man is not able to resist the fire what will you say of that which Alexander and above fifty other Historians relate happened in their times in Secilia that there was a man called commonly by all the Fish Colax For from his youth he was accustomed to swim in the Sea he proceeded so far therein that the greatest part of his time he lived in the water turned into the nature of a Fish or creature of that Element he would stay five or six houres under water after that whole dayes and by degrees he brought himself to stay eight dayes without comming forth so at last he accustomed himself to live under water the most part of his life which was above eighty years many times he appeared when he came into any ships way at Sea he would go aboard eat and drank what the Marriners gave him sometime he came to land into his own Countrey where he stayed but little because great pains of stomack possessed him if be stayed out of the water The which also Pontano affirms for a truth What more wisdome or divine ingenuity can possesse man to peirce the foure Elements familiarly to make use of them and serve himself of them as of other Creatures except he should soare in the ayre and through it to passe both Soule and Body to Heaven Nay there hath not wanted some who have attempted it For Leonardo Vincio invented the art of Flying and exceeded therein to the admiration of all I need not mention here of a multitude of Vaulters and Juglers who with so much dexterity and boldnesse doe act their parts that especially those which to this day vault upon Cables c. do often cause Kings Princes and Commons to retire themselves from Balcones and Windows and avoid the sight of so desperate horrible fearfull and supernatural actions insomuch that the Actor often remains alone because the people cannot endure to behold the desperate and unfortunate condition to which they exposed themselves For which cause that great Phylosopher Mercurius Trismagistus endeavouring to extol the subtilty of mans ingenuity yet admiring at the divine agility and quicknesse with which it acts declares to his Son these following words What thinkest thou at this or what treasure thinkest thou Hast thou shut up within the members of thy body Command thy soule that it cross the main Ocian and thou shalt perceive how soon it will passe overs nay in a manner before thou canst imagine without changing its place of abode Command it to ascend to Heaven and there thou shalt apprehend it to be in a moment and that without any wings for it hath none yet there is nothing that doth disturbe or impede its flight no not the wide and large tenebrosity of the Ayre can hinder its carreare the burning heat of the Sun the swift motions of the starry heavens and Planets it penetrates all even to the most pure celestial and excellent species of them If thou findest not contentment in this if thou wilt not abide amongst the sphears and heavenly bodies search out and understand what vastnesse there is beyond those heavens we see sure thou mayest easily doe it consider then what the agility of thy soule is hold thy self immortal and believe that thou art able to understand all the Arts and Sciences of the world ascend above the highest Elements descend to the deepest Gulfs think upon and call to minde what passages thou hast met with and what thou hast acted search out the effects of Fire Water Ayre of the drouth and moysture that goes through all parts of the World fix thy self in Heaven on Earth in the Sea in the Ayre and dwell if thou pleasest without the body Sure then by this we may collect that the nature of man is a strange and miraculous thing for although it hath one part of its being mortal decaying and perishable the other and more noble is Immortal derives its original from heaven very well remembers its splendid Country the glorious gifts and graces which it hath received from its Creator and so despiseth all terrenal enjoyments but fighs and grones for those of heaven with an earnest desire to purchase those felicities which it left there for certainly in it self it knows that its Principal Parents Friends and Aliance are there and that naturally is the country where first it received its being The which if it could clearly see with its eye of reason which is a power of the soul that never can or doth part from it more then the light from the Sun and from hence sweetly enjoy without this clod of earth or spoyle of worms Oh what wonderfull things would it act how rare and strange would its designes be but this lump of clay the body weighs it down and hinders which Mercurius calls a Tyranical Prison of the soul for that ever impeds when this would set forth its divine Essence but when it goes forth of this body by contemplation and meditation and freeth it self from the weighty burthen thereof subjecting the vitious appetites of it it no sooner remaines at liberty but receives the Noble influences of Heaven and being purified and cleansed from the filthinesse of these earthly members goes skipping in the Aire from Element to Element holds communication and converse with the Angels and can Penetrate even to the Throne of the most high God Whence being inflamed with a divine fury or Zeal acts here below strange and wonderfull things as Moses relates of himself that after he had parted from men to converse with God and stayed some few dayes his face was so bright and shining that the Children of Israel could not behold him St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven Socrates often being elevated in serious contemplation would earnestly behold the Sun for the space of an houre without motion so that he seemed rather dead then a live Alexander the great being once in exceeding danger of his life surrounded with enemies his Army almost lost and discomfited he fell into such a furious passionate rage that he sweat throughout his whole body drops of blood which appeared to his adversaries as flames of fire that issued from his face and eyes at the which being frighted they began one by one to fly and left him alone without any hurt By which we may clearly discern the power and command that the soul hath over the body's Sepulcher in the which it lyes buried in this life and how many times it freeth it self from the chaines with which it is bound and in spight of the body goes to visite her antient habitation which is heaven leaving in a manner for that time the body as dead the which St. Augustine very well asserts in a Preist of Calamensa that always when he would wrap himself up in contemplation he did it with so much gust delight and so profound a forgetfulnesse of things here below that he remained stretched out upon the ground without any sense
placed but truly they are wisely set down and very significantly do point at the frail principium of this proud Creature Man for why he is born of a Woman and amongst all the Creatures that God made there is none so subject to miseries and infirmities as they are and especially those that are most fruitful They seldome have a months quiet throughout the year and that not without fears terrours cares and continual tremblings Now after so miserable and deplorable a beginning if this life were long and healthy he could the better pass it over But Job saith presently after He is of few dayes and those full of misery There are few creatures that have a life so short as man nor any so easily taken away therefore what need instruments Poysons Graves and Swords and the like do but stop his breath for a short time and he will fall down dead and lie like a Log of Wood his life being onely an Airy breath which inhabits the body and quickly flieth away Theophrastus and other ancient Phylosophers murmured against Nature because she had given so large lives to the Harts Ravens and other animals which serve for little in this World and Man which is Emperor and King of all the Creatures and absolute Lord over them his is but short and brief though he have honourable and caelestial imployments here and what is worse she clips and cuts from this short life which is bestowed upon him a great part with Sleeps Dreames Anger 's Cares Troubles Losses and other misfortunes which attend molest and abreviate this short life these our few dayes and if we should well cast up and consider the pains labours and troubles we undergo the many anguishes and cares thereof and how they waste us and hasten us to our ends we shall finde that few are the dayes of our sorrowful Pilgrimage here which brings us to the comparison of which the Prophet makes of man with the shade What sayes he is the shadow but onely an appearance which deceives the sight of man a fancy a figure without being or substance the which sometimes appears greater sometimes lesser even so is man which sometimes seems to be something and in effect nothing for when he is most elevated most raised up and at his highest on a sudden there is no more memory nor trace of him then of a shadow when night is come it 's with him as the Royal Prophet David sayes 37 Psalm 35 36. verse I have seen the wicked Man in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay Tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I saught him but he could not be found the Memory of wicked Men shall rot Here thereto have we with as much brevity as possible could be set forth through how many troubles stormes and shipwracks miserable Man passeth before he arriveth at the Haven of Youth and gets out of the tuition of Nurses and from that Labyrinth of Childhood in which he must be assisted and looked after with so much care and diligence Let us now consider and contemplate him being grown bigger and of a more comely stature and see whether his miseries and sorrowes have end here Verily if we will be impartial Judges we shall finde that his calamities and labours do not onely terminate but that he falls into and launcheth forth into a more spacious Sea of Dangers and Afflictions For by this time Nature hath provided for him a thousand Combats and Assaults stronger and more fiercer then the former his blood begins to boil the Flesh allures and invites with her delights sensuallity shews the way how to put them in practice the World and the Devil tempt and beguile the disordered Appetite of his Youth with inviting to him such drest and well prepared delicates that it 's impossible that he who is assaulted surrounded and stormed with so strong and so many Enemies but that he should be conquered if he receive not succour from some good and friendly Angel by the particular Grace and Favour of God for in that body which enjoyes Riches Liberty and Youth without restraint so generally lodge dwell and inhabit all sorts of Vice in the World The Emperor Marcus Ancilius said I am not in charity with our Step-mother Nature who seems not to have satisfied her revenge upon poor man at his beginning and his being unnaturally fed with the Milk of a strange Breast but strives farther to load him with all sorrows she can Now he must also learn his Trade Occupation or Science from a strange hand for which cause she produces few Catoes who will take care to teach their own Children but rather she tauses Fathers now a dayes to disdain and count it an undervaluing to do it and so leave them to taste of the bitter Potion of cruel and neglective School-masters which often discourages them at the first entrance to learn the liberal Arts â—nd Sciences 〈…〉 s certain there is no ground be it never so fertile fat and fruitful that is not mar'd 〈◊〉 wasted and will bring forth Berries and Thistles sooner then other Grass if it be not well manured in all respects and the more Fertile it is the greater quantity of unprofitable Weeds it puts forth if they neglect to Plough Sow and Dung it so it is with Youths they are apt to grow worse then better though they be never soingenuous unless the Parents seek out trusty and careful Masters to teach and moderately correct them or do it himself which is all very convenient If Man desires to gather good Fruit from Trees and Plants it will be necessary when they are young and tender that he do cut prune and dig about them and take off the superfluous Branches Even so he that desires from the Youth and tender disposition of the Children to gather good Fruit and not meet with vexations from them in his old age had need to cut short prune and hinder the growing and encreasing of Vices and all occasions thereof which too commonly do bud forth in their young dayes and to avoid all scandal and discredit the neglect hereof may bring upon himself and be a perpetual sorrow to Parents and Friends How many Fathers and Mothers have there been and are in this World who for neglect of bringing up their Children when young and giving them good instruction and learning have had a thousand vexations troubles afflictions and discontents from them in their old age And how many Mothers be there that instead of instructing in vertue and teaching modest retirement to their Daughters do bring them up to too much daintiness ease and liberty onely shewing them how to follow their own delicious Appetites the which we may call Mothers and Nurses of the Body but cruel Step-Mothers to the Soules of their poor Daughters If that High Priest Eli was Heavenly chastised and his Sons destroyed because he did not reprehend and chastise them with that rigour and severe Authority which
this the antients permitted the rich men not to live neer the poor or the poor within the jurisdiction of the Rich because riches is the feed of Envy and Malice by the same consequence I might here easily make a large discourse of the Pride Ambition and Malice which is predominant in our dayes for who ever saw the so great pompes and excessive charges in all conditions of men as at this day we behold in so much that we may well call the present times the Sattin Plush Silken Velvet and Purple Age in the which men doe employ all their time labour and paines to adorn dresse and trick up this miserable and ultimate spoile of worms the body whilest the poore soule goeth in rags and sackcloath patched and mended and foul full of iniquities and vices cut slashed and wounded with the weapons of Satan but rather let us open our eyes and not be so carelesse that that may not come upon us which the Prophet speakes against the women of Jerusalem after he had reprehended their proud carriage their dishonest casts and impudent rowling of their Eyes their fantastick and wanton Attire tripping and counting their paces their Jewels necklaces Bracelets and Ear-rings with many other lose and fantastical personal attires that it doe not succeed to us saith he Iusteed of sweetnesse and perfumes stinking and unsavoury adours instead of Rich girdles a cord instead of curled crisped and powdred haire baldnesse the greatest man shall fall by the edge of the Sword and the strongest most valiant and couragious men shall fall and dye in the wars We may well add to the rest of mans miseries another infermity which we call Love an evill so contagious that it entraps all estates degrees and conditions of men it is so contagious and pestilential that it pardons neither age sex nor degree venting it self among all sorts as the devills do intermeddle in all the Elements without exception of Person Estate or Quality Old or Young Wise or Foolish Fat or Lean all are subject to its malice in the which there is exceeding great danger of turning frantick unlesse at the first feeling the wound a speedy remedy be applyed which was the cause that Paulus Egenetus in his third Book commands to cure such as are deep in love with the same diet government and medicines as fools furious franticks and possessed with evill spirits the same in effect Empiricles following the Doctrine of Plato ordered saying That there was two kinds of madnesse one which is called in Greek Eroticon in Latine Amatorium and in English Amarous the other is the common Frenzie of foolish madmen I shall declare one thing to you of my own knowledge I have seen many Anatomies made of men who dyed of the first kinde of this madnesse they found the entrailes shrunk together the poore Heart burnt the Liver dryed up the Lungs broyled the Ventricles and Filmes of the Braines damnified by which a man might judg that the sad Soule departed thence boyled and fired out with a continual burning and that according as the amorous flames do prevaile so that as the cure of this disease is dificult even so are the confirmations of those that treat of its Originall and Cure The Phisitians say that this fury of Love which so evil treats and encounters the World proceeds from the correspondency and resemblance of the complexion and bloud for semblance engenders equality of affection the Astrologers which also are of this opinion and desired to put their syeth into the Meadow of Love declared that affection was ingendred betwixt two who have one and the same ascendencie in their births or have one and the same constellations which is the maine causer of love betwixt them other Philosophers say that when we look upon any thing that we desire there issues forth by the eyes some part of our spirit which is ingendred of the most pure perfect blood of the heart proceeding from the sentment of the thing which we love from whence going forth and multiplying by the Aire till it comes to our Eyes where it meets and mixeth with ours like invisible vapours and finding the bodies apt ready disposed and prepared to receive such impressions it forceth in by them at which the Eyes remain troubled and perplexed and full swollen with that sight like the looking glasse which many times seems to be covered with cloth or some other thing the Eyes being dazled meerly by looking therein from them by little and little it spreads throughout all the body and at last pearceth the heart wherein few dayes it increaseth so much that the Eyes are but a small passage for it out from whence proceeds that the poor miserable Lover being drawn and governed and guided by these new passions which desire nothing more than to seek opportunity to return and be joyned with their first ingendrer which makes Lovers complain yet doe not understand what it is that afflicts them and seek after something but they know not what Others who could never finde any trace or true account of the beginning and first breeding of this furious evill of Love said that it was they knew not what it would act they knew not how and that it would scorch set on fire and consume men they knew not to express the manner which is certain and true for who shall but consider the gestures the fancies the furious postures the milde moderation and the sudden Ecelipses of these Love-sick passionates he must needs confesse that he never read heard of or saw the like change and strange transformation so sad and grievous a representation and so ridiculous a spectacle for if thou seest them now even drowned in teares making echoes in the ayre with their sighes complaints and groans casting forth curses and imprecations upon a sudden thou mayst behold them cold flegmatick foolish cast down and unadvisedly beyond themselves but as soone again they change if they have received by chance any favour any smile any amorous answer or any pleasing word from the party which they affect you shall see them merry joccund and joyfull decked with the green Plumes and Remeralds of hopefull adventures in so much as thou wouldest almost sweare they are not the same men which yesterday thou sawest according as they have changed their hew in all respects sometimes they are in love with solitarinesse and seek out un wonted places to contemplate their affections meditate privately with their own thoughts repeate what hath passed betwixt them and their honoured Lords Ladies and Loves To invent gallanory new designes to prosecute their desired purposes Thou mayst afterwards espie them passing through and suffering many inconveniencies break many a nights sleep leave the most important negotiations that they may enjoy a fight of their beloved friend they will run through thick and thin wait long not making any account of servants waiting lacques labour and trouble or their own restlesnesse and if it happen that they
Prophet Isai 59. cha 2. v. Who hath said your iniquities have seperated betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear for your hands are defiled with bloud and your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lyes and your tongue hath muttered perversness none called for Justice nor any pleadeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak lyes they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity they hatch Cockatrice Eggs and weave the Spiders Web he that eateth of their Eggs dyeth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper their Webs shall not become garments never shall they cover themselves with their works for their works are works of iniquity and the act of violence is in their hands their feet run to evil and they make hast to shed innocent bloud their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths the way of peace they know not and so on And indeed our wickedness doth multiply and our sins are our capital enemies and give the greatest testimony what we are St. Bernard in one lamentation that he makes upon the miseries of our life sets forth to us how much the sad and debil condition of man is to the end that without any farther discourse he might bring him to understand his own weak and fragil condition which he begins to tell as followeth Oh man both blind and naked consisting of humane flesh and a reasonable soul awake thou that art so forgetfull call to remembrance consider what thou art wherefore dost thou wander so vainly from thy self even drunk and besotted with things that are subject to so suddain perishable a mutability sleeping so securely amidst the vanities of this World nay rather drowned in the weak and fregil delight which the Earth sets before thee dost thou not plainly perceive that the nearer thou makest thy approacheâ— to the World the farther thou art parted from thy God by how much the more thou seemest to gain of these outward vanities so much thou lovest of those things which thou oughtest to set a higher price upon the more carefull thou art to enrich thy self in things corporal so much the poorer beggerly wilt thou find thy self in things spiritual thou judgest and correctest other mens actions whilest thou art forgetfull to reform thine own there is no Creature thou takest in hand but thou tamest only thy self remains unbridled thou art very watchfull and solicitous to espie out the faults of others but art very floathfull and backward to look how and amend thine own thou hast a boyling desire of these sublunary things in thy heart but what a luke-warm nay cold entertainment finds coelestials in thy mind consider the nearer thou drawest to death the farther reperation thou makest betwixt thee and thy salvation all thy content is to provide for dight cocker and delight thy body which is nothing else but a lump of earth a sepulcher full of vermine and leavest thy poor soul which is the lively image of God alone comfortless unfed nay dead with famine these and many other the like sorrows did this holy man being in the desert express against the ingratitude of men which we place here amongst the rest that it might be a deep perswasion to man to consider and contemplate his vile condition that by retiring into himself he should by a serious meditation be induced to understand the sad and miserable being and that thereby he might see the great need he stands in of his God in whose hand it is either to make him happy or miserable or full of evils and perpetual torments without doing him the least injustice or injury more then doth the Potter to the piece of Earth or Clay in his hands breaking and molding of it either to make any vessel thereof or to let it remain in a confused lump not having any forms for indeed man is no other thing but a statute of Clay placed in this World which is the mouth and ware-house wherein is declared the wonderfull works of God and that if one should encounter it sharply there is no doubt but it would fall to the ground in pieces and although he is compassed with so many evills and infirmities and sees himself subject continually to the hazard of death yet he is forgetful never takes care truly and humbly to submit to his God nor ever would willingly be his true Subject Now that we have in general considered the estate of man it will be convenient that we treat thereof more particularly and amply that all men might be perswaded to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and that by a more narrow search into themselves and a nearer speculation every man into his own debill and fragill condition and because of all the heathen Philosophers Pliny hath written as I conceive the best therefore I will in this place declare his opinion to the shame and confusion of Christians that they should be tought in these things of a Pagan one that knew not God without law or the least light of those Holy and Evangelical misteries declared to us which addeth to our greater reproach consider a while saith he how man is necessitated to hide cover and cherish his frail body at the cost of other Creatures for the which nature hath with a large hand plentifully provided some with feathers others skins furres scales and fleeces Nay even the Trees are is no sooner sprung up but they have a coat bestowed on them of bark to defend them from the violence of the suns heat and winters storms but to set forth the better what a small vallue or esteem she had for man he alone is cast into the World naked like an abortive or rejected thing and is no sooner born but she furnishes him with sobs and tears for a lawfull inheritance as a sign of those miserable calamities he is to undergo for those tears which man sheds at his birth are the heralds and discoverers of that field of dangerous evills into which he enters Here thou seest gentle Reader the begining of the fairest and most principal of the works which God created in the first six days of the World for whose respect all Creatures have their being yet of himself is of so little validity that if they do not cherish succor defend protect his nakedness he would be subject to the violence of every Creature do but behold him after he is taken from his mothers womb and they will see him bound wrapped up lying down and like the trunk of a Tree not able to raise himself up without assistance Here you may look upon and contemplate this so proud a Creature who by his appearance would cause us to believe that he came into the World meerly to swell and be puffed up with pride and vanity see his beginning is in sorrow But now let us consider When will he begin to use his feet When will he
he ought what can they expect from God What chastisement must their Parents fear that instead of being Reformers and Correctors shall be Corrupters of their Children Such may be compared to Munckies who do so love their young ones that they are ever making much of and hugging them in their Armes by which means they often fall into the hands of Hunters Even so it is with Parents who for want of chastising and putting their Children from them and putting them ou 〈…〉 learn Lawful employments come to fall 〈…〉 the hands of Justice and to ill ends with disgrace enough to their Family grief and shame to their neglective Parents and Friends The ancient Romans so much abhorred the Parents that did not correct their Children that for this cause alone they made a Law in the which they ordered and commanded That the Son that was taken in any offence should be for the first time reproved for the second punished severely and for the third hanged and the Father banished as a party in the fault because he did not sufficiently reprove and chastise him Objection Let me ask one Question by the way If those ancient Romans were living at this time in these our dayes what would they do seeing the pitiful and lamentable Estates of many of our Common-wealthes What Banishments Chaines Prisons and what kinde of Torments think you would they now invent to chastise an infinite number of Fathers who do not onely solicit seeing they cannot teach their Children themselves long before they send them to School and tuition of Masters their ruine but poyson them with â—â—â—r daily bad examples which doth so corrupt and vitiate them that all that can be done towards their future reclaiming comes to as much as nothing for those who from their Births should by good examples and advice instruct them to be vertuous do teach and ingraft in them the poysons of Blasphemy Swearing Drunkenness Gluttony and wickedly spend the Estates of their innocent Children Whore Lye prostrate and sell their Wives and Daughters in sight of the World How many Mothers are there at this day who like HERODIAS teach their Daughters to Dance spend all their time in learning Rhetorical-Complements entertaining Gallants Triming Dressing and Painting themselves colouring their Cheeks Lips and Eye-brows adorning themselves with rich Cloaths and Jewels as if they would set out a Shop of Wares and make themselves Pedlers and go to sell jets and prances in the Streets to which Parents what can be expected to happen less then did to the Royal Prophet David that his own Children were Executioners of the punishment of his sins in this kinde who were so unruly and unnatural wicked that one of them Amon by name Ravished his own Sister Thamer and another who was Absalom killed his Brother Amon and conspired the ruine and the death of his Father and at length forced him to flie from his House and lay with his Concubines wherefore it is an ancient Rule of Phylosophers That God often permits many sins to be committed and go unpunished in this life deferring it for a greater demonstration of his Clemency But the sin and offence that many Parents do commit against him in not giving good documents and examples to their Children he never lets that pass but some way or other makes them even cruel and afflictive Executioners of Gods Justice on their Fathers faults in this World and that justly for Parents cannot bestow on their Children a better Legacie then good wholesome and vertuous documents and sound knowledge with which he may make him immortal and of a perpetual fame for the Natural being the Mortal Body and this short and miserable life which we receive and give to our Children Death with a sudden and fierce snatch doth soon cut the thrid thereof To sum up what hath been said Suppose the Creatures do escape the dangers of the Mothers Womb happen to be Nursed with unwholesome and corrupted Milk of their infirm Nurses fall into greater and more dangerous evils and which is terrible if they come under the tuition of lewd Masters and under the power of wicked and perverse Guides to teach them yet this is nothing in comparison of the Souls mis-fed and mis-led for of far higher price and esteem is the maintenance of the Soul then that of the body And here we must not forget to quoat the Divine Plato who hath written more at large to this purpose then any of the ancient Heathen Phylosophers therefore it will be fit we make some profitable use of his Authority and Doctrine which is so rare and choice so super-natural and Divine written with discreet diligence and care handled at large and exactly and set forth in so gallant and lofty Stile that many Heathens that have read his Books Ziocha Of the Immortality of the Soul and another in which he principally treats of the short and miserable life of Man they cast themselves down head-long from high Rocks into the Sea and into deep Rivers that thereby ending and cutting the thrid of this miserable and sorrowful life they might enjoy that pleasant and quiet one which they hoped for towards which all Navigate as to a certain and secure Harbour of health and happiness This Phylosopher in the Dialogue that he made of Death and the frail and weak life of Man introduceth a great Phylosopher called Socrates the which with admirable Eloquence particularly declares the miseries calamities torments and vexations which attend our life saying thus Doest thou not know that humane Life is nothing else but a pilgrimage and a continual motion from one Estate to another the which Wise men do pass over with great joy and content and rejoyce and sing when they feel the miserable e 〈…〉 his our pilgrimage Doest thou not know very well that Man is composed of Body and Soul and that his Soul is inclosed and set in the Body as in a Tabernacle or House with which Dame Nature was pleased she should goe covered and laden and that with sorrow grief and sufficient care and extreamly against her will she being oppressed with such a load of frail Flesh so great troubles and so infinite a multitude of evils Although put the case that Nature were friendly would do us some favour or repart some of her courtesies to any of these oppressed Souls as to give them a light and agil Body or sooner to afford them liberty yet in the end such are the counterfeit and attendant weight of evils which are incident to them that the miserable and afflicted Souls not being able to bear so great a burthen they grow peevish mutinous afflictive and very desirous to pack from so streight a prison that they may go and enjoy the happiness of those Caelestial and Eternal blessings which they so much desire and cordially seek after Do but consider that the laying aside or leaving this Life is but a Truck or Exchange from worse to better What do we or what
do we finde in this Life For if 〈…〉 do but put our Hand into our Bosome 〈…〉 hall finde that from the day of our Birth to â—â—e day of our Death there is no calamity nor trouble with which we are not afflicted of which we do not taste there is no kinde of misery or affliction with which Man is not acquainted with which he is not some time or other persecuted and afflicted there is no Poverty Cold Heat Whips and Stripes of which man cannot be a Witness in Death understanding it and that before he attains to the perfect light of Reason or indeed have any Tongue to complain or desire favour of which we can understand no other signe or better testimony then the teares sighs and groans he casts forth at his Birth which are as fore-runners and discoverers of the Field of miseries and calamities into which he is come and of which the sorrowful entrance makes him sensible But after he hath passed by an infinite number of evils and attained to the age of seven years what a necessity he hath of Guides and Masters to teach instruct and correct him to look after him and keep him from harms and in growing up more strict and severe Masters are necessary to correct his extravigancies and lead him in the paths of Vertue for Childhood and Youth have need of a Bridle more strong then Iron to withdraw it from all Vices with which it is assaulted and bring it to accustome it self to virtuous actions Thence in few years his face begins to be covered with Hair a Beard adorns his Chin and he comences to right Man with which his cares and troubles doubly encrease and he enters into a Stage where he meets with new afflictions and vexations He must goe forth into publick to seek company and go in Society which is like a Touch-stone to try the purity of his inclination to good or evil If he be descended of a Noble house of a Famous and Illustrious Family or if he be an ordinary Gentleman that he may maintain his Honour and follow the foot-steps of his predecessors and imitate his superiours he must seek out many inventions provide rich and convenient accouterments be hardy in Battle and understand stratagems and policies of War expose himself to a thousand dangers and hazards lay his life at stake upon all occasions spend his blood prodigally and without fear to die with Honour and thereby to obtain a new and immortal fame for himself and his successors and all this he must do if he will not be taken for a cowardly lazie and ignoble person and be disesteemed and despised of all men And if he be a man of a low degree born for a Farmer a Labourer or a Servant he is not for that more free from cares troubles pains and restlesness in body and soul He must labour night and day toiling and sweating even to drops of blood many times that he may procure bread and water If he strive never so much to imploy himself in his Calling yet very often though he labour and travel and do his uttermost endeavour to releive his necessity he cannot attain to what is requisite for him Then not without cause did Marcus Aurelius the seventeenth Roman Emperor considering the condition of Humanity complain who was wont to say Many times have I contemplated within my self if there ever were now or could be found any Estate Degree Condition Land Countrey Kingdome or Age in the which there hath lived a Man that hath not in his life tasted what thing is adverse Fortune that hath not met with Crosses and Afflictions And if there could be discovered such a one I believe he must be some abominable Monster and a strange sight to Mortals and ends his Reason with this saying To be brief I finde that he that yesterday was rich to day becomes poor he that yesterday was in health to day is visited with sickness he that yesterday was in jollity laughing to day I see him weeping he that yesterday was in prosperity and esteem to day I see him despised and in adversity and he that yesterday was alive to day I see him dead and in his Grave But now le ts return to our commenced purpose and le ts search more particularly into things Shew me that man that hath most desired obtained a condition and that more suitable to his wishes and contentments then any other manner of living that hath not at last grown weary despised and complained of his sad hope repented and been sorry that he had spent so much pretious time in proceeding in it To see this more cleerly le ts consider some principal degrees of men in the World beginning with such as saile upon the waters most part of their lives swiming like fishes which are Mariners to how many dangers are they subject night and day what a house do they enjoy what thing is there dwelling but a continual filthy prison what cloaths do they wear but of Cloth like a spunge fit for nothing but to receive filth and water they go like voluntary Vagabons and are in a seeming and perpetual exile they have seldome any repose they are encompassed with blustring Windes on all sides they have but small guard from the Waters Tempests Hailes and Snowes and are subject to Pirates and Robbers to Rocks Shelves Sands and surging Sulkes of the superbious Sea and ever in danger of drowning and being interred in the bellies of Fishes which being seriously considered by that famous Greek Phylosopher Bias who doubted whether such people were to be accounted amongst the Earthly Creatures or those that live on the Water or whether they were to be accounted amongst the living or the dead And another Phylosopher called Anacharsis said That there was not above two or three Fingers betwixt them and Death that is as the planks are in thickness this life appearing so detestable Peradventure thou wilt think to find more quietness in that of a Husbandman and that there is less troubles in a Countrey life thou wilt be apt to question whether a Rustick life be not better and give the answer thy self that it is because it is more easie more quiet sweet and more pleasant especially knowing that most of the Patriarches and Prophets made choice of this manner of living being the most sweetly quiet without prejudice or guile to any the most plain and sincere free from the difficult Catches Traps and Turmoils of Traffick Also many of the ancient Roman Emperors left their Royal commands and employments forsook their Palaces their Capatals Triumphant Arches Amphitheators Pleasures and many other Magnificent Ornaments to withdraw and retire themselves into the Countrey to prune and graft the Trees with their own hands to plant Flowers and sow Seeds in the Gardens as did Dioclesian Attalus Cyrus Beroaldus Constantine one of the Caesars and many others which Columellia and other Historians doe make mention of But those that would attentively
the Carthaginians spake evil of Hannibal because he alwayes went unlaced and open at his stomack others jeered at Julius Caesar because he went ungirt All this is but a small matter in respect of what the Commons in Commonwealths have put upon their Leaders in comparison of the multitude of their Senators they have persecuted banished and put to death in recompence of the many services they have done for them and the many miseries afflictions and troubles they have sustained for them and their Country If that great Greek Orator Demosthenes should arise at this time well might he say over again what he once said in this case complain of the peoples ingratitude for after he had been a firm shield defence and protection to his Countrey and a Real deliverance to the City of Athens he was by the Rout unjustly banished as if he had been a Thief or Malefactor Socrates was bewitched Hannibal was so evil treated of his Countrey-men that he was forced to banish or absent himself from them and wander through the World begging and miserably ended his dayes Even so the Romans served Camillo the Greeks Lycurgus and Solon one of the which was stoned to death and the other after one Eye plucked out banished a a Murtherer Moses and many other Saints often had experience of the mad fury of the giddy-headed multitude but if they lived in our dayes they might complain a thousand times more then in their dayes they had occasion But as we do breath forth and openly proclaim the fooleries and mis-deeds of the giddy and fickle-headed Commons it is not reason we should hide the errors and vanities of many Judges and Governours of the people how they become wicked and corrupted amongst which some are unjust out of fear of distasting a Prince or great Lord and do as Pilate did not to incur the anger of Tiberius Caesar he condemned to death the spotless Lamb Christ Jesus Others are corrupted by love friendship and favour as Herod the Tetrarch who for love to please the foolish fancy of a Maid condemned to death innocent Saint John Baptist although he knew he was blameless Others are led out of the way by a mortal rancor and hatred that possesseth them As that Prince and High-priest who commanded St. Paul to be smiten on the face whilest he was pleading at the Bar in his own defence Other whiles they are bribed and blinded with Gold and Silver as the Son of that great prophet Samuel This is such a contagious Disease is taking and of great account and that even amongst the most precise all with a good will do receive presents says the prophet all holds out their hands for gifts as the physitian if little money little health they observe not the course of Justice towards Orphans neither do they judge aright the cause of the Widdows And in another place he sayes Woe be to you that suffer your selves to be corrupted and suborned with bribes intreaties rancor or friendship and for the same do make of the good evil and of the evil good of darkness light and of light darkness Cursed be ye that do not judge according to the justness of the cause but lookest upon the persons and givest Sentence according to the gifts with which ye are bribed ye that shut your Eyes to equity and set them wide open to bribes ye that do not guide your selves according to the dictates of Reason but according to your affections payment and according as your own appetites or wills shall rule ye are very diligent in rich mens concernments but do delay neglect and defer the causes of the poor ye are very sharp and austier against the poor man but soft and flexable if against the rich which brings me to what the wise man said That if the poor man speak no man will hear but asks who was it If the rich man speaks every one sayes such a man speaks well Oh how gallantly hath he spoken every one is pleased with his Language every one praises him to the heighth All is but a Scifer all is Air in a poor man in respect of the pretences of these great men in respect also of the Wormes of preferment which gnawes the Entrailes of such as are trusted in this publick Honour and Dignity for they presently would their Sons what the Mother of the Sons of Zebede desired hers might be command Lord that my two Sons may sit one at thy Right-hand and the other at thy Left-hand in the Kingdom of Heaven even so do they desire that their Children may succeed them in their Governments and precedencies although oftentimes they are simple and uncapable The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Judges and Magistrates especially of Common-wealths that they enriched ennobled themselves and endeavoured to speak their own ends before they would judge the cause of the Orphans and poor Is it not reason saith the Holy Ghost that I should avenge my self of such men Hear what the holy Spirit sentenceth by the mouth of Saint James against them at the day of judgement Seeing thou haste destroyed the innocent and just and thou haste spent thy time in all sorts of pastimes delights and pleasures and ever haste endeavoured thy hearts content in this life It was all false saith our Lord for from henceforth thou shalt sigh weep groan and howl being surrounded with Torments your Riches shall perish your Garments the Moaths shall eat your Gold and your Silver is rusted and that rust shall rise up in judgement against you shall eat and consume your flesh as a fire because the tears sighs and groans of the Widdows and Father less came up to my Throne Here we see the complaints of the Prophets and holy Apostles against the corrupted and mercenary Judges This is the Sentence which God hath pronounced against them and such evil doers Now there remains to our serious view nothing worth our notice but how it fares with married people what a contented life do they lead after we have diligently searched the lives of the principal conditions of the World it is a certain and known thing that if we will in our phansies imagine or compose in our understandings an Idea pattern or copy of a happy Marriage well endowed with all things can be desired as Plato did in his Reipublick or as Saint AVGVSTINE did his in Civitate Dei that in appearance there is nothing in the World that can be compared to the delights pleasures pastimes and quietness which attend a Married life That this may be true no man can deny for with them the good and bad fortune is in common each participates in the others condition the Bed is common the Children common there is such a conformity betwixt them their hearts mindes and affections so that two bodies two souls seem to be one and if we do receive a contentment a pleasure and a delight when we impart to our intimate friends our negotiations and our passages How
Plato there opened in Europe so great Caverness in the Earth and that with such an infernall force and fury that two of the most Populous and greatest Cities thereof were devoured with all their inhabitants and were never more seen there is not known nor do we read of a more wonderfull and horrible Earthquake then that which succeeded in the time of Tiberius Caesar with the which theâ—e were devoured and destroyed in one night twelve great Cities with their Inhabitants amongst the which were Apolina Ephesus Cesaria Philadelphia c. There is another thing both wonderfull and strange which confounds abates and pulls down the vanity and pride of man it is this nature produceth many small and weak Creatures which do often manage so fearce a Warre against Mankind that it makes them fly and forsake their own natural Country and places of abode which might seem to many to be a Fable if it were not backed with many grave true and Learned Historians which affirme it Eliano writes that in some part of Italy there was such multitudes of Rats which devoured the Roots of Trees and Herbs that they caused a mortall Famine in the Province where they were by reason whereof all the Country thereabouts was left destitute of People also because there was no remedy to be found against them Marcus Varron one of the most grave Latine Authors relates that there was in Spain a great Town situate and build upon a Sandie ground in the which there was an exceeding increase of Coneys which with their diging undermined the Town so that the Inhabitants were forced to go away and settle in another place for fear they and their Houses should have been entered in the vast beroes which those timorous Animalls had made the same Authors do write that in France there was a Village depopulated by reason of the multitude of Froges which bred therein In Africa hapned the like by Locusts Theophrastus makes mention of a Province in the which was left destitute of People caused by the multitudes of Caterpillers which bred in the Vinyards Plinie tells us of a Province on the confines of Ethiopia that the Ants Scorpions and other vermine banished the inhabitants A wonderfull number of flies caused the Megarenses in Greece to fly and forsake their Country and the Wasps did the like to those of Ephesus Anthenor writes that a vast quantity of Bees forced the Inhabitants of a Village from their dwellings and made Hives of their Houses What dost thou think now Courteous Reader of the great pride valour and vanity of men what little cause they have to be so and what better School then this for man to learn consider and understand his own frailty his feeble and weak estate naturally but Oh how great and wonderfull are the secrets of our Omnipotent God how fearfull and terrible are his Judgements that when he seeth man raise up himselfe and steer his course contrary to his command and will he quickly represseth reproves and puts a bridle in his mouth a hook in his nostrils thereby to restraine and vanquish his foolish audacity and vicious wantonness not only by sending those his Messengers and Heralds or discovers of his irefull host which are Warre Famine and Pestilence but if man forgets himselfe and sleeps security in the bosome of his beloved iniquties then he sends his Armyes in full bodyes of Creatures both sencible and insencible the Elements Animalls and vermine all which do joine and rejoyce at their employment to be executioner of the Divine justice to ruinate obstinate and rebellious sinners as we have seen by strange examples out of Heathen Histories and from the Sacred Scriptures especially in those Plagues of Egypt when the Locusts and Frogs left their own naturall habitations to go up to the Chambers of King Pharaoh Hitherto we have drawn out at large mans Condition so that were not he made as of Iron or his Heart hardned like a Diamond considering the many miseries calamities and afflictions which do surround him that it seems impossible he should live out halfe his dayes but that he must stoop and fall under so great and without Gods gracious assistance insufferable loades of punishments anguishes sorrowes and tribulations and those without intermission yet for all these sadnesses and burdensome calamities man will not or hardly will be brought to the true knowledge of God to obey his will nor unfainedly to humble himselfe under his mighty Hand or with a willing mind to come under or take up the light yoak of his Creator for the which and not without desert God reprehends him by the Prophet that he hath a face of brass a necke of Iron and a heart of steel these gulfes of miseries in which men fall and are even choaked from their births to their deaths being misunderstood and mis-interpreted by Plato and Pliny caused them to chide against nature calling her a Usurer and a Step-mother to men because she exacts so great Intrests Cambioes and Recambios from the excellency and dignity which hath been lent them holding that any of the bruit Animals were more happy and received more favours from her then men but both the one and the other sure did little understand that under this denomination of nature they did blaspheme and foully charge the just and true God of cruelty and injustice for all these evils and this wide Sea of miserys in which we see Mankind launched and tossed and with which we publickly declare him to be subjected and laden doth not proceed from a hatred or ill will that God hath against mortalls but our own proper malignity and wickednesse of will are the cause thereof for when man would aspire to equalize himselfe with his Maker he then lost his ancient and inherent Nobility and Dignity he bloted out that sacred effigies and Image of God which was stamped in him and changed it to that of the divel it hapned to him as the Royal Prophet David speakes man was in honour but he was so bestial that he knew not how to preserve himselfe in that estate for the which he is compared to the beasts that perish from which we may easily gather that the pride haughtiness and hardnesse of the first man were the sword with which all Mankind born or to be born were are and shall be wounded for if our first Father Adam had not been ambitious of knowledge more then he ought we had all been innocent like the Angels of God covered with Honour and Glory even as those shall be hereafter that lead holy lives in this World But there is no ground for us to dwell any longer upon the infermities and afflictions of the outward man which are familiar dependent and incident to the bodies of men but these calamities are but for a short time and are nothing in comparison of those of the Soul which are far more dangerous then the others that this is truth is manifest as Plutarch expresses for the
not be granted being a publike ornament to the City and more valued by them then he was able to give for it at the which the youth being vexed he commanded a rich Crown of Gold and costly Vestments to be made carrying it to the Image he put the Crown upon the head and the rich robes about the Body of it with the which ornaments it appeared to him far more beautifull which caused him to adore serve and with new inventions to wait upon it not desisting night nor day insomuch that the People being angred and offended at his foolish and unwonted Love The Governour strictly upon penalties commanded him not to come within a hundred Leagues of the said Statue The discontented Youth seeing himself deprived of what in this life he most desired he fell into such a passion that he slew himself not being able to suffer the torment for such is the force and power of this malady after that it once begins to take possession of the most sensible parts of the body by little and little it gains the chief Fortresse of man the heart so that its a difficult thing to be rid of it or cast it out except with life it self and it were better for many to end their dayes speedily rather then to suffer continual groans sighes tears and heavy torments as they doe That great Philosopher Apolonio Tianco being much importuned by a King of Babylon that he should declare or set forth the most cruel and insupportable torment that could be invented by the most secret Arts and Sciences of the Philosophers to punish a young gallant who he had taken in Bed with a Lady of his which he himself had a great respect for Answered the greatest affliction thou canst lay upon him in this life is not to take away his life I can saith he invent no greater or more cruel Chastisement than this You shal see how by degrees the feirce burning fire of his commenced and once enjoyed Love will be predominant over him so that the torment which he shall suffer will be so great that it cannot be imagined and expressed he shall be combated and surrounded with so many various Imaginations that you shall see him consume in the flames of his own lustfull Frensie like as a Butter-flye doth his wings in a Candle insomuch that his life shall be no more a life but a lingering death more cruel than any bloody Tyrant can command of any Hangman to execute Here you may see the summe of all for I have endeavoured to spread the wings of my Pen suffer it to soare and wander in this Theam which is such a general destruction and proves to be so great a dammage to the major part of the youth of our times who no sooner set footing into the world and begin to taste the delights thereof but they conceit themselves in love and beloved being ayded and assisted of youth liberty and riches which are the cheifest panders on the earth they Commence batchellers of the Art spending the best part of their lives in Loves frivolous toys commands and occupations Old Age. Now after all this wide and spacious sea of miseries and tempestious waves of trouble in the which man is continually sayling and rowing with exceeding danger of his destruction and when most need is of quiet repose then old age steals upon him he feels the smart of his old sores his former griefs become renewed the sins of his youth come home to him here he comes to pay the charges intersts dammages and imparements of all the wanton excesses of his youth all the past vices and pleasant viands devoured are cast up then for the heart is afflicted the senses grow dull the spirit is infirme the breath smells the face wrinckles the body bends the nose drops the fight grows weak and dimn the haire sheds the teeth Rot and in conclusion they are never without one malady or other so that their body seems to be an Effigies of death or like a dry Anotomy This one besides the many infirmityes of the soule which do accompany old age he is soon angry but hard to be pacified he will soon believe a thing or is credulous but doth not quickly forget he praises the former but contemns the present times and condition of things he walks continually sad infirm melancholy averitious suspitious and complaining in fine old Age is the necessary Sink or dunghill where all the filthy infirmities and iniquities of the past age is emptied and cast out the Emperor Augustus having well weighed and considered all this was wont to say that after men had lived fifty yeares it were fit they should then dye or desire and intreat others to kill them and end their sinfull and miserable lives for so long they may attain to live happy honorably but all the rest of their lives they passe in perpetual afflictions grievous and insupportable infirmities death of Children losses in Estates importunities of Sons and Daughters in Law interring of friends and acquaintance maintaining of Law-Sutes paying of Debts and an infinite number of other sorrowes and troubles that they were better to be at quiet in their graves then to enjoy this fraile life for so short a space and so full of sorrows this the Prophet well understood when he prayed to God so earnestly Lord leave me not in my old age when thou shalt see me Aged Infirme and Weak Hitherto we have in my opinion largely and sufficiently discoursed of the miseries anguishes and afflictions which do besiege persecute and torment man whilst he is acting his tragick part on the Treatre of this World but well may we believe one thing and that without scruple that if the first entrance which man makes into this vaile of Teares seems wonderfull miserable difficult and dangerous no less will appear his end and parting for if thou hast heard of strange and miraculous births if thou wilt thou mayst read of more horrid deaths with the which I shall put a period to this narration of all the infelicities calamities miseries of mans life after that man hath labored sighed toyled himself nights and days to beare to a good harbour the fardle of his unfortunate calamnities it might seem reason that nature should give him some repose and quiet Let him eat one morsell of bread in peace but it is ordained it should not be so but that he should be always watchfull and with dread expect the dolefull parting of the soul and body that terrible houre of death which for the most part is with anguishes and incredible torments at the which St. Augustine admiring he frames a complaint to God Lord after man hath suffered so many evils and sustained so many afflictions death follows which suddenly snatcheth poore Creatures and that by divers strange and infinite ways some with grievous Feavers others with some great pains some with hunger others with thirst some in the fire others in the water how
Traders in this our Theatre of the World must set down a discharge of the corrupted sophisticated and depraved Wares sold with false measures and weights even to the satisfying the utmost farthing of any abuse or cheat here the Avaritious the Thieves the Usurors which have undone some destroyed some and Pil'd others must pay in the same coyne the dammages and evils which they have done at this day the mercenary Judges which corrupted violated or blinded the eyes of Justice shall vomit up the gifts and bribes for which they did it Here the Orphans and widdows shall put up their complaints with other afflicted persons declaring before Gods Judgment Seat the exceeding injustice done to them Then the time is come in the which the Shepherds and Prelates shall give an account of their flocks recommended to their charge of the true false good and bad doctrine with which they have fed them Oh what care ought men to have of taking charge to teach Gods people for God will have a strict account of his flock at that time the evil Shepherds will say but with sufficient grief of soule and trembling with terrible feare Behold those which we mocked scoffed little esteemed and continually reprehended esteeming them fools and infamous in their course of life see how God hath received them for sons giving them part amongst his Saints and holy ones this will be the houre saith St. Jerome in the which many Stammerers Dumb and Unlearned people may be more happy then the most Eloquent and Learned many Shepherds and Herdsmen may be preferred before great Phylosophers many poore beggers before rich Princes and great Lords many simple Rusticks before the subtle nice and delicate which being seriously pondred by St. Augustine said The foolish and senslesse robbed heaven whilst the wise with their Doctrine went to Hell Oh good Christians le ts open our eyes both of soule and body and walke with continual circumspection and care that we I mean every one of us in particular may not come at last to incurre that most terrible sentence that ever was pronounced or can be possible or immaginable to be Paralleld for in comparison of the evils and miseries which will certainly come to us thereupon all humane Calamities Vexations and afflictions which in this Treatice I have mentioned are delights pleasures and pastimes in respect thereof I mean that final sentence which is the end and dolefull conclusion of the Theatre of many a mans misery mentioned by Saint Mathew 25th Chapter saying Go ye cursed of my Father into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels before the foundations of the World was laid where they shal be tormented endles they shall desire and seek after death but shal not finde it death shall fly from them and their infirnall habitations from which good Lord deliver us Amen A short DISCOVRSE Of the Excellency and Dignity of MAN By Pedro Bouistau called Launay Translated out of French into Spanish by the Master Baltazar Peres del Castillo And lastly Translated out of Castillian into ENGLISH By Francis Farrer Merchant London Printed for Samuel Ferris and are to be sold at his shop at London-stone in Cannon-street 1663. TO THE Courteous Reader THe Author considering as I suppose that he had obligation to satisfie in some thing that Honour which in the foregoing Treatise many will object he had detracted from the Dignity of mankinde He composed this short discourse in the which he doth not onely satisfy what he never took but puts men into such a condition the which all ought to seek and strive to attaine Receive it therefore gentle Reader as thou wouldest any thing which thou esteemest or hast had experience of for in this short Tract is contained what Antiquity and what the present could honour or can admire in men Vale. The Theatre of the World AFter that God had with wonderfull providence and excellent knowledge Created the World which is the most exact setter forth of the Greatnesse Wisdome and Power of its Creator he placed man therein that he should be King Emperor and Lord overall that he had made in it that he contemplating the Excellency and greatnesse of the works might render Love Duty and Reverence to that great God who hath made all these things for his use onely to appeare gratefull for this high favour bestowed upon him by his Creator and that without desert which sets forth not only the magnificence of our God but declares his bounty and favour towards mankinde for above all creatures he would that the manner of his Creation and beginning should be different from all others that he had made that this is true no man of discretion can deny for to create the light give being to the Stars even the greatest and most excellent Creatures that those from which men doe receive most profit and outward refreshment which are the Sun the Moon and the seven Planets He onely said Let there be Light a Sun a Moon and immediately they appeared in their several sphears in the heavens in obedience to the command of their Creator with the like words he parted light from darknesse he enclosed the waters that covered the face of the Earth in one place his onely will and pleasure it was to set them bounds which they never did or ever shall passe without his command and pleasure finally his omnipotent power and holy will alone gives being to all that ever was or shall be under the cope of Heaven all Plants Trees Seeds and Animals enjoy life at his pleasure they shal live no longer than his divine bounty pleaseth but esteeming and affecting man more than all the works of his hands and resolving to imprint upon him with the pencil of his sacred wisdome an exact Effigies of his divine likenesse and that not without mature and deliberate counsell but he would create in another new manner the best and most excellent of all his Creatures here below saying Let us make man in our Image and likenesse that shall be lord of the Fishes of the Sea of the Birds of the Aire and of all the Creatures that move upon the face of the earth giving us with those words to understand the great Honour and Dignity which he gave to that little clod of clay which he had moulded with his own hands and that he would not any of the other creatures should equalize or compare with man If we proceed in this contemplation we shall finde one thing worth admiration in the manner of mans Creation and it is that to all the Animals of the Earth to all the Birds of the Heaven and to all the Fishes of the Sea he gave body and soule together when he created them which he did not to man that he might exalt him put him in the highest place of dignity honour here below He first created the body and after by his divine inspiration infused the Soule giving to understand that the Jewel
which he put in that Cabinet was not terrenal nor derived from any of the four Elements as many doting Phylosophers have imagined amongst the which some thought that the bloud was the Soule and their Reason was because it often departed by means of some wound and rupture of Veines or that it consumed away with some strong Feaver others were of opinion that it was fire for being gone the body which was warm and flexible waxeth cold and stiff others said that it was ayre for by breathing and gathering in ayre we live Asclepiades said That it was onely the exercising of the five senses Idiarco That it was but a Harmonious concord of the foure Elements Hipocrates understood that it was onely an Ayre or pure Spirit spreading throughout the whole body Amongst all these foolish opinions the greatest and most blasphemous was that of Crates the Thebane and his followers who held That there was no soule in the body but that it moved naturally of it self No lesse false was that of Cratipo who said That men were created and formed in the wombs of their Mothers as the Plants and Trees are in the wombe of the Earth Even that filthy gormandizing Epicurus failed not to declare his Invention That although the soule were not wholly corporal yet it dyed with the body These are such rotten false opinions or arrows no better can be expected out of the Quiver of the Devill who is the father of all lies and deceipts that are who blinded the eyes of these and other vain glorious men desirous to be esteemed wife and great inventors of new and difficult things these he hath cunningly led on with subtil and false suggestions that with the subtilty of their reasons and faire speeches they might cover many other and worse lyes to purchase from men a feare a reverence and esteem as if they had been Auditors or Presidents with reverence be it spoken of the Counsel of God For like such they treated of his most secret misteries as if at the time of the Creation of the world they had assisted at mans Creation and thereto had been called to be assistants Counsellors and Overseers of his works But we that are Christians and have been in several schooles better taught ought not to contemplate nor suffer our thoughts to wander upon such vanities falsities and lies but firmly believe that when our Lord and God Created man of Clay he inspired into him the spirit of Life and man became a living soul It is not to be understood that this inspiration was a blast that proceeded out of the mouth of God and entered into the mouth of man for God is simple and without composition or compound matter he hath no figure member or forme so the soule that God infused into man is a Spirit adorned with reason and divine understanding as Moses in Geneses writes God first made the body and after infused the soule to give us to understand that the soule doth not participate nor hath any naturall being or affinity with the body which is made of the earth onely for its habitation so long as it shall please the most high God and till he shall command or give licence to it to return â—o its first lodging from whence it came like the Souldiers of an Emperour King or Prince that are upon duty which cannot returne to their houses till they have leave not without cause did God Create man of two natures so different the one from Heaven and the other from earth it is humbly conceived he did it because if man should wax proud grow high minded or set too high esteem of himself he might contemplating the lowlinesse and basenesse of his Corporal being which is nothing else but a little rotten earth ashes or dust abase himself prostrate his flourishing Plumes disown depresse and lay aside his foolish and vain imaginations Now if man comparing himself with other creatures and considering his weak and fraile condition should thereupon murmer against God and speak evill of his Creator let him contemplate the dignity of his immortal soule he will suddenly be rapt up as in an extasie like Saint Paul with an earnest desire to be in heaven to attain a more perfect knowledge of his Creator and perpetually to enjoy him Onely this contemplation would I recommend to those which shall read this short discourse Which is the excellency and dignity of the soule and its faculties of which many Authors both Antient and Modern have written much and to the purpose amongst them Lactantius Firmianus in Latine Gregorie Niceno in Greek and Bartholmew Facio in French against the new opinions of many But above all the Writings of I heodoritus Bishop of Syria Of the nature of man Translated out of Greek into French by Pedro Roldan which have been in great esteem with all that have perused them and indeed they are worthy of perpetual memory for which cause I shall not stay long to make a large volume of this matter but rather I shall strive to be short or compendious herein that I may take off somthing of that ill savour which I seemed to have left in the precedent discourse of the miseries of mankinde which perhaps may have appeared very rough sharpe and rigorous and for it I may be accounted a cruel feirce and austere judge of the works of God Therefore I shall with as much gentlenesse as I can discover here somthing of the excellency dignity of man that all people may understand my opinion in this case and how much I esteem of his dignity and worth for the foregoing discourse which I wrot against him it was rather to put a bridle to some vices with the which I saw most men possessed then to derogate from his honour There is nothing more certain and confirmed for a truth then what I shall now declare that the greatnesse and worth of the soule of man is more excellent then all that is contained in other creatures it s of more pure substance then both the heavens or the earth setting aside the hope it enjoyeth by the resplendent light of christianity which is an eternall and future hapinesse of so much value worth and esteem that though all the men in the world should joyne together to extoll and set it forth they are not able to declare or conceive the half of what is prepared for those happy souls that shall by saith and good works enter thereinto What greater or better testimony can I or any desire to prove the excellency and dignity of man then to see the exceeding love that God beareth towards him who descended to the earth and clothed himself with his humane nature and livery and became a mortall Man who is the immortal God and not contenting himself with this In signe of his greater affection to man who by sin had lost that stampe that divine likenesse with which he was created defiling it with multitudes of iniquities and vices he gives
and delectablenesse discourseth of heaven of earth of the foure Elements Of all that is in them and created of them its true it cannot well form words without the Gums or Teeth which may in part be seen in Children which speak not till they have Teeth and in old men who stammer that one can hardly understand their words after they have lost their teeth they become like Children in speech Beard Moreover nature hath adorned and decked the head of man as Lactantius Firminius saith with a comely Beard to distinguish man from woman to set forth mans age and to be an ornament to him Eares The Eares also were not made in vain nor fixed in so high and eminent a place to no purpose but to receive more clearly the sound of voyces c. which naturally doe ascend in the Ayre they are continually open and ready to receive the voice or found by those wreathed creeks and in those secret corners is the hearing retained and kept nature also ordained that there should be wax and filth at the entrance of those Caverns that if any smal creature should presume to enter or doe any detriment to the bearing which is the most excellent of all the five sences should be made a Prisoner there till it dye It s but brief what hath been spoken of the several parts of mans principal member the Head much more might be related thereupon especially if we should at large consider those parts joyned together and in them two wonderfull things the first is that amongst infinite multitudes of people that are living you shall not finde two so exactly one like another as that there shall not be some distinction betwixt them and this difference consists onely in a thing of so smal circumference as the Face so that none or very few are to be found amongst so many millions that have one and the same kinde of tokens or signes of similitude The second thing that Nature made placed and set forth in so little a compass as the face in which is shewed all the rest of her Arts is that she hath endowed some vissages with such an excellent and supernatural beauty that oftentimes man himself to possesse enjoy and partake thereof puts himself in hazard of a thousand deaths layes his life at stake and if he chance to dispaire thereof he will sacrifice his honour his life desires to dye loose and forego all his estate to prosecute and obtain his desire and sometimes forced transported and deceived by his own immagination he looseth his sences for this thing called beauty in testimony of which I could nominate here many illustrious persons in all ages that aspired to robb or spoyle heaven of the choycest of its glorious beauty to extoll flourish and mask over the spacious fields of the earth thereby to immortalize themselves and their works onely invoking this beauty as if that alone were the Star and guide that should lead them to obtain perpetual blisse fame and glory the beams that do issue forth from some faire and glistering faces are of so much force and vigour that they do overcome the inward intellectualls as suddenly as lightning over powering and taking possession of the greater and better part of the soul and makes the poore distressed and afflicted lover to feel its great force and power with contemplation and admiration with which they do deliver up their wills and affections to the thing esteemed and affected Making themselves of Lords and Masters Servants of Freemen slaves of joyfull jocund and impassionate most patient Martyrs of love and most obedient sufferers of such cruel and bitter torments and pains that none can believe them but such as have felt their smart If their affections be sincere they doe not content themselves thus far to have gone but they would willingly if they could transform their own nature into that beauty which they so much admire and adore also we finde another great and marvelous rariety in the face which though it be not a Foot in magnitude we may see or come to know by the different changes thereof not onely the natural conditions of men whether they are sad or merry melancholly or sociable but the affections of the soule whether they are cowards valiant fearful merciful cruel amorous or free from love whether they are possessed with hope or dispair be in health or infirm alive or dead and an infinite number of inclinations affections and desires of the soule and body for which cause that great Priest King and Phylosopher Hermes Trismagistus after he had wearied and perplexed himself with the profound contemplation of the wonderfull make of man cryed out with a loud voice where is that most excellent Former or Producer of this so glorious a work who is he that so well knew how to set forth in such lively Colours so admirable a picture Who drew the portracture of those so beautifull eyes resplendent lights of the whole body and bright speculators of the soule who spread the lips as curtains to the mouth Who so excellently knit the sinnews together Who interwove and mixed so many veins which are as so many little brooks by the which the bloud is conveyed thereby sustaines strengthens and refreshes with its humidity and substance the whole body Who made the bones so hard and strong Who engrafted joynted and fixed them as if they were Sentinels or Halberdiers to keep within compasse the thoughts when they would swell and aspire run out of order and measure and to harden themselves against Reason and moderation Who covered the flesh with so soft and delicate a skin Who distinguished and parted the fingers with their several joynts Who stretched forth the feet in so sit a proportion causing them to serve as a foundation to the whole body Who so closely pressed the milt together Who gave that Piramidel shape to the heart Who wove so many nets and roots in and about the Liver Who made the passages and holes in the lungs Who ordained so large a roome for the Belly with such a spacious capacity Who put the most honourable Members in the most eminent places to be exposed to the view of all reparted the most unworthy members and dishonorable in stations more private where the covering should add valew and repute to them Contemplate saith Hermes how many and what exact pieces were formed to make up so perfect a creature What proportionable beauty there is in each member with what curiosity and art so many different proportions are fitted and put together each observing its service its office and all procuring the benefit of the whole Who thinkest thou made finished such famous works Who doest thou hold for Father and inventor of them or who the Mother producer and projector but the invisible omnicient and most omnipotent God Hitherto we have spoken enough Phylosophically of the Essence Magnificence and dignity of man Therefore now it will be reason that we spend a
corruptible mortall but if man knowing himself to be a captive a slave and subject to such and so many vexations considering himself so miserable sorrowfull and afflicted is so boasting and hauty What would he doe if he were immortal impassible and incorruptible I without any misery or sorrow and all things succeeded to him as he could wish or desire For this cause God with a mighty hand subjected him to miseries and afflictions yet for all hitherto he hath kept and ever hereafter will maintain in this mortall weak and frail vessel of earth so sweet an according harmony conformity and unity that its impossible to imagine any thing so beautifull exact and compleat But to be brief I will expresse in few words what I have declared in many to place man in his last greatest and highest perfection and set him forth with the most exquisite praises that we can therefore le ts consider him in that perfect estate and condition in the which he was created and we shall finde man alone to be the work which God made to shew his great magnificence wisdom and power the immensity of his knowledge and the infinitenesse of his bounty But if we contemplate him in the estate of general corruption which Adam left us as a legitimate inheritance a spot farr worse then that of oyle which is continually shed upon all his posterity we shall finde it very foule monstruously unclean low filthy and deformed subject to a thousand miseries banished from all good maimed foolish inconstant a hypocrite and in conclusion instead of King and absolute Lord as he was of all the creatures a slave and a servant of sin with which he was conceived and borne But if at last we seriously contemplate and consider him renowned by the vertue power of the word of Almighty God we shall finde him not only reestated reinthroned in those pristine graces and dignities which he at first enjoyed but much more exalted in harmony might preferment for where there is the greatest abundance of sins there if a true strength of contrition is found the most full and overflowing current of grace mercy and favour of our God to wash away the spots blemishes and deformities made by sin and to renew the creature as St. Ambrose expresses at large in his book of the Vocation of the Nations chap. 3. and St. Austin in his Book of Grace and Correction chap. 10. We all of us ought as Plato saith seriously considering and acknowledging the multitude of mercies God hath bestowed upon us to blesse praise magnify and give him thanks that we were borne men and not beasts and although in this mortall fragil perishable life we may meet with many thornes prickles and afflictions which we cannot so easily digest as we ought besides those civill Warrs waged betwixt the soul and the body in which it lies shakled as in a prison or buried as in a Sepulcher yet that he is pleased to give us grace alwayes to be striving labouring and endeavouring and that with unwearied afflictions to run that Race to walk in that Path which leads us to the holy City of our God that heavenly Jerusalem where there is no hunger or thirst no colds or heats there we shall be free from all the evills miseries and calamities which in this world do attend us yet it s certain walking in this valey of sorrows sailing in this frail body as in a ship made on purpose to transport the soule to that haven of quietnesse rest and happinesse while she stayes here she must trip stumble fall rise and fall again such is the variablenesse of our being in this life nay rather the mutability of this shaddow of life But once arriving into that harbour where all safety dwels and unto which all hope to attain that is to a finall perfection she shall be immortal and impossible ful of those flourishing joyes which shal never fade or wither away full of perpetual peace rest and glory enjoying that Antient and Original degree of Dignity and Honour which her malicious and cursed enemy the Devil would have deprived her off Unto the which felicity and eternal happiness bring and conduct us He who with the Father and the holy Spirit of Grace liveth and Reigneth ever one God world without end Amen