French with an English as with a French man nor exercise half so much freedome or ingeniosity with a dull common or prevaricating as a lively generous and sincerely expressing spirit I well endure not to sow my seed but on good ground and expectation of a good return nor to converse with such as are so wedded to their own opinions and full of themselves that there is no room or indulgence for any other I am as tender of giving the least distaste or offence to another as to my self Though I love conformity yet no more then needs must to an absurd fashion and not at all to a vitious temporizing Here you may finde no small perplexity Art is long multiform infinite Nature short-sighted bounded we are obnoxious to a world of crosse indications and reluctances Art and Inventions owe us a faire amends for we suffer and are confounded more then a little by them were it in my power I would recompence restore help and piece out Nature by my Writings but I feare the best Authors often more disguise and confound then better and improve her Shee hath I confesse found some advantage from Invention as appeares in the extent and multiplication of Perspective Glasses Catacousticons digesting our Language to bee conserved by writing regulate and sublime observation in Astronomy and the course of the Heavens as the Ephemerides and exact prediction of Eclipses doe witnesse but how well shee might have subsisted and walkt without a Iacobs staffe and these helps let others discourse I acknowledge them much better then the invention of high heeles head dresses and training Gownes c. But may it not be a shame to Art that all this while it hath not taught us to flye and for swimming we are rather dis-taught by our Discourse and that cutting down and destroying great Trees upon otherwise barren soyles it is not able to teach them to bring forth Corne and inferiour Plants Fancy and the Melancholy humour are great Inventors but as the Melancholique humour breeds an Appetite so doth it ordinarily hinder digestion a stomach that surchargeth it self with variety digesteth ill and breeds crudities It is hard to make a just concoction and distribution of our unnaturall superinductions The craftier sort of people strip themselves of such clogs and incumbrances and insist too often in a corrupt and unreformed nature They look upon God if at all no farther then they finde him in Nature and in his Workes they passe over his supernaturall revealed Word and will as wanting the eye of Faith to discern it and either question the recommended interpretation or wrest it to their own sense and interest they admit no Law but their own Nature and worldly and sensuall advantage No man can know God and his will and contemn or slight it But Religion like Nature and the Senses is indemonstrable because nothing proportions unto it Every man frames God unto himselfe such as either his grace or our owne interpretation and sense deliver him unto us If our Divines were either so consonant in their interpretations or lives as were requisite wee should become better Christians then we are His will would not be so indifferent to us nor would we conceive him so indifferent as many do to our wills and actions Excepting Religion all other knowledge is so painefull to attaine and so troubled and muddy when wee come to stirre the bottome that the game is hardly worth the Candle God of his great mercy enlighten us and mend us Amen August the 2. 1638. To my best Clergy friend in relation to the best among us IT proveth according to your conceit for this my farther writing I affirmed to you as I then thought that nothing lay upon mee requiring farther vent In truth for the particular which I now fall upon it hath beene long since in my affections to write something therein but the tendernesse and daintinesse of the matter and censuring ticklishnesse of the time with-held mee possibly I have been too pusillanimously injurious to truth and ingenuitie too much misdoubting my owne strength and over prejudicate upon superiours in such restraint Religion as it now stands betwixt us and the Papists is the subject There have not beene wanting on the one side some who out of a Romish presumptuous and overflattering disposition and on the other some who out of a Scottish jealousie and distrust have over-boldly apprehended if not concluded that both our King and many of our Bishops are against their owne and our good and quiet too much affected that way I have formerly understood from you your opinion to the contrary and that grounded upon sound reason and mine hath runne with yours None should prove so great losers by such a change as our King and Archbishop of Canterbury and they are both of them too wise and sensible of their owne power freedome and splendor ever to consent to reenthrall themselves to those great usurpations and abuses which the Monarch of Rome exerciseth over such Princes and States as acknowledge him It is little that we of inferiour calling should suffer under him in respect of the continuall reluctancy wherein they would find themselves plunged Our King and State enjoy now that happy freedome which hath cost others full deare to have attained and have failed in their endeavours Yet a King of France is mighty even in the Court of Rome so farre as to bandy against the Spanish faction which is commonly great enough to be troublesome to the Pope himselfe The power of all other Princes and States are petty Planets in comparison of these of so little sway and eminency that their influence and operation is very little more then as they side adhere and involve themselves to the others interest Our King is now one of the most free and eminent of Christendome nor can there bee the least just feare that his wisedome and spirit upon whatsoever Antipuritan suggestion can consent to bring over himselfe an unbridled and unlimited jurisdiction and controller The usurped vicegerency of the Pope as God on earth is too imcompatible with the just temporall power of Kings to be willingly admitted The strained grosse and injurious pretences of the Roman Church have been too clearely detected and Christian rights and truths too strongly vindicated to relapse to former delusions whatsoever future remisnesse and indulgency the Pope may pretend nunquam ligat sibi manus there can bee no securitie against him and naturally as well as for their pretended truth and uniformity they will ever tend to recover their losses and pristine authoritie Many carry a reverend respect to that Church more out of a contemplation of what primitively they were and now should bee then what they long have been now are and are likely to continue Unitie in truth and sincere Religion were indeed above all things to bee wished as nothing is more to bee avoyded and abhorred then falsehood prevarication and imposture Whatsoever pretext of policy and devotion
sollicited her work to doe Restlesse remaines still labouring in its course Till it may rest where it aspir'd unto 'T is likewise true my love hath mist its end And yet I cannot think my labour lost Though the main faile the By hath been my friend So farre as with content may quit my cost Like to the Alchymist whose golden aime Shoots chiefly at the Philosophick stone Whereof though hee fall short yet doth hee gain Many a pretious found extraction Many a quintessence and Limbeckt oyle To others and himselfe of use and pleasure Nor thinks it an ill guerdon of his toile T' impart unto the world such hidden treasure So I in these conceipts elaborate The wanton babes sprung from an am'rous brain My passions fire and heat evaporate And mine own ease with others pleasure gain And if I please the kind lascivious eare VVith these light ayres for pleasure only tun'd I seek no more nor care how the austere Censure these idle houres in rhyme consum'd They as superfluous banquet stuffe are meant Made but to please the outward sense and tast VVhich though they yeeld no solid nourishment They are not yet a profitlesse repast And if the strictest Stoick on Earths face VVaste not some houres as idly spent as these VVhereof remaineth no account or trace So necessary pleasures are and ease VVithout the which our soules themselves oppresse Then let me be condemn'd but if you find Your selves in pleasure wasting time no lesse Nor shew remaines thereof more then of wind Judge then my time at least as happ'ly spent As theirs that hunting love who little care So they injoy good pastime chase and sent To make the silly purchase of a Hare I Helen sought where Lucrece I did find At least a Lucrece she appeares to mee But were I Paris she perchance as kind VVould prove as Helen Troian youth to thee Oh no I do recant and firmly credit She is as spotlesse chast as perfect faire And thus will flatter hers and mine own merit If she were other I should not despaire And here my Love shall change its former hew And yet Chamaeleon-like remain the same As she is chast my love as chast and true And to like vertuous die it self shall frame Living still hers though only fed with aire And as her beauty won my heart before Finding her now as vertuous as then faire Her inward graces make me love her more Nor was my breast possest with such wild fire Thâ—t nought but Venus milk could quench my flame Hope 's the sole nutriment of my desire VVhere that once failes my flames alone grow tame Nor am I of so strong a faith in love To think where free occasion hath not wanted And free acquaintance hath giv'n means to move VVhat three months have deny'd will e're be granted VVho seeks a woman to his will to move Yet gaines no ground in furthering his desire Not to advance is to go back in love Let him good Souldier like his Siege retire But faire Coelestia since I have concluded Your vertue like your beauty most divine Oh let no sequel prove me now deluded Such subtilty would double that your crime Or be indeed what you appeare to be Or may you still at least seem so to me A FANCIE MY hearts faire Conqu'resse author of my griefe Deny me not to plead for my reliefe If you too cruell will no help impart Yet lend my plaints your eare to ease my heart Offenders capitall that plead for grace Are heard though not relieved in their case 'T is you the winner are cause of my pain Sick men and losers are allow'd to plain You that have made mee love can make mee live And none but you can my disease relieve Should I not then my cure from you demand I accessary to my death should stand Accuse not him who for deare life doth move But blame your selfe who so inforceth love You that have made my heart in love abound Ought not to bee offended with loves sound He that is almost dead for want of meat You must not blame him if hee ask to eat Nor ought you such an echo to condemn As love receiv'd from you resounds agen Nor blame that instrument whose sound is such As your faire hand is pleas'd to give the touch And if your heart to flint-like bee compos'd That to no pity it can bee dispos'd If 't be decreed by my malignant fate That here on earth that curst infernall state Must bee inflicted on me for my pain That I must love and not be lov'd again Yet be not angry Faire or if you 'l chide Chide Cupid that my subject tongue doth guide 'T is that blind little winged childish God That doth so often times deserve the rod For his mis-matching our affections fire With an unsuited different desire But to obey your will which unto me A venerable law shall ever be I 'le rather all on fire within consume Then once to ask a water drop presume And rather over-swoln with love will break Then once to dare of love to you to speak Thus will I inward bleed untill I find Or death or you my Love to me more kind Made in imitation of a Sonnet in Ronsard THough he that loves with unrequited love And finds his heat ingender no reflection Nor that his plaints can her compassion move That is the object of his true affection May uncondemn'd resume his love again And to a more kind subject it apply Himself exempting from unpityed pain Nor doth he wrong whom no desert doth tie Nor doth he faith or constance violate For vertue and folly incompatible be And constant Lovers uncompassionate Are foolish guilty of their miserie Nor breaks that Prince his faith who league hath sworn Of amity with some great Potentate Who will not after the like oath return Of love and faithfull aide unto his State For perfect love in sympathie consists And single Love is but a fatuous fire Yet little merits he who not persists No victory is gotten by retire I 'le love her still though shee unjust doe prove And happier contentment will I find In loving her with unrequited love Then to love one lesse faire though farre more kind IS 't possible you can deny With such unyeilding sleighting heart So small a suite so earnestly Pursu'd by my so true desert That not the cheapest toy you weare As ribban pin or thread of fringe I may with your kind favour beare Love feeds ev'n on the sleightest things Unhappily my heart is plac'd Since for my heart I cannot gaine To be in this slight measure grac'd That I importune to obtaine You feare be like that I will make it An earnest of what I desire No I 'le but as a Relique take it Of you the Saint that I admire And though my true loves due reliefe I hopelesse am e're to attaine Such proofe will comfort yet my griefe In that I reape not your disdaine Welcome at last yet pretty
reverence in the modern Garb condemns him as much as to speake false Latine in the Universitie or goe naked in the Country where to become every mans acquaintance is to bee none of his owne civill and charitable to every stranger every impudent unchristian Begger incivill uncharitable to himselfe his fortune plentie health ease authoritie pietie and naturall neighbours where thoughts and actions are neither consonant to religion or Philosophy nor language to the thoughts innocency and vanitie are the prey of rapine and deceipt the purse falls into a dysentery good order and conscience to a luxation and the outside of the Platter is all the businesse When I formerly lived in Towne I was at home in my place of birth and education with my Land close by my fortune hath now made it other with mee and foâ— my comfort if time which should improve my judgement abuse me not as it commonly doth the distastednesse of old men the condition of the Towne is altered from what I have known it Prizes continue double upon a sudden and that which is most strange without either scarcity of yeares or plenty of mony penury of wit good oeconomy with abundance of luxury work the effect No ancient brave Romane was ever more free and prodigall of his blood in the way of honour and his Countreys defence then our English gluttonous Gallant and Epicure is easily and insensibly parted with his money another blood to the wise for fashion and sensuality He affects bravery and yet contemns what feeds it Hee seemes indulgent to his Genius and soule yet thinks it base and superstitious to befriend them by looking into his reckonings with God and Man The conscience of the seller prescribes no limits but what he can get nor is the buyer restrained by any rule of discretion or price broad Tables large Diet many courses and dainties make slender fortunes and narrow soules gay houses and outsides ill furnish't mindes wee are I know not how become possest of late with a malus pudor a slacknesse a wretchlesnesse and shamefacednesse to doe what wee ought for our profit and good with a confident glory in our ruine and what we should avoid till God authorized example and wholsome sumptuary laws reform us we shall never mend Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes vitious custome hath prevailed by the discountenance of wisdome and vertue falsification and corruption have so invaded us that we have forgotten and lost the very Arts and Idea's as well as the habit of true working and living To strength of my minde and authority all is easie grosse impunity animates and confirmes offenders and the great feare is we shall never grow wise but with a mischief for my part as I am without power so am I worne out of fashion and acquaintance and I find little new worth the seeking and imbracing friendships are grown rare dissimulation cost and ceremony have extirpated them Generosity is hardly to bee found All distrust cunning pride self-conceited self-affected and never lesse wit judgement courage or vertue to boast of As the World is I cannot blame such as frequent the society and conversation of women they pretend not so much wit and knowledge but have commonly more then men Plus sapiunt quia quantum opus est sapiunt Their study and concernings lying in lesse room they more strongly certainly and perfectly attain and comprehend they exercise not such a falshood of Art trade and conversation as men their Discourse is more free friendly and ingenuous their intelligence none of the worst for they command generally our secrets and what from the pulpit what from our open hearted conference communicate without booke the quintessence of our thoughts and studies they study us as wee our bookes They are the winning common-wealth and society of this our world and like the Jesuites strongly combine and make it good by wit They are greater lovers of worth and valour They are more innocent and lesse dangerous to good men Observe their waies and bargaines and judge if they be not ordinarily more cautious and frugall then our selves they grudge not to take paines and bee at some cost with themselves to please your eye No Confectio Alkermes is so good against melancholy so you surfeit noton their dainties as the diversion and pretty trivial lighter part of their entertainment gratification is the very worst of them and you shall wrong your selfe and them if you condemn them all for the worst amongst them What was ever totally perfect If some bee bad the best are to bee the more esteemed There is I confesse a difference amongst them so also of us therein is our choice and judgement to bee exercised The company of the best men best at leisure is to be enjoyed and found amongst them the very best things are often subject to abuse contain and make a Covenant with your eyes and take but a preservative of ne quid nimis along with you and you are safe and happy They are generally better affected to the times and lesse possest with base and prolling designes then we Their power with us and over us proves their wit to bee above ours finer clearer stronger They are not destitute of Art but are more friends and instruments of nature and shee theirs Thus as I use have I mingled lesse with more serious matter this latter part belongs rather to others then to you I presume of your friendship whom I know indulgent to ingenuity an honest free career and Your most faithfull Friend to serve you Ianuary the 10. 1638. Pathetically if not too Prophetically Inspired upon the death of the late Noble and Brave Prince HENRY An imperfect but true Inventory and Dissection OH how much happier had my fortune been To doe thee service with my Sword then Pen And to have shed my bloud for thee then teares Faire Prince whose life our hope death bred our feares Though thine own vertues have embalm'd thy Fame As farre as planted is the Christian Name And are too beauteous well proportioned To bee by me unskilfull crayoned Yet duty bids me offer at thy hearse The faithfull incense of this mournfull verse Which contrary to common Monuments Is not made faire without for foule contents But poore without such riches doth possesse As budding youth did ne'r so faire expresse Nor feare I now suspect of flattery For to the living such their praise apply Greedy to turne sweet poison to reward Care lesse of duties and of truths regard Thy fresh and well known worth that tax doth free Which livelyer wee shall know by losse of thee Irreparable losse where overthrown Lies our Great British worthy Champion Strong Bulwark of our Peace steel point of warre Loadstone of vertue glorious Northern Starre The Muses love favourer of all good Arts Friend to all good designes and worthy parts Judicious just hardy and temperate Splendide in well ruled managing thy State Too curious frame to last Modell compact
a prop I should utterly despair of any good or quiet If some men chance to finde a strength rising against them they may partly blame themselves in their reservednesse a Cause may be starved at Law for want of fees and so may power by being over-sparing in a winning familiarity it is harsh to a noble Nature to think it self slighted a good Judgement may manage it self in an open freedome without profusion or betraying the bottome and there is the greater need to use it where there is little else to pay It is true that the King may seem to have made himself a great loser by giving ground so much from the way of his former course but it must first be cleared that it was the right way of his advantage and well examined others more their own Friends then his may prove the greater losers and his parting may be like Abrahams in the conclusion rather with the Ramme then the Childe The undoubted Laws of England are no such churles and niggards to their Prince as not to leave him a Royall power and splendid state but there must be at this time more then leaving after so much alienation exhaustion and contraction of debts there must be a plentifull supply and support this indeed after all our other payments will be a work but so it must nor doe I doubt but suddainly it will be vigorously undertaken if new jealousies interpose not themselves His Majesties condition requires it his goodnesse deserves it and his faithfull Subjects affection duty and reputation can doe no lesse It is true that we have already had a long time and paid dearely for it possibly there might have been a better husbanding but a good end will make all good and for the best As I said before that Grace of God and wisdome of his Majesty which have hitherto assisted us are my hope and confidence the Genius of the Kingdome doth as yet extraordinarily need them The consideration of Divine Service Episcopacy and Recusants in the scandall that these late times have drawn upon them or they upon the times is yet to be regulated and the conceived offence and danger springing from them to be prevented this you will say is a businesse and the greater by the greatnesse of the parties severally affected in them For the Common Prayer Book you know how the Scots esteem it multitudes of our own growing in all parts no lesse incurably impatient of it Bishops are in the same predicament but so much worse by how much a dead Letter hath neither so much imputed to it for our past troubles nor apprehended from it for a future propension to Popery But it may be said Punish then the men without rejecting that calling which certainly is more ancient then the Papacy and that surely might serve if there were not such a connaturality in the reasons for the one and the other that admitting the one the other will ever bee in danger to follow as hath been seen The Common-Prayer-Book hath also unquestionably much good in it but the scandall considered whether another forme of another tenure and extraction more of a peece and conform to the other Reformed Churches be not more fit and necessary to our quiet I referre to better judgements Gods Service and Worship is the substantiall and Morall part Episcopacy and this or that Form but the Ceremoniall and I would be sorry to see cutting of throats for Discipline and Ceremonie Charity ought to yeeld farre in things indifferent But must all the yeelding be on the Governours part God forbid that we should yeeld to every fanatical opinion and to fal into a way of Enthusiasts without any set Form of Directory or Liturgy Freedom of zeale and inspiration may be reserved to the Sermon or an after Prayer without engagement through the whole time of convention to go along and say Amen upon surprise The other great bodies of Reformed Churches are in great part prescript and regulate and as the ancient Druides who ruled the Religion of France and Britaine were said to hold their chiefe seat in the Isle of Anglesey so may his Majesty I perswade my self without going farther then the Dominions of his Crown of England take from his Islands of Gernsey and Iersey in this rare necessary some such modell at least with little alteration as may fit his greater Island and immaterially differ from our Brother Churches But howsoever it is necessary to come to a resolution and settlednesse whereby to prevent the numerous spreading of obstinate Sects which are said to grow too much upon us amongst which multiplicity it is somewhat strange unto me not to heare of any Lutherans considering our late Queen Anne was according to her Country conceived that wayes affected Now for our Recusants they have Petitions in Parliament to move a relaxation of the Lawes and a Commiseration in their behalfe And truely for the better and devoutest sort such as turne not their Religion into wantonnesse and malice I am moved to pity them but as they affect to move us to pity them I wish they would no lesse reflect upon us and consider the troubles and unsufferable condition that their leaders have affected and will ever affect to draw upon us and what a difference there would be in what we should suffer from them in respect of that being and conversation which they have injoyed amongst us to the proceedings of their Inquisition against us I referre you Charity begins at home and let them in the first place pity their abused selves let them crave the pity of their Pope and Priests who for their own unjustifiable ends are guilty of all their sufferings I spare them who spare no man and whose policy incompatible with all Monarchy and Government but their own enforceth the industry of others in the preservation of their true faith to God and their own safety Thus after my manner I runne and write with a light hand I touch but not to the quick You who carry a Key of my thoughts can further open mee and will I hope as you use bee indulgent unto mee London and the Parliament afford much company but to mee little conversation I am now in an opener Aire and with you I lye more open The truth is Carriages have been so Cabalisticall of all sides so unpleasant and inconvenient to participate or comply with that being embarqued to a concurrency of results I found enough to doe to look to my self as little desirous to counsell as affected or thought fit to bee called unto it No man ever acted lesse or suffered more then by my infirmity I have done this Parliament My good God hath still wonderfully supported mee and it may bee all to the best Much good may others finde and wee in them by their advancement My ends are onely to keep my self an honest man with an untainted Conscience and Reputation nor am I as I hope unhappy therein at least from the best A faire