none can find a fault Upon His Sacred Majesties most happy Return on the 29th of May 1660. AVVake dull Muse the Sun appeares Open thine eyes and dry thy teares The clouds disperse and Sable night Resignes to Charles his conquering light Batts Owles and Night-birds flie away Chac'd by the beames of this bright day A day design'd by Destinie Famous to all Posteritie First for the birth of Charles and now 'T is His Three Kingdoms Birth-day too VVee mov'd before but knew not how We could not say we liv'd till now Like Flies in VVinter so lay we In a dull senceless Lethargie Toucht by his healing beames we live His Presence a new life doth give Each loyall heart strook by his Rayes Is fill'd with gratitude and praise Those Phaëtons who had got the Raine And needs would guide great Charles his Waine Have found their Folly in their Fate And Phoebus now assumes his State The Trees who chose a woodden King To be their shade and covering Whilst they injuriously decline The fruitfull Olive and the Vine Consuming fire from the Bramble came They read their Folly by the Flame True Emblems of our giddy age Not rul'd by Reason but by Rage The tayle would quarrell with the Head And no longer would be Led Th' inferiour Members soon give way And the Tayle must bear the sway Blind as it was 'to ur misery With many a Sting but never an Eye Then were we drag'd through mire stones Which bruisd our flesh and brake our bones Our Feet and Legs foundred and lame We saw our Folly in our Shame We praid but no releif could find The Tayle was Deaf as well as Blind Drums Trumpets Pulpits with their sound All our intreaties did confound Till pittying Heaven heard our cry And God vouchsafes what men deny After a twelve years suffering Just Heaven Proclaims Great Charles our King Free like Ulisses from the harms Of Forreign Syrens tempting charmes And now our Joyfull Land doth ring With â—ö Paean's to our King All England seemd One bonfire Night Seem'd to contend with Day for light For Bells our Kingdome hath been fam'd And the Ringing-Island nam'd More truly now when every Bell Aloud the joyful news doth tell That Charles is landed once again With Peace and Plenty in his Train No more shall brother brother kill Nor sonnes the blood of fathers spill No more shall Mars Madness rage Peace shall bring back the golden-Golden-age No more shall Loyalty be Treason Errour truth and non-sence reason Nor will we sell our Liberty For a too-dear bought Slavery No more shall Sacriledge invade The Church nor Faction make a trade Of Holy things nor Gospel be Lost in a law-less liberty No more hope we to see the time When to be innocent's a crime No more no more shall armed might Though Wrong'd o'recome the weaker Right Now shall all jarâ—ing discords be Drown'd in the pleasing Harmony Of peacefull lawes whose stiller voice Shall charme the Drum Trumpets noise The Church shall be Triumphant more Than it was Militant before The withered Lawrell and the Bayes Revive to crown our happy dayes These and all other blessings we Great and Good Charles Expect from thee VVhose Vertues were enough alone To give Thee Title to the Crown You Conquerd without Arms Your Words VVin hearts better than others Swords Pardons are Your revenges we Jov in Your Boundless Victory What others use to do with blowes You by Forgiving kill your foes Your mercy doth your Sword reprieve And for their faults You most do grieve Your Martyr'd Fathers charity His last and greatest Legacy You most do prize Could we but tread That pace of virtue which you lead How quickly should we all agree To live in Love and Loyalty VVhilst others their rich Presents bring All I can give 's GOD SAVE THE KING FINIS Errata In the Panegyrric Page 9 Line â—â— Read infortunately In the first Elegy on K. C. â— p â—â— â—â— moving â— 11 â—â— his In Apothegms p 40 â— 20 r Lord Stanhop p 49 l penulâ— r the contrary p 50 l 12 r one p 50 l 2 r deadly p 64 l 17 r neighbours with carriages In the Letters p 4 l last r lame it may appear p 3 l 9 r to the p 24 â— clew p 44 l 15 r your p 54 l 17 r or l 23 r grate p 55 l 11 r bene p â—7 l 10 r jucundum p 69 l 21 dele thee p 82 l 12 dele full p. 90 l 13 r else p 94 l 19 dele Negro p 102 l 11 r beast p 111 l 18 r live p 115 l 31 r Terence p 130 l 12 r perdidit p 130 l 14 r Comici Cogito p 154 l 12 r in his p 155 l â— r than to p 156 l 13 r rather a p 156 l. 28 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Loves Labyrinth on the title for festina r festiva in the first coppy of verses after out-let r there p 3 l 4 r ready in p 3 l â— r volleys l 18 r drops p 8 l 30 r thou now p 10 l 9 r thou thus l 15 r wronged p 11 l 1 r rashness l the last r mine p 23 l 12 r be my p 26 l 20 r too much p 40 l 4 r shine p 32 l 27 r grown p 33 l 9 r can a p 36 l 9 r her neck p 48 l last r empty p 54 l 9 r scornes p 55 l â—2 r and â— 56 l 16 r King Donnes Sat. Johnston Hist Nat. †allusivâ— ad gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
care not too much to indulge my body as knowing that those things the body inclines to most are of the world which is enmity with God and what the Spirit prompts to most must needs be best because the Spirit is heavenly and more of kin to the Deity Honestum ei vile est cui corpus nimis charum est said one that knew well what he said 'T is not for nothing that our inward spirit is alwayes most sad when our outward man is most merry In the second place 'T is my desie to avoid ill company because as 't is said of the Tyrant Mezantius Corpora corporibus jungebat mortua vivis In that the Living rather putrefied by reason of the Dead but the Dead did not revive by the Living Such is the nature of man saith St. Gregory Vt quoties bonus malo conjungitur non ex bono malus meliocriter sed ex malo bono contaminetur It is a good caution therefore St. Bernard gives in his 48th Serm. in Cantic writing upon these words As the Lilly among thorns c. Vide saith he quomodo cautè ambulas inter spinas I speak this the rather because I presume you walk there among thorns and I know not whether there be a place there like the street in Rome that was called vicus sobrius because there was never an Ale-house in 't And as Socrates said of Alcibiades that miracle of his time when he saw him among Gallants I fear not Him but his Company Now the number of this Company should not be a meanes to make us run with them but rather to run from them And to this end 't is necessary for a man to be ever resident on his Calling lest he be turn'd out of his Living or at least of his well living for non-residency Out of a mans Calling out of Gods Protection 'T is an Apothegme of a late Wit That he who counts his Calling a Prison shall at length make a Prison his Calling But whither do I straggle Me thinks I hear you say as Queen Elizabeth once did to an Embassador who made a long Oration before her in high terms She answer'd him Expectavi Legatum Inveni Heraldum I expected an Embassador but find an Herald So me thinks I hear you say Expectavi Epistolam Inveni concionem I must confess I might have learn'd so much modesty from Roscius the Roman Orator who was ever mute when he din'd with Cato and the Thrush never sings if the Nightingal be by I might very well have spar'd this labour it being perform'd so well by yet if I have done amiss it shall satisfie me that I did it to satisfie mine own conscience Now might I relaxare animum recreate your mind by making you some mirth with the discords of our Times but truly they appear to me a fitter subject for our tears of sorrow than of mirth Assure your self I had not thus far transgrest upon your patience did you not know me to be Perfectly your Friend T. F. To Mr. A. E. Sir THough I have not had the happiness of late to be so propitiously be-friended by occasion as to write to you yet am I so confident of your wonted ingenuitie that you will not attribute it to any neglect of mine which if I were conscious to my self were so I should judge it a crime so great that I should not forgive my self But the truth is I find more danger in the conveying of Newes than in the hearing of it Nay my misery is I cannot or dare not at least inform you of more than every Pamphlet can to such a height of suspition are we now arrived Besides so barren is each day of Newes that 't is not worth doing penance in a sheet yet because you are desirous to know and I as willing to satisfie your desire what 's done in the Assembly and P. I will venture to tell you in an old story 'T is this Mr. Popham when he was Speaker and the lower House had sate long and done in effect nothing comming one day to Queen Elizabeth She said to him Now Mr. Speaker what hath pass'd in the lower House He answered If it please your Majesty seven weeks You need fear no danger in this for 't is Nothing and the Treaty is come to as much both Parties being not like to meet standing still at their former distance This was prettily Emblem'd by two Sphaerical bodies touching onely in Puncto with this Motto Pungere possunt pacificari non possunt Thus Sir you see amidst these dusky clouds Friendship dares mingle flames in a Convex though not in a direct line Ascertain your self of this That as it shall ever rejoyce me to hear of your health so it shall be my endeavour alwayes to be Your unfeigned Friend T. F. To my Father Sir AFter the remembrance of my duty which at all times wants not in my will though sometimes in my power I lately saw Mr. M. but cannot tell you whether with greater joy or grief It rejoyc'd me exceedingly to hear of your health but grieved me more to hear of my Mothers grief for a false information that I was a Sectary and a Malignant Give me leave therefore to say something whereby I may at once recover her right opinion and my reputation And first for the Sectary Should I say nothing my practice were enough to testifie that I do as much shun their Companies as hate their Tenents I count them as moles and warts nay wens in the face of the Body Politick which if not timely lanced will in time not onely deface but destroy our Common Mother the Church Neither do I love to run into those by-wayes of Sects and Schismes but rather keep the safer road of the Churches practice There is but one Way one Truth and I account all those not one better than another but all out of that one Way all opposites to that one Truth I esteem them but as wilde beasts broken into the Vineyard of the Church the hedge of our Government being pull'd up but as nettles and weeds sown and water'd by that envious man grown up to such an height that will in time not onely o're-top but o'return the good corn They are true vipers a beast whereof Naturalists report that first the she-viper biteth off the he-vipers head and so she conceives with young and those young gâ—aw a passage through their dams belly so that their life is the death of both Father and Mother as I may so speak This story I onely relate not apply the Time and Times will not permit me But that these Vermin do daily encrease is as true as lamentable and they go on with that impudence that they dare to quote Authority for their false actions If this be not enough to evince my integritie in this particular I here protest that I am so far from falling or leaning after any of these wayes that I utterly abhor and detest them I come
that veneration in length to your memorie which it yet wants in breadth Those Religious Houses erected by a better devotion than that which destroy'd them are more beholding â—o your Pen than to their Founders or Materials you having made them a task for the remembrance and admiration of future Ages so long as Time shall hold a Sythe or Fame a Trumpet I would say more if the universal applause of all knowing men had not saved me a labour And to pay you in some of your own coyn It is no flattery to affirm what envy cannot deny Did I not fore-see that the relation would swell my discourse beyond the limits of a Letter or the length of your patience I should assume the libertie to inform you that my neighbourhood to the place acquaints me with some Relicts of Religious Houses at and near Maâ—don bearing still the name of an Abbey a Friery and a Nunnery And if we may judge of Hercules by his foot of the whole piece by the remnant and of them by their Remaines I should suppose them not behind many in England As yet I know little of them but their ruines but if you vote it convenient I shall endeavour to improve my present ignorance into a discoverie of them I suppose it will be no hard task I am sure it shall not when in relation to your command I must now take pitie of your patience which had not run this hazard of abuse did I not know I have to do with so great a Candor from which I can expect no less than pardon And in that presumption I crave your leave to be as I subscribe my self Sir your most assured servant T. F. To M. Madam WEre I sure of the cause of your malady I could easily hope the Cure but being to guess at the one it will be no wonder if I miss the other Of all diseases those of the mind are worst of those that of melancholy of melancholies the religious I know not by what unhappy wit the the badge of melancholy hath been fastned upon the spirit of Calvin that Patriarch of Presbytery This I know since that unhappy Planet hath reigned over us we have too sensibly felt all those unlucky effects that an ill-boading Comet could produce What wars what blood-shed what ruines have we seen in the State What factions what fractions in the Church What envy what hatred what divisions amongst private persons What doubts what feares what distractions in all mens minds In a word what not Gladly doe I remember those happy dayes now happy onely in the remembrance that Golden Age wherein we had but one Truth but one Way wherein men walked lovingly together without contentious justling one another When those Silver Trumpets of the Sanctuary gave no uncertain sound when the way to Heaven was though a narrow yet a plain and direct path not block'd up by envious censures by distracting clamours But now I sadly see and sigh to say our Rents are like to prove our Ruine and our distractions our destruction I remember a Storie of a knavish Painter so my Author calls him who being to make the Picture of some goddess for a Citie to worship drew the Counterfeit of his own Mistris and so caused her to be courted that perhaps better deserved to be carted I wish this tale were not too true of our times It is too obvious to conceal the Parallel Do we not daily see Religion drest up in the several shapes of every ones fancie and obtruded upon the easie multitude as the onely Deitie for their adoration and observance our faith made as changeable as our fashions And what 's the miserie of our miseries none are so easily deluded as the well-meaning simple-hearted honest Christians who out of an excesse of Charitie are ready to believe all men mean truly because they doe so themselves If this be your case and I am to seek if it be not let me give you this Caution Beware of that evil which commeth near to the shew-of good none can so easily deceive you as those Hyaena's who have learn'd your voice to draw you out of the way Take heed of those serpents of the colour of the ground Let St. Paul beseech you to mark them which cause divisions and offences Contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them I am mis-inform'd if the same word which we read Contrary doth not also import near There are no opinions so dangerously contrary to the truth as they that seem very near it Let me assure you it is the old way which is the good way wherein you shall find rest There shall you find a direct road without any turnings and windings of private interest or faction No briars and thorns of quarrelling disputes no soul-destroying doctrines under the ostentious titles of soul-saving truths It is no such long and melancholy way as we see now chalk'd out by those who have found out new paths to heaven that our Fathers never dream't of There shall you find gravity without morosity and mirth without madness Christian cheerfulnesse as well commanded as commended Religion is no such frowning fury Psalms and Hymns ar her daily practice as well as prayers and teares The same Holy Spirit that commands us to pray alwayes enjoyns us also to rejoyce evermore We sin if we rejoyce not There is not more errour in false mirth than in unjust heaviness Can they be sad who have a God to defend a Christ to save and an Holy Ghost to comfort them It is for those that know not God or know him displeas'd to droop as men without hope An humble practice of those Common truths alone necessary to salvation is far more safe more happy than all the towring and lofty speculations of unquiet Heads and too busie Brains There is some reason in the old Scotch Rithme Rob. Will. and Davy Keep well thy Pater noster and Ave And if thou wilt the better speed Gang no farther than thy Creed Say well and do none ill And keep thy self in safety still Our way is not tedious nor our burthen heavy why then should we add length to the one and weight to the other by an un-necessarie sadness Whilest hypocrisie lies under the clouded brow of a Pharisee a cheerful countenance is the badge of innocence It is a disparagement to our Master and his service to follow him sighing I have done Pardon me this perhaps un-necessary length and believe me however the Physick chance to work it is tender'd with an hand ayming onely at your happinesse and that would gladly wish no better employment than to strew your way to heaven with Roses This is the height of his ambition who is Madam your most humble Servant T. F. To M. D. P. Sir THe Italians say in a Proverb That words are but females deeds are males I can allow them to be females so they be fruitful in these masculine productions and not subject to miscarry of
Sir said he your deeds answer your name righter than mine for your name is Elmar and you have marred all the Elms in Fulham by lopping them In the dayes of Edward the 6th the Lord Protector march't with a powerful Army into Scotland to demand their young Queen Mary in marriage to our King according to their promises The Scots refusing to do it were beaten by the English in Musleborough-fight One demanding of a Scotch Lord taken prisoner Now Sir how do you like our Kings mariage with your Queen I alwayes quoth he did like the marriage but I do not like the wooing that you should fetch a Bride with fire and sword Theocritus to an ill Poet repeating many of his verses and asking which he liked best Answered Those which he had omitted Castruccio of Luca saying to one that profest himself a Philosopher You are of the condition of dogs that alwayes goe about those who can best give them meat No sayes the party we are like Physicians who visit their houses that have most need of them Castruccio going from Pisa to Ligorn by water and a dangerous storm there arising and thereupon being much perplex'd was reprehended by one of his followers as pusillanimous saying himself was not afraid of any thing To whom Castruccio reply'd That he nothing marvel'd thereat for every one valu'd his life according to it's worth Being asked by one what he should doe to gain a good esteem He answered him See when thou goest to a Feast that a block sit not upon a block When one boasted that he had read many things Said Castruccio It were better thou couldst brag thou hast remembred much Another bragging Though he had tippled much he was not drunk Reply'd An Oxe doe the same Castruccio kept a young Lass which he lay with ordinarily and thereupon being reprov'd by a friend telling him that it was a great wrong to him that he had suffer'd himself to be so taken by a wench Thou art mistaken said he I took her not she me Being one night in a house of one of his Gentlemen where there were divers Ladies invited to a Feast and he dancing and sporting with them more than befitted his condition was reproved by a friend Answered He that is held a wise man in the day-time will never be thought a fool in the night When one ask'd him a favour with many and superfluous words Castruccio said to him Hereafter when thou wouldst any thing with me send another Having caus'd a Citizen of Luca to die who had help'd him in his rising to his greatnesse when it was said to him he had ill done to put to death one of his old friends He reply'd You are deceiv'd I have put to death a new enemy He said He wondred much at men that when they bought any vessel of earth or glass they sound it first whether it be good but in taking a wife they are content onely to see her Seeing that one had written upon his house in latine God keep the wicked hence Said The Master then must not enter here Treating with an Embassador of the King of Naples touching some goods of the Borderers whereat he was somewhat angry when then the Embassador said Fear you not the King then Castruccio said Is this your King good or bad And he answering That he was good Castruccio replyed Wherefore then should I be afraid of those that are good The Lord Tinteville said to a great Personage of France that none could write the life of his deceased Master Lewis the 11th so well as he To whom he answered wisely I am too much bound to him to speak the truth King James being invited in a hunting journey to dine with Sir Tho. J. of Barkshire turning short at the corner of a Common hapned near to a Country man sitting by the heels in the stocks who cryed Hosanna unto his Majesty which invited him to ask the reason of his restraint Sir Tho. said It was for stealing a goose from the Common The fellow reply'd I beseech your Majesty be Judge who is the greater thief I for stealing geese from the Common or his Worship for robbing the Common from the geese By my sale Sir said the King to Sir â—ho I se not dine to day on your dishes till you restore the Common for the poor to feed their flocks Which was forthwith granted to them and the witty fellow set free Prince Henry was never heard to swear an oath And it was remembred at his Funeral-Sermon by the Arch-Bishop That he being commended by one for not replying with passion in play or swearing to the truth He should answer That he knew no game or value to be won or lost could be worth an Oath There was a Duel between two eminent Persons of the Turks and one slain The Council of Bashaws reprehended the other thus How durst you undertake to fight one with the other Are there not Christians enough to kill Did you not know that whether of you were slain the loss would be the Great Seigniors King James having made a large and learned Speech to the Parliament the Lord Keeper as Speaker to the Peers whose place there usually adds to the Kings mind and meaning thus excuses himself After the Kings Eloquence to be silent not to enamel a gold ring with studs of iron As one sayes of Nerva That having adopted Trajane he was immediately taken away Ne post divinum immortale factum aliquid mortale saceret So he durst not after his Majesties divinum immortale dictum mortale aliquid addere Alphonsus King of Arragon seeing a young Lady dance with a Gentleman who made love to her said to him Comfort your self this Sybil will quickly render the Oracle you ask Because the Sybils gave no answers but in motion The Monk who ambitious of martyrdom told the Souldan That he was was come into his Court to die for Preaching of the Truth was answered He needed not to have rambled so far for death for he might easily find it among his Princes at home Antigonus being asked by his own son what time he would remove his Camp He said The sound of the trumpet should give them notice The Conspirator had learn'd the lesson of silence well who being asked his knowledge answered If I had known it you had never known it Pyrrhus King of the Eâ—irotes having in two set Battels with great loss of men put the Romans to the worst and hearing by a Favourite of his this his so great good fortune smoothingly congratulated He said unto him That two Victories indeed he had gotten of them but them so dear that should he at the same rate buy a third the purchase would no less than undo him A souldier of Augustus when his enemies throat was in his power hearing the Retreat sounded gave over his violence with these words Malo obedire Duci quà m occidere hostem The Janizaries are very true to a man that trusts
the Jews asked one of the Rabbies his Master Whether he might read any of the humane Writers or not He gave him this Answer You may read them provided you read them neither day nor night Apelles when his boy shew'd him a painted Table and told him that it was done in haste He answered He might have spared to tell him so for the work sufficiently shew'd it Luther said The Cardinals were like Foxes sweeping the house with their tails raising more dust than they cleansed Mr. Greenham answered one that spake somewhat in his own disparagement Oh said he why do you praise your self so much Espenceus saith of the Bishops in the Council of Trent They were learned in their assistants Du Mouline said of Roniface his Extravagants They will doe well with a sword in hand The Roman General said of a recruited Army of Enemies That those African Nations muster'd under several names were but the same men whom they had formerly beaten under the notion of Carthaginians When a Roman Senator asked the Carthaginian Embassador How long the Peace should last That saith he will depend on the Conditions you give us If Just and Honourable they will hold for ever but if otherwise no longer than till we have power to break them Batton Desidiale who moved the people of Dalmatia to rebel against the Romans seeing them opprest too much with tributes and exactions making such sharp war against them as Tyberius the Emperor asked him on a time why he had caused the people to take Arms To whom he answered bâ—dly That the Romans were the cause thereof for they in sending them shepherds with good dogs to preserve them they had sent them wolves which devoured them The Emperor Maximilian the 2d could not endure that War should be made for Religion and was wont to say That it was a deadly sin to seek to force mens consciences the which belongs to God only At the Treaty for delivery of the Town of Antwerp the Hollanders insisting upon explaining the word scandal c. the Duke of Parma said Can you not do as the Countryman did at Rome who passing along the streets before an Ecce homo which is the figure of the representation which Pilate made of our Saviour Jesus Christ unto the people having made reverence and passing on he bethought himself that Pilate might attribute this honour unto himself wherefore turning and putting off his hat again He said It is to the Christ not to the Pilate Pieresk us the famous Frenchman was wont to say That whosoever seeks after the uncertain good things of this world should think and resolve that he gathers as well for thieves as for himself Plato saith That the Lawes of Necessity are so inevitable that the gods themselves cannot alter them Caracalla having miserably impoverished the people his Mother reproved him To whom he shewing his naked sword replyed As long as I have this I will not want Aurelian demanding how he might govern well Was answered by a great Personage You must be provided with iron and gold iron to use against your enemies and gold to reward your friends The Caliph of Babylon demurring to give the Embassador of Almerick King of Jerusalem his hand bare but gave it him in his glove To whom the resolute Earl of Caesarea said Sir truth seeks no holes to hide it self Princes that will hold Covenants must deal openly and nakedly give us therefore your bare hand we will make no bargain with your glove Lewis King of France going the second time to the Holy Land passing by Avignon some of the City wronged his Souldiers wherefore his Nobles desired him to besiege the City the rather because it was suspected that therein his Father was poysoned To whom Lewis most Christianly I come not out of France to revenge my own quarrels or those of my Father or Mother but injuries offer'd to Jesus Christ Lewis severely punished blasphemies searing their lips with an hot iron And because by his command it was executed upon a great rich Citizen of Paris some said He was a Tyrant He hearing it said before many I would to God that with searing my own lips I could banish out of my Realm all abuse of Oaths It was the Speech of Gustavus Adolphus but three dayes before his death Our affairs saith he answer our desires but I doubt God will punish me for the folly of the people who attribute too much unto me and esteem me as it were their God and therefore he will make them shortly know and see I am but a man He be my witness it is a thing distasteful unto me And whatever befall me I receive it as from his divine will onely in this I rest fully satisfied that he will not leave this great enterprize of mine imperfect Hormisda being asked what he thought of Rome Said He took contentment in this onely that he had now learned how even there also men are mortal Socrates appointed to suffer death would learn to sing And being asked what good it would do him seeing he was to die the next day He answered thus Even that I may depart out of this life learning more than I knew before Themistocles after a Battel fought with the Persians espying a pair of bracelets and a collar of gold lying on the ground Take up those things quoth he speaking to one of his company that stood near unto him thou art not Themistocles A Jew being turned Turk soon after buying of grapes of another Turk fell at variance with him about weighing the grapes from words they fell to blows and the Jew-Turk beat the other which he endured very patiently to encourage him as it seem'd in his new Religion Soon after another Jew came to the Turk who had been beaten and demanded of him why he suffered himself to be so abused Who answered You shall beat me as much if you will turn Musulman So zealous are they to win Proselytes Philip the 2d King of Spain was devoted to his Religion in so intense a degree that he would often say If the Prince his Son were an Heretick or Schismatick he would himself find fuel to burn him The Chyrurgeons being lancing his knee one day the Prince his Son ask'd him Whether it did not pain him much He answered My sins pain me much more Reading a letter that brought him the newes of the loss of his Fleet in 88. He said without the least motion or change of countenance Welcome be the will of God I sent my Cousin the Duke of Medina to fight with men not with the Elements He used to have a saying often in his mouth Time and I will challenge any two in the world Bias being demanded by a wicked man what was piety He was silent The other asking the reason of his silence I answer not saith he because you enquire after that which nothing concerns you It was the sentence of Cleobolus Do good to your friend that he may be
preserve it And although me thinks I hear you tell me that my sounding on so slight a knock doth but argue me the empter vessel whilst you who are more full fraught give no answer though with much importunity I have no other excuse but to tell you that I do it to let you see I had rather seem to be a troublesome than a forgetful friend Truly sayes our English Proverb He loves not at all that knows when to make an end And the Italians are not amiss who say L'amore senza fine non ha fine Love that has no by-end will know no end For my part I profess no other end in my affections but your service for which I once gave you my Heart and now my Hand that the World may see whose servant is T. F. To Mr. C. H. Mr. Ch. AS I was going to Church to keep the Fast your Letter encounter'd me and as good reason turn'd my Fast into a Feast but such a one as my Senses were more employ'd on than my Palat It rejoyc'd me exceedingly to hear of that ingenious Fl. though I expected to have heard from him before this But I see Non factis sequimur omnia quâ— loquimur I am sure Non passibus aequis To those Poesies you tell me of I shall only answer them with expectation since the Instructer of the Art of Poetry tells me Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere And to return you something for your Newes I can only tell you this that our streets abound with Grashoppers silenc'd by our great Hercules and others that look like horses thrown into a certain River in Italy which are consumed to the bare bones For your desire to be made merry I must confess Laeta decet laetis pascere corâ—a jocis But for you to desire it of me seems to be a jest it self I doubt to be tedious and well know Seneca's rule That an Epistle should not Manum legentis implere I onely take time to subscribe my self Your true Friend T. F. To Mr. S. M. at Barbados Friend I Received your as welcome as unexpected Letter of which I will say in the words of Seneca that famous Moralist in an Epistle to his friend Lucilius Exulto quoties lego Epistolam tuam implet me bonâ spe jam non promittit de te sed spondet And God forbid that I should be so uncharitable as not to believe it Yet let me tell you that without the reality of the actions it is but a dead letter nay 't will prove a deadly for should you neglect to do what you there promise or speak there more than you do that very letter will one day rise up in judgment against you Pardon my plainness and think never the worse of the Truth for my bad language Truth may many times have bad cloaths yet has she alwayes a good face It is a good mark of the moral Philosopher that sheep do not come to their shepherd and shew him how much they eat but make it appear by the fleece that they wear on their backs and the milk which they give I will not wrong the sharpness of your judgment by applying the Moral I have read of two famous Painters who to shew their skill the one drew a bunch of grapes so lively that he cozened the Birds the other drew a veil so perfectly over his grapes that he deceiv'd the Artificer himself Could we draw the colour of our good works never so lively as to cozen every mortal eye and draw so fine a veil over our evil deeds as to conceit our selves into a conceit we had none yet is there an All-seeing eye to whom the darkest secret is most apparâ—nt Did we but truly consider this it could not chuse but hinder us from committing those things we would be ashamed to do in the sight of Man which we daily doe in the sight of an Omniscient God Therefore the advice of the Heathen Philosopher may be made good Christian practice who advised to set the conceit of Cato or like Grave man alwayes before us to keep us from doing what might mis-befit their presence It is a Character of the wicked man drawn by the Divine hand that in all his wayes he sets not God before his eyes There is also another witness within us that can neither be brib'd not blinded O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem O have a care to offend that Bird in the breast that must one day sing either your joyful Elogie or more doleful Dirge Camdâ—n our English Historiographer tells us of a place in Stafordshire call'd Wotton in so doleful a place under the barren Hill Weaver that it is a common Proverb of the neighbours Wotton under Weaver Where God came never But alas there 's no such place on Earth to be found yet can I tell a place where his pure Spirit abhors to enter namely into a person contaminated and defiled with sin and thereby made the harbour of Satan and hatred of the most High Whereas you tell me you are faln to labour let me comfort you with this that it is as universal as unavoidable a Fate laid on us by the mouth of Truth Man is born to labour as the sparks to fly upward As if Man and Labour were Termini Convertibiles But that you take more pleasure now in Labour than you did before in your Pleasure it much comforts me assuring me that you are now sensible of that which the Romans taught by placing Angina the goddess of sorrow and pain in the Temple of Volupeia the goddess of Pleasure as if that pain and sorrow were the necessary consequences of pleasure Whereas on the contrary Goodness is like the Image of Diana Pliny speaks of Intrantes tristem Euntes exhilerantem How wretched therefore is their condition that have their portion in this life Well may we be strangers in this worldly Aegypt so we may be inhabitants hereafter of the Heavenly Canaan And you and I may say in the words of Seneca Satis multam temporis sparsimus incipiamus nunc in vasa colligerâ— We have spent time enough already and 't is high time now to save the rest and to make the best of the remnant of our life because we know not how short it is It was a wise caution of Eleazer a Jew who being demanded When it would be time to repent and amend Answered One day before death And when the other replied That no man knew the day of his death Begin then said he even to day for fear of failing Hoc proprium inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia proprium semper incipit vivere quid est enim turpius quam senex vivere insipieâ—s Give me leave not to instruct you but to tell you what counsel I desire to practise for it was an envious disposition of that Musician that would play so softly on his Harp that none could hear but himself First 'T is my
know how to honour it as much as I want it In a word Sir I thank you for your Letter more for your Verses but most that you please to style me Sir your very Friend T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir I Return you your New-Forrest with as many thanks as it merits and that 's infinite which submission to your better judgment from which I would no sooner dissent than from truth it self I conceive this not at all behind the first part but in time it appearing to me of as fine a thred and no less curious workmanship Happily the others being chequer'd with forreign flowers may render it more delectable But why should we think a forreign garden of flowers and perhaps some weeds better than an English Forrest Well may it be more sightly but I 'm sure 't is not so serviceable Scarce can I hold my pen from glutting in his praises who is far above it's highest flight did not the Italian proverb check me and tell me truly La Lode nascer deve quando è morto chi si ha da Lodar That praises should not be born till the praised be dead I will therefore content my seff to say that I hope such pleasant groves are not superstitious and could wish that the whole Kingdome were so turned to a Forrest and the Author the Ranger General That 's body might not be confin'd Who 's a free Monarch in his mind One who with 's Majestick Pen May give the Law to other men Sir I have sent you a Clavis to it not that I think you need any but that if you invite any friend to those pleasant walks they may have an entry of understanding without picking the lock by a false construction It was done at a heat and I have not time to file it over but such as it is 't is yours If you please to send me the last Edition of the Kings learned pieces I shall keep it carefully return it speedily and remain continually Sir yours to command T. F. To Mr. W. L. Sir I Must esteem it an happinesse to hear of you though I cannot hear from you and that I heard nothing of your sickness till I heard also of your recovery so that now to tell you I am sad or sorrowful for your sicknesse were as preposterous as to grieve for your death after your resurrection or to bid you good-night in the morning when you are risen But like the trembling needle between two equally attractive Loadstones so am I between the two different passions of joy and sorrow Joy for a friends recovery and sorrow for a friends restraint Not to be joyful for your recovery were to envy a publick good and I might justly be accused for an enemy to the State in not rejoycing at a happinesse so common that deserves a day of Publick Thanksgiving Then not to be affected with the sorrows and sufferings of a friend and such a friend as E. B. were as great a crime as his whom the Romans condemned to death For wearing a Crown of Roses in a time of common calamity I long to hear how our honest friend stands since the High Court sits which if I do not now from thee I shall think that whilst thy body suffer'd under the fire of a Feaver thy friendship was sick of an Ague that though the Dog-star reigned in thy blood thy affections laboured under Capricorn But since thy sickness is in it's Declension I shall expect thy friendship to be again Ascendant that before did Culminate And for my part think not that thirty miles distance cold raines or your silence can make me forget you or that I am As much as ever Sir your Friend T. F. To Mr. J. H. Sir HAving hitherto waited with silence to hear of your receit of my Letter and finding none makes me fearful that it miscarried in the delivery and I am not ignorant or insensible of the many abortives of the Carriers Midwifery But I hope your candor is sufficient to dispel all clouds of suspition that might seem to ecclipse my realitie or to think that I am so much foe to my self as not to desire or at least not to endeavour the gainful commerce of your letters I am not ignorant that all kind of Learning hath been wrapt up in Letters And I assure you Sir I shall in the enjoyment of yours think my self little less honoured than I do Lucillius by Seneca's Nor shall I be a little proud that I may be any wayes though but occasionally instrumental to you to exercise your excellencie in this way Neither do I altogether doubt of the pardon of my rude scribling because I am Sir without Complement your very humble Servant T. F. To Mr. E. H. Sir THough I have paid the Principal in returning your books I am still indebted for the Interest you were pleased to lay on them in giving you my account of them For your Caussin I return you thanks in stead of censures wishing that he were now alive that our late Tragedies might be acted over again by his high-flying quill and be thereby committed to incredulous posteritie The Novum Lumen Chymicum I understand is lately Translated and indeed it were a wonder if there were any New Lights that we should not have in English in these Times But because you told me you lent me that onely to laugh at I shall only tell you it no whit failed your intention or my expectation Now for your Vaughan be pleased to take notice that he is since answered by one Moore learned and better famed than He and therefore I shall let that Answer be mine Yet withal that I serve such Books as the good Bishop serv'd Persius when he threw him on the ground with a Si noâ—vis intelligi debes negligi Thus as the Hollanders sometime made money of past-board I make my payment in Paper and in this coyn I shall pay you liberally for your Arithmetick Believe me Sir 't is Homers Iliads in a Nut-shell and so handsomely compacted that the doggedest Critick cannot fasten on it onely let me tell you it is deficient in one thing and that is that it is not able to help me to number the Engagements you have lain upon Sir your unmeriting Friend T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir HE 's a bad debtor that payes by halfs but he 's a worse that never payes That I may not be guilty of that superlative ingratitude I have sent you two Books of your three And for Bacon I pray think it not long if I should keep it till Lent for I mean to all his Experiments to add one more of your friendship If you expect an account of your Iâ—â—â— Bâ—â— know it is far above my censure as my praise I go to that as to my Bible yet something in Allegiance Certainly that Portraiture was drawn by a Divine hand and wrote with a pen pull'd from some Angels wing If there be one that wrote by divine
thought obedience should be interpreted impudence is a false construction of the Syntaxis of my intentions 'T was not your fortune but your favour that I have courted were you as poor as Codrus I should love you no less than I do and were you as rich as Croesus I could love you no more I conceived my self obliged by my Profession to wait upon you as a Scholar and by your courtesies engaged to love you as a friend and if this be a crime I blush not to confess my self guilty in a very high measure But if any of my words have been wrack'd by others to make them depose any thing contrary to what I here profess believe them not I list not to enter the pitch'd field of a dispute nor will I retreat to the common intrenchments of excuses I lay down my Arms at your feet And as I can have no other witness I will have no other Judge but your self resolving to be either innocent or guilty as you shall pronounce me It was no small commendation Paterculus gives of Pompey the Great where he affirms that he was Amicitiarum tenax in offensis exorabilis in recipiendâ satisfactione facilimus Of this I believe your continual practice an exact Translation What though the Comical Speech of Florence be Canonical Mulier aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium it would be as falsly applied to you as truly to the Sex 't is spoken of And for my part you shall do me but right to believe that I ever was am and will be Sir your Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. C. Sir NOt out of any uncivil dis-respect to your commands nor any unwillingness to serve you so far as the too short line of my abilities will stretch have I hitherto been silent Could I have wrought my self to that height of presumption as to think any thing of mine of merit enough to arrest your sight you had long since had an answer and perhaps as long as your expectation It was not that I thought a letter lost to me but because I knew it would be loss to you and hereof this is too sufficient a witness Yet Sir lest you should think I am either too full of business that I cannot or of idleness that I will not write to you I have sent these lines to kiss your hands and to assure you that you have infinitely obliged me by your late letters you vouchsafed to honour me with So full fraught were they of your wonted ingenuitie that to tell you the truth I could spare no time from reading of them to return any answer to them But now since you are pleased to descend so far below your self as to entreat for what you might command I shall no longer dispute but obey Yet will I not tire my self with troubling you farther than to re-assure you that I am Sir your very humble Servant T. F. To Mr. C. Noble Sir HAving already confess'd the debt your late ingenious Letters have engaged me in I shall take leave to pay you since you are pleased to grant me that favour as unsolvent debtors do their patient creditors by small sums weekly I would willingly speak my gratitude in as loud an accent as you have done your goodness But as you have honoured me beyond the utmost of my wishes and placed my meanness on so high a pinacle of happiness as my most ambitious thoughts durst never aspire to so you have onely left me modestie enough to blush at my own unworthiness and to promise you that I shall hereafter lay hold on every handle of time and court all opportunities to serve you But Sir I wish you have not undervalued your judgment by over-valuing those loose lines you undertake to call most choise jewels which 't is my fear will prove but pebbles or Bristow-stones at best If they carrie any thing of jewels in them it is onely this that they have nothing of worth but what your valuation puts upon them However since it cannot be admitted as History of what I am may it prove a Prophecie of what I may be and that my endeavours may overtake the mark your charitie hath already anticipated that you may not repent that you have owned me for Sir your very Servant T. F. To Mr. J. S. Sir SO long it is since I received your Letter that I should be ashamed to confess it did I not believe that I have hitherto done you a courtesie by not troubling you with my rude lines yet dare I no longer maintein that opinion lest you should vote that for a neglect which I have thought a favour You would pardon if not pitie me did you know how I have been rack'd with diversions neither pleasant nor profitable but as vexatious as the tediousness of the law and the much business of the Lawyers could render them But I am now in hope that my Cause will hang in suspence no longer than till the next Assizes The old rule was Inter arma silent leges I shall alter it and say as truly Inter leges silent literae I must hope my friends will forgive me the Lawyers faults since they have rob'd me of the most necessarie functions of my life nay I am in doubt whether I may put this last year into the account of my life since I have not had time to tender you the services and respects due from Sir your humble servant T. F. To Mr. C. M. Sir YOur civil reception of the tender of my endeavours to your service hath made me presume that your goodnesse will maintein your first favour with a second and if occasion serve to mention my desires to those noble Gentlemen in conjunction with you from whom I cannot despair of a favourable Aspect being represented by so happie a Medium as your self But I should be too injurious to the publick good to detein you longer from your more noble employments I shall onely beg the happinesse of a room in your memorie in qualitie of Sir your most humble Servant T. F. To Mr. T. P. Sir HAving long since received your Letter and not receiving any answer you might justly think I either not received or slighted your command But when you have read this you will believe that my silence was neither out of sloth nor slighting it being much against my will that I have deprived my self of the pleasure I take in serving you The reasons that obliged me this delay were more just than I wish they had been For this vagrant Pamphlet that now attends you was stragled from me and much time pass'd before I could procure a Pass to send it home to the place of its birth Since when I understood that your occasions called you to a greater distance which rendred me uncapable of serving you Thus Sir you see it was not out of any covetous or envious humour or a fear of the expence of a few lines which when you have them are so worthless