A Dialogue betwâ—â—â— Life and Death Very requisite for the Conteâ—plation of all Transitory Pilgrims and pious minâ—ed Châ—istiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—on by W. W. are to be sold by Edwar◠〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—auls Church-yaâ—d To the Worshipfull truely affecteâ— and no lesse meritorious Mr James Bis … Senior Esquire the Author wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace SIR THe manifold courtesies received at youâ— hands deserveth a far more gratificatâ—on than my ability either the one way 〈◊〉 the other is able to give you yet to bâ— oblivious of all were trebâ—e ingratitude And therefore to shunne so absurd an error I havâ— in my dutifull affection laying aside Commicâ—… Thaleia presented to your Worships view Deatâ— Conquering that must be Conquered Although thâ— subject is not correspondent to festivall times yet to 〈◊〉 thought upon at all times and so in conclusion 〈◊〉 time omited But to make my Wings bigger then 〈◊〉 Neast were rediculous And therefore in the best 〈◊〉 affection I rest Your obliged Richard Wates DIALOGVE BETWEENE LIFE AND DEATA The Speakers for life are Wisedome Beauty Wealth Youth and Age. Death beginnes and proclaimes his authority from whom he is sent FRom th' Imperiall Throne of your Creator With this my large Commission I am sent My name is Death which most so much abhor And would through frailty this my sting prevent But my Embassage no one may withstand Being seald in Eden by th' Almighties hand This sandy glasse which in my hand I beare Doth measure out the time of mortall man Which being run with this my darting speare I bring him to the grave both pale and wan Nor King nor Keysar nor the servile slave That can be priviledged from the grave No golden bribes though leane I am in show Shall cause me at fond worldlings once connive Nor pleading Orator whose wisdom flow Like to bright Pallas shall his date survive Wher 's brave Hector Pompey Alexander Why gone by me that am the worlds commander Ther 's not a day doth passe but I doe bring A full fild catologue of the deads name Vnto your dreadfull Lord and heavenly King Some to their consolations some theire shame Where in a book of brasse the totall summe Are all recorded till the judgment come The utmost Region of the earth I tread To find the Christian Pagan faire and foule Millions of millions living I leave dead Some with a blessed some a cursed soule I cannot give omittance for an houre Having my charge from the eternall povre Death 's thy Advantage Death speakes to Youth THou that art youthfull and art newly come To speake the prologue of a greater summe Yet erre thy speech be ended death doth spy The period of thy sand and thou must dye Youth pleads for it selfe BVt I am young and in the prime of dayes Then were it not ingratitude in thee To nip the garland of my new grown Bayes Before it come to full maturity I am but threescore yeares and ten nay more I may survive ere nature gives me o're Had we not example late in father Parre That liv'd a hundred forty and twelve year's Although times glasse to few doe run so farre Yet men of foure-scores gate there oft appeares Then were it not mere cruelty in death For to bereave my youthfull dayes of breath Ah! let me live that I the world may know And reape the joyes my aged Sire hath sowne Let death to some sicke pined person goe Whose heavy yoak doth make his heart to groan Vpon my youth feed not thy malice fell Till I have drunke at Aristotles well Death answers youth ALas poore youth hast thou not often sâ—ene The silly Lamkin to the market come Before his damme true 't is thy dayes are green And now but entring to a greater summe But as the daies hours and months and years Come on upon thee so come on thy cares Nor to abridge thy youthfull dayes of life Is malice showne but now to cut thee downe Is the road way to set thee free from strife And adde unto thy soule a lasting Crowne I shall acquit thee from a world of sins Which longer dayes in losing greatly wins And ah wert thou but capable to know The intricate designes of mortall man Now he is in the gulfe of griefe and woe Dog'd at the heeles with sad despaire and than Perhaps rais'd high on proud ambitions wing Whilst he forgets his God heavenly king Nor may I dally with thy tender dayes I must dispatch my errand being sent Then feare not silly youth I bring the joyes And free thee from all earthly discontent See see thy glasse is run take here this sheet And lay thee down at Deaths triumphant feet O happy Change EVen such is man that lives by breath Each moment changing unto death Arise this is no place of rest Death speakes to Wisedome THou that hast wisedome and apprehend As much as to poore mortall man doth tend And rightly canst discerne earth sea and sky Yet man for all this wisedom's borne to dye Wisedome pleades for it selfe CAnnot my large Apologies acquit My body from thy rage and cruell stroake Cannot my pregnant and ingenious wit Study a new found way to slip thy yoake Cannot the muses and deepe Arts divine Prevent the cruell blow Death doth assigne Nor yet the knowledge of my mothers breast Oxford and Cambridge not one way devise For to escape thee or should I request With teares of purple blood from weeping eyes Or with orations fram'd from Art most high Enough to pierce the ten fold Orbes and sky Death answers Wisedome HAd Jove begot thee in Minerva's armes And hadst more learning than e're mortal yet Or wert thou drencht whereas the Muses swarms With holy raptures yea and round beset With Angels for thee yet know that I am Inexorable to them or man Wher 's Solomon that wise beloved King Prophets and Prediviners where are they Did not this impartiall hand soone bring Their bodies to be lodg'd in beds of clay And so must thine for loe thy glasse is run No wisedome can preserve thee Death being come What not dye thou piece of proud earth Death speakes to Beauty THou that hast beauty Princely harts to move Enough to make cold death in fiery love Yet know faire dame the beauty of thine eye Must be ecclipsed being borne to dye Wealth pleadeth for its selfe CAnnot my bags of gold with Death prevaile Though I bring milions to escape thy stroak So to be priviledged from the gaile And not be subject to thy painefull yoake I le give thee all my revenewes beside So I in Golgatha may not be spide Take Crowne and Scepter on the same condition Iewels and accoutrements take them all So that my name from out thy strict commission Be wholly cancell'd that I never fall Thy lookes are terrible hidious and thin That makes me tremble at my former sinne Death answers to wealth WEre all the Mines that in the earth doth lie Digg'd and converted
to usefull coine Iewels and treasure that your Ma chants buy In land ajacent or beyond the line Yet all were far too little to suffise For why mans life cannot be bought with price Dives was rich Pirrus a Crown did weare Croesus had millians yet one touch of mine Did cause them tremble with inward feare When wealth and Life at once they must resigne Go change the bags of gold for one poore sheet And lay thee downe at Deaths triumphant feet Onely a grave remaineth for thee Death speakes to old age THou that a hundred winters hast ore-gone Living to see thy daughters daughters son And many imperfections make thee cry Yet 't is infallible all flesh must dye Age pleads for it selfe FVll fourescore yeares of age I am at least And yet the frailty of my flesh desire Those fourscore yeares may farther be encreast But then considering how my senses tire I wish for Death for why I feele Full many griefs even from my crown to heele Bald is my head where once my haire took place Dotage possesseth the better part of sence Furrows and wrincles grow within my face My dried gums stand for my teeths defence The port-holes of mine eares are stopt up quite A cloudy dimnesse hath o'revaild my sight My feete and ancles weake and feeble are That hardly can my upper part support My legs thighes and armes that brawny were Now lanke and thin and leane appeareth for't My inward parts doth feelingly consume Through Tissiek Cough continuall coldnes Rhume My forme growes crooked stooping to the ground Stinking my breath my joynts they tremble all A teasty Coler in me doth abound Yea my whold Microcosme begins to fall And yet me thinks through feare that I could crave One yeare or two forbearance from the grave Death answers old Age. WOnder of wonders that thy frame of clay Thy stinking carkasse and a trunk decay'd Should have desire to one poore future day O! rather wish my stroke be not delaid Thy strength â—t is impair'd through griefe and pâ—ine As borne a child become a child again Thy glasse is run and nature gives thee o're Earth must to earth untill the trump shall sound See thy Sands period not one minute more Thou must survive there is thy deadly wound Youth Wisdom Beauty Strngth Wealth nor old Age. That can the fury of sterne Death asswage Hast thou forgot who suffer'd on the Crosse That all beleevers should to heaven ascend And at thy downefall shall loud voyces sing Death wher 's thy Conquest Hell where is thy sting When thou shalt swallowed be to th' abis Of black Gehema and the gulfe of woe Then shall the voyce of comfort joy and blisse Be to the blessed Come and with me goe Into my Fathers Kingdome and rceive What neither Death nor Time shall from you reave Deaths Acelamation WHo can assist me with a stood of teares I may gush out whole rivers froÌ„ mine eyes And sighes by millions at the voyce I heares That I must be excluded heavenly joyes All mortalls living whilst you yet have breath Live well to dye and dye to live through Death Deaths Memorandum to the middle aged WHen I looke in the glass and note my haires I see some gray and other some impaires But looking farther on records I finde My date almost summ'd up for man assign'd Which rightly noting then I straight begins To number if I could my world of sins But find them numberless it 's not time then To shake off drowsiness and catch my pen 'T is time for me and all the world beside Oyle in our Lamps with speed that we provide Lest that the Bride-groom come we not prepared And so through Satans Wiles become ensnared Yet thinke that in uncertainties t is sure All flesh must dye but when none knowes the houre Mans Meditation TO Meditate of Death and of our end Cannot but make us tremble to offend Because as Death leaves us and fast binds us Judgement as infallible will find us Another PHysitians know or else should know at least How mans health is impaired and how increast And oft mens life prolongs through skill and Art But yet no Physick can withstand Deaths Dart. SIth that the life of wretched mortall man Is but in length much like a span What curious care then should we have in this To spend one haires breadth of that span amisse A Hymne of Prayses to the most blessed and glorious Trinity 1. SIng to the Lord all honour laud and praise that did us raise From earth whereon we tread and being dead These corps of earth shall in the earth be led 2. Vntill the trumpe shall summon us to joyes or sad annoyes Then now 's the fittest time for to refine This drossie earth and make it all divine 3. Sing to the Lord all honour praise and laud and him appland Seith we through Adams fall were wretched all And yet through Christ his mercies did recall 4. And now through faith to good workes joyned we shall live with thee Where Saints and Angells dwell if we repell Stans allurement and the snares of hell 5. Sing to our Saviour Christ laud praise honour under whose banner Let us continuall fight as firme and right Till World the Flesh and Devill be vanquisht quite 6. And to the Holy Chost like praises sing that doth us bring Preserving sanctity Love and Amity Thoughts pure and chast abhorring vanity 7. To Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as right by day and night Let us give prayses due and still pursue The path that leads to blisse bid sinne a diew 8. Let us lay hold upon the present time Death comes in fine This life ended all flesh must Catch time it passeth by and use it just Allegoricall Poem BEhold the towring tree that whilome stood In strength beauty bravely midst the wood Whose far stretcht lâ—mbs was shelter for the beasts And likewise for the birds to build their nest Is now hewen down because he brought foth Such fruits as tend to goodness and to worth So cast into the fire and there to be Burn'd and consumed for an ill-fruited tree Divers Exhortations to cause all men to remember their ends taken out of the holy Scripture In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread till thou returne unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Gen. 2.19 Deaths first speech to Nature OLd Adam was condemn'd and all his race To eate their bread in the sweat of their face And Scripture saith that from the dust he came And back to dust he must returne againe So this hard doome on Adams sons doth lye First they must labour here then after dye Natures reply T is true this doome to Adams Sons is given To labour here on earth and rest in heaven We must needs dye and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up againe neither doth God respect
any person 2 Sam. 9.14 Deaths second speech to Nature AS water that is powred on the ground Sinkes deeply in and can no more be found For water spilt who can againe recover Such is thy life thou shalt not have another Natures reply Death to thy lye Nature makes this reply That being changed I shall live after I dye Nature shall rise from Mortality And live in heaven Eternally We are strangers before thee and sojourners as were our Fathers our dayes on earth are as a shadow and there is no abiding 1 Cron. 29.15 Deaths fourth speech to Nature O Mortall man expect to meet with dangers And with hard usage for ye are all strangers And sojourners such as your fathers were While ye like walking shadowes doe appeare Walking while that the sun of life doth stay Which setting ye like shadowes fleet a way Natures reply If man a shadow be Christ is his sun Whom he doth follow to his Kingdome My dayes are swifter then a Weavers Shitlle Job 7.6 Deaâ—hs fourth speeâ—h to Natâ—re TO shew mens dâ—yes are fading and most fickle Thy dayes are swifter then a weavers shittle Then be not with hope of long life decev'd But know thy web of life is quickly wead'd For if thy hoâ—res like weavers shittle run Thy life like to a web will soone be done Natures reply I care not for when this lifes web is done 〈◊〉 roabs of Immortality put on As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth downe to the Grave shall come up no more Job 7.9 Death fifth speech to Naâ—ure BEhold as Clouds doe in a gloomy day Disperse consume and vanish cleane away Such is mans life yet Clouds againe doe risâ— But Man gone to the grave unseen there lies Natures reply Man like sowne seed lies in the ground unseene But both at last doe rise againe and spring And the voyce said Cry And he said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field The gasse withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grasse Esay 40.67 Deaths sixt speech to Nature WHat is mans life when every thing may be An embleme to him of Mortality He is but like the grasse or the field flower That flourisheth and fadeth in an houre Natures reply The wicked man indeed is like to grasse His life doth wither away and soone passe But those that vertuously spend here their howers Their names smell sweet on earth like wither'd flowers My dayes are swifter then a Post they fly away and I see no good Iob 9.25 Death seventh speech to Nature MAns life is but breaths bubble at the most And all his dayes are swifter than a Post They fly away before they are understood And man in all his life doth see no good Natures reply He that doth in few yeares to heaven climbe Ends a long journey in a little time Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth and mine age is nothing unto thee Psal 39.5 Deaths eight speech to Nature BEhold thy dayes are like unto a span Which stretched out do yield the greater pain The hand doth ake extended at full length So age stretcht out yields pain and want of strength Natures reply If I be ould in grace as well as yeares Then ages winter youthfull spring appeares For here we have no continuing City but we seeke one to come Heb. 13.14 Dâ—aths ninth speech to Nature THough here with lands wives houses ye doe fit ye Yet ye below have no continuing City But in your earthly pilgrimage go on In seeking out a City that 's to come Natures reply Our new Jerusalem in heaven stands Which is a City that 's not built with hands What is our Life it is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away James 4.14 Deaths tenth speech to Nature WHat is mans life it is a burning Taper Or it is like unto a rising vapour Both for a little time appeare and stay But afterward they vanish both away Natures reply That life which seemes a vapour proves Divine And like a bright starre shall in Heaven shine We are passed away as a swift ship under saile that hasteth to the prey Job 9.2 Deaths eleventh speech to Nature AS a swift ship doth on the Ocean glide And cut the foaming Ocean unespy'de Such is mans life that quickly flyes away Like to an Eagle hasting to his pray Natures reply Mans life is like a ship bound for heaven lyes Or like an Eagle unto heaven flyes For he remembred they were but flesh and wind thaâ— passeth away and commeth not againe Psal 78 39. Deaths twelfth speech to Nature LAstly remember man is flesh and winde Flesh to the earth for worms meate is resign'd The wind doth passe away mans life 's the same That passes like winde and comes not againe Natures reply Although my flesh must die I am not sory For after death I shall enjoy heavens glory Life and Death LIke to the Damaske Rose you see Or like the blossome of the tree Or like the dainty flowers in May Or like the morning of the day Or like the Sun or like the shade Or like the Gourd that Jonas had Even such is man whose thred is spun Drawn out and cut and so is done The Rose withers the blossome blasteth The flowers fade the morning hasteth The Sun sets the shadow flyes The Gourd consumes and man he dyes Like to the grasse that 's newly sprung Or like the tale that 's new begune Or like a bird that 's here to day Or like the pearly Dew in may Or like a thought or like a dreame Or like the gliding of a streame Even such is man who lives by breath Each moment subject unto death The grasse withers the Tale is ended The birds flowne the dew's ascended The thought 's past the dreame is gone Tâ—â— waters gilde Mans life is done Like to a Bubble in a Brooke Or in a glasse much like a looke Or like a Shuttle from a Weavers hand Or like a Writing in the sand Or like an hure or like a span Or the singing of a Swan Even such is man Whose life is gone Whilst nimblest tongue is telling one The Bubble's out the look's forgot The Shttle's flung the writings out The houre 's not long the span's but short The Swan's neare death man's in like sort