MICROCOSMOS. THE DISCOVERY OF THE LITTLE World, with the government thereof. Manilius. An mirum est habitare Deum sub pectore nostro? Exemplumque Dei quisque est sub imagine paruâ. By John DAVIES. At Oxford, Printed by Joseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Turks head by john Barnes. 1603. TO MY MOST dear AND dread sovereign James by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, be all heavenly and earthly happiness. Thought, fight no more, but now (with Wits accord) Yield all obedience to Arts rightest rule; Then, like a constant treble-twisted cord, Bind up the sweetest affections of my soul, And, in a Poesy give them to, O no, They are too base for such high Excellence! Yet (prostrate) give them to him, and say so; So, I may shun dislike, you, insolence: Great (o too narrow is this name for thee) King, (yet too strait a stile for thy great worth) And Monarch, (this with it doth best agree) Deign to accept a Base, base Wit brought forth: And base it is (great highness) in each line, Because indeed it is too rightly mine. His majesties less than least, and most unworthy subject: John DAVIES. To the sacred Queen of England's most excellent majesty. IF those Wombs blessed be, from whom proceeds A world of blessings to the World accursed; Or if that gracious be, that Graces breeds, To make Men gracious, being at the worst; O then how blest and gracious is thy womb, Dear Daughter, Sister, Wife unto a King! Wherein Heaven wrought (as in a sacred room) Strong Props of peace, which blessed Time forth did bring. Unto a Mother-maide we all are bound, For bringing forth our souls preservative; Who, for the same, is Queen in Heaven crowned: And, sith thou bring'st our corpses conservative, We must crown thee in Earth, or else, we should Do otherwise then Saints & Angels would. Your highness most humbly devoted vassal. JOHN DAVIES. The whole I'll of great Britain was of yore divided into 13. Kingdoms, as by Monuments of antiquity, and history (the witnesses of time) appeareth. viz. England into 8. namely, Kent, South-Saxons, East-Saxons, 8 West-Saxons, Bernnicia, (alias Northumberland) Deira, (or Southumberland) Est-Angles, Mercia. Scotland into 2. viz. Scots, & Picts; The Scots 2 on the Westside, the Picts on the East, called Pictland, as the other, Scotland. Wales into 3. viz. North-wales, South-Wales, and 3 Powys-land. Upon which Plaine-songe thus I descant. AN Arctic I'll there is (most famous) found In the great Lavor of this lesser Round, Which Neptune's hand (as most esteemed) enfolds And in his unsweet-sweating bosom holds, On whom at once, heaven's providence begat Thirteen Kings ', which did her participate; She fed them sweetly, made them fat to grow; For, from her breast did milk and honey flow: Who being pampered, so, ambitious made, 'Gainst Nature 'gan each other to invade: She greatly grieved, they quited so her love; And ay to make them one, she oft did prove: But (froward) at the least, they would be two, So lived long (in strife) with much ado: Yet like a tender Mother (vexed to see That her dear children could no better 'gree) She laboured night and day with time, to do That which she tried, but could not bring them to: Who (both together joined) did them atone, So, time and she, (at last) have made them One. Then if in One, thirteen united be, How great, how glorious, and how good is he? JOHN DAVIES. AENIGMA. A triple pair, doth our late wrack repair, And sextiplies our mirth, for one mishap; These six, as hopes, to keep us from despair, (When claps we feared) were sent us at a clap: That we might clapp our hands in his high praise, That made us, by our Heads loss, much more fair, And us beheaded, so, our Head to raise: One headless, made all look as black as Hel● All headless makes the Head and all look well. SPHINX. IF this a Riddle be, than so be it, Yet Truth approves what therein hid doth lie, And Truth's most lovely in the Eye of Wit When she is robbed with richest mystery: In few, by loss we have got benefit, That's, six for one, by lawful usury: Then, if we gain by loss, our loss is gain; So saith France, Flanders, Scotland, Ireland, Spain. To the judicious Reader. THou seest this great World (Reader) & perchance Thine eye is cloyed with often seeing it; Then see the less with no less circumstance, And with wits eye, that Monarchy of wit. Microcosmos. The heavens and Earth, do make the greater World; And soul and body, make the less (we prove:) The heavens do move the Earth, & they are whirled By Him, that makes the soul, the Body move. Primus Moto. Who conquers it (at least) are monarches great, Greater than those that conquered the greater; For, from their goodness Men their greatness get, And they are best, that do subdue the better: Prover. 16 32. The great World's good, but better is the least: Things living though never so small, are better than liveles things, though never so great. Then view it, to subdue it, thou wert best. JOHN DAVIS. A Request to the city of Hereford. Dear Mother, in whose womb my vital flame Was kindled first by the almighty's breath, Lend me thy name, to add unto my name, That one, with other, may keep both from death: Unto thy conscience I (poor I) appeal, Whether or no, I have deserved it; My conscience tells me I have sought thy weal With all my skill, my will, my worth, my wit. judge God, judge good men, judge my truth herein, Impartial judges you shall judge for me; If so, my soul is seared, or I have been (dear Mother) what I now would seem, to thee: Eph. 6.1,2,3,4. And do confess, though unkind Parents prove, Yet are their children bound to seek their love. john Davies of Hereford. In Microcosmon joh. DAVIS two Herefordiensis. Quadrua vis animat Prud. in Psycho● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pyth. EN tibi Pythagorae sacram diamque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Almae Naturae scatebram fontemque perennem: Cuius quis pandet mysteria? quisve profundos Audebit timidogressu tentare recessus? Meram. 2. Audet Davisius nec magnis excidit ausis. Non is Daedaleâ per coelum remigat alâ, Nec Phaetontaeo raptatus in aethera curru Stellarum inspector stupet, aut jovis atria lustrat: Horat. lib. 2. Sat. 2. In se conversus, Divinae particulam aurae Non lippo aut lusco solers rimatur ocello. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Hunc lege quisquis aves Animani, tam nobile germen Noscere, decerptum delibatumque supremi Quod de mente Dei quisque hoc in corpore gestat. Non te AEgyptiacus teneat tardetve character; Clau. epig. 21. Nulla Syracusij Senis arte inventa morentur, Suspensus coeli fornix & vitreus orbis: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. Ho. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. juu. Saty. 11. AEdibus in proprijs quae recta aut prava gerantur Inspicias, haustamque polo vigil execute mentem: Coelitùs emissum descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. IO. Sanfordus. Charissimo Johanni Davisio Salutem. OXoniae vates cum sis, Herefordia quare Davisi, in titulo pristina scripta tuo? Crede mihi, doctam non urbem tale pigebit Ingenium in numero nomen habere suo. Charus & illius mihi nomine, charus & huius Vrbis es: hinc artes ducimus, indegenus, Charior at proprio mihi nomine: fas mihi suave Ingenium, mores fas sit amare probos. Ingenium moresque tuos redamem: illud & istos, Plura mihi, cunctis hic lib●r ipse probat. Robertus Burhillus Coll. C.C. Soc. Liber Lectores alloquitur. HEm! tu qui (leve paginas pererrans Nostras pollice, & inquiete ocello) Piscaris rabidum tibi venenum Ex hoc fonticulo, scaturienti Nisi Castaliae liquore, nullo; Abito procul hinc: facessat ist hic Ocelli malè prurientis ardor. Non nostris olidae natant papyris Algae; nec levibus tume sco nugis Molestanta, scelus Patre expiandum Lemnio! hinc profugus Cupido: lirae, Sordes, qui squiliae exulant, & omnis Putredo, iuveni nocens legenti. Quin tu, sobrie, docte, perspicacis Cui luces Aquilae, altiusque acumen, Cultor Virginis integer Patrimae; Et tu, Montis amans biforme culmen Chara progenies novem Dearum, Adsis; & genium, meumque carmen Expendas (rogo) strictiore lance Tui judicij sagacioris. Non supercilium, striasve frontis Declino tetric as minacioris: Thaletem accipio; venito Brute, Censorem volo te; severioris Nec durum fugio Catonis unguem. Hoc est quod fugio; labore tanto, Commentum peperisse mollicellum, Veltricas, apinasve; queis, inepto Ridendi moveatur a●sa vulgo. N. Debillus. In Libri Auctorem. PHilosophi laudes, laudes meruêre poêtae; Davisius vatem, philosophumque refert. Ergo Parnassi lauro, lauroque Lycaei, Philosopho, & vati cinge Britanne caput. Nam quorum Pylios unum dare postulat annos, Haec effecta duo sedulus ille dedit. MIrum in modum, Men did wonder-maze, Which wonderment, this later work of thine (Not by detracting from it) doth deface. How so? by giving out a greater shine: The soul's Horizon that made light whil-ere, But this enlightens her whole hemisphere. Blessed be thou sun from whence this light doth spring And blessed be this little World of light By which who walks, perforce must be a King, King of a little World, in fortune's spite; For force, and virtue, in the soul do sit, And they do reign that ruled are by it. Then reign thou in men's thoughts, thou thoughtful soul, Whilst thy rare work among their works shall reign; For, it in passion, passion doth control, Then mighty is thy grace, thine art, thy pain: As thou for writing fair art most renowned, So, writing thus, thou must be laurel crowned. JOHN James Mihi charissimo Johanni Davisio Herefordiensi. QVid petis nostrae leviora Musae Fila, Davisi? fateor, Sorores Tardus ignoro Ardalides. quid isthoc! Me-ne lacessas? Eia! nec factum bene! mellilinguis Te canat Maiâ genitus; Camoenae Te canant divae; ingeminentque cantus Agmina vatum: Cui bono? Maiâ genitus, Camoenae, Agmina & vatum procul ite: mirum In modum dio cecinit seipsum Carmine vates. Dij boni, talis titulus Pöesi Optimae quàm conveniens! & isthic Microcosmos- sed tamen acquiesco; Ipse loquatur. Desinas & tu steriles arare (Me citando) arvos: niveum Libelli Est scelus frontispicium lituris Tinguere nostris. T. R. To the Author. Man's soul (th' Idea of our maker's mould) Whiles it doth harbour in this house of clay, Is so overwhelmed with passions manifold, Is so o'erthrown with Adam's old decay: That much like bastard Eagle, dim of sight, It dares not take a view of reason's light. O then, redoubled thanks deserves thy work, Whose Verse Prometheus-like strives to inflame That sacred spark, which in our souls doth lurk, Giving blind Reason eyes to see the same: Davies, thine art beyond our art doth reach, For thou each soul, soule-humbling art dost teach: Thus Oxford Artists are obliged to thee, Who, Stork-like building here a while thy Nest, For Earthly Lodge dost leave an heavenly fee, Giving a Sword to kill that foe of Rest, Fair learning's blot, which scholars know to well, I mean, self-love, which thy Self-Arte doth quell. DOUGLAS CASTILION. Upon Master John Davies, Beginning his discovery of the little World with a Preface unto the most high and mighty Prince James the first King of England etc. SO, ere he dare adventure on the main, The prudent Sailoure prostrate on the shore Makes first his vows unto the * Castor and Pollux. swan-bred twain, And their aspect religiously implores: So, ere unto the Ocean he sets-forth, Who is this less Worlds great discoverer, He turns his eyes unto the hopeful North, And views the Cynosure that shineth there. Auspicious Star, at whose divine arise Earth did put of her saddest mask of Night, Shine mildly on him, who beholds thine eyes, As sole directors of his course aright. So that the great world may the less world see By that fair Light he borrowed first of thee. Upon the discovery of the little World By Master John Davies. Go Drake of England, * Christoph. Columb. dove of Italy, unfold what ever Neptune's arms enfold, Travel the Earth (as Phoebus doth the sky) Till you beget new Worlds upon this old. Would any wonders see, yet live at rest, Nor hazard life upon a dangerous shelf? Behold, thou bearest a World within thy breast, Take ship at-home, and sail about thyself. The ship wherein Sir Fr. Dra. compassed the World. This Paper-Bark may be thy Golden-Hinde, Davies the Drake and true discou'rer is, The end, that thou-thy-selfe thyself Mayst find; The prize and pleasure thine, the travel his: See here displayed, as plain as knowledge can, This little World, this wondrous I'll of ma. Charles Fitz-Ieffry. To the Reader. BEyond the reach of vulgar intellect, Inbred by Nature, but refined by Art, Doth wisdoms heir this monument erect, Graceed with what ere the Graces can impart. Here, Wits not soiled with loser blandishment. The subject pure, abstruse, and worthy pain, Annatomizing civil government, And, of the soul what Reason can attain. The many sweets herein contained be, Epitomized, would ask too large Narration To be comprised within this narrow station. Read then the work: when, if thou canst not see Th'enfolded flame; be rapt with admiration, But censure not: for, owls have bleared eyes, Dazzled with every star that doth arise. To the book as it is dedicated unto his most excellent majesty. Thrice happy Issue, brain-begotten Birth, Wits pure Extraction, life of poesy, Together borne with England's endless mirth; How have the heavens graceed thy nativity! Wast from disdain to power th'ambrosian dew (Dropping like Nectar from a sacred quill) Into the common Lavour, vulgar view; That Heaven deferred thy birth these hours until? O blessed book, reserved to kiss that hand, From which, desert near parted discontent! Go, pay thy vows; await his dread command To whom in prostrate duty thou art sent. Shall He say, live? Fly Time; swell Lethe lake; Burst fell Detraction; thou liv'st: and when A thousand Ages dust shall over-rake, Thy living Lines shall please both God, and men: For, graceed by him, whom swift intelligence Hath made Arch-Master of each excellence, It needs must follow, that succeeding days Cannot detract from what he deigned to praise. Nicholas Deeble. Ad Lectorem de libro. benign lector, parvuli orbis incola, Qui coeca falsi transfretans mundi vada, Dirigere recto tramite exoptas ratem, Istum libellum ut Nauticum Indicem sequens; Fugies Ceraunia saxa, Syrenas leves, Fugies trucem Carybdin, & Syrteses vagas. Vide Teipsum, & in spice omnes angulos; Quisquis seipsum non videt, cernit Nihil. Noscito Teipsum, cordis explorans sinus; Quisquis seipsum nescit, hic novit Nihil. Cura teipsum, ut proprij medicus mali; Quisquis seipsum negligit, curat Nihil. Vides teipsum modò Animam inspicias tuam. Curas teipsum modò Animam sanes tuam. Nathanael Tomkins. TO praise thee, being what I am to thee, Were (in effect) to dispraise thee, and me: For, who doth praise himself, deserves dispraise; Thou art myself, then thee I may not praise: But this, in nature, may I say by art, Thine art, by Nature, makes thee what thou art. Your loving Brother and worst part of yourself Richard davies A Preface in honour and devotion unto our most puissant, and no less roially-accomplished sovereign, James by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, & Ireland, defender of the faith, etc. THou blessed I'll, * Albio●. white mark for Envies aim, (If Envy aims at most felicity) Triumph, sith now thou Mayst by justice claim Precedence in the university, Wherein best isles do strive for mastery: Now, shalt thou be great MODERATOR made In each Dispute, that tends to EMPERY, So that AMBITION shall no deeper wade, Then thy DECREES in judgement shall persuade. Now Grand-dame ALBION, in thy grandeur think, Think seriously upon each circumstance (Sith late thou wert at pit of perils brink) That may make thee (though old] as young to dance, Moved by sweet strains of more sweet Concordance: But stay (dear Mother) o I do thee wrong To put thee in thy Muses; now advance Thy voice, in Praise to whom it doth belong, GOD, and thy KING, that made thee, fainting, strong. * My son love the Lord, and the King, and meddle not with them that are seditious Prover. 24.21. Thy God, and King, King given thee of GOD To make thee love thy Go●, and like thy King; And so gave thee a royal, for a Rod, To punish thee with what doth comfort bring, And make thee richer by his chastening. He came by no * Killing this, or that Cousin; that, or this Competitor. Meanders of man's blood Unto our Land; but with a sure slow wing He ●lew far from it, and did leave that flood On the left hand, for those that Right withstood. Though homebred hearts may harbour strange desires, Nere-pleased perverseness, yet, must needs confess He to this crown, by double right, aspires, Blood, and Bequest; say, Male-contentednesse, (If thou dost live, but I hope nothing less) Is't true, or no? I see Shame holds thy tongue From such denial; then, for shame, express Thy love to right, and do thy Liege no wrong, But say, long may our crown to him and his belong. His precious veins do flow with our dearest blood; 2. Sam. 5.1. Bone of our bones, Flesh of our Flesh, is he: If he by us, then, should have been withstood, We had withstood ourselves; and cursed be The hand that with the head doth disagree. Beyond his birth, he was a King, in right, And borne to bear rule, in the highest degree, Whose hand and head endowed are with might Sceptres and crowns to wield, and wear aright. And give we her, her due, that now is gone, Who had in her a World of Princely Parts: Yet she hath left her World, and Worth to one That's Master of himself, and of the Arts Which Art, and Nature, but to Kings imparts: And as this Queen was oft from death preserved When in his laws he had got all her partest ● So was this King from like distress conserved, And both (no doubt) for England's life reserved. And right well worthy of the crown is he, Were it more dear than Caesar's Diadem (When envious World did him her Monarch see) That never did molest our Queen, and ream, That might with blood, for blood, have made it streame● That God that tenders all that tender blood Bless him and his for it, and make his stem Yield many Branches, that may ever bud, And bring sweet fruit, for Scottish-englands' good. Much blood, though drawn from Heavens unholy fo●s, Seems irksome (if not loathsome) to their sight: For, when just David thought their ark t'enclose Within a Temple, with all glory dight, (Which he (in zeal) meant to erect outright) He was forbade by heavens most holy One For making broud to flow (though in their right) And that task put on peaceful Solomon: ●. Sam. 7.2.13. Then peaceful be thy reign (dear Lord) alone ●. Sam. 7.2.13. To build the Temple of true union. ●. Sam. 7.2.13. But, though our blood were thus dear in thine eyes (More dear than Gold, although a double crown) Yet did our fear thy a E: A: love with care surprise And bee'ng our own, we used it as our own; For, safe we kept it, as to thee it's known: We loved thee so, as still we feared thy power, For, if a wren from us to thee had flown, We (as supposing that he meant to tower) Would keep him safe, for love and fear, in tower. Dear King, drade sovereign, sacred majesty, And what stile else, a mortal state may bear, We, truly English, do but live to die For thee, for that thou (stirred) didst not steer Thy power against our peace; but didst endear Us to thee, by thy peerless patience shown, True token of thy love-begotten care Of us and ours; as if that love alone Had held our loss of blood (as 'tis) thine own. Had not our bloods been precious in thine eye, Thou mightst (perhaps) have made us buy it dear Or made thee heir apparent publicly, As justice would; but cro●t by private fear: Stories swarm with Examples, far, and near, That many further off, and of less force To catch at crowns, would heirs thereto appear, Or pull of crowns and heads of them perforce, That, wearing crowns, crossed their unblessed course. But thou (to thy true glory be it said) Though having hands of power to reach a crown Thou didst thyself contain, and prayed, and stayed, Till now in peace thou haste it for thine own; And still may thee and thine by it be known: That Scots, and English, no more may be two, But made, by true-love's artless Art, all one, As Nature hath made us, and country too, Both which to unity us both do woe. So neighbour Nations seeing our consent Shall stand in awe of our united power's; And (of our friendship glad) shall us present With precious gifts, and all that love allures; So all, as friends, while friends we are, is ours: And may he be a terror made to all, That twixt us the least discontent procures; And as a Monster most unnatural, Let odious be his damned memorial. If we, when we were but half, what we are, And had a woman to our sovereign, Were able all foes at their doors to dare, What may we do, when over us doth reign A kingly King, and one realm made of twain? If ever therefore twixt our Fathers were (That now are raked in dust) cause to complain, Let it be raked with them, for we are clear From wronging each, and each to other dear. Both subject to one sovereign, then draw we Together kindly in subjections Yoke; God, and our King will joy, if we agree, But grieve, if we each other shall provoke, And make us feel their wraths resistless stroke: Then dwell in our hearts, for joys cordial (Which nothing but your sorrows can revoke) Have made them large enough to hold you all, Prov. 27.19. And lend us yours, to do the like withal. Call for them when ye will, they shallbe yours, Together with the tenants harboured there: But take our hearts, for now they are not ours, But yours for ever, let us then end ere Us to you ever, who are to us dear: My voice, though base, to highest Concord tends, Then 'tis in tune (I trust) to every ear: If it be harsh, my heart shall make amends, For it doth relish love which near offends. Then weigh our Prince (our Peace) with uprightness, And press him to no more than that will way. For, (if not too perverse) we must confess Our best requests sometimes may have a nay We may not ask God why he (sometimes) denies our requests; but because he is as good, as wise, suppose it is for the best: no more ought we a wise & good King, etc. For better ends; which he may not bewray: It is no ease for one two friends to please When both, perhaps, do but for one thing pray: Then die, o die ere once him so displease, As to urge that, that may his heart disease. O that I had a Soule-enchanting Tongue, That with an Eare-bewitching violence I might persuade to all that doth belong To perfect love, and true obedience; Sith our felicity must flow from thence: If so it be, than nought the Will can move To love, if objects of such excellence cannot allure the Mind and Will to love, As the felicity which now we prove. Our King comes not to our late barren crown Himself alone, but brings a fruitful Queen, And (England's comforts) children of their own, By which the state ay stablished may be seen; Then blest are we, if ere we blessed have been: O let us then bless him whose blessedness Hath (when our sins expected sorrows keen) Preserved us both from wars, and wretchedness. And let us love, in soul, and singleness. Give us your Daughters, and take ours in marage, That, bloods so mixed, may make one flesh, and blood; We will not yours, then do not ours disparaged, But balance all by worth, and livelihood, By Virtue, Beauty, and what ere is good: Each bend his wits, and all his industry, To make all one in body, mind, and mood: Then God will bless all, bend to unity, And plunge us all, in all felicity. If Concord makes of weak, most mighty things, And Discord of most mighty, things most frail; If subjects peace, and glory be the Kings, And their Disgrace, and strife his dis●vaile; Then o let my weak words strongly prevail To strongest peace, (that makes weakest weakness strong) Then, nought shall dare our daring peace t'assail, ●ccl. 4.9. But we shall right th'oppressed Neighbours wrong, And make them hold their own, as we do, long. As when a humane-flesh-fedd cannibal Hath singled out some weakling, for a Pray, And by the power of some Knight (armed all), Is skered (at point to feed) with scathe away: So from th' oppressed, we shall oppressors fray; And be as God's lieutenants, here belo, To see his highest justice done each way, Prov. 24.11. That heaven by us may make the Earth to know We are heaven- holp, to help all wronged so. Whiles mine, and thine, did disunite our crowns (Two things for which, the Sire and son will jar) There was some cause, sometimes, of secret frowns, That ended too too oft with open war; But now both We, and They united are; And, surely to sustain that double crown, Five props we have, (Ambition so to bar) Made of each others substance, so, our own, Than what remains but still to love, as One. The Lion to the Dragon's reconciled, That whilom did upon each other feed; jerusalem hath David (erst exiled) Free denized, & King proclaimed with speed; Whose Members dance for joy of that just deed●: ●. Sam. 6.14. Her King is now, according to his heart Which, with, save goodness, nothing is agreed He is a King in all, and in earth part, By blood (without blood) Nature, mind, and Arte. Fortune that crossed the will, and work of Nature For many years, hath now made her amends By making us, (as we are) one, in nature, And of unfaithful foes, most faithful friends: That Hand on whose direction all depends (Disposing crowns and kingdoms as it lists) Hath made us one, I hope, for endless ends: Then cursed be he that heaven herein resists; And blessed be him that it therein assists. And, though I be no Seer, yet let me (Out of my dark foresight in things future) Speak like a Seer, that can snch things see That may be seen without the seeing power, And their like, seen of blind men every hour: If sin cross not the course of heaven herein, Our Land (that flows with Honey, milk, and flower) Shall be an earthly paradise, wherein Plenty, and Peace shall woe from, and to sin. But Plenty, like an eave-enticing Snake, Shall tempt us with the Eye-delighting fruit Of all voluptuousness, which if we take, There is a power that can our fortune's suit With adam's, when he Ead●● was cast out; And, with stil-sweating sorrow-furrowed brows, To live, or beg, or starve if we be mute: For nought hath root so fast, or gaily grows, But Hea●●n● lest puff extirpes, and overthrows. O 'tis perfection next to that of Gods, When Men are compassed with all sensual sweets, Then, then, to make the Will to know the odds Betwixt that sweet that lasts, and this that fleets, And so restrain heart's joy when pleasure greets: An abject slave will glut his greedy Maw A noble and good heart will have consideration of his meat & diet. Eccl. 30.25. With what so ere his Sense with sweet regreetes, If he can snatch it, but great minds withdraw Their Wills from such base bliss, by Glories law. A bear will break her Belly, if she may, So hoony be the mean to do the deed: And so will Men-beares do, as well as they, If they catch hoonied sweets, themselves to feed; Who make it their Minds labour only meed: Basse human Beasts, how senseless is your ●ense That will 'gainst sense and Reason so exceed! Base is your mind, worse your intelligence, Odious to God, and unto Men offence. Eccl. 10.17. If lands are said to flourish, and rejoice Under new Kings, though oft worse than the old, How may this Land, as if she had made choice Of her Liege Lord, (that now the same doth hold) For virtue only, joy him to enfold! If souls extreme joy makes the Body dance, (witness sweet Psalmist) then, dear Liege, behold Thy subjects gesture at thine entrance, And be assured they bess this blessed chance. And see how virtue pulls to, and puts fro, Note Simil. Like to the loadstone whose North-point attracts And southpoint puts off, what the North pulls to: So thou (North-point) by right and virtuous Acts Dost draw our crown, and us to thee contracts: And those, South from thee (that in show might draw) By virtue moved (as loathing bloody facts) Put off the crown, (before their head it saw,) To thee, whose virtue breeds their love and awe. See, see how Mother nature's total Body Doth (as inspired with a second soul) Exult to see thee wear the crown unbloody! See how the orbs of heaven do slowly roll To slack time's course, which they for thee control! The host of stars, with Sol their sovereign, Fight, all aspects malicious to overrule: The Elements renew their force again, To bless with plenty, thy thrice-blessed reign. Our Fields, are clad in three-piled green in grain, (Three piled for thickness that none sees the Ground: In a Corne. grain which no Land can (for goodness) stain; Like joyful summer- Queens, they thus are ground To see their King (by whom they flourish) crowned: Who will for thee such largesse throw about (With open hand) that Beggars shall abound With fill of Bread; yea all the land throughout Shall glut her Children with Milk, flower, and fruit. Behold our herds crowning our gorgeous downs Psal. 144. 13 With Diadems of rich and rarest wool! See how the virgin lambs, in milk-white gowns, Pro. 27. 26. Do skip for joy (whereof their hearts are full!) No Beast, nay not the ass (though near so dull) But in his voice (though unarticulate) Salutes these times, and up their spirits pull: So, airy, and Watery flocks congratulate Thy fortune blest, to stay this sinking state. No Beast is backward in this common joy, But the slow ox; and he with open throat Complains, for that Men will him now employ More than before; yet tunes a doubtful Note That none may him directly grieved note: For, he (though near so blunt of wit and spirit) Cannot but know (except he can but dote) That his whole Tribe might have been butchered quite To feed huge Hosts, if thou hadst not thy right. Our hounds and hawks, with Spaniels them among, Together drew their Heads, so to decree (With Triumph such as to them doth belong) How th'one should run, and cry, the other flea To sport their King, for their sports liberty. They feared their game had been expired quite, And that their own decay they soon should see; For no flesh comes amiss t'a hungry wight The person that is full despiseth an honeycomb but unto the hungry souls (as hungerbitten Soldiers) every bitter thing is sweet. Prov. 27.7. That hunts for Flesh for need, not for delight. The Rivers, dallying with their beauteous banks With voice of comfort, whisper in their ears That Swans shall deck them now, not Soldiers Rancks● Swans, whose sweet Songs, shall banish cares and fears, And both ioy-drowned do interchange sweet tears: Each silver Prill gliding on golden Sand Transmuted so, by these new golden years, Oreflowne with joy, doth laugh upon the Land; Which as with bliss entraunct, amazed doth stand. The senseless Trees, with sense of joy past joy, Send, through their Buff-skyn Barks, their juice in tears; Which ere they fall, blithe Nature doth employ In Buds, and Blossoms, so that each appears Smiling on all, and robes of Triumph wears: So, all do weep and laugh, and laughing weep That earth (the jade of Elementals) bears; And as an holiday, this year doth keep, Drowned in a Sea of hoonied pleasures deep. The Seasons of the year in council sat, Which of the fow'r thee first should entertain; Who all decreed the Spring (as chief in state) Should welcome in thy coming hereto reign, And deck our triumphs for our sovereign. Among the Months, March was thereto assigned Yet he refused, till he his puffs restrained, And having spent his spite, to wit, his wind, I● fine, he welcomes thee in mildest kind. The Day, and Night, strove then for greatest might When thou shouldst come this Isl● of Isles to sway; So 'greed, there should be as much Day, as Night, The Day to triumph in, the Night to play With heavenly Visions, which sweet sleeps bewray. Neptune now hugs his darling in his arms, (This Queen of Isles) lest that his Tridents sway Should be made subject to her Sceptred arms, So, flattering, seeks to shun his feared harms. Her eyes, (witness mine eyes) lights of the Land Oxford, and Cambridge, distilled joyful tears, With cries among, for lo, the Doctors stand (priest with the press) filling the world's wide ears With shouts of joy, that fainted late with fears; Up go their Caps; so Gravity for joy Doth light become, and Age like Youth appears, Which doubled mirth to see Eld play the Boy And with Cap tossed, till lost, to sport and toy. Look in the studies of the young, and old, Their wont studies we shall changed see, For now the Muse their heads (dear hearts) doth hold, The while their hands are making lines agree To meat their joy, that cannot measured be: Happy is he that can light on one line That may express (and kiss it for a fee) The thousandth part of what his heart doth line, Namely that joy, that no name can define. Some bend their brows, and wroth with their conceit Do scratch their Cogitations * The fore part of the skull. hardest Hold For having no Worths in their rude Receipt Worth the bestowing, though the worst be gold; WVhich is but dross, compared with what they would: Some other write and blot, and blotting write, So thoughts in Blots enfolded, thoughts unfold; Bewraying so the Worlds of their delight, Is more than Worlds of thoughts can well recite● And he that best dischargeth his souls charge, Doth it displeasingly, with much a do, As when rare Preachers which a blessing large, Discharge their hearers, thronging out they go That at the Gate they stick, and stumble too: (When some by main force from their fellows break) So, thoughts in them, so one another woe To be out first, and so the same do seek, That in the portal of the mind they steeke. And those that break out, come but stumbling ou● Nay, cannot stand, without some others stay: So, one each other stay in stumbling doubt, And yet no one can well his doubts bewray, For doubt he doth, say what his friend can say: He doubts his Lines may be (for love or hate) Led to his Liege, that can all faults display; He doubts their worth, and (careful) doubts their fat●, So Doubts distress his thoughts, oppress his Pat●. Learning and virtue, that did hang the Head, As if they had received their doom of death, or had been in a dream, or rather dead With their kind Nurse dear Queen Elizabeth (Who did then, with her crown, to thee bequeath) Lo, on the sudden how they look aloft, Being revived (at point to render breath) And with the Muses tread the Measures oft, Meating their joy with feet high-falling soft. The brain bred goddesses, poor forlorn crew That still she feeds, which some ● call broken- brains, Some Poets, and some fellows fangled new, Some rhymers base (that all the World disdains) And other some, Mens plagues, (but they are swains) These being well-near out of heart before, Each to his fellow joy unfeigned feigns, Because they likely were to be no more For being but (poor souls) the world's Ey-sore. But when they heard with cheerful trumpets clang Thy peaceful name proclaimed, as England's king, They skipped & danced, and heavenly hymns they sang, That angels did admire their Carrolling, Which made both heaven and Earth with joy to ring: Each now retakes his late abandoned Pen, And Night, and Day they ply it, pestering Thy Name with Fame, thy fame with more than Me● May bear, if they be not remade again. And who hath held their Pens from blot of blame And ever kept their Muse immaculate, Their conscience now takes comfort in the same● As if some God were come, (that Vice doth hate) With Grace their virtue to remunerate: As when the King of Kings shall come at last To give all Men their meed, in righteous rate, The good alone rejoice in their lives past: So perfect Po●ts now must comfort taste. Now, their clear souls (free from distemp'ratur● That constantly ensues unconstant Vice) Do (Angell-holpe) draw lines divinely pure, T'expres●e their souls praisworthy avarice To draw their King to read their subject twice: They melt in Nectar of Phrase most refin'de, That may the palate of the soul entice To taste and retast (in a greedy kind) The sweets there mixed to recreate the mind. Healths, now go round among the rude, & civil, The earth's best blood, (that bettereth our blood) Is sucked each where, and he esteemed a devil That will not drink (to show his merry mood) A little more (perhaps) then does him good: If Wine were made to glad the heart of Man Psal. 104. 1●. Eccl. 31.28. (Although our gladness needs no wyny floudd) Then now, or never, troll about the can, Till sober mood cries hoe, and no more can. When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice: but when the wicked bear rule, the people sigh. Prover. 29 2. A time there is for all things under Sunn●, A time for mirth, aswell as to be sad, The time for mirth is now, even now begun, Now wisest men with mirth do seem stark mad, And cannot choose their hearts are all so glad. Then let's be merry in our God, and King That made us merry, being ill bestadd; South●hampton up thy cap to heaven fling And on the * Psal. 144. 9 viol there sweet praises sing, For he is come that grace to all doth bring. If thou didst faul●, (judge heaven, for I will spare thee, Because my faults are more than can be cast) It did to greater glory but prepare thee, Sith greater virtue now thereby thou hast. Ps. 119.67.71. Before our troubles we seem goodness past. But cold Afflictions water cools the heat Which Youth, and greatness oft too much doth waste; And Queens are coy, and cannot brook the sweat That such heat causeth for it seems unsweet. But yet thy worth doth wrest from what soe'er thereto opposed, by unseen violence Acknowledgement of what in thee is dear That is, the glory of much excellence God & King. fit for the use of highest pre-eminence: The World is in the wane, and worthy Me● Have not therein in each place residence: Such as are worthy should be cherished then, And being overthrown raised up again. Pembroke to Court (to which thou wert made strange) Go, do thine homage to thy sovereign, Weep, and rejoice, for this sadd-ioyfull Change; Then weep for joy, thou needst not tears to feign, Sith late rhine eyes did nought else entertain: If I mistake thee not, and thy best part, Thy virtues will thy liege's favour gain: For, virtue, virtue loves, as art doth art; Then will he love thee (Lord) for thy desart● Thy Sire and grandsire, were two mighty peers Th●t were strong trusty Pillars of this State: Thou hast what they had, thy want is but years; Yet art in thee doth time anticipat, And makes thee being young, in old estate: For lo, thy judgements, joints are strongly knit And in Art's limbeck, thy all-learned Pate, Wisdom extracts the Quintessence of Wit● To make the same for high employment fit. Hold up your heartless Heads, and headless hearts All ye whom Time and Fortune did suppress; he's come, he's come, that Life half dead reverts, Dear little Lord, great in too great distress, (With smoothed front) go kiss thy happiness. Ladies, and Lords, purse-pinched, and soule-pained, Poor, Rich and all (rich ïn all blessedness) Bles●e him by whom ye have till now remained To taste these times which yield sweet joys unfeigned. High humbled Lady, high though humbled, High by thy virtue, humbled by thy cross By Fortune lift up, and down tumbled, Two (o speak World) had ere one such a loss As she had of two Pheares, who did engross The richest Wares that art and Nature sold, Yet Fortune in their fines was over-crosse, For both untimely she returned to Mould Yet, Lady, new be cast in Comforts mould. Ye seemly Senators that God do fear Virtues true Lovers, Bloud-detesting Sages, Peace & Rights friends, (as now doth well appear) Load-starrs to this, Lights to the after Ages Rejoice you may, for, your well-erned Wages (Earned of your late Mistress) he will pay That's now your Master; Then with harmless rages Of zeal infamed exult, and with us say Blest be King James, our King, our joy, our Stay. Mo●●t-ioy, let joy now mount as high as heaven, For now thy (long-left) land is heaven become: Come; come away, the Foe to slight is driven, Hasten thy coming, high, o hie thee home That joy (though nought else can) may thee o'ercome: Muses dear love, Maecenas to their loves, Thy King unto this kingdom now is come, And like the sun in our new Heaven moves To comfort thee and all that glory loves. If we that still live here do heaven it hold, What wilt thou think it with that Hell compared Where yet thou liv'st, among deaths manifold, (Which for our safety thou hast long endured?) Thou sure wilt think no angel now doth ward The Eastern Eden, placed now in the North, But, Scots and English men, the same do guard And therein live; then come heroic Worth, Attend thy Liege till he resends thee forth. Meekeharted Worcester friend of humanity Honoured for honesty, so rightly honoured; Gods white-guif● Whiteguif● ● glory of Prelacy; Buckhurst our Treasurer, royally treasured With richest Rules of Rule: Egerton famoused For love to equity: chief justice of the land Bold Popham resolute, for thy friend, for thy Head; Strive, strive, o strive to make fast pieces Band, That you (obeying) may in peace command; So you by it, and it by you may stand. Great hearted Heros, great Northumberland Furnished withal that may make great a peer; And Tethys' true- love venturous Cumberland; Together with the rest to England dear Dear peers let now your peerless joy appeere● Go Lords, go meet your sans-Peere sovereign; And tell him ye are his while he is here, And when he leaves the Earth for heavenly reign You and yours will be his, whiles they remain. Thou lively Image of our worlds perfection, Ou● little Worlds great Paragon of fame, Sir Phil. Sid●. Both taking being (by the heavens direction) In one self-womb, that both should be the same In spirit, in virtue, nature, and in name; This World begins to cotton now for thee, For whom the World, sometimes, was much to blame: Virtue, dear Sidney, Sir R. Sidney. now advanced shallbe Sith virtue knows no partiality. Thou virgin Knight that dost thyself obscure From world's unequal eyes, and feign wouldst die Ere ' thy name should be known to world's impure, Sir Ed. Dy. Now show thyself, thou canst not hidden lie From our new● world's desert ●out-searching eye. Great Sidneies' love (true proof of thy great worth) Live now, for now thou Mayst not living die; Virtue must use thee, then (Dyer Knight) come forth To hail thy virtues lodestar from the North. And Albion's Scaeva, whose crosse-wounded Corse Like t' an embalm dead-Corpse in aspect Twenty times dead, yet still hast vital force, And so dost cousin death, through death's defect, Yet scorn'st, nay hat'st thy life, in fame's respect: Sir Ed. Wingfield. up with thy coat of steel, its time for thee, No foe is now in field, and in effect Thy veins are dry, thine eyes do dimmely see, Then joy in peace, with life at last agree. Great majesty, last let the least, of all Thy subjects least, send from his heart a sign Of that it holds and whiles it is, it shall; The light of the King's countenance is life: & his favour is as a cloud of the later rain, Prover. 16.15. That is, that love thou only May'st define By that unbounded love (to us) of thine! I hail thee happy sovereign from a far, Unworthy to approach thy view of Eine, Saying blest be him that blessed thee from war, To be our peace, in whom we blessed are. And be thine own, though others praise come short O sacred sovereign soul of England's joy, Let matchless virtues, virtues praise report, Which thou alone dost questionless enjoy: The vulgars' laudes thine ears do nought but cloy, The concave of a crown may cause that wind, Which froward Fates have power to destroy: But that pure praise that's due to thy pure mind, From Fates is freed being of immortal kind. Well wott'st thou Princes lives have much more force Than purest laws, their subjects to refine; For, subjects follow still their sovereign's course, As, sun-like Marigolds do Sol divine, Who lose their grace when he doth cease to shine: This makes thee shun, what may eclipse thy light, Because thou leadest all by that light of thine, And strivest to glitter in all virtue bright, That all might have thereby direction right. Though at thy beck be all sons-pleasing sweets, Yet art thou pleased with what thy sense contains, In straights where Abstinence with Reason meets, Which headstrong Appetite (Synne-spurred) reigns, And binds thy Passions in Soule-staying chains. Thus Reason strictly ruleth thee, we see, Which over thee (as thou reign'st o'er us) reigns: If Reason thou obai'st, much more should we, That are borne to obey Reason, and thee. How came I with thee to be so acquainted That so I should describe each part of thee? Thy book wherein so lively thou art painted (dear Liege) I once (ioy-ravished) did see, For which I shall, till death the better be: Then saw I thee, and then I heard thy words Which with Gods, and thy glory, did agree, And Charity belief to them affords, Sith ●hee knows nothing that with them discords. And if the books compiled by us, do bear The Image of our minds, (as thou dost say) Then in that book that Image doth appear Bright as the sun (in virtues best array) To light all Kings to keep their * 1. Tim. 6.15. Rom. 19.16. kings high Way: No Sentence, Line, Clause, Word, or Syllable Therein contained, but doth pure thoughts bewray: Then, sith thy mind is to it semblable, No Earthly King is to thee suitable. Never was Piety with Policy So well componnded in the Head of State: The serpent's wisdom many Snakes apply To Sores of kings Simplicity, but hate The dove-like innocence, as out of date. If Piety, and Policy do jar (As some suppose) then can we be s'ingrate As not to crown him that did end the war? Nor be composed by such a Temperer? For, if from hearts abundance mouths disperse Virtue or Vices Mammon all abroad, What may we deem thee then, that didst rehearse. Such precepts, as beseemed a Semi-God, How best the son should bear an Empires Lode (Which weakness oft, back-broken, undergoes) We needs must ween that virtue makes abode (As in her home) in thy heart, sith it flows With goodness like Gods, to thy Friends, & Foes. How like a Lord of thyself dost thou strive To conquer Passion (Prince's great'st disease) In him that likely is thee to survive? And, as an old●tride seaman tells at Seas What Rocks and platts a young one may displease E'er ●irst he sets out, that he them may shun: So, from thy proof (for thy Succeeders ease Thou tell'st him (ere to rule he hath begun) What compass he should keep, safe Course to run. For Empire is a Sea most fair to see, But perilous to prove, as they best know That all their life-long to it bounden be, Subject each tide to be o'erwhelmed with woe, If not to wrack and final overthro: Wherein thou dost thy course so wisely guide That like a skilful Pilot thou dost sho (By demonstration) how this Sea t'abide And safely sail, or else at anchor ride. Then, o how blessed is this blissful isle Whose God is love, whose King is virtues Host, Whose Grace and wisdom (with an holy guile) Doth catch the lest and binds them to him most, As to their pillar, and upholding Post! Who makes his subjects great, as good, as great By his example, without check, or cost, And to unequals equal Law doth meat With loves right hand, which still doth hate defeat! The Fire, as being the noblest Element, Is placed, by nature's hand, above the rest; That, by its active virtue prevalent, It might repurifie the worst, and best, That be inferior, or in less request: So thou art justly placed (in nature's right) Above the great'st, that with thy virtue lest Canst purge them from their greatest vices quite, And make them shine, through thy high virtues light. Such Kings should be obeyed, and glory-cround, Because their virtues all men's else exceed: For, they that are in all abundance drowned, Yet, set no more in, then may Nature feed, And spare the rest for those that have more need, O! these are rightly Fame's superlatives, (Gods upon Earth, that's Kings like Gods in deed) From whom the subject virtue high derives, Whose lives are Lights to lead obscurer lives. And, virtue in a King is more of price, Then in a poor man, though most virtuous, For Kings have more means to be drawn to Vice, And may, without control, be vicious; But poormen, not, for Want, and Summumius: If Sol would Venus use, what star comes not At beck, well-near, too near to him, to use? But if a naked poor Snake be so hot He may be cooled; but so be cooled, cannot. What glory gets constrained sobriety (If glory gotten be by virtue right) Constrained b'imperious necessity, Other, then to be chaste for want of might In Purse, or Parts, or all the body quite? Where's no Foe to oppunge what conquest i●t? But where be many great Ones, there to fight, And with a Kingly courage them resist, O such an one is a true Martialist! How easy this is said, who doth not see? How art may picture virtue, all perceive; But to inspire her with vitalitee, This none but only Gods have power to give, From whom alone she doth her life receive. O, dear Liege, that I could, as feign I would, Make virtue lively; then by thy good leave, Thou shouldst not leave me (wretch) sith than I could Leave all the World to serve thee, as I should. Then would I with a never wearied Eye Help thee to watch from wolves thy flock to keep: Thy flock is great, and wolves may lurking lie In each dark Corner to devour thy sheep: But blest were he that would, & could dive deep Into th' abyss of every dark device, (While thou gav'st Nature necessary sleep) To feel their * Psa. 64.45.6. Snares to catch, & Lures t'entice, So, make them known that would thee prejudice. Dive, dive, to Hell black hell's inhabitants (Children of darkness that envy our light) Albion's no place for such black Miscreants, For God, and Man, there, with (not for) you fight: Then, do yourselves ensconse in endless night; There stand upon your guard, guarded with ●iends ● That guard & grieve you, both at once, with spite; There shall ye feel smart of God's fingers ends, Sith divine justice deeper near descends. Dear love, sweet Lord goodnes-surmounting God, How stands this Land obliged unto thy love! This little-great Land, or great-little Clod Thou more regard'st (it seems) than heaven above; 2. Pet. 2.4. For there thou plaguedst sin, as Angels prove: B●t, though this Isle doth float on seas of sin, Thou, moved with love, from it dost plagues remove, As if against the stream thou wouldst it win To perfect goodness, and to rest therein. O bow our hearts of steel, make them well bend, That they may through thy heart shoot sh●f●s of love, And wound the same with love most violent: But what need that, sith now the same we prove? But yet, sith thou such shooting dost approve, And, by thy laws, alone its lawful game, Let a●l the shafts of our endeavours rove At thy heart's whitest love, sith in the same Consists our game, grace, glory, joy, and fame; Gain, for all's gained in thy all-giving love; Grace, for God's love is man's extremest grace; Glory, for thou dost glorify thy love; joy, sith they needs must joy, whom In G●d are all, sith without him are no joys. joys embrace; And ●ame, for Fame ensues the love of Grace; All these win we, if we thy love do win: Then should we draw our souls out of sins Case, And, being well bend, shoot love-shafts at the Pi● Of thy dear love, which lies thine heart within. O'ercome us (Lord) in kindness, let thy grace Ever triumph over our vngrac'ousnesse: So, we'll triumph in that gracious disgrace, Giving all glory to thy graciousness, And, love, and fear thy dread almightiness. Let not these Blessings greater make thy Curse Against our inbred base ungratefulness: O let not thy grace make us worse, and worse, But to be gracious let it us enforce! These super-supererogating works Proceeding from thy sup'rinducing love Might make us (though far worse than Jews or Turks) Math. 11. 2●. To entertain them as thou dost approve, And give thy love no cause ours to reprove. Since borne I was, I saw but sin abound, And thy grace o'er abounding, which might move A senseless stone to sink in tears profound, Flowing from highest love, in tears ydrownd. Thou dealest not thus with the adjacent Lands (Although perhaps they have provoked thee less) Captivity hath oft bound them in Bands, And the destroyers Sword hath had egress Through all the Members of them, more, and less, Which did not cut, but eat flesh (greedy sword) Deut. 32.42. Nor shed, but was made drunk with bloods excess But to out land, alone, thou dost afford Peace, plenty, freedom, Health, Wealth, and thy Word. Yet from him sitting on the kingly Throne Unto the slave that at the Hand-mill grindes● Others, by civil Sword have been orethrone, And Masacres of Bodies, and of minds, Have been performed in all hellish kinds: Upon their walls were Woes and wellaways Breathed out with groans, like hollow-voiced winds; Their streets, with shrieks through sudden stabs dismays, By Nights did echo, and did ring by days, While storms of rage did bloody billows raise. The venerable Lore that Time and Art● Ramu●. exchequered had, in one Head (rarely wrought) Was let-out by a Dagger, or a Dart, As good for nothing, but to bring to nought: Virtue was held a rebel, and still sought But to be slain, and so, by Death, embraced: Vice was secured by that which Vice had wrought By virtues help, by Vice now quite defac'd● So all, but Vice, then died, or were disgraced. And herewith keene-cheeked Famine made away Paris, Rochel. Through their best cities bowels, so to bring Their Bellies and their backs to kiss, and play, So to beguile the smart of famishing, Which in the hollows of the heart did sting: Dogs, C●ts, Mice, Rats, stolen carrion, and Horse-dung (Wherewith perchance they humane-flesh did minge) These did they eat, they were so hunger-stunge, Nay, died for want of these, through famine long. Think what it is to sow, and not to reap, Or what to have, what others have in hold That have no hold; yet all away doth sweep And so by spoil of all, live uncontrolled: What 'tis to have a Wife, yet have thy wife To have no power to do, as thy wife should, But, to avoid the Ravishers rude knife, Cannot avoid the loss of more than life. O could a Man behold, at one aspect, The many hell's attending Civill-warre, He would suppose (no doubt) by the effect, Hell had broke lose, and ta'en Earth prisoner, And used it worse than worst Hell by far: For, if the God of heaven a realm would dam Above the Earth, he need but let it jar Within itself; and then, no Hellish flame Can so torment with anguish, as the same. Differing in nothing but in Time, and Place Save that the suns light makes the grief the more; For it gives light to see the hideous case Of all, when all are almost drowned in Gore, That, like a Deluge, oreflowes Sea, and Shore; Which, if it might be felt, and not be seen, S●nse would suppose the same to be less sore; For Sight (the Senses sovereign) would ween That, that is still unfelt, that is unseen. And but that Woes are privileged from jest, I well might say (and yet but jest in sho) That this damnation devils more detest Then the perdition in the Hell belo; For there their utmost miseries they know: And well they wots, if they (as these) should jar, Their kingdom (like these) should to ruin go: So they, much more than Hell, fear civill-warre ● Because a kingdom it doth more than mar. The Night that Nature hath ordained for rest Then ye●lds no rest, yet endless rest it gives; No rest it yields, but kills both Man, and Beast, Yet rest it gives, by reaving of their lives; So, knives bereave their rest, that rest by knives! They disease thereby killing, and ease them being killed. Men go to bed (as to their grave) with breath, Where Death, unwares, of breath them oft deprives; So, while they sleep in life, they sleep in death, True Image of the life in Hell beneath. For if in that Hell be degrees of Woes, As Truth itself affirms (with voice divine) Then may these seem to be the worst of those That lowest Hell doth in itself confine; For, weeping and Teeth-gnashing, that hell's sign Is seen each where, where civil Swords do rage, Which do the best-backt states in sunder chine, And with Hell-like confusion do engage The brightest Empires to dark vassalage. As when the Mightst Bajazeth is come Into the claws of some rude Tamburlaine, he's used more basely than the basest groom, Till he be forced to beat out his own brain Against the cage of his hard Heart's disdain: So, when the civil Swords uncivillized In mightist Empires, there it runs amain Through all, till all be with Contempt surprised, Or, all do end, ere so will be despised. 2. Kin. 11.1,2,3 2. Kin. 16. 3. & 2 Chro. 28.16. Thus whiles Athalia hath her own blood sucked; And Achaz in the fire his Flesh did fry; Yea whiles Samaria on her walls hath plucked, Her * 2. Kin 6.26. 27,28,29. children's limbs in sunder savagely, Devouring them with hunger greedily, Our milk and hoony-flowing Palestine Hath overflown withal felicity; Whiles envy sought, but could not (save repine) To hale us from this Sea, with hook and Line. So we alone (o'erwhelmed in Earthly bliss) Still dive in Pleasure's streams to find new joys, Not knowing once what Sword, or Famine is, Nor the least thing that Nature ought annoys, 2. Sam 7.18. save when we list to make them sporting toys. What are we (Lord) or what our father's house, That it by thee such welfare still enjoys, As it doth seem thy whole care's cast on us, And to us only wert most gracious! What endless peals of Praise are due to thee From those to whom (as to unworthy us) Thou leavest not an headless anarchy, As to the cannibals prodigious, A Government more than most monstruous! Gen 10.6.8.10 Nor as to the Tartarian herds of Cham, Isai. 66.19. Nor swarms of Tubal-gog (most ravenous) But with thy power divine, them up didst dam far off from Albion in the Land of Ham! Our present happiness shall more appear (And long may it be present and to come) Compared with the state wherein we were At our grand Ancestors first calling home To civil life (that long did rudely room) Their commonweal (if so it may be called) Was (like to Rome's when Sylla raged in Rome) With Rage, and wrong, and lawless might enthralled, And by each savage fury ever galld. The great devoured the mean, the mean the less; Who could gripe hardest held all as he would; Who crossed his will, the law did then transgress, For which he died, or dying live he should; So strongest thieves themselves did Princes hold: All was worse than it seemed, yet seemed all woe, For 'twas a Nation (which this Land did hold). That lived by one another's overthro, Yet, for they lived together, seemed not so. I could, although my Muse were near so dull, Be endless in this infinite discourse: But now, Decorum by the ear doth pull My forward Muse, and stays her in her course, Lest that a book her Preface wax perforce: It is enough my book doth over abound With tedious lines, if not with lines far worse. Yet in well-born prolixity is found That which abortive briefness cannot bond. And for a taste (God grant it may prove tastie) Of what the Muse can do now thou art come, That which ensues (though she were overhasty) Is her first speech since Musing made her dumb: This Brat, conceived in her barren womb, Was made to move by the all-movers aid, And if both move thee to like all, or some, I shall account my Muse the blessedst maid That ever for an Husband so long staid. Yet she that next to God and thee hath right My service to command, commandeth me To be her Mouth (to utter what she might) unto her great'st Protector, next to thee, Ere that my short winged Muse do further flee: My dearest Country Wales commandeth this, That in the depth of all humility I let her Prince to know how ill she is, For want of him, her love, her Life, her bliss. What shall I say (dear Liege) I'm at a stand That have so much (with little skill) to say; Heaven, Earth, Men, Beasts, Fish, Fowle, yea, Sea and Land Exults with us, insults on those that may And will not; cursed be those I (cursing) pray: To curse God's foes, and yours, is but to bless Those that be his, and yours, and both obey; David did so, and Davies doth no less, Amen say all, that love true blessedness. john Davies. CAMBRIA To the high and mighty, Hen●y by the grace of God Prince of Wales. GReat Grandam Wales, from whom these Ancestors Descended, from whom I, (poor I) descend, I own so much to my Pregeni●ors, And to thee, for them, that until mine end Thy name, and fame, I'll honour, and defend: Sith Ioy doth passage to thy speech deny (For that thy Prince ●hine honour doth commend) Lest that thy silence might be ta'en awry, Mine artless P●n shall thy Tongues want supply. Did Curtius more for Rome, than I for thee, That willingly (to save thee from annoy Of dire dislike, for ingratuitee) Do take upon me to express thy joy, And so my Muse in boundless Seas destroy? Yet, lo, dear grandam, how mine active love, My little All doth (more than all) employ For thee, that thou by me thy Prince Mayst move To love thee for the joy he makes thee prove. O then most gracious son unto that Sire, Whose grace doth glorify both Sire, & Sonn●; Of thy great grace I (prostrate) thee desire To cast thine Eye on mine intention, Rather, then on my muse's action. The Burden's weighty which she undergoes, And she is weak, and Dull in motion; Then let thy lively soul her soul enclose, And give her youth and sprite, that aged grows. As when a youngling lieth by the side Of some old Sire, his age doth virtue draw From his dear youth, that makes Age longer bide: So mine invention old, cold, rude, and raw, (Not able to digest aught in her maw) May by the quick hereditary heat Of thy young Muse (that y●iest thoughts can thaw) In Wales, my country's name, perform this fear, And welcome thee to thy long empty Seat●. But o! I feel, but with the thought of thee, My frozen thoughts to melt, as with a sun, Whose comfort Brutes remain doth long to see: And through my nerves I feel the warm blood run From heart, to brains, to heat invention. Mount Muse upon the wings of high desire; Run Numbers, now my swistest thoughts outrun, That prostrate on my face (while you aspire) I may salute thy Prince (Wales) and his Sire. Welcome ten-thouzand times ye sacred pair, Great Atlas, and Alcides of this Land, Upon whose shoulders (safe from all impair) The commonwealth thereof doth fixed stand, Which dexterously your virtue doth command. Dear Prince, the weal of Wales, the Britain's bliss, By me (thine own) Wales lets thee understand, That she desires thy princely feet to kiss, And prays, as for her heaven on Earth, for this. Then come sweet Prince, thy principality Doth long to bear thee on her blissful breast: There shalt thou see the heart of Loyal●y (lovesick) for want of thee in great unrest; Then come (Dear sweet) and to thine own give rest. For, as an hungry stomach bites the more The nearer meat is to the same addressed: So is thy people's longing made more sore To hold thee now they have thee, then before. There shalt thou find Brutus' venerable stock To love thee, as the cream of their best blood; For, all about thee will they thronging flock To tender thee their eyes, to do thee good, Such is the nature of their loving mood. As when a Father, fallen in decay, Doth see his son, that gives him Cloth and food ● Crowned as a King, joy makes his heart her Pray; So will they joy to see their joy to sway. From Owen Thewdor, who from Camber came, (From Camber son of Brute who came from Troy) Art thou descended; and thy Bellsires name Was Thewdor: let us (Britons) then enjoy Our own in thee, in thee, our only joy. We have been long afflicted, and oppressed By those that sought our whole Race to destroy; Then sith we are in thee so highly blest, Let's have our own, thyself, to give us rest. O come, and comfort us, our joy, our Peace, Let us have thee, then have we all, in thee, All that, that tends to Peace, and joys increase; And in thy presence we shall blessed be; For thou art blest, then in thee, blessed are we; Sith blessed thou art with all that heaven doth cast Upon the heaven of earths felicity: Our blood in thee craves part of it, at last● In recompense of all our sorrows past. What shall oppunge this, our blood doth convince; Nature hath made thee ours, and we are thine; We are thy people, and thou art our Prince; Betwixt us love will have nor thine, nor mine, But the Word ours she doth to us assign: Our Land, our Prince, our People, and our laws, Our State, our commonweal, our Hand, seal, sign, All ours, & nought but ours, (dear Prince) because Both Prince and People closed are in this clause. Then come All ours, bless all ours with our eyes Placed in the Head, begotten by our Head; Which was begotten by our blood likewise: Come, rule thou us in that Heads place, & steed, Till thou that Head, in his place, shalt succeed. Here shalt thou see, cased in poor coats of freeze, Rich Spirits of Troyans', which on glory feed, Who, for they are, and rightly came of these, Each with the nature of the stock agrees. Our greatest bravery lies all within (Where greatest hearts do love the same to have) We say, to brave an abject spirit, is sin; But, to be brave in spirit is passing brave: We scorn a double-gilt base-mettled slave, For we are harted-whole, true jovialists, Making our glory go beyond our grave, So to dissolve Oblivions foggy mists, And blind the eyes of squint-eyed satirists. For, be it that we know no Complement, Other than such as our dear Ancients knew, That's plain, and simple, like our heart's intent; Yet, if we pleased, we could be fash'ond new; Loved we not more our Fathers to ensue: We want nor wit, nor spirit, nor wealth (perchance) Swift-flying fashion swiftly to pursue, In guise, in gate, and courtly dalliance, At Tilt, each way, with love, or Mars' lance. Witness our Owen Thewdor, who could give True demonstration how to court a Queen: Who from the seed of Jove did grace receive To bear himself in her eye best-beseene, And made her thoughts a demi- God him ween: He so could draw the motion of her eye By motions seemly, which, in him were seen, That he alone best pleased her fantazie, As being full of best-graced majesty. Now, from the Court, descend we to the camp: And from those elder times, to these of ours: There find we (no less currant for the stamp) Sir. Roger Williams. WILLIAMS (worlds wonder for his native powers) Out-daring Death in many sanguine showers: The singing Bullets made his soul rejoice, As music that the hearing most allures; And, if the Canons based it with their voice, He seemed as ravished with an heavenly noise. And when the Foe men's Muskets spite did spit Then would he spit, in sport, at them the while: The blows his courage gave, were placed by wit●, For wit and Courage dwelled still in his style; While cowardice, and Folly made them vile Whose glory lay all in their Ladies lap, And when he came to Court, at them would smile Yea, smoothly jest at their soft silken hap, Yet could, like Mars, take there sometimes a nap. Run over all the Story's times afford, Or pry upon them with the sharpest sight, We shall not find one did more with his Sword Then this brave Britain, and true Troian-Knight, Who put f P. Parm●. Achilles in his Tent to flight By such an over-dareing enterprise, As all that that hear it, not believe it might, But that these times have seen it with their eyes, And that the fame thereof to Heaven flies. Quite through & through Deaths grizely jaws he ran● And made a way through Horrors vgli'st Hell, Yea, daunted Death, more like some God, than Man, Until the Prince, and Death he did compel To fly for life, which his sword sought to quell: O Skinck how blessed wert thou in his love That drew thee on, through Death to Glories well, From whence the life of Fame doth flowing move To all, that for her sake such Dangers prove! Should I recount the petty Miracles By him performed, in his martial course, My words would scarce be held for Oracles: Sufficeth me, the World (that knew his force) Well knew his heart was wit, and valour's Source. And they that most envy our British fame Must needs thus much of him confess (perforce) That whatsoever from this Britain came Was wit, and sprite, or savor'd of the same: But, should I instance in particular, What Truth doth warrant for the Britain's glory; I could (perhaps) run up their Race, as far As love, and find them famoused in story: But, for in me it may be thought vain glory, Sith being one, myself I seem to praise, I will desist, although my soul be sorry I should desist from that which many ways, Might Camber crown with everlasting bay. Then come, sweet Prince, take thou us to thy charge, And we, the while will take the charge of thee: Thou shalt thine office easily discharge, For we will more than most obedient be, Which, to his comfort, thy dread Sire shall see: For, when obedience flows from ardent love, It is performed with all alacrity; Which thou in us (we hope) shalt shortly prove, For with thy beck thou shalt us stay, or move. If thou wilt come to us, thou well shalt see we'll spare no pain, that may effect thy pleasure; For each one will be busy, as a be, To yield thee honeyed joy, by weight and measure, And shun (as Hell) the cause of thy displeasure. we'll plant our mountains with the rarest Trees, That may be culled from pomona's Treasure, And all our hedge-ro●s shall be ranked with these, To please thine eye with what with taste agrees. we'll root up all our roughs, our heath's, our furs, And, in their place, make grass, & cowslips grow: We will remove what thy dislike incurs, And with the mountains fill the Vales below, If by Man's power, and pain they may be so: Nought shall offend thee, be it what it will, (Be it but mortal) if we it may know; For, we'll bring down the proudest He, or Hill, That thou shalt doom to be scarce good, or ill. Then live with us (dear Prince) and we will make Our wildest wastes jett-coulored Garden-Plots; So, Flora will her flowered meads forsake, To set flowers there, in many curious knots, To please thee and (our other selves) the Scots: we'll turn our Villages to cities fair, And share them twixt the Scots, and us, by lots, Whereto both one, and other may repair, To interchange Commodities, or air. we'll cleeve the mountains Neptune to let in, That Ships may float, where now our sheep do feeder And, whatsoever industrious hands may win Shall not be lost, that may thy pleasure breed, Or richer make our intermixed seed: And whereas now two towns do scarce appear Within the largest Prospect; then, with speed, They shall be built, as if one town they were, That we may be to each as near, as dear. Those pleasant Plots where erst the Romans' built Fair cities for their Legions to live in, Whose gorgeous Architecture was oreguilt, That by the civil Sword have ruined been, (" Which ruins are the Monuments of sin) These will we now repair, fair as before, That Scots, and Britain's may mixed live therein: Caerleon, where king Arthure lived of yore, Shall be rebuilt, and double gilt once more. And all along her gaudy gallant streets we'll go in Triumph, singing once a day God, and our Prince's praises (sweet of sweets) Upon our haps, like Angels, all the way, For that our Prince is pleased with us to stay: What be't that loyal thankful hearts can do, But we will do, nay, do much more than they? Thus do we Britons our Prince kindly woe To rule us, ere misrule doth vs● undo. If proud we be (as Pride perhaps will say) How can we choose, now we have such a Prince? Yet shall we prouder be him to obey, Then proud of our dominion, long since, When with our sword we did the Land convince. We were a People free, and freely fought For glory, freedom, and pre-eminence, But now our total glory shall be sought In this, that we will serve thee as we ought. Believe not Envy (Prince) that us pursues (Because she knows our Race is half divine) That will (perhaps) say we ourselves misuse, And to contention overmuch incline; This may be put on any mortal line By Envies malice; but thou shalt perceive Our vice is Wit, and Courage-masculine, With constant kindness mixed; which Brute did leave To Camber, from whom, we did it receive. Nor may it be harmonious to thine ears To hear our stock depraved by injury; For, thy dearest blood (as to the World appears) Is soiled thereby with odious obloquy; Then stop their mouths that breathe such blasphemy: Let not our plainness be their commonplace To make them sport, in bitter foolery; For we hold planenesse to be no disgrace, How ere, falsehearted Fiends may deem it base. I do confess we open-harted are, Scorning Italian-hollow-hartednesse: Where we dislike, there show the same we dare; And where we love, we love for nothing less Than that which tastes of base unworthiness. Troy had no Sinen, though the Greeks had store, Nor can her offspring their cro●fe fortunes bless With creeping to a devil, or adore A senseless block, ●hough double-gilt or more. We like civility when it is died, In colour which will take no hue but one, That's black, which still will like itself abide, Aswell in raging storms, as shining sun, Till it doth change by dissolution: We hate, as Hell, the fowl bi-formed face, Because it altars its creation, And think, that glory hath her greatest grace In uniformity, and keeping place. We are whole- chested, and our breasts do hold A single heart, that is as good, as great; And that doth make us in our actions bold: For Innocence with fear doth never sweat, How ill so ere the World doth her entreat: Our Kith, kin, and alliance, with our friends We by the measure of kind nature meat, If so, we needs must love thee, for these ends, And, for our happiness on thee depends. O could I tune my Tongue unto thine eared ● That so my Words, might music seem to it, That so thou Mightst alone the Burden bear Which it requires, as it is requisite! Then, should my Note be noted to be fit: I speak for those, whose Tongues are strange to thee, In thine own Tongue; if my words be unfit, That blame be mine; but if Wales better be By my disgra●e; I hold that grace to me. And better shall it be if my weak lines Shall draw thee but one furlong thitherward: For as, when in the Morn, Sol far-off shines; Yet cheers us with approaching hitherward (But makes us heavy going from-us-ward) So Wales will much rejoice, when thy sweet face Doth (though far off) with favour her regard: Thine only countenance shall give her grace, And make her deem her self in blessed case; But ten times blest if she might thee embrace! None otherwise then as a widow poor Vexed with oppressions, and adversity, If some great Prince do match with her, therefore, To shield her so from woes, and injuries, she'll kiss his feet in loves humility: So she (that like a widow long hath lived Without a Prince) our principality, Will kiss thy feet, and be (half dead) revived, If such an honeyed Husband she had wived She, good old Lady, than (with youth renewed) Would foot it finely in blithe Round●laies; No Bellamoure should then be better hued, For her heart's mirth in her face blood would raise, That would deserve thy love, thy grace, thy praise; And, as inspired with a courtly sprite, Upon the sudden, would spend, Nights, & days, (As Dido entertained the Trojan Knight) In all that should or thee, or thine delight. Thou shalt perceive, though she be far from Courts, Closed in a Cantone of this blessed Land, Yet she hath in her train some of all sorts Of either Sex; whereof some understand The Dialect of Court, and Courts command; To whom she gives most royal Maintenance: For, petty kingdoms some Squires have in hand, Who will the glory of thy Court advance, Sith they themselves keep Demi- Courts perchance. Then come sweet Prince, Wales wooeth thee by me (By me her sorry Tongs-man) to be pleased To live with her, that so, she may by thee Be ruled in love, and ruled so, be eased Of what in former times hath her displeased. The sheep their Owners keeping most approve; For, he will cure them, when they are diseased, joh. 10.12.18. With loves right hand; But Hirelings (Truth doth prove) Do keep the flock for Lucre, more than love. Wales her most unworthy Solicitor John DAVI●●. MICROCOSMOS. THE DISCOVERY OF THE LITTLE WORLD, WITH the government thereof. Sigh that thou hast so sound slept my Muse, Dreaming on that which thou before hadst done Being awake again, thy Spirits rouse, To make an end of what thou hast begun: Being rest-refresht therefore, now forwards run With bright * Christ the true God of wisdom, & the only sun in●lightning our Intelligence. Apollo; (pray him be thy guide) Until thou touch the tropic of Reason Where wisdom puts Plus ultra, there abide, For past that point to pass, is passing pride. For our Will's Baiard blind, yet bold, and free, And, had she way made in her main career, sh'would run into that Light that none can see Save light of Lights, to feel the secrets there, Which angels wonder at, yet not come near: But reason's conduct is nothing safe * The secrets of the highest Heaven are far above the reach of human reason's herein, Therefore the Will hath too just cause of fear Lest she should run into presumptuous sin, For which divinest angels damned have been. For since our protoparents lowest fall, Our wisdom's highest pitch (God wots) is low: But had they stood he had infused in all His Word, (self- wisdom) which alone to know Is to know all that wisdoms self can show: But since, the state of things is so vnstay'd That human wisdom stands it wotts not how; Unsure in all; for, judgement's oft betrayed In that which proof before had well * Every knowledge hath its beginning of the senses, which are often deceived. Therefore all sciences which are derived & fast rooted in the senses are uncertain, & deceitful. assayed. But having touched the brain, the soul, the Will, (All which (save of the soul) can brook no touch) It rests that Reason's hests we do fulfil, To prosecute much more, or more then much, That wit for Will will willingly avouch: Th'all-giving Giver giveth all that live (His Creatures) such desires, and Natures such; As for their good with good will still should strive, And shun what ere should them of it deprive. Beasts more than Men (the more Beasts men the while) Pursue that good that doth their nature's fit. To them for that (though they be near so vile) Is highest knowledge given, and they use it, Thereby condemning both man's Will, and wit: And yet hath Man a (synn-peruerted) will To seek that good he knows most ●requizit, Who knows & loves the good, yet takes the ill Oft for the good, but for the evil stil. Yet as he was ordained to greater good, So greater knowledge was in him infused; With no less will, (were it not sin withstood) To seek that Good; yet the will witt-abused When it hath found it, is oft wit a The understanding abused by the misreport of the inferior senses diverts the will from embracing good objected to her. refused: Unhallowed sense, drowned in that damned juice, (sins cider) from Eaves fatal Apple bruised, (being deadly drunk) makes still the worse choice, Wherein (like Sow in mire) it doth reioyce● Among the host of nature's creatures, be Three kinds of Appetites, (there ay consorts) 3. Kind's of Appetites in all creatures. Natural, sensitive, and voluntary. The first divided is into two sorts; One found in all that to the World resorts: That's inclination void of Sense or soul, To do what the own nature most imports: The natural appetite twofold. As light things mount, and heavy downwards roll, Which nature, nature's self cannot control. The other with this virtue action have, Which ne'ertheless proceedeth not from sense; To Vegetative souls this, Nature gave, Souls vegetative. Which in Trees, Plants, and grass hath residence; Who do desire to suck that influence That feeds them, and avoides the contrary; A plant will thirst for moistures confluence; And draw to it all kind humidity, Retaining that it lives and pro●pers by. The like in our own members we observe, Who wanting nutriment do suck the veins; The veins do suck the blood themselves to serve; Thus each attracteth food when need constrains, And all things living seek the same with pains: Hence we divide this natural desire The natural desire how divided. Into two kinds, the one, each plant retains, The other, things which life doth sense-inspire; As Man, and Beast, and what doth else respire. The seat of this desire stands on two feet, Which fixed are in two places; That's to say The liver, and the stomach; there do meet The forces of this Appetite to slay With famine, or with food frail life to stay: The sensitive desire is twofold too, The sensitive appetite twofold. From sense the first, the last comes not that way, The first, to joy and grief is fixed so, That no force can it from the same undo. For in the sinews (Feelings instruments) This power is placed, or in the sinewy skin; And that the sinews joys, or discontents, That well, or ill, affecteth them within: By heat, or cold, they pain, or pleasure win, As they to them are well, or ill applied. For sense and motion sinews made have been That by them pain or pleasure, should be tried, And make our Bodies move on every side. Nor do these Appetites wait on the will, Ne from the Phantazie do they proceed, For will we, nile we, we shall hunger still, When food's withdrawn, that should our Bodies feed; And we shall feel what sense affects with speed, How ere the will or Phantazy impung; We may abstain from nourishment in deed, But then thereby much more for it we long, And Flesh will pine with pain, if hunger-stung. But th'other Appetites bred without touch, Are forged by the thoughts or Phantazie; These, discreet Nature in the heart doth couch, Which be affects that lurk in secrecy, Being motions of the hearts heart properly: These wait on wit, and choose or else reject What it holds dearest, or doth most defy; So Witt's the cause, and they are the effect, That love, or loath, as wit doth them direct. This wit, and will, the Beasts do not possess, For their most knowledge is most sensual; Guided by Nature in their brutishness, Only by inclination natural, Which moves their sense un-intellectual, Or this, or that way, without reason's a Though beast's have much more perfect outward senses than Men, yet can th●y not employ them reasonably as Men do. sway; Then wit and will their sense we cannot call, Though sensual will and wit we call it may: For man alone hath both to guide his way. The Voluntary Appetite we find Is got by Reason, and produced by will, By it we are to good or ill inclined, As Reason dooms of them by judgements skill: Two actions hath the will in reason still, By which we good embrace, and ill refuse, Reason revealing what is good or ill, Who rules her not as though will could not choose, But as one teaching Hir● her power to use. As in the understanding and the mind Of Men, and angels, God hath fixed his form, So to man's will b Free-will is not avoided by grace but established: because grace healeth the Will, that is, giveth us a will to righteousness. Aug. de spiritu & littera. Cap. 30. his love was no less kind, That to Gods will he might his will conform: Ah woe! that sin should since the same deform Without constraint! for he Her freedom gave, And did with understanding her inform, That voluntary c That we do● will well● God worketh of himself without us, and when we will so well that we do accordingly, God worketh together with us. August. De gratia & libero arbitrio. Cap. 17 service he might have; As that, his nature most doth love and crave. For, as himself doth nothing by constraint, So he constrains d God draweth unto him, but he draweth none but the willing. not those that him obey; Lest that their will might have cause of complaint, For want of liberty itself to sway: Those prayers please him not, Constraint doth say, But true obedience flowing from the e God gives regenerate Men free-will to do well but the reprobate have free-will only to do evil. Musculus common places. will; Then will should force herself (for so she may) His gracious good will freely to fulfiil, Sith good he made her love, and loath the iii. Then justice would that God man's will should do When Man doth God's will, f godliness hath the promises of this life and that to come. When Man pleaseth God God will please ma. All is to be given to God who prepareth the goodwill of Man to be helped, and helpeth i being prepared. Aug Enchir. ad Laurent. Cap. 22. this exchange is just; And Gods free-will must needs subscribe thereto, Sith it is free to do that needs itmust, Which cannot do the thing that is unjust; For that were bondage free, or freedom bound; Sith ro do evil but to have a lust Were vassalage to Satan that hellhound, Which freedom to do good would quite confound. But yet the will hath many motions else, Divers degrees therein do plain appear; Some have such open hearts and wilful wills As that they love and hate through passion mere: So, Reason their Minds stern in vain doth steer, For sense they serve, and have no patience The seemeing nearest pleasure to g These are Beasts in human shape, whereof the World's too full. forbear For further good; but forthwith please their sense, As sensual appetite doth them incense. But will in others, so herself commands, And those powers to her power subordinate, That (being free) she bindeth both in bands And unto Reason all doth captivate: As, many Dropsy-drie forbear to drink, Because they know their ill 'twould aggravate; So, will herein from her own self doth shrink, And cleaves to that, that Reason best doth think. The heavens, and Earth, and all the Elements, (And what besides Man, is of them composed) Do GOD obey in his commandments, For, as he wills, so are they all disposed; Yet never he himself to them disclosed: Then not from knowledge their obedience springs, But from the nature in their kinds enclosed; Yet Men he made to know and do the things That be of him, which grace and Knowledge brings. And that he should with more heed do the same, A Will he gives him joined with grief and h grief & joy are always Consociates of our will joy; Which will might joy when she doth passion tame, And in the contrary might feel annoy, All as she doth her native powers employ. Here hence we know the odds twixt joy and grief, For in extremes they comfort or destroy Such as lead here a good, or evil life, Both flowing from the will, their fountain chief. This power hath highest virtue of Desire, And Caesarizeth over each Appetite; She rules (being taught) with liberty entire, Whose actions are to will and nill aright; Whose object's real good or so in sight: In nature she hates ill in deed, or show, And in the true, or false good, doth delight; If ill for good she choose, hence it doth grow Because ill seeming good, she takes it so. She nought can love but hath some show of good; Nor aught can i The will naturally cannot desite that which in nature is evil. loathe but hath like show of ill; Desire of good by her may be withstood, But it she cannot loathe, or leave it still: So may she choose to execute her will, When ill is tendered her indeed, or sho, But cannot leave it, or her will fulfil, Because to ill she is a mortal foe, And loathes it as sole worker of her woe. Then must she needs be ever unconstrained, Sith her creator's will would have it so; She could not be herself, were she restrained, And though she waits on Reason to, and fro, Will makes Reason to attend her. Yet she makes Reason wait her will to know: For, touching her, her Lord confines his power, Which cannot take that he did once besto, Namely, arbitrement, (her richest dower) Except Not-beeing, should her quite devour. The Will may object, or not object what she will to the mind. For she hath power, to object to the mind What pleaseth her, or not the same object; And while the Thoughts the same do turn & wind, She may oreturne those Thoughts or them neglect, And turn the mind to what she shall direct: Yea when as judgements final doom is given, She may, or may refuse the same t'effect; For Men are not as Beasts by Nature driven, Unless of Reason they are quite bereaven. The understanding straineth out of the secret & hid● causes of things that which to wisdom is incident. Will exacting the sane. About she goes when judgements doom is past, And re-examines what it hath decreed; Which done, perhaps the same she will distaste, (Although the sentence be direct indeed) And runs another course, less right, with speed: Which second * The Will refuseth Good being found, not for being good, but not being so good as it willingly would hau●. Ill spirits may provoke our fantasies & wil● search yet aims at greater right, Though she mistakes the same for want of heed, Which want proceeds from Sins extreme despite, That blinds our minds eyes in extremest light. Wherefore it us behoves Grace to invoke, Whereby wit uprightly may wield the will; For as ill spirits our fantasies provoke, So on our wills they may the like fulfil, And make her scorn to rule by reason's skill: For, she's ambitious and delights to reign Without control, how ever well, or ill; And being free she runneth on amain, To joy if well, if otherwise, to pain. This liberty of Monarchizing thus She deemeth good, what ill so ere ensues; It is a kind of bondage to have power, will, and liberty to do ill. Which liberty, is bondage base to us, And free we were, if our will could not choose But use His will, that gave us wills to use: Whose only service, only freedom is, And only they are slaves that it refuse; Sith they are Satan's servants (if not his) Which please him most, when they do most amiss. For in this great commerce of terrene things, The bad whereof exceeding so the good, And that so fast the one to other clings That twixt them both there is great likelihood, Hardly by will can they be understood: And sith Men Bodies have aswell as souls, Things bodily best like the body's mood, Which often so the mind and Will controls, That as it lusts it rules and overrules. here-hence it is, some mortal life do prize Whosoever seeks felicity where it is not shall find infelicity where it is. Above eternal, and their guts above The highest God, that doth their guts suffice; And though the will herein may rigour prove, Yea, may be forced to leave what it doth love, Yet nought can her resistless power constrain, For nothing can desire from her remove, Although she cannot do what she would feign: So maugre force, she freedom doth retain. Reason and man's desires should be in continual league. Sith Reason then the wills desires should sway, And bring th' Affections to obedience, It's requisite they should accord alway To maintain wars against rebelling Sense; Which is the rule of reason's consequence: Wherefore we may well judge of reason's rule, By the Affections and wills continence; As a good Prince or Master of a school, Make them they govern, hate, and shun misrule. The heart and mind being at unity procure the tranquillity of the Affections. And, for th' Affections from the heart proceed (Which is the seat of love to God and Men) If then the heart and mind be well agreed, The heart with flames of lasting love will bren, And fire out froward Passions from their den: Then will the Tongue from heart's abundance speak God's highest laudes till they report again; Then love twixt Tongue & heart shall marriage make, To bring forth naked Truth, which love doth seek. Wherefore the Providence divine did place The lungs (the voices Organs) next the heart; (As the minds instruments the brains embrace) That they may near at hand, soon use their Art; As Orators of Princes play their part near to their Sov'raignes; And wert not for sin, The brains and heart are the seats of Reason and the Affections. Sin is nothing because it was made without him, without whom nothing was made that was made. The Will, from reason's rule should never start, And twixt the heart, & brain there should have been A lasting league, as being near of kin. Sin, naughty Nothing that makest all things nought, (Except the Thing of Things that made them good) Thou wast unmade thyself, yet ill haste wrought; Whereby thou haste so perverst Flesh, and blood, That now by it all goodness is withstood: Damned Nothing that hast such a something stride, How wast begot? by whom? and in what mood? Through lust; By eve and Adam; In their pride: Now a sin.. Error speaks what b The scripture Truth hath justified. For wit, will, Anger, and Concupiscence, Are four powers of the soul, wherein should lie Four virtues, taking thus their residence: Wisdom in wit, in will integrity: Valour in Ire, and in lust Temprancie: But wit with ignorance, and will, with wrong, Anger with fear, and lust, with liberty Are so perversed, that they themselves impunge, Except preventing grace be mixed among. The total frame of man's divinest part, By light divine we see is out of frame; Th'antipathy betwixt the c That is, between Reason and the Affections. mind and heart, Gives but too good assurance of the same: And though the mind in all her limbs be lame, Yet in our little world she reigns as Queen, And seeks wild passions of the heart to tame, That in herself there might be ever seen, Soule-pleasing joy and peace to flourish green. For she's the mansion of felicity, Contrived so, that there its safe confined; To which there is no way nor entry, But through th' Affections, servants of the mind: Yet they too oft disloyal prove by kind, Who liars, and sinne-soothing clawbacks are, Whereby our judgements eyes they (Traitors) blind, That it errs mortally ere it beware, If reason of their treason have not care. Reason, Concupiscence, & Ire, 3. special powers of the soul. For three powers special in the soul reside, Reason, Concupiscence, and ardent Ire, The first, to truths obscure abiding guides; The second, goodthings gladly doth desire; The third, doth from the contrary retire: In bowels of the first the Wits are bred; Th' affects are forged in both the others fire; In number four, joy, Hope, sorrow, and Dread, Which from the last powers spring, as from their head. First, from the first power, joy and Hope proceeds, (For what we covet, we joy in with hope) And Ire, the last power, Dread and sorrow breeds; For, hate to dread and sorrow lies wide open; Grief in hate's hell the way to dread doth grope. From these Affects (as from their fountain) flows All vice and virtue which in Man doth cope, For vice and virtue ay are mortal foes, And as reason rules, so either overthroes. Anima. The soul's called Anima our flesh contains, While she the same with vital fire filleth; Mens. men's, while she mindeth, or she mind retains, Animus. And Animus, while she hath Will or willeth; Ratio. she's Ratio, whilst she judgement just fulfilleth: Spiritus. Then, spiritus she hight, when she respires. From all which, science to the soul distilleth, Scientia. So, called scientia; thus her names do change, As she her qualities doth interchange. The outward senses outward parts possess, As th'inward to the soul are knit by kind: And, for the soul her power doth most express In that whereto her soul is most inclined, Here-hence it is, men mortified in mind Whose spirits powers on things divine are bend The soul useth not the ministry of the outward senses when she is swallowed up with divine meditations. Far, as they were sometimes, deaf, dumb, & blind, Their contemplations are so violent: But, vulgars' outward sense is excellent. But while the soul can take a strict survey Of all the instruments which she doth use, So long the owner of that soul may say He hath a judgement sound, and perfect Muse: But if those instruments that Man misuse, Or ruin them, the soul strait seeing it, Her ruin'd jail she strives then to refuse: Which strife the senses frame doth so unknit That it confounds it, or distracts the Wit. And in this mood (though we esteem it mad) Men prophesy, and truly things foretell, The soul being divine works divinely, if she be not hindered by her Clog, the body. Speak diverse Tongues, which erst they never had, And in arts which they knew not, they excel. Thus whilst the soul doth hold her house an Hell, Striving to be enlarged, becomes more free, Then works she like herself (exceeding well) That wonder 'tis, the same to hear and see: O sacred soul (but God) who's like to thee! NOw, for the heart frail life first entertains, And is the last part that from it departs, (Without which, dull were reason, dead the brains) It's taken for the part which power imparts To Wit and Will, whereby they play their parts; So as it's held the mirror of the mind: The heart the Mirror of the mind. For, when the mind unto herself converts, The heart is interposed, where she doth find Her feature fowl, or fair, cleere-eied, or blind. Then, for the heart is such a powerful thing, My heart desires to touch it feelingly: And, for the heart doth pain or pleasure bring, A clean heart and a clean soul are convertible. The pain is pleasure, when Head properly Makes hand describe the hearts heart handsomely. Erst man's internal parts we did divide Into three wombs, the brains, the breast, & Belly: About the brains (before) our skill we tried, And now by it, the breast must be descried. Which is the shop of all the Instruments Wherewith the vital virtue operates; The heart, the lungs, with all life's incidents In region of the breast, do hold their States, Whose bulk them bulwarks from what ruynates: The Midriff parteth them from parts that feed (Which the third womb, (the Belly) circulates) It being a Muscle made for nature's need, Assisting in the Breathing act and deed. And next, there is a Tunicle, or Skin, That over-spreads the concave of the breast, Much like a Spider's web, subtle, and thin; whereout two others grow to part the rest, Because two places should be breath-possest: So that, if one (being hurt) could not respire The other might one half retain (at least) To keep * nature's providence for Manns good, should lift up his mind to the consideration of the love of a greater Good. life's breath (at point to part) entire, And blow the sparks that kindle vital fire. These Felmes (like to a net with fruit replete) Together hold what ere the breast doth bound, They line the ribs, that when the lungs do beat They might perform their office whole and sound, Without being bone-bruized, which might them confound; So likewise in a call the heart's enclosed, Called Pericardion, being oval round, Or like a Flame for form, and so disposed; To show that vital fire is there reposed. There, in the heart's the fountain whence doth flow The heart is the fountain of natural heat. Natural heat, and by the arteries sends It all abroad to make the Members grow, And keep them grown, in plight to do their ends. And though each Instrument of breath attends And serves the Voice, yet were they chiefly made For the hearts use, (that Lifes-fire comprehends) That by their service that fire might not vade, Which unkind coldness else might overlade. Wherefore the lungs (breaths-forge) is preordained First to receive the air that cools the heart, Who do prepare it (being entertained) And so prepared, do the same impart (As Nature wills) to that Life-giving part ● The lungs therefore, are spongy, soft, & light, That air might enter, and from them departed, Which guard the heart (on left side and the right) From bordering Bones, that else annoy it might. Which hath a double motion; One, when it Itself dilates, the other, it restrains. The hearts motion is double. When it goes out, in goes air requisite: And when it shrinketh in, then out it strains All smoky Excrements procuring pains. This motion's kind, proceeding from its kind (Not as the Muscles moved by the brains) For which it hath fixed filaments assigned, Whereby itself, itself may turn & wind. This double motion hath two double uses, (A two fold use whereof we mentioned have) The next to draw in blood; and then, by sluices To send it to the lungs, for food they crave At the heart's hands, sith they the heart do save. Thus gratefully they kindness interchange, To teach us how we should ourselves * A motive to brotherly love taken from the disposition of the Members. behave; For when we disagree, it is as strange As heart and lungs should cease to make this change. Thus, this subordinate Lord of man's life (The Hart) resides in his wel-fenced for't; And, though with it all vital force be rife, And members keeps from being al-amort, Yet should it die, if their helps were cut short. Hence Kings may learn, that though they Monarchize Yet do they, whom they rule, maintain their port, Which should induce them, not to tyrannize, But, like good hearts, lifes-pow'r to exercise. The flesh of the Hart is the firmest flesh of any part of the Body. The flesh whereof is firmer, than the flesh Of all the parts the Body hath besides: So, Kings should be most firm, for, being nesh, Their subjects might be wounded through their sides. Such be the People still as be their Guides. The heart with Passion, passion may each part, Which joy or sorrow with the heart abides: So, Kings their praise and People may subvert, If Passion overrule their ruling Art. And in the bulk it is so situate As that its Base is centre of the breast; The end whereof (where greatness doth abate) Leans to the left-side more than all the rest; (So Kings, where they from * injustice makes great Kings less, than Fame can take notice of. Right decline, are least.) Yet leans the heart so, for two causes great; One, that the brestbone should it not infest, The other, that it should the left-side heat, Sith on the right, the Liver doth that feat. And though the hearts left part more heavy be, Because its hard and greater than the right, Yet Nature hath so balanced it, that she Makes it to hang (by admirable sleight) As if the both sides were of equal weight: For in the left part (heaviest) she puts The vital spirit, of its nature light; And in the right part (lightest) lo, she shuts The weighty blood, wherewith that part she glutts. Lo, thus the Highest holy upright hand By even counterpoise hath hanged the Heart In the breasts centre, (like as th' Earth doth stand The heart is hanged in the breast by even counterpoise. In centre of the heavens) by matchless Art: Hence we may learn the duty of this part, Which should be upright in Affects, and will, And never from the rules of virtue start To right hand, or to left, for good or Ill, But come life or come death, be upright still: This part likewise hath two Concavities, On left side one, the other on the right: And for this use, are these capacities; The right receaves the blood (being boiled aright) That from the Liver runs, to give it might To feed the lungs, and vital spirits breed, Bred of purest blood in the left concave dight, Like sweat that from the right one doth proceed, Which sweat with vital Spirits it doth feed. That is the furnace, wherein still doth flame The vital spirit, resplendent, quick, and clear, Like the celestial Nature, for the same Both heat, and life to all the whole doth bear; This Primum mobile that All doth steer: These concaves thus are made commodiously; Many good complexions are ill in conditions. But now (alas) most hearts all hollow are, That blood and Spirits therein confused lie, So as no Art can one from other spy. In this left concave where the heart doth try His chiefest skill, the vital spirits to make, There is the root of that great Artery From whom the arteries their beginning take: Which near the heart doth so itself forsake, That part ascends, and part thereof descends To carry vital fire to parts that lack; These are the pipes whereby the kind heart sends His cordial comforts to th'extremest ends. And, for the veins and arteries need each other, And that their succours should be near at hand, They meet, and (for the most part) go together, Thereby to vigorize the vital Band Which the heart's virtue wholly doth command: For, th' arteries being linked with the veins, Lend air and Spirit, lest their blood should stand; And from the veins some blood each artery drains, Which to disperse, the vital spirit constrains. Mutual love is to be learned from the mutual assistance of the parts of the body. between the heart and lungs the like is seen (As erst was said) to learn us mutual love; For, certain Pipes do pass these parts between, By which, each others kindness they do prove: The heart from his right side doth blood remove Unto the lungs by the Arterial vein, The lungs through veyny- artery, air doth shove Unto the heart, it to refresh again, Whose side sinister doth it entertain. The heart (besides) hath many members more, Which are distinguished by Anatomists: The right, and left side hath a little door, And many a pipe so small therein subsists, That scarce man's eye can see how each exists; Yet all have use; for, when the heart doth seek Such blood as without which no heart consists, The means wherewith it draws it, should not break, But that the strong therein might help the weak. And, that the air might enter in thereby More mildly, and for Nature, more concinne, Therefore, the heart doth not immediately Draw from the Mouth the air it draweth in, But through those passages it first doth run, Lest being too cold 'twould cool the heart too much; For all extremes, save extreme good, are sin, And Nature virtue in the mean doth couch, virtues Throne is erected just between extremes. Showing, that our desires should still be such. That God, whose power no power can resist, Resists all powers that are too violent, And ever doth the moderate assist; From whose hand (only) comes the Thunder-dent, To plague the proud, and wound th' incontinent: For, should his Creatures power b'immoderate, Then should not his own be so eminent: So, if they it affect, he them doth hate, And with a thundering vengeance ends their date. Thus having slightly touched this tender part, (Touching his substance, proper place, and frame) It now remains that we do prove our art Touching another motion of the same, Belonging to our soul's affections lame, Lamed by our Flesh too lusty, yet too frail, Too lusty in desire of its own shame, But frail in that wherein it should prevail, Yet when its weakest, the soul doth most assail. It not sufficed that nere-suffized love That all things made, to make Man only be, But to Be well, as well some men do prove, Who though of being, they desirous be, Yet not being well, they * Murder themselu●s. end ill, sith they see Their being Well, and Being disagree: Then a The soul vegetative d●si●es to Be, The sensitive to be well, The reasonable to be best, and therefore it never rests till it be joined to the best. Being, was not Manns creations end, But to be happy in a high degree: And therefore all men all their forces bend, T'enjoy that Good, that being doth commend. Which good desire of Good, in Man is knit To a detesting of the contrary; But, for that sin hood-wincks man's eye of wit He gropes for Good, but feels the * evil cleaves to each worldly Good, as Canker doth to Silver. evil by: From this desire of Good, th' affections fly; Which with their motion swiftly draw that desire here, there, and where soe'er they please to hy, In pursu●e of that Good which they require, To which (though base they be) they would aspire. Yet they were good, & kindly loved their like; But they are ill, and love Ill seeming good; Yet they by nature's instinct Ill dislike; And yet by nature evil is their mood, Basely obeying the sinne-soiled Blood: At first they were truths other self, for friends; Yet now by them she's too too much withstood, Adhering to her foe, while she pretends To bless the Sense, though to accursed ends. The motives of the soul these motions are, Whose other names are called the Affects ● By following good, and flying ill, they ARE; Consisting so of these two good Effects; Though sin their sense with error oft infects: Some usher judgement, some on her attend, The later, take or leave as she directs; The Former, naturally cannot offend, For they desire but Nature to defend. As when the Body (Nature to suffice) Desires to eat, or drink, (as need requires) Or when good hap or ill doth it surprise, Then * joy and sorrow (as Plato affirms) are the Ropes wherewith we are drawn to the embracing or avoiding of every action. joy or sorrow moveth our desire: These still forerun our judgement, & conspire With Nature, to usurp her highest Throne; For nature runneth on, or doth retire, As she is moved by judgement of her own, And so do these that Nature wait upon. But those Affects that follow judgements train Wait hard, as long as heart is well disposed; Then lasts the League between the heart & brain, For, all their jars by Reason are composed: But when the heart against the Brain's opposed, (Which oft proceeds of too much pampering) Out fly th' Affections that were erst reposed, And from their necks the rains of Reason ●ling, Impatient of slow judgements tarrying. Yet true it is that heart cannot be moved, Ere judgement dooms what's good or bad for it; Then hearts desires by her must be approved, Or else the heart cannot desire a whit: For what * judgement foregoes the Affections. she holds unmeet, it thinks unfit. But for the motions of the mind are free, And need not stay, as it is requisite, So before judgement do they seem to be, Although they follow her as bond, and free. But though th' Affections cannot move at all If judgement wing them not and make them flee, Yet sound advice (which here we judgement call) * The Affections may work without sound advisement. May be at rest when they too busy be, Moved by the judgement of the Fantazee: This judgement's blind, yet is it most men's Guide, And no less rash, yet ruleth each degree; This makes th' Affects from Rights strait paths to slide, For Fantazy doth fancy ways too wide. This skipp-braine Fancy, moves these easy Movers To love what ere hath but a glimpse of good; Then strait she makes them (like unconstant lovers) To change their loves, as she doth change her mood, Which swimmeth with the current of the blood: For as the body's well or ill composed, (Which follows oft the nature of its food) So Fancy and these foundlings are disposed, Though in the soul, and mind they be enclosed. And yet the body's but the Instrument Whereon the a The soul worketh by motion, and the Body by Action. soul doth play what she doth please; But if the strings thereof do not consent, The harmony doth but the soul displease; Then tune the body soul, or playing cease: And when a String is out, strait put it in With physics * physic can extenuate the humours that make the Body unapt to execute the works of virtue. help, which Passion may appease, By humbling that which hath too loud a din, And put the Parts on a Soule-pleasing Pyn. These parts though many, yet of three consist, That's, Humours, Elements, and Qualities; Which three, do of fow'r parts, a part subsist, For from Earth, Water, air, and Fire doth rise All that the heavenly Cope doth circulize: These are the Elements from whom proceed The * humours be the children of the Elements. humours with their foresaid qualities; For, Blood, phlegm, choler, Melancholy breed hot, Cold, Moist, Dry, a fowr-fold vital seed. An Element is the most simple part An Element, what. Whereof a thing is made, and in its wrack Is last resolved; And in physics Art There are but two, which two of those do lack That all the Elemental bodies make: These two, are termed Simples, & Compounds, 2. Elements in Phisick-Arte. The first, is borne on Speculations back; The last, is bred by practise, which confounds Two or more Simples in each others bounds. The Elements of nature's famelies Produce the Elementals temprament, Which is a mixture of the Qualities Or composition of each Element: (As these do bend, so are their bodies bend) Which we Complexion call; whereof are two, Complexion what. Well, and ill tempered; And the Aliment That feeds the Body, herein much can do, For that can make & mar Complexion too. Well tempered Complexion, what. well-tempered, is an equal counterpoise Of th' Elements forementioned qualities; Whereof there's but one thing of nature's choice Wherein she made the mixture thus precise: (As Galens tract of Tempers testifies:) Which, of each hand, is the interior skin: And hence we may thus fitly moralise; That Nature to the Hand so good hath been, That it might temper what the Mouth takes in. Il Complexion, what. Ill tempreds that where some one Element Hath more dominion than it ought to have; For they rule ill that have more regiment Than nature, wisdom, right, or reason gave: So doth this Element itself behave: Yet each ill temper doth not so exceed, As that it spills what better tempers save; For some surpass the temperate in deed, In some small odds, whereof no harms succeed. The body's temper is five ways discerned. five ways the body's temperature is known, By Constitution, Operation, Clime, Colour, and Age, by these the same is shown, As dial's by an Index show the time. The Body fat is cold, for fat doth clime By cold degrees; and that, full-flesht is hot, For heat proceeds from blood, as doth my rhyme From brains; where no heat were, if blood were not, And being too cold they would my sense besot. By Operation too, the temper's found, For when a creature, (Man, Beast, herb, or Plant) Doth that which they by right of kind are bound, Then no good temprature those body's want: The clime in showing this is nothing scant; For southward, Men are cruel, moody, mad, Hot, black, lean, lepers, lustful, used to vaunt, Yet wise in action, sober, fearful, sad, If good, most good, if bad exceeding bad. The Northern Nations are more moist, and cold, Less wicked and deceitful, faithful, just, More ample, strong, courageous, martial, bold, And, for their blood is colder, less they lust: Then cold blood being thick, it follow must They are less witty, and more barbarous; And for they inwardly are more adust, A natural reason for the gormandizing, and quaffing of the Flemings. They meat and drink devour as ravenous, The paunch and pot esteeming precious. Yet are they most laborious, loving arts; Whose souls are in their fingers (as it's said;) For, all our best hand-workes come from those parts, As from the hotter Climes, works of the head: And those that twixt the South, and North are bred (As France and Italy, Spain, and the like) Of hot and cold, are ev'nly tempered; Therefore they are not made so apt to strike; But war with wisdom, rather than the Pike. The colour likewise shows the temprament; The colour shows the body's temper. For Sanguin's red: and yellow's choleric: The melancholy is to blackness bend: The white or whitish, is the phlegmatic: The white, and black, are cold and rhewmaticke: The Red, and yellow, hot by course of kind: To this consents each skilful empiric, Who by experience of their practice find That colour shows the temper, notes the mind. The Sanguin's frolic, free, ingenious, Courageous, kind, to women over-kinde; True jovialists, by nature generous; And hot and humid they are by their kind: The choleric is hasty, and inclined To Envy, pride, and prodigality; The reason why men choleric of complexion are ●oone angry. As Herc'les-hardy, though with anger blind; And in its temper it is hot and dry, Which is the cause it is so angry. The phlegmatic are idle, sleepy, dull, Whose temper's cold and moist, which drowns the wit: The Melancholy's mestive; and too full Of fearful thoughts, and cares unrequisit; Who love (as loathing men) alone to sit: In temper cold and dry too like the dust, (Dust of the earth, ere God life-breathed it, Where hence we came, and whereunto we must) Which flies (as fearful) from a little Gust. These are the humours, whereof Man consists, A humour, what. Which is a substance thin, to which our food The stomachs heat by nature first digests, And hath dominion chief in our blood: These like the Elements move in their mood: For blood is hot, and humid, like the air: Flegm's cold, and moist, in Water's likelihood: Then Melancholy's like Earth, cold and dry'r: And hot, and dry is Choler, like the Fire. How the meats are changed to humours. And, that the meats to humours should be changed They must be thrice concocted thoroughly: First, in the stomach they are interchanged And made that Chyle wherein potentially The humours (Chaos-like) at first do lie: Next, in the Liver the Mass Sanguiner Of Chyle composed is, successively: The third, and lasts through all the body, where Humours are made, that meat and Chyle first were. These reign by turns, until their terms be done: Blood, in the spring, from three till nine each morn: How the humours reign in man's body Choler, from thence, till three in th'after noon In sommer-season: Then phlegm in his turn From thence till nine at night doth rule the stern In autumn: then sad Melancholy thence Till three next morn, when Winter doth return: Thus in their turns they have pre-eminence, Till Time turn us, and them with us from hence. And as these humours have their turns in time, How, & when the Planets rule in man's body. So rule the Planets in like consequence: For, by the moon is governed our Prime That's hot and moist, but the pre-eminence The moisture hath; So our Adolescence Is swayed by Wit-infusing Mercury Being hot and moist, yet doth more heat dispense, Which tunes the voices organs erst too hy, Making them speak with more profundity. Then, youth (our third age) loves Queen, Venus sways Bee'ng hot and dry, but yet more hot, then dry; In this we wantoness play, in Venus' plays And offer Incense to a rolling eye: Bright Sol (the gloriou'st Planet in the sky) Doth rule our manhood which is temperate: He Author is of race and gravity; Of hapless life this is the happi'st state, Which they hold longest that are most moderate. And lastly old age being cold, and dry, By al-wise Jupiter is governed, Author of Council, Craft, and Policy: Which Age again in two's distinguished, The first young old age may be Christened: The last Decrepit is, and so is called; Which Saturn rules with sceptre of dull lead: This Age to Life like Death, is still enthralled, Thus in our life the planets are installed. Precise dates assigned to several changes of man's age in his life. And to these Ages, dates precise we give; As childhood from our Birth till thirteen years: Adolescence, from thence to twenty five: And youth from thence till five, & thirty wears; From whence, till fifty Mannes-estate appears: And to the rest old-age we do assign; But one his years than other better bears, As time their temprature doth entertain, Therefore the temprature should age design. For all men cold & dry are old, though young, Psal. 31.11. Some young at sixty, some at forty old; In growing old the youthful Sanguin's long, For it doth store of heat, and moisture hold: The Melancholy, being dry and cold, Is aged soon: So women more than men Soon meet with age, which makes some be so bold (As under * Paint the face. colour that they are women) To keep off Age till they be * Bis puer. young again. The air we breath may hasten our age. The air we breath doth bear an Ore herein, And being subtle moves the simple mind; For, never yet was fool a Florentine, (As by the wise hath well observed been) So subtle is the air he draweth in: The influences of malignant stars, Causes of the Aiers putrification & consequently of gross wit. Vales, Caves, Stanckes, moors, and Lakes that never run Carrion, and filth, all such the air mars, Which kills the corpses, and wits Carreër bars. From Regions, Winds, & standing of the place Where we abide, come the airs qualities; Under the Poles (the Sun near showing face But as a stranger) the air so doth freeze That whosoever breathes it, starving dies: And in the Torrid Zone it is so hot That flesh and blood (like flaming fire) it fries, And with a coal-black beauty it doth blot, Curling the hairs upon a wyry knot. The winds, though air, yet air do turn & wind; The passions of the air do affect our Minds. Which Passions of the air, our spirits affect; These by the Nose and Mouth a way do find To brains, and heart, and there their kinds effect, And as they are, make them, in some respect: For, where the winds be cold and violent, (As where rough Boreas doth his Throne erect) There are the People strong, and turbulent, Rending the stern of civil government. The situation of the place likewise The situation of the Place makes the air good or bad. The air therein doth well or ill dispose; If to the Sea, or Southern wind it lies, It's humid, putrifactive, & too close: So fares it in fat grounds (Slouthes chief repose) The Sandy grounds do make it hot and dry; As cold, and moist it is, that fens enclose, But clear & piercing on the mountains hy; Thus Place with air doth change our quality. Food good or bad, helps or hinders Witte. Of no less virtue are our Alements, Which wind, & air, unto our spirits prepare, Who are conformed to those Condimentes; Then fine they be, if most fine be our fare: The Goodness, Quality, and Time of year, Use, Order, Appetite, and Quantity, The hour and Age, these nine require our care If we desire to live here healthfully, And make the soul above her soul to fly. The soone-concocted Cates good juice affording And but few excrements, are those alone That make the mind to board, when body's boarding, If temp'ratly the stomach take each one: These in the brains base wits do oft enthrone: For, these the Mouth prepareth for the Maw, Where being concocted, to the Liver run; From whence, a sanguine tincture they do draw, Then to the Souls Courts hie by nature's law. The heart's the lower house, the a The heart & brain. head the high; (The rooms whereof we did describe whil-ere) Where once appearing they are winged to fly, And in their flight the soul and Body steer With motion such as both celestial were: What mervell is it then, though Geese some be For want of Capons, that would Cocks appear (Cocks of the Game) and chant melodiouslee, If with their kind, their Commons did agree. How subtle doth a simple cup of Wine Make the Souls faculties, and their effects? It makes their divine natures more divine, And with a world of joy the heart affects Which, Sorrow though in pangs of Death rejects: Hence comes it that some captains do carouse When they must * Wine moderately taken cheeves ●he Ha●t & spi●it●. combat with contrary Sects, To heat the cold blood and the spirits rouse, And so make Courage, most courageous. But here (as erst was said) some over drink, While they desire in fight to overdo; On nought but wounds, & blood, they speak, & think, While healths go round, & brains go rounder too; Wyne-making blood to Wine & blood them woo. But Nequid nimis, is the List wherein Courage should combat, and the bar whereto Valour should venture, what is more is sin, Which by the wise and Valiant damned hath been. Drink hath three; offices, The first assists 3. Offices of drink. Concoction, for in it is boiled the meat: The next, to mix the food the first digests: The Last, to bring it to the Livers heat, There to be made redd-hott, & apt to ●leete: Now when the Current is too violent, It bears away (untimely) small, and great, So crossing Nature in her kind intent, She back f vomit. retires not knowing what she meant. Then meat must soak, not in the stomach swim, If Nature duly we desire to please; For, when the stomach's g Gluttony & drunkenness are he horrible sepulture● of man's reason & judgement. full above the brim, Tide tarries none, how ere it may disease And Nature drown in those unruly Seas: Breath most corrupt, behaviour more than most, And Mind much more than most, is made by these; Then how corrupt are they that of it boast? So much corrupt, they may infect an host. It's said of one,, that did help to behead The mounting monasteries that decked this land, That he (at last) lost his all-wittie Head For words he spoke, to which he could not stand, Nor stand to speak, Wine having upperhand: Who used (as Fame reports) his wits t'refine, To let them often rest at Wines command; But wit abused, by abuse of Wine Abused One that forced Law to force his fine. Now as a moderation in these things With judgements choice in their varieties, To soul, and Body, health, and glory brings; Temperate exercise available to mind and body. So both are bound to temperate exercise For helping them to use their faculties: For without health the same were hindered, And health from hence as from an help doth rise; For wholesome labour breaks those humours head By which the enemies of health are led. Natural heat It helps the heat that helpeth all the parts; The Spirits it quickens, and puts open the pores; Whereby each loathsome excrement departs As at so many strait wide-open doors: Our limbs it strengthens and our breath restores: The morning walks to the intestines send The first digestions filth (which kind abhors) And make the seconds to the bladder wend, So labour lets our sickness, so, our end. All travel tends to rest, and rest to ease; Then must the body travel to this end: The Sons of Adam, borne to labour. The Spirits travel hath respect to these; For idle Spirits that active spirit offend That for such ease a world of woe doth send: Yet nought was made that was not made to rest; But nought was made to rest until the end: For Heaven, Faith, Man, Beast, Fish, Fowle, & the rest Do travel, in fine to be rest-possest. Yet Nature hath ordained a repose Which we call rest for Man, which rest is sleep; The cause whereof from the brains chiefly flows, When mounting vapours in their moisture steep Do humours wax, and in the Nerves do creep; And so their conducts close, which shuts the eyes; Then rests the corpses in deathlike darkness deep, And Spirits animal Rest doth surprise: So, are they said to rest until they rise. This makes the head so heavy after meat, The fumes ascending make the head descend; For they like hammers on the brains do beat, Till they have hammered humours in the end, The weight whereof doth cause the head to bend: Yet sober sleeps, in place, and season fit Do comfort Nature, and her hurts amend; The Spirits it quickens, and awakes the wit, For heart must sleep, when the head wanteth it. Dead sleep, deaths other name and Image true, Doth quiet Passion, calm Grief, Time deceive; Who pay'ng the debt that is to Nature due (Like death) in quittance thereof doth receive Supply of powers, that her of power bereave: So sleep her foes wants friendly doth supply, And in her womb doth wakeful thoughts conceive, Making the mind beyond itself to spy, For, doubtless dreams have some divinity. Divinity oft in dreams For, as the influence of Heavens leams Frames divers forms in matter corporal: A natural reason, for the divinity of dreams. So of like influence visions and dreams Are printed in the power fantastical; The which power being instrumental, By heaven disposed to bring forth some effect, Hath greatest vigour in our sleeps extremes; For when our minds do corporal cares neglect That influence doth freely them affect, And so our dreams oft future haps project. Watching o'ermuch, o'ermuch doth Nature wrong, It blunts the brains, and sense debilitates; Dulleth the Spirits, breeds crudities among; Makes the head heavy, Body it abates, And kindly heat it cools, or dissipates: Over much watching debilitates our wits. Yet thorny cares, or stings of ceaseless Smart, May keep out sleep without the senses Gates, (By pricking them as it were, to the heart) Till vital spirits from senses quite departed. Those chieftains, on whose cares depend the crowns (The weighty crowns, on their as weighty cares) Of mighty monarchs, and their own renowns, Two burdens which in one who ever bears, This waking care breaketh the sleep, as a great sickness breaks the sleep. Eccle 31 2. Must night, and day, use hands, legs, eyes, and ears: These watch, yea sleeping wake for in their sleeps The point on which their hearts are fixed, appears, And through their closed eyes their mind's eye peeps, To look to that which them from slumber keeps. Their sleeps are short, but were they short, & sweet, ●●re enemy ●o sle●pe and ●●●epe cō●or●●● of Care. Nature would longer sweetly life support: ●ut in their sleeps with wakfull thoughts they meet; That make their sleeps unsweet, and yet as short; Which must perforce make Nature all amort: Care a Canker to Min●e and Body. Yet as they were all mind, and Body none, That had no feeling of the body's hurt, That mind (all mind) though corpses the while doth groan, Makes flesh all hardness brook, as it were Stone. Such force hath worldly glory (though but vain) To make men, for her love, themselves to hate, Who for desire of her, their strength do strain far, far above the pitch of mortal state, And pain in sense, to sense do captivate: Though pains wake sense, yet sense doth waking sleep, Dreaming on Glory in the lap of Fate; So pain from sense, doth pain with pleasure keep, While sense is mounting honours mountain steep. Where Glory sits enthroned (celestial Dame) Surrounded with a Ring of Diadems, With face (whose beaming-beautie seems to flame) Darting in simling wise those blissful beams On those that for her a The labour of like Bodies be not a like painful. For glory in a Prince makes the labour lighter than that of a peasant, because he wots it will be notable. love brook all extremes: What Sense hath sense being so beheavened, And carried from itself on pleasures streams? But as entranced with joy, it must seem dead, And feel no pain in mind or Body bred. If then vainglories love shall so subdue The sense to sense that feeling all annoy, It's armed to brook the same by glories view, And the more grief is felt, the greater joy; (Yea though the grief the sense doth quite destroy) What shall the love of Glory infinite Make sense endure, if sense her powers employ To apprehend it, as its requisite? Such love should hold the pains of Hell too light. When unconceaved joy dilates the heart To th'utmost reach of his capacity, When sense no leisure hath to think on smart, Being so busied with felicity That soul, and sense are ravished thereby; What marvel then though fire doth comfort such, (Although with quenchless flames their flesh it fry) Sith that much Inward joy annihilates outward pain. pain their joy makes more than much And pain, that sense can feel, no sense can touch. This made a wooden Esay the Prophet so marti●ed. saw sweet to the flesh wherewith it sundered was in savage wise: This makes the burning S. Laurence. Grediorne flesh refresh That on the same in hellish manner fries, This makes pain pleasure, and Hell Paradise. Then give me, o good giver of all good, An heart that may o'er pain thus signiorize, For thy dear love; then with my dearest blood I'll wash the Earth, and make more Saints to bud. When Stones (as thick as hail) from hellish hands Battered that blessed S. Stephen. Act 7.56,58. Proto-Martyres brain, The sight he saw his senses so commands, That, as the Stones did fall the sense to pain, It deemed that Grace on it did pleasure rain: And that dear blood, like-worthlesse water shed, Did make the springing Church to sprout amain; One Martyr begets many. For that no sooner was this Martyr dead But many (as from him) came in his steed. And that the Elements do lose their force (●hat by such loss their Lord might lovers win) It well appears; for, did he not divorce The heat from fire, which his dear Saints were in? Some too well knew that this performed hath been: For out it flew and brent their enemies, And where it first began, it did begin The power thereof with power to exercise, Dan. 3.22,23. To show his power, that loathed their sacrifice. NOw, to retire from whence our rhymes do range, And touch the soul, & minds mind at the soul; We see the body's state the mind may change; So may the mind the body's state control; Thus they the state of one another rule: The soul's soul is the mind, and the minds mind Is that, where Reason doth her laws enrol: Yet fuming Passions both of them may blind, When body, with them both are ill inclined. Phillipides, that comedies compiled Orecoming one that with him did contend In that light Art, (when hope was quite exiled) Sorrow doth occupy the the place of extreme joy. Petrarch. A sudden joy wrought his as sudden end. Like fate did one Diagoras attend, Who, seeing his three sons at Olympus crowned For deeds there done (which All did much commend) Extreme joy (being sudden) is enemy to nature. He them embracing, strait fell dead to ground, Because his joy was more than heart could bond. As extreme sudden joy doth kill the heart, Leaving it bloodless which is joys effect Simil. (For joy sends blood amain to every part) So, extreme grief the heart may so affect (Or sudden fear) that life may it reject; For both revoke the spirits, blood, and kind heat, And to hearts centre do the same direct, Which place bee'ng little, and their throng so great, Expels the Vital spirits from their seat. Marc Lepidus, divorced from his wife Whom he entirely loved, with extreme grief (For it conceived) he quickly lost his life; So love reft life, that erst was life's relief, For love of that his woe was fountain chief. So, with a sudden fear have many died Which name I need not, sith I would be brief: By it the hairs have suddenly been died, As by grave writers is exemplifide. Of no less force (though less the reason be) Is shamefastness, in some of mighty mind: Shame may bring life to confusion in generous spirits. One Diodorus died because that he Can not assoil a Question him assigned: The like of Homer we recorded find; Who died with shame for being so unsound Not to be able (like one double blind) Quod capio perdo, quod non capio mihi servo. To answer that, base Fishers did propound; So sense of shame did sense and life confound. These Passions are the sufferings of the soul, Body & soul That make the inn to suffer with the guest: For, Perturbations both together roll Here, there, and every where, as they think best; Heat natural Kinde-heate they fire, or quench with their unrest: For, some (as all observe) have died with joy; And some with grief, have been life-dispossest: For in extremes, they Nature so annoy, As (being sudden) her they quite destroy. Yet Mirth in measure, kindly warms the blood, And spreads the spirits, b'inlarging of the heart: This mirth in measure is the only mood That cuts the throat of physic, and her Art, And makes her captains from her colours start; Physicians. It makes our years as many as our hairs: Mirth makes man's yeared as many as hi● hairs. Then, on earth's stage who play a meery part, Shall much more more than much offend their heirs By overlong prolonging their desires. Then, should I live by Nature overlong, For I to mirth by nature am too prone; But Accident in me doth nature wrong, By whom untimely she'll be overthrone: For Melancholy in my soul inthrones Herself 'gainst Nature, through cross Accident, Where she usurpeth, that is not her own; And Nature makes to pine with discontent That she should so be reft her regiment. Thus as the corpses the qualities compound, So are th' Affections moist, dry, hot, and cold, The Affections follow the qualities of the humours. The last are humoured as the first abound: joy (hot and moist) the Sanguine most doth hold, As sorrow (cold and dry) possess the old. Mean ioie's a mean to make men moist, and hot, In which two qualities Health hath her Hold: But grief the heat consumes, and blood doth rot, Which health impairs, and cuts lives Gordian knot. And as mean mirth man's age makes most extreme; So doth it cloth the bones with frolic flesh: For, to the parts it makes the blood to stream, Which makes them grow, & doth them ioy-refresh; This mirth the heart must have when head is fresh, For wyny mirth proceedeth from excess; Sickness i● (as Seneca saith) the chastisement of intemperance. And all excess doth but make nature nesh, Unable to endure times long process, How ere it may spend time in drunkenness. This correspondence then twixt flesh, and sprite, Should make our Mouth the House of Temperance; For the corpses qualities will answer right Her rule of Diet; Then intemperance, The Head and heart doth odiously entrance: The Har●s affects beget the minds The Hearts affects, produce the Heads effects, Which make the soul and body's concordance: Then sith the body breeds the Souls affects, The soul should feed the same with right respects. Respect of Health, respect of name, and fame, Depending on our moderation, Should be of force to make us use the same; But, when the body's depravation Toucheth the soul, and bothes damnation, All these respects should (being things so dear) Inflame Desires immoderation Coldly to use hot wines & belly cheer, For belly- gods are but the devils Dear are fatted but to be killed; So Epicures etc. deer. Sith sickness then in body, and in soul, From tempers ill, and ill affections flow, wit ought Wills appetites to overrule When they (to follow sense) from Reason go; And bring them to the bent of wisdoms Bo: For, sith our souls by Knowledge things discern, From whence the will hath power of willing too, The power of The will is derived from Knowledge. If Knowledge then be to them both a stern, They should do nought but what of her they learn. And so they do, but their Guide being blind Of the right eye, no mervel though they run Too much on the left hand from place assigned, Directed by Delight, the senses sun: But clouds of sin our Knowledge overrun, Which make her run awry in rightest ways, Whereby our silly souls are oft undunne, When as she weens to win immortal praise, And crown her Craft with everlasting bay. Who learns a trade, must have a time to learn; For without time an Habit is not gained: So divers skills the soul cannot discern, Until they be by exercise obtained, Practice the mother of Habit. For by it only Habittes are attained: Which habits stretch not only to our deeds, But to our sufferings, being wronged, or pained, For customs force another Nature breeds, And pining soul with patience it feeds. Unto a soul impatient (seldom crossed) Each day a year, each year an Age doth seem; The soul is possessed in patience, if she possess patience. But a meek soul with troubles often tossed, The time, though long, doth ordinary deem; For Time and Troubles she doth light esteem: This well appears in sickness, (though most ill) At first we still do worst of it misdeem, But staying long with us, we make our will Familiar with it, so endure it still. Afflictions water cools the heat of sin, And brings soulehealth; But at the first like frost It soul benumbs, as it were starved therein, And sense, and Life and spirit thereby were lost: The cross doth quell to Hell the seldom crossed: Hence is it, Christ doth with his cross acquaint Those that be his, whereof they glory'ng boast, For that the cross well borne creates the Saint, Frst the cross and then the crown. As it to fiends transformeth them that faint. Affliction, Lady of the happy life, (And Queen of mine, though my life hapless be) Give my soul endless peace, in endless strife, For thou hast power to give them both to me, Because they both have residence in thee: Let me behold my best part in thine eyes, That so I may mine imperfections see; And seeing them I may myself despise, For that self-love, doth from self-liking rise. Enfold me in thine arms, and with a kiss Of coldest comfort, comfort thou my heart; Breath to my soul, that mortified is, Immortal pleasure in most mortal Smart: Be ieloves of me, play a lovers part: Keep Pleasure from my sense, with sense of pain, And mix the same with pleasure by thine art; That so I may with joy the grief sustain, Which joy in grief by thy dear love I gain. When from our selves we are estranged quite, (Though it be strange, we so estranged should be) Thou makest us a Affliction being familiar with us, doth make us most familiar with ourselves. know our selves at the first sight And bring'st us to our selves, ourselves to see; So that we thoroughly know our selves by b As a man cannot know himself, if he know not God so he cannot know God well if he know not himself. So inseparable are these knowledges thee: But bright Voluptu'snesse doth blind our Eyes That we can nothing see, (and less foresee) But what within her gaudy bosom lies, Being a map of glorious miseries. Pleasure, thou Witch to this bewitching World, Eare-charming Siren, sold to sweetest sin, Wherewith our hearts (as with Cords) is ensnarled, That break the Cords we cannot being in, How blessed had we been, hadst thou never been? For hadst not thou been, grief had near had being, Sith at thine end, all sorrow doth * The end of worldly pleasure is the beginning of pain. begin, And it with thee hath too good-ill agreeing: That's leagued in ill, and in good disagreeing. Observaunce, look about with thy right Eye, View this World's Stage, and they that play thereon, And see if thou canst any one espy, That plays the wanton being wo-begon; Or in Wealth wall'wing, plays not the Wanton: Wealth makes men wanton. See how deep sighs pull in each panting side Of the first sort, in all their Action, And how the second sort nowhere abide, As standing on no ground through wanton pride. The first, with downcast looks still eye the Mould, As weighing whence they came, & where they must: The second, with high looks the clouds behold, To see how they for place and grace do thrust, Like these ungracious proud Oppressors just: Quiett and sad the first do still appear, The otherm * Ample fortunes, have as ample passions. mad with mirth, for * Prov. 13.10. quarrels lust; Affliction thus to God doth souls endear, When welfare makes them to the devil dear. Revile me world, say I am sink of shame, Nay worse than Ill itself, (if worse might be) Thou dost not wrong me World, for so I am, Although I am the worse (dam'd World) for thee: Spit out thy fame-confounding spite at me, Make me so vile that I myself may * Our enemy's will tell us wherein we are faulty which friends will forbearer so may we profit by our foes' hate, That so I may to my Reformer flee; And being reformed, I may still meditate On that pure mind, that mended my Minds state. Then though Affliction be no welcome guest Unto the world (that loves nought but her weal) Of me, therefore she shallbe loved best, Because to me she doth the World reveal, Which worldly welfare would from me conceal: Affliction is the best tutoress to make us know the World. It is a gainful skill the World to know, As they can tell that with the World do deal, It cost them much ere proof the same doth show, Which knowledge from Affliction straight doth flow. And though the entrance into virtues way Be strait, so straight that few do enter in, Yet being entered, walk with ease we may, For labour ends when we do but begin: ,, Sweat before virtue lacky-like doth run To open the gate of Glory sempitern, That her triumphant coach might enter in; So outward temporal toil ' gets bliss eterne Upon the corpses of virtue most intern. Custom is another nature. Custom is overcome by custom. Sith custom then is of such lively force As it hath power it self to overcome, How blessed are they that do themselves divorce From custom ill, by force of good custom: And ten times blessed they that from the womb Accustomed are to virtues straightest Way, For, such by custom virtuous become, Though powerful Nature do herself say nay; For Nature, customs power is forced t'obey. When, the affections are called virtues or Vices. When the Affections Acts are habits grown, Then virtues or else Vices are they named; A vicious Habit's hardly overthrown, For our Affection is therewith inflamed, As with the fire infernal are the damned: Who though they would, and though they anguish have, Yet cannot that outrageous mood be rammed, But still they raging sin, and cannot save Themselves from that, that makes their grief their grave. A vicious Habit is hell's surest Gin, Wherewith a Man is sold to sin, and shame, Running from sin to sin, and nought but sin, As Rivers run the same, and not the same. Till the minds joints, sins force doth so unframe That it becomes most lose and dissolute; Neither regarding heaven, hell, shame, nor fame, But to live loathsomely its resolute; Thus Habits ill, make evil absolute. But few there are in whom all vice concurs; And fewer are they, that all faults do want; Unto the worst, offences cling like burrs; And to the best as to the Adamant The Iron cleaves; for the Church militant By nature is accompanied with sin; Yet the least force of faith parts them (I grant) Sin inhabits, but is not habitual in the godly. Because it cleaves but slightly to the skin, But to the wickeds flesh it's fastened in. For as a burr the longer it abides Simil. Upon a garment being cott'nd hy, The more the wool winds in his hooked sides: So sin the longer it in Flesh doth lie, The faster to the same it's fixed thereby. If Nature than sin soon doth entertain, Use violence to Nature by and by, That it perforce may from the same refrain; For what skill cannot, force may yet constrain. Simil. And as the burr to wool so being fixed, With skill, or force cannot be parted thence, But that some part will with the wool be mixed: So, sin where it hath had long residence, Will leave remains there, maugre violence: Simil. But Iron from the loadstone clean will fall With but a touch: and so will sins offence From those in whom it's not habitual With but a touch of Faith, though near so small. That I may touch the subject of my rhymes More home, (though homely I the same do touch) And for, my traveled Muse might breathe sometimes, And, that the Reader too might do as much, (Lest that prolixity might make him grudge) Here shall she make a stand, and look aback, Simil. As rider's rank on steeps have customs such To breathe their bony- Nags, when wind they lack, And courage them again like toil to take. In knowing our souls, we know ●he welhead of all our Actions. THe knowledge of the soul, and of her powers, Is the wellhead of morrall-Wisedomes flood: Hence know we all (worth knowing) that is ours, In body, or in soul, that's ill or good: And if these powers be rightly understood, We know the founts from whence our Actions slow, And from what cause proceedeth every mood, Or good, or ill, and where that cause doth grow; All this and more, this knowledge makes us know. For in the soul doth shine (though sinne-obscured) By nature's light, great light of such science; Whereby the soul is made the more assured In all her Actions, and Intelligence; Though oft deceived by seeming goods pretence: And for the soul is to the body bound, Affections therein have their residence, That, as with wings, the soul with them might bond, Above herself from being bloody drowned. Wherefore she hath Affections of two kinds, The mind turns & winds the body by the Affections of the Hart. The one eggs on, the other do restrain, By which the mind the body turns and winds, As they the mind, and mind the corpses constrain: Yet when these Curbs our headstrong nature pain, It winceth with the heel of willfull-will; Orethrowing those Affects that do it reign, And in extremities it runneth still, Which is the Race of Ruin, Rest of iii. This comes to pass when as we overpass The bounds of Nature, by our nature's vice; And in some one excess we do surpass, Desiring more than Nature may suffice, To which our corrupt natures us entice: For let the least Necessity appear A ken from us, (though near so small of price) Little sufficeth nature, but nothing Opinion. As a little coloquintida d●th mar a whole pot of pottage: so covetousness doth make all other virtues abominable. The best use of worldly things is● to contemn worldly It things● Plato. We hold what else we hold, (though near so dear) Worthless, and for that want with woe we steer. Hence is it that with never-ceasing toil, And no less care, we traverse all this All; Nay, all that All we restlessly turmoil, And bandy (as it were) this earthy Ball Past reasons reach, to win world's wealth withal: Desire of having thus still moils the mind, Though Nature be sufficed with pittance small; Which makes us lose ourselves when we it find, Sith see ourselves we cannot, being blind. It blinds our Eyes that seldom'st are deceived, Eyes of our soul, that make our Bodies see; Then soul and body cannot be perceived, By their own virtue when they blinded be; And mine and thine, doth sever me, and thee: Nought can content us. Therefore the Affects Are in the soul like winds (that near agree) Upon the Sea, and work the like effects, Some great, some small, yet like in most respects. Beside the chief winds and collateral, (Which are the winds indeed of chief regard) Seamen observe more, thirty two in all, All which are pointed out upon their card: But our Minds map, (though many may be spared) Containeth many more Affects then these, All which though set our Minds Content to guard, Yet stir they up (as winds do on the Seas) Unquiet Passions which the mind disease. A simil. When Zephir breathes on Thetis, she doth smile, She entertains that gale with such content; But, if proud Boreas do puff the while, she's mad with rage, and threats the Continent; For those proud puffs her soul do discontent: So, some Affections our soul's brows unbend, And other some do sextiply each dent; Some meanly please, some meanly do offend, And some do make the soul her soul to rend. Those that do meanly move, Affections hight; The other Huff-snuffes a Affections move the soul moderately, but Perturbations move her most violently. Perturbations be; These later rudely 'gainst their Guides do fight, And so enfume them that they cannot see, Or make them from their Charge away to flee: So that the soul being left without a Guide, And tossed with Passions that still disagree, Doth like a Sternelesse ship at random ride A Simil. On mightiest Seas, wrack-threatned on each side. For, if our reason's judgement blinded be, Th' Affections needs must ever run b When judgement is betrayed, the Affections are misguided. awry, And draw with them each sense tumultuoslee To offer violence to low and high; That God, and Nature, taste their tyranny: Let but the heart be lovesick, and the same Will carry judgement where his love doth lie; And there confine it, setting all on flame That offers but resistance once to name. The lower judgement in our blood is sunk The lower is her reach in reason's discourse; For judgement with our blood may be so drunk, That doom she cannot better from the worse, But (reeling too and fro) is reft of force. The higher therefore, she herself doth rear Therefore moderate fasting feeds the soul. Above base Flesh & Blood's declining course, The more Affections baseness will forbear, And nearer draw to that that first they were. For, Passions passing o'er that break-neck Hill Of rashness, led by Ignorance their guide, By false-Opinions Hold of Good and Ill Taking their course, at last with us abide, While from ourselves they make ourselves to slide, So that we seek not that sole sovereign Good, But many Goods we seek; which being tried Do but torment the mind with ireful c Ills taken for good, grieve the mind upon trial. mood, Because they were by her misunderstoode. Had we the prudence of the brutish kind, We would prevent these Passions storms with ease; For, ere a storm appears they shelter find; Like providence have seamen on the Seas, Who see them far off, and provide for these: So ought we, when we see a Passion d Passion is easiest extinguished when it gins to kindle. rise That may the soul, and Body much disease, With Moderations power the same surprise, Before it gather head to tyrannize. But, so far off are we from curbing Passion, That wilfully we mount it, and so ride On it a gallopp (spurred with Indignation) To all extremes, where Vices all abide; The devil being extreme Passions guide: For once when reason's driven from the helm, And we twixt Scylla and Charybdis glide, There is no hope but one should overwhelm, And send us strait to the infernal realm. But with a prudent Man it fares not so, He keeps himself without th' Affections e A wise man rules, and is not ruled by his Affections. sway; He seeks no good, but he it well doth know, And knowing it, seeks it the rightest way: We say, and miss, because we mis-asay: Wisdom chalks out the way herself to find, So that Men cannot err if it they way, Except they be (as many) wilful blind, For it is strait, though strict in easy kind. Wisdom (the Well of every perfect good) Is that, which wise men only (seeking) find; Which f constancy holds the heart that holds wisdom. constant good they seek in constant mood, And being found, most constant makes the mind: For to the same, itself, itself doth bind: herehence it is, the clouds of Ignorance That erst the same did naturally blind Away are chased, without tarriance; For wisdoms son, himself doth there advance. Thus good, and ill (as erst we said) procure The Minds Affects, or moods, (so called by some) Which good, or evil, pure, or most impure, Is either past, or present, or to come, To be attained, or not be overcome: And, as we deem the absence of good, ill: So, absent Ill, Ill is the privation of good. we deem doth good become; Either of which affecteth so our Will, That by their means it is in motion still. When any good's propounded to the soul, She notes, she likes, and lastly it doth loue● But in her Mouth she often it doth roll, That so her palate may thereof approve, Before it can her souls affection move: This motion of possessed good is joy; But good to come (which we do long to prove) Is called Desire, Good is the object of love and Desire. which love doth still employ To seek that good which it would feign enjoy. If Ill proposed be, it's called Offence, Because the soul offended is thereby; If it abides, Hate doth her soul incense; For she a lasting ill hates mortally, As that which most her soul doth damnify: And, as from present Ill, grief doth aspire: So, fear proceeds from Ill far off or nigh: The mood 'gainst present Ill is sinless Ire, To be angry with evil, is good. And Fa●th, and Hope, 'gainst future Ill conspire. All which Affects have others under them; For reverence, pity, and Benevolence, Spring out of love, (as branches from the stem) From joy, Delight; Dislike, from sorrows sense; And in Desire, Hope hath her residence: Pride is a monster compounded of many Affections. But pride's a Monster, for she is composed Of Self-conceit, Desire, joy, Impudence; These, and such like in Pride are oft disclosed, For in her womb they restless are reposed. And, as Affections one another breed, By one another so are they restrained: joy woundeth grief, & grief makes joy to bleed; And so the rest are by the rest refrained, As by the strong the weaker are constrained: A Simil. As when cursed Thetis chiding knitts the Brow, Her billows proud, that either's pride disdain, Thrusts out each other: So, when Passions flow, The greater do the lesser overthrow. A Simil. And oft it fares in our minds commonweal, As in a Civill-warre the case doth stand; Where no man's careful of his Countries heal, Or who of right should all the rest command, But follow him that hath the strongest hand: So, in Affections fight there's no respect To the minds good, or how it should be scanned, But (inconsiderate) they both reject, And do as strongest Passion doth a Where Passion reigns Reason obeyeth. direct. The heart, the Hold where these powers are enclosed, Hereby is vexed; for, if it do incline To those Affections that are worst disposed, It's inly grieved, else joy the same doth line, And with the same doth face the Face in fine; But, if sad sorrow do the heart surprise, It doth deface the face and make it pine; Looking like Languishment through both the Eyes, For through the b The eye is the Index of the mind. Eyes, our Eye the heart espies. This direct Index of the mind, the Eyes Doth oft bewray what Reason doth conceal; For will ye, nile ye, we shall see thereby What's well, or ill, in the minds commonweal: Eccl. 13.26. Our looks, our falsehood truly do reveal, Whereby oft lives and liberties are lost; Examined thieves Confounded looks bewray men's lewdness. confess that they did steal By their confused looks, with horror tossed: Thus countenance oft puts us to double cost, It livings costs, to hold it being hy, It costs our lives, when we it cannot hold; We cannot hold it when through it we die; And two props hold it high, Silver and Gold, For which our lives, and livings oft are sold: For too low State too false doth make the hands, Which in the Countenance we oft behold, Through which we die; and State that highly stands Lands must uphold; So, it costs life and lands. Thus joy and sorrow send with equal pace True tokens of their presence in the heart, (By nature's force conducted) to the Face; Where they the power's convince of reason's art, And in the d The countenance shows how the heart is aff●cted● Front with force they play their part: If in the heart, grief be predominant, The brows will bend as if they felt the smart; If joy, the face will seem therefore to vaunt, Then how heart fares, fools are not ignorant. That Man is truly wise as Man may be, That can bear weal, & woe, with like aspect; There may be such, but, such I near could see; Yet good men's countenance I much respect, But of their goodness near saw that effect: Let Stoics give for precepts what they list, This virtue may (perhaps) be their defect; For though Affections force they can resist, Yet they'll prevail when Natures powers assist. And weakling that I am, how apt am I To martial all my Passions in my face; Not to dissemble, is not to live. I oft have tried, and yet I do but try, To keep them in, in their conceiving place, Dissembling so Discretions fowl disgrace: But as I cannot colour my defects, So, can I well dissemble in no case; Which is the cause of many bad effects, For none (though near so vain) this vain affects. Tears are the Tokens of a passioned soul, That heart for love sometimes sends to the eyes, And oft they witness there joy, Paine, or Dole, But how so ere, from Passion strong they rise; Which Passion in Compassion often lies: Mine eyes are kin (too near of kin) to these, Which, though my Spirit doth it much despise, Yet do they turn mine Eyes too oft to Tears quench the ●●●e of immoderate Passion. Seas, To drown Heart's Passion and to give it ease. But blessed were I if mine Eyes could flow With tears of pity seeing the distressed; But much more blessed, had I then to bestow And frankly give, than were I triple blest; In tears, in wealth, and in both so addressed: My Secret to myself, I bless Him ay For being no worse, though bad I be at best; The less I speak of what I feel that way, The more I feel his grace my thoughts to sway. He, Fount of goodness (holy be his name) Was often seen (when he as man was seen) To weep, and seemed delighted with the same, Seeing the World (through his tears) still o'erseen, That might by his example blest have been: Who never was observed to laugh, or jest, Either in Manhood, or when years were green, At merry-meetings, or at weddings feast; Showing thereby what mood fits virtue best. If joy at any time had touched his soul, (As when his words had made a proselyte) He (only wise) would wisely it control, For that this mood with f Mirth is too light for the gravity of majesty. majesty do●h fight, Which in his Person was enthroned by right: This we admire as that we cannot do, For, we in pleasures vain so much delight, That joy may make us mad, and kill us too: For joy, or grief can our hart-stringes undo. Thus when our tears do testify our ruth, We need not rue, or of them be ashamed; For, virtue therein her own self ensueth, When with self-love her soul is most inflamed, Which self-love burns the Soul yet near is g virtues self-love alone is virtuous. blamed: Wherefore such tears, and tears effused for sin, Is wine of Angels, so by angels named; Then blessed are those Founts that never lyn To send forth streams, that angels glory in. When sighs for sin ascends Mercy descends, And in the rise, their flight anticipates; Grace centreth sighs that Mercy comprehends, But sighs from sin ascending mercy hates; Sighs for, and from sin, are unequal mates: From sin, none but sighs sinful can arise; But sighs for sin high grace consociates, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence; and th● violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. And did not mercy stay them in the rise, They would with violence the heavens surprise. The heart conceives two kinds of joy or grief. Two kinds of joy or grief the heart conceives, For Good, or Ill, possessed, or future; The name of Hope, the later joy receives, Which of some good to come doth us assure; The latter grief doth fear in us procure Of Ill to come, which we with grief expect: So, joy, and Hope, or grief, and fear in power Are much alike, their odds Time doth effect, And take their names as they do Time respect. Hope time to come respects, bred by Desire, Desire of good, wherein we joy by Hope; Likelihood is the life of hope touching mundane matters. Hope hath no help of science but entire Rests on conjecture, which to doubt lies open, And likelihood gives her her utmost scope: Yet Hope that's fixed on that all-working Word That gave Earth being, and the Heavenly Cope, Excludes conjecture, and is so assured, As if that hoped for, Time did strait afford. Then no true joy can hope accompany, That hath but likelihood for her best stay; For such hope, Posse evermore doth eye, Which ere it comes to Esse, slides away: For in each possibility we may Behold a possibility of fail; Which must of force our hope sometimes dismay; Then fear a shaking hope must needs assail, And hope must shake, that cross events may quail. Such is the Wickeds most assured hope, The hope of the impious is full of fear. Who anchor it on transitory toys; They fear the cracking of that cable Rope That holds them to their hopes expected joys; contingency their constan'st hope annoys; Which ay is constant in unconstancy: And oft them with their groundless hope destroys; Which fills their hopes with dire perplexity, And lines their joys with lasting misery. But hope that hath for object certain things (As those which truths nere-failing word assures) In great'st distress great consolation brings, And like good sauce an appetite procures, Grief to digest, as long as life endures: This hope makes hearts to hold that else would break; And hearts almost quite broken she recures, And when our foes by force our ruin seek, innocency dreads no danger. She gives us strength to ween their force too weak. She holds the powers of hell in high contempt, And makes a jest of temporal power or pain; From all annoy of both she is exempt, For in griefs bowels she doth joy retain; As Jonas did in the whale's entertain: The air she striketh with so strong a wing Hope's wings are pennipotent. That air, or fire, the force cannot restrain, But up she will through both, and every thing That lets her from the place of her biding. Nay, she with such resistless wings doth fly, That she herself her self doth oft surmount; The patriarch Abraham. The Faithfuls Father made her so to sty, And divers other saints of less account; Being on her Wings she, maugre force, will mount, Who, through the tenfold heavens (though thick & hard) Can glide with ease, as Fish do through a fount, Nor by the highest himself can she be bard, Gen. 32.26.28 But will prevail, as it with Jacob fared. Thus joy, and Hope go jointly hand in hand, Like Twins got by Desire, by fancy borne; And as hope's joy, on future Good doth stand, So, Fear's a grief conceived for Ill unborn (Which we expect) wherewith the soul is torn: Then look what odds there is twixt Hope and joy, The like's twixt fear, and grief (in minds forlone) A like they comfort, or the mind annoy, As they best know, that best or worst enjoy. Fear doth the heart contract, (that Hope dilates) And shut so close that vital spirits it pines; Then Nature to prevent death (which she hates) Draws blood and spirits from all the parts confines, And to the heart in haste the same assigns: Then are the outward parts, as pale, as cold, And quake as fearing their approaching fines; Then pants the heart that labours life to hold, Which ties the Tongue, womb losing ere it should. And as this sense-confounding Passion, fear, The heart with horror thus excruciates; So, in the soul it such a sway doth bear, That it the powers thereof quite dissipates; And makes most abjects, of most mighty States: How like an idol stands fears servile slave? Whose total senses fear so captivates, The Senses would die, that fear might ●ot ●iue That no one sense hath force itself to save, But Death desires to kill the fear they have. If this base fear (hearts hateful hell) possess The heart, the heart doth then possess the heel; But most of all, when heart doth most transgress, And divine vengeance it (with fear) doth feel; Then Strength may seek to stay it, but, 'twill reel In spite of moral strength, that it should sway; And, as stark drunk with fear, turn like the wheel That wheels the nether heavens without stay, Let courage say the while, what courage may. No harness (though by Vulcan forged) can make Fear is utterly heartless. Fear to be hardy, or not heartless quite; If armours could from Art such tempers take, The Artist should be kinged in fortune's spite; For many kings would crown him for this sleight: But he it is, whom heaven, and hell doth fear, Can take fear from, and arm us with his might; For he alone the faint- heart up doth rear, Or make the stoutest heart most faint appear. We must then armed be from fear, by fear; God's fear expels fear. Gods fear, that strong Vulcanian armour, must Guard such good souls as do regard it here; Because such fear is ever full of trust, Eccle. 1.12. That fears no threat of any mortal thrust; For, Hope in him, doth make the daring heart, Which hope no heart can have that is unjust; For Conscience pricks will make the same to start When the least leaf doth wag, by wind, or Art: The Belly becomes lose though force of fear When therefore divine justice sin will scourge, He doth dishart their hearts, in whom it reigns, In sort, that they themselves with horror * job. 41.16. purge, When he on them his heavy vengeance raynes; So that their fear exaggerates their pains: The haughti'st heart (erst swollen with valour's pride) Fear strikes stone-dead, when he but vengeance feigns; And greatest strength by weakness is defied, When as his power in weakness doth abide. Courage comes from Hope. Then, Courage comes from Hope, & Hope from heaven, The Donor is the highest deity; The praise is His, that is to prowess given, For he alone the mind doth magnify: Then praise him low, if courage make you Hie; And laud him High, if fear make ye not low; Yea high and low praise Him alone, whereby You gain the praise that men on you bestow, From Whom (as from the Fount) all praise doth flow. How is it then, that devils in men's form swaggering * sixpenny Champions. Man-quellers are so desperate? Who with strong hand God's Images deform Fearing no man, but give the check or mate To good and bad of what soever state● This is not courage, but an hellish fire That boils their blood, called Ire, inflamed by Hate, And oft of Saints they (fiends) have their desire; job. 2.7. No otherwise than Job felt Satan's ire. Gen. 4.8. So, cursed Cain slew Abel in that mood, Abel, that Innocent the Highests beloved; Yet Cain had heart and hand to broach his blood: The like, Men angel-like have oft approved By those whom God in this life near reproved. This secret is obscure, but light to those That take it light, and it abide unmoved; Them Faith assures, He doth of all dispose; In whom, come life or death, they hope repose. If divine * God. LOVE desires my body's death, By sudden death my soul so strait to have, What matters it, though he bereave my breath By devil, or angel, so my soul he save; The * God is the fountain of all Power. power they both possess, to them he gave, Both are his Ministers to do his will; If Satan then, my corpses bring to the Grave, To me it is so far from being ill, That Satan doth me good, against his wil Me good said I? well may I call it good, Sith it is good of goods, good all in all; The fount, whereof all goodness is the flood, That never yet was gauged nor never shall By Men, most wise, or spirits angelical: It is th' abyss of true Felicity, Which some men, more than most fantastical, Suppose they have, had they high dignity; With pleasure faced, and lined with Misery. Thus joy, and Hope, were by th' all Giver given As sweet Conductors to his sweetest sweet; And fear, and grief, from his wrath are deryv'n To awe the Mind, (which first therewith doth meet) And that which that Mind hath fore-done unmeet, should be thereto as * Sorrow remains after sin for sin, to make the soul detest sinne● Scourge and Scouger just, Which do remain, when sins sour- sweets do fleet To make the Mind abhor her former lust; For grief, and fear, are just to minds unjust. Now the true pleasure which our Nature craves The whiles the soul remains the Body's guest, Is the true rest some Good the soul vouchsaves, Which the heart holdeth, and esteemeth best; As Contemplation is reason's rest: Yet can there be no pleasure in that good If it be greater than heart can digest; For, if the Continent bond not the flood, Confusion must ensue in likelihood. If Light (joy of the Eye) be, as the sun, Too great for the Eyes small capacity, They may be dimmed so, if not undunne: Or if it be too small, they cannot see; As they are strong or weak, so a Too great Light is as offensive to the Eye, as too little. Light must be: The like of other senses may be said Outward or inward, bound to form, or free, Who must with moderation still be fed, For excess them annoys, nay strikes then dead. As therefore God is most most infinite, So he's with joy received of that part That's lik'st himself, which is the Soul or spirit; But for that he cannot himself impart (being Immense) to them by power or art, (they being not so) he is to them applied By b God is by Intelligence apprehended of us. understanding, yet but so in part; If otherwise he should with them abide, They would through glory be quite nullified. Now, as a man takes pleasure by these parts, So in that part he takes the most delight That to his Flesh, or sprite, most joy imparts; And with those pleasures is he swallowed quite, That do affect that part with main and might: Therefore the brutish Vulgar, most are pleased In things substantial which appear to sight, And things divine, which cannot so be seized, They hold as vain, and are therewith displeased. Among the pleasures which are sensual, The vilst is that we feel, by that we touch; Because it is the Earthli'st sense of all: The tastes of better temper, though not much: Note which of the outward senses is the most supreme. Smelling is light, and lightly more will grudge At unsweet savours, then in sweet will joy; The Hearing is more worthy far than such, Sith its more airly and doth less annoy, Whereby we gain the Faith which we enjoy. But Seeing, (sovereign of each outward sense) Holds most of Fire, which is in nature near To the c Seeing is the sovereign of the outward Senses & why. Celestial nature's radiance; Therefore this sense to Nature is most dear, As that which hath (by nature's right) no peer. Thus much for pleasures which these senses give, Whereof the best must needs most base appear Compared to the worst our souls receive, Whose powers have much more power to take and give. These are the Lures of lust, that never lyn To draw the world to be a pray to woe; These make frail flesh & Blood the founts of d The outward senses are the doors wh●re through Sin enters into our souls. sin, From whence all mortal miseries do slow, Which flesh and blood do groaning undergo; In these are baits for Beggars, as for Kings: Which pleasures streams do (swelling) overfloe, That they are caught unwares; so that these things The World to Hell, and Hell to horror brings. These are the windows through which Satan spies The disposition of our better part: Through these he hath a glimpse of all that lies Within the secretest corners of our heart, The devil knows not the thoughts of ma. Which well to know belongs to heavenly Art: For love of these, the Flesh the spirit doth loath, Who for their pleasure makes the same to smart, And for their comfort soul and body both With Care confusedly themselves do cloth. A Simil. As when grim Night puts on a Sable weed, Faced with infernal Apparitions, That so the next days comfort might exceed: So, are the mind and Bodies motions care-clothed for senses consolations. Frail senses (Seede-plots of impiety Made for our reason's recreations) Die and be damned, or live to magnify Your maker's mercy, Might, and majesty. And as in Pleasures false are true degrees, Agreeing with these Organs of the sense, Some base, some mean, some high, (for so are these) The inferiorst interior sense conceives more pleasure than all the outward senses can. (Yet all but base to pleasure's excellence, Whereof the souls low'st power hath highest sense) So are there like gradations in the joys Those powers conceive, as is their pre'minence; The feeding power, in feeding power employeth, Which pleaseth Nature, but the soul annoys. The pleasures of the mind do far excel those of the body. Those joys conceived by th' Intelligence As most supreme, do most rejoice the sprite; For they belong to the supremest sense, Wherein the mind conceaveth most delight (Though Nature pine the while) by nature's right. Thus then, if judgement these degrees would way, She would reject joy sensual, as too light, And not permit the same her to betray, Which makes frail sense the strongest Reason sway. The Gluttons Gorge (Charybdis of excess) Should (being disgorged) from surfeiting forbear: Th'insatiate lecher would that fire suppress, That Conscience and his secrets oft doth sear: None would be Beasts that human creatures were. Then, sense of Touch or taste, as vil'st they be, So do they bring the joys that soonest wear; For those that come by that we hear or see, Do longer last, and with us more agree. And the more base and brutish pleasures be, The more brutish the pleasures be, the more pain is taken in their execution. The more's the pain in their accomplishment; And the more used they are excessively, The more's the soul and body's dammagement; Witness the lecher's loathsome languishment, The drunkard's dropsy, and the Gluttons Grease, Each clogged with either, or worse punishment, That health decreaseth with their corpse increase, And shame increaseth with their fame's decrease. Ask sensual- pleasure, in her greatest ruff, How little grief will overthrow her quite And give her soul a deadly counterbuff, She will (as forced) confess, she hath no might When grief, scarce sensible, but comes in sight. We can brook pleasures want with greater ease, Griefs do more annoy us then Pleasures delight us. Than not feel griefs though they in pleasure bite; For, absent good doth not so much displease, As present ill our Souls soul doth disease. For corporal pleasure being sensual Consists in some excess, which still doth tend To the extreme subversion of our All; The fear whereof must pleasure needs suspend, And make her suffer penance to the end. No Conscience * God's commandments mentioned in the Decalogue. seared with lust's Soul-scortching fire, But seeles the laws sharpe-burning Iron to send An hell of pain, where she is most entire; For it doth death itself with life inspire. Now as the pleasures of the eye surpass The rest that on the outward senses rest: So Fancies pleasures all those pleasures pass, Because Opinion esteems them best; Hence is it, wealth with pleasure is possessed For no inherent virtue, but because Opinion holdeth the possessor blest; This makes men (maugre God and nature's laws) To bite, and scrat for wealth, with Teeth and pause. Wealth, state, and glory, if they worldly be, False wealth, frail state, vain- glory than they are; Only held good by doting fantasy, Which will no part thereof to Reason share, Lest she should find them false, and bid beware: But reason's pleasures are perpetual, They are all comfort, quitted from all Care, They thrall the mind to freedom spiritual, That makes self Bondage, sweet self Freedoms thrall. Bodily pleasures are but pains compared to those of the mind. No marvel then, though Men possessing these do hold all other pleasures hells of pain; That some their wealth have thrown into the Seas, That so they might this weal with ease retain; These made that * Eccles. 2. King to hold all pleasures vain (Save these alone) that proved all under sun, These have made Princes quit their princely train, Trained by these pleasures (which are never done) Quite from their sceptres and themselves to run. These make the Mind and spirit so nectar-drunck That they sleep sound in divine delight: These make the soul forsake the body's trunk, Leaving it ioy-tranced whilst she takes her flight Through nature's works to have her maker's sight: These, these, & none but these are heavens on Earth, Because on Earth they see by nature's light The highest Heavens majesty and Mirth, And by his sons light * God the Father, fatherless. without Sire, their birth. Among which pleasures, those which do consist In Contemplation, are the most divine; By which this life and that to come are blessed, Which made Philosophers to it assign The Chief Beatitude, the Spirittes wine. If minds that never knew the sovereign Good Mount up so high to make this Good their fine, What shame for those baptised in Christ his blood, If they (like Swine) do place the same in mud? And as the soul retaineth more or less Of pristine purity, so will the same In all her Actions, less or more transgress, And to the best, or worst, her motions frame: Therefore some place their pleasure in their fame For knowledge, and seek knowledge to be known; Some in rare handiworks, and some in Game, Some how a State may stand, or be o'erthrown When it is little, or else overgrown. And of all skills that merely are human, Civil policy. This skill is it that most commends the soul: This can instruct the sword to make a lane To crowns, & teach the same crowns to control, And slaves in Catalogue of King's enroll. For Policies long arm can compass power, Which joined, at will, the earth's huge bowl canroule In nature's spite, if from th'etherial tower, A sudden vengeance stay not human power. If the sword edge be set on policy, It will slip through the joints of Monarchies; And shave the crown of Royal majesty, So be it stand in way of tyrannies, That clime to crowns by blood and villainies. The hand of policy wielding the sword, Directs each Blow that wounds still multiplies, Crowns are purchased often unjustly by bloody conquests. That slaves to crowns through streams of blood may ford; For Crowns the Or, those sanguine streams afford. HEre Muse crave licence for a main digress, Of those that shall thine Ambages survey; Sith policy compels thee to transgress The Rules of Order, her power to display; She (most importunate) will have no nay, But thou must from thy project long desist To blazon her high virtue by the way, That sense may see wherein she doth consist, Wherein (being much) thou must the more insist. But what I shall in this behalf insert Through my no skill and less experiment, Comes from a Muse that can but speak of part, Much less hath skill to teach all government; Or if she had, she were too insolent So to presume; sith Reason hath been strained To highest reach for Rules of Regiment; Sufficeth me to touch it as constrained By that I handle; else, would have refrained. Nor will I justify all rules for right, That policy approveth for direct; God, and man's wisdom are repugnant quite; Man's wisdom holds for good a good effect Caused by ill, which Gods doth still reject: And to do all that policy doth will Must needs the soul with mortal Sores infect; Hear, what she wills, then judge, if well or ill; And use or else refuse it, as ye will. Whose power if it with puissance be conjoined Policy (under God) is the overruler of all under heaven. Controls all powers, save hellish or divine; It glues together states, that wars unjoined, And severs those that Concord did combine: It makes or mars disposing Mine and Thine: On sovereign's heads it makes crowns close to sit, That sooner shall their heads then crowns decline; It makes Will law, when Wit thinks Law unfit, Yet wills that Law should link with Will and wit. It tells the Statesman sitting at the stern, To Princes, we must give our reasons by weight, & our wo●ds by measure. (embozomed by his sovereign) he must be Careful the humour of his Lige to learn, And so apply himself thereto, that he May neither cross nor with it still agree: Like Sol that with nor 'gainst the Heaven goes, Simile. But runs askew, by whose obliquity, All policy ought ●o tend to public profite● Each thing on Earth's conserved, and gaily grows; So councillors their counsels should dispose. Simil. And as the moon reflects her borrowed light Unto the sun, that but lent her the same: So statesmen should reflect (how ere unright) Their wel-deserving, and their brightest fame Where the word of the king is, there is powe●, and who shall say to him, what dost thou? Eccles 8 4. unto their Liege, as though from him it came. For Princes may put shame of their oresights Upon their servants, who must bear the blame, Applying praises of those men's foresights Unto themselves, as if they were their rights. A Caveat for great subjects. Great subjects must beware of subjects love, And Sov'raignes hate the first oft breeds the last; Kings will their Brethren hate, if not reprove For being too well beloved, who often taste The evil speed that grows from that loves haste; Men should not be devils to shun temporal death, or to be Gods on earth. That which in private persons is called Choler, in public is called Fury & cruelly. Sal. Rigour often buyeth her pleasure with peril of life. Mercy & truth preserve the King: for his throne sha●be established with mercy. Which makes great subjects (in great policy) That would of King and subject be embraced) To mix their virtues deeds with villainy, T'avoid the plague of popularity. With submiss voice it tells the sovereign, Severity makes weak authority, If that too oft the subjects it sustain; And small faults punished with great cruelty Makes fear and Hate desperate rebell'ouslie. For, death of Patient's Emprickes less defame, Then Executions oft do sovereignty, And all that have delighted in the same Have hate incurred, and often death with shame. For policy can hardly well prevent Prover. 20.28 He that is careless of his own li●e, is Lord of another's. Sen● The purpose of true Hate made obstinate With ceaseless plagues, and extreme punishment: For, when the weakest hand is desperate It may confound a * Which mischief (though with extreme difficulty prevented if at all avoided yet all the means to escape it are these, 4. inquiry, Punishment, innocency, destiny. Caesar, so a state. Who death desires, is Lord of others life: He fears not hell that would be reprobate: A calm authority represseth strife, When much severity makes rebel's rife● It's better * By reprehension which S. Basil calls the healing of the soul: Solomon an ornament of fine gold Pro. 25. and David a precious balm, Psa. 41. Tacitus saith, every notorious execution of justice hath some taste of injustice therein, yet sith it wrings but some in particular it is amply recompensed in the common good. cure, then cut of members ill, If it may be; and, if that will not serve, Yet cut them off as 'twere against thy will: For, Men hate not their members which they carve Or clean cut off, the rest so to preserve: For Cruelty sometimes is clemency; Its mercy in the Prince (peace to conserve) To cut off Rebels with severity, Lest they prevailing make an anarchy. And, if in case a mighty Multitude Of mighty Men for Treason were to die, Policy would not have the sword imbrued In blood of them as 'twere successively; But all at once, let them all headless lie: For oft a Iteration of revenge for one fault, is faulty. Punishment is the companion of injustice. Plato. revenge with blood to iterate, The malice may suppress of few too hy; But stirs the hearts of all to mortal hate, Which may impeach the most secured state. And therefore that which must be cut away Away with it at once, quoth policy: And to the sores these b Salus f●r the so●es growing from overmuch severity plasters ply strait way, Do some great good that argues Charity, And pardon some to show thy clemency: To shed the blood of corrupt magistrates, Doth not a little the pain qualify: The sacrifice of such hate expiates; Thus blood must heal what blood exulcerates. Intemperate Patients make physicians cruel, And wayward subjects make the Prince a austeres and just magistrates are like the Ligatures of chirurgeons, which hurt them that be wounded; for though those Bands be employed to cure lose members, yet they put the Patient to much pain. seveare: Ceaseless abuses of Ire is the fuel: Can Sov'raignes bear, when subjects nought b By the resistance of those that should obey, the lenity of those that command is diminished. Tacitus. forbear? Such must be taught to love through cause of fear: For, oft a ijrke from a kind master's hand Among much cockering, makes our love more dear, When as we know, it with our weal doth stand: So short correction tends to long command. judges corrupt and all Extortioners Like sponges must be used, squeezed being full, And so must justice handle usurers; They pull from Usury is a sweet poison compounded upon the ruins of good men. subjects, Kings from them must pull, And when their fleece is grown, shear off the wool. These are the Cankerworms of Common weals, They mortify and make the Members dull, Then when the Head thereof these Cankers feels, He needs must cleanse them, ere the Body heals. For whosoever fears hate over much, Knows not as yet what Rules to Rule belong; Let subjects grudge without just d A temperate dread suppresseth high and stout stomachs, fear in extremity stirs men to presumption or desperate resolution, & provoks them to try conclusions dangerous. cause of grudge, They will, when they perceive the Prince they wrong, To right the same, continue subjects long: By Punishment, and by Reward a State May be ore-aged being over young; In Mould of Love to melt the Commons hate, Is to correct without respect of state. From Piety and cleere-Eyde Providence Authority derives resistless force; Piety makes Authority most potent. For Piety constrains Obedience, Sith all believes the heavens do bless her course: And e The mother of a wary person knows not what belongs to tears. Paul. Emil. Providence subjection doth enforce, For, it foresees where riot may run out, And with strong bars (which Barristers reinforce) Makes fast the Park-pale there and round about, That to go through, no one will go about. It teacheth Princes wisely to beware How they exhaust their store for war in peace To maintain f Superfluity in Banquets & apparel are tokens of a diseased commonweal, or which is rather in danger of death. Seneca. revelings, and nothing spare That tends to Sensualities increase, Although therefore their Flocks they often fleece: It ill beseems (quoth Providence) the Prince, His own and public g A kingdoms superabundance if it be managed by a lascivious & voluptuous Prince, is the cause of the subversion thereof. Treasures to decrease For private satisfaction of the sense, Which sinks the State with weight of vain expense. If there be factions for Sions cause, So be't they break not bounds of charity, Instruction sooner than h Flare & terror are slender bonds to bind love. Tacitus. Simil. Correction draws Such Discords to a perfect unity, That yields a sweet Soule-pleasing harmony: For, when a viols strings do not consent, We do not rend them strait, but leisurely With i A gentle entreaty is of more force than an imperious command. Claudian. patience put in tune the Instrument; So must it be in case of Government. It's the least freedom subjects can demand To have but liberty to hold their peace; Who keep their errors close from being scanned Do hurt none but themselves, in war or peace: If freedom true Obedience release It will k It is an easy matter to govern good men. Sallust. contain itself in liberty; And Lenity subjection doth increase Where strife desires public tranquillity, And still agrees t'obey authority. Policy prompts the Prince, with voice scarce heard, If any subjects be grown over great, By l O impious people, & accursed times, that do constrain Princes to do this for the safety of th●ir States, & bodies, that is so perilous touching the State of their Soule●. death their grandeur must of force be barred; But if by law they cannot do that feat, Without the shaking of their State and seat, It must be done without Law by some Chance That m Ere the subject be in arms. A subject placed in high dignity hath more ado to hold it, than others to get it. Brutus. suddenly must fall (ere blood do heat) So shall their Throne be stablished, (witness France) And subject only to divine vengeance. For it is seled, or rather never seen That peace and powerful men do dwell n Tacit Hist● Abraham and lot must part when their wealth is over grown. together; And ten times blessed is that King or Queen Who make their Nobles live and love each other; Live like themselves, & like themselves love either: This were the Quintenssens of policy, And o All wisdom assisted both by nature and art, is little enough to effect so great an Act by reason of the perverseness of man's nature. wit, that's seld derive from the Mother, Which rather can be wished then taught, for why? No power from will can take wills liberty. A King may from his high erected Throne With eagle's Eyes (for Kings such eyes should have) Behold the Members of the State alone, And what the humours are which them deprave; So may he purge the parts the Whole to save: But to atone the wills perverst by power, As easy were't the Ocian dry to lave; Power may constrain, but Will may choose t'endure, And they that will be sick, no skill can cure. Great Minds like Horses that will easily rear, Are easli'st ruled with a gentle bit; And reverence Princes should not gain with p They ought to fear many whom many fear. fear, Nor Love with q Familia●itïe in Princes breeds contempt in subjects. lowliness, for State unfit, For none of both with policy doth fit: This skill is very difficult, because Virtues of different kinds must kindly knit Their powers in one, which wit together draws, And guards the Prince, no less than Guards or Laws. The empire's a majesty in a Prince is no less commendable than behooful. majesty her state sustains; The Prince thereby security enjoys, Free from Rebellions reach (that State disdains) And from contempt of Rule, that State annoys Engendering all misrule that state destroys: The sceptre and the nuptial bed detests To be b A crown divided will serve no kings head. divided, or to share their joys; Yet Sou'rainty in extreme peril rests Of partnershippe, when it Contempt disgests● Empires are Fortune's objects and times subjects, Envy and c The Creator of all coupled Envy & a kingdom together. Seneca. Empire be inseparate, Fortune doth often monarchs make of abjects And Envy Monarchy doth quite abate, If it assisted be with vulgar d The Multitudes love is light & their hatred heavy. hate: For monarchs find no mean betwixt the Ground And the extremest top of their e To attain to Empire ïs a work human but to retain it being attained is a grace divine. estate; But if they fall, the fall doth them confound: Therefore let them be sure of footing sound. Three things (saith Policy) do 'stablish Rule, That it be Constant, Severe, and restrained; Constant: for innovation breeds misrule; Innovation most dangerous to a state. Severe: for oft by Lenity unfeigned Nought but Contempt (overthrow of Rule) is gained: Impunity breeds lawless f Over much pity brings overmuch peril to sovereigns. liberty; For hope of scape (when justice is but feigned) Draws on bold Vice to do all villainy Under the Nose of mild authority. For who is awed by him, whose Sword doth lie Fast sheathed with rust, that it will not come out? Who by remissness, not by clemency Makes th'edge of his power (dulled) to turn about: An inch of liberty more than aught, makes the Commons much more lose than they should. This King the Commons will command and flout, Who are contained with fear and not with shame, And near abstain from Riot or from Rout For badness of them, but for fear of blame, And punishment inflicted for the same. Thirdly, authority should be restrained, (As erst was said) and is as much to say, When the Rod is in the magistrates hand, he may correct, but if it be out he may be corrected. That the chief strength from Kings should still be drained, And stay with them, to be to them a stay; Lest Treason should their trust and them betray: They may dissolve the force of empery, When they make Kings of those that should obey; For slaves endued with King's authority Make Kings but slaves, through King's infirmity. Yet policy doth not forbid the Prince To honour subjects high, of high desert With highest honour of Obedience, And though obeying, rule an ample part: It is a sure guard of thy principality, if thou do not suffer great commandment to endure long. Livy. 4. So be't the honour which they thus impart Bee short and sweet, chief lievetenancie; For it, if long, with pride affects the heart, Which makes the same affect sole monarchy; So put the King and state in ieobardie. Hardly can men keep a mean in dignities surmounttng mediocrity. For Men are Men how ever angel-like; The highest Angels were ambitious: Its death to ample fortunes, sail to strike; Nay Death to them is far less dolorous: " For use of Rule makes minds imperious. We read but of one Scylla that having g●t●en absolute empirie, gave it over voluntarily. Great Persons have great Passions; state is stiff, Unapt to bow, how ever courteous: And when great spirits have tasted but a whiff Of praise for rule, they (drunk) would rule in chief. For as the Man o'ercome with powerful wine (Although a Beggar clothed like a king) Simil. When some in mockery made him half divine With laud's, and Legs, still rising and bowing, Persuaded was, he was no other thing: So Sp'rites that are made drunk with vulgar praise Not to be overcome with praises & acclamations of people is incident to God only. For their dexterity in governing, Do ween all true that vulgar vapour says, And think themselves alone the rest should raise. When too great subjects do too well agree, Suspicious policy them out doth set: For like as stones, which in firm Arches be Simil. Would fall, but that they one another let, By means whereof the Arch more strength doth get: We ought to endeavour even by laws to hinder strife and partake among nobles. Ari. 5. Pol. c. 8. So fares it with a state or monarchy, Whose peril might (perhaps) be overgreat By ore-much concord of the over-hie; Then odds twixt them still maintains unity. But among other rules of policy That are unruly (if by that * Scripture. rule squared That all should rule) ●t sov'raignes learns to lie, Dissemble, and deceive; if it regard The common good of them they ought to guard: But to do ill, that good thereof may come, By better * Divinity. Rules and more assured, is bard; Then how it should a sou'raigns' state become To lie at all, to this I answer mum. King's should be so framed as they may be altogether good or half good, and not altogether wicked, but half wicked. Ari. ●. Pol c two But this I say from those that well did try What 'tis to rule, and ruling long to reign: If Kings make conscience of a little lie, When it may good the state and sovereign, Ill may ensue, that good so to refrain: Yet when we know all hearts are in his hands, That hearts and all doth rule and sole sustain, We muse at Policies so cross commands When as we know, all by the * The divine Precepts. other stands. We have two eyes, two ears, and but one Tongue Which with the teeth and lips is eke enclosed, And is the senses Organs placed among Eyes, ears, and Nose, by Nature so disposed That nothing by the Tongue should be disclosed, Before it hath ta'en council of each sense, That are to falsehood evermore opposed, The soul is the true lover of Truth. Lest they should misinform th' Intelligence, Which heinously procures the souls offence. Proverb. 17. Excellent talk becometh not a fool, Nor lying lips the King; so saith that Prince That ruled in peace, and did his enemies cool With truth and equity; but that's long since, These are the last, and therefore the worst days. And twixt the times there may be difference: Yet if we may not for Gods gloryly, Much less for matters of less consequence: Kings should be Patterns of all piety, Which doth consist in truth and equity. But pious Augustine (canonised For piety) saith there are certain lies Whereof no great offence is borne or bred, Aug. in Psal. 5. Yet are not faultless; in which leasings lies That lie, which Kings for common good devise: Hence may we see, how much depraved we are, When Kings sometimes must feign and temporize A kingdom is a school of deceit. Sen. Thyest. For their estate and commonwealths welfare, Which would far ill, if they should it forbear. Who note withal, It breedeth small regard To be too lavish of their presence, when Among the commons it might well be spared; For majesty like Deity in Men, When we it see, as far as we can ken: We bear m●st reverence to majesty a far off. Yet policy (the prop of weighty States) Would have them present with all now and then, As well to comfort, as to cease debates, Both which their hearts to true love captivates. It tells them other Documents among, That who so bridles their felicity It is a great felicity not to be overcome of great felicity. Shall better govern it, and hold it long; For Temp'raunce joined with authority, Makes it resemble sacred deity: It bids them love the learned with effect, Who can with lines their lives historify That I shall last, and their renowns erect Poets & Historiographers have power to give immortality. The Golden Worlds returned from exi●e. As high as heaven, maugre human defect. And here I cannot wonder (though I would) Sufficiently at these guilt times of ours, Wherein great Men are so to money sold, That Jupiter himself in golden showers Will basely stand, to gather while it powers. Mars scorns Minerva, gibes at Mercur●, He better likes Venerean Paramoures: Yet learning and arms should be in league by the law of nature. Greatness regards not Prose, or poesy, But weens an angel hath more majesty. Arts perish wanting praise and due support; And when want sways the Senses commonweal, Wits vital faculties wax all * Yet if some men's wits were measured by their wealth, they would be accounted salomon's that are nothing else but money-baggs, ïn whom there is nothing but money. amort: The mind, constrained the Bodies want to feel, Makes Salves of Earth the Body's hurt to heal, Which do the Mind bemire with thoughts unfit; Hence come those dull conceits sharp wits reveal, Which nice ears deem to come from want of wit, When want of wealth (indeed) is cause of it. As poor as a Poet. How many Poets, like Anatomies, (As lean as Death for lack of sustenance) Complain (poor starvelings) in sad Elegies Of those whom Learning only did advance, That of their wants have no considerance. What gift to greatness can less welcome be Then Poems, though by Homer penned perchance? It looks on them as if it could not see, Or from them, as from Snakes, away will flee. What's this to me (thinks he) I did not this? How then to me should praise thereof pertain? Thou hitt'st the mark (dear Sir) & yet dost miss; For, though no praise for penning it thou gain, Yet praise thou get'st, if thou that Pen a It is good to do well, so it is also to support well doing. sustain, That can b But Poets lie open to a mischief; for ●as alchemists are suspected for coining: so are Poets for libeling. eternize thee in deaths despite, And through it self thy grossest humours strain, So make them pure (at least most pure in sight) Which to Posterity may be a light. In common policy, great Lords should give, That so, they may (though great) much more receive: The more like God, the more they do relive; And, the more Writers they aloft do heave, The more renown they to their Race do leave: For, with a drop of ink their pens have power c Good and ill renown are immortal and prevail even over the remembrance of time, which Poets have power to give. When Poets commend men's names to monument they need no tombs. Life to restore (being lost) or life bereave, Who can devour Time that doth all devour, And go beyond time, in less than an how'r. Where had Achilles' fame been long ere this, Had not blind Homer made it see the way (In Parchas) ●pight) to all eternities? It had with him (long since) been closed in Clay. Where had AEneas name found place of stay, Had Virgil's verse of it no mention made? It had ere this been drowned in deep decay: For, without memory, Names needs must vade; And memory is ay the muse's Trade. But how can these Daughters of Memory Remember those of whom they are despised? They are not Stocks that feel no injury, But sprightly, quick, and wondrous well advised; Who, though with d Lascivious, obscene, etc. lose Lines they are oft disguised Yet when they list, they make immortal lines, And, who soe'er by those lines are surprised, Are made eternal, they, and their assigns, Or well, or ill, as Poesy defines. Leave we to urge poor Poets just e As good no compleyning as complaining for no good. complaint (Sith they are deaf that should redress the same) That Policy we may yet better paint, And consecrate more lines unto her name, That learns our Pen her laudes by lines to frame. She would that Government should never die, Which is the rod of Circe's, which doth tame Both Man, and Beast, (if led by Policy) And tends to perfect man's society. The putting up of one injury be, ettes another. she teacheth Kings to give and take no wrong, One gets Revenge, Contempt the other gains: All gainful Leagues she would have lengthened long, And not to war until just cause constrains; For, justice prospers wars and Thrones sustains: No Secrets, nor no public governments To f They that possess all things want nothing but a man that will speak the truth. Seneca. clawback's, or to those that scratch for gains, She would have shared; for bad are all their bents, And evermore do ruin governments. In such is neither truth to God, or King: Therefore she would have such aloof to stand, As far (at least) as a g Prov. 25.23. The further Flatterers and avaricious persons stand from the sovereign the surer he stands. Take away the wicked from the King and his Throne shallbe established in righteousness. Prov. 25.5. bend brow can fling Them from the sovereign, or a strait command: These bitter baneful weeds do spill the landlord. But to the tried trusty, she would have The sovereign's favour constantly to stand; For, with their loss they seek the whole to save, To whom, like Fathers, they themselves behave. She tells the King that Treason gathers strength Extremely in his h The Frogs (in AEsop) insulted upon the log and held it in scorn. weakness; and requires That it be cut short ere it gathers length, And levelly that, that out of course aspires: She chargeth Kings to quench their vain desires Of vain expense, without the Commons charge, Lest it inflame Rebellions quenchless fires, Which oft, such large expense doth much enlarge; Who, oft the same upon the King discharge. She wills that wholesome laws should be ordained, Bereaving Kings of i Not to be able to do evil is great power. It is an excellent necessity not to be suffered to do evil. power t'infringe the same: For, if their crowns are by the laws sustained, They should not break the k God governs that common weal that is governed by a written law. Aristot. Props, lest all the Frame Should fall, to their confusion and shame: l Statute of Reteyners. It is an aphorism among the laws of the 12. Tables Let the protection of the People be the chiefest Law. That, of Reteyners she would have observed, Else most Ignobles, in a Nobles name, Will let laws course, which should be safe reserved, And wrack the poor which law would have conserved. And as the Law should govern magistrates; So should the magistrates the People sway. The governors are living laws in States: And a dumb magistrate the law is ay. As Bodies, Reason and the soul obey; So States should Law and magistrates by right; For, Law is Reason, keeping all in Ray, By which the wise themselves do guide aright; And Vulgares have it from lawgivers light. She m civil Policy bids the sovereign take heed how he hears, Much less embrace th'advice of self n overweening a pestilent disease of the Mind, most familiar with fools. conceit: For, such conceit hath neither Eyes, nor ears, To hear, or see another, but doth wait Upon herself, admiring her own height. In cases doubtful it is dangerous T'admitte light o Take council of thine own heart for there is no man more faithful to thee than it Eccles. 37. 13. councils; for, for want of weight 'Twill make the case to be more ponderous, The whilst such p He is more discreet with whom provident counsels (that carry reason with them) do prevail, them prosperous deliberations which happen by chance. Tacit 2. An. Treasons prevail on the sudden, good councils gather source by leisure. Tacitus Hist. councils prove Aereous. For it's oft seen that Public policy occurs with matters of such consequence, Wherein there is such depth of mystery That it will blunt the sharpest Senses sense Of the acut'st, and swift'st Intelligence; Ne shall Deliberation be assured Of their effect, until their evidence Time doth produce, or trial hath procured, Wherein rash judgement must not be endured. The heav'nlyest Hav'ns, m'haue Hellish entries: Therefore, wise Pilots keep them in the main, And rather brook rough Tempests miseries, Then by unknown perils rest to gain: They shun the flats by their experience plain; For, in all perils such experience Must guide the course, else perilous is pain; Nay, death may follow double * The faster men run being out of the way the further they are out of the way. diligence Not set on work by single Sapience. Experience is the eye of human wisdom. Experience is the guide of policy, Whose nere-deceaved eye sees all in all; She can make light the darkest mystery, Then, her at all assays to council call, Especially in matters mystical: Realms have a world of crannies, where do lurk Ten thousand mysteries from view of eye, Which ne'ertheless uncessantly do work, And often give the state a deadly Jurke She would have Kings to have such councillors A Prince ought to bestow more in getting a wise counsellor, than in achiveing a conquest Quintus Curtius. Where no council is the people fall: but where many councillors are there is health. Prove●. 11.14 Simil. That might be learned in state-Philosophies; For kingdoms governed by Philosophers No Constellations fear, nor Destinies: They know what should the sovereign suffice And what the subject; bending all their might T'accomplish both their long felicities By seeing that each one may have his right, Preventing foreign, and domestic spite. As when a ship, that lives upon the downs Of Neptune (●ightie Monarch of those plains) Is near at point to perish (if he frowns,) Without a stern and one that it sustains: (For main is peril else upon those manes:) So fares that state that hath nor Lords nor laws, Wherewith the Liege the State from ruin rains In storms of troubles, and Contentions flaws, Wherein wise counsels calm effects do cause. They are the watchmen that stand sentinel A good councillor is an Argust o the commonweal. T'examine all that may impeach the state; They make the commonwealth a parallel To that of Rome when she was fortunate, And Caesar make of a mean Magistrate: Who Baracado up with laws strong bars All that lies open for Vice to ruinated, And stop the Passages of Civil wars With martial law, which malcontents deters. Nor need the Statesman gage philosophy Deeper, than well to know how well to live In Peace, and Wealth, (this worlds felicity) And Rules of Life, to that effect to give; They dive too deep, if they do deeper dive: What is the knowledge of the Transcendents To him that learns men only how to thrive? Though he near read such wild * They will distract his thoughts, and government requires the whole man. art's Rudiments, he's fit far for civil governments. The mathematics, and the metaphysics, Have no necessity in government; But Ethics, politics, and economics, These to good governors are incident, Where moral virtue sitteth precedent: To be well red in all good history To be well seen in history necessar●e in a magistrate. (Which makes the sprite much more intelligent) Doth stand with state and perfect policy, And maketh dexterous authority. Solomon knew all in all. 1 King. 3.12. The bounds of knowledge are the highest spheres, For, all is known in their circumference; And what soe'er this Nurse of Earthlings bears? Eccles. 1.16. Is subject to human intelligence: Then knowledge is unknown by consequence: In which respect Men do their wits apply To this or that art with all diligence, Unable to know all philosophy, Because it stands not with mortality. In all things (as it's said) are three degrees, To weet, Great, Small, and the Indifferent; And that which doth participate of these Is in perfection held most excellent, The councillor should be virtuous, for he supplieth virtues place, which is in the midst. Which is the councillor in government: For, he twixt Prince and People being placed, Best sees what is for both convenient; And for his virtue, is of both embraced; For virtue from the midst is near displaced. If any one supply that virtuous place And is not virtuous, he a Monster is; For, in the midst can nothing sit that's base, Sith virtue there (as in her heaven of bliss) Herself enthrones to all eternities. Physicians labour, aims at nought but health; Sailors, good passage; captains, victories; So councillors should for the commonwealth, Which justly to her limbs her dowry dealt. Those whom the king will know shallbe to well known, but those he looks strange upon, no man will know them. He had need be more than honest, yea much more Then virtuous (that is, virtuous past compare) Who when his King's withdrawn, may open the door And in a Closet dive into his ear, To put into his Head how all things are: This if ill spirits perceive, and he will be Corrupted with pure gold, or what soe'er, Some Fiend will say, all this will I give thee (showing him worlds) if thou wilt honour me. Then how behoveful 'tis for King and state, To make such minions (if he must have such) That in their Souls corruption deadly hate, And having much, desire not overmuch; But to find such an one, were more then much: A man may light a candle at noon and seek amongst a multitude, yet miss to find, such an one. For to be near, and dear unto a King, Fills heart with pride, and pride doth empt the pouch; Then for supply (sour * Minions are for the most part so. sweet) a sweete-sowre thing (Which may the sovereign wrest, the subject wring) Called lieges-love abused, the same must bring. But where shall Princes then, bestow their love (Sith love they must, and aught, where it is due?) On any one that still his grace will move For Common-good, and private doth ensue But for that good; This Minion in a Mew It is dangerous venturing abroad the air is so infectious. Had need be kept; for, if he fly abroad Divels-incarnate will him still pursue Till they have made a devil of a God, Or if he scape, 'tis with temptation's load. An heart that's truly humbled and is dead (For love of heaven) to all the earth holds dear, Yet serpent's wisdom hath, in his doves head, And from all spots of pride is purged clear, And still would fast to make the rest good-cheere: This were a Minion for a God, or King, Worthy to wield the World; and who draws near In nature to this Man, or divine Thing, A Prince should use, with all dear cherishing. For, Maximilian the Emperor answered one that desired hi● letters patents to ennoble him, I am able (quoth he) to make thee rich, but virtue only m●st make thee noble. virtue only makes good councillors, Who in great wisdom hold the State upright; No halls orehanged with arms of Ancestors Have in their right creation any might; But if they have them too, they are most right: Yet virtue found not Tully b It is better to bring honour to a man's house then to diffame it being there already. nobly borne, But made him Noble by his wisdoms weight; " Virtue respects not fortune, nor doth scorn " To dwell with those whose fortunes are forlorn. kings come from slaves, and slaves from Kings descend: blood's but the water watering flesh's dust; Which by its nature ever doth descend, And makes frail Flesh to fall to things unjust: For, 'tis but c Act. 17.26. The higher the sun is, the less shadow he makes, & the greater a man's virtue is, the less glory he seeks. Blood in the unjust and just: And all alike it is in high and low; Not half so full of life, as full of lust, Making us rather abject, then to grow To high account, for aught that from it flows. Yet some times evil men make Rulers good, As good musicians, oft in life are bad; These last make discords join in pleasant mood; The first the like in commonweals have made: So either may be virtuous in his Trade, How ever vicious in their lives they are: But Policy the Prince doth still dissuade From making such too great, for they will pair The Prince, and pol the Commons d They will make sale of the Prince's favour to the prejudice of his people without care. For Slaves (though Kings) in disposition Are most unmeet to manage kingdoms states; And so are Men of base condition Unfit to make inferior Eccl. 38.33. magistrates: The flowers of crowns fit not mechanic f They are, as the feet, necessary members, nor could a commonwealth stand without them, howbeit they are as the feet furthest removed from the head being reason's seat. Pates, No more then costly plumes do Asses heads; They are called Craftsmen, quasi crafty mates, Let these rule g craftsmen. such (if they must govern needs) For they at best are nought but wholesome weeds. But some as void of honesty as art, Advance themselves by h Had men no other fault yet are they therefore unfit for government, because so desirous to govern. Authority should be denied to such as seek it, & given to those that (like wise men) refuse it. wealth (the Nurse of Vice) And with good gifts supply want of desert; Good-giftes, that Givers of Commands entice To part with them though they be near so nice: These (seeing wealth hath given them virtues meed) Do make port-sale of virtue, and justice T'enrich themselves to climb thereby with speed; From whence the wracks of commonweals proceed. Did they but good themselves by some men's harm, It might be borne, although it heavy were: But i Example of rich men doth much good or hurt in the commonweal. they hereby make all themselves to arm With gold, that seek authority to bear, Because they see it's gotten by such gear: When virtue's thus neglected and despised, Then Vice perforce doth in her place appear; And where dam'd Vice hath virtues place surprised, A Common-woe, with commonwealth's disguised. That must be dearly sold that's dearly k Alexander Severus caused such to be deposed, and severely punished, that bought their Offices, saying they sold dearer in retail than they bought in the grosse● bought; And whereas judgements thus are bought and sold, There, by just judgement all goes still to nought: Yet ●ustice and just judgements States uphold, Whose want wraps them in miseries manifold. The judgements of that just o'erwhelm that Land That arms Oppression ('gainst the laws) with Gold; For where it's so, there Will for Law must stand, And Law goes with Confusion hand in ha●d. Intelligence (supreme power of the soul) Wherein alone weare like the l The Philosopher saith, God is an infinite actual Understanding Deity, Is that alone which makes us meet to rule; For nature's laws, and reason's authority Requires that such should have highest dignity, That by their virtue, and their high estate, They might conserve men in prosperity: For right it is they should be raised to State, That make the state of all most fortunate. For honour is high virtues sole m honour is the Prize for which virtue endureth what not? Reward, For which all virtuous Men all pain endure: If then such men from honour should be barred, All to be vicious it would soon procure; For Vice doth reign where virtue hath no power: Where honours are bestowed without respect On good and bad, as clouds bestow their shower, There must of force ensue but bad effect For who'll be good, if Grace the good neglect. Honours given to virtue in former times. In ancient commonweals they wont were Statues of metal, Arches triumphal, With Public Sepulture, and praises clear, These, and such like, they did bestow on all That to their commonweals were as a Wall: For they that watch whilst others sound do sleep To stay the State, that else perhaps might fall, And labour still the lambs from wolfs to keep; Such Shepherds should be honoured of the sheep. Simïl. For to give Rule to none but Midases, Is even as if a ship were rendered In greatest Tempests and winds outrages, To richest merchants to be governed, Not to the skillful'st to be mastered: Whereof ensues the wrack of ship and fraught, From which in storms it is delivered By skilful Pilotts which have got the sleight by their experience to direct her right. Themistocles is justly famoused, For that by valour and great policy He did reduce th' Athenians beastly bred To live by laws in great a From wh●m the liberty of disorder is taken awa● he i● overruled for his own benefit. civility; But Solon's praised more meritoriously, Who finding Athens at the point to fall With shock of Civil war, he readily Did stay the same, and reestablished all The laws & magistrates, driven to the wall. Nor did Camillus that repulsed the Galls And Rome preserved from their fury's flame Deserve less, (if not more) memorials, Then the two b Romulus & Remus. Brethren that first built the same: Nor yet can Caesar's or great Pompey's fame (Though they Rome's Empire stretched from East to West) Be so renowned, as his glorious name That found it near by Hannibal c Scipio Affricanus. possessed, Yet rescued it, and gave it room and rest. Then Rule should not be given to the rich, If with their wealth they were but fools unjust: The commonwealth would d The oath of xpiamn Kings is. I will minister law, justice and protection a●ight to every one. It beh●ues them them to see that their vnder-Mai●strates make a conscience of th●er own oaths & the Kinges● private be to such, For they would rule by laws squared by their lust; And for their gain still buy and sell the just: Wisdom and justice, with wealth competent Should be in Rulers: such ●he Prince might trust With greatest charge (next them) in government; For each will rule as virtues precedent. For how be't possible men should persuade Others to virtue and to keep the laws, If they themselves themselves there from * To make laws for others & transgress them our selves, is to teach others ●o transgress than dissuade, And by their lewdness, others lewdness cause? " A Ruler's Vice to vice the People draws: Sylla might well be laughed to scorn, when he Persuaded Temperance to all; because He lived himself (none more) licenciouslee, For none less loved mediocrity. Lisander was no less to blame, for he Allowed those Vices in the Multitude, From which himself refrained a They that favour sin are a● worthy of death as they that commit the sin Rom 1.31. The way by precepts is obscure & long, but by example● sho●te & plain. Senec. religiouslee: For, if by Princes, vices be aloud, It is all one, as if they vice ensued. But just Lycurgus near did aught forbidden, But by himself the same should be eschude Whose subjects did no more than himself did, Such Legislators should be deified. Such Prince or Priest, such people, b Princes and Priests ought to be the Exchequers of Gods inestimable Graces. saith the Saw; Examples more than laws make men live well: Do Priests live so? their lives like lodestones c Good works are much more persuasive to good life than good words. draw The people to the same: And do compel Sans-force t' obedience such as would rebel: Then weigh what good or ill your d Good life is the effect and glory of the church militant & of the good Pastors thereof. Blessed is the Prince & Priest whose lives serve for vnwri●en law. lives do cause Ye Prophets sons, that should in grace excel; Is your life ill? its double ill, because It hurts your selves, and to vice others draws. And where Vice reigns, Rebellion oft doth rule That diss-unites the best united state: Which grows from governor's vice or Misgovernment ●or the most part i● cau●e of rebellion; an argument of the goodness of ours. misrule That makes the Commons (with no common hate) Watch all advantage, to abridge their date. The foreign Foe, then finds domestic aid, Aid that assists all that will innovate; So by their subjects Sov'raignes are betrayed, When their misrule makes them be disobaide. ANd here my Muse leads me as by the hand Out of the way (as it were) by the way, To view the lives of Princes of this Land, Since first the Norman did the sceptre sway William Duke of Normandy. And scan their undertakings as I may: For by th'event of Actions past, we shall The present, and future, the better sway; Others harm teach us to eat what caused them. Which is the use of story, for they fall Seldom or near, that have light to see All. William the Norman, surnamed conqueror, By his successful sword having subdued This compound Nation (weak through civil war) Brittan● Saxon, Dane. The Conquest he so thoroughly pursued As that an admirable peace ensued: This fierce Invader with resistless force It is a glorious matter to conquer, but a much more glorious to use the Conquest well. Dissolved the state and made the Multitude To live by laws, which Lawyers yet enforce, Which, of all former laws did cross the course. He pulled up all that might pull down his state, Supplanting, or transplanting every plant The way to establish a state purchased with the sword That might prove poison to his frolic fate; And planting in their place (ere Plants did want) Such as were wholesome, or less discrepant: So that no Britain, Saxon, Dane, or all, A consequent of removing great ones in a newe-conquered kingdom. Can to this day his offspring here supplant, But they have, do, and still continue shall, Until this kingdom from her self doth fall. It was no little work, nor wisdom less, From so small wealth, and power which he possessed, Not only such a people to suppress, But erst at odds, to make them live in rest 20 And odd descents of Kings and Queens since the conquest. For ten descents twice told and more at least; Not as a Nation mixed, but most entire, And with new Lords, new laws the land invest, Which strait extinguish might seditions fire, And keep Ambition down that would aspire. For who so reacheth with his sword a crown, If head, and hand, use not As this of this Conqueror. like government, The reeling crown may soon be overthrown, Though it (perhaps) be propped by parliament: France. witness our Conquests in the Continent: That were more glorious, then commodious, Because we made the sword the instrument Only to make ourselves victorious, Our glory & shame. But not to keep what made us glorious. From William, unto Edward, Longshancks named, Turmoils, and Brals, to that state incident, That is not thoroughly staid, the Land inflamed; For no peace is so sure or permanent, Avarice and Pride the perverters of Peace. But Avarice or Pride makes turbulent. Richard the first, transported by desire To help to conquer jury, thither went; It is mere madness to trust the Crown in their hands that long to put it on their own heads. And made his brother john, Regent entire; Who did usurp the crown ere his retire. In which return, he was ta'en Prisoner In Austria, from whence b'ing ransomed, Rich 1. taken prisoner in Austria. he repossessed his crown; but in the war He made (when he his crown recovered) Upon his foes, he life surrendered. The sincerest minds may be tempted above their strength by the glitering gloss of a crown lying within reach. The end of Kings thus causing their own grief To leave their crowns so near another's Head; A pleasant prey enticeth many a thief, And who'll be second, when he may be chief. Neither did John escape the heavy hand Of just Revenge, to all usurpers due; In whose dire Reign, two curses crossed the Land, The Pope interdicted the land. Gods, and the churches, which made all to rue, For ceaseless Troubles did thereon ensue: And in conclusion his life he lost; By poison as some say. For vengeance to the end did him pursue; So, all his life he being turned and tossed, Before his time gave up his tired Ghost. But to descend to Longshanckes, in whose time Edward. 1. The commonwealth (fast rooted) 'gan to sprout, And by this pillar to high state did climb, For he was prudent, painful, valiant stout, And dexterously his business brought about: He wisely weighed how incommodiously All kings that thought so thriv●d the better. The Conquests stood achieved the Land without, Therefore he bent his power, and industry, It to reduce into a * won Scotland. monarchy. On Wales, and Scotland he that power employed, That which is got with the Sword must so be maintained, which little instrument can remove Obstac●es be they never so great, or keep them down that would rise without permission. Reducing both to his obedience; And long might one the other have enjoyed Without hartburning inbred difference: If he had used King William's diligence: Prosperous he was abroad, and just at home, A no less virtuous, than a valiant Prince, Leaving his son (that next supplied his room) A demonstration what doth kings become. Edward his son, succeeded him in Rule, But not in To rule is as much as to amend that which is amiss or awry. Rules, by which he ruled aright, Who being seduced by Masters of Misrule, Referred the government to their oresight, Who, all oresaw, but what advance them might: Until their rapine, and ambition, The love of all from their b A Prince once in obloquy, do he well, or ill, all is ill taken of his subjects Liege parted quite; So that the Sire assailed was by the son, And being subdued, ● in Prison. Tacitus Hist. Simil. A direful end to Kings misguided, due; Who like to figg-Trees growing on the side Of some steep rock, do feed none but a crew Of crows and Clawbacks, and Sinn-soothers. Kites, which on their tops do ride, And plume on them (base Birds) on every side: A State's abundance, if it managed be By a lascivious King, which Slaves misguide, Subverts the d The more wealth, the more woe, if evil employed. State which Kings cannot foresee, When they are compassed with ill company. Edward. 3. Edward the third, was most victorious, In all attempts and Actions fortunate, No less judicious than valorous, Yet were his Conquests hurtful to his State, For they the same did but debilitate: So that when through his ages feeble plight, And this ore-racked realms most poor estate, The sinews of the war were cracked quite, His wont fortunes than played least in sight. His father's blood with never-ceasing cries Filling Th'almighties just al-hearing ears, Importunes Vengeance, which with Argus' Eyes Watcheth his shaking house for many The divine Vengeance sleeps not though it winks. years, And to his sons son fearfully appears: Disastrous Richard of Bordeaux. Richard second of that name, Pestered with plagues, and ceaseless cause of fears, (Through his misrule) can well aver the same, Who did the form of this State quite unframe. He, like his Grandsire great, great troubles raised Through his more great oppressions, and excess: He loved and praised none that virtue praised; Lived like his Grandsire great, with like One evil corrupteth another and evil put to evil is cause of mutual destruction. success, Who, blest a few, that few or none did bless: Edward, and Richard, second of their names, (The last, the first did second in distress) Both overruled were by base past-shames, So Both alike, lost Kingdom, Life, and fames. And if there be wrench in this parallel, It is in that one had a sorry son, The other a like Cousin to compel Him yield his crown, be●ore his days were done, Which were abridged (as Edward's) in Prison: But, if this King had not so childish been When Mowbray peacht th' usurper of Treason, He might have been secure from all his Kin: But blinded judgement is the hire of sin.. Thus fa●es it with weak Kings, and Cousins strong; Richard, lies naked clothed with his h God executes his own justice by the iniustïce of others. gore, Exposed to the view of old and young, A woeful Spectacle, if not much more For Kings that live, as he had lived before: But though example's (freshly bleeding yet) Do cave cry, (or rather loud do roar,) Yet Kings thus clawde, where they do itch, forget The future paine ● on present i Present pleasures take away the thought of future pain. pleasure set. Henry 4. Henry the fourth, which thus usurped the crown, Of all usurpers had the best success. For, he was provident to hold his own, And for the commonwealth he was no less: In Field, and town, he would direct the press; Chief captain, and chief councillor was k A King should be able to council as chief councillor and direct as chief captain. he Who ruled in height of wisdom, and prowess; Into obscurest Treasons he could see, And if they Were, soon cause them not to be. This held him King as long as life he held, Which was as long as Nature gave him leave; And courage gave the sceptre well to wield Unto his son to whom he both did leave, Who, did accordingly the same receive: Henry 5. He ruled as did his Sire, in wisdoms strength, And height of valour, which he eke did give; Who caught fast hold on fleeting France at length, , ,But weak Arms lose, what ere the strong arm geint'h. And now as roused from a tedious sleep, (After this King with glory was interred) The Divine Vengeance 'gan again to l Vengeance attends the 3. and 4 generation of merciless manquellers. peep Upon his son, that long had been deferred; The Cries of Richard's blood now well are heard: And silly Henry (though a Saint he be) Henry 6. Must bear the plagues his Grandsire's guilt incurred, When he imbrued his hands, or did agree To have his sovereign's blood shed savaglee. His uncles (more like Fathers) first he looseth, Then by a woman most improvident He is over ruled, fo● she of all disposeth, Till Hate and Factions ore-grew government. Then Richard Duke of York in parliament Rich. Duke of York claimed the crown in Parliament. Claimed the sceptre, (being so ill swayed) Where was examined his claim, and descent, And then gave way to it, when all was weighed; So, silly Henry was by law betrayed. The title of Duke Richard thus admitted, But an usurper needs must make the King; Yet 'twas decreed that he should be permitted For life to hold the crown which death doth bring When as the crown is held as no such * No king, i● but half on●● thing: Making the Duke by Act of Parliament His Heir apparent, without altering, Which for them both was most malevolent, For hardly can one crown, two Kings content. This was a fond conspiring parliament The fruits springing from the pow●e of Parliaments to make Kings in England. Against their Liege directly, and the laws; No less disloyal, then improvident, And of effects most bloody was the cause; For, now the King his friends together draws, Who, for his safety strait began to lay, Which could not be without the fearful pause Of York (that Lion) clean were * Germanicus, because one or two in the Army had only a purpose to salute him by the name of Emperor, was never well brooked till by his own death he had paid the price of other men's rashness. Tac Hist. cut away, down must his Den, his house must have no stay. Who like him self (being truly Leonine) Stood on his strength, so to defeat his foes; And having wisdom truly serpentine Still compassing about the crown he goes, Whom Henry tripping in his course * No wisdom prevails against God's decree. orethroes: But his Son Edward kept the claim a foot Until that civil blood the Land oreflowes; Who, in conclusion, pulled up by the root All Lets, & got th'embrued crown with much boot. Edward 4. Whilst this was doing, the realm was undunne, The commonwealth, became a Common-woe; justice, and government by Rogues over run, The Ministers whereof tossed too and fro Like footballs over which all men may a The effects of civil war: for look how much Peace is bet●er than war, so m●ch is ●orraine invasion better than civil dissension. go: All was quite out of square, by squaring thus; The Ground did groan enforced to undergo, Continued Armies (most contentious) That made the State poor, as prodigious. This claim was well examined, and admitted, Here was Succession well established, What villainy was not thereby committed? What virtue was not quite abolished? And who so high that were not drowned in dread? young, old, rich, poor, and Babes unborn, b civil war ten●es to the prejudice of the yet unborn. or borne, Beasts, & things senseless had cause tears to shed, For all hereby away perforce were worn, And fared at least, as Creatures most forlorn. Woe worth such viprous c King's houses yield many such vermin. Cousins that will rend Their Mothers●wombe (the commonwealth) to reign; From such apparant-Heires God us defend, That care not who do lose so they may gain: And long may he in peace the crown sustain, That for our peace, & his, such heirs hath brought; We all of late for such did still complain; Then now sith we have such, and cost us nought, Let's thankful be and know them as we ought. As power doth want, so claims, & Factions d For a poor and hungry Army cannot observe military discipline. Casiodorus. cease; Might Right o'ercomes, chief in Kingdoms claims; Power Titles stirs, and Conquest makes their peace: The Sword the Law (how firm soever) maims, Which at a Conquest (though unlawful) aims: Though Prince, and peers, provide for future rule, Ambition hardly her estate disclaims, Though for a time the laws her overrule, Yet when time serves, the Law she will e Ambition upon the least opportunity sets upon what so ere hinders her rising misrule. Our State stands not on arms as others do; Our force lies most dispersed at the blow, Unready, rude, and oft rebellious f More common weals are ruined for want of good obayers, them good commanders. too, Whose sunburnt Necks oft rather break than bow, Not caring whom, ne what they do allow: These and such like induced our late Prince Such motions utterly to disallow, For this, and many an inconvenience, Whereof all Times afford experience. This made this careful Queen as knowing well, (By forty five years proof, and her sharp sight Into events, whereof all Stories tell) How safe to rule, and keep the State upright, For her rights sake, right close to keep this g jealousy is glued to love and to a crown. right: Better (she thought) such Hëires two days old Then two years, and as strong in Law, and Fight: So, loved her state's life, and her own to hold, And made her heart that heirs securest Hold. But sith she did conclude this great affair, Both Law, and Conscience, do conclude the State; And who resists (by birth) that lawful heir, Resists the lawful sovereign magistrate, Made both by birth and Law from just estate: Monarchicall-inheritance resides In him from her, h Birth, Bequest, Laws of God, Nature, Nations, and Reason, together with all kingly worthiness makes good our now King's possession. then, who doth violate Obedience to him wounds the tender sides Of Law and Conscience, and all good besides. Edward the fourth thus having caught the Crown, The weak Lancastrians drove to the wall, And spared none, till all were overthrown That might lie in his way to make him fall: His i nearness of blood doth oft put hearts furthest asunder, in K●ngdomes cases. Brother Clarence (o Crime capital!) He did rebaptize in a Butt of Wine, Being jealous of him (how soe'er loyal) A Turkish providence most indivine; Yet crowns will rest on such, ere they'll decline. Besides, a sliding and newfangled Nation Full of Rebellion and Disloyalty, May cause a Prince for his securer station To stand upon the like extremity Where virtue hath no place of certainty. What Prince (if provident) will stick to strain Both Law and Conscience in secrecy To cut one Member k The law itself will rather admit a mischief than an inconvenience. off, that lets his reign, Which the state's Body doth in health maintain? The more perfection and heroic worth Such heirs, great Cousines, or great subjects have, The more the Multitude will set them l He always shall be suspected & hated of the Prince in possession whom men do account worthy or like to be Prince in succession. Tacitus Hist. The valour & fierce courage of the great Cousin, displeaseth the jealous sovereign. Tacit. forth And more and more their rule they seek and crave; Then must we lose a part the whole to save: These have achitophel's to egg them on And make them much more restless than a wave, Until their sovereigns they set upon To make them yield up their Dominion. Many a busy- Head by Words and Deeds Put in their Heads how they may compass m All crafty & Achitophell-like counsels, are in show pleasant, in execution hard, and in event deadly dangerous. crowns, That crowns at last may compass so their Heads And sit victoriously on steedfast Thrones: All these like humming Bees ensue those Drones; To gather honey if they chance to rest, And store themselves with sweet n A Bankerours peace is in civil discord, & his discord is in peace. provisions, Whilst the Crown-greedy cousin in unrest Lives but for them with fears and cares oppressed. Now though King Edward (like a wary Prince) To remove Obstacles bend all his might; Yet could no skill or human providence Protect his sons from their Protectors spite: Who as he served King Henry, served them right. The blood of Innocents on Innocents With heavy vengeance mixed, amain doth light● Thus, Innocents are plagued for the Nocents Such are the High'sts inscrutable o God's judgements are inscrutable but none unjust. judgements. And as He murdered Henry for his crown; So for their crown were his sons p justice equal in quality, & quantity for Henry 6. and his son were murdered. etc. murdered, By hardest hearts in softest bed of down They were (dear hearts) at once quite smothered, Which some ignoble Nobles q Man ought not to use man prodigally. Seneca. Richard 3. furthered: And, rather than they should not die by force, Or want a Want-grace to perform the deed, Their uncle and Protector must perforce Their crown from Head, and Head from Life divorce. Now up is Richard, (Monster, not a Man) Upon the Royal Throne that reeling stood; Now Rule doth r under this King, to do ill was● not always safer & always unsafe to do well, as Tacitus reports of Nero's reign, Princes that tyrannously govern their people have greater cause to fear good men than than that be evil. end, when he to rule began, Who being perfect ill, destroyed the Good, And like an Horseleech lived by sucking blood. Now as desire of Rule more bloody was In York then Lancaster, so did the flood Of Divine Vengeance more in York surpass: For to main Seas of blood, Blood-Brookes repassed They which contenn: peace and covet honour, do lose both peace & honour. bloodsucking Richard (swollen with sucking blood) When Horsleech-like he had his bloody prey, Away falls he in blood bemired with Mud, Making his nephews usher him the way. For from his crown the crown was cut away. A good cause in public war (like the Cape Bone spei) conducts to the land of triumph Henry the sevenths keen-edged victorious Sword Slipped twixt both crowns unto his crowns decay, And got the crown that was much more assured Which he to his, and his to theirs afford. God amongst Men, no King but demi- God Hen. 7. Henry the seventh the sceptre takes in hand, Who with it (as with Moses powerful Rod) Turned streams of civil blood that soaked this land A good prince mak● war that he may have peace, and endures labour in hope of rest. Sallust. To silver streams, that ran on Golden sand: He turned Swords to mattocks, spears to Spades, And bound up all unbound, in pieces Band, Who dra●e the erst long idle to their Trades, And changed injurious Swords, to justice-blades. No more Plantagenet, but Thewdor now Sits in the kingdoms late unstable seat: Eccles. 5 8● ploughmen praise God, and God doth * Where God is praised men's endeavours are blessed. speed the blow, For such a King that makes their Crops complete, And multiplies their herds of sheep and neat: Upon ambition's neck he sets his foot Keeping her under; * Two things do establish the thrones of kings prudence & piety, the one a●earing in their Actions, the other in their manners. And amongst the wheat He pulls up Darnell duly by the root, And nought neglects that may his kingdom boot. This Solomon looked into High and Low, And knew all from the Cedar to the shrub; He bore the sword that gave a bitter blow 1. King. 3.12. Aswell to Cedars, as the lowest stub That in the course of justice proved a Rub: Homer feigneth all the Gods to sleep except Jupiter implying there by the care of a good King for his subiect● Wisdom and prowess did exalt his Throne, justice and mercy propped it, which did curb Those that would shake it, so that he alone Did rule the Roast that all did live upon. He, (virtuous King) still feared the King of Kings With loving fear, that made him Lion-bold. He ordered things as pleased the Thing of Things, Prince's ought to measure their Actions by the standard of their Laws; as this did. Like David, that of him his crown did hold, That on his Throne his offspring doth uphold: Laden with happiness, and blessed days, His realm replete with blessings manifold; This prosperous Prince (to his immortal praise) Left Life, realm, Children, all at happy stays. Then no less feared, then famous Henry, Hen. 8. (That had a sacred Caesar in his pay) His sword was so successful as made his neighbours glad of his friendship, & fearful of his indignation. With somewhat more than mortal majesty, Sits on the Throne (that hands divine did stay) As Heir apparent, and the state doth sway: He wields the sword with his victorious hands That the whole Continent doth sore affray, Wherewith he makes to crouch the Neighbour lands Which in a manner lie at his commands. He was as circumspect, as provident, Mercy may have her excess in human things. And by his father's observation Did right well know, what kind of government Was fitt'st for this unkind revolting Nation: Clemency is most dangerous where & when soft quiet dealing draweth on more evil than severity● Well knew he how to part a Combination That stood not with the state, or his avail; And if he were severe for reformation, 'Twas Emperik-like, that knew what it did ail, So, kill the cause lest all the Whole should fail. His foreign wars, and famous Victories More glorious were● then for our country good: For, such Wars have these inconveniences, They make us spend our Treasures with our blood, Where both are cast * foreign conquests were costly in achiving costly in holding, & oft no less costly than dishonourable in foregoing away in likelihood, When wars abroad drink up our wealth at home, The fire must out, when spent is all the wood; And if nought from without come in the womb The Body needs must die by nature's dumb. The wealth he priest from monasteries suppressed With the revenues which to them pertained, * In liberal largesse to his friends & servants. The Crown possessed, but he it dispossessed With open Hand; which, had they, still remained T'had been aloft; for less hath crowns sustained. Lone, relief, subsicy, and such as these Might (for the subjects ease) have been refrained: The crowns revenues such might well release, And have maintained the state in war and peace. If these had still been adjuncts of the crown, And all that hold them hold as of the same; Our Kings might have had a double interest in their subjects. Our Kings might war with Tenants of their own, Who would unpressed have yet been priest for shame To follow their Liege-land-lords by that name. The crown then, like a Condite never dry, Still might have streamed (to th' owners endless fame) Rivers of Riches unto Low and hy That well deserved of King or Contery. Those hearts, whose life their Liege should thus maintain (No less than bodies to their souls are bound) Should have been tied unto their sovereign To go with him at every needful Sound, And in their service been most faithful found. But that, that shallbe, shallbe. That high hand That all disposeth, thus did it The hearts of Kings are in his hands that disposeth all things to effect his inevitable decrees. confound For purposes which hardly can be scanned, But for the crown ill, how ere for the landlord. He, Caesar-like in's fortune's confident, Ere first he crossed the Seas to war with France, The marquess of Exeter made Regent And Heir apparent; but no ill by chance Ensued till he did him quite Beheaded him disadvance: He had forgot the direful tragedy Of the sixth Henry, and like heirs appearance: But more advised, he held it policy He knew it was not the speech of a wise man to say, who would have thought it? To spare that heir till more necessity. When he had cleared the coast, and cleansed the way, Of all that lay in either to molest, And having put the state in perfect stay, He with his Fathers laid him down to rest, And left a son in whom the Land was blest: Edw. 6. Who being young, could not yet stir the stern, But ruled by those his sire esteemed best; And while the virtuous King to rule did learn, His realm (misruled) in uproar did discern. here reigned Ambition, like Obedience clad, There ruled Sedition, in concords coat; And here and there Rebellion raged as mad, Simil. And every where the commonwealth did float Like to an halfe-suncke tempest-beaten boat: Each for him self, no one for King or sat, Upon the Wedge of Gold the best did dote, All stood as falling still in each estate, Knights giving Earls, Earls giving Dukes the Mate. Many a Demas then forsook poor Paul; In sum, the sum of all was out of square, And yet (strange Paradox) at square was all, None compass kept, yet a For private good. compassing they are, And Circumvention held discretion's care: Thus whilst the sovereign's in minority, Each would be sovereign that about him were; The small in grace strave for majority, And Youth with Age for Seniority. Disorder thus dividing the whole b Disorder mother of Confusion. State, And subdividing those divisions; The Lord of Love, to show his urged Hate, took the wronged King from his Dominions, And left the Land fired with c Sedition the plague of perverseness. seditions: By angels hands this King angelical, (A● one of high Jehovah's Minions) Was borne from this Nation unnatural, That vengeance on it, so, might freely fall. No sooner had the Heavens seized his soul, But a left hand began to seize the crown; Which seizure a right hand did soon control, And Wrong that would aspire, Right strait puts d Fortune often reserveth t● the hardest chance● them whom she advanceth to the greatest dignity. The fortunate cannot do ill i● they would. down; Which fatally in fine was overthrone: Yet was that wrong made Right by their consents That were to see that each one had his own; But heaven disposeth Earth and her intents, And Earth 'gainst heaven opposed, too late He is made wise too late that is made wis● by his own h●rme and irrecoverable l●s●e. reputes. Who trusts in Men in whom was never f D●p●●t from th●●e enemies and beware of thy friends' Eccle. 6.13. trust (Except they were at war with Wealth and State) Few Statesmen such) shall see how much distrust Doth Men advantage, and prolongs their date; Treason's in Trust; Repentance comes to late: When power's derived from those that are but weak (weak every way) it stands in desperate state: Frailty sticks not fidelity to g Frailty is full of falsehood. break When it doth favour, and advantage seek. In case of crowns (when it our crowns may cost, If we miss holding when at them we catch) It's deadly dangerous at all to trust, Much more to trust h There is nothing more profitable to mortal men than distrust. Euripides. all that advantage watch By thy loss, from loss themselves to dispatch: Religion cannot dwell in double i They that stand with all worlds will stand with no world if the world stand not with them. Queen Mary. hearts; Such hearts have All that with all states do match: Then where Religion slideth, promise starts, And fear of peril, worldly friendship parts. Queen Mary (for, she was that which she was, Namely our Queen, and near to our late Queen) Her faults in silence we will k Love covers the multitude o● sins in our neighbour what should it do them in our sovereigns that have more means & inducements to sin than private person's. overpass; Let them be buried with her, sith I ween Sh'hath been well taxed whose memory is green: She now is crowned, and crowned to others cost; With Spain she matches, being overseen, Her King forsakes her, Calis quite is lost, All goes awry, which makes her yield the Ghost. Now sacred l Queen Elizabeth. Cynthia girt with silver orb From out Cimmerian Clouds of Prisonment, (fair Queen of Chastity) appeared to curb Contention, which oreranne this Continent; And joined the same with peaceful government, Which we do yet enjoy, and long may we The cause of it m All that understand the worth of blessed Peace will say Amen to a prayer for Peace. possess in all Content; Amen say I, and all that peaceful be In him that saith Amen when all agree. God will rather hear the Orisons of them that pray for Peace, them the Trumpets that proclaim wars Pray for thy King (blessed isle) lest that a Change A fivefold change, to Desolation tend; Or thou made subject to a subject strange, Which may thy publike-weale in pieces rend, And make it private only to the friend: God's Mill grinds slowly, but small meal it n So often we play with God's judgements because we feel not the force thereof, that at length (like the Fly in the flame) we are consumed of them. makes. Then praise him for thy peace and less offend; Be not as one that still occasion takes To sin the more, the more he peace partakes. far be it from Religion, to pretend Obedience whilst it aims at Prince's spoil; It's not Religion sovereignty to end, That Servitude thereby may keep o civil war is fa●re worse than Tyranny or unjust judgement Plutarch. in Bruto. a coil, And for her freedom covett Freedoms foil. If King's Commands do cross the Divine will, In their discharge Religion must recoil, But not confound the Charger, for its ill; And ill can never good p God's commandments. A Recapitulation of what hath been discoursed touching the Kings of England & their governments. Commands fulfil. Now, brifly t'recollect what we have said Touching the Actions of these Potentates: William Conqueror. In William Conquerer's considered How soon are conquered divided Stat●s; , ,For force disioyned● small force q Vis unita fortior. ruinates. He, being desirous to retain the Pray His Sword had purchased, it quite dissipates; And like a Chaos at his feet it lay, To form it as he listed every way. New Lords, new laws. With the new King, he gave new Lords and Laws, Which curbed the headstrong, & did yoke the Wild, Till Disobedience with obedience draws, And all as one to one and all did yield, That with and for that One did win the field: Who, finding his possession to be sure Did ease the thraldom wherein they were held, And that which erst he wounded, he did r To hurt and heal for more health is wholesome. cure; And every way their loves did then allure. Now are the King and the Nobility True friends, and fathers to the commonweal; The Commons now obey s Blessed is the affliction that procures greater perfection. unfeignedly: The Victors and the Vanquished do feel How much these corrosives deadly hatred heal: Now all, being whole and sound, are made entire, And all about, their Liege doth largesse deal, By means whereof he hath his heart's desire, Whilst with his love, he thus sets hearts on ●ire. If he to mercy had the peers received, Or trusted to their oaths (true Fallacies) And so departed when he had perceived The State well settled leaving Deputies, H'had lost the value of his t soon ripe, soon rotten. Victories: Ne had the Land been free from wars and woes, That do consort divided Monarchies; Ireland a woeful witness is of those, That for a Conquests want, wracks Friends and Foes. Omitting other Princes, to descend Edward 1. Longshancks. To the first Edward, that did first refine This commonweal, and made the same ascend When through mis-swaying it seemed to decline: In whom we see the Providence divine Work by his Wisdom, valour, industry, Glorious effects, which in the State do shine; For he it made an entire monarchy, Which now remains so to posterity. Edw. 2. Rich. 2 Hen. 6. Edw. 5. Edward and Richard, second of their names, With the sixth Henry, and the Infant King, By these (be't spoken not without their blames) Is seen the dire and divers altering Of kingly state, through evil managing. These being childish, frail, improvident, Lay open to a Ambition gathers resistless strength in a King's weakness. Ambitions canvasing; Who (sp●ing time) usurped their government Making them Mirrors for Kings negligent. The faults forementioned in these hapless Kings, The unjust rule of those that ruled them, Majesty without magnanimity is vnassured. Livy. 2. ● The subjects strength which sovereign's weakness brings, A fatal Potion made for King and realm, Whereof they drank a deadly draft extreme: Kings must be Kings indeed and not in show, Like as the sun is active with his beam; For if they suffer Subjects, Kings to grow, Kings must be slaves, and to their subjects b I have seen servants on horses, & Princes walking like ● servants on the ground. Eccl. 10.7. bow. Edw. 3 Hen 4. Edward the third and Henry Bullenbrooke, Hen. 5. Edw. 4. Henry the fift, and the fourth Edward, These Princes were of Fortune near forsook, Because they governed with due regard; And whilst they watched, they made the rest to ward: By others errors they did rule aright, Loving fear a sure guard to sovereigns Who made their subjects loving fear their guard: Ambition durst be damned ere come in sight, Or but once move her head to look upright. No kingdom free from Ambition. Kingdoms the objects of fortune & Envy. King's cannot safely reign without mistrust, Because no state without Ambition is, Which ever hath her Train● (for so she must) To help to guide her, when she guides amiss; For she is blind, and oft the way doth miss, Impatient of delay in her desire, Now running that way and straight trying this; Like to a restless ventlesse Flame of fire, Simil. That feign would find the way straight to aspire. there's a Perfection human no perfection without some defect, Yet may't be cured, or tolerable made; Only Ambition doth all cure reject, Wealth doth augment it, want makes it not fade; Ambition a sore of the mind incurable. And into deeps unknown in both 'twill wade: In doing well it is most insolent, And no less impudent in doing bad, Too wiled to tame, and violently bend With Tooth and nail to catch at government. The Conquests which these Kings in France obtained (As those in Scotland) were by others lost: " (For Vice will lose what is by virtue gained.) Their keeping put the state to ceaseless b An inevitable inconvenience cost, Which ●ost the Commons (raged) being racked most; And with their loss, the King lost many friends, Which were as forts to guard his kingdom's coast; " But ill beginnings have unlucky ends, And worse proceeding, worse in fine offends. In the last Richard may be lively seen Richard. 3. Ambition really annatomized; Which o'erlooks all, and yet is overseen, Advising all, yet none more unadvised, Destroying all till she be sacrificed: She, a Ambition would destroy all to be above all. Faith, Sex, Age, blood, State, and Contery, Divine and human laws (immortalised) Respects not, in respect of Empery, All which appeared in this King copiously. Hen. .7 In his Successor (England's Solomon) Are divers things well worth the imitation In our state's policy: for he alone Bend all his powers to benefit this Nation: He saw our foreign Conquests ill probation, And that for Islanders it was unmeet To spend their wealth for foreign domination, Which was no sooner fixed, but did fleet, And did this state with ill Salutes regreet. He thought it loss to purchase Unjust peace is to be prefer red before just war Livy. Yet open war is more secure than suspicious peace. Tac. 4. Hist. war and hate, Where love and traffic might be held with gain; He well remembered, how each runagate And wandering Nation, here ran in amain, Making their profit of this nation's pain: He saw the safety, and Great heaps are made of many little things in peace, & brought to nothing in war. weal of this state Rested in wealth and peace, and quiet reign, And not in foreign Conquests, and debate; Which have as short, as most uncertain date. Through Peace and perfect government this Land May in her rich Peace & good government the Parents of Prosperity. Commodities abound, Which may confirm the Neighbor-friendships band, And intertrafficke with them, tun for pound, So make the lands adjacent, to her bound: Thus God is pleased, and King and country eased, The tradesmen God selleth us riches for the price of labour. thrive, that dearth & wars confounded, The People are (as with great profit) pleased, And none, but those that live by spoil, displeased. This prudent Prince perceived this commonweal To be by traffic strong made in the We are said to be well backed when we are no worse friended back; So, as an head that Members wants doth feel, He leagued him, where might be supplied their lack, Or be as walls to keep the realm from wrack: He seeing that (which he did often try) The a Gold makes all thin●s pregnable. Money-Sacke, best kept the Land from b Money is the very sin●wes of a State. Mucian. sack; Therefore the angels which from him did fly Had but short wings, and lighted but hard by. Among the things which he did least regard, His Belly and his back were more than lest; He fared well, when so his c The good of the subjects is the object of the good ●rince. Commons fared, (Although his commons were not of the best) Yet fared like a King without a feast; He rather chose to have Exchequers d Money (saith Thucydides) makes weapons forcible and profitable. rich Then wealthy wardrobes; yet would well be dressed When it his majesty and State did touch; Yet held, save commonwealth, all wealth too Cyrus● was wont to say, he heaped great treasures when he enriched his friends & subjects. much. Where Kings be not in ceaseless guard of arms (Like these of ours) the State lying open so TO invasion and Rebellions sudden harms, Let not the King look Friends should ●oile the Foe At their own charge, for fear of overthro: And in tumultuous times to break their backs Will make them from their Necks the yoke to thro', And to be freed from such tormenting Racks Will ruin all, though them with all, it wracks. Such great improvidence f Let Kings that desire to live in peace, provide in time things necessary for war. and want of heed unseasonable Taxing (Tempting rather) Hath made the sovereign with the subject bleed; Witness the two last Richards among other, That knew how grievous then it was to gather. Store is no Sore (they say) except of g Tiberius of Constantinople accounted that for counterfeit coin, that was levied with tears and cry of the people. Sores, Yet 'tis sore h The bitings of enraged necessity are most dangerous Portiu● latro. store with hate to heap together; Hate havocks in each hole in all uproars, As Water havocks life through all the Pores. This spectacle of Kingly providence Near cloyed the subject with too great estate, Nor would he of a peasant make a Prince; His best belov'd he held in sober state, That he might live with them without debate. Hen. 7. a true Pa●terne of a wise and virtuous Prince. Of all the Kings that ere this Land possessed, For government discreet and temperate, This King deservedly is deemed best, And to be imitated worthiest. In his Triumphant most victorious Son Hen. 8. Henry the last in name, and first in fame, Is to be seen great wisdom, used to shun Cross Accidents and courage in the same: Yet some suppose, that he incurred blame For being too openhanded in expense Bounty doth cover many faults, & Avarice obscureth many virtues. And gifts excessive; but it is a shame For Kings not royally to recompense The rich desert of any Excellence. Ingratitude in all's most monstruous, But most of all in royal majesty, Wherein it's more than most prodigious: Munificence makes great, authority; Gifts do superinduce the heart to love. And stands with greatness in great policy: The force of gifts doth offer violence Even to savage Inhumanity, Forcing therefrom such loves obedience, As singly works with double diligence. He more respected honour then profit. His foreign Conquests much more famous were Then any way commodious to this state, Yet ●hem his active sprite could not forbear; For Caesar-like he would predominate Where he had least just colour of estate: In raising lowest shrubs to Cedars hie He from his sage Sire did degenerate; Yet virtue though it near so low doth lie, Is worthy of high praise and dignity. In the last Edwards and Queen Mary's reign Edward 6. Q● Marie. Is seen, what to those states is incident Where subjects do not fear their sovereign, But strive to live beside their Regiment, Contemning so their too-weake government: Contempt in subjects is the con●usion of government. This made the rebel rise in strength and pride, From sovereign's weakness taking couragement, T'assault their Gates, led by a feeble Guide, Shaking their Thrones a while from side to side. In our Queens no less long then peaceful reign Q● Elizabeth. Blest (as appeared) by that blessed Prince of Peace, Was seen much more than wisdom feminine, If we respect how soon she made to cease The old Religion for the oldes increase: That sudden change that did the soul acquit Of old devotion (which none will release Upon the sudden) still to stand in might, May make a neuter deem sh'was in the right. Act. 5.35,36, 37,38,39. And now descend ye spirits angelical, That, charged, do guard th' Anointed of your Lord; Crown my Liege Lord with crown imperial, And put into his hand the awful Sword Of justice; so, the good shall be assured, And so may ye be freed from your charge, Whereby the good are evermore secured; For, he that office will for you discharge, Sith justice goodman's surance doth enlarge. Bless him o ever-blessed union, Making a no less blessed trinity; Bless him as thou hast never blessed one That ever did possess this Monarchy: Shower down thy blessings on his family: The blessings of the womb give to his Queen, And let them as the Sea-sand multiply; That from their royal loins may still be seen Heirs, as the stars of heaven, for store, and sheen. Thus have I breathed my Muse in policy, Or rather run her out of breath therein; That so she may with more facility Run over the rest less difficult, wherein She hath much more than much delighted been. But policy is but abused by me, I do but mangle her, and make her sin: But were she wholly seen as she should be, Sh'would seem no daughter of mortality! Return my Muse from whence thou hast digressed, (To toil thyself in states deep mysteries) And now directly prosecute the rest Touching the souls yet untouched faculties: We varied, where we touched varieties Of dispositions of the soul and sprite; In touching which, we touched these Policies Wherein the worldly wise so much delight, Because they tend to rule the World aright. The minds pleasures much more pleasant than corporal delights. The pleasures of the mind (as erst was said) As far surmount all pleasures corporal, As the mind doth the body, which is swayed But by the mind, with sway monarchical; Yet some base bodies keep the mind in thrall: Who do s'extremely dote on fleshly joys, That they do wish they had no mind at all, That so they might not feel the minds annoys, For those delights which Flesh and spirit destroys. These Men-beastes are as if they never were, Sensual persons are useless burdens to the earth. They burden but the Earth, yet are too light, Who live to lust, yet straight away they wear, (Like Dew against the sun in highest height) With flesh-consuming fleshly frail delight. These senseless sponges of Improbity Are full of pleasure, but it is unright; For god's hand squizeth out their jollity, And fil● their minds with real misery. The mind, her pleasures needs not intermit The senses soon weighed of their pleasures. And then retake them, as the senses must: But changeth them as she thinks requisite, (Sometimes the just, for pleasures most unjust, So changing love too oft to loathsome Lust) Except the power, from whence the motion springs Be hindered by (and so betrayed in trust) Some let in th' Organs, used in her workings, Wine & sickness 2. Obstacles that lets the m●ndes actions. Which Wines excess, and sickness often brings. But those impediments bee'ng ta'en away, She, like a River, keeps her wont course Simil. In motion still, ti●l she be at a stay By some strong dam; yet doth herself enforce (still gathering strength, & courage from her source) To break away through all Impediments, We ought to propose nothing to the mind unworthy of her. That so she may employ her wont force Upon the pleasures, which her most contents, Be they vain joys, or divine ravishments. It than behoves us to be well advised What matter we propose unto our mind; Or good, or ill, or ill with good disguised: For if she should therein a liking find, She will thereto be evermore inclined: Simil. Like some pure virgins, that near knew the sport That men do yield them, in the kindest kind, Having once tasted it, are all amort But when (though damned) they a●e at that disport. If then we would cheer this ay-moving mind, We must have care, that that be perfect good Which she doth chew (how different e'er in kind) For, corrupt Aliments breed corrupt blood; And blood corrupted is confusion's flood: But sensual pleasures cannot please the Sense Without being cloyed, though they change their mood; Sense must awhile forbear pleasures to make them more pleasant. For Sense sometimes must hold them in suspense, To set an edge the while on her dulled sense. Likewise, the pleasures which we do receive From * The pleasures which sense receives from natural things are more pleasant than those from artificial. nature's works have much more force, than those That we from Artificial things conceive: For let all arts unto our view expose What art itself in each kind can disclose, They bring satiety soon with the sight; But who is cloyed to see a flowered Close, Hills, Dales, Brooks, Meads, Woods, groves, all dainty dight, Sun, moon, and stars, & all in perfect plight? For we, being natural, do best agree With things in nature no less natural; Yet, to confess a wel-know'n verity, Our often seeing these fair Creatures all Doth make the pleasure much less * Nothing under the sun long contents: therefore we should seek contentment above the sun. Cordial, here-hence it is, that we do less admire The power of that Hand supernatural, Which did this all with all these fairs attire; And so not praise him, as his works require. Yet if a Child, cozened t'a Dungeon deep Until he had attained manhood's years, Should on a sommers-day from some high steep Upon a sudden see these glorious fairs, His Eyes would ravished be, how ere his ears; For ears should solaced be, aswell as Eyes, With the melodious * birds. nimble-winged quires; Nay I suppose such joy would him surprise, As he were plunged in joys of paradise. But while he's dungeoned, let the expert'st tongue young, (That able were to create Living words) Paint out the Earth with quick- words, great with And though that Fry again like spawn affords, And every one had power to pierce like Swords Into the nature of these Rarities, To make him comprehend the highest Lords Inferior'st works, he could not well comprise The thousandth part of grace which in them lies. As when a Man (though with an angels tongue) Simil. Whilst we are dungeoned in this World of woe, Tells us of heaven, and all that doth belong Unto the state of those that thither● go, With words that from a well of wisdom flow, Yet tells he not the hundred thousandth part Of that rare bliss which none on Earth can know; As good souls well perceive, when hence they None know it but they that feel it. part; Which far surmounts the highest thoughts of Hart. But herein's faulty this Comparison: To Mundane things is fixed satiety, But those blessed Things that are above the Sun Are privileged from such deficiency; For they are full of all a The property of true felicity is always to consent the desire and exclude fear. felicity: The more they are beheld the more they may, For they content Desires best-sighted Eye, And please the more, because that still they stay; " For true joys are complete by their delay. Ask that same third- Heau'n-rapt b St. Paul. Saint, what he saw Or what he heard, when he was ravished so; he'll tell you (though most learned in sacred Law And no less learned each way) he doth not know, The joy thereof his Sense did so oreflo. If then so great a clerk, so pure a Saint, Being but in the heaven, two lofts belo, Wants words the joy there of aright to paint, Who can the highest Heavens bliss depaint? Thus the Affects of joy and grief, are given By him, that gives all only to one end, To weet, his glory, and desire of heaven; joy to allure, and grief th' Affects to bend From that which doth to grief and Horror tend. Now then, to run through other strong Affects, And to descend to Love, (that doth Love doth descend not ascend. descend) Which is a Passion powerful in effects And chiefly the chief good by kind respects. When judgement hath aloud a thing for good, She forthwith tenders it unto the Will, Which doth embrace the same in joyful mood, Because it doth her souls desire fulfil: And when that joy (conceived) doth tarry still It's called love, How love is bred. which doth the will incline To simple good, or good scarce touched with ill: Thus love is bred or human or divine, Which in the soul like a fair Flame doth shine. But love, that hath respect to any thing Besides the goodness of the thing beloved, Is rather doting, which doth loathing bring Doting b●ings loathing. When things thereby desired are well approved: If God himself be for his bounty loved And only therefore, who doth love him so Doth love him for his goodness, by him proved, Yea for that goodness which to him doth flow, Not for that good which he cannot forego. Who loveth us for his own goodness sake, And for no good in us, (for we have none) We should love him, not for he did us God should simply be loved for his own goodness. make, But for his goodness only and alone, And love all goodness, for, and in that One: A father loves his son, not in regard Of any gain, but for he is his own; Nor should a son, his Sire love for reward, But for he is his Sire in Nature dear. For, if we love aught for the good we have From it, we love our selves more than the same, Or love it for our selves, ourselves to save From want of that which from it to us came: So such love is self-love, which Love doth blame: It is self-love to love God for his bounty towards us only. But we must love the Lord of Love for love; Nay, though he hate us, we must love his name, Sith to make man b love made us to love. love only did him move But to love him again for man's behoof. If then we weigh, by what degrees we mount To him from whom our souls did first descend, We find that as through love (which doth surmount) They came from him, so to him they ascend God is man's beginning & his end. The self-same way, as to their proper end. For coming from him, they must know him needs; And knowing him, they needs must to him tend, But so they cannot, but by loves good- deeds; For what is not of love, from sin proceeds. The order of loves progress The order then, of the degrees to love Is, first we at things corporal begin; For, our birth to that step us straight doth move; Unto our outward senses than we rinne, To fancy next, and so we never linne Till through reason, judgement, Contemplation, We come to love, and so we rest therein: But to descend by the self same gradation, And there to rest, descendeth to damnation. For, to dismount from true loves lofty pitch (love of the highest,) so low as to self-love, Is, Sow-like, to lie mired in the ditch Of lowest Hell, where we all sorrows prove, And cannot for our souls from thence remove Without kind heavenly loves all-helping hand; He works in us both the will and the deed. Which only and alone hath power to move Our minds from Earth unto the live Land, And break the links of selfe-loves mortal Band. Love makes an union of diversity; If then we love God, he and we are One, One (although divers) through true amity; We love him and ourselves for him alone: So may we love ourselves, as we love none. Self-love is justifiable when we love ourselves for god only. Likeness breeds love, which makes him love us so Who made us to his Image; and his son Assumed our shape, which makes his love the more: Then, by like reason, we should love him to. The more his Image is renewed in us, The more he loves us, and we love the more; Then to deform the same's most odious, And he detesteth us alone therefore, Which makes us likewise loathe him and his lo●e: All which proceeds from dissimilitude, For, God and belial are foes evermore; Then sith we are with his fair form endued, Let it by us be evermore renewed. For, Beauty is an urgent cause of love; Beauty is a special cause of love. If so, we should embrace the fairest fair With love that should be far all love above, Yea, die for love, that love might life repair, And glorify the same as Beauty's heir: See we an hue that mortal beauty stains (As doth the sun the moon by his repair) This sovereign Beauty all the glory gains, God the Fount of all Beauty. Sith but a spark thereof the same sustains. Then Beauty blush to glory in thy Blaze, And much more blush to blaze thy glory vain With colours fresh, to make frail eyes to gaze, Painting the face. And such as cannot judge of colours, feign; No colour hast thou so thyself to stain: The best is too too bad, and bad's the Best, That without * Without colour of Reason. colour do their face ingraine: In earnest such (I think) do love to jest, As Chaucer, but my, Muse will owe the rest. But outward beauty love procures, because Outward argues inward beauty. It argues th'inward beauty of the mind; For goodness is th' effect, Beauty the Cause, And both together commonly we find; For Nature both together still doth bind. A good Complexions disposition Is, for the most part, virtuously inclined; But woman's beauty by permission Being often tempted breeds suspicion. Sin is conceived in the womb of concupiscence. For hardly is that kept, that many craves, And chastity with beauty's still at strife; For, much more beautiful are Frailties slaves Then (for the most part) they of virtuous life: And, ask a man, that hath a beauteous wife, How much he fears the fowl fall of his fair, Because that nothing in the world's more rife Then at fair beauties biding men's repair; And where they haunt, they do not still * They rather ruin then repair the ●ender honours of women. repair. But this by accident is rather thus, Then any way to beauty natural; For it, by Nature, is most virtuous, A well tempered body makes a like tempered mind ordinarily. Sith Tempers good, to Ill are seldom thrall: For, bodies merely are organical, Whereon the mind doth play all parts in one, If then they be in tune, most cordial Their motions must be needs, sith there is none That moves then but the mind or God alone. But for that beauty still allures the eye, An unchaste eye loves to look upon ● light eye. The ●ie the heart, the heart the soul & spirit Of those, that on the same do chance to pry, Because it doth beheau'n them with delight: This makes them instantly the same incite To yield to love, or lust, and their desire; Then being subject thus to restless fight. It oft inflames, and is ens●am'd with fire, That Flesh and spirit makes but one flame entire. How many may we see distracted quite, Or pining live, or rather die with pain? Yea some to spill themselves (with all despite) For others beauty which they cannot gain? If beauty then so over frail sense doth reign, Beauty ●igniorizeth the sense. The beauty of a Woman cheereth the face, and a man loves nothing better. Eccl. 36.22. Sense, being subject to her sov'raigntie Doth sue and serve, her favour to obtain, With most impetuous importunity, Till she as subject, to her subject lie. And never times (except the times of old For whose corruption all the world was drowned) But these cursed times of ours, durst be so bold, To make it common with estates renowned To cou●t bright beauty * married. matched, as 'twere unbound: Call ye it courtship? Call it what ye please (Though it be in request) it was not found In chaster times; ●or oft it doth disease The head with swellings which nought can appease. Me thinks I see, (as I have often seen) A well-made Male, as malcontent to stand (In silk or silver clad right well-beseene) Wring a matched fair Female by the hand, Adultery Luxury, wantonness, sloth, Pride, etc. are sins in Specie, the Genus to all these is Caro. Whilst, in her ear, he lets her understand How much she ought to love him ●or his love; Mean while hard by stands Patience the Husband, And lets Temptation his weak vessel prove, Which in his sight her unseen sprite doth move. It's pretty pastime so to pass the time, It savoures of good breeding, and good wit: The hours are made more pleasant by this Chime, Who would not still to here the same still sit, Although a man transformed were by it? O 'tis a jolly matter to give ear, Nay to give leave to music in her fit: He is a Beast that will not then forbear Though he thereby be made a Beast to bear. 4. Kinds of divine fury. four kinds of divine fury are observed, The first (and first by right) prophetical, Which by Apollo is ruled, and conserved; The next by Bacchus, called mystical; The third by Muses, hight poetical; The fourth and last, by Venus governed, Is called the Fury Amatoriall; Which do infer, that Love is borne and bred Without the breach of Natures Maidenhedd. What force it hath, is better felt then shown, loves force is unutterable. For Words cannot express the force of love; Call we it Love or Lust, it is well known It hath the force of both, the Heart to move; Which these can testify that it did prove: Semiramis (whose virtue past compare) This furious Passion her did so remove From that she was; that lusting to reshare Her son, her son her thread of Life did share. The Macedonian Philipps peerless Alexander Mag. son, That overranne the World with Sword and Fire, This flaming fury yet did so over run, That for his Thais (that kindled his desire) He burned b Plutar. in Alexand. Persepolis, sans cause of ire: Yea, did not only that fowl fact command, But with his Hands he lab'red (as for hire) To burn the buildings which as yet did stand, Till he had laid all level with the landlord. A Wonder worthy of all wonderment, That he that foiled what ere his force withstood, Should be thus foiled, and made a precedent Of lust's fell force, which so inflamed his Blood That made his Flesh Wild- Fire in likelihood: A Man by woman, a King by a quean To be so overcome through Lustful mood, (Being so effeminate and most obscene) Argues, in love and Lust there is no mean. Love is lawl●● Strange are th'effects of Lust. For, Men with Men Nay, Man with Beast: A sin not to be touched So much as with the Tongue, much less with Pen, And least of all with that too oft bewitched, With love of that which is by Nature grudged: Lust is so blind that it cannot discern A Man from Beast, (how ever beastly couched) But doth a Man-beast move (though Nature yearn) The tricks of Beasts, with loathsome Beasts to learn. Grave Xenephon loved Clinias in this kind; So as he craved of Jove when Clinias died, That (if he might see him, and still be blind, Or not see him, and still be perfect eyed) He rather mought the want of sight abide To see him once, then still to have his sight And not see him; See see how blind a Guide Is loathsome Lust, that leads men so unright, Lust is blind. As for her pleasure so themselves to spite. Semiramis an Horse (o brutish Lust!) Did lust to have (o monstrous Mare human!) Pasiphaë longed for a Bull to thrust Her from a woman to a Cow unclean: And Cyparissus made an hind the mean To cool his courage; Aristom●chus A silly be would have to be his quean. Lust whither wilt? wilt be so monstrous To long for Bees that be but moats to us? Publius Pilatus fell in lusting love With Helen's Image; and Pygmalion Such lovers are as senseless as the stones which they love. For his own Picture did like passion prove. Damned Lust what pleasure provd'st thou in a stone That's cold by kind, as Snow on Libanon? To tell the Mischiefs, spoils, & Masacres, By hate effected, though through love begun, Were but to tell the number of the stars; For Lust and mischief are joint- passengers. Troy might (perhaps) have stood unto this Age, Had Lust not laid it level with the plains; And seas of Blood spent in that ten years Siege Might still have kept the channels of the veins: Lust is most wilful. But lewd Lust is so lose that she restrains Her will in nought, though it brings all to nought: She pleasure takes in pleasure causing pains; For by her painful pleasures such are wrought, Yet on such pleasures she doth fix her thought. She will not let the Thoughts so much as pry A minute's space, on aught, but what she loves; She (tyrant) captivates the Fantasy, So that it cannot stir till she it moves: Or if it do she forthwith it removes. My Fancies Mistress, saith some slave to Lust, Is my Thoughts heaven: So swallowed with his loves Are all his Thoughts; and though as dry as Dust He lusts to please his love with love unjust. For this, all that pertains, must be in print, Weeds, Words, looks, Loks, in print, not one awry, Whose Motions must be currant for the mint; His glances must keep just time with her Eye, O toil intolerable! And seem to die, se'ng her rich beauties die: Yet with a careful carelessness, he must Avoid the hate which too much love doth buy, And love no more than may provoke to lust; These are their love- tricks, tricks of love unjust. One makes an idol of his mistress Glove, And offers (thrice a day at least) a kiss Unto each finger, so to show his love; Another her Haire-Bracelett makes his bliss, And Night and Day t'adore it will not miss. These Fancies, fancy do with kindness cloy, wit near, in love, taught pupil so of his, (As saith the Book) but doth his powers employ With kindness coy, to win his witty Toy. Whist Muse, be mute; wilt thou like Naso prove, Quoth Speculation. And interlace thy lines with levity? Wilt thou add Precepts to the art of love, And show thy virtue in such vanity? So to pollute thy purer Poesy! No more, no more, enough, (if not too much) Is said already of this mystery; My Conscience at the same doth (grieving) grudge, But let it go this once, with but this Touch. Beauty promises more honesty than deformity. And howe'er Beauty may be abused, It promiseth more good than shapelesnesse: If it prove otherwise, it's thus excused; The highest to show that good-guifts (more or less) Proceed from him, and not from nature's largesse, Let's beauty fall, and soil itself with sin, Which is more damned if beauty it doth bless, As virtue is most fair, that blest hath been With beauty being resident therein. But love, that beauty breedeth, is threefold, According to three objects of that love, All fair, some good, which thus we may unfold; 3. Causes of love viz Pleasant, profitable, & honest. The Pleasant, and the Profitable move As doth the Honest, true love, which we prove: The first concerneth things that please the Sense, As beauty, and at what the sense doth rove; The second hath to welfare reference; The third and last to justice and Prudence. The first and second kinds of lust or love, Among the Perturbations may be put, Sith they so many ill affections move That make man's life to be in Sorrow shut, Which like a Razor off the same doth cut: But love of honest things is virtuous, And from man's praises takes away the But; It shows the mind is right magnanimous; ‛ For that's most great, that is most gracious. Perfect love. This love is kindled by that heavenly Flame That like fine Gold, doth purify the spirit; And like itself (transmuted) makes the same Good, gracious, holy, wise, just, clear, & bright, Glory'ng in him that makes her glory right: God, the Exchequer of Beauty. This is the love of beauty most extreme Wherein celestial souls do most delight; Of love that feeds the spirit it is the cream Infused by justice sons enlightening beam. This love resembles that of Seraphins, Who burn in love of the extremest Good; And makes Men like the sacred Cherubins Still privileged from outward charge; whose mood Is still t'attend on LOVES trin-union-hood. This love, this beauty, (love of virtuous things Whose beauty flows from divine beauties flood) Doth make Men Gods among the mighti'st Kings, And Kings with highest God, in highest dwellings. Goodness is beauty's Mother, and true loves; Goodness is mother to love & beau●y Beauty and love are both bred in one womb: Then love and beauty still it much behoves To tend to goodness, as unto the tomb That must at last for ever them enwombe. But there are divers loves, and beauties more, According to the creatures all or some Proceeding from that LOVE and beauty, who Sheds both on things above, and things belo. Four special beauties, goodness hath created; Goodness hath made 4 especial beautie●. The first is that, whereby the mind and sprite Hath Wit and understanding in them seated: The second, them adorns with Knowledge bright That mounts the mind to contemplation's height; The third, in seed preserving mortal things; The last in corporal things that sense delight: Science the soul to Contemplation brings, But her to things material fancy flings. Yet, did the soul but weigh how she is bound To her Creator, for his matchless love; She would from thence (by Reason) soon rebound, The little consideration we have of God's goodness towards us, is the cause of our coldness in love to him And wholly still contemplate things above: For this, his love requitlesse doth approve; He gave her being, merely of free grace Before she Was, or could his mercy move; Then if she love him, her love is but base Compared with his that made her what she wa●. Who gives a gift much more affection shoes Then the receiver for it can bewray; The giver gives, being free to give or choose, But the Receaver's bound to love alway: Yet, if the giver gives to th'end to pray, It's not of love, but Lucre, (loathed of love;) GOD cannot give so, in whom all doth stay: But Men give thanks for Blessings which they prove, And God thereby to give them more do move. The love that is bought is ●●ark nought. Such love in giver and receiver both Is merely merc'nary corrupt, and base, Which hateful love the Lord of love doth loath, And from such lovers turns his loving face, As from false Hypocrites, abusing grace: But true love's scope, is (in a gracious mood) To love all those that mercy should embrace, Respecting nought, but to stream forth the flood Of goodness, which it hath for others good. For love is free, and freely would be loved; It's active, like a Flame in operation; Save that, like fire it is not upwards moved, But doth descend by reason's computation, For such descent on Reason hath foundations The Sire doth love the son, more than the son Doth love the Sire, because by generation Part of the Sire into the son doth run, A natural re●son why love descendeth. But no part of the son in Sire doth won. Sith love in nature still doth thus descend, God loves man more than Man his God can love; For Man proceeds from God who is his end; But God from Man likewise cannot remove, In him we live move, & have our being. For Man is finite, and in God doth move: This made him love Men when they were his foes, And for their loves a world of woe did prove: Therefore he's Fount of love whence all love flows Which loves for hate, and hate doth love-dispose. Now, how to love this Well of love the more Love doth direct, by kindling the Desire Truly to know and mind it evermore; To know god● love is the way to make Man love. Both which so sets the souls frame all on fire, That it is made one flame of love entire: The more we know it, it the more we mind; The more we mind it, it we more require; The more we seek, the more we it do find, And being found, it quite doth lose the mind. For then the minds no more that which it was, For to this love it's transubstantiate, To weeter as near as love can bring to pass It's even the self-same thing immaculate, And like this LOVE, this love doth contemplate; Rejecting all that would inveigle it To love aught else, and still doth meditate To love nought else, and bends all powers of wit To make itself for this love only fit. Thus Sinners may turn Seraphins by All true love is either Amor Coe●i or amor Secul●, this of our neighbour, that, of God. As ●here is no l●ue without faith, so there is no faith without love. love, wounding with Love-shafts god's heart (pure alone;) So, as the one's heart so the others move As twixt them a● there were no heart but one: This is to lie next the chief cornerstone In the Church-militant, (Triumphant rather,) For God and man this love doth ●o atone As doth, nay more than love doth son and Father; For love makes both entire still altogether. Love, of all human Affections is, the most puissant & passionate. For love doth grave (though in an heart of brass) The form of the beloved in the heart, So that a lover's heart is like a glass Where the beloved is seen in every part; So, in God's heart weare graven by love's art, And in our heart's love doth his form engrave; Thus interchanged we either's form impart To others liking by the b love is the Bond that unites God & man. love we have, And make the heart the Lodge it to receive: The end or scope of love is to unite; The faster therefore it conglutinates Two hearts, or of them makes an union right, So much the more her virtue she elates, And perfectly her kind effectuates: Then, love in God (in whom Love perfect is) His virtue so to man participates, That they become Brothers by redemption ought to be more near & dear to each other, then Brothers by creation. one through that love of his; For Man partakes his Image and his bliss. But man (mere Chaos of extreme Defect) Doth love, but loveth only in desire: He longs (perhaps) to love with all effect, That God and he thereby might be entire, Whereto his leaden love would feign aspire; From which desire proceeds a pleasant pain, Pleasant, in that it sets the soul on fire With love so good; And pain it breeds again, In good desires there is pleasure and pain. For that it hath not, what it would have fain. But what is lacking in man's love, the same God doth supply out of his boundless love; And makes man's love thereby a working flame, Which to press through all Pressures still doth prove, And towards God (her sphere) doth ever move: This Flame doth melt the marrow of the spirit Making it liquid sooner to remove In't Mercies Mould, where it's reformed aright, And made entire with * God. LOVE, true loves delight. For when the lover loves himself no more, But the Beloved in whom he abides, Or, if he love himself, it is therefore To weet, for that he in his love resides; Then love is pure, & at highest pitch besides. When love is in the height of perfection. But such high Raptures are too rarely found, In frail humanity, that on Earth bides; Though love the soul therefore perhaps may wound Yet still 'twill be to the own Body bound. How shall I end with everlasting love, To ease my Reader tired with heavy lines? Unto this Labarinth of love (I prove) The Author (LOVE) no coming out assigns; Yet rest I may, though it my Muse confines: As Zeuxis drew a vail (with curious skill) o'er that, he wanted skill t'express by Lines; So I the like in love must now fulfil, And leave the Reader to think what he will. NOw may we range next to the rank of love Other Affections, and to do it right We must place favour there, by which w'approve Of some thing wherein we conceive delight, For that it's good in deed or so in sight: Herein loves obligation doth commence; Yet favour may have force where love lacks might, But without Favour, love is a non ENS; For, favour waits upon love's excellence. ●owe favour i● bred. Then Reverence with Favour we may rank, Bred by comparing some high dignity With some inferior State (that Fortune sanck) Which then is in its right especially, When extreme fear and Hatred come not nigh: For though in reverence, fear and shamefastness, With moderation do obscurely lie; Yet fear (by some Ill caused) Good doth suppress, Still seen in that which breeds our humbleness. True reverence therefore bear we unto God Who is all●good, as he almighty is; For, feared we nought but his revenging rod, Our reverence, would be turned to hate by this: Reverence springs from power and goodness. Then reverence grows from power and grace of his; And, whosoe'er with them he most endowes, Of reverence from less reverend cannot miss: For reverence power and goodness still ensues, And the less worthy to the better bows. For when we eye the virtue, power, and grace, Of the most Noble, (truly called so) And look upon ourselves, and weigh how base We are compared with them, then bend we lo As unto them that us in Good out-go. For, as self-liking doth enlarge the heart, Simil. Or puff it up (like Bladders which we blo) So it contracts itself in every part, When we see others pass us in desert. Then as we reverence God for goodness more, We reverence God more for his goodness then for his power. Then for his might, and awful majesty; So, if we would be rev'renced of the lower, We must surmount them in that ex'lency That makes us most resemble Dëity: For whereas goodness doth associate Might, There the most Insolent, most reverently (Though otherwise replete with all despite) Will do their Homage freely with delight. For homage, fealty, and honour, are To sacred virtue due by nature's Law: Honour we own to virtue (though but bare) And virtue matched with might doth reverence draw. Then Honour, Reverence, and loving awe To whom honour and reverence are due upon Earth Are due to majesty; and that is due To magistrates that Men from Vice withdraw, And make them virtue eagerly ensue, Themselves therein being Leaders of the crew. The last Affects to Love subordinate Are Mercy and Compassion; Mercy and compassion, affects flowing from love These are they Which make us (like God) to commiserate The miseries of those that still decay, Or are at point to perish without stay. These, these, bewray that we are Members quick Of that same body, whose Head doth bewray That they are Members mortified, or sick Which feel no pains, that fellow- members prick. These make us make the hand of the distressed Our muck and Earthly Mammon's continent, Yea make us make the Orphans home our breast, And our right arm the Weedowes Sustinent; Love hath nothing in private. And all that want, our All them to content. O that these were more frequent than they are With those that do our Churches so frequent! For damn'ds Devotion that will nothing spare, But for selfe-comfort altogether care. These, colleges and Hospitals erect, And both endow with copious maintenance; These are so prevalent in their effect, That they unto the heavens do Man made of earth. Earth advance, Wherein there is no want or sufferance: These do forgive, as gladly as they give, Unto their foes miscarried by Mischance; These good and bad (like God) in lack relieve, " For Mercies Bowels melt when any grieve. These Bridges build o'er Rivers (semi-Seas) And turn deep ways (though endless in extent) To Cawseis firm, for Man and Beasts more ease, Compassion extendeth her virtue to man and beast. And every way provide for bothes content, Through fellow-feeling of their dryriment: These make their Waredrops and the Needies, one, And their own Limbs, limbs of the impotent; joy with the joyful, moan with them that moan And sigh in soul, when they in body groan. O that my soul could (as it gladly would) Itself infuse into each word or line That tends to Mercies glory, than it should (So as it ought) at least like Phoebus' shine, If not at most, be more than most divine: For, mercy and justice are Gods mighty arms, Mercy & justice are god● almighty arms. But he most might to mercy doth assign As bee'ng the right arm, holding all from harms Though All do fall through Frailties lest alarms. mercy's the true Idea of God's soul, Wherein his matchless glory glitters most; Which is of force his justice to control: For when in justice all that are, were lost, Then mercy them redeemed, to justice cost; The Lord of justice was unjustly slain, That mercy might triumph, and justly boast: God's mercy triumpheth over his justice towards ma. As love first made, so Mercy made again Mankind, that sin had marred with monstrous stain. Sith mercy then is of so high account, She should be most familiar with the high: Princes and magistrates. For, God in mercy doth himself surmount, That is, it doth himself most glorify: So they that eye the poor with pities eye, And have most mercy seated in their soul, Draw nearest the nature of his Dëity; Whose names engrossed are in his Check-role. And next him ought the univers to rule. THus having touched th' Affections most human That human nature do consociate; Now follow those that are most inhuman, Inhuman affections how bred. Bred by Opinion of Ill, which we hate Which make us savage or in worse estate: The unrest of our souls, the while they rest Within our Bodies, and predominate, Proceeds from four chief causes of unrest, Which thus by nature's searchers are expressed. 4. Perturbations from whom do flow all immoderate passions of the soul. Desire, fear, grief, Ioy, all immoderate (Which perturbations be) from these proceed All Passions which the soul excruciate, Which the minds ignorance doth (fatting) feed; As knowing not what's good or Ill indeed. Desire and joy those goods accompany Which be not good, further than nature's need, And that a little (God wots) doth supply For, overmuch doth her soon mortify. Ask peace and plenty what fell fights they have With these three Monsters, Pride, Strife, & excess, Hardly themselves, if they at all, do save, From their fell force, they easily will confess. Wherefore God doth bless man with abundance. Yet, God with Peace and Plenty, Man doth bless, That Man might bless God both in word and deed, Not take occasion from thence to transgress: But from these fountains pure do oft proceed (By their abuse) Abuses which exceed. There is no greater temptation than never to be tempted, & no sorer punishment then of God never to be punished. For, sin in peace and plenty, is so armed With all that may allure the simple sense, That sense by those allurements is so charmed, That soon it yields to sin obedience, As it were forced by some Omnipotence: When sin so sweetly doth entreat and pray, And promise Flesh, heaven in Incontinence, (To which prosperity doth Flesh betray) How can frail Flesh and blood say sweet sin nay? If taste would taste, what might her palate please, Sin offers the senses their several satisfactions. sin offers Manna, Nectar, and what not? Would touching feel? Sin opens pleasures Seas To plunge the sense therein, it to besot. The smell she joys with scents as sweet, as hot. The ear she tickles with such words and Notes, That Hearing (ravished) hath herself forgot. With eye bewitching fairs the eye she dotes: And thus each sense in pleasures seas she floats. These senses thus bewitched, fancy allures To share the sweetness which they say they find: Fancy consents; and judgement soon procures T'approve their pleasure, which betrays the mind, (betrayed and quite misled by judgement blind) Thus in prosperity sin domineers, Virtue without adversity withereth and loseth her force. Who with strong cords of Vanity doth bi●de The soul and body, as it well appears By those whom welfare to the world endears. O Flesh! didst thou but know how suger-sweete The pleasures were proceeding from the cross; There is no other passage to heaven than through the fire of Afflictions. Th'wouldst run amain, the coming cross to meet And count all gain, save that alone, but loss: All sensual joys do thee but turn and toss With restless proofs of false felicity, Which joys retail, but utter griefs in gross, For, corporal pleasure in extremity The centre is, of endless misery. Now grief and fear, Grief & fear accompany transitory riches. though they accompany These evil goods (goods evil by abuse) Yet they respect all kind of misery Which we conceive, when we have not their use: Through want whereof, as through an open sluice Flow all vexations, and annoys of mind, Into the empty sou●e, which they reduce To their obedience in rebellious kind; For Reason they in rage do rudely bind. The Body hereby (puling) pines away Simil. (Like to a Bladder whose wind is out strained) By such degrees, as it doth by the way A whining make as if the same were pained: So, fares the Body, by the mind constrained, Till she be breathless, she breathes out but moan, For want of goods but feigned, her griefs unfeigned Do dry up quite the Marrow of the Bone, As if she were in wretched plight alone. Good Affects proceed from the opinion of good, and evil, from evil. For as all good Affections do proceed From the opinion which we have of Good; So doth th' opinion of evil breed All ill Affections and each evil mood; For ill conceit, conceives this cursed brood. Offence, what. Now the first touch of ill, is called Offence, From whence (if it continue) forth do bud Grief, Envy, Hate, and fell Impatience, As love proceeds from true Goods residence. And sith there's nought that doth to Earth belong In which both Good and Ill in deed, or sho Are not (like Phisick-Potions) mixed among; All mundane things are as they are taken. therefore from thence may be drawn weal or Woe As they are ta'en, sith both from thence do flow: For that which likes some, some doth most displease; According to the humours which they own, Some take repose, in that which most disease, As some delight in war, but most in Peace. And the more inly that offences touch, So much the more they do thereby offend: The inward'st is the better part by much; Then that which thereto doth annoyance send, To the tormenting of the Whole doth tend: Offences against the outward Senses are much less ostensive than those against the inward. Offences done to the external Sense Are not so grievous, as those which do wend To the internal; No● is wits offence So sore, as that which doth the Will incense. Nay, if our Will be not offended, we Can suffer, what not? without all offence; In which respect we willingly agree, That Friends reproofs should prove our patience, When with our Foes we would not so dispense: Likewise o●r selves of ourselves so may speak, That others speaking so would us incense, And make us mortally revenge to seek: Thus Will bee'ng pleased, nought can our * Nothing moves our patience that moves not our will. patience break. Then sith Offence most grieves the tenderest Sense, Therefore are they offended soonest of all, Whose minds and Bodies have most excellence, And are most delicate and special, Be it by accident, or natural: And 'mong the host of nature's Creatures, Man Is hardest to please, and most to Anger thrall; Man of all creatures hardest to please. For he with nought will bear, nor suffer can, Yet all have cause this wayward wasp to ban. If therefore One it be so hard to please, How much more hard to please an host of Men? What can be said or done so well, but these Will * Who so pleaseth all doth more than he that made all. all, or some of all, speak there again? They care not against whom, nor where, nor when. Ask generals if this be true or no, Who though they make their Purs-strings crack again To please the press, yet they shall not do so, But some will murmur, and speak broadly to. Some, to be thought more judicious are most censorious. For, some are so enured fault to find, That they offended are without offence, Nothing they hear or see, but irks their mind, So all offends them without difference: And, to be thought of tall intelligence Their Tongues dispraise, what their Thoughts highly praise; Because they ween great praise proceeds from thence: For he (think they) that sees what to dispraise, Sees and knows how t'amend it many ways. Critics of these times. How many may we hear and see of these, Who with bend- brow, scue- look, and mouth awry Slightly survaie the works that wise- men please Protesting them to be but poor; And why? Because they prove their wits base poverty: They feign would feign to have unfeigned skill In every thing wherein they faults espy, A fool may make the wise ridiculous to fools. And by depraving wit t'have wit at will, When all's but feigned, and strained and passing ill. When Men adore their own sufficiency, And ween their excellence doth check the Skies, What marvel be't, if all beneath the sky They check; and through their self-conceit despise? (Who, but to see their own worth, have no Eyes) These be men of parts that would have all wholly. These Men are inly moved with much offence, When they another see by virtue rise, Because high State (they ween) should recompense No others, but their only excellence. Be they most poor, yet be they much more proud, Exclaiming on the times wherein they live: The complaint of base malcontents. For Men of worth (say they) with parts endowed The times do not respect, nor will relive, But wholly * Without good parts. unto partlesse Spirits give: Thus do they melt away in Envies fire; And whilst hart-burning them of rest deprive, They them bestir to part that is entire, And commonwealthss o'erthrow, so to aspire. These unwise witty Mal-contents are they devils incarnate tempt men desperate. That egg on Men unwise, and violent, T'attempt the oversway of Prince's Sway, Or rather to confound their government, That so they might be made preheminent: For, sly Ulysses must point out the place 'Gainst which the force of Ajax must be bend, And Men made desperate hold it no disgrace To be directed in a desperate case. These waspish overweening idle Drones, Are mortal * The Pestilence which infects all that comes near it. plagues to every Publike-weale: Right anti-Kesars undermining Thrones; Yet Princes hardly shall their motions feel Until their States and seats begin to reel: And then too late (perhaps) seek fast to sit When they must rest upon the pointed steel; These are th'effects of malcontented wit, Which not looked to, will have a madding fit. All which proceedeth merely of Offence, Conceived by hateful natures hard to please; Which, mischief and great inconvenience Bring to a State, and neither Land nor Seas Can possibly be privileged from * They walk like devils invisible. these. Who still do fear, their mis-imploied time Will bring upon them that which will displease; Which to prevent they seek aloft to climb, Which to effect, make conscience of no crime. For, fear of evil (though of ill to come) Doth grieve the mind, as if it present were; Cold fear and grief than Reason so benumb, That it feels nothing but cold grief and fear. A natural reason of rebels civil fury. This cold made hot by Ire, which it doth steer Becomes hell fire, which like a quenchless flame Consumeth all it toucheth or comes near, And leaves nought else behind but lasting blame, So, fear turned Fury, Man doth all unframe. Simil. For, as in nature, things that are most cold Made hot, are most extreme hot, like the Fire: So fear, most cold by kind, yet if it should Be chafed uncessantly with Hate and Ire, 'Twould be more hot, than all fires made entire. For, Man is more outrageous, wild, and wood In Passions heat, than Passion can desire; A man in fury more furious than a beast. No Beast is half so fell, in maddest mood, As Man, when fury sets on fire his blood. A description of an angry ma. From which fire fly out Sparkles through his eyes, Who stare, as if they would their holds enlarge, The cheeks with boiling Choler burning rise, The mouth doth thundering (Canon-like) discharge The fire which doth the stomach overcharge: The teeth do (grating) one another grind; The fists are fast, in motion to give charge, The limbs do tremble, feet no footing find But stamp, or stand unconstant as the wind. All anger springs from offence but all offence grows not to Anger. Which hellish Passion from Offence proceeds, But all offence proceeds not to the same; Offence the Mother is that Anger breeds, But not itself in nature nor in name, Ne can they be confounded without blame: For things offend us oft which have no sense, With which we cannot angry be for shame; For, that must have (like us) Intelligence Which can to Ire provoke our patience. For, Ire's a vehment motion of the heart, What anger is Stirred up by trespass, scorn, or such like ill Offered unto us, wholly or in part, Which in the highest degree offends our will, For which, we would revenge in haste fulfil: For, each one rates himself by the assize Of selfe-conceipt, by him conceived still, From that great good which, he weens, in him lies Which none (as he supposeth) should despise. The more therefore a Man himselfes esteems, The better a man thinks of himself the sooner he is moved to anger. The more and sooner he to Ire is moved; Because that so great worths despised he deems, For which he rageth, as from wit removed; Then, Rage to rancour easily is should; Which is an Anger most inveterate, What rancour is. By charity and Reason most reproved, And God and goodmen mortally do hate; Therefore to be eschewed as reprobate. For, rancour is so fell and violent, That joint by joint, the soul it rudely rends, Forgetting justice, and the Innocent God, man, sex, age, good, bad, or foes, or friends, Rancour is indifferent to good & bad. For, this all these indiff'rently offends: Then who consults with such a councillor, That arguments with tooth and nail defends, Shall be of all (but fiends) an injurer; For sure the div'ls in such a conjuror. Some call it honourable to revenge with the sword all injuries done against a man's honour. But how can that be honourable which God abhorreth & condemneth to eternal death. Whose fury is inflamed so with desire To wreak itself on that which it inflames, That on itself it brings confusion dire, And oft with sudden death her subject shames; Heaven, Earth, and Hell, and all therein she blames, Nay rails against, if they wreak not her wrong, And for herself an Hell, on Earth she frames, To wreak it on herself, if she be long Barred from Revenge, for which her soul doth long. The quality of rancour. Which is a motion of the heart, than which None can be more immane, or violent; Which turns from that which doth it roughly touch And seeks to quell the same incontinent; Or on the cause to inflict punishment: A reason why angry men for the most part are pale. Here-hence it is some ireful men are pale, Because the blood returns from whence it went, Whose hearts haught-courage so doth over exhale, That they dare do what not? come bliss or Bale. But commonly the blood doth not return As to the Heart it doth in grief and fear, But in the face in fury it doth burn, And all the Spirits it inflameth there, As if no more within the Body were: The blood and spirits inflamed, the brain ascend, Which they (confusedly distracted) steer, For how so ere heat may the Heart offend, To the brains The mind doth rest, if heat it not transcend. Simil. No otherwise then as a man that drink More than a man, yet if it not ascends Unto the brain, no man him drunken thinks, Nor is he drunk though drink his belly rends: So, though the heart, an hell of- beat offends, Yet being still within the heart confined, The soul within the brain her work attends Without disturbing of the Wit or mind, Who wont freedom in the brain do find. But give Men wit at will, nay wisdom too, (If possibly men furious * Solomon denies it. Eccl. Chap 7.11. might be wise) And put exceeding Anger thereunto, All's to no purpose, for all in it lies As fat in fire, which to nothing fries; Move but their choler once, and all's on ●lame That should them coldly any way advise: For, when the soul by heat is out of frame, Her judgement must be blind, and Actions lame. So that in true effect the furious Man Is good for nought, (for nought is all as good) But to blaspheme, and rave, and railing ban, And make good men amazed at his mood; I know no man worse than myself, God help me the while. God shield I should be any of this brood: Yet must I (to my shame) for shame confess, Because it's seen what humour haunts my blood, That Anger to my heart hath oft access Against my will, which feign would it suppress. He is mine arch foe 'gainst whom still I fight, And though I be to weak, and he to strong; Yet fight I will, and aye in his despite I will refrain my hands, much more my tongue, Both which in wrath are apt to Instruments of revenge. The heat of the heart mak● the fingers nimble. offer wrong: Heaven help me to subdue this hellish Ire, And all that doth or shall to it belong, So with the drops of grace quench out this fire, That to my heart it never more aspire. Yet let me coldly speak in praise of heat, Which being temperate, yields most sweet effects; The praise of Choler. For, Choler makes the wit and Courage great, Yea, makes the heart abound with kind Affects, And abject * Anger is better than laughter for by a sad look the heart is made better. Eccl. Cap. 7.5. humours utterly rejects: In the best Natures commonly it's placed By nature's finger, for these kind respects, And if with fury it be not disgraced, It should by all means, by all be embraced. How like to lifeless logs some Dastards are, Whose wit & Courage are quite drowned in Fleame; Who, though wrongs prick their hearts, yet still they far As they were either dead, or in a dream; Nothing shall move them, be it near s'extreame: A Coward cannot be truly honest. hear they their friends depraved (though near so dear) Nay hear they Fiends the Highests name blasphene; They dare not speak a word for them for fear; What use of such that such base-mindes do bear? Simil. For as a little fire when we are cold Doth us but little good, and being too great Doth warm us otherwise then fire should; But being moderate, it so doth heat As neither lets us cool, nor makes us sweat: So, Choler if too little, little steeds, And if too much, too much doth make us fret; But being mean, it many virtues breeds, And with an active warmth, the blood it feeds. For to be angry and not to sin, Is an obligatory Eph●s. 4. 26. Heast divine; For whiles we are that holy anger in (Not wholly angry) it is a sign We flame with that which doth our souls refine: For, in our souls the iry-pow'r it is Virtue canno● perform her functions without anger. That makes us at unhallowed thoughts repine, And sober souls are zealous made by this, Then zealous souls can hardly Anger misse● Thus Ire I plead for thee, but thou hurt'st me; O be propitious therefore, hurt me not: Then Volumes large, ●le writ concerning thee Which without blot of blame, I all will blot With black that shall thy * Glory laud. bright, make bright as hot: So, leave I thee, and would thou I wouldst leave, Yet leave me not, as one thou hast forgot, But mind me still, when I should thee conceive 'Gainst ill that would my soul of good bereave. For so thou didst possess God's patiented soul, When he as God and Man the Temple cleared (With whips) of money-Changers, who did proule Luke 19.25. For filthy pelf in place to him endeared, Where most of all he should be served and feared: So, be with me, dear Ire, till thou and I Must part,, or ● by thee no further steered, Then may agree with perfect piety And well may stand with true felicity. NOw from unloving Ire doth Hatred spring, Hatred is a child of Ire. Which is more Hellish; for, its lasting Ire As some suppo●e; which is a damned thing, Like to the devil her prodigious Sire, Who loves to hate, as love hates that desire: Sith God and Nature hath made Man in love, To love God and his like with love entire, What Vice can virtue in man more reprove, Then that which Man to miss his end doth move? Yet Ire from Hatred must distinguished be, I●e & hatred distinguished. For Ire proceeds from some wrong done to us, But Hatred, is conceived as soon as we Suppose a Creature to be odious; Though to us it were near injurious: And Time can Ire assuage, but hardly Hate, Ire would but vex, but Hatred's murderous, Revenge cools Ire, but cannot Hate abate, Ires heart can melt, but Hates is obdurate. Love links men together, Hatred puts them a sunder love is the link that links man kind (by kind Loving and kind) in perfect union; This Statute (sans defesance) men doth bind To secure one another woe-begon, As if they were not divers but all one: But Hatred is the Hatchet, which doth cleeve Mankind to pieces in confusion; Relief refusing, and ●ake to relieve, Yet gives more damage than it would receive. None harbreth Hatred, but men like the devil, The proud and envious are like the devil. (The Proud, & Envious, which are full of hate) These hateful hellhounds love this loathsome evil, Because it seeks mankind to ruinated: What can the devil worse excogitate? It is the toad that swells with venom such That no force can resist, much less abate; The moth of mankind, worse than nought by much, Yet most indifferent to the poor and Rich. A good use of Hate. But hate inhabits Man to good effect, When he loves nought, that is not perfect good; For he through Hate doth evil still reject, Which would corrupt his Nature, Mind, & mood, And make it (like itself) a Nihilhood: Such hate is happy, holy, and divine, By which the force of Ill is still withstood; This Hate we ought to love, which doth repine Hate, worthy of love. At all which doth not love aright refine. Then sacred Hate let my love thee embrace, And, to an Habit grown, inhabit me, Sith thou flowest from the Fountes of love, & Grace, O let my love be ever backed by thee; Then Ill from love (so backed) will ever flee. Sinful Hate i● hateful ●ut gracious hate is behooveful. It is a fever of the mind to hate, That's hate to love, but when they both agree They do preserve the soul in perfect state, Whilst Ill of Ills they quite annihilate. Then hate (my soul) that thou Mayst ever love That which this Hate doth love, with love entire, That is, all good below, much more above, Whereto this hate through love would feign aspire; For perfect Love inflames just Hates desire. No otherwise than Water hot or cold, Simil. Though in some sort it doth oppung the fire, Yet makes the flames thereof more manifold, When it is cast thereon, so as it should. Thus Ire and Hatred may be good or ill Envy is a branch of injustice. According to their objects; And Envy (Their aye- familiar) doth follow still Hatred and Ire, to make a Trinity; Ire & Hatred the Parent● of Envy. Which may be used well, ill, or neut'rally: It is well used for God's foes good success, But ill, when it another's good doth eye, And neut'rally when it doth not transgress The bounds of Love, for loving more or less. Envy is opposite to Mercy. she is to mercy always opposite In her true kind; for Mercy still doth grieve At others harms; but envi's glad of it, And pines with pain, when others well do thriue● Yea lives in death, when others live to live. Some envy others gains, that hinder theirs; Some, others weal, when they cannot arrive unto the like: some, other that aspires To that they sought, but failed of their desires. But some there are that envy others good, Without respect of their own benefit, Only because they think their fate's withstood When others on the least good fortune hit, Or do the least good, getting praise for it: The envy of the devil what This is the envy, than which none is worse, Even that of Satan, for Men most unfit, This is the envy that incurs his curse, That from heaven for the like did Angels force. It is safer to be conversant with a Tyrant, then with the envious person for the one takes away but life but the other honour and good name. For envies eyes pry most of all on praise, The noblest goods, goods of the noblest mind They most envy; and still themselves they raise To highest virtue, where they (fixed) it find; hereat the teeth of envy most do grind: For look how much the mind the corpses excels, And the Minds riches are of rarer kind; So much the more the heart of envy swells, At those that have these goods, than any else. She is pride's second self, or other name, Monsters distinct, yet undividuall; In heaven and earth hath well appeared the same, For both made heavenly Lucifer to fall; So do they Lucifer's terrestrial: Pride's more apparent, for it needs must swell; Envy is more obscure, than Pride. But envy ever lines Prides pectoral: Pride's as the highest, envy the lowest hell; Worse Hags than either, can in neither dwell. Pride, before all desires to be preferred; If any therefore be preferred before, She instantly is with fell envy stirred; And the more rise, her envy is the more. Though meekness mount, prids heart doth ache therefore: For she thinks, only she doth all excel, Than others excellence her heart must gore: As others heaven on earth, is Envies hell; So others rising makes Pride still to swell. For, where there is no sun, no shadow is; And, where's no weal, or glory, envi's not: Envy is as the shadow of virtue. She feeds on her own heart, and others bliss, She scorns to look so low as to their lot That are of Fortune, or the world forgot: Therefore she lurks about the courts of Kings, Envies natural home is in King's Courts. (Whose crowns are ever subject to her shot) There like a Snake, that hisses not, she stings, And oft ere she is seen Confusion brings. For, not without just cause do Poets feign That she (as one of the infernal brood) Doth poison suck, to vomit it again, And makes of Snakes her flesh-consuming food; Ovid. Met. l. 2. Simul● Which makes her like a blind-worm, without blood: Who often creepeth like this abject worm, Not wotting which way, each way but the good: And in Preferments way she doth enorm All feet she meets with, which none can reform. Envy therefore the heart doth macerate, The envious are ashamed to bewray their envy. Because the Tongue dares not the grief disclose, That makes that grief still on the heart to grate, Which the lean look alone in silence shoes; Yet eyes shrink in (as loath to tell the woes) Such looks hath the envious. And look askew, as if in looking strait They might directly so discover those, All which makes woe to have the greater weight The soul and body so to over-fraight. Bion. One said, beholding one with envy pined, I know not by thy looks (which all do loath) If they far well or thou ill; for thy mind Is vexed alike, alike thou look'st for both: Which subtle speech included simple troth; Envy is as much grieved for others good as her own hurt. For, envi's grieved no less for others good Then for her proper ill; and is as wroth For others praise, as if hers were withstood, And for both, sucks alike her subjects blood. She envies all to all, except envy, And that she envies to, if it exceed; Like Argus, she near sleeps but when her eye Is charmed by Mercury's sweet sounding reed; Envy flattered sleeps for a while. " For envy flattered is well agreed: When all respect is had of her and hers, And all neglected else, her All to feed, No more, till she neglected be, she stirs; Then as before herself she strait bestirs. The sun at highest she resembles right (Though base she be and dark as nether Hell) Simil. For as the sun obscureth things most bright, And makes the light of things obscure, excel: So envy seeks men famous most to quell, Before how many the more the envious person slandereth a man, the more high in glory hath he placed the crown of the slandered if he take it patiently. And praiseth most, men least deserving praise, Such as their dearest fame to shame do sell; All such (if any at all) she most doth raise, And all men else, doth most of all dispraise. The more Men want of what they feign would be, The more their want with envy is supplied, The less, if proud, they are in their degree The less they can their betters far, abide; " And horse proud Beggars, they like Kings will ride. Each Vice carries with it its own torment. Now as each Vice doth in it bear about An inbred plague: so in this doth reside The plague of plagues; to wear itself quite out With fretting 'gainst the rich or royal rout. The envious, privy to their own defects, Do witness to themselves their small esteem, For which the World, they see, them still rejects, Through which they inly burst with grief extreme, The envious condemn themselves for most unworthy men. No affection is less disclosed than envy But dare not let the world them envious deem. For, no Affect is less disclosed than this, Because it makes men less than worthless seem, Therefore the much more dolorous it is; " For griefs do break the heart if vent they miss. What commonweals, and mighty Monarchies, What glorious Kings, and famous Generals, Yea (which is strange) what heavenly Hirarchies Whose wretched state and miserable falls (By envy wrought) remain in Capitals! Whence all may see, how active and how fell This fury is, who rests in Funerals: Or when on earth Men rest i● such an Hell, Envies rest in funerals. That to th'infernal may be parallel. Envy is the parent of jealousy. FRom Envy springs ay-watchful jealousy, (Ore-plus of love, as jealous Lovers would) Which (worse than Hell) hates all Rivalitie, And cannot brook that any other should Possess that we or ours would, or do hold: Yet some restrain it only unto love; For being (as they say) more manifold, It Obtrectation is jealousy in the largest Sense. Obtrectation height, which who doth prove Shall find the mind unlike itself to move. For, she can think of nought but that alone That makes her jealous, and when she's restrained Of former freedom, she is not her own; But like a Body bound t'a rack, is pained, And thinks of nought but pain being so constrained: This is the Linx in love that never sleeps, jealousy a Linx in love. And oft (too oft) by Lust is entertained, Who through nine walls of mud, or Mettle peeps, And so (like Argus) Loves beloved keeps. Now; as the things beloved are good or bad, jealousy good or bad according to her object. How jealousy is good. So jealousy is good or bad thereby. If Men be jealous of their thoughts that gadd From the chief- Good, good is that jealousy; And in a Prince 'tis no impiety, When he suspects Ambition in his State; Nor in the married is't an Heresy, If loving- jealousy without debate Do keep each others Love from cause of hate. Like may be said of Parents, kin, and friends, So long as it aims but at like respect, An harmless jealousy, from harm defends Those whom they govern, and by kind affect: Such ieal'usie doth in God our good effect; God's jealousy touching us doth procure our good. Which makes him watch us, where we wake or sleep, Who in his love thereby doth us protect, From all those unseen ills that on us creep, And by the same his honour safe doth keep. But jealousy conceived through cause unjust, Evil Iealou●●● Be it in Weddlocke, Freindshippe, or where not, Makes love a Languishment; for false mistrust Is not by God, but by his Foe begot, Which love with Lust doth evermore besott: Hence come the quarrels twixt the married pairs, When they through jealousy are overshott, This makes Affraies too oft of great affairs, Quarrels raised through suspicion causeless. jealousy, what. And ruins that which loyal Love repairs. The fell disturber of love's sweet repose, Copesmate of Care, tormenter of the mind, The Canker of fair Venus' sweetest Rose, The rack that over-racks the over-kinde, The over-watchful Eye of love still blind: The heart of Caution wherein I are bred The vital spirits of art to State assigned; Soul of Regard, alive when it seems dead, All this is jealousy that holds the head. The Caucasus whereto loves heart is bound, Prov. 6.34. The Vulture which the thoughts thereof devours, The Primum mobile which turneth round The brain, which to the rest unrest procures, A Sore which nought, that's good for aught, recures, That's Mummy made of the mere heart of Love, A temporal Hell, whose torment still eudures, The penance of Mistrust, which Lovers prove, All this is jealousy which I reprove. And now to end (where we should have begun When we began to touch corrupt Affects) With Pride, because from her all Vice doth run Ecles. 10.14.19. (As from the fountain) which the soul infects; Which may be thus described by her effects: A swelling of the heart which doth proceed Pride what. From Selfe-conceite, that 'gainst the soul reflects, And shows more glorious than it is indeed, Which makes us think our gifts all men's exceed. The proud person hates pride in all but in himself. THis prodigy, this more than mounstrous Pride, This souls envenomned Botch, This source of sin, Can nothing less than her own self abide, When she doth see herself another in: If she herself doth hate, what can she win But hate of all, that see her as she is? Still loathed may she be, for had she not been, We still had lived in earthly heaven's bliss, And Lucifer held heavenly Paradis. Sith Man was made a creature sociable, And that his lives-ioy should therein consist, What vice in man is more detestable, Then that which doth this joy of life resist? For Pride, as if she were with nature blessed Pride holds all in scorn but herself. That far surmounted more than half-divine, Scorns all Humanity; if so, what be't On Earth that she thinks (being so superfine) Worthy to suit her, but alone to reign? She (swelling toad) looks with disdainful Eyes If Humility be the mother of true piety, what is Pride, her contrary? On highest things that are sublunary, And (lunatic) above the moon doth rise In mind, though she minds nought but villainy, So to aspire to highest dignity: Therefore the most proud are most ignorant Of wisdoms hid in blessed theology, Because they merely mind things miscreant, As earthly pomp, and port extravagant. If not impossible, yet hard it is, For the most learned and lowly well to know Themselves in every part, and not to miss; Then sith the proud do never look so low, That skill near comes but with their overthrow: The proud are taught to know themselves by their proper overthrow. For they by nature are most prone to pride That know all but themselves; and yet do show They know themselves too well, for, nought beside They love; which love, that knowledge doth misguid. For who so looks with well-descerning eyes (If he be mortal, be he what he will) Into him self, he will him self despise; For in him self he findeth nought but ill, He that know● himself best esteems himself least. Corrupting soul and Body, mind, and Will: The best shall find but matter too too bad To humble them, and so to keep them still; The worst shall see enough to make them mad, Seeing themselves through Ill, so ill-bestad. Al under Heaven man's pride hath made so vile, So frail, so full of sorrow and vexation, All under the sun is vanity and vexation of Spirit. Eccles. 1. That should a Man possess all, yet the while He should possess but temporal damnation; And with it likely divine indignation. Can Men be proud then, of an earthly hell, Affording nought but grief and molestation? Or can their hearts with Pride and Sorrow swell When one puffs up, the other down doth quell? Proud men are senseless in the strictest sense. If so they can, it is for want of sense To feel the griefs that are most sensible; And senseless souls have no pre-eminence Of human Nature; nor extensible To brutish, which is not insensible: Then what are proud souls by this just account But either dead, or comprehensible In that of Plants; which from Earth cannot mount, But that a worthless wrens may them surmount. The Eyes that Sunne-bright Robes, or smoke of praise Do dim, are feeble-sighted, and such Eyes Cannot themselves as high as Heaven raise, Nor pierce to Hell which in their Owner * The proud have Hell with the Prince thereof abiding in their hearts. lies: For if they would or could in any wise, Pride could not possibly surprise their heart, For heaven they would admire, and Hell despise, And from that Hell they would their Eyes converts To highest heaven, and from it near divert. Simil. But as the toad to venom turns her food (How pure so ere it be) she feedeth on: So Pride turns virtue to her venomed mood, Than which no pride's more near Damnation; Spiritual pride God doth most detest. For spiritual pride God hates as he doth none: Which pride is Luciferian, and the fall Of those, whose souls are with it over gone, Shall be like Lucifers, for no one shall Overweening, an odious Vice. Be saved that weens his virtue passeth all. Pride is a wind that makes the soul to swell, And without Issue it the same will rend: Therefore the proud their own perfections tell; Yea, only tell of what them most commend, And with whom not, for praise they still contend; Prov● 13.10. Which if they miss, or others praised more, Out goth that wind, (which they with thunderings sand) Against all those that are preferred before, And as distracted, rail, and rave, and roar. Doth Pride a Tenent hold, it must be so, Although it cut the throat of Reason quite; The proud obstinate in their opinion. All her opinions can abide no No: And though them to defend she hath no might, Yet to defend them she will rage's and fight: No time, no truth, nor no authority, Shall put Pride, if she wrong be, in the right; For she desires to have the mastery In all, that all may give her dignity. Nothing so much she dreads, as to be deemed Any's inferior in any thing; This makes her loath to learn, sith she hath seemed To know much more than all, by her learning: She a Reproofs do enrage the proud, though for their good bestowed. scorns reproofs that information bring; Her Vices she will have for virtues ta'en, Or like a Serpent she will hiss and sting, Blaspheme and what not, for she's most profane, And if she can, be her impugners bane. The friendship is as dangerous as unsure, Where * The proud man, the drunkard and the Coward are nought to make fiends of; the proud will scorn thee if he out start thee in fortunes, the drunkard will in wine bewray thy secrts, for what is in the ha●t of the sober, is in the tongue of a drunkard, & the Coward dares not speak one word in defence of thy reputation though he hear it slanderously depraved. Pride hath any place in any friend, Pride will the downfall of a friend procure If by such fall the proud friend may ascend, For all his frenshippe to himself doth tend; Comes good from him, to him must go the praise, As if good in him did begin and end; So robs God of his glory many ways, And feign above his God himself would raise. If he with feigned modesty doth vail His height of Pride, and doth himself dispraise, 'tis but the higher to advance the sail Of swelling Pride, which he to clouds doth raise, Nay thunder-cracks the Clouds, that clouds his praise: The highest heavens (he weens,) must give it way Unto the Throne where perfect glory stays, Sith the Earth cannot hold her, Hell must and can. And there sit cheek by jowl with glory ay; This, Pride desires, and those that her obey. If she associate Learning, she will lead That heavenly Lady into Hellish ways; Then she misledd, each soul must needs mislead That on her seeming-wel-staied judgement stays; Pride the fountain of all Heresies. Hence spring all Heresies; which Pride doth raise: For let a scholar famous for his skill Maintain damned Error, he for peevish praise Will ransack books and brains to do it still, Though he thereby his soul with Millions spill. For should we harrow all the souls of those, The souls of all the heads of Heresies, We shall find Pride did thereto them dispose, That they might live to all * If a man live soul & body in Hell to all eternities that his name may live in the mouths of men to all posterities, he hath but an hellish purchase. Posterities In mouths of Men, though but for Blasphemies: Knowledge puffs up, and if the dews of Grace Suage not the swelling, it so high will rise, That Earth nor heaven shall hold it in that case, Till Hell doth take it down and it embrace. The knowledge of the Best consists in Each man seems to know more than he doth. show, This Man is wise compared with one more fond; Yet this great wise man nothing less doth know Then he would seem to know, and understand: Sufficeth him he bears the World in hand That he is wise and learned; Nothing less: But wise in this, that can men's thoughts command To think him wise, when should he truth confess, His wisdom were but wel-cloakt foolishness. Latin and Greek are but Tongues natural, Which help, but not suffice to make men wise; For the effect of speech is all in all, * Eccl. 39.1. ●. 3 Sound Sentence, which from wise Collections rise Of divers Doctrines, which wit well applies: Then he that hath but Tongues (though all that are) Not the tongues but the matter contained in them make men learned. And not the wisdoms which those Tongues comprise, May amongst fools be held a Doctor rare, But with the wise all Tongue, and nothing spare. Give me the Man that knows more than a Man, Yet thinks he knoweth no more than a Beast: Give me him (quoth I) where is We may light a Torch at none day & seek such a one among a multitude & yet misle to find him. he? and who can Give me that gift, sith such are all diceast, Or if they be, not to be found at least? Sage Socrates is dead, and with him gone His pupils that knew more than all the rest, Yet thought they knew far less than every one, But now all seem to know, yet know doth none. O! had a man all learning in his brain, And were to hear or see the wondrous writ Of some deep Doctors, he should tract them plain From place to place where they have borrowed it, And nought their own (perhaps) but what's unfit: Yet as if all were b As if wisdom and learning were buried in them. For they have the name of wisdom, but there be but few that have the knowledge of her Ec. 6.22. theirs, they are admired, As if their skulls ensconst all skill and wit, Or with some sacred fury were inspired, When as (God wot) their wit is al-bemired. We shall be modest if we take not that upon us which we have not, and brag not of that which we have. Yet all take on, as if all were their own, So 'tis, all think, or few know otherwise, Which few perhaps as well as they have stolen, (borrowed I would say) but yet they are wise Not to detect each others pilferies: The greatest skill these present times afford Is others * If any where I have followed our new learning and Time in their fashion, Time and Learning ought the more to favour me, considering how little I am beholding to them both sayings cleanly to comprise In ours: so that it be not word for word, Which wit with modern wisdom doth accord. But say a Man knew all, that Man can know, Yet doth the a The devils knowledge far exceeds man's. devil know more than that Man; What cause of pride than can it be to show Less knowledge and more pride than dam'd Satan, Who hath observed all since the World began; Nor do the elements repugnance mar His wits; for he of air consists, and can Command the same: But in b The war of the Elements in man mars his wit. Man so they war That he is taken Follies Prisoner. Who knows nought in the Cause but in th' effect; The devils knowledge to the cause extends, Who enters nature's breast, and doth select All secrets of the same, to secret ends: For he th' abyss of Causes dark descends, The devil can look into all the hidden causes of nature. And with his owles-eys (that see best in dark) Those Causes to the Causer comprehends, And how they are together linked, doth mark; Yet is less proud of this, than some mean clerk. Yet he can wonders work amusing all, For having viewed the forces of all things, How the devil works wonders. Whether celestial or terrestrial, And with most curious search their true workings, Their forces he with sleight together brings, And active to their passive powers doth bind, Yea one another so together minges, That it brings forth (by sympathy of kind) Wonders surmounting all conceit of mind. No one excels him (but that Three in One) In wondrous works, which may amaze the wise; But that same onely-wise trin-union Works Miracles, wherein all wonder lies; For Miracles above all Wonders rise, The devils wonders are Mira, non Miracula. Sith they are truly supernatural; But Wonders he to nature's Secrets ties: Then wonders simply are but natural, But Miracles mere metaphysical. But be it that some * Elixer-makers, a golden yet beggarly corporation● for they are as poor as a Poet. beggar can extract By distillation or some other mean The Quintessence of any thing; That act Sufficeth him to be as proud as mean: And though the starveling be as lewd as lean, Yet thinks he Kings should feed and make him fat, Nay, do him homage: O base Thing unclean! Canst thou for this, think thou deservest that? Or can a The skill i● Earthly and earth is the basest of Elements. skill so base, thee so inflate? What breast could bond thy Heart then, if thou couldst Make the elixir, which so many mar? It's past most probable●, that then thou wouldst Seek to be deified, or else turn star, That Dull-heades might adore thee from afar: It is a Because it tends to the attainment of riches, which in this world are of most estimation. skill indeed of rich esteem, And worthy of the rarest Philosopher, But could one do the same, as many seem, Yet no great wise one he himself should deem. For all his wits to this should be restrained (Sith to work wonders the whole- man requires) And though at length (perhaps) he it attained, Yet should he be to seek that Wit desires, In other matters, than these feats by fires. Sage Solomon, whose wisdom wonder wan, Knew all in all, which all in one admires, Eccles. 1. Yet knew that all was vain, and he a man Vainer than vanity, that nothing can. Our knowledge is so slender, and so frail, That the least pride cannot depend thereon; Pride breaks our Connings neck, which oft doth fail To hold aright the nature of one Stone, Much less to know the kinds of every one. Compare the All we know, with the least part Of that we know not, we shall see, alone God only and alone is wise. That God is wise: And men are void of Art, And blind in wit and will, in mind, and Hart. Be he a Pleader, and a wordie Man (Whose wind the true elixir is; for it The air to a Sun lawyers sell both their silence and speech. Immoderate desire of having, & honour be enemies, & can hold no congruency in one man together. If it be an infallible token of health, when the physicians be poor, them is it a true sign of contention (a state's disease) when Lawyers be rich. Aurum transmute lightly can) If once he gets a name for law-ful wit, He thinks high pride for him alone is fit: Convoys of Angels, then must help the most Unto his speech; for he makes benefit Of every word; for not one shall be lost, Or if it be, the next shall quit that cost. up go his Babell-Towres of pomp and Pride, That to the highest he may next neighbour be; No neighbour neeres him, his grounds are so wide, Than not a Nod without a triple fee, An angel (though most bright) he cannot see: Very many laws are notes of a corrupt Common weal Tacit. And yet to know the Law, is but to know How Men should live, and without Law agree: Which, Reason to the simplest soul doth show; Then pride is far too high, for skill so low. But though the Lawyer lives by others loss, And hath no place in Plato's commonweal, Yet if he will not Cato in R●me forbade all to be called to the bar that were found eloquent in a bad cause cross Law, for the cross That no Man hates, but all do love to feel; he's worthy of the * Money. The duty of laws and Lawyers. cross sweet Comforts seal: For Lawyers ought (like laws) to make Men good, And who are in the wrong, or Right, reveal: Then are they worthy of all livelihood, That make men live in perfect Brotherhood. But, that a Petti-fogging prating patch, That gropes the b pettifoggers the grand disturbers of good men's quiet. Law for nothing but for galls, Should be so proud as if he had no match, For tossing laws as they were Tennis- balls, This vexeth God and goodmen at the galls: Yet such there are, (too many such there are,) Who are the Seedes-men of Litigious Bralls: And are so proud that by the laws they dare Contend with Crassus, though they nought canspare. I grant the Law to be an holy thing, Worthy of reverence and all regard; But the abuse of c If he ought to be punished which offereth to corrupt a judge with gifts, how much more ought he which goeth about to blind his judgement wi●h lies, or eloquence: because a virtuous judge will not be corrupted with the first, but he may be deceived by the last. Law (and so of King) By such as will abuse both for reward, Is damned; hard term! yet that course is more hard: Can such find patrons, such course to protect? They can and do, but would they might be barred From bars, or that over bars they might be pecked, El● at bars with as hard a doom be checked. Hinc ille Lachrymae! O grief of griefs! My Muse be mute, defile not thine own Nest: O let the longest Largs be shortest briefs In this discordant Note, and turn the wrist; So that this Pride in whom so ere is notable. for she will be seen, being still overseen. Note by thee be near expressed: Canst thou my Muse? canst thou my cruel Muse Make Men, the Muse's Minions detest? Forbear, forbear thy Souls love to abuse, Or touch that tenderly which thou dost use. be't possible a Poet should be proud, That for the most part is passed passing poor? That can paint Vice with & without a cloud, And being most ugly, make her ugly more, Can he be proud? & only b Proud of a cunning invective against pride. proud therefore! It cannot be in sense, and Poets are Sense-masters subtilized by their Lore; Yet 'tis too true that scarce one Poet rare Is free from Pride, though Back be lean as bare. Poetry no skill human. I cannot but confess the Skill's divine; For, holy Raptures must the Head entrance, Before the Hand can draw one lasting Line, That can the glory of the Muse advance; And sacred Furies with the thoughts must dance, To lead them Measures of a stately kind, Or jocund Gigges: Then, if Pride with them prance She will be foremost, than shame comes behind, Both which disgrace the motions of the mind. Wilt thou be lofty Muse? then scale the Mount Where Jove's high- altar On the top of Olympus at the foot whereof runs Helicon. stands; and on the same Offer thou lowly, that which doth surmount The reach of vulgars', in no vulgar Flame: There sacrifice to Jove thy fairest fame In lowest depth of highest humility; Humility is the surest foundation for the highest glory. Humility that can advance thy name To highest height of immortality, Embosomed by divinest Dëitie. Art great with young with numbers infinite The least of which hath power to pierce the sky? Yet lowly be, that the womb of thy wit That rare Conception may yield readily, Their mother so to glad and glorify; Thou art from heaven my Muse, them be thou such, As heavenly be, full of humility; Is thy skill much? be d Humility doth best become the highest knowledge. Extreme preciseness or affectation in words & stile doth quench the heat of our invention and bridleth the freedom of our wits. We must use words as we use coin, that is, those that be common and currant; It is dangerous to coin without privilege. meek then more than much, For Pride's most damned, that heavenly things doth touch. Plunge thee o'er head and ears in Helicon, dive to the bottom of that famous Fludd, Although it were as deep as Acheron, Thence make thy fame up-dive although withstood With weeds of Ignorance, & Envies mud: But though thy fame fair Sol should equalize For height and glory, yet let all thy good Consist in that, If thou woul'st thou couldst rise, But lov'st bombasted mountings to despise. Yet let me give this Poesy is the Caesar of Speech. Caesar but his due (Caesar of speech that monarchizeth ears) Sweet poesy, that can all souls subdue, To Passions, causing joy or forcing tears, And to itself each glorious sprite endears: It is a speech of most majestic state, As by a wel-pened poem well appears; Poesy more perdurable than Pros●. Then Prose, more cleanly couched & delicate, And if well done, shall live a longer Date. For, it doth flow more fluent from the tongue, In which respect it well may termed be, (Having a Cadence musical among) A speech melodious full of harmony, Or Eare-enchanting matchless melody: Succinct it is, and easier to retain (Sith with our Some Philosophers supposed our souls to be music, some others Number. spirits it better doth agree) Then, that which tedious ambage doth contain, Albeed the wit therein did more than reign. It's decked with colours fresh, and figures fine, Which doth the judgement ay inveigle so (Making the ear to it of force incline) That b poesy inveagles ●he judgement to assent to her assertion●. judgement often doth herself forego, And like wax, bends Opinion to and fro; In Prose the speech is not so voluble, Because the Tongue in numbers doth not flow, Ne yet the accent half so tunable, Then, to our spirits much less suitable. And, for it's ofter used, it cloies the ear Being not contrived with Measures musical, And not aloud that beauty Verse doth bear, Nor yet the Cadence so harmonical, Much less the Relifh, and double-relish words of art incident to the Soule-inchanting art of music. relish so angelical: It's not adorned with choice of such sweet words (Words that have power to sweeten bitterest Gall) Nor licenceed that fine Phrase, art Verse affords, Which makes huge depths, oft times, of shallow Foorde● ● Therefore the Poets from the world's first Age, As best persuaders, whose sweet Eloquence (They playing best parts on this Earthly Stage) Was the first rhetoric borne of Sapience, That glory gives to wisdoms influence: Oracles delivered always in Verse. here-hence it came that divine Oracles (Apollo's speech of highest excellence) Were still expressed in measured Syllables, The voice of wisdoms truest Vocables. In which respect, 'twas meetest to make Records Of memorable Accidents of Time, Of Prince's lives and actions of great Lords, Which Poets first did Chronicle in rhyme; And far above Chronography did climb: For they were first of all that did observe (Though Poets now are neither flush nor Prime) The works of Nature for man's use to serve, But now 'gainst Nature their works make them d They give those men fame that recompense them with famine. starve. They searched the causes of things generable, With their effects and distinct properties; And made them (by their skill) demonstrable, Mounting from thence unto the lofty skies, To note their motions and what in them lies: They first did find the heavens plurality, Poet's ●irst found the distinction of the spheres. And how they did each other so comprise That in their motion they made melody, Caused by their closnesse and obduracy. Yea, sought to find each substance separate, And in their search they were most curious Of divine Essenses to know the state, Which having found'st were most laborious Them to express in Poems precious: They were therefore the first Astronomers● Poets were the first Astronomers metaphysics, and Philosophers. (That traveled through the heavens from house to house) First metaphysics and Philosophers, Unfolding heaven & Earth, Sun, moon, & Starre●. Thus much for Poets, and sweet poesy, In whose praise never can be said too much: Yet Pride their praise may blemish utterly, For she defiles like pitch what she doth touch: And makes both heaven & earth at it to grudge: For no Perfection can be touched with pride But it will look as if it were not such, Deformed in favour, which none can abide; For Grace is base being thus double died. But that which grates my gall, and mads my Muse, Is (ah that ever such just cause should be) The stewed once stood where now playhouses stand. To see a Player at the put-downe stews Put up his peacocks tail for all to see, And for his hellish voice, as proud as he; The Peacock. What peacock art thou proud? Wherefore? because Thou Parrat-like canst speak what is taught thee: A Poet must teach thee from clause to clause, Or thou wilt break Pronunciations laws. Lies all thy virtue in thy Tongue still taught, And yet art proud? alas poor scum of pride! Peacock, look to thy legs and be not haught, No patience can least pride in thee abide; Neither delighteth he in any man's legs. Psal. 147.10. look not upon thy Legs from side to side To make thee prouder, though in Buskine fine, Or silk in grain the same be beautified; For Painters though they have no skill divine, Can make as fair a leg, or limb as thine. Good God! that ever pride should stoop so low, That is by nature so exceeding high: Base pride, didst thou thyself, or others know, Wouldst thou in hearts of Apish Actors lie, That for a Reproofs where they are well deserved, must be well pa●ed. Cue will sell their quality? Yet they through thy persuasion (being strong) Do ween they merit immortality, Only because (forsooth) they use their b Meant of those that have nothing to commend them but affected acting, & offensive mouthing. Tongue, To speak as they are taught, or right or wrong. If pride ascend the stage (o base ascent) All men may see her, for nought comes thereon But to be seen, and where Vice should be shent, Yea, made most odious to every one, In blazing her by demonstration Then pride that is more than most vicious, Should there endure open damnation, And so she doth, for she's most odious In Men most base, that are ambitious. Players, I love ye, and your quality, As ye are Men, that pass time not abused: And c W. S. R B. some I love for d Simonides saith, that painting is a dumb Poesy, & poesy a speaking painting. painting, poesy, And say fell Fortune cannot be excused, That hath for better uses you refused: Wit, Courage, good-shape, good parts, and all good, As long as all these goods are no worse used, And though the stage doth stain pure gentle blood, Yet Roscius wa● said for his excellency in his quality, to be only worthy to come on the stage, and for his honesty to be more worthy than to come thereon. generous ye are in mind and mood. Your quality, as fa●●e as it reproves The World of Vice, and gross incongruence Is good; and good, the good by nature loves, As f ●her is good use of plays & pastimes in a commonweal for thereby those that are most uncivil, p●one to move war and dissension, are by these recreations accustomed to love peace & ease. Tac 14. An. Ca 6. recreating in and outward sense; And so deserving praise and recompense: But if pride (otherwise then morally) Be acted by you, you do all incense To morta●l hate; if all ha●e mortally, Princes, much more Players they vilify. But Pride hath skill to work on base skills, For each Bagg-piper, if expert he be, Pride fills his soul, as he his bagpipe fills, For he supposeth he and none but he Should be advanced; For what? For Rogueree. He can repine, and say that men of Though these words be unfit ●or his mouth yet he fits his mouth to these words parts Are not esteemed; go base Drone, dirty be, Rest thou in dung, too good for thy deserts; For dirt to dirt should go, and praise to Artes. Though no man can more willingly commend The Soule-reioycing sound of musics voice, Fair figure of that bliss that near shall end, Which makes our sorrowing souls (like it) rejoice; The end of arts gives them their true valuation. Yet at the best it's but a pleasure choice To make us game, when we are woe-begon; It is too light grave arts to counterpoise, Then no cause is there to be proud thereon Albeed thou wert as good as Amphion. Pride, wilt thou still be subject to my Muse? Be subject to her still, and so to me: But now she should (if she did well) refuse Longer to have to do with cursed Thee; For she hath found thee in the low'st degree, The Hangman saved, whose ba●●●esse doth surpass: Yet he of London, that detested He Gentlemen should hate Pride ●owe, sith she is become the hangman's love. (Whose heart is made of Flint, and face of brass) Of decollation brags, but let that pass. Then pride farewell, base beastly pride farewell, Or fa●e far worse, then ill in worst degree, Sith thou scornest not in such an heart to dwell, That by the fruit lives of the Gallow tree: Who will not scorn now to be touched by thee? Sink to earths Bowels from her burdened breast, (For on the Earth thou canst no lower be) Sith Hell's thy sphere where thou shouldst ever rest, Hell, the home of Pride. For, on the Earth thou movest but to unrest. Thus having past these Passions of the soul, That are as founts from whence the lesser flow; We are arrived (through fair ways and fowl) Unto the third womb situate below The third womb. The Midrife; where the growing power doth grow: But for it is so far removed from thence From whence the soul doth her arch-wonders show, (Namely the seat of the Intelligence) we'll baulk the same for its impertinence. Referring it unto Anatomists, Who mark each Mortesse of the body's frame, The Pynns, the Tenons, Beams, Bolts, wind, jists, All which they mark when they do it unframe: To these craftsmasters, I refer the same; Sufficeth me to look with my right * Of mine understanding. Eye (Though it dim sighted be and so to blame) Into the seat of each soul's faculty, Fixed to wits wonder-working Ingeny. Yet as I could I have the soul expressed, If not with proper colours, yet with such As do distinguish her kind from the rest, Which Kind, by kind, in Beasts & Plants doth couch: But to paint her in each least part were much; Philosophers have been to * All Philosophers have erred touching the soul. seek herein, Although they sought but slightly her to touch, And have through Error much abused been, When her fair Picture they did but begin. Crates. For Crates said, there is no soul at all, But that by Nature, Bodies moved be: Hippa●ch●s & Leucippus. Hipparchus, and Leucippus, Fire it call, With whom (in sort) the Stöickes do agree: A fiery spirit between the Invocation Democritus. Democritus will have it: and the air Diogenes. Some say it is: the barrelled cynic, he And with him others of another hair, Do thus depaint the soul, and file her fair. The soul (say they) is air, the Mouth takes in, Boiled in the Lights, and tempered in the heart, And so the body it throughout doth run; This is the soul (forsooth) made by their Art. Hippias. Hippias would have it water, all or part: Heliodorus. Heliodorus held it earth confixt; And Epicurus said it was a () Namely, a spirit of Fire and air commixed: And Zenophontes, earth and water mixed. A diametrical repugnancy of opinions, among the Philosophers touching the soul. Thus (simple souls!) they make the simple soul fowl, Of simple Elements, or else compound: Meanwhile they make her (most fair creature) And dim her glory which is most renowned, Through mists of Ignorance, which them surround. Others, of other substance ween it is, Critias. For Critias with blood doth it confound, Hypocrates Hypocrates (that went as wide as this) Said 'twas a thin spirit spread through our Bodis. Some, Flesh would have it with the senses use; Some the complexion of the Elements: Galen. And Galen doth not much the same refuse, For to an hot Complexion he assents, For so's the soul (saith he) and not reputes: Not that Complexion, (some say) but abides In some point of it; and those Continents They hold the heart, or brain, where it resides As Queen enthroned, and all the body guides. Some Light would have it, as Heraclitus; Heraclitus. Others, some thing tied to no certain place, But wholly present in each part of us; Which, whether sprung from the Complexions grace, Or made by God, yet they ween cleers the case, From nature's lap the same of force must fall. Some others said a Quintessence it was: Some, an unquiet Nature moving all: A number, some, that itself moves, it call. The Caldees say it is a formless Force, Which ne'ertheless all forms doth apprehended; And Aristotle doth himself enforce Aristotle. To make the same upon the corpses depend; For these his words do sort out to that end: It is (saith he) an high perfection Of body, that life's power doth comprehend, Which understanding gives it, sense, & motion; This in effect is his description. Plato (surnamed divine) affirmed, it is Plato. A divine substance which itself doth move, Endued with understanding. He doth miss Less than the rest, though Truth doth all reprove: And Senec saith the soul is far above Seneca The knowledge of the most intelligent; Which speech of his Lactantius doth approve, Thus do they all about the soul dissent, Aswell for substance, as where resident. Hypocrates. For in the brains Hypocrates it puts, Strato. And Strato, in the space between the eyes; Diogenes. In the heart's hollow vein the Dog it shuts, That always in a Tub enkenelled lies: Stoics. The Stoics say, the heart doth it comprise: Democritus. In all the body, saith Democritus: In all the breast, say others as unwise: Hierophilus. In the brains ventricles, saith Hierophilus: Thus all in all were most erroneous. Empedocles. Empedocles in blood the ●ame doth bound: Galen. Galen would have each limb a soul to have: Renowned Galen, how wast thou renowned, That didst thyself so foolishly behave! Thus for the place they with each other strove, And for the soul's continuance no less. Epicures. The Epicure the body makes her grave, And dies and lies with it. But some confess she's capable of everlastingness. Pythagoras. Pythagoras, by transmigration Will have it everlasting, or at least As long as beasts shall have creation; Man is the Horizon between Angels and Beasts● as far from Beasts as Angels. For it doth pass (saith he) from Man to beast: What fool could more ridiculously jest? Yet he disciples had, and not a few, That this gross doctrine did with ease digest; Therefore no Beasts, these more beasts, ever slew Sith they their friends souls held, for aught they knew. The Stoics, held the mean twixt Epicures And Pythagoreans: for that soul (they say) That's vicious, whilst the body it immures, Doth die, and with the body quite decay: But if it virtuous be, it liveth aye: Some parts of it (as Aristotle holds) Aristotle. That have seats corp'ral, with them fall away: But understanding which no Organ holds, (As free from filth) eternity infolds. Thus for their ending or continuance Do they contend; & no less Christians strive Christians differ touching the soul's beginning. For their beginning: some, the same advance To heaven, and say they there did ever live Since Angels fel. And other some believe That one soul doth another propagate: Some others, their commencement do derive From time that first the Angels were create, Which sacred Austin doth insinuate. Others there be, who constantly affirm That souls created are from day to day, Thomas Aquinas his opinion touching the soul's beginning. Which he of Aquine boldly doth confirm: For sith the soul doth form the body's clay, It with the body must be made, they say. Whereto agrees each modern Schoole-divine: So that these Men do from each other stray Touching the soul's birth, which they mis-assigne, " For they speak ill that cannot well define. And Epicures the same do mortal make: The Pythagoreans it do transmigrate; Some say, the heavens do the same retake: Divers opinions concerning the souls continuance. Some put it into hell, in endless date: Others would have it earth perambulate. Some say there's but one universal soul, Whereof particulars participate; Which saying Plato doth not much control; Plato. But that he would have either to live sole. Some, make each Man two distinct souls to have, The Intellective, and the Sensitive, And that the sensitive the parents gave, But the Creator the Intellective: Others, the soul do of the same deprive, Some make two distinct things of the soul and understanding. For they the soul and understanding part. Some make no difference, but do believe The understanding is the chiefest part; Thus in conceit they from each other start. Some suppose that human souls are portions of the divine nature. Some, held opinion souls are bred in heaven, And of the divine Nature portions are, Decked with all virtue, by that Nature given, Together with all skill & knowledge clear, Which in that nature ever do appear: From whence they did descend to animate men's bodies, which by nature filthy were; Which did those pure souls so cotaminate, That they those Skills & virtues quite forgot. So that they could not use them further forth Then they were taught, which made them to suppose That what skill, virtue, or what other worth Our minds do remember Sciences, not learn them. Plato. The soul bewrayed, was but a minding those It had in heaven, and so knows all it knows: So that the portions of the divine fire Being well near quenched by Blood, which then orefloes, Must be rekindled and made to aspire By Doctrine, which the spirit doth desire. Whereon they do conclude, that sith the soul By entering in the Body most unclean Is made prodigious, and extremely fowl, To heaven cannot a Truth itself faith, no unclean thing can enter into the heavens. Galat. 5.21. return being so obscene, Till it by Discipline, be purged clean; And decked with the rights of her birthright, Which to regain, Instruction is the mean: Or from the Body being parted quite, They may be purged, some say, though most unright. Now, when we balance all these Arguments In the sincere Scales of the Sanctuary, We find them viler than wits Excrements, And lighter than the scum of Vanity: For true it is The blind eats many a Fly. A Proverb. But that Man hath a soul, none is so blind, But sees her almost with Eyes bodily: And that she's endless the dymst Eyes of mind By nature's dymest light, may lightly find. God is a sprite, the World a Body is, God and the world are epitomized in man. Both which in Man are plain epitomized, Of God he's Abstract in that soul of his; And in his corpse the World is close comprised: As if the divine wisdom had devised To bring into a centre's centre all His greatness, that cannot be circulized, And the huge magnitude of the earths Ball; For Microcosmos men Man fitly call. Microcosmos. Who in a Minute can the Earth surround, And sink unto her centre, then ascend The agility, subtlety, and capacity of the soul. And compass, with a trice, the heavenly Round Yea heaven & Earth at once doth comprehend Not touching either; But doth apprehend A thousand places, without shifting place, And in a moment ascend, and descend To heaven & Hell, & each of them embrace; It self being compassed in a little space. This, Man can do without the body's aid, Man is said to be man in ●espect of his human soul. Then must he do it as a Man he is; And in respect of his soul he is said To be a Man, for by that soul of his And only by that soul, he acteth this: When the mind is busy the outward Senses be at rest. Which seethe when the Bodies eyes be closed, And when those Eyes be open, oft sight doth miss: It travels when the Body is reposed, And rests when as the same by Toile's disposed. Th'external senses may lose all their power, If but the Instruments of them decay, Yet Life and Reason may continue sure; But Senses stay not if Life do not stay, Life & Sense depend upon the soul. And Life the soul doth stay or bear away: The more the corpses decay, so much the more The soul is strengthened; which sick-men bewray, Who when their Bodies are most weak and poor, Their Minds reveal most strength, and riches store. The soul is no Quality but a Substance Then it's a substance and no quality, For Qualities in Substances subsist; Then that which makes another thing to Bee, No Quality can be, but doth consist In its own substance, which doth sole exist: Then sith a man's a man, that is to say A living Creature with right Reason blessed, He hath a soul that forms, & him doth sway, Else were he but a livelesse lump of Clay. Which soul is bodiless, else could it not The soul is of capacity to comprehend Heaven and Earth. contain so many Bodies small and great, By some of which it would be overshott; For all this All, were it much more complete, In it may sit, without place for a seat. Yet doth our body bound it, which is small, But wert a corpse it could not do that feat; For that which can contain Heaven, earth, and all Which they contain, cannot be corporal. The more it hath, the more it will receive, The more it holds, the more it doth desire, The more the soul doth the more it may receive. The more things be, it best doth them conceive, Whether they be distinct or else entire; All which at once may in the soul retire Without disturbing or annoying either: All which t'effect doth such a soul require, That infinite had need be altogether, The soul is in a sort infinite. And in a sort the soul can be no other. We may in mind conceive another's mind; Then, that which can conceive things bodylesse Can be no body (though pure as the wind) But merely spiritual, which may have egress Into each spirit, and from thence make regress, Without those spirits perceiving of the same: We may enter into another's mind with our mind Then must the substance that makes such access Be immaterial in deed and name; The soul therefore is of a spiritual frame. Two forms at once of quite repugnant kind No Matter can receive: but the soul can; No matter can hold 2. forms at one instant of contrary kinds. Black, White, Fire, Frost, Moist, Dry, these place do find Without resistance in the soul of man; Then souls we see at Matter near began: Nay, sith the less with Matter we do mell, The less flesh the body hath the more wit the soul hath commonly. The more we understand: it follows than, That nought can more against the soul rebel Then matter, which the soul doth hate as Hell. For, were't material, whereof be't made? If of the Elements, how give they sense That never Life since their creation had? Much less than can they give Intelligence, That cannot give Sense that is senseless, nor intelligence that is unintellectual In whom nor Life nor sense hath residence: A Body's merely Passive; But the spirit Is absolutely Active: And from thence The body's Actions do derive their might, Or else no limb could stir or wrong, or right. And that the soul is an immortal mind (Not mortal, like the Body) doth appear, That whereas Time in his turns, up doth wind The body's substance, which those turns do wear; The soul not subject to Time. Yet can those motions, the soul nothing steer; But to more staidness, they the same do turn, And make her more immortal (as it were) Who (like the power divine) can Time adjourn, Or make it stay, or it quite overturn. The Time past, present, or to come, are all (As to the soul's sire) present to the soul, Which makes her matterlesse and immortal; For that which can stay Time, when he doth roll, Must be Divine, nought else can Time control: Time is the souls subject Then Time is subject to the soul (we see) Which as his sovereign him doth overrule, And though in Time the soul was made to be, Yet she makes Times turns to her tunes agree. The souls food (Truth) argues she is immortal like her food. Beside, her Food doth her immortal make, For mortal Creatures feed on mortal things, As beasts on grass, and Beasts men's hunger slake; But she doth feed on Truth, which truly brings Immortal state without all varyings: For Truth's as free from all corruption, As from times turns & restless alterings, Then sith the soul doth feed on Truth alone, It needs must be immortal in Reason. What soul can doubt her immortality, The doubt of our souls immortality, proves their immortality. But such as is immortal? for that doubt Doth rise from reason's discourse ingeniously; Then if by Reason she brought that about That souls are mortal: That soul's not without The power of Reason: & who hath that power, Must needs be of that rare celestial rout, Which Iron Teeth of Time cannot devour: For reason made Time, and past Time doth endure. God the fountain of Reason. No soul human but covets still to be, Which could not be if she but mortal were: The eternity past, overwhelmes the soul as being too great for her capacity, but that which is to come she can and doth conceive. When she looks back eternity to see, She sees she cannot past beginnings bear; But being begun would feign past Time appear: Then how is it that Men are all so feign If Nature thereunto all do not steer? But how be't natural if it be a Nature made nothing in vain. vain? And vain it is, if it do nought obtain. If ever thou resolved were't to die, Consider how thy soul discoursed then: Could she persuade herself that she must fly The soul cannot possibly persuade herself that she is mortal. (Sith she was made of nought) to nought again, And as beasts died, so did mortal Men? Maugre thy soul while she doth thus discourse, She slips from all Conclusions, and doth ren Quite from her self by nature's proper force, To weigh which way she wends, freed from her corpse. The damned Epicurean-Libertine At deaths approach, (stirred up by nature's might) No atheist but would feign die the death of the righteous. To Life immortal would his soul resign; And in his soul resistless reasons fight, To prove the soul immortal by birthright: Do what he can his Thoughts to pacify Whiles they immortal strive to make his sprite, He cannot for his soul them satisfy, But they will still believe she cannot die. If one weak thought say thy soul's but a Blast, That with thy Breath is vapored to nought; A stronger thought saith it doth ever last, For nought can mortal be, that hath that thought: The soul is taught by natural reason, & by the light of nature that she is immortal. By Reason thus the soul is inly taught. If wandering thoughts persuade that souls depend On that which Nature in the body wrought, Domestic thoughts against those thoughts contend, And say, souls bodiless can never end. They came from God, to him themselves they lift, They mount as high as they dismounted be; Simil. even as a fountain doth her Current shift As high, as it descended, naturally: So souls do mount to him of whom they Bee. Beasts know no more but nature's parts extern, But our souls into Nature's secrets see; Nay stay not there, but they thereby do learn Who gave them sight such secrets ● to discern. Some say the soul and body are but one, Because their outward Sense perceives no more: They might deny God too by like reason Because they see him not: yet evermore They see his deeds, for which we him adore. Then let the actions of thy soul persuade The actions of our souls prove their immortality. Thy thoughts thou hast a soul; & let the lore Which God in her infused, when he her made, Teach thee to know that thy soul cannot fade. The soul consists not by the outward b The soul is not subject to the impression of the Senses because she is of an incorporal nature. sense, But by the soul the outward sense consists: The outward sense hath no Intelligence, (Which in and by an Instrument subsists) But as an Instrument sense her assists: The sense can see a Fort, but if w'inferre, Men made the same, and it the Foe resists, This doth surmount the outward senses far, The souls discourse surmounts the reach of the outward sense And doth conclude, our souls above them are. Our Reason often gives our sense the lie, When sense would misinform th' Intelligence: For sense gaine-saies the heavens plurality, But Reason proves the same by consequence: Our Reason doth oft correct our erring sense. The moon at full hath greatest light saith sense, But Reason by clear Demonstration Doth prove her then to have least radiance: Then Reason by this illustration The soul, not sense, makes Her foundation. The sun's one hundred sixty six times more The suns magnitude. Than the earths Globe in compass; but the sense With Tooth and nail with-stands it evermore, And says, (nay swears) there's no less difference Then twixt the centre and Circumference: But Reason by right Rules them both doth meat, Which she hath made by her experience; And finds the sun (as erst we said) more great By c Demonstration is the pillar whereon all science depends. Demonstration more than most complete. We by our souls conceive (as erst was said) Wisdom and knowledge bee'ng incorporal: But outward sense is altogether staid, On qualities of things mere corporal: The soul makes general rules of many particulars: but se●se insists upon particulars. The soul, by reason, makes rules general Of things particular: but sense doth go But to particulars material; The soul by the effect the cause doth sho, But sense no more but ba●e effects doth know. The true essence of things is unknown; and to man known by their accidents and actions. The proper essence of things is obscured, And by themselves of us cannot be known: Therefore the knowledge of them is procured By accidents and actions of their own, Which to the soul by wits discourse is shown; Who understandeth his ways? and the storm that no man can see? for the most part of his works are hid Eccle. 16.21. For, she concludes by reason's consequents (Though of themselves they merely are unknown) That thus they are; which high experiments Lie far above the reach of sense ascents. In them which will not understand this Truth, In them which will not understand true doctrine ignorance is sin, and in them which cannot, it is the pain of sin. Their ignorance is sin most pestilent; But they which cannot, (ah the more the ruth) Their ignorance, of sin's the punishment: And who denies a Truth so evident, Hath neither grace, nor sense; for all may see The soul's immortal, and divinely bend, And hath most force when she from flesh is free, Which proves her power and immortality. If souls and bodies than be so distinct, The soul is free from sin as she was made by God. And that the soul, as she of God was made, Is free from sin, and by her own instinct She hates that sense that doth to sin persuade, How is it then that she should be so bad? Sin derives her force from the soul. For from the soul, sin doth her force derive, Which with her weight the body doth o'erlade; To God all things are lawful that like him, and nothing likes him that is unlawful. Can she both cause, and yet against sin strive? She may (quoth All) but few do it believe. This is a gulf that swallows up the soul, And quite confounds her, if she enters it: This secret deep, deep wisdom did enroll, In that still-closed book of secrets, fit For Her alone to know, not erring wit ● Therefore the more presumption we show In search hereof, the more are we unfit A secret so unknown as this, to know: For they know most thereof whose spirits are low. The less sobriety we use herein, The more we a Some certain things though true are not uttered of God without danger whom we seem best to know when we confess him and his counsels to be incomprehensible. err in by-paths of Offence; And (giddy headed) headlong fall to sin, From which we hardly rise by penitence; For sins presumptuous, grace do most incense. Then let us b In doubtful matters wherein we may be ignorant without danger, it were better suspend out judgements than offer occasion of contention Calv. curb our headstrong thoughts, when they Would run beyond the reach of sapience; And make them stop, where wisdom points a stay, That is, to go no further than they c Warrantably. may. Many a curious Question hath been moved Touching this d Divine matters are full of obscurity. Cat. secret, and no fewer jars Hath it procured; and all to be reproved; Sith every one his own conceit prefers, e Th●s secret must be looked unto not into. Which to maintain, still maintains wilful wars. Some so desire to know, that feign they would Break through the f Faithf●ll ignorance is ●etter than rash knowledge. bound that human knowledge bars, To pry into His breast which doth enfold Secrets unknown: These, strange opinions hold But let it us suffice thus much to know, That though the soul cannot be soiled with sin As God created her; yet sin doth flow From a sin flows from Adam to the soul, and enters into her when she first gives motion to the body. Adam to the soul; and enters in When she the body doth to move begin: Nor must we make her sinful in respect She with the corpses is cased, as soiled therein, The fault of Adam only infects the soul But make the Fault of Adam her infect, Which is, indeed, sole cause of that effect. At large to prove her immortality, I should (like her) well-near be b It is far off, what may it be? and it is a profound deepness, who can find it? Eccl. 7.26. infinite; For, if the Image of the Deity Be found in Man, in his soul it is right: And though by Adam she be made unright, Yet by the second Adam (full of grace) She is again c Since the elementary & divine parts of Man are corrupted one by another and both from Adam, they must be borne again, by elementary & divine means, by Water and the Spirit. reformed and made upright, Which makes her strive when sin would her deface, To foil it, or at least not give it place. Enough my Muse of that, which near enough Can well be said, and let me (restless) rest; For, I must ply my pen which is my Plough, d Eccl. 25.3. Sith my life's sun is almost in the West, And I provided yet but for unrest: Time flies away, these Numbers number time, But goods they number not: for their interest Is nought but air, which though to heaven it climb, Is but mere vapour rising but from slime. There is no end in making many books, and much reading is a weariness of the Flesh. Eccles. 12.12. Yet this we do, and pleasure take in toil Although we do but blow the barren soil. FINIS. An ecstasy. WEther, entranced, or in a dream of dreams, Procured by Fancy in our sleeps extremes, Or whether by a strong imagination, Bred in the Bowels of deep Contemplation, My soul, when as my body waking was, Did see, what doth ensue, in Fancies glass: I know not well; but this full well I know, If it no substance were, it was a show: A show whereat my Muse admired much, Which she with her best sense can scarcely touch; It was so strange and full of mystery, Past apprehension of her ingeny. Me thought I saw, (at least I saw in thought As on a river's side I lay long-straught Eyeing the Waters eie-delighting glide) An heavenly creature more than glorified Upon the waves come tripping towards me, Who, scarce the water touched, did seem to flee: Her face was lovely, yet me thought she looked As one that had long time and travel brooked. The rob she ware was lawn (white as the swan) Which silver o's, and Spangles overran That in her motion such reflection gave, As fil●'d, with silver stars, the heavenly wave. Her brows, two hemicircles did enclose Of Rubies ranged in artificial Roes: Whose precious hair thereto was so confixt, That gold and ruby seemed intermixed. Upon her head a silver crown she ware, (Depressing so that rising golden hair) In token that she knew no marriage Bed, Which ne●thelesse was richly garnished With rarest pearl, that on the arched bents That rose from that rich crowns embattlements, Did shine like that brave party-coulord Bow, That doth heavens glory, and their mercy show. About her neck hung nature's Nature sits in a precious Stone as in her Throne of majesty. Miracle, A Carcanet of glorious Carbuncle; Which did the sun eclipse, and closed mine Eyes, That they could not behold her other guise. This sight (though glorious) much amated me, From which, rousing myself, I sought to flee: But with the offer I fell down again, As one whose legs could not his corpses sustain, Yet still I offered (bootless) to be gone, For, Sights divine daunt the stoutest Champion At the first sight; for, Nature doth not love To see (frail Creature) ought herself above. When lo, this heavenly Apparition, Bade me not fear, with sweet persuasion! For, I am she (quoth she) that lately was Thy sovereign; frëed from this Earthy mass: I now can like an angel with a trice, Shift place to serve the Prince of paradise. And, I am come to thee by his permission, That (notwithstanding thy obscure condition) Thou shouldst by me have light, and clearly see (As in a glass) what shall hereafter be Touching this Land, I did predominate: Look in these waves (quoth she) and see her fate. But I yet fearing lest by some delusion, I might be drawn to drown me, in conclusion, Did backward seem to do this later hest, Though in the premises I seemed blest. Then she (as seeing with immortal eyes The mortal fear that did my soul surprise) Skipped from the Water to the verdant Shore, And took me by the hand, and cheered me more. Her touch, me thought, sent to my soul such joy, As quite expelled, wh●t erst did it annoy. That hand, me seemed, I kissed with reverence, Which yielded sense-reviving redolence: I held it fast, and swayed it as I would, For she encouraged me, and made me bold. When to myself, I wished I had had might, T'have swayed or stayed it when it once did write, When it did (shaking) writ Elizabeth, Name giving Life to be a name of Death. I often have held hands, while I have taught Those hands to write, as (handsomely) they ought; But had I held her hand then, when it was, I would have taught her hand all hands to pass In love-procuring skill; and when she wrote Elizabeth great R. abridging date Of Life and Name, she should have written thus, Live live great R: for dying oft for us. And though she had in Earth no interest Now frëed from it by eternal rest, Yet, was my soul, me thought, extremely glad So to converse with her immortal Shade: And to myself I said, with submiss voice, If Princes Shades our Spirits so rejoice; What will their Substance where they please to grace? That, in the Soul must needs have greater place. Arise (quoth she) because the Water's deep, And thou (perhaps) dost fear therein to peep: Come follow me to yonder shady Grove, Which Zephyrus doth gently breathing move, Upon the further side of this green mead, There shalt thou see, what shall thy Fancy feed. Then up I sprang with rare agility, Which gave me power, me thought, with her to fly As swift as thought, to that designed place; And there she laid me down, with sweet embrace: Which so entranced me, as a while I lay Engulfed in joy, yet all the while did pray That the Catastrophe of this sweet Scene, Might answer the beginning and the mean. She feeling with her hand my Pulse to beat As one whose soul did seek to shift her seat, She chafed my Temples which did showering rain The liquid pearl which oft proceeds of pain: And with a loving check she did control, The Passion of my over-passioned soul. I am (quoth she) no Soule-confounding Fiend, Assuming angels form for wicked end; But come to grace thee graceless forlorn Man With divine favours; why dost fear me than? Whereto with trembling Tongue I made reply: I fear thee not, sense-mazing majesty; But the delight my silly soul conceives For this high grace, my soul of sense bereaves. Well then I conjure thee in love (quoth she) That thou fear not, But mark what thou shalt see. No sooner these sweet words accented were, But in our presence lively did appear A Lady of a most majestic state, Clad like a World-commanding Potentate; With all that might object prosperity, To W●tt or Observations Eagles Eye: On whom attended two still-striving Dames, In manners divers, divers too in frames: The one still eyed the Mould, with downcast look, In black invested, in her hand a book: Her breast close-clasped up unto the Chin, That no lascivious Eye might pry therein: A cypress vail ore-canapide her face, Where under shone a World of modest grace. Nothing about her was superfluous, And nothing wanting, fit for nature's use: I took her for some World-despising Dame, Whose conversation was not in the same. The other was the true arch-type of that Which Men for Levity do wonder at. near to her Body she (fantastic) ware A thin vail of Carnation coloured ware: On which, with stars of gold embossed, was drawn As 'twere an upper Smock of purest lawn; Which seemed as if a Silver cloud had spread Over the face of Phoebus blushing red: Upon all which she ware a gaberdine, For form as strange, as for stuff, ●ich and fine: To which there was a certain kind of train, Which (useless) was turned up threefold again: The Wings whereof, (where her arms out were let) were of pure gold with Smarags thick beset: So were the verges of it set with stone, As costly as the Whores of B●bilon. On either side from her arms to her waste, It was unsowed, and made with Buttons fast Of orient pearl, of admirable size, Which loops of Azur'd silk did circulize: So as ye might between the Buttons see, Her smock out-●●ft to show her levity. The Sleeves whereof were meanly large, yet so As to the hands it less and less did grow: About whose wrists being gathered in fine pleates, It was made fast with orient Bracëlets Of pearl as big as plumbs, and intermixed With other gems, of divers hues transfixed; Which o'er her hands hung as superfluously As (like the rest she ware) most combrously. Morisco-wise her Garment did orehang Her Girdle, set with stone and many a spang: Which ne'ertheless could not be seen at all, By reason of that Robes orefolding fall: Saving that when the wind blew up the same It might be seen like lightnings sudden flame. This Garment though it were but too too long, Yet too too short, or shortest of all, it hung. Her nether Vesture stretched but to her calf, Yet lower wrought then that above, by half: For, she the upper tucked and trebled so, As like a farthingale the same did sho. Upon her legs she ware a Buskin fine, Of stuff that did like clearest Amber shine, Down half way folded, with a Brouch below, Which on the shin she rightly did bestow. Her nether smocks or smock-like petticoats, Each gale of wind a fit in air floats: Which she assisted with prompt reddynesse, Glad of so good a colour (as I guess) To show the colour of her skin below, Which scarce the Smocks of modest matrons know. Her breast lay open almost to the waste, That by the eye, men might be drawn to taste The bitter sweets, which in her did abound; " For, beauty through the eye the heart doth wound. Her paps were varnished over with shining stuff, To give the Sight a lusty counterbuff: Twixt whom there hung a jewel of rare gems, That the eye dazzled with resplendent beams. About her neck a chain of pearl she ware, That to her breast did cover all the bare; Saving that here and there ye might espy A dy-like Square of polished ivory. Her ruff (or * Rebata. what you will) about her neck, Was cut and carved the more the same to deck: And in the cuts, between the folds, did lurk Frogs, Flies, Snakes, Spiders, all of goldsmith's work; So lively made, as that the sight wou●d swear They were alive, for each did seem to steer. Upon the hem whereof did loosely hang Many a glittering siluer-golden spang: Which, with the motion of her body light Did (twinkling) seem like stars in winter's night. Her face, though fair, was painted cunningly, Which trebled beauty, to bewitch the eye. In centre of her forehead (which did shine As if the same had been all crystalline) Between rare pearls, disposed all in fret, A rich coruscant ruby in was let. Upon the verge of whose gold-stayning hair, Illustrious sapphires ev'nly ranked were: Saving that here and there ●●owde pomp did place Great pointed Diamonds to give them grace. Her hair, though fair, yet was it made to line A curled Periwicke of hair more fine; Not hair, but golden wire drawn like the Twist The Spider spins with her vnfing'red fist. Behind, the rest was so in trammels folded (Which precious pearl and Rubies rich enfolded) That all, like speckled Snakes, in Knots was wound, And every one with divers flowers crowned. Her gate was painful, tripping on the Toes, As if Desire should say, lo, there she goes. She stood, as if she stood upon no ground, But on some water-wave that made her bound; For, now she sinks on this leg, than aloft Upon that other she advanced oft. And no less oft she would cast down her eye Upon her Ivory paps; and wanton She seemed to smile on beauty without peer, To draw all wanton eyes to note it there. In sum she was such as Voluptusnesse With all her colours cannot well express. These damsels strove (as erst I said) to gain The love of her that was their sovereign: Who seemed to each indiff'rently disposed; But after much a do their strife she closed With this decree; that who her most could move By reason's force, should be her liefest love. Virtue. Then virtue lo, (for so it seemed she was) With modest look, and favour full of grace, Began to tune her tongue unto that ear Which she desired to her to endear. Albion. Quoth she, dear Albion, (so I knew her name That first of all into our presence came) If thou wilt me imbozome, I will make Both heaven and Earth to love thee for my sake. Thy conscience I will calm, and in thy breast Thou shalt perceive the heaven of heavens to rest. Thine understandings eye shallbe as bright As that fair eye that all the World doth light. All Nations shall do homage unto thee, As unto her that gives them eyes to see. Thou shalt reduce to thine obedience Without the Sword, the earths circumference. The wisemen of the East shall come from far, Drawn by thy grace, led by thy virtues star, And offer thee Gold, myrrh, and frankincense, And what else may delight thy soul or sense. Thou shalt have power to crush the crowns of kings And with their neighbours swords to clip their wings; If they shall rise against thee in their pride; So keep them down, and yet thy hands undide. God and the World (though it be near so ill) Shall hold those cursed that do resist thy will. For, thou shalt nothing will but what is good, As long as thou and I, be one in mood. I will break open heavens gates with might & main, And on thy head shall Blessings power amain. Yea, to thy comfort it shall well appear That all desired increase shall crown each year. The golden days of peaceful Solomon, Shall ever wait thy blessed years upon. The sea shall yield thee from her liquid womb, What shall enrich thy poor and basest groom. Thy mountains shall with cattle still be crowned, The whiles the Vales with corn shal● ore-abound. Thy sons, & Daughters, shall yield comfort to thee, That whilom did endeavour to undo thee. Thy youngmen shall see Visions, & thine Old Shall dream dreams, by which things shallbe foretold That shall concern thy good in times future, And that prevent, which may thine Ill procure; Angels shall guard thy walls and on thy strand In legions they shall lie as thick as Sand, To keep thy fomen from assailing thee, In battle ranged by heavens divinity. Thy Schools shall yield thee Saints, which shall direct In Life, and Doctrine, whatsoever Sect. Thy cities like Bee-hives shall still contain Men as Bees busy for the Common gain. All idle Drones that live by others sweat They shall cassiere, or not allow them meat. There shall no beggar in thy Streets be found, Nor cries of wretches at thy Gates shall sound; But, with the foizone of heavens blessings all (By means of me) their Baskets fill they shall. Thy peers shall strive for peace, & who shallbe In virtue (not in State) in highest degree. There shall be no Contention in thy Body, Which heretofore hath made thy members bloody. The pool of Grace shall overflow thy Land, Gliding in crystal streams on Pearly Sand. The Horrors that consort the hateful crew, Shall never come so near as in thy view. No human quarters shall oretopp thy Gates, For seeking to o'er top thy magistrates. No Heading, Hanging, Burning, or the like, Shalt need to use, ne with the Sword to strike Those that do wear good Swords but to bad ends; For all shall live in peace like loving friends. The word Oppression, much less shall the deed Be never heard, where all are well agreed. Each one shall know his place, and in the same Shall labour to preserve an honest name. One heart, one Hand, one Faith, one soul, & Mind, Shall all thy People in one Body bind. Thou shalt not need to fear the Chamber-scapes, The sins 'gainst Nature, and the brutish Rapes, Which with the godless Nations are too rife; For every Man shall have his lawful Wife: Which duly in an undefiled bed, Shall get right Members for their upright Head. Thou shalt not need to pinch thy people's Purses, And so incur thereby thy Commons curses: Or money- Bladders seek, in Seas of blood To bear thee up, from sinking in that flood. For, thou shalt have Exchequers richly stored, That thou to well deservers Mayst afford Royal rewards, without the Commons Cost; For, crowns are richly blest, with Peace y-crost. Taxe-undergrowne, (o odious Tyranny! Bred in the womb of Sensuality) Shall near so much as once be named in thee, But thou shalt punish kingdoms, where they be. The cloudy pillar shall guide thee by day, The fiery Flame by night shall show thy way. Beavies of quails, and Manna (angels food) Shall shower from heaven to do thy Children good. Who shall therefore, sing hymns of praise divine, And merry make each one beneath his Vine. The voice divine shall thunder from on high, And talk with thee (beloved) familiarly. Thou shalt with Moses rod divide the deeps, And make their raging waves to stand on heaps, That Man, and Horse which to thee do belong, Shall pass, as on dry Land, those waves among. For thine Advantage thou shalt open the Earth, And send repining rebels quick beneath, If any should arise; but doubtless Those Can never spring, where virtue still o'erflows. If thou wilt use me, thou wilt use me still, For I will please thy soul, thy wit, thy Will. And though I seem t'vncircumcized Sense But passing plain, and full of Indigence, Yet in my breast true Glory is enthroned, And all my Friends shallbe with glory crowned. On me do wait the Ministers of joy, To be disposed as I shall them employ. Death, and Damnation I tread underfoot, And over Lethe lake with ease I float. I am the Darling of the trinity, That o'er Sin, Death, and Hell hath empery. When heaven shall melt, & Earth shall mere away, I in his blessed bosom live for aye. If thou through humane frailty chance to trip, I'll stay thy foot, that down thou shalt'uot slip: Or if in mire of sin down flat thou fall, I'll wring tears from thine Eyes to wash off all. What shall I say? if thou wilt cherish me, I'll still make peace between thy God and thee: That neither Satan, sin, nor ought beside, Shall have the power your union to divide. Think what a comfort it willbe to thee, By me t'enjoy this world's felicity, And when Confusion shall dissolve the same, Thy soul to live with God, with Saints thy fame: Which all eternity shall comprehend, In joy past joy; thus she with joy did end. When lo, the other (painted Butterfly That looked too like voluptuous Vanity) Seemed greatly chafed with this long discourse, And often mewed and mop●; and which is worse The speech disgraced interruptingly, With What might make the same seem all a lie. But now she 'gan to face her Countenance, With many a smile and Eye-delighting glance. And thus with voice, that did her speech become, She broke into her Tales Exordium. Dear Albïon, whom as my soul I prise, In whom (as in my heaven) my glory lies; If ever thou, by following sound advice, Wouldst taste the truest joys of paradise, Then, listen to me, while I breathe such breath, As shall create a complete heaven on Earth. If thou wilt me embrace, as did that * Solomon. Prince That was the source of human sapience, Who in his wisdom knew well what he did (Sith he knew more than all the world beside) When 'mong a thouzand loves, his wisdoms power Did choose me for his chiefest Bellamoure: If therefore thou wilt me endear to thee, That but one soul may be twixt thee & me, I knowing what such wisdom high did please, Will plunge thy soul in depth of pleasures Seas: Where thou shalt meet with joys unsounded deep, To lullaby thy waking Cares asleep. But to particulate what they shallbe, Requires the Tongue of some divinity. Yet coldly, as I can, I will express This only heav'n-surmounting happiness. Dear sweet, quoth she, (& sweet she lisped forth) If thou wilt well conceive thine own high worth, Listen to me, and I will tell thee what Vanity is instant to get attention because sense is betrayed thereby. Shall glad thy soul, and correspond with that. As stands thy case, thou well Mayst prise thy Head, With the extremest rate of Jove's godhead: And sith above he reigns in boundless bliss, Thy blissful reign below should be like his. I therefore will draw Wit, and Industry (all whose defects my science shall supply) To strain their powers to their extreme extent, So to accomplish thy soul's ravishment. Thou on Triumphant Chariots (like the sun's, That on the crystal heavens in glory runs) By Horses shalt be drawn, as white as milk, And all thy way shall covered be with silk Of choicest kind, and of the Tyrian die, As well to show thy state, as please thine eye. Thy Robes shallbe pure gold ten-times refined, That like the air shall gently turn and wind: Not faced with Ermine, but with every thing That to the heavens bright eye may wonder bring: Which shall send back, when that eye on it stays, (In counterchange) more glittering-glorious rays! Thy horse's heads, with phoenix feathers decked, Shall work on Angels eyes the like effect. The pillars of thy Pallaceis shallbe hewn out of rocks of purest Porphyree, Their walls of Jasper square, and every joint Dissolved Amber, passing clear, shall point. The columns of thy windows shallbe jet, Inlaid with pearl, in many a curious fret. Their glass of christ all: in whose upper part With stone of price, past price, and matchless Art shallbe inserted stories of thy deeds; That both the eye delights and spirit feeds. Their Heav'n-high roofs shallbe embattled With Adamant in gold enuelloped. Their Tile of coral, and in Lozenge-wise, Mother of pearl their sides shall circulize. Upon their crest, as thick as they may stand, Saint George on horseback with a Lance in hand, Charging a Dragon, both of precious stone, To wit, the emeraled, and Calcedone. The rooms within, all roofed in arched wise, (Like to the Convexe of the vaulted skies) shallbe with purest Bice enameled fair, Enchased with stars, like Jove's aetherial chair! The chimny-peeces reaching through the sane Of glorious Chrysolites, that seem to flame: On whose fore-fronts below, cut out shallbe, In Indian Berill, curious Imageree. The hangings of thy walls, of that same ware That Solomon in all his glory ware. Thy floors shallbe (most glorious to behold) Covered with cloth of Bodkin, tissue, Gold. Thy chair of state (t'amuse the gazer's sight) Cut out of one unvalued Margarite Shall stand on top of twelve most fair Ascents, Like that wherein Jove sits in parliaments. Each step of stone, of richest price, and hue, Decked on each end with beasts, of dreadful view, (Huge Lions, Dragons, Panthers, and the like That in th'aspectors hearts do terror strike) Shall seem like that more than celestial Throne, Which Jupiter in state doth sit upon. Thy cloth of state that it ore-canopies, Shallbe stuff brought from Earthly Paradise By spirits immortal, which shall wait on thee, And do thy hests, if thou wilt rule by me. This precious gear (no name is good enough T'express the glory of this precious stuff) With sun-like Carbuncles in form of eyes shallbe embossed, as if each were spies, Which with their lustre creep in each dark hole, That thou thereby Mayst pull thence by the Polle Who shall unseen envy thy glorious state, So, with thy Sword of justice pole their Pate: And, when thou sittest upon that royal seat, Thou shalt seem Jupiter, if not more great, Sitting on his celestial Throne of Thrones Compassed about with many thousand suns! Thy privy chambers (where thou privily Shalt glut thyself, without satiety, With what shall tickle all thy veins with pleasure Measured by loves sweet motions without measure) shallbe like Orchards framed so by mine Art, That thou shalt seem in heaven when there thou art; There will I have an artificial sun In the like heaven all day his course to run, That though the day abroad do lower like night, Thy sun within shall shine exceeding bright. The moon and stars (like to the lamps of heaven) By night shall light thee, set in order even: And by their constellations and their frames, Th'astronomer shall call them by their names. All kind of Trees, of what soever suit, That either Branches bear, or Branch with fruit, There will I cause (or at least, seem) to grow, That Nature from her own them shall not know. Plumbs, pears, Dats, Filbeards, Apples, glistering Cherries, pomegranates, Peaches, Medlars, & mulberries, Lemons and oranges, some ripe, some green, What shall I say! All fruit that ere were seen This artificial Eden shall contain, Thine eye with pleasure still to entertain! Hard by shall run, from Artificial rocks. Confected waters sweet, whose falling mocks The voice of birds; which made by science shall Tune their sweet notes, to that swee●e waters fall. Here shall arise an hand-erected mount, From whose green side shall glide a silver foun● Increasing breadth, as it runs, by degrees; Hemmed in with Cowslips, daffodils and Trees That o'er the same an arch of bows shall make, Through which the sun shall parcel-gild the Lake! Beneath which, in this little silver Sea Shall bathe the daughters of Mnemosine: Singing like Sirens, playing Lyres upon Beheav'ning so this hand-made Helicon! Behind the Trees couched, drowned in Daffadillis Oxslips, wild Cullambines, and water Lillis, Shall elves and Fairies their abiding make, To listen to these Ladies of the Lake! Actêon here shall metamorphized be, Great Oberon there shall ring his company: And here and there shallbe variety Of what so ere may charm the ear or eye! Under a gloomy bower of stil-greene bay, That still green keep their mortal maker's praise, (Where Eglantines with flowers thrust in their Noses, Entangled with the slips of damask Roses, Still fresh and flourishing, as month of May) There shalt thou hear of love the sweetest lay: Which shall thy greedy sense so much enchant, That where thou art, thou shalt be ignorant; And what thou art thou shalt not much respect, Sith heav'n-rapt souls that What, do quite neglect There, angels notes shall so enchant thine ears, That thou shalt swim in joy, though sunk in Cares. Here Lab'rinthes' intricate of winding walks, Of myrtles filled with Maie-bowes in the balks, Where out shall breathe soul-ravishing perfume (Which time will rather prosper then consume) Shall lull frail sense asleep in pleasures lap, From melancholy freed and all mishap. Each foot of grasse-made ground, o'erlaid shallbe With nature's Daizie-decked Draperee. And therewith-al, to yield the more delight, Angell-faced Fairies (clad in vestures white) Shall come in tripping blithsome madrigals, And foot fine Horne-pippes, jigs, and Caterbralls. That done, the Driads and the Silvane crew, Successivelie thy solace to renew, In Matecheines, Lavolts, and Burgamasks Shall hardly ply these time-beguiling Tasks. Each Tree shall drop down sweet Ambrosia, Or cordial Spices, Myrrh, and Casia. The bay shall sprinkle from their dewey bows, Rose-water clear to cheer thy hands and brows. Nought shall be wanting in this Earthly heaven, That Art and Nature to Delight have given; Or by the power of spirits may be fulfilled, To ravish sense with all that heaven may yield! For I will dive into th'infernal deep●s, Where Pluto Prince of riches revel keeps, And make him dance attendance on my train, T'effect thy pleasure, dear sweet sovereign! There shalt thou see (without all cause of fear) The glorious worthies of the world that were: How Caesar in rich Triumph entered Rome; And Scipio when he afric had o'ercome! There shall the stately Queen of Amazons, Penthesilea, with her Minions, Present thee with a Maunde of fruit divine, Culled from the golden Tree of Proserpina! Hector, Achilles, Priam, Hecuba, Great Agamemnon, Pyrrhus, Helena, Or whom soever thou desir'st to see Shall at a beck do homage unto thee! I'll rip the bowels of the subtle air And bring the spirits therein (in fashion fair) To counterfeit the music of the spheres, And with heavens harmony to fill thine ears! To fetch for thee, from the extreme extent Of earths huge Globe, what ere may thee content! To fly upon thine errand with a trice, To fetch thee fruit from Earthly paradise! To entertain thee, when alone thou art, With all the secrets of each hidden Art: And whatsoe'er the heavenly Cope doth cover, To thee (that thou Mayst know it) to discover! The Stone so sought of all Philosophers, The making of which one, so many mars, Thou shalt directly make it at thy pleasure, T'enrich thy kingdom without mean or measure! The great elixir (making small ones great) Like dust thou shalt make common in the street! And if thou wilt, high ways shall paved be With burnished gold, made only but by thee! If thou wouldst have the Aïer turned, and tossed, To strike a terror in each Clime, or coast, These spirits that Lord it o'er that Element, Shall do the same for thee incontinent! And when thou wouldst spare their society, They, with a vengeance, through the air shall fly Without the least hurt done to thee, or thine, Except it be in making you divine! There shall no kingdoms Cares, that life destroy, And like Hell-paines the heart and mind annoy, Once dare to cease upon thy blissful heart; For I will charm them so, by pleasure's Art, That they shall seem as dead and never sterr, Thy solace to disturb in peace, or war. I'll reave sweet voiced boys of what they may Ill spare, (if spare) to sing thy Cares away. I'll make some others spend their total time, To make sweet strings express the twangs of rhyme; Which tickle shall thy heartstrings with such mirth, That thou shalt say, ha, this is heaven on Earth! Thy royal- Table shallbe served with Cates Surmounting far celestial Delicates: Ambrosia, shallbe thy coarsest cheat, And Manna (Angells-foode) thy grooms shall eat! Delicious Wines, that make sweet Nectar sour, Beauties divine in precious bowls shall power, To comfort Nature and to glad thy heart With comfort that surmounteth nature's Art. The Samos peacock, and the Malta Crane, The dainty Lamprey in Tart●sia ta'en, The Phrygian Woddcock, and th' Ambracian goat, The fine fish Asinellus, hardly got, The oysters of Tarentum, fish of Helops, The Goldny of Cilicia, Chios Scalopps, The nuts of Tasia, and th' Egyptian Dates, In few, all kingdoms choicest Delicates That to the palate pleasure may afford, Shall over abound upon thy bounteous board! When, from a silvered Tent, to please thine ear, Cornett●, Recorders, Clarions thou shalt hear: Whiles to delight thy sight as well as hearing, Stately Dumb shows before it shall be sterring: Which well tongued Mercury shall fair relate Still pointing to thy praise, and glorious state. When, with these sweets thou art well satisfied, I'll make thee Beds of flowers, divinly died: Where thou, & thy loves, (for your Limbs reposes) May drowned yourselves among sweet damask Roses. And while your rest, the sacred Muses nine, (Singing full sweetly Ditties most divine, That for heart's joy will cause the Eyes to weep) Shall lullaby your blissful Souls asleep. Continual justs, and royal tournaments, Furnished with all Eye-pleasing ornaments: Mummings, Masks, plays; plays that shall play with Care As cat with Mouse, to kill her coming There. What booteth it to wear a golden crown, If thorny Cares it line, to make thee frown: Away with Care therefore, away with thought, What shouldst thou do with that, that's good for nought: Let them go wait on Bishops, to whose See They do belong, but let the Prince be free. Will't thou be Servant to the common Trash, That often leaves their Master in the lash? Or spend thy wit, and spirits for such riffraff, And so consume the corn to save the chaff? Will't thou o'erwhelm thyself in all annoy, That they may swim aloft in Seas of joy? What! wilt thou place thy pleasure in thy pain, And make thy subject, be thy sovereign? Wilt lose thy royal sole prerogative, To make ungrateful base Bash rags to thrive? O be indulgent to thine own dear heart, And of heavens blessings take a blissful part. Do not deprive thyself of that rare bliss, That unto none but thee peculiar is. And here upon the sudden (great mishap) I found myself in Oxford my loves lap. Where thinking seriously upon this thing, I heard some say, God save king James, our King. And therewithal I heard a Trumpets clang, That in an unison that ditty sang. Then did I more admire what I had seen, But grieved I had so double lost the Queen! And grieved no less, sith I saw not the rest Of that wherein I held me highly blest! Had I so blessed been, t'have seen th'event, I should have thought my time divinely spent. But as I cannot now divine what shall Unto this Land (o'erwhelmed in bliss) befall; So will I not suspect the worst; for why? God, only good, keeps good King's company. JOHN DAVIES. To the Right Ho. and most most Reverend Father in God my Lord Archb. of Canterb. his grace. THou temperate soul, that hold'st promotion To be but virtues meed; and virtuously Dost higher prise the souls devotion Proceeding from the low'st humility: Passion-suppressing well-disposed spirit, Clear glass wherein true Pastors may behold The hall'wed life that heaven doth inherit, Whose praises glory writes in liquid gold. O helpful, harmless, virtuous virgin- Priest! O loving tender-hearted gaullesse dove! O that art could in thy praise so insist As answer might the measure of my love! But for my love herein surmounts my skill, Accept this poor show of my rich goodwill. I. D. To the most gracious Prince the Duke of Lennox, etc. FOr no respect (great Lord) but for the love I own to grace and greatness joined in one, Doth my weak Pen her strongest virtue prove To grave thy name upon this paper-stone; That if it chance the turns of Time to brook, (Which grind to powder all produced in Time) Thy Name at least (which is my most) may look Like to itself, in my hard-favoured rhyme. If voice of those that love the voice divine Bee true (the truth whereof none ought to doubt) Thou like the moon, among heavens lamps dost shine, While Sol thy sovereign goes the Globe about. Long Mayst thou (as he doth) give light to all That pleased, or pained, do foot this earthy Ball. I. D. To the R. honourable, and highly valued Lord the Earl of Northumberland. etc. WHo cannot reign in height of lofty stile, That hath so high a subject for the same As thy heroic worth and glorious name, Is abject, nay, then abject far more vile. Magnific thoughts to think on, thoughts doth mount Above the sphere of common intellect; The thought of thy thoughts causeth this effect, Which makes my towering thoughts themselves surmount. I think of thee and them, as of those things That move to rest in honours highest sphere, Sith virtue is the scale the same to rear, Which will make thee as near, as dear to kings: As long (great Lord) as virtue guideth thee, Thou shalt be blest of God, King, State, and me. I. D. To the Right honourable the Earl of Worcester, etc. WErt thou (most noble Lord) a scourge to me Plagueing my misses with an Iron Rod, Yet would I, in my heart, still honour thee; For, though he punish me; I honour God. Thou dost hurt no man simply for his harm, But as the Surgeon doth, his hurt to heal; Would wounded, or diseased states did swarm With no worse Surgeons for their commonweal! I honour thee for that which God himself Doth honour Men; that is, for drawing near To his great goodness (not for Port, or pelf) I honour thee for that, dear Lord; and dear Shall such be to me for their virtue sake, Though I thereof no use at all do make. I. D. To the Right right honourable the Earl, and Countess of Rutland. FOr infinite respects to thee ' (sweet Lord) My Muse doth consecrate these zealous lines; Which is the All her nothing can afford, Serving for nothing but for true loves signs. To thee that dost enjoy fruit of his loins From whoseworsts parts proceeded nought but good; (Whose weakest worths, brake Envies strongest foins) These lines I send; and to his dearest blood. Sweet couple that have tasted sweet and sow●e, The sweetest potion worldly weal can taste; O let each others sweets that gall devour Which with this sour World's sweets is interlaced: And that you may do so, your unknown yours, Will pray, so you vouchsafe to call him ours. I. D. To the Right honourable Earl of Cumberland. Neptune's vicegerent, Sea-controling Spirit That makes her pay thee tribute, and thy land; Of which thou dost, therefore, great honour merit, And worthy art thou on both to command. So long thou hast the Northen-pole regarded, That nature now, hath made that pole thine head: So, looks are, with what was looked for, rewarded; Then by his light, let thy course still be led. If so, thy fame the world environ shall, For, his light leads to glory infinite; Then eye him well and his stayed motions all, Yea, draw as near him as is requisite: So, Fame thy name will on the Skies unroll. So shalt thou honoured be by this North-Pole. I. D. To the Right Noble and entirely beloved Earl of Southamton● etc. WElcome to shore unhappy-happie Lord From the deep Seas of danger and distress; Where, like thou wast to be thrown over board In every storm of discontentedness. O living Death, to die when others please! O dying Life to live how others will! Such was thy case (dear Lord) such all thine ease; O Hell on Earth; can Hell more vex the Will! This Hell being harrowed by his substitute That harrowed Hell, thou art brought forth from thence, Into an Earthly Heaven absolute, To taste his sweetness, see his excellence ● Thy Liege well wotts, true love that soul must wound, To whom heavens grace, & His, doth so abound. I. D. To the Right Noble, and no less learned than judicious Lord, William Earl of Pembroke. etc. Dear Lord, if so I could, I would make known How much I long to keep thee still alive; These Lines (though short) so long shallbe thine own As they have power Vitality to give: I consecrate this mite of my devotion To the rich treasury of thy dear fame; Which shall serve (though nought else worth) as a Notion For time to sever thy fame from thy name: WILLIAM, Sons Son of William dreaded Earl Of Pembroke; made by England's * H. 8. dreadfullest King: Nephew to Sidney (rare Worths richest pearl) That to this Land her fairest fame did bring: These Worthies worths are treasured in thee, So three in one, makes one as dear as three. I. D. To the same. WIthin my soul I sensibly do feel A motion, which my Minds attention marks; That is, to strike loves Flint against truths steel More hard, to kindle thy love by the sparks: But if the fire come not so freely forth As may inflame the Tinder of thy love, The tender of my zeal shallbe henceforth Offered in flames, that to thy grace shall move: Which is their sphere where they desire to rest, And resting there they will in glory shine; I am thine own by double interest Sith once I vowed myself to thee and thine, O then had I but single love of you, I should be double bound to W. Your honours peculiar John davies. To the Right honourable and highly renowned Lady the Countess of Pembroke, the virtuous Lady, Lady Anne her daughter, and the Right worthy and worshipful Phillipp Herbert esquire her son. THus must poor debtor pay their Creditors, And share a little, where the due is more; I own my self to you, great favourers, And I am little; so are great Ones, poor: I own my self unto my self; and so Do ● to those whom as my self I love; I own you more; the three in One below, Which I have honoured most next That above: If more, what more? sith that's more than I have (for I am not so much mine own, as yours;) More by as much as what I else might crave I wish it mine for you; for, in your powers All that and more, (if more could be possessed) Should, while you held me yours, yours firmly rest. I. D. To the Right honourable the Earl of Mar. etc. Lo, how my Muse (inflamed by desire To win thy love in paying thee thine own) Doth strive with wits dull sword, and loves quick fire, To honour thee; but how? that is unknown. And if unknown to me, than needs it must, To All to whom my Thoughts are less revealed; In me it's like an embryo, or like Dust, Wherein the first Man lay, at first concealed: I am devising how to fashion it, God grant I spoil it not in hammering; And if I do, I'll sacrifice my wit In fire of zeal, the while my Muse doth sing, Like to the swan when death the song ensu'th, Most blessed to die with sweet Mar in her Mouth. I. D. To the Right honourable and Loiall-harted Lord the Earl of Clanricard. OUR English crowns approved Irish friend, That reign'st in our true love for such thy truth, Let thine own rare perfections thee commend, For, perfect praise, perfection still ensu'th. I never was so happy as to see thee, Much less to know thee, whom I long to see: But, in thy predecessor did foresee thee; For, if Fame fable not, much like you be. To add then to thy glory more bright beams, Love His, thy other-selfe, with dearest love; For she hath martir'd been with griefs extremes, Dear Innocent, whose virtues all approve. Her love to thee doth argue thy high worth Then love such love, that sets thy glory forth. I. D. To the Right honourable and no less virtuous Lady the Countess of Clanricard. Honour attend, as virtue guides thy life, Dear Lady, loved of all that are beloved, As it hath done thee, virgin, widow, Wife, For which thou wert of all, in all, approved. By heaven assigned to nature's Miracles, Mirrors of Manhood, and Heroic parts; World, Flesh, & Fiends, to such are obstacles, But God, Saints, angel's guerdom their deserts. In thee it is, the love of such ●'alure, And bind them to thee with loves Gordian knot; It is thy grace and reputation pure That made these worthies fall so to thy lot: God give thee joy of this, for in the rest Thou seemd'st accursed, because so highly blest. I. D. To the most heroic, & meritoriously renowned Lord, the Lord Mount joy, Lord Deputy of Ireland. TO praise thee (noble Lord) were but to do What all the world doth; and to do the same, Were to offend, and that extremely too; And all extreme offence incurs defame. Praise is not seemly in a wicked mouth; The World is wicked, and her mouth is worse, Full of detraction, false-praise, and untruth; Then, should I praise according to her course? O no! thy virtue merits more regard; Let virtue praise thee, as thou her dost praise; For, sacred virtue is her own reward, And Crowns herself, in spite of fortune's Naye●: She is thy guide, and Glory her attends, Which, her in thee; and thee in her commends. The true lover of your honour & virtue I. D. To the Right honourably honoured and right welbeloved young Earl of Essex etc. Dear offspring of that all-belooved One, Dear unto all, to whom that one was dear; The Orphans God requites thy cause of moan By Him, that doth to all like God appear. All those that love you (al-beloved Two) Will bless and love him for it; blest of God To comfort Innocents, and orphans too, That ruined were by fell Disasters Rod. Live like His son, that lived too like him self; And died like one, dear to Him without like; He wracked his fortunes on false favours shelf, Which are this worlds; that smiles when it doth strike. And, that thou May'st thy country glorify No less than he, all pray; then needs must I. I. D. To the R. honourable Sr. John Popham Knight Lord chiefe-Iustice of England, etc. IVstly seveare, seveare in Mercies cause, Sith it is mercy, mercie-wanting men To cut of with the razor of the laws, That wounds the wonders of their brethren. To thee (grave Cato) are these lines addressed, As proofs of what respect they bear thy fame; Which, with these Worthies, shallbe here impressed By my best Pen, in honour of thy name. If best deservers of the public weal Should not be memorised of the Muse, She should her proper virtue so conceal, And so concealed, should that and them abuse: To free her then, and thee, from so great wrong, Live lines with popham's earned praises long. I. D. To the R. honourable and most learned Lord, the Lord Henry Haward, etc. WHat hope the noble, virtuous, and the learned May have, they having now so rare a King, In thee learned, virtuous, noble Lord's discerned, In whom these flourished without cherishing. Where virtue reigns, her subjects shall bear rule, The learned, and virtuous, she will have to sway: For vice wel-learned, is but armed Misrule, By whom the virtuous still are made away. honours do alter manners in ●those men That are to honour and good manner foes; In thee that is not to be feared then, For each with thee, from thy conception grows. And sith Apollo now doth water them They will grow great together with the stem. I. D. To the Right Noble, Robert Lord Sidney Baron of Penshurst. etc. THy virtue, and the conscience of the grace Thou hast vouchsafed me, not deserving it, Doth like two spurs provoke my will and wit, Thy name with my loves lines to interlace. Thy honoured name, name honoured of all That honours grace by man made glorious, Can of it self rouse up the dullest Muse To make thereof divine memorial. Then, should ● it commend to Monument, No miracle should I perform thereby, Sith it by Nature lives eternally, Such life to Sidneys being incident. And sith divine Sr Philip lives in thee, Be thou that Monument; and so ease me. I. D. To the Right honourable the Lord Home, etc. The place, men say, thou hold'st, (great Lord) in court Leicester, Essex, Worcest. Was held before by three superlatives; Most wise, most loved, most lowly in high port; The place, I ween, hath such prerogatives. Then, were thy virtue not in that degree, The virtue of the place would it reject; But it's a powerful argument to me, That thou art virtuous (Lord) in each respect. The rather, sith thy Liege that placed thee there, Doth heave up none so high, but for high worth; Whose judgements eye is admirable clear, Which warrants me to put thy praises forth: My colours ready are, I lack but light (Which I will have) to paint them out aright. I. D. To the Right honourable, the good Lord of Kinlosse, etc. Praise that proceedeth from a poet's Pen, That feigns by nature, may want power perchance To add renown to the renowns of Men, Whom goodness without glozing doth advance. If then my Pen (though it too open be To gloze) disabled be by Envies spite To register the right that's due to thee, Yet should it wrong thee to conceal thy right. Thy world-contemning Thoughts the world do make (As knowledging the odds twixt good and Ill) To reverence thee for thy rare goodness sake, Which hearts with love, & mouths with praise doth fill: They style that praise but with one only word Which being, Good, with God doth still accord. I. D. To the Right Noble Lady, the Lady Rich. TO descant on thy name as many do (Sith it is sit t'express thine excellence) I should (dear Lady) but allude unto That, which with it compared, is indigence. Yet to be rich was to be Fortunate, As all esteemed, and yet though so thou art, Thou wast much more than most unfortunate, Though richly-well thou play'dst That hapless part Thou didst express what Art could never sho, The souls true grief for loss of her loves soul; Thine Action speaking-passion made, but o! It made thee subject to a jails control. But, such a jaile-bird heavenly Nightingale, For such a cause, sings best in greatest bale. I. D. To the entire Body of the kings majesties most honourable privy council. WHere love divided is, she hardly can Be like her self; But, when she is entire, In sacred flames she burns more hot than fire, Be it in abstract forms; or mortal ma. Yet love, and reverence are due to those Whose, wakeful wits still work for public good; So reverence I your honoured Fatherhood, As Founts from whom our public profit flows. In you wise Pilots of this ioy-fraught bark (bark of our blessed commonweal) it is To make her keep her course in lasting bliss, Which charge requires your well-directing cark: You cannot better spend life's benefit Then for so good an end, at stern to sit. I. D. To my much honoured, and entirely beloved patroness, the most famous university of Oxford. TO mount above Ingratitude (base crime) With double lines of single-twisted rhyme; I will (though needless) blaze the sunbright praise Of Oxford, where I spend some gaining days: Who entertains me with that kind regard, That my best words, her worst deeds should reward: For like a Lady full of royalty, She gives me crowns for my Charactery: Her Pupils crown me for directing them, Where like a King I live, without a realm: They praise my precepts, & my Lessons learn, So doth the worse the better well govern. But Oxford, o I praise thy situation Passing Parnassus, Muses habitation! Thy Bough-deckt-dainty walks, with Brooks beset Fretty, like crystal Knots, in mould of jet. Thy sable soiles like Guians golden Ore, And gold it yields, manured; no mould can more. The pleasant Plot where thou hast footing found, For all it yields, is yolk of English ground. Thy stately colleges like Princes courts, Whose gold-embossed high-embattled Ports With all the glorious workmanship within Make Strangers deem they have in Heaven been, When out they come from those celestial places, Amazing them with glory and with graces. But, in a word to say how I like thee, For place, for grace, and for sweet company, Oxford is heaven, if heaven on Earth there be. JOHN DAVIES. To the most honourable and Valorous Knight Sir Thomas Erskin etc. Honey of Hybla if my Pen could drop Nay Nectar subtilized to the sprite, Were not too sweet to varnish virtues prop That holp t'uphold our stay in treason's spite. 'Gainst Traitors did thy trustiness appear, Who were the foils to make thy truth to shine, How blessed wert thou that didst thee so besteere As made Treas'n pay, for her demand * Death the fine of all flesh a Fine? How art thou bound to Opportunity That put her forelocks freely in thy Fist? And how ought we to praise thy valiancy Where through, and through our Kings, we all are blessed! One hardy Hand joined to a valiant Kings A Tribe of Traitors to confusion brings! I. D. To the thrice Noble and valorous Knight Sir Edward Wingfield. TO thee Belona's choicest Champion Whose wounds, if steeped in dew of Castalie, (As they deserve) would make thee such an one As Pagans used for God to glorify. How oft hast thou thyself to wounds exposed To let in glory through thy gored sides! That through thy flesh it might be so disposed As in each part thereof it now abides? How prodigal hast thou been of thy blood? No more is left than merely life maintains: The fat calf must be killed to do thee good Thy heart to comforrt, and to fill thy veins. O 'tis a glorious prodigality That spends what not? for God & Conterie! I. D. To the Noble, discreet, and wellbeloved Knight Sir Henry Nevil. THere was a Time when, ah that so there was, Why not there is? There is and was a Time, When Men might call Gold, Gold; & brass, but brass ● And say it, without check, in Prose or rhyme. Yet should I call thee Gold, some (brass perchance) Would say! Erred because I near touched thee, And so did call thee through mere ignorance, Or (which is worse) through abject Flatteree. I am too ignorant (I do confess) To judge thy wooeth, which worthiest Men commend, Yet may I say (I hope) and not transgress, thou'rt Virtue, Valour, Truth, and honours friend; All which presume thou art not gilded by guile Because thy noble name * Ne-vile. denies the vile. I. D. To the Right worshipful and most worthy Knight Sir Edward Dyer. THough Saturn now with Jupiter doth sit, Where erst Minerva & the Muse did reign, Ruling the commonwealth of will, and wit, Placed in the kingdoms of thy heart, and brain: Those planets I adore, whose influence Insuseth wisdom, counsel, gravity; Min●●ua & the Muse joys my souls sense, Sith soul-delighting lines they multiply. In both respects, for that that was and is I tender thee the service of my Muse, Which shall not mar thy fame though it may miss To give the same that which to it accrues; Yet this Gi●t, through thy Gifts, she gives to thee: Times future, Dyer, die shall never see. I. D. To the right worshipful & venerable Prelate, Doctor Tompson Deane of Windsor. MY friend, my father, nay, which is more dear, Myself should I, ere thee, (beloved) forget, Whose love to me, to me doth thee endear, Whose * Conversation life my will for like on edge doth set: In the womb fashioned for a right Divine, Pleasing to God, to angels, and to Men; In whose face wit, and piety doth shi●e, To lead the blind, draw perverse brethren. An heart of flesh, closed in a breast of brass, To feel men's pains, and pain endure to ease them; Charities Mirror, or thick crystal glass, Wherethrough God: sun- beams burn what doth disease them. Good to the good and bad, to great and small, And my good friend, though I be worst of all. I D. Memories tribute due to the most worthy and no less learned Gentleman, Edward Herbert of Mountgomeroy esquire. CAN I forget that's aye mine Eyes before? If so I could, I may not thee forget, That vowed my memory to thee of yore, Then, thou of me Mayst claim that as thy Debt. There are in thee parts worth my memory, Although it could thy paytes immortal make: Who knows ●hee will my judgement justify, If not, he doth both thee and m●e mistake. I cannot judge of colours, with such Eyes. As cannot be deceived; but I can Discern the known fool, from th'approved wise, And without Spectacles, a Beast from Man: If then (sweet Sir) shouldst thou but please the sense, Sense must needs praise thy pleasing excellence. He in whose memory you shall live, till you sail to be what you are, or it what it is. I. D. To all the right noble nobility of England. IF I were not disabled, through Defect, (For my Inventions Poise, which wit up-wound, Lies now, for want of strength, stock-still on ground) No virtuous peer I would, by name, neglect. The wheels which did my Fancy (working) turn Are at a stand; O then impute it not To want of Will, as if I had forgot In wilful wise, to name you in your turn. But when my wits have strength recovered To wind the Poise up to Inventions height, I'll do my best to give each one his right, Though by yourselves you are most honoured: Mean while with favours Eye look on my Will Which may excuse my present want of skill. I. D. To all the right honourable Earls & Lords of Scotland. I Want no love, how ere my skill may fail, In honours Catalogue your names to put, Yet now am forced then (all unseen) to shut In these strait Lines, as in the Muses ●aile. Where I'll detain them (not without your leave) Till I do set them forth with better grace, Each one in his true Colours, form, and place, And as I found them fair, so them to leave. When you awhile before my Muse have sat, (For Painters make them sit, whose forms they paint) Her skill shall fail, but then she will depaint According to the Life, your life, and State: Pictures are used, life, after death to s●o, And yours, my Pen must picture, shallbe so. I. D. To the most fair, most fortunate, and no less famous Magdalen college in Oxford. And can I seem, much less than can I be Grateful, if I should thee, or thine forget, Whose Head, and Members bind me so to thee, That thou Mayst give or take me as thy debt? Thy discreet head's a Bond that binds my head, My heart, my hand, and what besides is mine To him for thee, to thee for him, in deed; So being bound in deed, in deed am thine. The Members of thy body (not of stone Squared by the cunning of a mortal hand, But living, loving, made by love alone) Have by their love, in everlasting Band So tied me to them, that as they do move, So move I, forced by force of mutual love. Again. Blessed be that Thought, past time beyond all thought, That first did move that wise, as holy * William Wainflet Bishop of Winchester. heart, To rear this trophy where his virtues fought And conquered Rage, with whom those * Hen. 6. Ed. 4. times took part: A sacred trophy left for virtues use, Not only (as are others) for mere fame; But as a nere-dried dug unto the Muse, That times, past time, might suck sweets from the same. Sing sweetly (blessed Babes, that suck the breast Of this sweet Nectar-dropping Magdalen) Their praise in holy hymns, by whom ye Feast, The God of Gods, and Waineslet best of Men: Sing in an union with the Angels Quires, Sith heavens, your house contenting your desires. I. D. To the World. PErhaps in judgements eye it may appear I loved Him living whom I honour dead; Whose love, I think, to all was no less dear, Sith he was such as all men honoured. All? that is, some, or rather most of All; If some did not, the harm I wish to them Is, that they may deserve love general, Or else made free of new Jerusalem. No creature bearing God-almighties form, But I desire to love, and wish him well; If good desires, far worse Affects deform, It comes from that for which the fi●st Manfel: But howsoe'er, I am resolved herein, To wish all grace, in spite of flesh & sin. I. D. To my beloved Mr. John Davies of the Middle-Temple councillor at the Law. WHy should it not content me, sith thy praise Pertains to me, to whom thy name pertains; If thou by Art to heaven thy fame canst raise? all's but john Davies that such glory gains; Admit it lives enrolled in lasting lines In the Exchequer of the sacred Muse, Thy name, thy fame unto my name combines In future times, nor Thou nor I can choose. For, if john Davies such, such times brought forth, To wit, these times in which we both do live, Then must john Davies, share john Davies worth, For, times to come can no distinction give. Then what need I to beat my tired brains To make john Davies live to after Ages, When thou hast done't by thy praiseworthy pains, For, were I idle, I have thy works wages. Or, what if like an intellectual spirit, I able were Arts Spirits to purify, To ravish world's to come with rare delight They would with my fame thy name glorify. Then may I play sith thou dost work for me; And sith thy works do so in beauty shine, What need I then for Eccle. 2. 15. fame thus busy be, Sith thine is mine, and mine is likewise thine? It is because my mind that's aye in motion Hath to the Muse's Measures most devotion. Again, IOhn unto john, Davies to Davies sends This little draft of new loves large Demise, If words do want to pass what it pretends, Supply that want, the Grant need no supplies. To you, and to your heirs, the same doth run, Simply in love for aye to hold in fee, A good estate, you have, and your sons son; A kind acceptance shall your out-rent be: You council can yourself, a fee then save, mend you the draft, loves deed no fault should have. I. D. The book of itself. I am, that was not; and I was, that am; I was unmade; that was, in state confused: I am, for art hath formed that formless Frame, Yet formed my nature was, ere art was used. Mother-Tongue, and Wi●, Observance, & goodwill Have made me what I am, or good, or ill. Not unto us (o Lord) not unto us, but to thy name give the praise and glory. Psal. 115.1. Again: to envy and Detraction DEAR envy and Detraction, dear to those That unto virtue are immortal foes, Let me, although I hate you, yet entreat That I, if good enough, may be your meat; You cannot grace me more, then gnaw me still; For what you spare is too far spent in ill. Tear me in pieces with your grisly fangs, You crown my soul with glory by such Pangs. He is a devil that to die detests In helhounds mouths, to live in angels breasts. JOHN DAVIES. FINIS. In love and affection of Master John Davies, mine approved good friend, and admiration of his excellence in the art of Writing. THat heavenly spark, from which th'immoral soul Had her first being, striveth to enroll Her wondrous gifts in characters of brass, That when (dissolved from this earthy mass) She mounts aloft, her never-dying glory May fill the Volumes of a learned story; Which afterages, reading, may admire, And (inly burning with the like desire) To rare achievements (emulous of Fame Striving t'immortalize their dying Name) May bend their practice, dedicate their days; And, so excited, purchase dateless Praise. Our active soul feels never weariness, But her true love to Fame doth best express In hating idleness: whence comes this notion, Her working Faculties are still in motion. over some than others, greater sovereignty This divine Essence of humanity Hath power to exercise: For base swains Abhor the check of her immortal reigns. From whence it is, that Midas brood possess The greater Share in earthly happiness; While those pure minds, who most submissive stand At the least wrentch of her almighty Hand (Obscurely hid in Corners at their book) Are hardly graceed so much as with a look Of this injurious World. O wretched Age Wherein the sacred arts to Vassalage subjecteth are! while muddy minds aspire, While greater Heroes deign but to admire And praise (with bootless breath) the polished Lines, Wherein, conceit hath travelled through the Mines Of rich Invention, many a weary hour (Spent with the Muses in a gloomy Bower) To times swift feathers imping greater store, Whilst thus they plough the barren fruitless Shore Earth's brightest Angels, these, o these be they Whose corpse are framed of fire, and not of clay! Whose either Part, both mortal, and divine So sweet a symphony doth intertwine, That both accord to prosecute that Fame Which, but for virtue, stellifies our Name. Among which Number (famous by desert) The laurel crown be his, whose every Part To th'intellective soul (their sovereign) Pay true subjective duty, and do gain By restless labour that perfection Which, save by him, hath been attained by none; By him (the subject of these worthless rhymes) Whose Art lends lustre to our English climes, Davies, discoverer of hidden deeps, True microcosm, whose piercing Spirit creeps Into the darkest caverns, inmost den Where Wit inhabits 'mong the sons of Men, And plucks out knowledge (by the golden locks) From where she long had slept within the Rocks Of hard Obscurity, whence every eye May judge itself; o wondrous mystery! Whence we ourselves, ourselves may truly know, Which is indeed most hard, how ere in show. But endless were it, and impossible (unless my Muse to his were suitable) Here to delate that Grace in poesy Which his witt-fraughted works can testify. Cast back thine eye, read, and (admiring) see The Quintessence of human ingeny, Way well the rich conceit; so shalt thou know That few, (if any) could have written so. Descend we then from that internal Flame, To Qualities external: whence the name Of Excellence hath purchased been of many, But, as of Davies, never yet of any. In praising whom, the best my Lines can say Will, for his Worth, be worthless every way: Yet, for I love his Name, admire his Skill, Out of the heat and fervour of goodwill These colder Lines this frozen passage found, Forceed by the League wherein all friends are bound: And reason 'tis, those Men that merit Fame Above the rest, should frankly have the same. And be it far from every gentle heart To deem that, Soothing, or a glozing part When one good friend an other shall commend More than that, Hatred, when our speeches tend In whom we love, some fault to rectify Which wrongs himself, defames his progeny. Praise is the guerdon of a due desert Making us better act the praised Part. There never Man deserved memory For perfect Science in his faculty, If davies Name deserve to be forgot, If, when his mortal Part in earth shall rot, The riches of his soul (man's greatest treasure) shallbe made subject to the greedy seizure Of dark oblivion, if such Perfection Shall from the Graves rude hand have no protection. Maugre the Gripe of Time, in spite of Fates And aught beside that, Fame, determinates, His Name would live to all posterity In the fair lines of his Characterie, Can any Hand the * A steel instrument. graver so command, As can, the pen, his wonder-writing Hand. But, for no Graver, or stamped Letter can (Or aught else framed by the wit of Man) Show Times future true prose of such rare Skill By demonstration, mine artless Quill Strives to commend to lasting memory A glimpse (though darkly) of that quality. For (if mine aim love hath not much betrayed) This book must live till Time his course hath stayed: So that, to those not yet conceived, I send This poor effect which my loves cause hath penned, Neglecting Art, affecting to descry Love to my friend, and to his quality. Whose matchless Art in managing the pen Time never equalized; and Times again (When his diurnal Howërglasse hath ran The dated Minutes of a mortal Man) Will hardly parallel: for such true Skill May scarce be purchased by pain, or Will: He that as Davies would as fairly write, Must of necessity have Davies sprite. Who knows not that this wondrous faculty Is not conceived by course capacity, But maketh there her only Habitation Where she doth find a strong Imagination! For none habitually can her possess That is not made of fire and liveliness. Can never Hand so curiously convey The nice Delineaments, so every way In just proportion (purest Sumetrie) Unless directed by a perfect eye, And first imprinted in the fantasy: Which, weaker brains can never apprehend, Much less an active Demonstration lend. The strange Meanders, and the Gordian knots Now strait, now larger, as the Hand alots; The curious workmanship in every letter, This pleasing best, that other pleasing better, A third exceeding both, when every one For perfect shape is singular alone; The rare diversity which one self-hand Can, with that little Instrument command, Doth so bewitch th'amazed Beholders eye, And so delight th'inveigled Phantasie, That what our eyes behold our Tongues commend, Nor, wondering, can admit or mean, or end. Come lend, ye Lovers of this sacred Art, Your voice with mine, to celebrate a part In his deserved Praise, whose matchless Skill To blazon perfectly, would tyre the Quill Of Hermes self: for rightly to commend This Art of Writing, were to comprehend Within our Numbers her antiquity, And, how through her, the living memory Of famous Worthies hath preserved been; Whose works these latter Ages had not seen, But (rakeed in darkness with their author's head) Without her help, had ever perished. Nor should we slightly touch the Praises Due Which, through this Art, to Learning still accrue; Without whose aid, in vain were Sapience, In vain were every other Excellence; Sith Strangers might not then participate What Reading, Wit, and Labour had begat, But greatest Clarks should vainly spend their days, Leaving, with Life, their Glory, Name, and praise: Her daily use, her pure necessity May tell the virtue of this mystery; Sufficeth me, to run (though slightly) over Part of his Parts, whose pen can best discover Her fairest Beauty; such, as doth excite In All that view Her, wonder and delight. All Characters that ere the Graver wrought Are obvious to him, and quickly brought To deck the Triumph of the golden pen Which he long since hath merited: for when (T'approve his Excellence) he challenged All Or English bred, or foreign Nationall To strive for glory, and a golden Price (Which one or both might every sort entice) Unanswered, he monarchized alone; What greater Conquest than withstood by None? The Germans, skilled in every curious Art (Whose practic Hand doth to the World impart Such acquaint Devises) giving Right his due, Extol our Davies, and his Fame pursue With printed lines, writ in the Latin tongue, As loath to do his Cunning so much wrong In the distastive German Idiom To leave that Monument for Times to come, Because they knew their Dialect too lame To bear the weight of his immortal fame. O you thrice famoused for rarity, The grace and beauty of your * fair w●iting. quality, That breath the air of Italy, and France, Come, do your Homage and Allegiance To him whose Pen reigns in fair Paper reams, (Content therewith as Kings with Diadems) Whose subjects Letters are of every suit Made all aright by rule most absolute. To him, from Paris, move thine antic station Beauchene, the perfectest penman of thy Nation; To him, from Venice, bring those gifts of thine, Renowned for wondrous writing, Camerine; Warn thou the Romans that thou must be gone To visit England, curious Curion; Come all at once, that all at once may learn To mend your Hands, and rightly to discern Between the Good, and most most-Excellent; Nor will (perhaps) your travail be misspent, Sith each, in's native Hand, may gain perfection By practising His counsel and Direction. In former Times, ere wiser Times begatt (That which for ever Men shall wonder at) The Printing mystery, that curious Hand Which could the Pen most perfectly command Had not a Finger unbegirt with Gold, Such meed had Merit in the days of old: Had davies lived, when such pre-eminence Was only given to Men of excellence, The scribbling Writers of that golden Time Had (wandering) sought some more auspicious Clime; For none, save He alone, had thrived in this, The gift of Exellence being only his. To him, from Heaven, descends this Quality: For, Will, Desire, all-gaining industry, Time, Promptitude, wit, steadiness of Hand, Swift apprehension, Fingers at command, Strongest conceit, Art geometrical, Or aught attained by Science natural, Poetic fury, and the muse's aid, (All which are props whereon this Art is stayed) Nor these, nor other Adiuments have power To purchase that (with many a toiling hour) Which from above, by pure Instinct was sent To grace our davies, England's * For writing. Wonderment. In whose deserved Praise, if ardent zeal (Striving my near Affection to reveal) Hath larger been than well becomes the Place, This short apology may purchase Grace; In virtues praise can near be said too much; Such is our subject, his Demeanour such. NICHOLAS DEEBLE. In Microcosmum, sive Parvum joh. Davisij Heref. Mundum. DVm Microcosmum scribis, & Parvum vocas Mundum, libellum: fructus ingenij tui Magnum, (Davisi) quem vocas Parvum, facit. Fecisse Mundum gaudeo, immundi at nihil Metuimus unde munda sunt orta omnia. Sed fabricator factus es parcus nimis Qui munda sed minuta nobis exhibes. Minuta querimur, quòdmodum supra placent, Minuta querimur scripta vel mirum in modum. Si dum occidentem subdis Hispano iugo Philippe gentem, Phil. 2. Hisp. Rex. quereris arctatum suis Limitibus Orbem; nec sat est uni Tibi Vel totus Orbis: dederit invidia locum Totus non sufficit O●bis. Si Microcosmum hunc auribus & oculis nimis Nimisque strictum turba doctorum putet. Prodesse cunctis (sat scio) Davisicupis, Quin & placere disce iam tandem omnibus; Placere verò sivelis, doct â manu extend Mundum hunc, vel crea Mundos novos. NVnc scio quòd quaevis pars est habitabilis Orbis, Sunt in fronte alij, nos sumus Antipodes: Scribimus hìc, illic; nobis tua nempe (Davisi) Principio placuit pagina, fine placet. Meque iuvat, nostrum quòd carmen utrinque legatur, Te ut laudent oriens, occiduumque latus. ED LAPWORTH. FINIS.