This was for youth, Strength, Mirth, and wit that Time Most count their golden Age; but 'twas not thine. Thine was thy later years, so much refined From youth's Dross, Mirth, & wit; as thy pure mind Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the Praise Of thy Creator, in those last, best Days. Witness this Book, (thy Emblem) which begins With Love; but ends, with Sighs, & Tears for sins. Will: Martial. sculpsit. IZ: WA: The First anniversary. AN ANATOMY of the World. Wherein, BY OCCASION OF the untimely death of Mistress ELIZABETH DRURY, the frailty and the decay of this whole World is represented. LONDON, Printed by M. Bradwood for S. Macham, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Bullhead. 1612. TO THE PRAISE of the Dead, and the ANATOMY. WEll died the World, that we might live to see This World of wit, in his anatomy: No evil wants his good: so wilder heirs; Bedew their father's Tombs, with forced tears, Whose state requites their loss: whiles thus we gain Well may we walk in blacks, but not complain. Yet how can I consent the world is dead While this Muse lives? which in his spirits stead Seems to inform a world: and bids it be, In spite of loss, or frail mortality? And thou the subject of this well-born thought, Thrice noble maid; couldst not have found nor sought A fitter time to yield to thy sad Fate, Then whiles this spirit lives; that can relate Thy worth so well to our last nephew's eyen, That they shall wonder both at his, and thine: Admired match! where strives in mutual grace The cunning Pencil, and the ceomly face: A task, which thy fair goodness made too much For the bold pride of vulgar pens to touch; Enough is us to praise them that praise thee, And say that but enough those praises be, Which hadst thou lived, had hid their fearful head From th'angry checkings of thy modestred: Death bars reward and shame: when envy's gone, And gain; 'tis safe to give the dead their own. As then the wise Egyptians want to lay More on their Tombs, than houses: these of clay, But those of brass, or marble were; so we Give more unto thy Ghost, then unto thee. Yet what we give to thee, thou gavest to us, And mayest but thank thyself, for being thus: Yet what thou gav'st, and wert, O happy maid, Thy grace professed all due, were'tis repaid. So these high songs that to thee suited been, Serve but to sound thy maker's praise, in thine, Which thy dear soul as sweetly sings to him Amid the Choir of Saints and Seraphim, As any Angel's tongue can sing of thee; The subjects differ, thoath skill agree: For as by infant-yeeres men judge of age, Thy early love, thy virtues, did presage What an high part thou bearest in those best songs Whereto no burden, nor no end belongs. Sing on thou Virgin soul, whose lossefull gain Thy lovesick Parents have bewailed in vain; Never may thy name be in our songs forgot Till we shall sing thy ditty, and thy note. The First Anniversary. AN ANATOMY of the World. WHen that rich soul which to her heaven is gone, The entry into the work. Whom all they celebrate, who know they have one, (For who is sure he hath a soul, unless It see, and judge, and follow worthiness, And by Deeds praise it? He who doth not this, May lodge an Inmate soul, but 'tis not his.) When that Queen ended here her progress time. And, as t' her standing house, to heaven did climb, Where, loath to make the Saints attend her long, she's now a part both of the Choir, and Song. This, world, in that great earthquake languished; For in a common Bath of tears it bled, Which drew the strongest vital spirits out: But succoured then with a perplexed doubt, Whether the world did loose or gain in this, (Because since now no other way there is But goodness, to see her, whom all would see, All must endeavour to be good as she.) This great consumption to a fever turned, And so the world had fits; it joyed, it mourned, And, as men think, that Agues physic are, And th' Ague being spent, give over care, So thou, sick world, mistak'st thyself to be Well, when alas, thou'rt in a lethargy. Her death did wound, and tame thee than, and than Thou mightst have better spared the Sun, or Man; That wound was deep, but'tis more misery, That thou hast lost thy sense and memory. 'Twas heavy then to hear thy voice of moan, But this is worse, that thou art speechless grown. Thou hast forgot thy name, thou hadst; thou wast Nothing but she, and her thou hast o'erpast. For as a child kept from the Fount, until A Prince, expected long, come to fulfil The Ceremonies, thou vnnam'd hadst laid, Had not her coming, thee her Palace made: Her name defined thee, gave thee form and frame, And thou forgettest to celebrate thy name. Some months she hath been dead (but being dead, Measures of times are all determined) But long shee'ath been away, long, long, yet none Offers to tell us who it is that's gone. But as in states doubtful of future heirs, When sickness without remedy, empayres The present Prince, they're loath it should be said, The Prince doth languish, or the Prince is dead: So mankind feeling now a general thaw, A strong example gone equal to law, The Cement which did faithfully compact And glue all virtues, now resolved, and slacked, Thought it some blasphemy to say sh'was dead; Or that our weakness was discovered In that confession; therefore spoke no more Than tongues, the soul being gone, the loss deplore. But though it be too late to succour thee, Sick world, yea dead, yea putrefied, since she Thy'ntrinsique Balm, and thy preservative, Can never be renewed, thou never live, I (since no man can make thee live) will try, What we may gain by thy Anatomy. Her death hath taught us dearly, that thou art Corrupt and mortal in thy purest part. Let no man say, the world itself being dead, 'Tis labour lost to have discovered. The world's infirmities, since there is none Alive to study this dissectione; What life the world hath 〈◊〉. For there's a kind of world remaining still, Though she which did in animate and fill The world, be gone, yet in this last long night, Her Ghost doth walk; that is, a glimmerig light, A faint weak love of virtue and of good Reflects from her, on them which understood Her worth; And though she have shut in all day, The twilight of her memory doth stay; Which, from the carcase of the old world, free, Creates a new world; and new creatures be Produced: The matter and the stuff of this, Her virtue, and the form our practice is. And though to be thus Elemented, arm These Creatures, from hom-borne intrinsic harm, (For all assumed unto this dignity, So many weedlesse Paradises be, Which of themselves produce no venomous sin, Except some foreign Serpent bring it in) Yet, because outward storms the strongest break, And strength itself by confidence grows weak, This new world may be safer, being told The dangers and diseases of the old: The sicknesses of the world. For with due temper men do then forego, Or covet things, when they their true worth know. There is no health; Physicians say that we Impossibility of health. At best, enjoy, but a neutrality. And can there be worse sickness, then to know That we are never well, nor can be so? We are borne ruinous: poor mother's cry, That children come not right, nor orderly, Except they headlong come and fall upon An ominous precipitation. How witty's ruin? how importunate Upon mankind? It laboured to frustrate Even God's purpose; and made woman, sent For man's relief, cause of his languishment. They were to good ends, and they are so still, But accessary, and principal in ill. For that first marriage was our funeral: One woman at one blow, than killed us all, And singly, one by one, they kill us now. We do delightfully ourselves allow To that consumption; and profusely blind, We kill ourselves, to propagate, our kind. And yet we do not that; we are not men: There is not now that mankind, which was then When as the Sun, and man, did seem to strive, (joint tenants of the world) who should survey. Shortness of life. When Stag, and Raven, and the long-lived tree. Compared withman, died in minority. When, if a slow-paced star had stolen away From the observers marking, he might stay Two or three hundred years to see't again, And then make up his observation plain; When, as the age was long, the the size was great: Man's growth confessed, and recompensed the meat: So spacious and large, that every soul Did a fair Kingdom, and large Realm control: And when the very stature thus erect, Did that soul a good way towards Heaven direct. Where is this mankind now? who lives to age, Fit to be made Methusalem his page? Alas, we scarce live long enough to try; Whether a true made clock run right, or lie. Old Grandsires talk of yesterday with sorrow, And for our children we reserve to morrow. So short is life, that every peasant strives, In a torn house, or field, to have three lives, And as in lasting, so in length is man. Contracted to an inch, who was a span, Smallness of stature. For had a man at first, in Forests strayed, Or shipwrecked in the Sea, one would have laid A wager that an Elephant, or Whale That met him, would not hastily assail A thing so equal to him: now alas. The Fairies, and the Pigmies well may pass As credible; mankind decays so soon, We're scarce our Father's shadows cast at noon. Only death adds t'our length: nor are we grown In stature to be men, till we are none. But this were light, did our less volume hold All the old Text; or had we changed to gold Their silver; or disposed into less glass, Spirits of virtue, which then scattered was. But 'tis not so: weare not retired, but dampt? And as our bodies, so our minds are cramped: 'Tis shrinking, not close-weaning, that hath thus, In mind and body both bedwarfed us. We seem ambitious, God's whole work t'undo; Of nothing he made us, and we strive too, To bring ourselves to nothing back; and we Do what we can, to do't so soon as he. With new diseases on ourselves we war, And with new physic, a worse Engine far. Thus man, this world's Vice-Emperor, in whom All faculties, all graces are at home; And if in other Creatures they appear, They're but man's ministers, and Legates there, To work on their rebellions, and reduce Them to Civility, and to man's use. This man, whom God did woo, and loath t'attend Till man came up, did down to man descend, This man, so great, that all that is, is his, Oh what a trifle, and poor thing he is? If man were any thing, he's nothing now: Help, or at least some time to waste, allow T'his other wants, yet when he did depart With her whom we lament, he lost his heart. She, of whom th'Ancients seemed to prophesy, When they called virtues by the name of she, She in whom virtue was so much refined, That for Allay unto so pure a mind She took the weaker Sex, she that could drive The poisonous tincture, and the stain of Eve, Out of her thoughts, and deeds; and purify All, by a true religious Alchemy; She, she is dead; she's dead: when thou knowest this, Thou knowest how poor a trifling thing man is. And learnest thus much by our anatomy, The heart being perished, no part can be free. And that except thou feed (not banquet) on The supernatural food, Religion Thy better Growth grows withered, and scant; Be more than man, or thou'rt less then an Ant. Then, as mankind, so is the world's whole frame Quite out of joint, almost created lame: For, before God had made up all the rest, Corruption entered, and depraved the best: It seized the Angels, and then first of all The world did in her Cradle take a fall, And turned her brains, and took a general maim Wronging each joint of th'universal frame. The noblest part, man, felt it first; and than Both beasts and plants, cursed in the curse of man. Decay of nature in other parts. So did the world from the first hour decay, That evening was beginning of the day, And now the Springs and summers which we see, Like sons of women after fifty be. And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, The Element of fire is quite put out; The Sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit Can well direct him where to look for it. And freely men confess that this world's spent, When in the Planets, and the Firmament They seek so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out again to his Atomis. 'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; All just supply, and all Relation: Prince, Subject, Father, Son, are things forgot, For every man alone thinks he hath got To be a Phoenix, and that then can be None of that kind, of which he is, but he. This is the world's condition now, and now She that should all parts to reunion bow, She that had all Magnetic force alone, To draw, and fasten sundered parts in one; She whom wise nature had invented then When she observed that every sort of men Did in their voyage in this world's Sea stray, And needed a new compass foe their way; She that was best, and first original Of all fair copies; and the general Steward to Fate; she whose rich eyes, and breast: Gild the West Indies, and perfumed the East; Whose having breathed in this world, did bestow Spice on those Isles, and bade them still smell so, And that rich Indie which doth gold inter, Is but as single money, coined from her: She to whom this world must itself refer, As Suburbs, or the Microcosm of her, She, she is dead; she's dead: when thou knowest this, Thou know'st how lame a cripple this world is. And learnest thus much by our Anatomy, That this world's general sickness doth not lie In any humour, or one certain part; But as thou sawest it rotten at the heart, Thou seest a Hectic fever hath got hold Of the whole substance, not to be controlled. And that thou hast but one way, not t'admit The world's infection, to be none of it. For the world's subtilst immaterial parts Feel this consuming wound, and ages darts. For the world's beauty is decayed, or gone, Disformity of parts. Beauty, that's colour, and proportion. We think the heavens enjoy their Spherical Their round proportion embracing all. But yet their various and perplexed course, Observed in divers ages doth enforce Men to find out so many Eccentrique parts, Such divers downright lines, such overthwarts, As disproportion that pure form. It tears The Firmament in eight and forty shears, And in these constillations than arise New stars, and old do vanish from our eyes: As though heaven suffered earthquakes, peace or war, When new Towers rise, and old demolished are. They have empayld within a Zodiac The freeborn Sun, and keep twelve signs awake To watch his steps; the Goat and Crabbe control, And fright him back, who else to either Pole, (Did not these Tropiques fetter him) might run: For his course is not round; nor can the Sun Perfect a Circle, or maintain his way One inch direct; but where he rose to day He comes no more, but with a cozening line, Steals by that point, and so is Serpentine: And seeming weary with his reeleing thus, He means to sleep, being now fallen nearer us. So, of the stars which boast that they do run In Circle still, none ends where he begun. All their proportion's lame, it sinks, it swells. For of Meridian's, and Parallels, Man hath weaved out a net, and this net thrown Upon the Heavens, and now they are his own. Loath to go up the hill, or labour thus To go to heaven, we make heaven come to us. We spur, we reign the stars, and in their race They're diversly content t'obey our peace, But keeps the earth her round proportion still? Doth not a Tenarif, or higher Hill Rise so high like a Rock, that one might think The floating Moon would shipwreck there, and sink? Seas are so deep, that Whales being struck to day, Perchance to morrow, scarce at middle way Of their wished journeys end, the bottom, die. And men, to sound depths, so much line untie, As one might justly think, that there would rise At end thereof, one of th' Antipodies: If under all, a Vault infernal be, (Which sure is spacious, except that we Invent another torment, that there must Millions into a straight hot room be thrust) Then solidness, and roundness have no place. Are these but warts, and pockholes in the face Of th'earth? Think so: But yet confess, in this The world's proportion disfigured is, That those two legs whereon it doth rely, Disorder in the world. Reward and punishment are bend awry. And, Oh, it can no more be questioned, That beauties best, proportion, is dead, Since even grief itself, which now alone Is left us, is without proportion. She by whose lines proportion should be Examined, measure of all Symmetree, Whom had that Ancient seen, who thought souls made Of Harmony, he would at next have said That Harmony was she, and thence infer, That souls were but Resultances from her, And did from her into our bodies go, As to our eyes, the forms from objects flow: She, who if those great Douctors truly said That th'ark to man's proportions was made, Had been a type for that, as that might be A type of her in this, that contrary Both Elements, and Passions lived at peace In her, who caused all Civil war to cease. She, after whom, what form soe'er we see, Is discord, and rude incongruitee, She, she is dead, she's dead; when thou knowest this, Thou know'st how ugly a monster this world is: And learnest thus much by our anatomy, That here is nothing to enamor thee: And that, not only faults in inward parts, Corruptions in our brains, or in our hearts. Poisoning the fountains, whence our actions spring, Endanger us: but that if every thing Be not done fitly'nd in proportion, To satisfy wise, and good lookers on, (Since most men be such as most think they be) They're loathsome too, by this deformity. For good, and well, must in our actions meet; Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet. But beauties other second Element, Colour, and lustre now, is as near spent. And had the world his just proportion, Were it a ring still, yet the stone is gone. As a compassionate Turcoyse which doth tell By looking pale, the wearer is not well, As gold falls sick being stung with Mercury, All the world's parts of such complexion be. When nature was most busy, the first week, Swaddling the new-born earth, God seemed to like, That she should sport herself sometimes, and play, To mingle, and vary colours every day. And then, as though she could not make enough, Himself his various Rainbow did allow, Sight is the noblest sense of any one, Yet sight hath only colour to feed on, And colour is decayed: summer's rob grows dusky, and like an oft died garment shows. Our blushing red, which used in cheeks to spread, Is inward sunk, and only our souls are red. Perchance the world might have recovered, If she whom we lament had not been dead: But she, in whom all white, and red, and blue (Beauties ingredients) voluntary grew, As in an unvexed Paradise; from whom Did all things verdure, and their lustre come, Whose composition was miraculous, Being all colour, all Diaphanous, (For Air, and Fire but thick gross bodies were, And liveliest stones but drowsy, and pale to her,) She, she, is dead; she's dead: when thou know'st this, Thou knowest how wan a Ghost this our world is: And learnest thus much by our Anatomee, That it should more affright, than pleasure thee. And that, since all fair colour than did sink, 'tis now but wicked vanity to think, To colour vicious deeds with good pretence, Weakness in the want of correspondence of heaven and earth Or with bought colours to illude men's sense. Nor in aught more this world's decay appears, Then that her influence the heaven forbears, Or that the Elements do not feel this, The father, or the mother barren is. The clouds conceive not rain, or do not power In the due birth-time, down the balmy shower. Th' Air doth not motherly sit on the earth, To hatch her seasons, and give all things birth. Spring-times were common cradles, but are tombs; And false-conceptions fill the general wombs. Th' Air shows such Meteors, as none can see, Not only what they mean, but what they be. Earth such new worms, as would have troubled much, Th' Egyptian Mages to have made more such. What Artist now dares boast that he can bring Heaven hither, or constellate any thing, So as the influence of those stars may be Imprisoned in an Herb, or Charm, or Tree, And do by touch, all which those stars could do? The art is lost, and correspondence too. For heaven gives little, and the earth takes less, And man lest knows their trade, and purposes. If this commerce twixt heaven and earth were not Embarred, and all this traffic quite forgot, She, for whose loss we have lamented thus, Would work more fully ' and powerfully on us. Since herbs, and roots by dying, lose not all, But they, yea Ashes too, are medicinal, Death could not quench her virtue so, but that It would be (if not followed) wondered at: And all the world would be one dying Swan, To sing her funeral praise, and vanish than. But as some Serpent's poison hurteth not, Except it be from the live Serpent shot, So doth her virtue need her here, to fit That unto us; she working more than it. But she, in whom, to such maturity, Virtue was grown, past growth, that it must die, She from whose influence all Impression came, But, by Receivers impotencies, lame, Who, though she could not transubstantiate All states to gold, yet guilded every state, So that some Princes have some temperance; Some Counsellors some purpose to advance The common profit; and some people have Some stay, no more than Kings should give, to crave; Some women have some taciturnity, Some Nunneries, some grains of chastity. She that did thus much, and much more could do, But that our age was Iron, and rusty too, She, she is dead; she's dead: when thou knowest this, Thou knowest how dry a Cinder this world is. And learnest thus much by our Anatomy, That'tis in vain to dew, or mollify It with thy Tears, or Sweat, or Blood: no thing Is worth our travail, grief, or perishing, But those rich joys, which did possess her heart, Of which she's now partaker, and a part. But as in cutting up a man that's dead, Conclusion. The body will not last out to have read On every part, and therefore men direct Their speech to parts, that are of most effect; So the world's carcase would not last, if I Were punctual in this Anatomy. Nor smells it well to hearers, if one tell Them their disease, who fain would think they're well. Here therefore be the end: And, blessed maid, Of whom is meant what ever hath been said, Or shall be spoken well by any tongue, Whose name refines course lines, and makes prose song, Accept this tribute, and his first years rend, Who till his dark short tapers end be spent, As oft as thy feast sees this widowed earth, Will yearly celebrate thy second birth, That is, thy death. For though the soul of man Be got when man is made, 'tis borne but than When man doth die. Our body's as the womb, And as a midwife death directs it home. And you her creatures, whom she works upon And have your last, and best concoction From her example, and her virtue, if you In reverence to her, do think it due, That no one should her praises thus rehearse, As matter fit for Chronicle, not verse, Vouchsafe to call to mind, that God did make A last, and lastingst piece, a song. He spoke To Moses, to deliver unto all, That song: because he knew they would let fall, The Law, the Prophets, and the History, But keep the song still in their memory. Such an opinion (in due measure) made Me this great Office boldly to invade. Nor could incomprehensibleness deter Me, from thus trying to imprison her. Which when I saw that a strict grave could do, I saw not why verse might not do so too. Verse hath a middle nature: Heaven keeps souls, The Grave keeps bodies, Verse the same enrols. A FUNERAL ELEGY. 'tIs lost, to trust a Tomb with such a guest, Or to confine her in a Marble chest. Alas, what's Marble, jet, or Porphiry, Prized with the Chrysolite of either eye, Or with those Pearls, and Rubies which she was? join the two Indies in one Tomb, 'tis glass; And so is all to her materials, Though every inch were ten escurials. Yet she's demolished: Can we keep herthen In works of hands, or of the wits of men? Can these memorial, rags of paper, give Life to that name, by which name they must live? Sickly, alas, short-lived, aborted be Those Carcase verses, whose soul is not she. And can she, who no longer would be she, Being such a Tabernacle, stoop to be In paper wrapped; Or, when she would not lie In such a house, dwell in an Elegy? But 'tis no matter; we may well allow Verse to live so long as the world will now For her death wounded it. The world contains Princes for arms, and Counsellors for brains, Lawyers for tongues, Divines for hearts, and more, The Rich for stomaches and for backs the Poor; The officers for hands, Merchants for feet By which remote and distant Countries meet. But those fine spirits which do tune and set This Organ, are those pieces which beget Wonder and love; And these were she; and she Being spent, the world must needs decrepit be. For since death will proceed to triumph still, He can find nothing, after her, to kill, Except the world itself, so great as she. Thus brave and confident may Nature be, Death cannot give her such another blow, Because she cannot such another show. But must we say she's dead? May't not be said That as a sundered Clock is piece-meal laid, Not to be lost, but by the maker's hand Repolished, without error then to stand, Or as the Africa Niger stream enwombs Itself into the earth, and after comes, (Having first made a natural bridge, to pass For many leagues,) far greater than it was, May't not be said, that her grave shall restore Her, greater, purer, firmer, than before? Heaven may say this, and joy in't; but can we Who live, and lack her, here this vantage see? What is't to us, alas, if there have been An Angel made a Throne, or Cherubin? We lose by't: And as aged men are glad Being tastlesse grown, to joy in joys they had, So now the sick starved world must feed upon This joy, that we had her, who now is gone. Rejoice then nature, and this world, that you Fearing the last fires hastening to subdue Your force and vigour, ere it were near gone, Wisely bestowed, and laid it all on one. One, whose clear body was so pure, and thin, Because it need disguise no thought within. 'Twas but a through-light scarf, her mind t'enroule, Or exhalation breathed out from her soul. One, whom all men who durst no more, admired, And whom, who ere had worth enough, desired; As when a Temple's built, Saints emulate To which of them, it shall be consecrate. But as when Heaven looks on us with new eyes, Those new stars every Artist exercise, What place they should assign to them they doubt. Argue, and agree not, till those stars go out: So the world studied whose this piece should be, Till she can be no bodies else, nor she: But like a Lamp of Balsamum, desired Rather t'adorn, than last, she soon expired; Clothed in her Virgin white integrity; For marriage, though it do not stain, doth die. To scape th'infirmities which wait upon Woman, she went away, before sh'was one. And the world's busy noise to overcome, took so much death, as served for opium. For though she could not, nor could choose to die, Shee'ath yielded to too long an Ecstasy. He which not knowing her said History, Should come to read the book of destiny, How fair and chaste, humble and high shee'ad been, Much promised, much performed, at not fifteen, And measuring future things, by things before, Should turn the leaf to read, and read no more, Would think that either destiny mistook, Or that some leaves were torn out of the book. But 'tis not so: Fate did but Usher her To years of Reasons use, and then infer Her destiny to herself; which liberty She took but for thus much, thus much to die. Her modesty not suffering her to be Fellow-Commissioner with destiny, She did no more but die; if after her Any shall live, which dare true good prefer, Every such person is her delegate, T' accomplish that which should have been her fate. They shall make up that book, and shall have thanks Offate and her, for filling up their blanks. For future virtuous deeds are Legacies. Which from the gift of her example rise. And 'tis in heaven part of spiritual mirth, To see how well, the good play her, on earth. FINIS. The Second anniversary. OF THE PROGRESS of the Soul. Wherein: BY OCCASION OF THE Religious Death of Mistress ELIZABETH DRURY, the incommodities of the Soul in this life and her exaltation in the next, are Contemplated. LONDON, Printed by M. Bradwood for S. Macham, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Bullhead. 1612. THE HARBINGER to the progress. TWo souls move here, and mine (a third) must move Paces of admiration, and of love; Thy soul (Dear Virgin) whose this tribute is, Moved from this mortal sphere to lively bliss; And yet moves still, and still aspires to see The world's last day, thy glories full degree: Like as those stars which thou overlookest far, Are in their place, and yet still moved are No soul (whiles with the lugage of this clay It clogged is) can follow thee half way; Or see thy flight; which doth our thoughts outgo So fast, that now the lightning moves but slow: But now thou art as high in heaven flown As heavens from us; what soul besides thine own Can tell thy joys, or say he can rerelate Thy glorious journals in that blessed state? I envy thee (Rich soul) I envy thee, Although I cannot yet thy glory see: And thou (Great spirit) which her's followed haste So fast, as none can follow thine so fast; So far as none can follow thine so far, (And if this flesh did not the passage bar Hadst reached her) let me wonder at thy flight Which long agone hadst lost the unlgar sight And now mak'st proud the better eyes, that they Can see thee lessened in thine airy way; So while thou mak'st her souls by progress known Thou mak'st a noble progress of thine own. From this world's carcase having mounted high To that pure life of Immortality; Since thine aspiring thoughts themselves so raise That more may not beseem a creatures praise, Yet still thou vow'st her more; and every year Mak'st a new progress, while thou wanderest here; Still upwards mount; and let thy makers praise Honour thy Laura, and adorn thy lays. And since thy Muse her head in heaven shrouds Oh let her never stoop below the clouds: And if those glorious sainted souls may know Or what we do, or what we sing below, Those acts, those songs shall still content them best Which praise those awful powers that make them blest. The Second anniversary. OF THE PROGRESS of the Soul. NOthing could make me sooner to confess. The entrance. That this world had an everlastingness, Then to consider, that a year is run, Since both this lower worlds, and the suns Sun, The Lustre, and the vigour of this All, Did set; 'twere Blasphemy, to say, did fall. But as a ship which hath struck sail, doth run, By force of that force which before, it won, Or as sometimes in a beheaded man, Through at those two Red seas, which freely ran, One from the Trunk, another from the Head, His soul be sailed, to her eternal bed, His eyes will twinkle, and his tongue will roll, As though he beckoned, and called back his Soul, He grasps his hands, and he pulls up his feet, And seems to reach, and to step forth to meet. His soul, when all these motions which we saw, Are but as Ice, which crackles at a thaw: Or as a Lute, which in moist weather, rings Her knell alone, by cracking of her strings. So struggles this dead world, now she is gone; For there is motion in corruption. As some Days are, at the Creation named, Before the sun, the which framed Days, was framed, So after this suns set, some show appears, And orderly vicisitude of years. Yet a new Deluge, and of Lethe flood, Hath drown ' us all, All have forgot all good, Forgetting her, the main Reserve of all, Yet in this Deluge, gross and general, Thou seest me strive for life; my life shallbe, To be hereafter praised, for praising thee, Immortal Maid, who though thou wouldst refuse The name of Mother, be unto my Muse, A Father since her chaste Ambition is, Yearly to bring forth such a child as this. These Hymen's may work on future wits, and so May great grandchildren of thy praises grow. And so, though not Revive, embalm, and spice The world, which else would putrefy with vice. for thus, Man may extend thy progeny, Until man do but vanish, and not die. These Hymns thy issue, may increase so long, As till God's great Venite change the song. Thirst for that time, O my insatiate soul, A just dis-estimation of this world. And serve thy thirst, with God's safe-fealing Bowl. Be thirsty still, and drink still till, thou go; T'o th'only Health, to be Hydroptique so. Forget this rotten world; And unto thee, Let thine own times as an old story be Be not concerned: study not why, nor when; Do not so much, as not believe a man. For though to err, be worst, to try truths forth, Is far more business, than this world is worth. The World is but a Carcase; thou art fed By it, but as a worm, that carcase bred; And why shouldst thou, poor worm, consider more, When this world will grow better than before, Then those thy fellow-wormes do think upon That carcases last resurrectione. Forget this world, and scarce think of it so, As of old clothes, cast of a year ago. To be thus stupid is Alacrity; Men thus lethargique have best Memory. Look upward; that's towards her, whose happy state We now lament not, but congratulate. She, to whom all this world 'twas but a stage, Where all sat hearkening how her youthful age Should be employed, because in all, she did, Some Figure of the Golden times, was hid. Who could not lack, what ere this world could give, Because she was the form, that made it live; Nor could complain, that this world was unfit, To be stayed in, then when she was in it; She that first tried indifferent desires By virtue, and virtue by religious fires, She to whose person Paradise adhered, As Courts to Princes; she whose eyes enspheard Starlight enough, t'have made the South control, (Had she been there) the Star-full Northern Pole, She, she is gone; she is gone; when thou knowest this, What fragmentary rubbish this world is. Thou knowest, and that it is not worth a thought; He honours it too much that thinks it nought. Think then, My soul, that death is but a Groom, Contemplation of our state in our deathbed. Which brings a Taper to the outward romme, Whence thou spiest first a little glimmering light, And after brings it nearer to thy sight: For such approaches doth Heaven make in death. Think thyself labouring now with broken breath, And think those broken and soft Notes to be Division, and thy happiest Harmonee. Think thee laid on thy death bed, loose and slack; And think that but unbinding of a pack, To take one precious thing, thy soul, from thence. Think thyself parched with fevers violence, Anger thine Ague more, by calling it Thy Physic; chide the slackness of the fit. Think that thou hearst thy knell, and think no more, But that, as Bells called thee to Church before, So this, to the Triumphant Church, calls thee. Think Satan's Sergeants round about thee be, And think that but for Legacies they thrust; Give one thy Pride, to'another give thy Lust: Give them those sins which they gave thee before, And trust th'immaculate blood to wash thy score. Think thy friends weeping round, and think that they Weep but because they go not yet thy way. Think that they close thine eyes, and think in this, That they confess much in the world, amiss, Who dare not trust a dead man's eye with that, Which they from God, and Angels cover not. Think that they shrowded thee up, and think from thence They reinvest thee in white innocence. Think that thy body rots, and (if so low, Thy soul exalted so, thy thoughts can go.) Think the a Prince, who of themselves create Worms which insensibly devour their state. Think that they bury thee, and think that right Lays thee to sleep but a saint Lucy's night. Think these things cheerfully: and if thou be Drowsy or slack, remember then that she, She whose Complexion was so even made, That which of her Ingredients should invade The other three, no Fear, no Art could guess: So far were all removed from more or less. But as in Mithridate, or just perfumes, Where all good things being met, no one presumes To govern, or to triumph no the rest, Only because all were, no part was best. And as, though all do know, that quantities Are made of lines, and lines from Points arise, None can these lines or quantities unjoint, And say this is a line, or this a point, So though the Elements and Humours were In her, one could not say, this governs there. Whose even constitution might have worn Any disease to venture on the Sun, Rather than her: and make a spirit fear That he to disuniting subject were. To whose proportious if we would compare Cubes, theyare unstable; Circles, Angulare; She who was such a Chain, as Fate emploies To bring mankind, all Fortunes it enjoys, So fast, so even wrought, as one would think, No Accident, could threaten any link, She, she embraced a sickness, gave it meat, The purest Blood, and Breath, that ere it eat. And hath taught us that though a good man hath Title to Heaven, and plead it by his Faith, And though he may pretend a conquest, since Heaven was content to suffer violence, Yea though he plead along possession too, (For theyare in Heaven on Earth, who Heavens works do,) Though he had right, and power, and Place before, Yet Death must usher, and unlock the door. Think further on thyself, my soul, and think; Incommodities of the Soul in the Body. How thou at first waste made but in a sink; Think that it argued some infirmity, That those two souls, which then thou foundst in me, Thou fedst upon, And drewest into thee, both My second soul of sense, and first of growth. Think but how poor thou wast, how obnoxious, Whom a small lump of flesh could poison thus. This curdled milk, this poor unlittered whelp My body, could, beyond escape, or help, Infect thee with original sin, and thou Couldst neither than refuse, nor leave it now. Think that no stubborn sullen Anchorit, Which fixed to'a Pillar, or a Grave doth sit Beddded and Bathed in all his Ordures, dwells So foully as our souls, in their first-built Cels. Think in how poor a prison thou didst lie After, enabled but to suck, and cry. Think, when 'twas grown to most, 'twas a poor Inn, A Province Packed up in two yards of skin. And that usurped, or threatened with the rage Of sicknesses, or their true mother, Age. But think that Death hath now enfranchised thee, Her liberty by death. Thou hast thy'expausion now and liberty; Think that a rusty Piece, discharged, is flown In pieces, and the bullet is his own, And freely flies: This to thy soul allow, Think thy she'll broke, think thy Soul hatched but now. And think this slow-paced soul, which late did cleave, To'a body, and went but by the bodies leave, Twenty, perchance, or thirty mile a day, Dispatches in a minute all the way, Twixt Heaven, and Earth: she stays not in the Air, To look what Meteors there themselves prepare; She carries no desire to know, nor sense, Whether th'airs middle Region be intense, For th' Element of fire, she doth not know, Whether she passed by such a place or no; She baits not at the Moon, nor cares to try, Whether in that new world, men live, and die. Venus' recards her not, to'enquire, how she Can, (being one Star) Hesper, and Vesper be, He that charmed Argus eyes, sweet Mercury, Works not on her, who now is grown all Ey; Who, if she meet the body of the Sun, Goes through, not staying till his course be run; Who finds in Mars his Camp, no corpse of Guard; Nor is by jove, nor by his father bard; But ere she can consider how she went, At once is at, and through the Firmament. And as these stars were but so many beads Strunge on one string, speed undistinguished leads Her through those spheres, as through the beads, a string, Whose quick succession makes it still one thing: As doth the Pith, which, lest our Bodies slack, Strings fast the little bones of neck, and back; So by the soul doth death string Heaven and Earth, For when our soul enjoys this her third birth, (Creation gave her one, a second, grace,) Heaven is as near, and present to her face, As colours are, and objects, in a room Where darkness was before, when Tapers come. This must, my soul, thy long-short Progress be; To'aduance these thoughts, remember then, that she She, whose fair body no such prison was, But that a soul might well be pleased to pass An Age in her; she whose rich beauty lent Mintage to others beauties, for they went But for so much, as they were like to her; She, in whose body (if we dare prefer This low world, to so high a mark, as she,) The Western treasure, Eastern spiceree, Europe, and afric, and the unknown rest Were easily found, or what in them was best; And when w'have made this large Discoveree, Of all in her some one part then will be Twenty such parts, whose plenty and riches is Enough to make twenty such worlds as this; She, whom had they known, who did first betrothe The Tutelar Angels, and assigned one, both To Nations, Cities, and to Companies, To Functions, Offices, and Dignities, And to each several man, to him, and him, They would have given her one for every limb; She, of whose soul, if we may say, 'twas Gold, Her body was th'Electrum, and did hold Many degrees of that; (we understood Her by her sight, her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinckly wrought, That one might almost say, her body thought, She, she, thus richly, and largely housed, is gone: And chides us slow-paced snails, who crawl upon Our prison's prison, earth, nor think us well Longer, then whilst we bear our brittle shell. Her ignorance in this life and knowledge in the next. But 'twere but little to have changed our room, If, as we were in this our living Tomb Oppressed with ignorance, we still were so, Poor soul in this thy flesh what dost thou know. Thou knowst thyself so little, as thou knowst not, How thou didst die, nor how thou wast begot. Thou neither know'st, how thou at first camest in, Nor how thou took'st the poison of man's sin. Nor dost thou, (though thou know'st, that thou art so) By what way thou art made immortal, know. Thou art to narrow, wretch, to comprehend Even thyself: yea though thou wouldst but bend To know thy body. Have not all souls thought For many ages, that our body'is wrought Of Air, and Fire, and other Elements? And now they think of new ingredients. And one soul thinks one, and another way Another thinks, and 'tis an even lay Know'st thou but how the stone doth enter in The bladders Cave, and never break the skin? Know'st thou how blood, which to the heart doth flow, Doth from one ventricle to th'other go? And for the putrid stuff, which thou dost spit, Know'st thou how thy lungs have attracted it? There are no passages so that there is (For aught thou know'st) piercing of substances. And of those many opinions which men raise Of Nails and Hairs, dost thou know which to praise? What hope have we to know ourselves, when we Know not the least things, which for our use be? We see in Authors, too stiff to recant. A hundred controversies of an Ant. And yet one watches, starves, friezes, and sweats, To know but Catechisms and Alphabets Of unconcerning things, matters of fact; How others on our stage their parts did Act; What Caesar did, yea, and what Cicero said. Why grass is green, or why our blood is red, Are mysteries which none have reached unto. In this low form, poor soul what wilt thou do? When wilt thou shake of this Pedantery, Of being thought by sense, and Fantasy? Thou look'st through spectacles; small things seem great, Below; But up unto the watchtower get, And see all things despoilded of fallacies: Thou shalt not peep through lattices of eyes, Nor hear through Labyrinths of ears, nor learn By circuit, or collections to discern. In Heaven thou strait knowst all, concerning it, And what concerns it not, shall strait forget. There thou (but in no other school) mayst be Perchance, as learned, and as full, as she, She who all Libraries had thoroughly red At home, in her own thoughts, And practised So much good as would make as many more: She whose example they must all implore, Who would or do, or think well, and confess That aye the virtuous Actions they express, Are but a new, and worse edition, Of her some one thought, or one action: She, who in thouArt of knowing Heaven, was grown Here upon Earth, to such perfection, That she hath, ever since to Heaven she came, (In a far fairer point,) but read the same: She, she, not satisfied withal this wait, (For so much knowledge, as would over-fraite Another, did but Ballast her) is gone, As well t'enjoy, as get perfectione. And calls us after her, in that she took, (Taking herself) our best, and worthiest book. Of our company in this life and in the next. Return not, my soul, from this extasee, And meditation of what thou shalt be, To earthly thoughts, till it to thee appear, With whom thy conversation must be there. With whom wilt thou Converse? what station Canst thou choose out, free from infection, That will nor give thee theirs, nor drink in thine? Shalt thou not find a spongy slack Divine Drink and suck in th'Instructions of Great men, And for the word of God, vent them again? Are there not some Courts, (And then, no things be So like as Courts) which, in this let us see, That wits and tongues of Libellars are weak, Because they do more ill, than these can speak? The poyson'is gone through all, poisons affect Chiefly the chiefest parts, but some effect In Nails, and Hairs, yea excrements, will show; So wise the poison of sin, in the most low. Up up, my drowsy soul, where thy new ear Shall in the Angel's songs no discord hear; Where thou shalt see the blessed Mother-maid joy in not being that, which men have said. Where shee'is exalted more for being good, Then for her interest, of motherhood. Up to those patriarchs, which did longer sit Expecting Christ, then they'haue enjoyed him yet. Up to those Prophets, which now gladly see Their Prophecies grown to be Historee. Up to th'Apostles, who did bravely run, All the suns course, with more light than the Sun. Up to those Martyrs, who did calmly bleed Oil to th'Apostles lamps, dew to their seed. Up to those Virgins, who thoughts that almost They made jointenants with the Holy Ghost, If they to any should his Temple give. Up, up, for in that squadron there doth live She, who hath carried thither, new degrees (As to their number) to their dignities. She, who being to herself, a state enjoyed All royalties which any state employed, For she made wars, and triumphed, reason still Did not overthrow, but rectify her will: And she made peace, for no peace is like this, That beauty and chastity together kiss: She did high justice; for she crucified Every first motion of rebellious pride: And she gave pardons, and was liberal, For, only herself except, she pardoned all: She coined, in this, that her impressions gave To all our actions all the worth they have: She gave protections; the thoughts of her breast Satan's rude Officers could near arrest. As these prerogatives being met in one, Made her a sovereign state, religion Made her a Church; and these two made her all. She who was all this All, and could not fall To worse, by company; (for she was still More Antidote, than all the world was ill, She, she doth leave it, and by Death, survive All this, in Heaven; whether who doth not strive The more, because shee'is there, he doth not know That accidental joys in Heaven do grow. Of essential joy in this life and in the next. But pause, My soul, and study ere thou fall On accidental joys, th'essential. Still before Accessories do abide A trial, must the principal be tried. And what essential joy canst thou expect Here upon earth? what permanent effect Of transitory causes? Dost thou love Beauty? (And Beauty worthiest is to move) Poor couse'ned cose'nor, that she, and that thou, Which did begin to love, are neither now. You are both fluid, changed since yesterday; Next day repairs, (but ill) last days decay. Nor are, (Although the river keep the name) yesterdays waters, and to days the same. So flows her face, and thine eyes, neither now That saint, nor Pilgrim, which your loving row Concerned, remains, but whilst you think you be Constant, youare hourly in inconstancee. Honour may have pretence unto our love, Because that God did live so long above Without this Honour, and then loved it so, That he at last made Creatures to to bestow Honour on him; not that he needed it, But that, to his hands, man might grow more fit. But since all honours from inferiors flow, (For they do give it; Princes do but show Whom they would have so honoured) and that this On such opinions, and capacities Is built, as rise, and fall, to more and less, Alas, 'tis but a casual happiness. Hath ever any man to'himselfe assigned This or that happiness, to'arrest his mind, But that another man, which takes a worse, Think him a fool for having ta'en that course? They who did labour Babel's tower to'rect, Might have considered, that for that effect, All this whole solid Earth could not allow Nor furnish forth Materials enough; And that this Centre, to raise such a place Was far to little, to have been the Base; No more affords this worlds, foundatione To erect true joy, were all the means in one. But as the Heathen made them several gods, Of all God's Benefits, and all his Rods, (For as the Wine, and Corn, and Onions are Gods unto them, so Agues be, and war) And as by changing that whole precious Gold To such small copper coins, they lost the old, And lost their only God, who ever must Be sought alone, and not in such a thrust, So much mankind true happiness mistakes; No joy enjoys that man, that many makes. Then, soul, to thy first'pitch work upon again; Know that all lines which circles do contain, For once that they the centre touch, do touch Twice the circumference; and be thou such. Double on Heaven, thy thoughts on Earth employed; All will not serve; Only who have enjoyed The sight of God, in fullness, can think it; For it is both the object, and the wit. This is essential joy, where neither he Can suffer Diminution, nor we; 'tis such a full, and such a filling good; Had th'Angels once looked on him, they had stood. To fill the place of one of them, or more, She whom we celebrate, is gone before. She, who had Here so much essential joy. As no chance could distract, much less destroy; Who with God's presence was acquainted so, (Hearing, and speaking to him) as to know His face, in any natural Stone, or Tree, Better than when in Images they be: Who kept, by diligent devotion, God's Image, in such reparation, Within her heart, that what decay was grown, Was her first Parent's fault, and not her own: Who being solicited to any Act, Still heard God pleading his safe precontract; Who by a faithful confidence, was here Betrothed to God, and now is married there, Whose twilights were more clear, than our mid day, Who dreamt devoutlier, than most use to pray; Who being hear filled with grace, yet strove to be, Both where more grace, and more capacity At once is given: she to Heaven is gone, Who made this world in some proportion A heaven, and here, became unto us all, joy, (as our joys admit) essential. But could this low world joys essential touch, Of accidental joys in both places. heavens accidental joys would pass them much. How poor and lame, must then our casual Bee? If thy Prince will his subjects to call thee My Lord, and this do swell thee, thou art than, By being a greater, grown to be less Man, When no Physician of readers can speak, A joyful casual violence may break A dangerous Apostem in thy breast; And whilst thou joyest in this, the dangerous rest, The bag may rise up, and so strangle thee. What eye was casual, may ever be. What should the Nature change? Or make the same Certain, which was but casual, when it came? All casual joy doth loud and plainly say, Only by coming, that it can away. Only in Heaven joys strength is never spent; And accidental things are permanent. joy of a soul's arrival near decay; For that soul ever joys, and ever stays. joy that their last great Consummation Approaches in the resurrection; When earthly bodies more celestial Shallbe, than Angels were, for they could fall; This kind of joy doth every day admit Degrees of growth, but none of losing it. In this fresh joy, 'tis no small part, that she, She, in whose goodness, he that names degree, Doth injure her; ('tis loss to be called best, There where the stuff is not such as the rest) She, who left such a body, as even she Only in Heaven could learn, how it can be Made better; for she rather was two souls, Or like to full, on both sides written Rolls, Where eyes might read upon the outward skin, As strong Records for God, as minds within, She, who by making full perfection grow, Pieces a Circle, and still keeps it so, Longed for, and longing for'it, to heaven is gone, Where she receives, and gives addition. Here in a place, where mis-devotion frames Conclusion. A thousand prayers to saints, whose very names The ancient Church knew not, Heaven knows not yet, And where, what laws of poetry admit, Laws of religion, have at least the same, Immortal Maid, I might inroque thy name. Could any Saint provoke that appetite, Thou here shouldst make me a french convertite. But thou wouldst not; nor wouldst thou be content, To take this, for my second years true Rent, Did this Coin bear any other stamp, than his, That gave thee power to do me, to say this. Since his will is, that to posterity, Thou shouldest for life, and death, a pattern be, And that the world should notice have of this, The purpose, and th'authority is his; Thou art the Proclamation; and I am The Trumpet, at whose voice the people came. FINIS.