shall quickly change both care and love My care for earth into a care for heaven Take off my heart from hence and six 't above And will lay ' up all provision For that life which is to come Whilst a stranger that at home I may find a blest condition PART II. Of Deaths impartiality from whose stroke neither Riches Honours Pleasures Friends Youth nor any thing can protect us Sect. I. Riches cannot protect us from the stroke of Death OF richest men in holy writ I read Whose basket whose store the Lord had blest And in the land exceedingly increas'd Their wealthy substance yet they all are dead Riches do not immortalize our nature The richest dyes as well 's the poorest creature 'Bove all the wealth of Solomon did passe Ne'r was man master of a greater store He went beyond all Kings that went before Silver as stones and purest gold as brasse Adorn'd Jerusalem a glorious thing Yet death strikes into dust this wealthy King Meditation 1. IF ' gainst Death's stroke my riches cannot arm me Nor comfort me a jote when I am dying I 'll take a care these witches do not harm me Whilst I do live I know they will be trying To do me any mischief as before And now they mischief all the whole world o're Some riches hurt with that old sinne of pride Rich men extremely swell most commonly This sinne and wealth both in one house abide Poore men are loo'kd on with a scornfull eye Strangely is his heart pust up with pride 's bellowe That hath a satter fortune then his fellows His words are big looks lofty mind is high He with his purse will needs drive all before him He ever looks for the precedency And vext he is if men do not adore him He bears the sway another man must be If not so rich not half so good as he Some men wealth doth infect with churlishnesse They answer roughly they are crabbed misers Course bread yields hardest crust This is a dresse Wherewith wealth decks our accidentall risers Since Nabals death a thousand rich men be In every point as very hogs as he Some wealth makes prodigalls there 's no excesse But they runne into Back and belly strive Which shall spend most belly with drunkennesse And gormandizing back for to contrive New stuffs and fashions This excessive crue Have wayes to spend that Dives never knew Observe these Caterpillers One man puts Into his throat a cellar full of drink Another makes a shambles of his guts The back is not behind you would not think How for themselves and for their curious dames One suit of clothes a good fat manour lames Some wealth makes idle like so many drones They suck what others sweat for and do hate All good imployments Many wealthy ones Have neither callings in the Church nor State And during life do nothing day by day But sit to eat and drink and rise to play These mischiefs are in wealth and many more It throws men into many a foolish lust But if Gods bounty multiply my store I 'll drain these vices from 't For when I must Grone on my death-bed these sinnes will displease me And fright my soul but riches cannot ease me Lord either keep me poore or make me rich In grace as well as goods my wealth undresse If I have any of those vices which Are wont to clothe it so shall I possesse Riches without those sinnes that riches bring That when death comes they sharpen not his sting Meditation 2. THough God doth blesse me all my time along With best of blessings make my courses thrive Fill full my garners make my oxen strong To labour and although his bountie give As much to me as to a thousand more Though I am rich and all my neighbours poore Though Fortune fanne me with a courteous wing Though gold be at my beck though I have sail'd With prosp'rous gales though not an adverse thing Did e're betide me though I never fail'd Of good successe in any undertaking Yet am I still one of the common making A piece of dust and clay and I may go Into my grave as soon 's a poorer man Our mold 's alike God at first made us so He makes the rich mans life but like a span And so the beggers is just both alike And both fall when impartiall Death doth strike When they are fallen both alike they lie Both breathlesse noisome livelesse senselesse cold Both like the grasse are withered dead and drie And both of them are ghastly to behold The ods is this The poore man ' mongst the croud Of buried mortalls hath the coursest shroud Why sinne the foolish sonnes of men for gain Why doth the Land-lord rack the Us'rer bite Why doth the Judge with bribes his conscience stain Why doth the bauling Lawyer take delight In spinning causes to a needlesse length Untill his clients purse hath lost its strength Why are Gods Ministers become men-pleasers And why are Patrones simoniacall Why are our Advocates such nippy teasers Of honest causes why the devil and all Do Misers scrape and why do Tradesmen rear Their price yet sell time dearer then their ware Sure these bad courses cannot choose but hurt us They make Deaths looks more ghastly and his sting More piercing but our wealth cannot support us ' Gainst smallest pains and fears that Death will bring Riches do promise much but do deceive us When we have need of succour then they leave us Anoint me Lord with eye-salve to discern What poore contents the world affords at best Instruct me Lord and I shall quickly learn That without thee there 's no condition blest Bad wayes of gaining into hell will drive me But all my wealth will not from Death reprive me Meditation 3. SOme therefore sinne because they do abound In store of wealth this is the onely ground Of many sinnes Gods laws they do transgresse They wrong their equals and the poore oppresse They tread religion and civilitie Both under foot all kind of tyrannie They exercise on all within their reach Nothing can keep them in they make a breach Through all those senses which at the beginning God set to keep rebellious man from sinning They will be revellers whoremongers swearers Drunkards oppressours liers and forbearers Of no impiety this is the reason Great men they are and rich 'T is petty treason Though in a modest way for to reprove Those sinfull courses which our betters love If we dare do it though we have a calling To do it boldly we are tax'd for bawling And saucie fellows and another day Sure we shall smart for 't Lord I 'll never say I 'll sinne because I 'm rich unlesse that I Could say I 'm rich and therefore will not die Meditation 4. IF from Deaths stroke my riches cannot shield me Nor on my death-bed any comfort give Then I will take a care that they shall yield me Some joy and comfort whilst I am alive And never
DEATH Dis-sected OR A FORT Against MISFORTUNE IN A Cordiall compounded of many pious and profitable Meditations on Mans Mortality Digested into severall Poems by T. I. Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest Printed by Authority for the use of the Author To the truly worthy Mr. ANSELL BEAVMONT SIR IF in this age when Soveraignty is no symptome of Security and Majesty but a new name for Misery I may claime a pious priviledge to present you with the usefull Mirrour of Mortality I hope these pale imperfect Poems will meet the candor of your Approbation with no lesse welcome then Death when look'd for at the latter day findes in the harbour of a quiet Conscience And although you may challenge the liberty to wonder why in these Times when Witty malice Holy Ignorance and Devout Impiety are the prodigious effects of most mens industry I descant â—…he old plain-song of Mortality when you have well considered the more then ordinary seasonable necessity and from these humble Contemplations collected the eternall Profit I hope you will extend a pardon and protection to him who conceivs it a compleat dignity if honoured with the happy title of SIR Your Humblest Servant THO. JORDAN Profitable and pious thoughts of Death Part I. Of Deaths certainty IN heav'ns high Parliament an act is pass'd Subscrib'd by that eternall Three in One That each created wight must one day tast Of Deaths grim terrours They exempted none That sprang from Adam All that red-earth-strain Must to their earth again An ancient Register of burialls lies In Genesis to let us understand That whosoever is begotten dies And every sort is under Deaths command His Empire 's large Rich poore old young and all Must go when he doth call Mans life 's a book and some of them are bound Handsome and richly some but meanly clad And for their matter some of them are sound Learned and pious others are too bad For vilest sires Both have their end There 's a conclusion penn'd As well as title-page that 's infancy The matter that 's the whole course of our lives One 's Satans servant walking wickedly Another 's pious and in goodnesse thrives One 's beggerly another 's rich and brave Both drop into the grave One man a book in folio lives till age Hath made him crooked and put out his eyes His beard doth penance And death in a rage Mows down another whilst the infant cries In 's midwives lap that 's an Epitome Both wear deaths liverie God made not death Whence are we mortall then Sure Sinne 's the parent of this pale-fac'd foe Nought else did hatch it and the first of men He was Deaths grandfather And all the wo That in this or the next life we are in Is caused by our sinne Meditation 1. IF I must dye I 'll catch at every thing That may but mind me of my latest breath Deaths-heads graves knells blacks tombs all these shall bring Into my soul such usefull thoughts of death That this sable King of fears Though in chiefest of my health He behind me come by stealth Shall not catch me unawares When-e're I visit any dying friend Each sigh and scrich and every death-bed-grone Shall reade me such a lecture of mine end That I 'll suppose his case will be mine own As this poore man here doth lie Rack'd all o're with deadly pain Never like to rise again Time will come when so must I. Thus ghastly shall I look thus every part Of me shall suffer thus my lips shall shrivel My teeth shall grin and thus my drooping heart Shall smoke out sighs and grones and all the evil Which I see this man lye under What sinne earns and death doth pay I shall feel another day Sinne from torment who can sunder Thus will my mournfull friends about me come My livelesse carcase shall be stretched out I must be packing to my longest home Thus will the mourners walk the streets about Thus for me the bells will toll Thus must I bid all adieu World and wife and children too Thus must I breathe out my soul At others fun'ralls when I see a grave That grave shall mind me of mortalitie I 'll think that such a lodging I must have Thus in the pit my bones must scattered lie Here one bone and there another Here my ribs and there my scull And my mouth of earth be full I must call the worms my mother When I do look abroad methinks I see A fun'rall Sermon penn'd in every thing Each creature speaks me mortall Yonder tree Which not a quarter since the glorious spring Had most proudly cloth'd in green And was tall and young and strong Now the ax hath laid along Nothing but his stump is seen And yonder fruitfull valleys yesternight Did laugh and sing they stood so thick with corn In was the sickle and 't was cut down quite And not a sheaf will stand to morrow morn Yonder beauteous imps of May Pretty eye-delighting flowers Whose face heav'n doth wash with showers To put on their best aray I saw the fair'st the Lily and Carnation And coy Adonis particoloured sonne Subject to such a sudden alteration That in a day their sading beauty 's gone This tree this corn and this flower Or what things else vainest are To my self I do compare Who may die within this houre Meditation 2. I 'LL ne'r be proud of beauty if I must Be blemish'd when I die And if the grave Will mix my beauty with the vilest dust What profits pride Reader I 'll pardon crave Here to set you down a story Of as rare and fair a She As the Sunne did ever see Whom Death robb'd of all her glory I once saw Phoebus in his mid-day shine Triumphing like the Sovereigne of the skies Untill two brighter rayes both more divine Outblazed his and they were this Nymphs eyes Forthwith Sol curtain'd his light Looking very red for shame To be vanquish'd by this Dame And did slink out of her sight I once saw silver Cynthia nights fair Queen In her full orb dimming each lesser flame Till this Nymphs beauty-vying front was seen Outshining hers then she look'd wan for shame The man in her knew he how But to quit that giddy place She had so divine a face Would have dwelt upon her brow Once was this woman pleas'd to walk the fields Then proudly fragrant with Dame Flora's store The damask rose unto her beauty yields And was contented to be fair no more Sure I cannot say how truly Yet ' mongst many 't was a fame That the rose did blush for shame And the violet look'd most bluly Once did this woman to the temple go Where doth fair Venus marble-statue lie Cut to the life that one can hardly know But that it lives indeed When she came nigh He who then the temple kept After would be often telling She was so super-excelling That for mad the marble wept Melodious musick 's warbled by the spheres Swans sing
shall a jote my sinnes increase Nor hinder me from going hence in peace I 'll get them well my calling shall be lawfull My brows or brains shall sweat for what I have And I will use my calling with an awfull Regard of God and conscience nor will crave What I have not a right to They do eat Scarce their own bread whose faces never sweat Unlesse they sweat with eating Nor can I Find any warrant for those wayes of gain Which many men do get their livings by To keep a needlesse Alehouse to maintein An idle familie to be a Pander A Fortune-teller or an Apes commander A purblind Crowder or a Rogue that canteth A Cuckold by consent for ready pay A sturdy Begger that not one limb wanteth Or one that borrows money on the way A Us'rer who whether 't shine or rain If the Sunne stand not still is sure of gain For these I find no warrant nor for dealing Deceitfully in selling or in buying To take more then what 's sold is worth is stealing Or to give lesse the art of multiplying Our lands or gold or silver by subtracting From other mens or by unjust exacting What is not ours Better in my opinion It were to feed on barley-bread and pottage Made of salt water and an onion To wear a thred-bare coat and in a cottage Smoke-bound and rusty pennylesse to dwell Then to get wealth unlesse I get it well And when 't is justly gotten every thought That I 'll bestow upon it shall be such As it deserves If heav'ns full hand hath brought Plenty into my bosome if as much I have as I could wish my care shall be To think of 't all as of a vanity A vanity that for ought I do know May take its flight and in an houre leave me As God had many wayes for to bestow His bounty on me he hath to bereave me As many more as moveables I 'll deem it From me or with me and I will esteem it A strong temptation unto many a sinne That never will perform what it doth promise That wealths fair books when we are deepest in The greater reck'ning God exacteth from us I 'll not afford my wealth a better thought And I do think I think on 't as I ought And as I ought I 'll use 't Not to be fewel For any lust nor to maintein my riot Not to be prodigall vainglorious cruel Nor yet to make my potent purse disquiet My poorer brother but from thence I 'll raise My neighbours profit and my Makers praise Where there is need I 'll ready be to give Glad to distribute naked ones I 'll cover Hungry and thirsty souls I will relieve Widows distress'd in me shall find another Husband to orphanes I will be in stead Of parents to provide their daily bread I 'll never empty send the poore away The Church shall ever find my purse unty'd The King shall have his due without delay The Common-wealth shall never be deny'd Thus shall my wealth be common unto many If ever God be pleas'd to send me any Riches so justly gotten and imploy'd So piously although they cannot make A man immortall that he should avoid The grave and rottennesse yet do not shake The soul with terrours and such desperate fears As what 's ill gotten doth when Death appears Make me a faithfull Steward holy Father Of what thou hast intrusted me withall Where I straw'd not grant I may never gather Nor sinne in spending Then send Death to call Me to account Lord when thou wilt and I Shall entertein the message joyfully Sect. 2. Honours cannot protect us from the stroke of Death OF honours all that can be said doth meet In Kings and Princes glory majesty Command and titles yet their sacred feet Trudge to the grave-ward Power Royaltie A Kingdome Crown and Sceptre cannot be Protections against mortalitie Princes are Gods on earth yet sure they must As well as meaner men be sick and die Their Royall bodies shall be chang'd to dust No crown below is worn eternally Of all those Kings which in Gods book we reade One died and another reign'd in 's stead If good and loyall subjects had their wish A gracious Prince should never see the grave Nor should his Royall corps be made a dish For worms but pious wishes will not save A King from dust As other mens his breath Is in his nostrils Crowns must bow to Death Sure were it not a kind of petty treason To wish his Majesty so long without A crown of glory I should think it reason To pray his lamp of life might ne'r go out Though not in 's self yet Lord grant he may be Immortall in a blessed progenie Meditation 1. ' MOngst us an humble great one is a wonder Rarer by ods then is a winters thunder Great men and good each other seldome kisse Pride to preferment 's married O! there is Not a thought within their brain Of a grave nor yet of seeing Death nor do they dream of being Changed into dust again Consider Sir though you have been a taster Of Princes favours mounted all degrees Of honour have been called Lord and Master Though your approch hath bow'd as many knees As once mighty Hamans yet Is it not Eternity That you hold your greatnesse by Death and you must one day meet As I remember I have read a story That one in Embassy sent from the King Of Persia to Rome was shew'd the glory Of that proud citie every famous thing That was by the Romanes thought To expresse the great and mighty Prowesse of their glorious city Thither was the Persian brought There he beheld such glorious structures rais'd To dare the skies that outwent all examples Where art and cost workman and founder prais'd Baths Theatres Tombs Monuments and Temples Statues that would wonder-strike Any mortall man that should Once behold them neither could All the world shew the like After this view Romes mighty Emperour Longing for praises in the Persian tongue Demanded of this strange Embassadour What he now thought of Rome I should do wrong To your sacred Majesty Thus th' Ambassadour reply'd And this glorious place beside If I should not magnifie Both you and it But one thing I dislike In Rome it self I see that Death doth reigne As well here as in Persia and doth strike The greatest down and when he please doth chain People Senatours and Kings In cold setters made of dust Even noble Romanes must Feel what putrefaction brings Your Emperours themselves have had their turns In fun'rall piles These tombs can testify The Caesars mortall In these sacred urns What lies but royall dust Mortality Happens here and I know no man But hath power to hold his breath As long and is free from Death As much as the noblest Romane Look we a little on this land of ours Here 's plenty peace and every other blessing Into her bosome God in plenteous showres Rains kindnesses that are beyond expressing Sure
sithe and mows us down When we are apt to say for ought we know As yet we have an age of dayes to grow Our life 's a flower that groweth in the field A garden-flower is but a fading thing Though it hath hedges banks and walls to shield It self from cropping long 't is e'r the spring Doth bring it forth three quarters of a yeare Are gone before its beauty doth appear And when it shineth in its fairest pride One hand or other will be sure to pluck it But let 's suppose all snatching fingers ty'd And grant withall that never Bee doth suck it To blemish it a jote yet will the breath Of winter blow the fairest flower to death 'T is long before we get us very farre Into the world for after generation There is a time when lifelesse lumps we are And have not bodies of a humane fashion Such as we have both life and motion want And when we live we live but like a plant A while we do but grow then like a beast We have our senses next indeed we live The life of him that lives to be a feast For despicable worms The womb doth give No passage to us yet we are like corn Sown lately sit to be but are not born When born 't is long before we can procure Our legs or understandings to assist us And then 't is long before we grow mature And all this while if sudden Death hath mist us Yet in the hoary winter of our age Our part is ended and we quit the stage Lord what is man Lord rather what am I I cannot tell my self unlesse thou teach me From thee came Know thy self down through the skie To mortalls here Thy servant doth beseech thee To make me know though it be to my shame How vanishing how weak and frail I am Meditation 2. VVHat would I do if I were sure to die Within this houre sure heartily repent My sinfull couch should never more be drie But drown'd in tears sad grones my heart should rent And my sorrow still increase With repenting till I die That once reconciled I Might be found of God in peace Then presently I 'll set about it for My time 's uncertain and for ought I know God may not leave my soul a minute more To animate my body here below Deep-fetch'd sighs and godly sorrow Shall possesse my heart to day 'T is a foolish sinne to say That I will repent to morrow What if I die before just as the tree Doth fall it lies When I am in the grave I cannot grieve for sinne nor can I be Converted unto God nor pardon crave Had I breath and grace to crave it Yet God's time of mercie 's gone 'T is giv'n in this life alone In the next I cannot have it What would I leave undone if ghastly Death Stood at my elbow sure I would not wallow In those pollutions that reigne here beneath No lewd and wicked courses would I follow I should tremble at a thought Of uncleannesse if I were Sure that dreadfull time were near When I must to earth be brought Why should I sinne at all for in the act Of my next sinne a sudden Death may catch me A town secure is much the sooner sack'd What know I but God setteth Death to watch me That when any lust hath press'd me For his service that I may Down to hell without delay Death may presently arrest me If we did well still should we fear to meet Death in those places where we use to sinne And as we enter think we heare the feet Of Death behind us coming softly in We should fear when sinnes delight us When we swallow any crime Lest that very point of time Justice should send Death to smite us I know whatever is on this side hell Is mercie all that we were not sent thither When we sinn'd last is mercie What befell Zimri and Cozbi as they lay together Phinehas zealous spear did thrust Both to death and bored holes To let out those guilty souls Which were melted into lust Help me O Lord to do and leave undone What thou command'st for sudden Death prepare me That at what time soe'r my glasse is run Thy holy Angels may to heav'n bear me Give thy servant grace that I May so fear the face of sinne As a serpents lest that in Th' unrepented act I die Meditation 3. DOth Death come suddenly so much the better If I am readie and do daily die So much the sooner 't will my soul unfetter T' enjoy the best degree of libertie And if Death will send me where I shall evermore remain I will never care how vain Or how frail my life is here My life is like the wind but when this puff Is pass'd I shall eternally enjoy A place in heav'n where all is calm enough Where never blast is felt that brings annoy Where is everlasting ease Not a storm nor tempest there Nor a jote of trouble where All is quietnesse and peace My life is like a vapour but assoon As this thin mist this vapour is dispersed My day shall be an undeclining noon Whose glorious brightnesse cannot be rehearsed Which will shew me for so clear And so shining is that place God immortall face to face Whom I saw but darkly here My life is water spilt and cast away Upon the ground but after it is shod In stead thereof I shall a stream injoy As Crystall clear which from the throne of God And the Lamb of God proceedeth Water 't is of life and lasteth Ever which a soul that tasteth Once no more refreshing needeth My life is like a shadow that doth vanish But whensoe'r this shadow 's vanish'd quite Substantiall gâ—…es will my soul replenish And solid joyes will crown it with delight The worlds are but fading joyes Shadows we all purchasâ— here Never untill Death appear Have we true and reall joyes My life 's a flower but when it withers here It is transplanted into paradise Where all things planted flourish all the year Where Boreas never breaths a cake of ice With sweet air the place is blest There is an eternall spring Thither Lord thy servant bring Here my homely Muse doth rest Nor another flight will make Till she see how this will take FINIS
their Epitaphs in curious layes Once with a singing Swan a part she bears As soon 's those corall doores dismiss'd her voice The poore Swan held his peace and di'd And the spheres as men do say Dumbly move unto this day This was by a rivers side What think you now of such a glorious woman This Phoenix sure was she if any might That might be proud And yet the tongue of no man Can well expresse nor any pen can write What grim death hath done unto her Now she 's of another feature Hardly can you know the creature Stay a while and we will view her Th' almighty King that dwells above in heaven Directs to 's high Shrieve Death a certain writ Wherein a strait imperiall charge was given At 's utmost peril forthwith on sight of it To arrest that piece of beauty And to wrap her up in clay ' Gainst the last great judgement-day Death address'd him to his duty And with great care gives warrant by and by Unto his baillifs Fever Pox and Gout Phrensie Strangury Colick Squinancy Consumption Dropsie and an ugly rout Beside these for to assail her Deaths command was that they must Tie her fast in chains of dust He gave charge that none should bail her You would not think with what a furious pace These catchpoles flie to pull this creature down But Pox was nimblest she got to her face And plow'd it up This hag goes in a gown Rugged and of colour tawny Button'd o're from top to toe Skin-deep beauties deadly foe Uglier hag was never any Fain would the rest have fastned on her too But that this hag had frighted out her soul Now looks her carcase of another hue Grim ugly lothsome ghastly and as soul As did ever eye look on What 's become of that complexion Which held all hearts in subjection In a moment all is gone If we might be so bold to dig the grave Some few years hence where this good woman lies Sure we should find this beauty but a slave To pallid putresaction and a prize For those silly vermine worms As they crawl in stinking swarms She doth hug them in her arms And doth give them suck by turns Here 's a deformed lump indeed and this Must be the fortune of the fairest face None then are proud but fools They love amisse Whose hearts are chain'd to any thing but grace From the beauty of the skin In the loveliest outward part Lord vouchsafe to turn my heart To love that which is within Meditation 3. IF Death will come sure there will come an end Of all this worlds deep-biting misery Nothing adverse that 's here on earth doth tend Beyond the grave that 's a delivery From the pow'r of men and devils And what-ever other wo May befall us here below Death 's a shelter from all evils Here I am poore my daily drops of sweat Will not maintein my full-stock'd family A dozen hungry children crie for meat And I have none nor will words satisfie Could I give their belly ears 'T were a comfort or could fill Hungry stomacks with good will Or make daily bread of tears Here the oppressour with his griping claws Sits on my skirts my racking land-lord rears Both rent and fine with potent looks he aws Me from mine own Scarce any man but bears In his bosome Ahabs heart Horse-leach-like that 's ever craving Other mens and sick of having Right or wrong will catch a part Here in these clay-built houses sicknesse reigns I have more maladies then I can name Each member of my body hath its pains Moreover weeping groning sadnesse shame Slanders melancholy fear Discontents disgraces losses And a thousand other crosses Must be born if I live here But these are finite all When I am dead My poverty is ended and my care I heare my famish'd children crie for bread No longer Then I drink I lodge I fare Just as well as Caesar doth There ends cold and nakednesse All my former wretchednesse Death is meat and drink and cloth There 's no face-grinding There the mighty cease From troubling there the weary be at rest The servant 's freed the pris'ner is at ease All 's still and quiet no man is oppress'd For incroachers there are none Not a poore man 's wronged nor Is his vineyard longed for Every man may keep his own Sicknesse there 's none when-ever Death shall take My body hence and lodge it in the clay I shall not feel a tooth or finger ake Nor any other misery that may In the least degree displease me For all sores the grave hath plasters And it cureth all disasters Of all burdens Death will ease me Malicious tongues fired below in hell There will not hurt me nor the poisonous breath Of whispering detractours I shall dwell Securely in the dust One stroke of Death Sets me out of gun-shot quite Not the deepest-piercing tongue Can there do me any wrong Bark they may but cannot bite Lord I am thine and if it be thy will While I do live a stranger here below Brim-high with bitternesse my cup to fill And make me drink 't yet Lord withall bestow But thy grace and thou shalt see me Patient and my comfort 's this That a short affliction 't is In a moment Death may free me Meditation 4. IF I must die it must be my endeavour So to provide that every thought of Death May be a thought of comfort that when-ever That aged sire shall take away my breath I may willingly lay down This old house that 's made of clay Gladly welcoming the day That brings an eternall crown But of all things a holy life 's the way Must lead me to a comfortable end To crucifie my lusts and to obey Gods sacred will in all things This doth tend Unto comfort joy and ease Mark the man that is upright And sets God alwayes in 's sight That mans end is ever peace What makes me fear a serpent 't is his sting The mischief 's there When that is taken out I can look on him as a harmlesse thing And in my bosome carry him about What makes Death look rufully Not Deaths self it is his sting That doth fear and horrour bring And makes men so loth to die The sting of death is sinne but there 's a Jesus Hath pluck'd it out The guilt 's done quite away The stain is wash'd He sent his Spirit to ease us In some good measure of that kingly sway Which o're us sinne held before Blessed work of grace now I Strongest lusts can mortifie In my soul sinne reigns no more Now in me holinesse is wrought which is A pious disposition of the heart Inclining me to hate what 's done amisse In me and others never to depart From God to left hand or right Nor one of his laws to break But to think and do and speak What 's well-pleasing in his sight Each act from faith and love ariseth and The end I aim at is my Makers
praise His word 's my rule my warrant 's his command Thus am I fitted Death cut off my dayes If thou wilt within this houre I will thank thee for thy pain For to me to die is gain I 'll not fear a jote thy power What canst thou do that justly may affright me Though with thee in the dark I dwell a space Yet canst thou not eternally benight me Thou art my passage to a glorious place Where shall not be any night My rais'd ashes shall enjoy There an everlasting day And an uneclipsed light I fear not death because of putrefaction Nor if I might would willingly decline it My body gains by 't 't is the graves best action God as a founder melts it to refine it Death cannot annihilate And in despite of the grave Yet I shall a body have Fairer and in better state Gods second work excells his first by ods Our second birth life Adam to repair Our bodies is a second work of Gods To make them better then at first they were Glorious immortall sound Nimble beautifull and so Splendid that from top to toe Not a blemish may be found What begger weeps when 's rags are thrown away To put on better clothes Who is 't will grieve To pull a rotten house down that it may Be fairer built Why should we not receive Death with both hands when he comes To pull off those rags that hide us To unhouse us and provide us Richer clothes and better homes The griping pangs of Death do not affright My heart at all I have deserved mo And if upon no other terms I might Enjoy my God I to my God would go Through hells self although a throng Of an hundred thousand juries Of the black'st infernall Furies Claw'd me as I went along Nor can those inward terrours make me quake Which Death-beds often on the soul do bring I have no Death-bed-reck'nings for to make 'T was made while I was well and every thing Was dispatch'd before that I Nothing in the world now save Home-desiring longings have Then to do but just to die Nor doth it trouble me that Death will take me From those delights that are enjoy'd below Alas I know that none of them can make me One jote the happier man nor can bestow Any comfort Carnall gladnesse Mirth delight and jollity This worlds best felicitie All is vanity and madnesse Mere empty husks Had I as many treasures In my possession as the muddiest wretch Did ever covet and as many pleasures As from the creature fleshly men can fetch Had I this or if I were Supreme Monarch onely Lord Of what earth and sea afford Yet I would not settle here To be dissolv'd is better Death doth bring A fairer fortune then it takes away It sets us in a world where every thing Is a happinesse a full and solid joy Not to be conceiv'd before We come thither but the blisse Which exceedeth all is this That there we shall sinne no more Lord grant a copious portion of thy Spirit The more I have of that the lesse I fear What Death can do for sure I shall inherit All joy in heaven if I am holy here Nought suits with heaven but sanctitie Let my God thy Spirit and grace Fit me for that holy place And that holy companie Meditation 5. IF Death will come what do men mean to sinne With so much greedinesse me thinks I see What a sad case the godlesse world is in How fast asleep in her securitie Fearlessely in sinne men live As if Death would never come Or there were no day of doom When they must a reck'ning give Observe a little yonder black-mouth'd swearer How 's tongue with oathes and curses pelts the skies 'T would grieve the heart of any pious hearer But to bear witnesse of his blasphemies He darts wounds at God on high Puts on cursing as his clothes And doth wrap his tongue in oathes To abuse Eternity In lawlesse lust the fornicatour fries And longs to slake it 'twixt forbidden sheets Ne'r sets the sunne but his adulterous eyes Observes the twilight and his harlot meets That which follows when the night Draws its curtain o'r the air To conceal this goatish pair Modesty forbids to write And I could shew you were it worth the viewing In that room three or foure drunkards reeling In this as many more that sweat with spewing Some that have drunk away their sense and seeling Men of all sorts in their wine And their ale sit domineering Cursing railing roring swearing Under every baser signe 'T is said so vile is this big-belly'd sinne That in a day and lesse some foure or five Of lustie drunken throats will swallow in More then hath kept two families alive A whole forthnight yet made they Merrie with 't Had I my wishes Such gulls should not drink like fishes But their throats should chāge their trade The covetous man with his usurious clutches Doth catch and hold fast all the wealth he may He leans on 't as a creeple on his crutches The miser studies nothing night and day But his gain he 's like a swine Looking downward like a mole Blind and of an earthen soul Minding nothing that 's divine These and beside these other sorts of sinners In every parish you may dayly see As greedy at their sinnes as at their dinners And wallowing in all impiety Sure these miscreants do never Entertein a thought of dying Nor yet are afraid of frying In hell flames for altogether Thou God of spirits be pleas'd to aw my heart With death and judgement that when I would sinne I may remember that I must depart And whatsoe're condition I am in When I sink under Deaths hand There 's no penance in the grave Nor then can I mercy have So must I in judgement stand Meditation 6. Lord what a thief is Death it robs us quite Of all the world great men of all their honours Luxurious men of all their fond delight Rich men of all their money farms and mannours Naked did the world find us And the world will leave us so We shall carrie when we go Nothing but leave all behind us Let Death do 's worst ambitious men do climb By any sinne though it be ne're so soul Gold-thirsty misers swallow any crime That brings gain with it though it kill the soul Here for gain is over-reaching Cosening cheating lying stealing Knavish and sinister dealing All arts of the devils teaching Whilst I am well advis'd I 'll never strive T' increase my wealth if 't will increase my sinne I will be rather poore then seek to thrive By means unlawfull all 's not worth a pinne When mine eye-lids Death doth close What I sinned for must be Shak'd hands with eternally But the sinne that with me goes I 'll not wast love upon these lower things Nor on the choicest of them doting sit For when sad Death a habeas corpus brings To take the world from me and me from it '
we of this kingdome may Justly our Creatour praise For a share in happier dayes Then Rome did at best enjoy Ours is a land of barly and of wheat Our stones are iron and our hills yield brasse A land wherein th' inhabitants do eat Bread without scarcenesse here our blessings passe All enumeration What God severally bestows Upon others joyntly flows From his bounty to this nation Yet here men die too not the russet Clowns And Peasants onely that do hold the plow And Shepherds that sit piping on the downs And milk-maids that do court'sie to a cow But those noble men that have Titles lordships farms and mannours And a great book full of honours These go down into the grave See you not yonder super-stately palace Three generations since that house was builded A great man did it for his Lordships solace In summer-time but dying up he yielded To his heir this stately pile This heir left it to his brother He dy'd too and then another Swagger'd there a little while And he that had it last is now remov'd A story lower down into the dust Those swelling titles which were so belov'd That great estate in which the man did trust Troups of gallants that did give Their attendance all that treasure Waiting on his Lordships pleasure Could not keep the man alive Mark yonder marble-tomb beneath it hath This man a lodging All those lines you see On this side are a praising Epitaph And on the other side his titles be Of this fabrick if we might One piece from another sunder And behold what lyeth under 'T would be scarce so fair a sight Great ones remember that there is a place Which poore men call a death-bed and a time Of parting hence you walk a nimble pace To earth-ward every houre Here though you climb Up to Honour 's highest round Drink a cup full to the brim Of the world in pleasures swim Death will lay you under ground Meditation 2. VVHose heart so adamantine but would weep Sad crimson drops to think upon some risers Lord what a wicked shuffling they do keep To lift themselves Some have been sacrificers Of their fathers brothers friends Kinsfolk children and have stood Wetshod every step in bloud To attein their lofty ends Of martyrs what a lamentable heap Did Herod make for fear to loose his crown A mother would have sold a cradle cheap To buy a coffin or a mourning gown This fell Tyrants rage appears Running down each Parents face His wrath left in every place Childlesse mothers drown'd in tears And Absolom that miracle of beauty So eagerly did long to be a King That he could soon unlearn his filiall duty And by a strange rebellion fain would bring The thrice-venerable head Of his aged father down To the grave without a crown And he triumph in his stead Abimelech so strong was his ambition A bloudie bargain made with certain men Of Belial and to hinder competition Did sacrifice at once threescore and ten Of his brothers on a stone With so foul and deep a guilt So much harmlesse bloud is spilt That himself may reigne alone Of that inhumane hell-bred tragedie By Athaliah on the royall seed The motive was desire of majestie And that her own arms might the better speed Our third Richard goes for one Of those butchers who think good To cement their crowns with bloud And by murders reach a throne The great Turks absolute prerogative Which in securitie his crown mainteins Is not to suffer one of them to live That hath a drop of royall bloud in 's veins When he 's crown'd there 's nothing lacking That may to the safetie tend Of this Monarch but to send The ghosts of his kinsmen packing If I at leisure were to write a storie Of such black deeds as these at large I could Tell you of numbers who to purchase glorie Honours and high rooms in the world have sold And this policie they call A good conscience dearer farre Then a thousand kingdomes are And to boot their God and all And yet when all is done there dwells a God above A God that 's greater then the greatest are Who can and will send Death for to remove The greatest hence and bring them to the barre Where must stand both small and great To have sentence e'r they go Of eternall blisse or wo At Gods dreadfull judgement-seat When you are seated highest let your carriage Be full of pietie you do an act Worthy your greatnesse if you make a marriage 'Twixt it and goodnesse if you do contract Honours unto holynesse Ever give the Lord his due Honour who hath honoured you Then will Death affright the lesse Affright the lesse 't will not affright at all The errand 's welcome when a charge is giv'n To that grim pursuivant that he must call Your honours hence unto a court in heav'n To be great is not the thing That can dying-comforts yield Goodnesse onely is the field Whence all soul-refreshings spring Meditation 3. IF ever it should please God and the King Which I do not desire to give me honours Yet never should my best preferments bring Vices to boot they should not change my manners Many a man hath been good Unpreferr'd and not a slave To his lusts yet honours have Put him in another mood Of Saul we heare no evil whilst he stood Endow'd with nothing but a private fortune And afterward we heare as little good Of Saul a King His honours did importune His bad nature to produce Such fruits as were too unsit For a King and to commit Sinnes that were beyond excuse As long as man is limited within The bounds of humble base and mean estate He seems to make some conscience of a sinne And one that would be good at any rate But no wickednesse he spares When by chance the man is mounted And ' mongst great ones is accounted Then the man himself declares Then his depraved nature with loose rains Runnes uncontrolledly into the mire Of all impietie no sinne remains Unacted by him doth he but desire To be wicked vain or idle Any lust to satisfie That lust he will gratifie His affections wear no bridle I 'll never be deboist although my seat Of glory in the world be ne'r so high I will not therefore sinne because I 'm great For if I greater were yet I must die And must at Gods bench appear Where my sentence shall be given To receive a hell or heaven As my doings have been here Sect. 3. Pleasures cannot protect us from the stroke of Death Under the sunne there was not any joy Which Solomon that wise and famous King Had not a tast of whatsoever may Gladnesse content delight and solace bring That he from the creature gathers Not one pleasure doth he keep His heart from yet he 's asleep In the dust among his fathers His senses had those objects which delight Content and please and ravish most his touch His tast his hearing smelling and his
cannot see Things divine for yet they be In their naturall condition But sanctified souls have better eyes Each Person in the sacred Trinitie Sends comfort down and such as farre outvies The best delight that is below the skie Father Sonne and holy Ghost Be it spoke with reverence Seem to strive which shall dispense Blessings that do comfort most The Father as his title often writes Himself a God of peace and consolation He sends me comforts by those sacred lights Which bring me errands from his habitation And so firm and full and free Is each promise in his book That on whichsoe'r I look Blessed comforts I do see So firm that first the hugest hills and mountains Shall dance out of their places starres shall fall Streams shall run backward to their mother-fountains The earth shall tumble ere he will recall One of 's promises For why And this gives strong consolation In the middest of temptation He 's a God and cannot lie So full that there 's not any thing left out That I could wish What I would have him be God is Would I be compassed about With mercie find relief in miserie Would I by his Spirit be led And have all my sinnes forgiven And hereafter go to heaven All this God hath promised So free that to deserve that promis'd glory I nothing have but what his mercie gave me 'T is gratis rather then compensatorie Whatever God doth to convert or save me And if any good I do 'T is done by supplies Divine So Gods work and none of mine Grace begins and ends it too What if by nature I was made a sheep And by corruption I am gone astray Whether I think or speak or do or sleep Or wake do ever wander from the way I was set in and am toss'd So by lust that my soul wanders Into many by-meanders Like a sillie sheep that 's lost Yet God 's my shepherd When his mercy spi'd me Wandring it brought me home and ever since It doth watch over feed defend and guide me And ever will do so till I go hence And hereafter in the even When my latest sand is runne And my pasture here is done It will sold my soul in heaven The Sonne doth comfort 'T was his errand down To preach glad tidings to the meek and turn Their wo to ease to earn a glorious crown For sinners and to comfort those that mourn Broken-hearted ones to bind And to set at libertie Pris'ners in captivitie And give eye-sight to the blind There 's comfort in his wounds His sacred stripes Do heal our leprous souls of all their sores 'T is nothing but his pretious bloud that wipes Our guilt away and cancelleth our scores Six times did he shed his bloud And sure our estate did need it That so many times he did it And each drop was for our good Those circumcision-drops of 's infancie Those drops that 's anguish in the garden vented Those drops when he was scourged Jewishly Those drops when 's head with sharpest thorns was tented Those drops when his limbs were nailed To the crosse those when the fierce Souldiers spear his side did pierce Each drop for our good prevailed There 's comfort in his crosse That vile old man That hangs about us to our dying day Is crucified with him that it can Not exercise half of its wonted sway Lessened is its kingly power Surely sinne it struggles so Hath receiv'd a mortall blow And is dying everie houre There 's comfort in his death For us he dy'd For us he felt his Fathers heavie wrath And his impartiall justice satisfi'd And us his alsufficient passion hath Pluck'd from Satan vi armis And his meritorious pain Freed us from sinnes guilt and stain And whatever else might harm us There 's comfort in his resurrection too He rose again that we might be accounted Righteous and just This no man else could do And that our sinnes whose number farre surmounted All the starres that shine in heaven All our hairs and all the sand That lies scattered on the strand For his sake might be forgiven And God the holy Ghost doth comfort bring By speciall office it is his employment To settle in the soul a lively spring From whence doth issue such a sweet enjoyment Of divine heart-pleasing blisse As the world will not believe Nor can any heart conceive But the heart wherein it is It is this blessed Spirit that doth seal Assurance to my conscience of a share In what God in and through his Sonne doth deal To needy sinners that converted are It assures me of Gods love In the free and full remission Of my sinnes and exhibition Of those joyes that are above Let now the world that 's wont to tell a storie Of strange delights shew me but such a pleasure As to be sure of God and Christ and glory And then I 'll hug it as my choicest treasure Thus each Person of the three Is imploy'd if I do live Holy as I ought to give Joy and comfort unto me Grant a man once to be in Christ and he On sublunarie pleasures soon will trample And yet for pleasures who shews best will vie With all the world give him but one example What gets pleasure and what feeds it Whatsoe'r ' mongst earthly things To the mind most pleasure brings He can shew what farre exceeds it Can learning please he is a man of parts Me thinks sure at his very singers end He hath exactly all the liberall arts At least he hath such arts as will commend Any man a great deal more And will sooner bring to heaven Then will any of those seven On which learned men do pore His Logick is so scientificall His Syllogismes are in so blest a mood A thousand arguments his heart le ts fall That rightly from good premises conclude Him a child of God on high And a member of his Sonne And an heir when 's race is runne Of a blest Eternitie His Rhetorick excells He can perswade More then those well-penn'd sweet orations which Demosthenes or Tullie ever made Doth he that prayer-hearing God beseech Presently his eare he gains For fine words it is no matter Let him like a swallow chatter Or a crane yet he obtains And for Arithmetick his numeration Is of his dayes this makes the man applie His heart to wisdome that in any station He may perform his dutie prudently And those sinnes to make them hatefull Which his conscience most do cumber Everie day the man doth number And Gods blessings to be gratefull And for Addition 't is his diligence Vertue to adde to faith to vertue knowledge Love godlinesse peace kindnesse patience One to another that his soul 's a Colledge Filled with divinest graces And not one grace idle lies But all do their exercise In their severall turns and places When he subtracteth 't is not from the poore As most men do not from the King nor Church But from sinnes monstrous bodie More and more
midst of that friendly throng And turns them to dust again Meditation 2. THere 's none among the sacred troup of Saints Yet militant below but doth desire Gods favour most and most of all laments When it is lost and alway sets a higher Estimate upon the rayes That are darted from above By the God of peace and love Then on all he here enjoyes Ne'r doth the chased hart in hottest weather When horse and hound pursue him o'r the plains And hunt him sweating twentie miles together That all his bloud is boil'd within his veins When he 's to the hardest driven Pant so much for water-brooks As a soul deserted looks For a kind aspect from heav'n Once did Elias zealous prayers climb To heav'n and made the windows there so fast This came to passe in wicked Ahabs time That one and twentie months twice told were past E'r there fell a showre of rain Or a drop of morning dew In the meadows nothing grew Nor was any kind of grain Fed by the parched mold How do ye think That thirstie drie and barren land did yawn And gape to heav'n-ward for a draught of drink Just so whene'r Gods favour is withdrawn From a soul it doth distresse her Ne'r earth thirsted more for rain Then doth she for God again To relieve her and refresh her Have you not seen a mothers wofull tears Embalm the carcase of her onely sonne How to all comfort she stops both her eares Wrings both her hands and makes a bitter moan Fain in sorrow would she swim Or be drown'd it is so deep She hath heart enough to weep Heaven full up to the brim But this is nothing to that matchlesse anguish That breaks in pieces ev'rie pious heart And makes the soul with darkest sadnesse languish If from 't a sense of Gods good will depart O how strangely David 's troubled When God hid away his face Though but for a little space See how his complaints are doubled How long for ever Lord wilt thou forget me How long wilt thou thy gratious visage hide How long be angrie wilt thou never let me Enjoy thy face again shall I abide Thus for evermore berest Of all comfort joy and peace Shall my soul ne'r dwell at ease Hast thou Lord no mercy left O once again be pleas'd to turn and give My soul a relish of thy wonted grace There 's nothing can my sadded heart relieve If thou dost hide thy comfortable face Thou in tears thy servant drown'st Thou dost fill my cheeks with furrows And my soul with ghastly sorrows Whensoever Lord thou frown'st The world doth value at a precious rate Things here below Some highly prize their sport Some jewels some a plentifull estate And some preferments in a Princes court But for life we so esteem it Above whatsoe'r is best That with losse of all the rest We are ready to redeem it But none of these Gods children do regard So much as Gods love by a thousand parts Feel they but this to entertein 't is spar'd The best and highest room in all their hearts They affect no wordly pelf In comparison of this Kindnesse yea to them it is Better farre then life it self Have they no reason for this eager thirst After Gods love and friendship sure they see Gods favour and his kindnesse is the first And chiefest good all other friendships be Most deceitfull trustlesse vain When the pangs of Death do seise us Mortall favours cannot ease us God can rid us of our pain But grant he do not yet these pains shall send Our souls to him that loves us to enjoy A painlesse life that ne'r shall see an end He whom God loves can on a death-bed say I know my Redeemer liveth For me there 's laid up a crown When this clay-built house is down God a better mansion giveth I 'll never woo the smile of man whose breath Is in his nostrils by sinister wayes 'T will not advantage at the houre of Death All my supportment on these carnall stayes At the length will but deceive me 'T is to have a friend above 'T is Gods favour and his love Or else nothing must relieve me Lord make thy graces in my soul appear My heart from ev'rie lothsome blemish cleanse That I may clearly see thine image there For that 's an undeceived evidence Of thy favour which when I Once am certain to obtein I 'll not faint for any pain Nor will care how soon I die Sect. 5. Youth cannot protect us from the stroke of Death A Young man may die but an old man must This may die quickly that cannot live long Often are graves fill'd full with youthfull dust Though youth be jocund lustie merrie strong Yet is it subject unto Death-bed-pains 'T is mortall bloud that runnes along their veins In all appearance old mens halting feet are Mov'd to the grave-ward with the greatest speed Like that disciples which did outrunne Peter But sometimes younger men step in indeed And peradventure twentie years or more Sooner then those that looked in before Graves gape for ev'rie sort The butcher 's seen Often to kill the youngest of the flock Some long to pluck those apples that are green Death crops the branches and forbears the stock Children are wrapp'd up in their winding-sheets And aged parents mourn about the streets Jobs children di'd before himself for after The death of ten he liv'd to get ten other We sigh out Ah my sonne or Ah my daughter As oft as Ah my father or my mother The first that ever di'd resign'd his breath Nine hundred yeares before his fathers death Yea many times Deaths gripings are so cruel Before the groning mothers child-birth-pain Is past the infant 's buri'd like a jewel But shewn and presently shut up again Perhaps within a minute after birth Is forthwith sent to cradle in the earth Perhaps he is not born at all yet dies And dies a verie thriftie Death to save Fun'rall expenses he in 's mother lies Entombed both lodg'd in a single grave And with him lies in one poore narrow room His swadling-clouts nurse mother cradle tomb Meditation 1. SOme sinnes there be as holy writ doth teach That interrupt the current of our dayes He that 's found gultie of them cannot reach That length of life which he that 's free enjoyes Sinne you know and Death are twins Or Death is Sinnes progeny Many of us if we die In our youth may thank our sinnes One sinne is disobedience to that pair Which did beget us If I shall despise My parents lawfull precepts if my care Be not to do what 's pleasing in their eyes If I willingly neglect Any thing which I do know Is a duty that I ow I may Death betimes expect Another sinne is unprepar'd receiving That blessed Supper which doth feed and heal And in and to a soul that is believing A full release of sinnes doth freely seal Where that body and that bloud Is presented on the table
Which are infinitely able To do hungri'st sinners good If I come hither an unworthie guest Or if before my heart I do not prove Or if I come as to a common feast Or come without Thanks Knowledge Faith and Love If I carrie any crime Thither with me unlamented Or go ere I have repented Death may take me henoe betime Another is Bloud-thirstinesse when we To do a mischief are so strongly bent That we sleep not unlesse our projects be Contrived to insnare the innocent When we are so like the Devil Everie way satanicall That tongue brains heart hands and all Are imploy'd in what is evil These sinnes and others like them do procure Untimely Deaths Lord purifie my heart From everie sinne but chiefly Lord secure My soul from these that I may not depart Hence too soon Lord my desire Is not to live long but I Onely pray that I may die In thy favour not thine ire Meditation 2. THere is a sinne that seldome doth escape A rich mans heir yet 't is a foul transgression For parents Death with open mouth to gape That their estates may come to his possession He gapes that his friends may sleep Parentalia are rites Verie welcome he delights At a fathers grave to weep Poore hare-brain'd fool Perhaps thou may'st go first This night thy younger soul may be requir'd Thy Death may frustrate that ungodly thirst Whos 's then is that estate thou hast desir'd If these gallants were not blind Sure they could not choose but see That a thousand children be Dead their parents left behind Of any kind of sinne to speak the truth That Satan can beget upon the soul Most commonly man 's guilti'st in his youth Our youthfull nature is beyond controll Some examples are afforded In whose historie appears Loosenesse in our yonger years These the Scriptures have recorded The verie first that e'r suck'd mothers teat Because his works were naught his brothers good Did boil his choler to so strong a heat That he must slake it in his brothers bloud How much rancour did he show So much harmlesse bloud to spill And a quarter-part to kill Of all mankind at a blow Unnaturall accursed gracelesse Cham Never did grieve nor sigh nor blush but he Laugh'd at and mock'd his drunken fathers shame A sober fathers curse his portion be Prophane Esau did make sale Of 's birthright for 's bellie-full As ' mongst us there 's many a gull That sells heaven for pots of ale And Absalom was most deform'd within His head-piece had more hair then wit by ods His beautie went no deeper then his skinne He fear'd not mans law nor regarded Gods In him David had a sonne Beastly and ambitious too He did wrong his bed and do What he could to steal his throne Incestuous Amnon dotes upon his sister And in his own bloud cools his lawlesse fires That brother should have sinn'd that had but kiss'd her If mov'd unto it by unchast desires But he makes a rape upon her And so furious is his lust That it cannot hold but must Rob a virgin of her honour And I could tell you of a number more Most sinfull vitious vile exorbitant Whose courses are upon the Scriptures score As if their youth had sealed them a grant To be neither wise nor holy But to runne into excesse Of all kind of wickednesse And do homage unto follie The sage Gymnosophists who first did give The wilder Indians good and wholesome laws The Magi by whom Persia learn'd to live In order the Chaldei whose wise laws The Assyrians justly rul'd And did guiâ—…e in everie thing Numa Romes devoutest King Who the elder Romanes school'd That famous Solon whom th' Athenians ow For all their statutes and Lycurgus he Whose wisdome taught the Spartanes how to know What to omit and do and more there be That have publish'd wholesome laws To curb all indeed but yet Chiefly 't was to put a bit In mens wild and youthfull jaws It is a signe that colt is wild that needs So strong a bridle Ground that doth require So much manuring sure is full of weeds It is because she wallows in the mire That we need to wash a sow Men in youth must needs be bad To curb whom those laws were made Which we told you of but now 'T was a commanded custome that the Jews Should once in ev'rie two and fiftie weeks Visit their temple no man might refuse To worship there Each fourth year the Greeks Their Olympian sacrifice Orderly performed and Th' Egyptians us'd to stand Lifting up devoutest eyes Unto their Idole ev'ry seventh yeare Within th' appointed temple And 't is said Once in ten years the Romanes did appear To sacrifice then was Apollo paid His great Hecatomb and then Unto Delphos many went With their gifts for thither sent Presents ev'rie sort of men And of the Samnites authours do relate That th' ancient'st of them did most solemnly Once in five years their Lustra celebrate But 't is delivered by Antiquitie That the youth of all these nations Strictly all commanded were To these places to repair Oftner to make their oblations What doth this intimate but that the crimes Of youth are great and frequent and their vices Exorbitant that they so many times Have need to purge them by such sacrifices By experience we do find What bad courses men do follow In their youth and how they wallow In base lusts of ev'rie kind And if you ask these brainlesse hot-spurres why They dedicate themselves to such lewd courses They yet are young these gallants still replie And youth must have its swing but no remorse is Wrought at all in any heart For this lewdnesse there remains Not a thought within their brains That the youngest may depart Lord take possession of my heart betimes My youth is fittest for thy service take it Unto thy self make white those crimson crimes That fain would soil it let me never make it A pretense as many do To be lewd but think that I In the height of youth may die May die and be damned too Meditation 3. PArents methinks betime should strive to make Their children good that heaven may receive them If God should send an early Death to take Them from the earth it cannot choose but grieve them And fill full with bitter woe Any parents heart to see That their children wicked be And Death come and find them so Those fruitfull couples whom the Lord hath blest With children should take greatest care to breed them Religiously In this more love 's express'd Then in their care to cloth them or to feed them Or what else they can bestow For their life or livelyhood And to do their children good In the things that are below You must instruct your children in their way That 's double Civil and Religious too They must be taught Gods precepts to obey And to their neighbours give what is their due If you do not strive to set them By that