inquisitive and judicious Reader then much matter and conceit compendiously digested with sufficiency of perspicuity To conclude lines of a farre fetcht and labour'd fancy with allusions and curiosity and in similes of little more fruit or consequence then to ravish the Reader into the writers fine Chamaeleon colours and feed him with aire I approve not so much as heighth and force of spirit sententiously and weightily exhibited wit needs not rack it self where matter flowes embroderies become not a rich stuffe and art is best exprest where it least appeares A strong wing is to be preferred before a painted and good â—ense and matter elegantly delivered before extravagancy of fancy and conceit such unnaturall impertinency serves rather to shadow then illustrate to overwhelme then set forth the subject as well apposite as accurate writing is the Authorsglory Postscript upon occasion of the then young Princes pretended desire to have sight of the following Poems ANd here under pardon to conclude with this further defence of Love the subject of this little work but taking it more large and high I find love to be the most worthy object of the best and most generous dispositions and none but maligne natures that addresse not their thoughts towards it for what good and worthy mind hath its being that is not bent as upon its felicity either to the love of women the most naturall of men the most noble or above all of God the most happy and rewardfull Whither else tend all our studies of comlinesse of glory and noble actions of charity and good deeds Wherein can man so well resemble his great Creator as by worth and goodnesse to win love what more noble end can any man have to study vertue and perfection then thereby to win affection and praise the reward and food of vertue and tribute of God Nay love the essence of God the good spirit and wings of the soule the Mother Child and finall cause of Beauty the begetter and maintainer of the world the life of life by love the Sunne shines and the earth brings forth by love is society and commerce maintained by love the soule dwels with the body and God with the soule by love nature ever works for our preservation when the body and almost the soule are laid in sleep Admirable love without thee life is hatefull man but a wolfe to man the world a second Chaos For thy sake alone who affectest not a decaying Mansion I apprehend losse by growing old yet thus againe am I comforted by thy most divine power that thou never abandonest the dwelling of goodnesse and art successively fruitfull over all the good works of nature to the worlds period so that to the vertuous where the love of women failes the love of men begins and where that by the withering imperfections of age grows cold as the aire to a setting Sunne there for our supreame and infinite comfort begin to shine most clearly the beames of that divinest love which before were too much intercepted by the sensualities and passions of our younger yeares to make us therein eternally happy by that operation of love and contemplation of beauty which at the last must be our soules immortall food and joy Advertisement upon the first Verses I am not ignorant that who keepes the common road falls not into the incumbrances incurred by them who search or by or nearer wayes Writing is a by-path of life I am yet ingaged to it but hope shortly to get out and by the way I give you this Antidote and Rapsody of praecaution and true information concerning the following pieces The reason why I retaine and expose them with others is not so much that I esteem them worthy of view or life as that they were many yeares since Copyed and spread abroad beyond my knowledge then and are now beyond my power to recall they are more Chaffe then Corn fitter to bee ventilated blown away and play in the aire then vented in any Market and commerce of wit and censure they are incorrect if not incorrigible yet I consent to leave them and many other my pieces such as they are to represent unto me the difference 'twixt then and now To attempt to perfect them were to dispersonate their youth and hasty nature and fall into the much frequented stage Error of putting stronger lines and more conceited and elaborate elegancy into weake mouths and strong passions then well comporteth with them let their youth and genuine conception plead their pardon You shall mistake them if you often conceive them not rather the off-spring of fancy then passion But take them at the worst they have something of reason and serious in them and the errours of love are not so foule as the love of errour nor is it impertinent to perswade love in them who have constrained it in you and love may bee such as to become no lesse justifiable then naturall Love is in truth of divers kinds ever an Ebullition of the liver sometimes it is made and forced upon us sometimes wee weave and foole our selves into it sometimes it proceeds from gratitude and good nature of gratification It is generally the child of weaknesse as well as of idlenesse witnesse my selfe in my childish youth and Melancholy humour A vigorous gayety of the heart and mind taken up and busie in other affections and entertainments hardly admits it It is a sad confinement a disease like womens longing where the violent appetite of one object no better then the rest gives relish to that alone whilst a right and undistasted apprehension of every thing in the true kind is the much better and sounder constitution and as in longing after such or such a morsell the consideration is carried by the fancy and tast which have no rule but themselves or as at Table the hearty approbation of some one dish is a provocation to others appetites so in love And as most Dogs will often strive to get away anothers bone though otherwise little desired or when a morsell is offered to bee snatched from them grow greedy of that which before they neglected so in affections I leave the application Sometimes as love hath been tearmed a warfare so is brave Conquest made ambition too many make it their felicity and effeminately bend all their affections towards it Sometimes it is taken up for a fashion and to be in fashion is in idle times of no small importance to idle and gallant persons Sometimes like Coqualuchios and Epidemicall diseases it may much proceed from the disposition of the Ayre as in other kind wee may observe of quarrells that they seldome go alone Our poore volatile ayery affections are strongly wrought upon as well from outward as inward incentives winds and Aspects The first accesse of love is not ever by the eyes it hath often a strong foundation and preocupation begotten at the eare when a noble heart takes impression of a well lodged reputation eminent in fame vertue
from her arme I you presum'd to take And with your knot mine owne arme did adorne 'T was then I did my selfe your Pris'ner make And Captive still doe in your bands remaine To bee by her my Saint or sav'd or slaine It 's true I err'd and fondly you restor'd By arguments most happ'ly false abus'd For still the more that I her love implor'd Her strangenesse made it selfe still more accus'd And when acquaintance which should freenesse adde Made her appeare more strange my soule was madde I then consider'd though shee let you goe That shee my keeping you had neere consented And judg'd it sacriledge to take you so From her a Goddesse thereat discontented Hoping my inward peace to re-obtain By rendring backe my Heav'n-stoln fire againe But let us now faire love exâ—ostulate VVhence that your unkind killing strangenesse grew VVas it because by chance I neare you sat In that licentious place of publike view Faire doe not wrong so much your selfe and me To thinke my Company an injury Your vertue from suspition doth you free And many's persons make their acts suspected Whilst they that in opinion guiltlesse bee May doe much more fearelesse to bee detected Nor jealousie nor malice feare you then VVomen were made to company with men Put on the resolutions of your sexe That all backbiting spightfull blasts contemn And like worlds venome nought at all respects Calumnious tongues that good and all condemn For well they know if faire they bee esteem'd 'T was ne're yet seene but faulty some them deem'd To them for free enjoying of their loves The golden age is now return'd againe And who in true confession had those Doves VVhich doe in Court in Towne or fields remain Shall find few Turtles vow'd to one alone But matelesse in loves sweetest pleasures none The world is now out of minority And all inclin'd to doctrine of freewill My selfe alone to superiority And to your pow'rfull law am vowed still Nor wish I to bee free from that command VVherein my sole felicity doth stand Onely extend to mee a kind Aspect And free accesse to gaze upon those eyes VVhich Planet-like my faculties direct VVhose influence my firme obedience ties So shall I happy live and you may prove Contented in the office of my love PRetty precious Curle of haire Late fairly dangling by that eare VVhich Jewell yet did never weare To your worth or beauty neare Captivated now you are To him whose heart you did insnare Pledges unequall in compare Shee hath my heart I but her haire Yet would the hardy youth of Greece Have giv'n his hard-won golden fleece VVith joy and triumph of the prize To clip but such another piece How often hath the wanton wind To gentlest blasts himselfe confin'd VVhilst playing with you too unkind You shooke him off and still untwin'd And coyly turn'd another way Disdaining his unlicenc'd play The God of love dispos'd to stray Oft wrapt in you hides him all day VVhere when his mother him espies The little wanton nimbly hies From thence to cheeks from cheeks to eyes And often there so long hee lies That many a guiltlesse haplesse wight That on her eyes chance cast their sight Are sudden strooke and lose their light Punisht by his discover'd might Thus up and downe the darling skips And after still the Cyprian trips And chaseth him from eyes to lips VVhere Pitho her rich adorn'd Court keeps The next retrait that Cupid winnes It 'twixt her snowy mountaine twinnes VVhere when the goddesse him imprims Hee straight descends and happ'ly inns VVithin the vale of true delight VVhence to her Curles hee aym'd a flight But being overweake in plight His mother caught him and all night They both resolved there to rest VVhere such divine contents them blest That when they solemnize a feast All their delights are there addrest Yet Venus oftner it would use But feares her sonne would her refuse And for his Patron goddesse chuse Her mistrisse of my Curle and muse FOr wondrous rare I late heard told Two Suns at once I might behold That equall glorious equall cleare In one Meridian did appeare VVhich when together I did view I wondred what illusion drew So many judgements so awry But as it fareth with an eye VVhose accidentall weakned sight The masters judgement doth invite A single object to mistake And double seeming doth it make So doe these Aiglets false abus'd And in their seeing pow'r confus'd Reflections into bodies frame And thus they raise injurious fame Against that beautie which divine All others doth as much outshine As Phoebe doth a Starre surpasse As burnisht gold unpured brasse As fairest gardens fallow plaines Or Diamond coursest glasse distaines Inferiour beauties of our skies Shun her faire Spheare if you bee wise So may you shine and wonder move Winne much affection and love From those who to Starre-light confin'd Ne're came where the true glory shin'd But if with them you come in sight VVhere shee extends her dazeling light Like Starres obscur'd by Phoebus rayes Your selves remaine but light decayes And all your lovers at a gaze Like silly birds strooke with a maze To see a great bright shining light Surprize them in their dead of night VVill all about her flie and hover Themselves unable to recover From that attractive forcing charme Alluring them to pleasing harme Some guilty by their owne desire Shall haplesse perish in her fire Others her nets shall captive take And them perpetuall pris'ners make Some sad despaire shall strike to ground Nor shall there any one bee found Of will or power her to leave Till death his pow'r and will bereave Live ever my victorious Sunne And mayst thou those thy triumphs runne Whilst skies the Globe of earth shall cover Or in the world remaine a Lover Sole rule the Spheare of love and mee Poore Orbe that moves alone by thee Whose thoughts doe nothing else aspire But thee to please thee to admire FAirest haire that ever grew Farre beyond my worth or due Yet for zeale and love I dare With the truest heart compare That our mistris powerfull eyes Ever made Idolatrize You are that pretious silken grasse Whence my soules food and comfort passe And you such jewell are to mee As none can give the like but shee Who gave you mee O doe not scorne To bee by mee your captive borne Pris'ners their Fetters weare and I My soule in your enlacing tie You thinke you lose rich beame divine Too much by change of being mine But what you lose by your depart You gaine by thaldome of my heart Prove kindly true to mee and know Shee who did you on mee bestow May finde greater fairer many But more constant true not any Song NOw tell mee Artist can shee love Or loving can shee constant prove Constant shee is and love shee can But hard it is to finde the man What one to please her must hee bee Worthy and perfect such as shee Then must I of her love despaire For shee
sollicited her work to doe Restlesse remaines still labouring in its course Till it may rest where it aspir'd unto 'T is likewise true my love hath mist its end And yet I cannot think my labour lost Though the main faile the By hath been my friend So farre as with content may quit my cost Like to the Alchymist whose golden aime Shoots chiefly at the Philosophick stone Whereof though hee fall short yet doth hee gain Many a pretious found extraction Many a quintessence and Limbeckt oyle To others and himselfe of use and pleasure Nor thinks it an ill guerdon of his toile T' impart unto the world such hidden treasure So I in these conceipts elaborate The wanton babes sprung from an am'rous brain My passions fire and heat evaporate And mine own ease with others pleasure gain And if I please the kind lascivious eare VVith these light ayres for pleasure only tun'd I seek no more nor care how the austere Censure these idle houres in rhyme consum'd They as superfluous banquet stuffe are meant Made but to please the outward sense and tast VVhich though they yeeld no solid nourishment They are not yet a profitlesse repast And if the strictest Stoick on Earths face VVaste not some houres as idly spent as these VVhereof remaineth no account or trace So necessary pleasures are and ease VVithout the which our soules themselves oppresse Then let me be condemn'd but if you find Your selves in pleasure wasting time no lesse Nor shew remaines thereof more then of wind Judge then my time at least as happ'ly spent As theirs that hunting love who little care So they injoy good pastime chase and sent To make the silly purchase of a Hare I Helen sought where Lucrece I did find At least a Lucrece she appeares to mee But were I Paris she perchance as kind VVould prove as Helen Troian youth to thee Oh no I do recant and firmly credit She is as spotlesse chast as perfect faire And thus will flatter hers and mine own merit If she were other I should not despaire And here my Love shall change its former hew And yet Chamaeleon-like remain the same As she is chast my love as chast and true And to like vertuous die it self shall frame Living still hers though only fed with aire And as her beauty won my heart before Finding her now as vertuous as then faire Her inward graces make me love her more Nor was my breast possest with such wild fire Thâ—t nought but Venus milk could quench my flame Hope 's the sole nutriment of my desire VVhere that once failes my flames alone grow tame Nor am I of so strong a faith in love To think where free occasion hath not wanted And free acquaintance hath giv'n means to move VVhat three months have deny'd will e're be granted VVho seeks a woman to his will to move Yet gaines no ground in furthering his desire Not to advance is to go back in love Let him good Souldier like his Siege retire But faire Coelestia since I have concluded Your vertue like your beauty most divine Oh let no sequel prove me now deluded Such subtilty would double that your crime Or be indeed what you appeare to be Or may you still at least seem so to me A FANCIE MY hearts faire Conqu'resse author of my griefe Deny me not to plead for my reliefe If you too cruell will no help impart Yet lend my plaints your eare to ease my heart Offenders capitall that plead for grace Are heard though not relieved in their case 'T is you the winner are cause of my pain Sick men and losers are allow'd to plain You that have made mee love can make mee live And none but you can my disease relieve Should I not then my cure from you demand I accessary to my death should stand Accuse not him who for deare life doth move But blame your selfe who so inforceth love You that have made my heart in love abound Ought not to bee offended with loves sound He that is almost dead for want of meat You must not blame him if hee ask to eat Nor ought you such an echo to condemn As love receiv'd from you resounds agen Nor blame that instrument whose sound is such As your faire hand is pleas'd to give the touch And if your heart to flint-like bee compos'd That to no pity it can bee dispos'd If 't be decreed by my malignant fate That here on earth that curst infernall state Must bee inflicted on me for my pain That I must love and not be lov'd again Yet be not angry Faire or if you 'l chide Chide Cupid that my subject tongue doth guide 'T is that blind little winged childish God That doth so often times deserve the rod For his mis-matching our affections fire With an unsuited different desire But to obey your will which unto me A venerable law shall ever be I 'le rather all on fire within consume Then once to ask a water drop presume And rather over-swoln with love will break Then once to dare of love to you to speak Thus will I inward bleed untill I find Or death or you my Love to me more kind Made in imitation of a Sonnet in Ronsard THough he that loves with unrequited love And finds his heat ingender no reflection Nor that his plaints can her compassion move That is the object of his true affection May uncondemn'd resume his love again And to a more kind subject it apply Himself exempting from unpityed pain Nor doth he wrong whom no desert doth tie Nor doth he faith or constance violate For vertue and folly incompatible be And constant Lovers uncompassionate Are foolish guilty of their miserie Nor breaks that Prince his faith who league hath sworn Of amity with some great Potentate Who will not after the like oath return Of love and faithfull aide unto his State For perfect love in sympathie consists And single Love is but a fatuous fire Yet little merits he who not persists No victory is gotten by retire I 'le love her still though shee unjust doe prove And happier contentment will I find In loving her with unrequited love Then to love one lesse faire though farre more kind IS 't possible you can deny With such unyeilding sleighting heart So small a suite so earnestly Pursu'd by my so true desert That not the cheapest toy you weare As ribban pin or thread of fringe I may with your kind favour beare Love feeds ev'n on the sleightest things Unhappily my heart is plac'd Since for my heart I cannot gaine To be in this slight measure grac'd That I importune to obtaine You feare be like that I will make it An earnest of what I desire No I 'le but as a Relique take it Of you the Saint that I admire And though my true loves due reliefe I hopelesse am e're to attaine Such proofe will comfort yet my griefe In that I reape not your disdaine Welcome at last yet pretty
For future times a pattern most exact Faire Ship most fairly fraught for VVar and Peace Untimely sunk scarce launcht into the seas Too glorious rising Sunne soon overcast That shin'st in Heaven for here thy beames were plac't On mould too dull cold worthlesse to beget An active fruitfulnesse answering thy heat Thy flames of vertue were more pure and high Then our weake state could foment with supply No vertue didst thou want or vice possesse That could make great thy worth or glory lesse Furnish't with all materials fit to raise A high superlative of Princely praise A true Minervian issue sprung from Iove Visible vertue forcing us to love As true a vertuous Cyrus naturall As Xenophons fain'd artificiall Faire fire receiv'd as from our Persian King Dead vertue once againe to life to bring Heroick off-spring of that English blood VVhich anciently hath so celebrous stood As faire a splendor to thy Fathers stem As or his Scepter Throne or Diadem If Troy lamented Hector Grecians scourge â—arre greater grief thy death to us doth urge Troy miss'd no Captaines though their Hector dead But whom hath now our Priam fit to lead VVith union and alacrity the Bands Of English Scottish Welsh and Irish Lands VVhose active well born spirits thirsted all To follow such a hopefull Generall VVhose pattern set the coldest mindes on fire VVith glorious thoughts and generous desire Sole able Engine t' have repair'd the fame Of th' once illustrious wither'd English name Such vertue could not actionlesse remaine VVhich made him fly our dulnesse with disdain VVherefore brave Spirits that do inward burn Loving true glory joine with me and mourn And with your slames make him a funerall fire And with him end each thought that did aspire Smother in his Ashes what began to flame And teach your thoughts to study peacefull fame Temper your most untimely ill faln hear VVhich may your ruine not your glory get Except that idle glory you esteem Vying who most effeminate shall seem Most proud affected and like weeds of worth VVhich our best soyles uncultivate bring forth Mourn and lament him Patron of all truth Nay him the soule and glory of your youth Nor never hope an active time to see Except enforc't to act our miserie Happy our Fathers warlike spirits we Haplesse though fortunate our Sons may be To whom this seven yeare retrograde hath brought A Prince with like faire promis'd vertues fraught To top his story with victorious bayes As Iames with sweet of Peace hath blest our dayes Adding as many Crownes as Iames hath done To Crowne his titles with possession Thus glorious Comet with more zeale then art In thy fames dirige I beare a part Which may it pardon finde though hoarsly sung And passe with favour 'mongst th' Elegiack throng As writ by him who having vow'd sword-service Can ill performe a Poets sacrifice Upon the death of Anne of Denmarke Queen of great Britaine and the blazing Starre appearing neere her death taken for the stellifyed spirit of Prince Henry dead not long before BRave soul thou hast prevail'd God hath his owne And wee ill debters were nor paid the loane Of such a Jewell bee thou Henries Star Pointing thy mothers way and not our war Heaven bee appeas'd and grant our prayers and teares Prevent thy further anger and our feares Say that our false hearts to our selves and thee Deriding goodnesse and true pietie Led by our vaine affections as our God Not charitie say this deserves thy rod Let not the Roman petty Gods surpasse Thy rulers mercies Marcus Curtius was To them a sacrifice their wrath to swage Our losse hath doubled his then slack thy rage And grant againe we feele no further paines But blesse our dayes with joy in what remaines Epitaph HEre lies Iames his rich gem the eyes delight The graces mansion our faire dayes good night Glory of the Court object no sooner seene But knowne the gracefull presence of a Queene Rich Jewels shee is said to leave farre more Rich was shee in her pretious vertues store Heaven grant her royall vertues transportation Breed not a dearth unto her sex our nation Vpon the death of my faire Cousin Drury SSay passenger and for her sake Who while shee liv'd had power to make All eyes that on her cast their sight To fix with wonder and delight Daine that these lines one sigh may borrow Breathed from thy heart with generous sorrow To see in this sad Tombe now dwelling The fairest Drury late excelling In vertue beautie and all grace That heaven in earthly mould can place And that which may your griefe increase Is that shee did a maid decease And all that wee in her admir'd With her is perisht and expir'd Matchlesse shee lived unmatcht shee dide Druries sole heire and Suffolks pride Vpon the death of the supereminent Lady Haddington Delineated to the life IMperious soule proud Quintessence of wit Union of natures beautie forcing love Faire Haddington farewell here dead with thee Lie Loves awe sweetnesse life and majestie Manly ambitious spirits hope possest By conquest of fierce beautie to be blest Change your desires for sweare ambition The glorious subject of your hopes is gone Alas nor verse nor picture can expresse The least of her heart-winning lovelinesse Happy who knew her for he knew perfection Such as henceforth hath freed him from subjection Another MOunt up to heaven free soul with Larke-like joy Scorning our earthly base condition Where no malitious envie can annoy Thy faire ingenious disposition There shew thy selfe in thy pure nakednesse Where all thoughts in their simple truth appeare To speake thy selfe with true borne simplenesse Is vertues habit out of fashion here To covet flatter lie bee politique Hunt gaine with greedy falshood and deceipt To bee a devill so an hypocrite Are vertues to gaine this worlds good conceipt Thou wert not such and therefore happy now If faith and truth may happinesse procure Thy life thy truth death doth thy faith avow These are the golden wings that mount thee sure To lasting glory glory bee thy due For being faithfull noble faire and true An Incentive to our Poets upon the death of the victorious King of Swedeland FIe slow Boötes brood what not a line To celebrate a vertue so divine See you not Perseus mounted in the skie Outdoing all the antient Chivalry Expect you till his Steed dash on your braines To make you flow into heroick straines Can your Electrian facultie in wit Raise nothing but meere trash and strawes to it Is brave Gustavus of too solid stuffe His great exploits for your sleight veine too tusse That like poore falsifyers you despaire To profit from a peece so rich and faire Whilst from more triviall subjects you will drive A trade shall make your reputation thrive By ransacking the mysteries of Art To set a luster on some low desert Rouze up at length your over stupid muse Unite all in one quire and bravely chuse No other rapture whereupon
hope will come and beare a part To hide my want of voyce my want of Art Corona Alphabeticall in imitation of the 119 Psalme AWay unhallowed spirits fleshly borne Unto the second birth these lines belong Your eyes are full of lust your hearts of scorn You cannot taste a supernatur'd song When in Gods furnace you shall prove refin'd Divinely transubstantiate from above Your Soules contrite your stony hearts calcin'd And him propound sole object of your love Then shall my inspirations finde applause And penetrate your soules as well as mine Then will you finde them both your meat and sauce And warm your spirits at such beams Divine God knows what preparations I have past Oft broken with this Plough to kill my weeds Down melted in a new mould to be cast Macerate fetter'd fitted for new seeds When his magnetique vertue draws you come Till then to what I write be blinde deaf dumb BLest Founder of this earthly Hospitall Sole daily Benefactor to mankinde Lord Paramount of Lords of Kings and all Soule of our Soules controller of the minde Transcendent Essence dazling more our sight Then Sun-beams Owles harder to comprehend Then 't is for Ants to judge and reason right Of men and know whereto their counsels tend Thou who giv'st Faith and Grace spirituall Hearts happiest Center food and notion Who truely art what falsely we doe call Instinct or Nature Father of motion Inspire my soule my spirit animate Thy working power and glory to expresse That these my lines may partly expiate My lives and pens past errors and impresse Thy stampe divine upon my readers heart Assisted by thy holy Spirits Art COntemne not Lord this humble sacrifice This Incense from the censor of my heart Heart which thy quickning Spirit mortifies To live and die to thee a true convert As in my heart so flow into my stile Untie tune cleare my soule that I may sing Thy saving grace and prove most happy while I may one sparkle to thy glory bring None but a power Almighty could create Yet greater wonder our redemption was Nor goes lesse mercy to regenerate That worke nor consummate nor Sabbath has To live fresh fishes in this briny Sea To swim by faith against strong natures streame Beyond our reason and our eyes to see And make thy soule transporting love our theame This Antedates the sweet fruition Of thy most beatifique vision DIspence O Lord that I polluted lame Presume thy power and mercies to display Thy Priest should perfect be and free from blame But thy projection workes on base allay The greatest graces thou hast summon'd all Thy creatures to thy praise their rent to pay Nor can I chuse but answer to thy call Accountable for mercies more then they But yet alas what fruite can I expect From these farre short of lines Apocryphall Since thine owne dictates finde so small effect And Isralites prov'd hypocriticall Yes thou hast wonders wrought on me and canst By thy assistance so my labours blesse Some one at least by me may be advanc'd To feele thy Spirits motion and redresse The course of sinne which flesh cannot withstand Without the succour of thy sacred hand ERect O Lord thy Trophees in my Verse Confound with shame th' Idolatrizing Muse Teach such with me thy praises to rehearse T is better write to save then to seduce Teach them thy beautie riches thou who art Riches and beauties donor cleare their eyes To admire the vertues which thou doest impart To the rich furnish'd earth and guilded skies Thou needst no strain'd conceits nor figures such As they imploy to shew wit and give grace Thou their Hyperbole's exceed'st so much They faint to see invention wants a place Oh that my Verse like Aarons rod had pow'r To overcharme what those inchanters sing And all their strong illusions to devour Or like the Brasen Serpent cure their sting Then might my Muse triumphant Lawrell weare Endu'd with grace no thunder blasts to feare FAther of beautie goodnesse power and love Vertue of vertues spring of eloquence By whom alone we are we live and move And exercise a happy confidence Whose love to us made thee evacuate Thy selfe and glory frailtie to put on Frailtie to hunger die degenerate To man in all but his corruption Oh let thy love like love in us procure And teach us to deny our selves for thee Change which to thee was losse will be our cure Thy hunger food thy death our life will bee Teach us to love and we shall learne to write In Characters of love our hearts will flow Love chafes benummed spirits to endite And ever carries light ' its flames to show Make mee Oh Lord to thee a perfect lover And love will both it selfe and thee discover No wonder else if we prove dull to write For 't is a wonder Lord to love thee right GRieve Oh my heart grieve that thou canst not grieve Grieve that thy streames flow counter to thy will Grieve that thy fraile propensions still survive And thy intemperate nature swayes thee still Shame oh my soule oh shame to see thy shame Shame that nor faith nor reason can prevaile Shame that thou knowest most savage things to came And that thy Art upon thy selfe doth faile Suffer thou doest and justly suffer too In selfe offending wilt thou still befoole Thy selfe in doing what thou should'st not doe And non-proficient prove in thy owne schoole Yes Lord it will be so except thy grace Continually prevent preside restraine In thy least absence nature will take place Nor can against it selfe it selfe containe Children from Nurses are nor safe nor quiet Without thee soule nor body can keepe diet Destroy Oh Lord what foments our annoy Or wild presumption will our health destroy HEaven wert thou no reward Hell but a tale Religion but a waking dreame begot Twixt policie and fancy to prevaile Over fraile flesh and hopes and feares besot Were conscience but a brat of Arts begetting As reall in ' its falshood as in truth A home-spun stuffe as false wrought as selfe fretting A brand impos'd upon our tender youth Yet hath it pleas'd my Lord to manifest So palpably his selfe and love to mee Were nature richer sweeter I le divest And strip my selfe of all for love of thee None more then I th'erroneous print can read Of melancholy and superstition Nor better all their subtile steps untread Distinguishing between Text and Tradition Beleeve me more hath gone me to convert Then either wit or nature can pervert HAbituate maladies are hardly cur'd Relaps proves often mortall worst in sinne To me relaps'd oft and to sinne inur'd Strange hath thy mercy Lord and patience been Insolvable I am for such great grace Yet I ambitious am to make returne What most is mine and others most embrace In gratefull sacrifice to thee I burne Obedience Temperance I here professe Worldly delights and wealth I abdicate No fetter'd votary yet ne're the lesse My selfe to thee I freely consecrate Power
so perfect is and faire As the best worthinesse in mee Cannot come neere in least degree Shall I then strive to quench my fire No rather love and still admire For shee love's proper subject is Who loves not her doth love amisse I 'le love her then and by her love So perfect I will hope to prove That shee may love what shee hath taught And once bee catcht by what shee caught Song IF you will love know such to be The Lawes of Cupids Monarchy That to refuse Is to abuse Loves government and I declare That such loves Rebells not his subjects are To love is not to bee your owne Love studies to please them alone Whom it affects Without respects Of ought besides and love confin'd Is but by usurpation love defin'd If you did love as well as I You nothing could or would deny But would conceive That you receive What you bestow if this were true Your heart to live in mee and mine in you IF my divining soule and all the Art Loves Schoole hath yeelded me foretell me true I may possesse a parcell of your heart And as I love be lov'd againe by you If fondly I presume and overween And all my arguments fallacious prove Pardon the errour that so oft is seen Of a selfe flattery in desire and love But if my wit my true Informer bee And yours with Sophistry doth not abuse You may be lov'd and honored so by mee As truest and most zealous lovers use If now you show disdaine my hopes are drown'd If smile with highest fortunes they are crown'd To her who shut him in her Closet to breake his hearing of her singing in her upper Chamber with her Teacher made upon the instant to perswade her to bee more free YOu like heav'ns influence beauty constancy And order would bee like in this To hide like themly our heavenly harmonie VVhilst all besides imparted is Yet Heav'ns themselves deny not that to those Whom in their high Spheare they inclose Bee then like heav'ns in all I aske no more They are no niggards of their store Vpon a Brayd of haire FAire thou art nor canst be other That proceed'st from such a Mother Soft and gentle youthfull white Suting her skin and th' eyes delight Such woare Venus and such haire VVeare all that buy to make them faire Silke and silver wrought togethâ—r Show'd so faire nor richly never Loves leading laisse I hope thou art And with thee bring'st to me her heart VVhich to owne imparts more pleasure Then honor beautie knowledge treasure Or all possessions which to gaine Caesar had left Rome Philip Spaine Alexander had forsaken To master earth and undertaken To conquer her whose love alone Had fill'd his vast ambition Triumph my soule in this thy prize Basâ— thee in her lovely eyes And in her joy more height of blisse Then ever fancie knew to wish Let spight and envie swell and burst And jealous frenzie doe its worst VVhilst wee by loves pure fire refin'd Their wits out-shine their malice blind And most securely live above All reach of passion but our love I cannot say I in your service starve Since you affoâ—d me hope to feed upon But if you long confine my food thereon My poore life cannot long it selfe preserve A meate it is so languishing and dry That hourely I diminish pine and faint Unwilling to importune with complaint But that hope bids me rather beg then die Faire flattering hope but oft deceiving guest Unhappy happy Anchor of our soule Which with distractions dost our peace controule VVhere evils known our minds would lesse molest Pity faire Mistris crowne my hopes at last Let me not still roule fruits passions stone And make hel-tortured Tantalus his moane VVho hopes and sees faire fruit but must not tast Best wits indeed at first their favours spare But or discard or ne're long niggards are If my Coelestia bee content to love Faire love mee then to my compleat content Soone will the summer of our yeeres bee spent VVhen life shall but a griefe and penance prove Since you the seeds of love in me have sown VVhich now are ripened by your faire aspect Oh doe not now your harvest due neglect But please your tast in gathering your own Let mee not Torch-like set on fire by you Consume my being in my selfe-fed flame VVhilst you too cruell make my death a game And triumph in my dying fondly true Love vertue like in action doth appeare VVhere words the cheapest Agents of our ends Oft counterfeit yet passe for perfect friends And proof-lesse none or little credit beare That I may thinke you are not one of those VVho for selfe glory are content to faine A glosse of kindnesse and to entertaine Admirers of their worth in verse and prose Give me an actuall argument that firme May you to me my love to you confirm FOrbeare my headstrong Heliotropian thoughts Forbeare your ever gazing on that Sunne Such sense-confounding object learne to shunne As you with naught but sighs and passions fraughts And you my greedy never satiate eyes VVho more you view the more you still desire Your over daring fixed lookes retire For sight subsisteth by varieties Abstaine my feet your hasty steps withhold From her to whom all lovers flock amaine But none are seen back to return againe Better is freedome poore then bands of gold But Traytors all I fondly you reprove Too late your alien'd service I recall Thoughts eyes and feet tongue hands and heart and all Are sole resign'd to her command and love And so inforc'd to love wee all conjoine Suters for grace to her the most divine IT was that gracioâ—s season of the yeare VVhen Husbandmen their welcome harvest inne VVhen fairest fruits are in perfection seene And Courtiers thorough woods chase flying Deere VVhen every swaine requitall due receives For all the care and paines hee had sustain'd VVhen I alone unfortunate remain'd VVhose care and paines no recompence perceives That I imbarqued in the Courtly crew Seem'd all intent on nought but forest sport VVhen oft alasse my heart was farre from Court Conversing most my fairest love with you Mee thought the hunted Deere the Dogges did chase Resembled mee whom my owne thoughts pursue And if a wounded Stagge I chanc'd to view My pierced restlesse heart pity'd his case Sometimes I checkt my thoughts as at a bay VVhich broke by your faire conquering aspect They freshly follow carelesse to be checkt Permitting my repose nor night nor day Sometimes I fly to solitaty shade Hoping to scape 'mongst thicke of letter'd leaves Sometimes in company which grief deceives I thrust my selfe but still my thoughts invade Thus toild by day when night sweet time of rest Cordiall restorative of all that lives Truce to our toile and fainting sorrow gives I tapiss in my bed all care possest VVhere restlesse still exil'd from ease I tosse By those my selfe-bred swift-foote hounds pursu'd VVhose long enjoyed chase hath so indu'd Them with
Which set our weake subdu'd distempered minds on fire Reason is put to flight and appetite beares sway Which blindly leads and blindly forceth us obey And that hee much mistakes who from a womans minde Or reason doth expect or just effects to finde Since passions indigest conceipt meere chance and will Their resolutions and their actions governe still But soft my gall-distilling pen your griefe contain Which howsoever just yet blaphemy refrain Admit her heart of fleshly temper fram'd as mine Bee pierc'd and captivate by Cupids pow'r divine Alas shee rather should bee pitied then accus'd Since what from force proceeds may justly bee excus'd And if indeed my faire Coelestia it bee true That your heart for another burnes as mine for you If you desire to bee so happy in your love That his affections unto you may mutuall prove If you expect your sighs which numberlesse abound Shall eâ—re receive reward or e're with joy bee crown'd Oh! let your your kindnesse then extended unto mee Make you deserve your happy hopes effects to see And faire beware lest if you shew unkind disdaine Loves justice justly yeeld you Talions law againe And if 't bee true that griefe delights in company Then will you love my presence and my sympathy Together wee will sit and comfort one another For griefe is most extreame when we our passions smother Where breathing out at large our due complaints of love Wee 'l both our hearts discharge and pitie learne to move And this lame happinesse of love shall please my mind That though you cannot love you are not yet unkind â—â—t pardon mee deare friend 't is not report alone Can prooflesse my aspiring fixed hope dis-throne But stedfast still in zeale and confidence I dwell As faithfull I love her shee may love mee as well IN fruitlesse expectation to remaine To bee in bed and yet debarr'd of rest To serve where you no favour can obtaine Is saith th' Italian to bee most distrest And these unfortunate effects I prove My faire Coelestia in my fervent love 'T is you detaine my long expected blisse 'T is you that make mee restlesse passe the night 'T is you I faithfull serve yet you it is Mercilesse you with-hold my chiefe delight And know faire creature hee that faithfull serves A costlesse favour ever well deserves Thinke that you have a friend that doth possesse A curious garden plentifully fraught VVith all the pleasures nature can expresse And all delights that ever cunning wrought And all these beauties singularly grac'd By a faire fountaine in the Center plac'd Hee lets you in with welcome entertaine And grants that many wayes your selfe you please Yet midst this ravishment you doe complaine Of thirst extreame which seeking to appease At that faire fountaine which you chance t'espie Your unkind friend his water doth deny And most uncharitable doth permit That part of it should idly slide away And part corrupt by over-keeping it Rather then yeeld a drop your thirst to stay VVhich nothing else can quench and 's onely bred By those dry sweets wherewith hee had you fed Would you now take this party for your friend O no I know you rather would conceive That all his kindnesses did only tend VVith quenchlesse thirst your pleasures to bereave And justly might you wish you ne're had knowne Those joyes whereby your joy is overthrowne That cruell friend faire love are you to me And your perfections that faire garden are VVhither a welcome guest I seeme to bee My senses ravisht all with pleasures rare Of beautie enterchange of words and kisses VVhich yet all breed but thirst and further wishes And those as cheapely you may satisfie As you a water drop may easily give Why cruell faire is't then that you deny That kindnesse without which I cannot live Deale plainly may not this the true cause bee You love my verses better farre then mee And apprehend that if I once obtain The full of my ambitions high desire My love will Moone-like enter on the wain And having won the day straight sound retire O do not so abuse your selfe and mee My love like Phoebus never change shall see My love like Phoebus never change shall see In constant course and heate ever the same And like the Northerne Pole shall fixed bee More firme then can be mov'd by heavens frame Constant to you till death I will remaine For never shall I see so faire againe No faire Coelestia love is Venus sonne Feare not the mother for the child 's destroying Nor is that saying unto you unknowne That th' essence true of love is in enjoying Hee playes the best who holdeth what hee wins The wiser sort still at their end begins If you approve my muses loftie flight And to be fed with change of praises still You must not oft delude her and invite Her to an empty lure that yeelds no fill A Hawke that loftily hath flowne and hard Well merits the best food and best reward Those exhalations that the heavens feed Did they not downe againe distill their rain Coelestiall bodies soone should want and need Those vapours which the earth sends up againe And Iove himselfe should lose his sacrifice But that hee mortals feeds and gratifies No fire can long subsist by smoak alone Flame 's by an oily solid substance fed Who divers times a field hath till'd and sowne Yet findes no profit by his labour bred His folly well deserves to reape but wind Having oft prov'd it barren and unkind Who shoots his arrows up and nothing hits Fooles bolts they prove which their own heads do break One may be ventur'd but he wants his wits That all his Quiver spends one shaft to seek Though vertue ought not foule repulse receive Yet wisdome wils us fruitlesse labours leave Full ill hee sings whose song cannot obtain A draught of drink impatient thirst to swage Though silly Bird I warble many a straine To please your eares imprison'd in your cage Birds long unfed their singing soon neglect No Almes no thankfull language must expect As happy in love are they that give as take Faire pity me and make me happy then Since you your self shall equall happy make VVomen receive farre more delight then men And if you find that I unfaithfull prove Let me be made a reprobate of Love And if you like these off-springs of my brain Whereto your self the Heroine mother are Suffer them not to die with drought but daign To water them from that your fountain faire VVhich true Parnassus spring doth Poets breed And tasted makes their Muse her self exceed It 's true that my affections lately bent And shap't their course that Mid-land straight to win Where Love hath plac'd his uttermost extent His else insatiate conquest to confine And as in nature it is proper known That fire should mount untill it hath attain'd His proper place the concave of the Moon So love untill it hath that center gain'd Whether by natures stimulating force It is
thred Ne're yet since Love his raigne begun Was such small thing more merited More prized or more hardly won DO not reject those titles of your due VVhich natures art hath stiled in your face The name of Faire onely belongs to you None else that title justly can imbrace You Beauties heire her coate sole spotlesse weare VVhere others all some markes abatement beare T is not their cheeks touch'd with Vermillion red Sâ—ain'd with the tincture of enchanting skill Nor yet the curl'd devises of their head Their breasts display'd their looks fram'd to their will Their quick turn'd eye nor all their proud attire Can make me their perfections to admire All this is done without Natures consent Thy beautie needs no arts inticing ayd Thine nature gave their 's art hath onely lent Thine shall endure when theirs are quite decay'd Thy beautie others doth as much excell As heav'n base earth or earth accursed hell Others are faire if not compar'd to thee Compar'd to them thy beautie doth exceed So lesser Starres give light and shine wee see Till glorious Phoebus lifteth up his head And then as things ashamed of their might They hide themselves and with themselves their light Since Natures skill hath given you your right Do not kind nature and your selfe such wrong You are as faire as any earthly wight You wrong your selfe if you correct my tongue Though you deny her and your selfe your due Yet dutie bids me Faire intitle you VVHen God gave man the high Lieutenancy Of all commanding that on earth should bee Hee yet foresaw no true felicitie Could grow to man without societie Wherefore he made of a refined mould Woman to all his workes as crowne of gold The richest presents are the last bestow'd And arts perfections in the last works show'd Her solely hee intended mans companion Most pleasing object of his conversation Whereby who womans company condemne Highly Gods sacred will and Law contemne And few or none neglect their company But such as want worth or abilitie The worthiest men that most prize reputation Would rather lose mens then their estimation Which made th'al-knowing Solomon compare Their love to things most pretious and most rare 'T is not the vulgar breath as hath been said But womens good opinion that ne're stray'd They wits and vertues whetstones are that give The edge and appetite that makes us strive Each other to excell in show and deed To gaine the love of them that most exceed In feminine prehemenence whose love All noble courages of men doth move Honour from men but fruitlesse pleasure brings But womens love gives happinesse of Kings And onely followes those that do possesse The beauties art and nature doe expresse Other delights that hang but on conceit Are sawce and margent this the Text and meat Our sev'rall senses find their sev'rall pleasure But woman is to every sense a treasure To see to heare to touch and if not tast Tisby a sweeter pleasure farre surpast For taste in deed and every other sweet That wee enjoy by natures benefit Onely conduce unto the worke of love Wherein alone wee serviceable prove To God and nature who each worke beside Of our fantastick pleasure do deride And they that give all pleasure to the mind Are naturelesse distasted and unkind Nature to mee hath beene so much a friend I 'le ever honour her and serve her end But you 'l object that womens company Ought serve alone for mans necessitie And that their idle conversation Is uselesse but for procreation As servile ignorant nor ought of worth Is by their triviall fellowship brought forth But womens worth writers enough affirme Which so well prov'd I need not now confirme As for the fault of ignorance you finde 'T is but your education keeps them blinde Yet mid'st that blindnesse of such art they show As cunning'st wits of men doe overgoe And if their disobedience you mislike Beasts by our fall gain'd freedome they the like Perchance expect and as the Privernate Answer'd the question of the Roman State That rebells did such punishment deserve As they that judge themselves too good to serve VVhich made the gen'rous Roman set them free Communicating Roman libertie Knowing that nature n'ere that State would bear VVhich is commixt with servitude and fear So had I power to alter marriage law Both should be free and both exempt from aw And then this verse you happy true should find No comfort 's likâ— to women that are kind But you my doting ravisht soules delight Soule of your Sex subject of what I write VVhose company affords a second joy To that which heav'nly soules in Gods enjoy And whose privation breeds another hell To those that e're did in your presence dwell VVhere onely to have power to come and see Is happinesse above capacitie VVhose presence charmes our cares like heav'nly wine Infusing height of joy and heate divine To whom all other beauties that give light Are cold and dead as Glow-wormes in the night You a quick sparkling-bright-enflaming fire That kindles all comes neare makes all admire As much more lively pleasing in compare As gliding streames then standing waters are Sole Planet of our Spheare raising our blood As mightily as Cynthia th' Oceanâ—lood â—lood I need not name you you are like the Sun Knowne by the most obscure description Oh! if you could in course as constant prove Too happy should hee bee that joyes your love But you like an unguided Phaeton Take glory onely to bee gaz'd upon And to inflame this lower world with fire Of an unbridled and untam'd desire VVhilst your owne heart as hard and cold as stone Is plac'd above all conflagration Reserv'd I thinke to bee enjoy'd by Iove Disdaining all inferiour earthly love For Leda Europa Danae all in one Come nothing neare you Beauties paragon You surely are a Goddesse nor can bee Injoy'd but by a perfect deitie For men may thinke you love and finde you faire But thinking to imbrace you finde but aire Nature hath beene but niggardly to all That unto you shee might bee prodigall To you true beauties faire originall VVhence others have but counterfeit derivall Men may o're other creatures pow'r pretend But full obedience they to you extend And glory more your sacred power t' obey Then over all things else to carry sway BUt that great President of this faire Round VVee may not 'gainst thy will expostulate Nor dare upon lame humane reasons ground Oppose what thou hast pleas'd to ordinate Our reasons false light else would make us stray And with strong arguments our minds induce Against the marriage sanction to invey VVhence flowes such ruine trouble and abuse Nor can thy institution bee accus'd For that observ'd what now our torture brings Had such felicitie to us infus'd As equalls poorest soules with joy of Kings Matches were first made by consent of love VVhich constant mindes in puritie excelling Did so perpetuate that nought could remove Them from their first affections
fixed dwelling Now â—ordid avarice and swell'd ambition Without respect of love make marriage knot And are the vitious ends which that condition With want of harmony and discord blot In former ages love did marriage draw Where marâ—iage band is now loves motive made Grossely hee erres who thinkes that words or law Can sympathy of heart and love perswade Love rather alien'd is then bred by force An essence tender all divine and free Abhorring bands and compulsory course Fainting at thought of forc'd necessitie Happy those times happy that age of gold And free communitie of Plato's state VVhen love was unconfined uncontroul'd Nor any liv'd with those their heart did hate Then love the Cement of societie Sweet band of peace and musicall consent Failing and turn'd to contrarietie Each free from other to first freedome went And then the faultlesse quiet vertuous wight Did not the undeserved penance beare With an unreason'd snarling jealous sprite The pretious portion of its age t'outweare Nor did they in the sweet of home retrait The matchlesse cordiall of a travail'd minde Where happy love makes happy our receipt A purgatory ' stead of comfort finde Nor did that Phantome honour them restraine Or feare desertlesse husbands to offend Make women their true loves desire refraine Not daring lend their owne to please a friend Nor knew they false-bred squint-ey'd bastardy Nor yet the horror of a loathed bed No the heart-gnawing cares by jealousie Of loosely kept and lockt up honour bred Nor did that poys'ning damn'd Italian art The desperate refuge of th'impatient soule So oft prevaile with the malicious heart That no restraint of vertue can controule And since that many are of such complections That change they must nor ought can lâ—ng affect What misery it is to such affections To plague each other with their loves effect The Romans Iewes and many other Nations Had the advantage to repudiate Unty'd to alledge their accusations VVhich would but scandall breed to eithers state But since our law such licence doth not use Each take their fortune and bee well content A common destiny none ought refuse Stolne flesh oâ—t yeeldeth sweetest nourishment Since faultlesse none let 's beare with one another Brag of the better and the worser smother OH doe not taxe me with a brutish love Impute not lust alone to my desire No such prophane aspersion ought to move From you the sacred author of my fire I seeke your love and if you that deny All joyes that you and all the world can give My love-sick soule would little satisfie VVhich no food but your favour can relieve It is your better pâ—rt I would enjoy Your faire affections I would call mine owne 'T is but a prostitute and bestiall joy VVhich seekes the grosse materiall use alone The Town 's not ours the market place unwon Nor doe I her enjoy whose heart 's not mine Hearts conquest is the worthy ambition Seale of our worth a ravishment divine Invincible to strength of humane hand Union divine of mutuall burning hearts Which both subdu'd tâ—iumphing both command Soveraigne delight that God to man imparts Oh let me in this true joy happy bee Or never may you bee enjoy'd by mee MY love to shew her cold desire Hath clad her selfe in freeze attire VVhilst my loves passion all on fire Melts with her beames that I admire Shee by this habit proves shee needs No helpe externall from her weeds And that shee Phoebus glory exceeds Dimm'd by the covering clouds hee breeds THese things must meete to make my mistris faire A gracefull count'nance of a changing ayre A faire eye that a fairer soule discovers Good lippes full breasts sit play fellowes for lovers Plumpe wrests with hands well fashion'd soft and white Faire statur'd body to give full delight Yet I confesse I oft have pleas'd my mind Where what I mention was not all conjoyn'd TO bee assur'd men love as they professe Lydia it is a mystery I confesse And to discerne the right from counterfeit Is a high knowledge Artists hardly get For art on false things sets the fairest hew To make them bee preferr'd before the true The art of art consists in hiding art Well may you judge parts outward not the heart It is a hidden booke which the most High Can onely read with his all-seeing eye It is the private Closet of the minde Where what wee lay our selves oft hardly finde Noâ— to be robb'd or pickt by cunning'st wit But where weake spirits have the keeping it It is a Sea whose depth was never plumm'd Nor e're the creatures and the treasures summ'd It is a skie where wandring Starres doe move But the Astrologie is hard to prove Best knowledge of it is conjecturall Nor doth it under demonstration fall If outward things deceive expos'd to shew Lesse must wee thinke th' inward remote to know The best Physitian oft failes of his skill And thinking by his art to cure doth kill Nor can the cunning'st Lapidarie tell A true stone from a counterfeit set well Nor can the Goldsmith but by highest test Know an adulterate metall from the best A little truth makes falshood currant passe As little gold by Alchymy doth brasse Man 's growne so basely artificiall That wee have lost our golden naturall Emulous art hath nature overcome And inward peace and truth hath overthrowne Proud man that glories most in reasons use By reason 's growne most subject to abuse And not content with what God him assign'd With pleasures false and false griefe plagues his mind Whilst seeking the felicitie of opinion Still toyles but ne're findes firme foundation For what we build though n'outward force o'rethrowes Yet change of passion quickly overblowes Thus are wee still to seeke whilst other creatures Injoy the sweet content of natures treasures Nor doth th' one servile to the other stand Whilst hee 's indeed most slave that doth command Enough 's a feast to them whilst what wee have Begets in us but appetite to crave Nature assign'd equalitie to all Nor meant her free gifts under sale should fall Nor e're intended wee should bee so mad Having the face of earth so richly clad And so sufficiently for mans full use That wee should labour after things abstruse Subterran metalls wrought by fire of hell Mans happinesse and quiet to expell Making them Idols and the needlesse meanes To purchase all which shee so costlesse sends Whilst beasts enjoy a quiet uncontroul'd Free from the plagues and mischiefes bred by gold Free from warre murther theft and penury False calumnies and damned perjury Which wee old Rebells against natures law Foolish commit without or wit or aw And fettered live by our owne enthralling hands Most witlesse servile to fantastick bands Fooles to the wiser fooles mad in desire Preferring ayry smoake before true fire Subjects of fool-bred scorne passion and envy Malice and boundlesse curiositie Insatiate humor ne're content with well That vainely still importunes to excell Reasons and natures bounds which
overpast No period of contentmentment can bee plac'd Faire-promising little-performing joy That in th'obtaining doth it selfe destroy Our fleshes torture cancker of state and minde Fancies faire weed toy-doting childish kinde That feeds and mads with faire imagin'd showes Rewarded to know least where most it knowes Ape of infinitie that proud aspires Though nature bound to b'endlesse in desires Vext by that woolfe Ambition pride and honour That glitt'ring glasse that snares who dotes upon her That ignis fatuus that who e're pursues Oft meets with inconvenience that hee rues That tickling breath bought at the highest rate Guilt pill that costs so many a broken pate Monster that preyes upon our blood and ease And makes us toyle whom wee contemne to please That britly base strung gem most hardly won Rich lasting stuffe in show but quickly done That pleasant bait that feeds but never fils That Syren that then flatters when it kils That curbe of pleasure sweet of our fond pain Faire instrument ambitions end to gain But Lydia to return again to you I grant 't is hard to know false love from true Your proper art must bee your guiding thred That in loves Lab'rinth you bee not misled In many things we right conclusion take Though wee no certainty of proof can make I proof-lesse think her painted others faire And find faire weather in a threatning aire But venter Lydia she is ne're much wrong'd Who joyes the fruit of love for which shee long'd VVEll women w' are content for modesty You shall dissemble so you 'l be content VVee shall esteem it as a vertuous lie Nor force us to beleeve more then is meant To say you like and love yet have no end Nor any further pleasure doe affect Then such as friend communicates to friend In sight and speech and outward good respect Such may bee friendship but 't was never love Say truly when you doe your Lover kisse Find you no inward kindling sparkles move That you enjoy a more contenting blisse But may it not I feare bee over true That women have forgot to love indeed Nor any such true love is found in you As doth from undissembling hearts proceed And that you may not ignorance pretend VVhat true love is I will to you define That lovers true may reap their loves true end And magnifie a power so divine LOve 's an exhaled Meteor set on fire By beauties Sun in Region of desire A pleasing print nature sets on our heart Of fairest feature which to re-impart Unto the world shee agitates our mind That thereby we perpetuate our kind A longing after inward free commerce VVhere spirits seek with spirits to converse A mutuall blisse most joyfull occupation Where two that like would make one corporation Love is a liking taken to a piece VVhich to make ours we stick not at the price An absent presence businesse full of doubt A guest let in that keeps all others out A peacefull warre a friendly enemy A free State turn'd into a Monarchy Love is an essence all divine and pure A pleasant wound that only one can cure A weeping joy a hopefull sweet despaire An Aprill day Chamaeleon fed with aire A large imprisonment a bold fac'd shame A play where holding out makes lose the game An importuning fancy entertain'd That mutins reason if not well restrain'd An Incubus that sits heavy on the mind Or mewing Cat that hunteth after kind A â—igging to discover hidden treasure Sâ—â—â— union of the minds and bodies pleasure The plesant'st game that ever was invented That sweetest sinne so hard to be repented The happiest gift rich nature doth bestow On them that doe her service undergoe VVorker of wonders father of all things That makes Kings-beggers and makes Beggers kings That makes the Lawyer plead without a fee And the Divine commit Idolatry That makes the daring Souldier to preferre A single combate farre above the warre VVitnesse that Dame who did the Lab'rer win To quit his club and settle him to spin Love makes the Merchant think his home-spun piece Richer then the stuffe of India France or Greece Love turns the Courtiers reason into rime And his sleep houres to curious dressing time Makes him leave Master Horse and Hound and Hare To hunt his Mistris sure above compare And value each kind look kisse of her hand At higher rate then his best field of land Love makes the Sloven turn most neat affected Yet oft the curious carelesse and neglected Love makes the silent speechlesse man to speak Yet oft sets the best Oratour to seek Converts a Papist to a Protestant Whilst he in recompence prayes to a Saint Makes Atheists to acknowledge Deitie Yet holyest Writers profane Piety Makes honest unto one a common whore Yet makes lascivious who was chast before Transformeth women into manly shape Yet maketh men become effeminate Turns age to youth that once again they may In August tast the pleasant fruits of May 'T is Fancies nat'rall child ne're lawfull bred But where by Reason Fancy's seconded Fancy but liking reason love doth make Reasonlesse love of madnesse doth partake But both affections thus concurre in one Fully t' enjoy their object as their owne Nor is it love that seeketh not to prove That sweet which nature makes the end of love Were 't not a silly Bee nay a true Drone That having seis'd a faire flower as her owne Would simply on exteriour pleasure feed Nor seek to gain the inward honey sweet Such withering flowers are we and silly they That gather not their honey whilst they may 'T is natures work who the cold barren mould Makes fruitfull by loves fire species to hould Her mind and pleasures we ought not contemn Fantastick pleasures are not like to them One loves this pleasure th' other loves another But every Son delights to make a Mother FAire give me leave to call you cruell Since cruell I have prov'd you You kind appear'd but to adde fuell To torture him that lov'd you And well you knew your beauty never Could have bewitch'd my mind Nor had you me intangled ever Had you not seemed kind So to seem kind so to dissemble Are but false Syren notes And doe those trait'rous lights resemble That Ships intice to rocks Cruelty often favour proves And favour mischief breeds Hard heart which pity nothing moves More hard which torture breeds Had you at first made firm denyall Nor seem'd to have affected I had not lost with tedious tryall The joy that I expected Loves Card was wont to tell us this That we were neere our Port VVhen women did but heare or kisse But now all rules fall short Like Helens welcome Ile they are Refreshing pleasant ground Where to put in wee ill can spare But are most hardly found Like Proteus daily form they change Never the same remaâ—ning To day most kind to morrow strange Now loving now disdaining The witty yet that can contrive Honour to joine with pleasure Go thorough where they earnest give And
to sing Then the high Trophees of the Swedish King The reason of a Gentlewomans wearing small blacke patches Of another Author I Know your heart cannot so guilty bee That you should weare those â—pots for vanitie Or as your beauties Trophies put one on For every murther which your eyes have done No they are your mourning weeds for hearts forlorne Which though you must not love you could not scorne To whom since cruell honour doth deny Those joyes could onely their misery Yet you this noble way to grace them found When thus your griefe their martyrdome hath crown'd Of which take heed you prove not prodigall For if to every common funerall Of your eyes Martyrs such grace bee allow'd Your face will weare no patches but a clowd Occasioned partly by the Verses above partly by a faire Ladies keeping on her Mask in the house on a hot day I Ne're till now thought patches ornaments Gentile and happy was your Authors muse As gently cruell are her faire intents Who kills and mournes but why doe you refuse Their names who so much wit and fairenesse owne I met that very day you shew'd those lines A beautie such as if it would have shone Would have out pierc'd the parching'st Sun that shines But chamber maskt shee was close mourner to The funerall solemnitie shee wore Innocent guilty sweetly sad as who Resolv'd to intombe her selfe to kill no more It may be also shee did apprehend Another scorching Summer would undoe us And so her selfe o'reclouded to befriend Mortalitie 't was double favour to us But Sun-like beautie know great mischiefes flow From great Eclipses well as blazing Stars Wee die as well except your selfe you show As by your beames or our intestine wars Shine then and triumph still better some die Then this Sphere want its second quickning eye Epigram VVEE cannot scape by masking of your face Wee finde our selves still taken by your grace By your I know not what meere carelesnesse Charmes more in you then others curious dresse Each step and motion of your frame or mind Consists of a composure most refin'd Cheape vertue is confin'd to face yours lies As well in your high spirit as your eyes A Dunghill Cock untry'd will looke as brave So will a Curre a Buzzard Jade or knave As the most vertuous in their severall kind Value consists in temper of the mind In judgement right and resolution strong Ends brave and good thinking nor doing wrong Consulting truth and goodnesse more then will Knowing and daring all but base and ill Diamonds in show are little more then glasse Triviall appearances make men to passe But thorough tryall proves an Asse an Asse Difference in women is no lesse Their goodnesse makes their pretiousnesse True Love and Honour THough you are gracefull brave and faire Beyond your Sexes rate though wit Enoble you as well as blood This nor your fine exalted ayre And prospect knowing all that 's fit Nor that you are rich great but good Subdues mee these to cement well Is that wherein you all excell And if to these you take in love The India's cannot equall prove For me I must not so aspire My part is onely to admire Your vertue vertue to the world supplyes The Sun none ought thinke to monopolize Onely I 'le strive to bee as good as you And so part of your love will prove my due And mine you being good and good to mee Must or be yours or vertuous cease to bee An Elegie upon the Death of the most faire and vertuous Lady Rich which most unhappily happened upon the 24. of August 1638. HAd I least hope complaints could reach our losse Could I the Stars or Sea sand number I would embarque her vertues sea to crosse And to my griefes heighth raise your wonder Could or the world or words such truth receive As to her story doth belong Could any but her self her vertues weave Or sorrow find an equall Tongue Such Ship so fraught such wrack I 'de represent As would the Soveraigne neere surpasse And make you in a Sea of teares lament Shee is not now that Nymph shee was Within without so glorious was her trym Such awe of Odinance shee carried Had shee not by dysaster taken been Neptune alone shee must have married But though her vertues circles just content And her squares just diagonall Numbers can ne're exactly represent Yet by our course Mechanicall Somewhat wee 'l say in lame and short account Our due oblations to discharge Which shall alone all other worth surmount Faithfully drawne though not at large Free from all pride though none but shee had cause Neglecting beautie huswiâ—'ry to minde Wholly resign'd to Gods and marriage Lawes Judicious farre beyond her yeares and kinde Outside and vanitie though most in fashion Wrought not on her strong fram'd and solid soul Shee liv'd by reason as others by their passion And by her goodnesse did all wrongs controul Her presence was a chastisement to sinne Ill time could not corrupt her spotlesse mind Had her pure body of like resistance beene Against the Ayre and season too unkind Wee her sad losse had not so deadly griev'd And shee to our soules joy might still have liv'd Epitaph IN title Rich in vertue all excelling Rare Daughter Mother Sister Friend and Wife Piety seldome had so faire a dwelling Unparallel'd as well in death as life Here now she lies glory of woman kinde Physitians shame the wonder of her time In body faire but fairer in her minde Fitted for heaven and taken in her prime Few rightly knew to value such a Jewell Had death had eyes he had not been so cruell On the same FOule Grief and Death this yeere have play'd their parts And Syrian-like conspire against the best Ayming at one stroke to break all our hearts Their cruell spite ne're met with such a feast They threw and bore the fairest Phoenix born As singular as unique to her friends They never twin'd so strong a Cord to mourn Nor strook so home at ours and their own ends My wound smarts double on the by what where She suff'red how exceeding all repaire How heavy to her friends and mine to beare This multiplies my grief with much despaire My treasure rest well-being all my joy Except what duty and piety require Perisht in her fate can no more destroy Henceforth but love of good and good desire The good is gone which if I cease to grieve Beyond my own death let me cease to live Such life such death so constant Christian brave Never became the triumph of the Grave I erre Triumph was only hers may I Contemplate her both whilst I live and die Her birth-day was her death-day and her death The birth to my discomfort and sad breath A Requiem at the Enterment WHo e're you are Patron subordinate Unto this house of prayer and doe extend Your eare and care to what we pray and lend May this place stand for ever consecrate And may this
the onely way of Cure but nothing more ordinarily neglected by such as only affect to say something to draw a Fee but wil be sure not to trouble their own mindes to cure their Patients But from such God deliver me who will as little admit them to the tryall of my disease and constitution as the Law doth a Butcher to be a Juror Purging Medicines shall bee his last refuge after prescription of convenient exercise order and dyet which by some of the best are affirmed to bee sufficient to cure any disease curable Hee will affect chearefulnesse of countenance and fashion for it is a Cordiall to the sick but he will take heed of an unseasonable merriment which is often as absurd as unwelcome to the seriousnesse of a sick man A thousand things have been and might be said to his instruction for no art more requires it but this in summe shall serve my turn who mean only to say something of a good but not to work a cure upou a bad Physitian I conclude that Physick had need have a God as well to the practice as to the invention of it for errors are so grosse and ordinary diseases and symptomes so complicate Indications so crosse nature and constitutions so diversly affected in Crisis and evacuation nor doth she ever powerfully shew her self till she be put to it for life Purging and blood-letting prove so ordinarily diverters impediments and weakners in stead of helpers to nature and seeing by a mistaking we call those our diseases which are in truth the working of nature towards our cure and the discharge of her self as in fits of Agues Collicks the Stone and the like for my part I chuse rather with David to put my self into the hands of God then man whose endeavours of cure and errors make us ordinarily more misreable then our disease it self I end to my good Doctor with that Counsell of the Scripture whereupon it is to bee hoped that hee will guide his practice namely that hee and his Art are to bee employed upon necessity which I think to be for the sense is ambiguous in such Cases where nature and dyet have ever appeared defective to work a Cure and that his art upon infalliblâ— and cleare grounds hath ever been found successefull A Lawyer A Good Lawyer is so fallen in love with my Lady Justice that there is no greater Antipathy in the world then betwixt him and injury nor hateth he any thing more then an undue course of proceeding He will make his Science compatible with conscience and so runne her course that at the length he may bee thought a fit Judge to preside her high Court of Chancery Hee will have a greater feeling of the cause and interest of his Client then of his Fee and entertaining the defence of it for just will affect more the gaining of it to him then to himself reputation His carriage shall not bee onely perfunctory neither in the taking notice nor in the pleading of the Cause but hee will both search and pleade it home without tendernesse either of his paines or of the Judge his displeasure Hee will not so much frame his practise to corru t custome as to honesty nor beare his eyes on the papers of his present Client and his mind on the Fee that presseth at his Closet doore Hee will esteeme his taking no better then theft without the industry of deserving and of himself worse then of a theese if his Client relying upon him hee appeare not in his defence yet goe away with his money Wherefore hee will entertaine no other causes then hee can honestly goe through nor take Fees without a resolution to discharge his dutie for them Though the Law bee an imperious Lady and unsociable yet hee will endeavour to accompany her with the study of other literature whereby to breed her better respect and his owne prevalence and indeed the study being somewhat dry and dull requires other learning wherewith to lard and grace it Hee will rather fast from Imployment then become patron of an unjust cause especially without having first delivered to his Client his opinion of the nature thereof and the probability of the successe Hee will not make a jest of his profession as some of them doe affirming their practise a pretty tricke to get money a contention of wits and purses a politick pastime to entertaine busie braines an a duell where the greatest stroakes are given underhand but will so defend right and Justice as hee would wish to be defended by them in his best titles and innocencie A Souldier TO bee a good Souldier and Commander hee must know well how to obey and command himselfe Hee must temper his judgement with courage and valour with discretion he will not bee greedy of other imployment then such whose issue is likely to breed his honour and though he owe obedience to his King or superiour yet if any such execution shall be imposed upon him as appeares not feazable unto him he will first discharge his duty in discovering the improbability but being pressed by their authority will undergo the charge with all alacritie and forwardnesse Hee is constituted a Corrector of vice and disorder in others and therefore must in no sort admit them in himselfe especially that of drinking which is too ordinarily incident to his profession for if it were possible hee should bee more then a man but that makes him lesse and it is to bee admired how such as professe and are generally in love with honour and reputation so farre as they will venture their lives upon small puntilio's to the maintayning thereof can consent to overwhelme themselves with such a vice as drawes an undervaluing contempt and scorne upon them even from the meanest sort of people Though it bee most unfit for a good Commander to bee prodigall of his owne life or his Souldiers upon an undue hazard yet their condition being such as to have sold themselves to mortall adventure hee will bee ambitious of nothing more then to meet with a faire occasion of dying in the bed of honour and who feareth death will never bee fitting for that profession and therefore will maintaine himselfe prepared for it Hee must in the exercise of his calling bee an enemy to sloth and idlenesse and keepe them from creeping upon him as hee would doe his blade from rust A continuall vigilance must bee the Sentinell of safetie to himselfe and the Troopes under him his taking notice of well deservers his good example and faire promises will animate his Souldiers and he will ever prove himselfe just of his word both to them and the enemy for if he often deceive and forfeit the trust and confidence that ought to be reposed therein he must impute others diffidence to his owne fault and will finde it a perpetuall prejudice unto him He will make it a principall care to well discipline his men before hee bring them into service for that makes the
contemperament and heat strength goodnesse and sweetnesse of nature and supernaturall grace excited and maintained I finde the best companions and Physitians of body and soule you are witnesse how necessary they have been of late unto me in the sorrows and troubles I have undergone I thank you for your visit and spirituall comfort you imparted to my relapsed Son hee still needeth it hee hath not wanted naturall heat and courage temper moderation and a well concocted discourse as well as a thorow digestion to some peccant humours of his body I feare he doth Time and conflict with evills have not confirmed and wrought upon him exchange of liberty health and pleasures for disease restraint and paine with an apprehensive contemplation of imminent death this mortall yeare work a melancholick dejection upon his minde and meeting with his infirmity appeare at this time his greatest danger A little ease strength and alacrity of spirits animate his naturall presumption to his harm and a little cloud overcasting him as much exanimates If God had not furnished me with as strong a resolution to flight as I have ever been apt to apprehend the worst events I had a thousand times miscarryed there is no slavery like the feare of death no bravery like the contempt of the world and fortune I have lost possessions friends brothers children but I have found God and have not lost my selfe I have sowed kindnesse and reaped dis-respect my good intentions charity resolution and the grace of God are my reward and ever-relieving cordials I seek not my self abroad nor judge my self or others by the successe others weaknesse and distempers shall not be mine it shall rather fortifie and recollect mee if my exuberance of naturall heate and fancy breed my inconvenience I can make an oyle of the same Scorpion to help me not to have too much is not to have enough Aliquid amputandum is the best constitution luxuriance of Nature is the longest laster at least if violence accident and over-bold indiscreet adventure intercept it not heat is the vehiculâ—m of vertue hot natured plants have the strongest faculties and braveliest resist the vigour and extremity of weather and Winter Thus I play the Pedler with you to you I open my pack of small wares to the world I durst but will not they would but pry and smile and scorn not buy to use to weare and make their own You finde here a great deale of trash but no trumpery many bables and toyes yet some Gloves to weare Knives to cut Linnen to adorn cover and keep warme Looking-glasses to see and order your self Pedlers are not ever unwelcome sometimes they are required at least let my good will make not unwelcome unto you this my good morrow Yet to goe a little further and end where I begun There is a happy and just use to be made of naturall heate of our selves and of Gods creatures instituted as Oyle for cheerefulnesse of countenance and Wine to rejoyce the heart of man that use to finde that to practise without declining either to excesse or fantasticall superstition and rigidity of humane Sophistry prevarication and errour is that wee ought to endevour and pray for in the discreet exercise of a good conscience which God grant us Amen November 17. 1638. THus you see Animal vigilans semper laborat some more remisse some more intense according to the activity of their spirits and occasions but my voyage is well past over and I will not spread my sayles to every winde I will be a stone to my self against the wings of my thoughts sedation shall be my affectation I will spare my fuell and rake up my fire let them make publique bonfires and ring their Bells to warme and sport the world who finde matter and joy to publish mine is inward and shall serve my self till opportunity concurre accept in good part with your wonted favour this my pastime account and register never intended for a work or piece of worth Farewell SOules must have objects strong high-relished The strongest filling fair and permanent Such is Gods love wherewith not nourished Earthly and base must be their nutriment No other love can defecate a soule From wallowing in delights base empty foule THou Lord who first didst nip me in the bud From time to time dost humble mee Lest I should sin by heighth of blood And love the world more then the love of thee I gratulate thy favour confident That so thou doest my soule preserve To bee a well-tun'd instrument To sound thy praise and thy decrees to serve Nor will I envy this mans wantonnesse His honor or the others wealth Esteeming nothing happinesse But to possesse a soule in heavenly health All other joyes infatuate the minde Feeding it with a false content Oh let me still thy favour finde To keep me thine I grudge no chastisement Moderate health and fortune are the best A little fire close set unto And heat sufficient to digest Doe the same things that more abounding doe The more wee have the more we still presume Disordred mindes good states abuse The highest spirits most consume May I have nothing more then grace to use Great Farmes are seldome duely husbanded Ranke grounds abound in noysome weeds Wolves Foxes Goates in wastes are bred He feeds more foes then Friends who many feeds THough Friends be absent conversation lost My bating Soule oft labouring in it self By winds and fortune on the black Sea tost Thou present Lord I feare nor wave nor shelf Thou Father Brother art and Friends to me Be the world whose it list so thou be mine They ne're miscarry who rely on thee Grace storms dispels more strong then they combine All thrives where thou the pruning Gardner art To thy Plants blastings frugall blessings prove Though Summer heighth and flourishing impart Winter gives strength and Timber to the Grove To thine all sufferings end in joy and rest And th' absence of a wicked world is best EAse handsomnesse nor profit 't is to tread Your shooe awry like may of vice be said T is ever best to live and walk upright Things crooked grown hardly return to right May I enjoy a faire and quiet minde Soules work like troubled Seas long after winde GOdly content and quiet of the minde Constitute happinesse resembling Heaven Where soules nor strife nor thirst of action finde Reluctancy is conquer'd all goes even Vertue it self untroubled must proceed Howe're its Acts miscarry or succeed Devotions Et quoniam Deus ora movet Sequar ora moventem Introduction DIvinest Herberts Soule daign that I joyn In Hymns accorded to the heart by thine Unto our Masters glory and admit Mee for a Rivall in thy heighth of love For though thy lofty flight bee farre above My creeping Muse in spirit verse and wit My love both may and ought thy love exceed Since greatest pardons greatest love doe breed Thus living sing we Swan-like singing dye His Panegyrick our own Elegie Others I
request and that Moses may have use of his rod. SEventh Henry Roses Kingdomes Iames united Eight Henry in Popes defence a booke endited Which made Romes Bishop stile him faiths defender The stile hee held but made the Pope surrender His Papall power King Charles hath farre outgon him And with his sword taken Bishops cause upon him They owe him more then well they know to pay him If Woolseys Pope liv'd Gar would bee his saying Take heed good Bishops what you goe about Lest Charles hold fast the faith and turne you out Of angry Bees Scotland's a parlous Hive Hedges twixt King and people seldome thrive Wise Jesuits with the Scots tooke little paines Well knowing thence would rise but little gaines Pilgrimage AS I travailed along in my earthly pilgrimage to the heavenly Ierusalem accompanied according to my wishes by a good old Minister or Priest of Queene Elizabeths time I know not now how to terme him there crost upon us in our way a supercilious personage with an high cornerd bonnet his name and nature did little agree who questioning our intentions told us wee were out of our way and that if wee would take him for guide and company hee would carry us a sure smooth and pleasant way to our Journeys end and if wee turned a little aside now and then it should bee at his charges wee should not need to trouble our thoughts hee would take all the care Hee was witty-facetious company and when my old companion would have replyed I told him I thought hee was but in jest and not to be dealt withall in good earnest for whatsoever he pretended hee had a plot upon us for his own advantage and wished to take our leaves of him for hee had a Pistoll by his side that hee trusted to beyond his wit which was great pitie and what ever good companion hee seemed he would make roast-meat of us if wee appeared not in every thing of his mind and that all our good and true heart to God ward would not excuse us whereupon leaving him and walking on there crosses upon us on the other hand as wee found him upon speech a Banbury man who scorned to desire our company but taking notice of our designe told us wee held too much of the left hand that his was the onely right course and whatsoever wee thought not so rough and uneasie as some esteemed it with much more wee thanked him and told him his Sabbath day wayes and ours lay not together and that if hee would have been lesse nice and censorious over good men none of his Brotherhood and more sociably attractive hee might have had more company along with him Then crosseth us againe on the first hand an odde kind of person I knew not well whence hee came nor whither hee would his fashion and habit were likewise ambiguous sometimes formall and cringing and sometimes staggering and licentious hee forsooth would have egged us out of our beaten path into a pretended better discovered by-way of his finding out telling us it would prove much for our ease and forwardnesse wee were thankfull for his good will but told him wee did not love to follow wee knew not whither and that his course sided something too much with the high cornered cap whose company wee had considerately forsaken Our next encounter from the second right hand country was a grave man in the Geneva print a little more conformable and lesse rigid then hee of Banbury hee tooke notice of our voyage and much desired our company intimating unto us that his way lay close by ours but was much more plaine certaine and peaceable as having more of terra firma then the inconstancy of a floting Iland hee said hee had an invariable sure Cart and Compasse to direct us and that hee was sorry to see us English whom hee loved so apt to change that wee might bee as well painted with a paire of sheares in our hand for our Religion as our cloathing that wee never knew when wee were well and that it was ever a great fault with us to bee apt to overdoe that ceremonies and indifferences grew so formall unto us that it was to bee feared Religion it selfe would become at last with us but a ceremonious formalitie Hee wooed us heartily and somewhat to the purpose telling us he had no ends upon us but our journeys end that hee would not trouble us with much complement but much desired our company which if wee refused we should bee in danger of being entised or forced and justled out of our way which was already also growne so little trodden that it was hard to hold with our thankes wee dismissed him telling him that having as sure a Cart and Compasse as himselfe and as learned and pious directors as hee or any other wee doubted not of our way which wee had hitherto found right and good but if wee met with force and opposition wee would carry such an eye towards him that being as well in breath otherwayes called spirit as the best wee would soone overtake him his complement was little ours not much more and so with heartie short and comely prayers for our welfare and industrious instructions which none of the other would afford except the second who was very tedious to us in terror and threats wee parted continuing our way with a resolution not to stumble at every straw nor bee drawne by any zealous example or otherwise to leape over scandalous Christ-masse blocks November 1644. STrict Rhymes stand by and wanton measure All here is out of tune And my selfe more then all A skipping Satyre calls for roome Ruffe wild like him shall be my lines Bring the Fools cap againe And give the world it s owne It ne're was fitter for the times Give me a foure Elbowd Coat There 's no foole to the old That knowes the Fire yet runs into 't And cryes Lord help withhold Kings by your leave and take good heed â—est whilst you shadowes graspe You lose true substance love and ease Showing that you were out of tast States-men study right and peace Bee faithfull plaine and wise And doe not seeke so much to please That all may sinke whilst you may rise Church-men should mend not marre the world Live as your reade in Scriptures then Wee know them now as well as you Thinke not to blind or God or men Good and bad Pastors they set out Bad vent their owne inventions Feeding themselves more then their Flock Bewate of such intentions Judges occasion not the rout By a misguided course To thinke how they may live without Your Furres and never fare the worse Would 't not make the devill laugh To see a masking faith Feed him with Corne and God with Chasse Whilst jugling zeale the truth betrayeth Would you not jeere to see an Ape of clay In Gowne or Doublet jet it to and fro Brisk as a Puppet in a Play Who Mushrome like hath but a week to grow