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
man is not able to resist the fire what will you say of that which Alexander and above fifty other Historians relate happened in their times in Secilia that there was a man called commonly by all the Fish Colax For from his youth he was accustomed to swim in the Sea he proceeded so far therein that the greatest part of his time he lived in the water turned into the nature of a Fish or creature of that Element he would stay five or six houres under water after that whole dayes and by degrees he brought himself to stay eight dayes without comming forth so at last he accustomed himself to live under water the most part of his life which was above eighty years many times he appeared when he came into any ships way at Sea he would go aboard eat and drank what the Marriners gave him sometime he came to land into his own Countrey where he stayed but little because great pains of stomack possessed him if be stayed out of the water The which also Pontano affirms for a truth What more wisdome or divine ingenuity can possesse man to peirce the foure Elements familiarly to make use of them and serve himself of them as of other Creatures except he should soare in the ayre and through it to passe both Soule and Body to Heaven Nay there hath not wanted some who have attempted it For Leonardo Vincio invented the art of Flying and exceeded therein to the admiration of all I need not mention here of a multitude of Vaulters and Juglers who with so much dexterity and boldnesse doe act their parts that especially those which to this day vault upon Cables c. do often cause Kings Princes and Commons to retire themselves from Balcones and Windows and avoid the sight of so desperate horrible fearfull and supernatural actions insomuch that the Actor often remains alone because the people cannot endure to behold the desperate and unfortunate condition to which they exposed themselves For which cause that great Phylosopher Mercurius Trismagistus endeavouring to extol the subtilty of mans ingenuity yet admiring at the divine agility and quicknesse with which it acts declares to his Son these following words What thinkest thou at this or what treasure thinkest thou Hast thou shut up within the members of thy body Command thy soule that it cross the main Ocian and thou shalt perceive how soon it will passe overs nay in a manner before thou canst imagine without changing its place of abode Command it to ascend to Heaven and there thou shalt apprehend it to be in a moment and that without any wings for it hath none yet there is nothing that doth disturbe or impede its flight no not the wide and large tenebrosity of the Ayre can hinder its carreare the burning heat of the Sun the swift motions of the starry heavens and Planets it penetrates all even to the most pure celestial and excellent species of them If thou findest not contentment in this if thou wilt not abide amongst the sphears and heavenly bodies search out and understand what vastnesse there is beyond those heavens we see sure thou mayest easily doe it consider then what the agility of thy soule is hold thy self immortal and believe that thou art able to understand all the Arts and Sciences of the world ascend above the highest Elements descend to the deepest Gulfs think upon and call to minde what passages thou hast met with and what thou hast acted search out the effects of Fire Water Ayre of the drouth and moysture that goes through all parts of the World fix thy self in Heaven on Earth in the Sea in the Ayre and dwell if thou pleasest without the body Sure then by this we may collect that the nature of man is a strange and miraculous thing for although it hath one part of its being mortal decaying and perishable the other and more noble is Immortal derives its original from heaven very well remembers its splendid Country the glorious gifts and graces which it hath received from its Creator and so despiseth all terrenal enjoyments but fighs and grones for those of heaven with an earnest desire to purchase those felicities which it left there for certainly in it self it knows that its Principal Parents Friends and Aliance are there and that naturally is the country where first it received its being The which if it could clearly see with its eye of reason which is a power of the soul that never can or doth part from it more then the light from the Sun and from hence sweetly enjoy without this clod of earth or spoyle of worms Oh what wonderfull things would it act how rare and strange would its designes be but this lump of clay the body weighs it down and hinders which Mercurius calls a Tyranical Prison of the soul for that ever impeds when this would set forth its divine Essence but when it goes forth of this body by contemplation and meditation and freeth it self from the weighty burthen thereof subjecting the vitious appetites of it it no sooner remaines at liberty but receives the Noble influences of Heaven and being purified and cleansed from the filthinesse of these earthly members goes skipping in the Aire from Element to Element holds communication and converse with the Angels and can Penetrate even to the Throne of the most high God Whence being inflamed with a divine fury or Zeal acts here below strange and wonderfull things as Moses relates of himself that after he had parted from men to converse with God and stayed some few dayes his face was so bright and shining that the Children of Israel could not behold him St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven Socrates often being elevated in serious contemplation would earnestly behold the Sun for the space of an houre without motion so that he seemed rather dead then a live Alexander the great being once in exceeding danger of his life surrounded with enemies his Army almost lost and discomfited he fell into such a furious passionate rage that he sweat throughout his whole body drops of blood which appeared to his adversaries as flames of fire that issued from his face and eyes at the which being frighted they began one by one to fly and left him alone without any hurt By which we may clearly discern the power and command that the soul hath over the body's Sepulcher in the which it lyes buried in this life and how many times it freeth it self from the chaines with which it is bound and in spight of the body goes to visite her antient habitation which is heaven leaving in a manner for that time the body as dead the which St. Augustine very well asserts in a Preist of Calamensa that always when he would wrap himself up in contemplation he did it with so much gust delight and so profound a forgetfulnesse of things here below that he remained stretched out upon the ground without any sense
or motion and although they applied to his most tender and sensible parts cauterizes of burning fire he felt no more pain nor made any more motion then a dead corps and after that he had come to himself again he gave wonderfull strange and incredible relations of what he had seen Herodoto affirmes that a Phylosopher called Atheo vanished after such a manner that the soule many times leaving the body at home wandred through strange Countries from Province to Province and related at its return very strange things which it had seen which appeared afterwards to be true by experience thereof made A child after he returned from such a rapture of spirit Prophesied the death of Julian the Emperor with the whole Tragical misfortunes which afterwards hapned to him how his enemies would come and whom they were that should kill him without ever hearing or being adverted thereof by any person Another Phylosopher shewed in a glasse the host of his enemies set in order and prepared for the Battel such so wonderfull and strange are the opperations of the soul of man so great is its power when it escapes and freeth it self from the Prison of the body when it maks a stay in the contemplation of Caelestial things which many times because it s not common and it seems to cast off nature the simple vulger do attribute to the devils which certainly is nothing else but the supernatural divinity of man that doth these things and that by reason of its great affinity it hath with the deity is there any thing more certain then that which is related of Leonardo Pictorio who so strictly began to tame his flesh with abstinence that he brought himself to eat but once a week and to this day many report that the Scithians can goe ten or twelue dayes without eating sustaining themselves with the juyce of a certain herb which they carry in their Mouths What more can be added to set forth the excellencies and praises of this creature Man but Divinity it self If we should in particular treat of its wonders the Histories are full of them Paper expressions and Ink would faile before the marvelous things that are to be spoken of it There have been many that no kinde of Poyson could damnify and that for some secret misterious vertue which was hidden within them King Mitridates seeing Himself overcome by Pompey had rather dy then fall into his hands alive he therefore took and made proof of the most desperate and pestilential potions thaâ— in those dayes were known but that did not hurt him being preserved by his own nature which served him as a soveraign medicine against all Poyson so he was forc't to kill himself with a dagger Galen that Prince of the Physitians writes that a Girl which was bred up and fed with that veriomous herb called Napellus or Hemlock it was converted into the substance of the body that afterwards no kinde of Poyson would do her harme but all those she lay with were poysoned with her breath Auiscene writes that in his time there was a man from whom all venomous beasts did fly for if it hapned he bit or touched any they presently dyed he also sayth that he had seen a sort of men which the Greeks called Ophergines heale venomous beasts by touching them with their hands and extract the Poyson out of any body onely by putting the hands upon the place damnified the very same vertue have the Psilos and Marcians people of Africk whose Embassador was seased to make proof there of in Roome his name was Xagon who was put into a vessel full of Vipers Snakes and little Serpents and other venomous Creatures he was no sooner put therein but in stead of biteing and afflicting of him they began to lick to fawn and make much of him each in its nature in conclusion we finde in man strange marvelous monsterous things in so much that many of the Antients considering the Excellency of his nature but not finding any thing that can be compared to the exquisite and industrious providence of him they commanded them that is the most learned to be called gods even for such they esteemed honored and adored them Some there were so constant in their opinion that they never laughed as Marcus Crassus for which he was called Agelasto as much as to say one that never smiled but was even in one constitution others never vomited as Pompey some never spit as Antonio the second some never found sicknesse in their bodies as Pontano writes of himself for he many times wittingly let himself fall from his condition yet felt no paine or grief nor found any detriment others there were who enjoyed so sharpe and peircing a sight that they could discerne things that were fifty or sixty leagues distance as if they had been much nearer Solinus and Plinie do affirme of one who was called Strabon that in time of the Punicke Warr he saw from one of the high Rocks or Promontories of Sicilia ships set saile out of the Port of old Carthage which is above a hundred Leagues distant Of Fiberius the Emperor its said that wakeing at a certain hour of the night he could see all things as clearly as if it were day in the Country of the Cardelinâ—s saith Plinie there are a sort of men that will run as swift as Grey-hounds and that its impossible to come near or take them unlesse it be by reason of age or infirmity Quintus Curtius and many others write that Alexander the Great was composed of such a temprature and strange equality and harmony of humers that his breath naturally surelt like Balsome and that when he sweat he cast such an oderifeâ—ous scent from him it seemed as if there had flowed Musk and Amber through the pores of his body Yet they relate a more strange thing then this and more hard to be believed that his body dead smelt sweetly as if it had been embalmed or filled with the most precious perfumes of the world Cayus Caezar was so excellent a Horseman that causing his hands to be tyed behinde him without Bridle or Saddle a wonderfull and almost incredible thing with onely his knees he would make the horse run stop turn leap gallope and curvet as well as if he had bridle or sadle Marcus Paulus a Venetian writes that the Tarters are so great searchers into the secrets of Nature and have so much power and command over the Devils that they can darken the ayre when they please that he once being beset with Thieves made an escape by this means Haytomus an Authour of singular repute and great authority in the History that he wrote of the Sarmatans affirms the same and goeth further relating that the Army of the Tartars being almost routed and overcome was succoured and preserved by a Enchantment of one of their Ensignes casting a mist and darkening the ayre about the host of their Enemies I have read in many antient Authors that
suffitiently serve not only for admiration of all men but for a terror to all cruell and blood-thirsty Homicides and such as set little esteem of the life of a man the which is so abhorred and abominated by the Omnipotent God that he doth many times permit that the bruit beast shall be executors of his divine justice and not only so but seachers out of Homicides as will evedently appear by the ensuing story All the antient Historians of animals do make mention of a King called Phyrrus the which marching one day in the head of his Army casually found in the way a Dog waiting upon nay rather defending and keeping the dead body of his Master the King causing a stop to be made to behold this so strange and loyal a spectacle it was declared to him by a plowman of that Country that the Dog had been there three dayes without eating drinking or moving from the place as if he had been obliged not to forsake the Corps such was his love upon which the King commanded the body to be buryed and that the Dog should be maintained with a constant allowance in his own family as long as he lived in testimony of that love and fidelity he had shewed to his master and few dayes after it was commanded to search out for the murtherers which were not to be found at that time but it hapned a litttle after that the Captains of the Army were to make muster of their souldiers and the King would have them to passe before him that he might view their furniture and arms the Dog aformentioned after his master was inter'd did continually wait upon the Royal Person was present at the time of the souldiers passing by being in appearance very sad which he demonstrated by hanging down his head being very quiet untill he espied those that had slain his master there he with an earnest and violent furie began to bark and set upon them desiring to pull them in pecces and withall he expresed terrible howlings turning himself from one side to another and some times towards King Phyrrus stedfastly beholding him as if he demanded favour and justice for which reason the King and those about him were very suspitious that these men had been the murtherers and were imprisoned only upon this suspition who after by rigourous torments they were strictly examined confessed the fact and received punishment due to their fault which certainly appears to be a wonder yet sets forth to us that the judgements of God are just and that he abhors and abominates murtherers and such as make light of sheding of humane blood God can and often doth make use of dumb Creatures to bring to light Homicides and execute his justice upon them I could easily produce very many examples of this kind out of the Histories both ecclesiastical and profane to demonstrate evedently that considering the Creatures there is in many of them a sort of harmony both morall as well as of naturall Philosophy which is observed by their good customes and well ordered lives according to the dictates of nature their justice temporance courage their Government as in private families and their adminisstration of justice and power in their little commonwealths their continencie and moderation in the waâ—s of nature and other parts of virtue with which they exercise themselves seriously if every man did but with care diligently consider these things he would put his hand into his bosm heartily and truly examine his own being by nature and his own conscience within and look upon the great advantage that Animals have of him in many things he shall thereby come to know more clearly his own misery and vileness Also to see his lamentable and to be pitied transformation from his being how much he is degenerated and fallen from his Original Excellency and Dignity also when he shall come to understand that he who was created Lord and chief of the Creatures is become in many respects inferior to them he will abhor his passed wicked life and earnestly strive to go beyond them in vertue and piety as much as he exceeds them in honor and dignity Because the Scribes and Pharisees did not do thus our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ calls them Sons of perdition and the Prophet Isaiah to put the Israelites in mind of their neglect of pious lives and their extreme ingratitude towards their God gives them an example of the Ox and the Ass that know their Masters crib but Israel doth not know theis God Israel doth not consider The like our Saviour seems to imply in that story of the Swine into which that Legion of Devils entred by his commission consequently to teach us that those which spend and consume their precious time in serving of vices and vitious delights as many slothful men and gluttons do who spend their lives like Swine what can such expect to come to in the end but to be a spoil to Satan and to appear as Trophiees of his Victories at the last day And truly it is a just thing that those which might have been a dwelling-place for God and a habitation for his holy Spirit and would not but rather despised and refused his most gracious favours and the like that such should be a habitation for Devils Such Swine are those which at this day do make it their glory their happinness and their Paradise in this World to procure their ease and vicious felicity such as do mask and dissemble their sinful vices under so close a cover that they are continually suspicious that they should come to light and they themselves thereby should lose their Temporal goods their Offices their Honors Dignities and Preferments if it should be suspected that they were guilty of any enormity or carnal delight Such Swine are those flattering and fawning people who spend their lives masking and giving a different hew to vice and cheating Princes and great Lords who understand no other trade but how to hide the deformed face of vice from their Kings or Lords that understanding no better he might not go out from the limits of wickedness that they may enjoy the fruits of his extravagant expences and feast upon his irregular liberality The first Article of the faith of these men is That their is no other God but their belly for all their appetites and designs are plotted meerly to delight their ungodly corps giving themselves to carnal delights Their Religion and Faith is converted into carnal liberty the Law of Christ they wish not neither do they love it his Commands they think are full of prickles and very rugged hard weighty and very sharp they do appear to such delicate palates sooth'd up in vices and soft couches they will by no means drink of our Saviour cup This wine say they is too bitter which thou givest us here O Lord what an evill Breviary doth their expression appear to be to any good Christian They would have a Jesus Christ cloathed with soft
of Christ As the lightning riseth fourth of the East and in a moment sets in the West even so shall the comming of the son of man bee there shall be in those dayes great tribulations such as was not since the beginning of the world untill this time nor ever shall be Mat. 24. The Sun shall become dark the Moon shall give no more light the Stars shall fall from Heaven the Waves of the Sea shall swell roare and make a noise that men shall fall down deadwith feare thereof the Powers of heaven shall be shaken Wo unto them saith he that are with Childe and give suck in those dayes For as in the dayes of Noah before the floud they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage untill the day that Noah entred into the Arke and knew not till the floud came and took them away So also shall the comming of the Son of man be then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn and many shall run and hide themselves in the holes and caverns of the earth they shall say unto the mountains fall upon us to the hills cover and hide us from the face of the Judge that sits upon the Throne Blow the Trumpet in Sion sound an alarum in my holy mountain saith the Prophet Joel let all the Inhabitants of the earth tremble for the day of the Lord commeth and is nigh at hand a day of gloominesse a day of clouds and thick darknesse all the inhabitants of the world shall be burned fire shall scorch and consume the face of the Earth and burning flames shall destroy it His throne saith Daniel Dan. 7. 10. was like flames of fire and the wheeles of his Charriot like burning coales a feirce stream issued and came forth from before him this shall be the forerunner and discoverer of his Campe now after this irefull vengeance of God is executed and fulfilled against the four Elements the dead shall come forth out of their Graves and monuments by the wonderfull Command Power and Providence of God and the bones with the other parts of the body shall seek and finde out its proper Veines and Nerves with the Flesh which hath rotted in the Earth all those which have been devoured by cruell ravenous Beasts and Birds of the Heaven all those which the Sea hath swallowed up and Fishes devoured all that which hath been turned into vapours by the Ayre and all those which the Fire hath consumed shall be reduced to its first being and turn to its first proper shape and essence all the blood that hath been unjustly shed by Thieves Robbers Murderers bloody Tyrants Mercenary and Corrupted Judges it shall all appear there not one drop thereof shall be wanting from Abel which was the first that was slain to the last hair of the head of any of them which cannot perish If it was a strange dreadfull and extraordinary thing to see how willingly the bruit Animals left the Earth the natural and common Mother fosterer and cherisher of all Creatures flying from the anger and vengeance of Almighty God to put and inclose themselves in the Arke of Noah as if they begged succour from him as if they had had some foresight of the approach of Gods wrath upon the world How much more fearfull a spectacle shall it be to see poore miserable and wretched sinners to appear before the dreadfull Tribunal of Gods Justice where all the Books shall be opened I mean that God and all the world will plainly see the inormous Crimes and Offences of which our Consciences are full and with which our hearts and soules are cankered that which now we so closely mask and hide shall then be made manifest to all If the vaile of the Temple rent the earth trembled the Sun hide his face at the injury done to Christ crucified With what face with what shame with what horrour shall a multitude of impudent carelesse and unhappy sinners look upon that just Judge whom not only every day but every moment they have offended blasphemed and with a thousand sensuall and deceiptfull fooleries displeased If the sight of one Angel alone doth astonish us so that its insufferable as St. John affirms who not being able to behold so great a brightnesse fell down with his eyes towards the Earth as if he had been dead And Esayas after he had seen an Angel confesseth That all the joynts of his body were loosned with feare The children of Israel meerly out of exceeding dread said to Moses Speak thou to us and we will hear thee for we cannot suffer this voice which comes from heaven it makes us ready to dye with feare although the speech of Angels have been so very gracious and milde on some occasions how shall miserable sinners abide or endure the terrible voice the exceding glory of the Majesty of God seated in the Throne of his Power when he shall say what the Prophets writ The houre is come to avenge me of my Adversaries now will I satisfie my anger for they shall know that I am Lord of all I will go forth and meet them in the way and like a Beare robbed of her Whelps teare them in peices although I have long kept silence been patient and hitherto passed by your iniquities Henceforth I will cry out like a woman in travel I will kill and destroy at once I will consume all Plants and fruits make the fruitfull hills deserts dry up the Rivers Fountaines and Lakes turne darknesse into light I called to them and they would not hear stretched forth my hand unto them and they would not take notice they dispised my councel and contemned my correction I also will laugh at their destruction and scoffe when I avenge my self on them when they call upon me in their troubles I will stop mine ears and will not hear them and when they seek me they shall not finde me If the heavens are impure in his sight and the very Angels are faulty before the rigour of his Divine justice what shall betide us poore miserable wretches what shall we finde who are a clod of earth a small Cottage of Clay whose foundation is in the dust and laden with the blame of original sin before we were delivered from our mothers wombe and if the Just shall hardly be saved what shall become of the wicked and unjust the number of which is to great for as the holy Scripture teacheth us there are many called but few chosen especially in such a strict and dangerous time as this is when the secrets of all hearts shall be manifestly laid open Here the great Monarchs and Princes shall give an account of the great taxes which unreasonably they have exacted of their Subjects but especially Usurpers and Tyrants who have much more to answer for besides the multitude of Gods poore sheep which in stead of shearing they have slain the innocent blood which they have caused to be spilt Here our Merchants Shopkeepers and
and delectablenesse discourseth of heaven of earth of the foure Elements Of all that is in them and created of them its true it cannot well form words without the Gums or Teeth which may in part be seen in Children which speak not till they have Teeth and in old men who stammer that one can hardly understand their words after they have lost their teeth they become like Children in speech Beard Moreover nature hath adorned and decked the head of man as Lactantius Firminius saith with a comely Beard to distinguish man from woman to set forth mans age and to be an ornament to him Eares The Eares also were not made in vain nor fixed in so high and eminent a place to no purpose but to receive more clearly the sound of voyces c. which naturally doe ascend in the Ayre they are continually open and ready to receive the voice or found by those wreathed creeks and in those secret corners is the hearing retained and kept nature also ordained that there should be wax and filth at the entrance of those Caverns that if any smal creature should presume to enter or doe any detriment to the bearing which is the most excellent of all the five sences should be made a Prisoner there till it dye It s but brief what hath been spoken of the several parts of mans principal member the Head much more might be related thereupon especially if we should at large consider those parts joyned together and in them two wonderfull things the first is that amongst infinite multitudes of people that are living you shall not finde two so exactly one like another as that there shall not be some distinction betwixt them and this difference consists onely in a thing of so smal circumference as the Face so that none or very few are to be found amongst so many millions that have one and the same kinde of tokens or signes of similitude The second thing that Nature made placed and set forth in so little a compass as the face in which is shewed all the rest of her Arts is that she hath endowed some vissages with such an excellent and supernatural beauty that oftentimes man himself to possesse enjoy and partake thereof puts himself in hazard of a thousand deaths layes his life at stake and if he chance to dispaire thereof he will sacrifice his honour his life desires to dye loose and forego all his estate to prosecute and obtain his desire and sometimes forced transported and deceived by his own immagination he looseth his sences for this thing called beauty in testimony of which I could nominate here many illustrious persons in all ages that aspired to robb or spoyle heaven of the choycest of its glorious beauty to extoll flourish and mask over the spacious fields of the earth thereby to immortalize themselves and their works onely invoking this beauty as if that alone were the Star and guide that should lead them to obtain perpetual blisse fame and glory the beams that do issue forth from some faire and glistering faces are of so much force and vigour that they do overcome the inward intellectualls as suddenly as lightning over powering and taking possession of the greater and better part of the soul and makes the poore distressed and afflicted lover to feel its great force and power with contemplation and admiration with which they do deliver up their wills and affections to the thing esteemed and affected Making themselves of Lords and Masters Servants of Freemen slaves of joyfull jocund and impassionate most patient Martyrs of love and most obedient sufferers of such cruel and bitter torments and pains that none can believe them but such as have felt their smart If their affections be sincere they doe not content themselves thus far to have gone but they would willingly if they could transform their own nature into that beauty which they so much admire and adore also we finde another great and marvelous rariety in the face which though it be not a Foot in magnitude we may see or come to know by the different changes thereof not onely the natural conditions of men whether they are sad or merry melancholly or sociable but the affections of the soule whether they are cowards valiant fearful merciful cruel amorous or free from love whether they are possessed with hope or dispair be in health or infirm alive or dead and an infinite number of inclinations affections and desires of the soule and body for which cause that great Priest King and Phylosopher Hermes Trismagistus after he had wearied and perplexed himself with the profound contemplation of the wonderfull make of man cryed out with a loud voice where is that most excellent Former or Producer of this so glorious a work who is he that so well knew how to set forth in such lively Colours so admirable a picture Who drew the portracture of those so beautifull eyes resplendent lights of the whole body and bright speculators of the soule who spread the lips as curtains to the mouth Who so excellently knit the sinnews together Who interwove and mixed so many veins which are as so many little brooks by the which the bloud is conveyed thereby sustaines strengthens and refreshes with its humidity and substance the whole body Who made the bones so hard and strong Who engrafted joynted and fixed them as if they were Sentinels or Halberdiers to keep within compasse the thoughts when they would swell and aspire run out of order and measure and to harden themselves against Reason and moderation Who covered the flesh with so soft and delicate a skin Who distinguished and parted the fingers with their several joynts Who stretched forth the feet in so sit a proportion causing them to serve as a foundation to the whole body Who so closely pressed the milt together Who gave that Piramidel shape to the heart Who wove so many nets and roots in and about the Liver Who made the passages and holes in the lungs Who ordained so large a roome for the Belly with such a spacious capacity Who put the most honourable Members in the most eminent places to be exposed to the view of all reparted the most unworthy members and dishonorable in stations more private where the covering should add valew and repute to them Contemplate saith Hermes how many and what exact pieces were formed to make up so perfect a creature What proportionable beauty there is in each member with what curiosity and art so many different proportions are fitted and put together each observing its service its office and all procuring the benefit of the whole Who thinkest thou made finished such famous works Who doest thou hold for Father and inventor of them or who the Mother producer and projector but the invisible omnicient and most omnipotent God Hitherto we have spoken enough Phylosophically of the Essence Magnificence and dignity of man Therefore now it will be reason that we spend a