cause it may be thoright these men found out their new Poesie differing from the Matters Manners Rules of former ages either they did not see the way of Poesie or were affraid to enter it The verses of Camillus Quernus as they are imitated by Strada seem very plausible and to admiration to some but how far they are off right Poesie children may guess These mens new conceptions approach neerer his than to the Majesty and Statelinefs of the great Poets The contempt and undervaluing of verses hath made men spare their travel in adorning them but Poesie as it hath overcom ignorance at last will overcom envy and comtempt This I have been bold to write unto you not to give you any instruction but to manifest mine obedience to your request W. D. To the Right Honourable the Earl of Sterlin WHen the pittiful news came of so dear Funerals though I had an intention to have written to your Lordship I restrained my self both because your wound was flagrant and that I had not an argument of comfort which was not your own Nothing is now left me but to manifest that the sense of this loss could not but perplex him grievously who never made any difference between your fortunes and his own I hold my self Copartner of all your Griefs as I have been of your prosperities I know your Fatherly affiction I know too your constancy which being seasoned with piety will not suffer you to repine at that which is the determinate will of God Your erudition and experience instruct you that such accidents should be taken in a good part and chearfully which are not incident to us alone and which by our sighs tears plaints we may not evite and put far from us ye must not attend till time mitigate your languor for this do the vulgar sort of men with sola dies poterit tantum lenire dolorem A wise man should prevent and anticipate time over-run newborn Grief which is an ungrateful Guest thrusting out and ran sacking the Masters of their Inn. I who am conscious to your patience and wisdom am assured ye have performed all this already upon which confidence I will leave off to trouble you further or lay a heavier burthen and needless task upon my self W. Drummond To SHould ye think to escape this Enemy of Virtue Fortune when she never spareth the most Worthy who hath ever yet in many excellencies been eminent whom she hath not either after one fashion or other if not trampled yet tossed and make not a long search in the old ages of the world and through the Mists of Antiquity but look upon our own Times and our Fathers Ye have Sidney cropped in the vigour of his Youth by a murthering Bullet Rawleigh brought to a fatal Scaffold la Nove with the Marquess D' Urfee complaining in miserable Prisons Tasso famishing in the like Thraldom the two Counts of Mirandula Spectacles of Pitty and Cruelty the one by too soon a Death if death can be too soon the other by being assassinated by his neerhst kinsemen As if Excellencies were the only Object of Disasters and some secret influence laboured to make the bravest of men and the basest equal Or that the superiour powers thought Glory to belong only to them and no praise-worthy Actions should befal poor Mortals Yet should they not envy silly men a dusty honour which in some small moments of time vanisheth and reacheth no further than the narrow bounds of some few Climates of this small Globe of the Earth We may doubt whether Excellencies and Heroical Virtues were to be desired with so many dangers and miseries lackying them or a homebred untaught rude Plobeian life W. DRUMMOND To S. W. A. SIR MY silence this time past proceeded no waies of any forgetfulness of you but from my many new cares and sorrows The loss of so many friends this season hath estranged me from my self and turned my mirth into mourning what civil arms and discord have performed in other kingdomes of Europe a still mortality hath done in this So many Funerals these many years have not been seen as in this one There are few bands of kinred societies acquaintances friendship which by death are not broken here without respect of Age vigour ranck quality and justly this mortality might claim the name of Pestilence if the Dead were deprived of customary burial Well have some Astrological Divines guessed that this year should be the great Judgement What is recorded of the years 100. and 120. that Church yards were not ample enough to contain the dead bodies but that new ground was digged up is true in this and what of the year 1348. that the third of mankind was sweeped from the Earth we may say that though this Countrey hath not lost the third yet that the Almighty providence hath taken away the tenth part of the People This is perhaps a part of that Judgement which the late blazing lights of Heaven did signifie unto us the defects of the Sun besides the malignant influences of other Caelestial Bodies This one year is enought to make men hereafter if not altogether believe yet fear Astrological Predictions which though they fail in particulars yet strangely hold true in some generals Heavens I hope shall preserve you ad molliora et meliora tempora to be a witness and Recorder of their Just Proceedings on this Globe of the Earth for the Good of your self your Friends and all that love you 1623. W. Drummond The Oath of a KNIGHT I shall fortisie and defend the true holy Catholtque and Christian Religion presently possessed at all my power I shall be loyal and true to my Soveraign Lord the King his Majestie and do honour and reverence to all Orders of Chivalrie and to the noble office of Arms. I shall fortifie and defend justice to the uttermost of my power but feed or favour I shall never flie from the Kings Majesty my Lord and Master or his Lieutenant in time of battel or medly with dishonour I shall defend my native Countrey from all aliens and strangers at all my power I shall maintain and defend the honest Adoes and Quarrels of all Ladies of Honour Widows Orphans and Maids of good Fame I shall do diligence wherever I hear tell there is any Traytours Murtherers Rovers and Masterfull Theeves and Outlaws that suppress the Poor to bring them to the Law at all my Power I shall maintain and defend the Noble and gallant State of Chevalrie with Horses Harnesses and other Knightly Apparel to my Power I shall be diligent to enquire and seek to have the knowledge of all Articles and points touching or concerning my duty contained in the Book of Chevalrie All and sundry the Premisses I oblige me to keep and fulfil so help me God by my one hand and by God himself To his loving Cousin IF wishes could have place or prevail I wish ye could be moved to separate your self from the frequent conversation and
Gyants modelled for a sport of Snow which at the hoter looks of the Sun melt away and ly drowned in their own moisture such an impetuous vicissitude towseth the estates of this World Is it knowledge But we have not yet attained to a perfect understanding of the smallest Flower and why the Grasse should rather be green than read The Element of Fire is quite put out the Air is but water rarified the Earth moveâ—h and is no more the Center of the Universe is turned into a Magnes Stars are not sixed but swim in the Etherial spaces Comets are mounted above the Planets some assirm there is another world of men and creatures with Cities and Towers in the Moon the Sun is lost for it is but a cleft in the lower heavenâ— through which the light of the highâ—st shines Thus Sciences by the diverse motions of this Globe of the brain of man are become opinions What is all we know compared with what we know not We have not yet agreed about the chief good and felicitye It is perhaps Artificial Cunning how many curiosities be framed by the least Creatures of Nature unto which the industry of the most curious Artizanes doth not again Is it Riches what are they but the casâ—ing out of Friends the Snares of liberty bands to such as have them possâ—ssing rather then possest metals which nature hath hid fore-seeing the great harm they should occasion and the onely opinion of man hath brought in estimation like Thornes which laid on an open hand may be blown away and on a closing and hard gripping wound it Prodigals mispend them wretches miskeep them when we have gathered the greatest abundance we our selves can enjoy no more thereof than so much as belongs to one man what great and rich men do by others the meaner sort do themselves Will some talk of our pleasures it is not though in the fables told out of purpose that pleasure in hast being called up to Heaven did here forget her apparel which Sorrow thereafter â—inding to deceive the world attired her self with And if we would say the truth of most of our joies we must confess that they are but disguised sorrows the drams of thâ—ir Honey are â—owred in pounds of Gâ—ll remorse ever enseweath them nay in some they have no effect at all if some wakening grief hath not preceded and forewent them Will some Ladies vaunt of their beauty that is but skin-deep of two senâ—â—s onely known short even of Marble Statues and Pictures not the same to all eyes dangerous to the Bâ—holder and hurtful to the Possessor an enemy to Chastiâ—ie a thing made to delight others more than those which have it a superficial lustre hiding bones and the brains things fearful to be looked upon growth in years doth blaste it or sickness or sorrow preventing them Our strength matched with that of the urneasonable Creatures is but weakness all we can set our eyes on in these intricate mazes of life is but vain perspective and deceiving shadows appearing far otherwise afar off than when injoied and gazed upon in a neâ—r distance If death be good why should it be feared And if it be the woâ—k of nature how should it not be good for nature is an Ordinance and Rule which God hath established in the creating this Vniverse as is the Law of a king which cannot err Sith in him there is no impotency and weakâ—esse by the which he might bring forth what is unperfect no perverseness of will of which might proceed any vicious action no ignorance by the which he might go wrong in working being most powerful most good most wise nay all-wise all-good all powerful He is the first Orderer and marshalleth every other Order the highest Essâ—nce giving essence to all other things of all causes the cause he worketh powerfully bounteously wisely and maketh his Artificial Organ nature do the same How is not Death of Nature sith what is naturally generate is subject to corruption and such an harmony which is life rising from the mixture of the four Elements which are the Ingredients of our bodie can not ever endure the contrariety of their qualities as a consuming Rust in the basâ—r Mettals being an inward cause of a necessary dissoution Again how is not Death good sith it is the thaw of all those vanities which the frost of life bindeth together If there be a saciety in life then must there be a sweetnesse in Death The Earth were not ample enough to contain her off-spring if none dyed in two or three Ages without death what an unpleasant and lamentable Spectacle were the most flourishing Cities for what should there be to be seen in them save bodies languishing and courbing again into the Earth pale disfigured faces Skelitons instead of men and what to be heard but the exclamations of the young complaints of the old with the pittiful cries of sick and pining persons there is almost no infirmity worse than age If there be any evil in death it would appear to be that pain and torment which we apprehend to arisâ— from the breaking of those strait bands which keep the Soul and body together which sith not without great struggling and motion seemes to prove it self vehement and most extreme The senses are the only cause of pain but before the last Trances of Death they are so brought under that they have no or very little strength and their strength lessening the strength of pain too must be lessened How should we doubt but the weakness of sense lesseneth pain sith we know that weakened and maimed parts which receive not nourishment are a great deal less sensible than the other parts of the body And see that old decrepit persons leave this world almost without pain as in a sleep If bodies of the most sound and wholesome constitution be these which most vehemently feel pain it must then follow that they of a distemperate and craisie constitution have least feeling of pain and by this reason all weak and sick bodies should not much feel pain for if they were not distâ—mpered and evil complexioned they would not be sick That the Sight Hearing Taste Smelling leave us without pain and unawares we are undoubtedly assured and why should we not think the same of the Feeling That which is capable of feeling are the vital Spirits which in a man in a perfit health are spread and extended through the whole body and hence is it that the whole Body is capâ—ble of pain but in dying bodies we see that by pauses and degrees the parts which are furthest removed from the heart become cold and being deprived of natural heat all the pain which they feel is that they do feel no pain Now even as before the sick are aware the vital spirits have withdrawn themselves from the whole extension of the body to succour the heart like distressed Citizens which finding their walls battered down fly to the defence of theiâ— ittadel
education acquaintance familiarity conversation out of all which they collect many apparences possibilities likely hoods and their prophecies are refer'd ad Sortâ—em ad Pacta ad Prudentiam consultorum stultitiam Consulentium the sagacity of the Astrologer the blokishnes of the Consulter Of Contingencies no certain knowledge can be obtained by Art But all those events which Astrologers aver to come are fortuital and casual contingents then they cannot be learned or known by any precepts of Art How can a Caldean by that short minute instant moment of time in which a man is born set down the divâ—rse changes mutations accidents of his life if we were to consider of those things it would appear we should not be solicitous so much and take notice how the air is affected at the infants coming in this world as we should observe and respect the matter and disposition of the whole body in whiâ—h a greater virtue is infused or of the time of the conception Then how unlikely is it and without any sâ—mblance of truth that the many almost numberles conjunction of Stars which occur and present themselvs in the progress of a Mans life should match and countervail that one Horoscope or Conjunction which is found at his birth Moreover to find out and know the actions of the free will of a man of what importance should we hold nourishment education age the place his conversation every one of which after their own manner contributing to the constitution and complexion of the person how great effects must all these together produce If that moment of the time of birth be of such moment whence proceeederh the great differences of the constitutions of Twins which though together born have strange divers and contrary â—ortunes in the progress of their lives all that knowledge if there be any such of things contingent to which we attain by the aspects of Stars is uncertain frivolous and changeable This the Devils themselves consessed when upon consultations of things to come for the most part they gave doubtful and ambiguous answers The Stars are not malignant mischeivous spitefull nor by their aspects malicious if they were such that should be either by election or nature They are not by Election for then thâ—y should have senses and fouls and as Animals be troubled with perturbations and tossed like unto us which followeâ—h election They are not malitious by nature sith God created them and God is not a Creator of what is evil nor is the framer whâ—ts not good the Heavens are all good and in every degree and figure the divine bounty shineth Why do not Astrologers at their pleasure procreate Kings for they have no great labour but to choose out opportunâ—m hoâ—rnt and ask counsel of the fatal Stars Had Giges who of a servant became a King a kingly aspect or Servius Tullus or that Tartar Tamerlane royal Images and figures Vain should all Laws be all sentences and doom of Judges vain the Rewards of virtue and good men vain the punishments of vices and evils if the great beginnings and Originals of them were compelled driven and forced and if what is just or wrong were not in a man himself The Thief should not be a Thief the Murtherer a Murtherer wicked and unjust they should not be the one being necessitated to steel the other to shed bloud by the Stars Trust in the first cause God Almighty and scorn vain Predictions That infinit eternal essence though the Stars should incline yea necessitate and be averse can countermand and turn them propitious All things turn unto the best unto such as rely on his Eternal goodness W. Drummond A CYPRESSE GROVE THough it hath bin doubted if there be in the soul such imperious and super-excellent power as that it can by the vehement and earnest working of it deliver knowledge to another without bodily Organs and by the onely conceptions and Ideas of it produce real Effects yet it hath bin ever and of all held as infallible and most cretain that it often either by out ward inspiration or some secret motion in it self is augure of its own misfortunes and hath shadows of approaching dangers presented unto it before they fall â—orth Hence so many strange apparitions and signs true visions uncouth heaviness and causeless uncomfortable languishings of which to seek a reason unless from the sparkling of God in the Soul or from the God-like sparkles of the Soul were to make unreasonable by reasoning of things transcending her reach Having often and diverse times when I had given my self to rest in the quiet solitariness of the Night found my imagination troubled with a confused fear no sorrow or horror which interrupting sleep did astonish my senses and rowse me all appalled and transported in a suddain agony and amazedness of such an unaccustomed perturbation not knowing nor being able to dive into any apparent cause carried away with the stream of my then doubting thoughts I began to ascribe it to that secret fore-knowledge and presaging power of the prophetick mind and to interpret such an Agony to be to the Spirit as a faintness and universal weariness useth to be to the body a sign of following sickness or as winter Lightnings or Earth quakes are to Common wealths and great Cities Harbingers of more wretched events Hereupon not thinking it strange if whatsoever is human should befall me knowing how providence overcoms grief and discountenances Crosses and that as we should not despair of evils which may happen to us we should not be too confident nor lean much to those Goods we enjoy I began to turn over in my remembrance all that could afflict miserable Mortality and to fore-cast every thing that with a Mask of horror could shew it self to humane eyes till in the end as by unities and points Mathematicians are brought to great numbers and huge greatneâ—s after many fantastical glances of the woes of mankind and those incumbrances which follow upon life I was brought to think and with amazement on the last of humane terrors or as one termed it the last of all dreadful and terrible Evils Death For to eaâ—ie censure it would appear that the Soul if it fore see that divorcement which it is to have from the body should not without great reason be thus over-grieved and plunged in inconsolable and unaccustom'd sorrow considering their near union long familâ—arity and love with the great change pain unliness which are apprehended to be the in separable attendents of Death They had their being together parts they are of one reasonable Creature the haâ—ming of the one is the weakning of the working of the other what sweet contentments doth the soul enjoy by the senses They are the Gates and Windows of its knowledge the Organs oâ— its Delight If it be â—edious to an excellent player on the Lute to abide but a few Moneths the want of one how much more the being without such noble Tools and Engines be plainful to
the soul And if two Pilgrims which have wandred some few miles together have a hearts-grief when they are neer to part what must the sorrow be at the parting of two so loving Friends and never-loathing Lovers as are the Body and Soul Death is the violent estranger of acquaintance the eternal Divorcer of Mariage the Ravisher of the children from the Parenâ—s the Sâ—ealer of Parents from their children the interrâ—r oâ— Fame the sole cause of forgetfulnesse by which the living talk of those gone away as oâ— so many Shadowes or age-worn Stories all strength by it is enseebled Beauty tuâ—ned into deformity and rotâ—enness honour in contempt Gloâ—y into basenesse It is the reasonless breaker off of all Actiâ—ns by which we enjoy no more the sweet pleasures of Earth nor gaze upon the stately revolutions of the Heavens Sunne perpetually setteth Stars never rise unto us It in one moment robbeâ—h us of what with so great toyl and care in many years we have heaped together By this are Successions of Linages cut short kingdomes left heirless and greatest States orphaned it is not overcome by Pride â—mothered by Flattery diverted by time Wisedome save this can prevent and help every thing By death we are exiled from this fair City of the World it is no more a World unto us nor we no more a people unto it The ruines of Phanes Palaces and other magnificent Frames yâ—eld a sad prospect to the soul and how should it without horrour view the wrack of such a wounderful Master-piece as is the body That death naturally is terrible and to be abhorred it can not well and altogether be denyed it being a privation of life and a not-being and every privation being abhorred of nature and evil in it self the fear of it too being ingenerate universally in all Creatures yet I have often thought that even naturally to a mind by onely nature resolved and prepaâ—ed it is more terrible in conceit than in verity and at the first Glance than when well pryed into and that rather by the weakness of our fantasie than by what is in it and that the marble colours of Obsequies Weeping and funeral pomp which we our selves castover did add much more ghastâ—inesse unto it than otherwaies it hath To aver which conclusion when I had gatherd my wandring thoughts I began thus with my self If on the great Theatre of this Earth amongst the numberless number of men To dy were onely proper to thee and thine then und â—ubtedly thou hadst reason to repine at so severe and partial a Law but since it is a necessity from the which never an age by-past hath been exempted and unto which they which be and so many as are to come are thralled no consequent of life being more common and familiar why shouldst it thou with unprofitable and nought availing stubbornness oppose to so unevitable and necessary a Condition this is the high-way of Mortality our general home behold what millions have trode it before thee what multitudes shall after thee with them which at that same instant run In so universal a calamity if Death be one private complaints cannot be heard with so many Royal Palaces it is no loss to see thy poor Câ—ban burn Shall the heavens stay their ever-roling wheels for what is the motion of them but the motion of a swift and ever whirling wheel which twineth forth and again uprolleth our life and hold still time to prolong thy miserable daies as if the highest of their working were to do homage unto thee thy death is a peice of the Order of this All a part of the Life of this world for while the World is the World some Creatures must dy and others take life Eternal things are raised far above this Sphere of Generation and Corruption where the first Matter like an ever flowing and ebbing Sea with divers waves but the same water keepeth a restless and never tyring current what is below in the universality of the kind not in it self doth abide Man a long line of years hath continued This man every hundred is swept away This Globe environed with air is the sole Region of death the Grave where every thing that taketh life must rott the Stage of Fortune and Change onely glorious in the unconstancy and varying alterations of it which though many seem yet to abide one and being a certain entire one are ever many The never agreeing bodies of the Elemental Brethren turn one in another the Earth changeth her countenance with the seasons sometimes looking cold and naked other times hot and flowry Nay I cannot tell how but even the lowest of those Celestial bodies that mother of moneths and Empress of Seas and moisture as if she were a Mirrour of our constant mutability appeareth by her too great neerness unto us to participate of our changes never seeing us twice with that same face now looking black then pale and wan sometimes again in the perfection and fulnesse of her beauty shining over us Death no lesse than life doth here act a part the taking away of what is old being the making away for what is young They which forewent us did leave a Room for us and should we grieve to do the same to those which should come after us who being suffered to see the exquisite rarities of an Antiquaries Cabinet is grieved that the curtain he drawn and to give place to new pilgrims and when the Lord of this Universe hath shewed us the amazing wonders of his various frame should we take it to heart when he thinketh time to dislodge this is his unalterable and unevitable Decree as we had no part of our will in our entrance into this lâ—iâ—e we should not presume of any in our leaving it but soberly learn to will that which he wills whose very will giveth being to all that it wills and reverencing the Orderer not repine at the Order and Laws which al-where and allwaies are so perfectly established that who would essay to correct and amend any of them should either make them worse or desire things beyond the level of possibility If thou doest complain that there shall be a time in the which thou shalt not be why dost thou not too grieve that there was a time in the which thou waste not and so that thou art not as old as that enlifening Planet of time for not to have been a thousand years before this moment is as much to be deplored as not to live a thousand after it the effect of them both being one that will be after us which long long before we were was Ous Childrens children have that same reason to murmur that they were not young men in our daies which we have to complain that we shall not be old in theirs The Violets have their time though they impurple not the Winter and the Roses keep their season though they disclose not their beauty in the Spring Empires States Kingdomes have by the doom
actions to all men which they cannot go beyond Most then answered I Death is not such an evil and pain as it is of the Vulgar esteemed Death said he nor painful is nor evil except in contemplation of the cause being of it self as indifferent as birth yet can it not be denyed and amidst those dreams of earthly pleasures the uncouthnesse of it with the wrong apprehension of what is unknown in it are noysom But the Soul sustained by its Maker resolved and calmly retired in it self doth find that death sith it is in a moment of Time is but a short nay sweet sigh and is not worthy the remembrance compared with the smallest dramm of the infinite Felicity of this Place Here is the Palace Royal of the Almighty King in which the uncomprehensible comprehensibly manifesteth Himself in place highest in substance not subject to any corruption or change for it is above all motion and solid turneth not in quantity greatest for if one Starre one Sphere be so vast how large how huge in exceeding demensions must those bounds be which do them all contain In quality most pure and orient Heaven here is all but a Sunne or the Sunne all but a Heaven If to Earthlings the Foot-stool of God and that Stage which he raised for a small course of Time seemeth so glorious and magnificent What estimation would they make if they could see of his eternal Habitation and Throne and if these be so wonderful what is the fight of him for whom and by whom all was created of whose Glory to behold the thousand thousand part the most pure Intelligencies are fully satiate and with wonder and delight rest amazed for the beauty of his light and the light of His beauty are uncomprehensible Here doth that earnest appetite of the understanding content it self not seeking to know any more For it seeth before it in the vision of the Divine essence a Miroir in the which not Images or shadows but the true and perfect essence of every thing created is more clear and conspicuous than in it self all that may be known or understood Here doth the Will pause it self as in the center of its Eternal rest glowing with a fiery affection of that infinite and al-sufficient good which being fully known cannot for the infinite motives and causes of love which are in him but be fully and perfectly loved As he is onely the true and essential Bounty so is he the onely essential and true beauty deserving alone all Love and Admiration by which the Creatures are onely in so much fair and excellent as they parâ—icipate of his Beauty and excelling Excellencies Here is a blessed Company every one joying as much in anothers Felicity as in that which is proper because each seeeth another equaly loved of God thus their distinct joyes are no fewer than the copartners of the Joy And as the Assembly is in number answerable to the large capacity of the place so are the joyes answerable to the numberlesse number of the Assembly No poor and piâ—tiful mortal confined on the Globe of Earth who hath never seen buâ— soâ—row or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures can righly think on or be sufficient to conceive the termless delights of this place So many Feathers move not on Birds so many Birds dint not the Air so many leaves tremble not on Trees so many Trees grow not in the solitary Forests so many waves turn not in the Ocean and so many grains of Sand limit not those Waves as this triumphant Court hath variety of delights and Joies exempâ—ed from all comparison Happiness at once here is â—ully known and fully enjoyed and as infinite in conâ—inuance as extent Here is flourishing and never-fading youth without Age Strength without Weaknesse Beauty never blasting Knowledge without Learning Abundance without Loathing Peace without Disturbance Participâ—tion without Envy Rest without Labour Light without rifing or setting Sunne Perpetuity without moments for Time which is the measure of Endurance did never enter in this shining Eternity Ambition Disdain Malice Difference of Opinions cannot approach this place and resembling those foggy Mists which cover those Lists of Sublunary things All pleasure paragon'd with what is here is pain all Mirth mourning all Beauty deformity Here one daies abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the Earth many years and sufficient to countervail the extreamest torments of Life But although this bliss of Souls be great and their joies many yet shal they admit addition and bee more ful and perfect at that long wished and general meeting with their bodies Amongst all the wonders of the great Creator not one appeareth to be more wounderful replied I than that our Bodies should arise having suffered so many changes and nature denying a return from privation to a Habit. Such power said he being above all that the Understanding of Man can conceave may well work such wonders For if Mans Vnderstanding could comprehend all the secrets and counsels of that Eternal Majesty it must of necessity be equal unto it The Author of Nature is not thralled to the Lawes of Nature but worketh with them or contrary to them as it pleaseth him What he hath a will to do he hath a power to perform To that power which brought all this All from nought to bring again in one instant any substance which ever was into it unto what it was once should not be thought impossible for who can do more can do less and his power is no less after that which was by him brought forth is decaâ—ed and vanished than it was before it was produced being neither restrained to certain limits or instruments or to any determinate and definite manner of working where the power is without restraint the work admitteth no other limits than the Workers will This world is as a Cabinet to God in which the small things however to us hid and secret are nothing less kept than the great For as he was wife and powerful to creat so doth his knowledge comprehend his own Creation yea every change and varity in it of which it is the very Source Not any Atom of the scatter'd Dust of mankind though daily flowing under new forms is to him unknown and his knowledge doth distinguish and discern what once his power shall waken and raise up Why may not the Arts-Master of the world like a Molder what he hath framed in divers shapes confound in one mass and then severally fashion them out of the same Can the Spargirick by his Art restore for a space to the dry and withered Rose the natural purple and bluth and cannot the Almighty râ—ise and refine the body of man after never so many alterations on the Earth Reason her self finds it more possible for infinit power to cast out from it self a finit world and restore any thing in it though decaied and dissolved to what it was first than for man a finit piece of reasonable misery to change the form of matter made to his hand the power of God never brought forth all that it can for then were it bounded and no more infinit That time doth approach O hast ye times away in which the dead shall live and the living be changed and of all actions the Guerdon is at hand then shall there â—e an end without an end time shall finish and place shall be altered motion yielding unto rest and another world of an age eternal and unchangeable shall arise which when he had said me thought he vanished and I all astonished did awake To the Memory of the most Excellent Lady JANE Countess of PERTH THis Beauty which Pale death in dust did turn And clos'd so soon within a Coffin sad Did passe like Lightning like to T hunder burn So little Life so much of Worth it Had. Heavens bâ—t to shew their Might here made it shine And when admir'd then in the Worlds disdain O Tears O Grief did call it back again Lest Earth should vaâ—ut she kept what was Divine What can we hope for more What more enjoy Sith â—â—irest Things thus soonest have their End And as on Bodies shadowes do attend Sith all our blisse is follow'd with Annoy Yet she 's not dead she lives where she did love Her Memory on Earth Her soul above To S. W. A. THough I have twice been at the Doors of Death And twice found shut those Gates which ever mourn This but a lightning is Truce tane to Breath For late-born Sorrows augurre fteet return Amidst thy sacred Cares and Courtly toils Alexis when thou shalt hear wandring Famâ— Tell Death bath triumph'd o're my mortal spoils And that on Earth I am but a sad Name If thou e're held me clear by all our Love By all that Blisse those Ioyes Heaven here us gave I conjure thee and by the Maids of Jove To grave this short Remembrance on my Grave Here Damon lies whose Songs did somtime grace The murmuring Esk may roses shade the Place On the Report of the Death of the Author Iâ— that were true which whispered is by Fame That Damons light no more on Earth doth burn His Part on Phoebus physick would disclaim And cloth'd in clouds as erst for Phâ—eton mourn Yea Fame by this had got so deep a wound That scarce She could have power to tell his death Her Wings cut short who could her Trumpet sound Whose blaze of late was nurs'd but by his Breath That Spirit of his which most with mine was free By mutual traffick enterchanging store If chac'd from him it would have come to me Where it so ost familiar was before Some secret Grief distempring first my Mind Had though not knowing made me feel this losse A Sympathy had so our Souls combind That such a parting both at once would tosse Though such Reports to others terrour give Thy Heavenly Virtnes who did never spy I know thou that canst make the dead to live Immortal art and needs not fear to dye Sir WILL. ALEXANDER FINIS