forme that made it liue Nor could complaine that this world was vnfit To be staid in then when shee was in it Shee that first tried indifferent desires By vertue and vertue by religious fires Shee to whose person Paradise adhear'd As Courts to Princes shee whose eies enspheard Star-light inough t' haue made the South controll Had shee beene there the Star-full Northern Pole Shee shee is gone shee is gone when thou knowest this What fragmentary rubbidge this world is Thou knowest and that it is not worth a thought He honors it too much that thinks it nought Thinke then My soule that death is but a Groome Which brings a Taper to the outward romme Whence thou spiest first a little glimmering light And after brings it nearer to thy sight For such approches doth Heauen make in death Thinke thy selfe laboring now with broken breath And thinke those broken and soft Notes to bee Diuision and thy happiest Harmonee Thinke thee laid on thy death bed loose and slacke And thinke that but vnbinding of a packe To take one precious thing thy soule from thence Thinke thy selfe parch'd with feuers violence Anger thine Ague more by calling it Thy Physicke chide the slacknesse of the fit Thinke that thou hearst thy knell and thinke no more But that as Bels cal'd thee to Church before So this to the Triumphant Church cals thee Thinke Satans Sergeants round about thee bee And thinke that but for Legacies they thrust Giue one thy Pride to'another giue thy Lust Giue them those sinnes which they gaue thee before And trust th' immaculate blood to wash thy score Thinke thy frinds weeping round and thinke that thay Weepe but because they goe not yet thy way Thinke that they close thine eyes and thinke in this That they confesse much in the world amisse Who dare not trust a dead mans eye with that Which they from God and Angels couer not Thinke that they shroud thee vp and thinke from thence They reinuest thee in white innocence Thinke that thy body rots and if so lowe Thy soule exalted so thy thoughts can goe Thinke the a Prince who of themselues create Wormes which insensibly deuoure their state Thinke that they bury thee and thinke that right Laies thee to sleepe but a saint Lucies night Thinke these things cheerefully and if thou bee Drowsie or slacke remember then that shee Shee whose Complexion was so euen made That which of her Ingredients should inuade The other three no Feare no Art could guesse So far were all remou'd from more or lesse But as in Mithridate or iust perfumes Where all good things being met no one presumes To gouerne or to triumph no the rest Onely because all were no part was best And as though all doe know that quantities Are made of lines and lines from Points arise None can these lines or quantities vnioynt And say this is a line or this a point So though the Elements and Humors were In her one could not say this gouernes there Whose euen constitution might haue worne Any disease to venter on the Sunne Rather then her and make a spirit feare That he to disuniting subiect were To whose proportious if we would compare Cubes th' are vnstable Circles Angulare Shee who was such a Chaine as Fate emploies To bring mankind all Fortunes it enioies So fast so euen wrought as one would thinke No Accident could threaten any linke Shee shee embrac'd a sicknesse gaue it meat The purest Blood and Breath that ere it eat And hath taught vs that though a good man hath Title to Heauen and plead it by his Faith And though he may pretend a conquest since Heauen was content to suffer violence Yea though he plead along possession too For they' are in Heauen on Earth who Heauens workes do Though he had right and power and Place before Yet Death must vsher and vnlocke the doore Thinke further on thy selfe my soule and thinke How thou at first wast made but in a sinke Thinke that it argued some infermitee That those two soules which then thou foundst in mee Thou fedst vpon And drewst into thee both My second soule of sence and first of growth Thinke but how poore thou wast how obnoxious Whom a small lump of flesh could poison thus This curded milke this poore vnlittered whelpe My body could beyond escape or helpe Infect thee with originall sinne and thou Couldst neither then refuse nor leaue it now Thinke that no stubborne sullen Anchorit Which fixt to'a Pillar or a Graue doth sit Beddded and Bath'd in all his Ordures dwels So fowly as our soules in their first-built Cels. Thinke in how poore a prison thou didst lie After enabled but to sucke and crie Thinke when t' was growne to most t' was a poore Inne A Prouince Pack'd vp in two yards of skinne And that vsurped or threatned with the rage Of sicknesses or their true mother Age. But thinke that Death hath now enfranchis'd thee Thou hast thy'expausion now and libertee Thinke that a rusty Peece discharg'd is flowen In peeces and the bullet is his owne And freely flies This to thy soule allow Thinke thy shee l broke thinke thy Soule hatch'd but now And thinke this slow-pac'd soule which late did cleaue To'a body and went but by the bodies leaue Twenty perchance or thirty mile a day Dispatches in a minute all the way Twixt Heauen and Earth shee staies not in the Ayre To looke what Meteors there themselues prepare Shee carries no desire to know nor sense Whether th'Ayrs middle Region be intense For th' Element of fire shee doth not know Whether shee past by such a place or no Shee baits not at the Moone nor cares to trie Whether in that new world men liue and die Venus recards her not to'enquire how shee Can being one Star Hesper and Vesper bee Hee that charm'd Argus eies sweet Mercury Workes not on her who now is growen all Ey Who if shee meete the body of the Sunne Goes through not staying till his course be runne Who finds in Mars his Campe no corps of Guard Nor is by Ioue nor by his father bard But ere shee can consider how shee went At once is at and through the Firmament And as these stars were but so many beades Strunge on one string speed vndistinguish'd leades Her through those spheares as through the beades a string Whose quicke succession makes it still one thing As doth the Pith which least our Bodies slacke Strings fast the little bones of necke and backe So by the soule doth death string Heauen and Earth For when our soule enioyes this her third birth Creation gaue her one a second grace Heauen is as neare and present to her face As colours are and obiects in a roome Where darknesse was before when Tapers come This must my soule thy long-short Progresse bee To'aduance these thoughts remember then that shee Shee whose faire body no such prison was But that a soule might well be
one certaine part But as thou sawest it rotten at the heart Thou seest a Hectique feuer hath got hold Of the whole substance not to be contrould And that thou hast but one way not t' admit The worlds infection to be none of it For the worlds subtilst immaterial parts Feele this consuming wound and ages darts For the worlds beauty is decayd or gone Beauty that 's colour and proportion We thinke the heauens enioy their Sphericall Their round proportion embracing all But yet their various and perplexed course Obseru'd in diuers ages doth enforce Men to finde out so many Eccentrique parts Such diuers downe-right lines such ouerthwarts As disproportion that pure forme It teares The Firmament in eight and forty sheeres And in these constillations then arise New starres and old doe vanish from our eyes As though heau'n suffred earthquakes peace or war When new Towers rise and old demolish'd are They haue empayld within a Zodiake The free-borne Sunne and keepe twelue signes awake To watch his steps the Goat and Crabbe controule And fright him backe who els to eyther Pole Did not these Tropiques fetter him might runne For his course is not round nor can the Sunne Perfit a Circle or maintaine his way One inche direct but where he rose to day He comes no more but with a cousening line Steales by that point and so is Serpentine And seeming weary with his reeleing thus He meanes to sleepe being now falne nearer vs. So of the starres which boast that they doe runne In Circle still none ends where he begunne All their proportion's lame it sinks it swels For of Meridians and Parallels Man hath weau'd out a net and this net throwne Vpon the Heauens and now they are his owne Loth to goe vp the hill or labour thus To go to heauen we make heauen come to vs. We spur we raigne the stars and in their race They 're diuersly content t' obey our peace But keepes the earth her round proportion still Doth not a Tenarif or higher Hill Rise so high like a Rocke that one might thinke The floating Moone would shipwracke there and sinke Seas are so deepe that Whales being strooke to day Perchance to morrow scarse at middle way Of their wish'd iourneys end the bottom dye And men to sound depths so much line vntie As one might iustly thinke that there would rise At end thereof one of th' Antipodies If vnder all a Vault infernall be Which sure is spacious except that we Inuent another torment that there must Millions into a strait hot roome be thrust Then solidnesse and roundnesse haue no place Are these but warts and pock-holes in the face Of th' earth Thinke so But yet confesse in this The worlds proportion disfigured is That those two legges whereon it doth rely Reward and punishment are bent awry And Oh it can no more be questioned That beauties best proportion is dead Since euen griefe itselfe which now alone Is left vs is without proportion Shee by whose lines proportion should bee Examin'd measure of all Symmetree Whom had that Ancient seene who thought soules made Of Harmony he would at next haue said That Harmony was shee and thence infer That soules were but Resultances from her And did from her into our bodies go As to our eyes the formes from obiects flow Shee who if those great Douctors truely said That th'Arke to mans proportions was made Had beene a type for that as that might be A type of her in this that contrary Both Elements and Passions liu'd at peace In her who caus'd all Ciuill war to cease Shee after whom what forme soe're we see Is discord and rude incongruitee Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowst how vgly a monster this world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomee That here is nothing to enamor thee And that not onely faults in inward parts Corruptions in our braines or in our harts Poysoning the fountaines whence our actions spring Endanger vs but that if euery thing Be not done fitly'nd in proportion To satisfie wise and good lookers on Since most men be such as most thinke they bee They 're lothsome too by this Deformitee For good and well must in our actions meete Wicked is not much worse then indiscreet But beauties other second Element Colour and lustre now is as neere spent And had the world his iust proportion Were it a ring still yet the stone is gone As a compassionate Turcoyse which doth tell By looking pale the wearer is not well As gold fals sicke being stung with Mercury All the worlds parts of such complexion bee When nature was most busie the first weeke Swadling the new-borne earth God seemd to like That she should sport herselfe sometimes and play To mingle and vary colours euery day And then as though she could not make inow Himselfe his various Rainbow did allow Sight is the noblest sense of any one Yet sight hath onely colour to feed on And colour is decayd summers robe growes Duskie and like an oft dyed garment showes Our blushing redde which vs'd in cheekes to spred Is inward sunke and onely our soules are redde Perchance the world might haue recouered If she whom we lament had not beene dead But shee in whom all white and red and blew Beauties ingredients voluntary grew As in an vnuext Paradise from whom Did all things verdure and their lustre come Whose composition was miraculous Being all colour all Diaphanous For Ayre and Fire but thicke grosse bodies were And liueliest stones but drowsie and pale to her Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowst this Thou knowest how wan a Ghost this our world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomee That it should more affright then pleasure thee And that since all faire color then did sinke T is now but wicked vanity to thinke To colour vitious deeds with good pretence Or with bought colors to illude mens sense Nor in ought more this worlds decay appeares Then that her influence the heau'n forbeares Or that the Elements doe not feele this The father or the mother barren is The clouds conceiue not raine or doe not powre In the due birth-time downe the balmy showre Th' Ayre doth not motherly sit on the earth To hatch her seasons and giue all things birth Spring-times were common cradles but are toombes And false-conceptions fill the generall wombs Th' Ayre showes such Meteors as none can see Not onely what they meane but what they bee Earth such new wormes as would haue troubled much Th' Egyptian Mages to haue made more such What Artist now dares boast that he can bring Heauen hither or constellate any thing So as the influence of those starres may bee Imprisoned in an Hearbe or Charme or Tree And doe by touch all which those starres could doe The art is lost and correspondence too For heauen giues little and the earth takes lesse And man least knowes their
More Antidote then all the world was ill Shee shee doth leaue it and by Death suruiue All this in Heauen whether who doth not striue The more because shee'is there he doth not know That accidentall ioyes in Heauen doe grow But pause My soule and study ere thou fall On accidentall ioyes th'essentiall Still before Accessories doe abide A triall must the principall be tride And what essentiall ioy canst thou expect Here vpon earth what permanent effect Of transitory causes Dost thou loue Beauty And Beauty worthyest is to moue Poore couse'ned cose'nor that she and that thou Which did begin to loue are neither now You are both fluid chang'd since yesterday Next day repaires but ill last daies decay Nor are Although the riuer keep the name Yesterdaies waters and to daies the same So flowes her face and thine eies neither now That saint nor Pilgrime which your louing row Concernd remaines but whil'st you thinke you bee Constant you' are howrely in inconstancee Honour may haue pretence vnto our loue Because that God did liue so long aboue Without this Honour and then lou'd it so That he at last made Creatures to to bestow Honor on him not that he needed it But that to his hands man might grow more fit But since all honors from inferiors flow For they doe giue it Princes doe but show Whom they would haue so honord and that this On such opinions and capacities Is built as rise and fall to more and lesse Alas t is but a casuall happinesse Hath euer any man to'himselfe assigned This or that happinesse to'arrest his minde But that another man which takes a worse Thinke him a foole for hauing tane that course They who did labour Babels tower to'rect Might haue considerd that for that effect All this whole solid Earth could not allow Nor furnish forth Materials enow And that this Center to raise such a place Was far to little to haue beene the Base No more affoords this worlds foundatione To erect true ioye were all the meanes in one But as the Heathen made them seuerall gods Of all Gods Benefits and all his Rods For as the Wine and Corne and Onions are Gods vnto them so Agues bee and war And as by changing that whole precious Gold To such small copper coynes they lost the old And lost their onely God who euer must Be sought alone and not in such a thrust So much mankind true happinesse mistakes No Ioye enioyes that man that many makes Then soule to thy first'pitch worke vpon againe Know that all lines which circles doe containe For once that they the center touch do touch Twice the circumference and be thou such Double on Heauen thy thoughts on Earth emploid All will not serue Onely who haue enioyd The sight of God in fulnesse can thinke it For it is both the obiect and the wit This is essentiall ioye where neither hee Can suffer Diminution nor wee T is such a full and such a filling good Had th'Angels once look'd on him they had stood To fill the place of one of them or more Shee whom we celebrate is gone before Shee who had Here so much essentiall ioye As no chance could distract much lesse destroy Who with Gods presence was acquainted so Hearing and speaking to him as to know His face in any naturall Stone or Tree Better then when in Images they bee Who kept by diligent deuotion Gods Image in such reparation Within her heart that what decay was growen Was her first Parents fault and not her own Who being solicited to any Act Still heard God pleading his safe precontract Who by a faithfull confidence was here Betrothed to God and now is married there Whose twilights were more cleare then our mid day Who dreamt deuoutlier then most vse to pray Who being heare fild with grace yet stroue to bee Both where more grace and more capacitee At once is giuen shee to Heauen is gone Who made this world in some proportion A heauen and here became vnto vs all Ioye as our ioyes admit essentiall But could this low world ioyes essentiall touch Heauens accidentall ioyes would passe them much How poore and lame must then our casuall bee If thy Prince will his subiects to call thee My Lord and this doe swell thee thou art than By being a greater growen to be lesse Man When no Physician of Reders can speake A ioyfull casuall violence may breake A dangerous Apostem in thy brest And whilst thou ioyest in this the dangerous rest The bag may rise vp and so strangle thee What eie was casuall may euer bee What should the Nature change Or make the same Certaine which was but casuall when it came All casuall ioye doth loud and plainly say Onely by comming that it can away Onely in Heauen ioies strength is neuer spent And accidentall things are permanent Ioy of a soules arriuall neere decaies For that soule euer ioyes and euer staies Ioy that their last great Consummation Approches in the resurrection When earthly bodies more celestiall Shalbe then Angels were for they could fall This kind of ioy doth euery day admit Degrees of grouth but none of loosing it In this fresh ioy t is no small part that shee Shee in whose goodnesse he that names degree Doth iniure her T is losse to be cald best There where the stuffe is not such as the rest Shee who left such a body as euen shee Onely in Heauen could learne how it can bee Made better for shee rather was two soules Or like to full on both sides written Rols Where eies might read vpon the outward skin As strong Records for God as mindes within Shee who by making full perfection grow Peeces a Circle and still keepes it so Long'd for and longing for'it to heauen is gone Where shee receiues and giues addition Here in a place where mis-deuotion frames A thousand praiers to saints whose very names The ancient Church knew not Heauen knowes not yet And where what lawes of poetry admit Lawes of religion haue at least the same Immortall Maid I might inroque thy name Could any Saint prouoke that appetite Thou here shouldst make mee a french conuertite But thou wouldst not nor wouldst thou be content To take this for my second yeeres true Rent Did this Coine beare any other stampe then his That gaue thee power to doe me to say this Since his will is that to posteritee Thou shouldest for life and death a patterne bee And that the world should notice haue of this The purpose and th'Autority is his Thou art the Proclamation and I ame The Trumpet at whose voice the people came FINIS The entrie into the worke What life the world hath 〈◊〉 The sicknesses of the world Impossibility of health Shortnesse of life Smalnesse of stature Decay of nature in other parts Disformity of parts Disorder in the world Weaknesse in the want of correspondence of heauen and earth Conclusion The entrance A iust dis-estimation of this world Contemplation of our state in our death-bed Incommodities of the Soule in the Body Her liberty by death Her ignorance in this life and knowledge in the next Of our company in this life and in the next Of essentiall ioy in this life and in the next Of accidentall ioyes in both places Conclusion