who have been wise and faithfull in this their great trust and have done the utmost of their endeavours to do much good thereby although they have not gained a fair Seal to their Ministry by converting many souls to God they shall be sure of a full discharge who have been thus faithfull whatsoever their success hath been that when their careless and unprofiting hearers that he bound over unto the judgement seat of Christ with this sad testimony against them Noluerunt incantari this or that people would not be admonished they shall receive a Quietus est from that great and high Tribunal which shall speak thus well done good and faithfull servant A second great cause of the many growing evils amongst us proceeds very much from the great neglect and remisness of Masters or Governours of Families who do not take care as they might as they ought to keep in order those under their roofs and to nurture them up in the fear of the Lord. For examples herein have much power in them to sway either to good or evill And the greater the example is the greater hope if it be good but if evill the greater danger for greatness hath ever a train to follow it either in good or evill Abraham and Joshua and David were great examples of good herein as he that turns to their stories may clearly see But on the other side Jeroboam is seldom mentioned in the writers of Israel but he draws a tayl after him like a Blazing Star Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who did not onely sin himself but made Israel to sin 1 K. 14. 16. by whose high precedency but evil example he did exceeding much mischief so defiling his Throne that if ye look forward upon all the Kings of Israel his successors you shall not find amongst them all one good man Omnes ad unum from Jeroboam the first to Hoshea the last King of Israel they were all nought Now they who were so bad in the Government of a Kingdom without doubt could not be good in the well ordering of a family And hence let all know that as they may do much good and consequently reap much comfort in the true managing of their families so on the contrary they shall be sure one day to suffer and that heavily for the disorder of them when they shall be called to a strict account not onely for their own sins but sor the sins of others under their charge who by their precedency and example they have drawn into or else by their connivency suffered in wickedness A third and that shall be last cause I will name of so much increase of wickedness in this Nation and because it is so destructive and mischievous I shall speak more largely to it is the great carelesness of Parents in their not looking to their Children in their first institution and breeding for without all doubt the very sad miscarriages of all sorts of Children of higher and meaner extraction or descent proceed very much from their first ordering when many Parents quite undoe their Children stulto improbo amore by reason of their foolish indulgence the great sin of Eli before spoken of who brought up his Sons to bring down his house who for giving them their way too much was said to honour his Sons more than God So David after him was observed over much to indulge his Son Absolon when he was young and to requite him for this ill breeding Absolon lives heavily to vex his Father Davia when his Father was old The Children of many Parents especially of great ones bred when they are young at home or abroad are very often left too much unto their own will to learn or else to do almost what themselves please when getting few or no grounds of learning in their youth or non-age suddainly after many of them travell and then wanting for the most part good guides for their youth they being abroad first see nought and then be nought and after all this without speciall mercy they dye nought I do not deny but that there may be very many good experiences gaind by travell but very few do in respect of those which do not improve that advantage whence it often comes to pass when a great number of these come to write themselves men being unable to read Books for want of those principles of learning they might have gotten and unwilling to settle themselves in other good imployments whereby they might be enabled to give a fair account of their precious time they often learn to drink and swear and rant and game and Court Women to speak it in the modestest sense or to spoyl good Clothes they resolving to enjoy the pleasures that are present as if they had been born to no other end but to sit down and to eat and drink and to rise up to play Hence with â—hose mad youngsters mentioned in the book of Wisdom they say one to another Come let us enjoy the good things that are present let us fill our selves with costly wine and let not the flowr of the spring pass by us let us Crown our selves with rose buds before they be withered let none of us go without his part of vâ—lâ—ptuousness let us leave tokens of our joyfulness or jollity in every place for this is our portion and our lot is this leading such lives as the very Heathens do abhor For they will deny themselves nothing that may please their sensuall appetites not wine in bowls nor forbidden flesh nor any thing beside while they feed without â—ear and drink without measure and swear without feeling and live without God dauncing a round about the mouth of Hell into which they fall and perish everlastingly before they are aware not considering how others have sped which have so done before them As Adâ—niahs feast ended in horror So Belshazzars Banquet concluded with a Cup of wrath So the Philistines mirth in their unavoydable ruin And thus the peaceable days of the wicked are described who spend their lives in pleasure and suddainly they are in Hell all their whole mirth put together being but as the merry madness of one hour for they must assure themselves that when their meal is ended a great and heavy reckoning will follow Of all the Ages of men there is no time of life whereon we may ground more hope and more fear than in Child-hood and youth And therefore those Parents who would have comfort in their Children must look very carefully to their first seasoning For as it was the Policy of the King of Babylon Dan. 1. 4. to have the Children of the Jews and not the old men to be taught the language of the Chaldeans so it is the subtilty of the Divell to have Children while they are very young traynd up in strange language and to have them corrupted with evill habits which may make them like a vessell that hath ill liquor put into it at the first tast of their
A Voyage to EAST-INDIA Wherein Some things are taken notice of in our passage thither but many more in our abode there within that rich and most spacious Empire Of the Great Mogol Mix't with some Parallel Observations and inferences upon the storie to profit as well as delight the Reader Observed by Edward Terry then Chaplain to the Right Honorable Sr. Thomas Row Knight Lord Ambassadour to the great Mogol now Rector of the Church at Greenford in the County of Middlesex In journeying often in perils of waters in perils of Robbers in perils by the Heathen in perils in the Sea 1 Cor. 11. 26. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea Psal 93. 4. Digitis a morte remotus Quatuor aut Septem Ju. Sat. 12. Qui Nescit orare discat navigare ubique Naufragium London Printed by T. W. for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1655. To the Reader READER THere was never age more guilty than this present of the great expence and waste of paper whose fair innocence hath been extreamly stubber'd by Errors Heresies Blasphemies and what not in these bold times which like so many the foulest of all blots blurs hath defiled very much of it so true is that of the Poet Tenet insanabile multos Scribendi Cacoëthes Ju. Certainly there hath been of late abundantly more printed than ought than should if what follows in this discourse lay under the guilt of any such just exception it should feel the fire not the press The summe substance of what here follows as a description of that Empire I long since composed shortly after my return from East-India and then presented it in writing unto the late King when he was Prince of Wales in the year 1622. with this short following Epistle Most Renowned Prince I Have nothing to plead for this high presumption but the Novelty of my subject in which I confesse some few have prevented me who bv traveling India in England or Europe have written somewhat of those remotest parts but like unto poor Tradesmen who take up Wares on trust have been deceived themselves and do deceive of others For my self I was an eye-witnesse of much here related living more than two years at the Court of that mighty Monarch the great Mogol who prides himself very much in his most famous Ancestor Tamberlane in the description of whose Empire your Highnesse may meet with large Territories a numerous Court most populous pleasant and rich Provinces but when all these shall be laid in the Balance against his miserable blindnesse your Highnesse shall have more cause to pity than envy his greatnesse I am not ambitious to make this my Relation publick and therefore if it consume more paper it shall not be my fault As it is in a fearfull boldnesse 't is offered to your Princely hands and if it may be any way pleasing and usefull I have my reward if not my most humble desires to have ministred something this way unto your Highnesse shall be my comfort Thus Reader thou hearest when this Relation was first written and into what hands it was then put And although there be now a very great space of time 'twixt the particulars then observed and their publication now which may make thee look upon that which is here brought forth as an untimely birth or as a thing born out of due time Therefore know which may give thee some satisfaction herein that for the commodities and discommodities of those remote parts for the customes and manners of that people for their Religion and policie with every thing beside wherein thou mayest desire information which lies within the vast compasse of that huge Monarchy expressed in the Map and further described in this following discourse time not making that people at all to varie from themselves thou mayest look upon it now as if it hath been taken notice of but immediately before it was here communicated and if it prove usefull now I shall be very glad that it was reserved even for this present time wherein it might do some good Yet notwithstanding this it should never have been brought by me into this more open view especially in such a scribling writing age as this where there is no end of making many books and many of those written to no end but what is evil and mischievous but that the Printer who had gotten my Original Copie presented as before desired to publish it And because so I have revised and in some particulars by pertinent though in some places very long digressions which I would intreat the Reader to improve so enlarged it that it may if it reach my aim contain matter for instruction and use as well as for relation and novelty So that they who fly from a Sermon and will not touch sound and wholesom and excellent treatises in Divinity may happily if God so please be taken before they are aware and overcome by some Divine truths that lie scattered up and down in manie places of this Narrative To which end I have endeavoured so to contrive it for every one who shall please to read it through that it may be like a well form'd picture that seems to look stedfastly upon everie heholder who so looks upon it But here Reader let us sit down and wonder that in these dayes which are called times of Reformation manie choise books are often published which contain in themselves and declare unto others very much of the minde of God yet are laid aside as if they were not worth the looking into and in their stead Romances and other Pamphlets ejusdem farinae of the like kinde which do not inform but corrupt rather the mindes of those which look so much into them teaching wickednesse while they seem to reprove it are the books O times which are generally call'd for bought up read and liked When a Traveller sometimes observed the women in Rome to please themselves in and overmuch to play with their Curs and Monkeys he asked whether or no the women of Rome did not bear Children to delight themselves withall The storie is so parallel to what I before observed that he who runs may make Application and therefore I forbear to do it As for that I have here published I know habent sua fata libelli that books have their Fates as well as their Authors and therefore this Relation now it is got into the World must take its chance whatsoever its successe or acceptance be But however I shall never be of their minde who think those books best which best sell when certain it is that they are not to be valued by their good sale but good use Which while some may make of this others who love to carp and censure and quarrel so as to make a man an offender for a word may put harsh interpretation upon some passages they may find in this
extenuated by the multitude of offenders which live under the guilt thereof that nothing can more aggravate it With men commoness pleads for favour with God it pleads for judgment the Leprosie of the whole body being by far more loathsome then that which appears but in a part thereof and so much of this I will now proceed to take notice of other particulars which follow in this relation As SECTION XII Of their Language their Books their Learning c. THE Language of this Empire I mean the Vulgar bears the name of it and is called Indostan it hath much affinitie with the Persian and Arabian tongues but the Indostan is a smoother language and more easy to be pronounced than the other a language which is very significant and speaks much in few words They write it as we to the right hand It is expressed by letters which are very much different from those Alphabets by which the Persian and Arabian tongues are formed The Persian there is spoken as their more quaint and Court-tongue The Arabian is their learned language both written backward to the left hand like the Hebrew from whence they borrow many words which come so neer it as that he who is a good Critick in the Hebrew may very well guess at the meaning of much in both those languages The Persian is a language as if it consisted all of Guttur all letters as some in the Hebrew Alphabet are called filling the mouth in the Pronunciation of them for as the words in that language are full of sense so in their speaking they are full of sound For the Latin and Greek by which there hath been so much knowledge conveyed into the world they are as ignorant of them both as if they had never been and this may be one great reason why there is so little learning amongst them But for the people themselves they are men of very strong reason and will speak ex re natâ upon any offered occasion very exceeding well and doubtless they are a people of such strong Capacities that were there literature amongst them they might be the Authors of many excellent works but as the case stands with them all that is there attainable towards learning is but to read and write And here by the way let me insert this that I never saw any Idiot or natural Fool nor any deformed person amongst them in any of those parts For Logick and Rhetorick which are so instrumental the first to enlarge and the second to polish discourses they have none but what is Natural They say that they write some witty Poems and compose many handsome Annals and Stories of their own and other adjacent Countreys They delight much in Musick and have some stringed but many more winde Instruments They have the use of Timbrils likewise but for want of pleasing Airs their Musick in my ears never seemed to be any thing but discord Their Books are not many and those are Manuscripts That rare and happie invention of Printing which hath been the advancement of so much learning within Christendom is not known without it They have heard of Aristotle whom they call Aplis and have some of his books as they say in the Arabian tongue in which language they further say they have many books written by Avicenna that ancient Physician who was born in Samarchandia one of the most fam'd places within the Tartarian Empire the Countrey as they believe where Tamberlain the Mogols great Ancestor drew his first breath Some parts or fragments they have of the old Testament of which more when I shall come to speak of their Religion Many amongst them profess themselves to have great skill in judicial Astrologie that great Cheat which hath been very anciently and often put upon as the Sacred Storie witnesseth the people inhabiting the East and South parts of the world I call it a Cheat because there is and must needs be so much uncertainty in it all things here below being ordered and overruled by the secret and unerring providence of Almighty God which frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish Esay 44. 25. First these Diviners are mad when things fall not out according to their bold predictions And secondly they have been and not without cause esteemed as mad-men in foretelling things which they could not know and much less bring to pass And therefore I have heard a great Master in and a publick Professor of Astronomie who could see as far into Constellations and observe as much from them as any other often say that he would go by the very selfesame rules that others did to predict things to come and would write that which was quite contrary to what they observed yet what he wrote should as often fall to be as true as what they 〈…〉 old Yet notwithstanding the truth of these premises the great Mogol puts so much confidence in his Astrologers that he will not undertake a journey nor yet resolve to do any thing besides of the least consequence unless his wizards tell him it is a good and a prosperous hour to begin and set upon such an undertaking and at the very instant he hath his directions from them he sets upon the thing he undertakes and not before It is strange to consider what ignorance or despair in this â—case may not put men upon may not put men into ignorance in that King thus besotted with an high opinion of his Astrologers So despair in Saul another King long before him who after he had lost the favour of God grew desperate and resolved that if God would not answer him Sathan should And therefore he said in his distress unto his servants 1 Sam. 28. 7. Seek me out one that hath a familiar spirit The condition of Saul was at this time exceeding sad as appears by his complaint v. 15. The Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me and answers me no more either by Prophets or Dreams and what shall I do I confess that the loss of God is the greatest of all losses For as his favour to a believing Soul in the want of every thing besides is enough because his loving kindnes is better than life it self Psal 63. 3. So the gaining of every thing the world can afford with the loss of Gods Countenance makes profit loss a Chaire of State uneasy an hereditary and much more a usurped Scepter so unweildy as that it cannot be managed with comfort Here Saul a King is so perplexed in his thoughts when as Almighty God had taken his loving kindnes from him that he asks the question what shall I do Not what thou did'st wretched Saul against the streame of thine own Conscience to seek unto those whom thou had'st but of late condemned and punished to take a course which thou knowest to be divellish Miserable Saul how couldst thou hope to find God at thy Command
further SECTION XVI Of their votaries where of the voluntary and sharpe Penances that people undergoe Of their Lent and of their Fasts and Feasts c. AMong the Mahometans there are many Votaries they call Derveâ—ses who relinquish the world and spend all their dayes following in solitude and retiredness expecting a recompense as they say and are very well content to suffer and wait for it in that better life Those very sharp and very strict Penances which many of this people for the present voluntarily undergoe far exceede all those the Romanists boast of for instance there are some who live alone upon the tops of Hills which are clothed or covered with trees and stand remote from any Company and there spend the whole time of their following lives in Contemplation stirring not at all from the places they first fix on but ad requisita naturae crying out continually in these or the like expressions Alla Achabar c. that is God Almighty looke upon me I love thee I love not the world but I love thee and I doâ— all this for thy sake look upon mee God Almighty These after they thus retire never suffer the Razer or Scissers to come againe upon their heads and they let their Naâ—les grow like unto Birds Claws as it was written of Nebuchadnezzar Dâ—n 4. When he was driven out from the society of men This people after their retirement will choose rather to famish then to stirr from their Cells and therefore they are relieved by the Charity of others who take care to send them some very meane covering for their bodies for it must be such otherwise they will not accept of it when they stand in neede thereof and something for their bodily sustenance which must be of their courser food otherwise they will not take it and no more of that at one time then what is sufficicnt for the present support of nature Some againe impose long times of fasting upon themselves and will take no food at all till the strength of Nature in them be almost quite spent And others there are amongst them they call religious men who wear nothing about them but to hide their Shame and these like the mendicant Fryars beg for all they eate They usually live in the skirts or out sides of great Cities or Townes and are like the man our blessed Saviour mentions Luk 8. 27. about the City of the Gadarens which had Devills and wore no cloths neither abode in any house but in the Tombes And so doe these making little fires in the day sleeping at night in the warm ashes thereof with which they besmear and discolour their bodies These Ash-men will somtimes take intoxicating things which make them to talk wildly and strangely as some of our Quakers doe in their strange distempers and then the foolish common people will flock about them and believing they then Prophesie hearken unto them with all attention A very great difference twixt that people and ours for there they call mad-men Prophets and amongst us there are many prophets which are accounted but mad men There are another sort among them called Mendeâ— carried on likewise meerly by miss-takes and miss-conceiving in Religion who like the Priests of Baal mentioned 1. K. 18. often cut their flâ—sh with knives and launcers Others againe I have there seen who meerly out of Devotion put such mâ—ssie Fetters of Iron upon their leggs as that they can scarce stir with them and then covered with blew mantles the colour of mourners in those parts as fast as they are able goe many miles in Pilgrimage barefoote upon the hot parching ground to visit the sepulchres of their deluding Saints thus putting themselves upon very great Hardships and submitting unto extreme sharp penances and all to no purpose O what pains will superstition put men unto It is said of Idolaters that they hasten after another God Ps 16. 4. or they make post-hast after him The Philistims flock't early and in troopes to the Temple of their Dagon A shame that Christians should goe singly and slowly and many times late as they doe unto the house of God dealing with religious duties as school-boyes doe very often with their lessons in minding every thing more than the business they are about What pitty it is to see people so industrious in their miss-devotion in doing things very hard to be done which God never required at their hands which may make us to believe that if they were rightly made acquainted with what God would have them to doe they would be carefull in doing it Further it is very sad to consider if we thinke of many others borne in the visible Church of Christ that might be happie and Gods Freemen yet make themselves the drudges and slaves of Satan who leades them Captive at his will For the works of their Father the Devill they will doe though never so full of trouble and difficulty The way of transgressors is hard Pr 13. 15. Thus the heart set upon covetousness disquiets it self in vaine is early up late at rest fares hard and labours hard to get a little wealth and it knows not for whom So it may be further said of many other gross sinners who engage themselves far and deepely in other services or rather drudgeries of the Devill even wearying themselves to commit iniquity As of starv'd beggers who make that a calling which God makes a curse to be fugitives vagabonds who are so in love with their Raggs and Scabs and Lice as that they will set themselves in no good way wherein they might live comfortably certainely abundance of these as of others I before named their present state and condition rightly considered endure two Hells one here and the other hereafter But to returne againe to those Indian Votaries who undergoe such hard things and out of this gross miss-take that they doeGod good service in the things they doe Concerning which actings Lucretius though accounted an epicurean and an Atheist in his first book speaks to purpose about the Error of Religion Saepius olim Relligio peperit scelerosa atque implafacta oft of old Religion bred acts impiously bold And presently after he instances in Iphigenia sacrificed to Diana by her owne Father to procure a winde for the Grecians more safe and more speedy passage to Troy Nam sublata virum manibus tremebundaque ad aras Deducta est non ut solenni more sacrorum Perfecto possit claro comitari Hymenoeo Sed Casta inceste nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concideret mactatu moesta Parentis Exitus ut classi felix faustusque daretur Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum For in mens armes born to the Altar shee Was trembling brought not with fayre rights to be To famous Hymen led but the Chast maid Now ripe for Marriage fouly thus betrayd Fell a sad Sacrifice by her owne Sare So a safe voyage might the Fleet acquire To that dire fact perswaded on By
any mixt company and many of the Gentiles not eat with one another And this hath been an ancient custom among Heathens It is said Gen. 43. 32. that the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that was an abomination to the Egyptians for this very reason it was that the women of Samaria spake thus unto our blessed Saviour John 4. 9. how is it that thou being a Jew askest water of me which am a woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritanes But without doubt that forbearance or shy-ness to eat one man with another can fetch no ground either from religion or reason if it could Peter would never have eaten with the Gentiles Gal. 12. Nor our blessed Saviour with Publicans sinners at which the Scribes Pharisees take very much exception Marc. 2. 16. No man as a man is to be accounted common or unclean Act. 10. 28. and a man shall do much better who eats and drinks with a sober Heathen than to keep company with a debaucht drunken sensual man though he call himself a Christian eating and drinking with him such things as please him by being his companion in his Riot and excesse For those Persees further they believe that there is but one God who made all things and hath a Soveraign power over all They talk much of Lucifer and of other evil Spirits but they say that those and all Devils besides are kept so under and in awe by two good Angels that have power over them as that they cannot hurt or do the least mischief without their leave and licence As many of the Hindoos ascribe to much unto water as before so these to fire and the reason of it is this because they have had this tradition from many ages generations past that their great Law-giver whom they call Zertoost was rapt up into Heaven and there had fire delivered unto him which he brought down thence and he ever after commanded his followers to worship it and so they do and further they love any thing that resembles fire as the Sun and Moon and therefore when they pray in the day time they look towards the sun and so towards the Moon in their night-devotions and from that so over-high esteem they have of fire they keep fires continually burning in their Eggarees or Temples in Lamps fed with Oyl which are alwayes attended by their Priests and they talk of many of these which have burned without extinguishment from many foregoing generations And by the way that wilde and mad phansie of theirs that their Zertoost did fetch fire from Heaven is as certainly true as that ancient fiction and fable of Prometheus that he did steal fire thence But to proceed their Priests they call Daroos or Harboods above both which they have a Chief or High Priest they call the Destoor who not often appears openly but when he doth he meets with much reverence and respect given unto him by the common people and so do those other Church-men which are his inferiours unto all which they allow free maintenance for their more comfortable subsistance Those Church-men by their Law are commanded to dwell near and to abide much in their Eggarâ—â—s or Temples to give advice or direction unto any that shall repair unto them for it They observe divers Feasts and immediately after each of them a Fast follows That living sensible Creature which they first behold every morning that is good serviceable is to them as they say a remembrancer all the day after to draw up their thoughts in thanks-giving unto Almighty God who hath made such good Creatures for mans use and service There are good things as I have been informed in that book of their Religion delivered them in precepts which their Law-giver hath left unto them for the direction of their lives As first To have shame and fear ever present with them which will restrain and keep them from the committing of many evils Secondly when they undertake any thing seriously to consider whither it be good or bad commanded or forbidden them Thirdly To keep-their hearts and eyes from coveting any thing that is anothers and their hands from hurting any Fourthly To have a care alwayes to speak the truth Fifthly To be known onely in their own businesses and not to enquire into and to busie themselves in other mens matters All which are good moral precepts but they have another which mars and spoils all the rest and that is upon the greatest penalties they can be threatned withall Sixthly Not to entertain or believe any other Law besides that which was delivered unto them by their Law-giver This people take but one wife which hath liberty as the wives of the Hindoos to go abroad They never resolve to take Wives or Husbands without the advice of their Church-men and when they come to be married they stand some distance one from the other there being two Church-men present on in the behalf of the Man and in behalf of the Woman the other The first of these asks the Woman whither or no she will have that man to be her Husband and the other asks the Man whither or no he will have that Woman to be his Wife and they both consenting the Priests bring them together and join their hands praying that they may live in unity and love together and then both those Church-men scatter Rice upon the married couple intreating God to make them fruitfull in sending them many Sons and Daughters that they may multiply as much as that seed doth in the ears that bear it And so the Ceremony being thus performed which is about the time of midnight the whole company depart leaving the married couple together At the birth of every Childe they immediately send for the Daroo or Church-man who comes to the parties house and there being certainly enform'd of the exact time of the child-birth first undertakes to calculate its Nativity and to speak something of it by way of prediction after which he confers with the Parents about a name whereby it shall be called which when they have agreed upon the Mother in the presence of the company there assembled gives it that name And now lastly touching the Burials of that people they incircle pieces of ground with a round Wall that is of a good height set apart for that purpose These burying places stand remote from houses roade wayes the ground within them is made smooth or else paved on the bottom in the middest whereof they have a round pit made deep like a draw well The bodies of their dead both men women and children are carried to those places upon a Beer made of slight round Iron bars for they will not have dead bodies touch any wood least they should defile it because that is fewel for their adored fire and thus brought thither are laid round about near the inside of that Wall upon the ground or pavements Covered with a thin
Tamberlane and his successors and the lower we go the greater still they are but the last of them swels biggest of all calling himself amongst other phansies the Conqueror of the world and so he conceits himself to be As they write of Thrasyllus the Athenian who believed that all the ships on the Sea were his own and therefore he would call them my ships when ever he saw them floating on the waters and thus the great Magol imagines all the Kings Nations and people of the world to be his Slaves and Vassals And therefore when the Grand Signiour or great Turks sent an Ambassador to the great Mogol who came unto him attended with a great train and retinue and after when he was ready to take his leave desired of the Mogol to know what he should say to his Master when he was returned tell thy Master said the Mogol that he is my slave for my Ancestor Conquered him The Mogol feeds and feasts himself with this conceit that he is Conqueror of the world and therefore I conceive that he was troubled upon a time when my Lord-Ambassador haveing businesse with him and upon those terms there is no coming unto that King empty handed without some present or other of which more afterward and having at that time nothing left which he thought fit to give him presented him with Mercators great book of Cosmography which the Ambassador had brought thither for his own use telling the Mogol that that book described the four parts of the world and all several Countreys in them contained the Mogol at the first seem'd to be much taken with it desiring presently to see his own Territories which were immediately shewen unto him he asked where were those Countreys about them he was told Tartaria and Persia as the names of the rest which confine with him and then causing the book to be turn'd all over and finding no more to fall to his share but what he first â—aw and he calling himself the Conqueror of the world and having no greater share in it seemed to be a little troubled yet civily told the Ambassadour that neither himself nor any of his people did understand the language in which that book was written and because so he further told him that he would not rob him of such a Jewel and therefore returned it unto him again And the truth is that the great Mogol might very well bring his action against Mercator and others who describe the world but streighten him very much in their Maps not allowing him to be Lord Commander of those Provinces which properly belong unto him But it is true likewise that he who hath the greatest share on the face of the earth if it be compared with the whole world appears not great As it was said of the Lands of Alcibiades that compared with the Glob of the whole earth they did not appear bigger than a small tittle The Mogols Territories are more apparent large and visible as any one may take notice who strictly views this affixed Map wch is a true representation of that great Empire in its large dimensions So that although the Mogol be not master of the whole World yet hath he a great share in it if we consider his very large Territories and his abundant riches as will after more appear whose wealth and strength makes him so potent as that he is able whensoever he pleaseth to make inroades upon and to do much mischief unto any of his Neighbours but I leave that and come now to speak SECT XXIII Of the Mogols policy in his government exercised by himself and substitutes c. ANd it is that indeed which is the worst of â—ll governments called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arbitrary illimited Tyrannical such as a most severe Master useth to Servants not that which a good King administreth to Subjects Which makes it very uncomfortable for those that live as subjects there under the command of others taller than themselves by their swords length or so to be fixed in any part of the World Where no Laws resist The sword but that it acteth what it lists As in that Empire where the King measureth his power by his sword or Launce in making his will his guide and therefore any thing lawfull that likes him which carriage of his might very well become that Embleme of illâ—mited power which is a sword waved by a strong arm and hand and the word siâ— volo sic jubeo or thus will I have it and if any there be so far discontented as to make any the least question at what he doth he hath a far stronger argument still in readinesse than all the force of Logick can make and that is very many thousands of men that are â—â—ouâ— and able Souldiers whom he keeps continually in arms and pay that can make any thing good which he shall please to command There are no Laws for Government kepâ— in that Empire upon record for ought I could ever learn to regulate Governours there in the administration of Justice but what are written in the breast of that King and his Substitutes and therefore they often take liberty to proceed how they please in punishing the Offender rather than the offence mens persons more than their Crimes aegrotum potius quam morbum Yet ever they pretend to proceed in their wayes of judicature which is the right progresse in judgement secundum allegata probata by proofs and not by presumptions The great Mogol will sit himself as Judge in any matters of consequence that happen nere unto him And there are no Malefactors that lye more than one night in prison and many times not at all for if the party offending be apprehended early in the day he is immediately brought before him that must be his Judge by whom he is presently either acquitted or condemned if he be sentenced to be whipt he hath his payment and that usually with very much severity in the place often where he received that sentence If condemned to dye he is presently which as I apprehend it is a very hard course though used anciently among the Jews carried from his sentence to his execution which is done usally in the Bazar or Market-place And this round and quick Justice keep the people there in such order and awe as that there are not many executions Murder and Theft they punish with death with what kinde of death the Judge pleaseth to impose for some Malefactors are hang'd some beheaded some impaled or put upon sharp stakes a death which hath much cruelty and extream torture and torment in it some are torn in places by wilde Beasts some kill'd by Elephants and others stung to death by Snakes Those which are brought to suffer death by Elephants some of which vast Creatures are train'd up to do execution on Malefactors are thus dealt withall First if that overgrown Beast be commanded by his Rider to diâ—patch that poor trembling Offender presently
4. 17 18. And therefore said the same Apostle Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared unto the glorie which shall be revealed I reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Metaphor either taken from accountants that put many particulars into one entire summe or else from Logicians who draw certain or infallable conclusions from foregoing premises Thus I reckon or I conclude when I compare profit and losse together as what I shall certainly gain and what I may happily loose by the profession of the Gospel when I have put all crosses and incumbrances in the one Scale and the recompence of the reward in the other it amounts all to this that the eternal wâ—ight of the Crown doth exceedingly outweigh the momentary weight of the Crosse Thus it is with all men who in their greatest pressures can see further than earth as that first Martyr professing the Gospel Stephen did who died not upon a bed of Down but under a shower of stones yet could out of that terrible and thick storm look into Heaven and so do others who can behold whatsoever they feel with the eye of Faith and this is like that Tree which Moses cast into the bitter waters of Marah and it made them sweet Exod. 15. But as for others I have named and shall further name to behold their sufferings and torments onely with the eye of sense it must needs make their tortures however they bear them out out of measure to torment I have been told by some who were eye-witnesses whom I dare credite and therefore I dare relate it of strange kindes of death executed by the command of the King of Japan upon his subjects where some are Crucified or nailed to a Crosse Others rather roasted than burnt to death Thus there is a stake set up and a Circle of fire at a pretty distance made round about it the condemned person being naked is so fastned to that stake as that he may move round about it and so doth as long as he is able to stir till his flesh begins to blister then he falls down and there lyes roaring till the fire made about him puts him to silenâ—e by taking away both his voice and life Now they say that one great reason why they put men there unto such exquisite torments is because they hold it a thing of the greatest dishonour there for any man to dye by the hand of an Executioner therefore they are usually commanded when they are sentenced to dye to rip up or cut open their own bellies and those who will not so do are tormented in dying Hence most of that people when as they have received that hard command to prevent death by dying call for their friends about them eat and seem to be merry with them then in the close of the meal and in their presence commit this sad slaughter upon themselves as first those poor wretches make themselves naked to the middle he or they who are to dye then the most wretched self-murderer who is to act that bloudy part strikes a sharp Knife into the bottom of his belly then rips himself up and after gives himself one other cut cross his belly and when he hath done both these if after he can but wipe his bloudy knife upon a white paper or Napkin that is laid by him he is believed to part with his life with a very great deal of honour and immediately as he is made to believe goes to Fakaman whom they say is the God of War So much power the Devil hath in those dark places of the World to make the people there do what he please Oh 't is a misery of all miseries here to be a drudge a bond-man a slave to the Devil as those and so infinite multitudes more professing Christ are by obeying Satan in his most unreasonable commands and yet will not be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place froÌ„ whence I have made some excursion when I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Paricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron Chain which was tied to the hinde leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worne off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his progresse for he appeared then to us a skeliton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appoinâ—ed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venomous Creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till bloud followed the other was fastned to the outside of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet nere a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester of whom Mr. May in his Translation of Lucan the ninth Book thus writes His face and cheeks a sudden fire did rost His flesh and skin were stretch'd his shape was lost His swelling body is distended far Past humane growth and undistinguish'd are His limbs all parts the poyson doth confound And he lies hid in his own body drown'd Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch about half an hour after they were taken from him the Soul of that unnatural Monster left his growing Carkasse and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for
must be added to make up that number before spoken of And now to come unto the Reformed Churches or rather unto those which call themselves so how few amongst them are Christians indeed who are so in name when we may run through many Congregations as the Prophet Jeremy was commanded to run through Jerusalem Jer. 5. 1. And not find a man a Christian in earnest and indeed as well as in Name so I confess that it is nothing or at least no hard matter for a man professing Christianity to act Religion to play devotion to appear excellent upon the Stage as the Pharisees did to be all for shew nothing for substance to affect the praise of men as the Pharisees did and to get the praise of men and this is all Hypocrites can look for And I know that the worst of men may sometimes be in good moodes But as good thoughts are long before they come into bad hearts so they continue not long making but a through fare in them being like a Post that passeth by Bless me even me my Father was wicked Esaus request No man would ever be miserable if it were enough for him barely to desire happiness In the 1 K. 21. you may see Ahab upon his knees but all that he shewed was but the visard of sorrow not the face or if the face not the heart or if the sorrow of the heart not the repentance a sorrow for the judgement not a repentance for the sin The very Devils houl to be tormented and grief is not alwaies a sign of Grace In the 7 of Hos 14. mention is made of some that houl upon their beds when they do not seek God in their hearts And experience tells us that the hardest Flint and Marble will sometimes seem to drop it being easy to appear good but hard to be so Copia rara bonorum they who are good indeed are rare Creatures all good and sound Christians considered together in respect of those which are not so being like Whales in the vast Ocean apparent rari nantes which are seen rarely not as other Fishes but here and there no where to be seen in Companies Or like the shaking of the Olive tree when the fruit is gathered Or like the gleaning of Grapes when the vintage is done Esay 24. 13. Called by one or two out of a City or tribe Jer. 3. 4. Now if we put all this together as first that there is no way no means to attain salvation but onely in and through Christ Jesus Secondly that there be very few in the world which do in respect of those which do not so much as bear the Names of Christians Thirdly amongst those which bear this Name very few there are as to men it appears which shall have benefit by Christ compared with those that shall not what shall we say to all this even that which the Prophet doth in another Case Es 5. 14. that Hell hath enlarged it self and opened its mouth above measure Alas poor Indians who live in darkness and in the shadow of death and cannot help it but wo be to Christians who have light to walk by and will not improve it for the first of these they cannot know for the second they care not to know they will not know which makes them more excusable because there is no plea for the willfull Many Indians poor souls walk in that little light they have unreproveably in respect of moralites and doubtless if they knew better would do better though I am perswaded that God will never honour Jesuits so far as to convert them unto Christianity notwithstanding their great brags of their many Converts there but what can be said in excuse of those who profess themselves Christians and live amongst so many clear visions yet even there do so shut up their eyes against their light as that they know nothing in Religion as they ought to know it Therefore if we leave those Indians a while and come home unto our selves who are collectively and together called all Christians we shall find that the succession of times here amongst us have very much resembled that Image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream Dan. 2. whose Head was Gold Stomack Silver Belly Brass Thighs Iron but the Feet were of Clay for the lower we descend the worse we are for it may be truly observed that in former times in which there was by far less knowledge there was by much more honesty more honesty in mens dealings with men and in order then to their duties due unto Almighty God what zeal and care and constancy did our forefathers shew while they snatched at the bread of the word even from the middest of flames and did seek after it with all their endeavour while they were surrounded with many perils for so doing Oh how happy would those esteem themselves to be if they could but purchase with much price and more hazard any part or parcell of the New Testament in that language they could understand it how then would they have solaced themselves with that sweet Companion And if then they were put into Prisons for glorifying God in the self same prison they glorified him more and were willing to run as fast to Martyrdom as people in these days to pleasure or Covetousness were as prodigall of their lives in the service of God as others are of their money now in the service of their lusts suffering then more willingly for Christ Jesus than most are now to speak of him or for him In these times how many miles would people have gone to have heard that word of God which they now turn their backs upon the plenty of Ordinances having made many poor and long enjoyment of the word made them wanton with it weary of it and ready to loath it as the Israeliteâ— did their Manna calling it out of contempt this Manna Numb 11. Hence as pampered Bellys and wanton Palates come to Feasts and Banqâ—ets where nothing can please but some odd Sauce or some new invention so very many come to Sermons and to the reading of good Books and will be satisfied with nothing but the vanity and froth of wit though indeed it can give no satisfaction being like wind in the Stomack which fills but feeds not Or they come to hearing the word as if like Malchus the high Priests servant they had their right ears strook off for they hear not with judgement but sinisterly and often with prejudice to the person speaking and to the doctrine delivered be it never so excellent and he that delivers it of much integrity and desert Such hearers as these regard not what is solid substantiall and of most use to informe the understanding and to stir up the affections but that which is delightfull and pleasant to feed the phancie with Oylie passages which like the â—iddle of the Sun goes through the wood and through the wood and breaks never a stick so these through the head and
by many and the reason is because they do and will contradict it we have cause therefore to bless God for good Laws to direct and lead some as to constrain and bind others for there is no hope in this case to work Convictions upon many such as the Psalmist calls the beasts of the people who would defraud us if they could of all our just rights For doubtless if we were left wholy to their curtesie we might expect no more probably not so much from them as Micha gave his Levite Judg. 17. 10. ten Shekels of Slver by the year and a little clothing and victuals Now those Shekels were rated diversly some at fifteen pence others at twenty pence and the highest rate of them was two shillings and six pence the Shekel but which of these Micha gave his Chaplen I cannot tell neither can I say what our people in this Nation left to themselves would generally give their Minister by a voluntary gift But doubtless it would go very hard with many with most who if they were left altogether unto their peoples feeding would speed little better than a yong Welsh-man of the university of Oxford somtimes did and I am very certain that the relation is true who after he had gotten a lambe-skin upon his Shoulders being Bacheler of Arts presently went into the Countrey for preferments as he said and what he found was but four Pounds a year as he told me for reading prayers in a Church with liberty in the Belfary to teach a few Children out of which he was to provide himself of food and cloathing and all other necessaries I meeting him some half year after he told me how he sped and that it was but small but small I asked the poor man further how he did make a shift to live he told me that he had been sick of an Ague the greatest part of that time could take but little food and if it had not been so with him his preferment would have starved him And thus certainly would it be with many others if they were left for their livelihood meerly to mens curtesies Who think the bread of the Church sweet and therefore would eat it up all from us and leave us with their good will no part thereof and happily they may find or imagine it sweet in their mouths but in their stomacks it will proove hard of digestion Honey in the one Gravel in the other we leave these to God the righteous judge who complaines that he is rob'd and wrong'd in the injury done to us Mat. 3. 8. And will find a time to reckon with men for all these arrerages and therefore if repentance and restitution in this case when wrong hath been done and after-reformation prevent it not they will one day find enough mould in the grave and enough fire in Hell The Athenians as Valerius reports though they were Heathens yet when Phydias was to make for them the jmage of Minerva which Goddesse as they call'd her was in very high esteem amongst them and when that work-man told them that he would make it for them either in Marble or Ivory they heard him thus far but when he further advised them to have it made in Marble because that would be cheapest they presently commanded him silence and put him out of doores And if Heathens could not endure to entertain the thoughts of cheapness though but in the making of an Idoll let them of this Nation blush and have their faces covered with shame whosoever they be that love to serve God as they call it but to be at as little cost in that service as possibly they can as if they studied Jeroboams Politicks whose Policie eat up his Religion who after he had usurped his Kingdom did invent this taking snare to fasten the people unto him in giving them some seeming immunity in the profession of Religion telling them that it was too much for them to go to Jerusalem to sacrifice 1 King 12. 28. though they were commanded so to do by Almighty God and therefore he set up Calves one in Dan and the other in Bethel that they might stay at home and serve God better cheap with more ease and doubtlesse as they were perswaded with no less safety Again further for that people they do so highly prize those books in which their lawes are written that they know not how sufficiently to esteem and value them and therefore will not presume to touch them without much reverence What shall I say as to this unto very-very many of this Nation and such as have long lived under the Ministry of the word but having profited nothing by it know not how to put any valuation on it and therefore esteem it a trouble a burden rather then a blessing or benefit and consequently would be very well content so they might be freed from all charge to the publishers thereof if the whole book of God were served as that roll was written by Baruch from the mouth of Jeremiah the Prophet Jer. 36. Cut all in peaces and burnt in the fire Such as these will never be perswaded to follow that most excellent counsel which Solomon gives Prov. 23. 23. Buy the truth but sell it not Buy it of God by Prayer buy it of Books by reading buy it of Orthodox men by hearing buy it of other good Christians by conferring buy it over and over again you cannot over buy it Non Priamus tanti There is nothing in the world to be weighed against it to be compared with it But sell it not for a world Yet there are a great many dunghil men of the earth who with Aesops cock prefer a Barly Corne before the Pearle and therefore are most unwilling to part with a Penny for that most rich commodity It is strange further to consider as I observed before and is very true that Mahometans should never see their Alcoran though but a fardle of falshoods and fooleries or hear any part of it read without a shew of great attention affection and reverence and Heathens do so likewise at the hearing of their precepts and all of them give honour and maintenance which is comfortable and without grudging unto those that be their Teachers though they lead them quite out of the way and men dare to usurp the names of Christians and yet would be content I would not be uncharitable in this sad assertion would be content I say so they might be at no charge for hearing the truths of God If there were no book of God at all extant no Gospel no Minister to declare and publish it But the time will one day come when people if ever they return to a right knowledge of themselves who have manifested so much thrift in the profession of Religion shal rue and repent the time that ever they did so When they may desire to see one day more of the Son of man one day more of the Gospels which they so slighted
God the happiness of his countrey and the good of himself and Relations to consider that here where there is so much light and truth light to guide and truth to settle men in the way of life and Salvation there should be so much wavering wandering and wickedness For aske among the Heathens who hath done such things the Virgin Israel hath done very filâ—hily or an horrible thing as if the Prophet had said in other language Strumpets Harlots Prostitutes who sell their Souls with their Bodies had done but their kind but for Israel whom I have esteemed as a Virgin for England which I have owned above all the Nations of the earth to do such and such things who would have thought it Nay further as before considering all the means that we of this Nation have had above all the Nations in the world beside to teach us to know God and the great variety of mercies we have enjoyed to provoke us to love God that have had the wind and Sun of all other people the Sun shines not upon a Nation if we be considered collectively and together worse than we are It was sometimes prophesied of Jerusalem that Jerusalem should become so bad that it should justifie Sedome Ezek. 16. we of this Nation considered as before are a people that justifie Jerusalem oh what proficients have we been in the School of Satan when as those sins which the Apostle would not have so much as named among Christians have been so common amongst us so that we may boldly say how that Sodome and Gomorrah and those other Cities which Almighty God overthrew in anger and repented not those Cities which suffer the just and eternall vengeance of Almighty God lie not in Ashes for greater sins than have been committed amongst us But I can take no pleasure to be long raking in filthiness and corruption I will therefore make hast to give over this unpleasing unsavoury and nauseating discourse The rather because I know that neither counselling nor declaming against the sins of the present times doth much good This I believe that if I were filled with a spirit of false-hood and could prophesie of wine and strong drink my book would want no buyers to read and like it but I shall leave that discourse unto those that have not heard of Death in the Pot for my part I shall desire to be inrolled in the number of those who can wish with the Prophet Jeremy that their heads were waters and their eyes fountains of teares c. and that they had in the wilderness a lodging place that they might set down and weep day and night for the sins of the Nation and places where they live that they might sit down and weep and weepe over and over again those sins figh and cry for the Abominations they must needs take notice of by which retirement they might be freed from seeing and hearing and from vexing their Souls from day to day at the unlawfull deeds and filthy conversation of others and have better leisure to think themselves out of this wicked world Oh what cause have we of this Nation to beleeve that judgment is near when the Lord hath tryed us every way and all hath done us no good As fâ—rst God hath been exceeding good unto us in many favours so that it might have been said of England as one speaks of Israel that the Lord made that people a president of his love and favour that all the Nations of the world might learn by them from their example what God could do and what he would do for a people whom he loved but we have not been bettered by these benefits and doubtless if many amongst us had not been so blinded with light and sick of being well the body of this Church and state had never received such wounds as seeme incurable Oh if we had not sinn'd away our mercies God would never have taken away any of his loving kindnesses from us but our offences have been marvellously increased by our obligations there being no sins of so deep a die as thosewhich are committed against mercy The Lord hath tryed us otherwise his judgments have been in the land and the keenest of all temporall judgments the sword and the sharpest of all swords that which peirceth deepest because drawn amongst our own selves which hath made us our own spoylers our own prey yet we the inhabitants hereof have not learn'd Righteousness we have been encouraged by peace and we have slighted that and we have felt the sword of war and that hath done us no good Saevior armis Libertas nocuis Liberty as it hath been abused having given us deeper more dangerous wounds than ever the sword could So that neither the Majestie of God nor the Mercy of God the Goodness of God nor the greatness of God the favour of God nor the frown of Almighty God hath wrought upon us to reform us Now all these particulars put together they may give us great cause to feare what we shall be made to feel the weight of many sad conclusions which for the present we will not regard as that sin committed and unrepented of ever leaves a venome and a sting behind it and therefore that to sin is not the way to prosper that the longer a reckoning runs one the greater still the Summe and that the further compass a blow fetcheth about the heavier still it lights I shall speak it again under how many sad discouragements have many able sober minded and orthodox Ministers of the Gospel laboured in these later times who as if they had not enemies enough abroad find them at home in their own house their own coat proprijs pennis configimur wounded we are by our own quills by some who are excellent at close bites and though they speak us fair can open their mouths as wide against us as any others and then when we deserve nothing but well As the Athenians by their Ostracisme would punish desert and Crown ignorance But vessels that are most hollow and empty make the greatest sound and noyse And as love thinketh no evill So envy can speak no good we need not wonder at this when we consider that men of the highest deservings have many times had the worst usage And then if we find such dealing from amongst our selves we need not marvel at any thing we suffer from others from any from all that do not think well of us that do not love us and for that reason which Martiall expresseth in this Epigram Non amote Sabidi nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantum possum dicere non amote I do not love I love not Sabidie My reason of dislike I know not why When the Cynick was asked what beast did bite soarest and worst he answered of tame beasts a flatterer and of wild beasts a Slanderer many a good man sometimes feeles the â—eeth of both these of the tame beasts who when they creep into their