that they may take it all from them at once and place others in their rooms though they have been never so trusty Do but behold how these miserable Courtiers do sell their liberties to enrich themselves They must though against their wills do what their Princes commands them be it right or wrong just or unjust They must strive to laugh when they laugh weep when they weep approve what they approve of and condemn what they condemn They must set themselves to act what shall be proposed and execute what shall be commanded them even change and alter their Natural customes and conditions With the severe they must be severe with the sad they must be sad and in a manner transform their own lives beings and Natures to please delight and content them if they would attain to what they desire and not be cast out of favour If their Prince be vicious so must they be if cruel their messages must be to shed blood And though many times the Favourite endeavours to conform to the conditions of his Master and appear like him in his Natural inclinations Often it happens that for one fault committed one discontent or one neglect in pleasing his humour he turns him off and makes him lose the Fruits of all the Services he ever did him in his life which we shall finde verified in the Favourites of the Emperor Adrian whose condition was such that after many favours and rewards received and being raised to the highest patch of Dignities and Honors for any trivial fault or discontent they were not onely deprived of their Wealth and Favours received but were declared Capital Enemies to the Emperor which being well considered and understood by Divine Plato who took all Courtly pleasures Viands and Delights from the Athenians although he could not govern nor conquer himself but must needs return to the Court of Dionisius Tirant of Scicilia who afterwards sold him as a Slave to Pirates The like hapned to that ancient and wise Phylosopher Zeno from Phaleris the Tirant in recompence of many good services he had done caused him to be put to a cruel death the same paiment did King Anachreon give to Anaxagaras the like reward had Seneca from Nero and Calisthenes from Alexander the Great who because he would not acknowledge him to be a God and adore him he commanded his Hands and Feet to be cut off his Eyes to be plucked out his Ears and Nose to be pulled off and cast him into an obscure Dungeon where he died These and the like ends had many other great Favourits and Philosophers who would not obey the unjust and inhumane Laws and commands of Princes and Monarchs they died miserable and cruel deaths in recompence of all their services and good counsels they had given We will forbear to reckon up the great multitude of Vices and bad Customes which alwayes do follow and accompany Courtiers how amongst them all things go by contraries and all humane law and society is perverted and prevericated There are many in the Court that do vouchsafe thee their Hat that would willingly take thy Head from thy Shoulders there are such that will make thee a Leg that would be glad to carry a Leg of thee to thy Grave They kiss many hands that they would willingly see cut off there never wants one I know not what I do not understand it I cannot tell how or when it was done With these and the like expressions they cause poor pretender 〈…〉 r any other that hath business at Court to go away murmuring and complaining If in the Court thou wilt be bad thou canst not want companies of in any vice Wilt thou give thy self to Whoring there are the principal Masters of it Wilt thou quarrel or fight there are the chief Duelists or Hectors Wilt thou lie there will not want those will approve and encourage thee therein Wilt thou steal rob or pilfer there thou shalt finde the most dextrous and subtil of the Trade of whom thou mayest learn and commence Master If thou wilt cheat at Cards or Dice there wants not pro-provision for it I le assure thee if thou wilt swear false thou shalt not want one to pay thee for it in conclusion if thou wilt let lose the Reins of thy Appetite to all manner of sinful Vice in the World there thou shalt finde the best nay rather the worst examples and patterns for it in the whole World Here thou seest the portraicture of a multitude of Gallant and stately Courtiers which is not a life but a painful and large death In these and such like things do very many Youths pass their times which is nothing but transitory deaths Wilt thou understand what advantage ancient men do bring from Court being past the age of action Their Heads gray their Teeth decayed their Hands and Feet lame with Cout and Rhumes Pox and Stone wicked thoughts and their Souls made black and bespotted with sin to conclude there is little to be done in the Court and much murmuring If thou wouldst know more at large the lives of Courtiers read over the Books of Don Antonio and Guevarra Bishop of Mondonedo and of Aeneas Sylvio otherwise called Pope pius who writ two excellent and exact Treatises of this effect in which they do set forth to the life the gentle Courtiers so that there cannot more or less be said then what they have done Let 's leave the gallant emulating complemental and contra-meaning Courtiers in their so miserable and unquiet life and return to our purpose to contemplate briefly of the estate of Emperors Monarches Kings and Princes for whom we may conjecture by the outward appearance all the pleasures delights and good fortunes of the World were made for if we do consider what man hath need of to make his life quiet pleasant and happy and to enjoy this life in perpetual rest and contentment it will appear to our outward view that Nature hath provided more largely for Princes then for other men What thing can Man enjoy be more happy in this life then in great Riches aboundance of Temporal Goods Commands Dignities absolute power and free liberty to act good or evil or shall please his own palate without contradiction reprehension or chastisements power to run with loose Rain after all sorts of pleasures delights and pass-times and to have at his will whatever his appetite or reason can desire All that can be acquired for mans contentment his quiet and entertainment as rich Cup-boards Vessels of Gold and Silver to eat and drink in the many delicious and various Meats great magnificent and pompuous services and furniture rich Vestments and all with a Royal neatness and order with what ever else can be desired to delight the senses and maintain the pleasures of Humane concupiscence all which they have provided for them without asking or taking care even from the Cradle to the Crown It 's true if we should look no farther then on
the regions of Babilon from thence it flew to Greece and thence to Rome putrifying after such a manner the aire that one third part of the people did not escape where it came but to leave the antient Histories and examine what hath happened since their time and in our dayes that we who do hold our selves to be Christians may learn to understand our own frailty the great miseries to which we are subject with the scourges great afflictions which God layeth upon us and that God when his anger is kindled against our offences and extreame iniquities le ts fly the most cruell Darts and Arrowes of his justice against these Creatures not omitting any kind of evils afflictions and torments whereby to execute his wrath and vengeance what better or greater proofe can we have of this then that which we saw in the year 1628. in the French Army which at that time beseiged Naples that men dyed before they thought they had been stricken with death and this curse or Pestilence did not light upon the common souldiers alone but executed its fury against the most choice commanders that the Lords Lautree of Vandemon of Moloac of Laval of the Chatrinera Grandmont and many other Persons of great quality who I cannot call to mind without teares the very same thing happened to the English when they took Buloigne from the French that there arose such Pestilential disease amongst them in the Citty that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead for which cause the King of England could not find a Souldier in all his Country would go thither voluntarily but such as were prest forced thither as offenders for the more fresh men entered so many more dyed so that every corner of the streets was infected and corrupted with the stench of the dead Corpes which lay in every part of the City A year after that King Francis of France marryed with Donna Leonoca de Austria there reigned in Germany such a mortall Plague that all that were smitten therewith dyed within twenty four houres swetting a most contagious humor and a most horrid stinking matter and although this evil begin at the West end of the Empire yet afterwards it extended it selfe throughout all Germany like a sweeping net that will catch all as it goes along for before it pleased God to send a remedy there dyed so many thousands that many Provinces remained deserted and uninhabited for so great was the putrifaction of the aire that it left neither Creatures alive and they write that at the same time that the Pestilence reigned with the like fury it was predominant in England in so much that with the venemous strength thereof it did not only overcome destroy men but the Birds forsooke their Nests Eggs and young ones the beasts their dens and Caves the Snakes and Moles went together in squadrons and companies not being able to suffer the venemous infection that had entred even into the bowells of the earth in the year 1546. the last day of May in Stife a city in Province began a most cruell and Pestilential contagion which lasted nine moneths and there dyed great multitudes of people of all sexes and ages in so much that all their Churchyards were so fill'd with dead Corps that there was no roome to receive any more the greatest part of those that were infected the second day became frantick and cast themselves into wells or else from windowes to others it gave a flux of blood from the nose with violence like a running stream the stopping of which ending the life was all at once it arived to such a height of dissolution that women great with child cast forth untimely births at four moneths both they and their innocent babes dyed being found full of tokens and on one side black and blew like brused blood in conclusion the contagion was so great that father 's left their children and the women forsooke their husbands mony and riches could not yeeld remedy to save the owners thereof from dying of famine because it was hard to get a peice of bread or a cup of water for money and if in case they could procure food for sustenance the Plague was grown so violent that many were taken away with the meat in their mouthes the fury of the evil was so great that only looking upon one that was stricken the infection instantly cleave to the party viewing and he dyed so great was the contagion of the disease and the corruption of the aire of the City to what member of the body the venemous breath or vapour did come there arose great sweling carbuncles mortally wounding sores Oh what a horrible and lamentable thing it was to heare the sad storyes that a Physician tells one who was ordered by the Governours to heal the sick this contagion saith he was so sharp and perverse that it could not be stopped with blooding Physick medicines or any cordialls whatsoever but it cut down destroyed and killed all it took hold of in so much as he that was stricken therewith could expect nothing but death for which cause there were several that when they preceived themselves wounded with this mortal infection they sowed themselves up in their winding sheetes there thou mightest see ten thousand lye after that manner expecting their last hour that forced divorce O sad parting of those two so loving consorts the Soul and Body all which he affirmed to have seen often done by many Persons of all degrees I my selfe in the year 1648. being in Spain where many hundred thousands dyed that year in several Provinces but living in the City of Sevill there breake out about March a fearfull contagion or Plague where I was visited therewith to omit the relation of every particular sad spectacle I saw dayly I shall only hint upon the principal passages by which ye may judge the rest there was every morning to be seen not a street without many dead Corps in it cast out not a house uninfected so that the most retyred Carthusian Fryers which came neer none dyed thereof the Birds dyed in the cages not for want of food but of the infection in one Hospital I was told by one that helped to bury the dead there that they all judged there dyed in one night four thousand persons it raged so much and carried away so many people that all their burying places being filled they were forced to load continually dead Corps in Carts and bury them in the common fields where they had four several burying places on each side of the City one afterwards I had occasion often to take particular notice of one of them where some of our English were buryed it was neer alone Church in the fields called St. Sebastiam over the door whereof I have many times read in Spanish but in large legible Characters without the bounds of this Church lieth buryed in fifteen graves forty and three thousand many judged that in above
desert amongst bruit beasts far from any neighbourhood or Town that he might be troubled with no visits and living as he did he did shun ever to be seen or spoken with much less to be visited by any except one an Athenian Captain named Alcibiades and his familiarity with him was not for any love or friendship towards him but he understood the said Captain was like to be a scourge to men and that he was born to be a torment trouble to them for by some divination he certainly knew that his Athenian Neighbours were to suffer many afflictions and vexations for his sake nay he did not content himself to let loose the reigns of his malice Thus far against man his own kind only to flye from as from some cruel and fearce beast but he did endeavour to do him all the mischief that lay in his power to procure even to destroy and ruin all mankind inventing new wayes how to bring to the ground and end their dayes to accomplish which he caused to be set up in his Orchard many Gallowses to the end all desperate Persons that might be wearied with the troubles of this life should go thither and destroy themselves Now some few years afterwards for his own accomodation or to enlarge the place of his habitation it was necessary for him to take down those Gallowses so without any premeditation of what might succeed him and withal to shew his farther malice he went to Athens whether being come without any shame he called the people together by lifting up his voyce in the streets as a common Cryer doth when he proclaims any novelty the Citizens hearing the Hoarse and strange voyce of that foul and horrid Monster and knowing long before the sordid humour and opinion that possest his minde they instantly gathered themselves to him hoping to hear some novelty or wonder he seeing the greatest part of the Citizens as well principal as common congregated to hear him began to speak with an audible voyce saying know Citizens of Athens that for a certain necessaâ—y occasion which hath hapned to me I am reâ—olved to pull down the Gallowses that are in my Garden therefore if any man be so weary â—f â—his world or be so desperate as to hang himself let it be presently before I pluck them down after he had ended this his so affectionate offer without making any farther discourse he returned to his House where he dyed in this his vain opinion but continually musing and contemplating Mans Misery and when the pangs of death seased on him to shew the Odium he bare to Man even to his last gasp he commanded expresly under heavy curses that his Corps should not be burried in the Earth because said he it is the element upon which men do commonly take their quiet repose and in the bowels of which humane bodies were buried and all this for fear his bones should be seen of men or the dust of his Carcas should touch or be mixed with theirs but that they should cast him into the Sea where the fury of the swelling waves might not only hinder but defend the passage of any Creature in their approach to this his elected Tomb and he commanded the following Epitaph to be written of him which Plutarch makes mention of and was learnedly translated by Claudio Gruget After my miserable and wretched life ended they buried me in these deep waters Reader be not curious to understand my name God confound thee Here you see this spiritually poor though naturally wise Philosopher having throughly examined humane frailty in this world hartily wished he had not been born a man but much rather that he had been brought forth by or transformed into some bruit beast and meerly upon the deep sence and understanding he had of the invetterate malice that dwells in the hearts of men But now let us leave this our ancient Philosopher Timon to his malicious complainings and briny Sepulcher that we may give way to a serious view of some of the expressions of of Marco Aurelio a Roman Emperour to this effect who as great a Philosopher as an Emperour considering the weak miserable and fragil condition which continually attends the poor and short life of Man said the Battel of this World is dangerous the end of which is so wonderfully terrible that I am very certain that if any one of our fore-fathers should arise from the dead truly relate and give us a perfect view of his whole life past from the time he came from his Mothers womb even to his last breath giving at large another of the great pains and griefs his body hath suffered and seriously discovering the strange alarms various successes with which fortune hath persecuted him it would cause admiration in all men to consider the body that hath suffered so many torments and the heart that hath so valiently conquered so great difficult war-fares and I my self do freely confess to have found the same to be true which though it be to my disgrace yet for the profit that may redoun'd to after ages I will relate in fifty years that I have lived I resolved to make tryal of all the vices and evills of this life that I might understand whether the malicious wickedness of men had any limits or bounds but finds experimentally after a serious speculation and consideration that the more I drink the more I thirst the more I sleep the more I desire the more rest I enjoy the more weary I am the more I have the more I desire the more content I have in seeking the less in enjoying finally there is no sublunary thing that I obtain with the which I am not quickly cloyed as suddenly abhor it and desire another thing O how excellently did that famous Greek Doctor St. John Chrisostome contemplate after he had meerly out of compassion bewayled the Calamities of man and that dark obscurity with which they are encompassed when he cryed out Oh who could obtain the benefit of a Watch-Tower which were so convenient and skillfully built that from thence he might easily see all men and that he could enjoy so great and audible a voyce that from thence being heard and understood of all he might proclaim the high sentence expressed by that Royal King and Prophet David how long will your hearts be hardned Oh ye Sons of men and not without great cause and good reason did this holy man St. Chrisostome use these zealous expressions for let any man after a sound and mature Judgment but seriously consider the miserable estate and condition that the whole World lyeth under at this day the many traps cozenages cheats blasphemies adulteries roberies incests wars dissentions and effusions of bloud violencies rapines ambitions covetousnesses hatreds rumources malices desires of revenge c. With which the uverse lyeth drunk nay even drowned in May say that we are come very neer the time which was so much abhor'd and abominated by the Holy
and calamities of Humane frailty he sayes Though I am much perplexed with sorrow yet am more possessed with shame then grief when I contemplate the frail debt and contemptible Original of the stateliest and proudest of all Creatures that many times putting out a Candle before the Mother the foul smoak thereof should cause her to miscarry but being come to some Riper perfection in the Mothers Belly do but consider with me what delicate viands Nature hath provided for its sustenance If the manner of the Creation of it was a wonder to us a thing of greater admiration will its food and means of maintenance represent to our contemplation Is it not strange that it is maintained and fed with that monstrous blood which the Mother should purge out every Moneth which is a sort of Food so detestable and noisome that I am troubled and even ashamed to declare it although the Phylosophers and Physitians that write concerning these secrets of Nature do express it Those that are curious and desirous to understand these things let them read Pliny's Natural History and there they will finde what many others have written hereof before him But to return to our purpose After the Creature hath eaten and maintained it self a long time with that kind of Venemous sustenance and is arrived to more then fitting and to a reasonable bulk of body having need of more Food to maintain it and not being able by the Navel to receive so much sustenance as Nature requires it turns it self with a great violence to seek out for maintenance and with tumbling this way and that way it breaks all those tender mantles and thin skins with which it was till then enclosed But the Mother not being able to suffer the dangerous pangs that proceeds from this would not willingly retain within her Body so troublesome a Guess strives to turn it out and opens her body as much as is possible by which passage the Creature craving an Air strives to get to it and overturns it self towards the out-let of the Womb and so enters into the light of this World but not without grievous throws and pangs and sufficient shrieks and groans of the poor Mother and not without danger toil and some hurt to the tender body of the Infants and in the time of the nine Moneths what griefs what anguishes and sorrowes do many Mothers feel which the Creature causeth and without making any long stories of many Women who being with Child loose their stomacks and cannot eat or digest their food but are possessed with divers strange appetites and longings some of which for Example have desired to eat humane Flesh coveting to eat the meat out of their Husbands mouths and the like which many times hath caused men to flie and absent themselves from home Many Histories are full of Example of this Nature others again are extream desirous to feed upon Ashes Coals Cinders and the like according to the quantity of ill and corrupted Humours which are predominant in their bodies Furthermore with what pangs and tortures many times are the sad Mothers perplexed And in what hazard do they see themselves when they come to the bringing forth of the Infants Some come with their Armes for most others with their Feet others with their Knees and others come athwart or double But what is worse and most sad and woful is a thing which cannot well be expressed without terror both to the Speaker or Writer and the Hearer which is That sometimes there is a necessity to send for Physitians and Chirurgeons instead of Midwives to tair dismember and cut in pieces the Creatures to get them out of the Mothers body to save her life and too often it s of necessity to cut up and anotomize the poor innocent Mother with several instruments to beat and stir the body to get out the tender Fruit Some Humane Creatures are born sougly and prodigiously unshapen that they seem rather to be abominable Monsters then Men others are produced with two Heads and four Leggs as one was so born in Paris at the time the learned Author was composing this Treatise Some Twins have been brought forth that have cleaved and been joyned together as it was seen in France two Females joyned fast to each other by the Shoulders one of the which after they had lived together some time died and after made a putrifaction in the other and caused its death Polidorus writes That little before Hanibal went and joyned Forces with Marcello there was a Woman delivered of a Child with a Head like an Elephant and another was born with four feet like a Beast The Modern Historians write to this purpose That in the Year one thousand five hundred and eighteen a Roman Curtezan was delivered of a Creature one half like a Dog and the other half like a Man All that have undertaken to write the Histories of the Indies do affirm That there are at this day many that bear the shape of half Men and half Beasts occasioned by that hateful bruitish beastiality that raigns amongst those people who take delight in committing such execrable Vices Others again are born Blinde Deaf Dumb Maimed Lame and some wanting a Member for which the Relations are sorry the Mothers ill spoken of and the Fathers ashamed so that if we do but with attention consider the many and sad casualties and miseries that attend our Births we shall finde the old Proverb to be very true That our Mothers do conceive us in filthy loathsomness bring us forth in grief and sorrow and do nourish and educate us with great pains and care This is the first Scene or Act in the Tragedy of our Humane Life Here you have seen what Government and Order it naturally observes being enclosed in the Prison of the Mothers Womb. Now let us contemplate a little What can man be compared to after he is gotten out of this close Prison and put upon firm ground Truly I can fancy him like nothing so much as a Worm that creeps out of a Dung-hill Oh what a gentle habit he brings to make his first entrance into the World also to cover this stately Fabrick and to grace his pompuous entrance what necessary Garment think ye doth he bring with him no other but the filth and blood with which he comes covered and bathed all over which is nothing else but a lively representation to us of that Original sin with which the Child is bespotted as holy Scripture teaches us O sad and weighty necessity O miserable and deplorable condition O what a sorrowful and pitiful shame is this that before this creature hath sinned or is in a capacity actually to offend that it should be bound with the shame of Original corruption and be a bond-slave to Satan and be subject to evil before it knowes how to do ill All this proceeds from that Fruit which was so fair to the Eye sweet to the taste but bitter in effect to our
the out-side of these glorious entertainments we should be really perswaded that they alone do enjoy the pleasures and delights of this life and that all others live in perpetual anguish and trouble but if we make a further entrance into these things with a just ballance weight and with a true Rule try them we shall finde the same things which we count as steps to the heighth of felicity and which will make them arive to the top of happiness in this life These are the instruments and preparations of Vice by which they become to be more unfortunate and miserable of what validity are their rich garments and furniture gallant and honourable services and delicate Viands with all which they cannot defend themselves from the falsities and poysons which may be mixed in them by those about him We have experience thereof in our dayes Doth not Plataria write That one Pope was bewitched in his senses with a paper that was given him by a Servant for a private use to wipe Others have been poysoned by the smoak of Torches and Candles We read in ancient Histories that some Emperors durst not lie down to take their repose at night till first they had searched the Beds and diligently looked into all corners and retirements in their Bed-chambers for fear of being murthered when they were sleeping and changed their Lodging often The History of our Times can declare the like of that Tirant CROMWEL who was a diligent searcher as above-mentioned and often few of his own family knew where or in what Room he lay What a terrible gnawing and continual troublesome waking Worm is a guilty Conscience Others there are who never would consent a Barber or Chirurgeon should come near their Faces to shave their Beards least they should cut their Throats The Kings of our Times are so jealous that they dare not eat a bit without a Taster Were it not better saith Julius Caesar Dye at once then live subject to so many jealousies and fears But what felicity can any man enjoy that hath so many thousands of men at his charge under his government and protection He must watch and hear the complaints and petitions and seek the welfare of all inviting with his clemency and liberality some to be good and forcing others to be so with rigour and justice He must not be less solicitous to procure and maintain the peace and quiet of his people then couragious and valiant to defend them from the assaults in roads and treacheries of their Enemies without setting down many other the like calamities and eares which attend and surround the Royal Crowns and Scepters of Kings and Princes they command all but for the most part one or two governs them Pogio Florentino in a Discourse which he makes concerning the wicked Princes and their infidelity they commonly suffer themselves to be governed or led on by three sorts of people with which they converse which are most pleasing to them and which are most familiar with them and approved by them To begin with Flatterers which deserve the first place and because they are Capital enemies to the truth they bewitch their Souls and poyson their dispositions with such pestiferous and dangerous potions of tiranny folly and vice that all their Subjects feel the smart thereof They call their folly and rashness prudence their cruelty Justice their dissolute luxuries and uncleanness gentle sports If they are covetous they say they are provident If they are prodigal they call them liberal so that there is no vice in a King or Prince which they know not how to mask paint and glose under colour of some vertue The second are the Master-builders and inventers of Taxes Excises and Impositions the which sleep not day nor night to invent some new strange way to get money out of the common people for their Lords and Masters These invent new Dignities and Honours to be bought These take away diminish and cut them short again These petition for confiscations and condemnations against other men all their study diligence and care is to gather together win obtain and procure the Lands Goods and Inheritances of the poor people There is another kinde of men which under the pretence and covert of good do make of themselves honourable Hypocrites who have their aspect and reach so large that they are alwayes entrapping and discussing other mens lives and actions seeming to be Reformers and Enemies to vice they denounce against some good men and raise lies against others These approve such wickednesses and not onely are cause of mens loosing their Estates but many times of their lives who have deserved no such punishment for what alleadged against them neither from God nor Man for which cause the Ancients held a custome as Heâ—odiano relates to condemn for Devils and Enemies of their common weal after their deaths those Princes which in their Reins had ill governed the people and basely spent their Revenues as England may dearly lament in our age but then there was no King in Israel Also they were wont to congregate in their Temples with their Heathen-priests to petition their Gods not to take such Rulers into their Society or Community but to condemn them to infernal Furies to be tormented and chastised This custome was not onely anciently used but of latter years yet not amongst true Christians they had certain proper Curses and Execrations against such wicked protectors of the people as Antonio de Guevarra denotes who was Choronist to the Emperor of a Vice-Roy of Sicilia upon whose Tombe in revenge of his many Tirannies and base abuses they writ as followes Qui propter nos homines et propter Nostrum salutem Descendit ad inferos Truly by this little I have written mayest thou see the miseries and perplexities with which Royal Scepters are encompassed these Thornes are hidden under covert of these beautiful Crownes of Gold and seeming Rose-Beds of Government the which often are and ever ought to be green fresh and beautiful without withering that they may afford content savour and sent to all be a continual light and good example like a bright shining Lamp to the whole World for if they are infected with any muddy Vice if any necessary thing be wanting to a Lamp it presently burns sadly and dim a man had rather be in the dark then have such a light like the wickedness of princes How much the greater or how much the more sinful their Vices are so much the more are they worthy to be reprehended and reproved for them for as Plato sayes It 's not onely one sin to them in the action but a second sin and more dangerous in the Example so that if it is a hard thing for any man to be good as Hesiod said it is sure a greater difficulty for a prince to be so for the aboundance of delights pleasures and honors which they enjoy are rather Fewel to encrease then Water to asswage the burning heat of Vice
the multitude and diversity of Opinions which dayly are broached and fomented amongst Christians in the which we find our selves every day more involved for what one saith is white others say is black what some hold for day others say is night in fine there wants not those who do make a lie and Antichristian faith of the truth of Jesus Christ from which proceeds a great and strange evil which is an exceeding cause of offence to ignorant persons seeing some wise men affirme what others deny knowing as they do that there is but one only truth that I can find it in no place more transparent then in the Church of England For what others can say against her is not against any fundamentall truth but against her decent Ornaments and Divine order God is the God of order and apointed distinct Vestments for the Priests that served before Him in his Temple at Jerusalem so that all ignorant people as well as knowing ought to shut their eyes and eares against all novelties and stand stedfast first in the faith but next in the practice of their forefathers for had there been any error of consequence so many wise men as lived in those days would have amended them its true the Church may to appearance run a great hazard in the depths of affliction but shall never be devoured drowned or destroyed which as a miracle we have seen of our Church in her persecution and restauration these Sects and Heresies going on as they do well may we say that the fences of the pasture where the Flock of Jesus Christ were wont to be gathered together and fed are broken down and that Wolves are entred in to destroy disperse and devour the innocent Sheep and all proceeds from the carelesseness of their unwatchfull and disagreeing Pastors who neglect to stop the gaps mend up the fences discover withstand and hinder the growth and increase of this tamelesse devouring and poysoning beast of Heresie from whence it proceeds that many of the sheep have fled and gone astray without a Shepherd others are fed of ignorant and blind Shepherds which are hired for a small matter of money and are in danger of being lost because the chiefe Pastors take no care to overlook them and for those that remain together in the fold and pasture of Christ are at the point of hazard to be parted and mislead from the true way and certainly if we could see with our corporall eyes at once the great and apparent danger that all Christendome is in at this day if it were possible to number the multitude of Soules which are dayly in danger to be lost by these Sects Schismes Heresies it must needs make a mans haire stand upright with amazement Tell me truly Gentle Reader is there any manner of chastisement scourge torment anguish or sorrow of which we have not tasted in our dayes with which God hath not assayed to awaken us I will not refraine to wright somewhat and begin with the cruell wares and great effusions of Blood which hath been amongst us within this fifty or threescore yeares although I have written thereof in another Treatise and the memorial thereof is so fresh that the blood is hardly stenched of the wounds which hath been so deeply cut amongst Christians the great multitude of people as well men as women which wander as vagabonds from Country to Province and from Citty to Village forcibly banished from their Countrys Parents and houses with the distressed Mothers laden with their sad Orphans who by the diligence fury and cruelty of their Enemies are forced to fly from the burning flame and to seek out some ease house or repose for themselves and their hunger bitten infants nay and often cannot find it these may be sufficient witnesses of the many strange and bitter evils which attend War what greater griefe then to see the streetes filled with such kind of sorowfull and afflicted people what conscience or continency of life can they have who are the cause of such Tragedies when they shall here the teares sighs and out-cryes of such miserable Creatures especially when they shall consider that there is a full and particular account to be given of all the blood that unjustly or maliciously hath been or shall be shed from Abell who was the first man that dyed unto the last that shall die in the World as the holy spirit of God teacheth us in the Sacred Scriptures If we have felt the fatal stroke of War amongst us which is one of the principall messengers of Gods wrath there is another which is the Pestilence which hath not been wanting in our dayes for God according to our hardnesse of heart and impenitence proceeds with us by degrees either increasing or diminishing the chastisement I have read of the most strange wonderfull Plagues and contagions that have hapned in former ages the which we will compare with those of our times that we may come to see and understand that when God is highly offended whets and sharpens the sword of his anger and fury against us all other Creatures are overtaken with the irefull stroke thereof Many Authors worthy of Credit have written that the Citizens of Constantinople were visited with such a strange kind of horrible Pestilence that those that were smitten therewith they imagined that they were slaine by the hand of a neighbour or friend and being fallen into this frenzie they dyed distracted being only posses'd with this fear that they believd their deaths wound proceeded from another man There was in the dayes of Heraclius such a mortall Plague in Romania that in few dayes there dyed many thousand men the fury and frenzie of the contagion was so great that the most part of those that were stricken therewith cast themselves into the river Tiber to asswage the exceeding heat which like a red hot Iron consumed their very entrailes Tucidides a Greek Author writes that in his time there happened in Grecia such a contagious corruption of aire that an infinite number of people dyed without any remedy that could be found to mittygate or cure the disease and relates another thing more admirable and strange that if any one recovered health and escaped that venemous infirmity they remained without any remembrance of what was past even to the forgeting of Fathers Children of Childrens Parents Marcus Aurellius an Author worthy of credit wrights that there happened in his dayes so great a Plague in Italy that the Historians attempting to wright thereof said it was more easie for them to number those that were living then to give account of how many dyed the Souldiers of Avidius Cassuis a Generall under the Emperour Macro Antonio being in Seleucia a Citty appertaining to the Empire of Babilon they made entrance into the Temple of Apollo and finding there a certain Chest they opened it expecting to find a great Treasure in it from which proceeded such a stinking corrupted pestiferous aire that almost destroyed
unnaturall sort of diet there bred an infinite number of infirmities which brought men to their last refuge and made the stoutest heart to tremble there mightest thou see great companies of men women and children and aged fathers people of all ages going in the streets naked pale and shaking with cold some swollen up as with Dropsie others lying on the ground halfe dead resigning up their last breath of this sort of people many barnes stables and dunghills were full there were others so weak and faint that they had not ability to cast the word from their mouths to declare their malady and exstream necessity there were others also taken with trembling that appeared more like spirits and fantasies then men but above all it was a spectacle of greatest griefe to see many thousand mothers pale leane rejected surrounded and burdened with many young children the which being almost dead with famine could not cry nor ask succour from their sad and afflicted mothers and they instead of affording a remedy to their necessity could only look on them and that with exstream greife of heart witness those overflowing streames of teares which fell from their sorrowfull eyes and truly in my opinion this was the most deplorable representation of all the passages demonstrated in this tragick story when we consider how great a shew of compassion the poor dissolate mothers expressed towards their poor helpless children the same Paradin relates further that he saw in one Village called Longhaas in Burgonia a poor Woman who by exstream dilligence had gotten a peice of bread and being about to eat it a young child not full a year old which was sucking at her breast snatcht it out of her hand at which the doleful mother being astonished she stood stil observing how saverly the poor child made a shift to eat that mouthfull of dry hard and black bread as if it had been the finest morsel and when the mother would have picked up the crumbes that fell from its mouth the child gave so many screekes and so many throngs that the mother was forced to let it alone as if it had sure some certain understanding of what natures necessity required therefore it would admit of no company Oh Omnipotent God whose heart would not be ready to break with griefe to behold such a sad and dolefull spectacle as this The same Author relates that in another Village adjacent to the former two women not being able to find out any thing whereby to asswage their hungar they fed upon a poysonous root not understanding the malicious property thereof they were poysoned therewith in such a manner that all their parts both hands and feet were changed into a green like a Lizards skin and there came forth a contagious substance from betwixt the flesh and the nailes in so much that by reason of the venome thereof no remedy could befound to save them but they dyed in so much that at that time there was nothing within its degree and kind was not an executioner of Gods wrath against man for his sins in conclusion these miseries afflictions and calamities continuing so many yeares the poor farmers and labourers were forced to leave their Countries Townes and Villages and go to seek succour from the rich Merchants which long before had provided and laid up great quantity of Wheat in their Warehouses and Granaries from whom they bought their bread at dear and excessive prises and wanting money they sold trucked and pawned their Lands and inheritances at very low and invallied rates for that parcell of Land or houses which were worth a hundred they sold often for under ten so great was their cursed covetousness and excesse of lucre as if it were not sufficient for men to be chastised with the sharp and hard scourge of Gods anger when even all the Elements and Creaturs rose up against them but that man should be a persecutor afflicter and tormentor of man those ingardly covetuous and Usurous wretches foreseeing the occasion for them to do their business and to make hay whilest the Sun shines at least upon their vices as they thought they would not loose it but had their Factors and Brokers in the Villages to buy the Lands even at their own prises the which the poor Country-men made over with a good will that they might get wherewithall to eat and supply their necessity and with them and their furniture and houshold stuffe and apparell and with a free will would pawne even their very entrailes and liberty that they might not perish with famine there was a worse thing then this and it was that they were forced to take their Corn without measure and as the Sellar pleased to deliver it to be at adventure and buy as the Proverb is gato por liobre a Cat for a Hare I cannot omit to declare that there were Usurers that bought Lands cheaper then a Scrivener takes for a Bill of sale this is certainly known to be true but after these manifold and manifest evils you might see the poor people cast out of their houses with their wives and children and dying in Hospital for want of food and all by meanes of these rigid Usurers and false purchasers causers of their ruines and deaths and I fear they must one day give account of them as if they had been their actuall murderers and that before that righteous and just Judge from whom no secret can be hid Now having particularly given ye an account of three principal ways of punishment with which God being inceased with us for our many sins and transgressions useth to chastise his Creatures and especially when he sees them obstinate impenitent hardened and wallowing in their vicious wickednesse but all this is not so much when we consider the multitude of other infirmities to which humane bodies are subject every moment which puts the life in hazard upon every occasion Plynie and many other Greeke and Aâ—â—be Phisitians writ that in two thousand yeares there had been discovered above three hundred kinds of infirmities and maladies incident to mens bodyes besides such as are dayly discovered amongst which there are some so cruel and insupportable that they cannot well be set down without terrour to the apprehension of nature besides those which commonly are cured by cauterizing sawing off of Limbs taking out peices of Skull and Guts out of the belly as if they would take an inventory or anothomize the body alive also those which are cured by great strictness of dyet by reason of the fury and vigour of the disease as Cornelius Celsus writes that they have been forced to drink their Urine to quench their thirst and many even to eat their Plasters to satisfie their hungry appetites others were perswaded that they had swallowed alive Snake and told that they could not be cured to affright them that fear might facilitate their cure and then they would secretly put a live Snake into the close stool telling them that they had
doe come to be set on fire with the least sparke of lustfull zeale and desire and cannot obtaine here begins their fretting their fuming and their furious madnesse here these poore amorous lovers do waste and turmoyle their spirits in this consists the most dangerous point of their infirmity for here the violence and force of the disease battailes hand to fist with nature it self Oh that raging fire from whose furious flames is incended that mortall heat and madnesse which scorcheth consumes them there is not a member of their bodies but is grieved with it and at that season although they were faint-hearted cowards then thou shalt see them boast of Armes and Courage and be more valiant than Caesar or Hector there is no Villany which they will not atchieve no art cunning or purpose which they will not attempt for the curing their maladies and to obtain the enjoyment of their frantick desires many have made themselves dog-whippers beggers and ballet-singers transformed themselves like ravenous hungry Woolves hunting by night all that they might but attain the enjoyment of their beloveds sight although this infirmity is of its own nature sufficiently phantastical yet it hath its various effects frenzies and vanities according to the divers natural inclinations constitutions and affections which it meets with for if the party in love be poore there is no bodily labor and toyle which he will not undertake be it never so difficult imploying couragiously all his might even to the hazard of life and all to give content to those they so entirely affect if he be rich his purse is tyed as the Greeks use to say with a leeke with a spire of grass which is easily broken intimating although he be never so covetous he becomes liberal and prodigal there is not any or at least very few who are stricken with this furious frenzy of love but by the powers thereof are brought low and undone the which made Plato say that love was the first inventor of the budget scrip or snap-sack which may very well be for the most part especially in hot climates Lovers be they never so rich come off at last engaged uncloathed and with a Porters sack on their shoulders and often travailing towards the Hospital and if our vitious lover be learned of good abilities and engenious parts you shall see him seighning a sea of teares a lake of miseries redouble his sighs and groans accuse heaven anatomise his heart frieze in winter burne in summer adore idolize admire feign a paradice and counterfeit a hell imitate Sifiphus and dissimulate Tantalus if he begins to set forth the praises of his dearly beloved her haires are threads of purest gold the eye-brows arches of Ebany the eyes glistering Starrs the locks flashes of Lightning the lips Corral the teeth Oriental Pearle the breath sweet Balsome Muske and Ambar the throat Snow the neck congealed Milke the breast and paps apples of Alleblaster and in fine all the rest of the body a Prodigy a treasure both of Heaven and earth which they kept and reserved to make the most perfect happy and blisfull creature in the World to him the adorer thereof Here we see how this cruel malady of Love doth miserably torment and afflict those that are wounded with its poysonous darts yet there is so many Nations People and Provinces marked with Loves marke and branded with his iron that if a general muster should be made of all the amorous persons of the world there is no Emperor or Monarch were he never so powerfull and accompanied with multitudes that would not admire and tremble to meet and behold such innumerable companies of frantick lovesick and mad people together this Pestilential evil hath got such a head so much power and command over men that there is not known nor do men seek after any certain remedy against it although many Greek and Arab Physitians have spent much time upon it experimenting and proving all medicinal ways of Syrrups and Purges dung the uttermost of their art and skill to free man from so great a Captivity Torment and Martyrdom Samocrado Nigrid and Ovid wrote many and copious Treatises of remedyes against Love in the which they prescribed great and cordial cures to others but used none for themselves for all three of them died in banishment persecuted and reproached not for the faults they committed in Rome but for the amorous lusts which they invented in Capua The Emperor Marcos Aurelius knowing that Faustina his Emperesse was so farr enamored of a Fencer that she could not hide her affection and was almost at deaths doore with the burning desire and unbridled passion which she had to have him in her power and enjoy him alone gathered together a great number of wise men read in all Sciences to finde out a remedy to quench this raging fire which by degrees fed upon her and consumed her after great and various Opinions Judgements and Cordiall Cures which one and others gave the Emperour he took the Counsel of some Empericks who advised him to kill him that she loved and secretly to give her his bloud to drink which was done and proved so cordial a medicine that in a short space her affection or passion abated but the mitigation was not so good as Julius Capitolinus writes but it was a detriment to Antonius Commodus the Emperours son which was begotten presently after this cruel murder for he was more like the fencer then his Father he alwayes delighted to go amongst fencers to converse and treat with them before any others so that in appearance the affection of the Mother was naturally fixed in the Sonne but all this which hath been declared is but a Cyser in comparison of what I have read upon this subject or rather master in Histories for when this furious malady takes root within us it brings us to such a discord and dissolution that we become worse than bruit animals As it may be demonstrated evidently in that young mâ—n descended from one of the most Noble and Ancient Families of Athens more rich and known than any of the said City the which having somtimes contemplated and seriously staid to behold an Image of marble made by the hand of an Excellent Artist which was placed in one of the publick streets of the City he was conquered and enamoured with it in such a manner he honoured and adored it that he would not part from it but continually embraced it kissing it and expressing his love to it as if it had been the most beautifull Lady in the World and if he were taken from it he would weep exceeding passionately and demonstrate both by word and action so much sorrow that would make the hardest heart to relent this foolish frensie did so much increase afflict streighten and work upon him that he petitioned the Governours of the City to sell it him that he might carry it home and embrace it and enjoy it at his pleasure which would
not be granted being a publike ornament to the City and more valued by them then he was able to give for it at the which the youth being vexed he commanded a rich Crown of Gold and costly Vestments to be made carrying it to the Image he put the Crown upon the head and the rich robes about the Body of it with the which ornaments it appeared to him far more beautifull which caused him to adore serve and with new inventions to wait upon it not desisting night nor day insomuch that the People being angred and offended at his foolish and unwonted Love The Governour strictly upon penalties commanded him not to come within a hundred Leagues of the said Statue The discontented Youth seeing himself deprived of what in this life he most desired he fell into such a passion that he slew himself not being able to suffer the torment for such is the force and power of this malady after that it once begins to take possession of the most sensible parts of the body by little and little it gains the chief Fortresse of man the heart so that its a difficult thing to be rid of it or cast it out except with life it self and it were better for many to end their dayes speedily rather then to suffer continual groans sighes tears and heavy torments as they doe That great Philosopher Apolonio Tianco being much importuned by a King of Babylon that he should declare or set forth the most cruel and insupportable torment that could be invented by the most secret Arts and Sciences of the Philosophers to punish a young gallant who he had taken in Bed with a Lady of his which he himself had a great respect for Answered the greatest affliction thou canst lay upon him in this life is not to take away his life I can saith he invent no greater or more cruel Chastisement than this You shal see how by degrees the feirce burning fire of his commenced and once enjoyed Love will be predominant over him so that the torment which he shall suffer will be so great that it cannot be imagined and expressed he shall be combated and surrounded with so many various Imaginations that you shall see him consume in the flames of his own lustfull Frensie like as a Butter-flye doth his wings in a Candle insomuch that his life shall be no more a life but a lingering death more cruel than any bloody Tyrant can command of any Hangman to execute Here you may see the summe of all for I have endeavoured to spread the wings of my Pen suffer it to soare and wander in this Theam which is such a general destruction and proves to be so great a dammage to the major part of the youth of our times who no sooner set footing into the world and begin to taste the delights thereof but they conceit themselves in love and beloved being ayded and assisted of youth liberty and riches which are the cheifest panders on the earth they Commence batchellers of the Art spending the best part of their lives in Loves frivolous toys commands and occupations Old Age. Now after all this wide and spacious sea of miseries and tempestious waves of trouble in the which man is continually sayling and rowing with exceeding danger of his destruction and when most need is of quiet repose then old age steals upon him he feels the smart of his old sores his former griefs become renewed the sins of his youth come home to him here he comes to pay the charges intersts dammages and imparements of all the wanton excesses of his youth all the past vices and pleasant viands devoured are cast up then for the heart is afflicted the senses grow dull the spirit is infirme the breath smells the face wrinckles the body bends the nose drops the fight grows weak and dimn the haire sheds the teeth Rot and in conclusion they are never without one malady or other so that their body seems to be an Effigies of death or like a dry Anotomy This one besides the many infirmityes of the soule which do accompany old age he is soon angry but hard to be pacified he will soon believe a thing or is credulous but doth not quickly forget he praises the former but contemns the present times and condition of things he walks continually sad infirm melancholy averitious suspitious and complaining in fine old Age is the necessary Sink or dunghill where all the filthy infirmities and iniquities of the past age is emptied and cast out the Emperor Augustus having well weighed and considered all this was wont to say that after men had lived fifty yeares it were fit they should then dye or desire and intreat others to kill them and end their sinfull and miserable lives for so long they may attain to live happy honorably but all the rest of their lives they passe in perpetual afflictions grievous and insupportable infirmities death of Children losses in Estates importunities of Sons and Daughters in Law interring of friends and acquaintance maintaining of Law-Sutes paying of Debts and an infinite number of other sorrowes and troubles that they were better to be at quiet in their graves then to enjoy this fraile life for so short a space and so full of sorrows this the Prophet well understood when he prayed to God so earnestly Lord leave me not in my old age when thou shalt see me Aged Infirme and Weak Hitherto we have in my opinion largely and sufficiently discoursed of the miseries anguishes and afflictions which do besiege persecute and torment man whilst he is acting his tragick part on the Treatre of this World but well may we believe one thing and that without scruple that if the first entrance which man makes into this vaile of Teares seems wonderfull miserable difficult and dangerous no less will appear his end and parting for if thou hast heard of strange and miraculous births if thou wilt thou mayst read of more horrid deaths with the which I shall put a period to this narration of all the infelicities calamities miseries of mans life after that man hath labored sighed toyled himself nights and days to beare to a good harbour the fardle of his unfortunate calamnities it might seem reason that nature should give him some repose and quiet Let him eat one morsell of bread in peace but it is ordained it should not be so but that he should be always watchfull and with dread expect the dolefull parting of the soul and body that terrible houre of death which for the most part is with anguishes and incredible torments at the which St. Augustine admiring he frames a complaint to God Lord after man hath suffered so many evils and sustained so many afflictions death follows which suddenly snatcheth poore Creatures and that by divers strange and infinite ways some with grievous Feavers others with some great pains some with hunger others with thirst some in the fire others in the water how
many with the sword poysons and pure fear some doe drown strangle and destroy themselves others are torne in peices with the teeth of cruel and savage Creatures some have been wounded and killed by pecking of birds and others have been meat for fishes and worms all this considered no man knows what end he shall make or by which of these means his dissolution shall be for when he deems himself most firm healthy and strong then he is most subject to fall and the saddest change is then nearest and then approaching towards him death the separation of soul and body which is most fearfull and of all things most terrible Therefore to work upon our apprehension what sight what spectacle is more worth our view and contemplation then to see a man cast upon his sick bed tormented with the pangs of death and afflicted to the height therewith what a horror what a change is there in all the joynts and parts of his body what an alteration there is the feet grow cold the face turnes yellow the eye-strings break and the eyes sink in the mouth and lips shrink up the tongue grows black the teeth chatter their sweat is more cold then ice proceeding from mortall griefs and are the most evident signes of the conquest of death over nature for when the soul comes to separate from its so dearly beloved companion when these two so antient friends and consorts comes to take the last farewell embraces there is no joynt or limbe of nature remaines whole or in order but they all break besides there is the furious assaults of the devills the wicked angels the fearfull visions and representations which they make to the soul and conscience of the poore dying man its certain there is no invention no false Machination which they do not attempt to beguile and deceive him striving sometimes to make us believe that we have lived well that we might assuredly believe and securely rest upon this false opinion and not strive but neglect by a hearty repentance to obtain the mercy of God other whiles he sets before us an infinite number of foule and wicked transgressions which we have committed in our life times to cause us to dispaire and distrust our Gods grace and loving-kindnesse that is the houre in which that cursed one Sathan bestirs himself imploys al his force sharpens his weapons burnishes his Armes Insinuates secret Ielousies against the power of God at that instant of time he strives to disturb the soul the health and the peace of men then he animates and strengthens himself more then ever for by how much the nearer he knows he is to the end of his Kingdome by so much the more he rageth and grows feirce for which cause he useth at that houre the same practice he did at the time our Saviour Jesus Christ was on the earth when he drew neare to any that were possessed with Devils they never gave greater scriks tormented or afflicted themselves more furiously then when he came neere them and that because they knew that the houre was come that they must be commanded out of their habitations and forced out of the persons where they abode for this cause the Royall Prophet David so much lamented the death of his son Absolom saying I would I had dyed for thee oh my son considering then he dyed full of wicked vices and inormous sins and rebellions with which he passed that his sad and last houre Those that have gone through that passage the gate of death have swallowed that thorne with the which they have been strangled What is become of their fantastical Pride What is become of all their Pomps and Trophies Where is their Riches Delights and Pastimes Where are the Majesties the Excellencies and Dignities What is become of all the Gallantries Courrage and Inventions of them They are vanished away like a shaddow as the Psalmist expresses They are perished like a Garment devoured with Mothes and the Prophet Esayas sayth Serpents Dragons and Wormes have eaten consumed and destroyed them Let us consider a little man lying in his grave contemplate with me his condition there whoever beheld a more fearfull spectacle or stinking Monster is there any thing more horrible unsavory and vile then man being dead and consuming in the earth see here the Majestie the Excellency the Dignity of this world layed in the dust behold here the delicious and nice feeder the esteemed and honored even to kissing the feet and hands how a suddain and unexpected change hath altered his condition and made it so abominable that it cannot be so closely masked decked and honored with stately Sepulchers of Marble or Porpherie with glorious Statues of Brasse Pirameds Epetaphs Mournings and other Honourable Pompes but it may manifestly appear that under all this there is a gastly stinking and deformed Corps which few would desire to see come neare or remember there is none of the greatest and mightiest Lords of the Earth of whom it may not be said what Solomon in his book of Wisdome writes What profit have they reaped of their Pride What fruit have they gathered or carried with them of their great riches all these things are passed like a shaddow like an Arrow shot at the marke like the smoak which is dispersed with the winde like the memory of a Guest in an Inn which hath stayed but one day there le ts now leave the miserable body in its grave le ts not molest that quiet repose it hath for a short time in that little caverne of earth where it lyeth as in a bed of Down But now here follows the ultimate and most dangerous tryall and passage of this our humane Tragedie that which David so much dreaded that he prayed exceeding earnestly to God that he would not enter into judgment with his servant for at that instant that the soul departs from the body she must of necessity appear before the face of Almighty God in Judgment what fear what horror think you shall he carry with him that is overclouded with vice and wickedness what moment can be more frightfull what minute ought to be more feared contemplated and profoundly considered My members all tremble ther 's hardly a haire of my head but stands upright when I seriously Meditate thereof this is the Journey which the Prophet writes of that the Lord will make when he saith He will descend like lightning all hearts shall wax faint become foolish and melt away and all the world shall tremble with fear in that day their griefs troubles and afflictions shall exceed the paines of a woman in travell in this day the Lord will come full of wrath and anger to destroy the earth and roote out the wicked thereof the Sun shall be darkned and the Moon and Stars shall withdraw their Light his irefull fury shall break the hinges destroy the foundations of the earth le ts hearken also to the words of Saint Matthew in the language