comfort in those their frequent performances in that great duty He answered that I needed not to trouble my selfe with that for they found as great comfort as they could desire in what they did And presently he would needs inferr this Relation There was said hee a most devout Mussleman who had his habitation in a great City where Mahomet was zealously professed and that man for many yeares together spent his whole day in the Mosquit or Church in the mean time he minding not the world at all became so poor that he had nothing left to buy bread for his family yet notwithstanding his poor condition he was resolved still to ply his devotions and in a morning when he perceived that there was nothing at all left for the further subsistence of himselfe and houshould tooke a solemne leave of his wife and Children resolving for his part to goe and pray and dye in the Mosquit leaving his family if no relief came to famish at home But that very day he put on this resolution there came to his house in his absence a very beautifull young man as he appeared to be who brought and gave unto his wife a very good quantity of Gold bound up in a white Napkin telling her that God had now remembred her husband and sent him his pay for his constant paines taken in his devotion withall charging her not to send for her husband for though he had taken such a solemne leave of her that morning yet he would come home to her againe that night and so he departed from her The woman presently bought in some necessaryes for her house for they had eaten up all before and further made some good provision for her husband against his coming home in the evening for so he did and finding all his family very cherefull and merry his Wife presently told him that there had been such a one there as before described and left so much gold behinde him with that fore mentioned message delivered with it Her husband presently replyed that it was the Angel Gabriel sent from God for the Mahometans speak much of that Angel and he further added that himselfe had nothing to bring home unto her but a little grett or sand which he tooke up in his way homeward and bound it in his girdle which he presently opening to shew her it was all turn'd into pretious stones which amounted unto a very great value in Money The Seventh part of which as of his gold likewise he presently gave to the poore for said he a Mussleman is very charitable and then inferrd that if we doe not neglect God God will not forget us but when we stand most in need of help will supply us Vnto which conclusion we may all subscribe leaving the premises which are layd downe in that story unto those that dare believe them The Mahometans say that they have the Bookes of Moses but they have very much corrupted that story in ascribing that to Ishmael which is said of Isaac Gen 22. as if Ishmael should have beene sacrificed not Isaac of which more afterward They say that they have the Booke of Davids Psalmes and some Writings of Solomon with other parcels of the old Testament which if so I believe a made much to vary from their original They speak very much in the Honour of Moses whom they call Moosa Calim-Alla Moses the publisher of the minde of God So of Abraham whom they call Ibrahim Carim-Alla Abraham the Honored or Friend of God So of Ishmael whom they call Ismal the Sacrifice of God So of Iacob whom they call Acob the blessing of God So of Joseph whom they call Eesoff the betrayed for God So of David whom they call Dahood the Lover and prayser of God So of Solomon whom they call Selymon the wisdome of God all expressed as the former in short Arabian words which they sing in ditties unto their particular remembrances And by the way many of the Mahometans there are called by the names of Moosa or Ibrahim or Ismal or Acob or Eesoff or Dahood or Selymon so others are called Mahmud or Chaan which signifies the Moone or Frista which signifies astarre c. And they call their women by the Names of Flowers or Fruits of their Countrey or by the names of Spices or Odours or of pearls or precious Stones or else by other Names of pretty or pleasing signification As Iob named one of his daughters Jemimah which signifies Cleare as the day the second Keziah which signifies pleasant as Cassia or sweete spice And the name of the third Keren-happuch signifying the Horne or strength of beauty Iob 42. 14. But I 'll return again to that people that I may acquaint my reader with one thing of speciall observation and t is this That there is not one among the Mahometans of any understanding which at any time mentions the name of our blessed Saviour called there Hazareâ— Eesa the Lord Christ but he makes mention of it with high Reverence and respect For they say of Christ that he was a good man and a just that he lived without sin that he did greater miracles than ever any before or since him nay further they call him Rha-how-Alla the breath of God but how he should be the Son of God cannot conceive and therefore cannot believe Perhaps the Socinians first tooke that their opinion from these which bids them to have every thing they receive as truth to be cleered up unto them by the strength of Reason as if there were no need of the exercise of faith And truly I must needs confess that to beleeve the Incarnation of the Son of God is one of the hardest and greatest taskes for Faith to encounter withall that God should be made a Man that this Man Christ should be born of a Virgin that Life should sâ—ring from Death and that from Contempt and Scorne Triumph and Victorie should come c. But Christians must bind up all their thoughts as to these in that excellent meditation of Picus Mirandula saying Mirandam Dei Incarnationem c. concerning that admirable and wonderfull Incarnation of Christ the Son of God I shall not say much it being sufficient for me as for all others that look for benefit by Christ to believe that he was begotten and that he was born These are Articles of our Faith and we are not christians if we believe them not It may seem very strange therefore that the Mahometans who understand themselves better should have such a very high esteem of our Blessed Saviour Christ and yet think us who profess our selves Christians to be so unworthy or so uncleane as that they will not eat with us any thing that is of out dressing nor yet of any thing that is dressed in our vessels There are more particulars which challenge a roome in this Section as their proper place but because I would not have it swell too bigg I shall here part it and speak
how much the object of this knowledge is worse or better Now the best object of this knowledge is a right understanding and knowledge of the true God which that people wants For there is scientia contristans as Bernard speaks a sad an unquiet an unpeaceable and an unsatisfying knowledge as to know that there is a God for so this people do and to be ignorant as this people â—â—llions more are to serve him aright and how to make him their God As for men to know that they are sinners and not to know this unto amendment of life as to know that there is an Heaven and not to know how to attain it As to know that there is an Hell and not to know how to avoid it And more particularly for such as professe Christ to know that Jesus Christ died for sinners and to be ignorant how to apply a Plaster of his bloud and merits unto the hurts of their poor wounded Souls further though knowledge be so excellent for any to seek after the Tree of knowledge more than the Tree of life is a most uncomfortable search Now touching this people they are altogether ignorant of God as they ought to know him and they have no learning amongst them but as much as enables them to write and to read what they have written and they having no insight into the reasons and causes of things I mean the â—uder sort both of the Mahometans and Gentiles when they observe things which are not very ordinary as when they see any Eclipses but especially of the Moon happily some of them sacrificing to her and calling her the Queen of Heaven as those Idolaters did Jer. 44. 18. they make a very great stir and noise bemoaning her much which helps as they conceive to free and bring her out of it Juvenal observing that custom which appears to be very ancient among the Heathens reâ—roves a very brawling clamorous Woman in his sixt Satyre thus Una laboranti poterit succurrere Luna That she made noise enough to deliver the Moon out of an Eclipse Their ignorance in this as in many many other things is much to be pitied as the knowledge and learning of many others which by their not improving of it is to them as the letters which Uriah sometimes carried against himself it condemnes the bearer But though the Hindoos or Heathens there have no learning yet they want not opinions for their divided hearts are there distracted into four-score and four several Sects each differing from others very much in opinion about their irreligion which might fill a man even full of wonder that doth not consider how that Satan who is the author of division is the seducer of them all Those many Sects as I conceive among them consist of people there of several trades occupations and conditions of life which several sorts of people as before I observed marry into their own tribes and so unite and keep together amongst themselves that they had not much correspondency with any other people These without doubt have several wayes of worship within themselves which makes them so seperate from others as that they will not eat with any but those of their own Tribes For Heathens that have neither light nor guide to be thus divided and to live in darknesse hath not so much wonder in it but for Christians who have been in the valley of visions thus to separate ministers matter of wonder or pity nay of both And for us of this Nation if we still continue to multiply opinions in Religion as we have begun which God forbid we shall enlarge the proverb that if a man have lost his Religion and cannot finde it either in Poland nor yet in Amsterdam let him seek for it in England The illiterare Priests of all that people for the generality of them are called Bramins who derive themselves from Bramon whom they say was one of the first men that inhabited the World and after the sin of that first World brought the Flood the race of that Bramon whose very name they highly reverence was continued in Bremaw who as they say out-lived that deluge and is honoured by them likewise as one of their great Prophets Law-givers Those Bramins as I conceive are they which the ancient stories call Brachmanes but with this difference that those Brachmanes were accounted learned men for the learning of those times wherein they lived But those Bramins are a very silly sottish and an ignorant sort of people who are so inconstant in their principles as that they scarce know what the particulars are which they hold and maintain as truths As anciently amongst the Jews their Priesthond is hereditary for all those Bramins Sons are Priests and they all take the daughters of Bramins to be their wives Of which something before They have little Churches they call Pagode standing near or under their green Trees built round But as their ancient Brachmanes were said not to èndure these on the contrary have Images in their Pagods made in monstrous shapes but for what end they have them I know not Now from the manner of those Heathens which I believe hath been for many-many years retained in their Idolatrous worships I conceive that the Jews long ago borrowed that unwarrantable custom of worshipping God in Groves or under green Trees Both men and women before they go to their devotions which are very frequently performed wash their bodies and keep off all their cloaths but the covering of modesty till they have done led hereunto by a precept as they say commanded them to be perform'd by their Law-giver Bremaw which requires them dayly to observe their times of devotion expressed by their washings and worshippings prayer to God which must be all done with purity of hearts And it is the manner of this people before they take their food to wash their bodies then which I much observed while we lived in Tents they make a little Circle upon the ground which they seem to consecrate after which they sit down within that Compasse and eat what they have provided and if any come within that Circle before they have ended their meal they presently quit the place and leave their food behinde them That outward washing as this people think avails very much to their cleansing from sin not unlike the Pharisees who were all for the out-side of Religion and would not eat with unwashen hands Marc. 7. 2. unlesse they washed themselves up to the Elbows as Theophiâ—act observes hence those Hindoos ascribe a certain Divinity unto Rivers but above all to that Famous River Ganges whither they flock dayly in Troups that there they may wash themselves and the nearer they can come to the head of that River the more virtue they believe is in the water After they have thus washed they throw pieces of Gold or Silver according to their devotion and ability into that River and so depart from it Thus Reader
to learn what should be the true reason thereof it being there very far from any shore and the Sea so deep as that we could fetch no ground The 21. we discovered the main Continent of Asia the Great in which East-India takes up a large part The 22. we had sight of Deu and Damon places that lye in the skirts of India principally inhabited and well fortified by Portugals and the 25 of September we came happily to an Anchor in Swally-Road within the Bay of Cambaya the Harbour for our Fleet while they make their stay in these remote Parts Then after a long and troublesome and dangerous passage we came at last to our desired Port. And immediately after my arrival there I was sent for by Sir Thomas Row Lord Embassadour then residing at the Mogol's Court which was very many miles up in the Countrey to supply the room of Mr. John Hall his Chaplain Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford whom he had not long before buried And I lived with that most Noble Gentleman at that Court more than two years after which I returned home to England with him During which space of my abode there I had very good advantage to take notice of very many places and persons and thing travelling with the Embassadour much in Progress with that King up and down his very large Territories And now Reader I would have thee to suppose me setting my foot upon the East-Indian shore at Swally before named On the banks whereof amongst many more English that lye there interred is laid up the body of Mr. Thomas Coryat a man in his time Not us nimis omnibus very sufficiently known He lived there and there died while I was in those parts and was for some Months then with my Lord Embassadour during which time he was either my Chamber-fellow or Tent-mate which gave me a full acquaintance of him That Greek-travelling-Thomas they which know his story know why I call him so formerly wrote a Book entituled Coryats â—rud 〈…〉 ies Printed in the beginning of the year 1611. and then ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those Times which did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the sale thereof doing themselves much more honor than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks And if he had lived he would have written his last Travels to and in and out of East-India for he resolved if God had spared him life to have rambled up down the world as sometimes Ulysses did and though not so long as he yet ten full years at least before his return home in which time he purposed to see Tartaria in the vast parts thereof with as much as he could of China and those other large Places and Provinces interposed betwixt East-India and China whose true Names we might have had from him but yet have not He had a purpose after â—his to have visited the Court of Prester John in Aethiopia who is there called by his own people Ho Bâ—ot The King and after this it was in his thoughts to have cast his eyes upon many other places which if he had done and lived to write those Relations seeing as he did or should such variety of Countries Cities Nations Things and been as particular in them as he was in his Venetian Journal they must needs have swoln into so many huge Volumns as would have prevented the perishing of Paper But undoubtedly if he had been continued in life to have written them there might have been made very good Use of his Observations for as he was a very Particular so was he without question a very Faithful Relator of things he saw he ever disclaiming that bold liberty which divers Travellers have and do take by speaking and writing any thing they please of remote parts when they cannot easily be contradicted taking a Pride in their feigned Relations to overspeak things being resolved in this case Not onely things to do but or'-do Speaking writing all and more too I therefore for my part believing this Relaton to be none of those have taken some things from his trust and credit in this my following Discourse And because he could not live to give an account unto the world of his own Travels I shall here by the way make some little discovery of his footsteps and flittings up and down to and fro with something besides of him in his long peregrinations to satisfie very many yet living who if they shall please to read this Discourse may recall that man once more into their remembrance who while he lived was like a perpetual motion and therefore now dead should not be quite forgotten In the year 1612. he shipt himself from London for Constantinople now called by the Turks Stombole where he took special notice of all things there most observable In which place he found very great respect and encouragement from Sir Paul Pinder then and there Embassadour to whose House he had free and welcom access whensoever he pleased Being there for some time he took his opportunities to view divers parts in Grecia and in the Hellespont took special notice of those two Castles directly opposed to each other called Sestos and Abydos which stand on the several banks that bound that very narrow Sea which Places Musaeus makes famous in his very antient Poem of Hero and Leander He desired much to see where those seven Churches sometimes famous in Asia the Less stood but since their sin so darkned their light and God removed their Candlesticks from them as before he threatned those Places lye so in the dark that it cannot be well discovered where they once were Onely Smyrna is famous at this present day for Trade but not Religion and Ephesus and some others of them keep their names still though they left and lost their Faith and profession of Truth with the rest He saw what yet remains of the Ruins of sometimes great Troy but Jam Seges est ubi Troia fuit That place which was once so populous as if it had been sow'n with People And seeded thus had after born Millions of men now 's sow'n with Corn. And O jam periere Ruinae the very Ruins of that place are almost all gone to Ruine The most observable thing there yet remaining is part of an exceeding great House which is continued by Tradition to have been sometimes a part of the famous Palace of great King Priamus From Smyrna he found a Passage to Alexandria in Egypt Egypt that is called by some in regard of the Plenty it produceth the Granary or Storehouse of the World And in Egypt near Gran-Câ—iro antiently called Memphis he observed what remains of the once fam'd Pyramids Returning thence back to Alexandria with one Englishman more they found a pass by Sea to Jatta antiently called Joppa and there they met some others going to Jerusalem which is about twenty English miles distant
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
Act. 9. 37. They lay up none of the bodies of their dead in their Misquits or Churches as before but in some open place in a grave which they dig very deep and wide a Jewish custom likewise to carry the bodies of their dead to bury them out of their Cities and Towns Luke 7. 12. Their mourning over their dead is most immoderate for besides that day of general lamentation at the end of their Ram-Jan or Lent before mentioned they houl and cry many whole dayes for their friends departed immediately after they have left the world and after that time is passed over many foolish women so long as they survive very often in the year observe set dayes to renue their mourning for their deceased friends and as a people without hope bedew the graves of their husbands as of other their near relations with abundance of seemingly affectionate tears as if they were like those mourning women mentioned Jer. 9. 17. who seemed to have tears at command and therefore were hired to mourn and weep in their solemne lamentations And when they thus lament over their dead they will often put this question to their deaf and dead Carkasses why they would die They having such loving wives such loving friends and many other comforts as if it had been in their power to have rescued themselves from that most impartial wounding hand of death Which carriage of theirs deserves nothing but censure and pity though if it be not Theatrical we may much wonder at it and say of it as it was said of the mourning in the floor of Atad Gen. 50. 11. that it is a grievous mourning or as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. 11. if we take those lamentations onely in a literal sence But to speak unto this as a Christian certainly the Apostle who forbids immoderate mourning for friends departed 1 shef 4. 13. imployes and allows of that mourning which is moderate To behold a great Funeral where there are abundance of mourning garments and no weeping eyes is not a good sight for a man to die as Jehojakim a very bad Son of an excellent good Father of whom it was sadly prophesied that he should die without lamentation non plangent eum Eheu frater they shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother his Ashes should not be moistned with one tear and to be buried as Jehojakim was with the burial of an Asse Jer. 2. 18 19. is very sad And doubtlesse it had been better for a man never to have been born than to live undesired and to die unlamented For a man to run a long race through the world and to leave no token of good behinde him but to be like an Arrow shot by a strong arm up into the aire wherein it flies a great circuit yet immediately after it is fal'n it cannot be discern'd that it was ever there I may say of such a one that he was born out of due time or rather that it had been good for him if he had not been born at all But now further concerning their places of Burial many Mahometans of the greatest qualitie in their life time provide fair Sepulchres for themselves and nearests friends compassing with a firm wall a good circuit of ground near some Tank before spoken of about which they delight to Burie their dead or else they close in a place for this use near springs of water that may make pleasant fountains near which they erect little Misquits or Churches near them Tombs built round or four square or in six or eight squares with round vaults or Canopies of stone over head all which are excellently well wrought and erected upon Pâ—llars or else made close to be entered by doors every way under which the bodies of their dead lie interred the rest of that ground thus circled in they plant with fruit Trees and further set therein all their choisest flowers as if they would make Elysian fields such as the Poets dream'd of wherein their Souls might take repose Thus to bury as it should seem was an ancient custom for it is written of Manasseh King of Judah that he was buried in the garden of his own house so of his Son Amon that he was buried in that garden likewise 2 King 21. 18. and 26. verses thus I seph of Arimathea had his Sepulchre in his garden and it was well placed there that when he was in the place of his greatest delight his meditations might be seasoned with the thoughts of his death There are many goodly Monuments which are richly adorned built as before was observed to the memory of such as they have esteemed Paeres or Saints of whom they have a large Kalender in which are Lamps continually burning attended by votaries unto whom they allow Pensions for the maintaining of those lights and many transported there with wilde devotion dayly resort to those monuments there to contemplate the happinesse those Paeres as they imagine now enjoy And certainly of all the places that Empire affords there are none that minister more delight than some of their burying places do neither do they bestow so much cost nor shew so much skill in Architecture in any other structures as in these Now amongst many very fair Piles there dedicated to the remembrance of their dead the most famous one is at Secandra a Village three miles from Agra it was begun by Achabar-sha the late Mogols Father who there lies buried and finished by his Son who since was laid up beside him The materials of that most stately Sepulchre are Marble of divers colours the stones so closely cemented together that it appears to be but one continued stone built high like a Pyramis with many curiosities about it and a fair Misquit by it the Garden wherein it stands very large planted as before and compassed about with a Wall of Marble this most sumptuous Pile of all the structures that vast Monarchy affords is most admired by strangers Tom. Corâ—at had a most exact view thereof and so have many other English men had all which have spoken very great things of it And if we here step aside to look into other Countreys and stories we may observe much to this purpose though none that I have ever heard of like that I last named where many whose foregoing lives have little deserved those following remembrances yet after death have had their bodies lodged in rich Monuments when others of great worthâ— and most deserved memory have been very obscurely buried Varro writes of Licinius or Licinus but a Barber to Augustus Caefar who getting wealth was after his death honoured with a fair Monument of Marble when grave and wise Cato had but a small meer stone to cover him and renowned Pompey had in this kinde no remembrance at all of all whom Varro briefly writes thus Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet at Cato parvo Pompeius nullo Licinus entomb'd under rich Marble stone Cato a
nature to do hurts and they cannot help it but as for themselves they further say that God hath given them reason to shun those Creaturâ—s but not liberty to destroy them And in order to this their conceit the Banians who are the most tender hearted in this case of all that people have Spittles as they say on purpose to recover lame birds beasts Some ground for this their tendernesse happily proceeds from this consideration that they cannot give life to the meanest of the sensible Creatures and therefore think that they may not take the lives of any of them for the poorest worm which crawleth upon the face of the earth tam vita vivit quam Angelus as one of the ancients speaks live for the present as much as the Angels and cannot be willing to part with that life and therefore they imagine that it is most injurious by violence to take it But as I conceive the most principal cause why they thus forbear to take the lives of inferiour Creatures proceeds from their obedience unto a precept given them by one of their principal and most highly esteemed Prophets and Law-givers they call Bremaw others they have in very high esteem and the name of one of them is Ram of another Permissar I am ignorant of the names of others and I conceive that my Reader will not much care to know them But for him they call Bremaw they have received as they say many precepts which they are carefull to observe and the first of them This Thou shalt not kill any living Creature whatsoever it be having life in the same for thou art a Creature and so is it thou art indued with life and so is it thou shalt not therefore spil the life of any of thy fellow-Creatures that live Other precepts they say were delivered unto them by their Law-giver about their devotions in their washings and worshippings where they are commanded To observe times for fasting and hours for watching that they may be the better fitted for them Other directions they have about their festivals wherein they are required To take their food moderately in not pampering their bodies Concerning Charity they are further commanded To help the poor as far as they are possibly able Other precepts they say were given them likewise in charge as Not to tell false tales nor to utter any thing that is untrue Not to steal any thing from others be it never so little Not to defraud any by their cunning in bargains or contracts Not to oppresse any when they have power to do it Now all those particulars are observed by them with much strictnesse and some of them are very good having the impression of God upon them but that scruple they make in forbearing the lives of the Creatures made for mens use shews how that they have their dweling in the dark which makes them by reason of their blindnesse to deny unto themselves that liberty and Soveraignty which Almighty God hath given unto man over the beasts of the field the fowles of the Air and the fishes of the Sea appointed for his food given unto him for his service and sustenance to serve him and to seed him but not to make havock and spoil of them However the tendernesse of that people over inferiour Creatures shall one day rise up in judgement against all those who make no scruple at all in taking the lives not of sensible Creatures but men not legally to satisfie good and known Laws but violently to please their cruel and barbarous lusts Histories are fill'd with many inhumane and strange examples of this kinde Valerius writes of Lucius Sylla whose cruelty and thirst after bloud made him a Monster of mankinde a very Prodigy of Nature that when he had caused some thousands of men to be put to death or more properly to be murdered in one day he presently gave command that this monstrous fact of his should be recorded least the memory of so honourable an action for so he call'd in might be forgotten He kill'd a Gentleman of Rome at the same time for not enduring the sight of an innocent man of quality whom he saw causelesly murdered Never saith the Author was it heard of before that pity should be punished and that it should be thought a Capital offence to behold a Murder with grief For that Sylla it might have been said of him as it was afterward of Nero that he was a Creature made up of dirt and bloud a Monster set upon mischief who had so much malice and cruelty in his Nature as any other may have left in his bloud that Valerius writes thus further of him ut in dubio esset Syllâ—ne prior an iracundia Syllâ— sit extinctâ— that it was a question whither himself or anger were first extinguished most strange and turbulent perturbations and storms o anger and malice and mischief quando ir a mortalium debet esse mortalis as Lactantius well spake when the anger of mortal men should be mortal like themselves And so most barbarous and cruel are all they whatsoever they be who have their hearts so bound and confirm'd as it were with sinews of iron that they delight in nothing so much as in the slaughter of men whatsoever they be whither strangers or brethren and then make their boasts and brags I have knockt so many on the head saith one and I have kill'd so many saith another and I so many saith a third and others so many and so many which clearly shews that they are Children of their Father the Devil who was a murderer from the beginning for his language is ever in their mouths ure seca occide burn cut kill do execution and take no pity spare not sparo none whether strangers or known persons old or young men women children brethren or whosoever else comes and crosseth them in their way as it was in the dayes of that monstrous Sylla before named when Gray-heads young Orphans Virgins pregnant wives All died 't was crime enough that they had lives That Empresse was of a far better minde who wisely advertised her husband sitting and playing at Tables minding his Game more than the Prisoners before him on whom he pronounced the sentence of death his wife I say thus spake unto him as Aelian reports non est vita hominum talorum ludus c. the life of man is not as a Game at Tables where a woodden-man is taken away by a blot and thrown aside and after taken again into the play and there is no hurt done but the life of a living man once lost is irrecoverable When Vedius Pollio a Roman at a Supper provided for Augustus the Emperour would have drown'd his servant because he had broken a cup of Christal the Emperour though an Heathen withheld him and controuled him in these words as Plutarch reports saying Homo cujuscunque conditionis quatenus homo c. a man of what condition so ever he be if for no
thou hast somewhat of the carriages of this people in life Now after death some of them talk of Elyzian fields such as the Poets dream'd of to which their Souls must passe over a Stix or Acheron and there take new bodies Others of them think that ere long the World will have an end after which they shall live here again on a new earth Some other wilde conceivings of this people follow afterward Some Bramins have told me that they acknowledge one God whom they describe with a thousand eyes with a thousand hands and as many feet that thereby they may expresse his power as being all eye to see and all foot to follow and all hand to smite offenders The consideration whereof makes that people very exact in the performances of all moral duties following close the light of Nature in their dealings with men most carefully observing that Royal Law in doing nothing to others but what they would be well contented to suffer from others Those Bramins talk of two books which noâ— long after the Creation when the World began to be peopled they say were delivered by Almighty God to Bramon before spoken of one of which books they say containing very high and secret and Mysterious things was sealed up might not be opened the other to be read but onely by the Bramins or Priests And this book thus to be read came after as they further say into the hands of Br 〈…〉 of whom likewise something before and by him it was communicated unto Ram and Permissar two other fam'd Prophets amongst them which those Heathens do likewise exceedingly magnifie as they do some others whose names I have not Now that book which they call the Shester or the book of their written word hath been transcribed in all ages ever since by the Bramins out of which they deliver precepts unto the people They say that there are seven Orbi above which is the seat of God and that God knows not small and petty things or if he do regards them not There have been Philosophers of the like minde who madly thought that Almighty God had no regard of humane affairs For which very thing Tully though an Heathen doth most highly condemne them The Peripateticks housed the Providence of God above the Moon and thought that it had no descent beneath the Circle thereof to intend inferiour things and businesses The Atheists in the Psalm who say that there is no God inferre from hence how can God see what do the Epicures in Job say lesse or Eliphaz speaking in their names Job 22. how can God know can he judge through the dark clouds the clouds hide him that he cannot see and Chap. 24. 14 15. he brings in the murderer and adulterer acting their parts with much boldnesse confidence and presumption upon this false ground that no eyes see them for if they did believe the contrary then certainly they would not dare to do what they do which shews that there is a very Atheisme in the hearts of most men which makes them not afraid to do that in the presence of an all-seeing God which for fear or shame they durst not do in the sight of a little Childe Averroes a Spanish Phisician that he might seem to be mad with reason by reason goes about to exempt and with-draw smaller things from the sight and providence of God as if it were most injurious to bring down the Majesty of God so low thinking that the knowledge and understanding of God would become vile if it were abased by taking notice of mean and inferiour objects A very strange opinion as if a looking-glasse were deformed because it represents deformities Or the Beams of the Sun defiled because they fall upon dunghils and other filthy places or the Providence of God vilified who though he hath his dwelling so high yet he abaseth himself to behold the things in heaven and in earth Psal 113. 6. As he spake the word in the beginning so all things were made Gen. 1. thus ever since he sustaineth and beareth up all things by the power of that word Heb. 1. His Creation was the Mother to bring things forth his Providence the Nurse to bring them up His Creation a short Providence his Providence a perpetual Creation The first setting up the frame of the house the second looking to the standing and reparations thereof And therefore I will bring in Tully again to gain-say and condemne those forenamed mad opinions who in his first book de naturâ deorum tells us that the Providence of God reacheth usque ad Apium For 〈…〉 que perfectionem to the husbanding of Bees and Pis 〈…〉 irâ—s And in his eight book on the same subject where speaking against the Epioures and Atheists of that age he saith curiosus plenus negotii Deus that God is a curious God exquisite in all things and full of businesse So far he an Heathen could see and so much say But a Christian that knows more can speak further that God is not a carelesse an improvident God or a God to halves and in part above and not beneath the Moon as the Syrians dreamed upon the mountains and not in the valleys but he is a God in lesser as well as in greater matters Who beholds at one view all places and all persons and all things And as our times are in Gods hands so he takes notice of every thing done by us in every minute and moment of our time He knowing all things not as they appear but are simplici notitia as the Schools speak with a sure certain exact knowledge Thus he takes notice of every sin that is committed and of every circumstance in sinning He saw the â—ins of the whole World in the book of his eternity long before the foundations of the World were laid He sees them in every mans breast before his hands commit them I knew thee saith God before thou camest forth of the Womb Jer. 1. 5. And God tells Israel that he knew what they meant to do long before they came out of the land of Egypt the consideration whereof may curb and confound all those that say God shall not see This Providence of God did reach to the handfull of Meal and the cruise of Oil in the poor Widows house 2 King 4. And so it reacheth to the Calving of Hindes to the feeding of young Lions and Ravens to the falling of Sparrows on the ground to the numbring of our hairs as to every thing beside But to return again to that people the Hindoos I spake of and these circumscribe God to place and further conceit that he may be seen but as in a mâ—st afar off but not near They further believe that there are Devils but so fettered and bound in chains as that they cannot hurt them I observed before the tendernesse and scrâ—ple which is in very many of that people in taking the lives of any inferiour and meeâ—ly sensible I of
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
unto me and I never went abroad amongst that people but those that met me upon this consideration that I was a Padrae for so they call'd me a Father or Minister they would manifest in their behaviour towards me much esteem unto me But for the Jesuits there There was one of that order in Goa a City of the Portugals lying in the skirts of India of very much fame and renown called Jeronymo Xauere sent for by Achabar Sha the late Kings Father in the year 1596. to argue before him the doctrine of Christianity there being alwaies present a Moolaa or Mahometan Priest and a third person who followed no precise rule but what the light of nature meerly led him to and these two were to object what they could against his reasoning The Jesuit in the Mogols own language which was a great advantage to him began to speak first of the Creation and then of the fall of man in which the Mahometans agree with us Then he layd down divers grounds to bottom his reasonings on That man by Creation was made a most excellent Creature indued with the light of reason which no other sublunary Creature besides himself had then That man thus endued must have some rule or Law to walk by which he could not prescribe unto himself and therefore it must be given him from above That this Law was first given unto man from God and afterward confirmed by Prophets sent into the world in divers ages from God That this Law thus delivered must needs be one Law in all things agreeing in it self And so did not the Law of Mahomet That this thus delivered was most conformable to right reason And so was not the Law of Mahomet That man fall'n from God by Sin was not able to recover himself from that fall and therefore it was necessary that there should be one more than a man to do it for him and that that one could not be Mahomet That this one was Christ God as well as man God to satisfie the Mahometans themselves confessing that Christ was the breath of God and man to suffer death as he did That Christ the Son of God coming into the world about that great work of satisfying Gods anger against man for sin it was necessary that he should live a poor and laborious life here on Earth at which the Mahometans much stumble and not a life that was full of pomp and pleasure and delicacie That the Gospel of Christ and other holy Books of Scripture which the Christians retain and walk by contain nothing in them that is corrupt and depraved But there is very much to be found in their Alcaron which is so That the great worth and worthiness shining in the person of Christ was by far more excellent than any thing observable in Mahomet for they themselves confess that Christ lived without sin when Mahomet himself acknowledgeth that he had been a filthy person That the feigned and foolish and ridiculous miracles which they say were done by Mahomet were nothing comparable to the miracles done by Christ who as the Mahometans confess did greater miracles than ever were done before or since him That there was a great deal of difference in the manner of promulgating the Gospel of Christ into the world and the introducing of the Laws of Mahomet That Christ hath purchased Heaven for all that beleeve in him and that Hell is prepared for all others that do not rely on him and on him alone for Salvation There were many more particulars besides these which that Jeronymo Xaucere laid down before the Mogol to ground his arguments on which that King heard patiently at severall times during the space of one year and half but at last he sent him away back again to Goa honourably with some good gifts bestowed on him telling him as Felix did after he had reasoned before him that he would call for him again when he had a convenient time Acts 24. 25. Which time or season neither of them both ever found afterward These particulars which I have here inserted with many more I might have added to them upon all which that Jeronymo Xaucere enlarged himself before the Mogol in his arguings before him were given unto me in Latine by Francisco Corsi another Jesuit resident at that Court while I was there and long before that time And further I have been there told bâ— other people professing Christianity in that Empire that there was such a dispute there held and for my part do beleeve it For that Francisco Corsi he was a Florentine by birth aged about fifty years who if he were indeed what he seemed to be was a man of a severe life yet of a fair and an affable disposition He lived at that Court as an Agent for the Portugals and had not onely free access unto that King but also encouragement and help by gifts which he sometimes bestowed on him When this Jesuit came first to be acquainted with my Lord Ambassadour he told him that they were both by profession Christians though there was a vast difference betwixt them in their professing of it And as he should not go about to reconcile the Ambassadour to them So he told him that it would be labour in vain if he should attempt to reconcile him to us Onely he desired that there might be a fair correspondency betwixt them but no disputes And further his desire was that those wide differences 'twixt the Church of Rome and us might not be made there to appear that Christ might not seem by those differences to be divided amongst men professing Christianity which might be a very main obstacle and hinderance unto his great design and endeavour for which he was sent thither to convent people unto Christianity there Telling my Lord Ambassadour further that he should be ready to do for him all good offices of love and service there and so he was After his first acquaintance he visited us often usually once a week And as those of that society in other parts of the world are very great intelligencers so was he there knowing all news which was stirring and might be had which he communicated unto us And he would tell us many stories beside one of which if true is very remarkeable And it was thus there are a race of people in East India the men of which race have if he told us true their right legges extraordinary great and mishapen their left legges are like other mens Now he told us that they were the posterity of those who stamped St. Thomas the Apostle to death come thither to Preach the Gospel and that ever since the men of thaâ— race have and onely they of that Nation that great deformity upon them Some few people I have there seen of whom this story is told but whither that deformity be like Gehiza's leprosie hereditary and if so whither it fell upon that people upon the occasion before named I am yet to learn The
little refined for Grace Will for Conscience So a floating knowledge for true wisdom cruelty for Justice covetousness for frugality baseness for humility presumption for hope a distempered heat for true zeal and vaine credulity for faith And the reason of all this is because the best Graces have their Counterfeits and from hence come those many mistakes Now for the power and truth of Religion we shall the better know it if we first briefly discover what it is not and then what it is What it is not It doth not consist in a bare hearing of the word though heard never so frequently nor in a bare performance of other duties which are good in themselves though praiers perform'd ne'r so constantly long prayers wil not excuse the devouring of vvidovvs houses nor the doing of other good duties any the like acts of oppression and violence Thou Preachest thou hearest thou readest thou prayest but how livest thou what doest thou if these questions cannot be well resolved all good performances will prove nothing worth Again the power and truth of Religion is not manifested in a rash censuring and condemning of others I am not as other men are nor as this Publican you know who said it It doth not consist in the exalting of a mans self above others whatsoever his gifts and graces are It is not to be found meerly in an ability to talk or prattle or dispute or wrangle and after to hold the conclusion whatsoever may be said against it in the premises But for the truth and power of Religion if we would briefly and in some particulars know what it is it is that which makes a man labour first to know and then to believe and to do whatsoever is to be beleâ—ved and to be done but to believe and do rather than to know It is that which makes a man put a better esteem upon others than upon himself It is that which puts a guard on the lips a bridle on the tongue a cuâ—b on the will and gives Rules to the affections vvhich vvhen they are high and exalted keep the heart still lovv Because the more acquaintance the heart hath vvith God the more humble it is even beholâ—ing through Gods purity it s ovvn vileness And therefore a man in vvhom the truth and povver of Religion shines vvhen he hears of sinners borrovvs the Apostles language and saith of himself that I am the chief for he keeping a continuall guard and vvatch over himâ—elf can accuse himself of thousand both faylings and sins vvhen he is free from all the vvorld beside This further makes a man to behold indifferent things vvith obedience rather than vvith opposition or dispute knovving that the vvisdom vvhich is from above 〈◊〉 first pure and then peaceable Briefly therefore when the truth and power of Religion is separated from the profession thereof a mans Religion is nothing worth for in this Case there is small difference 'twixt an Israelite and an Ishmaelite 'twixt a Circumcised Hebrew and an uncircumcised Philistine 'twixt a Bapâ—ized Englishman and an unwashen Turk Fâ—r the barren Figtree in Gods Orchard is in no better case than the bramble in the wilderness for God will lap them both up in the same bundle of condemnation It being all one to deny the faith and not soundly and sincerely to profess it It is reason which makes us men it is Religion that makes us Christians woe be to us that we were borne men if we be not Christians woe be to us that we are called Christians if our lives shame our Christianity if we be not Christians in deed and in earnest as well in name and in profession so We quarrell at the superstition and blind devotion of others But let us examine our selves whether superstition in them hath not a great deal of more heat in it than Religion in us whether in their blind devotion the avvfulness in their seâ—vices of God doth not arraign and condemn irreverence in ours Ready we are to judge the Papists for their rash vows of C 〈…〉 y but let not us that do so ever hope thaâ— uâ—cleaneness will bring us to Hea 〈…〉 n. And we that are forward to condemn the Pâ—pâ—sts for their mad conceivings about works of Supererrogation must never think that Faith without works will justifie us before God That we who wonder at such people as I have named in East India as at others for their austeritie of life which they voluntarily and unconstrainedly submit unto in their will-worships must never conceive that doing vvhat vve please what vve vvill can bring us at last to true happiness God hath called us saith the Apostle to glory and vertue to vertue and holiness as the means to glory and happiness as the end That thereforeof St. Hierom is undoubtedly true â—ifficile imò impossibile est quis transeat à deliciis ad delicias c. That it is an hard yea an impossible thing for a man to leap from pleasure to Paradice here to have his belly fill'd continually with the delicacies of the Creatures there to have his mind satisfied vvith the fulness of joy and in both vvorlds to appear glorious Stories are fill'd with rare examples of virtue even in Heathens Seneca the Philosopher Writes of Sixtius that vvhen the day was ended and the night vvas come vvherein he should take his rest he vvould first ask his mind quoa malum sanasti hodie c vvhat evill hast thou healed this â—ay vvhat vice hast thou withstood and in what part art thou bettered I find this recorded of another who was so exact in his walking that his whole life was perpetua censura c. a continuall censure of himself Aristides for his uprightness was called the just And Tully Writes of Fabricius that he was a man who would resolve well and after so unmoveably bent to perform what he had resolved to do ut facilius solem è suo cursu c. that you might as â—oon put the Sun out of hiâ— course as Fabricius from his intended purpose I have obâ—erved before that very many people in East India what lets and impediments soever they have will by no means omit their frequent devotions nor any other thing they esteem themselves bound to perform as to Gâ—d â—he far greater shame for Christians when every trâ—â—â—e is sufficient to make such a Dâ—veâ—sion as may hinder them in Religious dutâ—es And for many of those Heathens I have spoken of they live up even to the very height of nature and want means to lead them further Now what shall I say more of them surely thus that our Blessed Saviour lik'd and loved the young man in the Gospel Mar. 10. 21. even for that moralitie he saw in him Jesus beholding him loved him And so may Almighty God who is infinite in mercy look in favour upon many of these poor Creatures that go as far as they can in shewing them Jesus Christ and in his face beholding them for many shall come from the East and West and North and South and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac andâ—acob â—acob in the Kingdom of Heaven But this is a consideration lockt up amongst Gods secrets and therefore I dare not pry any more or further into it neither shall I for the present enlarge my self in this Miscellany which I could have made to swell into a Volume But if that I have written be as well taken as it is well meant it is enough if not too much However there are two things which I must adde in relation to my self The first that I may not alwaies lye at the mercy of my Reader this though difficile est Satyram non scribere that if my Pen hath let fall any thing in this discourse unbeseeming my calling and years I most humbly beg pardon for that I shall leave the Press to make an ansvver for it self For the Second I shall presume one pardon and that is for the leaneness and lowness of my stile vvherevvith this Relation is cloathed when my Reader considers that I lived amongst Indians vvhich made me rude Dum in vitâ sumus in viâ THis Lif 's our way in which where ere we be We miss our path if that felicitie Be not our utmost aym towards which we meet With Cross-ways Rubs and streights that cause our feet To stumble or to faint yet must we on What â—'re we meet untill our journeys done We seek a Country cannot find it here Here in this Pilgrimage i' th whole world where The streightest smoothest paths which most do please Are clog'd with toyl and trouble but want ease Our God and Country too are both above We keep our way whiles that we thither move But loose it when our motion doth not tend To that hop'd period which may make our end Happy and safe There is no standing still Here in this life we do extreamly ill When we proceed not for if once we slack To press towards the mark we then draw back Who therefore sees beyond his eyes must know He hath a further journey still to go For though he could with weary paces get The world's great round his tyresome progress yet Were not all pass'd still must he think his ear Fill'd with that voice Elias oft did hear What doest thou here Elias up be gone Andafter many days still cry'd go onne Who follows close Gods call and way runs best Till he receives his penny take his rest In three parts of the vvorld I 've been novv come To my last journey that vvill bring me home Ed. Terry FINIS