the whole there whole heauen shall bee yours Heere you commaund but as a subiect there you shall raigne as a King Heere you are obserued but sometimes with your iust distaste There you shall raigne with peace and ioy Heere you are noble among men there glorious amongst Angels Here you want not honour but you want not crosses there is nothing but felicity Here you haue some short ioyes there is nothing but eternity You are a stranger heere there at home Here Satan tempts you and men vexe you there Saints and Angels shall applaud you and God shall fill you with himselfe In a word you are onely blessed here for that you shall be These are thoughts worthy of greatnesse which if we suffer either imployments or pleasures to thrust out of our doores wee doe wilfully make our selues comfortlesse Let these still season your mirth sweeten your sorrowes euer interpose thēselues betwixt you the world These only can make your life happy and your death welcome To my Lord HAY H. and P. EP. 3. Of True Honour MY Lord It is safe to complaine of Nature where Grace is and to magnifie Grace where it is at once had and affected It is a fault of Nature and not the least that as she hath dim eies so they are mis-placed Shee lookes still either forward or downward forward to the obiect she desires or downward to the meanes Neuer turnes her eyes either backward to see what she was or vpward to the cause of her good Whence it is iust with God to with-hold what hee would giue or to curse that which he bestowes and to besot carnall minds with outward things in their value in their desire in their vse Whereas true wisedome hath cleare eyes and right set and therefore sees an inuisible hand in all sensible euents effecting all things directing all things to their due end sees on whom to depend whom to thanke Earth is too lowe and too base to giue bounds vnto a spirituall sight No man then can truely knowe what belongs to wealth or honour but the gracious either how to compasse them or how to prize them or how to vse them I care not how manie thousand wayes there are to seeming honour besides this of vertue they all if more still leade to shame Or what plots are deuised to improue it if they were as deepe as hell yet their end is losse As there is no counsell against God so there is no honour without him Hee enclines the hearts of Princes to fauour the hearts of inferiours to applause Without him the hand cannot moue to successe nor the tongue to praise And what is honour without these In vaine doth the world frowne vpon the man whom hee meanes to honour or smile where hee would disgrace Let mee then tell your L. who are fauorites in the Court of heauen euen whiles they wander on earth Yea let the great King himselfe tell you Those that honour mee I will honour That men haue the grace to giue honour to God is an high fauour but because men giue honour to God as their duty that therfore God should giue honour to men is to giue because hee hath giuen It is a fauour of God that man is honoured of man like himselfe but that God alloweth of our endeuours as honour to himselfe is a greater fauour then that vvherewith hee requires it This is the goodnesse of our God The man that serues him honours him and whosoeuer honours him with his seruice is crowned with honour I challenge all times places persons who euer honour'd God and was neglected VVho wilfully dishonoured him and prospered Turne-ouer all Records and see howe successe euer blessed the iust after manie daungers after manie stormes of resistance and left their conclusion glorious how all godlesse plots in their loose haue at once deceiued shamed punished their Author I goe no further Your owne brest knowes that your happie experience can heerein iustifie GOD. The world hath noted you for a follower of vertue and hath seene howe fast Honour followed you VVhiles you sought fauour with the GOD of heauen hee hath giuen you fauour with his Deputie on earth Gods former actions are patternes of his future Hee teaches you what hee will doe by what hee hath done Vnlesse your hand be wearie of offering seruice hee cannot either pull-in his hand from rewarding or hold it out empty Honour him still and God pawnes his honour on not failing you You cannot distrust him whom your proofe hath found faithfull And whiles you settle your heart in this right course of true glorie laugh in secret scorne at the idle endeuours of those men whose policies would out-reach God and seize vpon honour without his leaue GOD laughes at them in heauen It is a safe and holie laughter that followes his And pittie the preposterous courses of them which make religion but a foote-stoole to the seat of aduancement which care for all things but heauen which make the worlde their standing marke and doe not so much as roue at GOD. Manie had sped well if they had begun well and proceeded orderlie A false method is the bane of manie hopefull endeuours God bids vs seek first his kingdome and earthly things shall find vs vnsought Foolish nature first seekes the world and if she light on God by the waie it is more then she expects desires cares for and therfore failes of both because she seekes neither aright Manie had been great if they had cared to bee good which now are crossed in what they woulde because they willed not what they ought If Salomon had made wealth his first suite I doubt he had been both poore and foolish now he asked wisdome and gained greatnesse Because he chose well he receiued what he asked not O the bountie and fidelitie of our God! because we would haue the best he giues vs all Earth shall wait vpon vs because wee attende vppon heauen Go-on then my Lord go-on happily to loue religion to practice it let God alone with the rest Be you a Pattern of vertue hee shall make you a Precedent of glory Neuer man lost ought by giuing it to God that liberall hand returnes our gifts with aduantage Let men let God see that you honour him and they shall heare him proclaime before you Thus shalt it bee done to the man whom the King will honor To Mr NEVVTON Tutor to the Prince EP. 4. Of Gratulation for the hopes of our Prince with an aduising apprecation SIr God hath called you to a great and happy charge You haue the custody of our cōmon Treasure Neither is there any seurice comparable to this of yours whether wee regard God or the world Our labours oft-times bestowed vpon many scarce profit one yours bestowed vpō one redounds to the profit of manie millions This is a summarie waie of obliging al the World to you I incourage you not in your care you haue more comfort in the successe of
vppon the place and saw the number and the neede of the people together with their hunger and applause meeting with the circumstances of Gods strange conueyance of this offer to mee I saw that was but as the fowlers feather to make mee stoope and contemning that respect of my selfe I sincerely acknowledged hyer motiues of my yeelding and resolued I might not resist You are deare to mee as a Charge to a Pastor If my paines to you haue not proued it suspect mee Yet I leaue you God calls mee to a greater worke I must followe him It were more ease to mee to liue secretly hidden in that quiet obscuritie as Saul amongst the stuffe then to bee drawen out to the eye of the world to act so hye a part before a thousand witnesses In this point if I seem to neglect you blame me not I must neglecte and forget my selfe I can but labour wheresoeuer I am GOD knowes how willingly I do that whether there or here I shall dig and delve plant in what ground soeuer my Maister sets mee If hee take mee to a larger fielde complaine you not of losse while the Church may gaine But you are my owne charge No wise father neglectes his owne in compassion of the greater neede of others yet consider that euen carefull Parentes when the Prince commaundes leaue their families and go to warfare What if God had called mee to heauen would you haue grudged my departure Imagine that I am there where I shall bee altho the case bee not to you altogether so hopelesse for now I may heare of you visit you renue my holy counsels and bee mutually comforted from you there none of these Hee that will once transpose mee from earth to heauen hath now chosen to transpose mee from one peece of earth to another what is heere worthy of your sorrow worthy of complaint That should bee for my owne good this shall bee for the good of many If your experience haue taught you that my labours doe promise profit obtaine of your selfe to deny your selfe so much as to reioyce that the losse of a fewe should bee the aduantage of many soules Tho why do I speake of losse I speak that as your feare not my owne and your affection causes that feare rather then the occasion The God of the haruest shal send you a Laborer more able as carefull That is my prayer and hope and shall bee my ioy I dare not leaue but in this expectation this assuraÌ„ce What-euer become of me it shall be my greatest comfort to hear you coÌ„mend your change and to see your happy progress in those wayes I haue both shewed you and beaten So shal wee meete in the ende and neuer part Written to Mr. I. B. and Dedicated to my father Mr. I. HALL EP. 10. Against the feare of Death YOu complaine that you feare Deathe Hee is no man that doth not Besides the paine Nature shrinkes at the thought of parting If you would learne the remedie knowe the cause For that shee is ignorant faithlesse She would not be cowardly if shee were nor foolish Our feare is from doubt and our doubt from vnbeliefe and whence is our vnbeleefe but chiefly from ignorance Shee knowes not what good is else-where shee beleeues not her part in it Get once true knowledge and true faith your feare shall vanish alone Assurance of heauenly things makes vs willing to part with earthly He cannot contemne this life that knowes not the other If you would despise earth therefore thinke of heauen If you would haue death easie thinke of that glorious life that followes it Certainely if we can indure paine for health much more shall we abide a fewe pangs for glorie Thinke how fondly wee feare a vanquisht enemy Lo Christ hath triumpht ouer Death hee bleedeth and gaspeth vnder vs and yet we tremble It is enough to vs that Christ died Neither would he haue died but that we might die with safetie and pleasure Thinke that death is necessarily annexed to nature Wee are for a time on condition that wee shall not be wee receiue life but vppon the tearmes of redeliucrie Necessitie makes somethings easie as it vsually makes easie things difficult It is a fond iniustice to embrace the couenant and shrinke at the condition Thinke there is but one common rode to all flesh There are no by-paths of any fairer or neerer way no not for Princes Euen companie abateth miseries and the commonnesse of an euill makes it lesse fearefull What worlds of men are gone before vs yea how many thousaÌ„ds out of one field How many crownes and scepters ly piled vp at the gates of death which their owners haue left there as spoyles to the Conqueror Haue wee beene at so many graues so oft seene our selues die in our friends and do wee shrinke when our course commeth Imagine you alone were exempted from the common law of mankinde or were condemned to Methusalahs age assure your selfe death is not now so fearefull as your life would then bee wearisome Thinke not so much what Death is as from whom hee comes and for what Wee receiue euen homely messengers from great persons not without respect to their maisters And what matters it who hee bee so hee bring vs good newes what newes can bee better then this That God sends for you to take possession of a kingdome Let them feare death which knowe him but as a pursuiuant sent from hell whome their conscience accuses of a life wilfully filthy and bindes-ouer secretly to condemnation Wee knowe whither wee are going and whom wee haue beleeued Let vs passe on cheerefully through these blacke gates vnto our glory Lastly knowe that our improuidence only addes terrour vnto death Thinke of death and you shall not feare it Do you not see that euen Beares and Tigres seeme not terrible to those that liue with them Howe haue wee seene their keepers sport with them when the beholders durst scarce trust their chaine Bee acquainted with Death though hee looke grimme vppon you at the first you shall finde him yea you shall make him a good companion Familiaritie cannot stand with feare These are receites enow Too much store doth rather ouerwhelme then satisfie Take but these and I dare promise you securitie FINIS The second Decade of Epistles To Sr. ROBERT DARCY EP. 1. The estate of a true but weake Christian IF you aske how I fare Sometimes no man better and if the fault were not my owne Alwayes Not that I can commaund health bid the world smile when I liâ—t How possible is it for a man to bee happie without these yea in spight of them These thinges canne neither augment nor empaire those comforts that come from aboue What vse what sight is ther of the starres when the sunneshines Then onely can I finde my self happy when ouer-looking these earthly things I can fetch my ioy from heauen I tell him that knowes it the contentments that earth
with our profusion If there be any wrong it is to our selues that we vtter what we should lay vp It is a pardonable fault to do less good to our selues that we may doe more to others Amongst other indeuors I haue boldly vndertaken the holy meeters of Dauid how happily iudge you by what you see Ther is none of all my labors so open to all censures none wherof I wold so willingly hear the verdit of the wise and iudicious Perhaps some think the verse harsh whose nice eare regards roundnesse more then sense I embrace smoothnesse but affect it not This is the least good quality of a verse that intends any thing but musicall delight Others may blame the difficulty of the tunes whose humour cannot be pleased without a greater offence For to say truth I neuer could see good verse written in the wonted measures I euer thought them most easie and least Poeticall This fault if any will light vpon the negligence of our people which endure not to take paines for any fit variety The French Dutch haue giuen vs worthy examples of diligence exquisitenesse in this kinde Neither our eares nor voices are lesse tunable Heere is nothing wanting but will to learne What is this but to eate the corne out of the eare because we wil not abide the labour to grinde and knead it If the question be whether our verse must desceÌ„d to theÌ„ or they ascend to it a wise moderatioÌ„ I think would determine it most equall that each part should remit somwhat and both meet in the midst Thus I haue endeuored to do with sincere intent of their good rather then my own applause For it had been easie to haue reached to an higher straine but I durst not whether for the graue Maiestie of the Subiect or benefit of the simplest Reader You shall still note that I haue laboured to keepe Dauids entire sense with numbers neither lofty nor slubbred which meane is so much more difficult to finde as the businesse is more sacred and the liberty lesse Manie great wits haue vndertaken this taske which yet haue either not effected it or haue smothered it in their priuate desks and denied it the common light Amongst the rest were thâ—se two rare spirits of the Sidnyes to whom Poësie was as naturall as it is affected of others and our worthie friend Mr. Syluester hath shewed mee how happily he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas to the sweete Singer of Israel It could not bee that in such aboundant plentie of Poësie this worke should haue past vnattempted would God I might liue to see it perfected either by my owne hand or a better In the mean time let me expect your vnpartial sentence both concerning the forme and sense Lay aside your loue for a while which too oft blinds iudgement And as it vses to be done in most equal proceedings of Iustice shut me out of doores while my verse is discussed yea let mee receiue not your censure onely but others by you this once as you loue me play both the Informer and the Judge Whether you allow it you shall encourage me or correct you shall amend me Either your starres or your spits that I may vse Origens notes shall be welcome to my margent It shall bee happy for vs if God shall make our poore labours any way seruiceable to his Name Church To Mr. SAMVEL SOTHEBY EP. 6. A Preface to his Relation of the Russian affaires TRauell perfiteth wisedome and obseruation giues perfection to trauell without which a man may please his eyes not feede his braine and after much earth measured shall returne with a wearie body and an empty minde Home is more safe more pleasant but lesse fruitfull of experience But to a minde not working and discursiue all heauens all earths are alike And as the end of trauell is obseruation so the end of obseruation is the informing of others for what is our knowledge if smothered in our selues so as it is not knowen to more Such secret delight can content none but an enuious nature You haue breathed many cold ayres gone farre seen much heard more obserued all These two yeares you haue spent in imitation of Nebuchadnezars seuen coÌ„uersing with such creatures as Paul fought with at Ephesus Alas what a face yea what a backe of a Church haue you seene what manners what people AmoÌ„gst whoÌ„ ignorant superstitioÌ„ striues with close Atheisme trechery with cruelty one Diuel with another while Truth Vertue do not so much as giue any chalenge of resistaÌ„ce Returning once to our England after this experience I imagine you doubted whether you were on earth or in heaueÌ„ Now theÌ„ if you wil heare me whoÌ„ you were wont as you haue obserued what you haue seen writteÌ„ what you haue obserued so publish what you haue writteÌ„ It shal be a grateful labor to vs to posterity I am deceiued if the ficklenes of the Russian state haue not yielded more memorable matter of history theÌ„ any other in our age or perhaps many centuries of our predecessors How shal I think but that God seÌ„t you thither before these broils to be the witnes the register of so famous mutations He loues to haue those iust euils which hee doth in one part of the world knowen to the whole those euils which men doe in the night of their secrecie brought forth into the Theater of the world that the euill of mens sinne being compared with the euill of his punishmeÌ„t may iustifie his proceedings condemne theirs Your worke shall thus honour him besides your second seruice in the benefit of the Church For whiles you discourse of the open Tyranny of that Russian Nero John Basilius the more secret no lesse bloodie plots of Boris the ill successe of a stolne Crowne tho set vpon the head of an harmlesse sonne the bolde attempts and miserable end of a false yet aspiring chalenge the perfidionsnesse of a seruile people vnworthy of better gouernours the miscariage of wicked gouernours vnworthy of better subiects the iniust vsurpations of men iust tho late reuenges of God cruelly rewarded with bloud wrong claimes with ouerthrowe trecherie with bondage the Reader with some secret horror shal draw-in delight and with delight instruction Neither knowe I any relation whence he shall take out a more easie lesson of iustice of loyaltie of thankfulnesse But aboue all let the world see commiserate the hard estate of that worthie and noble Secretarie Buchinski Poore gentleman his distresse recalles euer to my thoughts Esops Storke taken amongst the Cranes Hee now nourishes his haire vnder the displeasure of a forraine Prince At once in durance and banishmeÌ„t He serued an ill master but with an honest heart with cleane hands The masters iniustice doth no more infect a good seruant then the truth of the seruant can iustifie his ill master A bad workeman may vse a good instrument and oft-times a cleane napkin wipeth a foule
can afford her best Fauourites are weake imperfect changeable momentary and such as euer end in complaint Wee sorrow that wee had them and while wee haue them we dare not trust them Those from aboue are full and constant What an heauen do I feele in my self when after many trauerses of meditation I finde in my heart a feeling possession of my God! When I can walke and conuerse with the God of heauen not without an opennesse of heart and familiarity When my soule hath caught fast and sensible hold of my Saviour and either pulls him down to it selfe or rather lifts vp it selfe to him and can and dare secretly auouch I knowe whom I haue beleeued When I can looke vpon all this inferiour creation with the eyes of a stranger am trāsported to my home in my thoughts solacing my selfe in the view and meditation of my future glory and that present of the Saints When I see wherefore I was made and my conscience tells mee I haue done that for which I came done it not so as I canne boast but so as it is accepted while my weakenesses are pardoned and my actes measured by my desires and my desires by their sinceritie Lastly when I can finde my selfe vpon holy resolution made firme square fit to entertaine all euents the good with moderate regard the euill with courage and patience both with thanks strongly settled to good purposes constant and cheerefull in deuotion and in a word ready for God yea full of God Sometimes I can be thus and pity the poore and miserable prosperity of the godlesse and laugh at their moneths of vanitie and sorrow at my owne But then againe for why should I shame to confesse it the world thrusts it selfe betwixt me and heauen and by his darke and indigested parts eclipseth that light which shined to my soule Now a senselesse dulnesse ouer-takes mee and besots mee my lust to deuotion is little my ioy none at all Gods face is hid and I am troubled Then I begin to compare my selfe with others and thinke Are all men thus blockish and earthen or am I alone worse then the rest and singular in my wretchednesse Nowe I carie my carcasse vp and downe carelesly and as dead bodies are rubbed without heate I doe in vaine force vpon my selfe delights which others laugh at I endeuour my wonted worke but without an heart there is nothing is not tedious to mee no not my selfe Thus I am till I single my selfe out alone to him that alone canne reuiue mee I reason with my selfe confer with him I chide my selfe and intreat him and after some spirituall speeches interchanged I renue my familiaritie vvith him and he the tokens of his loue to me Lo then I liue againe and applaud my selfe in this happinesse and wish it might euer continue and think basely of the world in comparison of it Thus I hold on rising and falling neither knowe whether I should more praise God for thus much fruition of him or blame my selfe for my inconstancie in good more reioice that sometimes I am well or grieue that I am not so alwaies I striue and wish rather then hope for better This is our warfare we may not looke to triumph alwaies wee must smart sometimes complaine and then againe reioyce that we can complaine and grieue that we can reioyce no more and that we can grieue more Our hope is If wee be patient wee shall once be constant To Sr. EDMVND BACON EP. 2. Of the benefit of Retirednesse and secrecie SVspect if you can that because now many cold winds blowe betwixt vs my affection can be cooler to you True loue is like a strong streame which the further it is from the head runnes with more violence The thoughts of those pleasures I was wont to finde in your presence were neuer so delightful as now when I am barred from renuing them I wish me with you yea if I could or might wish to change I should wish mee your selfe To liue hidden was neuer but safe and pleasant but now so much better as the world is worse It is an happinesse not to bee a witnesse of the mischiefe of the times which it is hard to see and bee guiltlesse Your Philosophical Cell is a safe shelter from tumults from vices frō discontentments Besides that liuely honest and manly pleasure which arises from the gaine of Knowledge in the deepe mysteries of Nature How easie is it in that place to liue free from the common cares from the infection of common euils Whether the Spaniard gaine or saue by his peace and how hee keepes it and whether it were safer for the States to lay downe armes and bee at once still and free Whether the Emperours truce with the Turke were honourable and seasonable or whether Venice haue wonne or lost by her late iarres are thoughts that dare not looke-in at those doores Who is enuied and who pittied at Court Who buyes hopes and kindenesse dearest who layes secret mines to blowe vp another that himselfe may succeede can neuer trouble you These cares dare not enter into that Sanctuarie of Peace Thence you cā see how all that liue publique are tossed in these waues and pitty them For great places haue seldome safe and easie entrances and which is worst great charges can hardly bee plausibly wielded without som indirect policies Alas their priuiledges cannot counteruaile their toile Wearie dayes and restlesse nights short liues and long cares weake bodies vnquiet mindes attend lightly on greatness Either Clients break their sleepe in the morning or the intention of their minde driues it off from the first watch Either sutes or complaints thrust themselues into their recreations and Packets of Letters interrupt their meales It is euer Terme with them without Vacation Their businesses admit of no night no holiday Lo your priuacie frees you from all this and what-euer other glorious miserie There you may sleepe and eate and honestly disport and enioy your selfe and cōmaund both your selfe and others And whiles you are happy you liue out of the reach of Enuie vnlesse my praises send that guest thither which I should iustly condemne as the fault of my loue No man offers to vndermine you none to disgrace you you could not want these incōueniences abroad Yea let a mā liue in the open world but as a looker on hee shall be sure not to want abundance of vexations An ill minde holds it an easie torment to liue in continuall sight of euill if not rather a pleasure but to the well disposed it is next to hell Certainly to liue among Toades Serpents is a Paradise to this One iests pleasantly with his Maker another makes himself sport with Scripture One fills his mouth with oathes of sound another scoffes at the religious One speakes villany another laughes at it a third defends it One makes himself a Swine another a Diuell Who that is not all earth can endure this who cannot