flow silver streams of grace In whom all goodnesse and perfection dwels He was a harmlesse spotlesse Dove The Center of his Fathers love The object of my chief desires And he in whom my soul respires Who on the wing of his Divinity Was elevated far above our sight And now inhabits that eternall light Which with our mortall eyes we cannot see He Nectar of his merit pow'rs Before his Father and down show'rs On us his graces from above Out of the bottles of his love O if some cloud-dividing Eagle would Under my feet spread forth his airy wings And lift my minde from these inferiour things That I my God in glory might behold Lord let my prayer pierce the skies And from the bottles of mine eyes Receive the Nectar of my tears And drink them with thy gracious ears O if I could with Eagles pinions cleave The highest clouds and with their piercing eye Could my Redeemer in his glory see Triumphing over death and o're the grave And as the Eagles do repair To places where dead bodies are So where thy flesh is Lord let me Resort that I may feed on thee And when my soul shall leave this house of clay Command thy winged Messengers who still Are ready to obey thy blessed will To be my soul-supporters in that day And in the Resurrection When soul and body meets in one Let them uphold me then and there Where I shall meet thee in the air GENII THese were the sons of Iupiter and Terra in shape like men but of an uncertain sex every man had two from his nativitie waiting on him till his death the one whereof was a good Genius the other a bad the good ones by some are called Lares the bad Lemures and by Tertullian and his Commentator Pamelius they are all one with the Daemones they were worshipped in the forme of Serpents THE MYSTERIES GEnius a gignendo for by them we are ingenerated and so whatsoever is the cause or help of our generation may be called Genius thus the elements the heavens the stars nature yea the God of nature in whom we live move and have our being may be called Genii in a large sence and Genii quasi Geruli a gerendo vel ingerendo from supporting us or from suggesting good bad thoughts into the mind therfore gerulofiguli in Plautus is a a suggestor of lyes and so by these Genii may be understood the good and bad Angels which still accompanie us and by inward suggestion stir us up to good or evill actions The form of Serpents in which the b Geni were worshipped doth shew the wise and vigilant care which the Angels have over us when after this life they punish us for sins they are called c Manes Therefore the Genii were painted with a platter full of flowers and garlands in one hand and a whip in the other to shew that they have power both to reward punish us They have oftentimes appeared in the forme of men therefore they are painted like men but they have no sex nor do they procreate for which cause perhaps the fruitfull Palm tree was dedicated to them with which also they were crowned because they were held of a middle kind between Gods and men they were called the sons of Iupiter and earth or rather in reference to Plato's opinion which held Angels to be corporeall our souls also are Genii which from our birth to our death do accompanie our bodies every mans desire and inclination may be called his Genius to which it seemes the Poet alluded saying an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido and perhaps Aristotles intellectus agens is all one with Plato's Genius for without this we have no knowledge because the passive intellect depends in knowledge from the active in receiving the species from it which by the active intellect is abstracted from time place and other conditions of singularitie and this is all one as if we should say we receive no information of good or evill but from our Genius and as the Gentiles beleeved the stars to be Genii so the Jews thought them to be Angels and that they were living creatures therefore they worshipded them called them the hoast of heaven but indeed Christ is our true Genius the great Angel who hath preserved and guarded us from our youth by whom we are both generated regenerated the brasen Serpent from whom we have all knowledge who alone hath power to reward and punish us who appeared in the forme of man and in respect of his 2 natures was the son of Iupiter and Terra of God and earth and who will never forsake us as Socrates his Genius did him at last who came not to affright us or to bring us the message of death as Brutus his Genius did to him but to comfort us and to assure of eternall life let us then offer to him the sacrifice not of blood crueltie or oppression which the Gentiles would not offer to their Genius thinking it unfit to take away the life of any creature that day in which they had received life themselves but let us offer the wine of a good life and the sweet fumes of our prayer a and let us not offend this our Genius or deprive him of his due but make much of him by a holy life and though the Gentiles assigned unto every man his Genius and Iuno to the women yea we know that Christ is the Saviour and keeper both of men and women that with him there is no difference of sex To what high dignity and place Hath God advanc'd our humane race To whose beak and command He did subdue all things that creep And flye within the air and deep And move upon dry land Besides heavens blessed Harbingers Gods nimble-winged Meslengers Are with a watchfull eye By his appointment to defend Us from all hurt and to attend On us continually Lord send to me these winged Posts And guard me with these heavenly hoasts From Satans pollicies And let them with their shady wings Protect me from all hurtfull things And from mine enemies And let this hoste in squadrons flye Before me Lord unclose mine eye That I may see my guard How with their Tents they me inclose And how they fight against my foes And keep their watch and ward And let these be my Tutors to Instruct my minde what it must do And how it must obey O by these sacred Pursuvants Shew me thy just commandements And guide me in my way And let these comforters asswage The pains of this my pilgrimage In my last agony Let these swift-winged Legions Through all the starry regions My soul accompany And when the trump Angelicall Shall sound which must awake us all And raise us from our dust Let these intelligences bring Me to the presence of my King And place me with the just O thou great Angel who hath still Been my protector from all ill
Apollos Temple as soone as he lands in Italy in his devout prayers he makes to Iupiter Apollo Venus and other gods piety also towards his old father in carrying him on his shoulders in bewailing of his death visiting of his tombe going down to hell to see him his love was great to his wife Creusa in lamenting and casting himself into open danger for her his love was great to his sonne Ascanius in the good breeding and counselling of him to Palinurus Mysenus and others his vigilancie in guiding the helme at midnight when his people were asleep his liberality to his souldiers his magnanimity constancie wisdome fortitude justice temperance are fit by all Princes to be imitated and the Aeneads to be diligently read He that would safely passe black Acheron And scape the dangers of hot Phlegeton Must carry with him Wisdoms golden rod Sybill must guide him that 's advice from God So shall he not fear dangers nor miscarry When Styx he crosseth in old Charons wherry What strength of Towns or Castles can withstand Sibyllas head-peece and a golden hand But yet beware of gold I would advise thee For gold ill got will down to Hell intice thee And if thou wouldst true gold and wisdom finde Seek after Christ and on him fix thy minde Be chaste like Doves and let Gods Word instruct thee There are the Doves which will to Christ conduct thee If Kings will fear great Jove who reigns above Then Vulcan Neptune Mercury and Love Shall serve them Juno's spight shall not destroy them Nor Aeolus with all his breath annoy them AEOLUS HE was Iupiters son a King over divers Ilands and reigned in a City walled with brasse he kept the Winds in a cave or hollow hill which at Iuno's request and promise of a marriage with her Nymph Deiopeia he let out against Aenaeas THE MYSTERIES HE is called Iupiters son because the winds are begotten by the influence and motion of the heavens 2. He was an Astronomer and could foretell stormes and calmes therefore it was thought he had the command of the winds 3. His City was said to be walled with brasse because it was guarded with armed men 4. He kept the winds in a hollow cave because some caves be full of vapors which sometimes burst forth with violence 5. He reigned over Ilands because they are most subject to storms 6. Iuno could not sinke Aenaeas his ships without the help of Aeolus neither can the aire violently worke if it be not moved by the vapors which are the winds or else without vapors by the Planets 7. The marriage between Aeolus and the sea Nymph shewes the relation that is between the wind and the sea 8. Hee may be called Aeolus and the God of winds that can curbe and keepe under anger and other unruly passions 9. It is a dangerous state when Iuno and Aeolus that is wealth and power band themselves against innocent men He 's Aeolus a God and not a man That anger can Subdue and keep unruly passions under He 's a wonder He is a King and stronger then the winde That curbs his minde It 's ill when wealth conspires with violence Gainst innocence That State 's a Sea Ships sink or drive on shoare When such storms roare AESCULAPIUS HE was the god of Physick and son of Apollo and Coronis the Nymph whom Apollo shot with his arrowes and cut out the child who was nursed by a goat or bitch as some would have it he relieved Rome from the plague in the forme of a Serpent being brought from Epidaurum in a ship he restored Hippolitus to life therefore was killed by Iupiters thunder THE MYSTERIES A Esculapius is the milde temper of the aire as the a word sheweth which is the effect of the Sun or Apollo and is the cause of health therefore Hygiaea and Iaso that is health and cure are the children of Aesculapius His mother is b Coronis or the due mixture and temper of the aire which because it depends from the influence o the Sun therefore Apollo is said to beget Aesculapius of her but when he killed her with his arrowes is meant that the Sun with his beames did over-heat and infect the aire with a pestilence 2. I had rather understand by this fiction the true temperament of a sound mans body caused by Apollo and Coronis that is the due proportion of the naturall heat and radicall moisture called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the true cause of health Then Coronis is killed with Apollo's arrowes when the naturall heat degenerats into a feverish inflammation and drieth up the moisture but when the heat returns to its former temper Aesculapius that is health is recovered and nourished by a goat because goats milke is good to feed and restore decayed nature 3. By this fiction I thinke is represented to us the properties of a good Physitian he is the son of Apollo and Coronis that is of knowledge and experience knowledge kills experience when the learned Physitian trusts not to experiments but by art and knowledge he cures for indeed in physick experience is little worth for what experience can one have of such infinite varieties of temperaments which are amongst men every man having a peculiar cóstitution which is also still differing from it selfe as Aesculapius was nursed by a goat or bitch so Physitians are maintained by gluttony and venery Chiron Saturns son was Aesculapius school-master for time hath brought the knowledge of physick to perfection or because Chiron being halfe a man and halfe a horse sheweth that a Physitian must be a Centaure that is a man in judgement and a horse in courage it is fit that Physitians should be brought to Rome that is to great Cities infected with sicknesse the Serpent Cock and Raven were consecrated to Aesculapius so was the Goat also to shew that a Physitian must have the Serpents wisdom the Cocks vigilancie the Ravens eye and forecast and the Goats swiftnesse for delayes are dangerous and if Physitians cure desperat diseases they must not be proud and attribute the glory to themselves or skill but to God lest they be punished in his just anger as Aesculapius was 4. Christ is the true Aesculapius the Sonne of God and the God of Physick who was cut out as it were of his mothers wombe by the power of God without mans help and cured all diseases the true brazen Serpent he only who was struck with the thunder-bolt of his Fathers wrath and sent to hell to deliver us from death and hell He that would prove a good Physitian Must be a Centaur that 's a horse and man And he that will keep men from Charons boat Must be a Cock a Crow a Snake a Goat Let him that 's sick and bruis'd who cryes and grones Repair to Christ he 'l heal the broken bones He can do more then Aesculapius Who brought from death to life torn Virbius He first subdu'd death in himself
and then Restor'd us all to life who were dead men Dead in our sins and dead in Gods just ire But Christ hath kill'd our death and quencht that fire Which doth torment and burn but not consume A fire which gives no light which yeelds no fume His death then is our life our drink his blood His stripes our physick and his flesh our food And when he comes again in Majestie To plague the workers of iniquity Sitting upon the clouds whose voice like Thunder Shall shake heav'ns Tower and cleave the earth in sunder Then will he raise all those that sleep in dust And crown with immortality the just ALPHAEUS HE was a great hunter and fell in love with the Nymph Arethusa who that shee might escape him was by the help of Diana turned into a Fountain and he afterward sorrowing became a River which still runs after Arethusa THE MYSTERIES ALphaeus is a River of Elis in Arcadia thorow secret passages running under the earth and sea empties it selfe in the spring Arethusa in Scicilie which though Strabo denieth it it cannot be otherwise seeing so many witnesses confirme that whatsoever is cast into Alphaeus is found in Arethusa 2. As this water running thorow the Sea loseth not its sweetnesse by receiving of any salt relish so neither must wee lose our integrity and goodnesse by conversing with the wicked 3. Husbands must learn from Alphaeus to be kind to their wives and to make them partakers of all their goods as Alphaeus imparts all it receives to Arethusa 4. We must never rest till wee have obtained him whom our soule loves the salt sea of afflictions and the distance of place must not hinder our course 5. Arethusa is from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} vertue which wee should still run after 6. Alphaeus is from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a spot we are full of spots and sin therefore had need to be washed in Arethusa that is in the water of Baptisme 7. This water was held good to kill the Morphew called therefore Alphos for which cause it was consecrated to Iupiter and it was unlawfull to wash the altar of Iupiter Olympius with any other water so Baptisme doth wash us from originall sinne and by it we are consecrated to God 8. Alphaeus is as much as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the light of truth which runs after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or vertue to shew that knowledge and theory should alwayes be joyned with goodnesse and practise As Arethusa running through the main Yet doth its taste and colour still retain Salt Doris cannot taint it let us then Be good still though we live with wicked men And as Alphaeus runs and will not stop Untill he rests in Arethusa's lap So run my soul untill thou be possess'd Of thy belov'd and of eternall rest And who would think that love could set on fire Cold waters chuse cold waters to desire Can Cupid wound a river can he scorch The sencelesse waters with his faming Torch No no but thou O Lord the God of Love Can wound my heart and warm it from above My cold and waterish heart to now inflame With love of thee that I my course may frame To thee through aâ—l the 〈◊〉 on cares and fears And through the salt sea also of my tears I am Alphaeus tho 〈…〉 â—hat living Well To which I run and where I hope to dwell AMPHION HE was Iupiters son of Antiopa she flying from Dirce to a solitary mountaine was there delivered and the child was brought up by shepheards he learned his musick of Mercury and received his Lute from him by the force of his musick he caused the stones to follow him with which the walls of Thebes were built but afterwards out-braving Latonas children and upbraiding them for want of skill was by her killed THE MYSTERIES AMphion was called Iupiters son because musick is from God or because the heavens by their perpetuall revolution shew that musick without continuall exercise cannot be attained unto or to shew that there is in the heavenly bodies a harmony as well as in musick or if by Iupiter we understand the air as sometimes Poets do then as Iupiter gave life to Amphion so doth air to musick for no sound either by voice instruments or water without air 2. Iupiter in the form of a Satyre begot Amphion Satyrs were great Dancers and dancing requires musick 3. Amphion was bred by shepherds for these living an idle and solitary life were invited to invent musick partly by the singing of birds and partly by the whisting of the wind among the trees or by the running of waters 4. He was born in a remote hill because musicall inventions require quietnesse and a private life far from troubles and businesse 5. Mercury taught him and gave him the Lute to shew the resemblance and equall power of eloquence and musick eloquence being a speaking harmony and musick a speechlesse eloquence the one by words the other by sounds working on the affections 6. His building Thebes walls by his musick shews what is the force of eloquence to draw rude people to religion policie and civility 7. His out-braving of Apollo and Diana doth not onely shew the insolencie and pride of some men when they have got some perfection in an Art but also I suppose may be meant the power and delight of musick that it no lesse affects and delights the soul by the ear then the light of the Sun and Moon doth the eye So that musick may as it were challenge the light 8. Amphion may be said to be killed by Latona when musicall knowledge is lost by negligence and oblivion 9. Our Saviour Christ is the true Amphion who by the preaching of the Gospel hath built his Church and made us who were but dead and scattered living stones in this building his musick hath quickned us and his love hath united us 10. Amphion was said to build the walls by the help of his musick because perhaps he imployed Musicians at that time who by their musick incouraged the builders and made them work the better In this we see the force of Eloquence By which grea Towns have walls and stones have sence This is the onely pleasant melody Which caus'd rude men imbrace civility Stones hear not sounds it s not the warbling Lute Nor solemn Harp nor Trumpet nor the Flute Nor Songs nor any Organ musicall That could give sence to stones or build a wall But Christ our Lord with his coelestiall layes Hath from Amphion born away the praise Whose charming voice no sooner 'gan to sound But Sions walls were lifted from the ground He rais'd us senslesse stones out of the dung Of Errour by the musick of his tongue That we might at his voice and in his name Make up the walls of new Jerusalem ANTAEUS HE was a Gyant 40 cubits high begotten of Neptune and the earth with whom when Hercules
we have honey and oil that is delight and all things necessary by his good government whose wisdom doth prevent the infectious heat of Dog-dayes that is of oppression tumults and rebellion but if at any time Euridice right judgement being stung by serpentine flatterers who mis-inform him be wanting then the Bees perish and the subjects go to ruine 3. Aristaeus is the coelestiall heat the effect of the Sun joyned with moderate moisture by which Bees and Olives and all things usefull for our life are procreated and cherished by the secret influence of this heat those Northern windes in Pontus Aegypt and other places are raised which after the Summer solstice blow and last four dayes by which the rage of the Dog-star is mitigated these winds are called Etesii because every yeer they blow at the same season in Spain and Asia these Etesian windes blow from the East this heat working upon Iupiter and Neptune that is on the air and sea doth cause and generate these windes now as this coelestiall heat produceth and cherisheth Bees so Euridice mans judgement art and industry must be joyned otherwayes by the Nymphs that is too much rain or by many other wayes the Bees may fail and if they fail the same heat out of putrified matter may make a new generation 4. Christ is the true Aristaeus the good shepherd the best of men and the son of God by whom we have honey and oil comfort and spirituall joy and all things else at whose request the heat and Dog-star of Gods anger was appeased he is in love with our souls as Aristaeus with Euridice but we run from him and are stung by the serpent the Devil we dyed with Euridice we were destroyed with Aristaeus his Bees untill he restored us again to life by the sacrifice of his own body When Aristaeus lost his troops Of honey people and their hopes And when Cyrene he ador'd He had his swarms again restor'd Wee are the Bees and Christ is he Who would himself an offring be He was both Altar Priest and Hoast He found us out when we were lost He got us pleasure by his pain His death 's our life his losse our gain In that we do injoy our lives In that our wexin Kingdom thrives In that we sit on fragrant flowers Bedew'd with pearly drops and showers In that our Cells with Nectar flow In that our yong ones live and grow In that we play in open air In that the Heavens are so fair In that we have so long a Spring And with our humming Meads do ring All this we have and more then this By vertue of Christs sacrifice It s he who with his gentle breath Tempers the heat of Jova's wrath It s he that loves us night and day And yet like fools we run away He is our husband not our foe Then whither will you from him go You run but do not see alas The Serpent that lurks in the grasse O Lord when thou dost call on me Uncase my eyes that I may see Thy love and beauty of thy face And so support me with thy grace That I may stand or if I fall I may not lose my soul withall ATALANTA SHe was the daughter of King Ceneus so swift in running that no man could match her only Hippomenes overcame her by casting in her way three golden apples at which whilst shee stooped to take them up she lost her race she was the first that shot the Calydonian Boare and with the sharpe point of her spear brought water out of a rock but for lying in Cybeles temple with Hippomenes shee was turned into a Lionesse and he into a Lion which drew Cybeles Chariot THE MYSTERIES HEre we have the picture of a whore who runnes swiftly in the broad way that leadeth to destruction if any thing stay her course it is wise counsell and admonition for wisdom is represented by gold It is she that kils the Boars that is wanton and unruly youths wounding both their bodies soules and estates and therefore hath a sharp speare to draw water out of rocks because many who at first were senselesse like stones being deepely wounded with remorse for their former folly and stupidity fall to repentance to weeping and lamenting considering what they have lost and as Atalanta defiled Cybeles temple so doth a whore pollute her body which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost so doth the whore-master make his body all one with the body of an harlot and so both degenerat from humanity and participate of the cruelty and lasciviousnesse of Lions and by this means become miserable slaves and drudges to Cybele mother earth that is to all earthly affections and lust 2. As Atalantas course was interrupted by golden apples so is the course of Justice oftentimes stopped with golden bribes 3. Here we see that one sinne draweth after it another worse than the former fornication begetteth profanenesse and profanenesse cruelty and miserable servitude to earthly lusts 4. Let us with Atalanta run the race that is set before us and wound the boare of our wanton lusts draw water from our rocky hearts let us take heed that the golden apples of worldly pleasure and profit which Hippomenes the Devil flings in our way may not hinder our course commit not spirituall fornication with him in the temple of Cybele lest God in his just anger make our condition worse than the condition of the brute and savage beasts We 're all in Atalanta's case We run apace Untill our wandring eyes behold The glitt'ring gold And then we lose in vanity Our race and our virginity Gods holy Temple we pollute And prostitute Our souls to foul Hippomenes With all boldnesse So having lost humanity Fierce Lyons we become to be And then our heads we must submit To curb and bit Of mother earth whose heavie Wain We draw with pain And yet we cannot cease to draw Earth till earth hide us in her maw O that we could our sins deplore And kill the Boare Of wanton lusts e're we hence go To shades below O that our rocky hearts could rend And from them Chrystall Rivers send O God all filthy lusts destroy Which me annoy And give my flinty heart a blow That tears may flow O let me not thy house profane Which thou hast purchas'd with thy pain ATLAS WAs the son of Iapetus and brother of Prometheus or as others say he was begotten of heaven and the day if this was not another Atlas hee was King of Mauritania and had a garden where grew golden apples he was turned into a mountain by Perseus Iupiters son upon the sight of Gorgons head because he refused to lodge him THE MYSTERIES ATlas is the name of an high hill which for the height thereof being higher than the clouds was said to support heaven and to be begotten of heaven and day because of the continuall light on the top of it as being never obscured with mists clouds and vapours 2. This
use of wine THE MYSTERIES BY Bacchus is ordinarily meant Wine which is the fruit of Semele that is of the Vine so a called because it shakes the limmes for no liquor so apt to breed palsies as wine ashes because hot make good dung for Vines therefore Bacchus is said to proceed of his mothers ashes and to be cherished in Iupiters thigh because the Vine prospers best in a warme aire and in a soile most subject to thunder which is caused by heat which is most fervent and thunders most frequent in July and August when the grapes do ripen He was bred in Egypt because a hot aire and mellow soile as Aegypt is is fittest for wine and because moisture is required for the increase of wine therefore he was said to be nursed by the Hyades and Nymphs Hee subdued the Indians either because wine makes resolute souldiers or because most countries are subdued with excessive drinking and abuse of wine and indeed Bacchus may weare the Diadem for he doth triumph over all nations of all sorts of people and professions there be few that with Lycurgus will oppose him his Thirsus reacheth farther than any Kings Scepter or the Roman Fasces if we would see his Orgia or sacrifices his Priests or a Maenades his Panthers Tigers and Lynces with which his chariot is drawen the Satyrs and Sileni his companions with their Cymbals and vociferations we shall not need to go far he never had greater authority over the Jndians than he hath over this Kingdom he once slept three years with Proserpina but we will not let him rest one day The Thebans tore Orpheus for bringing in Bacchus his sacrifices among them and Icarius was thought to have brought in poyson when he brought in wine but the case is otherwise with us if any discommend the excesse of wine he shall have Alcithoes doome she for discommending Bacchus was turned into a Bat and he shall be accounted no better yet I discommend not the moderat use of wine which is Iupiters sonne or the gift of God for it strengthens the body comforts the heart breeds good bloud for which cause Bacchus was alwayes young for wine makes old men look young if it be moderate otherwise it makes them children for so Bacchus is painted he had also both a virgins and a bulls face hee was both male and female sometimes hee had a beard and sometimes none to shew the different effects of wine moderatly and immoderatly taken he was worshipped on the same altar with Minerva and was accompanied with the Muses to shew that wine is a friend to wisdome and learning Mercury carried him being a child to Macris the daughter of Aristaeus who anointed his lips with honey to shew that in wine is eloquence and so likewise the naked truth therefore Bacchus is alwayes naked and if Amphisbaena the Serpent that is sorrow or care bit the heart let Bacchus kill him with a vine-branch wine refines the wit therefore the quick sighted Dragon was consecrated to Bacchus and to shew that much pratling was the fruit of wine the chattering Pye was his bird And because wine makes men effeminat therefore women were his priests he slept three yeares with Proscrpina to shew that Vines the first three yeares are not fruitfull he was turned unto a Lion to shew the cruelty of drunken men he was torne by the Titans buried and revived againe for small twigs cut off from a vine and set in the earth bring forth whole vines He was called a Liber because wine makes a man talk freely and freeth the mind from cares and maketh a man have free and high thoughts it makes a begger a gentleman a Dionysus from stirring up the mind he was the first that made bargains and so it seems to be true by the Dutch-men who wil make no bargains till they be well liquored 2. Bacchus is the Sun who is both Liber and Dionysus free from all sublunary imperfections and freeth the world from darknesse and inconveniencies of the night and pricks forward the mindes of men to their daily actions he is still yong not subject to age and decay naked for he makes all things naked and open to the eye of the author of generation of all things as well as of wine the son of Iupiter because he is a part of heaven and of burned Semela because they thought that the Sun was of a fiery matter he dyeth and reviveth again when after the cold winter he recollects his heat strength and vigour his sleeping with Proserpina sheweth his abode under our Hemisphaer the wilde beasts which accompany him sheweth the extremity of heat with which beasts are exasperated he is a friend to the Muses for by his influence our wits are refined a destroyer of Amphisbaena that is the winter which stings with both ends for at its coming and going it breeds diseases and distempers in our bodies he was painted sometimes like a childe sometimes like a man because in the winter the dayes are short and his heat weak but in summer his heat is strong and dayes are long he is cloathed with the spotted skin of a Deer to shew his swiftnesse and multitude of Stars with which he seems to be covered at night the travels of Bacchus do shew the motion of the Sun 3. Originall sin like Bacchus received life by the death of Eva who for her disobedience was struck with the thunder of Gods wrath and it hath been fomented by Adams thigh that is by generation this unruly evil hath travell'd farther then Bacchus did and hath an attendance of worse beasts then Tygers Panthers c. to wit of terrours and of an evil conscience and actuall sins it hath subdued all mankinde and as Bacchus turning himself unto a Lyon made all the mariners in the ship wherein he was carried leap into the Sea so this sin turned us all out of Paradise unto the Sea of this world 4. Christ is the true Dionysius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the minde of God the internall Word of the Father born of a woman without mans help as the Graecians fable their Bacchus to be and yet they give a credit to their figment and not unto our truth he is Liber who makes us onely free the great King who hath subdued all Nations whose Diadem is glory He hath kill'd Amphisbaena the Devil the two-headed Serpent his two stings are sin and death with the one he hath wounded our souls with the other our bodies he triumpheth over all his foes his body was torn with thorns nails and whips and went down to hell but he revived and rose again he is the true friend of wisdom and learning and who hath given to us a more comfortable wine then the wine of the grape that wine which we shall drink new with him in his Kingdom his lips were truly anointed with honey grace was diffused in them and never man spake
from the eating grave O Lord thou art that King and I The slave who for my sins must dye And to my dust return O raise me by thy mighty aid In that last day from deaths black shade And from my silent Urn And let me not with Castor trace So often too and from that place Where night and darknesse raign But joyn me to these winged wights Which far above heavens twinkling lights With thee in blisse remain CENTAURI THese were half horses half men begotten of Ixion and of a cloud which was presented unto him in the form of Iuno with which he was in love they quarrell'd with the Lapithae and carried away their wives being in drink for which cause many of them were killed they were given to many naughty qualities but Chiron who was Achilles Schoolmaster for his wisdom and justice was much commended but was wounded accidentally by one of Hercules his arrows which fell upon his foot out of his hand and was cured by the herb Centurie and was then made a Star THE MYSTERIES MAny many men are like Centaurus whose fore-parts are of a man but hinder-parts of a horse they begin in the spirit but end in the flesh their yonger yeers are spent civilly their old age wantonly and profanely 2. Kings have oftentimes Centaurs for their Counsellors Achilles had Chiron for his Schoolmaster they have mens faces fair and honest pretences for their advice but withall a horse tail for the event is cruell and pernicious oftentimes these are children of clouds a for their intentions are oftentimes wrapped up in a cloud and mist that they cannot be discovered 3. A drunkard is a right Centaur a man in the morning and a beast in the evening the son of clouds for whilest he is sober he is heartlesse melancholly and as a dead man but when his head is full of clouds and vapours arising from the wine then he is full of life talk and mirth and then he is most given to quarrell with the Lapithae even his dearest friends and to offer violence to women 4. Mis-shapen and hard-favoured men have harsh and ill-favoured conditions 5. Every regenerate man is in a sort a Centaur to wit a man in that part which is regenerate and a beast in his unregenerate part 6. There is no race or society of men so bad but there may be some good amongst them one Chiron among the Centaurs as one Lot among the Sodomites and one Iob among the Edomites 7. Drunkennesse whoredom and oppression are the overthrow of Kingdoms as we see here by the Centaurs 8. Sin is a Centaur having a mans face to perswade but a horses heels to kick us in the end 9. Where things are not ruled by Laws order and civility but carried head-long with violence and force we may say that there is a Common-wealth of Centaurs 10. A Comet may be called a Centaur as having a horse-tail and the wisdom of a man in fore-telling future events it hath its generation in the clouds or air and upon the sight of it blood-shed wars and desolation follow 11. Just Chiron was wounded by Hercules but was afterward placed among the stars so although might doth oftentimes overcome right here yet the end of justice and goodnesse shall be glory at last 12. Our life is a Centaur for it runneth swiftly away and as the Centaurs are placed by the a Prince of Poets in the gates of Hell so is our life as soon as we are born in the gates of death Nascentes morimur 13. Governours Souldiers School-masters should be Centaurs to have the wisdom of men and the strength and courage of horses He that runs in the way of grace Must carefull be He fall not lest he lose his race And victory What folly is 't to play the Saint At first and in the end to faint It 's not enough to seek and know God whil'st we 'r yong And when age on our heads doth snow To dote on dung A good youth who in age doth fail A mans head hath but Centaurs tail So drunkards when they roare aloud And fight and swear They shew that they 'r of that same cloud That Centaurs were He that in drink will fight and force A woman is both man and horse So every sin at first appears With man-like face But we shall finde within few yeers The horses trace Sin looks on us with smiling cheeks But in the end it flings and kicks And as the Centaurs had swift heels To run away So hath our time which runs on wheels And cannot stay O that we could consider this How short a time how swift it is O Lord so order thou my time That all may see My fall's as hot as was my prime In love to thee That so of me they may not finde A man before a horse behinde CERBERUS PLuto's dog begot of Typhon and Echidna hee had three heads and Snakes in stead of hair and lay in the entry of Hell who by Hercules was drawn from thence who vomited when he saw the light and of his foame sprung up the poysonable herb Aconitum or Wolfbain THE MYSTERIES CErberus is a glutton whose three throats are his three-fold desire to eat much often and varieties he lyeth in the entry of Hell for gluttony is indeed the gate of Hell and that which brings many men to untimely deaths Plures gulâ quem gladio and intemperance of Diet causeth oftentimes that Bulimia and Canina appetentia dogs appetite which is an unsatiable desire of eating the effect whereof is vomiting This proceeds of Typhon and Echidna heat and cold to wit of the heat of the Liver and cold malancholly humours of the stomack when the stomachicall Nerves are too much refrigerate but this is sometimes cured by Hercules the Physitian 2. Cerberus is a covetous mā a whose greedy desire of having is never satisfied he is Pluto's dog for he makes riches his God which like a dog he is continnually watching his wealth and by consequence his desire of having proceedeth of Typhon the Gyant and the snake Echidna that is of oppression secret cunning the 3 heads or as some writ a hundreth heads do shew his unsatiable desire his snakie hairs doe shew how uggly he is in the sight of good men and how much by them abhorred he lyeth in the gates of Hell from whence gold cometh for his affections are there and his punishments are already begun in this life he lyeth in a den as lying basely obscurely and when he is drawn out from thence by Hercules the King to any publicke office or service for the state he frets and foames and at last against his will or else profusely without judgement vomits out his wealth as a misers feast is alwayes profuse and this breeds a poysonable hearb which is bad example 3 Death is Cerberus which is Plutos dog Satans mastiffe by which he bites us Typhon that is the devill begat death upon
raise us from below Not for half a yeer or so But for all eternity O my God amongst May flowers When I spend some idle hours When my joyes do most abound I will think on Deaths black Coach That if then it should approach I may be then ready found Thou do'st feed me daily Lord With sincere milk of thy Word O then give me constancie That I may by night indure Thy hot furnace for I 'm sure Thou know'st what is best for me CHARON HE was the sonne of Erebus and night the boat-man of Hell who admitted none to his boat without mony and till they were dead and buried Yet Aenaeas by his pietie Hercules and Theseus by their strength Orpheus by his musick were admitted there before their death THE MYSTERIES BY Charon doubtlesse death was understood from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to dig or make hollow for death is stil holow eyed or from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} joy for good men in death have true joy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} also is a benefit and death is such and an advantage to good men but so it is made by Christ for in it selfe death is the childe of Hell and night and as Charon is described by a the King of Poets to be old but yet vigorous uggly furious terrible sad covetous so is death that which they fable of Aenaeas Hercules c. was true in our Saviour who overcame Charon or death by his piety strength power of his word c. He that would be admited into Charons boat that is have a joyfull death must carry money in his mouth that is make him friends of his unjust Mammon for what wee bestow on the poor that we carrie with us to wit the benefit and comfort of it and we cannot have a joyfull death or be admited into Charons boat till our body of sin be buried by repentance 2. Charon is a good conscience which is a continuall feast this carrieth us over the infernall rivers that is over all the waters of affliction in this life 3. Charon is the sin of drunkennesse the cup is the boat the wine is the river Phlegeton which burnes them and Acheron wherin is no true joy Styx which causeth sadnesse and complaints for these are the effects of drunkennesse Charons fierie face ragged cloaths brawling and scolding tongue rotten boat still drinking in water are the true emblems of a drunkard he is the childe of Hell and begot of Satan and the night for they that are drunk are drunk in the night he admits of no company but such as are dead in this sin buried in it and such as have mony in their mouths that is spend-thrifts who spend all on their throats Remember this all you that spend Your life on drink and mark your end As oft as cups and pots you tosse So oft the river Styx you crosse You 'r Owls you do not love the light You are the sons of Hell and night Black Erybus begot you then You 'r Monsters sure you are not men You are afraid that if you dye Your bodies should unburied lye And so your souls be forc'd to trade A hundreth yeers in death's black shade Before you can admitted be In Charons boat this you foresee And wisely to prevent this soare You 'l be intomb'd in drink before And thus you make your Funerall Your selves by times in wine and oil You have an old and leaking throat Still sucking in like Charons boat No company you will admit But who are buried in the pit Of wine whose mouths must fraughted be With coin such are your company O Lord before I go from hence Give me a joyfull conscience That I may joyfully ride on The billows of affliction Save me O God from this foul vice Of drunkennesse and from avarice When D ath's wherry shall receive me Let not then thy comfort leave me So shall I not fear Charons looks Nor be dismaid to crosse these brooks Of Styx Cocytus Acharon Nor waves of scalding Phlegeton CHIMAERA THis was a monster having the head of a Lyon breathing out fire the bellie of a goat and the taile of a Dragon which did much hurt but was killed at last by Bellerophon THE MYSTERIES SOme thinke that this was a Hill on the top wherof were Lyons and Vulcans of fire about the middle was pasture and goates at the foote serpents which Bellerophon made habitable others thinke this was a Pirates ship having the picture of these three beasts in it others that these were three brothers called by these names which did much hurt others that by this fiction is meant a torrent of water running furiously like a Lyon licking the grasse upon the banks like a goat and winding like a serpent as may be seen in Natal Comes and others but I had rather thinke that by this Monster may be meant a whore which is the wave or a scum of love wherin many are drowned she hath a Lyons devouring mouth still craving and devouring mens estates she hath the wanton belly of a goat but in the end will sting and poyson like a Dragon 2. By Chimaera I thinke wine may be meant which makes men furious like Lyons wanton like goats and cunning or craftie like serpents 3. The life of man may be meant by this Monster for man in his youthfull yeares is an untamed Lyon in his middle age a wanton or an aspiring goat still striving to climbe upon the steep rockes of honour and in his old age he becomes a wise and crafty serpent 4. Satan may be understood by Chimaera who in the beginning of the Church did rage like a Lyon by open persecution in the middle and flourishing time thereof like a goat made her wanton and in the end will shew himself to be that red Dragon labouring by secret cunning and slights to undermine and poyson her but Christ already hath and we in him shall overcome this Monster Then let us all take heed of wine and whores If we will save these wretched souls of ours Or if we would preserve our lands and monies From these devourers of mens patrimonies Against these monsters rather fight then flye I 'le rather kill them then they shall kill me The Lyons fury 's kill'd with patience The goatish wantonnesse with abstinence Against the Dragons sting use Antidotes Resist his cunning plots with counterplots Fear not our life 's a warfare either we Must fight or else where is our victory Without which there 's no triumph no renown And where there is no conquest there 's no crown O Lord in this great combate strengthen me That through thy power I may victorious be And let thy presence cheer my heart refresh My fainting spirits and my trembling flesh Thou art the Lord of hoasts O let thy word Be unto me a Buckler Helmet Sword What can Chimaera do if thou assist me Be thou my God and then who dare resist