pleasure and profit whereof I might have been capable but for my self I regret it not for alasse how vain how transitory how full of vexation are the best of earthly commodities c. Truth hath been said to be the object of the understanding and good of the will Totus teres atque rotundus expresseth an honest man yet a bowle perfectly round except upon a ground exactly plain holds not well its straight line and way a strong byas better maintaines it self against whampes and unevennesse So doth a man byassed with some sinister affection often run a more constant and thriving course then he who hath constituted truth and true good his Mistresse but himself being round and his way uncertain and uneven he varies and fluctuates accordingly as I have often said Truthes to us are such obscure high twinkling Starres that we hardly fasten upon them what pleaseth us is only certain unto us I speak in a naturall way for supernaturally in Faith alone is all truth all good certainty and pleasure Till God gave me that happy gift I was a bowle without byasse a ship without steer or Starre I Were more then most miserable if my resentment my heart and affections were set upon this world but I humbly thank God it is farre otherwise with me and now as there ever hath been a difference made between such as cast themselves into open and eminent mischief and such as fall into unhappy consequences of evills unforeseen so hope I to finde favour and pardon from the better sort and the worst I respect not And as that Prince who plain in personage and habit was by mistaking set to drudge for his own entertainment and being discovered and demanded what he meant Answered that he did penance for his evil-favourednesse So am I contented to undergoe and submit my self to the not undeserved penance of my fate with an acquiescence of Fiat voluntas tua sed liber a nos a malo Ianuary 2. 1637. NEmo laeditur nisi a seipso never proved it self more true then in me I have been both agent and authour of my misery and sufferings I have been both Criminall and tormenter God made me strong I have made my self weak God intrusted me with many Talents of advantage above others I have mis-imployed and abused them and my self from my youth I have suffered his scourges and terrours with a troubled soule yet such is his mercy unto me that it is good and happy for me that I have been troubled As I have turned unto him he hath been graciously pleased to turn his countenance of favour towards me healing my wounds with the soverain balme of his grace and refreshing my Soule with his waters of life humbling me to exalt me and chastising mee in a Fatherly correction to prevent my eternall punishment How sweet Oh Lord are thy mercies beyond comparison beyond my expression the false and flattering joyes of sensuality are meer sowrenesse bitternesse and vexation in respect continue thy grace unto me perfect thine own work and make me an instrument of thy glory confirm me in the contempt of this worlds vanities and as on me so work upon the world by thy Almighty Spirit thy saving health that thy will may be done in earth as in Heaven nothing but thy all-powerfull Spirit can effect it draw us and we shall come and let it be through tribulations sorrows fire and whatsoever long or short a faire or rugged way so it lead to thee we shall be happy above measure Amen Amen Sweet Saviour let thy pretious wounds cure mine And save my Soule which is by purchase thine Ianuary 15. 1637. BEauty and the delight of the eye consist in well-ordered lustre of Colours proportion and motion yet forbeares it not to be extraordinarily affected in the enjoying of such objects as the appetite and fantasie have prescribed to themselves for a necessary or voluptuous satisfaction whereby appeares that we become most ravished and transported by the operation and co-operation of the minde whose truest and noblest objects are vertue and goodnesse Hence sprung the conceit that if vertue were visible it would beget in us most transcendent affections so beautifull so amiable it would be to a generous Soule God is the Author and Prototype of all beauty and goodnesse How infinitely then beyond comparison sweet faire and lovely must he be to such as apprehend and contemplate his glory and to whom he imparteth himself and his mercies As the sight of the body of the Sun so filleth the sense that for the present it can admit no other conceit so doth the glorious speculation of Gods essence and Majesty annihilate and expell all earthly affections How vain how mostly poore and beastiall are vulgar delights in respect of that tincture that rapture and eternity of blisse which flow from his Divine grace and knowledge how is it possible after such influence to relish the drossie pleasures of the world for the most part common with beasts fleeting molesting lame Miserable is the heart which he doth not season disconsolate the comforts which proceed not from his Grace who without that could live contented could be content to be one of Circe's beasts and live and die in a drunken fit I most humbly thank thee my gracious God and Saviour that thou hast vouchsafed to open my eyes to thy glory and the worlds vanity till then I never found solid or permanent comfort I have like others been apt to conceive that this worlds delights were our proper portion of thy assignment but thy great Grace hath enlightned me and with a strong hand taught me to chuse the better part I have since thy illumination affected above all things to set forth thy Grace Mercy and Glory but pardon me Oh Lord they surpasse my poore abilities I am an earthen vessell weak and crased as unable as unworthy to be a fit instrument to sound forth thy praise I was ambitious to have wrought thy Divine love upon others that they with me might constitute thee the sole scope and Lord of their Counsels their projects their actions but a fuller and richer Magazin then mine and a stronger health are required Pardon Oh Lord that I withdraw my self conscious of my weaknesse and inabilities but what my pen cannot attaine my tongue and actions shall by thy Grace indeavour to supply Ianuary 14. 1637. CHarity implies the love of God and man without it whatsoever we pretend we are Infidels objects of hatred to our Maker to our inferiours what condition can be more contemptible No delight is comparable to that which reflects upon a good minde from its own goodnesse extended upon others especially when our Consciences beare us witnesse that we doe it out of a true love and obedience to our most mercifull and Omnipotent God To pretend Faith and be without Charity is to mock God and our selves better were it for us to be like beasts without all knowledge of God then to play
balme such as no gold can buy To ease those hearts that for your love have smarted Grant then my lives faire Sun Apollo-like VVhose light 's our light our life direction cure These vertues Phoebus yeelds thy essence pure That I may offer at the shrine I seeke The pleasing sacrifice and fruits of love Which tasted may your equall pleasure prove You Elegie wayling writers elegant VVhose sad despised Muse of little sings But rigour scorne and her tyrannick stings VVho all compos'd of Ice and Adamant As Nero joy'd those tragick flames to see VVhich Romes proud flames had reason just to rew So triumphs and insulteth over you The cruell Mistris of your misery I wonder at your braines productions VVhich ' stead of comforting benigne aspect Are fed with nipping blasts frosts and neglect From those Parelii proud in your destructions I like the flame-fed Salamanders kind And as the tender Sommer-lab'ring Bee Except a warmthfull Zephyr breath on mee Am stupifi'd with cold fruitlesse in mind Love child of heate and hope doth barren perish Except faire Sun his tender plant you cherish QUeene of Beautie most divine From whose sacred charming shrine Humane power cannot part Without sacrifice of heart Thetis Nymphs had little grace Whilst your beautie was in place And their influence was cold As sent from a watry mould Shall I happy call that night VVhen to gaine a pleasing sight Pretious libertie I lost And am now on loves Sea tost By a tempest of desire Mixed full of heav'nly fire Rais'd by that inchanting face Of her Sex the onely grace Yes most happy I it call Though it doe my freedome thrall Freedome none may neere compare VVith that happy state where are Those in your faire service plac'd And that please to make them grac'd Happy martyr of constraint VVhose paine is for such a Saint And who hath for object giv'n The sweet hope of such a heav'n Faire a stranger terme mee not That your Sanctitie would blot Saint did never yet object Former knowledges defect Against those whose zealous vowes True devotion avowes If my merit yet bee small To procure your love withall Time alone to you must prove How well I will deserve your love Grace in Saints ought to abound Grace ne're growes on merits ground Be then gracious as I true Constant and faithfull unto you And my fortunes that have crown'd Mee happy on that Relicks ground Shall bee all ascrib'd to serve You that all respect deserve To winne her from resolving upon a Cloyster'd life in whom love is conceived to bee yet predominant PRetty wanton Beauties treasure Made for sweet delight and pleasure Pretious Jewell of thy kind VVhose equall 't is as hard to find As the matchlesse Phoenix mate VVhat though nature did create You Phoenix-like to bee admir'd And your essence so inspir'd That your beauteous winning parts Should sole triumph over hearts Yet in this you farre o're goe Such solitary state of woe That shee exempt from like and love Those delights doth never prove That have made the Gods so oft Quit their heav'nly azure Loft The sweet food of love to tast More delicious then repast Of Ambrosia or the wine Appropriate to the Divine Nature you so happy frames That the sweetest game of games You to whom all cards are free To choose till you pleased bee May command in such perfection That th' Ambrosian refection Tastlesse and insipid were Ballanced in that compare Oh! but how I doe envie Except I knew it should bee I That happy he whom you will daigne Such Soule-filling joyes to gaine Let not now a fond Discourse Contrary to Natures course Make you abstaine from those delights Whereto shee kindly you invites Shee each thing instructs you know What is its friend and what 's its foe Her you boldly may believe Shee did never none deceive Be not sway'd by wit of Schools Precepts were made to governe fools And to subject those to aw That want selfe-strength of reasons law Reason and Nature are all one Reason moves from her alone But why doe wee thus dispute With a kisse I you confute Send those to Cels upon whose thought The world and Love have never wrought Birds that long have lived free Caught and Cag'd but pine and die I marvaile not Earths fairest ornament Abstract of beauty Natures onely pride That your delight is onely to abide In Londons sweet commerce sole Element Where the refined Spirits of our I le Ingenious discourse communicate And hourely fresh delights participate Dull tedious time with pleasure to beguile We all best love our like London in much Doth you resemble London is the best The fairest richest Town of all the rest In all this Continent there is none such London our treasure Instruments of warre Majestick residence and Gems containes London farre more then all the other gaines London the firmament where every Starre Of magnitude of power and vertue moves London the Schoole and forum of all Arts London the Empory that all imparts That use requires or our affection loves London the envy of all other Townes As chiefe in beauty so supreame in power Our Kingdomes brightest object fairest flower Inchanting Syren that mee happy crownes In honouring of my Nativity I to your better judgements now referre Those none-such excellencies to conferre With hers that forceth my Captivity But faire beware you bee not like in this Though in your prison many a soule remaines As London holdeth infinite in chaines You be no Tyrant cruell mercilesse Insulting over and in galling those VVho or for suite for life or for affection Serv'd by your habeo cor above protection Unto your mercy doe themselves expose In this Metropolis I must compare Thee to the fairest flowers whence Bees may pluck Their honey and yet Spiders poison suck You faire the Bee and not the Spider are You like Earths Jewels or the Heavens lights VVere made in glorious places to appeare Nor ought that beauteous garment out to weare Amongst the rustick herd and rude delights You like to Cynthia the heavens Queen VVere made to govern bee admir'd and seen WHen in your lap that creame you set VVhich you invited mee to eate Sugar it needed none Your sweeteâ—t touch alone Made it a matchlesse pleasant meate The milke that did from these breasts move That nursed up the God of Love No not the Manna dew Nor jâ—yce that ever grew In tast did so delightfull prove Neither Nectar nor Nepenthe Can in like degree content me Fond Esau hadst thou sold For this though not for gold Thy birth-right we had never shent thee Not Flora's lap most fairely drest Nor the sweet milk of Fortunes breast So gracefull pleasing are As it and you both were More sweet then ever tongue exprest But now if this such sweetnesse drew Onely by being plac'd in you Sweet then above all wonder Is that your sweetnesse under Most happy hee that proves it true FAire spotlesse Scarfe once by my Goddesse borne VVhen
gives accesse to no suspition Nor just grounds of dislike in going on A course uneven tyres a love discreet 'T is perfect love when love and reason meet Love checkt by reason doubtfull is and lame Finde me a Love so faire so free from blame Shee shall command my liberty and me To love and serve her as her votarie And mean while to prevent saciety I 'le live in joviall free variety Love 's but impression of Saturnian blood VVhereby we overvalue things though good Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum My farewell to Catlidge By M. G. SOurce of my sorrows whose unequall frame Presents the course and fortune of my life Here thine exalted height deserves the name Of uniform and stately faire No strife Of disagreeing parts yet th' other side VVith low and crooked lines abates thy pride Thy noble prospect and that large Empire By which thou seek'st to please and bribe mine eyes Can ne're deceive my grief Nor make retire Those streams which from thee sprang VVhose force denyes To be exhaust or stopt through troubled teares All thy delight dull darke confus'd appeares Me thinkes I see the Gulfe the Rock the Grave Where beautie strength and life and all that 's sweet At once their ruin wrack and buriall have Which all in one divine soule here did meet Thou fatall seate of that intestine war Which all that 's good and lovely quite did mar Thus to my griefe and passion thou dost seem Though crown'd with health and pleasure tho the place Where peace and plentie both strive to redeem With kind and noble usage that disgrace Deaths cruell hand hath lately cast on thee And to relieve the pressure lies on mee â—ut calmer reason doth thee represent In truer species to mee this doth plead Thy innocence this sees thy faire ascent And Noble rise which heavenward doth lead Chose by that matchlesse soule which might her bring To th' Throne and presence of her God and King Farewell and flourish then thou happy place Ennobled with the last and sweetest breath Of earths and heavens ornament whose race Here gat the end and crowne of life by death Long mayst thou stand and safely keepe all those Her vertues heires whom thy faire walls inclose Condolement upon occasion of the preceding Verses received from another Author MY other selfe in my affections and sufferings with whom more then all the world I delight to converse present and absent such satisfaction in the way of knowledge conference ingenuity and Religious vertue I no where else expect common conversations especially such as these times produce are to me as full of Soloecisme as the time it selfe they invite mee not abroad they have no influence upon mee either to quicken extract or fructifie Some are knowing but not trusty others simply but inconversably good there is scarce any thing left perfect complete or in any tolerable order now shee is gone whom we lament Pardon my present manner of writing for as it is to you so is it onely for you and my great confidence in you makes mee as incurious as free and open Though I am at this time unfit to write though my sonne lies under the disease and danger which hath bred our passion Though I am none of the best conceited of writing for the little good effect I finde from it wee live by chance more then by the booke and the best praises are every day poetically applyed to vulgar merit and the writers glory though I have resolved to leave it more then needs must yet to supply what I was yesterday saying to you in acknowledgement of the happinesse I found in you in the middest of my losse and griefe such as I reckon another Phoenix unto mee for wee will in the flames and spices of our Recordations still raise her up and keepe her alive to our soules eyes such as whilst wee live I beg leave of you to love seeke to enjoy and make my selfe yours with a consecration of mee and mine unto you Excuse mee if I am or have beene defective in entertaining you according to your worth and that I am of no more worth to bee entertained into such place in your affections as I affect And let my valuation and affection to her that hath left us and whom you best if not alone know how to value intercede and make supply with you in my behalfe But whither goe I I seeme to put on an affectednesse and complementalnesse farre beyond what I intended for my meaning next the giving you some account and thanks for the verses you put into my hand at my parting is onely in a tumultuary precipitate fashion to let you see how my imagination was apt to worke and what with infinite more I could have laid hold on if I had not deserted both the formall following of my fancy and writing Time is a dryer up of Radicall and other moysture and I reckoned my selfe as unapt to weepe as a statue Nature hath provided teares and showers for a mitigation and dissolution to heate and violence of passion and stormes and as violence is incapable of duration and reason and judgement with time recollect themselves teares thinking they have plaid their part give way to full and cleare discourse and cease in the stronger spirits Yet such power and so moving were your lines upon mee that entertaining my self the most part of the way upon them not onely every reading but severall clauses raised severall stormes and showers on my heart and cheeks So see we marble statues weep either in present sympathy with the weather or in future presage And I pray God the future sufferance of that family whereof by interest of blood I have the honour to make a part exceed not the present sense in this inestimable losse I was by the way like an Aprill day according as the Sun-shine and clouds of your spirit disposed mee Sometimes I suffered in an apprehension that according to your title of a farewell to the place you might bee become like others disaffected and abhorring all relations and circumstances to your griefe and so to my self but therein againe you happily and favourably cleared mee Sometimes I became transported in your lively representations of her worth and transcendent happinesse of excellencie both in this and the better world But presently as much dejected and overwhelmed in your patheticall expressions and sense of her losse But in conclusion I found you like your selfe as full of obligation as payment to mee as infinitely beyond my merit as in your owne conceipt short towards her in what you owe and her vertue may challenge My fancy wrought upon returning a farewell to Lees I had cause and matter more then enough as the breeder and true cause of that which hath been most unhappily translated to this unhappy place but considerations as due restraine mee As I said I resolve to deny my fancies their full birth or Trym I can no sooner entertaine
For future times a pattern most exact Faire Ship most fairly fraught for VVar and Peace Untimely sunk scarce launcht into the seas Too glorious rising Sunne soon overcast That shin'st in Heaven for here thy beames were plac't On mould too dull cold worthlesse to beget An active fruitfulnesse answering thy heat Thy flames of vertue were more pure and high Then our weake state could foment with supply No vertue didst thou want or vice possesse That could make great thy worth or glory lesse Furnish't with all materials fit to raise A high superlative of Princely praise A true Minervian issue sprung from Iove Visible vertue forcing us to love As true a vertuous Cyrus naturall As Xenophons fain'd artificiall Faire fire receiv'd as from our Persian King Dead vertue once againe to life to bring Heroick off-spring of that English blood VVhich anciently hath so celebrous stood As faire a splendor to thy Fathers stem As or his Scepter Throne or Diadem If Troy lamented Hector Grecians scourge â—arre greater grief thy death to us doth urge Troy miss'd no Captaines though their Hector dead But whom hath now our Priam fit to lead VVith union and alacrity the Bands Of English Scottish Welsh and Irish Lands VVhose active well born spirits thirsted all To follow such a hopefull Generall VVhose pattern set the coldest mindes on fire VVith glorious thoughts and generous desire Sole able Engine t' have repair'd the fame Of th' once illustrious wither'd English name Such vertue could not actionlesse remaine VVhich made him fly our dulnesse with disdain VVherefore brave Spirits that do inward burn Loving true glory joine with me and mourn And with your slames make him a funerall fire And with him end each thought that did aspire Smother in his Ashes what began to flame And teach your thoughts to study peacefull fame Temper your most untimely ill faln hear VVhich may your ruine not your glory get Except that idle glory you esteem Vying who most effeminate shall seem Most proud affected and like weeds of worth VVhich our best soyles uncultivate bring forth Mourn and lament him Patron of all truth Nay him the soule and glory of your youth Nor never hope an active time to see Except enforc't to act our miserie Happy our Fathers warlike spirits we Haplesse though fortunate our Sons may be To whom this seven yeare retrograde hath brought A Prince with like faire promis'd vertues fraught To top his story with victorious bayes As Iames with sweet of Peace hath blest our dayes Adding as many Crownes as Iames hath done To Crowne his titles with possession Thus glorious Comet with more zeale then art In thy fames dirige I beare a part Which may it pardon finde though hoarsly sung And passe with favour 'mongst th' Elegiack throng As writ by him who having vow'd sword-service Can ill performe a Poets sacrifice Upon the death of Anne of Denmarke Queen of great Britaine and the blazing Starre appearing neere her death taken for the stellifyed spirit of Prince Henry dead not long before BRave soul thou hast prevail'd God hath his owne And wee ill debters were nor paid the loane Of such a Jewell bee thou Henries Star Pointing thy mothers way and not our war Heaven bee appeas'd and grant our prayers and teares Prevent thy further anger and our feares Say that our false hearts to our selves and thee Deriding goodnesse and true pietie Led by our vaine affections as our God Not charitie say this deserves thy rod Let not the Roman petty Gods surpasse Thy rulers mercies Marcus Curtius was To them a sacrifice their wrath to swage Our losse hath doubled his then slack thy rage And grant againe we feele no further paines But blesse our dayes with joy in what remaines Epitaph HEre lies Iames his rich gem the eyes delight The graces mansion our faire dayes good night Glory of the Court object no sooner seene But knowne the gracefull presence of a Queene Rich Jewels shee is said to leave farre more Rich was shee in her pretious vertues store Heaven grant her royall vertues transportation Breed not a dearth unto her sex our nation Vpon the death of my faire Cousin Drury SSay passenger and for her sake Who while shee liv'd had power to make All eyes that on her cast their sight To fix with wonder and delight Daine that these lines one sigh may borrow Breathed from thy heart with generous sorrow To see in this sad Tombe now dwelling The fairest Drury late excelling In vertue beautie and all grace That heaven in earthly mould can place And that which may your griefe increase Is that shee did a maid decease And all that wee in her admir'd With her is perisht and expir'd Matchlesse shee lived unmatcht shee dide Druries sole heire and Suffolks pride Vpon the death of the supereminent Lady Haddington Delineated to the life IMperious soule proud Quintessence of wit Union of natures beautie forcing love Faire Haddington farewell here dead with thee Lie Loves awe sweetnesse life and majestie Manly ambitious spirits hope possest By conquest of fierce beautie to be blest Change your desires for sweare ambition The glorious subject of your hopes is gone Alas nor verse nor picture can expresse The least of her heart-winning lovelinesse Happy who knew her for he knew perfection Such as henceforth hath freed him from subjection Another MOunt up to heaven free soul with Larke-like joy Scorning our earthly base condition Where no malitious envie can annoy Thy faire ingenious disposition There shew thy selfe in thy pure nakednesse Where all thoughts in their simple truth appeare To speake thy selfe with true borne simplenesse Is vertues habit out of fashion here To covet flatter lie bee politique Hunt gaine with greedy falshood and deceipt To bee a devill so an hypocrite Are vertues to gaine this worlds good conceipt Thou wert not such and therefore happy now If faith and truth may happinesse procure Thy life thy truth death doth thy faith avow These are the golden wings that mount thee sure To lasting glory glory bee thy due For being faithfull noble faire and true An Incentive to our Poets upon the death of the victorious King of Swedeland FIe slow Boötes brood what not a line To celebrate a vertue so divine See you not Perseus mounted in the skie Outdoing all the antient Chivalry Expect you till his Steed dash on your braines To make you flow into heroick straines Can your Electrian facultie in wit Raise nothing but meere trash and strawes to it Is brave Gustavus of too solid stuffe His great exploits for your sleight veine too tusse That like poore falsifyers you despaire To profit from a peece so rich and faire Whilst from more triviall subjects you will drive A trade shall make your reputation thrive By ransacking the mysteries of Art To set a luster on some low desert Rouze up at length your over stupid muse Unite all in one quire and bravely chuse No other rapture whereupon
his guide He leaves all favour ill will and partiality at the entrance and considers the good of the King combined with that of his people He feareth nothing so much as to wound his conscience or to betray the truth which above all things he ought to reverence Popular and Courtly applause are the least of his aime He is not so well pleased with any thing as to see right ends proposed and right wayes observed towards them which so they prevaile he will gladly sit in perpetuall silence but rather then matters be carried against his conscience he will discharge it with whatsoever consequence His affections are to maintaine all things faire and even in the Church and State as hee findes them duly constituted knowing that all innovations are dangerous yet so as gladly to imbrace such propositions as apparently conduce to a bettering and reformation And to that end hee will never doubt that things tending to the publike good can be unwelcome to the King and his knowledge it being a chiefe use of Parliaments to foresee inform and prevent He will be no lesse affected to a due relief of the Kings then of the Countries griefes for a necessitous Prince can hardly observe the laws of goodnesse and a good and loving people will never endure a good and loving King to be in want or suffer the least dishonour Hee will study to mâ—intaine concord and will not follow a multitude to doe evill He will observe a becomming attention He will make the best construction ever study moderation and so that right and Justice be observed Hee will not feare any dissolution no not of the world it self A good Courtier MAintaines his Masters supremacy in his heart above all earthly affections and furnishing himself with parts and discourse most acceptable unto him courts him more zealously and diligently then his Mistris knowing that as well his fortune as his duty requires it His tenure is by curtesie and he deserves to forfâ—it his estate for non-performance The least incivility in him exceeds the greatest in another man for hee must reckon his example next unto the Kings of a diffusive nature His language cloaths and fashion will all be well ordered but he will affect to win love and esteem rather by his inward then his outward parts and will value the good opinion of one well famed more then of an hundred others Goodnesse will be his chief object and reputation but a second He will expresse love to those that are vertuous and ingenuous for there cannot be a greater or more sudden evidence of vertue ingenuity in himself He will study the favour of the powerfull and bee voluntary with discretion as good a Counsellor to them as they ought to be unto the King He will love his Masters honour as much as his own profit seek it as industriously He wil not esteem that the Kings service is a dispensation with him from Gods but will so court it on earth that he may hereafter be a Courtier in heaven Though complement and neat attire be a badge of his profession yet will he avoid excesse in either and his purse and reputation will thrive never the worse He will judge nothing to become him so ill as ignorance debauch and ill company and therefore will study to avoid them He will beare an open countenance and a close heart Hee will bee just of his word and slow but sure in contracting his friendship Honest dissimulation and a dissembling chearefull patience are a kinde of vertues necessary to his fortune and course It will bee a misbecomming discountenance unto him to bee excluded by his defects from the faire performances of his companions which often advance them to no small grace and savour in their Masters attendance Wherefore if he come not to Court as hee ought furnished with perfections of Dancing Horsemanship Languages and the like he will industriously bestow his idle and early houres which will not be wanting unto him therein Good parts may assure him of favour and favour of fortune To conclude hee or no man is bound to be a compleat Gentleman A Gentleman BOth by descent and quality stands ever bound to his good behaviour outwardly in a faire civill courteous well ordered fashion and inwardly in Piety Charity Justice Courage Truth Temperance and those other vertues which the Schooles teach for if outwardly he be incomposed in his carriage and civill respect he will appeare to men that understand good fashion as full of solecism and more absurd then the arrentest Clown before a petty Justice of peace and therefore he will make it a businesse so much to frequent companies of the best respect and to season himselfe with their fashions as that thereby he may avoid in the least sort to become ridiculous especially prima facie As for those inward seasonings which are to this as the substance to the colour hee will omit no occasion to give proofe thereof as fearing to belie his Parentage and title and to prove himselfe a wolfe and vermin in the eyes of good men who ought to have doubled his lustre by worth and goodnesse Hee will therefore be a strict examiner of himself and least indulgent to his owne errors Hee will make truth his guide for lies are but the bolts of fooles that fall on their owne heads and moderation his Governour for it is the basis of all vertues Hee will avoid occasions of expence and quarrell but being ingaged to them he will carry himselfe nobly and come off with honour for to be cast behinde hand in fame or fortune is much more difficult to recover then to prevent His gifts shall be according to reason not in excesse yet inclining rather to the most for else they lose their good acceptance but being excessive he loseth his thanks as seeming to give what he esteemeth not and tainteth his judgement in not understanding proportion VVhen he falleth to game let him not think it only an idle pastime for to a good observer it is one of the most perspicuous discoverers of our inward disposition and affection Hee will mingle pleasure with profit but will make recreation his servant not his master Honour and vertue shall bee his chief aime nor will he draw a note upon himselfe for any thing but tending thereunto He will by his curtesie make continuall purchase of affection but especially in his owne house where he can hardly over-act it Yet towards men of insolent demand and carriage it were but unmannerly to imploy it Civility is an important piece of Society especially amongst the better sort and like other qualities it is to be exercised with great discretion and good temper High and braving spirits unseasoned therewith would like Cocks and Mastiffes impatient of the fiercenesse of one anothers eyes uncollected and unrecalled assault each other with blowes instead of Salutes There have been divers books written of the institution of a Prince of a Courtier of severall
common paraphrase of that nothing or if any thing rather a returne to then a forsaking our home Nor will I Pathetically end with the exaltation and flattery of that great universall Imaginary Monarch let wit and Philosophy flesh him cloath and paint him as they can his Sceleton Posture and dart will still appeare terrible to weake Spirits To mee by the grace of God and my Saviour hee shall bee an indifferent guest hee shall not find mee unprovided the continuall feast of a good conscience shall not I hope bee wanting unto mee it shall in despight of his all devouring bee my viaticum and goe along with mee Amen Iune the 6. 1640. An Essay concerning Musick LEt him that tafts not Musick beware of the Tarantula's sting which is cured by an affectation of some Geniall point therein And surely hee is so farre from a perfect quintessentiall constitution of the mind that I doubt whether in such minds some undigested lump of the Chaos bee not yet predominant It is to me an Argument of a soule well in tune to bee understandingly affected therewith nor is any one affectation more likely to be accompanied with a detestation of such vices as discord with the Law of nature and received vertue For a disposition once habituated in a delight of harmonious proportion must consequently distast such uncomely dissonance If earth afford any resemblance of the incomparable joyes of heaven it is not improbable to be in musick For I cannot name an earthly delight where the mind is so disjoyned from grosse and terrene objects nor so sublimed as it were to an upward center which surely is God the Center of the heavens and heavenly-spirits No small testimony thereof is exhibited in divine service where Musick hath been ever thought fit to elate and prepare the mind to celestiall contemplations But whatsoever it is to divinitie it hath ever beene a child of the most civill nations and times and they that like it not are in that point Brothers to the Savages It hath beene blamed to effeminate and over-soften mens minds which whence it is gathered my selfe could never conceive except in that substraction which it makes from inhumane barbarous and uncivill inclinations For it certainly heates cleareth sharpneth and erecteth the spirits making them dance in the veines with such disposition of activitie as when the Musick ceaseth the heat thereof yet remaines not much unlike that of wine in a Dutchman which Alarums him to be doing and fight though hee know not with what Allow it to heate and you can hardly make it seeme to quench courage whereunto heate is even the forme Alexander might bee a proofe or the severall sorts of Musick whereof some definitively exempt it from that Tax But Musitians are knowne generally fantasticall and light This indeed is a fault but in the Musitians not in the science which doubtlesse is often lodged in most judicious and grave spirits Of David you will not deny it Nor is it verely more to bee accused then the best wine for infatuating weake braines Divine Inspirations have beene generally seene accompanied with a transportation of the weaker spirit that received them They who least love it must at least allow it to bee a pleasing dreame and an innocent pastime wherein if the body and spirits receive no nourishment they may be yet after other defatigations be delightfully entertained without wast or expence in freshnesse and alacritie for the embracing imployment in either It is commonly as of women the worst are to bee had for money and often the pleasure scarce worth the tuning The haters of it thinke it but a noise who are the more brutish being uncapable of beautie whereto the intellectuall with the instrumentall part is requisite The Scripture hath assigned a great property and delight hereof to the time of banqueting for it is indeed a kind of banquet and like wine a moderation whereof pleaseth recreates and is allowed to the most austere but long set at and made too frequent destroyes both the receivers relish and good esteeme Nor are all banquets no more then Musick ordained for merry humors some being used even at Funeralls Aire So full of Courtly reverence So full of formall faire respect Carries a pretty double sence Little more pleasing then neglect It is not friendly 't is not free It bolds a distance halfe unkind Such distance between you and mee May suite with yours not with my mind Oblige mee in a more obliging way Or know such over-acting spoyles the play Song I Thought it much to be so fine So curious fitted every way Little suspecting the designe Of competition for the day Most amiable faire contest Song of three parts it should have been When you resolved of the best Spar'd your reserve and kept it in It was a confident deny To huswife your perfections so As not to win by â—vervy When all seem'd on your side to goe Yet not so cleare but each made good A faire retrait of Forces brought Though they had something hovering stood By yours in danger to be caught Each had her willing captive I Unto your triumph whole resign'd Will to no other Law comply But what shall flow from your faire mind No flattering beautie hath the powre To alience me a day or houre AMbitious Love farewell You are too troublesome a guest T' affect what doth excell And to be ever at a feast Is not the cheapest freest diet Lesse in joy and lesse in quiet I le take such as I find So it bee good and handsome drest Pretty looking freely kind To a good appetite is best If your usage doth not please you Change is neare you change will ease you Seeke not the highest place The lowest commonly is more free Lesse subject to disgrace Others eyes or your jealousie Bold freedome will improve your tast Where awe embitters a repast A doting fancy is a foolish guest The freest welcome makes the sweetest feast It is not natures way Shee made love no such busy thing Shee meant it a short play A Common-weal without a King Her love on every hedge doth grow Her fruits are best in taste and show Her sweets extend unto the meanest clown Often most faire though in a russet gown Aut virtus uomen inane est Aut decus pretium recte petit experiens vir Doth vertue then depend on time and chance it seemes it doth but God is the author of time and experience chance is not chance to him goodnesse growes not but where hee plants and waters it Pretious experience how much I have wanted thee how deerely art thou bought how slow thou growest with thee wee have enough to doe to finde and keepe our way but without thee wee are giddy wee are blind wee walke wee stumble wee fall as in the darke thou art called the mother of fooles they should have said of wisedome for wee are silly fooles without thee thence is said that every one is either
a foole or Physitian without thee wee are strangers to the world wee are strangers to our selves the best husbandman understands not to manage his ground nor wee our selves but from thee Thou under God art the giver and preserver of health and riches rules of health and thrift are little acknowledged but upon infirmitie and sufferance Nature makes us passionate but thou compassionate A man that knowes the bearing of his beast will not overload him had I enjoyed thee I had enjoyed my selfe I had made thee and nature my Physitians they pretend to be her props and helpers but they rather confound and ruine her they are her Apes her Zanyes deformed and mischievous inexperience impatience lazinesse opinion and custome maintaine their credit and make us their Patients the Spanish proverbe is a good one that God cures the disease and the Physitian takes the money If men will use them let it bee yet as it was that no man should draw water at the common well till hee had made thorough triall at home the Art is uncertaine but their ordinary ignorance and carelesnesse makes it worse if they did not love our money better then our health they would not neglect their ancient breakfast By exercise and agitation to stirre up naturall heat to worke digestion and expulsion is Physick farre beyond them As Archimedes said that if hee had other ground to place an Instrument hee could remove the earth so could I as well and safely worke upon the parts within the Ribs as below I would not doubt to doe wonders in cure and without it there may be so mâ—ch wrought as shall hardly faile to maintaine a body right built in cleerenesse breath strength and health and so to cure where other drugs weaken and shorten youth and life The very thought and consideration what Physick and Phyfitians to use is alone a disease à nocentibus juvantibus observation of what helpes and hurts with the ordinary benefit and communication of others expeperience upon free cost is Physick often more then enough for as truth is said to bee often lost by much altercation so health by being too superstitiously sollicitous A medicinall life is a miserable life I desire as much not to live as to live by Physick and when nature is so weake that it cannot beare or worke out a little disorder let her take her course it is at the worst but giving over a game that must be lost and going to bed a little before the houre There may be meanes to temper the blood without drawing it and many make fasting their cure against repletion diseases of Inanition are more difficult yet they may have and find their restoratives without a Doctor As exercise is the best Physitian so is rest the best restorer my complexion is active and I have suffered much in want of sutable employment waters corrupt and Iron gathers rust and the Moth is bred by want of use and stirring yet motion without moderation and a proper subject is often pernicious as to milstones which grind out themselves for want of Grist and the best metall weares out with much whetting A discreet ordering and alternation of motion and rest is a great preservative Nature hath instructed other creatures in their strength and the use thereof beyond what we finde for ours in our Arts and practise Their undefaced instinct outgoes our outfacing inventions and conceits Beasts have much of man in them and man too much of nay often worse then the Beasts It hath beene observed that most men have in their aspect a resemblance of some Beast or Bird conformitie of soule depends much upon the conformation of the bodily parts complexions are not so various as soules crueltie and falsehood are invincible in some ignorance in others choler in some flegme and melancholy in others I may bee incorrigibly melancholy but it is not of the Asinine kind Strange is the difference of the temperament of severall mens bodies and mindes but more strange the difference of the same man from himselfe at one and another time now all dull and heavy then all rapid active and aery now quick and sharpe then slow and blunt of understanding now apprehensive and timorous then all daring and fearelesse I vâ—â—â—ly beleeve there may bee or are Spirits and tempers so fiery and bold as to bee incapable of feare howsoever it may bee concâ—ived a passion as necessary as naturall to selfe-preservation the unconsidering and undaunted fiercenesse of some creatures witnesse as much Thus for want of other entertainment I am put to ransack nature Art and my selfe and like Dâ—ogenes busie my selfe in my particular and with my tub I write wildly I write the wild-goose chase if you like it not let it alone yet doe you not contemne the Stars of heaven or plants and face of the earth for their seeming â—â—methodicall confusion To say something of experience which hath thrust mee on this peece Here you have that at an easie rate which growes not on every ground varietie useth to please let it not displease you if it profit not and the mischiefe is that I feare it will little profit you if you much need it if you bee not already in some measure proportionable to what I write it will but passe by you like clouds shadowes and dreames of little impression and lesse improvement What a number of notions there are in the world of realitie to some nullities to others such as Witches Apparitions prodigious advertisements divine admonitions instant and sodaine relievings and assistances c. Many carry their faith no farther then their sense and experience Some are so irreligiously preresolved to decline superstition that God shall bee the last to whom they will attribute any supereminent production they will rather stand confounded and lost then abandon second causes or acknowledge any supernaturall effect Yet extraordinary truths howsoever sleighted want not extraordinary testimony and God in all times leaves not himselfe without witnesse there would else bee if manifestation should bee equall to every mans sense no place to exercise faith and little extent to knowledge if wee were restrained to our particular experiments though upon the difference of materialls the Print take not in all alike wee are cast as it were in one mould what concernes you not to day may to morrow whatsoever is written of man de te narratur fabula endeavour and be favourable August the 14. 1638. Vnhappinesse of Physicke SInce I writ the preceding piece it hath fallen out to my extreme sorrow and affliction that one of the fairest most noble and vertuous of Ladies is dead in my unhappy house under the hands of the Physitians Shee was such that as it was said of one none of the best of our Princes that if vices had been lost in the world they might have been recovered and found in him much more truely may it bee affirmed of her for all such vertues as either ever were or can bee
Ierusalem Amen February 10. 1637. TO give in some sort a taste and glimps what kind of Spirit possessed me in my first youth and melancholy take these few fragments which with many other then I coyned but have now lost and forgot for inscriptions never imployed Fond passion is Opinion but a foole God Nature Reason are the Wisemans Schoole Delights good servants but bad Masters are Minds cordiall medicines us'd without fond passion Fitting age calling means degree and fashion Uselesse but for our recreation Doted on turn diseases our soules snare You 'l say they are toyes the fitter are they then For such vain bubbles Fantomes as are men They profit nought and wisemen you will say Pleasures foundation on profit lay To them that want not to give Nature right Profit it self in truth is but delight It is not affectation makes me write But honest hearts ever affect the light Thus did Melancholy and retirednesse work upon me my Melancholy wrought my retirednesse and that by removing me from the common delights and course of young men my farther Melancholy removens prohibens goes for a cause I affected the Tree of knowledge tasted of the unnaturall fruit and lost my earthly paradise though labour toyle and affliction have been my portion in such losse yet Christ hath proved unto me infinite advantage He is the Christians eternall Paradise in him we finde a new Earth new Heavens Peace and joy incomparably more compleat without him all is vanity and vexation of spirit Happy the fall which meetes with him to raise us happy the losse which finds him to guide us Since the first fall man discerning his nakednesse of himself hath sought Figge-leaves for cover and advantage a partiall cloathing in humane policies Arts and inventions which all but make us feel the more the weather and our wants Nature is lost in artificiall affectations and our false-acquired knowledge proves our true and reall misery Thus plunged in vain deceiving delights and wretched perplexity no exemption no redemption remaines but in and through Christ and the true knowledge of him By him we turn our first nakednesse and ragges into a full and glorious garment by him our darknesse and confusion becomes a perfect illumination and in him our vain pleasures and fraile troubles become a solid continuall feast of joy peace and contentment That Sun of Righteousnesse is the only true Sunne that lighteth every man to true happinesse the Sunne is the life of flowers and many of them open themselves and turne towards it let us learn from them to open our hearts and turn to God He alone can disperse in us the clouds of ignorance and light vanities in him alone is that tranquillity and true joy to be found which by our disobedience and foolish affectation we have lost all our other curiosities all our sensualities do but more wilder us and set us further to seek The wiser sort of men in a humane way have sought for immortality to peece out their frailty but in Christ alone it is to be found and without him it were better to want it Poore creatures that we are poore happinesse that we seek without him who said Seek and ye shall finde But do not such appeare to doubt too much of the soules immortality who will rather deny it to become infected with originall sin by way of propagation in a probable analogie to Faith and Gods Justice then acknowledge a naturall way of one eternall Soule to beget another eternity being the only gift of God and as easily and more reasonably flowing from him the one way then the other Is not this leaving a faire naturall rationall and religious way a kinde of teaching to doubt and mis-beliefe Why stick they at that which is most reasonable teaching neverthelesse Faith beyond reason such as deny the earth to move and turn towards the Sun for its own advantage upon pretence of Text of Scripture for the earths stability which as a thousand others they might as well and with farre lesse straining interpret in a way of common appearing if now upon reall demonstration and reason the earth be proved to move doe they not wrong both the Scripture and our Religion Miserable lamenesse miserable blindnesse of humane Divinity Help Oh God or we are confounded we are lost true knowledge thrift or joy are annexed to no person place or condition but thy grace and blessing gives them Assist us all assist me therein and I have found more then ever I lost February 10. 1637. HOwsoever these writings may in some respect be as unfit as troublesome in my condition yet herein they have proved my great advantage and satisfaction that they have taken me off from other importunate discontents and impressions and have tyed me faster and faster to God they have turned the sight and sense of my misery into joy and comfort upon the discerning and participation of his mercies unto me They have entered and entertained me in to sweet a contemplation of his glory and goodnesse as I hope shall never languish and dye in me and I have I thank God gathered such strength upon them that I conceive much better of my self and the vigour of my Spirit to the discharge of any ordinary performance This my good God hath done for me and it is wonderfull even in my own eyes may it please him to indue me with all humble thankfulnesse Amen Amen February 12. 1637. MY good Friend you have obliged me in the reading and perusing of these my confused crudities and you have in your indulgence to them and me and their innocent spirit of ingenuity commended some things in them farre beyond their worth and wished some more labour of mine to be imployed in their more orderly and perfect digestion and a farther communication but I am over-weak and lazy and they too incorrigible they are mishapen lumps of an imperfect conception which howsoever it might be fit for me to be delivered of yet are they most unfit for other then a friendly view and judgement I put them into your hands but am farre from wishing any your farther patience or labour upon them They are such Beares whelpes that if they were capable of any good shape yet were it most unfit that any but their naturall Parent should lick them into it notwithstanding if out of your good affection to any part of them and the propagation of goodnesse you conceive a tolerable Mercury may be framed of them for the view of a more remote well-affected friend I submit them to you Hew off and fashion them at your pleasure if you should prove so idle as to make such an undertaking I feare you will finde so shaken a piece of Timber as is nothing but chips before-hand I thank God I have ever superlatively loved goodnesse and nothing better then to be an instrument of doing good but my fortune and opportunity have not answered my affection Nor can I now either so flatter my self
especially of natures course and proceedings their true and reall motives springs and wayes are in most important effects secret concealed and disguised ordinarily hidden in their originall even from our selves that act we may take copies of others faces but not of their hearts with any assurance It hath been an honest advise to keep a corner of our heart to our selves and if an honest heart ought not in point of discretion to expose it self what truth is to be expected from hypocrisie and dissimulation One absurdity admitted a thousand follow and to the foundation of my disease laid in the excesse of Treacle infinite have been the effects and my sufferings which have flowne from that and other concurring circumstances I have at the entrance of my alteration been ready to sink at the Table I have many yeares since travail'd and slept with cordialls at hand to keep me alive nor left I them till a hearty friend told me the heart must comfort the heart which yet was lame and ineffectuall in my strongest resolutions till I had recourse to God the onely true spirit of courage and resolution to a curious and well-affected minde and a weather-beaten Soule there is no other refuge or harbor of safety satisfaction and tranquillity There are Climates where it seldome or never Raines others which clouds malusque Iupiter urgent In one and the same Country where the earth and heavens in their constant seasons should bee as constantly disposed yet doth the same time of the yeare prove sometimes cold and wet sometimes hot and dry the materials and circumstances appearing the same this must rise from secret Springs and combinations above the reach of our discourse The same diversity and contrariety of effects befals men in their fortunes howsoever in appearance equally constituted God is the cause of causes He hath in all times and Countries provided wonders above the ordinary course of Nature to humble and convince our humane presumption I had a body and a minde so strongly built that had not my spirituall and intellectuall parts predominated in me to withdraw me from a base vulgar abandoning my self to sensuality no man in probability could better have subsisted and maintained himself against ordinary course of dissolution and debauch I had a Spirit naturally tempered to contain and contract it self above all excesse but it s own And even that as well as another it might have bridled had not Melancholy and other adverse conditions surprised and mastered it betrayed unto them under colour of friendship The blood is said to be the bridle of all humours that I lost and much of my good spiâ—its with it in the conflict but God hath proved a better bridle a better spirit unto me Innocent and groundlesse blushings proceeding from the tenuity and waste of my blood and spirits have been none of my least importune and prejudiciall symptomes Such weaknesse joyned with a strong fancy hath made me subject to blush not onely to my self alone but upon any surprise of mention and conceit not only upon any reall occasion but upon what there might be so much as a possibility of in the apprehension of another I have taken my self blushing at the appearing or name of a woman who had shee been Eve and I Adam the humane race would have been in great danger of failing at length custome and complying with a conceited expectation of others produced it c. God hath by his extraordinary grace upon my humiliation furnished me with as strange meanes to subsist as I at the first found extravagant means to keep low and oppresse my self In the depth of Melancholy I have not found so much as a melancholy dream my spirits have taken root from above and have grown upon it Long since after a great disease I had such a tendernesse of spirits and humours that a thick cloud could not passe over me but I felt an alteration upon it It is strange how a transient thought will work and give a suddain stroak to a remote and ill-affected weakned part of the body the minde workes not alone by the heart and brain as is vulgarly conceived but the praecordia and all parts more or lesse contribute and are affected therein and God hath blessed me with a minde so strong that it ever discharged it self in its passions and errors more in my body then its own sufferings but they are still Hippocrates his Twins and must weep or laugh together I have now disburthened my self of all trouble but this of writing I am too inexhaustible therein weary me it doth satisfie me it cannot I will change the Scene and seeing I finde my self so ill a Companion I will seek better company I have ever been over-hard to please in conversation my present affections and habit make me now more dainty what shall I doe I have by Gods great grace recovered in great part those Jewels of peace and health which I had long lost Therefore I will no longer rake in this puddle nor abuse his grace in over-bold and indiscreet presumption Like the stranger belonging to another Country I will transitorily please my self and converse with the common passions and Interests of this world I will spend my time in search of goodnesse and will make much of it where I finde it I will wash my hands in Innocency my Soule in my Saviours blood and wrap my self in my own vertue and his merits relying on his neverfailing mercy Amen Amen March 1. 1637. THough friends be absent conversation lost My bating Soule oft labouring in it self By winds and fortune on the black Sea tost Thou present Lord I feare nor wave nor shelf Thou Father Brother art and Friends to me Be the world whose it list so thou be mine They ne're miscarry who rely on thee Grace stormes dispells more strong then they combine All thrives where thou the pruning Gardener art To thy Plants blastings frugall blessings prove Though Summer heighth and flourishing impart Winter gives strength and Timber to the Grove To thine all sufferings end in joy and rest And th' absence of a wicked world is best Forced delights and contentment are no delight or contentment dispose Oh Lord my affections and I am happy untill I had digested the tough morsels and crudities of this world I could never have had peace and quiet IOckey and his Horse were by their Master sent To honour him in hunting run and race To put in for the Bell and take content In honest sort fitting faire time and place In pride of nature fit for any sport Jolly and lusty both at first they were But shortly after both of them fell short What by mischance by ill-advise and care Soon he became engaged to a match Which cost him dear both on the By and Main He thought himself no easie peece to catch But knew not to resist so strong a train He now conceits he could not hope to win Except his horse were straightly dieted Such course
French with an English as with a French man nor exercise half so much freedome or ingeniosity with a dull common or prevaricating as a lively generous and sincerely expressing spirit I well endure not to sow my seed but on good ground and expectation of a good return nor to converse with such as are so wedded to their own opinions and full of themselves that there is no room or indulgence for any other I am as tender of giving the least distaste or offence to another as to my self Though I love conformity yet no more then needs must to an absurd fashion and not at all to a vitious temporizing Here you may finde no small perplexity Art is long multiform infinite Nature short-sighted bounded we are obnoxious to a world of crosse indications and reluctances Art and Inventions owe us a faire amends for we suffer and are confounded more then a little by them were it in my power I would recompence restore help and piece out Nature by my Writings but I feare the best Authors often more disguise and confound then better and improve her Shee hath I confesse found some advantage from Invention as appeares in the extent and multiplication of Perspective Glasses Catacousticons digesting our Language to bee conserved by writing regulate and sublime observation in Astronomy and the course of the Heavens as the Ephemerides and exact prediction of Eclipses doe witnesse but how well shee might have subsisted and walkt without a Iacobs staffe and these helps let others discourse I acknowledge them much better then the invention of high heeles head dresses and training Gownes c. But may it not be a shame to Art that all this while it hath not taught us to flye and for swimming we are rather dis-taught by our Discourse and that cutting down and destroying great Trees upon otherwise barren soyles it is not able to teach them to bring forth Corne and inferiour Plants Fancy and the Melancholy humour are great Inventors but as the Melancholique humour breeds an Appetite so doth it ordinarily hinder digestion a stomach that surchargeth it self with variety digesteth ill and breeds crudities It is hard to make a just concoction and distribution of our unnaturall superinductions The craftier sort of people strip themselves of such clogs and incumbrances and insist too often in a corrupt and unreformed nature They look upon God if at all no farther then they finde him in Nature and in his Workes they passe over his supernaturall revealed Word and will as wanting the eye of Faith to discern it and either question the recommended interpretation or wrest it to their own sense and interest they admit no Law but their own Nature and worldly and sensuall advantage No man can know God and his will and contemn or slight it But Religion like Nature and the Senses is indemonstrable because nothing proportions unto it Every man frames God unto himselfe such as either his grace or our owne interpretation and sense deliver him unto us If our Divines were either so consonant in their interpretations or lives as were requisite wee should become better Christians then we are His will would not be so indifferent to us nor would we conceive him so indifferent as many do to our wills and actions Excepting Religion all other knowledge is so painefull to attaine and so troubled and muddy when wee come to stirre the bottome that the game is hardly worth the Candle God of his great mercy enlighten us and mend us Amen August the 2. 1638. To my best Clergy friend in relation to the best among us IT proveth according to your conceit for this my farther writing I affirmed to you as I then thought that nothing lay upon mee requiring farther vent In truth for the particular which I now fall upon it hath beene long since in my affections to write something therein but the tendernesse and daintinesse of the matter and censuring ticklishnesse of the time with-held mee possibly I have been too pusillanimously injurious to truth and ingenuitie too much misdoubting my owne strength and over prejudicate upon superiours in such restraint Religion as it now stands betwixt us and the Papists is the subject There have not beene wanting on the one side some who out of a Romish presumptuous and overflattering disposition and on the other some who out of a Scottish jealousie and distrust have over-boldly apprehended if not concluded that both our King and many of our Bishops are against their owne and our good and quiet too much affected that way I have formerly understood from you your opinion to the contrary and that grounded upon sound reason and mine hath runne with yours None should prove so great losers by such a change as our King and Archbishop of Canterbury and they are both of them too wise and sensible of their owne power freedome and splendor ever to consent to reenthrall themselves to those great usurpations and abuses which the Monarch of Rome exerciseth over such Princes and States as acknowledge him It is little that we of inferiour calling should suffer under him in respect of the continuall reluctancy wherein they would find themselves plunged Our King and State enjoy now that happy freedome which hath cost others full deare to have attained and have failed in their endeavours Yet a King of France is mighty even in the Court of Rome so farre as to bandy against the Spanish faction which is commonly great enough to be troublesome to the Pope himselfe The power of all other Princes and States are petty Planets in comparison of these of so little sway and eminency that their influence and operation is very little more then as they side adhere and involve themselves to the others interest Our King is now one of the most free and eminent of Christendome nor can there bee the least just feare that his wisedome and spirit upon whatsoever Antipuritan suggestion can consent to bring over himselfe an unbridled and unlimited jurisdiction and controller The usurped vicegerency of the Pope as God on earth is too imcompatible with the just temporall power of Kings to be willingly admitted The strained grosse and injurious pretences of the Roman Church have been too clearely detected and Christian rights and truths too strongly vindicated to relapse to former delusions whatsoever future remisnesse and indulgency the Pope may pretend nunquam ligat sibi manus there can bee no securitie against him and naturally as well as for their pretended truth and uniformity they will ever tend to recover their losses and pristine authoritie Many carry a reverend respect to that Church more out of a contemplation of what primitively they were and now should bee then what they long have been now are and are likely to continue Unitie in truth and sincere Religion were indeed above all things to bee wished as nothing is more to bee avoyded and abhorred then falsehood prevarication and imposture Whatsoever pretext of policy and devotion
carelesnesse presumption impatience and a treacherous indulgence to his own humours our common reigning maladies have been the cause Wee are of late so out of our wits that our very mother wit of keeping our selves warme failes both in our mothers and us By naturall heate wee live want of clothes want of cherishing it makes us all suffer Though you know my mind concerning Physitians yet such is their Ius acquisitum that my sonne is under their jurisdiction God send it to his good cold taken upon Physick hath cast him downe I have been present at their Anatomicall discourse of his distemper danger and cure excellent termes to amuse and amase the credulous ignorant enough to worke a cure by the enchantment and charme of their words and language Yet I cannot but compare it to a Rope-dancer whom I have seene doe his tricks and show his Art in a Sack if his footing were right good if other hazard for a neck or limbe But here if their learned blindnesse mistake the poore paying Patient must suffer It is just that they who cannot governe themselves should be ruled by others often worse These and more evills must we suffer as it is in the 14. Chap. of the booke of Wisedome Verse the 22. from the warres of theirs and our ignorance A word or two lesse would have ended with the bottome of the page but howsoever I end well if you continue and accept me Your faithfull Friend and Servant November 12. 1638. The Shepherd Sheep and Wolfe MY true fair-minded Friend I beleeve you now in labour to Preach and mend the vitious world I also wish but little hope to doe it by writing you sow and I write in the Sand wee both dwell at the sign of the Labour in vaine the More will not change his hew nor the Leopards their spots they cannot nay they would not you shall not perswade them they are blemishes no more then the Lady her affected patches on her face they are in fashion and appeare faire in their own eyes as every mans way and pleasure to himselfe we may lament one anothers endevours others will deride us or possibly some will be so good as say Well said well writ and as they use their feasts eate and forget the sober diet breeds the better nourishment example is the better Teacher but it must bee numerous to prevaile Vertue is grown but a name and that neither well understood nor agreed on Some honest men there are Rari nantes in gurgite vasto they may make much of themselves and wrap themselves in their own vertue a habit God knows out of fashion they are fitter for Cloysters then the worlds traffique and like square playing Gamesters shall be sure to bee made a prey and sit down by the losse their strong constitution may resist the corruption of the times they shall not alter them their innocence shall have as little power howsoever commended as fresh waters upon the Seas saltnesse the worlds antiperistasis may better them not they the world But how comes it that so few are honest is it that perfection must bee as rare and hard in Nature as in Art is it that our artificiall confused meat and drink infect our bodies and they our soules is it the perniciousnesse of example in great and powerfull persons who sway the times and seldome originally attain to riches honours and greatnesse by just and honest wayes Or is it that as some species of creatures are of a perverse and evill nature such as live by rapine and destruction such as Apes Wolves c. so man is naturally of a mischievous kind if so them may a good natured man be esteemed a Monster and rather an error then perfection of Nature Is it these or is it not rather the corruption of our mindes and affections by having changed and perverted Nature from her first purity into Artificiall fancy and affectation of enthralling others and inriching our selves So that as women are in respect of their attire often the least part of themselves the like may bee said of man in the disguise of the minde So it is and such punishment is deserved in our desertion and rebellion against God and Nature We are one anothers scourges wee are scourges to our selves If you and I and others are rather Sheep then Wolves let us thank God whose grace it is let us cloathe our selves in our own wooll short Pasture will content us for food little drink more then the dew of Heaven Thither let us tend towards him whose mark we bear the great Shepherd of our Soules Let Wolves be wolves whilest hee is our Shepherd and his good Angels our guard we are safe and happy now and forever let the wolves of this world the Loup-garrons the mankinde wolves devoure what they can they shall devoure but what they can most commonly one another There are so few of us they would else want meat though their rage be great their time is short our comforts are sweeter more permanent as much as they contemn us they are content to make use of our cloathing they reckon us foolish Martyrs of a foolish Philosophy and wee them beasts of a foule deformity They are ugly to God ugly to goodnesse often ugly to one another and ugly to themselves especially when affliction sicknesse and infirmity le ts loose that Band-dog Conscience upon them which they had formerly in their prosperity tyed up and kept in darknesse and sleep hating and hated flattering themselves with strong delusions to one anothers torture for the present and eternall torment hereafter I leave them committing you and all good men the Sheep of God to his inviolable infallible protection Amen Amen November 14. 1638. NO wonder if a perverse nature use perverse and crooked wayes a Serpent cannot goe right craft is the evill mans instrument to evill ends as cunning is sometimes necessary to good men for good purposes evill men are in the dark they are blinde to true vertue and charity their workes are workes of darknesse and their wayes accordingly it is the glory of discreet power in goodnesse to walk fairly and choose the open safe and faire way where others how ever powerfull needlesly encumber and bemire themselves in bryers and bogges As I have often said it is a sweet thing to see knaves miscarry and play the fooles as commonly they doe they like the Woodcock think themselves more concealed then they are as much unduly overweening themselves as undervaluing others I never knew a foole without some kinde of craft nor a wise man affect it MY second Father Brother and spirit of comfort thus yet I am so happy as to converse with you in absence it is a piece of my misfortune to bee at so great a distance from you in the same Town my late long and hasty walke unto you endangered a distemper and sicknesse upon me but as burning with burning so evill of exercise with exercise is cured Naturall
but by a happy constitution and cleernesse of body maintained by daily exercise I thank God I fear not any violent or long continuance Nay I rather reckon it as an excellent medicinall Physick unto me cold ferments into a heat and heat digests and purifies stormes clear the aire agitation refines and subtilizeth the water and fire and stirring advantageth the earth Evills are said not to goe alone and distempers purge away more then their causes But it is good as well in state as soule and bodies to maintain themselves in such a freedome from over-abounding in evill humors that misaccidents when they come and there can be no security against them may not endanger the whole frame Thus much of cold but what shall we say in surprises of heat and fire wee have lately seen many misfortunes thereby shall we therefore not build or not make fire to warm our selves such resolution were to defraud our selves of the naturall commodities of our reason and discourse which teacheth us rather to confine and moderate the use of things then utterly to decline them It is the property of wilde beasts to feare and fly from fire and of men to use it And now to revert something to our other nights discourse of Love which certainly hath some Divinity in it or otherwise it could never as it doth become a fresh and infinite Theam of our best spirits Love and anger are the fires of the Soule if inordinate as well dangerous as vitious shall we therefore shun them as a Plague whose best antidote is to fly quickly farre and return slowly is love as incompatible with reason as is pretended and may not Religion though supernaturall admit of a naturall and free vertuous affection betwixt the two Sexes Religion saith Be angry but sin not and is rather a rule to rectifie then extinguish affections they are the wings of the Soule without an object they are nothing and without the use of them we fall flat to the ground like disfeathered birds The Lady and Nation of Ladies which your Ladiship mentioned are not reasonlesse not to bee without a servant especially such as are or have been beautifull for it is a commanding Character certainely instituted for a delightfull entertainment and admiration It is an unnaturall stupidity not to be affected therewith and a kinde of injury to its Authour not to exercise such affection I ever mean without abuse but this concludes for women not for men our affections have more fire in them matter more combustible and women are commonly as well in effect as in title too much our Mistresses Children and fooles are not allowed to play with fire it had need be a strong well-prepared and well-habituated Soule that entertaines it we are no Salamanders to thrive and be safe in the flames What now ought a man that would be wise to doe affecting to give as well his nature as Religion their right Platonique Love is exploded Love is corporeall and entreth at the eyes Lust cannot be excluded for an ingredient which yet admitted it follows not that it must be predominant as I discoursed unto you some other over-ruling affection may contain and represse it either in a Religious civill or other self-interessed consideration nay even in a divers prevailing respect towards the very subject of our love I can be affected with the objects of my palat and eye and yet forbeare them burn with a surprizing desire of mortall revenge and yet refrain Fear and awe will prevaile even with dogs and beasts and why not in Love but how farre this is to be allowed in discretion I submit with a good morrow to your Ladiships more refined discourse and judgement I send you the Verses humbly kissing your hands and end with my Paper Your Ladiships c. A promiscuous peece of three houres work in a morning to cleare from further writing Madam IF I deceive not my self there is somewhat of power from above urging my addresse unto you I have now by Gods grace finished that my designe of Verses which I had propounded to my self they are upon presumption of your Ladiships favour to goodnesse and your humble servant their Author at your command expect not the strong Master-pieces and quintessentiall lines which these curious times and the refined ambitious Spirits of our age produce in defiance of Critiques my births are naturall easie and hasty sometimes foure peeces to my breakfast in the beginning of a morning I am as impatient as any woman of a long and painfull labour I haste to my journeys end and can as little hope or goe about to remould any of my first births as your Ladiships your children once brought to light I love not Verses of the ragged staffe but wish them fluent and gentle which was wont to be a commendation If my walls want strength to support themselves in their naturall stuffe and scope they shall rather miscarry then borrow the supports of inwrought strange conceits and butteresses of Art if I would undergoe any affectation it should be to deliver over ingenious notions and materiall instructive rationall conceptions with an ingenuous and genuine elegance and some depth of prospective in my termes and expressions according to the capacity and perspicacity of my Reader But I am now too old and serious for Verses and have wholly given them over only these my late peeces I conceived my self to owe to my Maker and I am sorry they were not my first fruite which are more properly his due Autumnall fruits are neither the most pleasant nor wholesome I have in great retirednesse and confusion employed my time of late in the dissection of my self and fortune our observations in the Anatomy of the body grow from the opening of others but of the minde from our selves as the Starres of heaven and Globe of earth they are as yet in great uncertainty and undiscovered some rules we have attained and Eclipses we can foretell but for sound and infallible knowledge and judgement we daily finde our selves as erroneous as our common Almanack-makers whose prognostiques are as ridiculous as false And now finding my selfe in motion betwixt heaven and earth give me leave to impart a contemplation of Characterizing such a perfection as yours in relation to them in comelinesse and beauty like the Heavens in motion regulate in order faire powerfull in influence A well ordered minde resembles the clearenesse serenity peaceablenesse and harmony of the upper Spheres and Crystalline Heaven a faire built body the beautifull variety of the earth delightfull fruitfull well drest and correspondent to the Heavenly motions in season order and constancy yet such little worlds there are which seem to enjoy in some exemptions a priviledge above the lower heavens and the earth for they are free from storms scorchings of heat nippings of frost inundations and other disorders such Comets are sent sometimes to be admired and to awake the dying vertue and reputation of your sex Phidias an