meat and drink Clothes recreations and what else he sees Needfull They themselves destroy And are to their safety strangers That runne into mortall dangers And not shun them when they may Howe'r imploy'd Lord grant I may have leisure Religiously to meditate that thou My dayes dost number and my life dost measure And make me think Lord that this very now That this twinkling of an eye Is the period thou hast set Lord grant I may ne'r forget That this moment I may die PART III. Of Deaths suddennesse THough sometimes Death doth stay till it be late At night untill our most decrepit years And when he comes doth like a King in state Send harbingers before yet Death appears Sometimes unlook'd for early in the morning And takes us up before he gives us warning When at full tide our youthfull bloud doth flow In every vein and when our pulses dance A healthfull measure when our stomachs know No qualms at all as we would say by chance Snatch'd are our bodies to their longest homes And Death is past before a sicknesse comes How many sleepie mortals go to bed With healthful bodies and do rise no more How many hungry mortals have been fed Contentedly at dinner yet before Against a second meal they whet their knives Death steals away their stomachs and their lives How many in the morning walk abroad For to be breath'd on by the keener air Perhaps to clarifie their grosser bloud Or else to make their rougher cheeks look fair But e'r they tread a furlong in the frost Death nips them so their former labour 's lost Nature is parsimonious Man may live With little but alas with how much lesse A man may die There 's nothing but may give A mortall blow small matters may undresse Our souls of clay A thousand wayes we have To send our crazie bodies to the grave The elements confeder how they may Procure our Death the Air we suck to live It self hath poi'sned thousands in a day And made such havock that the slain did strive For elbow-room in Church-yards houses were Good cheap and onely shrowds and coffins dear If we could come to speak with Pharaoh's ghost 'T would tell how many met with sudden graves Beneath the water that a mighty host Was slain and buried by the surly waves Except a few which surfeted with store The crop-sick sea did vomit on the shore Sometimes our mother Earth as if she were So hunger-bitten that she needs must eat Her children gapes as for some toothsome cheer And multitudes one swallow down doth let Which either in her womb she doth bestow Or else doth send them to the world below That usefull creature Fire whose light and heat Doth comfort and when Earth doth penance warm us Whose cookerie provides us wholesome meat Yet mortally this element doth harm us One morning sent from heav'n such dreadfull flashes As did intomb five cities in their ashes We may remember some that have been kill'd By falls of buildings some by drunken swords By beasts both wild and tame our bloud is spill'd There 's not a creature but a death affords 'Bove fourtie childrens limbs God's anger tears In pieces with the teeth of savage bears But there 's some likelyhood that sudden Death By means like these may easily befall us But many times we mortally lose our breath By wayes lesse probable The Lord doth call us Upon a sudden hence by petty things Sometimes the meanest means Death's errand brings Our staff of life may kill a little crumb Of bread may choke us going down awry A small hair in their drink hath caused some To breath their last By any thing we die Sometimes a sudden grief or sudden joy Have might enough to take our souls away Meditation 1. HOw weak 's the thread of life that any thing How weak so e'r can break it by and by How short 's the thread of life that Death can bring Both ends of it together suddenly Well may the scriptures write the life of man As weak as water and as short 's a span How soon is water spilt upon the ground Once spilt what hand can gather 't up again Fome that doth rise to day is seldome sound Floting to morrow When the wanton rain Gets bubbles to make sport with on the water A minute breaks them into their first matter Such is our life How soon doth Death uncase Our souls and when they once are fled away Who can return them As upon the face Of thirstie ground when water 's shed to day The morrow sees it not so when we die None can revive us as we fall we lie Our life 's a vapour Vapours do arise Sometimes indeed with such a seeming power As if they would eclipse the glorious skies And muffle up the world but in an houre Or two at most these vapours are blown o'r And leave the air as clear as 't was before We look big here a little while and bristle And shoulder in the smiling world as though There were no dancing but as we would whistle So strangely domineer we here below But as a vapour in a sun-shine day We vanish on a sudden quite away Our life is like the smoke of new-made fire As we in age and stature upward tend Our dissolution is so much the nigher Smoke builds but castles in the air ascend Indeed it doth aloft but yet it must At high'st dissolve we vanish into dust What is a shadow Nothing Grant it were A thing that had a name and being too Yet let a cloud 'twixt us and heav'n appear It s turn'd into its former nothing Lo Our shadows vanish surely so do we At noon a man at night a corps we see Our life 's a cloud and from varietie Of vapours are created diverse sorts The stronger last a time the weaker slie With lesse ado yet half a day transports Both strong'st and weakest hence and in their flight Their nimble speed outrunnes the quickest sight Some men are healthfull merrie lustie strong Some crazy weak sad sickly drooping both Post hence with winged speed we may not wrong Life's footmanship for sure with greater sloth Clouds through the air the strongest wind doth send Then frail mans life doth gallop to its end With greater sloth A man that now is here Perhaps an houre yea half a minute hence That man may in another world appear Our life moves faster then those things which sense Acquaint us with faster then ships by farre Or birds or bullets that do plow the air All flesh is grasse how suddenly that fades Grasse in the morning standeth proudly green E'r night the husbandmen prepare their blades To cut it down and not a leaf is seen But e'r the morrow 's wither'd into hay That in its summer-suit was cloth'd to day We grow and flourish in the world a space Our dayes with ease mirth health strength heav'n doth crown But 't is not long we run this happy race Death cometh with his
praise His word 's my rule my warrant 's his command Thus am I fitted Death cut off my dayes If thou wilt within this houre I will thank thee for thy pain For to me to die is gain I 'll not fear a jote thy power What canst thou do that justly may affright me Though with thee in the dark I dwell a space Yet canst thou not eternally benight me Thou art my passage to a glorious place Where shall not be any night My rais'd ashes shall enjoy There an everlasting day And an uneclipsed light I fear not death because of putrefaction Nor if I might would willingly decline it My body gains by 't 't is the graves best action God as a founder melts it to refine it Death cannot annihilate And in despite of the grave Yet I shall a body have Fairer and in better state Gods second work excells his first by ods Our second birth life Adam to repair Our bodies is a second work of Gods To make them better then at first they were Glorious immortall sound Nimble beautifull and so Splendid that from top to toe Not a blemish may be found What begger weeps when 's rags are thrown away To put on better clothes Who is 't will grieve To pull a rotten house down that it may Be fairer built Why should we not receive Death with both hands when he comes To pull off those rags that hide us To unhouse us and provide us Richer clothes and better homes The griping pangs of Death do not affright My heart at all I have deserved mo And if upon no other terms I might Enjoy my God I to my God would go Through hells self although a throng Of an hundred thousand juries Of the black'st infernall Furies Claw'd me as I went along Nor can those inward terrours make me quake Which Death-beds often on the soul do bring I have no Death-bed-reck'nings for to make 'T was made while I was well and every thing Was dispatch'd before that I Nothing in the world now save Home-desiring longings have Then to do but just to die Nor doth it trouble me that Death will take me From those delights that are enjoy'd below Alas I know that none of them can make me One jote the happier man nor can bestow Any comfort Carnall gladnesse Mirth delight and jollity This worlds best felicitie All is vanity and madnesse Mere empty husks Had I as many treasures In my possession as the muddiest wretch Did ever covet and as many pleasures As from the creature fleshly men can fetch Had I this or if I were Supreme Monarch onely Lord Of what earth and sea afford Yet I would not settle here To be dissolv'd is better Death doth bring A fairer fortune then it takes away It sets us in a world where every thing Is a happinesse a full and solid joy Not to be conceiv'd before We come thither but the blisse Which exceedeth all is this That there we shall sinne no more Lord grant a copious portion of thy Spirit The more I have of that the lesse I fear What Death can do for sure I shall inherit All joy in heaven if I am holy here Nought suits with heaven but sanctitie Let my God thy Spirit and grace Fit me for that holy place And that holy companie Meditation 5. IF Death will come what do men mean to sinne With so much greedinesse me thinks I see What a sad case the godlesse world is in How fast asleep in her securitie Fearlessely in sinne men live As if Death would never come Or there were no day of doom When they must a reck'ning give Observe a little yonder black-mouth'd swearer How 's tongue with oathes and curses pelts the skies 'T would grieve the heart of any pious hearer But to bear witnesse of his blasphemies He darts wounds at God on high Puts on cursing as his clothes And doth wrap his tongue in oathes To abuse Eternity In lawlesse lust the fornicatour fries And longs to slake it 'twixt forbidden sheets Ne'r sets the sunne but his adulterous eyes Observes the twilight and his harlot meets That which follows when the night Draws its curtain o'r the air To conceal this goatish pair Modesty forbids to write And I could shew you were it worth the viewing In that room three or foure drunkards reeling In this as many more that sweat with spewing Some that have drunk away their sense and seeling Men of all sorts in their wine And their ale sit domineering Cursing railing roring swearing Under every baser signe 'T is said so vile is this big-belly'd sinne That in a day and lesse some foure or five Of lustie drunken throats will swallow in More then hath kept two families alive A whole forthnight yet made they Merrie with 't Had I my wishes Such gulls should not drink like fishes But their throats should chāge their trade The covetous man with his usurious clutches Doth catch and hold fast all the wealth he may He leans on 't as a creeple on his crutches The miser studies nothing night and day But his gain he 's like a swine Looking downward like a mole Blind and of an earthen soul Minding nothing that 's divine These and beside these other sorts of sinners In every parish you may dayly see As greedy at their sinnes as at their dinners And wallowing in all impiety Sure these miscreants do never Entertein a thought of dying Nor yet are afraid of frying In hell flames for altogether Thou God of spirits be pleas'd to aw my heart With death and judgement that when I would sinne I may remember that I must depart And whatsoe're condition I am in When I sink under Deaths hand There 's no penance in the grave Nor then can I mercy have So must I in judgement stand Meditation 6. Lord what a thief is Death it robs us quite Of all the world great men of all their honours Luxurious men of all their fond delight Rich men of all their money farms and mannours Naked did the world find us And the world will leave us so We shall carrie when we go Nothing but leave all behind us Let Death do 's worst ambitious men do climb By any sinne though it be ne're so soul Gold-thirsty misers swallow any crime That brings gain with it though it kill the soul Here for gain is over-reaching Cosening cheating lying stealing Knavish and sinister dealing All arts of the devils teaching Whilst I am well advis'd I 'll never strive T' increase my wealth if 't will increase my sinne I will be rather poore then seek to thrive By means unlawfull all 's not worth a pinne When mine eye-lids Death doth close What I sinned for must be Shak'd hands with eternally But the sinne that with me goes I 'll not wast love upon these lower things Nor on the choicest of them doting sit For when sad Death a habeas corpus brings To take the world from me and me from it '
Which are infinitely able To do hungri'st sinners good If I come hither an unworthie guest Or if before my heart I do not prove Or if I come as to a common feast Or come without Thanks Knowledge Faith and Love If I carrie any crime Thither with me unlamented Or go ere I have repented Death may take me henoe betime Another is Bloud-thirstinesse when we To do a mischief are so strongly bent That we sleep not unlesse our projects be Contrived to insnare the innocent When we are so like the Devil Everie way satanicall That tongue brains heart hands and all Are imploy'd in what is evil These sinnes and others like them do procure Untimely Deaths Lord purifie my heart From everie sinne but chiefly Lord secure My soul from these that I may not depart Hence too soon Lord my desire Is not to live long but I Onely pray that I may die In thy favour not thine ire Meditation 2. THere is a sinne that seldome doth escape A rich mans heir yet 't is a foul transgression For parents Death with open mouth to gape That their estates may come to his possession He gapes that his friends may sleep Parentalia are rites Verie welcome he delights At a fathers grave to weep Poore hare-brain'd fool Perhaps thou may'st go first This night thy younger soul may be requir'd Thy Death may frustrate that ungodly thirst Whos 's then is that estate thou hast desir'd If these gallants were not blind Sure they could not choose but see That a thousand children be Dead their parents left behind Of any kind of sinne to speak the truth That Satan can beget upon the soul Most commonly man 's guilti'st in his youth Our youthfull nature is beyond controll Some examples are afforded In whose historie appears Loosenesse in our yonger years These the Scriptures have recorded The verie first that e'r suck'd mothers teat Because his works were naught his brothers good Did boil his choler to so strong a heat That he must slake it in his brothers bloud How much rancour did he show So much harmlesse bloud to spill And a quarter-part to kill Of all mankind at a blow Unnaturall accursed gracelesse Cham Never did grieve nor sigh nor blush but he Laugh'd at and mock'd his drunken fathers shame A sober fathers curse his portion be Prophane Esau did make sale Of 's birthright for 's bellie-full As ' mongst us there 's many a gull That sells heaven for pots of ale And Absalom was most deform'd within His head-piece had more hair then wit by ods His beautie went no deeper then his skinne He fear'd not mans law nor regarded Gods In him David had a sonne Beastly and ambitious too He did wrong his bed and do What he could to steal his throne Incestuous Amnon dotes upon his sister And in his own bloud cools his lawlesse fires That brother should have sinn'd that had but kiss'd her If mov'd unto it by unchast desires But he makes a rape upon her And so furious is his lust That it cannot hold but must Rob a virgin of her honour And I could tell you of a number more Most sinfull vitious vile exorbitant Whose courses are upon the Scriptures score As if their youth had sealed them a grant To be neither wise nor holy But to runne into excesse Of all kind of wickednesse And do homage unto follie The sage Gymnosophists who first did give The wilder Indians good and wholesome laws The Magi by whom Persia learn'd to live In order the Chaldei whose wise laws The Assyrians justly rul'd And did guiâ—…e in everie thing Numa Romes devoutest King Who the elder Romanes school'd That famous Solon whom th' Athenians ow For all their statutes and Lycurgus he Whose wisdome taught the Spartanes how to know What to omit and do and more there be That have publish'd wholesome laws To curb all indeed but yet Chiefly 't was to put a bit In mens wild and youthfull jaws It is a signe that colt is wild that needs So strong a bridle Ground that doth require So much manuring sure is full of weeds It is because she wallows in the mire That we need to wash a sow Men in youth must needs be bad To curb whom those laws were made Which we told you of but now 'T was a commanded custome that the Jews Should once in ev'rie two and fiftie weeks Visit their temple no man might refuse To worship there Each fourth year the Greeks Their Olympian sacrifice Orderly performed and Th' Egyptians us'd to stand Lifting up devoutest eyes Unto their Idole ev'ry seventh yeare Within th' appointed temple And 't is said Once in ten years the Romanes did appear To sacrifice then was Apollo paid His great Hecatomb and then Unto Delphos many went With their gifts for thither sent Presents ev'rie sort of men And of the Samnites authours do relate That th' ancient'st of them did most solemnly Once in five years their Lustra celebrate But 't is delivered by Antiquitie That the youth of all these nations Strictly all commanded were To these places to repair Oftner to make their oblations What doth this intimate but that the crimes Of youth are great and frequent and their vices Exorbitant that they so many times Have need to purge them by such sacrifices By experience we do find What bad courses men do follow In their youth and how they wallow In base lusts of ev'rie kind And if you ask these brainlesse hot-spurres why They dedicate themselves to such lewd courses They yet are young these gallants still replie And youth must have its swing but no remorse is Wrought at all in any heart For this lewdnesse there remains Not a thought within their brains That the youngest may depart Lord take possession of my heart betimes My youth is fittest for thy service take it Unto thy self make white those crimson crimes That fain would soil it let me never make it A pretense as many do To be lewd but think that I In the height of youth may die May die and be damned too Meditation 3. PArents methinks betime should strive to make Their children good that heaven may receive them If God should send an early Death to take Them from the earth it cannot choose but grieve them And fill full with bitter woe Any parents heart to see That their children wicked be And Death come and find them so Those fruitfull couples whom the Lord hath blest With children should take greatest care to breed them Religiously In this more love 's express'd Then in their care to cloth them or to feed them Or what else they can bestow For their life or livelyhood And to do their children good In the things that are below You must instruct your children in their way That 's double Civil and Religious too They must be taught Gods precepts to obey And to their neighbours give what is their due If you do not strive to set them By that
their Epitaphs in curious layes Once with a singing Swan a part she bears As soon 's those corall doores dismiss'd her voice The poore Swan held his peace and di'd And the spheres as men do say Dumbly move unto this day This was by a rivers side What think you now of such a glorious woman This Phoenix sure was she if any might That might be proud And yet the tongue of no man Can well expresse nor any pen can write What grim death hath done unto her Now she 's of another feature Hardly can you know the creature Stay a while and we will view her Th' almighty King that dwells above in heaven Directs to 's high Shrieve Death a certain writ Wherein a strait imperiall charge was given At 's utmost peril forthwith on sight of it To arrest that piece of beauty And to wrap her up in clay ' Gainst the last great judgement-day Death address'd him to his duty And with great care gives warrant by and by Unto his baillifs Fever Pox and Gout Phrensie Strangury Colick Squinancy Consumption Dropsie and an ugly rout Beside these for to assail her Deaths command was that they must Tie her fast in chains of dust He gave charge that none should bail her You would not think with what a furious pace These catchpoles flie to pull this creature down But Pox was nimblest she got to her face And plow'd it up This hag goes in a gown Rugged and of colour tawny Button'd o're from top to toe Skin-deep beauties deadly foe Uglier hag was never any Fain would the rest have fastned on her too But that this hag had frighted out her soul Now looks her carcase of another hue Grim ugly lothsome ghastly and as soul As did ever eye look on What 's become of that complexion Which held all hearts in subjection In a moment all is gone If we might be so bold to dig the grave Some few years hence where this good woman lies Sure we should find this beauty but a slave To pallid putresaction and a prize For those silly vermine worms As they crawl in stinking swarms She doth hug them in her arms And doth give them suck by turns Here 's a deformed lump indeed and this Must be the fortune of the fairest face None then are proud but fools They love amisse Whose hearts are chain'd to any thing but grace From the beauty of the skin In the loveliest outward part Lord vouchsafe to turn my heart To love that which is within Meditation 3. IF Death will come sure there will come an end Of all this worlds deep-biting misery Nothing adverse that 's here on earth doth tend Beyond the grave that 's a delivery From the pow'r of men and devils And what-ever other wo May befall us here below Death 's a shelter from all evils Here I am poore my daily drops of sweat Will not maintein my full-stock'd family A dozen hungry children crie for meat And I have none nor will words satisfie Could I give their belly ears 'T were a comfort or could fill Hungry stomacks with good will Or make daily bread of tears Here the oppressour with his griping claws Sits on my skirts my racking land-lord rears Both rent and fine with potent looks he aws Me from mine own Scarce any man but bears In his bosome Ahabs heart Horse-leach-like that 's ever craving Other mens and sick of having Right or wrong will catch a part Here in these clay-built houses sicknesse reigns I have more maladies then I can name Each member of my body hath its pains Moreover weeping groning sadnesse shame Slanders melancholy fear Discontents disgraces losses And a thousand other crosses Must be born if I live here But these are finite all When I am dead My poverty is ended and my care I heare my famish'd children crie for bread No longer Then I drink I lodge I fare Just as well as Caesar doth There ends cold and nakednesse All my former wretchednesse Death is meat and drink and cloth There 's no face-grinding There the mighty cease From troubling there the weary be at rest The servant 's freed the pris'ner is at ease All 's still and quiet no man is oppress'd For incroachers there are none Not a poore man 's wronged nor Is his vineyard longed for Every man may keep his own Sicknesse there 's none when-ever Death shall take My body hence and lodge it in the clay I shall not feel a tooth or finger ake Nor any other misery that may In the least degree displease me For all sores the grave hath plasters And it cureth all disasters Of all burdens Death will ease me Malicious tongues fired below in hell There will not hurt me nor the poisonous breath Of whispering detractours I shall dwell Securely in the dust One stroke of Death Sets me out of gun-shot quite Not the deepest-piercing tongue Can there do me any wrong Bark they may but cannot bite Lord I am thine and if it be thy will While I do live a stranger here below Brim-high with bitternesse my cup to fill And make me drink 't yet Lord withall bestow But thy grace and thou shalt see me Patient and my comfort 's this That a short affliction 't is In a moment Death may free me Meditation 4. IF I must die it must be my endeavour So to provide that every thought of Death May be a thought of comfort that when-ever That aged sire shall take away my breath I may willingly lay down This old house that 's made of clay Gladly welcoming the day That brings an eternall crown But of all things a holy life 's the way Must lead me to a comfortable end To crucifie my lusts and to obey Gods sacred will in all things This doth tend Unto comfort joy and ease Mark the man that is upright And sets God alwayes in 's sight That mans end is ever peace What makes me fear a serpent 't is his sting The mischief 's there When that is taken out I can look on him as a harmlesse thing And in my bosome carry him about What makes Death look rufully Not Deaths self it is his sting That doth fear and horrour bring And makes men so loth to die The sting of death is sinne but there 's a Jesus Hath pluck'd it out The guilt 's done quite away The stain is wash'd He sent his Spirit to ease us In some good measure of that kingly sway Which o're us sinne held before Blessed work of grace now I Strongest lusts can mortifie In my soul sinne reigns no more Now in me holinesse is wrought which is A pious disposition of the heart Inclining me to hate what 's done amisse In me and others never to depart From God to left hand or right Nor one of his laws to break But to think and do and speak What 's well-pleasing in his sight Each act from faith and love ariseth and The end I aim at is my Makers
sight His mind and humour too all had as much Of delicious satisfaction As from all beneath the skie Ever could be fetched by Any possible extraction Three hundred concubines he had to please His touch by turns each of them was his guest At night Seven hundred wives beside all these The worst of them a Princesse at the least Such a female armie meets To make his delight run o'r Sure they are enough to store Twice five hundred pair of sheets To please his tast this great Kings daily chear Exceeded for varietie and plentie He had his Roe-buck and his Fallow-deer His fatted fowl and everie other daintie He had palate-pleasing wine Gormandizers whose best wishes Terminate in toothsome dishes No where else would sup or dine And everie day both men and women-singers Imprisoned his eare with charming voices The Viol touch'd with artificiall fingers An Organs breathing most melodious noises Sackbut Psalterie Recorder The shrill Cornet and the sharp Trumpet Dulcimer and Harp These all sounded in their order And in his gardens he had lovely ranks Of flowres for odour all sweets else excelling Whose beauteous lustre stellifi'd the banks All these were to delight his sense of smelling And perfumes of sweetest savour Which all other nations bring As a present from their King Who did woo his Princely favour For objects which were wont to please the eye He wanted none Did he desire a sight Of what might most affect variety Of lovely'st objects spangled with delight Everiewhere themselves present Scarce did anywhere appear Other objects then did wear Outsides clothed with content Behold his thousand wives If he would know The height of beautie it is seen in those A battel in a field of sanguine snow Betwixt the spotlesse lilie and the rose Part they would on no condition Nor would either of them yield Yet at length are reconcil'd And there made a composition His gorgeous clothes his silver and his gold His jewels his incomparable treasure Were all of them delightsome to behold And gave the eye a glorious glut of pleasure His friends his magnificent Buildings fish-ponds gardens bowers Interlac'd with gallant flowers Gave both eye and mind content Yet he 's dead Delights cannot protect us From Deaths assaults pleasures eternize not Our nature yea when sicknesse shall deject us They will not ease nor comfort us a jote What doth most exactly please us Here appears not where a grave is And what most of all doth ravish On a death-bed will not ease us Meditation 1. MEthinks the trade of brainlesse Epicures Is not so good as it doth seem to be The sweetest cup of luxury procures No man below an immortalitie Yea when sicknesses do lay Him upon his bed and strain Everie part with deadly pain All his pleasures flie away Let 's put the case there was a belly-god Whose studie 't was to give his throat content To sacrifice to 's panch both rost and sod Was his religion Every element Its imployment had The Waters Fruitfull Earth and nimble Air Ransack'd with a costly care For fish flesh and fowl were caters The other cook'd it This luxurious rare Did breath his stomach twice a day at least And each dish sloted in provoking sawce Which still afresh his appetite increas'd From Dives that 's now in hell For a table full of rare Toothsome and delicious fare This man bears away the bell Well this fat hog of Epicurus stie Falls sick of surfeting or else the gout Or dropsie gripes him most tormentingly That you would think his soul were going out Pains do hinder him from sleeping He lies restlesse and is so Full of tossings to and fro That his house is fill'd with weeping His servants seeing him so out of quiet Sadly bespoke him thus Sir here 's a Phesant A dish of Partridge Larks or Quails a diet Your Worship loves a cup of rich and pleasant Wine that comforts where it goes Muscadine Canarie Sherrie That hath often made you merrie This may ease you of your throes The man repli'd If I had wine by ods Better then nectar which the poets feigne Was drunk in goblets by the heathen Gods It would not ease me of my smallest pain Should God rain me from the skies Manna glorious Angels food 'T would not do me any good ' Gainst it would my stomachrise There was another that plac'd no delight In any thing but wealth his chiefest good Was purest gold whether 't were wrong or right He would be gaining for he never stood Upon conscience at all And to cry down avarice As he thought was a device Merely puritanicall To lie to cheat to swear and which is worse To forswear to dissemble in his dealing Went ever down with him as things of course Nor would he slack a jote at down-right stealing Blind he was not yet he saw Not that statute-usury Was at all forbidden by Any part of morall law 'T was fish whatever came within his net Sweet smell'd the dunghill that affoorded gain On such a thriving pinne his heart was set No thoughts but golden lodged in his brain Scraping thus early and late And increasing by these bad Wayes and means at length he had Heaped up a vast estate They say a Turkish Musulman that dies A faithfull servant unto Mahomet Shall presently enjoy a paradise Of brave delights indeed The place is set All about with glorious matters There are rivers pleasant benches Straw'd with flowres gallant wenches That have eyes as broad as platters And many other joyes as good as these But all are bables to that strong content Wherewith the man we told you of doth please Himself in his estate More merriment In the images of Kings Doth he find then six or seven Martyr'd Turks do in their heaven Hearken how the miser sings I 'll eat drink and play And I 'll freely enjoy My pleasures before I am old I 'll be sorie no more For my soul hath in store Abundance of silver and gold In this day and night Will I place my delight It shall fatten my heart with laughter No man shall excell me For who is 't can tell me What pleasures there will be hereafter His irreligious song was hardly ended When at his gate was heard one softly knocking It was that Tyrant Death who came attended With troups of griping throes all these came flocking Round about this golden fool As the issue did assure us God had sent these ghastly Furies For to take away his soul Alas Sir said his servants what may be The cause you send us out such wofull grones How fell you into such an agonie What ails your throat your head your heart your bones Or your stomach or your brains That you howl so here before you Is that which must needs restore you And ease your extremest pains Here 's gold and silver and as stately stuff As England Scotland France or Ireland yields Of jewels and of plate you have enough Of any man you have the
He weakens the old man that lies at lurch In each of his faculties And his master-sinne the strongest Lust that hath been harboured longest In his soul he mortifies He multiplies not as in many places Men do his riches but he multiplies And doth augment his saving gifts and graces If not in habit yet in exercise He divides his goods he feedeth Hungrie bellies and relieveth Such as are distress'd and giveth Unto everie one that needeth When he reduceth 't is his conversation In ev'rie point from what it was by nature He moulds his life into another fashion And shews himself to be a new-made creature And for such a mans Progression He 's not fixed in his place Like a statue but in grace Grows to credit his profession He ever worketh by the Rule of Three That do above in heaven bear record The Golden Rule whereby his actions be Squar'd and directed is their written word Though sometimes he work by Fractions Gives God broken services ' Cause he 's flesh in part yet is He sincere in all his actions And for a pious mans Astronomie What if he cannot tell the sev'rall motions Those orbs have which do roll about the skie Starres names site bignesse and such other notions What if he know not how soon The sunne will eclipsed be Nor hath wit enough to see The new world that 's in the moon Yet he doth know the milkie way that leads Unto the palace of the highest King Whose presence the whole host of heaven dreads Who made the starres the spheres and everie thing Steers the course that each orb runnes Binds starres influence looseth the bands Of Orion and his hands Guide Arcturus with his sonnes For Geometrie what if he cannot tell How many miles the vast earth is about Yet doth his pious art by farre excell In finding many greater matters out Matters that exceed the strength Of best wits the full extension Of Christ 's love in each dimension Height and depth breadth length For Grammar he can wickednesse decline His supernaturall Philosophie Is wisdome to salvation Most divine His musick is That God that dwells on high Is pleas'd with no other tone There is nothing he can heare Makes such musick in his eare As a sanctified grone For Physick his most admirable knowledge Hath found out a Catholicon This ranks His skill deservedly above the Colledge Above French or Italian mountebanks There 's no sicknesse he is sure Be it ne'r so strong or foul That affecteth any soul But the bloud of Christ can cure The greatest Clerk is but a learned fool If 's learning be not mixt with godlinesse The greatest Scholar 's he that goes to school To learn of Christ the wayes of holinesse Thus if learning be a treasure That doth please or skill in arts Or to be a man of parts He that 's holy finds this pleasure Doth toothsome and delicious chear delight The godly have it once a week at least Our bounty-handed Saviour doth invite His servants to a rich and sumptuous feast Where his own self is our server Such a feast of fattest things As if all the guests were Kings Where faith may be her own carver Do riches please A godly mans estate Surpasseth that of Croesus he hath more Then out of Christ is had at any rate God hath endow'd him with a blessed store Better then a heap of gold Which nor thief nor moth nor rust Can steal eat or turn to dust His are bags that ne'r wax old Gods rich and precious promises are his Which by a precious faith he makes his own Gods richest mercy there 's no wealth like this Christs precious bloud whereof a drop alone Was of higher valuation Then all men and Angels be Or what e'r the sunne did see Ever since the first creation Doth rich apparel please Christs righteousnesse Clothes all his members to conceal their shame Ne'r was Kings daughter in so pure a dresse Unlesse she were adorned with the same 'T is a robe that God doth please Angels that on God do wait And ne'r lost their first estate Are not cloth'd like one of these For all delights the cheating world hath none So good by half ' mongst all her painted store As those the soul finds in religion With purest joy the pious heart runnes o'r Let the world diversifie Her delights a thousand wayes Yet they come short of those joyes That are found in pietie When I must die my joy that 's naturall Forsaketh me that which is secular Takes leave assoon as ever Death doth call Joyes that were criminall converted are Into most tormenting fears Onely that which is divine On a Death-bed will be mine And what if when Death appears It cannot shield me from that fatall blow I would not it should do me so much wrong For if I were immortall here below I were not happie yet 't will go along With me when I do depart Carnall joyes Lord from me banish Let divine delights replenish Ev'rie corner of my heart Sect. 4. Friends cannot protect us from the stroke of Death IF I were great rich prosperous secure Successefull in the world I should be sure That more time-servers would my friendship woo Then I could reckon in a yeare or two As greedie Eagles to a carcase hasten And with sharp tallons on their prey do fasten So would they flock about me Or if I Could learn the art of popularity I might be rich in friends yet all my store Would not know how to keep Death out of doore Meditation 1. OF Proteus 't is fained that he could Transform himself to any kind of shape Into a Dove or Lamb and when he would Into a Tiger Lion Bear or Ape Or a Mountain Rock or Spring Or Earth Water Fire Air Into any forms that are Stampt in any kind of thing And Aristippus could exactly flatter He had the art of winning gainfull friends And that his fortune might be made the fatter Had all behaviours at his fingers ends He could grone when 's friend was sickly And could weep when he was sad Any humour good or bad Did become him very quickly Did I believe that metempsychosis Pythagoras did dream of I should swear That Proteus ghost to this day neither is In hell nor yet in heaven but doth wear Now a body and the base Ghost of Aristippus dwells In a thousand bodies else How could thousands have the face To personate so many humours act So many parts at once and balk no sinne Yea perpetrate with ease the basest fact That hell e'r punished to wind them into great friendships though they misse Heavens favour all the while Dreaming that a great mans smile Is on earth the onely blisse And yet when that last enemie shall come And grind their aching bones with griping throes To bring their bodies to their longest home There 's not a man ' mongst all their friends that knows How to take away their pain In comes ghastly Death among The
midst of that friendly throng And turns them to dust again Meditation 2. THere 's none among the sacred troup of Saints Yet militant below but doth desire Gods favour most and most of all laments When it is lost and alway sets a higher Estimate upon the rayes That are darted from above By the God of peace and love Then on all he here enjoyes Ne'r doth the chased hart in hottest weather When horse and hound pursue him o'r the plains And hunt him sweating twentie miles together That all his bloud is boil'd within his veins When he 's to the hardest driven Pant so much for water-brooks As a soul deserted looks For a kind aspect from heav'n Once did Elias zealous prayers climb To heav'n and made the windows there so fast This came to passe in wicked Ahabs time That one and twentie months twice told were past E'r there fell a showre of rain Or a drop of morning dew In the meadows nothing grew Nor was any kind of grain Fed by the parched mold How do ye think That thirstie drie and barren land did yawn And gape to heav'n-ward for a draught of drink Just so whene'r Gods favour is withdrawn From a soul it doth distresse her Ne'r earth thirsted more for rain Then doth she for God again To relieve her and refresh her Have you not seen a mothers wofull tears Embalm the carcase of her onely sonne How to all comfort she stops both her eares Wrings both her hands and makes a bitter moan Fain in sorrow would she swim Or be drown'd it is so deep She hath heart enough to weep Heaven full up to the brim But this is nothing to that matchlesse anguish That breaks in pieces ev'rie pious heart And makes the soul with darkest sadnesse languish If from 't a sense of Gods good will depart O how strangely David 's troubled When God hid away his face Though but for a little space See how his complaints are doubled How long for ever Lord wilt thou forget me How long wilt thou thy gratious visage hide How long be angrie wilt thou never let me Enjoy thy face again shall I abide Thus for evermore berest Of all comfort joy and peace Shall my soul ne'r dwell at ease Hast thou Lord no mercy left O once again be pleas'd to turn and give My soul a relish of thy wonted grace There 's nothing can my sadded heart relieve If thou dost hide thy comfortable face Thou in tears thy servant drown'st Thou dost fill my cheeks with furrows And my soul with ghastly sorrows Whensoever Lord thou frown'st The world doth value at a precious rate Things here below Some highly prize their sport Some jewels some a plentifull estate And some preferments in a Princes court But for life we so esteem it Above whatsoe'r is best That with losse of all the rest We are ready to redeem it But none of these Gods children do regard So much as Gods love by a thousand parts Feel they but this to entertein 't is spar'd The best and highest room in all their hearts They affect no wordly pelf In comparison of this Kindnesse yea to them it is Better farre then life it self Have they no reason for this eager thirst After Gods love and friendship sure they see Gods favour and his kindnesse is the first And chiefest good all other friendships be Most deceitfull trustlesse vain When the pangs of Death do seise us Mortall favours cannot ease us God can rid us of our pain But grant he do not yet these pains shall send Our souls to him that loves us to enjoy A painlesse life that ne'r shall see an end He whom God loves can on a death-bed say I know my Redeemer liveth For me there 's laid up a crown When this clay-built house is down God a better mansion giveth I 'll never woo the smile of man whose breath Is in his nostrils by sinister wayes 'T will not advantage at the houre of Death All my supportment on these carnall stayes At the length will but deceive me 'T is to have a friend above 'T is Gods favour and his love Or else nothing must relieve me Lord make thy graces in my soul appear My heart from ev'rie lothsome blemish cleanse That I may clearly see thine image there For that 's an undeceived evidence Of thy favour which when I Once am certain to obtein I 'll not faint for any pain Nor will care how soon I die Sect. 5. Youth cannot protect us from the stroke of Death A Young man may die but an old man must This may die quickly that cannot live long Often are graves fill'd full with youthfull dust Though youth be jocund lustie merrie strong Yet is it subject unto Death-bed-pains 'T is mortall bloud that runnes along their veins In all appearance old mens halting feet are Mov'd to the grave-ward with the greatest speed Like that disciples which did outrunne Peter But sometimes younger men step in indeed And peradventure twentie years or more Sooner then those that looked in before Graves gape for ev'rie sort The butcher 's seen Often to kill the youngest of the flock Some long to pluck those apples that are green Death crops the branches and forbears the stock Children are wrapp'd up in their winding-sheets And aged parents mourn about the streets Jobs children di'd before himself for after The death of ten he liv'd to get ten other We sigh out Ah my sonne or Ah my daughter As oft as Ah my father or my mother The first that ever di'd resign'd his breath Nine hundred yeares before his fathers death Yea many times Deaths gripings are so cruel Before the groning mothers child-birth-pain Is past the infant 's buri'd like a jewel But shewn and presently shut up again Perhaps within a minute after birth Is forthwith sent to cradle in the earth Perhaps he is not born at all yet dies And dies a verie thriftie Death to save Fun'rall expenses he in 's mother lies Entombed both lodg'd in a single grave And with him lies in one poore narrow room His swadling-clouts nurse mother cradle tomb Meditation 1. SOme sinnes there be as holy writ doth teach That interrupt the current of our dayes He that 's found gultie of them cannot reach That length of life which he that 's free enjoyes Sinne you know and Death are twins Or Death is Sinnes progeny Many of us if we die In our youth may thank our sinnes One sinne is disobedience to that pair Which did beget us If I shall despise My parents lawfull precepts if my care Be not to do what 's pleasing in their eyes If I willingly neglect Any thing which I do know Is a duty that I ow I may Death betimes expect Another sinne is unprepar'd receiving That blessed Supper which doth feed and heal And in and to a soul that is believing A full release of sinnes doth freely seal Where that body and that bloud Is presented on the table
sithe and mows us down When we are apt to say for ought we know As yet we have an age of dayes to grow Our life 's a flower that groweth in the field A garden-flower is but a fading thing Though it hath hedges banks and walls to shield It self from cropping long 't is e'r the spring Doth bring it forth three quarters of a yeare Are gone before its beauty doth appear And when it shineth in its fairest pride One hand or other will be sure to pluck it But let 's suppose all snatching fingers ty'd And grant withall that never Bee doth suck it To blemish it a jote yet will the breath Of winter blow the fairest flower to death 'T is long before we get us very farre Into the world for after generation There is a time when lifelesse lumps we are And have not bodies of a humane fashion Such as we have both life and motion want And when we live we live but like a plant A while we do but grow then like a beast We have our senses next indeed we live The life of him that lives to be a feast For despicable worms The womb doth give No passage to us yet we are like corn Sown lately sit to be but are not born When born 't is long before we can procure Our legs or understandings to assist us And then 't is long before we grow mature And all this while if sudden Death hath mist us Yet in the hoary winter of our age Our part is ended and we quit the stage Lord what is man Lord rather what am I I cannot tell my self unlesse thou teach me From thee came Know thy self down through the skie To mortalls here Thy servant doth beseech thee To make me know though it be to my shame How vanishing how weak and frail I am Meditation 2. VVHat would I do if I were sure to die Within this houre sure heartily repent My sinfull couch should never more be drie But drown'd in tears sad grones my heart should rent And my sorrow still increase With repenting till I die That once reconciled I Might be found of God in peace Then presently I 'll set about it for My time 's uncertain and for ought I know God may not leave my soul a minute more To animate my body here below Deep-fetch'd sighs and godly sorrow Shall possesse my heart to day 'T is a foolish sinne to say That I will repent to morrow What if I die before just as the tree Doth fall it lies When I am in the grave I cannot grieve for sinne nor can I be Converted unto God nor pardon crave Had I breath and grace to crave it Yet God's time of mercie 's gone 'T is giv'n in this life alone In the next I cannot have it What would I leave undone if ghastly Death Stood at my elbow sure I would not wallow In those pollutions that reigne here beneath No lewd and wicked courses would I follow I should tremble at a thought Of uncleannesse if I were Sure that dreadfull time were near When I must to earth be brought Why should I sinne at all for in the act Of my next sinne a sudden Death may catch me A town secure is much the sooner sack'd What know I but God setteth Death to watch me That when any lust hath press'd me For his service that I may Down to hell without delay Death may presently arrest me If we did well still should we fear to meet Death in those places where we use to sinne And as we enter think we heare the feet Of Death behind us coming softly in We should fear when sinnes delight us When we swallow any crime Lest that very point of time Justice should send Death to smite us I know whatever is on this side hell Is mercie all that we were not sent thither When we sinn'd last is mercie What befell Zimri and Cozbi as they lay together Phinehas zealous spear did thrust Both to death and bored holes To let out those guilty souls Which were melted into lust Help me O Lord to do and leave undone What thou command'st for sudden Death prepare me That at what time soe'r my glasse is run Thy holy Angels may to heav'n bear me Give thy servant grace that I May so fear the face of sinne As a serpents lest that in Th' unrepented act I die Meditation 3. DOth Death come suddenly so much the better If I am readie and do daily die So much the sooner 't will my soul unfetter T' enjoy the best degree of libertie And if Death will send me where I shall evermore remain I will never care how vain Or how frail my life is here My life is like the wind but when this puff Is pass'd I shall eternally enjoy A place in heav'n where all is calm enough Where never blast is felt that brings annoy Where is everlasting ease Not a storm nor tempest there Nor a jote of trouble where All is quietnesse and peace My life is like a vapour but assoon As this thin mist this vapour is dispersed My day shall be an undeclining noon Whose glorious brightnesse cannot be rehearsed Which will shew me for so clear And so shining is that place God immortall face to face Whom I saw but darkly here My life is water spilt and cast away Upon the ground but after it is shod In stead thereof I shall a stream injoy As Crystall clear which from the throne of God And the Lamb of God proceedeth Water 't is of life and lasteth Ever which a soul that tasteth Once no more refreshing needeth My life is like a shadow that doth vanish But whensoe'r this shadow 's vanish'd quite Substantiall gâ—…es will my soul replenish And solid joyes will crown it with delight The worlds are but fading joyes Shadows we all purchasâ— here Never untill Death appear Have we true and reall joyes My life 's a flower but when it withers here It is transplanted into paradise Where all things planted flourish all the year Where Boreas never breaths a cake of ice With sweet air the place is blest There is an eternall spring Thither Lord thy servant bring Here my homely Muse doth rest Nor another flight will make Till she see how this will take FINIS