consider and ruminate upon these things shall find under their Garments there are many Thorns there are more prickles then Roses among these seeming sweets thou wilt not deny the truth hereof do but seriously mark with me Almighty God catching Man out of the Earthy-paradice for a chastisement besides his banishment sends him to till the Earth telling him withal Cursed shall be the ground for thy sake it shall cost thee thy labour if thou wilt eat of the fruit thereof nay and many times after great labour travel and vexation thinking to eat of the Fruit of thy Labours thou shalt gather Briars Thornes Brambles Thistles and other Weeds that thou mightest not eat thy Bread without sorrow nor enjoy an hour of quiet repose until thou return to the Earth out of which thou waste taken and of which thou waste mouled But Oh sad Men that we are who are more sensible of Gods Curse in this kinde then the poor peasants who often having well plowed sowed and manured their Land taking pains early and late suffering the extremities of heat in Summer and cold in Winter sometimes wounded with some Viper Snake or with their Plough instruments and after a whole years pains and travel there a Dew a Hail a Nipping Frost a Storm or a Drought which burns spoiles and destroyes the Fruit of the ground and leaves a comfortless Harvest to them some their Sheep Horses or Cowes die others are plundered by Souldiers which do take away spoil and destroy even all they have in their houses and when they come home expecting to finde repose and hoping quietly to rest their wearied Limbs they finde the Women weeping their Children crying and all the Family complaining for want of Food in conclusion this life is no other thing but a Mortal Wound that hath its Root or principium deep within and keeps the miserable patient in continual pain and sorrow Even so is the poor Husbandman seldome contented but now he torments himself of one side then on the other If there falls much Rain he sayes I never saw such Floods and Waters If Rain be wanting I never saw such a Drought Then he complains the Locusts is in his Grain or Stormes or Whirl-Windes have blasted his Corn in the Field his Trees in the Orchard But above all they do complain of the Souldiers when they are in Field for from them proceeds many evils to them In the following lamentation which was lately presented to me by a friend and sufferer which is Entituled Give peace in our time O Lord of which Sentence the following Discourse is a gloss Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis nisi tu Deus noster Give peace in her time O Lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but onely thou O God which is a godly and learned expression in the Liturgy of the Church of England He saith thus O thou the onely true God thou well knowest I do not lie I have no Cattle nor Goods which I can say I have received from any but from thee to thee a General of all Souldiers who alone without danger canst defeat and resist them I pray thee to avenge me and chastise them give peace to all we have great need of peace But if thou wilt chastise men as thou hast just cause and thou onely canst do it O Lord. Our fore-fathers although they lived in this World they never saw the Villanies acted which we see in diebus nostris in our dayes With great care trouble and sweat I labour yet am ready to die with hunger it 's three dayes since a piece of Bread hath been eaten in my house quia non est because there is none I sowed planted manured and gathered I ploughed all my Land both Waste and pasture to maintain my house and family but wo is me they have destroyed all It was not one alone that did this evil God thou knowest how many they are and how many afflictions daily lie upon me as well Actions of Debt which by reason of losses I cannot pay as these Souldiers which do torment and trouble me Alias qui pugnet Who shall we seek to defend us but thee We peasants have cause to complain because they that should fight pro nobis for us do abuse afflict and destroy us O my Creator what a comfort is it considering thy infinite mercy that from the evils which I suffer none can deliver or avenge me nisi tu but thou I will not trust in the World or any thing therein because it cannot help me in thee alone do I put my trust O my God When shall Robberries and Thefts cease when shall reason and policy maintain true justice that will be the good true and happy time But let 's leave the poor Husbandmen to their cares troubles and labours and let 's proceed forward to see what are the passages what sweets may be found amongst Trafficks of Merchandizes and Traders If we behold onely its outward appearance it will seem to be free of all afflictions and miseries because it is coloured over with the splendid Flourish of Riches and other painted arts which they use they may promise but cannot afford us any contentment any sollid repose or quiet enjoyment affirming that which Pliny saith That Trade was first invented because it was found to be absolutely necessary to humane life and society and that many of the ancient wise men were Merchants as Tales Milessius Solon Hipocrates and many others and was the first occasion of ingendering love betwixt different Nations and enterchanging mutual amity and peace amongst bordering Princes for they carry or transport from one Countrey to another from one City to another what is wanting or what abounds Yet we cannot so far mark so artificially guild over this kinde of living though he carry it out never so high and dissemble it never so gallantly you may read in their Eyes conjecture by their Faces The disquiets troubles and perplexities which attend Merchants to what and how many strange hazards are they subject to every moment both by Sea and Land besides the mention we might particularly make how the greatest part of their life they go like Fugitives and Vagabons from Countrey to Countrey from Town to City from City to Village that they seem to be like Gipsies or banished Offenders onely it 's true their parting from their Country and Friends is voluntary they never do other but run go trot nay flie both by Sea and Land meeting with colds heats passing as it were through fires waters and snowes being onely encouraged and spurred on by a disordered covetousness to get and purchase Wealth they rejoyce to loose that contentment and sweet repose which they might enjoy at their own homes with their possessions their Wives Children and Servants about them and put their lives in danger by the deceitful lurking ambushments and stratagems of Thieves who ever have an
thing it is to keep that which all men desire and use their uttermost wits to steal procure and enjoy behold said Guillermo Periera a jealous man the great danger in which I leave thee the head which thou now hast of a round forme may be turned into a square shape meaning in plaine termes thou mayest be cornuted in conclusion if she be rich she will be proud if beautifull there 's ground for jealousie if foul or ill shaped there 's matter of hatred and disaffection offers for which cause Diponates as a deep sufferer in the affaires of Wedlock was wont to say That marryed people had only two good dayes the one was the Wedding day in which all is pleasure contents and pastimes the bride is fresh beautified and chearfull all new joyes or novelty is pleasing in delights alwayes the begining is most apetitious and savory the other is the day of death of a mans Wife for the Snake being dead her poyson dies with her even so when the woman dies the man is freed from a sharpe and hard servitude in confirmation of this they produce a story of a young Roman Gentleman that the day after the Wedding his friends finding him sad and pensative after the enjoyment of his first nights pleasures some of those that were most intimate with him and private asked of him the cause of his sorrow and why he that had a Wife beautifull rich and of noble Parentage should be so sad he stretched forth his Leg and pointing to his foot he said friends you well may see how well made and fashionable my Shooe is but none of ye know where it pinches me Philemon affirmes That a Wife is an inexcusable evil to a Husband for its a difficult thing to find a good Woman therefore saith the antient Proverbe in Spain Vna buena muger una buena Mula una buena cabra son tres malas Bestias a good Wife a good Mule and a good she goat are three necessary evils to make good this they produce Plutarch questioning is there any thing more quick and nimble then the tongue of a Woman any thing more biting or more pearcing then the injuries expresses more rash and indiscreet then her boldness more execrable then her malice more dangerous then her fury more false or counterfeited then her teares not to make a large relation of many other offences the ill huswifrie and gadding abroad of many women neglecting their Children putting them to others to Nurse and if they do bring them up at home they are too often so perverse and wicked by their Mothers example document and cockering that they do not only hazard the losse of the Honours and Estates of their fathers but their persons and lives also leaving such a blot upon their families which can never be blotted out or taken away of which evil Augustus Caesar feeling himselfe hurt and wounded he wished that his Wife had never brought forth Children he was wont to call his Empress and his neece horsleaches that sucked and wasted him and his substance to his great griefe and paine sure he had a bad wife and worse children Marcus Aurelius one of the most wise and worthy Emperours that ever took Golden Cepter in hand well considering and understanding what passages there are betwixt marryed people being importuned by some friends to marry his Daughter he gave them this answer Do not salute or presse me any more about this matter for if all the councels of the wisest men were joyned together and refined in a Goldsmiths fire they would not be sufficient to give a certain good and wholesome advice for making of a happy match or marriage therefore how do I think that I alone should dispose of her so suddenly without advice aod deliberation It s now six years since that Antonio Pio made choice of me for his Son in law and gave the Empire in marriage for dowry we were both deceived he in accepting me for Son in law and I receiving his daughter for Wife he was called Pio because he was good and charitable to all only to me saith he he was cruel and pittyless for he gave me with a very little Lady abundance of bones these portions these bitter galls and many others mixed with the pleasures of Wedlock and if we would confess the truth we cannot so easily marke hide paint over and set forth the gallantry delights and pastimes thereof if we weigh in the ballance against them the weighty burden of cares travells and troubles which married men undergo it will be a great happyness if the Scales are equall and the burden the lighter which God grant to every man The Third BOOK OF THE Theatre of the World Wherein is discoursed Mans miseries more particularly and exactly to the end of his Dayes LETS leave the Estates conditions and degrees of men in their labours travels sorrows and dealings casting their nets and hookes in the maine Ocean of the World and return to our commenced purpose of the miseries of Mankind that we may more particularly give account of the remaining scourges and afflictions with which nature doth chastise whip and torment Men with which engines she endeavours to draw this vessel of Earth to the knowledge and love of God were it not just that man seeing the corruptions of all estates and degrees of the World their contemptible and loathsome conditions and beings that dead he is nothing but a harbour for Wormes a Corps and being cast into the Grave if after a time it be opened gives such a horrible and contagious scent that all that come neer or passe by stop their noses that they may not be infected with it were it not just that affliction should come upon him asswage his pride and allay the wicked motions of his heart and bring him to a contemplation of his frailty and thereby be afraid to offend his God for our vile and impudent nature is grown to such a height that we do put our selves in defiance with God as if we would fight the field with him we break the fences and cut through his true established Uniformity of Religion and worship and by necessities born of our own fantastical braines as many seeming wise men do in our dayes willfully and not for conscience withstand it and do thereby God send it be not laid to their charge keep the people from unity love and quietnesse St. Jerome and St. Austin do affirme that in their days the Word of God was in great esteeme and published that there was hardly a Nation in the World where there were not some Christians even in the remotest parts thereof but in our dayes for our ingratitude and our manyfold transgressions God hath been pleased to turne his back upon us overclouding the light of his Gospell so that it appears in luster only in the least quarter of the World our Europe where it hardly enlightens two parts of three and what is more to be lamented is
the multitude and diversity of Opinions which dayly are broached and fomented amongst Christians in the which we find our selves every day more involved for what one saith is white others say is black what some hold for day others say is night in fine there wants not those who do make a lie and Antichristian faith of the truth of Jesus Christ from which proceeds a great and strange evil which is an exceeding cause of offence to ignorant persons seeing some wise men affirme what others deny knowing as they do that there is but one only truth that I can find it in no place more transparent then in the Church of England For what others can say against her is not against any fundamentall truth but against her decent Ornaments and Divine order God is the God of order and apointed distinct Vestments for the Priests that served before Him in his Temple at Jerusalem so that all ignorant people as well as knowing ought to shut their eyes and eares against all novelties and stand stedfast first in the faith but next in the practice of their forefathers for had there been any error of consequence so many wise men as lived in those days would have amended them its true the Church may to appearance run a great hazard in the depths of affliction but shall never be devoured drowned or destroyed which as a miracle we have seen of our Church in her persecution and restauration these Sects and Heresies going on as they do well may we say that the fences of the pasture where the Flock of Jesus Christ were wont to be gathered together and fed are broken down and that Wolves are entred in to destroy disperse and devour the innocent Sheep and all proceeds from the carelesseness of their unwatchfull and disagreeing Pastors who neglect to stop the gaps mend up the fences discover withstand and hinder the growth and increase of this tamelesse devouring and poysoning beast of Heresie from whence it proceeds that many of the sheep have fled and gone astray without a Shepherd others are fed of ignorant and blind Shepherds which are hired for a small matter of money and are in danger of being lost because the chiefe Pastors take no care to overlook them and for those that remain together in the fold and pasture of Christ are at the point of hazard to be parted and mislead from the true way and certainly if we could see with our corporall eyes at once the great and apparent danger that all Christendome is in at this day if it were possible to number the multitude of Soules which are dayly in danger to be lost by these Sects Schismes Heresies it must needs make a mans haire stand upright with amazement Tell me truly Gentle Reader is there any manner of chastisement scourge torment anguish or sorrow of which we have not tasted in our dayes with which God hath not assayed to awaken us I will not refraine to wright somewhat and begin with the cruell wares and great effusions of Blood which hath been amongst us within this fifty or threescore yeares although I have written thereof in another Treatise and the memorial thereof is so fresh that the blood is hardly stenched of the wounds which hath been so deeply cut amongst Christians the great multitude of people as well men as women which wander as vagabonds from Country to Province and from Citty to Village forcibly banished from their Countrys Parents and houses with the distressed Mothers laden with their sad Orphans who by the diligence fury and cruelty of their Enemies are forced to fly from the burning flame and to seek out some ease house or repose for themselves and their hunger bitten infants nay and often cannot find it these may be sufficient witnesses of the many strange and bitter evils which attend War what greater griefe then to see the streetes filled with such kind of sorowfull and afflicted people what conscience or continency of life can they have who are the cause of such Tragedies when they shall here the teares sighs and out-cryes of such miserable Creatures especially when they shall consider that there is a full and particular account to be given of all the blood that unjustly or maliciously hath been or shall be shed from Abell who was the first man that dyed unto the last that shall die in the World as the holy spirit of God teacheth us in the Sacred Scriptures If we have felt the fatal stroke of War amongst us which is one of the principall messengers of Gods wrath there is another which is the Pestilence which hath not been wanting in our dayes for God according to our hardnesse of heart and impenitence proceeds with us by degrees either increasing or diminishing the chastisement I have read of the most strange wonderfull Plagues and contagions that have hapned in former ages the which we will compare with those of our times that we may come to see and understand that when God is highly offended whets and sharpens the sword of his anger and fury against us all other Creatures are overtaken with the irefull stroke thereof Many Authors worthy of Credit have written that the Citizens of Constantinople were visited with such a strange kind of horrible Pestilence that those that were smitten therewith they imagined that they were slaine by the hand of a neighbour or friend and being fallen into this frenzie they dyed distracted being only posses'd with this fear that they believd their deaths wound proceeded from another man There was in the dayes of Heraclius such a mortall Plague in Romania that in few dayes there dyed many thousand men the fury and frenzie of the contagion was so great that the most part of those that were stricken therewith cast themselves into the river Tiber to asswage the exceeding heat which like a red hot Iron consumed their very entrailes Tucidides a Greek Author writes that in his time there happened in Grecia such a contagious corruption of aire that an infinite number of people dyed without any remedy that could be found to mittygate or cure the disease and relates another thing more admirable and strange that if any one recovered health and escaped that venemous infirmity they remained without any remembrance of what was past even to the forgeting of Fathers Children of Childrens Parents Marcus Aurellius an Author worthy of credit wrights that there happened in his dayes so great a Plague in Italy that the Historians attempting to wright thereof said it was more easie for them to number those that were living then to give account of how many dyed the Souldiers of Avidius Cassuis a Generall under the Emperour Macro Antonio being in Seleucia a Citty appertaining to the Empire of Babilon they made entrance into the Temple of Apollo and finding there a certain Chest they opened it expecting to find a great Treasure in it from which proceeded such a stinking corrupted pestiferous aire that almost destroyed
Saphira his wife when they kept back part of the money the land was sold for and lyed to the Holy Ghost they fell down dead at St. Peters feet St John Baptist calls sinners sons of Vipers Let them consider how Epimenides the Greek called the Cretans cruel beasts abominable shamelesse lyers slothfull also let them look how the Prophet Elias c. spake against the Babylonians What strange words and sharp expressions they used although they were so grave good and very severe men tell me now I pray you with what stern feirce and bitter words and sayings would those Prophets Apostles holy Doctors and ancient Phylosophers preach and reprove if they lived in our times if they had flourished in our age which is so full of Vices and so corrupted with all abominable wickednesses that it appears like nothing more than a receptacle or sinke wherein the filth dung and Vice of all Ages past are emptied Yet I would not be taken for such a reformer as to be an absolute Judge of mens Vices for I am a man as others are a sinner and for telling the truth of passages I would not willingly offend any man for my intent is to speak against mens Vices not against their persons And I will unmask some sins which go hidden that weak people way not hence forward fall into their snares and that they may finde the true means and remedies hereby to free themselves from so great evills As for those that cannot suffer this my way of writing let them learn to reform their lives and govern themselves after such a manner as not to give offence to others and thereby to bring dishonour and an evill report upon themselves And indeed wicked men live in this world as in a wilde field of Licenciousnesse There are many that doe dresse their Vices in gallant Liveries and other doe so closely endeavour to mask theirs as if none should come to understand or espie them such pains and labour doe these men take to attain this their so much desired yet deceitfull liberty to avoid which review favourable Reader this Treatise which the Authour Pedro Bovistuau presented to his Countrey men in Latine and their native language French and Baltazar Peres del Castillo to his beloved Country-men the Spanyards As now I doe to thee and all the rest of our loyal true hearted English-men to whom if it finde the least favourable acceptance I shall in testimony thereof hence forward not let passe a day of my Life which I shall not Dedicate to thine and their service as now I have this Treatise to the profit and use of all pious Christians Farewell A Catalogue of such Books as are to be sold by Samuel Ferris in Canon-street neere London-stone Speedy Conversion the onely means to prevent emment destruction very seasonable for these Times by James late Lord Primate of Ireland An Epitomy of History Mensuration made easie or the way of measuring all solid and regular bodies as of Timber Stone Glass c. by John Martyn Surveyour Canaans Flowings or Milk and Honey being a collection of many Christian Experiences saying sentences c. by Ralph-Venning The History of the World or an Account of Time Compiled by the learned Dionisius Petavius A Practical Commentary or an Exposition with Observations Reasons and Uses upon the first Epistle General of St. John By John Cotton Pastor of Boston in New England An Exposition with Practical Observations continued upon the Fifteenth sixteenth and seventeenth Chapters of the Book of Job by Joseph Caryl Several Treatises viz. The Dejected Souls Cure The ministry of Angels to the heirs of Salvation Gods Omnipresence The Sinners Legacy The Combate between Flesh and Spirit The Christians Directory to guide him in his several conditions by Christopher Love late Minister of St. Laurence Jury London A Treatise of Effectual Calling and Election by Christopher Love The Zealous Christian taking Heaven by holy Violence by Christopher Love Cheap Riches or a Pocket-Companion made of five hundred Proverbial Aphorismes c by Nath. Church Gildas Salvianus The Reformed Pastor By Richard Baxter of Kederminster The Desciption and Use of an Instrument called the Double Scale of Proportion by Seth Partridge The English Physitians Guide or a Holy-guide Leading the Way to know all things Past Present and to come to Resolve all manner of Questions c by J. H. Student in Physick and Astrology THE FIRST BOOK OF THE Miseries of Man And the many vice which are Predominant at this day amongst all degrees and condition of Persons and in which he is compared with other Creatures and how in many thing◠they excell him SOme of the antient Philosophers Greeks Latines and others after that they had diligently searched out and seriously contemplated the nature and kinds of all Creatures and discussed the being the vertues and properties of them all and comparing theirs with ours said that Man is more miserable then all things that breaths or walks upon the face of the whole Earth and that his condition is worse being subject to so many and great misfortunes others that are more rigorous Judges and Censurors of the works of nature do call her a cruel Step-mother that is not in any respect favourable to mankind and uttered a thousand other blasphemies as I may say against her some others of them all their lives long bewayled the Calamities and Miseseries of humanity not ceasing a moment to refrain from tears as Heraclitus continually perswading a 〈…〉 en that this life was nothing else but a The 〈…〉 e of miseries and sorrows that all things that Men can behold under the Heavens are meerly a Sea of passion which requires nothing less then our continual Tears Sights and Groans Others again like Democritus laughing jesting and mocking made a bloudy war against the vices that then raigned in the World if he I say should arise from the Grave and see the disorderly and confused vices that are so risen amongst us Christians now a dayes he would find far more cause of laughter and derision then he had in his days There was another kind of Philosophers that were far more disdainful and strange that did not content their fantastical humours only to murmur against nature or complain of her works and effects but with so great mortall and unnatural hatred did persecute man as if they thought he was born for the onely mark of white at which they were to discharge or let flye all their Arrows Darts and shots of curses miseries and calamities that they or all other Creatures could let loose upon him Of whom I shall give one for an example Timon an Athenian Philosopher who was the Inventor Fomenter and most rigorous setter forth of this opinion for he did not only declare himself a capital enemy of mankind and tell it to all mens faces but his actions confirmed his words for he would not converse or have any dealing with or dwell amongst men but rather live in the
do not certainly know whether they eat little or much at that banket but this is known that he that turned up least drank 58. cups and the most 92. Considering this and knowing the wrong that superfluity of Wine doth to Men not without cause did Plato say that in some measure it appeared that the Gods did send the Wine to mankind or rather create the Juyce of the Grape in the World for a chastisement and vengance upon Man for his sins for when they are once drowned in this sweet liquor they attempt all vice they fight and many times kill and destroy each other the which was contemplated by Cyneas the Embassador of the Great King Pyrrus the first day of his arrival in Aegypt when he saw the excessive Grandure of the Plants and great height of the Wines of that Country said very justly may such a mother deserve a severe punishment that produceth such a vitious Son as Wine is and the same consideration caused Anedrocides to prophecy to that Great Monarch Alexander that Wine was the bloud of the Earth and that he should be carefull to refrain from it the which he contradicting and being at several times distemperd with it he killed Clito his friend burnt the City of Percepolis and caused his best Physitian to be set upon a Stake these and otheir enormions uncomely excessive crimes did he commit in that condition which me thinks cannot but cause a loathing in the soul of every good Christian of the vice of drunkenness considering how it layeth him open to all wickednesses and to the commission of such horrid evills and afterwards causeth a sad heart to remember them and many tears to repent them These two vices of glottony and drunkenness did not begin to take root in our dayes but they made their entrance into the World at the beginning The desire to eat and tast of choice fruit was the cause of our Fore-father Adam and Eve their fall and the shutting us out of Paradise By the glotony of Herod that is after he had eaten and drunk liberally he made that promise by which St. John Baptist lost his head the rich Gutton for minding his Belly more then any thing else was condemned for it The Text saith he fared deliciously every day as he buried himself in delights not consideâ—ing the poor so was he afterwards drowned in torments and buried unpittied Noah being overcome with Wine discovered his nakedness to the derision of one of his Sons Lot in his Wine lyeth with both his Daughters and unknown what a stupidity doth it bring upon us even to the forgetting of our selves our condition and our nature Here you see plainly how Dame Nature hath bestowed her favours more to other Creatures then to us for they know to with-hold rule and put such bounds to their appetites that they seldom pass them alwayes satisfying themselves with what is necessary to maintain nature and preserve health for which cause they seldome are afflicted with thus many and great infirmities which do continually war against us and if in case any dolours or calamities do trouble or molest them nature hath endowed them with such a knowledge as to seek out peculiars and proper remedies for their diseases without any necessity of running to Doctors who many times instead of putting recipe put decipe changing r. for d. and for there rrecipe often we pay very dear and give our money freely to such as destroy us because their Medicines for the most part are mixtures composed rather to the decaying then the upholding of nature and are very dangerous the which other Creatures are free of because they have some understanding what is fittest for their cure as the Wild Pigions Jayes Black-Birds Partriges c. do purge their superfluities with Laurel-leaves the tame Pigions Turtles and Chickens with the hearb Pelitory Doggs and Cats when they find themselves much overcharged do cleanse by eating the Grass that 's watred with the morning dew the Red-Deer when he is wounded understands so much as to procure Dittany for his cure the Weesel when he intends to encounter with the Rat eats Rue by which he finds himself more strengthened and couragious The Wild Boares cure themselves with Ivy The Bears with Mandrake and the Eagles knowing with what difficulty and pain they lay their Eggs by reason of the straightness of their passage they seek out a stone called Tiles which the French and Spanish call the Eagles Stone by vertue of which they enlarge the passage and lay their Eggs with more ease which sort of Stone is made use of by many Ladyes in Italy to this day for their easie delivering Also there are many Creatures which may serve not onely for Doctors but Medicines There is a Bird called Colio which Aristole speaks of in his Book of Creatures that a Man that hath Jaundice looking upon him is presently healed and the Bird dyes The Swallows if in case as some times they do they find their young ones blind with the smoak of the Chimny wherein often they build their nests they search out for the Herb Celandine or Tetterwort by means of which they quickly recover their sight The Snakes and several other the like creeping things finding age and a dimness of sight to creep upon them to prevent it and also that they may renue both eat Fennil and remain as youthful and quick sighted as at the first the Pelican doth not only wound but many times dye of those hurts with which they peirce their breasts with their own heart bloud to cure their young ones being stung by malicious Serpents It is confessed on all hands that the Apothecary was taught by the Stork the use of Glisters for when he finds himself obstructed he thrusts into his fundament the Moss of Trees and somtimes Herbs and Grass Plutarch being elevated with admiration considering the great favours and gifts naturally is bestowed upon other Creatures more then upon Man doth undertake to affirm that the Animals have a knowledge of all the three parts of Physick for after he hath proved as I have said that they understand the greatest part of Simples and know how to use them for their own benefit Also saith he they observe the second part which is moderation in dyet for when they find themselves so satisfied that they grow too fat thereby then they eat more sparingly and sometimes fast Instance the Lyons and Wolves when they find that they increase overmuch in fat eat no flesh but sustain themselves for a convenient time onely by sleeping in their Caves and Dens till they are come to their former stint of flesh and agility of body For the third part of Medicine which is Chyrurgery it is held for a certain opinion that the Elephants have some knowledge and make some use thereof for they understand how to pluck out the Arrows Darts and Spears that are shot or thrown at them without benuming the wounded part or
the Carthaginians spake evil of Hannibal because he alwayes went unlaced and open at his stomack others jeered at Julius Caesar because he went ungirt All this is but a small matter in respect of what the Commons in Commonwealths have put upon their Leaders in comparison of the multitude of their Senators they have persecuted banished and put to death in recompence of the many services they have done for them and the many miseries afflictions and troubles they have sustained for them and their Country If that great Greek Orator Demosthenes should arise at this time well might he say over again what he once said in this case complain of the peoples ingratitude for after he had been a firm shield defence and protection to his Countrey and a Real deliverance to the City of Athens he was by the Rout unjustly banished as if he had been a Thief or Malefactor Socrates was bewitched Hannibal was so evil treated of his Countrey-men that he was forced to banish or absent himself from them and wander through the World begging and miserably ended his dayes Even so the Romans served Camillo the Greeks Lycurgus and Solon one of the which was stoned to death and the other after one Eye plucked out banished a a Murtherer Moses and many other Saints often had experience of the mad fury of the giddy-headed multitude but if they lived in our dayes they might complain a thousand times more then in their dayes they had occasion But as we do breath forth and openly proclaim the fooleries and mis-deeds of the giddy and fickle-headed Commons it is not reason we should hide the errors and vanities of many Judges and Governours of the people how they become wicked and corrupted amongst which some are unjust out of fear of distasting a Prince or great Lord and do as Pilate did not to incur the anger of Tiberius Caesar he condemned to death the spotless Lamb Christ Jesus Others are corrupted by love friendship and favour as Herod the Tetrarch who for love to please the foolish fancy of a Maid condemned to death innocent Saint John Baptist although he knew he was blameless Others are led out of the way by a mortal rancor and hatred that possesseth them As that Prince and High-priest who commanded St. Paul to be smiten on the face whilest he was pleading at the Bar in his own defence Other whiles they are bribed and blinded with Gold and Silver as the Son of that great prophet Samuel This is such a contagious Disease is taking and of great account and that even amongst the most precise all with a good will do receive presents says the prophet all holds out their hands for gifts as the physitian if little money little health they observe not the course of Justice towards Orphans neither do they judge aright the cause of the Widdows And in another place he sayes Woe be to you that suffer your selves to be corrupted and suborned with bribes intreaties rancor or friendship and for the same do make of the good evil and of the evil good of darkness light and of light darkness Cursed be ye that do not judge according to the justness of the cause but lookest upon the persons and givest Sentence according to the gifts with which ye are bribed ye that shut your Eyes to equity and set them wide open to bribes ye that do not guide your selves according to the dictates of Reason but according to your affections payment and according as your own appetites or wills shall rule ye are very diligent in rich mens concernments but do delay neglect and defer the causes of the poor ye are very sharp and austier against the poor man but soft and flexable if against the rich which brings me to what the wise man said That if the poor man speak no man will hear but asks who was it If the rich man speaks every one sayes such a man speaks well Oh how gallantly hath he spoken every one is pleased with his Language every one praises him to the heighth All is but a Scifer all is Air in a poor man in respect of the pretences of these great men in respect also of the Wormes of preferment which gnawes the Entrailes of such as are trusted in this publick Honour and Dignity for they presently would their Sons what the Mother of the Sons of Zebede desired hers might be command Lord that my two Sons may sit one at thy Right-hand and the other at thy Left-hand in the Kingdom of Heaven even so do they desire that their Children may succeed them in their Governments and precedencies although oftentimes they are simple and uncapable The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Judges and Magistrates especially of Common-wealths that they enriched ennobled themselves and endeavoured to speak their own ends before they would judge the cause of the Orphans and poor Is it not reason saith the Holy Ghost that I should avenge my self of such men Hear what the holy Spirit sentenceth by the mouth of Saint James against them at the day of judgement Seeing thou haste destroyed the innocent and just and thou haste spent thy time in all sorts of pastimes delights and pleasures and ever haste endeavoured thy hearts content in this life It was all false saith our Lord for from henceforth thou shalt sigh weep groan and howl being surrounded with Torments your Riches shall perish your Garments the Moaths shall eat your Gold and your Silver is rusted and that rust shall rise up in judgement against you shall eat and consume your flesh as a fire because the tears sighs and groans of the Widdows and Father less came up to my Throne Here we see the complaints of the Prophets and holy Apostles against the corrupted and mercenary Judges This is the Sentence which God hath pronounced against them and such evil doers Now there remains to our serious view nothing worth our notice but how it fares with married people what a contented life do they lead after we have diligently searched the lives of the principal conditions of the World it is a certain and known thing that if we will in our phansies imagine or compose in our understandings an Idea pattern or copy of a happy Marriage well endowed with all things can be desired as Plato did in his Reipublick or as Saint AVGVSTINE did his in Civitate Dei that in appearance there is nothing in the World that can be compared to the delights pleasures pastimes and quietness which attend a Married life That this may be true no man can deny for with them the good and bad fortune is in common each participates in the others condition the Bed is common the Children common there is such a conformity betwixt them their hearts mindes and affections so that two bodies two souls seem to be one and if we do receive a contentment a pleasure and a delight when we impart to our intimate friends our negotiations and our passages How
the regions of Babilon from thence it flew to Greece and thence to Rome putrifying after such a manner the aire that one third part of the people did not escape where it came but to leave the antient Histories and examine what hath happened since their time and in our dayes that we who do hold our selves to be Christians may learn to understand our own frailty the great miseries to which we are subject with the scourges great afflictions which God layeth upon us and that God when his anger is kindled against our offences and extreame iniquities le ts fly the most cruell Darts and Arrowes of his justice against these Creatures not omitting any kind of evils afflictions and torments whereby to execute his wrath and vengeance what better or greater proofe can we have of this then that which we saw in the year 1628. in the French Army which at that time beseiged Naples that men dyed before they thought they had been stricken with death and this curse or Pestilence did not light upon the common souldiers alone but executed its fury against the most choice commanders that the Lords Lautree of Vandemon of Moloac of Laval of the Chatrinera Grandmont and many other Persons of great quality who I cannot call to mind without teares the very same thing happened to the English when they took Buloigne from the French that there arose such Pestilential disease amongst them in the Citty that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead for which cause the King of England could not find a Souldier in all his Country would go thither voluntarily but such as were prest forced thither as offenders for the more fresh men entered so many more dyed so that every corner of the streets was infected and corrupted with the stench of the dead Corpes which lay in every part of the City A year after that King Francis of France marryed with Donna Leonoca de Austria there reigned in Germany such a mortall Plague that all that were smitten therewith dyed within twenty four houres swetting a most contagious humor and a most horrid stinking matter and although this evil begin at the West end of the Empire yet afterwards it extended it selfe throughout all Germany like a sweeping net that will catch all as it goes along for before it pleased God to send a remedy there dyed so many thousands that many Provinces remained deserted and uninhabited for so great was the putrifaction of the aire that it left neither Creatures alive and they write that at the same time that the Pestilence reigned with the like fury it was predominant in England in so much that with the venemous strength thereof it did not only overcome destroy men but the Birds forsooke their Nests Eggs and young ones the beasts their dens and Caves the Snakes and Moles went together in squadrons and companies not being able to suffer the venemous infection that had entred even into the bowells of the earth in the year 1546. the last day of May in Stife a city in Province began a most cruell and Pestilential contagion which lasted nine moneths and there dyed great multitudes of people of all sexes and ages in so much that all their Churchyards were so fill'd with dead Corps that there was no roome to receive any more the greatest part of those that were infected the second day became frantick and cast themselves into wells or else from windowes to others it gave a flux of blood from the nose with violence like a running stream the stopping of which ending the life was all at once it arived to such a height of dissolution that women great with child cast forth untimely births at four moneths both they and their innocent babes dyed being found full of tokens and on one side black and blew like brused blood in conclusion the contagion was so great that father 's left their children and the women forsooke their husbands mony and riches could not yeeld remedy to save the owners thereof from dying of famine because it was hard to get a peice of bread or a cup of water for money and if in case they could procure food for sustenance the Plague was grown so violent that many were taken away with the meat in their mouthes the fury of the evil was so great that only looking upon one that was stricken the infection instantly cleave to the party viewing and he dyed so great was the contagion of the disease and the corruption of the aire of the City to what member of the body the venemous breath or vapour did come there arose great sweling carbuncles mortally wounding sores Oh what a horrible and lamentable thing it was to heare the sad storyes that a Physician tells one who was ordered by the Governours to heal the sick this contagion saith he was so sharp and perverse that it could not be stopped with blooding Physick medicines or any cordialls whatsoever but it cut down destroyed and killed all it took hold of in so much as he that was stricken therewith could expect nothing but death for which cause there were several that when they preceived themselves wounded with this mortal infection they sowed themselves up in their winding sheetes there thou mightest see ten thousand lye after that manner expecting their last hour that forced divorce O sad parting of those two so loving consorts the Soul and Body all which he affirmed to have seen often done by many Persons of all degrees I my selfe in the year 1648. being in Spain where many hundred thousands dyed that year in several Provinces but living in the City of Sevill there breake out about March a fearfull contagion or Plague where I was visited therewith to omit the relation of every particular sad spectacle I saw dayly I shall only hint upon the principal passages by which ye may judge the rest there was every morning to be seen not a street without many dead Corps in it cast out not a house uninfected so that the most retyred Carthusian Fryers which came neer none dyed thereof the Birds dyed in the cages not for want of food but of the infection in one Hospital I was told by one that helped to bury the dead there that they all judged there dyed in one night four thousand persons it raged so much and carried away so many people that all their burying places being filled they were forced to load continually dead Corps in Carts and bury them in the common fields where they had four several burying places on each side of the City one afterwards I had occasion often to take particular notice of one of them where some of our English were buryed it was neer alone Church in the fields called St. Sebastiam over the door whereof I have many times read in Spanish but in large legible Characters without the bounds of this Church lieth buryed in fifteen graves forty and three thousand many judged that in above
Plato there opened in Europe so great Caverness in the Earth and that with such an infernall force and fury that two of the most Populous and greatest Cities thereof were devoured with all their inhabitants and were never more seen there is not known nor do we read of a more wonderfull and horrible Earthquake then that which succeeded in the time of Tiberius Caesar with the which theâ—e were devoured and destroyed in one night twelve great Cities with their Inhabitants amongst the which were Apolina Ephesus Cesaria Philadelphia c. There is another thing both wonderfull and strange which confounds abates and pulls down the vanity and pride of man it is this nature produceth many small and weak Creatures which do often manage so fearce a Warre against Mankind that it makes them fly and forsake their own natural Country and places of abode which might seem to many to be a Fable if it were not backed with many grave true and Learned Historians which affirme it Eliano writes that in some part of Italy there was such multitudes of Rats which devoured the Roots of Trees and Herbs that they caused a mortall Famine in the Province where they were by reason whereof all the Country thereabouts was left destitute of People also because there was no remedy to be found against them Marcus Varron one of the most grave Latine Authors relates that there was in Spain a great Town situate and build upon a Sandie ground in the which there was an exceeding increase of Coneys which with their diging undermined the Town so that the Inhabitants were forced to go away and settle in another place for fear they and their Houses should have been entered in the vast beroes which those timorous Animalls had made the same Authors do write that in France there was a Village depopulated by reason of the multitude of Froges which bred therein In Africa hapned the like by Locusts Theophrastus makes mention of a Province in the which was left destitute of People caused by the multitudes of Caterpillers which bred in the Vinyards Plinie tells us of a Province on the confines of Ethiopia that the Ants Scorpions and other vermine banished the inhabitants A wonderfull number of flies caused the Megarenses in Greece to fly and forsake their Country and the Wasps did the like to those of Ephesus Anthenor writes that a vast quantity of Bees forced the Inhabitants of a Village from their dwellings and made Hives of their Houses What dost thou think now Courteous Reader of the great pride valour and vanity of men what little cause they have to be so and what better School then this for man to learn consider and understand his own frailty his feeble and weak estate naturally but Oh how great and wonderfull are the secrets of our Omnipotent God how fearfull and terrible are his Judgements that when he seeth man raise up himselfe and steer his course contrary to his command and will he quickly represseth reproves and puts a bridle in his mouth a hook in his nostrils thereby to restraine and vanquish his foolish audacity and vicious wantonness not only by sending those his Messengers and Heralds or discovers of his irefull host which are Warre Famine and Pestilence but if man forgets himselfe and sleeps security in the bosome of his beloved iniquties then he sends his Armyes in full bodyes of Creatures both sencible and insencible the Elements Animalls and vermine all which do joine and rejoyce at their employment to be executioner of the Divine justice to ruinate obstinate and rebellious sinners as we have seen by strange examples out of Heathen Histories and from the Sacred Scriptures especially in those Plagues of Egypt when the Locusts and Frogs left their own naturall habitations to go up to the Chambers of King Pharaoh Hitherto we have drawn out at large mans Condition so that were not he made as of Iron or his Heart hardned like a Diamond considering the many miseries calamities and afflictions which do surround him that it seems impossible he should live out halfe his dayes but that he must stoop and fall under so great and without Gods gracious assistance insufferable loades of punishments anguishes sorrowes and tribulations and those without intermission yet for all these sadnesses and burdensome calamities man will not or hardly will be brought to the true knowledge of God to obey his will nor unfainedly to humble himselfe under his mighty Hand or with a willing mind to come under or take up the light yoak of his Creator for the which and not without desert God reprehends him by the Prophet that he hath a face of brass a necke of Iron and a heart of steel these gulfes of miseries in which men fall and are even choaked from their births to their deaths being misunderstood and mis-interpreted by Plato and Pliny caused them to chide against nature calling her a Usurer and a Step-mother to men because she exacts so great Intrests Cambioes and Recambios from the excellency and dignity which hath been lent them holding that any of the bruit Animals were more happy and received more favours from her then men but both the one and the other sure did little understand that under this denomination of nature they did blaspheme and foully charge the just and true God of cruelty and injustice for all these evils and this wide Sea of miserys in which we see Mankind launched and tossed and with which we publickly declare him to be subjected and laden doth not proceed from a hatred or ill will that God hath against mortalls but our own proper malignity and wickednesse of will are the cause thereof for when man would aspire to equalize himselfe with his Maker he then lost his ancient and inherent Nobility and Dignity he bloted out that sacred effigies and Image of God which was stamped in him and changed it to that of the divel it hapned to him as the Royal Prophet David speakes man was in honour but he was so bestial that he knew not how to preserve himselfe in that estate for the which he is compared to the beasts that perish from which we may easily gather that the pride haughtiness and hardnesse of the first man were the sword with which all Mankind born or to be born were are and shall be wounded for if our first Father Adam had not been ambitious of knowledge more then he ought we had all been innocent like the Angels of God covered with Honour and Glory even as those shall be hereafter that lead holy lives in this World But there is no ground for us to dwell any longer upon the infermities and afflictions of the outward man which are familiar dependent and incident to the bodies of men but these calamities are but for a short time and are nothing in comparison of those of the Soul which are far more dangerous then the others that this is truth is manifest as Plutarch expresses for the
infermities of the body give apparent sumptomes of themselves as soon as they begin to breed either by the colour of the face the alteration of the pulse or by some disequallity of the humours and corporal greifes aches and paines which being presently understood the Phisitian makes use of his Art and skill to stop temper and cure that part which is deprived But the Maladies of the Soul are not to be known by sumptomes or appearances and that because the spirit that should take cognisance judge and accuse is infirme and out of order so the Patient not understanding or being sensible of its infermity seeks no remedy there is in this matter a thing that is very prejuditial and that is those that suffer any corporal calamities we give them names derived from the nature and name of the diseases as those that are taken with a Frenzie or a Lithurgie we call franticke those that have a stifness oâ— joints we call Goutie and those that have a Feaver or Ague we-call feaverish or aguish but Oh God how contrary is it with the infermities of the Soul those that are haughty cholerick so that they do even wast their spirits and in the fire of revengefull anger dâ— beat and abuse some and murther others we call magnanimous couragious and such â— understand what is honour those that go about to abuse silly Marryed woman and to destowre Virgines we call amorous and courteous â—ot the lesse esteeming them though they pursue dishonest and lustfull loves those that are ambitious who watch nights and dayes and care not to make use of the wayeâ— of God or the divel to encrease their aspiring Dignity and Honours we call honourable grave diligent and experient men those that are averitious which in a short time by their Neighbours detriment or downfall do grow rich uncovering disclosing and publishing even to the utmost their faults and imperfections not scrupeling or pardoning any thing either sacred or prophane we say they are good Husbands thrifty in all and men that know how well to manage their negotiations and so by consequence we do dissimulate and maske all the other vices of the Soul for from these and the like habits with which we do adorn our wicked vices proceeds we do onely by a gay glosse and bare name make that praise worthy which in its own nature is evill and worthy of reprehension If I should endeavour to proceed so distinctly to relate the great manifold dangerous infirmityes which do torment and afflict the soules of men as I have those of the body What tongue or what eloquence would it require What dolefull sentences ought to be expressed to set it forth For by Gods Eternal decree we live in an age so overwhelmed in vices and all manner of wickednesses that it may be compared to a Sink or Common-shore into which all the filthy and enormous wickednesses of former Ages is evacuated We will begin with Covetuousnesse who ever saw it more Predominant or more embraced then now it is amongst all estates conditions and degrees of men What are all the Cities Republikes Provinces and Kingdomes of the world but meere Burses Shops and Warehouses of Avarice if we do seriously consider their Trafficks and dealings it s certainly the time the Prophet Esaiah speaks of The Earth is full of Gold and Silver so that there is no end of the great Treasure thereof of these days the Prophet speakes when he saith they joyne house to house and field to field till they have gained to themselves and inclosed all the bounds of their Countries as if they alone were to inhabit and enjoy it from this Pestilential root as from so naturall a veine do spring so many evills as we see do boyle and bubble up in all parts of the earth from thence proceed and take their beginning The major part of our Warrs and great effusions of blood with which we see the earth too often bathed from thence comes the multitude of Murders Treasons Sacrileges Thefts Roberies Usuries Cheats Perjuries Pride and suborning of false witnesses and procuring depraved or corrupt sentences from thence comes the power to hide and interre the vices and knaveries of some men and to imprison chastise and evill intreat others from thence comes the great Prolixity or tediousnesse of those never to be ended Law-suites which are daily prosecuted in the Courts of Christian Princes to conclude from thence proceeds all kindes of corruption and evill yet for all this it is a sin and infirmity so familiar and common to all that there is no Estate or condition of man that is not entangled therewith even to Ecclesiasticks Judas and Simon Magus were the first that trode the way which men have so exactly learnt that many have eaten and will certainly eate of its fruit In the Primitive times when the Church was poore captivated and persecuted by Heathenish Tyrants when poore Fishermen were her Governours they were carefull to provide for such as were in danger necessity and suffered tribulation sustained and maintained many poore they permitted not any to suffer want that were in the bosome of the Church but now that she is in the highest estate and degree of riches and is governed by great rich and powerfull Prelates and Presbyters they make no account of the need of their poore Brother no notice or compassion of the dejected members of Jesus Christ for which cause we doe not see the Hospitals adorned with Tapestries or decently decked but with deep wounds rotten members and bruised bodies consumed with Poverty with an infinite number of Widdows c. banished or forced from their livings and habitations by the cruelties of mercilesse Wars with many young and helplesse children In the interim that these Passe through their misfortunes these Grandees doe enjoy with great triumph the revenues of the Church the goods the surplus of which belongs to the Brethren and Believers these strive to invent new delights and how they shall enjoy their wished pleasures others there are which heap up riches and lay them closely up with much care and diligence but they will let the poor dye with famine at their gates unrelieved for proof of which I will relate a story although I may do it with shame enough to mankinde Of a Person constituted in one of the places of the highest dignity in the Roman Church who was so strait and covetuous so bewitched with his avarice that every night by a private conveyance he went down to steal the Provender from his own Horses which custome he continued so long that the Groom seeing his horses grow so lean resolved to watch if any thief stole away their corn he catching him in the action cudgeld him so soundly that the poore bastinadoed Gentleman not to end his dayes told who he was so they bare him to his Chamber well beaten nay half dead which was a deserved punishment for his disordinate coveteousnesse Truly I should have counted it