Hee answered That hee had a naturall inclination to it and therefore no persuasion could diuert him from it The other replied vpon him I pray where died your Father he answered At Sea Again he asked him Where his Grandfather died Who told him At sea And are not you then said he sor that cause afraid to go to sea The Captaine made answer Before I resolue you fully of your demand let me also be satisfied in one thing from you I pray you where died your father He answered In his bed And where saith he died your Grandfather Hee likewise answered In his bed He then replied Why are you not then for that cause onely afraid to go to bed It is a true saying No man dieth more willingly than such as haue liued most honestly And wherefore should we be afraid to meet with that which wee know it is not possible for vs to shun Heraclitus calleth it the Law of Nature the Tribute of the Flesh the Remedie of Euils and the Path either to heauenly Felicitie or eternall Miserie Claudian lib. 2. de Raptu Proserp speaking of Death writeth after this manner Sub tua purpurei venient vestigiareges Deposito luxu turbaque cum paupere mixti Omniamors equat c. Purple-rob'd Kings their glory layd aside And pompous state beneath thy steps shall fall Mixt with the poorer throng that 's void of pride And vaine excesse 'T is Death which equalls all And Ovid speaking of the vnpartialitie of the fatall Sisters Metam lib. 10. saith Omnia debentur vobis paulumque morati Serius aut citius c. All things to you are due after small stay Sooner or later we must walke one way There 's but one common path to vs assign'd To that all tend as there to be confin'd It is a great and weighty thing saith the Philosopher and not soone learned When that inevitable houre shall come to entertaine it with patience Thou canst not fly the necessitie thereof ouercome it thou maist namely if thou dost not first yeeld vnto it if quietly thou expectest it if vnmoued thou receiuest it if thou dost persist certaine against incertaintie and fearelesse against that which most men feare then maist thou be said truly to conquer and ouercome it There is nothing so bitter but an equall and constant spirit can easily digest for many in their patient sufferings seeme to despise the most exquisite torments Mutius the Fire Regulus the Crosse Anaxarchus the contusion of all his members Theramenes and Socrates Poyson and when sentence of death was deliuered to Canius from the Tyrant hee then playing at Chesse seemed so little daunted at the message that without change of countenance he played out his game And so of others Now whence grew this magnanimitie but from a sound and cleare conscience assiduate practise of Vertue and a courage armed against all disasters Nothing is more calamitous than a minde doubtfull of what is to come To be alwayes troubled is to be miserable before miserie happen for there is nothing more foolishly wretched than to be still in feare especially of death which if nothing else the very necessitie thereof and the common equalitie with all Mankind ought to make tollerable First diligently thinke with thy selfe That before thou diest all thy vices die in thee And next That thou makest a consummation of thy life before thy death O! when thou shalt see that time in which thou shalt perceiue no time to belong vnto thee in which thou shalt be temperate and calme and in thy saâ—ietie carelesse of the morrow Then that day which now thou fearest as thy last shall appeare to thee thy birth day to eternitie Dost thou weepe and lament These things belong to those which are new borne Dost thou thinke those things to be lost which thou leauest Why shouldst thou dote vpon that which was not thine own but leant Who is it that would set a price vpon Time or at a deare rate estimate the Day who truly vnderstandeth that hee is euery houre dying In this we much deceiue our selues That we see not Death afarre off nor apprehend it neere That part of our age which is past is free that which is behinde is in the power of Death neither do we fall vpon Death suddenly but step by step we meet it by degrees we daily die for euery day a part of our life is taken from vs and euen at that time when we increase our life decreaseth we lose our Infancie first our Childehood next then our Youth and euery one of these when it arriueth to the full period perisheth for yesterdayes life is this day wanting and tomorrow this dayes being hath ceased to be nay euen this day which wee breath wee diuide with Death for it is the very moment and point of time in which we can be said to liue yea lesse if lesse can be imagined neither of that little or lesse space can we assure our selues Saint Chrisostome super Math. calleth Death The necessarie gift of corrupt Nature which ought not fearefully to be auoided but rather chearefully embraced for by making that voluntarie which is compulsiue that which is to God a due debt we offer vnto him as a free gift Moreouer a foolish and ridiculous thing it is for men to delight in sleepe and feare death when sleepe is nothing else but the imitation of Death Saint Augustine lib. de Natura Gracia vseth these words If thou boastest thy selfe of Nobilitie Riches or Honour of thy Countrey or the applause giuen vnto thee by the People looke into thy selfe and consider That thou camest from the earth and into it againe thou must returne Looke about and behold all those which in times past haue flourished in the like splendours Where be the insuperable Emperors Where be those that frequented Meetings Musicke and Feasts and delighted in the braue breed of Horses Where be their Robes of state their rich and gorgeous Vesture Where their troupes of Followers and large traine of Attendants Where their sportings and Reuellings Where be the Captains of Armies Champions Iudges Tyrants are not all Earth Dust and Ashes and their magnificence and memorie in a small Tombe and short Epitaph contained Looke into their gorgeous and glittering Sepulchres and see how much the Lord differs from the Seruant Tell me which is the Rich man and which the Poore Distinguish if thou canst the Captiue from the Conqueror the Valiant from the Timerous or the Faire from the Deformed Therefore remember thy selfe ô Man of thy fraile and weake nature least thou beest any way tumor'd with Pride Arrogance or Vain-glory. Bernard in one of his Sermons saith Novissima sunt quatuor c. The foure last things are Death Iudgement Hell and Glorie Than Death what more horrible Than Iudgement what more terrible Than Hell what more intollerable Than Glory what more delectable It will not I hope appeare much impertinent to introduce one of Lucians Dialogues because the
next day the infant who was then in health and slept soundly died suddenly in the Nurses arms and that was the successe of the Vision In the yeare 1567 in Trautonauia a towne in Bohemia one of the city died named Stephanus Hubnerus who in his life time had heaped together innumerable riches builded sumptuous houses and pallaces euery man wondring how hee should attaine to that great masse of wealth Presently after his decease which was obserued with the celebration of a most costly funerall his Spectar or shadow in the same habit which he was knowne to weare being aliue was seene to walke in the streets of the city and so many of his acquaintance or others as he met and offered in the way of salutation to embrace so many either died or fell into some grieuous and dangerous disease immediatly after Niderius telleth this story In the borders of the kingdome of Bohemia lieth a valley in which diuers nights together was heard clattering of armour and clamors of men as if two Armies had met in pitcht battell Two Knights that inhabited neere vnto this prodigious place agreed to arme themselues and discouer the secrets of this inuisible Army The night was appointed and accommodated at all assayes they rode to the place where they might descry two battels ready ordered for present skirmish they could easily distinguish the Colours and prauant Liueries of euerie Company but drawing neere the one whose courage began to relent told the other that he had seene sufficient for his part and thought it good not to dally with such prodegies wherefore further than he was he would not go The other called him Coward and prickt on towards the Armies from one of which an horseman came forth fought with him and cut off his head At which sight the other fled and told the newes the next morning A great confluence of people searching for the body found it in one place the head in another but neither could discern the footing of horse or man onely the print of birds feet and those in myrie places c. The Emblem A Visard shewed by an hand extended from the clouds those children which stand directly before it and view the ouglinesse thereof runne away as affrighted with the vaine shadow but such as stand behinde looking onely vpon the hollownesse and perceiuing the error make it onely their sport deriding those that are so simply terrified Which agreeth with that of Cassiodor in Psalm Quis mortem temporalem metuat cui aeterna vita promittitur quis labores carnis timeat cum se in perpetua requie nouerit collocandum What is he that can feare a temporal death to whom eternall life is promised Or who would be afraid of the paines belonging to the flesh that knowes they bring him to euerlasting rest And we reade Phil. 1.24 For I am distressed betwixt both desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all c. It is held to be a maxim That no man dieth more willingly than hee that hath liued most religiously which the more fearefully wee fly the more earnestly we follow and by liuing to die men dye to liue Saint Augustine telleth vs there be three sorts of death The first the death of Sinne for euery Soule that sinneth shall die The second a mysticall death that is when we die to sinne and liue to God The third is that death by which we fulfill the course of nature Non deterret sapientem mors quae propter incertos casus quotidie imminet propter brevitatem vitae nunquam longe potest abesse i. Death cannot terrifie a wise man which by reason of so many vncertaine chances is alwayes imminent and in regard of the shortnesse of his life can neuer be long absent The Motto giuen by Catsius to this Emblem is Mors Larvae similis tremor hinc nihil inde maligni And his Conceit hereupon as followeth Id mors est homini trepidis quod Larva puellis Excitat ingentes frons vtriusque metus Larva fugat pueros frontem non terga videntes Ast alijs risum posteriora movent Sensibus incurrit cum lurida mortis imagâ— Hei mihi quam multis spes animusque cadit At cui terga necis melior doctrina revelat Clamat ades vitae mors melioris iter ¶ Thus paraphrased Death is to Man as Visards to Girles show Who frighted run from what they do not know Behold the forehead and th' aspect affrights View it behinde and the mistake delights So when Deaths pallid image is presented How many men grow strangely discontented Who better counsel'd on his backe parts looke And cry out welcome Death we haue mis-tooke A morall interpretation the Motto being Pessimus interpres rerum metus may be gathered from Plutarch in Moral where hee saith Terror absentium rerum ipsa novitate falso angetur consuetudo tamen ratio efficit vt ea etiam quae horrenda sunt natura terrendi vim amittant i. The terror of things absent is encreased falsly by the nouelty thereof but Custome and Reason so bring to passe that euen those things which are naturally horrid come to lose the power of their terror Feare is said to be the companion of a guilty conscience neither can there be any greater folly than for a man to feare that which he cannot shun Dayly experience hath brought it within the compasse of a prouerbe That he that feareth euery tempest can neuer make a good traueller Viget saith It becommeth a man to be carefull but not fearefull because it often hapneth That seruile feare bringeth sudden danger Ovid tells vs Epist. Her 13. Nos sumus incerta nos anxius omnia cogit Quae possunt fieri facta putare Timor i. We are incertaine of our selues and there is nothing possible to be done but Feare persuades vs to be already done Feare is defined to be two-fold good commendable Feare grounded vpon Reason and Iudgement which is awed more by reproch and dishonour than by death or disaster And euil Feare which is destitute of Reason and may be called Pusillanimitie or Cowardise alwayes attended on by two perturbations of the Soule Doubt and Sadnesse Which may be also called the defect of Fortitude Vpon which the Emblematist writeth in these words Horrendo pavidas hinc territat ore puellas Inde cavo risum cortice larva movet Deterior vero rerum succurrit imago Et falsa miseros anxietate premit Auget homo proprios animo plerumque dolores Inque fuam meus est ingeniofa necem Eia age terribilem rebus miser arripe larvam Ludicrâ—s error crit quod modo terror erat ¶ Thus paraphrased Looke forward to faint Girles it terror breeds View it behinde and laughter thence proceeds When Fortune looks vpon vs with a frowne We in our owne feares wretched are cast downe Man for the most part doth his owne
Countrey he died in the thirtieth yeare of his age In honor of whom the City in which hee was borne erected his statue in Brasse and writ vpon his Monument these Verses following Oppianus sum suasi loquens Vates Quem crudelis atque inhumani iâ—â—idia fati Ante diem â—ripuit I Oppianus am when I did speake Poets in place did thinke their wits too weake Me cruell and inhumane Fate enuy'd Which was the cause before my time I dy'd Homer in his eighth Odyss speakes to this purpose Among all other men Poets are most worthy to participate honour and reuerence because the Muses themselues teach them their songs and are enamoured both of their profession and them But I had almost forgot my self for in proceeding further I might haue forestalled a Worke which hereafter I hope by Gods assistance to commit to the publick view namely the Liues of all the Poets Forreine and Moderne from the first before Homer to the Novissimi and last of what Nation or Language soeuer so farre as any Historie or Chronologie will giue me warrant Therefore here in good time I breake off yet cannot chuse but remember you ' what Ovid speaketh in his last Elegie Ergo cum silices c. When Flints shall faile and Iâ—'on by age decay The Muse shall liue confin'd to Time nor day Kings and Kings glorious Triumphs must giue way And Tagus blest sands vnto them obay Thus much to shew you in what honour Poets haue been But now and hence Illae Lachrimae to shew you in what respect they are and not onely in the Times present but what an heauy Fate hath heretofore as now been impending ouer the Muses De dura misera sorte Poetarum thus far heare me Heu miseram sortem durâmque à sidere vitam Quam dat docti loquis vatibus ipse Deus 'Lasse for the poore and wretched state That either Phoebus or sad Fate Inflicts on learned Poets whether They or their wills with them together Conspire all these we wretched find Who euer by their Wits haue shyn'd Homer to whom Apollo gaue The Palme scarce dying found a Graue And he that was the Muses Grace Begg'd with his Harpe from place to place Poore injur'd Virgil was bereft Of those faire fields his Father left And in the flourishing state of Rome In Caesars Stable serv'd as Groome Though Ovid next Augustus dwelt Yet he as great disaster felt And dy'd exil'd amongst the Geats No better Fate the Muse entreats Though all men Horace did commend In populous Rome he found no Friend Saue one Mecaenas Hesiod borne In wealthy Cuma hauing worne A tedious age out was betray'd By his two Brothers who inuade Him sleeping cut his throat asunder Who breathing was the worlds sole Wonder Lynus who for his Bookes compil'd Virgil The Son of Phoebus styl'd And whom the Muses long had cherisht By much incenst Sagipta perisht Antipater Sidonius well Knowne for extempo'rall wit to'excell By Cicero and Crassus neuer Vpon his birth day scap'd a Feuer Of which in his best dayes and strength Of Nature he expyr'd at length Bassus Cesius a man Well knowne vnto Quintilian A Lyricke Poet when the Towne In which he sojourn'd was burnt downe By Theeues and Robbers the fierce flame Left of him nothing but his Name Lisimachus such want did feele That he was forc'd to turne a Wheele For Rope-makers The like we reede Of famous Plautus who to feede His empty stomacke left his Quill To toile and labour at the Mill. Calisthenes a Kinsman neare To Aristotle and much deare To Alexander yet because The King against him found some clause The Muse which had so late him pleas'd Was quite forgot and his life seas'd Nay worse if worse may be than thus Quintus Lactantius Catulus Romes Consull yet a Poet far'd Who notwithstanding he out-dar'd The Cimbri'ans and in battell slew Their Generall his Troupes withdrew And quite forgetting his bold action Expos'd him to a muti'nous faction Of Rebels who not onely rifled His Treasure but with wet brands stifled Him in his chamber whose sad fate Sylla reueng'd Nor had their hate Extended to such deepe despight But that the Muse was his delight Poore Ibichus was robb'd and slaine Yet did before his death complaine And prophesy'd The very Crowes That saw his bloud shed would disclose The barba'rous act and so it fell But though they suffer'd for 't in Hell Th' amends to him could seeme but poore Since all his life could not restore Old AEscilus whom all Greece knew By whom the Tragicke Buskin grew First knowne on Stage whilest he alone Vncouer'd sate so like a stone His bare scalpe shew'd that from on hye And AEgle who did o're him flye Dropt downe a Shell-fish on his head And with the sad blow strooke him dead Anacreon for the Lyricke straine In Greece illustrous may complaine Of the like Fate who in his pride Choakt with a Grape by drinking dy'de O that the Wine which cheares the Muse On him such tyranny should vse Petronius Arbiter a Wit To sing vnto the gods more fit Than humor Nero yet such power Fate hath the Tyrant did but lower And then the Muse which Rome admir'd By cutting of his Veines expir'd Ev'n Sapho the Faire Poetesse Who did the Lyricke straine professe Vse all the skill and art she can Yet Louing a poore Ferriman Distracts her with such deepe despaire That as her Muse her death is rare For from a Promontories top She downe into the sea doth drop To quench the hot fire in her brest Thus Fate the best Wits hath opprest c. I am loth to proceed further in this argument to reckon vp all in that kinde who as they liued eminently so haue died miserably for it would aske too long a circumstance Yet I cannot escape Iohannes Campanius without commemorating vnto you some few of his Saphickes De Poetarum Miseria in these words Nemo tam claro genitus parente Nemo tam clara pròbitate fulsit Mox edax quem non peremit vetustas Vate remoto c. None that of antient Birth can boast Or in their Vertue glory most But that their memory is lost Without a Poet And yet whilest others strut in gold He weares a garment thin and cold So torne so thred-bare and so old He shames to owe it The Painter by his Pensill eats Musitions feed out of their frets Nay ev'n the Labouring man that sweats Not one 'mongst twenty But is with needfull things supply'de Yet as if Fate did them deride They poore and wretched still abide In midst of plenty Now dry'd vp are the Muses Springs And where the Swans once washt their wings Pies chatter and the Scritch-Owle sings Their wrongs pursuing Therefore you Dukes of proud ostent And Princes to whom pow'r is lent Ev'n for your owne Name-sakes lament
world in euery Nation Feare first made gods with Diuine adoration Saith Martial If thy Barber then should dare When thou before him sit'st with thy throat bare And he his Rasor in his hand to say Giue me this thing or that Wilt thou say nay Or grant it him Take 't into thy beleefe He 's at that time a Ruffin and a Theefe And not thy Barber Neither can 't appeare Bounty that 's granted through imperious Feare Of the word Superstition the first ground Was To preserue to th' future whole and sound The memorie of Fathers Sons and Friends Before deceast and to these seeming ends Were Images deuis'd Which some would bring As their first author from th' Assyrian King Ninus whose father Belus being dead That after death he might be honored Set vp his statue which as most agree Was in his new built city Niniuee Whither all malefactors make repaire And such offenders whose liues forfeit are By the Lawes doom but kneeling to that Shrine Were sanctuar'd as by a thing diuine Hence came it that as gods they now abhor'd The Sun and Moone which they before ador'd With Stars and Planets they are now at strife And since by it they had recouered life Late forfeit hold it as a sov'raigne Deitie And therefore as it were in gratefull pietie They offred sacrifice burnt Incense gaue Oblations as to that had power to saue This which in Theeues and Murd'rers first began In time so generall grew that not a man But was of that beleefe and so withdrew That diuine worship which was solely due To the Creator and to him alone And gaue 't to Idols made of wood and stone And yet the Poet Sophocles euen then When the true God was scarsly knowne to men In honour of the supreme Deitie Much taunted the vain Greeks Idolatrie One God there is saith he and only one Who made the Earth his Footstoole Heav'n his Throne The swelling Seas and the impetuous Winds The first he calmeth and the last he binds In prison at his pleasure and yet wee Subiects vnto this fraile mortalitie Of diffident hearts determin and deuise To the Soules dammage many fantasies The Images of gods we may behold Carv'd both in stone and wood some left in gold Others in Iv'ry wrought and we vnwise By offring to them solemne Sacrifice Thinke we do God good seruice But the Deity Sole and supreme holds it as meere impiety Saint Austin neuer could himselfe persuade That such who mongst the antient Gentiles made Their Idoll gods beleev'd in them for he Saith confidently Though in Rome there be Ceres and Bacchus with a many more Whom they in low obeisance fall before They do it not as vnto absolute things That haue in them the innate seeds and springs Of being and subsistence but much rather As to the seruants of th' Almighty Father Yet these did worship something 't doth appeare As a Supreme whom they did loue or feare This Age breeds men so bruitsh naturall As to beleeue there is no God at all Such is the Atheist with whom can be had No competition one obtuse or mad Who cannot scape Heav'ns most implacable rod. The Psalmists Foole who saith There is no God Would such but spend a little vacant time To looke from what 's below to things sublime From terrene to coelestiall and confer The Vniuersall with what 's singuler They shall find nothing so immense and hye Beyond their stubborn dull capacity But figures vnto them his magnitude Again nothing so slight as to exclude It name amongst his creatures nought so small But proues to them his power majesticall Tell me ô thou of Mankind most accurst Whether to be or not to be was first Whether to vnderstand or not to know To reason or not reason well bee 't so I make that proposition all agree That our Not being was before To be For we that are now were not in Times past Our parents too ev'n when our moulds were cast Had their progenitors their fathers theirs So to the first By which it plaine appeares And by this demonstration 't is most cleare That all of vs were not before we were For in the Plants we see their set and ruin In Creatures first their growth then death pursuing In Men as well as Beasts since Adam's sinning The end is certaine signe of the beginning As granted then we boldly may proclaime it There was a Time if we a Time may name it When there was neither Time nor World nor Creature Before this Fabrick had such goodly feature But seeing these before our eyes haue being It is a consequence with Truth agreeing Of which we only can make this construction From some Diuine power all things had production And since of Nothing nothing can befall And betwixt that which is bee 't ne're so small And what is not there is an infinite space Needs must some Infinite supply the place It followes then The prime Cause and Effector Must be some potent Maker and Protector A preualent great and eternall God Who before all beginning had aboad Come to the Elements A war we see Twixt Heate and Cold Drought and Humiditie Now where 's Antipathy must be Annoy One laboring still the other to destroy And yet in one composure where these meet There 's Sympathie Attone and cons'nance sweet The Water doth not fight against the Fire Nor doth the Aire against the Earth conspire All these though opposites in vs haue peace Vniting in one growth and daily increase To make inueterate Opposites agree Needs must there be a God of Vnitie What is an Instrument exactly strung Vnlesse being plaid vpon it yeelds no tongue Or pleasant sound that may delight the eares So likewise of the musicke of the Spheres Which some haue said chym'd first by accident O false opinion'd Foole What 's the intent Of thy peruersenesse or thine ignorance Shall I designe what Fortune is or Chance Nothing they are saue a meere perturbation Of common Nature an exorbitation And bringing out of square these to controule Therefore must needs be an intelligent Soule For know you not you Empty of all notion That nothing in it selfe hath power of motion And that which by anothers force doth moue The cause of that effect must be aboue Th' originall of Mouing must be Rest Which in our common Dialls is exprest The Sun-beame pâ—ints the houre the shadow still From our shifts to another ev'n vntill Thou tel'st vnto the last yet 't is confest That all this while th' Artificer may rest The Earth in sundry colours deckt we know With all the Herbage and the Fruits below The Seas and Flouds Fish in aboundance store Fowles numberlesse within the Aire do soare And all these in their seuerall natures clad So fairely that her selfe can nothing add From whence haue these their motion Shall we say From th' Elements How comes it then that
astray as ev'ly minded For they in their owne wickednesse are blinded For nothing they Gods mysteries regard Nor of a good man hope for the reward Neither discerne That honour doth belong Vnto the faultlesse Soules that thinke no wrong For God created Man pure and vnblam'd Yea after his owne Image was he fram'd But by the Diuels enuy Death came in Who holds with him shall proue the Scourge of sin But in great boldnesse shall the Righteous stand Against the face of such as did command Them to the torture and by might and sway The fruits of all their labors tooke away When they shall see him in his strength appeare They shall be vexed with an horrid feare When they with an amased countenance Behold their wonderfull deliuerance And change their mindes and sigh with griefe and say Behold these men we labour'd to betray On whom with all contempt we did incroch And held them a meere by-word of reproch We thought their liues to madnesse did extend And there codld be no honour in their end How come they now amongst Gods Children told And in the list of Saints to be inrol'd Therefore from Truth 's way we haue deuious bin Nor trod the path the Righteous haue walkt in From the true Light we haue our selues confin'd Nor hath the Sun of Knowledge on vs shin'd The way of Wickednesse which leadeth on To ruine and destruction we haue gon By treading dangerous paths our selues w' haue tyr'd But the Lords way we neuer yet desir'd What profit hath our Pride or Riches brought Or what our Pompe since these are come to nought All these vaine things like shadowes are past by Or like a Post that seems with speed to fly Or as a Bird the earth and heav'n betweene Who makes her way and yet the path not seene The beating of her wings yeelds a soft sound But of her course there 's no apparance found As when an Arrow at a marke is shot Finds out a way but we perceiue it not For suddenly the parted aire vnites And the fore-passage is debat'd our â—ights So we no sooner borne and take our breath But instantly we hasten on to death In our liues course we in no vertue ioy'd And therefore now are in our sinnes destroy'd Th'Vngodlie's hopes to what may we compare But like the dust that 's scattered in the aire Or as the thin some gathered on the waue Which when the tempest comes no place can haue Or as the smoke dispersed by the wind Which blowne abroad no rest at all can find Or else As his remembrance steales away Who maketh speed and tarieth but a day But of the Iust for euer is th' aboad For their reward is with the Lord their God They are the charge and care of the most High Who tenders them as th' Apple of his eye And therefore they shall challenge as their owne From the Lords hand a Kingdome and a Crowne With his right hand hee 'l couer them from harme And mightily defend them with his arme He shall his Ielousie for Armor take And put in armes his Creatures for their sake His and their Foes to be reueng'd vpon He for a glorious breast-plate shall put on His Righteousnesse and for an Helmet beare True Iudgement to astonish them with feare For an invinc'd shield Holinesse he hath And for a sword he sharpens his fierce Wrath. Nay the whole World hee 'l muster to surprise His Enemies and fight against th' Vnwise The thunderbolts by th' hand of the most High Darted shall from the flashing lightnings fly Yea fly ev'n to the marke as from the Bow Bent in the clouds and in His anger go That hurleth stones the thicke Haile shall be cast Against them shall the Flouds and Ocean vast Be wondrous wroth and mightily or'eflow Besides the fierce Winds shall vpon them blow Yea and stand vp against them with their God And like a storme shall scatter them abroad Thus Wickednesse th' earth to a Desart brings And Sinne shall ouerthrow the Thrones of Kings You heare their doome It were not much amisse If we search further what this Atheisme is Obserue That sundry sorts of men there be Who spurne against the sacred Deitie As first Those whom Idolaters we call Pagans and Infidels in generall These though they be religious in their kinde Are in the manner of their worship blinde And by the Diuel's instigation won To worship Creatures as the Moon and Sun Others there be who the true God-head know Content to worship him in outward show Yet thinke his Mercy will so far dispence That of his Iustice they haue no true sence His Pitty they acknowledge not his Feare Because they hold him milde but not austere Some like brute beasts will not of sence discusse With such Saint Paul did fight at Ephesus Others are in their insolence so extreme That they deride Gods name scoffe and blaspheme As Holophernes who to Achior said Albeit thou such a vaine boast hast made That Israels God his people can defend Against my Lord who doth in power transcend Where th' Earth no greater pow'r knowes neere or far Than him whom I serue Nabuchadnezzar Diuers will seeme religious to comply With time and place but aske their reason Why They so conforme themselues They know no cause More than To saue their purse and keepe the Lawes There be to Noble houses make resort And sometimes Elbow Great men at the Court Who though they seeme to beare things faire and well Yet would turne Moses into Machiuel And but for their aduantage and promotion Would neuer make least tender of deuotion For their Diuinitie is that which we Call Policie their Zeale Hipocrisie Their God the Diuell whose Imagination Conceits That of the world was no Creation These haue into Gods Works no true inspection Dreame of no Iudgement Hell or Resurrection Reckon vp Genealogies who were Long before Adam and without all feare As those doom'd to the bottomlesse Abisme Hold There was no Noës Arke no Cataclisme Besides How busie hath the Diuell bin Ev'n from the first t' encrease this stupid Sin Not ceasing in his malice to proceed How to supplant the Tenents of our Creed Beginning with the first two hundred yeares After our Sauiours Passion he appeares In a full seeming strength and would maintaine By sundry obstinate Sectists but in vaine There was not one Almighty to begin The great stupendious Worke but that therein Many had hand Such were the Maniches Marcionists Gnostyes and the like to these The second Article he aim'd at then And to that purpose pickt out sundry Men Proud Hereticks and of his owne affinitie Who did oppose the blessed Sonne 's Diuinitie But knowing his great malice to his mind Did not preuaile he then began to find A cauill 'gainst the Third and pickt out those Who stiffely did the Holy-Ghost oppose Him from the
there is a God or beleeue him to be what he is not or knowing despise him by which they become as negligent in Humane actions as carelesse of Diuine From hence arise wicked cogitations blasphemous speeches and nefarious proiects al which are abhominable in the sight of God and man as in all their refractorie courses professing no reuerence or regard of the Creator by which they can haue no commerce with any thing that is essentially good or honest In Athens a strict Edict was made That all such as were proued to be Divum Contemptores i. Scorners or Despisers of the gods should be conuented before the Areopagitae and beeing conuicted their goods were sold at a publique out-cry and their irreligions grauen vpon pillars to make their persons odible Those also who aimed their iniuries and insolencies against their Parents Countries or any superiour Magistrates were not onely branded with infamie but their bodies punished with great seueritie Of the former Iuvenal thus speakes Sunt qui infortunae iam casibus omnia ponunt Et nullo credunt mundum rectore moveri Natura volvente vices lucis anni Atque ideo intrepid◠quaecunque altaria tangunt Some all the Power to Chance and Fortune giue And no Creator of the world beleeue Say Nature guide's the Sun's course and the yeare These touch the holy Altars without feare What may we thinke then of Cheopes King of Egypt remembred by Herodotus who caused all the Temples throughout his Prouinces to be fast shut and barred vp left any of his people should offer diuine sacrifice vnto the gods We reade likewise of Diagoras melius before spoken of who flourished in the eightie eighth Olympiad This Man because he persuaded the People from the worship of their gods was not onely banished Athens the city wherein he taught but after his confinement a Talent was proposed for a reward to him that would kill him These and the like were no doubt altogether ignorant That man was created for the seruice of God and That there can be no surer signe of the imminent ruine of a Kingdome and Commonweale than Contempt of Religion of which saith Basil no Creature is capable but Man onely Where no Religion resteth there can be no vertue abiding saith Saint Augustine Therefore the first Law that ought to be imposed on man is The practise of Religion and Pietie for if wee did truely apprehend the vertue thereof from thence the Voluptuous man would suppresse his pleasures the Couetous man acquire his wealth the Proud man deriue his felicitie and the Ambitious man his glory being the Bodies health and the Soules happinesse and indeed the onely mean to fill the empty corners of the heart and satisfie the vnlimited affects of the Desire Iosephus Langius reporteth That diuers learned and religious men supping together by appointment a profest Philosopher or rather a prophane Atheist had intruded himselfe among them who in all his arguing and discourse spake in the contempt of Religion and the Soules future felicitie often vttering these words Coelum Coeli Domino Terram autem dedit filijs hominum i. Leaue Heauen to the Lord of heauen but the Earth he gaue to the sons of men At length he was strooke with an extraordinarie iudgement being tormented at once in all the parts and members of his body so that he was forced to exclaime and cry ô Deus ô Deus ô God ô God Which the rest obseruing one of them vpbraided him in these words Thinkest thou ô Naturall man to contemne so great a Deitie and to vilifie his holy Ordinance and escape vnpunished Whom another thus seconded Do'st thou now begin to distrust thy philosphy and to call vpon and complain vnto him whom til now thou either wouldst not or didst not know Why do'st thou not suffer that Lord of heauen to rest quietly in that heauen which he hath made but that thou thus importunest him with thy clamours Where is now thy Coelum Coeli Domino c. Lucian of whom I before gaue a short Character was sirnamed Samosatensis because borne in Samosata a city scituate not far from Euphrates he was called Blasphemus Maledicus and Atheos He liued in the time of Traianus Caesar and was at first an Aduocate or Lawyer and practised at Antioch a city in Syria but it seemes not thriuing by his parsimonious and close-fisted Clients he forsooke that profession and retyred himselfe though to a lesse profitable yet a more pleasing study namely to be a follower of the Muses Volaterranus reports of him That hee was a Christian but after prooued a Renegade from that Faith and being demanded Why he turned Apostata his answer was That he had gained nothing by that profession more than one bare syllable added to his name being christened Lucianus where before his name was plaine Lucius His death as the best approued Authors relate of him was wretched and miserable for walking late in the euening hee was assaulted by band-dogs and by them worried and torne in pieces A most condigne punishment inflicted vpon him because in his life time he spared not to snarle against the Sauiour of the world And me-thinkes the Epitaph which hee composed vpon his owne Timon of Athens syrnamed Misanthropos i. Man-hater might not vnproperly be conferred vpon himselfe Hic iaceo vita miseraque Inopique solutus Nomen ne quaeras sed male tale peri. Here do I lie depriv'd of life Most miserable and poore Do not demand my name I dy'de Remember me no more Superfluous it were to make much forreine inquisition abroad seeing so many domesticke iudgements at home Far be it from me to iudge but rather to feare that many of them haue beene made remarkable among vs by reason of Irreligion and Atheism I forbeare to nominate any both for the dignitie of their places and greatnesse of their persons yet hath it beene no more than a nine dayes wonder to see the losse of heads the breaking of necks from horses some pistolled when they haue beene least prepared some stab'd with their own poniards others prouiding halters for their owne necks a sonne thrusts his sword through the womb of the mother which conceiued him one brother insidiates the life of another the husband hath killed his wife the wife slaine her husband and both of them their children the master his seruant the seruant his master the mistresse her maid the maid her mistresse And what can all these be but the fruits of the neglecting of the Lord God and the contempt of his Sabboth Much to be lamented it is that these things should be so frequent amongst Christians nay our owne kingdome when euen the Ethnicke Poets in their writings haue exprest not only an honour due to their gods but euen vnto the daies dedicated vnto their memories Plautus vseth these words Quod in diuinis rebus sumas sumptus sapienti lucro est c. i. That which a
much happier were that man On whom the prouidence of Heav'n would daine A gracious looke These words were spoke so plaine The Prince o're-heard them and commanded both To come to Court The silly men were loth Fearing they 'had spoke some treason Brought they were Into a stately roome and placed there In two rich chaires and iust before them spread A table with two bak'd meats furnished Both without difference seeming alike faire One cram'd with Gold other nought saue Aire For these they two cast lots To him that said He that trusts Heav'n that man is only made Hapned the Gold To the other that said Well Shall he thriue that trusts man th' empty fell The Emperor made this vse on 't Lords you see What a great Traine hourely depends on me I looke on all but cannot all preferre That in my seruice merit Nor do I erre 'T is their fate not my fault such onely rise By me on whom Heav'n bids me cast mine eyes How comes it that a Poet shall contriue A most elaborate Worke to make suruiue Forgotten Dust when no King shall expire But he brings fuell to his funerall fire No Optimate falls from the Noble throng But he records his Elegeicke Song In mourning papers and when all decayes Herse Shewes and Pompe yet That resounds his praise Of euery Match and Royall Combination His Pen is ready to make publication When all proue ag'd forgotten and blowne o're His Verse is still as youthfull as before And sounds as sweetly though it now seeme dead To after-Times it shall be euer read What 's Gentry then Or Noblesse Greatnesse what The Ciuill Purple or the Clergy Hat The Coronet or Mitre Nay the Crowne Imperiall What 's Potencie Renowne Ovations Triumphs with victorious Bayes Wisedome or Wealth Can these adde to thy dayes Inquire of Roman Brutus syrnam'd Iust Or Salomon the Wise they both are Dust. Learn'd Aristotle Plato the Diuine From Earth they came and Earth they now are thine Where are the Worthies where the Rich or Faire All in one common bed involved are Mans Life 's a Goale and Death end of the race And thousand sundry wayes point to the place From East the West the North the South all come Some slow some swift-pac'd to this generall Doome Some by the Wars fall some the Seas deuoure Certaine is Death vncertaine though the Houre Some die of Loue others through Griefe expire Beneath cold Arctos these they by the Fire The Torrid Zone casts forth forc'd to endure The scorching and contagious Calenture Some the Spring takes away and some the Fall Winter and Sommer others and Death All. Consider well the miserie of Man And weigh it truly since there 's none but can Take from his owne and others thousand wayes But yet not adde one minute to their dayes For now the Conqueror with the Captiue's spread On one bare Earth as on the common Bed The all-commanding Generall hath no span Of ground allow'd more than the Priuat man Folly with Wisedome hath an equall share The Foule and Faire to like Dust changed are This is of all Mortalitie the end Thersites now with Nereus dares contend And with Achilles He hath equall place Who liuing durst not looke him in the face The Seruant with the Master and the Maid Stretcht by her Mistresse both their heads are laid Vpon an equall pillow Subiects keepe Courts with Kings equall and as soft they sleepe Lodging their heads vpon a turfe of grasse As they on Marble or on figur'd Brasse Blinde Homer in the graue lies doubly darke Against him now base Zoylus dares not barke To him what attributes may we then giue And other Poets by whom all these liue Who as their putrid flesh is long since rotten So in their Sepulchres had lay'n forgotten Like common men had not their Muse high-flying Kept both these Worthies and themselues from dying How in these dayes is such a man regarded No not so much as Oile or Inke rewarded Yet shall a Sycophant or ballading Knaue If he but impudence and gay cloathes haue Can harpe vpon some scurrilous Iest or Tale Though fifteene times told and i th' City stale Command a Great mans eare perhaps be able To prefer Sutes and elbow at his table Weare speaking pockets boast Whom he doth serue When meriting men may either beg or starue Past Ages did the antient Poets grace And to their swelling stiles the very place Where they were borne denomination leant Publius Ovidius Naso had th' ostent Of Sulmonensis added and did giue The Dorpe a name by which it still doth liue Publius Virgilius likewise had th' addition Of Maro to expresse his full condition Marcus Annaeus Lucanus Seneca Bore title from his city Corduba Caius Pedo was styl'd Albinovanus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus Some from the nature of their Poëms Thus Caius Lucilius was call'd Satyrus So Livius Andronicus Epicus And Lucius Accius syrnamed Tragicus c. Some from their seuerall Countries because they Were forrein borne Terens from Africa Is Publius Terentius Afer read Titus Calphurnius Siculus as bred In Sicily So many others had And that for sundry causes meanes to add Vnto their first for with their worth encreast Their stiles the most grac'd with three names at least◠Our moderne Poets to that passe are driuen Those names are curtal'd which they first had giuen And as we wisht to haue their memories drown'd We scarcely can afford them halfe their sound Greene who had in both Academies ta'ne Degree of Master yet could neuer gaine To be call'd more than Robin who had he Profest ought saue the Muse Serv'd and been Free After a seuen yeares Prentiseship might haue With credit too gone Robert to his graue Marlo renown'd for his rare art and wit Could ne're attaine beyond the name of Kit Although his Hero and Leander did Merit addition rather Famous Kid Was call'd but Tom. Tom. Watson though he wrote Able to make Apollo's selfe to dote Vpon his Muse for all that he could striue Yet neuer could to his full name arriue Tom. Nash in his time of no small esteeme Could not a second syllable redeeme Excellent Bewmont in the formost ranke Of the rar'st Wits was neuer more than Franck. Mellifluous Shake-speare whose inchanting Quill Commanded Mirth or Passion was but Will. And famous Iohnson though his learned Pen Be dipt in Castaly is still but Ben. Fletcher and Webster of that learned packe None of the mean'st yet neither was but Iacke Deckers but Tom nor May nor Middleton And hee 's now but Iacke Foord that once were Iohn Nor speake I this that any here exprest Should thinke themselues lesse worthy than the rest Whose names haue their full syllable and sound Or that Franck Kit or Iacke are the least wound Vnto their fame and merit I for my part Thinke others what they please accept that heart Which courts my loue
now the bus'nesse weepst thou wicked man As fearing to be tortur'd enter than Stay Stay beneath his arme-pits lies obscur'd What in the barge will neuer be endur'd Menippus what Smooth oily Flattery such As in his life time did auaile him much 'T is fit then thou Menippus shouldst lay by Freenesse of speech and too much liberty Thy boldnesse mirth and laughterâ— for is't fit To mocke vs thus thou in that place shouldst sit All that he is possest of let him still About him keepe for they are light and will Rather than hinder helpe our navigation As burdenlesse and fit for transportation And thou ô Rhetorician cast away Thy contradicting Phrases there 's no stay Similitudes Anti-positions too Periods and Barbarismes This thou must do All thy light-seeming words must be throwne by For in the Hold most heauy they will ly I throw them off The fastned cords vnbinde Plucke vp the Ladder 'bout the Cap-stone winde The Cable and weigh Anchor hoise vp Saile And thou ô Steeres-man pre'thee do not faile To looke well to the Helme and that with care Let 's now be merry hauing all our faâ—e But wherefore weepe these sad Ghosts but most thou That of thy huge beard wast dispoyl'd but now Because I held the Soule immortall Fye Beleeue him not ô Hermes 't is a lie 'T is somewhat else he grieues at What Canst tell Because after full Feasts he cannot smell Nor walking late whilest others were at rest Close muffled in his Cloake be made the guest To dissolute Strumpets sneake into his Schoole Betimes and with his suppos'd wisedome foole Yong Schollers cheating them of coine and time Thou that pretendest to be free from crime Is not to thee Death tedious Can it be I hastning to 't when nothing summon'd me But stay What clamor 's that a shore so hye We scarce can heare our selues speake Mercurie 'T is loud indeed but comes from sundry places There is a Crew that arm'd with loud disgraces Brand the dead Lampichus Another strife Growes from the women that reproch his wife And yonder his yong children but late borne Are ston'd by children and in pieces torne Some with loud accents Diaphantus praise The Orator for his elaborate Phrase And funerall Oration well exprest In Sycian for this Crato late deceast The Matrons with Damasia's mother there Howle and lament his losse But not a teare Is shed for thee Menippus thou 'rt more blest Novlulations shall disturbe thy rest Not so for thou within few houres shalt heare Dogs lamentably barking at my Beere The Crowes and Rauens croaking at my graue In hope some good share of my flesh to haue Menippus thou art valiant and now land Passe on fore-right incline to neither hand That path will leade you to the Iudgement Hall Whilest we transport the rest that yonder call Saile prosp'rously ô Mercury wee 'l on As best befits vnto the Iudgement Throne What shall of vs become now here they say Are sundry torments that endure foray Stones AEgles Wheeles in number that surmount Now each must of his life yeeld iust account Bias to one who by reason of the great sorrow he tooke for the losse of his children called vpon Death as desiring to depart out of the world said vnto him Why fond man dost thou call vpon that which though vncalled for will come vpon thee Musonius being demanded Who died best made answer Those that make account of euery present day at their last Theramines was no sooner departed out of an house but it presently fell to the earth When his Friends came about him to gratulate his vnexpected safety he said vnto them beyond their expectation Know you ô men vnto what greater dangers or a more vnfortunate death the gods haue reserued me Intimating That the escape from one disaster was no securitie from falling into another Which happened accordingly for not long after he fell into the hands of the thirtie Tyrants and was compelled to end his life by poyson Seneca Epist. 78. vseth these words Is any man so ignorant but knowes that at one time or other he must die yet when the time commeth many weepe and lament Why dost thou mourne ô Wretch why feare and tremble since all men are tied to that strict necessitie and thou art but to go whither all things before thee are gone To this law thou art borne the same thing happened to thy father thy mother and to all thy predecessors to all before thee and shall to all that must succeed thee c. Spartanus being inâ—idiated by Iphicrates the Generall of the Athenians and surprised by an ambush and demaunded of his Souldiers What in that exigent was to be done made answer What else but that whilest you fly basely I die fighting honorably Such was the spirit of Cato Vticensis who persuaded others to the safety of their liues whilest he prepared himselfe to a voluntarie death Rubrius Flavius condemned vnto death by Nero and being brought to the blocke when the Executioner spake vnto him that he would boldly stretch forth his neck Yes quoth he and I wish thou with as much resolution and as little feare mayst strike off my head I will conclude with this Similitude As all those Starres which rise from the East though they be of great celeritie and vertue yet tend to their setting and according to their diuers Circles some sooner some later hide themselues from our aspect So all the Generation of Mankinde from the East that is by their Natiuitie enter into the world and though here for a season they shine and according to their qualities and degrees giue lesse or greater lustre yet of necessity they must all arriue some early some late at the fall or set of Death according vnto the continuance of that Course which God in his wisedome hath appointed them and by degrees withdraw and hide themselues from the eyes of the World Now hauing sufficiently discoursed of Death I will point you to a contented life out of one of Martials Epigrams not without great elegancie thus deliuered vnto vs Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem c. Blithe Martiall wilt thou vndertake Things which the life more blessed make Th' are these A Fortune competent Not got by labour but descent No thanklesse Field a Fare conuenient No strife at all a Gowne expedient For warmth not trouble a minde quiet Strength purchas'd by a mod'rate diet A healthfull body Prudence grounded On Simplenesse Friendship compounded On Paritie then so to call That no one man may pay for all A Table without Art or Cost A Night so spent it be not lost In Drunkennesse yet that thou dare And boldly call it Free from Care A Bed not sad but chast in sport Sleepe that shall make the night seeme short To wish to be that which thou art And nothing more in whole or
part And then thy last day shall appeare It thou mayst neither wish nor feare I cannot passe Poetry without some Character though neuer so briefe Now what Poets are or at least ought to be Horrace lib. de stat Poet. thus contractedly deliuereth vnto vs Ille bonis faveat concilietur Amice c. The Good he fauors as to them a Friend The Angry swayes loues those that feare t' offend He onely praiseth and desires to tast Those Viands on a thrifty table plac't Iustice he loues and feares the higher Powers Nor cares who lookes on his retyred houres Counsell he honors and dares pray aloud Fortune may court the Wretch and curbe the Proud Of the great respect and honor conferred vpon them in antient times and how those Dignities vnmeritedly are since taken from them and they in succeeding Ages vilified Ovid lib. 3. de Arte Amand. not without great cause thus ingeniously complaineth Quid petitur sacris nisi tantum fama Poëtis c. What more do sacred Poets seeke than Fame Of all our Labours 't is the soueraigne aime Poets of Dukes and Kings were once the care And great rewards propos'd for what was rare A Holy-state and Venerable Stile Was then conferr'd on him who did compile Any braue Worke a name he did inherit And mighty wealth was throwne vpon his merit In the Calabrian mountaines Ennius had His pleasant Gardens Then was Scipio glad To haue but such a Neighbour and to chuse Selected houres to spend vpon his Muse. But now the Bayes are without honour worne For what 's a Poet but a name of scorne Yet let 's not sleepe our Fame since Homer dead Should this day be were not his Iliads read Antonius Mancinellus speaking in the praise of Poets writeth to this purpose By Nature they are strengthened by the power of the Minde inflamed and by Diuine Rapture inspired Rightly therefore did old Ennius call them Holy as those commended vnto vs by the gift and bounty of the gods The Coliphonians claime Homer to be their Citisen the Chij challenge him the Salamines would vsurpe him the Smyrnaeans ingrosse him and three more of the most potent Cities of Greece erected Monuments after his death to eternise him So deare was Ennius to Africanus that he afforded him a Graue amongst the antient and ennobled Family of the Scipio's Theophanes Mylitides receiued a whole City as a Gift which was then held too small a reward for one Poëm Alexander the Great held the richest Casket taken among the spoiles of Darius scarce worthy to preserue the Works of Homer in The same Alexander surprising Thebes preserued a great part of the City onely for Pindarus the Poets sake Those Murtherers who priuatly slew Archilichus Apollo himselfe reuealed and caused his death to be reuenged Sophocles the Prince of the Cothurnate Tragedie being dead at such time when Lysander beguirt the walls of Lacedemon the King was warned in a dream by Liber Pater to afford his Delight for so the god called him an honored sepulchre Poetry is a Study which instructeth Youth delighteth Old-age graceth Prosperitie solaceth Aduersitie pleaseth at home delighteth abroad shortneth the night comforteth the day trauelleth with vs dwelleth with vs c. The greatest Orators made vse of Poëms both for the strengthning of their Causes and ornament of their eloquence as we may reade in Cicero Asinius Hörtensius and others who frequently quoted the ingenious Phrases and graue sentences of Ennius Pacuvius Lucillius Terentius Caecilius c. Euripides the sonne of Muesarchides and Clito his father was no better than a Victualler and his mother got the other part of their liuing by selling of sallads an Herbe-wife as wee call them yet he proued to be the greatest Fauorit that King Archelaus had And Sophocles the Tragicke Poet was graced and honoured by all the Learned of his time and bore the prime office of Magistracie in the city where he liued The Poet Aratus in Grammar the scholler of Menecrates and in Philosophy of Timon and Menedemus flourished in the 124 Olympiad in the time that Antigonus the sonne of Poliarcetes reigned in Macedonia with whom euen to his last expiration he liued in great estimation and honour Aulus Licinius Archias a Poet borne in Antiochia was indeered to the best and greatest Orators in Rome and more particularly graced by the Family of the Luculli He was honored of many Greeke Heroës and had rich Presents sent from their prime Cities but he was especially endeered to Cicero Aristonius a Comicke Poet liued vnder Philadelphus and was Master of the kings Library after Apollonius Arrianus was a Poet in whom the Emperor Tiberius Caesar was much delighted for so Tranquillus reporteth Cyrus Panopolita was greatly honoured by the Empresse Eudoxia Cherilus Samius liued about the 63 Olympiad and was no more than Seruant vnto Herodotus the Historiographer who writing the Expedition of the Greekes against Xerxes was for euery verse in his Poëme rewarded with a piece of gold to the value of 16 shillings foure pence sterling Gorgius borne amongst the Leontini in Sicily was endeared to Critias and Alcibiades in their height of Fortune and to Pericles and Thucidides in the extremitie of his age Caius Manilius was the first that wrot any Astrologicall Poëm in Latine which he dedicated to Augustus Caesar and by him was greatly respected and rewarded Lenaeus a freed-man of Pompeys but after his friend and companion in all his expeditions surviving his Lord because Salust the historiographer had spoken bitterly against him after his death hee inueighed against him in a most sharpe Satyre calling him Lastaurus Lurchon Nebulâ— popinarius and Monstrous both in life and historie and moreouer a manifest Theefe from Cato and diuers other antient Writers Menander a Comicke Poet of Athens who writ fourescore in number had great honours done vnto him by the Kings of AEgypt and Macedon Homerus Iunior liued about the time of Hesiod the son of Andromachus and borne in Byzantium he writ 57 Tragedies and as Zezes in his Commentaries vpon Lycophron affirmes for one of them called Pleiades and dedicated to King Ptolomaeus he was greatly fauoured and royally rewarded Oppianus was of Silicia and borne in a City called Anazarbum The Roman Emperour Severus being inuested before the City and after paâ—le being congratulated both by the Optimates and Plebe he was onely neglected and not thought worthy a salutation by this Oppianus Hee therefore commanded him to be banished into an Island called Melita scituate neere vnto the Adriaticke sea In which place he wrot a noble Poëm Piscibusâ— which after the death of the emperour Severus he dedicated to his sonne Antoninusâ— for which Worke hee was recalled from exile and to recompence his injurie for euery verse in his Poëm he guerdoned him with a piece of gold But soone after returning with his father into his
did great things and in the comming of Antichrist the Pseudo-Christiani i. false-Christians before him with him and after him by the aid of the wicked Spirit did maruellous things And in another place commenting vpon the same Euangelist As when a man telleth thee a Tale which thou art not willing to heare the more he speaketh the lesse thou bearest away Or trauelling in haste when thy minde is otherwise occupied though in thy speed thou meetest many yet thou takest not notice of any that passe thee so the Iewes dealt with our Sauiour for though they saw many signes and maruellous things done by him yet notwithstanding they demanded a signe from him because they heard such things as they marked not and saw such things as they tooke no pleasure to behold Hugo De Operib 3. Dierum speaketh thus Res multis modis apparant mirabiles c. Many wayes things appeare maruellous somtimes for their greatnesse sometimes for their smalnesse some for their rarietie others for their beauty First according to their greatnesse as where any creature doth exceed the proportion of it's own Kinde so we admire a Gyant amongst Men a Leviathan or Whale amongst Fishes a Gryphon amongst Birds an Elephant amongst foure-footed Beasts a Dragon amongst Serpents c. The second for their smalnesse as when certaine creatures are scanted of that dimension proper vnto their Kinde as in Dwarfes small Beagles and the like or in Moths small Worms in the hand or finger c. which how little soeuer yet they participate life and motion with those of larger dimension and size neither are they any way disproportionate in their Kinds but the one as well declareth the power and wisedome of the Creator as the other Consider therefore whether thou shouldst more wonder at the tuskes of the Boare than the teeth of a Worme at the legs of a Gryphon or a Gnat at the head of an Horse or a Locust at the thighes of an Estrich or a Fly If in the one thou admirest the greatnesse and strength in the other thou hast cause to wonder at the smalnesse and dexterity as in the one thou maist behold eyes so great that they are able to daunt thee in the other thou mayst see eyes so small than thine are searce able to discern them and euen in these little creatures thou shalt find such adiuments and helps of nature that there is nothing needfull or defectiue in the smallest which thou shalt finde superfluous in the greatest c. We wonder why the Crocodile when he feeds moueth not his lower chaw how the Salamander liueth vnscorched in the fire how the Hedgehog is taught with his sharpe quills to wallow and tumble beneath the Fruit trees and returne home laden with Apples to his resting place who instructed the Ant to be carefull in Summer to prouide her selfe of food for Winter or the Spider to draw small threds from it's owne bowels to insidiate and lay nets for the Flies All these are infallid testimonies of the wisedome and power of the Almighty These are only wonders in nature but no Miracles Chrisostom supr Math. saith thus Quatuor sunt mirabiles imitatores c. There be foure miraculous Imitators made by Christ A Fisherman to be the first Shepheard of his Flocke a Persecutor the first Master and Teacher of the Gentiles a Publican the first Euangelist a Theefe that first entred into Paradise And further That of three things the World hath great cause to wonder of Christs resurrection after death of his ascention to heauen in the Flesh and that by his Apostles being no better than Fishermen the whole world should be conuerted But if any thing strange or prodigious hath beene heretofore done by Mahomet or his associates they haue been rather imposterous than miraculous Or admit they were worthy to be so called yet do they not any way iustifie his blasphemous Religion For you may thus reade Iustine Martyr De Respons ad Quest. 5. fol. 162. As the Sun rising vpon the Good and Euill the Iust and Vniust is no argument to confirme the euil and injust man in his wickednesse and injustice so ought it not to confirme heretiques in their errors if at any time miraculous things be done by them For if the effect of a miracle be an absolute signe and demonstration of pietie God would not then reply vpon the Reprobate and Cursed at the last day when they shall say vnto him Lord haue we not in thy Name prophesied and cast out diuels and done many Miracles I neuer knew you depart from me ô ye Cursed c. Christ was miraculous in his Incarnation his Natiuitie his Life Doctrine Death and Resurrection as will easily appeare but first it shall not be amisse to speake a word or two of his blessed Mother Petrus Chrisologus writeth thus Vnexpressible is the sacrament of the Natiuitie of our Lord the God of Life which wee ought rather to beleeue than to examine A Virgin conceiued and brought forth which Nature affourded not Vse knew not Reason was ignorant of Vnderstanding conceiued not This at which Heauen wondred Earth admired the Creature was stupified what humane Language is able to deliuer Therefore the Euangelist as he opened the conception and birth in an human phrase so he shut it vp in a Diuine secret And this he did to shew That it is not lawfull for a man to dispute that which he is commanded to beleeue And againe How can there be the least dammage vnto modestie where there is interessed a Deitie Where an Angell is the Messenger Faith the Bride-maid Chastitie the Contract Vertue the Despouser Conscience the Priest God the Cause integritie the Conception Virginitie the Birth a Maid the Mother Let no man therefore iudge that thing after the manner of Man which is done by a diuine Sacrament let no man examine a coelestiall mysterie by earthly reason or a secret nouelty by that which is frequent and common Let no man measure that which is Singular by Example nor deriue contumely from Pietie nor run into danger by his rashnesse when God hath prouided saluation by his Goodnesse Origen vpon Mathew moues this Question What was the necessitie that Mary the blessed Virgin should be espoused vnto Ioseph but either because that mysterie should be concealed from the Diuell and so the false Accuser should finde no cauil against her chastitie being asfied vnto an husband or else that after the Infant was borne he should be the mothers Conduct into AEgypt and backe againe For Mary was the vntouched the vnblemished the immaculate Mother of the onely begotten Son of God Almighty Father and Creator of all things of that Sonne who in Heauen was without a Mother in Earth without a Father in Heauen according to his Deitie in the bosome of his Father in Earth according to his humanitie in the lap of his Mother Gregorie the Great saith Though Christ Iesus be one thing of the
and Eusebius in his Chronicle to the thirty third yeare of Christ cite this Author Of the same witnesseth Lucianus Martyr saying Seeke in your Annals and you shall finde that in the time of Pilat the Sunne being banished the day gaue place to darkenesse These words Ruffinus vseth in his translation of his Ecclesiastical History into the Latine tongue So likewise Tertullian in Apollogeticon and Paulus Orosius in his historie But all these doubts may be decided and these difficulties be easily made plaine for where it was said That the defect of the Sunne still happeneth in the new Moone and not when it is at the full most true it is in all naturall Eclipses but that which happened at the death of our Sauior was singular and prodigious which could onely be done by him who created the Sunne the Moone the Heauens and the Earth For Dionysius Areopagita in the place before cited affirmeth That himselfe with one Apollophanes saw the Moon about mid-day with a most swift and vnusuall course haste vnto the Sunne and subiect it selfe vnto it and as it were cleaue thereunto vntill the ninth houre and then by the same way returne to it 's owne place in the East Concerning that which was added That no defect in the Sun could possibly continue for the space of three houres together so thaâ— darkenesse might ouershadow the whole earth it is thus answered Most true it is that in an vsuall and naturall Eclipse it remains infallibly so but this was not gouerned by the Lawes of Nature but by the will of the omnipotent Creator who as he could carry the Moone with a swift course from the Orient to meet with the Sunne in the meridian and after three houres returne it backe into it's owne place in the East so by his power he could bring to passe that these three houres hee could stay the Moone with the Sunne and command her to moue neither more slowly nor swiftly than the Sun Lastly where it was said That it was not possible this Eclipse should be seene ouer the face of the whole earth considering that the Moone is lesser than the earth and therefore much lesse than the Sunne there is no question but true it is if we reflect but vpon the interposition of the Moone alone but what the Moone of it selfe could not do the Creator of the Sunne and Moone had power to do For things created can doe nothing of themselues without the aid and co-operation of the Creator And whereas some may obiect and say That through the darkenesse made by the thicke and dusky clouds the light might be obscured from the vniuersall face of the earth Neither can that hold currant for then those foggie and tenebrous clouds had not only couered the Sunne and the Moone but those very Stars also which by reason of that darkenesse were visible and manifestly discouered to shine in the Firmament Now there are diuers reasons giuen why it pleased God Almightie that at the passion of our Sauior the Lord of life such darkenesse should be and two especially The first was To signifie the apparant blindenesse of the Iews which was then and doth still continue According to the Prophecie of Esay For behold Darkenesse shall couer the earth and thicke darknesse the people c. The second cause was To shew the great and apparant sinnes of the Iewes which Saint Hierome in his Comment vpon Saint Mathew doth thus illustrate Before saith he euill and wicked men did vex and persecute good and just men but now impious men haue dared to persecute and crucifie God himselfe cloathed in human flesh Before Citisens with Citisens had contention strife begot euill language ill words and sometimes slaughter but now seruants and slaues haue made insurrection against the King of Men and Angels and with incredible audacitie nailed him vnto the Crosse. At which the whole World quaked and trembled and the Sunne it selfe as ashamed to looke vpon so horrible and execrable an act withdrew his glorious lustre and couered all the aire with most terrible darknesse Thus you haue heard the Incarnation Life Doctrine Miracles and Death of the blessed Redeemer of the World God and Man from whom we ground our Christian Religion Now because I had occasion to speake of the Turkish Alcaron and the apparant absurdities contained therein it shall not be amisse to insert somthing concerning the Authour thereof that comparing his life with his doctrine the basenesse of the one may make the blasphemies of the other appeare the more odious and abhominable Platina writeth That he was descended nobly but his authoritie is not approued Therefore I rather follow Pomponius Lata in his Abridgement of the Romane Historie who agreeing with other authentik Authors deriues him from an ignoble vile obscure Linage Some say he was an Arab others a Persian nor are either of their opinions to be reiected because at that time the Persians had the predominance ouer Arabia His Father was a Gentile and an Idolater his Mother a Iew and lineally descended from Ismael the son of Abraham by his bond-woman Hagar He was of a quicke and actiue spirit left an Orphant and being yong was surprised by the Scenites who were of the Arabs in Africa and liued as Theeues and Robbers Being by them sold vnto a rich Merchant named Adimonepli because the Lad was wel featured and quicke witted hee vsed him not as his slaue but rather as his sonne Who accordingly mannaged all his masters affaires with great successe trading dayly both with Iewes and Christians by reason of which hee came to be acquainted with both their Lawes and Religions His master died without issue leauing his Widow who was about fifty yeares of age named Ladigna wonderous rich shee after tooke Mahomet to husband by which mariage hee suddenly became of a poore slaue a wealthy master of a family About that time one Sergius a Monke a debosht fellow of a spotted life and base condition who for maintaining of sundrie dangerous heresies was fled out of Constantinople and for the safegard of his threatned life thought to shelter himselfe in Arabia in processe of time grew into great acquaintance and familiaritie with Mahomet who consulted together and began to proiect great matters Now Mahomet hauing before been entred into the study of Magicke or Necromancie resolued to persuade the Gentiles that he was a Prophet To prepare which hee had practised diuers iugling trickes by which his wife and his owne houshold were first abused To further which credulitie hee was troubled with the Falling Sickenesse at which his wife and the rest of her Neighbours being amased he made of that this diuellish vse to persuade them That at such time as the fall took him the Angell of God came to confer with him and hee being but mortall and not able to endure his diuine presence was forced into those sudden agonies and alterations of spirit This being generally reported and
By Gods blest Spirit an Epiniceon sing Ascribing Glory to th' Almighty King Miraculous thy Workes are worthy praise Lord God Almighty iust and true thy waies Thou God of Saints O Lord who shall not feare And glorifie thy Name who thy Workes heare Thou onely holy art henceforth adore Thee All Nations shall worship and fall before Thee Because thy Iudgements are made manifest This Song of Vict'rie is againe exprest Thus Now is Saluation now is Strength Gods Kingdome and the Power of Christ. At length The Sland'rer of our Brethren is refus'd Who day and night them before God accus'd By the Lambes bloud they ouercame him and Before Gods Testimonie he could not stand Because the Victors who the Conquest got Vnto the death their liues respected not Therefore reioyce you Heav'ns and those that dwell In these blest Mansions But shall I now tell The Weapons Engines and Artillerie Vsed in this great Angelomachy No Lances Swords nor Bombards they had then Or other Weapons now in vse with men None of the least materiall substance made Spirits by such giue no offence or aid Onely spirituall Armes to them were lent And these were call'd Affection and Consent Now both of these in Lucifer the Diuell And his Complyes immoderate were and euill Those that in Michael the Arch-Ange'll raign'd And his good Spirits meekely were maintain'd Squar'd and directed by th' Almighties will The Rule by which they fight and conquer still Lucifer charg'd with insolence and spleene When nothing but Humilitie was seene And Reuerence towards God in Michaels brest By which the mighty Dragon he supprest Therefore this dreadfull battell fought we finde By the two motions of the Will and Minde Which as in men so haue in Angels sway Mans motion in his body liues but they Haue need of no such Organ This to be Both Averroes and Aristotle agree It followes next that we enquire how long This Lucifer had residence among The blessed Angels for as some explore His time of Glory was six dayes no more The time of the Creation in which they I meane the Spirits seeing God display His glorious Works with stupor and amaâ—e Began at once to contemplate and gase Vpon the Heav'ns Earth Sea Stars Moone and Sunne Beasts Birds and Man with the whole Fabricke done In this their wonder at th'inscrutabilitie Of such great things new fram'd with such facilitie To them iust in the end of the Creation He did reueale his blest Sonnes Incarnation But with a strict commandement That they Should with all Creatures God and Man obey Hence grew the great dissention that befell 'Twixt Lucifer and the Prince Michael The time 'twixt his Creation and his Fall Ezechiel thus makes authenticall In midst of fierie stones thou walked hast Straight in thy wayes ev'n from the time thou wast First made as in that place I before noted To the same purpose Esay too is quoted How fell'st thou Lucifer from Heaven hye That in the morning rose so cherefully As should he say How happens it that thou O Lucifer who didst appeare but now In that short time of thy blest state to rise Each morning brighter than the morning skies Illumin'd by the Sunne so soone to slide Downe from Gods fauour lastingly t' abide In Hells insatiate torments Though he lost The presence of his Maker in which most He gloried once his naturall Pow'rs he keepes Though to bad vse still in th' infernall Deepes For his Diuine Gifts he doth not commend Vnto the seruice of his God the end To which they first were giuen but the ruin Of all Mankinde Vs night and day pursuing To make vs both in his Rebellion share And Tortures which for such prepared are Of this malignant Spirits force and might Iob in his fourtieth Chapter giues vs light And full description liuely expressing both In person of the Monster Behemoth The Fall of Adam by fraile Eve entic't Was his owne death ours and the death of Christ. In whose back-sliding may be apprehended Offendors three three ' Offences three Offended The three Offendors that Mankinde still grieue Were Sathan Adam and our Grandam Eve The three Offences that Sin first aduance Were Malice Weakenesse and blinde Ignorance The three Offended to whom this was done The Holy Spirit the Father and the Sonne Eve sinn'd of Ignorance and so is said Against the God of Wisedome to haue made Her forfeit that 's the Son Adam he fell Through Weakenesse and 'gainst him that doth excell In pow'r the Father sinn'd With his offence And that of hers Diuine Grace may dispence Malicious Hate to sinne did Sathan moue Against the Holy-Ghost the God of Loue And his shall not be pardon'd Note with me How God dealt in the censuring of these three He questions Adams Weakenesse and doth call Eve to account for th' Ignorance in her fall Because for them he mercy had in store Vpon their true repentance and before He gaue their doome told them he had decreed A blessed Sauiour from the Womans seed But Sathan he ne're question'd 't was because Maliciously he had transgrest his Lawes Which sinne against the Spirit he so abhor'd His Diuine Will no mercy for him stor'd Moreouer In the sacred Text 't is read The Womans Seed shall breake the Serpents head It is observ'd The Diuell had decreed To tempt our Sauiour the predicted Seed In the same sort though not the same successe As he did Eve our first Progenitresse All sinnes saith Iohn we may in three diuide Lust of the Flesh Lust of the Eye and Pride She sees the Tree and thought it good for meat The Fleshes lust persuaded her to eat She sees it faire and pleasant to the eye Then the Eyes lust inciteth her to try She apprehends that it will make her wise So through the Pride of heart she eats and dies And when he Christ into the Desart lead Bee'ng hungry Turne said he these Stones to Bread There 's Fleshly lusts temptation Thence he growes To the Eyes lust and from the Mountaine showes The World with all the pompe contain'd therein Say'ng All this great purchase thou shalt win But to fall downe and worship me And when He saw these faile to tempt him once agen Vsing the Pride of heart when from on hye He bad him leape downe and make proofe to flye And as the Woman yeelding to temptation Made thereby forfeit of all mans saluation And so the Diue'll who did the Serpent vse Was said by that the Womans head to bruse So Christ the Womans Seed making resist To these seducemeâ—ts of that Pannurgist Because by neither Pride nor Lust mis-led Was truly said to breake the Serpents head Angels bee'ng now made Diuels let vs finde What place of Torment is to them assign'd First of the Poets Hell The dreadfull Throne Where all Soules shall be sentenc'd stands saith one In a sad place with obscure darkenesse hid
About each roome blacke waters such as did Neuer see day Tysephone vp takes A scourge her vnkemb'd locks craule with liue Snakes Of such aspect th' Immortall eyes abhor her She in her rage doth driue the Ghosts before her Ixion there turn'd on his restlesse Wheele Followes and flies himselfe doth tortures feele For tempting Iuno's Chasti'ty Titius stretcht Vpon the earth and chain'd whose body reacht In length nine acres hath for his aspiring A Vulture on his intrals euer tyring Starv'd Tantalus there 's punisht for his sin Ripe Fruits touching his lip fresh Waues his chin But catching th' one to eat th' other to drinke The Fruit flies vp the Waters downeward shrinke There Danaus Daughters those that dar'd to kill Their innocent sleeping husbands striue to fill With waters fetcht from Lethe leaking tunnes Which as they poure out through the bottom runnes Another thus The Ghosts of men deceast Are exercis'd in torments hourely'encreast Where ev'ry punishment's exactly fitted According to th' offence in life committed Some you shall there behold hang'd vp on hye Expos'd to the bleake windes to qualifie Their former hot Lusts. Some are head-long cast Into deepe gulfes to wash their sinnes fore-past Others are scorcht in flames to purge by fire More cap'itall crimes that were in nature higher They with the lesse delinquents most dispence But mighty plagues pursue the great offence For all men suffer there as they haue done Without the least hope of euasion The sinne doth call th' offendor to the Bar The Iudges of the Bench vnpartiall ar ' No Nocent there the Sentence can evade But each one is his owne example made For when the Soule the Body doth forsake It turnes not into Aire as there to make It's last account Nor let the Wicked trust Their Bodies shall consume in their owne dust For meet they shall againe to heare recited All that was done since they were first vnited And suffer as they sinn'd in wrath in paines Of Frosts of Fires of Furies Whips and Chaines Yet contrary to this some Authors write As to the first opinion opposite Who to that doubt and diffidencie grow To question if there be such place or no. After our deaths saith one can there appeare Ought dreadfull when we neither see nor heare Can ought seeme sad by any strange inuention To him that hath nor fence nor apprehension Shall not all things involv'd in silence deepe Appeare to vs lesse frightfull than our sleepe Or are not all these feares confer'd vpon Th' infernall Riuers Styx and Acheron After our deaths in this our life made good No miserable Ghost plung'd in the floud Feares any stone impending full of dread Each minute space to fall vpon his head 'T is rather a vaine feare that hath possest vs Poore Mortals of the gods pow'r to molest vs That in this life may by the helpe of Fate Our fortunes crush and ruine our estate No Vulture doth on Titius intrals pray 'T is a meere Emblem that we fitly may Confer on passionat Tyteruâ—s and inuented To perso'nate such as are in Loue tormented Or with like griefe perplext c. Heare Seneca Is the fame true saith he that to this day Holds many in suspence That in the jawes Of Hell should be maintain'd such cruell Lawes That Malefactors at the Bar bee'ng try'de Are doom'd such horrid torments to abide Who is the Iudge to weigh in equall skale The Right or Wrong Who there commands the gaile Thus say the Ethnycks but we now retyre And from the Scriptures of this place enquire Hell is the Land of Darknesse desolate Ordain'd for Sinne to plague the Reprobate All such as to that dreadfull place descend Taste death that cannot die end without end For life begets new death the mulct of sin And where the end is it doth still begin Th' originall name we from the Hebrewes haue Sceol which is a Sepulchre or Graue Which nothing else but Darknesse doth include To which in these words Iob seemes to allude Before I go not to returne againe Into the Land where Darkenesse doth remaine Deaths dismall shadow to that Land I say As Darkenesse darke where is no sight of Day But Deaths blacke shadow which no order keepes For there the gladsome Light in Darkenesse sleepes The place where euerlasting Horror dwells 'T is call'd Gehenna too as Scripture tells The word it selfe imports The Land of Fire Not that of the knowne nature to aspire And vpward flame this hath no visi'ble light Burnes but wasts not and addes to Darknesse Night 'T is of invisi'ble substance and hath pow'r Things visible to burne but not deuour A Maxime from antiquity 't hath been There 's nothing that 's Immortall can be seen Nor is it wonder that this fire we call Invisible yet should torment withall For in a burning Feuer Canst thou see The inward flame that so afflicteth thee In Hell is Griefe Paine Anguish and Annoy All threatning Death yet nothing can destroy There 's Ejulation Clamor Weeping Wailing Cries Yels Howles Gnashes Curses neuer failing Sighes and Suspires Woe and vnpittied Mones Thirst Hunger Want with lacerating Grones Of Fire or Light no comfortable beames Heate not to be endur'd Cold in extreames Torments in ev'ry Attyre Nerve and Vaine In ev'ry Ioint insufferable paine In Head Brest Stomake and in all the Sences Each torture suting to the soule offences But with more terror than the heart can thinke The Sight with Darknesse and the Smel with Stinke The Taste with Gall in bitternesse extreme The Hearing with their Curses that blaspheme The Touch with Snakes Todes crauling about them Afflicted both within them and without them Hell 's in the Greeke call'd Tartarus because The torments are so great and without pause 'T is likewise Ades call'd because there be No objects that the Opticke Sence can see Because there 's no true temp'rature Avernus And because plac'd below 't is styl'd Infernus The Scriptures in some place name it th' Abisse A profound place that without bottom is As likewise Tophet of the cries and houles That hourely issue from tormented Soules There the Soules faculties alike shall be Tormented in their kindes eternally The Memory to thinke of pleasures past Which in their life they hop'd would euer last The Apprehension with their present state In horrid paines those endlesse without date The Vnderstanding which afflicts them most To recollect the great joyes they haue lost And these include Hells punishments in grosse Namely the paines of Torment and of Losse If we enquire of Lucian after these Betwixt Menippus and Philonides His Dialogue will then expressely tell How he and such like Atheists jeast at Hell The Dialogue HAile to the front and threshold of my dore Which I was once in feare toâ—haue seene no more How gladly I salute thee hauing done My voyage and againe behold the
potest res i. Nothing is sensible either to touch or to be touched but that which may be called a Body God created three liuing Spirits saith Gregor lib. Dialog The first such as are not couered with flesh the second that are couered with flesh but doth not die with the flesh the third both with flesh couered and with the flesh perisheth The first Angels the second Men the third Brutes The wise Socrates was accustomed to say That the whole Man was the Minde or Soule and the Body nothing else but the couer or rather the prison thereof from whence being once freed it attained to it 's proper jurisdiction and then onely began to liue blessedly Erasm. in Declamat de Morte and learned Seneca saith That as he which liueth in another mans house is troubled with many discommodities and still complaining of the inconuenience of this room or that euen so the Diuine part of Man which is the Soule is grieued now in the head now in the foot now in the stomacke or in one place or other Signifying thereby That he liueth not in a Mansion of his owne but rather as a Tenant who expecteth euerie houre to be remoued from thence The Soule of Man saith Saint Augustine aut regitur à Deo aut Diabolo It is either gouerned by God or by the Diuell The Eye of the Soule is the Minde it is a Substance created inuisible incorporeall immortall like vnto God and being the Image of the Creator Lib. de Definition Anim. Et sup Genes addit Omnis Anima est Christis Sponsa aut Diaboli Adultera Euery Soule is either the Spouse of Christ or the Strumpet of the Diuell Saint Bernard Serm. 107 vseth these words Haue you not obserued That of holy Soules there are three seuerall states the first in the corruptible Body the second without the Body the third in the Body glorified The first in War the second in Rest the third in Blessednesse And againe in his Meditat. O thou Soule stamped in the Image of God beautified with his Similitude contracted to him in Faith endowed in Spirit redeemed in Bloud deputed with the Angels made capable of his Blessednesse heire of Goodnesse participating Reason What hast thou to do with Flesh than which no dung-hill is more vile and contemptible Saint Chrisostome likewise De Reparat Laps If wee neglect the Soule neither can we saue the Body for the Soule was not made for the Body but the Body for the Soule He therefore that neglecteth the Superior and respecteth the Inferior destroyes both but hee that doth obserue order and giueth that preheminence which is in the first place though he neglect the second yet by the health of the first he shall saue the second also Isiod Etymol 11. The Soule whilest it abideth in the Body to giue it life and motion is called the Soule when it purposeth any thing it is the Will when it knoweth it is the Minde when it recollecteth it is the Memorie when it judgeth truly it is the Reason when it breatheth the Spirit when passionate it is the Sence And againe Lib. 1. de Summo Bono O thou Man Why dost thou admire the height of the Planets and wonder at the depth of the Seas and canst not search into the depth of thine owne Soule We haue heard the Fathers let vs now enquire what the Philosophers haue thought concerning the Soule There is nothing great in Humane actions saith Seneca in Prouerb but a Minde o◠Soule that disposeth great things Thus saith Plato in Timaeo To this purpose was the Soule ioyned to the Body that it should furnish it with Vertues and Sciences which if it doe it shall be gently welcommed of the Creator but if otherwise it shall bee confined to the inferior parts of the earth Aristotle lib. 2. de Animal saith The Soule is more noble than the Body the Animal than that which is Inanimate the Liuing than the Dead the Being than the Not being Three things saith Macrob. lib. 7. Saturnal there be which the Body receiueth from the prouidence of the Soule That it liueth That it liueth decently and That it is capable of Immortalitie Of Soules saith Cicero 1. Tuscul. Quast there can be found no originall vpon the earth for in them there is nothing mixt or concrete or that is bred from the earth or framed of it for there is nothing in them of substance humor or sollid or fiery For in such natures there is nothing that can comprehend the strength of Memorie the Minde or Thought which can record what is past or foresee things future which do altogether participate of a Diuine nature Neither can it euer be proued that these Gifts euer descended vnto Man but from God himselfe And in another place There is nothing admixt nothing concrete nothing co-augmented nothing doubled in these Minds or Soules Which being granted they can neither be discerned or diuided nor discerpted nor distracted And therefore they cannot perish for perishing is a departure or surcease or diuorce of those parts which before their consumption were ioyned together in a mutuall connexion Phocillides in his Precepts writeth thus Anima est immortalis vivitque perpetuò nec senescit vnquam i. The Soule is immortall liueth euer neither doth it grow old by Time And Philistrio The Soule of a wise man is ioyned with God neither is it death but an euill life that destroyeth it And Egiptius Minacus when one brought him word that his father was dead made the Messenger this answer Forbeare ô Man to blaspheme and speake so impiously for how can my father be dead who is immortall Nicephorus ex Evagrio Panorm lib. de Alphons Reg. gestis relates That the King Alphonsus was wont to say That he found no greater argument to confirme the immortalitie of the Soule than when he obserued the bodies of men hauing attained to their full strength begin to decrease and wax weake through infirmities For all the Members haue the limits and bounds of their perfection which they cannot exceed but arriuing to their height decline and decay But the Mindes and Intellects as they grow in time so they encrease in the abilitie of vnderstanding Vertue and Wisedome Elian. lib. 11. de Varia Historia reporteth of Cercitas Megala Politanus who falling into a most dangerous disease and being asked by such friends as were then about him whether hee were willing to dye O yes said he by any meanes for I desire to depart this world and trauell to the other where I shall be sure to meet with men famous in all kindes of Learning of the Philosophers with Pythagoras of the Historiographers with Hecataeus of the Poets Homerus of Musitions Olympius who by the Monuments of their judgments learning haue purchased to themselues perpetuitie AEneas Sylvius reporteth of the Emperour Fredericke That sojourning in Austria it hapned that one of his principall Noblemen expired who had liued ninety yeares in all
voluptuousnesse and pleasure yet was neuer knowne to be either diseased in body or disquieted in minde by any temporall affliction whatsoeuer Which being related vnto the Emperour he made this answer Euen hence we may ground that the Soules of men be immortal for if there be a God who first created and since gouerneth the World as both the Philosophers and Theologists confesse and that there is none so stupid as to deny him to be iust in all his proceedings there must then of necessitie be other places prouided to which the Soules of men must remoue after death since in this life we neither see rewards conferred vpon those that be good and honest nor punishments condigne inflicted vpon the impious and wicked Cicero in Caton Maior reporteth That Cyrus lying vpon his death bed said vnto his sonnes I neuer persuaded my selfe ô my Children that the Soule did liue whilest it was comprehended within this mortall body neither that it shall die when it is deliuered from this fleshly prison Anaxarchus being surprised by Nicocreon the Tirant of Cyprus he commanded him to be contruded into a stone made hollow of purpose and there to be beaten to death with iron hammers In which torments he called vnto the Tyrant and said Beat batter and bruise the flesh and bones of Anaxarchus but Anaxarchus himselfe thou canst not harme or damnifie at all The excellent Philosopher intimating thereby That though the Tyrant had power to exercise his barbarous and inhumane crueltie vpon his body yet his Soule was immortal and that no tyrannie had power ouer either to suppresse or destroy it Brusonius Lib. 2. Cap. 3. ex Plutarc Of lesse constancie was Iohannes de Canis a Florentine Physition of great fame for his practise who when out of the Principles of Mataesophia he had grounded the Soule to be mortal with the Body and in his frequent discourses affirmed as much yet when his last houre drew on he began to doubt within himselfe and his last words were these So now I shall suddenly be resolued whether it be so or no. Iohan. Bapt. Gell. Dialog de Chimaerico As ill if not worse Bubracius lib. 28. reporteth of Barbara wife to the Emperour Sigismund who with Epicurus placed her Summum Bonum in voluptuousnesse and pleasure and with the Sadduces beleeued no resurrection or immortalitie of the Soule but God and the Diuell heauen and hell equally diuided From the Philosophers I come now to the Poets Ovid lib. Metam 15. saith Morte carent Animae semperque priore relicta Sede novis domibus vivunt c. The Soules can neuer dye when they forsake These houses then they other Mansions take Phocilides the Greeke Poet Anima autem immortalis insenesibilis vivit per omne tempus i. For the Soule is immortall not subject vnto age but surviveth beyond the date of Time And Menander Melius est corpus quam Animam aegrotare i. Better it is for thee to be sicke in body than in Soule and howsoeuer thy Body fare be sure to physicke thy Soule with all diligence Propert. 4.7 Sunt aliquid manes let hum non omnia fiunt Luridaque evictos effugit vmbra rogas Sp'rites something are Death doth not all expire And the thin Shadow scapes the conquer'd fire The ingenious Poet Tibullus either inclining to the opinion of Pythagoras or else playing with it who taught That the soule after death did transmigrate and shift into the bodies of other persons and creatures we reade thus Quin etiam meatunc tumulus cui texerit ossa Seu matura dies fato proper at mihi mortem Longa manet seu vita c. When these my bones a Sepulchre shall hide Whether ripe Fate a speedy day prouide Or that my time be lengthned when I change This figure and hereafter shall proue strange Vnto my selfe in some shape yet vnknowne Whether a Horse of seruice I be growne Taught how to tread the earth or Beast more dull Of speed the glory of the herd a Bull Whether a Fowle the liquid aire to cut Or into what Mans shape this Spirit be put These Papers that haue now begun thy praise I will continue in those after-dayes Manl. lib. 4. de Astronom is thus quoted An dubium est habitare Deum sub pectore nostr◠In coelumque redire Animas coeloque venire Who doubts but God dwells in this earthly Frame And Soules returne to Haev'n from whence they came And Lucretius we reade thus Cedit enim retro de terra quid fuit ante In terra sed quod missum est ex Etheris oris Id rursum Coeli fulgentia templa receptus c. That which before was made of earth the same Returnes backe vnto earth from whence it came But that which from th' aethereall parts was lent Is vp vnto those shining Temples sent I haue hitherto spoke of the two distinct parts of Man the Soule and the Body A word or two of Man in generall Homo Man is Anima Rationalis or Mortalis A Creature reasonable and mortall Not so denominated ab Humo as Varro would haue it for that is common with all other Creatures but rather of the Greeke word Omonoia that is Concordia or Consensus Concord or Con-societie because that Man is of all other the most sociable The Nobilitie of Man in regard of the sublimitie of his Soule is expressed in Genes 1. Let vs make Man after our owne Image and similitude c. The humility which ought to be in him concerning the substance whereof he was made Genes 2. The Lord made Man of the slime of the earth The shortnesse of his life Psal. 102. My dayes are declined like a shadow and I am as the Grasse of the field The multiplicitie of his miseries Gen. 3. In the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eat thy bread c. Gregory Nazianzen in Oration 10. vseth these words What is Man that thou art so mindefull of him What new miserie is this I am little and great humble and high mortall and immortal earthly and heauenly the first from this world the later from God the one from the Flesh the other from the Spirit Tertullian Apollogetic advers Gentil cap. 48. hath this Meditation Dost thou aske me how this dissolued Matter shall be again supplied Consider with thy selfe ô Man and bethinke thy selfe what thou wast before thou hadst Being Certainely nothing at all for if any thing thou shouldst remember what thou hadst beene Thou therefore that wast nothing before thou wert shalt againe be made nothing when thou shalt cease to be And why canst thou not againe from Nothing haue Being by the wil of the same Workeman whose will was That at the first thou shouldst haue existence from nothing What new thing shall betide thee Thou which wast not wert made when thou againe art not thou shalt be made Giue me if thou canst a reason how thou wert created at first and then thou
and Purple shine And scorning others thinkst thy selfe Diuine Tomorrow of thy pompe art dis-array'd And in the Graue aside for wormes meat layd Why doth thy tumerous heart swell thus in vaine Things both beyond thee and deny'd t' attaine Why in Mansolean Structures aime to sleepe Thinking thereby thy rottennesse to keepe From the lesse putrid earth O foolish man Be not deceiv'd for know Before thou can Aspire a glorious place aboue to haue Thou must as all lie rotten in thy Graue Adages concerning man and their good or bad affections one towards another are these Homo Homini Deus Homo Homini Lupus One Man to Man a god we see Another a meere Wolfe to be Amongst many other ingenious and accurate Emblems written by Anton. F. Castrodunensis I haue onely selected one to this purpose Ornamenta gerens Cornix aliena superbit c. The Crow trickt vp in borrow'd plumes growes prowd And thinkes her selfe with what 's her owne endow'd But when each Bird doth for her feather call Dis-rob'd she growes a publique scorne to all Man whilst he liues to be that Crow is knowne Who nothing that he weares can call his owne Death summoning and you stript naked then Alas what haue you to be proud of Men The Hierogliphycke of Man is the Palme tree and that for a twofold reason first Because it bringeth forth no fruit vnles the male be planted neere and in sight of the female By which it is imagined they haue a kinde of Coitus or copulation the boughes being full of masculine gemmes like seed And next because in the vpper part thereof there is a kinde of braine which the Hebrewes call Halulab and the Arabs Chedar or Gemmar which being bruised or tainted the tree instantly withereth as man dieth presently when his braine is perished which is onely to be found in this Plant. Besides in the top or head thereof there is that which resembleth haire The branches grow after the manner of the armes and hands extended and stretched forth and the fruit thereof is like fingers and therefore are called Dactili or Digiti Erudit quid lib. 2. Hierogl Collect. Concerning Hell and the torments thereof wee reade the Fathers thus Gregory Moral lib. 9. saith In horrible manner it hapneth to those wretched Soules who haue Death without death End without end Defect without defect because Death euer liueth the End alwayes beginneth and Defect knoweth not how to be deficient Death slayeth but killeth not sorrow excruciateth but easeth not the flame burneth but consumeth not And the same Father Lib. 4. Dialog The Soule confined thither hath lost the happinesse to be well but not to Be for which reason it is compelled to suffer death without death defect without defect end without end because vnto it Death is made immortall Defect indeficient and End infinite And Saint Augustine lib. de Agenda cura pro Mortuis speaking of the Rich man tormented in Hell saith That his care of the Liuing whose actions hee knew not was like ours of the Dead or whose estate wee are ignorant Isiod lib. 1. de Summo Bono saith That the fire of Hell giues light vnto the Damned so farre as they may see whereat to grieue but not to behold from what they may draw comfort And the same Author in his Meditation Gehennalis supplicij Consider all the paines and afflictions of this World all the griefe of torments the bitternesse of sorrowes and grieuousnesse of afflictions and compare them with the least torment of Hell and it is easie which thou sufferest for the punishment of the Damned is in that place doubled for sorrow burneth the heart and the flame the body And Hugo lib. 4. de Anima The infernall Lake is without measure it is deepe without bottome full of incomparable heate full of intollerable stench full of innumerable sorrowes there is miserie there is darkenesse there is no order but all confusion there is horror eternall no hope of any good nor termination of euill Saint Chrisostome Hom. 48. de Ira vseth this similitude I would not haue thee to thinke saith he that as it is in this life so it is in the other That to haue partners and companions in grief can be any comfort or abatement to thy sorrow but rather of the contrarie For tell me If a father condemned to the fire shal behold his sonne in the same torment will not the very sight thereof bee as another death vnto him For if those who be in perfect health at the sight of others torments faint and are ready to depart with life how much more shal they be afflicted and excruciated when they are fellow-sufferers of the same tortures Mankind is prone to compassion and wee are easily moued to commiserate other mens grieuances Therefore how can the Father take comfort to behold his sonne in the same condemnation the husband the wife or the brother the brother c. rather it doth adde vnto their miseries and make their griefe the greater Saint Origen in Matth. cap. 16. vseth this comparison As euery gate of a city hath it's proper denomination so may wee say of euery port or dore that opens into Hell one may be called Scortatio or Whoring by which Whore-monghrs enter another Swearing by which Blasphemers haue accesse And so of Enuy Gluttony and the rest euery one bearing name according to the nature of the offence Bion was wont to say That the passage vnto Hell was easie because men might finde the way thither blinde-fold or with shut eyes For so it fareth with all dead men from whence wee reade that in Virgil facilis discensus Averni Noctes atque dies patet atri janua ditis The same Bion was wont to jest at the punishment of the daughters of Danaus in Hell who are forced to carry water in bottomlesse pales to fill a leaking Vessell saying The torment had beene greater if their pales had been whole and sound for so their burdens had been the heauier Laërtius lib. 4. cap. 7. And Demonax being demanded of one What he thought the estate and condition of the Soules departed was in the other World made answer That he could not as then resolue him but if hee had the patience to stay till hee had beene there hee would write him newes thereof in a letter Intimating thereby That hee beleeued there was no Hell at all Erasmus Lib. Apotheg Sophocles in Oëdip calleth Hell a blacke Darknesse And Euripides in Aristid An obscure House or Pallace shadowed from the bright beames of the Sunne Theogius giues it the name of the Blacke Gates And Eustathius in 1. Isliad saith it is a dark place vnder the earth Saint Basil sup Psal. 33. calleth it a darke Fire that hath lost it's brightnesse but keepes it's burning And Saint Gregory Moral lib. 9. cap. 46. It burneth but giueth no light at all The antient Poets in regard of the tenebrositie thereof compare Hell to a
that blacke deed For ev'ry one in deepe amasement stood As loth to dip their hands in sacred blood Pray giue me leaue to make a short digression Of a most needfull note to make expression Fitly'inserted here t' auoid confusion Which else might be some maime to the conclusion She was no sooner Partner in the Throne But fearing how her father would bemone Her desp'rat losse shee 's willing that her state He and her friends should all participate And therefore Letters were dispatch'd with speed To signifie how all things did succeed The journall of her trauels she recites With ev'ry circumstance and then inuites Her Father Brother Sister hauing past So many dangers and now come at last To such an eminent fortune they would please To leaue their natiue Soile crossing the seas To giue her a wisht visit since all joyes Pleasures delights and honors seem'd but toyes And idle dreames nay ev'n the Diadem It selfe if not worne in the sight of them Too late this newes was for vpon her losse Immediatly the good man needs would crosse To Delphos then the Sister him pursues Of him or her t' enquire some certaine newes Resolv'd abroad their trauels how to frame So both were absent when these letters came But the glad tydings when the Brother h'ard He for a voyage instantly prepar'd For till he saw her in her state appeare Each day an Age seemes ev'ry houre a yeare Imagin him arriv'd vpon the Coast Where she whose presence he desired most Waits till the Captaine of the Pyrats can Be thither brought who meagre pale and wan Enters but like the picture of Despaire His head browes cheekes and chin o'regrowne with haire His Cloathes so ragg'd and tatter'd that alas No one could ghesâ—e him for the man he was Besides consider but their severall change No wonder each to other seem'd so strange For none of them could haue least expectation To meet there after such long separation Therefore the Queene conceiues not the least doubt But that he was the same he was giv'n out For a meere desp'râ—t Ruffian she doth take him And in the open coâ—â—â—uence thus bespake him Thou of the Seas a Rouer and a Theefe And of these late wâ—ackt Pyrats head and chiefe By the Heav'ns iust doome throwne vpon our borders And for your outrages and base disorders Doom'd vnto lasting durance if this day I shall propose to shee a certaine way By which thou may it thine owne inlargement gaine With all the rest of thine imprisoned traine Wilt thou accept it He who had not seene The Sun of long till then casts on the Queene A stedfast looke and with some admiration Of her rare beauty makes this protestation Angell or goddesse whether 'T is my feare To question which you are for you appeare To be the one or other since that face Had neuer breeding from a mortall Race O but your language tun'd to such a motion Makes me beleeue you' are she who from the Ocean Was thought to be emergent Elce that Maid Who of the braine of Iupiter was said To be conceiv'd not borne although there bred Till Vulcan with an hatchet cleft his head Elce Iuno she that 〈◊〉 Hymens fires The Queene of Marriage and of Chast desires One of these three vnto your lot must fall Who stroue on Ida for the golden Ball. You speake of my inlargement Set me cleare And were 't to coape a Tygre or a Beare With Theseus Minotaure or Perseus Whale That huge sea-Monster who had 〈◊〉 scale Lesse penetrible than brasse set me vpon A fierce Chimaera as Bellerephon Was once implov'd three horrid shapes commixt An Hiena and a Crocodile betwixt But since I needs must into mischiefe runne Your Will is Law and something must be done Yet first beare record you and all your Traine I am no such base Ruffian as to staine My hands in innocent bloud I haue nor skill Nor practise how to rauish rob or kill No Pyrat but a Father much distrest By Neptune's fury shipwrackt in the quest Of a lost Childe whom might I liue to see Death now alas would be new life to mee But that 's past hope In search of her I came Epyre my Countrey Thestor is my name And be you Testates all of you how I A wretched Father Fortunes Martyr dy No sooner had he vttred that last word And ready now to fall vpon the sword But out the Priest steps from amongst the rest And snatcht the weapon from her fathers brest Which forc'd out of his hand she said No father There is no cause why you should die but rather This lustfull Queene Then aim'd to strike her dead Who stands amas'd at what her father sed A Courtier next her the keene point put by When suddenly the Queene was heard to cry O Father I am she you long haue sought And with that word about his necke him caught This when the elder Sister wondring sees Her haire with strugling fell below her knees Seeming to those which did this change behold As were she mantled in a shroud of gold Which made her Sex apparant to their view So by degrees each one the other knew How should my barren Braine or Pen be able T' expresse their joyes which are not explicable For extasies arising from the heart By sudden chance surcharging ev'ry part Of the Soules faculties in most strange fashion Make rapture to proceed from admiration In such a pleasing diffidence they grow They scarce beleeue what they both see and know Of what all are assur'd no one but feares Till joyes affects breed the effect of teares Much would be said but none can silence breake All full of matter but none pow'r to speake In this distraction there 's a rumor growne Of a yong man a stranger and vnknowne Arriv'd at Court who hearing the great fame Of that braue Queene as far as Epire came To visit her At the word Epire they Are startled all the Princesse bids make way To giue him entrance O what expectation Had they then to behold one of their Nation By reason of her Letters the Queene she Might happily conjecture who't might be But the two other could not apprehend What man should be employ'd or who should send Therefore new scruples in their thoughts begin When by a Lord-like Eunuch vsher'd in Hee 's brought into the Presence and soone knowne Because assuming no shape but his owne Then suddenly they all vpon him runne The Sisters cry out Brother Thestor Sonne And all at once their armes about him cast But were so chang'd from that he saw them last To haue retyr'd himselfe was his intent Not vnderstanding what such greeting meant Because the elder Sister at first sight Appear'd to him a strange Hermophrodite Nor of the other could he knowledge haue The Sire so ragged and the Queene so braue But finding them persist in their embraces And
It is said of Antigonus the first King of Macedonie That being asked Why in his youth being no better than a Tyrant in his age he gouerned with such clemencie gentlenesse his answer was That in his youth he stroue to get a kingdome and in his age hee desired to keepe it The Poet Hermodotus in one of his Poems had called the King the sonne of Iupiter Which when the King heard he said Surely he that attends me in my chamber when I am forced to do the necessities of Nature was neuer of that Fellowes counsell When the Souldiers and men at Armes that followed Scipio in Africa were fled and Cato being vanquished by Caesar at Vtica had slaine himselfe Caesar said I enuy thy death vnto thee ô Cato since thou hast enuied vnto me the sauing of thy life In a great battell when one of his Standard-bearers was turning his backe to haue fledâ— Caesar tooke him by the shoulders and turning him about said See Fellow yonder be they whom we fight against When many dangerous conspiracies were abroch and diuers of his friends wished him to be chary of his safety hee answered Much better it is to die at once than to liue in feare alwayes The Inhabitants of Tarracon as a glad presage of prosperous successe brought tydings to Augustus That in his Altar a young Palme tree was suddenly sprung vp To whom hee made answer By this it appeareth how oft you burne Incense in our honour When hee had heard that Alexander hauing at two and thirtie yeares of age ouercome the greater part of the knowne world and had made a doubt what he should finde himself to do the remainder of his life I maruell said Augustus that Alexander iudged it not a greater act to gouern well what he had gotten than to purchase so large a dominion It was hee who said I found Rome made of Brickes but I will leaue it of Marble Which saying putteth me in mind considering the vncertaintie and instability of things of an excellent Epigram composed by Ianus Vitalis de Roma antiqua Of antient Rome Quid Romam in media quaeris novus Advena Roma Et Romae in Roma nil reperis medio Aspice murorum molas praerupt aque saxa Obrutaque horrenti vasta Theatra situ Haec sunt Roma c. New Stranger to the City come Who midst of Rome enquir'st for Rome And midst of Rome canst nothing spye That lookes like Rome cast backe thine eye Behold of walls the ruin'd mole The broken stones not one left whole Vast Theatres and Structures high That leuell with the ground now lye These now are Rome and of that Towne Th' Imperious Reliques still do frowne And ev'n in their demolisht seat The Heav'ns aboue them seem to threat As she the World did once subdue Ev'n so her selfe she ouerthrew Her hand in her owne bloud she'embru'd Lest she should leaue ought vnsubdu'd Vanquisht in Rome Invict Rome now Intombed lies as forc'd to bow The same Rome of the World the head Is Vanquisher and Vanquished The riuer Albula's the same And still preserues the Roman name Which with a swift and speedy motion Is hourely hurry'd to the Ocean Learne hence what Fortune can what 's strong And seemeth fixt endures not long But more assurance may be layd On what is mouing and vnstayd Phocion a noble Counsellor of Athens of high wisedom singular prudence noble policie incorrupt manners and incomparable innocencie and integritie of life of such admirable constancy of minde that he was neuer known to laugh weepe or change countenance He knowing the ignorance and dissolute manners of the people vpon a time hauing made a very excellent Oration much commended and highly applauded by the multitude hee turned to his friends and said What is it that I haue spoke amisse or otherwise than well for which the people thus extoll mee To Demosthenes the Orator who said vnto him The Athenians will put thee to death one day Phociâ—n when they shall grow to bee mad he replied Me indeed when they are mad but thee most certainly when they come to be in their right wits againe Alexander sending vnto him an hundred talents hee demanded of the messengers that brought it For what cause the King was so bountifull to him aboue others They answered Because hee iudged him of all the Athenians to be a iust and honest man When refusing the gold he said Then let him suffer me not onely to be so reputed but to proue me to be such an one indeed c. Pompey being yong and hauing done many worthy and remarkable seruices for Sylla who was now growne in yeares demanded a Triumph which Sylla opposed But after Pompey in a great confluence of people had said aloud Sylla Art thou ignorant that more people adore the Sun at his rising than his going downe Sylla with a loud voice cried out Let him triumph To one Caius Pompilius an ignorant Lawyer in Rome who being brought to giue euidence in a Cause and saying That hee knew nothing nor could speake any thing in the matter Cicero replied You thinke perchance Pompilius that you are asked a question about some point in the Law Pompey and Caesar being at great debate and variance he said He knew not whose part to refuse or whose side to follow After the great battell fought in Pharsalia when Pompey was fled one Nonius a great Captain thinking to incourage the Souldiers bad them to be of good comfort for there were yet seuen Eagles left To him Cicero replied Thy chearing ô Nonius might proue very aduantageous vnto vs if we were now to fight against Iayes Of one Cuminius Revelus who was chosen Consull and within two houres displaced by reason hee was tainted of Perjury he said That he had one chance hapned him aboue all other in that place for the Records were searched in which Consuls time he was Consull To one Iulius Curtius belying his age because hee would be still esteemed young Cicero said Then it appeareth That at the same season when you and I were yong schollers first and exercised Orations together you were not borne And to one Fabia Dolabella affirming shee was but thirty yeares old hee replied Indeed Lady I haue heard as much as you speake twenty yeares ago Demosthenes being one of the tenne whom the Athenians sent Embassadors to Philip King of Macedon at their returne when Eschines and Philocrates whom Philip had entertained with extaordinary courtesie aboue the rest had spoken royally and amply in his commendations praising him especially for three things That he was of an extraordinarie beautifull aspect That hee had a fluent and eloquent tongue and That he was a liberall and free Drinker Demosthenes interrupted them and auouched publiquely That not one of all those was seemely in a King For the first he said belonged to Women the second appertained to Sophists and Rhetoricians and the third to
giueth vs to know That excellent Spirits are not by Death extinguished or neglected but are rather transmigrated from the earth to reigne with the Powers aboue The second fore-shewes the calamitie of a People new left destitute of a Prince or Gouernor thereby fore-warning them to preuent and prepare themselues against all imminent perils The third giues vs warning that the time of the last expiration being come his friends and Allyes should take notice of the Diuine fauour that his body dying his Soule still suruiueth and that hee is not lost to his friends and familiars This was the opinion of some Philosophers Iamblic de Myster saith That as God oftentimes from the mouth of Fooles produceth wisedome declaring thereby that Man speaketh not but God himselfe so by euery sleight and vile thing hee portendeth what is to ensue keeping still his owne super-eminence and thereby instructing our weake vnderstanding And Guliel Pachimer Hist. lib. 6. saith Prodigium est Divinae irae signum c. A Prodegy is a signe of the wrath of God but whether it portendeth or looketh vpon things past or present is beyond our apprehension But this is an argument which I desire not too long to insist vpon c. In the discourse of Lucifer and his Adherents newly fallen from grace it will not be impertinent to speake something of his first and greatest master-piece in tempting our first Parents to sinne by which came death For Death was not made by God being nothing els as Saint Augustine against the Pelagians saith but a priuation of life hauing a name and no essence as Hunger is said to be a defect of food Thirst a want of moisture and Darknesse the priuation of light It therefore hauing a name and no Being God was neither the Creator nor Cause thereof Salomon saith God hath not made Death neither hath he any pleasure in the destruction of the Liuing for he created all things that they might haue their Being and the generations of the world are preserued And in an other place Through enuy of the Diuell came Death into the world He then being the author of Sin is likewise the author of Death And yet though he had power to tempt man to Sinne Man hauing Free-will he could not constraine him to giue consent This proud Angell by his owne insolence being cast from heauen began to enuy mans felicity vpon earth and to that purpose entred the Serpent which is said to be more subtill than any beast of the field And as Rupertus super Genesis saith Before the Serpent was made the Diuels Organ hee might haue beene termed most wise and prudent for it is said in Mathew Be ye therefore wise as Serpents Him as Saint Chrisostome writes the Diuell found best sitting for his hellish enterprise and in his spirituall malice by meanes of his Angelicall presence and excellent nature abusing both as instruments of his falsehood and treacherie hee wrought with to speake to the woman being the weaker Bodie and therefore the lesse able to resist temptation Neither did the Serpent speake vnto her but the Diuell in him as the good Angell did in Balaams Asse for the good Angels and euill work like operations but to diuers effects Petrus Commestor in his Scholasticall Historie writeth That at the time when the Serpent tempted the woman hee was straight and went upright like a man but after the Curse he was doomd to crawle vpon the face of the earth And Venerable Bede saith That the Diuell chose a Serpent which had the face of a woman Quod similia similibus applaudant That Like might be pleasing to Like The Holy Historie doth recite three distinct punishments of the Serpent the Woman and the Man the Serpent was cursed beyond any other beast or creature to crawle vpon his belly and eat dust all his life time enuy being put betweene the woman and her race on the one side and the Serpent and his race on the other so that Man should breake the head of the Serpent and the Serpent bruise the heele of Man The Woman was punished by pluralitie of paines in her conception and to bring forth her children with teares and lamentations c. In the next place comes Man who hauing heard and giuen consent to the words of his wife and eaten the fruit of the forbidden Tree hee must also be punished God said vnto him That the earth should be accursed for his sake in trauel and pain should he till it all his life time it should bring forth thornes and thistles vnto him he should feed on the herbs of the field and eat his bread in the sweat of his browes vntill he was returned vnto that earth from whence he had been taken Of this great Tempter the Diuell by whom sinne death and damnation first entred Saint Augustine in one of his Meditations vseth words to this purpose The Tempter was present neither wanted there time or place but thou keptst me ô Lord that I gaue not consent vnto him The Tempter came in Darknesse but thou didst comfort mee with thy Light The Tempter came armed and strong but thou didst strengthen mee and weaken him that he should not ouercome The Tempter came transfigured into an Angell of Light but thou didst illuminate mee to discouer him and curbe him that he could not preuaile against me He is the Great and Red Dragon the old Serpent called the Diuell and Sathan hauing seuen heads and ten hornes whom thou didst create a derider and mocker in the great and spacious sea in which creepe Creatures without number small and great These are the seuerall sorts of Diuels who night and day trauell from place to place seeking whom they may deuoure which doubtlesse they would do didst not thou preserue them This is the old Dragon who was borne in the Paradise of pleasure that with his taile sweepes away the third part of the Stars of heauen and casts them on the earth who with his poyson infects the waters of the earth that such men as drinke thereof may die who prostitutes gold before him as dust who thinkes hee can drinke Iordan dry at one draught and is made so that he doth not feare any And who shall defend vs from his bitings and plucke vs ou◠of his jawes but thou ô Lord who hast broken the head of the great Dragon Do thou helpe vs spread thy wings ouer vs that vnder them we may fly from this Dragon who pursueth vs and with thy shield and buckler defend vs from his hornes It is his sole desire and continuall study to destroy those Soules whom thou hast created And therefore ô God we call vnto thee to free vs from our deadly Aduersarie who whether we wake or sleepe whether we eat or drinke or whatsoeuer else wee doe is alwayes at hand night and day with his craft and fraud now openly then secretly directing his impoysoned
and to all such as put confidence in them deceitfull and their practise was altogether exploded in Rome Stobaeus Serm. 2. de Impudentia reporteth That Ariston was wont to say of all such as gaue themselues ouer to Encyclopaedia or Mathematicall discipline neglecting meane time the more necessarie study of Philosophie That they might fitly be compared with the sutors of Penelope who when they could not enioy mistres went about to vitiate and corrupt the maids Dion Cassius tels vs That the Emperour Hadrian by his skill in this Mathesis could predict things future by which he knew Varus not to be long liued from that verse of Virgil Ostendit terris hunc tantum Fata neque vltra Esse sinunt c. i. The Fates will only shew him to the Earth and then suffer him to be no more Clemens lib. 5. Recognit saith As it happeneth vnto men who haue dreams and vnderstand nothing of their certaintie yet when any euent shall happen they apt their nightly fancy to that which hath chanced euen such is this Mathesis before somthing come to passe they can pronounce nothing which is certaine or to be built vpon but when any thing is once past then they begin to gather the causes of that which already hath the euent By the creature Oryges painted or insculpt the AEgyptians did hierogliphycally figure a Mathematician for they with great adoration honor their Star Sothes which we cal Canicula and with great curiositie obserue the time when it riseth because they say the Oryges is sencible of the influence thereof by a certain sound which it yeeldeth and not onely giueth notice of it's comming but saluteth it when it appeareth rising Pier. Valer. Lib. 10. Pag. 90. The Emblem THe Emblem to conclude this Tractat I borrow from Iacobus Catsius Emblem lib. 3. which presenteth a hand out of a Cloud holding a Brand in the fire that part which handeth being free the other flaming The Motto Qua non vrit It seemeth to be deriued from Eccles. cap. 3.16 He hath set water and fire before thee stretch out thine hand to which thou wilt Before Man is life and death good and euill what him liketh shall be giuen him So also Ierem. 21.8 And vnto this People thou shalt say Thus saith the Lord Behold I set before thee the way of Life and the way of Death And Deutronom 30.19 I call Heauen and Earth to record this day against you that I haue set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing chuse therefore Life that c. Whoso is free and will willingly run into fetters what can we call him but a foole And he who becommeth a Captiue without constraint must be either thought to be wilfull or witlesse And as Theopompus affirmeth If the Eye be the chuser the Delight is short If the Will the end is Want But if Reason the effect is Wisedome For often it happeneth after the choice of a momentarie pleasure ensueth a lasting calamitie The Authors Conceit hereon is this Pars sudis igne caret rapidis calet altera flammis Hinc nocet illaesam calfacit inde manum Ecce Bonum Deus ecce Malum mortalibus affert Quisquis es en tibi Mors en tibi Vita patet Optio tot a tua ' est licet hinc licet inde capessus Elige sive invet vivere sive mori Quid tibi cum Sodoma nihil hic nisi Sulphur Ignis Quin potius placidum Loth duce Zoar adi ¶ Thus paraphrased Part of the Brand wants fire and part flames hot One burnes the hand the other harmes it not Behold ô mortall Man whoe're thou be Good Bad both Life and Death propos'd to thee God giues thee choice the one or other try By this thou liv'st and thou by that shalt die Leaue Sodom then where Sulphur raines in fire And with good Loth to Zoar safe retyre A morall interpretation may be gathered from the same with this Motto anexed Omnia in meliorem partem Bodinus saith Men vse to chuse a faire day by the gray morning and strong beasts by their sturdy limbes But in choice of pleasures there is no election to be made since they yeeld vs no profitable vse Others chuse Aduocates by the throng of their Clients Physitions by the fame of their Cures and Wiues by their rich Portions or Dowers And well they comply with the prouerbe He that maketh his choice without discretion is like one that soweth his Corne he wots not when and in the haruest expected reapeth hee knoweth not what Needfull it is therefore that wee be chary in our choice since there are so few brought within the compasse of Election According to that of the Poet. Pauci quos equus amavit Iupiter aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus There are but few whom vpright Iove doth loue Or zealous Vertue gaines them place aboue In another place he saith Pauci laeta arva tenemus i. There are but few of vs who attaine to the blessed Fields If Morallists were so watchfull how much more ought wee Christians to be wary how in all things proposed vnto vs we still like Mary in the Gospell chuse the better part For Liber esse non potest cui affectus imperant cupiditates dominantur i. he is not said to be free whom his affections sway and ouer whom his own lusts and desires haue dominion Lipsius Cent. 1. ad Belg. Epist. 5. saith Vt torrem semiustum foco qui tollit non ea parte arripit tractat qua incanduit sed qua ignem nondum accepit sic nos docet c. i. As hee who snatcheth a Brand out of the fire taketh not hold thereof by that part which is flaming but rather that which hath not touched the fire so we ought not to meddle with the bitter and burning things of Chance but rather such as are more benign and comfortable The Authors inuention followeth Hinc rubet igne sudes nullis crepat inde favillis Hinc poterit tangi sauciat inde manum Res humana bifrons tu qua iuvat arripe quicquid Te super aetherea te regione fluit Damna suum lucrum suagandia luctus habebit Excipis incumbens si sapienter onus Morosum nec laeta iuvant rideat orbis Quod gemet ille tamen quodque quaeratur habet ¶ Thus paraphrased Fire here none there yet is it but one Brand One burnes the other end scarse heats thine hand Fate hath two foreheads what to hate or loue To leaue or like is offered from aboue Losse hath it's Gaine and Mourning a Reward Stoope willingly the burden is not hard Mirth doth not please the Sad and though Fate smile We shall finde some thing to lament the while A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I. AId me ô Lord my God for there be three Grand enemies the Flesh the World the Diuel Who with their Nets and Snares insidiat
all at one birth c. Hector Boethius writeth That in Scotland in the County of Marr a Maid of a noble Family of great beautie but altogether auerse from mariage was found with child At which the Parents much grieued were importunat to know by whom she was vitiated To whom she ingeniously confessed That a beautifull young man had nightly conuersation and company with her but from whence he was she was altogether ignorant They though they held this answer to be but an excuse and therefore gaue smal credit vnto it yet because she told them the third night after he had appointed to lodge with her kept the houre and with swords candles and torches brake open the dores of her chamber where they might espy an hideous Monster and beyond humane capacitie terrible in the close embraces of their daughter They stand stupified feare makes them almost without motion The clamor flies abroad the neighbours come in to be spectators of the wonderment and amongst them the Parson of the parish who was a Scholler and a man of vnblemisht life and conuersation who seeing this prodigious spectacle broke out into those words of Saint Iohn the Euangelist Et Verbum Caro factum est And the Word was made Flesh which was no sooner spoke but the Diuel arose and suddenly vanished in a terrible storme carrying with him the roofe of the chamber and setting fire on the bed wherein he had lien which was in a moment burned to ashes Shee was within three dayes after deliuered of a Monster such as the Father appeared vnto them of so odible an aspect that the Midwiues caus'd it instantly to be burnt lest the infamy of the daughter might too much reflect vpon the innocencie of the Noble Parents The same Author recordeth the like wonderment in a Ship of passengers who tooke in their lading at Fortha to land in the Low-Countries which being in the middest of Sommer there grew so sudden a storme that the main-mast was split the sailes rent the Tacles torne in pieces and nothing but imminent shipwracke was expected The Pilot cries out in regard the storme was intempestiue it being then the Summer Solstice when the Seas are for the most part temperat and calme that it must needs be the worke of the Diuell When suddenly was heard a lamentable complaint of a woman passenger below the Decke confessing that all this disaster was for her sake for hauing often carnal company with the diuel he at that time was tempting her to that abhominable act which a Priest a passenger then among them hearing persuaded her to repentance and not to despaire but to call vpon God for mercy which she did with many sighes and teares when presently they might espy a cloud or darke shadow in the shape of a man to ascend from the Hold of the ship with a great sound fire smoke and stench to vanish after which the tempest ceased and they in a calme sea arriued safe at their expected Harbor From the Incubi I come to the Succubae I haue read of a French man of a Noble Family who being giuen ouer to all voluptuousnesse and walking one night somwhat late in the streets of Paris at the corner of a Lane he espied a very handsome Creature whom presently he began to court and finding her tractable they agreed that she should passe that night with him in his Lodging To which he brought her priuatly for it was a chamber which he had tooke of purpose for such retyrements To bed they go and he when he had sated himselfe sufficiently grew wearie and fell fast asleepe But in the morning when hee put his arme ouer his louing bed-fellow he found her bodie to be as cold as lead and without motion When he perceiued her to be senselesse and quite dead for with no jogging nor pinching shee did either moue or stirre he instantly rose and calling his Host and Hostesse told them what a great disaster had hapned him to his vtter disgrace and ruine They were as much perplexed as not knowing how to dispose of the dead body all of them fearing to incurre the strict censure of the Law In this their general distraction the Hostesse looking aduisedly vpon the face of the dead Coarse she first began to thinke that she had seene her before and that her countenance had beene familiar vnto her then recollecting her selfe shee seemed perfectly to know her affirming her to be a Witch who had two dayes before suffered on the Gallowes This seemed first incredible yet the present necessity inforced them to make triall whether it were so or no and therefore making enquirie where the body of the Witch was buried and not being found there it was afterwards by all circumstance proued to be the same which a Succubus had entred By the which probabilitie the Gentleman and Host escaped the imputation of murther though not the disgrace of incontinencie and Brothelrie Bonfinius and Iordanus Gothus testate that the Nation of the Hunnes came from the Incubi For say they Filmerus King of the Goths banished all the Whores and Prostitutes out of his Army into solitarie and desart places lest they should effoeminate and weaken the bodies and mindes of his souldiers To these came Diuels and had carnall societie with them from whom came the cruell and barbarous nation of the Hunnes whose manners and conditions are not onely alienate from all humanity but euen their language degenerat from all other Tougues spoken by men Neither of the Heauens nor of the Starres haue the Diuels any power because for their Pride and impious imaginations they are confined to eternall torments neither can they work any thing vpon coelestiall Bodies which are meerely simple and thereforsubiect to no alteration Of this opinion was Saint Augustine in his book against the Manichees as also in that De Agone Christi writing thus These things I haue spoken that no man may thinke the euill Spirits can haue ought to do where God hath appointed the Sunne Moone and Starres to haue their aboad To the which he addeth Neither let vs thinke that the Diuell can haue any power there from whence hee and his cursed Angels were precipitate and fallen Therefore they haue no further dominion than within the compasse of the foure Elements but beyond them to the superior heauens they cannot extend their malice Yet the antient Writers hold That they namely the fiery Spirits haue a kind of operation in thunder lightning Of which Pliny giueth an example Before the death of Augustus a flash of lightning in Rome where his statue was set vp from CAESAR tooke away the first letter C and left the rest standing The Aruspices and Sooth-sayers consulted vpon this and concluded that within an hundred dayes Augustus should change this life for AEsar in the Hetrurian tongue signifieth Deus i. God and the letter C. among the Romans stands for an hundred
them Fairies In solitarie roomes These vprores keepe And beat at dores to wake men from their sleepeâ— Seeming to force locks be they ne're so strong And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long Pots glasses trenchers dishes pannes and kettles They will make dance about the shelues and settles As if about the Kitchen tost and cast Yet in the moruing nothing found misplac't Others such houses to their vse haue fitted In which base murthers haue been once committed Some haue their fearefull habitations taken In desolat houses ruin'd and forsaken Examples faile not to make these more plaine The house wherein Caligula was slaine To enter which none euer durst aspire After his death till 't was consum'd by fire The like in Athens of which Pliny writes In his Epistles As Facetius cites In Halberstad saith he there is a Dwelling Of great remarke the neighbour roofes excelling For architecture in which made aboad A mighty rich man and a belly-god After whose death his soule gon Heav'n knowes whither Not one night fail'd for many moneths together But all the roomes with lighted tapers shone As if the darknesse had beene chac't and gone And Day there onely for his pleasure stay'd In the great chamber where before were made His riotous feasts the casements standing wide Clearely through that transparance is espy'de This Glutton whom they by his habit knew At the boords end feasting a frolicke crew Of lusty stomacks that about him sate Serv'd in with many a costly delicate Course after Course and ev'ry Charger full Neat Seruitors attended not one dull But ready to shift trenchersâ— and fill wine In guilded bowles for all with plate doth shine And amongst them you could not spy a guest But seem'd some one he in his life did feast At this high rate they seem'd to spend the night But all were vanisht still before day light Of Bishop Datius a learn'd Clerke thus saith He for the true profession of his Faith Sent into exile in his difficult way Opprest with penurie was forc'd to stay In Corinth nor there lodging could he haue In any Inne or place conuenient saue A corner house suppos'd to be inchanted And at that time with sundry Diuels haunted There taking vp his lodging and alone He soundly slept till betwixt twelue and one When suddenly he knew not by what cranny The dores bee'ng fast shut to him came a many Of Diuels thronging deckt in sundry shapes Like Badgers Foxes Hedge-hogs Hares and Apes Others more terrible like Lions rore Some grunt like hogs the like ne're heard before Like Bulls these bellow those like Asses bray Some barke like ban-dogs some like horses ney Some howle like Wolues others like Furies yell Scarse that blacke Santus could be match'd in hell At which vp starts the noble Priest and saith O you accursed Fiends Vassals of wrath That first had in the East your habitation Till you by pride did forfeit your saluation With the blest Angels you had then your seat But by aspiring to be god-like great Behold your rashnesse punisht in your features Being transhap'd into base abject creatures This hauing spoke the Spirits disappeard The house of them for euer after clear'd One thing though out of course it may appeare Yet I thought fit to be inserted here The rather too the Reader I prepare Because it may seeme wonderfull and rare Receiue 't as you thinke good or if you please To beleeue Plutarch then his words are these One call'd Enapius a yong man well bred By the Physitions was giv'n out for dead And left to his last sheet After some howers He seem'd to recollect his vitall powers To liue againe and speake The reason why Demanded of his strange recouerie His answer was That he was dead 't was true And brought before th' infernall Bar. They view Him o're and o're then call to them who'haue charge The spirit from the body to inlarge Whom Pluto with the other Stygian Pow'rs Thus threat Base Vassals can we thinke you ours Or worthy our imployment to mistake In such a serious errand Do we make You Officers and Lictors to arrest Such as are call'd to their eternall rest And when we send for one whose dismall fate Proclaimes him dead you bring vs one whose date Is not yet summ'd but of a vertue stronger As limited by vs to liue much longer We sent that with Nicander you should meet A Currier that dwells in such a street And how haue you mistooke This Soule dismisse And fetch his hither to our darke Abisse With that saith he I waken'd His friends sent Vnto the Curriers house incontinent And found him at the very instant dead When he his former life recouered And though meere fabulous this seeme to be Yet is it no impossibilitie Fiends should delude the Ethnicks and on them Confer this as a cunning stratagem To make them thinke that he dispos'd mans breath And had the sole pow'r ouer life and death At nothing more these auerse Spirits aime Than what is Gods vnto themselues to claime Others there are as if destin'd by lot To haue no pow'r but ouer goods ill got For instance One long with the world at strife Who had profest a strict religious life And taken holy Orders at his booke Spending his spare houres to a crafty Cooke Was neere ally'de and at his best vacation Findes out a time to giue him visitation And greets him with a blessing The fat Host Is glad to see his Vncle Sod and Rost He sets before him there is nothing fit To bid him welcome wanting downe they sit The good old man after some small repast More apt to talke than eat demands at last Of his Lay Nephew since he toiles and striues In this vaine world to prosper how he thriues The Cooke first fetcheth a deepe sigh then sayes O Vncle I haue sought my state to raise By ev'ry indirect and law lesse meane Yet still my couetous aimes are frustrat cleane I buy stale meat and at the cheapest rate Then if my Guests complaine I cog and prate Out-facing it for good Sometimes I buy Beeues haue been told me of the murrain dye What course haue I not tooke to compasse riches Ventur'd on some haue been found dead in ditches Bak'd dogs for Venison put them in good paste And then with salt and pepper helpt their taste Meat rosted twice and twice boyl'd I oft sell Make pies of fly-blowne joints and vent them well I froth my cannes in ev'ry jug I cheat And nicke my Ghests in what they drinke or eat And yet with these and more sleights all I can Doth not declare me for a thriuing man I pinch myne owne guts and from others gleane And yet though I shew fat my stocke is leane The good old man though at his tale offended No interruption vs'd till he had ended First hauing shooke his head then crost his brest Cousin said he this lewd life I detest Let me aduise
in his old age erecting a city O King said he what businesse is this which thou vndertakest now that thou art in the twelfe houre of thy day meaning he was then in the last part of his age To whom Deiotarus knowing the extreme couetousnesse of Crassus smilingly answered But thou ô Emperour when as it appeareth thou art not in the morning of thy time for hee was then threescore yeares old why dost thou make such haste to warre against the Parthians in hope to bring thence a rich and profitable bootie Plato to one who studied nothing but Gaine said O impious man take not such care to augment thy substance but rather how to lessen thy desire of getting Democritus was wont to say That amongst rich men there were more Procurators than Lords for the Couetous man doth not possesse but is possessed by his Riches of which he may deseruedly be called not the seruant only but the slaue A plaine Fellow came to the Emperour Vespasian who was much taxed of Auarice and desired to giue him that freedome which belonged vnto a Roman but because hee came empty handed being denied he boldly said vnto him aloud The Fox ô Caesar changeth his haiâ—es but not his nature In that reprouing the rapacitie of his gripple disposition who denied that gratis which hee would willingly haue bestowed vpon him for money AElianus in his booke De Varia Historia reporteth of the Poet Simonides That when one came to entreat him to write an Enconomium and in the stead of a reward offred him nothing but thanks he made answer vnto him That he had two coffers at home the one of Thankes the other of Coine the last when he needed he still found furnished the other when hee wanted was alwayes empty He in his old age being taxed of Couetousnesse made answer I had rather dying leaue my substance and riches to those that liue than in my life time being in want beg it of others and be denied But aboue all others the Emperour Caligula is most branded with this vice who after inimitable profusenesse for his riots and brutish intemperance exceeded all bounds of humanitie when he had wasted an infinit treasure vpon Concubines and Catamites gaue himselfe wholly to auaritious rapine insomuch that hee caused many of the richest men in Rome to make their Wills appointing him their Executor and Heire Who if they hapned to liue longer than he thought fit and that money began to faile he caused them either to be poysoned or put to some other priuat death alledging for his excuse That it were vnnaturall for men to liue long after they haue disposed of their goods by their last Will and Testament So Commodus the Emperour would for money pardon the life of any man who had committed murther though with the greatest inhumanitie and bargain with them before they enterprised the act All criminall and capitall crimes were to be bought out and judgement and Sentences in Court bought and sould as in the open market The Hierogliphycke of Auarice Pierius Valerius maketh The left hand grasped and clutcht thereby intimating tenacitie and holding fast because that hand is the more slow and dull and lesse capable of agilitie and dexteritie than the other and therefore the more apt for retention You may reade an Emblem in Alciatus to this purpose Septitius populos inter ditissimus omnes Arva senex nullus quo magis ampla tenet c. Than old Septitius for large grounds and fields Well stockt no one more rich the countrey yeelds Yet at a furnisht table will not eat But starues his belly to make roots his meat This man whom Plenty makes so poore and bare Wretched in wealth to what may I compare To what more proper than an Asse since hee Answers to him in all conformitie Laden with choicest Cates that the earth breeds Whilest he himselfe on grasse and thistles feeds And againe to the like purpose Emblem 89. Heu miser in medijs sitiens stat Tantalus vndis In midst of water Tantalus is dry Starv'd whilest ripe apples from his reaching fly The name but chang'd 't is thou ô couetous Sot Who hast thy goods so as thou hast them not Ioach. Camerarius lib. Fabul 1. in taxing some who for money will not be ashamed to take other mens griefs and calamities vpon them recites this fable A rich man hauing two daughters the one dying he hired diuers of his neighbours and friends of the same sex to mourn and lament after her herse and such the Latines call Praeficae Whose miserable cries and ejulations the suruiuing sister hearing shee spake vnto her mother and said O what an infelicitie it is that strangers and such as are no way allyed vnto vs can so loudly mourne and lament when wee whom so neerely it concernes scarce breathe a sigh or let fall one teare To whom the mother replied Wonder not my daughter that these should so weepe and howle since it is not for any loue they beare vnto her but for the money which they haue receiued to do this funerall office To giue the histories past the more credit as also those which follow concerning Witches Magitions Circulators juglers c. if we shall but cast our eyes backe vpon our selues and seeke no further than the late times and in them but examine our owne Nation we shall vndoubtedly finde accidents as prodigious horrid and euery way wonderfull as in the other Concerning which whosoeuer shall desire to be more fully satisfied I refer them to a Discourse published in English Anno 1593. containing sundry remarkable pieces of Witchcraft practised by Iohn Samuel the father Alice Samuel the wife and mother and Agnes Samuel the daughter commonly called The Witches of Warboys in the County of Huntingdon vpon the fiue danghters of Mr. Robert Throgmorton Esquire of the same towne and County with diuers others in the same house to the number of twelue as also the lady Cromwel by them bewitched to death The names of the Spirits they dealt with Plucke Catch and White The manner of their effacinations strange theit Confessions vpon their examinations wondrous their conuiction legall their execution iust and memorable Much more to the like purpose I might in this place alledge that not long since happened which by reason of the parties executed the Iurie who found them guilty and the reuerend Iudges who gaue them sentence of condemnation I hold not so fit to be here inserted And therefore conclude with that Pannurgist Sathan the great red Dragon or roaring Lion to whom not vnproperly may be giuen these following characters Fontem nosco boni bonus ipse creatus Factus at inde malus fons vocor ipse mali Of Goodnesse I the Fountaine am Bee'ng good at first created But since made Euill I the Well Of Ill am nominated Sic velut in muros mures in pectora daemon Iuvenit occultas aut facit ipse vias
for it would breake stone vessell and make strange noise and vprore in the night time as vntiling the house and flinging great stones in at the windowes whistling and hissing in the cellar and lower roomes of the house And though it did not indanger any ones life yet oftentimes it made them breake their shinnes faces with other displeasures as flinging dishes and platters and somtimes dogs end cats into the Well Neither could this Spectar be remoued from the house till the said Maid changed her seruice To this kinde of Spirits that superstitious kind of Diuination is referred called Onomonteia which is a coniecture made by anagrammatising the names of those that come to aske counsell of the Magitian by which they take vpon them to foretell either good or bad hap There is a second kinde of Diuination called Arithmomanteia and that is two-fold one is By considering the force and vertue of the Greeke letters and in a combat to know who shall be Victor by hauing the greater number of letters in his name By the which means they fable Hector to be subdued by Achilles The second is vsed by the Chaldaeans who diuide their Alphabet into three Decads and by the section of their names and intermingled with some letters out of one of these Decads vnto certaine numbers and then refer euery number to his Planet Allyed to this is a third called Stoicheiomanteia that is When suddenly opening a booke wee consider the first verse or sentence that wee cast our eye vpon and from that coniecture some future euent So Socrates it is said predicted the day of his owne death And so Gordianus Claudius Macrinus and other Roman Emperors calculated both of their empires and liues We shall not need to call in question Whether Spirits can speake from the mouthes and tongues of others seeing we haue histories to the same purpose many and frequent Philostratus writeth That the head of Orpheus foretold to Cyrus King of Persia That he should die by the hands of a Woman The head of a Priest before dead as Aristotle witnesseth discouered Cercydes the Homicide Phlegon Trallianus writes That at the same time when the Consul Acilius Glabrio ouerthrew Antiochus the King of Asia in battell the Romans were terrified and forewarned by the Oracle from entring into Asia any more and Publius Acil. Glabrio's head beeing left by a Wolfe who had deuoured his body as if re-animated deliuered to his Army in a long Oration the discourse of a great strage and slaughter which should shortly happen to the Romans Valerius Publicola being Consull and warring vpon the Veintans and Hetruscians out of the groue Arsya one of the Syluans was heard to clamor aloud whilest the battel was yet doubtful One more of the Hetruscians shall fall and the Roman Army shal be Victors Valerius preuailed and the slaine of either part beeing numbred they found it to be iust so as the Sylvan had predicted as Valerius Maximus reporteth Who writeth further That the Image of Fortune in the Latine street was heard to speake So also an Infant of halfe a moneth old in the Ox-market And an Oxe at another time All which were the presages of great misfortunes It is reported That a Spirit in the shape and habit of Policrates was created Prince of AEtolia who tooke to wife a beautiful Ladie of the Locrensians and lay with her three nights onely and then disappeared and was seene no more He left her with child and when the time of her deliuerie came shee brought forth an Hermophrodite of a monstrous and prodigious shape at which the parents of the Lady much astonished calling the Senatours together in the market place caused it there to be publiquely shewen and then demanded of them What should be done with the Monster Some gaue their censure That they should burie it aliue others That it should be consumed with fire and some againe That the mother with it should be banished and excluded the confines of AEtolia Whilest they were in this deliberation Polycrates appeares in the midst of them in a long black garment and first with faire intreaties and then with rough menaces demands of them his sonne Whom they denying to surrender he snatcht it from the armes of the Nurse which held it and eat it vp before them all saue the head and then instantly vanished The AEtolians at this horrid spectacle strooke with feare and wonder fell to a second Counsell amongst them to send to the Oracle to know what this portent might signifie When suddenly the Infants head in the market place began to moue and speake and in a graue sollid speech predicted a great slaughter to ensue The which happened not long after in a great war continued betwixt the AEtolians and the Acarnenses A Question may arise Whether a Spirit hath the power to take away a mans sence of feeling so that hee shall not shrinke at torture but as it were sleepe vpon the racke c. Or Whether they haue the power to cast men into long sleepes as wee haue read of some who haue not onely slept moneths but yeares and afterwaked Of the first there is no question for many Witches and praestigious Magi haue endured torments beyond the sufferance of man without the least sorrow or complaint sigh or grone Some vsing naturall Vnguents Oiles extracted from Opium Nightshade and other herbes and mineralls of wonderfull operation by which the humors are disturbed sound sleepe is begotten the Sences stupified and the feeling hindred Some haue this power from a Contract made with the Diuell vsing medicines or applications made of the small bones the ashes or fat of Infants or of men slaine or executed or by swallowing a King of the Bees who is prime Ruler of the Hiue and bigger than the rest or by binding about certaine parts of their body scrolls of parchment inscribed with diabolicall characters or by the muttering of some inchantment Of which diuers Writers haue from their knowledge giuen sufficient testimonie as Grillandus Paris de Puteo Hippolitus de Marseilis Dodimus c. Now concerning long sleepe and first of those seuen brothers of Ephesinum commonly called the seuen Sleepers These vnder the Emperor Decius in the yeare 447 endured many and cruell torments for the profession of the Christian Faith Their names were Marcus Maximilianus Martinianus Dionysius Iohannes Serapion and Constantinus Who after examination and torment were shut into a dark caue there to be famished but hauing commended themselues in prayer vnto God they laid them down to rest and awaked not till two hundred yeares after Which time being expired and the doore of the Caue by Gods prouidence being opened they waking rose and walking forth began to wonder at the change and alteration of things as not knowing any place or face they looked on at length they were brought before the Emperor Theodosius and gaue sufficient testimony of the Resurrection to many
so sooner done but instantly there appeared to grow out of his forehead an huge paire of Harts hornes of that height and greatnesse that it was not possible to draw his head in againe and thus he kept him for a good space to the peoples great sport and laughter But at length being released and gtowing angry and impatient of such an injurie and as it seemes dealing with a greater and more powerfull Diuel he bethought him of a more deepe and dangerous reuenge He drawes with a cole the picture of a man vpon the wall and commanded the former Magition who had before insulted ouer him to enter and hide himselfe within that Effigies But he seeing before his eyes the terrour of imminent death began to quake and tremble and beseech him on his knees to spare his life But the other inexorable injoyned him to enter there as he had commanded which hee with great vnwillingnesse being inforced to doe the wall was seene to open and giue way to his entrance and shut againe but neuer returned his body backe dead or aliue More gentle and of lesse malice were those Iudifications and deceptions of Zedechias the Iew who liued in the time of Ludovicus Pius He tossed a man into the aire and dismembred him peece-meale limbe from limbe and after gathering them together re-jointed him and made him whole and sound as at the first He seemed also to deuour and eat vp at once a cart full of hay the Carter and horses that drew it with their teeme-traces and all But in the end for poysoning Charles the Bald King of France he was drawne to pieces by foure wilde horses A certaine Lady descended from the Earles of Andegonia a prouince of France from which Family Henry the second King of England deriueth his descent was a great Inchantresse and as Polidorus testifies comming one day into the Church where the holy Sacrament was to be administred the Diuell her master snatched her vp aliue and carried her through a window her body nor any part thereof being euer seene after Iamblicus who had for his Magicke skill great estimation amongst the people at length as Eunapius hath left related despairing by reason of his former wicked courses dranke poison and so died Empedocles of Agrigentum who as Suidas saith for those black Gothicke Arts had great name and fame when as the Etesij or Easterne windes blew vehement and high insomuch that the fruits were in great danger of blasting caused certain Asses to be stript out of their skinnes and with diuers vnknowne charms and murmurations vttered commanded them to cease their tempestuous gusts To which they seemed to obey insomuch that he was called Ventorum Coactor i. The Tamer of the Windes Of himselfe hethus boastingly sung Pharmaca queis pellas morbos tristemque senectam Percipies quae cuncta tibi communico soli Compescesque truces ventorum rite procellas Ex orto insanis c. ¶ Thus Englished Med'cines from me diseases how to cure And make sad Age in strength long to endure Thou shalt receiue with things of higher rate Which solely I 'le to thee communicate The stormy Windes thou shalt command to cease Lest their mad gusts destroy the Earths encrease I 'le teach thee how the riuers to reclaime And force their streams to turne from whence they came Calmes from the midst of tempests thou shalt bring Cause timely showres in Haruest or in Spring And at thy pleasure make the Welkin cleare Or if thou call'st on dead Ghosts they shall heare But what was the end of this great Boaster notwithstanding his practise and proficience his profound learning and iudgement his great respect that he had from the Philosophers of his time and the reuerend opinion conceiued of the multitude yet this great Artist ended his dayes most wrerchedly in the sulphure flames of AEtna In a certaine part of Germany we reade of a Circulator or jugler who amongst many other his illusions standing in the midst of a throng of people he would aduance himselfe into the aire and in his flight a woman hold him fast by the heele and behind her a yong childe hold by one of her heeles and thus they would sport in the aire many houres together But notwithstanding all his agilitie and cunning being brought within the lapse of the Law for certain sorceries and witchcrafts he was burnt at a stake being then forsooke of the Diuell when he had most need of his aid Nicetas reporteth of a Sorcerer called Michael Sidecita This Fellow sporting with others vpon the battlements of the great Imperiall Palace in Constantinople in that part that prospects vpon the water he spied a Lighter or Boat which was laden with pots pipkins portingers dishes and all kinde of earthen vessels some plaine some curiously painted with diuers colours and to shew some sport with those Courtiers that were in his company by whispering some Magicke charme to himselfe hee caused the owner of the boat suddenly to arise from his seat and with his oare neuer cease beating the brittle Vessels vntill hee had almost pownded them to pouder Which done hee was perceiued to recollect himselfe and after to wring his hands and pluck himselfe by the beard and to expresse signes of extraordinarie sorrow And after being demanded What madnesse was in him to make such spoyle of his wares as where before they were all vendible now to make them worth nothing Hee sadly answered That as hee was busie at his oare hee espied an huge ougly Serpent crawling toward him and ready to deuour him who neuer ceased to threaten his life till hee had broken all his merchandise to pieces and then suddenly vanished This the Conjurer did to make his friends sport but he was suddenly after drowned in earnest Gulielmus Nubrigensis writeth of an English Magition called Eumus who was likewise an Heretique and was wont to shew the like prestigious trickes to the people He could so effascinat the eyes of the spectators that he seemed to feast great Princes lords and Barons at his table furnished with store of seruitors and waiters extemporarie dishes with delicates being brought in and all the rarieties that could be imagined with waiting-gentlewomen of extraordinarie beauty and feature attending the Court Cupboords being richly furnished with siluer and guilt plate Hee would likewise shew them pleasant and delightfull gardens decked with all sweet and fragrant floures with greene Orchards planted with trees that bare all manner of ripe fruits euen in the depth of Winter Yet he that could do all these things could nor preserue his owne life for being condemned by the Councell of Rhemes he suffered by fire notwithstanding his many and loud inuocations on the Diuell for helpe to deliuer him from that torture Scafius a notorious Sorcerer in the jurisdiction of Berne would brag in all places where he came That to escape the persecution of his enemies he could at any time
trans-shape himself into the likenesse of a Mouse But when the Diuine Iustice thought fit to giue a period to his insolencies being watched by some of his enemies they espied him in the Sunne sitting in a window that belonged to a stoue or hot house sporting himselfe in that shape when comming behind him when he least suspected they thrust their swords through the window and so slew him In like manner that great Magition of Newburg who sould a bottle of hay in stead of an horse being twice apprehended and hauing twice by the Diuels help escaped out of prison the third time hee was forsaken of his great Patron and deliuered vp vnto death I will conclude with the great Archi-Mage of these our later times Cornelius Agrippa who when he had spent the greatest part of his houres and age in the search and acquisition of this blacke and mystical Science yet doubted not to write after this maner The Magitions by the instigation of the Diuell onely in hope of gaine and a little vain-glory haue set their mindes against God not performing any thing that is either good or profitable vnto men but leading them to destruction and errour In whom whosoeuer shall place any confidence they plucke Gods heauy judgments vpon themselues True it is that I being a yong man writ of the Magical Art three bookes in one volume sufficiently large which I entituled Of Hidden Philosophie in which wheresoeuer I haue erred through the vaine curiositie of youth now in my better and more ripe vnderstanding I recant in this Palinode I confesse I haue spent much time in these vanities in which I haue onely profited thus much that I am able to dehort other men from entring into the like danger For whosoeuer by the illusion of the Diuell or by the operation of euill Spirits shall presume to diuine or prophesie by Magicke vanities Exorcismes Incantations Amatories inchanted Ditches and other demoniacall actions exercising blasphemous charmes spels witchcrafts and sorceries or any thing belonging to superstition and Idolatrie all these are fore-doomed to be tormented in eternall fire with Iamnes Mambre and Simon Magus These things this wretched man writ who saw the best and followed the worst For he continued in that execrable studie to his end and hauing receiued a promise from the Diuell that so oft as age came vpon him so oft his youth should be renewed and so liue euer he commanded his owne head to be cut off in hope instantly to reuiue againe But miserable that he was he was cheated in his confidence by that great Deceiuer in whom hee most trusted by which he made both soule and body a sudden though long expected prey to the Diuell There can scarce a sin be imagined more hatefull to God than Magicke by which the Couenant made with him being violated the Sorcerer entreth a new with the Diuell in which open war is proclaimed against God and a treaty of Peace first debated and after concluded with Sathan God himselfe saith by the mouth of his seruant Moses If any turne after such as worke with euill Spirits and after Soothsayers to go a whoring after them I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from amongst his people And againe If a man or woman haue a Spirit of Diuination or Soothsaying in them they shall die the death they shall stone them to death their bloud shall be vpon them Reade Deutronomie cap. 18. vers 10. Let none be found amongst you that maketh his sonne or his daughter to goe through the fire or that vseth witchcraft or a regarder of times or a marker of the flying of Fowles or a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with Spirits or a Sooth-sayer or that asketh counsell of the Dead for all that do such things are abhomination vnto the Lord and because of these abhominations the Lord thy God doth cast them out before thee Thus we see as well by the Scriptures themselues as by the Ciuill Lawes of Kingdomes all such as shall separate themselues from God and enter into conuerse and fellowship with Sathan are cursed in the act and ought to be extermined from all Christian Churches and Commonweales The Emblem A Moth or Silk-worme creeping from an old stocke or trunke of a tree and turned vnto a Butter-fly The Motto Ecce nova omnia Behold all things are made new Complying with that which wee reade in Saint Pauls second Epistle to the Corinthians cap. 5. vers 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things become new And Ephes. 4.22 That you cast off concerning the conuersation in times past that Old Man which is corrupt through the deceiuable lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your minde and put on the New Man which after God is created vnto righteousnesse and true holinesse The Emblem is thus exprest Truncus iners eruca fuit nunc alba voluctis Ambrosium Coeli corpore gaudet iter Antea vermis erat mutatio quanta videtis Corporis antiqui portio nulla manet Vestis opes habitus convivia foedera mores Lingua sodalitium gaudia luctus amor Omnia sunt mutanda viris quibus entheus ardor Terrhenae decet hos faecis habere nihil ¶ Thus Paraphrased A meere trunke was the Silke-worme now it flies A white Bird sporting in th' Ambrosiall Skies Before a Worme What a great change is here Of the first shape no semblance doth appeare Garments Wealth Banquets Contracts Mannors Ioy Loue Language Fellowship Change must destroy Such men whom Diuine ardor doth inspire Must of this terrhene drosse quench all desire After which change followeth eternity And of the Saints and Elect it may be said Parva patiuntur vt magna potiantur Smal are the things they suffer in this world compared with the great things they shall receiue in the world to come We reade Dan. cap. 12. vers 2. thus And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetual contempt and they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the Firmament and they that turne many vnto righteousnesse shall shine as the Starres for euer and euer Moreouer Iob 19. For I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And though after my skinne wormes shall destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see with mine eyes and none other for mee c. AEternus non erit sopor Death shall be no euerlasting sleep Iohn 5.28 Maruell not at this for the houre shall come in which all that are in the graues shall heare his voice and they shall come forth that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation Saint Augustine in one of his books saith Resurgent Sanctorum
Augures 47. The vanitie of Augurie 48. Of Idolatry in generall 49. An Emblem 50. A Meditation vpon the precedent Tractat 53. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND TRACTAT VVHence the multiplicity of gods came 59. The Vnitie of the God-head 60. Arguments to confirme it 61 62. The power and operation of the Planets 63. The Sybils of God 64. The Oracle of God 65. The God-hoods Vnitie not to be diuided 66. The same illustrated 67. The Manichees 68. Mans attributes giuen to God how far they extend ibid. Gods appellations in Scripture 70. Of the Trinitie 71. Reasons why Christ is called Our God 72. Christ typically figured in Aaron 73. Obseruations of the Trin. in Vnitie c. 74. Orators and Philosophers of God 75. Of Gods Vbiquitie 76. Hiero and Simonides 78. Proper names belonging to God 79. Idolatry brought from Asia into Italy 80. Reasons why Atheists doubt of God 82. Pregnant reasons to proue a Deity 83. From the Poets and Philosophers 84 85. Apothegmes concerning God 86. Further of the Poets 90 91 c. Hierogliphyckes of God 93 The Vadiani of God 94 Attributes belonging to God 95. God in all Tongues stiled by foure letters 96. The Fathers of the Trinitie 98. Philosophers Sentences of God 101. Comparison for the further illustration of the Godhood 104. An Emblem 106. A Meditation 108. THE CONTENTS OF THE THIRD TRACTAT THe three diuisions of the World Elements Terrest Coelest Super-Coelest 111. Cabalists and Rabbins of Moses Ark. 112. A Consimilitude betwixt the Arke and the World ibid. A second Consimilitude 114. A third consimilitude 115. The best Philosophers of the premisses ibid. Creatures participating diuers Elements 116. Manâ— wisedome the wisedome of the world The birth of Wisedome 117. Her beauty honour sweetnesse and effects 118. Her fruitfulnesse and power 119. At what time Time began 120. The creation of the Sun and Moone 121. Their seuerall offices 122. Of the Stars and Planets according to the Poets Arctos major minor the Serpent Bootes Corona Hercules 123. Lyra Olor Cepheus Cassiopeia Andromeda Perseus Auriga Serpentarius Sagitta 124. Aquila Delphinus Equus Deltoton Pistrix Lepus Orion 125. Lelaps Procion Argo Centaurus Ara Hydra 126. Notius Galaxia 127. Of the twelue Coelestiall Signes and first of Aries ibid. Of Taurus and the Hyades 128. Of Gemini and Cancer 129. Stars called Asini and of the Lion 130. Of Virgo or the Coelestiall Maid 131. The seuen Deadly Sinnes 132. The storie of Icarius and Erigone 133. Fruits of Drunkennesse 134. A remarkable story of a Dog 135. Arctuâ—â—us Canicula Libra Scorpio 137. Sagittarius 138. Capricornus Aquarius 139. Pisces 140. The birth of Venus 141. Of the Worlds originall ibid. The inuention of Letters Writing c. 142. Of Cities The Ages 143. Grammar Rhethoricke Logicke Memorie Geometry Musicke c. 144. Against those who maintaine more Worlds or the eternitie of this 145. The death of Aristole 146. The nobilitie of Mans conceit 147. Annus Magnus Vertens Mundanus ibid. The ridiculousnesse thereof 148. The definition of the World 149. The Fathers concerning the World 150. The Poets of the World and ruin thereof 151. The Philosophers of the World 153. The World defined 154. Philssophers of the beginning of the world 156. Creation from Atomes Number Infinites c. 157. Against Curiositie and vaine Questions 158. Of the foure Elements 160. The Poets of the Ages 161. The Golden Age 162. The Siluer and Brasen Age 163. The Iron Age 164. A diuision of mans Age 165. Of the Yeare called Climatericall 167. Illustrations of the Signes Coelestiall 168. The order of the Starres and the Austral Circle 169. Draco Artophilax 170. Corona Lyra the death of Orpheus c. 171. The Pleiades Virgiliae c. 181. Cometa the motion of the Sun the Bisext or Leap-yeare 182. The Eclipse rules to know faire or foule weather by the Sun 183. Philosophers and Poets of the Moone 184. Coniecture of weather by the Moone 185. An Emblem 186. A Meditation 189. THE CONTENTS OF THE FOVRTH TRACTAT THe three Ternions of Angels with their seuerall offices 194. How they are concatinated among themselues 195. Of such as hold there be no Angels nor Spirits 196. Their opinions confuted 197 Angels and Spirits proued from Dreams ibid. The Dreames of Simonides Sylla M. Artorius Calphurnia Iulius Caesar Amilcar c. 198. The Old and New Testament of Dreams 199. Angels visible and of euill Spirits 200. Rabbi Achiba concerning Spirits 201. Abram Avenzara and Rabbi Azariel of Loue and Hate 202. A story of an Emperor and two Beggars 203. Of Poets and Poetry ibid. A Meditation of Death 204. Honour due to Poets and done vnto them of old 205. A nomination of some of our moderne Poets 206. Buchanans complaint that the Muse is so neglected 207. Buchanans Epigram 208. Spirits Saturnine Iovial and Mercurial 209. The Essence of Angels 210. Sundry opinions of the Fathers concerning Angels 211 To proue them incorporat 212. The Lateran Councell of Angels 213. The difference of their Knowledge 214. Foure Angels over the foure windes ibid. Ouer euery heauen or Sphere 215. Angels of the Zodiacke their offices and names ibid. Foure Angels ouer the foure Elements 216. The obiect of Gods will in the Creation 219 Angels the first creatures made with the light pure the charge they haue ouer Man ibid. Seuerall imployments of Angels in the Scriptures 220. Dreames defined 221. Eudemus Galen Q. Catulus Sophocles Alexand Philosoph Sfortia M. Antonius Torellus Alcibiades Croesus Atterius Ruffus Cambyses Aspatia Tit. Attinius their dreames 223â— c. Histories concerning predictions of Nero Philip of Macedon c. 226. Dioclesian Henry King of France 227. Plato's opinion of Spirits 228. Spirits of diuers qualities and of the Socraticum Daemonium 229. Histories of the same ibid. S. Augustine of the power of Spirits 230. Strange opinions of Spirits and that none can be mortall 231. A discourse of Death from the Poets 232. From the Philosophers 233. From the Fathers 234. A Dialogue concerning death interpreted from Lucian 235. Of Constancie in death 240. A contented life 241. Further of Poetry and Poets 242. A nomination of many famous Greeke Poets 243. The miserie that attends the Muse illustrated by the sad fate of many antient Poees 245. Ioh. Campanius to that purpose 248. M. Edm. Spencers complaint 249. Faustus Andrelinus the like 250. A Spanish Prouerbe interpreted 251. That Spirits can transport men or beasts 252. Histories of strange transportations 253. A story of a Centurion 254. Of a Captiue 255. A Nobleman of Insubria 256. Transportation of Witches 257. Antonius Leo 258. Paulus Grillandus of Witches 259. Medea 260. The velocitie of Spirits 261. Histories to proue the same 262. An Emblem 263. A Meditation 266. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH TRACTAT GOds Power Wisedome and Goodnesse in the Creation 271. The concordance betweene the Seraph and the Primum Mobile 272. Betwixt the Cherubin and the Starry heauen 274. Betwixt the Thrones and Saturne
ibid. The Golden World 275. The concordance betwixt the Dominations and Iupiter ibid. Of the Vertues with Mars 276. The maleuolent aspect of Mars 277. Of the Potestates with the Sunne 278. Of Starres that receiue names from the Sun ibid. The Trinitie in Vnitie figured in the Sunne 279. Concord betwixt the Principats and Venus ibid. The Arch Angels and Mercury 280 Betwixt the Angels and the Moone 281. The Premisses illustrated 282. Three Religions most profest 283. What the Iewes say for themselues 284. Wherein the Mahumetan opposeth the Christian ibid. Mahomets imposterous Miracles Saints and Reliques 285. The Creation of things according to Mahomet and of his Paradise 286. The first Sow according to Mahomet and why Sowes flesh is not eaten in Paradise 287. The first Mouse the first Caâ— and the joyes of Heauen according to Mahomeâ— 288. His palpable and absurd ignorance with his opinion of Angels 289. Aridiculous tale in Mahomets Alcaron 290. Of the Priscillians and Manichees exploded Heretiques 291. Wherein blessednesse consisteth according to the Manichees 292. Of Truth 293. The Philosophers and Fathers of Truth 294. The Poets of Truth 295. An exceâ—lent discourse of Cardinall Pascalis of Truth 296. Truth constant and subiect to no change 297. Religion grounded vpon Truth 298. Religion defined against those that make it a cloake for hipocrisie 299. Three opinions concerning Christ 300. Iosephus Pontius Pilat c witnesses of Christ 301. An Epistle of Pliny to Trajan the Emperor concerning Christians 302. Diuers Ethnieke Princes who fauored the Christians 303. Caesar Maximinus his oration concerning Christians And of Cublay Emperour of Tartaria 304. What a Miracle is 306. Wonders in Nature 307. Of Christs Miracles 308. Origen Greg. Chrisost. c. of the Virgin Mary 309. Christ miraculous in his birth life doctrine and death 310 c. Twelue grieuous sufferings of Christ 315. Of the great Eclipse at his death 316. The life and death of Mahomet 319 c. Beza his Epigram of Religion 322. Pope Greg. of Christs death 323. An Emblem 324. A Meditation 327. THE CONTENTS OF THE SIXTH TRACTAT A Discourse of the Heart of man 331. The inconstancie of Mans Heart 332. How many wayes the Heart of man is insidiated ibid. How it may be reconciled to the Creator 333. Sundry opinions concerning the creation of Angels 334. Angels created with the Light 335. Lucifers glory in his Creation 336. He is figured in Tyrus 337. The creation of Man the Soule the Body and what Man is 338. The Incarnation of Christ reuealed to the Angels 339. Lucifers Rebellion the cause thereof The Battell betwixt Michael and the Diuell 340. The Fall of Angels and the weapons vsed in the Battell 341. How long Lucifer remained in Glory 342. The power he hath since his Fall ibid. The Fall of Adam his offence and punishment 343. Of Hell according to the Poets Tibullus 344. Virgil Seneca Valer. Flacchus Lucretius c. 345. Of Hell according to the Scriptures and Fathers 346. The torments of Hell 347. The seuerall denominations of Hell ibid. Lucians Dialogue called Nycio Manteia i. an Answer from the Dead 348. The cause of Menippus trauell to Hell 350. The Ciuill Lawes compared with the doctrines of the Poets ibid. The vanitie of Philosophers and their wranglings discouered 351. Lucians meeting with the Magition Mithrobarzanes 352. His superstâ—tionsâ— and Incantations discouered and derided 353. A description of his passage to Hell 355. Of Minos the Iudge with his proceeding against the Prisoners 355. Diuers great men arraigned and sentenced 357. A description of the torments 358. Of the Heroes and demy-gods 359. The equalitie that is in Hell 360. A comparison of the life of man ibid. Great men on earth how vilified in Hell 361. The estate of Socrates Diogenes and the like in hell 362. A Decree made in Hell against rich men ibid. Tyresius his counsell What life is safest to leade on earth 363. Menippus his passage from hell 364. Further discourse of the Heart of man 365. Manlius of the ambition of Mans heart 366. The instabilitie and corruption thereof 367. Further of the Creation of the Angels when and where 368. The Angelicall nature how vnderstood 369. Diuers questions and difficulties concerning Angels reconciled 370. The order that God vsed in the Creation 371. Angels immutable and that no Soule but hath an Angell to attend it 372. What best pleaseth the Angels They gouerne Nations Angell a name of office not of nature 373. Nazianzen of the Angels 374. Of the forming and fashioning of Man ibid. The three dignities of the Soule and the end why Man was created 375. Three great gifts bestowed on Man in the Creation ibid. Three opposit euils 376 A iust measure of mans body ibid. Three sorts of liuing Spirits created by God 377 Of the Soule of man 378. The Philosophers concerning the Soule 379. Iohannes de Canis a Florentine Physition 380. The Poets of the Soule 381. Of Man in generall 382. Against such as deny the Resurrection 383. Difference betwixt the liues of Beasts Men and Angels ibid. Of the birth of Man 384 The Ethnicks of Man ibid. Homer with other Poets of Man 385. Adages and Emblems of Man 386. Hierogliphycks of Man 387. Ethnicks of Hell 388. The Rabbins of the locall place of Hell 389. The figure of Moloch 390 Lucians Dialogue intituled Nyciomanteia with Sir Thom. Mores Argument thereupon 390 c. The acts of Alexander Hannibal and Scipio 392 c A discourse of hell fire 397. Reasons prouing the perpetuity of the torments 398. An Emblem 399. A Meditation 401. THE CONTENTS OF THE VII TRACTAT VVIsedome contemplateth the wonderfull works of God 407. The Sun 408. The Moone Stars Rainbow Snow Lightning Haile Mountains Winds Thunder Raine Frost Ice c 409 c. The quality and condition of malignant Spirits 410. Diuels retaine their first naturall faculties 411. The degrees among Diuels of which Lucifer is prime 412. Lucifers figure and description 413. Prioritie obserued among the Diuels with necessarie obseruations 415. The Diuels striue to imitate God 410. An excellent historie expressing the instabilitie of Fortune ibid. The originall of Idolatry illustrated from the former historie 435. Nine Classes of Diuels with their seueral Orders 436. The sundry names of Diuels and what they signifie 437. Of the number of Angels that fell more Angels than men more men than Angels 438. Of the motion of Angels ibid. The distance betwixt the eighth heauen and the earth 439. All intelligent Substances are incorporeall 440 Sathan and the euill Daemons bounded in their malice ibid. The admirable knowledge f Spirits 441. How and wherein their knowledge is limited 442. Their equinocating answers in the Oracles ibid. Good Angels cannot erre 443. Of Contracts made betwixt man and Sathan ibid. The manner of the diuels temptations set down the better to aâ—oid them 444. Pasetis a great Magition ibid. Seueral Magicke books fathered vpon good and godly men ibid. Seuerall mettals ascribed
Rules to know faire weather or foule by the Sunne Apollo Why a god The names of the Horses of the Sunne Luna The Philosophers concerning the Moone The Poets of the Moone The senerall denominations of the Moone Why shee is said to loue Endimion Conjecturâ— of weather by the Moone Of Folly Diuersities of Fooles The effects of Folly Excuse for sinnes Customes not commendable are not to be kept Angeli in quot Choros diuiduntur The first Chorus The Seraphim and his office The Cherubim The Thrones Dominions Vertues Potestates Principates Arch-Angels Angels The Offices of the three Ternions Quomod Angel Chori sunt Concatinati Of such as hold there are no Angels or Spirits The opinion of the Peripateticks Natura Intelligilis Their opinions confuted And these Creatures the Angels Angels and Spirits proued from dreames The Dreame of Simonides Sylla a noble man in Rome Sabellicus Calphurnia the wife of Iulius Caesar. Caesars dream Amilcars dreame Paâ—sanias of Socrates Examples from the Old Testament Examples from the New Testament * If the later Herod were called a Fox the former who slew the young Infants may carrie a worse title Angels Angels visible Evill Spirits Digression The opinion of Rhabbi Achiba concerning Spirits The opinion of two learned Rabbies concerning Amor Odium Their reason of this Antipathie The Effect of these exprest in King Ferdinand The Effect proued in Iudges This is alleadged by Doctor Strozza lib. de Natur. Mag. of some particular men whom he had obserued in Italy in his time The Effect proued in Princes A true story Of Poets and Poetry A Meditation of Death Thersites deformed and Nereus the faire Greeke whom Homer loued The honour due vnto Poets The honour done to Poets of old A Satyricall poet An Epick poet A Tragicke poet Rob. Greene. Christ. Marlo Thomas Kid. Thom. Watson Thomas Nash. Francis Bewmont William Shake-speare Beniam Iohnson Iohn Fletcher Iohn Webster c. In his Elegy intitled quam misera sit conditio docentiuÌ„ literas humaniores c. Poenia is Paupertas or of pouerty Read Aristophanes in his Lenady called Platus Apollo who kept Admetus his Cattell Epigram eiusdem inscrip ad amicos Nemomeos ciâ—eres violis fragralibus ornet c. A reason giuen of the premisses Spirits Saturnine Iovial Mercuriall Spiriâ—â— Of the essence of Angels Arist Ethiâ— cap 9. The Platonists difference betwixt gods and Demons Psal. 8. Minuisti eum paulo minus ab Angelis Tertullian lib. de carn Christ. Orig. periarc cap. 2.3 Gen. 6. Psellus Apul. Philoponus Meruâ—a Olimpiodor Gaudentius c. The Fathers who opposed the former in this point Reasons to proue Angels incorporeat Two Arabian writers The solution of the former doubts This Councel was held vnder Pope Innocent the third Iohn Cap 4. The number of a Legion S. Gregory expounded A returne to thâ— first position Zach. 1.2 S. Aug. de Cognitione veritatis cap. 8. Dr. Strozza Lib. de Natur. magia Apocal. 7. Arist. Intellig. planet Tobit 6.12 Apoc. 8. These they call the Anâ—â—â—â— of the Zodiacke The first Quaternion The second Quatern The third Quatern The fourth Quatern Foure Angels ouer the foure Elements The sentence of the Councel against the Schismaticks Atheisme confesseth a sole Deity The object of Gods will in the Creation Homil sup Psal. 44. The Imployment of the Angels Coloss. 1.16 Meaning Saint Peter Lib de Somn. Vigil The Definition of Dreams Laert. lib. 6. Lib. 19. de Animalibus Eudemus his Dreame Galen Quint. Catulus Sophocles Alexander the Philosopher Sfortia M Antonius Torellus Alcibiades Croesus Aterius Ruffus Cambyses his Dreame Aspasia Titus Atimius Histories concerning predictions Nero. Philip K. of Macedon The Emperor Dioclesian Henry King of France Plato's opinion concerning Spirits The Academiques Pherecid Cyrus A Rhodian Porphirius SocraticuÌ„ Demonium Charmiades Strange opinions concerning Spirits The Sadduces answered Of Death Charon Mercury Charon Merc. Menippus Merc. Charmeleus Merc. Lampichus Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Damasius Merc. Damas. Merc. Damas. Merc. Crato Merc. Crato Merc. Menip Merc. Philosopher Menip Merc. Philos. Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Philos. Merc. Rhetorician Merc. Philos. Menip Merc Menip Philos. Menip Mercâ— Menip Mere. Menip Max. serm 36. Of Constancy in death Alian de var. hist. Plutar. in Laconic Apo. Seneca Content of Life Of Poetry Honour conferred on Poets from Antiquity Of Poets Scipio The Greeke Poets Euripides Sophocles Aratus Archias Cherilus Samius Gorgius Manilius Lenaeus Menander Homerus Iunior Oppianus Poetr miseria Homer Virgil. Ovid. Horace Hesiod These were Antiphon and Chlimenus Lynus Apollo sagip Antipater Sydon Bassus Cesius Lysimachus Plautus Calisthenes Quintus Lactantius Catulus Ibichus AEscilus Anacreon Petronius Arbiter Sapho Cuddy the Sheepeheard speaketh That Spirits haue power to transport men or beasts The great power of Spirits Daniel 14. Histories of strange transportations Apoll. Tyan Iamblicus Iohannes Teutonicus Euchides Platensis A strange History A noble man of Insubria The transportation of Witches A strange History of a maid of Bergamus Antonius Leo Captaine Antonius Adrianus Patricius Calligraphus Prince Partharus The Emperor Constantine Apoll. Tianaeus Govarus Caueats againg Temptation Objects are main motiues Of Deceit * The Hedgehogge Gods Power Wisedome Goodnesse Diouys Areopag de Celest. Hierarch The Concordance betwixt the Seraph and the Primum Mobile 1 Primus Motor * i. Pri. Mobile The Concordance betwixt the Cherub the starry Heauen The Concordance betwixt The Thrones and Saturne The Goulden World The Concord betwixt the Dominations and Iupiter Pythagoras The Concordance of the Vertues with Mars S. Mathew Ptolomaeus Hermetes Firmicus Alcabilius The malevolent Aspects of Mars The Concord of the Potestates with the Sunne Stars receiue names from the Sunne So Ptolomaeus and Firmicus write The Trinity in Vnity figured in the Sonne The Concord betwixt the Principates and Venus Orpheus in Testamento Amâ—r creauiÌ„t Mundum Dionysius Hocretheus Iamblicus The Concord betwixt the Arch-Angels and Mercury Ptolomaeus Firmicus Ovid. Meâ— The Concordance betwixt the Angels the Moone The various Influences of the Moone Averroës The former illustrated by a familiar example The three Religions at this day profest How the Iewes approue their Religion Wherein the Mahumetan opposeth the Christian Religion Meaning the second Person in the Trinity Their Abstemiousnesse Imposturous miracles Mahomâ—it Saints This Relique is a paire of old stinâ—king shooes Schollers adâ—mitted to read controuersies The Creation of things according to Mahomet These are all Principles in Mahomets Alcaron That the Earth was inhabited by Diuells 7000 yeres by Angels 1000 yeares Mahomets Paradise Mahomets reason why Sows flesh is not eaten in Paradice The first Sow according to Mahomet The first Mouse The first Cat. The Ioyes in heauen according to Mahomet Alcoron lib. 3. cap. 19. Alcaron lib. 3. cap. 6.276.34 A necessarie obseruation Mahomets Lapable and absurd Ignorance Mahomet of the Angels One of Mahomets Ridiculous Fables Adriel Mahomet Angell of
Death The Heresies of the Priscillians and Manicheâ—â— Fiue Elements according to the Manichees Wherein Blessednes consists according to the Manichees Of Truth Li. 44 pag. 430. Titus Pomp. Idor-Abies Lib. 9. Cap. 19. Epaminondas Papias King Aglesiaus Thales AEschines Demosthenes Democratus Ambrose Bernard Lib. de Virtut vitijs ca. 8. Religion and the Truth thereof Three opinions concerning Christ. The first Holy beginners The second Wicked Contemners The third Fearful Time-seruers Iosephus de Antiq. lib 2. Which was 40 yeres after his Passion Pilat a witnes of Christ. Plin. lib. 1. De Antiq. li. 2. Of Cublay Emperour of Tartarie The Oratian of Cubley to the Christians Psal. 8. ver 8. Valer. Maxim Lib de Civit. Dei 21. Lib. 11. de Civ Dei Ca. 11. Hom. 29. Wonders in Nature Of Miracles Ser. 143. of the Blessed Virgin Mary Serm. 148. Cap. 1. Hom. 1. Lib. 18. Moral In Iob Cap. 35. Homil. de Ioan. Bapt. Aug. de incarnat Domin Serm. 3. in Vigil Natiuit Three Wonders The first The second The third Sup. Mat. 2. Sup. Ioane Ser. Sup. Epiph. Homil. Sup. Mat. 10. Ser. de Appar Sup. Cant. Serm. 15. Twelue grieuous sufferings of Christ. Cap. 27. ver 41. Of the great Eclipse at the death of our Sauiour The first Difficulty The second Difficulty The third Difficulty Dionysius Areopag Phlegon Lucianus Martyr Leo. serm 10. Isay. 60. ver 2. The life of Mahomet Psal. 58. Catsius lib. 3. Embl. 2. Psal. 33.2.3 Praise the Lord with Harpe sing vnto him with Viol and Instrument of ten strings Sing cheerfully with a loud voice c. Prope est Dominus omnibus inuocantibus cum in veritat Psal. 144. Seneca in Hippol Percontatorem fuge nam garrulus Idem est A discourse of the Heart of Man The Inconstancy of mans thoughts A Simile How many wayes the Heart is Insidiated How the heart may be reconciled to the Creator Sundry opinions concerning the Creation of Angels Gen. 2.2 Gen. 1. S. Aug. Sup. Gen. Daniel 3. ver 57.58.59 Psal. 48.2 Iob 58.7 Daniel 10. Tobit 12. Dr. Strozza lib. de Spirit Incant Ezechiel 28. vâ—r 12. Ver. 17. The Creation of Man The Soule of Man The Bodie of Man What Man is The Incarnation of Christ reuealed vnto the Angels Epist. 1. to Tim. Lucifers first Rebellion Isay. 14.13 The Battel betwixt Michael and the Diuel Reuel 12.7 The Fall of Angels Epinic a Song of praise and thanksgiuing Reuel 15.3 Reuel 12.10 The weapons vsed in this Battell of the Angels Aver Met. 12 7.4â— Arist. de Anim. 3.48 How long Lucifer remain'd in glory Note A necessary obseruation The Fall of Adam Mark 3.23 A necessary obseruation Iohn 1.2 15. Pannurg a deceiuer or subtil person Tibull lib. 2. Eleg. 3. At scelerata iacet sedes in nocte profunda c. Virg. AEneid 6 Ergo exercentur poeniâ— veterumque malorum supplicia expeâ—dunt c Senec. in Herc. Fur. Quod quisque facit patitur Authorem scalus repetit c. Val. Flaâ— Argoâ—ant 3. Quippe nec inulioâ— nec in vltima soluimur ossa Ira manet c. Lucret. li. 3. de nat deor Post mortem denique nostraÌ„ numquid ibi horribile apparet Senec. in Here. Turent verane est tam inferis c. Of Hell according to the Scriptures and Fathers S. Aug. How Hell is called Iob 10.21.22 Gehenna The torments of Hell The torments of the Sences Tartarus Of the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. not to see Avernus Infernus Abiss Tophet Poena sensus Poena Damni This dialogue is called Necyomantia viz. a answer from the Dead Menippus Philonides Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phâ—l Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. * The Historiographer Phil. Men. Phil. Men. Phil. Men. The Decree Of the Heart of Man The Ambition of the Heart Gen. 1.3 Psal. 33.6 Aug. sup Gen. lib. 7. cap. 21. Rupert de operib sacr spir cap. 2. Eccles. 18.1 Pet. Lumb li. 2. distinc 2. Aug. sup Gen. Eccles. 1.4 Dionys. Rihell lib. de Great Mundi ca. 2. Philo lib. de Operib Dei Wisdom 11.17 Eccles. 1.2 Heb. 12. Mat. 3. Angels immutable Euery Soule hath his Angell to attend it What best pleaseth the Angels Angâ—ls gouerneth Nations Angella name of Office not of Nature Of the forming fashioning of man The three dignities of the Soule The end why Man was created Why God made man vpright Three gifts bestowed vpon Man in his Creation Ecerp lib. â— cap. 2 3 4â— Three opposite Evils Necessity absolute conditionall Theoricke Practicke Mechanicke The iust measure of mans Body Three sorts of liuing Spirits created by God Of the Soule of Man The Philosophers concerning the soule Note The Poets concerning the Soule Of Man in generall An excellent Argument against such as deny the Resurrection The Liues of Beasts Men and Angels Of the Birth of Man The Ethnicks concerning Man Silenus Phavorinus Alphonsus Aristotle Hom. of Man with other Poets Adages Emblem Hierogliphick Of Hell The Ethnicks concerning Hell The Locall place of Hell The Rabbius of Hell Prov. 9. Prov. 15.24 The Figure of a Moloch The Argument of Sir Thomas Moore vpon this Dialogue The Battell of Cannas Greenwood vpon Tophet Quest. Mat. 25.41 Lukes 16.24 Hugo In fiue properties the Fire of Hell differeth from our Fire Elementary Mat. 3. Three reasons to proue the perpetuite of the Torments of the damned Dodonia quercus The Deuâ—lls two maine Enginâ— Comfort against Desperation Against the sinne of Presumption Presumption bred from Pride Eccles. cap. 3. vers 29.30 Eccles. 42.15 Iob 4.4 Isay. 29.15 Ecclesiast Cap. 43.1 The Sun Genes 1.16 The Moone Exod 12.2 The Stars Gen. 9 13 14. The Rainbow Esay 40.12 The Snow The Lightning The Haile The Mountaines The Wind. The Thunders The Rayne The Frost The Ice The Seas The Whales Psal. 96.4 Iohn 1.15 Psal. 106.2 The quality and condition of the malignant Spirits The Diuels still retaine their first Natural Faculties Dionys. Areopag de Coelest Hierar The degrees among Divels Lucifer prince of Diuels Lucifer quasi lucem ferens Lucif Figure Priority among the Diuels A necessary obseruation A second obseruation The Diuell striues to imitate God in his workes to the perdition of Mankind An excellent History wherin to the life is exprest the instability of Fortune LustruÌ„ according to Livy the space of fiue yeares She was call'd Dea Spannigena because orta salo i. borne of the Sea The youngest Sister stoln by Pyrats The Fatherâ— feare for the losse of his Daughter His trauell to finde her His answer from the Oracle A passage of the elder sister Her answer from the Oracle The younger sister offred to sale The Effects of her beauty Passions cannot truly be said to be in the Deities The entrance into her Fortune The King inamored So cal'd from King Aâ—talas tht first who was known to vse rich Arras hangings and brought them to