inquisitive and judicious Reader then much matter and conceit compendiously digested with sufficiency of perspicuity To conclude lines of a farre fetcht and labour'd fancy with allusions and curiosity and in similes of little more fruit or consequence then to ravish the Reader into the writers fine Chamaeleon colours and feed him with aire I approve not so much as heighth and force of spirit sententiously and weightily exhibited wit needs not rack it self where matter flowes embroderies become not a rich stuffe and art is best exprest where it least appeares A strong wing is to be preferred before a painted and good â—ense and matter elegantly delivered before extravagancy of fancy and conceit such unnaturall impertinency serves rather to shadow then illustrate to overwhelme then set forth the subject as well apposite as accurate writing is the Authorsglory Postscript upon occasion of the then young Princes pretended desire to have sight of the following Poems ANd here under pardon to conclude with this further defence of Love the subject of this little work but taking it more large and high I find love to be the most worthy object of the best and most generous dispositions and none but maligne natures that addresse not their thoughts towards it for what good and worthy mind hath its being that is not bent as upon its felicity either to the love of women the most naturall of men the most noble or above all of God the most happy and rewardfull Whither else tend all our studies of comlinesse of glory and noble actions of charity and good deeds Wherein can man so well resemble his great Creator as by worth and goodnesse to win love what more noble end can any man have to study vertue and perfection then thereby to win affection and praise the reward and food of vertue and tribute of God Nay love the essence of God the good spirit and wings of the soule the Mother Child and finall cause of Beauty the begetter and maintainer of the world the life of life by love the Sunne shines and the earth brings forth by love is society and commerce maintained by love the soule dwels with the body and God with the soule by love nature ever works for our preservation when the body and almost the soule are laid in sleep Admirable love without thee life is hatefull man but a wolfe to man the world a second Chaos For thy sake alone who affectest not a decaying Mansion I apprehend losse by growing old yet thus againe am I comforted by thy most divine power that thou never abandonest the dwelling of goodnesse and art successively fruitfull over all the good works of nature to the worlds period so that to the vertuous where the love of women failes the love of men begins and where that by the withering imperfections of age grows cold as the aire to a setting Sunne there for our supreame and infinite comfort begin to shine most clearly the beames of that divinest love which before were too much intercepted by the sensualities and passions of our younger yeares to make us therein eternally happy by that operation of love and contemplation of beauty which at the last must be our soules immortall food and joy Advertisement upon the first Verses I am not ignorant that who keepes the common road falls not into the incumbrances incurred by them who search or by or nearer wayes Writing is a by-path of life I am yet ingaged to it but hope shortly to get out and by the way I give you this Antidote and Rapsody of praecaution and true information concerning the following pieces The reason why I retaine and expose them with others is not so much that I esteem them worthy of view or life as that they were many yeares since Copyed and spread abroad beyond my knowledge then and are now beyond my power to recall they are more Chaffe then Corn fitter to bee ventilated blown away and play in the aire then vented in any Market and commerce of wit and censure they are incorrect if not incorrigible yet I consent to leave them and many other my pieces such as they are to represent unto me the difference 'twixt then and now To attempt to perfect them were to dispersonate their youth and hasty nature and fall into the much frequented stage Error of putting stronger lines and more conceited and elaborate elegancy into weake mouths and strong passions then well comporteth with them let their youth and genuine conception plead their pardon You shall mistake them if you often conceive them not rather the off-spring of fancy then passion But take them at the worst they have something of reason and serious in them and the errours of love are not so foule as the love of errour nor is it impertinent to perswade love in them who have constrained it in you and love may bee such as to become no lesse justifiable then naturall Love is in truth of divers kinds ever an Ebullition of the liver sometimes it is made and forced upon us sometimes wee weave and foole our selves into it sometimes it proceeds from gratitude and good nature of gratification It is generally the child of weaknesse as well as of idlenesse witnesse my selfe in my childish youth and Melancholy humour A vigorous gayety of the heart and mind taken up and busie in other affections and entertainments hardly admits it It is a sad confinement a disease like womens longing where the violent appetite of one object no better then the rest gives relish to that alone whilst a right and undistasted apprehension of every thing in the true kind is the much better and sounder constitution and as in longing after such or such a morsell the consideration is carried by the fancy and tast which have no rule but themselves or as at Table the hearty approbation of some one dish is a provocation to others appetites so in love And as most Dogs will often strive to get away anothers bone though otherwise little desired or when a morsell is offered to bee snatched from them grow greedy of that which before they neglected so in affections I leave the application Sometimes as love hath been tearmed a warfare so is brave Conquest made ambition too many make it their felicity and effeminately bend all their affections towards it Sometimes it is taken up for a fashion and to be in fashion is in idle times of no small importance to idle and gallant persons Sometimes like Coqualuchios and Epidemicall diseases it may much proceed from the disposition of the Ayre as in other kind wee may observe of quarrells that they seldome go alone Our poore volatile ayery affections are strongly wrought upon as well from outward as inward incentives winds and Aspects The first accesse of love is not ever by the eyes it hath often a strong foundation and preocupation begotten at the eare when a noble heart takes impression of a well lodged reputation eminent in fame vertue
gives accesse to no suspition Nor just grounds of dislike in going on A course uneven tyres a love discreet 'T is perfect love when love and reason meet Love checkt by reason doubtfull is and lame Finde me a Love so faire so free from blame Shee shall command my liberty and me To love and serve her as her votarie And mean while to prevent saciety I 'le live in joviall free variety Love 's but impression of Saturnian blood VVhereby we overvalue things though good Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum My farewell to Catlidge By M. G. SOurce of my sorrows whose unequall frame Presents the course and fortune of my life Here thine exalted height deserves the name Of uniform and stately faire No strife Of disagreeing parts yet th' other side VVith low and crooked lines abates thy pride Thy noble prospect and that large Empire By which thou seek'st to please and bribe mine eyes Can ne're deceive my grief Nor make retire Those streams which from thee sprang VVhose force denyes To be exhaust or stopt through troubled teares All thy delight dull darke confus'd appeares Me thinkes I see the Gulfe the Rock the Grave Where beautie strength and life and all that 's sweet At once their ruin wrack and buriall have Which all in one divine soule here did meet Thou fatall seate of that intestine war Which all that 's good and lovely quite did mar Thus to my griefe and passion thou dost seem Though crown'd with health and pleasure tho the place Where peace and plentie both strive to redeem With kind and noble usage that disgrace Deaths cruell hand hath lately cast on thee And to relieve the pressure lies on mee â—ut calmer reason doth thee represent In truer species to mee this doth plead Thy innocence this sees thy faire ascent And Noble rise which heavenward doth lead Chose by that matchlesse soule which might her bring To th' Throne and presence of her God and King Farewell and flourish then thou happy place Ennobled with the last and sweetest breath Of earths and heavens ornament whose race Here gat the end and crowne of life by death Long mayst thou stand and safely keepe all those Her vertues heires whom thy faire walls inclose Condolement upon occasion of the preceding Verses received from another Author MY other selfe in my affections and sufferings with whom more then all the world I delight to converse present and absent such satisfaction in the way of knowledge conference ingenuity and Religious vertue I no where else expect common conversations especially such as these times produce are to me as full of Soloecisme as the time it selfe they invite mee not abroad they have no influence upon mee either to quicken extract or fructifie Some are knowing but not trusty others simply but inconversably good there is scarce any thing left perfect complete or in any tolerable order now shee is gone whom we lament Pardon my present manner of writing for as it is to you so is it onely for you and my great confidence in you makes mee as incurious as free and open Though I am at this time unfit to write though my sonne lies under the disease and danger which hath bred our passion Though I am none of the best conceited of writing for the little good effect I finde from it wee live by chance more then by the booke and the best praises are every day poetically applyed to vulgar merit and the writers glory though I have resolved to leave it more then needs must yet to supply what I was yesterday saying to you in acknowledgement of the happinesse I found in you in the middest of my losse and griefe such as I reckon another Phoenix unto mee for wee will in the flames and spices of our Recordations still raise her up and keepe her alive to our soules eyes such as whilst wee live I beg leave of you to love seeke to enjoy and make my selfe yours with a consecration of mee and mine unto you Excuse mee if I am or have beene defective in entertaining you according to your worth and that I am of no more worth to bee entertained into such place in your affections as I affect And let my valuation and affection to her that hath left us and whom you best if not alone know how to value intercede and make supply with you in my behalfe But whither goe I I seeme to put on an affectednesse and complementalnesse farre beyond what I intended for my meaning next the giving you some account and thanks for the verses you put into my hand at my parting is onely in a tumultuary precipitate fashion to let you see how my imagination was apt to worke and what with infinite more I could have laid hold on if I had not deserted both the formall following of my fancy and writing Time is a dryer up of Radicall and other moysture and I reckoned my selfe as unapt to weepe as a statue Nature hath provided teares and showers for a mitigation and dissolution to heate and violence of passion and stormes and as violence is incapable of duration and reason and judgement with time recollect themselves teares thinking they have plaid their part give way to full and cleare discourse and cease in the stronger spirits Yet such power and so moving were your lines upon mee that entertaining my self the most part of the way upon them not onely every reading but severall clauses raised severall stormes and showers on my heart and cheeks So see we marble statues weep either in present sympathy with the weather or in future presage And I pray God the future sufferance of that family whereof by interest of blood I have the honour to make a part exceed not the present sense in this inestimable losse I was by the way like an Aprill day according as the Sun-shine and clouds of your spirit disposed mee Sometimes I suffered in an apprehension that according to your title of a farewell to the place you might bee become like others disaffected and abhorring all relations and circumstances to your griefe and so to my self but therein againe you happily and favourably cleared mee Sometimes I became transported in your lively representations of her worth and transcendent happinesse of excellencie both in this and the better world But presently as much dejected and overwhelmed in your patheticall expressions and sense of her losse But in conclusion I found you like your selfe as full of obligation as payment to mee as infinitely beyond my merit as in your owne conceipt short towards her in what you owe and her vertue may challenge My fancy wrought upon returning a farewell to Lees I had cause and matter more then enough as the breeder and true cause of that which hath been most unhappily translated to this unhappy place but considerations as due restraine mee As I said I resolve to deny my fancies their full birth or Trym I can no sooner entertaine
to sing Then the high Trophees of the Swedish King The reason of a Gentlewomans wearing small blacke patches Of another Author I Know your heart cannot so guilty bee That you should weare those â—pots for vanitie Or as your beauties Trophies put one on For every murther which your eyes have done No they are your mourning weeds for hearts forlorne Which though you must not love you could not scorne To whom since cruell honour doth deny Those joyes could onely their misery Yet you this noble way to grace them found When thus your griefe their martyrdome hath crown'd Of which take heed you prove not prodigall For if to every common funerall Of your eyes Martyrs such grace bee allow'd Your face will weare no patches but a clowd Occasioned partly by the Verses above partly by a faire Ladies keeping on her Mask in the house on a hot day I Ne're till now thought patches ornaments Gentile and happy was your Authors muse As gently cruell are her faire intents Who kills and mournes but why doe you refuse Their names who so much wit and fairenesse owne I met that very day you shew'd those lines A beautie such as if it would have shone Would have out pierc'd the parching'st Sun that shines But chamber maskt shee was close mourner to The funerall solemnitie shee wore Innocent guilty sweetly sad as who Resolv'd to intombe her selfe to kill no more It may be also shee did apprehend Another scorching Summer would undoe us And so her selfe o'reclouded to befriend Mortalitie 't was double favour to us But Sun-like beautie know great mischiefes flow From great Eclipses well as blazing Stars Wee die as well except your selfe you show As by your beames or our intestine wars Shine then and triumph still better some die Then this Sphere want its second quickning eye Epigram VVEE cannot scape by masking of your face Wee finde our selves still taken by your grace By your I know not what meere carelesnesse Charmes more in you then others curious dresse Each step and motion of your frame or mind Consists of a composure most refin'd Cheape vertue is confin'd to face yours lies As well in your high spirit as your eyes A Dunghill Cock untry'd will looke as brave So will a Curre a Buzzard Jade or knave As the most vertuous in their severall kind Value consists in temper of the mind In judgement right and resolution strong Ends brave and good thinking nor doing wrong Consulting truth and goodnesse more then will Knowing and daring all but base and ill Diamonds in show are little more then glasse Triviall appearances make men to passe But thorough tryall proves an Asse an Asse Difference in women is no lesse Their goodnesse makes their pretiousnesse True Love and Honour THough you are gracefull brave and faire Beyond your Sexes rate though wit Enoble you as well as blood This nor your fine exalted ayre And prospect knowing all that 's fit Nor that you are rich great but good Subdues mee these to cement well Is that wherein you all excell And if to these you take in love The India's cannot equall prove For me I must not so aspire My part is onely to admire Your vertue vertue to the world supplyes The Sun none ought thinke to monopolize Onely I 'le strive to bee as good as you And so part of your love will prove my due And mine you being good and good to mee Must or be yours or vertuous cease to bee An Elegie upon the Death of the most faire and vertuous Lady Rich which most unhappily happened upon the 24. of August 1638. HAd I least hope complaints could reach our losse Could I the Stars or Sea sand number I would embarque her vertues sea to crosse And to my griefes heighth raise your wonder Could or the world or words such truth receive As to her story doth belong Could any but her self her vertues weave Or sorrow find an equall Tongue Such Ship so fraught such wrack I 'de represent As would the Soveraigne neere surpasse And make you in a Sea of teares lament Shee is not now that Nymph shee was Within without so glorious was her trym Such awe of Odinance shee carried Had shee not by dysaster taken been Neptune alone shee must have married But though her vertues circles just content And her squares just diagonall Numbers can ne're exactly represent Yet by our course Mechanicall Somewhat wee 'l say in lame and short account Our due oblations to discharge Which shall alone all other worth surmount Faithfully drawne though not at large Free from all pride though none but shee had cause Neglecting beautie huswiâ—'ry to minde Wholly resign'd to Gods and marriage Lawes Judicious farre beyond her yeares and kinde Outside and vanitie though most in fashion Wrought not on her strong fram'd and solid soul Shee liv'd by reason as others by their passion And by her goodnesse did all wrongs controul Her presence was a chastisement to sinne Ill time could not corrupt her spotlesse mind Had her pure body of like resistance beene Against the Ayre and season too unkind Wee her sad losse had not so deadly griev'd And shee to our soules joy might still have liv'd Epitaph IN title Rich in vertue all excelling Rare Daughter Mother Sister Friend and Wife Piety seldome had so faire a dwelling Unparallel'd as well in death as life Here now she lies glory of woman kinde Physitians shame the wonder of her time In body faire but fairer in her minde Fitted for heaven and taken in her prime Few rightly knew to value such a Jewell Had death had eyes he had not been so cruell On the same FOule Grief and Death this yeere have play'd their parts And Syrian-like conspire against the best Ayming at one stroke to break all our hearts Their cruell spite ne're met with such a feast They threw and bore the fairest Phoenix born As singular as unique to her friends They never twin'd so strong a Cord to mourn Nor strook so home at ours and their own ends My wound smarts double on the by what where She suff'red how exceeding all repaire How heavy to her friends and mine to beare This multiplies my grief with much despaire My treasure rest well-being all my joy Except what duty and piety require Perisht in her fate can no more destroy Henceforth but love of good and good desire The good is gone which if I cease to grieve Beyond my own death let me cease to live Such life such death so constant Christian brave Never became the triumph of the Grave I erre Triumph was only hers may I Contemplate her both whilst I live and die Her birth-day was her death-day and her death The birth to my discomfort and sad breath A Requiem at the Enterment WHo e're you are Patron subordinate Unto this house of prayer and doe extend Your eare and care to what we pray and lend May this place stand for ever consecrate And may this
there may seeme to bee in part of their discipline and Tenents certainly there is little Christian wisedome and lesse devotion to admit corruption and falshood upon any policie Gods truth stands not in need of our simulation and lies a discovered Woolfe and Impostor let his cloathing be what it list shall never deceive mee and in a sincere way I can almost as easily consent to be of no formall Religion as of a false one But they will tell some of the wittiest amongst us that there is no assurance no alacritie in a Calvinist spirit Indeed their Clergy is very kind in charging their owne soules to seeme to ease ours by an implicite faith and absolution If I were to chuse a religion for my ease and libertie it should bee theirs but I know too much of Religion and them to be of that mind I cannot but make use of my owne eyes in a way that so much importeth mee nor can I yeeld to resigne them at their request Now as it is my prayer so will I endeavour to retaine a confidence against such apprehension and will persevere with you as well to judge as hope the best This discourse though I am more unfit for it then it for mee I have adventured upon in full discharge of my heart and soule nor will I forget to put you clergy men into my prayers for next to Christ and the King from your sinceritie of doctrine spirit and life must flow our peace happinesse and salvation If you preach Christ more then your selves and teach inward more then outward holinesse wee shall learne from you to become more truely Christian then hypocritically pharisaicall you may otherwise confound and ruine your selves and us from which mischiefe and misery may it please our mercifull God and Saviour to deliver us Amen Amen Septemb. 5. 1638. Habituall vertue insuperable THere is an admirable communication and intelligence as well as league and Colligence betweene the body and soule They Act the one upon the other they suffer the one from the other sometimes the one sometimes the other leads the dance If the mind be sad the body is heavy if rejoyced active and so contrarywise the sicknesse of the body dejects the minde and health gives it alacrity The Oeconomy of the bodies concoction and faculties is disturbed and hindred by the trouble of the mind So is the working of Physick Onely the vertuous temper of the soule maintaines it selfe incorruptible and firme in despite of all bodily infirmitie and distemper A mind habituated to valour and vertue will never degenerate to cowardise and basenesse from its ingenit and naturall Character The body may incline it cannot compell it offers to lead it forceth not to follow in our dreames a well-confirmed mind maintaines it selfe against vitious transportations Yet may the state and temper of the body be much conjectured from our roving and raving fantasies in our sleepe or sicknesse Rheume Choler and Melancholy may be concluded from waterish fierie or dismall representations or the intention and abatement of a paroxysme and disease from the suitable pleasing or unpleasing impressions and objects whereby they will finde meanes to impart themselves unto us I speake upon experience in the malignitie of a fit or humour wee are full of perturbation difficultie and unluckinesse in the decrease all goes faire and prosperous More wonderfull are the influences and impulsions of God upon the soule such as are rather to bee felt then related they are unexpressible and indemonstrable The leadings the with-holdings the comforts the relievings the deliverances how sweet how incomparable Our spirits are nothing but as inspired from him Hee is the incomprehensible Spirit of spirits and the world the giver and ruler of our thoughts True joy hath no other Spring or Center Hee is the uniter consolidator and commune viuculum of soule and body the heavens and the earth the elements and universe No creature is more indebted to his favour then my selfe I shall bee happy if he please to continue me thankfull and exempt from abusing it Which that I may not doe in further prosecuting this insatiable humour of writing I resolve by his good grace and assistance to make this my peece of farewell I know how short I come in matter how short of what my selfe could write I will not too much presume of his mercy and my owne strength and ordinary preservatives Subjects of writings are as various and endlesse as obscure If you will reade the Schoolemen or more full and Divine writings of our present Bishop of Salisbury upon originall and actuall justice it will abate our presumption and discover so the vast perplexed intricacy and nature of things and questions unto us as will beget a modestie and restraint as well to our contentious discourse as scribling God hath put me as well into a way of health for my body as my soule if I wrong not the one by the other Hee hath cleared my mists and confusion by the Sunshine of his grace God make me constant to my self and him Amen Amen To make mee also the rather consent to withdraw my selfe I finde that already in my wild diversitie I have falne upon so many notions that for the most part that I now take up is apt to enterfere with what I have formerly touched and the very avoyding would become neare as troublesome as the delivering of my selfe Septemb. the 28. 1638. If to be temperate and good 't is hard Will easie is and seldome failes reward But who nor is nor goes about to bee Shame may he reape his vices proper Fee Sweetnesse of Goodnesse VVEre the world as fit to heare as I durst bee free to communicate my most secret thoughts I could and possibly would use another manner of opennesse then I doe I often appeare profuse in respect of others when I am reserved in respect of my selfe I am full of vanitie and errour yet such as a good man and Christian may and for the most part must undergoe though not approve Absolution must proceed from God and he alone is idoneous for an entire and unreserved confession I have abounded in an exorbitant fancy passion and infirmitie Some men account tendernesse of conscience a silly weaknesse of mind I make it my glory as they their shame It was impossible for me to come off from so long a wrastle with God and not to beare his markes I am none of the miraculous three Children to come out of the Furnace and not have my body and garments savour of the fire Such a conquest and obduration had been my soules losse and would manifest it selfe in such a profligate wickednesse as I hope shall never be mine If I be not totally reformed and refined yet as farre as the condition of a fraile passenger admits I will as well endeavor as hope to give proofe of a bettering in my affections Hee is an evill Scholler to God and the world who learns not to
balme such as no gold can buy To ease those hearts that for your love have smarted Grant then my lives faire Sun Apollo-like VVhose light 's our light our life direction cure These vertues Phoebus yeelds thy essence pure That I may offer at the shrine I seeke The pleasing sacrifice and fruits of love Which tasted may your equall pleasure prove You Elegie wayling writers elegant VVhose sad despised Muse of little sings But rigour scorne and her tyrannick stings VVho all compos'd of Ice and Adamant As Nero joy'd those tragick flames to see VVhich Romes proud flames had reason just to rew So triumphs and insulteth over you The cruell Mistris of your misery I wonder at your braines productions VVhich ' stead of comforting benigne aspect Are fed with nipping blasts frosts and neglect From those Parelii proud in your destructions I like the flame-fed Salamanders kind And as the tender Sommer-lab'ring Bee Except a warmthfull Zephyr breath on mee Am stupifi'd with cold fruitlesse in mind Love child of heate and hope doth barren perish Except faire Sun his tender plant you cherish QUeene of Beautie most divine From whose sacred charming shrine Humane power cannot part Without sacrifice of heart Thetis Nymphs had little grace Whilst your beautie was in place And their influence was cold As sent from a watry mould Shall I happy call that night VVhen to gaine a pleasing sight Pretious libertie I lost And am now on loves Sea tost By a tempest of desire Mixed full of heav'nly fire Rais'd by that inchanting face Of her Sex the onely grace Yes most happy I it call Though it doe my freedome thrall Freedome none may neere compare VVith that happy state where are Those in your faire service plac'd And that please to make them grac'd Happy martyr of constraint VVhose paine is for such a Saint And who hath for object giv'n The sweet hope of such a heav'n Faire a stranger terme mee not That your Sanctitie would blot Saint did never yet object Former knowledges defect Against those whose zealous vowes True devotion avowes If my merit yet bee small To procure your love withall Time alone to you must prove How well I will deserve your love Grace in Saints ought to abound Grace ne're growes on merits ground Be then gracious as I true Constant and faithfull unto you And my fortunes that have crown'd Mee happy on that Relicks ground Shall bee all ascrib'd to serve You that all respect deserve To winne her from resolving upon a Cloyster'd life in whom love is conceived to bee yet predominant PRetty wanton Beauties treasure Made for sweet delight and pleasure Pretious Jewell of thy kind VVhose equall 't is as hard to find As the matchlesse Phoenix mate VVhat though nature did create You Phoenix-like to bee admir'd And your essence so inspir'd That your beauteous winning parts Should sole triumph over hearts Yet in this you farre o're goe Such solitary state of woe That shee exempt from like and love Those delights doth never prove That have made the Gods so oft Quit their heav'nly azure Loft The sweet food of love to tast More delicious then repast Of Ambrosia or the wine Appropriate to the Divine Nature you so happy frames That the sweetest game of games You to whom all cards are free To choose till you pleased bee May command in such perfection That th' Ambrosian refection Tastlesse and insipid were Ballanced in that compare Oh! but how I doe envie Except I knew it should bee I That happy he whom you will daigne Such Soule-filling joyes to gaine Let not now a fond Discourse Contrary to Natures course Make you abstaine from those delights Whereto shee kindly you invites Shee each thing instructs you know What is its friend and what 's its foe Her you boldly may believe Shee did never none deceive Be not sway'd by wit of Schools Precepts were made to governe fools And to subject those to aw That want selfe-strength of reasons law Reason and Nature are all one Reason moves from her alone But why doe wee thus dispute With a kisse I you confute Send those to Cels upon whose thought The world and Love have never wrought Birds that long have lived free Caught and Cag'd but pine and die I marvaile not Earths fairest ornament Abstract of beauty Natures onely pride That your delight is onely to abide In Londons sweet commerce sole Element Where the refined Spirits of our I le Ingenious discourse communicate And hourely fresh delights participate Dull tedious time with pleasure to beguile We all best love our like London in much Doth you resemble London is the best The fairest richest Town of all the rest In all this Continent there is none such London our treasure Instruments of warre Majestick residence and Gems containes London farre more then all the other gaines London the firmament where every Starre Of magnitude of power and vertue moves London the Schoole and forum of all Arts London the Empory that all imparts That use requires or our affection loves London the envy of all other Townes As chiefe in beauty so supreame in power Our Kingdomes brightest object fairest flower Inchanting Syren that mee happy crownes In honouring of my Nativity I to your better judgements now referre Those none-such excellencies to conferre With hers that forceth my Captivity But faire beware you bee not like in this Though in your prison many a soule remaines As London holdeth infinite in chaines You be no Tyrant cruell mercilesse Insulting over and in galling those VVho or for suite for life or for affection Serv'd by your habeo cor above protection Unto your mercy doe themselves expose In this Metropolis I must compare Thee to the fairest flowers whence Bees may pluck Their honey and yet Spiders poison suck You faire the Bee and not the Spider are You like Earths Jewels or the Heavens lights VVere made in glorious places to appeare Nor ought that beauteous garment out to weare Amongst the rustick herd and rude delights You like to Cynthia the heavens Queen VVere made to govern bee admir'd and seen WHen in your lap that creame you set VVhich you invited mee to eate Sugar it needed none Your sweeteâ—t touch alone Made it a matchlesse pleasant meate The milke that did from these breasts move That nursed up the God of Love No not the Manna dew Nor jâ—yce that ever grew In tast did so delightfull prove Neither Nectar nor Nepenthe Can in like degree content me Fond Esau hadst thou sold For this though not for gold Thy birth-right we had never shent thee Not Flora's lap most fairely drest Nor the sweet milk of Fortunes breast So gracefull pleasing are As it and you both were More sweet then ever tongue exprest But now if this such sweetnesse drew Onely by being plac'd in you Sweet then above all wonder Is that your sweetnesse under Most happy hee that proves it true FAire spotlesse Scarfe once by my Goddesse borne VVhen
For future times a pattern most exact Faire Ship most fairly fraught for VVar and Peace Untimely sunk scarce launcht into the seas Too glorious rising Sunne soon overcast That shin'st in Heaven for here thy beames were plac't On mould too dull cold worthlesse to beget An active fruitfulnesse answering thy heat Thy flames of vertue were more pure and high Then our weake state could foment with supply No vertue didst thou want or vice possesse That could make great thy worth or glory lesse Furnish't with all materials fit to raise A high superlative of Princely praise A true Minervian issue sprung from Iove Visible vertue forcing us to love As true a vertuous Cyrus naturall As Xenophons fain'd artificiall Faire fire receiv'd as from our Persian King Dead vertue once againe to life to bring Heroick off-spring of that English blood VVhich anciently hath so celebrous stood As faire a splendor to thy Fathers stem As or his Scepter Throne or Diadem If Troy lamented Hector Grecians scourge â—arre greater grief thy death to us doth urge Troy miss'd no Captaines though their Hector dead But whom hath now our Priam fit to lead VVith union and alacrity the Bands Of English Scottish Welsh and Irish Lands VVhose active well born spirits thirsted all To follow such a hopefull Generall VVhose pattern set the coldest mindes on fire VVith glorious thoughts and generous desire Sole able Engine t' have repair'd the fame Of th' once illustrious wither'd English name Such vertue could not actionlesse remaine VVhich made him fly our dulnesse with disdain VVherefore brave Spirits that do inward burn Loving true glory joine with me and mourn And with your slames make him a funerall fire And with him end each thought that did aspire Smother in his Ashes what began to flame And teach your thoughts to study peacefull fame Temper your most untimely ill faln hear VVhich may your ruine not your glory get Except that idle glory you esteem Vying who most effeminate shall seem Most proud affected and like weeds of worth VVhich our best soyles uncultivate bring forth Mourn and lament him Patron of all truth Nay him the soule and glory of your youth Nor never hope an active time to see Except enforc't to act our miserie Happy our Fathers warlike spirits we Haplesse though fortunate our Sons may be To whom this seven yeare retrograde hath brought A Prince with like faire promis'd vertues fraught To top his story with victorious bayes As Iames with sweet of Peace hath blest our dayes Adding as many Crownes as Iames hath done To Crowne his titles with possession Thus glorious Comet with more zeale then art In thy fames dirige I beare a part Which may it pardon finde though hoarsly sung And passe with favour 'mongst th' Elegiack throng As writ by him who having vow'd sword-service Can ill performe a Poets sacrifice Upon the death of Anne of Denmarke Queen of great Britaine and the blazing Starre appearing neere her death taken for the stellifyed spirit of Prince Henry dead not long before BRave soul thou hast prevail'd God hath his owne And wee ill debters were nor paid the loane Of such a Jewell bee thou Henries Star Pointing thy mothers way and not our war Heaven bee appeas'd and grant our prayers and teares Prevent thy further anger and our feares Say that our false hearts to our selves and thee Deriding goodnesse and true pietie Led by our vaine affections as our God Not charitie say this deserves thy rod Let not the Roman petty Gods surpasse Thy rulers mercies Marcus Curtius was To them a sacrifice their wrath to swage Our losse hath doubled his then slack thy rage And grant againe we feele no further paines But blesse our dayes with joy in what remaines Epitaph HEre lies Iames his rich gem the eyes delight The graces mansion our faire dayes good night Glory of the Court object no sooner seene But knowne the gracefull presence of a Queene Rich Jewels shee is said to leave farre more Rich was shee in her pretious vertues store Heaven grant her royall vertues transportation Breed not a dearth unto her sex our nation Vpon the death of my faire Cousin Drury SSay passenger and for her sake Who while shee liv'd had power to make All eyes that on her cast their sight To fix with wonder and delight Daine that these lines one sigh may borrow Breathed from thy heart with generous sorrow To see in this sad Tombe now dwelling The fairest Drury late excelling In vertue beautie and all grace That heaven in earthly mould can place And that which may your griefe increase Is that shee did a maid decease And all that wee in her admir'd With her is perisht and expir'd Matchlesse shee lived unmatcht shee dide Druries sole heire and Suffolks pride Vpon the death of the supereminent Lady Haddington Delineated to the life IMperious soule proud Quintessence of wit Union of natures beautie forcing love Faire Haddington farewell here dead with thee Lie Loves awe sweetnesse life and majestie Manly ambitious spirits hope possest By conquest of fierce beautie to be blest Change your desires for sweare ambition The glorious subject of your hopes is gone Alas nor verse nor picture can expresse The least of her heart-winning lovelinesse Happy who knew her for he knew perfection Such as henceforth hath freed him from subjection Another MOunt up to heaven free soul with Larke-like joy Scorning our earthly base condition Where no malitious envie can annoy Thy faire ingenious disposition There shew thy selfe in thy pure nakednesse Where all thoughts in their simple truth appeare To speake thy selfe with true borne simplenesse Is vertues habit out of fashion here To covet flatter lie bee politique Hunt gaine with greedy falshood and deceipt To bee a devill so an hypocrite Are vertues to gaine this worlds good conceipt Thou wert not such and therefore happy now If faith and truth may happinesse procure Thy life thy truth death doth thy faith avow These are the golden wings that mount thee sure To lasting glory glory bee thy due For being faithfull noble faire and true An Incentive to our Poets upon the death of the victorious King of Swedeland FIe slow Boötes brood what not a line To celebrate a vertue so divine See you not Perseus mounted in the skie Outdoing all the antient Chivalry Expect you till his Steed dash on your braines To make you flow into heroick straines Can your Electrian facultie in wit Raise nothing but meere trash and strawes to it Is brave Gustavus of too solid stuffe His great exploits for your sleight veine too tusse That like poore falsifyers you despaire To profit from a peece so rich and faire Whilst from more triviall subjects you will drive A trade shall make your reputation thrive By ransacking the mysteries of Art To set a luster on some low desert Rouze up at length your over stupid muse Unite all in one quire and bravely chuse No other rapture whereupon
ridiculous and tedious kinde of complements which some use as Saddles to all horses tyrannous oppressions to solid dispositions and such as abound therein get nothing but the purchase of lyers which is not to bee credited when they speake truth whereas an old fashioned free-hearted word or two to the purpose are ever more significant and effectuall There hath also been some treatises framed to frame a good Ambassadour but none that I know have descended to tâ—e formall and now morall part of civill and respective demeanor in giving and returning visits receptions and convoyes giving place at home and at the Table and such like some retired Ambassadour or Secretary might well performe such a taske Hee will affect more to heare then to speake but when hee unfoldeth himselfe hee will consider what and to whom and ever containe himselfe within the bounds of his knowledge and truth otherwise hee shall bee a loser by one of his best blessings his language Hee will not shew that brutish sensualitie to carry his mind in his belly nor his soule upon his backe much lesse let it transmigrate into a horse or dogge Bookes and women hee will use with discretion and moderation left they devoure and confound him nor shall hee make right use of either who beareth not himselfe above them All these are to bee used for life and not as if wee lived onely for them Hee will educate his sonne to be like himselfe and not infuse Grammar and Philosophie into him in such sort as if nothing else concerned him and his well-being And therefore hee will bring him up to the true understanding of honour and true reputation and make him no stranger to the managing of a house and fortune which as much importeth him and the strangenesse whereof to young mindes wholly ingaged to other studies and delights is one of the greatest causes of so many ruins to private fortunes What is most comely and right shall bee his study and to discerne of truth and right requires a fulnesse as well of acquisite as naturall furniture Judgement of comelinesse comes the more easily upon common observation That becomes us best which is most our owne most proper and proportionable to the circumstances of our fortune and condition It is over incident to many to trouble themselves incurre contempt and ruine their estates by an erroneous affectation of greater expense curiositie and bravery then would bee expected from them such breed and feed the Canker that consumes them What is observed and approved by the best most sober and judicious and neither to leade nor contemne to follow the fashion is the best rule to be outwardly too different is monstrous to be affected and curious light and ridiculous But I have past my hower and will not exceede nor intend I either to write all or any thing formally or fully in this Subject or if I did I know it were but lost labour for nature and preoccupate affection so possesse us that impressions may be renewed and confirmed but hardly first wrought upon the mind by the pen especially without out predisposition of naturall parts assiduity of meditation and iteration if not also the addition of frequent and authorized example In effect much pen-labour might bee spared at least in matters of moralitie for the best natures and judgements with experience need it not and the worst are incorrigible OBserve and practise this confused heap And you may chance no small advantage reap Nothing more fairely then discretion growes Yet with not ever clad in beautie goes Some say that nature doth the mind neglect Whilst shee the body doth too much affect 'T is best I grant when both are richly joyn'd But if you love your selfe love best the mind If you this Inventory rude despise You may I doubt more curious prove then wise A Supplement to the Gentleman at such time as hee was out of my hands HEe will practise frugalitie not so much out of a base affection to the love of money as out of a generall election which hee hath made in all things to order himselfe by that which is the best most comely and reasonable whereunto hee will subject all his affections and thereby avoyd the ingageing himselfe upon a present heate and humour to infinite inconveniences and repentance which hee might incurre as men daily doe by rejecting a due regard to the distant future and the true use of that discourse and reason which God hath given him where with to governe his actions and resolutions and which differenceth him from the beasts of the fields Nay it is ordinarily seene that even the brute beasts themselves in their courses doe lesse digresse from such reason as concerneth them then many an inordinate and wilfull man His course and demeanour shall bee ever constant equable and correspondent to his fairest ends and pretences as flowing from the same fountaine all of a tenure all of a peece avoyding that just reprehension which falls often upon none of the least eminent of being one in publick other in private now brave and generous and presently unworthy and sordid unweaving their owne web and unadvisedly clothing themselves in such motley as they would otherwise disdaine to put on Hee will not bee a Libertine in his jests towards men much lesse towards God and therefore will kill such itch in his tongue as most odious in Religion and most pernicious to himselfe and others All discoveries of an affected humour detract from him in the censure of the most judicious Wherefore hee will decline them especially in his cloathing for it argues too great levitie to bee imployed therein and too poore a diffidence of his proper worth to seeke esteeme and valuation from it I will little esteeme the respect of man or woman who shall respect outward more then inward bravery or rich apparell more then a rich mind though both doe well with women the best of them are not carried with showes He will not easily upon argument enter into passion which but argues his owne doubt and weakenesse for a cleare understanding will pitie or endeavour to rectifie but not bee troubled at others ignorance and calmenesse maintained with a friend is better then to prevaile in the cavills of dispute He will examine his owne sufficiencie and goodnesse by the best Authors and the wisest and best men and approve of himselfe onely so farre as hee proveth conformable unto them and finding himselfe fit to doe service to God his King or Country hee will put off all restinesse and floath and set himselfe forward to the imployment of his best industrie and abilities for the common good yet ever so that hee regard due opportunitie and modesty and make use of meanes just and honorable towards his advancement and imployment for though audacitie prevaile often upon others weakenesse yet it is more secure from disgrace to bee over-modest and considerate then overbold and presumptuous nor will preferment unduely attained bee valued and
his one day Sermon in a week wanting true life and spirit will not so much animate his Auditory to holinesse as will his six dayes example the Book that the people better understand lead them to dissolution and wickednesse God hath required that he be not outwardly much lesse inwardly imperfect and deformed and it is he who must make vertue visible and the visibility that will inflame our affection Scandall in others is error in him a monster no corruption being so bad as what proceeds from the best He cannot be fit for the charge of others Soules who is carelesse of his own and who will beget affection in others must first put it on himselfe Wee would hisse him from the Stage whose action were grossely dissonant from his words and part nor is he better then a cheater of God and the World who accepts of a spirituall living without performing the duties of the Spirit It is questionable whether an evill Minister be not inferiour to the holinesse of his Bels and much more miserable for he is like them in calling men to Religious performances in sounding to please their eares and in flattering and solemnizing the times but questioned upon a due accompt in this world or the next hee will finde himselfe much more unhappy But a truly Religious professor will abhorre the indecorum of being unsuitable to his Doctrine fearing lest thereby as much as in him lyeth he render both it and himself so seeming unprofitable that men if it were possible would become distasted of his calling and Religion it self He will rather shew himself Gods Minister in godlinesse and humility then the Devils Chaplaine in his first sin and impiety and therefore casting off all pride vanity ambition covetousnesse and the corrupt inventions of men he will conform himself to the purity and simplicity of the Primitive Church and become as awfull to wicked men in his presence as a Magistrate or Commissioner of God sent to take vengeance on their obliquities Hee will Preach God in sincere Devotion and not himself in vain affection and will seek the advancement of Religion more then of his own order and Hierarchy for it is the splendor of the good and sincere lives of the Clergy and not their pompe and state that must work upon our consciences He will be an obedient Child unto his Mother Church for she cannot think him worthy to live upon and serve at the Altar if he shall think unworthily of it to be observed by him He will feed his flock more with plain and sound Doctrine then with abstruse points of Divinity and janglings of controversies or the empty sound of language and conceipts which become not the gravity of the Pulpit and will value the peace of the Church before any particular conceited fancy of his own or others Subtilties and niceties he will confine to the Schooles and Assemblies of his own profession The mysteries of Religion once received being rather matter for faith then to be controverted and disputed especially among the vulgar who in no sort ought to be taught or acquainted to subject the transcendency of their Religion to the grossenesse of their reason He will not if he preach before the King ingratiate himself by an invective incensing him against his People much lesse in a popular Assembly be Satyricall against Magistrates but will better discharge his duty by instructing such as are present in theirs and forbeare his Castigation upon the absent He will be cautious of alledging in the Pulpit out of whatsoever Author their over bold and profane conceits of Religion as also of using especially insisting upon the plain and naked expressions which are found in the Scriptures concerning women for all that becommeth the Bible becommeth not the Pulpit and there is danger of leaving ill impressions in corrupt minds He will use his best judgement in tempering his Sermons to the best profit and health of our soules And considering it is naturall for the sweetest and pleasantest things to be the most nourishing he will discreetly season and order them as well to the good relish of attention as helpe of memory and remembring that the yoake of the Gospel is easie consisting of comfort and glad tydings and that a tender and wounded soule hath never leisure to heale with the continuall application of Cauteries and Corrosives he will feare to bruise the broken reed and beget more discomfort and despaire then faith and true consolation in the best and most attentive soules Briefly it is only such a good man that deserves preferment but he will rather goe without it then to buy it corruptly with the price of his Soule We expect no miracles from him nor can he expect good life and godlines from us except according to his profession he shew us the way Religion was planted and must be maintained by the Teachers holinesse and humility Si vis me â—â—â—re dolendum est prius ipsi tibi They have I thank them done much good upon me I would gladly make some requitall A Physitian A Good Physitian if any such there be forbad enough is the best in respect of the Arts uncertainty will more affect the life and health of his Patient then his own gain and living and will not minister Physick to him to do good to himselfe He will be sorry that by a surprize of his over-deeming election he findes himself imbarqued in a profession where it is hard to thrive and be honest in giving Physick only where there is reall need and a good confidence in himself that it shall doe good to his Patient for he will have discovered that his title is but as of a Mountaine from not moving and that nature is the true Physitian placed by God in every man for his preservation and himself but a Professor of a most conjecturall Art so that who commits himself from nature to him takes himself from a seeing to a blind guide Though it be incident to his Colledge to be over peremptory as being used to the authority of prescriptions and prostrate sick Patients yet he will avoid it for a discreet plausible and winning carriage upon the Patients good opinion and affection is the one halfe of the Cure He will not contemn an honest Emperick knowing that his own Art grew but from experience often casuall and that Gods blessings are not restrained to their Colledge and old Books He will not bee sparing of his interrogatories nor of his attention to his Patients relation who being sick and paying ought to bee born with and humoured But an humorous Physitian is a most intolerable disease for all is but too little to effect a true information and to doe well he will often suspect that the disease may grow from the minde In case of which discovery he will no lesse industriously indeavour the Cure of the body by it and his good precepts and instructions thoroughly urged to that purpose then by any other means it being often
and felicity and nothing but the perfect joyes of Heaven can satisfie the perfection and Summum bonum affecting soule When wee have said and done what we can we are in such a mist and confusion of things so short sighted through our false Perspective that there is much chance in discerning the truth and right way even of things within our reach and capacity in despight of all our search and circumspection God is all in all without him seeing we shall not see and understanding wee shall not understand who referres to nature and our naturall universality of faculties and not to his extraordinary influence is blinde to his grace and operation By him we live move and have our being and no thing or faculty workes but through his grace and providence FAntasie in us is like the saile of a Ship without it we want much of ornament and motion with a predominancy of it we are in danger of over-setting without it many things otherwise delightfull are dull and insipid and if it be over pregnant it ordinarily ruins and befooles us It is our Soules Perspective multiplying objects at one end and lessening them at the other it is a better servant then Master Happy they whose Steer and Balast can rule and command it It is a Horse that must be born with a hard hand if it get head it transports us to much inconvenience and hardly containes it self within any limits of judgement and reason All things take their tincture from it It is to be lesse then man to want it and more to bridle and over-rule it God alone can temper and moderate our inordinate fancies and affections he alone is commensurable to our vast desires Moderation hath ever been a hard vertue the most conscientious spirits have ever been subject to superstition and Idolatry strength of fantasie is apt to multiply it self beyond measure irreligious hearts cut the Gordian knot which they cannot unty to distinguish betwixt God and man must be from God and not from man Man may endevour and concurre but God alone can cleare and confirme My good God I will with thy good grace let my heart loose to no other object then thy self and what is pleasing unto thee so shall I have fulnesse of joy nor shall I regret or envy the most splendid employments or fantasticall delights where with this world Syren-like enchants the mindes of such as dote upon it smile thou upon me and let the world frown or scorn the worlds kisses are poyson the embraces confusion they carry their sting with them but thy favour is present and eternall felicity If the very enjoying of our fancies and feeding them be a kind of surfeit and oppression what is it to faile be crossed and miscarry in them Little saile and little fancy make the best and safest voyage To conclude these shreds and ejaculations which may weary but never satisfie either my self or any other for there is evermore and better to be said our artificiall infirme and perplexed condition is to a curious strong minde a naturall and strong distraction a large and various prospect works upon and divides the fancy and with a divulsion breeds a kinde of convulsion in the spirits and a solution of that sweet continuity and harmony which God hath ordained naturall unto us Originall and actuall sin inhabiting in us deserve that and much other punishment If God of his great grace and indulgence give us not a clew of his thred to guide us we are confounded and lost in this worlds Labyrinth he is ours and the worlds prop and if it had not pleased him wonderfully to assist and support me with extraordinary strength of resolution and his good Spirit I had a thousand times perished in my errors and confusion Wilde affections which lead grave reason by the nose had undone me a vertiginous spirit and my own weight and strength had oppressed me and well might I miscarry seeing the strongest spirits are in the multiformity of their discourse most obnoxious to finde reason to fortifie themselves in the grossest obliquities to us in propriety is all sensuality vanity foolish presumption Sophistication and corruption of truth with innumerable exorbitancies and follies But to God only good onely wise just mercifull and omnipotent be ascribed all honour and glory for evermore Amen Amen Good God I am the work of thy hands and now happily of thy good Spirit let thy mercy work with me and upon me to the end and Eternity Tot contra unum caput conspirantibus quis potuissetresistere nisi Dei optimi maximi speciali gratia aspirante There had need in truth be an extraordinary supply and support of reason and grace against the strange and strong fond impressions of the Melancholy humour November 25. 1637. IT is said that if a horse could be equally placed to provender on each side of him he would sooner starve then resolve I was ambiguously constituted balanced in disposition betwixt contemplation and action thrift and comlinesse pleasures of the body and minde vice and vertue Country Town and Court private or publique course of life and no wonder if Dubia torquent the world is a Riddle an entangled skaine vexatious to extricate to intend our mindes and affections much upon it is as well misery as vanity it payes us with a Cloud in stead of Iuno torment in stead of contentment we often lose substances for shadows and felicity by over-searching it There is a proportion of wit most conducible to this worlds resolutions and happinesse if we exceed or come short of that element either the heighth and finenesse of the Aire agrees not with our Lungs and subsistence or we are dampt and suffocated in an over earthly and flegmatique dulnesse As in squared paving stone such onely endure the earth and open weather as are neither over-hard nor soft so is it in the temper of mens spirits for the undergoing of this worlds incidents Happy such as most slightingly passe through it yea God himself requires that we esteem it as but a passage to Eternity a point a nothing in respect He only can fill and satisfie the curious soule I cannot be sorry that the pleasures of this life concern me neither in use nor affection when I consider their sting their molestations and emptinesse compared with the sweet comforts of Gods favour and the blessednesse of everlasting life There like the upper Region dwels all peace purity and glory Here all corruption Meteors of imperfect mixtion stormes and calamities There is our true Country and Region where when God shall have refined us wee shall live and shine more glorious then the Starres I Have promiscuously specifyed the causes and originalls of my Melancholy disease I was deeply ingaged in it before I suspected it and had given so much way to it to take root in me as made the Cure most difficult It is a Goliah but we must not like David fight against it with our own Armes
The grace of God is All-sufficient but humane strength most incompetent once discovered I manfully resisted it else I had never neere so long subsisted I used diversion which is the humane first second and best remedy I opposed Labore Constantia ferendo feriendo Like a Parthian I fled and fought but prayer hath been my most effectuall remedy It is a Devill that is not otherwise cast out Physick is a feeble exorcisme but when by hearty Prayer I humbled my self to God and implored his ayde I ever rose from the ground like an other Antaeus with renewed and revived spirits God make me thankfull for his mercy hath surpassed the transcendency of my follies Happy the wounds that meet with that good Samaritane Happy the disease that brings us to the cure of such a Physitian I Have read how Plutarch complaines of mans infirmity who can in nothing keepe or measure or constancy In truth affections in our mindes resemble over-much the motions of the wind in the Aire They rise and take their course sometimes in moderation sometimes in storm they discontinue they change they whirle and all so strangely and irregular as we neither can well conceive or controule we neither know whence they proceed nor where they will end the objects of our pleasure and discourse possesse us with a drunkenesse with a giddinesse the strongest and hottest mindes are most intent most Mercuriall most unsettled and Volatile Thence hath growne an observation of the frequent changes and troubles in the Florentine more then the Venetian State Now what meanes have wee to fix this Mercury the naturall temper is hard to alter the inconstant body acts too much upon the Soule Thou O God canst onely effect so great and supernaturall a work faith alone and a Christian hope can become the anchor of our soules to maintain them firm and secure against our own and the worlds winds waves and rocks No other then thy divine Armour can resist no other then thy divine water can quench the fiery darts which Satan and the world throw against us and our selves shoot to fall on our own heads thou who madest us canst only mend us thou art the sole Physitian of the soule our knowledge is imperfect in the flowings of our blood our elementary humours and the anatomy of the body much more in the motions of the minde Thou Oh God who madest it and inspiredst it understandest it better then our selves it is of thy privative jurisdiction and thou alone canst steere canst rectify and fix it We mis-know our selves and thee when we attribute to our selves a presumptious selfe-ruling power we have not motion but from thee by thee and through thy dayly providence support and assistance it is so in all creatures in many of them their motion is without discourse and involuntary but in us thou givest the will and the deed Ianuary 13. 1637. HOw sacred and serious ought to be and is our Religion how in this Galley most looke one way and row another how yet some people entertain sinnes with a nationall Denization some ironically sport and play with them as Natures game some make them veniall which in Gods Audit will finde another account To what crosse batteries of Honour Nature Laws Custome and Religion is our frailty exposed Poore humane soule curious of rectitude curious of knowledge no wonder that thou sufferest such distractions such convulsions Example which should rectifie thee betrayes thee Thy leaders who should guide thee in a cleere and constant way wander and confound thee and in their partiall and self-interessed subtilties lose themselves and thee Naturally I affect Truth and am impatient of imperfection especially such as I appeare capable to remedy and till I seem to discover what may be commodious and rationall I cannot resolve but right and truth have so various an aspect and dwell in such a cloud and crossenesse of apprehension that if God of his great grace make not himself the guide of the good well-affected Soule it strayes it loseth it self and becomes overwhelmed with this worlds confusion and obliquity Thus workes my fancy thus accidentally enfeebled am I put according to my nature to walk strongly in weaknesse Moderation is the hardest of vertues my daily prayers to the Almighty shall be that he will please to bestow it upon me I greatly need it against my nature against my self I am at at an evill exigent employment I want and am weak to undergo it yet idlenesse and vacuity of thoughts as unnaturall unto me I cannot beare I have done and will endevour my uttermost to compose my self to subsist and entertain my self towards God my Neighbour and my self in the most Religious discreet and charitable temper that I can c. December 11. 1637. IT is hard for a man to dissect and paint out himself yet have I thus adventured upon it according to the life and truth and without flattery In a Looking glasse they say wee see our selves by reflection of the beames of our sight upon our selves in the mirrour of my misfortunes I have thus reflected upon my self but I confesse true discerning is towards outward objects we are naturally blinde to our selves besides the mists that selfe-love and interest raise upon us I have touched in one passage that the Melancholy humour and Choler adust must not be violently stirred in respect of the rage and distemper it often so procures in full and soule especially long unstirred bodies but I professe my course hath been by all meanes inward and outward to search it to the root I went much upon the Rule of Quod movet removet And what I heard once from a good Doctor that obstinate insistings often work great and strange effect I have long for born Physick even when I most needed it so still incorrespondent hath my condition been unto it self some reason I had that neither I could nor would admit it but had I not by Gods instruction and long degrees brought my selfe to be able to work upon my self in an extraordinary way exercising my self by his support and supporting my self in a great strength of body and minde I could not neere have subsisted I had by many yeares and degrees brought my self to it It is for me alone and therefore I cannot prescribe anything therein to others there is a mean and discretion belongs to all things but certainly Melancholy obstructions are so tough and lead-like that they are immoveable to ordinary courses and medicines and extraordinary must be cautiously and gradually imployed Inveterate they consist of a fat waxen viscous impacted and tartarous substance such as Vegetables slip by without penetration Minerals are more effectuall in such a difference as betwixt the stroak of a cudgell or sword a naturall Crisis and evacuation is above all But we have so clogged and entangled our selves beyond the quiet of nature and of other creatures that art and Physick are thereupon become more necessary In truth
though the Melancholique patient hath a Wolfe by the eares of his disease trouble in holding and stirring and unsafe to let goe yet I esteem it a poore resolution to suffer a rooted mischiefe which is presently noxious and will more and more grow dangerous upon feare of adventure where there is any the least hope of delivering our selves in supportable evils admit and excite rather to any hazard then a miserable toleration a hopelesse condition is most calamitous a well-built body will indure and work out very much like a good Ship against soule weather at Sea mine I thank God is such that had not my minde like an evill Steers-man infinitely even of late been injurious unto it I had by Gods grace infallibly prevailed both against my Giant disease and infinite intervening unfriendly accidents but by Gods help I daily mend and hope to leap over the wall Nil desperandum in Christo nil aâ—spice Christo. L'industrie est de nous L'heâ—rex suceez de dieu December 11. 1637. TO give us courage in misfortunes it was well said of Fortune that her course is irregular and that we ought not to despaire of her for often when she appeares to threaten us with imminent ruine she is truely in the article and Catastrophe of our good and advantage It is more verifyed in the wayes of God nothing more ordinary with him then by humbling us to exalt us and to strew the path to Heaven with afflictions Caesar animated his Pilot by carrying him and his Fortunes it was a vain presumption but he who the Almighty is Pilot to cannot sink nor miscarry to demonstrate his power and awake the faith of his Favourites he permits as to his Disciples the stormes to rise and waves to threaten destruction and in his mighty and supernaturall rescues appeare his sweetest comforts his greatest glory Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus as the Divines affirm that tentations proceeding from the Devill may bee distinguished by their violent and suddain surprise So may Divine deliverances be infallibly known by the suddain and extraordinary help that we receive from them at such time as our condition appeares unto us most irremediable and desperate I have infinite matter and thanks to render to my Maker to my Saviour but in nothing more then that of his abundant mercy hee hath been pleased to lead me through Seas through Wildernesses of troubles and errour by a cloud by fire by the thunder of his voice by infinite wonders for neere forty yeares together to bring meat last to his happy Land of promise that is to peace joy and repose in him where alone flows all true happinesse and fixed contentment There can in truth be no constant courage without a firm Faith and assurance of Gods favour towards us that alone fortifies us against danger darknesse and death December 12. 1637. IT is truely said that wee know so much as we put in practice nor are the notions and floting impressions of the brain without a through tincture of the heart and soule any effectuall Science and so it is that vertue is constituted a habit and not only a babling scientificall discourse of the minde untill I considered this I often wondered to see the best Clerks often the worst men as well as none of wisest Men read and study commonly rather for curiosity to censure to learne language and the course and manner of the world to maintain a side to gain bread and knowledge like other men rather then truth vertue and piety to gather opinions and to appeare good rather then to be Propounding to our selves wrong objects no wonder if wee misse the right which makes so many Scholars who study to get the best Livings lesse vertuous in their lives then others who more vertuously and spiritually then worldly affected study rather to nourish then cloath to Dye then paint their mindes Corrupt nature like a depraved stomach turns and assimilates all nourishment it makes an alien of forain instruction and governs it selfe by its own Laws Nay ordinarily against our wills and resolutions nature relapses and ravisheth us from our Moralls from our Metaphysicals Sensuality prevailes and we prevaricate with our Consciences when I approached Gods Sanctuary this was yet lesse strange unto me there as Copernicus hath placed the Sun in the Center of this Universe whose influence and Magnetique vertue gives life and motion to all materiall creatures so is it cleare that the immateriall minde of man hath its life and motion only from the good Spirit of God and unlesse by his influence and inspiration he carry our instructions and informations to the root except he alter reform and season our hearts like hasty showers all passeth away whereas a sound heavenly dew worketh a better watering and fruitfulnesse want of that Divine irradiation makes us such Mungrills such half Christians as we ordinarily are acknowledging our Faith and Saviour in our tongues and denying him in our lives God of his great grace grant us his saving Spirit and we shall as well practice as seem to know and professe Amen Amen December 14. 1637. NO wonder that I search into the abstruse causes and proceedings of my disease for I am a wonder to my self that a Sanguine complection with a naturall strength of body and minde and none of the most impertinent in wit and discourse should fall into so great a confusion and consumption of minde body and fortune without some outward most apparent violence But besides what I have formerly expressed I consider that steeping my self in my beginnings in the study of Mountaynes Essayes which are full of Scepticisme and a kinde of Morall mortification in crying down the delights and presumptions of this world proved to a tainted and tender minde a great amatement and blunting with an anxious disposition of doubt in the ordinary course and pleasures of this life that and much adverse accident nipt me in my first Spring otherwise in all probability I who in that lownesse and oppression of spirits which hath possessed me could yet so beare up as in some measure to become sought and respected by the better sort might have been somewhat more then I have been in the eminency of this world but the great and good God hath otherwise ordained nor am I without hope that hee who hath to this day so wonderfully supported and converted me will thereby work his glory and my good It is true that my course hath been most improsperous yet never of a grossely irrationall or unthrifty election I have in truth been so farre from humouring my self in the impulsions of Nature or most delightfull objects of my fancy that I have mainly resisted my self therein It hath pleased God to make me an instrument of crossing and punishing my self in whatsoever I most placed my minde The obstinate continuance of my disease and the failings of those whom I have trusted and relyed upon have abused me I have lost much
pleasure and profit whereof I might have been capable but for my self I regret it not for alasse how vain how transitory how full of vexation are the best of earthly commodities c. Truth hath been said to be the object of the understanding and good of the will Totus teres atque rotundus expresseth an honest man yet a bowle perfectly round except upon a ground exactly plain holds not well its straight line and way a strong byas better maintaines it self against whampes and unevennesse So doth a man byassed with some sinister affection often run a more constant and thriving course then he who hath constituted truth and true good his Mistresse but himself being round and his way uncertain and uneven he varies and fluctuates accordingly as I have often said Truthes to us are such obscure high twinkling Starres that we hardly fasten upon them what pleaseth us is only certain unto us I speak in a naturall way for supernaturally in Faith alone is all truth all good certainty and pleasure Till God gave me that happy gift I was a bowle without byasse a ship without steer or Starre I Were more then most miserable if my resentment my heart and affections were set upon this world but I humbly thank God it is farre otherwise with me and now as there ever hath been a difference made between such as cast themselves into open and eminent mischief and such as fall into unhappy consequences of evills unforeseen so hope I to finde favour and pardon from the better sort and the worst I respect not And as that Prince who plain in personage and habit was by mistaking set to drudge for his own entertainment and being discovered and demanded what he meant Answered that he did penance for his evil-favourednesse So am I contented to undergoe and submit my self to the not undeserved penance of my fate with an acquiescence of Fiat voluntas tua sed liber a nos a malo Ianuary 2. 1637. NEmo laeditur nisi a seipso never proved it self more true then in me I have been both agent and authour of my misery and sufferings I have been both Criminall and tormenter God made me strong I have made my self weak God intrusted me with many Talents of advantage above others I have mis-imployed and abused them and my self from my youth I have suffered his scourges and terrours with a troubled soule yet such is his mercy unto me that it is good and happy for me that I have been troubled As I have turned unto him he hath been graciously pleased to turn his countenance of favour towards me healing my wounds with the soverain balme of his grace and refreshing my Soule with his waters of life humbling me to exalt me and chastising mee in a Fatherly correction to prevent my eternall punishment How sweet Oh Lord are thy mercies beyond comparison beyond my expression the false and flattering joyes of sensuality are meer sowrenesse bitternesse and vexation in respect continue thy grace unto me perfect thine own work and make me an instrument of thy glory confirm me in the contempt of this worlds vanities and as on me so work upon the world by thy Almighty Spirit thy saving health that thy will may be done in earth as in Heaven nothing but thy all-powerfull Spirit can effect it draw us and we shall come and let it be through tribulations sorrows fire and whatsoever long or short a faire or rugged way so it lead to thee we shall be happy above measure Amen Amen Sweet Saviour let thy pretious wounds cure mine And save my Soule which is by purchase thine Ianuary 15. 1637. BEauty and the delight of the eye consist in well-ordered lustre of Colours proportion and motion yet forbeares it not to be extraordinarily affected in the enjoying of such objects as the appetite and fantasie have prescribed to themselves for a necessary or voluptuous satisfaction whereby appeares that we become most ravished and transported by the operation and co-operation of the minde whose truest and noblest objects are vertue and goodnesse Hence sprung the conceit that if vertue were visible it would beget in us most transcendent affections so beautifull so amiable it would be to a generous Soule God is the Author and Prototype of all beauty and goodnesse How infinitely then beyond comparison sweet faire and lovely must he be to such as apprehend and contemplate his glory and to whom he imparteth himself and his mercies As the sight of the body of the Sun so filleth the sense that for the present it can admit no other conceit so doth the glorious speculation of Gods essence and Majesty annihilate and expell all earthly affections How vain how mostly poore and beastiall are vulgar delights in respect of that tincture that rapture and eternity of blisse which flow from his Divine grace and knowledge how is it possible after such influence to relish the drossie pleasures of the world for the most part common with beasts fleeting molesting lame Miserable is the heart which he doth not season disconsolate the comforts which proceed not from his Grace who without that could live contented could be content to be one of Circe's beasts and live and die in a drunken fit I most humbly thank thee my gracious God and Saviour that thou hast vouchsafed to open my eyes to thy glory and the worlds vanity till then I never found solid or permanent comfort I have like others been apt to conceive that this worlds delights were our proper portion of thy assignment but thy great Grace hath enlightned me and with a strong hand taught me to chuse the better part I have since thy illumination affected above all things to set forth thy Grace Mercy and Glory but pardon me Oh Lord they surpasse my poore abilities I am an earthen vessell weak and crased as unable as unworthy to be a fit instrument to sound forth thy praise I was ambitious to have wrought thy Divine love upon others that they with me might constitute thee the sole scope and Lord of their Counsels their projects their actions but a fuller and richer Magazin then mine and a stronger health are required Pardon Oh Lord that I withdraw my self conscious of my weaknesse and inabilities but what my pen cannot attaine my tongue and actions shall by thy Grace indeavour to supply Ianuary 14. 1637. CHarity implies the love of God and man without it whatsoever we pretend we are Infidels objects of hatred to our Maker to our inferiours what condition can be more contemptible No delight is comparable to that which reflects upon a good minde from its own goodnesse extended upon others especially when our Consciences beare us witnesse that we doe it out of a true love and obedience to our most mercifull and Omnipotent God To pretend Faith and be without Charity is to mock God and our selves better were it for us to be like beasts without all knowledge of God then to play
your bounds Place forceth no man They have their severall advantages and disadvantages like other things and are to be embraced as discretion and affection shall lead Certainly the travailing course used of late especially in the most spirituall and Academicall mindes breeds a great partiality to the equall conversation of Townes but not without danger of being aliened from the knowledge of your own and as much abused therein by others as of abusing your self in being carryed away with the City vanities and unfruitfull idlenesse The Country life is assuredly most naturall pleasant setled and profitable to the English breed and course Doe but you care for your self as I have cared for you and all shall with Gods blessing goe well with your minde and well with your fortune seek your happinesse from Gods grace and bounty he will not faile to give it you make Christ your Rock and you have a sure foundation December 19. 1637. QUos perdere vult Iupiter hos dementat was a true saying applyed to a false God but my God hath often deprived me in some particulars of the use of my ordinary reason and discourse to act things against my knowledge my ends my resolution and my self he hath raised oftentimes strange and independent combining constellations against me I have evidently discovered his footsteps therein and he hath thereby led me to my salvation there was no redemption to mankind but in Christ nor can the wounded and troubled soule finde any other sanctuary he alone is the horn of our salvation the Cornueopia of a perfect plenty and felicity unto us in this and the eternall life I have been Master of a dogge whom when I have threatned in stead of flying he hath appeased me by a submisse fawning upon me Thou my God art in like manner mercifull to such as seek thee and humble themselves unto thee Praise to thy blessed name for evermore Amen Amen Ianuary 21. 1637. OUr Faith is well alluded to a Rock and our Saviour to the Corner-stone of a building for without them we are all tottering and infirme nor doth the sweetnesse of any earthly pleasure make amends for an unstable wandring minde Good God why didst thou not to frailty give One life to learn another life to live Why so it is who here doth thee regard Eternall life and joyes are his reward Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis Eterra alterius magnum spectare laborem Unexpressible is that tranquillity ease joy and peace which I finde by having freed my self from this worlds common interests and incumbrances my Soule is like a bird escaped from the Fowlers net and I am as a free spectatour beholding the busie burthened Actors of this worlds Tragedies Comedies Farcies and follies Good Lord confirm me more and more and make me thankfull in such my joy Once belonging to the Alphabet Sonnet of the Letter E. BUt we like false-bred Eagles fly the sight Of thy to humane sense confounding light Bartas and Herbert led but flew so high Our flowry waxen wings dare not come nigh OR T is hard to see them harder to come nigh Verses I confesse though such are best which most resemble Prose yet as I am now affected especially in that measure which I had lately chosen are not so fitting to my present subject There are divers kindes and degrees of Faith the generality of such as call and think themselves Christians go on in a course childish kinde of Faith which gives little tincture to their affections and lesse to their actions yet according to their nature in some things they make more in others lesse conscience in a farther proceeding and consideration of Religion they lay hold on Christ and use him as a salve for their sins and sinfull propensions but when the good Spirit of God by meanes of affliction or otherwise throughly awakeneth them and workes upon their Soule then and not till then are we truely converted then are our eyes opened to see and feel the uglinesse of sin with the sweetnesse of his saving grace and favour And thus Oh Lord hath it pleased thee in thy infinite mercy to work upon me Now I see and pity the worlds vanity and corruptions Now as thou hast dyed for me I will rather dye a thousand deaths then to grieve thy good Spirit by my least consent to sin As thou hast done to me so vouchsafe to extend thy extraordinary hand of mercy upon others with-hold them from sophisticating thy sincere Religion with their poore and rotten policies we may say of it as some use it as is said of Tilt and Tourney that it is too much for jest too little for earnest it cannot be expected that the people will follow except their Teachers lead and in the sincerity of their lives shew the way their Tithes are substance their shows and ceremonies alone in thy service deserve them not Magistrates when they obey thee may more justly and exactly expect our obedience A grosse affectation of policy in Religion ministers too much occasion to weak Christians to judge and conclude of Religion rather as a humane Policy then Divine Truth If any sins were veniall such appeare most pardonable as carry with them a kinde of warrant from Nature and a gratification to others and thou O God art least indulgent to such as offend of malitious wickednesse They are like the Planets and Starres in the Heavens to guide and comfort us by their sweet influence when they prove maligne which the Starres seldome doe they are our mischiefes and our Plagues and as the Starres have their shining and influence more for our then their own good so ought they to exercise their power It is a soule unhappy fancy that pleaseth it self in displeasing others I Have of late been urged to work and am at this time working upon a peece of ground which hath long been designed for Gardening and so imployed it hath had much cost and industry bestowed upon it but the nature of the soyle consists of so stiffe a Clay that it hath ever rendred an ill account and return of such feeds and Plants as have been intrusted unto it lusty and fruitfull it hath shewed it selfe in grasse and rank in weeds There is an evill Herb they call Twitch which hath over-run it of such nature that having once possessed a ground the soyle must be wholly altered and over-come or no good thing will thrive committed unto it My Gardener to work a cure hath not only digged and manured but hath brought a new and better earth upon it so that now with a due industry and watering observed it can hardly faile to yeeld a gratefull and faithfull fertility Some soyles are cured by much breaking some by fire some by inundation frosts and hard weather make a good preparation All is happy that confers a bettering and improvement In the diseases of our bodies where an evill habit prevailes and ill humours abound some are rectifyed by purgation some
c. and some by the very distempers which they breed A burning Feaver remedies a Palsie and Agues ordinarily cleare the body We see also that a disordered and ill habituated Common-wealth and State but upon extream necessity and violence seldome grows to reformation A vicious and depraved minde corresponds to these premisses as well in disposition as cure till extremity distemper and affliction work upon us till God the good Gardener of our soules cultivate weed alter and subdue us we insist in our corrupt naturals we remain obstinate in our errours impatient of good and healthfull counsell perverse in all our courses Happy that Soyle Body State and Soule which finde him their Gardener Physitian Reformer and gracious Redeemer Paradise was our first plentifull Garden Health Originall Justice and integrity our condition till he renew heale reforme sanctifie and reduce us to our principles and perfection we are barren to goodnesse unsound corrupted tainted peeces Persist Oh Lord in such thy grace as I have haply found towards me be it by breaking sicknesse confusion or humiliation so thou make me good and make me thine I shall be faithfully fruitfull Athletically vigorous prudent temperate just religiously vertuous and already in Paradise and in the Confines of Heaven What shall I render unto thee Oh Lord for the incomparable influence assistance and sweetnesse of thy grace and favour towards me I possesse nothing but what I have received from thee nor can I pay thee but with thine own The graces of my body minde and fortune are thy Almes unto me I will sacrifice unto thee all my vain and worldly affections and even that is my great game the unspeakable sweetnesse and comfort of thy favour is an overflowing and superabounding recompence unto me that wherein thou hast invested me with the most propriety is my humble thanksgiving and imperfect obedience Nor that can I offer up and tender unto thee without thy gracious hand raise and assist me But help me Oh Lord and I will never cease to praise and endevour to obey thee Amen Amen I most humbly thank thee my most gracious God that my trouble of late hath not been so much in any thing as in a labouring affection to set forth the greatnesse and sweetnesse of thy mercy towards me Thou hast been my sole Physick and Physitian my preservative cordiall restorative and support even then when in taking measure of my naturall strength I might have conceived it impossible to undergo what by thy grace I have performed thou hast many times found and inspired wayes and meanes beyond me as well to assist and support me as thou hast formerly done to humble me Thou never wantest means Melancholy confusion of face defection of the eyes crosses have been thy instruments to make me thine I was a house built for pleasure but thou hast made me a receptacle of all calamities I was not that crooked peece of knee timber fitted for distresse I was framed for the Pacifique Sea but thy stormes have all past over me and yet by thy favour I am a greater wonder to my self in what I have born then was that Cock-boat which safely transported from the Bermudaes such as committed themselves unto it Free spirited Horses doe often brook worst the bit and curb and soonest tire themselves engaged to a Moorish passage when a Fen Mare and an Asinine patience better complies and extricates it self no sweetnes is comparable to thy grace nor strength to that which thy good Spirit gives Naturally I am impatient to tread my shooe awry I have abounded in errors and exorbitancies but thy mercy hath ever opened my eyes and recalled me to disallow them and at last to detest and abjure them It had been else too hard for flesh and blood they can never cast out nor cast off themselves as thou hast said A Kingdome divided in it self cannot subsist but be thou with us and nothing can prevaile against us invincible is that body that minde and estate which thou assistest Consilia quibus impares sumus fatis permittamus understanding fate for God is the counsell I take A Ship that cannot saile must drive c. My gracious God accept I most humbly beseech thee my humble thanksgiving for thy wonderful preservation and favors towards me and particularly for blessing me in Charitable affections towards others as well as reverence towards thee daily I have too much experience of the little good that the best preaching workes upon depraved mindes grant that I may not offend thee in hurting my self by an immoderate and indiscreet affecting of others good Give me a chearefulnesse without oppression of my spirits in thine and my wayes Blesse the sincere profession and Professors of thy sacred Word teach them that they may truely teach thee with-hold them from mingling policy and self-interest with thy Religion with-hold them from shaking the foundation of our Faith and peace of thy Church It hath formerly been too great a tax upon our Nation to have been too inconstant and troublesome therein Maintain the true Light and pure exercise of thy Gospel amongst us our iniquities deserve the punishment of a most grosse relaps to discovered and escaped superstition and Idolatry but of thy great mercy give us true wisdome and repentance and avert thy Judgements One pious Church-man is sooner to be beleeved against their own affected authority then twenty for their usurped power and advantage Luxations in Religion breed a long subsequent weaknesse and the adversaries of our Religion as well as Atheists take too great advantage from such occasion Contain us Oh Lord from over-prying into and censuring thy secret Counsels Predestination and Free-will strike the same stroak upon our lives Our comfort must rise from our endevour in either opinion The most subtile Writers lose and confound themselves on either side and make too bold in concluding of thee by our blinde fantastique rules of Justice Thou dwellest in the Clouds and hast cast a mist about thy self which our fraile fight cannot penetrate how can man hope to understand thee whose poore finite capacity cannot so much as in his imagination conceive either way of that which he sees and knows of necessity must be either so or so As for instance we know that this sublime Candens must necessarily either have bounds beyond which there is nothing or else go infinitely on finally unbounded and one limit still succeeding another but I am much deceived if the strongest imagination can conceive either way though one be most necessary much lesse can we comprehend and compasse the essence and infinity of God obedience and reverence to his revealed will and not an over-bold and curious search belong to his incomprehensible Majesty But I have ended my paper and almost my self vouchsafe Oh Lord to give me modesty moderation Faith Charity and Conscience to guide my wayes and guide that guide that I may live and dye in thy truth and to thy glory
carelesnesse presumption impatience and a treacherous indulgence to his own humours our common reigning maladies have been the cause Wee are of late so out of our wits that our very mother wit of keeping our selves warme failes both in our mothers and us By naturall heate wee live want of clothes want of cherishing it makes us all suffer Though you know my mind concerning Physitians yet such is their Ius acquisitum that my sonne is under their jurisdiction God send it to his good cold taken upon Physick hath cast him downe I have been present at their Anatomicall discourse of his distemper danger and cure excellent termes to amuse and amase the credulous ignorant enough to worke a cure by the enchantment and charme of their words and language Yet I cannot but compare it to a Rope-dancer whom I have seene doe his tricks and show his Art in a Sack if his footing were right good if other hazard for a neck or limbe But here if their learned blindnesse mistake the poore paying Patient must suffer It is just that they who cannot governe themselves should be ruled by others often worse These and more evills must we suffer as it is in the 14. Chap. of the booke of Wisedome Verse the 22. from the warres of theirs and our ignorance A word or two lesse would have ended with the bottome of the page but howsoever I end well if you continue and accept me Your faithfull Friend and Servant November 12. 1638. The Shepherd Sheep and Wolfe MY true fair-minded Friend I beleeve you now in labour to Preach and mend the vitious world I also wish but little hope to doe it by writing you sow and I write in the Sand wee both dwell at the sign of the Labour in vaine the More will not change his hew nor the Leopards their spots they cannot nay they would not you shall not perswade them they are blemishes no more then the Lady her affected patches on her face they are in fashion and appeare faire in their own eyes as every mans way and pleasure to himselfe we may lament one anothers endevours others will deride us or possibly some will be so good as say Well said well writ and as they use their feasts eate and forget the sober diet breeds the better nourishment example is the better Teacher but it must bee numerous to prevaile Vertue is grown but a name and that neither well understood nor agreed on Some honest men there are Rari nantes in gurgite vasto they may make much of themselves and wrap themselves in their own vertue a habit God knows out of fashion they are fitter for Cloysters then the worlds traffique and like square playing Gamesters shall be sure to bee made a prey and sit down by the losse their strong constitution may resist the corruption of the times they shall not alter them their innocence shall have as little power howsoever commended as fresh waters upon the Seas saltnesse the worlds antiperistasis may better them not they the world But how comes it that so few are honest is it that perfection must bee as rare and hard in Nature as in Art is it that our artificiall confused meat and drink infect our bodies and they our soules is it the perniciousnesse of example in great and powerfull persons who sway the times and seldome originally attain to riches honours and greatnesse by just and honest wayes Or is it that as some species of creatures are of a perverse and evill nature such as live by rapine and destruction such as Apes Wolves c. so man is naturally of a mischievous kind if so them may a good natured man be esteemed a Monster and rather an error then perfection of Nature Is it these or is it not rather the corruption of our mindes and affections by having changed and perverted Nature from her first purity into Artificiall fancy and affectation of enthralling others and inriching our selves So that as women are in respect of their attire often the least part of themselves the like may bee said of man in the disguise of the minde So it is and such punishment is deserved in our desertion and rebellion against God and Nature We are one anothers scourges wee are scourges to our selves If you and I and others are rather Sheep then Wolves let us thank God whose grace it is let us cloathe our selves in our own wooll short Pasture will content us for food little drink more then the dew of Heaven Thither let us tend towards him whose mark we bear the great Shepherd of our Soules Let Wolves be wolves whilest hee is our Shepherd and his good Angels our guard we are safe and happy now and forever let the wolves of this world the Loup-garrons the mankinde wolves devoure what they can they shall devoure but what they can most commonly one another There are so few of us they would else want meat though their rage be great their time is short our comforts are sweeter more permanent as much as they contemn us they are content to make use of our cloathing they reckon us foolish Martyrs of a foolish Philosophy and wee them beasts of a foule deformity They are ugly to God ugly to goodnesse often ugly to one another and ugly to themselves especially when affliction sicknesse and infirmity le ts loose that Band-dog Conscience upon them which they had formerly in their prosperity tyed up and kept in darknesse and sleep hating and hated flattering themselves with strong delusions to one anothers torture for the present and eternall torment hereafter I leave them committing you and all good men the Sheep of God to his inviolable infallible protection Amen Amen November 14. 1638. NO wonder if a perverse nature use perverse and crooked wayes a Serpent cannot goe right craft is the evill mans instrument to evill ends as cunning is sometimes necessary to good men for good purposes evill men are in the dark they are blinde to true vertue and charity their workes are workes of darknesse and their wayes accordingly it is the glory of discreet power in goodnesse to walk fairly and choose the open safe and faire way where others how ever powerfull needlesly encumber and bemire themselves in bryers and bogges As I have often said it is a sweet thing to see knaves miscarry and play the fooles as commonly they doe they like the Woodcock think themselves more concealed then they are as much unduly overweening themselves as undervaluing others I never knew a foole without some kinde of craft nor a wise man affect it MY second Father Brother and spirit of comfort thus yet I am so happy as to converse with you in absence it is a piece of my misfortune to bee at so great a distance from you in the same Town my late long and hasty walke unto you endangered a distemper and sicknesse upon me but as burning with burning so evill of exercise with exercise is cured Naturall
contemperament and heat strength goodnesse and sweetnesse of nature and supernaturall grace excited and maintained I finde the best companions and Physitians of body and soule you are witnesse how necessary they have been of late unto me in the sorrows and troubles I have undergone I thank you for your visit and spirituall comfort you imparted to my relapsed Son hee still needeth it hee hath not wanted naturall heat and courage temper moderation and a well concocted discourse as well as a thorow digestion to some peccant humours of his body I feare he doth Time and conflict with evills have not confirmed and wrought upon him exchange of liberty health and pleasures for disease restraint and paine with an apprehensive contemplation of imminent death this mortall yeare work a melancholick dejection upon his minde and meeting with his infirmity appeare at this time his greatest danger A little ease strength and alacrity of spirits animate his naturall presumption to his harm and a little cloud overcasting him as much exanimates If God had not furnished me with as strong a resolution to flight as I have ever been apt to apprehend the worst events I had a thousand times miscarryed there is no slavery like the feare of death no bravery like the contempt of the world and fortune I have lost possessions friends brothers children but I have found God and have not lost my selfe I have sowed kindnesse and reaped dis-respect my good intentions charity resolution and the grace of God are my reward and ever-relieving cordials I seek not my self abroad nor judge my self or others by the successe others weaknesse and distempers shall not be mine it shall rather fortifie and recollect mee if my exuberance of naturall heate and fancy breed my inconvenience I can make an oyle of the same Scorpion to help me not to have too much is not to have enough Aliquid amputandum is the best constitution luxuriance of Nature is the longest laster at least if violence accident and over-bold indiscreet adventure intercept it not heat is the vehiculâ—m of vertue hot natured plants have the strongest faculties and braveliest resist the vigour and extremity of weather and Winter Thus I play the Pedler with you to you I open my pack of small wares to the world I durst but will not they would but pry and smile and scorn not buy to use to weare and make their own You finde here a great deale of trash but no trumpery many bables and toyes yet some Gloves to weare Knives to cut Linnen to adorn cover and keep warme Looking-glasses to see and order your self Pedlers are not ever unwelcome sometimes they are required at least let my good will make not unwelcome unto you this my good morrow Yet to goe a little further and end where I begun There is a happy and just use to be made of naturall heate of our selves and of Gods creatures instituted as Oyle for cheerefulnesse of countenance and Wine to rejoyce the heart of man that use to finde that to practise without declining either to excesse or fantasticall superstition and rigidity of humane Sophistry prevarication and errour is that wee ought to endevour and pray for in the discreet exercise of a good conscience which God grant us Amen November 17. 1638. THus you see Animal vigilans semper laborat some more remisse some more intense according to the activity of their spirits and occasions but my voyage is well past over and I will not spread my sayles to every winde I will be a stone to my self against the wings of my thoughts sedation shall be my affectation I will spare my fuell and rake up my fire let them make publique bonfires and ring their Bells to warme and sport the world who finde matter and joy to publish mine is inward and shall serve my self till opportunity concurre accept in good part with your wonted favour this my pastime account and register never intended for a work or piece of worth Farewell SOules must have objects strong high-relished The strongest filling fair and permanent Such is Gods love wherewith not nourished Earthly and base must be their nutriment No other love can defecate a soule From wallowing in delights base empty foule THou Lord who first didst nip me in the bud From time to time dost humble mee Lest I should sin by heighth of blood And love the world more then the love of thee I gratulate thy favour confident That so thou doest my soule preserve To bee a well-tun'd instrument To sound thy praise and thy decrees to serve Nor will I envy this mans wantonnesse His honor or the others wealth Esteeming nothing happinesse But to possesse a soule in heavenly health All other joyes infatuate the minde Feeding it with a false content Oh let me still thy favour finde To keep me thine I grudge no chastisement Moderate health and fortune are the best A little fire close set unto And heat sufficient to digest Doe the same things that more abounding doe The more wee have the more we still presume Disordred mindes good states abuse The highest spirits most consume May I have nothing more then grace to use Great Farmes are seldome duely husbanded Ranke grounds abound in noysome weeds Wolves Foxes Goates in wastes are bred He feeds more foes then Friends who many feeds THough Friends be absent conversation lost My bating Soule oft labouring in it self By winds and fortune on the black Sea tost Thou present Lord I feare nor wave nor shelf Thou Father Brother art and Friends to me Be the world whose it list so thou be mine They ne're miscarry who rely on thee Grace storms dispels more strong then they combine All thrives where thou the pruning Gardner art To thy Plants blastings frugall blessings prove Though Summer heighth and flourishing impart Winter gives strength and Timber to the Grove To thine all sufferings end in joy and rest And th' absence of a wicked world is best EAse handsomnesse nor profit 't is to tread Your shooe awry like may of vice be said T is ever best to live and walk upright Things crooked grown hardly return to right May I enjoy a faire and quiet minde Soules work like troubled Seas long after winde GOdly content and quiet of the minde Constitute happinesse resembling Heaven Where soules nor strife nor thirst of action finde Reluctancy is conquer'd all goes even Vertue it self untroubled must proceed Howe're its Acts miscarry or succeed Devotions Et quoniam Deus ora movet Sequar ora moventem Introduction DIvinest Herberts Soule daign that I joyn In Hymns accorded to the heart by thine Unto our Masters glory and admit Mee for a Rivall in thy heighth of love For though thy lofty flight bee farre above My creeping Muse in spirit verse and wit My love both may and ought thy love exceed Since greatest pardons greatest love doe breed Thus living sing we Swan-like singing dye His Panegyrick our own Elegie Others I
hope will come and beare a part To hide my want of voyce my want of Art Corona Alphabeticall in imitation of the 119 Psalme AWay unhallowed spirits fleshly borne Unto the second birth these lines belong Your eyes are full of lust your hearts of scorn You cannot taste a supernatur'd song When in Gods furnace you shall prove refin'd Divinely transubstantiate from above Your Soules contrite your stony hearts calcin'd And him propound sole object of your love Then shall my inspirations finde applause And penetrate your soules as well as mine Then will you finde them both your meat and sauce And warm your spirits at such beams Divine God knows what preparations I have past Oft broken with this Plough to kill my weeds Down melted in a new mould to be cast Macerate fetter'd fitted for new seeds When his magnetique vertue draws you come Till then to what I write be blinde deaf dumb BLest Founder of this earthly Hospitall Sole daily Benefactor to mankinde Lord Paramount of Lords of Kings and all Soule of our Soules controller of the minde Transcendent Essence dazling more our sight Then Sun-beams Owles harder to comprehend Then 't is for Ants to judge and reason right Of men and know whereto their counsels tend Thou who giv'st Faith and Grace spirituall Hearts happiest Center food and notion Who truely art what falsely we doe call Instinct or Nature Father of motion Inspire my soule my spirit animate Thy working power and glory to expresse That these my lines may partly expiate My lives and pens past errors and impresse Thy stampe divine upon my readers heart Assisted by thy holy Spirits Art COntemne not Lord this humble sacrifice This Incense from the censor of my heart Heart which thy quickning Spirit mortifies To live and die to thee a true convert As in my heart so flow into my stile Untie tune cleare my soule that I may sing Thy saving grace and prove most happy while I may one sparkle to thy glory bring None but a power Almighty could create Yet greater wonder our redemption was Nor goes lesse mercy to regenerate That worke nor consummate nor Sabbath has To live fresh fishes in this briny Sea To swim by faith against strong natures streame Beyond our reason and our eyes to see And make thy soule transporting love our theame This Antedates the sweet fruition Of thy most beatifique vision DIspence O Lord that I polluted lame Presume thy power and mercies to display Thy Priest should perfect be and free from blame But thy projection workes on base allay The greatest graces thou hast summon'd all Thy creatures to thy praise their rent to pay Nor can I chuse but answer to thy call Accountable for mercies more then they But yet alas what fruite can I expect From these farre short of lines Apocryphall Since thine owne dictates finde so small effect And Isralites prov'd hypocriticall Yes thou hast wonders wrought on me and canst By thy assistance so my labours blesse Some one at least by me may be advanc'd To feele thy Spirits motion and redresse The course of sinne which flesh cannot withstand Without the succour of thy sacred hand ERect O Lord thy Trophees in my Verse Confound with shame th' Idolatrizing Muse Teach such with me thy praises to rehearse T is better write to save then to seduce Teach them thy beautie riches thou who art Riches and beauties donor cleare their eyes To admire the vertues which thou doest impart To the rich furnish'd earth and guilded skies Thou needst no strain'd conceits nor figures such As they imploy to shew wit and give grace Thou their Hyperbole's exceed'st so much They faint to see invention wants a place Oh that my Verse like Aarons rod had pow'r To overcharme what those inchanters sing And all their strong illusions to devour Or like the Brasen Serpent cure their sting Then might my Muse triumphant Lawrell weare Endu'd with grace no thunder blasts to feare FAther of beautie goodnesse power and love Vertue of vertues spring of eloquence By whom alone we are we live and move And exercise a happy confidence Whose love to us made thee evacuate Thy selfe and glory frailtie to put on Frailtie to hunger die degenerate To man in all but his corruption Oh let thy love like love in us procure And teach us to deny our selves for thee Change which to thee was losse will be our cure Thy hunger food thy death our life will bee Teach us to love and we shall learne to write In Characters of love our hearts will flow Love chafes benummed spirits to endite And ever carries light ' its flames to show Make mee Oh Lord to thee a perfect lover And love will both it selfe and thee discover No wonder else if we prove dull to write For 't is a wonder Lord to love thee right GRieve Oh my heart grieve that thou canst not grieve Grieve that thy streames flow counter to thy will Grieve that thy fraile propensions still survive And thy intemperate nature swayes thee still Shame oh my soule oh shame to see thy shame Shame that nor faith nor reason can prevaile Shame that thou knowest most savage things to came And that thy Art upon thy selfe doth faile Suffer thou doest and justly suffer too In selfe offending wilt thou still befoole Thy selfe in doing what thou should'st not doe And non-proficient prove in thy owne schoole Yes Lord it will be so except thy grace Continually prevent preside restraine In thy least absence nature will take place Nor can against it selfe it selfe containe Children from Nurses are nor safe nor quiet Without thee soule nor body can keepe diet Destroy Oh Lord what foments our annoy Or wild presumption will our health destroy HEaven wert thou no reward Hell but a tale Religion but a waking dreame begot Twixt policie and fancy to prevaile Over fraile flesh and hopes and feares besot Were conscience but a brat of Arts begetting As reall in ' its falshood as in truth A home-spun stuffe as false wrought as selfe fretting A brand impos'd upon our tender youth Yet hath it pleas'd my Lord to manifest So palpably his selfe and love to mee Were nature richer sweeter I le divest And strip my selfe of all for love of thee None more then I th'erroneous print can read Of melancholy and superstition Nor better all their subtile steps untread Distinguishing between Text and Tradition Beleeve me more hath gone me to convert Then either wit or nature can pervert HAbituate maladies are hardly cur'd Relaps proves often mortall worst in sinne To me relaps'd oft and to sinne inur'd Strange hath thy mercy Lord and patience been Insolvable I am for such great grace Yet I ambitious am to make returne What most is mine and others most embrace In gratefull sacrifice to thee I burne Obedience Temperance I here professe Worldly delights and wealth I abdicate No fetter'd votary yet ne're the lesse My selfe to thee I freely consecrate Power
decay in me and with my due acknowledgement perpetuate thy grace unto me Honour thrift and salvation attend thy goodnesse and such as rely upon thee I have found thy blessings as well temporall as spirituall in the sustentation of me and my fortunes fairly proportionable to the constant moderation of my minde I am now by Gods grace and the Kings returned to my home where Church Chappell and my home-stall are like to bound my thoughts and course the Oeconomy of my Soule and Family will abundantly employ me Let the Schooles and the world make oftentation of their Ethicks Politiques and Theology whilst I wrap them in my plain habit and act them in my Soule and life If I have ever written any thing beneficiall to others in either morall wholsome or Religious discourse I shall bee glad but my end was my own provision and discharge I have been so much versed in the world and conversations that I am no longer fond upon them I am neither ignorant of their vanity or solidity it is no unnecessary Schoole of experience I have bought it but am sorry that others with my self have paid for it It is of no small use unto to me God that and yeares have taught me so to contract and prune my self of superfluities that a little root and sap shall stretch further with me then more with another and I hope to give proof that God hath not made me incapable of governing my little hive my minde and studies possibly were larger but this is the most certain easie and pious course God and my unsitnesse for the ruggednesse of the time cut off distractions and make it faire before me Besides my want of health and failing in my hopes and endevours of recovery and others improvement and due discharge I have formerly suffered by trusting them too much and my self too little I have made triall of all performances but my own to that I am necessitated and that they have cast me upon if God and my health enable me I will so play the super-intendent as to carry a through tempered eye to all duties and expenses making my way as regularly easie and my houshold as undispensably orderly as I can The diversions of Fancy which obtrude their service to the sweetning of a present perplexed condition shall no more predominate me God who knows better then our selves what is best for us hath contracted satisfyed and setled me I am no more a stranger to the worlds market and my self nor to seek as I was in rules of proportion commodities and stock to drive an honest Trade Few servants religiously and orderly affected and chosen make much of a little and be they never so few or hard to finde others I will not admit nor continue My Friends shall be so entertained and welcome that by their curious and wastefull reception I make them not in effect my enemies and fare the worse a moneth to feast them for a meale This is my intention and resolution Herein I implore my good God to continue propitious unto me and I desire no other worldly felicity to him the Authour and perfecter of all blessings be all glory Amen Amen May 21. 1639. Mr. Doctor I Am your debter for what I have heard from you for a most obliging Letter received from you and for what I have heard concerning you many outward duties you know we owe but none more then to the houshold of the faithfull it is now contracted to a small number our zeale may be the more though our exercise the lesse My years fortunes the times and other circumstances have confined my course and discourse to a resolved retirednesse as unnaturall to the respects of my places of birth education and conversation as solitarinesse to mankind no man was ever more affected to an intelligent and well-spirited society then my self I have formerly sought it and enjoyed it with greedinesse I have now lost it and that which to my discomfort comforts me the more is that it is grown scarse to be found I wish that this expression proceeded rather from my distaste then a reall diminution of goodnesse generosity and rationality Our Soules next to God have no food so sweet as the faire commerce of reason and knowledge I am put to drive a trade of discourse either without return which is unpleasant or with an impertinent unvaluable returne which more offends me All this tends to begge your Company when you can afford it I have been little given to beg but from my Maker yet I never made scruple of it where I presumed of goodnesse and good will I know you Charitable and hope you will not deny me begging from you so much way and light my Coach shall be at your Command Mr. Doctor Bromrich is now free from his great Office and taking you for birds of a Feather I should be glad to see you flie together if after your living in London and now in Cambridge you came to live in a Country Parsonage you would commiserate me You shall have good way good Aire and good fire water enough to cleanse and not to dull or infect Christmasse is a season of Charity which shall make you expected by Your faithfull Friend to serve you Catleidge the 6 of December 1639. A Christians life hath been justly resembled to a warfare mine hath been many wayes such continually incumbred with outward and inbred troubles occasions sometimes thrust upon me sometime raised by my self upon my own grounds of minde and fortunes commotions insurrections for Religion for Liberty for Accommodation and as Polydor Virgill upon contemplation of the wonderfull extrications of England from divers ruine-threatning obsessions attributes its subsistence to God alone calling it Regnum Dei and supported by his Grace in despight of all its own misgovernments and prevarications for private advantage against the publique good So have I to my great shame found his mighty deliverances above my most grosse relapses of error and self-offending How long I shall doe so I know not for I am most unworthy thereoâ— At such time as I have found my self upon recovery of strength and alacrity fortune hath ever presented some most unexpected and extraordinary incident to perplex my curious and working minde Poore Soules that we are how weak how blinde strong and seeing onely to our own mischief and nakednesse Nature runnes away with us in spight of bit and bridle I once heard a learned witty Magistrate himself none of the best if not one of the worst say upon the disgrace grown to one of our greatest most learned and witty Judges for corruption how wee might see by him the power of Natures torrent against all erudition and ability of writing and discourse I prove it too true though I thank God not in that way I have of late to gratifie some who neerliest concern me been carryed to reaccommodate my seat with a Park My resolution for my own particular was after having been Master of
so good in that kinde that it was impossible for me to become pleased therein to forbeare as I have done a long time In this particular which hath been more then most troublesome unto me Fortune according to her custome hath plaid double with me offering me on the one side most casually Grounds in my hands close by my house well-wooded and Park-like which I confesse much surprized my fancy therein Yet on the other side such varieties of perswasion for greater lesse good bad dry or wet Ground wayes thorow or not some neighbours Grounds to be taken in or no and whether or no they might be had difficulty of paling and carriage which I hate for though I love not trouble yet I enduâ—e my own more willingly then of my Friends and Neighbours After these and many other crosse points of offers and retractings of Neighbours and such like I have been led by degrees aliud agens besides my meaning to lay out a small yet sufficient peece of Ground for houshold provision of Venison a Garden to keep me from beging so neer dry fertile pleasant in view convenient and commodious that I would scarsely wish it other it was as it were marked out unto me and for my purpose Yet blinde as I was divers and crosse considerations which this world and I abound in kept me so long from discerning to lay hold of it that I scorn my senses and my self and almost condemn my self to all that I have suffered in my non-sense The inconvenience of pale is avoided for I have enough at hand I am still Master of my Woods my Ground found for Winter and Summer and the goodnesse of it makes it much in little nor would I wish it greater great inconveniences attend a great Park it is a kinde of Whore much in fancy and often kept more for others use then our own it is a wilde Mistris and courted by a kinde of wilde people fiercely riding this way and that way with great hoopings and outcryes upon a very slight errand Our forefathers were not yet without reason who meeting with a world and wildernesse of woods and wastes assigned an otherwise uselesse part thereof to Parkes and Forests It is not so with us want of Tymber and Woods will tame our wildenesse and reduce us to an usefull compasse Never was Land bought dearer then I have paid for my own may house and land prove more happy to my Successours how many years of my life it hath cost me I know not nor much as the world is care This and much more retirednesse Melancholy and Fortune have brought upon me yet considering how ill a wandring or publique course of life would suite with mee I choose rather to suffer and compose as well as I may all incommodities within my selfe then to expose my selfe to such as others finde and thrust themselves into abroad and which would bee to mee more intolerable Quiet is not ill bought at any reasonable rate Vt habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid de tuo jure is a saying which if the Spaniard had practised even to the quitting of the 17. Provinces or I in sitting downe by some forbearances wee might possibly have been both more at ease God hath given him a strong state of dominions and me of body and mind to our owne as well trouble as subsistence Hee maintaines his strength by exercise and so have I done by extraordinary motion agitation and distensions such as to a man of an evener minde and fortune then mine are I confidently affirme shall keepe in health strength free from great inconvenience of colds feavers fulnesse or putrefaction of humors c. vigor of spirits and length of life better then Lessius or Cornarus their staticall diet which is most unnaturall servile subject by their owne confession to great distemper upon the least change or excesse whereas the other comports with any tolerable diet prescribed in reason rather for Monkes Hermites Votaries and persons of a sedentary life then such as are to use the world and labour Thus much have I written in this early of the morning as hastily and wildly and perhaps to as little purpose as Foresters follow their chase which to my owne better instruction and use of my selfe and mine may it please God to blesse Amen December the 7. 1639. Potius inserere virtutem quam disserere de virtute Postscript IF I write wildly and erroneously yet my follies are short and the shortest are the best I had rather write without method and abrupt then as many doe in long intricate and often mistaken distributions and divisions as tedious and unprofitable in some one subject as I am confused and wild in change and varying my scenes Thus Bos lassus fortius sigit pedem and if my soule cannot digest and indure its owne weight strength and discernings it must suffer Perplexed condition of our sophisticated and preternaturall life the wayes of nature are obvious easie certaine The Swallow Crane c. know their seasons and vary not in their course or building of their nests where the most ingenuous and rightaffecting soules amongst us are ever to seeke and even at the best which I call with the illumination of supernaturall grace vexed with our owne scruples and fancies and either forced from the world and natures libertie of delights or like Lot to have their righteous soules contristate with a vaine crooked perverse and wicked conversation IF my peeces appeare not all of a peece constant to themselves but so diversified that I ordinarily fall into a superfetation or various births of male and female at one graviditie If I superinduce and contract into little roome matters of severall and important consideration such as might otherwise have been beaten out into particular and large treatises I hope you will bee indulgent to the sparing of labour as well yours as mine finding in your power to extend or remit your owne either by receiving my coyne for currant or bringing it to the balance or test of a farther yet favorable examination not forgetting that allowance which I have often begged to my acknowledged infirmitie defects confusion and precipitation in their conception and production Passus graviora dabit Deus his quoque finem FINIS EXTRAVAGANTS Dream IF you are at leisure I will tell you my mornings dream which was that in the quality of a Soliciter for Old England in a cause that concerned him for limme life land and liberty which were all drawn to stake by I know not what Promooter I cast my eye on a Friend as I rode into York with the Chiefe Justice of Assize there to be held and desired him to help me to some good Counsellors to plead for me he lookt about him and spyed some portlike men riding on Scotch pads but said they were not for me for they favour'd of the others near them were on hard Scotch saddles but had long since given desperate the cause of Old