PHILIP MORNAY, Lord of Plessis his Tears. For the death of his Son. Unto his Wife CHARLOTTE BALISTE. Englished By JOHN HEALEY. AT LONDON Printed by G. Elder, dwelling in Fleetelane, at the sign of the Printers Press. 1609. To my most honoured and constant friend, Master JOHN COVENTRY. MOrality (worthy Sir) giveth us this instruction, that Fortitude is more apparent in sustaining then in performing: and Divinity assureth us that he that endureth God's trials with a patient humility, and an humble patience, shall thereby ascend a state most glorious. How much it behoveth both yourself and me, to apply this Cataplasm to our own present estates, it is best known to us both, who have thus long sailed in a deep, dark sea of misfortunes: but as the divine light shone unto Sire du Plessis in his deepest night of sorrows, and showed him the way to his wished rest, so let us light our Torches at his, and out of these his tears for the death of his only son, extract a Quintessence for the cure of all our own calamities. To this end, have I presented them to you, perhaps in a form unfiled, yet no such (I am sure) as will return from you, unaccepted. The discourse of itself is a general Amulet, and being truly worn, resisteth all the infections of fortune. Take it then, and wear it, God may lend you sons, and take them away again at his unchangeable pleasure; Keep this Enchiridion therefore at your elbow, upon all such occasions: wherein you shall find deciphered both the passions of a loving parent, and that restraint of them, that befitteth a religious Christian. Prenez en gre. Yours entirely: IO: HEALEY. ❧ Philip Mornay, Lord of Plessis his Tears: to his wife CHARLOTTE BALLISTE. Dear wife, seeing that in this abundant sorrow, we can have no solace but from the sorrow itself, nor any ease for this deep wound, but what must be fetched from the wound, let us make much of it: stop it too soon, it spoils us: stay it too long, it kills us. I do not therefore exhort you to exclude lamentation: far be that want of feeling from us; let us ever want this want of true affect. Should you become obdurate, flinty, free from sense of sorrow? oh no: Gods corrections never propound us this condition: the Lords punishments are to far other purpose: No, let us be moved, let us be melted. And my desire is that we acquaint ourselves fully with this accidental (not eternal) affliction: let us afford this corrosive ulcer somewhat to feed upon easily, lest it feed upon our own bosoms too fiercely: let us tame this untamed accident, and take it into our essence: let us make it a part of that substance which it hath already wholly transformed: it is now become one of our essential parts, no more a passion, no more an imperfection. here then are our tears for thee to use, if it be inflamed, to cool it; if it be rankled, to supple it: put it from us, nay shake it off us we cannot, & wicked were we truly if we could; we are deprived of a son, (dear wife) an only son: and ah how good a son! our God the true comforter, be our comfort: he that hath caused our sorrows, conclude them: be he our cure, that hath procured our hurt: only comforter, only Chirurgeon. But stay: he hath spared our son, that s●ared not his own only begotten for us: he hath acquitted him from this world, and admitted him into a better: timely, in respect of his own age, & no more but timely in respect of the ages of most besides him: freeing him from the conditions, nay the corruptions of this age, maugre all the vainely-banded vows of all such as wished his presence, and wept for his departure. PHILIP MORNAY, PHILIPS Son, making an enterprise under the Grave Maurice, upon the City of Geldre, having broken open the first and second gate, and bending all his power and endeavour against the last, with a Musket-shot was struck through the breast, and fell; leaving behind him the reward of his virtues, included in the world's general lamentation for him, as he had possessed it with honourable hopes of him. He was borne at Antwerp in his father's Embassage: 1579. the 20. day of julie: and was made immortal, 1605▪ the 23. of October. Nature hath wept out the tears she had: Now let reason; and piety weep their parts, for they have their springs of sorrow as well as the other: though not so fluent, not so abundant; yet more pure, more excellent, more eternal. When Nature hath drained the source of her tears dry, then come these two, and supply sorrows current. What, shall I then speak out my woes, or shall I entomb them in silence? I had but one one only son, perhaps I shall never have more. This son, our God bestowed bountifully upon our vows: and this same son (our God) our vows returned dutifully unto thee, and that instantly after. He was but now borne, thou hadst but now given him us, when we gave him back again to thee: he but now saw the world, when the world saw him thine in his education, and our dedication. Grace herself was the gracewoman, the Midwife that received him from his Mother, gave him Milk, and attended his first hour of birth: so did Piety his infancy, Learning his childhood, Virtue his youth, Honesty his fuller growth and firmer age. And yet so kind was this contention of the corporal and mental virtues, being all enranged & enrooted in him, that neither did his strength make him decline unto pride, his good shape to looseness, his learning to vanity, his valour to cruelty, or his love of uprightness unto any sourness of manners: his towardness so happily prevented his education, his fruit stepped in before his flower, and true gravity took place in his heart, ere any little down had spread itself on his face. So graciously were these contraries gathered together, each one to bestow the proper grace, without endamaging the residue. And already now began he to be styled the Stay of his Parents, the Star of his country, that I (feign fool) was a saying. My root is spread out by the waters, and the dew shall lie upon my branch. My glory shall renew towards me, & my bow shallbe restored to my hand. In him I am renewed, in him I am renived, that was otherwise half dead, and more than half dust. But behold! thou breathedst but upon him, & as the down of a flower he flew away in fleeces. job. 14. 3. & 15. 33 He shot forth as a flower, and is cut down: thou hast taken him away, as the unripe grape: thou hast cast him off, as the Olive doth her flower. Here, is the heartstrings of comfort, all cut! here (LORD) how can I speak enough, though I were all tongue! how can my stupid silence be sufficient, were I all flint? Thy jonas, Lord, for whom thou preparedst a gourd, in the shadow whereof his faint sadness might be refreshed, as soon as the touch of the worm turned the verdure into canker, and the beams of the Sun beat upon his head, his courage, at an instant, converted into faintness, jonah. 4. 8. It is better for me (saith he) to die then to live. Thus this great Prophet grew in passion against thee for showing thy power upon his poor shelter, upon that little shade he sat in: what then shall poor I say to one so potent? ay, that am sodden in sorrow, and yet my boiling brought to no end! exposed to the sons fiery rigour, never to be removed, never to be refreshed! Oh my LORD! I feel a rebellious battle within me! keep down my tongue, let it lose to no language, but those sounds of the Psalmist: I am dumb; and do not open my mouth, because thou hast done it. Psal. 39 10 But thou Lord, lay thine hand upon my mouth, that my redoubling dolour burst not out into outrageous murmur; and I being a fool myself, charge GOD with foolishness. job. 1. 22. My son, when as yet his childhood swayed his estate in nature, bend his full endeavour to the attaining perfection in the principal tongues, and all honest and honourable disciplines: he never wanted instigation, but rather inhibition, his forwardness was so toward, and his towardness so forward: and still as his growth enabled him, so he enured himself to all illustrious exercises, sharing his time between the splendour and light of learning, and the thunder and lightning of war: that Mars did seem to grudge that Minerva had so great a part in his perfections. His youth saw him a traveler in most country's Christian, extracting what ever made for virtue, where ever he found it, and expelling vicious affect far from him, where ever he met it. The industry, and ornament of each peculiar, was in his observation (as in a storehouse) carefully reposed for practise: the defects and exorbitance of each, observed also, but without the slightest acquaintance and with the carefullest avoidance of their least touch, or taint. But now, growing to one degree rearer the full man, & beholding France her pacification with a mind not minding peace, resolving to set forth his virtue upon the quest of Honour, away he departeth to Holland, (the world's Theatre or the sepulchre whether?) to give his valour action under Prince Maurice, the Fortrazer of this our age, and there duly performeth all the duties of a future captain, and a present-hearted soldier. For having had command in divers services under the unconquered King of France, by his especial appointment, he was firmly resolved to write in wounds upon his enemy's bodies, that he was worthy of that instalment from so worthy an advocate. Many held his resolution too hot, and heady, but that he would have left, had he lived: the temperate affects that attend upon the years of maturity would have allayed his youthful fervour, had he surnived to have seen maturty. Mean while, all these illustrious instruments of industrious virtue, stored he together, for the glory of his God, the service of his King▪ the benefit of his country, & the defence of honesty, in every son of hers: they were also prepared by piety, so seasoned by equity, and so preserved by charity: it was admirable to see Zeal have so fair an harbour in such a youthful and fiery spirit: and Piety to stand▪ supported with divine studies, higher by the head and shoulders then all the other (though high & honourable virtues. Here again began I to set up my rest, and trust upon him, as on a stay to my feet and a staff to mine age: O my Lord (said I) Thou of thy loving kindness hast made my mountain to stand strong: Ps. 30. 7. thou (Lord) art the shadow on my right hand. Ps. ● 21. 5. But ah! behold: the thing I feared, is fallen upon mee: the thing I was afraid of, job. ●. 25. is befallen me. Here is a sad breach of nature's order, for the father to prepare the funeral of the Son: for the father to be the son's survivor. job. 7. 10 All the thoughts of my heart are now turned into confusion. All my affairs in my house, in my heart, all quite confounded: utterly out of frame! Go then and gird thyself with sackcloth (wretched man) wallow thyself in ashes, ●erem. 6 27 make lamentation and bitter mourning. Why, let me go meet with death also, what delight is there in delay? ay, I, that have outlived so many sorrows, so many perils, nay now the loss of mine own bowels, and nerves, and yet live to record the cutting of mine own heartstrings, nay my heart itself? Thou haddest a King (LORD) and Israel had a light, who when he heard of the death of his Son, albeit he was a rebel and would have been a parricide, yet burst out in a full presence, 2 Sam. 18 and cried: O Absalon my son, would God I had died for thee: 2 Sam. 18 O Absalon my son. Thus turned he the safety of his people into tears and mourning, and shamed the faces of all his servants, being so loath to leave the dust he laid in, that joab was fain to threaten him with the sedition and departure of the people from him. What then shall I do? ah what shall I not do? having lost an only son, a companion, a kinsman, a brother than! whom, (choose which of these you can) never man had a better! what life is worth love, nay what death is not worth life to me in this helpless extremity! Oh but, my soul, my soul, return a little unto thy rest: man's ways, nor his life thou knowest are in his hand: In the Lord's hand is the breath of every living thing and the soul of all mankind. job. 12. 10. And GOD cutteth of the days of man: job. 14. 16. for in his hand is in the number of his months: job. 24. 12 which none either preventeth, or surpasseth, and yet doth not GOD decree any thing with folly. Therefore say rather to thyself and be not sorry for saying so. I am dumb, Psa. 39 1. and do not open my mouth, because thou hast done it. But thou (LORD) keep a bridle within my mouth, be sure (Lord) that thou see, that my lips be not let loose to impute unjustice unto thee: oh no but let them ever oppose iniquity, & attribute righteousness unto my maker. Ah! but (my gracious Lord) I am full of (dolorous) matter: my spirit swells within me, and compels me! Behold, my belly is as the wine that hath no vent: & wanting vent, resembles the embotteled air that breaks through all that bindeth it in. Therefore I will speak (I think it be best) that I may take some breath, against this abundant excess of sorrow. Thou knowest (LORD of all mine, and all others life) what I aimed at, in my Son, my scope in him was not excluded from thy supereminent understanding. Had I any thought, any intent but to employ his lustre wholly to the illustration of thy glory, the Churches good increase, and his Kings & country's grace? no, no, I consecrated his years in their fullest maturity, his understanding, in the greatest perfection, wholly and solely to those sacred employments. At that, all my vows leveled; unto that, all my prayers tended; with that, all mine instructions concluded; & in y●, all mine endeavours were bounded: that, ah! nothing but that, was the centre from which all my cogitations were drawn, and the circle to which they tended. But it was thy pleasure (Lord) in the mean space, to make me the point, the mark, where-at thou wouldst shoot, so that I am now become mine own burden. Nay thou hast shot me thorough, & that through the sides of mine only son: striking Father and child stark dead both at one stroke. Alas, thou Lord of mine, are thine ears become deaf? is thine heart grown obdurate also: is that that eternal, never-dried fountain of thy free mercy, frozen with cold, or dried with heat, when I come to drink, and unto none but me? It is true▪ Lord that If I should dispute with thee, job. 9 3. & 12. I should not answer thee to one thing in a thousand! Thou art wise in heart, and mighty in strength: When thou takest a prey, who can enforce thee to restore it? who shall say unto thee, why didst thou thus? ay, but I do not stick in the courts of thy power Lord, I press in, unto thy very sanctuary, and look all about me, upon thine exceeding power, commixed and contemperate with thine unmeasured goodness, and thine inscrutable wisdom. Psal. 73, Thou Lord art righteous in all thy ways, & mercifully) holy in all thy works: Psal. 145. 17, Nay, thy mercy is above all thy works. Therefore are thy judgements deep, & thy mercies a boundless, a soundlesse depth: thou givest these, as Cauterismes in Physic, not as hurts in hostility. We thought thou hadst not heard our vows, and see thou hast heard them truer than we were aware of: our words it may be thou refusedst, but our intents thou hast admitted: and signed both our desires with a better condition to us both: to our son thou hast done better, in taking back as thy just due, him that thou hadst but lent unto us during thine Almighty pleasure, and seating him in Heaven, whom thou hadst but shown (and scarcely that) unto the Earth: to us thou hast done better, in taking him out of the dangers of the world's devouring whirle-pittes, wherein perhaps we might (unto our more excess of sorrow) have seen him swallowed, and have swum after that Funeral in a Sea of more bitter tears. Once again, here Lord, seal up my lips: once more, here bind mine organs of speech: for the flesh rebels, and compels me, nor see I means to bridle it, it is grown so headstrong, and so impatient of suppression. It bids me say, why tookest thou him away ere his time? thou inexorable creditor that wouldst not stay thy day, but catch him up ere his fate was ready to call him. True, thou frail flesh and blood: why was it not his time to take him, that was Time's Creator? and what is fate, but the will of GOD the Father? And what better limit hath life in any of us all, than the rest from all our labour? And what matter is it whether the ship of our mortality be brought to the haven by a stern tempest, or a gentle gale? by wind, or by tide? had not he that from all eternity predestinated the moment of his birth, the same power to decree the hour of his death by? If thou have any reason to complain that thou lost him so soon, the same cause hast thou to expostulate why thou hadst him no sooner, or no later, but e●en then when he was given thee: and dost thou think he hath not lived long enough, whose life his country extolleth, & whose funeral song the purest Christ of God singeth? This, as virtues desired reward, have many worthy men bestowed much toil to attain, hardly deserving it in their declining age, and their frostiest part of nature, which he got signed him, ere he got out of his youth, ere his age was at the Summer Solstice: namely his wish, and want, in the hearts of all such as honour goodness? Therefore thou talkest like a foolish Woman: go and learn better language of the wise: Wis. 4. 10. It is not length of time, but wisdom, a life well lead, a course well run in the Lord, come we never so soon to the stake, that is the true gravity. The sanctified man, die he never so soon, Psal. 116. 15. hath had a long time: Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of such as he holdeth dear: and that for ever. But thou hast no measure, thou frail corruption, thou art in my bosom again with an other frivolous objection. He was all, all the sons I had, and now; I have neither son nor daughter amongst my people: job. 18. 19 nor any posterity in my dwellings. No, GOD knows not I: and in the mean while, the imaginers of mischief, such as like Moles, dig groveling in sin, until they have cast up a mount of hateful enormity against Heaven, Their seed is established before them, job. 21. 8. and their generation stands strong in their sight. It doth: O but stand, stand a little, and cast an eye about. Now tell me how many great Princes and Potentates thou seest to sit debarred from the fruit of progeny, and the fruition of children, in so much that the whole world seems to stagger for want of stays from their loins, and to endeavour to make them fruitful by bathing their barrenness in fullness of tears. And what hast thou foregone that thou shouldest so grieve at? a model of virtue, whom all men respected more than he in whom it was resident: a pattern of honourable honesty, forcing praise from others, and following nature in himself: Ah fix thy fickle heart and give the Deity his due praise! How often are the branches of the wicked, shivered in sunder with the wind. Nay let us grant them (that which God seldom granteth,) their full growth: the fruit they bring, is unprofitable, not relishing any taste, nor befitting any use. But call thy thoughts home to thine own issue: why in him, his sweetness of fruit thrust his sweet blossom from the stalk, his unparallelled virtue pressed out the delicious juice of his sweet fruit, and left it to be casked up by all succeeding posterity. And now the tents of the godly are perfumed with his rare, and redolent fragrancy: his heat, nay and that in the height, his ardour, arms, and animates them all to emulation of virtue. Time ranked many with him in respect of age, and gave his forelock into diverse hands assoon as his, yet were there not any of his time that knit that lock into so many knots of virtue as he did: what canst thou grumble further at? yet me thinks thou art not satisfied: oh thou wouldst fain have had him, as thou thoughtst thou hadst begotten him, to been the heir of thine intents, to have been enfcoffed in thy determinations, and have survived to have inherited thine honest and goldy endeavours. I pray thee now look after him once for me, that hast longed so for him in thyself. Now, blind man, hath he not discerned his heritage himself, and is he not now seized of that real inheritance where thou wouldst share with him with all thine heart? hath he not left thee, his country, and the church possessed with as plentiful and as pleasant fruit, as such a green stock as his could possibly bring to perfection? yes: and GOD himself hath laid it up in his Granary: & that I think makes thee most melancholy, because thou thinkest that God hath lost the more absolute use that thy sons farther years might have afforded him. Go to, keep thyself content, and let Gods losses lie upon his own hand: it is in his power out of this heap of stones, to raise himself servants, the country soldiers, and the Church supporters: cannot he fill the heavens with legions of Saints, the earth with hosts of Protectors, and his Church with millions of assistants, but he must be fain to take a corruptible man's direction, and stand drawing out the life of this man or that, longer than his eternity liketh? ah far be it from true sense to be so beesotted. Why so then, I am satisfied: give me leave, I will now take the bit out of my mouth myself, and plead the cause of the all-sufficient Creator, even against mine own soul. Why dost thou not see then (dear wife) how all the world like a Bowl, is over-swayed by the over strong bias of iniquity, & bends (despite all opposition,) to black corruption? oh how seculent, how pestilent a vapour of sin draws every man in with the first breath he takes, attracting vices as innumerable as Atoms, even in his first moment of respiration: and the longer he liveth to draw his breath, the surer foote-hold he giveth viciousness in his foul bosom, and settleth the contagion in his soul: which the devil is sure of, though he be senseless of: Satan hath a beadroll of those impious, and daily increasing inhabitants, though the poor Landlord taketh no note of their entry to possession, nor receives any rent of them but ruin: happy he (too few so happy!) that can bring his action against them before GOD'S bench, or in that celestial star-chamber, and remove them from possession by a bill of repentance: but few such suits go forward: the world comes with one bribe, and the flesh with another: & either too easily (GOD knows) can persuade the poor plaintiff to let his action fall: for this flesh, let the soul, let the spirit come never so fresh, never so zealous, never so hot in that zeal from the hand of God, it will find one angle or other in, wherein it may sow the seed of sin, & plant a too fruitful infection. And when the soul is once dipped in worldly delights, what should deliver it from being drowned therein? What hold hath any one that is once over the shoes in iniquity, upon any thing that may save him from slipping in over the shoulders? & what privilege had the court of heaven granted our son more than another? had he a lease of his soul's life let him? none. And we see, (and might learn by sight of it) that virtue when it is exalted, and elevate, if it begin once to draw damnation in, it becometh graduate in the most extreme degree of viciousness. Yes. yes, when goodness once misseth the true tract, and lights into the broad way of black destruction, it will hardly hear of any reclaim, but maketh the more speed to mischief, and runs headlong to evident ruin. So then, was it not better for our son to have taken pay for a little space in the Camp of Virtue, then to have been enranked as an old attendant in the Court of vice? and had he not better have been exposed to an hours sharp toil, then to a years subtle temptation? Think but of him as he was indeed. A youth of an egregious alacrity, a penetrating spirit, and an unbounded aim. His vigorous virtue would enter upon any enterprise, and generally the effect would answer his endeavour: his valour found no obstacle so obstinate but it would through it, and bring glory through it again? breaking the squadrons of the most solid oppositions, and mounting his honour upon the rubbish of their ruined forces. Now being such an one (and such he was indeed!) his heart lay open to all the assaults of affect, of glory: desire of renown (you know) might soon have put him out of the pace that virtue had taught him: ambition is a great fowler, and of exceeding cunning in her baits: why might not he have start out, and have slipped into one of her sprindges? might not that (holy) hunger after honour have turned his wrong side outward and have led him clear out of the sight of sobriety in affection? yes, and this hunger is most commonly an utter enemy to the temperate diet of virtue, and cannot endure to eat any thing that moderation provideth. Besides, lofty spirits (if they be really elevate) can never brook the horrible decay of honourable worth in these declining times, and this Sunset of the world, but will sometimes fly out, and advance their spirit in his full freedom against these ages neglect of the deserving worthy, and then comes port and power, together with their appendents or hangbies, and treads out the light of their most glorious lustre: Ah this is too true, and thus might our son have been lost, had he lived any longer. But indeed true sorrow will always build upon false grounds to augment itself, if it be not taken up in time, and if it once get head, it will have a reason to show for any unreasonable passion that it shall entertain. In truth it is true. For he that grieveth unfeignedly, grieveth also that any one should hold his griefs cause not sufficient to procure a greater affect of sorrow than he endureth. But tell me now I pray thee (loving wife) wouldst thou not have lost thy son? no, wouldst thou not have had him transported from this ruined state that earth standeth in, unto that excellence of eeternity that heaven affordeth? yes. Why, now then, seeing that thou seest he hath prevented thine expectation, and is gotten up thither long before thou thoughtst he should, why hast not thou reason to say with the wise man: Wis. 4. 10. 11. He pleased God, and was beloved of him, so that where as he lived amongst sinners, he translated him: This was Henock (wife) a man that was full of the fear of God. And he was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding, and least deceit should have beguiled his mind. And thus, and no otherwise but thus, hath our glorious GOD taken away our Son, like a good Father, who seeing his Son placed in the broadest beeach of perverseness, takes him out of danger in time, lest he should be drawn into too evident danger, and be struck down by one shot or other from the assailant enemy: The deluge of wickedness, hath almost covered the highest mountain of Godliness, and good manners; and therefore blessed be God that hath set our son in a place of so blessed security. The sons of men grow more and more peremptory against the prescriptions of the highest, the monuments of goodness are so weatherbeaten, that iniquity and antiquity hath almost left no character thereof undefaced: the rust of irreligiousness hath eaten into the most steely tempers of our age: & had our son (thinkest thou) any especial protection promised him? no, effect in others confirmeth this to us. Wipe away those tears once more that gush out in such abundance (seeming as if he were not dead already, to drown him in his grave:) and consider but this: How innumerable and almost inevitable trap-falls are set in the tract of virtue, in all her walks? Here you shall have one that will kiss the visar of virtue: but show them her true face, and you turn all their kisses unto curses. You shall have other some that while she is underfoot, will lend her a hand to help her up: but when she is up and hath gotten wing, and mounteth, than they either suspect her themselves, or buzz suspicions of her into the heads of others. Affording her all their diligent culture while she is a springing, but growing once aloft, they make hay of her ere she come to her height, and rend her up by the roots. And then there is that pestilence reigning ever amongst men of equality, in what rank soever, I mean Envye: and her nature, and consequently her practice is ever to persecute that good which she cannot parallel. That hight which she cannot mount unto, she presently undermines, setting all her pioneers, cavillation, detraction, and derision on work upon the ruin of that glory which she cannot reach: it is her food to be felt heavy upon the highest fortunes. And this is the source of all the grudges, malice, and altercations that have been the pestilence which hath swept such multitudes from the bosom of our mother France: this malice, oh this madness of the Nobility, that (for aught I can see) are now but bastards to their ancestors valour: these adulterous births, have obscured the rising glory of France, with the mists arising from the bleeding bodies that have fallen in this fatal war: wherein with thoughts more bloody piercing then their arms, Religion, and all respect of goodness being thrust ou● of the true place, the brother ran headlong upon his brother, as upon his fiercest enemy. And look now; our son is acquit from having any hand in these desperate hackster's actions, and sits aloft, looking down, and laughing at this little lump of earth, (so overgrown with Spuma Cerberi, and the weeds of the devils harvest) which he hath left beneath him. But what comfort canst thou have of this, or I, that share with thee in this sorrow if we stand shaking our hands, or arming our hearts against GOD, who is the only consolation in the extremest agony, and anguish of heart? Are not we of them that have received the seal of the Lion of judah? are we not Christians? Down, down, perturbed spirit! thou abortive of misery. Why? but God might have shielded him from all these encounters of vicious extremes. You need not tell me that: I know he might: but had he not made him a frail mortal? nay, and had he not appointed him a place in wars, and instilled a Military vigour into him? Being every day between the chaps of death, why might he not be catched at length? is it possible to stand in a shower of hailstones, & have not one to touch him? GOD had made him valorous: the likelier to be overhardy in daring of death, and so overtaken in his too much heat, and too little dread. God had made him with an heart that put forth his rigour in all the endeavours of masculine virtue: Alas, what was he in this, but a fair shotte-marke for foul Envy? a rock for the untaught billows of injurious suspect to beat against, and perhaps (though breaking many of themselves first) at length to shake down into ruin? Didst thou look to have him miraculously lifted up from his seat in this sea of depravation? What warrant hath GOD given the for that? what bargain had Fate made with thee, or me, including any such condition? How much more come for't should we find, and how much more easily should we settle the rebellious affects that keep this coil in our bosoms, if we would step a little out of this wildness of conceit, and suffer our imaginations to be guided unto Truth by the set order of nature, by man's frail estate in this order, and by the real cause of this frailty of state? Death ending man in this order, time bringing him on to death, and original sin (the due deserver of death) bringing man forth to his first moment of time? Such considerations as these, were far more fit for us, then to cast off our thoughts at random, to suffer them fly beyond the pitch of our obedience to our maker. And now tell me true (consideratis considerandis) and all accounts being cast, is not our sorrow exceedingly lightened, to see our beloved son delivered from those complete armed Battailions of deadly dangers, that environed him on every side? Tell me now thou vile and misbelieving flesh, hast thou not now reason to turn over a new leaf, and to say with that holy singer: I acknowledge O Lord, that thy judgements are just: and that thou hast afflicted me, for my faith: for trial of my faith. God is (ever) good unto Israel, and pure in heart. He is so, and when his wrath seemeth to threaten us in most terrible thunder, then reigneth he his mercy upon us in a most mellifluous dew. I will therefore turn me, (I will leave all and turn me) to my GOD, and on him will I build my confidence. And now shall my mouth be shut no more: but I will turn it into a Trumpet, in the cause and quarrel of the Almighty: This will I resound, and of this shall all the world return an Echo, Thou hast done it O Lord, and well hast thou done it. Well hast thou done it: for thou canst do nothing but well: being thyself the never dried Well of goodness. Unto the good, nothing befalls but good: come it in never so horrid a shape of mischief; in a form never so fearful. Well hast thou done unto our son, in taking him out of the perilous conflicts whereinto he had now set foot (and that was all, if he had done that) and bestowing his freedom gratis upon him nay and besides, crowned him with a Garland of such glory. Had he lived longer, he might have run astray the more, the larger weight of worldly experience might have bend him downwards, and have fixed his affections upon fading glories. For there was Solomon, whose eminence of wisdom is by the divinity of wisdom itself eternised unto all after ages, as also his fall is, being the more amazefull unto all posterity, by reason that is was from such an admired height of universal understanding. Oh what a goodly harvest of glory had fallen to him, had he fallen sooner himself. What a lasting disgrace be-rusted his lustre by his lives lasting so long? The world seeth it, and sighs to see it. Well hast thou done also unto me his Father: for it is not unknown to thee, what an anxiety, and restless disquietness of thought possessed me, concerning his passage out of those bogs that the world had laid all about him: And of his descent from so tottering a stand in the wheel of the destinies revolution. A fear, a i'll fear like a fever still hung at mine heartstrings, in doubt of his deliverance from these dangers, which now I see effected, now is he, after all my cares, after his education in the true faith, his discharge of the duty of a Christian soldier, and his little progress in the paths of more maturity, and discretion, taken out of this worlds winter, and placed in the celestial, Summer climate, and in the soul quickening Sunshine of the Trinity. Well hast thou done to me, LORD in this also: as long as the world had my Son, my Son had my heart, & consequently, the world kept it fixed, on an unfit and fickle foundation: But now, in calling him away, thou hast even almost, (there wants but one other pull) torn me up from my rooting in earth, to be transplanted in thy celestial paradise! the world holds me now but by two or three slender fivers: let but the mariners give one other sweigh, and mine anchor will come up, for altogethers: and I will cast off all and say only this. It is good for me to adhere unto my God. Psa. 73. 28. Come Lord jesus, come quickly. Apoc. 24, 20. I was a sleeve in sin (Father) but thou gavest me a sound pinch, and set me quickly on my feet, to cast over my cause by thy decrees, to proole myself guilty before thy bench: to yield to the justice of thine ever just sentence, and yet to avow thy mercies, in every pardoning the penitent. And therefore I will even make no more a do, but say with thy servant job, condemn me not▪ but show me the cause why thou contendest with me: job. 10. 1 I have sinned (my merciful Lord) I confess, and I sin daily: in sin was I bred, in sin was I borne: sin seized my youth, and hath lackeied my life unto this age. O my gracious Lord, come thou, and free me from my secret sins: lay thy finger Lord, upon my soul, and tell me that here, and here is such a canker bred: So shall I see the ulcerous carcase of my spirit, and seal, myself, to the sentence that condemns me: coming truly about those dangerous sands, and doubling the cape of good hope under thy conduct (my sacred Pilot) and bearing in with full sails to the haven of thy gracious mercy, I may turn all my plaints into prayers and all my sorrows into special songs: Because of this: job. 6. 10 that though my bosom do burn with anguish and though thou (LORD) do not spare me, yet have I this eomfort, that I have not suppressed my speech of the most holy▪ nor been a denier of the doctrine he taught me. Glory be to the glorious GOD that in all mine unrest, I have this grace of his to rest upon. In thy presence therefore (my dear Lord) I stand all naked: O behold me with a tender heart▪ My eyes dissolve into moisture: sorrow had congealed them all into Ice with one extreme, and now it thaws them all into tears with an other. My soul melteth for heaviness: Ps. 119. 28 O raise me up according to thy word. Art not thou (LORD) he alone that possesseth my reigns, Ps. 139. 13. and covered me in my Mother's womb? Ps. 22. 11 Thou art he. Into thy hands was I cast from my mother's womb: O mine eternal, all-sufficient LORD! Thou knowest my setting down, Ps. 134, 2 and my rising up: thou understandest my thought, a far off. And mark now whether our God's counsel fail us in any part of our extremes. Doth he bid us, Ps. 55. 22 Cast thy burden upon jehovah, and he will sustain thee: he willbe a rest for thy shoulders, and a stay for thy feet▪ Why then let my mine enemies tongues run counter as long as they list: Ps. 79. 11 let them say, GOD hath forsaken him, pursue him, take him, there is none to deliver him from danger, not any to revenge his quarrel. You err, you err, (you malevolent Sathanistes) GOD hath not forsaken me, for I have not forsaken him. No (my gracious, GOD,) I will never be ashamed at tribulation as long as I trnst in thee: never shall the enemeie confound me, having thee for the foundation of my hopes, and whole affections. For I have no need to start at any peril: I know so fully that thou LORD wilt look upon mine afflictions, job. 5. 18 and pardon me all my sins. Psa 147. 3 Thou makest the wound, and thou bindest it up: It is the Lord God of hosts that cureth those that are broken in heart, and anointeth all their sores with his precious Balsam: He only searcheth the depth of all the souls putrid ulcers, and salveth them with salvation. Psa. 35. 26 Let shame then be their continual attendant that rejoice at this hurt of mine. Confusion be their companion that insult upon the soul that is drenched in the depth of misery. For I see I have a gracious God on my side, maugre all their inveterate malice. And job. 5. 19 he hath delivered me from six troubles, and in the seventh the evil shall not touch me. I may therefore fall, but I shall never be cast out, Psal. 37. 24 nor trodden down: I have hold upon the highest: the LORD hath me fast by the hand. This LORD hath been my good Lord and master ever: he hath taught me from my childhood unto this present: hitherto have I been an instance of thine inestimable goodness: and shall I think thou wilt fail me now in my old age, and add unto the failing of nature? nay I will never do it. When my powers are all vanished, then wilt thou stand my good LORD in all inconveniences. Let my soul be filled with evils, Psal. 88 4. and let my life approach the grave under never so great a load of calamities, yet shall my soul be vigorous in her duty still, and speak of all thy marvelous works. Psal. 9 1. Nay, let death seize me never so soon, yet (my LORD and GOD) will I never cease to say with thy servant: Though thou slay me, my trust shall rest upon thee for ever. LORD give us grace, O LORD give thy servant and handmaid grace to say continually: Let our life be in thy son jesus Christ, & in him let us have the end of all our labours. For we are sure, that our Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand the last upon earth. That is thy Christ (O Lord) even our only Saviour and supporter. And though that worms turn all our one bodies into themselves, yet shall we resume the self same flesh, and behold the blessed in his Majesty with these self same eyes. And there and then shall we see our Son again (dear wife): yes assuredly, in these very bodies, we ourselves and no other for us, shall see him in that self same house of flesh that he held on earth, and in no other. O thou incomprehensible, sacred, unbounded, individual, and unconfounded Trinity, grant that our meeting be to all our joys. Amen. IN these tears (beloved wife) and in this manner of sorrow, it is no sin to take our orders and proceed graduates: We may weep lawfully thus, as long as the streams that rain from our eyes, do not make the river of our griefs over flow their banks, so then, keeping this channel, let them drop from our cheeks eternally: Let us make us pearls of them, which no blood, no vinegar may ever dissolve. We must say, adieu the worlds comfort: needs must we then lay faster hold upon that in Heaven. Adieu then Philip our son, for a while, and welcome jesus our Saviour for ever. FINIS.