A MIDNIGHTS Trance Wherin is discoursed of DEATH the nature of SOVLES and estate of Immortalitie As it was Written at the desire of a Nobleman By W. D. LONDON Printed by George Purslow for Iohn Budge and are to be sold at the signe of the Greene-Dragon in Paules Church-yard 1619. A MIDNIGHTS Trance wherin is discoursed of Death The nature of Soules and estate of Immortalitie THough it hath beene doubted if there be in the Soule of Man such imperious and superexcellent Power as that it can by the vehement and earnest working of it deliuer knowledge to another without bodily Organs and by the only conceptions and Ideas of it produce reall effects yet it hath beene euer and of all thought infallible most certaine that it often either by outward inspiration or some secret motion of it selfe is augure of its owne Misfortunes and hath shadowes of comming Dangers presented vnto it a while before they fall forth Hence so many strange apparitions and signes true Visions Dreames most certaine vncouth languishings and drowsinesse of which to seeke a reason vnlesse from the sparkling of GOD in the Soule or from the God-like sparkles of the Soule were to make Reason vnreasonable in reasoning of things transcending her reach Hauing often and diuers times when I had giuen my selfe to rest in the quiet solitarinesse of the night found my imagination troubled with a confused feare no sorrow or Horror which interrupting sleepe did confound my senses and rouse mee vp all appalled and transported in a suddaine agony and sad amazednes of such an vnaccustomed perturbation and namelesse woe not knowing nor being able to imagine any apparant cause carried away with the streame of my then doubting thoghts I was brought to ascribe it to that secret fore-knowledg presageing Power of the Propheticke Mind and to interpret such an agonie to bee to the Spirit as a faintnes and vniuersall wearinesse is to the Body a token of following sicknesse or as the Earth-quakes are to great Cities Harbingers of greater calamities or as the roring of the Sea is in a stil calme a signe of some ensuing tempest Hereupon not thinking it strange if whatsoeuer is humane should befall me knowing how Prouidence abates griefe and discountenances crosses and that as we should not despaire of euils which may happen vs wee should not trust too much in those goods we enioy I began to turne ouer in my remembrance all that could afflict miserable mortalitie and to fore-cast euery thing that with a Maske of Horror could shew it selfe to humane eyes till in the end as by vnities and points Mathematicians are brought to great numbers and huge greatnesse after many fantasticall glāces of mankinds sorrow and those incumbrances which follow life I was brought to thinke and with amazement on the last of humane euils or as one said the last of all dreadfull and terrible things Death And why may wee not beleeue that the Soule though darkely fore-seeing and hauing secret intelligence of that sharpe diuorcement it is to haue from the body should be ouergrieued and surprised with an vncouth and vnaccustomed sorrow And at the first encounter examining their neere vnion long familiarity friendship with the great chang paine and vglines which is apprehended to bee in Death it shall not appeare to be without reason They had their beeing together parts they are of one reasonable Creature the hurting of the one is the enfeebling of the working of the other what deare contentments doth the Soule enioy by the senses They are the gates and windowes of its knowledge the Organs of its delight if it bee grieuous to an excellent Lutanist to bee long without a Lute how much more must the want of so noble an instrument bee painefull to the Soule And if two Pilgrims who haue wandred some few miles together haue a hearts griefe when they part what must the sorrow be at the parting of two so louing friends as is the Soule and Body Death is the violent estranger of acquaintance the eternall diuorcer of Marriage the rauisher of the Children from the Parents the stealer of the Parents from the Children the intomber of Fame the only cause of forgetfulnes by which men talk of them that are gon away as of so many shadows orageworn Stories It is not ouercome by pride made meeke by flattery staied by Time Wisedome saue this can preuent help any thing nor Youth nor Vertue nor Beauty can make it relent and becom partial It is the reasonles breaker off of al actions by this wee enioy no more the sweet pleasures of Earth nor behold the stately Vault of Heauen Sunne perpetually setteth Stars neuer rise vnto vs all strength by this is tane away all comlinesse defaced Glory made ignoble Honour turned into contempt This in an houre robbeth vs of what with so great toyle and care in many yeeres we haue heaped together Successions of Linages by this are cut short Kingdomes want Heires and greatest States remaine Orphanes By Death wee are exiled from this excellent City of the World it is no more a world vnto vs nor wee no more People vnto it That Death naturally is terrible to be abhorred it cannot altogether be denied it being a priuatiō of Life a not-being euery priuation being abhorred of nature and euill of it selfe yet I haue often thought that euen naturally to a minde by onely nature resolued and prepared it is more terrible in conceite then in verity and at the first glance then when well looked vpon that rather by the weaknesse of our fantasie then by what is in it and that the solemnities and shews of it did adde much more vglinesse vnto it then otherwise it hath to auerre which conclusion when I had gathered my astonished thoughts I beganne thus with my selfe If on the great Theater of this Earth amongst the numberlesse number of Men this condition were onely proper to thee and thine then vndoubtedly thou hadst reason to repine at so vniust and partiall a Law But since it is a necessity from the which neuer an age by-past hath been exempted and vnto which those which bee and so many as are to come are thralled it being as common as any the most vulgar thing to sence why shouldst thou in thy peeuish opposition take so vneuitable and familiar a chance to heart This is the broad path of mortalitie our generall home behold what millions haue trod it before thee what multitudes shall after thee with them who at that same instant runne In so vniuersall a calamity if DEATH bee one priuate complaints cannot bee heard with so many royall Palaces it is no losse to see thy poore cabin burne Shall the Heauens stay their euer-roling wheeles for what is the motion of them but the motion of a swift and euer-whirling wheele which twineth forth and againe vproleth our Life and hold still time to prolong thy miserable dayes As if they had nothing to
doe els but to serue thy humor Thy Death is a peece of the order of this All a part of the life of this World for while the World is the World some creatures must die and other take Life Eternall things are raysed farre aboue this Spheare of generation corruption where the first matter like an euer-flowing and ebbing Sea with diuerse waues but the same water remayneth what is below in the vniuersality of the kind not in it selfe doth abide Man a long line of yeeres hath beene this Man euery hundreth is swept away This Center is the sole Region of Death the Graue where euery thing that taketh life must rotte a Stage of change only glorious in the vnconstancy and manifold alterations of it which though many seeme yet to abide one and being one are yet euer many The neuer agreeing bodies of the Elementall Brethren turne one in another the Earth changeth her countenance with the Seasons sometimes looking colde and naked other times hote flowrie nay I cannot tell how but euen the lowest of those heauenly bodies that mother of Moneths and Lady of Seas and moysture as if shee were a mirror of our constant inconstancy by her too great nearenesse vnto vs seemeth to participate of our changes neuer seeing vs twice with that same face whiles appearing dark now pale sometimes againe shining vnto vs. Death no lesse then Life doth here act a part the taking away of what is old being the making of a way for what is yong Which since it is so and must of necessity bee so thou must learne to will that which he wills whose very willing giueth beeing to all that it wills and rather to reuerence the ord'rer then repine at the order for we be borne not to giue lawes to God and his Lieutenant Nature but to obey those Lawes which they haue giuen If thou dost complaine that there shall be a Time in the which thou shalt not be why dost thou not too regreat that there was a Time in the which thou wast not And so that thou art not as old as that enlifening Planet of Time For not to haue been a thousand yeere before this moment is as much to bee deplored as not to be a thousand after it We know what Death is by the thought of that Time and estate of our selues which was ere wee were Death is not to bee that will be after vs which long lōg ere we were was Our Nephewes haue that same reason to vex themselues that they were not young men in our dayes which wee haue to complaine that we shall not be old in theirs they who fore-went vs did make place vnto vs and shall we grieue to leaue a roome to them who come after vs The Violets haue their time though they liue not in the cold Winter and the Gilly-flowers keepe their season though they spread not their leaues in the Spring Empires States Kingdomes haue by the doom of the supreame Prouidence their fatall periods great Cities lie sadly buried in their dust Arts and Sciences haue not onely their eclipses but their waynings and deaths the gastly Wonders of the World raysed by the Ambition of ages are ouerthrowne the excellent Fabricke of this Vniuerse it selfe shall one day suffer ruine or a change like a ruine and poore Earth-lings thus to be handled complain Seek now the Assyrian Median Persian Empires where is the posterity of that great Macedonian And the terror of this Earth the Romane Caesars But is this life so great a good that the losse of it shold be so deare vnto mā If it be the meanest creatures of nature thus be happy for they liue no less thē he if it be so how is it esteemed by man himselfe at so smal a rate that for so smal gaine nay a light word he wil not stand to lose it what excellency is there in it for the which Man should desire it perpetually and repine to return to his great Grand-mother Dust Of what worth are the labors and actions of it that the interruption and leauing off of them should bee bewayled Is not the entring into life weakenesse The continuing sorrow Man in the one is exposed to all the iniuries of the Elements and like a condemned trespasser as if it were a fault to com to the light no sooner born thē bound and manacled in the other like a Ball hee is vncessātly tossed in the Tennis-court of this VVorld VVhen hee is in the Meridian of his glory there mistereth nothing to destroy him but to let him fall his owne hight a reflex of the Sun a blast of wind nay the glance of an Eye is sufficient to kill him His Body is but a Masse of discording humors boiled together by the conspiring vertues of the Planets which though agreeing for a time yet can neuer be made vniforme and brought to a iust proportion To what sicknesse is it subiect vnto beyond those of the other creatures no part of it beeing which is not particularly infected and afflicted by some one nay euery part of it with many so that not without reason the life of diuers of the meanest creatures of Nature hath beene preferred by the most wise to the naturall life of Man And wee should rather be broght in a maze how so fragila matter should so long endure then how so soone decay Are the actions of the most part of men any thing different from those laborious exercises of Spiders that lye in ambush to pray on the simpler and euiscerate themselues many dais for the weauing of a fraile web which when finished with great toyle a blast of wind carrieth away both the Worke and the Worker Or are they not such indeed as bee the toyes of little Children Or to hold them at their highest rate as is some earnest game at Chesse Euery day we rise and lye down apparell and disapparell our selues weary our Bodies and refresh them which is a circle of idle trauels sometime wee are in a chase after a fading beauty now wee seeke to enlarge our bounds augment our Treasure feeding poorely to purchase what wee must leaue perhaps to a foole or which is not much better a Prodigall heire raised again with the wind of Ambition wee court that idle name of Honor not considering that men in glassy places are but tortured ghosts wandring in golden Fetters and glistring Prisons hauing feare and danger their vnseparable executioners in the midst of multitudes rather garded then regarded Those whom inward Melancholly hath made weary of the Worlds eye who haue withdrawne themselues frō the course of earthly affaires by thoughts curious sad regrets idle contemplations liue a life farre worse then others their wit beeing too quicke to giue them a true taste of woe while those of a more shallow and simple conceit haue want of knowledge and ignorance of themselus for a remedy against euery other euill What Camelion what Euripe what Moone doth change so
oft as man Hee seemeth not the same person in one and the same Day by reason of his subiection to his priuate Passions Young wee scorne our childish conceits and wading deeper in yeeres for yeres are a Sea into which we wade vntill we drown we esteeme our Youth inconstancy Folly Rashnes Old wee begin to pity our selues plaining because we are changed that the World is changed Like them in a Shippe which when it is they that launch frō the shore are brought to beleeue that the shore doth flie from them Whē we are freed of euill in our owne estate wee begin to grudge and vex our selues at the happinesse and fortunes of others wee are fraught wee care for what is present with sadnes for what is by-past with feare for that which is to come nay for that which will neuer come we deeme that pitty which is but weakenes and plunge our selues in the deepest gulfes of anguish one day still laying vp strife of griefe for the next The Aire the Sea the Fire the Beasts be cruell executioners of Man yet Beasts Fire Sea and Ayre bee pitifull to Man in respect of Man for mo men are destroied by men then by them all What wrongs scornes contumelies prisons poysons torments receiueth man of man What engines and new workes of death are daylie found forth by man against man What Lawes to thrall his liberty Fantasies and scar-crowes to inueigle his reason Amongst the Beastes is there any hath so seruile a lot in anothers behalfe as man yet neither is content nor hee who raigneth nor he who serueth The halfe of our Life is spent in sleepe which sith it is a release of care the balme of woe and indifferent arbiter vnto all must be the best and yet is but the shadow of Death and who would not rather thē suffer the Slings and Arrows of outragious Fortune the whips and scorns of time the oppressors wrongs the proud mans contumelies sleepe euer that is dye and end the Heart-ake and the thousand naturall Shocks that flesh is heire to Our happinesse heere seemeth rather in the wanting of euils and being free of crosses then in the enioying of any great good What hath the brauest of mortals to glory in Is it greatnesse Who can be great on so small a round as this Earth and bounded with so short a course of Time How like is that to castles or imaginary Cities builded in the Skie of chance-meeting Clouds Or to Giants modelled for a sport of Snow which at the hotter lookes of the Sunne do melt away such an impetuous vicissitude so towseth the estates of this World Is it knowledge But wee haue not yet attained a perfect vnderstanding of the smallest floure and why the grasse should rather bee greene then red the Element of fire is quite put out the Ayre is but water rarified some affirme there is another world of men and creatures with Cities and Towers in the Moone the Sunne is lost for it is but a cleft in the lower Heauens through which the light of the highest shines What is all we know compared with what wee know not It is perhaps artificiall cunning how many curiosities be framed by the least creatures of Nature vnto which the industry of the most curious Artizans doth not attaine Is it Riches What are they but snares of Liberty bands to such as haue them possessing rather then possessed Metalls which Nature hath hidde foreseeing the great euill they should occasion and the only opinion of Men hath brought in estimation When wee haue gathered the greatest aboundance wee our selues can enioy no more thereof then so much as belongs to one man Rich and great men doe their businesse by others the lesser doe them themselues Will some talke of our pleasures It is not though in the fables told out of purpose that Pleasure being called in haste from Earth to Heauen did here forget her apparell which Sorrow hauing thereafter found to deceiue the World attired her selfe with and if wee shall confesse the truth of most of our ioyes we must say that they are but disguised Sorrows the drammes of our honey are lost in pounds of Gall Remorse neuer ensueth our best Delights Will some Ladies vaunt of their Beauties That is but skinne-deepe of two senses onely knowne short euen of Marble Statues and Pictures dangerous to the beholder and hurt full to the possessor an enemy to Chastity a thing made to delight others and not those who haue it a superficiall lustre hiding Bones and the Braines things fearefull to bee looked vpon growth of yeres doth take it away or sicknesse or sorrow preuenting them our strength matched with that of the vnreasonable creatures is but weakenesse If Death be good why should it be feared And if it bee the worke of Nature how shall it not bee good And how shall it not bee of Nature Sith what is naturally generate is subiect to corruption for such a composition cannot euer endure but must of necessity dissolue Againe how is not Death good fith it is the thaw of all those miseries which the frost of life bindeth together In two or three ages without Death what an vnpleasant spectacle were the most flourishing Cities in the World For what should there bee to be seene in them saue bodies languishing and courbing againe into the Earth Pale disfigured faces Skelitones in stead of Men And what were there to bee heard but the regrets of the yong and Plaints of the aged with the pittifull cries of sicke and pining persons there is almost no infirmity worse then age If there bee any euill in Death it would appeare to bee for that paine and torment which we apprehend to arise of the breaking of those straight bāds which keep the Soule and Bodie together which since it is not without great wrestling and motion seemes to proue it selfe vehement and most extreme The sences are the onely cause of paine but before that last effect traries that the worst cōposed Bodies feele paine least and by this reason all sicke persons should not much feele paine for if they were not euill composed they would not bee sicke That the sight hearing smelling taste leaue vs without paine and vnawares wee know most certainely and why should wee not beleeue the same of the feeling That which is capable of feeling is the vitall Spirits which in a man of good health are spred extended through the whole Body And hence is it that the whole body is capable of paine but in sicke men wee see that by degrees those parts which are most remoued from the heart remaine cold and being denuded of naturall heate all the pain that they feele is that they can feele no paine now as before the sicke be aware the vitall Spirits retire themselues from the whole extension of his body to assist the heart like distressed Citizens which finding their wals battred run to defend their Cittadell so do they abandon the heart
without any sensible touch as the flame withdrawes it selfe from the wicke the Oyle fayling As to those shrinking motions and conuulsions of sinewes and members which appeare to witnesse great paine let one represent to himselfe the strings of a high-tuned Lute which being cracked retire to their naturall winding or a piece of Ice which without any outward violence cracks at a Thaw no other waies do the sinewes of the body finding themselues slacke and vnbended from the Braine and that their wonted labours and functions do cease struggle and seeme to stirre themselues without any paine or sence Now although Death were an extreme paine sith it is in an instant what can it bee Why should wee feare it For while we are it commeth not and it being come wee are no more Nay though it were most painefull long continuing and terrible vgly why should we feare it Since feare is a foolish passion but where it may preserue but it cannot preserue vs from death That is euer terrible which is vnknown so do little children feare to goe in the darke and their feare is encreased with tales But that perhaps which doth bring thee most anguish is to leaue this painted Sceane of the World in the Spring and most delicious season of thy yeeres for though to die be vsual to die young may appeare extraordinary If the present fruition of thes things be foolish what can a long continuance of them be Poore and strang Halcyon why wouldest thou longer nestle amidst these inconstant waues hast thou not already suffred enough of this world but thou must yet endure more But count thy yeres which are now thou shalt find that whereas ten haue ouer-liued thee thousands haue not attained this age One yeere is sufficient to behold all the magnificence of Nature nay euen one day and night for more is but the same brought againe This Sun that Moone those Starres the disponsition of the Spring Summer Autumne Winter is that very same which the Golden age did see They which haue the longest time lent them to liue in haue almost nothing of it at all setting it eyther by that which is past when they were not or by that which is to come Why shouldst thou then regard whether thy dayes be many or few which when prolonged to the vttermost must proue paraleld with Eternitie as a Teare is to the Ocean It is hope of long Life that maketh life seeme short Who will weigh aduisedly weigh the inconstancy of humane affaires with the back-blows of Fortune shall neuer lament to die yong Who knoweth what disasters might haue befallen him who dieth yong if hee had liued to been old Hauen taketh them whom it loueth from dangers before they doe approach pure and if wee may say so virgin Soules carrie their bodies with great anguish and delight not to abide long in them being euer burnt with a desire to returne to the place of their rest and to be relieued of fleshly vncleanlynesse that which may fall forth euery houre cannot fall out of time life is a iourney in a dustie way the furthest home is Death in this some goe more heauily burthened then others swift actiue Pilgrimes come to the end of it in the morning or at Noone which slow-paced wretches clogged with the fragmentall rubbish of this world scarce with great trauell crawle vnto at midnight Dayes are not to be numbred after the number of them but after their goodnesse the greatnes of a Spheare addeth nothing to the roundnesse of it but a little circle is as round as the most ample that Musician is not most praise-worthie who hath longest played but he in measur'd accents who hath made sweetest melodie to liue long hath often beene a let to liue well Let it suffice that thou hast liued to this time and after the course of this world not for nought thou hast had some smiles of Fortune fauors of the worthiest some friends thou hast neuer beene disfauoured of the Heauen Yet it is almost impossible that thou canst want a desire to liue and wishest not thy dayes a while continued though not for life it selfe at least that thou mayst leue to after-times a monument that once thou wast for since it is denied vs to liue long said one let vs leaue some worthy remembrance of our once here being and thus extend this spanne of Life so farre as is possible O poore Ambition to what I pray thee canst thou concreded it Arches and stately Temples which one age doth rayse doth not another raze Tombs and adopted pillers lie buried with them which were in them buried hath not auarice defaced that which Deuotion did make glorious All that the hand of Man can make is eyther ouerturned by the hand of Man or at length by very standing and continuing consumed as if there were a secret opposition in Fate to controle al our industrie Possessions are not enduring children lose their Names families raised on the highest top of wealth and Honor like those which are not yet born leauing off to be so doth Heauen confound what we labor with Art to distinguish That renowne by Papers which is though to make men glorious and which neerest doth approach the Life of those eternall Bodies aboue how slender it is the very word of paper doth import and what is it when obtained but a multitude of words which comming Worlds may scorne How many millions neuer heare the names of the most famous Writers And amongst them to whom they are knowne how few turne ouer their pages And of such as doe how many sport at their conceits taking the verity for a Fable and oft a Fable for Veritie or as wee doe pleasants vsing all for recreation Then the arising of more famous doth obscure and darken the glory of the former being esteemed as Garments worne out of fashion Now when thou hast obtained what praise thou couldst desire it is but an Eccho a meere sound a cloud of Ayre which seene a farre did appeare something but approached is found nought a thing imaginary depending on the opinion of other Men for it is hard to distinguish vertue and fortune the most vicious if prosperous haue euer beene praysed the most vertuous if vnprosperous haue still beene despised Applause obtained whilst thou liuest hath euer enuy following it and is brittle like that Syracusians Spheare of Glasse and borne after thy Death it may as well be ascribed to some of them that were in the Troian Horse or to such as are yet to be borne an hundreth yeeres hereafter as to thee who nothing knows and is of all vnknown What can it auaile thee to bee talked of whilst thou art not Consider in what bounds our Fame is confined This Globe which seemeth large to vs in respect of the Vniuerse is lesse then little how much thereof is couered with Waters how much not at al discouered How much desart and desolate And how many thousand
thousands are they which share the remanent amongst them all this is but a point in comparison nothing to that wide wide canopie of Heauen For the Horizon that bounds our sight bindeth the Heauen as in two halfs which it could not doe if the Earth had any quantity compared to it More if it were not as a point the Starres could not still appeare to vs of a like greatnesse in respect of their diurnall motion for where the Earth raysed it selfe in Mountaines wee being more neere to Heauen they would appeare more great and where it were humbled in vallies we being farther distant they would seeme vnto vs lesse But on all sides the Heauen beeing equally distant from the earth of necessity wee must auouch it to bee but a point Well did one compare it to an Ant-hill and men the Inhabitants to so many Pismires in the toyle and variety of their diuersified studies But let it be granted that Glory and Fame is some great matter and can reach Heauen it selfe since it is often buried with the honored and endureth so short a time what great good can it haue in it How is not Glory temporall since it increaseth with Time Then imagine me for what cannot imagination reach vnto one could bee famous in all times to come through the whole World presen t yet he shall be for euer obscure and vncouth to those mighty ones who were only heretofore famous amongst Assyrians Persians Greekes and Romanes Againe the vaine affectation of Man is so suppressed that though his workes do abide the worker is vnknowne the huge Aegypttan Pyramides though they haue wrastled with time and worne vpon the vast of dayes yet their builders be no more knowne then it is known by what strāge Earth-quakes and Deluges Iles were diuided from the continent and Hils bursted forth of the low Vallies Dayes Moneths and yeres runne away and only obliuion remaines of so many ages past wee may well figure to our selues something but can affirme little certainty But Oh my Soule what ailes thee to be thus backward and fearefull at the remembrance of Death sith it doth not reach thee more then darknesse doth those eternall Lampes aboue rowse thy selfe for shame why shouldst thou feare to bee without a body since thy Maker and those spirituall and supercelestiall Inhabitants haue no Bodies Hast thou euer seen any Prisoner who when the Iayle-gates were broken vp and hee enfranchised and set loose would rather plaine and sit still on his fetters then seeke his freedome If thou rightly thinke on thy self thou hast no cause of sorrow for if there bee any resemblance in what is finite of that which is infinite if thou bee not an Image thou art a shadow of that eternall Trinitie in thy three essential Powers Vnderstanding Will Memory which though three are in thee but one and yet abiding one bee distinctly three But in no thing more commest thou neere that Soueraigne good then in thy Immortality which who seeke to improue by that same it proue like them who arguing themselues to bee vnreasonable by the very arguing shew that they haue some Nothing in this visible world is comparable to thee thou art so wonderfull a beauty and beautifull a Wonder that if but once thou couldst be gazed vpon by bodily eyes euery heart would be inflamed with thy loue eleuated frō their groueling earthly desires What God is in the World thou art in the body abiding on the Earth thou measurest the Heauen thou makest the Seas and VVinds to serue thee thou many things foreknowest before they fall forth thou art not content with the sight of all within the spacious boūds of this large Cloister of the VVorld vntill thou rayse thy selfe to the happy contemplation of that first illuminating intelligence transcending time and euen reaching Eternity it selfe into which thou art transformed for by receiuing thou beyond all other things art made that which thou receiuest By thy three faculties thou participatest with the three parts of Time by Memory with that which hath passed by Vnderstanding with that which is present by VVil with that which is to come Man by thee is that Hymen of celestiall and terrestriall things without whom the vniuersall frame and great Fabrick of this world would remaine vnperfect Thou only at once art capable of contraries thou knowest thy selfe an immediat master peece of that eternall artizan acknowledgest thee so separate absolute and diuerse an essence from thy Body that thou disposest of it as it pleaseth thee for there is no passion in thee so weake which mastereth not the feare of leauing it The more thou knowest the more apt thou art to know not remayning enfabled by thine object as sense by obiects sensible Thou shouldst bee so farre from abhorring this separation that it should be the first of thy desires it being thy perfection Thou art here but as in an infected and vncleane Inne or a liuing Tombe oppressed with cares suppressed with ignorance Most of thy knowledge commeth by thy fine intelligencers of sence which being often deceiued deceiue thee small things seeme here great vnto thee and great things small Folly Wisedome and Wit Folly freed of thy fleshly care thou shalt rightly know thy selfe and haue perfect fruition of that full and filling happinesse which is God himselfe God and happinesse are one for if God haue not happinesse hee is not God because happinesse is the highest and soueraignest good then if God haue happinesse it cannot be a thing different from him for if there were any thing different from him in him hee should be an essence composed and not simple More what is different in any thing is eyther an accident or a part of it selfe in God happinesse cannot be an accident because he is not subiect to any accident if it were a part of him since the part is before the whole wee should be forced to grant that something was before God Bedded and bathed in these earthly Ordures thou canst not come neer that soueraigne good nor haue so much notice of him as the Owle hath of the Sun Thinke then by Death that thy shel is broke thou then but euē hatched VVhy shouldst thoube feare-stroken and brought vnder for the parting with this mortall Bride thy Body Sith it is but for a time and such a time as she shall not care for nor feele any thing in nor thou haue need of her nay since thou shalt receiue her againe more goodly and beautifull then when thou leftst her Being made like vnto that Indian Christall which after some reuolutions of ages is turned into purest Diamonds If the Soule be the form of the Body and the forme separated from the matter of it cānot euer remain but hath a natural appetite and desire to bee vnited thereunto what can let and hinder this desire but that one time or other it be accomplished and haue the expected end adioyning it selfe to the