though shut up in the body yet shee can have a tast of her glorious posthume liberty Death looseth the Soule from the body it breaks in sunder the secret bonds of the blood that she may have the full use of her wings and be united to Divinity Patience though it doth not quite loosen the chaine yet it lengthens it that she may take the aire and walk some part of the way towards Home Though it frees not the Soul from the body yet it gives her liberty and dominion over it He that is tyed up by a long Cord is within the compasse allowed him untyed and a free man The Spirit of man incensed by adversities and collected into it selfe is by a certain Antiperistasis made more ardent and aspiring Fire is never stronger nor more intense then amongst Water In the bosome of a cloud it breakes forth into thunder So this Divine Spark which God hath shut up in Vessels of Clay when all the passages of pleasures are stopt his raies which before were diffused and extravagant returne into it selfe and missing their usuall vent break forth with such violence as carries with it sometimes the very body and steales the whole man from passion and mortality The Levitie of fire is of greater force then the Gravity and Massinesse of Earth His Spirit is unresistable and the unknown force of it will blow up the greatest Mountains and the strongest Castles this earth affords Hitherto have I discoursed of outward Evills I shall now consider the Inward and how Patience is their Antidote You have seen her Prerogative over Fortune and reputed Evills which are called Evills because they seem to be so not because they are so as disgrace grief and poverty All these are but fictitious Evils which Custom and Humane error have branded with that injurious denomination for in these contingencies there is no reall Evill but the Evill of opinion neither is any man miserable but in his own conceit and by comparison The glory of Patience would be but poor and trivial if it could doe no more then take away or beare with such frivolous and fictitious troubles as these If it prevailed onely against Evills which we do not suffer but invent It s true glory is that it subdues true Evills Not that it bears them but that it removes them far from us Not that it endures them but than it abstaines from them For truly to suffer Evil is to do Evil whose Agent alwaies the Patient is by reason of a most ill impatience But Patience is onely excellent because it suffers not This worst kind of Evil is therefore the greater because because when 't is in acting it is not seen and were it not afterwards felt there would be no place left for Virtue This is the usuall method of Vice a flattering Comical entrance and a Tragical exit The force and malice of Evil Actions may be gathered by their Nature They are so powerfully hurtful that when they cease to be they cease not to torment us and so malignant that while we act them they flatter us that being Acted they may afflict us While we are doing them they conceal and deny themselves but being done they appear to our sorrow Wherefore he that will lead a blessed a joyfull and a peaceful life must make it his whole work to do no work but what Religion and Virtue shall approve of What peace and security can he enjoy that will revenge himselfe what more would cruelty have according to his own lust What life can he be said to live that kills himselfe to please his inordinate affections What joy can he have whose troubled conscience is his continual Executioner racking and tormenting him in the very embraces of smiling Fortune No outward Fomentations will serve turne against that Indisposition to which fevers and fire are but coolers Wee can provide against the violence of winter and Summer-weather when and how we please But the inward heats and colds the raging accessions of the Spirit admit no cure Patience though Fortune should assist her will never heal the wounds of conscience He that suffers by the guilt of Conscience endures worse torments then the wheel and the saw As that heat which ascending from the liver and the region of the heart doth diffuse it selfe through the body is greater then the united flames of the dog-star and the Sun What torturing invention of Amestris Pherâ—tima or Perillus did ever so afflict distress'd wretches as the fury of his owne Conscience did torment Orestes though freed from all men but himself no Tyrant is so cruel as a guilty spirit Not Scylla with his prison Siuis with his Isthmian pine Phalaris with his bull Sciron with his Rock nor Faunus in his Inne The Pelusians when they punished Parricides conceived no torture so answerable to the heynousnesse of the crime as this inward Divine revenge neither the Sack nor the Lime-kil pleased them so much as this gnawing worm the terrible and luctual excogitation of the wise Father of Nature They ordered therefore and enacted it for a Law that the murtherer for three daies and three nights should be pent up in some narrow roome together with the naked body of the slaine and be forced to look upon it whither he would or not which was effected by putting him in such a posture as permitted him not to look any way but just upon the dead The Sicilian Tyrant himselfe knew that conscience was a more cruell torment then the bull of brasse This made him spare the most unnaturall and bloody offenders that they might be tormented not with scalding metalls and glowing Iron but by a damning conscience The first penaltie for murther was conscience The first Actor of a violent death was punished with life He that first saw and introduced death was thought worthy of no other punishmenâ— but the security of life which he first shewed to be not secure for it is a more mercilesse punishment then death to have long life secured with a killing conscience So he that brought murther first into the World was first punished with the terrourr of conscience Which are then most torturing when health and strength are the capital punishments The Protoplasts themselves the parents of death and of mankind too who gave us death before they gave us life thought it a greater plague then death to be still alive and yet to be guilty of death They would have fled to death to flye from themselves Apposite to this is that of Marius Victor They faine would if they might Descend to hide themselves in Hell So light Of foot is vengeance and so near to sin That soon as done the Actors do begin To fear and suffer by themselves Death moves Before their Eyes Sad dens and duskie groves They haunt and hope vain hope which fear doth guide That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide You see now that conscience even amongst the Pelusians was held a
stage if we stay any long time in it and pay not the debt we owe death requires interest she takes his hearing from one his sight from another and from some she takes both The extent and end of all things touch their beginning neither doth the last minute of life do any thing else but finish what the first began We may know also what death is by the apparition or Image of it We see it and make tryal of it assiduously we cannot act life one day but wee must act death at night Life is a Terrace-walke with an Arbour at one end where we repose and dream over our past perambulations This lesser rest shewes us the greater the Soule watcheth when wee sleepe and Conscience in the Just as well as the unjust will be ruminating on the works of life when the body is turned into dust Sleepe is nothing else but death painted in a night-peece it is a prelibation of that deepe slumber out of which we shall not be awaked untill the Heavens be no more We go to bed under a Scene of Stars and darknesse but when we awake we find Heaven changed and one great luminary giving light to all We dye in the state of corruption errours and mistinesse But wee shall be raised in glory and perfection when these clouds of blacknesse that are carried about with diverse winds and every Enemy of truth shall vanish for ever and God alone shall be all in all We affect sleepe naturally it is the reparation of man a laying by of cares The Coppy cannot match the pattern if we love sleep then why should wee hate the Idaea of it why should we feare death whose shadow refresheth us which nature never made nor meant to fright us with It was her intention to strengthen our hope of dying by giving us the fruition of this resemblance of death lest we should grow impatient with delay she favour'd us with this shadow and Image of it as Ladies comfort themselves with the pictures of their absent lovers There is no part of life without some portion of death as dreames cannot happen without sleepe so life cannot be without death As sleepe is said to be the shadow of death So I think dreams to be the shadowes of life for nothing deceives us more frequent then it When we shal be raised from death we shal not grieve so much because the joys of life were not real as because there were none at all It was said by one that he had rather dream of being tormented in Hell then glorified in Paradise for being awaked he should rejoyce to find himselfe in a soft featherbed and not in a lake of unquenchable fire But having dreamt of Heaven it would grieve him that it was not reall Paracelsus writes that the watching of the body is the sleep of the Soul and that the day was made for Corporeall Actions but the night is the working-time of Spirits Contrary natures run contrary courses Bodies having no inherent light of their own make use of this outward light but Spirits need it not Sun-beams cannot stumble nor go out of their way Death frees them from this dark Lantern of flesh Heraclitus used to say that men were both dead and alive both when they dyed and when they lived when they lived their Soules were dead and when they dyed their Soules revived Life then is the death of the Soule and the life of the body But death is the life of the Soule and the death of the body I shall return now to prosecute the Commendations of death because it comes but once Death like the Phoenix is onely one lest any should be ill That which comes but once is with most longing looked for and with most welcome entertained That poor man the owner of one Ewe nourished her in his bosome she did eate of his meat and drank out of his Cup as Nathan exemplified The Father that hath but one Son hath more cares then he that hath many so should we be more carefull to provide for death which comes but once then for the numerous and daily calamities of life By providing for that one wee turne the rest all into so many joyes Whatsoever is rare whatsoever is pretious it is single and but one There is nothing so rare nothing that is comparable to a good death But it is not the universality or diffusivenesse of it that makes it so but the contempt and the subduing of it hâ—s death is most pretious by whom death is contemned Dissolution is not a meere merit but a debt we owe to nature which the most unwilling must pay That wisedome which can make destiny to be her servant which can turne necessity into virtue Mortality into Immortality and the debt we owe to nature into a just right and Title to eternall glory is very great What greater advantage can there be then to make Heaven due to us by being indebted to nature and to oblige Divinity by paying a temporal debt Clemens called them Golden men who dyed thus that is to say when it was necessary to dye They made necessity their free will when either the publick liberty the prerogative of reason or the word of God called for their sufferings For though death be a debt due to Nature yet in these causes Nature doth willingly resigne her right and God becomes the Creditor If we pay it unto him before the time of pure resolution Nature is better pleased with that anticipation then if we kept our set day He is the best debtour that paies before the time of payment The day of payment by the Covenant of Nature is old age but the good man paies before the day If the noblenesse of thy mind will not incite thee to such a forward satisfaction let the desire of gaine move thee for the sooner thou payest the more thou dost oblige Hee that suffers an immature death for the good of his Country for the sacred lawes or the vindication of the truth of God and not for his owne vain glory doth free himselfe from the Natural debt and doth at the same time make God his debtour and all mankind To a man that dyes thus all men are indebted God owes him for the Cause and men for the effect The last doth at least set us an example and the first improves the faith and gives life to Charity Adde to this that this great good of a passive death is a voluntary imitation of the Son of God who laid down his life for the life of the World And it is also done without our industry this great virtue this glorious perfection requires not our care and activity to bring it about This death is most pretious and the best because it is executed by others and not by ourselves To suffer death not to dye is glorious If prisoners break their chaines it is neither their glory nor their security but augments their Guilt and hastens their condemnation So
Sinner is a Fool. The wisedâ—me of Doves is innocence and that which makes the light to shine is its simplicity Light is a Type of Joy and Darknesse of Sorrow Joy is the fruit of innocence and sorrow of Sinne. The sorrow we take for Fortune is hurtfull Those teares like tempestuous droppings if not kept out will rot the house But the sorow for sinne is healing Penitential tears are the Oâ—le of the Sanctuary God gives them and afterwards accepts them they both cleanse us and cherish us When Marble weepes it washeth off the dust Worldly teares are the waters of Marah the tree that sweetens them must be shewed by the Lord The waters of the pool Bethesda heal'd not untill the Angel stirred them without true remorse teares profit not but if they have that Ingredient they are showers which the Lord hath blessed and must not be stopped although they might As courage and a joyfull heart are the ripe fruits of innocence so shame and sorrow are the hopefull buds and primroses of it Contrition is the infancie of Virtue Therefore that sadnesse must not be expelled which expelleth Vice It is an invention of the Deity to destroy Sinnes That they might be either unfruitfull or fruitfull onely to their owne destruction For this we have two instances from Nature in the Mule and the Viper Whereof the one is barren and the other unhappily fruitfull Nature is carefull that Evills may not multiply or if they do that they may not prosper The Mule is barren lest there should be an increase of Monsters Apposite to this is that saying of Gregory Cerameus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Evils saith he are denyed from God the power of propagating as mules have not the faculty to preserve their kind by generating one another The Viper notwithstanding is a mother but shee brings forth her owne destruction The birth of her young ones is her death So sorrow that is the child of sinne is the death of it also Let therefore this saving destroyer of sins be made much off let this godly sorrow be still cherished and never rebuked he that dryes up his teares before he is cleansed takes delight in his filthinesse and like the lothsome drunkard would sleep in his vomit Penitent afflictions should never be resisted but by precaution Hee then that would not drink of this Wormwood must be sure to refuse the sugred venom of sinne No man is Evill for nothing Every defect in life is occasioned by a defect of Patience because we cannot endure to be constantly good because we are impatient of continuall holinesse Two Evills attend upon Sinners the Evill of sin and the Evill of Punishment which is the Evil of sorrow To escape the last we must abstain from the first wee must be either impatient of the first or else the patients of the last Unlesse wee will suffer a litle to avoid offences wee must suffer much after we have fallen into them A short displeasure is better then a long torment This previous Patience of abstaining frees us from two subsequent Evils The pain of Conscience untill we repent and after that the pain of Penitence These two are the Appendants or retinue of every sinne A seasonable innocent forbearance is the fense against them both one small griefe averts these two great ones How wholesome and comfortable is that Patience which prevents sinne and sorrow the Consequent of it But Virtue when it is most healthfull is in the estimation of some reputed to be poyson For no other reason do they reject it of whome Theodotus elegantly sings Virtues faire cares some people measure For poys'nous works that hinder pleasure This Patient abstinence from Evill is the Mother of holy Joy it keeps the mind pleasant and serene What is there or what can there be more beneficial or delightfull to man then a pure innocent conscience where all the Virtues like busie Bees are in constant action as in a fair flowry field or rather in Paradise where all is Divine all Peacefull nothing polluted no feare no distraction In this state as Theophanes saith The wise man is adorned with a Godlike Conscience and a mind becomming the very Deity What is there more joyful then to be master of such a Power as cannot be violated by Tyrants and Torments It was a golden and Victorious saying of Tiburtius Every punishment is poor when a pure Conscience keepes us company For as the guilty can receive no comfort So the Innocent cannot lose his Joy The Joy of Conscience is Natures recompence the coalescent reward or fruite of integrity an entailed happinesse the native blandishment of life and the minds mighty purchase What happier gaine can be then to rejoice alwaies for what wee have done but once or what greater damage then an unrighteous gain It was bravely said by Chilo that the heaviâ—st losse was to bee chosen before base gain That will grieve us but once the other alwaies The losse of temporal goods will trouble us but for a time but a lost Conscience will torment us Eternally What greater liberty can there be then not to fear any thing And what can he be affeard of that is not frighted by the guilt of his own spirit when Periander was asked what liberty was he answered A good Conscience And another saith that Man should with Virtue arm'd and hearten d be And innocently watch his Enemy For fearlesse freedom which none can controule Is gotten by a pure and upright Soul Sinne makes remisse and câ—wardly spirits to be the constant slaves of misery what liberty yea what joy can he have or what dares he do Whose guilty soul with terrours fraught doth frame New torments still and still doth blow that flame Which still burns him nor sees what end can be Of his dire plagues and fruitful penalty But fears them living and fears more to dye Which makes his life a constant Tragedy Therefore to preserve the mirth and peace of Conscience righteous or honest Actions are mainly conducing and should be alwaies our imployment for this is the appointed task of man and it is his mysterie too The hand is the best Sacrifice The Antient Portugals used to dedicate to their Gods the right hands of their captives but offer thou thine own and not anothers To be onely without Vice is a vitious commendation Nay it is not commendable at all but self-indulgence or a flattering of our owne corrupt inactivity To such a passe is man come that he is not ashamed to do lesse for Virtue then the vitious will do for Vice It is a most poore and fordid glory to be onely not numbred amongst the bad It is a base degree of praise to be reputed onely not base To be without Vice is not to be good Not to be vitious and to be Virtuous are two things To refrain from Evill is scarse not Evill especially if we proceed no further For to be able to be good and not to be
throughly so is if not Evill a neighbourhood to Evill True praise consists not in a bare abstinence from Evill but in the pursuance the performance of good It sufficeth not therefore that we doe nothing which may afflict us but we must withall doe something that may exhilarate us This we must remember that to do good is one thing and to become good is another Although we cannot become good unlesse wee doe good But we become good not because we have done good works but because we did them well Discretion which considers the manner of doing good orders the Action so excellently that oftentimes there is more goodnesse in the manner then in the Action What will it availe us to do good if it be not well done It is to write faire and then to poure the Inke upon it Actions cease to be good unlesse well acted they are like excellent colours ill-layed on The more glorious thy intention is the more carefully thou must manage it Indiscretion is most evident in matters of importance One drop of Oyle upon Purple is sooner seen then a whole quart that is spilt upon Sack-cloath The Ermyn keepes his whitenesse unstained with the hazard of his life Hee values himselfe at a most sordid rate that esteems lesse of Virtue then this beast doth of his skin that prefers a foule life to a fair death that loves his blood more then his honour and his body more then his Soule Ennius saith that the way to live is not to love life Life is given us for another cause then meerly to live he is unworthy of it that would live onely for the love of life the greatest cause of life is Virtue what more absolute madnesse can there be then to make life the cause of sin yea the cause of death And for lifes sake to lose the crowâ— of life What greater unhappinesse then to dye eternally by refusing death The Virtuous youth Pelagius rather then he woulâ—d lose his Innocence suffered the most exquisite and studyed torments of that impure Tyrant Habdarrhagmanus He suffered many deaths before he was permitted to dye Hee saw his limbs his hands and his sinewes cut in sunder and lying dead by him while he yet lived This preservation of their honour some chast beauties have paid dearly for It cost Nicetas his tongue Amianus his Eye Saint Briget her face Apollonia her teeth and Agatha her breasts The lovely Cyprian Virgin paid her life for it Nature even for herself doth lay a snare And handsome faces their own traitours are The beauty of Chastity is best preserved by deformity and the purity of life by a contemptible shape The Shoomaker is carefull of the neatnesse of a shooe which is made to be worn in durt and mire And shall man be negligent to adorn his Soul which is made for Heaven and the service of the deity Every artificer strives to do his worke so as none may find fault with it And shall we do the works of life perfunctorily and deceitfully All that makes man to be respected is his worke as the fruite doth make the Tree and a good work can never be too much respected Keepe thy selfe alwaies in respect by doing good Thy own dignity is in thy own power If thy works be good thou shalt be accounted good too If better then any thou shalt be acknowledged for the best Man is the effect of his own Act he is made by those things which he himself makes Hee is the work of his own hands A rare priviledge that permits men and impowers them to make themselves Thou hast leave to be whatsoever thou wouldst be God would not limit thy happinesse He left thee power to encrease it to polish and beautifie thy selfe according to thy own mind Thy friend or thy neighbour cannot do it Thy owne good must be thy owne industry Virtue because she would be crosse to Fortune is not adventitious It is our great happinesse that this great good must not be borrowed Blessed be that Divine mercy which hath given us means to be saved without the assistance of our neighbours who have endeavoured to damn us That almighty hand which first Created man in the Image of his Creatour finished him not but left some things for him to doe that he might in all things resemble his maker It is one thing to be an Idol or Counterfeit and another to be a lively Figure and likenesse There are many Coppies which are not assimilant to their Originals like Pictures that have not so much as an ayre of those faces they were drawn by To the Politure and sweetning of the Divine Image there are some lines expected from thine owne hand If some expert Statuary suppose Phidias himselfe should leave unfinished some excellent peece like that Statue of Minerva at Athens and out of an incurious wearinesse give himself to some obscure and Artlesse imployment or to meere Idlenesse wouldst not thou much blame and rebuke him for it And canst thou deserve any lesse if by a loose and vitious life thou wilt either totally deface the Image of God in thy selfe or else leave it unfinished Doest thou think that God is maimed seeing thou doest leave his Image without hands I mean without good works Dost thou think that he is blind seeing thou dost extinguish or put quite out that discerning light and informing wisdome which hee hath given thee Hee that doth not integrally compose himself and will not carefully strive for perfection would represent God to be imperfect and a Monster Virtuous manners saith holy Maximus are types of the Divine goodnesse by which God descends to be represented by man assuming for a body those holy habits and for a soule the Innocent dictates of wisdome in the spirit by which he makes those that are worthy to become Gods and seals them with the true character of Virtue bestowing upon them the solid riches of his infallible and immortal Knowledge Work then while it is day while it is life-time work and cease not Finish this expectation this great spectacle not of men onely but of God and Angels Remember that the rewards and applause of this World are but a Paint of eternity The solid and permanent glory is given in Heaven When every man shall have praise of God The Limbner is carefull to beautifie and shew his utmost skill in that peece which hee knowes to be intended for judicious eyes Thou art not to paint but really to make a living Image of the Divine mind which also must be examined and judged by that searching eye from which nothing can be hidden have a care that no ill mixture nothing disproportionable nothing uneven or adulterate may be found in it The presents we offer to the true God must be true and solid works not the fictitious oblations of Jupiter Milichus Why wilt thou delight in a maimed Soule or which is worse in a Soul whose best part is dead Thou hadst rather have a
rich oppressours of this World to have their Carkasses buried in the abundance of their treasures unlesse they mean by it to restore that unto the Earth which was digged out of her bowells Gold and Silver are no ransome for unrighteousnesse Virtue alone which survives death is the refreshment of the dead He cannot be affeard to dy who is assured of a better subsistance after death Their dissolution is onely fearful to those who lose all by it and their life to boot The Posthume Inheritance of man is his righteousnesse and integrity which death takes not from him but puts him in possession of them Thou maist gather that good or Virtuous works are proper and necessary to the Soul out of mans natural desire of fame and that innate appetite of immortality which is planted in his Spirit Nature desires nothing which is not rational and her perswasions even when they degenerate strain and point at some primitive delights and innocent priviledges which she was free to before her corruption All secular glories dye with the body goodnesse only is above the power of death That faire part of life is kin to the Supreme good and death cannot hurt it yea it is secured by death which kills envy and frees the virtuous both from the malice of their Enemies and the possibility of failing in themselves Therefore the best imployment for man if he will consider either his own benefit or the approbation and liking of nature which aimes also at immortality is the work of virtue yea far better then the work of reason Many while they study the reason of virtuous works passe by virtue it self By a fruitless study how to do good they lose their time and doe none at all Theorie is nothing so beneficial as Practice It is a true saying that Jamblichus cites out of Pythagoras Every good thing consists of substance and use and not of meer knowledge To be good is to doe good The knowledge of a skilfull Physitian profits not the sick unlesse he falls to practise and gives him something towards his cure Learned Aphorisms heal not the diseased but bitter Medicines That Soul which can reason subtilly and discourse elegantly is not saved but the Soul which doth good works Knowledge and Faith without actual Charity are both dead Neverthelesse there is amongst men a certain covetousnesse of Wisdome and Knowledge as well as of Money The acquisition pleaseth them but they will not set it out to use As Usurers hoard up their mony laying it out neither in pious works nor for their own necessities but suffer it to lye under rust and darknesse So some Learned men neither practise those excellent rules of Living which they have learnt nor will they impart them unto others They study stil more curiosities being in the mean time incurious of their salvation I will say of them as Anacharsis said of the Athenians They know no use of money but to count it There is no man poorer then the rich miser and none more unlearned then the unpractised Nature is contented with mediocrity The World hath many things in it which humane affairs have no need of Virtue also is perfected in few precepts Though we fill the world with our Writings it is not our Volumes that can make us good but a Will to be so Book-men write out of no other design but to reform and civilize Mankind They make several Assayes numerous attempts and then renew them The Dice run not well alwaies the last cast may carry more then all the former Therefore to stir up and incline the Will to goodnesse many things are necessarie but to be good there is nothing needfull but willingnesse We suffer our selves to be cheated by hope we trust that when we have gathered so much knowledge as we covet then we shall do all that we can dâ—sire O foolish and vain prâ—crastination Alchuvius terms it a Palsie I am sure it is a madnesse We stay like that foolish Beggar for a Mess from the Kings table and in the mean time starve We care not to use this present life which is our own but study the secrets of another which as yet is not ours We would learn Mysteries and some things that are either out of our way or else beyond it Christians should neither wander nor sit down but goe on What is that to thee follow thou me Content is a private sphere but wants nothing and is ever calme They that study the world are of the two the worst Speculators Popular politick persons live alwayes by events Their ambition and firienesse makes their lives uneven and uncertaine innocent and undisturbed habits are the companions of Humility Giant-spirits though they may flash sometimes with faire thoughts have alwaies dark and stormy affections Men or the most part of men are like Swans whose feet though ever in a living Bath are alwaies black but their wings and doune which keep above those streames are pure white That part of our lives which is ever padling with the current of Time is foul and defiled but that which soares above it is fair and holy Worldly businesse is the Soules Idlenesse Man ordained to be King of the Worlds Republick had been a meer Cypher if without Soul-imployment He had been created to no end without this Aime If he for whom all things were made will not endeavour to secure himself being made he was made in vain An ornament to the World he cannot be He was not made with any great gaity his decaies are both numerous and hastie If to be seen only were the duty of created things the Stars should have been onely fixt and not moving Stop if thou canst the course of the Sun his restlesse and vast circâ—mvolution As motion makes him bright and lively for hee rejoyceth to run his race so standing still and slothtfulnesse would make him sad and sullied the beauty of the Firmament would be darken'd the freshnesse of the earth would fade and the whole family of Nature missing those cherishing beames would pine and decay Rivers would fall asleep Minerals would prove abortive and the mourning world would wast away under darknesse and sterility But the Sunne though he should not move would not be uselesse his very sight is beneficial Hee is the created light of the visible world a marvellous vessel and an ornament in the high places of the Lord. But man for whom all these things were made without he bâ— active and serviceable to his own Soule is good for nothing There is nothing more pleasant nothing more peacefull nothing more needfull then an industrious Wise man and nothing more impertinent and uselesse then the sluggard The rest of the mind is the motion of Virtue and the idlenesse of the idle is the disturbance of his Spirit He that doth nothing is of lesse use and by much worse then nothing it selfe Wouldst thou be reduced into that unnaturall Vacuity of not being which is without form and void
body Wee should therefore as often as wee breath remember death when we shall breath our last when the Spirit shall returne unto him that gave it Our whole life is nothing else but a repeated resemblance of our last expiration by the emission of our breath we doe retaine it and as I may say spin it out God gave it not continual and even like fluent streames or the calme and unwearied Emanations of light but refracted and shifting to shew us that we are not permanent but transitory and that the Spirit of life is but a Celestial Gale lent us for a time that by using it well we may secure it Eternally Another Hermetist adviseth us Adorare relliquias ventorum to make much of and to honour our Soules which are the breathings and last dispensations of the still fruitful and liberal creator This we can never do but by a frequent study of our dissolution and the frailty of the body Of such an effectuall goodness is death that it makes men good before it comes and makes sure of Eternity by a virtuous disposing of time Thinke not that evill which sends from so far the beams of its goodnesse There is no good liver but is a debtor to death by whose lendings and premunitions we are furnished and fitted for another world The certainty of it and the incertainty of the time and manner which is the onely circumstance that seemes to offend us if it were seriously considered deserves to be the most pleasing acceptable for amongst all the wondrous Ordinances of Divine providence there is none more Excellent for the Government of man then death being so wisely disposed of that in the height of incertainty it comprehends and manifests an infallible certainty God would have us to be alwaies good to keepe in his likenesse and Image Therfore it is his will that we should be alwaies uncertaine of our most certain death Such is his care of us lest the knowledge of a long life and a late death should encourage us to multiply our transgressions as the notice of a swift dissolution might dishearten and astonish us But being left now in a possibility of either we are taught to live soberly and to expect the time of our change in all holynesse and watchfullnesse The possibility of dying shortly doth lessen the cares of life and makes the difficulties of Virtue easie Bondage and Slavery if it be but short is to those that suffer it the lighter by so much And a large allowance of time makes us slow to Virtue but a short portion quickens us and the incertainty of that very shortnesse makes us certaine to be good For who would weep and vexe himself for worldly provisions if he certainly knew that he should live but one month and how dares he laugh or be negligent of his Salvation that knowes not whither hee shall live to see one day more yea one hour The incertainty of death makes us suspect life and that suspition keepes us from sinning The world was never fouler nor more filled with abominations then when life was longest when abused Nature required an Expiation by waters and the generall submersion of her detestable defilers Theophrastus did unjustly to raile at Nature and condemne her of partiality when he envyed the long life of some plants and inferiour creatures as the Oake the Hart the Ravens some of which live to feed and flye up and down in the World above five hundred years He quarrelled with the wise dispensations of Divinity because a slight suite of feathers and a renew'd dresse of greene leaves could weare out a building that lodged a rationall Soul and the breath of the Almighty Both his wish and his reason were erroneous He erred in desiring long life and in judging happinesse to consist in the multitude of yeares and not the number of good workes The shortnesse of life is lengthned by living well When life was reckond by centuries the innumerable sins of the living so offended God that it repented him to have made impenitent man Those that sinned out of confidence of life he punished with sudden destruction That long liv'd generation had made the world unclean and being polluted by their lives it was purged by their deaths He shorten'd afterwards the lease of life reducing it to an hundred and twenty years that by the diligence of frequent death he might reform the past disorders of long life and prevent them for the future teaching both sexes to amend their lives by giving them death for their next neighbours So beneficiall is death so much profits the certainty of it and as much the incertainty The ignorance of the day of death is in effect the same with the knowledge of it the first makes us watch lest it come upon us unawares and the last though it might name the day to us yet could it not arme us better against it perhaps not so well This incertainty of dying certainly secures us from many errors it makes us prudent provident and not evill Death therefore is a device of the Almighty and a wise instrument of divine policy Zaleucus so highly approved of it that he was about to enact and proclaime a Law for dying had he not found it already published by the edict of Nature And in his Preface to those Laws made for the Locrenses he warns them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To have alwayes before their eyes that time which is to every one the end of life because a hearty repentance for all former injuries seiseth upon all men that thinke of death and an earnest desire or wishing that all their actions in life had been just Wherefore it is expedient that in all our dealings and thoughts death should act a part and be our familiar counsellor ever present with us so shall we be carefull to doe all things virtuously and justly Death then is most necessary to govern mankinde because the memory of it keeps us in awe and conformable to virtue All Commonwealths that follow the method of Nature must approve of this Law of Zaleucus and death in all their consultations should guide their lives Certainly in the Government of the rebellious Generation of Man Death hath been the most awfull Engine of the Deity without this stern he guided them not When man was immortall God saw it necessary to preserve his immortality by death he injoyned the Law of Abstinence to Adam under the penalty of dying which is continued still by the same artifice of death lest iniquities should be immortall wickedness should escape punishment by the patience and submission of his only Son to death he restored dead men to life he conferred upon him all his lost honours renewd and confirmed his old prerogative and together with the salvation of his Soule gave him a sure promise that his body allso should be made Immortal but in all these favours and after full reconciliation he would not remove death but continued it
hold fast his Crown and for a token sent him five of Saint Augustines bookes against the Maâ—ichaeans which in that age when the Invention of the Presse was not so much as thought of was a rich present Paulinus was so taken with the reading of these Volumes that he conceived himself not onely engaged to Alypius but to Augustine also Whereupon he sent his servant from Nola with letters full of modestie and sweetnesse to them both and with particular commendations to other eminent lights of the Church then shining in Africk These letters received by Augustine and Alypius and communicated by them to the other Bishops and the African Clergy were presently Coppied out by all and nothing now was more desired by them then a sight of this great Senatour who was turned a poor Priest and a fool as Saint Paul saith for Christ his sake and the off-scouring of the World But above all the Soules of holy Augustine and Paulinus like Jonathan and David or Jacob and Joseph were knit together and the life of the one was bound up in the life of the other The perfect love and union of these two can by none be more faithfully or more elegantly describâ—d â—hen it is already by Saint Augustine himself I shall therefore insert his own words the words of that tongue of truth and Charity O bone vir O bone frater lei dico ut toleret quia adhuc lates oculos meos latebas animaÌ„ meaÌ„ vix obtemperat immo non obtemperat Quomodo ergo non doleaÌ„ quod nonduÌ„ faciem tuaÌ„ novi hoc est domuÌ„ animae tuae quam sicut meaÌ„ novi legi enim literas tuas fluentes lac mel praeferentes simplicitateÌ„ cordis in qua quaeris dominuÌ„ sentiens de illo in bonitate afferens ei claritateÌ„ honorem Legerunt fratres gaudent infatigabiliter ineffabiliter tam uberibus tam excellentibus donis dei bonis tuis Quotquot eas legerunt rapiunt quia rapiuntur cuÌ„ legunt Quà m suavis odor Christi quà m fragrat ex eis dici non potest illae literae cum te offerunt ut videaris quantuÌ„ nos excitent ut quaeraris nam et perspicabileÌ„ faciunt desiderabilem Quantò enim praesentiam tuam nobis quodammodò exhibent tantò absentiam nos ferre non sinunt Amant te omnes in eis amari abs te cupiunt Laudatur benedicitur deus cujus gratiâ tu talis es Ibi excitatur Christus ut ventos Maria tibi plasare tendenti ad stabilitatem suam dignetur Ibi conjux excitatur non dux ad mollitiem viro suo sed ad fortitudinem redux in ossa viri sui quam intuam unitatem redactam in spiritualibus tibi taus firmioribus quantò castioribus nexibus copulatam officijs vestrae sanctitati debitis ir te uno ore salutamus Ibi cedri Libani a terram depositae in arcae fabricam compagine charitatis erectae mundi hujus fluctus imputribilitèr secant Ibi gloria ut acquiratur contemnitur mundus ut obtineatur relinquitur Ibi parvuli siâ—e etiam grandiusculi filij Babylonis eliduntur ad petram vitia scilicet confusionis superbiaeque secularis Haec atque hujusmodi suavissima sacratissima spectacula literae tuâ— praebent legentibus literae fidei non fictae literae spei bonae literae purae charitatis Quomodo nobis anhelant sitim tuam desiderium defectumque animae tuae in atria domini Quid amoris sanctissiâ—i spirant Quantam opulentiam sinceri cordis exaestuant Quas agunt gratias deo Quas impetrant â deo blandiores sunt an ardentiores luminosiores an faecundiores Quid enim est quòd it a nos mulcent ita accendunt it a compluunt it a screnae sunt Quid est quaeso te aut quid tibi pro eis rependam nisi quia totus sum tuus in eo câ— us tot us es tu si parùm est plus certê non hâ—beo O good man O good brother you lay hidden from my Soul and I spoke to my Spirit that it should patiently bear it because you are also hidden from my Eyes but it scarse obeyes yea it refuseth to obey How then shall I not grieve because I have not as yet knowne your face the habitation of your Soul which I am as well acquainted with as my owne For I have read your letters flowing with milk and honey manifesting the simplicity of your heart in which you seek the Lord thinking rightly of him and bringing him glory and honor Your brethren here have read them and rejoyce with an unwearied and unspeakable Joy for the bountifull and excellent gifts of God in you which are your riches As many as have read them snatch them from me because when they read them they are ravished with them How sweet an Odour of Christ and how fragrant proceeds from them It cannot be exprest how much those letters while they offer you to be seen of us excite us to seek for you They make you both discerned and desired For the more they represent you unto us wee are the more impatient of your absence All men love you in them desire to be beloved of you God is blessed and praised by all through whose grace you are such There do we find that Christ is awaked by you and vouchsafeth tâ— rebuke the winds and the Seas that you may find them calme in your Course towards him There is your dear wife stirred up not to be your leader to softnesse and pleasures but to Christian fortitude becomming Masculine again and restored into the bones of her Husband whom we all with one voice salute and admire being now united unto you serving you in spiritual things wherein you are coupled with mutuall embraces which the more chast they be are by so much the more firm There do we see two Cedars of Libanus fell'd to the Earth which joyned tâ—gether by love make up one Arke that cuts through the Waves of this World without detriment or pâ—trefaction There glory that it may be acquired is contemned and the World that it may be obtained is forsaken There the Children of Babylon whither litle ones or of Maturer age I mean the Evils of Confusion and secular pride are dashed against the stones Such sacred and delightfull spectacles do your letters present unto us O those letters of yours Those letters of an unfained faith those letters of holy hope those letters of pure Charity How do they sigh and gaspe with your pious thirst your holy longings and the Ecstatical faintings of your Soul for the Courts of the Lord What a most sacred love do they breath with what treasures of a sincere heart do they abound How thankfull to God How earnest for more grace How mild How zealous How full of light How full of fruite Whence is it that they do so please us and
year who made the dayâ—s and the nights But it is much to be feared that he who hath appointed their daies here will allow them for it long nights Holy Paulinus had now attained a good old age the fore-runners as Master Herbert saith were come and the Almond tree did flourish hee was all white with years and worshiped like Jacob leaâ—ing upon the top of his staffe His virtuous and deare Therasia had died I believe long before this time God having ordained him to be hindmost who was the stronger Vessell and best able to bear her absence and the unavoydable disconsolations of flesh and blood And now having for some time stood gazing after her he begins to follow God visiting him with a strong paine in the side which in a few daies did set him at liberty to overtake her by breaking the prison Three daies before his dissolution Symmachus and Hyaciâ—thinus two Bishops of his acquaintance câ—me to visit him whereupon hee spoke to Uranius his Presbyter that hee should prepare to attend him in the administration of the Sacrament for said he I desire to receive it in the company of my brethren which are now come to see mee This sacred Solemnity was no sooner ended but suddenly hee began to ask where his brothers were One that stood by supposing that he had asked for the two Bishops answered Here they be I know that replyed Paulinus but I aske for my brothers Januarius and Martinus who were here with me just now and promised to come to me again And having thus spoken he looked up towards Heaven and with a voyce as chearfull as his countenance which seemed to shine and revive with joy he sung out the one hundred and twentieth Psalme I lift up mine Eyes unto thâ— hills from whence cometh my help My help commeth from the Lord who made Heaveâ— and Earth This being done Posthumianus another Presbyter that was then present told Paulinus that there were forty shillingâ— unpaid for the Cloathes which he had given to the poor before be fell sick To this Paulinus replyed with a smile that he remembred it very well and Son said he takâ— no thought for it for beleive me there is onâ— that will not be wanting to pay the debt of the poor The words were no sooner out of his mouth but presently there comes in from the parts of Lucania now called Basilicata a Presbyter sent from the holy Bishop Exuperantius to visit Paulâ—nus who brought him fifty shillings for a token from the Bishop Paulinus receiving the money blessed God saying I thank thee O Lord that hast not forsaken them that seek thee Of these fifty shillings he gave two with his owne hand to the Presbyter that brought them and the rest he delivered to Post humianuâ— to pay for the Cloathes which were given to the poor The Evening now drawing on hee remained quiet and well at ease untill midnight but the paine then increasing in his side he was troubled with a great difficulty and shortnesse of breathing which held him till five in the morning The day begining to break he felt the usuall motions of holynesse awaking his Spirit to which though weak he chearfully obeyed and sitting up in his bed celebrated Mattins himselfe By this time all the Deacons and Presbyters of his diocesse were gathered together at the door and came like the Sons of the Prophets to see the translation of their aged Father After some short exhortations to holynesse and Christian courage he lifted up his hands and blessed them mindfull it seems of our Saviours carriage at his ascension whose peace he prayed might rest upon them Shortly after the pain still encreasing and prevailing against him hee became speechlesse and so continued untill the Evening when suddenly sitting up as if hee had been awaked out of his sleep he perceived it to be the time of the Lucernarium or Evening-Office and lifting up his hands towards Heaven he repeated with a low voyce this verse out of the Psalmes Thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths About the fourth hour of the night when all that were present sate diligently watching about him his poor Cottage did suddenly shake with such a strong Earth-quake that those who kneeled about his bed were something disordered with it and fell all trembling to their prayers The Guests of Eternal Glory were now entred under that narrow roof where after the abdication of his great worldly honours he had lived so long in all holynesse and humility For in that instant of time saith Uranius he was dissolved the blessed Angels testifying that they were present to conduct his happy and glorious Soul into the joy of his Master By the like signe did Christ signifie to his Church in Hierusalem that he heard their prayers when they were persecuted by the mercilesse Jews Gregory the great in the place St. Paulinus to his Wife Therasia COme my true Consort in my Joyes and Care Let this uncertaine and still wasting share Of our fraile life be giv'n to God You see How the swift dayes drive hence incessantlie And the fraile drooping World though still thought gry In secret slow consumption weares away All that we have passe from us and once past Returne no more like clouds they seeme to last And so delude loose greedy mindes But where Are now those trim deceits to what darke sphere Are all those false fires sunck which once so shin'd They captivated Soules and rul'd mankind He that with fifty ploughes his lands did sow Will scarse be trusted for two Oxen now His rich lowd Coach known to each crowded street Is sold and he quite tir'd walkes on his feet Merchants that like the Sun their voyage made From East to West and by whole-sale did trade Are now turn'd Sculler-men or sadly swett In a poore fishers boat with line and nett Kingdomes and Cities to a period tend Earth nothing hath but what must have an end Mankind by plagues distempers dearth and warre Tortures and Prisons dye both neare and farre Furie and hate rage in each living brest Princes with Princes States with States contest An Vniversall discord mads each land Peace is quite lost the last times are at hand But were these dayes from the last day secure So that the world might for more yeares endure Yet we like hirelings should our terme expect And on our day of death each day reflect For what Therasia doth it us availe That spatious strâ—ames shall flow and never faile That aged forrests hie to tyre the Winds And flowers each spring returne and keepe their kinds Those still remaine but all our Fathers dyed And we our selves but for few dayes abide This short time then was not giv'n us in vaine To whom tyme dyes in which we dying gaine But that in time eternall life should be Our care and endlesse rest our industrie And yet this Taske which the rebellious deeme Too harsh who god 's mild lawes
time have beene well spared Here was the foundation of the Churches of Japan and Amangucia This very Indian and none before him becomming the first fruits of that region unto CHRIST So glorious a document of Patience made him envy our Divine Philosophy that envy made him Ambitious and his holy Ambition made him a Christian So gainfull an Industry is Patience and such a compendious Art of overcomming Most wholsome is the advice of Pimenius Malice saith he never overcomes malice you must overcome malice with goodnesse But if we could overcome one Evill with another why will wee not reserve that Glory for Virtue By such a bloodlesse Victory did Motois overthrow his Adversary from whom he fled most valiantly lest he should offend him I do not say with his hands but with his sight for Patience hath no hands but shoulders His Adversary pursues Motois had lockt himself up became his own prisoner esteeming it guilt enough that another could be angry with him But hearing that his Enemy was come in being only Impatient till he had shewed more Patience hee breakes open the door bids him welcome and like one that had offended desires to be forgiven and afterwards feasts him This story I have touch'd upon that thou maist see how powerfull an Instrument of tranquillity and a quiet happy life Patience is that makes peace to beare fruit in another mans soyl and civilizeth forraigners How fruitfull then is she at home How prosperous a dresser of Virtues in himselfe is the patient man that will not suffer the propagation of Vices in another But Leander said that Patience doth either overcome or else win her Enemies I say she doth both win and overcome She wins men and overcomes Fortune nay she makes her though unwilling a most officious servant of Goodnesse The name of Patience is not an empty titular Honour it hath also very large and princely revenues for the maintenance of Virtue That Fable of the Divine in holy Maximus is truth He saith that wise men dwell in the shadow of a tree which the more the people cut it growes the more It strives and vies with the Iron or to borrow the Poets expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It lives when kill'd and brancheth when 't is lopt His own Mythology is most elegant By this tree saith he is signified wisedom which turâ— es misfortunes into Ornaments trouble into Virtue losse into gain and scars into beauty For the Patient and wise liver like the Serpent of Lerna when he is most mangled is most entire he drinkes in fresh spirits through his very wounds his courage is heightned by them and his spilt blood like dew doth cherish and revive him Like some faire Oke that when her boughes Are cut by rude hands thicker growes And from those wounds the Iron made Resumes a rich and fresher shade The benefit then wee receive from Patience is twofold It diminisheth the sorrowes of the body and increaseth the treasure of the mind Or to speak more properly there is one great benefit it doth us It turnes all that is Evill into Good Most apposite to this is that of Nazianzen Patience digesteth misery Concoction and Digestion of meats are the daily miracles of the stomack they make dead things contribute unto life and by a strange Metamorphosis turne Herbes and almost all living Creatures into the Substance of Man to preserve his particular Species No otherwise doth Virtue by Patience which is her stomack transform and turne all damages into benefits and blessings and those blessings into it self Lupines or bitter Pulse if steep'd in water will grow sweet and nourishing Patience doth macerate miseries to fatten it selfe with them Certaine Divine Raies breake out of the Soul in adversity like sparks of fire out of the afflicted flint The lesser the Soule minds the body the lesser she adheres to sensibility shee is by so much the more capable of Divinity and her own Nature When her Den of flesh is secure and whole then is she in darkness sleepes under it When it is distressed and broken then is she awake and watcheth by some Heavenly Candle which shines upon her through those breaches The wounds of the Body are the windowes of the Soul through which she looks towards Heaven light is her provision shee feedes then upon Divinity Sublime is that rapture of the most wise Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one food the best for all Is to feed on the great Gods mind draw An Immense light from the bright Trinity Death it self which the lust of eating brought into the World inedible or as Zeno saith indigestible is eaten digested and transubstantiated into life by Patience begun in Abel and perfected in JESUS CHRIST So that now that saying of Pirrho who affirm'd that there was no difference betwixt death and life is no longer a Paradox nor need we make use of that shrewd exaggeration of Euripides who knowes said he but this which we call life is death and death life we see that men when they are as we speak alive are then only sick but the dead neither sicken nor suffer any sorrowes Certainly the death of a good liver is eternal life Every Action of a wise man is a certain emulation of Death wee may see it exprest in his patience The Soul by this Virtue disintangles and frees her selfe from the troubles of Mortality For the frivolous flesh burning with fevers or drown'd in dropsies or any other diseases the attendants of corruption which possesse and fill up the narrow Fabrick of Man the Soul as in great inundations when the lower roomes are overflown ascends to the battlements where she enjoyes a secure healthfull ayre leaving the ground-roomes to the tumult and rage of the distemper'd humours She ascends thither where griefe cannot ascend Carneades comming to visit Agesilaus grievously tormented with the Gout and turning his back to be gone as if impatient of the violence and insolencie of the disease whose custome it is to shew litle reverence towards the best men the prerogative of Virâ—â—e can give no protection to Nature Agesilaus pointing from his feet to his brest calls him back with this Check stay Carneades the pain is not come from thence hither Hee shew'd by this that his mind was in health though his feet were diseased and that the pain had not ascended thither where the Soule sate inthroned At this height she hath two priviledges more then ordinary she is lesse affected with the body because at some distance from it and hovers above griefe because above sensibility shee is nearer to God and dresseth her selfe by his beames which she enjoyes more freely as from a kind of Balconie or refreshing place having onely a Knowledge but no Sense of the bodies affliction From this place she overlookes the labours and conflicts of the flesh as Angels from the windowes of Heaven behold Warre and the Slaughter of distracteâ—â—â—en One benefit more shee hath by Patience that
by our reverence of it makes the worst livers to be reputed not bad As those who are Evill are loath to believe themselves to be such because of an innate reverence due from every man to Virtue which makes them love the repute of Excellencie though not inherent and rejoyce to be accounted good of themselves or in their own esteem though they be evill taking pleasure in that self-deception So those who have beene vitious in their lives out of the reverence wee owe to death wee dare not speak evill of when they are once dead Nay it is not civil nor pious to mention the dead without commendation either by praise or else by prayer our Christian well wishes as if they had been most deserving in their lives So powerfull is the Majesty of death that it makes the most contemptible venerable Those we most envie while they live we speak well of when they are dead Excellent is that observation of Mimnermus Against the Virtuous man we all make head And hate him while he lives but praise him dead Envy pursues us not beyond the grave and our honour is not free and secure til we are layd in it That humble and quiet dust stops the lying and malicious mouth Socrates foresaw that his draught of hemlock would after his death make his very enemies his worshippers He saw his Statues erected by the same decree that did cast him downe And what was the motive thinkst thou that made his enemies worship him dead whom they persecuted living There is amongst the people a secret tradition that whispers to them that those who are freed from the miseries of this life live happily in another world Now happinesse even in their opinion is worthy of honour therefore the honour or veneration which death exacts is a certain tribute or a debt rather that is due to happinesse and if for this thou wilt advise with thy Aristotle he will not deny it The Lacedemonians bestowed the Olympick palms and honours which whosoever won in his life time he was accounted most happy upon all that dyed without exception or extenuation adorning the statutes of some and the tombes of all with the green and flourishing Laurel esteeming every one of the dead as happy as the most fortunate Victor that lived The antient Romans held the greatest honour of the living to consist in the renown of their dead Ancestors They judged him to be highly honoured that was enjoyned by any dying persons to perform some extraordinary service for them as an Embassie or some other weighty negotiation And Callistratus in his first book of Questions affirmes That Embassadors so employed are the most honourable because that the suffrages and election of dying men is most venerable as being then upon the borders of immortality and discerning more then those who are yet in the midst of life and more in the clouds of thick-sighted humanity That honour is the greatest which is done us by the honourable Nor is this glory of death a Relative of the Soul only Looke well upon the body that provision of the worms a frail and perishing objects but ful of Majesty We are nothing so moved nor doe we so gravely compose our selves at the presence of a King as at the sight of a dead body With how much awfulnesse doth it lye along with what a secret mysterious command doth it check all about it It is a silent abstruse Philosopher and makes others so too Nor is it onely venerable but sacred and the Depositum and Index of an almighty Restauratour The honour of Sepulture is a part of Religion Now if it be argued that goodnesse consists onely in utility or benefits it follows that nothing is good but that which profiteth Death then is the best and the greatest subordinate good of all for the death of others benefits those that see it and their own death is most profitable to those that mind it The Lamae who are the Priests of the Tehitenses are in this point the most excellent Philosophers in the world When they prepare to celebrate prayers they summon the people together with the hollow whispering sounds of certain Pipes made of the bones of dead men they have also Rosaries or Beads made of them which they carry alwayes about them and they drink constantly out of a Skull Being asked the reason of this Ceremony by Antonie Andrada who first found them out one that was the chiefest amongst them told him that they did it Ad Fatorum memoriam They did therefore pipe with the bones of dead men that those sad whispers might warn the people of the swift and invisible approach of death whose Musick they termed it and affirmed it to be the most effectuall of any That the Beads they wore did put them in minde of the fraile estate of their bodies and did in prayer-time regulate and humble their thoughts That a constant commemoration of death was as beneficial to the Soul as devotion therefore they carryed them alwaies about them as the powefull Momento's of their approaching departure out of the Land of the living To this he added that their drinking in a skull did mortifie their affections represse pleasures and imbitter their tast lest they should relish too much the delights of life Lastly he added that this constant representation of death was an Antidote against all the sinfull Excesses and deviations of man With the same Medicine they secured themselves from other iniquities When they were to swear concerning any thing they laid their hands upon certain Images set with the bones of dead men by which ceremony they were put in mind of the last Judgement and the Account which the dead and the Quick must give in that great that impartiall and censorious day Certainly this was no barbarous but a very humane and elegant Philosophy which taught men to season and redeeme all the daies of their lives with the memory of the one day of their death Admirable was the memory of Mithridatés who was master of two and twenty Languages and could readily discourse in every one of them and no lesse happy was that of Cyrus Themistâ—cles and Seneca but a constant memory of mans miseries and his death exceeds them all As the rootes of the tree in the I le of Malega upon that side which lookes towards the East are an Antidote or preservative but those which spread Westward are poysonous and deadly So the Cogitations of a Christian which are the Roots by which hee stickes to Heaven for every Christian is a Trâ—e reversed when they look towards the West or setting point of life are healing and salutiferous but those which reflect still upon temporall things and his abode in this World are destructive and deadly Nature doth every minute commend unto us this memoriall of death Hermes in his sacred book contends that respiration was given to man as a sign of that last efflation in which the Soul parts from the