oppresse us at once Against violent misfortunes we may not use violence Expectation will sometimes serve us best if it be accompanied with a strong and irremisse beliefe that the Crosse is at hand and will not delay For what happens in this life more frequent than unthought of events Wee meete oftentimes even in one day with matter of grief and matter of Patience It is strange that for those two meales we eat in the day wee are all the day and all our life long providing But for trouble for griefes and sadnesse which take not up two houres in the day but all the houres and daies of our lives wee never think to make any preparation Cast up if thou canst how many things must be had to humor the pride of mans appetite more than for a Sacrifice It is no small state nor ceremonie that the belly is serv'd with How many men doth this worms-meat Imploy Cookes Bakers Fishers Fowlers Hunters Sheepfeeders Herdsmen Millers Colliers and Butchers How many Instruments Spits Pots Trivets Cauldrons Chasing-dishes Chargers Platters and a thousand other utensils of gluttonie And to what end is all this preparation But to please one palate once in the day or twice at most O foolish men Wee are ever providing for pleasures but never for troubles which not twice but for a great portion of our time if not continually wee must needs endure Who against the certain approach of an Enemy will be secure and quiet and upon the comming of a friend watchfull and sollicitous Why do we provide so much for pleasures and vanitie and provide nothing against the day of trouble and miserie We are guarded about with Cloaths of state Canopies Couches Silk-Curtains Feather-Beds and Pillowes wee arme our selves for delights and softnesse for sleeping and eating because they are every daies works but hear not every day telling us that the Evill day is behind We labour to provide for the backe and the belly why not for the better part why not for our fraile condition The Sense of the secure liver is too too delicate The affliction of the Inconsiderate or unprepared too bitter Chance throwes downe the carelesse violently and Fortune tires the idle even to vexation The rude and unexperienced in troubles afflicts and macerates himselfe with an impatient mind in the very midst of his most affected blaâ—dishments and in the bosome and calme of all his pleasures I hold Impatience to be a kind of Night-Mare which comes upon us waking or the Day-hag of life This troublesome disease for our time of rest is his time of misâ—ule and when wee are sleeping then is he stirring sets upon us when wee are most at ease and with a certain strange heavinesse seemes to oppresse and smother us when in the meane time that weight which so much oppresseth us is laid on by our owne Imagination and this sometimes makes us crye out as if wee were killed others according to Lucretius Struggle grone as if by Panthers torne Or Lyons teeth which makes them lowdly mourn Some others seem unto themselves to dy Some clime steep solitudes Mountains high From whence they seeme to fall inanely down Panting with fear till wak'd and scarce their owne They feel about them if in bed they lye Deceiv'd with dreams and nights Imagerie But the greatest trouble of all is that without any hope of remedy they vainly strive and endeavour to shake off this shadow of heavinesse In vain with earnest struglings they contend To ease themselves for when they stir bend Their greatest force to do it even thenmost Of all they faint and in their hopes are crost Nor tongue nor hand nor foot will serve their turne But without speech and strength within they mourne What more expresse Image can there be of Impatience lying heavily especially upon those who drouse away their time in a vitious rest and Idlenesse They are opprest cry out rage and vainly resist without any burthens but what their own fancy layes upon them They feele the weight the heavier the more they stirre it without they shake it quite off To refuse or not willingly to undergoe burthens is the onely burthen of Impatients But if they would awake to themselves which of necessâ—ty they must for when can the will be more Rational than when necessity is unreasonable all these factitious weights and seeming heavinesse would quickly vanish Force must not be used against Fortune but Patience This excells so much in strength that it bears all For it bears what ever it will and for this very reason because it Wills Samson carryed away the doâ—es the two posts and the barre of the Gate of the City of Gaza but this strength lay in his haire like the locks of Nisus and Pterelaus A miraculous strength but weakly secured The strength of Patience is more safely seated It lyes not in a lock which may be cut off by some Dalilah or Comethe or Scylla or any womanish and fearfull hand To Will is the Sanctuary of its strength by being willing it is not onely enabled to bear but also beareth The backe and shoulder of Patience is the Will This voluntary fortitude of the mind will do all its businesse without the help of outward Engines It needs not the assistance of the Armes nor the weak use of wishes The strength of Virtue is not external but in it self There remain also other necessary Indurances though not to those that suffer them allready yet to others that may or are about to undergoe them For the preservation of our Country liberties we ought patiently to suffer even unto death It is not too deare a rate to pay that debt wee owe to Nature for the defense of Nature in our publick Persons To this we want not the Incouragement of examples What ever hath been suffered heretofore may be suffered now by us But if those presidents rather cool then provoke our Courage why dare not wee suffer a little seeing they suffered so much To teach us this Virtue of Patience and strengthen our ruinous brittle condition the motherly love and fatherly care of the eternal Divine mind did provide and disperse through certaine spaces and Intervalls of time like knots for the strengthning of a weak reed persons of such eminent Patience and Piety as might by their examples sustaine and beare up mankind untill the Antient of daies and Father of Immortality himself should descend into this mortall life and be born for Patience and for death In the meane time that the populous World might not want a Glasse to dresse themselves by he sent these to be the substitutes and forerunners of his mighty and inimitable Patience The first he consecrated to this dignity was Abel in whom Patience saith holy Aldhelmus was Original as Sinne was in Adam God joyned Patience to his Innocence by a certain Original Justice or claim in him but to the rest of the Just it descends together with sufferings by
still and the incertainty as well as the certainty of it This divine devise of death so pleased God and was so necessary for the good of man that though by the merits of his dying Son he changed all the former things blotting out ordinances abolishing Ceremonies opening the gates of Heaven to all believers yet would not he Exterminate death It was out of his mercy that he refused to abrogate it that while corruption reigned death also might reign over it lest this poyson should want its Antidote We have therefore no just cause to complain of death which is an Invention conducing to our great good and the incertainty of the time though it most vexeth us is notwithstanding the most beneficial Circumstance that attends it The time of life is certainly known there is but one entrance to the light of this World The Ceremony of dying is not formal It keeps not to one time nor one manner but admits of all times and many manners Life comes into the World but one way but hath many waies to go out It was the benevolence of God to open so many doors to those that flye for refuge One way is more then enough to find out dangers but to escape them many are but necessary Death is not a burthen of seaven or nine monthes but life must have time before it sets forth And what are the first encounters of it Tears â—nd Bonds It cannot avoyd Evills and it is afeared to bear them therefore it delaies time and when it cannot lurk any longer it comes forth Crying Death leads us forth to joy and liberty Therefore it stayes not it seeks no corners nor protractions Nor doth death free us onely from suffering Evills but keeps us also from doing any To be good every day thou mâ—st dye dayly The incertainty also of the time of death and the manner of it like a busie Monitour warnes thee to do good and to be good at all times and in every place private or publick And the inevitablenâ—sse of it takes away all Excuse or pretensions for thy impreparation The Glory of death is also much augmented by its facility in redressing the difficulties of life It is not without the Divine counsel and a speciall priviledge that the Soule of man is so easily parted from the body the life of beasts is more tenacious and will suffer much indignitie and fury before it leaves them There is nâ— living creature more fraile none more weak then man the lightest strâ—ake fells him the Soul is very nice and will quickly cast off the body if it persists but in the least Indisposition A single hair killed Fabius and a Grape Anacreon these contemptible instruments destroy'd them as effectually as the thunderbolt did Esculapius Coma dyed as easily as he could wish and Baptist a Mirandulus as he could think His Soule quitted his body without any grudging without a disease without poyson without violence or any fatall mischance No door can keep death out it defeats life with its own weapons and kills us with the very Cordials and comforts of it Perhapâ— no kind of death is more violent then thâ—â— which sets upon us with the forces oâ— lâ—â—e because it kills when life is most vigorous and pleasant Their owne wishes have destroyed many And life hath oftentimes perished by her own contrivements Clidemus was killed with honour Diagoras with joy Plato with rest and Philemon with laughter This last is both a merry and a frequent destroyer and freed Sicily from one Tyrant Death also makes use sometimes of our very virtues to exanimate us Shame killed Diodorus and the Mother of Secundus the Philosopher dyed with blushing and an excessive modestie Life is a fraile possession it is a flower that requires not rude and high winds but will fall in the very whispers and blandishments of fair weather It is folly to labour to retain that which wil away to fly from that which will meet us every where yea in the way we fly is a vain and foolish industry Whither we seek death or avoyd it it will find us out Our way to fly and our very flight end both in death by hasting from it we make hast to it Life is a journey whose end cannot be mist it is a steady ayming at dissolution Though we fetch wide Compasses and traverse our way never so often we can neither lengthen it nor be out of it What path soever we take it is the Port-roade to death Though youth and age are two distant Tropicks of life yet death is as near to the one as to the other And though some live more and some lesse yet death is their equal neighbour and will visit the young as soon as the old Death is a Crosse to which many waies leade some direct and others winding but all meet in one Center It matters not which thou takest nor whither thou art young or aged But if thou beest young thou maist come sooner thither then the old who is both doting and weary It was necessary that a Sanctuary being provided for the distressed the way to it should be easie pervious and at an indifferent distance from all parts Good should be diffusive and the gate that leads to it must be without doors and bolts The entrance into this life is narrow and difficult it is difficultly attained difficultly retained and lyes alwaies in the power of another Every man may take life from us none can take death Life is subject to the Tyranny of men but death is not life makes Tyrants and death unmakes them Death is the slaves prerogative â—oyall and the Sabbath of the afflicted Leo Iconomachus the Emperor made the birth of both sexes tributary but death never paid taxation It was not lawfull in his reigne to get Children without paying for them every Infant so soon as borne was to give him contribution they paid then the Excise of life Death onely frees us from these Impositions of Tyrants And wilt thou then condemn liberty and that maturity of death by which it ripens every age wilt thou the divine liberality blame because thy life is short or may be so thou hast no reason to find fault with the years already given thee because thou shalt not have more thou mayst as well quarrel with Nature because she made not thy dimensions larger and thy body heavier by eighty or a hundred pounds he that measured thy proportion measured thy time too and too much of this last would have been as troublesome and unweildy as too much of the first for Long life opprest with many woes Meets more the further still it goes Death in every age is seasonable beneficial and desirable It frees the old man from misery the youthfull from sin and the infant from both It takes the aged in the fullnesse of their time It turnes the flowers of youth into fruit and by a compendious secret improvement matures infancy leading it into the Gate of Heaven
and my friends stand looking upon me afar off and they passe by me like hasty floods or the streames of a brook that will not be stay'd They convey themselves away and are ashamed of me who displeased them by pleasing God And in his first Epistle I beseech you saith he If I shall have need for now my servants and those I made free-men are become my despisers that you would take care to send the old Wine which I beleive I have still at Narbon hither unto me and to pay for the carriage Do not fear dear brother to make the poor your debtor c. The Noble Spirit is the bravest bearer of indignities and certainly extraction and a virtuous descent let popular flatterers preach what they will to the contrary is attended with more Divinity and a sweeter temper then the indiscrete Issue of the multitude There is an eminent difference betwixt flowers and weedes though they spring from the same mould The Ape contending with the Lyonesse told her that she was a very fair creature but very barren For you said the Ape bring forth but one at a birth and I bring six or more 'T is true replyed the Lionesse but thy fix are six Apes and my one is a Lyon The greatest part of men which we commonly terme the populacy are a stiffe uncivill generation without any seed of honour or goodnesse and sensible of nothing but private interest the base waies of acquiring it What Virtue or what humanity can be expected from a Raymond Cabanes a Massinello or some Son of a Butcher They have one barbarous shift which Tigers and Beares would blush to commit They will cut the throats of their most generous and Virtuous Benefactours to comply with times and advantage themselves Yea they will rejoyce to see them ruined and like inhumane Salvages insult over their innocent and helplesse posterity I could compare those fawning Hypocrits that waite not upon men but upon their Fortunes to that smiths bitch in the Apologues of Locmannus the Persian which sleeping in the forge could not be awaked with all the noise of the hammers the Anvile and the Bellowes but if the smith would offer to stirre his teeth to eat shee would start up presently and attend upon him with all officiousnesse She would share with him in the fruits of his labours but would not watch and look to the shop one minute while he laboured Paulinus had now first lost these false friends but was loaded for it with the love and commendations of true ones And I know not which offended him most to be despised by the first or commended by the last He had like Saint Paul great heavinesse and continuall sorrow of heart to see that his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh hated him because he loved Christ And on the other side his humility would not suffer him to beare the labour of love I meane the generall applause and sincere commendations conferred upon him by his Christian friends Severus in one of his Epistles written to him after hee had spent some lines in the commendation of his zeale and constancie contrary to the custome of that plaine age subscribed himself his Servant To the first he replyed that his excessive love had drawn him to the sin of untruth And the last he desired him to desist from for this reason Cave ergo ne posthac c. Have a care hereafter saith he that you who are a Servant of Christ called unto liberty terme nor your self the servant of a sinner and of one that is not worthy to be called your fellow-servant The virtue of humility will not excuse the vice of flattery Thus Gregorie the great when Pope Anastasius had exceeded towards him in his laudatory elocutions blasted them all with this humble reply Quod verò me â—s domini quod lucernam c. Your calling me the mouth of the Lord a shining light and a strong helper is nothing else but an augmentation of my iniquity for when I deserve to be punished for my sins then do I instead of punishment receive praise Severus in another of his Epistles to Paulinus earnestly intreated him to suffer his picture to be taken by a limner which he had sent to him for that purpose that he might have it to set up together with the picture of Saint Martin before the sacred font in a fair Church which Severus was then in building This friendly motion Paulinus was very much offended with and would by no means consent unto teling Severus that too much love had made him mad And in his eighth Epistle reasoning with him about this request What kind of picture saith he would you have from me the picture of the earthly or the Heavenly man I know you love onely that incorruptible image which the King of Heaven doth love in you I am ashamed to picture what I am and I dare not picture what I am not But Severus resolving to force it from him would not be satisfied with any other returne whereupon he sent it to him with these following verses the elegant expresse of his unfeined humility The first coppy relates to the pictures and the latter to the Font. Abluitis quicunque animas membra lavacris Cernite propositas ad bona facta vias c. You that to wash your flesh and Soules dâ—w near Ponder these two examples set you here Great Martin shewes the holy life and white Paulinus to repentance doth invite Martins pure harmlesse life tooke Heaven by force Paulinus tooke it by teares and remorse Martin leads through victorious palms and flowers Paulinus leades you through the pooles and showres You that are sinners on Paulinus look You that are Saints great Martin is your book The first example bright and holy is The last though sad and weeping leads to blisse The verses relating to the Font were these Hic reparandarum generator fons animaruÌ„ Vivum viventi lumine flumen agit c. Here the great well-spring of wash'd Soules with beams Of living light quickens the lively streams The Dove descends and stirs them with her wings So weds these waters to the upper springs They strait conceive A new birth doth proceede From the bright streams by an immortall seed O the rare love of God! sinners wash'd here Come forth pure Saints all justfied and clear So blest in death and life man dyes to sins And lives to God Sin dies and life begins To be reviv'd Old Adam falls away And the new lives born for eternal sway Nor did the manners of holy Paulinus differ from his mind all his Garments all the Utensils of his poor Cot were so many emblems and memento's of humility Grace is an Elixir of a contrary Nature to the Philosophers stone it turn'd all the gold and Silvervessells of this great Senatour into earthen dishes and wooden spoons Righteousnesse and honesty are alwaies poor In his first Epist to Severus he presents him with
right of Inheritance to none more to none better then to the Innocent But now even by this those suffer most that should suffer least the good and the Just But those sufferings are most sacred that are most unjust Adam found out afflictions and Abel Patience the medicine presently followed the disease Evills were the Inventions of Sinne Patience was the Device of Innocence So that Patience as their peculiar Treasure abounds more and is more beloved by the Just then by any else But that Posthume Cry of Abel proceeded not from Impatience For God would not have taken to himself the cause of one dying discontentedly and with Indignation but as devout Alexandrinus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Abel the Just dying unjustly was the first of men that shewd the foundations of death to be ruinous wherefore he being dead yet speaketh Death whose right came by unrighteousnesse laid ruinous foundations indeed because ill-layd upon the Just dying unjustly It hath cause to grieve that it erred so fouly in its first stroke seeing it might have made a better beginning in wicked Cain But there was Divinitie in it that death taking possession of mankind by the Murther of the Just might be justly exterminated and swallowed up in Victory by the undefiled Virgin-Prince of the Just who for that end was born of a Virgin Ephrem saith that death howled or lamented in her very beginning which shewed what would be her end The Hern by instinct of Nature Chatters and mourns before he becomes the prey of the Falcon. Death dyed by him over whom she had no power Only there is the night of death where sin where corruption lives Another tie of Constancy laid upon the World after a convenient space was Job who retained his Patience after prosperity and after Innocence Patience is no where merrier nor better contented with it self then in the Innocent Integrity and Fortune seldome lodge together Adversity is the Whetstone which keepes it from rust and makes it shine No Virtues can subsist without troubles which are their foode They live not commodiously where their Provision is farre from them Wherefore holy and Just men have adversity alwaies like a Well at their dores I shall take up then with that saying of Eliphaz Affliction comes not forth of the dust nor doth trouble spring out of the ground but rather from Heaven and comes oftner to holy and heavenly livers then to Worldly and unrighteous persons After Job and at a convenient distance from his time was Tobiah appointed who instead of Celandine made use of Patience to heal his Eyes being blindâ—d by the Swallows he found a more pretious medicine then their Heâ—be and his glory is more by bearing with the living than burying the dead This holy man also after Innocence though not after prosperity retained his Patience untill at last the Son of God himselfe after Impassibility and Allmightinesse became wofully passible and humbled himself to the death of the Crosse of so great an example was Patience worthy and so necessary was this voluntary passion of God himselfe to our fatall necessity of suffâ—ring By this mighty example of himself he hath sanctified Patience to be the All-heal or Universal Antidote of Evills and the Soveraign Lenitive of sorrowes Divinely did one sing to the blessed JESUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou the Nepenthe easing griefe Art and the minds healing reliefe At this secret Counsel of the Almighty did the rude Instincts or hallucinations rather of the old Heathens proceeding noe doubt from their sense of Humane misery blindly aime They dreamt of some Son of God to be the great exemplar of Patience and pattern of Virtue but finding none they made and proposed to themselves Hercules the Son of Jupiter for a president of continuall Patience Obedience and Virtue about whose labours and atchievements Antiquity hath mightily pleas'd it self with lies and Fables This indeed they rightly apprehended that labour or troubles are rather repugnant to then unworthy of Divinity they held them becomming Virâ—ue and withall necessary that they might adorne Patience with these two Jewells the reward of suffering and the dignity of the Sufferer But the Truth of God hath now outdone the Fictions of men It hath exceede all they did licentiously wish but could not hope for Our Patience is now sufficiently instructed by the SONNE of God who is the pleasant remedy and Panacea of Evills The blessed JESUS breathed nothing but Patience nothing but mildnesse in his life in his Doctrine These are the great examples which true Christians should follow not those of spurious Patience and a narrow heathen fortitude which after it had born some Evills indeed dyed at the root and could not bear it self Seneca otherwise in many things a very true and sometimes a Christian Philosopher proposeth to his readers the example of Cato but I utterly reject it for he destroyed himselfe because he could not save his Common-wealth What Constancy was here though in a state that concern'd not his private happinesse or what manner of Constancy was that which durst not endure and hold out but was overcome not by irrecoverable fallen affaires but falling Not collasped and ruin'd but tottering and doubtfull I confesse it was a spectacle which the Eye of God Intentive to his great and various works might behold with glory and I confesse him a brave Heathen Ill-disposed But I see nothing glorious and excellent in him nothing of true worth but what I can find as wel in the most degenerate and womanish Sardanapalus If wee look upon Cato amidst the publick ruines wee shall finde him overthrowne and laid along where an old wall stands up no Enemy having touch'd him A most unworthy man if he was a man to fall thus basely like a Woman who at the noyse of any thing suddenly thrown down casts her self to the ground and squeaks though untouch'd and far enough from danger But thou wilt say Though all things became subject to one man though his legions possest the Earth and his Navies the Seas yea though Caesars own regiment was in the gates yet Cato made his way out An honest voice if it were not flattery I tell thee he did not make his way but sneakt and fled out most shamefully His legs could not carry him off and therefore hee ran away upon his hands But it is all one flye with which he will it is a plain flight his busie and searching fear which in him by reason of a sudden unmanly astonishment was most Sagacious shew'd him this postern or backdoor which he most basely fled out at But what could that man be afraid of that had born so often the Assaults of Fortune He feared that very same Fortune How can that be say'st thou seeing he had coped with her so long before For that valour let him thank his errour He believed Fortune according to her old vogue to be still inconstant he expected that the Tyde should turne
but finding her obstinate and resolved in earnest to the contrary he feared her last blow and providing for himself by a most dastardly tendernesse did with his owne hands dresse and make a wound to his own liking To be patient or to suffer as wee please is not Patience He could bear the anger but not the hatred and feud of Fortune That is poore valour that bears onely the flourishes and pickearings of an Enemy but dares not receive his full charge A weak man will for some time stand under a great burthen but he that carries it through and home is the strongest Cato then was a most base pusillanimous combatant hee quitted his ground and left Fortune in the field not only unconquer'd but untir'd and flourishing with a whole Arme which hee had not yet drawn bloud from What Inconstancy can be greater then his who was more Inconstant than Vertiginous Fortune Or who more a Coward then he that fled and ran away swifter and sooner than her wheeles To call Cato then either constant wise or good is most unjust nay more it is an Injurie to mankind to call him a man who hath deserved so ill of Wisedome and men by thinking that any Cause or Chance in this World can be worthy of a wise mans death I would he had read the Conclusion of Theodorus not the dissertation of Socrates Theodorus Cythereus most truly affirmed that there never can be cause enough for a wise man to cast away his life And he proves it by invincible reason For him saith he that contemns humane Chances to cast away his life because of them how contrary is it to his own Judgment which esteems nothing good but what is Virtuous nothing vitious but what is evill I wish when he did read Socrates that he had also understood him for then he should have heard him condemning that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mad refuge of selfemurther and commanding him not to stirre out of his appointed station without full Orders from the great Generall of life Why then dost thou cry up Cato for a great leader who was a most cowardly common Souldier that forsook his Charge and betrayed the Fort intrusted to him by the Prince of Life But here thou wilt reply that his last nights contemplation just before he quitted it was Immortality The end he did study it for made it then unseasonable And I know not seeing he was but an Imperfect speculator in the Doctrine of Immortality why hee should be so hasty to try whither Eternity was perishable or not by casting away his own He should have expected it as he did expect the change of Fortune which till that night he alwaies esteemed Mortall He should have prepared for it by makeing triall of his Constancie before Eternity What praise then either of Patience or Fortitude hath he deserved he did no more then the most effeminate Hemon and Sardanapalus O the glorious Act of Cato then equall to his that handled the Spindles An Act of Women Evadne Jocasta and Auctolia An Act of Whores Sappho and Phaedra An Act of Wenches Thysbe Biblis Phillis and Anaxarete An Act of Boyes Iphis and Damocles An Act of Doting decrepit men Aegeus Sesostris and Timathes An Act of Crazie diseased Persons Aristarchus and Eratâ—sthenes An Act of Madmen Aristotle Empedocles Timagoras and Lucretius A rare commendation indeed for a wise man to have done that which Whores Wenches and Boyes sick men and Madmen did whome either the Impatience of their lust or Fortune made Impatient of life Whither thou wilt say that Cato kill'd himself to fly from Fortune or to find Immortality thou canst in neither deny his Impatience either of Joy or else of feare and in both of life I would he had been as patient now of life as he was sometimes of thirst That voice of Honour upon the Sands of Libya was his where the Râ—man Army like to perish with thirst a Common Souldier that had taken up a litle muddy Water in his Helmet presenting it to him had in stead of thanks this bitter rebuke Base man couldst thou think Cato alone Wants courage to be dry but him none Look'd I so soft breath'd I such base desires Not proofe against this Libye Sun 's weak fires That shame and plague on thee more justly lye To drinke alone when all our troops are dry Here was a glorious Voice and there followes it a more glorious hand For with brave rage he flung it on the Sand And the spilt draught suffic'd each thirsty band This manly Virtue he degenerated from in his last Act and all his friends wisely bending to the present necessity hee onley broke The people being all taken he only fled To see Cato a sufferer in the publicke miserie had been a Publick comfort they would have judged it happinesse to have been unhappy with him It is Honour to suffer with the Honourable and the Tyranny of Fortune is much allayed and almost welcome to us when shee equally rageth against the good and Noble as against our private selves If as he refused the remedy of thirst he had also rejected this ill remedy against misfortune his glory had been perfect Wee must then be the Patients of life and of this Patience which I thinke the greatest of any wee have two eminent examples in Job and Tobiah who not onely provoked by Fortune but by their wives also defended their Calamities in the defense of life For the other Patience in death which is the least the example of Abel sufficed designed by the wonderfull Counsell of God untill the manifestation of his Son that great Arch-type of Patience in life and death to suffer though Innocent a violent and unexperienced death that the first onset of fate which was most furious meeting in him with an unconquerable Patience might be soâ—â— what tamed and the weapons of death having their edge dulled in the first conflict might afterwards be of lesse terrour to mankind Just Abel was the first that shew'd us the way of dying when the name of death as yet untri'd was most formidable unto life that he might teach man Patience in his death and leave it to posterity as a Medicine found out by him But when men by a sad experience grown wise found out a greater Evill then death which to religious men was this sinfull life and to the miserable and Impatient their own lives then were Job and Tobiah set forth the convincing examples of Patience in life who endured a life more bitter than death lest by not enduring they should to their misery adde sinne They taught the World that Patience was a better Medicine for Evills than death and withstood the opinions of the Lunatick people Falsely did Euripides arrogating a laudable Title to death terme it The greatest medicine of Evills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he in another place had not term'd it the greatest of Evills If death then be not its own Medicine
those which are drowned these last are innumerable thought it is thought otherwise because they are sunk into the bottom and cannot be seen Admit not I beseech thee for a testimony againstâ— Death those ejulations and tears which darken Funerals and make foul weather in the fairest faces Opinion makes the people compassionate and they bewail not the party that is dead but their owne frailty Call not for evidence to the teares of strangers because thou knowest not whence they flow but call for it to thine own for none of us is happy or miserable but in his own sense which makes us any thing What reason hast thou to think life better then death because others mourne when thou dyest who when thou wert born didst weep thy selfe It is madnesse to judge our selves miserable because others think so The solemnities of death are contrary to the ceremonies of life At the birth of man others laugh but he himself weeps At his death others weep but surely hee rejoyceth unlesse his ill life hath made his death deadly Nor must thou think that his joy is either little or none at al because it is not manifested unto thee Thou mayst lye watching by the side of one that dreams of Heaven is conversing with Angels but unlesse hee tells it thee when he is awaked thou canst discover no such thing while he sleepes The Infant that is born weeping learns to laugh in his sleep as Odo and Augustine have both observed So he that bewailed his birth with tears welcomes the shadow of his death with smiles He presaged miseries to follow his nativity and beatitude his dissolution Weeping is natural tears know their way without a gâ—ide Mirth is rude and comes on slowly and very late nor comes it then without a supporter and a leader It must be taught and acquired Weeping comes with the Infant into the world Laughing is afterwards taught him the Nurse must both teach and invite him to it When he sleeps then he sips and tasteth joy when he dies then he sucks and drinkes it Mourning and grief are natural they are born with us Mirth is slow-paced and negligent of us The sense of rejoycing if we beleeve Avicenna comes not to the most forward child till after the fortieth day Men therefore weep at thy death because it is an experiment they have not tryed and they laugh at thy birth because the miseries of thy life must not be born by them Thou onely art the infallible diviner of thy own frail condition who refusest it with teares which are the most proper expressions of unwilling constrained nature But as the ceremonies of Life and Death are contrary so he that is born and he that dyes have different events Death to some seems to destroy all but she restores all By discomposing things she puts them in their order For he that inverts things that were beâ—ore inverted doth but reduce them to their right Positure The Funeral rite of the Tâ—bitenses who are certain East-Indians is to turn the inside of their garments outward they manifest that part which before was hidden and conceale that part which before was manifest by which they seeme in my opinion to point at the liberty of the soul in the state of death and the captivity of the body whose redemption must bee expected in the end of the world This inversion by death is reparation and a preparative for that order wherein all things shall be made new Most true is that saying of the Royal Preacher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good name is above precious ointment and the day of death is better then the day of ones birth But thou wilt ask To whom is the day of death better than the day of his nativity It is in the first place to him that dies True thou wilt say if he be a just and holy man Yea say I though he be wicked Who doubts that there can happen in all their lives a better day to the just and honest then the day of death which frees them both from seeing and from feeling the miseries which are in this world As for the unjust it is most certain that no day can be more beneficiall to them then that which sets an end to their impieties tyranny perjury and sacriledge To deny a sword to one that would murther himself is benevolence to deny money to a Gamester that would presently cast it away is courtesie and to deny life to those that would use it to their owne damnation is Mercy and not Judgement But to whom besides these is the day of death better then the day of life Certainly to God Almighty because in that day when the wicked dye his Justice on them and his Mercy towards his own are conspicuous to all and acknowledged by all And to whom else Not to speak of the rich and ambâ—tious It is good to all men to the whole Creation and to Nature it self For in that day the fair order and prerogative of Nature is vindicated from the rage and rape of lustfull intemperate persons It becomes constant consonant and inviolable by putting off those gross vestiments which make her productions subject to the assaults and violence of man who is the most perverse and shamelesse defacer of Gods Image in himself and the most audacious and abhominable contemner of his Ordinances in his works by using them to a contrary end and quite different from that which their wise Creator made them for But let us not consider the goodnesse of death by those evils onely which it freeth us from but by the blessings also which it brings along with it Their soules are by some men less valued then Fortune and temporal power Some cast away their lives to winne a Crowne yea the Crowne and the Kingdome of another They plot to forfeit a Crown of Eternall glory by usurping a transitory one They murther their owne soules by shedding the blood of some innocent persons permitted to be overcome by men that they might have power with God and prevail Shall the short soveâ—aignty and sway of some small corners and spots of earth be compared to the everlasting triumphs in the Kingdom of Heaven The death of the sufferer is in this case the most gainfull the more he loseth by it upon earth his gain is by so much the greater in heaven The shorter our stay is here our time above if reckon'd from the day of our death is the longer but hath no end at all and the more our sufferings are the greater shall our glory be Hegesias the Cyrenian when he praised death promised not these blessings of Immortality but onely an end of temporall miseries and yet he did so far prevail with his Auditors that they preferred death to life they contemned the one and so lusted after the other that they would not patiently expect it but did impatiently long for it they fel upon their own swords and forced death to come on by
fed for nine months with excrementitious obscenities to bear all the ignominies of Nature all the abuses of Fortune to resume the ignorance of Infancie the feares of Childhood the dangers of youth the cares of manhood and the miseries of old age I am of â—eliefe that no man did ever live so happily as to be pleased with a repetition of past life These Evills which with our owne consent wee would not have reiterated wee are driven into without our consent They are necessarily inferred that they may be willingly borne to shew the necessity of Patience Wee are born on condition that wee must dye Death is the price or reward of life It is the Statute-law of mankind and that ought to be born as a publick good which were it not already enacted would be the spontaneous petition of all men Certainly if life were without the Jubile of death it were just to refuse it as a servitude which hath no year of release Let us now clearly prove that death is not Evill out of her assimilation and conformity to those things which are most excellently good None leade a better life then those that live so as if they were dead Rom. Câ—ap 6. ver 7. For he that is dead is freed from Sinne. Therefore that which is the exemplar of goodnesse cannot be Evill The onely true praise of the living is to assimilate death He is the most commendable liver whose life is dead to the World and he is the most honest that lives the least to it whose Soul listens not to the body but is at a constant distance from it as if they were dissolved or though it sojournes in it yet is not defiled by it but is separated from sensuality and united to Divinity What is the reason thinkest thou that the Divine Secrets are revealed to men most commonly in their sleep because that similitude of death is most pleasing to God Life is a wild and various madnesse disturbed with passions and distracted with objects Sleepe like death settles them all it is the minds Sabbath in which the Spirit freed from the Senses is well disposed and fitted for Divine intimations The Soul is then alive to it selfe while the body reigns not and the affections are ecclipsed in that short Interlunium of the temporall life Philosophie or humane Knowledge is nothing else but a Contemplation of death not to astonish or discourage men but first to informe and then to reform them for the fruit of Philosophy is Virtue and Virtue is nothing else but an imitation of death or the Art of dying well by beginning to dye while we are alive Virtue is a certain Primrose a prolusion or Assay of dying Therefore that by which man becomes immortall and eternall is the preface and the Inchâ—ation of death This is the main drift of Philosophy to make life comfortable by conforming it unto death and to make death immortality by regulating life Death is intollerable to him only that hath not mortified his desires while he yet lives but expects to swallow up death and all the powers of it at once that is to say in the hour of death We cut our meate and feed on it by bits lest we should be choaked by swallowing it whole so death if it be assayed and practised by degrees will be both pleasant in the tast and wholsome in the digestion if we mortifie one affection to day and another to morrow Hee that cannot carry a great burthen at once may carry it all by portions Philosophy acts the part of death upon the Stage of life it kills sensuality and makes death most easie to be born by teaching us to dye dayly What can be more grievous then death unto him who together with his own feeles the paine of a thousand other dying cupidities We faile not to bewaile the losse of one thing whither honour pleasure or a friend How much more when we loose all at a blow and loose eternal life in one short minute The Soule of the wise man frees her selfe from the body in an acceptable time she casts off the delectations of the flesh and the cares of this World while it is day-light that shee may enjoy her self and be acquainted with God before the night comes She finds by experience that her forces are more vigorous and her light more discerning when she is not sullied with Earthly negotiations and the grossâ— affections of the body she finds that covetousnesse love and feare permit her not to see the truth and that the affaires of the body are the Remora's of the Spirit and therefore she concludes that he must neglect the cryes of the flesh and be attentive onely to the voyce of God and upon these considerations shee shakes off that Bondage she deserts the familiarity and consultations of blood that she may advise with and discerne the most clear light of truth she casts off pleasures by which even Spirits are made subject to sense and pollution The truth is most pure and will not be manifested but to the pure and the undefiled Therefore all the scope and the end of Virtue is to separate the Soul from the body and to come as near death as possibly may be while wee are yet alive This is the cause that wise men do so much love and long for death at least they fear it not How can he feare death who by dying passeth into the life of the blessed Who hath already delivered himselfe from more feares and inconveniences then death can free him from Yea from those dangers which make death fearfull Who before his dying day hath disarmed and overcome death Shall he that all his life-time desired to be separated from the body repine at the performance and fullfilling of it It were most ridiculous if hasting towards home thou wouldst refuse the helpe of another to convey thee thither with more speed and be angry at thy arrival in that Port whither thou didst bend thy course since the first day thou didst set forth There is no man that seeking for a friend will not rejoyce when he hath found him No man will be angry if another perfects what he did begin but was not able to finish Nature by death perfects that which Virtue had begun in life and the endeavour dies not but is continued and thrives by a necessary transplantation While he yet lived he denyed himselfe the use of the body because it hindrâ—d the course of the Soul and the body dying he doth but persist in the same just denyall It is a greater pleasure to want then not to use what wee doe not want This Correlation of Death and Virtue I shall exhibite or lay out to your view by a discussion of those honours which each of them procures As Virtue by the Consideration of death ordereth and preserves her Majesty so by imitating death she obtaines the reverence and admiration of all What more reverend thing can wee labour for then that which
for chaines esteem Suites with the meeke and harmelesse heart so right That 't is all ease all comfort and delight To love our God with all our strength and will To covet nothing to devise no ill Against our neighbours to procure or doe Nothing to others which we would not to Our very selves not to revenge our wrong To be content with little not to long For wealth and greatnesse to despise or jeare No man and if we be despised to bear To feede the hungry to hold fast our Crown To take from others naught to give our owne These are his precepts and alas in these What is so hard but faith can doe with ease He that the holy Prophets doth beleeve And on Gods words relies words that still live And cannot dye that in his heart hath writ His Saviour's death and tryumph and doth yet With constant care admitting no neglect His second dreadfull comming still expect To such a liver earthy things are dead With Heav'n alone and hopes of hâ—av'n hee 's sed He is no Vassall unto worldly trash Nor that black knowledge by which pretends to wash But doth defile A knowledge by which Men With studied care loose Paradise agen Commands and titles the vaine worlds device With gold the forward seed of sin and vice He never minds his Ayme is farre more high And stoopes to nothing lower than the skie Nor griefe nor pleasures breede him any pain He nothing feares to loose would nothing gaine What ever hath not God he doth detest He lives to Christ is dead to all the rest This Holy one sent hither from above A Virgin brought forth shadow'd by the Dove His skin with stripes with wicked hands his face And with foule spittle soyl'd and beaten was A Crown of thornes his blessed head did wound Nayles pierc'd his hands and feet and he fast bound Stuck to the painefull Crosse where hang'd till dead With a cold speare his hearts dear blood was shed All this for man for bad ungratefull Man The true God suffer'd not that sufferings can Adde to his glory ought who can receive Accesse from nothing whom none can bereave Of his all-fullnesse but the blest designe Of his sad death was to save me from mine He dying bore my sins and the third day His early rising rais'd me from the clay To such great mercies what shall I preferre Or who from loving God shall me deterre Burne me alive with curious skilfull paine Cut up and search each warme and breathing vaine When all is done death brings a quick release And the poore mangled body sleepes in peace Hale me to prisons shut me up in brasse My still free Soule from thence to God shall passe Banish or bind me I can be no where A stranger nor alone My God is there I feare not famine how can he be sed To sterve who feedes upon the living bread And yet this courage springs not from my store Christ gave it me who can give much much more I of my selfe can nothing dare or doe He bids me fight and makes me conquer too If like great Abr'ham I should have command To leave my fathers house and native Land I would with joy to unknown regions run Bearing the Banner of his blessed Son On worldly goods I will have no designe But use my owne as if mine were not mine Wealth I 'le not wonder at nor greatnesse seeke But chuse though laugh'd at to be poore meeke In woe and wealth I 'le keepe the same stay'd mind Griefe shall not breake me nor joyes make me blind My dearest Jesus I 'le still praise and he Shall with Songs of Deliverance compasse me Then come my faithfull Consort joyne with me In this good fight and my true helper be Cheare me when sad advise me when I stray Let us be each the others guide and stay Be your Lords Guardian give joynt ayde and due Helpe him when falne rise when he helpeth you That so we may not onely one flesh be But in one Spirit and one Will agree FINIS * A towne in the higher Calabria in Italy 20. miles distant from Rome the Inhabitants were mightily given to pleasure and taught their horses to dance to the pipes which the Crotoniatae their deadly enemies observing brought into the field a company of minstrels the Sybarits horses bearing the pipes began to dance and disordered their Army by which meanes they were overthrowne to the number of 300000. a One of the Courtiers of the Emperor Traian and afterwards a most glorious Martyr Being in Chase of a Stagge he observed betwixt his hornes the signe of the Cross and heard a voice out of his mouth speaking to him in the Latin tongue Cur me persequeris Whereupon leaving his game he retyred presently into his own house and having called together his wife and children were all baptized and received the Christian Faith But in the persecution under Hadrian he and his wife Theophila for their faithfullnesse to JESVS CHRIST were burnt together in a brasen bull And so having overcome and endured unto the end they received the morning star and crownes of life which shall never be taken from them See Volater lib. 15. a Pliny mentions this punishment the parricide after his apprehension to augment the horror of his conscience was first whipâ— with rods dipt in the blood of his murthered parents and afterwards together with a dog an ape and a cock Creatures which shew litle reverence towards their sires he was thrust alive into a strong sack and so thrown into the Sea cell The inhabitants of Pelusium a town in the borders of Egypt now called Damiata It was built by Peleus the fratricide from whom the Citizens desceâ—ded * the word in the He brew signifies the house of powring out which in a secret Allegorie may very well concerne man a Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi sed omnes Illach ymabiles urgentur ignotique longâ nocte carent quia vate sacro * One of the Indian Gymnosophists who feeling himself a little sick made a great Bonefire and in the presence of Alexander burnt himselfe therein Alexander a little before asked him What he would have hee answered I shall see thee shortly Which fel out for he dyed at Babylon few days after * One of the Counsellors of Alexand the great The pipes of death used by the Lamae * An excellent Dilemma * Divitiae Vitia a Every rich man is either a tyrant himself or the son of a tyrant Gregorius Thaurâ—aturgus Thou hast his life annexed to this Epistle as a precedent after these precepts a Hilarius about this time which was 435. years after Christ did lead a monastical life but upon the death of Honoratus he was eleâ—ted his successor in the Bishoprick of Orleans in which dignity he continued not long for being addicted to solitarinesse he resigned it and turned into the Wildernesse a St. Augustine This letter was written in the year of our Lord 435. Philip. Chap. 2. ver 9 10. * He subscribed to the damnable heresie of Arius as both Hierome and Athanasius testifie against him * Cedimus ingenio quantum praecedimus aeyo Assurgit Musae nostra Camaena tuae Sic fastorum titulo prior tua Romae Praecessit nostrum sella curulis ebur St. Hierome Ep. 26. * For Nola. a Paulininus calls him a Martyr quia multa pro Christo passus ersi non occiâ—us a Paulinus will have the word which is commonly used in the Latin to be Nicticora from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the apple or candle of the eye and not from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this he saith was told him by a holy man that had lived a long time in the deserts of Egypt where he observed the nature of this bird of night and the Pelican August Epistol 22. ad Paulin. a He proved afterwards a most detestable Heretick Te multa dilectio ad mendacii peccatum traxit * Paulinus calls Christ mstically a sparrow Hâ—c est ille passâ—r qui requirentibus se n viis hilaritèr ostend it nunc in portis fit obvius nunc in platis occurrit nunc in muris vel turribus sublimis convocat ad se amatores suos invitat cos in altitudines habitationum suarum ut impleat veâ—bum suum exaltatus omnia ad se trahat Quis dabit nobis pâ—nnas columbae deargentatas ut pennati pervolemus ad bravîum supernae vocationis sequentes istum passerem solitarium qui est unicus dei filius supervolitantem cui in altis habitat humilia respicit Lib. 1. d Civitate deâ— a This was about the year of our L. 428. about which time the Vandals after their excursions through Polonia Italy Franconia and Andalusia had setled in Africk where they continued quietly until the reigne of Justinian buâ— rebelling against him they were together with their King Gillimer totally overthrown by the great Captaine Beliâ—arius An. Christi 533. Luk. 18. Januarius was Bishop of Naples and a Martyr and Martinus was the Bishop â—f Tours in France
Flores Solitudinis Certaine Rare and Elegant PIECES Viz. Two Excellent Discourses Of 1. Temperance and Patience Of 2. Life and Death BY I.E. NIEREMBERGIUS THE WORLD CONTEMNED BY EUCHERIUS BP of LYONS And the Life of PAULINUS BP of NOLA Collected in his Sicknesse and Retirement BY HENRY VAUGHAN Silurist Tantus Amor Florum generandi gloria Mellis London Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard 1654. TO THE TRUELY NOBLE And Religious Sir CHARLES EGERTON Knight SIR IF when you please to locke upon these Collections you will find them to lead you from the Sun into the shade from the open Terrace into a private grove from the noyse and pompe of this world into a silent and solitary Hermitage doe not you thinke then that you have descended like the dead in Occidentem tenebras for in this withdrawing-roome though secret and seldome frequented shines that happy starre which will directly lead you to the King of light You have long since quitted the Publick to present you now with some thing of solitude and the contempt of the world would looke like a designe to Flatter you were not my Name argument enough for the contrary Those few that know me will I am sure be my Compurgators and I my selfe dare assert this you have no cause to suspect it But what ever the thoughts of men will be I am already sure of this advantage that we live in an age which hath made this very Proposition though suspected of Melancholie mighty pleasing and even meane witts begin to like it the wiser sort alwaies did for what I beseech you hath this world that should make a wise man in love with it I will take the boldnesse to describe it in the same character which Bisselius did the hansome concubine of Mahomet the great Puella tota quanta nil erat aliud Quà m Illecebra picta delicatus harpago c. The whole wench how compleat soe'r was but A specious baite a soft sly tempting slut A pleasing witch a living death a faire Thriving disease a fresh infectious aire A pretious plague a furie sweetly drawne Wild fire laid up and finely drest in Lawne This delicate admir'd Inâ—hantresse even to those who enjoy her after their owne lusts and at their owne rate will prove but a very sad bargaine she is all deception and sorrow This world and the prince of it are the Canker-Rose in the mouth of the fox Decipit arefit pungit But those future supreme fruitions which God hath in store for those that love him are neither Phantasmes nor fallacies they are all substantiall and certaine and in the Apostles phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Nothing can give that which it hath not this transiâ—ory changeable and corrupt world cannot afford permanent treasures All it gives and all it shewes us is but trash illusion The true incorruptible riches dwell above the reach of rust and theeves Man himselfe in his outward part which was taken out of the world feeles the like passions with the world he is worn wasâ—ed dissolved and changed he comes hither he knowes not how and goes from hence he knowes not whither Nescio quò vado valete posteri was the Roman's Epitaph One generation commeth and another passeth away Properant decurrunt in absconditum they hasten and drive on to their appointed place untill the great day of accompt All the severall shapes and gestures we see in this wild Masque of time are but so many disguises which the Spirits that first assumed them cast off againe when they have acted their parts Most elegantly did Augurellius sing to Peter Lipomanus upon the death of his sister Clara Amaena Petre cum vides c. Peter when thou this pleasant world dost see Beleeve thou seest meere Dreames and vanitie Not reall things but false and through the Aire Each where an empty slipp'rie Scene through faire The chirping birds the fresh woods shadie boughes The leaves shrill whispers when the west-wind blowes The swift fierce Greyhounds coursing on the plaines The flying hare distrest 'twixt feare and paines The bloomy Mayd decking with flowers her head The gladsome easie youth by light love lead And whatsoe'r heere with admiring eyes Thou seem'st to see 't is but a fraile disguise VVorne by eternall things a passive dresse Put on by beings that are passiveles All the gay appearances in this life seeme to me but a swift succession of rising Clouds which neither abide in any certaine forme nor continue for any long time And this is that which makes the fore travell of the sonnes of men to be nothing else but a meere chasing of shadowes All is vanity said the Royall Philosopher and there is no new thing under the Sun I present you therefore with a discourse perswading to a contempt a desertion of these old things which our Saviour tells us shall passe away And with an historicall faithfull relation of the life and happinesse of a devout primitive father who gave all that he had upon earth to the poore that he might have treasure in heaven Some other Additions you will finde which meeting now in this volume under your name will in their descent to posterity carry with them this fairest Testimonie I loved you This Sir is my maine and my sole designe in this Addresse without reservation and without flattery for which respect and for no other I beleeve you will accept of what I have done and looke upon my suddaine and small Presents as upon some forward flowers whose kinde hast hath brought them above ground in cold weather The incertainty of life and a peevish inconstant state of health would not suffer me to stay for greater performances or a better season least loosing this I should never againe have the opportunity to manifest how much and how sincerely I am Sir Your Servant and well-wisher Henry Vaughan byVske neare Sketh-Rock 1653. To the onely true and glorious God the Sole disposer of Life and Death O Doe not goe thou know'st I 'le dye My Spring and Fall are in thy Booke Or if thou goest doe not deny To lend me though from far one looke My sinnes long since have made thee strange A very stranger unto me No morning-meetings since this change Nor Evening-walkes have I with thee Why is my God thus hard and cold When I am most most sick and sad Well-fare those blessed dayes of old Lad When thou did'st heare the weeping O doe not thou doe as I did Doe not despise a love-sick heart What though some Clouds defiance bid Thy Sun must shine in every part Though I have spoyl'd O spoyle not thou Hate not thine owne deere gift and token Poore Birds sing best and prettiest show When their neast is fallen and broken Deare Lord restore thy Ancient peace Thy quickning friendship mans bright wealth And if thou wilt not give me Ease From
how can it be the Medicine of Evills It is an Evill great enough that it is not the Medicine of Evills but that sufficeth not it is also the greatest Evill Aeschylus is in the like errour for it is called by him The Physician of incurable Evils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A most ridiculous appellation How can that be the Physitian of incurable Evills which is it selfe such an incurable Evill as their owne Machaon could not resist Equally false is that of Sophocles The last Curer of diseases is death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If death it selfe be a disease which must and shall be healed how can it be the last curer of diseases But these men after the Common manner of Physicians held the cure of great Evills to consist in desperate remedies as obstinate diseases are expell'd by strong and Diaphoretick Medicines Health indeed is dear unto us and death I confesse puts an end to all its diseases and to all Medicaments too It takes away the disease sooner and oftner then any other remedy but these Poets themselves as sick men say of their Potions deny not but it is bitter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is better to live ill then to dye well Saith Euripides himselfe in another place such a good opinion had hee of death It had beene but a sorry provision for mankind if God had given us no other Medicine against Temporal Evills but death The cure of our miserable condition had been both imperfect and uncertain and to our sad necessity there had been added necessarie despair when the cure of small Evils had been by a greater and the great Evill it self left incurable But Glory to the blessed Jesus wee are both fully câ—red and faithfully cared for That which can cure all Evills must be something that is not Evill Therefore death cannot cure them because it is an Evill for God created it not but it came into the World through the envy of the Divell Good men hold it to be Evill the bad find it so Thou wilt ask then what is the Medicine of Evills I answer it is that which is the Medicine that strengthens us to bear the violence and the pangs of death that which the very Enemies of it cannot deny to be good I mean Patience that which being made Evill by abuse yet in that state hath been commended by men that were not Evil by Seneca in his Cato Dion in his Melancoma and Philo in his Pancratiastes So winning and attractive is the Virtue of Patience that the very shadow of it procures reverence and make the very abuse and corruption of it laudable If then the Counterfeit of it could beautifie vice and make it amiable even to wise men what wonder is it if the Substance be a protection and ornament to Virtuous persons This is the Medicine which Leonides gave against death Let those Titles therefore which death usurped be vindicated by the right owner Patience then is the best medicine of Evills It is the cure of the Incurable the last Physitian the Ease in death the mollifying Oyle the gentle purge the pleasant Potion and that I may recover its right to another Title which death usurped from the pen of Bâ—etius It is a sanctuary that lies alwaies open to the distressed Lastly lest I should deny that which even the envy of Fortune could not deny Patience as Zeno elegantly said is the Queen regent of all things yea of that rebellious changling Fortune But let us adde to the certainty of the cure the easinesse of comming by the medicine We need not send for it into Forraign Regions nor dig it out of Mines nor extract it out of the Veines of Herbs or the vital parts of beasts Wee need not go for it to the Apothecary nay I shall adde wee need not wish for it It is already in our custody a manuall Antidote that is alwaies about us and in us effectuall for all things and ready for all men It is a Physitian we need not call upon not like death that forsakes the wretched and those that earnestly long for it that hath no pitty upon teares but keeps off And will not hear the Crie Of distrest man not shut his weeping Eye Hitherto we have taken view but of one side of Patience and that halfe of her which she opposeth to Evills Every part of her is lovely and excellent and if we remove now from this Collateral station to a direct we shall behold her intire beauty and how well shee deserves of good The Sacraments of this Virtue are two To suffer Evill to do good Nobly doth she celebrate both with her there is no Evill without her there is no good I think her the Mart and Mother-City of all that is good Every Virtue is a Colonie of Patience planted and nourished by her Virtues owe their Original to her she is part of it and in every one of them She is their holy fire their Vesta and Lararium or private Chappell they are her Nuns or Virgins what ever they have either sacred or glorious is from her To the perfection of man there is nothing more necessary For as Brasse must be first melted and afterwards cast so the hard and rigid matter of Virtues must be softned and dissolved by Patience that man may become a glorious and living Statue of Divinitie No marvell that wee require labour and hardnesse in Virtuous persons seeing wee expect it from Smiths A certain Just Law of all the World hath exacted it to be the price of Virtue Beare what thou wouldst not and thou shalt enjoy what thou wilt Labour is the good mans purse Patience is his Gold Onely an obstinate sordid Idlenesse makes men poor not onely in body but in mind also Without Patience they cannot possesse their own Soules Neither Nature nor Virtue nor Fortune and this last thou wilt perhaps think strange trust us with their goods without this Prosperity when it is lent to man dispensenth its treasures to none so plentifully as to the laborious Without a blow it stroaks us not The sweet-meats it brings are not eaten but in the sweat of the face It was truly said of Fortune Give bread to the poor but give him thy fists for sauce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Snake will easily slip through our hands unlesse we grasp her with Figleaves or some knotty rough grass Fortune is very slippery and without labour and a strong hand she will not be held Honest gaine breeds most Joy I shall adde most security when it is gotten with most pain Labour is the earnest we give for after-Joyes which are an addition or consequence rather attending the other fruits of it Though it goes before them yet it is refreshed with their following after As hunger which is a Natural sauce sweetens the meat and the Joyes of the eater even before â—e eates Wee look with most delight upon those things which wee think to be our own and we think
though shut up in the body yet shee can have a tast of her glorious posthume liberty Death looseth the Soule from the body it breaks in sunder the secret bonds of the blood that she may have the full use of her wings and be united to Divinity Patience though it doth not quite loosen the chaine yet it lengthens it that she may take the aire and walk some part of the way towards Home Though it frees not the Soul from the body yet it gives her liberty and dominion over it He that is tyed up by a long Cord is within the compasse allowed him untyed and a free man The Spirit of man incensed by adversities and collected into it selfe is by a certain Antiperistasis made more ardent and aspiring Fire is never stronger nor more intense then amongst Water In the bosome of a cloud it breakes forth into thunder So this Divine Spark which God hath shut up in Vessels of Clay when all the passages of pleasures are stopt his raies which before were diffused and extravagant returne into it selfe and missing their usuall vent break forth with such violence as carries with it sometimes the very body and steales the whole man from passion and mortality The Levitie of fire is of greater force then the Gravity and Massinesse of Earth His Spirit is unresistable and the unknown force of it will blow up the greatest Mountains and the strongest Castles this earth affords Hitherto have I discoursed of outward Evills I shall now consider the Inward and how Patience is their Antidote You have seen her Prerogative over Fortune and reputed Evills which are called Evills because they seem to be so not because they are so as disgrace grief and poverty All these are but fictitious Evils which Custom and Humane error have branded with that injurious denomination for in these contingencies there is no reall Evill but the Evill of opinion neither is any man miserable but in his own conceit and by comparison The glory of Patience would be but poor and trivial if it could doe no more then take away or beare with such frivolous and fictitious troubles as these If it prevailed onely against Evills which we do not suffer but invent It s true glory is that it subdues true Evills Not that it bears them but that it removes them far from us Not that it endures them but than it abstaines from them For truly to suffer Evil is to do Evil whose Agent alwaies the Patient is by reason of a most ill impatience But Patience is onely excellent because it suffers not This worst kind of Evil is therefore the greater because because when 't is in acting it is not seen and were it not afterwards felt there would be no place left for Virtue This is the usuall method of Vice a flattering Comical entrance and a Tragical exit The force and malice of Evil Actions may be gathered by their Nature They are so powerfully hurtful that when they cease to be they cease not to torment us and so malignant that while we act them they flatter us that being Acted they may afflict us While we are doing them they conceal and deny themselves but being done they appear to our sorrow Wherefore he that will lead a blessed a joyfull and a peaceful life must make it his whole work to do no work but what Religion and Virtue shall approve of What peace and security can he enjoy that will revenge himselfe what more would cruelty have according to his own lust What life can he be said to live that kills himselfe to please his inordinate affections What joy can he have whose troubled conscience is his continual Executioner racking and tormenting him in the very embraces of smiling Fortune No outward Fomentations will serve turne against that Indisposition to which fevers and fire are but coolers Wee can provide against the violence of winter and Summer-weather when and how we please But the inward heats and colds the raging accessions of the Spirit admit no cure Patience though Fortune should assist her will never heal the wounds of conscience He that suffers by the guilt of Conscience endures worse torments then the wheel and the saw As that heat which ascending from the liver and the region of the heart doth diffuse it selfe through the body is greater then the united flames of the dog-star and the Sun What torturing invention of Amestris Pherâ—tima or Perillus did ever so afflict distress'd wretches as the fury of his owne Conscience did torment Orestes though freed from all men but himself no Tyrant is so cruel as a guilty spirit Not Scylla with his prison Siuis with his Isthmian pine Phalaris with his bull Sciron with his Rock nor Faunus in his Inne The Pelusians when they punished Parricides conceived no torture so answerable to the heynousnesse of the crime as this inward Divine revenge neither the Sack nor the Lime-kil pleased them so much as this gnawing worm the terrible and luctual excogitation of the wise Father of Nature They ordered therefore and enacted it for a Law that the murtherer for three daies and three nights should be pent up in some narrow roome together with the naked body of the slaine and be forced to look upon it whither he would or not which was effected by putting him in such a posture as permitted him not to look any way but just upon the dead The Sicilian Tyrant himselfe knew that conscience was a more cruell torment then the bull of brasse This made him spare the most unnaturall and bloody offenders that they might be tormented not with scalding metalls and glowing Iron but by a damning conscience The first penaltie for murther was conscience The first Actor of a violent death was punished with life He that first saw and introduced death was thought worthy of no other punishmenâ— but the security of life which he first shewed to be not secure for it is a more mercilesse punishment then death to have long life secured with a killing conscience So he that brought murther first into the World was first punished with the terrourr of conscience Which are then most torturing when health and strength are the capital punishments The Protoplasts themselves the parents of death and of mankind too who gave us death before they gave us life thought it a greater plague then death to be still alive and yet to be guilty of death They would have fled to death to flye from themselves Apposite to this is that of Marius Victor They faine would if they might Descend to hide themselves in Hell So light Of foot is vengeance and so near to sin That soon as done the Actors do begin To fear and suffer by themselves Death moves Before their Eyes Sad dens and duskie groves They haunt and hope vain hope which fear doth guide That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide You see now that conscience even amongst the Pelusians was held a
Sinner is a Fool. The wisedâ—me of Doves is innocence and that which makes the light to shine is its simplicity Light is a Type of Joy and Darknesse of Sorrow Joy is the fruit of innocence and sorrow of Sinne. The sorrow we take for Fortune is hurtfull Those teares like tempestuous droppings if not kept out will rot the house But the sorow for sinne is healing Penitential tears are the Oâ—le of the Sanctuary God gives them and afterwards accepts them they both cleanse us and cherish us When Marble weepes it washeth off the dust Worldly teares are the waters of Marah the tree that sweetens them must be shewed by the Lord The waters of the pool Bethesda heal'd not untill the Angel stirred them without true remorse teares profit not but if they have that Ingredient they are showers which the Lord hath blessed and must not be stopped although they might As courage and a joyfull heart are the ripe fruits of innocence so shame and sorrow are the hopefull buds and primroses of it Contrition is the infancie of Virtue Therefore that sadnesse must not be expelled which expelleth Vice It is an invention of the Deity to destroy Sinnes That they might be either unfruitfull or fruitfull onely to their owne destruction For this we have two instances from Nature in the Mule and the Viper Whereof the one is barren and the other unhappily fruitfull Nature is carefull that Evills may not multiply or if they do that they may not prosper The Mule is barren lest there should be an increase of Monsters Apposite to this is that saying of Gregory Cerameus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Evils saith he are denyed from God the power of propagating as mules have not the faculty to preserve their kind by generating one another The Viper notwithstanding is a mother but shee brings forth her owne destruction The birth of her young ones is her death So sorrow that is the child of sinne is the death of it also Let therefore this saving destroyer of sins be made much off let this godly sorrow be still cherished and never rebuked he that dryes up his teares before he is cleansed takes delight in his filthinesse and like the lothsome drunkard would sleep in his vomit Penitent afflictions should never be resisted but by precaution Hee then that would not drink of this Wormwood must be sure to refuse the sugred venom of sinne No man is Evill for nothing Every defect in life is occasioned by a defect of Patience because we cannot endure to be constantly good because we are impatient of continuall holinesse Two Evills attend upon Sinners the Evill of sin and the Evill of Punishment which is the Evil of sorrow To escape the last we must abstain from the first wee must be either impatient of the first or else the patients of the last Unlesse wee will suffer a litle to avoid offences wee must suffer much after we have fallen into them A short displeasure is better then a long torment This previous Patience of abstaining frees us from two subsequent Evils The pain of Conscience untill we repent and after that the pain of Penitence These two are the Appendants or retinue of every sinne A seasonable innocent forbearance is the fense against them both one small griefe averts these two great ones How wholesome and comfortable is that Patience which prevents sinne and sorrow the Consequent of it But Virtue when it is most healthfull is in the estimation of some reputed to be poyson For no other reason do they reject it of whome Theodotus elegantly sings Virtues faire cares some people measure For poys'nous works that hinder pleasure This Patient abstinence from Evill is the Mother of holy Joy it keeps the mind pleasant and serene What is there or what can there be more beneficial or delightfull to man then a pure innocent conscience where all the Virtues like busie Bees are in constant action as in a fair flowry field or rather in Paradise where all is Divine all Peacefull nothing polluted no feare no distraction In this state as Theophanes saith The wise man is adorned with a Godlike Conscience and a mind becomming the very Deity What is there more joyful then to be master of such a Power as cannot be violated by Tyrants and Torments It was a golden and Victorious saying of Tiburtius Every punishment is poor when a pure Conscience keepes us company For as the guilty can receive no comfort So the Innocent cannot lose his Joy The Joy of Conscience is Natures recompence the coalescent reward or fruite of integrity an entailed happinesse the native blandishment of life and the minds mighty purchase What happier gaine can be then to rejoice alwaies for what wee have done but once or what greater damage then an unrighteous gain It was bravely said by Chilo that the heaviâ—st losse was to bee chosen before base gain That will grieve us but once the other alwaies The losse of temporal goods will trouble us but for a time but a lost Conscience will torment us Eternally What greater liberty can there be then not to fear any thing And what can he be affeard of that is not frighted by the guilt of his own spirit when Periander was asked what liberty was he answered A good Conscience And another saith that Man should with Virtue arm'd and hearten d be And innocently watch his Enemy For fearlesse freedom which none can controule Is gotten by a pure and upright Soul Sinne makes remisse and câ—wardly spirits to be the constant slaves of misery what liberty yea what joy can he have or what dares he do Whose guilty soul with terrours fraught doth frame New torments still and still doth blow that flame Which still burns him nor sees what end can be Of his dire plagues and fruitful penalty But fears them living and fears more to dye Which makes his life a constant Tragedy Therefore to preserve the mirth and peace of Conscience righteous or honest Actions are mainly conducing and should be alwaies our imployment for this is the appointed task of man and it is his mysterie too The hand is the best Sacrifice The Antient Portugals used to dedicate to their Gods the right hands of their captives but offer thou thine own and not anothers To be onely without Vice is a vitious commendation Nay it is not commendable at all but self-indulgence or a flattering of our owne corrupt inactivity To such a passe is man come that he is not ashamed to do lesse for Virtue then the vitious will do for Vice It is a most poore and fordid glory to be onely not numbred amongst the bad It is a base degree of praise to be reputed onely not base To be without Vice is not to be good Not to be vitious and to be Virtuous are two things To refrain from Evill is scarse not Evill especially if we proceed no further For to be able to be good and not to be
member cut off then hanging dead by thee Thou wouldst then onely wish for its company when it would be no hindrance to thee And canst thou endure the immortal Soul to be sick of death to be sick in his best part in the head wilt thou suffer thy mind to drowse to be paralytical and senselesse never thinking of God nor of doing good In such a liver the beauty of his immortal part is crusted over with an incurable leprosie and reason which is the Soules Countenance is most ingloriously ecclipsed The Task of life is to labour and the Sacrament of the Soule is to work rationally Idlenesse is a Parenthesis in the line of life When we do nothing wee do not live Slothfullnesse is a dead Existence a kind of sleep when we are awake That life is empty that is not filled with the care of living well It was truly said by Possidonius that one day of a learned mans life was more pleasant then all the years of the unlearned One houre one minute well spent is to be preferred before a sinfull voluptuous for-ever Time is a sacred thing it flowes from Heaven it is a thred spun from thence by the motion and circumvolution of the spheres It is an emanation from that place where eternity springs The right use of it is to reduce it to its Original If we follow time close it will bring us to its Fountain It is a clue cast down from Heaven to guide us thither It is the younger brother of eternity the one must be sought in the other It hath some assimilation to Divinity it is partly knowable and partly not Wee move in it and wee see it not It is then most invisible when most present If we be carefull of it the benefit is ours If wee neglect it we cast away our selves Hee lives not at all that lives not well And hee that lives ill shall dye worse Hee suffers a living and sensible death It is death because it wants the fruit of life and it is sensible because it is with losse and punishment Many ill livers comfort themselves with a vain conceir that the state of death is senselesse But Vice and Idlenesse are more malitious deaths they carry with them the penalty of sense They are fertill in evills and barren of good like a cursed ground that bringes forth nothing but thornes and thistles You expect grapes from your vines corn from your Fields but no Fruit at all from your selves Were you made to be good for nothing for shame be your own dressers Manure your selves and prune your vain and noxious affections Man himself is his own pretious Soile his own fruitfull field and thriving Plant let him that expects fruits from extraneous things tast first of his own Good workes are the apples of this Heavenly Plant. The Vine and the Field though they bear not for themselves pay their annual proventions If they had beene left to their first fruitfullnesse before the Curse they had exceeded in a most uberous spontaneous fertility if they should yeild nothing now they would be good for nothing Man bears fruit for himselfe and may bear as much as he pleaseth Wilt thou then keepe backe thy own provision Wilt thou pine thy selfe or by burying thy talent in the dust be an enemy to thy own soule and envious towards others Virtue in my opinion is like to Musick it pleaseth most of all the Virtuous man himself and it pleaseth also the vitious whose Conscience doth force him to admire that in others which he neglects in himselfe Musick delighteth both the Musician and the unskillfull Musick built the Walls of Thebes and Virtue must build the new Hierusalem Musick and Virtue are the performances of the hand and the Cordials of the mind Every lover of Virtue is Musical that is so say he is pleased with the suffrages of his own Conscience and solaced with the Celestiall flights of his pure Spirit Hee loves the works of Virtue not to gain the peoples applause but for Virtues sake whose beauty and power are best seene in her workes Honesty is one of the liberal Arts it is a trade of Conscience not of gaine Craftsmen shew their skill in their works The Sculptor in his Cuts the Painter in his limnings and the Goldsmith in his Plate To do something not the manner of doing it is their care Their worke may be well done though negligently and without much Art The Limner may give a stroke in hast or anger which neither Judgement nor curiosity can ever match Giotto's circle though drawn perfunctorily surpassed the most elaborate peeces of other Arâ—â—sts Virtue alone makes no use either of errour or chance and this she doth meerly to oppose Fortune In virtuous actions if wee erre in doing though we do good yet the worke of Virtue is not well done In other Arts one Exemplar or Act may serve to shew the Artificers skill though he should never work more But it is not so in Virtue As we cannot know a skillfull Musician unlesse he plaies upon some Instrument so Virtuous men are not manifested untill they Act He that will give any proofe of himselfe must needs be active but to be so once is not activity Virtue is a most usefull thing and the use of it dyeth not after it is used For allthough all the actions of man are transitory yet when they proceed from Virtue they are permanent I advise thee therefore to be permanent yea to be immortal Care not for those things which the World esteems to be enduring as Gold and the Wealth of Fortune those will make them wings and fly away when thou doest least look for it Care thou for those things which the people and their Hypocritital rulers value not because they believe them to proceed from a sheepish and rewardlesse tamenesse and not from grace and the secret dispensations of the God of peace Care I say for Righteousnesse and Innocence Care that thy Actions be upright These are the treasures which the World believing to be transient shall find one day to be truly solid and permanent Thou hast read somtimes that advice of the Apostle Redeem the times That is to say what thou doest well at one time thou shalt have it at all times Thy good Actions withâ—rsoever thou goest will bear thee company They are Companions of a most rare fidelity and will leave thee neither in the hour of death nor after death When our friends cannot follow us then do our good works travell with us they are then our best friends and overcome our foes Envy it selfe is appeased with death it falls off with the body Malice knowes no posthume persecution and the glory of Virtue in that state is above the reach of her Enemies though they may disturb our temporal rights they are too short to oppose our claime to immortality The onely peaceful possession of the dead is his good life and righteous dealings what wil it avail the
turning life out of doors before her lease was out and had not Ptolomie by a special Edict silenced his Doctrine he had robbed him of more subjects then ever War or the Plague could have taken from him Before the blessed Jesus had made his entrance through the veile and opened the way to heaven the reward of righteousnesse and sanctity was long life the peculiar blessing of the Paâ—riarchs It was a favour then not to appear before perfect purity a Judge of infinite and all-seeing brightnesse without an Advocate or friend to speak for us in the strength and heat of irregular youthfulnesse when not so much as time had subdued or reformed the affections but now bâ—cause Christ is gone thither before and hath provided a place for us the greatest blessing and highest reward of holynesse is short life and an unseasonable or a violent death For those harsh Epithets which are but the inventions of fearfull and sinful livers are swallowed up of immortâ—lity an unspeakable heavenly happinesse which crowns and overflowes all those that dye in Christ Wee consider not those blessings which death leads us to and therefore it is that we so frequently approve of our most frivolous wordly wishes and sit weeping under the burthens of life because we have not more laid upon us A certain groundlesse suspition that death is evill will not suffer us to believe it to be good though the troubles of life make us complement and wish for it every day This foolish fear and inconstancy of man Locmannus one of the most antient Sages of Persia and admitted also into the Society of the Arabian Magi hath pleasantly demonstrated in the person of an Old man loaded â—ith a grâ—at burthen of Wood which having quite tyred him he threw down and called for death to come and ease him Hee had no sooner called but death which seldome comes so quickly to those that call for it in earnest presently appeared and demands the reason why he called I did call thee said he to help me to lift this burthen oft wood upon my back which just now fell off So much are we in love with miseries that we fear to exchange them with true happiness we do so doate upon them that we long to resume them again after wee have once shaked them off being either faithlesse and wavering or else forgetfull of those future joyes which cannot be had without the funerall and the death of our present sorrowes What man distrest with hunger if hee sate upon some Barren and Rockie bank bounded with a deep River where nothing could be expected but Famine or the Fury of wild beasts and saw beyond that stream a most secure and pleasant Paradise stored with all kinds of bearing Trees whose yielding boughes were adorned and plenteously furnished with most fair and delicate fruites If it were told him that a little below there was a boate or a bridge to passe over would refuse that secure conveyance or be affeard to commit himself to the calm and perspicuous streames choosing rather to starve upon the brink then to passe over and be relieved O foolish men For Gold which is digged out of the Suburbs of Hell we trust our selves to the raging and unstable Seas guarded with a few planks and a little pitch where onely a Tree as Aratus faith is the partition betwixt death and us And after many rough disputes with violent perills and the fight â—f so many more wee perish in the unhappy acquisition of false happinesse the Sea either resisting or else punishing our covetousnesse But to passe into our Heavenly Country into the bosome and embraces of Divinity into a Realm where Fortune reigns not wee dare not so much as think of it Who after long banishment and a tedious pilgrimage being now come near to his native Country and the house of his Father where his Parents his brethren and friends expect him with longing would then turn back and choose to wander again when he might have joy when he might have rest God the Father expects us the blessed Jesus expects us the mild and mourning Dove doth long and grone for us The holy Virgin-mother the Angells our friends and the Saints our kindred are all ready to receive us It is through death that wee must passe unto them Why grieve we then yea why rejoyce wee not to have this passage opened But let us grant that death were not inevitable yea that it were in the power of man and that every one had a particular prerogative given him over destinie So that this greatest Necessity were the greatest freedome yea that man could not dye though he desired death Yet in this very state would hee be troubled with Fortune and Hope He would be a fool that would not venture to dye to enjoy true felicity That would choose rather to live alwaies in the changeable state of most unchangeable and lasting miseries then to put an end to them all by dying once It is madnesse to feare death which if it reigned not upon the Earth wee would both desire and pray for It was wisely adjudged by Zaleucus that death ought to be publickly proclaimed though men had been immortall Had death been arbitrary and at every mans pleasure I believe we had esteemed it as desireable as any other joy now because it is Imperial and above us let it not seem too much if wee grant it to be tollerable It was absurdly said by onâ— that death was a necessary Evill and ought therefore to be patiently born His Inference was good though from a bad Principle Death is rather a necessary good And if necessity makes Evils to be tolerable there is more reason it should make good so Death because it is good should be made much of and wee should rejoyce that it is necessary because that makes it certain How great a good is that by which it is necessary that we be not miserable Which frees the captive without ransome dismisseth the oppressed without the consent of the oppressour brings home the banished in spite of the banisher and healâ—s the sicke without the pain of Physick Which mends all that Fortune marred which is most just which repaires and makes even all the disorders and inequalities made by time and chance which is the blessed necessity that takes away necessary Evills He had erred lessâ— if he had mentioned a necessity of bearing life patiently whose more proper definition that sorry proverbe is for it casts us into necessary Evills against our will and is the cause that wee willfully meddle with Evills that are unnecessary It is a discreet method of nature that infuseth the Soules into the body in such a state that is not sensible of their captivity lest they should murmur at the decrees of the great Archiplast What wise man that were neare the terme of his appointed time if he were offered to have life renew'd would consent to be born again to be shut up in flesh