he ought what can they expect from God What chastisement must their Parents fear that instead of being Reformers and Correctors shall be Corrupters of their Children Such may be compared to Munckies who do so love their young ones that they are ever making much of and hugging them in their Armes by which means they often fall into the hands of Hunters Even so it is with Parents who for want of chastising and putting their Children from them and putting them ou 〈…〉 learn Lawful employments come to fall 〈…〉 the hands of Justice and to ill ends with disgrace enough to their Family grief and shame to their neglective Parents and Friends The ancient Romans so much abhorred the Parents that did not correct their Children that for this cause alone they made a Law in the which they ordered and commanded That the Son that was taken in any offence should be for the first time reproved for the second punished severely and for the third hanged and the Father banished as a party in the fault because he did not sufficiently reprove and chastise him Objection Let me ask one Question by the way If those ancient Romans were living at this time in these our dayes what would they do seeing the pitiful and lamentable Estates of many of our Common-wealthes What Banishments Chaines Prisons and what kinde of Torments think you would they now invent to chastise an infinite number of Fathers who do not onely solicit seeing they cannot teach their Children themselves long before they send them to School and tuition of Masters their ruine but poyson them with â—â—â—r daily bad examples which doth so corrupt and vitiate them that all that can be done towards their future reclaiming comes to as much as nothing for those who from their Births should by good examples and advice instruct them to be vertuous do teach and ingraft in them the poysons of Blasphemy Swearing Drunkenness Gluttony and wickedly spend the Estates of their innocent Children Whore Lye prostrate and sell their Wives and Daughters in sight of the World How many Mothers are there at this day who like HERODIAS teach their Daughters to Dance spend all their time in learning Rhetorical-Complements entertaining Gallants Triming Dressing and Painting themselves colouring their Cheeks Lips and Eye-brows adorning themselves with rich Cloaths and Jewels as if they would set out a Shop of Wares and make themselves Pedlers and go to sell jets and prances in the Streets to which Parents what can be expected to happen less then did to the Royal Prophet David that his own Children were Executioners of the punishment of his sins in this kinde who were so unruly and unnatural wicked that one of them Amon by name Ravished his own Sister Thamer and another who was Absalom killed his Brother Amon and conspired the ruine and the death of his Father and at length forced him to flie from his House and lay with his Concubines wherefore it is an ancient Rule of Phylosophers That God often permits many sins to be committed and go unpunished in this life deferring it for a greater demonstration of his Clemency But the sin and offence that many Parents do commit against him in not giving good documents and examples to their Children he never lets that pass but some way or other makes them even cruel and afflictive Executioners of Gods Justice on their Fathers faults in this World and that justly for Parents cannot bestow on their Children a better Legacie then good wholesome and vertuous documents and sound knowledge with which he may make him immortal and of a perpetual fame for the Natural being the Mortal Body and this short and miserable life which we receive and give to our Children Death with a sudden and fierce snatch doth soon cut the thrid thereof To sum up what hath been said Suppose the Creatures do escape the dangers of the Mothers Womb happen to be Nursed with unwholesome and corrupted Milk of their infirm Nurses fall into greater and more dangerous evils and which is terrible if they come under the tuition of lewd Masters and under the power of wicked and perverse Guides to teach them yet this is nothing in comparison of the Souls mis-fed and mis-led for of far higher price and esteem is the maintenance of the Soul then that of the body And here we must not forget to quoat the Divine Plato who hath written more at large to this purpose then any of the ancient Heathen Phylosophers therefore it will be fit we make some profitable use of his Authority and Doctrine which is so rare and choice so super-natural and Divine written with discreet diligence and care handled at large and exactly and set forth in so gallant and lofty Stile that many Heathens that have read his Books Ziocha Of the Immortality of the Soul and another in which he principally treats of the short and miserable life of Man they cast themselves down head-long from high Rocks into the Sea and into deep Rivers that thereby ending and cutting the thrid of this miserable and sorrowful life they might enjoy that pleasant and quiet one which they hoped for towards which all Navigate as to a certain and secure Harbour of health and happiness This Phylosopher in the Dialogue that he made of Death and the frail and weak life of Man introduceth a great Phylosopher called Socrates the which with admirable Eloquence particularly declares the miseries calamities torments and vexations which attend our life saying thus Doest thou not know that humane Life is nothing else but a pilgrimage and a continual motion from one Estate to another the which Wise men do pass over with great joy and content and rejoyce and sing when they feel the miserable e 〈…〉 his our pilgrimage Doest thou not know very well that Man is composed of Body and Soul and that his Soul is inclosed and set in the Body as in a Tabernacle or House with which Dame Nature was pleased she should goe covered and laden and that with sorrow grief and sufficient care and extreamly against her will she being oppressed with such a load of frail Flesh so great troubles and so infinite a multitude of evils Although put the case that Nature were friendly would do us some favour or repart some of her courtesies to any of these oppressed Souls as to give them a light and agil Body or sooner to afford them liberty yet in the end such are the counterfeit and attendant weight of evils which are incident to them that the miserable and afflicted Souls not being able to bear so great a burthen they grow peevish mutinous afflictive and very desirous to pack from so streight a prison that they may go and enjoy the happiness of those Caelestial and Eternal blessings which they so much desire and cordially seek after Do but consider that the laying aside or leaving this Life is but a Truck or Exchange from worse to better What do we or what
not be granted being a publike ornament to the City and more valued by them then he was able to give for it at the which the youth being vexed he commanded a rich Crown of Gold and costly Vestments to be made carrying it to the Image he put the Crown upon the head and the rich robes about the Body of it with the which ornaments it appeared to him far more beautifull which caused him to adore serve and with new inventions to wait upon it not desisting night nor day insomuch that the People being angred and offended at his foolish and unwonted Love The Governour strictly upon penalties commanded him not to come within a hundred Leagues of the said Statue The discontented Youth seeing himself deprived of what in this life he most desired he fell into such a passion that he slew himself not being able to suffer the torment for such is the force and power of this malady after that it once begins to take possession of the most sensible parts of the body by little and little it gains the chief Fortresse of man the heart so that its a difficult thing to be rid of it or cast it out except with life it self and it were better for many to end their dayes speedily rather then to suffer continual groans sighes tears and heavy torments as they doe That great Philosopher Apolonio Tianco being much importuned by a King of Babylon that he should declare or set forth the most cruel and insupportable torment that could be invented by the most secret Arts and Sciences of the Philosophers to punish a young gallant who he had taken in Bed with a Lady of his which he himself had a great respect for Answered the greatest affliction thou canst lay upon him in this life is not to take away his life I can saith he invent no greater or more cruel Chastisement than this You shal see how by degrees the feirce burning fire of his commenced and once enjoyed Love will be predominant over him so that the torment which he shall suffer will be so great that it cannot be imagined and expressed he shall be combated and surrounded with so many various Imaginations that you shall see him consume in the flames of his own lustfull Frensie like as a Butter-flye doth his wings in a Candle insomuch that his life shall be no more a life but a lingering death more cruel than any bloody Tyrant can command of any Hangman to execute Here you may see the summe of all for I have endeavoured to spread the wings of my Pen suffer it to soare and wander in this Theam which is such a general destruction and proves to be so great a dammage to the major part of the youth of our times who no sooner set footing into the world and begin to taste the delights thereof but they conceit themselves in love and beloved being ayded and assisted of youth liberty and riches which are the cheifest panders on the earth they Commence batchellers of the Art spending the best part of their lives in Loves frivolous toys commands and occupations Old Age. Now after all this wide and spacious sea of miseries and tempestious waves of trouble in the which man is continually sayling and rowing with exceeding danger of his destruction and when most need is of quiet repose then old age steals upon him he feels the smart of his old sores his former griefs become renewed the sins of his youth come home to him here he comes to pay the charges intersts dammages and imparements of all the wanton excesses of his youth all the past vices and pleasant viands devoured are cast up then for the heart is afflicted the senses grow dull the spirit is infirme the breath smells the face wrinckles the body bends the nose drops the fight grows weak and dimn the haire sheds the teeth Rot and in conclusion they are never without one malady or other so that their body seems to be an Effigies of death or like a dry Anotomy This one besides the many infirmityes of the soule which do accompany old age he is soon angry but hard to be pacified he will soon believe a thing or is credulous but doth not quickly forget he praises the former but contemns the present times and condition of things he walks continually sad infirm melancholy averitious suspitious and complaining in fine old Age is the necessary Sink or dunghill where all the filthy infirmities and iniquities of the past age is emptied and cast out the Emperor Augustus having well weighed and considered all this was wont to say that after men had lived fifty yeares it were fit they should then dye or desire and intreat others to kill them and end their sinfull and miserable lives for so long they may attain to live happy honorably but all the rest of their lives they passe in perpetual afflictions grievous and insupportable infirmities death of Children losses in Estates importunities of Sons and Daughters in Law interring of friends and acquaintance maintaining of Law-Sutes paying of Debts and an infinite number of other sorrowes and troubles that they were better to be at quiet in their graves then to enjoy this fraile life for so short a space and so full of sorrows this the Prophet well understood when he prayed to God so earnestly Lord leave me not in my old age when thou shalt see me Aged Infirme and Weak Hitherto we have in my opinion largely and sufficiently discoursed of the miseries anguishes and afflictions which do besiege persecute and torment man whilst he is acting his tragick part on the Treatre of this World but well may we believe one thing and that without scruple that if the first entrance which man makes into this vaile of Teares seems wonderfull miserable difficult and dangerous no less will appear his end and parting for if thou hast heard of strange and miraculous births if thou wilt thou mayst read of more horrid deaths with the which I shall put a period to this narration of all the infelicities calamities miseries of mans life after that man hath labored sighed toyled himself nights and days to beare to a good harbour the fardle of his unfortunate calamnities it might seem reason that nature should give him some repose and quiet Let him eat one morsell of bread in peace but it is ordained it should not be so but that he should be always watchfull and with dread expect the dolefull parting of the soul and body that terrible houre of death which for the most part is with anguishes and incredible torments at the which St. Augustine admiring he frames a complaint to God Lord after man hath suffered so many evils and sustained so many afflictions death follows which suddenly snatcheth poore Creatures and that by divers strange and infinite ways some with grievous Feavers others with some great pains some with hunger others with thirst some in the fire others in the water how
many with the sword poysons and pure fear some doe drown strangle and destroy themselves others are torne in peices with the teeth of cruel and savage Creatures some have been wounded and killed by pecking of birds and others have been meat for fishes and worms all this considered no man knows what end he shall make or by which of these means his dissolution shall be for when he deems himself most firm healthy and strong then he is most subject to fall and the saddest change is then nearest and then approaching towards him death the separation of soul and body which is most fearfull and of all things most terrible Therefore to work upon our apprehension what sight what spectacle is more worth our view and contemplation then to see a man cast upon his sick bed tormented with the pangs of death and afflicted to the height therewith what a horror what a change is there in all the joynts and parts of his body what an alteration there is the feet grow cold the face turnes yellow the eye-strings break and the eyes sink in the mouth and lips shrink up the tongue grows black the teeth chatter their sweat is more cold then ice proceeding from mortall griefs and are the most evident signes of the conquest of death over nature for when the soul comes to separate from its so dearly beloved companion when these two so antient friends and consorts comes to take the last farewell embraces there is no joynt or limbe of nature remaines whole or in order but they all break besides there is the furious assaults of the devills the wicked angels the fearfull visions and representations which they make to the soul and conscience of the poore dying man its certain there is no invention no false Machination which they do not attempt to beguile and deceive him striving sometimes to make us believe that we have lived well that we might assuredly believe and securely rest upon this false opinion and not strive but neglect by a hearty repentance to obtain the mercy of God other whiles he sets before us an infinite number of foule and wicked transgressions which we have committed in our life times to cause us to dispaire and distrust our Gods grace and loving-kindnesse that is the houre in which that cursed one Sathan bestirs himself imploys al his force sharpens his weapons burnishes his Armes Insinuates secret Ielousies against the power of God at that instant of time he strives to disturb the soul the health and the peace of men then he animates and strengthens himself more then ever for by how much the nearer he knows he is to the end of his Kingdome by so much the more he rageth and grows feirce for which cause he useth at that houre the same practice he did at the time our Saviour Jesus Christ was on the earth when he drew neare to any that were possessed with Devils they never gave greater scriks tormented or afflicted themselves more furiously then when he came neere them and that because they knew that the houre was come that they must be commanded out of their habitations and forced out of the persons where they abode for this cause the Royall Prophet David so much lamented the death of his son Absolom saying I would I had dyed for thee oh my son considering then he dyed full of wicked vices and inormous sins and rebellions with which he passed that his sad and last houre Those that have gone through that passage the gate of death have swallowed that thorne with the which they have been strangled What is become of their fantastical Pride What is become of all their Pomps and Trophies Where is their Riches Delights and Pastimes Where are the Majesties the Excellencies and Dignities What is become of all the Gallantries Courrage and Inventions of them They are vanished away like a shaddow as the Psalmist expresses They are perished like a Garment devoured with Mothes and the Prophet Esayas sayth Serpents Dragons and Wormes have eaten consumed and destroyed them Let us consider a little man lying in his grave contemplate with me his condition there whoever beheld a more fearfull spectacle or stinking Monster is there any thing more horrible unsavory and vile then man being dead and consuming in the earth see here the Majestie the Excellency the Dignity of this world layed in the dust behold here the delicious and nice feeder the esteemed and honored even to kissing the feet and hands how a suddain and unexpected change hath altered his condition and made it so abominable that it cannot be so closely masked decked and honored with stately Sepulchers of Marble or Porpherie with glorious Statues of Brasse Pirameds Epetaphs Mournings and other Honourable Pompes but it may manifestly appear that under all this there is a gastly stinking and deformed Corps which few would desire to see come neare or remember there is none of the greatest and mightiest Lords of the Earth of whom it may not be said what Solomon in his book of Wisdome writes What profit have they reaped of their Pride What fruit have they gathered or carried with them of their great riches all these things are passed like a shaddow like an Arrow shot at the marke like the smoak which is dispersed with the winde like the memory of a Guest in an Inn which hath stayed but one day there le ts now leave the miserable body in its grave le ts not molest that quiet repose it hath for a short time in that little caverne of earth where it lyeth as in a bed of Down But now here follows the ultimate and most dangerous tryall and passage of this our humane Tragedie that which David so much dreaded that he prayed exceeding earnestly to God that he would not enter into judgment with his servant for at that instant that the soul departs from the body she must of necessity appear before the face of Almighty God in Judgment what fear what horror think you shall he carry with him that is overclouded with vice and wickedness what moment can be more frightfull what minute ought to be more feared contemplated and profoundly considered My members all tremble ther 's hardly a haire of my head but stands upright when I seriously Meditate thereof this is the Journey which the Prophet writes of that the Lord will make when he saith He will descend like lightning all hearts shall wax faint become foolish and melt away and all the world shall tremble with fear in that day their griefs troubles and afflictions shall exceed the paines of a woman in travell in this day the Lord will come full of wrath and anger to destroy the earth and roote out the wicked thereof the Sun shall be darkned and the Moon and Stars shall withdraw their Light his irefull fury shall break the hinges destroy the foundations of the earth le ts hearken also to the words of Saint Matthew in the language
Prophet Isai 59. cha 2. v. Who hath said your iniquities have seperated betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear for your hands are defiled with bloud and your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lyes and your tongue hath muttered perversness none called for Justice nor any pleadeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak lyes they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity they hatch Cockatrice Eggs and weave the Spiders Web he that eateth of their Eggs dyeth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper their Webs shall not become garments never shall they cover themselves with their works for their works are works of iniquity and the act of violence is in their hands their feet run to evil and they make hast to shed innocent bloud their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths the way of peace they know not and so on And indeed our wickedness doth multiply and our sins are our capital enemies and give the greatest testimony what we are St. Bernard in one lamentation that he makes upon the miseries of our life sets forth to us how much the sad and debil condition of man is to the end that without any farther discourse he might bring him to understand his own weak and fragil condition which he begins to tell as followeth Oh man both blind and naked consisting of humane flesh and a reasonable soul awake thou that art so forgetfull call to remembrance consider what thou art wherefore dost thou wander so vainly from thy self even drunk and besotted with things that are subject to so suddain perishable a mutability sleeping so securely amidst the vanities of this World nay rather drowned in the weak and fregil delight which the Earth sets before thee dost thou not plainly perceive that the nearer thou makest thy approacheâ— to the World the farther thou art parted from thy God by how much the more thou seemest to gain of these outward vanities so much thou lovest of those things which thou oughtest to set a higher price upon the more carefull thou art to enrich thy self in things corporal so much the poorer beggerly wilt thou find thy self in things spiritual thou judgest and correctest other mens actions whilest thou art forgetfull to reform thine own there is no Creature thou takest in hand but thou tamest only thy self remains unbridled thou art very watchfull and solicitous to espie out the faults of others but art very floathfull and backward to look how and amend thine own thou hast a boyling desire of these sublunary things in thy heart but what a luke-warm nay cold entertainment finds coelestials in thy mind consider the nearer thou drawest to death the farther reperation thou makest betwixt thee and thy salvation all thy content is to provide for dight cocker and delight thy body which is nothing else but a lump of earth a sepulcher full of vermine and leavest thy poor soul which is the lively image of God alone comfortless unfed nay dead with famine these and many other the like sorrows did this holy man being in the desert express against the ingratitude of men which we place here amongst the rest that it might be a deep perswasion to man to consider and contemplate his vile condition that by retiring into himself he should by a serious meditation be induced to understand the sad and miserable being and that thereby he might see the great need he stands in of his God in whose hand it is either to make him happy or miserable or full of evils and perpetual torments without doing him the least injustice or injury more then doth the Potter to the piece of Earth or Clay in his hands breaking and molding of it either to make any vessel thereof or to let it remain in a confused lump not having any forms for indeed man is no other thing but a statute of Clay placed in this World which is the mouth and ware-house wherein is declared the wonderfull works of God and that if one should encounter it sharply there is no doubt but it would fall to the ground in pieces and although he is compassed with so many evills and infirmities and sees himself subject continually to the hazard of death yet he is forgetful never takes care truly and humbly to submit to his God nor ever would willingly be his true Subject Now that we have in general considered the estate of man it will be convenient that we treat thereof more particularly and amply that all men might be perswaded to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and that by a more narrow search into themselves and a nearer speculation every man into his own debill and fragill condition and because of all the heathen Philosophers Pliny hath written as I conceive the best therefore I will in this place declare his opinion to the shame and confusion of Christians that they should be tought in these things of a Pagan one that knew not God without law or the least light of those Holy and Evangelical misteries declared to us which addeth to our greater reproach consider a while saith he how man is necessitated to hide cover and cherish his frail body at the cost of other Creatures for the which nature hath with a large hand plentifully provided some with feathers others skins furres scales and fleeces Nay even the Trees are is no sooner sprung up but they have a coat bestowed on them of bark to defend them from the violence of the suns heat and winters storms but to set forth the better what a small vallue or esteem she had for man he alone is cast into the World naked like an abortive or rejected thing and is no sooner born but she furnishes him with sobs and tears for a lawfull inheritance as a sign of those miserable calamities he is to undergo for those tears which man sheds at his birth are the heralds and discoverers of that field of dangerous evills into which he enters Here thou seest gentle Reader the begining of the fairest and most principal of the works which God created in the first six days of the World for whose respect all Creatures have their being yet of himself is of so little validity that if they do not cherish succor defend protect his nakedness he would be subject to the violence of every Creature do but behold him after he is taken from his mothers womb and they will see him bound wrapped up lying down and like the trunk of a Tree not able to raise himself up without assistance Here you may look upon and contemplate this so proud a Creature who by his appearance would cause us to believe that he came into the World meerly to swell and be puffed up with pride and vanity see his beginning is in sorrow But now let us consider When will he begin to use his feet When will he
that they may take it all from them at once and place others in their rooms though they have been never so trusty Do but behold how these miserable Courtiers do sell their liberties to enrich themselves They must though against their wills do what their Princes commands them be it right or wrong just or unjust They must strive to laugh when they laugh weep when they weep approve what they approve of and condemn what they condemn They must set themselves to act what shall be proposed and execute what shall be commanded them even change and alter their Natural customes and conditions With the severe they must be severe with the sad they must be sad and in a manner transform their own lives beings and Natures to please delight and content them if they would attain to what they desire and not be cast out of favour If their Prince be vicious so must they be if cruel their messages must be to shed blood And though many times the Favourite endeavours to conform to the conditions of his Master and appear like him in his Natural inclinations Often it happens that for one fault committed one discontent or one neglect in pleasing his humour he turns him off and makes him lose the Fruits of all the Services he ever did him in his life which we shall finde verified in the Favourites of the Emperor Adrian whose condition was such that after many favours and rewards received and being raised to the highest patch of Dignities and Honors for any trivial fault or discontent they were not onely deprived of their Wealth and Favours received but were declared Capital Enemies to the Emperor which being well considered and understood by Divine Plato who took all Courtly pleasures Viands and Delights from the Athenians although he could not govern nor conquer himself but must needs return to the Court of Dionisius Tirant of Scicilia who afterwards sold him as a Slave to Pirates The like hapned to that ancient and wise Phylosopher Zeno from Phaleris the Tirant in recompence of many good services he had done caused him to be put to a cruel death the same paiment did King Anachreon give to Anaxagaras the like reward had Seneca from Nero and Calisthenes from Alexander the Great who because he would not acknowledge him to be a God and adore him he commanded his Hands and Feet to be cut off his Eyes to be plucked out his Ears and Nose to be pulled off and cast him into an obscure Dungeon where he died These and the like ends had many other great Favourits and Philosophers who would not obey the unjust and inhumane Laws and commands of Princes and Monarchs they died miserable and cruel deaths in recompence of all their services and good counsels they had given We will forbear to reckon up the great multitude of Vices and bad Customes which alwayes do follow and accompany Courtiers how amongst them all things go by contraries and all humane law and society is perverted and prevericated There are many in the Court that do vouchsafe thee their Hat that would willingly take thy Head from thy Shoulders there are such that will make thee a Leg that would be glad to carry a Leg of thee to thy Grave They kiss many hands that they would willingly see cut off there never wants one I know not what I do not understand it I cannot tell how or when it was done With these and the like expressions they cause poor pretender 〈…〉 r any other that hath business at Court to go away murmuring and complaining If in the Court thou wilt be bad thou canst not want companies of in any vice Wilt thou give thy self to Whoring there are the principal Masters of it Wilt thou quarrel or fight there are the chief Duelists or Hectors Wilt thou lie there will not want those will approve and encourage thee therein Wilt thou steal rob or pilfer there thou shalt finde the most dextrous and subtil of the Trade of whom thou mayest learn and commence Master If thou wilt cheat at Cards or Dice there wants not pro-provision for it I le assure thee if thou wilt swear false thou shalt not want one to pay thee for it in conclusion if thou wilt let lose the Reins of thy Appetite to all manner of sinful Vice in the World there thou shalt finde the best nay rather the worst examples and patterns for it in the whole World Here thou seest the portraicture of a multitude of Gallant and stately Courtiers which is not a life but a painful and large death In these and such like things do very many Youths pass their times which is nothing but transitory deaths Wilt thou understand what advantage ancient men do bring from Court being past the age of action Their Heads gray their Teeth decayed their Hands and Feet lame with Cout and Rhumes Pox and Stone wicked thoughts and their Souls made black and bespotted with sin to conclude there is little to be done in the Court and much murmuring If thou wouldst know more at large the lives of Courtiers read over the Books of Don Antonio and Guevarra Bishop of Mondonedo and of Aeneas Sylvio otherwise called Pope pius who writ two excellent and exact Treatises of this effect in which they do set forth to the life the gentle Courtiers so that there cannot more or less be said then what they have done Let 's leave the gallant emulating complemental and contra-meaning Courtiers in their so miserable and unquiet life and return to our purpose to contemplate briefly of the estate of Emperors Monarches Kings and Princes for whom we may conjecture by the outward appearance all the pleasures delights and good fortunes of the World were made for if we do consider what man hath need of to make his life quiet pleasant and happy and to enjoy this life in perpetual rest and contentment it will appear to our outward view that Nature hath provided more largely for Princes then for other men What thing can Man enjoy be more happy in this life then in great Riches aboundance of Temporal Goods Commands Dignities absolute power and free liberty to act good or evil or shall please his own palate without contradiction reprehension or chastisements power to run with loose Rain after all sorts of pleasures delights and pass-times and to have at his will whatever his appetite or reason can desire All that can be acquired for mans contentment his quiet and entertainment as rich Cup-boards Vessels of Gold and Silver to eat and drink in the many delicious and various Meats great magnificent and pompuous services and furniture rich Vestments and all with a Royal neatness and order with what ever else can be desired to delight the senses and maintain the pleasures of Humane concupiscence all which they have provided for them without asking or taking care even from the Cradle to the Crown It 's true if we should look no farther then on
the regions of Babilon from thence it flew to Greece and thence to Rome putrifying after such a manner the aire that one third part of the people did not escape where it came but to leave the antient Histories and examine what hath happened since their time and in our dayes that we who do hold our selves to be Christians may learn to understand our own frailty the great miseries to which we are subject with the scourges great afflictions which God layeth upon us and that God when his anger is kindled against our offences and extreame iniquities le ts fly the most cruell Darts and Arrowes of his justice against these Creatures not omitting any kind of evils afflictions and torments whereby to execute his wrath and vengeance what better or greater proofe can we have of this then that which we saw in the year 1628. in the French Army which at that time beseiged Naples that men dyed before they thought they had been stricken with death and this curse or Pestilence did not light upon the common souldiers alone but executed its fury against the most choice commanders that the Lords Lautree of Vandemon of Moloac of Laval of the Chatrinera Grandmont and many other Persons of great quality who I cannot call to mind without teares the very same thing happened to the English when they took Buloigne from the French that there arose such Pestilential disease amongst them in the Citty that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead for which cause the King of England could not find a Souldier in all his Country would go thither voluntarily but such as were prest forced thither as offenders for the more fresh men entered so many more dyed so that every corner of the streets was infected and corrupted with the stench of the dead Corpes which lay in every part of the City A year after that King Francis of France marryed with Donna Leonoca de Austria there reigned in Germany such a mortall Plague that all that were smitten therewith dyed within twenty four houres swetting a most contagious humor and a most horrid stinking matter and although this evil begin at the West end of the Empire yet afterwards it extended it selfe throughout all Germany like a sweeping net that will catch all as it goes along for before it pleased God to send a remedy there dyed so many thousands that many Provinces remained deserted and uninhabited for so great was the putrifaction of the aire that it left neither Creatures alive and they write that at the same time that the Pestilence reigned with the like fury it was predominant in England in so much that with the venemous strength thereof it did not only overcome destroy men but the Birds forsooke their Nests Eggs and young ones the beasts their dens and Caves the Snakes and Moles went together in squadrons and companies not being able to suffer the venemous infection that had entred even into the bowells of the earth in the year 1546. the last day of May in Stife a city in Province began a most cruell and Pestilential contagion which lasted nine moneths and there dyed great multitudes of people of all sexes and ages in so much that all their Churchyards were so fill'd with dead Corps that there was no roome to receive any more the greatest part of those that were infected the second day became frantick and cast themselves into wells or else from windowes to others it gave a flux of blood from the nose with violence like a running stream the stopping of which ending the life was all at once it arived to such a height of dissolution that women great with child cast forth untimely births at four moneths both they and their innocent babes dyed being found full of tokens and on one side black and blew like brused blood in conclusion the contagion was so great that father 's left their children and the women forsooke their husbands mony and riches could not yeeld remedy to save the owners thereof from dying of famine because it was hard to get a peice of bread or a cup of water for money and if in case they could procure food for sustenance the Plague was grown so violent that many were taken away with the meat in their mouthes the fury of the evil was so great that only looking upon one that was stricken the infection instantly cleave to the party viewing and he dyed so great was the contagion of the disease and the corruption of the aire of the City to what member of the body the venemous breath or vapour did come there arose great sweling carbuncles mortally wounding sores Oh what a horrible and lamentable thing it was to heare the sad storyes that a Physician tells one who was ordered by the Governours to heal the sick this contagion saith he was so sharp and perverse that it could not be stopped with blooding Physick medicines or any cordialls whatsoever but it cut down destroyed and killed all it took hold of in so much as he that was stricken therewith could expect nothing but death for which cause there were several that when they preceived themselves wounded with this mortal infection they sowed themselves up in their winding sheetes there thou mightest see ten thousand lye after that manner expecting their last hour that forced divorce O sad parting of those two so loving consorts the Soul and Body all which he affirmed to have seen often done by many Persons of all degrees I my selfe in the year 1648. being in Spain where many hundred thousands dyed that year in several Provinces but living in the City of Sevill there breake out about March a fearfull contagion or Plague where I was visited therewith to omit the relation of every particular sad spectacle I saw dayly I shall only hint upon the principal passages by which ye may judge the rest there was every morning to be seen not a street without many dead Corps in it cast out not a house uninfected so that the most retyred Carthusian Fryers which came neer none dyed thereof the Birds dyed in the cages not for want of food but of the infection in one Hospital I was told by one that helped to bury the dead there that they all judged there dyed in one night four thousand persons it raged so much and carried away so many people that all their burying places being filled they were forced to load continually dead Corps in Carts and bury them in the common fields where they had four several burying places on each side of the City one afterwards I had occasion often to take particular notice of one of them where some of our English were buryed it was neer alone Church in the fields called St. Sebastiam over the door whereof I have many times read in Spanish but in large legible Characters without the bounds of this Church lieth buryed in fifteen graves forty and three thousand many judged that in above
or motion and although they applied to his most tender and sensible parts cauterizes of burning fire he felt no more pain nor made any more motion then a dead corps and after that he had come to himself again he gave wonderfull strange and incredible relations of what he had seen Herodoto affirmes that a Phylosopher called Atheo vanished after such a manner that the soule many times leaving the body at home wandred through strange Countries from Province to Province and related at its return very strange things which it had seen which appeared afterwards to be true by experience thereof made A child after he returned from such a rapture of spirit Prophesied the death of Julian the Emperor with the whole Tragical misfortunes which afterwards hapned to him how his enemies would come and whom they were that should kill him without ever hearing or being adverted thereof by any person Another Phylosopher shewed in a glasse the host of his enemies set in order and prepared for the Battel such so wonderfull and strange are the opperations of the soul of man so great is its power when it escapes and freeth it self from the Prison of the body when it maks a stay in the contemplation of Caelestial things which many times because it s not common and it seems to cast off nature the simple vulger do attribute to the devils which certainly is nothing else but the supernatural divinity of man that doth these things and that by reason of its great affinity it hath with the deity is there any thing more certain then that which is related of Leonardo Pictorio who so strictly began to tame his flesh with abstinence that he brought himself to eat but once a week and to this day many report that the Scithians can goe ten or twelue dayes without eating sustaining themselves with the juyce of a certain herb which they carry in their Mouths What more can be added to set forth the excellencies and praises of this creature Man but Divinity it self If we should in particular treat of its wonders the Histories are full of them Paper expressions and Ink would faile before the marvelous things that are to be spoken of it There have been many that no kinde of Poyson could damnify and that for some secret misterious vertue which was hidden within them King Mitridates seeing Himself overcome by Pompey had rather dy then fall into his hands alive he therefore took and made proof of the most desperate and pestilential potions thaâ— in those dayes were known but that did not hurt him being preserved by his own nature which served him as a soveraign medicine against all Poyson so he was forc't to kill himself with a dagger Galen that Prince of the Physitians writes that a Girl which was bred up and fed with that veriomous herb called Napellus or Hemlock it was converted into the substance of the body that afterwards no kinde of Poyson would do her harme but all those she lay with were poysoned with her breath Auiscene writes that in his time there was a man from whom all venomous beasts did fly for if it hapned he bit or touched any they presently dyed he also sayth that he had seen a sort of men which the Greeks called Ophergines heale venomous beasts by touching them with their hands and extract the Poyson out of any body onely by putting the hands upon the place damnified the very same vertue have the Psilos and Marcians people of Africk whose Embassador was seased to make proof there of in Roome his name was Xagon who was put into a vessel full of Vipers Snakes and little Serpents and other venomous Creatures he was no sooner put therein but in stead of biteing and afflicting of him they began to lick to fawn and make much of him each in its nature in conclusion we finde in man strange marvelous monsterous things in so much that many of the Antients considering the Excellency of his nature but not finding any thing that can be compared to the exquisite and industrious providence of him they commanded them that is the most learned to be called gods even for such they esteemed honored and adored them Some there were so constant in their opinion that they never laughed as Marcus Crassus for which he was called Agelasto as much as to say one that never smiled but was even in one constitution others never vomited as Pompey some never spit as Antonio the second some never found sicknesse in their bodies as Pontano writes of himself for he many times wittingly let himself fall from his condition yet felt no paine or grief nor found any detriment others there were who enjoyed so sharpe and peircing a sight that they could discerne things that were fifty or sixty leagues distance as if they had been much nearer Solinus and Plinie do affirme of one who was called Strabon that in time of the Punicke Warr he saw from one of the high Rocks or Promontories of Sicilia ships set saile out of the Port of old Carthage which is above a hundred Leagues distant Of Fiberius the Emperor its said that wakeing at a certain hour of the night he could see all things as clearly as if it were day in the Country of the Cardelinâ—s saith Plinie there are a sort of men that will run as swift as Grey-hounds and that its impossible to come near or take them unlesse it be by reason of age or infirmity Quintus Curtius and many others write that Alexander the Great was composed of such a temprature and strange equality and harmony of humers that his breath naturally surelt like Balsome and that when he sweat he cast such an oderifeâ—ous scent from him it seemed as if there had flowed Musk and Amber through the pores of his body Yet they relate a more strange thing then this and more hard to be believed that his body dead smelt sweetly as if it had been embalmed or filled with the most precious perfumes of the world Cayus Caezar was so excellent a Horseman that causing his hands to be tyed behinde him without Bridle or Saddle a wonderfull and almost incredible thing with onely his knees he would make the horse run stop turn leap gallope and curvet as well as if he had bridle or sadle Marcus Paulus a Venetian writes that the Tarters are so great searchers into the secrets of Nature and have so much power and command over the Devils that they can darken the ayre when they please that he once being beset with Thieves made an escape by this means Haytomus an Authour of singular repute and great authority in the History that he wrote of the Sarmatans affirms the same and goeth further relating that the Army of the Tartars being almost routed and overcome was succoured and preserved by a Enchantment of one of their Ensignes casting a mist and darkening the ayre about the host of their Enemies I have read in many antient Authors that