The DESIGNE of the FRONTISPICE Loe DEATH invested in a Roabe of Ermiâ—â— Triumphant sits embellished with Verminâ— Vpon a Pile of dead-men's Skulls her Throne Pell-mell subduing all and sparing none A scrutinous judgement will the Type ressent You may imagine 'T is DEATH's Parlement Vpon the World it 's pow'rfull Foot doth tread For all the world or is or shall be dead One hand the Scepter t' other holds our MIRROVR In courtesie to shew poore flesh its errour If men forget themselves It tells 'em home They 're Dust and Ashes All to this must come To view their fate herein some will forbeare Who wave all thought of Death as too severe But know Death is ' though 't be unknown how nie A Point on which depends ETERNITIE Either to live Crown'd with perpetuall Blisse Or howle tormented in Hell's darke Abysse With winged haste our brittle lives doe passe As runnes the gliding Sand i' th' Houre-Glasse If more you would continue on your Looke No more upon the Title but the Booke THE MIRROVR which Flatters not O that they were Wise that they vnderstood This that they would Consider their latter End Deut 32.29 MORS sola fatotur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula Iuvenal THE MIRROUR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. Dedicated to their MAIESTIES of GREAT BRITAINE By Le Sieur de la SERRE Historiographer of FRANCE Enriched with faire Figures Transcrib'd ENGLISH from the FRENCH by T. C. And devoted to the well-disposed READERS HORAT OMNEM crede DIEM tibi diluxisse SUPREMUM LONDON Printed by E. P. for R. Thrale and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the Crosse-Keyes at Pauls Gate 1639. TO THE KING OF GREAT BRITAINE SIR IF the Greatnesse of Kings derive its value and lustre from the number of Vertues which they possesse I render you now the homage of my observance and submissions as to one of the greatest Monarchs of the World since you are the Majestie of all Vertues together What an agreeable compulsion is this to see a man's selfe powerfully forced to become the subject of a foraine Prince by the soveraigne authoritie of his merit To this point am I reduced SIR your all-royall perfections impose upon me so absolutely such sweet lawes of servitude that I have no more libertie but to accept its yoake And in this my inclination and dutie make a fresh injunction o're me which dispute preheminence with all the rest for who can keepe himselfe from rendring homage to your Majestie the onely fame of whose Renowne captivates through all the Vniverse instructing us that you are as absolute over your Passions as over your Subjects and that you reigne as Soveraigne in the esteeme of men as in your Royall Estates And the Truths of this set your glory at so high a worth that the felicitie on 't may perhaps be envied you but the like Merit not to be reacht by others because Nature is very sparing of the like gifts and Heaven does not every day such miracles For me I am but one of the Admirers not of the greatnesse of your Dominion although onely the vast extent of the Ocean markes out its limits but of all the divine qualities which you onely possesse in proper as a Good which Time Fate nor Death can take from you Nor is this the all in all to be Wise Valiant and Generous in the height of Native deduction All these Titles of Honour have degrees of eminence which marke out to us the gradations of their severall perfections and whereof your Majestie shewes us now the onely patterne having in possession all admirable Vertues with so much puritie and luster as dazles its very envyers and forces them to adore that in your Majestie which elsewhere they admire not And 't is my beleefe that you stand thus unparallel'd even amongst your semblables since besides the Crownes of your Cradle you carry above them others and such as shall exempt you from the Grave I avow that I have studied long time to speake condignely of your Majestie but although my paines and watchings are equally unprofitable my defect yet is still glorious howsomever that it is a shadow from your Light It sufficeth me to have taken Pen in hand to publish onely that I am SIR Your MAIESTIES Most humble and most obeysant Servant P. De la SERRE TO THE QUEENE OF GREAT BRITAINE MADAME I Could not approach but with a MIRROVR in my hand before your Majestie the splendour of whose magnificence dazles so powerfully all the world that I am not able to behold the immediate presence on 't but by the reflection of its Rayes Without fiction MADAME your Glory is arrived to the point of rendring your perfections so unknowne as being so above the commune that I beleeve most men honour you now by observance and example onely as not able otherwise to reach the depth of the just reasons they might have for it Nor is this All to say that you are solely faire and perfectly chaste but it is necessarie beyond all this to intimate secretly in the Language of Thought all the divine qualities which you possesse of Super-eminence in all things since their puritie cannot discend to the capacitie of our discourse without suffering a kind of prophanation From hence is it that if I should call you THE COMPLEATLY-PERFECT I might well say in effect that which you are but never thus should I represent the greatnesse of your merits since every of them in it selfe has such particular perfections as might challenge Altars from us if your humilitie could permit it These are such Truths MADAME as hinder me from praysing your Majestie not knowing how to expresse my selfe condignely Well might I perhaps suggest it to remembrance that your particular inclinations are the publike Vertues which we adore and that of the same temperament of humour Nature composed heretofore the Sages of the World But of all these discourses notwithstanding I cannot frame one onely prayse sufficiently adaequate to your worth seeing 't is elevated beyond all Eulogiums Insomuch that if Admiration it selfe teach not a new Language to posteritie wherein to proclaime aloud the favours and graces wherewith Heaven hath accomplisht you it must content it selfe to reverence your Name and adore your Memorie without presumption of speech of your actions as being ever above all valuation as well as imitation To instance the immortalitie of your AuGUSTICK Race although it be a pure Source of Honour which can never be dry'd up yet all these Titles of a Kings Daughter Sister and Wife can never adde to your Renowne which derives its value rather from the admirabilities of your Life then the greatnesse of your Birth Insomuch MADAME that the Scepters and Crownes of your Royalties are the meanest Ornaments wherewith your Majestie can decke it selfe since the least glympse of the least of your Actions duskes the luster of all the other magnificences which environ you And I beleeve had those Wonders of the World
Man should mis-know himselfe having such faithful Mirrours before his eyes where at all times hee may see apparantly the Truth of his Nature kneaded in Corruption formed by it and destroyed also by the same Strange thing he can see nothing in the World All the obiects of the world bid us Adten while we but regard 'em since they are alwayes fleeing away but Images of inconstancy and yet will not apprehend his owne change whatsoever shall smite upon his eare will resound nothing but the bruit of his flight and yet he will not thinke upon his retreat Lastly his other Sences and his fancy shall have no other object but this of the continuall vicissitude of all things and yet hee will remaine firme and stable in his vanity To muse alwayes of Death iâ— the way of Immortality till death ruine its foundation Thus in the deceitfull opinion wherein hee is of possessing all things hee looseth the possession of himselfe and having too much dreamed on his pleasures his Life is past as a Dreame without returne I must tell you one of my meditations I shall never be able to comprehend the meaning of those who moane themselves against Fortune A man may well complaine against Fortune these vaine regreetes exempt him not from the paine the World and all the pleasures of this life One forsooth will upbraid to this foolish Deity her deceipts without considering that he deceived himselfe in giving Trust to a Goddesse that nere had any Hee yet will accuse her to have conducted him still through craggy wayes and over-spread with thornes as if in following one that is blind a man should not hazard to run this danger Another will make yet fresh complaints against the Worlds detesting it's Sweetes The world may well bee the instrument of our destruction not the cause cursing it's charmes and calling it a Thousand times deceiptfull but why one would say to hear these plaints that the world began but now to receive its birth I meane were but now newly created that no man knowes it yet and that its first couzenages began but now to be discovered What folly is not this to cheat ones selfe to have commerce with a cheater the world never yet bore any other name or title why then ayme we to nourish our selves with its delights whose after-bitternesse empoysons sensibly our soules But if its charmes be powerfull enough to tempt reason The number of those whom the world hath deceived is so great that they that still trust it are now no more excusable they are yet too feeble to vanquish it provided that the will consent not so that a man remaine convict of all the crimes whereof he may be accused What seeming ground then have we to be enraged against those pleasures which we have received The will is so free that it cannot suffer violence but from it selfe if our selves only give them both being and forme the Fancies conceive these delights and the will gives them birth they are the workes whereof our imaginations form the Species and our desires make the Metamorphosis changing them into objects palpable and sensible which are markes of the seale of our depravednesse Let a man then abhorre pleasures instead of accusing them Pleasures are the greatest enemies of life for in casting flowers upon our heads they fill our hearts with thrones detest their vanity in lieu of complaining of their dedeitfulnesse But if they be criminall they onely beare the staine of their Fathers and if they be complices of our destruction t is we give them Birth to give us death Let men cease to lament of Fortune since the Mirror of its flying scarfe Fortune is stil her selfe he which trusts her takes delight to bee cheated and wings expresse to the life its lightnesse and our folly Let none Argue any more that the world is cause of our ruine since we cannot chuse but tread every houre over the dust and ashes of those who have too late repented to have followed it As for voluptuousnesse t is a vaine Idea to which our passions give a body to make it serve as a sensible object of their brutality insomuch that it can do nothing but by our first motions taking its vigour from our force and its power from our Soveraigntie and this renders us doubly culpable palleating our faults instead of acknowledging them Pleasure still takes its force from our voluntary weakenesse since laments rather than excuses might absolve us them Is it not that St. Iohn Chrysostome toucht with compassion of our miseries cries out in astonishment of our weakenesse ' Oh World how many hast thou deceived 'T is more then folly when the folly of others serves us not for example but this is its trade and profession O Fortune how many hast thou made to fall but even yet still while I am speaking shee gives employment to her treason and exercise to her Tyrannie O Pleasures comfitted in Sweetes and steeped in bitternesse how many have yee poysoned but yet their venome is so common that the whole earth is infected with it What remedy then to all these ils No other then this to pry into ones selfe in the MIRROVR of his owne Ashes Wee can no better contemplate any thing then in the Mirrour of our Nothing a MIRROVR alwayes hanging at the Girdle and which flatters not A MIRROVR whose glasse though more brittle then one of Crystall makes us yet to see that all the objects of the World are false but that of our Corruption a Mirrour which represents us more lively in our pourtraict then in our selves A Mirrour whose kind of shadow and Chimera makes us see in effect that which we are in appearance A Mirrour all miraculous which preserves certaine Species's of nothing to render them sensible to our knowledge A Mirrour all divine which metamorphosing our bodies into shadows yet expresses us so naturally that the most arrogant cannot mistake themselves A Mirrour lastly which Nature hath charmed with it's owne proper spels All the Mirrours of the World flatter except this of our miseries to the end that vewing himselfe herein a Man may be able to resist the charmes of the World's allurements I am greatly astonisht at those that preach us the Knowledge of our selves to be so troublesome and difficult since that at all times and in all places of all sides and all sorts of fashions wee are Nothing at all or if by an excesse of flattery and vanity If a man would still study himselfe he would become the wisest of the World I borrow some names to expresse truely what wee are it can bee no other then those of durt and mire whose noysomnesse takes away all doubt on it from the most incredulous In what then consists this trouble of studying to know one's-selfe since the most ignorant may in this goe out Doctors in the schoole of our miseries Selfe-knowledge onely
wise worldly ones have had no other recompence of their folly but such a blast of Fames Trump that they sought immortality amid'st this inconstancy of Ages where Death onely was in his Kingdome for they assisted every day at the funerall of their renowned companions and after they had seen their bodyes reduced into ashes they might with the same eye moreover contemplate their shadows I meane their statues metamorphosed into dust and all their reputation served but as a wind to beare them away into an infinity of Abysses since as a Wind being nothing else it flyes away with these heapes of ruine so farre both from the eye and all memory that in the end there is no more thought on 't In effect all these great men of the World did see buried every moment the hope of this vaine glory whereof their ambition was alwayes labouring to make acquist and yet not one of them for all this stept backe as if they tooke a pride in their vanities and the folly of them were hereditary Ambition never elevates but to give a greater fall CAESAR had seene the death of Pompey and with him all the glory of his renowne and Pompey had seene buried in the tombe of Time and Oblivion the renowne of that great Scipio whose valour more redoubted then the thunder had made the Earth tremble so oft Scipio in his turne might have read the Epitaph which despaire shame and disaster had graven in letters of Gold upon the Sepulture of Hannibal and Hannibal might have learn't to know by the unconstancy of the Age wherein he liv'd before he made experiment of them the mis-fortunes and miseries which are inseparable to our condition And yet notwithstanding all of them have stumbled one after other upon one and the same Stumbling-stone The richest of the world at last is found as poore as the poorest companion I am not come into Persia for the conquest of treasures said Alexander to Parmenio take thou all the riches and leave mee all the glory but after good calculation neither of them both had any thing at all These riches remained in the world still to which they properly appertained and this vaine-glory saw its lover dye without it selfe being seene Insomuch that after so great conquests the wormes have conquered this great Monarch and as the dunghill of his ashes ha's no sort of correspondence with this so famous name of Alexander which otherwhile he bore t is not to be said what he hath beene seeing what he is now I meane his present wretchednesses efface every day the memory of his past greatnesses Ambitious spirits though you should conquer a thousand worlds as hee did this one you should not be a whit richer for all these conquests The Earth is still as it was it never changes nature All her honours are not worth one teare of repentance all its glory is not to bee prized with one sigh of contrition I grant that the noise of your renowne may resound through the foure corners of the Universe That of SALADINE which went round it all could not exempt him from the mishaps of life nor miseries of Death After he had encoffered all the riches of the East yet findes he himselfe so poore for all that hardly can he take along with him so much as a Shirt Embalme then the Aire which you breathe with a thousand Odours bee Served in Plate of Gold Lye in Ivory Swimme in Honours and lastly let all your actions glitter with magnificence the last moment of your life shall bee judge of all those 'T is the greatest horror of death to render account of all the moments of life which have preceded it then shall you be able at your Death to tel me the worth of this vaine glory whereof you have beene Idolaters and after your Death you shall resent the paines of an eternall regreet having now no more opportunity to repent you to any effect Beleeve mee all is but Vanity Honour Glory Riches Praise Esteeme Reputation All this is but smoake during Life and after Death nothing at all The Grands of the world have made a little more noyse then others by the way But this Noyse is ceas'd their light is extinguish't their memory buried And if men speake of them sometimes the answer is returned with a shake of the head intimating no more words of them since such a Law of silence Time hath imposed hereon Seeke your glory in God and your Honour in the contempt of this earthly Honour if you will eternize your renowne in the perpetuity of Ages I have no more to say to you after these truths A PROLVSIVE upon the EMBLEME of the third Chapter A Funeral Herse with wreaths of Cypres crested A Skeleton with Roabes imperiall vested Dead march sad lookes no glorious circumstance Of high Atchievements and victorious Chance Are these fit Trophy's for a Conquerour These are the Triumphs of the Emperour ADRIAN who chose this Sable Heraldry Before the popular guilded Pageantry ' Stead of Triumphall Arches he doth reare The Marble Columnes of his Sepulcher No publike honours wave his strict intent To shrine his Triumph in his Monument The Conscript Fathers and Quirites all Intend his welcome to the Capitoll The vast expence one day's work would have cost He wiser farre since t'other had beene lost To build a Mausolaeum doth bestow Which now at Rome is call'd Saint * Moles ADRIANI nunc Castrū S. Angeli Angelo Where to this Day from Aelius Adrian's Name The Aelian * Pons Aelius Bridge doth still revive his fame Now was the peoples expectation high For wonted pompe and glitt'ring Chevalry But loe their Emp'rour doth invite 'em all Not to a Shew but to his Funerall They looke for Gew-Gaw-fancies his wise scorne Contemnes those Vanities leaves their hope forlorne For since all 's smother'd in the Funerall Pile He will not dally with 'em for a while This was Selfe-Victory and deserveth more Then all the Conquests he had woon before What can Death doe to such a man or Fate Whose Resolutions them anticipate For since the Grave must be the latter end Let our preventing thoughts first thither tend Bravely resolv'd it is knowing the worst What must be done at last as good at first ADRIAN Emperour of Rome Celebrates himselfe his Funeralls and causes his Coffin to be carried in Triumph before him THE MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. III. O How glorious is the Triumph over Death O how brave is the Victorie over a Mans selfe You see how this great * Adrian Monarch triumphs to day over that proud Triumpher Death after the happy vanquishment of his passions Hee enters into his Empire by the Port of his Tombe thus to raigne during his life like a man that dyes every moment he celebrates himselfe his owne Funerals and is led in Triumph to his Sepulcher to learne to dye generously What a glory 's this to over-awe That which commands the
Death gives them now equality There is now no place of affectation or range to be disputed the heap of your ashes and their dust make together but one hillocke of mould whose infection is a horrour to me I am now of humour not to flatter you a whit We read of the Ethiopians that they buryed their Kings in a kind of Lestall and I conceive there of no other reason then according to the nature of the subject they joyned by this action the shadow and the substance the effect with the cause the streame with its source for what other thing are we then a masse of mire dryed and bak'd by the fire of life but scattered againe and dissolv'd by the Winter of Death and in that last putrefaction to which Death reduceth us the filth of our bodyes falls to the durt of the earth as to its center for so being conceived in corruption let us not thinke strange to be buryed in rottennesse 'T is well men hide themselves after death in the Earth or the enclosure of Tombes their filth and noysomnesse would else be too discovert Earth dust and ashes remaine still the same be it in a vessell of gold or in a coffin of wood or in a Mausolean Tombe of marble Great Kings well may you cover your wretchednesse with a magnificent Sepulcher they will for all this not alter condition the noysomnesse of your bones is never without the abhorrement and putrefaction proper to them And if suppose their masse be reduced into dust and the wind carry it away the very wings of the wind are laden with rottennesse and can scatter nothing else in a thousand places where ere they fall I will a little straggle out the way without loosing my ayme Fabius Paulus reports that upon the Tombe of Isocrates there was a Syren seared upon a Ram and holding a Harp in her hand And this gave to understand That this famous Orator charmed mens soules through their eares by the sound of his admirable eloquence But whereas no melodious ayre was heard from the mute Harp of this Syren it was required of the Spectators to take for granted in imagination the harmony of her sweet touches How unsufferable is the vanity of men who even is on their Tombes will have the display of their vaine glory as embleme of the sweetnesse of this great Orators voyce But Death imposeth silence on both and thus remained they a sad sight both in object and mysteries contained under since now of these passages remaines no more but a weake remembrance and whereof Time by little and little effaceth even the Ideas Iohannes Baptista Fontanus relates that upon the Sepulcher of Q. Martius there was ' graven a Ramme supported upon the two fore-feet and a Hare dead by its side The Ramme represented the generosity of this great Captaine in all combats and the dead Hare his vanquisht enemies But what honour now remaines him after their defeat This van quisher of an infinite number of miserable wretches is at the last overcome with his owne miseries Though Triumphant in a thousand combats one marble stone now containes all his trophies and glory O deplorable fate to have but seven foot-earth after conquest of the greatest part of the earth Plutarch assures us that upon the Tombe of Alexander there was represented in Embleme Asia and Europe appearing vanquisht and in the chaines of their captivity with this mot which served as a fresh Trophy The victorie of Alexander O poore victorie O sorry triumph for where are now its Laurels and Palms This great Monarch conquered the whole world but being never able to conquer his ambition This in the end hath taken away all the glory which it made him acquire Great Princes advance then on to the conquest of the Vniverse but I advertise you one thing The misprise of the world is more glorious then all its honours All those that are returned from the same action have much repented themselves to have taken so great paynes for so small a matter * Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle The Game 's not worth the Candle as the Proverb But if you love to Conquer and triumph your passions will furnish you with such subject every houre Let 's once see the end of our carriere We read of Cyrus that he caus'd to be engraven these words upon the stone of his Monument HERE LYES THE CONQVEROVR OF THE PERSIANS But what excesse of mishap could have reduced so great a Monarch to such an excesse of wretchednesse must it be said Here lyes of one that lately stood so triumphant Would hee have men admire his past glory in view of that vault where he was enterred would he have men adore the magnificences of his Life upon the same Altar where Death exhibits him as a victime Is not this a vanity more worthy of compassion then envy The History of the life of Themistocles was to be read upon the marble of his Sepulcher but 't was forgotten there to depaint also the story of his Death 'T is but a poore satisfaction to have for recompence of so much paines but the ostentation of a glorious Sepulcher Behold the high deeds of Themistocles this was the inscription But to us it may be of importance to consider that although the wonders which he had done were onely graven upon the port of his Monument yet for all that they also made their entrie into it and followed the fate of their author so that now rests nothing of Themistocles but Name for of all that hee hath done the wind hath carryed away the glory and the small remembrance on 't which sticks by us is but a portraict of vanitie There was represented upon the Tombe of Ioshua the Sunne with this inscription Iosh 10.12 Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon True it is the Sunne stood still in the mid'st of his carreere to give full Triumph to this great Captaine over his enemies But after they were overthrowne this Planet jealous of his glory conducts him also to his grave as not enduring to see any thing upon earth as durable as it selfe So true it is that all things here flit away There is no course swifter then that of Life to Death with the swiftnesse of a Torrent though their flight to us seeme much more slow The Epitaph which some * Sit fides penes Authorem writings report us of Adam has not so much splendour and magnificence as the others Hee is Dead sayes his Epitaph speaking onely of him O excellent Epitaph Men shall say no more of you one day Great Kings Well may you with Q. Martius come off victorious from all combats and enter in triumph into Cities with Alexander Well may you cause to be insculp't the History of your Acts upon the marble of your Sepulchers like as Themistocles and may you Sub-poena the Sun for a witnesse of the reality of your triumphs like
changing are reduceable your allurements and charmes The greatest Princesse of the world and one of the fairest as hath beene being now fall'n from her Imperiall Throne into the grave not one of her attendants can retaine any knowledge of her in so short a space The wormes having effaced the lineaments of her resemblance have inveloped it so deep into corruption that no where is it to be found else being but Rottennesse Reader render up thy selfe to the hits of a Truth so sensible 'T is reported of Semiramis that she caused to be put upon her Tombe this Inscription The King that shall have need of money shall find within this Sepulcher as much as he would have on 't And some time after King Darius transported with a violent passion of Avarice caused this Sepulcher to be opened but found within no other riches then of so much gold as was necessarily employed in the engraving of these words Covetous wretch 'T is an insolence to the priviledges of Nature to trouble the repose of the Dead which comest to disturbe the repose of the dead satiate thy greedy passion upon the treasure of my miseries since this object is powerfull enough to make thee undervalue all the riches of the â—orld You that are Covetous Enter ofâ—en at least in Meditation into Tombes visit to such effect the Church-yards â—nd you shall find therein more riches â—hen you wish for considering the horrour of that rotten earth wherein â—our semblables are enterred you will reason without doubt thus To what purpose at last will stead â—e all the treasures which I amasse â—p in my coffers if the very richest of â—he world be but earth and ashes beâ—ore my eyes What shall I doe at â—he houre of my death with all the â—oods which I now possesse if even â—â—y body be a prey destinated to worms â—â—d rottennesse LORD I ayme at nothing of this world â—ut that glory alone which a man may acquire by the contempt of it but as is a glory whereof the acquisition depends of thy grace more then my force All our hopes depend from grace nothing from our selves give mee the Courage if it please thee to surmount all the temptations which shall oppose themselves against my designe of Victorie to the end that my vowes may be heard and my paines recompensed I returne to my selfe When I consider that all the world together is but as it were a Caemitarie or Churchyard wherein every houre of the day some wretchednesse or other brings to the grave those whom such their miserable condition hath destroyed I have no more passionate desire of life since evils and troubles are proprietaries of it He which meditates of anothers mans death puts himselfe in mind of his owne since we are all slaves to the same fate rather then we Who can keepe account of the number of persons that expire at this very moment that I am now speaking to you Or the different deaths which terminate the course of their carreere All is universally dreadfull and yet wee quake not either in horrour or astonishment A Walke into Church-yards and Charnels though it be sad and melancholy by reason of the dolefull object there obvious In many of the Church-yards of France are thousands of dead mens skulls and bones piled up as at S. Innocents at Paris Saint Croix at Orleans c. hath yet ne'rethetlesse something in it agreeable to content good soules in the contemplation of those very objects which they there find How often have I ta'en pleasure to consider a great number of Dead-mens sculls arranged one in pile upon another with this conceit of the vanitie and arrogance wherewith otherwile they have beene filled Some have had no other care but of their Haire employing the greatest part of their time Meditation upon the vanities of life is a piece of serious felicitie before death either to frizle or to empouder them and represent unto your selves by the way what recompence now betides them for all their paines Others all full of ambition had no other aymes but at Coronall wreaths consider a little in this their miserie the injustice of their pretentions I ha' remark't in sequell how a little worme did gnaw the arme of some late Samson reducing thus all his force to an object of compassion and wretchednesse since that arme heretofore so strong and dreadfull had not now force enough to resist a little worme Reader muze often of these truths and thou shalt finde therein more joy then sadnesse Typotius reports of Iohn Duke of Cleveland that to testifie the frailty of our nature and the miseries of our condition hee had ta'en the Embleme of a Lilly with this device Hodie Lilium Cras Nihilum Hodie hoc cras nihil It flourishes to day to morrow 't is nothing Great Kings your life is like this Lily it appeares like this flower at Sunne-rise with glittering and pompe Even those things which seeme most durable have in effect but a morning prime like flowers but at noone its vivacitie and luster begin to fade and at the end of the day it vanisheth away with it and scarce its being is remembred We read in Appianus of Pompey that after he had triumphed over three parts of the world he carryed nothing away with him to the grave but these words Hic situs est magnus Pompeius Pompey is here buryed with all his pompe O World how poore art thou since thou hast but such a thing of nought to give O Fortune how miserable art thou when thy favorites are exposed to publike view as objects of compassion Let him trust in 'em who will a man shall never be able to escape their tromperies but by despiting their favours Here lyes Hannibal Behold all the honour which posteritie rendred to the memory of so great a Captaine And Time Time is as inexorable as Death and neither of them spare any even jealous of the glory of his name though not able to bury it in the Abysses of Oblivion hath yet devoured the very marble of his Sepulcher Are not these things truths worthy to raise astonishment 'T is remark't in Suetonius of one of the Romane Emperours that being now at last gaspe and as it were at a bay with Death he cryed out in excesse of astonishment Fui omnia sed nihil expedit I have beene all in all but now it nothing helpeth me I have tasted all the pleasures of all the greatnesse of the world but the sweetes are changed into soures and onely their bitter disgust stayes with me Experiment all the delights of the Earth Great Kings the distast will ever at last only remaine to your mouths sorrowes to your hearts and if these doe no good on you a thousand eternall punishments will possesse your soules Represent to your selves that all the felicities of Life are of the same nature as that is That decaies every moment and they slit away
he sees at his feet the bones and dust of an infinite number of persons To what purpose is Courage against those perils which cannot be avoyded who were as valiant as he what thoughts can he have but of submission and humilitie considering that one part of himselfe is already reduced into dust and filth I say a part of himselfe since he himselfe is but a piece of the same matter which now serves him for object and to the same last point will be extended one day the line of his life When Virgil tells us of the fate of Priam Aeneid lib. 2. lacetingens litore truncus Avulsumque humeris caput sine no mine corâ—uâ— hee bring in Aeneas astonish't at it that so great a Monarch should leave to posteritie no other Monument of his greatnesse but a Tronck of flâ—sh a head separated from the shoulders and a carkasse without name or shape He which makes himselfe rightly sensible of his miseries is partly in way to be exempted from their tyranny Great Kings This truth is a Mirrour which flatters not Gaze here often in these meditations and you will surely at length consider that All is full of vanity and that this glory of the world whereof you are so strongly Idolaters is but a Phantasie and Chimera to which your imaginations give that beauty which charmes you and that delicacie which ravishes you What thinke you is it to be the greatest of the world 'T is an honour whereof miserie and inconstancy are the foundations for all the felicities which can arrive us are of the same nature as wee are and consequently as miserable as our condition and as changing This Earth whereon you live is the lodging of the dead what eternitie beleeve you to find in it Eternitie of honours riches and contentments there was never any but in imagination and this Idea which wee have of them is but a reflection from the lightning of Truth where-with heaven illuminates noble soules thus to guide them to the search of the true source of all by the ayde of these small rivolets There is nothing eternall in this world but this scope of truth It is time to finish this worke I have made appeare to you in the first Chapter the particular study which a man ought to take to come to the * Hoc jubet illa Pyrhicis oraculis adscripta vox Nosce Te. Knowledge of himselfe Seneca wherein lyes the accomplishment of perfection And herein the precept is The Consideration of the miseries which are destinated to our Nature as being so many objects capable enough to force up the power of our reason to give credence to the resentments of frailty which are proper to us But this is not all to be meerely sensible of our wretchednesse Serious Consideration must often renew the Ideas of them in our soules more then the hard experience of them And this to the end that vanitie to which wee are too incident may not surprize us He that searches into himselfe shall not lose his labour during the intervals of a meditation so important Wee must often dive into our selves and seeke in the truth of our nothingnesse some light to make us thus to know our selves Afterwards making a rise a little higher it is necessary to consider the End for which wee were created and in this consideration to employ all the powers of the severall faculties of our soules to the generous designe of getting possession of that glory Behold the Corollarie of my first Argument or Chapter The second instructs us a new meanes to resist powerfully the hits of the vanities of the world from the example of the wretchednesse of * Saladine one of the greatest Monarchs of the world Fortune had refused him nothing because she meant to take all from him for in the height of his glory he finds himselfe reduced to the poorenesse of his shirt onely which is all he carryes with him into the grave Povetty and Riches depend upon opinion and a noble soule is above his fortune in what condition somever he be And this makes us sensibly perceive that the greatnesses of the earth are Goods as good as estranged from humane nature since in this mortall and perishing condition wee can onely possesse their usance and the terme of this possession is of so short endurance that wee see as soone the end as the beginning Reader represent unto thy selfe how thou shalt be dealt with at thy death both by Fortune and the world since the Minion of this blind Goddesse Et quae veneraris quae-despicis unus exae quabit cinis and the greatest of the Universe is exposed all naked in his shirt in sight of all his subjects to be given in prey to the wormes Sen. as well as the most miserable of the Earth The Third Chapter where Life leads Death in Triumph teaches us the Art to vanquish this untamable by considering its weakenesse for in effect if Death be but a privation The horrour of Death is purely in the weakenes of imagination 't is to be deprived of reason and judgement to give it a being since it cannot subsist but in our impaired imaginations The fantosme of an Idea is it whose very forme is immateriall as having no other subsistance I say but that which the weakenesse of our spirit gives it And againe to come to the most important point Let this be the close of the recapitulation that you may have meanes not to stand in feare on 't Sen. * Incertum est quo te loco Mors expectet itaque tu illam omni loco expecta Muze on it alwayes looke for it in all places and o'recomming your selves you shall triumph over it Never did an unblemisht life feare Death The last Chapter where the object of Caemiteries and Sepulchers is laid before your eyes may now againe serve for the last touch since it is a Theater where you must play the Tragedie of your lives All this great number of Actors Hodie mihi Cras tibi Thinke on that Reader it may be thy turne to morrow whose bones and ashes you see there have every one playd their part and it may be that the houre will soone Knell that you must act yours Reader live ever in this providence a Man cannot too soone resolve to doe that well which howsomever must be done of necessitie God grant that these last lines may once againe reproach thee the bad estate of thy Conscience delay not too long this Check to thy selfe least too late the regreets be then in vaine Thy salvation is fastned to an instant Momentum est unde pendet aeteâ—nitas consider the infinite number of them which are already slip't away when perhaps at that moment thou wert in estate if dying to incurre the punishment of a second Death and that eternall If thou trust to thy youth put thy head out of
diffiâ—ile to the proud where lies the difficulty to arrive to this knowledge when the very wind of our sighes carries away every moment some of that polluted dust whereof wee bee made Where is this paine say I yet since our senses and spirits can have no other object then this of Inconstancy as unseparable to their nature as it is proper to our condition And what can bee this difficulty when we are capable of no action more then to destroy our selves We must breake this rinde farther Humility is a skilfull Schoolemaster to teach us to know our selvs I will beleeve that every one knowes from whence he comes and whither he goes that his body is but a worke of rottennesse and that the wormes attend therof the prey as a nourishment which to them is destinated but it is important to consider that these truths though sensible are oftenest put in oblivion and this default of memory denotes that of knowledge He which museth upon his slightnesse undervalueth except God all things A man knowes no more then hee remembers and vanity would never be able to surprise us during the interim of this meditation Man knows very well that he is Mortall The remembrance of Death makes us forget the vanities of Life but whilst he never thinkes seriously of the necessity of dying this knowledge is forgot though he dye without cease and in loosing the remembrance of his condition looses the knowledge therof The way to passe our dayes contentedly is to think every houre of the last Remember that you are a Man said his page every morning to Philip of Macedon This great Monarch made himselfe to be rouzed every day from sleep with the Newes of Death fearing to be charmed with the sweetes of Life Greatnesses environ him on all parts to make him forget his humility but understand you not the delicate Aire which he causes to be sung to the tune of his miseries The remembrance of the poorenesse of Death is a potent charme to resist the memory of greatnesse of Birth the pompe and Magnificance of his riches dazle his eyes with their lustre that he might never consider the wretchednesse which is proper to him But you see how he makes himselfe to be awaked with the noyse of this truth ever to cherish its remembrance Sir remember that you are a Man oh how many Mysteries are comprised in these wordes behold the Allegory on 't Great Kings remember you are subject to many more Miseries then you have subjects in your Empire If we be different in manner of life we are all'equall in necessity of dying Great Monarchs remember that of all the great extention of your Territories there shall not remaine you one onely foot So jealous are the wormes of your glory Great Princes remember that your Scepters and your Crownes are such feeble markes of greatnesse that fortune sports with them Time mocks at them and the Wind shal sweep away their Dust Soveraigne Judges of the Life of Men remember that although you are above the Lawes this of Dying is inviolable The Fable is pretty of the resolution which the flowers and plants took to elect a King and Queene Cares and anâ—ieties surpasse in number the pleasure of Kings and as the number of Voyces gave the election the Marigold was declared to bee the King of the Flowers and the Bryar Queene of Plants and under this toy lies hid serious verities Is there any thing fairer in all the borders of the Garden of Nature then the flower of the Marigold It s golden Tincture of the colour of the Sun at first view dazeleth so delightfully that the Eye amazedly gazing with admitation of its fresh-displayed beauty can hardly retire its regards from an object so agreeable But gather it and dight it on you and its sentproduces a thousand disliks in the Mind for that one onely which you hold in your hand for hence of a suddaine the humours become dull and melancholy having beene annoyed with so faire a fulsomnesse Royalty is absolutely the same The Scepters are as fresh flowers of Marigold If Crownes and Scepters were to be sould wise men would never buy them whose lustre and beauty equally ravishing attract at first glance to their admiration the Soule by the eyes but if a Man take them into his graspe or deck his head with â—hem hee shall find himselfe fill'd with anxious cares by this coverâ—ure If you doubt of this aske Seleuâ—us hee will answere That the first â—oment of his Raigne was the last of â—is Quietnesse The Sweet-bryar also bore away â—he Royaltie for who would not love 〈◊〉 with its Rose O how both togeâ—her have powerfull attractives to â—â—mpt equally both the heart to desire them and the hand to plucke them And 't is in vaine that Nature hath given armes to the jealousie of its prickles Thornes are the Roses of Kings gardens to serve for the defence of its flowers since these sharpes are as so many baits which irritate us rather with Desire then Feare All the world insert it in their nose-gayes but the prickles remaine the Rose withers Say we then also that Royalty is a faire Sweet-bryar accompanyed with its Roses I meane many contentments of the same nature Both together have great charmes to affect us both with love and desire but the Bryars of the Crowne remaine Great miseries are destinated to great fortunes the Rose of delights withers O how ponderous is the loade of this greatnesse And if you beleeve not me enquirâ— hereof of the puissant King Mithridates The felicity of Kings hath much more lustre then Reality hee will often reiterate to you That he never sigh'd but for the ponderouâ— burden of his Crownes SIR REMEMBER YOV ARâ— A MAN But what is there here to pride in 〈◊〉 May it be of the greatnes of his Dâ—minions This is but an alien good which admits not to be possest but by vanity Kings may trouble themselves to conquer the earth it still triumphs over them since its honours and pleasures have nothing else more in propriety To be an amply landed-man is to have miry soyle to sell and small profit to make thence Sir remember you are a Man What may be his ambition may it be to conquer the whole world what will he doe with it after conquest since it is a Ball of snow which Time melts by little and little tumbling it without cessation Sir remember you are a Man What might be his designes Should hee pretend to Altars and Temples what oblations can be made to a Victime He which makes himselfe to be adored is rather fi to be Deaths Victime then to be idolatrized â—hom Death holds conrinually at a â—ay can Incense be offered to a â—ung hill or an Idoll made of a Sink â—e very thought shockes common â—nse Sir remember that you are a Man What can hee doe with his absolute â—ower
Mercurie Trimegistus that thou hast reason to publish that Man is a great miracle The magnificence of man hath neither bounds nor limits since God is his end since God himselfe hath been willing to espousâ— his condition to shew us in its miseâ—ries the miracles of his Love I confesse Pythagoras that thou hast had no lesse ground to maintainâ— that Man was a mortall God Though a man still fade away hee is yet a lively pourtray of immortallitie since except this sweet necessitie which subâ—jects him to the Tombe hee has thousand qualities in him all immoâ—â—tall I should finally have beene 〈◊〉 advise with thee Plato then when thoâ— preachedst every where that Maâ— was of the race of the Gods since 〈◊〉 piece of work so rare and so perfect could not proceed but from a hand Omnipotent All the creatures are admirable as the effects of a soveraigne and independant cause but man has attributes of an unparalleld glory I meane this Rivelet of admiration could not proceed but from a source most adorable I am of thy opinion Plotinus henceforth will maintaine every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the workes of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chaines of its servitude Great Kings Be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little little from one part of himselfe shat hee may entirely into himselfe The perfection of your Nature lyes in this defect of your powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace of his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you dye every moment only to make acquisition of that immortallity to which his love has destin'd you This defect of inconstrancie is the perfection of man since he ischangeable to day to bee no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the poinâ— of our soveraigne felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude if row ling without intervall in the dust of our originall we approach by little and little to thosâ— Ages of glory which beyond aâ— time assigne at our End the beginninâ— of a better Carreere O Gloriouâ— Death since terminated at that crueâ— instant A man is onely happy in the perpetuall inconstancie of his condition which separates us from Immortality It is true I confesse it againe Greâ—â— Kings that you are subject to all thâ— sad accidents of your subjects The greatest miserie that can arrive to a man is to offend God Buâ— what happinesse is it if these misfoâ—tunes are as so many severall wayeâ— which conduct you into the Port. Bâ—â— it granted that you are nothing bâ—â— Corruption in your Birth Miserie 〈◊〉 your Life and a fresh infection 〈◊〉 many attributes of honour to yoâ—â— since you disroabe your selves in tâ—â— grave of all your noisomnesse for 〈◊〉 Decke your selves with the ornamenâ— of Grace of felicity and glory whiâ—â— belong in proper to your soules as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Heaven ' Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatnesse of man Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himselfe be the circumference of it Would you have some knowledge of Mans power heare the commandement which Iosuah made to the Sunne to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the â—uines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Iob offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven has sewer of Starres then of felicities to give him Man may bee whatsomever hee will be What name then shall we â—ttribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There â—s no other then this of Man and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turne â—t into mockage before the Jewes Iohn 19.5 hee â—hews them a God under the visage of Ecce homo Behold the Man a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit which can never change Nature Well may they teare his barke the Inmate of it is of proofe against the strokes of Fortune as well as the gripes of Death The Man of Earth may turne into Earth but the Man of heaven takes his flight alwayes into heaven With what new rinds some-ever a man hee covered he beares still in his sorehead the markes of his Creator That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from durt with the water of his owne teares may resolve into the same matter But this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouse then your selves from sleepe great Princes Hee that would alwayes muse of Eternitie would without doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to represent unto your selveâ— that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over youâ— Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not foâ— to Muse of this necessity which draweâ— you every houre to the Tombe buâ— rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Man ia a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes Great PRINCES Awake and permit mee once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine worke-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his owne worke My feathered pen can fly no higher Man only is she ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter whereof hee is formed the Water in his â—eares the Aire in his sighes the Fire â—n his Love the Sunne in his reason â—nd the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vanisheth 〈◊〉 Sweet vanishment since he is lost 〈◊〉 himselfe that he may bee found in is Creator But the Earth remaines â—â—me and his dust flyes away O hapâ—y flight since eternity it it's aime The â—ater though it fleets away yet returns â—e same way
and ret orts upon it's own paces Man may be sayd to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But Man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison Death is a grace rather than a paine O deare ruine 〈◊〉 O sweet captivity since the soule recovers her freedome and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifiâ—â— his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroyed thâ— corruption of Man destroyes its materiall O glorious destruction since iâ—steades him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire thougâ— it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all thâ— World into Ashes But Man perceive himself to be devoured by Time with out ability ever to resist it Oh benâ—ficiall Impotence since hee findes hâ—â— Triumph in his overthrow The â—elâ—citic of man in this world consists in the necâ—ssity of death the Sunnâ— causeth alwayes admiration in its oâ—dinary lustre but Mans reason is impaired in the course of Times Oh weâ—come impairement since Time ruinâ— it but onely in an Anger knowing thâ— it goes about to establish its Empire beyond both time and Ages In find the Heavens may seem to wax old 〈◊〉 their wandring course How happy is man in decaying evermore since he thus at last renders himselfe exempt from all the miseries which pursue him they yet appear the same still every day as they were a thousand yeeres a'gon Man from moment to moment differs from himselfe and every instant disrobes him somewhat of his Beeing Oh delightfull Inconstancy since all his changes make but so many lines which abut at the Center of his stability A long life is a heavie burthen to the soule since it must render an account of all its moments How mysterious is the Fable of Narcissus the Poets would perswade â—â—s that Hee became selfe-enamoured â—â—ewing Himselfe in a Fountaine But 〈◊〉 am astonish't how one should become amorous of a dunghill though â—overed with Snow or Flowers A face cannot be formed without Eyes Nose â—nd Mouth and yet every of these â—arts make but a body of Misery and Corruption as being all full of it This Fable intimates us the repreâ—ntment of a fairer truth since it inâ—â—tes a Man to gaze himselfe in the â—ountaine of his teares thus to become morous of himselfe not for the liâ—eaments of dust and ashes whereof â—s countenance is shap't but rather of â—ose beauties and graces wherewith his soule is ornamented and all these together make but a rivelet If a man could contemplate the becauties of his soule in innocence he would alwaies be surprized with us love which leads him to the admiration of that source from whence they tooke their originall Oh how David was a wise Narcissus then when hee made of his Teares a Mirrour If a man would of en view himselfe in the teares of his repentance be would soon become a true selfâ—over so to become enamour'd of himselfe for he was so selfe-loving in his repentance that in this Hee spent both dayes and nights with unparelleled delights But if Narcissus ship-wrack't himselfe in the fountaine of his selfe-fondnesse This great King was upon point to Abysse himselfe in the Sea of his tâ—eres All the vaine objects of the world are so many fountaines of Narcissus wherein prying men may shâ—pwracke themselves for their liquid Crystalline shewd him to himselfe so beautifull that hee burned with desire thus to drowne himselfe Ladies vieâ— your selves in this Mirrour since you are ordinarily slaves to your owne selve love You will be faire at what price soever see here is the meanes The Crystall Mirrour of your teares flatter not contemplate therein the beauty of this grace which God hath given you to bewaile your vanities This is the onely ornament which can render you admirable All those deceitfull Chrystals Teares are the faithfullest Mirours of penitence which you weare hang'd at your Girdles shew you but fained beauties wherof Art is the work-mistresse and cause rather then your visages Would yee be Idolaters of the Earth which you tread on your bodies are but of Durt but if you will have them endeared where shall I find tearmes to expresse their Noysomnesse Leave to Death his Conquest and to the Wormes their heritage If Ladies would take as much care of their souls as of their bodies they would not hazard the losse both of one and to'ther and search your selves in that originall of Immortality from whence your soules proceed that your actions may correspond to the Noblenesse of that cause This is the most profitable counsell which I can give You It is time to end this Chapter Great Kings I serve you this Morning instead of a Page to awake You and remembrance You that you are Men I meane Subjects to Death and consequently destinated to serve as a Prey to the Wormes a Shittle-cocke to the Windes and matter for to forme an object of horror and astonishment to you altogether Muze a little that your life passeth away as a Dreame The meditation of our nothingnesse is a soveraigne remedie against vanitie thinke a little that your thoughts are vaine consider at the same time that all that is yours passes and flies away You are great but this necessity of Dying equals you to the least of your subjects Men are so neare of blood together that all beare the same name Your powers are dreadfull but a very hand-worme mocks at 'em your riches are without number but the most wretched of men carry as much into the grave as you In fine may all the pleasures of Life make a party in Yours yet they are but so many Roses whose prickles onely remaine to you at the instant of Death Man hath nothing so proper to him as the misery to which hee is borne The horror which environs You chaseth away your greatnesses the weakenesse which possesseth you renders unprofitable your absolute powers and onely then in that shirt which rests upon your backe are comprised all the treasures of your Coffers Are not these verities of importance enough to breake your sleepe If the earth be our mother heaven is our father I awake you then for to remembrance you this last time that you are Men but destined to possesse the place of those evill Angels whose Pride concaved the Abysses of Hell that you are Men but much more considerable for the government of your reason then your Kingdome That you are Men but capable to acquire all the felicities of Heaven if those of the Earth are by you disdained That you are Men but called to the inheritance of an eternall Glory if you have no pretence to any of this world Lastly that you are Men but the living images of an infinite and omnipotent one Though the body and soule together make up the man there is yet as
much dâ—fference between the one and the other as between the scâ—bberd and the sword Cleare streames of immortality remount then to your eternall source faire rayes of a Sunne without Eclipse rejoyne your selves then to the body of his celestiall light Perfect patternes of the divinity unite your selves then to it as to the independant cause of your Beeing Well may the Earth-quake under your feet your wils are Keys to the gates of its abysses should the Water or'e-whelme againe all your hopes cannot be shipwrack't That the Aire fils all things may bee but your expectations admit of some vacuum Though the Fire devoure all things the object of your hopes is above its flames let the heavens poure downe in a throng Although the puissaences of the soule worke not but by the senses the effects in this point are more noble then the cause their malignant influences here below your soules are under covert from their assaults Let the Sun exhaling vapours make thereof thunders for your ruine you are under the protection of him who ejaculates their flashes Man needs feare nothing being aâ—evated above a.l. insomuch that instead of hurting you all things doe you homage The Earth supports you the Water refresheth you the Aire imbreaths you the Fire warmes you Man could not be more happy then be is since God is his last felicity the Sun lights you Heaven attends you the Angels honour you the Divels feare you Nature obeyes you and God himselfe gives himselfe to you to obliege you to the like reciprocation Is not this to possesse with advancement all the felicities which you can hope I dare you to wish more A wake thy selfe then Reader and let thy conscience and thy miserie each in its turne serve thee as a Page every morning to put thee in mind That thou art a Man To dye is proper to man I meane a pourtraict animated with Death rather then with Life since thou canst doe nothing but dye but in this continuall dying amid the throng of evils and paines which are enjoyned to thy condition Consider also that thou art created to possesse an Eternity both of life and happinesse How happy is man thus to bee able to be as much as he desires and that all these infinite good things are exposed as an ayme of honour and glory to the addresses of thy will for if thou wilt Paradise shall bee thine though Hell gape at thee Heaven shall be thy share it's delights thy Succession and God alone thy Soveraigne felicity A PROLVSIVE upon the EMBLEME of the second Chapter SWell on unbounded Spirits whose vast hope Scornes the streight limits of all moderate scope Be Crescent still fix not i' th' Positive Graspe still at more reach the Superlative And beyond that too and beyond the Moone Yet al 's but vaine and you shall find too soone These great acquists are bubbles for a spurt And Death wil leave you nothing but your Shirt Be Richest Greatest Pow'rfullest and Split Fames Trumpet with the blast on 't there 's it That 's all a Coffin and a Sheet and then You 're dead and buried like to Common men This Saladine foresaw and wisely stoopes Unto his Fate ' midst his triumphant troopes A world of wealth and Asiaticke Spoyles Guerdon his glorious military toyles Ensignes and Banners shade his armyes Eyes With flying Colours of fled enemyes Yet humbly he doth his chiefe Standard reare Onely his Shirt displayd upon a Speare Meanewhile his valorous Colonels were clad In rich Coate-armours which they forced had From subdu'de foes and 't seem'd a glorious thing Each man to be apparreld like a King The very common Souldiers out-side spoke Commander now and did respect provoke Their former ornaments were cast aside Which 'fore the victory were al theirpride To check their Pompe with clang'ring trumpetsound A Herald loud proclaim 's in Tone profound See what the Emperour doth present your Eye 'T is all that you must looke for when you dye This Shirt is all even Saladine shall have Of all his Trophy's with him to the grave Then be not over-heightned with the splendour Of your rich braveries which you so much tender Nor let your honours puff you least you find The breath of Eame jade ye with broken wind This solemne passage of this Monarchs story VVith greatest luster doth advance his glory Victorious SALADINE caus'd to be Proclaim'd to all his Armie that he carried nothing with him to the Graue but a SHIRT after all his Conquests THE MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. II. The horrour and misery of the grave makes the haire stand on end to the proudest ARrogant spirits ambitious Hearts be silent and lend an eare to the publicke cry of this Herald who with a voyce animated with horrour and affright as well as with compassion and truth proclaimeth aloud in the view of heaven and earth and in the presence of a world of people That this Great SALADINE magnificent Conquerour of Asia and Monarch of the whole East carryes away to the grave for fruit of his victories but onely a shirt which covers the mould of his body and even this scrap of linnen too Fortune leaves him but to give the wormes Absolute Kings puissant Soveraignes what will you reply to these discourses for to you they are addrest I doubt well that shame confusion and astonishment barre your speech This necessily of dying serves for temperament to the vanity of the greatest Monarchs of the world and that this sensible object of your proper miseries affects you so with ruth to force from your bosomes a thousand sighs The greatest Monarch of the earth becomes at a clap so little as not to be found no not in his miseries for the wind begins already to carry away the dust whereof hee was formed The powerfullest King of the world is reduc'd to such a point of weakenesse that he cannot resist the wormes after vanquishment and subjugation of entire Nations The richest Prince of the East takes a glory of all his treasures to carry away but onely a shirt to his Sepulture What can you answer to these verities This famous Saladine the terrour of men the valour of the earth and the wonder of the world Man cannot complaine of the world since at his death he gives him a shirt which at his birth his mother Nature refused him esteemes himselfe so happy and so advantaged by fortune in respect she leaves him this old ragge to cover his corruption that he makes this favour to be published with sound of trumpet in the midst of his Army that none might be in doubt on 't what beyond this can be your pretentions I grant you may be seated like Xerxes upon a Throne all of massie gold canopied with a glistering firmament of precious stones and that on what side somever you turne your menacing regards you see nothing but objects humbled before your Royall Majesties You never seate your selves
upon these Thrones of magnificence but as it were to take leave of the assembly All the speeches of Men are but discourses of adieu leave-taking since every day be marches straight forward toward Death continuing still to give your last God-bwyes like a man who is upon point to depart continually since he dyes every moment Insomuch that all this Pompe which accompanyes you and which gives shadow to the luster wherewith you are environed vanishes away with you and all those who are its admirers and idolaters runne the same fortune being of the same nature Be it from me granted that the report of your glory admits no vacuity no more then the Ayre does and that your name is as well knowne as the Sunne and more redoubted then the thunder This voyce of renowne is but as the sound of a Bell To what purpose doth the renown of a Man make a noyse in the world the noyse â—eâ—seth the renowne passeth which redoubles a noyse to its owne detriment to advertise those that doubt on 't and this name so famous and dreadfull finding no memory here below to the proofe of ages buryes it selfe at last in the nothingnesse of its beginning Be it againe that all the Gold of the Indies can be valewed but to a part of your Estate and that all the world together possesse lesse treasure then you alone what advantage thinke you to beare away more then the most miserable of the world that in this you should be vaine Enjoyes not he the same Sunne which lights you hath not he the same usage of the Elements The tranquillity of tâ—e mind and the health of body are the only riches of the world whereof you make use But if you have more then he a gloriousnesse of apparell and a thousand other superfluous things which are altogether estranged to vertue as being imaginary goods whose appearance alone is the onely foundation hee may answere you with Seneca that with whatsomever coverture a Man hides the shame of his nakednesse he shall passe for well-clothed among wise men And to come to the point a Man hath alwayes enough wherewith to follow his way and to finish his voyage The surplus is but a burden of cares which are metamorphosed into so many bryars when Death would discharge us of them Besides Riches consists but in opinion though their treasures be palpable and sensible A man is Rich equall to that which he beleeves himselfe to be He is the most rich who is most conient And though hee hath nothing this Grace wherewith hee is treasured to finde rest in his miseries is above all the Gold of the world What difference thinke you there is betwixt the Rich and the poore both the one and the other are equally pilgrims and travellers and goe alike to the same place Then if the Rich passe through the fairer way they rencounter when they dye All Mortals togethâ—r make a dance of blind men who in dancing runne to death without sâ—â—â—g the way they passe all the thorns of those roses which they have past upon There is no arrivall to the Haven of the grave without being tempested sooner or later in the storme of those miseries which accompany us And me thinks it is a comfort to suffer in good time those evils which we cannot avoyd Rich-ones how miserable doe I hold you if the goods of the earth be your onely treasures Rich-ones how unhappy are you if your felicities be but of Gold The treasure of good workes only inriches us eternally and Silver Rich-ones how you compell my pity of your greatnesses if you have no other titles then those of your Lord-ships Rich-ones how frightfull only at the houre of Death are your names since the misery wherein you are borne accompanyes you in the sepulchre True it is that the Ayre of the Region where you dwell may be very temperate the Seasons of it faire and the lands fertile but you consider not that while you live you often sigh backe the ayre which you receive that this sweet time which smiles on you entraines you in flying to the season of teares The content of riches is like an odor ferous fume but it passes and so doth their enjoyment also and there is all and that very soone the dunghill of your bodyes shall perhaps render the lands yet more fertile The Rich Men of the world have done nought but passe away with the ages that gave them birth you are borne in this and this very same goes away and leads you with it and all the rest of Men without skilling what you are or in what fashion you are vested well may you possesse an infinite number of treasures you must alwayes trot and rise as soone i' the morning as others but if you play the slugs and sleep too long 'T is strange whether we shift place and sâ—at or no we yet runne incessantly to Death Death comes in the end to awake you and interrupt your repose with an eternall disquiet What will you say to this The fable of Midas comprehends in it important verities Apollo grants him all that hee demands he satiates the appetite of his unmeasurable ambition by the vertue which he gives to his touch to be able to turne all things into gold See him now rich for a day his hands are as new Philosophers-stones which make the grossest and most impure metals change both nature To what purpose is it to be environed with riches they are a strange kind of good whereof one can enjoy the usage but for a moment onely and price he sees himselfe enrounded in a moment with so great a number of treasures that he begins to apprehend the enjoyment of those goods which he desired with so much passion and from feare hee comes to astonishment then when prest with hunger all the Viandes which he touches with his hands lips or tongue are metamorphosed into Gold O inseparable amazement from a mortall griefe caused by a semblable regreet that hee could not limit his ambition but to the desire of his owne ruine Rich-men you are as so many Midasses since with all your treasures you never importune heaven for any other thing but to increase their number to which effect you destinate your cares your watchings and your labours But make no more imploring vows behold your selves at last heard The glistering of your riches dazles me your greatnesses and magnificences give you cheerefull tincture yet let us see the reverse of the Medall After your so many strong wishes for Gold and Silver The covetous growes poore in measure as hee growes rich since in encreasing his treasures encreases the famine of his insatiable avarice and thus of what he possesses he enjoyes nothing their treasures remaines to you for to satiate at least in dying the unruled appetite of the ambition of your life Riches I say environ you on all sides after your so passionate covetize
in propriety but the usance of a puffe of wind which enters once againe at last into his entrals to force thence the last sigh And thus hee becomes the Victime of the Idoll of his passions without purifying ne're the lesse from the sacrifice of his life the soyle of those offerings which hee hath made upon the altars of Vanity Behold the sad issue of this Dedalean labyrinth wherein so many of the world take pleasure to intricate themselves in O how Rich is he LORD who hath thy love feare for his treasure O how happy is he If the fruition of all the world together were to be sold it were not worth so much trouble as to open the mouth onely to say I will not buy it who hath for object of felicitie the contempt of these things of the world O how Contented is hee who thinkes alwayes of eternall delights To have many riches for a hundred yeeres is not this to possesse at the end of that terme a Good which is as a good as never to have beene To taste greedily the sweets of every sort of prosperity during the raigne of a long life is it not already to dye by little and little for griefe to abandon them since in flying away they intraine us into the grave To pant continually for joy in the presence of a thousand pleasures is it not to prepare in one's breast the matter of as many griefs since every contentment is a disposition to a kind of martyrdome by the necessary and infallible privation of its sweets whereof while we taste on 't it menaceth us In fine to have all things at wish is it not to possesse vaine businesses since the world has nothing else to offer us The riches which Fortune gives and takes away againe when she will A wicked rich Man is much astonisht at his Death to have his conscience voyd of good works and his coffers full of mony since with all the gold of the world hee cannot purchase the grace of the least repentance can never enrich a Man it behooves him to seeke his treasure in the mines of his conscience so to be under covert from sinne for otherwise hee runnes the same hazard as of the goods which hee possesses I meane in their decay to loose himselfe with them The prosperities of the earrh are once more fresh flowers of the garden faire to the eye and of good sent but 't is to much purpose to gather them and make nose-gayes in holding them one holds nothing because their fragility renders them so slipperie that they ' scape both from our eyes and hands and though their flight be slow one day only is all their durance The pleasures of the world are of the same nature I grant they may have some agreeablenesse to charme our senses yet 't were too vaine to vaunt of their possession though one enjoyes them forsomuch as they slip away The arrivall of pleasures annunciates us alwayes their fueedie departure and vanish without cease from our eyes like the alwayes-flitting water trills Their sway hath so short limits that each moment may be the terme on 't Solid contentments are onely found in heaven and the onely meanes to rellish them beyond all sweetes is continually to Muze on them for having alwayes our spirit arrested upon meditation of an object so delitious our thoughts draw thence by their vertue this efficacy to ravish us with joy I returne to my first proposition The good or ill which we doe accompanies us to the grave That the greatest MONARCH of the world after possession of all things to his wish and having led a thousand times fortune herselfe in triumph upon the territories of his Empire should in conclusion be exposed all naked in his SHIRT at the end of his carreere to serve for a prey to the wormes and a shitlecocke to the winds certes a man must needs be very insensible not to be toucht with affright at these truths The misprizall of riches is the onely treasure of life GREAT KINGS if you have not other Mines of Gold more precious then those of the India's you shall dye as poore as you were borne and as Teares were the first witnesses of your misery sighs shall be the last of your poverty carrying with you this regreet into the grave to have possessed all things and now to find your selves in estate of enjoying nothing If we would acquire Heaven we ought to have no pretence to Earth GREAT KINGS if you have no other marks of soveraignty but this of the large extent of your territories the tribute which your subjects shall render you at the end of the journall shall be very little since the long spaces of your Empire shall be bounded with seven foot GREAT KINGS if you have no other treasures then those of the rent of your Demeanes all those goods are false and the regreet of their privation too true The rents of vertue 's demeanes are not subject to fortune But if you doubt of this yet consult the dumbe oracle of the Ashes of your Ancestours and the truth will answere for them that they never have had any thing more proper to them then miserie nothing more sensible then disasters and that with all the riches which they have enjoyed during life they have not beene able to procure at the houre of Death more then that piece of linnen wherein they are inveloped True valour ha's no other object but the conquest of eternall things GREAT KINGS if you have no other Philosopher-stone but this the Conquest which your Valour may make all your greatnesse and all your riches shall bee enclosed in the coffins wherein you shall be buryed For all that Fortune shall give you to day DEATH shall take from you to morrow and the day after one may count you in the ranke of the most miserable I will againe change tone What a contagious maladie in this age wherein we are is this passion of amassing treasures All the world would be rich as if Paradise were bought with ready mony If one knew the perill of being rich he would onely be in love with povertie and that the commerce of our safety were a publike Banke where the most covetous render themselves the most happy Every one makes bravado of his acquists and poyzeth his felicities to the balance of his riches being never able to be otherwise content but in reference to the measure of what he is estated in There one will assume a pride to have ten thousand Acres of wood whose revenue nourisheth his passions and entertains his pleasures We may call Man a Tree whose root is the immortall soule and the fruits which it beares are of the same nature either for glory or punishment Insomuch that he considers not that these Trees are laden but with the fruit of these world-miseries of all together he shal bear away but the branch of one
whole world what Courage is this to assaile and combate That which none could ever yet resist and what a power is it to tame That which never yet yeelded Echo her selfe hath not rebounds enow to resound aloud the wonders of this Victorie This is not the Triumph of Alexander when he made his entry into Babylon mounted upon a Chariot as rich as the Indies and more glistering then the Sunne In this we see no other riches but the rich contempt which ought to be made of them no other lustre but of Vertue This is not the Triumph of Caesar then when he was drawne unto the Capitoll by forty Elephants after he had wonne twenty foure battels In this we see nought else but a funerall pompe but yet so glorious that Death her selfe serves for a Trophie to it This is not the Triumph of Epaminondas where the glorious lustre of the magnificence sham'd the splendour of the day which yet lent its light to it The marvels which appear'd in this here seem'd as celebrating in blacke the Exequies of all the other braveries of the world since nothing can be seene more admirable then this To triumph over vice is the noblest Trophie This is not the Triumph of Aurelian where all the graces are led captive with Zenobia In this are to be seene no other captives but the world and all its vanities and their defeat is the richest Crowne of the Victor This is not the Triumph of that pompeous Queene of Egypt entring into Cilicia where shee rays'd admiration to her selfe in a Galley of unutterable value but in this wee contemplate the more then humane industrie of a Pilote who from the mid'st of the stormes and tempests of the world recovers happily to the Port the ship of his life though yet but in the way to approach to it In fine this is not the Triumph of Sesostris whose stately Chariot foure Kings drew Passions are the onely slaves of this and Death being here vanquisht this honour remaines immortall and the name of the Triumpher All the glory of men van sheth away with them Say we then once againe O how glorious a Triumph is this over Death O how brave is the victorie over our selves and the onely meanes thus to vanquish a mans-selfe is to bury his ambition before his body be ensepulchred preparing ne'rethelesse the tombe of both to the'nd that the continuall remembrances of Death may serve for temperament and moderation to the delights of life We reade of Paulus Aemilius that returning to Rome laden with wreaths of Laurell after the famous victorie over the Persians he made his entrance of triumph with so great pompe and magnificence that the Sunne seemed to rouze it selfe many times as if upon designe to contemplate these wonders Pompey desirous to expose to the view of day all the magnificent presents which Fortune had given him in his last conquests entred now the third time in Triumph into the City of Rome where the noyse of his valour made as many Idolaters as admirers gayning hearts and now conquering soules as well as before Realms and Provinces But it seemes that the glory which accompanyed him in this action had this defect not to be sufficiently worthily knowne even of those that were witnesses of it as surprizing by much all that they could possibly expresse of it There was seene advanc't before his Charriot in ostentation Vanitie is a dangerous enemie it flatters onely to surprize a Checker-worke composed of two sorts of precious stones whose beauty set them beyond all price But yet me thinks their sparkling might have in good time beene a light to him if by a feeling of fore-sight touching the inconstancie of his fortune hee had caused to have beene graven thereon the historie of his mishaps There was admired in sequell a Statue of the Moone all of Gold in forme of a Crescent and I am astonisht that this Image of change and Vicissitude made him not fore-see the deturning of the Wheele I meane the storme that was to succcede the calme of his happinesse He caus'd moreover to be caried before him a great number of Vessels of Gold never thinking that Death might soone replenish some part of them with his ashes There was seene to follow a Mountaine all of Gold upon which were all sorts of animals and many Trees of the same matter and this mountaine was enrounded with a Vine whose golden glittering dazled the eyes of all that considered its wonders Ambition is an incurable disease of the soule if in good time it be not lookt too This proud Triumpher was the Orpheus which to the Lyrick sound of his renowne attracted this Mountaine these Animals these Trees this Vine But as Orpheus so him also Fortune destinated a Prey to the fury of Bacchinals I meane the Eunuchs which put him to Death Three Statues of gold first Iupiters then Mars and then of Pallas came after These were his Gods and his Goddesse what succours could he expect from these Deities which had no subsistence but in statue and the copy of whose portraict had no principall There was had in admiration moreover over thirty Garlands all of gold and Pearles A man had need to have an excellent memorie not to forget himselfe among his honours but these Crownes were too weighty for his head from whence it came to passe that hee fell under the burden A golden Chappell followed after dedicated to the Muses upon which was a great Horologe of the same materials And as the Index still turned ought not he to have considered that the houre of his triumphing began to passe away and that of his overthrow would presently sound being sequell to the Lawes of that vicissitude to which Fate hath subjected all things His statue of gold enrich't with Diamonds and Pearles whereof nor hee himselfe nor hee that enwrought them knew the value followed in its course and in fine this his shadow was more happy then the true body as having never beene scuffled with but by time and the other was van quisht with miserie Then appeared the great Pompey seated upon a Throane where hee and Fortune seemed to give Laws to the whole world for his Triumphall Charriot was so richly glorious so magnificent in rarities so splendide in new and ne're-before-seene wonders that a ravishment surprized mens spirits elevating them at once from admiration to extasie not giving them leasure to make reflection upon the present realties Be it our constant meditation of the inconstancie to which all worldly things are subjected But this Triumphall Charriot still roul'd about and though the Triumpher remain'd seated in his place yet his Fortune turned about likewise Insomuch that in going to the Capitoll hee approach't by little little to the bank where his life and happinesse were equally enterred In fine for the fulnesse of Glory These proper names of the conquests which he had made were read in golden Characters The
Kingdome of Pontus See Pliny's Nat. Historie 7 Bock 26 Chapter Armenia Cappadocia Paphlagonia Media Colchis the Hiberians the Albanians Siria Cilicia Mesopotamia Phoenicia Pride is the passion of fooles for what a senselesnesse is it to be proud having so many miseries about us which are incident to mortall man Palestina Iudea Arabia and the Rovers of all the Seas Who can be comparable to this proud Conquerour and yet I say it having conquered and subjugated the greatest part of the Earth Fate permits him not so much as to expire upon it and the Sea yet more treacherous prepares him shipwracke in mid'st of the Port. What resemblance and what correspondence can there be now betweene this Triumph so sumptuous so stately and magnificent and that whose presentation I show you where lowlinesse humilitie and miserie hold the first ranke and possesse the highest places How poore is the vanitie of men having no other grounds but humane frailtie Assuredly the difference is great but yet this inequalitie here is glorious since it brings along with it the price of that vertue whereof Pompey despised the conquest Hee in his Triumph rays'd wonder to the beauty of those two great precious stones But the Sepulchrall Marbles which appeared in this of ADRIAN were of another estimate because Prudence values them above all price putting them to that employment to which shee had destinated them Againe if he expose to view in vessels of gold Mountaines Animals Trees Vines Statues of the same matter This Herse covered with black which serves for ornament to this Funerall Pompe containes yet much more treasure since the contempt of all together is graven therein Hee makes ostentation of his Statue of gold enrich't with Pearles but our Monarch takes as much glory without them shewing in his owne bare Portraict the originall of his miseries That proud Conquerour had a thousand Garlands and golden Coronets as a novell Trophy Except the Crown of Vertue all other are subject to change But ours here crownes himselfe with Cypresse during his carreere of life to merit those palmes which await him in the end In fine Pompey is the Idoll of hearts and soules and his Triumphall Chariot serves as an Altar where he receives the vowes and Sacrifices But this Prince in stead of causing Idolaters during the sway of his Majestie immolates himselfe up to the view of Heaven and Earth dying already in his owne Funerals and suffering himselfe to be as is were buried by the continuall object which dwels with him of Death and his Tombe But if Pompey lastly boast himselfe to have conquered an infinite number of Realmes or all the world together * ADRIAN This Man having never had worse enemies then his passions hath sought no other glory but to overcome them and in their defeat a Man may well be stil'd the Conquerour of Conquerours for the Coronall wreaths of this Triumph feare nor the Sunnes extremity nor the Ages inconstancie Wee must passe on farther All the objects of Vanitie are so many enemies against which we ought to be alwayes in armes Isidore and Tranquillus doe assure us that to carry away the glory of a Triumph it was necessarily required to vanquish five thousand enemies or gaine five victories as it is reported of Caesar The consent of the Senate was also to be had And the Conquerour was to be clothed in Purple and Crowned with Laurell holding a Scepter in his hand and in this sort hee was conducted to the Capitoll of Iupiter where some famous Orator made a Panegyricke of his prowesse What better Allegory can wee draw from these prophane truths then this of the Victory which wee ought to have of our five Senses as of five thousand enemies whose defeat is necessary to our triumph Still to wage warre against our passions is the way to live in peace These are the five Victories which he must gaine that would acquire such Trophies whose glory is taken away neither by time nor Death This consent of the Senate is the Authority of our reason which alone gives value and esteeme to our actions and 't is of her that we may learne the meanes in obeying her to command over our passions and by the conquest of this sway triumph over our selves which is the bravest Victory of the World These Scepters and Crownes are so many markes of Soveraignty which remaine us in propriety after subjection of so many fierce enemies Heaven is the Capitol whither our good workes conduct us in triumph and where the voyce of Angels serves for Oratour to publish the glory of our deedes whose renowne remaines eternall 'T is not all to love Vertue 't is the practice These great Roman Captaines which made love to vertue though without perfect knowledge of it have sought for honour and glory in the overthrow of their enemies but they could never finde the shadowes of solid Honour which thus they sought from whence it came to passe that they have fashioned to themselves diverse Chimeras for to repast their fancy too greedy of these cheating objects Not that there is no glory in a Conquest but 't was their Ambition led them along in Triumph amidst their owne Triumphing What honour had Caesar borne away if hee had joyned to his Trophies the slavery of Cleopatra hee had exposed to view a Chaptive-Queene who otherwhile had subjected him to her Love-dominion But if the fortune of the warre had delivered him this Princesse He triumphs with an ill grace o're whom his vices triumph the fate of Love would have given even himselfe into her hands Insomuch that the Death of Cleopatra immmortaliz'd the renowne of Cesar Asdrubal according to Iustin triumphed foure times in Carthage but this famous Theater of honour where glory it selfe had appeared so often upon its Throne serves in conclusion for a Trophy to a new Conquerour insomuch that it buried at once the renowne and memory even of those that had presented themselves triumphant personages To day Memphis is all-Triumphant and on the morrow this proud Citie is reduced to slaverie To day the report of its glory makes the world shake and on the morrow Travellers seeke for it upon its owne site but finde it not O goodly triumph O fearefull overthrow What continuall revolution of the Wheele Marcellus shewes himselfe at point of day upon a magnificent Chariot of Triumph and at Sunne-set his glory and his life finish equally their carreere I meane in the twinckling of an eye Fortune takes away from him all those Laurell-wreaths which shee had given him and leaves him nothing at his death but the regreet of having liv'd too-long It may be some consolation in all our miseries to see all else have their changes as well as we Marius triumphed diverse times but with what tempests was the Ship of his fortune entertained Behold him now elevated upon the highest Throne of Honour but if you turne but your
Conquerours of Sea and Land A Man hath no greater enemy then himselfe Their Crownes are now metamorphosed into dust their renowne into wind themselves into corruption and for a surplusage of mishap after the conquest of the whole World they dye in the miseries whereunto they were borne Cyrus could not bound his Ambition lesse then to the vast extention of the Universe and yet a * TOMYRIS simple woman onely prescrib'd him an allay and placed his head in the range of his owne Trophies Arthomides playes Iupiter upon Earth his portraict is the onely Idoll of his subjects and yet one turne of the wheele casts him a sacrifice upon the same altar which hee had erected to his Glory his life glistering with triumphs but his death in such a ruine clouded even the memory of his name All those stately Triumphers There is nothing more vaine then Vaine-glory 't is a body without soule or life having no subsistance but in Imagination of whom Antiquity trumpets-out wonders have had no other recompence of their labours but this vaine conceipt that one day men would talke of them But what felicity is it to be praised in this world to which they are dead and tormented in the other wherein they live even yet and ever I care very little that men should talke of me after my Death the esteeme of men is of so small importance that I would not buy it so deare as with a wish onely It behooves to search reputation in the puritie of the conscience if a man would have the glory of it last for ever The renowne of a good man is much greater then that of Caesar or Alexander for this has no other foundation then the soyle where it was sowed and where the goodlyest things display themselves like flowers and like flowers also have but a morning-flourish But the other having for a firme stay Eternitie this object ennobleth it to perfection The renowne of a good man onely lasts alwayes and thus desiring nothing else but heaven it remaines to us at the end for recompence Blondus in his Treatise of Rome in its triumphant glory reckons up three hundred and twenty triumphs all remarkable but where are now these pompes these magnificences this infinite number of Trophies and a thousand other ornaments which rattled out their glory Where are I say these Conquerours where are their slaves their Idolaters their admirers These pompes have but flash't like lightning 'T is some comfort yet to a wise man though himselfe fade away to see that all things else doe so too and so passed away with the day that accompanyed their lustre These magnificences have beene but seene and so tooke their passage in flight These trophies being onely bravadoes of the time times inconstancy made them vanish in an instant all those other ornaments made but ostentation of their continuall vicissitude as being an inseparable accident of their nature These vanquishers onely had the name on 't since Death led them away also in triumph for all their triumphings Their captives were rather slaves of the miseries whereunto they were borne then so by the absolute power of him who captived theÌ„ Their Idolaters have beene immolated to the fury of yeeres which spare none and their admirers have incurred the same fate with the subject which they admired Insomuch that of all together remaineâ— nothing but a faint remembrance which as it waxeth old is effac't by little and little out of memory and scarcely will it subsist so much in the imagination as to be in the end buryed among fables Since Eternitie onely triumphs over Time wee should onely strive to attaine that Behold here the Anatomie of the glory of the world see the true portraict of its false Image Contemplate meditate you will avouch with me that All is full of vanitie O how stately and magnificent is the Triumph of Ages what trophies may a man see at their ever-rowling Chariot what Conquerours are not in the number of their subjection what soveraigne power can resist their violence what newer can Triumph then this of yeares Who can give in account the number of their victories and â—esse the captives which Death serves â—n for their trophies What newer triumph againe evermore then of moâ—eths of dayes of houres and moâ—ents For consider to your selfe how many Kings Princes and Lords die â—n one age in all the places of the world All these vanquishers are vanquisht â—nd led in triumph to the grave Every Yeare makes its conquest a part gives â—attell and carryes away the victory over so many A righteous man onely stands exempt from the terror of death and so many men that hardly can one conceive so lamentable a truth Months Dayes Houres and Moments triumph in their courses who can number all those who dyed yesterday out-right or are dead to day Nay more how many dye at this houre and at this very instant that I entertaine you with this discourse And all these defeats of mortalitie mark out to us the Triumphs whereof time onely beares away the glory But let us not pretend to share in 't 't is not worthy our Ambition Let Ages Yeeres Moneths Dayes Houres and Moments triumph over us A good conscience is ever under shelter from all the inconstant tempests of ages Vertue alwayes limits their puissance and with it wee may prescribe a bound to all these Triumphants Faire leave may they take to ruinate out-ward beauty but that of innocence is of proofe ' gainst all their strokes Well may they impaire outward graces but those of heaven contemne their assaults No doubt they may change the visage of all the marvels of Art and miracles of Nature Our Resolution is a rocke in midst of all their stormes and may remaine alwayes it selfe without undergoing other rules then its owne So that thus wee may lead Time it selfe along in triumph if wee live for nothing more then for Eternitie He which lives for eternitie dreads no death I scorne the Tyranny of Ages my ayme is beyond 'em all I despise the power of yeeres my Ambition raignes already out of their reach Let Months Dayes Houres and Moments entraile all things along with 'em I for my part franchise their carreere since my scope is much more farther yet Let them triumph fully my very defeat shall lead them in triumph at the end of their terme for the eternity whither I aspire already assignes out their tombe Let us stay no longer in so cragged a way The Emperour Trajan caused his Sepulcher to be enfram'd in the midst of Rome's greatest place as upon a stateâ—y Theater on which his successors were to act their parts Every man dies â—or himselfe Seriùs aut citiùs metam properamus ad unam sooner or later wee must â—rrive to the place to which uncessantly â—ee walke Be it to morrow or today â—t the end of the terme all 's equall Nor old nor yong can
hand and by which himselfe weigheth his actions to the poize of his will and consequently to the measure of his Justice What objection can be made against this truth The envious man is never in health tortured with the Hectick Peaver of this ever-burning passion Envious Maligner adore that which thou can'st not comprehend and then instead of pining for the goods which thou enjoyest not give thankes to heaven for those which thou possessest and how small someover they be they are ever great enough to amuze thee all thy life-long to the study of thankefull acknowledgment The Passion of Detraction is easily overcome by a fresh consideration of our owne proper defects for of all the Vices whereof wee accuse one another our hearts may convince us If I call a man theefe am not I a greater theefe then hee since against the Lawes of charity I rob him of his honour by this injury Suppose he be a false villaine yet in calling him by this name I betray the secret which his fault should â—n charity impose upon me But if he be nothing so loe I my selfe am now a Traytor both at once of his reputation 'T is more important to learne to hold one's peace then to hold up the talke and mine owne conscience There is no fault more unpardonable then this of Obloquie and in regard that for a just expiation of the crime it is fitting that the tongue which did the hurt should give the remedy Thou Detractour if thou canst not moderate thy passion speake ill onely of thy selfe Study thine owne vices Meditate thine owne faults and Accuse thy selfe of them before heaven which is already witnesse of thy crimes and by this way of reproaching thou shalt obtaine one day to be praised eternally Behold mee now at the end of the Chapter He which often muzes of Death will every day learne to live well After all these particular remedies with which a man may learne easily to resist the tyranny of the Passions there is none more soveraigne then this of the Meditation of Death All the rest abbut at this onely as the most authorized by daily experience Great Kings suffer your selves to be led in triumph by your owne thoughts to the grave and by the way consider how your greatnesses your riches your delights and all the magnificence of your Court follow you step by step being brought along by the same fate whose absolute Tyranny spares none And since you may dye every houre think at the least sometimes of this truth to the end that that houre of your lifes dyall surprize you not Much good doe 't you to nourish up your selves deliciously yet all these Viands wherewith you repast your selves are empoysoned as containing in 'em the * Caliditas Frigiditas Humiditas Siccitas foure contrary qualities whose discord puts into skirmish your humours and this battell is an infallible presage of your overthrow wel may you chase away Melancholy by vertue of fresh pleasures these very contentments cheat away your life for though you thinke of nothing but how to passe away the time it passes ere you think on 't Death comes before you have forseen his arrivall Well may you cocker up your bodyes content your senses and satiate the appetite of your desires the Taper of your life has its limited course Pleasures make us grow old as well as griefes as well as that of the day Every man pursues his carreere according to the inviolable Lawes of heaven which hath asigned 'em out at once both the way and the bounds Suffer Time to lead you by the hand to the Tombe Fata volentem ducunt nolentem trahunt for feare he hale you thither But in dying muze at least of that Life which never shall have end All the felicities which you have possest are vanished with the flower of your age and all those which you will yet enjoy will flye away with the rest What will remaine with you then at the last instant of your life Those pleasures cost very deare which are worth nothing but repentance but an irksome remembrance to have tasted a thousand pleasures which are past and to have lost so many meanes of having had others which would have lasted eternally Disinvest your selves then for one houre every day of all your greatnesse and in the presence of your owne selves meaning in review of all your miseries mishaps which are proper to you confesse the truth of your nullitie and of your corruption by this search you shall recover your selves and by this confession thus shall you Triumph o're your selves A PROLVSION upon the EMBLEME of the last Chapter VIewing the Ranges of a Librarie Of Dead-men's bones pil'd in a Coemitarie Great ALEXANDER findes Diogenes And thus they Dialogue Alex. Cynick among these Ruines of fraile Mortalitie what do'st looke Diog. For that wherein I feare to be mistooke I seeke thy Father PHILIP'S Scull among This pell-mell undistinguishable Throng Alex. Let 's see which is it shew me Diog. Sure 't is that Whose nose is bridge-falne Alex. Dead-men's all are flat Diog. Why then 't is that where shrowds perpetuall night Cav'd in those hollow eye-holes void of sight Alex. Still all are so Diog. Why 't is yon' skinlesse brow Chap-falne lip-sunke with teeth-disranked row Yond' peeled scalpe Alex. Thus still all are alike Diog. So shall both You and I. and let this strike Thy knowledge ALEXANDER and Thy sence 'Twixt King and slave once Dead s' no difference L'envoy Mors seeptra ligonibus aequat Hor. THere is no diff'rence Death hath made Equall ' the Scepter and the Spade Noe Dreader Majestie is now I' th' Royall Scalp then Rustick brow Faire NEREVS has no beauteous grace More then Thersites ' ugly face Now both are dead odds there is none Betwixt the fair'st and fowlest One. Tell me among'st the hudled pile Of Dead-mens bones which was ere while The subtil'st Lawyer 's or the Dull And Ignoramian Empty Skull Was yond' some valourous Samsons arme Or one that ne're drew sword for harme Or winke and tell me which is which Irus the poore or Croesus rich What are they now who so much stood On Riches Honours and high Blood Ther 's now no Difference with the Dead Distinctions all are buryed Onely the Soule as Ill or Well Is Diffrenc't or in Heaven or Hell Alexander and Diogenes discoursing among the Sepulchers of the Dead the Cynick tells the King That in the Graue Monarchs and Meaner Men are all alike THE MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. IV. WHat a horrid spectacle is this what a frightfull object See you not this great number of Dead Mens sculls which heap'd one upon another make a mountaine of horrour and affright whose balefull and contagious umbrage insensibly invites our bodies on to the grave What a victorie is this over these but what an inhumanitie what a defeate but what a butchery May wee not say that
fury and rage have assassinated even Natures-selfe and that we now alone remaine in the world to celebrate its funerals by our lamentations and regreets Fathers Mothers Death is a severe Iudge and pardons none Children Nobles and Plebeians Kings and their subjects are all pell-mell in this stacke of rotten wood which Time like a covert but burning fire consumes by little and little not able to suffer that ashes should be exalted above dust Proud Spirits behold here the dreadfull reverse of the medall All these sad objects of mortality and yet actively animated with horror affright by their own silence enjoyne the same to you thus to amuze your Spirits in the contemplation of their deplorable ruines If you be rich See here those who have possessed the greatest treasures of the world are not now worth the marrow of their owne bones whereof the wormes have already shared the spoyle If you be happy The greatest favorites of fortune are reduced to the same noysomnesse as you see the filth that enrounds them If you be valiant Hector and Achilles are thus here overcome behold the shamefull markes of their overthrow If you be men of Science Death may be contemned but not avoided Here lyes the most learned of the world 'T is the Epitaph on their tombe Reade it I grant more-over you may be the greatest Princes of the earth An infinite number of your companions are buried under these corrupted ruines Suppose in fine that your Soveraignety did extend it selfe over all the Empire of the world A thousand and a thousand too of your semblables have now nothing more their owne then that corruption which devoures even to the very bones Ambitious Heart see here a Mirrour which flatters not since it represents to the life the reality of thy miseries Well maist thou perhaps pretend the conquest of the Universe even those who have borne away that universall Crowne are now crowned but with dust and ashes 'T is no wonder the Miser ne're thinks of Death his thoughts are onely taken up for this Life Covetous wretch behold the booke of thy accounts calculate all that is due to thee after payment of thy debts learne yet after all this that thy soule is already morgaged to devils thy body to wormes and thus notwithstanding all thy treasures there will not abide with thee one haire upon thy head one tooth in thy chops nor one drop of blood in thy veynes nor ne're so little marrow in thy bones nay the very memory of thy being would be extinguish't if thy crimes did not render it eternall both here and in the torments of hell Pride is but like the noone-flourish of a flower which at Sun-set perisheth Proud arrogant man measure with thy bristled browes the dilatation of the earth Brave with thy menacing regards the heavens and the flarres These mole-hills of rottennesse whereof thy carkasse is shap't prepare toward the tombe of thy vanity Seneca Epist These are the shades of Death inseparable from thy body Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae since it dyes every houre If thou elevate thy selfe to day even to the clouds to morrow thou shalt be debased to nothing But if thou doubt of this truth behold here a thousand witnesses which have made experience of it Luxurious Wanton give thy body a prey to voluptuousnesse deny nothing to thy pleasures but yet consider the horrour and dreadfulnesse of that Metamorphosis when thy flesh shall be turned to filth and even that to wormes and those still to fresh ones which shall devoure even thy coffin and so efface the very hast markes of thy Sepulture How remarkable is the answere of Diogenes to Alexander What art thou musing on Cynicke says this Monarch to him one day having found him in a Charnell-yard I amuze my selfe here answers he in search of thy father Philips bones among this great number which thou see'st but my labour is in vaine for one differs not from another Great Kings the discusse of this answer may serve you now as a fresh instruction to insinuate to you the knowledge of your selves You walke in triumph to the Tombe followed with all the traine of your ordinary magnificences but being arrived at this Port blowne thither with the continuall gale of your sighs your pompe vanisheth away your Royall Majestie abandons you your greatnesse gives you the last Adieu and this your mortall fall equals you now to all that were below you The dunghill of your body hath no preheminence above others unlesse it be in a worse degree of rottennesse Corruptio optimi pessima as being of a matter more disposed to corruption But if you doubt of this truth behold and contemplate the deplorable estate to which are reduced your semblables Their bald scalps have now no other Crowne then the circle of horrour which environes them their disincarnated hands hold now no other Scepter but a pile of worms and all these wretchednesses together give them to see a strange change from what they were in all the gloryes of their Court These palpable and sensible objects are witnesses not to be excepted against The serious meditation of his miserable condition is capable to make any man wise Let then your soules submit to the experiment of your senses But what a Prodigie of wonder 's here doe I not see the great Army of Xerxes reduced and metamorphosed into a handfull of dust All that world of men in those dayes which with its umbragious body covered a great part of the earth shades not so much as a foot on 't with its presence Be never weary of thinking of these important truths In Hercule Octaeo Seneca in the Tragedie of Herculeâ— brings in Alcmena with grievous lamentation bearing in an urne the ashes of that great Monster-Tamer Ecce vix totam Hercules Complevit urnam quà m leve est pondus mihi Câ—i totus aether pondus incubuit leve And to this effect makes her speake Behold how easily I carry him in my hand who bore the Heavens upon his shoulders The sense of these wordes ought to engage our spirits to a deepe meditation upon the vanity of things which seeme to us most durable All those great Monarchs who sought an immortalitie in their victories and triumphs have miss't that and found Death at last the enjoyment of their Crownes and splendours being buried in the same Tombe with their bodyes See here then a new subject of astonishment The Mathematicians give this Axiome All lines drawne from the Center to the Circumference are equall Kings Princes abate your haughtines The world is a Game at Chesse where every of the Sett ha's his particular Name and Place designed but the Game done all the Pieces are pellmell'd into the Bagge and even so are all motrals into the grave your subjects march fellow-like with you to the Center of the grave If life gave you preheminence
without cease The contentments which men receive here below Contentments causein their privation as extreme discontents are like the pleasures of the Chace which are onely rellish't running I draw to an end Belon in his Monuments of the Kings of Egypt sayes that they were enterred with such a splendour of pompe and magnificence that even those who had diverse times before beene admirers of it were for all that often in doubt whether the people went to place the corps in the Throne againe rather then in their Sepulcher O how ill to the eyes is the luster of this sad kind of honour For if vanitie be insupportable barely of it selfe these excesses of it put the spirits upon the racke Diodorus Siculus speaking of the Tombe which Alexander caused to be erected for his favorite Ephestion assures that the magnificences which were there to be admired were beyond as well all valew as example Marble Brasse Gold and Pearles were profusely offered to most cunning Artisans to frame thereof such workes wherein sadnesse and compassion might be so naturally represented that they might affect the whole world with the like Diamonds Rubies and all other precious stones were there employed under the Image of a Sunne Moone and Stars It seemes this Monarch blinded with Love thought to hold the Planets captive in the glorious enchainments of those faire Master-pieces A Man should never be angry with his 〈◊〉 fates the dâ—â—â—â—â— on 't are â—â—â—â—â—lable as if hee would revenge himselfe of them for their maligne influences which they had powred upon the head of his deare Ephestion But this conceite was vaine for the same starres whose captivity hee ostented upon this Tombe conducted him also by little and little to his grave The Romanes transported with passion to honour the memory of the Dictator Sylla caused his statue to be framed of a prodigious height all composed of perfumes and cast it into the funerall pile where his body whereof of this was also but a shadow was to be burn't to ashes Being desirous by this action to give to understand that as the odour of his statue disperst it selfe through all the City of Rome the much more odoriferous savour of his peculiar vertues would spred it selfe through all the world But to goe to the rigour of the literall sense it is credible they had not cast in this aromaticall statue into the stacke but only to temper the excesse of the stench of the body which was to be consumed with it And I proceed to imagine beside that the odour of this statue the cinders of his body and all the glory of the actions of Sylla had all the same fate since the winde triumph't o're 'em altogether Behold the reverse of the Medall of Vanitie 'T is remark't in the life of the Emperour Severus by the report of DION that hee made to be set at the gate of his Palace an Vrne of marble and as oft as he went in or out hee was accustomed to say laying his hand on it Behold the Case that shall enclose him whom all the world could not containe Great Kings have often the same thoughts in your soules if you have not the like discourses in your mouths the smallest vessell of earth is too great for the ashes of your bodyes which shall remaine of them after the wormes have well fed on them for the wretchednesse of your humane condition reduceth you at last to so small a thing that you are nothing at all But if I must give a name to those graines of corrupted dust which are made of your deplorable remaines I shall call them the Idea's of a dreame Man onely is considerable in respect of his noble actions since the memory of your being can passe for no other together with the time Behold a fresh subject of entertaine Some of our Ethnicke Historians report to us that the Troglodites buryed their kindred and friends with the tone of joyfull cries and acclamations of mirth The Lothophagi cast them into the Sea choosing rather to have them eaten of fishes in the water then of wormes in the earth The Scythians did eate the bodyes of their friends in signe of amitie insomuch that the living were the Sepulchers of the dead The Hircanians cast the bodies of their kindred to the Dogges The Massagetes exposed them as a prey to all manner of ravenous beasts The Lydians dryed them in the Sun and after reduced them to powder to the end the wind might carry them away Amongst all the customes which were practised amongst these strange Nations I find none more commendable then the first of the Troglodites looking for no hell they had good reason to celebrate the funerall of their friends and kindred with laughter and acclamations of cheerefulnes rather then with teares and lamentations For though that Life be granted us by divine favour There is moâ—e of temâ—â—ent in die thâ—â— to live if we â—â—nsider the end which man was created yet we enjoy it but as a punishment since it is no other thing then a continuall correction of our continuall offences Besides the sad accidents which accompany it inseparably even to the grave are so numerous that aâ— man may justly be very glad at the end of his journey to see himselfe discharged of so ponderous a burthen The body of Man being made of earth is subject to earth but the soule holds onely of its soveraine Creator Not that I here condemne the teares which we are accustomed to shed at the death of our neerest friends for these are ressentments of griefe whereof Nature authorizeth the first violences But neither doe I blame the vertue of those spirits who never discover alteration upon any rencounter of the mishaps and miseries of the world The living are more to be bemoned then the dead they being still i th' midd'st â—f this lifes tempest but these are aâ—â—eady arrived to their Port. how extreme soever they be And what disaster is it to see dye either our kindred or friends since all the world together and Nature it selfe can doe nothing else What reason then can a man have to call himselfe miserable for being destinated to celebrate the funerals of those whom he loves best since the divine Providence hath soveraignely established this order and since moreover in this carreere of Death to which all the world speeds the Present on 't being not distinguish't but by Time it will appeare when all is come to the upshot that one hath lived as long as another since all ages though different during their continuance are equall then when they are past Change wee the discourse I advow once againe There is no remedie more soveraigne to cure the passion of arrogance then this the of consideration of Caemitaries and Tombes The most vaine-glorious and ambitious are forced to yeeld themselves at the assaults of these sad objects For a spirit ne're so brave and valourous cannot but be astonish't when
the window and thou shalt see carryed to the grave some not so old as thy selfe If thou relye upon the health which thou now enjoyest 't is but a false going-dyall The calme of a perfect health Saepe optimus status corpotis periculâ— susimuuuml s. hath oftentimes ushered the Tempest of a suddaine Death What hopest thou for Hip. hope is deceitfull what stayest thou soâ— Sera nimis Vita est crastina vive hodie A wise man ought never to defer till to morrow what should be done to day Lastly what desirest thou The peace of conscience is the only desirable good Goe on then right forward thou canst not misse the way which I have chalk't thee FINIS PERLECTORI The TRANSLATOVR'S COROLLARIE SO Now 't is done although it be no Taske That did much Braines or toylesome Study aske The meaning I ' vouch good but Merit small In rendring English the FRENCH PRINCIPALL It is but a Translation I confesse And yet the Rubs of Death in 't nerethelesse May trippe some cap'ring Fancies of the Time That Domineere and Swagger it in Rime That Charge upon the Reader and give Fire On all that doe not as they doe admire Either their rugged Satyrs cruell veine Or puffe-paste Notes 'bove Ela in high straine Then in prevention quarrell like a curst Scold who being guilty yet will call Whore first When any dyes whose Muse was rich in Verse They claime Succession and prophane his Herse They onely are Heires of his Braine-estate Others are base and illegitimate All but their owne Abettors they defie And LORD-it in their Wit-Supremacy Others they say but Sculke or lye i' th' lurch As we hold Schismaticks from the true Church So hold they all that doe decline their way Nor sweare by Heaven Al 's excellent they say T were well they 'd see the fing'ring on these frets Can neither save their Soules nor pay their Debts Or would they they thinke of Death as they should doe They would live better and more honourd too T is base to doe base deeds yet for false fame To Keepe a stirre and bustle into Name Whilst each applauds his owne contemnes an others Becons his owne deserts but his he smothers They feare Fame's out of breath and therefore they Trumpet their owne praises in their owne way Or ioyne in Tricke of Stale Confed'racy Cal'd Quid pro Quo Claw me and I le claw thee Marry at others Tooth and Naile they flye That do not tread their Path but would goe bye Farewell to these my ayme not here insists Leave we these wranglers unto equall lists To Nobler Natures I my brest expose The Good I bow to in an humble Cloze To such as knowing how vaine this Life is Exalt their thoughts to one better then This. 'T is the best Method to be out of Love With things below and thence to soare above To which effect my soules integrity In L'envoy thus salutes each courteous eye L'ENVOY INgenuous READER thou do'st crowne The Morall active course layd downe By De la SERRE what is pen'd If thy ACTIONS recommend Relating to the first EMBLEME WHen haughtie thoughts impuffe thee than Dictate thy selfe Thou art but Man A fabricke of commixed Dust That 's all the prop of humane trust How dares a Clod of mouldring Clay Be Proud decaying every day And yet there is away beside Wherein may be a lawfull Pride When sly Temptations stirre thee Than Againe the Word Thou art a Man Rouze up thy Spirits doe not yeeld A brave resistance winnes the Field Shall a soule of Heavenly breath Grovell so farre its worth beneath Fouly to bee pollute with slime Of any base and shamefull crime Thou art a Man for Heaven borne Reflect on Earth disdainefull scorne Bee not abus'd since Life is short Squander it not away in sport Nor hazard heavens eternall Joyes For a small spurt of wordly Toyes Doe Something ere thou doe bequeath To Wormes thy flesh to Aire thy breath Something that may when thou art dead With honour of thy name be read Something that may when thou art cold Thaw frozen Spirits when t is told Something that may the grave controule And shew thou hadst a noble Soule Doe something to advance thy blisse Both in the other World and This. Relating to the second EMBLEME WEre both the Indias treasures Thine And thou LORD of every Mine Or hadst thou all the golden Ore On Tagus or Factolus Shore And were thy Cabinet the Shrine Where thousand pearles and Diamonds shine All must be left and thou allowd A little linnen for thy Shrowd Or if 't were so thy Testament Perhaps a goodly Monument What better is a golden Chase Or Marble then a Charnell place Charon hence no advantage makes A halfe-penny a soule he takes Thy heires will leave thee but a Shirt Enough to hide thy rotten Dirt. Then bee not Greedy of much pelfe He that gets all may lose himselfe And Riches are of this Dilemme Or they leave us or we must them Death brings to Misers double Woe They loose their Cash and their soules too Change then thy scope to heavenly gaines That wealth eternally remaines Relatory to the third EMBLEME BE not curious to amaze With glitt'ring pompe the Vulgar gaze Strive not to cheat with vaine delight Those that are catcht with each brave sight How soone will any gawdy show Make their low Spirits overflow Whose Soules are ready to runne-ore At any Toy nere seene before Rather thy better thoughts apply For to addresse thy selfe to dye Bee ne're so glorious after all Thy latest pompe's thy Funerall Shall a dresse of Tyrian Dye Or Venice gold Embroyderie Or new-fash'on-varied Vest Tympanize thy out-strutting brest There 's none of these will hold thee tacke But thy last colour shall be Blacke Bee not deceiv'd There comes a Day Will sweepe thy Gloryes all away Meane while the thought on 't may abate Th' Excesses of thy present ' state Death never can that Man surprize That watches for 't with wary Eyes Doe Soe And thou shalt make thereby A Vertue of Necessitie And when thy Dying-day is come Goe like a Man that 's walking home Heav'n Guard thee with Angelicke pow'r To be prepared for that houre When ev'ry Soule shall feele what 'T is To have liv'd Well or done Amisse Relating to the fourth EMBLEME LEt not the Splendour of high Birth Bee all thy Glosse without true worth Let neither honour nor vast wealth Beautie nor Valour nor firme health Make thee beare up too high thy head All men alike are buried Stare not with Supercilious brow Poore folkes are Dast and so art Thou Triumph not in thy worldly Odds They dye like men whom we count Gods And in the Grave it is all one Who enjoy'd all or who had none Death cuts off all superfluous And makes the proudest One of us Nor shall there diffr'ence then betweene The dust of LORDS or slaves be seene Together under ground they lye