forme that made it liue Nor could complaine that this world was vnfit To be staid in then when shee was in it Shee that first tried indifferent desires By vertue and vertue by religious fires Shee to whose person Paradise adhear'd As Courts to Princes shee whose eies enspheard Star-light inough t' haue made the South controll Had shee beene there the Star-full Northern Pole Shee shee is gone shee is gone when thou knowest this What fragmentary rubbidge this world is Thou knowest and that it is not worth a thought He honors it too much that thinks it nought Thinke then My soule that death is but a Groome Which brings a Taper to the outward romme Whence thou spiest first a little glimmering light And after brings it nearer to thy sight For such approches doth Heauen make in death Thinke thy selfe laboring now with broken breath And thinke those broken and soft Notes to bee Diuision and thy happiest Harmonee Thinke thee laid on thy death bed loose and slacke And thinke that but vnbinding of a packe To take one precious thing thy soule from thence Thinke thy selfe parch'd with feuers violence Anger thine Ague more by calling it Thy Physicke chide the slacknesse of the fit Thinke that thou hearst thy knell and thinke no more But that as Bels cal'd thee to Church before So this to the Triumphant Church cals thee Thinke Satans Sergeants round about thee bee And thinke that but for Legacies they thrust Giue one thy Pride to'another giue thy Lust Giue them those sinnes which they gaue thee before And trust th' immaculate blood to wash thy score Thinke thy frinds weeping round and thinke that thay Weepe but because they goe not yet thy way Thinke that they close thine eyes and thinke in this That they confesse much in the world amisse Who dare not trust a dead mans eye with that Which they from God and Angels couer not Thinke that they shroud thee vp and thinke from thence They reinuest thee in white innocence Thinke that thy body rots and if so lowe Thy soule exalted so thy thoughts can goe Thinke the a Prince who of themselues create Wormes which insensibly deuoure their state Thinke that they bury thee and thinke that right Laies thee to sleepe but a saint Lucies night Thinke these things cheerefully and if thou bee Drowsie or slacke remember then that shee Shee whose Complexion was so euen made That which of her Ingredients should inuade The other three no Feare no Art could guesse So far were all remou'd from more or lesse But as in Mithridate or iust perfumes Where all good things being met no one presumes To gouerne or to triumph no the rest Onely because all were no part was best And as though all doe know that quantities Are made of lines and lines from Points arise None can these lines or quantities vnioynt And say this is a line or this a point So though the Elements and Humors were In her one could not say this gouernes there Whose euen constitution might haue worne Any disease to venter on the Sunne Rather then her and make a spirit feare That he to disuniting subiect were To whose proportious if we would compare Cubes th' are vnstable Circles Angulare Shee who was such a Chaine as Fate emploies To bring mankind all Fortunes it enioies So fast so euen wrought as one would thinke No Accident could threaten any linke Shee shee embrac'd a sicknesse gaue it meat The purest Blood and Breath that ere it eat And hath taught vs that though a good man hath Title to Heauen and plead it by his Faith And though he may pretend a conquest since Heauen was content to suffer violence Yea though he plead along possession too For they' are in Heauen on Earth who Heauens workes do Though he had right and power and Place before Yet Death must vsher and vnlocke the doore Thinke further on thy selfe my soule and thinke How thou at first wast made but in a sinke Thinke that it argued some infermitee That those two soules which then thou foundst in mee Thou fedst vpon And drewst into thee both My second soule of sence and first of growth Thinke but how poore thou wast how obnoxious Whom a small lump of flesh could poison thus This curded milke this poore vnlittered whelpe My body could beyond escape or helpe Infect thee with originall sinne and thou Couldst neither then refuse nor leaue it now Thinke that no stubborne sullen Anchorit Which fixt to'a Pillar or a Graue doth sit Beddded and Bath'd in all his Ordures dwels So fowly as our soules in their first-built Cels. Thinke in how poore a prison thou didst lie After enabled but to sucke and crie Thinke when t' was growne to most t' was a poore Inne A Prouince Pack'd vp in two yards of skinne And that vsurped or threatned with the rage Of sicknesses or their true mother Age. But thinke that Death hath now enfranchis'd thee Thou hast thy'expausion now and libertee Thinke that a rusty Peece discharg'd is flowen In peeces and the bullet is his owne And freely flies This to thy soule allow Thinke thy shee l broke thinke thy Soule hatch'd but now And thinke this slow-pac'd soule which late did cleaue To'a body and went but by the bodies leaue Twenty perchance or thirty mile a day Dispatches in a minute all the way Twixt Heauen and Earth shee staies not in the Ayre To looke what Meteors there themselues prepare Shee carries no desire to know nor sense Whether th'Ayrs middle Region be intense For th' Element of fire shee doth not know Whether shee past by such a place or no Shee baits not at the Moone nor cares to trie Whether in that new world men liue and die Venus recards her not to'enquire how shee Can being one Star Hesper and Vesper bee Hee that charm'd Argus eies sweet Mercury Workes not on her who now is growen all Ey Who if shee meete the body of the Sunne Goes through not staying till his course be runne Who finds in Mars his Campe no corps of Guard Nor is by Ioue nor by his father bard But ere shee can consider how shee went At once is at and through the Firmament And as these stars were but so many beades Strunge on one string speed vndistinguish'd leades Her through those spheares as through the beades a string Whose quicke succession makes it still one thing As doth the Pith which least our Bodies slacke Strings fast the little bones of necke and backe So by the soule doth death string Heauen and Earth For when our soule enioyes this her third birth Creation gaue her one a second grace Heauen is as neare and present to her face As colours are and obiects in a roome Where darknesse was before when Tapers come This must my soule thy long-short Progresse bee To'aduance these thoughts remember then that shee Shee whose faire body no such prison was But that a soule might well be
pleas'd to passe An Age in her shee whose rich beauty lent Mintage to others beauties for they went But for so much as they were like to her Shee in whose body if wee dare prefer This low world to so high a mark as shee The Westerne treasure Esterne spiceree Europe and Afrique and the vnknowen rest Were easily found or what in them was best And when w'haue made this large Discoueree Of all in her some one part then will bee Twenty such parts whose plenty and riches is Inough to make twenty such worlds as this Shee whom had they knowne who did first betroth The Tutelar Angels and assigned one both To Nations Cities and to Companies To Functions Offices and Dignities And to each seuerall man to him and him They would haue giuen her one for euery limme Shee of whose soule if we may say t' was Gold Her body was th'Electrum and did hold Many degrees of that we vnderstood Her by her sight her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheekes and so distinckly wrought That one might almost say her bodie thought Shee shee thus richly and largely hous'd is gone And chides vs slow-pac'd snailes who crawle vpon Our prisons prison earth nor thinke vs well Longer then whil'st we beare our brittle shell But t' were but little to haue chang'd our roome If as we were in this our liuing Tombe Oppress'd with ignorance we still were so Poore soule in this thy flesh what do'st thou know Thou know'st thy selfe so little as thou know'st not How thou did'st die nor how thou wast begot Thou neither knowst how thou at first camest in Nor how thou took'st the poyson of mans sin Nor dost thou though thou knowst that thou art so By what way thou art made immortall know Thou art to narrow wretch to comprehend Euen thy selfe yea though thou wouldst but bend To know thy body Haue not all soules thought For many ages that our body'is wrought Of Ayre and Fire and other Elements And now they thinke of new ingredients And one soule thinkes one and another way Another thinkes and ty's an euen lay Knowst thou but how the stone doth enter in The bladders Caue and neuer breake the skin Knowst thou how blood which to the hart doth flow Doth from one ventricle to th' other go And for the putrid stuffe which thou dost spit Knowst thou how thy lungs haue attracted it There are no passages so that there is For ought thou knowst piercing of substances And of those many opinions which men raise Of Nailes and Haires dost thou know which to praise What hope haue we to know our selues when wee Know not the least things which for our vse bee We see in Authors too stiffe to recant A hundred controuersies of an Ant. And yet one watches starues freeses and sweats To know but Catechismes and Alphabets Of vnconcerning things matters of fact How others on our stage their parts did Act What Caesar did yea and what Cicero said Why grasse is greene or why our blood is red Are mysteries which none haue reach'd vnto In this low forme poore soule what wilt thou doe When wilt thou shake of this Pedantery Of being thought by sense and Fantasy Thou look'st through spectacles small things seeme great Below But vp vnto the watch-towre get And see all things despoyld of fallacies Thou shalt not peepe through lattices of eies Nor heare through Laberinths of eares nor learne By circuit or collections to discerne In Heauen thou straight know'st all concerning it And what concerns it not shall straight forget There thou but in no other schoole maist bee Perchance as learned and as full as shee Shee who all Libraries had throughly red At home in her owne thoughts And practised So much good as would make as many more Shee whose example they must all implore Who would or doe or thinke well and confesse That aie the vertuous Actions they expresse Are but a new and worse edition Of her some one thought or one action Shee who in th' Art of knowing Heauen was growen Here vpon Earth to such perfection That shee hath euer since to Heauen shee came In a far fairer point but read the same Shee shee not satisfied withall this waite For so much knowledge as would ouer-fraite Another did but Ballast her is gone As well t' enioy as get perfectione And cals vs after her in that shee tooke Taking herselfe our best and worthiest booke Returne not my soule from this extasee And meditation of what thou shalt bee To earthly thoughts till it to thee appeare With whom thy conuersation must be there With whom wilt thou Conuerse what station Canst thou choose out free from infection That wil nor giue thee theirs nor drinke in thine Shalt thou not finde a spungy slack Diuine Drinke and sucke in th' Instructions of Great men And for the word of God vent them agen Are there not some Courts And then no things bee So like as Courts which in this let vs see That wits and tongues of Libellars are weake Because they doe more ill then these can speake The poyson'is gone through all poysons affect Chiefly the cheefest parts but some effect In Nailes and Haires yea excrements will show So wise the poyson of sinne in the most low Vp vp my drowsie soule where thy new eare Shall in the Angels songs no discord heare Where thou shalt see the blessed Mother-maid Ioy in not being that which men haue said Where shee'is exalted more for being good Then for her interest of motherhood Vp to those Patriarckes which did longer sit Expecting Christ then they'haue enioy'd him yet Vp to those Prophets which now gladly see Their Prophecies growen to be Historee Vp to th'Apostles who did brauely runne All the Sunnes course with more light then the Sunne Vp to those Martyrs who did calmely bleed Oyle to th'Apostles lamps dew to their seed Vp to those Virgins who thoughts that almost They made ioyntenants with the Holy Ghost If they to any should his Temple giue Vp vp for in that squadron there doth liue Shee who hath carried thether new degrees As to their number to their dignitees Shee who beeing to herselfe a state enioyd All royalties which any state emploid For shee made wars and triumph'd reson still Did not ouerthrow but rectifie her will And shee made peace for no peace is like this That beauty and chastity together kisse Shee did high iustice for shee crucified Euery first motion of rebellious pride And shee gaue pardons and was liberall For onely her selfe except shee pardond all Shee coynd in this that her impressions gaue To all our actions all the worth they haue Shee gaue protections the thoughts of her brest Satans rude Officers could nere arrest As these prerogatiues being met in one Made her a soueraigne state religion Made her a Church and these two made her all Shee who was all this All and could not fall To worse by company for shee was still
confidence growes weake This new world may be safer being told The dangers and diseases of the old For with due temper men do then forgoe Or couet things when they their true worth know There is no health Phisitians say that wee At best enioy but a neutralitee And can there be worse sicknesse then to know That we are neuer well nor can be so We are borne ruinous poore mothers crie That children come not right nor orderly Except they headlong come and fall vpon An ominous precipitation How witty's ruine how importunate Vpon mankinde It labour'd to frustrate Euen Gods purpose and made woman sent For mans reliefe cause of his languishment They were to good ends and they are so still But accessory and principall in ill For that first mariage was our funerall One woman at one blow then kill'd vs all And singly one by one they kill vs now We doe delightfully our selues allow To that consumption and profusely blinde We kill our selues to propagate our kinde And yet we doe not that we are not men There is not now that mankinde which was then When as the Sunne and man did seeme to striue Ioynt tenants of the world who should suruie When Stag and Rauen and the long-liu'd tree Compar'd withman dy'de in minoritee When if a slow-pac'd starre had stolne away From the obseruers marking he might stay Two or three hundred yeeres to see 't againe And then make vp his obseruation plaine When as the age was long the the sise was great Mans grouth confess'd and recompenc'd the meat So spacious and large that euery soule Did a faire Kingdome and large Realme controule And when the very stature thus erect Did that soule a good way towards Heauen direct Where is this mankind now who liues to age Fit to be made Methusalem his page Alas we scarse liue long enough to trie Whether a true made clocke run right or lie Old Grandsires talke of yesterday with sorrow And for our children we reserue to morrow So short is life that euery peasant striues In a torne house or field to haue three liues And as in lasting so in length is man Contracted to an inch who was a span For had a man at first in Forrests stray'd Or shipwrack'd in the Sea one would haue laid A wager that an Elephant or Whale That met him would not hastily assaile A thing so equal to him now alas The Fayries and the Pigmies well may passe As credible mankind decayes so soone We 're searse our Fathers shadowes cast at noone Onely death addes t' our length nor are we growne In stature to be men till we are none But this were light did our lesse volume hold All the old Text or had we chang'd to gold Their siluer or dispos'd into lesse glas Spirits of vertue which then scattred was But 't is not so w' are not retir'd but dampt And as our bodies so our mindes are cramp't 'T is shrinking not close-weaning that hath thus In minde and body both bedwarfed vs. We seeme ambitious Gods whole worke t' vndoe Of nothing he made vs and we striue too To bring our selues to nothing backe and we Do what we can to do 't so soone as hee With new diseases on our selues we warre And with new phisicke a worse Engin farre Thus man this worlds Vice-Emperor in whom All faculties all graces are at home And if in other Creatures they appeare They 're but mans ministers and Legats there To worke on their rebellions and reduce Them to Ciuility and to mans vse This man whom God did wooe and loth t' attend Till man came vp did downe to man descend This man so great that all that is is his Oh what a trifle and poore thing he is If man were any thing he 's nothing now Helpe or at least some time to wast allow T' his other wants yet when he did depart With her whom we lament he lost his heart She of whom th'Ancients seem'd to prophesie When they call'd vertues by the name of shee She in whom vertue was so much refin'd That for Allay vnto so pure a minde Shee tooke the weaker Sex she that could driue The poysonous tincture and the stayne of Eue Out of her thoughts and deeds and purifie All by a true religious Alchimy Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is And learn'st thus much by our Anatomee The heart being perish'd no part can be free And that except thou feed not banquet on The supernaturall food Religion Thy better Grouth growes withered and scant Be more than man or thou' rt lesse then an Ant. Then as mankinde so is the worlds whole frame Quite out of ioynt almost created lame For before God had made vp all the rest Corruption entred and deprau'd the best It seis'd the Angels and then first of all The world did in her Cradle take a fall And turn'd her brains and tooke a generall maime Wronging each ioynt of th' vniuersall frame The noblest part man felt it first and than Both beasts and plants curst in the curse of man So did the world from the first houre decay That euening was beginning of the day And now the Springs and Sommers which we see Like sonnes of women after fifty bee And new Philosophy cals all in doubt The Element of fire is quite put out The Sunne is lost and th' earth and no mans wit Can wel direct him where to looke for it And freely men confesse that this world 's spent When in the Planets and the Firmament They seeke so many new they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomis 'T is all in pieces all cohaerence gone All iust supply and all Relation Prince Subiect Father Sonne are things forgot For euery man alone thinkes he hath got To be a Phoenix and that then can bee None of that kinde of which he is but hee This is the worlds condition now and now She that should all parts to reunion bow She that had all Magnetique force alone To draw and fasten sundred parts in one She whom wise nature had inuented then When she obseru'd that every sort of men Did in their voyage in this worlds Sea stray And needed a new compasse fo their way Shee that was best and first originall Of all faire copies and the generall Steward to Fate shee whose rich eyes and brest Guilt the West Indies and perfum'd the East Whose hauing breath'd in this world did bestow Spice on those Isles and bad them still smell so And that rich Indie which doth gold interre Is but as single money coyn'd from her She to whom this world must it selfe refer As Suburbs or the Microcosme of her Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowst how lame a cripple this world is And learnst thus much by our Anatomy That this worlds generall sickenes doth not lie In any humour or