in this world consists in the necessity of death but Mans reason is impaired in the course of Times Oh welcome impairement since Time ruines it but onely in an Anger knowing that it goes about to establish its Empire beyond both time and Ages In fine the Heavens may seem to wax old in their wandring course How happy is man in decaying evermore since he thus at last renders himselfe exempt from all the miseries which pursue him they yet appear the same still every day as they were a thousand yeares agon man from moment to moment differs from himselfe and every instant disrobes him somewhat of his Being Oh delightfull Inconstancy since all his changes make but so many lines which abut at the Center of his stability How mysterious is the Fable of Narcissus the Poets would perswade us that He became self-enamoured A long life is a heavy burthen to the soul since it muct ronder an account of all its moments viewing Himself in a Fountain But I am astonish't how one should become amorous of a dunghill though covered with Snow or Flowers A face cannot be formed without Eyes Nose and Mouth and yet every of these parts make but a body of Misery and Corruption as being all full of it This Fable intimates us the representment of a fairer truth since it invites a man to gaze himself in the Fountain of his tears thus to become amorous of himself If a man could contemplate the beauties of his soul in innocence he would alwais be surprized with its love If a man would often view himself in the tears of his repentance he would soon become a true self-lover not for the lineaments of dust and ashes whereof his countenance is shap's but rather of those beauties and graces wherewith his soul is ornamented and all these together make but a rivelet which leads him to the admiration of that source from whence they took their originall Oh how David was a wise Narcissus then when he made of his Tears a Mirrour so to become enamour'd of himself for he was so self-loving in his repentance that in this He spent both daies and nights with unparalled delights All the vain objects of the world are so many fountains of Narcissus wherin prying may shipwrack themselves But if Narcissus ship-wrack't himself in the fountain of his self-fondnesse This great King was upon point to Abysse himself in the Sea of his tears for their liquid Crystalline shewd him to himself so beautifull that he burned with desire thus to drown himself Ladies view your selves in this Mirrour since you are ordinatily slaves to your own self love You will be fair at what price soever see here is the means The Crystall Mirrour of your tears flatter not contemplate therein the beauty of this grace which God hath given you to bewail your vanities This is the onely ornament which can render you admirable Tears are the faithfullest Mirrours of penitents All those deceitfull Chrystals which you wear hang'd at your Girdles shew you but fained beauties whereof Art is the workmistrisse and cause rather then your visages Would ye be Idolaters of the Earth which vou tread on your bodies are but of Dirt but if you will have them endeared where shall I find tearms to expresse their Noysomnesse If Ladies would ake as much care of their souls as of their bodys they would not hazard the losse both of one and to'ther Leave to Death his Conquest and to the Worms their heritage and search your selves in that originall of Immortality from whence your souls proceed that your actions may correspond to the Noblenesse of that cause This is the most profitable counsell which I can give You It is time to end this Chapter Great Kings I serve you this Morning instead of a page to awake You and remembrance You that you are Men I mean Subjects to Death and consequently destinated to serve as a Prey to the Worms The meditation of our nothingness is a soveraign remedy against vanity a Shittle-cock to the sinds and matter for to form an object of horror and astonishment to you altogether Muze a little that your life passeth away as a Dream think a little that your thoughts are vain consider at the same time Men are so near of blood together hat all bear the same name that all that is yours passes and flies away You are great but this necessity of Dying equals you to the least of your subjects Your powers are dreadfull but a very hand-worm mocks at them your riches are without number but the most wretched of men carry as much into the grave as you In fine may all the pleasures of Life make a party in Yours yet they are but so many Roses whose prickles onely remain to you at the instant of Death The horror which environs You chaseth away your greatnesse Man hath nothing so proper to him as the misery to which he is born the weaknesse which possesseth you renders unprofitable your absolute powers and onely then in that shirt which rests upon your back are comprised all the treasures of your Coffers Are not these verities of importance enough to break your sleep I awake you then for to remembrance you this last time If the earth be our mother heaven is our father that you are Men but destined to possesse the place of those evill Angels whose Pride concaved the Abysses of Hell that you are Men but much more considerable for the government of your reason then your Kingdom That you are Men but capable to acquire all the felicities of Heaven if those of the Earth are by you disdained That you are Men but called to the inheritance of an eternall Glory if you have no pretence to any of this world Lastly Though the body and soul together make up the man there is yet as much difference between the one and the others as between the scabberd and the sword that you are Men but the living images of an infinite and omnipotent one Clear streames of immortality remount then to your eternall source fair rayes of a Sun without Eclipse rejoyn your selves then to the body of his celestiall light Perfect patterns of the divinity unite your selves then to it as to the independant cause of your Being Well may the Earth quake under your feet your wils are Keys to the gates of its abysses should the Water or'e-whelm again all Although the puissances of the soul work not but by the senses the effects in this point are more noble then the cause your hopes cannot be shipwrack'â— That the Aire fils all things may be but your expectations admit of some vacuum Though the Fire devour all things the object of your hopes is above its flames let the heavens pour down in a throng their malignant influences here below your souls are under covert from their affaults Let the Sun exhaling vapours make thereof thunders for your
Ex. 38.8 to the end that those that should present themselves before his Altar might view themselves in thiâ— posture of Prayer O this excellent Mysterie Mortals it behooves you to view your selves in the Mirrour of your Ashes if you would have your vowes heard God hath taught us an excellent way of Prayer There is nothing assured in Life but its continuall Death Give us this day our daily bread But why O Lord teachest thou us not to ask thee our bread for to morrow as well as for to day O how good a reason is there hereof This is because that life hath no assurance of to morrow besides that it is an excesse of grace that we may be bold to crave of him the bread of our nourishment for all a whole day since every moment may be that of our Death Reader let this verity serve thee yet as a mirrour It is not sufficient to muse of the necessity of dying but to consider also that every hure may be our ast if thou would'st have thy praiers to pierce the heavens This is not all to know thy body is a Colosse of filth which is trail'd along from one place to another as it were by the last struggle of a Life alwaies languishing It behooves thee also to call to mind that every instant may terminate the course of thy troublesome carriere and that this sudden retreat constraines thee to bid Adieu for ever to all the things of the world which thou cherishedst most Thoughts only worthy of a noble spirit I have eaten Ashes as bread Psal 102.9 Cinerem tanquam panem manducabam saies the Royall Prophet but how is it possible I conceive his thought He entertained his soul with the remembrance of the Ashes of his body and this truth alone serv'd as object to his imagination for to satisfie the appetite of his Soul Lord give me both the same relish and desire to repast my selfe still thus A man to abase himselfe below that which he is being so poor a thing of nothing of dust and ashes in remembrancing my self alwaies that I am nothing else O sweet remembrance of my rottennesse since it steads me for eternall nourishment of my Soule O precious memorie of my Nothingnesse since able to satisfie the appetite of my heart Let this be the daily bread O Lord which thou hast taught me to ask thee to the end that all my desires together might be satiated with this dear nourishment I recollect my self in this digression Having diverse times mused of the imbecillity and weaknesse of man Si vitrei essemus minus casus timeremus S. Aug. I am constrain'd to cry out with St. Augustine What is there that can be more fraile in Nature If we were of Glasse pursues he our condition might therein be better for 2 Glasse carefully preserv'd There is nothing more brittle than glasse yet man is more may last long time and yet what pain soever man takes to preserve himself and under what shelter soever he shrowds himself for covert to the storm he breakes and is shattered of himself What reply you to these verities Great Princes Well may you now be atrogant The fragillity of glasse cannot admit of comparison with this of your nature what seat will you give to your greatnesse Man is fully miserable since his life is the source of his miseries and what foundation to your vanity when the wind alone of your sighs may shipwrack you upon the Sea of your own proper teares what surnames will you take upon you for to make you be mistaken That of Immortall would become you ill since every part of your body serves but as a But to the shafts of Death Invincible would also be no way proper A man may doe every thing with vertue without it nothing since upon the least touch of mishap you are more worthy of pity than capable of defence Would you be called Gods your Idolaters would immolate you to their own laughter Tread under foot your Crownes if rightly you will be crowned with them you only thus render your selves worthy of those honours Heaven cannot be acquired but by the misprize of earth which you misprize for Glory consists not in the possessing it but in the meriting and the onely means to obtain it is to pretend nothing at all to it How remarkeable is the custome of the Locrians at the Coronation of their Kings they burnt before them a handfull of Tow to represent unto them the instability of their grandeurs and the greedinesse of Time to destroy them In effect all the greatnesses of the Earth All the grandeur of Kings is but as the blaze of flaming tow are but as a bundlet of Tow and then when Darius would make of them his treasure Mis-hap set fire on them and reduced them into Cinders and when he had yet in his heart a desire to immortalize them a new fire seaz'd his intrals by the heat of thirst which burn'd him to the end to consume at once both the cause and the effect So true it is that the Glory of the world vanisheth away like Smoake Great Kings if you build a Throne of Majestie to the proof both against Time and Fortune He which esteems himselfe the least of all is the greatest lay its foundation upon that of your miseries Humility takes her rise in lowlinesse from the lowest footing when she makes her flight into the heavens O how admirable is the Humility of Saint Iohn Baptist They would give him titles of Soveraignty in taking him for the Messias but call to your Memory how with an ejaculation of Love and reverence he precipitates himself both with heart and thought into the Abysse of his own Nothingnesse Vox clamantis in deserto John 1.23 there to admire in all humility both Greatnesse Majesty in his Throne I am but a Voyce saies he which beat at the cares to enter into your hearts A Voyce which rustles in a moment and passes away at the same instant What Humility Is there any thing which is lesse any thing than a Voyce 'T is a puffe of wind which a fresh one carries I know not where since both lose themselves in the air after its never so little agitation Christus verbum Johannes vox with their gentle violence 'T is nothing in effect yet notwithstanding the proper name of this great Prophet They would elevate him John 1.27 and he abaseth himself so low that he would render himself invisible as a Voyce so much he feares to be taken for him whose shoe-latchet A Man is to be estimated in proportion to the under value he makes of himself he judgeth himself unworthy to unloose Lord what are we also but a little Wind enclosed in a handfull of Earth to what can one compare us without attributing us too much vanity True it is that we are the works of thy hands but all
the stroakes of fortune or the thunders of heaven What a folly is this to esteem ones selfe happy for having diverse cabbins upon earth to put himselfe under convert from the raine and wind during the short journey of life The raine ceases the wind is past and life dies and then the tempest of a thousand eternall anguishes comes to entertain him without possibility of discovery even from hope one onely port of safety To be onely rich then in aedifices is to be rich in castles of paper and cards such as little children lodge their pety cares in To what purpose steads it us to be richly lodged We must build upon the unshakeable foundations of eternitie if a man would be sheltered from all sorts of stormes if every houre of the day may be that of our departure Men trouble themselves to build houses of pleasure but the pleasures fade away and we also and these houses remain for witnesses of our folly and for sensible objects of sorrow and griefe in that cruell necessity to which we are reduced to abandon them It is to be considered that we are born to be travellers and Pilgrims as such are we constraind to march alwaies straight to the gisâ— of Death Though we saythe Sun sets every night yet it rests not and so Man though he lay himselfe to sleep rests not from hisvoyage to Earth without ever resting or being able to find repose even in repose it selfe To what then are all these magnificent Pallaces when our onely retreat beats on to the grave To what end are all this great number of structures when we are all in the way and point to end our voyage O how well is he housed that lodgeth his hope in God and laies the foundations of his habitation upon Eternity A good conscience is the richest house that one can have Another designes his treasures in numerous Shippings traficking with all winds in spight of stormes and tempests but be it granted a perpetuall calm as heart could wish and imagine we as himselfe does that he shall fish with Fortunes nets all the Pearles of the Ocean what can he doe at the end with all his ventures if he truck them away he can gain but stuffe of the same price if he sell them he does but change white purified earth for yellow which the Sun purifies as well within the mines what will he doe now with this new merchandize or this his gold behold him alwaies in trouble to discharge himself of so many burdens If gold were potable he might perhaps nourish himselfe therewith for a while but as Midas could not do it in the fable he will never bring it to passe in the verity he must needs keep watch then day and night to the guard of his riches and well may he keep sentinell Death comes to rob him of them since at his going out of the world she takes them away from him What appearance is there that the treasures of the Sea should be able to make a man rich since the possession of all the world together cannot doe it The treasure of good workes is eternall riches A hundred thousand ships are but a hundred thousand shuttle-cockes for the wind and a hundred thousand objects of shipwrack Suppose they arrive to the Port the life of their Master is alwaies among rocks for 't is a kind of ship which cannot arrive at other shore but at the banke of the grave And I leave you to consider what danger he may run Our life is a Ship which loosing from the Haven to the cradle at the moment of our birth never comes ashore again till it run aground upon the grave if there the storm of his avaricious passion cast him The sand-blind-sighted may foresee his ruine and the most judicious will beleeve it infallible Behold in fine a man rich to much purpose that would have drain'd by his ambition the bottomlesse depths of the Ocean and now to find himselfe in the end of his carreere in the abysses of hell having an Eternitie of evils for recompence of an age of anxieties which he hath suffered during his life Lord if I would be rich in wood let it be in that of thy Crosse from henceforth let its fruits be my revenues and my rents If I would traffick in meads Let the meditation of the hay of my life be my onely profit If I set my selfe to build houses He which puts his trust in God is the richest of the world how poor soever he be let it be rather for my soul than for my body and in such sort that my good workes may be the stones the purity of my conscience the foundation And lastly If I would travell the seas to goe to the conquest of their treasures let my teares be the waves thereof and my sighs the winds and thy grace alone the onely object of my riches Make me then rich O LORD if it please thee by the onely misprise of all the treasures of the Earth and teach this secret language to my heart It is already sufficient enjoyment of rest and quiet to set up ones rest in God onely never to speak but of thee in its desires nor of other then thy self in its hopes since of thee alone and in thee onely lies the fulnesse of its perfect felicity and soveâ—aign repose Let us not rest our selves in so fair a way I cannot comprehend the design of these curious Spirits who go seeking the Philosophers-stone in that Spitle where an infinite number of their companions are dead of regreet to have so ill imployed their time They put all they have to the quest of that which never was and burning with desire to acquire wealth they reduce all their own into cinders and their lungs also with vehement puffing without gaining other recompence at the end of their labours The love of God is the only Philosopher-stone since by it a man may acquire eternalâ— treasures but this now to know their folly but the Sun sets the candle goes out the bed of buriall is prepared there must be their Enter at the Exit of so manie unprofitable pains To what purpose serves it now to know they are fools having no more time to be wise What cruell Maladie of spirit is it to sacrifice both ones body and soul in and unluckie alymbick for to nourish a vain ambition whose irregular appetite can never be satisfied Is not this to take pleasure in kindling the fire which consumes us to burn perpetually with desire of being rich in this world An inclination toward the misprize of Earth is a presage of the getting of Heaven and yet get nothing by it And then to burn again eternally in hell without possibility to quench the ardour of those revenging flames is not this to warp ones-self the web of a fate the most miserable that ever was Produce we then of nothing the creation of this
of the World been of such a worth as every day you descry they had powerfully resisted against the assaults of Ages but as they had nothing admirable in them but the Name Memorials have preserved that and let them perish But yours MADAME which are too perfect for a sutable Name shall not cease to survive the revolutions of Times as being enlivned by Vertue which alone can exempt from Death Let it not seem strange then if I hazard the perils of the Sea to render Homage to a Queen whose Greatness perforce humbles the most arrogant spirits being not able so much as in thought to reach to the first degree of her Glory The Graces themselves are hers and the VERTVES have allianced their own and her Name and all the adorable qualities which are found here below are admirable in her alone as in their Source I am constrained to be silent MADAME being over charged with too much subject of speech The number of your Perfections astonishes me the greatness of your Merit ravishes me the splendour of your Vertue dazles me And in this dazle this transport this excess of admiration wherein my senses and spirits are all alike engaged I am compeled to cast my self at the feet of your Majesty and demand pardon of the boldness which I assume onely to enjoy the stile of MADAME Your MAJESTIES Most humble and most obeisant Servant P. de la SERRE TO THE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN Upon the MIRROVR Which flatters not Of le Sieur de la SERRE SONNET PRincess this perverse Ages glorious gemme Whose least of Vertues seems a prodigie Illustrious Sien of the fairest Stemme That Heaven e're shew'd this Vniverse's eye Though Fate with thousand hind'rances averse Barres me the place to which my duty 's bent I cannot cheer my Soul from self-torment But by design to pourtray you in Verse But since that Serres shew's in this true Mirrour The Vertues of your Mind 's eternal splendour As lively as your Body's beautious measure My heed to view you here lets others pass So well I here agnize all your rare treasure That I ne're saw a better Crystal-Glass Par le Sr. C. TO THE AUTHOR upon the same subject STANCES DIvine Spirit knowing Soul Which with lovely sweet controul Rank'st our Souls those good rules under Which thy Pen layes down with wonder Whil'st the sweetness of thy Voice Breathes oracular sacred noise All thy Works so well esteem'd Thorough Europe proofes are deem'd Of thy Gifts which all admire Which such Trophies thee acquire And with these thy Muse invested Orpheus is by thee out-crested Also since blind Ignorance Makes no more abode in France Seldome can we meet with such As the works of thy sweet â—'uch Such immortal straines of spirit As do thousand Laurels merit But although thy active Muse Wonders did before produce As we seldome see the like This doth with amazement strike 'T is a Mirrour that doth shine More with Fire then Crystaline 'T is a Mirrour never flatters On my eyes such rayes it scatters That therewith I daz'led am Searching for thee in the same By some charm or stranger case I see thy spirit not thy face This strange fashion doth amaze me When I ne're so little gaze me I am streight all on a fire The more I look more I admire 'T is a mirrour sure of flame Sparkling more we mark the same Yet not every prying eye Shall it-self herein espie 'T is not for so commune use Free from flattering abuse None so clearly here are seen As King Charles and his fair Queen Therefore thus the Author meant To the World it to present Since it is a thing so rare And unparallelled fair That it should a Tablet bee For the fairest he could see Serres this thy work-man-ship Doth my spirit over-strip With such judgement and such grace Thou do'st shew in little space Three strange Wonders without errour Two bright Suns in one clear Mirrour And by this thy rare composure Shall thy Name beyond enclosure Of this present Age obtain Eternal honour for thy pain Writing to these Princes Graces Thou art prais'd in thousand places Par le mesme Upon the Book SONNET HEre undisguis'd is seen in this true Mirrour The glory or the shame of mortal story As Reason or the miss-led senses errour Do win the day or yield the Victory Serres doth here lively delineate Our every-dayes vain wretched passages And what is destin'd after Funeral state To innocent pureness or black wickedness Such diverse subjects in this one enclosed Such various objects to the view exposed Thou little Monarch Man small Vniverse Thy Soul it lessons thus and thee informes As thou art Soul with henvenly fires converse As thou art Flesh thou art a Bait for wormes To the Reader IT may perhaps seem strange that I treat so often in my Works of the same matter as of the contempt of the VVorld and Meditations of Death But if the importance of the subject be considered and the profit to be derived thence a Man will never be weary of seeing such fair truths under different presentations Besides the conceptions of spirit upon the same matter are like the productions of Nature in the Species's of Tulips Every year she gives a Change both to their Colour and Array And though they be still Tulips she renders them so different from their first resemblance that they can hardly otherwise be known but by the name The Mind doe's the same upon the same subject its Fancies which are its ornature and emblishment render it by their diversity so different from it self that it is hardly known but by the Titles which it bears to particularize each conceit So that if once again I represent unto thee the pour-trait of Vanity and the Image of Death my spirit which hath steaded me for Pencil and colouring in this VVork hath rendred it so rare in its Novelty and so excellent in difference from those which have preceded that thou shalt find nothing in it commune with them but my name Thou mayest consider moreover that I dedicate Books to Kings and Queens not every day and that these objects of such eminent magnificence do so nobly rouze the faculties of my Soul that I could not have petty thoughts for such high Personages It is that which without ostentation makes me believe that if thou buy once again this Book and tak'st the pains to read it thou wilt regreet neither the Time nor Money which thou shalt employ therein ADIEU If thou beest of so good an humour to pardon the Faults excuse those of the Impression The Scope addrest to the SERIOUS LEt merrier Spleens read Lazarill ' or laugh At Sancho Pancho or the Grapes-blood quaffe And tickle up their Lungs with interlace Of Tales and Toyes that furrow up the face With wrinckling Smiles But if they abusive be To slight these hints of their Mortalitie Urg'd by our Authour 't is a foolish way And weakly does become corruptive
you are You are dying every moment and every thing falls away without cease When I represent to minde your heads diadem'd with a rich Crown I conceive it a little point infirm'd and closed in a circumference whose lines abut at the center of corruption lines of magnificence The head that wears the crown wears away with it which terminate at the point of wretchednesse If I consider you with Scepter in hand methinks I see a simple shrub planted upon worser Earth the shrub dries up and is reduced to dust the ground remaines that it was before Let me contemplate you seated upon your Thrones deckt with your richest ornaments my imagination shews me a Iupiter in picture holding the thunder in his hand for you are so weak for all your absolute power that if you presum hardily to raise your head but to look upon the Sun your eies will water at the same time to expiate with your teares the crime of your arrogance Great Kings Remember then that you are not Great but in miserie Soveraign Monarchs Remember that your Empiredome is but a servitude since you are subject to all the disasters of your subjects Powerfull Princes one gust of wind defies to the struggle your absolute power Sacred Majesties I salute you to day by this name All the at ributes of worldly glory accompany us but to the grave but to morrow I will change termes and call you Skeletons and carkasses to the end that in speaking this cruth all the world may know you I will change my tone How ingenious are the Poets in their fancies They recount us how that Inconstancy being banisht from heaven descended upon earth with design to have her picture drawn and upon the resuse that Painters made of it she addrest her selfe to Time Man serves for a sheuttlecocke to all things sime all things concur to his ruine who after he had considered her in all her diversities made use at last of the visage of Man for the finishing cloath wherein having represented her to the life all the world took her for Man himself since in effect 't is but one and the same thing O fair truth discovered by a fable Man is Inconstancy it self rather than its pourtraict He then that now would see the Image of Inconstancy let him consider the Life-touches and lineaments of it upon his own visage Our fore-head which wrinkles every moment is it not the very same as hers Our eies which by continuall use every hour do already require spectacles are they not as hers Our cheeks which now chap-fall are in nothing different from hers In fine our visages are the only MIRROURS WHICH FLATTER NOT. But what shall we answer notwithstanding to the objection of this truth that Though a Man hides himself under the vayle of hypocrisie his defects alwaies breake through that which we see of MAN is not the MAN If his visage like a false Horologe index false this our pourtraict of Inconstancy is meerly imaginary But is there any thing more inconstant than the spirit of man 't is a weather-cock for all winds behold again the first draughts of the visage of Inconstancy must we not of necessity compare his changing humour to hers The spirit of Mun is much more changing than his body for this changes onely in growing old but that growes old onely in changing if a man would exhibit thereof but one example and these are yet new lineaments which represent us this levity In fine his thoughts his desires and all the passions of his mind are but objects of vicissitude capable of all sorts of impressions so that in the perfection of the portraicture of man Inconstancy is found perfectly depainted Let us proceed The fictions of Poets are yet serious enough Vertue onely can render us invulnerable A vertuous Man feares nothing to serve us often for sufficient entertain of the time 'T is they which tell us of one Achilles immortall in all the parts of his body save only his heel Great Kings I will if you please take you for Achilles's and will give out you are like him invulnerable but only in the heel Every Man would be immortal but none takes pain to acquire immortality But of what temper soever your Armes be to what purpose serve they you with this defect This onely blot duskes the lustre of your glory Nature has done surely well to prodigallize upon you thus both her graces and favours she hath immortaliz'd you but by halfes All your apparences are divine but something within poiles all each particular is a heel by which Death may surprize you Shall I say then that you are Achilles's who will believe me since your heads serve but as Buts to the hafes of Fortune It is onely the conscience of a just Man is of proofe against the stroak of Time and Fortune To preach you invulnerable a small scratch may thereon give me the lye Truth more powerfull than flattery constraines me to call you by your name for in remembrancing you that you are â—ut men I fuggest you to the life all the disasters which accompany your life Thou hast much to doe Man is so poor a thing that one cannot give him a name but it advantagious to kim to make Panegyricks in praise of man O Mercury Trymegistus and to maintain so confidently that he is a great miracle it must be then a miracle of misery since Nature produceth nothing so miserable as he is And thou Pythagoras which hast had the fore-head to perswade us that man was a mortal God if thou hadst made Anatomie of his carkasse the stench of his silth had soon made thee change this langnage Plato thou reason'st well upon this subject yet without sound consideration then when with an enforcement oâ— spirit and eloquence thou wouldst oblige us to believe There is no tongue in Nature which can furnish us with termes strong enough to expresse the miseries of Man that man is oâ—â— the race of the Gods yes surely since thy Gods are Gods of earth the cause is matcht to the effect for man is of the same matter Plotinus thou also didst not misse it when in favour of man thou said'st he was an abridgment of the wonders of the world for since all its wonders heretofore so famous are no more but dust and ashes man may hereof be the example with good reason O how much more expert is David in the knowledge of our condition when he compares man not onely to the dust but to the dust which flies away to show us that that little which he is still flies away till it be nothing in the end But how glad am IO Lord Memento homo quod nihil es in nihilù reverteris that I am but dust to the end that I may fly towards heaven for the earth I undervalue How I am satisfied that 〈◊〉 am but Ashes that I may but be
other created things bear the same Title but if thy bounty hath been willing to advantage our nature with many graces proper and ordinated to it alone these are so many witnesses which convince us not to have deserv'd them since our very Ingratitude is yet a Recognizing of this Truth Insomuch that as our Life is nothing but sinne and sinne is a meer privation The mest just man sinneth seven times a day it may be maintained that we are nothing else and consequently nothing at all But how Proud am I O Lord every time I think thou hast ereated me of Earth for this is a Principall which drawes me alwaies to it selfe by a right of propriety from whence I cannot defend my selfe What is it for a man to triumph hereof the world the earth expects his spoile All things seek their repose in their element O how happy am I to search mine in that of Dust and Ashes whereof thou hast formed me The Earth demands my Earth and my body as a little Gullet separated from its source speeds by little and little to the same source from whence it had its beginning And this that which impeaches me from gathering up my self to take a higher flight I should do bravely to hoyse my selfe above my Center when the assay of my Vanity Pridehoyses up onely to gives a fall and the violence of my fall are but the same thing I give still downwards upon the side of my weaknesses and the weight of my miserie overbeares upon the arrogance of my Ambition A man no doubt may misknow himselfe yet the least hit of mishap teares the vaile of his hood winknesse O happy defect and yet more happy the condition which holds me alwaies enchained to the dunghill of my Originall since the links of this easie servitude are so many Mirrours which represent me that I am nothing whensoever I imagine my self to be something Let us change our Tone without changing subject Ladies Remember that you die every houre behold here a MIRROVR WHICH FLATTERS NOT It shewes you both what you are such as you shall be But if notwithstanding you still admire your selves under an other visage full of allurements and sweets This is but Death himself A strang thing that death is still as neare us at life and yet we never thinke on it who hides him under these faire apparences to the end you may not discern him It is true you have gracefull Tresses of haire which cover your heads and his is all Bald but doe not you heed how he pulls them off from yours by little every day and makes those which he leave you to turn White to the end you may pull them out your selves It is true your eyes have a sparkling lustre Time and Deathare the onely inexorables and beauty but of his is seen onely the hideous place where Nature had seated them But do you not consider how with continual action be Dusks the glory of this beauty and in conclusion puts to Eclipse these imaginary Pety-Suns It is true your hue is of Lillies and your mouth of Roses upon his face is seen onely the stubs of these flowers but call to mind that he blasts this Lilly-teint as well as Lillies themselves and that the vermillion of this Rosie-mouth lasts but as Roses and if yet you differ to day from him in something you may resemble him to morrow in all I leave you to meditate of these truths Man is a true mirrour which represents to the natural all things which are oppos'd unto it Man is as one picture with two faces and often the most naturall is falsest If you turn it downward to the Earth we can see within nothing but objects of Dust and Ashes but if you turn him to the Heavens-ward there is to be admired in it beauties and graces purely celestiall In effect if we consider man in his mortall and perishable condition hardly can one find any stay in this consieration since he is nothing else but a Chimera whose form every moment by little and little destroies to reduce it to its first nothing And indeed not to lie to ye man is but a Puffe of wind Man is nothing in himselfe yet compreheods al things since he lives by nothing else is filled with nothing else and dies onely by Privation of it But if you turn the Medall I would say the Mirrour of his Soule towards his Creator there are seen nothing but gifts of Immortality What though man be made of earth he is more divine than mortall but graces of a Soveraigne bounty but favours of an absolute will The heavens and the Stars appear in this Crystalline mirrour not by reflection of the object but by a divine vertue proceeding from the Nature of his cause Let us to the End Me thinks This Page returnes again to day within the Chamber of Philip of Macedon The slumber of vanities is a mortall malady to the soule and drawing the Curtain cries out according to his ordinary Sir Awake and Remember that you are a Man but why rouzes he him to think of Death since sleep is its image Alexander knew himselfe mortall by his sleeping and in effect those which have said that sleep was the Brother of Death have drawn their reason of it from their reciprocall resemblance Awake then Great Kings Not to ponder that you are mortall your sleep is a trance of this but rather that you are created for immortality Remember you are Men. A man should not forget his heavenly beginning having heaven for a daily object I will not say subject to all the miseries of the Earth but rather capable of all the felicities of heaven Remember that you are men I will no say the shittle-cock of Time and the But to all the shafts of Fortune but rather victors over ages and all sorts of miseries Remember that you are men I will not say any more conceiv'd in Corruption brought forth by it and also destroyed by it But rather I say If a man should consider his worth by that which he cost he would love himselfe perfectly born for the glory of God Living for to acquire it and Dying for to possesse it Remember that you are Men I will say no more slaves of Sin the Flesh and the World but rather free for resistance to the first strong enough to vanquish the next and more powerfull yet to give a Law to the third A man may doe every good thing which he desires since in his impuâ— issance his will is taken for the deed Remember that you are men I will no more say the pourtraict of Inconstancy the object of every sort of ill and the pasture of Wormes But rather the Image of God the subject of every sort of good and the sole aliment of eternity as created for it alone Remember that you are men Man is sure a thing something divine
of thy opinion Plotinus and henceforth will maintain every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world The eight wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service and pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the works of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit in divine Contemplation can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chains of its servitude Great Kings be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little and little from one part of himself that he may entirely enter at once into himself The perfection of your Nature lies in this defect of you powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace oâ— his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you die every moment onely to make acquisition of that immortality to which his love has destin'd you This defest of inconstancy is the perfection of man since he is changable to day to be no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the point of our soveraign felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude â—rowling without intervall in the duâ—â— of our originall we approach bâ— little and little to those Age of glory which beyond all time assigne at our End the beginning of a better Carreere A man is onely happy in the perpetitall inconstancy of his condition O Glorioâ—â— Death since terminated at thâ—â— cruell instant which separates 〈◊〉 from Immortality It is true I confesse it again Great Kings that you are subject to all the sad accidents of your subjects The greatest misery that can arrive to a man is to offend God But what happinesse is it if these misfortunes are as so many severall waies which conduct you into the Port. Be it granted that you are nothing but Corruption in your birth Misery in your Life and a fresh infection in your Death All these truths are as so many attributes of honour to you since you disrobe your selves in the grave of all your noisomnesse for to Deck your selves with the ornaments of Grace of felicity and glory which belongs in proper to your souls as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man Heaven Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatness of man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himself be the circumference of it Would you have some knowedge of mans power hear the commandement which Josuah made to the Sun to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the ruines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Job offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven hath fewer of Stars than of felicities to give him Man may be what somever he will be What name then shall we attribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There is no other than this of man John 19.5 and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turn it into mockage before the Jewes Ecce homo Behold the Man he shews them a God under the visage of a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels With what new rinds soever a man be covered he beares still in biforehead the marks of his Creator which can never change Nature Weâ—â— may they tear his bark the Inmaâ—â— of it is of proofe against the strokeâ— of Fortune as well as the gripes oâ— Death The Man of Earth may turn into Earth but the Man of heaveâ— takes his flight alwaies into heaven That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from dirt with the water of his own tears may resolve into the same matter Buâ— this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouze then your selves from sleep great Princes He that would alwaies muse of Eternitie would with out doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to tepresent unto your selves that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over your Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not for to muse of this necessity which drawes you every hour to the tomb but rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Great PRINCES Awake Man is a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes and permit me once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine work-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his own work My seathered pen can fly no higher Man onely is the ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter where of he is formed the Water in his teares the Aire in his sighs the Fire in his Love the Sun in his reason and the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vaniseth O Sweet vanishment since he is lost in himself that he may be found in his Creator but the Earth remaines firm and his dust flies away O happy flight since eternity is its aime The Water though it fleets away yet returnes the same way and retorts upon it's owne paces Man may be said to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison O dear ruine O sweet captivity since the soul recovers her freedome Death is a grace rather than a paine and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifie his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroied the corruption of man destroies its materiall O glorious destruction since it steads him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire though it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all the world into Ashes But Man perceives himself to be devoured by Time without ability ever to resist it Oh beneficiall Imporence since he finds his Triumph in his overthrow the Sun causeth alwaies admiration in its ordinary lustre The felicitie of man
years is not this to possesse at the end of that term a Good which is as good as never to have been Taste greedily the sweets of everie sort of prosperitie during the raign of a long life is it not readie to die by little and little for grief to abandon them since in flying away they intrain us into the grave To pant continually for joy in the presence of a thousand pleasures is it not to prepare in one's breast the matter of as manie griefs A wicked rich Man is much astonisht at his Death to have his conscience void of good works and his coffers ful of mony since with all the gold of the world he cannot purchase the grace of the least repentance since everie contentment is a disposition to a kind of martyrdom by the necessarie and infallible privation of its sweets whereof while we taste on 't it menaceth us In fine to have all things at wish is it not to possesse vain businesses since the world has nothing else to offer us The riches which Fortune gives and takes away again when she will can never enrich a Man it behooves him to seek his treasure in the mines of his conscience so to be under covert from sin for otherwise he runs the same hazard as of the goods which he possesses I mean in their decay to loose himself with them The prosperities of the earth are once more fresh flowers of the garden fair to the eye and of good sent but 't is to much purpose to gather them and make nose-gaies in holding them one holds nothing because their fragilitie renders them so slipperie that they ' scape both from our eies and hands and though their slight be be slow one day onely is all their durance The pleasures of the world are of the same nature I grant they may have some agreeablenesse to charm our senses yet t' were too vain to vaunt of their possession though one en joyes them for so much as they slip a way The arrivall of pleasures annunciates us alwaies their speedie departure vanish without cease from our eies like the always flitting water trills Their sway hath so short limits that each moment may be the term on 't Solid contentments are onely found in heaven and the onely means to relish them beyond all sweets is continually to Muze on them for having alwaies our spirit arrested upon meditation of an object so delicious our thoughts draw thence by their vertue this efficacy to ravish us with joy I return to my first proposition That the greatest Monarch of the world The good or ill which we doe accompanies us to the grave after possession of all things to his wish and having led a thousand times fortune her selfe in triumph upon the territories of his Empire should in conclusion be exposed all naked in his Shirt at the end of his carreere to serve for a prey to the wormes and a shittlecock to the winds certes a man must needs be very insensible not to be toucht with affright at these truthâ— Great Kings The misprizall of riches is the onely treasure of life if you have not other Mines of Gold more precious than those of the India's you shall die as poor as you were born and as tearer were the first witnesses of your misery sighs shall be the last of your poverty carrying with you this regreet into the grave to have possessed all things If we would acquire Heaven we ought to have to preâ—nce to Eatrh and now to find your selves in estate of enjoying nothing Great Kings if you have no other marks of soveraignty but this of the large extent of your territories the tribute which your subjects shall render you at the end of the journall shall be very little since the long spaces of your Empire shall be bounded with sevenfoot Great Kings if you have no other treasures than those of the rent of your Demeanes all those goods are false and the regreet of their privation too true But if you doubt of this yet The rents of vertues demeanes are not subject to fortune consult the dumb oracle of the Ashes of your Ancestours and the truth will answer for them that they never have had any thing more proper to them than misery nothing more sensible than disasters and that with all the riches which they have enjoyed during life they have not been able to procure at the houre of Death more than that peice of linnen wherein they are inveloped Great Kings True valour hath no other objest but the conquest of eternall things if you have no other Philosopher-stone but this the conquest which your valour may make all your greatnesse and all your riches shall be enclosed in the coffins wherein you shall be buried For all that Fortune shall give you to day death shall take from you to morrow and the day after one may count you in the rank of the most miserable I will again change tone What a contagious malady in this age wherein we are is this passion of amassing treasures All the world would be rich as if Paradise were bought with ready money If one knew the perill of being rich be would onely be in love with povertie and that the commerce of our safety were a publick Banke where the most covetous render themselves the most happy Every one makes bravado of his acquists and poyzeth his felicities to the ballance of his riches being never able to be otherwise content but in reference to the measure of what he is estated in There one will assume a pride to have ten thousand Acres of wood whose revenue We may call man a tree whose root is-the immortall soule and the fruits which it beares are of the same nature either for glory or punishment nourisheth his passions and entertaines his pleasures Insomuch that he considers not that these trees are laden but with the fruit of these world-miseries and of all togethet he shall bear away but the branch of one onely which shall serve very soon for a Bier to his carkasse See in what consists the profit of his rents after their account made Another will be rich onely in medows and changing his hay into Gold which is but Earth he fills therewith his coffers But Foole that he is he thinks not that his life is a Medow his body the hay thereof and time the Mower The world is a Medow and all the objects which therein we admire are flowers which fade every houre who by his example makes publick traffick of the same merchandize changing by little little the hay of his body into Earth And is not this to be very ingenious to cheat a mans selfe Anothers aime is onely to be rich in buildings some the countrey some the city and assuming vanity from the number as well as the magnificenee of his Pallaces he beleeves that they are so many Sanctuaries of proof against
am now a Traytor both at once of his reputation and mine own conscience There is no fault more unpardonable then this of Obloquie and in regard that for a just expiation of the crime it is fitting that the tongue which did the hurt should give the remedy Thou Detractour if thou canst not moderate thy passion speak ill onely of thy self Study thine own vices Meditate thine own faults and Accuse thy self of them before Heaven which is already witness of thy crimes and by this way of reproching thou shalt obtain one day to be praised eternally Behold me now at the end of the Chapter After all these particular remedies with which a man may learn easily to resist the tyranny of the Passions He that often muzes of Death will every day learn to live well there is none more soveraign then this of the Meditation of Death All the rest abbut at this onely as the most authorized by daily experience Great Kings suffer your selves to be led in triumph by your own thoughts to the grave and by the way consider how your greatnesses your riches your delights and all the magnificence of your Court follow you step by step being brought along by the same fate whose absolute Tyranny spares none And since you may dye every hour think at the least sometimes of this truth to the end that that hour of your lifes dyall surprize you not Much good do it you to nourish up your selves deliciously yet all these Viands where with you repast your selves are empoisoned as containing in them the * Caliditas Frigiditas Humiditas Siccitas four contrary qualities whose discord puts into skirmish your humours and this battel is an infallible presage of your overthrow well may you chase away Melancholy by vertue of fresh pleasures these very contentments cheat away your life for though you think of nothing but how to pass away the time it passes ere you think on it and Death comes before you have forseen his arrival Well may you cocker up your bodies content your senses and satiate the appetite of your desires Pleasures make us grow old as well is griefs the Taper of your life has its limited course as well as that of the day Every man pursues his carreere according to the inviolable Lawes of Heaven which hath assigned them out at once both the way Fata volentem ducunt nolentem trahunt and the bounds Suffer Time to lead you by the hand to the Tomb for fear he hale you thither But in dying muze at least of that Life which never shall have end All the felicities which you have possest are vanished with the flower of your age and all those which you will yet enjoy will flye away with the rest What will remain with you then at the last instant of your life Those pleasures cost very dear which are worth nothing but repentance but an irksome remembrance to have tasted a thousand pleasures which are past and to have lost so many means of having had others which would have lasted eternally Disinvest your selves then for one hour every day of all your greatness and in the presence of your own selves meaning in review of all your miseries and mishaps which are proper to you confess the truth of your nullity and of your corruption by this search you shall recover your selves and by this confession thus shall you Triumph over your selves A PROLUSIONVpon the EMBLEM of the last Chapter VIewing the Ranges of a Librarie Of Dead men's bones pil'd in a Coemitarie Great Alexander finds Diogenes And thus they Dialogue Alex. Cynick among these Ruines of frail Mortality what do'st look Diog. For that wherein I fear to he mistook I seek thy Father Philip's Scull among This pell-mell undistinguishable Throng Alex. Let 's see which is it shew me Diog. Sure 't is that Whose nose is bridge-faln Alex. Dead men's all are flat Diog. Why then 't is that where shrowds perpetual night Cav'd in those hollow eye-holes void of sight Alex. Still all are so Diog. Why 't is yon' skinless brow Chap-faln lip sunk with teeth-disranked row Yond' peeled scalp Alex. Thus still are all alike Diog. So shall both You and I. and let this strike Thy knowledge Alexander and Thy sence 'Twixt King and slave once Dead's no difference L'envoy THere is no diff'rence Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat Her Death hath made Equall the Scepter and the Spade No dreader Majesty is now I' th' Royal Scalp then Rustick brow Fair NEREVS has no beateous grace More then Thersites ' ugly face Now both are dead odds there is none Betwixt the fair'st and fowlest One. Tell me among'st the hudled pile Of Dead mens bones which was ere while The subtil'st Lawyer 's or the Dull And Ignoramian Empty Skull Was yond' some valourous Samsons arm Or one that ne'er drew sword for harm Or wink and tell me which is which Irus the poor or Croesus rich What are they now who so much stood On Riches Honours and high Blood Ther 's now no Diff'rence with the Dead Distinctions all are buried Onely the Soul as Ill or Well Is Differenc't or in Heaven or Hell Alexander and Diogenes discoursing among thâ—â— Sepulchers of the Dead the Cynick tells the Kiâ—â— That in the Graue Monarchs and Meaner Mâ—â— are all alike THE MIRROUR WHICH FLATTERS NOT. CHAP. IV. WHat a horrid spectacle is this what a frightful object See you not this great number of Dead Mens sculls which heaped one upon another make a mountain of horrour and affright whose baleful and contagious umbrage insensibly invites our bodies on to the grave What a victory is this over these but what an inhumanity what a defeat but what a butchery May we not say that sury and rage have assassinated even Natures-self and that we now alone remain in the world to celebrate its funerals by our lamentations and regreets Fathers Mothers Children Nobles Death is a severe Iudge and pardons none and Plebeians Kings and their subjects are all pell-mell in this stacke of rotten wood which Time like a covert but burning fire consumes by little and little not able to suffer that ashes should be exalted above dust Proud Spirits behold here the dreadful reverse of the medall All these sad objects of mortality and yet actively animated with horrour and affright by their own silence enjoin the same to you thus to amuze your Spirits in the contemplation of their deplorable ruines If you be rich See here those who have possessed the greatest treasures of the world are not now worth the marrow of their own bones whereof the worms have already shared the spoil If you be happy The greatest savourities of fortune are reduced to the same noisomness as you see the filth that enrounds them If you be valiant Hector and Achilles are thus here overcome behold the shamefull marks of their overthrow If you be men of Science Here lyes the most learned
but a Phantasie and Chimera to which your imaginations give that beauty which charms you and that delicacy which ravishes you What think you is it to be the greatest of the world 'T is an honour whereof misery and inconstancy are the foundations for all the felicities which can arrive us are of the same nature as we are and consequently as miserable as our condition and as changing This Earth whereon you live is the lodging of the dead what eternity believe you to find in it Eternity of honours riches and contentments there was never any but in imagination and this Idea which we have of them is but a reflection from the lightning of Truth wherewith heaven illuminates noble souls There is nothing eternall in this world but this scope of truth thus to guide them to the search of the true source of all by the aide of these small rivolets It is time to finish this work I have made appear to you in the first Chapter the particular study which a man ought to take Seneca to come to the * Hoc jubet illa Pythicis oraculis adscripta vox Nosce Te. Knowledge of himself wherein lyes the accomplishment of perfection And herein the precept is The Consideration of the miseries which are destinated to our Nature as being so many objects capable enough to force up the power of our reason to give credence to the resentments of frailty which are proper to us But this is not all to be meerely sensible of our wretchednesse Serious Consideration must often renew the Ideas of them in our souls more then the hard experience of them And this to the end that vanity to which we are too incident He that searches into himself shall not loose his labour may not surprize us during the intervals of a meditation so important We must often dive into our selves and seek in the truth of our nothingnesse some light to make us thus to know our selves Afterwards making a rise a little higher it is necessary to consider the End for which we were creaated and in this consideration to employ all the powers of the severall faculties of our souls to the generous design of getting possession of that glory Behold the Corollary of my first Argument or Chapter The second instructs us a new means to resist powerfully the hits of the vanities of the world from the example of the wretchednes of * Saladiae of one of the greatest Monarchs of the world Fortune had refused him nothing because she meant to take all from him Poverty and Riches depend upon opinion and a noble soul is above his fortune in what condition soever he be for in the height of his glory he finds himself reduced to the poornesse of his shirt onely which is all he carries with him into the grave And this makes us sensibly perceive that the greatnesses of the earth are Goods as good as estranged from human nature since in this mortall and perishing condition we can onely possesse their usance and the term of this possession is of so short endurance that we see as soon the end as the beginning Reader represent unto thy self how thou shalt be dealt with at thy death both by Fortune and the world Et quae veneraris quae despicis unus exaequabit cinis Sen. since the Minion of this blind Goddesse and the greatest of the Universe is exposed all naked in his shirt in sight of all his subjects to be given in prey to the worms as well as the most miserable of the Earth The Third Chapter where Life leads Death in Triumph teaches us the Art to vanquish this untamable The horrour of Death is purely in the we aknesse of imagination by considering its weaknesse for in effect if Death be but a privation 't is to be deprived of reason and judgement to give it a being since it cannot subsist but in our impaired imaginations The fantasme of an Idea is it whose very form is immateriall as having no other subsistence I say but that which the weaknesse of our spirit gives it And again to come to the most important point Let this be the close of the recapitulation Sen. that you may have means not to stand in fear on 't * Incertum est quo te loco mors expectet itaque tu illam om i loco expecta Muze on it alwayes looke for it in all places and overcoming your selves you shall triumph over it Never did an unblemisht life fear Death The last Chapter where the object of Caemiteries and Sepulchers is laid before your eyes may now again serve for the lact touch since it is a Theater where you must play the Tragedy of your lives All this great number of Actors Hodie mihi Cras tibi Think on that Reader it may be thy turn to morrow whose bones and ashes you see there have every one plaid their part and it may be that the hour will soon Knell that you must act yours Reader live ever in this providence a Man cannot too soon resolve to do that well which howsoever must be done of necessity God Grant that these last lines may once again reproach thee the bad estate of thy Conscience delay not too long this Check to thy self least too late the regreets be then in vain Momentum est unde pendet aeternitas Thy salvation is fastened to an instant consider the infinite number of them which are already slip't away when perhaps at that moment thou wert in estate if dying to incurre the punishment of a second Death and that eternall If thou trust to thy youth put thy head out of the window and thou shalt see carried to the grave some not so old as thy self If thou relye upon the health which thou now enjoyest Saepe optimus status corporis periculosissimus Hip. Sera nimis vita est crastina vive hodie 't is but a false-going dyall The calm of a perfect health hath oftentimes ushured the Tempest of a suddain Death What hop'st thou for hope is deceitfull what stayest thou for A wise man ought never to defer till to morrow what should he done to day Lastly what desirest thou The peace of conscience is the only desirable good Go on then right sorward thou canst not misse the way which I have chalk't thee FINIS PERLECTORI The TRANSLATOURS COROLLARIE SO Now 't is done although it be no Taske That did much Brains or toylesome Study aske The meaning I ' vouch good but Merit small In rendring English the French Principall It is but a Translation I confesse And yet the Rubs of Death in 't nerethelesse May trippe some capering Fancies of the Time That Domineere and Swagger it in Rime That Charge upon the Reader and give Fire On all that do not as they do admire Either their rugged Satyrs cruell vein Or puffe-paste Notes 'bove Ela in high strain Then in
prevention quarrell like a curst Scold who being guilty yet will call Whore first When any dyes whose Muse was rich in Verse They claim Succession and prophane his Herse They onely are Heirs of his Brain-estate Others are base and illegitimate All but their own Abettors they defie And Lord it in their Wit Supremacy Others they say but Sculke as lye i th‘ lurch As we hold Schismaticks from the true Church So hold they all that do decline their way Nor swear by Heaven Al‘s excellent they say T were well they‘d see the fing‘ring on these frets Can neither save their Souls nor pay their Debts Or would they think of Death as they should do They would live better and more honourd too T is base to do base deeds yet for false fame To Keep a stir and bustle into Name Whilst each applauds his own contemns anothâ—rs Becons his own deserts but his he smothers They fear Fame's out of breath and therefore they Trumpet their own praises in their own way Or joyn in Trick of State Confederacy Call Quid pro Quo Claw me and I le Claw thee Marry at others Tooth and Naile they flye That do not tread their Path but would go by Farewell to these my ayme not here insists Leave we these wranglers unto equall lists To Nobler Natures I my brest expose The Good I bow to in an humble Cloze To such as knowing how vain this Life is Exalt their thoughts to one better then This. 'T is the best Method to be out of Love With things below and thence to soare above To which effect my souls integrity In L'envoy thus salutes each courteous eye Lenvoy INgenuous Reader thou do'st crown The Morall active course layd down By De. la â—erre what is pen'd If thy Actions tecommend Relating to the first EMBLEME WHen haughty thoughts impuff thee than Dictate thy self Thou art but Man A fabrick of commixed Dust That 's all the prop of humane trust How dares a Clod of mouldring Clay Be Proud decaying every day And yet there is a way beside Wherein may be a lawfull Pride When sly Tempatations stirre thee Than Again the World Thou art a Man Rouze up thy Spirits do not yeeld A brave resistance wins the Field Shall a soul of Heavenly breath Grovell so tarre its worth beneath Fouly to be pollute with slime Of any base an â— shamefull crime Thou art a Maâ— for Heaven born Reflect on Earth disdainfull scorn Be not abus'd since Life is short Squander it not away in sport Nor hazzard heavens eternall Joyes For a small spurt of worldly Toyes Do Something ere do thou bequeath To Worms thy flesh to Air thy breath Something that may when thou art dead With honour of thy name be read Something that may when thou art cold Thaw frozen Spirits when ‘ t is told Something that may the grave controule And shew thou hadst a noble Soul Do something to advance thy blisse Both in the other World and This. Relating to the second EMBLEME WEre both the Indies treasures Thine And thou Lord of every Mine Or hadst thou all the golden Ore On Tagus or Pactolus Shore And were thy Cabinet the Shrine Where thousand Pearls and Diamonds shine All must be left and thou allowd A little linnen for thy Shrowd Or if 't were so thy Testament Perhaps a goodly Monument What better is a golden Chase Or Marble then a Charnel place Charon hence no advantage makes A half penny a soul he takes Thy heirs will leave thee but a Shirt Enough to hide thy rotten Dirt. Then be not Greedy of much pelfe He that gets all may lose himself And Riches are of this Dilemne Or they leave us or we must them Death brings to Misers double Wo They lose their Cash and their souls too Change then thy scope to heavenly gains That wealth eternally remains Relatory to the third EMBLEME BE not curious to amaze With glitt'ring pomp the Vulgar gaze Strive not to chear with vain delight Those that are catcht with each brave sight How soon will any gawdy show Make their low Spirits overflow Whose Souls are ready to run-ore At any Toy nere seen before Rather thy better thought apply For to addresse thy self to dye Be ne're so glorious after all Thy latest pompe's thy Funerall Shall a dresse of Tyrian Dye Or Venice-gold Embroydery Or new-fash'on-varied Vest Tympanize thy out-strutting brest There 's none of these will hold thee tack But thy last colour shall be Black Be not deceiv'd There comes a Day Will sweep thy Glories all away Mean while the thought on 't may abate Th' Excesses of thy present ' state Death never can that Man surprize That watches for 't with wary Eyes Do So And thou shalt make thereby A Vertue of necessity And when thy Dying-day is come Go like a Man that 's walking home Heav'n Guard thee with Angelick pow‘r To be prepared for that hour When ev'ry Soul shal feel what 'T is To have liv'd Well or done Amisse Relating to the fourth EMBLEME LEt not the Splendour of high Birth Be all thy Glosse without true worth Let neither honour nor vast wealth Beauty nor Valour nor firm health Make thee bear up too high thy head All men alike are buried Stare not with Supercilious brow Poor folks are Dust and so art Thou Triumph not in thy worldy Odds They dye like men whom we count Gods And in the Grave it is all one Who enjoy‘d all or who had none Death cuts off all superfluous And makes the proudest One of us Nor shall there differ‘ence then between The dust of Lords or slaves be seen Together under ground they lye Without distinctive Heraldry Unlesse it be that some brave Tombe Do grace the Great-ones in Earths womb But better ‘ t is that Heaven's dore ls oft‘nest open to the poor When those whose backs and sides with sin Are bunch't and swoln cannot get in Beware the Bulk of thy Estate Shock thee from entrance at that Gate Give Earth to Earth but give thy Minde To Heaven where it 's seat's as sign'd If as it came from that bright Sphere Thither thou tend not fix it here Live that thy Soul may White return Leaving it‘s Partuer in the Urne Till a Blest Day shall reunite And beam them with Eternal Light Ainsi Souhaite Vostre treshumble Serviteur Thomas Cary. Tower-Hill Antepenultim â Augusti 1638. To my endeared Friend the Translatour Mr. Thomas Cary. 1. 'T Is Morall Magick and Wis Chymistry Out of Deaths Uglinesse T‘extract so trim a Dresse And to a Constellated Crystalt tie Such an imperious spell As who looks on it well By sprighty Apparitions to the the Eye Shall See he must and yet not fear to dye 2. No brittle toy but a tough monument Above steele marble Brasse Of Malleable Glasse Which also will while Wisdom is not spent Out-price th‘ adored wedge And blunt Times Sickle‘s edge Usher‘d with gracious safety in its vent For
able to keep in my soule some little sparkle of thy love What glory and what contentment too is it to be devoured by wormes since thou callest thy self a Worme gnaw O Lord Ego sum vermis non homo Psal 22.6 gnaw both my heart and inâ—rals I offer thee them in prey and regive me new ones that may offend thee no more I know well that my life flits away by little and little but now agreeable is this flight unto me since thou art its object I see well that my Dayes slide away and passe in continuall course But O what consolation is it to be sensible of dying at all houres for to live eternally â— Verities again what ravishments â—ave you to consolate the soules of â—he most afflicted I return to my subject We read of the Priests of the Gentiles Humility is ever heâ—oured by all the world that they writ letters every â—eer to their Gods upon the Ashes â—f the Sacrifices which they made â—pon the top of Mount Olympus 〈◊〉 believe that this was upon design â—â—at they might thus be better received being written upon this â—aper of humility Let us fetch now â—ome truth from this fanoy Let us write every day to heaven upon the paper of our Ashes all the parts of the body are as so many Characters of dust wherein may be read the truth of our nothingness confessing thaâ— we are nothing else and let uâ— make our sighs the faithfull messengers of these letters as the onely witnesses of our hearts I will hide my self under the Ashes O Lord tâ—â— the end that thy Justice may noâ— see me said David What Curtain 's this This Soveraign Justice which makes it bright day in hell cannot pierce the Ashes to find underneath a Sinner No no for the vail has the vertue to reflect the beams of thiâ— revenging light within the source which produced them Remember that I am nothing Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself I wil not bring the evill in his days 1 Kings 21 29. 〈◊〉 Lord and that thou hast made mâ— of nothing and every moment canst reduce me to something lessâ— then nothing cryes out Job in hiâ— miseries He finds no other invention to appease the mild choller 〈◊〉 his God Recordarequâ—â— so quod sicut argillam fecistâ— me in pulverem reduces me Job 10â—9 then putting him in minâ— of his infinite greatnesse and at the same time of the pitifull estateâ— whereunto he is reduced Whâ—â— should you take Arms against meâ—â— O Lord pursues he when thâ—â— breath of your word is able 〈◊〉 undo the same Humility triumphs over all things which it hath made me Remember O Remember that I am but what the benigne influence of your divine regards permits me to be for on the instant that you shall cease to regard me I shall cease to live Deck we then with Ashes our body of Dust Men remember thy beginning for thou art not made of Fire like the Stars nor of Ayre like the winds but of mire from whence it is thou soylsâ— all the world He which can over come himself shail never be vanqui sht by greater Capta in and let us cover with a new earth our own to make Rampirs of proof against the thunders of heaven See you not how its all-powerfull Justice finds limitation in the confession of our being nothing We need fear nothing acknowledging that we are nothing Well may the thunder make a horrid rumbling yet the Hyssope outpraves it in its lowlinesse Fear and humility ever abandon each others company The onely means to triumph over all things is to vanquish Ambition O Lord I durst scarse believe that I am If thy providence alone were not the prop of my being But since thy goodnesse hath drawn me from the Abysse of Nothing â—et thy grace cause me alwaies to keep the remembrance of my originall Before Time was I was Nothing now Time is I am yea Nothing But what happinesse 〈◊〉 it to be Nothing at all since thou art All-things for if I search my self in vain in my self is it not sufficient that I am found in thee I will then forget even mine owe name and muse of nothing but of the Chimera of my being since as a Chimera it passeth away and vanisheth What a joy is it to passe away continually with all things towards him that hath created all things The onely consolation that remains me in my passage is that thou alone remainest firm and stable so that without end thoâ— art the end of my carreere and without bounds limitest the extenâ— of my course as the onely object both of my rest and felicitie Set me now upon return With what and ever to be adored lustre Heaven changes the sighs of the Earth into tears I mean its vapours into dew appears the love of God in his day in the work of Man Would not one say that it seem he made him of earth that he might strow thereon the seeds both of his blessings and graces O fortunate Earth which being diligently cultured may bring forth the fruits of eternal happinesse Since we are of Earth let us suffer this divine Sun of Love to exhale the vapours of our sighs for to metamorphose the minto the tears of Repentance Boast thy self O Man to be Nothing but Earth since the heaven bedews the Earth continually But if with a provoked eye it lancheth out sometimes its thunders upon it her self doth afford hereof the matter Live always Innocent and thou shalt not know what 't is to fear Imploy thy self without cease to measure the depth of the Abysle of thy nothingnesse and though thou never pierce to the bottom hereof thy pains shall not be unprofitable because seeking thy self â—â— thy basenesse thou shalt alwaies recover thy self again much greater then thou art The Sun We are all amorous of our selves not knowing for what for our defects are objects rather of hate then Love this fair Planet of the Day which with a continuall aspect contemplates all created things cannot make reflection of his beams to see himself as if his mother Nature had apprehended in making him so glorious that the Mirrour of his light might not be metamorphosed into a fire of love to render him amorous of his own proper lustre But the Intellect A Man cannot stumble ordinarily but through perversenesse since reason enligh tens him in the very worst wayes this Sun of our Soules has a faculty with which it can both contemplate our of it self all things and repeale again the same power to consider it selfe which makes a man capable not onely of the meditation of the miseries of the World but also of that of the afflictions and troubles which inseparably keeps him company to the grave We read of Moses that God commanded him to frame the * forefront of the Tabernacle all of Mirrours The Laver which was before the Tabernacle