouds hau● lifted vp their voice , ( an● waters are afflictions ) bu●●hou , o lord , art migh●tier than the voice o● many waters ; than ma●ny temporall , many spi●rituall afflictions ; tha● any of either kinde ; and why doest thou no● speak to me in that voice ? what is man , and whereto serueth he ? what is hi● good , and what is his euill ? my bed of sinne is no● ●uill , not desperatly euill , for thou doest call mee out of it ; but my rising out of it is not good , ( not perfitly good ) if thou call not louder , and hold me now i am vp . o my god , i am afraid of a fearefull application of ●hose words , when a man ●ath done , then hee begin●eth ; when his body is vnable to sinne , his sinfull memory sinnes ouer his old sinnes againe ; and that which thou wouldest haue vs to remember for cōpunction , wee remember with delight . bring him to me in his bed , that i may kill him , saies saul of dauid ; thou hast not said so , that is not thy voice . ioasb his owne seruants slew him , when hee was sicke in his bed ; thou hast not ●uffered that , that my seruants should so much as neglect mee , or be wearie of mee , in my sicknesse . thou threatnest , that as a shepheard takes out of the mouth of the lion , two legs , or a peec● of an eare , so shall the children of israel , that ●well in samaria , in the corner of a bed , and in da●ascus , in a couch bee ta●en away . that euen they that are secure from danger , shall perish ; how much more might i , who was in the bed of death , die ? but thou hast not dealt so with mee . as they brought out sicke persons in beds , that thy seruant peters shadow might ouer-shadow them ; thou hast , o my god , ouer-shadowed mee , refreshed mee : but when wilt thou doe more ? when wilt thou doe all ? when wilt thou speake in thy loud voice ? when wilt thou bid mee take vp my bed and walke ? as my bed is my affections , when shall i beare them so as to subdue them ? as my bed is my afflictions , when shall i beare them so , as not to murmure at them ? when shall i take vp my bed and walke ? not lie downe vpon it , as it is my pleasure , not sinke vnder it , as it is my correction ? but , o my god , my god , the god of all flesh , and of all spirit too , let me bee content with that in my ●ainting spirit , which thou declarest in this decaied flesh , that as this body is content to sit still , that it may learne to stand , and to learne by standing to walke , and by walking to trauell , so my soule by obeying this thy voice of rising , may by a farther and farther growth of ●hy grace , proceed so , and bee so established , as may remoue all suspitions , all iealousies betweene thee and mee , and may speake and heare in such a voice , as that still i may bee acceptable to thee , and satisfied from thee . 21. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who hast made little things to signifie great , and conuaid the infinite merits of thy sonne in the water of baptisme , and in the bread and wine of thy other sacrament , vnto vs , receiue the sacrifice of my humble ●hanks , that ●hou hast not onely af●orded mee , the abilitie ●o rise out of this bed of wearinesse & discom●ort , ●ut hast also made this bodily rising , by thy grace , an earnest of a second resurrection from sinne , and of a third , to euerlasting glory . thy sonne himselfe , alwaies infinite in himselfe , & incapable ●f addition , was yet pleased to grow in the virgi●s wombe , & to grow in stature , in the sight of men . thy good pu●poses vpon mee , i ●now , haue their determination and perfection , in thy holy will vpon mee ; there thy grace is , and there i am altogether ; but manifest thē●o vnto me in thy seasons , and in thy measures and degrees , that i may not onely haue that comfort of knowing thee to be infinitely good , but that also of finding thee to bee euery day better and better to mee : and that as ●hou gauest saint paul , ●he messenger of satan , to humble him , so for my ●umiliation , thou maiest giue me thy selfe , in this ●nowledge , that what ●race soeuer thou af●ord mee to day , yet i ●hould perish to morrow , if i had not to morrowes grace too . therefore i begge of thee , my daily bread ; and as thou gauest mee the bread of sorrow for many daies , and since the bread of hope for some , and this day the bread of possessing , in rising by that strength , which thou the god of all strength , hast infused into me , so , o lord , continue to mee the bread of life ; the spirituall bread of life , in a faithfull assurance in thee ; the sacramentall bread of life , in a worthy receiuing of thee ; and the more reall bread of life , in an euerlasting vnion to thee . i know , o lord , that when thou hadst created angels , and they saw thee produce fowle , and fish , and beasts , and wormes , they did not importune thee , and say , shall wee haue no better ●reatures than these , no better companions than these ; but staid thy leisure , and then had man deliuered ouer to them , not much inferiour in nature to themselues . no more doe i , o god , now that by thy first mercie , i am able to rise , importune thee for present confirmation of ●ealth ; nor now , tha● by thy mercie , i am brought to see , that thy correction hath wrought medicinally vpon mee , presume i vpon that spirituall strength i haue ; but as i acknowledge , that my bodily strength is subiect to euery pu●●e of wind , so is my spirituall strength to euery blast of vanitie . keepe me therefore still , o my gracious god , in such a proportion of both strengths , as i may still h●●e something to thanke thee for , which i haue receiued , & still something to pray for , and aske at thy hand . ●● . si● morbi fomes tibi cura ; ●he physitians consider the root and occasion , the embers , and coales , and fuell of the disease , and seeke to purge or correct that . ●2 . meditation . how ruinous a farme hath man taken , in ●aking himselfe ? how ●eady is the house eue●y day to fall downe , and how is all the groun● ouer-spread with weeds ● all the body with diseases ? where not onely euery turfe , but euery stone ● beares weeds ; not onely euery muscle of the flesh , but euery bone of the body , hath some infirmitie ● euery little flint vpon the face of this soile , hath some infectious weede , euery tooth in our head , such a paine , as a constant man is afraid of , and yet ashamed of that feare , of that sense of the paine . how deare , and how of●●n a rent doth man ●ay for this farme ? hee ●ies twice a day , in ●ouble meales , and how ●●tle time he hath to raise 〈◊〉 rent ? how many ho●● daies to call him from ●s labour ? euery day is ●alfe-holy day , halfe spent ●n sleepe . what repara●ions , and subsidies , and ●ontributions he is put to , ●esides his rent ? what ●edicines , besides his di●● ? and what inmates ●e is faine to take in , besides ●is owne familie , what infectious diseases , from other men . adam might haue had paradise for dressing and keeping it ; and then his ren● was not improued to such a labour , as would haue made his brow sweat ; and yet he gaue it ouer ; how farre greater a rent doe wee pay for this farme , this body , who pay our selues , who pay the farme it selfe , and cannot liue vpon it ? neither is our labour at an end , when wee haue cut downe some weed , as soone as it sprung vp , corrected some violent ●nd dangerous accident of a disease , which would ●aue destroied speedily ; ●or when wee haue pulled vp that weed , from the very root , recouered ●ntirely and soundly , from that particular disease ; but the whole ground is of an ill na●ure , the whole soile ill disposed ; there are ●nclinations , there is a propensnesse to diseases in the body , out of which without any other disorder , diseases will grow , and so wee are put to a continuall labour vpon this farme , to a continuall studie of the whole complexion and constitution of our body . in the distempers and diseases of soiles , sourenesse , drinesse , weeping , any kinde of barrennesse , the remedy and the physicke , is , for a great part , sometimes in themselues ; sometime the very situation releeues them , the hanger of a hill , will purge and vent his owne malignant moisture ; and the burning of the vpper ●urfe of some ground ( as ●ealth from cauterizing ) ●uts a new and a vigorous youth into that soile , ●nd there rises a kinde of phoenix out of the ashes , ● fruitfulnesse out of that which was barren before , and by that , which is the barrennest of all , ashes . and where the ground cannot giue it ●elfe physicke , yet it receiues physicke from other grounds , from other soiles , which are not the worse , for hauing contributed that helpe to them , fro● marle in other hils , o● from slimie sand in othe● shoares : grounds help themselues , or hurt no other grounds , fro● whence they receiu● helpe . but i haue take● a farme at this hard rent and vpon those heau●● couenants , that it can afford it selfe no helpe ; ( no part of my body , if it were cut off , would cure another part ; in som● ca●es it might preserue a sound part , but in no case recouer an infected ) ●nd , if my body may haue ●ny physicke , any medi●ine from another body , one man from the flesh of another man ( as by mummy , or any such composition , ) it must ●ee from a man that is dead , and not , as in other soiles , which are neuer the worse for contributing their marle , or their fat slime to my ground . there is nothing in the same man , to helpe man , nothing in mankind to helpe one another , ( in this sort , by way of physicke ) but that hee who ministers the helpe , is in as ill case , as he that receiues it would haue beene , if he had not had it ; for hee , from whose body the physicke comes , is dead . when therefore i tooke this farme , vndertooke this body , i vndertooke to draine , not a marish , but a moat , where there was , not water mingled to offend , but all was water ; i vndertooke to perfume dung , where no one part , but all was equally vnsauory ; i vndertooke to make such a thing wholsome , as was not poison by any manifest quality , intense heat , or cold , but poison in the whole substance , and in the specifique forme of it . to cure the s●arpe accidents of diseases , is a great worke ; to cure the disease it selfe , is a greater ; but to cure the body , the root , the occasion of diseases , is a worke reserued for the great physitian , which he doth ne●er any other way , but by glorifying these bodies in the next world . 22. expostvlation . my god , my god , what am i put to , when i am put to consider , and put off , the root , the fuell , the occasion of my sicknesse ? what hypocrates , what galen , could shew mee that in my body ? it lies deeper than so ; it lies in my soule : and deeper than so ; for we may wel consider the body , before the soule came , before inanimation , to bee without sinne ; and the soule b●fore it come to the body , before that infection , to be without sinne ; sinne is the root , and the fuell of all sicknesse , and yet that which destroies body & soule , is in neither , but in both together ; it is in the vnion ● of the body and soule ; and , o my god , could i preuent that , or can i dissolue that ? the root , and the fuell of my sicknesse , is my sinne , my actuall sinne ; but euen that sinne hath another root , another fuell , originall sinne ; and can i deuest that ? wilt thou bid me to separate the leuen , that a lumpe of dowe hath receiued , or the salt , that the water hath contracted , from the sea ? dost thou looke , that i should so looke to the fuell , or embers of sinne , that i neuer take fire ? the whole world is a pile of fagots , vpō which w●e are laid , and ( as though there were no other ) we are the bellowes . ignorance blowes the fire , he that touched any vncleane thing , though he knew it not , became vncleane , and a sacrifice was required , ( therefore a sin imputed ) though it were done in ignorance . ignorance blowes this coale ; but thē knowledge much more ; for , there are that know thy iudgements , and yet not onely doe , but haue pleasure in others , that doe against them . nature blowes this coale ; by nature wee are the children of wrath : and the law blowes it , thy apostle , saint paul , ●ound , that sinne tooke occasion by the law , that therefore because it is forbidden , we do some things . if wee breake the law , wee sinne ; sinne is the transgression of the law ; and sinne it selfe becomes a law in our members . our fathers haue imprinted the seed , infused a spring of sinne in vs : as a fountaine casteth out her waters , wee cast out our wickednesse ; but we haue done worse than our fathers . we are open to infinite tentations , and yet , as though we lacked , we are tempted of our owne lusts . and not satisfied with that , as though we wer● not powerfull enough , or cunning enough , to demolish , or vndermine our selues , when wee our selues haue no pleasure in the sinne , we sinne for others sakes . when adam sinned for eues sake , and salomon to gratifie his wiues , it was an vxorious sinne : when the iudges sinned for iezabels sake , and ioab to obey dauid , it was an ambitious sinne : when pilat sinned to humor the people , and herod to giue farther contentment to the iewes , it was a popular sinne : any thing serues , to occasion sin , at home , in my bosome , or abroad , in my marke , and aime ; that which i am , and that which i am not , that which i would be , proues coales , and embers , and fuell , and bellowes to sin ; and dost thou put me , o my god , to discharge my selfe , of my selfe , before i can be well ? when ●hou bidst me to put off ●he old man , doest thou meane , not onely my old habits of actuall sin , but the oldest of all , originall sinne ? when thou biddest me purge out the ●euen , dost thou meane , not only the sowrenesse of mine owne ill contracted customes , but the innate tincture of sin , imprinted by nature ? how shall i doe that which thou requirest , and not falsifie that which thou hast said , that sin is gone ouer all ? but , o my god , i presse thee not , with thine owne text , without thine owne comment ; i know that in the state of my body , which is more discernible , than that of my soule , thou dost effigiate my soule to me . and though no anatomist can say , in dissecting a body , here lay the coale , the fuell , the occasion of all bodily diseases , but yet a man may haue such a knowledge of his owne constitution , and bodily inclination to diseases , as that he may preuent his danger in a great part : so though wee cannot assigne the place of originall sinne , nor the nature of it , so exactly , as of actuall , or by any diligence deuest it , yet hauing washed it in the water of thy baptisme , wee haue not onely so cleansed it , that wee may the better look vpon it , and discerne it , but so weakned it , that howsoeuer it may retaine the former nature , it doth not retaine the former force , and though it may haue the same name , it hath not the same venome . 22. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , the god of securitie , and the enemie of securitie too , who wouldest haue vs alwaies sure of thy loue , and yet wouldest haue vs alwaies doing something for it , let mee alwaies so apprehend thee , as present with me , and yet so follow after thee , as though i had not apprehended thee . thou enlargedst ezechias lease for fifteene yeeres ; thou renewedst lazarus his lease , for a time , which we know not : but thou didst neuer so put out any of these fires , as that thou didst not rake vp the embers , and wrap vp a future mortalitie , in that body , which thou hadst then so reprieued . thou proceedest no otherwise in our soules , o our good , but fearefull god : thou pardonest no sinne so , as that that sinner can sinne no more ; thou makest no man so acceptable , as that thou mak●st him impeccable . though therefore it were a diminution of the largenesse , and derogatorie to the fulnesse of thy mercie , to looke backe vpon those sinnes which in a true repentance ● i haue buried in the wounds of ●hy sonne , with a iealous or suspicious eie , as though they were now my sinnes , when i had so ●ransferred them vpon ●hy sonne , as though ●hey could now bee raised to life againe , to condemne mee to death , when they are dead in ●im , who is the fountaine of life , yet were it an irregular anticipation , and an insolent presumption , to think● that thy present mercie extended to all my future sinnes , or that there were no embers , no coales of future sinnes left in mee . temper therefore thy mercie so to my soule , o my god , that i may neither decline to any faintnesse of spirit , in suspecting thy mercie now , to bee lesse hearty , lesse sincere , than it vses to be , to those who are perfitly reconciled to thee , nor presume so of it , as either to thinke this present mercie an antidote against all poisons , and so expose my selfe to tentations , vpon confidence that this thy mercie shall preserue mee , or that when i doe cast my selfe into new sinnes , i may haue new mercie at any time , because thou didst so easily afford mee this . 23. — metusque , relabi they warne mee of the fearefull danger of relapsing . 23. meditation . it is not in mans body , as it is in the citie , that when the bell hath rung , to couer your fire , and ●ake vp the embers , you may lie downe , and sleepe without feare . though you haue by ●●ysicke and diet , raked vp the embers of your ●isease , stil there is a feare of a relapse ; and the greater danger is in that . ●uen in pleasures , and in ●●ines , there is a propriety , ● meum & tuum ; and a man is most affected with that pleasure which is his , his by former en●oying and experience , and most intimidated with those paines which are his , his by a wofull ●ense of them , in former ●fflictions . a couetous ●erson , who hath preoccupated all his senses , filled all his capacities , with the delight of gathering , wonders how any man can haue any taste of any pleasure in any opennesse , or liberalitie ; so also in bodily paines , in a fit of the stone , th● patient wonders why any man should call the gout a paine : and hee that hath felt neither , but the tooth-ach , is as much afraid of a ●it of that , as either of the other , of either of the other . diseases , which we ●euer felt in our selues , ●ome but to a compassi●● of others that haue ●ndured them ; nay , ●ompassion it selfe , comes ●o no great degree , if wee ●aue not felt , in some ●roportion , in our selues , ●hat which wee lament ●nd condole in another . but when wee haue had ●hose torments in their ●●altation , our selues , wee ●emble at a relapse . ●hen wee must pant ●hrough all those fierie ●eats , and saile thorow ●ll those ouerflowing sweats , when wee must watch through all those long nights , and mourne through all those long daies , ( daies and nights , so long , as that nature her selfe shall seeme to be peruerted , and to hau● put the longest day , and the longest night , which should bee six moneths asunder , into one naturall , vnnaturall day ) when wee must stand at the same barre , expect the returne of physitians from ●heir consultations , and not bee sure of the s●me verdict , in any good indications , when we must goe the same way ouer againe , and not see the same issue , this is a state , a condition , a calamitie , in respect of which , any other sicknesse were a ●onualescence , and any greater , lesse . it addes to the affliction , that relapses are , ( and for the most part iustly ) imputed to our selues , as occasioned by some disorder in vs ; and so we are not onely passiue , but actiue , in our owne ruine ; we doe not onely stand vnder a falling house , but pull it downe vpon vs ; and wee are not onely executed , ( that implies guiltinesse ) but wee are executioners , ( that implies dishonor ; ) and executioners of our selues , ( and that implies impietie . ) and wee fall from that comfort which wee might haue in our first sicknesse , from that meditation , alas , how generally miserable is man , and how subiect to diseases , ( for in that it is some degree of comfort , that wee are but in the sta●e common to all ) we fall , i say , to this discomfort , and selfe accusing , & selfe condemning ; alas , how vnprouident , and in that , how vnthankfull to god and his instruments am i , in making so ill vse of so great benefits , in destroying so soone , so long a worke , in relapsing , by my disorder , to that from which they had deliuered mee ; and so my meditation is fearefully transferred from the body to the minde , and from the consideration of the sicknesse , to that sinne , that sinfull carelesnesse , by which i haue occasioned my relapse . and amongst the many weights that aggrauate a relapse , this also is one , that a relapse proceeds with a more violent dispatch , and more irremediably , because it finds the countrie weakned , and depopulated before . vpon a sicknesse , which as yet appeares not , wee can scarce fix a feare , because wee know not what to feare ; but as feare is the busiest and irksomest affection , so is a relapse ( which is still ready to come ) into that , which is but newly gone , the nearest obiect , the most immediate exercise of that affection of fear● . 23. expostvlation . my god , my god , my god , thou mightie father , who hast beene my physitian ; thou glorious sonne , who hast beene my physicke ; thou blessed spirit , who hast prepared and applied all to mee , shall i alone bee able to ouerthrow the worke of all you , and relapse into those spirituall sicknesses , from which your infinite mercies haue withdrawne me ? though thou , o my god , h●ue filled my measure with mercie , yet my measure was not so large , as that of thy whole people , the nation , the numerous and glorious nation of israel ; and yet how often , how often did they fall into relapses ? and then , where is my assurance ? how easily thou passedst ouer many other sinnes in them , and how vehemently thou insistedst in those , into which they so often relapsed ; those were their murmurings against thee , in thine instruments , and ministers , and their turnings vpon other gods , and embracing the idolatries of their neighbours . o my god , how slipperie a way , to how irrecouerable a bottome , is murmuring ? and how neere thy selfe hee comes , that murmures at him , who comes from thee ? the magistrate is the garment in which thou apparellest thy selfe ; and hee that shoots at the cloathes , cannot say , hee meant no ill to the man : thy people were feareful examples of that ; for , how often did their murmuring against thy ministers , end in a departing from thee ? when they would haue other officers , they would haue other gods ; and still to daies murmuring , was to morrowes idolatrie ; as their murmuring induced idolatrie , and they relapsed often into both , i haue found in my selfe , o my god , ( o my god , thou hast found it in me , and thy finding it , hath shewed it to me ) such a transmigration of sinne , as makes mee afraid of relapsing too . the soule of sinne , ( for wee haue made sinne immortall , and it must haue a soule ) the soule of sinne , is disobedience to thee ; and when one sinne hath beene dead in mee , that soule hath passed into another sinne . our youth dies , and the sinnes of our youth with it ; some sinnes die a violent death , and some a naturall ; pouertie , penurie , imprisonment , banishment , kill some sinnes in vs , and some die of age ; many waies wee become vnable to doe that sinne ; but still the soule liues , and passes into another sinne ; and that , that was licentiousnesse , growes ambition , and that comes to indeuotion , and spirituall coldnesse ; wee haue three liues , in our state of sinne ; and where the sinnes o● youth expire , those of our middle yeeres enter ; and those of our age after them . this transmigration of sinne , found in my selfe , makes me afraid , o my god , of a relapse : but the occasion of my feare , is more pregnant ●han so ; for , i haue had , i haue multiplied relapses already . why , o my god , is a relapse so odious to thee ? not so much their murmuring , and their idolatry , as their relapsing into those sinnes , seemes to affect thee , in thy disobedient people . they limited the holy one of israel , as ●hou complainest of them : that was a murmuring ; but before thou chargest them with the fault it selfe , in the same place , thou chargest them , with the iterating , the redoubling of ●hat fault , before the fault was named ; how oft did they prouoke mee in the wildernesse ; and grieue me in the desart ? that which brings thee to that exasperation against them , as to say , that thou wouldest breake thine owne oath , rather than leaue them vnpunished , ( they shall not see the land , which i sware vnto their fathers ) was because they had tempted thee ten times , infinitely ; vpon that , thou threatnest with that vehemencie , if ye do in any wise goe backe , know for a certainty , god will no more driue out any of these nations from before you ; but they shall be snares , and traps vnto you , and scourges in your sides , and thornes in your eies , till ye perish . no tongue , but thine owne , o my god , can expresse thine indignation , against a nation relapsing to idolatry . idolatry in any nation is deadly ; but when the disease is complicated with a relapse ( a knowledge and a profession of a former recouerie ) it is desperate : and thine anger workes , not onely where the euidence is pregnant , and without exception , ( so thou saiest , when it is said , that certaine men in a citie , haue withdrawne others to idolatrie , and that inquirie is made , and it is found true , the citie , and the inhabitants , and the cattell are to bee destroied ) but where there is but a suspicion , a rumor , of such a relapse to idolatrie , thine anger is awakened , and thine indignation stirred . in the gouernment of thy seruant iosua , there was a voice , that reuben and gad , with those of manasseh , had built a new altar . israel doth not send one to enquire ; but the whole congregation gathered to goe vp to warre against them ; and there went a prince of euery tribe : and they obiect to them , not so much their present declination to idolatry , as their relapse ; is the iniquity of peor too little for vs ? an idolatry formerly committed , and punished with the slaughter of twenty foure thousand delinquents . at last reuben , and gad satisfie them , that that altar was not built for idolatry , but built as a patterne of theirs , that they might thereby professe themselues to bee of the same profession , that they were ; and so the army returned without bloud . euen where it comes not so farre , as to an actuall relapse into idolatry , thou , o my god , becommest sensible of it ; though thou , who seest the heart all the way , preuentest all dangerous effects , where there was no ill meaning , how euer there were occasion of suspicious rumours , giuen to thine israel , of relapsing . so odious to thee , & so aggrauating a weight vpon sinne , is a relapse . but , o my god , why is it so ? so odious ? it must bee so , because hee that hath sinned , and then repented , hath weighed god and the deuill in a ballance ; hee hath heard god and the deuill plead ; and after hearing , giuen iudgement on that side , to which he adheres , by his subsequent practise ; if he returne to his sinne , hee decrees for satan ; he prefers sinne before grace , and satan before god ; and in contempt of god , declares the precedency for his aduersary : and a contempt wounds deeper than an iniury ; a relapse deeper , than a blasphemy . and when thou hast told me , that a relapse is more odious to thee , neede i aske why it is more dangerous , more pernitious to me ? is there any other measure of the greatnesse of my danger , than the greatnesse of thy displeasure ? how fitly , and how fearefully hast thou expressed my case , in a storm ●t sea , if i relapse ? ( they mount vp to heauen , and they goe downe againe to the depth : ) my sicknesse brought mee to thee in repentance , and my relapse hath cast mee farther from thee : the end of that man shall be worse than the beginning , saies thy word , thy sonne ; my beginning was sicknesse , punishment for sin ; but a worse thing may follow , saies he also , if i sin againe : not onely death , which is an ●nd , worse than sicknesse , which was the beginning , but hell , which is a beginning worse than that end . thy great seruant denied thy sonne , and he denied him againe ; but all before repentance ; here was no relapse . o , if thou haddest euer re-admitted adam into paradise , how abstinently would hee haue walked by that tree ? and would not the angels , that fell , haue fixed themselues vpon thee , if thou hadst once re-admitted them to thy sight ? they neuer relapsed ; if i doe , must not my case be as desperate ? not so desperate , for , as thy maiestie , so is thy mercie , both infinite : and thou who hast commanded me to pardon my brother seuenty seuen times , hast limited thy selfe to no number . if death were ill in it selfe , thou wouldest neuer haue raised any dead man , to life againe , because that man must necessarily die againe . if thy mercy , in pardoning , did so farre aggrauate a relapse , as that there were no more mercy after it , our case were the worse for that former mercy ; for who is not vnder , euen a necessity of sinning , whilst hee is here , if wee place this necssity in our own infirmity , and not in thy decree ? but i speak not this , o my god , as preparing a way to my relapse out of presumption , but to preclude all accesses of desperation , though out of infirmity , i should relapse . 23. prayer . o eternall and most gracious god , who though thou beest euer infinite , yet enlargest thy selfe , by the number of our prayers , and takest our often petitions to thee , to be an addition to thy glory , and thy greatnesse , as euer vpon all occa●ions , so now , o my god , i come to thy maiestie with two prayers , two supplications . i haue meditated vpon the ielouzie , which thou h●st of thine owne honour ; and considered , that nothing can come neerer a violating of that h●nor , neerer to the nature of a scorne to thee , then to sue out thy p●rdon , and receiue the seal●s of reconciliation to thee , and then returne to th●t sinne , for which i needed , and had thy pardon before . i know that this comes to neare , to a making thy holy ordinances , thy word , thy sacraments , thy seales , thy grace , instruments of my spirituall fornications . since therefore thy correction hath brought mee to such a participation of thy selfe ( thy selfe , o my god , cannot bee parted ) to such an intire possession of thee , as that i durst deliuer my selfe ouer to thee this minute , if this minute thou wouldst accept my dissolution , preserue me , o my god the god of constancie , and perseuerance , in this state , from all relapses into those sinnes , which haue induc'd thy former iudgements vpon me . but because , by too lamentable experience , i i know how slippery my customs of sinne , haue made my wayes of sinne , i presume to adde this petition too , that if my infirmitie ouertake mee , thou forsake mee not . say to my soule , my sonne , thou hast sinned , doe so no more ; but say also , that though i doe , thy spirit of remorce , and compunction shall neuer depart from mee . thy holy apostle , saint paul , was shipwrackd thrice ; & yet stil saued . though the rockes , and the sands , the heights , and the shallowes , the prosperitie , and the aduersitie of this world do diuersly threaten mee , though mine owne leakes endanger mee , yet , o god , let mee neuer put my selfe aboard with hymeneus , nor make shipwracke of faith , and a good conscience , and then thy long-liud , thy euerlasting mercy , will visit me , though that , which i most earnestly pray against , should fall vpon mee , a relapse into those sinnes , which i haue truely repented , and thou hast fully pardoned . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a20631-e1510 gen. 28.16 . mat. 13● 16. 2 reg. 4.40 . prou. 13.17 . esa. 58.8 1 sam. 24 15. 2 sam. 9.8 . 2 sam. 24.14 . psa. 34.8 prou. 14.30 . psa. 38.3 ibid. mat. 19.13 . amos 6 4. psal. 132 3. apoc. 2.22 . mat. 8.6 8.4 . 8.14 . psa. 26.8 . 84.4 . 5.8 . 69.10 . 1 cor. 9.27 . 2. reg. 2.11 . exod. 21 18. psa. 41.3 psal. 4.4 . iob 13.3 . ez●c . 47.12 . ioh. 5.6 ier. 8.22 ecclus. 38.4 ecclus. 38.15 . 1. chro. 16.12 . ecclus ●8 . 9 ps. 6.2 : v. 10. v , 12. act. 9. ●4 . luc. 5.17 . apo. 22 . 2● . ier. 51.9 . ose : 5.13 . esa. 2 ch●o : 7.14 . ezech : 47.11 . mat. 4.23 . luc. 6.19 . io : 7.23 . 2. reg. 20. ● . num : 12.14 . io : 13.23 . num ; 23.9 deu : 33.28 . eccles. 4.10 . sap. 1.9 . mat. 14.23 . mat. 26.13 . io. 8.16 . psa. 38.11 . esa. 63.3 . 1. reg● ●4 . 14 . luc. 10.40 . ier. 1.1 . leu : 13.46 . exo : 14.2 . gen. 32.24 . ecclus. 6.16 . 2 sam : 3.11 9.34 . iob 9.34 . luc : 18.1 . luc. 11.5 . psa. 27.1 . num : 14.9 . ps : 35.70 . 46.5 ecclus 41 3. mar. 6.20 . psa : 25.14 . pro : 2.5 . act. 9.31 . gen. 3.10 . pro : 1.26 : 10.24 . ps : 14.5 . 53 6. io : 7.13 . 19.38 . 29.19 . esai : 33.6 . mat. 8.26 . iud : 7.3 . apo : 21.8 . iob. 6.20 . mat. 28.8 . ps : 111.10 . pro. 1.7 . ecclus. 1.20.27 . deu : 4.10 , heb : 11.7 . ecclus : 18.27 . 2 sam. 18 25. so al , but our translation takes it . euen burcdorf . & schindler . 2.4.11 . exod. 18 13. num. 11 16. heb. 1.6 mat. 26.53 . mat. 25.31 . luc. 21.15 . io. 20.12 . gen. 28.12 . psa. 91.13 . gen. 19.15 . apo. 1.20 . apo. 8.2 . mat. 13.39 . luc. 16.22 . apoc. 21.12 . 1. reg. 19.35 . luc. 4.18 . eph. 4.11 . 1. pet 2.25 . io. 20.22 . ecclus. 13.23 . augustus , 2 sam. 19.12 . 2 sam. 24. ●● . v. 17. 2 chro. 14.8 . 2. chro. 25.16 . 42.13 . 9.6 . 11.2 . gen. 1.26 . iob. 1. tim. 4.1 . ose. 4.12 esa. 19.14 . apoc. 7.1 . iosephus . iere. 9.21 io. 8.44 . ioh. 6.70 ps. 19.12 esay 47.10 . gen. 4.10 . ier. 20.27 . eccle. 10.20 . gen. 3.8 . eccles. 12.14 . mat. 10.26 . psal. 32.34 . 8.5 . prou. 23.26 . iob. 1.8 ier. 17 9 gen. 6.5 amos 4.14 . 1 sam. 13 14. ier. 3.15 . ezech. 11 19. eccles. 7.26 . prou. 28.26 . io. 13.2 . ecclus. 50.23 . leuit. 26 36. ios. 2.11 . 1 sam. 7.3 . 2. cor. 1.22 . 1. sam. 25.37 . 24.5 . 1. sam. 24.10 . 1. reg. 8.38 . phil. 4.7 coma , latro . in val. max. ardionus . 4.14 . gen. 2.6 . leuit. 16 23. ezech. 8.11 . sap. 7.24 . sap. 11.18 . ioel. 2.30 . act. 2.19 . psa. 78.8 . esa. 6.4 . apo. 9.2 . psa. 91.13 . eze. 7.16 37.3 . can. 4.7 . iud. 23. iob 9.30 . ephes. 5.29 . iosua 22.17 . sap. 13.14 . gen. 30.33 . mat. 9.12 . iob 11.15 . dan. 7 , 9. mat. 20.6 . 6●34 . 4.10 . 2 . 16● 2. cor. 6.2 . apoc. 6.17 . eph. 6.1 . 3. ioh. v. 2. heb. 1.2 . 2. thes. 5.8 . mat. 23 . 30● mat. 22.15 : v. 23. v. 34. v. 46. gen. 32.26 . 2 pet. 3.8 ecclus. 41.1 . mat. 28.20 . psa. 121.1 . 2 pet. 2.3 . psa. 127 1. leu. 26.6 . ion. 1.5 . mat. 8.24 . io. 11.12 . eccles. 8.16 . pro. 4.16 . eccles. 5.12 . mat. 13.25.28.13 . 26.40 . iud. 16.3 . vers . 19. eph. 5.14 . 1 thes. 5.6 . ier. 51.59 . can. 5.8 1 thes. 5.6 . vers . 10. magius . antwerp roan . roccha . num. 10 1. exo. 18. apoc. 14 13. gen. 49.1 . deut. 33 1. 2 reg. 20.1 . 2 pet. 2.13 . ioh. 14.1 . psal. 31.5 . leuit. 21 1. sap. 14.14 . sap. 13.9 . sap. 13.18 . esay 8.14 . deu. 33.6 . zechar. 11.9 . iud. 12. exo. 12.30 . apo. 1.5 . 1 sam. 19.11 . apoc. 3 . 2● iud. 6.23 num. 20.26 . 1 reg. 16 18. ioh. 8.21 vers. 24. esay 66.14 . psal. 46.3 . psa. 33.7 psa. 8.29 ios. 3.17 ecelus . 43.24 . vers . 27. sap. 14.3 . act. 17.11 . luc. 5.3 . act. 27.24 . mar. 5.2 . act. 27.31 . iac. 3.4 . apo. 8.9 . io. 6.21 . lam. 3.26 . exo. 13.21 . 16.10 . 1 reg. 19.43 . august . eccles. 11.4 . prou. 10 4. psal. 24.3 . exod. 31.29 . 1 sam. 22.17 . leuit. 8.36 . gal●n . galen . galen . psa. 106 12. mar. 15 23. io. 12.28 . mat. 27 46.50 . deut. 5.22 . 2 sam. 22.14 . psal. 68 33. psal. 29. io. 5.25 . apo. 1.12 . iob. 4.16 psa. 93.3.4 . ecclus. 8.8 . ibid. v. 7. 1 sam. 19.15 . 2 chro. 24.25 . amos 3.12 . act. 5.15 . mat. 96 leu. 5.2 num. 15 22. rom. 1.32 . eph. 2.3 . 1 ●o . 3.4 . rom. 7.23 . ier. 6.7 . 7.26 . iacob . 1.14 . gen. 3.6 . 1 reg. 1● . 3 . 1 reg. 21 1 par. 22 3. lu● . 23.23 . act. 12.3 . eph. 4.22 . 1 cor. 5.7 . psal. 78.41 . num. 14 22. ios. 23.12 . deut. 13 12. i●s . 22.11 . 1.12 . num. 25 4. tertull. psa. 107 26. mat. 12.45 . io. 8.14 . mar. 14 70. ecclus. 2.18 . ecclus. 21.1 . 2. cor. 11.25 . timo. 1.19 . biathanatos a declaration of that paradoxe or thesis, that selfe-homicide is not so naturally sinne, that it may never be otherwise : wherein the nature and the extent of all those lawes, which seeme to be violated by this act, are diligently surveyed / written by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. 1644 approx. 420 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 120 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a36292) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 97946) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 414:16) biathanatos a declaration of that paradoxe or thesis, that selfe-homicide is not so naturally sinne, that it may never be otherwise : wherein the nature and the extent of all those lawes, which seeme to be violated by this act, are diligently surveyed / written by iohn donne ... donne, john, 1572-1631. donne, john, 1604-1662. [18], 218 [i.e. 220] p. printed by john dawson, london : [1644] title transliterated from greek. the dedicatory epistle signed: io. donne. edited by the author's son, john donne. 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(qc) and xml conversion βιαθανατος . a declaration of that paradoxe , or thesis , that selfe-homicide is not so naturally sinne , that it may never be otherwise . wherein the nature , and the extent of all those lawes , which seeme to be violated by this act , are diligently surveyed . written by iohn donne , who afterwards received orders from the church of england , and dyed deane of saint pauls , london . jo : saresb. de nugis curial . prolog . non omnia vera esse profiteor . sed legentium usibus inservire . published by authoritie . london , printed by john dawson , to the right honourable the lord phillip harbert . my lord , although i have not exactly obeyed your commands , yet , i hope , i have exceeded them , by presenting to your honor , this treatise , which is , so much the better , by being none of mine owne , and may therefore peradventure , deserve to live , for facilitating the issues of death . it was writ●… long since , by my father , and by him , forbid both the presse , and the fire ; neither had i subjected it now , to the publique view , but that , i could finde no certaine way to defend it from the one , but by committing it to the other ; for , since the beginning of this war , my study having been often searched , all my books ( and al-most my braines , by their continuall allarums ) sequestred , for the use of the committee ; two dangers appeared more eminently to hover over this , being then a manuscript ; a danger of being utterly lost , and a danger of being utterly found ; and fathered , by some of those wild atheists , who , as if they came into the world by conquest , owne all other mens wits , and are resolved to be learned , in despite of their starres , that would fairely have enclined them , to a more modest , and honest course of life . your lordships protection will defend this innocent from these-two monsters , men that cannot write , and men that cannot reade , and , i am very confi dent , all those that can , will think it may deserve this favour from your lordship ; for , although this booke appeare under the notion of a paradox , yet , i desire your lordship , to looke upon this doctrine , as a firme and established truth , da vida osar morir . your lordships most humble servant io : donne . from my house in cov●…nt-garden . 2●… . authors cited in this booke . beza . b. dorothaeus . bosquierus . athenagoras . causaeus . trismegistus . theodoricus a. niem . steuchius engubi . ennodius . pererius zamb ●…us alcoran corpus iur : canon . carbo , summa summarum polidorus virgilius matalius metellus , praefat . in osor. histor. pierius s. ambrosius cardanus tholosa : syntagm . s. cyprianus haedri : junius emanu●… sâ nicephorus s. gregorius vasques clarus bonars●…ius corpus iur : civil . binnius bracton plowden a : gellius tertullian climacbus basil filesacus campianus s. hieronimus ben : gorion plinius paleotus de noth . canones poenitenti : clemens alex : sotus bodin sylvius middendorpius lucidus arpilcueta fabricius hist : ci●…ro . windeckus lipsius porphyrius damasus feuardentius eusebius vincentii speculum prateolus diodorus siculus tho : morus anto : augustin . p. manutius sebast : medices scotus calvinus forestus de venen . serarius biblia sacra humfredus angl. mallonius in paleotti sindon . s. chrysostomus pontius paulinus aquinas azorius sayr elianus cajetanus s. augustinus artemidorus i. caesar josephus vegetius acacius jo : picus he●… nius latinus pacatus platina baronius ignatius alfon : castro schultingius plato simancha alb. gentilis pruckmannus p. pomponatius buxdorfius anto : de corduba thyraeus lavater nauclerus quintilianus toletus sulpitius adrianus quodlib . beccaria vita phil : nerii maldonatus bonaventura gregor : nazianz. canones apostolorum lucas de penna optinellus laertius binsfeldius pedraça sextus senensis par acelsus metaphrastes . surius gregor : de valentia brentius th●…phtlact hesic ius marloratus schlusselburgius agapetus reuchlin martialis ad tholo : saravia sylvester liber coformitatum s. franc. et christi . cassianus procop. gazaeus ardoinus greg. turon supplem . chronic. nazarius paneg. menghi ioan de lapide hippocrates bellarminus revelation . brigidae regul . iesuit . franc. gregorius oecumenius origenes alcuinus corn celsus id●…ota contemplatio de morte baldus aristoteles stanford bartolus p. martyr declaration des doctes en france sedulius minorita io gerson lylius geraldus mariana sansovinus lambert fra. a victoria wierus keeplerus lyra b●…rgensis p. lombard sophronius schultetus euthymius paterculus cassanaeus in citing these authors , for those which i produce only for ornament and illustration , i have 〈◊〉 my owne old notes ; which though i have no reason to suspect , yet i confess here my lazines ; and that i did not refresh them with going to the originall . of those few which i have not seene in the bookes themselves , ( for there are some such , even of places cited for greatest strength , ) besides the integrity of my purpose , i have this safe defence against any quarreller , that what place soever i cite from any catholique author , if i have not considered the book it selfe , i cite him from another catholique writer . and the like course i hold in the reformers . so that i shall hardly be condemned of any false citation , except to make me accessorie , they pronounce one of their owne friends principall . a distribution of this book , into parts , distinctions , and sections . preface . 1 the reason of this discourse . 2 incitements to charity towards those which doe it . 3 incitements to charity towards the author . 4 why it is not inconvenient now to handle this . 5 dessentious among schollars more , and harder to end then among others . 6 in such perplexities we ought to incline to that side which favours the dead . 7 why i make it so publique . 8 what reader i desire to have . 9 the reasons why there are so many citations . 10 god punisheth that sin most , which occasions most sin in others . the first part , first distinction , first section . 1 why we first prove , that this sin is not irremissible . sect. 2. 1 three sorts of mistakers of this sin . sect. 3 1 that all desperation is not haynous ; and that self-homicide doth not alwaies proc●…ed from desperation . 2 it may be without infid●…lity . 3 when it is poena peccati it is involuntarium . 4 the reason why men ordinarily aggravate desperation 5 of the second opinion , which is of impenitiblenes . 6 of calvins opinion , that it may be . 7 none impeccable , nor impenitible . sect. 4. 1 of the third sort , which presume actuall impenitence by reason of this act. 2 which is the safer side in doubtfull cases . 3 in articulo mortis , the church ever interprets favourably . 4 what true repentance is by clement . 5 witnesses which acquit , more credited , then they which accuse , in the cannon law. sect. 5. 1 why we wayve the ordinary definition of sin taken from saint augustine , and follow another taken from aquinas . 2 of the torturing practice of casuists . 3 of the eternall law of god , in saint augustines definition , against which a man may doe without sinne . 4 of the definition which we follow . sect. 6. 1 how law of nature , and of reason , and of god exhibited in this definition , are all one ; and how diversly accepted . 2 in some cases all these three lawes may be broken at once . as 3 in revealing a secret . 4 in parricide . sect. 7 1 of the law of nature , and that against it strictly taken , either no sinne , or all sinne is done . 2 to doe against nature makes us not guilty of a greater sinne , but more inexcusable . 3 no action so evill , that it is never good . 4 no evill in act , but disobedience . 5 lying naturally worse then selfe-homicide . 6 fame may be neglected : yet we are as much bound to preserve fame , as life . 7 god cannot command a sinne , yet he can command a murther . 8 orginall sin , cause of all sin , is from nature . sect. 8. 1 that if our adversaries by law of nature mean only sensitive nature , they say nothing , for so most vertuous actions are against nature . sect. 9. 1 as the law of nature is recta ratio , that is , jus gentium . so immolation , and idolatry are not against law of nature . sect. 10. 1 as reason is the form , and so the nature of a man , every sinne is against nature : yea , what soever agrees not exactly with christian religion . 2 vertue produced to act , differs so from reason , as a medicine made and applyed , from a boxe of drugs . dist. 2. sect. 1. 1 sinnes against nature in a particular sense , are by schoolmen said to be unnatural lusts , and this. but in scripture only the first is so called . 2 of the example of the levite in the iudges , where the vulgate edition , calls it sin against nature . 3 s. pauls use of that phrase law of nature , in long haire . 4 vêgetius use of that phrase . sect. 2. 1 self preservation is not so of particular law of nature , but that beasts naturally transgresse it , whom it binds more then us . and we , when the reason of it ceases in us , may transgresse it , and sometimes ●…ust . 2 things naturall to the species , are not alwaies so to the individuall . 3 thereupon some may retire into solitude . 4 the first principles in naturall law , are obligatory , but not deductions from thence , and the lower we descend the weaker they are . 5 pellicans . and by s. ambrose , bees kill themselves . 6 the reason of almost every law is mutable . 7 he that can declare where the reason ceases , may dispence with the law. 8 in what manner dispensations worke . 9 as nothing can annull the prerogatives of princes or of popes , though their own act seem to provide against it , so no law so much destroyes mans liberty , but that he returns to it , when the reason of that law ceases . 10 self-preservation , which is but an appetition of that which is good in our opinion , is not violated by self-homicide . 11 liberty , which is naturally to be preserved , may be departed withall , when our will is to-doe so . sect. 3. 5 that cannot bee against law of nature , which men have ever affected , if it be also ( as this is ) against sensitive nature , and so want the allurements which other sins have . 2. there are not so many examples of all other vertues , as are of this one degree of fortitude . 3 of romane gladiators . of their great numbers , great persons , and women . 4 with how small persuasions eleazar in iosephus drew men to it . 5 wives in the indies doe it yet . 6 the samanaei priests in the indies , notorious for good life and death did it . 7 latinus pacatus expresseth this desire pathetically . 8 by what means the spaniards corrected this natural desire in the indies . dist. 3. sect. 1. 1 after civility and christianity quenched this naturall desire , in the place thereof succeeded a thirst of martyrdome . 2 how leasurely the custome of killing at funerals wore out . 3 philosophers saw , and moses delivered the state of the next life , but unperfectly , sect. 2. 1 that martyrdome was by the fathers insinuated into men , for the most part by naturall reasons , and much upon humane respects . 2 so proceeded clement . 3 so did tertullian . 4 so did cyprian . 5 externall honouurs to martyrs . 6 monopoly of martyrdome 7 gods punishments upon their persecutors encouraged men to it . 8 priviledges of martyrs extended to many . 9 contrary reasons cherisht this desire in them . 10 libellatici , or compounders with the state , in cyprian . 11 flight in persecution condemned by tertullian . 12 death grew to be held necessary to make one a martyr . 13 in times when they exceeded in indiscreet exposings of themselvs , they taught that martyrs might be without death . 14 professors in cyprian , men who offred themselves before they were called . 15 enforcers of their own martyrdome . 16 examples of inordinate affecting of martyrdome . 17 lawes forbidding more executions , made to despite christians . 18 glory in their number of martyrs . sect. 3. 1 that hereticks noting the dignity gaind by martyrdome , laboured to avert them from it , but could not correct this naturall inclination . 2 they laboured the magistrate to oppose this desire . 3 basilides denyed christ to have been crucif●…ed ; and that therefore they dyed madly . 4 helchesar , that outward profession of religion was not needfull ; much ●…ffo martyrdome . 5 which also the gnostici taught : and why they prevailed not . sect. 4. 1 that heretiques missing their purpose herein , tooke the naturall way of overtaking the orthodox in numbers of martyrs . 2 petilians new way of martyrdome . 3 another new way of the circumcelliones , or circuitores . 4 the cataphrygae exceed in number . 5 the euphemitae for their numbers of martyrs called martyrians . sect. 5. 1 hereupon councels tooke it into their care to distinguish martyrs , from those who dyed for naturall and humane respects . sect. 6. 1 therefore later authors doe somewhat remit the dignity of martyrdome . 2 the jesuits still professe an enormous love to such death . distinction 4. sect. 1. 1 lawes and customes of well pollished estates having admitted it , it were rash to say it to be against law of nature . 2 true and ideated common-wealthes have allowed it . 3. 4. athenians , romans . 5 of depontani . 6 ethiopians . 7 all lawes presume this desire in men condemned . 8 in utopia authorized . 9 and by plato in certaine cases . 10 conclusion of the first part. the second part of the law of reason . distinct. 1. sect. 1. 1 that the law of reason is , conclusions drawn from primary reason or light of nature , by discourse . 2 how much strength such deduced reasons have . sect. 2. 1 of this kind of reasons , generall lawes have greatest authoritie . 2 for it is of their essence that they agree with the law of nature . 3 and there is better testimony of their producing , then of particular mens opinions . sect. 3. 1 of lawes , the emperiall law ought first to be considered . 2 the reason of that law is not abolished ; but the confession of our dependencie upon it . 3 why it is called civill law. 4 of the vastnes of the books from whence it is concocted , and of the large extent thereof . 5 that yet in this so large law there is nothing against our case . 6 of the law of adrian concerning this in souldiers . 7 of the other . law concerning this in off●…ndors already accused . dist. 2. sect. 1. 1 of the cannon law. 2 the largenes of the subject , and object thereof . 3 of codex canonum , or the body of the canon law , in use in the primitive church . of the additions to this code since . 4 canon law apter to condemn then the civil , and why . sect. 2. 1 that this proposition is not haereticall by the canon law. 2 simancha his large definition of haeresy . 3 no d●…cision of the church in the point . 4 nor canon nor bull. 5 of the common opinion of fathers , and that that varies by times , and by places by azori●… . 7 gratian cites but two fathers , whereof one is on our side . 8 that that part of canon law , to which canonists will stand , condemns not this . 9 a catholique bpa●…censure of gratian , and his decret . sect. 3. 1 what any councells have done in this point . 2 of the councell of antisidore under greg. 1. 590. 3 that it only refusd their oblations . 4 that it was only a diocesan councell . 5 the councell of braccar . inflicts two punishments . 6 the first , of not praying for them is meant of them who did it , when they were excommunicate . 7 the second , which is denying of buriall , is not always inflicted as a punishment , to an offendor ; as appeares in a punishment , to an offendor ; as appears in a locall interdict . 8 romans buried such offendors as had satisfied the law within the towne , as they did vestalls and emperours . dist. 3 sect. 1 1 of the laws of particular nations . 2 of our law of felo de se. 3 that this is by our law murder , and what reasons entitle the king to his good . 4 that our naturall desire to such dying , probably induced this customary law. 5 as in states abounding with slaves , law-makers quenched this desire , lest there should have beene no use of them . 6 forbid lest it should draw too many : as hunting , and vsury : and as wine by mahomet . 7 upon reason of generall inclinations we have severe laws against theft . 8 when a man is bound to steale . 9 sotus his opinion of day-theeues . 10 of a like law against self-homicide in the earldome of flaunders . sect. 2. 1 severe laws are arguments of a generall inclination , not of a hainousnes in the fact . 2 fasting upon sundays extremely condemned upon that reason . 3 so duells in france . 4 so bull-baitings in spaine . 5 the hainousnes of rape , or witch-craft are not diminished , where the laws against them were but easie . 6 publike benefit is the rule of extending odious laws , and restraining favourable . 7 if other nations concurre in like laws , it sheweth the inclination to be generall . sect. 3. 1 the custome of the iews not burying till sunn-set , and of the athenians cutting off the dead hand evict not . sect 4. 1 the reasons drawne from remedies , used upon some occasions to prevent it , prove as little . dist. 4. sect. 1. 1 of the reasons used by particular men , being divines . 2 of s. aug. and of his argument against donatus . 3 of s. augustine comparatively with other fathers . 4 comparison of navar and sotus . 5 iesuits often beholding to calvin for his expositions . 6 in this place we differ not from s. augustine . 7 nor in the second cited by gratian. 8 that there may be causa puniendi sine culpa . 9 as valens the emperor did misse theodosius , so s. augustine praetermitted the right case . 10 of cordubensis rule , how we must behave our selves in perplexities . 11 how temporall reward may be taken for spirituall offices . 12 of pindarus death praying for he knew not what . 13 in one place we depart from s. augustine upon the same reason , as the jesuite thyraeus doth depart from him in another . sect. 2. 1 the place cited by gratian out of s. hierome , is on our side . sect. 3. 1 lavaters confession , that augustine , hierome , chrysostome , lactantius , are of this opinion . sect. 4. 1 of peter martyrs reason , mors malum . 2 clement hath long since destroyed that reason . 3 of malum poenae , how farre it may bee wished , and how farre it condemnes . 4 possessed men are not alwaies so afflict for sinne . 5 damnation hath not so much rationem mali , as the least sinne . 6 if death were of the worst sort of evill , yet there might be good use of it , as of concupiscence . 7 in what fense s. paul calles death gods enemy . 8 death , since christ , is not so evill as before . sect. 5. 1 of peter martyrs reason , vita donum dei. sect. 6. 1 of lavaters reason of iudges in all causes . 2 where confession is not in use , there is no iudge of secret sinne . 3 of the popes iurisdiction over himselfe . 4 of such iurisdiction in other persons by civil lawes . 5 10 : 22. elected himselfe pope . 6 iurisdiction over our selves is therefore denyed us ; 7 because we are presumed favourable to our selves , not in cases esteemed hurtfull . 8 in cases hurtfull we have such iurisdiction . 9 oath of gregory in the great schisme . 10 when a man becomes to be sui juris . 11 warre is just betweene soveraigne kings , because they have no iudge . 12 princes give not themselves priviledges ; but declare that in that case they will exercise their inherent generall priviledge . sect. 7. 1 josephus reason of depositum . 2 a depositarie cannot be accused de culpa , but de dolo. 3 a secret received data fide is in natura depositi . sect. 8. 1 of similitudinary reasons in authors not divine . sect. 9. 1 of josephus his reason of hostis. sect. 10. 1 of josephus reason of servus . sect. 11. 1 of josephus reason of a pilot. distinct. 5. sect. 1. 1 of saint thomas two reasons from iustice , and charitie . 2 of that part of injustice , which is stealing himselfe from the state. 3 monastike retyring is , in genere rei , the same fault . 4 the better opinion is , that there is herein no injustice . 5 of the other injustice , of usurping upon anothers servant . 6 though we have not dominium , we have usum of this life : and we may relinquish it when we will. 7 the state is not lord of our life , yet may take it away . 8 if injustice were herein done to the state , then by a licence from the state it may be lawfull . 9 and the state might recompence her domage upon the goods or heirs of the delinquent . 10 in a man necessary to the state , there may bee some injustice herein . 11 no man can doe injurie to himselfe . 12 the question whether it be against charity , respited to the third part . sect. 2. 1 of aristotles two reasons of misery and pusillanimitie . distinct. 6. sect. 1. 1 of reasons on the other side . 2 of the law of rome , of asking the senate leave to kill himselfe . 3 of the case upon that law in quintillian . sect. 2. 1 comparisons of desertion and destruction . 2 of omissions equall to committings . sect. 3. 3 in great faults the first step imprints a guiltines , yet many steps to self-homicide are allowable . 4 dracoes lawes against homicide were retained for the hainousnes of the fault . 5 tolets five species of homicide . 6 foure of those were to be found in adams first homicide in paradise . sect. 4. 7 of tolets first and second species , by precept , and by advise , or option . 8 we may wish malum poenae to our selves , as the eremite prayed to be possessed . 9 that we may wish death for wearines of this life . 10 it is sin to wish the evill were not evill , that then we might wish it . 11 of wishing the princes death . 12 in many opinions by contrary religion , a true king becomes a tyrant . 13 why an oath of fidelity to the pope binds no man. 14 who is a tyrant by the declaration of the learned men of france . 15 how death may be wished by calvins opinion . 16 how we may wish death to another for our own advantage . 17 phil. nerius consented that one who wished his own death might have his wish . sect. 5. 1 of tolets third species of homicide , by permission , which is mors negativa . 2 of standing mute at the barre . 3 three rules from scotus , navar , and maldonate , to guide us in these desertions of our selves . 4 that i may suffer a theif to kill me , rather then kill him . 5 of se defendendo in our law. 6 that i am not bound to escape from prison if i can . nor to eate , rather then starve , 7 for ends better then this life we may neglect this . 8 that i may give my life for another . 9 chrysostomes opinion of sarahs lie , and her consent to adultery . and s. augustines opinion of this , and of that wife , who prostituted her selfe to pay her husbands debts . 10 that to give my life for another , is not to preferre another before my selfe , as bonaventure and august . say ; but to prefer vertue before life ; which is lawfull . 11 for spirituall good it is without question . 12 that i may give another that without which i cannot live . 13 that i may lawfully wear out my self with fasting . 14 that this in s. hier. opinion is selfe-homicide . 15 of the fryer whom cassianus calls a self-homicide , for refusing bread from a ●…heife , upon an indiscreet vow . 16 of christs fast . 17 of philosophers inordinate fasts . 18 of the devils threatning s. francis , for fasting . 19 examples of long fasts . 20 reasons , effects , and obligations to rigorous fastings . corollary of this section of desertion . sect. 6. 1 of another species of homicide , which is not in tolets division by mutilation . 2 of delivering ones selfe into bondage . 3. by divers cannons homicide and mutilation is the same fault . 4 of calvins argument against divorce , upon this ground of mutilation . 5 the example of s. mark , cutting off his thumbe to escape priesthood 6 in what cases it is clear , that a man may mai●… himself . sect. 7. 1 of tolets fourth species of homicide , by actual helping . 2 ardoynus reckons a flea amongst poysons , because it would destroy 3 david condemned the amalekite , who said he had helped saul to kill himselfe . 4 mariana the iesuite is of opinion , that a king which may be removed by poyson , may not be put to take it by his owne hands though ignorantly , for he doth then ki●… himself . 5 that a malefactor unaccused may accuse himself . 6 of sansovins relation of our custome at executions , and withdrawing the pillow in desperate cases . 7 of breaking the leggs of men at executions , and of breaking the halter . 8 of the forme of purgations used by moses law in cases of iealousy . 9 of formes of purgation called uulgares . 10 charlemaine brought in a new forme of purgation . 11 and britius a bishop , being acquitted before , extorted another purgation upon himselfe . 12 both kindes of ordalium , by water , and fire , in use here , till king johns time . 13 in all these purgations , and in that by battaile , the party himself assisted . 14 exumples of actuall helpers to their owne destruction in s. dorothaeus doctrine . 15 of ioseph of arimathaea his drinking of poyson . 16 of s. andrew and s. lawrence . 17 casuists not cleere whether a condemned man may doe the last act to his death . 18 but in cases without condemnation , it is sub praecepto to priests , curats , to goe to infected houses . sect. 8. 1 of tolets last species of homi-cide which is the act it selfe . 2 how farre an erring conscience may justify this act . 3 of pythagoras philosophicall conscience , to dy , rather then hurt a beane , or suffer his schollers to speak . 4 of the apparition to hero a most devout eremite , by which he killed himself , out of cassianus . 5 that the devill sometime sollicites to good . 6 that by uasques his opinion , it is not idolatry to worship god in the devil . 7 rules given to distinguish evil spirits from god are all fallible . 8 good angels sometimes move to that which is evill , being ordinarily and morally accepted . 9 as in mis-adoration by vasques , invincible ignorance excuses , so it may in our cases . 10 of s. augustines first reason against donatus , that we may save a mans life against his will. 11 of his second reasons , which is want of examples of the faithfull . and of s. augustines assured escape , if donatists had produced examples . 12 divorce in rome on either part , and in jury , on the womans part long without example . 13 saint augustines schollers in this point of examples , 〈◊〉 st●…bborne as aristotles , for the inalterablenesse of the heavens , though the reason of both be ceased . 14 of the martyr apollonia who killed her selfe . 15 of answers in her excuse . 16 of the martyr pelagia who killed her selfe . 17 though her history bee very uncertaine , yet the church seems glad of any occasion to celebrate such a fact . 18 saint augustines testimony of her . 19 saint ambroses meditation upon her . 20 eusebius his oration incitatory , imagined in the person of the mother . 21 saint augustines first of any doubting of their fact , sought such shifts to defend it , as it needed not . 22 s. augustines example hath drawne pedraca a spanish casuist , and many others , to that shift of speciall divine inspiration , in such cases . 23 and so sayes peter martyr of the midwives , and of rahabs lye . 24 to preserve the seale of confession , a man may in some case be bound to doe the intire act of killing himselfe . the third part , which is of the law of god. distinct. 1 sect. 1. 1 an introduction ' to the handling of these places of scripture . 2 why i forbeare to name them who cite these places of scripture . 3 if any oppose an answer , why i intreat him to avoide bitternes . 4 why clergy men , which by canons may fish , and hunt , yet may not hunt with dogs . 5 of bezas answer to ochius polygamy . distinction 2. sect. 1. 1 no place against this self-homicide , is produced out of the iudiciall or ceremoniall law. sect. 2 1 of the place gen. 9. 5. i will require your blood . 2 we are not bound to accept the interpretation of the rabbins . 3 of lyra , and of emmanuel sâ , both abounding in hebraisms , yet making no such note upon this place , sect. 3 , 1 of the place de●… . 33. 39. i kill , and i give life . 2 iurisdiction of parents , husbands , masters , magistrates , must consist with this place . 3 this place must be interpreted as the other places of scripture , which have the same words . and from them , being three , no such sence can be extorted . sect. 4. 1 of the place iob 7. 1. vita militia . 2 why they cite this place according to the vulgate copy . 3 of soldiers priviledges of absence by law. 4 iobs scope is , that as warre works to peace , so heere we labour to death . 5 of christs letter to king abgarus . sect. 5. 1 of another place in iob 7. 15. anima elegit suspendium . 2 why it was not lawfull to iob to kill himself . 3 his words seeme to shew some steps toward a purpose of self-homicide . 4 of sextus s●…nensis , and of gregories exposition therof 5 how i differ from the anabaptists , who say that iob despaired . 6 s. hierome , and the trent councell incurre this errour of condemning all which a condemned man says . 7 uery holy and learned men impute a more dangerous despaire to christ , then i doe to iob. sect. 6. 1 of the place io. 2. 4. skin for skin &c. sect. 7. 1 of the place eccles. 30. 16. there is no riches above a sound body . 2 this place is not of safety , but of health . sect. 8. 1 of the place exod. 20. thou shalt not kill . 2 s. augustine thinks this law to concerne ones self more directly , then another . 3 this law hath many exceptions . 4 laws of the first table are strictioris vinculi , then of the second . 5 a case wherein it is probable that a man must kill himself , if the person be exemplar . 6 as laws against day-theeves may be deduced from the law of god authorizing princes , so may this from the commandement , of preferring gods glory . 7 whatsoever might have been done before this law , this law forbids not . sect. 9. 1 of the place wisd. 1. 12. seek not death . distinct. 3. sect. 1. 1 of the place mat. 4. 6. cast thy self downe . 2 that christ when it conduced to his owne onds , did as much , as the devill tempted him to , in this place . sect. 2. 1. of the place acts 16. 17. do thy self no harme . 2 s. paul knew gods purpose of baptizing the iaylour . 3 for else saith calvin , he had frustrated gods way of giving him an escape by the faylours death . sect. 3. 1 of the place rom. 3. 8. do not evill for good . 2 in what sence paul forbids this . 3 god always inflicts malum poenae by instruments . 4 induration it selfe is sometimes medicinall . 5 we may inflict upon our selves one disease , to remove another . 6. in things evill , in that sense as s. paul takes the word bere , popes daily dispence . 7 so doe the civill lawes . 8 so doe the cannons . 9 so doth god occasion lesse sint to avoid greater . 10 what any other may dispence withall in us , in cases of extremity , we may dispence with it our selves . 11 yet no dispensation changes the nature of the thing , and therefore that particular thing was never evill . 12 the law it self , which measures actions , is neither good nor evill . 13 which picus notes well , comparing it to the firmament . 14 what evill s. paul forbids here , and why . 15 nothing which is once evil , can ever recover of that . 16 these acts were in gods decree preserved from those stains of circumstances , which make things evill : so as miracles were written in his book of nature , though not in our copy thereof ; and so , as our lady is said to be preserved from originall sinne . 17 of that kind was moses killing of the egyptian . 18 if this place of paul , be understood of all evill . 19 yet it must admit exceptions , as well as the decalogue it selfe . 20 otherwise that application which bellarmine and others doe make of it will be intollerable . sect. 4. 1. of divers places which call us , temples of god. 2 the dead are still his temples and images . 3 heath●… temples might be demolished , yet the soyle remained sacred . 4 s. pauls reason holds in cases where we avile our bodies , here we advance them . 5 how we must understand that our body is not our own . sect. 5. 1. of the place , eph. 4. 15. one body with christ. 2 this place gives arguments to all which spare not themselves for releif of others , and therefore cannot serve the contrary purpose . sect. 6. 1. of the place eph. 5. no man hates his own f●…esh . 2 how marlorate expounds this hate . distinct. 4. sect. 1. 1 of the places of scripture on the other part . 2 we may , but our adversaries may not make use of examples . to which the answer of martyr and lavat●…r is weake 3 the nature , degrees , and effects of charity . 4 s. augustines description of her. of her highest perfection beyond that which lombard observed out of aug. 5 he wholoves god with all his heart , may love him more . 6 any suffering in charity , hath infallibly the grace of god ; by aquin. sect. 2. 1. of the place 1 cor. 13. 4. though i give my body . 2. by this , it was in common reputation , a high degree of perfection to die so , and charity made it acceptable . 3 s. paul speaks of a thing which might lawfully be done , for such are all his gradations in this argument . 4 tongues of angels , in what sense in this place . 5 speech in the asse , understandings of prophesies in iudas , or miraculous faith , make not the possessour the better . 6 how i differ from the donatists , arguing from this place , that in charity there self-homicides were alwayes lawfull . 7 to give my body , is more then to let it be taken . 8 how niccphorus the martyr gave his body in sapritius his roome who recanted . 9 there may be some case that a man who is bound to give his body , cannot doe it otherwise then by self-homicide . sect. 3. 1. of the place joh. 10. 11. & joh. 15. 13. the good shepheard . 2 that a man is not bound to purge himself , if anothers crime be imputed to him . sect. 4. 1 of the place ioh. 13. 37. i will lay down my life . 2 peters readines was naturall ; pauls deliborate . sect. 5. 1. of the place ioh. 10. 15. of christs example . 2 why christ spoke this in the present time . 3 of the abundant charity of christ. 4 of his speech going to emmaus . 5 of his apparition to s. charles . 6 of the revelation to s. brigid . 7 of his mothers charity . 8 that none could take away christs soule . 9 his owne will the onely cause of his dying so soon by s. augustine . 10 and by aquinas , because he had still all his strength . 11 and by marlorate because he bowed his head , and it fell not , as ours do in death . 12 in what sense it is true that the iewes put him to death . 13 of aquinas opinion , and of silvesters opinion of aquinas . 14 christ was so the cause of his death , as he is of his wetting , which might , and doth not shut the window when it rains . 15 who imitated christ in this actuall emission of the soul. 16 upon what reasons this manner of dying in christ is called heroique , and by like epithets . 17 christ is said to have done herein , as saul , and appollonia , and such . sect. 6. 1 of the places ioh. 12. 25. luc. 14. 26. of hating this life . 2. iesuits apply particularly this hate . 3. if the place in the ephes. no man hateth his flesh , be against self-homicide , this place must by the same reason be for it . 4 s. augustine denying that this place justifies the donatists , excludes not all cases . sect. 7. of the place 1 ioh. 3. 16. we ought to lay down our lives , &c. 2 all these places direct us to doe it so , as christ did it , unconstrained . sect. 8. 1. of the place phil. 1. 23. cupio dissolvi . 2. of s. pauls gradations to this wish , and of his correcting of it . sect. 9. 1 of the place gal. 4. 15. you would have plucked out your own eyes . 2 this was more then vitam profundere by calvin . sect. 10. 1. of the place , rom. 9. 3. anathema . 2 that he wished herein damnation . 3 that he considered not his election at that time . sect. 11. of the place , exod. 32. 32. dele me de libro . 2 that this imprecation was not onely to be blotted out of the history of the scripture as some say . 3 it was stranger that christ should admit that which might seeme a slip downward , when he wisht an escape from death , then that moses should have such an exaltation upward , as to save his nation by perishing , yet both without inordinatenesse . 4 how by paulinus , a just man may safely say to god , dele me . distinct. 5. sect. 1. 1 of examples in scripture . 2 the phrase of scripture never imputes this act to any as a sinne , when it relates the history . 3 irenaeus forbids man to accuse where god doth not . 4 beza his answer to ochius reason , that some patriarchs lived in polygamy , reaches not home to our case . 5 for it is not evident by any other place of scripture , that this is sinne , and here many examples con●…ur . sect. 2. 1 examples of acts which were not fully selfe-homicides , but approaches . 2 of the prophet who punished him that would not strike him . 3. that when god doth especially invite men to such violence , he says so plainly . and therefore such particular invitations may not be presumed where they are not expressed . sect. 3. 1 of jonas . 2 why s. hierome calls only jonas of all the prophets holy . sect. 4. 1 of samson . 2 the church celebrates him as a martyr . 3 paulinus wishes such a death as samsons . 4 they which deny that he meant to kill himself , are confuted by the text . 5 they which say , he intended not his owne death principally , say the same as we doe . 6 that s. augustines answer to this fact , that it was by speciall instinct , hath no ground in the history . 7 of sayr his reason , in confirmation of augustine , that samson prayed . 8 of pedraca his reason , that it was therefore the work of god , because god effected it so , as it was desired . 9 that he had as much reason , and as much authority to kill himselfe , as to kill the philistims . and that was only the glory of god. 10 that in this manner of dying , be●… was a type of christ. sect. 5. 1 of saul . 2 whether the amalekite did helpe to kill saul . whether saul be saved or no. 3 in what cases the iewes , and lyra confesse , that a man may kill himselfe . 4 lyra's reasons why saul is to be presumed to have dyed well . 5 burgensis reason to the contrary ; that if saul were excusable , the amalekite was so too , is of no force . 5 of sauls armour-bearer . sect. 6. 1 of achitophel . 2 he set his house in order , and he was buried . sect. 7. 1 of judas . 2 he dyed not by hanging in the opinion of euthymius , occumenius , papias s. johns disciple , and theophilact . 3 by what meanes many places of scripture have been generally otherwise accepted , then the text enforceth . 4 judas not accused of this in the story , nor in the two propheticall psalmes of him . 5 origens opinion of his repentance . 6 calvin acknowledgeth all degrees of repentance , which the romane church requires to salvation to have been in judas . 7 petilians opinion that judas was a martyr . 8 his act had some degrees of iustice , by s. august . sect. 8. 1 of eleazar . 2 all confesse that it was an act of vertue . 3 his destruction was certaine to him . 4 he did as much to his owne death , as samson . 5 the reasons of thus act , alleadged in the text , are morall . 6 saint ambrose extols this by many concurrences . 7. cajetans reason for justification thereof , is app●…able to very many other cases of selfe-homicide . sect. 9. 1 of rasis . 2 his reasons in the text morall . 3 whether it be pusillanimity , as aristotle , august . and aquinas urge . 4 saint augustine confesseth that in cleombrotus it was greatnesse of minde . 5 how much great examples governe . 6 that it was reputed cowardlinesse in antisthenes , being extremely sicke , not to kill himselfe . 7 vpon what reasons lyra excuses this , and like actions . 8 burgensis his reason confesseth that there might have beene just causes for this act . conclusion 1 why jrefrained discourse of destiny herein . 2 man made of shadow , and the devill of fire by the alcoran . 3 our adversaries reasons contradict one another . 4 no precapt given of loving our selves . 5 encouragemens to contempt of death . 6 why i abstaine from particular directions . 7 laws forbid ordinary men to oure by extraordinary meanes , yet kings o●… england , fra. and spaine doe it . 8 as hierom origen chrysost. and cassianus are excused for following plato , in toleration of a ly , because the church had not then pronounced ; so may it be in this . the preface declaring the reasons , the purpose , the way , and the end of the avihor . beza , a man as eminent and illustrious , in the full glory and noone of learning , as others were in the dawning , and morning , when any , the least sparkle was notorious , a confesseth of himself , that only for the anguish of a scurffe , which over-ranne his head , he had once drown'd himselfe from the millers bridge in paris , if his uncle by chance had not then come that way ; i have often such a sickely inclination . and , whether it be , because i had my first breeding and conversation with men of a suppressed and afflicted religion , accustomed to the despite of death , and hungry of an imagin'd martyrdome ; or that the common enemie ●…nd that doore worst locked against him in mee ; or that there bee a perplexitie and flexibility in the doctrine it selfe ; or because my conscience ever assures me , that no rebellious grudging at gods gifts , nor other sinfull concurrence accompanies these thoughts in me , or that a brave scorn , or that a faint cowardlinesse beget it , whensoever any affliction assailes me , mee thinks i have the keyes of my prison in mine owne hand , and no remedy presents it selfe so soone to my heart , as mine own sword . often meditation of this hath wonne me to a charitable interpretation of their action , who dy so : and prov●…ked me a little to watch and ex●…gitate their reasons , which pronounce so peremptory judgements upon them . b a devout and godly man , hath guided us well , and rectified our uncharitablenesse in such cases , by this remembrance , [ sois lapsum , &c. thou knowest this mans fall , but thou knowest not his wra●…ling ; which perchance was such , that almost his very fall is justified and accepted of god. ] for , to this ●…nd , saith one , c [ god hath appointed us tentations , that we might have some 〈◊〉 for our 〈◊〉 , when he calles us to ●…count . ] an uncharitable mis-interpreter un●…tily demolishes his own house , and rep●…s not onothers . he loseth without any gaine or profit to any . and , as d te●…tullian comparing and making equall , him which provokes another , 〈◊〉 him who will be provoked by another , sayes , [ there is no difference , but that the 〈◊〉 offen●… first , and that is nothing , because in 〈◊〉 there is no respect of order or prioritie . ] so wee may soone becomes as ill as any offendor , if we offend in a severe increpation of the fact . for , e climachus in his ladder of paradise , places these two steps very neere one another , when hee sayes , [ though in the world it were possible for thee , to escape all defiling by actuall sinne , yet by judging and condemning those who are defiled , thou art defiled . ] in this thou act defiled , as f basil notes , [ that in comparing others sinnes , thou canst not avoid excusing thi●…mne . ] especially this is done , if thy ze●…le be too fervent in the reprehension of others : for , as in most other accidents , so in this also , sinne hath the nature of poyson , that g [ it enters eas●…st , and works fastest upon cholerique constitutions . ] it is good counsell of the pharises stiled , h [ 〈◊〉 judices proximum , don●… ad ejus locum pertingas . feeleand wrastle with such tentations as he hath done , and thy ●…le will be tamer . for , [ i therefore ( saith the apostle ) it became christ to be like us , that he might be mercifull . ] if therefore after a christian protestation of an innocent purpose herein , and after a submission of all which is said , not only to every christian church , but to every christian man , and after an entreaty , that the reader will follow this advise of tabaus , [ k qui litigant , sint ambo in oonspd●… tuo mali & rei , and trust neither me , nor the adverse part , but the reasons , there be any scandall in this 〈◊〉 of mine , it is taken , not given . and though i know , that the malitious prejudged man , and the lazy affectors of ignorance , will use the same calumnies and obtrectations toward me , ( for the voyce and sound of the snake and goose is all one ) yet because i thought , that as in the poole of bethsaida , l there was no health till the water was troubled , so the best way to finde the truth in this matter , was to deb●…te and vexe it , ( for m [ we must as well dispute de veritate , as pro veritate , ] ) i abstained not for feare of mis-interpretation from this undertaking . our stomachs are not now so tender , and queasie , after so long feeding upon folid divinity , nor we so umbragious and startling , having been so long enlightned in gods path , that wee should thinke any truth strange to us , or relapse into that childish age , in which m a councell in france forbad aristotles metapbysiq●…es , and punished with excommunication the excribing , reading , or having that booke . contemplative and bookish men , must of necessitie be more quarrelsome then others , because they contend not about matter of fact , nor can determine their controversies by any certaine witnesses , no●… judges . but as long as they go●… towards peace , that is truth , it is no matter which way . o the tutelare angels resisted one another in persia , but neither resisted gods revealed purpose . p hierome and gregorie seem to be of opinion , that salo●…n is damned , ambr●…se and augustine , that he is saved 〈◊〉 all fathers , all zealous of gods glory . q at the same time when the romane church canonized becket , the schooles of paris disputed whether hee could be saved ; both catholique judges , and of reverend authoritie . and after so many ages of a devout and religious celebrating the memory of saint hierome , causaeus hath spoken so dangerously , that r campian saies , hee pronounces him to be as deepe in hell as the devill . but in all such intricacies , where both opinions seem equally to conduce to the honor of god , his justice being as much advanced in the one , as his mercie in the other , it seemes reasonable to me , that this turne the scales , if on either side there appeare charity towards the poore soule departed . s the church in her hymnes and antiphones , doth often salute the nayles and crosse , with epithets of sweetnesse , and thanks ; but the speare which pierced christ when he was dead , it ever calles , dirum m●…ucronem . this pietie , i protest againe , urges me in this discourse ; and what infirmity soever my reasons may have , yet i have comfort in tresmeg●…tus axiome , t [ qui pius est , s●…mmè philosophatur . ] and therefore without any disguising , or curious and libellous concealing , i present and object it , to all of candor , and indifferencie , to escape that just taxation , u [ novum malitiae genus est , & intemperantis , scribere quod occultes . ] for as , x when ladijlaus tooke occasion of the great schisme , to corrupt the nobility in rome , and hoped thereby to possesse the towne , to their seven governours whom they called sapientes , they added three more , whom they called sapientes , and consided in them ; so doe i wish , and and as much as i can , effect , ) that to those many learned and subtile men which have travelled in this point , some charitable and compassionate men might be added . if therefore , of readers , which y gorionides observes to be of foure sorts , ( spunges which attract all without distinguishing ; ●…owre-glufles , which receive and powre out as fast ; b●…gges , which retaine onely the dregges of the spices , and let the wine escape ; and sives , which retaine the best onely , 〈◊〉 i finde s●…me of the last-sort , i doubt not but they may bee hereby enlightened . and z as the eyes of eve , were opened by the taste of the apple , though it hee said before that shee saw the beauty of the tree , so the digesting of this may , though not present faire obj●…cts , yet bring them to 〈◊〉 the nakednesse and deformity of their owne reasons , founded upon a rigorous suspition , and wi●…e them to be of that temper , which a chrisostome commends , [ he which suspects benignly would faine be deceived , and bee overcome . and is p●…ously glad , when he findes it to be false , which he did uncharitably suspect . ] and it may have as much vigour ( as b one observes of another author ) as the sunne in march ; it may stirre and dissolve humors , though not expell them ; for that must bee a worke of a stronger power . every branch which is excerpted from other authors , and engrafted here , is not written for the readers faith , but for illustration and comparison . because i undertooke the declaration of such a proposition as was controverted by many , and therefore was drawne to the citation of many authorities , i was willing to goe all the way with company , and to take light from others , as well in the iourney as at the journeys end . if therefore in multiplicity of not necessary citations there appeare vanity , 〈◊〉 ostentation , or digression my honesty must make my excuse and compensation , who acknowledg as c pliny doth [ that to chuse rather to be taken in a theft , then to gave every man due , is obnoxii animi , et infelicis ingenii . ] i did it the rather because scholastique and artificiall men use this way of instructing ; and i made account that i was to deale with such , because i p●…esume that naturall men are at least enough inclinable of themselves to this doctrine . this my way ; and my end is to remove ●…andall . for certainly god often punisheth a sinner much more severely , because others have taken occasion of sinning by his fact . if therefore wee did correct in our selves this easines of being scandalized , how much easier and lighter might we make the punishment of many transgressors ? for god in his judgemen●…s hath almost made us his assistants , and counsellers , how far he shall punish ; and our interpretation of anothers sinne doth often give the measure to gods justice or mercy . if therefore , since d [ disorderly long haire which was pride and wantonnesse in absolon , and squallor and horridnes in nebuchodonozor was vertue and strength in samson , and sanctification in samuel , ] these severe men will not allow to indifferent things the best construction they are capable of , nor pardon my inclination to do so , they shall pardon this opinion , that their severity proceeds from a self-guiltines , and give me leave to apply that of ennodius , e [ that it is the nature of stiffe wickednesse , to think that of others , which themselves deserve and it is all the comfort which the guilty have , not to find any innocent . ] the first part . of law and nature . distinction i. sect . i. as a lawyers use to call that impossible , which is so difficult ; that by the rules of law it cannot be afforded , but by the indulgence of the prince , and excercise of his prerogative : so divines are accustomed to call that sinne , which for the most part is so , and which naturally occasions and accompanies sinne . of such condition is this self-homicide : which to be sinne every body hath so sucked , and digested , and incorporated into the body of his faith and religion , that now they prescribe against any opposer ; and all discourse in this point is upon the degrees of this sinne , and how farre it exceeds all other : so that none brings the metall now to the test , nor touch , but onely to the balance . therefore although whatsoever is in our appetite good or bad , was first in our understanding true or false , and therefore if wee might proceed orderly , our first disquisition should be employd upon the first source , and origen , which is , whether this opinion be true or false , yet finding our selves under the iniquity and burden of this custome , and prescription , we must obey the necessitie , and preposterously examine : first , why this fact should be so resolutely condemned , and why there should be this precipitation in our judgement , to pronounce this above all other sins irremissible : and then , having removed that which was neerest us , and delivered our selves from the tyranny of this prejudice : our judgment may be brought neerer to a straightnesse , and our charity awakned , and entendred to apprehend , that this act may be free not onely from those enormous degrees of sinne , but from all . sect . ii. they who pronounce this sinne to be so necessarily damnable , are of one of these three perswasions . either they mis-affirme that this act alwaies proceeds from desperation ; and so they load it with all those comminations with which from scriptures , fathers , histories , that common place abounds . or else they entertaine that dangerous opinion , that there is in this life an impenitiblenesse , and impossibilitie of returning to god , and that apparent to us ( for else it could not justifie our uncharitable censure ; ) or else they build upon this foundation , that this act being presum'd to be sinne , and all sinne unpardonable without repentance , this is therefore unpardonable , because the very sin doth preclude all ordinary wayes of repentance . sect . iii. to those of the first sect , if i might be as vainly subtile , as they are uncharitably severe , i should answer , that all desperation is not sinnefull . for in the devill it is not sinne , nor doth hee demerit by it , because he is not commanded to hope . nor in a man which undertook an austere and disciplinary taming of his body by fasts or corrections , were it sinfull to despaire that god would take from him stimulum carnis . nor in a priest employ'd to convert infidels , were it sinfull to despaire ; that god would give him the power of miracles ; if therefore to quench and extinguish this stimulum carnis , a man should kill himselfe ; the effect and fruit of this desperation were evill , and yet the root it selfe not necessarily so . no detestation nor dehortation against this sinne of desperation ( when it is a sinne ) can be too earnest . but yet a since it may be without infidelitie , it cannot be greater then that . and though aquinas there calls it sinne truly , yet he sayes hee doth so , because it occasions many sinnes . and if it bee as b others affirme , poena peccati , it is then involuntarium , which will hardly consist with the nature of sinne : certainly , though many devout men have justly imputed to it the cause and effect of sin , yet as in the c penitentiall cannons , greater penance is inflicted upon one who kills his wife , than one who kills his mother ; and the reason added , not that the fault is greater , but that otherwise more would commit it ; so is the sinne of desperation so earnestly aggravated ; because springing from sloth , and pusillanimity , our nature is more slippery and inclinable to such a descent , than to presumptions , which yet without doubt do more wound and violate the majesty of god , then desperation doth . but howsoever , that none may justly say , that all which kill themselves , have done it out of a despaire of gods mercy , ( which is the onely sinnefull despaire ) we shall in a more proper place , when we come to consider the examples exhibited in scriptures , and other histories ; finde many who at that act have been so far from despaire , that they have esteemed it a great degree of gods mercy , to have been admitted to such a glorifying of his name , and have proceeded therein as religiously as in a sacrifice ; and as d one sayes , elegantly , of job , venere in gloriosa proverbia , and of whom we may properly say , that which moses said , when they punished upon one another their idolatry , consecrastis man●… vestras domino . when i come to consider their words who are of the second opinion , and which allow an impenitiblenesse in this life ( of which calvin is a strong authorizer , if not an authour ; who sayes , that actuall impenitence is not the sinne intimated in matth. 12. 30 , & 31. but it is a willing resisting of the holy ghost , into which whosoever falls , tenendum est , saith he , we must hold that he never riseth again ) because these hard and mis-interpretable words fall from them , when they are perplexed , and intricated with that heavy question of sinne , against the holy ghost , and because i presume them to speak proportionally and analogally to their other doctrine , i rather incline to afford them this construction , that they place this impenitiblenesse onely in the knowledge of god , or that i understand them not , then either beleeve them literally , or beleeve that they have clearly expressed their own meanings . for i see not why we should be lother to allow , that god hath made some impeccable , then impenitible . neither do i perceive , that if they had their purpose , and this were granted to them , that therfore such an impenitiblenesse must of necessity be concluded to have been in this person , by reason of this act . sect . iiii. but the third sort is the tamest of all the three , and gives greatest hope of being reduced , and rectifyed : for though they pronounce severely upon the fact , yet it is onely upon one reason , that the fact precludes all entrance to repentance . wherein i wonder why they should refuse to apply their opinions to the milder rules of the casuifts a which ever in doubtfull cases , teach an inclination to the safer side . and though it be sa●…er to thinke a thing to be fin , then not , yet that rule serves for your own information , and for a bridle to you , not for anothers condemnation . they use to interpret that rule of taking the safer side , that in things necessary ( necessitate finis , as repentance is to salvation ) wee must follow any probable opinion , though another bee more probable ; and that , directly that opinion is to be followed , quae favet animae : which they exemplifie thus . b that though all doctors hold that baptisme of a childe not yet throughly born , in the hand or foot to be ineffectuall , yet all doctors counsell to baptize in that case , & to beleeve of good effect . and the example of the good theife informes us , that repentance works immediately ; and from that history calvin collects , that such paine in articulo mortis , is naturally apt to be get repentance ; since the church is so indulgent , and liberall to her children , c that at the point of death shee will afford her treasure of baptisme to one which hath been mad from his birth , by the same reason us to a child ; d yea , to one fallen lately into madnesse , though it appeare he were in mortall sinne , if he have but attrition , which is but a feare of hell , & no tast of gods glory ; and ●…uch attrition shall be presum'd to be in him , if nothing appeare evidently to the contrary : e if she be content to extend and interpret this point of death , of every danger by sea , or travell ; f if she will interpret any mortall sinne , in a man provoked by sodain passion , and proceeding from indeliberation , to be no worse nor of greater malignity , then the act of a childe . if being unable to succour one before g she will deliver him from excommunication after he is dead . h if she bee content that both the penitent and confessor , bee but diligentes , not diligentissimi ; i if rather then she will be frustrate of her desire to dispense her treasure , she yeelds that mad and possessed men , shall be bound till they may receive extreame unction . k if lastly she absolve some whether they will or no , why should we abhorre our mothers example , and being brethren , be severer than the parent ? not to pray for them which dye without faith is a precept so obvious to every religion , that even l mahomet hath inhibited it : but to presume impenitence , because you were not by , and heard it , is an usurpation . this is true repentance ( saith clement ) [ m to doe no more , and to speake no more , those things , whereof you repent ; and not to be ever sinning , and ever asking pardon . ] of such a repentance as this our case is capable enough . and of n one who died before he had repented , goo●… paulinus would charitably interpret his haste , [ that he chose rather to go to god debitor quam liber ] and so to die in his debt rather than to carry his acquittance . as therefore in matters of fact , the delinquent is so much favor'd that o a lay-man shall sooner be beleeved which acquits him , then a clork which accuseth ( though in p other cases there be much disproportion betweene the value of these two testimonies ; ) so , if any will of necessitie proceede to judgement in our case , those reasons , which are most benigne , and which , ( as i sayd ) favent anima , ought to have the best acceptation and entertainment . sect . v. of all those definitions of sinne , which the first rhapsoder pet. lombard hath presented out of ancient learning , as well the summists as casuists doe most insist upon that which he brings from a s. augustine , as , commonly , where that father serves their turnes , they never goe further . this definition is , that sinne is dictum , factum , concupitum , contra aternam legem dei. this they stick too , because this definition ( if it be one ) best b●…ares their descant ; and is the easiest conveyance , and cariage , and vent for their conceptions ; and applying rules of divinitie to particular cases : by which they have made all our actions perplex'd and litigious , in foro interiori , which is their tribunall : by which torture they have brought mens consciences to the same reasons of complaint , which b pliny attributes to rome , till trajans time ; that civit●… f●…-aata legibus , legibus evertebatur . for as informers vext them with continuall delations upon penall lawes , so doth this act of sinning entangle wretched consciences in manifold and desp●…ate anxi eties . but for this use this definition cannot be thought to be applyable to sinne onely , since it limits it to the externall law of god , ( which word though lombard have not , c sa●… and all the rest r●…tain for this eternall law is d ratio gub●…rnativa dei , which is no other then his eternall decree for the government of the whole world , and that is providence . and certainly against this , because it is not alwayes revealed , a man may without sinne both think and speak and doe : as i may resist a disease , of which god hath decreed i shall die . yea though he seeme to reveale his will , we may resist it , with prayers against it , because it is often conditioned , and accompanied with limitations and exceptions . yea though god dealt plainly by nathan , e [ the child shall surely die ] david resisted gods decree by prayer and penance . we must therefore seek another definition of sinne which i think is not so well delivered in those words of aquinas f [ omnis defectus debiti actus habet rationem peccati ] as in his other ; [ peccatum est actus devians ab ordine debiti finis , contra regulam naturae rationis , aut legis aeternae ] for here lex aeterna being put as a member and part of the definition , it cannot admit that vast and large acceptation , which it could not escape in the description of s. augustine , but must in this place be necessarily intended of lex divina . through this definition therefore , we will trace this act of self-homicide , and see whether it offend any of those three sorts of law. sect . vi. of all these three laws , of nature , of reason , and of god , every precept which is permanent , and binds alwayes , is so compos'd and elemented and complexion'd , that to distinguish and seperate them is a chymick work : and either it doth only seeme to be done , or is done by the torture and vexation of schoole-limbicks , which are exquisite and violent distinctions . for that part of gods law which bindes alwayes , bound before it was written , and so it is but dictamen rectae rationis ; and that is the law of nature . and therefore jsidore as it is related into the a canons , dividing all law into divine and humane , addeth [ divine consists of nature , humane of custome ] yet though these three be almost all one ; yet because one thing may be commanded divers waies , and by divers authorities , as the common law , a statute , and a decree of an arbitrary court , may bind me to do the same thing , it is necessary that we weigh the obligation of every one of these laws which are in the definition . but first i will only mollify and prepare their crude and undigested opinions and prejudice which may be contracted from the often iteration , and specious but sophisticate inculcatings of law , and nature , and reason , and god , with this antidote , that many things which are of naturall and humane and divine law may be broken . of which sort b to conceale a secret delivered unto you is one . and the honour due to parents is so strictly of all these laws , as none of the second table more . yet in a iust warre a parricide is not guilty ; yea by a law of venice , though c bodin say , it were better the towne were sunk then ever there should be any example or president therein ; a sonne shall redeeme himselfe from banishment by killing his father being also banished . and we d read of another state ( and laws of civil common-wealths may not easily be pronounced to be against nature ) where when fathers came to be of an unprofitable and uselesse age , the sons must beat them to death with clubs : and of another , where all persons of above 70 years were dispatched . sect . vii . this terme the law of nature , is so variously and unconstantly deliver'd , as i confesse i read it a hundred times before i understand it once , or can conclude it to signifie that which the author should at that time meane . yet i never found it in any sence which might justifie their vociferations upon sinnes against nature . for the transgressing of the law of nature in any act doth not seeme to me to increase the hay nousnesse of that act , as though nature were more obligatory than divine law : but only in this respect it aggravates it , that in such a sin we are inexcusable by any pretence of ignorance since by the light of nature we might discern it . many things which we call sin , and so evill have been done by the commandement of god ; by abraham and the jsraelites in their departing from aegypt . so that this evill is not in the nature of the thing , nor in the nature of the whole harmony of the world , and therefore in no law of nature , but in violating , or omitting a commandement : all is obedience or disobedience . whereupon our country-man a sayr confesseth , that this self-homicide is not so intrinsecally ill , as to ly. which is also evident by cajetan b where he affirmes , that i may not to save my life , accuse my self upon the racke . and though cajetan extend no farther her●…in , then that i may not bely my sel●… : yet c 〈◊〉 evicts , that cajetans reasons , with as much force forbid any accusation of my self , though it be true . so much easier may i dep●…rt with life then with truth , or with fame , by cajetan . and yet we find that of their fame many holy men have been very negligent . for not onely augustine , anselm , and hier●… betray themselves by unurged confessi ns , but d st ambrose procur'd certain prostitute women , to come into his chamber , that by that he might be defamed , and the people thereby abstaine from making him bishop . this intrinsique and naturall evill therefore will hardly be found . for , e god who can command a murder , cannot command an evill , or a sinne ; because the whole frame and government of the world b●…ing his , he may vse it as he will. as , though he can doe a miracle , he can do nothing against nature ; because f [ that is the nature of every thing , which he works in it . ] hereupon , & upon that other true rule , g [ whatsoever is wrought by a superior agent , upon a patient , who is naturally subject to that agent , is naturall ] we may safely infer , that nothing which we call si●…ne is so against nature , but that it may be sometimes agreeable to nature . on the other side , nature is often taken so widely and so extensively , as all sinne is very truely said to be against nature . yea , before it come to be sinne . for s. augustine sayes n [ every vice , as it is vice , is against nature . ] and vice is but habite which being produced to act , is then sinne . yea the parent of all sinne , which is hereditary originall sin , which i aquinas calls , [ a languor and faintnesse in our nature , and an indisposition , proceeding from the dissolution of the harmony of originall justice ] is by him said to be in us , [ k quasi naturale ] and is , as he saith in another place , so l naturall , [ that though it is propagated with our nature , in generation , though it be not caused by the principles of nature . ] so m as if god would now miraculously frame a man , as he did the first woman , of another's flesh and bone , and not by way of generation , into that creature , all infirmities of our flesh would be derived but not originall sin. so that originall sinne is traduced by nature onely , and all actuall sinne issuing from thence , all sinne is naturall . sect . viii . but to make our approaches neerer . let us leave the consideration of the law of nature , as it is providence , and gods decree for his government of the great world ; and contract it only to the law of nature in the lesse world , our selves . there is then in us a a double law of nature , sensitive and rationall ; and b the first doth naturally lead and conduce to the other . but because by the languor and faintnesse of our nature , we lazily rest there , and for the most part goe no further in our journeys therfore out of this ordinary indisposition , aquinas pronounceth , that the inclination of our sensitive nature is against the law of reason . and this is that which the apostle calls the law of the flesh , and opposeth against the law of the spirit . now although it be possible to sinne and transgresse against this sensitive nature , which naturally and lawfully c is inclined upon bonum delectabile , by denying to it lawfull refreshings , and fomentations ; yet i think this is not that law of nature which these abhorrers of self-homicide complaine to bee violated by that act. for so they might aswell accuse all discipline and austeritie , and affectation of martyrdome , which are as contrarie to the law of sensitive nature . sect . ix . and therefore , by law of nature , if they will meane any thing , and speak to be understood , they must entend the law of rationall nature : which is that light which god hath afforded us of his eternall law ; and which is usually call'd recta ratio . now this law of nature as it is onely in man and in him directed upon piety , religion , sociablenesse ; and such ( for as it reacheth to the preservation both of śpecies and individualls , there are lively prints of it in beasts ) is with most authors confounded and made the same with jus gentium . so a azorius , and so b sylvius delivers [ that the law of nature , as it concerns only reason is j●… gentium ; ] and therefore whatever is jus gentium that is , practised ( and accepted in most , especially civil'st nations ) is also law of nature , which c artemidorus ex●…mplifies , in these two , deum colere , mulie●…ibus vinci . how then shall we ●…ccuse idolarry , or immolation of men to be sinnes against nature ? for ( not to speak of the first , which like a de●…uge overflowed the whole world , and only canaan , was a little ark swimming upon it , delivered fr●…m utter drowning , but yet not from sto●…mes and and leakes , and dangerous weather-beatings , ) immolation of men was so ordinary , that d [ almost every nation , though not batba●…ous , had received it . ] the e d●…uids of france made their divinations from sacrifices of men . f and in their wars they presaged also after the same fashion . and for our times it appeares , by the spanish relations , g that in only hispaniola they sacrific'd yearly 20000 children . sect . x. however since this is receiv'd [ a that the nature of every thing is the forme by which it is constituted , and that to doe against it , is to doe against nature ] since also this forme in man is reason , and so to commit against reason is to sin against nature , what sin can be exempt from that charge , that it is a sin against nature , since every sin is against reason . and in this acceptation b lucidus takes the law of nature , when he sayes [ god hath written in our hearts such a law of nature , as by that , we are saved in the coming of christ. ] and so every act which concurres not exactly with our religion shall bee sinne against nature . which will appeare evidently out of c jeremies words , where god promiseth as a future blessing , that he will write his lawes in their hearts , which is the christian law . so that the christian law , and the law of nature , ( for that is the law written in hearts ) must be all one . sinne therefore against nature is not so enormous , but that that may stand true , which navar saith d [ that many lawes both naturall and divine doe bind onely ad veniale . ] and so ( nor disputing at this time , whither it be against reasonal waies or no , ) ( for reason and vertue differ no otherwise than a close box of druggs , and an emplaister or medicine made from thence and applyed to a particular use and necessitie ; and in the box are not onely aromatike simples , but many poysons , which the nature of the disease , and the art of the administrer make wholsome . ) this self-homicide is no more against the law of nature , then any other sinne , nor in any of the acceptations which we touch'd before . and this is as much as i determined for this first distinction . distinction ii. sect . i. there is a lower and narrower acceptation of this law of nature ( which could not well be discerned but by this light , and fore-discoursing ) against which law , this sinne , and a very few more , seeme to be directly bent , and opposed . for a azorius sayes , [ that there are sinnes peculiarly against nature , which are contra naturalem usum hominis ] which he exemplifies in unnaturall lusts , and in this . and of the former example b aquinas sayes , [ that there are some kinds of lusts which are sinnes against nature , both as they are generally vices , and as they are against the naturall order of the act of generation . ] in the scriptures also this sinne of mis-using the sexe , is called against nature , by c s. paul. and once ( in the vulgar edition ) in the d old testament . but ( as i intimated once before ) this sinne against nature is so much abhor'd , not because the being against nature makes it so abominable , but because the knowledge therof is so domestique , so neare , so inward to us , that our conscience cannot slumber in it , nor dissemble it , as in most other sinnes it doth . for , in that example of the levite in the booke of judges , ( if those wicked men did seeke him for that abominable use , which e iosephus sayes , was onely for his wife ; and when himself relates to the people the history of his injury in the next chapter , he complains that they went about to kill him to enjoy his wife , and of no other kind of injury ; ) though the host which had harbor'd him disswade the men thus , [ solum non operemini hoc contra naturam ] will any man say , that the offer which he made them to extinguish their furious lust , to expose to them his owne daughter , a virgine , and the wife of his guest , ( which iosephus encreases by calling her a levite and his kins-woman , ) was a lesse sinne , then to have given way to their violence , or lesse against nature , because that which they sought was contra naturalem usum . is not every voluntary pollution , in genere peccati , as much against the law of nature , as this was , since it strayes and departs from the way , and defeats the end of that facultie in us , which is generation ? the violating therefore of the law of nature , doth in no acceptation aggravate the sinne . neither doth the scripture call any other sinne , then disorderly lust by that name ; s. paul once appeals to the law of nature , when arguing about the covering of heads , of men or women at publique prayer , hee sayes , [ judge in your selves ; ] and [ doth not nature teach you , that if a man have long haire , it is a shame . ] not that this was against that law of nature to which all men were bound , for it was not alwayes so . for , in most places , shavings and cuttings , a●…d pullings , are by the batyriques and epigrammatists of those times , reprehended for delicacy and effeminatenesse . and the romans till for rain corruption had envenom'd them , were ever call'd gloriously intonsi ; but because ( sayes calvine ) [ it was at that time received as a custome throughout all greece , to weare short haire , s. paul calls it naturall . ] so vegetius sayes [ that from f november to march the seas are shut up , and intractable lege naturae , ] which now are tame and tractable enough , and this also lege naturae . and that custome which s. paul call'd naturall in greece , was not long naturall there . for the bishops of rome , when they made their canons for priests shavings , g did it because they would have their priests differ from the priests of the greek church . so that s. paul mentioning the law of nature , argues not from the weight and hainousnesse of the fault , as our adversaries use ; but useth it as the nearest and most familiar and easie way to lead them to a knowledge of decencie , and a departing from scandalous singularitie in those publique meetings . sect . ii. and though azorius ( as i said ) and many others , make this selfe-homicide an example of sin , against particular law of nature ; yet it is onely upon this reason , that selfe-preservation is of naturall law. but that naturall law is so generall , that it extends to beasts more then to us , because they cannot compare degrees of obligation and distinctions of duties and offices , as we can . for we know that a [ some things are naturall to the species , and other things to the particular person ] and that the latter may correct the first . and therefore when b cicero consulted the oracle at delph●s , he had this answer , [ follow your owne nature . ] and so certainly that place , c [ it is not good for the man to be alone , ] is meant there , because if he were alone , gods purpose of multiplying mankinde had beene frustrate . yet though this be ill for conservation of our species in generall , yet it may be very fit for some particular man , to abstaine from all such conversation of marriage or men , and retire to a sollitude . for some may need that counsell of d chrysostome , [ depart from the high way , & transplant thy self in some inclosed ground : for it is hard for a tree which stands by the way side , to keep her fruit , till it be ripe . ] our safest assurance , that we be not mislead with the ambiguity of the word naturall law , and the perplex'd variety thereof in authors , will be this , that [ all the precepts of naturall law , result in these , fly evill , seek good ; ] that is , doe according to reason . for these , as they are indispensable by any authority , so they cannot be abolished nor obscur'd , but that our hearts shall ever not onely retaine , but acknowledge this law. from these are deduced by consequence , other precepts which are not necessary alwaies ; as redde deposit●… . for though this seeme to follow of the first , doe according to reason , yet it is not alwaies just . and as aquinas saies , the lower you goe towards particulars , the more you depart from the necessitie of being bound to it . so f acacius illustrates it more clearely , [ it is naturall , and bindes all alwaies , to know there is a god. from this is deduced by necessary consequence , that god ( if he be ) must be worshipped ; and after this , by likely consequence , that he must be worshipped in this or this manner . ] and so every sect will a little corruptly and adulterately call their discipline naturall law , and enjoyn a necessary obedience to it . but g though our substance of nature , ( which is best understood of the foundations and principles , and first grounds of naturall law , ) may not be changed , yet functio nat●… a , ( which is the exercise and application therof , ) and deduction from thence may , and must . the like danger is in deducing consequences from this naturall law , of selfe-preservation ; which doth not so rigorously , and urgently , and illimitedly binde , but that by the law of nature it selfe , things may , yea must neglect themselves for others ; of which the pellican is an instance , or an embleme . and h st. ambrose philosophying divinely in a contemplation of bees , after he hath afforded them many other prayses , sayes [ that wh●…n they finde themselves guilty of having broken any of their kings lawes , p●…nitenti condemnatione se mul●…tant , ut immoriantur a●…ulet sui vulnore . ] which magnanimity and justice , he compares there with the subjects of the kings of persia , who in like cases are their owne executioners . as this naturall instinct in beasts , so rectified reason belonging onely to us , instructs us often to preferre publique and necessary persons , by exposing our selves to unevitable destruction . no law is so primary and simple , but it fore-imagines a reason upon which it was founded : and scarce any reason is so constant , but that circumstances alter it . in which case a private man is emperor of himselfe ; for so i a devout man interprets those words , [ faciamus hominem ad i●…ginom nostrum , id est , sui juris . ] and he whose conscience well tempred and dispassion'd , assures him that the reason of selfe-preservation ceases in him , may also presume that the law ceases too , and may doe that then which otherwise were against that law . and therefore if it be true that [ it k belongs to the bishop of rome , to declare , interpret , limit , distinguish the law of god , ] as their doctors teach , which is , to declare when the reason of the law ceases : it may be as true which this author , and the l canons affirme , that he may dispense with that law : for hee doth no more , then any man might doe of himselfe , if he could judge as infallibly . let it be true that no man may at any time doe any thing against the law of nature , yet , m [ as a dispensation workes not thus , that i may by it disobey a law , but that that law becomes to me no law , in that case wher the reason ceases ; ] so may any man be the bishop & magistrate to himselfe , and dispense with his conscience , where it can appeare that the reason which is the soule and forme of the law , is ceased . because , n as in oathes and vowes , so in the law , the necessitie of dispensations proceedes from this , that a thing which universally considered in it selfe is profitable and honest , by reason of some particular event , becomes either dishonest or hurtfull ; neither of which , can fall within the reach , or under the commandement of any law ; and in these exempt and priviledged cases , o [ the priviledge is not contrajus universale , but contra universalitem juris . ] it doth onely succor a person , not wound , nor infirme a law . no more , then i take from the vertue of light , or dignitie of the sunne , if to escape the scortching thereof , i allow my selfe the reliefe of a shadow . and , as neither the watchfulnesse of parliaments , nor the descents and indulgences of princes , which have consented to lawes derogatory to themselves , have beene able to prejudice the princes non obstantes , because prerogative is incomprehensible , and over-flowes and transcends all law . and as those canons which boldly ( and as some school-men say ) blasphemously say , non licebit papae , diminish not his fulnesse of power , nor impeach his motus propriores , ( as they call them ) nor his non obstante jure divino , because they are understood ever to whisper some just reservation , sine justa causa , or rebus sic stantibus , so , what law soever is cast upon the conscience or liberty of man , of which the reason is mutable , is naturally condition'd with this , that it binds so long as the reason lives . besides , selfe-preservation , which wee confesse to be the foundation of generall naturall law , is no other thing then a naturall affection and appetition of good , whether true or seeming . for certainly the desire of martyrdome , though the body perish , is a selfe-preservation , because thereby , out of our election our best part is advanc'd . for heaven which we gaine so , is certainly good ; life , but probably and possibly . for here it holds well which p athenagoras sayes , [ earthly things and heavenly differ so , as veri-simile , & verum ; ] and this is the best description of felicitie that i have found , that [ q it is reditus uniuscujusque rei ad suum principium . ] now since this law of selfe-preservation is accomplish'd in attaining that which conduces to our ends , and is good to us , ( for r libertv , which is a faculty of doing that which i would , is as much of the law of nature as preservation is ; yet if for reasons seeming good to me , ( as to preserve my life when i am justly taken prisoner , i will become a slave ; i may doe it without violating the law of nature . ) if i propose to my selfe in this self-homicide a greater good , though i mistake it , i perceive not wherein i transgresse the generall law of nature , which is an affection of good , true , or seeming : and if that which i affect by death , bee truely a greater good , wherein is the other stricter law of nature , which is rectified reason , violated ? sect . iii. another reason which prevailes much with me and delivers it from being against the law of nature , is this , that in all ages , in all places , upon all occasions , men of all conditions , have affected it , and inclin'd to doe it . and as a gardan sayes it , [ mettall is planta sepulta , and that a mole is animal sepultum . ] so man , as though he were angelus sepultus , labours to be discharged of his earthly sepulchre , his body . and though this may be said of all other sinnes , that men are propense to them , and yet for all that frequency , they are against nature , that is rectifyed reason , yet if this sinne were against particular law of nature , ( as they must hold , which aggravate it by that circumstance , ) and that so it wrought to the destruction of our species , any otherwise then intemperate lust , or surfer , or incurring penall lawes , and such like doe , it could not be so generall ; since being contrary to our sensitive nature , it hath not the advantage of pleasure and delight , to allure us withall , which other sinnes have . and when i frame to my selfe a martyrologe of all which have perished by their own meanes for religion , countrey , fame , love , ease , feare , shame ; i blush to see how naked of followers all vertues are in respect of this fortitude ; and that all histories afford not so many examples , either of cunning and subtile devises , or of forcible and violent actions for the safeguard of life , as for destroying . petronius arbiter who served nero ; a man of pleasure , in the office of master of his pleasures , upon the first frowne went home , and cut his veines . so present and immediate a step was it to him , from full pleasure to such a death . how subtilly and curiously attilius regulus destroyed himselfe ? wo being of such integritie , that he would never have lyed to save his life , lyed to lose it ; falsely pleading , that the carthaginians had given him poyson , and that within few dayes he should dye , though he stayed at rome . yet codrus forcing of his death , exceeded this , because in that base disguise he was likely to perish without fame . herennius the sicilian , could endure to beat out his own braines against a post ; and as though he had owed thanks to that braine which had given him this devise of killing himselfe , would not leave beating , till he could see and salute it . comas who had been a captaine of theeves , when he came to the to ture of examination , scorning all forraigne and accessorie helps to dye , made his owne breath , the instrument of his death , by stopping and recluding it . annibal , because if hee should be overtaken with extreame necessitie , he would be beholden to none for life nor death , dyed with poyson which he alwaies carryed in a ring . as demosthenes did with poyson carryed in a penne . aristarchus when he saw that 72 yeares , nor the corrupt and malignant disease of being a severe critique , could weare him out , sterved himselfe then . homer which had written a thousand things , which no man else understood , is said to have hanged himselfe , because he understood not the fishermens riddle . othryades who onely survived of 300 champions , appointed to end a quarrell between the lacedemonians and athenians , when now the lives of all the 300 were in him , as though it had been a new victory to kill them over again , kill'd himselfe . democles , whom a greeke tyrant would have forced , to show that he could suffer any other heat , scalded himselfe to death . p●…rtia , cato's daughter , and catulus luctatius sought new conclusions , and as quintilian calls them , [ nova sacramenta pereundi , ] and dyed by swallowing burning coales . poore terence because he lost his 108 translated comedies , drown'd himselfe . and the poet labienus , because his satyricall bookes were burned by edict , burnt himselfe too . and zeno , before whom scarce any is preferr'd , because he stumbled , and hurt his finger against the ground , interpreted that as a summons from the earth , and hang'd himselfe , being then almost ●…oo yeares old . for which act , diogenes laertius proclaimes him to have been [ mira falicitate vir , qui incolumis , integer , sine morbo excessit . ] to cure himselfe of a quartane , portius latro killed himselfe . and festus , domicians minion , onely to hide the deformity of a ringworme in his face . hippionas the poet rimed bubalus the painter to death with his iambiques . macer bore well enough his being called into question for great faults , but hanged himselfe when hee heard that cicero would plead against him , though the roman condemnations at that time inflicted not so deep punishments . and so cessius licinius to escape cicero's judgement , by choaking himselfe with a napkin , had ( as tacitus calls it ) precium festinandi . you can scarce immagine any person so happy , or miserable , so repos'd or so vaine , or any occasion either of true losse , or of shamefastnesse , or frowardnesse , but that there is some example of it . yet no man , to me seemes to have made harder shift to dy , then charondas , who first having made a new law , that it should be death to enter the counsell chamber armed , not onely offended that law , but punished it presently by falling upon his sword . but the generall houre of such death is abundantly expressed , in those swarmes of the roman gladiatory champions , which , as b lipsius collects , in some one month cost europe 30000 men , and to which exercise and profusion of life , till expresse lawes forbade it , c not onely men of great birth , and place in the state , but also women coveted to be admitted . by eleazars oration recorded in d josephus , we may see how small perswasions moved men to this . [ hee onely told them , that the philosophers among the indians did so . and that we and our children ●…ere borne to dy , but neither borne to serve . ] and we may well collect , that in caesars time , in france , for one who dyed naturally , there dyed many by this devout violence . for e hee sayes there were some , whom he calls devotos , and clientes , ( f the latter lawes call them soldurios ) which enjoying many benefits , and commodities , from men of higher ranke , alwaies when the lord dyed , celebrated his funerall with their owne . and caesar adds , that in the memorie of man , no one was found that ever refused it . which devotion i have read some where continues yet in all the wives in the kingdome of bengala in the indies . and there not onely such persons , as doe it in testimony of an entire dependency , and of a gratitude , but the g samanaei , ( which did not inherite religion , and priesthood , and wisedome , as levites did amongst the jewes , and the gymnosophists amongst them , but were admitted by election , upon notice taken of their sanctity ) are sayd to have studied wayes how to dye , and especially then when they were in best state of health . and yet h these priests whose care was to dye thus , did ever summe up , and abridge all their precepts into this one , let a pious death determine a good life . such an estimation had they of this manner of dying . i how pathetically latinus pacatus expresses the sweetnesse of dying when we will ; [ others , sayth he , after the conquest , making a braver bargaine with destiny , prevented uncertaine death by certaine ; and the slaves scaped whipping by strangling . for who ever fear'd , after there was no hope●… or who would therefore for beare to kill himselfe , that another might ? is anothers hand easier then thine own ? or a private death fouler then a publique ? or is it more pain●… to fall upon thy sword , and to oppresse the wound with thy body , and so receive death at once , then to divide the torment , bend the knee , stretch out the necke ; perchance to more then one blow ? ] and then wondring why maximus , who had before murdered gratia●… , and was now suppressed by theodosius , had not enjoyed the common benefit of killing himselfe , he turnes upon gratian , and sayes , [ thou reverend gratian , hast chased thin●… executioner , and would'st not allow him leasure for so honest a death , least he should staine the sacred imperiall robe with so i●…pious bloud , or that a tyrants hand should performe thy revenge , or thou bee beholden to him for his owne death . ] and with like passion speakes another panegyrique to constantine , who after a victorie , tooke their swords from the conquered , ne quis incumberet dolori . by which language one may see , how naturall it was to those times , to affect such dispatch . and in our age , k when the spaniards extended that law , which was made onely against the canibals , that they who would not accept christian religion , should incurre bondage ; the indians in infinite numbers escaped this by killing themselves ; and never ceased , till the spaniards by some counterfeitings made them thinke , that they also would kill themselves , and follow them with the same severity into the next life . and thus much seeming to me sufficient , to defeate that argument which is drawen from selfe-preservation , and to prove that it is not so of particular law of nature , but that it is often transgressed naturally , wee will here end this second distinction . distinction iii. sect . i. after this when men by civ●…litic and mutuall use one of another , became more thrifty of themselves , and sparing of their lives , this solemnity of killing themselves at funeralls wore out a and vanish'd ; yet leysurely , and by unsensible dimunitions . [ for first in shew of it , the men wounded themselves , and the women scratch'd and defaced their cheekes , and sacrific'd so by that aspersion of blo●…d . after that , by their friends graves they made graves for themselves , and entred into them alive , ( as nunnes doe when they renounce the world . ) and after in show of this show , they onely tooke some of the earth , and were it upon their heads : and so for the publique benefit were content to forfeit their custome of dying ] and after christianitie , which besides the many advantages above all other phylosophies , that it hath made us clearely to understand the state of the next life : which moses and his followers ( though they understood it ) disguis'd ever under earthly rewards , and punishments ; either because humane nature after the first fall , till the restituti on and dignification thereof by christ , was generally incapable of such mysteries , or , because it was reserved to our blessed saviour to interpret and comment upon his owne law , and that great successive trinity of humane wisedome , socrates , plato , and aristotle , saw but glimmeringly and variously ; as also for matters of this life , the most stoick and severe sect that ever cast bridle upon mankind , i say , after christianity had quench'd those respects of fame , ease , shame , and such , how quickly naturally man snatch'd and embraced a new way of profusing his life by martyrdome ? sect . ii. for whil'st the famous acts , or famous suffrings of the jewes , for defence even of ceremonies , ( many thousands of them being slaine , onely because they would not defend themselves upon the saboth ; ) and whil'st the custome of that nation ever embrued in sacrifices of blood , and all , most of all other nations devout and carnest even in the immolation of men . and whil'st the example of our blessed saviour , who chose that way for our redemption to sacrifice his life , and profuse his blood , was now fresh in them , and govern'd all their affections , it was not hard for their doctors even by naturall reasons , and by examples to invite , or to cherish their propensnesse to martyrdome . clement therefore when h●… handles this point , scarce presents to them any other argument then naturall men were capable of , and such food , and such fuell , as would serve the tast and fervour of such an one as were not curious above nature . as , that death was not naturally evill : that martyrdome was the beginning of another life . that the heathen endured greater paines for lesse reward . that a barbarous people immolated every yeare a principall philosoper to xamolxis an idol ; and they upon whom the lot fell not , mourn'd for that . and with most earnestnesse that martyrdome is in our owne power : which be arguments better proportioned to nature , then to divinity ; and therefore clement presumed them men inclined , or inclinable by nature to this affection . tertullians reasons are somewhat more sublime ; yet rather fine , and delightfull , then sollid and weighty ; as , that god knowing man would sin after baptisme , provided him , secunda solatia , lavacrum sanguinis : that the death of saints , which is said to be precious in gods sight , cannot bee understood of the naturall death common to all : and that from the beginning in abel righteousnesse was afflicted . and these reasons were not such as would have entred any , in whom a naturall inclination had not set open the gates before . cyprian also takes the same way ; and insists upon application of prophecies of these two sorts ; that they should bee despised in this world , and that they should be rewarded in the next . to these were added externall honours , a annuall celebrating their memories , and entitling their deaths , natalitia ; and b that early instituting of the office of notaries to regulate their passions , even i●… clemens time ; and c the proposing their salita capita to bee worshipped ; which word ( though eunapius speake it prophanely ) was not undeserved by the generall misuse of such devotion . and d after the monopoly of appropriating martyrdome , and establishing the benefit thereof upon them onely which held the integritie of faith , and were in the unity of the church ; of which persuasion augustine , and hierom , and most of the ancients are cited to be ; and then by continuall increasing the dignity and merit of it , as that e ex opere operato , it purged actuall sinne , as baptisme did originall ; and f that without charitie , and in schisme , though it merited not salvation , yet it diminished the intensnesse of damnation . and by these they incited mans nature to it , which also might be a little corruptly warmed towards it , by seeing them ever punisht who afflicted them , for so g tertullian saies , that [ no city escaped punishment , which had shed christian bloud . ] after this , they descended to admit more into their fellowship , and communicate and extend these p●…iviledges : for by such indulgence are h herods infants martyrs : so is john baptist , though he dyed not for a matter of christian faith : so i is he which suffers for any vertue , and he which dyes in his mothers womb , if she be a martyr . k and so is he which being for christian profession wounded deadly , recovers : and hee which being not deadly wounded , dyes after of sicknesse contracted by his owne negligence , if that negligence amounted not to mortall sinne . so not onely the sickly and infirme succeeding ages , but even the purest-times did cherrish in men this desire of death , even by contrary reasons ; both which notwithstanding by change of circumstances , had apparance of good . for as fire is made more intense , sometimes by sprinkling water , sometimes by adding fuell . so when their teachers found any coolenesse or remissenesse in them , and an inclination to flight , or composition with the state , then l cyprian noted such with the ignominy of libellatici , because they had taken an acquittance of the state , and sayes of them [ culpa minor sacrificatorum , sed non innocens cons●…entis . ] and then m terrullian equally infames flying away , and such marchandizing , when hee sayes , [ persecution must not be redeemed ; for running away is a buying of your peace for nothing , and a buying of your peace for money is a running away . ] and then we shall finde that even against the nature of the word martyre , it became the common opinion , that death was requisite and necessarie to make one a martyr . so in n eusebius , the christians though afflicted , modestly refuse the name of martyrs , and professe that they have not deserved it , except they may be kill'd . contrary wise in other times when the disease of head-long dying at once , seemed both to weare out their numbers , and to lay some scandall upon the cause , which wrought such a desire in men , which understood not why they did it , but uninstructed , uncatechized , yea unbaptized , ( but that the charity of the supervivers imputed to them baptisma fluminis , as they hope , or at least , sanguinis , for that they saw ) did onely , as they saw others doe ; then i say ( as o a learned writer of our time sayes , [ that the church abstaines from easie canonizing , ne vilesceret sanctit as ] ( which is not here holinesse , but saintship ) least the dignity of martyrdome should be aviled by such promiscuous admittance to it , they were often contented to allow them the comfort of martydome without dying ; which was but a returning to the natuturall sense of the word . so ignatius stiles himselfe in his epistles , martyr . yea more then the rest he brought down the value thereof , and the deare purchase , for he sayes p [ that as he which honors a prophet in the name of a prophet , shall have a prophets reward ; so hee shall have a martyrs reward which honors [ vinctum christi . ] and so our most blessed saviour , proceeding in his mercifull purpose of encreasing his kingdome upon earth , yet permitting the heathen princes to continue theirs as yet , the christian religion was dilated and oppressed ; and the professors thereof , so dejected and worne with confiscations and imprisonments , thought that as in the q passeover from egypt every doore was sprinkled with blood ; so heaven had no doore from this world but by fires , crosses , and bloody persecutions : and presuming heaven to be at the next step , they would often stubbornly or stupidly winke , and so make that one step . god forbid any should be so malignant , so to mis-interpret mee , as though i thought not the blood of martyrs to be the seed of the church , or diminished the dignity thereof ; yet it becomes any ingenuity to confesse , that those times were affected with a disease of this naturall desire of such a death ; and that to such may fruitfully be applyed those words of the good b : paulinus , r [ athleta non vincit statim , quia eruitur : nec ideo transnatant , quia sespoliant . ] alas ! we may fall & drown at the last stroke ; for , to say le to heaven it is not enough to cast away the burdenous superfluities which we have long carried about us , but we must also take in a good frayte . it is not lightnesse , but an even-reposed stedfastnesse , which carries us thither . but s cyprian was forced to finde out an answer to this lamentation , which he then found to be common to men on their death beds , [ wee m●…urne because with all our strength we had vowed our selves to martyrdome , of which we are thus deprived , by being prevented by naturall death . ] and t for them who before they were called upon , offered themselves to martyrdome , he is faine to provide the glorious and satisfactory name of professors . from such an inordinate desire , too obedient to nature , proceeded the fury of some christians u who when sentence was pronounced against others , standing by , cryed out , wee also are christians . and that inexcusable forwardnesse of germanus , x who drew the beast to him , and enforced it to teare his body ; and why did he this ? eusebius delivers his reason ; that he might bee the sooner delivered out of this wicked and sinfull life . which y acts eusebius glorifies with this prayse , [ that they did them mente digna philosophis ] so that it seemes wisest men provoked this by their examples ; as z at the burning of the temple at hierusalem , meirus and iosephus , though they had way to the romans , cast themselves into the fire . how passionately a ignatius solicites the roman christians not to interrupt his death . [ i feare saith he , your charity will hurt me , and put me to beginne my course again , except you endeavour that it may be sacrificed now . i professe to all churches ; quod voluntarius morior ] and after , blandiciis demulcere feras ; entice and corrupt the beasts to devoure me , and to be my sepulchre , fruar best is , let me enjoy those beasts , whom i wish much more cruell then they are ; and if they will not attempt me , i will provoke and draw them by force ] and what was ignatius reason for this , being a man necessary to those churches , and having allowable excuses of avoiding it ? [ quia mihi utile mori est . ] such an intemperance urged the woman of edissa , b when the emperour valens had forbidden the christians one temple , to which particular reasons of devotion invited them , to enrage the officers with this contumely , when they asked her , why thus squallid , and headlong she dregg'd her sonne through the streets , i do it least when you have slaine all the other christians , i and my sonne should come to late to partake that benefit . and such a disorderly heate possessed that c old wretched man , which passing by after the execution of a whole legion of 6666 , by iterated decimation , under maximianus , although he were answered that they dyed , not onely for resisting the roman religion , but the state , for all that , wish't that he might have the happines to be with them , and so extorted a martyrdome . for that age was growne so hungry and ravenous of it , that many were baptized onely because they would be burnt , and children taught to vexe and provoke executioners , that they might be thrown into the fire . and this assurednesse that men in a full perswasion of doing well would naturally runne to this , made d the proconsul in africk proclaime , is there any more christians which desire to dy , and when a whole multit●…de by gen●…rall voice discovered themselves , he bid them [ goe hang and drown your selves and ease the magistrate . ] a●…d this naturall disposi●…ion , e afforded mahomet an arg●…ment against the jews , [ if your religion be so good , why doe you not dy ? ] for our p●…mitive chu●…ch was so enamo●…ed of death , and so satisfied with it , that to vex and torture them more , f the m●…gistrate made lawes to take from them the com●…ort of d●…ing , and encreased thei●… persecu●…ion by c●…asing it , for they gloried in their numbers . and as in o●…her w●…fares men m●…ster an●… reckon how m●…ny they bring into the 〈◊〉 , their confidence of victory was in the multitudes of t●…em which were lost . so th●…y adm●…t into the catalogue herods●…nfants ●…nfants , and the 〈◊〉 virgins . and g when 9000 souldiers u●…der adrian by apparition of an angel are said to have embraced christian religion , and when ●…he e●…perour sent others to execute them , 1000 of those ex●…cutioners joyn'd to them and so the who●…e 10000 were crucifi●…d h and of an intirelegion massacred at once we spoke but now . and baronius i speakes of 10000 cr●…cified in armenia , celebrate upon the 22th . of june : whether divers from the ●…0000 under adrian or no , i have not examined . k saint gregory says , [ let god number our martyrs , for to us they are more in number then then the sands . ] and l baronius saies , that excepting the first of january , ( whic●… ye●… in the rom●…n martyrologe records as many , as most other daies ) there is no day which hath not 500 martyres ; almost every one hath 900 , or 800. sect . iii. and when the church encreased abundantly under all these 〈◊〉 for , as in profane and secular wars , the greater the triumphs of a 〈◊〉 are , the greater also are his armies , because the●… more and more co●…cur to his splendor , and to prat●…ipate his fortu●…es ; so in this spirituall warfare , t●…e greater the triumphant church was , the greate●… g●…ew the militant , assisted both with the example & 〈◊〉 of the o●…her . and when all these treadings downe did but harrow our saviours field , a●…d prepare and better it for his harvest , the bl●…ud of the 〈◊〉 ( for though , a●… say still , very many dyed out of a naturall 〈◊〉 of despis●…g th●…s 〈◊〉 , a great number had their di●…ect ma●…ke upon the glory of god , and went to it awake ) having , as a a n●…cephorus sayes , almost strangled the devill , hee trye●… by his two greatest instr●…ments , ( when they are ●…is ) the magistrate , and the learned , to ave●…t them fr●…m this inclination . for , suggesting to the magistrate that their forwardn●…sse to dy●… , gr●…w onely from their faith in the resurrection , he b procur'd th●…re bo dyes to be burnt , and their ashes scattered into rivers , to frustrate and defeat that expectation ; and he raised up subtile heretiques , to infirme and darken the vertue and majestic of martyrdome . of which the most pestilently cunning basilides , foresuspecting that hee should not easily remove that desire of dying , which nature had bred , and custome confirmed in them , tryed to remove that which had root onely in their religion , as being yet of tenderer growth , and more removable then naturall impressions . therfore he offered not to impugne their exposing themselves to death in all cases , but onely said , c that it was madnesse to dye for christ , since he , by whose example they did it , was not crucified , but symon who bore the crosse. another d heretique , called helchesar , perceiving that it was too hasty to condemne the act of martyrdome even for christ , thought onely to slacken their desire to it , by teaching , that in time of persecution , so wee kept our heart at anchor safe , we were not bound to testifie our religion by any outward act , much lesse by dying . which doctrine the gnostici also taught , but prevailed little , both because the contrary was rooted in nature , and because they accompanied this doctrine , with many others , foule and odious even to sense ; and because they were resisted by tertullian , a man mighty , both in his generall abilities , and in his particular and professed earnestnesse to magnifie martyrdome : and against these he writ his scorpiacum . sect . iiii. this way giving no advantage to hereticks , they let loose the bridle of their owne nature too , and apprehended any occasion of dying as forwardly as the orthodoxall christians . and because the other prescrib'd against them , and were before hand with them in number , to redeeme time and overtake them , they constituted new occasions of martyrdome . a petilian against whom st. aug : writ , taught , that whosoever kill'd himself as a magistrate , to punish a sinne committed before , was a martyr . and they who are by saint augustine , and others , called circumcelliones , and circuitores , ( because ( i thinke ) as their master , they went about to devoure ) would entreate , perswade , enforce others to kill them , and frustrated after all those provocations , would doe it themselves , and by their survivors bee celebrated for martyrs . these were of the b donatists , of whom saint augustine sayes , to kill themselves out of respect of martyrdome , was ludus quotidianus other hereticks also , whose errors were not about martyrdome , hastened to it . so the c cataphrygae , who erroniously baptizing the dead , ordaining women , annulling second marriges , and erring in such points , d could soone boast of their number of martyrs ; perchance because tertullian being then on their part , they found him , as he was wheresoever hec me , a hot encourager of men to martyrdome . it is complain'd in e euse●…ius , that heretiques seeing their arguments confuted , fled ●…ow to their number of martyrs , in wh●…cn they pretended to exceed the others . and from their numbers of martyres , f the euphenita called themselves martyrians . and thereupon g baro●…us saies , [ amongst the heath●…n , perchance you may heare , and the e●…fina one emped●…cles , which will burne himself , but amongst the donat●…sts , hominum examina . ] sect . v. so that the authoritie gained by their forwardnesse to equall the number of true martyrs , w●…s so great , and began so farre to perplex the world , that some councels foreseeing , that if both sides did it equally , it would all be imp●…ted to humane respects , began to take it into their care to provide against it . and th●…reupon councell exhibites an expresse canon . that no christian leaving true martyrs , should goe to false , ●…uia alteni à d●…o . and b another corrects the other h●…esie of diminishing the reputation of martyrs thus , martyr●…m dignitatem nemo profanus infamet . sect . vi. thus when the true spirit of god drew many , the spirit of contention m●…ny , and other naturall infirmities more , to expose themselves easily to death , it may well be thought , that from thence the au●…hors of these lat●…er ages ; have somewhat remitted the intensn●…sse of martyrdome , and mingled more all●…yes , or rather more m●…tall , and not made it of so great valu●… alone , as those earnest times did : for since a saint ●…homas said , [ that though martyrdome be a worke of greatest perfection , yet it is not of it selfe , but as it is wrought by charity , and expresses that ] vasquis b 〈◊〉 cord●…bensis for saying that it is any worship of god : ●…or [ it is not sayes he , a sacrifice nor worke of religion , but of fortitude , which is but a morall virtue ] therefore it is now c taught , [ that it is a mortall sinne to provoke another to inflict martyrdome . ] and d a martyr , ( though 〈◊〉 purge much ) is bound to clense himselfe by everv one of the deg●…ees of penance , for saith ca●…bo , [ it is not sacramentum , but opus 〈◊〉 . ] so they seeme tender and 〈◊〉 by addition of 〈◊〉 inc●…ements , to cherish or further that 〈◊〉 of dying , to which by reason of our 〈◊〉 , and this worlds encumbrances , our nature is too propense and inclined . onely the iesuits boast of their hunting out of martyrdome in the new worlds , and of their rage till they finde it . e he which hath brought them all upon one scene , saies that [ altonsus castro at his execution in the molucca , was so overjoyed that he forgot his modesty : [ rapimus martyrium , sayes he , spontanea irruptione , ] and [ one would think that it were a disease in us , ] [ which we doe , least the rest of our life should be meritis sterile , & gloria vacuum ] [ we bargaine and contract with our profession , upon that condition , that we may prodigere animas in hostili ferro ; ] [ and we possesse no more , then such small matters as onely serve to cut off our life . ] so that , if this desire of dying be not agreeable to the nature of man , but against it , yet it seemes that it is not against the nature of a iesuite . and so we end this distinction , which we purposed onely for the consideration of this desire of martyrdome , which swallowed up all the other inducements , which , before christianity contracted them , tickled and inflamed mankinde . distinction iiii. sect . i. there remaines onely for the fourth and last distinction of this first part , our reason by which this self-homicide seemes to me to escape the breach of any law of nature , which is , that both expresse literall lawes , and mute law , custome , hath authorized it , not onely by suffering , and connivency , but by appointing it . and it hath the countenance not onely of many flourishing and well policed states , but also of imaginary common-wealths , which cunning authors have idaeated , and in which such enormous faults are not like to be admitted . amongst the athenians condemned men were their own executioners by poyson . and amongst the romans often by bloodlettings . and it is recorded of many places , that all the sexagenarii , were by the lawes of wise states , precipitated frō a bridge . of which , if a pierius his conjecture be true , that this report was occasioned by a custome in rome , by which men of that age were not admitted to surffage ; and because the way to the senate was per pontem , they which for age were not permitted to come thither , were called depontani , yet it is more certaine , that b amongst the ceans unprofitable old men poysoned themselves ; which they did crown with garlands , as triumphers over humane misery . and the c ethiopians loved death so well , that their greatest malefactors being condemned to banishment , escaped it ordinarily by killing themselves . d the civill law , where it appoints no punishment to the delinquent in this case , neither in his estate nor memory , punishes a keeper , if his prisoner kill himselfe ; out of a prejudice , that if meanes may be afforded them , they will all doe so . and do not we see it to be the custome of all nations now , to manacle and disarme condemned men , out of a fore-assurance that else they would escape death by death ? e sir thomas moore ( a man of the most tender and delicate conscience , that the world saw since saint augustine ) not likely to write any thing in jest mischieuously interpretable , sayes , that in vtopia , the priests and magistrates did use to exhort men afflicted with incurable diseases , to kill themselves , and that they were obeyed as the interpreters of gods will ; but that they who killed themselves without giving an account of their reasons to them , were cast out unburied . and f plato who is usually cited against this opinion , disputes in it , in no severer ●…ashion , nor more peremptory then thus , [ what shall we say of him , which kills his nearest and most deare friend ? which deprives himselfe of life , and of the purpose of destiny ? and not urged by any sentence , or heavy misfortune , nor extreame shame , but out of a cowardlinesse , and weaknesse of a fearfull minde , doth unjustly kill himselfe ? what purgatory , and what buriall by law b●…longs to him , god himselfe knowes . but let his friends inquire of the interpretors of the law , and doe as they shall direct . ] you see nothing is delivered by him against it , but modestly , limitedly , and perplexedly . and this is all which i will say of the first member of that definition of sinne which i undertooke , which is , transgressing of the law of nature . wherein i make account that i have sufficiently delivered and rescued this selfe-homicide , from any such violating of the law , as may aggravate the fact , or make it hainous . second part. distinction i. of the law of reason . sect . i. that part of the definition of sin , which wee received for the second place , is , that it be against the law of reason ; where , if we should accept reason for recta ratio , ( especially primarily , and originally , ) it would be the same as law of nature . therefore i rather choose to admit such an acceptation thereof , as may bring most doubts into disputation , and so into clearenesse . reason therefore in this place shall signifie conclusions drawne and deduced from the primary reason , by our discourse and ratiocination : and so sinne against reason , is sinne against such arguments and conclusions as may by good consequence be de●…ived from primary and originall reason , which is light of nature . this primary reason therefore , against which none can plead lycense , law , custome , or pardon , hath in us a soveraigne , and masculine force ; and by it , through our discourse , which doth the motherly office of shaping them , and bringing them forth and up , it produces conclusions and resolutions . sect . ii. and as in earthly kingdoms , the kings children , and theirs , and their race , as farre as we may reasonably presume any tincture of blood , have many priviledges and respects due to them , which yet were forfeited if there appeared any bastardy or interruption of lawfull descent from that roote ; and though these respects and obsequiousnesse , belong to them as they are propagated from that roote , and as some sparks of that soveraignty glimmer in them , yet their servants and officers take them where they finde them , and consider them onely as dukes , or lords , and possessors of patrimoniall estates , but every mans heart and allegeance is directed and fastned upon the prince , and perchance a step or two lower , with a present and immed ate relation to the father , and what they have from him . so whē from those true propositions , which are the eldest children and issue of our light of nature , and of our discourse , conclusions are produced , those conclusions also have now the nature of propositions , and beget more ; and to all these there belongs an assent and submission on our parts , if none by the way have beene corrupted and bastarded by fallacy . and though ( as in the other case ) men of a weake disposition , or lazey , or flattering , looke no farther into any of these propositions , then from whose mouth it proceeds , or what authority it hath now , not from whence it was produced , yet upon the heire apparent , which is , every necessary consequence from naturall light , every mans resolution is determin'd , and arrested by it , and submitted to it . and though humane lawes , by which kingdomes are policed , be not so very neare to this crown of certaine truth , and first light , ( for if they were necessary consequences from that law of nature , they could not be contrary in divers places and times , as we see lawes to be ) yet i doe justly esteeme them neerer , and to have more of that bloud royall in them , then the resolutions of particular men , or of schooles . both because it is of the essence of all humane law , that it agrees with nature , ( i meane for the obligation in interiori fore , without which a law hath no more strength , then an usurper , whom they which obey , watch an oportunity to dispossesse . ) and because assemblies of parliaments , and councels , and courts , are to be presumed more diligent for the delivery and obstetrication of those children of naturall law , and better witnesse that no false nor supposititious issue be adm●…tted , then any one man can be . for a the law is therefore well call'd communis reip. sponsio , because that word signifies as well , that , to which they have all betroth'd themselves , as , the securitie and stipulation which the state gives for every mans direction and assurance in all his civill actions . since therefore we have in the first part throughly examined , whether this selfe homicide be alwayes of necessitie against the law of nature , it deserves the first consideration in this second part , to inquire how farre humane lawes have determin'd against it , before wee descend to the arguments of particular authors , of whatsoever reverence or authoritie . sect . iii. and because in this disquisition , that law hath most force and value , which is most generall , and there is no law so generall , that it deserves the name of jus gentium ; or if there be , a it will bee the same , ( as wee said before ) as rocta ratio , and so not differ from the law of nature . to my understanding , the civill or imperiall law , having had once the largest extent , and being not abandon'd now , in the reason , and essence , and nature thereof , but onely least the accepting of it should testifie some dependencie upon the empire , we owe the first place in this consideration to that law. this therefore which we call the civill law , ( for , though properly the municipall law of every nation be her civill law , yet romes emperors esteeming the whole world to be one city , as her bishops doe esteeme it one diocesse , the romane law hath wonne the name of civill law , being a b decoction and composition of all the regall lawes , dec●…ees of the senate , plebescites , responsa prudentum , and edicts of emperors , from 1400. yeares before justinian , to so long time after , as the easterne emperors made them authentique ; being of such largenesse , as c iustinians part thereof consists of 150000. of those distinctions which he calls verses , and is the summe and marrow of many millions , extracted from 2000. volumes . this law which is so abundant , that d almost all the points controverted betweene the romane and the reformed churches , may be decided and appointed by it . this law , i say , which both by penalties , and ana●…hemaes , hath wrought upon bodies , fortunes , and consciences , hath pronounced nothing against this selfe-homicide , which we have now in disputation . it is true that of adrian the emperor , who was about 120. yeares after christ , we finde one rescript , in the body of the law , [ d that if a souldier do attempt to kill himselfe , and not effect it , except he offred it upon impatience of griefe , or sicknesse , or sorrow , or some other cause , capite plectatur . ] which rescript is repeated againe in another e title , and there ( though the other generall clause , or some other cause , might seeme to have reach'd farre inough , ) are added especially for excusing causes , [ wearinesse of life , madnesse , or shame . ] you see with what moderate gradations this law proceeded , which being ( as it seemes ) to contend and wrestle with a thing customary , and naturally affected , extends not at all to punish it when it is done , as in many other crimes the lawes doe , by confiscation , and by condemning the memory of the delinquent , and ignobling his race . nor embraces it all manners of doing it ; ( yea scarce any , considering how benignly , and favorably penall lawes are to be interpreted : ) nor overtakes it all men , but onely such as being of present use , as well much disadvantage might grow to the army , if sodainly any numbers of them should be suffered to turne upon this naturall and easie way of delivering themselves from painfull danger , as much dammage to the state , if those men matriculated for souldiers , to whom there belong'd by the lawes , as many priviledges and immunities under the romane emperors , as ever did to the clergy under their romane bishops , after they had thus maym'd themselves , and defrauded the state of their service , should by this inh●…rent character of souldiership , enjoy all those advantages , which those lawes afforded them . there is h one law more in the body of the civill law , which seemes to reach farther , because it binds not it selfe to any one condition of men ; which is , [ that if a man already accus'd , or taken in the manner , for any such crime , upon which his goods should be forfeited upon conviction , kill himselfe before judgement , his goods shall be forfeit ; ] else nor . for the law addes her opinion of the fact . [ non facti celeritas est obnoxia , sed conscientia metus ] and proceeds , [ qui causam mortis habet , habeat successorem . ] so that that law presumes there are just causes to worke such an effect . and upon the consideration of this civill law , i determin'd to bestow this first distinction . distinction ii. sect . 1. that which they call the canon law is of larger extent then this ; for it reaches to bind the princes themselves , at least by their acceptation and submission to it . and as the subject of it , is greater , being people and prince ; so is the object , being the next and eternall life . yea it is so vast and undetermin'd , as we know not in what books to seeke the limits thereof , nor by what rules to set the land-marks of her jurisdiction . for , ( for the booke , ) it is evident that the primitive church had codicem canonum , which was inserted into the body of the romane law , and had no other subfistence , but as it was incorporated there . thereupon a gelatius writes to theodorus the goth , king of italy , to intreat him , that as by his authoritie the romane law was observed in civill matters , so it might be still in ecclesiastique . and after the expulsion of the goths , b leo 4. intreated and obtained the same from lotharius . from this codex canonnm ; the emperors determined and decreed in many ecclesiastique causes ; from this codex the councels after were governed in making their canons : as wee may see particular canons of this booke cited , the booke being often call'd for in the councels , and being then ordinarily named , the body of the canon law. this body consisted of the canons of nine councels authorized by the emperors . but for those immense additions growne to it since that time , of bulls , and decretall letters of popes , decrees of suspitious and partiall and s●…hismatick councels , ( for nothing is more properly schisme , and solutio continui , than a rent betweene the civill and ecclesiastique state ; which occasion'd many of the later councels , ) the rags of fathers decerpted and decocted by gratian , and the glosses of these made also as authentique as the text. i perceive not what title they have to bee of the body of the canon law , except where the princes have incorporated and denizen'd them . but least to quarrell with their authority now , might seeme in us a subter-fuge and shift to decline them , as though they were heavy against us , in this point which we have now in hand ; wee will accept them as they are obtruded , and dissemble nothing , which in them seemes to resist this opinion , though in common entendment this law is likely to be severe against it , because the civill lawes content themselves ever with any excuse or colour in favour of the delinquents , because when a fault is proved it punishes severely , but c the canon lawes which punish onely medicinally , and for the soules health , are apt to presume or beleeve a guiltinesse , upon light evidence , because those punishments ever worke good effects , whether just or no. sect . ii. and first because heresie which is laesa majestas divina , of all crimes is the principall object of that court , i say , that this proposition , is not by any thing extant in the canon law , ( and therefore not at all ) hereticall , allowing to them their largest definition of heresie ; which is , a [ any thing which is against catholique faith , that is scriptures rightly understood ; or the traditions and definitions of the church , or generall councells lawfully gathered , or definition of the sea apostolique , or the common opinion of fathers , in a matter of faith . ] the proposition may perchance seeme to some so ill qualified , as it may be male sonans , or temeraria , or perchance sapiens heresis , for all these proceed from the indisposition and distempred taste of the apprehendor , which must not alwaies be idly flattred and pampred , but invited to the search and discovery of truth , who else being the greatest prince in the world , should have no progresse , but be straightned in a wretched corner . first therefore , ( to cast a glance upon every part of the definition of heresie ) whether it be against the scriptures rightly understood or no will be more properly and naturally examined , when we come to the last part , which is of divine law . next , there is no tradition nor definition of the church in the point at all , much lesse as of a matter of faith , which is the second limbe of the definition . no decree of any generall councell . no rescript or bull of any pope . and for the common opinion of the fathers ( besides that it can be no safe rule , because b as [ azorius notes , controverters often say on both sides , this is the common opinion ; and certainely that is the common opinion in one age which is not in another ; yea , in one kingdome at the same time , which is not in another , though both be catholik : as in germany and france , by the common opinion latreia is not due to the crosse , in spaine by the common opinion it is , ] it cannot appeare , by the canon law , that this is the common opinion of the fathers ; for c gratian who onely of the compilers of the canon law toucheth the point , ( as farre as either my reading or search hath spied out ) cites but two fathers , augustine , and hierome . whereof the latter is of opinion , that there may be some cause to do it . but in the canon law i finde no words , not onely to lay the infamous name of heresie upon it , but that affects it with the mark or stile of sinne , or condemnes the fact , by inflicting any punishment upon the offender . i speake here of the canon law , to which the canonist will stand : which are the decretall letters , and all the extravagants . for , of gratians decret . that learned and ingenious bishop of tarracon , hath taught us what we should thinke , when he sayes , [ d that he is scarce worth so much reprehension ; who having nothing that is profi●…able or of use , except he borrows it , is admired of the ignorant , and laughed at of the learned , ] e [ who never saw the bookes of the councells , nor the works of the fathers , nor the registers of the popes letters . ] f and whose compilation had not that confirmation from eugenius 3 , as is fasly attributed to it . ] yet allthough gratian have not so much authority , that by his inserting an imperiall law , or fragment of a father , it should therefore be canoniz'd and grow into the body , and strength of the canon law , ( for then though that law were abrogated againe by the emperour , it should still be alive and bin●…e by a stronger obligation in the canon , which g alb. gentilis proves to be against the common opinion . ) yet by consent , thus much is afforded him , that places cited by him , have as much authority in him , as th●…y had in the author from whom he tooke them . and therefore when we come to handle the reasons of particular authors , we will pretermit none whom gratian hath cited , for that is their proper place . sect . iii. and in this distinction where we handle the opinion of the canon law in the point ( not because gratian cites it , but because the canons of all councels are now usurped as canon law ) we will consider a a canon of the braccarense councell cited by him . but first , ( although he have it not ) wee will not conceale the b antisidorense councel , ( which was before the other , under gregor . 1. anno 590. ) for as the civill lawes by limitation of persons and causes , gave some restraint and correction to this naturall desire of dying when we would , which they did out of a duty to sinew and strengthen , as much as they were able , the doctrine of our blessed saviour , who having determined all bloudy sacrifices ; enlightens us to another doctrine , that to endure the miseries & afflictions of this life , was wholsome , and advantagious to us ; the councels also perceiving that this first ingraffed and inborne desire , needed all restraints , contributed their help . this c canon then hath these words , [ if any kill themselves , istorum oblata non recipiantur . ] for it seemes , that preaching and catechizing had wrastled , and fought with their naturall appetite , and tamed them to a perplexity whether it might be done or no ; and so thinking to make sure worke , in an indiscreet devotion , they gave oblations to the church , to expiate the fault , if any were . these oblations the councell forbids to bee accepted , not decreeing any thing of the point , as of matter of faith , but providing against an inconvenient practice . neither was it much obligatory , or considerable , what it had decreed , being onely d a diocesan councell , of one bishoppe , and his abbats , and whose canons binnius presents , because ( though some of them be out of use , of which this may be one ) yet they are ( saies he ) some discoverers of antiquity . the other councell which e gratian cites and besides which two i finde none ) hath these words , [ for those that kill themselves , there shall be no commemoration at the oblation , nor shall they bee brought to buriall with psalmes . ] which intimates , as the language of the canon law is , caninam sepulturam . but the f glosse upon this doth evict from another canon , that if the person were not under excommunication , it is not so ; [ for we may communicate with him dead , with whom we may communicate living . ] which showes that his act of dying so , put him not into worse state in this respect . this answers the first punishment inflicted by that canon . and for the second which is deniall of cristian buriall , it is very rigorous to conclude a hainousnesse of the fact , from that , since the g true canon law denyes that to men slaine at tilt , though it afford them , if they be not presently dead , all the sacraments applyable in that extreamitie , as penance , eucharist , and unction . so that , though since it denies buriall to men whom they esteeme in state and way of salvation , the glosse here collects reasonably , [ that this punishment reaches not to the dead , but onely to deterre the living ; ] referring to this purpose an h epistle of gregory , saying , [ so much as a sumptuous funerall profits a wicked man , so much a base , or none at all hurts a godly . ] lastly , that i clementine which reckons up many causes for which christian buriall is denyed , amongst which one is a locall interdict , at what time the holyest man which dyes in that place cannot bee buried , which sometimes extends to whole kingdomes , instructs us sufficiently , that one may be subject to that punishment , if it be any in that law ) and yet not guilty of such a crime as this is reputed to be . and k the romans in their religious discipline , refused solemne buriall , to any which perished by lightnings , l though they buried offenders in the towne , as they did vestals and emperours ; because as their dedication to god had delivered the nunnes , and soveraigntie the emperours from bondage of law ; so did justice , to which they had made full satisfaction deliver offenders punished . and since both saint hierome , and the bracarense councell , inflict the same punishments upon those catechumeni , who although they had all other preparations , and degrees of maturity in the christian faith , yet departed out of this world without baptisme , as they doe upon selfe murtherers , and so made them equall in punishment , and consequently in guiltinesse ; i thinke it will ill become the doctrines of our times , and the analogy thereof , to pronounce so desperately of either of their damnations . sert. senen . lib. 6. annot. 7. p. 311. and here wee end our second distinction of this second part , which was allotted for the examination of the canon law. distinction iii. sect . i. of arguments of this nature , which are conclusions deduced out of reason and discourse , next to these generall lawes of the empire , and of the church , ( which though it might seeme for the generality thereof , to have deserved the first place , we handled in the second roome , because the power thereof hath beene ever litigious and questionable , ) i may justly ranke the lawes of particular states . by our law therefore , as it hath not beene long in practise , ( for a bracton seemes not to know such a law , when allowing an intire chapter to that title , he onely repeats the words in that emperiall law , which i cited before , and so admitts , ( if he admit that law , that exception , sine justa causa ) he which kills himselfe is reputed felo de se ; and whether he be chargeable with any offence or no , he sorfeits his goods : which devolving to the kings almoner , should on the kings behalfe be employed in pious and charitable uses . and b it is not onely homicide , but murder , and yet the reasons alledged there , are but these , that the king h●…h lost a subject , that his peace is broken , and that it is of evill example . since therefore , to my understanding , it hath no foundation in naturall nor emperiall law , nor receives much strength from those reasons , but having b●… custome onely put on the nature of law , as most of our law hath , i beleeve it was first induced amongst us , because we exceeded in that naturall desire of dying so . for it is not a better understanding of nature , which hath reduced us from it ; but the wisedome of law-makers and observers of things fit for the institution and conservation of states . for in ancient common-wealths , the numbers of slaves were infinite , as ever both c in rome and athens , there were 10 slaves for one citizen ; and d pliny sayes that in augustus time , isidorus had above 4000. and e vedius pollio so many , that he alwayes fed his fish in ponds with their blood ; and since servitude hath worne out , yet the number of wretched men exceeds the happy ( for every labourer is miserable and beastlike in respect of the idle abounding men ; ) it was therefore thought necessary by lawes , and by opinion of religion , ( as f scaevola is alleaged to have said , expetit in religione givitates falli , ) to take from these weary and macerated wretches , their ordinary and open escape , and ease , voluntary death . and therfore it seemes to be so prohibited , as a g lawyer sayes , hunting and usery is [ ne inescarentur homines ] and as h mahomet to withdraw his nation from wine , brought them to a religious beliefe , that in every grape there was a devill . as therefore amongst us a naturall disease of stealing , ( for as all other , so this vice may as well abound in a nation as in a particular man , and i dorotheus relates at large , the sicknesse of one of his fryars , who could not abstaine from stealing , though he had no use of that which he stole ) hath draw from a k councell holden at london under hen 3. a canon which excommunicates the harbourers of theeves ( quibus abundat regio angliae , and mentions no other fault but this , and from the custome , and princes , and parliaments severe lawes against theft , then are justifiable by nature , or the iewes judiciall law , ( for our law hangs a man for stealing in extreame necessity , when not onely all things , to him , returne to their first community , but he is bound in conscience to steale , and were , in some opinions , ( though others say he might neglect this priviledge ) a selfe-murderer if he stole not . and l scotus disputing against the lawes of those nations , which admit the death of a theife robbing by day , because m whoever kills such a theife , is expresly by gods law a murderer , ask where have you read an exception of such a theife from the law , non occides , or where have you seene a bull fallen from heaven to justifie such executions ? so it may be , a naturall declination in our people to such a manner of death , which weakned the state , might occasion severer lawes , then the common ground of all lawes seemes well to beare . and therefore , as when the emperour had made a law , to cut off a common abuse of misdevout men , that no man might give any thing to the clergy , no not by testament , saint hierome said , i lament and grieve , but not that such a law is made , but that our manners have deserved such a law , so doe i in contemplation of these lawes mourne , that the infirmity and sicknesse of our nation should neede such medecines . the like must be said of the like law in the earldome of flaunders ; if it be true , n that they allow confiscation of goods , in onely five cases , whereof this is one ; and so it is rankt with treason , heresie , sedition , and forsaking the army against the turk , which be strong and urgent circumstances to reduce men from this desire . sect . ii. for wheresoever you finde many and severe lawes against an offence it is not safe from thence to conclude an extreame enormity or hainousnesse in the fault , but a propensnesse of that people , at that time , to that fault . thereupon a ignatius and many others , even intire councells , were forced to pronounce , that whosoever fasted upon sundayes were murderers ' of christ. so in france the lawes abound against duells , to which they are headlongly apr . so are the resolutions of the spanish casuists , and the bulls of the popes , iterated and aggravated in that nation , against there bull-bayting , to which they are so enormously addicted , which yet of it selfe is no sinne , as navar retracting his opinion after 70 yeares holds at last . these severe lawes therefore do no more aggravate a fault , then milde punishments diminish it . and no man thinks rape a small fault , though solon punish it , if she be a virgin , and freeborn , with so much money as would amount to our five shillings : and the b salique law punishes a witch , which is convict to have eaten a man , pecuniarily , and la●… no high price . and therefore c bartolus allowes that in cases of publique profit or detriment , the judges may extend an odious and burdenous law beyond the letter , and restraine a favourable and beneficiall law , within it , though this be against the nature and common practise of both these lawes . if therefore our , and the flemish law be severe in punishing it , and that this argument have the more strength , because more nations concurre in such lawes , it may well from hence be retorted , that every where men are inclinable to it : which establisheth much our opinion , considering that none of those lawes , which prescribe civill restraints from doing it , can make it sinne ; and the act is not much descredited , if it be but therefore evill , because it is so forbidden , and binds the conscience no farther , but under the generall precept of obedience to the law , or to the forfeiture . sect . iii. it seemes also by the practise of the jewes , ( for a josephus speaks of it , as of a thing in use ) that they did not bury such as killed themselves , till the sunne set . but though i know not upon what law of theirs they grounded this , and i finde not by writers of either of their policies since their dispersion , ( for though they have no magistracie , but bee under the lawes of those places into which they are admi●…ted , in all cases except where they be exempted by priviledg , yet they doe also testifie a particular derestation of some sins by outward penances among themselves , b as in theft , they binde , and whip , and enjoyne to publike confession , and in adultery the offender sits a day in winter in freezing water , and in sommer upon an anthill , or amongst hives of bees naked , though , i say , i finde not by galatine , sigontus , buxdorfius , nor molther , that this was or is in use amongst them , yet because josephus , though but oratorily sayes it , we will accept it ; and beleeve that it was upon the reason common almost to all nations , to deterre men from doing it , and not to punish it being done . and of like use , that is , in terrorem , was also that law of the athenians , who cut off that hand after death which perpetrated that fact ; which law josephus remembers in the same place . sect . iiii. that reason which is grounded upon the edict of tarquinius priscus , a who when this 〈◊〉 of death raigned amongst his men like a contagion , cured it by an opprobrious hanging up their bodies , and exposing them to birds and beasts . and b upon that way of reducing the virgins of mil●…sium , who when they had a want●…nnesse of dying so , and did it for fashion , were by decree dishonourably exhibited as a spectacle to the people naked , prevailes no farther then the argument before , and proves onely a watchfull sol●…citude in every state , by all meanes to avert men from this naturall love of ease , by which their strength in numbers would have been very much empaired . and thus wee determine this distinction . distinct. iv. wee will now descend to those reasons which particular men have used for the detestation of this action . and first we will pay our debt to gratian , in considering the places cited by him , and after , the other reasons of divine authors , if they bee not grounded upon places of scriptures , which we repose for the last part , shall have there ventilation in this distinction . sect . i. the a first place then , is in an epistle of saint augustine to donatus the heretique ; who having beene apprehended by the catholikes , fell from his horse , and would have drown'd himselfe : and after complaines of violence used towards him , in matter of religion , wherein he claimes the freedome of election , and conscience . saint augustine answers , wee have power to endeavour to ●…ave thy soule against thy will , as it was lawfull to us , to save thy body so . if thou wert constrained to doe evill , yet thou oughtest not to kill thy selfe . consider whether in the scriptures , thou finde any of the faithfull that did so , when they suffered much from them , who would have forced them to do things to their soules destruction . to speake a little of saint augustine in generall , because from him are derived almost all the reasons of others , he writing purposely thereof , from the 17 to the 27 chapter of his first book de civitate dei , i say , as the confessaries of these times , comparing nav●… and sotu●… two of the greatest casuists , yeeld sometimes that navar , is the sounder and learneder , but sotus more usefull and applyable to practique divinitie ; so , though saint augustine for sharpe insight , and conclusive judgement , in exposition of places of scripture , which he alwaies makes so liquid , and pervious , that he hath scarce been equalled therein , by any of all the writers in the church of god , except calvin may have that honour , whom ( where it concernes not points in controversie , ) i see the jesuits themselves often follow , though they dare not name him , have a high degree and reverence due to him , yet in practique learning , and morall divinity , he was of so nice , and refin'd , and rigorous a conscience , ( perchance to redeeme his former licenciousnesse , as it fals out often in such convertits , to be extreamely zealous ) that for our direction in actions of this life , saint hierome , and some others , may bee thought sometimes fitter to adhere unto , then st. augustine ; yet i say not this , as though wee needed this medicament for this place . for i agree with saint augustine here , that neither to avoid occasion of sinne , nor for any other cause , wherein my selfe am meerely or principally interessed , i may doe this act ; which also serves justly for answer to the same zealous father in the other place , b cited by gratian ; for with him i confesse , [ that he which kills himselfe , is so much the more guilty herein , as hee was guiltlesse of that fact for which hee killed himselfe . ] though , by the way , this may not passe so generally , but that it must admit the exception , which the c rule of law upon which it is grounded , carries with it , [ nemo sine culpa puniendus , nist subsit causa . ] and so , as saint augustine , we , with as much earnestnesse , say , [ hoc asserimus , hoc dicimus , hoc omnibus modis approbamus . that neither to avoid temporall trouble , nor to remove from others occasion of sinne , nor to punish our owne past sinnes nor to prevent future , nor in a desire of the next life , ( wherethese considerations are only , or principally ) it can be lawfull for any man to kill himselfe . ] but neither saint augustine nor we deny , but that if there be cases , wherein the party is dis-interested , and only or primarily the glory of god is respected and advanced , it may be lawfull . so that , as valens the emperour , having surprised jamblicus , when his divining cock had described three lette●…s of his name who should succeede , slew all whose names were theodor●… theodotes , or theodulus , but escaped theodosius who fulfilled the prophecy , so saint augustine hath condemned those causes which we defend not , but hath omitted those wherein it is justifiable . in which case being hard to be discern'd and distinguished 〈◊〉 others arising from humane infirmity , it that rule which d antonius de corduba , gives in cases of simony , be as he sayes it is , a good guide in all perplexities , it will ease very much . he sayes , because in the case of simony , many difficulties g●…ow , because not onely by cleare and common judgements , temporall reward may be taken for spirituall offices , by way of gift , stipend , wages , almes , sustenation , or fulfilling the law or custome of that place , but also by some . doctors , even by way of pr●…ce , and bargaine , if not directly for the spirituall part thereof , yet for the labour necessarily annexed to it , because every curate cannot distinguish in these cures , he bids him [ ever doe it , with an intention to doe it so , as god knowes it may de done , and as wise men know a●…d would teach that it might be done : for thus saith he , humbly remitting our selves to the learned , which are our fathers instruction , what ever defect be in us , yet saluamur in fide parentum . ] and in this sort ( e ) pindarus making an implicite prayer to god , that he would give him that which he knew to be best for him , died in that very petition . except therefore f saint augustine have that moderation in his resolution ; that a better life never receives a man after a death whereof himselfe was guilty , we will be as bould with him , as g one who is more obliged to him then we , who repeating augustines opinion , that the devill could possesse no body , except he entred into him by sinne , rejects the opinions , and saies , the holy father speaks not , of what must of necessity be , but what for the most part uses to bee . sect . ii. and in our case we ought ( as i thinke rather to follow a saint hieromes temper , who in his exposicion upon jonas , ( which i wonder why gratian cited being so farre from his end and advantage ) sayes , [ in persecution i may not kill my selfe , absque eo , ubi cassitas periclitatur ] where i am so ●…arre from agreeing with b gratian , that [ absque eo , is inclusivoly spoken , and amounts to this phrase , no not though ] as i thinke that good learned father , included in that word castitas , all purity of religion and manners ; for to a man so rectified death comes ever , and every way seasonably and welcome . for [ c qualem mors invenit hominem , ita homo inveni●… mortem . ] sect . iii. from this place of saint hierome , i beleeve , and some other , which perchance i have not rea●… , and some other places in others , of like charitable d●…scent to this opinion . a lavater having made his profit of all peters martyrs reasons almost against this act , and adding some of his owne , when they both handle the duties of saul , confesseth that in this case of preserving chastity , augustine , chrysostome , and lactant us , and hierome departed from their opinion who condemned this act. sect . iiii. peter martyr also presents one other reason , of which he seemes glad , and well contented in it , which is , that we may not hasten death , because mors malum . but it is not worthy of his gravity , especially so long after a clemens alex. had so throughly defeated that opinion . but if it be malum , it is but malum poena . and that is an evill of which god is authour , and is not that b malum quo mali suinus ; neither doth it alwayes prove the patient to be evill , ( though god for all that be alwaies iust , ) for himselfe said of the man borne blinde c [ neither he , nor his parents have sinned . ] and of that malum poenae , which is esteemed the greatest in this life , of temporall affictions , because of the neere danger of empairing our soule , which is to be possessed , d thyraeus , from saint hierome and chrysostome sayes , that it is not alwayes inflicted for sinne , but to manifest the glory of god. and therefore the greatest evill which can be imagined , of this kinde of evill , which is [ e damnation , hath not so much rationem mali , as the least sinne that drawes damnation . ] death therefore is an act of gods justice , and when he is pleased to inflict it , he may chuse his officer , and constitute my selfe as well as any other . and if it were of the worst sort o●… evill , ●…et as f saint augustine sayes that [ in the act of marriage , there is bonus usus mali , id est concupiscentiae , quo malo male utuntur adulteri . ] and as good paulinus prayses severus , that g [ he having in conjugio peccandi licentiam , departed not from his accustomed austerity , ] so may the same be said of death in some cases , as in martyrdome . for though martyr urge farther , that death is called h gods enemy , and is therefore evil , yea i musculus sayes upon that place , [ it is often commended in scriptures , because towards the faithfull god useth it to good ends , and makes it cooperari ad salutem . ] and by what authority can they so assuredly pronounce that it falls out never in our case ? besides this , death hath lost much of her naturall malignity already , and is not now so ill , as at first she was naturally ; for as k calvin notes here , [ she is already so destroyed , that she is not lethalis , but molesta . ] sect . v. one reason more martyr offers of his owne , which is , vita donum , life , because it is the gift of god may not be profused ; but when we have agreed to him , that it may not be unthriftily and prodigally cast away , how will he conclude from thence , such an ingratitude , as that i shall forfake gods glory ? and may in no case ponere animam ? how will it follow from i must not alwaies , to i may never ? sect . vi. lavater after many other urges this reason ; that because judges are established , therefore no man should take dominion over himselfe . but in the church of england , where auricular confession is not under precept , nor much in practise , ( for that we admit it not at all , or refuse it so , as the waldenses did , though a a reverend man say it , is more then i knew ) who is judge of sin against which no civill law provides , or of which there is no evidence ? may not i accuse and condemne my selfe to my selfe , and inflict what penance i will for punishing the past , and avoiding like occasion of sinne ? upon this reason depends that perplex●…d case , whether the pope may not give himselfe a●…olution from acts and vowes , and partake his owne 〈◊〉 , although by the best opinion it is agr●…ed , that to do so is an act o●… jurisdiction , which by lavaters rule , no man may 〈◊〉 upon himselfe . b the emperiall lawes forbid i●… a generality any to be judge in his own●… cause , but all expositors , except soveraignes . and in ordinary judges , all agree with c baldus [ that in facto notorio if the dignity of the iudge be concerned , he is the proper iudge of it . and he sayes that it belongs to the pretor to judge , whether such a cause belong to his judgement or no ] d and with a non obstante even upon naturall law , as the words of the priviledge are , theodorius allowed bishops to be judges in their owne cause . e so [ if a sonne which had not beene sui juris had beene made ●…onsul , 〈◊〉 he have emancipated himselfe , or authorized another to have adopted him . ] and besides th●… , it appeares , that the popes have exercised ju●…sdiction upon themselves , even before they were popes , ( for f ioha 22 having permission to chu●…e o●…e pope , chose himselfe , which deed naucler relates and just●…fies ) by canonicall rules it is plaine , that he may exercise jurisdiction upon himselfe in an●… case where there is not a distinction of persons enjoyned iure divine , as in baptisme : which will not be stretched to our case . and certainly the reason of the law , why none should be judge in his owne cause , is , because every one is presumed favourable towards himselfe . and therefore if it be dispensable in some cases beneficiall to a man , much more may it be in cases of inflicting punishment , in which none is im●…gined to be over rigorous to himselfe . and if man were by nature as slavish , as the [ g esseni , by profession and rule , who had power of themselves in nothing , but juvando & miserendo ] i see not , but when this becomes an act of advantage to our selves , we may have jurisdiction enough to doe it . and what is more evident to prove , that in some cases derogatory and prejudiciall to us , we have this right over our selves , then that every man may cedere suo jure , and non uti privilegio . and h it was by all condemned in gregorie , in the great scisme , that after hee had promised to depart from the papacie , by oath , in which was a clause , that he should neither aske , give , nor accept absolution from that oath , hee induced his mendicants to preach , that it were deadly sinne in him to de-relinquish the church . so also have many kings departed from , their government , and despoiled them of their burden , at their pleasure . for , as i one sayes , of the whole church , it may bee said of every particular member ; it was ever in politicall bondage , but not in spirituall . so that , if there bee cases , wherein one may assuredly , or probaly , after just diligence used , conclude upon an illumination of the spirit of god , or upon a ceasing of the reason of the law at that time in him , that man is then sui iuris . for though in cases where there is a proper court , i am bound to it ; yet , as kings which are both soveraignes , may therefore justly decide a cause by warre , because there can bee no competent judge between them ; so in secret cases betweene the spirit of god , and my conscience , of which there is not certainly constituted any exterious judge , we are our selves sufficient to doe all the offices ; and then delivered from all bondage , and restored to our naturall libertie , we are in the same condition as k princes are , who if in the rigour of words they may not properly bee said to give themselves priviledges , have yet one generall inherent privilege , and when they will , they may declare , that in that particular case , they will not take a new , but exercise their old priviledge . sect . vii . and because a iosephus hath one reason which tasts of divinitie , we will consider it in this place . he sayes , our soule is , particula dei , and deposed and committed in trust to us , and we may not neglect on disharbour it , before he withdraw it . but we are still upon a safe ground , that whensoever i may justly depart with this life , it is by a s●…mmons from god ; and it cannot then bee imputed to any corruption of my will : for , b velle non creaitur , qui obsequitur imperio . yet i expect not ever a particular : inspiration , or new commission , such as they are forced to purchase for sampson , and the rest ; but that resident and inherent grace of god , by which he excites us to works of morrall , or higher vertues . and so , when it is so called for againe , c it were a greater injustice in us to deny or withhold any thing , of which wee were depositaries , then if we were debtors ; yea , ( not to depart ) from josephus . allusion or metaphor of depositum . if it were a fault to let goe that of which i were depositary , before it were truely called for , yet in consc●…entia errante , i were excusable ; for it d is [ ex substantia depositi , ut deposit arius tantum de dolo teneatur non de culpa . ] yea , when e i have a secret from another , data fide , i have this in all respects , in natura depositi ; and yet no man doubts , but that i may in many cases , depart with this secret . sect . viii . there are many metaphoricall and similitudinarie reasons , scattered amongst authors , as in cicero and macrobius , made rather for illustration , then for argument or answer ; which i will not stand to gleane amongst them , since they are almost all bound up in one sheafe , in a that oration of josephus . or else will be fitly handled in those places of scripture , which make some such allusions . sect . ix . josephus then in that oration hath one reason drawen from the custome of an enemy . we esteeme them enemies , who attempt our lives , and shall we bee enemies to our selves ? but besides that , in this place , iosephus speakes to save his owne life , and may justly be thought to speak more ex animo , and dispassioned , wherein the a person of eleazar hee perswades to kill themselves , there is neither certaine truth in the assertion , nor in the consequence . for do we esteeme god , or the magistrate our enemy , when by them death is inflicted ? and do not martyrs , in whose death god is glorified , kisse the executioners , and the instruments of their death ? nor is it unlawfull , unnaturall , or unexpedient for us , in many ca●…es , to be so much our owne enemies , as to deny our selves many things agreeable to our sensitive nature , and to inflict upon our selves many things repugnant to it , as was abundantly shewed in the first part . sect . x. in the same oration he hath another allusorie argument , [ that a servant which runnes away , is to be punished by the law , though his master bee severe ; much more if we runne away from so indulgent a master , as god is to us . ] but not to give strength or delight to this reason , by affording it a long or diligent answer ; wee say , in our case the servant runnes not from his master , but to him , and at his call obeys his voyce . yet it is as truely , as devoutly sayd . [ the devill is overcome by resisting , but the world , and the flesh by running away . ] and the farther , the better . sect . xi . his last , which is of any taste , is [ that in a tempest , it were the part of an idle and treacherous pylot , to sinke the ship. ] but i say , if in a tempest we must cast out the most precious ware aboard , to save the lives of the passengers , and the marchant who is damnified thereby , cannot impute this to any , nor remedie himselfe , how much more may i , when i am weather beaten , and in danger of betraying that precious soule which god hath embarqued in me , put off this burdenous flesh , till his pleasure be that i shall resume it ? for this is not to sinck the ship but to retire it to safe harbour , and assured anchor . and thus our fourth distinction , which was to embrace the reasons proposed by particular authors , whether divine or prophane , and as well oblique and metaphoricall , as direct , shall here be determined . distinction v. sect . i. another sort of reasons is produced from grounds of morall vertues . of which a s. thomas proposeth two , which we limit for this distinction ; for that of saint augustine , that it is against fortitude , hath another roome . ) first then aquinas saies , it is against justice , and against charity . and the first in two respects , both because he steales from the universe , or from that state , to which his service is due , one person , and member of the body ; and also , because he usurpes upon the right of god. but the first of these may as well be said of all who retyring themselves from functions in the common-wealth , defraud the state of their assistance , and attend onely their owne ends , whether in this life , or the next . for certainely to doe even that , so intensly , as we neglect ou●… office of society is in genere rei , the same offence , as this . but as there are many which follow aquinas herein ; so navar , and sayr , and others are up●…n better reason of opinion , that this can be no sinne against justice . and for the second reason , this is not to usurpe upon gods authoritie , or to deale with another's servant ; if i become his servant , and his delegate , and his commissioner , in doing this , when he can be no other way so much gloryfied . and though the passage from this life to the next , bee not generally left to our free-will , and no body be properly lord of his own life , yet b [ though we have not dominium , we have usum , and it is lawfull for us , to lose that when we will ] betweene which negative killing , and positive killing , how little and narrow a distance t●…ere is , and how contiguous they are , we shall see in another place . if therefore the reason why we may not dye thus , be , because we are not lords of our own life , but only god , then the state cannot take away our life ; for c [ that is no more lord of our life , then we are , ] ●…hat is , she cannot doe it , but in cases where she is gods officer . and if in this case , there were any injury done to the state , then certainly it were in the power of the state , to license a man to doe it , and he should upon such a license be excusable in conscience . for this , in the state , were but cedere in re suo , which any may lawfully doe . and lastly , if the state were injured in this , the state might lawfully recompence the dammage , upon the heire and goods of the delinquent ; which , except in those places , where expresse lawes allow it , cannot be done . yet , i thinke , the better opinion , ( to judge by number of authors ) will be , that if that person be of necessary use to that state , there are in it some degrees of injustice ; but yet no more , then if a generall of much use , should retire into a monasterie . but if we may safely take this resolution , that it is not against justice , we may ease our selves of all that labour which must bee spent upon the third part ; for , since the foundation of that will be principally the commandement , thou shalt not kill ; if this killing be not against justice , it is no breach of any part of the decalogue , and so no sinne . if any should thinke , that it may be an injustice to our selves , d aquinas in the same place cleares it . and if it were possible , for a man to injure himselfe , which is not , yet this injury might be oftentimes such an one , as cicero sayes , his banishment was , [ non modo non propul sands , sed emenda , ] considering how much happinesse might recompence it . and whether it be against charity or no , because charity is not properly a morall vertue , nor of this place , because many of those places of scripture , which we must handle in the last part , are built upon this ground of charitie , we will not examine , till we come thither . here i will onely say , that though it be yet under d●…putation and questionable , whether this be against charity , or no ; this is certainly against charity to pronounce so desperatly , as men use to doe , against them who fall into it . sect . ii. of such reasons derived from the rules of morall vertue , aristotle insinuates two . for observing that this kinde of death caught men by two bai●…s , ease and honour , against them who would dy to avoide miserie , a hee teaches death to be the greatest misery which can fall upon us . which ( not to examine how it can consist with the rest of his doctrine ) was to that purpose , the most slipperie and insinuating perswasion . and then , that honour and fame might draw none , b he sayes , it is cowardlinesse , and dejection , and an argument of an unsufferable and impatient minde . but of the first of these we have spoken before , in answer to one of p. martyrs reasons . and of the other we shall have occasion to say in ugh , when wee come to a place where saint augustine sayes the same thing , and so we may ease this distinction of that businesse . distinct. vi. sect . i. having thus considered those reasons , which in the best authors are to be found , and shewed such rules , as serve for the true understanding of them , and of all others which spring from the same , or like heads , before wee determine this second part , which is of the law of reason ; it shall bee requisit that wee also touch those reasons , which on our part are by others , and may bee by us produced , by which this selfe-homicide may be delivered either a toto , or a tanto but not to stop long upon that law and practise in the state of rome , that any who had his causes allowed in the senate , might kill himselfe ; upon which a quintilian frames a case , that a sonne who by math maticians predictions , was first to kill many enemies , and then his father ; having in the warres performed the first part , makes petition to the senate , that before he come to performe the last part , he may be admitted to kill himselfe , and argues it for the sonne , by many reasons appliable to his particular case , and to our maine question , i will hasten to our chiefe strength . sect . ii. it may then give much light to this businesse , if we compare desertion and destruction , and consider where and wherein they differ . certainly , in almighty god , it is not the same thing to forsake and to destroy , because he owes us nothing ; and ever in his forsakings there are degrees of mercy , because hee might then justly destroy us , and may after at his good pleasure returne againe to us . but betweene men who are mutuall debtors , and naturally bound to one another , it is otherwise . for a magistrate , or minister that abandons his charge , and neglects it , destroies it . so sayes a agapetus the deacon to justinian the emperour , privati vitium est patrare , principis omittere . yea , a private man which hinders not a mans wrong , ( when it belongs to him to do it ) offers it . b [ fame morientem si non paveris , occidisti , ] saith ambrose . and c [ that clergie , man which hinders not a manslaughter , if hee can , is thereby irregular . ] and he which to himselfe denies necessarie things , or exposes himselfe inordinatly to such dangers as men use not to escape , kills himselfe . he that is as sure that this medicine will recover him , as that this poyson will destroy him , is as guilty if he forbeare the physicke , as if he swallow the poyson . for what is this lesse , then to attend the ruine of a house , or inundation of a streame , or incursion of mad beasts ? they which compare omissions , and committings , require no more to make them equall , but that we omit something which we could , and should doe . sect . iii. first , therefore in all lawes , in such faults as are greatest , either in their owne nature , or in an irremediablenesse when they are done ; all approaches , yea the very first step to them , hath the same guiltinesse , and is under the same punishment , as the fault it selfe . as in treason and heresie , the first consent is the absolute fault . and a we have an example of a woman b●…rnt for petie t●…eason , for compassing the death of her husband , though it were not effected . homicide is one of those crying sins , and hath ever beene reckoned in atrocibus . for though the b athenians removed all dracoes lawes by disuse , for their extreame severity , yet they retained those against homicide . and this homicide , c saies tolet , may bee done five wayes , by 1. commandement , by 2. advise , by 3. permission , by 4. h●…lpe , or by the fact it selfe . and in the fi●…st and worst homicide committed in paradise , in which were employed all the persons in the world , which were able to 〈◊〉 to evill , when though there was but one man , all the millions which have been and shall be , were massacred at once and himselfe too , as many of these kindes of homici●…es were found , as was possible in so few persons . for as c one notes , [ the serpent counsailed , the woman helped , and adam perpetrated , ] and wee ●…ay safely and reverently say ) god permitted if then every one of these be a kind of homicide , no approach towards it can be lawfull , if any bee lawfull , that is not homicide . let us therefore consider how farre , and in how many of these waies selfe-homicide may bee allowable . sect . iiii. first therefore , though it be the common received opinion , a [ mandatorem , & man●…atarium eidem poenae subjici , ] yet by the way of prec●…pt , we cannot properly work upon our selv●…s , because in this act , the same partie must be agent , and patient , and instrument . nor very properly by the second way of advise ; yet so neere , we may come to the nature of it , that after discourse we may advise●…ly chuse one part , an●… refuse the other , ( for b cujus est velle , ejus est & nolle ) and so we may w●…sh to our selves , that which is naturally evill , i meane , malum poenae ; as the c eremite by earnest prayer obtained of god , that he might be possessed of the devill for certaine moneths , because he found in himselfe an inclination to pride and securitie . thus certainely in some cases , we may without sinne wish death ; and that not onely for enjoying the sight of god , ( for so d sayes a holy man , pro visione dei , millies corpus nostrum morti dare optamus ) but even to be so delivered from the encumbrances of this life ; for so it hath [ rationem boni ] e as peter martyr argues ; and then , [ f nove meliorem est corruptio p●…imae habitudinis . ] this therefore we may wish ; and yet it is so farre from being lawfull to wish any thing which were evill ; that [ g it is sinne to wish , that any thing which is naturally evill , were not so , that so wee might then wish it , when it were discharged of that naturall illnesse . ] death it selfe therefore is not evill , nor is it evill to wish it , is it evill to further that with more actuall helpe , which we may lawfully wish to be done ? these two extreme religions , which seem to avile secular magistr●…cie , and subject monarchs either to an o●…dinarie , or else to a consistorie , accept willingly this saying , curse not the king , no not in thy heart ; that is , wish not ill to him . nor have i observed that the authors of either distemper have in their books allowed , that the subject might wish the death of the prince , but in the same cases , where he might contribute his actuall helpe . for both papists and puritanes teaching that a lawfull king may become a tyrant , ( which to my understanding cannot consist with the forme and right of an inheritable monarchie . ) yet h one who pretends to go the middle way ( and that is truely in this case , via regia , sayes , [ that as well wee , as the romanists esteeme a king of another religion a tyrant . ] and [ that it is impossible to make such a king , but he must be a tyrant , in the opinion of one side . ] and for his own opinion delivers [ i that no man can be bound by oath of fidelity to the pope , upon this reason , because he is not indeed vicarius dei , as he presumed him , and swore him to be . ] and conformably to this , k that book whose title and scope is of the foundation of matter of state in france , and ( as it pretends in all christendome ) when after it hath enraged subjects against tyrants , it comes to declare what a tyrant is , exemplifies in the king of spaine , and upon such reasons , as any malignitie equall to that author , may cast upon what prince it will. and lastly , who ever shall well compare ( l ) beccariaes booke , with bezaes , if that other be bezaes ) though they differ diametrally in many things , yet by their collision and beating together , arise abundantly sparkes of this pestilent doctrine , that as tranquillity was , so now religion is , the reason why wee admit kings , and why they are none , when they neglect religion ; upon these doctrines , i say , it is inferred , m [ that it is lawfull to wish the death of a tyrant , or of a favourer of heretiques , though he dye in mortall sinne . ] to wish therefore , and to doe , are naturally the same fault ; and yet , though it be n [ a sinne to offer my selfe even to martyrdome , only for wearinesse of life . ] o [ or to wish death simply for impaciencie , anger , shame , povertie , or misfortune ; ] yea to wish heaven meerely for mine owne happinesse ; yet certainely p s. paul had some allowable reasons , to desire to be dissolved , and to be with christ. and q calvine by telling us upon what reason , and to what end he wished this , instructs us how we may wish the same . he sayes , paul desired not death , for deaths sake , for that were against the sense of nature , but he wished it , to be with christ. now , ( besides that , by his leave , ) we desire many things which are against the sense of nature , to grant that we may wish death to be in heaven , ( though peter martyr before alledged , be of the same perswasion ) is a larger scope , and somewhat more dangerous and slippery a graunt , then wee urge towards , because herein onely the interest and good of the party seeme to be considered ; and yet ( a ) emanuel sâ extends it farther . [ that wee may wish sicknesse to one , for his correction ; and death for the good of the state ; yea to our enemie which is like to doe us much harme for avoiding this our particular damage ; and we may rejoyce at his death , even for that respect of our owne d●…livery ] all which will hold as well , if we be urged with like reasons , to wish it to our selves . to conclude therefore this point , that it may become lawfull to wish our owne death ; i will onely relate an history , which though it be but matter of fact ( if it be so much ) yet it is of such a person , as his acts governe and perswade , with very many , as farre as rules . s in the life of philip nerius , who in our age instituted the last religion approved and established in the church of rome , we read , that he being entreated ( as he was ordinarily in like desperate cases , ) to come to one paulus maximus a youth of 14. who was then ready to expire his soule by sickenesse , before he could perfit his sacrifice , and the office which hee had begunne , before the message came to him , the young man dyed . when hee had been dead about halfe an houre , nerius came , and after he had used some lowd exclamations , the youth revived againe , looked up , and talked in secret with nerius a quarter of an houre . the discourse ●…nded , nerius gave him his choise , whether he would live , or dye ; and when the boy wished death , he gave him leave to dy againe . now , though it were a greater miracle , then any in that book ; if any man should beleeve all that are in it , ( for in it are attributed to nerius , stranger things then the t book of conformities imagined in saint francis ( for i beleeve that authuor purposed onely like xenophon or plato , or sir thomas moore , to ideate and forme , then to write a credible history , though u sedulius have defended it , with so much earnestnesse of late ; yet thus much is established out of this , whether fable or history , that their opinion , who authorised this book , is , that it was lawfull in maximus to wish his own death , since a man of so much sanctity as nerius , did approve and second , and accomplish that opinion of his . sect . v. the next species of homicide in tolets division , is permission ; which when it is toward our selves , is by the schoole-men usually called desertion , or dereliction , and mors negativa . of which i perceive not any kinde to be more obnoxious , or indefensible then that which is so common with our delinquents , to stand mute at the barre . and though civill lawes which are often enfo●…ced to chuse of two evills , the least , that is to say , the least hurtfull to civility and society , and must admit sometimes particular mischiefe , rather then a●… generall inconvenience , may excuse this ; yet , since out of the law of conscience , which can in no case come to be so entangled and perplexed , that it can be forced to ch●…se any thing naturally evill , no man hath as yet , to my knowledge , impugned this custome of ours , it seemes to me , that aswell our church as our state , justifies this desertion of our selves : and this , for so low and worldly a respect , as the saving of our temporall estate , or escaping the ignominy of another death . but that we may the better discerne the limits , how farre these omissions , and desertions , and exposings of our selves , are allowed us ; first i must interpret one a rule , [ that charity begins with it selfe , to bee understood onely in spirituall things . ] for i may not doe a sinne , to save ( in the language of schoole-men ) the goods , or honour , or li●…e , of the pope ; but for temporall things i must prefer others before my selfe , if a publique profit recompence my private domage . b i must also lay down another rule , [ that as for my selfe , so for my neighbour whom i am bound to love as my selfe , ] . i may expose goods , to safegard honour , and honour , for life , and life for 〈◊〉 profit . and to these i must joyn a third rule , c [ that no man is at any time enforced to exercise his priviledge . ] [ for the written law every man is bound to kn●…w , but d pr●…viledges and exemptions from that law , he may be exc●…sably ignorant of and in such ignorance transgresse them . ] hereupon i●… is sa●…ely infer'd , that though every man have naturally this priviledge , to resist force with force , and be authorised by that , to lay violent hands , even upon the popes life , as e gerson exemplifies , or upon the emperours , as f acacius , when either of them exceeds the limits of their magistracy , ( for then the party becomes the depu●…y , and lieutenant to nature , which is a common and equall soveraigne to them all . ) yet i may wayve this benefit , if i will , and even by a theefe , i may suffer my selfe to be killed , rather then kill him in that mortall sinne . g which our countryman sayr , holds as the common opinion from s●…tus , navar , cajetan , and many others . and none , that i have seen excepts to it , in any other person then a souldier , or such as hath the lives and dignities of others so enwrapped in theirs , as they cannot give away themselves , but by betrayin●… others . and this desertion seems to bee of naturall reason , because it is to be found in all lawes ; for even in the h alcorum we read [ vindicans non est reus , patiens tamen optime facit . ] and our law , which if a man kill another in his own necessary defence , punishes him with losse of goods , and delivers him from death , not by acquitall , but by way of pardon , seemes to me , to pronounce plainly , that it is not lawfull to defend my life by killing another ; which is farther , then any of the others went. and when i c●…mpare our two lawes , that if i defend my se●…fe i am punished , and the other before mentioned , that if i kill my selfe i am punished in the same manner , and measure ; they seeme to me , to be somewhat perplexed and captious . and as i may depart from my naturall priviledge of defending my selfe , so i may obtain from any extrinsique or accessory helpe , which is casually , or by providence ( if god reveale not his will therein ) presented unto me , i [ for a man condemned to death , is not bound in conscience to redeeme his life with money , though by the law of the place he might doe it . and though k saint thomas say , [ that he which is condemned to dy , kills himselfe , if he apprehend not , an opportunity to escape by flight , when it is presented , and likewise if he refuse meate , when he is condemned to be famished , ] yet the l whole streame is against him , sotus , navar , cajetan , and sayr . and navar adds , that in these dayes ( and yet now it is not so likely to be symbolum idolotricae pravitatis ) a man is bound rather to famish , then to eat meat offred to idols . and therefore they say ; that aquinas his opinion , that a man is bound to use his priviledge for safegard of his life , is onely true then , when he doth not wayve it , for some end berter and worthier then our naturall life ; of which sort all spirituall advantages are . so that in such cases they all agree , we may abandon and forsake our selves . and we may step farther yet in this desertion ; for we may offer our selves for the good of our neighbour . for the temporall life cannot be more precious then our soule ; which , in rigour is murdered by every sinne consented unto . yet m chrisostome sayes , [ no praise is enough to give sara for consenting to ly , and to submit herselfe to adultery for salvation of her husbands life . ] i know n saint augustine is earnest against this . but his earnestnesse is upon the matter of fact , for he denyes that either abraham or sara consented to any sinne ; but when he o disputes de jare , whether sara by abrahams consent might expose her selfe , to save his life , and is much troubled with the example of one which was prisoner , for debt to the state , under acindinus a praefect , under constantius , whose wife being solicited by a rich man , who would give so much as would discharge her husband , to possesse her own night , by her husbands consent , earned his liberty in that manner ; at last he leaves it indifferent for any man to think it lawfull or unlawfull in such a necessity , though indeede his own opinion decline from it . p bonaventure denies , that for the temporall good of another , i may offer willinlgy my life . but he grounds it upon the same reason that q augustine doth ; that we may not love another more then our selves , which in this case we seeme to doe . but many of the fathers , hierome , ambrose , and lactantius , and many of the schoole , as aqui●… fra. victoria , sotus , bannes , and infinite are against him : and answer saint augustine thus , that in that case , a man doth not prefer his friend before himselfe , but he prefers an act of vertue , and of friendship , as things of more spirituall nature , before his own temporall life . but that for the spirituall good of another , a man should expose his own life , is an unresisted doctrine , and as r sayr saies , [ it is sub praecepto , ] so s a curate is bound to baptize , and to anoint in the plague time . yea , it is an act of vertue , though not of necessity , ( as in the curates case ) t [ to visit a sick man , in such a time , though you bee a private man , and your end be not spirituall comfort . and we may yet proceed farther , for wee may lawfully dispossesse our selves of that , which was before afforded us , and without which we can have no hope to sustaine our lives . u as in a persecution , a private man , having food left sufficient only to sustaine one man , may give it to a publike person , and so perish . and only sotus denyes , that in a shipwrack , if after wee have both beene in equall danger , i catch and possesse my selfe of any thing to sustaine me , i may give this to my father , or to a magistrate : against the strength of navar , tolet , fra. victor . and many others . the farthest , and uttermost degree of this desertion , is inordinate and indiscreete voluntary fasting , of which saint hierome , ( as it is x related into the canons ) sayes , [ that by such an immoderate innocence , and indiscreete singing of psalmes , and offices , a man looseth his dignity , and incurres the note of madnesse , ] and upon this place y navar sayes , that saint hierome pronounceth , an [ indiscreete fasting which shortens the life , if the party perceive that it worke that effect , though it be without intention to shorten his life , and that he doe it , to be the better able to satisfie god , yet it is a selfe-homicide . ] and z hee adds in another place , speaking of the same purpose , [ it makes no difference whether thou be long in killing thy selfe , or doe it at once ] and a so cassianus sayes expresly , [ that that friar killed himselfe , which having vowed in his journey , to eat nothing except godgave him meat immediately , refused to eat , when theeves accustomed to kill passengers by that place , came and presented him bread . ] and yet , though he saies he killed himselfe , he imputes nothing to him but indiscretion . and therefore saith b one , [ our saviour christ exceeded not 40. dayes in his fast , ne sui homicida videretur . ] and he interprets that word , d esuriit , [ that then he perceived his body to languish and suffer detriment by fasting ] for , if he had not hungred till then , his fasting had had no vertue . so that he gave over , when he found the state of his body impaired by fasting , yet pursuing and imitating the superstition of the philosophers , who taught that e [ dum corpus augemus , mortaliores efficimar , ] and that ( e ) [ per tenuitatem assimilamur deo , ] how much the writers in the romane church suffer , and obliquely adhort these inordinate fasts , and other disciplines , appears by that which i cited out of clarus bonarscius before , and wheresoever they have occasion to speake thereof . and in no one thing more , then that they inculcate so often , [ that it was the practise of the devill , to appeare to saint francis , and cry out to him , that no man which kills himselfe with such maceration , could be saved , ] which f bonaventure relates in his life . whatsoever hath beene done by others , they teach , we ought to exceede . and since g [ the monkes in prester john his dominions , fast strictly fifty dayes , and stand all that time to the chinne in water . ] since they finde in h abbas vrsperg , a maid that fasted two year and a halfe after she had received the body of our blessed saviour . and an eremit 22. yeares , without receiving any thing , they say no fast can be too severe , which is undertaken to reduce our body to a tamenesse . yea , i [ though that be already perfectly effected , yet a man is bound to the fasts injoyned . ] for k [ fasting , without charity , doth wash away sinne . ] by this rigor of fasting , they seeme sure , that our saviour watched all those 40 dayes : because l [ qui dormit , prandet . ] and as it is not likely that moses slept in his 40 dayes conversation with god , so is it unlikely that christ did lesse then he . and so saint francis is extoll'd by them , for observing three lents every year , which m saint hierome so much detests in the montanists . and though their ends were divers , yet this shewes , that to some ends , these enormous witherings of our bodies are allowable . upon which reason n john baptists austerity is so much dignified ; and o saint peters feeding upon lupins ; and p saint matthewes living without flesh . and not onely the emperour iustinians choise , q [ who in an extreme sickenesse in lent , would take nothing but hearbs , and salt , and water , ] but also the r carthusian rule , by which though it appeare that flesh would save the patients life , hee may not eate it . and by the s apostolicall constitutions , ( which turrianus extols so much , that by them he confutes much of the reformed churches doctrine ) [ a man must fast to death , rather then receive any meat , from an excommunicate person . ] and in another chapter , t [ if any thing be in a case of extreame necessity accepted from such a person , it may bee bestowed in full , that so their almes may be burnt , and consumed to ashes , but not in meate to nourish our selves withall . ] so , to determine this section of desertion , since we may wayve our defence which law gives , by putting our selves upon a jurie ; and which nature gives , to repell force with force , since i may without slying , or eating when i have meanes , attend an executioner , or famine , since i may offer my life , even for anothers temporall good , since i must doe it for his spirituall , since i may give another my board in a shipwracke , and so drowne , since i may hasten my arrivall to heaven , by consuming penances , it is a wayward and unnoble stubbornesse in argument , to say still , i must not kill my selfe , but i may let my selfe dye ; since of affirmations and denyals , of omissions and committings , of enjoy●…ing and proh●…bitory commands , ever the one implies and enwraps the other . and if the matter shall bee resolved and governed only by an outward act , and ever by that ; if i forbeare to swimme in a river and so perish , because there is no act , i shall not be guilty , and i shall bee guilty if i discharge a pistoll upon my selfe , which i knew not to be charged , nor intended harme , because there is an act . of which latter opinion u mariana the jesuite seemes to be , as we shall have occasion to note , in the next member and species of homitide , which is , assistance . sect . vi. but before we come to that , we must , though it be not , nor naturally could be delivered in tolets division ; consider another species of homicide , which is mutilation or mayming . for , though in civill courts , it be not subject to like penaltie , yet if it bee accompanied with the same malignitie , it is in conscience the same sinne , especially towards our selves ; because it violates the same reason , which is , that none may usurpe upon the bodie over which he hath no dominion . upon which reason , it is also unlawfull for us to deliver our selves into bondage ; ( which i mention here , because it ariseth from the same ground , and i am loath to afford it a particular section . yet a holy paulinus , a confessor , and bishop of nola , then whom i find no man celebrated with more fame of sanctitie and integrity , to redeeme a widowes sonne , delivered himselfe as a a slave to the vandals , and was exported from italy to afrique ; and this , as i thinke , when hee was necessary to that place , being then there bishop ; for that was but five yeares before his death . but to returne to mutilation , b it is cleare by the canons , that towards irregularity , it works as much , and amounts as farre , to have maymed , as to have killed . and c in a councell at london , anno 1075 one canon forbids a clergy man , to bee present at judgement of death , or of mutilation . and amongst the d apostles canons this is one , [ he that gelds himselfe cannot be a clerke , because he is an homicide of himselfe , and an enemy to gods creature . [ e and to geld , is to maime in our law. ] so in the next canon it is said , [ f a clerk which gelds himselfe must be deposed , quia homicida sui . ] g and a lay-man must for that fault be excommunicated three yeares , quia vitae suae posuit insidias . ] it was therefore esteemed equivalent to killing . and h calvine , esteemed it so hainous , that he builds his argument against divorce upon this ground , [ god made them one body , and it is in no case lawfull , for a man to teare his owne body . ] but if this be so lawfull as divorces are lawfull , certainly this peremptorie sentence against it , must admit some modification . without doubt , besides the examples of holy men who have done it , to disable themselves from taking the burden of priesthood , of which i saint marke the evangelist was one , who to that end cut off his thombe . and besides , that as our saviour said , k [ many should geld themselves for the kingdome of heaven . ] so l athenagoras , 50 yeares after christ , saies , [ that many did practise it . ] it is doubted by none , [ but m that a man unjustly detained to a certaine execution , may cut off that limbe by which he is tyed , if he have no other way to escape : or being encompassed with doggs , he may cut off a hand , and cast it to them , to entertaine them while he escape . sect . vii . the last species of homicide , on this side ; the last act , is an actuall helping and concurrence to it . and every step and degree conducing purposely to that end , is as justly by judges of consciences , called homicide , as a ardoinus recknoning up all poysons , which have a naturall malignity and affection to destroy mans body , forbeares not a flea , though it never kill , because it endeavours it , and doth all the hurt it can ; and he is diligent in assigning preservatives and restoratives against it . and b so to that amalekite , which told david he helped saul to dy , when hee found him too weake to pierce himselfe , david pronounced judgement of death , for ( saith hee ) thine owne mouth hath confessed , that thou hast kill'd the lords anointed . certainely , c mariana the jesuite , whom i named before ) esteemes this actuall concurrence to ones death , as heavy as the act it selfe ; yea , as it seemes , though the party bee ignorant thereof . for , after hee concluded how an hereticall king may be poisoned , he is diligent in this prescription , [ that the king bee not constrained to take the poyson himselfe , but that some other may administer it to him : and that therefore it be prepared , and conveied in some other way then meate or drinke , because else , saith he , either willingly or ignorantly he shall kill himselfe . ] so that hee provides , that that king who must dye under the sinnes of tyranny and heresie , must yet be defended from concurring to his owne death , though ignorantly , as though this were a greater sinne . since therefore this hastning of our death by such an act , is the same , as the intire selfe-homicide , let us consider how far●…e irreproved custome , and example , and law doth either allow or command it . for that it is allowable , it seemes to me some proofe , [ d that before any man accuses him , a malefactor may go and declare his fault to the iudge . ] though amongst italian relations , e that in sansovine concerning england have many marks and impressions of malice , yet of that custome , which hee falsely sayes to bee observed here , [ that men condemned to be hanged are ever accompanied to their executions by all their kinred , who then hang at their feet , to hasten their ende ; and that when a patient is abandoned by the physicians , his neerest kinsman strangles him with a pillow . ] of this , i say , that author had thus much ground , that ordinarily at executions , men , out of a charitie , as they thinke , doe so ; and women which are desperate of sicke persons recovery , use to take the pillow from under them , and so give them leave to dye sooner . have they any more the dominion over these bodies , then the person himselfe ? or if a man were able to doe these offices to himselfe , might he not doe it ? or might he not with a safe conscience put so much waights in his pockets , as should countervaile their stretchings ? i speake but comparatively ; might not he doe it as well as they ? for to my understanding such an act , either in executioner or by-stander , is no way justifiable ; for it is both an injury to the party , whom a sudden pardon might redeeme ; and to the justice , who hath appointed a painfull death to deterre others . f the breaking of legs in crucified men , which was done to hasten death , was not allowed but upon petition . and the law might be much defrauded , if such violence might be used , where the breaking of the halter delivered the prisoner from death ; as in some places it doth ; and g good opinions concurre , that it is to doe ever without doubt , whatsoever is for ease , or escaping painfull passage out of this life ; in such cases , a man may more allowably doe by his owne act , then a stranger may . for law of nature enclines and excuses him , but they are by many lawes forbidden to hasten his death ; for they are no otherwayes interessed in it , then as parts of the whole body of the state , and so it concernes them , that justice be executed . yet we see , this , and the other of withdrawing the pillowes , is ordinarily done , and esteemed a pious office . the athenian executions were ever by the hand of the offendor , in judgements of poyson . and in h that law of purgation assigned by god , to ease a man on whom the spirit of jealousie was come , the woman was to take the water of curses and bitternesse , which should make her infamous , and her belly swell , and her thighs to rot . and those formes of purgation , which were called vulgares , lasted long , even in the church ; for there is nothing extant against them , till i stephen the fift , anno 885. and not onely k charles the great , in whom the church acknowledged piety enough , induced one forme severer then the rest , which was to walke upon 9 burning harrows . but l britius a bishop , being but callumniated by the people extrajudicially , to have got his laundresse with child , after his innocence had prevailed so farre with god , that the childe of 30 daies age , being adjured in the name of christ , had acquitted him , did not admit , but chose and extort a forme of purgation , to carry burning coales upon his head . with us , m both the species of ordalium lasted evidently till king johns time . and though into that of boyling water men were forced to goe , yet that was but for the meaner sort ; but to carry the three pound weight of red hot iron , which was for the purgation of the persons of better qualitie , was an act , as all the former were , in which a man must of necessitie doe some thing actually himselfe , and bee the executioner of his owne judgement ; which as long as these formes of purgation , and the other by battell , were lawfull , was lawfull also to be done . and in s. dorothaus , who euery where professes a love to that obedience , which himselfe calles indiscreet , you shall reade many prayses given to men , who did not onely forsake themselves , but actually further their destruction ; though not effectually ; which makes no difference , if it be in dangers , which usually men escape not . n he prayseth one fryar , who being by his abbat commanded to returne that night , the waters being risen , committed himselfe to a raging torrent , in such an obedience . and another , who being bid by his abbat , to goe into the towne , where he doubted hee should fall into some tentation , by some spectacle , went but with this protestation , that he hoped not in the protection of god , but in him who sent him . but the most naturall to our present purpose is this ; o that a holy old man seeing his servant mistake poyson for honey , and put it into his broth , eate it neverthelesse without chiding ; and when the servant perceived it , and exclaimed , sir , i have kill'd you , answere , it is all one , for if god would have had mee eate honey , he would have directed thy hand to honey . of the holynesse of joseph of arimathaea , we have testimony enough ; p who being sent by the apostles to preach the gospel , amongst other persecutions , was constrained to drinke poyson : in which there must of necessitie bee such an act , as we dispute of now . how much did q baint andrew contribute to his owne crucifying ? how much saint laurence to his broyling , when he called to the tyrant , this side is enough , turne the other , and then eate ? ] [ r magni quod faciunt , praecipiunt , ] sayes , quintillian . and these acts of men , otherwise esteemed holy , may ever be good warrants and examples to us , when the cause is not prejudged by any greater authoritie , as scripture , or councells , nor that very act accused by any author . but to stay no longer upon examples , amongst casuists i observe the greater number to deny , that it is lawfull for a man condemned , to doe the last and immediate act conducing to death , as the drinking of poyson ; but the acts some what more removed , they agree he may doe . and even this act of drinking poyson , s fra : a victoria defends , to be lawfull . so that amongst them it is not clear , but that a man may do it . yea , in very many cases , it is not onely lawfull to doe as much , without any condemnation , but it is necessary , and by their rules , sinnefull to omit it . for curates must goe to infected houses , to minister the sacraments . and t if a priest enter a wood , where three waite to kill him , and one of them repenting that purpose meet him ; and by way of confession sub sigillo , discover the fault , the priest is bound to goe forward to a certaine death into a wood , rather then by returning to let the others know , that he knew it by confession . so peremptory is their doctrine , how ever their practise be , against revealing confessions . and though perchance this seeme a wanton case , framed upon impossible concurrences , as u soto esteemes of it , yet the reason may have use ; that though selfe-preservation be divine naturall law , and the seale of confession but divine positive law , yet because circumstances are not alike , in this , a publique good shall be preferred before his private life . so that we may doe some acts our selves , which conduceth probably , yea certainly , as farre as humane knowledge can reach , to our destruction : which is the neerest step to the last act of doing it intirely our selves . sect . viii . of which last act , as we spoke whilst we considered the law of nature , and must againe when we come to understand those places of scripture , which seeme to ayme towards it , so before wee conclude this part , of the law of reason , we may fitly present such deductions , comparisons , and consequences , as may justly seeme in reason , to annihilate or diminish this fault . of which , because most will be grounded , either upon the conscience of the doer , or upon the churches opinion of the fact when it is done , wee will onely consider how farre an erring conscience may justifie any act , and then produce some examples of persous guilty of this , and yet canonized by the church , by admission into the martyrologe , and assigning them their feasts , and offices , and vigils , and like religious celebrations . therefore to make no use of a pythagorus example , who rather then hee would offend his philosophicall conscience , and either tread upon the beanes himselfe , or suffer his scholers to speake before their time , delivered up himselfe , and forty of them to his enemies sword . and to avoide the ambages and multiforme entangling of schoolemen ; herein we will follow that which is delivered for the common opinion ; which is , b that not onely a conscience which errs justly probably and bona side , that is , after all morall industry and diligence hath beene used , ( yet i meane not exquisite diligence , but such as is proportionall to the person , and his quality , and to the knowledge which that man is bound to have of that thing , at that time ) is bound to doe according to that mis-information , and mis-perswasion so contracted . but also , if it erre negligently , or otherwise viciously , and mala side , as long as that errour remaines and resides in it , a man is bound not to doe against his conscience . in the first case , if one in his conscience thinke that hee ought to lye , to save an innocent , or that he ought to steale to save a famished man , he is a homicide if he lye not , or steale not . and in the second case , though he bee not bound to any act , yet it is lawful to him then , to omit any thing necessary otherwise . and this obligation which our conscience casts upon us , is of stronger hold , and of straighter band , then the precept of any superiour , whether law , or person ; and is so much juris naturalis , as it cannot be infringed nor altered , beneficio divinae indulgentiae , to use their owne words . which doctrin , as it is every where to be gathered among the casuists , so is it well collected and amassed , and and argued , and confirmed , especially by azorius . if then a man after convenient and requisite diligence , despoiled of all humane affections , and self-interest , and [ sancto bonaee impatientiae igne exardens , ] as paulinus speaks ; do in his conscience beleeve that he is invited by the spirit of god to doe such an act as ionas , abraham , and perchance sampson was , who can by these rules condemne this to be sinne ? and therefore i doubt there was some haste and praecepitation in c cassianus his judgement , though otherwise , a very just esteemer and valuer of works of devotion and obedience ; who pronounces that that apparition of an angell , to hero an eremit , after 50 yeares so intense and earnest attending of gods service , and religious negligence of himselfe , that he would scarse intermit easter day , from his strict fasting , and being now d victoriarum conscientia plenus , ( as the panegyrique saies ) was an illusion of the devill to make him destroy himselfe . yet hero being drawn out of the well into which he had cast himselfe , and living three dayes after , persisted in a devout acknowledgement that it was the spirit of god , which sollicited him to that , and dyed in so constant an assurance and alacrity , that paphnutius the abbat , though at first in some suspence , did not number him inter biathanatos , which were persons reputed vitiously to have killed themselves . nor may it be necessarily concluded , that this act was therefore evill , if it appeared to be from the devill . for e wierus , tells us of a maid whom the devill perswaded to goe such a pilgrimage , and at such an altar , to hear a masse , for recovery of her health . certainly if as f vasquez holds , [ it be not idolatry to worship the devill in an apparition , which i thinke to be god ] it can be no offence to beleeve him , after i have used all meanes to discerne and distinguish : for not onely those rules which are delivered ordinarily to know him by , are apparantly false , which are a difference in his hands or feet , or some notable deformity by hornes , or a tayle , of which g binsfeldius seems confident of the first , and ( h ) menghi of the second . but that rule that god alwaies infuseth or commands good things , if it be understood of that which is good , in the common and naturall course is not alwaies safe , for it held not in abraham , nor the israelites case . therefore though vasquez his first excuse , that such a worship is not idolatry , because by reason of our immediate relation to god , we never arrest nor stop upon the devill by the way , will doe no good in our case of beleeving , yet his other will , which he hath in the same place , that there may be an invincible ignorance , and that in that any exterior act whatsoever , proceeding from a sincere and pure intention of the mind , is an act of true religion . for safelier then the i panegyrick could say to constantine , [ suacuique prudentia deu●… est ] may we say of every mans conscience thus rectified . if therefore they will still turn in their circle , and say , god concurs to no evill , we say nothing is so evill , but that it becomes good , it god command it ; and that this is not so naturally evill , that it requires a speciall commission from god●… ; but as it becomes good , if he commands it , so it becomes indifferent , if he remove the reasons with which the precept against it was conditioned . if they returne to s. augustins two reasons against donatus , whereof the first was , [ we have authority to save thy body against thy will , ] and the second , [ none of the faithfull ever did this act ] we are thereby hastned to the other consideration , how they which have done it , have been esteemed of by the catholique church . but to speake a little in passing of saint augustines second reason , ( for the first hath very little force , since though it may be lawfull to preserve a man willing to die , yet it is not alwaies of merit , nor obligatory ; and therefore k ignatius doth so earnestly dehort the rom●…ns from endeavouring to succour him . and l corona civica which was given to any which had rescued a citizen in the warres , was not given though he produced witnesses of the fact , except the person so rescued confessed that he received a benefit thereby ; ) why doth s. augustine referre donatus in that second reason , to examples . for if donatus had produced any ( as out of credible and authentique history he might very many , and out of scriptures canonick in m st. augustines opinion , he might have alledged the example eleazar , and of rasis , ) saint augustine was ever provided for this retrait , that it was a speciall inspiration , and not to be drawn into consequence or imitation . had it been a good argument in rome for 500. yeeres , that divorce was not lawfull , because n no example was of it ? or almost for 2000. that a woman might not sue it against her husband , because o till herods daughter there was no example of it ? but now when the church hath thus long persevered , in not only justifying but solemnizing many examples hereof , are not saint augustines disciples guilty of the same pertinacy which is imputed to aristotles followers , p who defending the heavens to be inalterable , because in so many ages nothing had been observed to have been altered , his schollers stubbornly maintain his proposition still , though by many experiences of new stars , the reason which moved aristotle seems now to be utterly defeated ? thus much being spoken by the way of saint augustine , and having purposely sepos'd the examples recorded in the scriptures , for our third part , we will consider some examples registred in the ecclesiastick history . the church whose dignity and constancy it becomes well , that that rule of her owne law , be ever justly said of her self , q [ quod s●…mel placuit amplius displicere non potest ] where new reasons do not interpose , r celebrates upon the 9. of february the birth , ( that is the death , of the virgin and martyr appollonia ; who , after the persecutors had beat out her teeth , and vexed her with many other tortures , when she was presented to the fire , being inflamed with a more burning fire of the holy ghost , broke from the officers hands , and leapt into the fire . for this act of hers many advocates rise up for her , and say , that either the history is not certain , ( yet the authors are beda , usuardus , ado , and ( as barronius sayes ) latinorum caeteri ) or else , s says sayr , you must answer that she was brought very neer the fire , and as good as thrown in : or else that she was provoked to it by divine inspiration . but , but that another divine inspiration , which is true charity , moved the beholders then to beleeve , and the church ever since to acknowledge , that she did therein a noble and christian act , to the speciall glory of god , this act of hers , as well as any other , might have been calumniated to have been done , out of wearinesse of life , or fear of relapse , or hast to heaven , or ambition of martyrdome . the memory of t pelagia , as of a virgin and martyr , is celebrated the ninth of june . and though the history of this woman suffer some perplexity , and giue occasion of doubting the truth thereof , ( for ambrose says , that she and her mother drownd themselves ; and chrysostome that they slung themselves downe from a house top . and baronius saw this knot to be so hard to unentangle , that he says , [ quid ad hac dicamus , non habemus ] ) yet the church , as i said , celebrates the act , as though it were glad to take any occasion , of approving such a courage in such a cause , which was but preservation of chastity . [ u their martyrdome saith saint augustine was ever in the catholique church frequented veneratione celeberrima . ] and x saint ambrose , when his sister marcellina , consulted him directly upon the point , what might be thought of them who kill themselves in such cases , ( and then it is agreed by all that the opinions of the fathers are especially to be valued , when they speake of a matter , not incidently or casually , but directly and deliberately ) answers thus , [ we have an example of such a martyrdome in pelagia ] and then he presents her in this religious meditation , [ let us die , if we may have leave , or if we be denied leave , yet let us die . god cannot be offended with this , when we use it but for a remedy ; ] and our faith takes a way all offence . here is no difficulty : for who is willing to dye , & cannot , since there are so many waies to death ? i will not trust my hand least it strike not home : nor my breast , least it withdraw it selfe : i will leave no escape to my flesh , for we can dve with our own weapons , and without the benefit of an executioner . and then having drest her selfe as a bride , and going to the water , here , sayes she , let us be baptized ; this is the baptisme where sinnes are forgiven , and where a kingdome is purchased : and this is the baptisme after which none sinnes . this water regenerates ; this makes us virgines , this opens heaven , defends the feeble , delivers from death , and makes us martyrs . onely we pray to god , that this water scatter us not , but reserve us to one funerall . then entred they as in a dance , hand in hand , where the torrent was deepest , and most violent . and thus dyed , ( as their mother upon the bank called them ) [ these prelates of virginitie , captaines of chastitie , and companions in martyrdome . ] and before ambrose , we finde y eusebius to have been of the same perswasion , who thus produces the mother encouraging them ; [ you know how i have brought you up , in the feare of god ; and shall your nakednesse , which the publike ayre hath not ha●… leave to see , now be prostituted in the stewes ? have not so little faith in god , as to feare death , despise not chastity so much , as to live with shame ; but with a pure and chaste death condemne this world . and so , deluding their keepers , as though they withdrew for naturall necessities , they drowned themselves . ] all authors of that time are so profuse in the praise of this fact , that it is just to say thereof , as z pliny sayes of nervaes adopting trajane , [ it was impossible it should have pleased all when it was done , except it had pleased all before it was done . ] for no author , that i have lighted upon , diminished the glory of these and such other , untill saint augustine out of his most zealous and startling tendernesse of conscience , began to seeke out some waies , how these selfe-homicides might be justified , because he doubted that this act naturally was not exempt from taxation . and yet ever hee brings himselfe to such perplexitie , as either he must defend it , and call in question , the authority of a generall consonance of all times and authors , or retire to that poore and improbable defence , that it was done by divine instinct . which can very hardly be admitted in this case , where not their religion but onely their chastitie was solicited and attempted . nor can saint ambrose , or eusebius be drawn to that opinion of especiall divine instinct , because speaking ex animo , though in the mothers person , they incite them to it with reasons from morrall vertues . yet saint augustines example , ( as it prevailes very much , and very justly for the most part ) hath drawne many others since to the like interpretation of the like acts . for when the kingdome of naples came to bee devided betweene ferdinand the fifth , and lewis the twelfth , the french army being admitted into capua , upon condition to do no violence , amongst many outrages , a virgin not able to escap the fury of a licentious souldier , offered for ransome to lead him to treasure : and so tooke advantage of a place in the wall , to fling her selfe into the river . [ which act , a sayes pedraça , we must beleeve to be done by divine inspiration , because god loves chastity now as well as ever he did . ] which escape every side may finde easie , if being pressed with reason they may say , as peter martyr doth of the egyptian midwives , and of rahab , and such , b [ if they did lye , they did it , impulsu dei. ] but as our custome hitherto hath been , let us depart from examples to rules ; though concurrence of examples , and either an expresse or interpretative approbation of them , much more such a dignifying of them , as this , of the whole church , and of catholike authors approved by that church , bee equivalent to a rule . and to ease the reader , and to continue my first resolution of not descending into many particulars , i will onely present one rule , but so pregnant , that from it many may be derived ; by which , not onely a man may , but must doe the whole and intire action of killing himselfe ; which is , to preserve the scale of confession . for though c the rule in generall bee , [ that if a spider fall into the chalice , the wine may be changed , because , nihil abominabile debet sumi occasione hujus sacramenti . ] and so d it may , if the priest after consecration come to the knowledge that the wine is poysoned , [ ne calix vitae vertatur in mortem ; ] yet e if hee know this by confession , from his assistant , or any other , and cannot by any diversion , nor disguise , escape the discovering , that this was confessed to him , without drinking it , if it bee poyson , he m●…st drinke it . but because men of more abundant reading , active discourse , and conclusive judgement , will easily provide themselves of more reasons and examples , to this purpose ; it shall satisfie me , to have awakened them thus much , and shewed them a marke to direct their meditations upon . and so i may proceed to the third part , which is of the law of god. the third part. of the law of god. distinction i. sect . i. that light which issues from the moone , doth best represent and expresse that which in our selves we call the light of nature ; for as that in the moone is permanent and ever there , and yet it is unequall , various , pale , and languishing , so is our light of nature changeable . for being at the first kindling at full , it wayned presently , and by dedeparting further and further from god , declined by generall sinne , to almost a totall eclipse : till god comming neerer to us first by the law , and then by grace , enlightned and repayred it againe , conveniently to his ends , for further exercise of his mercy and justice . and then those artificiall lights , which our selves make for our use and service here , as fires , tapers , and such resemble the light of reason , as wee have in our second part accepted that word . for though the light of these fires and tapers be not so naturall , as the moone , yet because they are more domestique , and obedient to us , wee distinguish particular objects better by them , then by the moone ; so by the arguments , and deductions , and conclusions , which our selves beget and produce , as being more serviceable and under us , because they are our creatures ; particular cases are made more cleare and evident to us ; for these we can be bold withall , and put them to any office , and examine , and prove their truth , or likeliehood , and make them answere as long as wee will aske ; whereas the light of nature , with a solemne and supercilious majestie , will speake but once , and give no reason , nor endure examination . but because of these two kindes of light , the first is to weake , and the other false , ( for onely colour is the object of sight , and we not trust candlelight to discerne colours ) we have therefore the sunne , which is the fountaine and treasure of all created light , for an embleme of that third best light of our understanding , which is the word of god. a mandatum lucerna , & lex lux , ] sayes solomon . but yet b as weake credulous men , thinke sometimes they see two or three sunnes , when they see none but m●…teors , or other apparance , so are many t●…ansported with like facilitie or dazeling , that for some opinions which they maintaine , they think they have the light and authority of scripture , when , god knowes , truth , which is the light of scriptures , is divine truely under them , and removed in the farthest distance that can bee . i●… any small place of scripture , mis-appeare to them to bee of use for justifying any opinion of theirs ; then ( as the word of god hath that precious nature of gold , that a little q●…antity thereof , by reason of a faithfull tenacity and ductilenesse , will be brought to cover 10000. times as much of any other mertall , ) they extend it so farre , and labour , and beat it , to such a thinnesse , as it is scarce any longer the word of god , only to give their other reasons a little tincture and colour of gold , though they have lost all the waight and estimation but since the scripture it self teaches , c [ that no proph●…cie in the scripture , is of private interpretation , ] the whole church may not be bound and concluded by the fancie of one , or of a few , who being content to enslumber themselves in an opinion , and lazy prejudice , dreame arguments to establish , and authorize that . a d professed interpreter of dreames , tells us , [ that no dreame of a privat●… man may be interpreted to signifie a publike businesse , ] this i say , because of those places of 〈◊〉 , which are aledged for the doctrin which we now examine , scarce any one , ( except the precept , thou shalt not kill ) is offered by any two authors . but to one , one place , to another , another seemes directly to governe in the point , and to me , ( to allow truth her naturall and comely boldnesse ) no place , but that seemes to looke towards it . and therefore in going over all those sentences , which i have gathered from many authors , and presenting convenient answers and interpretations thereof , i will forbeare the names of those authors , who produced them so impertinently , least i should seeme to discover their nakednesse , or insimulat them even of prevarication . if any divine shall thinke the cause , or persons injured herein , and esteeme me so much worth the reducing to the other opinion , as to apply an answer hereunto , with the same charitie which provoked me , and which , i thanke god ha●…h accompanied me from the beginning , i beseech him , to take thus much advantage from me and my instruction , that he will doe it without bitternesse . he shall see the way the better , and shew it the better , and saile through it the better , if he raise no stormes . such men , e as they are [ fishers of men , ] so may they also hunt us into their nets , for our good . but there is perchance , some mystique interpretation belonging to that f canon which allowes clergy men to hunt ; for they may doe it by nets and snares , but not by dogges ; fo●… clamour and bitings are forbidden them . and i have been sorry to see , that even beza himselfe , writing against an adversary , and a cause equally and extreamely obnoxious , onely by allowing too much fuell to his zeale , enraged against the man , and neglecting , or but prescribing in the cause , hath with lesse thoroughnesse and satisfaction , then either became his learning and watchfulnesse , or answered his use and custome , given an answer to ochiu●… booke of polygamy . distinction ii. sect . i. in all the iudiciall , in all the ceremoniall law delivered by moses , who was the most particular in his lawes of any other , there is no abomination , no mention of this selfe-homicide . he teacheth what we shall , and shall not , eate , and weare , and speake , and yet nothing against this . sect . ii. but the first place that i find offered against it is , in genesis . [ i will require your bloud wherein your lives are , at the hand of every beast will i requireit ; and at the hand of man , even at the hand of a mans brother will i require the life of man ; who so sheddeth mans bloud , by man shall his bloud be shed . ] and this place a very learned man of the reformed church , sayes , the jewes understand of selfe-homicide . but sh●…ll wee put our selves under the iewes yoake , a [ that if we finde in the rabbins , things contrary to nature , wee must dare to accuse nothing but our owne weakenesse , because their word is gods word , and if they contradict one another , yet both are from god. ] b lyra who seldome departs from the iewes , in matters not controverted between them , and us , toucheth upon no such exposition ; yet hee expounds it more then one way , and with liberty enough , and farre straying . and c emanuel sâ , who in his notes is more curious , and superstitious , in restoring all the hebraismes , and oftentimes their interpretations , then perchance that church would desire at his hands , offers at no other sense then the words present . nor ●…an selfe homicide fall within the commination and 〈◊〉 of that law , for how can the magistrate shed his bloud , who hath killed himselfe ? sect . iii. the next is in de●…eronomie : [ i kill , and i give life . ] our of which is concluded , that all authority of life and death is from god , and none in our selves . but shall we therefore dare to condemne utterly , all those states and governments , where fathers , husbands , and masters , had jurisdiction over children , wives , and servants lives ? if we dare , yet how shall we defend any magistracy , if this be so strictly accepted ? and if it admit exceptions , why may not our case be within those ? howsoever that this place is incongruously brought , appears by the next words , [ there is not any that can deliver from my hand ] or this being a verse of that divine poem , which god himselfe made and delivered moses , as a stronger and more slippery insinuation and impression into the isr●…lites hearts , then the language of any law would make , expresses onely that the mercies and judgements of god , are safe and removed from any humane hinderance , or interruption . so a in another gratulatory song made by samuels mother , the same words are repeated , [ the lord killeth and maketh alive , ] and this because god had given her a son , when she was past hope . that place also in tobit b is fitly paraleld with this , [ he leadeth to hell , and bringeth up , no●… is there any that can avoid his hand . ] and can these two places be detorted to their purpose , that none but god may have jurisdiction over our temporall life ? or c that place of the book of wisdome , which is also ever joyned , as of the same signification with these , [ for thou hast the power of life , and death ] which is spoken of his miraculous curing by the brazen serpent . so that all these foure places have one respect and ayme , and none of them look towards our question . sect . iiii. in the order of the divine books , the next place is produced out of job , [ militia est vita hominis super terram . ] for , though our translation give it thus , [ is there not an appointed time to man upon earth ? ] yet the latine text is thus cited to this purpose , by some not addicted to the vulgat edition , because it seems in latine better to afford an argument against self homicide . for therupon they infer , that we may not depart at our own pleasure from the battell . but because onely the metaphor and not the extending of it , nor inference upon it , is taken out of the scripture , it brings no strong obligation with it , nor deserves much earnestnesse in the answer , yet to follow him a little in his allusion , a [ a souldier may by law , be ignorant of the law , and is not much accusable if he transgresse it . ] and by b another law , 〈◊〉 [ o●… souldier whose presence is necessary for the safeguard of the army , may be absent cau●… reipub. and being absent , his absence shall be interpreted to be so . ] and c even to those which killed themselvs in the army , we noted before in the second part , that the lawes were not severe , if they had any colour of just cause : so that this figurative argument profits then nothing , especially being taken from this place where the scope of job was to prove that our felicity and end upon which our actions are bent , is not in this li●…e , but as wars work to peace , so we labour here to death , to that happines which we shall have after . and therfore whosoever were author of that letter which hath d christs name to abgarus , doth not make christ say , that when he hath done that for which he was sent hither , he will come to him , and take his offer of halte his kingdome , but that when he hath done , he will returne to him which sent him : that is he will die , so that if either side have advantage by this place of job , we have it . sect . v. and by the other place of job much more , which is , [ therefore my soule chuseth rather to bee strangled , and to die , then to be in my bones . ] hereuupon they infer , that if it might have been lawfull to die so , job would have done it . but besides that the wretched poverty and feeblenesse of this manner of negative arguments , iob did it not , therefore he might not do it , we may perceive by the whole frame of the history , that god had chosen him for another use , and an example of extream patience . so that for any thing that appears in iobs case , he might not lawfully doe it , because he could propose nothing but his own eas●… . y●…t iob whose sanctity i thinke it facriledge to diminish , whether he were a person or personate in their confession strayed thus farre towards killing himself●… , as to wish his death , and curse his birth ; for his whole third chapter is a bitter and malignant invective against it , and a violent wishing of his own death . a sextu●… sexens●… gives an answer for him so literall , as it can admit or reach to no sense , which is , [ that cursing his birth day which then was past , he cursed nothing . ] and b saint gregory gives an answer so mysticall , as no s●…nse can reach to it , which is , [ that there is a second bi●…th into sinne in this world , and job cursed his entrance into that . ] and so because these words might bee readily taken for an inordinate wishing of death ; gregory provides them also a mysticall interpretation , for the latine reading it thus , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima me●… , ] he saye , [ this was suspendium spi●…ituale which was but an elevation of the minde ; as s. paul said , christe crucifixu●… sum cru●… ] but besides that this escape will not serve , when the originall word is considered , and that the next verse is , desperavi , 〈◊〉 ultra vivam ] in the twentieth verse , he chides god by the name of [ o thou preserver of man ] as being angry that he preserved him , [ being now a ●…rthen to himselfe , and would not leave him alone , whilst he might swallow his spittle . ] and he ends that chapter thus , [ if th●…n se●…kest me in the 〈◊〉 , i shall not be found . ] this i say , onely to show that one whom none hath exceeded in 〈◊〉 , may without any de●…ortion of his words , be argued to have step farr●… towards a purpose of killing himselfe . who list to give any other construction to his words shall not displease me , nor impaire the strength of our 〈◊〉 . and though i confesse , i have not read any to expound these word●… of iob directly thus , and though . i know the opinion in generall of his despairing , be thus i much discredited , that it is held by the 〈◊〉 , yet , besides that , it is not just ●…or ingenuous , to condemn all that a conde●…nd man says , ( for even a leprous man may have one hand clean to take and give withall . and s. hier. is inexcusable , in that point of his slippery zeal , in his behaviour towards 〈◊〉 , y●…a the tr●… councell it selfe is obnoxious therein , for condemning names of authors , and not books . besides this i say , the anabaptists differ from me in their end and purpose , for they impute despaire to iob , onely to infirme the authority of the booke , which scismatically they labour to rent from the canon of scripture : but i justly with the consent of all christian churches admitting it for such say that job might keep his sanctity and the book his dignity , and yet he might have a purpose to kill himselfe . for very many reverend authors in the reformed church , not rashly to be fors●…en , have imputed to our most bless●…d saviour , as neer approaches to a more dangerous kind of despaire , then we impute to iob , without diminishing him , or his scriptures . sect . vi. i finde also another place . of job obtruded . [ skin for skin , and all that ever i a 〈◊〉 ●…ath will he give for life . ] from which words they argue a naturall love in us to this life . let it be true , ( though the devill say it , for the words are his ) that our sensitive nature is too indulgent to this life , ( though i feare i have offended and furfetted you in the first part with examples of meer naturall and sensitive men , which have chosen death , ) yee will that prove that our reasonable nature may in no ●…afe correct that enormity ? this is as strong against gods outward calling us to him by sicknesse , or persecution , as against any such inward motions . sect . vii . as unproperly , and unprofitably to their ends and purpose , do they offer that place of ecclestasticus , [ non est census supra censum falutis corporis , ] which i place here , though out of order , because of the affinity betweene this place , and the last , and that one answer , is , at least , enough for them both . for , tho●…gh this place may prove that wee naturally love this body , ( yet it is not of the fafety of the body , as it all men desired that the body might live , but it is of bodily health whilst it doth live , ) yet it proves not , that wee may in no case abandon it . sect . viii . the most proper , and direct , and strongest place is the commandement ; for that is of morall law , [ thou shalt not kill ; ] and this place is cited by all to this purpose . but i must have leave to depart from a s. augustines opinion here , who thinks that this commandement is more earnestly bent upon a mans selfe , then upon another ; because here is no addition , and in the other , there is , [ against thy neighbour , ] or certainely , i am as much forbid by that commandement to accuse my selfe falsely , as my neighbour , though onely he be named . and by this i am as much forbid to kill my neighbour as my selfe , though none be named . so , as it is within the circuit of the command , it may also bee within the exceptions thereof . for though the words be generall , thou shall not kill , we may kill beasts ; magistrates may kill men ; and a private man in a just warre , may not onely kill , contrary to the sound of this commandement , but hee may kill his father , contrary to another . when two naturall lawes contrary to one another occurre , we are bound to that which is strictioris vin●…li . as all lawes concerning the honour of god , and faith , are in respect of the second table , which is directed upon our neighbour by charitie . if therefore there could bee a necessity , that i must doe an act of idolatry , or kill , i were bound to the later . by which rule if perchance a publique exemplary person , which had a just assurance that his example would governe the people , should be forced by a tyrant , to doe an act of idolatry , ( although by circumstances he might satisfie his owne conscience , that he sinned not in doing it . ) and so scandalize and endanger them , if the matter were so carried and disguised , that by no way he could let them know , that he did it by constraint , but voluntarily , i say , perchance he were better kill himselfe . it is a safe rule , [ a iury divino derogani non potest , nisi ipsa derogatio suri divino conste●… . ] but since it is not thought a violating of that rule , [ b to kill by publique authority or in a just warre , or defence of his life , or of anothers . ] why may not our case be as safe and innocent ? if any importune me to shew this priviledge , or exemption of this case from the commanment , i may with c sotus retort it , and call for their priviledge to kill a day thiefe , or any man in defence of another . and as these lawes may be mediately and secondarily deduced from the conformity of other lawes , and from a generall authority which god hath afforded all soveraignes , to provide as necessities arise ; so may our case bee derived as well from that necessary obligation which lyes alwayes upon us , of preferring gods glorie above all humane respects . so that we cannot be put to shew , or pleade any exemption , but when such a case arises , wee say that that case never was within the reach of that law. which is also true of all the other which we called exemptions before . for , whatsoever might have beene done before the law , as this might , if it be neither against nature , nor justice , from both which we make account that wee have acquitted it , ) upon that , this commandement never fell , not extended to it . sect . ix . i have found also a place urged out of the booke of wisdome , which is , [ seeke not death in the errour of your life . ] which being ever coupled with another place in deuteronomie , by collation of the two places it appeares , that that which is forbidden there , is idolatry , and by death is meant the second death , or the way to it . and so this distinction which was intended for the places cited from the books of the old testament , shall here have an end ; and to the next we allow those of the new. distinct. iii. sect . i. of which the first that i have observed is in matthew when the devil tempts christ thus , [ if thou be the son of god , cast thy self downe . ] with all expositors i confesse , this was a temptation to vain glory , and therefore most appliabl to our case , where we make account , that we work somwhat to the service of god , and advancement of his glory , when we allow this to be done ; and it is a very slippery passage , and a devout man were out of the nature of devotion , 〈◊〉 to erre that way , then a worldly , but that the ha●…d of god is extended to the protection of such . but directly this place will not shake , nor attempt our proposition , for though christ would not satisfie the devill , nor discover himselfe , yet he did as much whe●… it conduced to his owne ends , as the devill tempted him to in this place , or the other ; both in changing the species and nature of water into wine , and in exposing himselfe to certaine danger when he walked upon the waters . christ refused no difficultie , nor abstained from miracles , when he knew he profited the beholders ; nor doe i say , that in any other case , then when we are probably and excusably assured , that it isto a good end , this may be lawfull to us . sect . ii. the next place is in the acts of the apostles . [ the keeper of the prison drew out his sword , and would have killed himselfe , supposing the prisoners had beene gone ; but paulcryed , doe thy selfe no harme , for we are all here . ] to which i say , that by the same spirit by which paul being in the inner prison in the darke , knew what the keeper thought , and what hee was about to doe without , hee knew also gods purpose to be glorified in the conversion of him and his family ; and therefore did not onely reclaime him from that purpose , which was inordinate , and for his owne sake , to escape punishment , ( in which yet wee may observe how presently mans nature inclines him to this remedy ) but also forbears to to make his benefit of this miracle , and to escape away : and so , though he rescue the keeper , he betrayes himselfe . and therefore calvin upon this place makes to himselfe this objection , [ that paul seeing all his hope of escape to consist in the death of the keeper , neglected that way of liberty which god offered him , when he restnained the keeper from killing himselfe . ] and he answers it onely thus , [ that hee had a conscience and insight into gods purpose and decree herei●… ] for otherwise , if he had not had that ( which very few attaine to have ) it seemes he ought to have permitted the keeper to proceed , to facilitate thereby his way of escaping . sect . iii. which also inferres some answer to another place of saint paul , where hee delivers and discharges himselfe , and his fellow apostles , of having taught this doctrine , [ that a man might doe evill , that good might come thereof . ] and consequently it is well and by just collection pronounced that he forbids that doctrine . and we also humbly subscribe to that rule , and accept it so , as saint paul intends it ; that is , in things which nature , and not circumstance makes evi●…l . and in these also , when any such circumstance doth make them evill , as another circumstance to the contrary doth not praeponderate and over-rule this . this therefore we must have liberty to enlighten with a larger discourse . of the evils which seeme to us to bee of punishment , of which kind death is , god ever makes others his executioners ; for the greatest of all , though it be spirituall , which is induration , is not so wrought by god himselfe immediately , as his spirituall comforts are , but occasionally , and by desertion . sometimes in these god imployes his angels , sometime the magistrate , sometimes our selves . yet all which god doth in this life by any of these , is but physicke : for a ●…n excaecation and induration is sent to further salvation in some , and inflicted medicinally . and these ministers and instruments of his , are our physitians , and wee may not refuse any bitternesse , no not that which is naturally poyson , being wholesomely corrected by them : for as in b cramps which are contortions of the sinewes , or in tetars , which are rigors and stiffenesses in the muscles , wee may procure to ourselfe a fever to thaw them , or we may procure them in a burning feaver , to condense and attemper our bloud againe , so in all rebellions and disobediences of our flesh , wee may minister to our selves such corrections and remedies , as the magistrate might , if the fact were evident . but , because though for prevention of evill , wee may doe all the offices of a magistrate upon our selves , in such secret cases , but whether we have that authority to doe it after or no , especially in capitall matters , is disputable , and at this time , wee need not affirme it precisely , i will examine the largenesse of that power no farther now . but descend to that kinde of evill , which must of necessity be understood in this place of paul ? which is , that we account naturally evill . and even in that , the bishops of rome have exercised their power , c to dispence with bigamy , which is in their doctrine directly against gods commandement , and therefore naturally evill . so did d nicholas the fift , dispense with a bishop in germany , to consult with w●…tches , for recovery of his health ; and it were easie to amasse many cases of like boldnesse . in like manner e the imperiall law tollerates vsurie , prescription , mala fidei , and deceit ad medium , and expressely allowes f witchcraft , to good purposes . [ conformably to which law , paracelsus sayes , it is all one whether god or the devill cure , so the patient be well . ] and so the g canons have prescribed certain rules of doing evill , when we are overtaken with perplexities , to chuse the least , of which h s gregory gives a naturall example , [ that a man attempted upon a high wall , and forced to leape it , would take the lowest place of the wall . ] and agreeably to all these , the k casuist say , [ that in extreame necessitie , i si●… not if i induce a man to lend me mony upon usury : and the reason is , because i incline him to a lesse sinne , which is usury , when else he should be a h●…icide , by not releiving me . ] and in this fashion l god him selfe is said to work evill in us , because when our heart is full of evill purposes , he governs and disposes us rather to this then to that evill , wherin though all the vitiousnesse be ours , and evill , yet the order is from god , and good . yea , he doth positively encline one to some certain evill thus , that he doth infuse into a man some good thoughts , by which , he , out of his vitiousnesse takes occasion to thinke he were better doe some other sinne then that which he intended . since therefore all these lawes and practises concurre in this , that we sometime doe such evill , not onely for expresse and positive good , but to avoid greater evill , all which seems to be against this doctrine of s. paul. and since , whatsoever any humane power may dispence withall in us , we , in extream necessity , in impossibility of recourse to better counsell , in an erring conscience , and in many such cases , may dispence with our selves , ( for that canon of duo mala , leaves it to our naturall reason , to judge , and value , and compare , and distinguish betweene those two evills which shall concurre . ) and since for all this , it is certaine , that no such dispensation from another , or from my selfe , doth so alter the nature of the thing , that it becomes thereby the more or the lesse evill , to mee there appeares no other interpretation safe , but this , that there is no externall act naturally evill ; and that circumstances condition them , and give them their nature ; as scandall makes an indifferent thing hainous at that time , which , if some person go out of the roome , or winke , is not so . the law it sel●…e , which is given us as a light , that we might not stumble , and by which we see , not what is evill naturally ( for that we see naturally , and that was so even , to us , before the law declared it ) but what would bee evill ( that is produce evill effects , ) if we did it at that time , and so circumstanced , is not absolutely good , but in such measure , and in such respects , as that which it forbids is evill . and therefore m picus comparing the law , to the firmament , ( as moses accepts the word ) as he observes , that the second day , when god made the firmament , he did not say , that it was good , as he did of every other days work ; and yet it was not evill , ( for then saith picus , it could not have received the sunne , as if it had beene good , it had not needed it . ) so he reprehends the manichees , for saying that the law was evill , yet he sticks to that of n ezechiel , that it was not good . that evill therefore which by this place of s. paul is forbidden , is either acts , of infidelity , which no dispensation can deliver from the reach of the law , or els , such acts as being by our nature , and reason , and approbation of nations reputed evill , or declared by law or custome to be such , because of there ordinary evill effects , doe cast a guiltines upon the doer , ordinarily , and for the most part , and ever except his case be exempt and priviledged . this moved chrysostome , ( whom i cited before ) to think a●…ly , and a consent to adulttery , not evill in sarah : and this rectified s. augustines squeamishnes so farre , as to leave us at liberty , to think what we would of that wifes act , which to pay her husbands debt , let out her self one night . for if any of these things had been once evill naturally , they could never recover of that sicknesse ; but ( as i insinuated before ) as those things which we call miracles , were written in the history of gods purpose , as exactly , and were as certainly to come to passe , as the rising and setting of the sunne , and as naturally , in 〈◊〉 compagine naturae , ( for there is no interlining in that book of god : ) so in that his eternall register where he foresees all our acts , he hath preserued and defended , from that ordinary corruption of evill purpose , of inexcusable ignorance , of scandall , and of such other inquinations of indifferent things , ( as he is said to have done our b. lady from originall sinne in her inanimation , ) some of those acts of ours , which to those who do●… not studiously distinguish circumstances , or see not the doers conscience , and testimony of gods spirit , may at the first tast have some of the brachishnes of sin . such was o moses killing of the egyptians ; for which there appears no especiall calling from god. but because this falls not often : s. paul would not embolden us , to do any of those things which are customarily reputed evill . but if others be delighted with the more ordinary interpretation of this place , that it speaks of all that which we call sinne , i will not refute that interpretation , so they make not the apostles rule , ( though in this place this be not given properly and exactly for a rule ; ) more strickt than the morall praecepts of the decalogue it self , in which , as in all rules there are naturally included and incorporated some exceptions , which if they allow in this , they are still at the beginning ; for this case may fall within those exceptions . otherwise , that the generall application of this rule , is not proper , as by infinite other places , so it appears evidently by that in p bellarmine , where he says , that by reason of this rule , a man may not with neglecting a poore neighbour , adorne a church ; yet there are a great many cases , wherein we may neglect this poore neighbour ; and therefore that is not naturally evill . and certainly whosoever is delighted with such arguments , and such an application of this text , would not only have objected this rule to lot , when he offered his daughters , ( for there it might have colour ) but would have joyned with iudas , when the woman anointed christ ; and have told her , that allthough the office which shee did were good , yet the wast which shee made first , was evill , and against this rule . sect . iiii. the same apostle doth in divers other places use this phrase , that we are the temples of the holy ghost ; and from thence is argued , that it is an unlawfull sacriledge to demolish or to deface those temples . but wee are so the temples of god , as we are his images ; that is , by his residing in our hearts . and who may doubt , but that the blessed soules of the departed , are still his temples , and images : even amongst heathens , those temples which were consecrated to their gods , might in cases of publique good or harme , be demolished , and yet the ground remaine sacred . and in the two first places , is one●… a dehortation from polluting our hearts , which are gods temples , with idolatry , o●… other sinne . in the other place he calles our materiall body , the temple : and he makes it to us an argument that we should flye from fornication , because therein wee trespas against our owne body . and so here arises a double argument , that we may not doe injurie to our owne body , neither as it is ours , nor as it is gods. in the first of these then , he sayes , [ a fornicator sinnes against , his body ; ] for as hee sayd two verses before , [ hee makes himselfe one body with an harlot , ] and so hee diminishes the dignity of his owne person . but is it so , in our case ? when he withdrawes and purges it from all corruptions , and delivers it from all the inquinations , and venime , and maligne machinations of his , and gods adversaries , and prepares it by gods insinuation and concurrence , to that glory , which without death , cannot bee attained . is it a lesse dignitie , that himselfe bee the priest of god , and that himselfe be the sacrifice of god , then that he be the temple ? but sayes paul , [ a your body is the temple of god , and you are not your owne . ] but saies calvine here , you are not so your owne , that you may live at your owne will , or abuse your body with pollutions and uncleannesse . our body is so much ●…r owne , as we may use it to gods glory , a●… it is so little our owne , as when hee is pleased to have in , we doe well in resigning it to him , by what officer soever he accept it , whether by angell , sicknesse , persecutron , magistrate , or our selves . onely bee carefull of this last lesson , in which hee amasses and gathers all his former doctrine , [ b glorifte god in your body , and in your spirit , for they are his . ] sect . v. the place of the ephesians hath some assinity with this ; which is , [ but let us follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in love , and in all things grow up into him , which is the head , that is christ , till we are all met together , unto a perfect man. ] by which wee receive the honour to be one body with christ our head ; which is a after more expressely declared . [ we are members of his body , of his flesh , and of his bone . ] and therefore , they say , that to withdraw our selves , which are limmes of him , is not onely homicide of our selves , who cannot live without him , but a paricide towards him , who is our common father . but as in fencing , passion layes a man as open , as unskilfulnesse , and a troubled desire to hitt , makes one not onely misse , but receive a wound ; so out of an inordinate fervour , to strike home , hee which alledgeth this place , over-reacheth to his owne danger ; for onely this is taught herein , that all our growth and vegetation : flowes from our head , christ. and that he hath chosen to himselfe for the perfection of his body , limmes proportionall thereunto , and that , as a soule through all the body , so this care must live , and dwell in every part , that it be ever ready to doe his proper function , and also to succour those other parts , for whose reliefe or sustentation it is framed , and planted in the body . so that herein there is no litterall construction to be admitted , as though the body of christ could be imperfited , by the removing of any man. for , as from a tree , some leaves passe their naturall course and season , and fall againe being withered by age , and some fruits are gathered unripe , and some ripe , and some branches which in a storme fall off , are carryed to the fire ; so in this body of christ , the church , ( i meane that which is visible ) all these are also fulfilled and performed , and yet the body suffers no maims , much lesse the head any detriment . this place therefore is so farre from giving encouragement to any particular man to be carefull of his owne well being , as the expositors ( of what perswasion soever in controverted points ) accept from hence an argument , that for the establishing , and sustentation of the whole body , a man is bound to depart with all respects to himselfe , and give his life to strengthen them which are weake . and this place , as a common conduit head hath affoorded justification for martyrdomes , for pestilent visitations , and for all those desertions of our selves , and of our naturall right of preserving our selves , which wee had occasion to insist upon before . sect . vi. as therefore that construction doth well consist with those words , so doth it also with the words in the next chapter , [ no man ever hated his owne flesh , but nourished it , &c. ] of which hate , because we are to speake when wee come to christs commandement of hating our life , we will here onely say , with a marlorate upon this place , [ he hates not his flesh , who hates the desires thereof , and would subject it to the spirit : no more then a goldsmith hates that gold , which hee casts into a furnace to purifie , and reduce to a better fashion . ] and , because out of the armory of scripture i have not found that they take any better weapons , nor any more , we may here end this distinction . distinction iv. sect . 1. in the next our busines is , to try of what force and proofe their armes are against their adversaries forces . of which we shall oppose two sorts ; the first naturall and assured subjects , which are , reasons arising naturally from places of scripture , and these , in this distinction ; the other , examples , as auxiliaries . for though we rely not upon them , yet we have this advantage in that kind , that our aduersaries can make no use , nor profit of examples . and therefore that answer which both peter martyr , and lavater from him make , that we must not live by examples , and that if examples proved any thing they had the stronger side , ( that is , there have beene more men which have not killed themselves , then which have , ) may well seeme from p●…rem pro●…inesse , and lazinesse , and impossibillity of better defence , to have too much allay , to be currant . to prepare us therefore to a right understanding , and application of these places of scripture , we must arrest awhile vpon the nature , and degrees , and effects of charity ; the mother , and forme of all vertue ; which shall not onely lead us to heaven , ( for faith opens us the doore ) but shall continue with us when we are there , when both faith , and hope , are spent and uselesse . we shall no where find a better pourtrait of charity , then that which s. augustine hath drawne : she loves not that which should not be loved ; she neglects not that which should be loved ; she bestows not more love upon that , which deserves lesse ; nor doth she equally love more and lesse worthines ; nor upon equall worthines , bestow more and lesse love . a to this charity the same blessed and happy father , proportions this growth . [ inchoated , increased , growne great , and perfected , and this last is , saith he ; when in respect of it , we contemne this life ] and yet he acknowledgeth a higher charity then this . for b p. lombard allowing charity this growth , [ beginning , proficient , perfect , more , and most perfect . ] he cites c s. augustine who calls [ that perfect charity to be readie to dy for another . ] but when he comes to that , then which none can be greater , he says then , the apostle came to d cupto dissolvi . for as [ e one may love god , with all his heart , and yet he may grow in that , and love god more with all his heart , for f the first was commanded in the law , and yet g counsail of perfection was given to him , who said that he had fullfilled the first commandement , ] so as s. augustine found a degree above that charity , which made a man paratum ponere which is cupere , so there is a degree above that , which is to doe it . this is that vertue , by which h martyrdome , which is not such of it self , becomes an act of highest perfection . and this is that vertue , which i assureth any suffering which proceeds from it to be infallibly accompanied with the grace of god. vpon assurednes therefore , and testimony of a rectified conscience , that we have a charitable purpose , let us consider how farre we may adventure upon authority of scripture in this matter which we have in hand . sect . 11. first therefore by the frame and working of saint pauls argument to the corinthians , [ though i give my body that i be burned , and have not love , it 〈◊〉 nothing . ] these two things appeare evidently . first , that in a generall notion and common reputation , it was esteemed a high degree of perfection to dye so , and therefore not against the law of nature . and secondly , by this exception , ( without charity ) it appeares , that with charity it might well and profitably be done . for the first , if any thinke that the apostle here takes example of an impossible thing , as when it is sayd , [ if an angel from heaven teach other doctrine , ] he will , i thinke , correct himselfe , if he consider the former verses , and the apostles progresse in his argument ; wherein to dignifie charity , the most that hee can , hee undervalues all other gifts , which were there ambitiously affected . for eloquence he sayes , it is nothing to have all languages , no not of angels ; which is not put literally , for they have none ; but to expresse a high degree of eloquence , as calvine sayes here . or , as lyra sayes , by language of angels is meant , the desire of communicating our conceptions to one another . and then he adds , that knowledge of mysteries and prophecies , is also nothing ; which was also much affected . and for miraculous faith , it is also nothing . for the first of these guifts , doth not make a man better ; for balams asse could speake , and was still an asse . and the second judas had , and the pharisees . and the third is so small a matter , that as much as a graine of musterseed is enough to remove mountaines . all these therefore were faisable things , and were sometimes done . so also , after he had passed through the gifts of knowledge , and gifts of utterance , hee presents the gifts of working in the same manner ; and therefore , as he sayes , if i feed the poore with all my goods , ( which he presents as a harder thing then either of the other , ( for in the other god gives me , but here i give other ) yet possible to be done . ) so he presents the last , if i give my body , as the hardest of all , and y●…t , as all the rest , sometimes to be done . that which i observed secondly to arise from this argument , was , that with charity such a death might be acc●…ptable . and though i know the donatists are said to have made this use of these words , yet , because the intent and end conditions every action , and infuses the poyson , or the nourishment which they which follow suck from thence , and we know that the donatists rigorously and tyrannously racked and detorted thus much from this place , that they might present themselves to others promiscuously to bee killed , and if that were denied to them , they might kill themselves , and them who refused it . yet , i say , i doubt not but thus much may naturally be collected from hence , that by this word , if i give my body , is insinuated somewhat more then a prompt and willing yeelding of it , when i am enforced to it , by the persecuting magistrate . and that these words will justifie the fact of the martyr nicephorus , being then in perfect charity . whose case was , that having had some enmitie with sapritius , who was brought to the place where he was to receive the bloudy crowne of martyredome , he fell downe to sapritius , and begged from him then , a pardon of all former bitternesses . but sapritius elated with the glory of martyredome , refused him ; but was presently punished ; for his faith coold , and he recanted , and lived . and nicephorus standing by , stepped into his roome , and cryed , i am also a christian , and so provoked the magistrate to execute him ; least from the faintnesse of sapritius , the cause might have received a wound , or a scorne . and this i take to bee giving of his body . of which , as there may be such necessitie for confirming of weaker christians , that a man may be bound to doe it , as in this case , is very probable . so there may bee cases in men very exemplary , and in the cunning and subtile carriage of the pesecutor , as one can no other way give his body for testimony of gods truth , to which he may then be bound , but by doing it himselfe . sect . iii. as therefore naturally and customarily men thought it good to dye so , and that such a death with charity was acceptable , so is it generally said by christ , [ that the good shepherd doth give his life for his sheepe . ] which is a justifying and approbation of our inclination thereunto . for to say , the good doe it , is to say , they which doe it are good . and as we are all sheep of one fold , so in many cases , we are all shepherds of one another , and owe one another this dutie , of giving our temporall lives , for anothers spirituall advantage ; yea , for his temporall . for a that i may abstaine from purging my selfe , when anothers crime is imputed to me , is grounded upon such another b text as this , where it is said , the greatest love , is to bestow his life for his friend . in which , and all of this kind , we must remember , that we are commanded to doe it so , as christ did it ; and how christ gave his body , we shall have another place to consider . sect . iv. hereupon because saint peters zeale so forward , and carried him so high , that hee would dye for the shepherd ; for so he saies , [ i will lay downe my life , for thy sake . ] and this , as all expositors say , was meerely and purely out of naturall affection , without examination of his owne strength to performe it ; but presently and roundly nature carryed him to that promise . and upon a more deliberate and orderly resolution , saint paul witnesseth of himselfe such a willingnesse to dye for his brethren , [ i will be gladly bes●…ed for your s●…es . ] sect . v. a christian nature rests not in knowing thus much , that we may doe it , that charitie makes it good , that the good doe it , and that wee must alwaies promise , that is , encline to doe it , and doe something towards it , but will have the perfect fulnesse of doing it in the resolution and doctrine , and example of our blessed saviour , who saies , de facto , [ i lay down my life for my sheepe . ] and saith m●…lus , hee useth the present word , because hee was ready to doe it : and as a paul and 〈◊〉 , men yet alive ; are said to have laid downe their lives for christ. ] but i rather thinke , ( because exposing to danger , is not properly call'd a dying , ) that christ said this now , because his passion was begun ; for all his conversations here were degrees of exinanition . to expresse the abund●… and overflowing charitie of our saviour , all words are defective ; for if we could expresse all which he did , that came not neere to that which he would doe , if need were . it is observed by b one , i ( confesse , too credulous an authour , but yet one that administers good and wholesome incitements to devotion , ) that christ going to emaus spake of his passion so sleightly , as though he had in three dayes forgot all that he had suffered for us . and that christ in an apparition to saint charles , sayes , that he would be content to dy againe , if need were . yea , to c saint brigit he said , [ that for any one soule he would suffer as much in every limme , as he had suffered for all the world in his whole body . ] and d this is noted for an extreame high degree of charity , out of ans●…lme , that his b. mother said , [ rather then he should not have been crucified , shee would have done it with her owne hands . and certainly his charity was not inferiour to hers ; he did as much as any could be willing to doe . and therefore , as himself said , [ no man can take away my soule ] and [ i have power to lay it down ; ] so without doubt , no man did take it away , nor was there any other then his own will , the cause of his dying at that time ; many martyrs having hanged upon crosses many days alive : and the theeves were yet alive ; and therefore e pilate wondred to heare that christ was dead . [ his soule , saith f s●… aug. did not leave his body constrained , but because he would , and when he would , and how he would . ] of which g s. thomas produces this symptome , that he had yet his bodies nature in her full strength , because at the last moment he was able to cry with a loud voice . and h marlorate gathers it upon this , that whereas our heads decline after our death by the slacknesse of the sinews and muscles , christ did first of himself bow downe his head , and then give up the ghost . so , though it be truly said i [ after they have scourged him , they will put him to death , ] yet it is said so , because malitiously and purposely to kill him they inflicted those paines upon him ; which would in time have killed him , but yet nothing which they had done occasioned his death so soone . and therefore k s. thomas , a man neither of unholy thoughts , nor of bold or irreligious or scandalous phrase or elocution , ( yet i adventure not so farre in his behalfe as l sylvester doth , [ that it is impossible that hee should have spoken any thing against faith or good manners , ] forbeares not to say , [ that christ was ●…so much the cause of his death , as he is of his wetting , which might and would not shut the windowe , when the raine beats in . ] this actuall emission of his soule , which is death , and which was his own act , and before his naturall time , m ( which his best beloved apostle could imitate , who also died when he would , and went into his grave , and there gave up the ghost , and buried himselfe , which is reported but of very ( n ) few others , and by no very credible authors , ) we find thus celebrated , ( o ) that that is a brave death , which is accepted unconstrained ; and that it is an heroique act of fortitude , if a man when an urgent occasion is presented , expose himselfe to a certaine and assured death , as he did . and it is there said , that christ did so , as saul did , who thought it foule , and dishonourable to dye by the hand of an enemy . and that apollonia , and others who prevented the fury of executioners , and cast themselves into the fire , did therein immitate this act of our saviour , of giving up his soule , before hee was constrained to do it . so that if the act of our blessed saviour , in whom there was no more required for death , but that he should wil that his soule should goe out , were the same as sauls , and these martyrs actuall furtherance , which could not dye without that , then wee are taught that all those places , of giving up our bodies to death , and of laying downe the soule , signifie more then a yeelding to death when it comes . sect . vi. and to my understanding there is a further degree of alacrity , and propensenesse to such a death , expressed in that phrase of john , [ hee that hateth his life in this world , shall keepe it unto life eternall . and in that of luke , [ except he hate his owne life , he cannot be my disciple . ] such a lothnesse to live is that which is spoken of in the hebrews , a [ some were rack'd , and would not bee delivered , that they might receive a better resurrection . ] this place b calvine interprets of a readinesse to dye , and expresses it elegantly , to carrie our life in our hands , offering it to god for a sacrifice . and this c the jesuits in their rule extend thus farre , [ let every one thinke that this was said directly to him , hate thy life . ] and they who in the other place , accept this phrase , no man hateth his owne flesh , to yeeld an argument against selfe-homicide in any case , must also allow that the same hate being commanded here , authorises that act in some case . and saint augustine apprehending the strength of this place , denies that by the authoritie of it , the donatists can justifie their selfe-homicide when they list to dye , but yet in these cases which are exempt from his rules , this place may encourage a man n●…t to neglect the honour of god , onely upon this reason , that no body else will take his life . sect . vii . and therefore the holy ghost proceeds more directly in the first epistle of saint iohn , and shews us a necessary duty , [ because he laid 〈◊〉 his life for us , therefore we ought to lay downe our lives for our brethren . ] all these places work us to a true understanding of charity , and to a contempt of this life , in respect of it . and as these informe us how ready we must be , so all those places which direct us by the example of christ , to doe it as he did , shew , that in cases when our lives must be given , we neede not ever attend extrinsique force of others , but as he did in perfect charity , so we in such degrees of it , as this life , and our nature are capable of , must dy by our owne will , rather then his glory be neglected , whensoever , a as paul saith , christ may be magnified in our bodies , or the spirituall good of such another as wee are bound to advance , doth importune it . sect . viii . to which readines of dying for his bretheren , saint paul had so accustomed himself , and made it his nature , that but for his generall resolution of doing that ever which should promove their happines , he could scarce have obtain'd of himself leave to live . for , at first he says , he knew not which to wish , life or , death ; ( and therefore generally without some circumstance incline or avert us , they are equall to our nature . ) then after much perplexity , he was resolved , and desired to be loose , and to be with christ ; ( therefore a holy man may wish it . ) but yet he corrected that againe , because saith he , [ to abide in the flesh , is more needfull for you . ] and therefore charity must be the rule of our wishes , and actions in this point . sect . ix . there is another place to the galatians , which though it reach not to death , yet it proves that holy men may be ready to expresse their loves to another , by violence to themselves . for he saith , [ if it had bene possible , you would have plucked out your own eies , and given me : ] . and calvin saith , [ this was more then vitam profundere . ] and this readines saint paul reprehends not in them . sect . x. but of the highest degrees of compassionate charity for others , is that of the apostle , in contemplation of the jewes dereliction . [ i would wish my selfe to be seperated from christ , for my brethren . the bitternesse of which anathema , himself teaches us to understand , when in a another place , he wishes the same , [ to those which love not jesus christ. and this fearefull wish which charitie excused in him , was utter damnation , as all expositors say . and though i beleeve with cal●in● , that at this time , in a zealous fury he remembred not deliberately his own election , and therefore cannot in that respect , be said to have resisted the will of god , yet it remaines , as an argument to us , that charitie will recompence , and justifie many excesses , which seeme unnaturall , and irregular , and enormous transportations . sect . xi . as in this apostle of the gentiles , so in the law-giver of the jewes , the like compassion wrought the like effect ; and more . for moses●…sted ●…sted not in wishing , but face to face argued with god , [ if thou pardon them , thy mercie shall appeare , but if then will not , i pray thee blot my name 〈◊〉 of the booke which thou hast written ] i know , that many out of a reasonable collection , that it became moses to bee reposed , and dispassioned , and of ordinare affection in his conversation with god , are of op●…on , that he strayed no further in this wish , and imprecation , then to be content that his name should bee blotted out of the scriptures , and so to lose the honour of being known to posterity for a remarkable instrument of gods power and mercie . but , since a naturall infirmity could worke so much upon christ , in whom there may be suspected no inordinatenesse of affections , as to divert him a little , and make him slip a faint wish of escaping the cup ; why might not a brave and noble zeale , exalt moses so much , as to desire to restore such a nation to the love of god , by his owne destruction . for , as certainely the first of these was without sinne , so the other might be , out of an habituall assurednesse of his salvation , as a paulinus sayes , to amandus , [ thou maist bee bold in thy prayers to god for mee , to say , forgive him , or blot out me , for thou canst not bee blottedout ; instum delere non potest iustitia . ] and thus retaining ever in our minds , that our example is christ , and that he dyed not constrained , it shall suffice to have learned by these places , that in charitie men may dye so , and have done , and ought to doe . the last thing which remaines yet , is to consider the examples reported in the scriptures : which cannot possesse us long , because a few rules will include many examples ; and those few rules which are applyable to these histories , have been often iterated already ; and , for other rules , which may enlighten and governe us in all occurrences , for many reasons i respite to a maturer deliberation and discourse . distinct. v. sect . i. as when i entred into the examination of places of scriptures , it seemed to me to have some weight , that in all the judiciall and ceremoniall law , there was no abomination of selfe-homicide . so doth it , that in relating the histories of them who killed themselves , the phrase of scripture never diminishes them by any aspersion or or imputation for that fact , if they were otherwise vertuous , nor aggravates thereby their former wickednesse , if they were wicked . formy part , i am content to submit my self to that rule , which is delivered from a iraeneus , [ that those things which the scripture doth not reprehend , but simply lay downe , it becomes not us to accuse ; nor to make our selves more diligent then god ; but if any thing seeme to us irregular , our endeavour must be , to serch out the type , and signification thereof . ] neither shall i , for all this , be in danger of b bezaes answer to that argument of ochius , that though some of the patriarches lived unreprehended in polygamie , it concluded nothing , because ( saith beza ) the silence of scripture in c jacobs incest , and in d lots , and in e davids unjust judgement ; for siba doth not deliver them from guiltinesse and transgression therein . for our case differs from all others , both because this act is not from any place of the law evicted to be sinne . and because here is a concurrence of examples , of this fact without any reprehension : so that that answere is so farre short from reaching us , that it reached not home to that argument of ochius against which it was opposed . and if in debating these examples , it be found , that some very reverend authors , have concluded impenitence , and consequently utter desertion on gods part , and so eternall perishing ; the circumstances as they appeared to him then , may have made his judgement just : but for any other thereupon to apply that case to others , will not be safe . for f [ though a iudge may in causa versanti interpret the law , that interpretation makes not law. ] sect . ii. as therfore in the former distinctions wee spoke of some approaches to the act of self-killing , so will wee in this pause a very little upon two such steps . a the first shal be of the prophet in the book of kings , [ who bad a stranger strike him , and because he would not , pronounc'd a heavy judgement upon him , which was presently excecuted . and then he importuned another to doe it , who did it throughly , for he wounded him with the stroake . ] this was , to common understanding an unnaturall thing , that so holy a man should make such meanes to have his body violated , and so it seems the first apprehended it , however it pleased god to enlighten the second . this i produce not as though the prophet inclind to it of his owne disposition , for it is expressely in the text , that god commanded him to doe it . but because this is the only place in all the scriptures , where those which offer , or desirously admit violence to their owne bodies , are said to have done it , by the expresse motion of god , i collect from it , that it is not without some boldness , if others affirme without authority of the text , that the death of samson and others , had the same foundation , when it appeares by this , that god when he would have it understood so , is pleased to deliver it plainly and expressely . sect . iii. the next before we come to those who entirely killed themselves , is io●…as , who by often wishing his own death , and moving the ma●…ers to cast him out into the sea , made many steps towards the very act . i know that it is everie where said , that those words , a [ take me●… , and cast me into the sea , ] proceeded from a prophetique spirit ; and b st. hierome saith [ that in this prophetique spirit , he foresaw that the ninivites would repent , and so his preaching would be discredited . ] but if this be so , must he not also in the same prophetique spirit see , that their repentance must be occasioned by his going thither and preaching there ? and if this perswading to his destruction , being now innocent in their understanding ; for they prayed , [ lay not innocent bloud upon us . ] were from divine motion , shall wee dare to impute also to like motions and spirit , his angry importuning of death ? [ take i beseech thee , my life from me , for it is better for me , to dye then to live . ] and after he wished from his heart to dye , and said , [ i doe well to be angry unto the death . ] c st. hierome calles him sanctum ionam ; and when lyra observes that he had not done so , to any of the other prophets , he concludes , that this testimony needed most in ionas , who by his many reluctations against gods will , might else fall into some suspition of eternall perishing . which since we must be f●…r from fearing in so eminent and exemplary a type of christ , and yet have no ground to admit any such particular impulsion of gods spirit , as hierome and lyra pronounce him holy , for all these reluctations ; so may we esteeme him advised , and ordinate , and rectified , for all these approches , which in wishing and consenting he made to his owne death . sect . iv. of those which in the scriptures are registred to have killed themselves , samson is the first . a man so exemplar , that not onely the times before him had him in prophecy , a ( for of him it is said , ) [ dan shall judge his people , ] and the times after him more consummately in christ , of whom he was a figure , but even in his own time , other nations may seeme to have had some type , or copy of him , in hercules . his fact of selfe-killing is celebrated by the church to everlasting memory , as the act of a martyr ; and as very many others in their homilies and expositions . so that renowned b paulinus sayes , [ god send me the death of sampson , and sampsons blindnesse , that i may live to god , and looke to god. ] and this generall applause and concurrence in the praise of the fact , hath made many think , or at least write , that he purposed not to kill himselfe : being loath either to depart from their opinion who extoll him , or to admit any thing which may countenance that manner of dying . of which perswasion c two very learned men labour to seeme to be . but , besides that such an exposing of himselfe to unevitable danger , is the same fault as selfe-homicide , when there is any fault in it , the very text is against them ; for samson dyed with these words in his mouth , d [ let mee lose my life with the philistims . ] and though sometimes these authors adde , that hee intended not his owne death principally , but accidentally ( as calvine also sayes , that saint paul did not desire death for deaths sake , but to be with christ , ) this can remove no man from our side , for wee say the same , that this may be done onely , when the honour of god may bee promoved by that way , and no other . therefore to justifie this fact in samson , e saint augustine equally zealous of samsons honour , and his own conscience , builds still upon his old foundation , [ that this was by the speciall inspiration from god. ] which , because it appeares not in the history , nor lyes in proofe , may with the same easinesse be refused , as it is presented . to give strength to this opinion of augustine , f our countreyman sayr presents one reason preceding the fact , and g pedraca the spaniard , another subsequent . the first is that hee prepared himselfe to it by prayer . but in this prayer , you may observe much humanity , and weakenesse and selfe-respect . [ o lord , saith he , i beseech thee , strenghthen me at this time onely , that i may be ave●…d of the philistims for my two eyes . the second reason is , that because hee effected that which he desired , it is to be presumed , that god restored him his strength to that end , which he asked it . but , besides that in the text it appeares , that h his haire before that time , was begunne to be growne out againe , and so his strength somewhat renewed ; doth this prove any impulsion , and incitement , and prevention of the holy ghost , to that particular act , or rather only an habituall accompanying and awaking him , to such actions by which god might be honoured and glorified , whensoever any occasion should be presented ? when therefore he felt his strength in part refreshed , and had by prayer intreated the perfecting thereof , seeing they tooke continuall occasion from his dejection to ●…orne and reproach his god , burning with an equall fervour to revenge their double fault , and to remove the wretched occasion thereof , he had i as a very subtile author sayes , the same reason to kill himselfe , which hee had to kill them , and the same authoritie , and the same priviledge , and safeguard from sinne . and he dyed , as the same man sayes , with the same zeale as christ , unconstrained ; for k in this manner of dying , as much as in any thing els , he was a type of christ. sect . v. the next example is saul . and whether he did perfect and consummat the act of killing himself , or the amalekite contribute his help , it makes no difference to our purpose ; but that the latter was true , may wel enough consist with the relation of the history in the a first place , and it appeares to be the more likely and probable out of the b second : and by c iosephus it is absolutely so delivered ; and the d scholastique history saith also , that saul was too weake to force the sword through his body . two things use to be disputed of saul . whether hee were saved or no ; and whether if hee perished , it was for impenitence testified or presumed by this act of his . the iewes are generally indulgent to him : and the christians generally severe upon this reason , that it is said of him , e [ saul dyed for his transgressions against the lord , and his word , and asking counsaile of a witch . ] but this doth not necessarily conclude an impenitence , or a second death . for the iews say , that beleeving the sentence of samuel in the apparitions , and accepting that decree as from god , he repented his formet life , and then presented and delivered up himselfe and his sonnes , conformably to the revealed will of god , there in the field to be sacrificed to him : understanding samuells words you shall be with me , to be spoken , not generally of the state of the dead , but of the state of the just , because both samuel himself was so , and so was jonathan , whose condition in this promise of being with samuel , was the same as his fathers . and therefore saith lyra , [ all iews and some christians agree , that least by his reproach dishonour might redound upon god , a good and zealous man may kill himself , as samson did , and the virgins . ] and he addeth , [ if other reasons were not sufficient to excuse saul , this also might justly be applied to him , that he did it by divine instinct . ] out of which i observe these two things , that he presumes there are other reasons sufficient in some cases , whether they were in sauls case or no. and then the reason upon which lyra●… presumes he dyed well , [ because the contrary is not declared in scriptures , nor determined by the church . ] and saul hath a good testimony of sanctity in this act , from f mallonius , [ that as christ died when he would , so did saul , thinking it dishonourable to dye by the hand of his , and gods enemies . ] that argument which burgensis bringeth to the contrary , suffereth more force and violence in being brought in , then it giveth strength to his opinion . it is , [ that if the fact were justifiable in saul , it had beene so too in the amalekite , if his profession to david were true , that he had killed saul , and consequently david unjust in that execution . ] but , besides that , that amalekite had no conscience , nor inward knowledge of sauls just reasons , nor other warrant but his commandement , which might , and was to him likely to proceed from sauls infirmities , it might well appeare to david , by his comming to tell him the newes , that he had humane respects in doing it , and a purpose onely to deserve well of david . and when both judge and prisoner are innocent , oft times the executioner may be a murtherer . and such humane respects of wearinesse and despaire , and shame , and feare , and fidelity to his master , and amazement , and such , stand in the way betweene sauls armour-bearer and all excuses , to our understandings . for though the phrase of scripture impute nothing to him for that fact of killing himselfe , yet i have found none that offer any particular excuse in his defence . sect . vi. neither doe i finde any thing to excuse achitophels death ; though ( as i said of the other ) the history doe not accuse that particular fact . the text calles his counsaile good , and it seems he was not transported with passion , because he set his house in order ; and he was buried in his fathers grave , when absalou slaine by anothers hand was cast into a pit . but if it were upon a meere dispute of his owne disgrace , or feare of ill successe , or upon any selfe respect , without proposing gods glorie , and he repented not , he perished . sect . vii . of judas , the most sinnefull instrument of the most mercifull worke , the common , ( though not generall ) opinion is , that he killed himselfe ; but whether by hanging , or no , is more controverted . for from the words in the a acts , [ that he threw himselfe downe headlong , and burst asunder , and his bowels gushed out . ] b euthymius thinks , that he was rescued whilst he hanged , and carryed away , and that after that hee killed himselfe by throwing himselfe headlong . and c brentius leaves that indifferent to us , to thinke what we will thereof . but it seemes by d oecumenius , that he did not only overlive this hanging , but that he grew to so enormous a bignesse , and burden to himselfe , that he was not able to withdraw himselfe out of a coaches way , but had his guts crushed out so ; which he receives from papias the disciple to saint iohn , whose times cannot be thought ignorant , or incurious of iudas history . and it is there said further , that by others it was said , that being swolne to that vastnesse , and corrupted with vermine , hee laid himselfe down upon his field , and there his guts broke out . and this e theophilact followes . and it falls out very often , that some one father , of strong reputation and authority in his time , doth snatch and swallow some probable interpretation of scripture : and then digesting it into his homilies , and applying it in dehortations , and encouragements , as the occasions and diseases of his auditory , or his age require , and imagining thereupon delightfull and figurative insinuations , and setting it to the musique of his stile , ( as every man which is accustomed to these meditations , shall often finde in himselfe such a spirituall wantonnesse , and devout straying into such delicacies , ) that sense which was but probable , growes necessary , and those who succeed , had rather enjoy his wit , then vexe their owne ; as often times we are loath to change or leave off a counterfeit stone , by reason of the well setting thereof . by this meanes , i thinke , it became so generally to be beleeved , that the fruit which eve eat , was an apple ; and that lots wife was turned to a pillar of salt ; and that absalon was hanged by the haire of the head ; and that iephthe killed his daughter ; and many other such , which grew currant , not from an evidence in the text , but because such an acceptation , was most usefull , and applyable . of this number , iudas case might be . but if it were not , that act of killing himselfe , is not added to his faults in any place of scriptures ; no not in those f two psalmes of particular accusations , and bitter imprecations against him , as they are ordinarily taken to be prophetically purposed and directed . and even of this man , whose sinne , if any can exceed mercy , was such , origen durst hope , not out of his erronious compassion , and sinnefull charity , by which he thinks that even the devill shall be saved , but out of iudas repentance . he sayes , g [ the devill led him to the sinne , and then induced him to that sorrowfulnesse which swallowed him . ] but speaking of his repentance , he sayes , [ h those words , when iudas saw that he was condemned , belong to judas himselfe , for christ was not then condemned . and upon this conscience and consideration , began his repentance . [ for , it may be , saith origen , that satan which had entred into him , staid with him till christ was betray'd , and then left him , and thereupon repentance followed . ] and perchance , sayes he , he went to prevent , and goe before his master , who was to dye , and so to meet him with his naked soule , that he might gaine mercy by his confession and prayers . ] and i calvine , ( though his purpose be , to enervate and maime , ( or at least , declare it to be so defective , ) that repentance which is admitted for sufficient in the romane church , sayes that [ in iudas there was perfect contrition of heart , confession of the mouth , and satisfaction for the money . ] but k petilian , against whom saint augustine writes , proceeded further in justification of iudas last act , then any . for hee said , [ that in suffering death when hee repented , and so was a confessor , hee became a martyr . ] which opinion being pronounced singularly and undefensibly ; l saint augustine answers as choleriquely , [ laqueum talibus reliquit . ] yet saint augustine himselfe confesseth , that an innocent man , should more have sinned in such an act , then iudas did , because in his execution there were some degrees of justice . but of his actuall impenitence i purposed not to speake , nor of his repentance , but onely to observe to you , that this last fact is not imputed to him , nor repentance said to be precluded thereby . sect . viii . for the passive action of eleazar , none denies , but that that endangering of himselfe , was an act of vertue : yet it was a forsaking and exposing himselfe to certaine destruction . for every elephant had thirty two men upon him : and was guarded with one thousand foot , and five hundred horse : and this which he slew , was in his opinion , the kings elephant , and therefore the better provided . howsoever hee might hope to escape before the very act of killing the elephant , by creeping under it , was a direct killing of himselfe , as expressely as samson pulling down the house . and the reasons of this action , are rendered in the text to have been , to deliver his people , and to get a perpetuall name . and this fact doth saint ambrose extoll by many glorious circumstances ; as [ that hee flung away his target , which might have sheltred him , that despising death , he forced into the midst of the army , and inclusus ruin●… , magis quam oppressus , suo est sepultus triumpho ; and that by death he begot peace , as the heire of his valour . ] and as very many schoolemen have intended and exercised their wits in the praise of this action , so a cajetan gives such a reason thereof , as is applyable to very many selfe-homicides . [ that to expose our selves to certaine death , if our first end be not our owne death , but common good , it is lawfull . for , saith hee , our actions which bee morally good or bad , must bee judged to bee such , by the first reason which moves them ; not by any accident , or concomitance , accompanying , or succeding them , though necessarily . ] and this resolution of cajetan , will include many cases , and instances , which are headlongly by intemperate censures condemned . sect . ix . the fall of rasis , which is the last example , is thus reported . [ hee was besieged and fired ; willing to dye manfully , and escape repr●… , unworthy of his house , hee fell upon his sword ; for haste , hee mist his stroke , and threw himselfe from the castle wall ; yet rose up againe , and ranne to a high rocke , tooke out his owne bowells , and threw them among the people , calling upon the lord of life and spirit , and so died . ] which act the text accuseth not ; nor doth st. a thomas accuse it of any thing else , but that it was cowardlinesse . which also b aristotle imputes to this manner of dying , as wee said c before . but either he spoke at that time , serviceably and advantagiously to the point which hee had then in hand ; or else hee spoke , ut plurimum , because for the most part infirmities provoke men to this act . for d s. augustine who argues as earnestly as aristotle , that this is not greatnesse of minde , confesseth yet , that in cleombrotus it was : who onely upon reading plato his phoedo , killed himselfe ; for , saith augustine : [ when no calamitie urged him , no crime , either true or imputed , nothing but greatnesse of minde moved him , to apprehend death , and to breake the sweet bands of this life . ] and though he adde , [ that it was done rather magnè then benè ; ] yet by this , that which wee seeke now is in confession , that sometimes there is in this act , greatnesse and courage . which upon the same reason which moved aristotle , and all the rest , which is , to quench in men their naturall love to it , he is loth to affoord in too many cases . for hee e sayes [ that , except lucrece , it is not easie to finde any example worth the prescribing , or imitating , but cato : not because hee onely did it , but because being reputed learned and honest , men might justly thinke , that that was well done , and might well bee done againe , which hee did . ] yet for all this , hee is loth to ler catoes act passe with so much approbation , for hee addes , [ that yet many of his learned friends thought it a weaknesse to let him dye so . ] and this hee doth because when men have before them the precedent of a brave example , they contend no further , then what he did , not why . for it is truely said , f examples doe not stoppe , nor consist in the degree where they begunne , but grow , and no man thinkes that unworthy for him , which profiteth another . ] yet , saint augustine though upon this reason loth to give glory to many examples , allows all greatnesse and praise to regulus , g of whom we spoke before : though , to my understanding there are in it many impressions of falsehood , and of ostentation , from all which cat●…es history is delivered . and , to end this point , whether it be alwais pusillanimity , laertius says h [ that in antisthenes the philosopher , videbatur firme mollius , that lying extreame sick , and diogenes asking him , if he lacked a freind , ( meaning to kill him , ) and offering him also his dagger , to doe it himselfe , the philosopher said he desired an end of paine , but not of life . ] as therefore this fact of rasis , may have proceeded from greatnesse , so is it by lyra excused from all sin , by reasons applyable to many other . for he sayes , [ either to escape torment , by which probably a man might be seduced to idolatry , or take away occasion of making them reproach god in him , a man may kill himselfe ; for , saith hee , both these cases , ordi●…ntur in deum . ] and this i francis a victoria allowes as the more probable opinion . ] and k sotus , and l valentia , follow thomas his opinion herein ; and burgensis condemnes it upon this presumption , that hee could not doe this for love of the common good , because this could not redeeme his people , being already captive . so that his accusing him helpes us thus much , that if by his death hee could have redeemed them , hee might lawfully have done it . conclusion . and this is as farre as i allowed my discourse to progesse in this way : forbidding it earnestly all darke and dangerous secessions and divertings into points of our free-will , and of gods destiny : though allowing many ordinary contingencies , to be under our election , it may yet seem reasonable , that our maine periods , of birth , of death , and of chief alterations in this life be more immediately wrought upon by gods determination . it is usefully said , and appliable to good purpose ( though a by a wicked man , and with intention to crosse moses , ) [ that man was made of shaddow , and the devil of fire . ] for as shaddow is not darknes , but grosser light , so is mans understanding in those mysteries , not blind but clouded . and as fire doth not always give light ( for that is accidentall , and it must have ai●…e to work upon , ) but it burneth naturally , so that desire of knowledge which the devill kindles in us , ( as he doth as willingly bring bellows to inflame a heart curious of knowledge , as he doth more ashes to stupifie and bury deeper , a slumbering understanding ) doth not alwaies give us light , but it always burnes us , and imprints upon our judgment stigmaticall marks , and at last seares up our conscience . if then reasons which differ from me , and my reasons be otherwise equall , yet theirs have this disadvantage , that they fight with themselves and suffer a civill warre of contradiction . for many of their reasons incline us to a love of this life , and a ho●…or of death , and yet they say often , that wee are too much addicted to that naturally . but it is well noted by b al●…s , ( and i thinke from saint a●…stine ) [ that though there bee foure things which wee must love , yet there is no precept given upon any more then two , god and our neighbour . so that the other which concerne our selves , may be pretermitted in some occasions . but because of the benefits of death , enough hath beene occasionally intersertted before , having presented c cyprians encouragement to it , who out of a contemplation that the whole frame of the world decayed and languished , cries to us , [ nutant parietes , the walls and the roofe shake , and would'st not thou goe out ? thou art tyred in a pilgrimage , and wouldst thou not goe home ? ] i will end with applying d ausonius thanks to the emperour , to death , which deserveth it better , [ thou providest that thy benefits , and the good which thou bringest shall not be transitory ; and that the ills from which thou deliverest us , shall never returne . ] since therefore because death hath a little bitternes , but medicinall , and a little allay , but to make it of more use , they would utterly recline & avert our nature from it , ( as e paracelsus says , of that foule contagious disease which then had invaded mankind in a few places , and since overflown in all , that for punishment of generall licentiousnes , god first inflicted that disease , and when the disease would not reduce us , he sent a second worse affliction , which was ignorant , and torturing physitians . so i may say of this case , that in punishment of adams sinne , god cast upon us an infectious death , and since hath sent us a worse plague of men , which accompanie it with so much horrour and affrightment , that it can scarce be made wholsome and agreeable to us . that which f hippocrates admitted in cases of much profit , and small danger , they teach with too much liberty , [ that worse meat may be given to a patient , so it be pleasanter , and worse drink , so it be more acceptable . ] but though i thought it therefore needfull , to oppose this ●…efensative , as well to re-encourage men to a just contempt of this life , and to restore them to their nature , which is a desire of supreame happines in the next life by the losse of this , as also to rectify , and wash again their fame , who religiously assuring themselves that in some cases , when wee were destitute of other meanes , we might be to our selves the stewards of gods benefits , and the ministers of his mercifull iustice , had yet , being , g as ennodius says ) innocent within themselves , incurred damnum opinionis , yet ( as i said before ) i abstained purposely from extending this discourse to particular rules , or instances , both because i dare not professe my self a maister in so curious a science , and because the limits are obscure , and steepy , and slippery , and narrow , and every errour deadly , except where a competent dilligence being fore-used , a mistaking in our conscience may provide an excuse . as to cure diseases by touch , or by charme , ( both which one h excellent chirurgian , and one i excellent philosopher , are of opinion may be done , because what vertue soever the heavens infuse into anycreature , man , who is al , is capable of , and being borne when that vertue is , may receive a like impression , or may give it to a word , or character made at that instant , if he can understand the time ) though these , i say be forbidden by divers lawes , out of a just prejudice that vulgar owners of such a vertue , would mis-imploy , it , yet none mislikes that the kings of england & france , should cure one sicknesse by such meanes , nor k that the kings of spaine , should dispossess daemoniaque persons so , because kings are justly presumed to use all their power to the glory , of god ; so is it fit , that this priviledge of which we speak should be contracted and restrained . for , that is certainly true of this , which l cassianus saith of a ly , [ that it hath the nature of ellebore , wholsome in desperate diseases , but otherwise poyson . ] though i dare not averre with him , [ that we are in desperate diseases , whensoever we are in ingenti ●…ucro , aut damno , et in humilitate , ad evitandam gloriam . ] howsoeveri i●… cassianus mistake that , and we this , yet m as he , and origen , and chrysostome , and hierome , are excused for following platoes opinion , that a ly might have the nature of medicine , and be admitted in many cases , because in their time the church had not declared herself in that point , nor pronounced that a ly was naturally ill , by the same reason am i excusable in this paradox . against the reasons whereof , and against charity , if prejudice , or contempt of my weaknes , or mis-devotion have so precluded any , that they have not beene pleased to tast and digest them , i must leave them to their drowsines still , and bid them injoy the favour of that indulgent physitian , qui non concoxit , dormiat . finis . 20. sept. 1644. imprimatur io : rush worth . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a36292-e13430 1. the reason of this discourse . a epist. ante confessionem . incitements to charity towards the doer . b b. dorethcus doctrin . 6. c bosq. conc 2. d lib. de patientia . e scala paradis . grad 3. f in quaest . fuse disp . ad q. 6. g forest. de venen . not . in observat . 2. h serar . trihaeres . l. 2. c●…p . 17. i heb. 2. 17. incitements to charity toward the author . k serar . trihaeres . l. 2. cap. 17. l 10. 5. 2. m athenag . de resur . why it is not inconvenient now to handle this point . m filesacus de authorit . epis. cap. 1. 97. dissentions among schollars more and harder to end then others . o dan. 10. p humf. iesui . part . 2. ad rat . 5 q ejusd . part 1 praefat . ad com leicest . r ratio 5. n such perplexities wee ought to enclin to that side that favoureth the dead . s notae mallon . in pale●…t . sin. part . 1. cap. 2. t de pietate et ●…blilosophia . why i make it so publique . u h●…er . apol. advers . ruffin . x theodor. a niem . l. 2. ca. 37. y tessarid . 6. what reader i wish . z gen. 3. 6. et 7. a hom. de s. susanna . b ste●…ch . de valla de don. const . the reason of so many citations . c epist. tit. vesp. god punishes that sinn most which occasions most sinne in others . d paulin. ep. 4. severo . e epist. ad astyriion . notes for div a36292-e14500 a palaeotus de notbis . c. 28. 1. why wee first prove that this sinne is not irremissible . 1. three sorts of mistakers of this sinne . 1. that all desperation is not hainous ; and that this act doth not alwaies proceed from desperation . 2. it may bee without infidelitie . a tho. 22. q. 2. ar . 2. 3 when it is poena peccati it is involuntarium . b perer. exod. c. 1. dijp . 4. 4. the reason why men ordinarily aggravate it . c cau. 17. d bosquier con. 2. exod. 32. 29. 5. of the second opinion , impenitiblenesso . 6. of calvins opinion , mat. 12. 30. 7. none impeccable , nor impenitible . 1. of the third sort , and that we ought not to presume actuall impenitence in this case . a azor. mor. instit. pa. 1. l. 2. c. 16. 2. which is the safer side in doubts . b zambran . de poeniten . dub . 2. n. 39. 1. inarticulo mortis , the church interprets ever favourably . c idem de bap . dub . 8. n. 1. d ibid. n. 2. e idem praelud . 1. n. 7. f idem de poenitent . dub . 3. nu . 2. g ibidem . h dub. 7. nu . 9. i idem de unct . dub . 2. nu . 3. k sayr thesaur cas . consci . tom . 1. l. 2. c. 21. nu . 2. l alcor . azoar . 19. m stromat . l. 2 4. what true repentance is . n lib. 3. ad amandum . cp . 1. 5. witnesses which acquit , more acceptable then accusers . o dist. 81. ca. clerici . p 12. q. 1. c. duo sunt . 1. why wee wave the ordinary definition of sinne ta●…en from s. augustine , and follow that of aquinas . a lib. 2. dist. 35. 〈◊〉 . of the torturing practise of casuists . b panegyr . traian . c thesaur . cas. consc. l. 1. ca. 5. d tho. 22. q. 91. ar . 2. 3. of the eternall law of god in augustines definition against which a man may doe without sinne . e 2. s●… . 12. 14. f 22. q. 64. ar . 1. con. 4. of the denition which we follow . 1. how the law of nature , of reason , and of god , exhibited in this definition , are all one ; and how diversly accepted . a dist. 1. om●…es . 2. in some eases all these three lawes may be broke at once . b soto de teg . secr. membr . 1. q. 2. 3. revealing a secret . c de rep. l. 1. cap. 4. 4. parricide . d aelian . l. 4. cap. 1. 1. of the law , of nature ; and that against it strictly taken , either no sin , or all sinne is done . 2. to doe against nature , makes us not guilty of a greater sinne , but more inexcusable . 3. nothing so evill , that is never good . 4. no evill but disobedience . 5. lying naturally worse then selfe-homicide . a thesa●… . cas . cons. l. 7. c. 9. n. 9. b sup . 22. q. 37. ar . 2. c de teg . secr . memb . 1. q. 3. 6 fame may be neglected ; yet we are as much bound to preserve it , as life . d soto ihid . e th. 22. q. 104. ar . 4. ad 2. m. 7 god cannot command a sin , yet he can command murder . f aug. cont . faust . l. 26. ca. g th. 1. q. 105. at . 6. ad . 1. n de li. arb. l. 13. ca. 13. 8 originall sin is from nature . i 12. q. 81. ar . 4. k 3. q. 8. ar . 5. ad 7. l 1. q. 100. ar . 1. ad 3. m 12. q. 81. ar . 4. 1 that if our adversaries by law of nature meane onely sensitive nature , they say nothing , for so most vertuous actions are against nature . a tho. 12. q. 71. ar . 2. con. b c●…rbo cas. cons. to. 2. pa. 1. 6. 5. rom. 7. 23. c tho. ibid. 1 as the law of nature is recta ratio , it is jus gentium . so immolation of men and idolatry , are not against nature . a mor. inst. 〈◊〉 . 1. l. 5. cap. 1. b com. ad leg . reg. prae . c de som. sign . d pol. virg. de invent. r●…r . l. 5. cap. 8. e middendorp . de acad. l. 6. ●…x io. bormo . f casar . bell. gall. l. 6. g mat. met. praef . ad oscr. hist. 1 a reason is the forme , and so the nature of man , every sin is against nature , yea , whatsoever agrees not exactly with christian religion . a 12. q. 71. ar . 2. con. b epistola mult is ep●…ft . c 31. 33. d manual . ca. 23. nu . 50. 2. vertue produced to act , differs so from reason , as a medicine made and applyed , from a box of druggs . 1. sinnes against nature in a particular sense , are by schoolm●…n said to be unnaturall lusts ; and this . but in scriptures onely the first is so called . a mor. instit. p. 1. l. 4. cap. 1. b 22. q. 154. ar . 11. con. c rom. 1. 20. d judg. 19. 24 2. of the example of the levite in the judges . e antiq. l. 5. 〈◊〉 . 2. 1 cor. 11. 14. 3. s pauls use of the phrase law of nature in long haire . f de re milit . l. 4. c. 39. 4. vegetius use of that phrase . g picrius de barbis sacerdotum . 1. selfe-preservation is not so of particular law of nature , but that beasts naturally transgresse it , whom it binds more then us ; and we , when the reason thereof ceases in us , may transgresse it , and sometimes must . a tho. 12. q. 51. ar . 7. con. ● . things naturall to the species , are not alwaies so to the individuum b fabricius hist. cicero , ann. 30. c gen. 2. 18. 3 therefore some may abandon the world . d homil. 36. oper. imperf . in matth. e th. 12. q. 94. ar . 4. 4. first principles in naturall law are obligatory , but not deductions from thence , and the lower we descend , the weaker they are . f de privilegiis juris . l. 1. c. 8. g sylvius comment . ad leg . reg . proefat . c. 1. 5 pellicans , and bees ; by s. 〈◊〉 , kill themselves . h hea●… . 5. cap. 1. 6 the reason of almost every law is mutable . i b. dorotheus doctrinâ 12. k windeck , ●…anonum & legum consens . & dissens . ca. 12. 7 he that can declare when the reason ceases , may dispence with the law. l 25. q. 1. su●… quid●… . m tho. 22. q. 88. ar . 10. 8. how dispensations worke . n tho. 32. q. 89. ar . 9. o acacius de privilegijs l. 1. ca. 3. 9. as nothing can annull the prerogative of princes or popes , though their own act seeme to provide against it ; so no law doth so destroy mans liberty , but that he returnes to it , when the reason of the law ceases . 10. selfe-preservation being but an appetition of that which is good to us , is not violated by this act . p de resurrect . q heptapl . 10. pici. l. 7. proem . r sylvius com. ad leg . reg . praefat . l. 1. 11. liberty , which is naturally to be preserved , may be departed with . 1. that cannot be against law of nature , which men have ever affected ; if it be also , ( as this is ) against sensitive nature , and so want the alluremēts of other sins . a de subtil . lib. 5. 2. there are not so many examples of all other vertues , as of this one degree of fortitude . petr. arbiter . attil . regulus . codrus . herennius . comas . annibal . demosthenes . aristarthus . homer . othryades . democles . p●…rtia . luctati●… . declam . 17. terence . labienus . zeno. por. latro. festus . hippionas . macer . licinius . annal●…ib . 〈◊〉 charondas . 3. of the romane gladiators in great persons , and great numbers b l : 1. cap. 12. de gladiator . c idem . l. 2. cap. 3. d de bell . judai . l. 7. c. 28. 4 small perswasions drew men to it . 5 by the soldurii in france it may be gathered , that more dyed so , then naturally . e lib. 3. com . bell. gall. f tholosa . synt. lib. 14. cap. 10. n. 14. 6. wives in bengala doe so yet . 7. the samanaei which were priests in the indies used to doe it . g porphyr . de abstin . antiq . h heurnius de philosoph . barbar . l. 2. ca. 2. i panegyr . theodosio . 8. lat. pacat. expresseth this death pathetically . k matal . metel . praefat . in hist. osorij . 9. how the spaniards corrected this naturall desire in the indians . a sylvius com. ad leg . reg . c. 24. 1 after civility and christianity quen ched this naturall desire , in the place therof , there succeeded a thirst of martyrdome . 2 how leisurely the custome of killing at funerals wore out . 3 moses delivered , and the philosophers saw the state of the next life , but unperfectly . 1 that this was for the most part insinuated into men by naturall reasons , and much upon humane respects . stromat . l. 4. 2 so proceeded clement . l. cont . gnostic . 3. so did tertullian . lib. de exhort . martyrii ad fortunatum . so did cyprian . a tertul. de corona milit. b damasc. & platin. 4 externall honours to martyrs . c hadr. junius in eunapii vita 5 monopolie of martyrdom d fevardentius l. 8. c. 13. baron . martyr . cap. 0. e carbo . cas. cons. to. 2. pa. 2. c. 6. f de poeuiten . dist. 1. si qui autē . ex aug. de poenitent . 6 gods punishments up●…n their persecutors , encouraged men to martyrdome . g ad scapulam . 7. extending priviledges of martyrs to many . h aug. epist. ad hieron . 28. de nat. & orig. anim. i aph●…ris : eman . sa. verbo martyr . k tho. 22 r q. 124. ar . 4. ad quart . 8. contrary reasons cheerished this desire in them . 9 cyprian libellatici . compounders with the state. l serm●… de lapsis . m de suga . pr●…positio , 2. 10 ter●…llian condemnes flying in persecution . 11 death became to bee held necessary to make one a martyr . n hist. l. 5. 6. 2. 12. in times when they exceeded in discreet exposing themselves , they taught that martyres might be without dying . o azor. mor. inst. p. 2. l. 5. cap. 7. ad polycarp . p ad smirnen . q exed . 12. 7. r sever●… . cp . 2. s de contempt . mortis . 13 cyprian . profes . men who offered their lives before they were called . t baroni . mar. 2. ian. h. 14 enforcers of their owne martyrdome . u euseb. hist. l. 8. c. 9. x hict . l. 4. c. 14. 15 examples of inordinate affecting of martyrdome . germanus . y hist. l. 4. c. 10. meir . & iosep. z ioseph . de bel . iud. l. 7. c. 11. a ignati . epist. ad roman . 16 ignatius solicitation for it . b nicephor . l. 11. c. 21. edissenae . c speculum vinc . to. 4. l. 11. c. 40. 17 lawes forbidding more executions made to despite christians . d bod. daemon . l. 4. c. 3. ex tertulli . e alc. 72. az. f ex tert●…l . bod●… . s●…ra 18 glory in the nu●…bers of martyrs . g stecul . vin. to. 4. l. 10 c. 88. h supra . so . 66. i barom . mart. 22. iune . k homil. 27. in evangel . l martyrolog . cap. 8. 1. that heretiques seeing the dignity gained by martyrdome , laboured to avert them from it , but could not correct this naturall inclination . a lib. 4. cap. 2. 2. the devill labo●…s the magistrates to 〈◊〉 their , d●…sire of dying b specul . vinc. to. a. cap. 102. lib. 10. basilides heref . anno 13●… . 3. basilides denyed christ to have been crucifyed , & that therefore they dyed madly . c alfon. castr. verb. martyr . ex philast . d prateolus l. 5. ex niceph. 4. helchesar that outward profession of religion was not needfull . 5. that also the gnostici taught , and why they prevailed not . 1. that hetiques failing herein , tooke naturall ways , of overtaking the orthodox in numbers of martyrs . a alf. castr. ver . martyrium 2. petilian new way of martyrdom . 3. another new way of the circumcelliones & circuitores . b to. 2. ep. 50. 4. the cataphrgyae exceed in number . c prateolus . d baron . martyr . c. 10. e hist. l. 5. c. 15 f baron . martyrol . ca. 10. ex epiph. haer. 80 g schul●…ingius , to. 3. ca. 177. 10. euphemitae therefore called martyrians 1. hereupon councels took it into their care to distinguish true martyrs , from those who dyed for naturall and humane respects . a conc. laodic . can. 33. b conc. carth. 1. c. 2. 1 therefore later authors do somewhat remit the dignity of martyrdome . a 2●… . q. 124. ar . 3. b de adoratione l. 1. n. 42. c navar. man. c. 1. nu. 40. d carbo . cas. cons. to. p. 2. c. 6. 2 the iesuits still professe an enormous love to such death . e clarus bonarsicus amphitheat . hono. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 4. 1 lawes and customes of well policed estates having admitted it , it is not likely to be against law of nature . 2 true and idaeated common-wealths have allowed it . at benians . romans . depontum . a hierogliph . l. 17. ceans . b aelianus . l. 3. cap. 26. c diod. sicul. l. 2. bib . aethiopians . d dig. l. 48. tit . 3. leg . final . 3 civill law and all others , presume it , in condemned men . e vtop . l. 2. c. de servis . 4 in vtopia authorised . f de leg . 9. 5 and by plato in certaine cases . 6 conclusion of the first part . notes for div a36292-e23090 1. that the law of reason , is , conclusions drawne from primary reason by discourse . 2. how much strength , reasons deduced have . 1. of this sort of reasons , generall lawes have the greatest authority . 2. for that is of there essence that they agree with law of nature . 3. and there is better testimony of their producing , then of private mens opinions a dig. l. 1. tit . 3. le . 1. lex est . 1. of lawes , the imperiall law ought first to be considered . a dig. l. 1. t. 1. le . 9. omnes . 2 the reason of that law is not abolished , but our dependency upon it . 3 why this is called civill law. 4 of the vastnes of the books from whence it is concocted , and and of the extent thereof . b iustinian . ep . ad trebonian . c iustinian cpi. ad dd. de jur. docend . arte . d wind. theolog . iur. 5 nothing in this law against our case . 6. of the law of adrian . d dig. lib. 48. tit . 19. le . 38. si quis aliquid . § qui miles . e dig. lib. 49. tit . 10. le . 6. omne delictum . h dig. l. 48. tit . 21. le . 3. qui rei . 7 of the other law for guilty men . 1 of the canon law. 2 the largnes of the subject , and object thereof . 3 of codex canonum ; or the body of the llaw , in use in the primitive church . a dist. 10. certum est . b dist. 10. vestr●… . 4 of the additions to this codex . 5 canon law apter to condemne then civill , and why . c paleotus de nothis c. 19. 1 that this proposition is not hereticall . a simancha enchirid. iud : tit . 24. nu . 2. 2 a large definition of heresie . 3 no definition of the church in the point . 4 nor canon 5 nor bull. 6 of the comon opinion of fathers , how it varies in times and places . b moral . instit. to . 1. l. 2. c. 13. c 23. q. 5. 7 gratian cites but two fathers , one of which is of our side . 8 of that part of the canon law , to which canonists will stand . d auto. augustin . l. de ●…mendat . gratian. l. 1. dial . 1. de titulo . e idem dial . 4. 9 a cathol . bishops censure of gratians decret . f idem dial . 3. g de libris juris canon . c. 2. 1 what any councels have done in this point . a 23. q. 5. placuit . b concll . antisidor . sub greg. 1. an. 590. c canon . 17. 3 the councel of antisid . onely refused their oblations 3 this was but a diocesan councell . d notae binnij in conc. antis . to. 2. fo . 955. e 23. q. 5. placuit . 4 the braccar councel inflicts two punishments . f 24. q. 2. sane quid . 5 the first , not praying for them , is of them who did it when they were excommunicate . g decret . l. 5. tit . 13. de torneamentis . 6 the second , which is deniall of buriall , is not alwayes inflicted for offences ; as appears in an interdict locall . h 13. q. 2. anim . i li. 3. tit . 7. de sepulchris . eos qui. k sylv. ad leg . reg. c. 11. l p. manut. de leg . rom. 7 romans buried such offenders as had satisfied the law within the towne , as vestals , and emperors . 1 of the laws of particular nations . 2 of our law of felo de se. br act . f. 150. a 〈…〉 b ●…lowd . com. hales his case . 3. that this is murder in our law ; and the reasons which entitle the king. 4 our naturall desire to such dying , probably induced this law . c bodin rep. l. 1. c. 2. & l. 6. c. 1. 5 as in states abounding with slaves , the law-makers quenched this desire . d l. 33. c. 10. e scbast . med. de venat . pisca . et aucup . q. 41. f aug. de civi . dei l. 4. c. 27. 6 least it should draw too fast ; as hunting and vsury are ; and as wine by mahom. g pruckinan . de venat . pisc. & aucup . c. 4. h pompon . de incantat . c. 10. 7 and as severe lawes against stealing i b. dorotheus doct . 11. k binnius to . 3. par . 2. f. 1476. an. 1237. 8 when a man is bound to steale . l 14. dist. 15. q. 3. 9 scotus opinion of day theeves . m exod. 22. 3. n tholosa . syn. l. 36. c. 22. nu . 13. ex buteler . in summa rurall . 10 of such a law in flaunders . 1 severe lawes are arguments of the peoples inclination , not of the hainousnesse of the fault . a epist. ad philip. 2 sunday fast extremly condemned thereupon . 3 so duells in france . 4 so bull-baitings in spain . navar. manu . li. 15. nu . 18. 5 gentle laws diminish not the nature of rape , nor witchcraft . b cap. 67. c h●…de his qui not . infam . l. 2. §. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. 6 publique benefit is the rule of extending or restraining all lawes by bartel . 7 if other nations concur in like lawes , it shews their inclination to be generall . 1 the custom of the iewes , and the law of the athenians evict nothing . a de bello jud. l. 3. c. 13. b buxdor . syn. iudais c. 34. a pliny . li. 36. cap. 13. 1 the reason drawne from remedies against it , proves no more . b a. gellius li. 15. c. 10. 1. of reasons used by particular men , being divines . a 23. q. 5. duplicet . 1. of s. augustine and his argument . 2. of st. aug. comparatively with other fathers . 3. comparison of navar and sotus . 4 jesuists often beholden to calvin for expositions . 5. in this place we differ not from st. aug. b 22. q. 5. s●… non . 6. nor in the second . 7. that then may be causa puniendi sinc culp●… . c reg. sur . 6. 8. as valens missed theodosius ; so did augustine pretermit the right cause . 9 of cordubensis rule , how we must do in perplexities ; d a●…t . cordub . de simonia q. 27. editione . hispani . 10 how temporall reward may be taken for spirituall office . hesychius vitae philosophorum . 11. of pindarus death praying for he knew not what . f vb●… supra . 2 in our place we depart from st. aug. upon the same reason as the jesuit thyraeus doth . g thyrae . jesui . de daemoniacis c. 31. 〈◊〉 . 428. a 23. q. 5. non est , 1 the place out of s. hi●…rome cited by gratian. b gloss. in locum supra . c idiotae contemplatio de morte . 1. lavater confesses aug. hie●… cry●… and lactan●… to be of this opinion . a lavater in 1 sam. ca●…lti . 1 of p. mar. reason mors malum . a stromat . l. 4. 2 clement . hath long since destroyed that opinion . 3 of malum 〈◊〉 . b aqui. 1. q. 48. ar . 6. c●…n . c jo. 9. 3. 4 possessed men are not alwaies so afflicted for sin . d thyraeus de daemon . c. 31. e aqui. 1. q. 48. ar . 6. con. 5 damnation hath not so much rationem mali as the least sin . 6 if death were of the sorts of evill , yet there may be good use of it . f aug. de . bono conjug●… . g paulin. severo esist . 1. 7 how paul calls death gods enemy . h 1 cor. 15. 20. i marlorat . in bunc locum . k calvin in hunc locum . 8 death since christ is not so evill as before . 1 of martyrs reason , vita donum . 1 of lavaters reason of judges . 2 where confession is not in use , there is no exterior judge of secret sinne . a humfred . iesui . pa. 2. ad ratio . 3. cam. 3 of the popes jurisdiction over himselfe . b c●…d . l. 3. tit . 5. le . generati . 4 of such jurisdiction in other persons by civll lawes . c bald. f le . 5. de . j●…diciis . d filesacus de episc. autorit . ca. 1. 〈◊〉 . 17. e dig. l. 1. ti●… . 7. le . 3. si cons. 5 ioh. 22. elected hi●…selfe pope . f uol●… . 2. genera . 44. 6. jurisdiction over our selves ●…s denyed us , because we are presumed favourable to our selves ; not in cases hurtfull to our selves . g heurnius de philos. barbar . 7. even in cases hurtfull , we have such jurisdiction . h theod. a nice . l. 3. c. 3. & 23. 8. gregories oath in the great scisme . i schlusselburgius . catul. here●…ico , l. 13. 9. when a man becomes to be sui juris . 10. warre is just betweene soveraigne kings , because they have no judge . k accacius de privileg . juris . l. 1. cap. 7. 11. princes give not themselves priviledges , but declare that in that case they will exercise their inherent priviledge . josephus reason of deposi tum . a de bell . iud. l. 3. ca. 13. b regula juris 4. c arist. probl. sect. 29. q. 2. 2. in these cases a depositarie cannot bee accused de culpa , if he be sine dolo. 3. a secret received , data fide , is in natura depositi . d tholos . syntag . l 23. ca. 3. nu. 17. e soto de teg. secr. membr . 1. q. 1. 1. of similitudinary reasons in authors not divine . a de bello iuda . l. 3. ca. 14. 1. of his reason of hoslis . a lib. 7. c. 28. 1. of his reason of servus . bosquier . conc. 7. of his reason of a pilot. 1. of aquin. two reasons , from justice and charity . a 22. q. 64. ar . 5. of stealing away himselfe from the state. 3. monastique retiring is , in genere rei , the same offence . 4. the better opinion , that herein is no sinne against justice . 5. i usurpe not upon his servant , but am his servant herein . b sayr . thesau . cas. consc. l 7. ca. 9. nu. 19. 6. though we have not dominium , wee have vsum of this life , and we leave that when we will. 7. the state is not lord of our life , yet takes it away . c sayr . l. 9. c. 7. nu. 2. 8. if injurie were herein done to the state , then by a license from the state , it might be lawfull . 9. and the state might recompence her domage upon the goods , or h●…i . e 10. in a man necess●…y there may be some injustice in this act . d 22. q. 59. ar . 4. ad 3●… . 11. no man can doe injurie to himselfe . 12. the question , whether it be against charity , 〈◊〉 ted to the third part . of aristotles two reasons . of misery , & pusilanimity . a arist. eth. l. 3. c. 6. b cap. 7. infra fol. 249. 1. of reasons to be made on the other part . 2. of the law of rome , of asking the s●…nate leave to kill himselfe . a decl●…m . 4. 3. of the case in quintilian . 1. comparison of desertion and destruction . 2. of omissions equall to committings . a in admonitorio . b dist. 86. pasce●… . c tabula paris . censuraru●… . 1. in great sinnes , the first step imprints a guiltinesse , yet many steps to self-homicide are lawfull . a stanf. plees de cor●…n . cap. petie treason . b elian. l. 8. cap. 10. 2. dra●…s laws against homicide were retained . c precepto 5. 3. tolets five homicides . 4. foure of th●…se were to be found in adams first homicide in paradise . c reuchlin . de verbo mirisico . lib. 2. cap. 14. 1. of tolets first & second way by precept , and advi●…e , or option . a bartol . le . non solum . f. de injuriis , . si mandato . b reg. jur. 3. 2. we may wish malum poenae to our selves , as the eremite did to be possessed . c sulpit. in vita martini . dialo . 1. 3. wee may wish death for wearinesse of this life . d martialis ad tholosanos . e coment . in sam. l. 1. c. vlt. f heptap . pici. l. 7. proem . 4. it is sin to wish that evill were not so , that then wee might wish it . g adrian . quodlib . 10. ar . 2. 5. what wee may lawfully with , we may lawfully further . 6. of wishing the princes death . h saxavia de imp. author . epistola . 7. in some opinions , false religiō makes a tirant . i lib. 2. ca. 36. 8. why an oth of fidelity to the pope binds no man. k declaration & protestation des doctes de france . anno 1605. 9. who is a tyrant in these mens opinions . beccar . cont . lib. de. jure magistrat . m carbo . cas. conc. summa summarum . tom. 3. lib. 3. cap. 9. n sylvest . verb. martyr . o navar. manual . ca. 15. nu. 11. p phil. 1. 23. 10 how death may be wished by calvine . q in 2 cor. 5. 1 marlorate . supra . 9 eman. sâ aphor. confes. ver . charitas . 11 how we may with death to another for our owne advantage . 12 ph. nerius consented to the death of one who wished his own death . s vita phil. ner. fol. 284. t liber conformi . fran. & christi . u sedulius minor . advers . alcor . francis. 1 of tolets 3. species . by permission which is mors negativa . 2 of standing mute at the barre . 3 three rules from sotus , navar , and mald. to guide us in these desertions of our selves . a soto . de teg . saeret . membr . 1. q. 3. b nava . manual . c sum. maldo . q. 14. ar . 6. d acacius de privilegiis l. 1. cap. 9. e gerson . f acacius de privile . l. 1. c. 8. 4 i may suffer a thiefe to kill me . g sayr thesau . cas. cons. l. 7. cap. 9. nu . 17. h alcor . azoar . 52. 5 of se desendendo in our law . 6 i am not bound to escape from prison if i can , nor to eate rather then starve . i eman. sa. aphor. conses . ver . charitas . k aquin. 22. q. 69. ar . 4. ad 2. l sayr thesau . cas. cons. l. 7. cap. 9. 7 for ends better then this life , we may neglect this . 8 i may give my life for another . m chris. hom. 32. in genes . n aug. l. 22. adver . faustum . cap. 33. 9 chrisostomes opinion of sarahs ly , and adultery . and st. aug. of that wife who prostituted her selfe to pay her husbands debt . o ca. 27. & primo : deserm . dom. in monte . p bonavent . 3. dist. 29. q. 3. q aug. de mendacio . c. 6. 10 that to give my life for another is not to prefer another , as bonaventure , and aug. say , but to prefer vertue before . life . 11 for spirituall good is without question . r sayr thesau . cas. cons. l. 7. c. 9. nu . 17. s eman sa. aphor. converbo charit . t idem verbo ho. 12 i may give another that without which i cannot live . u aquin. 22. q. 32. ar . 6. sotus . 13 i may over-fast my selfe . x de consecr . dist. 5. non mediocriter y navar ex dist. 5. de cons. this in saint hieroms opinion is self-homicide . z soto de tegsecret mem . 1. q. 3. ex hieron a cas. collatione 2. c. 6. 15 of the friar whom cassianus calls a selfe-homicide for refusing bread from a theefe , upon a vow . of christs fast . b bosquier cove . 17. c idem cove . 18. 16 of philosophers inordinate fasts . d porphir . de abstiu . anti. e idem de occasionibus . supra . 17 of the devills threatning s. francis for fasting . f cap. de austeritate . 8 examples of long fasts . g middendor . de academiis fol. 298. h lilius gyr. dialog . 17. 19 reasons , effects , and obligations , to rigorous fasts . i sayr tbesaur . cas. cons. l. 3. cap. 7. 11. 13. k azor. mor. inst. pa. 1. l. 7. cap. 3●… . l bosqui . coue. 17. m hier. epist. ad marcell . n mat. 3. 4. o greg. naz. oratio , de cura pauperum . p clem. alex. l. 2. paedag. c 1. q procop. gaz. l. 1. de aedificiis iustiniani . r sayr . thesau . cas. cons. l. 7. c. 9. n. 30. s clem. apostol . constit. l. 4. cap. 7. t ibid. cap. 9. 20 corollary of this section of desertion . u mariana de rege , l. x. cap. 7. 1. of another degree of homicide , by mutilation , which is not in tolets division . 2 of delivering ones selfe into bondage . a baron . martirol , junii 2. b tabula paris . irregularit . c binius to. 2. pa. 2. fo . 1280. 3 by divers canons it is all one fault . d can. apost . can. 21. e stanf. plees del coron . f canon . 23. g canon . 23. h calv. in mat. 19. 4. marlorate . 4 of calvins argument against divorce , upon the ground of mutilation . 5 the example of saint mark to escape priesthood . i hicr . prolog . in marcum . k mat. 19. 12. l orat. vero anto. & commodo philosophis . m sayr thes. cas. cons. l. 7. cap. 9. 6 in what cases it is cleare that a man may mayme himselfe . 1 of tolets fourth way , by actual helping a ardoinus de venenis l. 8. c. 20 ardonius reekóns a flea amongst poysons because it would kill . b 2 sam. 1. 16. 2 david condemned the amalekite , who said , he helped saul to dye . c mariana de rege . l. 1. c. 7. 3 marianaes opinion , that a king drinking poyson , prepared and ministred by another , he being ignorant , is a selfe-homicide . d sotus de teg . secret. memb. 1. q. 〈◊〉 e sansovin . de gover. 4 a malefactor unaccused , may accuse himselfe . 5 of sansovinus relation of our customes at executions , and withdrawing the pillow in desperate cases . 6 of breaking leggs of men at executions : and of breakinge the halter . f iohn 19. g lucas depenna l. 1. c. de descr . et occult . iohan. de ant. soliloq . 5. optine . in d : leg . imperium . h num : 5. 7 of the purgations assigned by moses●…n ●…n cases of jealousie . of formes of purgation called vulgares . i 2. q. 5. consuluisti . k tholos . syn. l : 48 : c : 15. n : 7. l greg. turo . hist. fraucor . l : 2 : c : 〈◊〉 : 9 charlemaine brought in a new purgation . and britius a b. another being acquitted before m lamb. de legibus priscis anglorum . 10 with us bothkindes of ordalium , by water , and fire lasted till k. iohns time . 11 in al these , and in battaile the party himself assisted to his payne . 12 three examples of actuall helpers to their owne destruction in s. doroth. n b : doroth. doctrinâ 1. de renunciatione . o idem doct : 7. de accus . sili ipsius . p supplement : chron. an . chr. 3. 13. of ●…oseph of arimathaea his drinkinge poyson . q navar man. ca : 1. n. 28. 14. of saint andrew and saint lawr. r controv. 3. 15. casuists not clear whether a condemned man may doe the last act to his death . s relect. de homicid : n : 30 : in refp . ad 8. 16. but unto curates and priests sometimes it is sub praecepto , even without condemnation . t sayr sum : sacram. poenit : cap 32. u de teg . sec. memb . 3. q. 4. 1. of tolets last species of homicide which is the act it selfe . 2. how farre an erring conscience may justifie . a diog. laert. lib. 8. 3 pythagoras conscience . b azor. inst. mor p. 1. l. 2. cap. 8. epist. 3. sever. lib. 1. c cassia●… . collat . 2. cap. 5. 4 of the apparition to hero an eremit by which he killed himselfe ; out of cassianus . d nazarius constantio . 5 the devill sometimes sollicites to good . e wier . l. 5. c. 1●… . f vasq. de adorat . l. 3 disp . 1. cap. 5. 6 by vasquez it is not idolatry to worship god in the divell . 7 rules to distinguish the spirits by marks are false . g binsfeld . de confes . sagarum , f. 67. menghi fustis daemonum , cap. 8. 8 so is the rule , that good angels alwaies move to good ordinarily . 9. as in adoration , so in this case , invincible ignorance may excuse . i inc. constan supra . 10. of saint aug. his first reason to donatus , that we may save one against his will. k ignatius ep : ad romanos . l ant. august . episc. tarrac : de leg . roman . cap. 44. 11. of his second of examples : and of his escape if donatus had produced examples . m de civitate dei l. 18. cap. 38. et lib. 2. cont . gaudent . cap. 23. 12 divorce in rome , and in jurie long without example . n a : gellius l : 4. cap. 3. o serarius de rabbin . et herodibus cap. 17. 13. s. august . schollers in this point of examples , as stubborne as aristotles , for the heavens inalterablnes , though the reason of both be ceased . p kepplerus de stella serpent . cap. 23. q sextus reg. iur : quod semel . r baron . martyrolog . 14. of the martyr apollonia . 15 of answers in her excuse . s sayr . thesaur . cas. cons. l. 9. c. 7. num . 11. t baron . mart. 16. of the martyr pelagia . 17. though her history be very uncertain the church seems glad of occasion to celebrate so noble a fact . 18. augustins testimonie of her . u august . de civitate dei l. 1. cap. 26. x de virg. l. 3. 19 ambrose meditation upon her . 29. eusebius his oration imagind in the person of her mother . y eusebius eccles. histor : l. 8. cap. 4. z plin. paneg . trajan . 21. s. august . first of any doubted their fact , and did seeke shifts to defend it which it needed not . 22. s. august . example hath drawne pedraca to the same shift , of special divine instinct in a like case . a pedraca cas. de consc . 5. praec . hispanica editio . 23. so says p. martyr of the midwiues and of rahabs lye . b in jud 3. c io : de lap. cas. missales c. 6 : art . 5. 24. to preserue the seale of confession a man may be bound to kill himselfe . d ibid. e sotus de teg . secret . memb : 3. q : 4. notes for div a36292-e37130 1 an induction to the handlinge of these places of scripture . a prov. 6. b plin : l. 2 : cap 31. c 2. pet. 1 : 20. d artemidorus de som●… . int●…rp . l : 1. cap : 2. 2. why i forbeare to name them who cite these places of scripture . 3. if any oppose an answer what i intreat of him . e mar●… . 1. 17. 4. why clergy men may fish , or hunt but not with doggs . f ex dist. 86. esau. 5. of beza's answer to ochius polygamy . 1. no place offered out of iudiciall nor ceremoniall law . of the place in gen. 9. 5. 2. we are not bound to accept the interpretations of the rabbins . a buxdorfius synag . iudaica ex rahbi isaac cap : 1. fol. 62. b lyra in hunc locum . 3. of lyra and of sâ his hebraismes . c ema . sâ not : in univers : script . of the place in deuter. 33. 39. 4. iurisdiction of parents , husbands , masters , and magistrates , must consist with this place . 5. this place must be interpreted , as the other places of scripture which have the same word , from which no conclusion can be wrested against this fact . a 1. sam : 2. 6. b tob : 13. 2. c sap : 16. 13. 1. of the place of iob 7. 1. 2. why they cite this place in latine . a digest . li : 22. tit : 6. le : 9. b l. 4. tit : 6. leg : 44. 3. of souldiers priviledges of absence by law . c supra . 4 iobs scope is , that as war works to peace so here we only labour to death . d euseb. l. 1. cap. 13. 5. of christs letter to king abgarus . 1. of the place iob 7. 15. 2. why this was not lawfull to job . 3 his words seeme to s●…ew some steps toward a purpose of selfe-homicide . a sex ; sen ; bibliot . s●…nst . lib : 8. heres . 10. 4 : sex : sen●… and gregories exposition thereof . b greg. mor : l : 4. cap. 6. gal : 2. 〈◊〉 . wherin i differ from the anabapt . who affirme that iob despaired . 6. s. hierome and the trent councell erre in condemning all which a condemned man saith . 7. of them which impute despayre unto christ. 1. of the place iob. 2. 4. 1. of the place eccl. 20. 16. 2. this place is not of safety , but of health . 1. of the place exodus 20. a 23. q : 5. si non licet . 2. s. august . thinks this law to concerne ones self more directly then another . 3. this law hath many exceptions . 〈◊〉 . lawes of the first table are stric●…ioris vincull , then of the lato●… . 5. a case wherin it is probable that a man must kill himself . a acatius de privil . l. c. 3. b navr . manu●…l . cap. 15. n. 2. c supra . 6 as lawes against day-theeves may be deduced from the law of god authorizing princes , so may this from the commandement , of preferring gods glory . 7 whatsoever might have been done before the law , this law forbids not . 1 of the place sap. 1. 12. d●…ut . 4. 24. 1. of the place matt. 4. 6. 2. christ , where it conduced to his owne ends , did as much as the devill did tempt him to in this place . 1. of the place acts 16. 17. 2. s. paul knew gods purpose of baptising the keeper . 3. els saith caluin , he had frustrated gods way to give him an escape by the keepers death . 1. of the place rom. 3. 8. 2. how paul forbids evil to be done for good . 3. god always inflicteth malum poenae by instruments . 4. induration it self is sometime medicinall . a aqui. 12. q. 79. ar . 4. con . b hippocrat . a●…bor . l. 2. 38. 5. wee may correct in our selves one disease by another . 6. in things evill in such sence as paul taketh them here , popes dayly doe dispence . c dist. 34. lector gloss . d bodin●… daemon . l. c5 . e windek de consens . et dissens . leg . et can. ca. 11. f cod. tit . de malef . l. 4. §. ●…rum . 7. so doe the civill laws . g paracel . l. de morb . ca l. h dist. 14. cap. duo mala . dist. ead . cap. nerui . k nav. man. c. 17. num . 263. 8 so do canons . l bellar. de amis . grat . & stat . peccat . l. 2 , c. 3. ex h●… . de vict & tho. 9 so doth god occasion lesse sin to avoid greater . 9. what any other may dispence withall in us , in extremity we may dispence within our selves . supra . 10. yet noe such dispensation changeth the nature of things , therefore that particular was never naturally evill . 11. the law it self is neither good nor evill . 12. as picus notes comparing it to the firmament . m heptapl . l. 7. proem . n ezech. 20. 25. 13. what evill pa●…l forbids ; and why . supra . 14. nothing which is once evill can ever recover of that supra . 15. three acts were in god's decree preserued from those staines which make things evill , so as miracles were written in his book of nature , though not in our copy ; and so , as our lady is said to be preseru'd from originall sinne . o exod. 1. 12. 16. such was moses killing the egyptian . 17. if this place be taken of all kind of evill , it must admit exception , as well as the decalogu . 18. otherwise the application which bellarm. and others make of it will be intollerable . p de eul . sanct . l. 4. cap. 7. of the places 2 cor. 6. 16. 1 cor. 〈◊〉 . 16. & 6. 16. 19 the dead are still his temples , and images . silvius com : ad leges . 20 heathens te●…ples might be demolished , yet the soile remain sacred . 21 pauls reason is in cases where we avile our selves : here wee advance our selves . 22 that our body is not our own , how it is to be understood here in paul. a vers. 19. b vers. 20. of the place ephes. 4. 15. 16 a cap. 5. v. 〈◊〉 . 2 this place gives arguments to all which spare not themselves for reliefe of others . 1. of the place epb. 5. a marlor . in hunc locum . 2. how marlor . expounds this hate . 1. of places of scriptures on the other part . 2. we may , but our adversaries may not make use of examples . to which the answer of martyr and lavater is weake . 3. the nature , degrees , and effects of charity . 4. s. august . pourtraite of her . a de natura et gratia cap. ult . 5. of her highest perfection , beyond that which p. lombard obsorved out of aug. b lomb. l. 3. dist. 3. c i●… epist. ●…tract . 5. d phil. 1. 23 e serarius triheresi . l. 1. ca. 8. f deut. 6. 5. g mat. 5. 6. he who loves god with all his heart , may love him more h aqui. 22. q. 124. ar . 3. i aqui. 22. q. 136. ar . 3. 7. any suffering in charity hath infalibly the grace of god. by aquin. 1. of the place 1 cor. 13. 4. 2. by this in common reputation , that was a degree of perfection to dye so . and charity made it acceptable . 3. paul speaks of a thing which might lawfully be done , for such are all his gradations in this argument . 4. tongues of angels in what sence in this place . calvin . 5. speech in the asse , understanding of mysteries in iudas , miraculous faith make not the possessor the better . 6 how i differ from the donatists arguing from this place , that in charity self-homicide was alwaies lawfull . 7 to give my body , is more then to let it be taken . metaph. in niceph . martyr . 8 how nicephorus the martyre , gave his body in sapritius his roome , who recanted . 9 there may be a case that a man bound to give his body , cannot doe it otherwise then by selse-homicide . 1 of the places joh. 10. 11. & joh. 15. 13. 2 i need not purge my self , when anothers crime is imputed to me . a sot. de teg . secret. memb. 1. q. 3. b job . 15. 13. 1 of the place ioh. 13. 37. 2 peters readinesse was naturall . pauls deliberate . 2 cor. 12. 15. 1 of the place ioh. 10. 15. 2 why christ saies this in the present time . a act. 15. 26. 3 of the aboundant charity of christ. b de suidone . pa. 1. notae in ca. 11. 4 of his speech going to emaus . 5 of his apparition to saint charles . c revel . brig . l. 1. ca. 59. 6 of the revelation to st. brigit . d suidon . p. 1. not. in ca. 16. 7 of his mothers charitiy . 8 that none could take away his foule . 9 his owne will the onely cause of his dying so soone . by st. aug. 10 and by aquin. because he had all his strength . e mar. 15. f de t●…nit . l. 1 : cap. 13. g 2. q. 47. ar . 1. ad 2. h mat. 27. 50. 11. and by marl. because he bowed his head , and it fell not , as ours in death . i luc. 18. 33. how it is true that the jewes put him to death . 13. of aquin. and syluesters opinion of him . k 2. q. 47. ar . 1. con. l verbo matrimonium . 14. christ was so the cause of his death , as he is of his wetting , which might , and doth not shut the window , in raine by aqui. 15. who imitated christ in this actuall emission of the soule . m aquin. supr . ioh. cap , 21. l sophro. prat . spir . cap. 90. dephter . anco . et surius to. 1. feb . de sever. raven . m sind . not. inc . 21. ad 6. 16. vpon what reasons this fashion of dying in christ is calld heroique , and by like epithites . 17. christ is said to have done herein as saul and apol. and such . 1 of the places iohn 12. 25. and luc. 14. 26. a heb. 11. 35. b in ioh. 12. 25. 2. iesuites apply particularly this hate . c reg. iesuit . constit. spirit . 8. 3. if the other place , noe man hates his owne flesh , be against homicide ; this must be for it . 4. s. august . denies that this place justifies the donatists . but not in all cases . 1. of the place 1. iohn 3. 16. 2. all these places direct us to do it , as christ did it , unconstraind . a phil. 1. 20. 1. of the place phil 1. 23. 2 of s. pauls gradations to this wish ; and his correcting of it . 1 of the place gal. 4. 15. 2. this was more then vitam profundere by calvin . 1 of the place rom. 9. 3. a 1 cor. 16. 22. 2. that this anathema was damnation . 3. that he considered not his election at that time . 1 of the place exod. 〈◊〉 . 3 2. that this imprecation was not only to be blotted out of the history of the scriptures . 3. it was stranger that christ should admit such a slip downward as to wish an escape from death , then that moses should have such an exaltation upward as to save his nation by pe●…ing . yet both without inordinatenes . a pont. paul. ad amand. epist. 2. 4. how by paulinus a just man may safely say to god , dele me , 1. of examples in scriptures . 2. the phrase of scriptures , never imputes this act to any as a sin , when it relates the history . a schultet . medul . patr . pag. 1. in l. 4. irenaei . 3. irenaeus forbids us to accuse where god doth not . 4. bezas answer to ochius reason , that some patriarchs lived in polygamy reacheth not our case . b beza de polyg . fo . 7. c gen. 29. d gen. 19. e 2 sam. 9. 2. 5 for it is not evident , that this is sinne , by any other place of the law ; which was in all his cases . and here many examples concurre . f acacius de privileg . l. 1. c. 3 1 of acts which were not fully ●…murders , but approaches . a 1 reg. 20. 35 2 of the prophet who punished him who would not strike him . 3 that when god invites men to such violence , hee sayes so plainly . and therefore such particular invitations may not be presumed , where they are not expressed . 1 of io●…as . a 1. 12. b proem . in com. in iona , vers. 14. 43. 9. c lyra prolog . in iona. 2 why saint hier. calls only ionas , of all the prophets , holy. 1. of samson iudg. 16. a pererius in gen. 49. 16. 2 the church celebrates him as a martyr . b paul. sever. epist. 4. 3 paulinus wishes such a death . 4 they which deny that he meant to kill himselfe , are cofuted by the text . c fran. de vict. in relect . de hom. greg. valent. tom . 3. disp . 5. q. 8. p. 1. d jud. 16. 30. 5 they which say he did not intend his own death principally say the same as we . supra . 6 that saint aug. his answer to this fact , that it was by speciall instinct , hath no ground in the history . e aug. de civit . dei cap. 12. f sayr thesau . cas. conse . l. 7. cap. 9. nu. 9. g pedr. pr. 5. hisp. 7 of says reasons in confirmation of august . that samson pray'd . 8. of pedr. his reason , that it was against the work of god , because it was done as it was desired . h v. 22. 9 that he had as much reason , and authority to kill himselfe as to kill the philistims , and that it was only the glory of god. i fra. georg. probl . 438. 10. samson in this manner of dying was a type of christ. k perer. in gen. 49. 16. 1 of saul 1 sam. ult . 2. whether the amalekite did help to kill saul . a 1. sam. ult . b 2. sam. 1. c antiq. l. 7. cap. 15 d hist. schol. 3. whether saul be saved or no. e 1 cro. 10. 13. lyra. 4. in what cases the iews . and lyra confess that a man may kill himselfe . 5. lyra's reasons why saul is to be presumed to have dyed well . f notae in sindou . c. 21. nu. 6. 6. burgensis reason to the contrary , that if saul were excusable , the amalckite was so to . 7. of sauls armor-bearer 1. of achitophel . 2 sam. 15. vers . 14. 2 he set his house in order , and he was buried . 1 of judas . mat. 27. 5. act. 1. 18. a act. 1. 18. b euthym. in com. in matt. c brent . in act. 1. 18. d oecum . ●…n collect. act. apost . 2. he dyed not by hanging himself , in the opinion of euthymius , 〈◊〉 oecum . papias s. iohns disciple . and theoph. e theophilact in mat. 7. 3. by what meanes many places of scriptures have beene otherwise accepted , then they intend . 4 iudas not accused of this in the story , nor in the two propheticall psalms of him . f psal. 69. ct 109. 5 origens opinion of his repentance . g ex not . em. sâ in mat. 27. h aquin. catena aurea . 6. calvin acknowledges all degrees of repentance which the romane church requireth , to salvation , to have beene in iudas . i iu mat. 27. 4. k 23. q. 5. tu dixisti . glos . 7 petilianus his opinion of his martyrdome . l ibid. si non licet . 〈◊〉 . iudas act had some degrees of justice by s. aug. 1. of eleazar macab . 1. 6. 46. jos. aut. 12. 15. 2. all confess that an act of vertue . 3. the destruction was certaine . 4. he did as much to his owne death as samson . 5 the reasons of his act in the text , 6. s. ambrose his extolling thereof . a cajet . in 16. iud. 7. cajetanus his reason for eleazer's justification , appliable to very many other cases of self-homicide . 1. rasis mat. 2. 14. 2. his reasons in the text . a aquin. 22. q. 64. ar . 5. b aristotel●… ethic. l. 3. c. 7. c supra fo . 130 3. whether it be pusillanimity , as aqui. august . and aristot. says . d august . de civit . dei l. 1. c. 22. 4. s. aug. confesses that to have beene greatnes of mind , in cleombrotus . e c. 23. 5. how much great examples governe . f vell. paterc . de morte grac. g supra h diog. laer. l. 6. 6. that it was reputed cowardlines in antistbenes extreamly sick not to kill himself . 7. vpon what reasons lyra excuseth this and like actions . i relect. de homicid . resp . ad ult . argum . k sotus l. 2. de just . q. 3. ar . 8. l valeu . to . 3. disp . 5. q. 8. 8 burgensis reasons confesses he might have had just causes . notes for div a36292-e48470 1. why i refraind discours of destinie herein . a alcor . a20 . 65. 2. man made of shadow and the devill of fire by the alcoran . 3. our adversaries reasons contradict one another . b alcuin . ep. 23. 4 no praecept given to love our selves . 5 encouragements to contempt of death c cypr. serm. de mortalitate . d gratiar . act . de cons. e chyrurgia mag . de ulcer . f aphor. l. 2. 38. 6. why i abstaine from particular directions . g ennodius ad celul . 7. laws forbid ordinarie men to cure by extraordiry meanes , yet the kings of england , and france , & spaine cure so . h paracelsus chyrurg . mag. tract . 2. cap. 8. et de trans . cap. 10. i pet. pomp. de incant . c. 4. k cassanaeus catal . glo . mun . par . 5. consider . 1. l cassian . l. 17 cap. 17. ad 25. as hier. orig. chrysost. and cassianus are excusd for following plato in the toleration of a ly , because the church had not then pronounced , so may it be in this . m observat. in cassian . in fine l. fo . 740. cornelius celsus sent . 15. poems, by j.d. vvith elegies on the authors death donne, john, 1572-1631. 1633 approx. 527 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 207 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a69225 stc 7045 estc s121864 99857025 99857025 22691 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online 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 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a69225) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 22691) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 881:25, 922:22) poems, by j.d. vvith elegies on the authors death donne, john, 1572-1631. [12], 406, [2] p. printed by m[iles] f[lesher] for iohn marriot, and are to be sold at his shop in st dunstans church-yard in fleet-street, london : 1633. j.d. = john donne. printer's name from stc. the first leaf and the last leaf are blank. the position of ² a² ("the printer to the understanders") varies, but most commonly falls after ¹a2. it is sometimes missing, being apparently a slightly later addition. 2n1 is a cancel, lacking running title on recto. variant: 2n1 is cancellandum, with running titles but with text omitted. identified as stc 7045a on umi microfilm reel 922. reproductions of the originals in harvard university. library and the folger shakespeare library. appears at reel 881 (harvard university. library copy) and at reel 922 (folger shakespeare library copy). created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng 2007-02 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-02 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-03 celeste ng sampled and proofread 2007-03 celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion anno dni . 1591 aetatis svae 18 antes mvi●to qve mvdado this was for youth , strength , mirth , and wit that time most count their golden age ; but t' was not thine . thine was thy later yeares , so much refind from youths drosse , mirth , & wit ; as thy pure mind thought ( like the angels ) nothing but the praise of thy creator , in those last , best dayes . wimes this booke , ( thy embleme ) which begins with love ; but endes , with sighes , & teares for sins . will : marshall . sculpsit . iz : wa : poems , by j. d. with elegies on the authors death . london . printed by m. f. for iohn marriot , and are to be sold at his shop in st dunstans church-yard in fleet-street . 1633. infinitati sacrum , 16. augusti 1601. metempsycosis . poêma satyricon . epistle . others at the porches and entries of their buildings set their armes ; i , my picture ; if any colours can deliver a minde so plaine , and flat , and through light as mine . naturally at a new author , i doubt , and sticke , and doe not say quickly , good . i censure much and taxe ; and this liberty costs mee more then others , by how much my owne things are worse then others . yet i would not be so rebellious against my selfe , as not to doe it , since i love it ; nor so unjust to others , to do it sine talione . as long as i give them as good hold upon mee , they must pardon mee my bitings . i forbid no reprehender , but him that like the trent councell forbids not bookes , but authors , damning what ever such a name hath or shall write . none writes so ill , that he gives not some thing exemplary , to follow , or flie . now when i beginne this booke , i have no purpose to come into any mans debt , how my stocke will hold out i know not ; perchance waste , perchance increase in use ; if i doe borrow any thing of antiquitie , besides that i make account that i pay it to posterity , with as much and as good : you shall still finde mee to acknowledge it , and to thanke not him onely that hath digg'd out treasure for mee , but that hath lighted mee a candle to the place . all which i will bid you remember , ( for i will have no such readers as i can teach ) is , that the pithagorian doctrine doth not onely carry one soule from man to man , nor man to beast , but indifferently to plants also : and therefore you must not grudge to finde the same soule in an emperour , in a post-horse , and in a mucheron , since no unreadinesse in the soule , but an indisposition in the organs workes this . and therefore though this soule could not move when it was a melon , yet it may remember , and now tell mee , at what lascivious banquet it was serv'd . and though it could not speake , when it was a spider , yet it can remember , and now tell me , who used it for poyson to attaine dignitie . how ever the bodies have dull'd her other faculties , her memory hath ever been her owne , which makes me so seriously deliver you by her relation all her passages from her first making when shee was that aple which eve eate , to this time when shee is hee , whose life you shall finde in the end of this booke . the progresse of the soule . first song . i. i sing the progresse of a deathlesse soule , whom fate , which god made , but doth not controule , plac'd in most shapes ; all times before the law yoak'd us , and when , and since , in this i sing . and the great world to his aged evening ; from infant morne , through manly noone i draw . what the gold chaldee , or silver persian saw , greeke brasse , or roman iron , is in this one ; a worke t'outweare seths pillars , bricke and stone , and ( holy writs excepted ) made to yeeld to none . ii. thee , eye of heaven , this great soule envies not , by thy male force , is all wee have , begot , in the first east , thou now begins to shine , suck'st early balme , and iland spices there , and wilt anon in thy loose-rein'd careere at tagus , po , sene , thames , and danon dine . and see at night thy westerne land of mine , yet hast thou not more nations seene then shee , that before thee , one day beganne to be , and thy fraile light being quench'd , shall long , long out live thee . iii. nor holy ianus in whose soveraigne boate the church , and all the monarchies did floate ; that swimming colledge , and free hospitall of all mankinde , that cage and vivarie , of fowles , and beasts , in whose wombe , destinie us , and our latest nephewes did install ( from thence are all deriv'd , that fill this all ) did'st thou in that great stewardship embarke so diverse shapes into that floating parke , as have beene moved , and inform'd by this heavenly sparke . iv. great destiny the commissary of god , that hast mark'd out a path and period for every thing , who , where wee of-spring tooke , our wayes and ends seest at one instant . thou knot of all causes , thou whose changelesse brow ne're smiles nor frownes , o vouch-safe thou to looke and shew my story , in thy eternall booke . that ( if my prayer be fit ) i may ' understand so much my selfe , as to know with what hand , how scant , or liberall this my lifes race is spand . v. to my sixe lusters almost now outwore , except thy booke owe mee so many more , except my legend be free from the letts of steepe ambition , sleepie povertie , spirit-quenching sicknesse , dull captivitie , distracting businesse , and from beauties nets , and all that calls from this , and to others whets , o let me not launch out , but let mee save th' expence of braine and spirit ; that my grave his right and due , a whole unwasted man may have . vi. but if my dayes be long , and good enough , in vaine this sea shall enlarge , or enrough it selfe ; for i will through the wave , and fome , and shall in sad love wayes , a lively spright make my darke heavy poëm light , and light . for though through many streights , & lands i roame , i launch at paradise , and i saile towards home ; the course i there began , shall here be staid , sailes hoised there , stroke here , and anchors laid in thames , which were at tigrys , and euphrates waide . vii . for the great soule which here amongst us now doth dwell , and moves that hand , and tongue , & brow , which as the moone the sea , moves us , to heare whose story , with long patience you will long ; ( for 't is the crowne , and last straine of my song ) this soule to whom luther , and mahomet were prisons of flesh ; this soule which oft did teare , and mend the wracks of th' empire , and late rome , and liv'd when every great change did come , had first in paradise , a low , but fatall roome . viii . yet no low roome , nor then the greatest , lesse , if ( as devout and sharpe men fitly guesse ) that crosse , our joy , and griefe , where nailes did tye that all , which alwayes was all , every where which could not sinne , and yet all sinnes did beare ; which could not die , yet could not chuse but die ; stood in the selfe same roome in calvarie , where first grew the forbidden learned tree , for on that tree hung in security . this soule , made by the makers will from pulling free . ix . prince of the orchard , faire as dawning morne , fenc'd with the law , and ripe as soone as borne that apple grew , which this soule did till the then climing serpent , that now creeps for that offence , for which all mankinde weepes , tooke it , and t' her whom the first man did wive ( whom and her race , only forbiddings drive ) he gave it , she , t' her husband , both did eate ; so perished the eaters , and the meate : and wee ( for treason taints the blood ) thence die and sweat . x. man all at once was there by woman slaine , and one by one we' are here slaine o'er againe by them . the mother poisoned the well-head , the daughters here corrupts us , no smalnesse scapes , no greatnesse breake their nets , she thrust us out , and by them we are led astray , from turning , to whence we are fled , were prisoners judges , t' would seeme rigorous , shee sinn'd , we here , part of our paine is , thus to love them , whose fault to this painfull love yoak'd us . xi . so fast in us doth this corruption grow , that now wee dare aske why wee should be so , would god ( disputes the curious rebell ) make a law , and would not have it kept ? or can his creatures will , crosse his ? of every man for one , will god ( and be just ) vengeance take ? who sinn'd ? t' was not forbidden to the snake nor her , who was not then made ; nor i' st writ that adam cropt , or knew the apple ; yet the worme and she , and he , and wee endure for it . xii . but snatch mee heavenly spirit , from this vaine reckoning their vanities , lesse is their gaine then hazard still , to meditate on ill , though with good minde , their reasons like those toyes of glassie bubles , with the gamesome boyes stretch to so nice a thinnes through a quill that they themselves breake , doe themselves spill , arguing is heretiques game , and exercise as wrastlers , perfect them ; not liberties of speech , but silence ; hands , not tongues , end heresies . xiii . just in that instant when the serpents gripe , broke the slight veines , and tender conduit-pipe , through which this soule from the trees root did draw life , and growth to this apple , fled away this loose soule , old , one and another day . as lightning , which one scarce dares say , he saw , 't is so soone gone , ( and better proofe the law of sense , then faith requires ) swiftly she flew to a darke and foggie plot ; her , her fates threw there through th'earth-pores , and in a plant hous'd her a new . xiv . the plant thus abled , to it selfe did force a place , where no place was ; by natures course as aire from water , water fleets away from thicker bodies , by this root thronged so his spungie confines gave him place to grow , just as in our streets , when the people stay to see the prince , and so fill'd the way that weesels scarce could passe , when she comes nere they throng and cleave up , and a passage cleare , as if , for that time , their round bodies flatned were . xv. his right arme he thrust out towards the east , west-ward his left ; th' ends did themselves digest into ten lesser strings , these fingers were : and as a slumberer stretching on his bed ; this way he this , and that way scattered his other legge , which feet with toes upbeare ; grew on his middle parts , the first day , haire , to show , that in loves businesse hee should still a dealer bee , and be us'd well , or ill : his apples kinde , his leaves , force of conception kill . xvi . a mouth , but dumbe , he hath ; blinde eyes , deafe eares , and to his shoulders dangle subtile haires ; a young colossus there hee stands upright , and as that ground by him were conquered a leafie garland weares he on his head enchas'd with little fruits , so red and bright that for them you would call your loves lips white ; so , of a lone unhaunted place possest , did this soules second inne , built by the guest this living buried man , this quiet mandrake , rest ▪ xvii . no lustfull woman came this plant to grieve , but t' was because there was none yet but eve : and she ( with other purpose ) kill'd it quite ; her sinne had now brought in infirmities , and so her cradled child , the moist red eyes had never shut , nor sleept since it saw light , poppie she knew , she knew the mandrakes might ; and tore up both , and so coold her childs blood ; unvirtuous weeds might long unvex'd have stood ; but hee 's short liv'd , that with his death can doe most good . xviii . to an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast are falling stars , and hearts thoughts , but slow pac'd : thinner then burnt aire flies this soule , and she whom foure new comming , and foure parting suns had found , and left the mandrakes tenant , runnes thought lesse of change , when her firme destiny confin'd , and enjayld her , that seem'd so free , into a small blew shell , the which a poore warme bird orespread , and sat still evermore , till her uncloath'd child kickt , and pick'd it selfe a dore . xix . outcrept a sparrow , this soules moving inne , on whose raw armes stiffe feathers now begin , as childrens teeth through gummes , to breake with paine , his flesh is jelly yet , and his bones threds , all downy a new mantle overspreads , a mouth he opes , which would as much containe as his late house , and the first houre speaks plaine , and chirps alowd for meat . meat fit for men his father steales for him , and so feeds then one , that within a moneth , will beate him from his hen . xx in this worlds youth wise nature did make hast , things ripened sooner , and did longer last ; already this hot cocke in bush and tree in field and tent oreflutters his next hen , he asks her not , who did so tast , nor when , nor if his sister , or his neece shee be , nor doth she pule for his inconstancie if in her sight he change , nor doth refuse the next that calls ; both liberty doe use ; where store is of both kindes , both kindes may freely chuse . xxi . men , till they tooke laws which made freedome lesse , their daughters , and their sisters did ingresse , till now unlawfull , therefore ill ; t' was not so jolly , that it can move this soule ; is the body so free of his kindnesses , that selfe preserving it hath now forgot , and slackneth so the soules , and bodies knot , which tēperance streightens ; freely on his she friends he blood , and spirit , pith , and marrow spends , ill steward of himself , himselfe in three yeares ends . xxii . else might he long have liv'd ; man did not know of gummie blood , which doth in holly grow how to make bird-lime , nor how to deceive with faind calls , his nets , or enwrapping snare the free inhabitants of the plyant aire . man to beget , and woman to conceive askt not of rootes , nor of cock-sparrowes , leave : yet chuseth hee , though none of these he feares , pleasantly three , then streightned twenty yeares to live , and to encrease , himselfe outweares . xxiii . this cole with overblowing quench'd and dead , the soule from her too active organs fled t' a brooke ; a female fishes sandie roe with the males jelly , newly lev'ned was , for they intertouched as they did passe , and one of those small bodies , fitted so , this soule inform'd , and abled it to roe it selfe with finnie oares , which she did fit , her scales seem'd yet of parchment , and as yet perchance a fish , but by no name you could call it . xxiv . when goodly , like a ship in her full trim , a swan , so white that you may unto him compare all whitenesse , but himselfe to none , glided along , and as he glided watch'd , and with his arched necke this poore fish catch'd . it mov'd with state , as if to looke upon low things it scorn'd , and yet before that one could thinke he sought it , he had swallowed cleare this , and much such , and unblam'd devour'd there all , but who too swift , too great , or well arm'd were xxv . now swome a prison in a prison put , and now this soule in double walls was shut , till melted with the swans digestive fire , she left her house the fish , and vapour'd forth ; fate not affording bodies of more worth for her as yet , bids her againe retire t'another fish , to any new desire made a new prey ; for , he that can to none resistance make , nor complaint , sure is gone . weaknesse invites , but silence feasts oppression . xxvi . pace with the native streame , this fish doth keepe , and journeyes with her , towards the glassie deepe , but oft retarded , once with a hidden net though with great windowes , for when need first taught these tricks to catch food , thē they were not wrought as now , with curious greedinesse to let none scape , but few , and fit for use to get , as , in this trap a ravenous pike was tane , who , though himselfe distrest , would faine have slain this wretch ; so hardly are ill habits left again . xxvii . here by her smallnesse shee two deaths orepast , once innocence scap'd , and left the oppressor fast ; the net through-swome , she keepes the liquid path , and whether she leape up sometimes to breath and suck in aire , or finde it underneath , or working parts like mills , or limbecks hath to make the wether thinne , and airelike faith cares not , but safe the place she 's come unto where fresh , with salt waves meet , and what to doe she knowes not , but betweene both makes a boord or two xxviii . so farre from hiding her guests , water is that she showes them in bigger quantities then they are . thus doubtfull of her way , for game and not for hunger a sea pie spied through this traiterous spectacle , from high , the seely fish where it disputing lay , and t' end her doubts and her , beares her away , exalted she'is , but to the exalters good , as are by great ones , men which lowly stood . it 's rais'd , to be the raisers instrument and food . xxix . is any kinde subject to rape like fish ? ill unto man , they neither doe , nor wish : fishers they kill not , nor with noise awake , they doe not hunt , nor strive to make a prey of beasts , nor their yong sonnes to beare away ; foules they pursue not , nor do undertake to spoile the nests industruous birds do make ; yet them all these unkinde kinds feed upon , to kill them is an occupation , and lawes make fasts , & lents for their destruction . xxx . a sudden stiffe land-winde in that selfe houre to sea-ward forc'd this bird , that did devour the fish ; he cares not , for with ease he flies , fat gluttonies best orator : at last so long hee hath flowen , and hath flowen so fast that leagues o'er-past at sea , now tir'd hee lyes , and with his prey , that till then languisht , dies , the soules no longer foes , two wayes did erre , the fish i follow , and keepe no calender of the other ; he lives yet in some great officer . xxxi . into an embrion fish , our soule is throwne and in due time throwne out againe , and growne to such vastnesse , as if unmanacled from greece , morea were , and that by some earthquake unrooted , loose morea swome , or seas from africks body had severed and torne the hopefull promontories head , this fish would seeme these , and , when all hopes faile , a great ship overset , or without saile hulling , might ( when this was a whelp ) be like this whale . xxxii . at every stroake his brazen finnes do take more circles in the broken sea they make then cannons voices , when the aire they teare : his ribs are pillars , and his high arch'd roofe of barke that blunts best steele , is thunder-proofe , swimme in him swallowed dolphins , without feare , and feele no sides , as if his vast wombe were some inland sea , and ever as hee went hee spouted rivers up , as if he ment to joyne our seas , with seas above the firmament . xxxiii . he hunts not fish , but as an officer , stayes in his court , at his owne net , and there all suitors of all sorts themselves enthrall ; so on his backe lyes this whale wantoning , and in his gulfe-like throat , sucks every thing that passeth neare . fish chaseth fish , and all , flyer and follower , in this whirlepoole fall ; o might not states of more equality consist ? and is it of necessity that thousand guiltlesse smals , to make one great , must die ? xxxiv . now drinkes he up seas , and he eates up flocks , he justles ilands , and he shakes firme rockes . now in a roomefull house this soule doth float , and like a prince she sends her faculties to all her limbes , distant as provinces . the sunne hath twenty times both crab and goate parched , since first lanch'd forth this living boate . 't is greatest now , and to destruction nearest ; there 's no pause at perfection . greatnesse a period hath , but hath no station . xxxv . two little fishes whom hee never harm'd , nor fed on their kinde , two not throughly arm'd with hope that they could kill him , nor could doe good to themselves by his death : they did not eate his flesh , nor suck those oyles , which thence outstreat , conspir'd against him , and it might undoe the plot of all , that the plotters were two , but that they fishes were , and could not speake . how shall a tyran wise strong projects breake , if wreches can on them the common anger wreake ? xxxvi . the flaile-find thresher , and steel-beak'd sword-fish onely attempt to doe , what all doe wish . the thresher backs him , and to beate begins ; the sluggard whale yeelds to oppression , and t'hide himselfe from shame and danger , downe begins to sinke ; the swordfish upward spins , and gores him with his beake ; his staffe-like finnes , so were the one , his sword the other plyes , that now a scoffe , and prey , this tyran dyes , and ( his owne dole ) feeds with himselfe all companies . xxxvii . who will revenge his death ? or who will call those to account , that thought , and wrought his fall ? the heires of slaine kings , wee see are often so transported with the joy of what they get , that they , revenge , and obsequies forget , nor will against such men the people goe , because h 'is now dead , to whom they should show love in that act . some kings by vice being growne so needy of subjects love , that of their won they thinke they lose , if love be to the dead prince shown . xxxviii . this soule , now free from prison , and passion , hath yet a little indignation that so small hammers should so soone downe beat so great a castle . and having for her house got the streight cloyster of a wreched mouse ( as basest men that have not what to eate , nor enjoy ought , doe farre more hate the great then they , who good repos'd estates possesse ) this soule , late taught that great things might by lesse be slain , to gallant mischiefe doth herselfe addresse . xxxix . natures great master-peece , an elephant , the onely harmlesse great thing ; the giant of beasts ; who thought , no more had gone , to make one wise but to be just , and thankfull , loth to offend , ( yet nature hath given him no knees to bend ) himselfe he up-props , on himselfe relies and foe to none , suspects no enemies , still sleeping stood ; vex't not his fantasie blacke dreames , like an unbent bow , carelesly his sinewy proboscis did remisly lie . xl. in which as in a gallery this mouse walk'd , and surveid the roomes of this vast house , and to the braine , the soules bed chamber , went , and gnaw'd the life cords there ; like a whole towne cleane undermin'd , the slaine beast tumbled downe , with him the murtherer dies whom envy sent to kill , not scape , for , only hee that ment to die , did ever kill a man of better roome , and thus he made his foe , his prey , and tombe : who cares not to turn back , may any whither come . xli . next , hous'd this soule a wolves yet unborne whelp , till the best midwife , nature , gave it helpe , to issue . it could kill , as soone as goe , abel , as white , and milde as his sheepe were , ( who in that trade of church , and kingdomes , there was the first type ) was still infested soe , with this wolfe , that it bred his losse and woe ; and yet his bitch , his sentinell attends the flocke so neere , so well warnes and defends , that the wolfe , ( hopelesse else ) to corrupt her , intends . xlii . hee tooke a course , which since , succesfully , great men have often taken , to espie the counsels , or to breake the plots of foes , to abels tent he stealeth in the darke , on whose skirts the bitch slept ; ere she could barke , attach'd her with streight gripes , yet hee call'd those , embracements of love ; to loves worke he goes , where deeds move more then words ; nor doth she show , nor much resist , nor needs hee streighten so his prey , for , were shee loose , she would not barke , nor goe . xliii . hee hath engag'd her ; his , she wholy bides ; who not her owne , none others secrets hides , if to the flocke he come , and abell there , she faines hoarse barkings , but she biteth not , her faith is quite , but not her love forgot . at last a trap , of which some every where abell had plac'd , ends all his losse , and feare , by the wolves death ; and now just time it was that a quicke soule should give life to that masse of blood in abels bitch , and thither this did passe . xliv . some have their wives , their sisters some begot , but in the lives of emperours you shall not reade of a lust the which may equall this ; this wolfe begot himselfe , and finished what he began alive , when hee was dead , sonne to himselfe , and father too , hee is a ridling lust , for which schoolemen would misse a proper name . the whelpe of both these lay in abels tent , and with soft moaba , his sister , being yong , it us'd to sport and play . xlv . hee soone for her too harsh , and churlish grew , and abell ( the dam dead ) would use this new for the field , being of two kindes made , he , as his dam , from sheepe drove wolves away , and as his sire , he made them his owne prey . five yeares he liv'd , and cosened with his trade , then hopelesse that his faults were hid , betraid himselfe by flight , and by all followed , from dogges , a wolfe ; from wolves , a dogge he fled ; and , like a spie to both sides false , he perished . xlvi . it quickned next a toyfull ape , and so gamesome it was , that it might freely goe from tent to tent , and with the children play , his organs now so like theirs hee doth finde , that why he cannot laugh , and speake his minde , he wonders . much with all , most he doth stay with adams fift daughter siphatecia , doth gaze on her , and , where she passeth , passe , gathers her fruits , and tumbles on the grasse , and wisest of that kinde , the first true lover was . xlvii . he was the first that more desir'd to have one then another ; first that ere did crave love by mute signes , and had no power to speake ; first that could make love faces , or could doe the valters sombersalts , or us'd to wooe with hoiting gambolls , his owne bones to breake to make his mistresse merry ; or to wreake her anger on himselfe . sinnes against kinde they easily doe , that can let feed their minde with outward beauty , beauty they in boyes and beasts do find . xlviii . by this misled , too low things men have prov'd , and too high ; beasts and angels have beene lov'd ; this ape , though else through-vaine , in this was wise , he reach'd at things too high , but open way there was , and he knew not she would say nay ; his toyes prevaile not , likelier meanes he tries , he gazeth on her face with teare-shot eyes , and up lifts subtly with his russet pawe her kidskinne apron without feare or awe of nature ; nature hath no gaole , though shee hath law . xlix . first she was silly and knew not what he ment , that vertue , by his touches , chaft and spent , succeeds an itchie warmth , that melts her quite , she knew not first , now cares not what he doth , and willing halfe and more , more then halfe tooth she neither puls nor pushes , but outright now cries , and now repents ; when tethelemite her brother , entred , and a great stone threw after the ape , who , thus prevented , flew , this house thus batter'd downe , the soule possest a new . l. and whether by this change she lose or win , she comes out next , where the ape would have gone in , adam and eve had mingled bloods , and now like chimiques equall fires , her temperate wombe had stew'd and form'd it : and part did become a spungie liver , that did richly allow , like a free conduit , on a high hils brow , life keeping moisture unto every part , part hardned it selfe to a thicker heart , whose busie furnaces lifes spirits do impart . li. another part became the well of sense , the tender well arm'd feeling braine , from whence , those sinowie strings which do our bodies tie , are raveld out , and fast there by one end , did this soule limbes , these limbes a soule attend , and now they joyn'd : keeping some quality of every past shape , she knew treachery , rapine , deceit , and lust , and ills enow to be a woman . themech she is now , sister and wife to caine , caine that first did plow. lii . who ere thou beest that read'st this sullen writ , which just so much courts thee , as thou dost it , let me arrest thy thoughts , wonder with mee , why plowing , building , ruling and the rest , or most of those arts , whence our lives are blest , by cursed cains race invented be , and blest seth vext us with astronomie , ther 's nothing simply good , nor ill alone , of every quality comparison , the onely measure is , and judge , opinion . holy sonnets . la corona . 1. deigne at my hands this crown of prayer and praise , weav'd in my low devout melancholie , thou which of good , hast , yea art treasury , all changing unchang'd antient of dayes , but doe not , with a vile crowne of fraile bayes , reward my muses white sincerity , but what thy thorny crowne gain'd , that give mee , a crowne of glory , which doth flower alwayes ; the ends crowne our workes , but thou crown'st our ends , for , at our end begins our endlesse rest , the first last end , now zealously possest , with a strong sober thirst , my soule attends . 't is time that heart and voice be lifted high , salvation to all that will is nigh , annvnciation . 2 salvation to all that will is nigh , that all , which alwayes is all every where , which cannot sinne , and yet all sinnes must beare , which cannot die , yet cannot chuse but die , loe , faithfull virgin , yeelds himselfe to lye in prison , in thy wombe ; and though he there can take no sinne , nor thou give , yet he'will weare taken from thence , flesh , which deaths force may trie . ere by the spheares time was created , thou wast in his minde , who is thy sonne , and brother , whom thou conceiv'st , conceiv'd ; yea thou art now thy makers maker , and thy fathers mother , thou'hast light in darke ; and shutst in little roome , immensity cloysterd in thy deare wombe . nativitie . 3 immensitie cloysterd in thy deare wombe , now leaves his welbelov'd imprisonment , there he hath made himselfe to his intent weake enough , now into our world to come ; but oh , for thee , for him , hath th'inne no roome ? yet lay him in this stall , and from the orient , starres , and wisemen will travell to prevent th' effects of herods jealous generall doome ; seest thou , my soule , with thy faiths eyes , how he which fils all place , yet none holds him , doth lye ? was not his pity towards thee wondrous high , that would have need to be pittied by thee ? kisse him , and with him into egypt goe , with his kinde mother , who partakes thy woe . temple . 4 with his kinde mother who partakes thy woe , ioseph turne backe ; see where your child doth sit , blowing , yea blowing out those sparks of wit , which himselfe on the doctors did bestow ; the word but lately could not speake , and loe it sodenly speakes wonders , whence comes it , that all which was , and all which should be writ , a shallow seeming child , should deeply know ? his godhead was not soule to his manhood , nor had time mellowed him to this ripenesse , but as for one which hath a long taske , 't is good , with the sunne to beginne his businesse , he in his ages morning thus began by miracles exceeding power of man. crvcifying . 5 by miracles exceeding power of man , hee faith in some , envie in some begat , for , what weake spirits admire , ambitious , hate ; in both affections many to him ran , but oh! the worst are most , they will and can , alas , and do , unto the immaculate , whose creature fate is , now prescribe a fate , measuring selfe-lifes infinity to span , nay to an inch , loe , where condemned hee beares his owne crosse , with paine , yet by and by when it beares him , he must beare more and die ; now thou art lifted up , draw mee to thee , and at thy death giving such liberall dole , moyst , with one drop of thy blood , my dry soule . resvrrection . 6 moyst with one drop of thy blood , my dry soule , shall ( though she now be in extreme degree too stony hard , and yet too fleshly , ) bee freed by that drop , from being starv'd , hard , or foule , and life , by this death abled , shall controule death , whom thy death slue ; nor shall to mee feare of first or last death , bring miserie , if in thy little booke my name thou enroule , flesh in that long sleep is not putrified , but made that there , of which , and for which 't was ; nor can by other meanes be glorified . may then sinnes sleep , and death soone from me passe , that wak't from both , i againe risen may salute the last , and everlasting day . ascention . 7 salute the last and everlasting day , joy at the uprising of this sunne , and sonne , yee whose just teares , or tribulation have purely washt , or burnt your drossie clay ; behold the highest , parting hence away , lightens the darke clouds , which hee treads upon , nor doth hee by ascending , show alone , but first hee , and hee first enters the way , o strong ramme , which hast batter'd heaven for mee , mild lambe which with thy blood , hast mark'd the path ; bright torch , which shin'st , that i the way may see , oh , with thy owne blood quench thy owne just wrath , and if thy holy spirit , my muse did raise , deigne at my hands this crowne of prayer and praise . holy sonnets . i. as due by many titles i resigne my selfe to thee , o god , first i was made by thee , and for thee , and when i was decay'd thy blood bought that , the which before was thine , i am thy sonne , made with thy selfe to shine , thy servant , whose paines thou hast still repaid , thy sheepe , thine image , and till i betray'd my selfe , a temple of thy spirit divine ; why doth the devill then usurpe on mee ? why doth he steale nay ravish that 's thy right ? except thou rise and for thine owne worke fight , oh i shall soone despaire , when i doe see that thou lov'st mankind well , yet wilt'not chuse me . and satan hates mee , yet is loth to lose mee . ii. oh my blacke soule ! now thou art summoned by sicknesse , deaths herald , and champion ; thou art like a pilgrim , which abroad hath done treason , and durst not turne to whence hee is fled , or like a thiefe , which till deaths doome be read , wisheth himselfe delivered from prison ; but damn'd and hal'd to execution , wisheth that still he might be imprisoned ; yet grace , if thou repent , thou canst not lacke ; but who shall give thee that grace to beginne ? oh make thy selfe with holy mourning blacke , and red with blushing , as thou art with sinne ; or wash thee in christs blood , which hath this might that being red , it dyes red soules to white . iii. this is my playes last scene , here heavens appoint my pilgrimages last mile ; and my race idly , yet quickly runne , hath this last pace , my spans last inch , my minutes latest point , and gluttonous death , will instantly unjoynt my body , and my soule , and i shall sleepe a space , but my'ever-waking part shall see that face , whose feare already shakes my every joynt : then , as my soule , to'heaven her first seate , takes flight , and earth borne body , in the earth shall dwell , so , fall my sinnes , that all may have their right , to where they' are bred , and would presse me , to hell . impute me righteous , thus purg'd of evill , for thus i leave the world , the flesh the devill . iv. at the round earths imagin'd corners , blow your trumpets , angells , and arise , arise from death , you numberlesse infinities of soules , and to your scattred bodies goe , all whom the flood did , and fire shall o'erthrow , all whom warre , death , age , agues , tyrannies , despaire , law , chance , hath slaine , and you whose eyes , shall behold god , and never tast deaths woe , but let them sleepe , lord , and mee mourne a space , for , if above all these , my sinnes abound , 't is late to aske abundance of thy grace , when wee are there ; here on this lowly ground , teach mee how to repent ; for that 's as good as if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon , with thy blood . v. if poysonous mineralls , and if that tree , whose fruit threw death on else immortall us , if lecherous goats , if serpents envious cannot be damn'd ; alas ; why should i bee ? why should intent or reason , borne in mee , make sinnes , else equall , in mee , more heinous ? and mercy being easie , and glorious to god , in his sterne wrath , why threatens hee ? but who am i , that dare dispute with thee ? o god , oh! of thine onely worthy blood , and my teares , make a heavenly lethean flood , and drowne in it my sinnes blacke memorie , that thou remember them , some claime as debt , i thinke it mercy , if thou wilt forget , vi. death be not proud , though some have called thee mighty and dreadfull , for , thou art not soe , for , those , whom thou think'st , thou dost overthrow , die not , poore death , nor yet canst thou kill mee ; from rest and sleepe , which but thy pictures bee , much pleasure , then from thee , much more must flow , and soonest our best men with thee doe goe , rest of their bones , and soules deliverie thou art slave to fate , chance , kings , and desperate men , and doth with poyson , warre , and sicknesse dwell . and poppie , or charmes can make us sleepe as well , and better then thy stroake ; why swell'st thou then ? one short sleepe past , wee wake eternally , and death shall be no more , death thou shalt die . vii . spit in my face you jewes , and pierce my side , buffet , and scoffe , scourge , and crucifie mee , for i have sinn'd , and sinn'd , and onely hee , who could do no iniquitie , hath dyed : but by my death can not be satisfied my sinnes , which passe the jewes impiety : they kill'd once an inglorious man , but i crucifie him daily , being now glorified ; oh let mee then , his strange love still admire : kings pardon but he bore our punishment . and iacob came cloth'd in vile harsh attire but to supplant , and with gainfull intent god cloth'd himselfe in vile mans flesh , that so hee might be weake enough to suffer woe . viii . why are wee by all creatures waited on ? why doe the prodigall elements supply life and food to mee , being more pure then i , simple , and further from corruption ? why brook'st thou , ignorant horse , subjection ? why dost thou bull , and bore so seelily dissemble weaknesse , and by'one mans stroke die , whose whole kinde , you might swallow & feed upon ? weaker i am , woe is mee , and worse then you , you have not sinn'd , nor need be timorous , but wonder at a greater wonder , for to us created nature doth these things subdue , but their creator , whom sin , nor nature tyed , for us , his creatures , and his foes , hath dyed . ix . what if this present were the worlds last night ? marke in my heart , o soule , where thou dost dwell , the picture of christ crucified , and tell whether his countenance can thee affright , teares in his eyes quench the amasing light , blood fills his frownes , which from his pierc'd head fell and can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell , which pray'd forgivenesse for his foes fierce spight ? no , no ; but as in my idolatrie i said to all my profane mistresses , beauty , of pitty , foulnesse onely is a signe of rigour : so i say to thee , to wicked spirits are horrid shapes assign'd , this beauteous forme assumes a pitious minde . x. batter my heart , three person'd god ; for , you as yet but knocke , breathe , shine , and seeke to mend ; that i may rise , and stand , o'erthrow mee , ' and bend your force , to breake , blowe , burn and make me new , i , like an usurpt towne , to'another due , labour to'admit you , but oh , to no end , reason your viceroy in mee , mee should defend , but is captiv'd , and proves weake or untrue , yet dearely'i love you , and would be lov'd faine , but am betroth'd unto your enemie , divorce mee , ' untie , or breake that knot againe , take mee to you , imprison mee , for i except you'enthral mee , never shall be free , nor ever chast , except you ravish mee . xi . wilt thou love god , as he thee ! then digest , my soule , this wholsome meditation , how god the spirit , by angels waited on in heaven , doth make his temple in thy brest , the father having begot a sonne most blest , and still begetting , ( for he ne'r begonne ) hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption , coheire to'his glory , ' and sabbaths endlesse rest ; and as a robb'd man , which by search doth finde his stolne stuffe sold , must lose or buy'it againe : the sonne of glory came downe , and was slaine , us whom he'had made , and satan stolne , to unbinde . 't was much , that man was made like god before , but , that god should be made like man , much more . xii . father , part of his double interest unto thy kingdome , thy sonne gives to mee , his joynture in the knottie trinitie , hee keepes , and gives to me his deaths conquest , this lambe , whose death , with life the world hath blest , was from the worlds beginning slaine , and he hath made two wills , which with the legacie of his and thy kingdome , doe thy sonnes invest , yet such are these laws , that men argue yet whether a man those statutes can fulfill ; none doth , but thy all-healing grace and spirit , revive againe what law and letter kill , thy lawes abridgement , and thy last command is all but love ; oh let this last will stand ! epigrams . hero and leander . both rob'd of aire , we both lye in one ground , both whom one fire had burnt , one water drownd . pyramus and thisbe . two , by themselves , each other , love and feare slaine , cruell friends , by parting have joyn'd here . niobe . by childrens births , and death , i am become so dry , that i am now mine owne sad tombe . a burnt ship . out of a fired ship , which , by no way but drowning , could be rescued from the flame , some men leap'd forth , and ever as they came neere the foes ships , did by their shot decay ; so all were lost , which in the ship were found , they in the sea being burnt , they in the burnt ship drown'd . fall of a wall . under an undermin'd , and shot-bruis'd wall a too-bold captaine perish'd by the fall , whose brave misfortune , happiest men envi'd , that had a towne for tombe , his bones to hide . a lame begger . i am unable , yonder begger cries , to stand , or moue ; if he say true , hee lies . a selfe accuser . your mistris , that you follow whores , still taxeth you : 't is strange that she should thus confesse it , though'it be true . a licentious person . thy sinnes and haires may no man equall call , for , as thy sinnes increase , thy haires doe fall . antiquary . if in his studie he hath so much care to'hang all old strange things , let his wife beware . disinherited . thy father all from thee , by his last will gave to the poore ; thou hast good title still , phryne . thy flattering picture , phryne , is like thee , onely in this , that you both painted be . an obscure writer . philo , with twelve yeares study , hath beene griev'd , to'be understood , when will hee be beleev'd . klockius so deeply hath sworne , ne'r more to come in bawdie house , that hee dares not goe home . raderus . why this man gelded martiall i muse , except himselfe alone his tricks would use , as katherine , for the courts sake , put downe stewes . mercurlus gallo-belgicus . like esops fellow-slaves , o mercury , which could do all things , thy faith is ; and i like esops selfe , which nothing ; i confesse i should have had more faith , if thou hadst lesse ; thy credit lost thy credit : 't is sinne to doe , in this case , as thou wouldst be done unto , to beleeve all : change thy name : thou art like mercury in stealing , but lyest like a greeke . compassion in the world againe is bred : ralphius is sick , the broker keeps his bed . elegie . i. fond woman which would'st have thy husband die , and yet complain'st of his great jealousie ; if swolne with poyson , hee lay in'his last bed , his body with a sere-barke covered , drawing his breath , as thick and short , as can the nimblest crocheting musitian , ready with loathsome vomiting to spue his soule out of one hell , into a new , made deafe with his poore kindreds howling cries , begging with few feign'd teares , great legacies , thou would'st not weepe , but jolly , ' and frolicke bee , as a slave , which to morrow should be free , yet weep'st thou , when thou seest him hungerly swallow his owne death , hearts-bane jealousie . o give him many thanks , he 'is courteous , that in suspecting kindly warneth us . wee must not , as wee us'd , flout openly , in scoffing ridles , his deformitie ; nor at his boord together being satt , with words , nor touch , scarce lookes adulterate . nor when he swolne , and pamper'd with great fare sits downe , and snorts , cag'd in his basket chaire , must wee usurpe his owne bed any more , nor kisse and play in his house , as before . now i see many dangers ; for it is his realme , his castle , and his diocesse . but if , as envious men , which would revile their prince , or coyne his gold , themselves exile into another countrie , ' and doe it there , wee play'in another house , what should we feare ? there we will scorne his houshold policies , his seely plots , and pensionary spies , as the inhabitants of thames right side do londons major , or germans , the popes pride . elegie ii. marry , and love thy flavia , for , shee hath all things , whereby others beautious bee , for , though her eyes be small , her mouth is great , though they be ivory , yet her teeth be jear , though they be dimme , yet she is light enough , and though her harsh haire fall , her skinne is rough ; what though her cheeks be yellow , her haire 's red , give her thine , and she hath a maydenhead . these things are beauties elements , where these meet in one , that one must , as perfect , please . if red and white and each good quality be in thy wench , ne'r aske where it doth lye . in buying things perfum'd , we aske ; if there be muske and amber in it , but not where . though all her parts be not in th'usuall place , she'hath yet an anagram of a good face . if we might put the letters but one way , in the leane dearth of words , what could wee say ? when by the gamut some musitions make a perfect song , others will undertake , by the same gamut chang'd , to equall it . things simply good , can never be unfit ; she 's faire as any , if all be like her , and if none bee , then she is singular . all love is wonder ; if wee justly doe account her wonderfull , why not lovely too ? love built on beauty , soone as beauty , dies , chuse this face , chang'd by no deformities ; women are all like angels ; the faire be like those which fell to worse ; but such as shee , like to good angels , nothing can impaire : 't is lesse griefe to be foule , then to'have beene faire . for one nights revels , silke and gold we chuse , but , in long journeyes , cloth , and leather use . beauty is barren oft ; best husbands say there is best land , where there is foulest way . oh what a soveraigne plaister will shee bee if thy past sinnes have taught thee jealousie ! here needs no spies , nor eunuches ; her commit safe to thy foes ; yea , to a marmosit . when belgiaes citties , the round countries drowne , that durty foulenesse guards , and armes the towne : so doth her face guard her ; and so , for thee , which , forc'd by businesse , absent oft must bee , shee , whose face , like clouds , turnes the day to night , who , mightier thē the sea , makes moores seem white , who , though seaven yeares , she in the stews had laid , a nunnery durst receive , and thinke a maid , and though in childbeds labour she did lie , midwifes would sweare , 't were but a tympanie , whom , if shee accuse her selfe , i credit lesse then witches , which impossibles confesse . one like none , and lik'd of none , fittest were , for , things in fashion every man will weare . elegie iii. although thy hand and faith , and good workes too , have seal'd thy love which nothing should undoe , yea though thou fall backe , that apostasie confirme thy love ; yet much , much i feare thee . women , are like the arts , forc'd unto none , open to'all searchers , unpriz'd , if unknowne . if i have caught a bird , and let him flie , another fouler using these meanes , as i , may catch the same bird ; and , as these things bee , women are made for men , not him , nor mee . foxes and goats ; all beasts change when they please , shall women , more hot , wily , wild then these , be bound to one man , and did nature then idly make them apter to'endure then men ? they' are our clogges , not their owne ; if a man bee chain'd to a galley , yet the galley'is free ; who hath a plow-land , casts all his seed corne there , and yet allowes his ground more corne should beare ; though danuby into the sea must flow , the sea receives the rhene , volga , and po. by nature , which gave it , this liberty thou lov'st , but oh! canst thou love it and mee ? likenesse glues love : and if that thou so doe , to make us like and love , must i change too ? more then thy hate , i hate'it , rather let mee allow her change , then change as oft as shee , and soe not teach , but force my'opinion to love not any one , nor every one . to live in one land , is captivitie , to runne all countries , a wild roguery ; waters stincke soone , if in one place they bide , and in the vast sea are more putrifi'd : but when they kisse one banke , and leaving this never looke backe , but the next banke doe kisse , then are they purest ; change'is the nursery of musicke , joy , life , and eternity . elegie iv. once , and but once found in thy company , all thy suppos'd escapes are laid on mee ; and as a thiefe at barre , is question'd there by all the men , that have beene rob'd that yeare , so am i , ( by this traiterous meanes surpriz'd ) by thy hydroptique father catechiz'd . though hee hath oft sworne , that hee would remove thy beauties beautie , and food of our love , hope of his goods , if i with thee were seene , yet close and secret , as our soules , we'have beene . though thy immortall mother which doth lye still buried in her bed , yet will not dye , takes this advantage to sleepe out day-light , and watch thy entries , and returnes all night , and , when she takes thy hand , and would seeme kind , doth search what rings , and armelets she can finde , and kissing notes the colour of thy face , and fearing least thou' art swolne , doth thee embrace ; to trie if thou long , doth name strange meates . and notes thy palenesse , blushing , sighs , and sweats ; and politiquely will to thee confesse the sinnes of her owne youths ranke lustinesse ; yet love these sorceries did remove , and move thee to gull thine owne mother for my love . thy little brethren , which like faiery sprights oft skipt into our chamber , those sweet nights , and kist , and ingled on thy fathers knee , were brib'd next day , to tell what they did see . the grim-eight-foot-high-iron-bound serving-man , that oft names god in oathes , and onely than , he that to barre the first gate , doth as wide as the great rhodian colossus stride , which , if in hell no other paines there were , makes mee feare hell , because he must be there : though by thy father he were hir'd to this , could never witnesse any touch or kisse ; but oh , too common ill , i brought with mee that , which betray'd mee to my enemie : a loud perfume , which at my entrance cryed even at thy fathers nose , so were wee spied . when , like a tyran king , that in his bed smelt gunpowder , the pale wretch shivered ; had it beene some bad smell , he would have thought that his owne feet , or breath , that smell had wrought but as wee in our i le emprisoned , where cattell onely , ' and diverse dogs are bred , the pretious vnicornes , strange monsters , call , so thought he good , strange , that had none at all . i taught my silkes , their whistling to forbeare , even my opprest shoes , dumbe and speechlesse were , onely , thou bitter sweet , whom i had laid next mee , mee traiterously hast betraid , and unsuspected hast invisibly at once fled unto him , and staid with mee . base excrement of earth , which dost confound sense , from distinguishing the sicke from sound ; by thee the seely amorous sucks his death by drawing in a leprous harlots breath , by thee , the greatest staine to mans estate falls on us , to be call'd effeminate ; though you be much lov'd in the princes hall , there , things that seeme , exceed substantiall . gods , when yee fum'd on altars , were pleas'd well , because you'were burnt , not that they lik'd your smell , you' are loathsome all , being taken simply alone , shall wee love ill things joyn'd , and hate each one ? if you were good , your good doth soone decay ; and you are rare , that takes the good away . all my perfumes , i give most willingly to'embalme thy fathers corse ; what ? will hee die ? elegie v. here take my picture , though i bid farewell ; thine , in my heart , where my soule dwels , shall dwell . 't is like me now , but i dead , 't will be more when wee are shadowes both , then 't was before . when weather-beaten i come backe ; my hand , perhaps with rude oares torne , or sun beams tann'd , my face and brest of hairecloth , and my head with cares rash sodaine stormes , being o'rspread , my body'a sack of bones , broken within , and powders blew staines scatter'd on my skinne ; if rivall fooles taxe thee to'have lov'd a man , so foule , and course , as , oh , i may seeme than , this shall say what i was : and thou shalt say , doe his hurts reach mee ? doth my worth decay ? or doe they reach his judging minde , that hee should now love lesse , what hee did love to see ? that which in him was faire and delicate , was but the milke , which in loves childish state did nurse it : who now is growne strong enough to feed on that , which to disus'd tasts seemes tough . elegie vi. sorrow , who to this house scarce knew the way : is , oh , heire of it , our all is his prey . this strange chance claimes strange wonder , and to us ' nothing can be so strange , as to weepe thus ; 't is well his life 's loud speaking workes deserve , and give praise too , our cold tongues could not serve : 't is well , hee kept teares from our eyes before , that to fit this deep ill , we might have store . oh , if a sweet briar , climbe up by'a tree , if to a paradise that transplanted bee , or fell'd , and burnt for holy sacrifice , yet , that must wither , which by it did rise , as wee for him dead : though no familie ere rigg'd a soule for heavens discoverie with whom more venturers more boldly dare venture their states , with him in joy to share wee lose what all friends lov'd , him , he gaines now but life by death , which worst foes would allow , if hee could have foes , in whose practise grew all vertues , whose names subtile schoolmen knew ; what ease , can hope that wee shall see'him , beget , when wee must die first , and cannot dye yet ? his children are his pictures , oh they bee pictures of him dead , senselesse , cold as he , here needs no marble tombe , since hee is gone , he , and about him , his , are turn'd to stone . elegie vii . oh , let mee not serve so , as those men serve whom honours smoakes at once fatten and sterve ; poorely enrich't with great mens words or lookes ; nor so write my name in thy loving bookes as those idolatrous flatterers , which still their princes stiles , which many realmes fulfill whence they no tribute have , and where no sway . such services i offer as shall pay themselves , i hate dead names : oh then let mee favorite in ordinary , or no favorite bee . when my soule was in her owne body sheath'd , nor yet by oathes betroth'd , nor kisses breath'd into my purgatory , faithlesse thee , thy heart seem'd waxe , and steele thy constancie . so , carelesse flowers strow'd on the waters face , the curled whirlepooles suck , smack , and embrace , yet drowne them ; so , the tapers beamie eye amorously twinkling , beckens the giddie flie , yet burnes his wings ; and such the devill is , scarce visiting them , who are intirely his . when i behold a streame , which , from the spring , doth with doubtfull melodious murmuring , or in a speechlesse slumber , calmely ride her wedded channels bosome , and then chide and bend her browes , and swell if any bough do but stoop downe , or kisse her upmost brow : yet , if her often gnawing kisses winne the traiterous banks to gape , and let her in , she rusheth violently , and doth divorce her from her native , and her long-kept course , and rores , and braves it , and in gallant scorne , in flattering eddies promising retorne , she flouts the channell , who thenceforth is drie ; then say i ; that is shee , and this am i. yet let not thy deepe bitternesse beget carelesse despaire in mee , for that will whet my minde to scorne ; and oh , love dull'd with paine was ne'r so wise , nor well arm'd as disdaine . then with new eyes i shall survay thee , ' and spie death in thy cheekes , and darknesse in thine eye ; though hope bred faith and love ; thus taught , i shall as nations do from rome , from thy love fall . my hate shall outgrow thine , and utterly i will renounce thy dalliance : and when i am the recusant , in that resolute state , what hurts it mee to be'excommunicate ? elegie viii . natures lay ideot , i taught thee to love , and in that sophistrie , oh , thou dost prove too subtile : foole , thou didst not understand the mystique language of the eye nor hand : nor couldst thou judge the difference of the aire of sighes , and say , this lies , this sounds despaire . nor by the'eyes water call a maladie desperately hot , or changing feaverously . i had not taught thee then , the alphabet of flowers , how they devisefully being set and bound up , might with speechlesse secrecie deliver arrands mutely , and mutually . remember since all thy words us'd to bee to every suitor ; i , if my friends agree . since , houshold charmes , thy husbands name to teach , were all the love trickes , that thy wit could reach ; and since , an houres discourse could scarce have made one answer in thee , and that ill arraid in broken proverbs , and torne sentences . thou art not by so many duties his , that from the worlds common having sever'd thee , inlaid thee , neither to be seene , nor see , as mine : who have with amorous delicacies refin'd thee'into a blis-full paradise . thy graces and good words my creatures bee , i planted knowledge and lifes tree in thee , which oh , shall strangers taste ? must i alas frame and enamell plate , and drinke inglasse ? chafe waxe for others seales ? breake a colts force and leave him then , beeing made a ready horse ? the storme . to mr christopher brooke . thou which art i , ( 't is nothing to be soe ) thou which art still thy selfe , by these shalt know part of our passage ; and , a hand , or eye by hilliard drawne , is worth an history , by a worse painter made ; and ( without pride ) when by thy judgment they are dignifi'd , my lines are such . 't is the preheminence of friendship onely to'impute excellence . england to whom we'owe , what we be , and have , sad that her sonnes did seeke a forraine grave ( for , fates , or fortunes drifts none can southsay , honour and misery have one face and way . ) from out her pregnant intrailes sigh'd a winde which at th'ayres middle marble roome did finde such strong resistance , that it selfe it threw downeward againe ; and so when it did view how in the port , our fleet deare time did leese , withering like prisoners , which lye but for fees , mildly it kist our sailes , and , fresh , and sweet , as , to a stomack sterv'd , whose insides meete , meate comes , it came ; and swole our sailes , when wee so joyd , as sara ' her swelling joy'd to see . but 't was , but so kinde , as our countrimen , which bring friends one dayes way , and leave them then . then like two mighty kings , which dwelling farre blew , asunder , meet against a third to warre , the south and west winds joyn'd , and , as they blew , waves like a rowling trench before them threw . sooner then you read this line , did the gale , like shot , not fear'd , till felt , our sailes assaile ; and what at first was call'd a gust , the same hath now a stormes , a non a tempests name . ionas , i pitty thee , and curse those men , who when the storm rag'd most , did wake thee then ; sleepe is paines easiest salue , and doth fullfill all offices of death , except to kill . but when i wakt , i saw , that i saw not . i , and the sunne , which should teach mee'had forgot east , west , day , night , and i could onely say , if the world had lasted , now it had beene day . thousands our noyses were , yet wee ' mongst all could none by his right name , but thunder call : lightning was all our light , and it rain'd more then if the sunne had drunke the sea before ; some coffin'd in their cabbins lye , ' equally griev'd that they are not dead , and yet must dye . and as sin-burd'ned soules from grave will creepe , at the last day , some forth their cabbins peepe : and tremblingly'aske what newes , and doe heare so , like jealous husbands , what they would not know . some sitting on the hatches , would seeme there , with hideous gazing to feare away feare . then note they the ships sicknesses , the mast shak'd with this ague , and the hold and wast with a salt dropsie clog'd , and all our tacklings snapping , like too-high-stretched treble strings . and from our totterd sailes , ragges drop downe so , as from one hang'd in chaines , a yeare agoe . even our ordinance plac'd for our defence , strive to breake loose , and scape away from thence . pumping hath tir'd our men , and what 's the gaine ? seas into seas throwne , we suck in againe ; hearing hath deaf'd our saylers ; and if they knew how to heare , there 's none knowes what to say . compar'd to these stormes , death is but a qualme , hell somewhat lightsome , and the' bermuda calme . darknesse , lights eldest brother , his birth-right claim'd o'r this world , and to heaven hath chas'd light . all things are one , and that one none can be , since all formes , uniforme deformity doth cover , so that wee , except god say another fiat , shall have no more day . so violent , yet long these furies bee , that though thine absence sterve me , ' i wish not thee . the calme . our storme is past , and that storms tyrannous rage , a stupid calme , but nothing it , doth swage . the fable is inverted , and farre more a blocke afflicts , now , then a storke before . stormes chafe , and soone weare out themselves , or us ; in calmes , heaven laughs to see us languish thus . as steady'as i can wish , that my thoughts were , smooth as thy mistresse glasse , or what shines there , the sea is now . and , as the iles which wee seeke , when wee can move , our ships rooted bee . as water did in stormes , now pitch runs out as lead , when a fir'd church becomes one spout . and all our beauty , and our trimme , decayes , like courts removing , or like ended playes . the fighting place now seamens ragges supply ; and all the tackling is a frippery . no use of lanthornes ; and in one place lay feathers and dust , to day and yesterday . earths hollownesses , which the worlds lungs are , have no more winde then the upper valt of aire . we can nor lost friends , nor sought foes recover , but meteorlike , save that wee move not , hover . onely the calenture together drawes deare friends , which meet dead in great fishes jawes : and on the hatches as on altars lyes each one , his owne priest , and owne sacrifice . who live , that miracle do multiply where walkers in hot ovens , doe not dye . if in despite of these , wee swimme , that hath no more refreshing , then our brimstone bath , but from the sea , into the ship we turne , like parboyl'd wretches , on the coales to burne . like bajazet encag'd , the sheepheards scoffe , or like-slacke sinew'd sampson , his haire off , languish our ships . now , as a miriade of ants , durst th' emperours lov'd snake invade , the crawlin ▪ gallies , sea-goales , finny chips , might brave our venices , now bed-ridde ships . whether a rotten state , and hope of gaine , or , to disuse mee from the queasie paine of being belov'd , and loving , or the thirst of honour , or faire death , out pusht mee first , i lose my end : for here as well as i a desperate may live , and a coward die . stagge , dogge , and all which from , or towards flies , is paid with life , or pray , or doing dyes . fate grudges us all , and doth subtly lay a scourge , ' gainst which wee all forget to pray , he that at sea prayes for more winde , as well under the poles may begge cold , heat in hell . what are wee then ? how little more alas is man now , then before he was ? he was nothing ; for us , wee are for nothing fit ; chance , or our selves still disproportion it . wee have no power , no will , no sense ; i lye , i should not then thus feele this miserie . to sr henry wotton . sir , more then kisses , letters mingle soules ; for , thus friends absent speake . this ease controules the tediousnesse of my life : but for these i could ideate nothing , which could please , but i should wither in one day , and passe to'a botle'of hay , that am a locke of grasse . life is a voyage , and in our lifes wayes countries , courts , towns are rockes , or remoraes ; they breake or stop all ships , yet our state 's such , that though then pitch they staine worse , wee must touch . if in the furnace of the raging line , or under th' adverse icy pole thou pine , thou know'st two temperate regions girded in , dwell there : but oh , what refuge canst thou winne parch'd in the court , and in the country frozen ? shall cities built of both extremes be chosen ? can dung , and garlike be'a perfume ? or can a scorpion , or torpedo cure a man ? cities are worst of all three ; of all three ( o knottie riddle ) each is worst equally . cities are sepulchers ; they who dwell there are carcases , as if no such they were . and courts are theaters , where some men play princes , some slaves , all to one end , and of one clay ▪ the country is a desert , where no good , gain'd , as habits , not borne , is understood . there men become beasts , and prone to more evils ; in cities blockes , and in a lewd court , devills . as in the first chaos confusedly each elements qualities were in the'other three ; so pride , lust , covetize , being severall to these three places , yet all are in all , and mingled thus , their issue incestuous . falshood is denizon'd . virtue is barbarous . let no man say there , virtues flintie wall shall locke vice in mee , i 'll do none , but know all . men are spunges , which to poure out , receive , who know false play , rather then lose , deceive . for in best understandings , sinne beganne , angels sinn'd first , then devills , and then man. onely perchance beasts sinne not ; wretched wee are beasts in all , but white integritie . i thinke if men , which in these places live durst looke in themselves , and themselves retrive , they would like strangers greet themselves , seeing then utopian youth , growne old italian . be thou thine owne home , and in thy selfe dwell ; inne any where , continuance maketh hell . and seeing the snaile , which every where doth rome , carrying his owne house still , still is at home . follow ( for he is easie pac'd ) this snaile , bee thine owne palace , or the world 's thy goale ; and in the worlds sea , do not like corke sleepe upon the waters face ; nor in the deepe sinke like a lead without a line : but as fishes glide , leaving no print where they passe , nor making sound ; so , closely thy course goe , let men dispute , whether thou breath , or no : onely'in this one thing , be no galenist . to make courts hot ambitions wholesome , do not take a dramme of countries dulnesse ; do not adde correctives , but as chymiques , purge the bad . but , sir , i advise not you , i rather doe say o'er those lessons , which i learn'd of you . whom , free from german schismes , and lightnesse of france , and faire italies faithlesnesse , having from these suck'd all they had of worth , and brought home that faith , which you carried forth , i throughly love . but if my selfe , i'have wonne to know my rules , i have , and you have donne : the crosse . since christ embrac'd the crosse it selfe , dare i his image , th' image of his crosse deny ? would i have profit by the sacrifice , and dare the chosen altar to despise ? it bore all other sinnes , but is it fit that it should beare the sinne of scorning it ? who from the picture would avert his eye , how would he flye his paines , who there did dye ? from mee , no pulpit , nor misgrounded law , nor scandall taken , shall this crosse withdraw , it shall not , for it cannot ; for , the losse of this crosse , were to mee another crosse . better were worse , for , no affliction no crosse is so extreme , as to have none ; who can blot out the crosse , which th' instrument of god , dew'd on mee in the sacrament ? who can deny mee power , and liberty to stretch mine armes , and mine owne crosse to be ? swimme , and at every stroake , thou art thy crosse , the mast and yard make one , where seas do tosse . looke downe , thou spiest out crosses in small things ; looke up , thou seest birds rais'd on crossed wings ; all the globes frame , and spheares , is nothing else but the meridians crossing parallels . materiall crosses then , good physicke bee , but yet spirituall have chiefe dignity . these for extracted chimique medicine serve , and cure much better , and as well preserve ; then are you your own physicke , or need none , when still'd , or purg'd by tribulation . for when that crosse ungrudg'd , unto you stickes , then are you to your selfe , a crucifixe . as perchance , carvers do not faces make : but that away , which hid them there , do take . let crosses , soe , take what hid christ in thee , and be his image , or not his , but hee . but , as oft , alchimists doe coyners prove , so may a selfe-dispising , get selfe-love . and then as worst surfets , of best meates bee , soe is pride , issued from humility , for , 't is no child , but monster ; therefore crosse your joy in crosses , else , 't is double losse , and crosse thy senses , else , both they , and thou must perish soone , and to destruction bowe . for if the'eye seeke good objects , and will take no crosse from bad , wee cannot scape a snake . so with harsh , hard , sowre , stinking , crosse the rest , make them indifferent ; call nothing best . but most the eye needs crossing , that can rome , and move ; to th' other th' objects must come home . and crosse thy heart : for that in man alone pants downewards , and hath palpitation . crosse those dejections , when it downeward tends , and when it to forbidden heights pretends . and as the braine through bony walls doth vent by sutures , which a crosses forme present , so when thy braine workes , ere thou utter it , crosse and correct concupiscence of witt . be covetous of crosses , let none fall . crosse no man else , but crosse thy selfe in all . then doth the crosse of christ worke faithfully within our hearts , when wee love harmlesly the crosses pictures much , and with more care that crosses children , which our crosses are . elegie on the lady marckham . man is the world , and death th' ocean , to which god gives the lower parts of man. this sea invirons all , and though as yet god hath set markes , and bounds , twixt us and it , yet doth it rore , and gnaw , and still pretend , and breaks our banke , when ere it takes a friend . then our land waters ( teares of passion ) vent ; our waters , then , above our firmament . ( teares which our soule doth for her sins let fall ) take all a brackish tast , and funerall . and even those teares , which should wash sin , are sin . we , after gods noe , drowne the world againe . nothing but man of all invenom'd things doth worke upon itselfe , with inborne stings . teares are false spectacles , we cannot see through passions mist , what wee are , or what shee . in her this sea of death hath made no breach , but as the tide doth wash the slimie beach , and leaves embroderd workes upon the sand , so is her flesh refin'd by deaths cold hand . as men of china , ' after an ages stay do take up porcelane , where they buried clay ; so at this grave , her limbecke , which refines the diamonds , rubies , saphires , pearles , & mines , of which , this flesh was , her soule shall inspire flesh of such stuffe , as god , when his last fire annuls this world , to recompence it , shall , make and name then , th'elixar of this all. they say , the sea , when it gaines , loseth too ; if carnall death ( the yonger brother ) doe usurpe the body , 'our soule , which subject is to th' elder death , by sinne , is freed by this ; they perish both , when they attempt the just ; for , graves our trophies are , and both , deaths dust . so , unobnoxious now , she'hath buried both ; for , none to death sinnes , that to sinne is loth . nor doe they die , which are not loth to die , so hath she this , and that virginity . grace was in her extremely diligent , that kept her from sinne , yet made her repent . of what small spots pure white complaines ! alas , how little poyson cracks a christall glasse ? she sinn'd , but just enough to let us see that , extreme truth lack'd little of a lye , making omissions , acts ; laying the touch of sinne , on things that sometimes may be such . as moses cherubines , whose natures doe surpasse all speed , by him are winged too : so would her soule , already'in heaven , seeme then , to clyme by teares , the common staires of men . how fit she was for god , i am content to speake , that death his vaine hast may repent . how fit for us , how even and how sweet , how good in all her titles , and how meet , to have reform'd this forward heresie , that woman can no parts of friendship bee ; how morall , how divine shall not be told , lest they that heare her vertues , thinke her old . and lest we take deaths part , and make him glad of such a prey , and to his tryumph adde . elegie on mris boulstred . death i recant , and say , unsaid by mee what ere hath slip'd , that might diminish thee . spirituall treason , atheisme 't is , to say , that any can thy summons disobey . th' earths face is but thy table ; there are set plants , cattell , men , dishes for death to eate . in a rude hunger now hee millions drawes into his bloody , or plaguy , or sterv'd jawes . now hee will seeme to spare , and doth more wast , eating the best first , well preserv'd to last . now wantonly he spoiles , and eates us not , but breakes off friends , and lets us peecemeale rot . nor will this earth serve him ; he sinkes the deepe where harmelesse fish monastique silence keepe . who ( were death dead ) by roes of living sand , might spunge that element , and make it land . he rounds the aire , and breakes the hymnique notes in birds , heavens choristers , organique throats , which ( if they did not dye ) might seeme to bee a tenth ranke in the heavenly hierarchie . o strong and long-liv'd death , how cam'st thou in ? and how without creation didst begin ? thou hast , and shalt see dead , before thou dyest , all the foure monarchies , and antichrist . how could i thinke thee nothing , that see now in all this all , nothing else is , but thou . our births and life , vices , and vertues , bee wastfull consumptions , and degrees of thee . for , wee to live , our bellowes weare , and breath , nor are wee mortall , dying , dead , but death . and though thou beest , o mighty bird of prey , so much reclaim'd by god , that thou must lay all that thou kill'st at his feet , yet doth hee reserve but few , and leaves the most to thee . and of those few , now thou hast overthrowne one whom thy blow , makes , not ours , nor thine own . she was more stories high : hopelesse to come to her soule , thou'hast offer'd at her lower roome . her soule and body was a king and court : but thou hast both of captaine mist and fort . as houses fall not , though the king remove , bodies of saints rest for their soules above . death gets'twixt soules and bodies such a place as sinne insinuates 'twixt just men and grace , both worke a separation , no divorce . her soule is gone to usherup her corse , which shall be'almost another soule , for there bodies are purer , then best soules are here . because in her , her virtues did outgoe her yeares , would'st thou , o emulous death , do so ? and kill her young to thy losse ? must the cost of beauty , ' and wit , apt to doe harme , be lost ? what though thou found'st her proofe'gainst sins of youth ? oh , every age a diverse sinne pursueth . thou should'st have stay'd , and taken better hold , shortly ambitious , covetous , when old , she might have prov'd : and such devotion might once have stray'd to superstition . if all her vertues must have growne , yet might abundant virtue'have bred a proud delight . had she persever'd just , there would have bin some that would sinne , mis-thinking she did sinne . such as would call her friendship , love , and faine to sociablenesse , a name profane . or sinne , by tempting , or , not daring that , by wishing , though they never told her what . thus might'st thou'have slain more soules , had'st thou not crost thy selfe , and to triumph , thine army lost . yet though these wayes be lost , thou hast left one , which is , immoderate griefe that she is gone . but we may scape that sinne , yet weepe as much , our teares are due , because we are not such . some teares , that knot of friends , her death must cost , because the chaine is broke , but no linke lost . to sr henry goodyere . who makes the past , a patterne for next yeare , turnes no new leafe , but still the same things reads , seene things , he sees againe , heard things doth heare , and makes his life , but like a paire of beads . a palace , when 't is that , which it should be , leaves growing , and stands such , or else decayes , but hee which dwels there , is not so ; for hee strives to urge upward , and his fortune raise ; so had your body'her morning , hath her noone , and shall not better ; her next change is night : but her faire larger guest , to'whom sun and moone are sparkes , and short liv'd , claimes another right . the noble soule by age growes lustier , her appetite , and her digestion mend , wee must not sterve , nor hope to pamper her with womens milke , and pappe unto the end . provide you manlyer dyet , you have seene all libraries , which are schools , camps , & courts ; but aske your garners if you have not beene in harvests , too indulgent to your sports . would you redeeme it ? then your selfe transplant a while from hence . perchance outlandish ground beares no more wit , then ours , but yet more scant are those diversions there , which here abound . to be a stranger hath that benefit , wee can beginnings , but not habits choke . goe , whither ? hence ; you get , if you forget ; new faults , till they prescribe in us , are smoake . our soule , whose country'is heaven , & god her father , into this world , corruptions sinke , is sent , yet , so much in her travaile she doth gather , that she returnes home , wiser then she went ; it payes you well , if it teach you to spare , and make you'asham'd , to make your hawks praise , yours , which when herselfe she lessens in the aire , you then first say , that high enough she toures . however , keepe the lively tast you hold of god , love him as now , but feare him more , and in your afternoones thinke what you told and promis'd him , at morning prayer before . let falshood like a discord anger you , else be not froward ; but why doe i touch things , of which none is in your practise new , and tables , or fruit-trenchers teach as much ; but thus i make you keepe your promise sir , riding i had you , though you still staid there , and in these thoughts , although you never stirre , you came with mee to micham , and are here . to mr rowland woodward . like one who'in her third widdowhood doth professe , her selfe a nunne , tyed to retirednesse , so'affects my muse now , a chast fallownesse . since shee to few , yet to too many'hath showne how love-song weeds , and satyrique thornes are growne where seeds of better arts , were early sown . though to use , and love poëtrie , to mee , betroth'd to no'one art , be no'adulterie ; omissions of good , ill , as ill deeds bee . for though to us it seeme , ' and be light and thinne , yet in those faithfull scales , where god throwes in mens workes , vanity weighs as much as sinne . if our soules have stain'd their first white , yet wee may cloth them with faith , and deare honestie , which god imputes , as native puritie , there is no vertue , but religion , wise , valiant , sober , just , are names , which none want , which want not vice-covering discretion . seeke wee then our selves in our selves ; for as men force the sunne with much more force to passe , by gathering his beames with a christall glasse ; so wee , if wee into our selves will turne , blowing our sparkes of vertue , may outburne the straw , which doth about our hearts sojourne . you know , physitians , when they would infuse into any'oyle , the soules of simples , use places , where they may lie still warme , to chuse . so workes retirednesse in us ; to rome giddily and bee every where , but at home , such freedome doth a banishment become . wee are but termers of our selves , yet may , if we can stocke our selves , and thrive , uplay much , much deare treasure for the great rent day . manure thy selfe then , to thy selfe be'approv'd , and with vaine outward things be no more mov'd , but to know , that i love thee'and would be lov'd . to sr henry wootton . here 's no more newes , then vertue , ' i may as well tell you calis , or st michaels tale for newes , as tell that vice doth here habitually dwell . yet , as to'get stomachs , we walke up and downe , and toyle to sweeten rest , so , may god frowne , if , but to loth both , i haunt court , or towne . for here no one is from the'extremitie of vice , by any other reason free , but that the next to'him , still , is worse then hee . in this worlds warfare , they whom rugged fate , ( gods commissary , ) doth so throughly hate , as in'the courts squadron to marshall their state if they stand arm'd with seely honesty , with wishing prayers , and neat integritie , like indians ' gainst spanish hosts they bee . suspitious boldnesse to this place belongs , and to'have as many eares as all have tongues ; tender to know , tough to acknowledge wrongs . beleeve mee sir , in my youths giddiest dayes , when to be like the court , was a playes praise , playes were not so like courts , as courts'are like playes . then let us at these mimicke antiques jeast , whose deepest projects , and egregious gests are but dull moralls of a game at chests . but now 't is incongruity to smile , therefore i end ; and bid farewell a while , at court , though from court , were the better stile ▪ to the countesse of bedford . madame , reason is our soules left hand , faith her right , by these wee reach divinity , that 's you ; their loves , who have the blessings of your light , grew from their reason , mine from faire faith grew . but as , although a squint lefthandednesse be'ungracious , yet we cannot want that hand , so would i , not to encrease , but to expresse my faith , as i beleeve , so understand . therefore i study you first in your saints , those friends , whom your election glorifies , then in your deeds , accesses , and restraints , and what you reade , and what your selfe devize . but soone , the reasons why you' are lov'd by all , grow infinite , and so passe reasons reach , then backe againe to'implicite faith i fall , and rest on what the catholique faith doth teach ; that you are good : and not one heretique denies it : if he did , yet you are so . for , rockes , which high top'd and deep rooted sticke , waves wash , not undermine , nor overthrow . in every thing there naturally growes a balsamum to keepe it fresh , and new , if 't were not injur'd by extrinsique blowes ; your birth and beauty are this balme in you . but , you of learning and religion , and vertue , ' and such ingredients , have made a methridate , whose operation keepes off , or cures what can be done or said . yet , this is not your physicke , but your food , a dyet fit for you ; for you are here the first good angell , since the worlds frame stood , that ever did in womans shape appeare . since you are then gods masterpeece , and so his factor for our loves ; do as you doe , make your returne home gracious ; and bestow thy life on that ; so make one life of two . for so god helpe mee , ' i would not misse you there for all the good which you can do me here . to the countesse of bedford . madame , you have refin'd mee , and to worthyest things vertue , art , beauty , fortune , now i see rarenesse , or use , not nature value brings ; and such , as they are circumstanc'd , they bee . two ills can nere perplexe us , sinne to'excuse ; but of two good things , we may leave and chuse . therefore at court , which is not vertues clime , ( where a transcendent height , ( as , lownesse mee ) makes her not be , or not show : all my rime your vertues challenge , which there rarest bee ; for , as darke texts need notes : there some must bee to usher vertue , and say , this is shee . so in the country'is beauty ; to this place you are the season ( madame ) you the day , 't is but a grave of spices , till your face exhale them , and a thick close bud display . widow'd and reclus'd else , her sweets she'enshrines as china , when the sunne at brasill dines . out from your chariot , morning breaks at night , and falsifies both computations so ; since a new world doth rise here from your light , we your new creatures , by new recknings goe . this showes that you from nature lothly stray , that suffer not an artificiall day . in this you'have made the court the antipodes , and will'd your delegate , the vulgar sunne , to doe profane autumnall offices , whilst here to you , wee sacrificers runne ; and whether priests , or organs , you wee'obey , we sound your influence , and your dictates say ▪ yet to that deity which dwels in you , your vertuous soule , i now not sacrifice ; these are petitions , and not hymnes ; they sue but that i may survay the edifice . in all religions as much care hath bin of temples frames , and beauty , ' as rites within . as all which goe to rome , doe not thereby esteeme religions , and hold fast the best , but serve discourse , and curiosity , with that which doth religion but invest , and shunne th'entangling laborinths of schooles , and make it wit , to thinke the wiser fooles ▪ so in this pilgrimage i would behold you as you' are vertues temple , not as shee , what walls of tender christall her enfold , what eyes , hands , bosome , her pure altars bee ; and after this survay , oppose to all bablers of chappels , you th'escuriall . yet not as consecrate , but merely'as faire ; on these i cast a lay and country eye . of past and future stories , which are rare , i finde you all record , and prophecie . purge but the booke of fate , that it admit no sad nor guilty legends , you are it . if good and lovely were not one , of both you were the transcript , and originall , the elements , the parent , and the growth and every peece of you , is both their all , so'intire are all your deeds , and you , that you must do the same things still : you cannot two . but these ( as nice thinne schoole divinity serves heresie to furder or represse ) tast of poëtique rage , or flattery , and need not , where all hearts one truth professe ; oft from new proofes , and new phrase , new doubts grow , as strange attire aliens the men wee know . leaving then busie praise , and all appeale , to higher courts , senses decree is true , the mine , the magazine , the commonweale , the story of beauty ' , in twicknam is , and you . who hath seene one , would both ; as , who had bin in paradise , would seeke the cherubin . to sr edward herbert . at iulyers . man is a lumpe , where all beasts kneaded bee , wisdome makes him an arke where all agree ; the foole , in whom these beasts do live at jarre , is sport to others , and a theater , nor scapes hee so , but is himselfe their prey ; all which was man in him , is eate away , and now his beasts on one another feed , yet couple'in anger , and new monsters breed ; how happy'is hee , which hath due place assign'd to'his beasts , and disaforested his minde ? empail'd himselfe to keepe them out , not in ; can sow , and dares trust corne , where they have bin ; can use his horse , goate , wolfe , and every beast , and is not asse himselfe to all the rest . else , man not onely is the heard of swine , but he 's those devills too , which did incline them to a headlong rage , and made them worse : for man can adde weight to heavens heaviest curse . as soules ( they say ) by our first touch , take in the poysonous tincture of originall sinne , so , to the punishments which god doth fling , our apprehension contributes the sting . to us , as to his chickins , he doth cast hemlocke , and wee as men , his hemlocke taste . we do infuse to what he meant for meat , corrosivenesse , or intense cold or heat . for , god no such specifique poyson hath as kills we know not how ; his fiercest wrath hath no antipathy , but may be good at lest for physicke , if not for our food . thus man , that might be'his pleasure , is his rod , and is his devill , that might be his god. since then our businesse is , to rectifie nature , to what she was , wee'are led awry by them , who man to us in little show , greater then due , no forme we can bestow on him ; for man into himselfe can draw all , all his faith can swallow , ' or reason chaw . all that is fill'd , and all that which doth fill , all the round world , to man is but a pill , in all it workes not , but it is in all poysonous , or purgative , or cordiall , for , knowledge kindles calentures in some , and is to others jcy opium . as brave as true , is that profession than which you doe use to make ; that you know man. this makes it credible , you have dwelt upon all worthy bookes ; and now are such an one . actions are authors , and of those in you your friends finde every day a mart of new . to the countesse of bedford . t' have written then , when you writ , seem'd to mee worst of spirituall vices , simony , and not t' have written then , seemes little lesse then worst of civill vices , thanklessenesse . in this , my doubt i seem'd loath to confesse , in that , i seem'd to shunne beholdingnesse . but 't is not soe , nothing , as i am , may , pay all they have , and yet have all to pay . such borrow in their payments , and owe more by having leave to write so , then before . yet since rich mines in barren grounds are showne , may not i yeeld ( not gold ) but coale or stone ? temples were not demolish'd , though prophane : here peter ioves , there paul have dian's fane . so whether my hymnes you admit or chuse , in me you'have hallowed a pagan muse , and denizend a stranger , who mistaught by blamers of the times they mard , hath sought vertues in corners , which now bravely doe shine in the worlds best part , or all , in you . i have beene told , that vertue'in courtiers hearts suffers an ostracisme , and departs . profit , ease , fitnesse , plenty , bid it goe , but whither , only knowing you , i know ; your , or you vertue , two vast uses serves , it ransomes one sex , and one court preserves ; there 's nothing but your worth , which being true , is knowne to any other , not to you . and you can never know it ; to admit no knowledge of your worth , it some of it . but since to you , your praises discords bee , stop others ills , to meditate with mee . oh! to confesse wee know not what we sould , is halfe excuse , wee know not what we would . lightnesse depresseth us , emptinesse fills , we sweat and faint , yet still goe downe the hills ; as new philosophy arrests the sunne , and bids the passive earth about it runne , so wee have dull'd our minde , it hath no ends ; onely the bodie 's busie , and pretends ; as dead low earth ecclipses and controules the quick high moone : so doth the body , soules . in none but us , are such mixt engines found , as hands of double office : for , the ground we till with them ; and them to heav'n wee raise ; who prayer-lesse labours , or , without this , prayes , doth but one halfe , that 's none ; he which said , plough and looke not back , to looke up doth allow . good sced degenerates , and oft obeyes the soyles disease , and into cockle strayes . let the minds thoughts be but transplanted so , into the body , ' and bastardly they grow . what hate could hurt our bodies like our love ? wee but no forraigne tyrans could remove , these not ingrav'd , but inborne dignities caskets of soules ; temples , and palaces : for , bodies shall from death redeemed bee , soules but preserv'd , not naturally free ; as men to'our prisons , new soules to us are sent , which learne it there , and come in innocent . first seeds of every creature are in us , what ere the world hath bad , or pretious , mans body can produce , hence hath it beene that stones , wormes , frogges , and snakes in man are seene : but who ere saw , though nature can worke soe , that , pearle , or gold , or corne in man did grow . we'have added to the world virginia , ' and sent two new starres lately to the firmament ; why grudge wee us ( not heaven ) the dignity t' increase with ours , those faire soules company . but i must end this letter , though it doe stand on two truths , neither is true to you . vertue hath some perversenesse ; for she will neither beleeve her good , nor others ill , even in your vertues best paradise , vertue hath some , but wise degrees of vice . too many vertues , or too much of one begets in you unjust suspition . and ignorance of vice , makes vertue lesse , quenching compassion of our wrechednesse . but these are riddles ; some aspersion of vice becomes well some complexion . statesmen purge vice with vice , and may corrode the bad with bad , a spider with a toad : for so , ill thralls not them , but they tame ill and make her do much good against her will , but in your commonwealth or world in you vice hath no office , or good worke to doe . take then no vitious purge , but be content with cordiall vertue , your knowne nourishment . to the countesse of bedford . on new-yeares day . this twilight of two yeares , not past nor next , some embleme is of mee , or i of this , who meteor-like , of stuffe and forme perplext , whose what , and where , in disputation is , if i should call mee any thing , should misse . i summe the yeares , and mee , and finde mee not debtor to th' old , nor creditor to th' new , that cannot say , my thankes i have forgot , nor trust i this with hopes , and yet scarce true , this bravery is since these time shew'd mee you . in recompence i would show future times what you were , and teach them to'urge towards such , verse embalmes vertue ; ' and tombs , or thrones of rimes , preserve fraile transitory fame , as much as spice doth bodies from corrupt aires touch . mine are short liv'd ; the tincture of your name creates in them , but dissipates as fast , new spirit : for , strong agents with the same force that doth warme and cherish , us doe wast ; kept hot with strong extracts , no bodies last : so , my verse built of your just praise , might want reason and likelihood , the firmest base , and made of miracle , now faith is scant , will vanish soone , and so possesse no place , and you , and it , too much grace might disgrace . when all ( as truth commands assent ) confesse all truth of you , yet they will doubt how i one corne of one low anthills dust , and lesse , should name know or expresse a thing so high , and not an inch , measure infinity . i cannot tell them , nor my selfe , nor you , but leave , lest truth b'endanger'd by my praise , and turne to god , who knowes i thinke this true , and useth oft , when such a heart mis-sayes , to make it good , for , such a prayer prayes . hee will best teach you , how you should lay out his stock of beauty , learning , favour , blood , he will perplex security with doubt , and cleare those doubts , hide from you , ' and shew you good , and so increase your appetite and food ; hee will teach you , that good and bad have not one latitude in cloysters , and in court , indifferent there the greatest space hath got , some pitty'is not good there , some vaine disport , on this side , sinne ; with that place may comport . yet he as hee bounds seas , will fixe your houres , with pleasure , and delight may not ingresse , and though what none else lost , be truliest yours , hee will make you , what you did not , possesse , by using others , not vice , but weakenesse . he will make you speake truths , and credibly , and make you doubt , that others doe not so : hee will provide you keyes , and locks , to spie , and scape spies , to good ends , and hee will show what you may not acknowledge , what not know . for your owne conscience , he gives innocence , but for your fame , a discreet warinesse , and though to scape , then to revenge offence be better , he showes both , and to represse ioy , when your state swells , sadnesse when 't is lesse . from need of teares he will defend your soule , or make a rebaptizing of one teare ; hee cannot , ( that 's , he will not ) dis-inroule your name ; and when with active joy we heare this private ghospell , then 't is our new yeare , to the countesse of huntingdon . madame , man to gods image , eve , to mans was made , nor finde wee that god breath'd a soule in her , canons will not church functions you invade , nor lawes to civill office you preferre . who vagrant transitory comets sees , wonders , because they' are rare ; but a new starre whose motion with the firmament agrees , is miracle ; for , there no new things are ; in woman so perchance milde innocence a seldome comet is , but active good a miracle , which reason scapes , and sense ; for , art and nature this in them withstood . as such a starre , which magi led to view the manger-cradled infant , god below . by vertues beames by fame deriv'd from you , may apt soules , and the worst may vertue know . if the worlds age , and death be argued well by the sunnes fall , which now towards earth doth bend , then we might feare that vertue , since she fell so low as woman , should be neare her end . but she 's not stoop'd , but rais'd ; exil'd by men , she fled to heaven , that 's heavenly things that 's you , she was in all men , thinly scatter'd then , but now amass'd , contracted in a few . she guilded us : but you are gold , and shee , us she inform'd , but transubstantiates you , soft dispositions which ductile bee , elixarlike , she makes not cleane , but new . though you a wifes and mothers name retaine , 't is not as woman , for all are not soe , but vertue having made you vertue , ' is faine t' adhere in these names , her and you to show , else , being alike pure , wee should neither see , as , water being into ayre rarify'd , neither appeare , till in one cloud they bee , so , for our sakes you do low names abide ; taught by great constellations , which being fram'd , of the most starres , take low names , crab , and bull , when single planets by the gods are nam'd , you covet not great names , of great things full . so you , as woman , one doth comprehend , and in the vaile of kindred others see ; to some ye are reveal'd , as in a friend , and as a vertuous prince farre off , to mee . to whom , because from you all vertues flow , and 't is not none , to dare contemplate you , i , which to you as your true subject owe some tribute for that , so these lines are due , if you can thinke these flatteries , they are , for then your judgement is below my praise , if they were so , oft , flatteries worke as farre , as counsels , and as farre th'endeavour raise . so my ill reaching you might there grow good , but i remaine a poyson'd fountaine still ; but not your beauty , vertue , knowledge , blood are more above all flattery , then my will. and if i flatter any , 't is not you but my owne judgement , who did long agoe pronounce , that all these praises should be true , and vertue should your beauty , ' and birth outgrow . now that my prophesies are all fulfill'd , rather then god should not be honour'd too , and all these gifts confess'd , which hee instill'd , your selfe were bound to say that which i doe . so i , but your recorder am in this , or mouth , or speaker of the universe , a ministeriall notary , for 't is not i , but you and fame , that make this verse ; i was your prophet in your yonger dayes , and now your chaplaine , god in you to praise . to m. i. w. all haile sweet poët , more full of more strong fire , then hath or shall enkindle any spirit , i lov'd what nature gave thee , but this merit of wit and art i love not but admire ; who have before or shall write after thee , their workes , though toughly laboured , will bee like infancie or age to mans firme stay , or earely and late twilights to mid-day . men say , and truly , that they better be which be envyed then pittied : therefore i , because i wish thee best , doe thee envie : o wouldst thou , by like reason , pitty mee , but care not for mee , i , that ever was in natures , and in fortunes gifts , ( alas , before thy grace got in the muses schoole ) a monster and a begger , am a foole . oh how i grieve , that late borne modesty hath got such root in easie waxen hearts , that men may not themselves , their owne good parts extoll , without suspect of surquedrie , for , but thy selfe , no subject can be found worthy thy quill , nor any quill resound thy worke but thine : how good it were to see a poëm in thy praise , and writ by thee . now if this song be too'harsh for rime , yet , as the painters bad god made a good devill , 't will be good prose , although the verse be evill . if thou forget the rime as thou dost passe , then write , then i may follow , and so bee thy debter , thy'eccho , thy foyle , thy zanee . i shall be thought , if mine like thine i shape , all the worlds lyon , though i be thy ape . to m. t. w. hast thee harsh verse as fast as thy lame measure will give thee leave , to him ; my pain , & pleasure i have given thee , and yet thou art too weake , feete and a reasoning soule and tongue to speake . tell him , all questions , which men have defended both of the place and paines of hell , are ended ; and 't is decreed our hell is but privation of him , at least in this earths habitation : and 't is where i am , where in every street infections follow , overtake , and meete : live i or die , by you my love is sent , and you' are my pawnes , or else my testament . to m. t. w. pregnant again with th' old twins hope , and feare , oft have i askt for thee , both how and where thou wert , and what my hopes of letters were ; as in our streets sly beggers narrowly watch motions of the givers hand or eye , and evermore conceive some hope thereby . and now thy almes is given , thy letter'is read , the body risen againe , the which was dead , and thy poore starveling bountifully fed . after this banquet my soule doth say grace , and praise thee for'it , and zealously imbrace thy love , though i thinke thy love in this case to be as gluttons , which say ' midst their meat , they love that best of which they most do eat . at once , from hence , my lines and i depart , i to my soft still walks , they to my heart ; i to the nurse , they to the child of art ; yet as a firme house , though the carpenter perish , doth stand : as an embassadour lyes safe , how e'r his king be in danger : so , though i languish , prest with malancholy , my verse , the strict map of my misery , shall live to see that , for whose want i dye . therefore i envie them , and doe repent , that from unhappy mee , things happy'are sent ; yet as a picture , or bare sacrament , accept these lines , and if in them there be merit of love bestow that love on mee . to m. c. b. thy friend , whom thy deserts to thee enchaine , urg'd by this unexcusable occasion , thee and the saint of his affection leaving behinde , doth of both wants complaine ; and let the love i beare to both sustaine no blott nor maime by this division , strong is this love which ties our hearts in one , and strong that love pursu'd with amorous paine ▪ but though besides thy selfe i leave behind heavens liberall and earths thrice-faire sunne , going to where sterne winter aye doth wonne , yet , loves hot fires , which martyr my sad minde , doe send forth scalding sighes , which have the art to melt all ice , but that which walls her heart . to m. s. b. o thou which to search out the secret parts of the india , or rather paradise of knowledge , hast with courage and advise lately launch'd into the vast sea of arts , disdaine not in thy constant travailing to doe as other voyagers , and make some turnes into lesse creekes , and wisely take fresh water at the heliconian spring ; i sing not , siren like , to tempt ; for i am harsh , nor as those scismatiques with you , which draw all wits of good hope to their crew ; but seing in you bright sparkes of poetry , i , though i brought no fuell , had desire with these articulate blasts to blow the fire . to m. b. b. is not thy sacred hunger of science yet satisfy'd ? is not thy braines rich hive fulfil'd with hony which thou dost derive from the arts spirits and their quintessence ? then weane thy selfe at last , and thee withdraw from cambridge thy old nurse , and , as the rest , here toughly chew , and sturdily digest th' immense vast volumes of our common law ; and begin soone , lest my griefe grieve thee too , which is , that that which i should have begun in my youthes morning , now late must be done ; and i , as giddy travellers , must doe , which stray or sleepe all day , and having lost light and strength , darke and tir'd must then ride post . if thou unto thy muse be marryed , embrace her ever , ever multiply , be far from me that strange adulterie to tempt thee and procure her widdowhood , my nurse , ( for i had one , ) because i 'am cold , divorc'd her selfe , the cause being in me , that i can take no new in bigamye , not my will only but power doth withhold . hence comes it , that these rymes which never had mother , want matter , aud they only have a little forme , the which their father gave ; they are prophane , imperfect , oh , too bad to be counted children of poetry except confirm'd and bishoped by thee . to m. r. w. if , as mine is , thy life a slumber be , seeme , when thou read'st these lines , to dreame of me , never did morpheus nor his brother weare shapes soe like those shapes , whom they would appeare , as this my letter is like me , for it hath my name , words , hand , feet , heart , minde and wit ; it is my deed of gift of mee to thee , it is my will , my selfe the legacie . so thy retyrings i love , yea envie , bred in thee by a wise melancholy , that i rejoyce , that unto where thou art , though i stay here , i can thus send my heart , as kindly'as any enamored patient his picture to his absent love hath sent . all newes i thinke sooner reach thee then mee ; havens are heavens , and ships wing'd angels be , the which both gospell , and sterne threatnings bring ; guyanaes harvest is nip'd in the spring , i feare ; and with us ( me thinkes ) ▪ fate deales so as with the jewes guide god did ; he did show him the rich land , but bar'd his entry in , our slownes is our punishment and sinne ; perchance , these spanish businesse being done , which as the earth betweene the moone and sun eclipse the light which guyana would give , our discontinued hopes we shall retrive : but if ( as all th' all must ) hopes smoake away , is not almightie vertue'an india ? if men be worlds , there is in every one some thing to answere in some proportion all the worlds riches : and in good men , this vertue , our formes forme and our soules soule is . to m. i. l. of that short roll of friends writ in my heart which with thy name begins , since their depart , whether in the english provinces they be , or drinke of po , sequan , or danubie , there 's none that sometimes greets us not , and yet your trent is lethe ' , that past , us you forget , you doe not duties of societies , if from the'embrace of a lov'd wife you rise , view your fat beasts , stretch'd barnes , and labour'd fields , eate , play , ryde , take all joyes which all day yeelds , and then againe to your embracements goe : some houres on us your frends , and some bestow upon your muse , else both wee shall repent , i that my love , she that her guifts on you are spent to m. i. p. blest are your north parts , for all this long time my sun is with you , cold and darke'is our clime ▪ heavens sun , which staid so long from us this yeare , staid in your north ( i thinke ) for she was there , and hether by kinde nature drawne from thence , here rages chafes and threatens pestilence ; yet i , as long as shee from hence doth staie , thinke this no south , no sommer , nor no day . with thee my kinde and unkinde heart is run , there sacrifice it to that beauteous sun : so may thy pastures with their flowery feasts , as suddenly as lard , fat thy leane beasts ; so may thy woods oft poll'd , yet ever weare a greene , and when thee list a golden haire ; so may all thy sheepe bring forth twins ; and so in chace and race may thy horse all out goe ; so may thy love and courage ne'r be cold ; thy sonne ne'r ward ; thy lov'd wife ne'r seem old ▪ but maist thou wish great things , and them attaine , as thou telst her and none but her my paine . to e. of d. with six holy sonnets . see sir , how as the suns hot masculine flame begets strange creatures on niles durty slime , in me , your fatherly yet lusty ryme ( for , these songs are their fruits ) have wrought the same ; but though the ingendring force from whence they came bee strong enough , and nature doe admit seaven to be borne at once , i send as yet but six , they say , the seaventh hath still some maime ; i choose your judgement , which the same degree doth with her sister , your invention , hold , as fire these drossie rymes to purifie , or as elixar , to change them to gold ; you are that alchimist which alwaies had wit , whose one spark could make good things of bad . to sir h. w. at his going ambassador to venice . after those reverend papers , whose soule is our good and great kings lov'd hand and fear'd name ▪ by which to you he derives much of his , and ( how he may ) makes you almost the same , a taper of his torch , a copie writ from his originall , and a faire beame of the same warme , and dazeling sun , though it must in another sphere his vertue streame : after those learned papers which your hand hath stor'd with notes of use and pleasures too , from which rich treasury you may command fit matter whether you will write or doe : after those loving papers , where friends send with glad griefe , to your sea-ward steps , farewel , which thicken on you now , as prayers ascend to heaven in troupes at'a good mans passing bell : admit this honest paper , and allow it such an audience as your selfe would aske ; what you must say at venice this meanes now , and hath for nature , what you have for taske . to sweare much love , not to be chang'd before honour alone will to your fortune fit ; nor shall i then honour your fortune , more then i have done your honour wanting it . but'tis an easier load ( though both oppresse ) to want , then governe greatnesse , for wee are in that , our owne and onely businesse , in this , wee must for others vices care ; 't is therefore well your spirits now are plac'd in their last furnace , in activity ; which fits them ( schooles and courts and warres o'rpast to touch and test in any best degree . for mee , ( if there be such a thing as i ) fortune ( if there be such a thing as shee ) spies that i beare so well her tyranny , that she thinks nothing else so fit for mee ; but though she part us , to heare my oft prayers for your increase , god is as neere mee here ; and to send you what i shall begge , his staires in length and ease are alike every where . to m. m. h. mad paper stay , and grudge not here to burne with all those sonnes whom my braine did create , at lest lye hid with mee , till thou returne . to rags againe , which is thy native state . what though thou have enough unworthinesse to come unto great place as others doe , that 's much , emboldens , pulls , thrusts i confesse , but 't is not all , thou should'st be wicked too . and , that thou canst not learne , or not of mee ; yet thou wilt goe , goe , since thou goest to her who lacks but faults to be a prince , for shee , truth , whom they dare not pardon , dares preferre . but when thou com'st to that perplexing eye which equally claimes love and reverence . thou wilt not long dispute it , thou wilt die ; and , having little now , have then no sense . yet when her warme redeeming hand , which is a miracle ; and made such to worke more , doth touch thee ( saples leafe ) thou grow'st by this her creature ; glorify'd more then before . then as a mother which delights to heare her early child mispeake halfe uttered words , or , because majesty doth never feare ill or bold speech , she audience affords . and then , cold speechlesse wretch , thou diest againe , and wisely ; what discourse is left for thee ? for , speech of ill , and her thou must abstaine , and is there any good which is not shee ? yet maist thou praise her servants , though not her , and wit , and vertue , ' and honour her attend , and since they' are but her cloathes , thou shalt not erre if thou her shape and beauty'and grace commend . who knowes thy destiny ? when thou hast done , perchance her cabinet may harbour thee , whither all noble ambitious wits doe runne , a nest almost as full of good as shee . when thou art there , if any , whom wee know , were sav'd before , and did that heaven partake , when she revolves his papers , marke what show of favour , she alone , to them doth make . marke , if to get them , she o'r skip the rest , marke , if shee read them twice , or kisse the name ; marke , if she doe the same that they protest , marke , if she marke whether her woman came . marke , if slight things be'objected , and o'r blowne , marke , if her oathes against him be not still reserv'd , and that shee grieves she 's not her owne , and chides the doctrine that denies freewill . ibid thee not doe this to be my spie ; nor to make my selfe her familiar ; but so much i doe love her choyce , that i would faine love him that shall be lov'd of her . to the countesse of bedford . honour is so sublime perfection , and so refinde ; that when god was alone and creaturelesse at first , himselfe had none ; but as of the elements , these which wee tread , produce all things with which wee'are joy'd or fed , and , those are barren both above our head : so from low persons doth all honour flow ; kings , whom they would have honoured , to us show , and but direct our honour , not bestow . for when from herbs the pure part must be wonne from grosse , by stilling , this is better done by despis'd dung , then by the fire or sunne . care not then , madame , ' how low your prayses lye ; in labourers balads oft more piety god findes , then in te deums melodie . and , ordinance rais'd on towers so many mile send not their voice , nor last so long a while as fires from th' earths low vaults in sicil isle . should i say i liv'd darker then were true , your radiation can all clouds subdue , but one , 't is best light to contemplate you . you , for whose body god made better clay , or tooke soules stuffe such as shall late decay , or such as needs small change at the last day . this , as an amber drop enwraps a bee , covering discovers your quicke soule ; that we may in your through-shine front our hearts thoughts see . you teach ( though wee learne not ) a thing unknowne to our late times , the use of specular stone , through which all things within without were shown . of such were temples ; so and such you are ; beeing and seeming is your equall care , and vertues whole summe is but know and dare . but as our soules of growth and soules of sense have birthright of our reasons soule , yet hence they fly not from that , nor seeke presidence . natures first lesson , so , discretion , must not grudge zeale a place , nor yet keepe none , not banish it selfe , nor religion . discretion is a wisemans soule , and so religion is a christians , and you know how these are one , her yea , is not her no. nor may we hope to sodder still and knit these two , and dare to breake them ; nor must wit be colleague to religion , but be it . in those poore types of god ( round circles ) so religions tipes , the peeclesse centers flow , and are in all the lines which alwayes goe . if either ever wrought in you alone or principally , then religion wrought your ends , and your wayes discretion . goe thither stil , goe the same way you went , who so would change , do covet or repent ; neither can reach you , great and innocent . to the countesse of bedford . begun in france but never perfected . though i be dead , and buried , yet i have ( living in you , ) court enough in my grave , as oft as there i thinke my selfe to bee , so many resurrections waken mee . that thankfullnesse your favours have forgot in mee , embalmes mee ; that i doe not rot ; this season as'tis easter , as'tis spring , must both to growth and to confession bring my thoughts dispos'd unto your influence , so , these verses bud , so these confessions grow ; first i confesse i have to others lent your stock , and over prodigally spent your treasure , for since i had never knowne vertue or beautie , but as they are growne in you , i should not thinke or say they shine , ( so as i have ) in any other mine ; next i confesse this my confession , for , 't is some fault thus much to touch upon , your praise to you , where half rights seeme too much , and make your minds sincere complexion blush . next i confesse my'impenitence , for i can scarce repent my first fault , since thereby remote low spirits , which shall ne'r read you , may in lesse lessons finde enough to doe , by studying copies , not originals , desunt caetera . a letter to the lady carey , and mrs essex riche , from amyens . madame , here where by all all saints invoked are , 't were too much schisme to be singular , and ' gainst a practise generall to warre . yet turning to saincts , should my'humility to other sainct then you directed bee , that were to make my schisme , heresie . nor would i be a convertite so cold , as not to tell it ; if this be too bold , pardons are in this market cheaply sold . where , because faith is in too low degree , i thought it some apostleship in mee to speake things which by faith alone i see . that is , of you , who is a firmament of virtues , where no one is growne , or spent , they' are your materials , not your ornament . others whom wee call vertuous , are not so in their whole substance , but , their vertues grow but in their humours , and at seasons show . for when through tastlesse flat humilitie in dow bak'd men some harmelessenes we see , 't is but his flegme that 's vertuous , and not hee : soe is the blood sometimes ; who ever ran to danger unimportun'd , he was than no better then a sanguine vertuous man. so cloysterall men , who , in pretence of feare all contributions to this life forbeare , have vertue in melancholy , and only there . spirituall cholerique crytiques , which in all religions find faults , and forgive no fall , have , through their zeale , vertue but in their gall. we are thus but parcel guilt ; to gold we' are growne when vertue is our soules complexion ; who knowes his vertues name or place , hath none . vertue'is but aguish , when 't is severall , by occasion wak'd , and circumstantiall . true vertue is soule , alwaies in all deeds all. this vertue thinking to give dignitie to your soule , found there no infirmitie , for , your soule was as good vertue , as shee ; shee therefore wrought upon that part of you which is scarce lesse then soule , as she could do , and so hath made your beauty , vertue too . hence comes it , that your beauty wounds not hearts , as others , with prophane and sensuall darts , but as an influence , vertuous thoughts imparts . but if such friends by the honor of your sight grow capable of this so great a light , as to partake your vertues , and their might , what must i thinke that influence must doe , where it findes sympathie and matter too , vertue , and beauty of the same stuffe , as you ? which is , your noble worthie sister , shee of whom , if what in this my extasie and revelation of you both i see , i should write here , as in short galleries the master at the end large glasses ties , so to present the roome twice to our eyes , so i should give this letter length , and say that which i said of you ; there is no way from either , but by the other not to stray . may therefore this be enough to testifie my true devotion , free from flattery ; he that beleeves himselfe , doth never lie . to the countesse of salisbury . august . 1614. faire , great , and good , since seeing you , wee see what heaven can doe , and what any earth can be : since now your beauty shines , now when the sunne growne stale , is to so low a value runne , that his disshevel'd beames and scattered fires serve but for ladies periwigs and tyres in lovers sonnets : you come to repaire gods booke of creatures , teaching what is faire . since now , when all is withered , shrunke , and dri'd , all vertues ebb'd out to a dead low tyde , all the worlds frame being crumbled into sand , where every man thinks by himselfe to stand , integritie , friendship , and confidence , ( ciments of greatnes ) being vapor'd hence , and narrow man being fill'd with little shares , court , citie , church , are all shops of small-wares , all having blowne to sparkes their noble fire , and drawne their sound gold-ingot into wyre ; all trying by a love of littlenesse to make abridgments , and to draw to lesse , even that nothing , which at first we were ; since in these times , your greatnesse doth appeare , and that we learne by it , that man to get towards him , that 's infinite , must first be great . since in an age so ill , as none is fit so much as to accuse , much lesse mend it , ( for who can judge , or witnesse of those times where all alike are guiltie of the crimes ? ) where he that would be good , is thought by all a monster , or at best fantasticall : since now you durst be good , and that i doe discerne , by daring to contemplate you , that there may be degrees of faire , great , good , through your light , largenesse , vertue understood ▪ if in this sacrifice of mine , be showne any small sparke of these , call it your owne . and if things like these , have been said by mee of others ; call not that idolatrie . for had god made man first , and man had seene the third daies fruits , and flowers , and various greene he might have said the best that he could say of those faire creatures , which were made that day : and when next day he had admir'd the birth of sun , moone , stars , fairer then late-prais'd earth , hee might have said the best that he could say , and not be chid for praising yesterday : so though some things are not together true , as , that another is worthiest , and , that you : yet , to say so , doth not condemne a man , if when he spoke them , they were both true than . how faire a proofe of this , in our soule growes ? wee first have soules of growth , and sense , and those , when our last soule , our soule immortall came , were swallowed into it , and have no name . nor doth he injure those soules , which doth cast the power and praise of both them , on the last ; no more doe i wrong any ; i adore the same things now , which i ador'd before , the subject chang'd , and measure ; the same thing in a low constable , and in the king i reverence ; his power to worke on mee ; so did i humbly reverence each degree of faire , great , good , but more , now i am come from having found their walkes , to finde their home . and as i owe my first soules thankes , that they for my last soule did fit and mould my clay , so am i debtor unto them , whose worth , enabled me to profit , and take forth this new great lesson , thus to study you ; which none , not reading others , first , could doe . nor lacke i light to read this booke , though i in a darke cave , yea in a grave doe lie ; for as your fellow angells , so you doe illustrate them who come to study you . the first whom we in histories doe finde to have profest all arts , was one borne blind : he lackt those eyes beasts have as well as wee , not those , by which angels are seene and see ; so , though i 'am borne without those eyes to live , which fortune , who hath none her selfe , doth give , which are , fit meanes to see bright courts and you , yet may i see you thus , as now i doe ; i shall by that , all goodnesse have discern'd , and though i burne my librarie , be learn'd . an epithalamion , or mariage song on the lady elizabeth , and count palatine being married on st. valentines day . i. haile bishop valentine , whose day this is , all the aire is thy diocis , and all the chirping choristers and other birds are thy parishioners , thou marryest every yeare the lirique larke , and the grave whispering dove , the sparrow that neglects his life for love , the household bird , with the red stomacher , thou mak'st the black bird speed as soone , as doth the goldfinch , or the halcyon ; the husband cocke lookes out , and straight is sped , and meets his wife , which brings her feather-bed . this day more cheerfully then ever shine . this day , which might enflāe thy self , old valentine , ii. till now , thou warmd'st with multiplying loves two larkes , two sparrowes , or two doves , all that is nothing unto this , for thou this day couplest two phoenixes , thou mak'st a taper see what the sunne never saw , and what the arke ( which was of foules , and beasts , the cage , and park , ) did not containe , one bed containes , through thee , two phoenixes , whose joyned breasts are unto one another mutuall nests , where motion kindles such fires , as shall give yong phoenixes , and yet the old shall live . whose love and courage never shall decline , but make the whole year through , thy day , o valētine . iii. up then faire phoenix bride , frustrate the sunne , thy selfe from thine affection takest warmth enough , and from thine eye all lesser birds will take their jollitie . up , up , faire bride , and call , thy starres , from out their severall boxes , take thy rubies , pearles , and diamonds forth , and make thy selfe a constellation , of them all , and by their blazing , signifie , that a great princess falls , but doth not die ; bee thou a new starre , that to us portends ends of much wonder ; and be thou those ends , since thou dost this day in new glory shine , may all men date records , from this thy valentine . iiii. come forth , come forth , and as one glorious flame meeting another , growes the same , so meet thy fredericke , and so to an unseparable union goe , since separation falls not on such things as are infinite , nor things which are but one , can disunite . you' are twice inseparable , great , and one ; goe then to where the bishop staies , to make you one , his way , which divers waies must be effected ; and when all is past , and that you' are one , by hearts and hands made fast , you two have one way left , your selves to'entwine , besides this bishops knot , o bishop valentine . v. but oh , what ailes the sunne , that here he staies , longer to day , then other daies ? staies he new light from these to get ? and finding here such store , is loth to set ? and why doe you two walke , so slowly pac'd in this procession ? is all your care but to be look'd upon , and be to others spectacle , and talke ? the feast , with gluttonous delaies , is eaten , and too long their meat they praise , the masquers come too late , and ' i thinke , will stay , like fairies , till the cock crow them away . alas , did not antiquity assigne a night , as well as day , to thee , o valentine ? vi. they did , and night is come ; and yet wee see formalities retarding thee . what meane these ladies , which ( as though they were to take a clock in peeces , ) goe so nicely about the bride ; a bride , before a good night could be said , should vanish from her cloathes , into her bed , as soules from bodies steale , and are not spy'd . but now she is laid ; what though shee bee ? yet there are more delayes , for , where is he ? he comes , and passes through spheare after spheare . first her sheetes , then her armes , then any where , let not this day , then , but this night be thine , thy day was but the eve to this , o valentine . vii . here lyes a shee sunne , and a hee moone here , she gives the best light to his spheare , or each is both , and all , and so they unto one another nothing owe , and yet they doe , but are so just and rich in that coyne which they pay , that neither would , nor needs forbeare nor stay , neither desires to be spar'd , nor to spare , they quickly pay their debt , and then take no acquittance , but pay again ; they pay , they give , they lend , and so let fall , no such occasion to be liberall . more truth , more courage in these two do shine , then all thy turtles have , and sparrows , valentine . viii . and by this act of these two phenixes nature againe restored is , for since these two are two no more , ther 's but one phenix still , as was before . rest now at last , and wee as satyres watch the sunnes uprise , will stay waiting , when your eyes opened , let out day . onely desir'd , because your face wee see ; others neare you shall whispering speake , and wagers lay , at which side day will breake , and win by'observing , then , whose hand it is that opens first a curtaine , hers or his ; this will be tryed to morrow after nine , till which houre , wee thy day enlarge , o valentine . ecclogue . 1613. december 26. allophanes finding idios in the country in christmas time , reprehends his absence from court , at the mariage of the earle of sommerset , idios gives an account of his purpose therein , and of his absence thence . allophanes . vnseasonable man , statue of ice , what could to countries solitude entice thee , in this yeares cold and decrepit time ? natures instinct drawes to the warmer clime even small birds , who by that courage dare , in numerous fleets , saile through their sea , the aire . what delicacie can in fields appeare , whil'st flora ' herselfe doth a freeze jerkin weare ? whil'st windes do all the trees and hedges strip of leafes , to furnish roddes enough to whip thy madnesse from thee ; and all springs by frost have taken cold , and their sweet murmures lost ; if thou thy faults or fortunes would'st lament with just solemnity , do it in lent ; at court the spring already advanced is , the sunne stayes longer up ; and yet not his the glory is , farre other , other fires . first , zeale to prince and state ; then loves desires burne in one brest , and like heavens two great lights , the first doth governe dayes , the other nights . and then that early light , which did appeare before the sunne and moone created were ; the princes favour is defus'd o'r all , from which all fortunes , names , and natures fall ; then from those wombes of starres , the brides bright eyes , at every glance , a constellation flyes , and sowes the court with starres , and doth prevent in light and power , the all-ey'd firmament ; first her eyes kindles other ladies eyes , then from their beames their jewels lusters rise , and from their jewels torches do take fire , and all is warmth , and light , and good desire ; most other courts , alas , are like to hell , where in darke places , fire without light doth dwell : or but like stoves , for lust and envy get continuall , but artificiall heat ; here zeale and love growne one , all clouds disgest , and make our court an everlasting east . and can'st thou be from thence ? idios . no , i am there as heaven , to men dispos'd , is every where , so are those courts , whose princes animate , not onely all their house , but all their state , let no man thinke , because he is full , he hath all , kings ( as their patterne , god ) are liberall not onely in fulnesse , but capacitie , enlarging narrow men , to feele and see , and comprehend the blessings they bestow . so , reclus'd hermits often times do know more of heavens glory , then a worldling can . as man is of the world , the heart of man , is an epitome of gods great booke of creatures , and man need no farther looke ; so is the country of courts , where sweet peace doth , as their one common soule , give life to both , i am not then from court. allophanes . dreamer , thou art , think'st thou fantastique that thou hast a part in the indian fleet , because thou hast a little spice , or amber in thy taste ? because thou art not frozen , art thou warme ? seest thou all good because thou seest no harme ? the earth doth in her inner bowels hold stuffe well dispos'd ▪ and which would faine be gold , but never shall , except it chance to lye , so upward , that heaven gild it with his eye ; as , for divine things , faith comes from above , so , for best civill use , all tinctures move from higher powers ; from god religion springs , wisdome , and honour from the use of kings . then unbeguile thy selfe , and know with mee , that angels , though on earth employd they bee , are still in heav'n , so is hee still at home that doth , abroad , to honest actions come . chide thy selfe then , o foole , which yesterday might'st have read more then all thy books bewray ; hast thou a history , which doth present a court , where all affections do assent unto the kings , and that , that kings are just ? and where it is no levity to trust . where there is no ambition , but to'obey , where men need whisper nothing , and yet may ; where the kings favours are so plac'd , that all finde that the king therein is liberall to them , in him , because his favours bend to vertue , to the which they all pretend . thou hast no such ; yet here was this , and more , an earnest lover , wise then , and before , our little cupidhath sued livery , and is no more in his minority , hee is admitted now into that brest where the kings counsells and his secrets rest ▪ what hast thou lost , o ignorant man ? idios . i knew , all this , and onely therefore i withdrew to know and feele all this , and not to have words to expresse it , makes a man a grave of his owne thoughts ; i would not therefore stay at a great feast , having no grace to say , and yet i scap'd not here ; for being come full of the common joy ; i utter'd some , reade then this nuptiall song , which was not made either the court or mens hearts to invade , but since i 'am dead , and buried i could frame no epitaph , which might advance my fame , so much as this poore song , which testifies i did unto that day some sacrifice . i. the time of the mariage . thou art repriv'd old yeare , thou shalt not die , though thou upon thy death bed lye , and should'st within five dayes expire yet thou art rescu'd by a mightier fire , then thy old soule , the sunne , when he doth in his largest circle runne . the passage of the west or east would thaw , and open wide their easie liquid jawe to all our ships , could a promethean art either unto the northerne pole impart the fire of these inflaming eyes , or of this loving heart . ii. equality of persons . but undiscerning muse , which heart , which eyes , in this new couple , dost thou prize , when his eye as inflaming is as hers , and her heart loves as well as his ? be tryed by beauty , and than the bridegroome is a maid , and not a man , if by that manly courage they be tryed , which scornes unjust opinion ; then the bride becomes a man. should chance or envies art divide these two , whom nature scarce did part ? since both have th'enflaming eye , and both the loving heart . iii. raysing of the bridegroome . though it be some divorce to thinke of you single , so much one are you two , let me here contemplate thee , first , cheerfull bridegroome , and first let mee see , how thou prevent'st the sunne , and his red foming horses dost outrunne , how , having laid downe in thy soveraignes brest all businesses , from thence to reinvest them , when these triumphs cease , thou forward art to shew to her , who doth the like impart , the fire of thy inflaming eyes , and of thy loving heart . iiii. raising of the bride . but now , to thee , faire bride , it is some wrong , to thinke thou wert in bed so long , since soone thou lyest downe first , t is fit thou in first rising should'st allow for it , pouder thy radiant haire , which if without such ashes thou would'st weare , thou , which , to all which come to looke upon , are meant for , phoebus , would'st be phaëton , for our ease , give thine eyes , th'unusuall part of joy , a teare ; so quencht , thou maist impart , to us that come , thy inflaming eyes , to him , thy loving heart . v. her apparrelling . thus thou descend'st to our infirmitie , who can the sun in water see . soe dost thou , when in silke and gold , thou cloudst thy selfe ; since wee which doe behold , are dust , and wormes , 't is just our objects be the fruits of wormes and dust ; let every jewell be a glorious starre , yet starres are not so pure , as their spheares are . and though thou stoope , t o'appeare to us , in part , still in that picture thou intirely art , which thy inflaming eyes have made within his loving heart . vi. going to the chappell . now from your easts you issue forth , and wee , as men which through a cipres see the rising sun , doe thinke it two , soe , as you goe to church , doe thinke of you , but that vaile being gone , by the church rites you are from thenceforth one . the church triumphant made this match before , and now the militant doth strive no more , then , reverend priest , who gods recorder art , doe , from his dictates , to these two impart all blessings , which are seene , or thought , by angels eye or heart . vii : the benediction . blest payre of swans , oh may you interbring daily new joyes , and never sing , live , till all grounds of wishes faile , till honor , yea till wisedome grow so stale , that , new great heights to trie , it must serve your ambition , to die ; raise heires , and may here , to the worlds end , live heires from this king , to take thankes , you , to give , nature and grace doe all , and nothing art , may never age , or error overthwart with any west , these radiant eyes , with any north , this heart , viii . feasts and revells . but you are over-blest . plenty this day injures ; it causeth time to stay ; the tables groane , as though this feast would , as the flood , destroy all fowle and beast . and were the doctrine new that the earth mov'd , this day would make it true ; for every part to dance and revell goes . they tread the ayre , and fal not where they rose . though six houres since , the sunne to bed did part , the masks and banquets will not yet impart a sunset to these weary eyes , a center to this heart . ix . the brides going to bed . what mean'st thou bride , this companie to keep ? to sit up , till thou faine wouldst sleep ? thou maist not , when thou art laid , doe so . thy selfe must to him a new banquet grow , and you must entertaine and doe all this daies dances o'r againe . know that if sun and moone together doe rise in one point , they doe not set so to . therefore thou maist , faire bride , to bed depart , thou art not gone , being gone , where e'r thou art , thou leav'st in him thy watchfull eyes , in him thy loving heart . x. the bridegroomes comming . as he that sees a starre fall , runs apace , and findes a gellie in the place , so doth the bridegroome hast as much , being told this starre is falne , and findes her such , and as friends may looke strange , by a new fashion , or apparrells change , their soules , though long acquainted they had beene , these clothes , their bodies , never yet had seene . therefore at first shee modestly might start , but must forthwith surrender every part , as freely , as each to each before , gave either eye or heart . xi . the good night . now , as in tullias tombe , one lampe burnt cleare ▪ unchang'd for fifteene hundred yeare , may these love-lamps we here enshrine , in warmth , light , lasting , equall the divine ; fire ever doth aspire , and makes all like it selfe , turnes all to fire , but ends in ashes , which these cannot doe , for none of these is fuell , but fire too . this is joyes bonfire , then , where loves strong arts make of so noble individuall parts one fire of foure inflaming eyes , and of two loving hearts . idios . as i have brought this song , that i may doe a perfect sacrifice , i 'll burne it too . allophanes . no sr. this paper i have justly got , for , in burnt incense , the perfume is not his only that presents it , but of all , what ever celebrates this festivall is common , since the joy thereof is so . nor may your selfe be priest : but let me goe , backe to the court , and i will lay'it upon such altars , as prize your devotion . epithalamion made at lincolnes inne . the sun-beames in the east are spred , leave , leave , faire bride , your solitary bed , no more shall you returne to it alone , it nourseth sadnesse , and your bodies print , like to a grave , the yielding downe doth dint ; you and your other you meet there anon ; put forth , put forth that warme balme-breathing thigh , which whē next time you in these sheets wil smother there it must meet another , which never was , but must be , oft , more nigh ; come glad from thence , goe gladder then you came , to day put on perfection , and a womans name . daughters of london , you which bee our golden mines , and furnish'd treasurie , you which are angels , yet still bring with you thousands of angels on your mariage daies , help with your presence , and devise to praise these rites , which also unto you grow due ; conceitedly dresse her , and be assign'd , by you , fit place for every flower and jewell , make her for love fit fewell as gay as flora , and as rich as inde ; so may shee faire and rich , in nothing lame , to day put on perfection , and a womans name . and you frolique patricians some of these senators wealths deep oceans , ye painted courtiers , barrels of others wits , yee country men , who but your beasts love none , yee of those fellowships whereof hee 's one , of study and play made strange hermaphrodits , here shine ; this bridegroom to the temple bring loe , in yon path which store of straw'd flowers graceth , the sober virgin paceth ; except my sight faile , 't is no other thing ; weep not nor blush , here is no griefe nor shame , to day put on perfection , and a womans name . thy two-leav'd gates faire temple unfold , and these two in thy sacred bosome hold , till , mystically joyn'd , but one they bee ; then may thy leane and hunger-starved wombe long time expect their bodies and their tombe , long after their owne parents fatten thee ; all elder claimes , and all cold barrennesse , all yeelding to new loves bee far for ever , which might these two dissever , alwaies , all th' other may each one possesse ; for , the best bride , best worthy of praise and fame , to day puts on perfection , and a womans name . winter dayes bring much delight , not for themselves , but for they soon bring night ; other sweets wait thee then these diverse meats , other disports then dancing jollities , other love tricks then glancing with the eyes ; but that the sun still in our halfe spheare sweates ; hee flies in winter , but he now stands still , yet shadowes turne ; noone point he hath attain'd , his steeds will bee restrain'd , but gallop lively downe the westerne hill ; thou shalt , when he hath come the worlds half frame , to night but on perfection , and a womans name . the amorous evening starre is rose , why then should not our amorous starre inclose her selfe in her wish'd bed ? release your strings musicians , and dancers take some truce with these your pleasing labours , for great use as much wearinesse as perfection brings ; you , and not only you , but all toyl'd beasts rest duly ; at night all their toyles are dispensed ; but in their beds commenced are other labours , and more dainty feasts ; she goes amaid , who , least she turne the same , to night puts on perfection , and a womans name . thy virgins girdle now untie , and in thy nuptiall bed [ loves alter ] lye a pleasing sacrifice ; now dispossesse thee of these chaines and robes which were put on t' adorne the day , not thee ; for thou , alone , like vertue ' and truth , art best in nakednesse ; this bed is onely to virginitie a grave , but , to a better state , a cradle ; till now thou wast but able to be what now thou art ; then that by thee no more be said , i may bee , but , i am , to night put on perfection , and a womans name . even like a faithfull man content , that this life for a better should be spent ; so , shee a mothers rich stile doth preferre , and at the bridegroomes wish'd approach doth lye , like an appointed lambe , when tenderly the priest comes on his knees t'embowell her ; now sleep or watch with more joy ; and o light of heaven , to morrow rise thou hot , and early ; this sun will love so dearely her rest , that long , long we shall want her sight ; wonders are wrought , for shee which had no maime , to night puts on perfection , and a womans name . to the countesse of bedford . madame , i have learn'd by those lawes wherein i am a little conversant , that hee which bestowes any cost upon the dead , obliges him which is dead , but not the heire ; i do not therefore send this paper to your ladyship , that you should thanke mee for it , or thinke that i thanke you in it ; your favours and benefits to mee are so much above my merits , that they are even above my gratitude , if that were to be judged by words which must expresse it : but , madame , since your noble brothers fortune being yours , the evidences also concerning it are yours , so his vertue being yours , the evidences concerning it , belong also to you , of which by your acceptance this may be one peece , in which quality i humbly present it , and as a testimony how intirely your familie possesseth your ladiships most humble and thankfull servant john donne . obsequies to the lord harringtons brother . to the countesse of bedford . faire soule , which wast , not onely , as all soules bee , then when thou wast infused , harmony , but did'st continue so ; and now dost beare a part in gods great organ , this whole spheare : if looking up to god ; or downe to us , thou finde that any way is pervious , twixt heav'n and earth , and that mans actions doe come to your knowledge , and affections too , see , and with joy , mee to that good degree of goodnesse growne , that i can studie thee , and , by these meditations refin'd , can unapparell and enlarge my minde , and so can make by this soft extasie , this place a map of heav'n , my selfe of thee . thou seest mee here at midnight , now all rest ; times dead-low water ; when all mindes devest to morrows businesse , when the labourers have such rest in bed , that their last church-yard grave , subject to change , will scarce be'a type of this , now when the clyent , whose last hearing is to morrow , sleeps , when the condemned man , ( who when hee opes his eyes , must shut them than againe by death , ) although sad watch hee keepe , doth practice dying by a little sleepe , thou at this midnight seest mee , and as soone as that sunne rises to mee , midnight's noone , all the world growes transparent , and i see through all , both church and state , in seeing thee ; and i discerne by favour of this light , my selfe , the hardest object of the sight . god is the glasse ; as thou when thou dost see him who sees all , seest all concerning thee , so , yet unglorified , i comprehend all , in these mirrors of thy wayes , and end ; though god be our true glass , through which we see all , since the beeing of all things is hee , yet are the trunkes which doe to us derive things , in proportion fit by perspective , deeds of good men , for by their living here , vertues , indeed remote , seeme to be nere ; but where can i affirme , or where arrest my thoughts on his deeds ? which shall i call best ? for fluid vertue cannot be look'd on , nor can endure a contemplation ; as bodies change , and as i do not weare those spirits , humors , blood i did last yeare , and , as if on a streame i fixe mine eye , that drop , which i looked on , is presently pusht with more waters from my sight , and gone , so in this sea of vertues , can no one bee'insisted on , vertues , as rivers , passe , yet still remaines that vertuous man there was ; and as if man feeds on mans flesh , and so part of his body to another owe , yet at the last two perfect bodies rise , because god knowes where every atome lyes ; so , if one knowledge were made of all those , who knew his minutes well , hee might dispose his vertues into names , and ranks ; but i should injure nature , vertue , and destinie , should i divide and discontinue so , vertue , which did in one intirenesse grow . for as , hee that would say , spirits are fram'd of all the purest parts that can be nam'd , honours not spirits halfe so much , as hee which sayes , they have no parts , but simple bee ; so is't of vertue ; for a point and one are much entirer then a million . and had fate meant to have his vertues told , it would have let him live to have beene old , so then , that vertue in season , and then this , we might have seene , and said , that now he is witty , now wise , now temperate , now just : in good short lives , vertues are faine to thrust , and to be sure betimes to get a place , when they would exercise , lacke time , and space . so was it in this person , forc'd to bee for lack of time , his owne epitome . so to exhibit in few yeares as much , as all the long breath'd chronicles can touch ; as when an angell down from heav'n doth flye , our quick thought cannot keepe him company , wee cannot thinke , now hee is at the sunne , now through the moon , now he through th' aire doth run , yet when he 's come , we know he did repaire to all twixt heav'n and earth , sunne , moon , and aire . and as this angell in an instant , knowes , and yet wee know , this sodaine knowledge growes by quick amassing severall formes of things , which he successively to order brings ; when they , whose slow-pac'd lame thoughts cannot goe so fast as hee , thinke that he doth not so ; just as a perfect reader doth not dwell , on every syllable , nor stay to spell , yet without doubt , hee doth distinctly see and lay together every a , and b ; so , in short liv'd good men , is'not understood each severall vertue , but the compound good . for , they all vertues paths in that pace tread , as angells goe , and know , and as men read . o why should then these men , these lumps of balme sent hither , the worlds tempest to becalme , before by deeds they are diffus'd and spred , and so make us alive , themselves be dead ? o soule , o circle , why so quickly bee thy ends , thy birth and death clos'd up in thee ? since one foot of thy compasse still was plac'd in heav'n , the other might securely'have pac'd in the most large extent , through every path , which the whole world , or man , the abridgment hath . thou knowst , that though the tropique circles have ( yea and those small ones which the poles engrave , ) all the same roundnesse , evennesse , and all the endlesnesse of the equinoctiall ; yet , when we come to measure distances , how here , how there , the sunne affected is , when he doth faintly worke , and when prevaile , onely great circles , then , can be our scale : so , though thy circle to thy selfe expresse all , tending to thy endlesse happinesse , and wee , by our good use of it may trye , both how to live well young , and how to die , yet , since we must be old , and age endures his torrid zone at court , and calentures of hot ambitions , irrelegions ice , zeales agues ; and hydroptique avarice , infirmities which need the scale of truth , as well , as lust and ignorance of youth ; why did'st thou not for these give medicines too , and by thy doing tell us what to doe ? though as small pocket-clocks , whose every wheele doth each mismotion and distemper feele , whose hands get shaking palsies , and whose string ( his sinewes ) slackens , and whose soule , the spring , expires , or languishes , whose pulse , the flye , either beates not , or beates unevenly , whose voice , the bell , doth rattle , or grow dumbe , or idle , ' as men , which to their last houres come , if these clockes be not wound , or be wound still , or be not set , or set at every will ; so , youth is easiest to destruction , if then wee follow all , or follow none ; yet , as in great clocks , which in steeples chime , plac'd to informe whole towns , to'imploy their time , an error doth more harme , being generall , when , small clocks faults , only'on the wearer fall . so worke the faults of age , on which the eye of children , servants , or the state relie . why wouldst not thou then , which hadst such a soule , a clock so true , as might the sunne controule , and daily hadst from him , who gave it thee , instructions , such as it could never be disordered , stay here , as a generall and great sun-dyall , to have set us all ? o why wouldst thou be any instrument to this unnaturall course , or why consent to this , not miracle , but prodigie , that when the ebbs , longer then flowings be , vertue , whose flood did with thy youth begin , should so much faster ebb out , then flow'in ? though her flood was blowne in , by thy first breath , all is at once sunke in the whirle-poole death . which word i would not name , but that i see death , else a desert , growne a court by thee . now i grow sure , that if a man would have good companie , his entry is a grave . mee thinkes all cities , now , but anthills bee , where , when the severall labourers i see , for children , house , provision , taking paine , they' are all but ants , carrying eggs , straw , and grain ; and church-yards are our cities , unto which the most repaire , that are in goodnesse rich . there is the best concourse , and confluence , there are the holy suburbs , and from thence begins gods city , new jerusalem , which doth extend her utmost gates to them ; at that gate then triumphant soule , dost thou begin thy triumph ; but since lawes allow that at the triumph day , the people may , all that they will , ' gainst the triumpher say , let me here use that freedome , and expresse my griefe , though not to make thy triumph lesse . by law , to triumphs none admitted bee , till they as magistrates get victorie , though then to thy force , all youthes foes did yield , yet till fit time had brought thee to that field , to which thy ranke in this state destin'd thee , that there thy counsailes might get victorie , and so in that capacitie remove , all jealousies , 'twixt prince and subjects love , thou could'st no title , to this triumph have , thou didst intrude on death , usurp'st a grave . that ( though victoriously ) thou hadst fought as yet but with thine owne affections , with the heate of youths desires , and colds of ignorance , but till thou should'st successefully advance thine armes'gainst forraine enemies , which are both envy , and acclamation popular , ( for , both these engines equally defeate , though by a divers mine , those which are great , ) till then thy war was but a civill war , for which to triumph , none admitted are ; no more are they , who though with good successe , ●n a defensive war ▪ their power expresse , before men triumph , the dominion must be enlarg'd , and not preserv'd alone ; why should'st thou then , whose battailes were to win thy selfe , from those straits nature put thee in , and to deliver up to god that state , of which he gave thee the vicariate . ( which is thy soule and body ) as intire as he , who takes endeavours , doth require , but didst not stay , t' enlarge his kingdome too , by making others ; what thou didst , to doe ; why shouldst thou triumph now , when heav'n no more hath got , by getting thee , then t 'had before ? for , heav'n and thou , even when thou livedst here , of one another in possession were ; but this from triumph most disables thee , that , that place which is conquered , must bee left safe from present warre , and likely doubt of imminent commotions to breake out . and hath he left us so ? or can it bee his territory was no more then hee ? no , we were all his charge , the diocis of ev'ry exemplar man , the whole world is , and he was joyned in commission with tutelar angels , sent to every one . but though this freedome to upbraid , and chide him who triumph'd , were lawfull , it was ty'd with this , that it might never reference have unto the senate , who this triumph gave ; men might at pompey jeast , but they might not at that authoritie , by which he got leave to triumph , before , by age , he might ; so , though triumphant soule , i dare to write , mov'd with a reverentiall anger , thus , that thou so earely wouldst abandon us ; yet i am farre from daring to dispute with that great soveraigntie , whose absolute prerogative hath thus dispens'd with thee , ' gainst natures lawes , which just impugners bee of early triumphs ; and i ( though with paine ) lessen our losse , to magnifie thy gaine of triumph , when i say , it was more fit , that all men should lacke thee , then thou lack it . though then in our time , be not suffered that testimonie of love , unto the dead , to die with them , and in their graves be hid , as saxon wives , and french soldarii did ; and though in no degree i can expresse , griefe in great alexanders great excesse , who at his friends death , made whole townes devest their walls and bullwarks which became them best : doe not , faire soule , this sacrifice refuse , that in thy grave i doe interre my muse , who , by my griefe , great as thy worth , being cast behind hand , yet hath spoke , and spoke her last . elegie . as the sweet sweat of roses in a still , as that which frō chaf'd muskats pores doth trill , as the almighty balme of th' early east , such are the sweat drops of my mistris breast . and on her necke her skin such lustre sets , they seeme no sweat drops , but pearle coronets . ranke sweaty froth thy mistresse's brow defiles , like spermatique issue of ripe menstruous boiles . or like the skumme , which , by needs lawlesse law enforc'd , sanserra's starved men did draw from parboild shooes , and bootes , and all the rest which were with any soveraigne fatnes blest , and like vile stones lying in saffrond tinne , or warts , or wheales , it hangs upon her skinne . round as the world 's her head , on every side , like to the fatall ball which fell on ide , or that whereof god had such jealousie , as , for the ravishing thereof we die . thy head is like a rough-hewne statue of jeat , where marks for eyes , nose , mouth , are yet scarce set ; like the first chaos , or flat seeming face of cynthia , when th' earths shadowes her embrace . like proserpines white beauty-keeping chest , or joues best fortunes urne , is her faire brest . thine's like worme eaten trunkes , cloth'd in seals skin , or grave , that 's dust without , and stinke within . and like that slender stalke , at whose end stands the wood-bine quivering , are her armes and hands , like rough bark'd elmboughes , or the russet skin of men late scurg'd for madnes , or for sinne , like sun-parch'd quarters on the citie gate , such is thy tann'd skins lamentable state . and like a bunch of ragged carrets stand the short swolne fingers of her gouty hand ; then like the chymicks masculine equall fire , which in the lymbecks warme wombe doth inspire into th' earths worthlesse part a soule of gold , such cherishing heat her best lov'd part doth hold . thine's like the dread mouth of a fired gunne , or like hot liquid metalls newly runne into clay moulds , or like to that aetna where round about the grasse is burnt away . are not your kisses then as filthy , and more , as a worme sucking an invenom'd sore ? doth not thy fearefull hand in feeling quake , as one which gath'ring flowers , still feares a snake ? is not your last act harsh , and violent , as where a plough a stony ground doth rent ? so kisse good turtles , so devoutly nice are priests in handling reverent sacrifice , and nice in searching wounds the surgeon is as wee , when wee embrace , or touch , or kisse . leave her , and i will leave comparing thus , she , and comparisons are odious . elegie . the autumnall . no spring , nor summer beauty hath such grace , as i have seen in one autumnall face , yong beauties force our love , and that 's a rape , this doth but counsaile , yet you cannot scape . if t' were a shame to love , here t' were no shame , affections here take reverences name . were her first yeares the golden age ; that 's true , but now they' are gold oft tried , and ever new . that was her torrid and inflaming time , this is her tolerable tropique clyme . faire eyes , who askes more heate , then comes from hence , he in a fever wishes pestilence . call not these wrinkles , graves ; if graves they were , they were loves graves ; for else he is no where . yet lies not love dead here , but here doth sit vow'd to this trench , like an anachorit . and here , till hers , which must be his death , come , he doth not digge a grave , but build a tombe . iere dwells he , though he sojourne ev'ry where ; in progresse , yet his standing house is here . iere , where still evening is ; not noone , nor night ; where no voluptuousnesse , , yet all delight . in all her words , unto all hearers fit , you may at revels , you at counsaile , sit . this is loves timber , youth his under-wood ; there he , as wine in iune , enrages blood , which then comes seasonabliest , when our tast and appetite to other things , is past ; xerxes strange lydian love , the platane tree , was lov'd for age , none being so large as shee , or else because , being yong , nature did blesse her youth with ages glory , barrennesse . if we love things long sought , age is a thing which we are fifty yeares in compassing . if transitory things , which soone decay , age must be lovelyest at the latest day . but name not winter-faces , whose skin 's slacke ; lanke , as an unthrifts purse ; but a soules sacke ; whose eyes seeke light within , for all here 's shade ; whose mouthes are holes , rather worne out , then made whos 's every tooth to a severall place is gone , to vexe their soules at resurrection ; name not these living deaths-heads unto mee , for these , not ancient , but antique be ; i hate extreames ; yet i had rather stay with tombs , then cradles , to weare out a day . since such loves motion natural is , may still my love descend , and journey downe the hill , not panting after growing beauties , so , i shall ebbe out with them , who home-ward goe . elegie . image of her whom i love , more then she , whose faire impression in my faithfull heart , makes mee her medall , and makes her love mee , as kings do coynes , to which their stamps impart the value : goe , and take my heart from hence , which now is growne too great and good for me : honours oppresse weake spirits , and our sense , strong objects dull , the more , the lesse wee see . when you are gone , and reason gone with you , then fantasie is queene and soule , and all ; she can present joyes meaner then you do ; convenient , and more proportionall . so , if i dreame i have you , i have you , for , all our joyes are but fantasticall . and so i scape the paine , for paine is true ; and sleepe which locks up sense , doth lock out all . after a such fruition i shall wake , and , but the waking , nothing shall repent ; and shall to love more thankfull sonnets make , then if more honour , teares , and paines were spent . but dearest heart , and dearer image stay ; alas , true joyes at best are dreame enough ; though you stay here you passe too fast away : for even at first lifes taper is a snuffe . fill'd with her love , may i be rather grown mad with much heart , then ideott with none . elegie on prince henry . looke to mee faith , and looke to my faith , god ; for both my centers feele this period . of waight one center , one of greatnesse is ; and reason is that center , faith is this ; for into'our reason flow , and there do end all , that this naturall world doth comprehend : quotidian things , and equidistant hence , shut in , for man , in one circumference . but for th'enormous greatnesses , which are so disproportion'd , and so angulare , as is gods essence , place and providence , where , how , when , what soules do , departed hence , these things ( eccentrique else ) on faith do strike ; yet neither all , nor upon all , alike . for reason , put to'her best extension , almost meetes faith , and makes both centers one . and nothing ever came so nere to this , as contemplation of that prince , wee misse . for all that faith might credit mankinde could , reason still seconded , that this prince would . if then least moving of the center , make more , then if whole hell belch'd , the world to shake . what must this do , centers distracted so , that wee see not what to beleeve or know ? was it not well beleev'd till now , that hee , whose reputation was an extasie , on neighbour states , which knew not why to wake , till hee discover'd what wayes he would take ; for whom , what princes angled , when they tryed , met a torpedo , and were stupified ; and others studies , how he would be bent , was his great fathers greatest instrument , and activ'st spirit , to convey and tie this soule of peace , through christianity ; was it not well beleev'd , that hee would make this generall peace , th' eternall overtake , and that his times might have stretch'd out so farre , as to touch those , of which they emblems are ? for to confirme this just beleefe , that now the last dayes came , wee saw heav'n did allow , that , but from his aspect and exercise , in peacefull times , rumors of war did rise . but now this faith is heresie : we must still stay , and vexe our great grand mother , dust . oh , is god prodigall ? hath he spent his store of plagues , on us , and onely now , when more would ease us much , doth he grudge misery ; and will not let 's enjoy our curse ; to dy . as , for the earth throwne lowest downe of all , t' were an ambition to desire to fall , so god , in our desire to dye , doth know our plot for ease , in being wretched so . therefore we live ; though such a life wee have , as but so many mandrakes on his grave . what had his growth , and generation done , when , what we are , his putrefaction sustaines in us ; earth , which griefes animate ; nor hath our world now , other soule then that . and could griefe get so high as heav'n , that quire , forgetting this their new joy , would desire ( with griefe to see him ) hee had staid below , to rectifie our errours , they foreknow . is th' other center , reason , faster then ? where should we looke for that , now we' are not men ? for if our reason be'our connexion of causes , now to us there can be none . for , as if all the substances were spent , 't were madnesse , to enquire of accident , so is't to looke for reason , hee being gone , the onely subject reason wrought upon . if fate have such a chaine , whose divers links industrious man discerneth , as hee thinks , when miracle doth come , and so steale in a new linke , man knowes not , where to begin ▪ at a much deader fault must reason bee , death having broke off such a linke as hee . but now , for us , with busie proofe to come , that we'have no reason , would prove wee had some . so would just lamentations : therefore wee may safelyer say , that we are dead , then hee . so , if our griefs wee do not well declare , we'have double excuse ; he 'is not dead ; and we are . yet i would not dy yet ; for though i bee too narrow , to thinke him , as hee is hee , ( our soules best baiting , and midd-period , in her long journey , of considering god ) yet , ( no dishonour ) i can reach him thus , as he embrac'd the fires of love , with us . oh may i , ( since i live ) but see , or heare , that she-intelligence which mov'd this spheare , i pardon fate , my life : who ere thou bee , which hast the noble conscience , thou art shee , i conjure thee by all the charmes he spoke , by th'oathes , which onely you two never broke , by all the soules yee sigh'd , that if you see these lines , you wish , i knew your history . so much , as you , two mutuall heav'ns were here , i were an angell , singing what you were . psalme 137. i. by euphrates flowry side we did bide , from deare juda farre absented , tearing the aire with our cryes , and our eyes , with their streames his streame augmented . ii. when , poore syons dolefull state , desolate ; sacked , burned , and inthrall'd , and the temple spoil'd , which wee ne'r should see , to our mirthlesse mindes wee call'd ▪ iii. our mute harpes , untun'd , unstrung , up wee hung on greene willowes neere beside us , where , we sitting all forlorne ; thus , in scorne , our proud spoylers 'gan deride us . iv. come , sad captives , leave your moanes , and your groanes under syons ruines bury ; tune your harps , and sing us layes in the praise of your god , and let 's be merry , v. can , ah , can we leave our moanes ? and our groanes under syons ruines bury ? can we in this land sing layes in the praise of our god , and here be merry ? vi. no ; deare syon , if i yet do forget thine affliction miserable , let my nimble joynts become stiffe and numme , to touch warbling harpe unable . vii . let my tongue lose singing skill , let it still to my parched roofe be glewed , if in either harpe or voice i rejoyce , till thy joyes shall be renewed viii . lord , curse edom's traiterous kinde , beare in minde in our ruines how they revell'd , sack , kill , burne , they cry'd out still , sack , burne , kill , downe with all , let all be levell'd . ix . and , thou babel , when the tide of thy pride now a flowing , growes to turning ; victor now , shall then be thrall , and shall fall to as low an ebbe of mourning . x. happy he who shall thee waste , as thou hast us , without all mercy , wasted , and shall make thee taste and see what poore wee by thy meanes have seene and tasted . xi . happy , who , thy tender barnes from the armes of their wailing mothers tearing , ' gainst the walls shall dash their bones , ruthlesse stones with their braines and blood besmearing . resurrection , imperfect . sleep sleep old sun , thou canst not have repast as yet , the wound thou took'st on friday last ; sleepe then , and rest ; the world may beare thy stay , a better sun rose before thee to day , who , not content to'enlighten all that dwell on the earths face , as thou , enlightned hell , and made the darke fires languish in that vale , as , at thy presence here , our fires grow pale . whose body having walk'd on earth , and now hasting to heaven , would , that he might allow himselfe unto all stations , and fill all , for these three daies become a minerall ; hee was all gold when he lay downe , but rose all tincture , and doth not alone dispose leaden and iron wills to good , but is of power to make even sinfull flesh like his . had one of those , whose credulous pietie thought , that a soule one might discerne and see ▪ goe from a body , ' at this sepulcher been , and , issuing from the sheet , this body seen , he would have justly thought this body a soule , if , not of any man , yet of the whole . desunt caetera . an hymne to the saints , and to marquesse hamylton . vvhither that soule which now comes up to you fill any former ranke or make a new , whither it take a name nam'd there before , or be a name it selfe , and order more then was in heaven till now ; ( for may not hee bee so ? if every severall angell bee a kind alone ; ) what ever order grow greater by him in heaven , wee doe not so ; one of your orders growes by his accesse ; but , by his losse grow all our orders lesse ; the name of father , master , friend , the name of subject and of prince , in one are lame ; faire mirth is dampt , and conversation black , the household widdow'd , and the garter slack ; the chappell wants an eare , councell a tongue ; story , a theame ; and musicke lacks a song ; blest order that hath him , the losse of him gangred all orders here ; all lost a limbe . never made body such hast to confesse what a soule was ; all former comelinesse ▪ fled , in a minute , when the soule was gone , and , having lost that beauty , would have none , so fell our monasteries , in one instant growne not to lesse houses , but , to heapes of stone ; so sent this body that faire forme it wore , unto the spheare of formes , and doth ( before his soule shall fill up his sepulchrall stone , ) anticipate a resurrection ; for , as in his fame , now , his soule is here , so , in the forme thereof his bodie 's there ; and if , faire soule , not with first innocents thy station be , but with the paenitents , ( and , who shall dare to aske then when i am dy'd scarlet in the blood of that pure lambe , whether that colour , which is scarlet then , were black or white before in eyes of men ? ) when thou rememb'rest what sins thou didst finde amongst those many friends now left behinde , and seest such sinners as they are , with thee got thither by repentance , let it bee thy wish to wish all there , to wish them cleane ; wish him a david , her a magdalen . sir , i presume you rather try what you can doe in me , then what i can doe in verse , you know my uttermost when it was best , and even then i did best when i had least truth for my subjects , in this present case there is so much truth as it defeats all poetry . call therefore this paper by what name you will , and , if it bee not worthy of you nor of him , we will smother it , and be it your sacrifice . if you had commanded mee to have waited on his body to scotland and preached there , i would have embraced your obligation with much alacrity ; but , i thanke you that you would command me that which i was loather to doe , for , even that hath given a tincture of merit to the obedience of your poore friend and servant in christ jesus i. d. an epitaph upon shakespeare . renowned chaucer lie a thought more nigh so rare beaumond ; and learned beaumond lie a little nearer spencer , to make roome for shakespeare in your threefold fourefold tombe . to lie all foure in one bed make a shift , for , untill doomesday hardly will a fift betwixt this day and that be slaine , for whom your curtaines need be drawne againe ; but , if precedency of death doth barre a fourth place in your sacred sepulchre , under this curled marble of thine owne sleepe rare tragedian shakespeare , sleepe alone , that , unto vs and others it may bee honor , hereafter to be laid by thee . sapho to philaenis . vvhere is that holy fire , which verse is said to have , is that inchanting force decai'd ? verse that drawes natures workes , from natures law , thee , her best worke , to her worke cannot draw . have my teares quench'd my old poetique fire ; why quench'd they not as well , that of desire ? thoughts , my mindes creatures , often are with thee , but i , their maker ; want their libertie . onely thine image , in my heart , doth sit , but that is waxe , and fires environ it . my fires have driven , thine have drawne it hence ; and i am rob'd of picture , heart , and sense . dwells with me still mine irksome memory , which , both to keepe , and lose , grieves equally . that tells me'how faire thou art : thou art so faire , as , gods , when gods to thee i doe compare , are grac'd thereby ; and to make blinde men see , what things gods are , i say they' are like to thee . for , if we justly call each silly man a litle world , what shall we call thee than ? thou art not soft , and cleare , and strait , and faire , as down , as stars , cedars , and lillies are , but thy right hand , and cheek , and eye , only are like thy other hand , and cheek , and eye . such was my phao awhile , but shall be never , as thou , wa●t , art , and , oh , maist be ever . here lovers sweare in their idolatrie , that i am such ; but griefe discolors me . and yet i grieve the lesse , least griefe remove my beauty , and make me'unworthy of thy love . plaies some soft boy with thee , oh there wants yet a mutuall feeling which should sweeten it . his chinne , a thorny hairy unevennesse doth threaten , and some daily change possesse . thy body is a naturall paradise , in whose selfe , unmanur'd , all pleasure lies , nor needs perfection ; why shouldst thou than admit the tillage of a harsh rough man ? men leave behinde them that which their sin showes ▪ and are , as theeves trac'd , which rob when it snows . but of our dallyance no more signes there are , then fishes leave in streames , or birds in aire . and betweene us all sweetnesse may be had ; all , all that nature yields , or art can adde . my two lips , eyes , thighs , differ from thy two , but so , as thine from one another doe ; and , oh , no more ; the likenesse being such , why should they not alike in all parts touch ? hand to strange hand , lippe to lippe none denies ; why should they brest to brest , or thighs to thighs ? likenesse begets such strange selfe flatterie , that touching my selfe , all seemes done to thee . my selfe i embrace , and mine owne hands i kisse , and amorously thanke my selfe for this . me , in my glasse , i call thee ; but alas , when i would kisse , teares dimme mine eyes , and glasse . o cure this loving madnesse , and restore me to mee ; shee , my halfe , my all , my more ▪ so may thy cheekes red outweare scarlet dye , and their white , whitenesse of the galaxy , so may thy mighty amazing beauty move envy ' in all women , and in all men ▪ love , and so be change , and sicknesse , farre from thee , as thou by comming neere , keep'st them from me . the annuntiation and passion . tamely fraile body'abstaine to day ; to day my soule eates twice , christ hither and away . she sees him man , so like god made in this , that of them both a circle embleme is , whose first and last concurre ; this doubtfull day of feast or fast , christ came , and went away ; shee sees him nothing twice at once , who'is all ; shee sees a cedar plant it selfe , and fall , her maker put to making , and the head of life , at once , not yet alive , yet dead ; she sees at once the virgin mother stay reclus'd at home , publique at golgotha . sad and rejoyc'd shee 's seen at once , and seen at almost fiftie , and at scarce fifteene . at once a sonne is promis'd her , and gone , gabriell gives christ to her , he her to john ; not fully a mother , shee 's in orbitie , at once receiver and the legacie ; all this , and all betweene , this day hath showne , th' abridgement of christs story , which makes one ( as in plaine maps , the furthest west is east ) of the'angels ave , ' and consummatum est . how well the church , gods court of faculties deales , in some times , and seldome joyning these ; as by the selfe-fix'd pole wee never doe direct our course , but the next starre thereto , which showes where the'other is , and which we say ( because it strayes not farre ) doth never stray ; so god by his church , neerest to him , wee know , and stand firme , if wee by her motion goe ; his spirit , as his fiery pillar doth leade , and his church , as cloud ; to one end both : this church , by letting those daies joyne , hath shown death and conception in mankinde is one . or 't was in him the same humility , that he would be a man , and leave to be : or as creation he hath made , as god , with the last judgement , but one period , his imitating spouse would joyne in one manhoods extremes : he shall come , he is gone : or as though one blood drop , which thence did fall , accepted , would have serv'd , he yet shed all ; so though the least of his paines , deeds , or words , would busie a life , she all this day affords ; this treasure then , in grosse , my soule uplay , and in my life retaile it every day . goodfriday , 1613. riding westward . let mans soule be a spheare , and then , in this , the intelligence that moves , devotion is , and as the other spheares , by being growne subject to forraigne motion , lose their owne , and being by others hurried every day , scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey : pleasure or businesse , so , our soules admit for their first mover , and are whirld by it . hence is 't , that i am carryed towards the west this day , whē my soules forme bends toward the east . there i should see a sunne , by rising set , and by that setting endlesse day beget ; but that christ on this crosse , did rise and fall , sinne had eternally benighted all . yet dare i'almost be glad , i do not see that spectacle of too much weight for mee . who sees gods face , that is selfe life , must dye ; what a death were it then to see god dye ? it made his owne lieutenant nature shrinke , it made his footstoole crack , and the sunne winke . could i behold those hands which span the poles , and tune all spheares at once peirc'd with those holes ? could i behold that endlesse height which is zenith to us , and our antipodes , humbled below us ? or that blood which is the seat of all our soules , if not of his , made durt of dust , or that flesh which was worne by god , for his apparell , rag'd , and torne ? if on these things i durst not looke , durst i upon his miserable mother cast mine eye , who was gods partner here , and furnish'd thus halfe of that sacrifice , which ransom'd us ? though these things , as i ride , be from mine eye , they' are present yet unto my memory , for that looks towards them ; & thou look'st towards mee , o saviour , as thou hang'st upon the tree ; i turne my backe to thee , but to receive corrections , till thy mercies bid thee leave . o thinke mee worth thine anger , punish mee , burne off my rusts , and my deformity , restore thine image , so much , by thy grace , that thou may'st know mee , and i 'll turne my face . the litanie . i. the father . father of heaven , and him , by whom it , and us for it , and all else , for us thou madest , and govern'st ever , come and re-create mee , now growne ruinous : my heart is by dejection , clay , and by selfe-murder , red . from this red earth , o father , purge away all vicious tinctures , that new fashioned i may rise up from death , before i 'am dead . ii. the sonne . o sonne of god , who seeing two things , sinne , and death crept in , which were never made , by bearing one , tryed'st with what stings the other could thine heritage invade ; o be thou nail'd unto my heart , and crucified againe , part not from it , though it from thee would part , but let it be by applying so thy paine , drown'd in thy blood , and in thy passion slaine . iii. the holy ghost . o holy ghost , whose temple i am , but of mudde walls , and condensed dust , and being sacrilegiously halfe wasted with youths fires , of pride and lust , must with new stormes be weatherbeat ; double in my heart thy flame , which let devout sad teares intend ; and let ( though this glasse lanthorne , flesh , do suffer maime ) fire , sacrifice , priest , altar be the same . iv. the trinity . o blessed glorious trinity , bones to philosophy , but milke to faith , which , as wise serpents diversly most slipperinesse , yet most entanglings hath , as you distinguish'd undistinct by power , love , knowledge bee , give mee a such selfe different instinct of these let all mee elemented bee , of power , to love , to know , you unnumbred three . v. the virgin mary . for that faire blessed mother-maid , whose flesh redeem'd us ; that she-cherubin , which unlock'd paradise , and made one claime for innocence , and disseiz'd sinne , whose wombe was a strange heav'n , for there god cloath'd himselfe , and grew , our zealous thankes wee poure . as her deeds were our helpes , so are her prayers ; nor can she sue in vaine , who hath such titles unto you . vi. the angels . and since this life our nonage is , and wee in wardship to thine angels be , native in heavens faire palaces where we shall be but denizen'd by thee , as th' earth conceiving by the sunne , yeelds faire diversitie , yet never knowes which course that light doth run , so let mee study , that mine actions bee worthy their sight , though blinde in how they see . vii . the patriarches . and let thy patriarches desire ( those great grandfathers , of thy church , which saw more in the cloud , then wee in fire , whom nature clear'd more , then us grace and law , and now in heaven still pray , that wee may use our new helpes right , ) be sanctified , and fructifie in mee ; let not my minde be blinder by more light nor faith by reason added , lose her sight . viii . the prophets . thy eagle-sighted prophets too , which were thy churches organs , and did sound that harmony , which made of two one law , and did unite , but not confound ; those heavenly poëts which did see thy will , and it expresse in rythmique feet , in common pray for mee , that i by them excuse not my excesse in seeking secrets , or poëtiquenesse . ix . the apostles . and thy illustrious zodiacke of twelve apostles , which ingirt this all , from whom whosoever do not take their light , to darke deep pits , throw downe , and fall , as through their prayers , thou'hast let mee know that their bookes are divine ; may they pray still , and be heard , that i goe th' old broad way in applying ; o decline mee , when my comment would make thy word mine . x. the martyrs . and since thou so desirously did'st long to die , that long before thou could'st , and long since thou no more couldst dye , thou in thy scatter'd mystique body wouldst in abel dye , and ever since in thine , let their blood come to begge for us , a discreet patience of death , or of worse life : for oh , to some not to be martyrs , is a martyrdome . xi . the confessors . therefore with thee triumpheth there a virgin squadron of white confessors , whose bloods betroth'd , not marryed were ; tender'd , not taken by those ravishers : they know , and pray , that wee may know , in every christian hourly tempestuous persecutions grow , tentations martyr us alive ; a man is to himselfe a dioclesian . xii . the virgins . the cold white snowie nunnery , which , as thy mother , their high abbesse , sent their bodies backe againe to thee , as thou hadst lent them , cleane and innocent , though they have not obtain'd of thee , that or thy church , or i , should keep , as they , our first integrity ; divorce thou sinne in us , or bid it die , and call chast widowhead virginitie . xiii . the doctors . thy sacred academie above of doctors , whose paines have unclasp'd , and taught both bookes of life to us ( for love to know thy scriptures tells us , we are wrought in thy other booke ) pray for us there that what they have misdone or mis-said , wee to that may not adhere , their zeale may be our sinne . lord let us runne meane waies , and call them stars , but not the sunne . xiv . and whil'st this universall quire , that church in triumph , this in warfare here , warm'd with one all-partaking fire of love , that none be lost , which cost thee deare , prayes ceaslesly , ' and thou hearken too ( since to be gratious our taske is treble , to pray , beare , and doe ) heare this prayer lord , o lord deliver us frō trusting in those prayers , though powr'd out thus . xv. from being anxious , or secure , dead clods of sadnesse , or light squibs of mirth , from thinking , that great courts immure all , or no h●ppinesse , or that this earth is only for our prison fram'd , or that thou art covetous to them whom thou lovest , or that they are maim'd from reaching this worlds sweet , who seek thee thus , with all their might , good lord deliver us . xvi . from needing danger , to bee good , from owing thee yesterdaies teares to day , from trusting so much to thy blood , that in that hope , wee wound our soule away , from bribing thee with almes , to excuse some sinne more burdenous , from light affecting , in religion , newes , from thinking us all soule , neglecting thus our mutuall duties , lord deliver us . xvii . from tempting satan to tempt us , by our connivence , or slack companie , from measuring ill by vitious , neglecting to choake sins spawne , vanitie , from indiscreet humilitie , which might be scandalous , and cast reproach on christianitie , from being spies , or to spies pervious , from thirst , or scorne of flame , deliver us . xviii . deliver us for thy descent into the virgin , whose wombe was a place of midle kind ▪ and thou being sent to'ungratious us , staid'st at her full of grace , and through thy poore birth , where first thou glorifiedst povertie , and yet soone after riches didst allow , by accepting kings gifts in the epiphanie , deliver , and make us , to both waies free . xix . and though that bitter agonie , which is still the agonie of pious wits , disputing what distorted thee , and interrupted evennesse , with fits , and through thy free confession though thereby they were then made blind , so that thou might'st from thē have gone , good lord deliver us , and teach us when wee may not , and we may blinde unjust men . xx. through thy submitting all , to blowes thy face , thy clothes to spoile ; thy fame to scorne , all waies , which rage , or justice knowes , and by which thou could'st shew , that thou wast born , and through thy gallant humblenesse which thou in death did'st shew , dying before thy soule they could expresse , deliver us from death , by dying so , to this world , ere this world doe bid us goe . xxi . when senses , which thy souldiers are , wee arme against thee , and they fight for sinne , when want , sent but to tame , doth warre and worke despaire a breach to enter in , when plenty , gods image , and seale makes us idolatrous , and love it , not him , whom it should reveale , when wee are mov'd to seeme religious only to vent wit , lord deliver us . xxii . in churches , when the'infirmitie of him which speakes , diminishes the word , when magistrates doe mis-apply to us , as we judge , lay or ghostly sword , when plague , which is thine angell , raignes , or wars , thy champions , swaie , when heresie , thy second deluge , gaines ; in th' houre of death , the'eve of last judgement day , deliver us from the sinister way . xxiii . heare us , o heare us lord ; to thee a sinner is more musique , when he prayes , then spheares , or angels praises bee , in panegyrique allelujaes , heare us , for till thou heare us , lord we know not what to say . thine eare to'our sighes , teares , thoughts gives voice and word . o thou who satan heard'st in jobs sicke day , heare thy selfe now , for thou in us dost pray . xxiv . that wee may change to evennesse this intermitting aguish pietie , that snatching cramps of wickednesse and apoplexies of fast sin , may die ; that musique of thy promises , not threats in thunder may awaken us to our just offices , what in thy booke , thou dost , or creatures say , that we may heare , lord heare us , when wee pray . xxv . that our eares sicknesse wee may cure , and rectifie those labyrinths aright , that wee by harkning , not procure our praise , nor others dispraise so invite , that wee get not a slipperinesse , and senslesly decline , from hearing bold wits jeast at kings excesse , to'admit the like of majestie divine , that we may locke our eares , lord open thine . xxvi . that living law , the magistrate , which to give us , and make us physicke , doth our vices often aggravate , that preachers taxing sinne , before her growth , that satan , and invenom'd men which well , if we starve , dine , when they doe most accuse us , may see then us , to amendment , heare them ; thee decline ; that we may open our eares , lord lock thine . xxvii . that learning , thine ambassador , from thine allegeance wee never tempt , that beauty , paradises flower for physicke made , from poyson be exempt , that wit , borne apt , high good to doe by dwelling lazily on natures nothing , be not nothing too , that our affections kill us not , nor dye , heare us , weake ecchoes , o thou eare , and cry . xxviii . sonne of god heare us , and since thou by taking our blood , owest it us againe gaine to thy selfe , or us allow ; and let not both us and thy selfe be slaine ; o lambe of god , which took'st our sinne which could not stick to thee , o let it not returne to us againe , but patient and physition being free , as sinne is nothing , let it no where be . send home my long strayd eyes to mee , which ( oh ) too long have dwelt on thee , yet since there they have learn'd such ill , such forc'd fashions , and false passions , that they be made by thee fit for no good sight , keep them still . send home my harmlesse heart againe , which no unworthy thought could staine , which if it be taught by thine to make jestings of protestings , and breake both word and oath , keepe it , for then 't is none of mine . yet send me back my heart and eyes , that i may know , and see thy lyes , and may laugh and joy , when thou art in anguish and dost languish for some one that will none , or prove as false as thou art now . a nocturnall upon s. lucies day , being the shortest day . t is the yeares midnight , and it is the dayes , lucies , who scarce seaven houres herself unmaskes , the sunne is spent , and now his flasks send forth light squibs , no constant rayes ; the worlds whole sap is sunke : the generall balme th'hydroptique earth hath drunk , whither , as to the beds-feet life is shrunke , dead and enterr'd ; yet all these seeme to laugh , compar'd with mee , who am their epitaph . study me then , you who shall lovers bee at the next world , that is , at the next spring : for i am every dead thing , in whom love wrought new alchimie . for his art did expresse a quintessence even from nothingnesse , from dull privations , and leane emptinesse he ruin'd mee , and i am re-begot of absence , darknesse , death ; things which are not . all others , from all things , draw all that 's good , life , soule , forme , spirit , whence they beeing have , i , by loves limbecke , am the grave of all , that 's nothing . oft a flood have wee two wept , and so drownd the whole world , us two ; oft did we grow to be two chaosses , when we did show care to ought else ; and often absences withdrew our soules , and made us carcasses . but i am by her death , ( which word wrongs her ) of the first nothing , the elixer grown ; were i a man , that i were one , i needs must know , i should preferre , if i were any beast , some ends , some means ; yea plants , yea stones detest , and love , all , all some properties invest , if i an ordinary nothing were , as shadow , a light , and body must be here . but i am none ; nor will my sunne renew . you lovers , for whose sake , the lesser sunne at this time to the goat is runne to fetch new lust , and give it you , enjoy your summer all , since shee enjoyes her long nights festivall , let mee prepare towards her , and let mee call this houre her vigill , and her eve , since this both the yeares , and the dayes deep midnight is . witchcraft by a picture . i fixe mine eye on thine , and there pitty my picture burning in thine eye , my picture drown'd in a transparent teare , when i looke lower i espie , hadst thou the wicked skill by pictures made and mard , to kill ? how many wayes mightst thou performe thy will ? but now i have drunke thy sweet salt teares , and though thou poure more i 'll depart ; my picture vanish'd , vanish feares , that i can be endamag'd by that art ; though thou retaine of mee one picture more , yet that will bee , being in thine owne heart , from all malice free . come live with mee , and bee my love , and wee will some new pleasures prove of golden sands , and christall brookes : with silken lines , and silver hookes . there will the river whispering runne warm'd by thy eyes , more then the sunne . and there the'inamor'd fish will stay , begging themselves they may betray . when thou wilt swimme in that live bath , each fish , which every channell hath , will amorously to thee swimme , gladder to catch thee , then thou him . if thou , to be so seene , beest loath , by sunne , or moone , thou darknest both , and if my selfe have leave to see , i need not their light , having thee . let others freeze with angling reeds , and cut their legges , which shells and weeds , or treacherously poore fish beset , with strangling snare , or windowie net : let coarse bold hands , from slimy nest the bedded fish in banks out-wrest , or curious traitors , sleavesicke flies bewitch poore fishes wandring eyes . for thee , thou needst no such deceit , for thou thy selfe art thine owne bait , that fish , that is not catch'd thereby , alas , is wiser farre then i. the apparition . when by thy scorne , o murdresse , i am dead , and that thou thinkst thee free from all solicitation from mee , then shall my ghost come to thy bed , and thee fain'd vestall in worse armes shall see ; then thy sicke taper will begin to winke , and he , whose thou art then , being tyr'd before , will , if thou stirre , or pinch to wake him , thinke thou call'st for more , and in false sleepe will from thee shrinke , and then poore aspen wretch , neglected thou bath'd in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lye a veryer ghost then i ; what i will say , i will not tell thee now , lest that preserve thee ' ; and since my love is spent , i 'had rather thou shouldst painfully repent , then by my threatnings rest still innocent . dull sublunary lovers love ( whose soule is sense ) cannot admit absence , because it doth remove those things which elemented it . but we by a love , so much refin'd , that our selves know not what it is , inter-assured of the mind , care lesse , eyes , lips , hands to misse . our two soules therefore , which are one , though i must goe , endure not yet a breach , but an expansion , like gold to ayery thinnesse beate . if they be two , they are two so as stiffe twin compasses are two , thy soule the fixt foot , makes no show to move , but doth , if the'other doe . and though it in the center sit , yet when the other far doth rome , it leanes , and hearkens after it , and growes erect , as that comes home . such wilt thou be to mee , who must like th' other foot , obliquely runne . thy firmnes makes my circle just , and makes me end , where i begunne . the good-morrow . i wonder by my troth , what thou , and i did , till we lov'd , were we not wean'd till then ? but suck'd on countrey pleasures ; childishly ? or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den ? t' was so ; but this , all pleasures fancies bee . if ever any beauty i did see , which i desir'd , and got , t' was but a dreame of thee . and now good morrow to our waking soules , which watch not one another out of feare ; for love , all love of other sights controules , and makes one little roome , an every where . let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone , let maps to other , worlds on worlds have showne , let us possesse one world , each hath one , and is one . my face in thine eye , thine in mine appeares , and true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest , where can we finde two better hemispheares without sharpe north , without declining west ? what ever dyes , was not mixt equally ; if our two loves be one , or , thou and i love so alike , that none doe slacken , none can die . song . goe , and catche a falling starre , get with child a mandrake roote , tell me , where all past yeares are , or who cleft the divels foot , teach me to heare mermaides singing , or to keep off envies stinging , and finde what winde serves to advance an honest minde . if thou beest borne to strange sights , things invisible to see , ride ten thousand daies and nights , till age snow white haires on thee , thou , when thou retorn'st , wilt tell mee all strange wonders that befell thee , and sweare no where lives a woman true , and faire . if thou findst one , let mee know , such a pilgrimage were sweet , yet doe not , i would not goe , though at next doore wee might meet , though shee were true , when you met her , and last , till you write your letter , yet shee will bee false , ere i come , to two , or three . womans constancy . now thou hast lov'd me one whole day , to morrow when thou leav'st , what wilt thou say ? wilt thou then antedate some new made vow ? or say that now we are not just those persons , which we were ? or , that oathes made in reverentiall feare of love , and his wrath , any may forsweare ? or , as true deaths , true maryages untie , so lovers contracts , images of those , binde but till sleep , deaths image , them unloose ? or , your owne end to justifie , for having purpos'd change , and falsehood ; you can have no way but falsehood to be true ? vaine lunatique , against these scapes i could dispute , and conquer , if i would , which i abstaine to doe , for by to morrow , i may thinke so too . i have done one braver thing then all the worthies did , and yet a braver thence doth spring , which is , to keepe that hid . it were but madnes now t' impart the skill of specular stone , when he which can have learn'd the art , to cut it can finde none . so , if i now should utter this , others ( because no more such stuffe to worke upon , there is , ) would love but as before . but he who lovelinesse within hath found , all outward loathes , for he who colour loves , and skinne , loves but their oldest clothes . if , as i have , you also doe vertue ' attir'd in woman see , and dare love that , and say so too , and forget the hee and shee ; and if this love , though placed so , from prophane men you hide , which will no faith on this bestow , or , if they doe , deride : then you have done a braver thing then all the worthies did . and a braver thence will spring . which is , to keepe that hid . the sunne rising . busie old foole , unruly sunne , why dost thou thus , through windowes , and through curtaines call on us ? must to thy motions lovers seasons run ? sawcy pedantique wretch , goe chide late schoole boyes , and sowre prentices , goe tell court-huntsmen , that the king will ride , call countrey ants to harvest offices , love , all alike , no season knowes , nor clyme , nor houres , dayes , moneths , which are the rags of time . thy beames , so reverend , and strong why shouldst thou thinke ? i could eclipse and cloud them with a winke , but that i would not lose her sight so long : if her eyes have not blinded thine , looke , and to morrow late , tell mee , whether both the'india's of spice and myne be where thou leftst them , or lie here with mee . aske for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday , and thou shalt heare , all here in one bed lay . she 'is all states , and all princes , i , nothing else is . princes doe but play us , compar'd to this , all honor's mimique ; all wealth alchimie ; thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee , in that the world 's contracted thus . thine age askes ease , and since thy duties bee to warme the world , that 's done in warming us . shine here to us , and thou art every where ; this bed thy center is , these walls , thy spheare . the indifferent . i can love both faire and browne , her whom abundance melts , and her whom want betraies , her who loves lonenesse best , and her who maskes and plaies , her whō the country form'd , & whō the town , her who beleeves , and her who tries , her who still weepes with spungie eyes , and her who is dry corke , and never cries ; i can love her , and her , and you and you , i can love any , so she be not true . will no other vice content you ? wil it not serve your turn to do , as did your mothers ? or have you all old vices spent , and now would finde out others ? or doth a feare , that men are true , torment you ? oh we are not , be not you so , let mee , and doe you , twenty know . rob mee , but binde me not , and let me goe . must i , who came to travaile thorow you , grow your fixt subject , because you are true ? venus heard me sigh this song , and by loves sweetest part , variety , she swore , she heard not this till now ; and that it should be so no more , she went , examin'd , and return'd ere long , and said , alas , some two or three poore heretiques in love there bee , which thinke to stablish dangerous constancie . but i have told them , since you will be true , you shall be true to them , who'are false to you . loves vsury . for every houre that thou wilt spare mee now , i will allow , usurious god of love , twenty to thee , when with my browne , my gray haires equall bee ; till then , love , let my body raigne , and let mee travell , sojourne , snatch , plot , have , forget , resume my last yeares relict : thinke that yet we'had never met . let mee thinke any rivalls letter mine , and at next nine keepe midnights promise ; mistake by the way the maid , and tell the lady of that delay ; onely let mee love none , no , not the sport from country grasse , to comfitures of court , or cities quelque choses , let report my minde transport . this bargaine 's good ; if when i 'am old , i bee inflam'd by thee , if thine owne honour , or my shame , or paine , thou cover most , at that age thou shalt gaine , doe thy will then , then subject and degree , and fruit of love , love i submit to thee , spare mee till then , i 'll beare it , though she bee one that loves mee . the canonization . for godsake hold your tongue , and let me love , or chide my palsie , or my gout , my five gray haires , or ruin'd fortune flout , with wealth your state , your minde with arts improve take you a course , get you a place , observe his honour , or his grace , or the kings reall , or his stamped face contemplate , what you will , approve , so you will let me love . alas , alas , who 's injur'd by my love ? what merchants ships have my sighs drown'd ? who saies my teares have overflow'd his ground ? when did my colds a forward spring remove ? when did the heats which my veines fill adde one more , to the plaguie bill ? soldiers finde warres , and lawyers finde out still litigious men , which quarrels move , though she and i do love . call us what you will , wee are made such by love ; call her one , mee another flye , we' are tapers too , and at our owne cost die , and wee in us finde the'eagle and the dove , the phoenix ridle hath more wit by us , we two being one , are it . so , to one neutrall thing both sexes fit . wee dye and rise the same , and prove mysterious by this love . wee can dye by it , if not live by love , and if unfit for tombes and hearse our legends bee , it will be fit for verse ; and if no peece of chronicle wee prove , we 'll build in sonnets pretty roomes ; as well a well wrought urne becomes the greatest ashes , as halfe-acre tombes , and by these hymnes , all shall approve us canoniz'd for love. and thus invoke us ; you whom reverend love made one anothers hermitage ; you , to whom love was peace , that now is rage , who did the whole worlds soule contract , & drove into the glasses of your eyes so made such mirrors , and such spies , that they did all to you epitomize , countries , townes , courts : beg frow above a patterne of our love . the triple foole. i am two fooles , i know , for loving , and for saying so in whining poëtry ; but where 's that wise man , that would not be i , if she would not deny ? then as th' earths inward narrow crooked lanes do purge sea waters fretfull salt away , i thought , if i could draw my paines , through rimes vexation , i should them allay , griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce , for , he tames it , that fetters it in verse . but when i have done so , some man , his art and voice to show , doth set and sing my paine , and , by delighting many , frees againe griefe , which verse did restraine . to love , and griefe tribute of verse belongs , but not of such as pleases when'tis read , both are increased by such songs : for both their triumphs so are published , and i , which was two fooles , do so grow three ; who are a little wise , the best fooles bee . lovers infinitenesse . if yet i have not all thy love , deare , i shall never have it all , i cannot breath one other sigh , to move ; nor can intreat one other teare to fall . and all my treasure , which should purchase thee , sighs , teares and oathes , and letters i have spent , yet no more can be due to mee , then at the bargaine made was ment , if then thy gift of love were partiall , that some to mee , some should to others fall , deare , i shall never have thee all. or if then thou gavest mee all , all was but all , which thou hadst then , but if in thy heart , since , there be or shall , new love created bee , by other men , which have their stocks intire , and can in teares , in sighs , in oathes , and letters outbid mee , this new love may beget new feares , for , this love was not vowed by thee , and yet is was , thy gift being generall , the ground , thy heart is mine , what ever shall grow there , deare , i should have it all . yet i would not have all yet , hee that hath all can have no more , and since my love doth every day admit new growth , thou shouldst have new rewards in store , thou canst not every day give me thy heart , if thou canst give it , then thou never gavest it : loves riddles are , that though thy heart depart , it stayes at home , and thou with losing savest it : but wee will have a way more liberall , then changing hearts , to joyne them , so wee shall be one , and one anothers all. song . sweetest love , i do not goe , for wearinesse of thee , nor in hope the world can show a fitter love for mee , but since that i must dye at last , 't is best , to use my selfe in jest thus by fain'd deaths to dye ; yesternight the sunne went hence , and yet is here to day , he hath no desire nor sense , nor halfe so short a way : then feare not mee , but beleeve that i shall make speedier journeyes , since i take more wings and spurres then hee . o how feeble is mans power , that if good fortune fall , cannot adde another houre , nor a lost houre recall ? but come bad chance , and wee joyne to'it our strength , and wee teach it art and length , it selfe o'r us to'advance . when thou sigh'st , thou sigh'st not winde , but sigh'st my soule away , when thou weep'st , unkindly kinde , my lifes blood doth decay . it cannot bee that thou lov'st mee , as thou say'st , if in thine my life thou waste , thou art the best of mee . let not thy divining heart forethinke me any ill , destiny may take thy part , and may thy feares fulfill , but thinke that wee are but turn'd aside to sleepe ; they who one another keepe alive , ne'r parted bee . the legacie . vvhen i dyed last , and , deare , i dye as often as from thee i goe , though it be ▪ but an houre agoe , and lovers houres be full eternity , i can remember yet , that i something did say , and something did bestow ; though i be dead , which sent mee , i should be mine owne executor and legacie . i heard mee say , tell her anon , that my selfe , that 's you , not i , did kill me , and when i felt mee dye , i bid mee send my heart , when i was gone , but i alas could there finde none , when i had ripp'd me , ' and search'd where hearts did lye , it kill'd mee againe , that i who still was true , in life , in my last will should cozen you . yet i found something like a heart , but colours it , and corners had , it was not good , it was not bad , it was intire to none , and few had part . as good as could be made by art it seem'd , and therefore for our losses sad , i meant to send this heart in stead of mine , but oh , no man could hold it , for t was thine . a feaver . oh doe not die , for i shall hate all women so , when thou art gone , that thee i shall not celebrate , when i remember , thou wast one . but yet thou canst not die , i know , to leave this world behinde , is death , but when thou from this world wilt goe , the whole world vapors with thy breath . or if , when thou , the worlds soule , goest , it stay , t is but thy carkasse then , the fairest woman , but thy ghost , but corrupt wormes , the worthyest men . o wrangling schooles , that search what fire shall burne this world , had none the wit unto this knowledge to aspire , that this her feaver might be it ? and yet she cannot wast by this , nor long beare this torturing wrong , for much corruption needfull is to fuell such a feaver long . these burning fits but meteors bee , whose matter in thee is soone spent . thy beauty , ' and all parts , which are thee , are unchangeable firmament . yet t' was of my minde , seising thee , though it in thee cannot persever . for i had rather owner bee of thee one houre , then all else ever . aire and angels . twice or thrice had i loved thee , before i knew thy face or name ; so in a voice , so in a shapelesse flame , angells affect us oft , and worship'd bee , still when , to where thou wert , i came some lovely glorious nothing i did see , but since , my soule , whose child love is , takes limmes of flesh , and else could nothing doe , more subtile then the parent is , love must not be , but take a body too , and therefore what thou wert , and who i bid love aske , and now that it assume thy body , i allow , and fixe it selfe in thy lip , eye , and brow . whilst thus to ballast love , i thought , and so more steddily to have gone , with wares which would sinke admiration , i saw , i had loves pinnace overfraught , ev'ry thy haire for love to worke upon is much too much , some fitter must be sought ; for , nor in nothing , nor in things extreme , and scattring bright , can love inhere ; then as an angell , face , and wings of aire , not pure as it , yet pure doth weare , so thy love may be my loves spheare ; just such disparitie as is twixt aire and angells puritie , 'twixt womens love , and mens will ever bee . breake of day . 't is true , 't is day , what though it be ? o wilt thou therefore rise from me ? why should we rise , because 't is light ? did we lie downe , because 't was night ? love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether , should in despight of light keepe us together . light hath no tongue , but is all eye ; if it could speake as well as spie , this were the worst , that it could say , that being well , i faine would stay , and that i lov'd my heart and honor so , that i would not from him , that had them , goe . must businesse thee from hence remove ? oh , that 's the worst disease of love , the poore , the foule , the false , love can admit , but not the busied man. he which hath businesse , and makes love , doth doe such wrong , as when a maryed man doth wooe . the anniversarie . all kings , and all their favorites , all glory of honors , beauties , wits , the sun it selfe , which makes times , as they passe , is elder by a yeare , now , then it was when thou and i first one another saw : all other things , to their destruction draw , only our love hath no decay ; this , no to morrow hath , nor yesterday , running it never runs from us away , but truly keepes his first , last , everlasting day . two graves must hide thine and my coarse , if one might , death were no divorce , alas , as well as other princes , wee , ( who prince enough in one another bee , ) must leave at last in death , these eyes , and eares , oft fed with true oathes , and with sweet salt teares ; but soules where nothing dwells but love ; ( all other thoughts being inmates ) then shall prove this , or a love increased there above , when bodies to their graves , soules from their graves remove . and then wee shall be throughly blest , but now no more , then all the rest . here upon earth , we' are kings , and none but wee can be such kings , nor of such subjects bee ; who is so safe as wee ? where none can doe treason to us , except one of us two . true and false feares let us refraine , let us love nobly , and live , and adde againe yeares and yeares unto yeares , till we attaine to write threescore , this is the second of our raigne . a valediction of my name , in the window . i. my name engrav'd herein , doth contribute my firmnesse to this glasse , which , ever since that charme , hath beene as hard , as that which grav'd it , was , thine eye will give it price enough , to mock the diamonds of either rock . ii. 't is much that glasse should bee as all confessing , and through-shine as i , 't is more , that it shewes thee to thee , and cleare reflects thee to thine eye . but all such rules , loves magique can undoe , here you see mee , and i am you . iii. as no one point , nor dash , which are but accessaries to this name , the showers and tempests can outwash , so shall all times finde mee the same ; you this intirenesse better may fulfill , who have the patterne with you still . iiii. or if too hard and deepe this learning be , for a scratch'd name to teach , it , as a given deaths head keepe , lovers mortalitie to preach , or thinke this ragged bony name to bee my ruinous anatomie . v. then , as all my soules bee , emparadis'd in you , ( in whom alone i understand , and grow and see , ) the rafters of my body , bone being still with you , the muscle , sinew , and veine , which tile this house , will come againe . vi. till my returne , repaire and recompact my scattered body so . as all the vertuous powers which are fix'd in the starres , are said to flow , into such characters , as graved bee when these starres have supremacie : vii . so since this name was cut when love and griefe their exaltation had , no doore'gainst this names influence shut , as much more loving , as more sad , 't will make thee ; and thou shouldst , till i returne , since i die daily , daily mourne . viii . when thy inconsiderate hand flings ope this casement , with my trembling name , to looke on one , whose wit or land , new battry to thy heart may frame , then thinke this name alive , and that thou thus in it offendst my genius . ix . and when thy melted maid , corrupted by thy lover's gold , and page , his letter at thy pillow'hath laid , disputed it , and tam'd thy rage , and thou begin'st to thaw towards him , for this , may my name step in , and hide his . x. and if this treason goe to an overt act , and that thou write againe ; in superscribing , this name flow into thy fancy , from the pane . so , in forgetting thou remembrest right , and unaware to mee shalt write . xi . but glasse , and lines must bee , no meanes our firme substantiall love to keepe ; neere death inflicts this lethargie , and this i murmure in my sleepe ; impute this idle talke , to that i goe , for dying men talke often so . twicknam garden . blasted with sighs , and surrounded with teares , hither i come to seeke the spring , and at mine eyes , and at mine eares , receive such balmes , as else cure every thing , but o , selfe traytor , i do bring the spider love , which transubstantiates all , and can convert manna to gall , and that this place may thoroughly be thought true paradise , i have the serpent brought . 't were wholsomer for mee , that winter did benight the glory of this place , and that a grave frost did forbid these trees to laugh and mocke mee to my face ; but that i may not this disgrace indure , nor yet leave loving , love let mee some senslesse peece of this place bee ; make me a mandrake , so i may grow here , or a stone fountaine weeping out my yeare . hither with christall vyals , lovers come , and take my teares , which are loves wine , and try your mistresse teares at home , for all are false , that tast not just like mine ; alas ▪ hearts do not in eyes shine , nor can you more judge womens thoughts by teares , then by her shadow , what she weares . o perverse sexe , where none is true but shee , who 's therefore true , because her truth kills mee . valediction to his booke . i 'll tell thee now ( deare love ) what thou shalt doe to anger destiny , as she doth us , how i shall stay , though she esloygne me thus and how posterity shall know it too ; how thine may out-endure sybills glory , and obscure her who from pindar could allure , and her , through whose helpe lucan is not lame , and her , whose booke ( they say ) homer did finde , and name . study our manuscripts , those myriades of letters , which have past twixt thee and mee , thence write our annals , and in them will bee to all whom loves subliming fire invades , rule and example found ; there , the faith of any ground no schismatique will dare to wound , that sees , how love this grace to us affords , to make , to keep , to use , to be these his records . this booke , as long-liv'd as the elements , or as the worlds forme , this all-graved tome in cypher writ , or new made idiome ; wee for loves clergie only'are instruments , when this booke is made thus , should againe the ravenous vandals and the goths invade us , learning were safe ; in this our universe schooles might learne sciences , spheares musick , angels verse , here loves divines , ( since all divinity is love or wonder ) may finde all they seeke , whether abstract spirituall love they like , their soules exhal'd with what they do not see , or loth so to amuze , faiths infirmitie , they chuse something which they may see and use ; for , though minde be the heaven , where love doth sit , beauty a convenient type may be to figure it . here more then in their bookes may lawyers finde , both by what titles , mistresses are ours , and how prerogative these states devours , transferr'd from love himselfe , to womankinde . who though from heart , and eyes , they exact great subsidies , forsake him who on them relies and for the cause , honour , or conscience give , chimeraes , vaine as they , or their prerogative . here statesmen , ( or of them , they which can reade , ) may of their occupation finde the grounds , love and their art alike it deadly wounds , if to consider what 't is , one proceed , in both they doe excell who the present governe well , whose weaknesse none doth , or dares tell ; in this thy booke , such will there something see , as in the bible some can finde out alchimy . thus vent thy thoughts ; abroad i 'll studie thee , as he removes farre off , that great heights takes ; how great love is , presence best tryall makes , but absence tryes how long this love will bee ; to take a latitude sun , or starres , are fitliest view'd at their brightest , but to conclude of longitudes , what other way have wee , but to marke when , and where the darke eclipses bee ? good wee must love , and must hate ill , for ill is ill , and good good still , but these are things indifferent , which wee may neither hate , nor love , but one , and then another prove , as wee shall finde our fancy bent . if then at first wise nature had , made women either good or bad , then some wee might hate , and some chuse , but since shee did them so create , that we may neither love , nor hate , onely this rest , all , all may use . if they were good it would be seene , good is as visible as greene , and to all eyes it selfe betrayes , if they were bad , they could not last , bad doth it selfe , and others wast , so , they deserve nor blame , nor praise . but they are ours as fruits are ours , he that but tasts , he that devours , and he that leaves all , doth as well , chang'd loves are but chang'd sorts of meat , and when hee hath the kernell eate , who doth not fling away the shell ? loves growth . i scarce beleeve my love to be so pure as i had thought it was , because it doth endure vicissitude , and season , as the grasse ; me thinkes i lyed all winter , when i swore , my love was infinite , if spring make'it more . but if this medicine , love , which cures all sorrow with more , not onely bee no quintessence , but mixt of all stuffes , paining soule , or sense , and of the sunne his working vigour borrow , love 's not so pure , and abstract , as they use to say , which have no mistresse but their muse , but as all else , being elemented too , love sometimes would contemplate , sometimes do and yet no greater , but more eminent , love by the spring is growne ; as , in the firmament , starres by the sunne are not inlarg'd , but showne , gentle love deeds , as blossomes on a bough , from loves awakened root do bud out now . if , as in water stir'd more circles bee produc'd by one , love such additions take , those like so many spheares , but one heaven make , for , they are all concentrique unto thee , and though each spring doe adde to love new heate , as princes doe in times of action get new taxes , and remit them not in peace , no winter shall abate the springs encrease . loves exchange . love , any devill else but you , would for a given soule give something too . at court your fellowes every day , give th' art of riming , huntsmanship , or play , for them which were their owne before ; onely i have nothing which gave more , but am , alas , by being lowly , lower . i aske no dispensation now to falsifie a teare , or sigh , or vow , i do not sue from thee to draw a non obstante on natures law , these are prerogatives , they inhere in thee and thine ; none should forsweare except that hee loves minion were . give mee thy weaknesse , make mee blinde , both wayes , as thou and thine , in eies and minde ; love , let me never know that this is love , or , that love childish is . let me not know that others know that she knowes my paines , least that so a tender shame make me mine owne new woe . if thou give nothing , yet thou' art just , because i would not thy first motions trust ; small townes which stand stiffe , till great shot enforce them , by warres law condition not . such in loves warfare is my case , i may not article for grace , having put love at last to shew this face . this face , by which he could commnd and change the idolatrie of any land , this face , which wheresoe'r it comes , can call vow'd men from cloisters , dead from tombes , and melt both poles at once , and store deserts with cities , and make more mynes in the earth , then quarries were before . for , this love is enrag'd with mee , yet kills not ; if i must example bee to future rebells ; if th' unborne must learne , by my being cut up , and torne : kill , and dissect me , love ; for this torture against thine owne end is , rack't carcasses make ill anatomies . some man unworthy to be possessor of old or new love , himselfe being false or weake , thought his paine and shame would be lesser , if on womankind he might his anger wreake , and thence a law did grow , one might but one man know ; but are other creatures so ? are sunne , moone , or starres by law forbidden , to smile where they list , or lend away their light ? are birds divorc'd , or are they chidden if they leave their mate , or lie abroad a night ? beasts doe no joyntures lose though they new lovers choose , but we are made worse then those . who e'r rigg'd faire ship to lie in harbors , and not to seeke new lands , or not to deale withall ? or built faire houses , set trees , and arbors , only to lock up , or else to let them fall ? good is not good , unlesse a thousand it possesse , but doth wast with greedinesse . the dreame . deare love , for nothing lesse then thee would i have broke this happy dreame , it was a theame for reason , much too strong for phantasie , therefore thou wakd'st me wisely ; yet my dreame thou brok'st not , but continued'st it , thou art so truth , that thoughts of thee suffice , to make dreames truths ; and fables histories ; enter these armes , for since thou thoughtst it best , not to dreame all my dreame , let 's act the rest . as lightning , or a tapers light , thine eyes , and not thy noise wak'd mee ; yet i thought thee ( for thou lovest truth ) an angell , at first sight , but when i saw thou sawest my heart , and knew'st my thoughts , beyond an angels art , when thou knew'st what i dreamt , whē thou knew'st whē excesse of joy would wake me , and cam'st then , i must confesse , it could not chuse but bee prophane , to thinke thee any thing but thee . comming and staying show'd thee , thee , but rising makes me doubt , that now , thou art not thou . that love is weake , where feare 's as strong as hee ; 't is not all spirit , pure , and brave , if mixture it of feare , shame , honor have ; perchance as torches which must ready bee , men light and put out , so thou deal'st with mee , thou cam'st to kindle , goest to come ; then i will dreame that hope againe , but else would die . a valediction of weeping . let me powre forth my teares before thy face , whil'st i stay here , for thy face coines them , and thy stampe they beare , and by this mintage they are something worth , for thus they bee pregnant of thee , fruits of much griefe they are , emblemes of more , when a teare falls , that thou falst which it bore , so thou and i are nothing then , when on a divers shore on a round ball a workeman that hath copies by , can lay an europe , afrique , and an asia , and quickly make that , which was nothing , all , so doth each teare , which thee doth weare , a globe , yea world by that impression grow , till thy teares mixt with mine doe overflow this world , by waters sent from thee , my heaven dissolved so . o more then moone , draw not up seas to drowne me in thy spheare , weepe me not dead , in thine armes , but forbeare to teach the sea , what it may doe too soone , let not the winde example finde , to doe me more harme , then it purposeth , since thou and i sigh one anothers breath , who e'r sighes most , is cruellest , and hasts the others death . loves alchymie . some that have deeper digg'd loves myne then i , say , where his centrique happinesse doth lie : i have lov'd , and got , and told , but should i love , get , tell , till i were old , i should not finde that hidden mysterie ; oh , 't is imposture all : and as no chymique yet th'elixar got , but glorifies his pregnant pot , if by the way to him befall some odoriferous thing , or medicinall , so , lovers dreame a rich and long delight , but get a winter-seeming summers night . our ease , our thrift , our honor , and our day , shall we , for this vaine bubles shadow pay ? ends love in this , that my man , can be as happy'as i can ; if he can endure the short scorne of a bridegroomes play ? that loving wretch that sweares , 't is not the bodies marry , but the mindes , which he in her angelique findes , would sweare as justly , that he heares , in that dayes rude hoarse minstralsey , the spheares . hope not for minde in women ; at their best , sweetnesse , and wit they' are , but , mummy , possest ▪ the flea . marke but this flea , and marke in this , how little that which thou deny'st me is ; it suck'd me first , and now sucks thee , and in this flea , our two bloods mingled bee ; thou know'st that this cannot be said a sinne , nor shame nor losse of maidenhead , yet this enjoyes before it wooe , and pamper'd swells with one blood made of two , and this , alas , is more then wee would doe . oh stay , three lives in one flea spare , where wee almost , yea more then maryed are . this flea is you and i , and this our mariage bed , and mariage temple is ; though parents grudge , and you , w' are met , and cloysterd in these living walls of jet . though use make you apt to kill mee , let not to that , selfe murder added bee , and sacrilege , three sinnes in killing three . cruell and sodaine , hast thou since purpled thy naile , in blood of innocence ? wherein could this flea guilty bee , except in that drop which it suckt from thee ? yet thou triumph'st , and saist that thou find'st not thy selfe , nor mee the weaker now ; 't is true , then learne how false , feares bee ; just so much honor , when thou yeeld'st to mee , will wast , as this flea's death tooke life from thee . the curse . who ever guesses , thinks , or dreames he knowes who is my mistris , wither by this curse ; his only , and only his purse may some dull heart to love dispose , and shee yeeld then to all that are his foes ; may he be scorn'd by one , whom all else scorne , forsweare to others , what to her he' hath sworne , with feare of missing , shame of getting torne ; madnesse his sorrow , gout his cramp , may hee make , by but thinking , who hath made him such : and may he feele no touch of conscience , but of fame , and bee anguish'd , not that 't was sinne , but that 't was shee ▪ in early and long scarcenesse may he rot , for land which had been his , if he had not himselfe incestuously an heire begot : may he dreame treason , and beleeve , that hee meant to performe it , and confesse , and die , and no record tell why : his sonnes , which none of his may bee , inherite nothing but his infamie : or may he so long parasites have fed , that he would faine be theirs , whom he hath bred , and at the last be circumcis'd for bread : the venom of all stepdames , gamsters gall , what tyrans , and their subjects interwish , what plants , myne , beasts , foule , fish , can contribute , all ill , which all prophets , or poets spake ; and all which shall be annex'd in schedules unto this by mee , fall on that man ; for if it be a shee nature before hand hath out-cursed mee . an anatomie of the world . wherein , by occasion of the untimely death of mistris elizabeth drvry , the frailty and the decay of this whole world is represented . the first anniversary . to the praise of the dead , and the anatomie . vvell dy'd the world , that we might live to see this world of wit , in his anatomie : no evill wants his good ; so wilder heires bedew their fathers tombes , with forced teares , whose state requites their losse : whiles thus we gain , well may wee walke in blacks , but not complaine . yet how can i consent the world is dead while this muse lives ? which in his spirits stead seemes to informe a world ; and bids it bee , in spight of losse or fraile mortalitie ? and thou the subject of this welborne thought , thrice noble maid , couldst not have found nor sought a fitter time to yeeld to thy sad fate , then whiles this spirit lives , that can relate thy worth so well to our last nephews eyne , that they shall wonder both at his and thine : admired match ! where strives in mutuall grace the cunning pencill , and the comely face : a taske which thy faire goodnesse made too much for the bold pride of vulgar pens to touch ; enough is us to praise them that praise thee , and say , that but enough those prayses bee , which hadst thou liv'd , had hid their fearfull head from th' angry checkings of thy modest red : death barres reward and shame , when envy 's gone , and gaine , 't is safe to give the dead their owne . as then the wise egyptians wont to lay more on their tombes , then houses : these of clay , but those of brasse , or marble were : so wee give more unto thy ghost , then unto thee . yet what wee give to thee , thou gav'st to us , and may'st but thanke thy selfe , for being thus : yet what thou gav'st , and wert , o happy maid , thy grace profest all due , where'tis repayd . so these high songs that to thee suited bin serve but to sound thy makers praise and thine , which thy deare soule as sweetly sings to him amid the quire of saints , and seraphim , as any angels tongue can sing of thee ; the subjects differ , though the skill agree : for as by infant yeares men judge of age , thy early love , thy vertues did presage , what high part thou bear'st in those best of songs , whereto no burden , nor no end belongs . sing on thou virgin soule , whose lossfull gaine thy lovesick parents have bewail'd in vaine ; never may thy name be in our songs forgot , till wee shall sing thy ditty and thy note . an anatomy of the world. the first anniversary . when that rich soule which to her heaven is gone , who all do celebrate , who know they have one , ( for who is sure he hath a soule , unlesse it see , and judge , and follow worthinesse , and by deeds praise it ? hee who doth not this , may lodge an immate soule , but'tis not his . ) when that queene ended here her progresse time , and , as t' her standing house to heaven did climbe , where loath to make the saints attend her long , she 's now a part both of the quire , and song . this world , in that great earthquake languished ; for in a common bath of teares it bled , which drew the strongest vitall spirits out : but succour'd then with a perplexed doubt , whether the world did lose , or gaine in this , ( because since now no other way there is , but goodnesse , to see her , whom all would see , all must endeavour to be good as shee . ) this great consumption to a fever turn'd , and so the world had fits ; it joy'd , it mourn'd ; and , as men thinke , that agues physick are , and th'ague being spent , give over care . so thou sicke world , mistak'st thy selfe to bee well , when alas , thou' rt in a lethargie . her death did wound and tame thee than , and than thou might'st have better spar'd the sunne , or man. that wound was deep , but 't is more misery , that thou hast lost thy sense and memory . 't was heavy then to heare thy voyce of mone , but this is worse , that thou art speechlesse growne . thou hast forgot thy name thou hadst ; thou wast nothing but shee , and her thou hast o'rpast . for as a child kept from the fount , untill a prince , expected long , come to fulfill the ceremonies , thou unnam'd had'st laid , had not her comming , thee her palace made : her name defin'd thee , gave thee forme , and frame , and thou forgett'st to celebrate thy name . some moneths she hath beene dead ( but being dead , measures of times are all determined ) but long she'ath beene away , long , long , yet none offers to tell us who it is that 's gone . but as in states doubtfull of future heires , when sicknesse without remedie empaires the present prince , they 're loth it should be said , the prince doth languish , or the prince is dead : so mankinde feeling now a generall thaw , a strong example gone , equall to law ; the cyment which did faithfully compact , and glue all vertues , now resolv'd , and slack'd , thought it some blasphemy to say sh'was dead , or that our weaknesse was discovered in that confession ; therefore spoke no more then tongues , the soule being gone , the losse deplore . but though it be too late to succour thee , sicke world , yea , dead , yea putrified , since shee thy'intrinsique balme , and thy preservative , can never be renew'd , thou never live , i ( since no man can make thee live ) will try , what wee may gaine by thy anatomy . her death hath taught us dearely , that thou art corrupt and mortall in thy purest part . let no man say , the world it selfe being dead , 't is labour lost to have discovered the worlds infirmities , since there is none alive to study this dissection ; for there 's a kinde of world remaining still , though shee which did inanimate and fill the world , be gone , yet in this last long night , her ghost doth walke , that is , a glimmering light , a faint weake love of vertue , and of good , reflects from her , on them which understood her worth ; and though she have shut in all day , the twilight of her memory doth stay ; which , from the carcasse of the old world , free , creates a new world , and new creatures bee produc'd : the matter and the stuffe of this , her vertue , and the forme our practice is : and thought to be thus elemented , arme these creatures , from homeborne intrinsique harme , ( for all assum'd unto this dignitie , so many weedlesse paradises bee , which of themselves produce no venemous sinne , except some forraine serpent bring it in ) yet because outward stormes the strongest breake , and strength it selfe by confidence growes weake , this new world may be safer , being told the dangers and diseases of the old : for with due temper men doe then forgoe , or covet things , when they their true worth know . there is no health ; physitians say that wee , at best , enjoy but a neutralitie . and can there bee worse sicknesse , then to know that we are never well , nor can be so ? wee are borne ruinous : poore mothers cry , that children come not right , nor orderly ; except they headlong come and fall upon an ominous precipitation . how witty's ruine , how importunate upon mankinde ? it labour'd to frustrate even gods purpose ; and made woman , sent for mans reliefe , cause of his languishment . they were to good ends , and they are so still , but accessory , and principall in ill ; for that first marriage was our funerall : one woman at one blow , then kill'd us all , and singly , one by one , they kill us now . we doe delightfully our selves allow to that consumption ; and profusely blinde , wee kill our selves to propagate our kinde . and yet we do not that ; we are not men : there is not now that mankinde , which was then , when as , the sunne and man did seeme to strive , ( joynt tenants of the world ) who should survive . when , stagge , and raven , and the long-liv'd tree , compar'd with man , dy'd in minoritie , when , if a slow pac'd starre had stolne away from the observers marking , he might stay two or three hundred yeares to see 't againe , and then make up his observation plaine ; when , as the age was long , the sise was great ; mans growth confess'd , and recompenc'd the meat ; so spacious and large , that every soule did a faire kingdome , and large realme controule : and when the very stature , thus erect , did that soule a good way towards heaven direct . where is this mankinde now ? who lives to age , fit to be made methusalem his page ? alas , we scarce live long enough to try whether a true made clocke run right , or lie . old gransires talke of yesterday with sorrow : and for our children wee reserve to morrow . so short is life , that every pesant strives , in a torne house , or field , to have three lives . and as in lasting , so in length is man , contracted to an inch , who was a spanne ; for had a man at first in forrests stray'd , or shipwrack'd in the sea , one would have laid a wager , that an elephant , or whale , that met him , would not hastily assaile a thing so equall to him : now alas , the fairies , and the pigmies well may passe as credible ; mankinde decayes so soone , we' are scarce our fathers shadowes cast at noone : onely death ads t' our length : nor are wee growne in stature to be men , till we are none . but this were light , did our lesse volume hold all the old text ; or had wee chang'd to gold their silver , or dispos'd into lesse glasse spirits of vertue , which then scatter'd was . but 't is not so : w' are not retir'd , but dampt ; and as our bodies so our mindes are crampt : 't is shrinking , not close weaving that hath thus , in minde , and body both bedwarfed us . wee seeme ambitious , gods whole worke t' undoe ; of nothing hee made us , and we strive too , to bring our selves to nothing backe ; and wee doe what wee can , to do 't so soone as hee . with new diseases on our selves wee warre , and with new physicke , a worse engin farre . thus man , this worlds vice-emperour , in whom all faculties , all graces are at home ; and if in other creatures they appeare , they 're but mans ministers , and legats there , to worke on their rebellions , and reduce them to civility , and to mans use . this man , whom god did wooe , and loth t' attend till man came up , did downe to man descend , this man so great , that all that is , is his , oh what a trifle , and poore thing he is ! if man were any thing ; he 's nothing now : helpe , or at least some time to wast , allow t' his other wants , yet when he did depart with her whom we lament , hee lost his heart . she , of whom th'ancients seem'd to prophesie , when they call'd vertues by the name of shee ; shee in whom vertue was so much refin'd , that for allay unto so pure a minde shee tooke the weaker sex : shee that could drive the poysonous tincture , and the staine of eve , out of her thought , and deeds ; and purifie all , by a true religious alchymie ; she ▪ she is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this , thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is . and learn'st thus much by our anatomie , the heart being perish'd , no part can be free . and that except thou feed ( not banquet ) on the supernaturall food , religion : thy better growth growes withered , and scant ; be more then man , or thou' rt lesse then an ant. then as mankinde , so is the worlds whole frame quite out of joynt , almost created lame : for , before god had made up al the rest , corruption entred , and deprav'd the best : it seis'd the angells , and then first of all the world did in her cradle take a fall , and turn'd her braines , and tooke a generall maime , wronging each joynt of th'universall frame . the noblest part , man , felt it first ; and than both beasts and plants , curst in the curse of man , so did the world from the first houre decay , that evening was beginning of the day , and now the springs and sommers which we see , like sonnes of women after fiftie bee . and new philosophy calls all in doubt , the element of fire is quite put out ; the sun is lost , and th' earth , and no mans wit can well direct him where to looke for it . and freely men confesse that this world 's spent , when in the planets , and the firmament they seeke so many new ; they see that this is crumbled out againe to his atomies . 't is all in peeces , all coherence gone ; all just supply , and all relation : prince , subject , father , sonne , are things forgot , for every man alone thinkes he hath got to be a phoenix , and that then can bee none of that kinde , of which he is , but hee . this is the worlds condition now , and now she that should all parts to reunion bow , she that had all magnetique force alone , to draw , and fasten sundred parts in one ; she whom wise nature had invented then when she observ'd that every sort of men did in their voyage in this worlds sea stray , and needed a new compasse for their way ; she that was best , and first originall of all faire copies , and the generall steward to fate ; she whose rich eyes , and breast , guilt the west-indies , and perfum'd the east , whose having breath'd in this world , did bestow spice on those iles , and bad them still smell so , and that rich indie which doth gold interre , is but as single money coyn'd from her : she to whom this world must it selfe refer , as suburbs , or the microcosme of her , shee , shee is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou knowest this thou knowest how lame a criple this world is . and learn'st thus much by our anatomy , that this worlds generall sicknesse doth not lie in any humour , or one certaine part ; but as thou sawest it rotten at the heart , thou seest a hectique feaver hath got hold of the whole substance , not to be contrould , and that thou hast but one way , not t' admit the worlds infection , to be none of it . for the worlds subtilst immateriall parts feele this consuming wound , and ages darts . for the worlds beauty is decai'd , or gone , beauty , that 's colour , and proportion . we thinke the heavens enjoy their sphericall their round proportion embracing all , but yet their various and perplexed course , observ'd in divers ages , doth enforce men to finde out so many eccentrique parts , such divers downe right lines , such overthwarts , as disproportion that pure forme : it teares the firmament in eight and forty sheires , and in these constellations then arise new starres , and old doe vanish from our eyes : as though heav'n suffered earthquakes , peace or war , when new towers rise , and old demolish't are . they have impal'd within a zodiake the free-borne sun , and keepe twelve signes awake to watch his steps ; the goat and crab controule , and fright him backe , who else to either pole ( did not these tropiques fetter him ) might runne : for his course is not round ; nor can the sunne perfit a circle , or maintaine his way one inch direct ; but where he rose to day he comes no more , but with a couzening line , steales by that point , and so is serpentine : and seeming weary with his reeling thus , he meanes to sleepe , being now falne nearer us . so , of the starres which boast that they doe runne in circle still , none ends where he begun . all their proportion's lame , it sinkes , it swels . for of meridians , and parallels , man hath weav'd out a net , and this net throwne upon the heavens , and now they are his owne . loth to goe up the hill , or labour thus to goe to heaven , we make heaven come to us . we spur , we reine the starres , and in their race they 're diversly content t' obey our peace . but keepes the earth her round proportion still ? doth not a tenarus or higher hill rise so high like a rocke , that one might thinke the floating moone would shipwrack there & sinke ? seas are so deepe , that whales being strucke to day , perchance to morrow scarse at middle way of their wish'd journies end , the bottome , die . and men , to sound depths , so much line untie , as one might justly thinke , that there would rise at end thereof , one of th'antipodies : if under all , a vault infernall bee , ( which sure is spacious , except that we invent another torment , that there must millions into a straight hot roome be thrust ) then solidnesse , and roundnesse have no place . are these but warts , and pockholes in the face of th' earth ; thinke so : but yet confesse , in this the worlds proportion disfigured is ; that those two legges whereon it doth rely , reward and punishment are bent awry . and , oh , it can no more be questioned , that beauties best , proportion , is dead , since even griefe it selfe , which now alone is left us , is without proportion . shee by whose lines proportion should bee examin'd , measure of all symmetree , whom had that ancient seen , who thought soules mad● of harmony , he would at next have said that harmony was shee , and thence infer that soules were but resultances from her , and did from her into our bodies goe , as to our eyes , the formes from objects flow : shee , who if those great doctors truly said that the arke to mans proportion was made , had been a type for that , as that might be a type of her in this , that contrary both elements and passions liv'd at peace in her , who caus'd all civill war to cease . shee , after whom , what forme soe'r we see , is discord , and rude incongruitie ; she , she is dead , she 's dead ; when thou know'st this , thou knowest how ugly a monster this world is : and learn'st thus much by our anatomie , that here is nothing to enamour thee : and that , not only faults in inward parts , corruptions in our braines , or in our hearts , poysoning the fountaines , whence our actions spring , endanger us : but that if every thing be not done fitly'and in proportion , to satisfie wise , and good lookers on , ( since most men be such as most thinke they bee ) they 're lothsome too , by this deformitie . for good , and well , must in our actions meet ; wicked is not much worse then indiscreet . but beauties other second element , colour , and lustre now , is as neere spent . and had the world his just proportion , were it a ring still , yet the stone is gone . as a compassionate turcoyse which doth tell by looking pale , the wearer is not well , as gold falls sicke being stung with mercury , all the worlds parts of such complexion bee . when nature was most busie , the first weeke , swadling the new borne earth , god seem'd to like that she should sport her selfe sometimes , and play , to mingle , and vary colours every day : and then , as though shee could not make enough , himselfe his various rainbow did allow , sight is the noblest sense of any one , yet sight hath only colour to feed on , and colour is decai'd : summers robe growes duskie , and like an oft dyed garment showes . our blushing red , which us'd in cheekes to spred , is inward sunke , and only our soules are red . perchance the world might have recovered , if she whom we lament had not beene dead : but shee , in whom all white , and red , and blew ( beauties ingredients ) voluntary grew , as in an unvext paradise ; from whom did all things verdure , and their lustre come , whose composition was miraculous , being all colour , all diaphanous , ( for ayre , and fire but thick grosse bodies were , and liveliest stones but drowsie , and pale to her , ) she , she is dead ; shee 's dead : when thou know'st this , thou knowest howwan a ghost this our world is : and learn'st thus much by our anatomie , that it should more affright , then pleasure thee . and that , since all faire colour then did sinke , 't is now but wicked vanitie , to thinke to colour vicious deeds with good pretence , or with bought colors to illude mens sense . nor in ought more this worlds decay appeares , then that her influence the heav'n forbeares , or that the elements doe not feele this , the father , or the mother barren is . the cloudes conceive not raine , or doe not powre , in the due birth time , downe the balmy showre ; th' ayre doth not motherly sit on the earth , to hatch her seasons , and give all things birth ; spring-times were common cradles , but are tombes ; and false-conceptions fill the generall wombes ; th' ayre showes such meteors , as none can see , not only what they meane , but what they bee ; earth such new wormes , as would have troubled much th'aegyptian mages to have made more such . what artist now dares boast that he can bring heaven hither , or constellate any thing , so as the influence of those starres may bee imprison'd in an hearbe , or charme or tree , and doe by touch , all which those stars could doe ? the art is lost , and correspondence too . for heaven gives little , and the earth takes lesse , and man least knowes their trade and purposes . if this commerce twixt heaven and earth were not embarr'd , and all this traffique quite forgot , she , for whose losse we have lamented thus , would worke more fully , and pow'rfully on us : since herbes , and roots , by dying lose not all , but they , yea ashes too , are medicinall , death could not quench her vertue so , but that it would be ( if not follow'd ) wondred at : and all the world would be one dying swan , to sing her funerall praise , and vanish than . but as some serpents poyson hurteth not , except it be from the live serpent shot , so doth her vertue need her here , to fit that unto us ; shee working more then it . but shee , in whom to such maturity vertue was growne , past growth , that it must die ; she , from whose influence all impression came , but by receivers impotencies , lame , who , though she could not transubstantiate all states to gold , yet guilded every state , so that some princes have some temperance ; some counsellers some purpose to advance the common profit ; and some people have , some stay , no more then kings should give , to crave ; some women have some taciturnity , some nunneries some graines of chastitie . she that did thus much , and much more could doe , but that our age was iron , and rustie too , shee , she is dead , she 's dead ; when thou knowst this , thou knowst how drie a cinder this world is . and learn'st thus much by our anatomy , that 't is in vaine to dew , or mollifie it with thy teares , or sweat , or blood : nothing is worth our travaile , griefe , or perishing , but those rich joyes , which did possesse her heart , of which she 's now partaker , and a part . but as in cutting up a man that 's dead , the body will not last out , to have read on every part , and therefore men direct their speech to parts , that are of most effect ; so the worlds carcasse would not last , if i were punctuall in this anatomy ; nor smels it well to hearers , if one tell them their disease , who faine would think thy're well . here therefore be the end : and , blessed maid , of whom is meant what ever hath been said , or shall be spoken well by any tongue , whose name refines course lines , and makes prose song , accept this tribute , and his first yeares rent , who till his darke short tapers end be spent , as oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth , will yearely celebrate thy second birth , that is , thy death ; for though the soule of man be got when man is made , 't is borne but than when man doth die ; our body 's as the wombe , and , as a mid-wife , death directs it home . and you her creatures , whom she workes upon , and have your last , and best concoction from her example , and her vertue , if you in reverence to her , do thinke it due , that no one should her praises thus rehearse , as matter fit for chronicle , not verse ; vouchsafe to call to minde that god did make a last , and lasting'st peece , a song . he spake to moses to deliver unto all , that song , because hee knew they would let fall the law , the prophets , and the history , but keepe the song still in their memory : such an opinion , in due measure , made me this great office boldly to invade : nor could incomprehensiblenesse deterre mee , from thus trying to emprison her , which when i saw that a strict grave could doe , i saw not why verse might not do so too . verse hath a middle nature , heaven keepes soules , the grave keepes bodies , verse the fame enroules . a funerall elegie . 't is lost to trust a tombe with such a guest , or to confine her in a marble chest , alas , what 's marble , jeat , or porphyrie , priz'd with the chrysolite of either eye , or with those pearles , and rubies , which she was ? joyne the two indies in one tombe , 't is glasse ; and so is all to her materials , though every inch were ten escurials ; yet she 's demolish'd : can wee keepe her then in works of hands , or of the wits of men ? can these memorials , ragges of paper , give life to that name , by which name they must live ? sickly , alas , short-liv'd , aborted bee those carcasse verses , whose soule is not shee . and can shee , who no longer would be shee , being such a tabernacle , stoop to be in paper wrapt ; or when shee would not lie in such a house , dwell in an elegie ? but'tis no matter ; wee may well allow verse to live so long as the world will now , for her death wounded it . the world containes princes for armes , and counsellors for braines , lawyers for tongues , divines for hearts , and more , the rich for stomackes , and for backs the poore ; the officers for hands , merchants for feet , by which , remote and distant countries meet . but those fine spirits which do tune , and set this organ , are those peeces , which beget wonder and love ; and these were shee ; and shee being spent , the world must needs decrepit bee ; for since death will proceed to triumph still , he can finde nothing , after her , to kill , except the world it selfe , so great was shee . thus brave and confident may nature bee , death cannot give her such another blow , because shee cannot such another show . but must wee say she 's dead ? may 't not be said that as a sundred clocke is peecemeale laid , not to be lost , but by the makers hand repollish'd , without errour then to stand , or as the affrique niger streame enwombs it selfe into the earth , and after comes ( having first made a naturall bridge , to passe for many leagues ) farre greater then it was , may 't not be said , that her grave shall restore her , greater , purer , firmer , then before ? heaven may say this , and joy in 't , but can wee who live , and lacke her , here , this vantage see ? what is 't to us , alas , if there have beene an angell made a throne , or cherubin ? wee lose by 't : and as aged men are glad being tastlesse growne , to joy in joyes they had , so now the sick starv'd world must feed upon this joy , that we had her , who now is gone . rejoyce then nature , and this world , that you , fearing the last fires hastning to subdue your force and vigour , ere it were neere gone , wisely bestow'd and laid it all on one ; one , whose cleare body was so pure and thinne , because it need disguise no thought within . 't was but a through-light scarfe , her minde t'inroule ; or exhalation breath'd out from her soule . one , whom all men who durst no more , admir'd : and whom , who ere had worke enough , desir'd ; as when a temple 's built , saints emulate to which of them , it shall be consecrate . but , as when heaven lookes on us with new eyes , those new starres every artist exercise , vvhat place they should assigne to them they doubt , argue , ' and agree not , till those starres goe out : so the world studied whose this peece should be , till shee can be no bodies else , nor shee : but like a lampe of balsamum , desir'd rather t' adorne , then last , she soone expir'd , cloath'd in her virgin white integritie , for marriage , though it doth not staine , doth die . to scape th'infirmities which wait upon vvoman , she went away , before sh'was one ; and the worlds busie noyse to overcome , tooke so much death , as serv'd for opium ; for though she could not , nor could chuse to dye , she'ath yeelded to too long an extasie : hee which not knowing her said history , should come to reade the booke of destiny , how faire , and chast , humble , and high she'ad been , much promis'd , much perform'd , at not fifteene , and measuring future things , by things before , should turne the leafe to reade , and reade no more , vvould thinke that either destiny mistooke , or that some leaves were torne out of the booke . but 't is not so ; fate did but usher her to yeares of reasons use , and then inferre her destiny to her selfe , which liberty she tooke , but for thus much , thus much do die . her modestie not suffering her to bee fellow-commissioner with destinie , she did no more but die ; if after her any shall live , which dare true good prefer ; every such person is her deligate , t' accomplish that which should have beene her fate . they shall make up that booke and shall have thanks of fate , and her , for filling up their blankes . for future vertuous deeds are legacies , vvhich from the gift of her example rise ; and 't is in heav'n part of spirituall mirth , to see how well the good play her , on earth . of the progresse of the soule . wherein , by occasion of the religious death of mistris elizabeth drvry , the incommodities of the soule in this life , and her exaltation in the next , are contemplated . the second anniversary . the harbinger to the progresse . two soules move here , and mine ( a third ) must move paces of admiration , and of love ; thy soule ( deare virgin ) whose this tribute is , mov'd from this mortall spheare to lively blisse ; and yet moves still , and still aspires to see the worlds last day , thy glories full degree : like as those starres which thou o'r-lookest farre , are in their place , and yet still moved are : no soule ( whiles with the luggage of this clay it clogged is ) can follow thee halfe way ; or see thy flight , which doth our thoughts outgoe so fast , that now the lightning moves but slow : but now thou art as high in heaven flowne as heaven's from us ; what soule besides thine owne can tell thy joyes , or say he can relate thy glorious journals in that blessed state ? i envie thee ( rich soule ) i envy thee , although i cannot yet thy glory see : and thou ( great spirit ) which hers follow'd hast so fast , as none can follow thine so fast ; so far , as none can follow thine so farre , ( and if this flesh did not the passage barre hadst caught her ) let me wonder at thy flight which long agone hadst lost the vulgar sight , and now mak'st proud the better eyes , that they can see thee less'ned in thine ayery way ; so while thou mak'st her soule by progresse knowne thou mak'st a noble progresse of thine owne . from this worlds carkasse having mounted high to that pure life of immortalitie ; since thine aspiring thoughts themselves so raise that more may not beseeme a creatures praise , yet still thou vow'st her more ; and every yeare mak'st a new progresse , while thou wandrest here ; still upward mount ; and let thy makers praise honor thy laura , and adorne thy laies . and since thy muse her head in heaven shrouds , oh let her never stoope below the clouds : and if those glorious sainted soules may know or what wee doe , or what wee sing below , those acts , those songs shall still content them best which praise those awfull powers that make them blest . of the progresse of the soule . the second anniversarie . nothing could make me sooner to confesse that this world had an everlastingnesse , then to consider , that a yeare is runne , since both this lower world 's , and the sunnes sunne , the lustre , and the vigor of this all , did set ; 't were blasphemie to say , did fall . but as a ship which hath strooke saile , doth runne by force of that force which before , it wonne : or as sometimes in a beheaded man , though at those two red seas , which freely ranne , one from the trunke , another from the head , his soule he sail'd , to her eternall bed , his eyes will twinckle , and his tongue will roll , as though he beckned , and cal'd backe his soule , he graspes his hands , and he pulls up his feet , and seemes to reach , and to step forth to meet his soule ; when all these motions which we saw , are but as ice , which crackles at a thaw : or as a lute , which in moist weather , rings her knell alone , by cracking of her strings . so struggles this dead world , now shee is gone ; for there is motion in corruption . as some daies are , at the creation nam'd , before the sunne , the which fram'd daies , was fram'd : so after this sunne 's set , some shew appeares , and orderly vicissitude of yeares . yet a new deluge , and of lethe flood , hath drown'd us all , all have forgot all good , forgetting her , the maine reserve of all , yet in this deluge , grosse and generall , thou seest me strive for life ; my life shall bee , to be hereafter prais'd , for praysing thee ; immortall maid , who though thou would'st refuse the name of mother , be unto my muse a father , since her chast ambition is yearely to bring forth such a child as this . these hymnes may worke on future wits , and so may great grand children of thy prayses grow . and so , though not revive , embalme and spice the world , which else would putrisie with vice . for thus , man may extend thy progeny , untill man doe but vanish , and not die . these hymnes thy issue , may encrease so long , as till gods great venite change the song . thirst for that time , o my insatiate soule , and serve thy thirst , with gods safe-fealing bowle . be thirstie still , and drinke still till thou goe to th' only health , to be hydroptique so , forget this rotten world ; and unto thee let thine owne times as an old storie bee be not concern'd : studie not why nor when ; doe not so much as not beleeve a man. for though to erre , be worst , to try truths forth , is far more businesse , then this world is worth . the world is but a carkasse ; thou art fed by it , but as a worme , that carkasse bred ; and why should'st thou , poore worme , consider more when this world will grow better then before , then those thy fellow wormes doe thinke upon that carkasses last resurrection . forget this world , and scarce thinke of it so , as of old clothes , cast off a yeare agoe . to be thus stupid is alacritie ; men thus lethargique have best memory . look upward ; that 's towards her , whose happy state we now lament not , but congratulate . shee , to whom all this world was but a stage , where all sat harkning how her youthfull age should be emploi'd , because in all shee did , some figure of the golden times was hid . who could not lacke , what e'r this world could give , because shee was the forme , that made it live ; nor could complaine , that this world was unfit to be staid in , then when shee was in it ; shee that first tried indifferent desires by vertue , and vertue by religious fires , shee to whose person paradise adher'd , as courts to princes , shee whose eyes ensphear'd star-light enough , t' have made the south controule , ( had shee beene there ) the star-full northerne pole , shee , she is gone ; she is gone ; when thou knowest this , what fragmentary rubbidge this world is thou knowest , and that it is not worth a thought ; he honors it too much that thinkes it nought . thinke then , my soule , that death is but a groome , which brings a taper to the outward roome , whence thou spiest first a little glimmering light , and after brings it nearer to thy sight : for such approaches doth heaven make in death . thinke thy selfe labouring now with broken breath , and thinke those broken and soft notes to bee division , and thy happyest harmonie . thinke thee laid on thy death-bed , loose and slacke ; and thinke that , but unbinding of a packe , to take one precious thing , thy soule from thence . thinke thy selfe patch'd with fevers violence , anger thine ague more , by calling it thy physicke ; chide the slacknesse of the fit . thinke that thou hear'st thy knell and think no more , but that , as bels cal'd thee to church before , so this , to the triumphant church , calls thee . thinke satans sergeants round about thee bee , and thinke that but for legacies they thrust ; give one thy pride , to'another give thy lust : give them those sinnes which they gave thee before , and trust th' immaculate blood to wash thy score . thinke thy friends weeping round , & thinke that they weepe but because they goe not yet thy way . thinke that they close thine eyes , and thinke in this , that they confesse much in the world , amisse , who dare not trust a dead mans eye with that , which they from god , and angels ●●er not . thinke that they shroud thee up , & think from thence they reinvest thee in white innocence . thinke that thy body rots , and ( if so low , thy soule exalted so , thy thoughts can goe , ) think thee a prince , who of themselves create wormes which insensibly devoure their state. thinke that they bury thee , and thinke that right laies thee to sleepe but a saint lucies night . thinke these things cheerefully : and if thou bee drowsie or slacke , remember then that shee , shee whose complexion was so even made , that which of her ingredients should invade the other three , no feare , no art could guesse : so far were all remov'd from more or lesse . but as in mithridate , or just perfumes , where all good things being met , no one presumes to governe , or to triumph on the rest , only because all were , no part was best . and as , though all doe know , that quantities are made of lines , and lines from points arise , none can these lines or quantities unjoynt , and say this is a line , or this a point : so though the elements and humors were in her , one could not say , this governes there , whose even constitution might have woon any disease to venter on the sunne , rather then her : and make a spirit feare , that hee too disuniting subject were . to whose proportions if we would compare cubes , th' are unstable ; circles , angular ; she who was such a chaine as fate employes to bring mankinde all fortunes it enjoyes ; so fast , so even wrought , as one would thinke , no accident could threaten any linke ; shee , shee embrac'd a sicknesse , gave it meat , the purest blood , and breath , that e'r it eate ; and hath taught us , that though a good man hath title to heaven , and plead it by his faith , and though he may pretend a conquest , since heaven was content to suffer violence , yea though hee plead a long possession too , ( for they 're in heaven on earth who heavens workes do ) though hee had right and power and place , before , yet death must usher , and unlocke the doore . thinke further on thy selfe , my soule , and thinke how thou at first wast made but in a sinke ; thinke that it argued some infirmitie , that those two soules , which then thou foundst in me , thou fedst upon , and drewst into thee both my second soule of sense , and first of growth . thinke but how poore thou wast , how obnoxious ; whom a small lumpe of flesh could poyson thus . this curded milke , this poore unlittered whelpe my body , could , beyond escape or helpe , infect thee with originall sinne , and thou couldst neither then refuse , nor leave it now . thinke that no stubborne sullen anchorit , which fixt to a pillar , or a grave , doth sit bedded , and bath'd in all his ordures , dwels so fowly as our soules in their first built cels. thinke in how poore a prison thou didst lie after , enabled but to suck , and crie . thinke , when 't was growne to most , 't was a poore inne , a province pack'd up in two yards of skinne , and that usurp'd or threatned with a rage of sicknesses , or their true mother , age. but thinke that death hath now enfranchis'd thee , thou hast thy'expansion now , and libertie ; thinke that a rustie peece discharg'd is flowne in peeces , and the bullet is his owne , and freely flies : this to thy soule allow , thinke thy shell broke , thinke thy soule hatch'd but now . and think this slow-pac'd soule which late did cleave to'a body , and went but by the bodies leave , twenty perchance or thirty mile a day , dispatches in a minute all the way twixt heaven , and earth ; she stayes not in the ayre , to looke what meteors there themselves prepare ; she carries no desire to know , nor sense , whether th'ayres middle region be intense ; for th' element of fire , she doth not know , whether she past by such a place or no ; she baits not at the moone , nor cares to trie whether in that new world , men live , and die . venus retards her not , to'enquire , how shee can , ( being one starre ) hesper , and vesper bee ; hee that charm'd argus eyes , sweet mercury , workes not on her , who now is growne all eye ; who if she meet the body of the sunne , goes through , not staying till his course be runne ; who findes in mars his campe no corps of guard ; nor is by iove , nor by his father bard ; bee ere she can consider how she went , at once is at , and through the firmament . and as these starres were but so many beads strung on one string , speed undistinguish'd leads her through those spheares , as through the beads , a string , whose quick successiō makes it still one thing : as doth the pith , which , lest our bodies slacke , strings fast the little bones of necke , and backe ; so by the soule doth death string heaven and earth ; for when our soule enjoyes this her third birth , ( creation gave her one , a second , grace , ) heaven is as neare , and present to her face , as colours are , and objects , in a roome where darknesse was before , when tapers come . this must , my soule , thy long-short progresse bee , to'advance these thoughts ; remember then that she , she , whose faire body no such prison was , but that a soule might well be pleas'd to passe an age in her ; she whose rich beauty lent mintage to other beauties , for they went but for so much as they were like to her ; shee , in whose body ( if we dare preferre this low world , to so high a marke as shee , ) the westerne treasure , easterne spicetie , europe , and afrique , and the unknowne rest were easily found , or what in them was best ; and when w'have made this large discoverie of all , in her some one part then will bee twenty such parts , whose plenty and riches is enough to make twenty such worlds as this ; shee , whom had they knowne who did first betroth the tutelar angels , and assigned one , both to nations , cities , and to companies , to functions , offices , and dignities , and to each severall man , to him , and him , they would have given her one for every limbe ; she , of whose soule , if wee may say , 't was gold , her body was th'electrum , and did hold many degrees of that ; wee understood her by her sight ; her pure , and eloquent blood spoke in her cheekes , and so distinctly wrought , that one might almost say , her body thought ; shee , shee , thus richly and largely hous'd , is gone : and chides us slow-pac'd snailes who crawle upon our prisons prison , earth , nor thinke us well , longer , then whil'st wee beare our brittle shell . but 't were but little to have chang'd our roome , if , as we were in this our living tombe oppress'd with ignorance , wee still were so . poore soule , in this thy flesh what dost thou know ? thou know'st thy selfe so little , as thou know'st not , how thou didst die , nor how thou wast begot . thou neither know'st , how thou at first cam'st in , nor how thou took'st the poyson of mans sinne . nor dost thou , ( though thou know'st , that thou art so ) by what way thou art made immortall , know . thou art too narrow , wretch , to comprehend even thy selfe . yea though thou wouldst but bend to know thy body . have not all soules thought for many ages , that our body , is wrought of aire , and fire , and other elements ? and now they thinke of new ingredients . and one soule thinkes one , and another way another thinkes , and 't is an even lay . knowst thou but how the stone doth enter in the bladders cave , and never brake the skinne ? know'st thou how blood , which to the heart doth flow , doth from one ventricle to th' other goe ? and for the putrid stuffe , which thou dost spit , know'st thou how thy lungs have attracted it ? there are no passages , so that there is ( for ought thou know'st ) piercing of substances . and of those many opinions which men raise of nailes and haires , dost thou know which to praise ? what hope have wee to know our selves , when wee know not the least things , which for our use be ? wee see in authors , too stiffe to recant , a hundred controversies of an ant ; and yet one watches , starves , freeses , and sweats , to know but catechismes and alphabets of unconcerning things , matters of fact ; how others on our stage their parts did act ; what caesar did , yea , and what cicero said , why grasse is greene , or why our blood is red , are mysteries which none have reach'd unto in this low forme , poore soule , what wilt thou doe ? when wilt thou shake off this pedantery , of being taught by sense , and fantasie ? thou look'st through spectacles ; small things seeme great below ; but up unto the watch-towre get , and see all things despoyl'd of fallacies : thou shalt not peepe through lattices of eyes , nor heare through labyrinths of eares , nor learne by circuit , or collections to discerne . in heaven thou straight know'st all , concerning it , and what concernes it not , shalt straight forget . there thou ( but in no other schoole ) maist bee perchance , as learned ; and as full , as shee , shee who all libraries had throughly read at home in her owne thoughts , and practised so much good as would make as many more : shee whose example they must all implore , who would or doe , or thinke well , and confesse that all the vertuous actions they expresse , are but a new , and worse edition of her some one thought , or one action : she who in th' art of knowing heaven , was growne here upon earth , to such perfection , that she hath , ever since to heaven she came , ( in a far fairer point , ) but read the same : shee , shee not satisfied with all this waight , ( for so much knowledge , as would over-fraight another , did but ballast her ) is gone as well t' enjoy , as get perfection . and cals us after her , in that shee tooke , ( taking her selfe ) our best , and worthiest booke . returne not , my soule , from this extasie , and meditation of what thou shalt bee , to earthly thoughts , till it to thee appeare , with whom thy conversation must be there , with whom wilt thou converse ? what station canst thou chose out , free from infection , that will not give thee theirs , nor drinke in thine ? shalt thou not finde a spungie slacke divine , drinke and sucke in th' instructions of great men , and for the word of god , vent them agen ? are there not some courts ( and then , no things bee so like as courts ) which , in this let us see , that wits , and tongues of libellers are weake , because they do more ill , then these can speake ? the poyson's gone through all , poysons affect chiefly the chiefest parts , but some , effect in nailes , and haires , yea excrements , will show ; so lyes the poyson of sinne in the most low . up , up , my drowsie soule , where thy new eare shall in the angels songs no discord heare ; where thou shalt see the blessed mother-maid joy in not being that , which men have said . where she is exalted more for being good , then for her interest of mother-hood . up to those patriarchs , which did longer sit expecting christ , then they'have enjoy'd him yet . up to those prophets , which now gladly see their prophesies growne to be historie . up to th'apostles , who did bravely runne all the suns course , with more light then the sunne . up to those martyrs , who did calmly bleed oyle to th'apostles lamps , dew to their seed . up to those virgins , who thought , that almost they made joyntenants with the holy ghost , if they to any should his temple give . up , up , for in that squadron there doth live she , who hath carried thither new degrees ( as to their number ) to their dignities . shee , who being to her selfe a state , injoy'd all royalties which any state employ'd ; for shee made warres , and triumph'd ; reason still did not o'rthrow , but rectifie her will : and she made peace , for no peace is like this , that beauty , and chastity together kisse : she did high justice , for she crucified every first motion of rebellious pride : and she gave pardons , and was liberall , for , onely her selfe except , she pardon'd all : shee coy'nd , in this , that her impression gave to all our actions all the worth they have : she gave protections ; the thoughts of her brest satans rude officers could ne'r arrest . as these prerogatives being met in one , made her a soveraigne state ; religion made her a church ; and these two made her all . she who was all this all , and could not fall to worse , by company , ( for she was still more antidote , then all the world was ill , shee , shee doth leave it , and by death , survive all this , in heaven ; whether who doth not strive the more , because shee s there , he doth not know that accidentall joyes in heaven doe grow . but pause , my soule ; and study ere thou fall on accidentall joyes , th'essentiall . still before accessories doe abide a triall , must the principall be tride . and what essentiall joy can'st thou expect here upon earth ? what permanent effect of transitory causes ? dost thou love beauty ? ( and beauty worthy'st is to move ) poore cousened cousenor , that she , and that thou , which did begin to love , are neither now ; you are both fluid , chang'd since yesterday ; next day repaires , ( but ill ) last dayes decay . nor are , ( although the river keepe the name ) yesterdaies waters , and to daies the same . so flowes her face , and thine eyes ; neither now that saint nor pilgrime , which your loving vow concern'd , remaines ; but whil'st you thinke you bee constant , you' are hourely in inconstancie . honour may have pretence unto our love , because that god did live so long above without this honour , and then lov'd it so , that he at last made creatures to bestow honour on him ; not that he needed it , but that , to his hands , man might grow more fit . but since all honours from inferiours flow , ( for they doe give it ; princes doe but shew whom they would have so honor'd ) and that this on such opinions , and capacities is built , as rise and fall , to more and lesse : alas , 't is but a casuall happinesse . hath ever any man to'himselfe assign'd this or that happinesse to'arrest his minde , but that another man which takes a worse , thinks him a foole for having tane that course ? they who did labour babels tower to'erect , might have considered , that for that effect , all this whole solid earth could not allow nor furnish forth materialls enough ; and that his center , to raise such a place was farre too little , to have beene the base ; no more affords this world , foundation to erect true joy , were all the meanes in one . but as the heathen made them severall gods , of all gods benefits , and all his rods , ( for as the wine , and corne , and onions are gods unto them , so agues bee , and warre ) and as by changing that whole precious gold to such small copper coynes , they lost the old , and lost their only god , who ever must be sought alone , and not in such a thrust : so much , mankinde true happinesse mistakes ; no joy enjoyes that man , that many makes . then , soule , to thy first pitch worke up againe ; know that all lines which circles doe containe , for once that they the center touch , doe touch twice the circumference ; and be thou such ; double on heaven thy thoughts on earth emploid ; all will not serve ; only who have enjoy'd the sight of god , in fulnesse , can thinke it ; for it is both the object , and the wit. this is essentiall joy , where neither hee can suffer diminution , nor wee ; 't is such a full , and such a filling good ; had th'angels once look'd on him , they had stood . to fill the place of one of them , or more , shee whom wee celebrate , is gone before . she , who had here so much essentiall joy , as no chance could distract , much lesse destroy ; who with gods presence was acquainted so , ( hearing , and speaking to him ) as to know his face in any naturall stone , or tree , better then when in images they bee : who kept by diligent devotion , gods image , in such reparation , within her heart , that what decay was growne , was her first parents fault , and not her owne : who being solicited to any act , still heard god pleading his safe precontract ; who by a faithfull confidence , was here betroth'd to god , and now is married there ; whose twilights were more cleare , then our mid-day ; who dreamt devoutlier , then most use to pray ; who being here fil'd with grace , yet strove to bee , both where more grace , and more capacitie at once is given : she to heaven is gone , who made this world in some proportion a heaven , and here , became unto us all , joy , ( as our joyes admit ) essentiall . but could this low world joyes essentiall touch , heavens accidentall joyes would passe them much . how poore and lame , must then our casuall bee ? if thy prince will his subjects to call thee my lord , and this doe swell thee , thou art than , by being greater , growne to bee lesse man. when no physitian of redresse can speake , a joyfull casuall violence may breake a dangerous apostem in thy breast ; and whil'st thou joyest in this , the dangerous rest , the bag may rise up , and so strangle thee . what e'r was casuall , may ever bee . what should the nature change ? or make the same certaine , which was but casuall , when it came ? all casuall joy doth loud and plainly say , only by comming , that it can away . only in heaven joyes strength is never spent ; and accidentall things are permanent . joy of a soules arrivall ne'r decaies ; for that soule ever joyes and ever staies . joy that their last great consummation approaches in the resurrection ; when earthly bodies more celestiall shall be , then angels were , for they could fall ; this kinde of joy doth every day admit degrees of growth , but none of losing it . in this fresh joy , 't is no small part , that shee , shee , in whose goodnesse , he that names degree , doth injure her ; ( 't is losse to be cal'd best , there where the stuffe is not such as the rest ) shee , who left such a bodie , as even shee only in heaven could learne , how it can bee made better ; for shee rather was two soules , or like to full on both sides written rols , where eyes might reade upon the outward skin , as strong records for god , as mindes within , shee , who by making full perfection grow , peeces a circle , and still keepes it so , long'd for , and longing for it , to heaven is gone , where shee receives , and gives addition . here in a place , where mis-devotion frames a thousand prayers to saints , whose very names the anciēt church knew not , heaven knows not yet : and where , what lawes of poetry admit , lawes of religion have at least the same , immortall maide , i might invoke thy name . could any saint provoke that appetite , thou here should'st make me a french convertite . but thou would'st not ; nor would'st thou be content , to take this , for my second yeares true rent . did this coine beare any other stampe , then his , that gave thee power to doe , me , to say this . since his will is , that to posteritie , thou should'st for life , and death , a patterne bee , and that the world should notice have of this , the purpose , and th' authoritie is his ; thou art the proclamation ; and i am the trumpet , at whose voyce the people came . the extasie . where , like a pillow on a bed , a pregnant banke swel'd up , to rest the violets reclining head , sat we two , one anothers best ; our hands were firmely cimented with a fast balme , which thence did spring , our eye-beames twisted , and did thred our eyes , upon one double string , so to'entergraft our hands , as yet was all the meanes to make us one , and pictures in our eyes to get was all our propagation . as 'twixt two equall armies , fate suspends uncertaine victorie , our soules , ( which to advance their state , were gone out , ) hung 'twixt her , and mee . and whil'st our soules negotiate there , wee like sepulchrall statues lay , all day , the same our postures were , and wee said nothing , all the day . if any , so by love refin'd , that he soules language understood , and by good love were growen all minde , within convenient distance stood , he ( though he knowes not which soule spake , because both meant , both spake the same ) might thence a new concoction take , and part farre purer then he came . this extasie doth unperplex ( we said ) and tell us what we love , wee see by this , it was not sexe wee see , we saw not what did move : but as all severall soules containe mixture of things , they know not what , love , these mixt soules , doth mixe againe , and makes both one , each this and that . a single violet transplant , the strength , the colour , and the size , ( all which before was poore , and scant , ) redoubles still , and multiplies . when love , with one another so interanimates two soules , that abler soule , which thence doth flow , defects of lonelinesse controules . wee then , who are this new soule , know , of what we are compos'd , and made , for , th'atomies of which we grow , are soules , whom no change can invade . but o alas , so long , so farre our bodies why doe wee forbeare ? they are ours , though not wee , wee are the intelligences , they the spheares . we owe them thankes , because they thus , did us , to us , at first convay , yeelded their senses force to us , nor are drosse to us , but allay . on man heavens influence workes not so , but that it first imprints the ayre , for soule into the soule may flow , though it to body first repaire . as our blood labours to beget spirits , as like soules as it can , because such fingers need to knit that subtile knot , which makes us man : so must pure lovers soules descend t'affections , and to faculties , which sense may reach and apprehend , else a great prince in prison lies . to'our bodies turne wee then , that so weake men on love reveal'd may looke ; loves mysteries in soules doe grow , but yet the body is his booke . and if some lover , such as wee , have heard this dialogue of one , let him still marke us , he shall see small change , when we' are to bodies gone . loves deitie . i long to talke with some old lovers ghost , who dyed before the god of love was borne : i cannot thinke that hee , who then lov'd most , sunke so low , as to love one which did scorne . but since this god produc'd a destinie , and that vice-nature , custome , lets it be ; i must love her , that loves not mee . sure , they which made him god , meant not so much : nor he , in his young god head practis'd it . but when an even flame two hearts did touch , his office was indulgently to fit actives to passives . correspondencie only his subject was ; it cannot bee love , till i love her , that loves mee . but every moderne god will now extend his vast prerogative , as far as jove . to rage , to lust , to 〈◊〉 , to commend , all is the purlewe of the god of love. oh were wee wak'ned by this tyrannie to ungod this child againe , it could not beo i should love her , who loves not mee . rebell and atheist too , why murmure i , as though i felt the worst that love could doe ? love may make me leave loving , or might trie a deeper plague , to make her love mee too , which since she loves before , i 'am loth to see ; falshood is worse then hate ; and that must bee , if shee whom i love , should love mee . loves diet . to what a combersome unwieldinesse and burdenous corpulence my love had growne , but that i did , to make it lesse , and keepe it in proportion , give it a diet , made it feed upon that which love worst endures , discretion . above one sigh a day i'allow'd him not , of which my fortune , and my faults had part ; and if sometimes by stealth he got a she sigh from my mistresse heart , and thought to feast on that , i let him see 't was neither very sound , nor meant to mee ; if he wroung from mee'a teare , i brin'd it so with scorne or shame , that him it nourish'd not ; if he suck'd hers , i let him know 't was not a teare , which hee had got , his drinke was counterfeit , as was his meat ; for , eyes which rowle towards all , weepe not , but sweat . what ever he would dictate , i writ that , but burnt my letters ; when she writ to me , and that that favour made him fat , i said , if any title bee convey'd by this , ah , what doth it availe , to be the fortieth name in an entaile ? thus i redeem'd my buzard love , to flye at what , and when , and how , and where i chuse ; now negligent of sports i lye , and now as other fawkners use , i spring a mistresse , sweare , write , sigh and weepe : and the game kill'd , or lost , goe talke , and sleepe . the will. before i sigh my last gaspe , let me breath , great love , some legacies ; here i bequeath mine eyes to argus , if mine eyes can see , if they be blinde , then love , i give them thee ; my tongue to fame ; to'embassadours mine eares ; to women or the sea , my teares ; thou , love , hast taught mee heretofore by making mee serve her who 'had twenty more , that i should give to none , but such , as had too much before . my constancie i to the planets give , my truth to them , who at the court doe live ; mine ingenuity and opennesse , to jesuites ; to buffones my pensivenesse ; my silence to'any , who abroad hath beene ; my mony to a capuchin . thou love taught'st me , by appointing mee to love there , where no love receiv'd can be , onely to give to such as have an incapacitie . my faith i give to roman catholiques ; all my good works unto the schismaticks of amsterdam ; my best civility and courtship , to an universitie ; my modesty i give to souldiers bare ; my patience let gamesters share . thou love taughtst mee , by making mee love her that holds my love disparity , onely to give to those that count my gifts indignity . i give my reputation to those which were my friends ; mine industrie to foes ; to schoolemen i bequeath my doubtfulnesse ; my sicknesse to physitians , or excesse ; to nature , all that i in ryme have writ ; and to my company my wit ; thou love , by making mee adore her , who begot this love in mee before , taughtst me to make , as though i gave , when i did but restore . to him for whom the passing bell next tolls , i give my physick bookes ; my writen rowles of morall counsels , i to bedlam give ; my brazen medals , unto them which live in want of bread ; to them which passe among all forrainers , mine english tongue . thou , love , by making mee love one who thinkes her friendship a fit portion for yonger lovers , dost my gifts thus disproportion . therefore i 'll give no more ; but i 'll undoe the world by dying ; because love dies too . then all your beauties will bee no more worth then gold in mines , where none doth draw it forth . and all your graces no more use shall have then a sun dyall in a grave , thou love taughtst mee , by making mee love her , who doth neglect both mee and thee , to'invent , and practise this one way , to'annihilate all three . the funerall . who ever comes to shroud me , do not harme nor question much that subtile wreath of haire , which crowne , my arme ; the mystery , the signe you must not touch , for'tis my outward soule viceroy to that , which unto heaven being gone , will leave this to controule , and keepe these limbes , her provinces , from dissolution . for if the sinewie thread my braine le ts fall through every part , can tye those parts , and make mee one of all ; those haires which upward grew , and strength and art have from a better braine , can better do' it ; except she meant that i by this should know my pain , as prisoners then are manacled , when they' are condem'nd to die . what ere shee meant by'it , bury it by me , for since i am loves martyr , it might breed idolatrie , if into others hands these reliques came ; as 't was humility to afford to it all that a soule can doe , so , 't is some bravery , that since you would have none of mee , i bury some of you . the blossome . little think'st thou , poore flower , whom i have watch'd sixe or seaven dayes , and seene thy birth , and seene what every houre gave to thy growth , thee to this height to raise , and now dost laugh and triumph on this bough , little think'st thou that it will freeze anon , and that i shall to morrow finde thee falne , or not at all . little think'st thou poore heart that labours yet to nestle thee , and think'st by hovering here to get a part in a forbidden or forbidding tree , and hop'st her stiffenesse by long siege to bow : little think'st thou , that thou to morrow , ere that sunne doth wake , must with this sunne , and mee a journey take . but thou which lov'st to bee subtile to plague thy selfe , wilt say , alas , if you must goe , what 's that to mee ? here lyes my businesse , and here i will stay : you goe to friends , whose love and meanes present various content to your eyes , eares , and tast , and every part . if then your body goe , what need your heart ? well then , stay here ; but know , when thou hast stayd and done thy most ; a naked thinking heart , that makes no show , is to a woman , but a kinde of ghost ; how shall shee know my heart ; or having none , know thee for one ? practise may make her know some other part , but take my word , shee doth not know a heart . meet mee at london , then , twenty dayes hence , and thou shalt see mee fresher , and more fat , by being with men , then if i had staid still with her and thee . for gods sake , if you can , be you so too : i will give you there , to another friend , whom wee shall finde as glad to have my body , as my minde . the primrose . vpon this primrose hill , where , it heav'n would distill a shoure of raine , each severall drop might goe to his owne primrose , and grow manna so ; and where their forme , and their infinitie make a terrestriall galaxie , as the small starres doe in the skie : i walke to finde a true love ; and i see that 't is not a mere woman , that is shee , but must , or more , or lesse then woman bee . yet know i not , which flower i wish ; a sixe , or foure ; for should my true-love lesse then woman bee , she were scarce any thing ; and then should shee be more then woman , shee would get above all thought of sexe , and thinke to move my heart to study her , and not to love ; both these were monsters ; since there must reside falshood in woman , i could more abide , she were by art , then nature falsify'd . live primrose then , and thrive with thy true number five ; and women , whom this flower doth represent , with this mysterious number be content ; ten is the farthest number , if halfe ten belongs unto each woman , then each woman may take halfe us men , or if this will not serve their turne , since all numbers are odde , or even , and they fall first into this five , women may take us all . the relique . when my grave is broke up againe some second ghest to entertaine , ( for graves have learn'd that woman-head to be to more then one a bed ) and he that digs it , spies a bracelet of bright haire about the bone , will he not let'us alone , and thinke that there a loving couple lies , who thought that this device might be some way to make their soules , at the last busie day , meet at this grave , and make a little stay ? if this fall in a time , or land , where mis-devotion doth command , then , he that digges us up , will bring us , to the bishop , and the king , to make us reliques ; then thou shalt be a mary magdalen , and i a something else thereby ; all women shall adore us , and some men ; and since at such time , miracles are sought , i would have that age by this paper taught what miracles wee harmelesse lovers wrought . first , we lov'd well and faithfully , yet knew not what wee lov'd , nor why , difference of sex no more wee new , then our guardian angells doe , comming and going , wee , perchance might kisse , but not between those meales our hands ne'r toucht the seales , which nature , injur'd by late law , sets free , these miracles wee did ; but now alas , all measure , and all language , i should passe , should i tell what a miracle shee was . the dampe . when i am dead , and doctors know not why , and my friends curiositie will have me cut up to survay each part , when they shall finde your picture in my heart , you thinke a sodaine dampe of love will through all their senses move , and worke on them as mee , and so preferre your murder , to the name of massacre . poore victories ; but if you dare be brave , and pleasure in your conquest have , first kill th'enormous gyant , your disdaine , and let th'enchantresse honor , next be slaine , and like a goth and vandall rize , deface records , and histories of your owne arts and triumphs over men , and without such advantage kill me then . for i could muster up as well as you my gyants , and my witches too , which are vast constancy , and secretnesse , but these i neyther looke for , nor professe , kill mee as woman , let mee die as a meere man ; doe you but try your passive valor , and you shall finde than , in that you'have odds enough of any man. the dissolution . shee'is dead ; and all which die to their first elements resolve ; and wee were mutuall elements to us , and made of one another . my body then doth hers involve , and those things whereof i consist , hereby in me abundant grow , and burdenous , and nourish not , but smother . my fire of passion , sighes of ayre , water of teares , and earthly sad despaire , which my materialls bee , but ne'r worne out by loves securitie , shee , to my losse , doth by her death repaire , and i might live long wretched so but that my fire doth with my fuell grow . now as those active kings whose foraine conquest treasure brings , receive more , and spend more , and soonest breake : this ( which i am amaz'd that i can speake ) this death , hath with my store my use encreas'd . and so my soule more earnestly releas'd , will outstrip hers ; as bullets flowen before a latter bullet may o'rtake , the pouder being more . a ieat king sent thou art not so black , as my heart , nor halfe so brittle , as her heart , thou art ; what would'st thou say ? shall both our properties by thee bee spoke , nothing more endlesse , nothing sooner broke ? marriage rings are not of this stuffe ; oh , why should ought lesse precious , or lesse tough figure our loves ? except in thy name thou have bid it say i 'am cheap , & nought but fashion , fling me'away . yet stay with mee since thou art come , circle this fingers top , which did'st her thombe . be justly proud , and gladly safe , that thou dost dwell with me , she that , oh , broke her faith , would soon breake thee . negative love . i never stoop'd so low , as they which on an eye , cheeke , lip , can prey , seldome to them , which soare no higher then vertue or the minde to'admire , for sense , and understanding may know , what gives fuell to their fire : my love , though silly , is more brave , for may i misse , when ere i crave , if i know yet , what i would have . if that be simply perfectest which can by no way be exprest but negatives , my love is so . to all , which all love , i say no. if any who deciphers best , what we know not , our selves , can know , let him teach mee that nothing ; this as yet my ease , and comfort is , though i speed not , i cannot misse . the prohibition . take heed of loving mee , at least remember , i forbade it thee ; not that i shall repaire my'unthrifty wast of breath and blood , upon thy sighes , and teares , by being to mee then that which thou wast ; but , so great joy , our life at once outweares , then , least thy love , by my death , frustrate bee , if thou love mee , take heed of loving mee . take heed of hating mee , or too much triumph in the victorie . not that i shall be mine owne officer , and hate with hate againe retaliate ; but thou wilt lose the stile of conquerour , if i , thy conquest , perish by thy hate . then , least my being nothing lessen thee , if thou hate mee , take heed of hating mee . yet , love and hate mee too , so , these extreames shall ne'r their office doe ; love mee , that i may die the gentler way ; hate mee , because thy love is too great for mee ; or let these two , themselves , not me decay ; so shall i live thy stay , not triumph bee ; lest thou thy love and hate and mee undoe to let mee live , oh love and hate mee too . the expiration . so , so , breake off this last'lamenting kisse , which sucks two soules , and vapors both away , turne thou ghost that way , and let mee turne this , and let our selves benight our happiest day , wee aske none leave to love ; nor will we owe any , so cheape a death , as saying , goe ; goe ; and if that word have not quite kil'd thee , ease mee with death , by bidding mee goe too . oh , if it have , let my word worke on mee , and a just office on a murderer doe . except it be too late , to kill me so , being double dead , going , and bidding , goe . the computation . for the first twenty yeares , since yesterday , i scarce beleev'd , thou could'st be gone away , for forty more , i fed on favours past , and forty'on hopes , that thou would'st , they might last . teares drown'd one hundred , and sighes blew out two , a thousand , i did neither thinke , nor doe . or not divide , all being one thought of you ; or in a thousand more , forgot that too . yet call not this long life ; but thinke that i am , by being dead , immortall ; can ghosts die ? elegie . language thou art too narrow , and too weake to ease us now ; great sorrow cannot speake ; if we could sigh out accents , and weepe words , griefe weares , and lessens , that tears breath affords , sad hearts , the lesse they seeme the more they are , ( so guiltiest men stand mutest at the barre ) not that they know not , feele not their estate , but extreme sense hath made them desperate , sorrow , to whom we owe all that we bee ; tyrant , in the fift and greatest monarchy , was 't , that she did possesse all hearts before , thou hast kil'd her , to make thy empire more ? knew'st thou some would , that knew her not , lament , as in a deluge perish th' innocent ? was 't not enough to have that palace wonne , but thou must raze it too , that was undone ? had'st thou staid there , and look'd out at her eyes , all had ador'd thee that now from thee flies , for they let out more light , then they tooke in , they told not when , but did the day beginne ; she was too saphirine , and cleare to thee ; clay , flint , and jeat now thy fit dwellings be ; alas , shee was too pure , but not too weake ; who e'r saw christall ordinance but would break ? and if wee be thy conquest , by her fall th' hast lost thy end , for in her perish all ; or if we live , we live but to rebell , they know her better now , that knew her well ; if we should vapour out , and pine , and die ; since , shee first went , that were not miserie ; shee chang'd our world with hers ; now she is gone , mirth and prosperity is oppression ; for of all morall vertues she was all , the ethicks speake of vertues cardinall ; her soule was paradise ; the cherubin set to keepe it was grace , that kept out sinne ; shee had no more then let in death , for wee all reape consumption from one fruitfull tree ; god tooke her hence , lest some of us should love her , like that plant , him and his lawes above , and when wee teares , hee mercy shed in this , to raise our mindes to heaven where now she is ; who if her vertues would have let her stay wee'had had a saint , have now a holiday ; her heart was that strange bush , where , sacred fire , religion , did not consume , but'inspire such piety , so chast use of gods day , that what we turne to feast , she turn'd to pray , and did prefigure here , in devout tast , the rest of her high sabaoth , which shall last ; angels did hand her up , who next god dwell , ( for she was of that order whence most fell ) her body left with us , lest some had said , shee could not die , except they saw her dead ; for from lesse vertue , and lesse beautiousnesse , the gentiles fram'd them gods and goddesses . the ravenous earth that now woes her to be , earth too , will be a lemnia ; and the tree that wraps that christall in a wooden tombe , shall be tooke up spruce , fill'd with diamond ; and we her sad glad friends all beare a part of griefe , for all would waste a stoicks heart . elegie to the lady bedford . you that are she , and you that 's double shee , in her dead face , halfe of your selfe shall see ; shee was the other part , for so they doe which build them friendships , become one of two ; so two , that but themselves no third can fit , which were to be so , when they were not yet twinnes , though their birth cusco , and musco take , as divers starres one constellation make , pair'd like two eyes , have equall motion , so both but one meanes to see , one way to goe ; had you dy'd first , a carcasse shee had beene ; and wee your rich tombe in her face had seene ; she like the soule is gone , and you here stay not a live friend ; but thother halfe of clay ; and since you act that part , as men say , here lies such a prince , when but one part is there ; and do all honour : and devotion due ; unto the whole , so wee all reverence you ; for , such a friendship who would not adore in you , who are all what both was before , not all , as if some perished by this , but so , as all in you contracted is ; as of this all , though many parts decay , the pure which elemented them shall stay ; and though diffus'd , and spread in infinite , shall recollect , and in one all unite : so madame , as her soule to heaven is fled , her flesh rests in the earth , as in the bed ; her vertues do , as to their proper spheare , returne to dwell with you , of whom they were ; as perfect motions are all circular , so they to you , their sea , whence lesse streames are ; shee was all spices , you all metalls ; so in you two wee did both rich indies know ; and as no fire , nor rust can spend or waste one dramme of gold , but what was first shall last , though it bee forc'd in water , earth , salt , aire , expans'd in infinite , none will impaire ; so , to your selfe you may additions take , but nothing can you lesse , or changed make . seeke not in seeking new , to seeme to doubt , that you can can match her , or not be without ; but let some faithfull booke in her roome be , yet but of iudith no such booke as shee . elegie . to make the doubt cleare , that no woman's true , was it my fate to prove it strong in you ? thought i , but one had breathed purest aire , and must she needs be false because she 's faire ? is it your beauties marke , or of your youth , or your perfection , not to study truth ? or thinke you heaven is deafe , or hath no eyes ? or those it hath , smile at your perjuries ? are vowes so cheape with women , or the matter whereof they are made , that they are writ in water , and blowne away with winde ? or doth their breath ( both hot and cold ) at once make life and death ? who could have thought so many accents sweet form'd into words , so many sighs should meete as from our hearts , so many oathes , and teares sprinkled among , ( all sweeter by our feares and the divine impression of stolne kisses , that seal'd the rest ) should now prove empty blisses ? did you draw bonds to forfet ? signe to breake ? or must we reade you quite from what you speake , and finde the truth out the wrong way ? or must hee first desire you false , would wish you just ? o i prophane , though most of women be this kinde of beast , my thought shall except thee ; my dearest love , though froward jealousie , with circumstance might urge thy'inconstancie , sooner i 'll thinke the sunne will cease to cheare the teeming earth , and that forget to beare , sooner that rivers will runne back , or thames with ribs of ice in june would bind his streames ; or nature , by whose strength the world endures , would change her course , before you alter yours ; but o that treacherous breast to whom weake you did trust our counsells , and wee both may rue , having his falshood found too late , 't was hee that made me cast you guilty , and you me , whilst he , black wrech , betray'd each simple word wee spake , unto the cunning of a third ; curst may hee be , that so our love hath slaine , and wander on the earth , wretched as cain , wretched as hee , and not deserve least pitty ; in plaguing him , let misery be witty ; let all eyes shunne him , and hee shunne each eye , till hee be noysome as his infamie ; may he without remorse deny god thrice , and not be trusted more on his soules price ; and after all selfe torment , when hee dyes , may wolves teare out his heart , vultures his eyes , swine eate his bowels , and his falser tongue that utter'd all , be to some raven flung , and let his carrion coarse be a longer feast to the kings dogges ; then any other beast ; now have i curst , let us our love revive ; in mee the flame was never more alive ; i could beginne againe to court and praise , and in that pleasure lengthen the short dayes of my lifes lease ; like painters that do take delight , not in made worke , but whiles they make ; i could renew those times , when first i saw love in your eyes , that gave my tongue the law to like what you lik'd ; and at maskes and playes commend the selfe same actors , the same wayes ; aske how you did , and often with intent of being officious , be impertinent ; all which were such soft pastimes , as in these love was as subtilly catch'd , as a disease ; but being got it is a treasure sweet , which to defend is harder then to get : and ought not be prophan'd on either part , for though 't is got by chance , 't is kept by art . no lover saith , i love , nor any other can judge a perfect lover ; hee thinkes that else none can or will agree , that any loves but hee : i cannot say i lov'd , for who can say hee was kill'd yesterday . love with excesse of heat , more yong then old , death kills with too much cold ; wee dye but once , and who lov'd last did die , hee that saith twice , doth lye : for though hee seeme to move , and stirre a while , it doth the sense beguile . such life is like the light which bideth yet when the lifes light is set , or like the heat , which , fire in solid matter leaves behinde , two houres after . once i love and dyed ; and am now become mine epitaph and tombe . here dead men speake their last , and so do i ; love-slaine , loe , here i dye . a hymne to christ , at the authors last going into germany . in what torne ship soever i embarke , that ship shall be my embleme of thy arke ; what sea soever swallow mee , that flood shall be to mee an embleme of thy blood ; though thou with clouds of anger do disguise thy face ; yet through that maske i know those eyes , which , though they turne away sometimes , they never will despise . i sacrifice this iland unto thee , and all whom i lov'd there , and who lov'd mee ; when i have put our seas twixt them and mee , put thou thy seas betwixt my sinnes and thee . as the trees sap doth seeke the root below in winter , in my winter now i goe , where none but thee , th' eternall root of true love i may know . nor thou nor thy religion dost controule , the amorousnesse of an harmonious soule , but thou would'st have that love thy selfe : as thou art jealous , lord , so i am jealous now , thou lov'st not , till from loving more , thou free my soule : who ever gives , takes libertie : o , if thou car'st not whom i love alas , thou lov'st not mee . seale then this bill of my divorce to all , on whom those fainter beames of love did fall ; marry those loves , which in youth scattered bee on fame , wit , hopes ( false mistresses ) to thee . churches are best for prayer , that have least light : to see god only , i goe out of sight : and to scape stormy dayes , i chuse an everlasting night . the lamentations of ieremy , for the most part according to tremelius . chap. i. 1 how sits this citie , late most populous , thus solitary , and like a widdow thus ? amplest of nations , queene of provinces she was , who now thus tributary is ? 2 still in the night shee weepes , and her teares fall downe by her cheekes along , and none of all her lovers comfort her ; perfidiously her friends have dealt , and now are enemie . 3 unto great bondage , and afflictions juda is captive led ; those nations with whom shee dwells , no place of rest afford , in streights shee meets her persecutors sword . 4 emptie are the gates of sion , and her waies mourne , because none come to her solemne dayes . her priests doe groane , her maides are comfortlesse , and shee 's unto her selfe a bitternesse . 5 her foes are growne her head , and live at peace , because when her transgressions did increase , the lord strooke her with sadnesse : th' enemie doth drive her children to captivitie . 6 from sions daughter is all beauty gone , like harts , which seeke for pasture , and find none , her princes are , and now before the foe which still pursues them , without strength they go . 7 now in their daies of teares , jerusalem ( her men slaine by the foe , none succouring them ) remembers what of old , shee esteemed most , whiles her foes laugh at her , for what she hath lost . 8 jerusalem hath sinn'd , therefore is shee remov'd , as women in uncleannesse bee ; who honor'd , scorne her , for her foulnesse they have seene , her selfe doth groane , and turne away . 9 her foulnesse in her skirts was seene , yet she remembred not her end ; miraculously therefore shee fell , none comforting : behold o lord my affliction , for the foe growes bold . 10 upon all things where her delight hath beene , the foe hath stretch'd his hand , for shee hath seene heathen , whom thou command'st , should not doe so , into her holy sanctuary goe . 11 and all her people groane , and seeke for bread ; and they have given , only to be fed , all precious things , wherein their pleasure lay : how cheape i'am growne , o lord , behold , and weigh . 12 all this concernes not you , who passe by mee , o see , and marke if any sorrow bee like to my sorrow , which jehova hath done to mee in the day of his fierce wrath ? 13 that fire , which by himselfe is governed he hath cast from heaven on my bones , and spred a net before my feet , and mee o'rthrowne , and made me languish all the day alone . 14 his hand hath of my sinnes framed a yoake which wreath'd , and cast upon my neck , hath broke my strength . the lord unto those enemies hath given mee , from whence i cannot rise . 15 he under foot hath troden in my sight my strong men ; he did company invite to breake my young men , he the winepresse hath trod upon juda's daughter in his wrath . 16 for these things doe i weepe , mine eye , mine eye casts water out ; for he which should be nigh to comfort mee , is now departed farre , the foe prevailes , forlorne my children are . 17 there 's none , though sion do stretch out her hand to comfort her , it is the lords command that iacobs foes girt him . ierusalem is as an uncleane woman amongst them . 18 but yet the lord is just , and righteous still , i have rebell'd against his holy will ; o heare all people , and my sorrow see , my maides , my young men in captivitie . 19 i called for my lovers then , but they deceiv'd mee , and my priests , and elders lay dead in the citie ; for they sought for meat which should refresh their soules , they could not get . 20 because i am in streights , iehova see my heart return'd , my bowells muddy bee , because i have rebell'd so much , as fast the sword without , as death within , doth wast . 21 of all which heare i mourne , none comforts mee , my foes have heard my griefe , and glad they be , that thou hast done it ; but thy promis'd day will come , when , as i suffer , so shall they . 22 let all their wickednesse appeare to thee , doe unto them , as thou hast done to mee , for all my sinnes : the sighs which i have had are very many , and my heart is sad . chap. ii. 1 how over sions daughter hath god hung his wraths thicke cloud ? and from heaven hath flung , to earth the beauty of israel , and hath forgot his foot-stoole in the day of wrath ? 2 the lord unsparingly hath swallowed all jacobs dwellings , and demolished to ground the strengths of iuda , and prophan'd the princes of the kingdome , and the land . 3 in heat of wrath , the horne of israel hee hath cleane cut off , and lest the enemie be hindred , his right hand he doth retire , but is towards iacob , all-devouring fire . 4 like to an enemie he bent his bow , his right hand was in posture of a foe , to kill what sions daughter did desire , ' gainst whom his wrath , he poured forth , like fire . 5 for like an enemie iehova is , devouring israel , and his palaces , destroying holds , giving additions to iuda's daughters lamentations . 6 like to a garden hedge he hath cast downe the place where was his congregation , and sions feasts and sabbaths are forgot ; her king , her priest , his wrath regardeth not . 7 the lord forsakes his altar , and detests his sanctuary , and in the foes hands rests palace , and the walls , in which their cries are heard , as in the true solemnities . 8 the lord hath cast a line , so to confound and levell sions walls unto the ground , he drawes not back his hand ; which doth oreturne the wall , and rampart , which together mourne . 9 their gates are sunke into the ground , and hee hath broke the barre ; their king and princes bee amongst the heathen , without law , nor there unto their prophets doth the lord appeare . 10 there sions elders on the ground are plac'd , and silence keepe ; dust on their heads they cast , in sack cloth have they girt themselves , and low the virgins towards ground , their heads do throw . 11 my bowells are growne muddy , and mine eyes are faint with weeping : and my liver lies pour'd out upon the ground , for miserie that sucking children in the streets doe die . 12 when they had cryed unto their mothers , where shall we have bread , and drinke ? they fainted there and in the street like wounded persons lay till 'twixt their mothers breasts they went away . 13 daughter ierusalem , oh what may bee a witnesse , or comparison for thee ? sion , to case thee , what shall i name like thee ? thy breach is like the sea , what help can bee ? 14 for , the vaine foolish things thy prophets sought , thee , thine iniquities they have not taught , which might disturne thy bondage : but for thee false burthens , and false causes they would see . 15 the passengers doe clap their hands , and hisse and wag their head at thee , and say , is this that citie , which so many men did call joy of the earth , and perfectest of all ? 16 thy foes doe gape upon thee , and they hisse , and gnash their teeth , and say , devoure wee this , for this is certainly the day which wee expected , and which now we finde , and see . 17 the lord hath done that which he purposed , fulfill'd his word of old determined ; he hath throwne downe , and not spar'd , and thy foe made glad above thee , and advanc'd him so . 18 but now , their hearts against the lord do call , therefore , o walls of sion , let teares fall downe like a river , day and night ; take thee no rest , but let thine eye incessant be . 19 arise , cry in the night , poure , for thy sinnes , thy heart , like water , when the watch begins ; lift up thy hands to god , lest children dye , which , faint for hunger , in the streets doe lye . 20 behold o lord , consider unto whom thou hast done this ; what , shall the women come to eate their children of a spanne ? shall thy prophet and priest be slaine in sanctuary ? 21 on ground in streets , the yong and old do lye , my virgins and yong men by sword do dye ; them in the day of thy wrath thou hast slaine , nothing did thee from killing them containe . 22 as to a solemne feast , all whom i fear'd thou call'st about mee ; when his wrath appear'd . none did remaine or scape , for those which i brought up , did perish by mine enemie . chap. iii. 1 i am the man which have affliction seene , under the rod of gods wrath having beene , 2 he hath led mee to darknesse , not to light , 3 and against mee all day , his hand doth fight . 4 hee hath broke my bones , worne out my flesh and skinne , 5 built up against mee ; and hath girt mee in with hemlocke , and with labour ; 6. and set mee in darke , as they who dead for ever bee . 7 hee hath hedg'd me lest i scape , and added more to my steele fetters , heavier then before , when i crie out , he out shuts my prayer : 9 and hath stop'd with hewn stone my way , & turn'd my path . 10 and like a lion hid in secrecie , or beare which lyes in wait , he was to mee , 11 he stops my way , teares me , made desolate , 12 and hee makes mee the marke he shooteth at . 13 hee made the children of his quiver passe into my reines , 14 i with my people was all the day long , a song and mockery . 15 hee hath fill'd mee with bitternesse , and he hath made me drunke with wormewood . 16 he hath burst my teeth with stones , and covered mee with dust ; 17 and thus my soule farre off from peace was set , and my prosperity i did forget . 18 my strength , my hope ( unto my selfe isaid ) which from the lord should come , is perished . 19 but when my mournings i do thinke upon , my wormwood , hemlocke , and affliction , 20 my soule is humbled in remembring this ; 21 my heart considers , therefore , hope there is , 22 't is gods great mercy we' are not utterly consum'd , for his compassions do not die ; 23 for every morning they renewed bee , for great , o lord , is thy fidelity . 24 the lord is , saith my soule , my portion , and therefore in him will i hope alone . 25 the lord is good to them , who on him relie , and to the soule that seeks him earnestly . 26 it is both good to trust , and to attend ( the lords salvation ) unto the end : 27'tis good for one his yoake in youth to beare ; 28 he sits alone , and doth all speech forbeare , because he hath borne it . 29 and his mouth he layes deepe in the dust , yet then in hope he stayes . 30 he gives his cheekes to whosoever will strike him , and so he is reproched still . 31 for , not for ever doth the lord forsake , 32 but when he' hath strucke with sadnes , hee doth take compassion , as his mercy ' is infinite ; 33 nor is it with his heart , that he doth smite , 34 that underfoot the prisoners stamped bee , 35 that a mans right the judge himselfe doth see to be wrong from him . 36 that he subverted is in his just cause ; the lord allowes not this : 37 who then will say , that ought doth come to passe , but that which by the lord commanded was ? 38 both good and evill from his mouth proceeds ; 39 why then grieves any man for his misdeeds ? 40 turne wee to god , by trying out our wayes ; 41 to him in heaven , our hands with hearts upraise . 42 wee have rebell'd , and falne away from thee , thou pardon'st not . 43 usest no clemencie ; pursuest us , kill'st us , coverest us with wrath , 44 cover'st thy selfe with clouds , that our prayer hath no power to passe . 45 and thou hast made us fall as refuse , and off-scouring to them all . 46 all our foes gape at us . 47 , feare and a snare with ruine , and with waste , upon us are . 48 with water rivers doth mine eye oreflow for ruine of my peoples daughters so ; 49 mine eye doth drop downe teares incessantly , 50 untill the lord looke downe from heaven to see . 51 and for my city daughters sake , mine eye doth breake mine heart . 52 causles mine enemy ; like a bird chac'd me . 53 in a dungeon they have shut my life , and cast me on a stone . 54 waters flow'd o'r my head , then thought i , i am destroy'd ; 55 i called lord , upon thy name out of the pit . 56 and thou my voice didst heare ; oh from my sigh , and crye , stop not thine eare . 57 then when i call'd upon thee , thou drew'st nere unto mee , and said'st unto mee , do not feare . 58 thou lord my soules cause handled hast , and thou rescuest my life . 59 o lord do thou judge now , thou heardst my wrong . 60 their vengeance all they have wrought ; 61 how they reproach'd , thou hast heard , and what they thought , 62 what their lips uttered , which against me rose , and what was ever whisper'd by my foes . 63 i am their song , whether they rise or sit , 64 give them rewards lord , for their working fit , 65 sorrow of heart , thy curse . 66 and with thy might follow , and from under heaven destroy them quite . cap. iv. 1 how is the gold become so dimme ? how is purest and finest gold thus chang'd to this ? the stones which were stones of the sanctuary , scattered in corners of each street do lye . 2 the pretious sonnes of sion , which should bee valued at purest gold , how do wee see low rated now , as earthen pitchers , stand , which are the worke of a poore potters hand . 3 even the sea-calfes draw their brests , and give sucke to their young ; my peoples daughters live by reason of the foes great cruelnesse , as do the owles in the vast wildernesse . 4 and when the sucking child doth strive to draw , his tongue for thirst cleaves to his upper jaw . and when for bread the little children crye , there is no man that doth them satisfie . 5 they which before were delicately fed , now in the streets forlorne have perished , and they which ever were in scarlet cloath'd , sit and embrace the dunghills which they loath'd . 6 the daughrers of my people have sinned more , then did the towne of sodome sinne before ; which being at once destroy'd , there did remaine no hands amongst them , to vexe them againe . 7 but heretofore purer her nazarite was then the snow , and milke was not so white ; as carbuncles did their pure bodies shine , and all their polish'dnesse was seraphine . 8 they are darker now then blacknes , none can know them by the face , as through the street they goe , for now their skin doth cleave unto their bone , and withered , is like to dry wood growne . 9 better by sword then famine 't is to dye ; and better through pierc'd , then by penury , 10 women by nature pitifull , have eate their children drest with their owne hand for meat . 11 iehova here fully accomplish'd hath his indignation , and powr'd forth his wrath , kindled a fire in sion , which hath power to eate , and her foundations to devour . 12 nor would the kings of the earth , nor all which live in the inhabitable world beleeve , that any adversary , any foe into ierusalem should enter so ; 13 for the priests sins , and prophets , which have shed blood in the streets , and the just murthered : 14 which when those men , whom they made blinde , did stray thorough the streets , defiled by the way with blood , the which impossible it was their garments should scape touching , as they passe , 15 would cry aloud , depart defiled men , depart , depart , and touch us not , and then they fled , and strayd , and with the gentiles were , yet told their friends , they should not long dwell ; there . 16 for this they are scattered by jehovahs face vvho never will regard them more ; no grace unto their old men shall the foe afford , nor , that they are priests , redeeme them from the sword . 17 and wee as yet , for all these miseries desiring our vaine helpe , consume our eyes : and such a nation as cannot save , vve in desire and speculation have : 18 they hunt our steps , that in the streets wee feare to goe : our end is now approached neere , our dayes accomplish'd are , this the last day , eagles of heaven are not so swift as they 19 vvhich follow us , o'r mountaine tops they flye at us , and for us in the desart lye . 20 the annointed lord , breath of our nostrils , hee of whom we said , under his shadow , wee shall with more ease under the heathen dwell , into the pit which these men digged , fell 21 rejoyce o edoms daughter , joyfull bee thou which inhabitst her , for unto thee this cup shall passe , and thou with drunkennesse shalt fill thy selfe , and shew thy nakednesse . 22 and then they sinnes o sion , shall be spent , the lord will not leave thee in banishment . thy sinnes o edoms daughter , hee will see , and for them , pay thee with captivitie . cap. v. 1 remember , o lord , what is fallen on us see , and marke how we are reproached thus , 2 for unto strangers our possession is turn'd , our houses unto aliens gone , 3 our mothers are become as widowes , wee as orphans all , and without fathers be ; 4 waters which are our owne , wee drunke , and pay , and upon our owne wood a price they lay , 5 our persecutors on our necks do sit , they make us travaile , and not intermit , 6 we stretch our hands unto th' egyptians to get us bread ; and to the assyrians . 7 our fathers did these sinnes , and are no more , but wee do beare the sinnes they did before . 8 they are but servants , which do rule us thus , yet from their hands none would deliver us . 9 with danger of our life our bread wee gat ; for in the wildernesse , the sword did wait . 10 the tempests of this famine wee liv'd in , black as an ocean colour'd had our kinne : 11 in iudaes cities they the maids abus'd by force , and so women in sion us'd . 12 the princes with their hands they hung ; no grace nor honour gave they to the elders face . 13 unto the mill our yong men carried are , and children fell under the wood they bare . 14 elders , the gates ; youth did their songs forbeare , gone was our joy ; our dancings , mournings were . 15 now is the crowne falne from our head ; and woe be unto us , because we'have sinned so . 16 for this our hearts do languish , and for this over our eyes a cloudy dimnesse is . 17 because mount sion desolate doth lye , and foxes there do goe at libertie : 18 but thou o lord art ever , and thy throne from generation , to generation . 19 why should'st thou forget us eternally ? or leave us thus long in this misery ? 20 restore us lord to thee , that so we may returne , and as of old , renew our day . 21 for oughtest thou , o lord , despise us thus 22 and to be utterly enrag'd at us ? satyres . satyre i. away thou fondling motley humorist , leave mee , and in this standing woodden chest , consorted with these few bookes , let me lye in prison , and here be coffin'd , when i dye ; here are gods conduits ; grave divines , and here natures secretary , the philosopher . and jolly statesmen , which teach how to tie the sinewes of a cities mistique bodie ; here gathering chroniclers , and by them stand giddie fantastique poëts of each land . shall i leave all this constant company , and follow headlong , wild uncertaine thee ? first sweare by thy best love in earnest ( if thou which lov'st all , canst love any best ) thou wilt not leave mee in the middle street , though some more spruce companion thou dost meet , not though a captaine do come in thy way bright parcell gilt , with forty dead mens pay , not though a briske perfum'd piert courtier deigne with a nod , thy courtesie to answer . nor come a velvet justice with a long great traine of blew coats , twelve , or fourteen strong , wilt thou grin or fawne on him , or prepare a speech to court his beautious sonne and heire ? for better or worse take mee , or leave mee : to take , and leave mee is adultery . oh monstrous , superstitious puritan , of refin'd manners , yet ceremoniall man , that when thou meet'st one , with enquiring eyes ; dost search , and like a needy broker prize the silke , and gold he weares , and to that rate so high or low , dost raise thy formall hate : that wilt consort none , untill thou have knowne what lands hee hath in hope , or of his owne , as though all thy companions should make thee jointures , and marry thy deare company . why should'st thou that dost not onely approve , but in ranke it chie lust , desire , and love the nakednesse and barrennesse to enjoy , of thy plumpe muddy whore , or prostitute boy hate vertue , though shee be naked , and bare , at birth , and death , our bodies naked are ; and till our soules be unapparrelled of bodies , they from blisse are banished . mans first blest state was naked , when by sinne hee lost that , yet hee was cloath'd but in beasts skin , and in this course attire , which i now weare with god , and with the muses i conferre . but since thou like a contrite penitent , charitably warm'd of thy sinnes , dost repent these vanities , and giddinesses , loe i shut my chamber doore , and come , le ts goe , but sooner may a cheape whore , who hath beene worne by as many severall men in sinne , as are black feathers , or musk-colour hose , name her childs right true father , ' mongst all those : sooner may one guesse , who shall beare away the infant of london , heire to an india , and sooner may a gulling weather spie by drawing forth heavens sceanes tell certainly what fashioned hats , or ruffes , or suits next yeare our subtile wittied antique youths will weare ; then thou , when thou depart'st from mee , can show whither , why , when , or with whom thou wouldst go . but how shall i be pardon'd my offence that thus have sinn'd against my conscience . now we are in the street ; he first of all improvidently proud , creepes to the wall , and so imprisoned , and hem'd in by mee sells for a little state high libertie , yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet every fine silken painted foole we meet , he then to him with amorous smiles allures , and grins , smacks , shrugs , and such an itch endures , as prentises , or schoole boyes which doe know of some gay sport abroad , yet dare not goe . and as fidlers stop lowest , at highest sound , so to the most brave , stoopt hee nigh'st the ground . but to a grave man , he doth move no more then the wise politique horse would heretofore , now leaps he upright , joggs me , & cryes , do you see yonder well favoured youth ; which ? oh , 't is hee that dances so divinely ; oh , said i , stand still , must you dance here for company ? hee droopt , wee went , till one ( which did excell th'indians , in drinking his tobacco well ) met us , they talk'd ; i whispered , let us goe , 't may be you smell him not , truely i doe ; he heares not mee , but , on the other side a many-coloured peacock having spide , leaves him and mee ; i for my lost sheep stay ; he followes , overtakes , goes on the way , saying , him whom i last left , s'all repute for his device , in hansoming a sute , to judge of lace , pinke , panes , print , cut , and plight , of all the court , to have the best conceit ; our dull comedians want him , let him goe ; but oh , god strengthen thee , why stoop'st thou so ? why , he hath travailed long ? no , but to me which understand none , he doth seeme to be perfect french , and italian ; i replyed , so is the poxe ; he answered not , but spy'd more men of sort , of parts , and qualities ; at last his love he in a windowe spies , and like light dew exhal'd , he flings from mee violently ravish'd to his liberty ; many were there , he could command no more ; hee quarrell'd , fought , bled ; and turn'd out of dore directly came to mee hanging the head , and constantly a while must keepe his bed . satyre ii. sir ; though ( i thanke god for it ) i do hate perfectly all this towne , yet there 's one state in all ill things so excellently best , that hate , toward them , breeds pitty towards the rest ; though poëtry indeed be such a sinne as i thinke that brings dearth , and spaniards in , though like the pestilence and old fashion'd love , ridlingly it catch men ; and doth remove never , till it be sterv'd out ; yet their state is poore , disarm'd , like papists , not worth hate : one , ( like a wretch , which at barre judg'd as dead , yet prompts him which stands next , and cannot reade , and saves his life ) gives ideot actors meanes ( starving himselfe ) to live by his labor'd sceanes . as in some organ , puppits dance above and bellows pant below , which thē do move . one would move love by rithmes ; but witchchrafts charms bring not now their old feares , nor their old harmes . rammes , and slings now are seely battery , pistolets are the best artillerie . and they who write to lords , rewards to get , are they not like singers at doores for meat ? and they who write , because all write , have still that excuse for writing , and for writing ill ; but hee is worst , who ( beggarly ) doth chaw others wits fruits , and in his ravenous maw rankly digested , doth those things out-spue , as his owne things ; and they are his owne , 't is true , for if one eate my meate , though it be knowne the meate was mine , th'excrement is his owne : but these do mee no harme , nor they which use to out-doe , and out-usure jewes ; to out-drinke the sea , to out-sweare the who with sinnes of all kindes as familiar bee as confessors ; and for whose sinfull sake schoolemen , new tenements in hell must make : whose strange sinnes , canonists could hardly tell in which commandements large receit they dwell . but these punish themselves ; the insolence of coscus onely breeds my just offence , whom time ( which rots all , and makes botches poxe , and plodding on , must make a calfe an oxe ) hath made a lawyer ; which was alas of late but scarce a poët , jollier of this state , then are new benefic'd ministers , he throwes like nets , or lime-twigs , wheresoever he goes , his title of barrister , on every wench , and wooes in language of the pleas , and bench : a motion , lady , speake coscus ; i have beene in love , ever since tricesimo of the queene , continuall claimes i have made , injunctions got to stay my rivals suit , that hee should not proceed , spare mee ; in hillary terme i went , you said if i returne next size in lent , i should be in remitter of your grace ; in th' interim my letters should take place of affidavits : words , words , which would teare the tender labyrinth of a soft maids eare . more , more , then ten sclavonians scolding , more then when winds in our ruin'd abbeyes rore ; when sicke with poëtrie , and possest with muse thou wast , and mad , i hop'd ; but men which chuse law practise for meere gaine ; bold soule repute worse then imbrothel'd strumpets prostitute . now like an owlelike watchman , hee must walke his hand still at a bill , now he must talke idly , like prisoners , which whole months will sweare that onely suretiship hath brought them there , like a wedge in a blocke , wring to the barre , bearing like asses , and more shamelesse farre then carted wheres , lye , to the grave judge ; for as these things do in him ; by these he thrives . shortly ( as the sea ) hee will compasse all the land ; form scots , to wight ; from mount , to dover strand , and spying heires melting with luxurie , satan will not joy at their sinnes , as hee . for as a thrifty wench scrapes kitching-stuffe , and barrelling the droppings , and the snuffe , of wasting candles , which in thirty yeare ( reliquely kept ) perchance buyes wedding geare ; peecemeale he gets lands , and spends as much time wringing each acre , as men pulling prime . in parchment then , large as his fields , hee drawes assurances , bigge , as gloss'd civill lawes , so huge , that men ( in our times forwardnesse ) are fathers of the church for writing lesse . these hee writes not ; nor for these written payes , therefore spares no length ; as in those first dayes when luther was profest , he did desire short pater nosters , saying as a fryer each day his beads , but having left those lawes , addes to christs prayer , the power and glory clause , but when he sells or changes land , he'impaires his writings , and ( unwatch'd ) leaves out , ses heires as slily as any commenter goes by , hard words , or sense ; or in divinity as controverters , in vouch'd texts , leave out shrewd words , which might against them cleare the doubt : where are those spred woods which cloth'd hertofore those bought lands ? not built , nor burnt within dore . where 's th' old landlords troops , & almes , great hals ? carthusian fasts , and fulsome bachanalls equally i hate , meanes blesse ; in rich mens homes i bid kill some beasts , but no hecatombs , none starve , none surfet so ; but ( oh ) we allow , good workes as good , but out of fashion now , like old rich wardrops ; but my words none drawes within the vast reach of th'huge statute lawes . satyre iii. kinde pitty chokes my spleene ; brave scorn forbids those teares to issue which swell my eye-lids , i must not laugh , nor weepe sinnes , and be wise , can railing then cure these worne maladies ? is not our mistresse faire religion , as worthy of all our soules devotion , as vertue was in the first blinded age ? are not heavens joyes as valiant to asswage lusts , as earths honour was to them ? alas , as wee do them in meanes , shall they surpasse us in the end , and shall thy fathers spirit meete blinde philosophers in heaven , whose merit of strict life may be imputed faith , and heare thee , whom hee taught so easie wayes and neare to follow , damn'd ? o if thou dar'st , feare this . this feare great courage , and high valour is ; dar'st thou ayd mutinous-dutch , and dar'st thou lay thee in ships woodden sepulchers , a prey to leaders rage , to stormes , to shot , to dearth ? dar'st thou dive seas , and dungeons of the earth ? hast thou couragious fite to thaw the ice of frozen north discoueries , and thrise colder then salamanders ? like divine children in th'oven , fires of spaine , and the line ; whose countries limbecks to our bodies bee , canst thou for gaine beare ? and must every hee which cryes not , goddesse , to thy mistresse , draw , or eate thy poysonous words , courage of straw ! o desperate coward , wilt thou seeme bold , and to thy foes and his ( who made thee to stand sentinell in his worlds garrison ) thus yeeld , and for forbidden warres , leave th' appointed field ? know thy foe , the foule devill h 'is , whom thou strivest to please : for hate , not love , would allow thee faine , his whole realme to be quit ; and as the world 's all parts wither away and passe , so the worlds selfe , thy other lov'd foe , is in her decrepit wayne , and thou loving this , dost love a withered and worne strumpet ; last , flesh ( it selfe death ) and joyes which flesh can taste , thou lovest ; and thy faire goodly soule , which doth give this flesh power to taste joy , thou dost loath ; seeke true religion . o where ? mirreus thinking her unhous'd her , and fled from us , seekes her at rome , there , because hee doth know that shee was there a thousand yeares agoe , he loves the ragges so , as wee here obey the statecloth where the prince sate yesterday . crants to such brave loves will not be inthrall'd , but loves her onely , who at geneva is call'd religion , plaine , simple , sullen , yong , contemptuous , yet unhansome . as among lecherous humors , there is one that judges no wenches wholsome , but course country drudges : graius stayes still at home here , and because some preachers , vile ambitious bauds , and lawes still new like fashions , bids him thinke that shee which dwels with us , is onely perfect , hee imbraceth her , whom his godfathers will tender to him , being tender , as wards still take such wives as their guardians offer , or pay valewes . carelesse phrygius doth abhorre all , because all cannot be good , as one knowing some women whores , dares marry none . graccus loves all as one , and thinkes that so as women do in divers countries goe in divers habits , yet are still one kinde ; so doth , so is religion ; and this blindnesse too much light breeds ; but unmoved thou of force must one , and forc'd but one allow ; and the right ; aske thy father which is shee , let him aske his ; though truth and falshood bee neare twins , yet truth a little elder is ; be busie to seeke her , beleeve mee this , hee 's not of none , nor worst , that seekes the best . to adore , or scorne an image , or protest , may all be bad ; doubt wisely , in strange way to stand inquiring right , is not to stray ; to sleepe , or runne wrong , is : on a huge hill , cragg'd , and steep , truth stands , and hee that will reach her , about must , and about must goe ; and what the hills suddennes resists , winne so ; yet strive so , that before age , deaths twilight , thy soule rest , for none can worke in that night , to will , implyes delay , therefore now doe hard deeds , the bodies paines ; hard knowledge to the mindes indeavours reach , and mysteries are like the sunne , dazling , yet plaine to all eyes ; keepe the truth which thou hast found ; men do not stand in so ill case , that god hath with his hand sign'd kings blanck-charters to kill whom they hate , nor are they vicars , but hangmen to fate . foole and wretch , wilt thou let thy soule be tyed to mans lawes , by which she shall not be tryed at the last day ? will it then boot thee to say a philip , or a gregory , a harry , or a martin taught thee this ? is not this excuse for mere contraries , equally strong cannot both sides say so ? that thou mayest rightly obey power , her bounds know ; those past , her nature , & name is chang'd to be , then humble to her is idolatrie ; as streames are , power is , those blest flowers that dwell at the rough streames calme head , thrive and do well , but having left their roots , and themselves given to the streames tyrannous rage , alas are driven through mills , & rockes , & woods , and at last , almost consum'd in going , in the sea are lost : so perish soules , which more chuse mens unjust power from god claym'd , then god himselfe to trust . satyre iiii. well ; i may now receive , and die ; my sinne indeed is great , but i have beene in a purgatorie , such as fear'd hell is a recreation , and scant map of this . my minde , neither with prides itch , nor yet hath been poyson'd with love to see , or to bee seene , i had no suit there , nor new suite to shew , yet went to court ; but as glaze which did goe to masse in jest , catch'd , was faine to disburse the hundred markes , which is the statutes curse ; before he scapt , so'it pleas'd my destinie ( guilty of my sin of going , ) to thinke me as prone to all ill , and of good as forgetfull , as proud , as lustfull , and as much in debt , as vaine , as witlesse , and as false as they which dwell in court , for once going that way . therefore i suffered this ; towards me did runne a thing more strange , then on niles slime , the sunne e'r bred , or all which into noahs arke came : a thing , which would have pos'd adam to name , stranger then seaven antiquaries studies , then africks monsters , guianaes rarities , stranger then strangers ; one , who for a dane , in the danes massacre had sure beene slaine , if he had liv'd then ; and without helpe dies , when next the prentises'gainst strangers rise . one , whom the watch at noone lets scarce goe by , one , to whom , the examining justice sure would cry , sir , by your priesthood tell me what you are . his cloths were strāge , though coarse ; & black , though bare ; sleevelesse his jerkin was , and it had beene velvet , but 't was now ( so much ground was seene ) become tufftaffatie ; and our children shall see it plaine rashe awhile , then nought at all . this thing hath travail'd , and saith , speakes all tongues and only knoweth what to all states belongs , made of th' accents , and best phrase of all these , he speakes one language ; if strange meats displease , art can deceive , or hunger force my tast , but pedants motley tongue , souldiers bumbast , mountebankes drugtongue , nor the termes of law are strong enough preparatives , to draw me to beare this , yet i must be content with his tongue : in his tongue , call'd complement : in which he can win widdowes , and pay scores , make men speake treason , cosen subtlest whores , out-flatter favorites , or out lie either jovius , or surius , or both together . he names mee , and comes to mee ; i whisper , god! how have i sinn'd , that thy wraths furious rod , this fellow chuseth me ? he saith , sir , i love your judgement ; whom doe you prefer , for the best linguist ? and i seelily said , that i thought calepines dictionarie ; nay , but of men , most sweet sir. beza then , some jesuites , and two reverend men of our two academies , i named ; there he stopt mee , and said ; nay , your apostles were good pretty linguists , and so panirge was ; yet a poore gentleman ; all these may passe by travaile . then , as if he would have sold his tongue , he praised it , and such words told that i was faine to say , if you'had liv'd , sir , time enough to have beene interpreter to babells brick layers , sure the tower had stood . he adds , if of court life you knew the good , you would leave lonelinesse ; i said , not alone my lonelinesse is , but spartanes fashion , to teach by painting drunkards , doth not last now ; aretines pictures have made few chast ; no more can princes courts , though there be few better pictures of vice , teach me vertue ; he , like to a high stretcht lute string squeakt , o sir , 't is sweet to talke of kings . at westminster , said i , the man that keepes the abbey tombes , and for his price doth with who ever comes , of all our harries , and our edwards talke , from king to king and all their kin can walke : your eares shall heare nought , but kings ; your eyes meet kings only ; the way to it , is kingstreet . he smack'd , and cry'd , he 's base , mechanique , coarse , so are all your englishmen in their discourse . are not your frenchmen neate ? fine , as you see , i have but one frenchman , looke , hee followes mee . certes they are neatly cloth'd . i , of this minde am , your only wearing is your grogaram ; not so sir , i have more . under this pitch he would not flie ; i chaff'd him ; but as itch scratch'd into smart , and as blunt iron grown'd into an edge , hurts worse : so , i foole found , crossing hurt mee ; to fit my sullennesse , he to another key , his stile doth addresse . and askes , what newes ? i tell him of new playes . he takes my hand , and as a still , which staies a sembriefe , 'twixt each drop , he nigardly , as loth to enrich mee , so tells many a lie , more then ten hollensheads , or halls , or stowes , of triviall houshold trash ; he knowes ; he knowes when the queene frown'd , or smil'd , and he knowes a subtle states-man may gather of that ; he knowes who loves ; whom ; and who by poyson what hasts to an offices reversion ; he knowes who'hath sold his land , and now doth beg a licence , old iron , bootes , shooes , and egge shels to transport ; shortly boyes shall not play at span-counter , or blow-point , but shall pay toll to some courtier ; and wiser then all us , he knowes what ladie is not painted ; thus he with home-meats tries me ; i belch , spue , spit , looke pale , and sickly , like a patient ; yet he thrusts on more ; and as if he'undertooke to say gallo-belgicus without booke speakes of all states , and deeds , that hath been since the spaniards came , to the losse of amyens . like a bigge wife , at sight of loathed meat , readie to travaile : so i sigh , and sweat to heare this makeron talke in vaine : for yet , either my humour , or his owne to fit , he like a priviledg'd spie , whom nothing can discredit , libells now ' gainst each great man. he names a price for every office paid ; he saith , our warres thrive ill , because delai'd ; that offices are entail'd , and that there are perpetuities of them , lasting as farre as the last day ; and that great officers , doe with the pirates share , and dunkirkers . who wasts in meat , in clothes , in horse , he notes ; who loves whores , who boyes , and who goats . i more amas'd then circes prisoners , when they felt themselves turne beasts , felt my selfe then becomming traytor , and mee thought i saw one of our giant statutes ope his jaw to sucke me in , for hearing him . i found therefore i did shew all signes of loathing ; but since i am in , i must pay mine , and my forefathers sinne to the last farthing ; therefore to my power toughly and stubbornly i beare this crosse ; but the ' houre of mercy now was come ; he tries to bring me to pay a fine to scape his torturing , and saies , sir , can you spare me ; i said , willingly ; nay , sir , can you spare me a crowne ? thankfully i gave it , as ransome ; but as fidlers , still , though they be paid to be gone , yet needs will thrust one more jigge upon you : so did hee with his long complementall thankes vexe me . but he is gone , thankes to his needy want , and the prerogative of my crowne : scant his thankes were ended , when i , ( which did see all the court fill'd with more strange things then hee ) ran from thence with such or more hast , then one who feares more actions , doth hast from prison ; at home in wholesome solitarinesse my precious soule began , the wretchednesse of suiters at court to mourne , and a trance like his , who dreamt he saw hell , did advance it selfe on mee , such men as he saw there , i saw at court , and worse , and more ; low feare becomes the guiltie , not the accuser ; then , shall i , nones slave , of high borne , or rais'd men feare frownes ? and , my mistresse truth , betray thee to huffing , braggart , puft nobility . no , no , thou which since yesterday hast beene almost about the whole world , hast thou seene , o sunne , in all thy journey , vanitie , such as swells the bladder of our court ? i thinke he which made your waxen garden , and transported it from italy to stand with us , at london , flouts our presence , for just such gay painted things , which no sappe , nor tast have in them , ours are , and naturall some of the stocks are , their fruits , bastard all . 't is ten a clock and past ; all whom the mues , baloune , tennis , dyet , or the stewes , had all the morning held , now the second time made ready , that day , in flocks , are found in the presence , and i , ( god pardon mee . ) as fresh , and sweet their apparrells be , as bee the fields they sold to buy them ; for a king those hose are , cry the flatterers ; and bring them next weeke to the theatre to sell ; wants reach all states ; me seemes they doe as well at stage , as court ; all are players , who e'r lookes ( for themselves dare not goe ) o'r cheapside books , shall finde their wardrops inventory ; now , the ladies come ; as pirats , which doe know that there came weak ships fraught with cutchannel , the men board them ; and praise , as they thinke , well , their beauties ; they the mens wits ; both are bought . why good wits ne'r weare scarlet gownes , i thought this cause , these men , mens wits for speeches buy , and women buy all reds which scarlets die . he call'd her beauty limetwigs , her haire net . she feares her drugs ill laid , her haire loose set ; would not heraclitus laughto see macrine , from hat , to shooe , himselfe at doore refine , as if the presence were a moschite , and lift his skirts and hose , and call his clothes to shrift , making them confesse not only mortall great staines and holes in them ; but veniall feathers and dust , wherewith they fornicate . and then by durers rules survay the state of his each limbe , and with strings the odds tries of his neck to his legge , and wast to thighes . so in immaculate clothes , and symetrie perfect as circles , with such nicetie as a young preacher at his first time goes to preach , he enters , and a lady which owes him not so much as good will , he arrests , and unto her protests protests protests so much as at rome would serve to have throwne ten cardinalls into the inquisition ; and whisperd by jesu , so often , that a pursevant would have ravish'd him away for saying of our ladies psalter ; but 't is fit that they each other plague , they merit it . but here comes glorius that will plague them both , who , in the other extreme , only doth call a rough carelessenesse , good fashion ; whose cloak his spurres teare ; whom he spits on he cares not , his ill words doe no harme to him ; he rusheth in , as if arme , arme , he meant to crie ; and though his face be as ill as theirs which in old hangings whip christ , yet still he strives to looke worse , he keepes all in awe ; jeasts like a licenc'd foole , commands like law . tyr'd , now i leave this place , and but pleas'd so as men from gaoles to'execution goe , goe through the great chamber ( why is it hung with the seaven deadly sinnes ) being among those askaparts , men big enough to throw charing crosse for a barre , men that doe know no token of worth , but queenes man , and fine living barrells of beefe , flaggons of wine . i shooke like a spyed sple ; preachers which are seas of wits and arts , you can , then dare , drowne the sinnes of this place , for , for mee which am but a scarce brooke , it enough shall bee to wash the staines away ; though i yet with macchabees modestie , the knowne merit of my worke lessen : yet some wise man shall , i hope , esteeme my writs canonicall . satyre v. thou shalt not laugh in this leafe , muse , nor they whom any pitty warmes ; he which did lay rules to make courtiers , ( hee being understood may make good courtiers , but who courtiers good ? ) frees from the sting of jests all who in extreme are wreched or wicked : of these two a theame charity and liberty give me . what is hee who officers rage , and suiters misery can write , and jest ? if all things be in all , as i thinke , since all , which were , are , and shall bee , be made of the same elements : each thing , each thing employes or represents , then man is a world ; in which , officers , are the vast ravishing seas ; and suiters , springs ; now full , now shallow , now drye ; which , to that which drownes them , run : these selfe reasons do prove the world a man , in which , officers are the devouring stomacke , and suiters the excrements , which they voyd ; all men are dust , how much worse are suiters , who to mens lust are made preyes . o worse then dust , or wormes meat , for they do eate you now , whose selves wormes shall eate . they are the mills which grinde you , yet you are the winde which drives them ; and a wastfull warre is fought against you , and you fight it ; they adulterate lawe , and you prepare their way like wittals , th' issue your owne ruine is ; greatest and fairest empresse , know you this ? alas , no more then thames calme head doth know whose meades her armes drowne , or whose corne o'rflow : you sir , whose righteousnes she loves , whō i by having leave to serve , am most richly for service paid , authorized , now beginne to know and weed out this enormous sinne . o age of rusty iron ! some better wit call it some worse name , if ought equall it ; the iron age that was , when justice was sold , now injustice is sold deerer farre ; allow all demands , fees , and duties ; gamsters , anon the mony which you sweat , and sweare for , is gon into other hands : so controverted lands scape , like angelica , the strivers hands . if law be in the judges heart , and hee have no heart to resist letter , or fee , where wilt thou appeale ? powre of the courts below flow from the first maine head , and these can throw thee , if they sucke thee in , to misery , to fetters , halters ; but if the injury steele thee to dare complaine ; alas , thou goest against the stream , when upwards : when thou art most heavy and most faint ; and in these labours they , ' gainst whom thou should'st complaine , will in the way become great seas , o'r which , when thou shalt bee forc'd to make golden bridges , thou shalt see that all thy gold was drown'd in them before ; all things follow their like , only , who have , may have more judges are gods ; he who made and said them so , meant not that men should be forc'd to them to goe , by meanes of angels ; when supplications we send to god , to dominations , powers , cherubins , and all heavens court , if wee should pay fees as here , daily bread would be scarce to kings ; so 't is , would it not anger a stoicke , a coward , yea a martyr , to see a pursivant come in , and call all his cloathes , copes ; bookes , primers ; and all his plate , challices ; and mistake them away , and lack a fee for comming ; oh , ne'r may faire lawes white reverend name be strumpeted , to warrant thefts : she is established recorder to destiny , on earth , and shee speakes fates words , and tells who must bee rich , who poore , who in chaires , who in jayles : shee is all faire , but yet hath foule long nailes , with which she scracheth suiters ; in bodies of men ; so in law , nailes are extremities , so officers stretch to more then law can doe , as our nailes reach what no else part comes to . why barest thou to you officer ? foole , hath hee got those goods , for which men bared to thee ? foole , twice , thrice , thou hast bought wrong , and now hungerly beg'st right ; but that dole comes not till these dye . thou had'st much , & lawes urim and thummim trie thou wouldst for more ; and for all hast paper enough to cloath all the great carricks pepper . sell that , and by that thou much more shalt leese , then haman , when he sold his antiquities . o wretch that thy fortunes should moralize esops fables , and make tales , prophesies . thou art the swimming dog whom shadows cosened , and div'st , neare drowning , for what vanished . a hymne to god the father : i. wilt thou forgive that sinne where i begunne , which was my sin , though it were done before ? wilt thou forgive that sinne ; through which i runne , and do run still : though still i do deplore ? when thou hast done , thou hast not done , for , i have more . ii. wilt thou forgive that sinne which i have wonne others to sinne ? and , made my sinne their doore ? wilt thou forgive that sinne which i did shunne a yeare , or two : but wallowed in , a score ? when thou hast done , thou hast not done , for i have more . iii. i have a sinne of feare , that when i have spunne my last thred , i shall perish on the shore ; but sweare by thy selfe , that at my death thy sonne shall shine as he shines now , and heretofore ; and , having done that , thou haste done , i feare no more . letters . hen. goodeere . etiam vulgari linguâ scriptae testantur literae nos amicorum meminisse , sed alienâ , nos de illis meditari . in illis enim affulgent nobis de amicis cogitatiunculae , sed ut matutinae stellae transeunt , & evanescunt : in his autē haeremus , & immoramur , & amicos uti solem ipsum permanentem nobiscum degentemque contemplamur ; habes cur latinè . ipsius etiam scribendi audi rationem . peto consilium , in quo simul amicitiam profiteor meam , tuâmque agnosco : etenim non libenter nosmetipsos exuimus , aut in ingenij prudentiaeve dotibus aliorum nos fatemur indigos . nec certè quicquam quisquam ( sit modò ingenuus ) ei denegabit à quo consilium petiit . quod enim divina sapientia extremum charitatis terminum posuerat , animam ponere , idem regularum ecclesiae tractatores ( quod ipsimet canonici crassam aequitatem vocant ) de fama & honore cedendo asserunt & usurpant . certè , non tam beneficiis obnoxii quam consiliis reddimur . sed ad rem . philosophentur otiosiores , aut quibus otia sua negotia appellare lubet : nobis enim nos dudum perspicui sumus & fenestrati . elucescit mihi nova , nec inopportuna , nec inutilis ( paulò quàm optaram fortassis magis inhonora ) occasio extera visendi regna , liberosque perquam amantissimae conjugis charissima pignora , caeteraque hujus aurae oblectamenta , aliquot ad annos relinquendi . de hoc ut tecum agerem te convenire cupio : quod ( etsi nec id recusem ) nollem in aedibus barlotianis . habeo cur abstineam . amicitiae enim nec veteris , nec ita strictae munera paulò quàm deceat imprudentiori impetu mihi videor ibi peregisse . prandere si vacat foras , aut caenare , horulamve perdere pomeridianam , aut matutinam liceat mihi illud apud rabbinum lincombum jam commoranti per te intelligere , & satis mihi fiet . interim seponas ero chartulas meas , quas cum sponsione citae redhibitionis ( ut barbarè , sed cum ingeniosissimo appollinari loquar ) accepisti . inter quas , si epigrammata mea latina , & catalogus librorum satyricus non sunt , non sunt ; extremum iuditium , hoc est , manum ultimam jamjam subiturae sunt . earum nonnullae purgatorium suum passurae , ut correctiores emanent . alia quorum me inscio in mundum erepserunt , exempla tamen in archetypis igne absumpta fatebuntur se à me ad inferos damnata esse . reliquae quae aut virgines sunt ( nisi quod à multis contrectatae ) aut ita infoeliciter steriles , ut ab illis nulla ingenita sunt exemplaria , penitus in annihilationem ( quod flagitiosissimis non minatur deus ) corruent & dilabentur . vale & amore meo fruere quem vetat fortuna sola ne uti possis . et nisi animo candido ingenuave mea libertate gaudere malis , habe tibi mancipium jo. donne . to sir. h. g. i send not my letters as tribute , nor interest , nor recompence , nor for commerce , nor as testimonialls of my love , nor provokers of yours , nor to justifie my custome of writing , nor for a vent and utterance of my meditations ; for my letters are either above or under all such offices , yet i write very affectionately , and lehide and accuse my selfe of diminishing that affection which sends them , when i aske my selfe why . only i am sure that i desire that you might have in your hands letters of mine of all kindes , as conveyances and deliverers of mee to you , whether you accept me as a friend , or as a patient , or as a penitent , or as a bedesman , for i decline no jurisdiction , nor refuse any tenure . i would not open any doore upon you , but looke in when you open it . angells have not , nor affect not other knowledge of one another then they list to reveale to one another . it is then in this only , that friends are angells , that they are capable and fit for such revelations when they are offered . if at any time i seeme to study you more inquisitively , it is for no other end but to know how to present you to god in my prayers , and what to aske of him for you ; for even that holy exercise may not be done inopportunely , no nor importunely . i finde little errour in that grecians counsell who sayes , if thou aske any thing of god , offer no sacrifice , nor aske elegantly , nor vehemently , but remember that thou would'st not give to such an asker . nor in his other countryman , who affirmes sacrifice of blood to be so unproportionable to god , that perfumes , though much more spirituall , are too grosse ; yea words which are our subtlest and delicatest outward creatures , being composed of thoughts and breath , are so muddy , so thicke , that our thoughts themselves are so , because ( except at the first rising ) they are ever leavened with passions and affections . and , that advantage of neerer familiarity with god , which the act of incarnation gave us , is grounded upon gods assuming us , not our going to him . and , our accesses to his presence are but his descents into us . and , when we get any thing by prayer , hee gave us before hand the thing and the petition : for , i scarce thinke any ineffectuall prayer free from both sinne and the punishment of sinne : yet as god seposed a seventh of our time for his exterior worship , and as his christian church early presented him a type of the whole yeare in a lent , and after imposed the obligation of canonique houres , constituting therby morall sabbaths every day , i am far frō dehorting those fixed devotions : but i had rather it were bestowed upon thanksgiving then petition , upon praise then prayer . not that god is endeared by that , or wearied by this ; all is one in the receiver , but not in the sender . and thankes doth both offices . for , nothing doth so innocently provoke new graces , as gratitude . i would also rather make short prayers then extend them , though god can neither bee surprised , nor besieged : for , long prayers have more of the man , as ambition of eloquence , and a complacency in the worke , and more of the devill by often distractions : for , after in the beginning wee have well intreated god to hearken , we speake no more to him . even this letter is some example of such infirmity ; which being intended for a letter is extended and strayed into a homily . and whatsoever is not what it was purposed , is worse . therefore it shall at last end like a letter by assuring you i am &c. to sir h. g. sir , nature hath made al bodies like , by mingling and kneading up the same elements in every one . and amōgst mē , the other nature , custōe , hath made every mind like some other . we are patternes or copies , we inform , or imitate . but as he hath not presētly attain'd to write a good hand , which hath equaled one excellent master in his a , another in his b , much lesse hee which hath sought all the excellent masters , and employed all his time to exceede in one letter , because not so much an excellency of any nor every one , as an evennesse and proportion , and respect to one another gives the perfection ; so is no man vertuous by particular example . not he which doth all actions to the patterne of the most valiant , or liberall , which histories afford : nor he which chuses from every one their best actions , and therupon doth something like those . perchance such may bee in via perficiendorum , which divines allow to monasticall life , but not perfectorum , which , by them , is only due to prelacy ; for vertue is even , and continuall , and the same , and can therefore breake no where , nor admit ends , nor beginnings ; it is not only not broken , but not tyed together . he is not vertuous , out of whose actions vou can pick an excellent one . vice and her fruits may be seene , because they are thick bodies , but not vertue , which is all light . and vices have swellings and fits , and noise , because being extremes , they dwel far asunder , and they maintaine both a foraine warre against vertue , and a civill against one another , and affect soveraignty , as vertue doth society . the later physitians say , that when our naturall inborne preservative is corrupted or wasted , and must be restored by alike extracted from other bodies , the chiefe care is , that the mummy have in it no excelling quality , but an equally digested temper : and such is true vertue . but men who have preferred money before all , thinke they deale honourably with vertue , if they compare her with money : and think , that as mony is not called base , til the allay exceed the pure ; so they are vertuous enough , if they have enough to make their actions currant , which is , if either they get praise , or ( in a lower abasing ) if they incurre not infamy or penalty . but you know who said angusta innocentia est ad legem bonum esse , which rule being given for positive lawes , severe mistakers apply even to gods law , and ( perchance against his commandement ) binde themselves to his counsailes , beyond his lawes . but they are worse , that think that because some men formerly wastfull , live better with halfe their rents then they did with all , being now advantaged with discretion and experience , therefore our times need lesse morall vertue then the first , because we have christianity , which is the use and application of all vertue . as though our religion were but an art of thrift , to make a little vertue goe far . for as plentifull springs are fittest , and best become large aqueducts , so doth much vertue such a steward and officer as a christian . but i must not give you a homily for a letter . i said a great while since , that custome made men like ; we who have beene accustomed to one another are like in this , that we love not businesse . this therefore shall not be to you nor me a busie letter . i end with a probleme , whose errand is , to aske for his fellowes . i pray before you ingulfe your selfe in the progresse , leave them for mee , and such other of my papers as you will lend mee till your returne . and besides this allegoricall lending , lend me truly your counsells . and love god and me , whilest i love him and you . to sir h. g. sir , this teusday morning , which hath brought me to london , presents mee with all your letters . mee thought it was a rent day , i meane such as yours , and not as mine . and yet such too , when i considered how much i ought you for them . how good a mother , how fertile and abundant the understanding is , if shee have a good father . and how well friendship performes that office . for that which is denyed in other generations is done in this of yours . for hers is superfaetation , child upon child , and , that which is more strange , twinnes at a latter conception . if in my second religion , friendship , i had a conscience , either errantem to mistake good and bad , and indifferent , or opinantem to be ravished by others opinions or examples , or dubiam to adhere to neither part , or scrupulosam to encline to one , but upon reasons light in themselves or indiscussed in mee ( which are almost all the diseases of conscience ) i might mistake your often , long , and busie letters , and feare you did but intreate me to have mercy upon you and spare you . for you know our court tooke the resolution , that it was the best way to dispatch the french prince backe againe quickly , to receive him solemnely , ceremoniously ; and expensively , when he hoped a domestique and durable entertainment . i never meant to excell you in waight nor price , but in number and bulke i thought i might : because he may cast up a greater summe who hath but forty small moneyes , then hee with twenty portuguesses . the memory of friends , ( i meane only for letters ) neither enters ordinarily into busied men , because they are ever employed within , nor into men of pleasure , because they are never at home . for these wishes therefore which you wonne out of your pleasure and recreation , you were as excusable to mee if you writ seldome as sir h. wotton is under the oppression of businesse or the necessity of seeming so : or more then hee , because i hope you have both pleasure and businesse . only to me , who have neither , this omission were sinne . for though writing be not of the precepts of friendship , but of the counsells : yet , as in some cases to some men counsells become precepts , though not immediately from god , yet very roundly and quickly from his church , ( as selling and dividing goods in the first time , continence in the romane church , and order and decency in ours ) so to mee who can doe nothing else , it seemes to binde my conscience to write . and it is sinne to doe against the conscience , though that erre ; yet no mans letters might be better wanted then mine , since my whole letter is nothing else but a confession that i should and would write . i ought you a letter in verse before by mine owne promise , & now that you thinke you have hedged in that debt by a greater by your letter in verse i thinke it now most seasonable and fashionall for mee to breake . at least , to write presently were to accuse my selfe of not having read yours so often as such a letter deserves from you to mee . to make my debt greater ( for such is the desire of all , who cannot or meane not to pay ) i pray reade these two problemes : for such light flashes as these have beene my hawkings in my surry journies . i accompany them with another ragge of verses , worthy of that name for the smalnesse , and age , for it hath long lyen among my other papers , and laughs at them that have adventured to you : for i thinke till now you saw it not , and neither you , nor it should repent it . sir , if i were any thing , my love to you might multiply it , and dignifie it : but infinite nothings are but one such : yet since even chymeraes have some name , and titles , i am also yours . to sr. h. g. sir , in the history or stile of friendship , which is best written both in deeds and words , a letter which is of a mixed nature , and hath something of both is a mixt parenthesis : it may be left out , yet it contributes , though not to the beeing , yet to the verdure , and freshnesse thereof . letters have truly the same office , as oathes . as these amongst light and empty men , are but fillings , and pauses , and interjections : but with waightier , they are sad attestations : so are letters , to some complement , and obligation to others . for mine , as i never authorized my servant to lye in my behalfe ( for if it were officious in him , it might be worse in mee ) so i allow my letters much lesse that civill dishonesty , both because they goe from mee more considerately , and because they are permanent , for in them i may speake to you in your chamber a yeare hence before i know not whom , and not heare my selfe . they shall therefore ever keepe the sincerity and intemeratenesse of the fountaine whence they are derived . and as wheresoever these leaves fall , the root is in my heart , so shall they , as that sucks good affections towards you there , have ever true impressions thereof . thus much information is in very leaves , that they can tell what the tree is , and these can tell you i am a friend and an honest man. of what generall use , the fruit should speake , and i have none : and of what particular profit to you , your application and experimenting should tell you , and you can make none of such a nothing ; yet even of barren sicamores , such as i , there were use , if either any light flashings , or scorching vehemencies , or sudden showers made you need so shadowie an example or remembrancer . but ( sir ) your fortune and minde do you this happy injury , that they make all kinde of fruits uselesse unto you ; therefore i have placed my love wisely where i need communicate nothing . all this , though perchance you reade it not till michaelmas , was told you at michin . 15. aug. 1607. to sr h. g. sir , it should be no interruption to your pleasures to heare mee often say that i love you , and that you are as much my meditation as my selfe : i often compare not you and mee , but the spheare in which your resolutions are , and my wheele ; both i hope concentrique to god : for me thinkes the new astronomie is thus applyable well , that wee which are a little earth should rather move towards god , then that hee which is fulfilling , and can come no whither , should move towards us . to your life full of variety , nothing is old , nor new to mine . and as to that life , all stickings and hesitations seeme stupid and stony , so to this , all fluid slipperinesses and transitory migrations seeme giddy and feathery . in that life one is ever in the porch or posterne , going in or out , never within his house , himself : it is a garment made of remnants , a life raveld out into ends , a line discontinued , & a number of small wretched points ; uselesse , because they concurre not : a life built of past & future , not proposing any constant present . they have more pleasures then wee , but not more pleasure : they joy oftner , wee longer ; and no man but of so much understanding as may deliver him from being a foole , would change with a mad-man , which had a better proportion of wit in his often lucidis . you know , they which dwell farthest from the sunne , if in any convenient distance , have longer dayes , better appetites , better digestion , better growth , and longer life . and all these advantages have their mindes who are well removed from the scorchings , and dazlings , and exhalings of the worlds glory ; but neither of our lifes are in such extremes ; for you living at court without ambition , which would burne you , or envy which would devest others , live in the sunne , not in the fire ; and i which live in the country without stupifying , am not in darknesse , but in shadow , which is not no light , but a pallid , watrish , and diluted one . as all shadowes are of one colour if you respect the body from which they are cast ( for our shadows upon clay will be dirty , and in a garden greene , and flowery , ) so all retyrings into a shadowie life are alike from all causes , and alike subject to the barbarousnesse and insipid dulnes of the countrie : only the employment , and that upon which you cast and bestow your pleasure , businesse , or bookes , gives it the tincture , and beauty . but truly wheresoever we are , if wee can but tell our selves truly what & where we would be , we may make any state & place such : for we are so composed , that if abundance , or glory scorch & melt us , we have an earthly cave , our bodies to go into by consideration , & coole our selves : and if we be frozen , and contracted with lower and darke fortunes , wee have within us a torch , a soule , lighter and warmer then any without : we are therefore our owne umbrellas , and our owne sun● . these sir , are the sallads , and onyons of michin , sent to you with as wholsome affection as your other friends send melons and quelque choses from court and london . if i present you not as good dyet as they , i would yet say grace to theirs , and bid much good do it you . i send you , with this , a letter which i sent to the countesse . it is not my use nor duty to do so . but for your having of it , there were but two consents , and i am sure you have mine , and you are sure you have hers : i also writ to her ladiship for the verses shee shewed in the garden , which i did not onely to extort them , nor onely to keepe my promise of writing , for that i had done in the other letter , and perchance shee hath forgotten the promise , nor onely because i thinke my letters just good enough for a progresse , but because i would write apace to her , whilst it is possible to expresse that which i yet know of her , for by this growth i see how soone she will be ineffable . to the countesse of bedford . happiest and worthyest lady , i do not remember that ever i have seen a petition in verse , i would not therefore be singular , nor adde these to your other papers . i have yet adventured so neare as to make a petitiō for verse , it is for those your ladiship did me the honor to see in a twicknam garden , except you repēt your making & having mended your judgement by thinking worse , that is , better , because juster , of their subject . they must needs be an excellent exercise of your wit , which speake so well of so ill . i humbly begge them of your ladiship , with two such promises , as to any other of your compositions were threatnings : that i will not shew them , & that i will not beleeve them ; and nothing should be so used which comes from your braine or heart . if i should confesse a fault in the boldnesse of asking them , or make a fault by doing it in a longer letter , your ladiship might use your stile and old fashion of the court towards mee , and pay mee with a pardon . here therefore i humbly kisse your ladiships faire learned , hands and wish you good wishes and speedy grants . your ladiships servant jo. donne . to sr h. g. sir , because i am in a place and season where i see every thing bud forth , i must do so too , and vent some of my meditations to you ; the rather because all other buds being yet without taste or vertue , my letters may be like them . the pleasantnes of the season displeases mee . every thing refreshes , and i wither , and i grow older and not better . my strength diminishes , and my load growes , and being to passe more and more stormes , i finde that i have not only cast out all my ballast which nature and time gives , reason & discretion , & so am as empty & light as vanity can make me , but i have over-fraught my selfe with vice , and so am riddingly subject to two contrary wrackes , sinking and over-setting , and under the iniquity of such a disease as enforces the patient when hee is almost starv'd , not onely to fast , but to purge ; for i have much to take in , and much to cast out . sometimes i thinke it easier to discharge my selfe of vice then of vanity , as one may sooner carry the fire out of a roome then the smoke : and then i see it was a new vanity to thinke so . and when i thinke sometimes , that vanity , because it is thinne and airy , may be expelled with vertue or businesse , or substantiall vice ; i finde that i give entrance thereby to new vices . certainly as the earth & water , one sad , the other fluid , make but one body : so to vice , and vanity , there is but one centrum morbi . and that which later physitiās say of our bodies , is fitter for our mindes ; for that which they call destruction , which is a corruption and want of those fundamentall parts whereof we consist , is vice : and that collectio stercorum , which is but the excrement of that corruption , is our vanity and indiscretion . both these have but one root in mee , and must bee pulled out at once , or never . but i am so far from digging to it , that i know not where it is . for it is not in mine eyes only , but in every sense , nor in my concupiscence only , but in every power and affection . sir , i was willing to let you see how impotent a man you love , not to dishearten you from doing so still ( for my vices are not infectious , nor wandring , they came not yesterday , nor meane to goe away to day : they inne not , but dwell in mee , and see themselves so welcome , and finde in mee so good bad company of one another , that they will not change , especially to one not apprehensive , nor easily accessible ) but i doe it , that your counsell might cure mee , and if you deny that , your example shall , for i will as much strive to be like you as i will wish you to continue good . to sir h. g. sir , i hope you are now welcome to london , and well , and well comforted in your fathers health and love , and well contented that we aske you how you doe , and tell you how we are , which yet i cannot of my selfe ; if i knew that i were ill , i were well ; for we consist of three parts , a soule , and body , and mind : which i call those thoughts and affections and passions , which neither soule nor body hath alone , but have beene begotten by their communication , as musique results out of our breath and a cornet . and of all these the diseases are cures , if they be knowne . of our soules sicknesses , which are sinnes , the knowledge is , to acknowledge , and that is her physick , in which wee are not dieted by drams and scruples , for we cannot take too much . of our bodies infirmities , though our knowledge be partly ab extrinseco , from the opinion of the physitian , and that the subject and matter be flexible , and various ; yet their rules are certaine , and if the matter be rightly applyed to the rule , our knowledge thereof is also certaine . but of the diseases of the minde , there is no cryterium , no canon , no rule ; for , our owne tast and apprehension & interpretation should be the judge , and that is the disease it selfe . therefore sometimes when i finde my selfe transported with jollity , and love of company , i hang leads at my heeles , and reduce to my thoughts my fortunes , my yeares , the duties of a man , of a friend , of a husband , of a father , and all the incumbencies of a family . when sadnesse dejects me , either i countermine it with another sadnesse , or i kindly squibs about mee againe , and flie into sportfulnesse and company . and i finde ever after all , that i am like an exorcist , which had long laboured about one , which at last appeares to have the mother , that i still mistake my disease . and i still vexe my selfe with this , because if i know it not , no body can know it . and i comfort my selfe because i see dispassioned men are subject to the like ignorances . for divers mindes out of the same thing often draw contrary conclusions , as augustine thought devout anthony to bee therfore full of the holy ghost , because , not being able to read , he could say the whole bible , and interpret it . and thyraeus the jesuite for the same reason doth thinke all the anabaptists to be possessed . and as often out of contrary things men draw one conclusion . as , to the romane church , magnificence and splendor hath ever beene an argument of gods favour , and poverty and affliction , to the greeke . out of this variety of mindes it proceeds , that though all our soules would goe to one end , heaven , and all our bodies must goe to one end , the earth : yet our third part , the minde , which is our naturall guide here , chuses to every man a severall way . scarce any man likes what another doth , nor , advisedly , that which himselfe . but , sir , i am beyond my purpose ; i meant to write a letter , and i am fallen into a discourse , and i doe not only take you from some businesse , but i make you a new businesse by drawing you into these meditations . in which yet let my opennes be an argument of such love as i would fain expresse in some worthier fashion . elegies upon the author . to the memorie of my ever desired friend dr. donne : to have liv'd eminent , in a degree beyond our lofty'st flights , that is , like thee , or t' have had too much merit , is not safe ; for , such excesses finde no epitaph . at common graves we have poetique eyes can melt themselves in easie elegies , each quill can drop his tributary verse , and pin it , like the hatchments , to the hearse : but at thine , poeme , or inscription ( rich soule of wit , and language ) we have none . indeed a silence does that tombe befit , where is no herald left to blazon it . widow'd invention justly doth forbeare to come abroad , knowing thou art not here , late her great patron ; whose prerogative maintain'd , and cloth'd her so , as none alive must now presume , to keepe her at thy rate , though he the indies for her dowre estate . or else that awfull fire , which once did burne in thy cleare braine , now falne into thy urne lives there , to fright rude empiricks from thence , which might prophane thee by their ignorance . who ever writes of thee , and in a stile unworthy such a theme , does but revile thy precious dust , and wake a learned spirit which may revenge his rapes upon thy merit . for , all a low pitch't phansie can devise , will prove , at best , but hallow'd injuries . thou , like the dying swanne , didst lately sing thy mournfull dirge , in audience of the king ; when pale lookes , and faint accents of thy breath , presented so , to life , that peece of death , that it was fear'd , and prophesi'd by all , thou thither cam'st to preach thy funerall . o! had'st thou in an elegiacke knell rung out unto the world thine owne farewell , and in thy high victorious numbers beate the solemne measure of thy griev'd retreat ; thou might'st the poets service now have mist as well , as then thou did'st prevent the priest ; and never to the world beholding bee so much , as for an epitaph for thee . i doe not like the office . nor is 't fit thou , who did'st lend our age such summes of wit , should'st now re-borrow from her bankrupt mine , that ore to bury thee , which once was thine . rather still leave us in thy debt ; and know ( exalted soule ) more glory 't is to owe unto thy hearse , what we can never pay , then , with embased coine those rites defray . commit we then thee to thy selfe : nor blame our drooping loves , which thus to thy owne fame leave thee executour . since , but thine owne , no pen could doe thee justice , nor bayes crowne thy vast desert ; save that , wee nothing can depute , to be thy ashes guardian . so jewellers no art , or metall trust to forme the diamond , but the diamonds dust , h. k. to the deceased author , upon the promiscuous printing of his poems , the looser sort , with the religious . when thy loose raptures , donne , shall meet with those that doe confine tuning , unto the duller line , and sing not , but in sanctified prose ; how will they , with sharper eyes , the fore-skinne of thy phansie circumcise ? and feare , thy wantonnesse should now , begin example , that hath ceased to be sin ? and that feare fannes their heat ; whilst knowing eyes will not admire at this strange fire , that here is mingled with thy sacrifice : but dare reade even thy wanton story , as thy confession , not thy glory . and will so envie both to future times , that they would buy thy goodnesse , with thy crimes . tho : browne on the death of dr donne . i cannot blame those men , that knew thee well , yet dare not helpe the world , to ring thy knell in tunefull elegies ; there 's not language knowne fit for thy mention , but 't was first thy owne ; the epitaphs thou writst , have so bereft our tongue of wit , there is not phansie left enough to weepe thee ; what henceforth we see of art or nature , must result from thee . there may perchance some busie gathering friend steale from thy owne workes , and that , varied , lend , which thou bestow'st on others , to thy hearse , and so thou shalt live still in thine owne verse ; hee that shall venture farther , may commit a pitied errour , shew his zeale , not wit. fate hath done mankinde wrong ; vertue may aime reward of conscience , never can , of fame , since her great trumpet's broke , could onely give faith to the world , command it to beleeve ; hee then must write , that world define thy parts : here lyes the best divinitie , all the arts. edw. hyde . on doctor donne , by dr c. b. of o. hee that would write an epitaph for thee , and do it well , must first beginne to be such as thou wert ; for , none can truly know thy worth , thy life , but he that hath liv'd so ; he must have wit to spare and to hurle downe : enough , to keepe the gallants of the towne . he must have learning plenty ; both the lawes , civill , and common , to judge any cause ; divinity great store , above the rest ; not of the last edition , but the best . hee must have language , travaile , all the arts ; judgement to use ; or else he wants thy parts . he must have friends the highest , able to do ; such as mecoenas , and augustus too . he must have such a sicknesse , such a death ; or else his vaine descriptions come beneath ; who then shall write an epitaph for thee ▪ he must be dead first , let'it alone for mee . an elegie upon the incomparable dr donne . all is not well when such a one as i dare peepe abroad , and write an elegie ; when smaller starres appeare , and give their light , phoebus is gone to bed : were it not night , and the world witlesse now that donne is dead , you sooner should have broke , then seene my head . dead did i say ? forgive this injury i doe him , and his worthes infinity , to say he is but dead ; i dare averre it better may be term'd a massacre , then sleepe or death ; see how the muses mourne upon their oaten reeds , and from his vrne threaten the world with this calamity , they shall have ballads , but no poetry . language lyes speechlesse ; and divinity , lost such a trump as even to extasie could charme the soule , and had an influence to teach best judgements , and please dullest sense . the court , the church , the vniversitie , lost chaplaine , deane , and doctor , all these , three . it was his merit , that his funerall could cause a losse so great and generall . if there be any spirit can answer give of such as hence depart , to such as live : speake , doth his body there vermiculate , crumble to dust , and feele the lawes of fate ? me thinkes , corruption , wormes , what else is foule should spare the temple of so faire a soule . i could beleeve they doe ; but that i know what inconvenience might hereafter grow : succeeding ages would idolatrize , and as his numbers , so his reliques prize . if that philosopher , which did avow the world to be but mores , was living now : he would affirme that th' atomes of his mould were they in severall bodies blended , would produce new worlds of travellers , divines , of linguists , poets : sith these severall lines in him concentred were , and flowing thence might fill againe the worlds circumference . i could beleeve this too ; and yet my faith not want a president : the phoenix hath ( and such was he ) a power to animate her ashes , and herselfe perpetuate . but , busie soule , thou dost not well to pry into these secrets ; griefe , and iealousie , the more they know , the further still advance , and finde no way so safe as ignorance . let this suffice thee , that his soule which flew a pitch of all admir'd , known but of few , ( save those of purer mould ) is now translated from earth to heavên , and there constellated . for , if each priest of god shine as a starre , his glory is as his gifts , 'bove others farre . hen. valentine . an elegie upon dr donne . is donne , great donne deceas'd ? then england say thou'hast lost a man where language chose to stay and shew it's gracefull power . i would not praise that and his vast wit ( which in these vaine dayes make many proud ) but as they serv'd to unlock that cabinet , his minde : where such a stock of knoweledge was repos'd , as all lament ( or should ) this generall cause of discontent . and i rejoyce i am not so severe , but ( as i write a line ) to weepe a teare for his decease ; such sad extremities may make such men as i write elegies . and wonder not ; for , when a generall losse falls on a nation , and they slight the crosse , god hath rais'd prophets to awaken them from stupifaction ; witnesse my milde pen , not us'd to upbraid the world , though now it must freely and boldly , for , the cause is just . dull age , oh i would spare thee , but th' art worse , thou art not onely dull , but hast a curse of black ingratitude ; if not , couldst thou part with miraculous donne , and make no vow for thee and thine , successively to pay a sad remembrance to his dying day ? did his youth scatter poetrie , wherein was all philosophie ? was every sinne , character'd in his satyres ? made so foule that some have fear'd their shapes , & kept their soule freer by reading verse ? did he give dayes past marble monuments , to those , whose praise he would perpetuate ? did hee ( i feare the dull will doubt : ) these at his twentieth yeare ? but , more matur'd : did his full soule conceive , and in harmonious-holy-numbers weave a crowme of sacred sonets , fit to adorne a dying martyrs brow : or , to be worne on that blest head of mary magdalen : after she wip'd christs feet , but not till then ? did hee ( fit for such penitents as shee and hee to use ) leave us a litany ? which all devout men love , and sure , it shall , as times grow better , grow more classicall . did he write hymnes , for piety and wit equall to those great grave prudentius writ ? spake he all languages ? knew he all lawes ? the grounds and use of physicke ; but because 't was mercenary wav'd it ? went to see that blessed place of christs nativity ? did he returne and preach him ? preach him so as none but hee did , or could do ? they know ( such as were blest to heare him know ) 't is truth . did he confirme thy age ? convert thy youth ? did he these wonders ? and is this deare losse mourn'd by so few ? ( few for so great a crosse . ) but sure the silent are ambitious all to be close mourners at his funerall ; if not ; in common pitty they forbare by repetitions to renew our care ; or , knowing , griefe conceiv'd , conceal'd , consumes man irreparably , ( as poyson'd fumes do waste the braine ) make silence a fafe way to'inlarge the soule from these walls , mud and clay , ( materialls of this body ) to remaine with donne in heaven , where no promiscuous paine lessens the joy wee have , for , with him , all are satisfyed with joyes essentiall . my thoughts , dwell on this ioy , and do not call griefe backe , by thinking of his funerall ; forget he lov'd mee ; waste not my sad yeares ; ( which haste to davids seventy ) fill'd with feares and sorrow for his death ; ) forget his parts , which finde a living grave in good mens hearts ; and , ( for , my first is daily paid for sinne ) forget to pay my second sigh for him : forget his powerfull preaching ; and forget i am his convert . oh my frailtie ! let my flesh be no more heard , it will obtrude this lethargie : so should my gratitude , my vowes of gratitude should so be broke ; which can no more be , then donnes vertues spoke by any but himselfe ; for which cause , i write no encomium , but an elegie . iz . wa . an elegie upon the death of the deane of pauls , dr. iohn donne : by mr. tho : carie. can we not force from widdowed poetry , now thou art dead ( great donne ) one elegie to crowne thy hearse ? why yet dare we not trust though with unkneaded dowe-bak't prose thy dust , such as the uncisor'd churchman from the flower of fading rhetorique , short liv'd as his houre , dry as the sand that measures it , should lay upon thy ashes , on the funerall day ? have we no voice , no tune ? did'st thou dispense through all our language , both the words and sense ? 't is a sad truth ; the pulpit may her plaine , and sober christian precepts still retaine , doctrines it may , and wholesome uses frame , grave homilies , and lectures , but the flame of thy brave soule , that shot such heat and light , as burnt our earth , and made our darknesse bright , committed holy rapes upon our will , did through the eye the melting heart distill ; and the deepe knowledge of darke truths so teach , as sense might judge , what phansie could not reach ; must be desir'd for ever . so the fire , that fills with spirit and heat the delphique quire , which kindled first by thy promethean breath , glow'd here a while , lies quench't now in thy death ; the muses garden with pedantique weedes o'rspred , was purg'd by thee ; the lazie seeds of servile imitation throwne away ; and fresh invention planted , thou didst pay the debts of our penurious bankrupt age ; licentious thefts , that make poëtique rage a mimique fury , when our soules must bee possest , or with anacreons extasie , or pindars , not their owne ; the subtle cheat of slie exchanges , and the jugling feat of two-edg'd words , or whatsoever wrong by ours was done the greeke , or latine tongue , thou hast redeem'd , and open'd us a mine of rich and pregnant phansie , drawne a line of masculine expression , which had good old orpheus seene , or all the ancient brood our superstitious fooles admire , and hold their lead more precious , then thy burnish't gold , thou hadst beene their exchequer , and no more they each in others dust , had rak'd for ore. thou shalt yield no precedence , but of time , and the blinde fate of language , whose tun'd chime more charmes the outward sense ; yet thou maist claime from so great disadvantage greater fame , since to the awe of thy imperious wit our stubborne language bends , made only fit with her tough-thick-rib'd hoopes to gird about thy giant phansie , which had prov'd too stout for their soft melting phrases . as in time they had the start , so did they cull the prime buds of invention many a hundred yeare , and left the rifled fields , besides the feare to touch their harvest , yet from those bare lands of what is purely thine , thy only hands ( and that thy smallest worke ) have gleaned more then all those times , and tongues could reape before ; but thou art gone , and thy strict lawes will be too hard for libertines in poetrie . they will repeale the goodly exil'd traine of gods and goddesses , which in thy just raigne were banish'd nobler poems , now , with these the silenc'd tales o'th'metamorphoses shall stuffe their lines , and swell the windy page , till verse refin'd by thee , in this last age , turne ballad rime , or those old idolls bee ador'd againe , with new apostasie ; oh , pardon mee , that breake with untun'd verse the reverend silence that attends thy herse , whose awfull solemne murmures were to thee more then these faint lines , a loud elegie , that did proclaime in a dumbe eloquence the death of all the arts , whose influence growne feeble , in these panting numbers lies gasping short winded accents , and so dies : so doth the swiftly turning wheele not stand in th' instant we withdraw the moving hand , but some small time maintaine a faint weake course by vertue of the first impulsive force : and so whil'st i cast on thy funerall pile thy crowne of bayes , oh , let it crack a while , and spit disdaine , till the devouring flashes suck all the moysture up , then turne to ashes . i will not draw the envy to engrosse all thy perfections , or weepe all our losse ; those are too numerous for an elegie , and this too great , to be express'd by mee . though every pen should share a distinct part , yet art thou theme enough to tyre all art ; let others carve the rest , it shall suffice i on thy tombe this epitaph incise . here lies a king , that rul'd as hee thought fit the universall monarchy of wit ; here lie two flamens , and both those , the best , apollo's first , at last , the true gods priest . an elegie on dr. donne : by sir lucius carie. poets attend , the elegie i sing both of a doubly-named priest , and king : in stead of coates , and pennons , bring your verse , for you must bee chiefe mourners at his hearse , a tombe your muse must to his fame supply , no other monuments can never die ; and as he was a two-fold priest ; in youth , apollo's ; afterwards , the voice of truth , gods conduit-pipe for grace , who chose him for his extraordinary embassador , so let his liegiers with the poets joyne , both having shares , both must in griefe combine : whil'st johnson forceth with his elegie teares from a griefe-unknowing scythians eye , ( like moses at whose stroke the waters gusht from forth the rock , and like a torrent rusht . ) let lawd his funerall sermon preach , and shew those vertues , dull eyes were not apt to know , nor leave that piercing theme , till it appeares to be good friday , by the churches teares ; yet make not griefe too long oppresse our powers , least that his funerall sermon should prove ours . nor yet forget that heavenly eloquence , with which he did the bread of life dispense , preacher and orator discharg'd both parts with pleasure for our sense , health for our hearts , and the first such ( though a long studied art tell us our soule is all in every part , ) none was so marble , but whil'st him he heares , his soule so long dwelt only in his eares . and from thence ( with the fiercenesse of a flood bearing downe vice ) victual'd with that blest food their hearts ; his seed in none could faile to grow , fertile he found them all , or made them so : no druggist of the soule bestow'd on all so catholiquely a curing cordiall . nor only in the pulpit dwelt his store , his words work'd much , but his example more , that preach't on worky dayes , his poetrie it selfe was oftentimes divinity , those anthemes ( almost second psalmes ) he writ to make us know the crosse , and value it , ( although we owe that reverence to that name wee should not need warmth from an under flame . ) creates a fire in us , so neare extreme that we would die , for , and upon this theme . next , his so pious litany , which none can but count divine , except a puritan , and that but for the name , nor this , nor those want any thing of sermons , but the prose . experience makes us see , that many a one owes to his countrey his religion ; and in another , would as strongly grow , had but his nurse and mother taught him so , not hee the ballast on his judgement hung ; nor did his preconceit doe either wrong ; he labour'd to exclude what ever sinne by time or carelessenesse had entred in ; winnow'd the chaffe from wheat , but yet was loath a too hot zeale should force him , burne them both ; nor would allow of that so ignorant gall , which to save blotting often would blot all ; nor did those barbarous opinions owne , to thinke the organs sinne , and faction , none ; nor was there expectation to gaine grace from forth his sermons only , but his face ; so primitive a looke , such gravitie with humblenesse , and both with pietie ; so milde was moses countenance , when he prai'd for them whose satanisme his power gain said ; and such his gravitie , when all gods band receiv ' his word ( through him ) at second hand ; which joyn'd , did flames of more devotion move then ever argive hellens could of love . now to conclude , i must my reason bring , where fore i call'd him in his title king , that kingdome the philosophers beleev'd to excell alexanders , nor were griev'd by feare of losse ( that being such a prey no stronger then ones selfe can force away ) the kingdome of ones selfe , this he enjoy'd , and his authoritie so well employ'd , that never any could before become so great a monarch , in so small a roome ; he conquer'd rebell passions , rul'd them so , as under-spheares by the first mover goe , banish't so farre their working , that we can but know he had some , for we knew him man. then let his last excuse his first extremes , his age saw visions , though his youth dream'd dreams . on dr. donnes death : by mr. mayne of christ-church in oxford . who shall presume to mourn thee , donne , unlesse he could his teares in thy expressions dresse , and teach his griefe that reverence of thy hearse , to weepe lines , learned , as thy anniverse , a poëme of that worth , whose every teare deserves the title of a severall yeare . indeed so farre above its reader , good , that wee are thought wits , when 't is understood , there that blest maid to die , who now should grieve ? after thy sorrow , 't were her losse to live ; and her faire vertues in anothers line , would faintly dawn , which are made saints in thine . hadst thou beene shallower , and not writ so high , or left some new way for our pennes , or eye , to shed a funerall teare , perchance thy tombe had not beene speechlesse , or our muses dumbe ; but now wee dare not write , but must conceale thy epitaph , lest we be thought to steale , for , who hath read thee , and discernes thy worth , that will not say , thy carelesse houres brought forth fancies beyond our studies , and thy play was happier , then our serious time of day ? so learned was thy chance ; thy haste had wit , and matter from thy pen flow'd rashly fit , what was thy recreation turnes our braine , our rack and palenesse , is thy weakest straine . and when we most come neere thee , 't is our blisse to imitate thee , where thou dost amisse , here light your muse , you that do onely thinke , and write , and are just poëts , as you drinke , in whose weake fancies wit doth ebbe and flow , just as your recknings rise , that wee may know in your whole carriage of your worke , that here this flash you wrote in wine , and this in beere , this is to tap your muse , which running long writes flat , and takes our eare not halfe so strong ; poore suburbe wits , who , if you want your cup , or if a lord recover , are blowne up . could you but reach this height , you should not need to make , each meale , a project ere you feed , nor walke in reliques , clothes so old and bare , as if left off to you from ennius were , nor should your love , in verse , call mistresse , those , who are mine hostesse , or your whores in prose ; from this muse learne to court , whose power could move a cloystred coldnesse , or a vestall love , and would convey such errands to their eare , that ladies knew no oddes to grant and heare ; but i do wrong thee , donne , and this low praise is written onely for thy yonger dayes . i am not growne up , for thy riper parts , then should i praise thee , through the tongues , and arts , and have that deepe divinity , to know , what mysteries did from thy preaching flow , who with thy words could charme thy audience , that at thy sermons , eare was all our sense ; yet have i seene thee in the pulpit stand , where wee might take notes , from thy looke , and hand ; and from thy speaking action beare away more sermon , then some teachers use to say . such was thy carriage , and thy gesture such , as could divide the heart , and conscience touch . thy motion did confute , and wee might see an errour vanquish'd by delivery . not like our sonnes of zeale , who to reforme their hearers , fiercely at the pulpit storme , and beate the cushion into worse estate , then if they did conclude it reprobate , who can out pray the glasse , then lay about till all predestination be runne out . and from the point such tedious uses draw , their repetitions would make gospell , law. no , in such temper would thy sermons flow , so well did doctrine , and thy language show , and had that holy feare , as , hearing thee , the court would mend , and a good christian bee . and ladies though unhansome , out of grace , would heare thee , in their unbought lookes , & face ▪ more i could write , but let this crowne thine urne , wee cannot hope the like , till thou returne . vpon mr j. donne , and his poems . vvho dares say thou art dead , when he doth see ( unburied yet ) this living part of thee ? this part that to thy beeing gives fresh flame , and though th' art donne , yet will preserve thy name . thy flesh ( whose channels left their crimsen hew , and whey-like ranne at last in a pale blew ) may shew thee mortall , a dead palsie may seise on 't , and quickly turne it into clay ; which like the indian earth , shall rise refin'd : but this great spirit thou hast left behinde , this soule of verse ( in it's first pure estate ) shall live , for all the world to imitate ▪ but not come neer , for in thy fancies flight thou dost not stoope unto the vulgar sight , but , hovering highly in the aire of wit , hold'st such a pitch , that few can follow it ; admire they may . each object that the spring ( or a more piercing influence ) doth bring t' adorne earths face , thou sweetly did'st contrive to beauties elements , and thence derive unspotted lillies white ; which thou did'st set hand in hand , with the veine-like violet , making them soft , and warme , and by thy power , could'st give both life , and sense , unto a flower . the cheries thou hast made to speake , will bee sweeter unto the taste , then from the tree . and ( spight of winter stormes ) amidst the snow thou oft hast made the blushing rose to grow . the sea-nimphs , that the watry cavernes keepe , have sent their pearles and rubies from the deepe to deck thy love , and plac'd by thee , they drew more lustre to them , then where first they grew . all minerals ( that earths full wombe doth hold promiscuously ) thou couldst convert to gold , and with thy flaming raptures so refine , that it was much more pure then in the mine . the lights that guild the night , if thou did'st say , they looke like eyes , those did out-shine the day ; for there would be more vertue in such spells , then in meridians , or crosse parallels : what ever was of worth in this great frame , that art could comprehend , or wit could name , it was thy theme for beauty ; thou didst see , woman , was this faire worlds epitomie . thy nimble satyres too , and every straine ( with nervy strength ) that issued from thy brain , will lose the glory of their owne cleare bayes , if they admit of any others praise . but thy diviner poëms ( whose cleare fire purges all drosse away ) shall by a quire of cherubims , with heavenly notes be set ( where flesh and blood could ne'r attaine to yet ) there purest spirits sing such sacred layes , in panegyrique alleluiaes . arth. wilson . in memory of doctor donne : by mr r. b. donne dead ? 't is here reported true , though i ne'r yet so much desir'd to heare a lye , 't is too too true , for so wee finde it still , good newes are often false , but seldome , ill : but must poore fame tell us his fatall day , and shall we know his death , the common way , mee thinkes some comet bright should have foretold the death of such a man , for though of old 't is held , that comets princes death foretell , why should not his , have needed one as well ? who was the prince of wits , ' mongst whom he reign'd , high as a prince , and as great state maintain'd ? yet wants he not his signe , for wee have seene a dearth , the like to which hath never beene , treading on harvests heeles , which doth presage the death of wit and learning , which this age shall finde , now he is gone ; for though there bee much graine in shew , none brought it forth as he , or men are misers ; or if true want raises the dearth , then more that dearth donnes plenty praises . of learning , languages , of eloquence , and poësie , ( past rauishing of sense , ) he had a magazine , wherein such store was laid up , as might hundreds serve of poore . but he is gone , o how will his desire torture all those that warm'd them by his fire ? mee thinkes i see him in the pulpit standing , not eares , or eyes , but all mens hearts commanding , where wee that heard him , to our selves did faine golden chrysostome was alive againe ; and never were we weari'd , till we saw his houre ( and but an houre ) to end did draw . how did he shame the doctrine-men , and use , with helps to boot , for men to beare th' abuse of their tir'd patience , and endure th' expence of time , o spent in hearkning to non-sense , with markes also , enough whereby to know , the speaker is a zealous dunce , or so . 't is true , they quitted him , to their poore power , they humm'd against him ; and with face most sowre : call'd him a strong lin'd man , a macaroon , and no way fit to speake to clouted shoone , as fine words [ truly ] as you would desire , but [ verily , ] but a bad edifier . thus did these beetles slight in him that good , they could not see , and much lesse understood . but we may say , when we compare the stuffe both brought ; he was a candle , they the snuffe . well , wisedome's of her children justifi'd , let therefore these poore fellowes stand aside ; nor , though of learning he deserv'd so highly , would i his booke should save him ; rather slily i should advise his clergie not to pray , though of the learn'dst sort ; me thinkes that they of the same trade , are judges not so fit , there 's no such emulation as of wit. of such , the envy might as much perchance wrong him , and more , then th' others ignorance . it was his fate ( i know 't ) to be envy'd as much by clerkes , as lay men magnifi'd ; and why ? but ' cause he came late in the day , and yet his penny earn'd , and had as they . no more of this , least some should say , that i am strai'd to satyre , meaning elegie . no , no , had donne need to be judg'd or try'd , a jury i would summon on his side , that had no sides , nor factions , past the touch of all exceptions , freed from passion , such as nor to feare nor fratter , e'r were bred , these would i bring , though called from the dead : southampton , hambleton , pēbrooke , dorsets earles , huntingdon , bedfords countesses ( the pearles once of each sexe . ) if these suffice not , i ten decem tales have of standers by : all which , for donne , would such a verdict give , as can belong to none , that now doth live . but what doe i ? a diminution 't is to speake of him in verse , so short of his , whereof he was the master ; all indeed compar'd with him , pip'd on an oaten reed . o that you had but one ' mongst all your brothers could write for him , as he hath done for others : ( poets i speake to ) when i see 't , i 'll say , my eye-sight betters , as my yeares decay , meane time a quarrell i shall ever have against these doughty keepers from the grave , who use , it seemes their old authoritie , when ( verses men immortall make ) they cry : which had it been a recipe true tri'd , probatum esset , donne had never dy'd . for mee , if e'r i had least sparke at all of that which they poetique fire doe call , here i confesse it fetched from his hearth , which is gone out , now he is gone to earth . this only a poore flash , a lightning is before my muses death , as after his . farewell ( faire soule ) and deigne receive from mee this type of that devotion i owe thee , from whom ( while living ) as by voice and penne i learned more , then from a thousand men : so by thy death , am of one doubt releas'd , and now beleeve that miracles are ceas'd . epitaph . heere lies deane donne ; enough ; those words shew him as fully , as if all the stone his church of pauls contains , were through inscrib'd alone or all the walkers there , to speake him , brib'd . none can mistake him , for one such as hee donne , deane , or man , more none shall ever see . not man ? no , though unto a sunne each eye were turn'd , the whole earth so to overspie , a bold brave word ; yet such brave spirits as knew his spirit , will say , it is lesse bold then true . epitaph upon dr. donne , by endy : porter . this decent urne a sad inscription weares , of donnes departure from us , to the spheares ; and the dumbe stone with silence seemes to tell the changes of this life , wherein is well exprest , a cause to make all joy to cease , and never let our sorrowes more take ease ; for now it is impossible to finde one fraught with vertues , to inrich a minde ; but why should death , with a promiscuous hand at one rude stroke impoverish a land ? thou strict attorney , unto stricter fate , didst thou confiscate his life out of hate to his rare parts ? or didst thou throw thy dart , with envious hand , at some plebeyan heart ; and he with pious vertue stept betweene to save that stroke , and so was kill'd unseene by thee ? o 't was his goodnesse so to doe , which humane kindnesse never reacht unto . thus the hard lawes of death were satisfi'd , and he left us like orphan friends , and di'de . now from the pulpit to the peoples eares , whose speech shall send repentant sighes , and teares ? or tell mee , if a purer virgin die , who shall hereafter write her elegie ? poets be silent , let your numbers sleepe , for he is gone that did all phansie keepe ; time hath no soule , but his exalted verse ; which with amazements , we may now reherse . finis notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a69225-e62510 the sicknes of the world impossibility of health shortnesse of life . smalnesse of stature . decay of nature in other parts . disformity of parts . disorder in the world . weaknesse in the want of correspondence of heaven and earth . conclusion . notes for div a69225-e69060 a iust disestimation of this world . contemplation of our state in our death-bed . her liberty by death . of our company in this life , and in the next . of essentiall joy in this life and in the next . of accidentall joyes in both places . conclusion . notes for div a69225-e96340 la corona .