warnings but would not take them before the woe took hold of it And therefore after all those monitions Titus the Son of Vespatian the Emperour was made instrumental to fulfill those many Prophesies which threatned Jerusalems 〈◊〉 overthrow But that Commander and Conqueror though a strangerâ— an adversary and a profest enemy to the Jews and sent to destroy them when he saw as Josephus reports the spoyl and slaughter which fell upon that wofull and most miserable City he calls his Gods to witnesse that he was exceedingly troubled at it He that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished Prov. 17. 5. And if an Heathen a forraign enemy sent to destroy could take no pleasure in executing of punishment though upon enemies but the contrary men which enjoy the light should be by much more troubled in the beholding of slaughters which happen among themselves or brethren And therefore Tully writing to Atticus speaks exceeding wisely in telling him thus extremum est malorum omnium bells civilis victoria His reason because men having done much mischief already in those unnatural engagements are flesh't and heartened to go on and to do more mischief still Hence it was that the very Heathens were not wont to make any triumphs for victories gain'd in their Civil Wars as Lucan speaks Bella geri placuit nullos habitura Triumphos And there is very much to this purpose in that sad but very remarkable story of the Israelites and Benjamites as we may observe in the of Judges Chapters 20. and â—1 Some Benjamites there at Gebiah had committed an abominable wickednesse the rest of that Tribe instead of punishing did patronize it and chose rather to die in the resisting of justice than live and prosper in the furthering thereof It is one of the mad principles of wickednesse that when men have once resolv'd to do a thing be it never so bad and to say they will do it it is very great weaknesse to relent therefore they will chuse to suffer to die rather then yield or go back from their resolutions thinking that causes whatsoever they be when they are once undertaken must be upheld although with bloud And from this false ground the Benjamits there put themselvesin Arms and will be Champions to defend the leudâ—â—ssâ— of their brethren and make themselves worse by the abâ—tting of a monstrous sin than the others were by the commission thereof Because the last was done upon resolution and so probably was not the other Now that no man may conclude a cause therefore good because the successe is so the Tribes of Israel that went against the Benjamits had by far the better of the cause But the Benjamits for the present the better in their success for the wickednesse of Benjamin sped better for a time than the honesty of Israel Twise was the better part foil'd by the lesse and worse the good cause was sent back with shame The evil returned with victory and Triumph But wickednesse could never brag of any long prosperity The triumphing of the wicked is short And wickednesse cannot complain of the lack of payment for still God is even with it at the last as we may observe in the story of those Benjamits who in conclusion were made to pay extreamly dear for their sin In whose example we may take notice that the retaliations of the Lord are sure and just But after all this when the rest of the Tribes of Israel being so highly provoked had slain such a very great number of the Benjamites almost to the utter ruine of their Tribe for acting and abetting such a monstrous wickednesse observe how the rest of Israel behaved themselves towards their Brethren they did not rejoyce and make Triumphs for that their victory but they weep over their dead bodies Judg. 21. 2. and study how that breach a mong the Benjamites which their sin and provocation had enforced the rest of Israel to make might be made up again The Prophet Oded gave good counsel in a case which was something parallel to this and it was well followed 2 Chr. 28. for when they of Samaria had taken a very great number of their brethren of Judah Jerusalem Captives two hundred thousand and much spoil and were carrying it and them to Samaria the Prophet I say gave this counsel that they should not strip and starve but put cloathing on their loins and shoes on their feet and meat and drink in their bellies and send them home again and so they did There are very many who walk quite contrary to these rules and dare do as those wicked ones mentioned in the second Chapter of the book of wisdom saying let us oppresse and let our strength be the rule of Justice as if there were no power either in Earth or Heaven to contradict them But however let others who observe the courses of Gods Providence and withall see the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting of judgement and justice in a Province not marvel at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they In that Parable Luke 16. Dogs are mentioned and why so that their tongues might condemne the mercilesse bowels of their Master who shewed pity in their kinde When their Master had no Compassion on the poor Lazar he not considering that there is a mercy a pity and a care due unto the most despicable piece of humanity Frustra misericordiam petit qui misericordiam non facit in vain shall they one day hope for mercy and pity that will not now exercise it Undoubtedly there is nothing becomes power and greatnesse better than bowels and inwards of pity and mercy These make the faces of men in power to shine and themselves to resemble God who is most properly called optimum maximum first by the name of his goodnesse and then by the name of his greatnesse first by the name of his mercy and then by the name of his might But the ignorance of those Indians before spoken off makes them more pitifull than they need to be and if they had knowledge to make doubt of and to scruple other things as they should I might have spared my next Section which will acquaint my Reader by telling him further SECT XXI Of other strange and groundlesse and very grosse opinions proceeding from the blacknesse and darknesse of ignorance in that people ALl error in the World proceeds either from ignorance commonly joyned with pride or else from wilfulnesse This is most true as in natural and moral so in spiritual things For as knowledge softens sweetens mens manners so it enricheth their mindes which knowledge is certainly a most divine a very excellent thing otherwise our first Parents would never have been so ambitious of it This makes a man here to live twice or to enjoy here a double life in respect of him that wants it But for this knowledge it certainly must be esteemed better or worse by
the Jesuits sent thither by their Superiours to convert people unto Christianity Section 31. p. 452. c. The Corollarie and conclusion ERRATA Pag. line Errata Correct 3 14 who â—nd hee 54 1 but cut 5â— 12 Fort â—ort 70 18 Roopus Roopees 80 5 gently greatly 111 3 brought into bought in 150 22 lost this left that 158 23 by any by way 172 9 Huts Tents 187 5 Tents Tanks 225 7 Numb Psal 235 13 man mad 244 28 into just 250 22 release relief 299 10 Taphat Taphath 305 5 Budda by Budda Bij 325 22 wast rost 351 15 these those 370 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 374 6 pity piety ibid 18 came ran 376 20 words work 414 30 Canker Cancer 428 10 Perum Parveen 433 2 presage promise 438 16 â—eceive revive 439 8 the your 444 1â— after Paul after A Description of EAST INDIA Conveyning the Empire of the Great MOGOLL A Voyage to East-India With a Description of the large Territories under the subjection of the Great Mogol APologies doe more question than strengthen Truth which Truth hath such power in prevailing that she doth not know and much less needs the use of Preface or words of Perswasion to get her credit for though she appear simple and naked unto open view yet dares she encounter with armed falshood and is sure at last to overcome which Truth being the best ornament of this ensuing discourse looks to be credited in what is here faithfully related Veritas est vita Historiae Some that in Countries far remote have been And safe return'd write more than Known than Seen Or Heard that boldness here disclaim shall I Truth is the Life and Soul of Historie So to make a re-entry upon a long-since finished Voyage The third of February 1615. Our Fleet consisting of six good Ships three great viz. the Charles Admirall of that Companie then a New-built goodly Ship of a Thousand Tuns in which I sayled the Unicorn a new Ship likewise and almost of as great a burden the James a great Ship too Three lesser viz. the Globe the Swan the Rose all under the Command of Captain Benjamin Joseph fell down from Graves-end into Tilbury Hope where we continued till the eighth day following when we weighed Anchor and by a slow that we might have the safer passage the twelfth came into the Downs where an adverse wind forced our abode till the ninth of March on which day it pleased God to send us what wee had much desired a North-East wind which made us leave that weary Road and set sayl for East-India and the eleventh about night we were in the height of the Lizard in Cornwall and that day for that time took our last sight of our Country This wind was favourable to us till the sixteenth day at night at which time a most fearfull storm met us we being then in the Bay of Portugal whose violence continued five whole dayes and nights and that Tempest was the most lively and reall Comment that ever I observed on that place recorded in Psal 107. 23. verse c. thus rendred In winged Ships who passage make And through vast Seas their journeys take See while their Ships on Billowes keep God's works and wonders in the deep Who there Commands the Winds to storm These mount the waves on which are born The tottering Ships on watery heaps Now high to th' Heavens then low to th' Deepâ— The Sea-mens hearts they melt for woe Nor Head nor Foot their office know They reel like to a drunken one And stagger for their wisdome's gone Then cry they to the Lord in these Great streights who them hears them frees The winds and waves obey Gods will The storme 's a calm the waves lie still Then are they glad c. The 28. day we had sight of the Grand Canaries and of that Mouâ—tain in the Island of Teneriffa commonly called the Peake Qui Caput inter nubila condit so high As that it threats the Neighbouring skie or that shrowds It 's loftie head amongst the Clouds This over-grown rise of Earth is in shape like to a Pyramis or Sugar-loafe circled and wrapt about which many wreaths of clouds which encompass it by severall distances as first earth then clouds above which the earth appears again then clouds again then earth the top of it being of such an immense height that it may be as truly sayd of this as Virgil. Eclog 5. writes of Olympus Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi Sub pedibusque videt Nubes sidera So beautifull it Heavens unwonted spires And Clouds and Stars under its feet admires This Peake of Teneriffa in a cleer day may be seen if the Mariners report truth more than forty leagues at Sea These Islands lye 28 Degrees of North Latitude The 31. being Easter day we passed under the Tropick of Cancer and the seventh of April the Sun was our Zenith or Verticall at noon day directly over our heads which we found by this infallible Demonstration made by a slender knife or long Needle set upright and did cast no shadow The Sun in this course like the Equinoctiall divides the Globe of the Heavens in two equall parts and in this Motion ariseth so directly or upright that there is but a very little time 'twixt the darkness and the appearance of the body of the Sun in the morning for 't is dark immediatly before the Sun then appears and so 't is in the Evening presently after the Sun hath left the Hemisphere Here wee were becalmed fourteen dayes enduring extreme heat The sixteenth we met with winds we being then against and not far from the Coasts of Africa which the Mariners call the Turnadoes very strange Gusts indeed like those in Aeschylus on the shore Aesc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whirlwinds around Hurry the dust the blasts rebound Storming on all sides thus together Enraged Gusts oppose each other Or like those in Virgil at Sea Aeneid 1. v. 85. c. Haec ubidicta Cavum conversa cuspide montem Impulit in latus at venti velut agmine facto Quà data porta ruunt terras turbine perslant Incubuere mari totumque à sedibus imis Unà Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque procellis Africus vastos volvunt ad littora fluctus Thus sayd with his spears point the hollow Hill He turn'd aside the winds left to their will All sally out and blustering through the world Fall on the Sea which from the depthâ— is hurld By th' East and South at once and stormy North Which to thâ— shore huge wallowing waves roul forth Those self-opposing blasts we there had were so variable and uncertain that sometimes within the space of one hour all the thirty two severall winds which are observed in so many points of the Compasse will blow so that if there
following discourse Mala mens malus animus an evil minde in it self is an evil minde to all others 'T was said of Diogenes that he was tuba convitiorum the Trumpet of reproaches and that when he accused Plato of pride he beat it down with greater pride The Gramarians were laughed at for taking so much pains to find out the faults of Ulysses and would not take notice of any of their own They are the worst of the Creatures that breed in and delight to be ever stirring up and down in corruption But I would have all who have an eye standing too far out of their heads and are therefore apt to see more in others than themselves and consequently may observe more than is meant from some passages of this book to bound all their conceivings aâ— to what they may finde here within the compasse of it by that rule which holds good in charity and law and is true in Divinity likewise in dubiis benigniora that when any thing delivered may bear two interpretations to take the fairest And now that this following relation may not appear to be a losse either of time or paper he that shall please to read it in our passage to East-India may observe very large foot-steps of the Almighty in his works of Creation Providence And when I have brought him thither on shore he may finde that there is not one question as before of any consequence concerning those parts I have undertaken to write of but it findes satisfaction in one part or other of this discourse For the Court there there is so much riches and splendour sometimes to be seen in it that it may draw up the meditations of those which behold it as the thoughts of Fulgentius sometimes were when he beheld the glorie of the Court of Rome raised up seriously to consider of the glorie of Heaven And for the soil it is exceeding pleasant rich and good as in some other parts of the world where the inhabitants are meer strangers to God and if Almighty God hath given such sweet places of abode here on the earth to very many whom he owns not how transcendently glorious is that place which he hath prepared for them that love him Yet for the Inhabitants there a man may clearly see the law of Nature to be so ingraved upon the hearts of very many both Pagans and Mahometans as that it may make multitudes who professe themselves Christians if they would but turn their eyes inward extreamly to wonder how it comes to be so much wor 〈…〉 out of theirs And then he may further behold such Temperance Justice unwearied devotion but in a wrong way with many other excellent Moralitics so to shine its them that by this very light he may see thousands of those whom before I nam'd that have means to know and therefore should do better in many things to come exceeding short of them who themselves are ready to conclude come short of Heaven But I shall not further anticipate my discourse in being like a vain-glorious entertainer who fills the ears of his guests with his dishes before they see or taste them Which if thou shall please to do read on and thou art very welcome however Farewell Edward Terry To his worthy friend Mr. Edward Terry on his Voyage to East-India I. WOrth will break prison though detain'd awhile To try its truth yet lends the World a smile At last the glorious all ey'd Sun though late Defies its cloud asserts its Native state And in a Sovereign Grandeur doth arise To scorn those mists that aim'd it to disguise So doth thine Indian Voyage after years In silence buried please our eyes and ears Not with Vtepian tancies nor with vain Delusions brought unto us from the main Invention backt with boldnesse so set out As if we must believe not dare to doubt No thou to those appeal'st whose knowledge can Upbray'd thee if thou over-act the man Thou seem'st to be thou by his light hast gone Who knows exactly what is wrote or done II. The World 's a Theatre in which each wight His part doth act The body to the Sprite But shadow Faces differ nothing more Than do the Souls which flesh hath cover'd ore On wedg'd is to the gain of homestayes when Another counts his home a Lazers Denn A third man proves so active that he knows No bounds but his vast phaâ—fie overflows With Alexander he to India flies Not it to Conquer but to please his eyes No Sea no danger no amazing foe Gives his brave Emulation overthrow Leviathan's a gudgeon he can vye With Behemoth no monster makes him fly Hurri'd he is from East to West and thence North South to compasse earths circumference Here picks he up a rarity anon Posts to some new discovered Horizon III. Yet fond they are who mak 't their greatest aim To rifle earth onely to purchase fame But you through hazards Torrid Zones arrive To bring some Honey to your Countreys hive No Spices Orient Peals no Tysseus are Thy traffick these with thee accounted ware For pedling dolts thy venture no return Admits but what enrich the mental Urne And makes thy Readers at thy pains appear Acquainted with that South-East Hemisphear Wherein rare secrets of Dame Nature lye Couch'd but discovered knowledge multiply Welfare thy Noble minde which gives us cause To view in it the force of Natures Laws Read in those Indians Proceed and let us know What other fruits within thâ—ne India grow And tell us what thou know'st A man 's not born To see and to observe For 's self alone But to succession we grow still in debt Worth lives when dead day lasts though sun be set Edward Waterhouse Esq To my ancient friend Mr. Edward Terry On his Indian Voyage GEographers present before mens eyes How every Land seated and bounded lies But the Historian and wise Traveller Desery what mindes and manners so journ there The common Merchant brings thee home such waâ—â— As makes thy Garment wanton or thy fare But this hath Traffick in a â—eâ—ter kinde To please and profit both thy virtuous minde He shews what reason finds in her dim night By groping after God with natures light Into what uncouth paths those Nations stray Whom God permits to walk in their own way And how the Sun a Lamp to seek God by Dazles some eyes into idolatry Read it and thou wâ—lt make this gain at least To love thy one true God and Countrey best Henry Ashwood To my ingenious friend and dear Kinsman the Author of these Relations THough most Geographers have the good hap To travel in a safe expencelesse Map And while the world to us they represent No further yet then Pilgrim Purchas went Past Dovers dreadfull cliffe afraid to go And took the Lands end for the worlds end too Spand Countreys at the fingers ends at case Crack'd with their nail all France turn'd blots to Seas Of whom this strong line we may ridling say They
Roman in them it may be applyed to Christians who shew no resolutions for Christ that there is nothing Christian in them they even betraying the cause of Christ while they so faintly maintain it Hardly would they dye for Christ who dare not speake for him certainly they would never be brought to afford him their blood that will not for the present afford him their breath But to returne againe to those Mahometan Priests who out of zeale doe so often proclaim their Mahomet Tom Coryat upon a time having heard their Moolaas often as before so to cry got him upon an high place directly opposite to one of those Priests and contradicted him thus La alla illa alla Hasaret Eesa Ben-alla that is no God but one God and the Lord Christ the Son of God and further added that Mahomet was an Impostor and all this he spake in their owne language as loud as possibly he could in the eares of many Mahometans that heard it But whether circumstances considered the zeale or discretion of our Pilgrim were more here to be commended I leave to the judgment of my Reader That he did so I am sure and I further believe how that bold attempt of his if it had been acted in many other places of Asia would have cost him his life with as much torture as cruelty could have invented But he was here taken for a mad-man and so let alone Happly the rather because every one there hath liberty to profess his owne Religion freely and if he please may argue against theirs without feare of an inquisition as Tom Coryat did at another time with a Moolaa and the Question which of these two was the Mussleman or true Believer after much heate on both sides Tom Coryat thus distinguished that himselfe was the Orthodox Mussleman or true true believer the Moola the pseudo Mussleman or false true believers which distinction if I had not thought it would have made my Reader smile had been here omitted The Mahometans have a set forme of prayer in the Arabian tongue not understood by many of the common people yet repeated by them as well as by the Moolaas they likewise rehearse the Names of God and of their Mahomet certain times every day upon Beads like the miss-led Papists who seem to regard more the Number then the weight of prayers Certainly Will-worship is a very easy duty and if Almighty God would be as much pleased with it as man is so much of that service would not be quite lost But in those services wherein God is highly concern'd to rest in the performance of any duty when t is done or any other way to fayle in the manner of doing it makes those services which some may esteeme holy no better then Sins Prayers an Abomination there being a vast difference twixt saying of prayers and praying of prayers twixt the service of the head and that of the heart prayer and prayer heedefull circumstances considered differing as much as Religion and Superstition But for the carriage of that people in their devotions before they goe into their Churches they wash their feet and entring into them put off their shooes As they begin their devotions they stop their eares and fix their eyes that nothing may divert their thoughts then in a soft and still voyce they utter their prayers wherein are many words most significantly expressing the Omnipotency and Greatness and Eternity and other Attributes of God Many words likewise that seeme to express much Humiliation they confessing in divers submissive gestures their owne unworthiness when they pray casting themselves low upon their Face sundry times and then acknowledg that they are Burdens to the Earth and poyson to the Ayre and the like being so confounded and asham'd as that they seeme not to dare so much as to lift up their eyes towards Heaven but after all this comfort themselves in the mercyes of God through the mediation of Mahomet If this people could as well conclude as they can begin and continue their prayers in respect of their expressions and carriages in them they might find comfort but the conclusion of their devotions marrs all Yet this for their commendation who doubtless if they knew better would pray better that what divorsins and impediments soever they have arising either from pleasure or profit the Mahometans pray five times a day The Mogol doth so who sits on the Throne the shepherd doth so that waits on his flock in the field where by the way they doe not follow their flocks but their flocks them all sorts of Mahometans doe thus whether fixed in a place or moveing in a journey when their times or hours of Prayer come which in the morning are at Six Nine and Twelve of the clock and at three and six in the afternoone When they pray it is their manner to set their Faces that they may look towards Medina neere Mecha in Arabia where their great Seducer Mahomet was buried who promised them after one thousand years to fetch them all to Heaven which terme when it was out and the promise not fulfilled the Mahometans concluded that their fore-Fathers misstooke the time of the promise of his comming and therefore resolved to waite for the accomplishment of it one thousand years more In the mean time they doe so reverence that place where the body of Mahomet was lay'd up that whosoever hath beene there as there are divers which flock yearely thither in Pilgrimage are for ever after called and esteemed Hoggâ—es which signifies holy men And here the thing being rightly and seriously considered it is a very great shame that a Mahometan should pray five times every day that Paganes and Heathens should be very frequent in their devotions and Christians who only can hope for good answers in Prayer so negligent in that great prevailing duty For a Mahometan to pray five times every day what diversions soever he hath to hinder him and for a Christian to let any thing interrupt his devotion for a Mahometan to pray five times a day and for one that is called a Christian not to pray some believing themselves above this and other ordinances five times in a weeke a moneth a year But this will admit less cause of wonder if wee consider how that many bearing the Names of Christians cannot pray at all those I meane which are prophane and filthy and who live as if there were no God to hear or to judg and no Hell to punish Such as these can but babble they cannot pray for they blaspheme the Name of God while they may thinke they adore it I shall adde here a short storie It happened that I once having some discourse with a Mahometan of good quality and speaking with him about his frequent praying I told him that if himselfe and others of his profession who did believe it as a duty to pray so often could conclude their Petitions in the Name of Jesus Christ they might finde much
other cause yet because he is a man is more to be valued than all the Crystal cups in the world And doubtlesse he deserves not the name of a man who knows not how to value a man But how is mankinde in these last ages of the world become degenerate and wilde from that which Nature first shaped it unto For man was made in the beginning to man as Moses was made to Aron Ex. 4. 16. in some sense a God for succour and comfort but how contrary to this rule do most men walk so that we may justly complain with that noble and virtuous French-man Philep Morney saying what is more rare amongst men than to finde a man that is as he interprets himself amongst men how many beasts are there for want of the use of reason and for not using reason well how many Devils Lions saith Pliniâ— fight not against Lions Serpents bite not Serpents but the most mischief man sustains comes from man Thou art deceived saith Seneca if thou givest credit unto the looks of those that meet thee who have the faces of men but the qualities of wilde beasts Some like the Crocodiles of Nilus that can flatter and betray weep and murder cry and kill Oh how hath mankinde in these latter ages justified the madness of the most savage and untractable beasts and steel'd their affections with more cruelty than ever Lions or Serpents could learn in the wildernes But certainly that crying clamouring sin of bloud or murther unlesse it be washed away with a floud of tears issuing from a bleeding and a broken heart and died into another colour by the bloud of Christ will in conclusion bring woe and misery enough upon them that shed it For there was never any drop of innocent bloud spilt upon the earth from the bloud of righteous Abel to this present hour or that shall be shed so long as there are men and malice and mischief in the world but it swells as big as the Ocean Sea in the eyes of God and cannot be washed away by all the waters therein And further neither the heat of the Sun nor the dust of the ground shall ever be able to drie and drink it up till it be either avenged or pardoned unlesse the earth and heavens and all that are therein can be bribed to keep silence and to take no notice thereof Without all doubt when God shall make inquisition for bloud he will remember for he that bottles up the tears of his poor people cannot forget their bloud Whence it comes to passe by the righteous judgement of Almighty God that they who delight in bloud have usually enough of it before they die or if bloud do not touch bloud for the present it will deny a man 〈◊〉 peace after the fact committed Had Zimâ—â— peace who slew his Master 2 King 9 31. no he had no peace no more have any guilty of that sin if their consciences be not for the present â—oof'â— over if the mouth of them be not for the present bung'd up But as it was in that first plague of Egypt wherein Pharaoh and the Egyptians were smitten all their waters in their Rivers Ponds and Pools as in their Vessels of wood stone were changed into bloud So in the minde and conscience of a murtherer there usually remains a plague of bloud His eyes shall behold no other colour but Sanguine as if the air were died into it The visions of his head in the night shall cast a boul of bloud in his face all the cogitations and thoughts of his heart shall overflow with the remembrance of that bloud he hath spilt The consideration of which methinks should be enough to trouble and affright men that lie under the guilt of this sin if they fear either guilt or conscience which will first or last fly in their faces Plutarch writing de serâ numinis vindictâ of the late but sure revenges executed upon men by divine justice hath this story of the Delphians who made no scruple to murder Aesop amongst them but after this when they were most grievously plagued by variety of heavy judgements they who had imbrued their hands in his bloud walked up and down in all the publick assemblies of Greece and caused this to be proclaimed by noise of Criars that whosoever would should be avenged on them for Aesops death They believing themselves the procurers of those plagues which were then upon them Deus patiens redditor God is a patient rewarder whose revenges are slow but sure Fortis â—st Deus Deus retributionum Jet 51. 56. the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite who is many times long before he strike but tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensat the severity of his justice shall at last make a full amends for the slownesse thereof 'T is sad to consider that Heathens as before was observed should have so much tendernesse in their Nature and any bearing the names of Christians so much cruelty that Heathens should make so much scruple in taking away the lives of base inferiour Creatures of those which are not onely uselesse but offensive and men called Christians so forward by wayes of violence to cut off the lives of men never enquiring into the justice of their quarrel but the rate of their pay and as if their own lives and the bloud of others were not worth the valuing will adventure to kill or be kill'd for a dayes wages Thus making havock of men as fearfully made as dearly redeemed as tenderly cherished brought up as themselves yet occidendi causa occidunt they kill because they take pleasure in killing and are no more troubled at the death of a man than if a Dog had fallen before them 'T is true that Lions will tear and Dogs will bark and bite and Serpents will sting because it is in their nature so to do yet men Christians must do otherwise and not make the slaughters of men of multitudes of people professing Christ delightfull arguments of their ordinary discourse or Table talk as if it were a relation that had pleasure in it as if there were no difference 'twixt the cutting down of men and the mowing of Straw and Stubble I confesse that when men have an immediate commission from God to execute vengeance on those he would have destroyed they may do execution with boldnesse without pity or regret for it is as great a fault to spare when God bids destroy for he wrongs the innocent who spares the guâ—lty for which very thing Saul payes dear 1 Sam. 15. as to destroy when God bids spare The Israelites had such a Commission often granted and renewed for the rooting out of those Nations which God would have grubb'd up root and branch and then they were to destroy without pity But afterward that people because they did so much abuse their prosperity and successe and after both their peace they perish themselves by the Sword of War Jerusalem had many-many
4. 17 18. And therefore said the same Apostle Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared unto the glorie which shall be revealed I reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Metaphor either taken from accountants that put many particulars into one entire summe or else from Logicians who draw certain or infallable conclusions from foregoing premises Thus I reckon or I conclude when I compare profit and losse together as what I shall certainly gain and what I may happily loose by the profession of the Gospel when I have put all crosses and incumbrances in the one Scale and the recompence of the reward in the other it amounts all to this that the eternal wâ—ight of the Crown doth exceedingly outweigh the momentary weight of the Crosse Thus it is with all men who in their greatest pressures can see further than earth as that first Martyr professing the Gospel Stephen did who died not upon a bed of Down but under a shower of stones yet could out of that terrible and thick storm look into Heaven and so do others who can behold whatsoever they feel with the eye of Faith and this is like that Tree which Moses cast into the bitter waters of Marah and it made them sweet Exod. 15. But as for others I have named and shall further name to behold their sufferings and torments onely with the eye of sense it must needs make their tortures however they bear them out out of measure to torment I have been told by some who were eye-witnesses whom I dare credite and therefore I dare relate it of strange kindes of death executed by the command of the King of Japan upon his subjects where some are Crucified or nailed to a Crosse Others rather roasted than burnt to death Thus there is a stake set up and a Circle of fire at a pretty distance made round about it the condemned person being naked is so fastned to that stake as that he may move round about it and so doth as long as he is able to stir till his flesh begins to blister then he falls down and there lyes roaring till the fire made about him puts him to silenâ—e by taking away both his voice and life Now they say that one great reason why they put men there unto such exquisite torments is because they hold it a thing of the greatest dishonour there for any man to dye by the hand of an Executioner therefore they are usually commanded when they are sentenced to dye to rip up or cut open their own bellies and those who will not so do are tormented in dying Hence most of that people when as they have received that hard command to prevent death by dying call for their friends about them eat and seem to be merry with them then in the close of the meal and in their presence commit this sad slaughter upon themselves as first those poor wretches make themselves naked to the middle he or they who are to dye then the most wretched self-murderer who is to act that bloudy part strikes a sharp Knife into the bottom of his belly then rips himself up and after gives himself one other cut cross his belly and when he hath done both these if after he can but wipe his bloudy knife upon a white paper or Napkin that is laid by him he is believed to part with his life with a very great deal of honour and immediately as he is made to believe goes to Fakaman whom they say is the God of War So much power the Devil hath in those dark places of the World to make the people there do what he please Oh 't is a misery of all miseries here to be a drudge a bond-man a slave to the Devil as those and so infinite multitudes more professing Christ are by obeying Satan in his most unreasonable commands and yet will not be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place froÌ„ whence I have made some excursion when I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Paricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron Chain which was tied to the hinde leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worne off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his progresse for he appeared then to us a skeliton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appoinâ—ed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venomous Creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till bloud followed the other was fastned to the outside of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet nere a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester of whom Mr. May in his Translation of Lucan the ninth Book thus writes His face and cheeks a sudden fire did rost His flesh and skin were stretch'd his shape was lost His swelling body is distended far Past humane growth and undistinguish'd are His limbs all parts the poyson doth confound And he lies hid in his own body drown'd Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch about half an hour after they were taken from him the Soul of that unnatural Monster left his growing Carkasse and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for
to the soul as it is represented to it the time shall came that he which kills you shall think he doth God good service and upon his false ground a man may be never troubled at the acting of the worst things they shall think they do God good service but they do but think so and shall first or last bemade to pay dear for so thinking so doing But however this will be found a truth that conscience is ever marked and observed by her own eye though no other eye perceive her followed she is and chased by her own foot though nothing else pursue her she flyes when no man followes and and hath a thousand witnesses within her own brest when she is free from all the world beside she is a worm that ever gnaweth a fire that ever burneth and though a guilty man could escape the hands of the â—verliving God yet should he find it misery enough and more than he could possibly beare to he under the rack or lash of a never dying conscience the consciences of the wicked being so filled with the guilt of sin that there is no â—oom left for the peace and consolation of God to dwell in them â—ain felt this weight like a Talent of head upon his soul which he thought could never be removed and therefore he 〈…〉 ers a blasph 〈…〉 y against the grace of God never to be pardoned for if he could have been as forward to ask pardon for his sin as he was to seek protection for his body he might have found it But Nemo polluto queat animâ— mederi No cure so difficult as the cleansing and healing of a polluted soul no balme in Gilead no Phisitian there can of himself help it and as all the wealth of the world cannot buy off the guilt so all the waters in the Sea cannot wash off the filth of one Sin Arctoum licèt Moeotis in me gelida transfundat mare Et tota Tethys per meas currat manus Haerebit altum facinus said the guilty man The Northern Sea Though coole Meotis pour on me And th' Ocean through my hands do run Guilt dy'd in grain will yet stick on Oh this fear when it takes its rise from guilt is a most terrible thing It is written of Tiberius the Emperour a very politick and subtile but a most prodigiously wicked man who to compasse his ends the better was summus simulandi dissimulandi artifex A very Master-peece of dissimulation that for a time he seemed to stand in awe of no power either in Heaven or earth but after this monster had retired himself from Rome to Capriâ— for the more free enjoyment of his most noysome lusts in process of time he had such terrors fell upon him and his natural conscience did so perplex him as that he came to be afraid of every thing as of his friends his guard nay he became like Pashur whom the prophet Jeremy calls Magor-missabib a terror to himself like the man in the Tragaedy who would fain have run out of himself saying Me fugio c. I fly from my self-guiltiness would fain keep out of sight and such shall one day be the horror of the damned as that they would hide themselves if it were possible even in hell A wounded spirit who can beare it is written of Cajus Marius and of Mutius Scaevola men famous in the Roman story that the first of them patiently endured the cutting off his flesh the other the burning off his right hand A wounded estate a wounded name a wounded head a wounded body may be indured but a wounded spirit a wounding conscience is unsupportable cannot be born cannot be endured being like unto a gouty joynt â—o sore and tender as that it cannot endure it self the truth of all this being known by sad experience of all those who either have been or for the present are pressed down under the weight thereof I will now draw towards the conclusion of this discourse but shall first make this request unto him that reads it that I may not be mistaken in any partiâ—ulars laid down in my many digressions for my witnesses are in Heaven and in my own bosome too that I desire to be angry and offended at nothing so much as at that which angers and displeaseth Almighty God hating that which is evill in all and as far as I can know my own heart am desirous to do it in my self first and most But the sad consideration of the strange and still increasing wickednesses of this Nation wherein we breath bid me take leave to enlarge my self far in this case and to rebuke sharply or cuttingly to go to the very quick I say the wickednesses of this Nation to whom that of the Prophet Jeremiah may be fitly applyed that we are waxen fat we shine overpassing the deeds of the wicked putting far from us the evill day while we laugh out the good lying under the most heavy weight both of spirituall and other judgments but feele them not having been like Solomons foole that could laugh when he was lashed in many things justifying Turks Pagans Heathen in being corrupted more than they all Our sins being like that tree which Nebuâ—hadnezzar saw in his vision whose top reached up to Heaven and hath spread it self in its branches over all the parts of the earth here below But I shall not lead my Reader into a dark and melancholly cloud and leave him there for notwithstanding all these sad and horrible truths I have named I must say this that if God have a people a Church in any place under Heaven which none but an Atheist or a Divell will make doubt of they may be found in this Nation and in that we may take comfort for they are the righteous that deliver the Island the remnant that keepe it from desolation and were it not for those few whom the very great multitudes amongst whom they are mingled scorn and hate this Nation could not continue which should make the wicked of this land if not out of piety yet if they understood themselves out of policy to love and respect those for whose sake they fare so much the better God hath had a Church long planted in this Nation and I dare say that since the Gospell hath been published to the world it was never preached with more Power than it hath been here in these later times As for our Fore-fathers they instead of the food of life issuing from the two breasts of the Church the Law and the Gospels were made to feed on moudly fennowed Traditions The book of God was sealed up from them in an unknown tongue which they could neither understand nor read but for us at this present day our Temples are open we may come our Bibles are engshed we may read our Pulpits frequented we may heare from these considerations ariseth a great cause both of wonder greife unto every one who loves the glory of