saw the effect of his desires But may not one say that the Trophies of his valour have been cast in rubbidg within that masse of dirt whereof the world is composed since all the marks thereof are effaced Carthage it felfe though it never had life could not avoid its death Time hath buried it so deep under its own ruines that we seek in vain the place of its Tomb. I leave you to ruminate if its subduer were himself able to resist the assaults of this Tyrannie If ALEXANDER had sent his thoughts into heaven there to seek a new world as well as his desires on earth there to find one he had not lost his time but as he did amuze himself to engrave the history of his ambition and triumphs upon the same masse of clay There is more glory to despise the world than to conquer it for after its conquest a man knower not what to doe with it which he had conquered he writ upon water and all the characters on 't are defaced The Realms which he subdued have lost some of them their names of this Triumpher there remaines us but the Idea as of a dream since men are ready to require Security even of his Memory for the wonders which it preacheth to us of him May we not then again justly avow that of all the conditions to which a man may be advanced without the aid of vertue either by Nature or Fortune there is none more infortunate then to be to these a favorite norany more miserable than to a Great-one All those who engage themselvs to the service of fortune are ill paid and of this every day gives us experience This inconstant goddess hath a thousand favours to lend but to give none but haltars poysons pomards and precipices 'T is a fine thing to see Hannibal begging his bread even in view of Scipio after he had called in question the price of the worlds Empire-dome Is it not an object worthy of compassion to consider Nicias upon his knees before Gillippus to beg his own and the Athenians lives after he had in a manner commanded the winds at Sea and Fortune ashore in a government soveraignly absolute who will not have the same resentments of pity reading the history of Crassus then when by excesse of disaster he surviv'd both his glory and reputation constrained to assist at the funerals of his owne renowne All those who hound after fortune are well pleased to be deceived since her deceits are so wel knowne and undergoe the hard conditions of his enemies attending death to free him from servitude Will you have no regreet to see enslaved under the tyranny of the Kings of Egypt the great Agesilaus whose valour was the onely wonder of his Time What will you say to the deplorable Fate of Cumenes to whom Fortune having offered so often Empires gives him nothing in the end but chaines so to die in captivitie You see at what price Men have bought the favours of this Goddesse when manie times the severity of a happy life produceth the storm of an unfortunate Death You may judge also at the same time of what Nature are these heights of honour when often the Greatest at Sun-rise finds themselves at the end of the Day the most miserable And suppose Fortune meddle not with them to what extremity of misery think you is a man reduc't at the hour of his departure All his Grandeurs though yet present are but as past felicities he enjoys no more the goods which he possesses greess onely appertain to him in proper and of what magnificence so'ere he is environed I wonder not if rich men be afraid of death since to them it is more dreadfull then to any this object shows him but the image of a funerall pomp his bed already Emblemes the Sepulcher the Sheets his winding linnen wherein he must be inveloped So that if he yet conceit himself Great 't is onely in misery Since all that he seeâ— heares touches smells and tasts sensibly perswades him nothing else Give Resurrection in your thoughts to great Alexander and then again conceive him at last gaspe and now consider in this deplorable estate Fortune sells every day the gtory of the world to any that will but none but fools are her chapmen wherein he finds himself involv'd upon his funerall couch to what can stead him all the grandeurs of his life past they being also past with it I grant that all the Earth be his yet you see how the little load of that of his body weighs so heavy on his soul that it is upon point to fall groveling under the burden I grant that all the glorie of the world belongs to him in proper he enjoys nothing but his miseries I yeeld moreover that all Mankinde may be his subjects yet this absolute soveraignty is not exempt from the servitude of pain Be it that with the onely thunder of his voice he makes the Earth to tremble yet he himself cannot hold from shaking at the noise of his own sighs I grant in fine that all the Kings of the world render him homage yet he is still the tributary of Death O grandeurs since you flie away without cease what are you but a little wind and should I be an Idolater of a little tossed Ayre Omnis motus tendit ad quietem and which onely moves but to vanish to its repose O greatnesse since you do but passe away what name should I give you but that of a dream Alas why should I passe my life in your pursuite still dreaming after you O worldly greatnesses since you bid Adieu to all the world without being able to stay your selves one onely moment Adieu then your allurements have none for me your sweets are bitter to my taste and your pleasures afford me none I cannot run after that which flies I can have no love for things which passe away worldly Greatnesses are but childrens trifles every wise man despises them and fince the world hath nothing else 't is a long while that I have bidden adieu to it It had promised me much and though it had given me nothing yet cannot I reproach it finding my self yet too rich by reason of its hardnesse But I return to the point Men of the World would perswade us that it is impossible to find any quiet in it to say The onely means to be content is to settle the conscience in peace a firm setling of Spirit wherein a man may be content in his condition without ever wishing any other thing And for my part I judge nothing to be more easie if we leave to reason its absolute power What impossibility can there be to regulate a mans will to Gods And what contradiction in 't to live upon earth of the pure benedictions of heaven What greater riches can a man wish then this to be able to undergo the Decrees of his Fate without murmuring and
one day men would talke of them But what felicity is it to be praised in this world to which they are dead and tormented in the other wherin they live even yet and ever I care very little that men should talke of me after my Death the esteem of men is of so small importance that I would not buy it so deare as with a wish onely It behooves to search reputation in the puritie of the conscience if a man would have the glory of it last for ever The renown of a good man is much greater than that of Caesar or Alexander for this hath no other foundation than the soyle where it was sowed and where the goodliest things display themselves like flowers and like flowers also have but a morning-flourish But the other having for a firme stay Eternitie The renown of a good man onely lasts alwaies this object ennobleth it to perfection and thus desiring nothing else but heaven it remaines to us at the end for recompence Blondus in his Treatise of Rome in its triumphant glory reckons up three hundred and twenty triumphs all remarkable but where are now these pompes these magnificences this infinite number of Trophies and a thousand other ornaments which ratled out their glory Where are I say these conquerours where are their slaves their Idolaters their admirers These pomps have but flash't like lightning and so passed away with the day that accompanied their lustre These mngnificences have been but seen It is some comfort yet to a wise man though himselfe fade away to see that all things else do so too and so took their passage in flight These trophies being onely bravadoes of the time times inconstancy made them vanish in an instant and all those other ornaments made but ostentation of their continuall vicissitude as being an inseparable accident of their nature These vanquishers onely had the name on 't since Death led them away also in triumph for all their triumphings Their captives were rather slaves of the miseries whereunto they were born than so by the absolute power of him who captived them Their idolaters have been immolated to the fury of years which spare none and their admirerers have incurred the same fate with the subject which they admired Insomuch that of all together remains nothing but a faint remembrance which as it waxeth old is effac't by little and little out of memory and scarcely will it subsist so much in the imagination as to be in the end buried among fables Since Eternity onely triumphs over Time we should only strive to attain that Behold here the Anatomy of the glory of the world see the true portraict of its false Image Contemplate meditate you will avouch with me that All is full of vanity O how stately and magnificent is the Triumph of Ages what trophies may a man see at their ever-rowling Chariot what Conquerours are not in the number of their subjection what soveraign power can resist their violence what newer Triumph â—en this of years Who can give in account the number of their victories and lesse the captives which Death serves in for their trophies What newer triumph again evermore then of moneths of days of hours moments For consider to your self how many Kings Princes and Lords die in one age in all the places of the world All these vanquishers are vanquisht and led in triumph to the grave Every Year makes its conquest apart gives battell and carries away the victory over so many A righteous man onely stands exempt â—â— from the terror of death and so many men that hardly can one conceive so lamentable a truth Months Days Hours and Moments triumph in their courses who can number all those who died yesterday out-right or are dead to day Nay more how many die at this hour and at this very instant that I entertain you with this discourse And all these defeats of mortality mark out to us the Triumphs whereof time onely bears away the glory But let us not pretend to share in 't 't is not worthy our Ambition Let Ages A good conscience is ever under shelter from all the inconstant tempests of Age. Years Moneths Days Hours and Moments triumph over us Vertue always limits their puissance and with it we may prescribe a bound to all these Triumphants Fair leave may they take to ruinate out-ward beauty but that of innocence is of proof ' gainst all their strokes Well may they impair outward graces but those of heaven contemn their assaults No doubt they may change the visage of all the marvels of Art and miracles of Nature Our Resolution is a rock in midst of all their storms and may remain alwayes it self without undergoing other rules then its own So that thus we may lead Time it self along in triumph if we live for nothing more then for Eternity I scorn the Tyranny of Ages He which lives for eiernity dreads no death my aim is beyond 'em all I despise the power of years my Ambition raigns already out of their reach Let Months Days Hours and Moments entrail all things along with them I for my part franchise their carreere since my scope is much more farther yet Let them triumph fully my very defeat shall lead them in triumph at the end of their term for the eternity whither I aspire already assigns out their tomb Let us stay no longer in so cragged a way The Emperour Trajan caused his Sepulcher to be enfram'd in the midst of Rome's greatest place as upon a stately Theater on which his successors were to act their parts Every man dies for himself Serius aut citius metam properamus ad unam sooner or later we must arrive to the place to which uncessantly we walk Be it to morrow or to day at the end of the term all is equall Nor old nor yong can mark the difference in their course being arrived to the end of their carreere for a hundred Ages when past and one instant make but the same thing 'T is onely necessary to muze of our last gist in the grave since thither we run till we are out of breath from moment to moment The Trojans would have the burying-places of their Princes to be in the most remarkable places of the City Places of buriall are sad Theaters where every day are acted none but Tragedies to the end that this sad object might serve as a fixt Memento to remembrance them that the Tragedy which had been acted by these yesterday might again be represented by some other to day The Philosophers know that objects move the faculties and that according to the quality of their impressions they work upon the spirits which contemplate them Let us say now that of all the direfull objects which are presented to our eyes there is none more powerfull over our apprehensions then this of the Meditation of Death and the horrour of the grave The most couragious yeeld themselves
of the World been of such a worth as every day you descry they had powerfully resisted against the assaults of Ages but as they had nothing admirable in them but the Name Memorials have preserved that and let them perish But yours MADAME which are too perfect for a sutable Name shall not cease to survive the revolutions of Times as being enlivned by Vertue which alone can exempt from Death Let it not seem strange then if I hazard the perils of the Sea to render Homage to a Queen whose Greatness perforce humbles the most arrogant spirits being not able so much as in thought to reach to the first degree of her Glory The Graces themselves are hers and the VERTVES have allianced their own and her Name and all the adorable qualities which are found here below are admirable in her alone as in their Source I am constrained to be silent MADAME being over charged with too much subject of speech The number of your Perfections astonishes me the greatness of your Merit ravishes me the splendour of your Vertue dazles me And in this dazle this transport this excess of admiration wherein my senses and spirits are all alike engaged I am compeled to cast my self at the feet of your Majesty and demand pardon of the boldness which I assume onely to enjoy the stile of MADAME Your MAJESTIES Most humble and most obeisant Servant P. de la SERRE TO THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN Upon the MIRROVR Which flatters not Of le Sieur de la SERRE SONNET PRincess this perverse Ages glorious gemme Whose least of Vertues seems a prodigie Illustrious Sien of the fairest Stemme That Heaven e're shew'd this Vniverse's eye Though Fate with thousand hind'rances averse Barres me the place to which my duty 's bent I cannot cheer my Soul from self-torment But by design to pourtray you in Verse But since that Serres shew's in this true Mirrour The Vertues of your Mind 's eternal splendour As lively as your Body's beautious measure My heed to view you here lets others pass So well I here agnize all your rare treasure That I ne're saw a better Crystal-Glass Par le Sr. C. TO THE AUTHOR upon the same subject STANCES DIvine Spirit knowing Soul Which with lovely sweet controul Rank'st our Souls those good rules under Which thy Pen layes down with wonder Whil'st the sweetness of thy Voice Breathes oracular sacred noise All thy Works so well esteem'd Thorough Europe proofes are deem'd Of thy Gifts which all admire Which such Trophies thee acquire And with these thy Muse invested Orpheus is by thee out-crested Also since blind Ignorance Makes no more abode in France Seldome can we meet with such As the works of thy sweet â—'uch Such immortal straines of spirit As do thousand Laurels merit But although thy active Muse Wonders did before produce As we seldome see the like This doth with amazement strike 'T is a Mirrour that doth shine More with Fire then Crystaline 'T is a Mirrour never flatters On my eyes such rayes it scatters That therewith I daz'led am Searching for thee in the same By some charm or stranger case I see thy spirit not thy face This strange fashion doth amaze me When I ne're so little gaze me I am streight all on a fire The more I look more I admire 'T is a mirrour sure of flame Sparkling more we mark the same Yet not every prying eye Shall it-self herein espie 'T is not for so commune use Free from flattering abuse None so clearly here are seen As King Charles and his fair Queen Therefore thus the Author meant To the World it to present Since it is a thing so rare And unparallelled fair That it should a Tablet bee For the fairest he could see Serres this thy work-man-ship Doth my spirit over-strip With such judgement and such grace Thou do'st shew in little space Three strange Wonders without errour Two bright Suns in one clear Mirrour And by this thy rare composure Shall thy Name beyond enclosure Of this present Age obtain Eternal honour for thy pain Writing to these Princes Graces Thou art prais'd in thousand places Par le mesme Upon the Book SONNET HEre undisguis'd is seen in this true Mirrour The glory or the shame of mortal story As Reason or the miss-led senses errour Do win the day or yield the Victory Serres doth here lively delineate Our every-dayes vain wretched passages And what is destin'd after Funeral state To innocent pureness or black wickedness Such diverse subjects in this one enclosed Such various objects to the view exposed Thou little Monarch Man small Vniverse Thy Soul it lessons thus and thee informes As thou art Soul with henvenly fires converse As thou art Flesh thou art a Bait for wormes To the Reader IT may perhaps seem strange that I treat so often in my Works of the same matter as of the contempt of the VVorld and Meditations of Death But if the importance of the subject be considered and the profit to be derived thence a Man will never be weary of seeing such fair truths under different presentations Besides the conceptions of spirit upon the same matter are like the productions of Nature in the Species's of Tulips Every year she gives a Change both to their Colour and Array And though they be still Tulips she renders them so different from their first resemblance that they can hardly otherwise be known but by the name The Mind doe's the same upon the same subject its Fancies which are its ornature and emblishment render it by their diversity so different from it self that it is hardly known but by the Titles which it bears to particularize each conceit So that if once again I represent unto thee the pour-trait of Vanity and the Image of Death my spirit which hath steaded me for Pencil and colouring in this VVork hath rendred it so rare in its Novelty and so excellent in difference from those which have preceded that thou shalt find nothing in it commune with them but my name Thou mayest consider moreover that I dedicate Books to Kings and Queens not every day and that these objects of such eminent magnificence do so nobly rouze the faculties of my Soul that I could not have petty thoughts for such high Personages It is that which without ostentation makes me believe that if thou buy once again this Book and tak'st the pains to read it thou wilt regreet neither the Time nor Money which thou shalt employ therein ADIEU If thou beest of so good an humour to pardon the Faults excuse those of the Impression The Scope addrest to the SERIOUS LEt merrier Spleens read Lazarill ' or laugh At Sancho Pancho or the Grapes-blood quaffe And tickle up their Lungs with interlace Of Tales and Toyes that furrow up the face With wrinckling Smiles But if they abusive be To slight these hints of their Mortalitie Urg'd by our Authour 't is a foolish way And weakly does become corruptive
other created things bear the same Title but if thy bounty hath been willing to advantage our nature with many graces proper and ordinated to it alone these are so many witnesses which convince us not to have deserv'd them since our very Ingratitude is yet a Recognizing of this Truth Insomuch that as our Life is nothing but sinne and sinne is a meer privation The mest just man sinneth seven times a day it may be maintained that we are nothing else and consequently nothing at all But how Proud am I O Lord every time I think thou hast ereated me of Earth for this is a Principall which drawes me alwaies to it selfe by a right of propriety from whence I cannot defend my selfe What is it for a man to triumph hereof the world the earth expects his spoile All things seek their repose in their element O how happy am I to search mine in that of Dust and Ashes whereof thou hast formed me The Earth demands my Earth and my body as a little Gullet separated from its source speeds by little and little to the same source from whence it had its beginning And this that which impeaches me from gathering up my self to take a higher flight I should do bravely to hoyse my selfe above my Center when the assay of my Vanity Pridehoyses up onely to gives a fall and the violence of my fall are but the same thing I give still downwards upon the side of my weaknesses and the weight of my miserie overbeares upon the arrogance of my Ambition A man no doubt may misknow himselfe yet the least hit of mishap teares the vaile of his hood winknesse O happy defect and yet more happy the condition which holds me alwaies enchained to the dunghill of my Originall since the links of this easie servitude are so many Mirrours which represent me that I am nothing whensoever I imagine my self to be something Let us change our Tone without changing subject Ladies Remember that you die every houre behold here a MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT It shewes you both what you are such as you shall be But if notwithstanding you still admire your selves under an other visage full of allurements and sweets This is but Death himself A strang thing that death is still as neare us at life and yet we never thinke on it who hides him under these faire apparences to the end you may not discern him It is true you have gracefull Tresses of haire which cover your heads and his is all Bald but doe not you heed how he pulls them off from yours by little every day and makes those which he leave you to turn White to the end you may pull them out your selves It is true your eyes have a sparkling lustre Time and Deathare the onely inexorables and beauty but of his is seen onely the hideous place where Nature had seated them But do you not consider how with continual action be Dusks the glory of this beauty and in conclusion puts to Eclipse these imaginary Pety-Suns It is true your hue is of Lillies and your mouth of Roses upon his face is seen onely the stubs of these flowers but call to mind that he blasts this Lilly-teint as well as Lillies themselves and that the vermillion of this Rosie-mouth lasts but as Roses and if yet you differ to day from him in something you may resemble him to morrow in all I leave you to meditate of these truths Man is a true mirrour which represents to the natural all things which are oppos'd unto it Man is as one picture with two faces and often the most naturall is falsest If you turn it downward to the Earth we can see within nothing but objects of Dust and Ashes but if you turn him to the Heavens-ward there is to be admired in it beauties and graces purely celestiall In effect if we consider man in his mortall and perishable condition hardly can one find any stay in this consieration since he is nothing else but a Chimera whose form every moment by little and little destroies to reduce it to its first nothing And indeed not to lie to ye man is but a Puffe of wind Man is nothing in himselfe yet compreheods al things since he lives by nothing else is filled with nothing else and dies onely by Privation of it But if you turn the Medall I would say the Mirrour of his Soule towards his Creator there are seen nothing but gifts of Immortality What though man be made of earth he is more divine than mortall but graces of a Soveraigne bounty but favours of an absolute will The heavens and the Stars appear in this Crystalline mirrour not by reflection of the object but by a divine vertue proceeding from the Nature of his cause Let us to the End Me thinks This Page returnes again to day within the Chamber of Philip of Macedon The slumber of vanities is a mortall malady to the soule and drawing the Curtain cries out according to his ordinary Sir Awake and Remember that you are a Man but why rouzes he him to think of Death since sleep is its image Alexander knew himselfe mortall by his sleeping and in effect those which have said that sleep was the Brother of Death have drawn their reason of it from their reciprocall resemblance Awake then Great Kings Not to ponder that you are mortall your sleep is a trance of this but rather that you are created for immortality Remember you are Men. A man should not forget his heavenly beginning having heaven for a daily object I will not say subject to all the miseries of the Earth but rather capable of all the felicities of heaven Remember that you are men I will no say the shittle-cock of Time and the But to all the shafts of Fortune but rather victors over ages and all sorts of miseries Remember that you are men I will not say any more conceiv'd in Corruption brought forth by it and also destroyed by it But rather I say If a man should consider his worth by that which he cost he would love himselfe perfectly born for the glory of God Living for to acquire it and Dying for to possesse it Remember that you are Men I will say no more slaves of Sin the Flesh and the World but rather free for resistance to the first strong enough to vanquish the next and more powerfull yet to give a Law to the third A man may doe every good thing which he desires since in his impuâ— issance his will is taken for the deed Remember that you are men I will no more say the pourtraict of Inconstancy the object of every sort of ill and the pasture of Wormes But rather the Image of God the subject of every sort of good and the sole aliment of eternity as created for it alone Remember that you are men Man is sure a thing something divine
world the noyse ceaseth the renowâ— passeth which redoubles a noyse to its own detriment to advertise those that doubt on it and this name so famous and dreadfull finding no memory here below to the proof of ages buries it self at last in the nothingnesse of its beginning Be it again that all the Gold of the Indies can be valued but to a part of your Estate and that all the world together possesse lesse treasure than you alone what advantage think you to bear away more than the most miserable of the world that in this you should be vain Enjoyes not he the same Sun which lights you The tranquillity of the mind and the health of body are the onely riches of the world hath not he the same usage of the Elements whereof you make use But if you have more than he a gloriousnesse of apparell and a thousand other superfluous things which are altogether estranged to vertue as being imaginary goods whose appearance alone is the onely foundation he may answer you with Seneca that with whatsoever coverture a man hides the shame of his nakednesse he shall passe for well-clothed among wise men And to come to the point a man hath alwaies enough where with to follow his way and to finish his voyage The surplus is but a burden of cares which are metamorphosed into so many bryars when Death would discharge us of them Besides Riches consist but in opinion though their treasures be palpable and sensible A man is Rich equall to that which he beleeves himself to be And though he hath nothing He is the most rich who is most content this grace wherewith he is treasured to find rest in his miseries is above all the Gold of the world What differrnce think you there is betwixt the Rich and the poore both the one and the other are equally pilgrims and travellers and goe alike to the same place Then if the rich passe through the fairer way they reencounter when they dye all the thorns of those roses which they have past upon All mortals together maze a dance of blind men who in dancing run to death without seeing the way they passe There is no arrivall to the Haven of the grave without being tempested sooner or later in the storm of those miseries which accompany uâ— And methinks it is a comfort to suffer in good time those evils which we cannot avoid Rich-ones how miserable doe I hold you if the goods of the earth be your onely treasures I Rich-ones how unhappy are you if your felicities be but of Gold and Silver Rich-ones The treasure of good workes onely enriches us eternally how you compell my pity of your greatnesses if you have no other titles than those of your Lord-ships Rich-ones how frightfull onely at the houre of Death are your names since the misery wherein you are born accompanyes you in the sepulchre True it is that the Ayr of the region where you dwell may be very temperate the seasons of it fair and the lands fertile but you consider not that while you live you often sigh back the air which you receive that this sweet time which smiles on you entraines you in flying to the season of teares and that very soon the dung-hill of your bodies shal perhaps render the lands yet more fertile The content of riches is like an odor serous fume but â— passes and so doth their enjoyment also and there is all The Rich Men of the world have done nought but passe away with the ages that gave them birth you are born in this and this very same goes away and leads you with it and all the rest of Men without skilling what you are or in what fashion you are vested well may you possesse an infinite number of treasures you must alwaies trot and rise as soon in the morning as others but if you play the slugs and sleep too long It is strange whether we shift place and seat or no weyet run incessantly to Death Death comes in the end to awake you and interrupt your repose with an eternall disquiet What will you say to this The fable of Midas comprehends in it important verities Apollo grants him all that he demands he satiates the appetite of his unmeasurable ambition by the vertue which he gives to his touch to be able to turn all things into gold See him now rich for a day his hands are as new philosophersstones which make the grossest and most impure metals change both nature and price To what purpose is it to be environed with riches they are a strange kind of good Whereof one can enjoy the usage but for a moment onely he sees himselfe enrounded in a moment with so great a number of treasures that he begins to apprehend the enjoyment of those goods which he desired with so much passion and from fear he comes to astonishment then when prest with hunger all the Viands which he touches with his hands lips or tongue are metamorphosed into Gold O inseparable amazement from a mortall griefe caused by a semblable regreet that he could not limit his ambition but to the desire of his own ruine Rich-men you are as so many Midasses since with all your treasures you never importune heaven for any other thing but to increase their number to which effect you destinate your cares your watching and your labours But make no more imploring vows behold your selves at last heard The glistering of your riches dazles me your greatnesses and magnificences give you cheerefull tincture yet let us see the reverse of the Medall After your so many strong wishes for Gold and Silver The covetous grow poor in measure as he growes rich since in encreasing his treasures encreases the famine of his insatiable avarice thus of what be possesseth he enjoies nothing their treasure remaines to you for to satiate at least in dying the unruled appetite of the ambition of your life Riches I say environ you on all sides after your so passionate covetize of them But in this last instant their possession is the saddest object which can be presented to your thoughts And notwithstanding 't is the onely nourishment which rests to you amid the hunger which torments you uncessantly as if for punishment of part of your crimes heaven did permit that the instruments of your pleasure should also be the same of your punishments considering the greatnesse of your miseries A Man carries away nothing with him at his death but either a regreet or else a satisfaction of an evill or a good life by that of your unprofitable treasures for after all you must die and though you carry with you this desire to bear away with you your riches into the tomb they remain in your coffers for to serve as witnesses to your heirs of the vanity of their enjoyment The Silke-wormes which have so much trouble to spin out their mouths their little golden threads
formed and consequently you lodge upon yoâ—r buriall-places whose entrances will be open at all moments To say whoyou are I am ashamed in calling you by your proper names for to remembrance you your miseries Corruption conceaves you Horrour infants you Blood nourishes you infection accompanies you in the Coffin There is nothing so constantly present with us as our miseries since always we are miserable enough at best The treasures which you enjoy are but Chimeras of greatnesse and apparitions of glorie whereof living you make experiment and dying you perfectly know the truth on 't To what end then can stead you your present felicities since at present you scarce enjoy them at all for even at this veric instâ—â— another which is but newly upon passe robs you of part of them and even thus giving you hiâ—â— of the cosenage of his companions cheates you too as well as they and thus they do altogether to your lives as well as your contentments in ravishing these they intrain the others then what remonstrance can you exhibit of esteeming your selâ—es happy for past felicities and which you have not enjoyed but in way of depart And if this condition be agreeable unto you still there is a necessitie of setting up your rest at the end of the carreere and there it is where I attend to contribute to your vain waylings as manie resentments oâ— Pitie How much better it is to be so happy in fishing as to angle for grace in the tears of penitence Take we another track without losing our selves How ingenious was that famous Queen of Egypt to deceive with good grace her Lover Sâ—â— caused underhand dead fishes to be ensnared to the hook of Antonie as often as the toy took his to go a fishing to the end to make him some sport by those pleasant deceits May we not say that Ambition doth the same for when we cast our hooks into this vast Ocean of the vanities of the world we fish but Dead things without soul whose acquirement countervailes not a moment of the Time which we employ to attain it Had I all the goodliest fardles of the world laded on my back I mean had I acquir'd all the honours wherewith fortune can tickle an ambitious soul should I thence become greater of body my growing time is past 'T is to no purpose to be passiorate for such goods as a man may loose and the world can give no better would my Spirit thence become more excellent these objects are too weak to ennoble her Powers Should I thence become more vertuous Vertue looks for no saâ—isfaction out of it self Should I thence be more esteemed of the world This is but the glorie of a wind which doth but passe away What happinesse what contentment or what utilitie would remain me then that I might be at rest A Man must not suffer himself thus to be fool'd All honours can be but a burden to an innocent soul for so much as they are continuall objects oâ— vanitie which stir up the passion and onely serve but for nourishment to them in their violences to hurrie them into all sorts oâ— extremities And after all the necessitie of dying which makes an inseparable accident in our condition gloomes the glittering of all this vain glorie which environs us In the anguishes oâ— Death a man dreams not of the grandeurs of his life 'T is an irkssome remembrance of past happinesse being eveâ— and anon upon point to depart finds himself often afflicted mâ— with those good things which 〈◊〉 possesseth measuring alreadie the depth of the fall by the height 〈◊〉 the place whither he is exalted * Galba He which found Fortune at 〈◊〉 gate found no naile to stay he wheele But if Shee on the one 〈◊〉 takes a pleasure to ruine Empire to destroy realmes and to precipitate her favourites Death on 〈◊〉 other side pardons no body alters the temperament of all sorts of humours perverts the order of every kind of habitude and not content yet to beat down all these great Colosses of Vanity which would be taken for the worlds wonders calls to the sharing of their ruine the elements thus to bury their materials in their first abysses where she hath designed the place of their entombment What can a Mau then find constant in the world Al things passe away and by their way tell us that we must do so too where constancy doth no where reside Time Fortune Death our passions and a thousand other stumbling blocks shall never speak oher language to us but of our miseries and yet we will suffer our selves like ALEXANDER to be voyc'd â—mmortall Our prosperities our grandeurs our very delights themselves shall tell us as they passe a word in our ear that we ought not to trust them and yet for all this we will never sigh but after them Be it then at last for very regreet to have vented to the wind so many vain sighs for Chimeras of sweets whereof the remembrance cannot be but full of bitternesse Vain honours of the world No security of pleasure to enjoy such things as may every moment be lost tempt me no more your allurements are powerfull but too weak to vanquish me I deride your wreaths of Laurell there growes more on'â— in my garden then you can give me If you offer me esteem and reputation among men what should I doe with your presents Time devoures every day the like of them and yet more precious I undervalue all such Good-things as it can take away again from me Deceit full greatnesses of the Earth cease to pursue me you shall never catch me your charms have given some hits to my heart Worldly Greatnesses are but like Maskingâ— cloathes which serve him and the other but for that time but not to my soule your sweets have touch my senses but not my spirit what have you to offer me which can satisfie me Time and Fortune lend you all the Scepters and Crownes which you borrow and as you are not the owners they take them away again when they will and not when it pleaseth you So then I will have no Scepters for an hour nor no Crownes for a day If I have desire to raigne 't is beyond Time that I may thus be under shelter from the inconstancy of Ages Trouble not your selves to follow me This world is a masse of mire upon which a man may make impresse of all sorts of Characters but not hinder Time to deface the draught at any time Ambitious Spirits fair leave have you to draw the Stell of your designes upon this ready prim'd cloth Some few yeares wipe out all Some ages carry away all and the remembrance of your follies is onely immortall in your soules by the eternall regreet which remaines you of them SCIPIO made design to conquer Carthage and after he had cast the project thereof upon mould he afterwards took the body of this shadow and
complaint If Riches consisted onely in Gold Diamonds Pearls or such like things of like raritie those which have not of them might count themselves miserable But every man carries his treasure in his conscience He which lives without just scandall lives happily and and who can complain of a happy life But if to have the hap of these felicities of this life Riches are of use to human life but not of necessity for without them a man may live content a man judge presently that he ought of nececessity to have a great number of riches This is to enslave himself to his own opinion abounding in his proper sense and condemning reason for being of the contrary part I know well that a man is naturally swayed to love himself more then all things of the world and that this love proceeds from the passion of our interest seeking with much care and pain all that may contribute to our contentments and whereas Riches seem to be Nurses of them this consequence is incident to be drawn that without them is no contented living But at first dash When Reason reigns the passions obey it is necessary to distinguish this love into Naturall and Brutall and believe that with the illumination of reason we may purifie the relishes of the first even to the point of rendring them innocent without departing from our interests and consequently the enjoyment of our pleasures giving them for object the establishment of our setled content in misprision of all those things of the world which may destroy it As for this brutish Love which estranging us from God separates us also from our selves the passion of it becomes so strong by our weaknesse that without a speciall grace we grow old in this malady of Spirit of contenting our Senses rather then obeying our Reason making a new God of the Treasures of the Earth But in conclusion these Gods abandon our bodies to the Worms and our souls to the Devils And for all their riches the greatest Great ones can onely purchase a glorious Sepulture Is not this a great advantage and a goodly consolation Maintain we boldly He whose will submits to Gods will lives ever content that a man may find quietnes of life in all sorts of conditions with the onely richnesse of a tractable Soul resign'd to take the time as it comes as God sends it without ever arguing with his providence There is no affliction whereto our Soul cannot give us asswage The Spirit of a Man will bear his infirmity There is no ill whereto it self is not capable to furnish us a remedy A man how miserable somever may find his contentment amidst his miseries if he lives for his soul more then for his bodies behalf God makes us to be born where he will and of what Parents he pleases if the poorness of our birth accompany us even to death he hath so ordained it what can else do but let him so do Can he be accounted miserable that obey's with good grace his soveraigns decrees O 'T is a greater danger to be very rich then viry poor for riches often makes men lose their way but poverty keeps 'em in the straight path how is it far more easie to undergo the burthen of much poverty then of great riches For a man extreamly poor is troubled with no thoughts more important then onely how to find means to passe his life in the austerities whereto he is already habituated without repining after other fortune as being estranged equally both from his knowledge and reach in which respects he may well be stil'd happy But a man very rich dreams of nothing but to eternize the continuance of his days although his fancy be in vain instead of letting them quietly slide away insomuch that being possest with no passion more then love of life he thinks alwaies to live and never to die But Death comes ere he thinks on 't and taking from him all to his very shirt Death cannot be said to deceive any body for it is infallible and yet the world complaint of it constrains him to confesse that riches are onely profitable by misprision since by the contempt a man makes of them he may become the richest of the world O what a sensible pleasure 't is to be Rich say worldly men alwaies but I would fain know in what consists this contentment what satisfaction can there be had to possesse much treasure knowing what an infinite number of our companions are reduc'd to the last point of poverty Some in Hospitals where they he in straw over whelmed with a thousand fresh griefs Others at the corner of a street where a piece of a Dung-hill serves them at once both for bed and board Some again in Dungeons where horrour and afright hunger and despair tyrannize equally over their unfortunate spirits And others in some Desert to which ill fate has confined them to make their ills remedilesse as being far removed from all sorts of succours How with the knowledge of these truths There is no emptinesse in nature for miseries fill al a man shall be able to relish greedily the vain sweets of worldly riches it must needs be for want of reason or pity and consequently to be altogether brutish or insensible I shall have suppose a hundred thousand crownes in rents and all this revenue shall serve but to nourish my body and its pleasures without considering that a hundred thousand poor soules sigh under the heavy burden of their miseries every Day and yet men shall esteem me happy in being rich in this fate O how dangerous are the treasures which produce these felicities Is it possible It is a brave generositie to be sensible of othermens miseries that the Great-ones of the world doe not thinke at all in the middle of their Feasts of the extream poverty of an infinite number of persons and that in themselves they do not reason secretly in this sort What in this instant that we satiate the appetite of our senses with all that nature hath produced most delicious for their entertain a million and many more poor soules are reduced to this extremitie as not to have one onely crumb of bread And in this serious thought what relish can they find in their best-cook'd cates and in their sweetest condiment does not this important consideration mingle a little bitternesse But if their spirits estrange themselves from these meditations and fasten to objects more agreeable O how hard of digestion is the second service of their collation He which cannot love his neighbour hath no love for himselfe To speak ingenuously every time when I consider in that condition exempt from want wherein God hath given me birth and wherein his goodnesse which is no other than himselfe keeps me still alive I say when I consider the misery to which the greatest part of the world is reduced I cannot be weary of blessing this adorable Providence which grants
along with it the price of that vertue where of Pompey despised the conquest He in his Triumph raised wonder to the beauty of those two great precious stones But the Sepulchrall Marbles which appeared in this of ADRIAN were of another estimate because prudence values them above all price putting them to that employment to which she had destinated them Again if he expose to view in vessels of gold Mountaines Animals Trees Vines Statues of the same matter This Herse covered with black which serves for ornament to this Funerall Pomp containes yet much more treasure since the contempt of all together â—â— graven therein He makes ostentation of his statue of gold enricht with Pearles but our Monarch â—akes as much glory without â—hem shewing in his own bare Pourtraict the originall of his â—â—iseries Except the crown of vertue all other are subject to change That proud conquerour â—ad a thousand Garlands and â—olden Coronets as a novell Trophy But ours here crownes himselfe with Cypresse during his carreere of life to merit those palmes which await him in the end In fine Pompey is the Idoll of heatts and soules and his Triumphall Chariot serves as an Altar where he receives the vower and Sacrifices But this-Prince instead of causing Idolaters during the sway of his Majestie immolates himselfe up to the view of Heaven and Earth dying already in his own Funerals and suffering himselfe to be as it were buried by the continuall object which dwels with him of Death and his Tombe But if Pompey lastly boast himselfe to have conquered an infinite number of Realmes of all the world together * Adrian Thâ—â— Man having never had worse enemies than his passions hath sought no other glory but to overcome them and in their defeat a Maâ— may well be stil'd the conquerour of Conquerours for the Coroâ—â— wreaths of this Triumph fearâ— not the Suns extremity nor thâ— Ages inconstancie We must passer farther Isidore All the objests of Vanity are so many enemies against which we ought to be always in arms and Tranquillus do assure us that to carry away the glory of a Triumph it was necessarily required to vanquish five thousand enemies or gain five victories as it is reported of Caesar The consent of the Senate was also to be had And the Conquerour was to be clothed in Purple and Crowned with Laurell holding a Scepter in his hand and in this sort he was conducted to the Capitoll of Jupiter where some famous Orator made a Panegyricke of his prowesse What better Allegory can we draw from these prophane truths â—hen this of the Victory which we â—ught to have of our five Senses as of five thousand enemies whose defeat is necessary to our riumph These are the five Viâ—tories which he must gain that would acquire such Trophies Still to wage war against our passions is the way to live in peace whose glory is taken away neither by time nor Death This consent of the Senate is the Authority of our reason which alone gives value and esteem to our actions and 't is of her that we may learn the means in obeying her to command over ouâ— passions and by the conquest oâ— of this sway triumph over our selves which is the bravest Victory of the World These Scepters and Crownes are so many marks of Soveraignty which remain us in propriety after subjection of so many fierce enemies Heaven is the Capitoll whither our good works conduct us in triumph and where the voice of Angels serves for Oratours to publish the glory of our deeds whose renown remains eternall These great Roman Captains which made love to vertue though without perfect knowledge of it 'T is not all to love Virtue 'T is the practice have sought for honour and glory in the overthrow of their enemies but they could never find the shadows of solid Honour which thus they sought from whence it came to passe that they have fashioned to themselves diverse Chimera's for to repast their fancy too greedy of these cheating objects Nor that there is no glory in a Conquest but 't was their ambition led them along in Triumph amidst their own Triumphing What honour had Caesar born away if he had joyned to his Trophies the slavery of Cleopatra he had exposed to view a Captive Queen who otherwhile had subjected him to her Love-dominion He triumphs with an ill grace â—'rewhom his vice triumph But if the fortune of the war had delivered him this Princesse the fate of Love would have given even himself into her hands Insomuch that the Death of Cleopatra immortalliz'd the renown of Caesar Asdrubal according to Iustin triumphed four times in Carthage â—ut this famous Theater of honour where glory it self had appeared â—o often upon its Throne serves â—n conclusion for a Trophy to â— Conquerour insomuch that it â—uried at once the renown and â—emory even of those that had presented themselves triumphant personages To day Memphis is all-Triumphant and on the morrow this proud City is reduced to slavery To day the report of its glory makes the world shake and on the morrow Travellers seek for it upon its own site but finde it not O goodly triumph O fearfull overthrow What continuall revolution of the wheel Marcellus shews himself at point of day upon a magnificent Chariot of Triumph and at Sun-set his glory and his life finish equally their carreere I mean in the twinckling of an eye Fortune takes away from him all those Laurel-wreaths which she had given him and leaves him nothing at his death It may be some consolation in all our miseries to see all else have their changes as well as we hut the regreet of having liv'd too-long Marius triump hed diverse times but with what tempests was the Ship of his fortune entertained Behold him now elevated upon the highest Throne of Honour but if you turn but your head you shall see him all naked in his shirt half-buried under the mire of a common Sink where the light of the day troubles him not being able to endure the Sun a witnesse of his misfortunes Behold him first I say in all abundance of Greatnesse and Soveraignty whereof the splendour dazles the world but stay a little and you shall hear pronounc'd the sentence of his death being abandoned even of himself having no more hope of safety How pompeous and celebrious was the Triumph of Lucullus In which he rais'd admiration to the magnificence of an hundred Gallies all-armed in the Prow a thousand Chariots charged with Pikes Halbertsâ— and Corselets whose shocking rumbles sounded so high it frighted the admirers though they celebrated the Fetivall of the Victorie The number of Vessels of Gold and other Ornaments of the Triumph was without number The Statue of Mithridates also of Gold six foot high with the Target all covered with precious Stones serv'd anew to the Triumph And of this Glory all the world together was an adorer for the renown
full of ashes and what object more sensibly can be presented before our eyes to shew us the truth of our miseries then this of our selves From Earth is our production and the same serves us with nourishment and for sepulture also as if ashamed the Sun should afford his light to out wretchednesse Make we then every day Funerall processions or at least visit in meditation every hour our Tomb as the place where our bodies must take so long abode Celebrate we our selves our own Funerals The thought of our end is a soveraign remedy against our passions and invite to our exequies Ambition Avarice Pride Choller Luxury Gluttony and all the other Passions where with we may be attainted to the end to be Conquerours even by our own proper defeat For when a Man yeelds to the Meditation of Death then reason commands sense All obey to this apprehension of frailty and feeblenesse Pleasures by little and little abandon us the sweets of life seem sowr and we can find no other quiet but in the hope of that which Truth it self hath promised us after so much trouble Proud Spirits be ye Spectators of this Funeral Pomp which this great Monarch celebrates to day He invites the Heaven and the Earth to his Exequies since in their view he accompanies his pourtrayed Skeleton unto the Tomb his Body conducts thither its shadow the originall the painted figure in attendance till a Metamorphosis be made both of one and t'other O glorious action where the Living takes a pride to appear Dead as dying already by his own choice as well as necessity O glorious action where the Triumpher takes a glory in the appearance of his overthrow O glorious action where all the honour depends upon the contempt of the worlds honour O glorious action where Garlands of Cypresse dispute the preheminence with Laurell and Palme O glorious action where the Conquerour under-going the Laws of Nature elevates himself above it making his puissance to be admired in his voluntary weaknesse But I engage my self too far in 't Herodotus remarks that the Queen Semiramis made her Sepulcher be erected upon the entrances of the principall Gate of the * Babylon City to the end that this sad object of wretchednesse might serve for a Schoole-master to passengers to teach them the Art to know themselves O blessed Lesson is that which the Tombs can affoord us O gracions Science is that which they instruct us Strabo testifies No better Schoole then the Church-yard that the Persians made Pipes of dead-mens bones which they used at Festivals to the end that the sad harmony which issued thence might temper the excesse of joy But may not we say our Lungs to be to us such kind of Whistles and that our dolorus sighs which produce thence the harmony are capable to moderate the violence of our contentments A strange thing it is that all the animated objects which are affected by our senses bear the image of Death and yet we never think but of Life Let our eyes but fairly turn their regards on all sides All that lives they may see dies and what ha's no life passes away before ' em Our eares are tickled with the sweet harmony of Voices or Instruments or Tabors or Trumpets But these sonnds are but Organs spirited with blasts whose borrowed wind is lost when the motion ceaseth and there behold the Faile of their life And for Instruments The objest of our nothingnesse ha's a grace and allurement capable to ravish the best spirits 't is true they warble delightfully yet their melody is often dolefull to the mind when it considers that it proceeds from certain guts of dead beasts which Art hath so contrived Tabors being of the same nature must also necessary produce the same effects and Trumpets also do but sob in our ears since their clangor is forced onely by the violence of a blast of sighs Our Taste cannot satiate the hunger of its appetite but with dead and breathlesse things and all our other senses are subject to the same necessity Insomuch Death is ever present and at hand to our heart but still absent from our memory that Death environs us on all sides though we be always her own and yet we never think on 't but in extremities as if we were onely to learn at the last instant that we are Mortall and the hard experience which we make on 't were the onely Lesson which by Nature is given us LORD render me capable if it please thee of this Science which may effectually teach me the Art to know my self to the end that this knowledge may represent to me alwayes the reality of my wretchednesse Make me that I may see my self may understand and feel my self to die every moment but so that I may see it with the eyes of my heart perceive it with the eyes of my soul and feel it by the sense of my conscience therein to find my repose and safety I know well that Nature mourns uncessantly the death of its works which are devoured every hourby time and though no where thus can I see but Sadnesse it self yet ne'rethelesse remain I insensible of the horrour of these objects and though they be terrible my spirit not is afrighted Render me therefore if it please thee render me fearfull and make me even to tremble in thinking of it since the thought of it is so important suffer me not to live a kind of Death without meditating of that life which is exempt from Death and whereof Eternity is the Limit All my votes do terminate at this and all my wishes which I addresse to thy bounty that I may one day see the effects of my hopes Let us advance on our first proposition O how celebrious and glorious is the Triumph over our selves Let us leave the Laurels A Mnn hath no greater enemy than himselfe and Palmes to those famous Conquerours of Sea and Land Their Crownes are now metamorphosed into dust their renowne into wind themselves into corruption and for a surplusage of mishap after the conquest of the whole World they die in the miseries whereunto they were born Cyrus could not bound his ambition lesse than to the vast extention of the Universe and yet a * Tomyris simple woman onely prescrib'd him an allay and placed his head in the range of his owne Trophies Arthomides plaies Iupiter upon Earth his pourtraict is the onely Idoll of his subjects There is nothing more vain than Vaine-glory t is a body without soule or life having no subsistance but in imagination and yet one turne of the wheele casts him a sacrifice upon the same altar which he had erected to his glory his life glistering with triumphs but his death in such a ruine clouded even the memory of his name All those stately Triumphers of whom Antiquity trumpets-out wonders have had no other recompence of their labours but this vain conceipt that
to these assaults the most valiant resist not their violences All droop at approach of an enemy so redoubtable But our defeat it rightly carried is more glorious then our Triumph What successe is this by being overcome to bear away the crown of victory such submission is a mark of Soveraignty Petrus Gregorius tells us of the Emperour Charls the fifth If the meditation of death make not a sinner change his life nothing will do it that he caused his winding head-kercher to be carried before him for a standard in all his Armies six years before he died to the end that the continuall object of his greatnesse might not be too powerfull to tempt him to misconceive himself We do the same every day without thinking on it for our shirts are in a manner as so many winding sheets which we carry always with us in all places where we go But if this sad object be not enough to moderate our ambition and rebate our vanity this voluntary is inseparable from pain we must needs undergo the Law 'T is best to let Death be welcome to us since 't is inevitable which we impose upon our selves LORD suffer me not if it please thee so far to mistake my self as never to come to the point of meditating of this blessed Decree which thou hast imposed on me to die one day But illuminate my spirit with the light of thy grace which may stead me as a Pharos to shew me the haven of the grave where the ship of my life must put ashore Make me also if it please thee to be ignorant of all things else but the knowledge to live well that I may also dye so and thus let the miseries which accompany me the mishaps that follow me and all the other afflictions which thy goodnesse hath subjected me to be the ordinay objects of my thoughts to the end that I stray not from the way of my salvation And now have I no other passion but to see the effects of these prayers Let us go to the end Those that have averred that the world is to us an hostile Army composed of so many Souldiers as there are objects in nature capable to agitate the power of our passions had very good reasons to defend the truth of their Thesis These objects of it make war against us continually with all the assaults inventions and stratagems of a cruel enemy Beauty that assaults our souls by the way of our eyes with as much cunning as force for at first view it amuseth the Sence with admiration by a slight of complacence to which its sweets and allurements insensibly engage it Afterwards the Sensus Communis receiving the fair Species of the Idea of this fair enemy presents them to the Fancy the Fancy to the Vnderstanding which after it hath examined them according to its capacity offers them to the Will which by a natural apprehension finds it self obliged to love the subject from whence these amiables do proceed And now then it is the Cue of Reason either to condemn or authorize this love but most often that becomes charmed it self and we vanquish't Not that Reason is not sufficiently strong and powerful Our passions are the flatteringest enemies of the world for they assault us with those semblant satisfactions to us as may seem most agreeable and thus they are most â—o be feared but whereas its force and vertue depends meerly upon grace the contempt which ordinarily it makes of this renders both alike unprofitable This is that which obliges us in all these conflicts to implore the help of heaven rather then to trust upon our strengths and evermore to have a jealous eye to this our subtile enemy which yet can never get other advantage upon us then that which our wretchlesness suffers it to acquire The very fairest objects of the world We cannot justly complain of our defeat since it is voluntary may well inforce admiration but not love since love cannot be formed in our hearts but by a powerful reflexion of the amiable qualities which are found in the subject and in this it is necessary that the understanding do operate and the will consent And this cannot be done without a free deliberation which we absolutely authorize Insomuch that we cannot be overcome if we rush not into it with desire of our own overthrow And this not so neither as if there were no trouble in the resistance but rather it is a way to acquire much more glory in the victory over beateous objects by the power of reason which is more troublesome and difficult then that which one gets over an enemy by force of armes But the honour also surpasseth always the difficulty The rewards which God hath prepared after all our troubles do infinitely surpass our deserts and what pain soever a man can possibly take the prize and crown at last can admit of no comparison We must then bravely combate those proud beauties which make publick profession to enchain our hearts in irons and put our souls upon the rack and let them see to their confusion that the natural Magick of their charmes is to us a new Art of Logick which informes us to make Arguments both to give for granted their power and yet destroy their force Fair leave have they to expose to view their blandishments and graces the light of Reason produceth a livelyer Day whose luster duskes the midday-splendour for by the aid of this light a man may see that all their quaintnesses are but dawbings their delicacies but artifice and their attractives but onely composed by distillatories And how can one Idolatrize them then after meditational presentment of these verities Behold the onely means to prescribe a rule over these Soveraigns who would impose it on the whole world He commands best that can obey reason Not that this kind of combate requires force of courage but rather of prudence after first a misprise of them to fly away and not to put the victory into hazard There are yet other enemies which render themselves as redoutable as the former such are Ambition riches c. what means is there to resist them or to speak better to vanquish them they have no less allurements and sweets then the beauties afore-spoken of and though the force of them be different they cease not nevertheless to excite and move the passions with all sort of violence Ambition ha's its particular delicacies and charmes to ravish mens hearts and soveraignize over their souls and I beleeve that its Empire extends it self far beyond that of Love for all the world is not capable of this latter passion but of the other every man has a smatch from that defect from our original where with a man is tainted Vanity is bred and born with us but it is in our choise whether to let it ever keep us company And this passion is so much the more to be seared as it is natural and
but a Phantasie and Chimera to which your imaginations give that beauty which charms you and that delicacy which ravishes you What think you is it to be the greatest of the world 'T is an honour whereof misery and inconstancy are the foundations for all the felicities which can arrive us are of the same nature as we are and consequently as miserable as our condition and as changing This Earth whereon you live is the lodging of the dead what eternity believe you to find in it Eternity of honours riches and contentments there was never any but in imagination and this Idea which we have of them is but a reflection from the lightning of Truth wherewith heaven illuminates noble souls There is nothing eternall in this world but this scope of truth thus to guide them to the search of the true source of all by the aide of these small rivolets It is time to finish this work I have made appear to you in the first Chapter the particular study which a man ought to take Seneca to come to the * Hoc jubet illa Pythicis oraculis adscripta vox Nosce Te. Knowledge of himself wherein lyes the accomplishment of perfection And herein the precept is The Consideration of the miseries which are destinated to our Nature as being so many objects capable enough to force up the power of our reason to give credence to the resentments of frailty which are proper to us But this is not all to be meerely sensible of our wretchednesse Serious Consideration must often renew the Ideas of them in our souls more then the hard experience of them And this to the end that vanity to which we are too incident He that searches into himself shall not loose his labour may not surprize us during the intervals of a meditation so important We must often dive into our selves and seek in the truth of our nothingnesse some light to make us thus to know our selves Afterwards making a rise a little higher it is necessary to consider the End for which we were creaated and in this consideration to employ all the powers of the severall faculties of our souls to the generous design of getting possession of that glory Behold the Corollary of my first Argument or Chapter The second instructs us a new means to resist powerfully the hits of the vanities of the world from the example of the wretchednes of * Saladiae of one of the greatest Monarchs of the world Fortune had refused him nothing because she meant to take all from him Poverty and Riches depend upon opinion and a noble soul is above his fortune in what condition soever he be for in the height of his glory he finds himself reduced to the poornesse of his shirt onely which is all he carries with him into the grave And this makes us sensibly perceive that the greatnesses of the earth are Goods as good as estranged from human nature since in this mortall and perishing condition we can onely possesse their usance and the term of this possession is of so short endurance that we see as soon the end as the beginning Reader represent unto thy self how thou shalt be dealt with at thy death both by Fortune and the world Et quae veneraris quae despicis unus exaequabit cinis Sen. since the Minion of this blind Goddesse and the greatest of the Universe is exposed all naked in his shirt in sight of all his subjects to be given in prey to the worms as well as the most miserable of the Earth The Third Chapter where Life leads Death in Triumph teaches us the Art to vanquish this untamable The horrour of Death is purely in the we aknesse of imagination by considering its weaknesse for in effect if Death be but a privation 't is to be deprived of reason and judgement to give it a being since it cannot subsist but in our impaired imaginations The fantasme of an Idea is it whose very form is immateriall as having no other subsistence I say but that which the weaknesse of our spirit gives it And again to come to the most important point Let this be the close of the recapitulation Sen. that you may have means not to stand in fear on 't * Incertum est quo te loco mors expectet itaque tu illam om i loco expecta Muze on it alwayes looke for it in all places and overcoming your selves you shall triumph over it Never did an unblemisht life fear Death The last Chapter where the object of Caemiteries and Sepulchers is laid before your eyes may now again serve for the lact touch since it is a Theater where you must play the Tragedy of your lives All this great number of Actors Hodie mihi Cras tibi Think on that Reader it may be thy turn to morrow whose bones and ashes you see there have every one plaid their part and it may be that the hour will soon Knell that you must act yours Reader live ever in this providence a Man cannot too soon resolve to do that well which howsoever must be done of necessity God Grant that these last lines may once again reproach thee the bad estate of thy Conscience delay not too long this Check to thy self least too late the regreets be then in vain Momentum est unde pendet aeternitas Thy salvation is fastened to an instant consider the infinite number of them which are already slip't away when perhaps at that moment thou wert in estate if dying to incurre the punishment of a second Death and that eternall If thou trust to thy youth put thy head out of the window and thou shalt see carried to the grave some not so old as thy self If thou relye upon the health which thou now enjoyest Saepe optimus status corporis periculosissimus Hip. Sera nimis vita est crastina vive hodie 't is but a false-going dyall The calm of a perfect health hath oftentimes ushured the Tempest of a suddain Death What hop'st thou for hope is deceitfull what stayest thou for A wise man ought never to defer till to morrow what should he done to day Lastly what desirest thou The peace of conscience is the only desirable good Go on then right sorward thou canst not misse the way which I have chalk't thee FINIS PERLECTORI The TRANSLATOURS COROLLARIE SO Now 't is done although it be no Taske That did much Brains or toylesome Study aske The meaning I ' vouch good but Merit small In rendring English the French Principall It is but a Translation I confesse And yet the Rubs of Death in 't nerethelesse May trippe some capering Fancies of the Time That Domineere and Swagger it in Rime That Charge upon the Reader and give Fire On all that do not as they do admire Either their rugged Satyrs cruell vein Or puffe-paste Notes 'bove Ela in high strain Then in
prevention quarrell like a curst Scold who being guilty yet will call Whore first When any dyes whose Muse was rich in Verse They claim Succession and prophane his Herse They onely are Heirs of his Brain-estate Others are base and illegitimate All but their own Abettors they defie And Lord it in their Wit Supremacy Others they say but Sculke as lye i th‘ lurch As we hold Schismaticks from the true Church So hold they all that do decline their way Nor swear by Heaven Al‘s excellent they say T were well they‘d see the fing‘ring on these frets Can neither save their Souls nor pay their Debts Or would they think of Death as they should do They would live better and more honourd too T is base to do base deeds yet for false fame To Keep a stir and bustle into Name Whilst each applauds his own contemns anothâ—rs Becons his own deserts but his he smothers They fear Fame's out of breath and therefore they Trumpet their own praises in their own way Or joyn in Trick of State Confederacy Call Quid pro Quo Claw me and I le Claw thee Marry at others Tooth and Naile they flye That do not tread their Path but would go by Farewell to these my ayme not here insists Leave we these wranglers unto equall lists To Nobler Natures I my brest expose The Good I bow to in an humble Cloze To such as knowing how vain this Life is Exalt their thoughts to one better then This. 'T is the best Method to be out of Love With things below and thence to soare above To which effect my souls integrity In L'envoy thus salutes each courteous eye Lenvoy INgenuous Reader thou do'st crown The Morall active course layd down By De. la â—erre what is pen'd If thy Actions tecommend Relating to the first EMBLEME WHen haughty thoughts impuff thee than Dictate thy self Thou art but Man A fabrick of commixed Dust That 's all the prop of humane trust How dares a Clod of mouldring Clay Be Proud decaying every day And yet there is a way beside Wherein may be a lawfull Pride When sly Tempatations stirre thee Than Again the World Thou art a Man Rouze up thy Spirits do not yeeld A brave resistance wins the Field Shall a soul of Heavenly breath Grovell so tarre its worth beneath Fouly to be pollute with slime Of any base an â— shamefull crime Thou art a Maâ— for Heaven born Reflect on Earth disdainfull scorn Be not abus'd since Life is short Squander it not away in sport Nor hazzard heavens eternall Joyes For a small spurt of worldly Toyes Do Something ere do thou bequeath To Worms thy flesh to Air thy breath Something that may when thou art dead With honour of thy name be read Something that may when thou art cold Thaw frozen Spirits when ‘ t is told Something that may the grave controule And shew thou hadst a noble Soul Do something to advance thy blisse Both in the other World and This. Relating to the second EMBLEME WEre both the Indies treasures Thine And thou Lord of every Mine Or hadst thou all the golden Ore On Tagus or Pactolus Shore And were thy Cabinet the Shrine Where thousand Pearls and Diamonds shine All must be left and thou allowd A little linnen for thy Shrowd Or if 't were so thy Testament Perhaps a goodly Monument What better is a golden Chase Or Marble then a Charnel place Charon hence no advantage makes A half penny a soul he takes Thy heirs will leave thee but a Shirt Enough to hide thy rotten Dirt. Then be not Greedy of much pelfe He that gets all may lose himself And Riches are of this Dilemne Or they leave us or we must them Death brings to Misers double Wo They lose their Cash and their souls too Change then thy scope to heavenly gains That wealth eternally remains Relatory to the third EMBLEME BE not curious to amaze With glitt'ring pomp the Vulgar gaze Strive not to chear with vain delight Those that are catcht with each brave sight How soon will any gawdy show Make their low Spirits overflow Whose Souls are ready to run-ore At any Toy nere seen before Rather thy better thought apply For to addresse thy self to dye Be ne're so glorious after all Thy latest pompe's thy Funerall Shall a dresse of Tyrian Dye Or Venice-gold Embroydery Or new-fash'on-varied Vest Tympanize thy out-strutting brest There 's none of these will hold thee tack But thy last colour shall be Black Be not deceiv'd There comes a Day Will sweep thy Glories all away Mean while the thought on 't may abate Th' Excesses of thy present ' state Death never can that Man surprize That watches for 't with wary Eyes Do So And thou shalt make thereby A Vertue of necessity And when thy Dying-day is come Go like a Man that 's walking home Heav'n Guard thee with Angelick pow‘r To be prepared for that hour When ev'ry Soul shal feel what 'T is To have liv'd Well or done Amisse Relating to the fourth EMBLEME LEt not the Splendour of high Birth Be all thy Glosse without true worth Let neither honour nor vast wealth Beauty nor Valour nor firm health Make thee bear up too high thy head All men alike are buried Stare not with Supercilious brow Poor folks are Dust and so art Thou Triumph not in thy worldy Odds They dye like men whom we count Gods And in the Grave it is all one Who enjoy‘d all or who had none Death cuts off all superfluous And makes the proudest One of us Nor shall there differ‘ence then between The dust of Lords or slaves be seen Together under ground they lye Without distinctive Heraldry Unlesse it be that some brave Tombe Do grace the Great-ones in Earths womb But better ‘ t is that Heaven's dore ls oft‘nest open to the poor When those whose backs and sides with sin Are bunch't and swoln cannot get in Beware the Bulk of thy Estate Shock thee from entrance at that Gate Give Earth to Earth but give thy Minde To Heaven where it 's seat's as sign'd If as it came from that bright Sphere Thither thou tend not fix it here Live that thy Soul may White return Leaving it‘s Partuer in the Urne Till a Blest Day shall reunite And beam them with Eternal Light Ainsi Souhaite Vostre treshumble Serviteur Thomas Cary. Tower-Hill Antepenultim â Augusti 1638. To my endeared Friend the Translatour Mr. Thomas Cary. 1. 'T Is Morall Magick and Wis Chymistry Out of Deaths Uglinesse T‘extract so trim a Dresse And to a Constellated Crystalt tie Such an imperious spell As who looks on it well By sprighty Apparitions to the the Eye Shall See he must and yet not fear to dye 2. No brittle toy but a tough monument Above steele marble Brasse Of Malleable Glasse Which also will while Wisdom is not spent Out-price th‘ adored wedge And blunt Times Sickle‘s edge Usher‘d with gracious safety in its vent For