the soul And if two Pilgrims which have wandred some few miles together have a hearts-grief when they are neer to part what must the sorrow be at the parting of two so loving Friends and never-loathing Lovers as are the Body and Soul Death is the violent estranger of acquaintance the eternal Divorcer of Mariage the Ravisher of the children from the Parenâ—s the Sâ—ealer of Parents from their children the interrâ—r oâ— Fame the sole cause of forgetfulnesse by which the living talk of those gone away as oâ— so many Shadowes or age-worn Stories all strength by it is enseebled Beauty tuâ—ned into deformity and rotâ—enness honour in contempt Gloâ—y into basenesse It is the reasonless breaker off of all Actiâ—ns by which we enjoy no more the sweet pleasures of Earth nor gaze upon the stately revolutions of the Heavens Sunne perpetually setteth Stars never rise unto us It in one moment robbeâ—h us of what with so great toyl and care in many years we have heaped together By this are Successions of Linages cut short kingdomes left heirless and greatest States orphaned it is not overcome by Pride â—mothered by Flattery diverted by time Wisedome save this can prevent and help every thing By death we are exiled from this fair City of the World it is no more a World unto us nor we no more a people unto it The ruines of Phanes Palaces and other magnificent Frames yâ—eld a sad prospect to the soul and how should it without horrour view the wrack of such a wounderful Master-piece as is the body That death naturally is terrible and to be abhorred it can not well and altogether be denyed it being a privation of life and a not-being and every privation being abhorred of nature and evil in it self the fear of it too being ingenerate universally in all Creatures yet I have often thought that even naturally to a mind by onely nature resolved and prepaâ—ed it is more terrible in conceit than in verity and at the first Glance than when well pryed into and that rather by the weakness of our fantasie than by what is in it and that the marble colours of Obsequies Weeping and funeral pomp which we our selves castover did add much more ghastâ—inesse unto it than otherwaies it hath To aver which conclusion when I had gatherd my wandring thoughts I began thus with my self If on the great Theatre of this Earth amongst the numberless number of men To dy were onely proper to thee and thine then und â—ubtedly thou hadst reason to repine at so severe and partial a Law but since it is a necessity from the which never an age by-past hath been exempted and unto which they which be and so many as are to come are thralled no consequent of life being more common and familiar why shouldst it thou with unprofitable and nought availing stubbornness oppose to so unevitable and necessary a Condition this is the high-way of Mortality our general home behold what millions have trode it before thee what multitudes shall after thee with them which at that same instant run In so universal a calamity if Death be one private complaints cannot be heard with so many Royal Palaces it is no loss to see thy poor Câ—ban burn Shall the heavens stay their ever-roling wheels for what is the motion of them but the motion of a swift and ever whirling wheel which twineth forth and again uprolleth our life and hold still time to prolong thy miserable daies as if the highest of their working were to do homage unto thee thy death is a peice of the Order of this All a part of the Life of this world for while the World is the World some Creatures must dy and others take life Eternal things are raised far above this Sphere of Generation and Corruption where the first Matter like an ever flowing and ebbing Sea with divers waves but the same water keepeth a restless and never tyring current what is below in the universality of the kind not in it self doth abide Man a long line of years hath continued This man every hundred is swept away This Globe environed with air is the sole Region of death the Grave where every thing that taketh life must rott the Stage of Fortune and Change onely glorious in the unconstancy and varying alterations of it which though many seem yet to abide one and being a certain entire one are ever many The never agreeing bodies of the Elemental Brethren turn one in another the Earth changeth her countenance with the seasons sometimes looking cold and naked other times hot and flowry Nay I cannot tell how but even the lowest of those Celestial bodies that mother of moneths and Empress of Seas and moisture as if she were a Mirrour of our constant mutability appeareth by her too great neerness unto us to participate of our changes never seeing us twice with that same face now looking black then pale and wan sometimes again in the perfection and fulnesse of her beauty shining over us Death no lesse than life doth here act a part the taking away of what is old being the making away for what is young They which forewent us did leave a Room for us and should we grieve to do the same to those which should come after us who being suffered to see the exquisite rarities of an Antiquaries Cabinet is grieved that the curtain he drawn and to give place to new pilgrims and when the Lord of this Universe hath shewed us the amazing wonders of his various frame should we take it to heart when he thinketh time to dislodge this is his unalterable and unevitable Decree as we had no part of our will in our entrance into this lâ—iâ—e we should not presume of any in our leaving it but soberly learn to will that which he wills whose very will giveth being to all that it wills and reverencing the Orderer not repine at the Order and Laws which al-where and allwaies are so perfectly established that who would essay to correct and amend any of them should either make them worse or desire things beyond the level of possibility If thou doest complain that there shall be a time in the which thou shalt not be why dost thou not too grieve that there was a time in the which thou waste not and so that thou art not as old as that enlifening Planet of time for not to have been a thousand years before this moment is as much to be deplored as not to live a thousand after it the effect of them both being one that will be after us which long long before we were was Ous Childrens children have that same reason to murmur that they were not young men in our daies which we have to complain that we shall not be old in theirs The Violets have their time though they impurple not the Winter and the Roses keep their season though they disclose not their beauty in the Spring Empires States Kingdomes have by the doom
actions to all men which they cannot go beyond Most then answered I Death is not such an evil and pain as it is of the Vulgar esteemed Death said he nor painful is nor evil except in contemplation of the cause being of it self as indifferent as birth yet can it not be denyed and amidst those dreams of earthly pleasures the uncouthnesse of it with the wrong apprehension of what is unknown in it are noysom But the Soul sustained by its Maker resolved and calmly retired in it self doth find that death sith it is in a moment of Time is but a short nay sweet sigh and is not worthy the remembrance compared with the smallest dramm of the infinite Felicity of this Place Here is the Palace Royal of the Almighty King in which the uncomprehensible comprehensibly manifesteth Himself in place highest in substance not subject to any corruption or change for it is above all motion and solid turneth not in quantity greatest for if one Starre one Sphere be so vast how large how huge in exceeding demensions must those bounds be which do them all contain In quality most pure and orient Heaven here is all but a Sunne or the Sunne all but a Heaven If to Earthlings the Foot-stool of God and that Stage which he raised for a small course of Time seemeth so glorious and magnificent What estimation would they make if they could see of his eternal Habitation and Throne and if these be so wonderful what is the fight of him for whom and by whom all was created of whose Glory to behold the thousand thousand part the most pure Intelligencies are fully satiate and with wonder and delight rest amazed for the beauty of his light and the light of His beauty are uncomprehensible Here doth that earnest appetite of the understanding content it self not seeking to know any more For it seeth before it in the vision of the Divine essence a Miroir in the which not Images or shadows but the true and perfect essence of every thing created is more clear and conspicuous than in it self all that may be known or understood Here doth the Will pause it self as in the center of its Eternal rest glowing with a fiery affection of that infinite and al-sufficient good which being fully known cannot for the infinite motives and causes of love which are in him but be fully and perfectly loved As he is onely the true and essential Bounty so is he the onely essential and true beauty deserving alone all Love and Admiration by which the Creatures are onely in so much fair and excellent as they parâ—icipate of his Beauty and excelling Excellencies Here is a blessed Company every one joying as much in anothers Felicity as in that which is proper because each seeeth another equaly loved of God thus their distinct joyes are no fewer than the copartners of the Joy And as the Assembly is in number answerable to the large capacity of the place so are the joyes answerable to the numberlesse number of the Assembly No poor and piâ—tiful mortal confined on the Globe of Earth who hath never seen buâ— soâ—row or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures can righly think on or be sufficient to conceive the termless delights of this place So many Feathers move not on Birds so many Birds dint not the Air so many leaves tremble not on Trees so many Trees grow not in the solitary Forests so many waves turn not in the Ocean and so many grains of Sand limit not those Waves as this triumphant Court hath variety of delights and Joies exempâ—ed from all comparison Happiness at once here is â—ully known and fully enjoyed and as infinite in conâ—inuance as extent Here is flourishing and never-fading youth without Age Strength without Weaknesse Beauty never blasting Knowledge without Learning Abundance without Loathing Peace without Disturbance Participâ—tion without Envy Rest without Labour Light without rifing or setting Sunne Perpetuity without moments for Time which is the measure of Endurance did never enter in this shining Eternity Ambition Disdain Malice Difference of Opinions cannot approach this place and resembling those foggy Mists which cover those Lists of Sublunary things All pleasure paragon'd with what is here is pain all Mirth mourning all Beauty deformity Here one daies abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the Earth many years and sufficient to countervail the extreamest torments of Life But although this bliss of Souls be great and their joies many yet shal they admit addition and bee more ful and perfect at that long wished and general meeting with their bodies Amongst all the wonders of the great Creator not one appeareth to be more wounderful replied I than that our Bodies should arise having suffered so many changes and nature denying a return from privation to a Habit. Such power said he being above all that the Understanding of Man can conceave may well work such wonders For if Mans Vnderstanding could comprehend all the secrets and counsels of that Eternal Majesty it must of necessity be equal unto it The Author of Nature is not thralled to the Lawes of Nature but worketh with them or contrary to them as it pleaseth him What he hath a will to do he hath a power to perform To that power which brought all this All from nought to bring again in one instant any substance which ever was into it unto what it was once should not be thought impossible for who can do more can do less and his power is no less after that which was by him brought forth is decaâ—ed and vanished than it was before it was produced being neither restrained to certain limits or instruments or to any determinate and definite manner of working where the power is without restraint the work admitteth no other limits than the Workers will This world is as a Cabinet to God in which the small things however to us hid and secret are nothing less kept than the great For as he was wife and powerful to creat so doth his knowledge comprehend his own Creation yea every change and varity in it of which it is the very Source Not any Atom of the scatter'd Dust of mankind though daily flowing under new forms is to him unknown and his knowledge doth distinguish and discern what once his power shall waken and raise up Why may not the Arts-Master of the world like a Molder what he hath framed in divers shapes confound in one mass and then severally fashion them out of the same Can the Spargirick by his Art restore for a space to the dry and withered Rose the natural purple and bluth and cannot the Almighty râ—ise and refine the body of man after never so many alterations on the Earth Reason her self finds it more possible for infinit power to cast out from it self a finit world and restore any thing in it though decaied and dissolved to what it was first than for man a finit piece of reasonable misery to change the form of matter made to his hand the power of God never brought forth all that it can for then were it bounded and no more infinit That time doth approach O hast ye times away in which the dead shall live and the living be changed and of all actions the Guerdon is at hand then shall there â—e an end without an end time shall finish and place shall be altered motion yielding unto rest and another world of an age eternal and unchangeable shall arise which when he had said me thought he vanished and I all astonished did awake To the Memory of the most Excellent Lady JANE Countess of PERTH THis Beauty which Pale death in dust did turn And clos'd so soon within a Coffin sad Did passe like Lightning like to T hunder burn So little Life so much of Worth it Had. Heavens bâ—t to shew their Might here made it shine And when admir'd then in the Worlds disdain O Tears O Grief did call it back again Lest Earth should vaâ—ut she kept what was Divine What can we hope for more What more enjoy Sith â—â—irest Things thus soonest have their End And as on Bodies shadowes do attend Sith all our blisse is follow'd with Annoy Yet she 's not dead she lives where she did love Her Memory on Earth Her soul above To S. W. A. THough I have twice been at the Doors of Death And twice found shut those Gates which ever mourn This but a lightning is Truce tane to Breath For late-born Sorrows augurre fteet return Amidst thy sacred Cares and Courtly toils Alexis when thou shalt hear wandring Famâ— Tell Death bath triumph'd o're my mortal spoils And that on Earth I am but a sad Name If thou e're held me clear by all our Love By all that Blisse those Ioyes Heaven here us gave I conjure thee and by the Maids of Jove To grave this short Remembrance on my Grave Here Damon lies whose Songs did somtime grace The murmuring Esk may roses shade the Place On the Report of the Death of the Author Iâ— that were true which whispered is by Fame That Damons light no more on Earth doth burn His Part on Phoebus physick would disclaim And cloth'd in clouds as erst for Phâ—eton mourn Yea Fame by this had got so deep a wound That scarce She could have power to tell his death Her Wings cut short who could her Trumpet sound Whose blaze of late was nurs'd but by his Breath That Spirit of his which most with mine was free By mutual traffick enterchanging store If chac'd from him it would have come to me Where it so ost familiar was before Some secret Grief distempring first my Mind Had though not knowing made me feel this losse A Sympathy had so our Souls combind That such a parting both at once would tosse Though such Reports to others terrour give Thy Heavenly Virtnes who did never spy I know thou that canst make the dead to live Immortal art and needs not fear to dye Sir WILL. ALEXANDER FINIS
long ere now have satisfyed his ambiâ—ion and at more easie rate when the King his father with most of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland receiv'd that fatal overthrow by the Hills of Flowden and Banks of Till the refusing of an interview might divide the King and his Vncle upon which might follow some unnatural War Upon the other part the Church-men set all their Power to hinder this interview perswading themselves it would give a terrible blow to their Estates or Religion The principal cause say they why the King of England is so passionately earnest to have this meeting is to perswade his Nephew to conform Church-matters in Scotland to those already begun in England to abolish the Popes authority to drive Religious persons from their Lands Rents Houses invest the jewels and ornaments of the Churches Which counsel and example if King Iames should follow he would hazard or lose the friendship he had with the Pope Emperour and French King his best confederates abandoned of which he and his Kingdom would be left a Prey to the tyranny of his Uncle if Henry kept no faith to God Men had no reason to trust unto him That this Interview was to intrap his person He being the man whom the Pope and Emperour had designed to set upon his Throne and revenge their quarels That it was grosly to err to he carried away with a shadow and appearance and leave a Substance to trust at once his Crown person and liberty to an Enemy And sith examples move more than precepts let him think upon the hazard of King James the first eighteen years Prisoner and after sold to his Subjects Malcolm and William Kings of Scotland He should remember if yet he were therein to be instructed that Princes serve themselves with occasions over their Neighbours that they have greater care to satisfy their ambition than fear of shame for doing of wrongs with the present times or posterity That their Oaths were no longer kept than they observed their advantages That after he falleth in his hands he ought to follow his manners Religion forsaking and giving over his own natural disposition manners and freedom have no other affections nor motions than his For who commeth under the roof of a Tyrant turneth slave though he was a free man ere he did enter That this meeting with the body would endanger the Soul and infect it with his errours corrupting it with false opinions grounded upon a liberty to live to â—ensuality and Epicurean pleasure If upon the slighting of this Interview King Henry should denounce war against King Iames and invade his Countrey they in his just defence should furnish moneys to entertain an Army and overturn his proceedings For the present necessity they offer to pay to him fyfty thousand Crowns yearly and in any hazard of the Estate voluntarily to contribute all their rents and revenues providing it would please his Majesty to suffer justice to proceed against those who scandalously had sequestred themselves from the holy Church and to the contempt of his Laws publiquely made profession of the opinioâ—s of Luther That the goods of all who should be convict of Heresie which they esteemed to no less than an hundred thousand Crowns of yearly Rent should be brought to the Exchequer and their lands annext to the Crown To this effect they intreat his Majesty to give them sufficient Judges truly Catholick and full of zeal and severity After long reasoning upon both sides it was agreed the King should not altogether refuse to meet his Vncle but adhere to the first to offer propunded to this Embâ—ssador concerning this Inter-view The meeting to be at New castle one thousand at the most in train with either King the time to be the Feast of St. Michael the Arch-Angel These Conditions not being embraced by King Henry would if not abolish totally at the least prolong the time of this meeting the King of England thinketh his Nephew too imperious to assume the Injunction of the whole circumstances of their meeting but rather than his suit should take no effect accepteth both of the Place and number of the Train and that the might have some point yeelded unto him requireth the time may be the first of August These Conditions being almost agreed upon three or four hundreth Riddesdale and Tinedale men with other Borderers break upon Liddesdale and therewith large incursions kill and forrage This during the Treaty falling miserably forth so much irritated King Iames that accepting the offers of his Clergy he gave over inwardly all intentions of any inter-view By prolonging time labouring to winde himself out of the Maze Hereupon he sendeth Letters full of excuses for his stay representing his many grievances and wrongs suffer'd and the seeds of discord began now to be sowen amongst them To lightâ—n and recreate his cloudy thoughts the Queen is delivered at Sterlin of another Son who with great solemnity is baptized in the Chappel of the Castle and named Arthur The Prelates after mature deliberation present Sir Iames Hamiltoun natural Son to the Earl of Arran to be supream Judge of the Inquisition against all suspect of Heresie and new opinions differing from the Faith of the Roman Church The King approving their judgements in their choice admitteth him Sir Iawes chearfully accepteth this new honour For now his ambition will find many guilty miserable supplicants Yet was this charge his ruin For whilst he persecuteth all who were informed against to be suspect of the Reform'd Religion having many in Jayls and numbers in his Scrâ—les to bring within the Labyrinth of a Process the supream Providence arresteth himself Iames Hamiltoun Sherif of Linlythgow Brother to Master Patrick Hamiltoun Abbot of Ferme who had suffered for Religion and was cousin to Sir Iames Hammiltoun of Fennard Lord Inquisitor for embracing his Brothers opinions had been persued so by the Church-men that he was constrain'd to forsake his own Countrey and some yeers wander as a banisht man abroad But by his friends at Court having purchased a License or Protection for some moneths to see his desolate Family and put his private Affairs in order cometh home Where finding the censorian Power to be in his cousins hands for where should he have Sanctuary if he were challenged by so neer a Kinsman for matters of Religion imagining to himself an over-sight and preterition out-dateth by his stay his Protection Sir Iames to curry the favour of the Church-men and testifie how dearly the cause of the Catholike Faith touched him resolveth to begin with his Cousin For if he were so burnt up with zeal that he spar'd not his own blood in the quarrell of the Roman Faith what Heretick could pass unpunisht Besides the investing himself in the Sherifs Office and Lands which he never minded to restore he had a Picque against him for that whilst he sate Judge in Lithgow he pronounced a sentence by which he was interested in some petty gain The
Prior of Crato who claimed the Crown of Portugal to reclaim whose Kingdome She sent the Earl of Essex and Drake or should marry one of them to their neerest Kinswomen and send him armed with power to claim his Title to the Crown of Scotland as King Iames the fourth of Scotland practised upon Perkin Warbeck naming himself Richard Duke of York to whom he gave in marriage Lady Katharine Gordoun Daughter to the Earl of Huntley and thereafter with all his forces to estable his said Ally in his Title invaded England It would be considered whether they had a fair bridge to come over to this Isle It would likewife be considered if the Earl of Strathern though a mean Subject these two hundred years having been debarred from all title to the Crown and now by the indulgency and exceeding favour of the Prince being restored to his descent in bloud and served Heir to his great Progenitors and indirectly as by appendices to the Crown if either out of displeasure or for want of means to mainâ—tain their estates he or his should sell and dispose their Rights and Titles of the Kingdom of Scotland to some mighty and Foreign Prince such as is perhaps this day the King of Sweden who wanteth nothing but a title to invade a Kingdom not knowing whither to discharge his victorions forces It would be considered if that title disposed to that Priuce were sufficient to make him King of Scotland Or if establiâ—hing his right upon fair conditions such as is liberty of conscience absolution and freedom from all taxes and subsidies the transferring of Ward lands into fewd the people of Scotland might give him their Oath of Alleagiance or if he might redact the King of Scotland to give him satisfaction and compound for his right of the Crown of Scotland It would to these be considered If times should turn away the minds of Subjects from their Prince by superstition sedition and absolute Rebellion as what may not befall an inconstant ever wavering Nation to an Aristocratie Oligarchy Democratie or absolute Anarchy If the Rebellious subjects and abused Populace might not make advantage of such Men who draw their titles from Evanders mother to trouble the present times That nothing could be more dangerous to the Nobleman himself than this service may be understood by the like examples Clouis King of France having understood that a Nobleman of Artois named Canacare blown up by Power had vaunted that he was come and lineally descended from Clodion le Chevelu and by that same Succession was heir of the Crown of â—rance closed not his ears to it saies the History but caused extirpate that Sower of impostures and all his Race Henry the fourth King of England after the deposure of King Richard the second kept Edmond Mortimer Earl of March who had a just title to the Crown under such Keepers that he could never do nor attempt any thing till he dyed But Henry the seventh King of England took away Edward Plantaginet Duke of Warwick Heir to George Duke of Clarence by reason of his jealousie of Succession to his Uncle Edward the fourth Margarite Plantaginet his sole Daughter married to Sir Richard Pole knight by Henry the eight restored to the Earldom of Salisbury was attainted threescore and two years after her Father had suffered and was in the Tower of London beheaded in whose person dyed the surname of Plantaginet Anne Plantaginet Daughter to Edward the fourth being marryed to Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norâ—olk was the ground and chief cause wherefore King Henry the eight cut off the head of Henry Earl of Snrrey though the pretended cause whereon he was arraigned was the bearing certain arms of the house of York which only belonged to the King Mary Queen of England cut off the head of Lady Iâ—â—e Gray and the Lord Guilford her Husband for their title to the Crown and that same reason was the overthrow and finall destruction of Mary Queen of Scotland by Queen Elizabeth The Duke of Guise by a Genealogy deduced from Charles the Great in the raign of Henry the third the French King was thought to aspire to the Crown of France and suffered at last for this and his other presumptions It is notoriously known that these two hundred years the Race of Euphane Ross in her children David Earl of Strathern and Walter Earl of Athole and all their Succâ—ssion by all the Kings of Scotland sithence have been ever suppressd and kept under and for reason of State should still be kept low and under unless a Prince would for greater reason of State aduance them to give them a more horrible blow and by suborning mercinary men make them aim above their reach to their last extirpation Dum nesciunt distinguere inter flamma praecipitia Princeps quem persequitur honorat extollit in altum An intended Speech at the West Gate of Edenburgh to King JAMES SIR IF Nature could suffer Rocks to move and abandon their natural places this Town founded on the strength of Rocks now by the chearing Rayes of your Majesties presence taking not only motion but life had with her Castle Temples and Houses moved towards you and besought you to acknowledge her yours and her indwellers your most humble and affectionate Subjects And to believe how many souls are within her circuits so many lives are devoted to your sacred person and Crown And here Sir She offers by me to the Altar of your glory whole Hecatombs of most happy desires praying all things may prove prosperous unto you that every Virtue and Heroick Grace which make a Prince eminent may with a long and blessed Goverment attend you Your Kingdomes flourishing abroad with Bays at home with Olives presenting you Sir who art the strong Key of this little World of Great Britain with those keys which cast up the Gates of her affection and design you power to open all the springs of the hearts of those her most Loyal Citizens Yet this almost not necessary For as the Rose at the fair appearing of the morning Sun displayeth and spreadeth her purpleâ— So at the very noise of your happy return to this your native Countrey their hearts if they could have shined through their brests were with joy and fair hopes made spatious Nor did they ever in all parts feel a more comfortable heat than the glory of your prefence at this time darteth upon them The old forget their age and look fresh and young at the appearance of so gracious a Prince the young bear a part in your Welcom desiring many years of life that they may serve you long all have more joies than tongues For as the words of other nations far go beyond and surpass the affection of their hearts So in this nation the affection of their hearts is far above all they can express by words Daign then Sir from the highest of Majesty to look down on their lowness and embrace it accept
Intelligence far above time and even reaching Eternity it self into which thou art transformed for by receiving thou beyoâ—d all other things art made that which thou receivest The more thou knowest the more apt thou art to know not being amated with any object that excelleth in predoâ—inance as sense by objects sensible Thy Will is uncompellable resisting force â—aunting Necessity despising Dâ—nger triumphing over affliction unmoved by pitty and not constrained by all the toyls and disasters of life What the Arts â—master of this Universe is in governing this Universe thou art in the body and as he is wholly in every part of it so art thou wholly in every part of the body By thee man is that Hymen of eâ—ernal and mortal things that chain together binding unbodied and bodily substances without which the goodly Fabrick of this World were unperfect Thou hast not thy beginning from the fecundity power nor action of the elemental qualities being an immediate master piece of that great Maker Hence hast thou the forms and figures of all things imprinted in thee from thy first Original Thou onely at once art capable of contraries of the three parts of time thou makest but one Thou knowest thy self so seperate absolute and diverse an essence from thy body that thou dispossessed of it as it pleaseth thee for in thee there is no passion so weak which mastereth not the fear of leaving it Thou shouldst be so far from repining at this separation that it should be the chief of thy desires â—ith it is the passage and means to attain thy perfection and happiness Thou art here but as an infected and leprous Inn plunged in a floud of humours oppressed with cares suppressed with ignorance defiled and destained with vice retrograde in the course of virtue small things seem here great unto thee and great things small folly appeareth wisdome and wisedome folly Freed of thy fleshly care thou shalt rightly discern the beauty of thy self and have perfect fruiâ—ion of that all-sufficient and all-sufficing Happinesse which is GOD himself to whom thou owest thy being to him thou owest thy wel being he and happinesse are the same For if GOD had not happinesse â—e were not GOD because Happinesse is the highest and greatest good If then GOD have happinesse it cannot bee a thing differing from him for if there were any thing in Him differing from him he should be an essence composed and not simple more what is differing in any thing is either an accident or a part of it self In GOD Happiness can not be an accident because he is not subject to any accidents if it were a part of Him since the part is before the whole we should be forced to grant that some thing was before God Bedded and bathed in these earthly ordures thou canst not come near this Soveraign Good nor have any glimpse of the afar-off dawning of his uncessable brightnesse no not so much as the eyes of the Birds of the Night have of the Sunne Think then by death that thy shell is broken and thou then but even haâ—ched that thou art a Pearl raised from thy Mother to be enchaced in Gold and that the death day of thy body is thy birth-day to Eternity Why shouldst thou be fear-stroken and discomâ—orted for thy parting from this mortal Bride thy body sith it is but for a time and such a time as shee shall not care for not feel any thing in nor thou have much need of her Nay sith thou shalt receive her again more goodly and beautiful than when in her fullest perfection thou enjoied her being by her absence made like unto that Indian Chrystal which after some revolutions of ages is turned into purest Diamond If the Soul be thee Form of the Body and the form separated from the Matter of it cannot ever so continue but is inclined and disposed to be reunited thereinto What can let and hinder this desire but that some time it be accomplished and obtaining the expected end rejoin it self again unto the Body The Soul separate hath a desire because it hath a will and knowes it shall by this re-union receive perfection too as the matter is disposed and inclineth to its form when it is without it so would it seem that the Form should be towards its matter in the absence of it How is not the Soul the form of the body sith by it it is and is the beginning and cause of all the actions and functions of it For though in excellency it passe every other form yet doth not that excellency take from it the nature of a form If the abiding of the Soul from the body be violent then can it not be everlasting but have a regress How is not such an estate of being and abiding not violent to the Soul if it be natural to it to be in matter and separate â—fter a strange manner many of the powers and faculâ—ies of it which never leave it are not duly exercised This Union feemeth not above the Horizon of natural Reason far less impossible to be done by God and though Reason câ—nnot evidently here demonstrate yet hath she a misty â—nd groping notice If the body shall not arise how can â—he onely and Soveraign Good be perfectly and infinitely good For how shall he be just nay have so much justice â—s Man if he suffer the evil and vicious to have a more proâ—perous and happy life than the followers of Religion and Virtue which ordinarily useth to fall â—orth in this life For 〈◊〉 most wicked are Lords and Gods of this Earth sleeping â—n the lee port of honour as if the spacious habitation oâ—â—he World had been made onely for them and the virtuous and good are but forlorn cast-awaies floting in the surges of distress seeming here either of the eye of providence not pittied or not regarded being subject to all dishonors wrongs wracks in their best estate passing away their daies like the Dazies in the field in silence and contempt Sith then he is most good most just of necessity therâ— must be appointed by him another time and place of retribution in the which there shall be a reward for living well and a punishment for doing evil with a life where into both shall receive their due and not onely in their Souls divested for sith both â—he parts of man did act a part in the right or wrong it carriâ—th great reason with it that they both be aâ—raigned bâ—fore that â—igh justice to râ—câ—ive their own Man is not a Soul onely but a Soul and body to which â—ither guerdon or punishment is due This seemeth to be thâ— voice of Nature in almost all the Religions of the world this is that general testimony charactered in the minds of the most barbarous and savage people for all have had some roviâ—g gesâ—es at ages to come and a dim duskish light of another life all appealing to one general Judgement Throne To what else couâ—d serve so
many expiations sacrificâ—s prayers solemnities and mystical Ceremonies To what such sumptuous Tâ—mples and care of the Dead to what all Religion If not to shew that they expected a more excellent mâ—nner of being after the navigation of this life did take aâ— end And who doth deny it must deny that there is a Providence a God confess that his worship and all study and reason of virtue are vain and not believ that there is a world are creatures and that He himself is not what He is As those Images were pourtraicted in my mind the morning Star now almost arising in the East I found my thoughts mild and quiet calm and not long after my fenses one by one forgetting their uses began to give themselves over to rest lâ—aving mein a still and peaceable sleep if sleep it may be called where the mind awaking is carryed with free wings from ouâ— flâ—shly bondage For heavy lids had not long covâ—red their lights when I thought nay sure I was wherâ— I might difcern all in this great All the large compass of the rolling Circles the brightness and continual motion of those Rubies of the Night which by their distance heâ—e below cannot be perceived the silver countenance of the wandring Moon shining by anothers light the hanging of the Earth as environed with a girdle of Chrystal the Sun enthronized in the midst of the Planets eye of the Heavens Gem of this precious Ring the World But whilst with wonder and amazement I gazed on those Celestial splendors and the beaming Lamps of that glorious Temple there was presented to my sight a Man as in the Spring of his years with that selfâ— same grace comely feature Majestick look which the late was wont to have on whom I had no sooner set mine eyes when like one Planet-stroken I become amazed But hee with a milde demeanour and voice surpassing all humane sweetnesse appeared me thought to say What is it doth thus anguish and trouble thee Is it the remembrance of Death the last Period of Wretchedness and entry to these happy places the Lantern which lightneth men to see the mystery of the blessednesse of Spirits and that glory which transcendeth the Courtain of things visible Is thy Fortune below on that dark Globe which scarce by the smalnesse of it appeareth hâ—re so great that thou art heart broken and dejected to leave it What if thou wert to leave behind thee a so glorious in the eye of the World yet but a Mote of Dust encircled with a Pond as that of mine so loving such great hopes these had been apparent occasions of lamenting and but apparent Dost thou think thou leavest Life too soon death is best young things fair and â—xcellent are not of long endurance upon Earth Who â—iveth well liveth long Souls most beloved of their Maker are soonest relieved from the bleeding cares of Life and most swiftâ—y wafted through the Surges of Humane miseries Opinion that Great Enchantresse and peiser of â—hings not as they are but as they seem hath not in any â—hing more than in the conceit of Death abused man Who must not measure himself and esteem his estate after his earthly being which is but as a dream For though he â—e borne on the Earth he is not born for the Earth more than the Embryon for the Mothers Womb. It Plaineth to be delivered of its bands and to come to the light of thiâ— World and Man waileth to be loosed from the Chaines with which he is fettered in that valley of vanities It nothing knoweth whither it is to go nor ought of the beauty of the visible works of God neither doth man of the magnificence of the Intellectual World above unto whicâ— as by a Mid-wife he is directed by Death Fools which think that this fair and admirable Frame so variously disposed so rightly marshalled so strongly maintained enriched with so many excellencies not only for necessity but for ornament and delight was by that Supreme wisdom brought forth that all things in a circulary course should be and not be arise and dissolve and thus continue as if they were so many Shadowes cast out and caused by the encountring of these Superiour Celestial bodies chaâ—ging onely their fashion and shape or Fantastical Imageries or prints of faces into Chrystal No no the Eternal Wisdome hath made man an excellent creature though he fain would unmake himself and return to nothing And though he seek his â—elicity among the reasonless Wights he hath fixed it above Look how some Prince or great King on the Earth when he hath raised any Stately City the work being atchieved is wont to set his Image in the midst of it to be admired and gazed upon No otherwise did the Soveraign of this All the Fabrick of it perfected place man a great Miracle formed to his own pattern in the midst of this spacious and admirable City God containeth all in him as the beginning of all man containeth all in him as the midst of all inferiour things be in man more noble than they exist superiour things more meanly Celestial things favour him earthly things are vassalled unto him he is the band of both neither is it possible but that both of them have peace with him who made the Covenant between them and him He was made that he might in the Glasse of the world behold the infinite Goodnesse Power and glory of his Maker and beholding know and knowing Love and loving enjoy and to hold the Earth of him as of his Lord Paramount never ceasing to remember and praise Him It exceedeth the compasse of conceit to thiâ—k that that wisdome which made every thing so orderly in the parts should make a confusion in the whole and the chief Master-piece how bringing forth so many â—xcellencies for man it should bring forth man for baseness and miserie And no less strange were it that so long life should be given to Trees Beasts and the Birds of the Air Creatures inferiour to Man which have less use of it and which cannot judge of this goodly Fabrick and that it should not be denyed to Man unless there were another manner of living prepared for him in a place more noble and excellent But alas said I had it not been better that for the good of his native Countrey a endued with so many peerlesse gifts had yet lived How long will yee replyed hee like the Ants think there are no fairer Palaces than their Hills or like to purblind Moles no greater light than that little which they shun As if the Master oâ— a Camp knew when to remove a Sentinel and he who placeth Man on the Earth knew not how long he had need of him Every one commeth there to act his part of this Tragi-Comedie called life which done the Courtain is drawn and â—e removing is said to dy That Providence which prescribeth Causes to every event hath not onely determined a definite and certain number of daies but of