of the World been of such a worth as every day you descry they had powerfully resisted against the assaults of Ages but as they had nothing admirable in them but the Name Memorials have preserved that and let them perish But yours MADAME which are too perfect for a sutable Name shall not cease to survive the revolutions of Times as being enlivned by Vertue which alone can exempt from Death Let it not seem strange then if I hazard the perils of the Sea to render Homage to a Queen whose Greatness perforce humbles the most arrogant spirits being not able so much as in thought to reach to the first degree of her Glory The Graces themselves are hers and the VERTVES have allianced their own and her Name and all the adorable qualities which are found here below are admirable in her alone as in their Source I am constrained to be silent MADAME being over charged with too much subject of speech The number of your Perfections astonishes me the greatness of your Merit ravishes me the splendour of your Vertue dazles me And in this dazle this transport this excess of admiration wherein my senses and spirits are all alike engaged I am compeled to cast my self at the feet of your Majesty and demand pardon of the boldness which I assume onely to enjoy the stile of MADAME Your MAJESTIES Most humble and most obeisant Servant P. de la SERRE TO THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN Upon the MIRROVR Which flatters not Of le Sieur de la SERRE SONNET PRincess this perverse Ages glorious gemme Whose least of Vertues seems a prodigie Illustrious Sien of the fairest Stemme That Heaven e're shew'd this Vniverse's eye Though Fate with thousand hind'rances averse Barres me the place to which my duty 's bent I cannot cheer my Soul from self-torment But by design to pourtray you in Verse But since that Serres shew's in this true Mirrour The Vertues of your Mind 's eternal splendour As lively as your Body's beautious measure My heed to view you here lets others pass So well I here agnize all your rare treasure That I ne're saw a better Crystal-Glass Par le Sr. C. TO THE AUTHOR upon the same subject STANCES DIvine Spirit knowing Soul Which with lovely sweet controul Rank'st our Souls those good rules under Which thy Pen layes down with wonder Whil'st the sweetness of thy Voice Breathes oracular sacred noise All thy Works so well esteem'd Thorough Europe proofes are deem'd Of thy Gifts which all admire Which such Trophies thee acquire And with these thy Muse invested Orpheus is by thee out-crested Also since blind Ignorance Makes no more abode in France Seldome can we meet with such As the works of thy sweet â—'uch Such immortal straines of spirit As do thousand Laurels merit But although thy active Muse Wonders did before produce As we seldome see the like This doth with amazement strike 'T is a Mirrour that doth shine More with Fire then Crystaline 'T is a Mirrour never flatters On my eyes such rayes it scatters That therewith I daz'led am Searching for thee in the same By some charm or stranger case I see thy spirit not thy face This strange fashion doth amaze me When I ne're so little gaze me I am streight all on a fire The more I look more I admire 'T is a mirrour sure of flame Sparkling more we mark the same Yet not every prying eye Shall it-self herein espie 'T is not for so commune use Free from flattering abuse None so clearly here are seen As King Charles and his fair Queen Therefore thus the Author meant To the World it to present Since it is a thing so rare And unparallelled fair That it should a Tablet bee For the fairest he could see Serres this thy work-man-ship Doth my spirit over-strip With such judgement and such grace Thou do'st shew in little space Three strange Wonders without errour Two bright Suns in one clear Mirrour And by this thy rare composure Shall thy Name beyond enclosure Of this present Age obtain Eternal honour for thy pain Writing to these Princes Graces Thou art prais'd in thousand places Par le mesme Upon the Book SONNET HEre undisguis'd is seen in this true Mirrour The glory or the shame of mortal story As Reason or the miss-led senses errour Do win the day or yield the Victory Serres doth here lively delineate Our every-dayes vain wretched passages And what is destin'd after Funeral state To innocent pureness or black wickedness Such diverse subjects in this one enclosed Such various objects to the view exposed Thou little Monarch Man small Vniverse Thy Soul it lessons thus and thee informes As thou art Soul with henvenly fires converse As thou art Flesh thou art a Bait for wormes To the Reader IT may perhaps seem strange that I treat so often in my Works of the same matter as of the contempt of the VVorld and Meditations of Death But if the importance of the subject be considered and the profit to be derived thence a Man will never be weary of seeing such fair truths under different presentations Besides the conceptions of spirit upon the same matter are like the productions of Nature in the Species's of Tulips Every year she gives a Change both to their Colour and Array And though they be still Tulips she renders them so different from their first resemblance that they can hardly otherwise be known but by the name The Mind doe's the same upon the same subject its Fancies which are its ornature and emblishment render it by their diversity so different from it self that it is hardly known but by the Titles which it bears to particularize each conceit So that if once again I represent unto thee the pour-trait of Vanity and the Image of Death my spirit which hath steaded me for Pencil and colouring in this VVork hath rendred it so rare in its Novelty and so excellent in difference from those which have preceded that thou shalt find nothing in it commune with them but my name Thou mayest consider moreover that I dedicate Books to Kings and Queens not every day and that these objects of such eminent magnificence do so nobly rouze the faculties of my Soul that I could not have petty thoughts for such high Personages It is that which without ostentation makes me believe that if thou buy once again this Book and tak'st the pains to read it thou wilt regreet neither the Time nor Money which thou shalt employ therein ADIEU If thou beest of so good an humour to pardon the Faults excuse those of the Impression The Scope addrest to the SERIOUS LEt merrier Spleens read Lazarill ' or laugh At Sancho Pancho or the Grapes-blood quaffe And tickle up their Lungs with interlace Of Tales and Toyes that furrow up the face With wrinckling Smiles But if they abusive be To slight these hints of their Mortalitie Urg'd by our Authour 't is a foolish way And weakly does become corruptive
one day men would talke of them But what felicity is it to be praised in this world to which they are dead and tormented in the other wherin they live even yet and ever I care very little that men should talke of me after my Death the esteem of men is of so small importance that I would not buy it so deare as with a wish onely It behooves to search reputation in the puritie of the conscience if a man would have the glory of it last for ever The renown of a good man is much greater than that of Caesar or Alexander for this hath no other foundation than the soyle where it was sowed and where the goodliest things display themselves like flowers and like flowers also have but a morning-flourish But the other having for a firme stay Eternitie The renown of a good man onely lasts alwaies this object ennobleth it to perfection and thus desiring nothing else but heaven it remaines to us at the end for recompence Blondus in his Treatise of Rome in its triumphant glory reckons up three hundred and twenty triumphs all remarkable but where are now these pompes these magnificences this infinite number of Trophies and a thousand other ornaments which ratled out their glory Where are I say these conquerours where are their slaves their Idolaters their admirers These pomps have but flash't like lightning and so passed away with the day that accompanied their lustre These mngnificences have been but seen It is some comfort yet to a wise man though himselfe fade away to see that all things else do so too and so took their passage in flight These trophies being onely bravadoes of the time times inconstancy made them vanish in an instant and all those other ornaments made but ostentation of their continuall vicissitude as being an inseparable accident of their nature These vanquishers onely had the name on 't since Death led them away also in triumph for all their triumphings Their captives were rather slaves of the miseries whereunto they were born than so by the absolute power of him who captived them Their idolaters have been immolated to the fury of years which spare none and their admirerers have incurred the same fate with the subject which they admired Insomuch that of all together remains nothing but a faint remembrance which as it waxeth old is effac't by little and little out of memory and scarcely will it subsist so much in the imagination as to be in the end buried among fables Since Eternity onely triumphs over Time we should only strive to attain that Behold here the Anatomy of the glory of the world see the true portraict of its false Image Contemplate meditate you will avouch with me that All is full of vanity O how stately and magnificent is the Triumph of Ages what trophies may a man see at their ever-rowling Chariot what Conquerours are not in the number of their subjection what soveraign power can resist their violence what newer Triumph â—en this of years Who can give in account the number of their victories and lesse the captives which Death serves in for their trophies What newer triumph again evermore then of moneths of days of hours moments For consider to your self how many Kings Princes and Lords die in one age in all the places of the world All these vanquishers are vanquisht and led in triumph to the grave Every Year makes its conquest apart gives battell and carries away the victory over so many A righteous man onely stands exempt â—â— from the terror of death and so many men that hardly can one conceive so lamentable a truth Months Days Hours and Moments triumph in their courses who can number all those who died yesterday out-right or are dead to day Nay more how many die at this hour and at this very instant that I entertain you with this discourse And all these defeats of mortality mark out to us the Triumphs whereof time onely bears away the glory But let us not pretend to share in 't 't is not worthy our Ambition Let Ages A good conscience is ever under shelter from all the inconstant tempests of Age. Years Moneths Days Hours and Moments triumph over us Vertue always limits their puissance and with it we may prescribe a bound to all these Triumphants Fair leave may they take to ruinate out-ward beauty but that of innocence is of proof ' gainst all their strokes Well may they impair outward graces but those of heaven contemn their assaults No doubt they may change the visage of all the marvels of Art and miracles of Nature Our Resolution is a rock in midst of all their storms and may remain alwayes it self without undergoing other rules then its own So that thus we may lead Time it self along in triumph if we live for nothing more then for Eternity I scorn the Tyranny of Ages He which lives for eiernity dreads no death my aim is beyond 'em all I despise the power of years my Ambition raigns already out of their reach Let Months Days Hours and Moments entrail all things along with them I for my part franchise their carreere since my scope is much more farther yet Let them triumph fully my very defeat shall lead them in triumph at the end of their term for the eternity whither I aspire already assigns out their tomb Let us stay no longer in so cragged a way The Emperour Trajan caused his Sepulcher to be enfram'd in the midst of Rome's greatest place as upon a stately Theater on which his successors were to act their parts Every man dies for himself Serius aut citius metam properamus ad unam sooner or later we must arrive to the place to which uncessantly we walk Be it to morrow or to day at the end of the term all is equall Nor old nor yong can mark the difference in their course being arrived to the end of their carreere for a hundred Ages when past and one instant make but the same thing 'T is onely necessary to muze of our last gist in the grave since thither we run till we are out of breath from moment to moment The Trojans would have the burying-places of their Princes to be in the most remarkable places of the City Places of buriall are sad Theaters where every day are acted none but Tragedies to the end that this sad object might serve as a fixt Memento to remembrance them that the Tragedy which had been acted by these yesterday might again be represented by some other to day The Philosophers know that objects move the faculties and that according to the quality of their impressions they work upon the spirits which contemplate them Let us say now that of all the direfull objects which are presented to our eyes there is none more powerfull over our apprehensions then this of the Meditation of Death and the horrour of the grave The most couragious yeeld themselves
THE DESIGN OF THE FRONTISPICE LOe DEATH invested in a Roab of Ermine Triumphant sits embellished with Vermine Upon a Pile of dead men's Skulls her Throne Pell mell sut duing all and sparing none A scrutinuous judgement will the Type ressent You may imagine 'T is DEATH'S Parliament Upon the World it 's pow'rful Foot doth tread For all the world or is or shall be dead One hand the Scepter t'other holds our Mirrour In courtesie to shew poor flesh its errour If men forget themselves It tells'em home They 're Dust and Ashes All to this must come To view their fate herein some will forbear Who wave all thought of Death as too severe But know Death though 't be unknown how nie A Point on which depends ETERNITIE Either to live Crown'd with peptetual Blisse Or howl tormented in Hell's dark Abysse With winged haste our brittle lives do pass As runs the gliding Sand l'th' Hour-Glass If more you would continue on your Look No more upon the Title but the Book THE MIRROVR which Flatters not O that they were Wise that they vnderstood This that they would Consider their latter End Deut 32.25 MORS sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula Iuvenal THE MIRROUR WHICH FLATTERS NOT Concerning the contempt of the World or the Meditation of Death of Philip King of Macedon Saladine Adrian and Alexander the Great By Le Sieur de la SERRE Historiographer of FRANCE Transcribed ENGLISH from the FRENCH by T. Cary Esq Horat. Om nem crede Diem libi diluxisse Supremum LONDON Printed by E. T. for R. Thrale and are to be sold at his shop at the Sign of the Cross-Keyes at Pauls Gate 1658. TO THE KING of Great RITAIN SIR IF the Greatness of Kings derive its value and lustre from the number of Vertues which they possess I render you now the homage of my observance and submissions as to one of the greatest Monarchs of the World since you are the Majesty of all Vertues together What an agreeable compulsion is this to see a man's self powerfully forced to become the subject of a forain Prince by the soveraign authority of his merit To this point am I reduced Sir your all-royal perfections im pse upon me so absolutely such sweet lawes of servitude that I have no more liberty but to accept its yoak And in this my inclination and duty make a fresh injunction over me which dispute prebeminence with all the rest for who can keep himself from rendring homage to your Majesty the onely fame of whose Renown captivates through all the Universe instructing us that you are as absolute over your Passions as over your Subjects and that you reign as Soveraign in the esteem of men as in your Royal Estates And the Truth of this set your glory at so high a worth that the felicity on 't may perhaps be envied you but the like Merit not to be reacht by others because Nature is very sparing of the like gifts and Heaven does not every day such miracles For me I am but one of the Admirers not of the greatnesse of your Dominion although only the vast extent of the Ocean marks out its limites but of all the divine qualities which you only possess in proper as a Good Time Fate nor Death can take from you Nor is this the all in all to be Wise Valiant and Generous in the height of Native deduction All these Titles of Honour have degrees of eminence which mark out to us the gradations of their several perfections and whereof your Majesty shewes us now the onely pattern having in possession all admirable Vertues with so much purity and luster as dazles its very envyers and forces them to adore that in your Majesty which elsewhere they admire not And it is my belief that you stand thus unparalled even amongst your semblables since besides the Crowns of your Cradle you carry above them others and such as shall exempt you from the Grave I a vow that I have studied long time to speak condignely of your Majesty but although my pains and watchings are equally unprofitable my defect yet is still glorious howsomever that it is a shadow from your Light It sufficeth me to have taken Pen in hand to publish onely that I am SIR Your MAJESTIES Most humble and most obeisant Servant P. de la SERRE TO THE QUEEN Of Great BRITAIN MADAME I Could not approach but with a MIRROVR in my hand before your Majesty the splendour of whose magnificence dazles so powerfully all the world that I am not able to behold the immediate presence on it but by the reflection of its Rayes Without fiction MADAME your Glory is arrived to the point of rendring your perfections so unknown as being so above the commune that I believe most men honour you now by observance and example onely as not able otherwise to reach the depth of the just reasons they might have for it Nor is this All to say that you are solely fair and perfectly chaste but it is necessary beyond all this to intimate secretly in the Language of Thought all the divine qualities which you possess of Supereminence in all things since their purity cannot discend to the capacity of our discourse without suffering a kind of prophanation From hence is it that if I should call you The compleatly-perfect I might well say in effect that which you are but never thus should I represent the greatness of your merits since every of them in it self ha's such particular perfections as might challenge Altars from us if your humility could permit it These are such Truths MADAME as hinder me from praising your Majesty not knowing how to express my self condignely Well might I perhaps suggest it to remembrance that your particular inclinations are the publick Vertues which we adore and that of the same temperament of humour Nature composed heretofore the Sages of the World But of all these discourses notwithstanding I cannot frame one onely praise sufficiently adaequate to your worth seing it is elevated beyond all Eulogiums Insomuch that if Admiration it self teach not a new Language to posterity wherein to proclaim aloud the favours and graces wherewith Heaven hath accomplisht you it must content it self to reverence your Name and adore your Memory without presumption of speech of your actions as being ever above all valuation as well as imitation To instance the immortalitie of your AVGVSTICK Race although it be a pure Source of Honour which can never be dryed up yet all these Titles of a Kings Daughter Sister and VVife can never adde to your Renown which derives its value rather from the admirabilities of your Life then the greatness of your Birth Insomuch MADAME that the Scepters and Crowns of your Royalties are the meanest Ornaments wherewith your Majestie can deck it self since the least glymse of the least of your Actions duskes the luster of all the other magnificenceâ— which environ you And I believe had those Wonders
the Bible and the face of Heaven where all sorts of Sciences are in their source Death immortality are onely separated but with the length of an instant This also of our mortall and decaying nature since it instructs us the Art to pry our selves in our Corruptions that we may recover our selves in immortality When I consider that the Earth was created of nothing Man of nothing and Man made of this nothing and the greatnesses which environ him are nothing at all The world subsists not but upon the foundation of its continuall revolution and all the pleasures which he idolatrizeth are also of the same stuffe I remain all confused with astonishment nor ever able to conceive the subject of his vanity nor the reason of his arrogance poor corrupted Vapour with advancing it self A vapour Man elevating himself too high measures the depth of the A bysses of his Precipice is soon transformed into a Cloud to conceale its noysomnesse but yet by way of this elevation is resolved into Lightnings and Thunder and afterward retumbles into the ditches from whence first it had its beginning A puffe of wind which rumbles in its own violence A Blast angry perhaps that it cannot subsist but in flying and that the action of its concinuall flight is the beginning of its ruine Smoake A smoak which with a vain assault will needs scale the Heavens and yet hardly can one well distingnish the intervall between its first Being and extinction a poor glisteâ—ing Worm which dazies none but purblind spirits and gives light to those wormes which devoure it in private A worm We are al already but rottennesse since already wormes begin to devour us A stream Every thing corrupt the verys eye which now reads these truths shall not be exempt A stream alwaies murmuring alwaies trilling away And now why shall all these goodly nullities and all these pleasant Chimera's insinuate to us the vanity which they are of shall these cozening appearances be stablish'd here below with Soveraignty be it then only in desire or in dream for with what gilded rind so ere they be out-sided Corruption is their Form and Dust their Matter I am astonished that Man should be capable to mistake himself even to the point of forgetting what he was then when he yet was not what he is now whilst he enjoys the beauty of the day Nature exhibits us so many Mirrours of Inconstancy as she hath produced objecis and what he must one day be at the Sun-set of his life Assuredly yes I am astonisht at it since all created things may serve him for a Mirrour to contemplate therein apparently the verity of his miseries The Heavens though whirling about with a Motion alwayes equall in the same spaces of their carreere do not cease to wax old and even their age represents to us naturally our decay Since that Nature it self is mortall this second cause ceasing â— the ruine of these effects is infallible Though the Stars shine with a sparkling luster as clear as at the first Day of their creation yet as they are attached within those circles of Ages whose continuall motion is limited they approach by little and little to their last West where their light must be extinct and the pace of their course shews us the way of our life since time conducts us all together though diversly to our end The Fire so greedy that it devours it self when finding no more fuell to nourish it is it not a Mirrour of the Lamp of our life whose kindled week goes out when the Oyle of the Radicall moysture fails it The Air which corrupts continually is it not an Image of our corruption with out doubt the Waters transparent body represents us the fragility of ours and its liquid crystalline Every thing flees away from us and in running after â—em we tun to rdeath always rolling away makes us see in its gliding our flitting nature The earth could not have figured us better then she doth since we are to day of the same matter and to moroow of the like form The world is a Nosegay of flowers which by little and little wither all together What fairer Mirrour hen that of Flowers where we may see in one day the whole course of our life for at Sun-rise the buds resemble out Infancy at noone the same now full blown our youth and at Dayes-end themselves now quite withered our last age I will not speak of all the other Spices of creatures animates how every one in its self though living is an Image of death It sufficeth me to cherish this remembrance and leave to you thereof the meditation What shall I tell ye of Fortune of honours riches and all these glorious qualities of valour Fortune hath nothing more her own then her Inconstancy Beauty and a thousand other besides which vanish away with us This blinde Goddesse hath a Mirrour under her feet whose round figure shews us at once both her instability and our inconstancy as for greatnesse and riches the ashes of those which have possest them are as so many fresh Crystals of a Mirrour which flatters not wherein we may see the vanity both of their enjoyment and of their possessors Those other qualities of fair and valiant There is nothing immortal in man but vertue are of the fame nature as those sensitive and vegetable souls which die together with the subject which they animate without leaving ordinarily so much as one small memoriall for marke that they have had a being otherwise and in sequell to these truths Man is the Mirrour of Man so that by due contemplati of one part he may save the whole can you finde a truer Mirrour then this of our selves since every part nay what say I every action and every sigh is an animate pourtrait of Death Insomuch that we draw the breath of so many continuate Gaspes without ability of dispose of one onely instant to give intervall to this exercise How is it then possible that Man should miss know himself having such faithfull Mirrours before his eyes All the Objects of the world bâ—d us Adue while we but regard them since they are always fleeing away where at all times he may see apparently the Truth of his Nature kneaded in Corruption formed by it and destroyed also by the same Strange thing he can see nothing in the World but Images of inconstancy and yet will not apprehend his own change whatsoever shall smite upon his eare will resound nothing but the bruit of his flight To mus always of Death is the way of immortality yet he wil not think upon his retreat Lastly his other Sences and his fancy shall have no other object but this of the continuall vicissitude of all things and yet he will remain firm and stable in his vanity till death ruine its foundation Thus in the deceitfull opinion
truths though sensible are oftenest put in oblivion and this default of memory denotes that of knowledge He which museth upon his slightnesse undervalueth except God all things and vanity would never be able to surprise us during the interim of this meditation The remembrance of Death makes us forget the vanities of Life Man knows very well that he is Mortall but whilst he never thinks seriously of the necessity of dying this knowledge is forgot though he dye without cease and in loosing the remembrance of his condition looses the knowledge thereof Remember that you are a Man said his page every morning to Philip of Macedon The way to passe our days contentedly is to think every hour of the last This great Monarch made himself to be rouzed every day from sleep with the News of Death fearing to be charmed with the sweets of Life Greatnesses environ him on all parts to make him forget his humility but understand you not the delicate air which he causes to be sung to the tune of his miseries the pompe and Magnificence of his riches dazle his eyes with their lustre The remembrance of the poorness of Death is a potent charm to resist the memory of greatnesse of Birth that he might never consider the wretchednesse which is proper to him But you see how he makes himself to be awaked with the noyse of this truth ever to cherish its remembrance Sir remember that you are a Man oh how many Mysteries are comprised in these words behold the Allegory on 't Great Kings remember you are subject to many more Miseries then you have subjects in your Empire Great Monarchs remember that of all the great extention of your Territories there shall not remain you one onely foot If we be different in manner of life we are all equall in necessity of dying so jealous are the worms of your glory Great Princes remember that your Scepters and your Crowns are such feeble marks of greatnesse that fortune sports with them Time mocks at them and the Wind shall sweep away their Dust Soveraign Judges of the Life of Men remember that although you are above the Lawes This of Dying is inviolable The Fable is pretty of the resolution which the flowers and plants took to elect a King and Queen Cares and anxieties surpass in number the pleasure of Kings and as the number of Voyces gave the election the Marigold was declared to be the King of the Flowers and the Bryar Queen of Plants and under this toy lies hid serious verities Is there any thing fairer in all the borders of the Garden of Nature then the flower of the Marigold It s golden Tincture of the colour of the Sun at first view dazeleth so delightfully that the Eye amazedly gazing with admiration of its fresh-displayed beauty can hardly retire its regards from an object so agreeable But gather it and dight it on you and its sent produces a thousand disliks in the Mind for that one onely which you hold in your hand for hence of a sudda in the humours become dull and melancholly having been annoyed with so fair a fulsomnesse If Crowns Scepters were to be sould wise men would never buy thew Royalty is absolutely the same The Scepters are as fresh flowers of Marigold whose lustre and beauty equally ravishing attract at first glance to their admiration the Soul by the eyes but if a Man take them into his graspe or deck his head with them he shall find himself fill'd with anxious cares by this coverture If you doubt of this aske Seleucus he will answer That the first moment of his Raigne was the last of his Quietnesse The Sweet-bryar also bore away the Royalty for who would not love it with its Rose O how both together have powerfull attractives to tempt aqually both the heart to desire them and the hand to pluck them And 't is in vain that Nature hath given arms to the jealousie of its prickles Thorns are the Roses of Kings gardens to serve for the defence of its flowers since these sharps are as so many baits which irritate us rather with Desire then Fear All the world insert it in their nosegayes but the prickles remain the Rose withers Say we then also that Royalty is a fair Sweet-bryar accompanied with its Roses I mean many contentments of the same nature Both together have great charms to affect us both with love and desire Great miseries are destinated to great fortunes but the Bryars of the Crown remain the Rose of delights withers O how ponderons is the load of this greatnesse And if you beleeve not me enquire hereof of the puissant King Mithridates The felicity of Kings hath much more lustre then Reality he will often reiterate to you That he never sigh'd but for the ponderous burden of his Crowns SIR REMEMBER YOU ARE A MAN But what is there here to pride in May it be of the greatnesse of his Dominions This is but an alien good Kings may trouble themselves to conquer the earth it still triumphs over them which admits not to be possest but by vanity since its honours and pleasures have nothing else but meere in propriety To be an amply landed-man is to have miry soyl to sell and small profit to make thence Sir remember you are a Man What may be his ambition may it be to conquer the whole world what will he do with it after conquest since it is a Ball of snow which Time melts by little and little tumbling it without cessation Sir remember you are a Man What might be his designs He which makes himself to be adored is rather sit to be Deaths Victime then to be idolatrized Should he pretend to Altars and Temples what oblations can be made to a Victime whom Death holds continually at a bay can Incense be offered to a Dunghill or an Idoll made of a Sink the very thought shockes common sense Sir remember that you are a Man Man is so miserable that I am amazed he pities not himself What can he do with his absolute power A little stone makes him stumble a straw can blind him a shadow an Atome a thing of nothing are capable to reduce him to nothing at all And is not this an object of pity rather then of envy Great Kings these are truths too important for you to lose their remembrance Well you may out-brave the heavens with a birstling eye-brow the onely imagination of its Thunderclaps holds you already in alarm Boldly may you tread upon the Earth with a disdainfull foot the same whereof you are made shall shortly be so troden when the worms are glutted with it Remember that you are a Man and that all the objects of riches and honours which environ you I have said to corruption Thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Job 17.14 are of the same Nature as
of thy opinion Plotinus and henceforth will maintain every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world The eight wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service and pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the works of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit in divine Contemplation can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chains of its servitude Great Kings be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little and little from one part of himself that he may entirely enter at once into himself The perfection of your Nature lies in this defect of you powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace oâ— his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you die every moment onely to make acquisition of that immortality to which his love has destin'd you This defest of inconstancy is the perfection of man since he is changable to day to be no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the point of our soveraign felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude â—rowling without intervall in the duâ—â— of our originall we approach bâ— little and little to those Age of glory which beyond all time assigne at our End the beginning of a better Carreere A man is onely happy in the perpetitall inconstancy of his condition O Glorioâ—â— Death since terminated at thâ—â— cruell instant which separates 〈◊〉 from Immortality It is true I confesse it again Great Kings that you are subject to all the sad accidents of your subjects The greatest misery that can arrive to a man is to offend God But what happinesse is it if these misfortunes are as so many severall waies which conduct you into the Port. Be it granted that you are nothing but Corruption in your birth Misery in your Life and a fresh infection in your Death All these truths are as so many attributes of honour to you since you disrobe your selves in the grave of all your noisomnesse for to Deck your selves with the ornaments of Grace of felicity and glory which belongs in proper to your souls as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man Heaven Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatness of man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himself be the circumference of it Would you have some knowedge of mans power hear the commandement which Josuah made to the Sun to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the ruines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Job offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven hath fewer of Stars than of felicities to give him Man may be what somever he will be What name then shall we attribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There is no other than this of man John 19.5 and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turn it into mockage before the Jewes Ecce homo Behold the Man he shews them a God under the visage of a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels With what new rinds soever a man be covered he beares still in biforehead the marks of his Creator which can never change Nature Weâ—â— may they tear his bark the Inmaâ—â— of it is of proofe against the strokeâ— of Fortune as well as the gripes oâ— Death The Man of Earth may turn into Earth but the Man of heaveâ— takes his flight alwaies into heaven That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from dirt with the water of his own tears may resolve into the same matter Buâ— this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouze then your selves from sleep great Princes He that would alwaies muse of Eternitie would with out doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to tepresent unto your selves that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over your Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not for to muse of this necessity which drawes you every hour to the tomb but rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Great PRINCES Awake Man is a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes and permit me once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine work-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his own work My seathered pen can fly no higher Man onely is the ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter where of he is formed the Water in his teares the Aire in his sighs the Fire in his Love the Sun in his reason and the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vaniseth O Sweet vanishment since he is lost in himself that he may be found in his Creator but the Earth remaines firm and his dust flies away O happy flight since eternity is its aime The Water though it fleets away yet returnes the same way and retorts upon it's owne paces Man may be said to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison O dear ruine O sweet captivity since the soul recovers her freedome Death is a grace rather than a paine and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifie his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroied the corruption of man destroies its materiall O glorious destruction since it steads him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire though it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all the world into Ashes But Man perceives himself to be devoured by Time without ability ever to resist it Oh beneficiall Imporence since he finds his Triumph in his overthrow the Sun causeth alwaies admiration in its ordinary lustre The felicitie of man
in this world consists in the necessity of death but Mans reason is impaired in the course of Times Oh welcome impairement since Time ruines it but onely in an Anger knowing that it goes about to establish its Empire beyond both time and Ages In fine the Heavens may seem to wax old in their wandring course How happy is man in decaying evermore since he thus at last renders himselfe exempt from all the miseries which pursue him they yet appear the same still every day as they were a thousand yeares agon man from moment to moment differs from himselfe and every instant disrobes him somewhat of his Being Oh delightfull Inconstancy since all his changes make but so many lines which abut at the Center of his stability How mysterious is the Fable of Narcissus the Poets would perswade us that He became self-enamoured A long life is a heavy burthen to the soul since it muct ronder an account of all its moments viewing Himself in a Fountain But I am astonish't how one should become amorous of a dunghill though covered with Snow or Flowers A face cannot be formed without Eyes Nose and Mouth and yet every of these parts make but a body of Misery and Corruption as being all full of it This Fable intimates us the representment of a fairer truth since it invites a man to gaze himself in the Fountain of his tears thus to become amorous of himself If a man could contemplate the beauties of his soul in innocence he would alwais be surprized with its love If a man would often view himself in the tears of his repentance he would soon become a true self-lover not for the lineaments of dust and ashes whereof his countenance is shap's but rather of those beauties and graces wherewith his soul is ornamented and all these together make but a rivelet which leads him to the admiration of that source from whence they took their originall Oh how David was a wise Narcissus then when he made of his Tears a Mirrour so to become enamour'd of himself for he was so self-loving in his repentance that in this He spent both daies and nights with unparalled delights All the vain objects of the world are so many fountains of Narcissus wherin prying may shipwrack themselves But if Narcissus ship-wrack't himself in the fountain of his self-fondnesse This great King was upon point to Abysse himself in the Sea of his tears for their liquid Crystalline shewd him to himself so beautifull that he burned with desire thus to drown himself Ladies view your selves in this Mirrour since you are ordinatily slaves to your own self love You will be fair at what price soever see here is the means The Crystall Mirrour of your tears flatter not contemplate therein the beauty of this grace which God hath given you to bewail your vanities This is the onely ornament which can render you admirable Tears are the faithfullest Mirrours of penitents All those deceitfull Chrystals which you wear hang'd at your Girdles shew you but fained beauties whereof Art is the workmistrisse and cause rather then your visages Would ye be Idolaters of the Earth which vou tread on your bodies are but of Dirt but if you will have them endeared where shall I find tearms to expresse their Noysomnesse If Ladies would ake as much care of their souls as of their bodys they would not hazard the losse both of one and to'ther Leave to Death his Conquest and to the Worms their heritage and search your selves in that originall of Immortality from whence your souls proceed that your actions may correspond to the Noblenesse of that cause This is the most profitable counsell which I can give You It is time to end this Chapter Great Kings I serve you this Morning instead of a page to awake You and remembrance You that you are Men I mean Subjects to Death and consequently destinated to serve as a Prey to the Worms The meditation of our nothingness is a soveraign remedy against vanity a Shittle-cock to the sinds and matter for to form an object of horror and astonishment to you altogether Muze a little that your life passeth away as a Dream think a little that your thoughts are vain consider at the same time Men are so near of blood together hat all bear the same name that all that is yours passes and flies away You are great but this necessity of Dying equals you to the least of your subjects Your powers are dreadfull but a very hand-worm mocks at them your riches are without number but the most wretched of men carry as much into the grave as you In fine may all the pleasures of Life make a party in Yours yet they are but so many Roses whose prickles onely remain to you at the instant of Death The horror which environs You chaseth away your greatnesse Man hath nothing so proper to him as the misery to which he is born the weaknesse which possesseth you renders unprofitable your absolute powers and onely then in that shirt which rests upon your back are comprised all the treasures of your Coffers Are not these verities of importance enough to break your sleep I awake you then for to remembrance you this last time If the earth be our mother heaven is our father that you are Men but destined to possesse the place of those evill Angels whose Pride concaved the Abysses of Hell that you are Men but much more considerable for the government of your reason then your Kingdom That you are Men but capable to acquire all the felicities of Heaven if those of the Earth are by you disdained That you are Men but called to the inheritance of an eternall Glory if you have no pretence to any of this world Lastly Though the body and soul together make up the man there is yet as much difference between the one and the others as between the scabberd and the sword that you are Men but the living images of an infinite and omnipotent one Clear streames of immortality remount then to your eternall source fair rayes of a Sun without Eclipse rejoyn your selves then to the body of his celestiall light Perfect patterns of the divinity unite your selves then to it as to the independant cause of your Being Well may the Earth quake under your feet your wils are Keys to the gates of its abysses should the Water or'e-whelm again all Although the puissances of the soul work not but by the senses the effects in this point are more noble then the cause your hopes cannot be shipwrack'â— That the Aire fils all things may be but your expectations admit of some vacuum Though the Fire devour all things the object of your hopes is above its flames let the heavens pour down in a throng their malignant influences here below your souls are under covert from their affaults Let the Sun exhaling vapours make thereof thunders for your
ruine Man needs fear nothing being alevated above all you are under the protection of him who ejaculates their flashes insomuch that instead of hurting you all things do you homage The Earth supports you the Water refresheth you the Air imbreaths you Man could not be more happy then he is since God is his last felicity To die is proper to man the Fire warms you the Sun lights you and Heaven attends you the Angels honour you the Devils fear you Nature obeyes you and God himself gives himself to you to oblidge you to the like reciprocation Is not this to possesse with advancement all the felicities which you can hope I dare you to wish more Awake thy self then Reader and let thy conscience and thy miserie each in its turn serve thee as a Page every morning to put thee in mind That thou art a Man I mean a pourtraict animated with Death rather then with Life since thou canst do nothing but die but in this continuall dying amid the throng of evils and pains which are enjoyned to thy condition Consider also that thou art created to possesse an Eternity both of life and happinesse How happy is man thus to be able to be as much as he desires and that all these infinite good things are exposed as an aim of honour and glory to the addresses of thy will for if thou wilt Paradise shall be thine though Hell gape at thee Heaven shall be thy share it's delights thy Succession and God alone thy Soveraign felicity A PROLUSIVEVpon the EMBLEME of the second Chapter SWell on unbounded Spirits whose vast hope Scorns the streight limits of all moderate Be Crescent still fix not i' th' Positive scope Graspe still at more reach the Superlative And beyond that too and beyond the Moon Yet ala's but vain and you shal find too soon These great acquists are bubbles for a spurt And Death will leave you nothing but your Shirt Be Richest Greatest Pow'rfullest and Split Flames Trumpet with the blast on 't ther 's it That 's all a Coffin and a Sheet and then You 're dead and buried like to Common men This Saladine foresaw and wisely stoopes Unto his Fate ' midst his triumphant troops A world of wealth and Asiaticke Spoyles Guerdon his glorious military toyles Ensigns and Banners shade his armies Eyes With flying Colours of fled enemies Yet humbly he doth his chief Standard reare Onely his Shirt displayd upon a Spear Mean while his valorous Colonels were clad In rich Coat-armours which they forced had From subdu'de foes and 't seem'd a glorious thing Each man to be apparreld like a King The very common Souldiers out-side spoke Commander now and did respect provoke Their former ornaments were cast aside Which 'fore the victory were all their pride To check their Pomp with clang'ring trumpet sound A Herald loud proclaim 's in Tone profound See what the Emperour doth present your Eye 'T is all that you must look for when you dye This Shirt is all even Saladine shall have Of all his Trophy's with him to the grave Then be not over-heightned with the splendour Of your rich brav'ries which you so much tender Nor let your honours puff you least you find The breath of Fame jade ye with broken wind This solemn passage of this Monarch story With greatest lustre doth advance his glory â—ALADINE Monarck of the 〈…〉 with him at his death nothing but this SHIRT Victorious SALADINE caus'd to be Proclaim'd to all his Armie that he carried nothing with him to the Graue but a SHIRT after all his Conquests THE MIRROUR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. II. ARrogant spirits The horror and â— misery of the grave mkes the hair stand on end to the proudest ambitious Hearts be silent and lend an ear to the publick cry of this Herald who with a voice animated with horrour and affright as well as with compassion and truth proclaimeth aloud in the view of heaven and earth and in the presence of a world of people That this Great SALADINE magnificent Conquer â—ur of Asia and Monarch of the whole East carries away to the grave for fruit of his vistories but onely a shirt which covers the mould of his body and even this scarp of linnen too Fortune leaves him but to give the Worms Absolute Kings puissant Soveraigns what will you reply to these discourses for to you they are addrest I doubt well This necessity of dying serves for temperament to the vanity of the greatest Monarchs of the world that shame confusion and astonishment bar your speech and that this sensible object of your proper miseries affects you so with ruth to force from your bosomes a thousand sighs The greatest Monarch of the earth becomes at a clap so little as not to be found no not in his miseries for the wind begins already to carry away the dust whereof he was formed The powerfullest King of the world is reduc'd to such a point of weaknesse that he cannot resist the worms after vanquishment and subjugation of entire Nations The richest Prince of the East takes a glory of all his treasures to carry away but onely a shirt to his Sepulchre What can you answer to these verities This famous Saladine the terrour of men the valour of the earth and the wonder of the world esteems himself so happy and so advantaged by fortune in respect she leaves him this old ragge to cover his corruption Man cannot complain of the world since at his death he gives him a shirt which at his birth his mother Nature refused him that he makes this favour to be published with sound of trumpet in the midst of his Army that none might be in doubt on 't what beyond this can be your pretentions I grant you may be seated like Xerxes upon a Throne all of massie gold canopied with a glistering firmament of precious stones and that on what side soever you turn your menacing regards you see nothing but objects humbled before your Royall Majesties You never seat your selves upon these Thrones of magnificence but as it were to take leave of the assembly All the â— speeches of Men are but discourses of adieu and leave taking sinceâ— every day he marches straight forward toward Death continuing still to give your last God-bwyes like a man who is upon point to depart continually since he dies every moment Insomuch that all this Pompe which accompanies you and which gives shadow to the luster wherewith you are environed vanishes away with you and all those who are its admirers and idolaters run the same fortune being of the same nature Be it from me granted that the report of your glory admits no vacuity no more than the aire doe and that your name is as we known as the Sun and more redoubted than the thunder This voice of renown is but as the sound of a Bell To what purpose doth the renown of a Man make a noyse in the
formed and consequently you lodge upon yoâ—r buriall-places whose entrances will be open at all moments To say whoyou are I am ashamed in calling you by your proper names for to remembrance you your miseries Corruption conceaves you Horrour infants you Blood nourishes you infection accompanies you in the Coffin There is nothing so constantly present with us as our miseries since always we are miserable enough at best The treasures which you enjoy are but Chimeras of greatnesse and apparitions of glorie whereof living you make experiment and dying you perfectly know the truth on 't To what end then can stead you your present felicities since at present you scarce enjoy them at all for even at this veric instâ—â— another which is but newly upon passe robs you of part of them and even thus giving you hiâ—â— of the cosenage of his companions cheates you too as well as they and thus they do altogether to your lives as well as your contentments in ravishing these they intrain the others then what remonstrance can you exhibit of esteeming your selâ—es happy for past felicities and which you have not enjoyed but in way of depart And if this condition be agreeable unto you still there is a necessitie of setting up your rest at the end of the carreere and there it is where I attend to contribute to your vain waylings as manie resentments oâ— Pitie How much better it is to be so happy in fishing as to angle for grace in the tears of penitence Take we another track without losing our selves How ingenious was that famous Queen of Egypt to deceive with good grace her Lover Sâ—â— caused underhand dead fishes to be ensnared to the hook of Antonie as often as the toy took his to go a fishing to the end to make him some sport by those pleasant deceits May we not say that Ambition doth the same for when we cast our hooks into this vast Ocean of the vanities of the world we fish but Dead things without soul whose acquirement countervailes not a moment of the Time which we employ to attain it Had I all the goodliest fardles of the world laded on my back I mean had I acquir'd all the honours wherewith fortune can tickle an ambitious soul should I thence become greater of body my growing time is past 'T is to no purpose to be passiorate for such goods as a man may loose and the world can give no better would my Spirit thence become more excellent these objects are too weak to ennoble her Powers Should I thence become more vertuous Vertue looks for no saâ—isfaction out of it self Should I thence be more esteemed of the world This is but the glorie of a wind which doth but passe away What happinesse what contentment or what utilitie would remain me then that I might be at rest A Man must not suffer himself thus to be fool'd All honours can be but a burden to an innocent soul for so much as they are continuall objects oâ— vanitie which stir up the passion and onely serve but for nourishment to them in their violences to hurrie them into all sorts oâ— extremities And after all the necessitie of dying which makes an inseparable accident in our condition gloomes the glittering of all this vain glorie which environs us In the anguishes oâ— Death a man dreams not of the grandeurs of his life 'T is an irkssome remembrance of past happinesse being eveâ— and anon upon point to depart finds himself often afflicted mâ— with those good things which 〈◊〉 possesseth measuring alreadie the depth of the fall by the height 〈◊〉 the place whither he is exalted * Galba He which found Fortune at 〈◊〉 gate found no naile to stay he wheele But if Shee on the one 〈◊〉 takes a pleasure to ruine Empire to destroy realmes and to precipitate her favourites Death on 〈◊〉 other side pardons no body alters the temperament of all sorts of humours perverts the order of every kind of habitude and not content yet to beat down all these great Colosses of Vanity which would be taken for the worlds wonders calls to the sharing of their ruine the elements thus to bury their materials in their first abysses where she hath designed the place of their entombment What can a Mau then find constant in the world Al things passe away and by their way tell us that we must do so too where constancy doth no where reside Time Fortune Death our passions and a thousand other stumbling blocks shall never speak oher language to us but of our miseries and yet we will suffer our selves like ALEXANDER to be voyc'd â—mmortall Our prosperities our grandeurs our very delights themselves shall tell us as they passe a word in our ear that we ought not to trust them and yet for all this we will never sigh but after them Be it then at last for very regreet to have vented to the wind so many vain sighs for Chimeras of sweets whereof the remembrance cannot be but full of bitternesse Vain honours of the world No security of pleasure to enjoy such things as may every moment be lost tempt me no more your allurements are powerfull but too weak to vanquish me I deride your wreaths of Laurell there growes more on'â— in my garden then you can give me If you offer me esteem and reputation among men what should I doe with your presents Time devoures every day the like of them and yet more precious I undervalue all such Good-things as it can take away again from me Deceit full greatnesses of the Earth cease to pursue me you shall never catch me your charms have given some hits to my heart Worldly Greatnesses are but like Maskingâ— cloathes which serve him and the other but for that time but not to my soule your sweets have touch my senses but not my spirit what have you to offer me which can satisfie me Time and Fortune lend you all the Scepters and Crownes which you borrow and as you are not the owners they take them away again when they will and not when it pleaseth you So then I will have no Scepters for an hour nor no Crownes for a day If I have desire to raigne 't is beyond Time that I may thus be under shelter from the inconstancy of Ages Trouble not your selves to follow me This world is a masse of mire upon which a man may make impresse of all sorts of Characters but not hinder Time to deface the draught at any time Ambitious Spirits fair leave have you to draw the Stell of your designes upon this ready prim'd cloth Some few yeares wipe out all Some ages carry away all and the remembrance of your follies is onely immortall in your soules by the eternall regreet which remaines you of them SCIPIO made design to conquer Carthage and after he had cast the project thereof upon mould he afterwards took the body of this shadow and
saw the effect of his desires But may not one say that the Trophies of his valour have been cast in rubbidg within that masse of dirt whereof the world is composed since all the marks thereof are effaced Carthage it felfe though it never had life could not avoid its death Time hath buried it so deep under its own ruines that we seek in vain the place of its Tomb. I leave you to ruminate if its subduer were himself able to resist the assaults of this Tyrannie If ALEXANDER had sent his thoughts into heaven there to seek a new world as well as his desires on earth there to find one he had not lost his time but as he did amuze himself to engrave the history of his ambition and triumphs upon the same masse of clay There is more glory to despise the world than to conquer it for after its conquest a man knower not what to doe with it which he had conquered he writ upon water and all the characters on 't are defaced The Realms which he subdued have lost some of them their names of this Triumpher there remaines us but the Idea as of a dream since men are ready to require Security even of his Memory for the wonders which it preacheth to us of him May we not then again justly avow that of all the conditions to which a man may be advanced without the aid of vertue either by Nature or Fortune there is none more infortunate then to be to these a favorite norany more miserable than to a Great-one All those who engage themselvs to the service of fortune are ill paid and of this every day gives us experience This inconstant goddess hath a thousand favours to lend but to give none but haltars poysons pomards and precipices 'T is a fine thing to see Hannibal begging his bread even in view of Scipio after he had called in question the price of the worlds Empire-dome Is it not an object worthy of compassion to consider Nicias upon his knees before Gillippus to beg his own and the Athenians lives after he had in a manner commanded the winds at Sea and Fortune ashore in a government soveraignly absolute who will not have the same resentments of pity reading the history of Crassus then when by excesse of disaster he surviv'd both his glory and reputation constrained to assist at the funerals of his owne renowne All those who hound after fortune are well pleased to be deceived since her deceits are so wel knowne and undergoe the hard conditions of his enemies attending death to free him from servitude Will you have no regreet to see enslaved under the tyranny of the Kings of Egypt the great Agesilaus whose valour was the onely wonder of his Time What will you say to the deplorable Fate of Cumenes to whom Fortune having offered so often Empires gives him nothing in the end but chaines so to die in captivitie You see at what price Men have bought the favours of this Goddesse when manie times the severity of a happy life produceth the storm of an unfortunate Death You may judge also at the same time of what Nature are these heights of honour when often the Greatest at Sun-rise finds themselves at the end of the Day the most miserable And suppose Fortune meddle not with them to what extremity of misery think you is a man reduc't at the hour of his departure All his Grandeurs though yet present are but as past felicities he enjoys no more the goods which he possesses greess onely appertain to him in proper and of what magnificence so'ere he is environed I wonder not if rich men be afraid of death since to them it is more dreadfull then to any this object shows him but the image of a funerall pomp his bed already Emblemes the Sepulcher the Sheets his winding linnen wherein he must be inveloped So that if he yet conceit himself Great 't is onely in misery Since all that he seeâ— heares touches smells and tasts sensibly perswades him nothing else Give Resurrection in your thoughts to great Alexander and then again conceive him at last gaspe and now consider in this deplorable estate Fortune sells every day the gtory of the world to any that will but none but fools are her chapmen wherein he finds himself involv'd upon his funerall couch to what can stead him all the grandeurs of his life past they being also past with it I grant that all the Earth be his yet you see how the little load of that of his body weighs so heavy on his soul that it is upon point to fall groveling under the burden I grant that all the glorie of the world belongs to him in proper he enjoys nothing but his miseries I yeeld moreover that all Mankinde may be his subjects yet this absolute soveraignty is not exempt from the servitude of pain Be it that with the onely thunder of his voice he makes the Earth to tremble yet he himself cannot hold from shaking at the noise of his own sighs I grant in fine that all the Kings of the world render him homage yet he is still the tributary of Death O grandeurs since you flie away without cease what are you but a little wind and should I be an Idolater of a little tossed Ayre Omnis motus tendit ad quietem and which onely moves but to vanish to its repose O greatnesse since you do but passe away what name should I give you but that of a dream Alas why should I passe my life in your pursuite still dreaming after you O worldly greatnesses since you bid Adieu to all the world without being able to stay your selves one onely moment Adieu then your allurements have none for me your sweets are bitter to my taste and your pleasures afford me none I cannot run after that which flies I can have no love for things which passe away worldly Greatnesses are but childrens trifles every wise man despises them and fince the world hath nothing else 't is a long while that I have bidden adieu to it It had promised me much and though it had given me nothing yet cannot I reproach it finding my self yet too rich by reason of its hardnesse But I return to the point Men of the World would perswade us that it is impossible to find any quiet in it to say The onely means to be content is to settle the conscience in peace a firm setling of Spirit wherein a man may be content in his condition without ever wishing any other thing And for my part I judge nothing to be more easie if we leave to reason its absolute power What impossibility can there be to regulate a mans will to Gods And what contradiction in 't to live upon earth of the pure benedictions of heaven What greater riches can a man wish then this to be able to undergo the Decrees of his Fate without murmuring and
black the Exequies of all the other braveries of the world since nothing can be seen more admirable then this This is not the Triumph of Aurelian where all the graces are led captive with Zenobia To triumph over vice is the noblest Trophie In this are to be seen no other captives but the world and all its vanities and their defeat is the richest Crown of the Victor This is not the Triumph of that pompous Queen of Egypt entring into Cilicia where she rays'd admiration to her self in a Galley of unutrerable value but in this we contemplate the more then human industry of a Pilote who from the mid'st of the storms and tempest of the world recovers happily to the Port the ship of his life though yet but in the way to approach to it In fine this is not the Triumph of Sesostris whose stately Chariot four Kings drew Passions are the onely slaves of this and Death being here vanquisht this honour remains immortall and the name of the Triumpher Say we then once again All the glory of men vanisheth away with them O how glorious a Triumph is this over Death O how brave is the victory over our selves and the onely means thus to vanquish a mans-self is to bury his ambition before his body be ensepulchred preparing neverthelesse the tomb of both to the end that the continuall remembrances of Death may serve for temperament and moderation to the delights of life We read of Paulus Aemilius that returning to Rome laden with wreaths of Laurell after the famous victory over the Persians he made his entrance of triumph with so great pomp and magnificence that the Sun seemed to rouz it self many times as if upon design to contemplate these wonders Pompy desirous to expose to the view of day all the magnificent presents which Fortune had given him in his last conquests entred now the third time in Triumph into the City of Rome where the noise of his valour made as many Idolaters as admirers gaining hearts and now conquering soules as well as before Realms and Provinces But it seems that the glory which accompanied him in this action had this defect not to be sufficiently worthily known even of those that were witnesles of it as surpassing by much all that they could possibly expresse of it There was seen advanced before his charriot Vanitie is a dangerous enemy it flatters onely to surprize in ostentation a Checker-worke composed of two sorts of precious stones whose beauty set them beyond all price But yet me thinks their sparkling might have in good time been a light to him if by a feeling of fore-sight touching the inconstancie of his fortune he had caused to have been graven thereon the history of his mishaps There was admired in sequell a Statue of the Moon all of Gold in form of a Crescent and I am astonisht that this Image of change and Vicissitude made him not foresee the deturning of the Wheele I mean the storme that was to succeed the calme of his happinesse He caused moreover to be carried before him a great number of Vessels of Gold never thinking that Death might soon replenish some part of them with his ashes There was seen to follow a mountain all of Gold upon which were all sorts of animals and many Trees of the same matter and this mountaine was enrounded with a Vine whose golden glittering dazled the eies of all that considered its wonders This proud Triumpher was the Orpheus which to the Lyrick sound of his renown Ambition is an incurable disease of the soule if in good time it be nor lookt too attracted this mountaine these Animals these Trees this Vine But as Orpheus so him also Fortune destinated a Prey to the fury of Bacchinals I mean the Eunuchs which put him to Death Three Statues of gold first Jupiters then Mars and then of Pallas came after These were his Gods and his Goddesse what succours could he expect from these Deities which had no subsistence but in statue and the copy of whose portraict had no principall There was had in admiration moreover thirty garlands all of gold A man had need to have an excellent memorie not to forget himselfe among his honours and Pearles but these Crownes were too weighty for his head from whence it came to passe that he tell under the burden A golden Chappell followed after dedicated to the Muses upon which was a great Horologe of the same materials And as the Index still turned ought not he to have considered that the houre of his triumphing began to passe away and that of his overthrow would presently sound being sequell to the Lawes of that vicissitude to which Face hath subjected all things His statue of gold enricht with diamonds and pearls whereof nor he himselfe nor he that enwrought them knew the value followed in its course and in fine this his shadow was more happy than the true body as having never been scuffled with but by time and the other was vanquisht with miserie Then appeared the great Pompey seated upon a throne where he and Fortune seemed to give lawes to the whole world â—or his triumphall Charriot was â—o richly glorious so magnificent â—n rarities so splendide in new and ne're-before-seen wonders that a ravishment surprized mens â—pirits elevating them at once â—rom admiration to extasie not giving them leasure to make relection upon the present realties Be it our constant meditation of the inconstancie to which all worldly things are subjected But this Triumphall Charriot still â—owled about and though the Triumpher remained seated in his place yet his Fortune turned about likewise Insomuch that in going to the Capitoll he approacht by little and little to the â—ank where his life and happinesse were equally interred In fine for the fulnesse of glory These proper names of the conquests which he had made were read in golden Characters See Pliny's Nat. Historie 7 Book 26 Chapter Pride is the passion of fooles for what a sense-lessenesse is it to be proud having so many miseries about us which are incident to mortal man The Kingdome of Pontus Armenia Cappadocia Paphlagonia Medea Colchis the Hiberians the Albanians Syria Cilicia Mesopotamia Phoenicia Palestina Judea Arabia and the Rovers of all the Seas Who can be comparable to this proud Conquerour and yet I say it having conquered and subjugated the greatest part of the Earth Fate permits him not so much as to expire upon it and the Sea yet more treacherous prepares him shipwrack in mid'st of the Port. What resemblance and what correspondence can there be now between this Triumph so sumptuous so stately and magnificent and that whose presentation show you How poor is the vanity of man having no other grounds but humane frailtie where lowlinesse humlity and misery hold the first rank and possesse the highest places Assuredly the difference is greaâ— but yet this inequalitie here is glorious since it brings
along with it the price of that vertue where of Pompey despised the conquest He in his Triumph raised wonder to the beauty of those two great precious stones But the Sepulchrall Marbles which appeared in this of ADRIAN were of another estimate because prudence values them above all price putting them to that employment to which she had destinated them Again if he expose to view in vessels of gold Mountaines Animals Trees Vines Statues of the same matter This Herse covered with black which serves for ornament to this Funerall Pomp containes yet much more treasure since the contempt of all together â—â— graven therein He makes ostentation of his statue of gold enricht with Pearles but our Monarch â—akes as much glory without â—hem shewing in his own bare Pourtraict the originall of his â—â—iseries Except the crown of vertue all other are subject to change That proud conquerour â—ad a thousand Garlands and â—olden Coronets as a novell Trophy But ours here crownes himselfe with Cypresse during his carreere of life to merit those palmes which await him in the end In fine Pompey is the Idoll of heatts and soules and his Triumphall Chariot serves as an Altar where he receives the vower and Sacrifices But this-Prince instead of causing Idolaters during the sway of his Majestie immolates himselfe up to the view of Heaven and Earth dying already in his own Funerals and suffering himselfe to be as it were buried by the continuall object which dwels with him of Death and his Tombe But if Pompey lastly boast himselfe to have conquered an infinite number of Realmes of all the world together * Adrian Thâ—â— Man having never had worse enemies than his passions hath sought no other glory but to overcome them and in their defeat a Maâ— may well be stil'd the conquerour of Conquerours for the Coroâ—â— wreaths of this Triumph fearâ— not the Suns extremity nor thâ— Ages inconstancie We must passer farther Isidore All the objests of Vanity are so many enemies against which we ought to be always in arms and Tranquillus do assure us that to carry away the glory of a Triumph it was necessarily required to vanquish five thousand enemies or gain five victories as it is reported of Caesar The consent of the Senate was also to be had And the Conquerour was to be clothed in Purple and Crowned with Laurell holding a Scepter in his hand and in this sort he was conducted to the Capitoll of Jupiter where some famous Orator made a Panegyricke of his prowesse What better Allegory can we draw from these prophane truths â—hen this of the Victory which we â—ught to have of our five Senses as of five thousand enemies whose defeat is necessary to our riumph These are the five Viâ—tories which he must gain that would acquire such Trophies Still to wage war against our passions is the way to live in peace whose glory is taken away neither by time nor Death This consent of the Senate is the Authority of our reason which alone gives value and esteem to our actions and 't is of her that we may learn the means in obeying her to command over ouâ— passions and by the conquest oâ— of this sway triumph over our selves which is the bravest Victory of the World These Scepters and Crownes are so many marks of Soveraignty which remain us in propriety after subjection of so many fierce enemies Heaven is the Capitoll whither our good works conduct us in triumph and where the voice of Angels serves for Oratours to publish the glory of our deeds whose renown remains eternall These great Roman Captains which made love to vertue though without perfect knowledge of it 'T is not all to love Virtue 'T is the practice have sought for honour and glory in the overthrow of their enemies but they could never find the shadows of solid Honour which thus they sought from whence it came to passe that they have fashioned to themselves diverse Chimera's for to repast their fancy too greedy of these cheating objects Nor that there is no glory in a Conquest but 't was their ambition led them along in Triumph amidst their own Triumphing What honour had Caesar born away if he had joyned to his Trophies the slavery of Cleopatra he had exposed to view a Captive Queen who otherwhile had subjected him to her Love-dominion He triumphs with an ill grace â—'rewhom his vice triumph But if the fortune of the war had delivered him this Princesse the fate of Love would have given even himself into her hands Insomuch that the Death of Cleopatra immortalliz'd the renown of Caesar Asdrubal according to Iustin triumphed four times in Carthage â—ut this famous Theater of honour where glory it self had appeared â—o often upon its Throne serves â—n conclusion for a Trophy to â— Conquerour insomuch that it â—uried at once the renown and â—emory even of those that had presented themselves triumphant personages To day Memphis is all-Triumphant and on the morrow this proud City is reduced to slavery To day the report of its glory makes the world shake and on the morrow Travellers seek for it upon its own site but finde it not O goodly triumph O fearfull overthrow What continuall revolution of the wheel Marcellus shews himself at point of day upon a magnificent Chariot of Triumph and at Sun-set his glory and his life finish equally their carreere I mean in the twinckling of an eye Fortune takes away from him all those Laurel-wreaths which she had given him and leaves him nothing at his death It may be some consolation in all our miseries to see all else have their changes as well as we hut the regreet of having liv'd too-long Marius triump hed diverse times but with what tempests was the Ship of his fortune entertained Behold him now elevated upon the highest Throne of Honour but if you turn but your head you shall see him all naked in his shirt half-buried under the mire of a common Sink where the light of the day troubles him not being able to endure the Sun a witnesse of his misfortunes Behold him first I say in all abundance of Greatnesse and Soveraignty whereof the splendour dazles the world but stay a little and you shall hear pronounc'd the sentence of his death being abandoned even of himself having no more hope of safety How pompeous and celebrious was the Triumph of Lucullus In which he rais'd admiration to the magnificence of an hundred Gallies all-armed in the Prow a thousand Chariots charged with Pikes Halbertsâ— and Corselets whose shocking rumbles sounded so high it frighted the admirers though they celebrated the Fetivall of the Victorie The number of Vessels of Gold and other Ornaments of the Triumph was without number The Statue of Mithridates also of Gold six foot high with the Target all covered with precious Stones serv'd anew to the Triumph And of this Glory all the world together was an adorer for the renown
He shall hear rumble in his eares the thunder of Divine Justice by the continuall murmur of his sighs which advertize him of the approaches of Death What courage can he have to avenge himselfe being upon point himselfe to suffer the torment of eternall vengeance Thou that art Vindicative wilt thou then quench the ardour of thy Choller feele thine own pulse and consider that this pety slow feaver wherewith thou art stormed leads thee by little and little into the grave Who can be Ambitious It is more honour for a man to avenge himselfeâ— of his choler than of his enemie if musing of Death since he must quit all with his life Let us ponder a while the fate of those arrogant spirits which have mused themselves to conquer the vain greatnesses of the Earth What hath been in fine their share at the end of the carriere They have had nothing but unprofitable regreets to have so ill emploied their time finding themselves so poor with all their treasure as if they had been born the wretched'st of the world Thou Ambitious-one wilt thou be cured of the disease of thy Passion think each houre of the day that that which thou now hearest strike may be thy Last Who would sigh for prophane love Mortall frailtie brings blemish to the fairest visages and mightily takes from their opinion being well considered after these objects of dust and ashes if he often considered that he himselfe is made of nothing else and that this noysome and corruptive matter seeks nothing more than abysses of the grave there to hide within its loath somnesse in effect who would give his flesh a prey to pleasures if he would consider that the wormes do in expectation make their fees thereof already The meditation of Death serves for temperament to all sorts of delights And if a Man be capable of love in this muze it cannot be other than of his Salvation since this object is eternall but all others of the world perishable Infortunate Lovers search the solace of your immodest passions in the Anatomy of the subject whereof you are Idolarers Be assistant at that dead view Thinke of your own Death Behold you are cured What wretched rich man would be so much in love with his treasures He which considers of that wretchednesse which is adjunct to Death easily mispriseth the riches of this life if he would consider that Death robs him from them every day making him die continually and that at the end of the term of his life he carries along with him but the good or the evill which he hath done to be either recompenc'd or punish'd but with a glory or a punishment whereof Eternitie alone must terminate the continuance Covetous Misers the onely meanes for you to be so no more is to celebrate your own funerals by your Meditations and often to consider the Account not of your riches but that which you must render one day of their fruition since your Salvation depends thereon Who in fine would make a God of his Belly seeking with passion all the delights which may tickle the sense of Taste it he represented to himself the miseries of the body which he takes so much pains to nourish and the rigour of those inviolable decrees which destinate him a prey to the worms and the remains of their leavings to rottennesse This consideration would be capable to make him loose both appetite and desire at the same time to nourish so delicately his carkasse O souls all of flesh repasting your selves with nothing else there is no invention to make you change nature but this to Hear your selves dye by the noise of your sighs to See your selves dye by the wrinkles which furrow every day upon your visages and to Feele your selves dye by the beatings of your pulse which indexeth this your hectic feaver wherewith you are mortally attainted This is a Probatum-remedy the experience thereof is not dangerous May not a man then maintain with much reason If a man should forget all things else but the miseries of his condition this last were enough to exercise the vastest memory that the thought of Death alone is capable to cure our souls of the disease of their passions in doseing them both the means and the Vertue to triumph over them But if of this you desire an example call to minde that which I have proposed you in the beginning of the Chapter How marvellous is it that a great Mornarch who is able to maintain all manner of pleasure in his heart with all the delights which acompany it celebrates himselfe his Funeralls in midst of his carriere of life beginning to raign at the end of his raign since that last object is always present before his eyes His Passions do assail him but he vanquisheth them they give him combate but he leads them in triumph and buryes them altogether in the Tomb which he prepares himself Consider a little the glory which is relucent in this action We read of the Kings of Arabia that they triumphed upon Dromidaries the Kings of Persia upon Elephants of Croatia upon Bulls the Romans upon horses and yet 't is remarkt of Nero that be made himself be drawn in Triumph by four Hermaphrodite Mares Camillus by four white Horses Mark Antony by four Lions Aurelian by four Harts Caesar by forty Elephants Heliogabulus by four Doggs Moreover the Poets do assure us that the triumphant Charriot of Baccus was drawn by Tygers Neptunes by Fishes of Thetis by Dolphins Diana's This Vanity is a most contagious malady and the onely preservative is the remembrance of Death by Harts of Venus by Doves Iuno's by Peacocks All these objects of pomp and magnificence whereof histories and Fables would enternize the vanity have for all that done nothing but passe away and though a little remembrance of them stay with us 't is but the memoriall of a Chimera and of a fantasme since it preaches nothing else to us but the ruin and non-entity of that which hath been otherwhile O how glorious a Triumph is it These things ruminated on will make us wise when we our selves are encharioted over our passions now enslaved and subjected under the Empire of Reason There is nothing so glorious there ' is nothing so magnificent For these Dromidaries these Elephants these Bulis these Horses these Hermaphrodite Mares these Lyons Stags and Tygres afore-mentioned are but brute beasts which draw along in traine after them others as as bruitish as themselves as suffering themselves to be transported with vanity which onely reduceth them to this beastly-semblant vanity Let us turn our face unto another side SAâ—â—LLICâ—S in his ENNEADS actively peswades us to believe that the Christians of Aethiopia do carry in their processions great vessels full of ashes Let the fire of Divine Love glow upon our ashes to emblematize apparently the frailty of our nature But may not we say upon too much reason that we are earthen vessels
to these assaults the most valiant resist not their violences All droop at approach of an enemy so redoubtable But our defeat it rightly carried is more glorious then our Triumph What successe is this by being overcome to bear away the crown of victory such submission is a mark of Soveraignty Petrus Gregorius tells us of the Emperour Charls the fifth If the meditation of death make not a sinner change his life nothing will do it that he caused his winding head-kercher to be carried before him for a standard in all his Armies six years before he died to the end that the continuall object of his greatnesse might not be too powerfull to tempt him to misconceive himself We do the same every day without thinking on it for our shirts are in a manner as so many winding sheets which we carry always with us in all places where we go But if this sad object be not enough to moderate our ambition and rebate our vanity this voluntary is inseparable from pain we must needs undergo the Law 'T is best to let Death be welcome to us since 't is inevitable which we impose upon our selves LORD suffer me not if it please thee so far to mistake my self as never to come to the point of meditating of this blessed Decree which thou hast imposed on me to die one day But illuminate my spirit with the light of thy grace which may stead me as a Pharos to shew me the haven of the grave where the ship of my life must put ashore Make me also if it please thee to be ignorant of all things else but the knowledge to live well that I may also dye so and thus let the miseries which accompany me the mishaps that follow me and all the other afflictions which thy goodnesse hath subjected me to be the ordinay objects of my thoughts to the end that I stray not from the way of my salvation And now have I no other passion but to see the effects of these prayers Let us go to the end Those that have averred that the world is to us an hostile Army composed of so many Souldiers as there are objects in nature capable to agitate the power of our passions had very good reasons to defend the truth of their Thesis These objects of it make war against us continually with all the assaults inventions and stratagems of a cruel enemy Beauty that assaults our souls by the way of our eyes with as much cunning as force for at first view it amuseth the Sence with admiration by a slight of complacence to which its sweets and allurements insensibly engage it Afterwards the Sensus Communis receiving the fair Species of the Idea of this fair enemy presents them to the Fancy the Fancy to the Vnderstanding which after it hath examined them according to its capacity offers them to the Will which by a natural apprehension finds it self obliged to love the subject from whence these amiables do proceed And now then it is the Cue of Reason either to condemn or authorize this love but most often that becomes charmed it self and we vanquish't Not that Reason is not sufficiently strong and powerful Our passions are the flatteringest enemies of the world for they assault us with those semblant satisfactions to us as may seem most agreeable and thus they are most â—o be feared but whereas its force and vertue depends meerly upon grace the contempt which ordinarily it makes of this renders both alike unprofitable This is that which obliges us in all these conflicts to implore the help of heaven rather then to trust upon our strengths and evermore to have a jealous eye to this our subtile enemy which yet can never get other advantage upon us then that which our wretchlesness suffers it to acquire The very fairest objects of the world We cannot justly complain of our defeat since it is voluntary may well inforce admiration but not love since love cannot be formed in our hearts but by a powerful reflexion of the amiable qualities which are found in the subject and in this it is necessary that the understanding do operate and the will consent And this cannot be done without a free deliberation which we absolutely authorize Insomuch that we cannot be overcome if we rush not into it with desire of our own overthrow And this not so neither as if there were no trouble in the resistance but rather it is a way to acquire much more glory in the victory over beateous objects by the power of reason which is more troublesome and difficult then that which one gets over an enemy by force of armes But the honour also surpasseth always the difficulty The rewards which God hath prepared after all our troubles do infinitely surpass our deserts and what pain soever a man can possibly take the prize and crown at last can admit of no comparison We must then bravely combate those proud beauties which make publick profession to enchain our hearts in irons and put our souls upon the rack and let them see to their confusion that the natural Magick of their charmes is to us a new Art of Logick which informes us to make Arguments both to give for granted their power and yet destroy their force Fair leave have they to expose to view their blandishments and graces the light of Reason produceth a livelyer Day whose luster duskes the midday-splendour for by the aid of this light a man may see that all their quaintnesses are but dawbings their delicacies but artifice and their attractives but onely composed by distillatories And how can one Idolatrize them then after meditational presentment of these verities Behold the onely means to prescribe a rule over these Soveraigns who would impose it on the whole world He commands best that can obey reason Not that this kind of combate requires force of courage but rather of prudence after first a misprise of them to fly away and not to put the victory into hazard There are yet other enemies which render themselves as redoutable as the former such are Ambition riches c. what means is there to resist them or to speak better to vanquish them they have no less allurements and sweets then the beauties afore-spoken of and though the force of them be different they cease not nevertheless to excite and move the passions with all sort of violence Ambition ha's its particular delicacies and charmes to ravish mens hearts and soveraignize over their souls and I beleeve that its Empire extends it self far beyond that of Love for all the world is not capable of this latter passion but of the other every man has a smatch from that defect from our original where with a man is tainted Vanity is bred and born with us but it is in our choise whether to let it ever keep us company And this passion is so much the more to be seared as it is natural and
am now a Traytor both at once of his reputation and mine own conscience There is no fault more unpardonable then this of Obloquie and in regard that for a just expiation of the crime it is fitting that the tongue which did the hurt should give the remedy Thou Detractour if thou canst not moderate thy passion speak ill onely of thy self Study thine own vices Meditate thine own faults and Accuse thy self of them before Heaven which is already witness of thy crimes and by this way of reproching thou shalt obtain one day to be praised eternally Behold me now at the end of the Chapter After all these particular remedies with which a man may learn easily to resist the tyranny of the Passions He that often muzes of Death will every day learn to live well there is none more soveraign then this of the Meditation of Death All the rest abbut at this onely as the most authorized by daily experience Great Kings suffer your selves to be led in triumph by your own thoughts to the grave and by the way consider how your greatnesses your riches your delights and all the magnificence of your Court follow you step by step being brought along by the same fate whose absolute Tyranny spares none And since you may dye every hour think at the least sometimes of this truth to the end that that hour of your lifes dyall surprize you not Much good do it you to nourish up your selves deliciously yet all these Viands where with you repast your selves are empoisoned as containing in them the * Caliditas Frigiditas Humiditas Siccitas four contrary qualities whose discord puts into skirmish your humours and this battel is an infallible presage of your overthrow well may you chase away Melancholy by vertue of fresh pleasures these very contentments cheat away your life for though you think of nothing but how to pass away the time it passes ere you think on it and Death comes before you have forseen his arrival Well may you cocker up your bodies content your senses and satiate the appetite of your desires Pleasures make us grow old as well is griefs the Taper of your life has its limited course as well as that of the day Every man pursues his carreere according to the inviolable Lawes of Heaven which hath assigned them out at once both the way Fata volentem ducunt nolentem trahunt and the bounds Suffer Time to lead you by the hand to the Tomb for fear he hale you thither But in dying muze at least of that Life which never shall have end All the felicities which you have possest are vanished with the flower of your age and all those which you will yet enjoy will flye away with the rest What will remain with you then at the last instant of your life Those pleasures cost very dear which are worth nothing but repentance but an irksome remembrance to have tasted a thousand pleasures which are past and to have lost so many means of having had others which would have lasted eternally Disinvest your selves then for one hour every day of all your greatness and in the presence of your own selves meaning in review of all your miseries and mishaps which are proper to you confess the truth of your nullity and of your corruption by this search you shall recover your selves and by this confession thus shall you Triumph over your selves A PROLUSIONVpon the EMBLEM of the last Chapter VIewing the Ranges of a Librarie Of Dead men's bones pil'd in a Coemitarie Great Alexander finds Diogenes And thus they Dialogue Alex. Cynick among these Ruines of frail Mortality what do'st look Diog. For that wherein I fear to he mistook I seek thy Father Philip's Scull among This pell-mell undistinguishable Throng Alex. Let 's see which is it shew me Diog. Sure 't is that Whose nose is bridge-faln Alex. Dead men's all are flat Diog. Why then 't is that where shrowds perpetual night Cav'd in those hollow eye-holes void of sight Alex. Still all are so Diog. Why 't is yon' skinless brow Chap-faln lip sunk with teeth-disranked row Yond' peeled scalp Alex. Thus still are all alike Diog. So shall both You and I. and let this strike Thy knowledge Alexander and Thy sence 'Twixt King and slave once Dead's no difference L'envoy THere is no diff'rence Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat Her Death hath made Equall the Scepter and the Spade No dreader Majesty is now I' th' Royal Scalp then Rustick brow Fair NEREVS has no beateous grace More then Thersites ' ugly face Now both are dead odds there is none Betwixt the fair'st and fowlest One. Tell me among'st the hudled pile Of Dead mens bones which was ere while The subtil'st Lawyer 's or the Dull And Ignoramian Empty Skull Was yond' some valourous Samsons arm Or one that ne'er drew sword for harm Or wink and tell me which is which Irus the poor or Croesus rich What are they now who so much stood On Riches Honours and high Blood Ther 's now no Diff'rence with the Dead Distinctions all are buried Onely the Soul as Ill or Well Is Differenc't or in Heaven or Hell Alexander and Diogenes discoursing among thâ—â— Sepulchers of the Dead the Cynick tells the Kiâ—â— That in the Graue Monarchs and Meaner Mâ—â— are all alike THE MIRROUR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. IV. WHat a horrid spectacle is this what a frightful object See you not this great number of Dead Mens sculls which heaped one upon another make a mountain of horrour and affright whose baleful and contagious umbrage insensibly invites our bodies on to the grave What a victory is this over these but what an inhumanity what a defeat but what a butchery May we not say that sury and rage have assassinated even Natures-self and that we now alone remain in the world to celebrate its funerals by our lamentations and regreets Fathers Mothers Children Nobles Death is a severe Iudge and pardons none and Plebeians Kings and their subjects are all pell-mell in this stacke of rotten wood which Time like a covert but burning fire consumes by little and little not able to suffer that ashes should be exalted above dust Proud Spirits behold here the dreadful reverse of the medall All these sad objects of mortality and yet actively animated with horrour and affright by their own silence enjoin the same to you thus to amuze your Spirits in the contemplation of their deplorable ruines If you be rich See here those who have possessed the greatest treasures of the world are not now worth the marrow of their own bones whereof the worms have already shared the spoil If you be happy The greatest savourities of fortune are reduced to the same noisomness as you see the filth that enrounds them If you be valiant Hector and Achilles are thus here overcome behold the shamefull marks of their overthrow If you be men of Science Here lyes the most learned
of the world 'T is the Epitaph on their tomb Read it I grant more-over Death may be contemned but not avoided you may be the greatest Princes of the earth An infinite number of your companions are buried under these corrupted ruins Suppose in fine that your Soveraignty did extend it self over all the Empire of the world A thousand and a thousand too of your semblables have now nothing more their own then that corruption which devours even to the very bones Ambitious Heart see here a Mirrour which flatters not since it represents to the life the realty of thy miseries Well maist thou perhaps pretend the conquest of the Universe even those who have born away that universall Crown are now crowned but with dust and ashes Covetous wretch behold the book of thy accounts 'T is no wonder the Miser ne're thinks of Death his thoughts are onely taken up for this Life calculate all that is due to thee after payment of thy debts learn yet after all this that thy soul is already morgaged to devils thy body to worms and thus notwithstanding all thy treasures there will not abide with thee one hair upon thy head one tooth in thy chops nor one drop of blood in thy veynes nor ne're so little marrow in thy bones nay the very memory of thy being would be extinguish't if thy crimes did not render it eternall both here and in the torments of hell Proud arrogant man measure with thy bristled brows Pride is but like the nooneflourish of a flows or which at Sunset perisheth the dilatation of the earth Brave with thy menacing regards the heavens and the stars These mole-hills of rottennesse whereof thy carkasse is shap't prepare toward the tomb of thy vanity Seneca Epist Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua par vitae These are the shades of Death inseparable from thy body since it dies every hour If thou elevate thy self to day even to the clouds to morrow thou shalt be debased to nothing But if thou doubt of this truth behold here a thousand witnesses which have made experience of it Luxurious Wanton give thy body a prey to voluptuousnesse deny nothing to thy pleasures but yet consider the horrour and dreadfunesse of that Metamorphosis when thy flesh shall be turned to filth and even that to worms and those still to fresh ones which shall devour even thy coffin and so efface the very last marks of thy Sepulture How remarkable is the answer of Diogenes to Alexander What art thou musing on Cynicke says this Monarch to him one day having found him in a Charnell-yard I amuze my self here answers he in search of thy father Philips bones among this great number which thou see'st but my labour is in vain for one differs not from another Great Kings the discusse of this answer may serve you now as a fresh instruction to insinuate to you the knowledge of your selves You walk in triumph to the Tomb followed with all the train of your ordinary magnificences but by being arrived at this Port blown thither with the continuall gale of your sighs your pomp vanisheth away your Royall Majesty abandons you your greatnesse gives you the last Adieu and this your mortall fall equalls you now to all that were below you The dunghill of your body hath no preeminence above others unlesse it be in a worse degree of rottennesse of being of a matter more disposed to corruption But if you doubt of this truth Corruprio optimi pessima behold and contemplate the deplorable estate to which are reduced your semblables Their bald scalps have now no other Crown then the circle of horrour which environs them their disincarnated hands hold now no other Scepter but a pile of worms and all these wretchednesses together give them to see a strange change from what they were in all the glories of their Court The seriout meditation of his miserable condition 't is capable to make any man wise These palpable and sensible objects are witnesses not to be excepted against Let then your souls submit to the experiment of your senses But what a Prodigy of wonders here do I not see the great Army of Xerxes reduced and metamorphosed into a hand full of dust All that world of men in those days which with its umbragious body covered a great part of the earth shades not so much as a foot on 't with its presence Be never weary of thinking of these important truths Seneca in the Tragedy of Hercules brings in Alcmena In Hercule Oetaeo Ecce vix totam Hercules Complevit urnam quam leve est pondus mihi Câ—totus aether pondus incubuit leve with grievous lamentation bearing in an urn the ashes of that great Monster-Tamer And to this esfect makes her speak Behold how easily I carry him in my hand who bore the Heavens upon his shoulders The sense of these words ought to engage our spirits to a deep meditation upon the vanity of things which seem to us most durable All those great Monarchs who sought an immortality in their victories and triumphs have mist that and found Death at last the enjoyment of their Crownes and splendours being buried in the same Tomb with their bodies See here then a new subject of astonishment The Mathematicians give this Axiome The warld is a Game at Chesse where every of the Set haâ—s his particular Name and Place designed but the Game done all the pieces are pellmellâ—d into the Bagg and even so are all mortals into the grave All lines drawn from the Center to the Circumference are equall Kings and Princes abate your haughtinesse your subjects march fellow-like with you to the Center of the grave If life gave you preheminence Death gives them now equality There is now no place of affectation or range to be disputed the heap of your ashes and their dust make together but one hillock of mould whose infection is a horrour to me I am now of humour not to flatter you a whit We read of the Ethiopians that they buried their Kings in a kind of Lestall and I conceive thereof no other reason then according to the nature of the subject they joyned by this actiotion the shadow and the substance the effect with the cause the stream with its source for what other thing are we then a masse of mire dried and bak'd by the fire of life but scattered again and dissolv'd by the Winter of Death and in that last putrefaction to which Death reduceth us the filth of our bodies falls to the dirt of the earth as to its center for so being conceived incorruption let us not think strange to be buried in rottennesse Earth dust and ashes 'T is well men hide themselves after death in the Earth or the enclosure of Tombs their sulth and noysomnesse would else be too discovert remain still the same be it in a vessell of gold or in a coffin of wood
often at least in Meditation into Tombes visit to such effect the Church-yards and you shall find therein more riches then you wish for considering the horrour of that rorten earth wherein your semblables are enterred you will reason without doubt thus To what purpose at last will stead me all the treasures which I amass up in my coffers if the very richest of the world be but earth and ashes before my eyes What shall I do at the hour of my death with all the goods which I now possesse if even my body be a prey destinated to worms and rottennesse LORD I aime at nothing of this world but that glory alone which a man may acquire by the contempt of it but as it is a glory whereof the acquisition depends of thy grace All our hopes depend from grace nothing from our selves more then my force give me the Courage if it pease thee to surmount all the temptations which shall oppose themselves against my design of Victory to the end that my vows may be heard and my pains recompensed I return to my self When I consider that all the world together is but as it were a Caemitary or Church-yard wherein every hour of the day some wretchednesse or other brings to the grave those whom such their miserable condition hath destroyed I have no more passionate desire of life since evils and troubles are proprietaries of it rather then we He which meditates of anothers mans death puts himself in mind of his own since we are all slaves to to the same fate Who can keep account of the number of persons that expire at this very moment that I am now speaking to you or the different deaths which terminate the course of their carreere All is universally dreadfull and yet we quake not either in horrour or astonishment A Walke into Church-yards Charnels though it be sad and melancholly by reason of the dolefull objects there obvious hath yet neverthelesse something in it agreeable to content good souls In many of the Church-yards of France are thousands of dead mens skuls and bones piled up as at S. Innocents at Paris S. Croix at Orleans c. Meditation upon the vanities of life is a piece of serious felicitie before death in the contemplation of those very objects which they there finde How often have I taken pleasure to consider a great number of Deadmens sculls arranged one in pile upon another with this conceit of the vanity and arrogance wherewith otherwhile they have been filled Some have had no other care but of their Hair employing the greatest part of their time either to frizle or to empouder them and represent unto your selves by the way what recompence now betides them for all their pains Others all full of ambition had no other aims but at Coronall wreaths consider a little in this their misery the injustice of their pretentions I ha' remark't in sequell how a little worm did gnaw the arm of some late Samson reducing thus all his force to an object of compassion and wretchednesse since that arm heretofore so strong and dreadfull had not now force enough to resist a little worm Reader muze often of these truths and thou shalt finde therein more joy then sadnesse Typotius reports of Iohn Duke of Cleveland that to testifie the frailty of our nature and the miseries of our condition he had taken the Emblem of a Lilly with this device Hodie hoc cras nihil Hodie Lilium Cras Nihilum It flourishes to day to morrow 't is nothing Great Kings Even those things which seem most durable have in effest but a morning prime like flowers your life is like this Lily it appears like this flower at Sunrise with glittering and pomp but at noon its vivacity and lustre begin to fade and at the end of the day it vanisheth away with it and scarce its being is remembred We read in Apianus of Pompy that after he had triumphed over three parts of the world he carried nothing away with him to the grave but these words Hic situs est magnus Pompeius Pompey is here buried with all his pomp O World how poor art thou since thou hast but such a thing of nought to give O Fortune how miserable art thou when thy favorites are exposed to publick view as objects of compassion Let him trust in them who will a man shall never be able to escape their tromperies but by despiting their favours Here lyes Hannibal Behold all the honour which posterity rendred to the memory of so great a Captain Time is as inexionable as Death and neither of them spare any And Time even jealous of the glory of his name though not able to bury it in the Abysses of Oblivion hath yet devoured the very marble of his Sepulcher Are not these things truths worthy to raise astonishment 'T is remark't in Suetonius of one of the Roman Emperours that being now at last gaspe and as it were at a bay with Death he cryed out in excesse of astonishment Fui omnia sed nihil expedit I have been all in all but now it nothing helpeth me I have tasted all the pleasures of all the greatnesse of the world but the sweetes are changed into sowres and onely their bitter disgust stayes with me Experiment all the delights of the Earth Great Kings the distast will ever at last onely remain to your mouths and sorrowes to your hearts and if these do no good on you a thousand eternall punishments will possesse your souls Represent to your selves that all the felicities of Life are of the same nature as that is That decaies every moment and they flit away without cease Contentments cause in their privation as extreme discontents The contentments which men receive here below are like the pleasures of the Chace which are onely rellish't running I draw to an end Belon in his Monuments of the Kings of Egypt sayes that they were enterred with such a splendour of pomp and magnificence that even those who had diverse times before been admirers of it were for all that often in doubt whether the people went to place the corps in the Throne again rather then in their Sepulcher O how ill to the eyes is the lustre of this sad kind of honour For if vanity be insupportable barely of it self these excesses of it put the spirits upon the rack Diodorus Siculus speaking of the Tomb which Alexander caused to be erected for his favorite Ephestion assures that the magnificences which were there to be admired were beyond as well all value as example Marble Brasse Gold and Pearl were profusely offered to most cunning Artisans to frame thereof such works wherein sadnesse and compassion might be so naturally represented that they might affect the whole world with the like Diamonds Rubies and all other precious stones were there employed under the Image of a Sun A Man should never be angry with his hard
' fates the decrees onâ—t are inviolable Moon and Stars It seems this Monarch blinded with Love thought to hold the Planets captive in the glorious enchainments of those fair Master-pieces as if he would revenge himself of them for their maligne influences which they had powred upon the head of his dear Ephestion But this conceit was vain for the same stars whose captivity he ostented upon this Tomb conducted him also by little and little to his grave The Romans transported with passion to honour the memory of the Dictator Sylla caused his statue to be framed of a prodigious height all composed of perfumes and cast it into the funerall pile where his body whereof this was also but a shadow was to be burnt to ashes Being desirous by this action to give to understand that as the odour of his statue disperst it self through all the City of Rome the much more odoriferous savour of his peculiar vertues would spred it self through all the world But to go to the rigour of the litterall sense it is credible they had not cast in this aromaticall statue into the stack but onely to temper the excesse of the stench of the body which was to be consumed with it And I proceed to imagine beside that the odour of this statue the cinders of his body and all the glory of the actions of Sylla had all the same fate since the winde triumph't over them altogether Behold the reverse of the Medall of Vanity 'T is remark't in the life of the Emperour Severus by the report of DION that he made to be set at the gate of his Palace an Vrne of marble and as ost as he went in or out he was accustomed to say laying his hand on it Behold the Case that shall enclose him whom all the world could not contain Great Kings have often the same thoughts in your souls if you have not the like discourses in your mouths the smallest vessel of earth is too great for the ashes of your bodies which shall remain of them after the worms have well fed on them for the wretchednesse of your human condition reduceth you at last to so small a thing that you are nothing at all But if I must give a name to those grains of corrupted dust which are made of your deplorable remains Man onely is considerable in respest of his noble actions I shall call them the Idea's of a dream since the memory of your being can passe for no other together with the time Behold a fresh subject of entertain Some of our Ethnick Historians report to us that the Troglodites buried their kindred and friends with the tone of joyfull cries and acclamations of mirth The Lothophagi cast them into the Sea choosing rather to have them eaten of fishes in the water then of worms in the earth The Scythians did cat the bodies of their friends in sign of amity insomuch that the living were the Sepulcher of the dead The Hircanians cast the bodies of of their kindred to the Dogges The Massagetes exposed them as a prey to all manner of ravenous beasts The Lydians dryed them in the Sun and after reduced them to powders to the end the wind might carry them away Amongst all the customes which were practised amongst these strange Nations I finde none more commendable then the first of the Troglodites looking for no hell they had good reason to celebrate the funerall of their friends and kindred with laughter and acclamations of cheerfulnesse rather then with tears and lamentations For though that Life be granted us by divine favour There is more contentment to die then to live if we consider the end for which man was created yet we enjoy it but as a punishment since it is no other then a continuall correction of our continuall offences Besides the sad accidents which accompany it inseparably even to the grave are so numerous that a man may justly be very glad at the end of his journey The body of Man being made of earth is subject to earth but the soul holds onely of its soveraign Creator to see himself discharged of so ponderons a burthen Not that I here condemn the tears which we are accustomed to shed at the death of our nearest friends for these are ressentments of grief whereof Nature authorizeth the first violences But neither do I blame the vertue of those spirits who never discover alteration upon any rencounter of the mishaps and miseries of the world how extreme soever they be The living are more to be bemoned then the dead they being still i th' midd'st of this lifes tempest but these are already arrived to their Port. And what disaster is it to see dye either our kindred or friends since all the world together and Nature it self can do nothing else What reason then can a man have to call himself miserable for being destinated to celebrate the funerals of those whom he loves best since the divine Providence hath soveraignly established this order since moreover in this carreere of Death to which all the world speeds the Present on 't being not distinguish't but by Time it will appear when all is come to the upshot that one hath lived as long as another since all ages though different during their continuance are equall then when they are past Change we the discourse I advow once again There is no remedy more soveraign to cure the passion of arrogance then this of the consideration of Caemitaries and Tombs The most vain-glorious and ambitious are forced to yield themselves at the assaults of these sad objects For a spirit never so brave and valourous To what purpose is Courage against those perils which connot be avoided cannot but be astonish't when he sees at his feet the bones and dust of an infinite number of persons who were as valiant as he what thoughts can he have but of submission and humility considering that one part of himself is already reduced into dust and filth I say a part of himself since he himself is but a piece of the same matter which now serves him for object and to the same last point will be extended one day the line of his life When Virgil tells us of the fate of Priam Aencid lib. 2. Jacet ingens litore truncus Avulsum que humeris caput sine nomine corpus he brings in Aeneas astonish'c at it that so great a Monarch should leave to posterity no other Monument of his greatnesse but a Tronck of flesh a head separated from the shoulders and a carkasse without name or shape Great Kings He which makes himself rightly sensible of his miseries is partly in way to be exempted from their tyranny This truth is a Mirrour which flatters not Gaze here often in these meditations and you will surely at length consider that All is full of vanity and that this glory of the world whereof you are so strongly I dolaters is
to disfeaver Spirits fairly lent 3. Friend here remoulded by thy English hand To speak it is no fear Is now as slick and clear Nay when Thy own Minerva now doth stand On a Composing state ‘ T was curt‘sie to Translate But most thy Choice doth my applause command First for thy Self then for this crazie Land H. L. LECTURO COnspice quod vani undat tectoria Factus Et penetrabundi concipe vera Libri O falsis animose bon is Sirenane rerum Deductus vitreas exue delicias Interpres Genium quo vivax Author habebit Nec tantiem Archetypi claustra decora soni Tam bene Cinname â ping it feralia cannâ Phoenicis miro quae quasi rapta rogo E gemitu solatiolum è paedore venustas Eque cadavereo vita reculta situ Alter in arcanis sapiat subtile docendis Sublimique suus stet ratione liber Alter amet flores bibuli mulcedo popelli Sur descens tandem plausibus ipse suis Praesentem Libitina librum sibi vendicat illa Corripens artem Rhotoris illa Sophi H. I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEN. IACOB Advertisement au Lecteur Generous READER 'T Was upon occasion of the Summer's sad effects generally over all England and some ressentments of mine own when the Reading and Copying English this Authour's French Originall seasonably engaged my thoughts and Pen. I think al 's not forgotten yet But in longer intervall and indeed alwayes there ought still to be a deep apprehension of our Mortality This our Author inculcates to us in Notions quick and pertinent though in some historicall allusions he may a little o're-trust his Memory Valebis Thomas Cary. Laudatus abundè Non fastiditus Imprimatur Lingua Vernacula SA BAKER BOOKS printed for and are to be sold by Richard Thrale at the sign of the Crosse-Keyes at St. Pauls gate going into Cheapside Anotations of all the Books of the Old and New Testament wherein various readings are observed Scripture Parallel'd doubts resolved by divers learned and eminent men fol. The Mirrour of Pure devotion or six excellent Sermons of the discovery of Hippocracy by that learned man Mr. Ball. 12. Contemplatio mortis Immortalitatis a Contemplation of Death and Immortality an excellent Book of Eternity and to teach men how to dye in this last Edition all the Latine sentences are put into English in 12. A short view of the long life and reign of Henry the fourth by that learned Antiquary Sr. Rob. Cotton lately deceased 4. A discourse of the whole Art of war by Mr. Cruso with divers figures of fortifications 8 The Psalmes of David in meeter by Mr. Barker in 12. The largest sort of Bibles used in Churches fol. A defence of Infant Baptism by Mr. Choute to convince his wife lately turned Anabaptist 4. Antiquities of Canterbury or a Survey of that ancient City Cathedral suburbs by Will. Summers 4. Arraignment of the whole Creature at the Bar of Religion Reason and Experience explained in the Parable of the Prodigall Son 4. Articles of peace between Spain and England in the year 1630. 4. Carminum Proverbialium totius humanae vitae statum delineantium nec non utile de moribus Doctrinam jacunde propentium loci communis in gratiam javentutis selecti 8. Compleat Gentleman fashioning him absolute in the most necessary and commendable qualities concerning mind and body that may be required in a noble Gendeman together with the Gentlemans exercise or an exquisite practise as well for the drawing of all manner of Beasts as also the making of all sorts of colours for limning painting c. by Henry Pecham Mâ— of Arts in 4. Summa moralis Theologiae Authori Johanni Dawson Draining of the Fenns 4 A Commentary on the Colossians delivered in sundry Sermons by Edward Elton fol Every daies Sacrifices a Prayer book made by Martin Luther a little before his death 12. Fraus honestae Authori Mr. Stubbe in 12. Fundament Graecae Linguae in 8 A vindication of the Annotations on Ieremiah 10. ch 2d v. against the scurrilous aspersion of that grand Impostor Will. Lilly by The. Gataker B. D. in 4 The Herbal or generall History of Plants gathered by Iohn Gerrard since inlarged by Thâ— Iâ—hnsen in fol. The life of Edward the sixth by Sr. John Hayward 4. Holy Table name and thing 4. History of Prince Arthur and the Knights of the round Table in 4. A return from Algear by Doctor Kellet in 4. A strange and dangerous voyage of Captain Tho. Iames in his intended discovery of the Northwest passage into the South Sea 4 A Treaty of pacification between God and man with divers considerations fit for those wofull times also 12. The Sum and substance of Christian Religion set down in Catechistical way by Mr. Henry Isackson 8 King James on the Lords-prayer 8. Inauguration 8 The English Catechism explained or a comment on the small Catechism in the book of the Common prayer by Iohn Mayer D. in D. 4. The Mirrour which flatters not concerning the Contempt of the world and meditation of Death a book very seasonable for these times with the lively Pourtraictures of four famous Emperours Philip King of Mecedon Saladine Adrian Emperour of Rome and Alexander the great Tran slated out of French into English by Tho. Cary Esq The institution of Christian Religion written in Lat. by I Calvin translated into English by T. Norton in folio Danes Orthoepia Anglicana a Book concerning the right pronunciation of the English tongue useful for strangers 4. A Spiritual Duel between a Christian and Satan about certainty of Salvation an excellent Book for those that are troubled in conscience by H. Isackson in 12. Paradici in soli Paradisus terrestis or a Garden of all sorts of the Rarest Flowers with their nature place of birth time of flowring usefull in Physick or admired for beauty to which is added a Kitchen-Garden furnished with all manner of fruites and roots and hearbs used with us for meat or sauce also the art of planting an Orchard with the right way of preserving and conserving of them with their select vertues by Iohn Perkinson fol. The works of that famous Physitian Dr. Alex. Read containing Chirurgical Lectures of Tumors and Ulcers and a Treatise of Wounds with a Treatise of all the Muscules in the body of man in 4. The Manuel of the Anatomy and dissections of the body of Man with sundry figures thereunto belonging by Dr. Alex. Read 12. A Treatise of all the Musculs of the body of man by Dr Read 120. Reformatio Legum 40. Scots Poems 80. Virgilii Evangelizantis Christiados libri 13 in utroque sunt ab Alex. Rosaeo 8. Dr. Davis Welch Dictionary fol. Dr. Webbs Puerilis Confab 4. An exposition on both the Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians by Dr. Wil. Sclater 4. Posie of Godly Prayers an excellent Prayer-book with a discourse to forsake the world and not to fear Death the three and thirtieth Edition 12. Gods Statutes for general judgment by the man Christ Jesus a Sermon Preached at the Funeral of an honourable Lady by Iohn Brocket 4. Playes 4. Antipodes an excellent Comedy by Richard Brome concerning these times 4. Sparagus Garden by Richard Brome Miseries of Inforst marriages by G. Wilkins 4. Wit in a Constable by Slapthorne Ladies Priviledge by Slapthorne An excellent Comedy called a woman will have her will where likewise you may have many excellent Books of all sorts and most of the sorts of Playes FINIS