Intelligence far above time and even reaching Eternity it self into which thou art transformed for by receiving thou beyoâ—d all other things art made that which thou receivest The more thou knowest the more apt thou art to know not being amated with any object that excelleth in predoâ—inance as sense by objects sensible Thy Will is uncompellable resisting force â—aunting Necessity despising Dâ—nger triumphing over affliction unmoved by pitty and not constrained by all the toyls and disasters of life What the Arts â—master of this Universe is in governing this Universe thou art in the body and as he is wholly in every part of it so art thou wholly in every part of the body By thee man is that Hymen of eâ—ernal and mortal things that chain together binding unbodied and bodily substances without which the goodly Fabrick of this World were unperfect Thou hast not thy beginning from the fecundity power nor action of the elemental qualities being an immediate master piece of that great Maker Hence hast thou the forms and figures of all things imprinted in thee from thy first Original Thou onely at once art capable of contraries of the three parts of time thou makest but one Thou knowest thy self so seperate absolute and diverse an essence from thy body that thou dispossessed of it as it pleaseth thee for in thee there is no passion so weak which mastereth not the fear of leaving it Thou shouldst be so far from repining at this separation that it should be the chief of thy desires â—ith it is the passage and means to attain thy perfection and happiness Thou art here but as an infected and leprous Inn plunged in a floud of humours oppressed with cares suppressed with ignorance defiled and destained with vice retrograde in the course of virtue small things seem here great unto thee and great things small folly appeareth wisdome and wisedome folly Freed of thy fleshly care thou shalt rightly discern the beauty of thy self and have perfect fruiâ—ion of that all-sufficient and all-sufficing Happinesse which is GOD himself to whom thou owest thy being to him thou owest thy wel being he and happinesse are the same For if GOD had not happinesse â—e were not GOD because Happinesse is the highest and greatest good If then GOD have happinesse it cannot bee a thing differing from him for if there were any thing in Him differing from him he should be an essence composed and not simple more what is differing in any thing is either an accident or a part of it self In GOD Happiness can not be an accident because he is not subject to any accidents if it were a part of Him since the part is before the whole we should be forced to grant that some thing was before God Bedded and bathed in these earthly ordures thou canst not come near this Soveraign Good nor have any glimpse of the afar-off dawning of his uncessable brightnesse no not so much as the eyes of the Birds of the Night have of the Sunne Think then by death that thy shell is broken and thou then but even haâ—ched that thou art a Pearl raised from thy Mother to be enchaced in Gold and that the death day of thy body is thy birth-day to Eternity Why shouldst thou be fear-stroken and discomâ—orted for thy parting from this mortal Bride thy body sith it is but for a time and such a time as shee shall not care for not feel any thing in nor thou have much need of her Nay sith thou shalt receive her again more goodly and beautiful than when in her fullest perfection thou enjoied her being by her absence made like unto that Indian Chrystal which after some revolutions of ages is turned into purest Diamond If the Soul be thee Form of the Body and the form separated from the Matter of it cannot ever so continue but is inclined and disposed to be reunited thereinto What can let and hinder this desire but that some time it be accomplished and obtaining the expected end rejoin it self again unto the Body The Soul separate hath a desire because it hath a will and knowes it shall by this re-union receive perfection too as the matter is disposed and inclineth to its form when it is without it so would it seem that the Form should be towards its matter in the absence of it How is not the Soul the form of the body sith by it it is and is the beginning and cause of all the actions and functions of it For though in excellency it passe every other form yet doth not that excellency take from it the nature of a form If the abiding of the Soul from the body be violent then can it not be everlasting but have a regress How is not such an estate of being and abiding not violent to the Soul if it be natural to it to be in matter and separate â—fter a strange manner many of the powers and faculâ—ies of it which never leave it are not duly exercised This Union feemeth not above the Horizon of natural Reason far less impossible to be done by God and though Reason câ—nnot evidently here demonstrate yet hath she a misty â—nd groping notice If the body shall not arise how can â—he onely and Soveraign Good be perfectly and infinitely good For how shall he be just nay have so much justice â—s Man if he suffer the evil and vicious to have a more proâ—perous and happy life than the followers of Religion and Virtue which ordinarily useth to fall â—orth in this life For 〈◊〉 most wicked are Lords and Gods of this Earth sleeping â—n the lee port of honour as if the spacious habitation oâ—â—he World had been made onely for them and the virtuous and good are but forlorn cast-awaies floting in the surges of distress seeming here either of the eye of providence not pittied or not regarded being subject to all dishonors wrongs wracks in their best estate passing away their daies like the Dazies in the field in silence and contempt Sith then he is most good most just of necessity therâ— must be appointed by him another time and place of retribution in the which there shall be a reward for living well and a punishment for doing evil with a life where into both shall receive their due and not onely in their Souls divested for sith both â—he parts of man did act a part in the right or wrong it carriâ—th great reason with it that they both be aâ—raigned bâ—fore that â—igh justice to râ—câ—ive their own Man is not a Soul onely but a Soul and body to which â—ither guerdon or punishment is due This seemeth to be thâ— voice of Nature in almost all the Religions of the world this is that general testimony charactered in the minds of the most barbarous and savage people for all have had some roviâ—g gesâ—es at ages to come and a dim duskish light of another life all appealing to one general Judgement Throne To what else couâ—d serve so
Gyants modelled for a sport of Snow which at the hoter looks of the Sun melt away and ly drowned in their own moisture such an impetuous vicissitude towseth the estates of this World Is it knowledge But we have not yet attained to a perfect understanding of the smallest Flower and why the Grasse should rather be green than read The Element of Fire is quite put out the Air is but water rarified the Earth moveâ—h and is no more the Center of the Universe is turned into a Magnes Stars are not sixed but swim in the Etherial spaces Comets are mounted above the Planets some assirm there is another world of men and creatures with Cities and Towers in the Moon the Sun is lost for it is but a cleft in the lower heavenâ— through which the light of the highâ—st shines Thus Sciences by the diverse motions of this Globe of the brain of man are become opinions What is all we know compared with what we know not We have not yet agreed about the chief good and felicitye It is perhaps Artificial Cunning how many curiosities be framed by the least Creatures of Nature unto which the industry of the most curious Artizanes doth not again Is it Riches what are they but the casâ—ing out of Friends the Snares of liberty bands to such as have them possâ—ssing rather then possest metals which nature hath hid fore-seeing the great harm they should occasion and the onely opinion of man hath brought in estimation like Thornes which laid on an open hand may be blown away and on a closing and hard gripping wound it Prodigals mispend them wretches miskeep them when we have gathered the greatest abundance we our selves can enjoy no more thereof than so much as belongs to one man what great and rich men do by others the meaner sort do themselves Will some talk of our pleasures it is not though in the fables told out of purpose that pleasure in hast being called up to Heaven did here forget her apparel which Sorrow thereafter â—inding to deceive the world attired her self with And if we would say the truth of most of our joies we must confess that they are but disguised sorrows the drams of thâ—ir Honey are â—owred in pounds of Gâ—ll remorse ever enseweath them nay in some they have no effect at all if some wakening grief hath not preceded and forewent them Will some Ladies vaunt of their beauty that is but skin-deep of two senâ—â—s onely known short even of Marble Statues and Pictures not the same to all eyes dangerous to the Bâ—holder and hurtful to the Possessor an enemy to Chastiâ—ie a thing made to delight others more than those which have it a superficial lustre hiding bones and the brains things fearful to be looked upon growth in years doth blaste it or sickness or sorrow preventing them Our strength matched with that of the urneasonable Creatures is but weakness all we can set our eyes on in these intricate mazes of life is but vain perspective and deceiving shadows appearing far otherwise afar off than when injoied and gazed upon in a neâ—r distance If death be good why should it be feared And if it be the woâ—k of nature how should it not be good for nature is an Ordinance and Rule which God hath established in the creating this Vniverse as is the Law of a king which cannot err Sith in him there is no impotency and weakâ—esse by the which he might bring forth what is unperfect no perverseness of will of which might proceed any vicious action no ignorance by the which he might go wrong in working being most powerful most good most wise nay all-wise all-good all powerful He is the first Orderer and marshalleth every other Order the highest Essâ—nce giving essence to all other things of all causes the cause he worketh powerfully bounteously wisely and maketh his Artificial Organ nature do the same How is not Death of Nature sith what is naturally generate is subject to corruption and such an harmony which is life rising from the mixture of the four Elements which are the Ingredients of our bodie can not ever endure the contrariety of their qualities as a consuming Rust in the basâ—r Mettals being an inward cause of a necessary dissoution Again how is not Death good sith it is the thaw of all those vanities which the frost of life bindeth together If there be a saciety in life then must there be a sweetnesse in Death The Earth were not ample enough to contain her off-spring if none dyed in two or three Ages without death what an unpleasant and lamentable Spectacle were the most flourishing Cities for what should there be to be seen in them save bodies languishing and courbing again into the Earth pale disfigured faces Skelitons instead of men and what to be heard but the exclamations of the young complaints of the old with the pittiful cries of sick and pining persons there is almost no infirmity worse than age If there be any evil in death it would appear to be that pain and torment which we apprehend to arisâ— from the breaking of those strait bands which keep the Soul and body together which sith not without great struggling and motion seemes to prove it self vehement and most extreme The senses are the only cause of pain but before the last Trances of Death they are so brought under that they have no or very little strength and their strength lessening the strength of pain too must be lessened How should we doubt but the weakness of sense lesseneth pain sith we know that weakened and maimed parts which receive not nourishment are a great deal less sensible than the other parts of the body And see that old decrepit persons leave this world almost without pain as in a sleep If bodies of the most sound and wholesome constitution be these which most vehemently feel pain it must then follow that they of a distemperate and craisie constitution have least feeling of pain and by this reason all weak and sick bodies should not much feel pain for if they were not distâ—mpered and evil complexioned they would not be sick That the Sight Hearing Taste Smelling leave us without pain and unawares we are undoubtedly assured and why should we not think the same of the Feeling That which is capable of feeling are the vital Spirits which in a man in a perfit health are spread and extended through the whole body and hence is it that the whole Body is capâ—ble of pain but in dying bodies we see that by pauses and degrees the parts which are furthest removed from the heart become cold and being deprived of natural heat all the pain which they feel is that they do feel no pain Now even as before the sick are aware the vital spirits have withdrawn themselves from the whole extension of the body to succour the heart like distressed Citizens which finding their walls battered down fly to the defence of theiâ— ittadel
the soul And if two Pilgrims which have wandred some few miles together have a hearts-grief when they are neer to part what must the sorrow be at the parting of two so loving Friends and never-loathing Lovers as are the Body and Soul Death is the violent estranger of acquaintance the eternal Divorcer of Mariage the Ravisher of the children from the Parenâ—s the Sâ—ealer of Parents from their children the interrâ—r oâ— Fame the sole cause of forgetfulnesse by which the living talk of those gone away as oâ— so many Shadowes or age-worn Stories all strength by it is enseebled Beauty tuâ—ned into deformity and rotâ—enness honour in contempt Gloâ—y into basenesse It is the reasonless breaker off of all Actiâ—ns by which we enjoy no more the sweet pleasures of Earth nor gaze upon the stately revolutions of the Heavens Sunne perpetually setteth Stars never rise unto us It in one moment robbeâ—h us of what with so great toyl and care in many years we have heaped together By this are Successions of Linages cut short kingdomes left heirless and greatest States orphaned it is not overcome by Pride â—mothered by Flattery diverted by time Wisedome save this can prevent and help every thing By death we are exiled from this fair City of the World it is no more a World unto us nor we no more a people unto it The ruines of Phanes Palaces and other magnificent Frames yâ—eld a sad prospect to the soul and how should it without horrour view the wrack of such a wounderful Master-piece as is the body That death naturally is terrible and to be abhorred it can not well and altogether be denyed it being a privation of life and a not-being and every privation being abhorred of nature and evil in it self the fear of it too being ingenerate universally in all Creatures yet I have often thought that even naturally to a mind by onely nature resolved and prepaâ—ed it is more terrible in conceit than in verity and at the first Glance than when well pryed into and that rather by the weakness of our fantasie than by what is in it and that the marble colours of Obsequies Weeping and funeral pomp which we our selves castover did add much more ghastâ—inesse unto it than otherwaies it hath To aver which conclusion when I had gatherd my wandring thoughts I began thus with my self If on the great Theatre of this Earth amongst the numberless number of men To dy were onely proper to thee and thine then und â—ubtedly thou hadst reason to repine at so severe and partial a Law but since it is a necessity from the which never an age by-past hath been exempted and unto which they which be and so many as are to come are thralled no consequent of life being more common and familiar why shouldst it thou with unprofitable and nought availing stubbornness oppose to so unevitable and necessary a Condition this is the high-way of Mortality our general home behold what millions have trode it before thee what multitudes shall after thee with them which at that same instant run In so universal a calamity if Death be one private complaints cannot be heard with so many Royal Palaces it is no loss to see thy poor Câ—ban burn Shall the heavens stay their ever-roling wheels for what is the motion of them but the motion of a swift and ever whirling wheel which twineth forth and again uprolleth our life and hold still time to prolong thy miserable daies as if the highest of their working were to do homage unto thee thy death is a peice of the Order of this All a part of the Life of this world for while the World is the World some Creatures must dy and others take life Eternal things are raised far above this Sphere of Generation and Corruption where the first Matter like an ever flowing and ebbing Sea with divers waves but the same water keepeth a restless and never tyring current what is below in the universality of the kind not in it self doth abide Man a long line of years hath continued This man every hundred is swept away This Globe environed with air is the sole Region of death the Grave where every thing that taketh life must rott the Stage of Fortune and Change onely glorious in the unconstancy and varying alterations of it which though many seem yet to abide one and being a certain entire one are ever many The never agreeing bodies of the Elemental Brethren turn one in another the Earth changeth her countenance with the seasons sometimes looking cold and naked other times hot and flowry Nay I cannot tell how but even the lowest of those Celestial bodies that mother of moneths and Empress of Seas and moisture as if she were a Mirrour of our constant mutability appeareth by her too great neerness unto us to participate of our changes never seeing us twice with that same face now looking black then pale and wan sometimes again in the perfection and fulnesse of her beauty shining over us Death no lesse than life doth here act a part the taking away of what is old being the making away for what is young They which forewent us did leave a Room for us and should we grieve to do the same to those which should come after us who being suffered to see the exquisite rarities of an Antiquaries Cabinet is grieved that the curtain he drawn and to give place to new pilgrims and when the Lord of this Universe hath shewed us the amazing wonders of his various frame should we take it to heart when he thinketh time to dislodge this is his unalterable and unevitable Decree as we had no part of our will in our entrance into this lâ—iâ—e we should not presume of any in our leaving it but soberly learn to will that which he wills whose very will giveth being to all that it wills and reverencing the Orderer not repine at the Order and Laws which al-where and allwaies are so perfectly established that who would essay to correct and amend any of them should either make them worse or desire things beyond the level of possibility If thou doest complain that there shall be a time in the which thou shalt not be why dost thou not too grieve that there was a time in the which thou waste not and so that thou art not as old as that enlifening Planet of time for not to have been a thousand years before this moment is as much to be deplored as not to live a thousand after it the effect of them both being one that will be after us which long long before we were was Ous Childrens children have that same reason to murmur that they were not young men in our daies which we have to complain that we shall not be old in theirs The Violets have their time though they impurple not the Winter and the Roses keep their season though they disclose not their beauty in the Spring Empires States Kingdomes have by the doom
actions to all men which they cannot go beyond Most then answered I Death is not such an evil and pain as it is of the Vulgar esteemed Death said he nor painful is nor evil except in contemplation of the cause being of it self as indifferent as birth yet can it not be denyed and amidst those dreams of earthly pleasures the uncouthnesse of it with the wrong apprehension of what is unknown in it are noysom But the Soul sustained by its Maker resolved and calmly retired in it self doth find that death sith it is in a moment of Time is but a short nay sweet sigh and is not worthy the remembrance compared with the smallest dramm of the infinite Felicity of this Place Here is the Palace Royal of the Almighty King in which the uncomprehensible comprehensibly manifesteth Himself in place highest in substance not subject to any corruption or change for it is above all motion and solid turneth not in quantity greatest for if one Starre one Sphere be so vast how large how huge in exceeding demensions must those bounds be which do them all contain In quality most pure and orient Heaven here is all but a Sunne or the Sunne all but a Heaven If to Earthlings the Foot-stool of God and that Stage which he raised for a small course of Time seemeth so glorious and magnificent What estimation would they make if they could see of his eternal Habitation and Throne and if these be so wonderful what is the fight of him for whom and by whom all was created of whose Glory to behold the thousand thousand part the most pure Intelligencies are fully satiate and with wonder and delight rest amazed for the beauty of his light and the light of His beauty are uncomprehensible Here doth that earnest appetite of the understanding content it self not seeking to know any more For it seeth before it in the vision of the Divine essence a Miroir in the which not Images or shadows but the true and perfect essence of every thing created is more clear and conspicuous than in it self all that may be known or understood Here doth the Will pause it self as in the center of its Eternal rest glowing with a fiery affection of that infinite and al-sufficient good which being fully known cannot for the infinite motives and causes of love which are in him but be fully and perfectly loved As he is onely the true and essential Bounty so is he the onely essential and true beauty deserving alone all Love and Admiration by which the Creatures are onely in so much fair and excellent as they parâ—icipate of his Beauty and excelling Excellencies Here is a blessed Company every one joying as much in anothers Felicity as in that which is proper because each seeeth another equaly loved of God thus their distinct joyes are no fewer than the copartners of the Joy And as the Assembly is in number answerable to the large capacity of the place so are the joyes answerable to the numberlesse number of the Assembly No poor and piâ—tiful mortal confined on the Globe of Earth who hath never seen buâ— soâ—row or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures can righly think on or be sufficient to conceive the termless delights of this place So many Feathers move not on Birds so many Birds dint not the Air so many leaves tremble not on Trees so many Trees grow not in the solitary Forests so many waves turn not in the Ocean and so many grains of Sand limit not those Waves as this triumphant Court hath variety of delights and Joies exempâ—ed from all comparison Happiness at once here is â—ully known and fully enjoyed and as infinite in conâ—inuance as extent Here is flourishing and never-fading youth without Age Strength without Weaknesse Beauty never blasting Knowledge without Learning Abundance without Loathing Peace without Disturbance Participâ—tion without Envy Rest without Labour Light without rifing or setting Sunne Perpetuity without moments for Time which is the measure of Endurance did never enter in this shining Eternity Ambition Disdain Malice Difference of Opinions cannot approach this place and resembling those foggy Mists which cover those Lists of Sublunary things All pleasure paragon'd with what is here is pain all Mirth mourning all Beauty deformity Here one daies abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the Earth many years and sufficient to countervail the extreamest torments of Life But although this bliss of Souls be great and their joies many yet shal they admit addition and bee more ful and perfect at that long wished and general meeting with their bodies Amongst all the wonders of the great Creator not one appeareth to be more wounderful replied I than that our Bodies should arise having suffered so many changes and nature denying a return from privation to a Habit. Such power said he being above all that the Understanding of Man can conceave may well work such wonders For if Mans Vnderstanding could comprehend all the secrets and counsels of that Eternal Majesty it must of necessity be equal unto it The Author of Nature is not thralled to the Lawes of Nature but worketh with them or contrary to them as it pleaseth him What he hath a will to do he hath a power to perform To that power which brought all this All from nought to bring again in one instant any substance which ever was into it unto what it was once should not be thought impossible for who can do more can do less and his power is no less after that which was by him brought forth is decaâ—ed and vanished than it was before it was produced being neither restrained to certain limits or instruments or to any determinate and definite manner of working where the power is without restraint the work admitteth no other limits than the Workers will This world is as a Cabinet to God in which the small things however to us hid and secret are nothing less kept than the great For as he was wife and powerful to creat so doth his knowledge comprehend his own Creation yea every change and varity in it of which it is the very Source Not any Atom of the scatter'd Dust of mankind though daily flowing under new forms is to him unknown and his knowledge doth distinguish and discern what once his power shall waken and raise up Why may not the Arts-Master of the world like a Molder what he hath framed in divers shapes confound in one mass and then severally fashion them out of the same Can the Spargirick by his Art restore for a space to the dry and withered Rose the natural purple and bluth and cannot the Almighty râ—ise and refine the body of man after never so many alterations on the Earth Reason her self finds it more possible for infinit power to cast out from it self a finit world and restore any thing in it though decaied and dissolved to what it was first than for man a finit piece of reasonable misery to change the form of matter made to his hand the power of God never brought forth all that it can for then were it bounded and no more infinit That time doth approach O hast ye times away in which the dead shall live and the living be changed and of all actions the Guerdon is at hand then shall there â—e an end without an end time shall finish and place shall be altered motion yielding unto rest and another world of an age eternal and unchangeable shall arise which when he had said me thought he vanished and I all astonished did awake To the Memory of the most Excellent Lady JANE Countess of PERTH THis Beauty which Pale death in dust did turn And clos'd so soon within a Coffin sad Did passe like Lightning like to T hunder burn So little Life so much of Worth it Had. Heavens bâ—t to shew their Might here made it shine And when admir'd then in the Worlds disdain O Tears O Grief did call it back again Lest Earth should vaâ—ut she kept what was Divine What can we hope for more What more enjoy Sith â—â—irest Things thus soonest have their End And as on Bodies shadowes do attend Sith all our blisse is follow'd with Annoy Yet she 's not dead she lives where she did love Her Memory on Earth Her soul above To S. W. A. THough I have twice been at the Doors of Death And twice found shut those Gates which ever mourn This but a lightning is Truce tane to Breath For late-born Sorrows augurre fteet return Amidst thy sacred Cares and Courtly toils Alexis when thou shalt hear wandring Famâ— Tell Death bath triumph'd o're my mortal spoils And that on Earth I am but a sad Name If thou e're held me clear by all our Love By all that Blisse those Ioyes Heaven here us gave I conjure thee and by the Maids of Jove To grave this short Remembrance on my Grave Here Damon lies whose Songs did somtime grace The murmuring Esk may roses shade the Place On the Report of the Death of the Author Iâ— that were true which whispered is by Fame That Damons light no more on Earth doth burn His Part on Phoebus physick would disclaim And cloth'd in clouds as erst for Phâ—eton mourn Yea Fame by this had got so deep a wound That scarce She could have power to tell his death Her Wings cut short who could her Trumpet sound Whose blaze of late was nurs'd but by his Breath That Spirit of his which most with mine was free By mutual traffick enterchanging store If chac'd from him it would have come to me Where it so ost familiar was before Some secret Grief distempring first my Mind Had though not knowing made me feel this losse A Sympathy had so our Souls combind That such a parting both at once would tosse Though such Reports to others terrour give Thy Heavenly Virtnes who did never spy I know thou that canst make the dead to live Immortal art and needs not fear to dye Sir WILL. ALEXANDER FINIS