well And yonder sits the Larke and turtle dove Come let 's goe walke and we will paralell Love with eternall glory in you Grove Wee 'le take the subtle Fox nor will we spare To hunt the light foot Deere or timerous Hare Come then my love my dove arise my fairest faire V. Rise Phoeb ' and come away thy blinded eye Is lul'd to ruine in dislumbring dreame Why art thou rockt in such a lullaby And drown'd in various wanton streames Come let us travell to eternity And languish in the purest sweet extreames Wherefore my deare so greedy dost thou crowd To danger why to darknesse dost thou shrowd And leave thy love alone wrapt in a sable Cloud VI. Rise Phoeb ' and come away thy short Reposes Are flattring slumbers leave thy slippry hold Of sordid earth come on a bed of Roses I le knit thy haire in knots of fringed gold Wee 'le pusse the flying day in entercloses Of dearest love with glory uncontroul'd I 'le teach thee how to surfet in the fire Of loves immortall flames while some desire To spēa their time in prais thou rather shalt admire VII Rise Phoeb ' and come away we 'le make great Jove To stop his fiery horses swift carere Whose nostrills vomit flames we 'le mount above And hold the Reines of Titans hemisphare sgrove And guide his Chariot wheeles through pleasures And view the hallowea walks Come come my dear Le ts wander to Elizium whose bright ray Out-shines great Phoebus in his new born day Or the most fairest noon rise Phoeb ' and come away The fourth SOLILOQUIE AH Lord thou commandest us to seeke thy face that we may shun death and yet thou sayest none can see thy face and live Ah! let me live that I may know thee or die that I may see thee It is the happinesse of those glorious Angels that they continually behold thee and therefore they incompasse thine Altar with sweet Odours unspeakeable Rhaptures and high Hallelujah's but we poore mortalls prest down with sinne with guilt with flesh with feare cannot worthily praise thee Ah me why doe I seeke thee If thou beest no where absent why doe I not finde thee if thou beest every where present sure to the eye of darknesse thou wrappest thy selfe in thicke darkenes and thou art discovered to the eye that is enlightned thou art seene in thy power to sinners in thy terrour to Sathan in thy Sonne to thy Saints thou art seene in thy judgement to them that are against thee in thy Justice to them that flye from thee in thy Sacraments to them that seeke thee in thy Lawes to them that love thee and in thy Love to them that know thee Whence proceedeth this thy condiscention and thine infinite humiliation that thou did'st leave thy Throne in Heaven to live in the forme of a servant on earth Why didst thou change thy Crowne of Royalty for a Crowne of Indignity Why should aninfinite Creatour love a finite Creature and Heaven stoope to Hell Alas oh Lord Jesus heere was no Royall Throne for thy Majesty no Glorious Temple to entertaine thee heere was no winged Cherubins to beare thee no Armies of Angells to stand before thee no sweete faced object to delight thine eyes no musicall Raptures to salute thine eares no costly odours to annoynt thy feete nor spangled Canopy to spread over thy head but sinne and shame guilt and feare hell and horrour blacknesse and darkenesse extremity poverty impurity deformity and canst thou love so poore a thing as man oh thou that inhabitest in Heaven in light inaccessible in glory incomprehensible who canst with a frowne overturne thine enemies fame and by their ruine purchase thy selfe glory and if the World should totally revolt from thee and set her selfe against thee Couldst thou not command a suddaine clap of thunder to spurne her from her Poles shake her from her Center crack her Axeltrees and breake her Chariot wheeles Couldst thou not let loose the Elements that the Heavens should bee hid in blacknesse and the Sunne should bee cloathed in darkenesse that the Waters should drowne the earth and the fire should devoure the aire or with an angry breath couldst thou not puffe them all away that earth and ayre and water and fire should vanish and the world should be no more and in the roome thereof create in a moment to perfect thy praises ten thousand severall Orbes Why then oh man art thou so much deluded Why is Heaven and his sweet invitations so much disregarded sure there bee foure dayes in which thou wilt call thy selfe foole for neglecting so great salvation And they be these The day of publick calamity The day of private extreamity The day of death The day of doome First in the day of publick calamity if the world should bee governed in blacknesse and darkeneste If natures fabrick should bee smitten if the powers of the world should bee shaken if the waters should bee loosed if the fire should bee kindled if the ayre should bee infected if the earth should bee poysoned if the sword should begin to range againe and thou shouldst see thousands of mangled bodies about the streets if the trumpets should sound the alarum of war againe and the drums beat dolefull funeralls for the souldiers if whisling bullets and fiery granadoes should fall like haile on the earth and roare like the thunderclaps in heaven if every mans sword should bee set against his fellow if the earth should bee paved with dead mens bones and the channels run downe with blood if this flourishing Kingdome should bee made a burnt offering her people lye beeding like a new slain sacrifice where then couldst thou finde a chamber to hide thee in but in thy beloveds armes and under the shaddow of his mighty wings when the Lord comes to make inquisition for blood and his fury shall breake out in fiery flames to lick up the sinners of the world then will Jesus Christ bee as a shadowed grove in a thundering storme as a cooling rock in a scorching day and a fountaine of water in a weary land when the worldling shall loose his anchor of hope and suffer shipwrack thou shalt safely bee set a shoare If the famine should run after the sword the stoutest heart should grow faint and the fairest face should begin to wax pale because of pining hunger If the pestilence should follow famine if terrour should walke in darkenesse and the arrowes of the Almighty fly at noone day if a thousand should fall on thy right hand and ten thousand on thy left hand and thou beginnest to feare because of the evill that is come upon the world who then can protect thee that judgements may not touch thee but Jesus Christ Tell mee then hath hee not cause to bee beloved would hee not bee worthy to bee desired Secondly in the day of private extremity when thine eyes shall bee opened and thy heart shall bee awaked when thy minde shall bee troubled
and thy conscience tormented when sinne and all its terrour shall come to make thy life intollerable when the remembrance of thy pollutions shall bee bitter to thy soule when thine eyes shall bee a flood of teares thy teares a sea of sorrow thy sorrow a clog upon thy spirit thy spirit a trouble to thy minde thy minde a torment to thy heart thy heart an enemy to thy life thy life a burthen to thy dayes when thy conscience shall gnaw thee like a ravenous Vulture and guilt and feare shall sting thee worse then an Addar when thou shalt sit downe in sorrow all the day feeding on wormwood and drinking the poyson of Aspes how wilt thou be ready to teare thy selfe in pieces when thou shalt feele a little of the weight of sin which made thy Saviour groane when thy heart shall be affrighted and thy minde shall be amazed when Hell is discovered and the Heavens are darkened then would not that glorious arme that now invites thee be welcome to thee nay would he not be worth a thousand worlds that shall ease the anguish of thy soule in such an houre Thirdly at the day of death thy beloved will be desired when the Sunne and the light and the Moone and the Stars shall be darkned and the clowdes returne after the Raigne when thy joynts shall tremble and thy knees knock together when thy courage shall be faintnesse thy beauty shall bee pâ—lenesse and thy rest shall bee wearinessâ— when thy memory shall faile thee when thine eyes shall deceive thee when death shall shake thâ—e thy riches slye from thee and the Mourners stand about thee when sin and feare and gâ—â—â—â— and horrour and death and terrour shall conduct thee through the gates of mortality and launch thee forth into the Gulph of eternity when all about thee seeme to daunce around thee in the daunce of death then sinner see in all thy inventoâ—y what wilt thou prize none but Jesus Christ and welcome Jesus Christ to the sinner in such a day Fourthly at the day of Judgement thy Saviour will be welcome when at the sound of the trumpet and the shout of the Arch Angell the sleeper shall be awaked the world shall bee started the living shall be changed the graves shall be opened the dead shall be raised when the heaven shall be covered in thicke darknesse when the Sea shall boyle up in such mighty waves as shall seeme to drowne the world when thou shalt see the earth surrounded by fire and the heavens sweltring in flames when thou shalt behold the great Judge of the world sitting upon his glorious throne borne by winged Cherubins surrounded by Armies of Angells before whom shall stand millions of naked mortals to receive their eternall doome then a smile from the Judge on the throne will revive â—â—â—e at the last and thou wilt hold up thy head with joy then that arme that now invites thee will be able to crowne thee in immortallity These are the foure dayes in which thou wilt repent thy neglect of the proffers of Love And now Reader mayst thou shut the Booke and stand amazed an howres contemplation upon the thoughts of eternity may well take roome Ah that Jesus Christ should come from the bosome of his Father from the company of his Angels from the pleasure of his Paradice from his Chaire of dignity from his Crowne of glory to put on mortality to suffer indignity to live in poverty to endure extremity to be a man of sorrow all his dayes to be buffeted scourged persecuted tormented reviled reproached dispised disgraced disparaged and abused from his cradle to his Crosse and then wander through the shaddow of death and hells darke groves from his Crosse to his Crowne How soone when the Heire of heaven was smitten was natures Fabrick shaken how soone when the Sunne of glory was extinguished was the Sunne of Heaven eclipsed What meanes the Heavens to frowne the Earth to quake the Souldiers to tremble the Temple to rend the Graves to open the Dead to arise Why must Heaven bee faine to suffer and natures Fabrick bee out of order Was all this for man Alas and what is man A little mouldring dust a piece of moving earth a maske of mortallity an inch of eternity whose life is but labour whose wisdome is but folly whose grace is but impurity whose comelynesse deformity whose substance is sinne whose glory is his shame Say Reader didst thou ever see Royalty wooe Indignity Honour looke on Lownesse Highnesse sue to Basenesse Didst thou ever see a King serve a Slave Gentility wooe Poverty and Beauty love Deformity Then Reader recollect thy wandring thoughts and before thou passest to the other page pay here the tribute of a teare How hath the Prince of darkenesse besotted blinded mortalls How is man poore man befooled How doth hee sell his Corne for Chaffe his Silver for Drosse his Treasure for Torment his Paradice for Pleasure his Glory for Honour his Heaven for Earth his Earth for Hell How doth hee set his heart on vanity and slights the richest rarity God calls once and twice and the carnall heart heares not hee comes with all the purest expressions and sweetest invitations with all the words of Art and the allurements of love yet blinded man regards not but wallowes in impurity and slumbers in a lethargy till hee perishes to eternity Ah Lord thou dwellest in that light inaccessible and brightnesse incomprehensible that no eye can see and not be struck blind thy glorious Pallace stands in eternity and thy sparkling Throne is scituate in immortallity in the midst of brightnesse in such a circle of glory that no mortall can behold unlesse hee drop downe and dye Dominion and feare are with thee and of thy Government there shall bee no end What gaine is it to thee if wee bee Righteous and wherein art thou damaged if wee bee polluted If the world should revolt from the Prince of darkenesse and vaile her Crowne to thy Supreamacy If all Nations should bee willing to bee swayed by the Scepter and bow before thy immortall Throne this cannot adde to the greatnesse of thy Majesty nor if the disobedience of thy Children the frownes of thy Foes the envy of thy Enemies the subtilty of Sathan the wickednesse of the World the helpe of Hell were against thee set in battle Ray they could not darken thy Dignity they could not eclipse thy Glory Yet albeit thou couldst gaine honour by our destruction yet thou delightest in our conversion and therefore thou offerest thy Word thy Gospel thy Sacrament thy selfe and thy sonne thou givest us Reprovements Allurements Precepts and Promises Comfort and Counsell Direction Dehortation But wee poore mortalls are too unkinde to reward thy love with disdaine thy curtesie with distoyalty but what shall wee say Shall wee that are but dust direct Eternity in his unsearcheable actions Thou commandest us to seeke thee Alas wee cannot finde thee Thou bidst us apply our selves to know
Mellificium Musarum THE MARROVV OF THE MUSES OR AN EPITOME OF DIVINE POETRIE Distilled into Pious Ejaculations and Solemne Soliloquies By JEREMIAH RICH. Junii 19. 1650. Imprimatur JOSEPH CARYL LONDON Printed by T. H. for JOHN STEPHENSON and are to be sold at his shop on Ludgate hill at the sign of the Sun 1650. GEO. CHALMERS ESQ F.R.S.S.A. SPERO To the Honourable and most Excellently well accomplisht the great Patron of Piety Example of Valour and chiefe Asylum of Learning and Ingenuity NATHANIEL RICH Esq Governour of Deale Sandowne and Walmer Castles Major Generall of the South-Easterne Parts of ENGLAND and a Member of the Right Honourable the House of Parliament my Noble Colonell c. THese Poems being on their maâ—ch have rankt themselves under the Conduct of Your Honours Patronage which is able to screene them from the Irradiation of Envy or the malevolent effects of folly My first Workes devoted to the Noble Countesse of Warwick had the happinesse to kisse your hand which happinesse gives me a new boldnesse to present this Epitome of divine Poetry to your gracious protection that flying through the World under the shadow of your Honors wings many may read it o're having the glory to be drest in your Honours Livery I could produce prolixer Arguments to make an Apology for the Poem indeed I cannot surrender the account of my study more properly to any then to your Honour to whose Command all my actuall employments are dayly devoted let this one Reason silence and supercede the plurality of a longer Prologue It is requisite I should sometimes waite on your Honour with my Pen as well as alwaies with my Sword As for the Offring it is too meane for so magnificent a favour your acceptance Yet the mightiest Monarchs amidst their highest triumphs have been sometimes pleased with trifles and the stateliest Cedars shade the shortest shrubs But your affable and indulgent Cander being beyond compare I shall with that great Artist Timanthus shadow those lineaments my imbecility cannot draw Your Honours goodnesse is far above your greatnesse the knowledge of which forced mee in all humility to tender my winged Pegasus at your Honours feet and rest Your Honours most humble and faithfull Souldier and Servant to Command Jeremiah Rich. To the Reader ME thinkes 't is long to morne sure Phoebus should have braved the Aire an houre ago It cannot be much longer sure ere darkenesse bee downe and the sable cloud bee puft away that once was set round to raine Oh that the Curtaines of Heaven were drawne that the Day-star would usher Sol from his blushing bed of Roses that glorious Aurora would open his golden Gates and let in the winged Chariot of the Day Sure it cannot bee long say Reader art thou ready I have beate up a Travallee heere that you may stand to your Guard against you bee relieved and like the earely Bell man I have given you a midnight Verse that your wakefull eyes may welcome in the Morne Peruse it gentle Reader not as men weare powder on their heads but as the Women that weare their buskes in their bosomes use it not as a Glasse to make your selves trim but as a watch to see the shortnesse of time heere be eight things in this short Manuell that offer themselves to thy view namely these the evill of envy the fulnesse of folly the continuance of labour the inconstancy of love the prosperity of the wicked yet the poverty of the world the vilenesse of some things and the vanity of all things Peruse it not as some doe the Rhimes of Homer which turn to the end ere they know the beginning and passe by the leafe before they understand a line Art thou hurryed to horrour It may bee I have writ that heere that may barricado up the way peradventure thou art almost lost and something heere may whisper thee the way to Heaven and love may beare thee on his unseen winges and lift thee to Elysium perhaps it is the last of my labours read it before thou rend it and if the lines deserve any love though the Stationer has the profit let mee have thy prayers take thy selfe the utility and let Heaven have the glory Thine JEREMIAH RICH. Ad amicum charissimum Dominum RICH in elucubratissima Poemata QVis novus hic nostris hospes accesserit aris Aeonidum tactas mente veavit aquat Miramur Calamum Richi charissime dives Nomine at ingenio ditior ipse tuo Cuncta prophanorum sileant hinc Carmina vatum Exemploque tuo metra sacrata canent Delphica qui sacro pandis laquea iasocco Grandiloquoque feris Sydera summa stila E. P. To his Friend the Authour Tam Marte quam Mercurio T Is strange yet true that in a twinning breast The God of War and Eloquence should rest Heere Ajax and Vlisses strive againe As once for Armâ—s so now for heart and brain For he 's no Souldier that can downe right hit Only by strength and not take aime by wit Nor is that Oratory which does steep The tongue alone and leave the heart asleep Let the old Stagerite or Galen tell In which the principality doth dwell Both excellent and both maintaine their part The brain pumps forth that which was sprung in heart I know not which rules thee but to us far Nobler then Mercury is the god of war Yet while his Oaten Pipe or Phoebus Lire Sound with the Trump we seem to cool in fire D. L. C. To his ingenious Friend Mr. Jer. Rich on his excellent Poems VVHat Guest approacheth our Altars here to bring A Verse to blesse the Helliconian spring We all dear Rich admire thy quill now Fame Shall with her loudest blast proclaim thy Name Unto the World that Ingenuity May speake if there be one so Rich as thee Let Poets Rhime no more but in thy praise And sing by thy example holy Layes While thou with sweetest Rhetorick charm'st our eares We dream we hear the musique of the Sphears J. Steevens To my Worthy Friend Mr. IEREMIAH RICH on his Poem VVHat strange Poetick fury does inspire Thy towring fancy with such PrometheaÌ„ fire Able to illuminate the world and constrain The Muses to doe homage to thy braine Admired Rich since every Verse of thine Centers in Heaven and growes thence divine L. F. Ad Amicum Charissimum Dom. RICH in Mellificium Musarum QVis furor Aetheriis accendit Corda favillis Quis novus arrepsit per tua Metra Calor Ecce tibi Cunctis Musarum turba Camaenis Assurgunt famulis officiosa Choris Sed mage Melpomene dominatrix Carminae gestit Singultu miscens gaudia vana pio Peccati quae monstra domat dum murmure masto Emollit mentem lacrimulasque ciet Quam bene Davidicis calefiunt Pectora ulnis Et resonant magnum Carmina celsa Polum Dum geminos tâ— Riche refers virtutibus axes Et Caelum spirant tua corda solum Nempe simul Terrae mulces
impudent face said unto him I have peace offerings with me this day have I payd my vowes Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee I have deckt my bed with coverings of Tapestry with carved workes with fine linnen of Egypt I have perfumed my bed with myrrhe aloes and cynamen Come let us take our fill of love untill the morning let us solace our selves with loves For the good man is not at home he is gone a long journey Proverbs 7. vers 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. But what is she end of all this if we look on the end of the chapter we shall see the end of the Adulterer Her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death verse 27. Thou dost not dreame thou shalt be blasted I tell thee ere long thou shalt be lopt off and flung into eternity I grant thou hast aspired to the top of thy Olympick Palace but thou shalt shortly fall thy life hath beene at best but a Tragicomedy and thou hast acted the fools part with pleasure but I tell thee death ere long shall strike the Epilogue and thou shalt goe away Secondly the Drunkard is a barren Branch Woe to the crowne of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty is a fading flowre which are on the head of the fat valleyes of them that are overcome with Wine Isaiah 28. vers 1. Thou Drunkard that carowsest care away and on thy Ale-bench blasphemest the God of Heaven that takest no felicity but in swinish company and knowest no other happines but the colour of the wine thou burdenest the earth thou inflamest the fire thou infectest the aire thou art as a flowre drowned with the dew of Heaven and bowest thy glory to the earth goe drunkard take thy fill of Wine untill the morning but I tell thee the houre is comming when it may be the hand of Heaven shall write thy doom upon the plaister of the wall Daniell 5.25 26. ere long thou mayst Read MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN God hath numbred thy dayes and finisht them and being found too light thy glory is departed from thee then shall thy loynes be loosed thy countenance changed and thy false heart affrighted thou that drinkest iniquity like water I tell thee ere long thou shalt wash thy selfe away thy fruit is already withered and thou shalt be lopt from the Vine Thirdly the Robber is a barren Branch Leviticus 19. vers 11. Thou that by the Art of Leger-de-maine adoptest every mans goods thine owne I know thou wouldst have joy without sorrow wealth without want fruit without faith and life without death but remember the pitcher at last comes broken home There is a way seemes right in the eyes of man but the end thereof is the path of death Proverbs 14. vers 12. What though thou hast wheel'd off fairly once or twice or thrice yet thou shalt shortly fall Agememnon after all his 10 yeares wars at Troy was slain in one night among his freinds at Greece The valiant Hector whose temples were so often archt in a victorious Orbe while he was quitting his Countrey with gallantry and affronting his enemies in the height of bravery received in a moment the Embassage of death and upon the ground measured out his grave The mighty Achilles whose arme seemed a Postilion of death was slaine at last by a little winged Arrow and sent to his long home Tell me thou that canst draw thy sword and bid defiance upon the high way to truth and fidelity where lies thy brother Caine or Akan or Judas or Ahab does not their glory grovill in the ground or are they not sweltring in eternall flames It may be thou hast endured many a blast but there may come a blast ere long that may puffe thee quite away Thou that art acquainted with the Law so well that thou canst sometimes confute the Reverend Judges and yet performest never a tittle thereof believe mee thou canst not plead with death hee will come with a Habeas corpus and remove thee to eternity Forasmuch as thou art found unfruitfull in the Vineyard thou shalt be cut from the Vine and have thy portion in that lake of terrour where time shall be no more Fourthly the lyar is a barren Branch Leviticus 19. vers 11. Why boastest thou thy selfe in mischiefe O mighty man the goodnesse of God endureth continually Thy tongue deviseth mischiefes like a sharpe rasor working deceitfully Thou lovest evill more then good and lying rather then to speake righteousnesse Selah Thou lovest all devouring words O thou deceitfull tongue God shall likewise destroy thee for ever he shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the Land of the living Psalme 52 vers 1 2 3 4 5. Thou that so oft dost call the God of heaven who is truth it selfe to witnesse to a lie tell me thou sordid peece of earth canst thou blinde the eies of heaven or canst thou draw a curtaine before the face of the most high does not his eie see thee does not his eare heare thee does not his heart ponder thy waies tell me is he excluded any where that can be comprehended no where if thou goest to heaven he is there if downe to hell he is there if thou take the wings of the morning and flye to the uttermost parts of the earth from thence the hand of God shall find thee out Come thou lyar Read the story of Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5. vers 1 2 3 4 5 5 7 8 9 10. The tree withers soone away that is perisht at the Root and thou shalt shortly fall who art rotten at the heart Alas thou art nothing but a walking shaddow a guilded peece of aire whose wealth is but poverty whose bravery but vanity whose truth infidelity and thou shalt ere long be â—hut out of eternity Revelation 22. vers 15. thy present tense ere long shal be made a preterimperâ—ectense and it shall shortly be said of thee he was and is not yet a little while and thou shalt be no more but shalt fade as the withering grasse and wither as the dying flowre Fifthly the Sabbath breaker is a barren Branch Ye shall keep my Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you every one that breaketh it shall be cut off from among his people for whosoever doth any worke therein that soule shall surely be put to death Six dayes may worke be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any worke therein shall surely be put to death Wherefore the Children of Israell shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetuall memory It is a Covenant between me and the Children of Israeâ— for ever for in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed Exod.
Come guide my winged houres and hurle me from my throne Man Why was I borne or being borne Oh why Did I not weep one houre and die Ah me What torments doe attend us while we see The Sun how short a time have we Phoebus although thy Chariot makes away So fast and will admit of no delay Yet lend more hours to the year or minutes to the day Death Drive on dull Phoebus drive away my bow Is bent and thou dost flye too slow Drive on againe or by my unknowne power I le blast the glory of this flower Time Stay death thou caust not strike the blow til I Shall say amen Death Yes Phoebus if thou hie Thee not away this Lamp shall soone drop downe and die Time Black monarch of the shades curb in thy heeles Awhile attend my Chariot wheeles Death I cannot for thy beames are too too high The shades adorne my blacke browd eye I le cut this flower away and then retire To the dark groves Time wherefore dost thou desire To eclipse so bright a star and quench so fair a fire Death Thy glasse exceeds her hower it ha's too long To run thou dost me too much wrong I le strike the blow Time Cut not this flowre away For as I am the god of day And sonne to high borne Jove who taught me how To guide my wandring Orb I 'le make thee bow Thy Pride when next thou furrowest up our brow Time Poore man thy time is short indeed alas There 's but a little in thy Glasse But yet thou shalt not dye awhit before 'T is out nor live a minute more My fiery horse are hot and wondrous proud I can scarce rule the Reines but must go shrowd My head and leave thee wrapt within a sable cloud The sixth SOLILOQUIE COme huffling gallaÌ„ts of the times draw near lay downe your sallow Garlands by you and the thing you call honour and let your eyes behold our subject let it pull downe your imperious necks and strike your top sailes let it give to vertue constancy to prophanesse penitency to the proud man humility But gallants you are not sad me thinks you looke too well as if you should live eternally on earth or had an everlasting inheritance in Heaven as if you could coÌ„mand the horses of Time or stop the golden Chariot of the day what comlinesse is in your spots of complexion what righteousnesse in your choicesâ— Recreation what goodnesse is in the great mans gallantry what beauty in the proud mans bravery what glory in the Covetous mans gold oâ— what great ratity in the spend thrifts prodigality how wavering are your words how deluding are your deeds how disloyall is your love how inconstant is your care how weake are your desires to Heaven how strong doe you doat upon the earth how poore is your evidence of immortality yet how richly doe you flourish in the garbe of worlds glory And yet poore man what art thou but a walking shaddow a piece of moviâ—g earth a gliding flash a blasted flower an inch of mortality that art travelling to eternity whose wisedome is but folly whose strength is inability whose grace is impurity whose comlinesse deformity whose substance is sinne whose glory is thy shame take man in his best time and he is but a piece of vanity looke on him in a full Sea of plenty or an ebbing tide of poverty in the bloome of age or the blossome of youth and this piece of earth is but a debter to Heaven and this handfull of dust hath but a handfull of daies in which he is as restlesse as the Sunne as various as the Moone as wavering as the windes as unconstant as the Cloudes as dissembling as the Seas as foule as earth as flashy as the fire and as fickle as the Aire and having acted his part upon this transitory stage death strikes the Epilogue and the play is done and notwithstanding all his dignity he must lye downe and dye For all flesh is grasse and the glory of man but as the flowre of grasse Ladies for in your Ivory hands my Booke may sometimes be here 's a glasse for you not to represent your beauty but to discover your frailty not to shew you how to deck your heads but to tell you how to adorne your hearts not to learne ye how in curiosity to set your imbroydred haires but in true penitency how to drown your wanton eyes What mean's your cloathes perfumed with so many savours your Apothecaries shop of sundry salves your new sangled braveries you boxes of beauties your wavering affections your wanton Recreations look in your glasse see if pride be not inthroned on your majestick browes and if your bravery be set off with any thing else but vanity t is only vanity and nothing else but vanity which dances upon your plumes as your feathers fanne the aire What will you doe when death shall summon you to eternity when sicknesse with her ashy hand shall sweep the colour from your cheeks when your stript off bravery shall discover your deformity and you shall resemble earth when you shall lay downe your ornaments of beauty by you when the dismall Ew and the flattring Ivy shall grow about your graves and Time shall pusse away the remembrance of your glory Ladies did I but know the scope of your desire as your singing Master knowes your skill in an aire I could teach your eyes to weepe faster then hee your fingers to play and fit you as well with a sight as the Musition with a Song but being a stranger to your Sex I forbeare onely thus much bee as vertuous as faire that you may bee the glory of our dayes and that your names may flourish in after Ages Instead of love and loves delusion go spend some houres in divine contemplation instead of the Poetry of Ovid read the Piety of David instead of the falsenesse of beautious Absolon follow the faithfullnesse of blessed Abraham instead of the love of Philasten read the life of Francis Spira behold the ruines of Edonezedick King of Jerusalem of Korah Dathan and Ahiram of Nadab and Abihu the sonnes of Aaron of Hoham King of Hebron of acursed Miriam and Apostate Julian these had all the glory of nature and were famous in the World yet were they lost in a confused Chaos shunne therefore their pride that yee bee not ruined with their plague let your love bee without disloyalty your faithfullnesse without formallity your fashions without foolery and your beauty without bravery so shall your names flourish by the Poets pen and live till time shall bee no more so shall yee bee adored for your goodnesse more then honoured for your greatnesse and famed for your grace more then feared for your glory so shall your inward excellency exceede your outward bravery and your perfumed rarities smell sweeter then your Conserves of Roses Come hither deluded Lover that findest no felicity but in thy Mistresse company and hast placed thy
then thou among the rest of those dreadfull Comets appointed for horrour shalt fry for ever in this unquenchable fiery Chaos But here 's good newes now for thee that art prepared to dye thou poore soule that standest upon thy watch tower expecting the dawning of the day thou sayest my Love he dwells in Heaven that hath Captivated my heart with the glory of his Graces before whom I offer up my hourly oblations with silent teares from these my weeping eyes but sure he regards me not but leaves me here as a monument of misery or an object of the worlds soorne remember poore soule All flesh is grasse and grasse you know hath no long continuance on the ground believe me thou shalt shortly goe thou mayst heare thy beloved almost every day telling thee thy time is but short and thou shalt ere long be transpoâ—ted to eternity thou mayest heare his sweet voice to charme thine eares though thou canst not see his face to wound thy heart thou receivest love-Letters from him but yet thou canst not see him for this wall of flesh doth stand between but ere long it shall be taken downe that you may enter together in Communion and talke of the time of trouble that you may inherit eternall joyes while your eyes shoot equall flames that you may ravish in the sweetest embraces and lose your selves in love And further by these my sonne be admonished of making many bookes there is no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man Eccles 12. vers 12 13. I. ALas and is this all come spur away My Muse and let 's have done before the day Be downe let 's leave the Helliconian springs And sacred Delphice let our untuned stringe Be screw'd up higher yet untill our eares Can counterfeit the Musique of the spheares Then drown your selves no more this glorious prize Is given free the purchase cannot rise From floods of flowing teares no more my wearied eyes II. But does the Crowne of high immortall glory Arch his victorious browes that keeps this story True Yea and his undefiled soule shall shine Like Stars of the first magnitude divine And glorious ornaments he shall weare And sit inthroned above the hemisphere In a garb of purest gold this is the same That Heaven Will honour and his honored name Shal live and rise up higher then the trump of fame III. Foole that I was because the verse was soone Read o're I thought 't was easily done But thou O Lord that mad'st this little span Of earth must recollect poore uncollected man Keepe thy commands O Lord Is it not more Then all the World can doe am I before Them all Oh drown these unregenerate eyes that shine Too cleare that I may offer to thy shrine A shower of teares for every drop of blood of thine IV. Oh I am lost how shall poore I aspire Thine Altar Without diviner fire Whose hallowed smoake may make a sacred fume Before thy throne Ah how dare I presume To come Thou shalt have power from above I le be thy Lord and thou shalt be my Love Onely confesse thy sinnes and I le adorne Thy brow with beauty teach thee how to scorne The World and make thee fairer then the fairest morne V. Well then my honoured Lord I le come and trye To tread the path of immortality Oh that my wandring eyes could see the way That I might travell to it every day Where once arrived our lips shall strike up loves Alarmes in the blest hallowed Groves Doe soule shun death for earth is transitory True Lord But shall I if I keep this story Live I 'le give thee life wrapt in immortall glory VI. Too soone I wandred in an unknowne way Till I was almost lost had not the day Star rise to guide my wandring Orbe for all My power I had stoop'd to the imperiall thrall Of some temptation which had cryed aloud To Heaven and left me in a sable Cloud I knew not then to whom I could repaire To have one houre of ease but now my care Being past I 'le put a period to a well-tun'd aire The last SOLILOQUIE Or The Authours Farewell THE day breakes glorious in our darkened Orbe t is an illustrious morne cleare up my glimmering eyes Ah me now I see how much I was abused I wondred indeed the way to Heaven should be so hard and that such extremity should lye in the path to immortality alas I was befool'd it is not care can conquer a kingdome nor industry winne the Crowne of glory it is not heavinesse that workes holinesse nor holinesse that merits happinesse nor can the price of labour purchase the Palace of Love I wonder not now why the skilfull Astronomer has beene misguided by his star and why the fancies of the Learned Poets have been befool'd alas can ingenuity merit eternity no t is love t is love that unlocks the gate of glory Poore man where is thy power now that with thy triangle heart invelopest the water buildest Castles in the aire backest the windes devourest the earth and sometimes darest Heaven yet when thou commest to trye thy force a feather will scarce wag at thy fury alas though thou crawlest thou canst not climbe though by thy feare thou mayest rule on earth yet without Faith thou shalt not Raigne in Heaven though by thy policy thou mayest comprehend all things yet by thy power thou canst command nothing Hence let your wing'd battlements grapple goe vaile your transitory glory let your dignity lye downe and dye let him that has the most rarity study humility and be like a monument cut out of marble let the Astrologer put no confidence in Astronomy nor the Naturalist study curiosity let the learning of the Law be turned to the language of love and yet let the sweet lipt Orator lay downe his Rhetorick and plead no more it is not the language of learning nor a life of labour nor ingenuity nor sidelity nor greatnesse nor gallantry nor profit nor pleasure nor glory nor honour it is not a garment of gold nor a lofty looke nor the charming tongue nor the inchanting eye nor the fairest face nor the heroick heart nor the conquering arme that can win heaven no these doe but chaine thee to the world and hinders the soule from climbing up the Ladded to his Joy I should rather looke for heat in painted fire then think to finde ability in the creature I should rather believe the winde comes but to fanne us with a gentle gale when Eolus unlocks his blustering Gates and rocks the world in a tempestuous storme or that the Cloudes doe but shade us from the flaming Chariot of the Sunne when by their thundering noises they seeme to crack the Axeltrees of the World and by their dismall darknesse banish out the day or that the Sea when he furrows up