Christianitie torne in peeces by schisme and heresie He scorneth the head the more because hee sees the members of the bodie so wound one the other Oh that wee could with the harmony of an vnseparable vnion charme the eares of this Christianities serpent But surely hee will stop his eares to our charming who disobeyeth the voice of that great charmer charme hee neuer so wiselie Thou seede of Abraham thou house of Iacob thou disposer of the graces and promises of the all-puissant I bewaile from my soule thy heauie condition and lament that thou canst not repent What grosse absurdities haue seized on thee of the which beliefe is not capable As for example that God before he built this world exercised himselfe a long time in setting-vp and pulling-downe before hee could learne to finish the frame hee hadde conceiued Thou further sayest that God hath certaine appointed daies wherein he afflicteth himselfe because in choler he defaced thy citty with thy temple and tokens of this his felt sorrow thou makest to be lightning and thunder Thou saiest also that God ordeined a sacrifice amongst the Iewes euery new Moone to recompence the wrong he did to the Moone in taking light from her to giue it to the Sunne Thou farther sayest that he is angrie once a day and then the crimson combes of the Cookes waxe pale and bloudlesse Thou hast also a prophane fable that on a day there being a disputation betweene certaine Rabbins and R. Eliezer God gaue sentence on Eliezers side for which the Rabbins excoÌ„municated him and then God smiling said My children haue ouercome me Thou sayest also that he that gainsayeth the words of the Scribes deserues more to be punished then he that contradicts the Law of Moses the one may be absolued the other must absolutely die Thou saiest also that he is no good Rabbin which doth not hate his enemy nay that doth not pursue reuenge euen vntill death And hee that disalloweth of any thing in these bookes denieth God himselfe What God will doe with thee I know not this I know that no Nation hath kept her integritie but thou Oh would thou hadst also kept thy sinceritie in religion It is more then a miracle to mee that feare doth not weigh-downe the eye-lids of the Iewe when he offers to looke-vp to heauen Neque enim saith Origen deberent vltra coelum aspicere qui in creatorem coeli peâ—â—auerunt et dominum Maiestatis Neither indeed saith he ought they to beholde heauen who haue sinned against the Creatour of heauen and the Lord of Maiesty The Turke conceiueth more reuerently of Christ then the Iewe for he accounteth of him as of a great Prophet the Iew as of a false Prophet Neither hath the Turke so grosse abuses and absurdities as hath the Iewe which whosoeuer listeth to compare shall finde The Turke hath many riddles which rather merite laughter then loathing and for example sake we will set-down some fewe of them What is that which is first wood and afterwards receiueth a spirit into it It is there answered Moses Rod. What woman is that which onely came from a man and what man is that which onely came from a woman It is there saide the former to be Eue the later to be Christ The rehearsall of more of these friuolous fooleries would cost mee much time and yeeld the Reader little profit and therefore I will onelie heere insert one or two things remarqueable in the Turkish Phisiques They hold that the starres hang by golden chaines Againe they saie that a Bull beares the earth vpon his hornes so that when the Bull shakes his head an earth-quake ensues Modesty wil not let me enter into the Turkes paradise where all things are vncleane and beyond measure baudy Oh my God! who is there that rightlie vnderstandes the courses of mans life the curses due to it for the vices of it and withall considereth the variances of religion as also that Turkes inhabite the better halfe part of the world Iewes and Atheists a quarter of the other halfe Schismatickes Heretickes three quarters of that quarter who is there I say that weighing all these things will not welcome if not inuite death specially in this age in which that of Tacitus is right true et propter virtutes certissimum exitium And vertues saith he are rewarded with certaine destruction Vertue looke to thy Essence for thou hast almost lost thy Existence thou hast a Being of thy self but scarce any Being in any other Wherefore I exhort all those who either haue or loue vertue to desire to bee dissolued and to bee with Christ Let them contemplate this that death is the Orient of Weale and the Occident of Woe that is the rising of all comforts and the fall and setting of all crosses Death is the sole sanctuary for sorrowe the freedome from feare hope 's harbour faith's faire field the ending of a bad beginning of a better life Death is not so vgly as the world would make her her lookes are louely and when all the world disdaines desert shee rewardes it Wherefore wee should not with such a fond childish griefe bewaile the death of our friends whom mercy hath taken from miserie As when we see the sunne eclipsed wee grieue not knowing it shall come to his former forme againe euen so 〈◊〉 it is heere we should not fall into womanish lamentations for the losse of them whose bodies wee know shall rise againe who shal see God with those eyes with which they leaue to see the world For though they die to vs they liue to the Lord. Wherefore wee must not thinke that Dauid lameÌ„ted the temporal death of his sonne Absolon but that his propheticke soule fore-sawe that eternall death due to Diuells and their ministers for to them death bringes damnation The wicked man dares not in his greatest passion call to God for compassion but hides himself from his face hauing all his time beene glutted with forbidden fruite If hee looke vp hee sees Gods iudgement hang ouer him if downeward he meditates his graue vnder him and hell vnder it if on both sides of him at each hand sitteth horrour and confusion if before him he beholdeth Perdition his hangman dragging him on to his slaughter if behinde him Vengeance doggeth him at the heeles the least noise makes him expect his pursiuants At last he withdraweth himselfe into his cabine thinking to lock-out Death who in a moment locketh-vp his eye-lids neuer more to open till they shall see heauen gates shut against their master Oh foole reuolt from thy irreligious superstition to a religious pietie neither quake at that whose power it is in thy power to conquer by an heartie penitence and feruent prayer Shrinke not at thy fatale blowe thy death shall be life and that a blessed and eternall one I for my part will account of death as of that which helps me to an vnualued bargaine things eternall for things momentarie
Staffords NIOBE Or HIS AGE OF TEARES A Treatise no lesse profita ble and comfortable then the times damnable Wherein Deaths visard is pulled off and her face discouered not to be so feare full as the vulgar makes it and withall it is shewed that death is only bad to the bad good to the good AT LONDON Printed by Humfrey Lownes 1611. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Robert Earle of Salisbury Knight of the most honourable Order of the Garter Vicount Cranborne Lord Cecil of Essindon Lord high Threasurer of England Chancelour of the Vniuersitie of Cambridge and one of his Maiesties most Ho nourable priuie Councel A. S. wisheth the pleasures of the Kingdome of Heauen for his paines taken in this Kingdome of the Earth IT may seem strange vnto you truely honourable Lorde that a stranger should dedicate a Booke vnto you but wonder not For though I be not knowen to your Honour yet your Honor is wel knowen vnto me and indeed to whom not I haue no small time be it spoken without blasphemie euen worshipt your Worth and therefore now offer vp vnto it all the reuenewes of my reuerence I was the rather induced to dedicate it to your Honour by reason that my father was a neighbour to your Father being much obliged vnto him and my whole Family vnto your selfe And next of all to giue you thankes in the behalfe of all Gentrie which is daylie bettered by your Lordships directions and furtherances in all honest courses Desert was fled into the Desert before your Lordship called her home from exile clad hir weather-beaten limmes And which draweth neere vnto a miracle your Lordship doth not imitate the greatest part of the hodiernall Nobilitie Qui beneficia in calendario seribunt But whether goe I knowing that your monosyllables as also short speeches are pleasing to GOD sometimes and to Great-men at all times Accept then this Leafe rather then Booke together with my vowed and owed seruice which though I offer serò tamen seriò my euer honoured Lord. Your Lordships most humble seruant to be commanded ANTHONIE STAFFORD TO THE Reader Different or indifferent READER Health to thy Soule and Bodie Knoweing vertue to bee of the nature of the Sun that is she shines as well vpon the bad as vpon the good I thought the badde would claime interest in her as well as the good To preuent which I wrote this treatise in which I haue layed my selfe open to the world to the intent that I may attract the loue of the vertuous and the hate of all those who continue vitious for I hold him to be no honest man that is beloued of all men For in that he sheweth that he can apply himselfe to the time be it neuer so vitious to the place be it neuer so infamous to the person be it neuer so odious Wherfore I giue all men to vnderstand that I am a servant to Vertue which I proclaime to the world by this booke my Heraulde and giue defiance to her foes and mine And howsoeuer I seeme now and then to lend an eare to lewdnesse it is not that I take pleasure in it but because I am loth to diplease the harbourers and diuâ—lgers of it What soeuer the world thinkes of me or thinketh me to be yet this I am For being throughly acquainted with myselfe I doe not aske another man what I am I protest it againe and againe that I depend on Vertue And if I wax poore in her seruice I shall account my selfe richer then all this wicked worlds wealth can make me and if I growe rich without her I shall esteeme my self poorer then pouerty her selfe can make me I speake not this like a PoliticiaÌ„ to purchase my selfe a greater fame then mine owne worth No no We doe not dissemble in those things in which he first deceiues himselfe that would others Wherefore he is iniurious to me who wicked in himselfe frameth a minde to me out of his owne If my inward man excuse me what care I who accuse me yet doe I not despise an honest report but onely warne you this that it is not in my power to tye loose tongues And therefore Fame is to be reckoned amongst these externall accidents as of no moment to the accomplishment of a quiet and a blessed life What to be consisteth on my part what I am said to be on the vaine vulgars Fame and Conscience are of two differing properties the one blazeth a mans deserts yet makes him neuer the better the other the better yet neuer the more renowned I knowe that my beliefe in God and not the worlds beliefe of me shall saue me yet by the way would I not haue any man thinke that I write this by constraint that is to cleare my selfe of any imputed Crime for I write it not to dispossesse but to possesse the world of a good opinion of me I verily thinke that I haue layed my selfe too open dealt too plainely in some things contained in this insuing treatise but I passe not much For as my birth styled me a gentleman so I would haue my death stile me generous Prying Policy telleth me that it is farre 〈◊〉 to knowe what a man speaks then to speak what he knowes but my harmelesse heart dictates to my pen not what the world would but what it should heare of My soule is an Antipode treads opposite to the present world My intent in writing this book is twofolde first to purchase to my selfe not so much the title of a learned as of an honest man and secondly because I knowe not whether my vnfortunate fortunes and vnstaied youth may leade me that the world may be acquainted with the secrets of my soule and may receiue from me a testimonie of my liuely faith that so it may iudge the more charitably of mee being dead Thus much for my selfe Now gentle or vngentle Reader concerning thee I diuide thee into Learned and Vnlearned and the Learned I subdiuide into Iudicial and Not-indiciall Seneca saith that SummuÌ„ bonum in iudicio est that mans chief felicity is in iudgement and Sealiger calleth it Animamsapientiae the soule of wisedome And therefore he that hath this Wisedomes soule to be the Centre of his soule I doe not so much feare as reuerence his censure But hee that hath read neuer so much and in his discourse will shoote whole Volleis of Volumes at a man and yet wanteth iudgemente my Booke turnes his posteriours to him and bids him shoote there as a marke too faire for his carping mouth to aime at The Vnlearned I rediuide into Prudent and Impudent The Prudent will not let his censure flie aboue his knowledge but what he vnderstands not he will with modestie either passe it ouer or with discretion enquire after it of some better-knowing spirits As for impudent asses who will reprehende vvhat their shallowe vvits can neither apprehende nor comprehende and so turne despaire into iudgement I hold them fitter to
sweare to an vsurer that it lyeth in his power to oblige them to him he will reply againe that it lyeth not in his power to doe it without an obligation for he will haue a gage and yet engage them too This man is too wise to be caught by his neighbour and yet hee catcheth at his neighbours substance Coâ—etonsnes saith Saint Paul is the roote of all euill The same Apostle saith that the ende of all such as minde earthly things is damnation They doe not rightlie vnderstande those words of Christ when hee saith Though a man hath aboundance yet his life consisteth not in the things that he hath Doubtlesse saith the Prophet Dauid man walketh in a shadowe and disquieteth himselfe in vaine he heapeth vp riches and cannot tel who shal gather them But they haue a sufficient torment laied vpon them heere in this world which is implied in these wordes Hee that loueth Siluer shall not bee satisfied with siluer Hee carkes and cares hee hoordes and rakes-vp yet no satietie can cloy him He hath wealth yet hee will scarce vse it though to purchase his owne health but sterues his poor hide-bound carcasse and impouerisheth his bodie to enrich his purse He is neuer secure hee cannot heare the winde whistle but he thinks it to bee the call of a thiefe if a storme com he straight diuines the ruine of his ship at sea or of his house on land But God were not iust if he should giue content to that conscience which makes warre against Widdowes and Orphanes and insults ouer pouertie Thou sterne-fronted hard-hearted man thou terrour of the poore thou that sufferest the image of God to decay when one penny of thine may repaire it thou that lettest one of those little ones sterue for a morsell of bread thou little thinkest that their Angels behold the face of their heauenly Father and pleade for iustice against thee vniust The voice of the beggar beggeth for reuenge against thee Which God will heare and pay thee with Sulphur wheÌ„ that bodie of thine shall render-vp it selfe to neuer-consuming flames thy mercilesse soule which being voide of pittie did depriue the needie of comfort shall be depriued of the presence of him whose absence possesseth the soule with more horrour then the fier can the bodye with torment Who shall receiue then the Interest of thy money these that laugh at thee for keeping thy coyne that they might inioie it It is better bestowed vpon them then vpon thee for they reioice in it thou hadst not it but it had thee Vsurie thou bane to manie a distressed gentleman thou deuourer of the oppressed thou nipper of mirth thou vnpleasant toyle thy sinne is so weightie that it makes passage for it selfe through earth into hell Yet knowe I their common caution with which they vse to cloake these their intolerable wrongs to weet that a man may let out money to vse so he giue it not in morsum when I le be sworne they giue it in dorsum and laye on such loade that they breake the backes of manie decayed men Sure it was auarice which first made theft so capitall a crime it hauing in this our Land a greater punishment allotted to it then adultery and many more enormous hainous crimes I knowe no reason why adulterie should not be rewarded with death as well as theft but onelie this that whereas man accounts of his wife but onely as flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he esteems of his coyne as soule of his soule It is Auarice that makes greedie fathers force their children to seeme to like what indeed they loath and to take vnto them one for better for worse then whome indeede they can like nothing worse From hence it comes to passe that age is matched with youth fairenes with foulnes beautie with deformitie which doubtlesse is farre from the first institution for In the beginning as Christ replyed concerning wiues to the Scribes and Pharisies it was not so GOD at first created man and woman in their full vigour that they might be full of loue one to the other What an vnseemlie sight is it to see an olde grandsire as frostie in flesh as haire whose eyes are readie to set in his head and whose rotten lungs scarce afford him breath march to the Church with his young spouse whose eyes roule in her head whose marrow burnes in her bones whose heate scornes colde and in whose heart disdaine of age dooeth breede desire of youth According to GODs ordinance Youth should honour and reuerence Age but wee no where reade that Youth should solace it selfe in Age or affect it Those women that thus marry in my iudgement differ little or nothing from common ones for both sel their affection What wil you giue me saies one what will you giue me sayes the other Hauing now traced Vice by her footing as farre â—s hell we will there leaue her to accompanie her blacke sinnefull sire And now let vs suppose man to be without all notorious actuall transgressions onely considering him in his originall corruption and wee shall finde that for all he is thus eased hee is yet miserable euough and that for one comfort he hath millions of crosses Hearken to Salomon I my selfe saith he am also mortall and a man like all other and am come of him that was first made of the earth And in my mothers wombe was I fashioned to be flesh in tenne moneths I was brought together into bloud of the seede of man and with the pleasure that commeth with sleepe And when I was borne I receiued the common ayre and fell vpon the earth which is of like nature crying and weeping at the first as all other doe I was nourished in swadling clothes with cares for there is no King that had any other beginning of birth All men then haue one entrance into life a like going out Thus farre Salomon It were too tedious a thing here to vnfolde the mystery of mans conception which in Philosophy is no lesse pleasing then strange and wonderfull The first gift man receiues from Nature after his conception is feeling the next is moouing and after he hath receiued the vttermost of his perfect imperfect forme shee giues him birth He is no sooner borne but his reasonablesoule as di uining his troubles to com makes him bawl and crie and hauing nothing but humour wherewith to vent his passion he sheddeth teares Well as comming from a woman he is referred to the care of a woman who spends all her time yet all little enough to dresse him to still him to watch him and to wipe awaie the excrements of this excrement The first word hee speakes bewraies vanitie and as soone as his legs are able to vnderprop the burthen of his body he goes to vanitie He waxeth Idolatrous and beholdes a baby made of clouts a woodden puppie or a paper birde with an eye of
to them that their learning placeth them almost as farre aboue ordinarie men as ordinarie men aboue beasts but that they must also clip truth to enlarge their triumphes They inueigh deadly one against another as being at deadly enmity and striue to draw others to their parties employing inuention onely to feede contention Their reasons would make a reasonable man to laugh and their Motiues would moue a man to be of no religion and think Christianity a meere delusion The Papist firmely affirmes that the Protestant is dāned the protestant doubts of the saluation of the papist yet in my weake opinion it should not bee so with the latter For though the papists iudge vncharitablie of vs yet wee should censure more fauourably of them It is a dangerous doctrine which the purer sort of our diuines haue of late diuulged to the world to weet that all these are blotted out of the book of life that die absolute papists To this end saith an Eng. writer of the forementioned sect where is saith he Cyrus Darius Xerxes Alexander Caesar Pompey Seipio and Haniball Where are the Valiant Henries and Noble Edwards of England The wormes eat them and what is become of their soules is most of all to be feared See the indiscretion of this man in mingling Christianitie and Paganisme together The Valiant Henries and Noble Edwardes of England are with him in no better taking then Cyrus Darius c. and hee maketh their case common GOD send the poore idle man to come to the place which the Valiant Henries and the Noble Edwards of England inhabite Hee and the rest of his faction need not as they doe complaine of their pouertie since their owne rashnesse procures it Rash in Hebrewe signifieth Pauper in Latin in English A poor man For my part I neuer knew a rash man that dyed rich Their tongues are theirs who shall controll them Audacitie leads them and out of an assumed libertie or an ill gouerned zeale they speake they care not what without either feare or wit Many things are spoken GOD hee knowes from the heart which neuer came neere the head and many things are thought to be vttered ex animo which indeede issue ex animi morbo That most of our auncestours are damned I dare not beleeue but I had rather determine of my successours who liuing in the later times are more subiect to sinne the reward of temporall and eternall death Though our ancestours were gally-slaues to the pope as being chained fast to Ignorance yet their Works leaue a sufficient testimonie of their faith Sunt saith Cambden vi audio qui monasteria et eorum fundatores à me memorari indignantur dolenter audio sed cum bona illorum gratia dixerim ijdem indignētur imò fortasse obliuisci velint et Maiores nostros Christianos fuisse nos esse They had fidem formatam we fidem informem they did more then they knew we know more then wee doe Their ignorance was the greatest fault they had which if it did condemne them woe be to little knowing yet well meaning mindes If Christ prayed for those that crucified him saying Father forgiue them they know not what they doe will hee not pray for them also that praise magnifie and glorifie his euer-glorious name yet in so doing know not what they doe Those that teach them shall answere for it according to those words of Christ Whosoeuer therefore shall breake one of these least commandements and teach men so hee shall bee called the least in the kingdome of heauen c. where we see a punishment alloted to false teaching Let vs defer then to censure what shall become of them till wee know what shall become of our selues which is onelie knowen to GOD. If all the Diuines in the world auouch that Hell is my portion if That Diuinity whisper to me the contrarie I will deride them It were a braue thing if one man could dispose of anothers soule and reward it with either paine or pleasure according to his owne will Yet I must confesse this ingenuously that I put so great a difference betweene the ancient and moderne papists as that I resolue rather that the former are taken to mercy then that the later either are or shall be The former instructed no men to destruction with king-killing doctrine the later teache◠to make-away an Hereticke yet an Hereticke of their owne brain by any meanes whatsoeuer God renounce me if I had not rather bee an Heathen then a Christiā and holde this mercilesse Axiome for currant for I had rather bee an honest Turke then a knauish Christian Papistrie and Treason now are growen to be Accidentia concomitantia and they giue mutuall attendaunce one on the other Neither did the auncient Priests so worke vpon the frailtie of silly women as these doe neither were they so lecherous as these are These are they whom Saint Paul pointeth at saying For of this sort are they which creepe into houses and leade captiue simple women laden with sinnes and led with diuers lusts Yet for all this our Puritans ought not to giue definitiue sentence against them but referre it to him who will haue mercie on whom he will haue mercie These men whose puritie hath made them vnconformable to the present Discipline of the Church though they bee guiltie of Schisme yet they are not dangerous but liue and dye without thought of slaughter yet is there a tatling Treatise entituled Herode and Pilate reconciled wherein the author striueth very hard to proue that the Papists Puritans are both alike dangerous as holding the same treacherous tenents He spetteth-out the venome of his tongue in the faces of Caluin and Beza men whose names his mouth should not vsurpe without reuerence Hee may well wrest their speeches but well I know hee can neuer inferre any pretended treason from them His booke is well laboured and hee manifesteth to the world that hee hath read some thing hee lacketh nothing but the iudgement of Tertullian that is that a man ought to imploy all hee hath or knoweth in testimonium veri non in adiutorium falsi Sir Francis Bacon saith that the way to dimmish bad bookes is not not to burne or teare them but with plentie of good bookes to make scarcitie of bad whereas I for my part thinke that the dailie encrease of triuiall trifling books wil at the length consume and annihilate the weighty and serious ones Now-a-daies almost euery Sect hath a seueral exposition of the Text and a diuerse application We may well crie-out with the Prophet Dauid O God thou hast cast vs out thou hast scattered vs thou hast beene angry turne againe vnto vs. Thou hast made the Land to tremble and hast made it to gape heale the breaches thereof for it is shaken Thou hast shewed thy people heauy things thou hast made vs to drinke the wine of Giddines It fatteth the soule of the Iewe to see
things truelie delightfull for things falsely deceitfull Oh welcome minute that shall free this body from so long an apprentiseship of woe And indeede what is there that should holde or delight me heere except to satisfie the vnordred appetites of the body and vnlawfull desires of the soule But perhaps some wil vrge that I am as yet in my spring of youth which I grant Yet am I glutted and tired as much with the troubles of this Age as a Priam as a Nestor The dayes are alreadie come vpon mee wherein I may truely say I take no pleasure in them But others will reply that I haue friends for whose sake I should desire to liue It is true indeede that I haue friends but with-all such friends as Tacitus speaketh of Et quibus deer at inimicus ab amicis sunt oppressi and they saith he to whom enemies were wanting were oppressed by their friends I long to bee acquainted with my neerer kinred to whom I shall say Corruption thou art my father and to the worme thou art my mother my sister Salomontelleth vs All pleasures vnder the sunne are vanity I take his word and therefore long to see what pleasures are aboue the sunne where the Son of God sitteth at the right hand of his father making intercession for mee and all sinners And thou Lord of hosts grant that when this my last and best day shall come and those harbingers of death summon me to appeare that then I may bee readie and grant also that as at the first my body was willing to receiue my soule so at the last my soule maie be willing to leaue my body Thou louer of soules be thou mercifull to my soule and when mine eyes shall grow dimme my lips black my mouth drawen-vp my browes knit my eares deaf my hands and feerebenummed with cold my pulse beating yet weakely and when all my senses faile me then giue me some sense of life euerlasâ—ing My good God let me at that houre thinke as I do now that it is a thing no more strange to die theâ— to be borne â—being it is an equal law of Nature which bindeth ouer all alike to their first and last appearance I knowe there is some paine in death but withal I knowe that I owe that paine with the vantage to my mother Who as she endured as great paine us euer woman did to bring me into the world so must I endure some paine to rid my selfe of this painefull life of the which I am as weary aâ— a 〈◊〉 of his â—are I shallneuer be truely merry till that day of miâ—th and releasement commeth All ioy hâ—ere belowe is sinfull and almost all delights vnlaw 〈◊〉 according to that of Austin 〈◊〉 lâ—titia est impâ—â—it a 〈◊〉 The ioy saith he of this Age is nothing else bu◠〈◊〉 â—â—punished Yeâ— will I not seeke to hasten the hourâ—â— of my deare deliuery but will attend Gods 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of life as of a gift If it will tarrie I will not thrust it soorth of doors if it make haste to be gone I will not be he that shall intreate it to abide The time I haue to liue deuotion shall dispose of and my chiefer pleasure shall bee in prayer I will first pray for Christs church militaÌ„t that it would please him to shorten the time of her warfare that so the time of her triumphing may approach Next of all I will pray for all Gods anointed ouer what Kingdomes or Nations soeuer they bee placed and in particular as by the duty of a subiect I am bound for my gratious Soueraigne Faiths great defender Thou Ancient of daies crown his dayes with happinesse and as he raignes by thee so let him raigne for thee and while he defends thy Truth defend thou him from those porte-couteaux For in these treacherous times it is to be feared that his greatest enemies are those of his ownâ— house And as for his succeeder in the throne gratious God let him be successeful in al his approued proceedings that so succeeding ages may sing say his praises Lord shield him rather from secret flatterers then from open enemies and hauing all things let him not want this one A truth-teller I will wish the same to him which Thomas Walsing hamus reporteth of Henry the fift that as he is Modest us 〈◊〉 so he may be Magnanimus in actu Last of all I will pray for my selfe that hee that made me would vouchsafe to haue mercy vpon mee Thou that art able to throw an Angell down arâ— able to raise a sinner vp Lord then raise me 〈◊〉 falâ—e 〈◊〉 the gulâ—â— of sin Thou into Lambe of OOD which dyedâ—t once for the 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 mercy vpon me and seeing thou hast suffered for my wickednes let not me suffer for it too nor cry for my crying sinnes lesus at thy Name my â—â—ee shall bowe my heart bend and all my soule and body be transformed into reuerence Oh blessed comfortable allpromising Nome in which the olde Age of new names and if you will haue it so the newe Age of olde names may be included Christâ—◠〈◊〉 Origen qui 〈◊〉 ill is or is 〈◊〉 apâ—d 〈…〉 Christ saith he who is in those 〈…〉 of the earth â—â—en amongst the Britannes Amen Lord Iesus and bee with vs still to the ends of the world Mercifull maister let mee with my last gaspe pronounce in confidence those words of dying Luther I haue serued thee I haue belieued thee and now I come to thee And because there is no other way to come to thee but by death Lord let me expect death euery where and alwaies not knowing where or wheÌ„ it will expect me and 〈◊〉 me thinke of that often which I must doe once Blessed Maister my will is thine but if it bee thy blessed will take me out of this Age before I bee aged and let this corruption put-on incorruption this mortalitie immortality imperfectioÌ„ perfection and then this impotency shal see omnipotency this nothing all things Oh inconceiueable ioy to behold the Apostles Patriarks and Prophets together with the Kings of the Earth doing homage to the King of Heauen and Earth And till this ioyfull appointed time come the greatest comfort I can yeeld my selfe and others is an allusion which I tooke out of an 〈◊〉 French Writer to weer that as GOD laboured six dayes and rested the seuenth so man after hee hath turmoiled himselfe through-out all the sex ages of the world shall in the seuenth Age repose himselfe in a better world Which he that created the world grant for his sake that redeemed the world Amen FINIS Iob. 31. 35. Sen Epist 62. Sen. de benef lib. 1. cap. 10 Ambros de poenit lib. 1. cap. 34. I Scalig. lib. 1. poetic cap. 2 Scal. lib. 6. poetic pa. 800. 801. Lip cent Epist 5â— Mat. 27 24 Athenaeus lib. 6 Ibidem Annâ—l li. 1 Mat. 23. 3 In Alcor Turc pag. 191. Sen. de benef li. â— cap. 34. A Coward who Mat. 5. 39. â—erâ—ins Gen. 2. 24 Prou 16 Prou. 15 24 Tacit. Annal lib. 14. Sen. Epist 29. Heb. 13. 8 Iob. 36. 14. Deut. 23. 18. Ezech. 16. 33. Prou. 22. 14. Prou. 23. 17. Prou. 26. 5 Albert. Mag. de mulier fort Reuel 14. Iob. 31. 1 Castilionaeus in suo Aulico lib. 4 De ciuit 15. 100. 23. Bernhaâ— Serm. 25 super canticum canticorum Deut. 28 53. Mal. 3. 3 Zach 5. 2. Ier. 23. 20 1. Timâ—t 6. 10. Phil. 3. 19 Lu. 12. 15 Psal 39. 6 Eccl. 5. 9 Mat. 18. 10. Mat. 19 8 Wis 7 Sen. de beat vita cap. vlt. Sen. Epist 26. Sen. Epist 7. 1. Disserâ— cap. 9. August de ciu cap. 19. Sen. lib. 4. de ben cap. 13. Sen. Epist 58. Serm. 1. Mat. 10 34 35 De Benif lib. 4. cap. 26. 27. Lipsius in exâ—mp po lib. 1. cap. 4. Idem ibidem Luk. 1. Luk. 1. Mat. 3. v. 7 Franc. de ver Con. par 2. ca. 2 Socr. in vita Iul. Baronius in paraenes ad venet pag. 9â— Colin â—â—ditionis Agust de baptis contra Donat. lib. 2. cap. 20. Acts. 17 22. Auer in 12. Metaphysi Tacit. Annal lib. 14. Ma. 20. 22 55. episto Cambdenus epist ad lectorem Mat. 5. 19 1. Ti. 3. 6 Tert. de resur carn Psal 60. 1. 2. 3. See the quotatioÌ„s of Monsieur du Plessis vpon their Thalmud in his book entituled Aduertissement aux Iuâ—fs In Alcor Turc Tacit. hist lib. 1. Ecclesiastes 12. 1. Tacit. hist lib. 1. Iob. 17. 14. Eccles. 1. August in Euang. seeun Lucam serm â—7 Mat. 10. 36