to death and was brought to hell whither her husband went to redeem her by his Musick by which he drew tears and consent from Pluto and Proserpina provided that he looked not behind him to behold her before they had past the confines of Styx but he could not forbear so lost her again 1 This Fable invites us to moderation in our desires lest we lose what we affect by too much affecting Hell may seem but meer perturbations of Orpheus mind for the death of his beloved which was pacified by the harmony of reason when looking back that is recalling her to his remembrance he falls into a desperate relapse and seems to lose her a second time 2 Justice that is Euridice and a Prince that is Orpheus should be married together If this be stung to death by the Serpent of war the prince by the melodious harmony of peace should revive it Orpheus in love ventur'd to hell to redeem his wife Some christians will rather wish their Wives in hell then strive to keep much less to fetch them thence 3 The soul of man like Euridice delighting her self among the flowers of pleasure was stung by that old Serpent the Devil and delivered from the nethermost hell by the true Orpheus Jesus Christ Or like Hypsiphiles boy or who by force And point of sword did pierce the wooden horse 1. Hypsiphile Queen of Lemnos being condemned for saving her father when all the men of the Isle were slain fled to Nemea where Lycurgus made her Nurse of his son Opheltes or Achimorus who being left by her in a Medow was kill'd by a Serpent for which she was sentenced to die but was preserved by the Argives 1 Note here the unconstancy of worldly honour To day a Queen to morrow a Nurse to day as rich as Croesus to morrow as poor as Irus Crowns and Scepters are slippery things 2 See how Providence protects and prolongs the life of those that like Hypsiphile do honour and preserve their parents 3 Lycurgus sons name was not onely Opheltes because he was killed by a Serpent but Archimorus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death because he died an infant Death loves green fruit as well as ripe yea green hath lately tasted sweeter then any other for more Infants died this year by small pox then in any one of this last age 2. Laocoon son of Priamus King of Troy was Priest to Apollo he with the point of a spear or a sword pierced the Trojan horse for which the Gods were offended and sent Serpents to kill him as a despiser of the gift of Pallas 1 The Evangelical Prophet Esaias was son of Amos who as the best writers do conceive was brother to King Azariah In those times then it seemeth that Laocoon the son of a King and the best of men thought not themselves too good to be Priests but in Jeroboams time and later dayes the worst of men are made Priests and Priests are made the worst of men 2 As sacred things should not be touched with unwashed hands so State matters should admit no vulgar handling In business of War the Church-mans onely weapon should be prayer he must not lift up his hand to reforme or his voice to reprove much less take up a sword as Laocoon 3 Seditious Preachers against the Politick and scandalous inveighers against the state Ecclesiastical have brought distraction to the State and destruction to themselves Dal. Aph. A Minister should not intrude into the office or place of a Souldier or Mechanick nor they into his Ne sutor ultra crepidam No safer then Elpenor climb a ladder Let strength of wine make thee so mad or madder Elpenor one of Ulysses mates being drunk with wine in the house of the Enchantress Circe climb'd a ladder and broke his neck 1 Circe turned many of Ulysses followers into swine by making them drink of her charmed cup and moving her rod over them wherein perhaps the Devil Aped Moses rod with which he wrought such wonders Circe is so called from mixture because the mixture of the Elements is necessary to generation Sandys She turned men into several sorts of beasts because corruption of the one begets a form far different from it self Ulysses could not lose his shape who being fortified with immortal power of wisdome was not subject to mutation The body composed of the four Elements is like Ulysses mates obnoxious to change by diseases and corruption the Soul like Ulysses can by no assault of nature be converted into a beast so highly participating of Reason Drunkenness breaks the neck of a mans estate sometimes of his body as here of Elpenor But a man bewitched to a whore shall be brought to a morsel of bread and so go down to the chamber of death by famine if he comes not sooner to his ladder end 485. Do thou like each fool-hardy Dryops fall Whom rash Theodomas to war did call Theodomas denieth Hylas son of Hercules provision of victuals Hercules killeth some of his Oxen Theodomas raiseth an army against him Hercules conquers him and the people called the Dryopes that came to aid him 1 It is good sleeping they say in a whole skin A man being near drowning in a river sinks himself and the party that comes to help him if he once catch hold 2 The Pelican to save her young ones from the fire which the shepherds make to catch them seeks to blow it out with her wings and so burns her self I had rather bewail the fire of dissention afar off then stir in the coles lest I fire my own wings B. Hall before I quench that In Church-division I will not meddle more then by prayers to God and intreaties to men seeking my own safety and the peace of the Church in freedom of my thought and silence of my tongue 3 That foolish churlish Nabal 1 Sam. 25. like Theodomas denying David some provision endangered himself and his whole family Or in thy den some valiant man thee slay As Cacus whom stoll'n oxen did bewray Cacus a mighty Giant son of Vulcan depopulated part of Italy that lies about mount Aventine with his robberies he is said to vomit fire in that he burnt the corn on the ground and enviously destroyed what he could not reap He while Hercules slept took away the best of his oxen and drew them into his cave by the tailes that no impression might be seen of any feet going thither but they were discovered by their bellowing So Hercules with his club killed Cacus 1 The she Bear retires backward into her den that she might not be traced by the hunter A cunning thief to avoid suspâ—cion turns the shooes of his stollen horse backward Such is the Delphick language of ambiguous Turn-coats 2 Cacus by interpretation is Evil which lurkes in Caves because never secure when Hercules or virtue vindicates his own by the destruction of the other although with hypocrisie and
Better have the Foxes soul body and witty mind then like the Leopard to be fair and foolish Siqua latent meliora puto Let no man call his brother Racha or fool mocking him for deformity of his body or infirmity of mind lest he incur the judgment Mat. 5. But why because others deride me should I destroy what God hath formed It is he that made us not we our selves Praised be his name that he made me a Man not a Toad The Potter might have made me a vessel of dishonour as well as honour Or suffer death shut in a Cave as he That did compile the gainless Tragedy Cherilus wrote the acts of Alexander the great For every good verse in his Poem he was promised a crown of gold and for every bad one a lash of all his verses onely seven were allowed the number of the bad was so great that he was lashed to death in a secret room Hereupon Alexander was wont to say that he had rather be in Homer deformed Thersites then in Cherilus the valiant Achilles 1 The Muses are the daughters of Apollo and Mnemosyne to express Poetry that divine inspiration nourished by memory Eupheme was their nurse for praise doth cherish noble endowments Their habitation was Parnassus and Helicon pleasant places For Poetry is a most delightful study The Muses were crowned with green and bitter leaves of Lawrell for the pains of Poets are bitter and constant They are Women for their pregnancy in knowledge They are Nine of the tripple Trine which flows from the perfection of number from these premises I may conclude That Dull-man Cherilus that ventures on Poetry and Dominus Mechanick that leaps from the pannel to the pulpit deserves as much a whip as the dull Asse that presumed to the Harp Or as he perish'd that Iambicks pen'd 520. So let thy sawcy tongue procure thy end Archilochus who first invented the Iambick verse was banished by the Lacedemonians and afterward slain by Crocalus a souldier and his books condemned 1 Sometimes wit becomes a Woe and Books a bane Non hunc quaesitum munus in usum Thus banishment was the bitter doome of my sweet Poet Ovid. The pen and the tongue be the gates as well of death as life Dip not therefore thy pen in gall lest it prove to thee like the writing on the wall unto Belshazzar Rather then so Scinde leves calamos frange Thalia libellos Break thy pens and tear thy books my Muse 2 Let thy speech be seasoned with salt that it may minister grace to the hearers 3 If thou speakest what thou shouldest not thou wilt hear what thou wouldst not As who with halting verse gainst Athens rail'd And hateful di'd after his victua's sail'd Aristophanes reviling against the praise of Athens which the Orators before had so highly extolled was by publick command famished to death This is reported by Alcyat of Hipponactes that railed against one Athenis in verses called Seazons which are lame or halting Iambicks 1 When Fame is once fled out Pegasus will hadly overtake it If thou art cried up by a stâ—ong opinion of the Grandees the rabble of the vulgar will never cry thee down What is one malapert Aristophanes against all Athens That 's but an Owl who thinks with his single note to drown the warble of an hundred Nightingals He deserves to feed upon the Commons like an Asse that brayes out his simple No when the general vote of the whole house hath pronounced I. As that harsh Lyrick Poet dy'd so may Thy hand prove false and be thy own decay Alcaeus the Lyrick Poet brake his promise which he made to Pittacus by joyning right hands and after railed also against him with bitter jeers and mocks for which at last he was banished 1 A mans eye and his honour are two tender pieces Dall Aph. the one cannot abide the rough touch of the hand nor the other endure the smart jerk of the tongue As therefore by the owners they are carefully preserved so by others that deal with them they should be tenderly used 2 Such pregnant wits as had rather lose their friend then their jest must learn the lesson that is taught a souldier to take heed while they level and discharge upon others they lie not so open that they be hit themselves 525. To Agamemnons son a Serpent gave Deaths wound so Poyson bring thee to thy grave Orestes son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra for killing his mother and Aegystus the Adulterer as also for murdering Pyrrhus King of Epirus was so haunted with Furies that he could not be expiated till he had sacrificed on the Altar of Diana Taurica at last by divine justice he was stung to death by a Serpent 1 Furies are the stings and torments of a guilty conscience which are the rudiments of the pains of hell therefore some are of opinion that there is no hell but in the conscience 2 What those Barbarians rashly said of Paul when the viper fastened on his hand Acts 28. surely this man is a murderer whom thought he escaped the sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live may be truly said of Orestes He escaped the sentence of the judges and the torments of the Furies yet the venemous serpent suffered him not to live but kill'd him Thy marriage first night be thy last of life So di'd Eupolis and his new ' spous'd wife Eupolis an Athenian there was also a Poet of that name the first night he lay with his wife Medulla or Glycerium they were both struck dead Of which subject there is an Epigram 3 Antholog So Quintas Sertullius a Roman with his wife were strangled the first night they lay in bed together Servius on the first of Virgils Aeneids reports that Hymenaeus with his wife were quelled the first night of their marriage therefore at Nuptials for expiation he is invocated as a God 1 If such untimely death happened to man and wife in their lawful marriage bed what may those impudent wretches that commit fornication and adultery look for Me thinks they should fear that judgment would surprize them in the very act as Zimri and Cosbi whom Phineas slew both together and the execution was allowed by God himself 2 Dionysius died laughing Attalus King of the Hunnes died of Euexia excess of health so in the midst of jollity mirth and pleasure death may be in the pot As Lycophron that buskin-Poets heart 530. So let in thine be stuck a fatall dart Lycophron one of the seven ancient Poets that were called Pleiades the other six were Theocritus Aratus Nicander Apollonius Philetus Homerus Junior wrote an obscure Poem called Alexandria containing the prophesie of Cassandra from Hercules to Alexander at last contending about priority he was by an adversary slain with an arrow 1 Ambition is torment enough for an Enemy for it affords as much discontentment in enjoying as want making men like poysoned Rats which when they have tasted of their banâ— cannot rest
did perform but the gaping oak suddenly returned to its place and held his hands so fast that he could not pluck them out so he became a prey to the ravenous wolves 1 As it is a sorry horse that will not carry his own provender so that man is worse then a beast that will in one day put so much in his belly as he can carry on his back such an one is fitter to be hâ—nged then kept for he robs many an honest man of his vâ—ctuals 2 Attempt nothing but what may be accomplished with dexterity and honour He is neither a wise nor a valiant souldier that desperately adventures upon a design before he is sure of a safe retreat otherwise he may become a prey to his wolf-like enemy Be thou as Icarus by thy own gift harm'd 610. A drunken rabble fall upon thee arm'd As his kind daughter for her fathers death Knit to thy throat a cord and stop thy breath Icarius not Icarus son of Oebalus and father of Eâ—igonâ— was a guest to Bacchus who gave him a Borachio of wine and bad him communicate it to others He gave it to certain shepherds in his return to Attica who immoderately drinking thereof fell on the earth and imagining that Icarius had poysoned them with their staves they killed him His Dog Nerea by running before and howling shewed Erigone the place where her father lay unburied who after she had interred him hanged her self but Jupiter changed them both into a constellation calling Erigone Virgo one of the six Northern signs and her father Böotes between whose legs shines the eminent Arcturus which in revenge of his murder riseth in tempests But Icarius his Dog that died at his hanging Mistress feet was called Astricion by us the Dog star his malignancy as they feign proceeding from the former occasion causing burning fevers frenzies and other infections whose reign determines with the rising of Arcturus the season then suffering an alteration 1 Wine comforts the heart strengthens the body cherisheth the spirits and helps the stomach if used with moderation there is no such poison as wine nor the cause of more mischief both in the body Politick and Natural 2 See in Erigone the preposterous passion of a Woman We should be patient at the loss of friends not like those that be void of hope 3 The fidelity and thankfulness of this Dog Nerea and many other I have read of may condemn the treachery and ingratitude from man to man Icarius was slain for his own courtesies And who is worse rewarded then he that doth most good to the Common-wealth Be famish'd shut up in a room as he To whom his mother did his pain decree Euristhenes after an overthrow at war returning home was so hated among the people that his own mother shut him up in a chamber and there famished him to death Alciat and many others do interpret this of Pausanias Captain of the Lacedemonians who for treason was shut up in the Temple of Minerva by the Edict of the Ephori and his own mother put the first stone to fasten the door 1 The planks of ancient ships were made of Pine-tree because heavy weight caused them not to bend down but to rise upwards such is the undaunted heart of a magnanimous souldier therefore victorious Generals riding home in triumph wore a Pine branch in their Helmets and were honoured of all men alive and dead But a timorous Coward not onely dishonours himself his Countrey but is rendred odious even to his own ingenuous parents that begat him 2 Let us fight the good fight of faith and resist to bloud so shall we be more then conquerours and receive the Crown of Glory 615. Minerva's Temple do thou so annoy As he that turn'd his course away from Troy Ajax Oileus coming out of his way in his return from Toy deflowred Cassandra in the Temple of Pallas so Jupiter killed him with a thunderbolt 1 Heathen Gods suffered not the profaners of their Idolatrous Temples to escape unpunished how much less will our true and jealous God the polluters of that Sanctuary wherein his Name is called upon Christ whipt out of the Jewish material Temple the profaners of it so let us whip sin out of our spiritual temple the soul Cast back an eye on some fore-going ages and you will find that sacrilegious persons did not long enjoy themselves Vix gaudet tertius haeres With Nauplias suffer death for no desert And not escape it though thou guiltless art Palamedes son of Nauplus King of Eubaea because he discovered Ulysses and forced him to come with other Grecians to the siege of Troy was ever envied by him for revenge Ulysses in the leager caused a summe of gold to be hid in the Tent of Palamedes and counterfeited Letters from Priamus King of Troy to Palamedes containing thanks for betraying the Grecians at his request intimating that he had sent him so much gold for his pains and care Hereupon Palamedes is accused of treason by Ulysses the gold is found in his Tent he is condemned and stoned 1 Poyson is of such a force that it corrupteth both bloud and spirit besieging seizing and infecting the heart with its venomous contagion quite altering the complexion and disposition of the man that drinks it So the pestiferous desire of revenge though it seizeth on a prudent mind and a mild and a mansuete disposition it is of such a forcible operation that it not onely altereth mans nature but maketh men unnatural that truth is plainly proved by the example of Ulysses 2 It is the onely valour in a Christian to remit an injury and it is right noble that we might hurt and will not B. Hall Let us so remit wrongs that we encourage not others to offer them and so retain them that we induce not God to retain ours to him As Isis Priest kill'd Ethalus his guest 620. Whose service angred Iö doth detest Iö daughter of the river Inachus was beloved of Jupiter which that Juno might not suspect he turn'd her into a Cow which Juno begs and delivers to hundred-eyed Argus to be kept him Mercury kills Juno sends a breeze which made Iö run mad up and down the world till she came to Egypt where she recovers her former shape and being called Isis she was married to Osyris being dead she was deified and honoured with a Temple Priests and Sacrifice One of her Priests had killed Ethalus whom he entertained as a guest the people to appease the Goddess being offended with the fact deposed him out of his Priesthood and decreed that neither he nor any of his kindred should ever be admitted to that office 1 Iö is feigned to be the daughter of a river because her father Inachus the first that reigned in Argos was accidentally drowned in Carmanor which after bare his name Diodorus writes that Iö was a most beautiful woman and married to Osyris and that he was called Jupiter and she
should have over his wife 3 As Tiresias was both male and female so are turn-coats hodiè mihi cras tibi to day mine to morrow thine So is the multitude Neutrum modò Mas modò vulgus 4 Many that are blind in body are quick-sighted in their mind as Tiresias 5 When a great power as Juno doth oppress us a greater as Jupiter may relieve us Saepè premente Deo fert Deus alter opem Lucian reports that Tiresias is feigned to be male and female among the Grecians because he divided the wandring stars into male and female Or he be whose devise a Dove was guide Where Pallas ship should on the Ocean ride Phineus son of Agenor had by Cleopatra two sons Orythus and Crambus whose eyes by the counsel of his second wife Idaea he plucked out in revenge whereof the Gods plucked out his He advised the Argonauts to follow the Dove which Pallas should send and so avoid the rocks called Symplegades 1 Phineus may be feigned to have lost his sight because he was so blind with avarice that he could not look unto himself nor afford necessaries unto life which is contented with a little 2 Stepmothers like Idaea seldome love the children of a former wife Injusta noverca 3 Retaliation is a just judgment of God an eye for an eye 4 Parents that blind their Children with ignorance not allowing them education God will punish so that the blind shall lead the blind 5 Let every Elymas that blind mens souls and draw them from the faith expect not onely corporal blindness but utter darknesse 6 If you will avoid the offensive rocks of schisme and heresie follow the true Pallas Christ the wisdom and the Dove which he hath sent the spirit of truth so will you safely arrive at the haven of heaven Mean time from blindnesse of heart good Lord deliver us 265. Or he whose eyes the infants Gold surpriz'd Which to her son the mother sacrific'd Polymnestor King of Thracia received into his Guardianship with a vast summe of money Polydorus son of Priamus King of Troy whom when Troy was sacked coveting the money he inhumanely killed Hecuba mother of the child sent for Polymnestor pretending to deliver him another summe when he came she scratched out both his eyes 1 Guardians should be defenders not destroyers of their Pupils 2 Covetousnesse is the root of all evil 3 No sin comes single Robbery and Murder will hang together 4 The natural much more the violent death of a child moves a mother to impatience As Aetna's shepherd whose blind fate of old One Telamus Eurymons son foretold Polyphemus was a shepherd on the hill Aetna and chief of the Cyclopes he had one eye in his forehead which Ulysses put out with a fire-brand when he had besotted him with wine after he had eaten four of his men that came to lodge in his cave One Telamus prophesied his misery These Cyclopes made thunderbolts for Jupiter and chariots for Mars 1 Injustice armed with power is most outragious and bloudy but Polyphemus was more savage then the West Indians these eat but their enemies onely he his guests 2 These Cyclopes may be evil spirits whose service God sometimes doth use in raising thunder and stormes to punish the wicked Polyphemus or Beelzebub is the chief he devoured Ulysses men that is man-kind but the true Ulysses Christ pouring into him the red wine of his wrath thrust out his eye restrained his power When Polyphemus the shepherds eye is blind what a blind guide hath the sheep 3 When there was no King in Israel the light was quenched the Eye was out then followed intestine wars and Vulcans sons did work for Mars Like Phineus sons whose eyes one gave and took 270. Like Thamyras and Demodocus look Orythus and Crambus their eyes by their Stepmothers counsel were plucked out by their own father Phineus whom divine vengeance after blinded for his unnatural cruelty and sent Harpyes to eat his meat and defile his table 1 Mark the just judgment of God upon an unmerciful father provoked by the false suggestions of a femal night-crow 2 These Harpyes might be covetous desires not suffering him to eat what was set before him himself polluting it with his own sordid disposition 2. Thamyras or Thamyris a Poet and Musician comparing himself with the Muses for skill was deprived of his harp and sight 1 Boldness puts men forth before their time they run before they are sent like Lapwings with some part of the shell upon their heads so it follows as they began presumptuously they proceed unprofitably and end not without shame every man condemning them of arrogance and ignorance and indeed these are inseparable twins for who is bolder then blind Bayard as the proverb passeth 3. Demodocus was an admirable harper but he was blind 1 No man is so happy to have all gifts no man is so miserable but to have some Of the two I had rather be blind Homer with his acute mind then nimble-eyed Lynceus with his obtuse capacity 2 Note that Ovid wisheth to Ibis not any of these mens good qualities but blindness Let one thy members crop as Saturne that Wherewith his ancient father him begat Saturn son of Coelum and Thetis cut off his fathers testicle◠the bloud whereof ingendred the Furies 1 Saturn that is Time cut off the genitals of Caelum that is heaven because the heavens at last shall grow old and by time shall lose the power of generation 2 Gelders of ancient Records Fathers and Scripture rebel against heaven like Saturne and hence proceed those Furies of Heresie Dissention and Schisme To thee let swelling Neptune prove the same As him whose wife and brother birds became Caeyx King of Thracinia son of Lucifer his brother Daedalion being turned to a hawke went to the Oracle promising his wife Halcione to return with speed She seeing his dead body in the sea would have drowned herself but the Gods turned her into a Kings-fisher and him into a Sea-mew 1 When the Halcions lay eggs the sea is calme hence peaceable dayes are called Halcionian or Alcian dayes 2 Alcione was the daughter of Aeolus that could imprison the winds and a dead Kings-fisher hanged up by the beak will turn her belly to the wind 3 The Male and Female accompany all the year not for lust but love I wish no lesse modesty and love in all married people 4 Moderate sorrow for friends is comely immoderate dangerous it made Halcione desperate 5 These Halcions were begot of the Morning-star Lucifer and calmed the sea but some soul birds in the world begot of hellish Lucifer do raise stormes and disturb the sea of the State laying eggs of dissention and fishing in troubled waters 275. Or the wise man on shipwrack'd plank that sat Whom Semele's sister did compassionate Ino sister of Semele advised Ulysses to leave the ship and trust to swimming offering him an immortal ribband to gird his paps he refused her
they gâ—eedily leap and strain themselves and so are taken so do ambitious men that aim at honour too high for their reach and too great for their merit For a heart over-grown with this râ—nk poyson neither admits the beams of grace to mollifie the hardness nor the bounds of nature to restrain the swelling but is unnaturally carried on to wrong those of his own bloud 2 Unchast love doth justly turn to revenging hate Thee and thy best things in t ' a bone-fire send 310. Sardanapalus so his life did end Sardanapalus the last King of Assyria was so effeminate that he blushed not to spin with Harlots in a womans habit being conquered in battell he fled to his Palace where he made a fire and therein burnt himself and all that he had 1 Venery is the mother of Misery 2 When the head is weak the body cannot be strong Like King like People 3 Sardanapalus lived basely died nobly but Furor est ne moriare mori It is a desperate madness to avoid death by killing my self 4 Many as Balaam would gladly die the death of the righteous but live not the life of the righteous Qualis vita finis ita Those that live ill seldome die well A good life seldome meets a bad death Let whirle-wind sands thee suffocate as those That Hammons Temple to pluck down arose Cambyses King of the Medes sent an army to demolish the temple of Jupiter Hammon but all the souldiers were destroyed by stormes and sands 1 Jupiter Hammon may be the same with Ham Sandys Met. son of Noah who was the original of Idolatry he on his helmet wore the carved head of a Ram. Or Hamon may be the Sun from Hamah which in Hebrew signifieth heat and because the year begins in March when the Sun enters into Aries he is painted with Rams horns 2 If so fearful judgments fell upon those that sought to destroy the temple of a false God how will those be plagued that demolish the temples of the true God Nay what may they expect that pluck down the Living temples of the holy Ghost their own bodies and souls by riot Hot ashes thee consume as them who thus Died by the fraud of second Darius Ochus who was also called Darius secundus feasted all those that had assisted him in his faction in a room wherein was a trap-door under which were hot ashes the guests being drunk the trap was opened and they all fell into the ashes and were smothered 1 The treason is loved not the Traytor When complices have acted their part and the design is accomplished they smell like a close stool in the nostrils of the projector 2 Sweet meat hath sowre sauce Feast-makers do oftentimes invite their guests to trap them in their words sometimes to undermine their lively-hood perhaps their lives 315. As upon Olive-bearing Sycions King Let cold and hunger death upon thee bring Neocles King of Sycion a city in Laconia abounding with Olive trees for cruelty exaction and oppression was deposed and not long after died with cold and hunger 1 Golden was that Symbol of the prudent Emperour A good shepherd will rather fleece then fley his sheep By the first he will have wooll every year by the other but once Silly was the plot of that covetous woman that in hope of a great treasure killed her hen that laid her every day a golden egge 2 Milk-purse Lawyers so Erasmus termes them are far more tolerable then Cut-purse tyrants 3 Pharisaical oppressors seldome miss their just reward alive after death their souls are feigned to enter into Asses so to be crushed with such burdens as they laid on others As Acarnides that in Bulls-hide lay Be thou so brought unto thy Lord a prey Hermias son of Acarnus taken captive by Memnon was sewed in the hide of a new-slain Bullock and fed under his table till vermin killed him 1 A noble conquest may be too much blemished by ignoble deportment toward the conquered 2 The All-seeing Eye not blind Fortune giveth the victory the Lord of Hosts the All-able hand is stronger then Reason or Means Hodiè mihi cras tibi To day mine to morrow thine Do therefore to others as thou wouldst be done to Renowned Caesar wept on the dead body of Pompey It is inhumane sarcasmically to insult over a captive as a Cat over a Mouse Advancement shews the man the higher the Ape climbs the more she shews her naked parts Or as Pheraeus be thou stabb'd in bed 320. Whom with a sword his new wife murdered Alexander Pheraeus loved his wife Thebe very well yet before he would go in unto her he commanded some of his guard to search if any weapon were in the chamber fearing she would slay him Afterwards suspecting him of Adultery she killed him 1 Jealousie is the daughter of extreme love and mother of extreme hate 2 A wife is an earthly heaven or hell 3 Fear of death is worse then death it self 4 More danger is in an home-bred conspirator then a forreign enemy Injury from a bosome-friend strikes deeper then from any other That stab from Brutus cut Caesar to the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what thou my son Let those thou thinkest faithful by a wound As to Alebas false to thee be found Alebas King of Larissa ruled with much cruelty and for his safety chose a guard of valiant men who at length slew the King 1 The strongest and safest guard for a Prince next to a good conscience is the free and faithful love of loyal subjects 2 Divine justice so abominates a cruel King that he maketh the best defence wherein he trusted to become most offensive to him and the spils of the staff on which he leaned to run into his hands 3 Man was made to be as a God to man but he becomes a Wolfe a Devil so was Judas to his Lord and Master Pernicies homini quae pessima solus homo alter As Milo that did Pisa long torment Alive into the sea be headlong sent Milo King of Pisa shewed himself most unmerciful in exactions wherefore the people rebelling tied a stone about his neck and drowned him 1 It is a more Princely thing to enrich then to be rich 2 Free subjects are like smooth streams running in their ancient channel if any dam or obstacle stop them from enjoying their wonted liberties and immunities they swell the higher at last they break down carry away and drown all the opposing matter 325. As Adimantus the Philesian King So Jove his thunder-bolts upon thee fling Adimantus King of Philesia scorning to offer sacrifice to Jupiter but braging that he was mightier then he was struck with a thunder-bolt 1 For a man to make comparison with another man is odious with God impious and damnable Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Give him the honour due unto his name Omne sub regno graviore regnum The highest earthly
best Saints was advised by his Ghostly Father to drink a little wine 1 Tim. 5. Why then should the dry Goatly Fathers of his Holiness rob their Lay-children of their due share in that cup of blessing in the Sacrament They may as well make them vow with the Reckabites not to drink wine for ever 345. Oetous and Dragons son in law be thy fate Tissamens Father and Callirhöes mate 1. Hercules suspected by his wife Dejanira that he loved Iole more then her sacrificing on the hill Oete in a garment dipped in the bloud of the Centaur Nessus sent as a token by his wife fell mad and burned himself 1 Womens Jealousie is like their Lust and both like the fire of hell unquenchable Some think that Dejanira sent her husband that token not in revenging hate but to gain his love So often an ill event follows a good intent Thus a cockering mother kills her best beloved child with kindness Thus the Ape by hugging strangles her dearest darling 2. Athamas husband of Ino daughter of Cadmus that was turned to a Serpent having in his madnesse killed his son Learchus at last killed himself 1 Unreasonable creatures do not onely procreate but preserve their issue why then should man be so mad with reason to murder his own child 2 Let us strive to give deadly wounds to our sins those bastards begot by the Devil upon our flesh Happy is he that can dash these Babylonish brats against the stones 3. Senec. Trag. Orestes father of Tissamenus son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra having killed his mother that committed adultery with Aegysthus fell mad 1 If a parent sins how dare a child or any private person take up the publick sword to punish This Matricide Orestes ran mad after the fact Parricides voluntarily are mad before The end of such is by their own or by anothers hand 4. Alcmeon husband of Calirhoe going to his other wife Alphesthaea whom he had deceived for a jewel was slain by her brothers 1 Polygamie is double Misery One may as easie serve two masteâ—s as please two wives One at once is enough if not too much 2 Achans golden wedge procured his untimely death Covetousness endangereth body and soul Thy wife to thee no chaster prove then she Of whom old Tydaeus might ashamed be Diomedes son of Tydaeus married Aegiale whom Venus caused to make her body common because her husband happened to hurt Venus when she defended Aeneas 1 An adulterous wise is Acteons park dispal'd a whole pound of Harts-horn infused in Nectar will scarcely cure her husband of the head-ache The urine cast by scolding Zantippe upon the head of her husband Socrates was less dangerous then an harder thing A loose wife makes her husband horn-mad and heart-sad Faelix quem faciunt aliorum cornua cautum Or Locris lass that with her husbands brother 350. Lay and kill'd her maid the fact to smother Hypermnestra of Locris lay with her husbands brother and killed her maid to make the world think that she not the mistriss was guilty of the offence 1 Sin scornes to go alone Adultery hath Murder waiting at her heels she that dares destroy her own soul by Adultery will not stick to destroy anothers body by Murder 2 Committing a second sin to cover the first is to take a remedy worse then the disease Boyes will excuse the fault of Treuantnes by the sin of lying Adam to quit himself will lay the fault on God The woman Thou gavest me c. Gods grant thy life be faithless and so bad As Taläus and Tyndar's son in law had 1. Amphiaräus husband to Eriphele daughter of Talâus one of the seven Kings that besieged Thebes at first for fear of the war hid himself his wife for jewels discovered him he went to the siege and there was slain 1 An army of valiant Lions led by a cowardly Hart is not so prevalent as an army of Harts led by a Lion Like Captain like company 2 God made husband and wife one flesh No man ever yet hated his own flesh but woman doth hers The Philistines could not plough without Sampsons Heifer He was never taken but by means of a wife Neither can the Devil tempt us to evil without the Dalilah of our own flesh We have good cause then to pray in the sense of the Spanish proverb O Lord deliver me from my selfe 2. Agamemnon husband of Clytemnestra daughter of Tyndarus returning from Troy was killed by his own wife and her Adulterer Aegysthus 1 My own house should be my castle of defence not offence Women chiefly a wife should be not woe to man but a helper 2 A sheep shunning a storm shelters under a bush where he loseth his fleece perhaps his life So the foolish fish leaped out of the frying-pan into the fire A window wholly opened brings in less dangerous cold then a small chink Open enemies abroad overcame not this royal Agamemnon but that bitter-sweeting his wife at home Or Belus Neeces that did dare to kill Their Husbands Therefore carry water still Fifty daughters of Danâus son of Bâ—lus marrâ—ed to fifty sons of their uncle Aegyptus Ovid. Met. in the first night killed all their new husbands but one wherefore they are condemned to draw water in hell till they fill a sieve or a pitcher full of holes 1 Husband-mens toyl is like these wenches their work is never at an end 2 Learn with the one sister Hypermnestro rather to obey the command of your Heavenly then Natural or Civil fathers 355. With lust of thee thy sister burn and be True but in vice as Biblis Canace 1. Biblis daughter of Miletus and Canace lustfully loved her brother Caunus Natal Comes travelling many Countreys and not finding him she dissolved into a fountain the monument of her punishment and perpetual sorrow 1 Here we may observe the impotency of passion and wicked affection Woman is naturally of a more cold complexion and tempered with less impudency then Man yet that devillish Cupid findeth the weaker vessell to be the fittest instrument to kindle his fiery darts 2 It is true that Cain and his sons out of necessity married their own sisters which was afterwards forbidden by the law of Nature acknowledged by all Nations Justin But Cambyses perswaded by his sycophants that a King was liable to no law durst infringe it Nay among the Romans Claudius was the first that married his Neece Tacitus 2. Canace daughter of Aeolus brought forth a child begotten by her own brother Macareus her father discovering the child by the crying going to nurse killed it with his doggs 1 All kinds of sin by the law of Heathens so by the law of God were accounted equal yet by the laws of Man Fornication is a great sin Adultery greater Incest greatest of all in that kind A great folly was committed in Israel when Judah lay with Thamar his daughter in law Gen. 38. A greater when Ammon defiled his sister
kiss his toe and while they were about it spurn'd them into the sea 1 Many Kings have kissed the Popes toe yet he hath kicked the Crowns off their heads 2 Too low submission unto a lofty Tyrant doth heighten his insolence and hastens the peoples down-fall Asperius nihil est humili cùm surgit in altum 3. Theseus put Polipemon and his son Damastres or Procrustes to the same death which they had inflicted on others who rackt out or cut short to the length of their bed such strangers as came to Harmonia 1 Thus Levellers by Apocope would pare off the superfluities of long Estates and by Paragoge add to the extremities of the short so make both even to their own ends Thus in some parts the Tax of strongest and longest means is shortned and the lowest and weakest lengthened But Deuce Ace non possunt and Sice Sink solvere nolunt Omnibus est notum Cater Tray solvere totum Deuce Ace cannot pay scot and lot and Sice Sink will not pay Be it known to all what payments fall must light on Cater Tray. 4. The Minotaure in the Labyrinth who was half Bull half man wat slain by Theseus Read of this before 1 The Romans bear a Minotaure in their Ensigns to declare that the Counsels and Stratagems of a General should be muffled in the unsearchable blackness of secrecy like a Labyrinth not to be traced by the enemy yea often to be concealed from dearest friends according to the saying of Metellus If I thought my shirt knew my purpose I would tear it off my back 2 Sensual and worldly people are like the Minotaure like Men in Soul like Beasts in Body If sin kills the first the other suffers alike 3 The greatest Bulls of Basan the stoutest Potentates were they as strong as Minotaures will be overtaken by death violent or natural No place so intricate or so strongly fenced a Labyrinth can secure the highest person Nullo fata loco possis excludere As he that men from boughs to th' air up threw And billows did of this and that sea view Pityocamptes dwelt between the IoÌ„nian and Aegean sea he is the same with Sinis of whom I spake before Or like to savage Cercyons corps whose slaughter 410. By Theseus hand mov'd Ceres unto laughter Cercyon as some report was a notable strong thâ—ef near Eleusis he bowed the stoutest trees and binding men unto them tote them in pieces But Plutarch relates that Theseus killed him as he others Plutarch in Theseus by murdering those whom he conquered he first devised the sleights of wrestling which was carried onely by strength before Ceres laughed to see him die because he spoyled her countrey Eleusis 1 His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself and he shall be held with the cords of his own sin Prov. 11.10 Adoni-besech was punished himself as he had punished others Judg. 2. 2 As there is joy in heaven for Gods mercy upon a repenting sinner so may in some sort be on earth for his judgment upon impenitent reprobates as they are enemies to the common-wealth of Israel 3 The surviving Horatius in Florus killed his own sister Florus l. 1. because she wept on the slain body of an enemy to the Romans All plagues implor'd by my just wrath on thee Befall let none thou sufferest lighter be As Achimenides in Sicily Was left the Trojan Navy being nigh Achimenedes son of Adamantus one of Ulysses souldiers was left in Polyphemus den till Aeneas three moneths after relieved him 1 When a jade is tir'd and overworn give one his skin to knock him in the head When a silk-worm hath done his work let him flie or die when the war is off and the Generals design and aim attained let the souldier after sink or swim the Amalekite howsoever was too blame that left his servant or souldier sick in the field 2 Sam. 30.23 much more is he that leaves him in a dungeon 415. Be thou as double-named Irus poor Of beggers on the bridge make thou one more Irus was first named Arnaeus afterwards Irus from Iris for as Iris the Rainbow is the messenger or servant to Juno that is the Air so was Irus to the Woers of Penelope he had a singular art in begging and hence came the Adage Iro pauperior Poorer then Irus Ulysses with his fist cuffed him and killed him Beggers commonly sit on a bridge where most passengers do resort 1 Poverty is to any ingenious spirit the extremest misery 2 A serving-man young a begger old chiefly if his master be luxurious or lascivious for when he hath consumed his revenue himself and his retinue must beg or steal When the prodigal feeds upon husks what reversion falls to his needy greedy servants share 3 Roman masters in their manumission by a cuff on the ear put their slaves free into the world but Ulysses freely cuffed Irus out of the world Pray still to Ceres son but still in vain Call still upon him yet no riches gain Plutus son of Ceres is feigned to be the God of riches and to lie in the subtreranean parts of Spain which coast abounds with Minerals but many Authors conclude that Plutus is the same with Pluto the God of hell son in law to Ceres 1 In the division of the world between the three sons of Saturne the heavens were allotted to Jupiter the seas to Neptune and hell to Pluto that is Jupiter reigned in the Orient called the superiour part whence light ascends Sandys as the occident the inferiour assigned to Pluto This tradition is derived from the partition of the earth between the three sons of Noah Sem Ham and Japhet And because the Western Climats where Pluto reigned abounded with gold and silver wrapped in the secret bowels of the earth he was called the infernal Deity or the God of riches as his name importeth Nor unaptly were riches feigned to proceed from hell which have carried such a number thither This God is painted lame and winged for wealth comes halting to the honest but gallops on Pluto's black horses unto others Because the waters ebb and flow the sand Is slippy on 't no foot can stedfast stand So let thy mean estate still melt away And slip between thy fingers day by day As he whose girle a thousands shapes did trie So be thou full and yet with famine die Erisichthon a Thessalian despising the Gods cut down a grove dedicated to Ceres and was therefore punished with unsatiable hunger so eating his own flesh notwithstanding Metra his daughter that could change her self into divers shapes was contented often to be sold to gain whereby to feed her father 1 Groves were consecrated to some Deity or other because such shady and delightful places affected the mind and reduc'd it to sequestred contemplations composing the thoughts and inspiring a secret propensity to devotion begetting an apprehension of some latent or hidden power But what being well applied might nourish devotion
tower of brass Therefore I say unto all Watch. At Phoebus altar sacrifice thy breath Conquer'd Theodotus suffer'd such a death Theodotus presuming to be called King of Bactrians was overcome by Arsaces King of Persia and after sacrificed by him to Apollo the God of Learning 1 Were all the enemies to Apollo and Learning sacrified upon altars revived Muses would again ascend their own Parnassus pluck down their harps from the mournfull willows and be re-adorned with their wonted joyfull bayes Knowledge hath no worse enemy then impudent ignorance Ahab was punished for sparing Benhadad the enemy of God Amici much more inimici vitia fi feras facis tua Connivance at sin is compliance with sin 465. Thee let Abdera one day vote to dye Let stones upon thy head like hailstones flye People of Abdera a town in Thracia the native place of Democritus the Philosopher and Protagoras at the beginning of each year were wont to vote one man for the Common-wealth to dye and he was stoned 1 The ancient Jewes at the Feast of Expiation used to offer two Goats Godwins Moses and Aaron whereof one was sacrificed on the head of the other called the Scape-Goat the Priest disburdened the sins of the whole congregation and let him scape into the wilderness By the scape Goat is shadowed the impassibility of Châ—ists divine nature by the other his sufferings in his manhood The modern Jews upon the same day the Men take a white Cock and the Women a Hen and thrice swinging it about the Priests head do thus speak This Cock shall be a propitiation for me And why a Cock because say they Gibher hath sinned therefore Gibher shall make satisfaction Now Gibher in Hebrew signifies a man in their Talmud a Cock Hence I conceive came that common saying oftner read then understood Albo Gallo ne manum admoliaris Lay not thy hand upon a white Cock that is Rob not God of his offering The Grecians at the yearly expiation of their Cities tumbled down condemned persons into the sea saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be thou a propitiation for us So in a great infection they sacrificed men and called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle useth both these words 1 Cor. 4.13 We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filth and off-scouring We are as odious and laden with cursing and reviling as those persons who were offered up by way of publick expiation Christ was made a sin for us sinners and freely offered himself for us the just for the unjust Or lâ—ke Hippomenes son Jove in his ire With bolts thee kill or like Dosithoes sire 1. Prester son of Hippomenes railed at Jupiter for that he had justly thrown his father out of his kingdome for his cruelty and was therefore killed with a thunder-bolt but Vegetius reports this of Capaneus son of Hipponous 1 To make and not execute laws is to make a private mans offence the sin of the publick For to omit the punishment of it Dal. Aph. is to commit it 2 To take offence at the just punishment of the offender is to disapprove justice and approve the offence Such a reviler should be whipt into good manners and obedience for example lest he breaks forth into like enormities and draw more after him Caesar when his Nobles could not come to his royal Feast for tempests commanded his Archers to shoot up arrows at Jupiter in heaven but they turned back on their own heads No sin of Israel was so grievous to to God as Murmuring Repine not when God doth punish the sins of thy friend lest he dip his arrows in thy bloud too 2. Atrax was slain by a thunder-bolt for destroying his own daughter Dofithoae because she â—ay with Jupiter 1 In the hands of a Parent is the power of correction not destruction of their children Parents should pray that God would give their sinful children grace and time to repent not ungraciously to cut off their time of repentance by untimely death The Magistrate beareth the sword in vain if a private person may execute publick justice 2 Divine vengeance will not leave cruelty unrevenged Therefore if thy brother offend forgive him seventy times seven times considering that if God should call thee to an account thou canst not answer one of a thousand Si quoties homines peccant sua fulmina mittat Jupiter c. When the child falls into a gross offence put thy hand into thy own bosome and ask What have I done Autonoes sister Maia's sisters son 470. Or that unskilful Coachman Phaeton 1. Semele sister of Autonoe daughter of Cadmus having too often injoyed the company of Jupiter at last denied him any further approch unless he came to her as to Juno with the ensigns of his deity he embracing her with lightning and thunder killed her 1 Those who too curiously and boldly search into Divine Majestie shall be oppressed with the brightness of his glory 2 Jupiter and Juno are said to couple with thunder and lightning because lightning and thunder proceed from the conjunction of the etherial heat and acrial cold Jupiter had a three-forked thunder-bolt so there be three sorts of lightning the drier dissipates the moister blasts the other melts money in bags and swords in scabbards instantly lifting up liquor in vessels without breach or impair to the thing contained slaying Infants in the womb without mortal prejudice to the mother By the variety of lightning learn that God doth not equally punish all offenders 3 Be not unequally yoked Semele is an unfit match for Jupiter Si qua velis aptè nubere Ovid. nube pari If the Earthen pot swims with the Brazen one touch will break it Pry not peep not into the Ark The Satyr kissing the lightning burned his lips The Flie busie with the Candle burns her wings The common people must not come nigh the Hill where was lightning and thunder lest they die Exod. 19. Be content with things revealed thinking thy self happy that God hath made thee of his court though not of his counsel B. Hall 2. Porphyrion son of Sisyphus by Ops following the wicked example of his father was slain by a thunder-bolt 1 Patris ad exemplum soboles componitur omnis Though original sin be derived by propagation yet actual sins are for the most part committed by imitation and example Patterns work upon us more thâ—n precepts A good father is like a sweet oyntment perfuming all the house but a wicked one is worse then the fiery serpent he stings the children to death of body and soul Follow not a multitude to sin much less a single person though he be thy father lest like sin draw on like judgment 3. Phaeton son of Sol and Clymene obtained of his father leave to rule his chariot one day but for want of strength and skill the Horses ran so near they had almost burn'd the earth had not Jupiter struck him down with a Thunder-bolt 1 God could not punish a
man more sometimes then in granting him his desires The father here grants what an enemy would have wished thus ruine comes by indulgence For History Phaeton King of the The sports is feigned to be son of Phoebus and to fall from his chariot in that he first assayed to find out the course of the Sun but was prevented by death Nat. Com. In that time abundance of fire fell from heaven therefore he is said to burn the world Physically Phaeton as his name signifies is a bright and burning inflammation which proceeds from the Sun Clymene his mother is water from whom the Sun attracts those exhalations these set on fire produce a vehement heat which thunder and lightning follow hence he is said to be struck with lightning by Jupiter For Morality Behold here a rash and ambitious Prince presented to the life inflamed with desire of rule The horses of the Sun are the common people unruly and prone to innovation who finding the weakness of their Prince flie into all exorbitances so to a general confusion As Aeolus son and one of that fierce straine Whence Arctos came that seldome threatens rain 1. Salmonius son of Aeolus not the King of the winds was King of Elis where he built a City not so contented he gave out that he was Jupiter and to gain credit to his report he feigned thunder and lightning by ratling of brass pans and drums in his coach and casting up squibs into the aire at last Jupiter by true thunder killed him 1 Content is a lesson too hard for the headst of the highest forme a King We seldome see an humble Prince but we commonly see proud beggars 2 Tempests beat at lofty Cedars and thunder smites the highest mountains when humble shrubs and lowest vallies be in safety 3 We may and must imitate our Redeemer as he is Man in Mercy and Humility not as he is God in Miracles and Majesty 2. Menius son of Lycaon brother of Calistho that was turned into a dry Star in the North called Arctos seeing his father turned into a Wolfe and his house on fire railed against Jupiter and was therefore slain with a thunder-bolt 1 The voice of a King is like the roaring of a Lion but the voice of God like thunder A King will do what pleaseth him and who dare say what doest thou Eccles 8.3 Who art thou then that contendest with thy Maker who is just in all his works and holy in all his wayes A swine will cry a Lamb is dumb at the slaughter so is the good Christian and the bad under the hand of affliction Better with Eli say It is the Lord let him do what he pleaseth or with the Church to tremble at the judgment of God upon Ananias c. then as Jobs wife bid her husband curse God and die If we kick against the pricks we shall like stubborn Jades be kick'd and prick'd the more As Macedon by lightning and her mate Were burn'd on thee fall like avenging fate Macedon a Queen of Macedonia with her husband for their impiety were both burned to death with lightning 1 It is dangerous when subjects in a kingdome do give themselves over to impiety for when the Body Natural or Politick is diseased it will affect or infect the Head More dangerous when the sickness begins in the head for all the members are apt to sympathize Regis ad exemplum Therefore Jeroboam in holy Writ is so often famed with this infamous addition Jeroboam the son of Nebat that caused Israel to sin Though virtue seems more amiable vice seemes more imitable chiefly in a Prince Therefore the strumpet Lais boasted that she had a greater company at her school then Socrates at his 475. Those tear thee whom Latona hath exil'd From Delos ' cause young Thrasus they had kill'd Thrasus a young man coming to offer sacrifice in Diana's Temple was killed by dogs therefore she commanded that no dogs should ever after come near that place and sent a plague among them 1 Thus the Devil that hellish Cerberus who is like a dog in a manger is most busie in tempting us when we are most busie in serving God So Pharaoh was never so violent against Israel as when they were departing from Egypt towards Canaan And have not later ages afforded some snarling curres to bite and blind whelps to bark at us when we offer to serve the true God in his holy Temple God sent Lions among the Assyrians for hindering devotion 2 Kings 17. and plagues upon the Egyptians Beware of the concision beware of dogs Or those tore him that spi'd Diana bare Or Linus who was King Crotopus heir 1. Diana bathing her self in the valley of Gergaphia Acteon by chance beheld her naked the blushing and angry Goddess transformes him into the shape of a long-liv'd Hart and his dogs tore him in pieces 1 Some Authors report that Diana possessed his dogs with an imagination that their master was a Hart. And perhaps they ran mad in the Canicular dayes Sandys through the power of the Moon that is Diana augmented by the entrance of the Sun into Leo and what force then could resist the worrying of their master Some do aver that Lucian the Apostata and Atheist came to the like end But this Fable may teach us what dangerous curiosity it is to search into the secrets of Princes or by chance to discover their nakedness who thereby incurring their hatred ever after live the life of an Hart full of fear and suspicâ—on often accused by their own servants to their utter ruine Let us therefore guard our eyes and ears nor desire to know or see more then concern us Acteon may be said to cast off the mind of a man and degenerate into a beast when he neglected the pursuit of virtue and heroick actions Some imagine that he is said to be devoured of his hounds because he was impoverished by maintaining them but what was that expence unto a Prince I rather agree with those that think it was by maintaining ravenous and riotous scycophants who have too oft exhausted the Exchequers of wealthy Princes and reduced them to extreme necessity Those whom we feed at our own tables will first seek to cut our throats 2. Linus son of Apollo and Psammate daughter of Crotopus King of the Argives in fear of her fathers wrath was hidden among sedge where dogs came and devoured him 1 Indulgence of too kind mothers hath I confess undone more children but severity of unkind fathers hath destroyed too many Some flying the fury of a dogged father have desperately dispatched themselves by a dogs death Art thou a father take heed lest by cruelty to thy own child thou prove to thy own self as Menedemus Heautontimorumenos thy own tormentor Be stung of venemous Snakes no less then she 480. Oeägrus daughter by Calliope Euridice wife to Orpheus son of Oeägrus and Calliope sporting among the herbs and flowers was stung by a Serpent
upon a Countrey rich in the plenties of a long peace and full with the surfeit of continual ease it never leaves purging those superfluities till all be wasted and consumed Thus the roaring Lion of hell falls upon a soul being full and secure As to Lycurgus son that climb'd a tree And Idmon bold a Bore thy ruine be 1 Butes whom some authors call Ancaus or Angaeus son of Lycurgus King of Thrasia being fiercely pursued by a Bore climbed a tree but before he was up the Bore pulled him down again and slew him 1 This when we are climbing the tree of knowledge and sublime understanding of divine truth that Bore of the wilderness the Heretick labours to pluck us back into errours Thus when we are ascending the tree of life towards heaven that Serpentine Satan indeavours to draw us back into deadly sin and damned Hell 2. Idmon a southsayer among the Argonauts was in Bythinia slain by a Bore 1 Southsayers and Astrologers can foreshew to others what evils they may shun but cannot prevent what hangeth over their own heads Thales gazing on the Stars fell into a ditch Nequicquam sapit qui sibi non sapit If thou be wise be wise unto thy self The Bell rolls in others to sermon but hears not a word it self Moses brought the Israelites to Canaan but entred not in himself Many I fear shew others the way to heaven and come short themselves Sic vos non vobis mellificatis Apes A Bore thy deaths wound give when he is dead As upon whom fell such a creatures head Thoas a famous hunter in Andragathia was wont to hang on a tree the head and feet of all he caught as a sacrifice to Diana at last having got a mighty Bore he kept the feet and hang'd up onely the head by a string which fell upon him being a sleep under the tree 1 Although the Priests were allowed part of the Jewish sacrifice the whole was offered unto God 2 If so fearful and sudden death befell Ananias and Saphira because they detained part of their own gift devoted to the Church Acts 5. what may sacrilegious latrons expect who never gave to the Church as much as one of the widows mites yet take from it to their own use the most part of that was given to others 3 Offer not to God the blind or the lame serve not God by halfes but give him the honour due unto his name being Holocausts whole presents to him theâ— ought to be feared God might justly require all yet he accepts the tenths of our means and the seventh of our time shall we grudge him that God forbid 505. Like them be thou whom fruit of Pine-tree kill'd As Phrygia's hunter and Berentius child Atys a Phrygian hunter and Nauclus son of Berentius sleeping under a Pine-tree were both slain by apples falling from the same tree 1 Mille modis morimur mortales nascimur uno By one way we are born by thousands we die As God can save by small means so he can destroy Death is a long sleep and sleep a short death some have fallen into such a deadly sleep they never waked Lie down therefore with the Prophet Davids petition in thy mouth or heart Lord lighten mine eyes that I sleep not in death Psal 13. And if to Minos sands thou voyage make Let Cretians thee for a Sicilian take For the death of Minos King of Crete killed in Sicilia by King Cocalus or his daughter in the pursuit after Daedalus the Cretians ever since so hate that people that they put all to death that arrive in those coasts 1 The Aspick pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his mate and knows him among a multitude him he still hunteth and laieth for his life breaking through all difficulties and dangers to come unto him Dall Aph. So is revenge furiously out-ragious and out-ragiously furious Yea for the cause of one single person families cities kingdoms fall at variance and hardly or never be reconciled In revenge of one Dinah Simeon and Levi destroyed all the Sichemits Gen. 34. but cursed was their wrath Gen. 49.7 510. As to Alebas daughter it befell And to her husband let a house thee quell Alcidice daughter of Alebas a Larissean with her husband Lycoris by the fall of their house were slain 1 Whether these persons suffered this punishment for any offence to the Gods for the father Alebas was an oppressour or their house fell by chance I read not But holy Writ reports that while Jobs children were rioting the house fell down and killed them I will wind up this apâ—lication with our Saviours caveat unto the Jews and in them to all Thinke ye that those on whom the tower of Shilo fell were greater sinners more then you verily I say unto you except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13. As Tiberinus and Evenus nam'd The streams where they were drown'd be thou so fam'd Tiberinus or Tiberius King of the Albans was drowned in the river Albiola which since is called Tibris or Tiberis after his name So Evenus son of Mars and Marpesse was drowned in the river Lycormas and gave that river his name Evenus 1 The noblest honour the ancients could invent for the dead was a glorious Monument with their Names Titles and Deserts but Auson Mors etiam faxis nominibusque venit Death as well seizeth upon Monuments as Men. 2 Immortal fame was the utmost hope of the Heathen after death And what more doth that Christian expect who takes more care to have houses called of his name then his soul in an heavenly mansion The Lord be pleased to write my name in the book of life then let my fame on earth be as mortal as my body As Hyrtacus his son one fix thee dead Upon a stake let mans food be thy head Nisus son of Hyrtacus adventuring to redeem his friend Eurialus being caught by the army of the Kutilians willingly endured the same death with him their bodies were cast to be eaten by men and their heads put upon stakes 1 He that is a friend to all is a friend to none he that sincerely is a friend to one is truly a friend to himself for a friend is second self Let no man therefore like Janus bear two faces under one hood nor blow hot and cold out of one mouth Let friends like Harpocrates twins laugh and cry together partake and sympathize in every estate Learn of our voluntary friend and undeserved Saviour that freely died not with us but for us not for his friends but enemies 515. As Brotheus did when death was his desire Thy body cast into a flaming fire Brotheus son of Minerva by Vulcan because he was jeered for his deformed body cast himself into the fire and died 1 Vasius that deformed Roman to prevent others would first jeer himself 2 What nature fails in one is recompenced in another part Who more ugly shapen then Aesop who more ingenious
till they drink and then can much less rest till they die It is a fools paradise and wilful unquietness 2 Ambition is still climbing but not on Jacobs ladder for the higher it mounts the farther it is from heaven yet this sin doth ambitiously insinuat among the best as Satan among the children of God Joh 1. It crept into the very hearts of Christs own disciples they strove as Lycophron who should be the greatest Let kinsfolks through a wood thy torn limbs rake As him at Thebes whose grandsire was a snake Pentheus grand-child of Cadmus that was turned into a Snake despising the religion in Thebes established by Bacchus the God of wine notwithstanding the counsel and requests of Cadmus and Athamas with all speed would alter it His mother with his Aunt 's Ino and Autonöe all distracted with the fury of Bacchus supposing Pentheus to be a Bore transfixed him with Javelins and tore him in pieces 1 Noah was first after the flood that planted vineyards and taught men the use of wine therefore some write that of Noachus he was called Boachus Sandys and afterwards by the Heathens Bacchus by contraction or ignorance of Etymology 2 Nothing as King Pentheus well perceived can more please the vulgar then Innovation of government and religion to this they do throng in multitudes 3 Wise Princes should rather endeavour to pacifie then violently oppose a popular fury which like a torrent breaks all before it but being let alone exhausteth it self and is easily suppressed Reformation is therefore to be wrought by degrees lest through their too forward zeal they encounter too strong opposition and ruine themselves and the cause as this Pentheus did 3 The blind rage of superstition extinguisheth all affection Agave murders her own son and their Aunt their Nephew Nor have the latter ages been unacquainted with such horrors Or as th' imperious wife of Lycas thou Be dragg'd by Bulls along a mountain brow Lycas King of Boeotia first married Antiopa she was got with child by Epopus and was brought to bed of Zethus and Amphion whom she fathered upon Jupiter Dirce second wife to Lycas caused Antiopa to be bound with chains by prayer to Jupiter her chains are loosed and she freed her sons drag Dirce at Bulls tailes the Gods turn her into a fountain 1 Many sin willingly as Antiopa and lay the blame on God whereas God tempteth no man to that which he hateth forbiddeth and punisheth but every man is tempted of his own lust 2 Adultery overthrows whole families Antiopa was the cause of her own divorce and imprisonment or her husbands death and the murder of Dirce. 3 In distress as Antiopa pray unto God he will not onely loose thy chains and open the prison gate as to Paul and Sylas but in the end he will loose the chains of death and open the prison of the grave 535. As th' Harlots to her sisters husband let Thy tongue cut out fall down before thy feet Tereus ravished Philomela his wises sister and cut out her tongue Progne revengeth it by killing their son Itys Tereus is turned into a Lapwing Philomela into a Nightingall and Progne to a Swallow of this read more before 1 Pausanias observeth that no Nightingall doth sing nor Swallow build in Thracia as hating the countrey of Tereus But where Swallows build the Archietecture of their nest is admirable and to rob it or pull it down was among some people held not onely unfortunate but sacrilegious When cold weather comes and Flies which are their chiefest food be gone they creep into the clefts of rocks or sink to the bottom of a water Mr Burton and Mr Sandys do report that it is not extraordinary to draw Swallows out of some ponds with the fish which do seem dead but being put in a stove or to the fire they revive and take them to their wing As Blesus that knew Myrrha dull'd to a tree So childless found mayst thou in all parts be Blesus it seems first knew the virtue of the Myrrhe tree for he was childless And Dioscorides saith that Myrrhe openeth the Matrix and helpeth child-birth and why not child-begetting Ovid here wisheth Ibis that though he should change many climats and many wives yet he should still be childless Which doubtless is an heavy curse and reproch to man as Barrenness among the Jews was to a woman For he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them See more of Myrrha before 1 Myrrha is feigned to be turned into a tree because after that horrid fact in the fruition of her own fathers bed she ever after hid her self and though unsensibly she shed bitter tears for her transgression signified by the gumme distilled from that tree 2 This tree doth prosper the better when the root is boared and distills most juyce in blustering winds So an upright setled mind remains immoveable and I bears most fruits of virtue in the stormes of envy and affliction appearing more comfortable and glorious being oppressed Virescit vulnere virtus Let busie Bees fix in thine eyes their stings 540. Such creatures to Achaeus did like things Achaeus devising a Poem in his garden was stung in the eyes with bees and so made blind 1 Thus envious enemies of the Gospel of peace as busie bees or rather wasps put pricks in our eyes to blind us that we might not see the truth But behold and tast that honey-like comfort of the sweet singer of Israel They came about me like bees yet they are extinct as the fire among the thornes for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them Nay they will destroy themselves As wheresoever a bee stings she leaves her sting behind and then turns a buzzing idle drone despicable to all ingenious industrious bees Fixt to a rock gnaw'd be thy bowels as He to whom Pyrrha brothers daughter was Prometheus brother to Epimetheus that was father of Pyrrha for his bringing fire out of heaven unto earth was bound on the hill Caucasus where an Eagle fed upon his heart 1 Menander the Greek Poet thinks that Prometheus was thus tormented not because he brought fire from heaven but because he bought woman which is worse into the earth 2 Our daily labours be refreshed by sleep at night as Prometheus heart Cura cor urit Renew the pattern of Thyestes meat Thee like Harpagus son thy father eat Harpagus because he killed not Cyrus as his grand father King Astyages had commanded him was invited by the King to a feast where Harpagus own son was the chiefest dish being killed and his limbs sod and rost Read this history at large in Justin l. 1. So was Thyestes served by his brother Atreus Good Authors do relate this of Harpalice who being forced by her father Clymenus when she was delivered killed the child and made it for her fathers table Of Thyestes read before 1 Maugre all the bloudy malice and preventing plots of Astyages Cyrus his grandchild and
that name son of Mino◠and Pasiphäe playing with a tennis-ball fell into a barrel of honey and there died Polyidus a Physician was shut up with the dead body in a room that he might restore him to life Seeing a Serpent coming towards the body he provoked him on purpose to be killed by him but by chance he killed the Serpent Another Serpent comes to the dead Serpent and with an herb revives it Polyidus with the same herb restores to life the dead body of young Glaucus 1 If by playing with the unconstant ball of the world we are drowned in mellifluous pleasures whereby our souls are dead in sins and trespasses none but Polyidus our knowing Physician Christ by the sovereign herb of grace can revive us to evarlasting life Or guilty drink with trembling hand that cup Which Socrates undauntedly suck'd up Socrates though by the Oracle of Apollo he was accounted the wisest and by the vote of all men the honestest yet by three envious neighbours Anytus Lycon and Melytus being falsly accused he was by the Judges condemned so drunk to his enemy Anytus a cup of poyson wherewith he died 1 There are sons of Belial knights of the post knaves that be-lie-all by false accusation will soon hang one true honest man And what will not malice and envy act chiefly being back'd with power rather then not see his neighbours two eyes out the envious man will gladly pluck out one of his own Those persecuting prosecutors of Socrates some were banished someslain Pilat though he knew that the Jews had delivered Jesus onely for envy yet condemned him He having drank of gall and vinegar a health to his enemies died upon the Cross but the Traytor suffered a more dishonourable death If thou dost love the steps of Haemon tread 560. As Macareus do thou thy sister wed Haemon married his own sister Rhodope therefore the Gods revenging so foul a fact turned them both into mountains 1 Peruse the histories of all the ancient authors and you will scarce find one among an hundred of that unlucky brood sprung from incestuous parents but was monstrously inhumane and bloudy and the end of the parents ominous Haemon and Rhodope were turned into mountaines In mountains and hills brute beasts do promiscuously couple without distinction or relation of brother sister dam or sire I hope this beastly heathenish vice is not so much as named among Christians therefore it shall not defile my pen nor offend my readers eyes or ears for me Concerning Macareus and Canace read before See thou as when the fire burn'd all things down What Hectors son did from his fathers town How Ulysses cast down Astyanax son of Hector from the walls of Troy read before Perish like him whose grand-sire was his sire His sister mother by incestuous fire Adonis begotten by Cynaras on his own daughter Myrrha was slain by a bore whose death Venus lamented with bitter tears and converted him into a flower which some call Anemony 1 Men of excellent beauties have been subject to miserable destinies Rarò forma viris impunita fuit 2 This lamentation for Adonis is mentioned under the name Tammuz which Jerom takes for Adonis but Tremelius for Osyris Ezech. 8. Allegorically both are one Now Adonis was no other then the Sun adored under that name by the Phoenicians Sandys as Venus by the name Astarten for the Naturalists call the upper Hemisphere of the earth which we inhabit Venus the lower part Proserpina Venus wept when Adonis was dead so when the Sun enters into the six Winter-signs of the Zodiack the widdowed earth weeps overflowed with raine Adonis in the Hebrew signifieth Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Sun is Lord of all the Planets Adonis was killed by a bore so the savage horrid winter delighting in mire and cold like a bore unfit for Venus doth as it were kill the Sun diminishing his heat and lustre Thus not onely the factious little foxes of schisme do pluck off her grapes but the wild bore of Heresie endeavours to root up and kill the vineyard the Church of Christ 565. Let such a kind of dart in thy bones stick As Icarus son-in-law to death did prick Ulysses husband of Penelope who was Icarus daughter was slain by a dart thrown unawares from the hand of his own son Telegonus near his Palace in Ithaca after that he had returned safe from Troy 1 No General though so wise valiant and triumphant as Ulysses having passed the pikes pistols and swords of the enemy can scape the dart of the last enemy which is death and that if providence so permit by the hand of one that is most near dear Alexander that conquered all the world was killed by a cup of wine from his own Butlers hand 2 The time manner and place of death is as much uncertain as death it self is certain Let us therefore with the Poet think everyday the last let us with Job expect every hour till our change come let us still pray with the Church From sudden death good Lord deliver us Like Anaxarchus be in morter pound Thy scatter'd bones like common grain resound Anaxarchus a Philosopher of Abdera being condemned by Nicocrean Tyrant of Cyprus to be pound with iron pestels in a morter suffered that torment so undauntedly that he often repeated this memorable speech Pound Tyrant pound Anaxarchus his wind-bag thou poundest not Anaxarchus Being threatned that his tongue should be cut out he bit it off in pieces and spit it in the Tyrants face 1 I do confess that this Heathen was an unparalell'd piece of Heroick valour but it merits the title of an effect of revengeful active malice rather then a testimony of patient passive martyrdome in comparison of Christians Hear the language of Saint Laurence who being laid naked on a burning gridiron is reported to have said thus Tyrant turn the other side this is broyl'd enough Those glorious Martyrs in Queen Maries fierce persecution kissed the flame and clipped the stake being fully assured that upon the wheels of faith in that fiery chariot with Elijah they should be carried into heaven And as the pratler off his horse fell dumb 570. The passage of thy throat choke with thy thumb Agenor a pratler not sparing Jupiter himself in his reviling talk fell off his horse and choked himself with his own thumb 1 Nature it self hath bound the tongue to the good behaviour and shut it within the outward prison of the lips and the inward of the teeth yet the unruly member is alwayes apt to break out But for so little a creature to flie out against Jupiter her Creator deserves death not onely sudden but eternal Like Psamate's father thee let Phoebus throw To deepest hell he us'd his daughter so Orchamus King of Babylon perceiving that his daughter Leucothōe had lain with Apollo buried her alive Apollo not able to revive her sprinkled Nectar upon her grave whence a Frankincense tree
ascended and used her father as he had used his daughter 1 See here the disposition of a cruel father though the offence of a child be great the punishment of a father should be gentle Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est patri It is unnatural for a man to be cruel Terence whose name should mind him of pity Homo ab humanitate but for a father to be cruel is hard and barbarous 2 Frankincense serves for many uses in Physick whereof Apollo is the God It grows in Sabaea as naturally loving heat therefore Apollo and LeucothoÌ„e are feigned reciprocal lovers 2 Frankincense smells not sweet unless it be melted by the Sun or fire so prayers in themselves have no savour unless inflamed with zeal and devotion expressed in the Ceremonial Law by the Censer Such monster spoil Thine as Chroraebus kill'd That ease unto poor Grecians did yield Linus begot by Apollo upon Psamathe daughter of Crotopus King of Argives was killed by his grandfathers dog In revenge whereof Apollo sent a monster to plague the Countrey called Paena that would pull the Infants from the mothers breast and kill them before their faces This monster was slain by Choraebus 1 A trivial saying there is that Wine Women and Dogs be the occasions of most part of mischiefs 2 For a personal offence though suffered not acted comes a National punishment as here for Crotopus dogs This Monster may be some filthy catching disease as the small Pox that plucks away and destroyeth Infants Choraebus the skilful Physician Conquers and kills it 575. As Aethra's Nephew slain by Venus wrath Let scared horses drag thee unto death Hippolitus son of Theseus by Antiope who had denied Venus a courtesie upon false accusation of his step-mother Phaedra that he should tempt her chastity was by his credulous father abjur'd and cursed to death which Neptune accomplished for the horses of Hippolitus affrighted with a sea calf threw him down and dragg'd him to pieces on the â—ock Aesculapius restores him to life and changeth his ominous name Hippolitus to Virbius signifying twice a Man 1 Curses of parents fall heavy upon children though undeserved 2 Rash belief is the author of much mischief and unsuspended wrath of too late repentance The chast youth suffers for anothers inchastity but virtue though for a time afflicted cannot be finally suppressed 3 This Virbius by some is thought to be a cunning impostor suborned by the Priests of Diana Aricina to draw a greater concourse to that grove that their gain may increase by more frequent devotion And have not others in later dayes used such incredible forgeries to serve their own turn One host for his great wealth his guest did slay For thy small wealth thy host make thee away Polymnestor to enjoy the gold sent by King Priamus to him with his son Polydorus killed the young Prince his pupil Read more before 1 The wisest Creator hath placed the basest part of his creatures as gold and silver under our feet the noblest over our heads on purpose that we should neglect and scorn the one admire and love the other yet we by a simple conversion or Hysteron Proteron embrace the worst and slight the best trampling under foot affinity consanguinity fidelity yea Christianity and humanity it self for filthy lucres sake losing the crown of glory to gain a crown in gold Virgil. Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames With Damasicthon were six brothers slain 580. So of thy kin let none alive remaine Amphion King of Thebes had by Niobe seven daughters and seven sons whose names were Ismenus Siphus Phedinus Tantalus Alphenor Damasicthon and Ilioneus The daughters were slain by Diana and the sons by Apollo's arrows because Niobe presumed to prefer her self before Latona and Niobe was turned into a Marble 1 Wealth and honour ingender pride in the hearts of Mortals whence proceeds the contempt of God and man and insolent forgetfulness of humane instability Thus from the height of glory by divine vengeance they are made spectacles of calamity and subject to their pity whom they formerly despised so wanting valour to support and virtue to make use of afflictions with immoderate sorrow they are besotted and stupified like stones 2 A raging plague in Boeotia swept away the children of Niobe with other people which is caused by extreme heat and contagious vapors signified by Apollo's arrows and Diana Niobe is said to be turned into a stone because excessive sorrow made her sensless Senec. Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent The Harper to his children joyn'd his death So be thou justly weary of thy breath Amphion husband of Niobe son of Jupiter and Antiopa was brought up among shepherds and taught Musick by Mercury he built the walls of Thebes with stones drawn thither by playing on his instrument Afterwards outbraving Apollo and Diana he was killed 1 Amphion the Musician is son of Jupiter because that Musick is from God Or Jupiter is the air because as Jupiter gave life to Amphion so doth air unto Musick Amphion was bred among shepherds for these people leading an idle life were invited to invent Musick by singing of birds whistling of winds and running of waters he was taught by Mercuâ—y to shew that Eloquence and Musick have equal power upon the affections Eloquence is a musical speech and Musick a speechless Eloquence He built Thebes by Musick that is Eloquence by it rude people are drawn to Religion Policy and Civility He out-braving Apollo and Diana the Sun and the Moon shews that Musick doth as much affect the soul by the Ear as light doth the Eye 2 Christ the heavenly Amphion by the harmony of his word hath made us being dead and scattered to become living stones toward thâ— building of his Church Amphion civiliz'd sensless creatures but could not charm his own wifes pride Christ could not cure the pride of the Jews whom he had married to himself He piped to them in the musick of the Gospel but they would not dance unto it by obedience Like Pelops sister hard'ned stone become Or Battus like whose tongue did make him dumb Niobe sister of Pelops was turned into Marble Battus a shepherd was turned into a Touch-stone by Mercury because when Mercury had stollen from Apollo some of the Cattel of Admetus he gave Battus a Cow to conceal the business which he vowed to do but Mercury having chang'd his habit promising Battus a cow and a bull he revealed to him where the cattel were therefore he was so punished 1 Mercury it seems was a very early thief for Homer reports that he stole those cattel the first day he was born Not long after he stole Apollo's arrows Vulcans tools Venus girdle Joves scepter when he was yet a child nay he had stole his lightning too but that he was afraid to burn his fingers 2 This fiction sheweth that Eloquence hath a bewitching power to deceive and that