have turned the Churches beauty into blacknesse but these goods make them never the fatter they passe suddenly from them as Pheneus meat did thorow the Harpies they are troubled with a continual b flix or lientery neither can their crooked tallants hold them long I grant the blindnesse and wickednesse of Pheneus that is of the Clergie gave occasion to this but now their eyes are open and their lives reformed therefore the sons of Boreas the Magistrate and Minister with the arrows of authority and wings of Gods word may be expected shortly to drive away these Harpies 7. Pheneus is a covetous miser who is blind and seeth not what a number of Harpies gape for his death that they may deyour these goods which he himselfe had not power to touch 8. Gods Spirit like Boreas a cooling and refreshing wind which filled the Apostles and came on them like the rushing of a mighty wind delighteth in the soule of man whilst that in the flowry meadows of the Church watered with the cleare fountain of Gods Word shee is gathering spirituall comfort and when shee is joyned to that blessed Spirit Zetis and Calais that is divine raptures are begotten whose haires are skie-coloured and feet winged that is heavenly meditations and swift affections which are nimble in the wayes of Gods Commandements and ready to fly upward from earthly things are the effects of this spirituall conjunction and so by these all Harpies that is covetous and earthly desires are driven away 9. God like Boreas being in love with his Church hath begot in the wombe of the blessed Virgin that winged Conquerour who with the arrowes of his power and wings of his Word have driven away all spirituall Harpies Who think you may with priviledge Rob Churches and the Priests annoy Know this that for your sacriledge The Lord at last will you destroy You 'r like those monsters virgin-fac'd Whom Calais and Zetis chas'd Your virgin-looks do shew you 'r pure Your Feathers make you very gay But by your tallents I am sure You 'r nothing else but birds of prey Which eat our tithes and them pollute But what you eat you quickly mute These Tables shall you not avail These Morsels shall not make you fat For still you eat and still you 'r pale Your craw's ne'r full your belly 's flat Those blew-hair'd winged sons one day Perhaps shall blow you quite away And you rich grubs who do abound With wealth and meat laid up in store Hark how the Harpies wings resound About your windows and your dore They wish you dead that they might share Those goods among them which you spare And now Lord with thy powerfull breath Drive all these hellish birds away Which have conspir'd to work my death And of my Table make a prey Restore my sight that I may see Their filthinesse and treachery And whil'st I 'm gathering fragrant flowers Of comfort by the Chrystall springs Of thy pure Word drop down sweet showrs Of grace on me and give me wings To flye to thee and make my hair In colour like the Azure sphaere Make though my feet walk here below My head may alwayes be above O let thy cooling spirit blow And ravish me with thy true love Let me go with winged paces To injoy thy chaste imbraces Sweet Boreas come blow on me With thy cold breath and do not stay My soul longs much to joyn with thee O let this be our wedding day Wherein I which is still my wish Thy Myrrhe-distilling lips may kisse CHAP. III. C CADMUS and HARMONIA HE was King of the Thebans to whom Iupiter gave Harmonia to wife who was the daughter of Mars and Venus the chief gods were present at the wedding and gave severall gifts This Cadmus was sent by his father to seek out his sister Europa whom when he could not finde and not daring without her to return home built Thebes and kill'd a Dragon which kept a Well the teeth of which he sowed and of them were begot armed men who by means of a stone which Cadmus flung among them fell to quarrelling and kill'd each other afterward he was turned unto a Dragon and by Iupiter was sent unto the Elysian fields THE MYSTERIES CAdmus may be meant of a wise Governour who marrieth with Harmonia when he doth all things with order and Harmonie and where this Marriage is God bestoweth many blessings Ceres will not be wanting with her corn nor Apollo with his Cithern nor Mercurie with his Harp nor Minerva with her golden chain and artificially wrought Cloak that is both profit and pleasure and arts are to be found where wisdom and order go together in Government it is this which seeketh out Europa that is countries for new Plantations by this Thebes and Cities are built by this the Dragon that is malicious and subtill enemies are slain and if of one enemy many should arise it is the parr of a wise Prince to fling among them that is to use some means wherby they may fall out among themselves that so they may be weakned and their violence kept off from Him he must also be of a favourer of learning for Cadmus brought from Phaenicia unto Greece sixteen letters Alphabeticall and a Prince must have the Dragons eye and be turned unto a Dragon when wickednesse gets the upper hand that hee may be fearfull to those that do evill and such a Prince at last shall be received unto the Elysian fields that is shall have rest and liberty again a King must do nothing but by advise of Minerva that is of his wise and learned Counsell the two cheif props of a Kingdom are Mars and Venus warre and propagation and these two live in harmony and order as parents in their children a wise man that cannot live securely in a publick place will with Cadmus turn himself unto a Serpent that is live a private and solitary life 2. A good Minister like Cadmus must do all things with order and decencie he must do nothing without advice from God he must seek out Europa his sister that is every lost soul and if she cannot or will not be found he must not be idle but must give himself to build the city of God for these two a Minister must do seek those that be lost and confirm or stablish those that stand he must also kill the Dragon that infecteth the Well that is the Heretick who poysoneth the cleer fountain of Gods Word and if the destruction of one Heretick be the generation of many as we see in the Arrian Heresie being overthrown by the Nicene Synod of which as out of the Dragons teeth arise Eusebians Photinians Eudoxians Acacians Eunomians Macedonians Aetians Anomians Exucontii and Psatyrians wee must fling Minerva's stone that is wise Arguments out of Gods Word amongst them that these armed men may destroy one another so we read in that the Councell of Selentia the Arrians went together by the ears among themselves being divided into
qualitie adherent to beautie either true or apparent which causeth love in us now that love which all creatures have to creatures of their own kind in multiplying them by generation is the childe of Vulcan and Venus for it is begot of their own naturall heat outward beautie by beauty I mean whatsoever we account pleasing to us whether it be wealth honour pleasure vertue c. 2. The reasons why love was thus painted I conceive to be these Cupid is a childe because love must be still young for true love cannot grow old and so die amor qui desinere potest nunquam fuit verus Hee hath wings for love must be swift he is blind for love must wink at many things it covereth a multitude of sins he is naked for amongst friends all things should be common the heart must not keep to it self any thing secret which was the fault that Dalila found in Sampsons love he is crowned with roses for as no flower so much refresheth the spirits and delights our smell as the rose so nothing doth so much sweeten and delight our life as love but the rose is not without prickles nor love without cares the crown is the ensigne of a King and no such King as love which hath subdued all the creatures rationall sensitive vegetative and senslesse have their sympathies the image of a Lionesse with little Cupids playing about her some tying her to a pillar others putting drinke into her mouth with a horne c. do shew how the most fierce creatures are made tame by love therefore he hath a rose in one and a Dolphin in the other to shew the qualitie of love which is swift and officious like the Dolphin delectable and sweet like the rose his arrows do teach us that love wounds deeply when we cannot obtain what we love some of his arrows are pointed with lead some with gold he is wounded with a golden arrow that aimes at a rich wife and cannot obtain her to be wounded with leaden arrows is to be afflicted for want of ordinary objects which we love and so his burning torches shew that a lover is consumed with grief for not obtaining the thing loved as the wax is with heat Ardet amans Dido Vritur infaelix Caeco carpitur igne Est mollis flamma medullas Haeret lateri laethalis arundo c. These are my conceits of Cupids picture other Mythologists have other conceits applying all to unchast and wanton love whose companions are drunkennesse quarrelling childish toyes c. Alas my soul how men are vext That fix their love on gilded dung Which when they want they are perplext And when they have it they are stung Great riches wounds With cares mans heart As wealth abounds So doth their smart Doth not the love of earthly things Devest men of their richest robe And then they fly away with wings And leaves them naked on this Globe Besides all that They blinde men eyes That they cannot Behold the skies And doth not earthly things besides With burning torches men torment And with sharp arrows wound their sides So that our dayes in pain are spent Then why should I Affect these things Which misery And sorrow brings This love makes men like foolish boyes Who place their chief felicity In bits of glasses shels and toyes Or in a painted Butter-flye So riches are Which we alas Scrape with such care But bits of glasse Lord let me see thy beauty which Doth onely true contentment bring And so in thee I shall be rich Oh if I had swift Cupids wing Then would I flee By faith above And fix on thee My heart and love That Christ is the true God of Love Christ is the onely God of Loves Who did his secrets all disclose Whose wings are swifter then the Doves Who onely hath deserv'd the Rose Thou onely art That potent King Both of my heart And every thing Both Principalities and Powers And all that 's in the sea and land Men Lyons Dolphins Birds and Flowers Are all now under thy command Thy Word 's the torch Thy Word 's the dart Which both doth scorch And wound my heart It was not Cupid sure that spoil'd The gods of all their vestiments But thou art he that has them foil'd And stript them of their ornaments Then thou alone Deserves to be Set in the Throne Of Majesty Sometime a Crown of Thorns did sit Upon that sacred head of thine But sure a Rose-crown was more fit For thee and Thorns for this of mine O God what love Was this in thee That should thee move To dye for me Thy youth is alwayes green and fresh Thy lasting yeers Lord cannot fail O look not on my sinfull flesh But mask thy eyes with mercy's vail O Lord renew In me thy love And from thy view My sins remove CYCLOPES THese were the sons of heaven their mother was earth and sea men of huge stature having but one eye which was in their forehead they lived upon mens flesh Polyphemus was their chief he was a shepherd and in love with Galathaea he having devoured some of Vlisses his fellowes was by him intoxicated with wine and his eye thrust out These Cyclopes dwelt in Sicily and were Vulcans servants in making Iupiters thunder and Mars his chariots c. THE MYSTERIES THese Cyclopes are by some meant the vapours which by the influence of heaven are drawn out of the earth and sea and being in the air ingender thunder and lightning to Iupiter as their a names shew they dwelt in Sicilie about hill Aetna because heat is the breeder of thunder they were thrust down to Hell by their father and came up againe because in the cold winter these vapours lie in the earth and by heat of the spring are elevated wise Vlisses overcame Polyphemus that is man by his wisdome and observation found out the secrets of these naturall things and causes thereof Apollo was sayd to kill these Cyclopes because the Sun dispelleth vapours 2. I think by these Cyclopes may be understood the evill spirits whose habitation is in burning Aetna that is in Hell burning with fire and brimstone being thrown down justly by God from heaven for their pride but are permitted sometimes for our sins to rule in the air whose service God useth sometimes in sending thunder and stormes to punish the wicked they may well be called Cyclopes from their round eye and circular motion for as they have a watchfull eye which is not easily shut so they compasse the earth to and fro they may be sayd to have but one eye to wit of knowledge which is great for outward eyes they have not their chief food and delight is in the destroying of mankinde Polyphemus or Belzebub is the chief who having devoured Vlisses fellowes that is mankinde the true Vlisses Christ the wisdom of the father came and having powred unto him the full cup of the Red wine of his wrath bound him and thrust out
this pilgrimage When wilt thou ope this fleshly cage This prison and this house of clay That hence my soul may fly away Untye the chains with which so fast I 'm bound and make me free at last And draw aside this Canopie Which keeps me from the sight of thee Lord let me first see thee by grace Here then hereafter face to face ENDYMEON HE was a fair shepherd who falling in love with Iuno who was presented to him in the forme of a cloud was thrust down from heaven into a cave where he slept 30 years with whom the Moon being in love came down oftentimes to visit and kisse him THE MYSTERIES IT is thought that Endymeon being an Astronomer and one that first observed the divers motions of the Moon gave occasion to this fiction that the Moon loved him but I think these uses may be made of this fiction 1. Endymeon is a rich man and riches make men fair though never so deformed and with such the Moon that is the world as unconstant as the Moon is in love these are the men whom the world kisses and honoreth but when these rich Endymeons set their affections upon wealth for Iuno is the goddesse of wealth then do they lose heaven and fall into the sleep of securitie saying Soul take thy rest thou hast store layd up for many years with that rich farmer in the Gospell and so they lose their souls for a shadow for such is wealth and this shadow brings upon them spirituall stupiditie they that cannot be roused from their cave though Gods word should shine on them as cleer as the Moon 2. By Endymeon Adam may be meant who was fair whilst Gods image continued with him but when he fell in love with Iuno Iupiters wife that is affected equalitie with his maker he was thrust out of Paradise into this world as unto a cave where he was cast into a dead sleep or the sleep of death from which he shall not be awaked though the Moon so often visit him that is so long as the Moon shall shine and visit the earth which shall be till the dissolution of all things man shall sleep in the grave 3. By Endymeon may be meant these over whom the Moon hath dominion for Astrologers observe that every man is subject to one Planet or other more or lesse such men then over whom the Moon ruleth are instable subject to many changes nimble bodied quick in apprehension desirous of glory and such a one perhaps was Endymeon therefore the Moon was sayd to love them and such because they affect hohour and popular applause which is but air may be sayd to be in love with Iuno which is the air and indeed honour is but air or a cloud 4. Every man may be called Endymeon for we are all in love with air and emptie clouds with toyes and vanities which makes us so sleepie and dull in heavenly things and the Moon is in love with us changes and inconstancie still accompanie mans life to signifie which instabilitie of human affaires the feast of new Moons was kept among the Iews and the Roman Nobilitie used to weare little pictures of the Moon on their shooes to shew that we are never in one stay for which cause I thinke the Turks have the half Moon for their Armes 5. When Endymeon that is mankinde slept in sin the Moon that is our Saviour Christ whose flesh is compared to the Moon a by S. Augustin as his divinitie to the Sun in his flesh visited us and dwelt amongst us this Moon was eclipsed in the passion and this Moon slept in the cave with Adam and the full of this Moon was seen in the resurrection this is he who hath kissed us with the kisses of his mouth whose love is better then wine whose light shined in darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not 6. The Moon fals in love with sleepie Endymeons that is carnall and sensuall pleasures and earthly thoughts invade those that give themselves to idlenesse securitie and lazinesse for the Moon in regard of her vicinitie to the earth may be the Symboll of earthly mindes and because she is the mistris of the night and of darknesse the time when carnall delights are most exercised she may be the Symboll of such delights and because of her often changing she may represent to us the nature of fooles which delight in idlenesse as the Moon did in Endymeon 7. Endymeon in this may signifie the Sun with whom the Moon is in love rejoycing and as it were laughing in her full light when she hath the whole veiw of him and every month running to him and overtaking him whose motion is slow and therefore he seems to sleep in regard of her velocitie What means the Moon to dote so much upon The fair Endymeon Or why should man forsake his Soveraign good To catch an empty cloud From heaven shall any man for riches fall And lose his soul and all How can we sleep in such security As that we cannot see Our dangers nor that lamp whose silver ray Drives black-fac'd night away What madnesse is 't for thee to lose thy share Of heaven for bubling air Of honour or of popular applause Which doth but envie cause And which is nothing but an empty winde That cannot fill the minde How changable is man in all his wayes Now grows anon decayes Now cleere then dark now hates anon affects Still changing his aspects Much like the Moon who runs a wandring race And still doth change her face But Lord give me strait paths and grant to me The gift of constancie And quench in me I pray the sinfull fire Of lust and vain desire Be thou the onely object of my soul And free me from the hole Of ignorance and dead security O when shall I once see The never fading lustre of thy light To chace away my night The golden beauty of thy countenance To clear my conscience O Lord thou cam'st to rouze Endymeon Out of his dungeon Wrapp'd in the black vail of Chimerian night Who could not see the light Of Moon or Star untill thou didst display Thy all-victorious ray Brighter then is fair Phoebe's glitt'ring face Which is the nights chief grace Whose silver light as sometimes it does wain And then it primes again So was thy flesh eclipsed from it's light By Pluto's horrid night And muffled for a while from that bright eye Of thy Divinity But when black deaths interposition Was overcome and gone The silver orb of thy humanity Did shine more gloriously Then when the white-fac'd empresse of the night Shines by her brothers light O rouze me from my drousinesse that I May see thy radient eye Which pierceth all hearts with its golden beams From which such glory streams That all the winged Legions admire Lord warm me with thy fire And stamp the favour of thy lips on mine Whose love exceeds new wine Then will I sing uncessantly thy praise And to
flow silver streams of grace In whom all goodnesse and perfection dwels He was a harmlesse spotlesse Dove The Center of his Fathers love The object of my chief desires And he in whom my soul respires Who on the wing of his Divinity Was elevated far above our sight And now inhabits that eternall light Which with our mortall eyes we cannot see He Nectar of his merit pow'rs Before his Father and down show'rs On us his graces from above Out of the bottles of his love O if some cloud-dividing Eagle would Under my feet spread forth his airy wings And lift my minde from these inferiour things That I my God in glory might behold Lord let my prayer pierce the skies And from the bottles of mine eyes Receive the Nectar of my tears And drink them with thy gracious ears O if I could with Eagles pinions cleave The highest clouds and with their piercing eye Could my Redeemer in his glory see Triumphing over death and o're the grave And as the Eagles do repair To places where dead bodies are So where thy flesh is Lord let me Resort that I may feed on thee And when my soul shall leave this house of clay Command thy winged Messengers who still Are ready to obey thy blessed will To be my soul-supporters in that day And in the Resurrection When soul and body meets in one Let them uphold me then and there Where I shall meet thee in the air GENII THese were the sons of Iupiter and Terra in shape like men but of an uncertain sex every man had two from his nativitie waiting on him till his death the one whereof was a good Genius the other a bad the good ones by some are called Lares the bad Lemures and by Tertullian and his Commentator Pamelius they are all one with the Daemones they were worshipped in the forme of Serpents THE MYSTERIES GEnius a gignendo for by them we are ingenerated and so whatsoever is the cause or help of our generation may be called Genius thus the elements the heavens the stars nature yea the God of nature in whom we live move and have our being may be called Genii in a large sence and Genii quasi Geruli a gerendo vel ingerendo from supporting us or from suggesting good bad thoughts into the mind therfore gerulofiguli in Plautus is a a suggestor of lyes and so by these Genii may be understood the good and bad Angels which still accompanie us and by inward suggestion stir us up to good or evill actions The form of Serpents in which the b Geni were worshipped doth shew the wise and vigilant care which the Angels have over us when after this life they punish us for sins they are called c Manes Therefore the Genii were painted with a platter full of flowers and garlands in one hand and a whip in the other to shew that they have power both to reward punish us They have oftentimes appeared in the forme of men therefore they are painted like men but they have no sex nor do they procreate for which cause perhaps the fruitfull Palm tree was dedicated to them with which also they were crowned because they were held of a middle kind between Gods and men they were called the sons of Iupiter and earth or rather in reference to Plato's opinion which held Angels to be corporeall our souls also are Genii which from our birth to our death do accompanie our bodies every mans desire and inclination may be called his Genius to which it seemes the Poet alluded saying an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido and perhaps Aristotles intellectus agens is all one with Plato's Genius for without this we have no knowledge because the passive intellect depends in knowledge from the active in receiving the species from it which by the active intellect is abstracted from time place and other conditions of singularitie and this is all one as if we should say we receive no information of good or evill but from our Genius and as the Gentiles beleeved the stars to be Genii so the Jews thought them to be Angels and that they were living creatures therefore they worshipded them called them the hoast of heaven but indeed Christ is our true Genius the great Angel who hath preserved and guarded us from our youth by whom we are both generated regenerated the brasen Serpent from whom we have all knowledge who alone hath power to reward and punish us who appeared in the forme of man and in respect of his 2 natures was the son of Iupiter and Terra of God and earth and who will never forsake us as Socrates his Genius did him at last who came not to affright us or to bring us the message of death as Brutus his Genius did to him but to comfort us and to assure of eternall life let us then offer to him the sacrifice not of blood crueltie or oppression which the Gentiles would not offer to their Genius thinking it unfit to take away the life of any creature that day in which they had received life themselves but let us offer the wine of a good life and the sweet fumes of our prayer a and let us not offend this our Genius or deprive him of his due but make much of him by a holy life and though the Gentiles assigned unto every man his Genius and Iuno to the women yea we know that Christ is the Saviour and keeper both of men and women that with him there is no difference of sex To what high dignity and place Hath God advanc'd our humane race To whose beak and command He did subdue all things that creep And flye within the air and deep And move upon dry land Besides heavens blessed Harbingers Gods nimble-winged Meslengers Are with a watchfull eye By his appointment to defend Us from all hurt and to attend On us continually Lord send to me these winged Posts And guard me with these heavenly hoasts From Satans pollicies And let them with their shady wings Protect me from all hurtfull things And from mine enemies And let this hoste in squadrons flye Before me Lord unclose mine eye That I may see my guard How with their Tents they me inclose And how they fight against my foes And keep their watch and ward And let these be my Tutors to Instruct my minde what it must do And how it must obey O by these sacred Pursuvants Shew me thy just commandements And guide me in my way And let these comforters asswage The pains of this my pilgrimage In my last agony Let these swift-winged Legions Through all the starry regions My soul accompany And when the trump Angelicall Shall sound which must awake us all And raise us from our dust Let these intelligences bring Me to the presence of my King And place me with the just O thou great Angel who hath still Been my protector from all ill
we have honey and oil that is delight and all things necessary by his good government whose wisdom doth prevent the infectious heat of Dog-dayes that is of oppression tumults and rebellion but if at any time Euridice right judgement being stung by serpentine flatterers who mis-inform him be wanting then the Bees perish and the subjects go to ruine 3. Aristaeus is the coelestiall heat the effect of the Sun joyned with moderate moisture by which Bees and Olives and all things usefull for our life are procreated and cherished by the secret influence of this heat those Northern windes in Pontus Aegypt and other places are raised which after the Summer solstice blow and last four dayes by which the rage of the Dog-star is mitigated these winds are called Etesii because every yeer they blow at the same season in Spain and Asia these Etesian windes blow from the East this heat working upon Iupiter and Neptune that is on the air and sea doth cause and generate these windes now as this coelestiall heat produceth and cherisheth Bees so Euridice mans judgement art and industry must be joyned otherwayes by the Nymphs that is too much rain or by many other wayes the Bees may fail and if they fail the same heat out of putrified matter may make a new generation 4. Christ is the true Aristaeus the good shepherd the best of men and the son of God by whom we have honey and oil comfort and spirituall joy and all things else at whose request the heat and Dog-star of Gods anger was appeased he is in love with our souls as Aristaeus with Euridice but we run from him and are stung by the serpent the Devil we dyed with Euridice we were destroyed with Aristaeus his Bees untill he restored us again to life by the sacrifice of his own body When Aristaeus lost his troops Of honey people and their hopes And when Cyrene he ador'd He had his swarms again restor'd Wee are the Bees and Christ is he Who would himself an offring be He was both Altar Priest and Hoast He found us out when we were lost He got us pleasure by his pain His death 's our life his losse our gain In that we do injoy our lives In that our wexin Kingdom thrives In that we sit on fragrant flowers Bedew'd with pearly drops and showers In that our Cells with Nectar flow In that our yong ones live and grow In that we play in open air In that the Heavens are so fair In that we have so long a Spring And with our humming Meads do ring All this we have and more then this By vertue of Christs sacrifice It s he who with his gentle breath Tempers the heat of Jova's wrath It s he that loves us night and day And yet like fools we run away He is our husband not our foe Then whither will you from him go You run but do not see alas The Serpent that lurks in the grasse O Lord when thou dost call on me Uncase my eyes that I may see Thy love and beauty of thy face And so support me with thy grace That I may stand or if I fall I may not lose my soul withall ATALANTA SHe was the daughter of King Ceneus so swift in running that no man could match her only Hippomenes overcame her by casting in her way three golden apples at which whilst shee stooped to take them up she lost her race she was the first that shot the Calydonian Boare and with the sharpe point of her spear brought water out of a rock but for lying in Cybeles temple with Hippomenes shee was turned into a Lionesse and he into a Lion which drew Cybeles Chariot THE MYSTERIES HEre we have the picture of a whore who runnes swiftly in the broad way that leadeth to destruction if any thing stay her course it is wise counsell and admonition for wisdom is represented by gold It is she that kils the Boars that is wanton and unruly youths wounding both their bodies soules and estates and therefore hath a sharp speare to draw water out of rocks because many who at first were senselesse like stones being deepely wounded with remorse for their former folly and stupidity fall to repentance to weeping and lamenting considering what they have lost and as Atalanta defiled Cybeles temple so doth a whore pollute her body which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost so doth the whore-master make his body all one with the body of an harlot and so both degenerat from humanity and participate of the cruelty and lasciviousnesse of Lions and by this means become miserable slaves and drudges to Cybele mother earth that is to all earthly affections and lust 2. As Atalantas course was interrupted by golden apples so is the course of Justice oftentimes stopped with golden bribes 3. Here we see that one sinne draweth after it another worse than the former fornication begetteth profanenesse and profanenesse cruelty and miserable servitude to earthly lusts 4. Let us with Atalanta run the race that is set before us and wound the boare of our wanton lusts draw water from our rocky hearts let us take heed that the golden apples of worldly pleasure and profit which Hippomenes the Devil flings in our way may not hinder our course commit not spirituall fornication with him in the temple of Cybele lest God in his just anger make our condition worse than the condition of the brute and savage beasts We 're all in Atalanta's case We run apace Untill our wandring eyes behold The glitt'ring gold And then we lose in vanity Our race and our virginity Gods holy Temple we pollute And prostitute Our souls to foul Hippomenes With all boldnesse So having lost humanity Fierce Lyons we become to be And then our heads we must submit To curb and bit Of mother earth whose heavie Wain We draw with pain And yet we cannot cease to draw Earth till earth hide us in her maw O that we could our sins deplore And kill the Boare Of wanton lusts e're we hence go To shades below O that our rocky hearts could rend And from them Chrystall Rivers send O God all filthy lusts destroy Which me annoy And give my flinty heart a blow That tears may flow O let me not thy house profane Which thou hast purchas'd with thy pain ATLAS WAs the son of Iapetus and brother of Prometheus or as others say he was begotten of heaven and the day if this was not another Atlas hee was King of Mauritania and had a garden where grew golden apples he was turned into a mountain by Perseus Iupiters son upon the sight of Gorgons head because he refused to lodge him THE MYSTERIES ATlas is the name of an high hill which for the height thereof being higher than the clouds was said to support heaven and to be begotten of heaven and day because of the continuall light on the top of it as being never obscured with mists clouds and vapours 2. This
its pain In sweetest honey there is bane If men of meaner sort Make drunkennesse but a sport Yet let not men of place Their state so much disgrace Ulisses must have temperance Although his servants lose their sence Lord arm me with thy Word Which like Ulisses sword From Circe may defend me And then herb Moly send me Having this sword and herb O God I 'le shun the cup I 'le scape the rod CAELUS THis was the son of Aether and Dies who married with Terra and of her begot Gyants Monsters Cyclopes Harpe Steropes and Brontes he begot also of her the Titanes and Saturn mother earth being angry that Coelus had thrown down his sons to Hell caused the Titans to rebell against him who thrust him out of his Kingdom and Saturn cut off his testicles out of the drops of bloud which fell from them the Furies were ingendred THE MYSTERIES BY Caelus I understand the upper region of the air for the air is called heaven both by Poets and divine Scripture this may be sayd to be the son of Aether and Dies not only because it is alwayes cleer free from clouds and mists but because also it hath the nature of elementary fire to which it is next for it is hot and drie as that is and more properly may this fire be called Aether from its continuall burning then the heaven which hath no elementarie heat at all his mariage with the earth of which Titans Cyclopes c. are procreated do shew that those fierie Meteors in the upper region of the air are procreated by its heat and motion of these thin and drie smoaks which arise out of the earth the names of Steropes and Brontes shew that lightning and thunder are generated there in respect of their matter which being received within the clouds of the middle region cause the rumbling as if there were some rebellion and wars within the clouds Saturn his son that is time the measurer of heavens motion shal geld his father that is the heaven shall grow old and in time shall lose that power of generation for this shall cease when there shall bee a new heaven and upon this new change in the heaven the Furies shall be ingendred that is the torments of the wicked shall begin 2. They that geld ancient records fathers and scripture are like Saturn rebelling against heaven being incouraged thereto by those spirituall monsters enemies of truth who were thrust down from heaven and that light of glorie wherein they were created unto the lowest Hell and of this gelding proceed nothing but Furies that is heresies schismes dissentions 3. Saturninus Tatianus and his schollers the Encratites Originists Manichaeans and all other heriticks who have condemned matrimonie as an unclean thing and not injoyned by God they are all like Saturn being assisted by their brethren the Monsters of Hell and do what they can to geld their father Adam of his posteritie and to rebell against heaven and what ensueth upon this gelding or condemning of wedlocke but Furies and all kinde of disorder and impuritie 4. The children of heaven and of the light must not as Caelus did joyne themselves in their affections to the earth for of this union shall proceed nothing but Monsters to wit earthly and fleshly lusts thoughts and works which will rebell against our souls and geld us of all spirituall grace and of our interest in the kingdom of Heaven and then must needs be ingendred the Furies to wit the torments of conscience You sons of heaven and of the day Stoop not so low As to betroth your souls to clay For then I know That of this match will come no good But rather a pernicious brood A race of Monsters shall proceed Out of thy loins If thou in time tak'st not good heed To whom thou joyn'st Thy soul in wedlock earth 's not fit For thee to fix thy heart on it For she will bring thee such a brood That shall resist thee And when thy soul they have withstood They will devest thee Both of thy Kingdom and thy strength And bring thee under them at length And if earths Adamantine knife Emasculate Thy soul then shall thy barren life And gelded state Ingender in thee endlesse cares And Furies with their snaky hairs Lord joyn my heart so close to thee With fervent love That I may covet constantly The things above Where glory crowns that princely brow To which both men and Angels bow Lord let not earth effeminate My heart with toyes But let my soul participate Thy heavenly joyes Where Angels spend their endlesse dayes In singing of Elysian layes And if my mother be the light And heaven my fire Then let my soul dwell in that bright Aetheriall fire Where Gyants Furies and the race Of Titans dare not shew their face CUPIDO OF Cupids parents some say he had none at all others that he was ingendred of Chais without a father some say he was the son of Iupiter and Venus others of Mars and Venus others of Vulcan and Venus others of Mercurie and Venus c. He was the god of love painted like a childe with wings blinde naked crowned with Roses having a Rose in one hand and a Dolphin in the other with bow and arrows c. THE MYSTERIES THere is a two-fold love to wit in the creator and in the creature Godslove is two-fold inherent in himself and this is eternall as himself therefore hath no father nor mother or transient to the creature this love was first seen in creating the Chaos and all things out of it therefore they sayd that love was ingendred of Chaos without a father and when they write that Zephyrus begot Cupid of an egge what can it else mean but that the spirit of God did manifest his love in drawing out of the informed and confused egge of the Chaos all the creatures the love of the creature is two-fold according to the two-fold object therof to wit God and the creature that love by which we love God is begot of Iupiter and Venus that is God and that uncreated beautie in him is the cause of this love and because the main and proper object of love is beautie for we do not love goodnesse but as it is beautifull and it is the object that moveth and stirreth up the a passion therfore Venus goddess of beautie is still the mother of Cupid or love which notwithstanding hath many fathers because this generall beautie is joyned to many particular qualities which causeth love in men according to their inclinations and dispositions some are in love with wars and count militarie skill and courage a beautifull thing so this love is begot of Mars and Venus others are in love with eloquence and thinke nothing so beautifull as that and so Mercurie and Venus are parents of this love some love Musick and so Apollo begets this Cupid and so we may say of all things else which we love that there is some
spirituall enemie 10. If a woman once loose her modestie and honor be she never so fair she will seeme to wisemen but an ill-favored Gorgon he accounts her hair as snakes her beauty as deformitie 11. A Captain or whosoever will encounter with a snakiehaired Gorgon that is a subtile headed enemie stands in need of Minerva for wisdom of Mercurie for eloquence and expedition and of Vulcan for courage 12. Persius got the victorie over Gorgon by covering his face with the helmet that he might not be seen of her the best way to overcome the temptations of lewd women is to keep out of their sight and to make a covenant with our eyes 13. The Gorgons are like those that live at home a private life and so make no use of their eye of prudence till they be called abroad to some eminent place and publick office 14. They that have fascinating and bewitching eyes by which many are hurt and infected especially yong children may be called Gorgons and that such are both ancient records experience and reason doth teach us for from a malignant eye issues out infections vapors or spirits which make easie impressions on infants and tender natures therefore the Gentiles had the goddesse of cradles called Cunina to guard infants from fascination and we read that in Scythia and Pontus were women whose eyes were double balled killing and bewitching with their sight these were called Bithiae and Thibiae and they used the word praefiscine as a charme against fascination and in Africa whole familes of these fascinating haggs were wont to be and Thy eyes do shine And with divine Nectar thy lips doth flow If thy teeth orient Pearls were And were thy neck white ivory If Musk Perfume or rosed air Or Balm could vaporate from thee If heav'ns best peece thou wert Whose sweet aspect Could all subject And maze each mortall heart Yet shall these rare endowments all Prove in the end but vanity Sweet honey shall conclude in gall And beauty in deformity See then you be not proud Of that which must Be laid in dust Which Deaths black rail will shroud Take heed likewise you dote not on Medusa's face and golden locks For beauty hath kill'd many a one And metamorphos'd men to Rocks Then lest it should intice Thee guard thy self From this strange elf And hide thy wandring eyes Lend me the shield of faith O Lord And helmet of salvation And with thy Word that two-edg'd sword Cut off all foul infection Support me with thy grace And hide mine eyes Lest sin surprise Me with her Gorgons face O if there were but one fair eye Of faith truth and religion Amongst us O if we could flye With conquests golden pinion And if we could subdue With brasen hands Our captiv'd lands And circumcised crue Lord with thy watchfull eye so keep Thy servant from security That he may not be found asleep By his night-watching enemy So with thy grace prevent me Lest vanities My soul intice Then in the end torment me Great Captain of heavens winged troops Redoubted and victorious Knight To whose beck man and Angel stoops Who puts thy enemies to flight Who lets thine arrows flye And dies their wings In blood of Kings Who will not bow to thee Unsheath thy two-edg'd thundring sword Cut off the dreadfull Gorgons head Which hath bewitch'd my soul O Lord And with grim looks hath struck me dead Then will I sound thy praise And magnifie Thy Majesty And to thee Trophees raise GRATIAE THe graces were three sisters daughters of Iupiter and Euronyme they were fair naked holding each other by the hand having winged feet two of them are painted looking to wards us and one from us they waite upon Venus and accompanie the Muses THE MYSTERIES a SEneca and the Mythologists by the 3 graces understand 3 sorts of benefits some given some received and some returnd back upon the benefactor two look towards us and one hath her face from us because a good turne is oftentimes double requited They hold each other by the hand because in good turnes there should be no interruption they are naked or as others write their garment is thin and transparent because bountie should stil be joyned with sinceritie their smiling face shew that gifts should be given freely they are still yong because the remembrance of a good turne should never grow old they have winged feete to shew that good turnes should be done quickly bis dat qui cito dat 2. They that will be bountifull must take heed they exceed not least they make themselves as naked as the graces are painted there is a meane in all things and no man should go beyond his strength he may be bountifull that hath Euronyme for his wife that is large possessions and patrimonies as the word signifieth 3. There be many unthankfull people who are content still to receive benefits but never returne any these are they that strip the Graces of their garments and have reduced free-harted men to povertie 4. The Graces are called in Greek Charites a from joy or from health and safety and they still accompanie the Muses Mercurie and Venus to shew that where learning eloquence and love are conjoyned there will never be wanting true joy health and contentment 5. I thinke by the three Graces may be meant three sorts of freindship to wit honest pleasant and profitable honest and pleasant freindships which are gtounded on vertue and delight looke toward us because they both aime at our good but profitable freindship lookes from us as aiming more at her own gaine then our weale which as Seneca sayth is rather traffick then friendshipp but all friendshipp should be naked and without guile and hypocrisie like the Graces still yong and cheerefull and still nimble and quick to helpe 6. By the three graces I suppose also may be meant the three companious of true love of which b Arist. speaks to wit 1 good wil or benevolence 2 concord or consent of minds idem velle et idem nolle 3 bountie or beneficence these three like three graces looke on upon another and hold each other by the hand these ought to be naked pure still yong and where these three are sound to wit good will concord and bountie there shall not be wanting the three Graces that is c Thalia a flourishing estate 2. Agliae honour or glorie 3. Euphrosyne true joy and comfort for these are the hand-maids of love 7. Faith hope and charitie are the three divine graces pure and unspotted Virgins daughters of the great God sincere and naked without guile looking upon on another and so linked together that here in this life they cannot be separated one from the other but there positure is somewhat different from the other Graces for of the other two look on us the third hath her back to us but in these three divine sisters one only looketh to us to wit charitie the other two
Revives the fire and as in frost The stars shine most And as the palm lifts up his crest The higher that it is opprest So crosses and affliction Which fall upon The just makes not their faith to fail Nor courage quail Who shine burn sparkle fructifie As gold fire stars and the palm tree I 'le rather have a blustring gale And swelling sail Then lye becalmed in the main And ne're attain My wished port O let the blast Of troubles drive me home at last That tree is strong and firmly fixt Which is perplext With frequent storms which when they blow The roots below Take deeper hold O if I were Strong as this tree my storms to bear The idle sword breeds rust the cloth Begets the moth Not worm the standing water dyes And putrifies We first must tread the Camomell Or else it will afford no smell The Pilots skill how can we know Till Tempests blow How is that Souldiers valour seen Which ne're had been In fight they scarse stout Souldiers are That have no wound to shew nor scar Those Souldiers which the Generall Culls out of all His army to attempt some great And brave exploit Are those sure whom he means to grace With honour and some higher place Except we fight there is no crown And no renown Unlesse we sweat in the vineyard There 's no reward Unlesse we climb Mount Calvary Mount Olivet we shall not see God loves his sons and them corrects Whom he respects And whips them when they gad and roame And brings them home And fits them that he may advance Them to their due inheritance Sick men although against their wills Take bitter pills And in their Feaver think it good To part with blood The fire and lance they can indure And all for an uncertain cure All whom God means shall bear his blows He hardneth those He wrestleth with these sons of his Whom he will blesse With Jacob if he make thee lame He 'l blesse thee and inlarge thy name If in the Sea God makes our way We must obey And follow Moses leading wand To Jacobs land Through seas of blood we must all passe Unto the land of happinesse We must drink vineger and gall And tears withall With whips nails spears we must be torn And Crowns of thorn All this with Christ we must sustain Before that we with Christ can raign Lord if this be thy Providence Teach me from hence How I may patiently drink up That deadly cup Which thy Son drank help me to bear His crosse that I his Crown may weare When thou correct'st me quench the fire Of thy just ire With mercies water in thy hand And with thy wand Divide the Sea that I may go Where milk and honey still doth flow If in a flaming chariot I To heaven must hye Lord let that flame refine me but Consume me not Guide thou the coach through all the nine Still rowling arches chrystalline CHAP. VII G GANIMEDES HE was the King of Troys son who whilst he was hunting was caught up to heaven by an Eagle Iupiters bird and because of his extraordinary beautie Iupiter made him his Cup-bearer THE MYSTERIES GAnimedes is one that delights in a divine counsell or wisdom and wisdom is the true beautie of the minde wherin God takes pleasure 2. Every Eagle is not Iupiters bird as Aelian observeth but that onely which abstains from flesh and rapine and that was the bird that caught up Ganimedes so fleshly mindes and thoughts set upon rapine and carnall pleasures are not fit to serve God nor to carrie the soul up to heaven 3. The quick-sighted Eagle is divine contemplation or meditation by which Ganimedes the soul is caught up to heaven 4 When by holy raptures we are carried up to heaven the best Nectar that we can power out to God is the teares of repentance and of a broken heart 5. Ganimedes was caught up by one Eagle only but if we have the true inward beauty of the minde we shall be caught up in the air by Legions of Angels to meet the Lord and shall for ever serve him at his table in the Kingdom of heaven 6. I wish that the Roman Eagle would not delight so much in rapine and mans flesh as he doth but rather endeavour to be carried up to heaven that is o their ancient dignity the decayed and ruinated parts of the Empire 7. As the Eagle caught up Ganimedes so the wings of a great Eagle were given to the woman Revel. 12. to carry her from the Dragons persecution the great Eagle was the Roman Empire whereof Constantine was the head by whose power and help the Church was supported 8. Our Saviour Christ is the true Ganimedes the son of the great King the fairest among the sons of men the wisdom and counsell of the father in whom God delighted and was well pleased who by the power and on the wings of his Divinity was caught up to heaven where he is powring out his prayers and merits before God for us and like Aquarius to which Ganimedes was converted is powring down the plentifull showers of his grace upon us 9. Vespasian set up the image of Iupiter and Ganimedes caught by the Eagle in the Temple of peace so the image of God and heavenly raptures are found in that soul wherein is the peace of conscience 10. As the Eagle carried Ganimedes so Moses compareth God to an Eagle who carried the Israelites on his wings through the desert and S. Ambrose saith that a Christ is the Eagle who hath caught man from the jaws of Hell and hath carried him up to heaven God is a substance immateriall Whose love is not like ours we dote upon The peeling shell and outward fashion Of things but Gods love is spirituall The inward beauty he affects And outward vanity rejects A pleasing look a velvet skin Are toyes he takes no pleasure in Did Roses in our cheeks and Lillies dwell And were our dangling tresses gold our eyes Like twinkling Tapers in the rowling skies And did our breath like fragrant gardens smell Yet if we be not fair within But if our souls be stain'd with sin For all our outward form we are But like the painted Sepulchre Although our lips were like a Chrystall spring From which flow streams of sweetest Eloquence Which ravisheth the heart and charms the sence And though our tongues could like a Cymball ring Yea though the richest Magazine Of graces could in us be seen Yet if within we be but fair God will not for our outside care He is the fairest Ganymede whose minde Is pure and fair whose heart is white as snow Whose thoughts in whitenesse doth the Swans out-go Whose life is bright as gold that is refin'd He who hath these perfections Shall flye on Eagles pinions And shall be mounted far above All earthly things to serve great Jove But Christ is he whose beauty far excells The fading beauty of our humane race And from whose lips