those vnspotted eyes encountred mine As spotlesse Sunne doth on the dunghill shine Sweet volumes stor'd with learning fit for Saints Where blisfull quires imparadize their mindes Wherein eternall study neuer faints Still finding all yet seeking all it findes How endlesse is your labyrinth of blisse Where to be lost the sweetest finding is Ah wretch how oft haue I sweet lessons read In those deare eyes the registers of truth How oft haue I my hungry wishes fed And in their happy ioyes redrest my ruth Ah that they now are Heralds of disdaine That erst were euer pitiers of my paine You flames diuine that sparkle out your heates And kindle pleasing fires in mortall hearts You Nectar'd Aumbries of soule feeding meates You gracefull quiuers of loues dearest darts You did vouchsafe to warme to wound to feast My cold my stony my now famisht breast The matchlesse eyes matcht onely each by other Were pleas'd on my ill matched eyes to glance The eye of liquid pearle the purest mother Broch't teares in mine to weepe for my mischance The cabinets of grace vnlockt their treasure And did to my misdeed their mercies measure These blazing Comets lightning flames of loue Made me their warming influence to know My frozen heart their sacred force did proue Which at their lookes did yeeld like melting snow They did not ioyes in former plentie carue Yet sweet are crums where pined thoughts do starue O liuing mirrours seeing whom you shew Which equall shadowes worths with shadowed things Yea make things nobler then in natiue hew By being shap't in those life-giuing springs Much more my image in those eyes were grac't Then in my selfe whom sinne and shame defac't All-seeing eyes more worth then all you see Of which one is the others onely price I worthlesse am direct your beames on me With quickning vertue cure my killing vice By seeing things you make things worth the sight You seeing salue and being seene delight O Pooles of Hesebon the baths of grace Where happy spirits dine in sweet desires Where Saints delight to glasse their glorious face VVhose bankes make Eccho to the Angels quires An Eccho sweeter in the sole rebound Then Angels musicke in the fullest sound O eyes whose glances are a silent speech In cipherd words high mysteries disclosing Which with a looâ—e all Sciences can teach Whose texts to faithfull hearts need little glosing Witnesse vnworthy I who in a looke Learn'd more by rote then all the Scribes by booke Though malice still possest their hardned minds I though too hard learn'd softnesse in thine eye Which yron knots of stubburne will vnbinds Offring them loue that loue with loue will buy This did I learne yet they could not discerne it But wo that I had now such need to learne it O Sunnes all but your selues in light excelling Whose presence day whose absence causeth night Whose neighbour course brings Sommer cold expelling Whose distant periods freeze away delight Ah that I lost your bright and fostering beames To plonge my soule in these congealed streames O gracious Spheres where loue the Center is A natiue place for our selfe-loaden soules The compasse loue a cope that none can misse The motion loue that round about vs roules O Spheres of loue whose Center cope and motion Is loue of vs loue that inuites deuotion O little worlds the summes of all the best Where glory heauen God sunne all vertues starres Where fire a loue that next to heauen doth rest Ayre light of life that no distemper marres The water grace whose seas whose springs whose showers Cloth natures earth with euerlasting flowers What mixtures these sweet Elements do yel'd Let happy worldlings of those worlds expound But simples are by compounds farre exceld Both sute a place where all best things abound And if a banisht wretch ghesse not amisse All but one compound frame of perfect blisse I out-cast from these worlds exiled rome Poore Saint from heauen from fire cold Salamander Lost fish from those sweet waters kindly home From land of life stray'd Pilgrime still I wander I know the cause these worlds had neuer hell In which my faults haue best deseru'd to dwell O Bethlem cesterns Dauids most desire From which my sinnes like fierce Philistims keepe To fetch your drops what Champion should I hire That I therein my withered heart may steepe I would not shead them like that holy King His were but types these are the figured thing O Turtle twinnes all bath'd in Virgins milke Vpon the margine of full flowing banks Whose gracefull plume surmounts the finest silke Whose sight enamoureth heauens most happy ranks Could I forsweare this heauenly payre of Doues That cag'd in care for me were groning loues Twise Moses wand did strike the stubburne Rocke Ere stony veines would yeeld their chrystall bloud Thy eies one looke seru'd as an onely knocke To make mine heart gush out a weeping floud Wherein my sinnes as fishes spawne their frie To shew their inward shames and then to die But ô how long demurre I on his eyes Whose looke did pierce my heart with healing wound Launcing impostum'd sore of periur'd lyes Which these two issues of mine â—yes haue found Where runne it must till death the issues stop And penall life hath purg'd the finall drop Like solest Swan that swims in silent deepe And neuer sings but obsequies of death Sigh out thy plaints and sole in secret weepe In suing pardon spend thy periur'd breath Attire thy soule in sorrowes mourning weed And at thine eyes let guilty conscience bleed Still in the Limbecke of thy dolefull brest These bitter fruits that from thy sinnes do grow For fuell selfe accusing thoughts be best Vse feare as fire the coales let penance blow And seeke none other quintessence but teares That eyes may shead what entred at thine eares Come sorrowing teares the off-spring of my griefe Scant not your Parent of a needfull ayde In you I rest the hope of wisht reliefe By you my sinfull debts must be defrayd Your power preuailes your sacrifice is gratefull By loue obtaining life to men most hatefull Come good effects of ill-deseruing cause Ill gotten impes yet vertuously brought forth Selfe-blaming probates of infringed Lawes Yet blamed faults redeeming with your worth The signes of shame in you each eye may reade Yet while you guilty proue you pitty pleade O beames of mercy beate on sorrowes Clowd Proue suppling showers vpon my parched ground Bring forth the fruit to your due seruice vow'd Let good desires with like deserts be crown'd Water yong blooming vertues tender flowre Sinne did all grace of riper growth deuoure Weepe Balme and Myrrhe you sweet Arabian trees With purest gummes perfume and pearle your ryne Shead on your hony drops you busie Bees I barraine plant must weepe vnpleasant bryne Hornets I hyue salt drops their labour plyes Suckt out of sinne and shed by showring eyes If Dauid night by night did bathe his bed Esteeming longest dayes too short to moue Inconsolable teares if
egges ere they be hatched Kill bad Chickins in the tread Fligge they hardly can be catched In the rising stifle ill Lest it grow against thy will Drops do pierce the stubburne Flint Not by force but often falling Custome kils with feeble dint More by vse then strength preuailing Single sands haue little waight Many make a drowning fraight Tender twigs are bent with ease Aged trees do breake with bending Yong desires make little prease Growth doth make them past amending Happie man that soone doth knocke Babels Babes against the rocke Loue seruile Lot LOue Mistresse is of many minds Yet few know whom they serue They reckon least how little Loue Their seruice doth deserue The will she robbeth from the wit The sense from reasons lore Shee is delightfull in the ryne Corrupted in the core She shrowdeth vice in Vertues veile Pretending good in ill She offereth ioy affoordeth griefe A kisse where she doth kill A hony showre raines from her lips Sweet lights shine in her face She hath the blush of Virgine mind The minde of Vipers race She makes thee seeke yet feare to find To find but none enioy In many frownes some gliding smiles She yeelds to more annoy She wooes thee to come neare her fire Yet doth she draw it from thee Farre off she makes thy heart to fry And yet to freeze within thee She letteth fall some luring baits For fooles to gather vp Too sweet too sowre to euerie tast She tempereth her cup. Soft soules she binds in tender twist Small Flyes in spinners webbe She sets aflote some luring streames But makes them soone to ebbe Her watrie eyes haue burning force Her flouds and flames conspire Teares kindle sparkes sobs fuell are And sighs do blow her fire May neuer was the Month of loue For May is full of flowers But rather Aprill wet by kind For loue is full of showers Like Tyrant cruell wounds she giues Like Surgeon salue she lends But salue and sore haue equall force For death is both their ends With soothing words enthralled soules She chaines in seruile bands Her eye in silence hath a speech Which eye best vnderstands Her little sweet hath many sowres Short hap immortall harmes Her louing lookes are murdrings darts Her songs bewitching charmes Like Winter Rose and Sommer Ice Her ioyes are still vntimely Before her hope behind remorse Faire first in fine vnseemely Moodes passions fancies iealous fits Attend vpon her traine She yeeldeth rest without repose A Heauen in hellish paine Her house is sloth her doore deceit And slipperie hope her staires Vnbashfull boldnesse bids her guests And euerie vice repaires Her dyet is of such delights As please till they be past But then the poyson kils the heart That did entice the taste Her sleepe in sinne doth end in wrath Remorse rings her awake Death cals her vp shame driues her out Despaires her vpshot make Plow not the Seas sow not the sands Leaue off your idle paine Seeke other mistresse for your mindes Loues seruice is in vaine Life is but Losse BY force I liue in will I wish to dye In plaint I passe the length of lingring dayes Free would my soule from mortall bodie fly And tread the tracke of Deaths desired wayes Life is but losse where death is deemed gaine And lothed pleasures breed displeasing paine Who would not dye to kill all murdering greeues Or who would liue in neuer-dying feares Who would not wish his treasure safe from Theeues And quit his heart from pangs his eyes from teares Death parteth but two euer fighting foes Whose ciuill strife doth worke our endlesse woes Life is a wandring course to doubtfull rest As oft a cursed rise to damning leape As happie race to winne a heauenly crest None being sure what finall fruits to reape And who can like in such a life to dwell Whose wayes are strait to Heauen but wide to Hell Come cruell death why lingrest thou so long What doth withhold thy dint from fatall stroke Now prest I am alas thou doest me wrong To let me liue more anger to prouoke Thy right is bad when thou hast stopt my breath Why should'd thou stay to worke my bouble death If Sauls attempt in falling on his blade As lawfull were as ethe to put in vre If Sampsons leaue a common Law were made Of Abels lot if all that would were sure Then cruell death thou should'st the Tyrant play With none but such as wished for delay Where life is lou'd thou readie art to kill And to abridge with sodaine pangs their ioy Where life is loath'd thou wilt not worke their will But dost adiourne their death to their annoy To some thou art a fierce vnbidden guest But those that craue thy helpe thou helpest least Auant oh viper I thy spite defie There is a God that ouer-rules thy force Who can thy weapons to his will apply And shorten or prolong our brittle course I on his mercie not thy might relye To him I liue for him I hope to dye I dye aliue O Life what lets thee from a quicke decease O death what drawes thee from a present prey My feast is done my soule would be at ease My grace is said O Death come take away I liue but such a life as euer dyes I dye but such a death as neuer ends My death to end my dying life denies And life my liuing death no whit amends Thus still I dye yet still I do reuiue My liuing death by dying life is fed Grace more then Nature keepes my heart aliue Whose idle hopes and vaine desires are dead Not where I breathe but where I loue I liue Not where I loue but where I am I dye The life I wish must future glorie giue The deaths I feele in present dangers lye What ioy to liue I Wage no warre yet peace I none enioy I hope I feare I frye in freezing cold I mourne in mirth still prostrate in annoy I all the World imbrace yet nothing hold All wealth is want where chiefest wishes faile Yea life is loath'd where loue may not preuaile For that I loue I long but that I lacke That others loue I loath and that I haue All worldly fraights to me are deadly wracke Men present hap I future hopes do craue They louing where they liue long life require To liue where best I loue death I desire Here loue is lent for loue of filthie gaine Most friends befriend themselues with friendships shew Here plentie perill want doth breed disdaine Cares common are ioyes faultie short and few Here Honour enuide meannesse is despis'd Sinne deemed solace Vertue little pris'd Here beauty is a baite that swallowed choakes A treasure sought still to the owners harmes A light that eyes to murdring sights prouokes A grace that soules inchants with mortall charmes A luring ayme to Cupids fierie flights A balefull blisse that damnes where it delights O who would liue so many deaths to trie Where will doth wish that wisedome doth reproue
Anna shed Who in her sonne her solace had forgone Then I to dayes and weekes to moneths and yeeres Do owe the hourely rent of stintlesse teares If loue if losse if fault if spotted fame If danger death if wrath or wreck of weale Entitle eyes true heyres to earned blame That due remorse in such euents conceale That want of teares might well enrole my name As chiefest Saint in Calendar of shame Loue where I lou'd was due and best deseru'd No loue could ayme at more loue-worthy mark No loue more lou'd then mine of him I seru'd Large vse he gaue a flame for euery sparke This loue I lost this losse a life must rue Yea life is short to pay the ruth is due I lost all that I had and had the most The most that will can wish or wit deuise I least perform'd that did most vainely boast I staynd my fame in most infamous wise What danger then death wrath or wreck can moue More pregnant cause of teares then this I proue If Adam sought a veyle to scarfe his sinne Taught by his fall to feare a scourging hand If men shall wish that hils should wrap them in When crimes in finall doome come to be scand What Mount what Caue what Center can conceale My monstrous fact which euen the birds reueale Come shame the liuery of offending minde The vgly shroud that ouer-shadoweth blame The mulct at which foule faults are iustly fin'd The dampe of sinne the common sluce of fame By which impostum'd tongues their humours purge Light shame on me I best deseru'd the scourge Cains murdring hand imbrude in brothers bloud More mercy then my impious tongue may craue He kild a riuall with pretence of good In hope Gods doubled loue alone to haue But feare so spoyld my vanquisht thoughts of loue That periur'd oathes my spitefull hate did proue Poore Agar from her pheere inforc't to flie Wandring in Barsabian wildes alone Doubting her child through helplesse drought would dye Laid it aloofe and set her downe to moue The heauens with prayers her lap with teares she fild A mothers loue in losse is hardly stild But Agar now bequeath thy teares to me Feares not effects did set a-floate thine eyes But wretch I feele more then was feard of thee Ah not my Sonne my soule it is that dies It dies for drought yet hath a spring in sight Worthy to die that would not liue and might Faire Absoloms foule faults compar'd with mine Are brightest sands to mud of Sodome Lakes High aymes yong spirits birth of royall line Made him play false where Kingdoms were the stakes He gaz'd on golden hopes whose lustre winnes Sometime the grauest wits to grieuous sinnes But I whose crime cuts off the least excuse A Kingdome lost but hop't no mite of gaine My highest marke was but the worthlesse vse Of some few lingring howers of longer paine Vngratefull child his Parent he pursude I Gyants warre with God himselfe renude Ioy infant Saints whom in the tender flower A happy storme did free from feare of sinne Long is their life that die in blisfull hower Ioyfull such ends as endlesse ioyes begin Too long they liue that liue till they be nought Life sau'd by sinne base purchase dearely bought This lot was mine your fate was not so fearce Whom spotlesse death in Cradle rockt asleepe Sweet Roses mixt with Lillies strew'd your hearce Death Virgine white in Martyrs red did steepe Your downy heads both Pearles and Rubies crown'd My hoary locks did female feares confound You bleating Ewes that wayle this woluish spoyle Of sucking Lambs new bought with bitter throwes T'inbalme your babes your eyes distill their oyle Each heart to tombe her child wide rupture showes Rue not their death whom death did but reuiue Yeeld ruth to me that liu'd to die aliue With easie losse sharpe wrecks did he eschew That Sindonlesse aside did naked slip Once naked grace no outward garment knew Rich are his robes whom sinne did neuer strip I rich in vaunts displaid prides fairest flags Disrob'd of grace am wrapt in Adams rags When traytor to the sonne in Mothers eyes I shall present my humble sute for grace What blush can paint the shame that will arise Or write my inward feeling in my face Might she the sorrow with the sinner see Though I despisde my griefe might pitied be But ah how can her eares my speech endure Or sent my breath still reeking hellish steeme Can mother like what did the Sonne abiure Or heart deflowr'd a Virgins loue redeeme The Mother nothing loues that Sonne doth loath Ah loathsome wretch detested of them both O sister Nymphes the sweet renowned paire That blesse Bethania bounds with your abode Shall I infect that sanctified ayre Or staine those steps where Iesus breath'd and trode No let your prayers perfume that sweetned place Turne me with Tygers to the wildest chase Could I reuiued Lazarus behold The third of that sweet Trinity of Saints Would not abstonisht dread my senses hold Ah yes my heart euen with his naming faints I seeme to see a messenger from hell That my prepared torments comes to tell O Iohn O Iames we made a triple cord Of three most louing and best louing friends My rotten twist was broken with a word Fit now to fuell fire among the Fiends It is not euer true though often spoken That triple twisted cord is hardly broken The dispossed Diuels that out I threw In IESVS name now impiously forsworne Triumph to see me caged in their mew Trampling my ruines with contempt and scorne My periuries were musicke to their dance And now they heape disdaines on my mischance Our Rocke say they is riuen O welcome howre Our Eagles wings are clipt that wrought so hie Our thundring Cloud made noise but cast no showre He prostrate lies that would haue seal'd the skie In womans tongue our runner found a rub Our Cedar now is shrunke into a shrub These scornefull words vpraid my inward thought Proofes of their damned prompters neighbours voice Such vgly guests still wait vpon the nought Fiends swarme to soules that swarue from vertues choice For breach of plighted truth this true I try Ah that my deed thus gaue my word the lie Once and but once too deare a once to twice it A heauen in earth Saints neere my selfe I saw Sweet was the sight but sweeter loues did spice it But sights and loues did my misdeed withdraw From heauen and Saints to hell and Deuils estrang'd Those sights to frights those loues to hates are chang'd Christ as my God was templed in my thought As man he lent mine eyes their dearest light But sinne his temple hath to ruine brought And now he lightneth terrour from his sight Now of my late vnconsecrate desires Profaned wretch I taste the earned hires Ah sinne the nothing that doth all things file Out-cast from heauen earths curse the cause of hell Parent of death author of our exile The wrecke of soules the wares that
the feeling of my rauing fits Whose ioy annoy whose guerdon is disgrace Whose solace flies whose sorrow neuer flits Bad seed I sow'd worse fruit is now my gaine Soone dying mirth begat long liuing paine Now pleasure ebbes reuenge begins to flow One day doth wreake the wrath that many wrought Remorse doth teach my guilty thoughts to know How cheape I sold what Christ so dearely bought Faults long vnfelt doth conscience now bewray All ghostly dynts that Grace at me did dart Like stubborne rocke I forced to recoyle To other flights an ayme I made mine heart Whose wounds then welcome now haue wrought my foyle Wo worth the bow wo worth the Archers might That draue such Arrowes to the marke so right To pull them out to leaue them in is death One to this world one to the world to come Wounds may I weare and draw a doubtfull breath But then my wounds will worke a dreadfull doome And for a world whose pleasures passe away I lose a world whose ioyes are past decay O sense ô soule ô had ô hoped blisse You woo you weane you draw you driue me backe Your crosse encountring like their combat is That neuer end but with some deadly wracke When sense doth winne the soule doth lose the field And present haps make future hopes to yeeld O heauen lament sense robbeth thee of Saints Lament O soules sense spoyleth you of Grace Yet sense doth scarce deserue these hard complaints Loue is the thiefe sense but the entring place Yet graunt I must sense is not free from sinne For thiefe he is that thiefe admitteth in MARY MAGDALENS complaint at Christs death SIth my life from life is parted Death come take thy portion Who suruiues when life is murdred Liues by meere extortion All that liue and not in God Couch their life in deaths abod Silly starres must needs leaue shining When the Sunne is shaddowed Borowed streams refraine their running When head-springs are hindered One that liues by others breath Dyeth also by his death O true Life since thou hast left me Mortall life is tedious Death it is to liue without thee Death of all most odious Turne againe or take me to thee Let me dye or liue thou in me Where the truth once was and is not Shadowes are but vanity Shewing want that helpe they cannot Signes not salue of misery Painted meat no hunger feeds Dying life each death exceeds With my loue my life was nestled In the summe of happinesse From my loue my life is wrested To a world of heauinesse O let loue my life remoue Sith I liue not where I loue O my soule what did vnloose thee From the sweet captiuity God not I did still possesse thee His not mine thy liberty O too happy thrall thou wart When thy prison was his heart Spitefull speare that break'st this prison Seat of all felicity Working this with double treason Loues and liues deliuery Though my life thou drau'st away Maugre thee my loue shall stay Times go by turnes THE lopped tree in time may grow againe Most naked plants renew both fruit and flowre The sorriest wight may finde release of paine The driest soyle sucke in some moystning showre Times go by turnes and chances change by course From foule to faire from better hap to worse The sea of Fortune doth not euer flow She drawes her fauours to the lowest ebbe Her tides haue equall times to come and go Her Loome doth weaue the fine and coursest webbe No ioy so great but runneth to an end No hap so hard but may in fine amend Not alwaies Fall of leafe nor euer Spring No endlesse night nor yet eternall day The saddest Birds a season finde to sing The roughest storme a calme may soone allay Thus with succeeding turnes God tempereth all That man may hope to rise yet feare to fall A chance may winne that by mischance was lost That net that holds no great takes little fish In some things all in all things none are crost Few all they need but none haue all they wish Vnmingled ioyes heere to no man befall Who least hath some who most hath neuer all LOOKE HOME REtyred thoughts enioy their owne delights As beauty doth in selfe-beholding eye Mans mind a mirrour is of heauenly sights Abriefe wherein all maruels summed lye Of fairest formes and sweetest shapes the store Most gracefull all yet thought may grace them more The minde a creature is yet can create To Natures patterns adding higher skill Of finest works wit better could the state If force of wit had equall power of will Deuice of man in working hath no end What thought can thinke another thought can mend Mans soule of endlesse beauties image is Drawne by the worke of endlesse skill and might This skilfull might gaue many sparks of blisse And to discerne this blisse a natiue light To frame Gods image as his worths requir'd His might his skill his word and will conspir'd All that he had his Image should present All that it should present he could afford To that he could afford his will was bent His will was followed with performing word Let this suffice by this conceiue the rest He should he could he would he did the best Fortunes falshood IN worldly merriments lurketh much misery Sly Fortunes subtilties in bayts of happinesse Shrowd hookes that swallowed without recouery Murder the innocent with mortall heauinesse She sootheth appetites with pleasing vanities Till they be conquered with cloaked tyranny Then changing countenance with open enmities Shee triumphs ouer them scorning their slauery With fawning flattery Deaths doore she openeth Alluring passingers to bloudy destiny In offers bountifull in proofe she beggereth Mens ruines registring her false felicity Her hopes are fastned in blisse that vanisheth Her smart inherited with sure possession Constant in cruelty she neuer altereth But from one violence to more oppression To those that follow her fauours are measured As easie premisses to hard conclusions With bitter corrosiues her ioyes are seasoned Her highest benifits are but illusions Her way 's a labyrinth of wandring passages Fooles common pilgrimage to cursed deities Whose fond deuotion and iole menages Are wag'd with wearinesse in fruitlesse drudgeries Blinde in her fauorites foolish election Châ—nâ—â— is â—er Aâ—â—â—rer a giuing dignity Heâ— choyse of visions shâ—wâ—s most discretion Sith â—â—â—â—th the vertuous might wrest from piety To humble suppliants tyrant most obstinate She suters answereth with contrarieties Proud with petition vntaught to mitigate Rigor with clemencie in hardest cruelties Like Tygre fugitiue from the Ambitious Like weeping Crocodile to scornefull enemies Suing for amitie where she is odious But to her followers forswearing curtesies No winde so changeable no sea so wauering As giddie Fortune in reeling varieties Now mad now mercifull now fierce now fauouring In all things mutable but mutabilities Scorne not the least VVHere wards are weake and foes incountring strong Where mightier do assault then do defend The feebler part puts vp enforced wrong And silent
at his parting breath O fortresse of the faithfull sure defence In which doth Christians cognizance consist Their victorie their triumph comes from thence So forcible hell gates cannot resist A thing whereby both Angels clouds and starres At mans request fight Gods reuengefull wars Nothing more gratefull in the Highest eyes Nothing more firme in danger to protect vs Nothing more forcible to pierce the skies And not depart till mercy do respect vs And as the soule life to the body giues So prayer reuiues the soule by prayer it liues R. S. Of the Foundations of vertuous and godly life The first Foundation THe first Foundation of a vertuous life is often and seriously to consider for what end and purpose I was created and what Gods designement was when he made me of nothing and that not to haue a being onely as a stone nor with a bare kinde of life or growing as a plante or tree nor a power of sence or feeling onely as a brute beast but a creature to his owne likenesse endued with reason and vnderstanding also why he now preserueth me in this health state and calling Finally why he redeemed me with his owne bloud bestowed so infinite benefits vpon me and still continueth his mercy towards me The end of mans creation THe end of my being thus made redeemed preserued and so much benefited by God is this and no other that I should in this life serue him with my whole body soule and substance and with what else soeuer is mine and in the next life enioy him for euer in heauen Rules that follow of this Foundation I Was made of nothing by God and receiued bodie and soule from him and therefore am I onely his not mine owne neither can I so binde or giue my selfe to any creature but that I ought more to serue loue and obey God then any creature in this world Secondly I commit a kind of theft and do God great wrong so often as I employ any part of my body or soule to any other end then to his seruice for which onely I was created Thirdly for this I do liue and for no other end but for this do all creatures serue me and when I turne the least thing whereof God hath giuen me the vse or possessing to any other end then the seruice of God I do God wrong and abuse his creatures The second Foundation SEeing I was made to serue God in this life and to enioy him in the next the seruice of God and the saluation of mine owne soule is the most weightie and important businesse and the most necessarie matter wherein I must imploy my body mind time and labour and all other affaires are so farre forth to be esteemed of me waightie or light as they more or lesse tend to the furtherance of this principall and most earnest businesse for what auaileth it a man to gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule Rules that follow of this Foundation FIrst what diligence labour or cost I would employ in any other temporall matter of credite liuing or life all that I am bound to employ in the seruice of God and the saluation of my soule and so much more as the waight of my soule passeth all other things Secondly I ought to thinke the seruice of God and saluation of my soule my principall businesse in this world and to make it my ordinary study and chiefe occupation and day and night to keepe my mind so fixed vpon it that in euery action I still haue it before mine eyes as the onely marke I shoot at The third Foundation I Cannot serue God in this world nor go about to enioy him in the next but that Gods enemies and mine owne will repine and seeke to hinder me which enemies are three the world the flesh and the Diuell Wherefore I must resolue my selfe and set it downe as a thing vndoubted that my whole life must be as a continuall combat with these aduersaries whom I must assure my selfe to lie hourely in waite for me to seeke their aduantage and that their malice is so vnplacable and their hatred against me so rooted in them that I must neuer looke to haue one houre secure from their assaults but that they will from time to time so long as there is breath in my body still labour to make me forsake and offend God allure me to their seruice and draw me to my damnation Rules following of this Foundation I Must prepare my body and minde to all patience and thinke it no newes to be tempted but a point annexed necessarily to my profession and therefore neuer must I be wearied with the continuance nor dismaied with the difficultie considering the malice and wickednesse of mine aduersaries and my professed enmity with them Secondly I must alwayes stand vpon my guard and be very watchfull in euery action seeing that whatsoeuer I do they will seeke to peruert it and make it offensiue to God euen my very best endeuours Thirdly I must neuer looke to be free from some trouble or other but knowing my selfe to be a perpetuall warfare I must rather comfort my sel e with hope of a glorious crowne for my victories then of any long or assured peace with my enemies The fourth Foundation THe thing which these enemies endeuour to draw me to is sinne and offence to God which is so odious hatefull and abhominable that God doth more detest and dislike it then he did the cruell vsage the wounds the torments and the death it selfe that for vs he suffered of the Iewes and it maketh our soules more vglie then the plague leprosie or any other filthie disease doth the body Rules following this Foundation SO carefull as I would be not to wound torment or murther Christ so carefull must I be not to commit any mortall sinne against him yea and so much more seeing that he hateth sinne more then death hauing voluntarily fuffered the one and yet neuer committed the other Secondly when I am tempted with any sinne let me examine my selfe whether I would buy the fulfilling of mine owne appetite with being a Leaper or full of the plague or with death presently to ensue after it If not then much lesse ought I to buy it with the leprosie losse and death of my soule which is of farre more worth then my body The fift Foundation BEing Gods creature made to serue him in this life my body soule and goods and all things any way pertaining vnto me are but lent or onely let me for this end and I am onely a Bailife Tenant or officer to demaund or gouerne these things to his best seruice and therefore when the time of my stewardship is expired I shall be summoned by death to appeare before my Landlord who with most rigorous iustice will demand account of euery thing and creature of his that hath bene to my vse yea of all that I haue receiued promised omitted committed lost and robbed and as
sory wight the obiect of disgrace The Monument of feare the Map of shame The mirror of mishap the staine of place The scorne of time the infamy of fame An excrement of earth to heauen hatefull Iniurious to man to God ingratefull Ambitious heads dreame you of Fortunes pride Fill Volumes with your forged goddesse praise You Fansies drudges plung'd in follies tide Deuote your fabling wits to louers layes Be you O sharpest griefes that euer wrong Text to my thoughts Theame to my playning tong Sad subiect of my sinne hath stoard my minde With euerlasting matter of complaint My threnes an endlesse Alphabet do finde Beyond the pangs which Ieremy doth paint That eyes with errors may iust measure keepe Most teares I wish that haue most cause to weepe All weeping eyes resigne your teares to me A sea will scantly rince my ordur'd soule Huge horrors in high tides must drowned be Of euery teare my crime exacteth tole These staines are deepe few drops take out no such Euen salue with sore and most is not too much I fear'd with life to die by death to liue I left my guide now left and leauing God To breathe in blisse I fear'd my breath to giue I fear'd for heauenly raigne an earthly rod. These feares I fear'd feares feeling no mishaps O fond O faint O false O faulty lapse How can I liue that thus my life deni'd What can I hope that lost my hope in feare What trust to one that truth it selfe defi'd What good in him that did his God forsweare O sinne of sinnes of euils the very worst O matchlesse wretch O caytiffe most accurst Vaine in my vaunts I vowd if friends had fail'd Alone Christs hardest fortunes to abide Giant in talke like dwarfe in triall quaild Excelling none but in vntruth and pride Such distance is betweene high words and deeds In proofe the greatest vanter seldome speeds Ah rashnesse hasty rise to murdering leape Lauish in vowing blind in seeing what Soone sowing shames that long remorse must reape Nursing with teares that ouer-sight begat Scout of repentance harbinger of blame Treason to wisedome mother of ill name The borne-blind begger for receiued sight Fast in his faith and loue to Christ remain'd He stooped to no feare he fear'd no might No change his choice no threats his truth distain'd One wonder wrought him in his duty sure I after thousands did my Lord abiure Could seruile feare of rendring Natures due Which growth in yeares was shortly like to claime So thrall my loue that I should thus eschue A vowed death and misse so faire an ayme Die die disloyall wretch thy life detest For sauing thine thou hast forsworne the best Ah life sweet drop drownd in a sea of sowres A flying good posting to doubtfull end Still losing months and yeares to gaine new howres Faine time to haue and spare yet forc't to spend Thy growth decrease a moment all thou hast That gone ere knowne the rest to come or past Ah life the maze of countlesse straying wayes Open to erring steps and strew'd with baits To winde weake senses into endlesse strayes Aloofe from vertues rough vnbeaten straits A flower a play a blast a shade a dreame A liuing death a neuer turning streame And could I rate so high a life so base Did feare with loue cast so vneuen account That for this goale I should runne Iudas race And Caiphas rage in cruelty surmount Yet they esteemed thirty pence his price I worse then both for nought deny'd him thrice The mother Sea from ouerflowing deepe Sends forth her issue by deuided veines Yet backe her off-spring to their mother creeps To pay their purest streames with added gaines But I that drunke the drops of heauenly flud Bemyr'd the giuer with returning mud Is this the haruest of his sowing toile Did Christ manure thy heart to breed him briers Or doth it neede this vnaccustom'd soyle With hellish dung to fertile heauens desires No no the Marle that periuries doth yeeld May spoile a good not fat a barren field Was this for best deserts the duest meede Are highest worths well wag'd with spitefull hire Are stoutest vowes repeal'd in greatest neede Should frendship at the first affront retire Blush crauen sot lurke in eternall night Crouch in the darkest Caues from loathed light Ah wretch why was I nam'd sonne of a Doue Whose speeches voided spite and breathed gall No kinne I am vnto the bird of loue My stony name much better sutes my fall My othes were stones my cruell tongue the sling My God the marke at which my spite did fling Were all the Iewish tyrannies too few To glut thy hungry lookes with his disgrace That thou more hatefull tyrannies must shew And spot thy poyson in thy Makers face Didst thou to spare his foes put vp thy sword To brandish now thy tongue against thy Lord Ah tongue that didst his praise and God-head sound How wert thou stain'd with such detesting words That euery word was to his heart a wound And launc't him deeper then a thousand swords What rage of man yea what infernall Sprite Could haue disgorg'd more loathsome dregs of spite Why did the yeelding Sea like Marble way Support a wretch more wauering then the waues Whom doubt did plonge why did the waters stay Vnkind in kindnesse murthering while it saues O that this tongue had then beene fishes food And I deuour'd before this cursing mood There surges depths and Seas vnfirme by kinde Rough gusts and distance both from ship and shoare Were titles to excuse my staggering mind Stout feet might falter on that liquid floare But heere no Seas no Blasts no Billowes were A puffe of womans wind bred all my feare O Coward troupes farre better arm'd then harted Whom angrie words whom blowes could not prouoke Whom though I taught how sore my weapon smarted Yet none repaide me with a wounding stroke O no that stroke could but one moity kill I was reseru'd both halfes at once to spill Ah whither was forgotten loue exil'd Where did rhe truth of pledged promise sleepe What in my thoughts begat this vgly child That could through rented soule thus fiercely creepe O Viper feare their death by whom thou liuest All good thy ruines wrecke all euils thou giuest Threats threw me not torments I none assayd My fray with shades conceites did make me yeeld Wounding my thoughts with feares selfely dismayd I neither fought nor lost I gaue the field Infamous foyle a Maidens easie breath Did blow me downe and blast my soule to death Titles I make vntruths am I a rocke That with so soft a gale was ouerthrowne Am I fit Pastor for the faithfull Flocke To guide their soules that murdred thus mine owne A rocke of ruine not a rest to stay A Pastor not to feed but to betray Fidelity was flowne when feare was hatched Incompatible brood in vertues nest Courage can lesse with Cowardise be matched Prowesse nor loue lodg'd in diuided brest O Adams Child cast by a
Where Nature craues that grace must needs denie Where sense doth like that reason cannot loue Where best in shew in finall proofe is worst Where pleasures vp-shot is to dye accurst Lifes death Loues life VVHo liues in loue loues least to liue And long delayes doth rue If him he loue by whom he liues To whom all loue is due Who for our loue did choose to liue And was content to dye Who lou'd our loue more then his life And loue with life did buy Let vs in life yea with our life Requite his liuing loue For best we liue when least we liue If loue our life remoue Where loue is hote life hatefull is Their grounds do not agree Loue where it loues life where it liues Desireth most to be And sith loue is not where it liues Nor liueth where it loues Loue hateth life that holds it backe And death it best approues For seldome is he wonne in life Whom loue doth most desire If wonne by loue yet not enioyd Till mortall life expire Life out of earth hath not aboade In earth loue hath no place Loue setled hath her ioyes in Heau'n In earth life all her grace Mourne therefore no true louers death Life onely him annoyes And when he taketh leaue of life Then loue begins his ioyes At home in Heauen FAire soule how long shall veiles thy graces shrowd How long shall this exile with-hold thy right When will thy Sunne disperse this mortall cloud And giue thy glories scope to blaze their light O that a starre more fit for Angels eyes Should pine in earth not shine aboue the skies This ghostly beautie offered force to God It chain'd him in the linkes of tender loue It wonne his will with man to make abode It staid his sword and did his wrath remoue It made the rigor of his Iustice yeeld And crowned mercie Empresse of the field This lull'd our heauenly Sampson fast asleepe And laid him in our feeble Natures lap This made him vnder mortall load to creepe And in our flesh his God-head to inwrap This made him soiourne with vs in exile And not disdaine our titles in his stile This brough him from the ranks of heau'nly Quires Into the vale of teares and cursed soyle From flowers of grace into a world of bryers From life to death from blisse to balefull toyle This made him wander in our Pilgrim weed And taste our torments to releeue our need O soule do not thy noble thoughts abase To lose thy loue in any mortall wight Content thine eye at home with natiue grace Sith God himselfe is rauisht with thy sight If on thy beautie God enamoured be Base is thy loue of any lesse then he Giue not assent to muddie minded skill That deemes the feature of a pleasing face To be the sweetest baite to lure the will Not valuing right the worth of ghostly grace Let God and Angels censure winne beliefe That of all beauties iudge our selues the chiefe Queene Hester was of rare and peerlesse hiew And Iudith once for beautie bare the vaunt But he that could our soules endowments view Would soone to soules the Crowne of beauty graunt O soule out of thy selfe seeke God alone Grace more then thine but Gods the world hath none Lewd Loue is losse MIsdeeming eye that stoopeth to the lure Of mortall worths not worth so worthie Loue All beautie 's base all graces are impure That do thy erring thought from God remoue Sparkes to the fire the beames yeeld to the Sunne All grace to God from whom all graces runne If picture moue more should the patterne please No shadow can with shadowed things compare And fairest shapes whereon our loues do seaze But silly signes of Gods high beauties are Go staruing sense feed thou on earthly mast True loue in Heau'n seeke thou thy sweet repast Gleane not in barren soyle these off all eares Sith reape thou maist whole haruests of delight Base ioyes with griefes bad hopes do end in feares Lewd loue with losse euill peace with deadly fight Gods loue alone doth end with endlesse ease Whose ioyes in hope whose hope concludes in peace Let not the luring traine of fancies trap Or gracious features proofes of Natures skill Lull reasons force asleepe in errours lap Or draw thy wit to bent of wanton will The fairest flowers haue not the sweetest smell A seeming Heauen proues oft a damning Hell Selfe-pleasing soules that play with beauties bait In shining shrowd may swallow fatall hooke Where eager sight on semblant faire doth wait A locke it proues that first was but a looke The fish with ease into the Net doth glide But to get out the way is not so wide So long the Fly doth dally with the flame Vntill his singed wings do force his fall So long the eye doth follow Fancies game Till loue hath left the heart in heauie thrall Soone may the minde be cast in Cupids Iayle But hard it is imprisoned thoughts to bayle O lothe that loue whose finall ayme is lust Moth of the mind eclipse of reasons light The graue of grace the mole of Natures rust The wrack of wit the wrong of euerie right In summe an euill whose harmes no tongue can tell In which to liue is death to dye is Hell Loues Garden griefe VAine loues auaunt infamous is your pleasure Your ioy deceit Your iewels iests and worthlesse trash your treasure Fooles common bait Your pallace is a prison that allureth To sweet mishap and rest that paine procureth Your Garden griefe hedg'd in with thornes of Enuie And stakes of strife Your Allies errour grauelled with iealousie And cares of life Your bankes are seates enwrapt with shades of sadnesse Your Arbours breed rough fits of raging madnesse Your beds are sowne with seeds of all iniquitie And poys'ning weeds Whose stalkes ill thoughts whose leaues words full of vanitie Whose fruit misdeeds Whose sap is sinne whose force and operation To banish grace and worke the soules damnation Your trees are dismall plants of pyning corrosiues Whose root is ruth Whose barke is bale whose timber stubburne fantasies Whose pith vntruth On which in lieu of birds whose voyce delighteth Of guiltie conscience screeching note affrighteth Your coolest Sommer gales are scadling sighings Your showres are teares Your sweetest smell the stench of sinfull liuing Your fauours feares Your Gardener Satan all you reape is miserie Your gaine remorse and losse of all felicitie From Fortunes reach LEt fickle Fortune runne her blindest race I setled haue an vnremoued mind I scorne to be the game of Fancies chase Or vane to shew the change of euery wind Light giddie humours stinted to no rest Still change their choyce yet neuer chuse the best My choice was guided by foresightfull heed It was auerred with approuing will It shall be followed with performing deed And seal'd with vow till death the chuser kill Yea death though finall date of vaine desires Ends not my choice which with no time expires To beauties fading blisse I
am no thrall I burie not my thoughts in mettall Mines I ayme not at such fame as feareth fall I seeke and finde a light that euer-shines Whose glorious beames display such heauenly sights As yeeld my soule a summe of all delights My light to loue my loue to life doth guide To life that liues by loue and loueth light By loue to one to whom all loues are tyed By duest debt and neuer equall right Eyes light hearts loue soules truest life he is Consorting in three ioyes one perfect blisse A FANCY TVRNED to a Sinners Complaint HE that his mirth hath lost Whose comfort is to rue Whose hope is fallen whose faith is cras'd Whose trust is found vntrue If he haue held them deare And cannot ceasse to mone Come let him take his place by me He shall not rue alone But if the smallest sweete Be mixt with all his sowre If in the day the moneth the yeare He feele one lightning howre Then rest he with himselfe He is no mate for me Whose time in teares whose race in ruth Whose life a death must be Yet not the wished death That feeles no paine or lacke That making free the better part Is onely Natures wracke O no that were too well My death is of the minde That alwaies yeeld extreamest pangs Yet threatens worse behinde As one that liues in shew And inwardly doth dye Whose knowledge is a bloudy field Where Vertue slaine doth lye Whose heart the Altar is And hoast a God to moue From whom my ill doth feare reuenge His good doth promise loue My Fansies are like thornes In which I go by night My frighted wits are like an hoast That force hath put to flight My sense is passions spye My thoughts like ruines old Which shew how faire the building was While grace did it vphold And still before mine eyes My mortall fall they lay Whom grace and vertue once aduanc't Now sinne hath cast away O thoughts no thoughts but wounds Sometime the Seate of ioy Sometime the store of quiet rest But now of all annoy I sow'd the soyle of peace My blisse was in the spring And day by day the fruit I eate That Vertues tree did bring To Nettles now my corne My field is turn'd to flint Where I a heauy haruest reape Of cares that neuer stint The peace the rest the life That I enioyd of yore Were happy lot but by their losse My smart doth sting the more So to vnhappy men The best frames to the worst O time ô place where thus I fell Deare then but now accurst In was stands my delight In is and shall my wo My horrour fastned in the yea My hope hangs in the no. Vnworthy of reliefe That craued is too late Too late I finde I finde too well Too well stood my estate Behold such is the end That pleasure doth procure Of nothing else but care and plaint Can she the minde assure Forsaken first by grace By pleasure now forgotten Her paine I feele but graces wage Haue others from me gotten Then grace where is the ioy That makes thy torments sweet Where is the cause that many thought Their deaths through thee but meet Where thy disdaine of sinne Thy secret sweet delight Thy sparkes of blisse thy heauenly ioyes That shined erst so bright O that they were not lost Or I could it excuse O that a dreame of fained losse My iudgement did abuse Or fraile inconstant flesh Soone trapt in euery ginne Soone wrought thus to betray thy soule And plonge thy selfe in sinne Yet hate I but the fault And not the faulty one Ne can I rid from me the mate That forceth me to moane To moane a sinners case Then which was neuer worse In Prince or poore in yong or old In blest or full of curse Yet Gods must I remaine By death by wrong by shame I cannot blot out of my heart That grace writ in his name I cannot set at nought Whom I haue held so deere I cannot make him seeme afarre That is in deed so neere Not that I looke hence-forth For loue that earst I found Sith that I brake my plighted truth To build on fickle ground Yet that shall neuer faile Which my faith bare in hand I gaue my vow my vow gaue me Both vow and gift shall stand But since that I haue sinn'd And scourge none is too ill I yeeld me captiue to my curse My hard fate to fulfill The solitary Wood My City shall become The darkest dennes shall be my Lodge In which I rest or come A sandy plot my boord The wormes my feast shall be Where-with my carkasse shall be fed Vntill they feed on me My teares shall be my wine My bed a craggy Rocke My harmony the Serpents hisse The screeching Owle my clocke My exercise remorse And dolefull sinners layes My booke remembrance of my crimes And faults of former dayes My walke the path of plaint My prospect into hell Where Iudas and his cursed crue In endlesse paines do dwell And though I seeme to vse The faining Poets stile To figure forth my carefull plight My fall and my exile Yet is my griefe not fain'd Wherein I starue and pine Who feeles the most shall thinke it least If his compare with mine Dauids Peccaui IN Eaues sole Sparrow sits not more alone Nor mourning Pellican in Desart wilde Then silly I that solitary mone From highest hopes to hardest hap exilde Sometime ô blissefull time was vertues meede Ayme to my thoughts guide to my word and deede But feares are now my Pheeres griefe my delight My teares my drinke my famisht thoughts my bread Day full of dumps Nurse of vnrest the night My garments gyues a bloudy field my bed My sleepe is rather death then deaths allye Yet kill'd with murd'ring pangs I cannot dye This is the chance of my ill changed choyse To pleasant tunes succeeds a playning voice The dolefull eccho of my wayling minde Which taught to know the worth of vertues ioyes Doth hate it selfe for louing fancies toyes If wiles of wit had ouer-raught my will Or subtile traines misled my steppes awry My foyle had found excuse in want of skill Ill deed I might though not ill doome deny But wit and will must now confesse with shame Both deede and doome to haue deserued blame I Fansie deem'd fit guide to leade my way And as I deem'd I did pursue the tracke Wit lost his ayme and will was Fansies prey The Rebels wan the Rulers went to wracke But now sith Fansie did with folly end Wit bought with losse Will taught by wit will mend Sinnes heauie load O Lord my sinnes do ouer-charge thy brest The poyse thereof doth force thy knees to bow Yea flat thou fallest with my faults opprest And bloudie sweat runs trickling from thy brow But had they not to Earth thus pressed thee Much more they would in Hell haue pestred me This Globe of Earth doth thy one finger prop The world thou do'st within thy hand
giues issue to an heauenly spring Teares from his eyes bloud runnes from wounding place Which showers to heauen of ioy an haruest bring This sacred deaw let Angels gather vp Such dainty drops best fit their nectar'd cup With weeping eyes his mother rewd his smart If bloud from him teares came from her as fast The knife that cut his flesh did pierce her heart The paine that Iesus felt did Marie taste His life and hers hung by one fatall twist No blow that hit the Sonne the mother mist The Epiphanie TO blaze the rising of this glorious Sunne A glittering starre appeareth in the East Whose sight to pilgrims toile three sages wun To feeke the light they long had in request And by this starre to nobler starre they pace Whose armes did their desired sinne embrace Stall was the skie wherein those planets shinde And want the cloud that did eclipse their rayes Yet through this cloud their light did passage finde And pierc'd these sages hearts by secret wayes Which made them know the ruler of the skies By infant tongue and lookes of babish eyes Heauen at her light earth blusheth at her pride And of their pompe these peeres ashamed be Their crownes their robes their traines they set aside When Gods poore cottage clouts and crew they see All glorious things their glorie now despise Sith God Contempt duth more then Glorie prise Three gifts they bring three gifts they beare away For incense mirrhe and gold faith hope and loue And with their gifts the giuers heart do stay Their mind from Christ no parting can remoue His humble state his stall his poore retinew They fancy more then all their rich reuenew The Presentation TO be redeem'd the worlds redeemer brought Two silly turtle doues for ransome paies O wares with empires worthie to be bought This easie rate doth sound not drowne thy praise For sith no price can to thy worth amount A doue yea loue due price thou doest account Old Simeon cheape pennie worth and sweet Obtaind when thee in armes he did imbrace His weeping eyes thy smiling lookes did meet Thy loue his heart thy kisses blest his face O eyes O heart meane sights and loues auoide Base not your selues your best you haue enioyde O virgine pure thou dost those doues present As due to law not as an equall price To buy such ware thou wouldst thy selfe haue spent The world to reach his worth could not suffice If God were to be bought not worldly pelfe But thou wert fittest price next God himselfe The flight into Egypt ALas our day is forst to flie by night Light without light and Sunne by silent shade O nature blush that suffrest such a wight That in thy Sunne thy darke eclipse hast made Day to his eyes light to his steps denie That hates the light which graceth euerie eye Sunne being fled the starres do lose their light And shining beames in bloudy streames they drench A cruell storme of Herods mortall spight Their liues and lights with bloudy showers do quench The tyrant to be sure of murdring one For feare of sparing him doth pardon none O blessed babes first flowers of Christian spring though vntimely cropt raire garlands frame With open throats and silent mouthes you sing His praise whom age permits you not to name Your tunes are teares your instruments are swords Your dittie death and bloud in lieu of words Christs returne out of Egypt WHen death and hell their right in Herod claime Christ from exile returnes to natiue soile There with his life more deepely death to maime Then death did life by all the infants spoile He shewed the parents that the babes did mone That all their liues were lesse then his alone But hearing Herods sonne to haue the crowne The impious of-spring of a bloudy sire To Nazareth of heauen beloued towne Flowre to a flowre he fitly doth retire For he is a flower and in a flower he bred And from a thorne now to a flowre he fled And well deseru'd this flowre his fruite to view Where he inuested was in mortall weed Where first into a tender bud he grew In virgine branch vnstaind with mortall seed Young flowre with flowers in flower well may he be Ripe fruit he must with thornes hang on a tree Christs bloudy sweat FAt soile full spring sweet oliue grape of blisse That yeelds that streames that powers that dost distill Vntild vndrawne vnstampt vntoucht of presse Deare fruite cleare brookes faire oyle sweet wine at will Thus Christ vnforst preuents in shedding bloud The whips the thornes the naile the speare and roode He Pellicans he Phenix fate doth proue Whom flames consume when streames enforce to dye How burneth bloud how bleedeth burning loue Can one in flame and streame both bathe and frie How would he ioyne a Phenix fiery paines In foinring Pellicans still bleeding vaines Christs sleeping friends VVHen Christ with care and pangs of death opprest From frighted flesh a bloody sweat did raine And full of feare without repose or rest Did watch and pray in agonie and paine Three sundrie times he his disciples findes With heauie eyes with dull and heauy minds With milde rebuke he warned them to wake Yet sleepe did still their drowsie senses hold As when the Sunne the brightest shew doth make In darkest shrowds the night birds them infold His foes did watch to worke their cruell spight His drowsie friends slept in his hardest night As Ionas sayled once from Ioppaes shoare A boystrous tempest in the aire did broile The waues did rage the thundring heau'ns did roare The stormes the rocks the lightnings threatned spoile The ship was billowes game and chances pray Yet carelesse Ionas mute and slumbring lay So now though Iudas like a blustring gust Do stirre the furious sea of Iewish ire Though storming troopes in quarrels most vniust Against the barke of all our blisse conspire Yet these disciples sleeping lie secure As though their wonted calme did still endure So Ionas once his heauy limmes to rest Did shrowd himselfe in iuy pleasant shade But lo while him an heauy sleepe opprest His shadowy bowre to withered stalke did fade A cankered worme did gnaw the root away And brought the glorious branches to decay O gracious plant O tree of heauenly spring The paragon for leafe for fruite and flower How sweete a shadow did thy branches bring To shrowd those soules that chose thee for their bower But now while they with Ionas fall asleepe To spoile their plant an enuious worme doth creepe Awake you slumbring wights lift vp your eyes Marke Iudas how to teare your root he striues Alas the glory of your arbour dies Arise and guard the comfort of your liues No Ionas iuy no Zacheus tree Were to the world so great a losse as hee The virgine Mary to Christ on the Crosse WHat mist hath dimd that glorious face what seas of griefe my Sun doth tosse The golden raies of heauenly grace lie now eclipsed on the crosse Iesus
hearse doth hang which doth me tell That I ere morning may be dead Though now I feele my selfe ful well But yet alas for all this I Haue little mind that I must die The gowne which I do vse to weare The knife wherewith I cut my meate And eke that old and ancient chaire Which is my onely vsuall seate All these do tell me I must die And yet my life amend not I. My ancestors are turnd to clay And many of my mates are gone My yongers daily drop away And can I thinke to scape alone No no I know that I must die And yet my life amend not I. Not Salomon for all his wit Nor Sampson though he were so strong No king nor person euer yet Could scape but death laid him along Wherefore I know that I must die And yet my life amend not I. Though all the East did quake to heare Of Alexanders dreadfull name And all the West did likewise feare To heare of Iulius Caesars fame Yet both by death in dust now lie Who then can scape but he must die If none can scape deaths dreadfull dart If rich and poore his becke obey If strong if wise if all do smart then I to scape shall haue no way Oh grant me grace O God that I My life may mend sith I must die A vale of teares A Vale there is enwrapt with dreadfull shades Which thicke of mourning pines shrowds from the Sunne Where hanging cliffes yeeld short and dumpish glades And snowy flouds with broken streames do runne Where eye-roome is from rocke to cloudie skie From thence to dales which stormy ruines shrowd Then to the crushed waters frothie frie Which tumbleth from the tops where snow is show'd Where eares of other sound can haue no choice But various blustring of the stubburne wind In trees in caues in straits with diuers noise Which now doth hisse now howle now roare by kind Where waters wrastle with encountring stones That breake their streames and turne them into foame The hollow clouds ful fraught with thundering groanes With hideous thumps discharge their pregnant wombe And in the horror of this fearefull quier Consists the musicke of this dolefull place All pleasant birds their tunes from thence retire Where none but heauy notes haue any grace Resort there is of none but pilgrime wights That passe with trembling foote and panting heart With terrour cast in cold and shuddring frights And all the place to terror fram'd by art Yet natures worke it is of arte vntoucht So strait indeed so vast vnto the eye With such disordred order strangely coucht And so with pleasing horror low and hie That who it viewes must needs remaine agast Much at the worke more at the makers might And muse how Nature such a plot could cast Where nothing seemed wrong yet nothing right A place for mated minds an onely bower Where euerie thing doth sooth a dumpish mood Earth lies forlorne the cloudie skie doth lower The wind here weepes her sighes her cries aloud The strugling floud betweene the marble grones Then roaring beates vpon the craggie sides A little off amidst the pibble stones With bubling streames a purling noise it glides The pines thicke set high growne and euer greene Still cloath the place with shade and mourning vaile Here gaping cliffes there mosse growne plaine is seene Here hope doth spring and there againe doth quaile Huge massie stones that hang by tickle stay Still threaten foule and seeme to hang in feare Some withered trees asham'd of their decay Beset with greene and forc'd gray coates to weare Here christall springs crept out of secret vaine Straite findes some enuious hole that hides their graine Here seared tufts lament the wants of g ace There thunder wracke giues terror to the place All pangs and heauie passions here may find A thousand motiues suting to their griefes To feed the sorrowes of their troubled mind And chase away dame pleasures vaine reliefes To plaining thoughts this vale a rest may be To which from worldly toyes they may retire Where sorrow springs from water stone and tree Where euerie thing with mourners doth conspire Sit here my soule mourne streames of teares aflote Here all thy sinfull foyles alone recount Of solemne tunes make thou the dolefulst note That to thy ditties dolor may amount When Eccho doth repeate thy painefull cries Thinke that the very stones thy sinnes bewray And now accuse thee with their sad replies As heauen and earth shall in the latter day Let former faults be fuell of the fire For griefe in Limbeck e of thy heart to still Thy pensiue thoughts and dumps of thy desire And vapour teares vp to thy eyes at will Let teares to tunes and paines to plaints be prest And let this be the burthen to thy song Come deepe remorse possesse my sinfull breast Delights adue I harboured you too long The prodigall childs soule-wracke DIsankerd from a blisfull shore and lancht into the maine of cares Grewne rich in vice in vertue poore from freedome falne in fatall snares I found my selfe on euerie side enwrapped in the waues of wo And tossed with a toilesome tide could to no port for refuge go The wrastling winds with raging blasts still hold me in a cruell chace They breake my anchors saile and masts permitting no reposing place The boistrous seas with swelling flouds on euerie side did worke their spight Heauen ouercast with stormy clouds denide the Planets guiding light The hellish furies lay in wait to winne my soule into their power To make me bite at euery baite wherein my bane I might deuoure Thus heauen and hell thus sea and land thus stormes and tempests did conspire With iust reuenge of scourging hand to witnesse Gods deserued ire I plonged in this heauie plight found in my faults iust cause to feare My darknesse taught to know my light the losse thereof enforced teares I felt my inward bleeding sores my festred wounds began to smart Stept far within deaths fatall dores the pangs thereof went neare my heart I cried truce I craued peace a league with death I would conclude But vaine it was to sue release subdue I must or be subdude Death and deceit had picht their snares and out their wonted proofes in vre To sinke me in despairing cares or make me stoope to pleasures lure They sought by their bewitching charmes so to enchant my erring sense That whē they sought my greatest harmes I might neglect my best defence My dazled eyes could take no view no heed of their deceiuing shifts So often did they alter hew and practise new deuised drifts With Syrens songs they fed mine eares till luld asleepe on errors lap I found their tunes turnd into teares and short delights to long mishap For I enticed to their lore and soothed with their idle toyes Was trained to their prison doore the end of all such flying ioyes Where chaind in sinne I lay in thrall next to the dungeon of despaire Till mercy rais'd
shame to vtter nor sinne to feele But whether my wishes in this behalfe take effect or not I reape at the least this reward of my paines that I haue shewed my desire to answer your curtesie and set forth the due praises of this glorious Saint Your louing friend R.S. To the Reader MAny suiting their labours to the popular vaine and guided by the gale of vulgar breath haue diuulged diuerse patheticall discourses in which if they had shewed as much care to profit as they haue done desire to please their workes would much more haue honored their names and auailed the Reader But it is a iust complaint among the better sort of persons that the finest wits lose themselues in the vainest follies spilling much Art in some idle fancie and leauing their workes as witnesses how long they haue beene in trauaile to be in fine deliuered of a fable And sure it is a thing greatly to be lamented that men of so high conceit should so much abase their habilities that when they haue racked them to the vttermost endeuour all the praise that they reape of their employment consisteth in this that they haue wisely told a foolish tale and carried a long lye very smoothly to the end Yet this inconuenience might find some excuse if the drift of their discourse leuelled at any vertuous marke For infables are often figured morall truths and that couertly vttered to a common good which without a maske would not find so free a passage But when the substance of the worke hath neither truth nor probability nor the purport thereof tendeth to any honest end the writer is rather to be pitied than praised and his bookes fitter for the fire than for the presse This common ouersight more haue obserued than endeuored to salue euery one being able to reprooue none willing to redresse such faults authorised especially by generall custome And though if necessitie the lawlesse patron of enforced actions had not more preuailed than choise this worke of so different a subiect from the vsuall vaine should haue bene no eye-sore to those that are pleased with worse matters Yet sith the copies thereof flew fo fast and so false abroad that it was in danger to come corrupted to the print it seemed a lesse euill to let it fly to common view in the natiue plume and with the owne wings than disguised in a coat of a bastard feather or cast off from the fast of such a corrector as might hapily haue perished the sound and imped in some sicke and sory feathers of his owne fansies It may be that curteous skill will reckon this though course in respect of others exquisite labours not vnfit to entertaine wel-tempered humours both with pleasure and profite the ground thereef being in Scripture and the forme of enlarging it an imitation of the ancient Doctors in the same and other points of like tenour This commodity at the least it will carry with it that the Reader may learne to loue without improofe of puritie and teach his thoughts either to temper passion in the meane or to giue the bridle onely where the excesse cannot be faulty Let the worke defend it selfe and euery one passe his censure as he seeth cause Many Carps are expected when curious eyes come a fishing But the care is already taken and patience wayteth at the cable ready to take away when that dish is serued in and to make roome for others to set on the desired fruit R.S. MARIE MAGDALENS FVNERAL TEARES AMongst other mourneful accidents of the passion of Christ that loue presenteth it selfe vnto my memory with which the blessed Marie Magdalene louing our Lord more than her selfe followed him in his iourney to his death attending vpon him when his disciples fled and being more willing to dye with him than they to liue without him But not finding the fauour to accompany him in death and loathing after him to remaine in life the fire of her true affection enflamed her heart and her enflamed heart resolued into vncessant teares so that burning and bathing betweene loue and griefe she led a life euer dying and felt a death neuer ending And when he by whom she liued was dead and she for whom he dyed enforcedly left aliue she praised the dead more than the liuing and hauing lost that light of her life she desired to dwell in darkenesse in the shadow of death choosing Christs Tombe for her best home and his coarse for her chiefe comfort For Mary as the Euangelist saith Stood without at the Tombe weeping But alas how vnfortunate is this woman to whom neither life will affoord a desired farewell nor death allow any wished welcome She hath abandoned the liuing and chosen the company of the dead and now it seemeth that euen the dead haue forsaken her sith the coarse she seeketh is taken away from her And this was the cause that loue induced her to stand and sorrow enforced her to weepe Her eye was watchfull to seeke whom her heart most longed to enioy and her foot in a readinesse to runne if her eye should chance to espy him And therefore she standeth to be still stirring prest to watch euery way and prepared to go whither any hope should call her But she wept because she had such occasion of standing and that which moued her to watch was the motiue of her teares For as she watched to finde whom she had lost so she wept for hauing lost whom she loued her poore eyes being troubled at once with two contrarie offices both to be cleare in sight the better to seeke him and yet cloudy with teares for missing the sight of him Yet was not this the entrance but the increase of her griefe not the beginning but the renewing of her moane For first she mourned for the departing of his soule out of his body and now she lamented the taking of his body out of the graue being punished with two wreckes of her onely welfare both full of miserie but the last without all comfort The first originall of her sorrow grew because she could not enioy him aliue yet this sorrow had some solace for that she hoped to haue enioyed him dead But when she considered that his life was already lost and now not so much as his body could be found she was wholly daunted with dismay sith this vnhappinesse admitted no helpe She doubted lest the loue of her maister the onely portion that her fortune had left her would soone languish in her cold breast if it neither had his words to kindle it nor his presence to cherish it nor so much as his dead ashes to rake it vp She had prepared her spices and prouided her oyntments to pay him the last tribute of externall duties And though Ioseph and Nicodemus had already bestowed an hundreth pounds of Mirrhe and Aloes which was in quantity sufficient in quality of the best and as well applyed as art and deuotion could deuise yet such was
liberty is a penaltie and euery penaltie supposeth some offence but an offence it is not to weepe for my selfe for he would neuer commande it if it were not lawfull to do it The fault therefore must be in being one with him that maketh the weeping for my selfe a weeping also for him And if this be a fault I will neuer amend it and let them that thinke it so do penance for it for my part sith I haue lost my mirth I will make much of my sorrow and sith I haue no ioy but in teares I may lawfully shed them Neither thinke I his former word a warrant against his latter deed And what need had he to weepe vpon the Crosse but for our example which if it were good for him to giue it cannot be euill for me to follow No no it is not my weeping that causeth my losse sith a world of eyes and a sea of teares could not worthily bewaile the misse of such a maister Yet since neither thy seeking findeth nor thy weeping preuaileth satisfie thy selfe with the sight of Angels Demaund the cause of their comming and the reason of thy Lords remoue and sith they first offer thee occasion of parley be not thou too dainty of thy discourse It may be they can calme thy stormes and quiet thy vnrest and therefore conceale not from them thy sore lest thou lose the benefit of their emplaister But nothing can moue Mary to admit comfort or entertaine any company for to one alone and for euer she hath vowed her selfe and except it be to him she will neither lend her eare long to others nor borrow others helpe lest by the seeking to allay her smart she should lessen her loue But drawing into her mind all pensiue conceits she museth and pineth in a consuming languor taking comfort in nothing but in being comfortlesse Alas saith she small is the light that a starre can yeeld when the Sunne is downe and a sorry exchange to go gather the crums after the losse of an heauenly repast My eyes are not vsed to see by the glimse of a sparke and in seeking the Sunne it is either needlesse or bootlesse to borrow the light of a candle sith either it must bewray it selfe with the selfe light or no other light can euer discouer it If they come to disburden me of my heauinesse their comming will be burdensome vnto me and they will load me more while they labour my reliefe They cannot perswade me that my maister is not lost for my owne eyes will disproue them They can lesse tell me where he may be found for they would not be so simple to be so long from him or if they can forbeare him surely they do not know him whom none can truly know and liue long without him All their demurres would be tedious and discourses irksome Impaire my loue they might but appay it they could not to which he that first accepted the debt is the onely payment They either want power will or leaue to tell me my desire or at the first word they would haue done it sith Angels are not vsed to idle speeches and to me all talke is idle that doth not tell me of my maister They know not where he is and therfore they are come to the place where he last was making the Tombe their heauen and the remembrance of his presence the food of their felicitie Whatsoeuer they could tell me if they told me not of him and whatsoeuer they could tell me of him if they told me not where he were both their telling and my hearing were but a wasting of time I neither came to see them nor desire to heare them I came not to see Angels but him that made both me and Angels and to whom I owe more than both to men and Angels And to thee I appeale ô most louing Lord whether my afflicted heart doth not truly defray the tribute of an vndeuided loue To thee I appeale whether I haue ioyned any partner with thee in the small possession of my poore selfe And I would to God I were as priuie where thy body is as thou art who is onely Lord and owner of my soule But alas sweet Iesu where thou wert thou art not where thou art I know not wretched is the case that I am in and yet how to better it I cannot imagine Alas ô my onely desire why hast thou left me wauering in these vncertainties and in how wild a maze wander my doubtful perplexed thoughts If I stay here where he is not I shall neuer finde him If I go further to seeke I know not whither To leaue the Tombe is a death and to stand helplesse by it an vncurable disease so that all my comfort is now concluded in this that I am free to chuse whether I will stay without helpe or go without hope that is in effect with what torment I will end my life And yet euen this were too happy a choise for so vnhappy a creature If I might be chuser of mine owne death ô how quickly should that choise be made and how willingly would I runne to that execution I would be nailed to the same crosse with the same nailes in the same place my heart should be wounded with his speare my head with his thornes my body with his whippes Finally I would taste all his torments and tread all his embrued and bloudie steps But ô ambitious thoughts why gaze you vpon so high a felicitie why thinke you of so glorious a death that are priuie to so infamous a life Death alas I deserue yea not one but infinite deaths But so sweete a death seasoned with so many comforts the very instruments whereof were able to raise the deadest corps and depure the most defiled soule were too small a scourge for my great offences And therefore I am left to feele so many deaths as I liue houres and to passe as many pangs as I haue thoughts of my losse which are as many as there are minutes and as violent as if they were all in euery one But sith I can neither die as he died nor liue where he lyeth dead I I will liue out my liuing death by his graue and dye on my dying life by his sweete Tombe Better is it after losse of his body to looke to his Sepulcher than after the losse of the one to leaue the other to be destroyed No no though I haue bene robbed of the Saint I will at the least haue care of the shrine which though it be spoiled of the most soueraigne hoast yet shall it be the Altar where I will daily sacrifice my heart and offer vp my teares Here will I euer leade yea here do I meane to end my wretched life that I may at the least be buried by the Tombe of my Lord and take my iron sleepe neare this couch of stone which his presence hath made the place of sweetest repose It may be also that
this empty Syndon lyeth here to no vse and this Tombe being open without any in it may giue occasion to some mercifull heart that shall first light vpon my vnburied body to wrap me in his shroud and to interre me in this Tombe O too fortunate lot for so vnfortunate a woman to craue no no I do not craue it For alas I dare not yet if such an ouer-sight should be committed I do now before-hand forgiue that sinner and were it no more presumption to wish it aliue than to suffer it dead if I knew the party that should first passe by me I would woo him with my teares and hire him with my prayers to blesse me with this felicity And though I dare not wish any to do it yet this without offence I may say to all that I loue this Syndon aboue all clothes in the world and this Tombe I esteeme more than any Princes monument yea and I thinke that coarse highly fauored that shall succeed my Lord in it and for my part as I meane that the ground where I stand shall be my death-bed so am I not of Iacobs mind to haue my body buried farre from the place where it dyeth but euen in the next and readiest graue and that as soone as my breath faileth sith delayes are bootlesse where death hath won possession But alas I dare not say any more let my body take such fortune as befalleth it my soule at the least shall dwell in this sweet Paradise and from this brittle case of flesh and bloud passe presently into the glorious Tombe of God and man It is now enwrapped in a masse of corruption it shall then enioy a place of high perfection where it is now it is more by force than by choise and like a repining prisoner in a loathed gaile but there in a little roome it should find perfect rest and in the prison of death the liberty of a ioyfull life O sweet Tombe of my sweetest Lord while I liue I will stay by thee when I die I will cleaue vnto thee neither aliue nor dead will I euer be drawne from thee Thou art the Altar of mercie the temple of truth the sanctuary of safeâ—ie the graue of death and the cradle of eternall life O heauen of my eclipsed Sunne receiue vnto thee this silly starre that hath now also lost all wished light O Whale that hast swallowed my onely Ionas swallow also me more worthy to be thy prey sith I and not he was the cause of this bloudie tempest O Cesterne of my innocent Ioseph take me into thy drie bottome sith I and not he gaue iust cause of offence to my enraged brethren But alas in what cloud hast thou hidden the light of our way Vpon what shore hast thou cast vp the Preacher of all truth or to what Ismaelite hast thou yeelded the purueiour of our life Oh vnhappy me why did I not before thinke of that which I now aske Why did I leaue him when I had him thus to lament him now that I haue lost him If I had watched with perseuerance either none would haue taken him or they should haue taken me with him But through too much precisenesse in keeping the Law I haue lost the Law-maker and by being too scrupulous in obseruing his ceremonies I am proued irreligious in losing him selfe sith I should rather haue remained with the truth than forsaken it to solemnize the figure The Sabboth could not haue bene prophaned in standing by his coarse by which the prophaned things are sanctified and whose touch doth not defile the cleane but cleanseth the most defiled But when it was time to stay I departed when it was too late to helpe I returned and now I repent my folly when it cannot be amended But let my heart dissolue into sighes mine eyes melt in teares and my desolate soule languish in dislikes yea let all that I am and haue endure the deserued punishment that if he were incensed with my fault he may be appeased with my penance and returne vpon the amendment that fled from the offence Thus when her timorous conscience had indited her of so great an omission and her tongue enforced the euidence with these bitter accusations Loue that was now the onely vmpire in all her causes condemned her eyes to a fresh showre of teares her breast to a new storme of sighes and her soule to be perpetuall prisoner to restlesse sorrowes But ô Mary thou deceiuest thy selfe in thy owne desires and it well appeareth that excesse of griefe hath bred in thee a defect of due prouidence And wouldest thou indeed haue thy wishes come to passe and thy words fulfilled Tell me then I pray thee if thy heart were dissolued where wouldest thou harbour thy Lord what wouldest thou offer him how wouldest thou loue him Thine eyes haue lost him thy hands cannot feele him thy feet cannot follow him and if it be at all in thee it is thy heart that hath him and wouldest thou now haue that dissolued from thence also to exile him And if thine eyes were melted thy soule in langour and thy senses decayed how wouldest thou see him if he did appeare how shouldest thou heare him if he did speake how couldest thou know him though he were there present Thou thinkest haply that he loued thee so well that if thy heart were spent for his loue he would either lend his own heart vnto thee or create a new heart in thee better than that which thy sorrow tooke from thee It may be thou imaginest that if thy soule would giue place his soule wanting now a bodie would enter into thine with supply of all thy senses and release of thy sorrowes O Mary thou diddest not marke what thy maister was wont to say when he told thee that the third day he should rise againe For if thou hadst heard him or at the least vnderstood him thou wouldest not thinke but that he now vsed both his heart and soule in the life of his owne body And therefore repaire to the Angels and enquire more of them lest the Lord be displeased that comming from him thou wilt not entertaine them But Mary whose deuotions were all fixed vpon a nobler Saint and that had so straightly bound her thoughts to his only affection that she rather desired to vnknow whom she knew already than to burthen her mind with the knowledge of new acquaintance could not make her will long since possessed with the highest loue stoope to the acceptance of meaner friendships And for this though she did not scornefully reiect yet did she with humilitie refuse the Angels company thinking it no discourtesie to take her selfe from them for to giue her selfe more wholly to her Lord to whom both she and they were wholly deuoted ought most loue and greatest duty Sorrow also being now the onely interpreter of all that sense deliuered to her vnderstanding made her conster their demand in a more doubtfull than true
in Paradise For if he came to repaire Adams ruines and to be the common parent of our redemption as Adam was of our originall infection reason seemeth to require that hauing endured all his life the penaltie of Adams exile he should after death re-enter possession of that inheritance which Adam lost that the same place that was the neast where sinne was first hatched may be now the child-bed of grace and mercy And if sorrow at the crosse did not make thee as deafe as at the Tombe it maketh thee forgetfull thou diddest in confirmation hereof heare himselfe say to one of the theeues that the same day he should be with him in Paradise And if it be reason that no shadow should be more priuiledged than the body no figure in more account than the figured truth why shouldest thou beleeue that Elias and Enoch haue bene in Paradise these many ages that he whō they but as tipes resembled should be excluded from thence He excelled them in life surpassed them in miracles he was farre beyond them in dignitie why then should not his place be farre aboue or at the least equall with theirs sith their prerogatiues were so farre inferiour vnto his And yet if the basenesse and misery of his passion haue layd him so low in thy conceit that thou thinkest Paradise too high a place to be likely to haue him the very lowest roome that any reason can assigne him cannot be meaner than the bosome of Abraham And sith God in his life did so often acknowledge him for his Sonne it seemeth the slenderest preheminence that he can giue him aboue other men that being his holy one he should not in his body see corruption but be free among the dead reposing both in body and soule where other Saints are in soule onely Let not therefore the place where he is trouble thee sith it cannot be worse than his graue and infinite coniectures make probability that it cannot but be better But suppose that he were yet remaining on earth and taken by others out of his Tombe what would it auaile thee to know where he were If he be with such as loue and honour him they will be as warie to keepe him as they are loth he should be lost and therefore will either often change or neuer confesse the place knowing secresie to be the surest locke to defend so great a treasure If those haue taken him that malice and maligne him thou maist well iudge him past thy recouerie when he is once in possession of so cruell owners Thou wouldest haply make sale of thy liuing and seeke him by ransome But it is not likely they would sell him to be honoured that bought him to be murthered If price would not serue thou wouldest fall to prayer But how can prayer soften such flinty hearts And if they scorned so many teares offered for his life as little will they regard thy intreatie for his coarse If neither price nor prayer would preuaile thou wouldest attempt it by force But alas silly souldier thy armes are too weake to manage weapons and the issue of thy affault would be the losse of thy selfe If no other way would helpe thou wouldest purloine him by stealth and thinke thy selfe happie in contriuing such a theft O Mary thou art deceiued for malice will haue many locks and to steale him from a thiefe that could steale him from the watch requireth more cunning in the Art than thy want of practise can affoord thee Yet if these be the causes that thou enquired of the place thou shewest the force of thy rare affection and deseruest the Lawrell of a perfect louer But to feele more of their sweetnesse I will poune these spices and dwell a while in the peruse of thy resolute seruour And first can thy loue enrich thee when thy goods are gone or a dead coarse repay the value of thy ransome Because he had neither bed to be borne in nor graue to be buried in wilt thou therefore rather be poore with him than rich without him Againe if thou hadst to sue to some cruell Scribe or Pharisie that is to an heart boyling in rancor with an heart burning in loue for a thing of him aboue all things detested of thee aboue all things desired as his enemie to whom thou suest and his friend for whom thou intrearest canst thou thinke it possible for this sute to speede Could thy loue repaire thee from his rage or such a tyrant stoupe to a womans teares Thirdly if thy Lord might be recouered by violence art thou so armed in compleat loue that thou thinkest it sufficient harnesse or doth thy loue indue thee with such a Iudiths spirit or lend thee such Sampsons locks that thou canst breake open huge gates or foyle whole armies Is thy loue so sure a shield that no blow can breake it or so sharpe a dint that no force can withstand it Can it thus alter sexe change nature and exceede all Art But of all other courses wouldest thou aduenture a theft to obtaine thy desire A good deed must be well done and a worke of mercy without breach of iustice It were a sinne to steale prophane treasure but to steale an annointed Prophet can be no lesse than sacriledge And what greater staine to thy Lord to his doctrine and to thy selfe than to see thee his Disciple publikely executed for an open theft O Mary vnlesse thy loue haue better warrant than common sense I can hardly see how such designements can be approued Approued saith she I would to God the execution were as easie as the proofe and I should not long bewaile my vnfortunate losse To others it seemeth ill to preferre loue before riches but to loue it seemeth worse to preferre any thing before it selfe Cloath him with plates of siluer that shiuereth for cold or fill his purse with treasure that pineth with hunger see whether the plates will warme him or the treasure feede him No no he will giue vs all his plates for a woollen garment and all his money for a meales meate Euery supply fitteth not with euery neede and the loue of so sweete a Lord hath no correspondence in worldly wealth Without him I were poore though Empresse of the world With him I were rich though I had nothing else They that haue most are accounted richest and they thought to haue most that haue all they desire and therefore as in him alone is the vttermost of my desires so he alone is the summe of all my substance It were too happy an exchange to haue God for goods and too rich a pouertie to enioy the onely treasure of the world If I were so fortunate a begger I would disdaine Salomons wealth and my loue being so highly enriched my life should neuer complaine of want And if all I am worth would not reach to his ransome what should hinder to seeke him by intreaty Though I were to sue to the gaeatest Tyrant yet the equitie of
busie about him and notwithstanding all this hast thou now forgotten him His countenance auoucheth it his voice assureth it his wounds witnesse it thine owne eyes behold it and doest thou not yet beleeue that this is Iesus Are thy sharpe seeing eyes become so weake sighted that they are dazeled with the Sunne and blinded with the light But there is such a shower of teares betweene thee and him and thine eyes are so dimmed with weeping for him that though thou seest the shape of a man yet thou canst not discerne him Thy eares also are still so possessed with the dolefull Eccho of his last speeches which want of breath made him vtter in a dying voice that the force and loudnesse of his liuing words maketh thee imagine it the voyce of a stranger and therefore as he seemeth vnto thee so like a stranger he asketh this question of thee O woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou O desire of the heart and onely ioy of her soule why demandest thou why she weepeth or for whom she seeketh But a while since she saw thee her onely hope hanging on a tree with thy head full of thornes thy eyes full of teares thy eares full of blasphemies thy mouth full of gall thy whole person mangled and disfigured and doest thou aske her why she weepeth Scarce three dayes passed she beheld thy armes and legges racked with violent puls thy hands and feete boared with nayles thy side wounded with a speare thy whole bodie torne with stripes and goared in blood and doest thou her onely griefe aske her why she weepeth She beheld thee vpon the Crosse with many teares and most lamentable cryes yeelding vp her ghost that is thy owne ghost and alas asketh thou why she weepeth And now to make vp her miserie hauing but one hope aliue which was that for a small reliefe of her other afflictions she might haue annointed thy body that hope is also dead since thy body is remoued and she now standeth hopelesse of all helpe and demandest thou why she weepeth and for whom she seeketh Full well thou knowest that thee onely she desireth thee onely she loueth all things beside thee she contâ—mneth and canst thou finde in thy heart to aske her whom she seeketh To what end ô sweet Lord doest thou thus suspend her longings prolong her desires and martyr her with these tedious delayes Thou onely art the fortresse of her faint faith the anker of her wauering hope the very center of her vehement loue to thee she trusteth vpon thee she relyeth and of her selfe she wholly despaireth She is so earnest in seeking thee that she can neither seeke nor thinke any other thing and all her wits are so busied in musing vpon thee that they draw all attention from her senses wherewith they should discerne thee Being therefore so attentiue to that she thinketh what maruell though she marke not whom she seeth and sith thou hast so perfect notice of her thought and she so little power to discouer thee by sense why demandest thou for whom she seeketh or why she weepeth Doest thou looke that she should answere for thee I seeke or for thee I weepe vnlesse thou wilt vnbend her thoughts that her eyes may fully see thee or while thou wilt be concealed doest thou expect that she should be able to know thee But ô Mary not without cause doth he aske thee this question Thou wouldest haue him aliue and yet thou weepest because thou doest not find him dead Thou art some that he is not here and for this very cause thou shouldest rather be glad For if he were dead I it is most likely he should be here but not being here it is a signe that he is aliue He reioyceth to be out of his graue and thou weepest because he is not in it He will not lie any where and thou sorrowest for not knowing where he lyeth Alas why be wailest thou his glory and iniurest the reuiuing of his body as the robbery of his coarse He being aliue for what dead man mournest thou and he being present whose absence doest thou lament But she taking him to be a Gardener said vnto him O Lord if thou hast carried him from hence tell me where thou hast layd him and I will take him away O wonderfull effects of Maries loue if loue be a languor how liueth she by it If loue be her life how dyeth she in it If it bereaued her of sense how did she see the Angels If it quickened her of sense why knew she not Iesus Doest thou seeke for one whom when thou hast found thou knowest not or if thou dost know him when thou findest him why doest thou seek when thou hast him Behold Iesus is come and the partie whom thou seekest is he that talketh with thee ô Mary call vp thy wits and open thine eyes Hath thy Lord liued so long laboured so much died with such paine and shed such showers of bloud to come to no higher preferment than to be a Gardener And hast thou bestowed such cost so much sorrow and so many teares for no better man than a silly Gardener Alas is the sorry Garden the best inheritance that thy loue can affoord him or a Gardeners office the highest dignitie that thou wilt allow him It had bene better he had liued to haue bene Lord of thy Castle than with his death so dearely to haue bought so small a purchase But thy mistaking hath in it a further mysterie Thou thinkest not amisse though thy sight be deceiued For as our first Father in the state of grace and innocencie was placed in the Garden of pleasure and the first office allotted him was to be a Gardener so the first man that euer was in glorie appeareth first in a Garden and presenteth himselfe in a Gardeners likenesse that the beginnings of glorie might resemble the entrance of innocencie and grace And as the Gardener was the fall of mankinde the parent of sinne and authour of death so is this Gardener the raiser of our ruines the ransome of our offences and the restorer of life In a Garden Adam was deceiued and taken captiue by the deuill In a Garden Christ was betrayed and taken prisoner by the Iewes In a Garden Adam was condemned to earne his bread with the sweat of his browes And after a free gift of the bread of Angels in the last Supper in a Garden Chrid did earne it vs with a bloudy sweate of his whole body By disobedient eating the fruite of a tree our right to that Garden was by Adam forfeited and by the obedient death of Christ vpon a tree a farre better right is now recouered When Adam had sinned in the Garden of pleasure he was there apparelled in dead beasts skinnes that his garment might betoken his graue and his liuery of death agree with his condemnation to die And now to defray the debt of that sinne in this Garden Christ lay clâ—d in the dead mans shrowd
Disciples But thy loue had no leisure to cast so many doubts Thy teares were Interpreters of thy words and thy innocent meaning was written in thy dolefull countenance Thine eyes were rather pleaders for pitty than Heraulds of wrath and thy whole person presented such a patterne of thy extreame anguish that no man from thy presence could take in any other impression And therefore what thy words wanted thy action supplied and what his eare might mistake his eye did vnderstand It might be also that what he wrought in thy heart was concealed from thy sight and haply his voice and demeanour did import such compassion of thy case that he seemed as willing to affoord as thou desirest to haue his helpe And so presuming by his behauiour that thy suite should not suffer repulse the tenour of thy request doth but argue thy hope of a graunt But what is the reason that in all thy speeches which since the misse of thy maister thou hast vttered where they haue put him is alwayes a part So thou saydest to the Apostles the same to the Angels and now thou doest repeate it to this supposed Garderner very sweete must this word be in thy heart that is so often in thy mouth it would neuet be so ready in thy tongue if it were not very fresh in thy memory But what maruaile though it tast so sweete that was first seasoned in thy maisters mouth which as it was the treasury of truth the fountaine of life and the onely quire of the most perfect Harmonie so whatsoeuer it deliuered thine eare deuoured and thy heart locked vp And now that thou wantest himselfe thou hast no other comfort but his words which thou deemest so much the more effectuall to perswade in that they tooke their force from so heauenly a speaker His sweetenesse therefore it is that maketh this word so sweete and for loue of him thou repeatest it so often because he in the like case said of thy brother Where haue you put him O how much doest thou affect his person that findest so sweete a feeling in his phrase How much desirest thou to see his countenance that with so great desire pronouncest his wordes And how willingly wouldest thou licke his sacred feete that so willingly vtterest his shortest speeches But what meanest thou to make so absolute a promise and so boldly to say I will take him away Ioseph was afraid and durst not take downe his body from the Crosse but by night yea and then also not without Pilats warrant but thou neither stayest vntill night nor regardest Pilate but stoutly promisest that thou thy selfe wilt take him away What if he be in the pallace of the high Priest and some such maid as made Saint Peter denie his maister do begin to question with thee wilt thou then stand to these words I will take him away Is thy courage so high aboue kinde thy strength so farre beyond thy sexe thy loue so much without measure that thou neither doest remember that all women are weake not that thy selfe art but a woman Thou exemptest no place thou preferrest no person thou speakest without feare thou promisest without condition thou makest no exception as though nothing were impossible that thy loue suggesteth But as the darknesse could not fright thee from setting forth before day nor the watch feare thee from comming to the Tombe as thou diddest resolue to breake open the seales though with danger of thy life and to remoue the stone from the graues mouth though thy force could not serue thee so what maruaile though thy loue being now more incensed with the fresh wound of thy losse it resolue vpon any though neuer so hard aduentures Loue is not ruled with reason but with loue It neither regardeth what can be nor what shall be done but onely what it selfe desireth to do No difficulty can stay it no impossibility appall it Loue is title iust enough and Armour strong enough for all assaults and it selfe a reward of all labours It asketh no recompence it respecteth no commoditie Loues fruites are loues effects and the gaines the paines It considereth behoofe more than benefit and what in dutie it should not what indeed it can But how can nature be so maistered with affection that thou canst take such delight and carry such loue to a dead coarse The mother how tenderly soeuer she loued her child aliue yet she cannot chuse but loath him dead The most louing Spouse cannot endure the presence of her deceassed husband and whose embracements were delightsome in life are euer most hatefull after death Yea this is the nature of all but principally of women that the very conceit much more the sight of the departed striketh into them so fearefull and vgly impressions and stirreth in them so great horrour that notwithstanding the most vehement loue they thinke long vntill the house is ridde of their very dearest friends when they are once attyred in deaths vnlouely liueries How then canst thou endure to take vp his coarse in thy hands and to carry it thou knowest not thy selfe how farre being especially torne and mangled and consequently the more likely in so long time to be tainted Thy sister was vnwilling that the graue of her owne brother should be opened and yet he was shrowded in sheets embalmed with spices and died an ordinarie death without any wound bruse or other harme that might hasten his corruption But this coarse hath neither shrowd nor spice sith these are to be seene in the tombe and there is not a part in his body but had some helpe to further it to decay and art thou not afraid to see him yea to touch him yea to embrace and carry him naked in thine armes If thou haddest remembred Gods promise that His holy one should not see corruption If thou haddest beleeued that his God-head remaining with his bodie could haue preserued it from perishing thy faith had bene more worthy of praise but thy loue lesse worthy of admiration sith the more corruptible thou diddest conceiue him the more combers thou diddest determine to ouercome and the greater was thy loue in being able to conquer them But thou wouldest haue thought thy oyntments rather harmes than helpes if thou hadst bene setled in that beleefe and for so heauenly a coarse embalmed with God all earthly spices would haue seemed a disgrace If likewise thou haddest firmely trusted vpon his resurrection I should maruaile at thy constant designement sith all hazards in taking him should haue bene with vsurie repaide if lying in thy lappe thou mightest haue seene him reuiued and his disfigured and dead body beautified in thine armes with a diuine maiestie If thou haddest hoped so good fortune to thy waterie eyes that they might haue bene first cleared with the beames of his desired light or that his eyes might haue blessed thee with the first fruites of his glorious lookes If thou haddest imagined any likelihood to haue made happie thy
dying heart with taking in the first gaspes of his liuing breath or to haue heard the first words of his pleasing voice Finally if thou haddest thought to haue seene his iniuries turned to honours the markes of his miserie to ornaments of glorie and the depth of thy heauinesse to such an height of felicity whatsoeuer thou haddest done to obtaine him had bene but a mite for a million and too slender a price for so soueraigne a peniworth But hauing no such hopes to vphold thee and so many motiues to plonge thee in despaire how could thy loue be so mighty as neither to feele a womans feare of so deformed a coarse nor to thinke the weight of the burthen too heauy for thy feeble armes nor to be amated with a world of dangers that this attempt did carry with it But affection cannot feare whom it affecteth loue feeleth no load of him it loueth neither can true frendship be frighted from rescuing so affied a friend What meanest thou then ô comfort of her life to leaue so constant a wel-willer so long vncomforted and to punish her so much that so well deserueth pardon Dally no longer with so knowne a loue which so many trials auouch most true And sith she is nothing but what it pleaseth thee let her tast the benefit of being onely thine She did not follow the tide of thy better fortune to shift saile when the streame did alter course She began not to loue thee in thy life to leaue thee after death Neither was she such a guest at thy table that meant to be a stranger in thy necessitie She left thee not in thy lowest ebbe she reuolted not from thy last extremitie In thy life she serued thee with her goods in thy death she departed not from the Crosse after death she came to dwell with thee at thy graue Why then doest thou not say with Naomi Blessed be she of our Lord because what courtesie she afforded to the quicke she hath also continued towards the dead A thing so much the more to be esteemed in that it is most rare Do not sweete Lord any longer delay her Behold she hath attended thee these three dayes and she hath not what to eate nor wherewith to foster her famished soule vnlesse thou by discouering thy selfe doest minister vnto her the bread of thy body and feede her with the food that hath in it all taste of sweetnesse If therefore thou wilt not haue her to faint in the way refresh her with that which her hunger requireth For surely she cannot long enioy the life of her soule But feare not Mary for thy teares will obtaine They are to o mighty oratours to let any suit fall and though they pleaded at the most rigorous barre yet haue they so perswading a silence so conquering a complaint that by yeelding they ouercome and by intreating they command They tie the tongues of all accusers and soften the rigour of the seuerest Iudge Yea they winne the inuincible and binde the omnipotent When they seeme most pitifull they haue great power and being most forsaken they are more victorious Repentant eyes are the Cellers of Angels and penitent teares their sweetest wines which the sauour of life perfumeth the taste of grace sweeteneth and the purest colours of returning innocencie highly beautifieth This deaw of deuotion neuer faileth but the Sunne of iustice draweth it vp and vpon what face soeuer it droppeth it maketh it amiable in Gods eye For this water hath thy heart bene long a limbecke sometimes distilling it out of the weedes of thy owne offences with the fire of true contrition Sometimes out of the flowers of spirituall comforts with the flames of contemplation and now out of the bitter hearbes of thy maisters miseries with the heat of a tender compassion This water hath better graced thy lookes than thy former alluring glances It hath setled worthier beauties in thy face than all thy artificiall paintings Yea this onely water hath quenched Gods anger qualified his iustice recouered his mercy merited his loue purchased his pardon and brought forth the spring of all thy fauours Thy teares were the procters for thy brothers life the inuiters of those Angels for thy comfort and the suters that shall be rewarded with the first sight of thy reuiued Sauiour Rewarded they shall be but not refrained altered in their cause but their course continued Heauen would weepe at the losse of so precious a water and earth lament the absence of so fruitfull showers No no the Angels must still bath themselues in the pure streames of thine eyes and thy face shall still be set with this liquid pearle that as out of thy teares were stroken the first sparkes of thy Lords loue so thy teares may be the oyle to nourish and feede his fame Till death dam vp the springs they shall neuer ceasse running and then shall thy soule be ferried in them to the harbour of life that as by them it was first passed from sinne to grace so in them it may be wasted from grace to glorie In the meane time reare vp thy fallen hopes and gather confidence both of thy speedy comfort and thy Lords well being Iesus saith vnto her Marie She turning saith vnto him Rabboni O louing maister thou diddest onely deferre her consolation to increase it that the delight of thy presence might be so much the more welcome in that through thy long absence it was with so little hope so much desired Thou wert content she should lay out for thee so many sighes teares and plaints and diddest purposely adiourne the date of her payment to requite the length of these delayes with a larger loane of ioy It may be she knew not her former happinesse till she was weaned from it nor had a right estimate in valuing the treasures with which thy presence did inrich her vntill her extreame pouertie taught her their vnestimable rate But now thou shewest by a sweete experience that though she payde thee with the dearest water of her eyes with her best breath and tenderest loue yet small was the price that she bestowed in respect of the worth she receiued She sought thee dead and imprisoned in a stonie gayle and now she findeth thee both aliue and at full libertie She sought thee shrined in a shrowd more like a leaper than thy selfe left as the modell of the vttermost miserie and the onely patterne of the bitterest vnhappinesse and now she findeth thee inuested in the robes of glorie the president of the highest and both the owner and giuer of all felicitie And as all this while she hath sought without finding wept without comfort and called without answers so now thou diddest satisfie her seeking with thy comming her teares with thy triumph and all her cryes with this one word Mary For when she heard thee call her in thy wonted manner and with thy vsuall voice her onely name issuing frō thy mouth wrought so strange an alteration in her
calme minde in more hope then feare she expected her owne passage she commended both her duty and good will to all her friends and cleared her heart from all grudge towards her enemies wishing true happinesse to them both as best became so soft and gentle a mind in which anger neuer stayed but as an vnwelcome stranger She made open profession that she did die true to her religion true to her husband true to God and the world she enioyed her iudgement as long as she breathed her body earnestly offering her last deuotions supplying in thought what faintnesse suffered not her tongue to vtter in the end when her glasse was runne out and death began to challenge his interest some labouring with too late remedies to hinder the deliuery of her sweet soule she desired them eftsoones to let her go to God and her hopes calling her to eternall kingdomes as one rather fallen asleepe then dyieg she most happily tooke her leaue of all mortall miseries Such was the life such was the death of your dearest sister both so full of true comfort that this surely of her vertues may be a sufficient lenitiue to your bitterest griefes For you are not I hope in the number of those that reckon it a part of their paine to heare of their best remedies thinking the rehearsall of your dead friends praises an vpbraiding of their losse but sith the obliuion of her vertuues were iniurious to her let not the mention of her person be offensiue vnto you and be not you grieued with her death with which she is best pleased So blessed a death is rather to be wished of vs then pitied in her whose soule triumpheth with God whose vertue still breatheth in the mouths of infinite praises and liueth in the memories of all to whom either experience made her knowne or fame was not enuious to conceale her deserts She was a iewell that both God and you desired to enioy he to her assured benefit without selfe interest you for allowable respects yet employing her restraint among certaine hazards and most vncertaine hopes Be then vmpire in your owne cause whether your wishes or Gods will importeth more loue the one the adornement of her exile the other her returne into a most blessed countrey And sith it pleased God in this loue to be your riuall let your discretion decide the doubt whom in due should carry the suite the prerogatiue being but a right to the one for nature and grace being the motiues of both your loues she had the best litle in them that was authour of them and she if worthy to be beloued of either as she was of both could not but preferre him to the dearest portion of her deepest affection let him with good leaue gather the grape of his owne vine and plucke the fruite of his owne planting and thinke so curious workes euer safest in the artificers hand who is likeliest to loue them and best able to preserue them She did therefore her duty in dying willingly and if you will do yours you must be willing with her death sith to repine at her liking is discurtesie at Gods an impiety both vnfitting for your approued vertue she being in place where no griefe can annoy her she hath little neede or lesse ioy of your sorrow neither can she allow in her friends that she would loathe in her selfe loue neuer affecting likenesse if she had bene euill she had not deserued our teares being good she cannot desire them nothing being lesse to the likenesse of goodnesse than to see it selfe any cause of vniust disquiet or trouble to the innocent Would Saul haue thought it friendship to haue wept for his fortune in hauing found a kingdome 1. Sam. 17. by seeking of cattell or Dauid account it a curtesie to haue sorrowed at his successe that from following sheepe came to foyle a giant and to receiue in fine a royall crowne for his victorie why then should her lot be lamented whom higher fauour hath raised from the dust to sit with princes of Gods people Psal 112 if security had bene giuen that a longer life should still haue bene guided by vertue and followed with good fortune you might pretend some cause to complaine of her deceasse But if different effects should haue crossed your hopes processe of time being the parent of strange alterations then had death bene friendlier then your selfe and sith it hung in suspence which of the two would haue happened let vs allow God so much discretion as to thinke him the fittest arbitrator in decision of the doubt her foundations of happinesse were in the holy hills Psal 86. and God sawe it fittest for her building to be but low in the vale of teares better it was it should be soone taken downe then by rising too high to haue oppressed her soule with the ruines Thinke it no iniurie that she is now taken from you but a fauour that she was lent you so long and shew no vnwillingnesse to restore God his owne sith hitherto you haue payed no vsurie for it Consider not how much longer you might haue enioyed her but how much sooner you might haue lost her and sith she was held vpon curtesie not by any couenant take our soueraigne right for a sufficient reason of her death our life is but lent a good to make thereof during the loane our best commodity It is due debt to a more certaine owner than our selues and therefore so long as we haue it we receiue a benefite when we are depriued of it we haue no wrong we are tennants at will of this clayie farme not for tearme of yeares when we are warned out we must be ready to remoue hauing no other title but the owners pleasure it is but an Inne not an home we came but to baite not to dwell and the condition of our entrance was in fine to depart If this departure be grieuous it is also common this to day to me to morrow to thee and the case equally afflicting all leaues none any cause to complaine of iniurious vsage Natures debt is sooner exacted of some than of other yet is there no fault in the creditor that exacteth but his owne but in the greedinesse of our eager hopes either repining that their wishes faile or willingly forgetting their mortalitie whom they are vnwilling by experience to see mortall yet the generall tide wafteth all passengers to the same shore some sooner some later but all at the last and we must settle our minds to take our course as it commeth neuer fearing a thing so necessary yet euer expecting a thing so vncertaine It seemeth that God purposely concealed the time of our death leauing vs resolued betweene feare and hope of longer continuance Cut off vnripe cares lest with the notice and pensiuenesse of our diuorce from the world we should lose the comfort of needfull contentments and before our dying day languish away with expectation of death Some
are taken in their first steppe into this life receiuing in one their welcome and farewell as though they had bene borne onely to be buried and to take their pasport in this hourely middle of their course the good to preuent change the bad to shorten their impietie Some liue till they be weary of life to giue proofe of their good hap that had a kindlier passage yet though the date be diuers the debt is all one equally to be answered of all as their time expireth Psal 88. for who is the man shall liue and not see death sith we all dye and like water slide vpon the earth In Paradice we receiued the sentence of Death Gen. 5. and here as prisoners we are kept in ward tarying but our times till the Gaoler call vs to our execution Whom hath any vertue eternized or desert commended to posterity that hath not mourned in life and bene mourned after death no assurance of ioy being sealed without some teares Euen the blessed Virgin the mother of God was thrown downe as deepe in temporall miseries as she was aduanced high in spirituall honours none amongst all mortall creatures finding in life more proofe then she of her mortalitie For hauing the noblest sonne that euer woman was mother of not onely aboue the condition of men but aboue the glorie of Angels being her sonne onely without temporall Father and thereby the loue of both parents doubled in her breast being her onely Sonne without other issue and so her loue of all children finished in him Yea he being God and she the nearest creature to Gods perfections yet no prerogatiue either quitted her from mourning or him from dying and though they surmounted the highest Angels in all other preheminences yet were they equall with the meanest men in the sentence of Death And howbeit the blessed Virgine being the patterne of Christian mourners so tempered her anguish that there was neither any thing vndone that might be exacted of a mother nor any thing done that might be misliked in so perfect a matron yet by this we may ghesse with what curtesies death is likely to friend vs that durst cause so bloudy funerals in so heauenly a stocke not exempting him from the law of dying that was the authour of life and soone after to honour his triumphs with ruines and spoile of death Seeing therefore that Death spareth none let vs spare our teares for better vses being but an idoll sacrifice to this deafe and implacable executioner And for this not long to be continued where they can neuer profit Nature did promise vs a weeping life exacting teares for custome at our first entrance and for suting our whole course in this dolefull beginning Therefore they must be vsed with measure that must be vsed so often and so many causes of weeping lying yet in the debt sith we cannot end our teares let vs at the least reserue them if sorrow cannot be shunned let it be taken in time of neede sith otherwise being both troublesome and fruitlesse it is a double miserie or an open folly We moisten not the ground with precious waters they were stilled to nobler ends either by their fruits to delight our senses or by their operation to preserue our healths Our teares are water of too high a price to be prodigally powred in the dust of any graues If they be teares of loue they perfume our prayers making them odour of sweetnesse fit to be offered on the Altar before the throne of God if teares of contrition they are water of life to the dying and corrupting soules Apoc. 8. they may purchase fauour and repeale the sentence till it be executed 3 King 26. as the example of Ezechias doth testifie but when the punishment is past and the verdict performed in effect their pleading is in vaine 2 Kin 8.11 as Dauid taught vs when his child was dead saying that he was likelier to go to it than it by his weeping to returne to him Learne therefore to giue sorrow no long dominion ouer you Wherfore the wise should rather marke than expect an end Meet it not when it commeth do not inuite it when it is absent when you feele it do not force it sith the bruite creatures which Nature seldome erring in her course guideth in the meane haue but a short though vehement sense of their losses You should bury the sharpnesse of your griefe with the course and rest contented with a kind yet a milde compassion neither lesse than decent for you nor more than agreeable to your nature iudgement Your much heauinesse would renew a multitude of griefes and your eyes would be springs to many streames adding to the memory of the dead a new occasion of plaint by your owne discomfort The motion of your heart measureth the beating of many pulses which in any distemper of your quiet with the like stroke will soone bewray themselues sicke of your disease your fortune though hard yet is it notorious and though moued in mishap and set in an vnworthy lanterne yet your owne light shineth farre and maketh you markeable euery one will bend an attentiue eye vpon you obseruing how you ward this blow of temptation and whether your patience be a shield of proofe or easily entred with these violent strokes It is commonly expected that so high thoughts which haue already climed ouer the hardest dangers should not now stoupe to any vulgar or female complaints Great personages whose estate draweth vpon them many eyes as they cannot but be themselues so may not they vse the libertie of meaner estates the lawes of Nobilitie not allowing them to direct their deeds by their desires but to limit their desires to that which is decent Nobility is an ayme for lower degrees to leuell at markes of higher perfection and like stately windowes in the Northeast roomes of politicke and ciuill buildings to let in such light and lie open to such prospects as may affoord their inferiours both to finde meanes and motions to Heroicall vertues If you should determine to dwell euer in sorrow it were a wrong to your wisedome and countermanded by your qualitie If euer you mind to surceasse it no time fitter than the present sith the same reasons that hereafter might moue you are now as much in force Yeld to Wisedome that which you must yeeld to Time be beholding to your selfe not to Time for the victory make it a voluntary worke of discretion that will otherwise be a necessary worke of delay We thinke it not enough to haue our owne measure brim full with euill vnlesse we make it runne ouer with others miseries taking their misfortunes as our punishments and executing forreine penalties vpon our selues Yea disquiet mindes being euer bellowes to their owne flames mistake oft times others good for ill their follie making it a true scourge to them howsoeuer it seemed t was to others a benefit Iacob out of Iosephs absence sucked such surmises as he
that beareth me such a cankred malice that he careth not to increase his owne paine so that he may worke me any spirituall yea or corporall harme Fourthly I must print that saying of Christ in my minde He that perseuereth vnto the end shall be saued for not he that beginneth nor he that continueth for a moneth or a yeare or a short time but onely he that perseuereth vnto the end of his life shall be saued Wherfore the same cause that moued me to beginne ought also to moue me to continue that the reward and crowne of my good resolution be not cut off by any want of perseuerance Let not the cries of mine enemies moue me let me with Saint Paul say The world is crucified to me and I to the world And with Dauid It is good for me to cleane vnto God Finally let me imitate the ensample of Christ that perseuered on the crosse vnto death for my sake though often called vpon to come downe Fiftly I must consider that in what state so euer of grace or merit of damnation I beginne the next life I must and shall vndoubtedly perseuer in it according to the words of Salomon Wheresoeuer the tree falleth there shall it be whether it be towards South or North that is towards heauen or hell for both the paine of this continueth for euer and the ioy of the other is also euerlasting If therefore I will perseuer in heauen let me perseuer in the way that leadeth vnto it and neuer forsake the painefulnesse of it vnto the iourneyes end The passions of this life are not condigne and comparable to the future glorie and it is extreame follie for auoiding a short and transitorie paine to hazard the losse of euerlasting ioy and put my selfe in perill of perpetuall bondage in sarre more extreame and endlesse torments The sinners perseuer still in wickednesse and seruice of the Diuell The worldlings perseuer in pursuing vanities and following the world yea and that with most seruile toile and base drudgerie and not without many bodily and ghostly harmes how much more ought a true seruant of God perseuer in Gods seruice and not seeme by forsaking him in the way to condemne him for a worse maister then the world or the Diuell whom many thousands serue to the end to their owne damnation Let me remember that the first Angell for want of perseuerance became a diuell Adam for want of the same was thrust out of Paradise and Iudas of an Apostle became a prey of hell Finally there be many thousands in hell fire burning that beganne very good courses and for a time went forward in the same and yet in the end for want of perseuerance were damned for euer What good a soule loseth by mortall sinne THe grace of the holy Ghost The friendship and familiaritie with God All morall vertues infused and gifts of Gods Spirit The inheritance of the kingdome of heauen The portion of Gods children and patronage of his fatherly prouidence which he hath ouer the iust The peace and quietnesse of a good and quiet conscience Many comforts and visitations of the holy Ghost The fruite and merits of Christs death and passion What misery the soule gaineth by mortall sinne COndemnation to eternall paine To be quite cancelled out of the booke of life To become of the child of God the thrall of the diuell To be changed from the temple of the holy Ghost into a denne of theeues a nest of vipers and a sinke of all corruption How a Soule is prepared to iustification by degrees Faith setteth before one eyes God as a iust Iudge Angrie with the bad Mercifull to the repentant Of this faith by the gift of Gods Spirit ariseth a feare by consideration of Gods iustice and Our ownâ— sinnes This feare is comforted by hope grounded in Gods mercie and the Merits of Christ Of this hope ariseth loue and charity to Christ for Louing vs without desert Redeeming vs with so many torments Of this loue followeth sorrow for offending Christ of whom we haue bene so mercifully Created Redeemed Sanctified Called to by Faith Of this sorrow ariseth a full purpose to auoid all sinne which God aboue all things detesteth The diuell aboue all things desireth Aboue all things hurteth the soule A short Meditation of mans miseries VVHat was I O Lord what am I what shall I be I was nothing I am now nothing worth and am in hazard to be worse then nothing I was conceiued in originall sinne I am now full of actuall sinne I may hereafter feele the eternall smart of sinne I was in my mother a lothsome substance I am in the world a sacke of corruption I shall be in my graue a prey of vermine When I was nothing I was without hope to be saued or feare to be damned I am now in a doubtfull hope of the one and in a manifest danger of the other I shall be either happie by the successe of my hope or most miserable by the effect of my danger I was so that I could not then be damned I am so that I can scarce be saued what I haue bene I know to wit a wretched sinner what I am I cannot say being vncertaine of Gods grace what I shall be I am ignorant of being doubtfull of my perseuerance O Lord erect my former weaknesse correct my present sinfulnesse direct my future frailtie from passed euill to present good and from present good to future glorie sweete Iesus A deuout prayer to desire pardon and remission of our sinnes O Most mightie Lord and Creator of all things when I thinke with my selfe how grieuously I haue offended thine infinite Maiestie with my sinnes I wonder at mine owne follie when I consider what a louing and bountifull father I haue forsaken I accurse mine ingratitude when I behold how I am fallen from such a noble libertie into such a miserable bondage I condemne my selfe for an inconstant foole and know not what other thing I may set before mine eyes but onely hell and damnation for so much as thy iustice from which I cannot flie putteth a great tetror into my conscience but contrariwise when I consider thy great mercie which as the Prophet witnesseth exceedeth all thy workes then do I feele forthwith a fresh and pleasant aire of hope to refresh and strengthen againe my weake and sorrowfull soule Wherefore should I then dispaire to obtaine pardon of him who hath so often times in the holy Scriptures inuited sinners to repentance saying I desire not the death of a sinner but that he should liue and be conuerted Moreouer thine onely begotten Sonne our sweete Sauiour Iesus Christ hath reuealed vnto vs by many parables how ready and willing thou art to graunt pardon vnto all such as are penitent for their sinnes This he signifieth vnto vs by the Iewell lost and found againe By the strayed sheepe brought home againe vpon the shepheards shouldiers and much more by the comparison of the prodigall sonne