That the Volume is small my diligence hath been the greater for I have laboured to substract rather than multiply them not putting in every one I met with but what was best at least in my opinion These are but the fi st fruits your acceptance may ripen them into a larger harvest if God shall lend me time and opportunity I have waved any particular Dedication as not willing to entitle any man to the Patronage of my weaknesses nor am I of that vain humour of Appian the Grammarian who promised immortality to those to whom he dedicated any of his Works And they who write to Lords rewards to get Donnes Sat. Are they not like singers at doors for meat There is a Vine in Asia that brings forth Burnt-wine Johnston Hist Nat so excellent saith mine Author that none exceeds it Such is the nature of these short sentences they are ready dress'd and dish'd out to thy hand like some Diamonds which grow smoothand polished and need no farther labour to fit them for use but using As it is said of Isidore the Philosopher that he spake not words but the very substance and essence of things They contain magnum in parvo much matter in a few words Significant potius quam exprimunt You have here much gold in a little ore easie for carriage ready for use We have many things to learn and but little time to live I know not therefore any kind of Learning more pleasant or more profitable than this which teacheth us many lessons in a few lines But I will not waste thy time Reader whilst I study to improve it and to approve my self Thy servant T. F. Apothegmes AN old Mass-Priest in the dayes of Hen. 8. reading in English after the Translation of the Bible the mircale of the five loaves and two fishes when he came to the verse that reckoneth the number of the guests he paused a little and at last said they were about 500 the Clerk whispered into the Priests ears that it was 5000 but the Priest turned back and replied with indignation Hold your peace sirrah we shall never make them believe they were 500. Aristides said concerning the Elegance of the City of Smyrna that no man except he which shall see it will be drawn to believe it The Savages an English Family held Ardes in Ireland long in possession amongst whom there goeth a great name of Him who said no less stoutly than pleasantly when he was moved to o build a Castle for his defence that he would not trust to a castle of stones but rather to a castle of bones Meaning his own body Columbane a Monk of Ireland when Sigebert King of the Frankners dealt very earnstly with him and that by way of many fair and large promises that he should not depart out of his Kingdom Answered him That it became not them to embrace other mens riches who for Christs sake had forsaken their own Porpherie in regard of the many tyrants rising up in his dayes in Britain cried out in these terms Britain a foolish Province of tyrants St. Ambrose in his Funeral Sermon of Theodosius cryeth out in these terms that Eugenius and Maximus who had five years usurped the Empire by their woful example doe testifie in hell what a heavy thing it is to bear arms against their Natural Prince Of this Maximus it is said that he was a valiant man victorious and worthy the title of Augustus but that against his allegiance he had by way of tyranny and usurpation attained the place Homer saith of one that had a misfortune It was because he did not honour his Parents Upon a triumph all the Emperor Severus's Souldiers for the greater pomp were to put on Crowns of Bayes but one Christian there was amongst them which wore it on his arm and being demanded the reason boldly answered It becomes not a Christian to be crowned in this life Arnobius was wont to say that persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other for while it kills the body it crowns the soul The Empress Eudoxia sending a threatning message to Chrysostom for boldly reproving her He answered Go tell her I fear nothing but sin Justus Jonas said of Luther that he could have of God what he pleased Epaminondas being asked what was the greatest joy he ever had in the world He said Leutrica Victoria the Battel of Leutrick Rocardus King of Frisland being by Wolfranius perswaded to be Baptized having one foot in the Font the other out asked Wolfranius where went the most part of his Predecessors that were not Baptized To hell said Wolfranius then Rocardus drew his foot out of the Font saying It was best following of the greatest company The Devil meeting with a devout Hermit asked him three questions First what should be the strangest thing that God made in a little frame He answered a mans face The second Where was the Earth higher than all the Heavens Where Christs body born of the Virgin Mary was adored of Angels and Archangels The third What space was between Heaven and Earth Thou knowest best said the Hermit which wast from Heaven thrown down to the Earth L. Silla finding his souldiers timâ—rous and fearful to fight with Archelaus 〈◊〉 General drew out his sword and said You souldiers that mean to fly to Rome tell them at Rome that you left Silla your General fighting in the midst of the Battel with the enemies in Boetia Philipides the Poet refused to be of King Lysimachus Counsel that when the King said to him What wilt thou that I give unto thee Nothing said the poor Poet but onely this that I may not be of thy Council In a publick meeting with all the Princes of Germany at Wormatia where the Duke of Saxon first preferring his mettals and rich veins of earth the Duke of Bavaria much commending his strong and brave Cities and Towns and the Duke Palatine of his wines and fertility of his lands the Duke of Wittenbergh said I can lay my head and sleep upon the lap of any of my subjects I have abroad in the field every where Huic facile concedite palmam said Maximilian the Emperor Give him the palm Themistocles being asked whose Oration he would hear Even him said Themistocles that can best set forth my praise and advance my fame Isocrates repeating an Oration of Demosthenes his adversary at Rhodes they of Rhodes much delighting therein and much commending the Oration that Isocrates made though he was enemy to Demosthenes was forced against his will to say to the people What if you had heard the beast himself pronouncing his own Oration Julius Caesar seeing certain men of Apulia in Rome carrying Apes upon their arms playing asked the men If they had no women in Apulia to get children to play withal Diogenes when he saw mice creeping for some crums to his table would say Behold Diogenes also hath his parasites Lewis the â—th was wont
Sphears Angels Peace shepherds peace glad tidings we ye bring Your God hath got a Son and ye a King And he hath sent us with this newes to tell Who late was Ours is your Immanuel Up up to Bethlehem there shall you see An Human shape enclose the Deitie Behold a cratch imprisons him whose hands Have fram'd the earth and curbs the sea with bands He now begins to be that no beginning knew He now begins to live who being gave to you Go see th' Eternal God a child 's become The ever-speaking Word himself lies dumb Who by his word feeds all is fed by meat Th' Almighty King of Heaven hath left his seat And now keeps Court on earth haste ye and see The cratch his throne beasts his attendance be And all to be your Saviour and to free Ye men from sin and Satans slaverie Chorus of Angels Glory to God on high and peace on earth Good will to men by this our God-mans birth Shepherds Come let 's go see these wonders which are told Let what our ears have heard our eyes behold Soliloquie Croud in my soul and see amongst the rest And by thy sight oh be for ever blest Hark how the Angels sing the heavens rebound And earth with th'eccho of th'Angelick sound Never till now were the well-tuned Sphears Heard to make melodie to mortal ears Now every pretty bird with 's warbling throat To 's new-born Maker elevates a note See how the earth being big with pride to be Out-gone by heaven puts on her liverie Of mirth and laughs with joy to hear Her Maker now will please to dwell on her The whole world was agreed to entertain The King of peace who now began his reign Mars shrunk for fear Bellona hid her head When peace was born all discords lay for dead Then why should bloody characters descrie The blessed day of his Nativitie O let the purest white note out that morn From all the rest when Innocence was born On the Nativitie 1. Hail holy tide Wherein a Bride A Virgin and a Mother Brought forth a Son The like was done Except her by no other 2. A Virgin pure She did endure After her Son or rather It may be said Shew as a maid And this Son was her Father 3. Here riddles vex And do perplex The eye of humane reason Heaven did combine With earth to joyn To consecrate this season 4. Hail blessed Maid For by thine aid Eternal life is Ours Thou didst lie in And without sin The son of God was yours 5. Hail happy birth Wonder of Earth And heaven the Angels sing Anthems to thee As glad to see Their new-born heavenly King 6. Though thou art poore Kings thee adore And precious presents bring They kneel to you And humbly bow As to some sacred thing 7. Thou that art able To turn a stable Into a Temple come Possess my heart Cleanse every part And take it for thy home For Christmass-day LEnd me a pen pull'd from an Angels wing That I the news of this blest day may sing Or reach a feather of that holy Dove Wherewith to shew this miracle of love Darkness is turn'd to light mid-night to morn Who can be silent when the Word is born Hark how the Angels sing they bow and more Than Persians they this rising Sun adore The Court 's remov'd and the attendants flie To wait upon this humane Deitie He who was cloath'd with glorious Majesty Is veil'd with flesh the better to comply With mortal eyes dis-robes himself of light Lays by his beams stoops to our weaker sight And with his other favours this doth give That man may see the face of God and live The Son of God becomes the son of man That men may be the sons of God again Here God is man and man is God he takes Our nature to him not his own forsakes A mortal God Immortal man in one Thus heaven and earth are in conjunction See how the shepherds flock and Kings as proud To be his subjects to his presence croud Haste haste my soul there 's danger in delay Since thou hast nothing else to offer lay Thy self down at his feet pray him to make His lodging in thee as he deign'd to take Thy nature on himself But stay fond soul He 's puritie it self thou art too foul To lodge so bright a guest in whose pure eyes Heavens and Angels are deformities Yet see he smiles and beckens thee to come As if he meant to take thee for his home To wash thee with his blood do not repine Thy sins are His His righteousness is thine Hark he invites himself to be thy guest Whose presence is thy physick and thy feast Behold he bowes the heavens and comes down Takes up thy Cross that thou mayst wear his Crown And in exchange assumes thy povertie Pays all thy debts sets thee at libertie He sues to serve thee and expects no more Thou shouldst give him than he gave thee before His work is all his wages and his will Is all his hire be thou obedient still Love him as he loves thee and ' cause th' art poor Give him thy self thy all He asks no more Lord 't is not fitting thou shouldst come Into so base a room First with thy spirit cleanse my heart And by thy powerful art Thine and my enemies expel Make an Heaven of my Hell Then for ever in me dwell But Lord if thou vouchsafe to dwell Within so dark a cell Take thou charge of the familie And let me dwell with thee Thine is the cost be thine the care That Satan have no share For thou wilt find no room to spare For Christmas-day Invocat The Day thy day is come O thou most glorious Sun When thou didst veil thy self that we Mortals might thy glory see Lend me a ray of light That I may see to write And Carol forth thy praise In ever-living layes Thyrsis WHat made the Sun poste hence away So fast and make so short a day Damon Seeing a brighter Sun appear He ran and hid himself for fear Asham'd to see himself out-shin'd Leaving us and night behind He sneak'd away to take a nap And hide himself in Thetis lap When loe a brighter night succeeds A night none of his lustre needs A night so splendent we may say The day was night and night was day Thyrsis See Damon see how he doth shroud His baffl'd glory in a cloud From whence he peeps to see the Sun That hath his lusters all out-done Damon But ventring on he spies a star More glorious than his Hesper far Which with a fair and speaking ray Told plainly where his Master lay Ambitious then to steal a sight He saw it was the God of light Then strait he whips away his team The well lost minutes to redeem And flies through all the world to tell The newes of this great miracle It was not long before he came Unto the lofty house of fame Where every whisper every sound
but death now I must die I am unprovided to die Gerson brings in an Englishman asking a Frenchman Quot annos habes His answer was Annos non habeo I am of no years at all but death hath for born me this 50 years A man said Luther lives forty years before he knows himself to be a fool and by that time he sees his folly his life is finished Anaxamander said of the Athenians That they had good Laws but used ill Augustus lamented for Varus death being asked why He said Now I have none in my Country to tell me truth A certain King of Tartaria writ to the Polonians then wanting a King that if they would choose him their King he would accept of it upon these terms Vester Pontifex meus Pontifex esto vester Lutherus meus Lutherus esto But the Polonians rejected him with this wise answer Ecce hominem paratum omni à sacra deos deserere regnandi causa Marius being accused by the Senate of treason tears open his garments and in the sight of them all shews them his wounds received in the service and defence of his Country saying Quid opus est verbis ubi vulner a clamant Sir William Stanly railing against his native Country a Spanish Verdugo gave him this answer Though you have offended your Country your Country never offended you It is storied of a wicked City which fearing the invasion of a potent enemy sought relief of a neighbouring Prince charging their Embassadors to relate unto him what forces they were able to levy of their own The Prince replying to the Message demanded of them what coverture they had to defend their heads from the wrath of heaven telling them withal That unless they could award Gods anger he durst not joyn with them God being against them The Mother of peter Lombard when having transgressed her vow of Continency she told her Confessor plainly that when she saw what a Son she had brought forth she could not repent that she had sinned in having him But her Confessor sadly answered her Dole saltem quod dolere non possis Caracalla said to them that desired that some honours might be spent upon his brother Geta now dead out of his way Sit divus saith he modo non sit vivus Edward the Third of England having sent to France to demand the Crown by Maternal Right the Council there sent him word That the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff which scoffing answer he replyed That then he would tie it to his sword Scaliger said He had rather have been the Author and Composer of one Ode in Horace than King of all Arragon Cato would say He wondred how one of their aruspices could forbear to laugh when he met with any of his fellows to see how they deceived men and made a great number of simple ones in the City King Lewis the 11th looking upon a Tapistry wherein a certain Nobleman who from a mean Clerk of the Exchequer was advanced to be Lord Treasurer of France had pourtray'd the steps and degrees whereby he had ascended himself represented sitting on the top of Fortunes wheel Whereupon King Lewis told him He might do well to fasten it with a good strong nail for fear lest turning about it brought him to his former estate again Which proved a true Prophecie of him One who before he was Pope was the most crouching submiss Cardinal that ever was His manner was to eat upon a net as it were in a way of devout humility but after he had obtein'd the Popedom he commanded them to take away the net saying He had caught that which he fish'd for When a French King seeing the Persian pomp of the Popes Court and pride of the Cardinals asked a Cardinal of Avinion Whether the Apostles ever went with such a Train after them He answered No verily but you must consider Sir that they were Apostles the same time that Kings were shepherds It was the saying of Rabbi Gamaliel He that multiplie servants multiplies thieves Melancthon said when he furthered the Edition of the Alchoran that he would have it printed Vt videamus quale poema sit That the World might see what a piece of poetry the Alchoran was Artabazus a Courtier received from King Cyrus a cup of gold At the same time Chrysantas the beloved Favourite received a kiss from him which the other observing said The cup which you gave me was not so good gold as the kiss you gave Chrysantes It was the Speech of an ancient Rabbi I learned much of my Rabbies or Masters more of my companions most of my Scholars The Emperor Sigismond demanding of Theodoricus Arch-Bishop of Collen the directest course to happiness Perform saith he when thou art well what thou promisedst when thou wert sick A certain King of the Lacedemonians being one day private in his garden was teaching one of his children of five years old to ride on a stick and unawares a great Embassador came to speak with him in that manner at which both the King and the Embassador in the Kings behalf began to blush at first but soon after the King putting away the blush and the hobby-horse together and with a pretty smile asked the Embassador if he had any children of his own He answered No. Then said he I pray you tell not what you found me doing till you have some little ones of your own and then tell it and spare not The Scouts of Antigonus relating unto him the multitude of his enemies and advising by way of information the danger of a Conflict that should be undertaken with so great an inequality He replyed And at how many do ye value me A West-Indian King having been well wrought upon towards his conversion to the Christian Religion and having digested the former Articles when he came to that He was crucified dead and buried had no longer patience but said If your God be dead and buried leave me to my old god the Sun for the Sun will not die Pythagoras said He that knoweth not what he ought to know is a brute beast among men he that knoweth no more than he hath need of is a man among brute beasts he that knoweth all that is to be known is a god among men The Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say That he used to overcome envy and ill will more by patience than pertinacy The Embassadors of the Council of Constance being sent to Pope Benedict the 11th when he laying his hand upon his heart said Hic est arca Noae they tartly and truly replyed In Noahs ark were few men but many beasts When one seemed to pity an one ey'd man He told him he had lost one of his enemies a very thief that would have stolen away his heart The King of Navarre told Beza He would launch no farther into the Sea than he might be sure to return safe to the Haven A clown said to the Bishop of Collen praying
breadth Those Religious Houses erected by a better devotion than that which destroy'd them are more beholding to your Pen than to their Founders or Materials you having made them a task for the remembrance and admiration of future Ages so long as Time shall hold a Sythe or Fame a Trumpet I would say more if the universal applause of all knowing men had not saved me a labour And to pay you in some of your own coyn It is no flattery to affirm what envy cannot deny Did I not fore-see that the relation would swell my discourse beyond the limits of a Letter or the length of your patience I should assume the libertie to inform you that my neighbourhood to the place acquaints me with some Relicts of Religious Houses at and near Mardon bearing still the name of an Abbey a Friery and a Nunnery And if we may judge of Hercules by his foot of the whole piece by the remnant and of them by their Remaines I should suppose them not behind many in England As yet I know little of them but their ruines but if you vote it convenient I shall endeavour to improve my present ignorance into a discoverie of them I suppose it will be no hard task I am sure it shall not when in relation to your command I must now take pitie of your patience which had not run this hazard of abuse did I not know I have to do with so great a Candor from which I can expect no less than pardon And in that presumption I crave your leave to be as I subscribe my self Sir your most assured servānt T. F. To M. Madam WEre I sure of the cause of your malady I could easily hope the Cure but being to guess at the one it will be no wonder if I miss the other Of all diseases those of the mind are worst of those that of melancholy of melancholies the religious I know not by what unhappy wit the the badge of melancholy hath been fastned upon the spirit of Calvin that Patriarch of Presbytery This I know since that unhappy Planet hath reigned over us we have too sensibly felt all those unlucky effects that an ill-boading Comet could produce What wars what blood-shed what ruines have we seen in the State What factions what fractions in the Church What envy what hatred what divisions amongst private persons What doubts what feares what distractions in all mens minds In a word what not Gladly doe I remember those happy dayes now happy onely in the remembrance that Golden Age wherein we had but one Truth but one Way wherein men walked lovingly together without contentious justling one another When those Silver Trumpets of the Sanctuary gave no uncertain sound when the way to Heaven was though a narrow yet a plain and direct path not block'd up by envious censures by distracting clamours But now I sadly see and sigh to say our Rents are like to prove our Ruine and our distractions our destruction I remember a Storie of a knavish Painter so my Author calls him who being to make the Picture of some goddess for a Citie to worship drew the Counterfeit of his own Mistris and so caused her to be courted that perhaps better deserved to be carted I wish this tale were not too true of our times It is too obvious to conceal the Parallel Do we not daily see Religion drest up in the several shapes of every ones fancie and obtruded upon the easie multitude as the onely Deitie for their adoration and observance our faith made as changeable as our fashions And what 's the miserie of our miseries none are so easily deluded as the well-meaning simple-hearted honest Christians who out of an excesse of Charitie are ready to believe all men mean truly because they doe so themselves If this be your case and I am to seek if it be not let me give you this Caution Beware of that evil which commeth near to the shew of good none can so easily deceive you as those Hyaena's who have learn'd your voice to draw you out of the way Take heed of those serpents of the colour of the ground Let St. Paul beseech you to mark them which cause divisions and offences Contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them I am mis-inform'd if the same word which we read Contrary doth not also import near There are no opinions so dangerously contrary to the truth as they that seem very near it Let me assure you it is the old way which is the good way wherein you shall find rest There shall you find a direct road without any turnings and windings of private interest or faction No briars and thorns of quarrelling disputes no soul-destroying doctrines under the ostentious titles of soul-saving truths It is no such long and melancholy way as we see now chalk'd out by those who have found out new paths to heaven that our Fathers never dream't of There shall you find gravity without morosity and mirth without madness Christian cheerfulnesse as well commanded as commended Religion is no such frowning fury Psalms and Hymns are her daily practice as well as prayers and teares The same Holy Spirit that commands us to pray alwayes enjoyns us also to rejoyce evermore We sin if we rejoyce not There is not more errour in false mirth than in unjust heaviness Can they be sad who have a God to defend a Christ to save and an Holy Ghost to comfort them It is for those that know not God or know him displeas'd to droop as men without hope An humble practice of those Common truths alone necessary to salvation is far more safe more happy than all the towring and lofty speculations of unquiet Heads and too busie Brains There is some reason in the old Scotch Rithme Rob. Will. and Davy Keep well thy Pater noster and Ave And if thou wilt the better speed Gang no farther than thy Creed Say well and do none ill And keep thy self in safety still Our way is not tedious nor our burthen heavy why then should we add length to the one and weight to the other by an un-necessariesadness Whilest hypocrisie lies under the clouded brow of a Pharisee a cheerful countenance is the badge of innocence It is a disparagement to our Master and his service to follow him sighing I have done Pardon me this perhaps un-necessary length and believe me however the Physick chance to work it is tender'd with an hand ayming onely at your happinesse and that would gladly wish no better employment than to strew your way to heaven with Roses This is the height of his ambition who is Madam your most humble Servant T. F. To M. D. P. Sir THe Italians say in a Proverb That words are but females deeds are males I can allow them to be females so they be fruitful in these masculine productions and not subject to miscarry of those fruits with which they often seem so big I have endeavoured
yielded unto was the first that repented it not knowing how or whither she should goe and besides was all rent and bruised being forced against nature to follow a member that had neither seeing nor hearing to conduct it Our factions fractions and lawless liberty render us like the poor Bactrans of whom it is said that they are Sine Fide sine Rege sine Lege But whither is my pen running Since I began with the Excise in England I will waft you over into Holland where it first began and was invented there you shall see how ill the Dutchmen at first relished this Tax upon their drink It occasioned this Libel in Dutch which you shall read in English I wish long life may him befall And not one good day therewithal And Hell-fire after this life here Who first did raise this Tax on Beer With this Postscript The Word of God and the Tax on Beer last for ever and ever But it is no wonder the Dutchman should be so angry with this charge upon his drink since you know it is said Germanorum vivere est bibere And they account the turning of water into wine the greatest Miracle that ever Christ did which miracle onely made one of them wish that Christ had lived in their Country No more now but that I am still as always Sir your Servant T. F. To Mr. T. C. Sir WE have now thanks to our Preserver lived to see those men confuted to their faces who would needs determine the end of the world before the end of the year and upon no better ground that I could hear from any of them than this because say they the old world was drowned in the year from the Creation 1657. And I find the Learned Alstedius fathering of this fancie because he found the same number of yeares in the Chronogram of Conflagratio Mundi How miserably and yet how often have the too credulous vulgar been deluded by the vain Predictions of such idle Astrologasters I remember Hollingshed tells a storie of the Prior of St. Bartholomews London who built him an house on Harrow-hill to secure himself from a supposed flood foretold by an Astrologer But at last he with the rest of his seduced company came down again as wise as they went up Such is the fate and folly of those false prophets that they often live to see themselves confuted It is a witty jeer the Cambro-Britannian Epigrammatist puts upon the Scotch Napier who more wisely had determined the end of the world at a farther distance Cor mundi finem propiorem non facis ut ne ante obitum mendax arguerere Sapis Thus as is well observed by a late and Learned Author Astrologers have told of a sad and discontented day which would weep it's eyes out in showers which when 't was born proved a Democritus and did nothing but laugh at their ignorance and folly Infinite are the Stories upon Record of the madness of those men and the vanitie and credulity of the easie multitude Strange that they should be so grossely and yet so often cheated with the same bait But I conclude with a more serious observation of Ludolphus of the two destructions of the world As the first sayes he was by water for the heat of their lust so the second shall be by fire for the coldnesse of their love In hopes that ours is not yet grown cold I subscribe my self Sir your loving Friend T. F. To Mr. E. M. Sir BOdin the Frenchman in his Method of History accounts Englishmen barbarous for their Civil Wars But his Countrymen at this time have no great reason to cast dirt in our faces till they have wash'd their own They who have hitherto set us on fire and warm'd their hands by it are now in the like flames themselves It hath been one of their Cardinal Policies to divide us lest our union should prove their ruine It was the saying of the D. of Rohan a great States-man That England was a mighty Animal and could never die unless it kill'd it self Certainly we have no worse enemies than our selves as if we had conspired our own ruine For Plutarch calls the ardent desire of the Graecians to make Civil Wars in Greece a Conspiracie against themselves But well may the winds and waves be Pilots to that ship whose inferiour Mariners have thrown their Pylot over-board Dum ille regnabat tranquillè vivebamus neminem metuebamus said the people of the Emperour Pertinax We remember the time when we lived in peace and plenty till we surfeited of our happiness and as our peace begat plenty so our plenty begat pride and pride brought forth animosities and factions and they if not prevented will be delivered of our ruine and destruction In times past sayes Cornelius Tacitus of our Countrymen they lived under a Monarchy now that they are subject to divers Masters one can see nothing but faction and divisions amongst them This was spoken of our forefathers and our Posteritie will think it meant onely of us The God of union re-unite us and out of this Chaos of confusion create an happy concord amongst us before our rents prove our ruine and our distractions our destruction This is the constant and hearty prayer of Sir your assured Servant T. F. To Mr. T. C. Sir I Must tell you you are not justly troubled at the injustice of our new Judges since they have thereby rendred those brave men Martyrs which otherwise had died as Criminals Socrates his wife exasperated her grief by this circumstance Good Lord said she how unjustly doe these bad Judges put him to death What wouldst thou rather they should execute me justly replyed he to her The injustice of the Judges sentence declare the justness of the condemned's cause It is not the being a Judge that makes his sentence just or the prisoner guilty There have been those and we have seen them who have committed murther with the Sword of Justice and executed Justice as a malefactor Nor have the friends of those happy Martyrs any cause to be ashamed of or grieved for their death or manner of it Damnari dissecari suspendi decolari piis cum impiis sunt communia sayes Erasmus Varia sunt hominum judicia Ille foelix qui judice Deo absolvitur The old Martyrs have accounted martyrdom the way to heaven on hors-back The first man that died to heaven but the first man that went to heaven died a Martyr suffered a violent death by the hands of a cruel and unmerciful brother We have lived to see that politick principle of Periander put in practice who being consulted with how to preserve a tyranny bid the messenger stand still whilest he walking in a garden topt all the highest flowers thereby signifying the cutting off and bringing low of the Nobility Yet will not this do with us it is but like Cadmus his sowing of serpents teeth which will raise up armed men to revenge the quarrel of those