busie about him and notwithstanding all this hast thou now forgotten him His countenance auoucheth it his voice assureth it his wounds witnesse it thine owne eyes behold it and doest thou not yet beleeue that this is Iesus Are thy sharpe seeing eyes become so weake sighted that they are dazeled with the Sunne and blinded with the light But there is such a shower of teares betweene thee and him and thine eyes are so dimmed with weeping for him that though thou seest the shape of a man yet thou canst not discerne him Thy eares also are still so possessed with the dolefull Eccho of his last speeches which want of breath made him vtter in a dying voice that the force and loudnesse of his liuing words maketh thee imagine it the voyce of a stranger and therefore as he seemeth vnto thee so like a stranger he asketh this question of thee O woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou O desire of the heart and onely ioy of her soule why demandest thou why she weepeth or for whom she seeketh But a while since she saw thee her onely hope hanging on a tree with thy head full of thornes thy eyes full of teares thy eares full of blasphemies thy mouth full of gall thy whole person mangled and disfigured and doest thou aske her why she weepeth Scarce three dayes passed she beheld thy armes and legges racked with violent puls thy hands and feete boared with nayles thy side wounded with a speare thy whole bodie torne with stripes and goared in blood and doest thou her onely griefe aske her why she weepeth She beheld thee vpon the Crosse with many teares and most lamentable cryes yeelding vp her ghost that is thy owne ghost and alas asketh thou why she weepeth And now to make vp her miserie hauing but one hope aliue which was that for a small reliefe of her other afflictions she might haue annointed thy body that hope is also dead since thy body is remoued and she now standeth hopelesse of all helpe and demandest thou why she weepeth and for whom she seeketh Full well thou knowest that thee onely she desireth thee onely she loueth all things beside thee she contâ—mneth and canst thou finde in thy heart to aske her whom she seeketh To what end ô sweet Lord doest thou thus suspend her longings prolong her desires and martyr her with these tedious delayes Thou onely art the fortresse of her faint faith the anker of her wauering hope the very center of her vehement loue to thee she trusteth vpon thee she relyeth and of her selfe she wholly despaireth She is so earnest in seeking thee that she can neither seeke nor thinke any other thing and all her wits are so busied in musing vpon thee that they draw all attention from her senses wherewith they should discerne thee Being therefore so attentiue to that she thinketh what maruell though she marke not whom she seeth and sith thou hast so perfect notice of her thought and she so little power to discouer thee by sense why demandest thou for whom she seeketh or why she weepeth Doest thou looke that she should answere for thee I seeke or for thee I weepe vnlesse thou wilt vnbend her thoughts that her eyes may fully see thee or while thou wilt be concealed doest thou expect that she should be able to know thee But ô Mary not without cause doth he aske thee this question Thou wouldest haue him aliue and yet thou weepest because thou doest not find him dead Thou art some that he is not here and for this very cause thou shouldest rather be glad For if he were dead I it is most likely he should be here but not being here it is a signe that he is aliue He reioyceth to be out of his graue and thou weepest because he is not in it He will not lie any where and thou sorrowest for not knowing where he lyeth Alas why be wailest thou his glory and iniurest the reuiuing of his body as the robbery of his coarse He being aliue for what dead man mournest thou and he being present whose absence doest thou lament But she taking him to be a Gardener said vnto him O Lord if thou hast carried him from hence tell me where thou hast layd him and I will take him away O wonderfull effects of Maries loue if loue be a languor how liueth she by it If loue be her life how dyeth she in it If it bereaued her of sense how did she see the Angels If it quickened her of sense why knew she not Iesus Doest thou seeke for one whom when thou hast found thou knowest not or if thou dost know him when thou findest him why doest thou seek when thou hast him Behold Iesus is come and the partie whom thou seekest is he that talketh with thee ô Mary call vp thy wits and open thine eyes Hath thy Lord liued so long laboured so much died with such paine and shed such showers of bloud to come to no higher preferment than to be a Gardener And hast thou bestowed such cost so much sorrow and so many teares for no better man than a silly Gardener Alas is the sorry Garden the best inheritance that thy loue can affoord him or a Gardeners office the highest dignitie that thou wilt allow him It had bene better he had liued to haue bene Lord of thy Castle than with his death so dearely to haue bought so small a purchase But thy mistaking hath in it a further mysterie Thou thinkest not amisse though thy sight be deceiued For as our first Father in the state of grace and innocencie was placed in the Garden of pleasure and the first office allotted him was to be a Gardener so the first man that euer was in glorie appeareth first in a Garden and presenteth himselfe in a Gardeners likenesse that the beginnings of glorie might resemble the entrance of innocencie and grace And as the Gardener was the fall of mankinde the parent of sinne and authour of death so is this Gardener the raiser of our ruines the ransome of our offences and the restorer of life In a Garden Adam was deceiued and taken captiue by the deuill In a Garden Christ was betrayed and taken prisoner by the Iewes In a Garden Adam was condemned to earne his bread with the sweat of his browes And after a free gift of the bread of Angels in the last Supper in a Garden Chrid did earne it vs with a bloudy sweate of his whole body By disobedient eating the fruite of a tree our right to that Garden was by Adam forfeited and by the obedient death of Christ vpon a tree a farre better right is now recouered When Adam had sinned in the Garden of pleasure he was there apparelled in dead beasts skinnes that his garment might betoken his graue and his liuery of death agree with his condemnation to die And now to defray the debt of that sinne in this Garden Christ lay clâ—d in the dead mans shrowd
egges ere they be hatched Kill bad Chickins in the tread Fligge they hardly can be catched In the rising stifle ill Lest it grow against thy will Drops do pierce the stubburne Flint Not by force but often falling Custome kils with feeble dint More by vse then strength preuailing Single sands haue little waight Many make a drowning fraight Tender twigs are bent with ease Aged trees do breake with bending Yong desires make little prease Growth doth make them past amending Happie man that soone doth knocke Babels Babes against the rocke Loue seruile Lot LOue Mistresse is of many minds Yet few know whom they serue They reckon least how little Loue Their seruice doth deserue The will she robbeth from the wit The sense from reasons lore Shee is delightfull in the ryne Corrupted in the core She shrowdeth vice in Vertues veile Pretending good in ill She offereth ioy affoordeth griefe A kisse where she doth kill A hony showre raines from her lips Sweet lights shine in her face She hath the blush of Virgine mind The minde of Vipers race She makes thee seeke yet feare to find To find but none enioy In many frownes some gliding smiles She yeelds to more annoy She wooes thee to come neare her fire Yet doth she draw it from thee Farre off she makes thy heart to fry And yet to freeze within thee She letteth fall some luring baits For fooles to gather vp Too sweet too sowre to euerie tast She tempereth her cup. Soft soules she binds in tender twist Small Flyes in spinners webbe She sets aflote some luring streames But makes them soone to ebbe Her watrie eyes haue burning force Her flouds and flames conspire Teares kindle sparkes sobs fuell are And sighs do blow her fire May neuer was the Month of loue For May is full of flowers But rather Aprill wet by kind For loue is full of showers Like Tyrant cruell wounds she giues Like Surgeon salue she lends But salue and sore haue equall force For death is both their ends With soothing words enthralled soules She chaines in seruile bands Her eye in silence hath a speech Which eye best vnderstands Her little sweet hath many sowres Short hap immortall harmes Her louing lookes are murdrings darts Her songs bewitching charmes Like Winter Rose and Sommer Ice Her ioyes are still vntimely Before her hope behind remorse Faire first in fine vnseemely Moodes passions fancies iealous fits Attend vpon her traine She yeeldeth rest without repose A Heauen in hellish paine Her house is sloth her doore deceit And slipperie hope her staires Vnbashfull boldnesse bids her guests And euerie vice repaires Her dyet is of such delights As please till they be past But then the poyson kils the heart That did entice the taste Her sleepe in sinne doth end in wrath Remorse rings her awake Death cals her vp shame driues her out Despaires her vpshot make Plow not the Seas sow not the sands Leaue off your idle paine Seeke other mistresse for your mindes Loues seruice is in vaine Life is but Losse BY force I liue in will I wish to dye In plaint I passe the length of lingring dayes Free would my soule from mortall bodie fly And tread the tracke of Deaths desired wayes Life is but losse where death is deemed gaine And lothed pleasures breed displeasing paine Who would not dye to kill all murdering greeues Or who would liue in neuer-dying feares Who would not wish his treasure safe from Theeues And quit his heart from pangs his eyes from teares Death parteth but two euer fighting foes Whose ciuill strife doth worke our endlesse woes Life is a wandring course to doubtfull rest As oft a cursed rise to damning leape As happie race to winne a heauenly crest None being sure what finall fruits to reape And who can like in such a life to dwell Whose wayes are strait to Heauen but wide to Hell Come cruell death why lingrest thou so long What doth withhold thy dint from fatall stroke Now prest I am alas thou doest me wrong To let me liue more anger to prouoke Thy right is bad when thou hast stopt my breath Why should'd thou stay to worke my bouble death If Sauls attempt in falling on his blade As lawfull were as ethe to put in vre If Sampsons leaue a common Law were made Of Abels lot if all that would were sure Then cruell death thou should'st the Tyrant play With none but such as wished for delay Where life is lou'd thou readie art to kill And to abridge with sodaine pangs their ioy Where life is loath'd thou wilt not worke their will But dost adiourne their death to their annoy To some thou art a fierce vnbidden guest But those that craue thy helpe thou helpest least Auant oh viper I thy spite defie There is a God that ouer-rules thy force Who can thy weapons to his will apply And shorten or prolong our brittle course I on his mercie not thy might relye To him I liue for him I hope to dye I dye aliue O Life what lets thee from a quicke decease O death what drawes thee from a present prey My feast is done my soule would be at ease My grace is said O Death come take away I liue but such a life as euer dyes I dye but such a death as neuer ends My death to end my dying life denies And life my liuing death no whit amends Thus still I dye yet still I do reuiue My liuing death by dying life is fed Grace more then Nature keepes my heart aliue Whose idle hopes and vaine desires are dead Not where I breathe but where I loue I liue Not where I loue but where I am I dye The life I wish must future glorie giue The deaths I feele in present dangers lye What ioy to liue I Wage no warre yet peace I none enioy I hope I feare I frye in freezing cold I mourne in mirth still prostrate in annoy I all the World imbrace yet nothing hold All wealth is want where chiefest wishes faile Yea life is loath'd where loue may not preuaile For that I loue I long but that I lacke That others loue I loath and that I haue All worldly fraights to me are deadly wracke Men present hap I future hopes do craue They louing where they liue long life require To liue where best I loue death I desire Here loue is lent for loue of filthie gaine Most friends befriend themselues with friendships shew Here plentie perill want doth breed disdaine Cares common are ioyes faultie short and few Here Honour enuide meannesse is despis'd Sinne deemed solace Vertue little pris'd Here beauty is a baite that swallowed choakes A treasure sought still to the owners harmes A light that eyes to murdring sights prouokes A grace that soules inchants with mortall charmes A luring ayme to Cupids fierie flights A balefull blisse that damnes where it delights O who would liue so many deaths to trie Where will doth wish that wisedome doth reproue
at his parting breath O fortresse of the faithfull sure defence In which doth Christians cognizance consist Their victorie their triumph comes from thence So forcible hell gates cannot resist A thing whereby both Angels clouds and starres At mans request fight Gods reuengefull wars Nothing more gratefull in the Highest eyes Nothing more firme in danger to protect vs Nothing more forcible to pierce the skies And not depart till mercy do respect vs And as the soule life to the body giues So prayer reuiues the soule by prayer it liues R. S. Of the Foundations of vertuous and godly life The first Foundation THe first Foundation of a vertuous life is often and seriously to consider for what end and purpose I was created and what Gods designement was when he made me of nothing and that not to haue a being onely as a stone nor with a bare kinde of life or growing as a plante or tree nor a power of sence or feeling onely as a brute beast but a creature to his owne likenesse endued with reason and vnderstanding also why he now preserueth me in this health state and calling Finally why he redeemed me with his owne bloud bestowed so infinite benefits vpon me and still continueth his mercy towards me The end of mans creation THe end of my being thus made redeemed preserued and so much benefited by God is this and no other that I should in this life serue him with my whole body soule and substance and with what else soeuer is mine and in the next life enioy him for euer in heauen Rules that follow of this Foundation I Was made of nothing by God and receiued bodie and soule from him and therefore am I onely his not mine owne neither can I so binde or giue my selfe to any creature but that I ought more to serue loue and obey God then any creature in this world Secondly I commit a kind of theft and do God great wrong so often as I employ any part of my body or soule to any other end then to his seruice for which onely I was created Thirdly for this I do liue and for no other end but for this do all creatures serue me and when I turne the least thing whereof God hath giuen me the vse or possessing to any other end then the seruice of God I do God wrong and abuse his creatures The second Foundation SEeing I was made to serue God in this life and to enioy him in the next the seruice of God and the saluation of mine owne soule is the most weightie and important businesse and the most necessarie matter wherein I must imploy my body mind time and labour and all other affaires are so farre forth to be esteemed of me waightie or light as they more or lesse tend to the furtherance of this principall and most earnest businesse for what auaileth it a man to gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule Rules that follow of this Foundation FIrst what diligence labour or cost I would employ in any other temporall matter of credite liuing or life all that I am bound to employ in the seruice of God and the saluation of my soule and so much more as the waight of my soule passeth all other things Secondly I ought to thinke the seruice of God and saluation of my soule my principall businesse in this world and to make it my ordinary study and chiefe occupation and day and night to keepe my mind so fixed vpon it that in euery action I still haue it before mine eyes as the onely marke I shoot at The third Foundation I Cannot serue God in this world nor go about to enioy him in the next but that Gods enemies and mine owne will repine and seeke to hinder me which enemies are three the world the flesh and the Diuell Wherefore I must resolue my selfe and set it downe as a thing vndoubted that my whole life must be as a continuall combat with these aduersaries whom I must assure my selfe to lie hourely in waite for me to seeke their aduantage and that their malice is so vnplacable and their hatred against me so rooted in them that I must neuer looke to haue one houre secure from their assaults but that they will from time to time so long as there is breath in my body still labour to make me forsake and offend God allure me to their seruice and draw me to my damnation Rules following of this Foundation I Must prepare my body and minde to all patience and thinke it no newes to be tempted but a point annexed necessarily to my profession and therefore neuer must I be wearied with the continuance nor dismaied with the difficultie considering the malice and wickednesse of mine aduersaries and my professed enmity with them Secondly I must alwayes stand vpon my guard and be very watchfull in euery action seeing that whatsoeuer I do they will seeke to peruert it and make it offensiue to God euen my very best endeuours Thirdly I must neuer looke to be free from some trouble or other but knowing my selfe to be a perpetuall warfare I must rather comfort my sel e with hope of a glorious crowne for my victories then of any long or assured peace with my enemies The fourth Foundation THe thing which these enemies endeuour to draw me to is sinne and offence to God which is so odious hatefull and abhominable that God doth more detest and dislike it then he did the cruell vsage the wounds the torments and the death it selfe that for vs he suffered of the Iewes and it maketh our soules more vglie then the plague leprosie or any other filthie disease doth the body Rules following this Foundation SO carefull as I would be not to wound torment or murther Christ so carefull must I be not to commit any mortall sinne against him yea and so much more seeing that he hateth sinne more then death hauing voluntarily fuffered the one and yet neuer committed the other Secondly when I am tempted with any sinne let me examine my selfe whether I would buy the fulfilling of mine owne appetite with being a Leaper or full of the plague or with death presently to ensue after it If not then much lesse ought I to buy it with the leprosie losse and death of my soule which is of farre more worth then my body The fift Foundation BEing Gods creature made to serue him in this life my body soule and goods and all things any way pertaining vnto me are but lent or onely let me for this end and I am onely a Bailife Tenant or officer to demaund or gouerne these things to his best seruice and therefore when the time of my stewardship is expired I shall be summoned by death to appeare before my Landlord who with most rigorous iustice will demand account of euery thing and creature of his that hath bene to my vse yea of all that I haue receiued promised omitted committed lost and robbed and as
silly Eue Heire to thy Fathers foyles and borne to grieue In Thabors ioyes I eager was to dwell An earnest friend while pleasures light did shine But when eclipsed glory prostrate fell These zealous heates to sleepe I did resigne And now my mouth hath thrice his name defil'd That cry'd so loude three dwellings there to build When Christ attending the distressefull hower With his surcharged breast did blesse the ground Prostrate in pangs rayning a bleeding shower Me like my selfe a drowsie friend he found Thrice in his care sleepe clos'd by carelesse eye Presage how him my tongue should thrice deny Parting from Christ my fainting force declin'd With lingring foot I followed him aloofe Base feare out of my heart his loue vnshrin'd Huge in high words but impotent in proofe My vaunts did seeme hatcht vnder Sampsons locks Yet womans words did giue me murdering knocks So farre luke warme desires in crazie loue Farre off in neede with feeble foot they traine In tides they swim low ebbes they scorne to proue They seeke their friends delights but shun their paine Hire of an hireling minde is earned shame Take now thy due beare thy begotten blame Ah coole remisnesse vertues quartaine feuer Pyning of loue consumption of grace Old in the cradle languor dying euer Soules wilfull famine sinnes soft stealing pace The vndermining euill of zealous thought Seeming to bring no harmes till all be brought O portresse of the doore of my disgrace Whose tongue vnlockt the truth of vowed minde Whose words from Cowards heart did courage chase And let in death-full feares my soule to blind O hadst thou beene the portresse to my toombe When thou wert portresse to that cursed roome Yet loue was loth to part feare loth to die Stay danger life did counterpleade their causes I fauouring stay and life bad danger flie But danger did except against these clauses Yet stay and liue I would and danger shunne And lost my selfe while I my verdict wonne I stayd yet did my staying farthest part I liu'd but so that sauing life I lost it Danger I shunn'd but to my sorer smart I gained nought but deeper dammage crost it What danger distance death is worse then this That runnes from God and spoyles his soule of blisse O Iohn my guide into this earthly hell Too well acquainted in so ill a Court Where rayling mouthes with blasphemies did swell With tainted breath infecting all resort Why didst thou leade me to this hell of euils To shew my selfe a Fiend among the Deuils Euill president the tide that wafts to vice Dumme-Orator that wooes with silent deeds Writing in workes lessons of ill aduice The doing tale that eye in practice reeds Taster of ioyes to vnacquainted hunger With leauen of the old seasoning the yonger It seemes no fault to do that all haue done The number of offenders hide the sinne Coach drawne with many horse doth easely runne Soone followeth one where multitudes begin O had I in that Court much stronger bin Or not so strong as first to enter in Sharpe was the weather in that stormy place Best suting hearts benum'd with hellish frost Whos 's crusted malice could admit no grace Where coales are kindled to the warmers cost Where feare my thoughts canded with ycie cold Heate did my tongue to periuries vnfold O hatefull fire ah that I neuer saw it Too hard my heart was frozen for thy force Farre hotter flames it did require to thaw it Thy hell-resembling heate did freeze it worse O that I rather had congeal'd to yce Then bought thy warmth at such a damning price O wakefull bird proclaimer of the day Whose piercing note doth daunt the Lions rage Thy crowing did my selfe to me bewray My frights and brutish heates it did asswage But ô in this alone vnhappy Cocke That thou to count my foyles wert made the clocke O bird the iust rebuker of my crime The faithfull waker of my sleeping feares Be now the daily clocke to strike the time When stinted eyes shall pay their taske of teares Vpbraid mine eares with thine accusing crow To make me rue that first it made me know O milde reuenger of aspiring Pride Thou canst dismount high thoughts to low effects Thou mad'st a Cocke me for my fault to chide My lofty boasts this lowly bird corrects Well might a Cocke correct me with a crowe Whom hennish cackling first did ouerthrowe Weake weapons did Goliahs fumes abate Whose storming rage did thunder threats in vaine His body huge harnest with massie plate Yet Dauids stone brought death into his braine With staffe and sling as to a dog he came And with contempt did boasting furie tame Yet Dauid had with Beare and Lion fought His skilfull might excus'd Goliahs foile The death is eas'd that worthy hand hath wrought Some honour liues in honorable spoile But I on whom all infamies must light Was hist to death with words of womans spight Small gnats enforst th' Egyptian King to stoupe Yet they in swarmes and arm'd with piercing stings Smart noyse annoyance made his courage droupe No small incombrance such small vermine brings I quaild at words that neither bit nor stong And those deliuerd from a womans tong Ah feare abortiue impe of drouping minde Selfe ouerthrowe false friend roote of remorse Sighted in seeing euils in shunning blinde Foyld without field by fancie not by force Ague of valour phrensie of the wise True honours staine loues frost the mint of lies Can vertue wisedome strength by women spild In Dauids Salomons and Sampsons falls With semblance of excuse my errour guild Or lend a marble glosse to muddy walls O no their fault had shew of some pretence No veyle can hide the shame of my offence The blaze of beauties beames allur'd their lookes Their lookes by seeing oft conceiued loue Loue by effecting swallowed pleasures hookes Thus beauty loue and pleasure them did moue These Syrens sugred tunes rockt them asleepe Inough to damne yet not to damne so deepe But gracious features dazled not mine eyes Two homely Droyles were authors of my death Not loue but feare my senses did surprize Not feare of force but feare of womans breath And those vnarm'd ill grac'd despis'd vnknowne So base a blast my truth hath ouerthrowne O women woe to men traps for their falls Still actors in all Tragicall mischances Earths necessary euils captiuing thralls Now murdering with your tongues now with your glances Parents of life and loue spoylers of both The theeues of hearts false do you loue or loth In time O Lord thine eyes with mine did meete In them I read the ruines of my fall Their cheering rayes that made misfortune sweet Into my guilty thoughts powrd flouds of gall Their heauenly lookes that blest where they beheld Darts of disdaine and angrie checks did yeeld O sacred eyes the springs of liuing light The earthly heauens where Angels ioy to dwell How could you deigne to view my deathfull plight Or let your heauenly beames looke on my hell But
those vnspotted eyes encountred mine As spotlesse Sunne doth on the dunghill shine Sweet volumes stor'd with learning fit for Saints Where blisfull quires imparadize their mindes Wherein eternall study neuer faints Still finding all yet seeking all it findes How endlesse is your labyrinth of blisse Where to be lost the sweetest finding is Ah wretch how oft haue I sweet lessons read In those deare eyes the registers of truth How oft haue I my hungry wishes fed And in their happy ioyes redrest my ruth Ah that they now are Heralds of disdaine That erst were euer pitiers of my paine You flames diuine that sparkle out your heates And kindle pleasing fires in mortall hearts You Nectar'd Aumbries of soule feeding meates You gracefull quiuers of loues dearest darts You did vouchsafe to warme to wound to feast My cold my stony my now famisht breast The matchlesse eyes matcht onely each by other Were pleas'd on my ill matched eyes to glance The eye of liquid pearle the purest mother Broch't teares in mine to weepe for my mischance The cabinets of grace vnlockt their treasure And did to my misdeed their mercies measure These blazing Comets lightning flames of loue Made me their warming influence to know My frozen heart their sacred force did proue Which at their lookes did yeeld like melting snow They did not ioyes in former plentie carue Yet sweet are crums where pined thoughts do starue O liuing mirrours seeing whom you shew Which equall shadowes worths with shadowed things Yea make things nobler then in natiue hew By being shap't in those life-giuing springs Much more my image in those eyes were grac't Then in my selfe whom sinne and shame defac't All-seeing eyes more worth then all you see Of which one is the others onely price I worthlesse am direct your beames on me With quickning vertue cure my killing vice By seeing things you make things worth the sight You seeing salue and being seene delight O Pooles of Hesebon the baths of grace Where happy spirits dine in sweet desires Where Saints delight to glasse their glorious face VVhose bankes make Eccho to the Angels quires An Eccho sweeter in the sole rebound Then Angels musicke in the fullest sound O eyes whose glances are a silent speech In cipherd words high mysteries disclosing Which with a looâ—e all Sciences can teach Whose texts to faithfull hearts need little glosing Witnesse vnworthy I who in a looke Learn'd more by rote then all the Scribes by booke Though malice still possest their hardned minds I though too hard learn'd softnesse in thine eye Which yron knots of stubburne will vnbinds Offring them loue that loue with loue will buy This did I learne yet they could not discerne it But wo that I had now such need to learne it O Sunnes all but your selues in light excelling Whose presence day whose absence causeth night Whose neighbour course brings Sommer cold expelling Whose distant periods freeze away delight Ah that I lost your bright and fostering beames To plonge my soule in these congealed streames O gracious Spheres where loue the Center is A natiue place for our selfe-loaden soules The compasse loue a cope that none can misse The motion loue that round about vs roules O Spheres of loue whose Center cope and motion Is loue of vs loue that inuites deuotion O little worlds the summes of all the best Where glory heauen God sunne all vertues starres Where fire a loue that next to heauen doth rest Ayre light of life that no distemper marres The water grace whose seas whose springs whose showers Cloth natures earth with euerlasting flowers What mixtures these sweet Elements do yel'd Let happy worldlings of those worlds expound But simples are by compounds farre exceld Both sute a place where all best things abound And if a banisht wretch ghesse not amisse All but one compound frame of perfect blisse I out-cast from these worlds exiled rome Poore Saint from heauen from fire cold Salamander Lost fish from those sweet waters kindly home From land of life stray'd Pilgrime still I wander I know the cause these worlds had neuer hell In which my faults haue best deseru'd to dwell O Bethlem cesterns Dauids most desire From which my sinnes like fierce Philistims keepe To fetch your drops what Champion should I hire That I therein my withered heart may steepe I would not shead them like that holy King His were but types these are the figured thing O Turtle twinnes all bath'd in Virgins milke Vpon the margine of full flowing banks Whose gracefull plume surmounts the finest silke Whose sight enamoureth heauens most happy ranks Could I forsweare this heauenly payre of Doues That cag'd in care for me were groning loues Twise Moses wand did strike the stubburne Rocke Ere stony veines would yeeld their chrystall bloud Thy eies one looke seru'd as an onely knocke To make mine heart gush out a weeping floud Wherein my sinnes as fishes spawne their frie To shew their inward shames and then to die But ô how long demurre I on his eyes Whose looke did pierce my heart with healing wound Launcing impostum'd sore of periur'd lyes Which these two issues of mine â—yes haue found Where runne it must till death the issues stop And penall life hath purg'd the finall drop Like solest Swan that swims in silent deepe And neuer sings but obsequies of death Sigh out thy plaints and sole in secret weepe In suing pardon spend thy periur'd breath Attire thy soule in sorrowes mourning weed And at thine eyes let guilty conscience bleed Still in the Limbecke of thy dolefull brest These bitter fruits that from thy sinnes do grow For fuell selfe accusing thoughts be best Vse feare as fire the coales let penance blow And seeke none other quintessence but teares That eyes may shead what entred at thine eares Come sorrowing teares the off-spring of my griefe Scant not your Parent of a needfull ayde In you I rest the hope of wisht reliefe By you my sinfull debts must be defrayd Your power preuailes your sacrifice is gratefull By loue obtaining life to men most hatefull Come good effects of ill-deseruing cause Ill gotten impes yet vertuously brought forth Selfe-blaming probates of infringed Lawes Yet blamed faults redeeming with your worth The signes of shame in you each eye may reade Yet while you guilty proue you pitty pleade O beames of mercy beate on sorrowes Clowd Proue suppling showers vpon my parched ground Bring forth the fruit to your due seruice vow'd Let good desires with like deserts be crown'd Water yong blooming vertues tender flowre Sinne did all grace of riper growth deuoure Weepe Balme and Myrrhe you sweet Arabian trees With purest gummes perfume and pearle your ryne Shead on your hony drops you busie Bees I barraine plant must weepe vnpleasant bryne Hornets I hyue salt drops their labour plyes Suckt out of sinne and shed by showring eyes If Dauid night by night did bathe his bed Esteeming longest dayes too short to moue Inconsolable teares if
Anna shed Who in her sonne her solace had forgone Then I to dayes and weekes to moneths and yeeres Do owe the hourely rent of stintlesse teares If loue if losse if fault if spotted fame If danger death if wrath or wreck of weale Entitle eyes true heyres to earned blame That due remorse in such euents conceale That want of teares might well enrole my name As chiefest Saint in Calendar of shame Loue where I lou'd was due and best deseru'd No loue could ayme at more loue-worthy mark No loue more lou'd then mine of him I seru'd Large vse he gaue a flame for euery sparke This loue I lost this losse a life must rue Yea life is short to pay the ruth is due I lost all that I had and had the most The most that will can wish or wit deuise I least perform'd that did most vainely boast I staynd my fame in most infamous wise What danger then death wrath or wreck can moue More pregnant cause of teares then this I proue If Adam sought a veyle to scarfe his sinne Taught by his fall to feare a scourging hand If men shall wish that hils should wrap them in When crimes in finall doome come to be scand What Mount what Caue what Center can conceale My monstrous fact which euen the birds reueale Come shame the liuery of offending minde The vgly shroud that ouer-shadoweth blame The mulct at which foule faults are iustly fin'd The dampe of sinne the common sluce of fame By which impostum'd tongues their humours purge Light shame on me I best deseru'd the scourge Cains murdring hand imbrude in brothers bloud More mercy then my impious tongue may craue He kild a riuall with pretence of good In hope Gods doubled loue alone to haue But feare so spoyld my vanquisht thoughts of loue That periur'd oathes my spitefull hate did proue Poore Agar from her pheere inforc't to flie Wandring in Barsabian wildes alone Doubting her child through helplesse drought would dye Laid it aloofe and set her downe to moue The heauens with prayers her lap with teares she fild A mothers loue in losse is hardly stild But Agar now bequeath thy teares to me Feares not effects did set a-floate thine eyes But wretch I feele more then was feard of thee Ah not my Sonne my soule it is that dies It dies for drought yet hath a spring in sight Worthy to die that would not liue and might Faire Absoloms foule faults compar'd with mine Are brightest sands to mud of Sodome Lakes High aymes yong spirits birth of royall line Made him play false where Kingdoms were the stakes He gaz'd on golden hopes whose lustre winnes Sometime the grauest wits to grieuous sinnes But I whose crime cuts off the least excuse A Kingdome lost but hop't no mite of gaine My highest marke was but the worthlesse vse Of some few lingring howers of longer paine Vngratefull child his Parent he pursude I Gyants warre with God himselfe renude Ioy infant Saints whom in the tender flower A happy storme did free from feare of sinne Long is their life that die in blisfull hower Ioyfull such ends as endlesse ioyes begin Too long they liue that liue till they be nought Life sau'd by sinne base purchase dearely bought This lot was mine your fate was not so fearce Whom spotlesse death in Cradle rockt asleepe Sweet Roses mixt with Lillies strew'd your hearce Death Virgine white in Martyrs red did steepe Your downy heads both Pearles and Rubies crown'd My hoary locks did female feares confound You bleating Ewes that wayle this woluish spoyle Of sucking Lambs new bought with bitter throwes T'inbalme your babes your eyes distill their oyle Each heart to tombe her child wide rupture showes Rue not their death whom death did but reuiue Yeeld ruth to me that liu'd to die aliue With easie losse sharpe wrecks did he eschew That Sindonlesse aside did naked slip Once naked grace no outward garment knew Rich are his robes whom sinne did neuer strip I rich in vaunts displaid prides fairest flags Disrob'd of grace am wrapt in Adams rags When traytor to the sonne in Mothers eyes I shall present my humble sute for grace What blush can paint the shame that will arise Or write my inward feeling in my face Might she the sorrow with the sinner see Though I despisde my griefe might pitied be But ah how can her eares my speech endure Or sent my breath still reeking hellish steeme Can mother like what did the Sonne abiure Or heart deflowr'd a Virgins loue redeeme The Mother nothing loues that Sonne doth loath Ah loathsome wretch detested of them both O sister Nymphes the sweet renowned paire That blesse Bethania bounds with your abode Shall I infect that sanctified ayre Or staine those steps where Iesus breath'd and trode No let your prayers perfume that sweetned place Turne me with Tygers to the wildest chase Could I reuiued Lazarus behold The third of that sweet Trinity of Saints Would not abstonisht dread my senses hold Ah yes my heart euen with his naming faints I seeme to see a messenger from hell That my prepared torments comes to tell O Iohn O Iames we made a triple cord Of three most louing and best louing friends My rotten twist was broken with a word Fit now to fuell fire among the Fiends It is not euer true though often spoken That triple twisted cord is hardly broken The dispossed Diuels that out I threw In IESVS name now impiously forsworne Triumph to see me caged in their mew Trampling my ruines with contempt and scorne My periuries were musicke to their dance And now they heape disdaines on my mischance Our Rocke say they is riuen O welcome howre Our Eagles wings are clipt that wrought so hie Our thundring Cloud made noise but cast no showre He prostrate lies that would haue seal'd the skie In womans tongue our runner found a rub Our Cedar now is shrunke into a shrub These scornefull words vpraid my inward thought Proofes of their damned prompters neighbours voice Such vgly guests still wait vpon the nought Fiends swarme to soules that swarue from vertues choice For breach of plighted truth this true I try Ah that my deed thus gaue my word the lie Once and but once too deare a once to twice it A heauen in earth Saints neere my selfe I saw Sweet was the sight but sweeter loues did spice it But sights and loues did my misdeed withdraw From heauen and Saints to hell and Deuils estrang'd Those sights to frights those loues to hates are chang'd Christ as my God was templed in my thought As man he lent mine eyes their dearest light But sinne his temple hath to ruine brought And now he lightneth terrour from his sight Now of my late vnconsecrate desires Profaned wretch I taste the earned hires Ah sinne the nothing that doth all things file Out-cast from heauen earths curse the cause of hell Parent of death author of our exile The wrecke of soules the wares that
am no thrall I burie not my thoughts in mettall Mines I ayme not at such fame as feareth fall I seeke and finde a light that euer-shines Whose glorious beames display such heauenly sights As yeeld my soule a summe of all delights My light to loue my loue to life doth guide To life that liues by loue and loueth light By loue to one to whom all loues are tyed By duest debt and neuer equall right Eyes light hearts loue soules truest life he is Consorting in three ioyes one perfect blisse A FANCY TVRNED to a Sinners Complaint HE that his mirth hath lost Whose comfort is to rue Whose hope is fallen whose faith is cras'd Whose trust is found vntrue If he haue held them deare And cannot ceasse to mone Come let him take his place by me He shall not rue alone But if the smallest sweete Be mixt with all his sowre If in the day the moneth the yeare He feele one lightning howre Then rest he with himselfe He is no mate for me Whose time in teares whose race in ruth Whose life a death must be Yet not the wished death That feeles no paine or lacke That making free the better part Is onely Natures wracke O no that were too well My death is of the minde That alwaies yeeld extreamest pangs Yet threatens worse behinde As one that liues in shew And inwardly doth dye Whose knowledge is a bloudy field Where Vertue slaine doth lye Whose heart the Altar is And hoast a God to moue From whom my ill doth feare reuenge His good doth promise loue My Fansies are like thornes In which I go by night My frighted wits are like an hoast That force hath put to flight My sense is passions spye My thoughts like ruines old Which shew how faire the building was While grace did it vphold And still before mine eyes My mortall fall they lay Whom grace and vertue once aduanc't Now sinne hath cast away O thoughts no thoughts but wounds Sometime the Seate of ioy Sometime the store of quiet rest But now of all annoy I sow'd the soyle of peace My blisse was in the spring And day by day the fruit I eate That Vertues tree did bring To Nettles now my corne My field is turn'd to flint Where I a heauy haruest reape Of cares that neuer stint The peace the rest the life That I enioyd of yore Were happy lot but by their losse My smart doth sting the more So to vnhappy men The best frames to the worst O time ô place where thus I fell Deare then but now accurst In was stands my delight In is and shall my wo My horrour fastned in the yea My hope hangs in the no. Vnworthy of reliefe That craued is too late Too late I finde I finde too well Too well stood my estate Behold such is the end That pleasure doth procure Of nothing else but care and plaint Can she the minde assure Forsaken first by grace By pleasure now forgotten Her paine I feele but graces wage Haue others from me gotten Then grace where is the ioy That makes thy torments sweet Where is the cause that many thought Their deaths through thee but meet Where thy disdaine of sinne Thy secret sweet delight Thy sparkes of blisse thy heauenly ioyes That shined erst so bright O that they were not lost Or I could it excuse O that a dreame of fained losse My iudgement did abuse Or fraile inconstant flesh Soone trapt in euery ginne Soone wrought thus to betray thy soule And plonge thy selfe in sinne Yet hate I but the fault And not the faulty one Ne can I rid from me the mate That forceth me to moane To moane a sinners case Then which was neuer worse In Prince or poore in yong or old In blest or full of curse Yet Gods must I remaine By death by wrong by shame I cannot blot out of my heart That grace writ in his name I cannot set at nought Whom I haue held so deere I cannot make him seeme afarre That is in deed so neere Not that I looke hence-forth For loue that earst I found Sith that I brake my plighted truth To build on fickle ground Yet that shall neuer faile Which my faith bare in hand I gaue my vow my vow gaue me Both vow and gift shall stand But since that I haue sinn'd And scourge none is too ill I yeeld me captiue to my curse My hard fate to fulfill The solitary Wood My City shall become The darkest dennes shall be my Lodge In which I rest or come A sandy plot my boord The wormes my feast shall be Where-with my carkasse shall be fed Vntill they feed on me My teares shall be my wine My bed a craggy Rocke My harmony the Serpents hisse The screeching Owle my clocke My exercise remorse And dolefull sinners layes My booke remembrance of my crimes And faults of former dayes My walke the path of plaint My prospect into hell Where Iudas and his cursed crue In endlesse paines do dwell And though I seeme to vse The faining Poets stile To figure forth my carefull plight My fall and my exile Yet is my griefe not fain'd Wherein I starue and pine Who feeles the most shall thinke it least If his compare with mine Dauids Peccaui IN Eaues sole Sparrow sits not more alone Nor mourning Pellican in Desart wilde Then silly I that solitary mone From highest hopes to hardest hap exilde Sometime ô blissefull time was vertues meede Ayme to my thoughts guide to my word and deede But feares are now my Pheeres griefe my delight My teares my drinke my famisht thoughts my bread Day full of dumps Nurse of vnrest the night My garments gyues a bloudy field my bed My sleepe is rather death then deaths allye Yet kill'd with murd'ring pangs I cannot dye This is the chance of my ill changed choyse To pleasant tunes succeeds a playning voice The dolefull eccho of my wayling minde Which taught to know the worth of vertues ioyes Doth hate it selfe for louing fancies toyes If wiles of wit had ouer-raught my will Or subtile traines misled my steppes awry My foyle had found excuse in want of skill Ill deed I might though not ill doome deny But wit and will must now confesse with shame Both deede and doome to haue deserued blame I Fansie deem'd fit guide to leade my way And as I deem'd I did pursue the tracke Wit lost his ayme and will was Fansies prey The Rebels wan the Rulers went to wracke But now sith Fansie did with folly end Wit bought with losse Will taught by wit will mend Sinnes heauie load O Lord my sinnes do ouer-charge thy brest The poyse thereof doth force thy knees to bow Yea flat thou fallest with my faults opprest And bloudie sweat runs trickling from thy brow But had they not to Earth thus pressed thee Much more they would in Hell haue pestred me This Globe of Earth doth thy one finger prop The world thou do'st within thy hand
her loue that she would haue thought any quantitie too little except hers had bene added the best in qualitie too meane except hers were with it and no diligence in applying it enough except her seruice were in it Not that she was sharpe in censuring that which others had done but because loue made her so desirous to do all her selfe that though all had bene done that she could deuise and as well as she could wish yet vnlesse she were an actor it would not suffice sith loue is as eager to be vttered in effects as it is zealous in true affection She came therefore now meaning to enbalme his corps as she had before annointed his feet and to preserue the reliques of his body as the onely remnant of all her blisse And as in the spring of her felicitie she had washed his feet with her teares bewayling vnto him the death of her owne soule so now she came in the depth of her miserie to shed them afresh for the death of his body But when she saw the graue open and the bodie taken out the labour of enbalming was preuented but the cause of her weeping increased and he that was wanting to her obsequies was not wanting to her teares and though she found not whom to annoynt yet found she whom to lament And not without cause did Marie complaine finding her first anguish doubled with a second griefe and being surcharged with two most violent sorrowes in one afflicted heart For hauing setled her whole affection vpon Christ and summed all her desires and wishes into the loue of his goodnesse as nothing could equall his worthes so was there not in the whole world either a greater benefit for her to enioy than himselfe or any greater dammage possible than his losse The murdering in his owne death the life of all liues left a generall death in all liuing creatures and his decease not onely disrobed our nature of her most royall ornaments but impouerished the world of all highest perfections What maruell therefore though her vehement loue to so louely a Lord being after the wrecke of his life now also depriued of his dead body feele as bitter pangs for his losse as before it tasted ioyes in his presence and open as large an issue to teares of sorrow as euer heretofore to teares of contentment And though teares were rather oyle than water to her flame apter to nourish than diminish her griefe yet now being plonged in the depth of paine she yeelded her selfe captiue to all discomfort carrying an ouerthrowne mind in a more enfeebled body and still busie in deuising but euer doubtfull in defining what she might best do For what could a silly woman do but weepe that floating in a sea of cares found neither eare to heare her nor tongue to direct her nor hand to helpe her nor heart to pittie her in her desolate case True it is that Peter and Iohn came with her to the Tombe and to make triall of her report were both within it but as they were speedy in comming and diligent in searching so were they as quicke to depart and fearefull of farther seeking And alas what gained she by their comming but two witnesses of her losse two dismayers of her hope and two patternes of a new despaire Loue moued them to come but their loue was soone conquered with such feare that it suffered them not to stay But Mary hoping in despaire and perseuering in hope stood without feare because she now thought nothing left that ought to be feared For she hath lost her maister to whom she was so entirely deuoted that he was the totall of her loues the height of her hopes and the vttermost of her feares and therefore besides him she could neither loue other creature hope for other comfort nor feare other losse The worst she could feare was the death of her body and that shee rather desired than feared sith shee had alreadie lost the life of her soule without which anie other life would be a death and with which any other death would haue bene a delight But now she thought it better to dye than to liue because she might happily dying find whom not dying she looked not to enioy and not enioying she had little will to liue For now she loued nothing in her life but her loue to Christ and if any thing did make her willing to liue it was onely the vnwillingnesse that his Image should dye with her whose likenesse loue had limited in her heart and treasured vp in her sweetest memories And had she not feared to breake the table and to breake open the closet to which she had entrusted this last relique of her lost happinesse the violence of griefe would haue melted her heart into inward bleeding teares and blotted her remembrance with a fatall obliuion And yet neuerthelesse she is now in so imperfect a sort aliue that it is proued true in her that Loue is as strong as death For what could death haue done more in Mary than loue did Her wits were astonied and all her senses so amazed that in the end finding she did not know seeing she could not discerne hearing she perceiued not and more than all this she was not there where she was for she was wholly where her maister was more where she loued than where she liued and lesse in her selfe than in his body which notwithstanding where it was she could not imagine For she sought as yet she found not and therefore stood at the Tombe weeping for it being now altogether giuen to mourning and driuen to misery But ô Mary by whose counsaile vpon what hope or with what heart couldest thou stand alone when the Disciples were departed Thou wert there once before they came thou turnedst againe at their comming and yet thou stayest when they are gone Alas that thy Lord is not in the Tombe thine owne eyes haue often seene the Disciples hands haue felt the empty Syndon doth auouch and cannot all this winne thee to beleeue it No no thou wouldest rather condemne thine owne eyes of errour and both their eyes and hands of deceit yea rather suspect all testimonies for vntrue than not looke whom thou hast lost euen there where by no diligence he could be found When thou thinkest of other places and canst not imagine any so likely as this thou seekest againe in this and though neuer so often sought it must be an haunt for hope For when things dearely affected are lost loues natures is neuer to be weary of searching euen the oftenest searched corners being more willing to thinke that all the senses are mistaken than to yeeld that hope should quaile Yet now sith it is so euident that he is taken away what should moue thee to remaine here where the perill is apparent and no profit likely Can the wit of one and she a woman wholly possessed with passion haue more light to discerne danger than two wits of two men and both
liberty is a penaltie and euery penaltie supposeth some offence but an offence it is not to weepe for my selfe for he would neuer commande it if it were not lawfull to do it The fault therefore must be in being one with him that maketh the weeping for my selfe a weeping also for him And if this be a fault I will neuer amend it and let them that thinke it so do penance for it for my part sith I haue lost my mirth I will make much of my sorrow and sith I haue no ioy but in teares I may lawfully shed them Neither thinke I his former word a warrant against his latter deed And what need had he to weepe vpon the Crosse but for our example which if it were good for him to giue it cannot be euill for me to follow No no it is not my weeping that causeth my losse sith a world of eyes and a sea of teares could not worthily bewaile the misse of such a maister Yet since neither thy seeking findeth nor thy weeping preuaileth satisfie thy selfe with the sight of Angels Demaund the cause of their comming and the reason of thy Lords remoue and sith they first offer thee occasion of parley be not thou too dainty of thy discourse It may be they can calme thy stormes and quiet thy vnrest and therefore conceale not from them thy sore lest thou lose the benefit of their emplaister But nothing can moue Mary to admit comfort or entertaine any company for to one alone and for euer she hath vowed her selfe and except it be to him she will neither lend her eare long to others nor borrow others helpe lest by the seeking to allay her smart she should lessen her loue But drawing into her mind all pensiue conceits she museth and pineth in a consuming languor taking comfort in nothing but in being comfortlesse Alas saith she small is the light that a starre can yeeld when the Sunne is downe and a sorry exchange to go gather the crums after the losse of an heauenly repast My eyes are not vsed to see by the glimse of a sparke and in seeking the Sunne it is either needlesse or bootlesse to borrow the light of a candle sith either it must bewray it selfe with the selfe light or no other light can euer discouer it If they come to disburden me of my heauinesse their comming will be burdensome vnto me and they will load me more while they labour my reliefe They cannot perswade me that my maister is not lost for my owne eyes will disproue them They can lesse tell me where he may be found for they would not be so simple to be so long from him or if they can forbeare him surely they do not know him whom none can truly know and liue long without him All their demurres would be tedious and discourses irksome Impaire my loue they might but appay it they could not to which he that first accepted the debt is the onely payment They either want power will or leaue to tell me my desire or at the first word they would haue done it sith Angels are not vsed to idle speeches and to me all talke is idle that doth not tell me of my maister They know not where he is and therfore they are come to the place where he last was making the Tombe their heauen and the remembrance of his presence the food of their felicitie Whatsoeuer they could tell me if they told me not of him and whatsoeuer they could tell me of him if they told me not where he were both their telling and my hearing were but a wasting of time I neither came to see them nor desire to heare them I came not to see Angels but him that made both me and Angels and to whom I owe more than both to men and Angels And to thee I appeale ô most louing Lord whether my afflicted heart doth not truly defray the tribute of an vndeuided loue To thee I appeale whether I haue ioyned any partner with thee in the small possession of my poore selfe And I would to God I were as priuie where thy body is as thou art who is onely Lord and owner of my soule But alas sweet Iesu where thou wert thou art not where thou art I know not wretched is the case that I am in and yet how to better it I cannot imagine Alas ô my onely desire why hast thou left me wauering in these vncertainties and in how wild a maze wander my doubtful perplexed thoughts If I stay here where he is not I shall neuer finde him If I go further to seeke I know not whither To leaue the Tombe is a death and to stand helplesse by it an vncurable disease so that all my comfort is now concluded in this that I am free to chuse whether I will stay without helpe or go without hope that is in effect with what torment I will end my life And yet euen this were too happy a choise for so vnhappy a creature If I might be chuser of mine owne death ô how quickly should that choise be made and how willingly would I runne to that execution I would be nailed to the same crosse with the same nailes in the same place my heart should be wounded with his speare my head with his thornes my body with his whippes Finally I would taste all his torments and tread all his embrued and bloudie steps But ô ambitious thoughts why gaze you vpon so high a felicitie why thinke you of so glorious a death that are priuie to so infamous a life Death alas I deserue yea not one but infinite deaths But so sweete a death seasoned with so many comforts the very instruments whereof were able to raise the deadest corps and depure the most defiled soule were too small a scourge for my great offences And therefore I am left to feele so many deaths as I liue houres and to passe as many pangs as I haue thoughts of my losse which are as many as there are minutes and as violent as if they were all in euery one But sith I can neither die as he died nor liue where he lyeth dead I I will liue out my liuing death by his graue and dye on my dying life by his sweete Tombe Better is it after losse of his body to looke to his Sepulcher than after the losse of the one to leaue the other to be destroyed No no though I haue bene robbed of the Saint I will at the least haue care of the shrine which though it be spoiled of the most soueraigne hoast yet shall it be the Altar where I will daily sacrifice my heart and offer vp my teares Here will I euer leade yea here do I meane to end my wretched life that I may at the least be buried by the Tombe of my Lord and take my iron sleepe neare this couch of stone which his presence hath made the place of sweetest repose It may be also that
this empty Syndon lyeth here to no vse and this Tombe being open without any in it may giue occasion to some mercifull heart that shall first light vpon my vnburied body to wrap me in his shroud and to interre me in this Tombe O too fortunate lot for so vnfortunate a woman to craue no no I do not craue it For alas I dare not yet if such an ouer-sight should be committed I do now before-hand forgiue that sinner and were it no more presumption to wish it aliue than to suffer it dead if I knew the party that should first passe by me I would woo him with my teares and hire him with my prayers to blesse me with this felicity And though I dare not wish any to do it yet this without offence I may say to all that I loue this Syndon aboue all clothes in the world and this Tombe I esteeme more than any Princes monument yea and I thinke that coarse highly fauored that shall succeed my Lord in it and for my part as I meane that the ground where I stand shall be my death-bed so am I not of Iacobs mind to haue my body buried farre from the place where it dyeth but euen in the next and readiest graue and that as soone as my breath faileth sith delayes are bootlesse where death hath won possession But alas I dare not say any more let my body take such fortune as befalleth it my soule at the least shall dwell in this sweet Paradise and from this brittle case of flesh and bloud passe presently into the glorious Tombe of God and man It is now enwrapped in a masse of corruption it shall then enioy a place of high perfection where it is now it is more by force than by choise and like a repining prisoner in a loathed gaile but there in a little roome it should find perfect rest and in the prison of death the liberty of a ioyfull life O sweet Tombe of my sweetest Lord while I liue I will stay by thee when I die I will cleaue vnto thee neither aliue nor dead will I euer be drawne from thee Thou art the Altar of mercie the temple of truth the sanctuary of safeâ—ie the graue of death and the cradle of eternall life O heauen of my eclipsed Sunne receiue vnto thee this silly starre that hath now also lost all wished light O Whale that hast swallowed my onely Ionas swallow also me more worthy to be thy prey sith I and not he was the cause of this bloudie tempest O Cesterne of my innocent Ioseph take me into thy drie bottome sith I and not he gaue iust cause of offence to my enraged brethren But alas in what cloud hast thou hidden the light of our way Vpon what shore hast thou cast vp the Preacher of all truth or to what Ismaelite hast thou yeelded the purueiour of our life Oh vnhappy me why did I not before thinke of that which I now aske Why did I leaue him when I had him thus to lament him now that I haue lost him If I had watched with perseuerance either none would haue taken him or they should haue taken me with him But through too much precisenesse in keeping the Law I haue lost the Law-maker and by being too scrupulous in obseruing his ceremonies I am proued irreligious in losing him selfe sith I should rather haue remained with the truth than forsaken it to solemnize the figure The Sabboth could not haue bene prophaned in standing by his coarse by which the prophaned things are sanctified and whose touch doth not defile the cleane but cleanseth the most defiled But when it was time to stay I departed when it was too late to helpe I returned and now I repent my folly when it cannot be amended But let my heart dissolue into sighes mine eyes melt in teares and my desolate soule languish in dislikes yea let all that I am and haue endure the deserued punishment that if he were incensed with my fault he may be appeased with my penance and returne vpon the amendment that fled from the offence Thus when her timorous conscience had indited her of so great an omission and her tongue enforced the euidence with these bitter accusations Loue that was now the onely vmpire in all her causes condemned her eyes to a fresh showre of teares her breast to a new storme of sighes and her soule to be perpetuall prisoner to restlesse sorrowes But ô Mary thou deceiuest thy selfe in thy owne desires and it well appeareth that excesse of griefe hath bred in thee a defect of due prouidence And wouldest thou indeed haue thy wishes come to passe and thy words fulfilled Tell me then I pray thee if thy heart were dissolued where wouldest thou harbour thy Lord what wouldest thou offer him how wouldest thou loue him Thine eyes haue lost him thy hands cannot feele him thy feet cannot follow him and if it be at all in thee it is thy heart that hath him and wouldest thou now haue that dissolued from thence also to exile him And if thine eyes were melted thy soule in langour and thy senses decayed how wouldest thou see him if he did appeare how shouldest thou heare him if he did speake how couldest thou know him though he were there present Thou thinkest haply that he loued thee so well that if thy heart were spent for his loue he would either lend his own heart vnto thee or create a new heart in thee better than that which thy sorrow tooke from thee It may be thou imaginest that if thy soule would giue place his soule wanting now a bodie would enter into thine with supply of all thy senses and release of thy sorrowes O Mary thou diddest not marke what thy maister was wont to say when he told thee that the third day he should rise againe For if thou hadst heard him or at the least vnderstood him thou wouldest not thinke but that he now vsed both his heart and soule in the life of his owne body And therefore repaire to the Angels and enquire more of them lest the Lord be displeased that comming from him thou wilt not entertaine them But Mary whose deuotions were all fixed vpon a nobler Saint and that had so straightly bound her thoughts to his only affection that she rather desired to vnknow whom she knew already than to burthen her mind with the knowledge of new acquaintance could not make her will long since possessed with the highest loue stoope to the acceptance of meaner friendships And for this though she did not scornefully reiect yet did she with humilitie refuse the Angels company thinking it no discourtesie to take her selfe from them for to giue her selfe more wholly to her Lord to whom both she and they were wholly deuoted ought most loue and greatest duty Sorrow also being now the onely interpreter of all that sense deliuered to her vnderstanding made her conster their demand in a more doubtfull than true
say that a gift once giuen cannot be reuoked and therefore though it were before in his choise not to giue himselfe vnto thee yet the deed of gift being once made he cannot be taken from thee neither can the donor dispose of his gift without the possessors priuity And sith this is a rule in the law of nature thou maist imagine it a breach of equine and an impeachment of thy right to conuey himselfe away without thy consent But to this I will answer thee with thine owne ground For if he be thine by being giuen thee once thou art his by as many gifts as dayes and therefore he being absolute owner of thee is likewise full owner of whatsoeuer is thine and consequently because he is thine he is also his owne and so nothing lyable vnto thee for taking him selfe from thee Yea but he is my Lord sayest thou and in this respect bound to keepe me at the least bound not to kill me and sith killing is nothing but a seuâ—ring of life from the body he being the chiefe life both of my soule and bodie cannot possibly go from me but he must with a double death kill me And therefore he being my Lord and bound to protect his seruant it is against all lawes that I should be thus forsaken But ô cruell tongue why pleadest thou thus against him whose case I feare me is so pitifull that it might rather moue all tongues to pleade for him being peraduenture in their hands whose vumercifull hearts make themselues merry with his miserie and build the triumphs of their impious victorie vpon the dolefull ruines of his disgraced glorie And now ô griefe because I know not where he is I cannot imagine how to helpe for they haue taken him away and I know not where they haue put him Alas Mary why doest thou consume thy felfe with these cares His father knoweth and he will helpe him The Angels know and they will guard him His owne soule knoweth and that will assist him And what neede then is there that thou silly woman shouldest know it that canst no way profit him But I feele in what vaine thy pulse beateth and by thy desire I discouer thy disease Though both heauen and earth did know it and the whole world had notice of it yet except thou also wert made priuie vnro it thy woes would be as great and thy teares as many That others see the Sunne doth not lighten thy darknesse neither can others eating satisfie thy hunger The more there be that know of him the greater is thy sorrow that among so many thou art not thought worthy to be one And the more there be that may helpe him the move it grieueth thee that thy poore helpe is not accepted among them Though thy knowiedge needeth not thy loue doth desire it and though it auaile not thy desire wil seeke it If all know it thou wouldest know it with all if no other thou wouldest know it alone and from whom soeuer it be concealed it must be no secret to thee Though the knowledge would discomfort thee yet know it thou wilt yea though it would kill thee thou couldest not forbeare it Thy Lord to thy loue is like drinke to the thirstie which if they cannot haue they die for drouth being long without it they pine away with longing And as men in extremitie of thirst are still dreaming of fountaines brookes and springs being neuer able to haue other thought or to vtter other word but of drinke and moisture so louers in the vehemencie of their passion can neither thinke nor speake but of that they loue and if that be once missing euery part is both an eye to watch and an eare to listen what hope or newes may be had If it be good they die till they heare it though bad yet they cannot liue without it Of the good they hope that it is the very best and of the euill they feare it to be the worst and yet though neuer so good they pine till it be told and be it neuer so euill they are importunate to know it And when they once know it they can neither beare the ioy nor brooke the sorrow but as well the one as the other is enough to kill them And this ô Mary I guesse to be the cause why the Angels would not tell thee thy Lords estate For if it had beene to thy liking thou wouldest haue died for ioy if otherwise thou wouldest haue sunke downe for sorrow And therefore they leaue this newes for him to deliuer whose word if it giue thee a wound is also a salue to cure it though neuer so deadly But alas afflicted soule why doth it so deepely grieue thee that thou knowest not where he is Thou canst not better him if he be well thou canst as little succour him if he be ill and sith thou fearest that he is rather ill than well why shouldest thou know it so to end thy hopes in mishap and thy great feares in farre greater sorrowes Alas to aske thee why is in a manner to aske one halfe starued why he is hungrie For as thy Lord is the food of thy thoughts the reliefe of thy wishes the onely repast of all thy desires so is thy loue a continuall hunger and his absence vnto thee an extreame famine And therefore no maruell though thou art so greedy to heare yea to deuoure any be it neuer so bitter notice of him sith thy hunger is most violent and nothing but he able to content it And albeit the hearing of his harmes should worke the same in thy mind that vnwholsome meat worketh in a sick stomacke yet if it once concerne him that thou louest thy hungrie loue could not temper it selfe from it though after with many wringing gripes it did a long and vnpleasant penance But why doth thy sorrow quest so much vpon the place where he is were it not enough for thee to know who had him but that thou must also know in what place he is bestowed A worse place than a graue no man will offer and many farre better many titles will allow and therefore thou maist boldly thinke that wheresoeuer he be he is in a place fitter for him than where he was Thy sister Martha confessed him to be the Sonne of God and with her confession agreed thy beliefe And what place more conuenient for the sonne than to be with his Father the businesse for which he hath bene so long from him being now fully finished If he be the Messias as thou diddest once beleeue it was said of him That he should ascend on high and leade our captiuitie captiue And what is this height but heauen what our captiuitie but death Death therefore is become his captiue and it is like that with the spoyles thereof he is ascended in triumph to eternall life But if thou canst not lift thy minde to so fauourable a beliefe yet maiest thou very well suppose that he is
in Paradise For if he came to repaire Adams ruines and to be the common parent of our redemption as Adam was of our originall infection reason seemeth to require that hauing endured all his life the penaltie of Adams exile he should after death re-enter possession of that inheritance which Adam lost that the same place that was the neast where sinne was first hatched may be now the child-bed of grace and mercy And if sorrow at the crosse did not make thee as deafe as at the Tombe it maketh thee forgetfull thou diddest in confirmation hereof heare himselfe say to one of the theeues that the same day he should be with him in Paradise And if it be reason that no shadow should be more priuiledged than the body no figure in more account than the figured truth why shouldest thou beleeue that Elias and Enoch haue bene in Paradise these many ages that he whō they but as tipes resembled should be excluded from thence He excelled them in life surpassed them in miracles he was farre beyond them in dignitie why then should not his place be farre aboue or at the least equall with theirs sith their prerogatiues were so farre inferiour vnto his And yet if the basenesse and misery of his passion haue layd him so low in thy conceit that thou thinkest Paradise too high a place to be likely to haue him the very lowest roome that any reason can assigne him cannot be meaner than the bosome of Abraham And sith God in his life did so often acknowledge him for his Sonne it seemeth the slenderest preheminence that he can giue him aboue other men that being his holy one he should not in his body see corruption but be free among the dead reposing both in body and soule where other Saints are in soule onely Let not therefore the place where he is trouble thee sith it cannot be worse than his graue and infinite coniectures make probability that it cannot but be better But suppose that he were yet remaining on earth and taken by others out of his Tombe what would it auaile thee to know where he were If he be with such as loue and honour him they will be as warie to keepe him as they are loth he should be lost and therefore will either often change or neuer confesse the place knowing secresie to be the surest locke to defend so great a treasure If those haue taken him that malice and maligne him thou maist well iudge him past thy recouerie when he is once in possession of so cruell owners Thou wouldest haply make sale of thy liuing and seeke him by ransome But it is not likely they would sell him to be honoured that bought him to be murthered If price would not serue thou wouldest fall to prayer But how can prayer soften such flinty hearts And if they scorned so many teares offered for his life as little will they regard thy intreatie for his coarse If neither price nor prayer would preuaile thou wouldest attempt it by force But alas silly souldier thy armes are too weake to manage weapons and the issue of thy affault would be the losse of thy selfe If no other way would helpe thou wouldest purloine him by stealth and thinke thy selfe happie in contriuing such a theft O Mary thou art deceiued for malice will haue many locks and to steale him from a thiefe that could steale him from the watch requireth more cunning in the Art than thy want of practise can affoord thee Yet if these be the causes that thou enquired of the place thou shewest the force of thy rare affection and deseruest the Lawrell of a perfect louer But to feele more of their sweetnesse I will poune these spices and dwell a while in the peruse of thy resolute seruour And first can thy loue enrich thee when thy goods are gone or a dead coarse repay the value of thy ransome Because he had neither bed to be borne in nor graue to be buried in wilt thou therefore rather be poore with him than rich without him Againe if thou hadst to sue to some cruell Scribe or Pharisie that is to an heart boyling in rancor with an heart burning in loue for a thing of him aboue all things detested of thee aboue all things desired as his enemie to whom thou suest and his friend for whom thou intrearest canst thou thinke it possible for this sute to speede Could thy loue repaire thee from his rage or such a tyrant stoupe to a womans teares Thirdly if thy Lord might be recouered by violence art thou so armed in compleat loue that thou thinkest it sufficient harnesse or doth thy loue indue thee with such a Iudiths spirit or lend thee such Sampsons locks that thou canst breake open huge gates or foyle whole armies Is thy loue so sure a shield that no blow can breake it or so sharpe a dint that no force can withstand it Can it thus alter sexe change nature and exceede all Art But of all other courses wouldest thou aduenture a theft to obtaine thy desire A good deed must be well done and a worke of mercy without breach of iustice It were a sinne to steale prophane treasure but to steale an annointed Prophet can be no lesse than sacriledge And what greater staine to thy Lord to his doctrine and to thy selfe than to see thee his Disciple publikely executed for an open theft O Mary vnlesse thy loue haue better warrant than common sense I can hardly see how such designements can be approued Approued saith she I would to God the execution were as easie as the proofe and I should not long bewaile my vnfortunate losse To others it seemeth ill to preferre loue before riches but to loue it seemeth worse to preferre any thing before it selfe Cloath him with plates of siluer that shiuereth for cold or fill his purse with treasure that pineth with hunger see whether the plates will warme him or the treasure feede him No no he will giue vs all his plates for a woollen garment and all his money for a meales meate Euery supply fitteth not with euery neede and the loue of so sweete a Lord hath no correspondence in worldly wealth Without him I were poore though Empresse of the world With him I were rich though I had nothing else They that haue most are accounted richest and they thought to haue most that haue all they desire and therefore as in him alone is the vttermost of my desires so he alone is the summe of all my substance It were too happy an exchange to haue God for goods and too rich a pouertie to enioy the onely treasure of the world If I were so fortunate a begger I would disdaine Salomons wealth and my loue being so highly enriched my life should neuer complaine of want And if all I am worth would not reach to his ransome what should hinder to seeke him by intreaty Though I were to sue to the gaeatest Tyrant yet the equitie of
and buried in his Tombe that as our harmes began so they might end and such places and meanes as were the premises to our miserie might be also the conclusions of our misfortune For this did Christ in the Canticles inuite vs to an heauenly banquet after he was come into this Garden and had reaped his myrrhe and his spice to forewarne vs of the ioy that after this haruest should presently ensue namely when hauing sowed in this Garden a body the mortalitie whereof was signified by those spices he now reaped the same neither capable of death nor subiect to corruption For this also was Mary permitted to mistake that we might be informed of the mysterie and see how aptly the course of our redemption did answer the processe of our condemnation But though he be the Gardener that hath planted the tree of grace and restored vs to the vse and eating of the fruites of life Though it be he that soweth his giftes in our soules quickening in vs the seeds of vertue and rooting out of vs the weedes of sinne yet is he neuerthelesse the same Iesus he was and the borrowed presence of a meane laborer neither altereth his person nor diminisheth his right to his diuine titles Why then canst thou not as well see what in truth he is as what in shew he seemeth but because thou seest more than thou diddest beleeue and findest more thrn thy faith serueth thee to seek and for this though thy loue was worthy to see him yet thy faith was vnworthy to know him Thou diddest seeke for him as dead and therefore doest not know him seeing him aliue and because thou beleeuest not of him as he is thou doest onely see him as he seemeth to be I cannot say thou art faultlesse sith thou art so lame in thy beleefe but thy fault deserueth fauour because thy charitie is so great and therefore ô mercifull Iesu giue me leaue to excuse whom thou art minded to forgiue She thought to haue found thee as she left thee and she sought thee as she did last see thee being so ouercome with sorow for thy death that she had neither roome nor respite in her minde for any hope of thy life and being so deepely interred in the griefe of thy buriall that she could not raise her thoughts to any conceit of thy resurrection For in the graue where Ioseph buried thy body Mary together with it entombed her soule and so straightly combined it with thy coarse that she could with more ease sunder her soule from her owne body that liueth by it than from thy dead body with which her loue did burie it for it is more thine and in thee than her owne or in her selfe and therefore in seeking thy body she seeketh her owne soule as with the losse of the one she also lost the other What maruell then though sense faile when the soule is lost sith the lanterne must needes be darke when the light is out Restore vnto her therfore her soule that lieth imprisoned in thy body and she will soone both recouer her sense and discouer her errour For alas it is no errour that proceedeth of any will to erre and it riseth as much of vehemencie or affection as of default in faith Regard not the errour of a woman but the loue of a Disciple which supplyeth in it selfe what in faith it wanteth O Lord saith she If thou hast carried him hence tell me where thou hast laide him and I will take him away O how learned is her ignorance and how skilfull her errour She charged not the Angels with thy remouing nor seemed to mistrust them for carrying thee away as though that her loue had taught her that their helpe was needlesse where the thing remoued was remouer of it selfe She did not request them to enforme her where thou wert layd as if she had reserued that question for thy selfe to answer But now he iudgeth thee so likely to be the authour of her losse that halfe supposing thee guilty she sueth a recouerie and desireth thee to tell her where the body is as almost fully perswaded that thou art as priuie to the place as well acquainted with the action So that if she be not altogether right she is not very much wrong and she erreth with such ayme that she very little misseth the truth Tell her therefore ô Lord what thou hast done with thy selfe sith it is fittest for thy owne speech to vtter that which was onely possible for thy owne power to performe But ô Mary sithens thou art so desirous to know where thy Iesus is why doest thou not name him when thou askest for him Thou saidest to the Angels that they had taken away thy Lord and now the second time thou askest for him Are thy thoughts so visible as at thy onely presence to be seene or so generall that they possesse all when they are once in thee When thou speakest of him what him doest thou meane or how can a stranger vnderstand thee when thou talkest of thy Lord Hath the world no other Lords but thine or is the demanding by no other name but him a sufficient notice for whom thou demandest But such is the nature of thy loue thou iudgest that no other should be entitled a Lord sith the whole world is too little for thy Lords possession and that those few creatures that are cannot chuse but know him sith all the creatures of the world are too few to serue him And as his worthinesse can appay all loues and his onely loue content all hearts so thou deemest him to be so well worthy to be owner of all thoughts that no thought in thy conceit can be well bestowed vpon any other Yet thy speeches seeme more sudden than sound and more peremptory than well pondered Why doest thou say so resolutely without any further circumstance that if this Gardener haue taken him thou wilt take him from him If he had him by right in taking him away thou shouldst do him wrong If thou supposest he wrongfully tooke him thou layest theft to his charge and howsoeuer it be thou either condemnest thy selfe for an vsurper or him for a thiefe And is this an effect of thy zealous loue first to abase him from a God to a Gardener and now to degrade him from a Gardener to a thiefe Thou shouldest also haue considered whether he tooke him vpon loue or malice If it were for loue thou maiest assure thy selfe that he will be as wary to keepe as he was venturous to get him and therefore thy pollicie was weake in saying thou wouldest take him away before thou knewest where he was sith none is so simple to bewray their treasure to a knowne thiefe If he tooke him of malice thy offer to recouer him is an open defiance sith malice is as obstinate in defending as violent in offering wrong and he that would be cruell against thy maisters dead body is likely to be more furious against his liuing
dying heart with taking in the first gaspes of his liuing breath or to haue heard the first words of his pleasing voice Finally if thou haddest thought to haue seene his iniuries turned to honours the markes of his miserie to ornaments of glorie and the depth of thy heauinesse to such an height of felicity whatsoeuer thou haddest done to obtaine him had bene but a mite for a million and too slender a price for so soueraigne a peniworth But hauing no such hopes to vphold thee and so many motiues to plonge thee in despaire how could thy loue be so mighty as neither to feele a womans feare of so deformed a coarse nor to thinke the weight of the burthen too heauy for thy feeble armes nor to be amated with a world of dangers that this attempt did carry with it But affection cannot feare whom it affecteth loue feeleth no load of him it loueth neither can true frendship be frighted from rescuing so affied a friend What meanest thou then ô comfort of her life to leaue so constant a wel-willer so long vncomforted and to punish her so much that so well deserueth pardon Dally no longer with so knowne a loue which so many trials auouch most true And sith she is nothing but what it pleaseth thee let her tast the benefit of being onely thine She did not follow the tide of thy better fortune to shift saile when the streame did alter course She began not to loue thee in thy life to leaue thee after death Neither was she such a guest at thy table that meant to be a stranger in thy necessitie She left thee not in thy lowest ebbe she reuolted not from thy last extremitie In thy life she serued thee with her goods in thy death she departed not from the Crosse after death she came to dwell with thee at thy graue Why then doest thou not say with Naomi Blessed be she of our Lord because what courtesie she afforded to the quicke she hath also continued towards the dead A thing so much the more to be esteemed in that it is most rare Do not sweete Lord any longer delay her Behold she hath attended thee these three dayes and she hath not what to eate nor wherewith to foster her famished soule vnlesse thou by discouering thy selfe doest minister vnto her the bread of thy body and feede her with the food that hath in it all taste of sweetnesse If therefore thou wilt not haue her to faint in the way refresh her with that which her hunger requireth For surely she cannot long enioy the life of her soule But feare not Mary for thy teares will obtaine They are to o mighty oratours to let any suit fall and though they pleaded at the most rigorous barre yet haue they so perswading a silence so conquering a complaint that by yeelding they ouercome and by intreating they command They tie the tongues of all accusers and soften the rigour of the seuerest Iudge Yea they winne the inuincible and binde the omnipotent When they seeme most pitifull they haue great power and being most forsaken they are more victorious Repentant eyes are the Cellers of Angels and penitent teares their sweetest wines which the sauour of life perfumeth the taste of grace sweeteneth and the purest colours of returning innocencie highly beautifieth This deaw of deuotion neuer faileth but the Sunne of iustice draweth it vp and vpon what face soeuer it droppeth it maketh it amiable in Gods eye For this water hath thy heart bene long a limbecke sometimes distilling it out of the weedes of thy owne offences with the fire of true contrition Sometimes out of the flowers of spirituall comforts with the flames of contemplation and now out of the bitter hearbes of thy maisters miseries with the heat of a tender compassion This water hath better graced thy lookes than thy former alluring glances It hath setled worthier beauties in thy face than all thy artificiall paintings Yea this onely water hath quenched Gods anger qualified his iustice recouered his mercy merited his loue purchased his pardon and brought forth the spring of all thy fauours Thy teares were the procters for thy brothers life the inuiters of those Angels for thy comfort and the suters that shall be rewarded with the first sight of thy reuiued Sauiour Rewarded they shall be but not refrained altered in their cause but their course continued Heauen would weepe at the losse of so precious a water and earth lament the absence of so fruitfull showers No no the Angels must still bath themselues in the pure streames of thine eyes and thy face shall still be set with this liquid pearle that as out of thy teares were stroken the first sparkes of thy Lords loue so thy teares may be the oyle to nourish and feede his fame Till death dam vp the springs they shall neuer ceasse running and then shall thy soule be ferried in them to the harbour of life that as by them it was first passed from sinne to grace so in them it may be wasted from grace to glorie In the meane time reare vp thy fallen hopes and gather confidence both of thy speedy comfort and thy Lords well being Iesus saith vnto her Marie She turning saith vnto him Rabboni O louing maister thou diddest onely deferre her consolation to increase it that the delight of thy presence might be so much the more welcome in that through thy long absence it was with so little hope so much desired Thou wert content she should lay out for thee so many sighes teares and plaints and diddest purposely adiourne the date of her payment to requite the length of these delayes with a larger loane of ioy It may be she knew not her former happinesse till she was weaned from it nor had a right estimate in valuing the treasures with which thy presence did inrich her vntill her extreame pouertie taught her their vnestimable rate But now thou shewest by a sweete experience that though she payde thee with the dearest water of her eyes with her best breath and tenderest loue yet small was the price that she bestowed in respect of the worth she receiued She sought thee dead and imprisoned in a stonie gayle and now she findeth thee both aliue and at full libertie She sought thee shrined in a shrowd more like a leaper than thy selfe left as the modell of the vttermost miserie and the onely patterne of the bitterest vnhappinesse and now she findeth thee inuested in the robes of glorie the president of the highest and both the owner and giuer of all felicitie And as all this while she hath sought without finding wept without comfort and called without answers so now thou diddest satisfie her seeking with thy comming her teares with thy triumph and all her cryes with this one word Mary For when she heard thee call her in thy wonted manner and with thy vsuall voice her onely name issuing frō thy mouth wrought so strange an alteration in her
calme minde in more hope then feare she expected her owne passage she commended both her duty and good will to all her friends and cleared her heart from all grudge towards her enemies wishing true happinesse to them both as best became so soft and gentle a mind in which anger neuer stayed but as an vnwelcome stranger She made open profession that she did die true to her religion true to her husband true to God and the world she enioyed her iudgement as long as she breathed her body earnestly offering her last deuotions supplying in thought what faintnesse suffered not her tongue to vtter in the end when her glasse was runne out and death began to challenge his interest some labouring with too late remedies to hinder the deliuery of her sweet soule she desired them eftsoones to let her go to God and her hopes calling her to eternall kingdomes as one rather fallen asleepe then dyieg she most happily tooke her leaue of all mortall miseries Such was the life such was the death of your dearest sister both so full of true comfort that this surely of her vertues may be a sufficient lenitiue to your bitterest griefes For you are not I hope in the number of those that reckon it a part of their paine to heare of their best remedies thinking the rehearsall of your dead friends praises an vpbraiding of their losse but sith the obliuion of her vertuues were iniurious to her let not the mention of her person be offensiue vnto you and be not you grieued with her death with which she is best pleased So blessed a death is rather to be wished of vs then pitied in her whose soule triumpheth with God whose vertue still breatheth in the mouths of infinite praises and liueth in the memories of all to whom either experience made her knowne or fame was not enuious to conceale her deserts She was a iewell that both God and you desired to enioy he to her assured benefit without selfe interest you for allowable respects yet employing her restraint among certaine hazards and most vncertaine hopes Be then vmpire in your owne cause whether your wishes or Gods will importeth more loue the one the adornement of her exile the other her returne into a most blessed countrey And sith it pleased God in this loue to be your riuall let your discretion decide the doubt whom in due should carry the suite the prerogatiue being but a right to the one for nature and grace being the motiues of both your loues she had the best litle in them that was authour of them and she if worthy to be beloued of either as she was of both could not but preferre him to the dearest portion of her deepest affection let him with good leaue gather the grape of his owne vine and plucke the fruite of his owne planting and thinke so curious workes euer safest in the artificers hand who is likeliest to loue them and best able to preserue them She did therefore her duty in dying willingly and if you will do yours you must be willing with her death sith to repine at her liking is discurtesie at Gods an impiety both vnfitting for your approued vertue she being in place where no griefe can annoy her she hath little neede or lesse ioy of your sorrow neither can she allow in her friends that she would loathe in her selfe loue neuer affecting likenesse if she had bene euill she had not deserued our teares being good she cannot desire them nothing being lesse to the likenesse of goodnesse than to see it selfe any cause of vniust disquiet or trouble to the innocent Would Saul haue thought it friendship to haue wept for his fortune in hauing found a kingdome 1. Sam. 17. by seeking of cattell or Dauid account it a curtesie to haue sorrowed at his successe that from following sheepe came to foyle a giant and to receiue in fine a royall crowne for his victorie why then should her lot be lamented whom higher fauour hath raised from the dust to sit with princes of Gods people Psal 112 if security had bene giuen that a longer life should still haue bene guided by vertue and followed with good fortune you might pretend some cause to complaine of her deceasse But if different effects should haue crossed your hopes processe of time being the parent of strange alterations then had death bene friendlier then your selfe and sith it hung in suspence which of the two would haue happened let vs allow God so much discretion as to thinke him the fittest arbitrator in decision of the doubt her foundations of happinesse were in the holy hills Psal 86. and God sawe it fittest for her building to be but low in the vale of teares better it was it should be soone taken downe then by rising too high to haue oppressed her soule with the ruines Thinke it no iniurie that she is now taken from you but a fauour that she was lent you so long and shew no vnwillingnesse to restore God his owne sith hitherto you haue payed no vsurie for it Consider not how much longer you might haue enioyed her but how much sooner you might haue lost her and sith she was held vpon curtesie not by any couenant take our soueraigne right for a sufficient reason of her death our life is but lent a good to make thereof during the loane our best commodity It is due debt to a more certaine owner than our selues and therefore so long as we haue it we receiue a benefite when we are depriued of it we haue no wrong we are tennants at will of this clayie farme not for tearme of yeares when we are warned out we must be ready to remoue hauing no other title but the owners pleasure it is but an Inne not an home we came but to baite not to dwell and the condition of our entrance was in fine to depart If this departure be grieuous it is also common this to day to me to morrow to thee and the case equally afflicting all leaues none any cause to complaine of iniurious vsage Natures debt is sooner exacted of some than of other yet is there no fault in the creditor that exacteth but his owne but in the greedinesse of our eager hopes either repining that their wishes faile or willingly forgetting their mortalitie whom they are vnwilling by experience to see mortall yet the generall tide wafteth all passengers to the same shore some sooner some later but all at the last and we must settle our minds to take our course as it commeth neuer fearing a thing so necessary yet euer expecting a thing so vncertaine It seemeth that God purposely concealed the time of our death leauing vs resolued betweene feare and hope of longer continuance Cut off vnripe cares lest with the notice and pensiuenesse of our diuorce from the world we should lose the comfort of needfull contentments and before our dying day languish away with expectation of death Some
made his heart a prey to his agonies whereas that that buried him in his owne melancholies raised Ioseph to his highest happinesse If Mary Magdalen said and supposed she could haue suncke no deeper in griefe than she had already plunged her selfe and yet that which she imagined the vttermost of euils proued in conclusion the very blisse of her wishes the like may be your errour if you cumber your minde with thinking vpon her death which could neuer be discharged from cares till death set his hand to her acquittance nor receiue the charter of an eternall being till her soule were presented at the sealing I loath to rubbe the scarre of a deeper wound for feare of renewing a dead discomfort yet if you will fauour your owne remedies the maisterie ouer that griefe that springs from the roote may learne you to qualifie this that buddeth from the branch Let not her losses moue you that are acquainted with greater of your owne and taught by experience to know how vncertaine then change is for whō vnconstant fortune throweth the dice. If she want the wonted titles her part is now ended and they were due but vpon the stage her losse therein is but a wracke of wounds in which she is but euen with the height of Princes surpassing both her selfe in them and the new honours of heauenly stile If she haue left her children it was her wish they should repay her absence with vsury yet had she sent her first fruits before her as pledges of her owne comming And now may we say that the Sparrow hath found an home and the Turtle doue a neast where she may lay her yonglings enioying some and expecting the rest If she be taken from her friends she is also deliuered from her enemies in hope hereafter to enioy the first out of feare of euer being troubled with the latter If she be cut off in her youth no age is vnripe for a good death and hauing ended her taske though neuer so short yet she hath liued out her full time Old age is venerable not long to be measured by increase of vertues not by number of yeares for grauity cōsisteth in wisedom Sap. 4. and an vnspotted life is the ripenesse of the perfectest age If she were in possibilitie of preferment she could hardly haue mounted higher than from whence she was throwne hauing bene brused with the first she had little will to clime for a second fall We might hitherto truly haue said this is that Naomi Ruth 1. she being to her end enriched with many outward and more inward graces But whether hereafter shee would haue bid vs not to call her Naomi that is faire but Mara that signifieth bitter it is vncertaine sith she might haue fallen into the widdows felicitie that so changed her name to the likenesse of her lot Insomuch that she is freed from more miseries then she suffered losses and more fortunate by not desiring then she would be by enioying fortunes fauour which if it be not counted a follie to loue yet it is a true happinesse not to need we may rather thinke that Death was prouided against her imminent harmes then enuious of any future prosperities the times being great with so many broyles that when they once fall in labour we shall thinke their condition securest whom absence hath exempted both from feeling the bitter throwes and beholding the monstrous issue that they are likely to bring forth The more you tender her the more temperate should be your griefe sith seeing you vpon going she did but step before you into the next world to which she thought you to belong more than to this which hath already giuen you the most vngratefull congee They that are vpon remouing send their furniture before them and you still standing vpon your departure what ornament could you rather wish in your future abode then this that did euer please you God thither sendeth your Adamants whither he would draw your heart and casteth your anchors where your thoughts should lie at roade that seeing your loue taken out of the world and your hopes disanchored from the stormie shoare you might settle your desires where God seemeth to require them If you would haue wished her life for an example to your house assure your selfe she hath left her friends so inherited with her vertues and so perfect patternes of her best part that who knoweth the suruiuours may see the deceassed and shall finde little difference but in the number which before was greater but not better vnlesse it were in one repetition of the same goodnesse wherefore set your selfe at rest in the ordinance of God whose works are perfect and whose wisedome is infinite The termes of our life are like the seasons of the yeare some for sowing some for growing and some for reaping in this onely different that as the heauens keepe their prescribed periods so the succession of times haue their appointed changes But in the seasons of our life which are not the law of necessarie causes some are reaped in the seed some in the blade some in the vnripe eares all in the end this haruest depending vpon the Reapers will Death is too ordinary a thing to seeme any nouelty being a familiar guest in euery house and sith his comming is expected and his errand vnknowne neither his presence should be feared nor his effects lamented What wonder is it to see fuell burned spice-pouned or snow melted And as little feare it is to see those dead that were borne vpon condition once to dye She was such a compound as was once to be resolued vnto her simples which is now performed her soule being giuen to God and her body resorted into her first elements It could not dislike you to see your friend remoued out of a ruinous house the house it self destroyed and pulled down if you knew it were to build it in a statelier forme and to turne the inhabitant with more ioy into a fairer lodging Let then your sisters soule depart without griefe let her body also be altred into dust withdraw your eyes from the ruine of this cottage and cast them vpon the maiestie of the second building which Saint Paul saith shall be incorruptible glorious strange spirituall and immortall Night and sleepe are perpetuall mirrours figuring in their darknesse silence shutting vp of senses the finall end of our mortall bodies and for this some haue entituled sleepe the eldest brother of Death but with no lesse conuenience it might be called one of Deaths tenants neare vnto him in affinity of condition yet farre inferiour in right being but tennant for a time of that Death is the inheritance for by vertue of the conueyance made vnto him in Paradice that dust we were and to dust we must returne he hath hitherto shewed his seigniory ouer all exacting of vs not onely the yearely but hourely reuerence of time which euer by minuts we defray vnto him so that our very life is
that beareth me such a cankred malice that he careth not to increase his owne paine so that he may worke me any spirituall yea or corporall harme Fourthly I must print that saying of Christ in my minde He that perseuereth vnto the end shall be saued for not he that beginneth nor he that continueth for a moneth or a yeare or a short time but onely he that perseuereth vnto the end of his life shall be saued Wherfore the same cause that moued me to beginne ought also to moue me to continue that the reward and crowne of my good resolution be not cut off by any want of perseuerance Let not the cries of mine enemies moue me let me with Saint Paul say The world is crucified to me and I to the world And with Dauid It is good for me to cleane vnto God Finally let me imitate the ensample of Christ that perseuered on the crosse vnto death for my sake though often called vpon to come downe Fiftly I must consider that in what state so euer of grace or merit of damnation I beginne the next life I must and shall vndoubtedly perseuer in it according to the words of Salomon Wheresoeuer the tree falleth there shall it be whether it be towards South or North that is towards heauen or hell for both the paine of this continueth for euer and the ioy of the other is also euerlasting If therefore I will perseuer in heauen let me perseuer in the way that leadeth vnto it and neuer forsake the painefulnesse of it vnto the iourneyes end The passions of this life are not condigne and comparable to the future glorie and it is extreame follie for auoiding a short and transitorie paine to hazard the losse of euerlasting ioy and put my selfe in perill of perpetuall bondage in sarre more extreame and endlesse torments The sinners perseuer still in wickednesse and seruice of the Diuell The worldlings perseuer in pursuing vanities and following the world yea and that with most seruile toile and base drudgerie and not without many bodily and ghostly harmes how much more ought a true seruant of God perseuer in Gods seruice and not seeme by forsaking him in the way to condemne him for a worse maister then the world or the Diuell whom many thousands serue to the end to their owne damnation Let me remember that the first Angell for want of perseuerance became a diuell Adam for want of the same was thrust out of Paradise and Iudas of an Apostle became a prey of hell Finally there be many thousands in hell fire burning that beganne very good courses and for a time went forward in the same and yet in the end for want of perseuerance were damned for euer What good a soule loseth by mortall sinne THe grace of the holy Ghost The friendship and familiaritie with God All morall vertues infused and gifts of Gods Spirit The inheritance of the kingdome of heauen The portion of Gods children and patronage of his fatherly prouidence which he hath ouer the iust The peace and quietnesse of a good and quiet conscience Many comforts and visitations of the holy Ghost The fruite and merits of Christs death and passion What misery the soule gaineth by mortall sinne COndemnation to eternall paine To be quite cancelled out of the booke of life To become of the child of God the thrall of the diuell To be changed from the temple of the holy Ghost into a denne of theeues a nest of vipers and a sinke of all corruption How a Soule is prepared to iustification by degrees Faith setteth before one eyes God as a iust Iudge Angrie with the bad Mercifull to the repentant Of this faith by the gift of Gods Spirit ariseth a feare by consideration of Gods iustice and Our ownâ— sinnes This feare is comforted by hope grounded in Gods mercie and the Merits of Christ Of this hope ariseth loue and charity to Christ for Louing vs without desert Redeeming vs with so many torments Of this loue followeth sorrow for offending Christ of whom we haue bene so mercifully Created Redeemed Sanctified Called to by Faith Of this sorrow ariseth a full purpose to auoid all sinne which God aboue all things detesteth The diuell aboue all things desireth Aboue all things hurteth the soule A short Meditation of mans miseries VVHat was I O Lord what am I what shall I be I was nothing I am now nothing worth and am in hazard to be worse then nothing I was conceiued in originall sinne I am now full of actuall sinne I may hereafter feele the eternall smart of sinne I was in my mother a lothsome substance I am in the world a sacke of corruption I shall be in my graue a prey of vermine When I was nothing I was without hope to be saued or feare to be damned I am now in a doubtfull hope of the one and in a manifest danger of the other I shall be either happie by the successe of my hope or most miserable by the effect of my danger I was so that I could not then be damned I am so that I can scarce be saued what I haue bene I know to wit a wretched sinner what I am I cannot say being vncertaine of Gods grace what I shall be I am ignorant of being doubtfull of my perseuerance O Lord erect my former weaknesse correct my present sinfulnesse direct my future frailtie from passed euill to present good and from present good to future glorie sweete Iesus A deuout prayer to desire pardon and remission of our sinnes O Most mightie Lord and Creator of all things when I thinke with my selfe how grieuously I haue offended thine infinite Maiestie with my sinnes I wonder at mine owne follie when I consider what a louing and bountifull father I haue forsaken I accurse mine ingratitude when I behold how I am fallen from such a noble libertie into such a miserable bondage I condemne my selfe for an inconstant foole and know not what other thing I may set before mine eyes but onely hell and damnation for so much as thy iustice from which I cannot flie putteth a great tetror into my conscience but contrariwise when I consider thy great mercie which as the Prophet witnesseth exceedeth all thy workes then do I feele forthwith a fresh and pleasant aire of hope to refresh and strengthen againe my weake and sorrowfull soule Wherefore should I then dispaire to obtaine pardon of him who hath so often times in the holy Scriptures inuited sinners to repentance saying I desire not the death of a sinner but that he should liue and be conuerted Moreouer thine onely begotten Sonne our sweete Sauiour Iesus Christ hath reuealed vnto vs by many parables how ready and willing thou art to graunt pardon vnto all such as are penitent for their sinnes This he signifieth vnto vs by the Iewell lost and found againe By the strayed sheepe brought home againe vpon the shepheards shouldiers and much more by the comparison of the prodigall sonne