velvet and more delicate soft and amorous if it could be procured They are like our Pressbyterians who being onely the fag end indeed of Geneva Calvanists would have a King But how He must be according to their fond humors or else a Commonwealth for them Our vicious flatterrers will have none of S. John Baptists ridged and rough way of living his course garment doth not please their palates No no they seek for entertainment in the Courts of Kings and Princes of the Earth all their employment is to seek their own pleasures and delights this is the greatest of their cares and for this they watch night and day and to obtain this their desire they employ all their prudence and industry But in vain do these men labour and vex their spirits to put a gloss or cover upon their pernicious ways and counsels but let them look to it there will come a day in which all things shall be clearly discovered before God that all the World may see and know them This the Royal Prophet David understood when he said Whither can I go to hide my self frem thee O Lord or whither shall I fly from thy sight If I soar up to Heaven thou art there if I go down to Hell there shall thy hand finde me out if I take the wings of the morning and fly from East to West thou canst easily overtake me If I should hide cover and wrap my self up in nights obscurity the greatest darkness is light to thee He that made the hearing and gave being to thy fight can he want hearing and sight So that for conclusion What a terrible abomination is it to see that Man onely who is the most vile wretched and invalid Worm that moves upon the earth except his hope of an eternal bliss I say that he which is the most miserable of all creatures should dare to violate the Laws of Nature seldom or never keeping within compass as other Creatures do with moderation nay further he is so audacious and shameless that he will assay to stand at defiance with the Great God of Nature and rise up in Rebellion against him who when he pleases can cast him into that Bottomless Pit whence there is no Redemption Who can but he astoniwed at thy fantastical pride and presumption O thou fragil and inconfiderate man that thou alone of all other creatures darest resist thy God who is glorified and ever adored by Heaven and Earth Stars Planets and Elements Angels Beasts and Devils therefore be not so obdurate O man The Second BOOK OF THE Theatre of the World Wherein is discovered The miseries in all estates of Mankinde from his first forming in the womb of his Mother to his retiring into the womb of the Earth the Grave WE have in the first Book treated of Mans condition as he is compared with other Creatures and shewed he hath not onely no cause wherefore to wax arrogant extol or set a higher esteem of himself then they but that he is in many things more useless and unprofitable then they And now having laid this shallow foundation and commenced as in a foul Copy to draw out a Tract of his miseries it is convenient for prosecuting our Discourse to enter more deeply into this matter by continuing this sad and Tragical discourse of the miseries of the life of Man First looking upon his beginning and original generation and going on discoursing of all his several ages and particular passages of his life until we conduct him to his grave where all troubles are ended And first let us consider the matter of which he is engendred Is it think you any thing else but a kinde of filthiness and corruption and the place of its conception what is it but like a foul and loathsome prison all the time that he continues in the belly of his Mother what is he but like a little lump of flesh without knowledge or being After this manner is the original of mans being When the Mother hath received and retained those two different seeds in her body which by a natural heat is compacted there encreases a tender skin over the same much like to that which thou shalt finde in an egg that is half boiled so that it appears more like an egg that is addle or like an untimely birth then any other thing some few days after the blood doth mixâ— with the vitals which being joyned they begin to boil the faster and from this seething heat is produced three small swellings or risings of the which afterwards are formed the three principal parts of the body and the chiefest pieces of harness that adorn this proud Creature Man which are the Liver the Heart and the brain which last is the most excellent part of this Edisice the scituation and abode of all the offices belonging to the body and the true fountain from whence flows those five waiting-Gentlemen that attend in this Palace upon those faculties of Understanding Wit and Memory it is the true Register of Reason and if consequently we should consider the order of the Creation of the other parts of the body how and when they are formed and fashioned and how the Creature being in the Mothers belly begins to evacuate a kinde of urine thorow those small pores of the navel and how the said urine is evacuated into another small vessel a little divided from the Creature whiah is ordained by Nature for the said purpose also how it doth not make its digestion in the usual part for it doth not eat nor receive its nutriment by the mouth nor doth the stomack or the place of digestion exercise their duties as yet by which means the guts receive no excrement Also the first six days it is like curdled milk the next nine it appears like blood the other twelve it converts to a tender flesh and in the eighteen days following the soul or a kinde of living breath is infused into it If Reader thou dost but feriously ruminate upon the foregoing description of the Principium of man by Nature where shall I finde such a Diamantinâ— heat that will not break out into the height of sorrowful expressions to behold a thing so miserable a spectacle so strange and grievous It s very little what we have yeâ— said if we make a neerer approach to consider mans frailty if we make a farther entrance in contemplation into what follows concerning his condition who can but be astonish'd to consider by what strange ways it is nourished in the Womb by what exquisite means the sustenance is conveyed into it because it cannot receive it at the mouth Also if we do but seriously look into the feeble weak and tender condition of it there if thou doest but in the least jostle or strike the Mother or doth extinguish as some hold a Light before her the Creature suddenly stiflles and dies meerly with the scent of that stinking vapour all which was considered by Pliny where bewailing the miseries
four or five moneths there dyed three hundred thousand but those that are more moderate write two hundred and odd thousand it swept so cleer that when they came to clense the City they found in very many houses the last Person dead and with the heat of Summer almost rotted in their beds this Relation may appear to some a story that in such a City as that being but twenty three Parishes should be such a mortality truly I was eye witnesse to most of what is related as many Merchants of our English Nation can affirme and have no reason to give a false relation of that in which God hath been pleased to grant me so great a deliverance for which ever magnified be his Holy Name But to proceed on our purpose there remaines no other thing but to contemplate the other principal scâ—â—â—ge of God famine a certain and diligent â—â—ecutioner of his justice as he affirmes by the Prophets and Apostels that he will make their Land barren and unprofitable so also our Saviour Jesus Christ telling his Disciples the sign that should forego the last day after he had sayed men should kill one another and one â—ingdâ—me should rise up and make War agaiâ—st aâ—â—tâ—er Nation he addeth as a thing of greater degree of puniâ—hment that there shall be gâ—eat Pestilencies and mortall famines over all the World for War Pestilence and famine are the strokes with which God commonly avengeth himself of wicked men when he growes weary of of waiting for their too often late repentaâ—ce Le ts now see whether we have escaped the last more then the first I will not go about to write of the famines which commonly is known to have happened in Europe Asia and Africa but will only relate the most memorable which I find in the Historie both Divine and Pagan to the end that they that live in this World as in a Pallace of delights pleasures and pastimes without tasting in the least of the calamities and miseries to which man is subject may when they see God shoot the arrows of his wrath against his Creatures consider and understand the soveraign power and Omnipotency of their Creator and contemplate the pittyfull and sad condition of our nature which 〈…〉 ubject to so many miseries Le ts begin with that which the Romans suffered at the generall destruction of Italy when Alarico a capital enemy to Mankind besieged Rome they were brought to such a poor low and famished condition and to such an exceeding want of all things necessary that they began first to eat the Horses Dogges Cats Rats and Mice and all other sorts of vermine they could find and when these failed they eat one another the strongest devoured the weakest it is a certain and wonderfull thing to consider that when the justice of God followes and puts us to a streight that necessity brings us to such a point or resolution not to pardon even our best friends the Father the Son or the Mother the fruit of her Womb The like hapned in the siege of Jerusalem as Eusebus sets it forth at large but a more horrid and strange story followes when Scipio besieged the City of Numancia after he had attacked and cut off reliefe from them he put them to such an exstream necessity and mortal and canine famine that every day they sallied out and went to chase the Romans their besiegers as hungry Dogs do savage beasts to eat them so that without any loathing they eat the flesh and drank the blood of the Romans which they took not sparing one of them with as great appetite as others would eat Beefe or Mutton or drink at a cleer Fountain even so he that fell into their hands was presently riped open cleansed and quartered and sold in their Market by peices or retaile so that one Roman amongst them dead was of more value then alive in the 2. Kings 6. Chap 24. ver c. There is made mention of a great famine in Samaria in the time of Elisha the Prophet which exceeded that before mentioned where there was such want of sustenance that an Asse head was sold for fourscore peices of Silver and the fourth part of a kab of Pigions dung for five peices of Silver but what was worse and most inhumane of all that having eaten all the provision they had the Mothers eat their own Children in so much that a woman of the City complained to the King of Israel as he went upon the Wall that her neighbour would not stand to an agreement made betwixt them which was to eat the first day her Child and the next day the other womans the which saith she I accomplished for we boyled my son and did eat him I said unto her on the next day give thy Son that we may eat him and she hath hid him the which the King hearing rent his clothes and behold he had Sackcloth within upon his flesh c. Josephus in his seventh Book of the Warres of the Jewes in the third Chapter relates another accident much like this but executed with more fury and after a more strange manner there was saith he in Jerusalem when it was beseiged a Woman both noble and rich which had hidden in a certain house of the City part of her riches and fed sparingly on what she had which she could not long do in quiet for the Souldiers of the Garrison in a short time robed her of what she had layed up in store and if she intreated and begged for any thing to supply nature and some did give her any others immediately took it out of her hands and even force the bit out of her mouth then she seeing her selfe in such distresse ready to dye for hunger and without any hopes of remedy for to supply her necessity she without consideration of what might appear best began to arme her selfe against the wholsome lawes of nature and considering a Child she had then at her breast began to cry out saying Oh unhappy and unfortunate Babe or rather miserable mother what can I do with thee where shall I preserve thee things run and are so out of order that if I save thy life thou wilt be a slave to the Romans therefore it will be better that thou maintain and relieve thy Mother and afright the cursed Souldiers who have left me no hopes of remedy or comfort be thou an example of pitty to ages to come move compassion in the hearts of those that shall be hereafter borne these words being ended she beheaded her Child parted him in the midle and put halfe on a Spit roasted and eat it and layed up the other halfe for another time she had no sooner ended this Tragedy but the Souldiers came and smelling the roasted flesh began to threaten her with present death if she did not produce it but she was so mad and besides her selfe for what she had done that without fear she desired nothing more then to accompany her
desert amongst bruit beasts far from any neighbourhood or Town that he might be troubled with no visits and living as he did he did shun ever to be seen or spoken with much less to be visited by any except one an Athenian Captain named Alcibiades and his familiarity with him was not for any love or friendship towards him but he understood the said Captain was like to be a scourge to men and that he was born to be a torment trouble to them for by some divination he certainly knew that his Athenian Neighbours were to suffer many afflictions and vexations for his sake nay he did not content himself to let loose the reigns of his malice Thus far against man his own kind only to flye from as from some cruel and fearce beast but he did endeavour to do him all the mischief that lay in his power to procure even to destroy and ruin all mankind inventing new wayes how to bring to the ground and end their dayes to accomplish which he caused to be set up in his Orchard many Gallowses to the end all desperate Persons that might be wearied with the troubles of this life should go thither and destroy themselves Now some few years afterwards for his own accomodation or to enlarge the place of his habitation it was necessary for him to take down those Gallowses so without any premeditation of what might succeed him and withal to shew his farther malice he went to Athens whether being come without any shame he called the people together by lifting up his voyce in the streets as a common Cryer doth when he proclaims any novelty the Citizens hearing the Hoarse and strange voyce of that foul and horrid Monster and knowing long before the sordid humour and opinion that possest his minde they instantly gathered themselves to him hoping to hear some novelty or wonder he seeing the greatest part of the Citizens as well principal as common congregated to hear him began to speak with an audible voyce saying know Citizens of Athens that for a certain necessaâ—y occasion which hath hapned to me I am reâ—olved to pull down the Gallowses that are in my Garden therefore if any man be so weary â—f â—his world or be so desperate as to hang himself let it be presently before I pluck them down after he had ended this his so affectionate offer without making any farther discourse he returned to his House where he dyed in this his vain opinion but continually musing and contemplating Mans Misery and when the pangs of death seased on him to shew the Odium he bare to Man even to his last gasp he commanded expresly under heavy curses that his Corps should not be burried in the Earth because said he it is the element upon which men do commonly take their quiet repose and in the bowels of which humane bodies were buried and all this for fear his bones should be seen of men or the dust of his Carcas should touch or be mixed with theirs but that they should cast him into the Sea where the fury of the swelling waves might not only hinder but defend the passage of any Creature in their approach to this his elected Tomb and he commanded the following Epitaph to be written of him which Plutarch makes mention of and was learnedly translated by Claudio Gruget After my miserable and wretched life ended they buried me in these deep waters Reader be not curious to understand my name God confound thee Here you see this spiritually poor though naturally wise Philosopher having throughly examined humane frailty in this world hartily wished he had not been born a man but much rather that he had been brought forth by or transformed into some bruit beast and meerly upon the deep sence and understanding he had of the invetterate malice that dwells in the hearts of men But now let us leave this our ancient Philosopher Timon to his malicious complainings and briny Sepulcher that we may give way to a serious view of some of the expressions of of Marco Aurelio a Roman Emperour to this effect who as great a Philosopher as an Emperour considering the weak miserable and fragil condition which continually attends the poor and short life of Man said the Battel of this World is dangerous the end of which is so wonderfully terrible that I am very certain that if any one of our fore-fathers should arise from the dead truly relate and give us a perfect view of his whole life past from the time he came from his Mothers womb even to his last breath giving at large another of the great pains and griefs his body hath suffered and seriously discovering the strange alarms various successes with which fortune hath persecuted him it would cause admiration in all men to consider the body that hath suffered so many torments and the heart that hath so valiently conquered so great difficult war-fares and I my self do freely confess to have found the same to be true which though it be to my disgrace yet for the profit that may redoun'd to after ages I will relate in fifty years that I have lived I resolved to make tryal of all the vices and evills of this life that I might understand whether the malicious wickedness of men had any limits or bounds but finds experimentally after a serious speculation and consideration that the more I drink the more I thirst the more I sleep the more I desire the more rest I enjoy the more weary I am the more I have the more I desire the more content I have in seeking the less in enjoying finally there is no sublunary thing that I obtain with the which I am not quickly cloyed as suddenly abhor it and desire another thing O how excellently did that famous Greek Doctor St. John Chrisostome contemplate after he had meerly out of compassion bewayled the Calamities of man and that dark obscurity with which they are encompassed when he cryed out Oh who could obtain the benefit of a Watch-Tower which were so convenient and skillfully built that from thence he might easily see all men and that he could enjoy so great and audible a voyce that from thence being heard and understood of all he might proclaim the high sentence expressed by that Royal King and Prophet David how long will your hearts be hardned Oh ye Sons of men and not without great cause and good reason did this holy man St. Chrisostome use these zealous expressions for let any man after a sound and mature Judgment but seriously consider the miserable estate and condition that the whole World lyeth under at this day the many traps cozenages cheats blasphemies adulteries roberies incests wars dissentions and effusions of bloud violencies rapines ambitions covetousnesses hatreds rumources malices desires of revenge c. With which the uverse lyeth drunk nay even drowned in May say that we are come very neer the time which was so much abhor'd and abominated by the Holy
placed but truly they are wisely set down and very significantly do point at the frail principium of this proud Creature Man for why he is born of a Woman and amongst all the Creatures that God made there is none so subject to miseries and infirmities as they are and especially those that are most fruitful They seldome have a months quiet throughout the year and that not without fears terrours cares and continual tremblings Now after so miserable and deplorable a beginning if this life were long and healthy he could the better pass it over But Job saith presently after He is of few dayes and those full of misery There are few creatures that have a life so short as man nor any so easily taken away therefore what need instruments Poysons Graves and Swords and the like do but stop his breath for a short time and he will fall down dead and lie like a Log of Wood his life being onely an Airy breath which inhabits the body and quickly flieth away Theophrastus and other ancient Phylosophers murmured against Nature because she had given so large lives to the Harts Ravens and other animals which serve for little in this World and Man which is Emperor and King of all the Creatures and absolute Lord over them his is but short and brief though he have honourable and caelestial imployments here and what is worse she clips and cuts from this short life which is bestowed upon him a great part with Sleeps Dreames Anger 's Cares Troubles Losses and other misfortunes which attend molest and abreviate this short life these our few dayes and if we should well cast up and consider the pains labours and troubles we undergo the many anguishes and cares thereof and how they waste us and hasten us to our ends we shall finde that few are the dayes of our sorrowful Pilgrimage here which brings us to the comparison of which the Prophet makes of man with the shade What sayes he is the shadow but onely an appearance which deceives the sight of man a fancy a figure without being or substance the which sometimes appears greater sometimes lesser even so is man which sometimes seems to be something and in effect nothing for when he is most elevated most raised up and at his highest on a sudden there is no more memory nor trace of him then of a shadow when night is come it 's with him as the Royal Prophet David sayes 37 Psalm 35 36. verse I have seen the wicked Man in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay Tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I saught him but he could not be found the Memory of wicked Men shall rot Here thereto have we with as much brevity as possible could be set forth through how many troubles stormes and shipwracks miserable Man passeth before he arriveth at the Haven of Youth and gets out of the tuition of Nurses and from that Labyrinth of Childhood in which he must be assisted and looked after with so much care and diligence Let us now consider and contemplate him being grown bigger and of a more comely stature and see whether his miseries and sorrowes have end here Verily if we will be impartial Judges we shall finde that his calamities and labours do not onely terminate but that he falls into and launcheth forth into a more spacious Sea of Dangers and Afflictions For by this time Nature hath provided for him a thousand Combats and Assaults stronger and more fiercer then the former his blood begins to boil the Flesh allures and invites with her delights sensuallity shews the way how to put them in practice the World and the Devil tempt and beguile the disordered Appetite of his Youth with inviting to him such drest and well prepared delicates that it 's impossible that he who is assaulted surrounded and stormed with so strong and so many Enemies but that he should be conquered if he receive not succour from some good and friendly Angel by the particular Grace and Favour of God for in that body which enjoyes Riches Liberty and Youth without restraint so generally lodge dwell and inhabit all sorts of Vice in the World The Emperor Marcus Ancilius said I am not in charity with our Step-mother Nature who seems not to have satisfied her revenge upon poor man at his beginning and his being unnaturally fed with the Milk of a strange Breast but strives farther to load him with all sorrows she can Now he must also learn his Trade Occupation or Science from a strange hand for which cause she produces few Catoes who will take care to teach their own Children but rather she tauses Fathers now a dayes to disdain and count it an undervaluing to do it and so leave them to taste of the bitter Potion of cruel and neglective School-masters which often discourages them at the first entrance to learn the liberal Arts â—nd Sciences 〈…〉 s certain there is no ground be it never so fertile fat and fruitful that is not mar'd 〈◊〉 wasted and will bring forth Berries and Thistles sooner then other Grass if it be not well manured in all respects and the more Fertile it is the greater quantity of unprofitable Weeds it puts forth if they neglect to Plough Sow and Dung it so it is with Youths they are apt to grow worse then better though they be never soingenuous unless the Parents seek out trusty and careful Masters to teach and moderately correct them or do it himself which is all very convenient If Man desires to gather good Fruit from Trees and Plants it will be necessary when they are young and tender that he do cut prune and dig about them and take off the superfluous Branches Even so he that desires from the Youth and tender disposition of the Children to gather good Fruit and not meet with vexations from them in his old age had need to cut short prune and hinder the growing and encreasing of Vices and all occasions thereof which too commonly do bud forth in their young dayes and to avoid all scandal and discredit the neglect hereof may bring upon himself and be a perpetual sorrow to Parents and Friends How many Fathers and Mothers have there been and are in this World who for neglect of bringing up their Children when young and giving them good instruction and learning have had a thousand vexations troubles afflictions and discontents from them in their old age And how many Mothers be there that instead of instructing in vertue and teaching modest retirement to their Daughters do bring them up to too much daintiness ease and liberty onely shewing them how to follow their own delicious Appetites the which we may call Mothers and Nurses of the Body but cruel Step-Mothers to the Soules of their poor Daughters If that High Priest Eli was Heavenly chastised and his Sons destroyed because he did not reprehend and chastise them with that rigour and severe Authority which
do we finde in this Life For if 〈…〉 do but put our Hand into our Bosome 〈…〉 hall finde that from the day of our Birth to â—â—e day of our Death there is no calamity nor trouble with which we are not afflicted of which we do not taste there is no kinde of misery or affliction with which Man is not acquainted with which he is not some time or other persecuted and afflicted there is no Poverty Cold Heat Whips and Stripes of which man cannot be a Witness in Death understanding it and that before he attains to the perfect light of Reason or indeed have any Tongue to complain or desire favour of which we can understand no other signe or better testimony then the teares sighs and groans he casts forth at his Birth which are as fore-runners and discoverers of the Field of miseries and calamities into which he is come and of which the sorrowful entrance makes him sensible But after he hath passed by an infinite number of evils and attained to the age of seven years what a necessity he hath of Guides and Masters to teach instruct and correct him to look after him and keep him from harms and in growing up more strict and severe Masters are necessary to correct his extravigancies and lead him in the paths of Vertue for Childhood and Youth have need of a Bridle more strong then Iron to withdraw it from all Vices with which it is assaulted and bring it to accustome it self to virtuous actions Thence in few years his face begins to be covered with Hair a Beard adorns his Chin and he comences to right Man with which his cares and troubles doubly encrease and he enters into a Stage where he meets with new afflictions and vexations He must goe forth into publick to seek company and go in Society which is like a Touch-stone to try the purity of his inclination to good or evil If he be descended of a Noble house of a Famous and Illustrious Family or if he be an ordinary Gentleman that he may maintain his Honour and follow the foot-steps of his predecessors and imitate his superiours he must seek out many inventions provide rich and convenient accouterments be hardy in Battle and understand stratagems and policies of War expose himself to a thousand dangers and hazards lay his life at stake upon all occasions spend his blood prodigally and without fear to die with Honour and thereby to obtain a new and immortal fame for himself and his successors and all this he must do if he will not be taken for a cowardly lazie and ignoble person and be disesteemed and despised of all men And if he be a man of a low degree born for a Farmer a Labourer or a Servant he is not for that more free from cares troubles pains and restlesness in body and soul He must labour night and day toiling and sweating even to drops of blood many times that he may procure bread and water If he strive never so much to imploy himself in his Calling yet very often though he labour and travel and do his uttermost endeavour to releive his necessity he cannot attain to what is requisite for him Then not without cause did Marcus Aurelius the seventeenth Roman Emperor considering the condition of Humanity complain who was wont to say Many times have I contemplated within my self if there ever were now or could be found any Estate Degree Condition Land Countrey Kingdome or Age in the which there hath lived a Man that hath not in his life tasted what thing is adverse Fortune that hath not met with Crosses and Afflictions And if there could be discovered such a one I believe he must be some abominable Monster and a strange sight to Mortals and ends his Reason with this saying To be brief I finde that he that yesterday was rich to day becomes poor he that yesterday was in health to day is visited with sickness he that yesterday was in jollity laughing to day I see him weeping he that yesterday was in prosperity and esteem to day I see him despised and in adversity and he that yesterday was alive to day I see him dead and in his Grave But now le ts return to our commenced purpose and le ts search more particularly into things Shew me that man that hath most desired obtained a condition and that more suitable to his wishes and contentments then any other manner of living that hath not at last grown weary despised and complained of his sad hope repented and been sorry that he had spent so much pretious time in proceeding in it To see this more cleerly le ts consider some principal degrees of men in the World beginning with such as saile upon the waters most part of their lives swiming like fishes which are Mariners to how many dangers are they subject night and day what a house do they enjoy what thing is there dwelling but a continual filthy prison what cloaths do they wear but of Cloth like a spunge fit for nothing but to receive filth and water they go like voluntary Vagabons and are in a seeming and perpetual exile they have seldome any repose they are encompassed with blustring Windes on all sides they have but small guard from the Waters Tempests Hailes and Snowes and are subject to Pirates and Robbers to Rocks Shelves Sands and surging Sulkes of the superbious Sea and ever in danger of drowning and being interred in the bellies of Fishes which being seriously considered by that famous Greek Phylosopher Bias who doubted whether such people were to be accounted amongst the Earthly Creatures or those that live on the Water or whether they were to be accounted amongst the living or the dead And another Phylosopher called Anacharsis said That there was not above two or three Fingers betwixt them and Death that is as the planks are in thickness this life appearing so detestable Peradventure thou wilt think to find more quietness in that of a Husbandman and that there is less troubles in a Countrey life thou wilt be apt to question whether a Rustick life be not better and give the answer thy self that it is because it is more easie more quiet sweet and more pleasant especially knowing that most of the Patriarches and Prophets made choice of this manner of living being the most sweetly quiet without prejudice or guile to any the most plain and sincere free from the difficult Catches Traps and Turmoils of Traffick Also many of the ancient Roman Emperors left their Royal commands and employments forsook their Palaces their Capatals Triumphant Arches Amphitheators Pleasures and many other Magnificent Ornaments to withdraw and retire themselves into the Countrey to prune and graft the Trees with their own hands to plant Flowers and sow Seeds in the Gardens as did Dioclesian Attalus Cyrus Beroaldus Constantine one of the Caesars and many others which Columellia and other Historians doe make mention of But those that would attentively
the most strong and stout hearted man for that rich triple Crown and Diadem which encompasseth thy Head may better be called a flame that burnes and consumes the strength and Soul These are the words of Pope Adrian which well considered I believe there would be very few strive to attain to that place and dignity It is such a charge that no honest man can deal with For he must uphold all profitable errors and maintain things if advantagious contrary to his own Genuous But it 's time to leave the chief heads of the Church and their weighty charges and turn to the inferiour Members who are sick of the same disease and to contemplate them more near Let 's first consider what the Priests of the Gentiles were and let 's compare these with ours that we who are enlightned with Evangelical faith and suck the sincere Milk of Christianity may be troubled and ashamed and learn of such who should be taught by us It is a certain and confirmed truth That the Priests of the Heathen were chosen of the most learned and known of the Heathen of the best and most famous As we read of the Priests of the Egyptians the which were maintained at the publick charge and never spent their time in any other thing then after their Duties and Ceremony ended in Phylosophy and searching out the secrets of Nature from which honest and vertuous imployments proceeded a singular and notable profit and benefit to all posterity for as Aristotle writes They were the first inventers of Mathematical Arts their lives were so orderly good and vertuous and their Doctrine so admirable that Lycurgus Pythagerous Plato Democritus and the greatest part of the ancient Greek Phylosophers left their Countries their Houses their Wives their Children and their Academies to goe and learn of the Egyptian Priests The very same custome they used amongst the Priests in Babilon which were called Caldeans What spare time they had their Ceremonies ended they imployed in studying Phylosophy and the secrets of the Heavens so that as Diodorus Siculo writes We owe to them the invention of Astrology and the greatest secrets of Astronomy which they found out with extraordinary care and labour Also the Persians had Priest which they called Magicians which is as much as to say Wise men which they so much loved honoured and respected for their good lives as well as for their excellent Doctrine In their most urgent occasions and in their greatest necessities they ran to them as if they had been Gods on Earth The Indians as by the following Discourse had their priests which they called Gymnosophists of such excellent learning and such just and vertuous lives that they alone were sufficient to confound alay and abase the pride of that great Tirant Alexander as Plutarch writes who was determined to make desolate their Countries to kill and destroy whatever he found in them But when he heard these wise men who like noble Heroes came to plead for their Country he did not onely not do it but he bestowed upon them great Treasure and let them all live in their ancient freedome and liberty Also the ancient French then called Gaules before Christianity was preached amongst them as Julias Caesars in his Commentaries writes They had Priests which they called Men of Lives which were men of great Austerity and much knowledge for the which they were honoured as Gods The time that they could spare from their usual Ceremonies they employed in teaching Children and instructing Youth disputing the Immortality of the Soul the Motions of the Heavens the Circumference of the Globe of the Earth the principium Beings and Natures of things In these and the like profitable labours and studies did these good men employ their vacant hours not suffering one moment to pass which they did not improve for the common good Here thou seest the condition and the life these men did lead these were their usual imployments In these vertuous actions did they spend their times who though Priests yet Heathen Priests without true Faith true Law or the true God without hopes of a future and better life and without fear of chastisement which we believe God can when he pleaseth lay upon us Now let us compare with what hath been said the Lives Customes and Occupations of our Ministers and Priests and I doubt we shall finde that these Heathens will rejoyce one day against them to be their accusers and condemners for the wicked life very many of them lead I speak against the bad and their Vices and not against the good or the Priestly Function for I well understand and know that there are many good and learned Shepherds who with true Christian diligence are ever watchful over their Flocks which have a strict and continual care over their Foldes gently feeding them at seasonable times and as is most agreeable to Gods holy word I also know That in all Christian Universities there are many excellent Doctors who with their holy understandings lives and Doctrines do like so many resplendent Jems adorn and beautifie our Europe But how many Church-men are there in the World I wish we have not too many false seducing ignorant and scandalous Teachers amongst us in England But I am sure they have exceeding many in the Roman Church of whom I shall give you a Character given them by one of their own Church who are so nursed and fed up in ignorance and fooleries that they hardly can read over their Mass therefore they murmur it betwixt their Teeth That their ignorance may not be discerned Now if they cannot read how shall they be able to understand the Dignity Vertue and Efficacie of the holy Sacraments How many Pastors are there this day in the World that understand better how to Court Ladies and take pleasures in other Vanities then to unfold the difficult questions of predestination free-will and others which the holy Scripture sets forth Against these the Prophet Ezekiel propounds a woe saying in the 34 Chap. 2 3 vers That they spent their time more in feeding themselves then their Flocks and instead of gently leading them in plentiful pastures they eat the Fat cloathed themselves with the Wool killed them that were fed but they cared not to feed the Flock And in another place such are called dumb Dogs blinde and sloathful Teachers that cannot or dare not bark at the Wolf Sathan They are very curious to seek out any thing that may make for their pleasures of Hunting Hawking and glutting their paunches but little or no care do they take to seek out a good pastor for the Flock of Christ who one day will call them to account for their charge and make them dearly pay for those which are lost through their carelesness and neglect in conclusion these are true Leaches whose principal purpose is to suck the blood and sustenance of the poor Sheep spend the Churches Revenues in pomps delights sports and other exercises instead of
the multitude and diversity of Opinions which dayly are broached and fomented amongst Christians in the which we find our selves every day more involved for what one saith is white others say is black what some hold for day others say is night in fine there wants not those who do make a lie and Antichristian faith of the truth of Jesus Christ from which proceeds a great and strange evil which is an exceeding cause of offence to ignorant persons seeing some wise men affirme what others deny knowing as they do that there is but one only truth that I can find it in no place more transparent then in the Church of England For what others can say against her is not against any fundamentall truth but against her decent Ornaments and Divine order God is the God of order and apointed distinct Vestments for the Priests that served before Him in his Temple at Jerusalem so that all ignorant people as well as knowing ought to shut their eyes and eares against all novelties and stand stedfast first in the faith but next in the practice of their forefathers for had there been any error of consequence so many wise men as lived in those days would have amended them its true the Church may to appearance run a great hazard in the depths of affliction but shall never be devoured drowned or destroyed which as a miracle we have seen of our Church in her persecution and restauration these Sects and Heresies going on as they do well may we say that the fences of the pasture where the Flock of Jesus Christ were wont to be gathered together and fed are broken down and that Wolves are entred in to destroy disperse and devour the innocent Sheep and all proceeds from the carelesseness of their unwatchfull and disagreeing Pastors who neglect to stop the gaps mend up the fences discover withstand and hinder the growth and increase of this tamelesse devouring and poysoning beast of Heresie from whence it proceeds that many of the sheep have fled and gone astray without a Shepherd others are fed of ignorant and blind Shepherds which are hired for a small matter of money and are in danger of being lost because the chiefe Pastors take no care to overlook them and for those that remain together in the fold and pasture of Christ are at the point of hazard to be parted and mislead from the true way and certainly if we could see with our corporall eyes at once the great and apparent danger that all Christendome is in at this day if it were possible to number the multitude of Soules which are dayly in danger to be lost by these Sects Schismes Heresies it must needs make a mans haire stand upright with amazement Tell me truly Gentle Reader is there any manner of chastisement scourge torment anguish or sorrow of which we have not tasted in our dayes with which God hath not assayed to awaken us I will not refraine to wright somewhat and begin with the cruell wares and great effusions of Blood which hath been amongst us within this fifty or threescore yeares although I have written thereof in another Treatise and the memorial thereof is so fresh that the blood is hardly stenched of the wounds which hath been so deeply cut amongst Christians the great multitude of people as well men as women which wander as vagabonds from Country to Province and from Citty to Village forcibly banished from their Countrys Parents and houses with the distressed Mothers laden with their sad Orphans who by the diligence fury and cruelty of their Enemies are forced to fly from the burning flame and to seek out some ease house or repose for themselves and their hunger bitten infants nay and often cannot find it these may be sufficient witnesses of the many strange and bitter evils which attend War what greater griefe then to see the streetes filled with such kind of sorowfull and afflicted people what conscience or continency of life can they have who are the cause of such Tragedies when they shall here the teares sighs and out-cryes of such miserable Creatures especially when they shall consider that there is a full and particular account to be given of all the blood that unjustly or maliciously hath been or shall be shed from Abell who was the first man that dyed unto the last that shall die in the World as the holy spirit of God teacheth us in the Sacred Scriptures If we have felt the fatal stroke of War amongst us which is one of the principall messengers of Gods wrath there is another which is the Pestilence which hath not been wanting in our dayes for God according to our hardnesse of heart and impenitence proceeds with us by degrees either increasing or diminishing the chastisement I have read of the most strange wonderfull Plagues and contagions that have hapned in former ages the which we will compare with those of our times that we may come to see and understand that when God is highly offended whets and sharpens the sword of his anger and fury against us all other Creatures are overtaken with the irefull stroke thereof Many Authors worthy of Credit have written that the Citizens of Constantinople were visited with such a strange kind of horrible Pestilence that those that were smitten therewith they imagined that they were slaine by the hand of a neighbour or friend and being fallen into this frenzie they dyed distracted being only posses'd with this fear that they believd their deaths wound proceeded from another man There was in the dayes of Heraclius such a mortall Plague in Romania that in few dayes there dyed many thousand men the fury and frenzie of the contagion was so great that the most part of those that were stricken therewith cast themselves into the river Tiber to asswage the exceeding heat which like a red hot Iron consumed their very entrailes Tucidides a Greek Author writes that in his time there happened in Grecia such a contagious corruption of aire that an infinite number of people dyed without any remedy that could be found to mittygate or cure the disease and relates another thing more admirable and strange that if any one recovered health and escaped that venemous infirmity they remained without any remembrance of what was past even to the forgeting of Fathers Children of Childrens Parents Marcus Aurellius an Author worthy of credit wrights that there happened in his dayes so great a Plague in Italy that the Historians attempting to wright thereof said it was more easie for them to number those that were living then to give account of how many dyed the Souldiers of Avidius Cassuis a Generall under the Emperour Macro Antonio being in Seleucia a Citty appertaining to the Empire of Babilon they made entrance into the Temple of Apollo and finding there a certain Chest they opened it expecting to find a great Treasure in it from which proceeded such a stinking corrupted pestiferous aire that almost destroyed
the regions of Babilon from thence it flew to Greece and thence to Rome putrifying after such a manner the aire that one third part of the people did not escape where it came but to leave the antient Histories and examine what hath happened since their time and in our dayes that we who do hold our selves to be Christians may learn to understand our own frailty the great miseries to which we are subject with the scourges great afflictions which God layeth upon us and that God when his anger is kindled against our offences and extreame iniquities le ts fly the most cruell Darts and Arrowes of his justice against these Creatures not omitting any kind of evils afflictions and torments whereby to execute his wrath and vengeance what better or greater proofe can we have of this then that which we saw in the year 1628. in the French Army which at that time beseiged Naples that men dyed before they thought they had been stricken with death and this curse or Pestilence did not light upon the common souldiers alone but executed its fury against the most choice commanders that the Lords Lautree of Vandemon of Moloac of Laval of the Chatrinera Grandmont and many other Persons of great quality who I cannot call to mind without teares the very same thing happened to the English when they took Buloigne from the French that there arose such Pestilential disease amongst them in the Citty that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead for which cause the King of England could not find a Souldier in all his Country would go thither voluntarily but such as were prest forced thither as offenders for the more fresh men entered so many more dyed so that every corner of the streets was infected and corrupted with the stench of the dead Corpes which lay in every part of the City A year after that King Francis of France marryed with Donna Leonoca de Austria there reigned in Germany such a mortall Plague that all that were smitten therewith dyed within twenty four houres swetting a most contagious humor and a most horrid stinking matter and although this evil begin at the West end of the Empire yet afterwards it extended it selfe throughout all Germany like a sweeping net that will catch all as it goes along for before it pleased God to send a remedy there dyed so many thousands that many Provinces remained deserted and uninhabited for so great was the putrifaction of the aire that it left neither Creatures alive and they write that at the same time that the Pestilence reigned with the like fury it was predominant in England in so much that with the venemous strength thereof it did not only overcome destroy men but the Birds forsooke their Nests Eggs and young ones the beasts their dens and Caves the Snakes and Moles went together in squadrons and companies not being able to suffer the venemous infection that had entred even into the bowells of the earth in the year 1546. the last day of May in Stife a city in Province began a most cruell and Pestilential contagion which lasted nine moneths and there dyed great multitudes of people of all sexes and ages in so much that all their Churchyards were so fill'd with dead Corps that there was no roome to receive any more the greatest part of those that were infected the second day became frantick and cast themselves into wells or else from windowes to others it gave a flux of blood from the nose with violence like a running stream the stopping of which ending the life was all at once it arived to such a height of dissolution that women great with child cast forth untimely births at four moneths both they and their innocent babes dyed being found full of tokens and on one side black and blew like brused blood in conclusion the contagion was so great that father 's left their children and the women forsooke their husbands mony and riches could not yeeld remedy to save the owners thereof from dying of famine because it was hard to get a peice of bread or a cup of water for money and if in case they could procure food for sustenance the Plague was grown so violent that many were taken away with the meat in their mouthes the fury of the evil was so great that only looking upon one that was stricken the infection instantly cleave to the party viewing and he dyed so great was the contagion of the disease and the corruption of the aire of the City to what member of the body the venemous breath or vapour did come there arose great sweling carbuncles mortally wounding sores Oh what a horrible and lamentable thing it was to heare the sad storyes that a Physician tells one who was ordered by the Governours to heal the sick this contagion saith he was so sharp and perverse that it could not be stopped with blooding Physick medicines or any cordialls whatsoever but it cut down destroyed and killed all it took hold of in so much as he that was stricken therewith could expect nothing but death for which cause there were several that when they preceived themselves wounded with this mortal infection they sowed themselves up in their winding sheetes there thou mightest see ten thousand lye after that manner expecting their last hour that forced divorce O sad parting of those two so loving consorts the Soul and Body all which he affirmed to have seen often done by many Persons of all degrees I my selfe in the year 1648. being in Spain where many hundred thousands dyed that year in several Provinces but living in the City of Sevill there breake out about March a fearfull contagion or Plague where I was visited therewith to omit the relation of every particular sad spectacle I saw dayly I shall only hint upon the principal passages by which ye may judge the rest there was every morning to be seen not a street without many dead Corps in it cast out not a house uninfected so that the most retyred Carthusian Fryers which came neer none dyed thereof the Birds dyed in the cages not for want of food but of the infection in one Hospital I was told by one that helped to bury the dead there that they all judged there dyed in one night four thousand persons it raged so much and carried away so many people that all their burying places being filled they were forced to load continually dead Corps in Carts and bury them in the common fields where they had four several burying places on each side of the City one afterwards I had occasion often to take particular notice of one of them where some of our English were buryed it was neer alone Church in the fields called St. Sebastiam over the door whereof I have many times read in Spanish but in large legible Characters without the bounds of this Church lieth buryed in fifteen graves forty and three thousand many judged that in above
those of Ethiopia who with a hidden vertue of some herbs gathered at certain set hours dryed up Ponds and Moats almost empty Rivers and open any Lock What shall we say more to set forth the excellency and dignity of man There have been in the world such excellent Musitians that with their Harmonious mellody have changed the conditions desires and affections of the hearers nay more their inclinations and wills it makes those that are mellancholly and sad to become chereful and merry those that are valiant and stout to become towards to dance leape and tremble with feare it causeth others to make gestures and strange postures according as the sound riseth or falleth Terprando Metimeo Empedocles Orpheus Amphion were all such exquisite Musitians that in their times they cured many that were Frantick Lunatick and possessed and that onely with the sweet harmony of their Instruments Pythagorus onely with the deep experience and understanding he had in this science cured a young man that was near dead with Love he eased him of many cares evill desires and carnal appetites which did continually torment and molest him causing him to forget them all as if he had never known them and that in few dayes and all his time afterwards he lived very pleasant and contented All the Historians both Greek and Latine which treat of the life of Alexander make mention of the excellency of the hand of Timotheus his Musitian of whom I shall declare onely one thing that at a Banquet being playing on his Instrument before his Master and many other guests He began on a sudden to sound an alarum so furiously and exactly that the magnificent Alexander little considering his action hastily arose from the Table and called for his Armes being forced into a rapture with the Harmony and exquisite harping of his excellent Musitian The great King Agamemnon being obliged to go to the Wars of Troy and not confiding in the honest retirements of his Wife he left her in the custody of a famous Harpist who when he saw her pensative idlely discoursing or transported with the darts of Love would take his Harp and with the harmony thereof so entertained that great Lady that all those carnal appetites and motions vanished and fled from her Insomuch that Egistus though her darling could not obtain any favour from her untill he procured the death of him who with his science and skill was the trusty defender keeper and preserver of the Chastity of that otherwayes lascivious Queen Sure we may with greater reason insert that example of the Royal Prophet David who with his skill art and harmonious Musick caused the evill spirit to depart from Saul as it is more at large expressed in the book of the Kings But that we may draw towards an end of this Labyrinth which we do but in short expresse concerning the praise of man and that we may set to the last seal in his commendation I will conclude with this that there is nothing in him either joynt or member how despicable soever it be which is not proper for some use profitable to some end and from which may not be extracted some singular Medicine Remedy and benefit as Gallen and many other Physitians do affirme the spittle fasting is very good against the biting of Venomous beasts and helps against the inflamation of the eye-lids the eare-wax applyed to the nostrills provoketh to drousinesse and sleep his Urine besides many other things for which it is commodious its good for those that are Dropsicall his fat or grease applyed to any kinde of Gout very much asswageth it the blood of man taken while it is warme healeth those which are smitten with Love which several Authors do write Faustinia the wife of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius did his flesh embalmed for how many excellent uses doth it serve and for how many infirmities is it and not in vain used many Arabian Physitians made profitable use of the Pith Nerves and Marrow of his bones and also of his Entrails they beat the bones to Powder and give it to their Patients to drink only to try new and strange experiments Orpheus and Argelous cured a disease called the Squinancie or Queenzie with the blood of man and even with the pairing of the nailes they were wont to cure Agues as Plinie affirmes not neglecting the use of the meanest and most despicable parts or members of his body to gather thereby the pretious fruit of health In the sweat of Man saith Gallen there is some strange secret and its certain that his breath being healthfull and well tempered is very helpfull to such as are Leperous and what is more strange although it cannot be spoken without shame his dung or ordure was wont to be very much prized esteemed and used antiently in Physick as Xenocrates affirmes so that finding so many profitable benefits in this creature they accounted it no shame to make use of the most vile despicable excrements that proceeded from him and that by reason of the great profit benefit and commodity they experimentally found thereby And now seeing man is composed of so much good excellency dignity and deity being descended in his better part from heaven we will leave off to compare him with other creatures the which though God gave them what was necessary moderately to passe over their lives in quiet security as giving to some a hard tough and impenitrable skin to others a long and thick set haire to defend them from colde and other inconveniencies of Ayre and Earth to others Hornes Teeth Claws and several more sorts of Armes offensive and defensive to others nimble light and active limbs to fly from the enemy to some craft or subtilty to hide themselves in the bowels of the earth to others wings and light spreading feathers with them to fly in the Aire and by soaring above to avoid the anger and fury of man Yet all this is nothing or of small moment in comparison of those favours he bestowed upon man for although he created him naked and destitute of those conveniences of nature covered onely with a tender and delicate skin that by every small occasion is subject to be broken he did it not without some great divine providence God did not make him so but with mature and deliberate Counsel for he knew full well with what diligent care and quicknesse man would benefit himself of the exteriour sensative enjoyments of other Creatures and how the senses should be subject to the quicknesse of humane understanding the which hath no sooner projected any thing but they are ready to obey and fulfill its desires it was thought necessary that the Instruments that were to be put upon such employments should be more delicate subtil tender plyable and not so stiffe or strong and that the bloud should be more pure and hot for as the temperature of the blood in the Veins is such is the constitution of the body If man were composed of a