silly Eue Heire to thy Fathers foyles and borne to grieue In Thabors ioyes I eager was to dwell An earnest friend while pleasures light did shine But when eclipsed glory prostrate fell These zealous heates to sleepe I did resigne And now my mouth hath thrice his name defil'd That cry'd so loude three dwellings there to build When Christ attending the distressefull hower With his surcharged breast did blesse the ground Prostrate in pangs rayning a bleeding shower Me like my selfe a drowsie friend he found Thrice in his care sleepe clos'd by carelesse eye Presage how him my tongue should thrice deny Parting from Christ my fainting force declin'd With lingring foot I followed him aloofe Base feare out of my heart his loue vnshrin'd Huge in high words but impotent in proofe My vaunts did seeme hatcht vnder Sampsons locks Yet womans words did giue me murdering knocks So farre luke warme desires in crazie loue Farre off in neede with feeble foot they traine In tides they swim low ebbes they scorne to proue They seeke their friends delights but shun their paine Hire of an hireling minde is earned shame Take now thy due beare thy begotten blame Ah coole remisnesse vertues quartaine feuer Pyning of loue consumption of grace Old in the cradle languor dying euer Soules wilfull famine sinnes soft stealing pace The vndermining euill of zealous thought Seeming to bring no harmes till all be brought O portresse of the doore of my disgrace Whose tongue vnlockt the truth of vowed minde Whose words from Cowards heart did courage chase And let in death-full feares my soule to blind O hadst thou beene the portresse to my toombe When thou wert portresse to that cursed roome Yet loue was loth to part feare loth to die Stay danger life did counterpleade their causes I fauouring stay and life bad danger flie But danger did except against these clauses Yet stay and liue I would and danger shunne And lost my selfe while I my verdict wonne I stayd yet did my staying farthest part I liu'd but so that sauing life I lost it Danger I shunn'd but to my sorer smart I gained nought but deeper dammage crost it What danger distance death is worse then this That runnes from God and spoyles his soule of blisse O Iohn my guide into this earthly hell Too well acquainted in so ill a Court Where rayling mouthes with blasphemies did swell With tainted breath infecting all resort Why didst thou leade me to this hell of euils To shew my selfe a Fiend among the Deuils Euill president the tide that wafts to vice Dumme-Orator that wooes with silent deeds Writing in workes lessons of ill aduice The doing tale that eye in practice reeds Taster of ioyes to vnacquainted hunger With leauen of the old seasoning the yonger It seemes no fault to do that all haue done The number of offenders hide the sinne Coach drawne with many horse doth easely runne Soone followeth one where multitudes begin O had I in that Court much stronger bin Or not so strong as first to enter in Sharpe was the weather in that stormy place Best suting hearts benum'd with hellish frost Whos 's crusted malice could admit no grace Where coales are kindled to the warmers cost Where feare my thoughts canded with ycie cold Heate did my tongue to periuries vnfold O hatefull fire ah that I neuer saw it Too hard my heart was frozen for thy force Farre hotter flames it did require to thaw it Thy hell-resembling heate did freeze it worse O that I rather had congeal'd to yce Then bought thy warmth at such a damning price O wakefull bird proclaimer of the day Whose piercing note doth daunt the Lions rage Thy crowing did my selfe to me bewray My frights and brutish heates it did asswage But ô in this alone vnhappy Cocke That thou to count my foyles wert made the clocke O bird the iust rebuker of my crime The faithfull waker of my sleeping feares Be now the daily clocke to strike the time When stinted eyes shall pay their taske of teares Vpbraid mine eares with thine accusing crow To make me rue that first it made me know O milde reuenger of aspiring Pride Thou canst dismount high thoughts to low effects Thou mad'st a Cocke me for my fault to chide My lofty boasts this lowly bird corrects Well might a Cocke correct me with a crowe Whom hennish cackling first did ouerthrowe Weake weapons did Goliahs fumes abate Whose storming rage did thunder threats in vaine His body huge harnest with massie plate Yet Dauids stone brought death into his braine With staffe and sling as to a dog he came And with contempt did boasting furie tame Yet Dauid had with Beare and Lion fought His skilfull might excus'd Goliahs foile The death is eas'd that worthy hand hath wrought Some honour liues in honorable spoile But I on whom all infamies must light Was hist to death with words of womans spight Small gnats enforst th' Egyptian King to stoupe Yet they in swarmes and arm'd with piercing stings Smart noyse annoyance made his courage droupe No small incombrance such small vermine brings I quaild at words that neither bit nor stong And those deliuerd from a womans tong Ah feare abortiue impe of drouping minde Selfe ouerthrowe false friend roote of remorse Sighted in seeing euils in shunning blinde Foyld without field by fancie not by force Ague of valour phrensie of the wise True honours staine loues frost the mint of lies Can vertue wisedome strength by women spild In Dauids Salomons and Sampsons falls With semblance of excuse my errour guild Or lend a marble glosse to muddy walls O no their fault had shew of some pretence No veyle can hide the shame of my offence The blaze of beauties beames allur'd their lookes Their lookes by seeing oft conceiued loue Loue by effecting swallowed pleasures hookes Thus beauty loue and pleasure them did moue These Syrens sugred tunes rockt them asleepe Inough to damne yet not to damne so deepe But gracious features dazled not mine eyes Two homely Droyles were authors of my death Not loue but feare my senses did surprize Not feare of force but feare of womans breath And those vnarm'd ill grac'd despis'd vnknowne So base a blast my truth hath ouerthrowne O women woe to men traps for their falls Still actors in all Tragicall mischances Earths necessary euils captiuing thralls Now murdering with your tongues now with your glances Parents of life and loue spoylers of both The theeues of hearts false do you loue or loth In time O Lord thine eyes with mine did meete In them I read the ruines of my fall Their cheering rayes that made misfortune sweet Into my guilty thoughts powrd flouds of gall Their heauenly lookes that blest where they beheld Darts of disdaine and angrie checks did yeeld O sacred eyes the springs of liuing light The earthly heauens where Angels ioy to dwell How could you deigne to view my deathfull plight Or let your heauenly beames looke on my hell But
shame to vtter nor sinne to feele But whether my wishes in this behalfe take effect or not I reape at the least this reward of my paines that I haue shewed my desire to answer your curtesie and set forth the due praises of this glorious Saint Your louing friend R.S. To the Reader MAny suiting their labours to the popular vaine and guided by the gale of vulgar breath haue diuulged diuerse patheticall discourses in which if they had shewed as much care to profit as they haue done desire to please their workes would much more haue honored their names and auailed the Reader But it is a iust complaint among the better sort of persons that the finest wits lose themselues in the vainest follies spilling much Art in some idle fancie and leauing their workes as witnesses how long they haue beene in trauaile to be in fine deliuered of a fable And sure it is a thing greatly to be lamented that men of so high conceit should so much abase their habilities that when they haue racked them to the vttermost endeuour all the praise that they reape of their employment consisteth in this that they haue wisely told a foolish tale and carried a long lye very smoothly to the end Yet this inconuenience might find some excuse if the drift of their discourse leuelled at any vertuous marke For infables are often figured morall truths and that couertly vttered to a common good which without a maske would not find so free a passage But when the substance of the worke hath neither truth nor probability nor the purport thereof tendeth to any honest end the writer is rather to be pitied than praised and his bookes fitter for the fire than for the presse This common ouersight more haue obserued than endeuored to salue euery one being able to reprooue none willing to redresse such faults authorised especially by generall custome And though if necessitie the lawlesse patron of enforced actions had not more preuailed than choise this worke of so different a subiect from the vsuall vaine should haue bene no eye-sore to those that are pleased with worse matters Yet sith the copies thereof flew fo fast and so false abroad that it was in danger to come corrupted to the print it seemed a lesse euill to let it fly to common view in the natiue plume and with the owne wings than disguised in a coat of a bastard feather or cast off from the fast of such a corrector as might hapily haue perished the sound and imped in some sicke and sory feathers of his owne fansies It may be that curteous skill will reckon this though course in respect of others exquisite labours not vnfit to entertaine wel-tempered humours both with pleasure and profite the ground thereef being in Scripture and the forme of enlarging it an imitation of the ancient Doctors in the same and other points of like tenour This commodity at the least it will carry with it that the Reader may learne to loue without improofe of puritie and teach his thoughts either to temper passion in the meane or to giue the bridle onely where the excesse cannot be faulty Let the worke defend it selfe and euery one passe his censure as he seeth cause Many Carps are expected when curious eyes come a fishing But the care is already taken and patience wayteth at the cable ready to take away when that dish is serued in and to make roome for others to set on the desired fruit R.S. MARIE MAGDALENS FVNERAL TEARES AMongst other mourneful accidents of the passion of Christ that loue presenteth it selfe vnto my memory with which the blessed Marie Magdalene louing our Lord more than her selfe followed him in his iourney to his death attending vpon him when his disciples fled and being more willing to dye with him than they to liue without him But not finding the fauour to accompany him in death and loathing after him to remaine in life the fire of her true affection enflamed her heart and her enflamed heart resolued into vncessant teares so that burning and bathing betweene loue and griefe she led a life euer dying and felt a death neuer ending And when he by whom she liued was dead and she for whom he dyed enforcedly left aliue she praised the dead more than the liuing and hauing lost that light of her life she desired to dwell in darkenesse in the shadow of death choosing Christs Tombe for her best home and his coarse for her chiefe comfort For Mary as the Euangelist saith Stood without at the Tombe weeping But alas how vnfortunate is this woman to whom neither life will affoord a desired farewell nor death allow any wished welcome She hath abandoned the liuing and chosen the company of the dead and now it seemeth that euen the dead haue forsaken her sith the coarse she seeketh is taken away from her And this was the cause that loue induced her to stand and sorrow enforced her to weepe Her eye was watchfull to seeke whom her heart most longed to enioy and her foot in a readinesse to runne if her eye should chance to espy him And therefore she standeth to be still stirring prest to watch euery way and prepared to go whither any hope should call her But she wept because she had such occasion of standing and that which moued her to watch was the motiue of her teares For as she watched to finde whom she had lost so she wept for hauing lost whom she loued her poore eyes being troubled at once with two contrarie offices both to be cleare in sight the better to seeke him and yet cloudy with teares for missing the sight of him Yet was not this the entrance but the increase of her griefe not the beginning but the renewing of her moane For first she mourned for the departing of his soule out of his body and now she lamented the taking of his body out of the graue being punished with two wreckes of her onely welfare both full of miserie but the last without all comfort The first originall of her sorrow grew because she could not enioy him aliue yet this sorrow had some solace for that she hoped to haue enioyed him dead But when she considered that his life was already lost and now not so much as his body could be found she was wholly daunted with dismay sith this vnhappinesse admitted no helpe She doubted lest the loue of her maister the onely portion that her fortune had left her would soone languish in her cold breast if it neither had his words to kindle it nor his presence to cherish it nor so much as his dead ashes to rake it vp She had prepared her spices and prouided her oyntments to pay him the last tribute of externall duties And though Ioseph and Nicodemus had already bestowed an hundreth pounds of Mirrhe and Aloes which was in quantity sufficient in quality of the best and as well applyed as art and deuotion could deuise yet such was
this empty Syndon lyeth here to no vse and this Tombe being open without any in it may giue occasion to some mercifull heart that shall first light vpon my vnburied body to wrap me in his shroud and to interre me in this Tombe O too fortunate lot for so vnfortunate a woman to craue no no I do not craue it For alas I dare not yet if such an ouer-sight should be committed I do now before-hand forgiue that sinner and were it no more presumption to wish it aliue than to suffer it dead if I knew the party that should first passe by me I would woo him with my teares and hire him with my prayers to blesse me with this felicity And though I dare not wish any to do it yet this without offence I may say to all that I loue this Syndon aboue all clothes in the world and this Tombe I esteeme more than any Princes monument yea and I thinke that coarse highly fauored that shall succeed my Lord in it and for my part as I meane that the ground where I stand shall be my death-bed so am I not of Iacobs mind to haue my body buried farre from the place where it dyeth but euen in the next and readiest graue and that as soone as my breath faileth sith delayes are bootlesse where death hath won possession But alas I dare not say any more let my body take such fortune as befalleth it my soule at the least shall dwell in this sweet Paradise and from this brittle case of flesh and bloud passe presently into the glorious Tombe of God and man It is now enwrapped in a masse of corruption it shall then enioy a place of high perfection where it is now it is more by force than by choise and like a repining prisoner in a loathed gaile but there in a little roome it should find perfect rest and in the prison of death the liberty of a ioyfull life O sweet Tombe of my sweetest Lord while I liue I will stay by thee when I die I will cleaue vnto thee neither aliue nor dead will I euer be drawne from thee Thou art the Altar of mercie the temple of truth the sanctuary of safeâ—ie the graue of death and the cradle of eternall life O heauen of my eclipsed Sunne receiue vnto thee this silly starre that hath now also lost all wished light O Whale that hast swallowed my onely Ionas swallow also me more worthy to be thy prey sith I and not he was the cause of this bloudie tempest O Cesterne of my innocent Ioseph take me into thy drie bottome sith I and not he gaue iust cause of offence to my enraged brethren But alas in what cloud hast thou hidden the light of our way Vpon what shore hast thou cast vp the Preacher of all truth or to what Ismaelite hast thou yeelded the purueiour of our life Oh vnhappy me why did I not before thinke of that which I now aske Why did I leaue him when I had him thus to lament him now that I haue lost him If I had watched with perseuerance either none would haue taken him or they should haue taken me with him But through too much precisenesse in keeping the Law I haue lost the Law-maker and by being too scrupulous in obseruing his ceremonies I am proued irreligious in losing him selfe sith I should rather haue remained with the truth than forsaken it to solemnize the figure The Sabboth could not haue bene prophaned in standing by his coarse by which the prophaned things are sanctified and whose touch doth not defile the cleane but cleanseth the most defiled But when it was time to stay I departed when it was too late to helpe I returned and now I repent my folly when it cannot be amended But let my heart dissolue into sighes mine eyes melt in teares and my desolate soule languish in dislikes yea let all that I am and haue endure the deserued punishment that if he were incensed with my fault he may be appeased with my penance and returne vpon the amendment that fled from the offence Thus when her timorous conscience had indited her of so great an omission and her tongue enforced the euidence with these bitter accusations Loue that was now the onely vmpire in all her causes condemned her eyes to a fresh showre of teares her breast to a new storme of sighes and her soule to be perpetuall prisoner to restlesse sorrowes But ô Mary thou deceiuest thy selfe in thy owne desires and it well appeareth that excesse of griefe hath bred in thee a defect of due prouidence And wouldest thou indeed haue thy wishes come to passe and thy words fulfilled Tell me then I pray thee if thy heart were dissolued where wouldest thou harbour thy Lord what wouldest thou offer him how wouldest thou loue him Thine eyes haue lost him thy hands cannot feele him thy feet cannot follow him and if it be at all in thee it is thy heart that hath him and wouldest thou now haue that dissolued from thence also to exile him And if thine eyes were melted thy soule in langour and thy senses decayed how wouldest thou see him if he did appeare how shouldest thou heare him if he did speake how couldest thou know him though he were there present Thou thinkest haply that he loued thee so well that if thy heart were spent for his loue he would either lend his own heart vnto thee or create a new heart in thee better than that which thy sorrow tooke from thee It may be thou imaginest that if thy soule would giue place his soule wanting now a bodie would enter into thine with supply of all thy senses and release of thy sorrowes O Mary thou diddest not marke what thy maister was wont to say when he told thee that the third day he should rise againe For if thou hadst heard him or at the least vnderstood him thou wouldest not thinke but that he now vsed both his heart and soule in the life of his owne body And therefore repaire to the Angels and enquire more of them lest the Lord be displeased that comming from him thou wilt not entertaine them But Mary whose deuotions were all fixed vpon a nobler Saint and that had so straightly bound her thoughts to his only affection that she rather desired to vnknow whom she knew already than to burthen her mind with the knowledge of new acquaintance could not make her will long since possessed with the highest loue stoope to the acceptance of meaner friendships And for this though she did not scornefully reiect yet did she with humilitie refuse the Angels company thinking it no discourtesie to take her selfe from them for to giue her selfe more wholly to her Lord to whom both she and they were wholly deuoted ought most loue and greatest duty Sorrow also being now the onely interpreter of all that sense deliuered to her vnderstanding made her conster their demand in a more doubtfull than true
Disciples But thy loue had no leisure to cast so many doubts Thy teares were Interpreters of thy words and thy innocent meaning was written in thy dolefull countenance Thine eyes were rather pleaders for pitty than Heraulds of wrath and thy whole person presented such a patterne of thy extreame anguish that no man from thy presence could take in any other impression And therefore what thy words wanted thy action supplied and what his eare might mistake his eye did vnderstand It might be also that what he wrought in thy heart was concealed from thy sight and haply his voice and demeanour did import such compassion of thy case that he seemed as willing to affoord as thou desirest to haue his helpe And so presuming by his behauiour that thy suite should not suffer repulse the tenour of thy request doth but argue thy hope of a graunt But what is the reason that in all thy speeches which since the misse of thy maister thou hast vttered where they haue put him is alwayes a part So thou saydest to the Apostles the same to the Angels and now thou doest repeate it to this supposed Garderner very sweete must this word be in thy heart that is so often in thy mouth it would neuet be so ready in thy tongue if it were not very fresh in thy memory But what maruaile though it tast so sweete that was first seasoned in thy maisters mouth which as it was the treasury of truth the fountaine of life and the onely quire of the most perfect Harmonie so whatsoeuer it deliuered thine eare deuoured and thy heart locked vp And now that thou wantest himselfe thou hast no other comfort but his words which thou deemest so much the more effectuall to perswade in that they tooke their force from so heauenly a speaker His sweetenesse therefore it is that maketh this word so sweete and for loue of him thou repeatest it so often because he in the like case said of thy brother Where haue you put him O how much doest thou affect his person that findest so sweete a feeling in his phrase How much desirest thou to see his countenance that with so great desire pronouncest his wordes And how willingly wouldest thou licke his sacred feete that so willingly vtterest his shortest speeches But what meanest thou to make so absolute a promise and so boldly to say I will take him away Ioseph was afraid and durst not take downe his body from the Crosse but by night yea and then also not without Pilats warrant but thou neither stayest vntill night nor regardest Pilate but stoutly promisest that thou thy selfe wilt take him away What if he be in the pallace of the high Priest and some such maid as made Saint Peter denie his maister do begin to question with thee wilt thou then stand to these words I will take him away Is thy courage so high aboue kinde thy strength so farre beyond thy sexe thy loue so much without measure that thou neither doest remember that all women are weake not that thy selfe art but a woman Thou exemptest no place thou preferrest no person thou speakest without feare thou promisest without condition thou makest no exception as though nothing were impossible that thy loue suggesteth But as the darknesse could not fright thee from setting forth before day nor the watch feare thee from comming to the Tombe as thou diddest resolue to breake open the seales though with danger of thy life and to remoue the stone from the graues mouth though thy force could not serue thee so what maruaile though thy loue being now more incensed with the fresh wound of thy losse it resolue vpon any though neuer so hard aduentures Loue is not ruled with reason but with loue It neither regardeth what can be nor what shall be done but onely what it selfe desireth to do No difficulty can stay it no impossibility appall it Loue is title iust enough and Armour strong enough for all assaults and it selfe a reward of all labours It asketh no recompence it respecteth no commoditie Loues fruites are loues effects and the gaines the paines It considereth behoofe more than benefit and what in dutie it should not what indeed it can But how can nature be so maistered with affection that thou canst take such delight and carry such loue to a dead coarse The mother how tenderly soeuer she loued her child aliue yet she cannot chuse but loath him dead The most louing Spouse cannot endure the presence of her deceassed husband and whose embracements were delightsome in life are euer most hatefull after death Yea this is the nature of all but principally of women that the very conceit much more the sight of the departed striketh into them so fearefull and vgly impressions and stirreth in them so great horrour that notwithstanding the most vehement loue they thinke long vntill the house is ridde of their very dearest friends when they are once attyred in deaths vnlouely liueries How then canst thou endure to take vp his coarse in thy hands and to carry it thou knowest not thy selfe how farre being especially torne and mangled and consequently the more likely in so long time to be tainted Thy sister was vnwilling that the graue of her owne brother should be opened and yet he was shrowded in sheets embalmed with spices and died an ordinarie death without any wound bruse or other harme that might hasten his corruption But this coarse hath neither shrowd nor spice sith these are to be seene in the tombe and there is not a part in his body but had some helpe to further it to decay and art thou not afraid to see him yea to touch him yea to embrace and carry him naked in thine armes If thou haddest remembred Gods promise that His holy one should not see corruption If thou haddest beleeued that his God-head remaining with his bodie could haue preserued it from perishing thy faith had bene more worthy of praise but thy loue lesse worthy of admiration sith the more corruptible thou diddest conceiue him the more combers thou diddest determine to ouercome and the greater was thy loue in being able to conquer them But thou wouldest haue thought thy oyntments rather harmes than helpes if thou hadst bene setled in that beleefe and for so heauenly a coarse embalmed with God all earthly spices would haue seemed a disgrace If likewise thou haddest firmely trusted vpon his resurrection I should maruaile at thy constant designement sith all hazards in taking him should haue bene with vsurie repaide if lying in thy lappe thou mightest haue seene him reuiued and his disfigured and dead body beautified in thine armes with a diuine maiestie If thou haddest hoped so good fortune to thy waterie eyes that they might haue bene first cleared with the beames of his desired light or that his eyes might haue blessed thee with the first fruites of his glorious lookes If thou haddest imagined any likelihood to haue made happie thy