in this fire but change them for a better and have Pearles for Coales c. Here is changing the Species with a witnesse It is a farewell I confesse and at first appearance one that seemeth sad as the Poet prophesieth Linquenda Tellus Domus placens Vxor neque harum quas colis Arborum Te praeter invisas cupressos Vlla brevem Dominum sequetur But how abundantly more joyfull are the Welcomes the Soul meets with in this grand Experiment look on the sadnesse and joy both in that one speech of a cheerfull Martyrago when she said farewell Faith and that seemeth sad farewell Hope then sure we can look for no comfort yes it followeth but welcome Love and let me add Fruition which if I conceit all one is not far wide from Truth Fruition and Happinesse being nothing but the poor Creatures swimming in boundlesse Emanations of the Creators love to all Eternity And are not now grave Cloathes the best Hankerchiefs to wipe all teares from the eyes of the miserable but let fellow Travellers in the same Road expound one the others meaning and then would you know what love departed Saints do welcome and are welcome to It is no lesse than that of Wedlock which the Poet telleth is largest in aperto conjuge major take Bishop Ridlies word for it for he desired some of his Friends next day to come to his Wedding his Martyrdome which I believe many in our daies would run from rather than dance at Madam la Glee in France was of the same mind when putting on her Bracelets as she was going to dye giving this reason for it I am now saith she going to my Spouse But to shew you more strange Experiments though to flesh and blood Paradoxes to Faith Demonstrations What think you if in the view of Death some tell you it is not Death so did Windelmuta when she was told she had not yet tasted how bitter death was no said she neither ever shall I for so hath Christ promised Nay it is a life if you take a word Royall it was Frederick Elector Palatines to his Friends wishing him Recovery I have lived enough to you let me now live to my selfe and with my Christ as if it were so far from being a Death as it were but a beginning to live So truly agreed Seneca with this Kingly Judgment Dies quem tanquam extremum reformidas Aeterni natalis est and even the Brachmanes consent with it that esteem this life mans Conception and his Death day his Birth day unto that true and happy life to him which hath been rightly religious But that it is an Experiment above all other or Notions of Truths divine or humane necessary to be known and especially of these very discourses concerning scarce believed and at best but Conjectured Comforts in Death Guy de Bres shall witnesse with a solemn Affidavit who said the ringing of my Chaines are musick to me this Prison an excellent School all my former discourses were as a blind man of colours in comparison of what I feel now c. by which he shutteth under blind Conjecture all that hath been apprehended of death or its Comforts and Condition afterwards in comparison of dying mens Demonstrations what then are those of the Dead The sum of all deaths experiments that is by me believed and not by me alone but all such as take Gods word is that which Salomon delivered as a Dogmatist wherein the Lady Jane was as I may tearm her an Empyrick feelingly finding the truth of it in Atriolis mortis the very Porch of death who being requested to write her Symbole in the Lieutenant of the Towers book before her beheading wrote this Let the glassy condition of this life never deceive thee there is a time to be born a time to dye but the day of death is better than the day of Birth What glorious discoveries enlightned her constant Soule when but going out of these Darknings of Life let Valerius Maximus usher in the Verdit of prophane Assenters to this Truth that the Experiments of Death to them that make dying the best Act they ever did in all their life are far more desirable than dreadfull De cupiditate vitae Vt ipsa comparatione pateat quanto non solum fortior sed etiam sapientior mortis interdum quam vitae sit cupiditas Things rightly compared saith he the preferring of life before death in our wishes as well as judgment is an Act of no lesse wisdome than valour And hearken to Christianity and the Apostle Paul phraseth it a Wish equall to the Gold searching Chymists endeavours I desire to be dissolved melted down there is the Projection and would you know the Elixir that results it is being with Christ if that be not gain above all metallick Transmutation Preaching is foolishnesse without an Irony and hearing madnesse the first may get Tithes and the latter naps of Digestion and Sermons were better winkt at than hearkened to were not the gains by death above all the Incomes of life Let Rosie-crucians be dumb after the mention of this Experiment and theirs be admired only where this is not believed a Christo-crucian of which this Apostle was none of the meanest is an order of far more recompencing projections I now believe and after death shall find among Christians Expressions hereof I know none fitter to conclude with than that Martyrs expression He is come short indeed but meaning more than can be exprest out of Heaven I durst if I enjoyed them change all Sublunary Enjoyment for what hee then felt that was but in the Suburbs of Heaven and then going to make a Bonfire with his Body for joy of his Souls entranceinto her Masters joy And wouldest thou get such Relishes as might make thee count these no Paradoxes experience thy Soule in the comforts of Christs dying for thee and thy own daily dyings with him and all the Terrours of this experiment of dying will dye and thy longings after it revive till both fears and desires are swallowed up in fruition of those unalterable alterations But O Death to bad and good thou wilt prove an Experiment of all that hath been said or writ of thee and incomprehensibly more to the former of far more than ever was believed or feared to these latter of transcendently more than their narrow living hopes could comprehend the highest and vastest Apprehensions of thee among the living are but as the Apostle saith thinkings like a Child our thoughts on this grand change will change as much as a Philosophers conceptions matured by the most sagacious inquisition into nature doth from his Child-hoods apprehensions of the Sun Moon Meteors and other visibles when we shall come to know as we are known Let all the world judge whether death was ill called or is ill believ'd an Experiment that delivers us over to a kind of Omniscience for by no lesse are we known and with little lesse
soever happen'd in his fortunes or affairs Christians then sure much lesse being placed Vulgati supra commercia Mundi above the Region of feare need cloud their brows in the most blustring storms of the lower world to whom the shipwrack of death is a prize above all the In-comes of life The honest Adamite HE that said Totus Mundus agit Histrionem the whole world are but Stage-Players was a wise Spectator of the Playes of life call'd businesse and of its Actors The whole crowd of those we converse with what are they but a company of Mummers disguised in all they do or say Vices are dissembled vertues but acted they are one thing in their retirement another on the stage of publick view Palamtum claressecreta male audiunt In the Church they would cousen if possible God with shews of zeale in the Shop their Neighbours with Protests of good Vsage Thus blinding the World with Jewish Pharisaisme and Protestant Cousenage Thus many times long Prayers become but grace before Meale to some Widdows House or Orphans Portion Diagoras took Hercules's Statue to make his Broth seeth scoffingly calling it his thirteenth Labour what else doth the Hypocrite or Politician with his Idol the shew of Religion but make his Pot seeth and bring about his Designes What cloak doth Knavery wear when it goeth abroad but Friendships What are the commerces of Men but courteous Cousenages Your humble Servant Cheats beleeve mee if not Renounce mee lyes O modest Vice that darest not appeare abroad naked beholding to officious Hypocrisie to cover thy Nakednesse whereas the truly Honest man and that cometh neerest the first Innocence weareth only its Robes which was a commendably shamelesse Nakednesse nor covereth its Purposes with one Ragge out of Hypocrisies or Policies Wardrobe He is neither in honesty nor Religion Haereticall that in his Politicks and Dealings is an Adamite The desirable Reputation TO contemne Fame is but a security of doing ill to fear it or court it a necessity and a misery verifying that of Diogenes Qui Oratores caeteros omnia ad gloriam facientes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellabat ter Homines He called Orators and all such Traffickers for fame thrice men and that in Homers sense who maketh man and miserable Synonyma's He that would not be thought good careth not for being so Contemptu famae contemni virtutes saith Tacitus he that contemneth a good Report despiseth the goodness deserving it He that would be thought good by all can appear so but to the worst nor is so to any he that is thought so by the best shall confute the most Good actions may silence slander where they gain not applause the best resolution is to take vertue with a sweet or ill sented breath the first is hers naturally the later more the fault of the medium or corrupted aire than hers With a sweet breath she may be pleasanter but with an ill more meritorious since Regium est malè audire cum benè feceris it is Kingly to be ill spoken of for good deeds was the saying of one doubtlesse resolutely constant to such actions as went under the great Seal of Vertue Conscia mens Recti Famae Mendacia ridens A Minde upright That Fames flams slight A well-grounded self-justification scorning the dispraise of the vulgar which is Omnis honestae rei malus judex whose commendation is not authentick enough to call Persons or Actions good nay such infamy hath its delight saith the sententious Moralist Non vis esse justus sine Gloriâ at me hercules saepè justus esse debes cum infamiâ at tunc si sapis maâ—a opinio benè parta delectat Wilt thou not be just without glory thou must oft-times be content to be ill spoken of for being so and thou knowest not the pleasure of a well-got ill report They that place honour in honorante honour in the bestower exile it as well from our care as power That passage through good and bad report if not discovered gone through by that great Adventurer for Heaven the Apostle Paul leadeth to a Haven of such inward rest as feareth not the blasts of misprision nor the mire and dirt the wicked in their ragings cast up One Eccho sounded from that Murus Aheneus brazen wall of an upright conscience surpasseth all the Gingles of Fame nay after death often martyr'd names as well as men are Kalender'd even to an unquestionable repute of merit and that in those faithfull Registers of impartiall Historie The living may be Tenants at will to reputation but it is the possession of the dead and when the Grave dust is flung on our Chronicles envy it self cannot blur them Animis hominum manet in Aeternitate Temporum Fama rerum saith Tacitus of Agricola While some are buried in oblivion others in the memories of men survive even Posterity Stamp therefore thy actions in the mint of vertue and the time will come when their Fame shall be currant in the Court of Honour among those Qui scribunt legenda that write things worth the perusall thy facta scribenda History-deserving deeds shall be filed to their merited perpetuity Suppose they be not here which thou feelest not they are recorded against that Day when will be read the History of the world parcell'd out into Lives every one reading over his owne Some whereof will prove Panegyricks others Inditements And now we have lighted on that solid Reputation for only That deserveth that name will have an Eugè taum bellè as the Poet from the mouth of wisdome and Justice it self not from that Turbida Roma Rout that cryeth up one thing to day another to morrow This steddy praise is the flight and aime of truly noble soules do or write or both something that may meet with applause at that Day from God Angells and Men when the applause of value Herods shall be as hee was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worm-eaten and almost without a Metaphor what remaineth of the empty worlds applause shall be eaten up by the worm of conscience that for thy fame Now for thy Reputation which is but thy living fame as one excellently Quid pulchrius quam vivere optantibus cunctis Et si paululum valetudo titubaverit non excitare Spem Hominum sed metum What more desirable then to live the peoples wish not fear and by thy passing Bell to sadden or affright not rejoyce them as for a Deliverance whereas with Some Men observe the Thracian Rule who weep at their Childrens Birth and feast at their Funerall So we might mourne at some mens births were we all Astrologers not as those Thracians because they are borne to misery but because a misery is borne to us and rejoyce at their death not because they are taken from evill to come but because an Evill is taken from those that are to come But the good man understood liveth beloved and dyeth lamented he hath
which the Criticall Agony of Nature in acute Diseases doth somewhat resemble and let them judge whether they would take her for a skilfull Mid-wife should lay her Woman to sleep or give her things to check her Throwes because they were painfull Such Physitians are our shee Doctors that some times preposterously administer Coolers in Feavers It were endlesse and bootlesse to Reason them out of their Crosse-grained Methods to whom Sense is a Riddle and Reason Paradox Only this must necessarily follow Hit or misse must be the only Dance of these Shee Practitioners and suspicious the successe where blind is their administration of Remedies because to an unknowne Disease and especially which is another grand miscarriage where one Remedy shall serve not only the severall Times of the same Distemper but severall Diseases and distempers scarce agreeing in appearance how ever differing in Causes and Subjects wherein they are Sexe Age Constitution c. maketh no matter with them Their Receipt-Book is as universally indifferent as A Church-Booke with this difference in the one you may read Peoples beginnings but in the other their Endings are virtually contain'd as effects in their Causes If Diascordium faile them have at Mithridate if that faile them then Enter my Lady Kents Powder If that faile toll the Bell these must be given to all sorts at any time for any distemper with this Apology they are safe they can do no hurt if they do no good A Character I could wish true of either the Physitian or Physick although apparent Mischiefe is done in letting slip the Opportunities of more proper courses by Evacuations or proper Antidotes which are thus spent in doing often contrary seldome good and most commonly nothing by their delayes dallying with violent Diseases whose Assaults are Batteries and stormings that admit not of Parlies In more milde Diseases that have more Deliberation than these Physitians their course doth as litle regard Indications or Instructions from the Disease Causes Patient or Symptomes What worke will they make with a Sore eye proceed it from hot or cold Cause they have an Eye water and that in the singular number that shall make them like the deceitfull promises for Bats bloud see as well by night as Day till the Patient can see nothing but that his Physitian was a Foole. To conclude this Onenesse of a Remedy to speake in the Language of as arrant Ignoramuses as themselves causeth singular Mischiefe in mens Bodies while like the Asse or Mule in the Embleme they strive to lighten Nature of her Burden all one way be her burden Salt or Wooll The Emblem is Camerarius his in his second Century Embl. 74. out of Plutarchs solâ—rtia Animal Tom. 3. p. 67. The Mule laden with Salt accidentally touching the water with his Burden was presently eased of it the Salt melting away making his observations like these Shee Empyricks thought to do so when laden with Wooll but to his heavinesse found it otherwise the wet encreasing the weight of his Load and after would suffer no Burthen to touch the water Whether the Asses folly or these Empyricks skill be the Emblem of the other is hard to say The Folly of that Asse was by one experiment corrected but the folly of these is daily repeated notwithstanding the Knells of the Dead and Reasons of the Living clamour their Conviction and their pertinacious Ignorance Malè cadentia iterum tentare libet to use Senecas Phrase will put again to Sea after many Shipwracks I could wish they would therefore at Length learne the Distick annexed to the Emblem in Camerarius Lana Sali haud eadem est neque Spongâ—a mersa sub undis Discernit sapiens Res quas confundit Asellus In wetting Salt and Wooll there 's difference found The Wise distinguish what the Fooles confound Well in the discerning part and prescribing their skill hath been a litle enquired too for an exact survey would swell into a Volume too vaste Would you 〈◊〉 what 's their care for Diet on which â—â—â— pocrates hath bestowed so many Aphâ—â—â—â— mes they either think not of it 〈◊〉 their one Aphorisme for all 〈…〉 what his Stomack servath him 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—lessenesse that bringeth Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to some as the carelesnesse of the first â—â—man in her Diet did to us all it was at first the sinne and now it is part of the punishment for it increaseth the Sicknesse and beckens Death to mend his Pace but I hasten mine to examine the second Article of Peoples Creed concerning our Petticoat Practitioners that is their Good will It is generally believed they do use their little or no skill in meere Charity and for the good of such as will not or cannot go to these Chargeable Doctors and Apothecaries Whereas on stricter Scrutiny this Benevolent Practise will appeare to be begun in vain glory and to end in injuriousnesse and that to more than the Patient 1. How discernable is it to be an Itch to be Counted somebody how amply do they think themselves rewarded to have it said such a good Woman Gentlewoman or Lady gave mee that did mee good when it had cost mee I will not say what on Doctors and Apothecaries what it costeth their Husbands in a yeare in Glasses Stills Herbes Coales c. to cure I cannot say but cherish this Itch their Purses can best answer but no means can claw it off while Pride sticketh to them as close as their skinnes Were it meerely to do good on that Principle they might set themselves on more proper works as making Shirts and Smocks for the Poore and such like Managery of their Needle or Wheele Employments commendably within their owne Sphear for the good of the needy I much doubt they that will send sometimes of their Syrup and Waters will scarce afford the Electuary of Beefe or the Cordiall Julep of a messe of Broth to the empty Belly I could allow them the cure of the Collick and Winde comming from emptinesse in the almost starved Guts of the Poore Nay if a Begger would perhaps beg something for the Ach of his Teeth he shall have it but nothing to set them a going The fame of Curing them is greater then of Comforting them with Food and that is the very principle of their Charity of these liberall Shee-Doctors The Physick of Almes I allow them but am out of charity with their Almes of Physick by their owne hands with the former they may feed Christians but with the latter they too often with Christians feed the Wormes Or if they would be charitable in this way let them pay for the Physick of the poor the noblest way of giving Physick and will have its Fee from Heaven Thus a Founder of an Hospitall giveth more Physick then any Physitian in the World Thus doth Queene Elizabeth to this houre give Physick in Saint Thomas Hospitall in this way I wish the number of Shee or Hee Physitians increased But let these other kind of Plentymongers that
lookest on him as peirced for Thee Behold in mount Calvary the place of Skuls Death hath lost the Field Hell is routed and the Divell hath betrayed himselfe in betraying Christ to shame and the losse of his Captives Deaths Prisons are broken open Christs own Resurrection antidated Look on the Crosse now as the Scepter of Admission the Apostle maketh it so now Ahaâ—uerus his presence is not deadly siâ—full Dust may not now feare being turned to Ashes by that consuming fire the Court of Requests is set open and the grand Master of Requests our Crucified Jesus Now then again we will say with the Apostle Wee arr not ashamed of the Crosse of Christ nay God forbid we should glory in any thing buâ— the Crosse of Christ this is that Scala Caeli Heavenly Ladder Jacob dream't of a Dream so pleasant that stones were Pillowes and indeed the sight of this Crosse will make all other Crosses easie on this Ladder was his Prayers ascending Father forgive them and in them all the World and as it were Heavens Eccho descending delivered by this Crâ—cified word in that Consummatum est it is finished as if he had said all is done and granted in Heaven and Earth that my blood cryed for Let Writers wrangle of how many severall sorts of Wood this Crosse was made I am sure to the Believer it is all Arbor vitae an unguarded Tree of Life to which Angels invisible or visible the Ministers of the Gospel will now Lead us rather than fright our Approach with any flaming Sword though Superstition hath made this Crosse as big as Noahs Arke if all the chips of it which severall places brag of were gathered together It is no Fable to say each Believer may make himselfe an Arke out of it against the Deluge of Fire the World expecteth Pardon the expression Sodomes Rain will justifie it fling but one Chip of this wood into all thy troubled and bitter waters and it shall sweeten them It is the Christians Armory for defensive or offensive Weapons the universall Medicine no Tree ever bare such Fruit as this when it bare the Fruit of the Virgins Womb. Though Nature wore blacks on this day for the Death of the God of Nature yet to Faith the Bridegroome was but now come even then when his Corporall Presence left his Disciples From Good Friday doth the Apostles Charge bear date Rejoyce alwaies his grave Cloathes are those Handkerchiefes that wipe all Teares from our Eyes This is the first day of Sorrowes Exile and Joyes return to lost Mankind his Birth-day beginning Hallelujahs but respectively to the finishing of this day Then to us a Child was born this day a Saviour a day of Hope to true men whereon a Theefe as it were taketh Heaven by violence the Joyes and Fruits that drop from this Tree will bee the Business of Eternity to recount when all Crownes shall be thrown down to this Crown of Thornes for that onely is worthy it is this Crosse is Caecorum Dux claudorum Baculus the blind mans guide and lame mans Crutch on the way and in the end is lignum vitae aeternae the Tree of everlasting life as Cassiodorus on the fourth Psalme But lastly the third Voice is Returnes but what shall I return the Lord for all his Benefits is the question of the gratefull â—oule or of a Faith working by Love to which Question there are many Answersâ— heare God himselfe telling his choice of aâ—â— we can give him and it is My Son give me thy heart which besides its usuall exception sounds like a Bargâ—in as well as Request and so the works my Son arâ— not so much Compellation and that an honourable one of his Redeemed ones but as if he should say There is my Son for him give me thy heart I am sure it is no wresting of the words to say the words my Son are a strong Argument used for to move our returnes of Love because they intimate the giving of his Son to make us Sons well then give thy heart and Christ will think himselfe well appayed for all hee hath done nay suffered for thee It is Justice no lesse than Gratitude to surrender all wee have or are to him that hath so dearely bought a Bargaine so hard Let the same mind be in us that was in those whose hearts were set on fire with Love to their Redeemer by the Beames of his Love darted first through Faiths burning Glasse on their Soules What were the Doings and Sufferings of the Apostles and Martyrs but Raptures of Love who lookt on flaming Faggots but as Hymenaeall and Nuptiall Torches lighting their long before espouâ—ed Soules to the Marriage of the Lamb to whom Life was Martyrdome because an Exile from the Chamber of their Bridegroome therefore having Vitam in Patientiâ mortem in desiderio their Lives in no other esteem than Affliâ—tioâ—s and Death in their desires as a Reward or Release Riddles to an earthy Soul wedded to Phantasmes of Happinesse whose Fruitions are but Semelaean Embraces of a Cloud for Jupiter Shadowes for Substance But whether are these Reflexions of Love vanisâ—ed in these our daies or nights rather of Creature Idolatry and Atheisme all that was done this day for us miserable men can scare preserve the severall of its Observation We are ready to afford Good Friday bad Language and arraigne its Remembrance of Superstition and through Zeale too Pharisaicall to Crucifie its Memoriall but that is not all our Ingratitude How little will man do for what God-man on this day suffered Such small Tokens of our Love that in his Members he beggeth how hardly we part with nay seeing our unkind Niggardlinesse he deâ—ireth us not to give but lend him Reliefe and yet how few Creditors can this All-sufficient Dâ—btour finde we will lend Man on his Bond for six in the Hundred sooner than on Gods Hundred for one ensured on a word so firm that one Jota of it shall not perish in the generall Fire of Heaven and Earth could this bee were not the Actions of this Day and signes of Gods Love manifested on the Crosse but as a Tale that is told and of no concernment to us Let the Crosse on thy six Pence if that be the onely Crosse thou canst endure put thee in mind what he suffered that beggeth the smallest Cross in thy Purse to relieeve him in thy Brother starve not thy Crucified Saviour let the Iewes cruelty suffice and let not thy uncharitableness vary his Torment it is no lesse than the Bread of life and Giver of thy daily bread that keepeth constrained Fast daies in thy hungry Brother till thy Plenty make him a Thanksgiving day shorten his Lent and thy Easter and Resurrection shall bee the more cheerfull He hath said it that will one day audit the poor mans Complaints and thy Stewardships Accounts when no Sin but unkindnessâ— to thy suffering Saviour shall be cast into thy Dish to the feeding of the never
the other As for Honesty or Piety here the bodies of Oppressor and Oppressed Builder and Seller of Churches Blasphemer and him that feares an Oath rest alike and sleep as sound the one as the other And what is the Result of all this experiment of Death and its Review back on life but that of David Psal 39. 5. 6. that Man even in his best Condition is altogether vanity But to proceed to the Discoveries of this Experiment as to the present or future which is now all one as being unalterable and for those that dye interested in the Conquest over Death they now Experiment it to be to their Bodyes a welcome Quietus est or sleep to their Soules a ravishing waking into cleare Dispellings of all Doubts a joyfull Release into most welcome Liberty and an Admission into unchangeable Possession of all Desirables 1. It is a sleep binding up like the lesser snatches of Rest and Drowsings in Life all sense of Molestation from any thing without and of those dead in the Lord Revel 14. 13. is that of Ambrose concerning the grave true in quo mollius ille dormit quisquis durius in vita se gesserit It is a Bed so the Welsh call the Grave wherein he rests that was before acquainted rather with a wearinesse than a life but if you will sublime the Speculation with Picus Mirandula it is a Rest from the Spirituall Drudgery of Sin for so he welcomed Death not as an end of Trouble but Sin nay it is a pleasanter sleep than all the dreames of life it being in deed 2. The truest waking of the Soule no such opening of our eyes as this closing them by Deatâ—h Mysteries will then appeare as cleare as Demonstrations that Grave dust is excellent Eye-powder take a Seraphicall Fancies word shewing us then the Trinity shall be as visible there as the Incarnation was on Earth and that was visible for the very Divels saw the Son of God through that case of Humanity Our Authors words are these Thou hast but 2. rare Cabinets of Treasure The Trinity and Incarnation Thou hast unlockt them both And made them Jewels to betroath The Work of thy Creation Vnto thy selfe in everlasting Pleasure The statelier Cabinet is the Trinitie Whose sparkling light Accesse denies Therefore thou dost not shew This fully to us till Death blow The dust into our Eyes For by that Powder thou wilt make us see We shall then more wonder at our Doubtings having such a sure word of Prophesie than we now do at the Mysteries when the most intricate and ridling Articles of our Creed shall shine in glorious and undoubted satisfactions Now truly begins the Soule to feele what before she believed and that she hath not believed in vain but that he was faithfull that promised What Joyes must they be when what the Soule then feeles shall for intension be Raptures and for extension Eternall If you would read Conjectures of them almost Ecstatically pend peruse Sir Kenhelm Digby's Rapture in his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soule examine the Truth and what is the life of a Christian but his Exile from his Country at best a Wardship thy last day is the first the Soule comes of Age and dyeth into Possession of thy long lookt for Inheritance What gladsome Experiments will this Change bring from a life of vaine Pleasures false Honours bootless Hopes unsatisfying Riches stormy Contentments Surfets of Excess pinching Necessities Comforts carefully procured of fleeting abode and sad Departure to Pleasures that no more know Definition or Description than Termination being as unexpressable as endless Honours above Blazon Possessions of no lesse than of that All that is all in all God himselfe and of them a Lease during the Eternalls life Indeed to the Righteous death shall prove but an Anagram of vexing Thornes for triumphant Thrones But that these are not brags let Testimonies of dying Saints confirm and no lesse illustrate what kindes of Experiments we may expect in this Change of Changes Some of them I shall borrow from Mr. Wards life of faith in death and we may call them Intelligence from the Spies of Eternity seeing and tasting the Grapes of that Canaan and that in Janua Ditis in the Porch of Death or Suburbs of Heaven differing much from the vaine glorious Ignorance of some resolute Heathen that have met Death with a Rashnesse blindly rushing on the sad Changes that troop after this Pale Horse or from some stupid blockishnesse incident to many even among Christians venturing on it as Children or Mad-men on Dangers without feare or wit for these sure Adventurers have on more mature deliberation encountred this Terror of Terrors and with undaunted Courage have forgot the tendernesse of Age or Sex so that as among Histories humane Lives of all other are accounted of singular use So in Christian History the Deaths of good men cannot but be the most usefull discoveries of this Experiment of dying beyond all the wrangling Conjectures Disputes and Subtleties of School-men or Doctors of Theorys and beyond all the Discoveries in the Duncery of Life Begin we with Simeon and you heare him experimenting it a long'd for departure implying his life to have been a kind of unwilling stay had it not been sweetned with hopes of having Heaven in his armes below before he was taken up to it Cyprian praiseth God at his death for his approaching Goale-delivery Jubentius and Maximinus Martyrs call'd it the laying off their last Garment the Flesh but a kind of undressing themselves for sleep Marcus of Arethuse hung up annointed with Honey and in a Basket exposed to the stinging of Wasps and Bees calleth it an Advancement saying to his persecutors How am I advanced despising you below by these three Experiments this terrible of all terribles as Aristotle calleth it hath more of Invitation in it than affrightment of the Banished to a home the sleepy and weary Traveller to his Bed nay of the Ambitious Soule to Advancements That the Epicure may not feare death nay love it let him get that Martyrs Pallat as it is storied of Mr. John Bradford that embracing the Faggots said to his fellow Martyrs be of good cheer Brethren for this night we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord. Of Death the lazy need not be afraid for no bed of Down or Roses so pleasant if you will believe Paynams dying Testimony the time when Incredulity it selfe will scarce deny men credit I feele no more pain saith he in the middest of the fire then if I were in a bed of Down it is as sweet to me as a bed of Roses Would the Chymist be glad to have his Coales turned to Pearles if his aimes faile of turning his Brâ—ssâ— to Gold This great Operatour Death can do it if you will believe Noyes kissing the Stake and saying blessed be the time that ever I was born for this day and saying to his fellow Martyrs we shall not lose our lives
obey their Message and the Messenger shall be discharged Sometimes they come to fetch away some Sin let them have their Errand with them and they are gone Only when they come as Refiners of thy Drosse or gilders setters off of thy Graces wish not their Removeall for it would be the greatest Crosse to be without one The do Little worth Little A Do yra el Beuey que no ara Whither goeth the Oxe that will not plow The Spanish Proverb knocketh that Oxe on the Head that will not plow Doubtlesse the willfully Vselesse Man is better in the Earth than on the Earth Lazy unprofitablenesse must look for its Slaughter-house in the other World if it take not a New-Gate in the way here if necessity betrayit not to such self-punishing courses yet Idlenesse beckeneth to sinnes of a worse Nature Upon the Couch of Idlenesse expect the Sinnes of Sodome It was never a good world since Employment was counted mechanick and Idlenesse Gentility Since Gentleman and Labourer took their Leaves The ingenious Germane in this shameth the most of his Neighbour-hood in Christendome counting the Idle man no Edleman no Gentleman and therefore instruct their noblest borne in some Art if not labour it not being indeed Disparagement for the best bloud to be acquainted with Sweat out of a hot house or without the help of a Diet Drink The sad Descant DEsque naci llove y cada Dia nace porque When first brought forth we cry Each Day brings forth its why History affordeth examples of Soules Prophetick at and before their Death but by this Spanish Proverb Every one calculateth his Nativity truer than Astrologers and sentenceth his own future fate by crying at his Birth not comming only from the Bodies Monopathy or sole suffering by change of i'ts warme Quarters but according to some from Sympathy with the divining Soule that knoweth it selfe for a Time banished from the Father of Spirits the God that gave it into a World elemented with Sinne and misery the following Dayes being but Division and Descant on this plaine Song Lachrymae teeming with Causes of sorrow if not for punishment yet for Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If one Day prove a Mother the other is a Step-Mother dying daily into the succession of each other Mirth endeth in Dulnesse if not Sadnesse Griefe againe hath its intervalls the saddest notes their Pauses and Rests The Sisters Web of our lives is checkered with Vicissitude The whole peece proving but a medley of Light Shadow The one of these Mothers is welcome the other we must not strike nor by Impatience provoke With thy good Dayes be chearfull in thy bad Dayes be Serious not sad nothing we can suffer from without being worth one minutes Disquiet of so noble a Thing as the Soule which then commeth neerest its Originall the nearer it commeth to Immutability Let not therefore Sun-shine Dayes betray thee to naked Security or wanton forgetfullness of change nor blustring ones so muffle thee up in a Mourning Cloak as if thou wert following the Funerall of hope Sperat infestis metuit Secundis Alteram sortem bene praeparatum Pectus informes Hyemes reducit Jupiter idem Summovet How doth Horace his Harpe and Davids agree the one telleth us the same Power bringeth the Joyes of the Spring that sent the unwelcome hardships of Winter the other assureth us our sad Vespers are succeeded with the Comfort of Festivalls If griefe lodge with us over night Joy shall be our Day Guest Well since I must quarter the forces of two Garrisons it will be prudence to dissemble the unwelcome of the one and silently to welcome the other not knowing which may at last get me into a sole subjection to them He that will not be injured by either must provide for both The thrivâ—ng Craft THat golden-mouthed Father was a rare Spokes-man for the Almighty's Box such are the poore when he said Nescis quod non tam propter Pauperes quam impendentes Deus instituit Eleemosynas that God commanded Almes not so much for the Poores sake as the good of the Rich which with a slender Descant will appeare The Poore man getteth a corporall Refreshment Rayment or Food The Rich if he keep his left Hand in Ignorance and his right Hand in Actions of Liberality receiveth Interest not only exceeding but excelling the Principall Thy Lone or rather Restitution what is it but Coloured Earth and Drosse and thy Reward O Mercy rewarding its owne Gifts viz. The Almes and the Minde to give beareth no imaginable Proportion for a Cup of Cold Water Waters of everlasting Life For thy cast Clothes the Robes of Christs Righteousnesse for thy Scraps the Bread of Life and that in fullnesse of Joy for ever more Chrysostome might well call this Nobilem Prodigalitatem a Noble Prodigality as another calleth Almes Artem omnium Artium quaestuosissimam An Art the most thriving of all Arts. It is so gainfull it is very hard to be honest in the exercise of it that is sincere Sincerity being nothing but honesty towards God without regarding our owne Profit more than our Brothers Necessity or Gods Command Nay the Almighty often maketh present Payment knowing how hardly he can get credit from our Infidelity and even in temporalls Thy Bread cast upon the Waters maketh better than East India Voyages and returneth back to Thee Laden with Improvements Thy Corne given to them with whom all yeares are deare the Poore is more advantagious than Corne sold in the greatest Dearth even by a Monopolist Such is the Mystery of this â—raft where God is Debtour and Man Creditour that Present payment is the least and worst the Lender oweth more than the Receiver The Poor whose prayers are heard bestowing more than he receiveth and his Box is more the Rich mans treasury than his one wouldest thou have a Policy on Heaven of thy uncertaine Riches make the Poore thy Ensurers Parlour Divinity OUr Table is a Book on which is written Gods bounty our Frailty and our Hopes the first readeth Thankefullnesse the second humble sobriety the third Comfort As for our Frailty what rotten Tenements are our Bodies that need Reparation twice in twelve houres keep the wind from them and Childrens Houses of Cards will stand longer How do our Meales then upbraid our Designes we repast as if to live but to day every Meale being but the renewing of our Lease for twelve Houres longer and we build as if to live for ever but againe for our Hopes How is our living for ever assured by the severall Deaths of Creatures for thy use receiving a kind of Resurrection to life from their common Sepulchre thy stomack Look on thy full Table as a Mortuary of the dispeopled Elements where their slaine are hudled up and all to extract Reparations of Life for thee In their Progresse behold thine through Corruption to Resurrection and feare not Death that thus but dresseth Thee for Immortality Mercy 's Hyperbole
THe Reward of Afflictions is the Hyperbole of Mercy all wee can suffer here being not a moity of our deservings what infinite Mercy must that be that maketh even our Punishments meritorious for while Man suffereth for his sin if he suffer according to Gods wil his sins increase not his Punishments faster than these inhaunce his Glory hereafter Patient bearing the chastisement doth more please than the fault did displease Omnipotent Mercy that thus workest good out of evill Our Reward out of our punishment Our pleasure for ever hereafter out of thy Dis-pleasure by us here What is this but to bestow on the Offender a Dignity for his deserved whipping and to give the Theefe A Paradice for being crucified for his Robbery Of the 2 d. Decade Amigo di Bocca Non vale una Estoppa A Friend at the Bottle Not worth the Stople THe contract of Soules and Mindes by Friendship is not like Dutch Bargains made in Drink Hee whose Friendship reacheth no further than the Club will no more doe for thee than pay for thee How many Protestations of Love Swim in the Cups of Men that will suffer thee to sink under any Adversity Of all verities in Vino in Wine Veritas Amicitiâ—â— the truth of Friendship is not in it give me the Love that is contracted out of some likenesse of Mindes and conditions that unlikenesse of Fortunes cannot obliterate that owneth a Friend though his Cloaths be as old almost as his Friendship and his condition as low as even Enemies could wish that Friendship is worth little that continueth not to a discreetly chose object though now worth nothing as to the market of the World That Friendship only will have no End that in its first contracting had no by-End The best Revenge MAlice sleighted looseth as the Bee with its sting its life take notice of it and thou makest thy selfe thy Enemies inferiour Nemo enim non eo aquo contemptum se judicat minor est Confession of being hurt maketh thy Enemy know he is revenged on thee The Oracle of Policy Tacitus found a subtle Revenge Injuriae spretae exolescunt si irascaris agnitae videntur Slighted injuries dye whereas anger confesseth thy hurt and therefore must needs increase thy adversaries content A rule for politick Revenge â—o universall that it reacheth even to the silencing of Scolds there being questionlesse no better silencing of a Billinsgate noise then with a Drum Injurious spirits are oft galled with Arrows they shoot at others if they stick not in the mark they may recoyle upon the Archer Cum dolore caedentis solida feriuntur Senec. de Ira. 3. 5. Hee that striketh a Wall may hurt his Knuckles Christianity commandeth us to passe by injuries and policy to let them passe by us By the former we are lesson'd to take no notice of the injurious by the latter to take none of the injury both or either preserve us from injuring our selves by disquiet For would we revenge then true is that Embleme of the coursed Hare and Grey-hound with this Motto Agitas agitaris at ipse thou troublest me but art troubled thy selfe Thy minde it may be is troubled to vexe thy Enemy in Body Liberty or Estate c. If we take notice of injuries by complaints as we vexe our selves we rejoyce our Enemy our teares are his Wine our lamentation his song That Quicquid recipitur recipitur in modum recipientis things are as they are taken is here most true The weak minde being troubled at what the resolved one would slight with that of the Philosopher Deridet sed non derideor He derideth but I am not mockt Resentment is as it were the formality of an offence if thou doest good for evill thou makest a Bonefire on thy Adversaries head sadder then firing his House if thou takest no notice of the evill his vexation is increased and thy quiet not diminished He was the wisest doubtlesse that said Anger rested in the bosome of Fools for by this Maxime it is its owne Torment and the Offenders pleasure If not Christian love of our Enemies politick love of our selves will quiet Revengefull agitations Since it is a doubt whether Sheepish meeknesse or Womanish tendernesse in apprehension of Injuries do more double the assaults of Malice the noble scorne that intimateth a sense with contempt is that meane that placeth a man above Injuries In the serenity of that Superior pars mundi ordinatior ac propinqua sideribus quae nec in Nubem cogitur nec in tempestatem impellitur c. upper part of the World and orderly neerest the Stars it is neither cloudy nor tempestuous That knoweth no mutiny of the Elements They are lower-Region soules that admit of heats and colds at the cross occurrences of businesses or waywardnesse of Men it is a Magnifico gate of spirit as I may terme it not to mend or slack our pace for all the barking Currs great or small and was in King Antigonus who over-hearing the great Provocation slanderous rayling onely bade them speak further off least the King should heare them Another time lighting on free-tongued company and afterwards guiding them brought them into the Dirt but helped one out and bid him revile Antigonus that brought Him thither but love Antigonus that brought him out To conclude Seneca's Rule is good Aut Potentior aut imbecillior Te laesit si imbecillior parce illi si Potentior parce Tibi If the Injury be from Peeres or Inferiours spare them if from thy Superiours spare thy selfe so shalt thou reap in the one the Honour of a forgiving Spirit in the other besides the Noble and lawfull Revenge of scorne provide for thy calme security which thy Enemy would disuiet and for anger or thoughts of Revenge think on the Philosophers Dilemma Vtrum aliquando desines aut nunquam will thou leave them off at all or never if at all why not leave thy Anger as well as that leave Thee if never judge what an unquiet life thou hast sentenced thy selfe to Give therefore Injuries one of these Entertainments either as a Christian Conquer them by forgivenesse or as a Politician revenge them by contempt that is as I said passe by them or let Them passe by Thee Observ 10. of the 2 d. Decade IT is a Pride that hath the vexing Nemesis and Vengeance of discontent following it to think wish or expect Things to fall out according to our wills alone as if we were of that grand Concernment that it were some lapse in Providence not to choose us Natures Arbitratours or Sole Disposers of Events no it is an Oraculous Truth that of EPICTETVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latine it if you will with Martials golden Rule Epigram lib. Quod sis esse velis nihilque malis Will Thy condition still Whether a good one or an ill Wish Events according to the Canon of Vicissitude or secret order of the grand Disposer and thou shalt alwayes have thy wish This is
it is as old as Tacitus Histor 1 p. 269. Quae alij scelera hic Remedia vocat thus let Sins be but bearded or gilded as I may tearm them grave enough or gainfull they passe for Commendable Qualities Thus Covetousnesse in Laietie or Clergy in whom it is not Idolatry alone but Atheisme is good Husbandry and uncharitable Censures or Murther of Charity is but Severity against Vices when none of the Ruffianlike Sins are to be compared with either Thus all raile against the Theefe when the severall Corruptions of Justice from the Judge to the Sollicitour are above Theft or Debâ—uchery compare and judge The Debauched Riotous Youngster makes a house it may be roare A Corrupt Judge I or Justice of Peace even in his smaller Volum'd Authority can make a house weep as fast the one breakes a Drawers Pate the other a Widdowes Heart the one it may be will bring himselfe to want but the other brings Fatherlesse and Mâ—therlesse by whole Sale to Misery but that is done on the Bench or in Formalities and in Scarlet therefore no words of that yet it is thought the arrantest Goal-bird might take the Pharisees words in his mouth change but the word Publican truly say I thank thee Lord I am not as that corrupt Judge since it is not a Probleme will need a Sphinx to resolve whether all the Theeves condemned by any Circuiter corrupted have done more Villanies than their Judge But to pursue particulars were endlesse the 〈…〉 is in the câ—vilâ—â—onest 〈…〉 magis exâ—r◠〈…〉 to be a◠〈◊〉 from 〈…〉 Hypocrite that of Otho Omâ—â—iâ—â—et Oâ—â—ensas an distulisset brevitate Imperij in incerto fuit Vices rather adjourned than dissolved as in expresse words in the same mans Character Tacitus wordeth it dilatae voluptates dissimulatae virâ—utes vitia reditura Vices sent afore till he was Enthroned and Virtues to be his Followers onely during his Progresse to Empire Of which nature are Virtues through Impotence of sinning as Abstemious Poverty which no doubt is as Commendable as pâ—tient Prosperity By all that hath beeâ—â—aid our Mock-Reformado seemeth to â—â— in no whit safer condition than a profest Reâ—egado for dangerous and sad no doubt must be the miscarriage of that Voyager in Reformation that scapes as it were the Rocks of our Shore and after is cast away on Goodwin Sands A MEDITATION ON THE UNGUARDED TREE OF LIFE IT is an ungratefull nay Superstitious Scrupulousness to deny the day wherein and croâ—â—e whereon the Tragedy of God was acted their Sequestred Meditations It was doubtlesse as needlesse to â—et down the Circumstances of our Redeemers Passions as it can be vaine to allow them their distinct Memorialls It had been Gospel enough to have said God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son c. Who ever thou beest then that wilâ— call no Friday good whose Life or Actiâ—ns can lend no day that Appellation Give me leave to learn to spell Christianity an that Booke call'd Gods-â—ove to Mankind bound up in the course Cover of Humane nature even that verbum Deum Christ Jesus by beginning with the Crosse to us the Tree of Life Blessed Redeemer was it for making this thou wast so long at thy Supposed Fathers Trâ—de of a Carpenter to make a Crosse whereon to hang Mundi Fabricatoris Filium non Fabri the Son of the Worlds Creatour not of a Carpenter as a Father varieth it and those wonders of love besides the Sins of Men enough to crack the Fastenings of this Glorious Fabrick When I consider what a weight of Wonders it bore I sinck under the weight of my single wonder at them Saint Austines Pen hath drawn the lines of those Riddles that center'd in Christ on this Crosse Sermone de Natali Domini Homo factus est hominis Factor ut sugeret ubera Regens sidera c. The Maker of man was made man He sucked whoseâ— pavement is the Milkie way the Bread of Life hungred the Fountain thirsted What but Riddles are they that he that came down from the Father of Lights and he that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth should sleep the way be weary the Truth overthrown by false witnes the Judg of al the world be arraigned Justice condemned Discipline whipt Lastly ut in ligno Fundamentum Suspenderetur that the Founder and Foundation it self of Heaven and Earth should hang on this splinter of his Creation an Ignominious Tree a Tree indeed but of the voc all Forrest which although it silence its Spectatours with wonder yet it selfe speaketh Instructives it speaketh Shame Câ—mfort Returnes 1. Shame and here blessed Apostle give me leave to say I am ashamed of nothing more than the Crosse of Christ as I believe those Reviâ—wers are whom the Prophet speaketh of They shall look back on him whom they have peirced Vngratefull Cure that the Physitian must become Patient and that of â— Death it selfe to make us whole that have wounded him Let thy Goodnesse O Lord plead for thy Wisdome in this Bargain no other excuse else can be found to buy sinfull Dust with thine own Blood redeem our shame by the shamefull Death of Glory and Immortality it selfe Thou that gottest nothing by making the world wouldst thou put thy self to more charge than all of it is worth to redeem the worst part of it fallen Man but sic Tibi bene placuit it was the good pleaâ—ure of thy will answereth that It hath been the wish of pious mâ—â— to see Sinne in its Naturall Deformity wouldst thou have a lively Picture of Sins and thy shame none cometh neer the Idea of a Crucified Saviour set upon the Mount of Meditation as that reall Cruciâ—â—x was on Mount Calvary View but a dying Saviour and thou wilt easily assent to that Truth They are Fooles and that with a witnesse that make a Mock of Sin A twelve months Dispute in the Schooles wil not so soon confute venial sins Thoughts thy Peccata Capitis Capitall Sins were so Legally as well as Locally and were the Crown of Thornes the first Shedders of that Innocents blood in this Tragedy thy Peccata Oris Tongues and Mouthes Transgressions in words or Intemperance were the Gall and Vineger mingled for a Cordiall in his Torments But then thy Opera manuum Handy-works were those Nailes fastned by the appointment of that wicked Assembly and Conspiracy of Priests and Elders the Representative of us all we were present all principall not onely accessory to this God-Manslaughter nay Murther that therefore is forgiven because committed never any Crime but this expiating it selfe And what is now become of Veniall sins when the least is Murther as guilty of the blood of Christ 2. But O my Soule look on the light side of this black Friday on the Recovery of this Eclipse of the Suns Creatour and though Shame muffle up thy Face when thou lookest on him as peirced by thee bare thy face with Comfort when thou